Havermouth, Two Weeks BeforeShe was apologizing. He should have felt relief and pleased with his win, but… The win was hollow. “You are?”“Yes, I’m sorry,” she put her hand on his. He released his seatbelt and turned his hand over to hold hers on his palm. She looked at their joined hands before lifting her eyes to his. “I shouldn’t get angry at you about this. You’re a symptom, not the cause. You have been raised believing something, and that’s not something that a person lets go of quickly. I can’t expect you to agree with me straight away.”There was a truth to her words, and it worked both ways, he thought. He had spent so many years angry at her for not being a shewolf, for not understanding the Triquetra, for not trusting them, for not feeling what they, werewolves, felt. But she was not a werewolf. She wasn’t human, but she had been raised as one by human parents.He leaned forward and kissed her. Talen was right, he thought. A closed mind couldn’t see the other point of view,
Havermouth, Two Weeks BeforeCharlotte was sitting on her porch shelling peas. Her dark hair was severely braided back from her face, the tail sitting over her shoulder. She wore faded jeans, a shirt with a floral print, and the military boots that she seemed to favor, along with an expression of irritated disdain as they approached.“You’re early, Heath. You don't normally come until later in the month,” Charlotte drawled as Heath drew to a stop two meters from the porch, respecting her preference for him to keep his distance. From his position, he could see that the roof of the house was covered in bird shit, and he saw sparrows slipping in and out of the gaps in the shingles, nesting.Charlotte loathed him, and he knew it in the same way that, five years earlier, he had known that she had wanted to be f-ked by him, body language and scent. It was because she had wanted to be f-ked by him, that she loathed him now. Aislen wanted to see Charlotte as a victim, but Heath knew that it w
Havermouth, Two Weeks BeforeThere was a weird ringing in his ears, and for a moment he thought that he would faint or vomit, or, possibly both. His face and body felt as if it belonged to someone else, his lips numb, his cheeks stiff, his limbs heavy. His heart was in his throat, thumping violently, compounding the feeling of nausea.He reached out and opened the door with a coordination that seemed impossible, putting first one foot and then the other on the ground outside, and then closing the door behind him with calm, robotic movements, walking several meters away from the car.“I couldn’t come back to Havermouth, Heath, because I was pregnant and hiding it.”He sobbed in a breath and then doubled over, bracing his hands on his knees, feeling as if someone had kicked him in the stomach and not sure if it was a scream or a stream of vomit that would pour from him.It was neither.It was a wail of anguish that startled the birds in the trees into taking flight.She had been pregnan
Havermouth, Present Time“F-k it didn’t work!” Aislen struck the wall in despairing anger.Talen looked up from Heath. “Little demon,” he said leaning back onto his elbow and hip and reaching out his hand to her. His eyes were red and his lips and teeth stained with Heath’s blood.Aislen stepped into the room, closing the door behind her and took his hand, letting him draw her down between him and Heath whose eyes were closed to just slits, the green gold of his wolf glimmering between his eyelashes. She reached out and touched his cheek and Heath turned his face into her palm, pressing a kiss to her skin before sighing heavily, his eyes closing fully.“Daddy?” Aislen whispered, alarmed.“This is a normal part of the process, Morgana,” Talen murmured into her ear. “He has lost a lot of blood, and although I am feeding him my own in return, it takes time for the magic to work the transformation and it does require his body to begin to shut down in order to allow the vampirism to take e
Havermouth, Present TimeCameron looked at Rhett and then Jules, trying to decide whether to trust the strange werewolf or not. “How did you get here?” He asked slowly, turning his eyes back to the elegant man in his midnight blue velvet jacket. It was a nice jacket, Cameron thought, and would fit him. He imagined it on him, paired with a tie and a bare chest, and how his mates would look at him, and slid a look at Rhett, who grinned back at him.Cameron laughed under his breath, before refocusing on the other man. “We need to know more about you, before we can decide whether to trust you,” he explained.Connery’s eyes swept around the room, before he stepped closer. “Three hundred years ago,” he said softly as he put his hand into his pocket. He drew out a length of black. Hair, Cameron saw. Braided and tied at top and bottom. “My mate was… well, I needed a healer. Meguitte,” his thumb stroked over the braid of hair. “Helped where others would not. She saved my mate’s life, for a tim
Havermouth, Present TimeAislen knew that she only had the one chance to sneak out of the warehouse, and if she f-ked that up, she would spend f-k knew how long arguing with a bunch of witches, warlocks, zombie masters, and vampires. “I feel like a f-king teenager,” she muttered under her breath as she crept down the stairs and pressed her back against the wall, listening to the movements from the rooms below. It sounded as if a goon number of the witches were in the tiny kitchen preparing food so she figured the way would be pretty clear.The door to the main room where the zombies were stored creaked open and for a moment she stared at Mercy, their eyes locked, before the other woman turned and closed the door. Aislen wasn’t sure if Mercy was being helpful or rude, it was almost impossible to tell. Aislen sighed out her breath. She stepped off the final stair and tip-toed through the corridor between the kitchen and the reception, the wall to the left stacked with supplies, the ri
