*WARNING!! This post contains HUGE spoilers for Blood Torn.*

One of the fun aspects of writing Blood Torn was creating a whole other side to Blackthorn. Up until then the series had been dominated by the vampire world versus the human authorities, with other species only fleetingly mentioned. Amongst those cameo roles was Jask Tao in Blood Shadows, when Kane made a brief visit to the lycan compound to collect an escaped Caitlin and, later, when Jask is waiting for her outside the courtroom. To keep the focus on Kane and Caitlin’s story, I revealed little about Jask and his pack at the time, let alone how he fitted into the overall Blackthorn picture.

Lycans and serryns

In the background though, I had already designed the lycan world in detail – who Jask was, how he operated, let alone why I created the pack the way I had (you can read all about that here, here and here). As with all the mythology I’ve developed for Blackthorn, I’d spent quite some time looking into adapting established ‘beliefs’ to suit the world I was creating. As a part of this, I developed the concept of lycanthropy as an allergy, the management of it having become increasingly challenging for the lycans under the regulations due to the systems put in place.

Jask’s character evolved out of developing that mythology. I had to work out what kind of personality would successfully manage a minority pack in Blackthorn under that new system. I knew I needed someone mature, self-controlled, strategic, intelligent and wise. I needed someone strong enough both physically and mentally to rule a pack, let alone with an edge of authority that not only demanded respect but equally with a fairness, dedication and selflessness to earn that respect. And, of course, my lycan leader had to be someone with insight into the dynamics of the world he’s in in order to best protect that pack – including executing sufficent humility to seemingly play ball with all the various groups, not least the human authorities.

But, like with Blackthorn’s other heroes, there also needed to be a dark side to Jask to warrant his survival in Blackthorn – an innate sense of the hunter and, in some respects, the feral. I needed someone who made the pack stronger by being its leader as well as being strengthened because of the pack’s faithful support, but I also needed someone who was equally capable of going it alone – and surviving against the odds. Jask became that type of hero and subsequently an integral player in Blackthorn’s future, especially because he has one of the most powerful potential armies under his effective rule.

My serryn mythology was already established by the time I wrote Blood Torn, having explored it in its fledgling form through Leila in Blood Roses. But in Blood Torn, I had the opportunity to start to show more of a serryn’s evolvement through Phia – not least because she had none of her big sister’s reluctance in embracing her new ability. Phia’s developing serenity is, without doubt, more destructive to her personality than it was to Leila’s, particularly because of Phia’ emotional vulnerabilities and not having her big sister’s self-control (despite Caleb’s fervent efforts to the contrary). It goes without saying that if Phia had turned up to save Alisha instead of Leila, Blood Roses may have been the shortest Blackthorn book ever!

However, you may be interested to know that when I first started mapping out Blackthorn, I didn’t plan on Leila losing her serrynity to her nemesis – nor it jumping down the line, along with her fate, to her sister. I’m so pleased it did though because it shifted Phia (and Jask) from being a secondary character to becoming integral in Blackthorn’s tapestry.

But romance was never the plan

For the future of the story, I knew Jask and Phia had to meet. I knew it was Jask who would find Phia in the ruins. I knew Phia had to forge a link with the lycans. The last thing I expected was for these two to fall for each other.

My initial intention when designing Blackthorn was that, although Jask was going to be a hero in the story, he was never going to be a romantic hero. When I first created his character, he had given up any prospect of finding love again. Having written a few scenes between him and Ellen whilst exploring his character, I couldn’t imagine him with anyone else. Instead, I’d resolved he’d focus on devoting all his time to his pack and, with me already knowing they would come under attack from the authorities, he was going to have enough to contend with without the entanglement of romance too. Besides, he might have needed Phia’s help but, for the outcome I wanted, he didn’t need to fall in love with her. Like with most of my characters though, Jask had his own ideas.

Sophia. Sophie. Phia. From the moment she burst onto the page in Blood Roses as an unruly child with a pretend UV torch on her head, a wooden stake in her hand and trying to feed garlic to her little sister, I knew I had my hands full. Furthermore, painted as an adult as the thoughtless missing sister causing Leila a headache and later revealed to be on prejudice-induced, anti-vampire vigilante mission in Blackthorn, Phia was most definitely never going to be one of Blackthorn’s romantic heroines. Aggressive, stroppy, stubborn, immature, argumentative, even arrogant at times, Sophia is frequently quick to act and slow to think. With a plethora of issues that would create a fortress-type barrier to any potential love interest, I knew it would take a saint to bother to peel through her layers. And well, to be honest, I didn’t think I had time for that in the strict internal timescale I had set for the story.

