FAZER LOGINNoahLyric’s cool hand is resting on my brow and the sun is stabbing at my eyes.It’s way too bright and wrong, so wrong, but that’s only because I have forgotten what the sun is supposed to feel like. In the valley, the sun never shone this brightly.I hear the crash of waves against the rocks, and the screeching of seagulls high above. The ocean sounds angry, the sand I’m laying on is rough and scratching between my ass cheeks, but at least here the birds are still flying and squawking.It’s the most beautiful sound I’ve heard in a long time.With a grunt, I sit up and Lyric pushes away from me. I pull my legs up to my chest and rest my forearms on my knees as I look out over the ocean. Behind me is the ruined promenade. It’s been bashed to sticks and stones by the tsunami that wiped this place out, and all I can think about when I see it is that rebuilding this place from scratch is going to cost a fucking fortune.It’s a good thought. Kind of happy. It means I think there’s a fu
Noah“We need to get the fuck out of here,” I hiss to Weiland. “Before there’s nothing left of us.”“Yeah, no kidding,” my Beta says as he wipes blood from his arms.We stopped healing. So did the vampires. The mages daywalking charms work, but it makes them human. We thought they’d heal once night fell, but they haven’t. They are not dead, walking around with broken spines and necks, howling in pain, but they won’t die.And neither do we.Or the witches.The mages.Everyone’s gravely injured, and we’re all still alive. At night, I hear people pray to their gods, begging for healing, and in the absence of that, at least death.The magic casters gave up trying to heal us. They are powerful, but whatever magic Bryce is using is stronger than ours now.We have been under attack for days, and we’ve made no progress. As soon as we start to move, we’re attacked. We’ve won every battle, but it came at one hell of a cost.I sigh and sag to the bloody ground, kicking an arm out of my way. This
LyricOne by one, the others drift back towards the main camp. Haldor gives a quiet grunt of acknowledgement before he turns away, Pria following close behind him. Even Weiland lingers for a moment, taking the time to scan the treeline. “Will you be all right here?” he asks Noah.My mate sighs and presses his lips together in a disapproving scowl. “I’m not a fucking pup.”“No one is safe during a war, not even the king of the Lycans.”Noah smiles, but it’s tight and doesn’t reach his eyes. “We’ll be fine.”The Beta nods and disappears into the darkness without another word. The night swallows his footsteps leaving behind only the soft lap of the water against the shore, and the occasional rustle of the wind through the trees, or the hoot of a lone owl.I disengage from Noah and walk up to the lake. I look out over the dark surface. The water sounds like it’s moving, but it’s still, there isn’t even a ripple or a reflection from above. “Is this nymph water?” I ask aloud.Noah’s footste
NoahWe run until we can’t hear the vampires anymore, coming to a complete halt next to a fantastic lake in a canyon.We are miles and miles from the others, but most of the Lycans managed to keep up with me.“What the fuck was that!” Lyric exclaims as I gently lower her to the ground. She tries to push me away, but unlike Gannicus, I don’t budge. “I thought they loved their humans.”“They do,” I say and look around for something to sit on. It has a been a long fucking day. The Fates coming by for an unannounced visit already fucked me up, and now the vampires with their ‘old ways’ on top of that. It was everything I didn’t need after this fucking year I’ve had.“If they love them so much, why would they kill poor Varo like that?” Lyric asks.“It’s a punishment for leaking their secrets,” Haldor says. He sounds as tired as I feel. “Unfortunately, it won’t kill him, he’ll just wish to die.”“Why didn’t you stop them?” Lyric asks.“He’s not ours to protect,” Weiland says and sinks to
LyricGannicus smiles, the grin of a pure predator, and steps up to Noah. I tense, Star surges to the surface, ready to rip his throat out, but we just made peace. I just agreed to let him teach me how to be free.I don’t need lessons. I already know that there’s no such thing as true freedom. We all exist for a purpose, we all play in someone or something’s sandbox. Flora even told me.But I thought this would be the best way to get to know Gannicus and so get over my silly, petty jealousy and fear that he will steal my mate.The vampire jovially claps Noah on the shoulder and laughs. “Never say that things can’t get any weirder my friend,” he accentuates the word ‘friend’ - as if he doesn’t mean it. “That is usually a signal to the universe to make everything as weird as fucking possible.”Gannicus lets Noah go and turns back to me. “Will you join us at our fire, Queen?” he asks ever so politely, and I wonder what Noah ever saw in this man.Maybe time changed him. He is very old, a v
LyricAmong the vampires and the human witches people seem to naturally pair up with their own genders, but the Lycans are simply sorting themselves out by rank. The warriors are sitting with warriors, the Alphas with Alphas…The exceptions are Noah and I. We outrank everyone, and there’s no natural place for us to slot into.But Noah is completely unperturbed, because it’s simpler than I think it is.Our spot is everywhere we want it to be. People adapt around us, we don’t adapt around them.Noah takes a seat with the Lycans, Weiland, Silja, Pria, and Haldor, our constant companions so far.“What’s the plan?” Haldor asks and spears a fully dressed rabbit on a skewer he made with a stick. “I mean, their island is across the sea, isn’t it? We don’t have boats.”“Hm,” Noah picks up his own stick and starts to poke at the white-hot coals. In the meantime, Pria tears the pelt off another rabbit, rubs some salt and herbs into it, skewers it and hangs it next to Haldor’s.The more time I s
NoahLyric slow-blinks at me, reaches for the back of her neck, then drops her arm before her fingers touch the rune. “I’m not leaving. I will fight him.”I’d be impressed by her reckless, almost foolish bravery, but I know with chilling certainty that it will also mean her immediate, brutal death.
NoahHome is the Vanderlyn Estate, a six-hour, inland drive away, nestled close to the mountains where snow is surely falling.I only went to that hellish seaside town of Marblehall, near the collapsing promenade, to ensure Lyric was settled and safe. To stay would have been to court madness, drive
LyricThe silence in this beautiful, borrowed cottage is louder than any scream. Two weeks. It’s been fourteen days since Noah left me on this porch, a single key in my hand, and drove away in his ridiculously silent, expensive car. Fourteen days of complete, absolute radio silence.I unpacked my fe
NoahLyric is only out of it for about a minute, and I can’t tell if the sudden blackout was a side effect of our newly forged bond or if the wave of psychic pain and despair triggered a panic attack. The intensity of the shared emotions had been overwhelming, a physical jolt to my entire system.







