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 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 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 BeforeRhett lay awake next to Aislen, one hand resting on her chest to feel her breathe. They had tied her hands together but otherwise left her loose, and in her drugged sleep she had remained as they had laid her, on her back, her hands on her stomach, between him and Heath. He knew that Heath had checked on her several times during the restless night, worried about the effects of the sedatives on her – the same worry that kept Rhett’s hand on her ribcage, assuring himself that she was alright.At first light, she muttered under her breath and rolled onto her side, turning into Rhett, and he met Heath’s eyes over her head as she snuggled into him. His blonde mate’s grey-gaze was cool, and Rhett felt his heartbeat pick up. He closed his eyes and resisted the urge to press his face into her hair and breathe in her scent. Doing so would only incite further jealousy from his mate, and Rhett knew that he had to be careful, very careful not to upset his mates by s

Havermouth, Three Weeks Before“Samuel,” Sigrid said to her companion as she led Talen to the table upon which the Mer wrought crystal ball still held pride of place next to a candelabra which danced light across the surface of the orb. “Fetch that wine…”The dark-haired man disappeared into one of the other rooms.“He is not familiar,” Talen observed. “I do not recall him.”“I did not make him,” she replied with a hint of defensiveness. “He came to me.”“What do you know of him?” Talen regarded the doorway where the man had gone with narrowed, suspicious eyes. “Whose child is he? What are his origins? Why would he come to the nest of one to whom he is not related?”“Samuel is from the Einheidem.”“And what is a vampire from the Einheidem doing here?” Talen arched an eyebrow. “In Concordia territory? Does Wilhelma know that an Einheidem vampire is roaming this land?”“She sent him here,” Sigrid replied under her breath in their native tongue. “Say no more, Thaelen, lest he hears. I wi