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Chapter 65: Aiden
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2021-07-08 19:20:40They never speak, never laugh, never even make a sound of effort, but I remember how they smell. Every kick, every punch, every chunk of hair ripped from my scalp, every broken tooth and rib and collarbone and finger, each one I match to a smell, and remember. They will pay. After a few minutes of the fledgelings’ assault, I stop feeling the injuries. I am a single ball of pain being flung about the vampires’ playing-field. Frost claws me from within, frothing mad and desperate to deal his own punishment here and now, but they mustn’t know. They can’t know my strengths, not until it’s too late for them.
I’m finally left lying on the floor, a broken toy in a puddle of my own blood. The fledgelings file out silently, the single observer following them out. I remember his smell too. He’s just as guilty as they are, and he will face justice. I relax as best I can, letting them think I am helpless, until the door closes. I don’t even move then, listening for the footstep
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Four against one is long odds, and, knowing what I do these days, I cannot even be sure that they are all human. I try to bluff, smiling at them brightly, already aware that it’s a wasted effort. They know who I am, and they probably know why I’m here, and if they know that then that’s not good news for Aiden. “I’ve come the wrong way. I’m just out for a run. I’ll go now, and get out of your hair.”One of the men veers sideways in his approach, not flanking me yet, but he will be if he closes the distance much more. I step away, but they move forward faster than I move back. As though anticipating my next move, which would be to turn and run, one is moving faster than the others, barely a handful of steps away from me now.“If we can reach the water, we’ll be safe,” I remember, but the water is at least three hundred metres away, if not more- the Isle of Dogs is surrounded on three sides by the
Last Updated : 2021-07-09Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 67: Aiden
“That pathetic mess is the dreaded Aiden Cooper?” The words sound strange when given in the expressionless voice of Sutcliffe’s human speaker. “Why on Earth should we believe that?”“How dare you question your superior?” Whitfield demands, then glances at the screen and collects himself. “It’s easy enough to prove. Fletcher? Have the Seer brought in.” The observer from my earlier beating- Fletcher- opens the door and gives orders to someone outside.“Ah. The Seer I’ve heard so much about,” Ewing says, via his Voice. It’s impossible to tell whether he’s pleased, or excited, or sarcastic. It must get frustrating communicating this way. “She’ll be able to tell whether this is the Aiden Cooper she spoke about?”This Seer is how they knew about me? That’s how they discovered I was to blame for Laurence Taylor? I’m suddenly
Last Updated : 2021-07-10Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 68: Sarah
Aiden’s alive, He’s seven feet tall, covered in fur and blood and rags, but he’s alive and he’s hugging me as if he’s never going to let go. I hug him back just as fiercely. The ghostly warriors have vanished back through the walls, and from the sounds in the distance they are finishing what they started. I should feel horrified at what I have done here, but from the moment I stepped through the door from the yard outside, and saw the eyes of the figures waiting for me, I have felt no regrets, These are not living, breathing beings. These are undead monsters.Aiden is speaking, but it’s hard to understand. His head is all wolf-y, so his mouth is the wrong shape. He huffs, and I get to watch him shrink back to a human. The process sounds painful but his face shows no sign of that when he’s himself again. His lip is scabbed and his nose is puffy. There’s blood all over his chin, which is probably his, and if his face looks that ba
Last Updated : 2021-07-11Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 69: Aiden
Jade licks her lips. There’s colour in her cheeks, and her eyes are bright. She looks a hundred times better than she did only a minute ago. She stands slowly and backs carefully away from myself and Sarah, looking wary. Gabriella steps in front of her with a watchful expression on her face. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do! I’m just standing there, frozen with shock. There’s no right decision. I can upset my Mate and let her down. She’s afraid and she’s miserable and she’s feeling betrayed. She’s right, isn’t she? I’m betraying her by not trusting her on this. She wants… she wants… the Bond isn’t enough without words. Or maybe it’s me who’s not enough. I’ve never been enough. I look back at Jade. Someone who’s given her word to do me no harm. Someone who’s pretty much my prisoner. Can I trust her though? Vampires have honour, or so I’ve heard, but how can that be automatic when they are Turned? If a compulsive liar is Turned, does h
Last Updated : 2021-07-12Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 70: Sarah
