JAEGER

Never did I think that breathing would bring as much excruciating pain as it did now.

I gasped in a breath of air and immediately wished I hadn't because of the sharp, piercing sensation that exploded in my stomach.

"He's awake again!" An unknown, feminine voice called out.

My gasp of air turned into a groan of pain, and that groan caused just as much pain.

"Hurry!"

Immediately, I felt two sharp points, like fangs, dig into my neck and the pain slowly began to subside as I slowly lost consciousness.

I woke up again, and pain surged through my body still.

A voice cursed, a male this time. "Can he stop waking up dammit! How much blood do I have to—"

"Just shut up and drink!"

The fangs sank into my neck and the pain abated before I lost consciousness again.

"Crap! He's convulsing!" The feminine voice panicked as soon as I reached consciousness.

"Dammit!" Then there were fangs in my neck... again.

Finally, I woke up and wasn't overcome by a burst of pain.

"You won't need to drink blood for decades now," teased the unknown female voice.

"Screw you," the other voice retorted. "Ah, that was gross. I've never drunk vampire blood."

"Not technically a vampire."

"Same difference."

My eyes slowly opened and saw I was in a cabin, one that didn't look familiar to me. I groaned as I tried to sit up, but was made to lie down again when the vampires saw me.

"Just stay down," the male said. "I'm not drinking any more of your blood if you mess up the stitches."

Stitches? I craned my neck and saw that my body, my stomach had been sown up. I felt like—

"Don't look," the vampire that drank my blood said, blocking the sight with his hands, "I'm pretty sure vomiting won't help, right?"

"Right," the other vampire said, the female who I imagined was the one who'd sowed me up.

"Who—" I began.

"Don't talk," the vampire that drank my blood said, covering my mouth. "Can he talk?"

"Yes," the female said with a faintly amused smile.

The vampire slowly, cautiously lifted his hand from my mouth, "go ahead."

"Who are you guys?" I asked, my voice hoarse, a faint pain coming from the stitches.

"Damn his voice is croaky. Whatever you do, don't clear your throat okay, it won't do you any good." The male vampire advised.

"I'm Feyre, and that's my brother Oryn."

"I'd say a pleasure to meet you but," Oryn revealed his fangs to show the dried blood, "it wasn't much of a pleasure."

Feyre and Oryn. "You saved me?"

"We did," Feyre confirmed, "and you're probably wondering why aren't you?"

I nodded, then Oryn took over, "because we hate the Zas."

I remained quiet, waiting for him to elaborate, but it didn't seem like he was going to so Feyre took over again.

"Yes, we hate the Zas. There's a—"

"Wait," I interrupted her, "where's Izzy?"

"Izzy?" They asked in unison.

"The-the human who was with me? Where's—" I started to sit up but they forced me back down. "Is she... is she okay?"

"From what we saw, yeah," Feyre said.

"The Zas knocked her out, then just dragged her along with him," Oryn added.

"He kidnapped her?" I asked.

"Looked like it," Feyre said.

Could she still be alive?

"Anyway," Feyre continued, "as I was saying, there's a whole community of us who want the Zas dead more than anything else, but we've never dared to face him." She snickered, "funny, isn't it? Anyway, we heard about you and your... quest? Journey? We heard about what you were doing, and that you were going after the Zas and—"

"Is it true that you're the Zas' cousin?" Oryn cut in.

"Oryn!"

"What?"

"Yes, it's true," I confirmed.

Feyre gasped, "So you are truly the offspring of Rafe?" I nodded and her following gasp sounded a lot like a squeal, which was surprising coming from a vampire. "We thought it was a rumour, we truly thought you had died, we—" Seeing the confused look on my face, she paused and explained so I could understand. "Erebus, the father of Perseus, he didn't know how to lead, everybody knew that."

"Most people," Oryn corrected.

"Right, most of us. Anyway, our parents and a majority of the vampires of that time were planning on making Rafe the leader. They were going to rebel, kill Erebus and make way for a new Zas, your father, but, well, Erebus killed your father before they could bring the plan to action, luckily he was killed too though. So when your father died, the rebels decided to put a hold on the plan and find his offspring, you. But they were too late. Or at least they thought they were because they thought you'd burned with your mother, and even though they couldn't find the body, they assumed maybe something else had happened because there was no trace left of you."

"How did you manage to stay hidden for so long?" Oryn asked.

