Havermouth, Present Time“We are here to help,” Stella said. “We have prepared everything that you need, Aislen. This premise is secured. Nothing can get in, and nothing can get out without us knowing, and our people are prepared. You do not need to worry about anything beyond this room. All you need to do is listen to your body and birth this baby.”“Chained to the floor,” Aislen said through her teeth.“A safety measure, that is all.”“I need my mates,” Aislen pointed out. “The fathers should be here. And there’s a war going on outside. Leighton has gone nuclear, the Van Helsings have worked out how to control the zombies, and the Mer army is fighting them in the streets.”“All of which does not concern you,” Stella smiled. “This baby is coming Aislen. You cannot be roaming the streets and fighting whilst in labor. Your job right now is this, and only this – giving life, and continuing the blood line of the Mother Goddess.”“Argh,” Aislen growled in response, eloquence stolen by anot
Havermouth, Present Time“Before we put these on,” Samuel looked at the gloves. “Ember and Toby, you should have some blood. If you would not mind?” He looked at Jules and Harry. “I don’t want to weaken myself donating before putting the gloves on, but if Jules could donate to them both, and perhaps drink from one of the witches to renew his strength…?”Harry looked dubious, but Jules stepped forward. “It makes sense, my love,” he said to Harry. “Both Ember and Toby are, well,” he grimaced apologetically at the two. “A little worse for the wear. A bit of blood should help improve their strength, and these gloves seem like a pretty raw deal…”“Okay,” Harry ceded reluctantly. “I guess I can see the sense behind it. I’ll go find you someone to eat afterward, however,” they stepped out into the hallway.Jules sat on the bed at Ember’s knees and patted the bed beside him. “Sit down Toby.”“Shit,” Toby sighed heavily but crossed to sit on the mattress beside him. “I hate this sort of shit.”
Havermouth, Present TimeThe smoke was chaos. There were more zombies, not less, this time through, as if they’d been leaking in from all directions whilst Heath and Rhett had been interrogated by Benethin and Aeylira on the other side of the smoke.Even with an army of Mer soldiers around them, it seemed that every few steps in the smoke, Rhett encountered a new zombie, or occasionally a desperate Van Helsing soldier, injured by the Mer and then savaged by his own zombie troop. Rhett crushed and mangled them, not caring if they were Van Helsing or zombie, just over the whole thing, and trying to ignore the fact that some of the zombies were still people enough to plead before they died.“Rhett Salem,” Abigail’s voice was weak, but he knew it. He stopped immediately, causing Heath to almost walk into him. “Heath Gale.”“Shit,” Rhett changed direction, not missing that several Mer followed. He and Heath weren’t in chains or cuffs, but they were far from free. The Mer were keeping them
Havermouth, Present TimeHavermouth was being invaded. The streets were filled with zombies, Van Helsings and Mer. Both groups seemed to be primarily occupied with fighting each other, but they were not averse to dragging Talen’s group into the fray. The zombies were still driven by hunger, and the armored Mer offered little appeal when an easier-accessed food source was available.With Tom carrying Greg, and Dan Connery, that left Cameron, Talen, and Meguitte to defend their group. Cameron had only one usable arm to do it with, Talen was weakening steadily due to the extensive and terrible burns, and whilst Meguitte was recovering from her shock over the attack on Connery, she was far from focused.The zombies were not so much of a threat - although Talen did feel bad for their deaths knowing that they were still very much people, and people who had been torn from their lives and families, mutilated with the skull caps that seemed to replace parts of their skulls, and infected with a
Havermouth, Present Time“No, no, you’re perfectly on time,” Stella replied warmly. “We have just settled Aislen in, and we’re expecting – Ah,” she broke off as there was a dull “boom!” that echoed through the Megastore. Aislen could hear voices, raised in alarm. “Our guests have arrived. If you will excuse me,” she hurried out. Two of the senior witches went with her, whilst two more remained behind to assist the midwife and Ethan with Aislen.As Phillip’s eyes came to Aislen, she realized that her robe had fallen open and tugged it back together around her glaring at him. “I guess you were part of this plan all along,” she accused him. “Stealing my baby.”“Stella and I have always had certain goals that aligned, and others that did not,” Phillip replied. “I sought to secure pack leadership for my family. Whether that pack leader role was held by myself, my son, or my grandchild, I did not mind. At first, I thought of securing the position through Rhett joining the Triquetra. Then wh
Havermouth, Present TimeToby was brand new to being a dragon and did not even know the basics of shifting. He had transformed once into a dragon and had not left the ground when he had done so. The gloves meant that a full transformation was not possible, and so even that little experience in shifting was useless.It was necessary therefore, before they could take off and fight for the Emissary, to teach Toby to open his wings, and to take off. They took the man out through the witch’s kitchen, to the rear yard and there, Ember set about trying to teach Toby something that came instinctual to their kind.Samuel left the instructions to Ember knowing that she was better at such things, and stood guard, in case the witch’s ward failed, and a zombie or Mer soldier made it onto the property. Ember had succeeded in getting Toby to open his wings, and the delighted man stood opening and closing them whilst craning his head to look over his shoulder to see where they went."And suddenly my
