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| Jackson |
Although he was glad that he did something useful, Jackson couldn't help but feel conflicted about what he'd done. He slaughtered all those hunters like it was nothing; killing people wasn't something he should be proud of, so why did he feel accomplished?
He glanced at Damon, and when he looked back at the rest of the pack, he caught a few of them quickly taking their eyes off him. It was to be expected, though. Of course they'd be wary of him. He'd be weary seeing any of them sprout wings and horns all of a sudden, so he didn't blame them.
The power he felt running through him while in that form, though.... It was exhilarating and like he'd finally been set free. Was that how it was for all demons when they first found their demon form? He had so many questions, but the only person who could answer them was still locked up in the hunter camp, and so was his best friend.
However, there was one thing he was already sure of: he was going to learn to control this new power so that he could be more of an asset to the pack. He wasn't going to get shot or captured anymore; he was going to be just as useful as everyone else, and he'd prove that he wasn't weak.
Damon slowed down. "I see it up ahead," he told everyone.
Jackson set his eyes on a tent visible through the trees a hundred feet or so in front of them. It was Lewis' tent. "This is it," he confirmed, looking at Damon. He wanted to rush ahead and start helping get the cages open, but he wouldn't do so without Damon's approval. The last thing he wanted was to race off on his own and set off a trap or start something that got others hurt.
The Alpha took a step forward but then immediately stopped. "Wait," he called.
Everyone stopped behind him.
"What is it?" Jackson asked.
Damon nodded at the snow a few feet from them.
Jackson frowned and searched with his eyes, and when he spotted a shimmer of silver among the white, he understood. "A trap," he said, glancing at the Alpha.
"Tokala," Damon said.
The orange wolf nodded and started foraging around in the snow. It took him a moment to find a rock, and once he gripped it in his jaw, he threw it towards the trap. The moment the rock hit one of the teeth, the silver bear trap snapped shut, making most of the pack gasp.
"Keep your eyes peeled," Damon instructed, and then he began leading the way forward again.
Jackson nervously searched the ground as he walked, and after only taking a few steps, he spotted something else. He wasn't sure what it was, but it flickered just like the beartraps did in the sunlight, and he wasn't going to risk getting close.
"Damon," he said, and when the Alpha looked at him, he nodded in the direction he saw it.
The Alpha made the pack stop and lowered his head, searching the area Jackson pointed out. "I see it," he said.
Jackson watched the Alpha follow something with his eyes, and when it led them up the trunk of a tree, he saw what looked like a fishing line wrapped around a very small hook which had been hammered into the tree.
"That's a new one," Brando said.
"Alpha," Tokala said. He stepped forward and pointed his paw at four rocks placed in a perfect square shape. "There's a net under there. You trip the wire, the net grabs you, and you're left hanging in silver rope until the hunters come back."
Damon snarled quietly. "We'll head around it. Come on."
Jackson walked on Damon's side as he navigated the pack around the trees and towards the camp, and once they were out of the tree line, Jackson burst forward and hurried over to the cages.
He wanted to run to Wilson first, but Sebastien was still ensnared in silver, and if they didn't get him out soon, he had no idea what might happen to him. "We gotta get him out first!" he insisted, watching as the pack hurried over.
"Jack!" Wilson called. "You're okay?"
Jackson looked over at him. "Yeah, we just gotta get Sebastien out first."
Wilson shook his head. "Yeah, yeah. All good."
"How did you get out of your cage?" Tokala asked, gawping at what remained of the cage Jackson was locked inside.
"Uh...my demon form. I kinda just...burst out," Jackson answered, watching Damon inspect Sebastien's cage.
The Alpha then stopped in front of Jackson. "Can you use your demon form again to break the other cages?"
Jackson glanced around at the pack. "I can try." He didn't want to let himself overthink it. His demon form helped him get out of a silver cage, so he had to be able to use it to help Sebastien and Wilson out, right?
He turned to face Sebastien. "Oh, the inimă," he said, looking at Damon.
