Danger Line: This Means War

**Opal**

It was times like these that Opal missed the old days. Even though those days were only a few weeks ago, it felt like forever to her and the pack …. her pack ….

Opal missed her older sister more then anything, and she wished that Selena had turned up quick enough to save her, too. Now she was leader of the pack, and she had no idea what she was doing. Tessa was the leader, not Opal …. but Tessa was dead. She wasn’t ready to be leader, yet she had no other choice.

Selena wanted to attack the hunters, wanted them all dead. But Vengeance was Opals only chance at having children, even if he hated her. They say wolves don’t feel love, but Marius and Tessa proved that wrong, as did Isaac and Hope. And no matter how much she tried to deny it, Opal loved Vengeance, or the man she thought she knew anyway.

"We must find a way to get rid of those damn hunters once and for all." Selena, or Ravyn as she went now, had changed so much since the warehouse fire. She was more likely to snap now, more likely to hurt those around her. She claimed that Selena had died when her love tried to kill her. Her name was Ravyn, now. Selena was gone, just like Tessa, and Opal often found herself wishing things could go back to how they had been.

Opal wasn’t the only one to see the changes, either. The entire pack had seen it, so had Xavier and Felix, and both witches. But Rosetta was blind to her mothers love, and the others had never known Selena.

"How are we to accomplish that task, Vampyre, now that you have told them what they need to know to control their powers?" asked Lucretia, her arms crossed. Only Tia got away with calling Ravyn 'Vampyre' now, and it was only because neither was sure who was the strongest of the two, and neither cared to find out.

Ravyn glared at Lucretia. "Careful with your tone, Witch. That was a moment of weakness because I still care for them. It will not happen again."

Opal raised an eyebrow, but it was Xavier who pulled her up. "Care? Or cared?" he asked carefully, keeping his gaze steady. Ravyn hated people who didn’t look at her when they spoke to her. Evenif they were calling her out on something, which was risky now-a-days. Opal would never risk her life or the life of her pack to do something so stupid, but Lucretia and Xavier were always doing it …. in private, at least.

"I won't deny I still care for the hunters," said Ravyn, surprising Opal, and Lucretia and Xavier, too by the looks of things. Kodiak, the father of the bear family Ravyn had offered protection, and Calliope, the leader of the panther clan, both seemed shocked too, but they quickly regained their composure. "How we feel cannot be helped, and do not for one minute think I do not know how some of you feel towards them."

Opal and Lucretia looked away, and surprisingly, so did Xavier. As far as she knew, he only had eyes for Selena …. could it be that the infamous Xavier had fallen for a hunter, too? No, that was ridiculous, and Opal pushed the thought aside. "How do you expect us to fight them when you know how we feel?" asked Opal quietly.

Ravyn turned her gaze on Opal, and for the first time since visiting the hunters four days ago, Opal saw a hint of the old Selena. Then it was gone and Ravyn was back. "I don’t expect you to fight your loves. I am not entirely heartless," she said, looking off towards where Rosetta's bedroom would be. She still hadn't woken up after the attack, but Ravyn said she was sure she would wake, given time. "However I do expect you to do your part in protecting this house should they come. The others will be the ones to attack. Those of you with a partner amongst the hunters will not be called to fight unless it is absolutely necessary. I will try to think of a plan, until then I want you all to do the same."

Ravyn waved her hand and stood, walking off without another word to go and see her daughter. Xavier shook his head sadly before he followed Kodiak and Calliope out of the office, but Lucretia stayed behind with Opal. "This is dangerous ground she treads on," said the witch quietly, looking back over her shoulder to make sure Ravyn had actually left. "You must make sure you are prepared, Wolf. A war is brewing, I can feel it in the air."

"How can you be so sure?" Lucretia couldn’t see the future any more then the average human could, yet she spoke as if it were certain.

