Surprise!

I'd successfully completed the task of 'sulking' all throughout the day. I refused to talk to or even listen to Damon, using Jade as my perfect scapegoat. She owed me at least that much. Eventually Damon became extremely annoyed with my behaviour, labeling it once again as 'childish' which only added more fuel to the false fire. And so, he left to patrol for the rest of the day, leaving me home alone. But the time alone was neither peaceful, nor mentally conducive. The entire time I could not help but feel selfish and stupid for what I was about to do. Damon had wanted to go through this together with me. In fact, it was the sole reason for him taking time off of work. And yet, here I was, plotting to play the next round of the game without him. The only solace I found, was in the fact that he hadn't wanted me getting involved in his stage of the game either and had even resorted to painfully pushing me away. This would be payback, and then we'd be even for everything. At least, that was what I said to myself as reassurance. But the reassurance could only carry me so far, and the more I watched the time tick by on the time lock which locked the package now sitting in front of me on the bed, the more guilty I began to feel. But, as hours turned to minutes and minutes into seconds, it all dissipated, soon turning into terror as the timer counted down from ten seconds. With the changing of each number, my focus began to shift from my guilt to what awaited me in the material package.
Finally, when one second disappeared from the digital face of the timer, I began fidgeting frantically with the package, opening the material pouch it was in and then removing a rectangular black box from it. It was satin and had a velvet ribbon tying the lid to the rest of the box and then the ribbon formed a neat bow at the top. I pulled at one of the longer sections of the ribbon, unravelling it in the process. In all honesty, my heart was pounding now, and a coat of cold sweat had made its way onto my forehead as I began to let my fingers trace against the box. Slowly I lifted the lid and carefully set it down next to me before seeing what was inside. I was disappointed to find that inside the box was a white piece of paper folded in half. Honestly, I expected more- a grand secret trinket, for instance. But my disappointment increased as I unfolded the piece of paper and saw that a single word was scribbled onto it in pen:
**Surprise!**
My eyes wandered over the scribbled letters over and over again. Surprise? What surprise? The note itself was a surprise. Until now I had assumed all of the rounds would be the same. We'd receive letters, figured out the clues in them and then gone on our way. But now this? A word scribbled on a piece of paper. What the hell was he playing at?
I took the piece of paper, crumpled it up into my hand, threw it to the ground in frustration and then ran my fingers through my hair. Thereafter I tossed the box as well sending it skidding across the floor and crashing into the cupboard.
"What the fuck is he up to now!" I yelled out and then began banging my hands on the bed, completely overtaken by an immense sense of anger, frustration and downright confusion.
In fact, I was just about to grab the material package and tear at it when all of a sudden, I heard the sound of glass breaking downstairs. Now, normally the noise would have been considered innocent and been labelled as an act of carelessness on Andrea's part. But I had dismissed Chester and Andrea two hours ago on account of them being here so early in the morning. And so, I slowly began making my way out of mine and Damon’s room, ready to rip my claws out and to sink them into any intruder I found. Soon, the sound of another glass breaking sounded, then another, then another, and by the time the sixth glass had fallen, I was at the bottom of the stairs, heading to the kitchen. But when I got there, the kitchen was completely empty and there were no signs of any glass pieces on the floor.
And so, out of frustration I yelled, "Where the fuck are you, coward!" I gave a little sniff in the air, trying to discern a scent but instead came across the pungent odour of wine, burning at my nostrils.
In response to my earlier question, I heard another glass shatter and I picked up that it was coming from the dining room. Slowly I began walking towards it, with my heart beating erratically in my chest. It was then that I realised that, in all honesty, I was not prepared for this, and I was only proven right as soon as I stepped foot into the dining room.
The carpets were stained red with wine and glass was shattered all over them leaving red-stained glass pieces scattered everywhere. Then, there was another crash, and more wine and glass flew, and slowly I began to gaze at, with horror, the person responsible for the mess on the carpets. Blonde hair tied neatly into a ponytail and her lips pulled into a devilish smirk. Her eyes hovered on the broken glass for a second before they looked up and stared at mine. They were now a light silver colour, shining with malice and a deep, dark sense of hatred.
"Ah, Quinn... or should I say, Jasmine Spectra. Just the woman I was looking for. Surprise!" She uttered out.