"Can you not do it without the inimă?" Damon questioned.
"You have the form now," Tokala said. "The initial discovery of a demon's true form is always the hardest, but once you get through that, it's just like shifting into your wolf form."
Jackson frowned unsurely. He didn't know how any of this demon stuff worked; would he have to use the inimă now that he'd used it to first find his demon form? Would Tokala know the answer to that? He glanced at the orange wolf, but then he saw the concerned look on Damon's face. He could also see the unnerved pack. Was Damon asking him to try without the inimă because he knew some of the wolves were unsettled by it? That made sense. The last thing Jackson wanted to do was scare anyone, so...he'd try.
He nodded and faced the cage again. Then, he left his wolf form and concentrated on the part of him the inimă helped him discover. And there it was.... He didn't know how else to describe it other than by saying it felt like his wolf form was sitting inside him right next to his demon form...as though they were both switches inside his proselytes. They were, after all, two different ethos', right?
With a deep exhale, he focused on his demon ethos, and when he slipped into it the same way he did when shifting into his wolf, he felt his wings and horns appear on his body. His wings weighed on his back, and his horns made his head feel a little heavier, and to his relief, when he opened his eyes, he wasn't seeing in shades of blue, and the wolves around him weren't shimmering red. Whatever his vision became while he was hunting was something he'd ask Sebastien later. Right now, he had to focus on getting the hound and Wilson out.
The inimă only empowered the ethos he already possessed, didn't it? So even without it, he still had resistance to silver; he wouldn't have been able to pull the amulet out of Lewis' tent if that wasn't the case. But then his eyes shifted to the padlock keeping the cage shut. The lock was silver, and he was sure the key to it was, too. But if he could touch both the lock and key, then he could just unlock the door, right?
He looked around for Lewis' severed legs, and when he spotted them over by the fire, he hurried over and rummaged through his pockets.
"What are you doing?" Wilson asked.
"Jackson?" came Damon's voice.
Jackson knew he found the keys when he felt something burn his hand. He took them from Lewis' pocket and stood up, turning to face Damon. "I figured...if I can touch silver without it hurting me as much, then maybe I can open the cages," he said, looking at his hand. But the silver was burning into his skin; it felt like he was holding a piece of fresh-off-the-barbeque coal.
He grimaced and pulled his sleeve down to cover his other hand. Then, he placed the keys over his sleeve.
"That's gonna work, right?" Wilson called.
"Only one way to find out," Jackson mumbled, heading over to Sebastien. He stared at the lock for a moment...but then eased the key inside.
It wouldn't turn.
"So...plan B?" Wesley asked.
Jackson frowned irritably and tried twisting the lock, but no matter how hard he tried, it wouldn't budge.
"I don't think it's gonna work, Jackson," Alastor said.
Sebastien groaned quietly.
Jackson stopped trying to break the lock and gawped at him. "Sebastien?"
The winged hound opened his eyes slightly, but the blue glow they emitted was gone.
"Is he awake?" Wilson asked. "Get him to tell you how to do the thing with the silver again."
"Sebastien," Jackson said, crouching in front of his face. "I should be able to open this lock, right?"
The hound glanced up at the padlock and then at the key in Jackson's hand. He exhaled deeply, and then murmured, "Just...focus on your resistance."
Jackson frowned and tried to do as Sebastien said. He knew that there was a part of him that was resistant to silver because he possessed a fraction of the Zenith's ethos. So, he concentrated on that part of his demon ethos. Then, when he felt it coursing through his body, he focused on the key...and turned it.
The lock clicked.
Several relieved mumbles came from the pack, and Jackson smiled victoriously as he pulled the cage door open.
"Quickly, get him out onto the snow," Damon said.
Jackson gripped hold of the chains binding Sebastien, but as he did, he saw that they'd burned so deeply into the hound's flesh that it was almost like melted, bloody rubber. He could only imagine the pain Sebastien was in, and it made him feel even more desperate to free him.