"The-the mask helped."

"Anyway," Feyre continued before her brother spoke again, "we started following you when we heard that you might be the son of Rafe. Our parents as well as the other rebels thought it was just a rumour, so didn't take any action."

"We actually rebelled against the rebels by coming here. Isn't that ironic?" Oryn mused.

"Our parents told us not to pursue an empty rumour because if we were caught and it ended up being false, then well, we'd die. But, here we are, the rumours are true and we're not dead. How great is that?"

"We started following you some days ago," Oryn took over, "you and that human seemed... quite close."

"Oryn! You didn't have to bring that up!" Feyre groaned then looked at me again, "Sorry about that. Anyway, where was I? Oh, so we were following you and planning on approaching you and asking you a couple of questions, but well, we started seeing more Valcs in the area than usual, and they were following you, so we knew something was up, and we were right, something was up because you got stabbed." She pointed to my stomach

"We were planning on helping you but we weren't idiotic enough to try and fight the Zas with such a small army," Oryn added.

"Oryn!"

"What?"

"You're implying that he's an idiot because he went to fight the Zas with a small army," she said through gritted teeth.

"He went with less than a small army, Feyre. So he's not an idiot... he's worse than one."

"Stop talking Oryn! He could be our future Zas for all we know."

"What?" I asked.

Feyre looked at me again, "we'll help you," she stated, "we'll help you fight the Zas."

I thought for some time, trying to process what I'd heard. I guess some vampires were willing to fight alongside me after all, but I needed to make sure that if we did this, we did it right. It had to be perfect, with no complications or disadvantages. Because I wasn't going to lose Izzy again.

"I can't fight the Zas in this state," I said.

"I know, we'll wait for you to recover, then we go tell our parents, they tell the rebels, and we take down the Zas, how does that sound?"

"How long will it take for me to recover?"

They both glanced at my wound then back at me, "a long time," they both said.

I sighed, "how many people are in that rebel group?"

"About 60 or so," Feyre evaluated.

"That's not enough," I said plainly, "that won't do."

"Well, that's all we have," Feyre said.

"Well, we need more."

"Sure, let me just go ahead and write a petition and send it out to every vampire asking if they'll be fine betraying the Zas and fighting alongside an Impurity. I'm sure if I do, we'll have a whole village in no time," Feyre said sarcastically.

"Village," I echoed.

"What?"

"That's it. We need a village."

Feyre and Oryn both looked at me then suddenly burst out laughing. "You're not suggesting we get a village fighting alongside us? Like a human one?" Oryn asked between laughs.

"What human would fight alongside vampires?" Feyre questioned.

"I know a village that might."

Their laughs ceased and they looked at me seriously again.

"I think we'll be able to convince a village," I told them.

"I thought you were crazy for actively seeking out the Zas, but now, now I see you're even crazier than crazy because you're actually being serious right now," Oryn said.

"It's the only way! I'm not going to risk Izzy's life again, it has to be perfect. It has to be."

"What makes you think she's even still alive?" Oryn questioned.

"If Perseus wanted to kill her, he'd have killed her."

"And what if you're wrong and she's dead?" Oryn asked.

"Then-then the infiltration still needs to be perfect so I can get my revenge on the Zas."

"Well, fine," Feyre said, "you can try to convince your... village. But just know that if you want perfection, it's going to take a long time to reach because you still need to heal and that'll take at least 6 months."

I exhaled, "how far are we from the nearest village?"

"Why?" Feyre questioned.

"I need to contact the village, Lilliville."

"One of the largest human villages. How wise," Oryn mumbled.

"You can't contact anyone till at least 4 months have passed," Feyre stated.

"4—!"

"Don't shout!" They both shouted in unison as they stared at my stitches.

"Why four months?" I asked.

"Because you're still injured?" Fayre said. "And also, if you try walking now, you'll start bleeding again. Or you'll faint because you don't have enough blood. You need to rest. Perfection, remember?"

"And I'm definitely not drinking your blood again," Oriyn added. "So if you start bleeding again," he patted my shoulder, "sorry to say but you'll be a goner."

*****

"York to Lilliville, York to Lilliville," I spoke through the radio, but the only response I was getting was static. "York to Lilliville, York to Lilliville."

"How much longer?" Oryn groaned, "it's been almost an hour but still no progress."

