Cruel and Unusual - serialised novel EXCLUSIVE to Steemit Part 52

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 45 46 47 48 49 50 51

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

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She faced Anton as she said this and she did not waver once.

“We shall speak of this back at the hotel,” Anton said, only controlling his anger with some difficulty.

“No, we shall not. If you do not accept that this is how it has to be, then I will not be going back to the hotel and we shall have nothing more to say to one another.”

After a few moments pause, Hazel then said, “I understand if you need to think on this, Anton. I have work to do. Let me know of your decision.”

She ran out of the copse and as she went, others followed her in human form, not wolf. They did not slow until they reached the more populated area of the city and there they split up into ones and twos, Hazel going on alone.

Hazel knew that her presence on the deserted streets was conspicuous and would look to be a trap but she waited and watched anyway.

It did not take long before she was approached by a lone man. He walked slowly and with great care. She assumed that perhaps he did not wish to alarm her but soon realised that the reason for his deliberate gait was because he was drunk. The whole populace seemed to survive on a diet consisting only of gin, she thought.

The man arrived and smiled at Hazel. She smiled back, unworried.

“’Ere love, you wanna escort ‘ome?” he slurred. He was even more drunk than he had at first seemed. “It’s dangerous round ‘ere nowadays an’ a pretty little thing like you didn’t oughta be on ‘er own. C’mon, I’ll take yer ‘ome.”

He pronounced it ‘dannerus’ rather than dangerous but Hazel knew what he meant. She smiled and allowed him to take her arm. He led her down a street and then stopped, perplexed.

“Where do yer live then?”

“Not too far from here, I believe I live close to where you live, don’t I?”

He looked at her again and his perplexity deepened. “Oh? Not far from ‘ere then?”

“That’s right. I’ll be fine getting home from here. You look tired though, you go in.” She smiled at him again and removed her arm from his grip. He nodded and slurred a fond goodnight and staggered off down a narrow alley between two houses.

Hazel heard a chuckle from the shadows and for a horrible moment was transported back four centuries to when she was first made Wolf.

She shook off the memory and fixed the smile back in place as she turned to see Ralski.

“You’re rather tender-hearted for a blood-thirsty killer, aren’t you?” he asked with a wry smile on his lips and genuine humour reflected in his eyes.

“I have my moments.” Hazel said, returning his smile.

“I was waiting for you to rip out his throat and feed. I think I would have relished watching you at work.”

“I don’t need to feed anywhere near as much as you do and so I cannot be bothered with all the mess and having to clean up after my kill.”

“Yes, I’ve been wondering about that too. It is very inconvenient and interrupts the flow of my killing spree if I am in that sort of mood.”

“Yet it is a necessity. No Wolf these days should be too engulfed by bloodlust as to have to kill in the wanton manner which was the norm back before I was made. I have heard reminiscences of such times and those that recounted the tales did so with such wistfulness that it makes me yearn for the days when we were not governed so strictly. But it is a necessity, we must hide our presence, Humes must not know of our existence.”

Hazel paused because the expression on Ralski’s face spoke of questions needing answers.

“Before you ask why,” she stopped Ralski’s question before he uttered it. “I shall tell you. Humes are our food source. We must protect them from our over-feeding because if once we outnumbered them, what would we feed on? Also, if we made our presence known, Humes would react in the same way as we see them react against each other: They would declare war. We would lose the war, but it was not always so. At one time in our past, we would have held our own against Hume Armies – indeed, we did so – but those times are also past.”

She continued. “Our attributes are our ruthless blood-thirst and physical strength but now, Humes have surpassed us. Yes we could utilise the same weaponry that Humes do, but the playing field is now levelled. You do not need superior strength to wield a rifle; you do not need a hunger for blood to kill in vast numbers. Hand-to-hand battle was our forte, but that time is gone. We have adapted to the new ways and made changes to our modus operandi – the way we do things. We have had to make new rules to preserve our ways and traditions and to ensure that our Lycaeon and her bloodline is able to continue.”

“I understand why we must cover our tracks and make sure that any kills are undiscovered or disguised as a different means of death. I also understand that our Lycaeon is the most important member of our society. What I do not understand is why we are not allowed to make more Wolves. If we had the vast numbers that we are capable of, we should surely over-run the Humes and take control.”

“And they would bow to our superiority, our strength and almost immortality,” Hazel said. “And they would pay tribute to us and worship us.”

“Yes, and now you speak my thoughts out loud, I realise that I sound like a dictator. I suppose then, that there would be in-fighting for control and our society would be torn asunder.”

“Much as it was before the First Laws were founded and enforced. Much as we were before our society became regimented and structured. We are superior to Humes in strength and life-span, but we are much the same as they when it comes to love of power. If we did not have our First Laws then our society would crumble and we would be so busy fighting each other that the Humes could wait until we were weakened and kill the last one standing.”