Blood On The Moon Cover
My third novel was finished and published in time for Halloween 2016 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)
To read from the beginning: Here
Then change the number in the address bar from 1 to 2 (https://steemit.com/writing/@michelle.gent/blood-on-the-moon-serialised-exclusive-for-steemit-2) and so on for the next episodes.
“How?”
“The amulet draws them. It’s an ancient thing and it was used to cull our numbers so that we didn’t get too noticeable in amongst Humes. Don’t you remember that we had many more wars back then?”
“Yes, but I didn’t realise it was because of something that engineered the wars, I thought they happened naturally.”
Anton shook him then, like a terrier shakes a rat and though Darius was more than a thousand years old, he allowed the elder Wolf to shake him without protest or resistance.
“You’re a bloody fool!” Anton snarled. “That amulet being lost was one of the better things you managed.”
“How do you...?”
“Don’t be stupid, Darius. I have access to The Scribe and I know exactly what you’ve done throughout your miserable, treacherous, and nefarious existence,” Anton said, but then he bent close to Darius’s ear and whispered so that no other could hear him.
“I also know that you raped and assaulted Hazel. I know this and it is only by The Scribe’s decree that I have allowed you to live. We are in the middle of an intricate dance, you and I, and the only reason that you still live is because you sometimes bring about events that have been foretold. You, Darius, are an integral part in the success of the Lycaeon and her line. Think of that and be proud.”
Anton shoved Darius away from him. Because of the angle he was at, when Anton jerked his hands from Daruis’s grip, Darius sprawled on his back at Vladimir and Entwistle’s feet.
Entwistle went forward to help him up, but Anton snarled a warning at him and he backed off and almost fell over his own feet.
Darius may have been Ancient and powerful in their eyes, but Anton was the oldest that Vladimir and Entwistle had ever encountered, and the distinction was vast.
Anton turned his back to Darius and his minions and watched the proceedings with growing concern.
He didn’t think that Red had encountered any Wolf with such enhanced strengths as Selene had at the moment.
The Wolves down on the pathway were becoming restless but they didn’t move up onto the lawn area directly beneath the terrace where Red and Selene were standing.
Anton thought that was significant because he remembered another time when that area had been used, way before the house and gardens were built and the lawn was laid.
The amulet was significant in a lot of events that had happened before Hazel had arrived.
Selene lifted her head and looked up at the moon.
She smiled, it was terrifying to see the expression of malevolence, cunning and fury boiled and distilled into the purest of evil.
Red still didn’t believe that Selene was that evil being, she thought the amulet had bestowed those characteristics on her, but she also had the thought that if Selene had not wanted it, the amulet wouldn’t have anything close to the power it had.
Selene had not been taught how to use the amulet and so the amulet was using her.
It had millennia of waiting for the chance to wield its own power and now the chance was here, and it grasped it.
Selene changed to Wolf and she stepped across the terrace, past Anton and grasped Vladimir.
She dragged him to the front of the brick and stone platform and where the balustrade once stood; she flung him over the edge.
It was a five foot drop and he was surprised that he was falling, but he landed on his feet, not quite like a cat, but adequate to keep his balance.
He turned Wolf as he landed and he crouched ready to confront her. He didn’t know what he’d done but Selene was about to tell him.
“You traitorous Wolf, you betrayed me!” She spoke still in Wolf form, but she stood on her hind legs.
She addressed the audience as well as Vladimir. “You took me to your bed, the same bed in which you had also defiled my sisters.”
A howl of delight went up from the front rows of Wolves. They were the younger ones, mainly those that Darius had had turned, and were devoid of the proper tutelage that they should have been able to expect from a mentor.
Selene snarled at them and they recognised her ferocity and her ability to be able to use it on all of them if necessary, and they stopped their derision.
“You murdered my sisters and your father murdered my mother. He used a silver blade to slice her throat. It was a dishonourable killing and you shall pay for his crimes.”
She was about to leap down onto Vladimir but Red reached forward and grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and held her even as she leaped.
Selene turned and snapped at Red but she kept her grip and Selene’s snarls were ineffectual.