Blood on the Moon - serialised EXCLUSIVE for Steemit! - 51

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

Other Images from Pixabay or Google (Free Usage)

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It wasn’t unusual for a man to be gone for three days out of the month and nothing was asked of his whereabouts. As long as he provided for his wife and family, no-one worried or suspected that he may be ‘Werewolf’ and that’s probably why there are so many latent Throwbacks dotted about.

A Wolf mating with a Hume successfully produces a Throwback and if nothing is done about it then it grows up and is part Wolf and part Hume and depending upon which is the dominant of the two species, it is either found out quickly and killed or it grows up and creates it’s own life and reproduces, usually with another Hume to bring lesser Throwbacks into the mix.

The problem with Throwbacks is that they are not easily detected and it takes a lot of training as Sentinel to be able to recognise the signs of a Throwback and the more diluted the Throwback genes are, the harder the task.

On the other hand, a Throwback, no matter how diluted their bloodline is, has the potential to detect Wolf without training and without prior knowledge to what they are looking for, especially at the times of a Lupine moon such as this year, when their senses and instincts are heightened and honed by the influence of the magical and mystical moon.

Jessica recognised the streets where she found herself next. She didn’t know how she was being moved from place to place or from time to time but she assumed it was because of the story that Lord Grey wove and she accepted it on faith.

She saw three young women walking, it was dark and the streets were almost deserted. She seemed to recognise the three and she caught herself before she called out to them because she knew that it wouldn’t be of any use. They couldn’t hear her or see her. As her cousin went past, she touched her arm and she did seem to sense at least that and Jessica smiled.

Then she wondered why she was there. Ellie had said that Syl had run away and was nowhere to be found. Appeals had gone out and Jessica realised that this was either a vision of what had been or that the three girls had run away together and now they’d had their break from the mundane, they were returning and hopeful of the celebration for that return.

But Jessica didn’t think they seemed like they had been away, she felt that they were out on a night out, just as they usually did – Syl had been asked along so that they didn’t have to pay for a taxi. It was a shame that Syl couldn’t see they were using her but it had never been Jess’s place to tell her.

Jessica saw them as the handsome man – Wolf – approached. Jessica tried to shout a warning because she knew the danger they were in but the silly girls couldn’t hear her. Syl stopped though and she saw.

Jessica was elated as she watched her cousin run away. She didn’t care about the friends and was neither surprised nor upset when she saw their bodies being ravaged by two Wolves in a courtyard.

When she saw the same two hunting for Syl, she was smug because she thought that her cousin had gone.

Jessica was devastated when she saw with her own eyes, the fate of her cousin. She saw and committed to memory the two that were responsible for her death and she cried.

The story moved on and Jessica moved with it.

Wolves were cunning, they had learned to be and they knew that if their secrets were found out and the Humes had the means to kill them once their mission had been completed, then they would.

Silver, as legend has it, is lethal to a Wolf. If it penetrates deeply enough, a weapon of silver can kill without piercing the heart. It burns and dissolves flesh as acid does with Hume flesh and it’s the only thing that will leave a scar on a Born Wolf. These facts have been discovered about Wolves by Humes only recently in the great scheme of things and they have only just got the upper hand because of the weapons of mass destruction that they wield.

At one time, Wolves were happy to live alongside Man, picking off victims infrequently enough so as to not be an unacceptable risk but soon man became greedy and wanted more and set about eradicating wolf and Wolf from the places where he had settled.