Havermouth, Present TimeIn the front yard of the witch’s house, Jules caught Harry’s hand, pulling them to a stop. “I should shift,” he explained as he released Harry’s hand and began to strip off his clothing. “We can fly over the trouble.”“Aren’t you the clever one, my beloved,” Harry reached out and began to collect Jules’s clothes as Jules undressed. Jules looked up from stripping off his jeans to find Harry’s eyes hot and his smirk smoldering, and laughed, pulled from the seriousness of the war around them into a moment of pure joy as they celebrated what existed between them.“Okay,” Jules blushed as he finished undressing. “A moment.”Harry stepped back onto the porch and Jules focused on his shift. It was still a foreign experience, one that his body and mind told him shouldn’t be possible despite his entire life as a werewolf. Becoming a werewolf was a redistribution of his body – what existed simply moved to a position more appropriate for the shape that he wished to posses
Havermouth, Present TimeMagic was in its very nature an invisible thing. You did not see a spell cast, but rather the effects of the spell once it found its victim. Therefore, the warlock Leighton appeared to do very little other than stand with his hands pressed to the surface of the ward, the energy blowing back his hair and causing sweat to break out on his forehead, but Samuel could FEEL the power, and see the reaction of the ward, its opaque surface shifting like water, areas clearing so that the dragons caught brief glimpses of the witches below scurrying about like ants as they tried to reinforce their magic by scattering herbs and arcane objects, and drawing runes on the bitumen.Samuel’s memories of the gloves were still fragmented, but he could recall the power they had given him – not just increased speed, strength, and stamina, but also a magic that was unnatural to him. He could feel a similar magic burning through his veins towards his heart and brain, poisoning as it b
“Mine,” Rhett caught Aislen by the shoulders and turned her, pulling her body flush with his so that he could seal his mouth over hers and steal away Heath’s cum from her tongue. “Hmm,” he said as he eased back and used the tip of his little finger to wipe the corner of her mouth. “Delicious.”“This is going to take some finessing,” Talen said as Rhett stepped away so that Talen could take his place. The big, blonde man very gently stroked Aislen’s hair back out of her face before his hand strayed to the Concordian collar around her neck. He straightened it. “It has been a while since we have done this.”“Done what, Daddy?” She asked him and then gasped as Rhett picked her up and deposited her on the bed, straddling Heath’s hips and facing him. Suddenly the way that he was tied made a lot of sense, the space between his legs made room for someone to kneel between them, and the sex pillow beneath his hips would position Aislen at the right height for a man behind and one in front. “Oh
Aislen’s eyes adjusted to the darkness inside the Playroom with supernatural quickness and she smothered her laughter as she saw what Talen had been up to. The bed had been looped with Christmas fairy lights, tinsel, and red bows that held candy canes in place. As they neared, Talen activated the fairly lights so that the room, and its many sordid toys, flashed and flickered in shades of red and green - as did the two men already on the bed.Cameron wore a body harness similar to her own. It was on full display as he knelt on the end of the bed, his arms tied to the bedframe above his head, and a candy cane tied with ribbon as a gag. Talen, as a nod to the season, had used a red ribbon to tie a bow around Cameron’s cock. Tinsel had been draped around his neck like a feather boa.Heath was stretched out on the bed behind him, his arms spread and bound to the headboard, and his knees bent, heels to arse, and restrained there with ribbon that circled his ankles and looped around his wais
As Heath steered the car back out of Havermouth, Aislen watched the town pass by her window. It was both familiar and foreign, with the influence of the Mer seen in the repairs to the old buildings and the ever-increasing amount of greenery spilling over the walls from roof-top gardens.The way people dressed and interacted on the streets had changed too, with more and more people adopting the toga-like styles of the Mer clothing. Aislen caught a glimpse of Anne Mason talking with a group of tall intrigued looking Mers, and she wore multiple strings of the Mer’s bead and shell necklaces and bracelets as she smiled and gestured animatedly at the street around them.“I wonder what Anne is up to,” she remarked to Heath. “She looks like she’s leading a tour of the town. That’s probably what it is,” she answered herself. “She’d be good at that role.”“Do you miss it?” Heath asked her.“The telepathy?” She knew what he meant. “Yes and no. This is sort of cool,” she used her telekinesis to l
