Havermouth, Three Weeks BeforeRhett parked at the rear of his shop, and they walked to the Carter house in a nervous silence, trying to keep their pace and body language casual, but their footsteps quickening in pace with their heartbeats.At the Carter house, they slunk around to the gravel covered back yard, pressing tight to the honeysuckle draped fence past Aislen’s car, and then rounding the bonnet to toe the garden edging to the back door.Heath had worried about whether to try to swap cars, but he couldn’t hire anything without leaving a paper trail and borrowing from someone would just raise questions about why – however the solution was parked in the drive as they’d hoped it would be. Aislen’s car.His heart raced, and his palms were slippery as he unlocked the back door and they stepped into Aislen’s domain.Cameron breathed in the moment that they closed the door behind them. “Oh, god, I could get off on just the scent of her,” he said thickly. “So good.”“Not just her,” H
Havermouth, Three Weeks BeforeTalen spent the day reviewing contracts, Tony’s plans for the business, and the revised safety standards of the work sites. They had ceased work for the day out of respect for Patrick Carter, allowing the staff to attend his funeral service so the site office was quiet, allowing the natural music of the birds and the trees to be heard.“I hope to be able to give you more of an idea of my movements tomorrow,” Talen said as he rose from the desk and went to the door. He leaned on the doorframe and breathed in the scent of the forest with appreciation. Buried in the depths of the trees, with the stillness of the site, there was a peacefulness to the location. “I will speak to my mate about her plans tonight and once I know her planned movements I will be able to adjust my own.”“I hope that you both stay locally,” Tony replied as he tidied the pile of paperwork into the file ready for the lawyer. “It is a good place to make a home, and with you being so car
Havermouth, Present time“I can feed myself,” Rhett protested. Heath and Cameron had helped him to the seat and Talen stood patiently spoon feeding him the slush from the bowl that he held. Despite his protests, Heath could see that Rhett’s hands shook when he lifted them from the arms of the chair, and even his head seemed heavy on his neck.Rhett ate half of the bowl, and then shook his head. “No more.”“A good start,” Talen said warmly stroking his hand over the curve of Rhett’s skull. “I will dispose of this and clean the kitchen area.”“Can you take off the cuffs first?” Rhett pleaded lifting his wrists, heavy with the chain, off the arms of the chair, trying to disguise the effort it took from him to do so. “I’m dying for a shower.”In order to fashion Rhett’s restraint, Cameron and Talen has recycled chains and strips of metal from around the warehouse, with Talen using sheer vampire strength to bend the metal into shape, therefore freedom from the cuffs and collar was only obt
Havermouth, Present TimeIt was a weird little meeting, Aislen thought as they gathered in the main room on the second floor of the warehouse. The Point Crest Triquetra stood before the assembly of Aislen’s Triquetra, Talen, and Leighton, whilst Mercy and Verina hovered in the background, both women drifting on the edges of the room as if uncertain whether they would be welcome to join.Leighton had directed Rhett to take a seat and had begun collecting samples. Her dark-haired mate leaned back in the seat, his head resting against the back of the chair and his eyes closed. He was pale and his eyes shadowed. His fever had broken and it seemed that he would not turn into a zombie, both things that she was grateful for, but she wasn’t stupid – she could see that he was far from recovered, and that he was still fighting the affects of the bite.“We will attempt to rappel to the other side of the river tonight,” Greg announced. “Under the cover of night, we believe that we should be succe
Havermouth, Present Time Aislen slid Talen looks under her eyelashes as he drove towards the MegaStore. He had said nothing during the process of Leighton selecting two of the sleepers to test blood on and had simply slit his wrist and allowed his blood to run into the mouth of the little boy. Nora was Leighton’s chosen recipient of Rhett’s blood and Aislen had watched Leighton pour the blood into her mouth with mixed feelings. Where she knew that Talen’s blood healed and did not harm, feeding a child blood of an infected werewolf seemed risky to her. Leighton, however, seemed to genuinely care about the people that he safeguarded, and she did not believe that he would do anything that he thought would harm any of them. Talen had not found it unusual at all, but she thought that blood was such a normal part of his life that it would not. Talen’s insistence that he administer the blood himself had her curious. She could tell that he knew that she was wondering and was considering how
The Human Enemy’s Land, Eleven Hundred Years BeforeAltherra paused at the rise of the hill shading her eyes from the sun as she gazed at the horizon. Thaelen followed her gaze. The road curved down, through rough terrain, to where an isolated fishing village perched at the foot of the mountain range and the ocean was studded with tiny fishing boats.Following the curve of the beach away from the mountains, and fields gradually gave way into streets, the cluster of buildings leading in a dark path to the stone walls of a human castle. This castle, however, had crumpled, rooves broken, walls blackened by smoke and fire.“Well, that’s interesting,” Egren observed dryly. “Why would they destroy one of their own castles?”“Heresy,” Thaelen guessed grimly as it seemed to by the humans excuse for everything that they did. “The One God is represented strongly in these lands, and the worshippers of his ways tolerate no naysayers.”“It is good for us,” Altherra decided. “We could possibly stea
The Human Enemy’s Land, Eleven Hundred Years BeforeThe city was, as it had appeared from the distance, destroyed.Once it would have been a place of wealth and power. The wide streets were paved with a slant intended to collect waste and water run off in a design that Thaelen admired for its initiative and fore-thought, and the buildings had been built by skilled craftsmen with an eye for the aesthetic of the city streets. They passed public gathering places, gardens and monuments destroyed, broken pieces of their sculpture spilling across fire-scarred paving and grass torn beneath hob-nail boots.The people were dressed in the rags of finery, bright elaborate embroidery smothered by filth as they withdrew into their houses, holding back hollow-cheeked children and pushing them behind them defensively as Thaelen’s intimidating convoy moved through the streets.“They’re starving,” Isolte whispered.Thaelen did not say, but he knew every vampire in the convoy had smelled the stench of
Havermouth, Three Weeks BeforeMorgana had not returned by midnight. Despite Talen’s efforts to remain calm, there was a gnawing fear sharpening its teeth on his heart. He had moved restlessly between his Ute and the house whilst he waited, seeking to release his anxiety through action, patrolling the property like a guard dog, searching the night for any hint of where his mate could be.Think, Talen, he told himself, rocking on the porch chair, self-soothing through the uneasy motion. Think carefully.It was possible that Morgana had returned to Kabramatta – but that did not sit right with him. Not with her clothing in the cupboards, coffee half made, and without a note left for him to let him know that she’d had to leave.Perhaps she had been injured in her car. He dialled the local hospital and waited for his call to be answered.“Havermouth Hospital, Gwen speaking, how can I direct your call?”“My girlfriend has not come home, and I cannot contact her,” he told her, and heard his