Cruel and Unusual - serialised novel EXCLUSIVE to Steemit Part 53

For the full list of episodes, please see this post: Episode List

Images below from Google and Pixabay

Please read the start of the story using the link above. I promise, it’s well-worth the time to check it all out. At least then, this excerpt will make more sense

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Hazel watched as Ralski pored over her explanation in his head.

He came to a conclusion and nodded to her. “I agree, it would be far too easy for a species such as ours to become megalomaniacal and I think that I prefer life as it is, not as it was.”

“A good decision.” Hazel nodded. “You do worry me sometimes you know. I often wonder how you would have turned out if you had not had a patient mentor. I think that perhaps you would have been wilful and opinionated to the extent that you would have become disillusioned with how things must be and you could have turned rogue.”

“Is that so very worrying? There have been Wolves that have gone Rogue before.”

“And I am certain they will again, but none have come from the ranks of Sentinel. I recruited you personally and therefore my reputation rested upon your shoulders, and it still rests there. If you had gone Rogue after I had recruited you and persuaded the other Sentinels and the Lycaeon that you were indeed made of the right stuff, I would have been disgraced – and your demise would have been swift and brutal. It would not have satisfied me in light of my disappointment.”

“You spoke for me?”

“Of course I did. You were the youngest Wolf to have graced the ranks of Sentinel and had the shortest training. You showed most promise and more loyalty than some Wolves I have known and yes, I had great faith in your ability. I took a chance that your questioning mind would be patient enough to wait for the answers you asked for, and I am pleased to have been proven correct in my assumption. As I said though, credit for that does not lie at your door alone. Your tutor was perfect for you; I know that she still is.”

The hint did not go unnoticed but it did go unverified. Ralski kept quiet whilst Hazel fished for more information. Hazel gave up the quest for more information after a few moments and laughed with genuine humour.

“Kirsty has already asked if your relationship is appropriate. I have assured her that it should cause no problems.”

Ralski made no comment but the quiet was enough for Hazel.

“Go now, we have work to do. I will not be able to lure any predator with a guard present.”

As he turned to leave, Hazel became serious again and she asked, “What of the boys? Who is caring for them?”

“The boys are wounded and are back at your warehouse. There is a guard and someone with medical knowledge, just in case. I do not have that knowledge and it was thought prudent for me to take his place out on the hunt.”

“Very good.” Hazel said and she smiled again as Ralski left her, his exit was both swift and silent.

She walked back to where she had been ‘escorted’ from a few minutes before, and loitered there for a while. No one showed her any interest and she saw no women making any attempts to ply their trade and so she moved on.

The few men she saw were not interested in her or her apparent trade as she walked and until she came to a more populated street, she was not approached. The glares of distrust she drew from the women also hoping for custom from the passers-by made it obvious to her that strangers of either gender were looked on with wariness. Hazel decided to give it up as a bad job and move on yet again.

She was beginning to wonder if the mode of entrapment was worth the effort and she began looking to move on up into the rooftops to evaluate the surroundings from a better vantage point, when someone took her arm.

Hazel looked down at the hand which gripped her arm and pinched the skin. The hand was large and dirty, with broken and dirty fingernails but female for all that.

“Whachoo want?” The woman’s voice was gravely and slurred and held a thinly veiled threat in the undertones.

“What do you mean?” Hazel asked in a bland tone which came out as ‘whadder yer mean?’ Anton and Victoria would have blanched at the accent and dialect she slipped so readily into.

“Don’t give me that, I knows what you’re up to. Gerroff my pitch! Things is slow enough round ‘ere without more competition. We don’t needs no fresh faces round ‘ere.”

“Yer, alright then. I’m off. No needs ter rip me bleedin’ arm off, is there?”

Hazel tugged her arm from the woman’s grasp and tottered away as though in fear for her safety. She heard the giggles and cat-calls from the woman’s colleagues and thought that those few ladies of the night would probably be all right if they kept their feisty attitude and kept close together. The danger lay where the women worked alone – or were caught unawares.

Hazel realised that she was going against the centuries of slaughtering and feeding on Humes that she had so readily and eagerly participated in as she ensured the women were working in relative safety, but she felt a little responsible for the danger they were in at that time. It was down to her and her Sentinels to prevent that type of anomaly from preying on the fragile Humes – they were, after all, the food source for her kind.

As she pretended to flee from the threat of violence, Hazel smiled. The women had no inkling that they had ‘chased away’ one that could protect them from the real and ever-present danger of the Throwback that potentially hunted them all.

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A special thanks to @kiwideb for pointing out a potential plot-hole. Even at this late stage, I’m always grateful to anyone if they see and point out something I can use to further improve my writing.

I’ve asked if she would care to be a beta-reader for the next book in my Wolf series – genuine offer.