Alpha Killer Ch. 11-15

I started laughing. "You decided to rob Jarrod?"

"Yeah, and to make it even more funny, I decided to make my move in the middle of the night when now one was sleeping," he said as everyone started laughing. "I had the access codes for the basement, with that kind of security I figured the real valuable stuff was down there."

"It was," Jarrod said with a smile. "He came down the stairs as Anastasia was feeding from one of our familiars. We couldn't let him go, and our ability to cloud minds does not include the ability to remove memories. We held him for a few days, and eventually realized that his skills would translate well to our kind. He's a whiz with technology and computers, something that we old people still struggle with." I had to laugh at that. "He agreed to the change and has fit in well."

"Do you change many?"

"No, it's not a good idea," Jarrod said as he sat back. "The more vampires in your Coven, the harder it is to hide your existence. It's like a Pack hunting ground, but it's a city you hunt in. Vampires don't have a Pack link or Alpha command, so you only bring in people who will follow your leadership or it becomes a mess. Then there is logistics. Larger covens mean more feedings, more victims, more chances to get caught. I prefer to blend in and not attract attention, but that means using familiars. Same problem there; it's not easy to find good ones, and there's never enough. I bring servants in, building their loyalty first and finding those for whom our existence will be accepted. The rest are never here outside daylight hours."

"It sounds like a lot," I said.

"Our problems are like your own, we have to hide our nature while living amongst the humans." I was familiar with those, my parents taught us all it was better to die than to let our secret out.

We finished the dinner and moved to dessert, a molten lava cake. "I have a question about our agreement, Jarrod," I said as I finished. "I'm sixteen, and I just got my ass kicked by a man who's not even an Alpha. Even with training, I'm never going to be able to go toe to toe with a male Alpha who outweighs me by a hundred pounds and has a decade of fighting experience. Are you just setting me up to die?"

He laughed, along with the others. "You think I'd bring you into my family and send you out to die?" It did sound silly. "You are correct in that you will not be as large or experienced as the Alphas you will be taking on. We are going to train you constantly, making you an expert in combat in human and wolf form. We'll drill you until you are an expert shot with pistol and rifle. We'll teach you knife fighting and knife throwing. A year from now, you'll be the most lethal werewolf in the world."

My head couldn't accept it. "Even if I train constantly, how does that fix my weight disadvantage?"

"You are going to be more than a werewolf," he said. "I'm going to change you."

Alarm bells went off. "You can't do that, vampire venom is certain death for a werewolf," I said as I got ready to flee.

"We'll use my blood to form the bond," he said. "I'm not going to change you into a vampire, that won't work since you are already a supernatural being. Instead, I will inject my blood into you. The vampire DNA will combine with your own, giving you some vampire characteristics that will mesh with your human and wolf genes."

"Is that even possible?"

"It's been done before. You will gain vampire speed and strength, even a little bit of our ability to influence human minds, but you won't be a vampire. Just a werewolf who likes her steak bloody."

"Anything else?"

"The change is painful, incredibly painful and lasts for days. Most of the werewolves who take the change die before it is complete. I'm hoping that with your youth and your motivation for revenge, you'll have enough stubbornness to see it through. It is your choice, Talia, but you'll never be strong enough to fight them without it."

He didn't change me that night; instead, I traveled into the swamps, away from any humans, and found a place I could see the moon rise high above me. Slicing my finger with a silver knife, I wrote my vow to avenge the ones who had taken my sister and stolen my Pack in my own blood before burning it. The sacred vow complete, I changed and ran.

The next evening, I asked Jarrod to change me. He used a large syringe, transferring his own blood to my veins, pushing in the plunger until it was all inside me.

It burned like fire as it flowed up my arm, then into my chest, and I screamed as it pumped into my brain.

Three days I spent in agony as the change tore through me. Jarrod and the Coven did all they could; when I was running a high fever, they covered me with ice. When I was curled up and shivering, they covered me with warm blankets. When I couldn't move, they held my hand and talked to me.

When the fever finally broke, I was famished. I shifted into wolf form as they released a sheep into the garage, which had been emptied of vehicles. I tore into it, gorging myself on the warm, bloody flesh. The bloodlust exhausted itself an hour later, and I shifted back. I was covered in blood, and pieces of the sheep were scattered everywhere. "That wasn't fun at all," I said as Jarrod stood over me.

"You survived, Talia. We're all proud of you." He held out his hand an I pulled myself up, surprising myself as I went four feet into the air before landing on my feet. "You are much stronger than before, you will have to get used to everything again." He was right, my body almost hummed with energy. It was like learning to walk again as I moved towards the outdoor shower. "Clean yourself off and we will start training," he said.

It took a lot of soap and scrubbing to get the blood off, then I dried and dressed in shorts and a sports bra with a T-shirt. Jerrod drove me out of the city as we worked on my senses; my smell and hearing was more sensitive than before. When we reached the forested area, I was set free, and I was FAST. It took most of the night to get used to it, the two of us running together, first in my wolf form then in human. Vampire speed and four-paw drive was a killer combination, and I loved it.

I fell asleep on the way home.