Hello! Welcome to the first full chapter of SAVAGE. Some of you may have read the first-look in the first story of this saga, RAVAGE, but that was only the first half! Don't skip to the second chapter, because you won't know what's going on!

For those of you new to this story, and have not read RAVAGE, I tried to give you a bit of recap in this chapter so you'll be able to keep up with us. If you'd like to go back and read RAVAGE to meet human Blaire and see how she interacts with a certain blond vampiric military soldier, check out my profile!

1. FUNERAL

I SUCKED IN BREATH AFTER shuttering breath, crying without exactly crying. There were no tears dripping down my face, no stuffy nose, no way to prove I was sobbing other than my disturbed gasping. There was no release in it, no relief, but I couldn't stop.

In a clearing, surrounded by the blood and gore of people – fucking people! I was forced to look at their remains with unnaturally powerful eyes. A fire, dying from the wind I'd caused in my flurry of thirst and rage, illuminated the scene in a dull orange light. My eyes could pick up everything else lost to the embers. Blood everywhere; soaking into the grass, plastering my clothes (leggings, a t-shirt, no shoes?), slicking along my skin, staining the fabric of torn tents and what had once been their clothes. Body parts had been tossed; mangled organs trailed at my feet, limbs were tossed haphazardly and an arm hung off the crook of its elbow from a tree branch overhead, there was a finger to my left, and one of their heads was angled toward me, revealing an expression twisted in agony and horror. They'd been in so much pain. I murdered them! – I finally remembered who I was and how I got here. It left me broken. Anguished.

Lives had been lost. Stolen. More lives than the ones taken by me. My uncle had been murdered as a test to see how I would react to his death, and the discovery of monsters that existed outside of horror books and movies. Then it was my mother, murdered as a consequence for changing the rules of a game I never wanted to play. She didn't even know why she'd been killed, because I was trying so hard to protect her from the truth. Then I was killed.

All because of the things that had been hunting me. They were the ones capable of such destruction, terror, and violence.

I was one of them now.

And I'd done what they had done to me.

The worst part was I wasn't even aware of what I was doing until it was too late.

The worst part was instead of overwhelming guilt or horror or sadness, I felt void. The faces, the screams, the bodies, all meant nothing beyond a means to an end.

I was a fucking monster. The cycle I thought I ended only started again at my hands.

And my throat still burned so raw. It was white hot, like the fire that'd been coursing through my veins when I was bitten –

It was done. My adversary, my stalker, my hunter, had won.

I lost everything.

All I wanted to do was drink now.

I dragged my tongue flat against my palms, lapping up the blood that still dribbled between the lines of my palms, equal parts disgusted and relieved by it. There was no control over this. My body moved on its own, instinct commanding my movements, shoving the rational part of me into a corner to belatedly process every action made.

"Is she crying?" a female voice carried through the forest, stopping me short. I whipped around.

A female slipped out of the trees, her wild hair as orange as the dying embers of the fire I'd just destroyed. I could see every spark of the fire dance in her crimson eyes as they widened with interest. "Oh my," she breathed.

Victoria.

My mother's murderer.

I could hear it now, the way she died. The sounds were muddled, muted, but I remembered them well enough. Her car tires squealing, her phone clattering, a crash, a scream, a crack –

I bared my teeth and snarled at her. The sound ripped from my throat and snapped in the air like a whip, vibrating within my chest in a deep, satisfying way that revealed the true scope of my rage. She was going to die. Now.

I threw myself at her –

And then I was thrown to the ground, hard. The earth crumbled around my ears as it gave way under me. Then he stood over me. Stalker, hunter, murderer –

Creator.

James grinned at me, exposing teeth so white they seemed to glow in the darkness. Another snarl boiled in my throat as I surged upward, slamming my fist into his face –

CRASH!

