Blood on the Moon - serialised EXCLUSIVE for Steemit! - 83

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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Regicide was by far the most heinous crime and as such it warranted execution with severe and instant effect.

Anton’s own sons had found to their cost how far Anton was prepared to take that judgement – to its extremes.

When his sons had tried to force his abdication, he had taken matters into his own hands and without the aid of the Sentinels, had removed them and their wives and older children from the line of succession, leaving only his two granddaughters alive to succeed him.

Victoria was now the only living descendent and only if she were to mate with a Wolf that was pureblood rather than Oscar, her present Consort, would that fact alter.

For now, it would stay that she was the only remaining descendant. Of course, the possibility that Anton could father another heir was not out of the realms of possibility but it was not on the cards for the short-term.

It was a better informed Paul that joined the Sentinel Exemplar at the appointed meeting place later that evening.

Red, Phelan and Erzsébet were hanging around in the alley opposite the one that led to an innocuous-looking office building.

They were cloaked against any Wolf sensing them and all three were on high alert.

When Paul sauntered close to them, Phelan stretched out an arm and yanked him into the darkened alley.

Paul was shocked because in his naiveté he had imagined that he would be able to sense the group of Wolves, or at least he would have a link with his maker and mentor.

Paul had finally told where the location of Darius’s latest hide-out was situated and Erzsébet told what information she'd gathered.

Red was furious that she had not known he was back in what she considered as ‘her’ town. She had been actively protecting the town from predators; both Wolf and Hume for a good decade or more and her protection on a more casual basis had been in force for longer than that.

She felt an affinity to the area in general because she had been born in the vicinity and although the area had changed beyond recognition more times than she cared to count, she had never lost touch with the town.

She had been a very frequent visitor throughout her five centuries and had kept up to date with major changes. She was proud to be considered a ‘Midlander’ even more than being regarded as a Roman.

The group lay in wait for Wolf or Wolves that remained unidentified in Paul’s intelligence that he had shared.

The tension was bearable for the moment and though silence reigned, it was not an uncomfortable and uneasy silence.

The ones that were about to be ambushed had no way of knowing that they were expected and that knowledge ensured an atmosphere of calm confidence had settled on the waiting four Wolves.

Darius still had his faithful Humes to call upon, Humes that knew of the existence of Wolves and who would do anything to become a soldier in Darius’s army.

The poor deluded fools didn’t realise the danger that lay before them should they be chosen and bitten, because they were not permitted to live by order of the Council.

The First Laws stated that a Wolf may not kill another Wolf but it was also clear that one Wolf may not create another without permission. Even if the permission was granted retrospectively, after the newly-whelped had made the first kill and was technically a Wolf.

Of course, in those circumstances, the newly created Wolf had to survive to the Council hearing and it was not only Sentinels that were eager for a hunt.

If such a Wolf, one that was illegally made and had not yet had a hearing before the Council was killed by another Wolf, then it was a case of c’est la vie and there no charges to be answered.

Darius of course was in possession of those facts and so too were the majority of the Elders but there were those, like Paul, who had been taken by the thrill of becoming a Wolf for the first time and who were not interested in the ‘fine print’ of their new life.

If they didn’t know that they were illegal and therefore fair game, then they were going to be shocked when some Wolf or another treated them as their prey one fine and moonlit night and it did happen, with far more frequency than Darius or his close colleagues would admit.

It was rumoured that Darius was not averse to using the new Wolves as experimentation for his endless drug research or even as the prey for organised hunts for his faithful minions.

It may seem strange that the faithful that were delighted to be taken out on such hunts never wondered about the victim they were hunting, where he or she had come from or even why they had fallen out of favour to the extent that a prolonged and terrifying execution was to be their fate but perhaps they were relieved that this time, it wasn’t them.