"Present"

Mountains Oct 26h 2010,

Mason POV:

Re telling Lo about Jimmy had brought back a lot of memories for me, most of them unpleasant.

I remember having to essentially play double agent, had to play trustful and dumb so Kathy wouldn't suspect any resistance from me after learning what a monstrous bitch she really was. I was so committed to taking her down then, how did things get so far off course?

Flashback

Florida April 9th 2009:

Tonight would be my first full moon, I was the only one in my family, at least that I was aware of, that had turned since my gramps and great uncle but both had passed on years ago. I was gonna be on my own for this and to tell the truth I was terrified. If my mom was still alive I'm sure I'd be crying to her right now.

Kathy had come clean about being a vampire, there wasn't much use hiding it after I saw her compel Marla. She had been gone a couple days looking for fellow wolves to help me through this first full moon not that I would be able to trust anyone she brought back here.

During the time she was away I had done some digging, even got in contact with my brother for our ancestors old journals. Luckily they arrived while Kathy was still gone. In George Lockwood's he read about a seductive and memorizing woman named Katherine, who turned out to be a Vampire. The way she was described, down to the lines she had used on him to bend him to her will had been eerily familiar. I knew now that Kathy and Katherine were one in the same, this was the same woman who screwed over my ancestor from 1864.

She bargained her freedom from some tomb under the local church where they had planned to burn all the vampires in, in exchange for a moonstone. His ancestor was desperate for it... apparently it was part of the Sun and the Moon curse, if he could break it Werewolves wouldn't be forced to change every full moon instead only going through the painful transition when they wanted to.

Mason now knew he had two missions, take Katherine down, and get his hands on that moonstone, he was going to finish what his ancestor started.

Katherine had found a woman willing to help, her name was Jules, she was taking me north to Tennessee, apparently there was a pack in the mountains that had agreed to help with my first transition.

I brought the journals and everything with me not trusting them with Kat around. She was staying behind, Jules hated vampires. I acted sad to leave her and gave her a passionate kiss goodbye, Jules was being hostile towards me for loving a vampire, so hopefully Kat was still buying my act too.

Mason: "I'll be back Monday, I promise."

Katherine: "I can't wait, I wish I could come with you."

Jules: "Well, you can't can we go now please?" Jules said impatiently.

Mason: "Yeah, I'll be right there."

I gave her another kiss and said good bye.

Tennessee Smoky Mountains April 10th, 2009

Mason's first change rattled him. He thought he'd be tough enough to handle it, the pain part anyway, but he wasn't. No one should be able to live through that kind of torture let alone be expected to go through it every month. He honestly thought about ending it all just to have an out and if it hadn't been for the possibility the moonstone promised and the satisfaction he was looking towards feeling when he ended Katherine he might had gone through with it.

Jules: "Look, I know its tough but suck it up. You're acting like a little bitch."

Mason: "Does it ever get easier?"

Jules: "The transformation? Not really but you get used to it I guess."

Mason: "How can anyone get used to that kind of pain?"

Jules: "We don't exactly have a choice and if we all took the easy way out then Vamps would run the world and we can't have that can we? Look, you just need something to focus on, something to channel all that pain and anger, something that makes going through that kind of pain worth it." Jules explains to him.

Mason: "What do you focus on?"

Jules: "This place, these people... I never had a real family before never felt like I belonged anywhere, now I do and as stupid as you are for having a relationship with a vamp, you can be apart of that family too."

Mason: "Not yet, there's something I need to do first." Mason got a determined look in his eyes.

Jules: "Well, you know where to find us now I guess."

Mason could only think of one thing that would make the pain of transforming worth it... he was going to find a way to destroy Katherine... and kill as many vampires as he could along the way.

But the biggest prize he had his heart set on was the moonstone.