Blood on the Moon - serialised EXCLUSIVE for Steemit! - 30

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, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21, Part 22, Part 23, Part 24, Part 25, Part 26, Part 27, Part 28 Part 29

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“Oh, don’t worry; we’re not close or anything. I met him in America a few years ago and he told me all about you. He is very much in love with you and I admire a man that is so devoted to his wife after such a long time of marriage. When I came here, I decided to look him up again and you were pointed out to me as his wife and so I came to make my introductions.”

And there, Red knew what it was that she was hiding.

Etienne may deny that she and Luke were close, but Red saw in her manner that she was weighing up the competition. Still, Luke may be married but it didn’t mean he had to be faithful.

They had been separated and reconciled a number of times throughout the five centuries they had been together, and she had made a decision long ago that it wasn’t worth the worry of keeping track of his lovers and she had assured him that he had better show the same courtesy.

Then Etienne surprised her, she stroked the backs of two fingers down Red’s bare arm and down onto Red’s hip where her hand lingered for a moment longer than was merely friendly.

“So, when Luke gets back, I hope we can all get together?” Etienne purred in Red’s ear and then went back to the group, leaving Red amused at how wrong she had been.

Red stayed by the bar for a while and basked in the attention of a few flirtatious male admirers until at last, she saw who she had been looking for, Vladimir and Selene and another female, a less-confident not-Wolf.

If those two were back in town together, then Darius was close by.

Red saw yet another Wolf hovering on the fringe of that party, a Wolf that she had nothing but disdain for. To her disgust, he saw her and made an attempt at sauntering over to her.

She tried not to wrinkle her nose up at him in disgust but it was difficult and he could surely see that she had no wish to speak with him. He did seem to see that she was trying to avoid acknowledging him and he faltered but came on anyway.

“Hello Red,” he said with a familiarity that grated on her nerves and he indicated to the barman that he would like a drink.

“What’s your poison?” he asked her in what seemed to be a poor attempt at a suave pick-up.

She didn’t look at him but responded in a bored and irritated manner. “From you, Lickspittle, I’d be afraid that it would be just that. I don’t want a drink from you. Go away.”

His expression changed from amenable to furious in a split-second but Red retaliated with her own glare and he backed down faster than he had flared up.

“I’m just trying to be friendly, Sentinel. I would like to buy you a drink if I may? I will not touch it if that is really what you are afraid of, I shall allow the barman to give it to you direct into your hand after you watch him pour it into a glass of your choosing.”

He spoke in a condescending tone and Red’s natural instinct was to reach out her arm and snap his neck to leave his still-twitching corpse at her side but she refrained.

Instead she placed her empty glass on the bar and moved away. She heard his phoney laugh follow her as he tried to cover his embarrassment but he was an insignificant member of Darius’s entourage and she knew that he would report back to his master about her.

She also knew that Darius would not be able to concentrate for a while because of the fury that she invoked in him. That knowledge made her smile return and she sat on one of the long leather sofas and looked out of the window that overlooked the street below.

Yes, it was a very unusual club but all the more fascinating for that.

She saw the one she had dubbed ‘Lickspittle’ return to the crowd and she saw him relate their conversation.

Red knew that he had actually told them that she had called him ‘Lickspittle’ because the two Wolves that she recognised threw their heads back and laughed.

Then Vladimir raised his glass towards her in a toast.

She returned his toast with a mock salute and grinned at him. Entwistle was livid but, as with Red, he could not respond, the other Wolves were older and far more powerful than he was and he seemed to be an inherent coward to boot.