The Werewolf's Pet

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

DEATH BITE

ON THE DRIVE back to the mansion, Jezebel said nothing. In an attempt to stop myself from breaking down in front of her, I pressed my trembling lips together and clasped my hands together on my lap. It didn't matter how much I tried to think of something else. I couldn't get the image of Aaron hurt out of my head.

"What's going to happen now?" I asked, my gaze on the road in front of us.

Jezebel didn't answer me, didn't even spare me a glance.

With a sight, I leaned my head back against the headrest and stared at the distance. I couldn't comprehend why they were treating me like this. What happened was not my fault. I didn't ask Jack to turn me into a vampire. I didn't ask him to make a bond with me, but I was being treated as if I had.

"You said this mark would protect me from everyone," I muttered.

For the first time since we hopped in her car, she glanced at me before returning her attention to the road ahead. "It is said that if the reasons behind it are noble, then the mark will cause no harm." Her knuckles turned white as the grip on the steering wheel tightened. "It's not easy admitting that Jackson was trying to save you, not kill you."

"Why is Aaron angry with me when I had no say in what happened?"

"You must understand that it is not easy dealing with the fact that Jackson changed you and turned you into his beloved."

"Let's stop talking about him, please."

"No. You have to know everything." She paused for a moment. "Jackson was one of the vampires trapped by the humans."

My eyes widened.

"You are somewhat alike."

"We are nothing alike."

"Didn't you think of us as monsters that owned no heart? You believed we all treated humans like garbage. Well...Jackson believes that about humans. He sees them as monsters that deserve no mercy from him...and...I...I don't blame him."

"We are not monsters."

"In the prison that they were kept in, he witnessed his sister be raped over and over. He was nothing but a child, a vampire who had not yet reached adulthood. Without the strength of an adult vampire, he couldn't fight them off."

"How do you know all this?"

"When we won the war...everyone in the prisons had to be assessed. A seer peeked into everyone's mind and decided if they were not dangerous and could be released back into society. When she saw into his mind, she saw everything he went through. The seer herself almost lost all sanity from his memories."

"And even though he was clearly not stable, you released him without—"

"Trust me, we tried to help him, but he is broken beyond fixing."

So, I was correct after all. Jack wanted to let the humans free, so they would be murdered. He hated them as much as I had hated the supernatural creatures that had locked the humans like rats in sectors.

"Why was he exiled?" My eyes narrowed when I spotted a figure standing in the middle of the road. Jezebel slammed the breaks. The seat belt stopped me from crashing into the dashboard. "Who is that?"

"I have no idea." Now, the car moved in reverse before it halted. Through the rear view mirror, Jezebel saw something she didn't like. I was too petrified to even look. When the one in the road raised his hand, some sort of weapon in hand, we didn't get much time to react.