Chapter 52 The War Within

Chapter 52 The War Within
For the past week, we had been going back and forth to Francis’s mansion almost every day.

Each visit was the same. We would gather in the living room, sitting around the fireplace while Timi and Juliet’s grandmother continued telling us stories about the past—stories about the old days, about the wars, about the things that had happened long before any of us were born.

Every time she spoke, it felt like another piece of history was being uncovered.

But for the past few days, I hadn’t been joining them.

I had stayed indoors.

Something about the daylight had been bothering me. A strange heaviness settled over my body during the day, leaving me feeling weak and tired. It wasn’t painful, just… uncomfortable.

So while the others continued visiting the mansion, listening to more of her stories, I remained inside the house, resting.

It wasn’t really a big deal.

I was probably just homesick.

Or maybe my body was still adjusting to what I had become.

After all, I was the first of my kind.

A vampire… and a werewolf.

I know everyone probably expects me to feel guilty about leaving my family and my home behind.

But the truth is… I don’t.

I don’t feel sad. I don’t feel regret.

If anything, I feel relieved.

I spent my entire life locked away in that place, surrounded by walls, rules, and expectations that were never really mine to begin with. Every day felt the same, like I was living someone else’s life.

Now I’m out.

I have a new family.

And for the first time, I get to see the world beyond those walls.

Honestly, that’s enough for me.

That’s more than enough.

As usual, Timi and Juliet had gone to visit their grandmother at the cabin. They had been doing that almost every day since we arrived, listening to more of her stories about the past.

Daniel, however, stayed behind with me.

He said it was because I hadn’t been feeling well.

I had been running a fever during the day for the past few days, which was strange.

Very strange.

Vampires don’t get fevers.

“Do you want to watch a movie?” Daniel asked as he sat beside me on the couch.

“Sure,” I replied.

He picked up the remote and pressed the Netflix button. The screen lit up as the menu appeared.

“What do you want to watch?” he asked, scrolling through the options.

Before I could answer, a sudden wave of nausea hit me.

My stomach twisted violently, and I could feel the food I had eaten earlier forcing its way back up.

I stood up quickly.

“Bathroom,” I muttered, already rushing down the hallway.

I barely made it in time.

I dropped to my knees in front of the toilet and vomited. The taste burned my throat as everything I had eaten came up.

A moment later, Daniel rushed into the bathroom behind me.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said weakly.

I stood up slowly and walked to the sink, turning on the faucet. I rinsed my mouth and splashed some water on my face.

For a brief moment, it felt like it was over.

Then the pain came.

It hit deep inside my abdomen, sharp and sudden, like something twisting violently inside me.

I gripped the edge of the sink.

Before I could react, I bent forward and vomited again—but this time it wasn’t food.

Blood poured from my mouth.

Dark and thick.

I vomited again.

And again.

Each time more blood spilled into the sink and onto the floor.

When it finally stopped, the room felt distant and heavy.

I could hear Daniel’s voice somewhere behind me, but it sounded far away.

“Are you okay? What’s happening?”

I tried to respond, but the words wouldn’t come out.

My vision blurred.

My legs gave out beneath me.

I stumbled backward, lost my balance, and the back of my head slammed against the edge of the bathtub.

Everything went black.

I woke up on the same sofa I had been lying on earlier.

For a moment everything was blurry. My head felt heavy, and a dull ache throbbed at the back of my skull where I must have hit the bathtub.

Daniel was pacing around the room with his phone pressed to his ear, speaking in a low, urgent voice.

I tried to sit up.

The moment I lifted my head, a loud ringing filled my ears. It was so sharp it felt like it was drilling through my skull.

Daniel noticed immediately.

He ended the call and rushed over to me.

“You’re awake,” he said, kneeling beside the couch. “How are you feeling?”

I swallowed and forced myself upright.

“It feels like my body is burning,” I said. “From the inside.”

He paused for a second, his expression tightening.

Then he stood up.

“We have to go now.”

“Go where?” I asked weakly.

“Timi called,” he said quickly. “He said we should come over right away. Maybe Waje can figure out what’s happening to you.”

He helped me to my feet.

The moment I stood, a sharp pain shot through my stomach.

I cried out and doubled over slightly, clutching my abdomen.