The sound was like rocks colliding, making my ears ring, but I relished in watching James stumble – actually stumble – to the side a few steps, before a set of steel arms locked around my own. I thrashed against them, roared and screamed, reared back to try and bite Victoria at her neck. James's laugh echoed in my head, my mind void of everything but hatred. I would kill them both for what they took –

"Do something James," Victoria spat through her teeth. "She's strong!"

James straightened up, massaging his jaw. Then he tugged it sharply – crack! – before he smiled casually. "Then rip her arm off," he said.

What?

Victoria pushed me down, forcing me to my knees. Her hands were quick, wrapping themselves around my shoulders before I could get away from her, pulling at my left arm –

It tore. It burned. Everything slowed down.

I screeched at the pain, tried to wrench myself out from Victoria's hold, but it only increased the pulling. My arm was on fire as if it alone was going through the transformation I only woke up from only half an hour ago. Thirty-three minutes ago. I was somehow keeping excellent time. What a way this was to wake up. I stared in horror as my wrist extended too far away from me –

"Hold," James said.

Victoria stopped. But it didn't stop the pain. It didn't stop me from screaming.

James crouched in front of me, his serene smile still in place as I choked on more sobs. He reached out and cupped my face in his hand. "She turned out well, didn't she?" James asked, his brighter red gaze flitting from my face to somewhere over me, no doubt to Victoria.

"She needs to be controlled," she said. "The mess she just made will lead him straight to us."

Him?

"You only get your first hunt once," James said. His smile faltered. "But of course you're right. Forgive me, but she promised me a monster. I wanted to see how well she would deliver."

I remembered that promise. It was bleary, but it was still one of my sharper memories. James holding me by my hair while I shoved a gun into his throat and fired –

Then he looked at me. I growled through my crying. Choked and gurgled as the sound was, I would still let him know my fury. He only smiled again. "And deliver you most certainly did. You're an artist, the way you painted this campsite in blood. Were you trying to impress me? If so, it worked."

It would be the last time I'd impress him, because it would be the last time I would touch a person like that. God, I killed them!

He cocked his head to the side. "Having regrets? You shouldn't. Look at what we made." He grabbed my chin, forcing my head around to look at the campsite. "Look at what we created – together."

Blood staling in the air, soaking into the earth, parts of bodies thrown in chaos and abstraction. What we made was death.

When I breathed it in, my throat burned. I wasn't even satisfied.

How many more would it take until I was?

A countdown began somewhere in the back of my mind. Ticking down until I needed to do it all over again. It was moving so fast. My throat already hurt again, and I knew it would become unbearable in mere hours. Hours.

He did this on purpose. He let me go – here – knowing they were close –

"I just had to see what you were capable of," James went on, breezily.

"James," Victoria said sharply, drawing his attention over my head. I turned away from the camp, fury and shame running through me as much as the stolen blood. "We need to move."

"Yes, you're right," James agreed before looking down at me. "Blaire, while your little exposition was lovely, it did make quite a mess. It's going to leave a signal that your transformation is complete for the vampire closing in on our trail."

I tensed. A vampire was following us?

He gave me a knowing look. "Can you guess who it is?"

My last human memory bubbled to the forefront of my thoughts.

Through the haze of searing heat and pain, I saw him. The one haloed in gold. He found me, in my last moments. He tried to save me. But James held me back. She's mine, James said. If you want her, you'll have to find her.

"Blaire!"

The way he said my name was always so beautiful. So desperate.

Almost as desperate as I felt.

"Where is he?" I asked.

It was the first time I'd spoken since waking up, and so far it seemed like everything was different, including my own voice. It didn't sound the same anymore. It was sharper, brassy, and commanded attention like a military trumpet. Or maybe it was the same, and I was listening to it with new, more enhanced ears.

"Keeping his distance," James said, "but we know he's out here somewhere."

Somewhere. I strained every heightened sense for him in that moment, desperately hoping to come across anything that would tell me how close he was. Where was he? Where was he –? I could run to him! I should –

When I tried to stand, Victoria pulled my arm. My shoulder crackled – I could feel it splinter apart, sending fire straight through me. I screamed.

