warning: The end of the chapter has a violent scene of what a werewolf can do
*Soleil*As we sit in the stone circle, getting charged for our search I notice that it is darker than the last time we were up here. But nature and the spirits fill me with happiness and make me feel much more calm.
When it is time we all throw the blue smokey herbs into the fire. Gudrun greets the allfather. Martha says her bible verse and Siri talks to Fylgjen, her protective spirit and kin.
I don’t find any consolence in the higher powers. But I need strength and the strongest I know is Tjalfe.
“Kin, Lend me your strength”.
The wind takes a victory lap in the clearing as his answer.. show off.
After breathing in the white smoke
*Soleil* The next second Gudrun and Marta are there. I don't even have time to realise what is going on. It is all over so fast and I hear a dumb sound as the hamram hits the floor. I try collecting all my powers, trying to get up on my knees, but I slip in my own blood and collapse on the floor moaning. “It is dead. I have called for Siri to come quick”. I hear Marta’s voice. “Help me get her up on the table”. The burning feeling is nothing compared to the flaming sword plowing through my back as they lift me. I scream out loud. When they get me flat down on my stomach the pain is luckily dulled somewhat. “I’ll get the bag”. I hear Gudrun run off for the hallway. I sob when Marta pulls off my cape and shirt. “Shh I know, but you have to lie still, I need to
Book 2 *Soleil* Wonderful, darkness, silence, nothing. Until something soft, moist and warm interferes. The safe darkness is interrupted by the light. I fight against it. I want to stay in the dark, but the soft, moist and warmth keeps getting more intense and the light gets sharper. My eyes flutter open. At the end of a long tunnel I spot long green leaves of grass. That is really weird, I was just looking at blue flames a moment ago. “Soleil ?” I blink and the tunnel disappears. The sharp sunshine is stabbing at my eyes and I press them closed. Then the pain hits. “Morning.. and welcome back”. Gudruns happy my voice is like nails on a chalkboard to my ears. “What is
*Soleil*“Soleil, are you okay ?”I sit up, grabbing at my face and neck. Everything is still there and as it should be.“Yeah, I think I had a bad nightmare”. I mumble, still feeling slightly caught up in the haze of sleep.“I can believe that. You were talking in your sleep”. Gudrun leans over me and whispers. “You were calling for Luca”.Luca ? He had been about to kill me. He hadn’t even hesitated when I couldn’t tell him what he wanted to hear. That I love him."Come on, it's gonna be time for the out-sitting soon". Gudrun gives my arm a soft squeeze and goes outside to the others.I pull the duvet up to my chin and hug it into my chest. The dream kinda
*Soleil*Marta drives as fast as the car can pull at all, and we reach the right area in less than two hours. Just outside the park she pulls into the side and hurries out of the car."What now ?" I look at her curiously."Marta is out asking for directions" Gudrun sends me a telling look.Of course ! Marta can search where the hamram is, through the chain of vaetter that travels through the landscape, longer and faster than anyone else."It's on its way to the campsite". Marta puts the car in gear and drives on. “Our best chance is to drive around back and cut off that road before it gets close to the guests. Right now, it's running slowly".
