Havermouth, Present TimeMeguitte followed the human woman to the glass fronted office, where another woman, wide eyed, held out a phone handset.“Thank you,” Meguitte took it and then waited. The two women stared at her blankly. They knew her by reputation, and were awed and intimidated in her presence, freezing under her gaze like deer in headlights. “Excuse me,” she prompted them gently.“Oh,” the first woman pulled herself together and took her friend by the elbow, drawing her back out of the office, the door closing behind them.The glass before Meguitte was perforated, so that the office workings within could communicate with the patient without, and Meguitte turned a little away to stop her voice from carrying. “Sigrid?”“Meguitte,” Sigrid’s reply was immediate. “Harry is awake.”Meguitte’s inhalation caught on a sob, and she pressed her fingertips to her lips to contain it, fighting back tears. She nodded, and then remembered that Sigrid could not see her. “How are they?”Ther
Havermouth, Present TimeThe scent of incense layered over that of the richness of the flowers that hung in rope between the buildings and laid upon the stone, creating a flower-lined and petal scattered pathway to the temple.The goddess had passed that way already and the crowds were thinning around Samuel, humans returning to their daily tasks now that the excitement had ended, and Samuel walked in the footsteps of the procession unhindered, the sun glinting down through the thick flower garlands, and with the incense smoke drifting back towards him drawing him onward.Humans glanced his way frequently, young women giggling behind their hands and veils and young men running their eyes over him, evaluating his origins and intentions. He was taller than most humans, and many hours in flight had carved his man-form so that the width of his shoulders was emphasized by the narrowness of his waist, and his clothing was far simpler than theirs, although the fabric was of good quality.Ahe
Havermouth, Present TimeThe jungle glowed with magic. Amongst the green of the foliage and the blossoms and bark were sparks of green, gold, blue, and red that glimmered like lanterns strung between the branches. Nearer it was evident that the red glowed like coals, shifting sparks and patches of darkness, where a heat spell had been applied, and blue glimmered as icicles where a cold spell had been applied. Green oozed like toxic waste from a nausea spell.A handful of gold threads were those whom the magic had identified as direct targets. Meguitte hoped that rather than having to use those threads for revenge, those targets would hand themselves over – but she knew that hope was rather optimistic.In stark contrast, in the room next to the laboratory, Verina and Mercy tended to a nursery of seedlings as dotingly as mothers, watering and replanting them into pots, whilst whispering to them messages to haunt their elder’s ears.The werewolves involved in the attack on the Edison far
Havermouth, Present TimeAlong one wall of Connery’s torture dungeon, he had fitted chains to the wall. The other held three cages. They put the oldest she-wolves in the cages where they could sit, and secured the younger ones to the other wall. All the she-wolves were weeping, their eyes red and cheeks flushed and raw from being rubbed. In the cages, they huddled and comforted each other, their sobs wrenching at Meguitte’s heart.It was not what she had expected, she admitted to herself. She had anticipated angry, defiant alpha male werewolves, and instead had received a dozen women.“I knew it,” one of them wailed. “I knew something terrible had happened when Andy didn’t come home.”“Where are your menfolk?” Meguitte demanded of them.“Dead, apparently,” the shewolf who had spoken in the car park did so again, her tone resigned. She was among the ones chained to the wall and watched Meguitte and Connery with weary eyes.“Not all of them,” Meguitte pointed out. She knew it from the j
Havermouth, Present TimeSamuel woke from his dream of the goddess and lay staring at the ceiling of their dark little room, turning over the dream in his mind. Since returning with Meguitte and Connery to the hospital in Havermouth, he and Ember had mostly slept and he had ensured that she ate. She needed to rest and renew to regain her strength, and he had devoted himself to seeing that she did so.He should have stayed with her after the loss of their child, he admitted to himself. His mind and heart had been so full of rage and grief that he had sought to assuage it with violence, rather than with caring for his mate. It had been a selfish action to take and one that had forced Ember into battle before she was healed.If he could go back, he would have stayed with Ember in their home, mourned the loss of their loved ones and child, and have tended to her as she healed as a mate should do – as he was doing now.He buried his face into her hair and breathed in her scent.“I can hear
Rideten, Present Time Aislen smiled as she drifted awake. She could hear the trickle of water from the river through the open window, the call of birds, and the fragile bleating of lambs. She’d been napping a lot recently, she thought as she tried to decide whether to slip back into sleep or wake, and that normally meant one thing. One of her men had slipped one past the keeper again. Damn it. She’d only just weaned Julius and had been enjoying having her body and time back to herself again. But even as she thought it, she smiled and rubbed her hand over her belly. The more the merrier was the family theme, and her men would be excited about the new addition… If they didn’t already know from her scent. She opened her eyes and looked up at the stained-glass windows set amongst the rafters of her turret room. It was a new addition to the house, part of the recent renovation to the river house that they’d all agreed was necessary. When the Triquetra had originally designed the renovati
An Island Somewhere, Present TimeLyric had severely underestimated how different it would be to be a Mer. Perhaps because she had not realized the extent to which Niarthen had been affected by the polluted river water, and so what he had revealed of his Mer-self had been limited by his illness. The sheer physical strength and power of her body after the change was amazing, the clarity of her vision in the darkness, the way things smelled and sounded… It was all so different. Even the touch of the air on her skin was different.They had fucked in the water for hours, as the sky was beginning to lighten in the distance, the black edging towards the grey of dawn, and the trees rustled with movement as the birds woke and the nocturnal creatures went to bed.Having completed the mating ceremony and with Lyric able to shift between forms, they left the sacred pool of water, and Niarthen led her back through the now-sleeping town, towards the ocean.“Just a quick swim, Mia Persuma Inillium.
