*Soleil*
Mark lives in the same apartment complex as Davina, just in another building on the opposite end. I keep my eyes stiffly at the ground when we enter the area, not wanting to look at the way too well known building as we pass it.
Pull yourself together ! I straighten my back. I can’t break down now. We have to go change Mark’s memory.
When we reach his door Gudrun and Siri hide against the wall beside the door. Siri closes her eyes and gives me the sign to ring the bell. It takes two rings before the handle finally moves and Mark’s face pokes out.
“Hi Mark, I am so happy you had time to meet with me”. I try with a friendly smile, but when he doesn't seem to buy it I take a step back. “I brought someone you should meet”.
Mark looks at Siri with scared eyes
*Soleil*Davina’s mother is totally wasted when we arrive. I hurry into Davina’s room to find a dress. I thought I could just run in, grab the nearest dress and be out again in a flash. But when I open the door to her room I freeze. Her scent still fills the space up and everything looks exactly like it used to. I almost expect her to suddenly be there too, giving me some pocket philosophy.I force my body to move. It is like walking down an endless corridor, my eyes glued to the closet as I walk past the bed, trying not to break down crying. I let out a relieved sigh when I get there. With shaking hands I start looking through all the amazing dresses. I find one of the more normal ones. A tight black number reaching the middle of the thighs. It has a deep cut back with a black feather trim. The long flo
*Soleil*Something is burning my eyes. Making me blink and wake up. It is sunlight coming through a crack in the curtains. I feel confused, wasn’t I speaking to Sascha a couple of minutes ago ?Where the hell am I ?The room is huge and there are boxes stalked along the walls. The bed is very big and beautifully ornate. The dark bedsheet smells amazing and fresh. Seriously, where am I ?I lift my head only to winch. This has to be a real hangover. It’s a very fitting name. I get out of bed, to my relief I am still wearing the dress. The black wig is on the table and so is my handbag. I grab both and walk out the door. Outside is a hallway, there is a door leading to a living room and one to the kitchen. It smells like bacon. Normally I would be looking for a plate, but my stomach is not about to invite anything inside. Exce
chapter contains violent vampire attack*Casper*“Don't you think that was just a bit disrespecting ? We are here to honor Davina’s memory and you are acting like a total jerk”. Oliver is pulsing on his cigarette, glaring at me from behind the curtain of black hair.I can feel how the anger is pumping through my veins, and my hidden fangs are threatening to slide out.You little self righteous emo-cow. I close my eyes and breathe through my nose. Oliver's cheap deodorant makes it easier to control the urge to rip his nicotine filled lungs from his body. The thought calms me and a smile spreads on my lips.“Oh I am so very sorry,
*Soleil*The dreaded day has come. Time to sling my backpack over my shoulder and walk down the path beside the church. Last year I had walked the same way, fearing how I would deal with so many new people. I am still as insecure and shy as back then, in some areas. In many ways the situation is the same. I can no longer go down to the canteen and sit down next to Davina. I can’t stare dreamily at Luca’s broad back through english. I am all alone again.When I walk into the school everyone in the hallway goes silent as they turn to stare at me. I hear the sound of stilettos clip clip towards me and to my surprise I see it is Julie, the leader of the elite.“Listen, I am sorry about the thing with Davina. She was like, you know okay. We are all really upset right ?”The fancy blonde with all the right accessories
*Luca*“This is really nice actually. I get a big living room and you get your own rooms. Rent is reasonable too”. My mom turns to look at us.I shrug, trying to smile, because I can see she is excited. Andreas just grunts something in a typical teenage way.“Oh, you two are never happy”. She waves Victor over. “Come here sweetie”.Victor reluctantly walks over to look out the window with her.“Look, your new School is right over there”. She points to a big building. “And there is a big nature playground too”.“Cool mom, a playground”. Victor mumbles without any excitement in his voice.“I know it, I really do. But dad got offered a job here he could
*Soleil*“When we go to Ballimore at the next full moon, we need to be well prepared”. Siri pulls out the chair and sits down at the small table in the kitchen. “It has been too silent lately. If there are going to be many new hamram and the young Pugh boy changes at the same time we are going to be really busy”.I lock my eyes on an old tea caddy that has probably been standing in that spot since Siri moved in. I can’t handle thinking about Luca’s baby brother in that way. Unfortunately it is inevitable. It is the rules for following the calling and not different from other hamram. Most of them are only sixteen when we find and kill them. It had been a rare coincidence that it had been a fully grown man the first one I saw up in Ballimore. I need to pull myself together.“I am still not getting any premonitions about the family, but if
*Soleil*“The others from my coven have been asking for you. They thought it was a shame you didn’t come for the harvest party”. Mark gives me a big hug as I step into his apartment.I freeze for a moment, before getting my composiour back.“It was a lot of fun at the solstice thing, but I have started doubting if it is the right thing for me”. I try getting around the subject.“Sounds exciting. So where have you ended up then ?” The slumps down on the couch.“Realising that it is complicated. I have kind of given up on finding why and who. I think I see it more as a big corporate company, where all the gods sit at a long conference table discussing the world”. I giggle and sit down on his office chair.&ldquo
*Soleil*It is past ten when I walk home from Mark and when I reach the train station I walk past a rather dangy bar. Not one of those modern cafe-like places with tapas and imported beer. No… one of those dirty, smelly places, where the... not too reputable people hang out. The only food they serve is a grilled cheese sandwich and a bag of chips if you are lucky.I am a boring sensible mouse, remember ? I stop, looking through the open door.A couple of older men with greasy hair and bushy beards are hanging on the bar discussing something. My eyes follow the row of dirty windows. There is a second open room in the back with a pool table.“Hmm it might be time for me to learn how to play pool”. Excitement and fear mix in my stomach, giving me chills.You don’t dare.. I take
*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