Havermouth, Present Time“Like this?” Guy held up his partially folded sparrow.“Getting closer,” Meguitte smiled stiffly, trying to inject sincerity into her expression.Lark had returned with Guy, repaired the ward without noticing Meguitte’s hidden interference, and then left Meguitte with the human man, without explanation, simply closing the door.Meguitte wondered if Logan knew that Lark had left her alone with another man. She suspected not. She stored the information away in her mind carefully just in case, however she was hoping that she wouldn’t need it. Her blood-infused paper-sparrow familiar facsimiles under the carpet meant that her magic was bridging Lark’s, breaking the ward. It was shoddy work by Lark not to have noticed, however Meguitte suspected that Lark’s magical learning was not as well rounded as her own.She just had to work out how to use the magical break and her little paper-weapons to her best advantage. She could not move far or fast with the chains aroun
Havermouth, Present TimeTalen woke with a groan. It had been almost a century since he’d turned Harry, and that turning had been well prepared for and performed in a relaxing environment with no distractions. Heath’s turning was anything but relaxed and prepared for, although both Talen and Heath were in better condition than Talen and Meguitte had been, therefore, he had hope that Heath would be an impressive hybrid.He rolled onto his side to check on his mate, and grimaced as something hard dug into his side. He reached down to pull it out and stared at it in shocked surprise, before reaching for Heath’s wrist. It was the cuff. It had come off.“Heath,” he whispered.Heath groaned and turned into him, reaching to place his hand on Talen’s hip. “F-k, I’m so tired,” he complained.“It is normal,” Talen told him turning the cuff over in his hand. It was such a light, fragile looking thing, he thought. The cuffs that had been used to restrain him had been shackles, and not jewellery l
Havermouth, Present Time Heath woke into darkness. His werewolf sight could not even determine a pinprick of light. The darkness was heavy, smothering. “Talen?” He asked. His voice sounded muted, as if he were in a closed, tight space. He reached out and felt nothing however… And that was terrifying. There was no floor, no walls. He did not understand how it was that he was not falling… or perhaps he was. His breathing was rasped through lungs constricted by panic. “Shh,” a woman murmured. “Hush now, do not fear. Nothing will harm you here. Indeed,” there was amusement to her voice. “There is nothing here to harm you.” “Who are you?” He demanded, fear turning into anger. “Some Van Helsing trick?” “Hmhmhm,” she chuckled softly. “No, white wolf.” “Where is Talen?” He sat up slowly, relying on his stomach muscles as there wasn’t a floor to brace his hands against. “Where are we? Why… isn’t there a floor?” “So many questions. We are in the beginning, the aether, the place where we
Havermouth, Present TimeCameron and Rhett stood by the front window of Mr Claymont’s house with the lace curtains pushed back, looking out at the street as the crowd began to clear. A riot had broken out in response to the explosion of the school and had blocked the Van Helsings’ efforts to reach their destroyed base. The Havermouth rioters had destroyed several of the Van Helsings’ vehicles until guns had been drawn and bullets had been fired.Just as things had been on the verge of turning into a massacre, the fire had begun to spread out from the school, and Havermouth’s residents had rushed to help the homeowners save their property whilst others had dragged those injured by the Van Helsings retaliation into nearby houses.Into the chaos and mania of it all, the fleeing werewolves had just been another strangeness of the day, with people shrieking and screaming as their fur brushed against them, but otherwise taking no action against them, too occupied with the fire and gunmen, a
Havermouth, Present TimeThe f-ker!Aislen woke angry and sore. Her whole body ached, but her head and throat most of all. She was f-king going to kill that arsehole of a torturer, she thought.She was lying on her back on a bed, but not somewhere private. Around her she could hear the murmur of voices, groans and moans, the rattle of metal against metal, and crying. It stank. Layers of sweat, urine, faeces and… rotten meat.She opened her eyes and looked through a mesh of metal bars at the pressed tin tile design within the coffered ceiling high above her and the elaborate chandelier that dangled from it. Not what she’d expected having smelled the room, she thought, sitting up.It was a large long room, with a heavy velvet curtained stage set on one end and a wall of double doors at the other. In between the two ends, rows of cages had been set, each one only long enough to fit a trundle bed and twice as wide. Many of the cages were empty, like the one directly next to Aislen’s bed,
