Trayrock, Present TimeCameron didn’t have a plan as to where he was going. Just away. He needed to leave before he exploded. It was too much, all at once. His family home had been attacked, his father and his mate had almost died, and Cameron’s mates had kept that news from him. They would still be keeping that secret if Jules and Harry hadn’t come to Trayrock after Cameron. The betrayal was so great and his rage so white-hot that Cameron couldn’t even start to think clearly.He leaped the balcony, landing hard, the sting shooting up his calves, and strode down the road. Walking fast was not fast enough and after a moment, he broke into a trot, and then a run, moving beyond human pace into that of a hybrid. He followed the roads along the riverbank, through twists and turns where the road moved away from the water, and then back again. The houses and the make-shift barricade blurring on either side of him, until all he saw was the road in front of him and all he heard was the pounding
Havermouth, Present TimeSigrid trailed her hands along the walls as she drifted her way out of the hospital. Every now and again, she would touch something, and she would catch a moment of past violence from when the Van Helsings had occupied the hospital.“Zombies and Van Helsings,” she complained to Tom who followed directly behind her, so close that he almost trod upon her heels, his hands on her waist as if he did not trust her to walk in a straight line without falling. “Useless. I need to see the future and not the past.”“Don’t even think about it,” Greg told her as they stepped out into the car park.“Mmm,” she grimaced at him but did not push the subject as just then, her hand brushed over the top of a bollard and she saw the field of white tents that had been there with the Van Helsings. “Past,” she dismissed the vision irritably. “I need to see the future.”“You can keep complaining about it,” Tom said slightly smugly. “But we don’t control your power, nor you, apparently.
Havermouth, Present Time“Here,” Sigrid said as they made their way towards the MegaStore. “This should be one of the points.”“What points?” Tom asked. He exchanged a look with Dan however who noted it down on a map of the town that he pulled up on his phone.“We will have to walk in the other directions. I think,” Sigrid twisted looking around her. “Yes. They come from two, maybe three directions. It’s hard to tell whether they approach that way or split off when they get here. I guess it does not matter, the result is the same, they squeeze the town in like a fist. They are hunters, used to controlling schools of fish in the water. They think of all directions that the people can go and attack simultaneously from above, below, and all sides. They use the river as a barrier here, knowing we cannot flee into it.”“So, what is this point for?” Greg prompted.“We don’t want to be hostile, in case there is a peaceful resolution that we can make,” Sigrid looked up at a tall tree, and the
Havermouth, Present TimeInside the warehouse had undergone extensive renovation, with the removal of the majority of the shelving units the space was vacuous, echoing, and intimidatingly large. To the rear, the remaining shelving units were being arranged to frame in a smaller area for sleeping screened for privacy by stacked cardboard boxes.“Isn't it interesting that the things that were left behind, considered valueless to people at the moment, are the same things that had the highest price tags and that people dreamed about owning before?” Stella watched Sigrid’s face as she looked around the warehouse. “The TVs, the computers, the expensive headphones, tablets, printers. The fancy kitchen appliances and smart home systems. They're all still here, untouched, whilst the cheaper things, the cans of soup and veg, the socks, the sanitary napkins and band-aids - they're all gone. Now the curved screen TVs are more valued for the cardboard boxes they're packed in than the device itself.
Havermouth, Present TimeThe aether was always unpredictable. Sometimes Meguitte would find herself swimming through a silver sea, at other times she would float through a sky of shimmering threads. There had been times when the aether was completely dark, and she relied upon her other senses to guide her. It was a non-physical plane of existence and one that in theory should hold no threat to those who passed through it – provided that they did pass through it and did not lose connection with their physical selves. The only time she had ever encountered someone in the aether had been when she’d been casting with them – as she was now.She was not surprised when Leighton joined her, but Connery did not. Whilst he was a skilled magic user and could access the aether, he wielded the magic as a tool, rather than it being part of who he was. Even under the effects of the hallucinogenic, Connery would not surrender control enough to astrally travel into the aether, but rather he reached fo
Trayrock, Present TimeThey were not the only people who realized that the roads were blocked with cars, and that the only way out was on foot. The 4WD shook with the press of bodies around them as the people of Trayrock abandoned their cars and ran. Twice Aislen saw Heath struggle to open the door, the desperate people on the other side shoving it closed so as not to be slowed by it. Finally, Heath forced the door open knocking someone over, and stepped out, dragging a startled Phillip Salem out with him.The roof pinged with items falling from above as there was another explosion from the city spraying debris like rain. The sky was so thick with smoke that it was as if night had fallen early. The streetlights tried to light but flickered under the power surges caused by the buildings collapsing.Aislen looked at the child she held. Boy, she decided mostly by the length of the lush dark curls and the train on the t-shirt, but she didn’t want to assume. She pulled back the collar of i
Trayrock, Present TimeThe vehicle slowed, the engine changing tune, and then stopped completely. The late afternoon had taken on the golden glow of just before sunset. Through the windows of the vehicle, the landscape was breathtaking, the elegant smooth-barked white trees with their heavy canopy of green leaves filtering gold sparkles and dappling the road they framed in patches of sunlight and shadow.If she had been home, Lyric would have brought a cup of tea out to Arthur’s bench and sat in the last of the day in peaceful contemplation, just being present in herself, watching the birds and insects, and perhaps a brave rabbit.But that was then, and this was now.“What is it?” She asked Niarthen as she lifted her head from his shoulder. The door slid open, and the driver leaned in and spoke, and Niarthen answered. The guards immediately began to rise from the seats, picking up the prisoner’s by their elbows and guiding them to the door.Isaiah protested the movement, casting a loo
Downstream from Havermouth, Present TimeTheir little party set up camp just down the river from Havermouth, not far, in Lyric’s judgement, from the Edison’s farm. She stood just outside the little dome that she and Niarthen would sleep in that night and searched the trees for distant lights in the direction that she guessed the farm would be.“Mia Persuma Inillium?” Niarthen came up behind her and put his arms around her. She wondered if he’d been visiting Sapphire again. She had not seen him go, distracted by the business of setting up the camp for the night. It happened occasionally that they would be separated, and normally it did not bother her – she knew that he would find her, or she him. But now, his disappearance held more significance.She hated Sapphire with a passion that was entirely unfounded, based on nothing more than instinct and a sketch.“You look deep in thought. Are you troubled over earlier?” Niarthen asked, oblivious to her thoughts.The decimation of Trayrock,
“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