"Just a little longer," I told him.

"How much longer?"

"Another hour?" My answer got me yet another groan from Oryn.

"Shut up Oryn," Feyre chided, "you're just making noise."

"Just making noise?" He questioned, "I'm sick of hearing only static on the other side of this thing and I know for a fact that an hour from now, all we'll be hearing is stati. We're just wasting our ti—"

"Lilliville to York?" Sounded a voice from the radio.

Both Feyre and I glanced at Oryn, who cleared his throat. "Never mind," he whispered before he pinched his lips together and looked at the floor.

"York, anybody there?"

"Yes," I replied.

"How is—? York was one of the villages first attacked, how—?"

"No time for explanations," I interrupted, "who am I talking to?"

"The Commander Vanquisher of Lilliville, Smith. May I ask who I'm talking to?" He asked in return.

"No," I said plainly, "I need to talk to Aleksander of the Vanquishers. It's urgent."

There was a long pause before a voice finally sounded, "Aleksander on the radio? What's the problem?"

"I—" I coughed, "I need your—" I bit my bottom lip, trying to force the words out. I'd only asked for help once, and getting the words out then had been difficult too. "I need your help," I managed to force out.

"You need my help?"

"Yes, well yours and your village and any other villages you can convince."

"May I ask who I'm talking to as well as what this is for? York is thousands of miles out after all."

"All you need to know is that... that I know where your Vanquisher friend is."

A short pause. "My Vanquisher friend?"

"Yes, she's in trouble and she needs your help."

There was another pause, longer than the one before, "Who am I talking to?" His voice was interrogative now, "Why should I believe you? How did you manage to get her out of the hands of the Masked Slayer?"

"I didn't, someone else got her out of my hands."

"Out of... who the hell am I talking to!" He demanded.

"Izzy needs your help Aleksander."

"Masked Slayer," he breathed out, noticing my use of her nickname, "you kidnapped her and now—!"

"I know what I did! But I can't discuss it all over the radio. The Zas kidnapped Izzy and she could die anytime and she needs your help."

"This is a trap, isn't it? Why would you suddenly want to help Izel?"

"Because—" I paused, wondering what I could say that would convince him. "Because I kidnapped her to help me get rid of the Zas."

"You thought you could kill him with just two people?!"

"She was the only one I could go to."

"You didn't go to her, you kidnapped her."

"The details don't matter," I said, "all I know is that she's in danger, all humankind is in danger, that's why I'm asking you for help. We need to get to the Zas before he comes to us. We need to... to... work together. All the villages as one and go as an army."

"We?"

"There are vampires that want to get rid of the Zas too, but not enough to guarantee anything."

Once again, there was that long, unnerving pause, "we can't get to the Zas, we don't know where the Zvade is."

"I do, but I need you to convince your village and others, and once you've done that, you can all meet me at York in 2 months."

"2 months?"

I wasn't fully recovered yet, but I wasn't going to say that, so instead I said, "you need time to train, to prepare for what will be coming."

"It's not like we can all come and just leave the others without protection."

"You can leave some then. All the remainder villages can come together, stay in one place and be guarded, to make it easier."

"Well, it's a death wish you know, what you're saying about us coming together and fighting the Zas."

"If you don't, then Izzy will die," I coughed to cover up the breakage in my voice, "and so will you and your village because the vampires will be coming for you,  and they'll kill you. But you'll at least have the advantage if you go to them. Your choice."

And with that, I cut the connection.

"What the heck? You didn't even get a response," Feyre said.

"I know," I told her, "but I know he'll do what I asked."

"How are you so sure?" She asked.

"I'm not," I admitted. "But if he cares for Izzy as much as I think, then he'll come."

*****

Half a year had passed.

I'd recovered and standing before me was the army that was going to start a new era. Vampires and Vanquishers were standing amongst each other, vampires and humans were going to work together—or at least try to—to kill the Zas and hopefully end the war between our kinds. The division between our kinds was conspicuous as the vampires stood on the far left side and the humans on the far right, but at least they weren't trying to kill each other.

Aleksander had managed to convince the villages and, like I'd told him, he met me here at York two months after we'd spoken.

I was standing on one of the vehicles the Vanquishers had come with as I addressed them, telling them the plan and designating tasks and teams.

We were going to do this. We were really going to do this.

I'm coming, Izzy. We're all coming.