*Luca*I have been staring at the ceiling of the cabin most of the night. The bunk beds on the ferry just aren't built for someone of my size, but it is mostly all the thoughts crowding my head that has kept me awake.While I am sitting with Martin and Andreas over breakfast in a small cafe I am seriously considering if I even want to go back home with them when we are done. I keep telling myself it will get easier when I put an ocean, if only a small one, between myself and Soleil.Maybe I can get work here in Ireland, start over ? Soleil would be far away then, then Maybe her visits to my brain would stop. And hopefully I would get rid of her essence too.Martin looks at his phone. “Finish up boys, we need to get going, there is a bit of a drive”.“Almost done”. Andreas say
*Soleil*“I wish I could tell you that it isn’t usually this bad, but this full moon, unfortunately, isn't very different from most”. Gudrun points to a tent that has been all but shredded. “It is like this almost every time we find a newly changed wolf. Sometimes even far worse”.We had dragged the hamram I killed back to the car. On the way he had changed back to his human form, so we ended up carrying the body of a young man instead. The body had felt like a giant rag doll because every bone in his body was broken or crushed and it had been difficult moving through the uneven terrain. We had put the naked body in the trunk and now we are down by the river to find his victims.We have found the camp or what is left of it. The two ten
*Soleil*Two days later:I am watching as Gudrun’s car drives off after having delivered me at home. I feel helpless and lost. Now I have to do that again.. walk inside and pretend my life is ordinary and normal. How am I to live like that with my body pumped up on adrenaline ?I feel like a water kettle left whistling on the stove and abandoned until the next full moon.On the last and third night we didn’t find any new hamrams, not even Luca’s baby brother Andreas had appeared.No one had said much after that, but I could see that Siri was worried. I just didn’t have the energy to ask about it. I have had enough, not only of death and mutilation, but also enough of the
*Soleil*To my huge surprise he pulls back. I scrunch up my brows, this is weird.“So pool tonight, carina ?” A voice sounds behind me.John slides up on the stool beside me and the bartender quickly brings him a beer.“Hey I was just about to get lucky, couldn’t you see that ?” I mumble.“Scusi, my mistake, and here I thought you were about to get that pretty ass spanked”.“Just foreplay”. I turn towards him. “What do you want, John ?”He is attractive even if I am sober. Not supernatur
*Soleil* "Oh! I never thought we would get away from Scotland”. I kick off my shoes and throw the backpack on the floor. "It was getting cramped up there”. "We're getting ok at it actually”. Luca closes the door to the small apartment and slams the lock. "We handed out some serious ass kicking” I huff. "Yes, we could win every time if you did not try to decide it all”. "You can just accept that I'm always right”. He grins. "I do when you realize that it's not about being right, but about what works !" I star defiantly up at him, but surrender as he pulls me into him. "I'm just happy you came back”. He bends down and kisses me. "So am I". The butterflies flutter joyfully inside me, and I pull him down in a deeper kiss. I twist my fingers into his tousled mocha brown hair and indulge in the feel of his lips and exploratory tongue. “Well, what do you say ? English or history ?” He withdraws and deftly avoids my aggrieved gaze. "Seriously ? You want us to read our hom
*Narrator* “Magnificent !” The lord of the wind's eyes shone with obvious joy. “I could not have done thatbetter myself”. "You were entrusted to bestow on this man your strength, and now this !" The lady of the earth thrust her arm out against a settlement, engulfed in flames. "We were just letting out a little smoke". The lord of the fire grumbled. "We just happened to realise that If humans do not gather as a people, then they will never overcome the brood and not at all the queen”. “It might very well be right. But this is not the solution”. She sighed heavily. “They were meant to live happily, not to be subjected to more tyranny”. A small lake began to trickle up from the ground beneath them and manifested itself in a figure like the other three. "It's over”. The lady of the water said. “There is no hope anymore. Tonight they will gather, and your kinship will be wiped out”. "Oh, I can not get air". The lord of the wind sobbed with laughter. "Very funny !" Snarled the fir
*Tjalfe* The villagers have never seen Hrazgouls so close before. Only a few, fleeting glimpses have been had. They always come after the Bakorshas have finished emptying their prey of blood, to eat the remains. In the morning, when the residents venture out into the daylight, there are only pieces of clothing, shattered bones and stinking piles of entrails left in rust-red stains on the ground. When one of them has tried to escape over the mountains, the remaining ones do not even get to see the Bakorshaer’s servants before the death cry of the fugitive resounds across the valley. Now they come in between the houses. One being more abominable than the next. Giant beasts with luminous, yellow eyes, whose long gaps flashes with large serrated rows of teeth. Their upright bodies were covered with dense coarse fur, while the broad shoulders and long, bulging arms end up in a paw-like hand so large that it could effortlessly crush the skull of a man. In between them comes smaller cre
