Havermouth, Present TimeCameron cried out and threw his arms around Rhett, gripping him tightly before catching his face between his hand and kissing him with a thoroughness that left Rhett breathless until the bathroom door suddenly opened, and he released him out of habit, both men breathing heavily as they stared at the startled intruder.“Ah, sorry,” Will Peters was wide eyed. “I can wait…” He backed out letting the door swing shut behind him.“Shit. Oh well, I’m not hiding anymore,” Cameron shrugged, turning back to Rhett, and pulling him back into his arms. “I’m so happy to see you. And you’re looking so much better. Skinny. But better.”“Wow, Cam,” Rhett laughed. “I should come to the rescue more often. Hey there’s power on here!” He added squinting up at the neon lights. “Who would have thought I’d be happy to see the flicker of neon again.”“Did Aislen send you?” Cameron asked, leaning back in order to look at him. “Did she do one of those portal thingies? Where’s Heath? And
Havermouth, Present Time Aislen hit her head hard on the floorboards and lay for a moment with white noise ringing in her ears, staring sightlessly up at the beams of the roof. Her entire body ached. She could feel the sharp sting of the cuts across her torso and the wetness of her blood, and she knew that she was dying. She groaned and put her hand to her chest, surprised to encounter cloth and not skin, and lifted her hand, wondering at how it was not covered in blood and what the black chalkiness was that stained her skin. She slowly lowered her chin to her chest. There were no wounds. Oh, yeah, she wasn’t the one bleeding... The thoughts rolled through her mind in slow motion, as if she was thinking through treacle. “Shit,” she groaned. “Heath!” Where were her mates? “Cameron, and Talen,” she whispered, closing her eyes and then opening them again, her vision focusing, the beams coming into focus. She was on the floor of Leighton’s workspace, she realized, and recalled the salt
** Please note, I am not a historian, and this is not an accurate depiction of the past, but a fantasy version in an alternative world very similar to our own - Happy Reading :-) **The Concordia, Twelve Hundred Years Before (Give or Take a Century)Swords in hand, the brave and noble soldiers crept up the rampart, conquering the fortifications of the enemy, and creeping closer to the stronghold castle, skirting the chickens who fossicked through the dirt for their breakfast, and keeping belly to ground in order not to be spotted as they reached the peak.“I see them,” Thaelen whispered, his blond hair blowing forward over his dirt smeared face. His features still held the roundness of youth, only just beginning to reveal the strong lines of adulthood. “Crouched over there, behind the wooden barrels.”The three other boys, designated enemy soldiers by the game, clutched wooden practice swords and crouched between barrels and the wooden wall fortification. The women and men who maintai
The Concordia, Twelve Hundred Years Before (Give or Take a Century)The house of Lagita Gulgane, queen of the Concordia, was a single, long room with an elaborately carved screened area behind the High Chair which hid the bed in which the king and queen spent their nights. The rest of the household slept either upon the benches that lined the walls to either side of the central hearth, or upon the floor around it.Thaelen, like many other child vampires, slept on a ledge built within the rafters and accessible by ladder. From this haven, he could look down upon the revelry of the adults celebrating another successful raiding season and the return of their king, the dancing firelight casting their shadows into gigantic proportions on the walls.His father sat upon the High Chair, a fragile and treasured glass containing a mix of mead and blood held in one hand, whilst his most trusted soldier regaled Lagita with stories of his prowess in battle. Thaelen lay on his back next to his new
Havermouth, Present TimeThe meeting broke up, and the soldiers rose and began the slow shuffle out of the tidy rows of seats, past Talen and Aislen, and out into the foyer. Their laughter and light-hearted conversation were at odds with the situation in Havermouth, jarring Aislen’s tolerances. She wanted to yell at them to stop f-king laughing and do something, but there was something intimidating and almost menacing about the men that held her tongue in check.Her instincts told her not to draw attention to herself, or to Talen, and she suspected her vampire felt the same way, as he subtly moved them back into the narrow walkway behind the very rear row of seats, placing himself between her and the aisle.The police and fire chief, Heath, and several black clad men gathered just before the stage.“Should we go down there?” Aislen wondered, she couldn’t hear what was being said over the rumble of voices of the soldiers leaving the audience hall, but she could read the body language l
Havermouth, Present Time“That’s like… a thing? Like a real thing?” Aislen looked between her two mates.“It is,” Talen replied placing his hand on the small of her back and encouraging her gently forward.The alley and carpark had taken them through the square of the town, depositing them on the street where Rhett’s shop was located, bypassing the blocked off, soldier filled main street. It was a route that someone who had grown up in the town knew, but that people new to the area would not.They crossed the road, pausing on the corner to look up towards the main crossroads of the town as yells broke out, Heath tensing. A group of men dragged a woman, fighting, clawing, her hair wild and her blue suit covered in blood, out of a building and into a van, leaving behind one designer high heel on the pavement. The van shook, and the passenger within shrieked, the sound carrying as the van pulled away from the curb.“Was that…?” Aislen trailed off remembering Dr James and the bite mark on
Havermouth, A Year Before“She’s a beauty,” Cameron leaned against the fence and admired Jules’ new mare, Aria, who was grazing in the field nearest to the house.“She is, sired by Maverick James, and out of Soprano Siren, fourteen point two hands, she needs a bit more work, but she has a sweet, gentle nature,” Jules was pleased by his purchase. “I’ll take her out to ride the fences later today and see how she does.”“Chester will be jealous.”Jules slid his eyes to Cameron and then away. “Sometimes we have to make choices, Cam, and no matter how much we love a horse, sometimes a new one is needed, right?”Jules wasn’t talking about horses, Cameron thought grimly, but about women. “Sometimes, there only is one horse,” he replied softly. “And you can’t replace it.”“I’m sorry for that,” Jules murmured. “I am, Cam.” They watched the mare graze in silence before Jules gave a slight restless gesture. “You should go see your mum before you head off, have a cup of tea. She’s leaving again f
The Concordia, Twelve Hundred Years Before (Give or Take a Century)Thaelen watched Sigrid chase the waves with the slave children, her skirts held to mid-thigh, and her braids bouncing as she laughed and splashed through the shallows. The day was bright, and the sky clear of cloud, and the weather had encouraged the slaves to the water. They searched the sand and the shallows for fish, took boats out deeper to cast their nets and strung drying frames around the fires, to smoke and dry their catch for the winter.Thaelen had not come to the beach for food. He searched the sand, to see what treasures of the deep the tide had brought in.“What are you doing?” Sigrid asked as she returned to him, the sand crusting her wet legs with salt.“Preparing offerings for the gods. In a few days, we will travel into the mountains, see there,” he pointed to the shadow on the horizon. “There is a temple there. It will take many days to walk there, and we will stay with the strongholds we encounter o