(A/N): Thanks MeechMeesh/immzw4 for your patience and time.

Bit of a break from the main course, hope you enjoy it.

"The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy." – Friedrich Nietzsche

Interlude I

Victoria's POV

The sky was grey and the clouds foretold the upcoming inevitability that rain would be coming, sooner rather than later.

It had been a little more than a year since they had taken my James away from me. All of them would pay. Each of them would suffer the pain I had to acknowledge and embrace every single day.

Grief doesn't fuel me. Sadness doesn't run me. Revenge is the one and only reason for my existence. I owed James that much. He would have done the same for me. Killing that overdramatic, pathetic excuse for a vampire would give me incredible pleasure.

But he needed to feel the void left when your other half was taken away from you. He needed to experience the gut wrenching feeling when your partner, your better half, was brutally torn away from you.

"What are we looking for my love?" he asked, walking out of the forest to stand by me on a cliff overlooking the beach.

As I glanced over at him, I saw a cheap copy of my James. I chose him well, but still he lacked the je ne sais quoi that made my mate the purest form of predator known to man. The sheer beauty of James' gift was breath taking.

He had the same kind of blond hair, but too short.

He had the same kind of build, but too thin, less muscular.

He had the confidence of a lackey, not the impregnable confidence of the baddest motherfucker on the block.

At least Riley had the same perfect crimson eyes starring back lovingly at me, like a fragile puppy awaiting some form of petting.

I extended my hand toward his face, not as defined and perfect as my deadly angel. I ran my fingers lightly to trace the line of his jaw.

"A weakness my dear, a way to avoid those watch dogs," I answered with the lightest tone.

I needed to be patient with him. I was used to playing games with my James. They were fun, and we danced this macabre ballet perfectly. Now I felt like I was a ballerina with a pair of lead-laden boots.

Riley closed his eyes at my touch and smiled at me. I only had to close my eyes, fight all my instincts, and he sometime became a poor substitute to the real thing.

Who was taken away from me.

Someone would pay.

And I knew the perfect someone. She had a sweet smell, a cross between honey and lavender with a touch of summer. She meant nothing more to me then a means to an end.

I envisioned many nights about tearing her apart limb by limb, slowly and methodically. I had seen James take apart a human once, but he knew just how to break the limbs and tear them off in just a way to keep them screaming long enough to be enjoyable.

James had been an artist. I just hoped I could be a decent copycat with her. Her mate had decided to keep her fragile, and I would make sure he would see her again, in pieces, and unable to keep her with him for eternity.

Riley was visibly nervous. We could smell them all around us. The dogs had run by not long ago and would circle back soon enough. They kept trying to create those laughable traps.

I had to hand it to them. They were relentless, and I still couldn't explain my bad luck. What were the odds that she would live near a pack of werewolves and they would be protecting the small town?

James had once hunted and dismembered one of their kin for fun somewhere in the north, in farthest reaches of the Canadian lands. I had hated the trip all the way there. The hunt was scarce with humans, but James needed to fulfill this hunt, a fantasy since he had heard about those blasted creatures.

I had never heard of such huge a pack of them banding together either. It was probably why they protected the town, easier pickings for them if they had no competition.

I planted a kiss on Riley's forehead and he beamed at me like a love-struck teenager. I regretted having turned him every single day, but I needed help with the newborns.

"Don't worry my love. I needed you to smell their scent and see the lay of the land," I told him with a smile.

"Time to head back. I need you to make sure the newborns aren't killing each other, much," I added the last word amusingly.

He nodded emphatically, visibly enjoying his place in the plan as my right hand.

He would have his use, like all of them. I enjoyed turning them and sending them his way for him to try to keep them from killing one another. My plan was perfect. When the dust settled, my revenge would be carried out, and no one would be able to link any of my tools or pets back to me.

Poor Riley, he hadn't caught on he was feeding on borrowed time.

I started running reflexively through the forest with Riley following me closely. I never twice thought about it, running with danger all around me made me feel alive.

Nobody could keep up with me if I didn't want them to. Often I had to double back to help Riley follow.

We had often played this game, James and I. I ran and he tried to catch me. I usually gave in and let him catch me, but only after a long chase.

I lived for the hunt, but sometimes I made him hunt me for days, and he grew angry and frustrated. It only made our makeup sex session more fun.

He bit harder when he was angry.

Once though, my curiosity took over and I ran without letting him catch me.

And he never did. For 12 days he hunted me and I ran circles around him. He was infuriated; He wasn't used to losing.

He had never met a prey he could not track down.

It was the first time and the last time he had abandoned a hunt, and when I joined him three days later, we didn't talk about it.

He made me pay for it, though. It took a year before he shared a meal with me. He knew feeding with him was my favourite part of our beautiful union.

The dogs just didn't catch on, they couldn't.

They had just met the one prey they could never catch, and when I was ready they would understand the simple truth.

They would lose the one thing they never had.

Control.

Because it was but an illusion. They never had control over the situation.

And the moment it dawned on them would be the day I would make them pay for having the audacity to stand between me and my prize.

I closed my eyes for a moment.

For you James.