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Revenge of the Wolf

Chapter 28 – In the Air Tonight.

Tori's POV.

My back was to Jade when she first stumbled into the room after seeing that painting. But without even seeing her, I could sense her emotional distress.

We had been through a lot in the last two months, but when I turned around, she looked like she had aged 10 years. Of course I didn't understand what she was talking about.

At least until I saw the painting.

I met her once too. I was a prisoner and she calmly informed me that she had Jade turned into a vampire and soon she'd feed on me. I remember her expression, full of cruelty, full of derision. She enjoyed my fear. I could tell that she loved seeing me afraid.

She also put a small scar on my face, just to do it. I cover it up with makeup and mostly it doesn't show but it's always there. I'm reminded of her and her cruelty, each and every time I look in the mirror.

I could go on, but thankfully things turned out differently, than she had hoped. Livia, had not realized that Jade had werewolf blood in her. That slowed down the process of her becoming a vampire, long enough for her to escape and seek help. When they found Jade, my mother, my dad and uncle frank realized the only way to save her was to awaken the sleeping wolf inside of her. So they fully turned her into a werewolf.

Now looking at her face, I found myself flashing back to that dark basement, that fear, knowing I was going to die, her chilling laughter.

"Claudia….her name….that was the biggest clue of all and I never saw it." Mumbled Jade, as she wandered to the bar and took a drink of whisky.

"I don't follow."

"You see, before Livia and I fought, she spent a few minutes droning on about her own royal linage."

I found myself rather puzzled, as I had never heard this. "What? You never told me this?"

"Didn't want too, I wanted her to be forgotten. You see Livia was born in Ancient Rome and it turns out is the illegitimate daughter of the Roman Emperor Claudius. Her mother was one of his mistresses. Livia named her daughter after her father."

"Scum of the earth." Hissed Una as she spat on the ground. "Julius Caeser and all his spawn…."

"There was something else I missed, I should have caught that, but didn't. Now I get it."

"What?" I said.

"Tori, just before Claudia made us fight, she said to you, and since I lost someone dear to me, thanks to her, she will suffer a loss as well…only she's the one that's going to do it. Truly agonizing, don't you think?"

"I remember that."

"At the time, we thought she was referring to Gerda, that blonde woman who kidnapped me on her behalf. But if you remember, I wasn't responsible for her death. You, Claire and Sara, chased Gerda down and cornered her. Then using magic she killed herself and you three nearly as well. But I was not here. I was pregnant and you made me stay by the car. I wasn't anywhere near, when Gerda died and had little if anything to do with her death. I on the other hand had everything to do with Livia's death. She was referring to Livia, not Gerda."

Suddenly I felt stupid, realizing that I hadn't caught that. "You're right."

Suddenly fuming with anger, Jade took a bottle the bottle of whisky and threw it at the painting where it shattered.

"It's all falling into place. If you remember a few years ago, when Livia was about to launch her vampire army at the unsuspecting werewolves, we found a detailed list, that as far as we could tell, had the name and address of every werewolf in the world. Now, I use it as a reference, but you know what I never did. Try and figure out how that list was compiled. I dropped the ball on that one. I dropped the ball on a lot of things."

Valentina sat down and said. "I'm sure you had other things on your mind."

Now Jade was getting angry and more so by the moment. "I thought I had won, I didn't realize that Livia's daughter was still alive, that I hadn't won. I thought I won and none of it mattered. But that list, when I go home, I'm going to look at that list and I'll bet you anything, there will be at least one name, I won't find on that list."

It was Una that said it. "Margo."

"Bingo. That detailed information, only a pack leader would have. I'll bet that traitorous bitch, got the information from her uncle and passed it on to Claudia, who then passed it onto Livia. Of course it was a hit list, so she wouldn't put her own name on it. She tried to sell us all out. "

I looked over to Julia, who up to now had been silent, but looked quite horrified.

"You ok, Julia?"

