Havermouth, Five Years BeforeAislen felt the buzz of the alcohol and drugs pass through her, the intoxication replaced by icy dread. She was shaking her head even as Rhett and Cameron reached forward for her. Her co-ordination was not up to resistance, but she fought.Her shrieks did not cut through the overloud music, the conversation, the party… No one seemed to even notice the Triquetra drag her through. If someone looked, they looked quickly away again.“Don’t,” she pleaded, bracing her heels against the small step out of the house. “Please, no…”Heath’s teeth were bared as he, Cameron, and Rhett tugged her over the edge onto the porch and out into the shadows of the front garden.They threw her down in unison, so that the heels of her hands dug into the earth and grass. For a moment, with clarity, she thought that she had the chance to flee from whatever they intended to do, but then her hands were jerked forward so that she face-planted into the ground, the impact enough that s
Havermouth, Present TimeThere was a dark place inside her mind into which she sank as the hours passed. Almost half her life, her head had been filled with others’ thoughts, so much so that she sometimes wondered if she possessed a single original thought of her own, if her views were hers, if her feelings were her own. Her defense mechanism was to be reactive and to trust her first instinct, rather than try to over analyze things – because if she overthought it, could she trust that the thoughts were her own?Perhaps, she thought, if her grandmother had lived until Aislen was fully trained in her gift, her life would have worked out differently. Maybe she would have learnt to block others out with more control earlier. Perhaps she would have found a purpose for her gift. Perhaps, she would have not shut herself off to such an extent and meeting Cameron would have gone differently…Perhaps if she had been less obsessed with the graphically sexual contents of Heath and Cameron's head
Havermouth, Five Years in the PastIt was past midnight when the Triquetra delivered her to her door. She stumbled into the house, her body exhausted and sore. Her lip was fat and her jaw tender from hitting the grass, her knees and hip were scraped up, and there were bruises that were making themselves known all over her. Come was oozing down her thighs, and she had her first ever hangover. She had no idea where her school bag was. She could not remember if she had left it at the park, or at the house. She was too tired and battered to care. As she closed the front door, Cameron’s Ute pulled out onto the road. “Where in all that’s holy have you been, Aislen Louise Carter?” Her mother demanded at a hiss from behind her. Aislen groaned and rested her forehead against the door for a moment before turning to face her furious mother. “Out,” she said, and staggered towards her room. “You look as if you were dragged behind a car! Your hair is a bird’s nest, and your top is stained. Hav
Havermouth, Present TimeCameron reached over to the bedside lamp and turned it on, bathing them with a golden glow. He sat up, his back to her, his legs over the end of the bed and his feet on the floor. The muscles of his back shifted, displaying the power of years of active manual labor, and his biceps bunched as he ran his hands through his hair, ruffling the russet curls.“Maybe Rhett’s right,” he said under his breath. “About what?” She asked wearily. She was done, just done with the day, she thought. She hurt in so many ways and places and felt as if Rhett had stripped her raw of every belief in her freedom. Her heart was an open, weeping wound. “Maybe, we do need to… just break the rules and talk. He’s told us, time and time again, that you’re not… That you aren’t…” He struggled to say it. “Not normal,” he concluded. “Like we’re… not what you would think of as normal. Maybe… Maybe we just need to say, f-k it, this is how we’re… How that we aren’t…”“Normal,” she prompted, im
Havermouth, Five Years in the PastThe school yard was empty when they arrived, all of the students in class. Heath walked swiftly to the locker bays and shoved his bag inside, taking only the books that he needed out. He glanced at his watch. “I have to go,” he said to her. “I can’t afford to fall behind in this class. At recess…”“I know,” she muttered, scuffing her shoe through the leaf debris blown up against the lockers. “Don’t be late.”“Hmm,” he lifted her chin with his index finger. (Behave… Just f-king behave for once…)“Kiss me, Aislen.”“Why?” She demanded rebelliously. “There’s no one around to see.”His face tightened and his eyes hardened. (Why could she not see what she was doing to them?) “Of course,” he sneered. “That would be how you would see it. Kiss me because I tell you to kiss me, then.”She stood on tiptoes and brushed her lips over his sulkily because she didn’t have the energy to argue further and the vehemence behind his thoughts made it clear that refusing w
Havermouth, Present TimeDespite falling asleep furious with Cameron, Aislen woke thoroughly entangled, her face pressed into his chest and with his arms around her. She had one arm around him, and the other against his heart. She lay with her eyes closed, breathing in the scent of his skin, basking in the warmth of their embrace. She felt him stir and press his face into her hair, breathing her in, but he stayed still. His thoughts were contented. (Finally, things were going right for them… Heath had been right, this would work… They would make her see… Then, they would finally, finally live their lives as they were meant to do…)His c-ck was hard and his desire for her turned the tide of his thoughts. He wanted to kiss her awake and make lazy love in a sleep-warm bed. He wanted her to reach for him, and look at him the way he had seen her look at Rhett, as if she felt for him the same way… There was a pain to that thought that twisted in Aislen’s heart. She pressed her lips to his
Havermouth High School, Five Years in the PastAislen made it to the grassy slope before the bell and sat in approximately the normal position that Heath customarily occupied. She saw the Triquetra walk out of a building in a gathering of other jocks and cheerleaders. Was it a werewolf trait to always move in a pack? She wondered as she watched them approach. They were beautiful, she admitted ruefully. They were simply more athletic, their hair shinier, their skin clearer, their teeth straighter and whiter. There was something to their bone structure, to their long-limbed height and grace of motion that stood out amongst the human students, and quite simply outshone them. And three of them were hers, she added to herself. Or sort of. At the moment. Under whatever complicated, convoluted twisted arrangement that existed between them, whatever madness that had them wanting her… And they wanted her, she told herself. She was telepath, and however poor a one she was, she could tell that
Havermouth, Present Time Aislen watched the light shift across the floor, diffused by the leaves of the trees outside the window. Rhett had pulled back the curtains in order improve the light, and so she had a clear view through his window of the garden and the river below. She could see that they had expanded on the original firepit, creating a paved sunken circular space with inset seating built into the steps down. A gravel pit cupped a large brazier, with wood pre-set for lighting, and there were hollows built into the wall between the stairs and the seats which held wood seasoning for use. She wrapped her fingers around the chair spokes and hissed out a breath as Rhett hit a sensitive spot. He had positioned her straddling the chair, hugging the back, with a cushion beneath her and one before her to make the posture more comfortable. He had tied her hair high up on her head in order to bare her back. She knew, from the flashes of the images that she caught whenever he tou