Daniel tightened his grip on my arm to keep me from collapsing.

“Easy,” he said.

Somehow, I forced myself to move.

Together we made our way to the front door and stepped outside.

The sun was blazing overhead. The heat hit my skin immediately, making the burning sensation inside my body even worse.

We walked slowly to the roadside, waiting for a taxi to pass by.

But the pain kept growing.

My legs began to weaken, and before I realized it, my balance slipped.

The only thing that kept me from falling was Daniel’s arm wrapping firmly around my waist.

“Whoa,” he said, steadying me.

I leaned heavily against him.

After a moment, he sighed.

“Get on my back.”

I didn’t argue.

I climbed onto his back carefully, wrapping my arms around his shoulders.

“Just like old times, huh?” I said weakly.

Daniel didn’t respond.

Instead, he adjusted his grip on my legs and said quietly, “Hold on. With everything you’ve got.”

I tightened my arms around him.

Daniel looked around the area, scanning the street and nearby houses to make sure no one was watching us.

Daniel waited a few seconds, making sure the road was completely empty.

Then he moved.

One moment he was standing still.

The next moment the world blurred.

The wind roared past my ears as Daniel used his vampire speed. The ground beneath us became nothing but streaks of color rushing by.

The sudden acceleration nearly threw me off his back.

“Whoa—!” I gasped.

My grip slipped for a second, but I quickly wrapped my arms tighter around his shoulders and held on with everything I had.

The air whipped against my face as we tore through the road at an impossible speed.

Houses, trees, and cars flashed past like shadows.

Within seconds we had already crossed distances that would normally take minutes.

After about two minutes of that supersonic sprint, Francis’s mansion came into view.

Daniel didn’t slow down.

“OPEN THE GATE!” he shouted.

The security guard at the gate barely had time to react before he rushed to open it.

The metal gate slid open just as Daniel reached it.

He ran straight through without slowing, not even caring if the guard had just witnessed something impossible.

We crossed the compound in seconds and headed straight for the cabin where Waje lived.

Daniel rushed to the door and knocked hard.

The door opened almost immediately.

But before I could even see who had opened it, my arms suddenly lost their strength.

My grip on Daniel’s shoulders loosened.

My body slipped backward.

I fell off his back and hit the ground behind him.

And everything went dark again.

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When I woke up, I was lying on a bed.

I looked around slowly.

It was Waje’s room.

I could recognize the wooden walls and the faint scent of herbs that always filled the air there.

Surprisingly, I felt much better.

The burning inside my body was gone.

I sat up slowly.

The room was empty.

No one was there.

I swung my legs off the bed, stood up carefully, and walked toward the door. When I stepped out into the hallway, I could hear faint voices coming from the living room.

They were whispering.

Talking about me.

As I walked closer, their voices became clearer, but the moment I stepped into the living room, they all stopped talking.

Every one of them turned to look at me.

Timi.

Daniel.

Juliet.

And Waje.

I walked over and sat down on the sofa.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

No one answered immediately.

Then Waje spoke.

“My child,” she said softly, “you are sick.”

I frowned slightly.

“No,” I said. “I feel fine now.”

Waje slowly walked over and sat down beside me.

“That’s because of the healing spell I cast on you,” Waje said quietly. “But I don’t know how long it will last.”

Her words hung in the air.

I looked around the room at the others—Timi, Juliet, and Daniel.

None of them said anything.

But the looks on their faces told me everything.

This was serious.

Very serious.

I turned back to Waje.

“Why is this happening to me?”

She took a slow breath before answering.

“What you are… has never existed before,” she said.

I frowned slightly.

“Vampires and wolves are not allies. They never have been. For centuries, wolves have always seen vampires as freaks… as an abomination.”

Her voice remained calm, but every word felt heavy.

“So now,” she continued, “the wolf spirit inside you and your new vampire nature are fighting each other.”

I stared at her.

“Fighting?”

She nodded slowly.

“Yes. They are both trying to become the dominant force inside you.”

I glanced down at my hands.

“And your wolf spirit,” she added softly, “is against what you have become.”

“What do you mean?”

“You were never meant to become a vampire. Your wolf spirit sees it as a corruption… a violation of what you are.”

The room was completely silent.

“It is rebelling against you.”

A cold feeling settled in my chest.