"No, I'm not. I looked up to her and now finding the rot and corruption had gone to the top, but ultimately who was behind it. No wonder why our own efforts to fight vampires went nowhere. No wonder how four years ago, when Livia was raising a vampire army, we the wizards of the world never caught wind of it. Livia was centuries old, she probably got Claudia to resurrect that ancient cult of evil wizards, hell, she probably knew them back in the day. But there's one thing I don't understand, Claudia is human, I know she is. And Livia was thousands of years old. I thought that Vampires can't have children."

"They can't" answered Una. "But, my best guess is that Livia encountered Claudia as a child, perhaps an infant. Somehow she was able to recognize her great potential as a wizard. So she took the child and raised it as her own. Taught her about the dark arts and instilled in her a desire for power. She groomed Claudia specifically, so she could use her to infiltrate the wizard world and ultimately corrupt it, for her own ends. In the old days, in my world, before the wizards were wiped out, that sort of thing did occasionally happen."

I could see Jade thinking for a moment as she once again gazed back at the painting. Then she turned to Julia. "Tell me, if Livia's plan had succeeded and they had managed to wipe out the werewolves, pretty much over night, would happen in the wizard world?"

"That wouldn't escape their notice, they'd be alarmed, in fact the first thing that would happen is that the wizards council would call an emergency meeting to address it."

Jade nodded, looking like she realized something. "That what I thought. I suspect that if that meeting had ever been called, Claudia would have the rest of the wizard council murdered. She could blame it on a vampire attack and then as the sole survivor, hand pick the new wizard council. Under the guise of emergency powers, to deal with the crisis, no doubt. It would be a new wizard council and one that she and ultimately Livia would control. In one fell swoop, Livia would have wiped out the werewolves and taken control of the wizard's council. But I ruined Livia's plans and killed her, so Claudia never had the chance. The wizard's council never realized just how close to death they came."

Turning ghostly pale, Julia turned away and was quickly comforted by Valentina.

Jade prided herself that in killing Livia, she had ended the danger and finally won the war. But she was wrong and this is just another battle in a very old war. This has hit her pretty hard. At first she was full of anguish pain and now that's being replace by anger, lots of anger.

Anger I'm not sure Jade can control.

No One's POV

"Let's all take a few minutes to collect our thoughts, before we move on." Suggested Valentina.

The others nodded in agreement and everyone sat down. All except for Tori who wandered over to Claudia's desk. Curious what she could find, she paged through some of the papers on it. Mostly it was financial stuff relating to her criminal empire, but one of them was a drawing of a circlet with some strange symbols on it. Reading the caption she said.

"The Morivion"

Upon hearing that, both Una and Julia stood up.

"What did you say?" Said Julia, with a concerned expression.

Tori held up the drawing. "It's a drawing and this was the label. What is it?"

"A rumor mostly, but it's some sort of ancient artifact, from some unnamed lost civilization, thousands of years ago. It supposedly had great power, but that's all I know of it."

Una then came over and looked at the drawing. "I've heard of this as well. Among the vampires of my world, it was kind of like the Holy Grail. It supposedly could make any vampire, invincible and any followers could…let me think…also grow powerful through that object. All of us vampires searched for it at one time or another, but no one ever found it."

Julia looked to Una. "How did you know that? Next to nothing is known about that."

"Well, Serapis who was an even more ancient vampire than I, told me about it once. How it was used rule a whole civilization but in the end, destroyed it, utterly. Or so the story goes. It was so long ago, he told me..I can't quite remember how it all goes…." Una scratched her head and thought for a moment.

"Ok…I remember him saying…., the followers of the person who wields it, will feel and be able to use its power in turn, but….."

"But what? But implies some sort of drawback." Asked Julia.

Una shrugged. "That's all I remember, but the second part I think does refer to some sort of drawback….some price or potential price to be paid. He told me the story almost 2000 years ago. But if Claudia has that piece of junk and this one is just as powerful as the one from my universe, that could be a problem. Some of that old crap, could be extremely dangerous."

"I hear someone coming." Announced Dawn, who was standing near the door.

They quickly turned off the lights and closed the door almost all the way, leaving it open a crack. We then carefully peaked in.

The footsteps got ever closer and then the door to the magical lab opened up. In walked a young woman of about 20, with long sandy brown hair. She was wearing a black silk robe with the emblem of that ancient and evil wizard's cult on it.

