Blood on the Moon - serialised EXCLUSIVE for Steemit! - 22

Blood On The Moon Cover

Amazon link

My third novel was finished and published in time for Halloween and I had a launch at Waterstone's at Sheffield.

The full book cover, done by the wonderful, talented, brilliant Paul Mudie

Other Images from Pixabay or Google (Free Usage)

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Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13
Part14
Part 15
Part 16
Part 17
Part 18
Part 19
Part 20
Part 21

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Ch1 Jessica (Rabbit) has entered the Lion’s Den – Wolf’s Den – of her own accord and is neck-deep in her greatest desire (Be careful what you wish for).

Ch2 Red is speaking to a Wolf she knew from long ago and has been astonished once by his revelation.

Ch3 Jessica is in over her head, no other human in sight and is bouncing from one encounter to the next - including in the dream-state.

Ch4 Jessica has an interview with the 'Big Boss', finds out she has a mentor - not Paul, and is the cause for disquiet among the Werewolves. All fun and games - at least she knows that if anyone goes against the orders and takes her as prey, they will be seriously reprimanded...

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The Wolf guided them, not as they expected, back towards the town centre, but towards the market and beyond and then down back streets.

“I thought you were taking us to a private club,” Leigh said.

“Yeah, illicit drinking club, known only to a few individuals, with a secret knock and a spy hole in the door an’ everything,” Callie quipped – although her irony would have been better delivered without the slurring.

“I am taking you to a private drinking club. It’s not well known and it’s just down this way, ladies,” he said as he stopped at the entrance to a dark alley. He mock bowed to direct them down the corridor.

After a number of steps the alley widened out into a yard. The women stepped into the space and looked around them. There were another two doorways leading off the yard and another alley directly opposite the one they had entered by. Street lights were fastened high up on the walls that enclosed the yard and they gave the area a washed-out and sepia-tinged atmosphere.

There was a faint aroma of disinfectant, not unlike the coal tar soap their grandmothers would have used.

The women looked to their host with expectation.

“Which door is it?” Callie asked.

He pointed and nodded at the door.

“Can I knock the secret knock?” Leigh asked.

He laughed and nodded. “Three knocks then a pause then one knock, a pause and then five knocks,” he told her.

Leigh looked at Callie and grinned conspiratorially then she shrugged and moved slowly, with mock austerity towards the door.

She turned to giggle at her friend again and then knocked three times. Then she paused then she knocked once and then again five more times. She waited. No-one answered her knock.

“Try again,” the Wolf said. “But with a more pronounced pause between each knock.”

She nodded and turned back to the door. She knocked the pattern again but slower.

As Leigh turned back when there was still no answer, she saw what she thought, what she assumed was the couple kissing. She put her hands on her hips and coughed theatrically. Then she tried to scream as he looked up from her friend’s neck, blood was smeared all over his face and it looked black under the sodium lighting. She was fascinated by the gentle wafts of steam rising from her friend’s throat into the cold air and she didn’t believe her eyes when he leaped at her as she stood transfixed, rooted to the spot and unable to make her vocal chords function.

He only fully transformed to Wolf after he had taken off his expensive shirt, after he had torn the silent throat from the young woman’s neck with his deadly jaws. And when he was naked to the waist, he devoured the newly deceased Leigh’s glands.

His fur bristled as he sensed another Wolf.

“Peace Phelan.” The guttural voice would have sounded male to human ears but he could distinguish that the voice belonged to a female Wolf.

“Hello Sentinel Exemplar,” he replied. “It’s a fine evening, isn’t it?”

“Indeed. Have you finished with this one?” she asked, waving her hand towards Callie’s corpse.

“No, the glands are still there, help yourself.” He invited and she accepted and plundered the corpse for the delicacies which are so highly prized in Wolf society that they are sometimes used for payment in certain circumstances.

After they had finished devouring his victims, the door which Leigh had been knocking upon finally opened and the two Wolves went inside, they passed two other Wolves in human form on their way out to collect the remains and to clean up. The Crew – Cruentus Nuntius to give them their correct and official title were Wolfkind’s clean-up squad. They came at a price, but for older Wolves such as Phelan, the price was affordable and the convenience it gave made the monetary cost well worth it.

He went directly to the rear of the bar and when he returned, his face was free of fur and blood and his hands were clean and well manicured once more. “I take it that you were not following me personally, Sentinel?” Phelan asked as he approached the table that she had chosen close to the bar. She waited whilst he put on his shirt.

“No Phelan, I was not following you. I was interested in your prey however. Where is the last member of the trio?”

Phelan looked at his companion and gauged whether she was annoyed or not. When he decided that she was not annoyed, he relaxed and took a seat opposite her. “Ah, she declined to join us,” he said but paused and thought for a moment. “Actually, the circumstances of her refusal were quite odd now that I think about it.”

She nodded and said: “Tell me.”