Havermouth, Present Time“What now, my love?” Connery asked as he followed Meguitte through the hospital to where her jungle had taken over the laboratory and hallway.“I tried playing nicely,” Meguitte told him as they entered the laboratory, the twisted veins of root and vine making their footsteps cautious. “And I got housewives. The mothers, and sisters of those responsible. So, I need to take a more direct approach.”She parted a tangle of vine in order to open a refrigerator and withdrew one of the failed experiments at concentrating vampire blood.“Be careful with that,” Connery’s voice was tight.“Very careful,” she agreed. She filled a syringe from the blood red contents of the vial before returning it to the fridge, and then crossed, trailing her fingers along the golden veins in the forest. “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe…” She said and then plunged the needle into one of the veins. “Stick a needle in his toe.” She compressed the plunger and watched the contents of the syringe empt
Rideten, Present Time Aislen was jolted awake when Talen shot out of the bed to the door. She was nicely nuzzled into Heath and Talen had been a warm spot against her back, his sudden moving causing a draught that was quickly filled when Cameron rolled over and snuggled up. She could hear Talen’s voice through the open door, and the reply of other voices on the other side. Cameron’s hand cupped her breast and his cock nudged against her arse. He rocked his hips suggestively, still mostly asleep. Heath tensed. “Fuck.” “- leave in fifteen,” a woman spoke crisply and in a tone that said there would be no compromise. “Victor’s orders.” “No,” Aislen pressed her face into Heath’s ribs. “Nonononono.” “It’s retaliation,” he decided. “For last night.” “It’s mean,” she grumbled. “Cruel.” “No sex?” Cameron sat up. “That’s not fair.” “You had sex last night. Good sex too, from the holes you left in the covers,” Heath pointed out. “It was good sex,” Cameron was smug. He nudged Rhett. “Hey
Havermouth, Present Time Embroidering living human flesh was somewhat harder than Meguitte had anticipated, but the challenge was very absorbing. Midway through the first flower, she realized that she wanted the knots required every stitch to cluster at the center, so she snipped and undid what she had started, much to Bianca’s distress. Meguitte was tempted to stem the witch’s complaints by explaining that it was becoming obvious that the stitches were not causing enough pain to override the wards, and her choices had become doing greater, potentially maiming, harm, or being patient and hoping that a lot of small agony would eventually become enough. The second attempt turned out better, and by the time she had completed the third flower and created a stem to connect the three, she was quite proud of her efforts. The blood kept getting in the way of her design, however, and she paused a moment to suck her fingertips. “I do believe I understand Mercy’s aversion to magical blood,” s
Rideten, Present Time The water was all but cold, but Talen had bathed in worse – recently, in fact, during the troubles in Havermouth. He scrubbed himself with a washcloth, rubbing away the sticky blood. A rhythmic thudding started against the wall behind him, causing him to pause and grin. It sounded like Cameron was putting some force into it, he thought amused and absently reached down to cup his cock, already hard at the thought. He turned off the water, deciding to join them. As he briskly dried himself, his phone began to ring from where he had set it on the vanity. Fatima’s number flashed onto the screen. He raised his eyebrows and answered it. “Fatima.” “Talen,” she was breathless and her voice tense. “They did it. They actually did it. Jules is alive.” Talen almost dropped the phone in surprise. “He is?” “Yes. He’s not quite… He’s very disorientated, but Harry’s looking after him. But he’s alive.” Talen braced his palm against the cold stone of the vanity, relief floodi
Rideten, Present Time Aislen grinned. “Is that right, Mr Wolf?” She purred stalking him over to the bed. “If I get it, I get to do whatever I like with it?” Cameron’s lips curled in a smirk. “No. But I will do something you like with it.” “Promises, promises,” she lunged for him, and he sidestepped so that she landed face-down on the mattress, before pinning her there with his body, his hands slowly drawing her hands up and holding them down to either side of her head whilst he nuzzled under the tangled sprawl of her wet curls to nibble along her shoulder and neck as her giggles gave way to soft moans as she closed her eyes and surrendered to his seduction. He nudged her legs apart and her knees onto the edge of the mattress, lifting her hips from the mattress so that he could rub his cock against her cunt in a slow, hot tease whilst his teeth pricked little bloodspots along her neck, his tongue soothing away the little sting each time as it captured the droplets. She could feel t
