Cruel and Unusual - serialised novel EXCLUSIVE to Steemit Part 45

For the full list of episodes, please see this post: Episode List
And Then, 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
43 44

Images below from Google and Pixabay

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

It was a joyful Keme that went again to visit Isabella. He was perhaps, therefore, not mindful of the one that followed him.

Jack watched as Keme made his way to Miller’s Court and he did not wait around to see what hour it was when he left.

Jack was mindful of the vast police presence and he knew that he would stand out like a sore thumb, dressed even as he was – ‘shabby genteel’ was far too suspicious an outfit in the times.

Hazel stood in shadow, watching the boat crew unload the cargo. Crates, boxes and barrels were hefted from the bowels of the vessel and she saw men lift objects that they should not possibly have been able to move.

These were just some that she had arranged to meet, finishing their contract – working their passage over in secrecy and expedience.

She waited until the boat’s cargo had dispersed along the dock and no trace was left before she emerged from the shadow of the warehouse. Then after making sure at least one of the crew had seen her, she melted back into the darkness and they followed.

They moved in silence, one by one. They spread out so it was impossible to tell that they were a group. No human could have followed them, for they flitted in and out of shadows and even up onto the rooftops.

No Wolf would have dared to follow, for if it were discovered that one had been too curious, the Sentinels would have felt justified in eradicating them, such was the importance of secrecy.

Hazel had taken a gamble – she had invited far more Sentinels to London than had been imagined, far more than had ever been in one city without full scale war being the reason.

Hazel led and they followed in stealth and silence, never questioning where they were being led to, nor wondering why.

When at last they began to leave the city, their progress was swift and just as difficult to track. They spread out yet more and moved fast.

Arriving at open parkland, most changed to Wolf, grasped clothing in their jaws and ran on ahead, joining with others of their kind as they went.

The park was awash with Wolves that night. Hazel strolled with three who had remained in human form. She talked quietly to all and not a word was missed.

“I know that this is unprecedented but you all have my complete trust. Not even Anton knows of this arrangement,” Hazel said.

“Anton? He is here?”

Hazel nodded and explained, “Anton has made London his home for the past few decades. I have no need to remind you that knowledge of his whereabouts is sacrosanct.”

She did not have to see their nods of acknowledgement, she knew these Wolves of old and would place her life in their hands without qualm – and for one such as her, paranoid to the nth degree, that was commendation indeed!

She continued briefing her colleagues. “We should have problems with just a quarter of our number being here. There are already waves of protest reaching my ears. Do any of you know of David York? He is a younger Wolf, no more than two centuries old, a born Wolf, but not Pureblood. He has dark hair and grey eyes and no mate that I know to. He is also a meddler; he enjoys informing Wolves of their rights in our society and seems always on the verge of protesting some cause or other.”

Hazel waited while they thought on the description she had given but none of her three colleagues thought they knew of David.

“No matter, I am certain that if he is involved in this, he will make himself known at some point. I think that he would like to be able to rub my nose in it if ever he were to put one over on me,” she said, her voice low despite being all-but alone.

“Put what over on you?”

“Ahh, it is a phrase that I have picked up, Alex, it means to fool me. If he were able to trick me, he would like to boast about it.”

The one called Alex nodded but still frowned in his puzzlement. “He cannot be so very clever if he would bring knowledge of the trickery to your attention.”

Hazel smiled. “I would not say that he was not clever and he is certainly very sly about something, but he would like to show that he had fooled me, whether he would have the gall to follow it through is entirely another matter.”

She stopped walking when she had led the group off the path and into a small copse where they could be reasonably sure of not being seen by passers-by – not that there were many people abroad given the hour.

“There is a Throwback here, I am almost certain that he is on the verge of either becoming a Hunter or worse,” she said.

“What is worse than a Hunter?” Alex asked.

“I do not know. I do not think I have encountered anything like this in four hundred years, since I began my training in Rome. There was one then. It rampaged through Rome and the surrounding hills. It killed indiscriminately and it could have brought Hume attention to our entire social order – which back then was great and powerful indeed. It killed Hume and Wolf alike and once left a part-transformed Wolf in the middle of the market place. It was a dangerous time for all and if we had not had the protection of The Pope, we would surely have been found out and hunted to extinction.”

Hazel paused to allow the horror of those facts sink in.

“In this, though, we have no protectorate to appeal to. We have no one in high places to watch out for our best interests. Indeed, if this ‘Jack the Ripper’ is found by Humes to be Throwback, then we shall be best advised to vacate London and perhaps even Northern Europe. We shall expect no mercy from the Humes.”