*Tjalfe* Although darkness reigns behind the houses, it is easy to find the victim. The child’s screams drive Saren forward, and the fire blazes furiously in his hand. He finds the child just as life leaves the body. Like a breastfeeding infant it lays the arms of a Bakorsha, whose teeth sit deeply buried in the child’s thighs. With an insane scream, Saren sends a long beam of fire towards the monster. The heat is so high that it instantly sets both the Bakorsha and the child corpse on fire. When the last rays leave Sarens hand, both fall on the ground, charred and annihilated. The embers reveal the next victim and her assailants. It is the child's mother who lays helplessly on the firewood block while one of the dark ones brutally mates her and rips her flesh to blood with its dirty nails. Three others are biting into her arms and neck, where they greedily empties her of blood. Saren raises his hands to obliterate the creeps and free the woman from her afflictions, but nothing h
*Tjalfe* Malicious laughter and agitated voices intrudes in the dark, first from the west, but gradually the sounds spread until they surround the whole village. Bringing promises of carnage and death. The people flee back out of their houses, and all search for the relative safety of the fire. Quickly they get their torches lit and turn front towards the enemy, who is still hiding in the shelter of the darkness. Only now do they become aware thatthat their medicine man stands among them without a torch. The fear of Bakorsha had for a moment made them forget the new danger that had manifested itself in their midst, but then the burning house begin to give in to the ravaging of the flames, and it seems to dawn on them what they had witnessed as they scouted out the windows. Those closest to the medicine man hurried awayfrom him. This is a mistake and part of me wants to warn them, but it is too late anyway, and a shadow flies past and grabs one of the men. His howl is drowned
*Tjalfe* I am watching from my spot inside the storm, watching as things unfold below me. The people look up at the storm, which suddenly hangs over their heads. Panic and confusion arises in the village. Everyone let go of what they have in their hands and run into the middle of the square to seek shelter around the bonfire. Humans are no longer one, they have been divided by fear, and everyone care only to keep himself and his offspring alive. Everyone pushes and hustles to get closest to the fireplace andfarthest from the edge of the circle, for now that the sun's rays are hidden behind the heavy slate-gray clouds the Bakorshas will arrive prematurely. In the middle of the village a large bonfire is burning, and torches have been laid nearby, so they can be quickly ignited. The people has learned that the Bakorshas are not enthusiastic about fire, and that it sometimes happen that the sharp-toothed monsters will abandon the attack and instead throw themselves at another vict
*Tjalfe* The valley is a beautiful, small oasis between the high mountains, which in its time had attracted the inhabitants. They had lived in peace and perfect harmony. The mountains had shielded them from the worst winds, so the crops were diverse and the people of the city had never experienced distress. The only entrance to the village is an opening to the west where the surrounding mountains remain broken by a narrow passage. The view over the pass makes it possible to detect travelers coming from distant parts of the continent in good time, and show them hospitality. No one knew of anything but tolerance and no one dreamed that travelers could come up with anything but peace. It ended when the dark ones came. From then on, the valley became a prison for the people. During the day they were trapped, and at night they were harvested like grapes on stalks. There was no way out off there, all passable roads were blocked by Hrazgouls, the servants. Many had tried to flee, but eac
*Lefu* A tear rolls down my cheek. "Goodbye, Katje". I whisper softly. "I swear your death will be avenged”. "Now you see what they are capable of”. Strano puts his hands in the pockets of his night-black Armani jacket. "It is only the beginning”. I hiss angrily at him. "How can you choose them over your own ?" "You still do not understand, do you ?" Strano rolls his eyes. “They would not be here if it were not for you. Remember that”. “You knew it all from the start, right ? That there were several dogs and that I knew about them. That's why you did not kill me right away when you came up here and picked me up. That’s the truth right ?" I can’t help but seek assurance that I am right. He gives a small sigh. “I saw an opportunity and I took it. When the girls sacrificed Elisabeth, I could not prove that they were involved. I bet you would throw in the dogs as bait if you got the chance, and that Lyndsey would bite”. "What about her ?" I nodded down toward the figure with the
*Luca* My gaze is fixed as I step forward towards Harry. The dark blonde ulfhedin might be the pack leader, but this is my prey, and I do not shy away from the warning snarl of the alpha. Harry must have come to the same conclusion, for he goes silent and withdraws. I stop in front of the charred statue. My nails slide down the rough surface. Although the texture feels like charred wood, the shell is massive. I withdraw my arm and fire. The charred crust cracks, and I have to strike through once more to penetrate into the goal. When the shell breaks, a rain of coagulated blood sprays over me. I stick my paw into the evil bitch, find what I am looking for, and pull hard. The heart is still pumping weakly as I hold it up in front of the statue. I growl triumphantly and squeezeit in my powerful fist. The heart stops beating, and the red flesh-filled tissue gives way and explodes in a cloud of dust. It is over. "What do we do now ?" Soleil's cousin stands in front of the grotesqu