More so, I knew all her flaws were going to be exacerbated by having her up against Jask. Even-tempered, rational and reasonable, let alone with the weight of trying to save his pack on his shoulders, the last thing Jask should have been putting up with was Phia’s often deplorable (and irritating) attitude problem when, instead, he deserved so much better.

But whilst giving them more time on the page together than I’d originally planned, I switched from constantly face-palming with Phia to seeing a whole other side of her – and a whole other side to Jask too.

I started to see Phia as painfully lost in her own frustration and fears, erratically and misguidedly running around trying to make things better in all the wrong ways. Above all else, her deep sense of insecurity born out of her own self-hatred started to emerge. Behind the mask of arrogance was a vulnerable and fragile character who acted badly to evoke the same reaction in others because, basically, she didn’t believe she deserved any better. She certainly didn’t think she deserved Jask, someone who she had come to both respect and admire.

And, rather than Jask’s loss of Ellen being the barrier between him and Phia that I first envisaged, it became an opportunity to reveal an even more admirable side to him. With refined survival instincts making him wary of quick judgements, Jask’s tragic past also created in him a deep empathy that enables him to read beneath surface behaviours. Understanding everything there is to know about self-hatred, Jask revealed a compassionate generosity of spirit, let alone a patience and tolerance with Phia that I think makes the best of both him and of her. He sees her strength, her independence, her feistiness and her bravery. Most of all, he sees how fiercely loyal she is to those she loves. When she is calm and focused, Phia McKay makes one hell of an ally because, in a battle, she’d be the first to step in-between the one she loves and the enemy – and that’s a pack-like trait Jask inevitably deeply admires.

Their futures

Unlike with Blood Roses where, for so many reasons, I had to conclude it with a sense of uncertainty about whether Leila and Caleb’s emerging love is strong enough to see them through, Blood Torn, I hope, gives that real sense of a hero and heroine’s bond being strong enough to surpass anything. But things are never straight forward for my couples. As is indicative of Blackthorn, there is a flipside of renewed complications out of what should have remained a forbidden love.

I concluded Blood Torn amidst an imminent threat. Sirius Throme, head of the Global Council is once again using Jask’s pack as pawns in his mission to get his hands on Kane. In a strategic move you’ll learn more of in Blood Deep, he’s had Jask’s young delivered to the cons – something Jask is yet to uncover. If he does, his reaction could reveal a whole other side to Jask that Phia is yet to see.

After all, Jask, at the moment, is successfully managing his dark side, but it still simmers beneath the surface – and at no greater time than when his allergy peaks. He may be one of the rare lycans able to control his change, but he was never given the opportunity to perfect it with the regulations having interrupted his progress. But even without his instincts to contend with, self-controlled though he is, his interrogation scene with the vampire in Blood Torn shows that he has no qualms in doing whatever it takes for those he loves. When it comes to lethal, Jask is more than capable of holding his own against, or alongside, Kane and Caleb. He’s just not been put in that situation in Blackthorn yet.

As made clear at the end of Blood Roses, Caleb is already on the hunt for Phia: next in line to be his sacrifice if he is to claim his Tryan status and save the third species from oppression. He’s yet to find her, he’s yet to know she now has Jask and his entire pack behind her, but with Caleb’s impressive networks in Blackthorn, it’s only a matter of time. Jask will have even more to contend with if he’s seen as the barrier to the third species’ salvation – something that could test his loyalty to Phia if, subsequently, he’s not only at risk from vampiric retaliation but also from his own kind.

As for Phia, she may have made huge progress as far as her sense of direction and self-esteem are going, but she’s still a serryn and serryns are renowned for becoming overwhelmed by their own selfish desires. Already impulsive by nature, Phia’s greatest challenge is in controlling her serrynity sufficiently to use it as a weapon as opposed to self-indulgence. That need certainly won’t be helped if her natural nemesis evolves into a threat to anyone she loves.

Let’s just hope Kane’s visit to Caleb goes well!

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That’s it for my couple insight posts for now. I will, of course, do the same for Jessie and Eden – but, no spoilers, I’ll do it after you’ve read Blood Deep.

I’ll be back next time though with a short post to show you my vision of what Eden and Jessie look like – and it’ll be kick-starting a give-away too!