When she first entered, she looked puzzled for a moment, as if she had expected the door to be locked. But a moment later she seemed to shrug it off and then went to a bench and started to look for something.

"Magda." Whispered Julia.

"Who?" Asked Jade.

"Her name is Magda, she's a promising young wizard and also Claudia's youngest daughter. She appears to be looking for something. Perhaps Claudia, sent her to look for something."

With our backs to us, the woman was rummaging around one of the work benches, appearing to look for something.

Not sure of what action to take, Julia, Valentina, Una, Dawn, and Tori quickly started to whisper as to what to do next. Should they follow her or capture her, they weren't sure.

While the others cautiously whispered as to the next course of action, Jade quietly seethed in anger. This was the daughter of her hated enemy.

A moment later, she made a decision.

Stepping out into the room, her eyes filled with burning hatred, Jade pulled the scissors from her boot and quietly made her way towards the woman. Of course, the others, not wanting to alert Magda, could only watch in horror.

Being so engrossed in her task of searching, Magda never heard Jade approach.

In one swift move, the second she reached the unsuspecting Magda, Jade grabbed her and using the blade of her scissors, cut Magda's throat from ear to ear.

She didn't die right away and that's exactly how Jade wanted it. As soon as her job was done, Jade released the woman and back off.

Magda, now in a complete state of shock, spun around and for a moment put her hands to her neck, in a vain effort to stop the blood, which gushed out like a crimson river running down her chest.

Jade then leaned in, not caring that Magda's blood was spurting onto her own shirt. Ever the movie fan, Jade couldn't resist borrowing just a bit, from the movie Gladiator. "Know this before you die Magda. My name is Jadelyn Abigail West, Fenrir, queen and ruler of all werewolves, I killed your grandmother Livia, I just murdered you. Your sisters and mother are next! And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next!"

For a single moment more, Magda looked at Jade helplessly, her eyes filled with horror. She like her mother, thought Jade was dead. Her standing here with a grin on her face and bloody blade in hand, was in impossible thing. In her last moments, Magda concluded that she was no living thing, but instead, a divine spirit of vengeance, sent by the gods. There was nothing she could do, nothing her mother could do, nothing anyone of them could do…they like her, were doomed and would soon find selves at the gates of hell.

With a look of gory triumph, Jade watched as Magda, crumpled to the ground and continued to twitch in an ever growing pool of blood.

From the doorway, Una looked on with amusement. "Now that's cold blooded. It also looks like Jade is enjoying someone's suffering, a bit herself. Maybe there's hope for her yet."

Tori wanted Justice and revenge herself, but seeing her mate, coldly slice a woman's neck she found rather disturbing.

Tori quickly ran over to Jade, who was still surveying her work.

"Jade!"

Jade however was too busy watching the last of Magda's twitching to notice Tori coming up.

Tori then slapped Jade across the face to knock some sense into her. "JADE!"

Jade blinked twice as if suddenly awoken from a stupor. "What?"

Tori took her hands and grabbed each side of Jade's face and made Jade look directly into her eyes.

"Look at me Jade. I love you. But if you keep that up, you will end up exactly like Claudia! You're better than that. I don't want to lose you."

Walking up, Una casually grabbed cup off a table and filled it with blood still spurting from the dead girls neck and drank it, seeming to enjoy the taste. "Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you. Friedrich Nietzsche said that. If I were you Jade, I'd listen to her. You go into the darkness, you'll lose a lot more than your soul. Don't think for a second you can't end up just like her or even me….."

Jade looked into Tori's eyes and realized she had gone just a bit too far. Feeling a rush a pain and sadness, a single tear ran down her cheek. "It hurts so much….I had to watch myself fight you Tori…it hurts so much."

As Tori pulled Jade into a hug, Valentina stepped into the hallway and listened. Popping back in, she said. "I hear voices down the hallway. Faint, but I hear them. I can also smell them now. It's a safe bet, Magda will be missed soon. We need to move and now!"

Jade looked down at the corpse and realized that once again her impulsive actions had put them in danger. She's right, we need to move.

