Beyond The Fangs

Prologue

JAEGER

I have a secret, one that could easily get me killed, one that's forced me to hide in the shadows all my life. I've been a target since I came out of my mother's womb, since I took my first breath I've had people who wanted to end my life...

For the first 10 years of my life, I had been on the run, that was until I faked my death... well, more like I escaped my death. My mother and I used to go from village to village, living in each for no more than 3 months for fear of being found, and also because that was how long it took for the villagers to turn on us.

"He'll kill us all!" They used to say, "once he grows up and realises what he truly is, he'll kill us all!"

My mother went through hell because of me, because of what I was. She couldn't settle, she couldn't make friends even if she tried, and she never got rest because the villager's threats never ceased to unnerve her. I wondered why my mother never just left me, it was my fault that she had been living such a tough life after all. It was because of me that she got constant threats.

I always walked around with my face half-covered for fear of detection. My mother knew better than to think of the villager's warnings as empty threats, but the day they came through with their threats was the day we were unprepared.

My mother had been sick that day, weak. She and I had been asleep until the smell of smoke woke us up. Our cottage was on fire, and the villagers were cheering. They threw flammable materials and liquids into and all around our home, making the smoke and flames rage more and more. The smoke was so thick that I could barely make out the figure of my mother as she pointed. I finally managed to follow her finger to where she pointed to a window. 

It was a small window at the back that was big enough for me to squeeze through, but not big enough for my mother. I shook my head, tears falling down my ash-covered face. I called out to her above the cheers, not wanting to leave her but when she responded, her voice was weak and I had to lean closer to hear her.

"My sweet son," she said, "please go, you can survive this and—"

"There's nowhere to go!" I cried in response, "I have nothing but you mother, I'll have nothing if I leave you. I have no purpose, no family, nothing. I don't belong here mother, I don't belong anywhere."

"You're supposed to be here," she said, her tone sharper and desperate as the flames grew. "You were born for a reason." She cupped my face in her hands, "you, my son, need to make sure something like this doesn't happen to anybody else again, not humans, not vampires. You need to treat them all the same. You need to end—"

Half the roof crumbled down to the ground, the noise drowning out her words. "Promise me," she begged, her voice louder and more urgent. "Promise me!"

"Okay, I—I promise. I promise. But mother I—"

"Please, go." She pulled me into a strong, tight hug. "I'll always love you," she whispered before pushing me away, urging me to leave. 

And I did.

That was how I lost my mother, at the hands of humans. As for my father, I never knew him, I had only heard of him. He died at the hands of vampires. Despite the conflict between humans and vampires, both my parents died at the hands of their own kind. They both died trying to protect me because of what I was.

An Impurity.

My father, Rafe, was of high rank. He was the brother of the Zas. They were twins, but not identical. He was revered by all but his brother, Erebus. He was the Zas at the time and was more feared than admired, he was a tyrant with a bitter, cruel personality.