Havermouth, Three Weeks BeforeHe had come like an youth at his first sacrifice, Talen thought with wry amusement as he stroked his tongue over Morgana’s skin, cleaning away any trace of her blood. He could feel the stickiness of his seed against his stomach, dripping through his pubic hair, and had probably stained the back of her lacey dress with it.He’d buy her another one.He sighed with contentment as he lifted his head from her skin and let the back of his head rest against the headboard.Morgana’s fingers stroked over his forearms, smoothing the hair bleached almost white by the sun so that it was striking against the tan of his skin and tracing the spots the sun had left behind, and the faint scars from wounds he had not had the time or had considered too minor to bother with healing. Learning the roadmap of his skin, he thought with a smile.“Daddy, sate your monster with me,” she turned, leaning back and lifted her mouth to meet his.He rolled her under him and reached betw
Havermouth, Three Weeks Before“This is outrageous,” Heath snarled at the soldiers who wrestled him into the back of the 4WD. “I am the mayor!” He did not honestly expect the title to make a difference to his treatment, however the longer he upheld the role of outraged human mayor, the longer he could delay, the more chance he had at escape – and there was the chance that he could seed just enough doubt in the minds of the soldiers that they would let him go.They ignored his protestations.“Hey!” He cried out when he saw the 4WD containing Cameron turn off. “Where are you taking my friend?”“Shut the f-k up. Honestly,” the soldier in the front seat twisted in his seat. “You were always such a f-king loudmouth, Heath.”“F-king Guy,” Heath’s jaw dropped. He recognized Guy Barnham’s voice although his face was hidden behind the visor and helmet of the Van Helsing soldier. “What the f-k are you doing working for the NES?”“Drop the bullshit,” Guy sighed and turned to face the front. “Whe
Havermouth, Present Time“Get up!” Aislen threw open the doors to the offices in which the witches were sleeping. “Get up! Get up! Get up! We need to do another circle, right now! Right, right this second!”“M,” Bianca groaned sitting up and dragging her hands over her face. “We’re done. You can’t keep waking us up. We need time to recharge, to restore after you drained us. We can’t possibly do another circle right now…”“I need…” Aislen pressed the heel of her hand to where her heart was racing crazily. Talen placed his hand on her shoulder, his thumb stroking in reassurance. “My mates are missing, B,” she said on the verge of tears. “I need to scry and find them.”“I’m sorry, M,” Bianca shook her head wearily. “The magic is like a fizzle. Not enough to light a candle, let alone something like we did before.”“Perhaps I can help,” Sigrid said from behind Talen. Aislen whirled to face the female vampire, Talen’s first child. “Come,” Sigrid held out her hand to Aislen. “Let’s go somewh
Havermouth, Present Time“In our history, there is a story of great queen, Inora,” Sparrow said softly. “It is said that she was a devoted mother, above all else, and loved her son, more than life itself. Inora began life as a slave, stolen from her people before she was old enough to remember their ways. She was raised amongst her captors, and when she became a beautiful young woman, a powerful lord chose her as his second wife.“However, Inora knew that she was destined for more, her son was destined for more. When the neighboring kingdom visited with word of a new god, one who was above all others, the True God and Only God, The One God, she knew that was what she had been born for – to bring the savior, the One God to the heathens of her adopted country. And so, she rose against her barbarian husband and sister-wife and prevailed, raising her son from second son to king.“But there was another, a pretender king, unblessed by the One God, who sought to dethrone her, and he had witc
Havermouth, Present TimeTalen watched as Leighton took Morgana’s hands and she drew in a deep breath, closing her eyes as Sigrid anointed her again with Samuel’s blood. Rhett’s fingers gripped his forearm, clenching tightly. “What the f-k is with the blood?” Talen’s dark-haired mate whispered as if afraid to disturb Aislen’s concentration.“I do not know,” Talen confessed. “I am intrigued as well.” He saw the flicker of white skirts from the corner of his eye and turned his head to look at the doorway where Leighton’s wife and daughter lingered, watching the proceedings with fascination, as they had watched everything that occurred within the warehouse since their arrival.He could imagine what it was like for them, rendered prisoners due to their hunger, and forced to live utterly isolated other than each other and Leighton, who kept a tight stranglehold on their movements at all times as was demonstrated by the wards that he had built around the warehouse, not quite trusting that t
Havermouth, Present Time As the room cleared around them Rhett pushed to his feet. “The gym, you said?” He asked Aislen as he returned to the bedroom and searched frantically amongst the table-top cluttered with belongings before kicking through the pile of discarded clothing that had been shoved into a corner, until something jangled. He traced it down, exclaiming his success as he found a set of keys. He returned to the workspace. Aislen still sat within the circle of salt, her blood-smeared eyes closed, and her expression scrunched as she concentrated. He hesitated, not wanting to leave her alone, but also unable to stay and wait whilst his mates were in trouble. She did not seem to know that he was there, deep in her magic, and he feared to cross the salt circle in case he did something that would harm her, finally trotting down the stairs and banging with the heel of his hands against the closed doors where he knew, from listening to the talk of his mates, that the witches were
Concordia, Eleven Hundred Years BeforeThaelen climbed the ladder to the guard point at the top of the gate, shading his eyes as he scanned the horizon, the wind dragging his hair and the beads that Sigrid had persuaded him to let her place in his beard rattling. The human blood slaves were making their way back towards the tents and stronghold for their midday meal, whilst the vampires continued their efforts building watch towers at high points of the topography.The fortifications changed the familiar landscape. There were pits being dug to slow the approach of an armed force of horse riders, and further afield, whole sections of the forest were being felled to provide the wood for all the building work. They replanted as they felled, but it would take decades for the trees to grow back.Thaelen mourned the changes, as necessary as they were, they further stripped away his childhood, his memories no longer matching what he saw. He had lost so much, he thought, he did not know if he
Concordia, Eleven Hundred Years BeforeThe sixty Lords and Ladies who had originally settled Concordia had done so after a series of tragic losses, choosing isolation from the rest of their species in exchange for safety, and deciding to blindly follow the vision of a Seer that had foretold that they would find their safe home on the other side of the mountain range that humans had long declared to be impassable.They had gathered their blood slaves and begun a convoy through the mountains, driving ahead of them goats and rugged mountain sheep, the passage of which cut a path for the vampires and humans to follow. So long had their convoy been that it was said that they had spanned the entire range, with the tail still at the starting point as the first goats made their way down onto the plains at the foot of the mountains in Concordia.The ancestors had no knowledge of the land that would greet them – efforts to explore had been thwarted by the rocky coast and the rough waters on the