Havermouth, One Week BeforeTony had the police officer tied by his wrists and dangling over an open oubliette in the barn when Talen arrived, and looked up from a toolbox which was set on the pushed back stone lid. “Alex, this is Talen. Talen, meet Alexander Grennith.”“F-k you,” the werewolf was in the policeman’s eyes, but with his weight on his shoulders, and his wrists tied, he could not shift without risking tearing his arms from the joint, an injury that would be both intensely painful and potentially life-alteringly disabling.“No thank you,” Talen replied as he rolled up his sleeves. “Did you have any trouble?” He asked Tony.“No,” Tony was amused. “I took Sigrid with me, and she distracted him at the front door whilst I took him from behind. He did not know what happened. We bundled him into his own car, and I wore his jacket and hat. Anyone who saw me would have thought he was going on a date. I dropped Sigrid at the Ute and she drove it home for me.”“I didn’t know that Si
Havermouth, Two Weeks BeforeCameron creeping out of the bed and around the room getting dressed woke Heath. He was pressed tightly to Talen’s back, half drowning in the vampire’s blonde hair, with his arm over Talen’s waist and he was disinclined to move from the position. Used to Cameron’s early mornings, once he’d registered what the movement was about, he closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep only for Aislen to mutter a complaint as Rhett wriggled out from under her.“I have a client coming at nine,” Rhett explained his movement. “I have to go set up.”“Too early,” Aislen grumbled.“I know, but they work afternoons, and it will take a good three hours,” Rhett yawned widely as he slid out of the bed.Talen shifted in order to pull Aislen back against him, snuggling her into the spoon of his body. “Sleep some more, Morgana,” he murmured. “You need to rest in order to heal.”Rhett cursed as he stumbled and Cameron smothered his laughter. “Careful. F-k man, you’re not a good m
Havermouth, Two Weeks Before“I could do with a cigarette too,” Aislen announced. “And a glass of wine.”“It’s not even midday,” Heath protested immediately.Aislen’s eyeroll said it all. “I wasn’t asking for permission. I’ve had a pretty shitty couple of days, and I want to f-king have a cigarette and a glass of wine on the porch of my house and so that’s precisely what I am going to do,” she began to get dressed. “If you’re all going to be bitches you can leave.”Heath spotted her underwear tangled at the foot of the bed and retrieved them, untangling them as he handed them to her. “I’ll go open a bottle.” He stepped out into the hallway and closed the door before leaning against the wall and heaving out a sigh.Rhett and Cameron now knew about the miscarriage, but he felt as if the Triquetra had narrowly avoided disaster with the discussion that had followed, and the adrenaline spike had left him shaky with his heart racing against his ribs. The conversation had also shaken free a
Havermouth, Two Weeks BeforeRhett laughed. F-k this was going to be fun, he thought lifting up onto his elbows in order to improve his view.“Oh.” Aislen had realized that the double-sided dildo was for her.Talen’s shoulder shook with his silent laughter as he helped her into the harness and eased her end of the dildo into her.“F-k that’s hot,” Rhett groaned as Talen tightened the harness around her waist. There was something so naughty about Aislen with a c-k, and the leather straps compressing her soft skin, the contrast of white to black and soft to hard… “F-k,” he groaned, and Heath compliantly gripped his c-ck, stroking from base to tip so that he sighed out his pleasure.“Very nice,” Talen approved leaning back to inspect his workmanship. “Who would you like to f-k, little demon?”“Choices, choices,” Aislen’s response was pure devilry.“Me,” Rhett gasped out rolling up to sitting. “I want to try that.”“Why not?” Aislen was amused by his eagerness and by her new accessory, re
Havermouth, Two Weeks BeforeRhett used the trolley to herd Tabitha and her cameraman away from Cameron and Aislen so that they could make their escape, his vindicative ramming of the reporter’s heels fuelled by the nasty volley of questions she had just thrown at Aislen.“This is assault, Rhett Salem!” Tabitha snarled at him.“Oh, f-k off Tabitha,” he replied. “For a f-king desperate ambulance chasing vulture you are pretty righteous. F-king chasing down a woman who was just shot, and shouting out her personal business… You are slime. The worst type of slime. Just own it and shut the f-k up.”He abandoned the trolley inside the doors of the hospital and trotted across the carpark to where Heath was picking up shards of broken vase and ignoring Tabitha’s attempts to engage him into an interview. Heath surprised Tabitha by passing her the broken pieces. “Throw these away for me, please, like a good girl,” he told her.“Ah, shit, Heath, don’t call her a good girl,” Rhett laughed as he h
Havermouth, Two Weeks BeforeCameron almost stopped dead. From the corner of his eye, he saw Rhett fumble a vase of flowers that he was loading into his car, the vase shattering with a loud crash as it hit the ground and distracting the reporter and her cameraman.Miscarriage? What miscarriage? And… if Aislen couldn’t have a child… what did that mean for their Triquetra?“I don’t hit women,” Heath growled down at Tabitha. “But you are testing my resolve. Get the f-k away from us, and stay away.”Cameron pulled himself together and crossed the last distance to the Ute, easing Aislen into the passenger seat, and closing the door before turning back to help his Triquetra drive off the reporter and her cameraman. Rhett drove the now empty trolley directly at Tabitha and the cameraman, forcing them backwards, and used it to herd them towards the hospital and away from the Ute.“What the f-k?” Cameron asked Heath in shock. “What the f-k was that?”“Take her to her house, Cam, I’ll meet you