Leaving the room, they followed a stone corridor which sloped downward and then turned to the right and went down some more. They passed a few side branches and some rooms, but the sound was coming from ahead of them.

With a sense of both relief and dread, Jade had finally reached her destination.

The corridor ended in balcony above a room about at least 50 yards across. Sets of stairways leading off on both the left and right of the balcony led down to the room itself along the walls. It was lit by torches and had tapestries along the wall with the symbols of the evil wizard cult. It also had a giant portrait of Livia the Vampire that towered over the room. In the center of the room was a fire pit that had not a normal flame but was alight with flames that seemed to change from blue to purple and then back again. Along the walls there were chairs and they were occupied by people wearing the same black robes Magda was wearing. Jade counted a total of 31 seated people.

Standing by the center fire pit was none other than Claudia herself and another man with black hair of about 35. It looked like some sort of solemn ceremony.

As they watched, Claudia held up the The Morivion for all to see. "With the recent discovery of this artifact and it in my hands, you shall soon feel it's power flow through all of you, greatly enhancing your own abilities. No one will be able to stand against us. When the time is right, we and our forces shall conquer the world. Today, we bring out newest member into the fold, to join him into our circle of power, bringing us one step closer to that goal.

She then turned to the man. "Are you ready Michael?"

"Yes."

Claudia then pulled a dagger and made a small cut on Michaels palm. She then placed the golden circlet, into his hand. Moments later, the blood which had been flowing from the cut seemed to be absorbed by the circlet. With that, a reddish glow enveloped the man if for an instant.

"Do you know him Julia?" Asked Tori.

With a rather sad look on her face, she answered. "He's in charge of our security forces in Western, Europe. Actually, I know everyone in that room. At least half of them are high ranking members of our security force. I know all the rest, too. The corruption is worse than I thought. "

Julia then pointed to a woman with short red hair. "See her?"

"Yes."

"Her name is Rebecca Stanhope. We both apprenticed with the same wizard." Julia lowered her head, looking rather hurt. "She's a very good and trusted friend. Was…that is…"

As Valentina put a hand on Julia's shoulder comfort her, they watched as Claudia took the gold circlet back and hold it high. "We now add another to our ranks and soon, we shall all yield its great power."

Claudia then motioned for the man to sit down and then Claudia herself took a seat. But Jade noticed something. There were two chairs empty. One of which was away from Claudia.

Julia looked, noticing the same thing, pointed to the empty chair away from Claudia. "That one is probably Magda's. The two women on either side are that empty chair, are her sisters, Emmy and Eva."

But there was one other chair that was empty. The seat Claudia sat in was a large ornate wooden throne with carvings of dragons and demons on it. It was much larger than the rest. Next to her on her right was a similar looking chair, only it was slightly smaller, though still larger than the rest of them. That chair was empty.

Jade put her hand to her chin and studied the empty chair. "I wonder who else is missing."

"I'd guess her 2nd in command, by the size of the chair, not quite as big as the hers, but bigger than the others."

Up above, Jade turned to the group, with a grim expression. "We can't worry about that. Well there are 6 of us and 33 of them. Are you ready to go? We can charge on 3."

Jade's hell bent determination to charge in there and kill anything that moved, worried Tori. She knew some thought should be put into this. They had an advantage, but she knew that would only last so long. Quickly, she searched her mind for some thing that could help them move the odd's even further in their favor.

Suddenly having an idea, Tori reached into her bag, pulled out a small box. Popping open the box, she pulled out a mirrored ball, about 7 inches in diameter. To the others it looked like a small disco ball.

With a strange grin, she held up the object. "Hey guys….I have an idea. We're crashing the party, so let's really make it a party."

So Jade is starting to figure things out and has managed a small measure of Revenge. As the Klingon proverb says, that Revenge is a dish best served cold, Jade certainly served it cold, didn't she.

What could Tori have in mind with the glittery object in her hand? How could it aid in their fight? Will Jade and company triumph or will it be yet another defeat. Find out next time for the thrilling climax of, Revenge of the Wolf.

The chapter title, In the Air Tonight, is a reference to the Phil Collins, song of the same name.