Lucretia looked Opal in the eyes, and Opal shivered. "Ravyn and Shadows refuse to accept what they feel in their hearts," she said softly, slowly. "They push the love down, let the hate consume it. Soon, it will consume them and there will be nothing left but empty shells filled with the burning desire for revenge."

"What can we do?" Opal liked Ravyn, or Selena or whatever she called herself, and she didn't want to see her 'consumed' by anything. Before this she had been relatively nice …. as nice as a vampire can be to a wolf of course.

"There is nothing we can do, Wolf," answered Lucretia. "We cannot show them what they should already see. If they keep on the path they are on now, I fear most of us will not survive. Including them."

**Jimmy**

"Is there any improvement?"

Jimmy looked up from Rosetta's peaceful face to see Selena in the doorway. She was staring at Rosetta, and Jimmy swore for a moment it was like nothing had changed. Then she looked at him and that feeling vanished. This was Ravyn, and Selena was dead. "No, My Lady, no improvement," said Jimmy, bowing his head slightly but keeping eye contact. She had warned him enough about eye contact.

Ravyn sighed and moved to sit beside Jimmy. He tensed, expecting some kind of punishment, but instead Ravyn took his hand and gently rubbed the bonding tattoo. "I am sorry for the way I have been treating you, Rev," she said, looking up into his eyes. "You might not believe me, but you are my son by bonding and I do care for you. You were a good friend to me when I was Selena, and I hope to continue that friendship now that you are family."

"I'm sorry, but why?" he asked without thinking. Then he quickly added, "my Lady."

Her eyes flashed red for a moment, and Jimmy backed up, making Ravyn sigh again as her eyes returned to blue. "Call me Ravyn, Rev. I am not a lady. I once was a queen, but no more. If you don’t want to call me Ravyn then use my other name at least, but not 'my Lady'."

"Your other name?"

"Adapolimi," said Ravyn, looking away as a single tear leaked out of her eye. That was when Jimmy realised; Selena wasn’t gone, she was just in pain. He knew she loved Matt, and he had tried to kill her, everyone. Jimmy felt the sting of that betrayal well enough, but how much worse was it for her when she had loved him so much?

"You're not a destroyer, Selena," Jimmy said carefully, taking her hands again. Ravyn looked up at him, but she wasn’t angry, so he continued. "Things just happen sometimes, and we cant control them. I know you love Matt and I know he loves you too."

"He doesn’t love me, James," she replied quietly, tears now streaming down her face. "You don’t accuse the ones you love of murdering innocent people, and you don’t try to kill them. If she wakes up, come and find me." Ravyn left the room again, her face in her hands.

Jimmy turned back to Rose, his mind whirling. He almost didn’t hear Lucretia come in. "You need to feed, Vampyre," she said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I will stay with Rosetta, she will not be alone if she wakes."

Nodding gratefully, Jimmy left, too. He had fed yesterday morning, but as the sun was setting again he was feeling weak, drained. Even though he hated feeding, he knew if he didn’t he would die. He couldn’t hurt Rosetta like that, so he fed every day without complaint. Ravyn had hired humans to be feeders so no one would have to go to Sanctuary. She said it was for convenience, but Jimmy knew it was to keep him here.

As the blood passed through his lips and his strength returned, an idea formed in his mind. He suddenly realised what he had to do. For his sake, for Rosetta's, for everyone.

He had to make them see just how hopeless a war would be, how endless. He had to show them another way, a better way. Jimmy needed a way to get out of this house, to see his former friends.

He would prove to them that love is always stronger then hate.

**Matt**

"Do not engage them, Matthew!" snapped Boss over the screen. "I will not have you risking your life because you feel you deserve revenge!"

"We do deserve revenge!" I snapped back. Normally I wouldn’t fight with Boss on anything. "You can't expect us to just let her take over!"