The building is empty. Deserted. The hall echoes faintly with my carpet-muffled footsteps, making me notice how hard I am stomping my feet down. Fury and misery burn through me in equal measures, and my thoughts are a mess. How dare he, after what I’ve done for him? I’ve already slammed the door on my awareness of his emotions. I don’t need to feel him fussing over his vampire best buddy.He knew Jade longer than he’s known me.Of course he’d cling to her rather than letting her go and staying with me. All I’ve ever done for him is to drag him into a mess of vampire takeover plots and horse-killing werewolves. I was so determined to rescue him, so happy to be able to save him. Now I feel like it’s that ancient video game. I’ve won the battle but all I get is to be told “Our princess is in another castle.”There’s not even any bodies. I wonder if the warriors take them to wherever Bellmout
Last Updated : 2021-07-13Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 71: Aiden
Now I can understand why people living in London prefer the subway to cars. The traffic here is so slow! There are joggers overtaking us. The speed suits my mood. Every moment of our crawl along the street is taking me further away from my Mate. If she is still my Mate. If she’ll still have me, after this. After I abandoned her. She saved me, and I abandoned her. The day is grey, like my misery. The slow drag of the traffic matches the drag of my thoughts. I’m trying to do the right thing, but is this the right thing? Sarah doesn’t think so. My parents wouldn’t think so. They’d have killed Jade without a thought. That leads me to think about Reese. The idea of tracking him down and killing him for being a Hunter makes me feel sick, but that’s what I was raised to do. To fight Hunters and every other threat to my Pack. Ella and I are crammed together on the passenger seat. I know she’s there, pressed against me, smelling of child and girl and the cereal and milk she p
Last Updated : 2021-07-14Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 72: Sarah
I am exposed, laid bare before the audience. I start the whole performance, solo, standing in the space beside the concert grand piano in front of the orchestra. Twin spotlights pick out myself, violin cradled beneath my cheek, and Amos, seated with his hands poised on the keys. I am still burning with anger, and I have no place for fear, not even in the harsh light that cages me. I fill the auditorium with my rage, letting my strings howl where I cannot. The rest of the orchestra sits in silence as Amos joins me on the piano, echoing my melody. The piano sounds weak, but perhaps that’s because of the roar of the fury within me, pounding in my ears. The music darts between us, first with one, then the other, then with both, my fingers flying across the strings to match the rippling notes called up by Amos’s hands as they dance across the keys. We are half way through when I realise what Amos is doing. He is gradually getting faster. His part is not easy, of course i
Last Updated : 2021-07-15Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 73: Aiden
“After the attack. Shelley. Did you, or any of the others, call the police?” Shelley nods, but holds up a finger to stop me from jumping back in with any comment about it. “We had to. You two were missing. Someone was going to ask questions eventually. The longer we left it, the more suspicious we’d look. Don’t worry, we lied. We said we thought it was a gang of some sort, probably all on drugs. They tried to mug us, then started fighting amongst themselves so some of us managed to run off, but we didn’t see what happened to you.” She shrugs. “We thought if they found any vampire bodies, they’d think it was them who killed each other. I don’t think they did though, or they’d have been back asking questions. They haven’t given a call back or anything. We didn’t file a missing persons report. I don’t think anyone else has either?” “Maybe Mr Patel would, but…” Sarah didn’t. Sarah just came to get me. Look where that got her. I shake my head. “Nobody wou
Last Updated : 2021-07-16
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Everything is downhill now. Goldhawk’s mission is over pretty much as soon as they arrive. Everything else for them is just meeting people, and that doesn’t need much organisation. It’ll happen, with Badger’s Den giving them somewhere to stay for the night. The two new Mates are going to want the visit to go on longer, but Mark will need to get back. Either Paul will stay behind, or Caroline will visit London, probably. I hope it forces Ian into doing something. Join, Challenge, I don’t care as long as it becomes his job to keep the kids out of trouble until they’re a couple of years older. I finally get a bit of time without someone wanting me to do something,or decide something, or explain something. I prop myself against the wall of the building, and stuff my hands in my pockets. There’s a papery crinkle. I pull out the folded sheet, and remember why I put