“So what does that mean for me?” I asked.

Waje looked at me with a heavy expression.

“Right now… you are neither a vampire nor a wolf.”

I swallowed.

“And eventually…” she began.

Then she stopped.

Her voice trailed off.

“Eventually what?” I asked.

She hesitated.

“Waje,” I said firmly. “Say it.”

She looked directly into my eyes.

“You will lose your life.”

For a moment, I couldn’t say anything.

The words you will lose your life echoed in my head like a distant bell that refused to stop ringing.

I had faced death before. More times than I could count. I had seen people die, fought creatures that could tear a man apart in seconds, and lived through things that should have killed me long ago.

But hearing it said like that—so calmly, so certainly—felt different.

A strange emptiness settled in my chest.

It wasn’t panic.

It wasn’t even fear.

It was more like the sudden realization that something inside me was quietly counting down to an end I couldn’t see.

I looked down at my hands for a second, then back at Waje.

“What can be done?” I asked.

She didn’t hesitate.

“You need one side to become dominant.”

“What do you mean?”

“Either your vampire nature must take control… or your wolf spirit must.”

I frowned slightly.

“And how does that happen?”

“There are two ways,” she said.

Her voice remained calm and measured.

“You either return to where your wolf spirits originate… where they can reclaim dominance over you.”

She paused briefly.

“Or…”

“Or what?” I asked.

“You are turned again by a very powerful vampire. Strong enough to force your vampire side to dominate the wolf spirit.”

I thought about it for a second.

Then I looked at Timi.

“Timi is a strong vampire,” I said quickly. “He’s old too. If he turns me again, that should fix it, right?”

I looked back at Waje.

“That will work… right?”

She shook her head slightly.

“I’m not sure.”

My stomach tightened.

“But we can try,” she added.

I turned back toward Timi.

“Timi,” I said, “don’t leave me hanging here.”

He didn’t say anything.

Instead, he stepped forward.

Waje quietly stood up and moved back, joining Juliet and Daniel on the other side of the room.

Timi stopped in front of me.

For a second he simply looked at me.

Then he asked calmly,

“Are you ready?”

I nodded.

“It will hurt,” Timi said quietly.

I gave a faint smile.

“Then you better be quick.”

He stepped closer and gently moved the hair away from the side of my neck, exposing the skin. His fingers were steady, almost careful.

For a brief second, nothing happened.

Then I felt it.

His fangs slowly sank into my neck.

The pain came instantly—sharp and deep, like two burning needles piercing straight through muscle and bone. My body tensed, and every instinct in me wanted to scream.

But I didn’t.

I clenched my teeth and forced the sound down.

Timi continued feeding, his grip steady as he drew the blood from my body. I could feel the warmth leaving me little by little, like something vital was being pulled away.

My heartbeat began to slow.

Each pulse weaker than the last.

The room started to fade at the edges, the voices around me becoming distant.

My vision blurred.

My eyelids grew heavy.

Just as my eyes began to close, Timi pulled away.

Without hesitation, he bit into his own wrist and held it out in front of me.

Dark blood flowed from the wound.

“Drink,” he said.

I grabbed his wrist immediately and pulled it to my mouth.

The moment his blood touched my tongue, something inside me reacted.

It was intense.

It felt like the first time I had ever tasted blood in my life. Every instinct in my body screamed for more. I drank greedily, holding his arm tightly as the blood filled my mouth and ran down my throat.

After a moment, Timi pulled his hand away.

Everyone in the room was staring at me.

Waiting.

Watching.

I could feel their eyes on me.

Then I smiled.

“I think it worked,” I said.

For a moment, relief spread across their faces. Juliet smiled. Daniel let out a small breath. Even Timi’s shoulders relaxed slightly.

But then something felt wrong.

The blood in my stomach shifted uncomfortably.

It felt… heavy.

Like my body didn’t want it there.

The feeling rose quickly, climbing up my throat.

I covered my mouth, but it was too late.

I leaned forward and vomited.

Dark blood splattered onto the floor.

Timi’s blood.

The room went silent.

When I looked up, the smiles had vanished.

All I saw now was disappointment.

Worry.

Fear.

I wiped my mouth slowly and shook my head.

“There’s no way,” I said quietly.

“I’m not going back home.”