Havermouth, Present TimeTalen was on fire. He had been thrown by the explosion through the window of a shop, and the fireball that had followed had torn the wood and metal of the structure down over him, along with shelving and stock. His head had struck the concrete flooring hard enough that he had blacked-out, and it wasn’t until the pain of his beard catching alight registered that he was shocked back into alertness. He fought his way free of the burning debris and slapped out the fire that scorched hair and flesh, his hand coming away with black char and wet skin. How long had he lay slowly burning?(Talen! Are you okay?) Morgana cried out in his mind.(A little singed around the edges) he lied. He was far from okay. His hands and chest shrieked in pain, and he could feel that the fabric knit stuck to the burnt skin below its charred surface, but his neck and cheek no longer hurt. The area felt stiff, fragile, and foreign - as if it did not quite belong to him. He knew that to be
Havermouth, Present TimeNiarthen had been betrayed was the first thought Lyric had as she’d surfaced in the river after the explosion. The second was that she hoped the vampire blood-cure was still effective even after so long. She swam to the bank at Niarthen’s side and fought their way through the weeds up onto the land, and then out of the undergrowth onto the main street, where she stopped to gape at the destruction.The buildings to either side were burning and collapsing inwards, and smoke pouring thickly onto the street, seeming drawn there, its swirls pushing up against an invisible barrier.“Are you injured?” The vampiress Sigrid appeared abruptly on the road by them and Lyric jumped, her hand going to the weapon on her hip. The woman was filthy, covered in soot so that it appeared as if she wore a mash, her eyes and teeth bright in contrast.Niarthen seemed less surprised by her arrival. “Nothing serious.”“You are injured,” Lyric removed her helmet as she saw that the vamp
Havermouth, Present TimeThe town had erupted into chaos underneath him as Samuel navigated his way back to the witch’s house where he had left Ember. The zombies moved with purpose, seemingly drawn towards the center of the town, and the Mer soldiers followed in their wake. The Mer, however, after the explosion in the town, seemed to have decided that the zombies were no longer their only targets, and they had begun dragging people from their homes, leaving behind a trail of dead bodies and crumpled buildings.In addition, behind the zombies were the humans of the Van Helsing army, and as they encountered the Mer in the streets they began to deploy larger, more destructive weapons, hand grenades, and infantry support weapons.Flying this low was becoming hazardous, he was within the sites of the small tanks and machine guns. Plus, either the Mer or the Van Helsings were destroying buildings, so every now and again, a blast from below would batter his flight path, before shooting up a
Havermouth, Present TimeThe smoke was so thick that Rhett’s eyes wept constantly as he scanned the shifting shadows that it created, hoping to find Aislen. Heath gripped onto the waistband of Rhett’s jeans so that they weren’t separated by the smoke and the drag against Rhett’s hips was both reassuring and annoying. Neither of them called out for Aislen. They had quickly agreed that walking through the smoke calling out her name would just bring danger to them all, and so, instead, Heath focused on calling out mentally whilst Rhett searched visibly.Searching visibly was less about finding Aislen than about making sure they didn’t accidentally walk into the waiting arms of a zombie, fall over a corpse, or receive the pointy end of a Mer weapon. Rhett was losing count of his narrow misses.Heath was starting to cough. He was trying to smother it, seeking not to draw attention to them, but it was persistent. Rhett had to admit that his own lungs were protesting, and he hadn’t reached fo
Havermouth, Present TimeAislen smiled as she finally managed to lay Gera down in the cot and took a moment to admire the chub of her sleeping daughter’s cheek and the soft blonde hair that Heath had styled into pigtails that morning. In her sleep, Gera’s mouth worked, sucking on an imaginary breast although she was long weaned and onto blood, as if the memory of nursing lingered in her dreams.Aislen crept across the room, avoiding the floorboards that squeaked but left the door open behind her as was their habit so as to hear when Gera woke no matter where in the house they were. With four parents with hybrid keen hearing, there had never been a need for a baby monitor in order to hear when Gera woke from a nap.For a moment, Aislen contemplated returning to the art studio upstairs that she had appropriated from Rhett, though she let him use it if he asked nicely on his knees between her thighs. She paused with her hand on the newel post and one foot on the stairs, and then heard a
Havermouth, Present TimeTears 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 nos
Rideten, Present TimeAislen 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 the s
Rideten, Present TimeThe 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 flooding th