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.
Darius thought about what he had just asked and he thought about why Anton would not be able to answer that question and then his face brightened and he understood.
“Has she performed the correct rituals and undertakings to ensure that she is eligible to become Prophesised One?”
Anton smiled at the re-phrased question and he nodded and said, “No.”
“Then why are you smiling? It can’t be because you’re happy that The Scribe’s writings will be wrong.”
“No, that’s not it, but now, I get the chance to tell you what you have neglected to do in order to complete Jessica’s particular Prophecy.”
Jessica was listening and she interrupted. “There’s a prophecy about me?”
“Yes my dear, there is one all about you. It says that you endured a quarter of a year in torment and that you would remember it. That in itself is unlike others who have had to stay trapped in their wolf form. It says that you overcame a great hardship, that you almost died before you had begun, and that you were willing to take on a full Wolf while you were Hume.”
Jessica was amazed that he knew all those facts about her and she nodded agreement for each fact he reeled off.
“The prophecy pivots on whether or not you killed on Feralia.”
“Yes she did!” Darius said in his eagerness.
Anton looked at him with pity in his eyes. “Then I’m afraid that she cannot be the Prophesised One. If she had not killed on Feralia, but killed a Hume on the Feralia Full Moon, then she would have been likely to fulfil the prophecy. As it is, she has no chance, and must therefore hand herself over to the Sentinel.”
Anton seemed filled with grief for Jessica’s fate.
“I didn’t kill the Hume, Darius, you did.” Jessica said.
Darius and Anton both looked at her and frowned. Anton said, “Is that true, because if it is...”
Darius thought and his face again lit up as he remembered. “I killed the Hume. We couldn’t get close to her cage and the only way she could change to human form was if she had the taste of Hume flesh. I killed the Hume and passed her his kidney and adrenal gland.”
“There is no point in lying to me, Darius. If it is a lie then Jessica is going to be slaughtered.”
Jessica assured him that it was the truth and Anton nodded.
“Then all you have to do is make a kill under the Feralia Full Moon when it is the year of the Lupine Moon.”
“Today then?” Jessica asked.
“Yes,” Darius said but then paused.
Anton wondered if he had thought hard enough about what he had told him. It would appear that he had.
“You have to make a kill on the Full Moon which is not until tomorrow evening. The Full Moon tonight is a waning gibbous and therefore, not the fullest it can be. We celebrate the three nights of the Full Moon, but it is the one that is the proper and fullest that is the significant one. We must be patient and wait again.”
“But it’s beginning to hurt already, Darius.”
Jessica no longer sounded self-assured and confident, but she didn’t sound whiny as she had before she was bitten.
She looked as though she was in a great deal of pain and that it was increasing even as the moon broke over the tops of the trees but she didn’t whine, Selene would have been proud of her at last.
“I promise to get you something to eat, little one.” Darius said and Anton looked at him as though he couldn’t believe his ears. Darius was being compassionate? The Scribe hadn’t prophesised that little gem.
“I shall leave you to it then,” Anton said and even as he left, he could hear Darius giving Etienne orders to go fetch some hitchhiker or vagabond but to be sure that it was dead before it got here, he didn’t want to chance Jessica making the kill before the next day.
Anton returned to what had become a party in the grounds where he had attended many parties in the past.
The Wolves that were left were old and Ancient friends and included Jakob, Niall, Erzsébet and Nichasin.
There was no sign of Luke, though Anton thought that he may have heard the call and made an appearance, and neither were Victoria and Oscar there.
Paul was again the youngest Wolf in attendance and Anton was amused to see that Paul had spotted Red and Nichasin chatting and was almost tinged with a particularly unattractive shade of green.