Blood on the Moon - serialised EXCLUSIVE for Steemit! - 81

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

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“Erzsébet bit me and then waited with me while I changed. I didn’t believe in such things as vampires and werewolves, I set out to prove that those creatures were nothing but myth and legends. I wanted my family to become powerful on that knowledge and they would have ruled our lands far easier if they were the most feared living thing, rather than the non-existent creatures of ancient tales. I went through every village and where I found tales of vampires and werewolves, I burned the houses of the town leaders to give them something real to fear. It was a successful strategy until I encountered a beast that I was searching for. Erzsébet slaughtered my men and took me hostage in full view of credible witnesses and then that was the end of my privileged life. She forced me to go back to my family home and scare my father and older brothers with a display that makes me cringe to remember. Then she burned down their house and scattered the family. I was allowed to keep an eye on them after that and though they managed to regain some of their wealth, they never wielded their power in the same way again. They are still a respected family now but they are the greatest advocates of the legends of our homeland.”

Darius nodded and Falco smiled. He slumped a little in his seat until Darius asked him another question.

“So you are passing information back to Erzsébet and therefore informing the Lycaeon of my plans.”

“No Darius, I’m not. I spoke with Erzsébet a while ago and she told me that you are disgraced and have a legal bounty on your head and the Sentinel Exemplar also told me that I should tell her or the Sentinels where you are so that they could bring you to justice. She even told me that I should do myself a favour and kill you myself and rid myself of the burden of my debts to you, but I won’t do that. I swore my allegiance to you and even though I have checked those facts and you are indeed a traitor to the Lycaeon, and a threat and danger to our society, I owe you a debt and it would be my dishonour to turn you in or claim the bounty even at the risk of displeasing or alienating the one that I owe greatest allegiance to.”

Falco’s vision was blurred and he struggled to focus. He glanced over at Selene to see that she was slumped in her chair, her head leaning on her arm, deep in sleep. He felt drowsy but was fighting the sensation.

“You have drugged us, why?”

“Oh don’t worry about it, Falco. I slipped you a little cocktail to loosen your tongue and make you more likely to tell me the truth. You’ll sleep for a while and wake up with a hang-over but nothing damaging and certainly not permanent. I appreciate your honesty and your loyalty but it has not helped me to find out who has been sending the messages to the Lycaeon!”

Falco slipped finally into unconsciousness but he saw Vladimir enter the room through the stationery cupboard. He watched as his colleague lifted Selene and took her out of the room and Falco felt his mouth curl up into a smile as he realised that he had always wondered why there were so many stationery cupboards in one office.

Darius was not pleased; the sodium thiopental cocktail had been a resounding success as had the method of administering it.

Steak Tartare for dinner was an almost guaranteed choice. He must remember to put it on the menu more often.

He smiled for a moment until he remembered that his theories had been proven wrong.

The two that he had reason to suspect were ultimately loyal to him and he had no doubt that both would recover quickly from their truth drug overdose and Selene at least would be livid.

Falco, he thought, would be placated easily with promises of release from part of his debt but Selene would want answers about her sisters, he was certain.

Then he realised that perhaps he should have asked questions about her witchcraft whilst she had no choice but to answer truthfully.

He had watched her for centuries and though the sisters had never shown any spark of a gift, Selene was different, he knew that, but how to utilise her gift; that was the conundrum he needed to deal with, and always had been.

As Vladimir came to fetch the unconscious Falco, Darius had a moment of panic and doubt in his oldest serving officer, Vladimir.

It was very true that Vladimir, son of Vitya had been brought up to serve and protect him but loyalties can change, even those that have been forged on family tradition.

Then the notion left his head.

Vitya hadn’t been killed in any war; Vladimir knew exactly how and why his father had died.

The Sentinel Exemplar had performed that particular task and Vladimir had seen her do it.

There was no question of Vladimir’s loyalty; he hated Red with as much passion as he, himself did and was waiting and hoping for the opportunity to murder her in as painful a manner as he could think up when that time arose.

“Did you get the answers to your questions, Darius?” Vladimir returned from dumping Falco’s body in one of the sleeping quarters.

“Not yet Vlad, but I will.”

Vladimir nodded, he had faith in the ruthless drive of Darius, he had been a good friend to his father and Darius was right to be confident in his reliability, Vladimir swore to his father’s memory that he would not rest until the Sentinel Exemplar and her Lycaeon were both as cold and dead as his father.

Vladimir had other work to do and he bade Darius good night and went out onto the streets to complete his task of anarchy in Darius’s name.