Blood on the Moon - serialised EXCLUSIVE for Steemit! - 112

Blood On The Moon Cover

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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.

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“You have brought charges against Vladimir but it is not your place to bring the sentence, it is mine. You have also laid charges that he should answer for his father’s crimes. That will not happen. His father paid for his own crimes and he paid for them by my own hand.” Red shook Selene as Anton had shaken Darius earlier.

She shook the other female to stop her from snapping at her face.

Then she continued. “As Sentinel, I shall take into consideration the charges you’ve just brought against Vladimir and if they are genuine, I’ll deal his justice myself. If you had killed him before tonight and then made it known why you had killed him, then perhaps you would have been exonerated, but as it is, now you’ve declared his crimes to these witnesses, any retribution will be looked on as a separate crime and I’ll deal out the justice for that too. Are you clear on that?” For emphasis, Red shook Selene again and the violence of the shaking took her feet off the ground.

Selene hung limp and it seemed that she was cowed by the Sentinel’s ruling.

Red dropped her and Selene leaped down at Vladimir, just as Red had known she would.

Vladimir put up a strong fight, he fought like the very devil and his father would have been proud of him this night.

Darius scrambled to the front of the terrace to watch the battle and the Wolves below the lawn area pressed forward in the effort to see.

Selene had the invested power of the amulet and though Vladimir had ingested a few vials of adrenalin before things had kicked off that evening, the effects were usually immediate and had worn off to a great extent by this time.

Selene ducked in low and sliced at his abdomen.

Vladimir screamed as her claws sliced through skin and flesh and he thrust his own claws out to catch her across the face.

Her skin opened in three stripes just beneath her eye and the contrast of red on grey was clear even in the moonlight.

Again and again she ducked in low and Vladimir seemed to be healing surprisingly well, better than Selene was, Red noticed.

His wounds were closing as they fought, Selene’s were still raw and open.

Red realised that Vladimir must have access to the healing properties that Pituitary glands bestowed. It wouldn’t help him though; the fight was only going one way.

Selene had greater reserves of energy and he had only caught her that once across the face, whereas he was bleeding from numerous wounds.

Whether or not his injuries were closing rapidly, there were more wounds inflicted on him as Selene dodged and ducked like a dancer.

She was elegant and lithe as she moved, he was powerful but ineffective.

His swings hit nothing but air and with each swing taken, he grew wearier.

She crouched low, her feet spread wide, and she swung her body like a pendulum between her knees.

Red thought that she looked like a massive insect. Her legs were bent at right-angles and her body was weaving back and forth.

Each time she swung to the opposite side, she also took a swing at his abdomen. The majority of her slices were successful.

The pituitary glands he had taken were no longer coping with the injuries inflicted on his lower body, and he collapsed at her feet with his guts visible in the lattice-work of skin.

Red was fascinated by the skill that it would have taken to slice so much flesh and yet leave enough so that the guts were still inside rather than outside the body. Red realised then that Selene had not been fighting; she had been practicing her craft work and had made a basket-weave of Vladimir’s stomach.

Selene stood over Vladimir’s still breathing form and she lifted her head and howled.

The Wolves before her also gave voice to their howls and though they were not in Wolf form, Red could see glinting eyes as they too turned preternaturally yellow. The amulet had taken blood and its power was rising.

Selene bent forward and punched Vladimir’s chest harder than any human could punch.

The impact splintered his ribs and drove through the chest to the cavity beyond.

Selene ripped out his still beating heart and squeezed it until it collapsed under her grip. Gore ran down her arm and she held her prize high for all to see.

Red was astounded at the display and she realised that her own ritual of executing the most heinous criminals had stemmed from this place, from the amulet that she had not known of.

She had never been taught how to execute those that she judged but she used the same ritual anyway.

She realised then, if at no other time, that she was inextricably linked to the lore and myths of the prophecy and her life was woven far deeper than she had ever imagined it could be.