He started pulling, and although the chains still felt warm against his skin, they didn't singe his palms. He hastily dragged the hound out of the cage, and once he was out, Jackson began tugging on the chains, looking for a way to free Sebastien from them.
"There," Tokala said, pointing under Sebastien's wing.
Jackson found where Tokala pointed and gripped the end of what looked like a single chain rather than multiple. He started untangling it, frantically pulling, twisting, and turning the metal until it gave way and allowed him to yank the entire thing from around Sebastien.
"Sebastien?" Jackson asked eagerly as he chucked the huge chain into the cage.
The hound grunted in response. He didn't attempt to get up, though.
"Is he good?" Wilson called. "'Cause, uh...not to be insensitive, but I'd kinda like to get out of here."
Damon rolled his eyes. "You'll get out when you get out."
"I wasn't talking to you," the tiger snarled.
The Alpha didn't respond to him. Instead, he looked down at Sebastien. "Can you shift back? We can carry you back to where we're resting."
Sebastien nodded, and with a pained grimace, he returned to his human form.
While Damon shifted into his Prime form, Jackson took the keys out of the lock and hurried over to Wilson's cage. Just as he did with Sebastien's lock, he concentrated and turned the key, and the moment the door unlocked, Wilson pounced out and exclaimed in relief, stretching his body out.
"Let's go," Damon called as he threw Sebastien over his shoulder. "If we move now, we should get back before dark. Rachel, grab Jackson and Sebastien's things from that tent."
Rachel nodded and went into Lewis' tent.
Jackson left his demon form and shifted into his wolf. He joined the others, and when Damon began leading the way back, he followed beside him.
"I'll...contact the Venaticus when we get back," Sebastien grumbled, staring down at Jackson from Damon's shoulder. "You got them all, right?"
"Yeah, I think so," Jackson said with a nod. "I mean...we didn't see any others on the way here."
"It was fricken awesome," Wilson said, catching up to walk beside Jackson. "You just burst out of that cage like it was paper, man."
Jackson glanced at him and smiled as enthusiastically as he could. He still felt a little conflicted about how he'd killed all those people, but the fact he'd saved his friends and done something useful kept him from sinking into the same guilt that almost consumed him after he killed Daniel, the man who he tore apart when he first turned.
He looked up at Sebastien. "Do you know what the Venaticus are gonna do to Riker and those of his hunters that they caught?"
"Hunters convicted of killing innocent Caeleste usually go to hunter-specific prisons, but they'll be kept in holding for a while so the investigators can look into everything they've done. If we didn't need your muto friend here with us, they'd be talking to him as a witness right now."
Wilson scoffed. "I've seen them do some real fucked up shit. I'd testify or whatever."
"Does Heir Lucian look into this stuff?" Jackson asked curiously.
"No. Lord Caedis has him chasing the lead you gave us on Ridge," the white-haired demon answered. "He took your blood, so if he really is raising an army against the Nosferatu, Heir Lucian's gotta shut it down. They've already got enough on their plate with Lyca Corp. and the Diabolus."
A shiver ran down Jackson's spine at the mere thought of Ridge and what he was doing in that cave. The creatures he saw hanging from the ceiling.... He shook his head and focused on the forest up ahead. "When they catch him, he'll go to Daevor, right?"
"He sure will," Sebastien confirmed.
They were going to catch Ridge, right? Jackson already felt bad enough that the guy got away with his blood, which he intended to use to create a hybrid army to use against the Nosferatu. If Ridge succeeded, and the Nosferatu had yet another threat to deal with, Jackson was going to become so overwrought with guilt that he'd feel like he was drowning. The last thing he wanted was to be the reason this whole situation got worse; he didn't want to cause Lord Caedis any stress.
He sighed quietly. HeirLucian could obviously handle himself. Ridge was going to get caught, and theonly hybrids Jackson had to worry about were those he and Damon's pack were outhere searching for.
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