"She already has taken over," replied Boss bluntly. "And its not just California affected by this mess! Beings the world over have begun to revolt against us." My heart stopped at that news. Everyone around me gasped as Boss showed us pictures of different countries. Photos of wolves and lions running through main city streets; Witches throwing fire and making people fly through the air; the pale and drained bodies of vampire victims just left to rot in the streets. "War has broken out in Europe, Asia and Australia. We have kept it quiet for as long as we could, but people are starting to notice."

"What can we do?" asked Val. "There must be something!"

Boss shook her head as the pictures stopped and she came back on screen. "No, there is nothing we can do now. The president himself has announced an important message to be delivered tomorrow afternoon. The world is about to find out the truth, and all we can do is try and pick up the pieces."

After Boss signed off, we all just sat there for a while, thinking. I don’t know about the others, but all I could think about was how badly I had fucked up. And to think just a few days ago I had thought to worst I'd done was kill my best friend and the woman I'd loved. Turns out I hadnt killed them at all. And now I find out because of my stupidity, half the world has fallen into anarchy and the beings we were meant to keep in line are fighting back.

That was all three of the rules broken.

Don’t fall for the enemy …. yeah, broke that one.

Don’t reveal the truth to the humans …. well, that one is fucked now, too.

Don't reveal your true name to those who could use it against you …. ok, so I didn’t break that one. I'd never actually told Selena my name, but she still knew it anyway.

"I will always love you, Matthew...."

Those words haunted me day and night, from the moment they left her lips. They sounded true enough, but from her how was I supposed to know? She'd also claimed she knew nothing about those deaths, but they were right around the time she disappeared ….

"Do you want your own daughter dead that much?!"

But Rosetta wasn’t my daughter; I had no children. Not in this life, anyway. She hadnt come from my body, I'd never held her as a baby, or watched her grow up. That was someone else's life, some long dead king.

I still felt guilty.

It's not like I had been aiming for Rosetta. I'd actually aimed for Selena, but somehow the fire and missed her and hit Rosetta instead. When I asked Silence about it, she explained that it was most likely the Atlantean Gods upholding their end of the "Bonded Partners cant kill each other" deal. The fact that the Gods were not only real, but strong enough to interfere with life in todays day and age was enough to freak the living crap out of me, especially when Silence added that they have been known to kill those who try to slay their bonded partner.

So there goes the idea of me taking out Selena. I wasn’t even sure I really could.

Boss had sent in two new Hunters, and was sending in more when she could, but with the rest of the world going insane help was stretched thin. I didn’t know them too well, brothers named Wraith and Bull from what Silence told me. My time was spent with Silence, learning all I could from her about vampires and Selena, and I had basically ignored the newest hunters.

"The First Vampire was said to have destroyed Atlantis," she said one day as we sat alone in
the office. "I never knew it was Ravyn. All of us thought it was a man who did it, and we never made the distinction between the Cursed one and the First vampire."

That part had seemed the most obvious to me. It explained why the normal rules didn’t apply too Selena. From what I gathered, she had been cursed by some Greek god for killing his son, and then the Atlantean pantheon had come together to bless her with longer life and the heightened senses of an animal. Then she had turned her daughter, Rose, in order to save her life …. and you get the first vampire. But when I had explained it like that to Silence she had seemed shocked and claimed that no one she had ever met had ever come to that conclusion, not even her.

Maybe I knew more about the past then I realised.

Or I was just insane.

Either way, one thing was certain.

Selena couldn’t be allowed to take control of California, let alone the rest of the world. She may have won over the beings in this area, but that was only because we had thought we were safe. Ever since finding out the truth we have been getting out there, making sure they know we are still here and we are still in charge.

So far, no one had even seen Selena, or any of the others. I often found myself praying I hadn't really killed Rosetta. If she died I knew there was no hope for us; Selena would come back like she promised and kill us all. Our only hope was to learn to control our magic, our emotions like she had said.

And hopefully, we had enough left in us to save the whole damn world.

Notes

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