Cameron had baby-napped Gera for a day on the farm with her grandparents Harry and Jules, and so Heath and Aislen were travelling light to Havermouth.“Feels weird,” Heath said what Aislen was thinking. “Not hearing her in the back seat, and not having to lug around the baby bag in case she poops or pukes. I think we should have another.”“What?” Aislen’s jaw dropped. That last comment had come out of nowhere.“Another baby,” he smirked enjoying her reaction. “Gera’s six months old now, and I think we’re ready to add to our family.”“I’m not precisely preventing it,” she pointed out. “I’m not on any contraception, and I’m constantly leaking enough second-hand cum that I could probably repopulate the entire planet with a turkey baster.”“I know,” his smirk became a grin. “I’m just saying, if you were pregnant, it would be a good thing, wouldn’t it?”“Hang on now,” she narrowed her eyes at him. There was something to his teasing. “What are you getting at precisely?”“I’m just saying, yo
Aislen woke to Gera crying. She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the dark within Cameron’s room. It was night, but she couldn’t tell how far into it from the moonlight that drifted in through the part in Cameron’s curtains. Cameron was well out, snoring into the pillow, and she eased out from under his arm carefully so as not to wake him.Cameron had been working crazy hours, pretty much seven days a week, since the war trying to bring the two farms back to where they were before the storm, and to incorporate all the changes required for farming to be done by Mer environmental standards, which dictated everything from the way the sheep and cattle were treated for parasites through to run off from fields into the river.She stole the robe that hung of the back of his door as she tiptoed out of the room, easing the door closed behind her. Gera’s outrage had softened to gentle complaint which she traced to the kitchen. Heath, in a pair of striped PJ pants, was heating a bottle of blood, w
Rhett and Gera had attracted a horde of admirers in Rhett’s tattoo parlor and Aislen and Heath stood on the sidewalk watching him show off their daughter to his customers through the window, until someone pointed them out to them, and Rhett looked up, still grinning, his eyes bright with joy, and his cheeks heated as he realized he’d been busted.“Just look at him,” Heath scoffed his tone warm with amusement. “Bet he’s lying about doing the night duty all by himself again.”“He does get up a fair bit,” Aislen smiled up at him.“Yeah, but he complains about it like it’s the end of the world, and he doesn’t tell them that,” Heath nodded with his head towards the group saying goodbye to the baby. “I do most of the nights.”“And Cameron the early mornings,” Aislen reminded him.“He’s usually getting up then anyway,” Heath pointed out. “He’s half-rooster, up at dawn to wake us all up.”Aislen smothered her giggles.“What are you laughing at?” Rhett asked as he joined them. “Good timing, by
It was a very unusual Christmas Tree, but that was hardly surprising as it was a very different Havermouth. The new Havermouth Council was made up equally of all members of the community, and the tree represented the unification of these communities. Therefore, the tree had been carefully transplanted into the park, and was draped with bioluminescent strings of seaweed, crowned with a full moon, and hung with antique hand-carved toys and delicate ornaments made of gold and silver wire and what Aislen believed to be real gems, donated from the safes and other treasure vaults of the several hundred vampires that now called Havermouth home.In the old Havermouth, these gem-crusted ornaments would have disappeared within a day, however in the new Havermouth theft was not a problem. The police force included vampires and werewolves, and it had only taken a couple of demonstrations of their tracking abilities for thieves to learn to mend their ways.Aislen clapped along with the crowd as Ty
Havermouth, Present TimeThe journey to the river house was slow. Thanks to Sigrid’s roadblocks and the damage from the Mer. They also encountered many groups of people just standing on the road, talking in confusion. No one could quite understand what had happened, and no one was entirely confident that it was the end.Gera, true to form, had woken wanting to be fed, and so Aislen held the baby in her arms and watched out through the windows as they passed along the river road towards the bridge. “We’re a long way from done,” she said softly.“Yes,” Talen agreed. “But still, I feel as if we are far closer to peace, and I find myself optimistic and excited about the future before us.”“Me too,” Cameron agreed. “But that’s also how it feels when Aislen does her thing in your brain, so it could be that too.”“We haven’t really talked about that,” Heath added. “About what happened, Aislen?”“It’s hard to explain,” she said looking down at Gera and tracing the curve of the baby’s cheek wit
Havermouth, Present TimeDown the hallway enough for the stink of the torture room and the crunch and slurp of Mercy’s meal to be less nauseating, they formed a huddle, with Sigrid, Greg, Niarthen and Lyric in the centre, discussing what they had seen, and what the Mer would do next.Aislen leaned her cheek against Heath’s shoulder, exhausted. She wanted nothing more than to shower for a really long time, put on something that wasn’t coarse and itchy, and sleep. Heath put his arm around her absently, his attention on the discussion. She wanted to tell him that the world needed to take care of itself for a while, she had done her best for it, and it was time for her to sleep.“I can’t believe that she ate him,” Dan was seriously grossed out, Aislen could tell, although he kept his voice to a whisper.“I know,” Tom replied from the corner of his mouth, his eyes on Sigrid and Greg as they spoke with Niarthen. “Did you see the look on his face? He was just as surprised as we were.”“Will