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“Never rains but pours,” I sigh, linking my arm through Aiden and kissing his cheek with sympathy. “Or is it no rest for the wicked? My poor sweet Mate, pour yourself onto the quadbike, Reese can drive you to meet them, and I’ll come on one of the horses. Timothy’s perfectly capable of seeing our unwanted guests off, we can leave Shelley, Mary and Tom with him. Baxter too, unless he’s already seen more of Black than he wants to.”Aiden leans into me. I can fee him collecting himself before he speaks. “Goldhawk are here to talk to Badger’s Den anyway. I’ll talk to Caroline, or that other one, the one they had as spokesman. Let them know to expect guests and see if they can put the visitors up somewhere.”I elect myself to update Timothy and put him in charge of things in the village, and to give T
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“Fly?” I swap a puzzled look with Sarah. “That’s not one I know about. Command any werewolf, speak to any werewolf like a Pack link. And immunity to silver. Sort of. Still hurts like a… still hurts, but it’ll heal up as fast as any other wound, won’t knock me out. Been like that since forever.”Ian harrumphs. First time I’ve heard someone actually do that. “How long is forever?”“Few thousand years at least. Far back as I can remember any lives. Not that I’ve remembered all of them, there's way too many.”“That’s not a problem most werewolves have,” Ian says quietly, frowning. “What’s your… plan? Your intentions. Your Majesty.”I can feel my sho
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The earth is cool under my butocks and Aiden is a furnace above me. I’m pinned on the ground with my jeans around my ankles and I can’t quite remember how I got there. Rough bark tugs at my hair and prints itself into the back of my wrists. Urgent, demanding hands ruck my shirt and bra up and free my breasts.“Please. I need you.” Aiden’s voice is soft and pleading. His hands, his body, they are anything but. They don’t plead. They demand, they take. One hand tangles with my hair and wrists, yanking stray hairs, splitting fragments of bark from the tree bole beneath and behind us. The tang of sap fights against the musk of sweat and desire. Aiden’s hips thrust between my legs and my back scrapes against the dirt and leaves and brown pine needles beneath us.He’s inside me already, driving hard and fast. His sweat
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 135: Aiden
An angry opponent makes mistakes.That’s what my father and Caleb never understood. Anger is a weapon to their thinking, not a liability. Black is cast from the same mould. I’ve wound him up by staying calm, by being polite, and most of all by humiliating him, and he can’t see clearly through the red mist of fury. He’s three hundred pounds of muscle and rage, as unstoppable, dangerous and terrifying as a runaway locomotive, charging down on me. His free hand is out with claws ready, blocking any escape. Blinding sunlight flashes from the silver of his blade as it sweeps down.Now, Frost whispers, lending me his speed. I slip beneath Black’s raised elbow, drawing a line of fire across his exposed stomach with my sword. I spin and dance backwards as Black skids and stumbles before he crosses the outside edge of the duelling square. &
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Black’s arrogance wins out over any caution he might have. He signals to one of the werewolves with him, announcing his Second.“What’s he playing at?” Baxter mutters when he realises that Aiden isn’t just buying time with Black’s Challenge, but is actively looking to fight that way.Baxter isn’t Pack, not yet, not officially. I doubt I can speak to him with the Pack link. It’s Aiden himself who can do that. I don’t even want to risk whispering. Werewolves have good hearing. I nudge his arm, to get his attention, and take my phone out.Aiden is considering Baxter as a Packmate. Blackmarsh trusts him. I don’t think Aiden will mind. “immune 2 silver” I type. “knows sword”. I turn the screen so Baxter can see it but, hopefully, nobody e
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Nothing’s ever simple. Now I’ve got Caroline to look after. It’s irresponsible to bring her along, but it’d be worse telling her to stay out of it and expecting her to obey. There’s Alphas that nobody would dare disobey. My father, for example. I’m not him. “/Am I a bad Alpha?/” I make sure it’s just my Pack hearing that. The Peace Seekers. They’re not the right people to ask though. None of them are werewolves. “/You think we’d let you stick around if you were, boss?/” Sarah reaches over to give my hand a squeeze. “/If this is about Caroline, you said it yourself, if you tried sending her away
Rhapsody for a Wolf Chapter 132: Sarah
I’ve never really watched war films. I’ve never really been that interested. It feels as if I’m in one now, although I have no idea how accurate that thought is. We’ve crossed the nature reserve as if it’s enemy territory, constantly on the alert even though we’re keeping to the public paths, so we’re not, technically, on Badger’s Den territory. “If we’re talking technicalities, that would be Aiden’s territory anyway,” Reese points out when I mention it. We see neither hide nor hair of the Pack that claims the surrounding land, and veer out of the reserve into farmland where we are coming up on the small coastal village where Baxter says he’s being held. It looks like one of those lost-in-time places where cosy TV murders are set, except half the houses are holiday cottages now and empty for most of the year. It’s ever so slightly spooky, riding past bl