Havermouth, Present Time Tears streamed down Harry‘s face as they rose to their feet. They ran their hands over the lush hide of the weredragon. It was precisely the colour of Jules’ hair. Harry draped their body over the dragon’s chest, pressing their ear to the hide, celebrating the steady beat and rise and fall of the ribs. Alive. Gloriously alive. And they could feel the tie of their mate bond twining them together. With their eyes closed, Jules was a glow within the darkness. “Oh Jules, Jules, Jules…” They wept the words, stroking and luxuriating in the living creature that surrounded them with its bulk. It did not matter in the slightest that this Jules was not as Jules had been before… Harry’s most fervent wish had been granted and they had their mate back. “I knew it,” they whispered pressing kisses into the fur as they moved along the length of the dragon towards its head. “I knew that you were not gone.” They stroked over the dragon’s snout and pressed a kiss between his n
Havermouth, Present TimeHarry did not know how long they had been tending to Jules in the small cold room. Time had lost any meaning as the room had no natural light. They fed when Fatima brought them blood, or one of the ancients descended the stairs in order to donate. And then they would patiently drip blood into Jules’ slack mouth, watching for a sign that he had swallowed, before unbandaging the ruin of Jules’ hand, examining the wound for signs of healing before coating it again with blood and carefully, tenderly re-wrapping it.Jules was not dead. They were certain of it. Although he did not breathe, did not swallow, and his heart did not beat, Harry was certain that they sensed a spark of life within him, that they would know if the body that they held was nothing but flesh.They had, after all, handled many dead bodies in their long, long life.And the hand wound... It looked better. They could not precisely say how it was so - it was still a mess of bone and meat, and the b
Rideten, Present Time“Oh gawd, so good,” Aislen moaned as she squeezed in between Rhett and Cameron. “I so need to get this blood off my skin. It’s beginning to itch. Tsk, look at you two,” she added taking the washcloth from Rhett’s hand and tugging him down so that she could scrub the blood from his face. “You even have some in your ears. How do you get blood in your ears?”“Beats me,” Rhett’s hands gripped her hips, and his thumbs stroked her skin suggestively. “I have some blood lower down,” he smoldered. “Cameron was just offering to lick it off for me when you came in and gave us a better idea.”“Oh?” Aislen knew precisely what they had in their dirty, dirty minds - basically the same plan with slight variations between the two men. But she wasn’t going to make it easy on them. “Come here,” she scrubbed at Cameron’s face with the cloth. “Good enough,” she decided and handed it to him. “Do me whilst I rinse my hair out.”“Do you, or do you?” Cameron teased as he and Rhett shifte
Rideten, Present TimeSamuel’s wing sails caught the air with a whoomp. The guard heard it, looking up in astonishment a moment before Samuel seized him. In the old days, Samuel thought ruefully as he carried the struggling man up into the air again, he would have just let the man go and let gravity take care of the rest. However stealth was required in the current situation and now that he had the man, he wasn’t entirely sure what to do with him, other than sate his thirst.It had to be something that wouldn’t be noticed immediately, Samuel concluded as he sank his teeth into the struggling guard’s neck. Whatever he did with him needed to have a visual impact, as the Emissary had been clear that part of the reason for the attack was psychological - to show the enemy that they weren’t even safe in their own headquarters.He saw a flash from the corner of his eye as Ember spread her wings, slowing her descent as she targeted another guard - but only slowing enough to prevent her from i
Rideten, Present Time“And here I thought you’d achieved the most outrageously jaw-dropping appearance the last time you walked into my bunker Mr Gale,” Victor observed dryly as he closed the meeting room door behind them. “Look at you,” he added gesturing at the three of them.Heath slid a look at each of his mates. Talen raised his eyebrows. Of them all, their vampire hybrid mate had escaped the massacre with only a few blood splatters in his beard. Seeing Heath’s look, he raised his hands to show that they were as bloody as Heath’s own, which made Heath feel better. He scratched at his jaw feeling blood flake away under his nail.“This is what war looks like,” Aislen replied snidely. “Something you might find unfamiliar from a bunker, Victor, but true nonetheless.”Victor shook his head as he crossed to a cupboard and pulled out a decanter. “Whiskey?” He offered them.“I will,” Talen said.“Not us,” Heath declined regretfully. Whiskey would have gone down well after the night in th