"Macy..." I uttered out in disbelief. This was quite a surprise, especially considering that I assumed she'd left the pack grounds. She must have stayed hidden here somewhere. There was no way she could have snuck past Damon undetected.
Macy smiled deeply and then held in her hand another glass of wine which she now swirled for a while and then sipped at. She swished the wine around in her mouth before swallowing and saying, "Hmm, nice. A 1997 merlot. Been a while since I've had such good wine. Care for a drink, Jasmine?"
I eyed her cautiously, unable to read her very clearly and unable to get a read on this entire situation. I was afraid that a wrong move could be to my detriment, especially considering that I did not know this version of Macy.
"What are you doing here Macy?" I asked, taking slow steps towards the table and, as such, towards her. But Macy saw this, raised a warning eyebrow and then smashed the glass on the table before pointing the broken glass towards me.
"You better stay right where you are, honey. Otherwise I'll just have to kill you before Lucien has all his fun with you."
I smirked at her comment, folded my arms and then scoffed, "As if you could. I'm an Alpha wolf remember?"
She shrugged her shoulders and uttered, "So? I think I could be more than a match for you. In fact, why don't we have ourselves a little showdown right here. I promise I won't rough you up too bad. And if you win, I’ll tell you why I'm here right now. If I win... well, you'll have to find out why I'm here later."
I saw no trickery in that, and that was trickery in itself. What game was Macy playing at?
I contemplated for a while and, after deciding to approach this cautiously, agreed to her. Macy giggled in turn and placed the broken glass on the table before turning back towards me with a deep smirk on her face and a dark look in her eyes.
Immediately, she let out a low growl and I did the same as I ran towards her, intent on knocking her to the ground. But she anticipated this and ducked, sending me crashing to the wall and falling flat on the floor. She then neared me and tisked before saying, "You honestly didn't think I'd know how you fight? Lucien had the pleasure of teaching me all of your tricks. Such a pity you learnt to fight from him."
But she was wrong, he wasn't the only person who taught me to fight, and now that I knew what intel she was using to counteract my moves, I'd be able to change things up a little. And so, I got to my feet, ready to launch the next attack. But instead of tackling her to the ground again or sending a blow to her face, I ran towards her and grabbed at her hair painfully before extending my claws and sending them right through her stomach. Immediately, blood gushed out of her mouth and all over my t-shirt, soaking through and staining my skin. Macy let out a strange, long and maniacal chuckle as she collapsed to the ground. It was unsettling, and I made the mistake of ignoring it as I kicked her in the stomach again and again, sending her blood splattering all over my exposed legs. This continued until I realised something strange... Macy was not fighting back. In fact, she was taking this all in as though each blow were extremely pleasurable. But this realisation of mine came too late and soon I began feeling slightly dizzy and my legs began to give in sending me stumbling here and there.
"W-what's happening," I whispered as I clutched at my head.
Macy finally took this as an opportunity to stand and as she did so, I began to sink onto the floor. Macy then grabbed another wineglass and took another sip of the wine in her blood-stained mouth before giving a little giggle. By then I was laying on my side on the carpet, completely unable to move anything, not even my fingers.
"So predictably gory and messy, don't you think? You see, in my blood was an extremely rare type of wolfsbane called the Frostbite flower. What it does is get stuck in the blood stream and then it activates once the infected blood touches the skin of another person, seeping in and sinking into their bloodstream. Fortunately for me, the antidote was in the wine I was drinking, suppressing its paralysing effect on me, but not the ability for it to be spread and activated into another person- this effect is temporary of course, and I assume that my ability to infect will run out in the next few minutes, leaving me clean of the wolfsbane, unlike you. You should have drunk the wine, honey, then you would not have had this problem. But Jasmine is always so fucking stubborn and Jasmine *hardly* ever drinks. Not after what happened with her foster parents."
I was honestly so tired of wolfsbane, and at this point, was wondering how many different species there were out there.
Macy then placed her glass on the table, knelt down to me and then brushed a stray hair out of my face. I could not even move my mouth to say anything, or bite her hand at that point, and she was clearly taking advantage of it.
"Now, I think it's time for you to say night-night, the next round of the game will be starting shortly. And trust me honey, you are going to need all the rest you can get!"
And with that she fisted her hand and launched it painfully into the side of my head, turning my vision completely black, drowning me in a pit of numb nothingness.
----
What is Lucien up to now?
Stay safe! Stay healthy! Sending all my love!