Concordia, Nine Hundred and Fifty Years BeforeThere was a reason that the vampires raided at certain times of the year. The stretch of ocean between Concordia and the neighbouring continent became treacherous in the wrong seasons. The passage across to the other continent was miserable as a result, spent cramped below deck, or saturated on the slippery deck aiding with adjusting the sails and riggings.They travelled without blood slaves and reached the other shores starved and feral, attacking the villages with a savagery unusual to them. They sated their hunger brutally, reduced to beasts by their thirst, and wasted no time celebrating their conquest or taking valuables from the village. They loaded what food and water they could onto the ship, along with every human, male, female, child, leaving only the sick and elderly behind, before moving on. They took three villages, much closer together than they liked, and turned sail back to Concordia.The slave pens below deck were overcr
The Coast of Alden, Nine Hundred and Forty Five Years Before An army approached the village, but not the army that Thaelen sought. This one came from inland, not from the sea. He watched from the shelter of the trees, squatting in the tangled roots, using his flint-knife to skin the rabbit that had been his breakfast. He had been intending to take the brace of rabbits that he had caught that morning to the little fishing village where he was currently staying. The rabbit’s meat had no value to him. It’s guts and skin, however, were another matter. He would stretch the guts into string and use it to sew the hides into clothing and boots, such as he wore. A brace of rabbits could be traded for many things of value in the village – from clothing made from cloth woven by the village women, blades made of metal, or even coins which, eventually, might buy him a night in a tavern, a glass of wine, a warm bath, and a bed. The arrival of an army from inland disrupted his plans, and he watche
Concordia, Nine Hundred and Forty Five Years Before Thaelen fixed a smile on his face as he walked towards the soldiers. They were laughing and muttering amongst themselves, their attention on the house where the young woman’s screams had changed tone, losing the sharpness, becoming resigned to her fate. I’m sorry, Thaelen thought to her. He had made a callous choice to use her to buy the time to tend the child and old woman. It had been a dispassionate, cruelly efficient prioritization. The guard before him met his eyes, his expression becoming alarmed as he recognized the death in Thaelen’s expression. He began to draw his sword, but Thaelen reached him first, snapping his neck and throwing him into the others, so that they fell under the weight. He caught the arm of a soldier who escaped the burden of the body, preventing his sword from striking, and pulled the arm from the socket, tearing the sword from the hand as the soldier screamed, whilst catching the soldier against him, hi
Concordia, Nine Hundred and Forty Five Years BeforeThaelen heard her follow, her footfalls clumsy through the undergrowth of the forest floor, the noise silencing the wildlife who shared the trees with them. Although he knew that her survival was more assured in his company, she was a complication that he didn’t want to deal with. She had already stabbed him in the stomach in a moment of unexpected treachery. He would be unable to sleep until he delivered her to her destination, or risk that she tried to kill him again.“Why do you have daggers and a bow, if you do not need them?” She asked as they wound their way between the trees. “You did not use a weapon with the soldiers…”“I had the element of surprise today,” he replied as they reached the small campsite where he had been staying on the bank of a fresh-water creek that ran towards the beach. He lifted off his leather tunic and laid it on a rock, hissing in a breath as it stretched his barely-repaired stomach wound. He knelt by
Concordia, Nine Hundred and Forty Years Before Thaelen paused in his labor to remove his shirt and cast it to the ground. He was filthy but had almost completed caulking the hull with oakum. He squinted up at the sun. Another hour, and he would go down to the beach for a swim. He might encounter Ettel’s husband, Ferin, on the sand, and be able to discuss the next stage of the ship building with him. As a fifth-generation fisherman, Ferin had participated in many ship-builds and would, on occasion, come and assist Thaelen with his project. Thaelen would then wait until night fell to head down to the village for his evening meal. There was always someone who wandered from the house alone, to take a piss, meet a lover, or to check something that they left undone from the day. He would stalk through the houses until he found a likely human and could discretely take what he needed from them. He had his favorite regular meals - the repressed priest of the One God who preached about purity
Concordia, Nine Hundred and Forty Years Before Thaelen undressed slowly, lifting the shirt up his torso, the knap of the fabric rasping on his skin and the neckline gathering his hair as he lifted it over his head. He dropped it onto the table and stood waiting assessment. The past ten years had made him lean, and the physical exertion of building a ship had refined that leanness into muscle. “Ah, very, very nice,” Besafora rested the tip of the jade phallus against her lips and the pink tip of her tongue darted out to trace the slit carved into the stone. “Delwyn?” “Yes,” Delwyn agreed breathlessly. “He is… um…” She caught her bottom lip between her teeth and giggled. “Rather… pleasing.” Besafora chuckled with satisfaction. “The rest of it my king, if you please?” Thaelen smothered his smile as he released the ties of his trousers, and let them sag on his hips. “Are you sure?” He raised an eyebrow teasingly. “I don’t look like your green carving. I would hate to disappoint.” “I’
Havermouth, Two Weeks Before“Uh-ah,” Heath snagged Rhett by the wrist when his dark-haired mate went to get into the front passenger seat. He tugged him back and nudged him into the backseat. “You’re mine,” he leered, gripping the doorframe and caging Rhett in as he landed on his back and pushed himself up on his elbows his face lighting in surprised laughter.“F-king oath, Heath, be gentle,” Rhett snickered. “Take me to dinner first, perhaps?”“You are dinner,” Heath swung into the cab and closed the door behind him.“I’m always driving,” Cameron pouted as he put the Ute into reverse and backed out of the driveway of Aislen’s house.“Ute is best for this. Small windows, high up,” Heath replied as Rhett slid along the seat until the back of his head and shoulders were against the door. Heath crawled over him, and ran his tongue over Rhett’s bottom lip, nipping the lip ring between his teeth and giving it a slight tug. “I’ve been thinking,” he murmured against Rhett’s lips. “About how
Havermouth, Two Weeks Before“I think it’s time we take this inside. I think we have taunted your werewolf lovers enough,” Talen decided to be straightforward and to see how she responded. It might lead to an awkward conversation, or simply open up the conversation, he reasoned. She was his mate, whether she knew it or not, and he needed to keep moving the relationship towards them both being fully informed.Morgana’s mouth dropped open, but her initial shock quickly became laughter and she relaxed against him. He felt the tension within him ease and wrapped his arms around her as she turned into him and pressed her face into his chest, lowering his face into her hair and breathing in the scent of her with a wide smile lifting his cheeks.He had been right. Morgana knew about the supernatural world. She was aware of what the pups were. He chuckled under his breath. In hindsight, on more than one occasion, she had less than subtly invited him to drink from her, so she knew what he was
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