James tutted. "Ah-ah. Did you forget in the fire? We're at opposite sides, at the moment. Your mate isn't too happy that I turned you, but I'm sure he'll see the appeal of it soon enough. I'm hoping you'll be able to change his mind, actually."

Mate… The word stirred something within me, but I couldn't remember why. I didn't have time to focus on it, though, with James seeming so at ease with his plans. "What the hell are you talking about?" I snarled.

"The second part to my amendment," he answered easily. "Oh, Blaire, you're so loved, it's such a gift. It's even more of a gift when you attract such powerful vampires to you. Now, I know it's foolhardy to try and fight your mate – strong and savage as he is – but what if we could reason with him? Find a compromise? I won't let you go, Blaire, not when I've worked so hard on you, but that doesn't mean we have to keep you from your own mate. I'm not without a heart, you see."

Yes he was. We both were now. It didn't mean I still wouldn't try to rip it out of his chest.

"So let's find our compromise, Blaire," James said. "I could always do with expanding my coven. Convince your mate to join us, or we will."

The growl simmering in my chest boiled over. "He would never."

"You're still naïve," he said. "You don't quite yet understand the depth of devotion your mate has for you. You haven't yet seen the lengths he will go for you, and trust me, go he will. All it would take would be for you to simply ask him, but if you can't manage it, Victoria and I will have to make the effort ourselves."

"No –"

My arm twisted again, contorting in an unnatural angle. I saw it coming, but knowing what would happen didn't brace me for the pain. Another screech of agony was ripped from me. My throat burned with the force of my screams and the ever-dwindling resistance to my thirst. When Victoria finally stopped, my head pounded and my skin prickled with lingering shocks of pain. I gasped for breath, almost gagging on the cold blood congealed in the air. Where was he? Where was he? Where was he? Where was he –?

James's grin was hard. "And you know when I make a point of wanting something, I get it."

Yes, he did. The honesty was a painful blow. I couldn't win against him. I fought so hard to beat him when he hunted me, tried to do everything to run away from him, but he was always sidestepping my plans – killing everyone I tried to run away from to protect. My uncle, my mom, Bella –

Bella! My best friend since childhood – Did she make it? Did she survive this –

Did I… Did I kill her in the melee? Were those people set there on purpose? Unbidden, the slaughtered human faces flitted across my forethoughts. They were unfamiliar to me. Unlucky bystanders. They weren't Bella.

That had to have meant she made it, right?

The more people that were involved in this, the more got hurt. Decisions had to be made now, and fast.

I had to hide the panic running through me. I couldn't show James or Victoria that fear, or the questions whirling through my mind. I couldn't show them any more weaknesses for them to exploit. I was stronger now. I could hide better.

I would do this alone.

I would find out what happened to my best friend one day. But it couldn't be here. It couldn't be now. But one day. One day I'd make sure to find out. I breathed through the pain and through the fog of old blood. I stared at James evenly.

"I'll do it," I lied.

I plotted. The last words I spoke before I died were clear enough in my memory to spear me onward. I fucking dare you to change me, because when I wake up, you'll have the monster you wanted. It'll be the thing that ends you.

I was a monster now. I would end them all.

But I needed time. This body was strong, but it was new. I had to learn its new limits, balance its new strengths, and use them all to my advantage. And I was in the literal hands of my enemies. I had to learn their limits, too.

"Excellent girl," James approved, straightening up. "Victoria –"

She wrenched my shoulder back into place. I gasped and choked back any other noise of pain. I wouldn't show weakness. I pulled my aching arm close to me as she straightened up and bounded to James's side. "We need to go," she said.

"Yes, we do," James agreed. "How does Alaska sound?"

I stood up while Victoria's expression twisted in disgust. "What's in Alaska?" she asked.

"The rest of our wayward coven, of course!"

V

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