Servant of the Moon #1 - unedited draft

::A special visit to the world of the Pureblood Vampires and Hunters of SerenityR0se’s Blood Magic series.::

https://www.FindNovel.net/stories/fantasy/198573

As Essie leaned against a dirt bike, smoking, two enormous black wolves sniffed through a pile of clothing. Jack pushed a second dirt bike into the front yard of the large stone house. He eyed the giant lupines curiously, they had matching tattoos visible through their ebony fur.

“Don’t worry Jack, if anyone can find them, our K-boys can.” Essie said confidently. The larger of the two wolves raised its head and growled slightly at her, she rolled her eyes, “Sorry, sorry, you hate that nickname, I forget.”

It snorted and pushed its giant snout back into the clothes, moving them around some more as it snuffed the scents from them.

She leaned toward Jack, whispering, “I didn't really forget. I may have brain damage and have to smoke these wretched things to keep the pain at bay, but I don’t forget nuthin’” She flicked the butt away after rubbing it on the bottom of her boot. “So what’s the deal with your eyes?”

“Well, we were born to a vampire parent and a human parent, that’s where the eyes come from. They died when Max was 10 and I was 2, we don’t know what happened and Granny never talked about it, except to say the reason was wrong. They died because of something like racism, half-human half- vampire children are supposed to be killed at birth. She raised us here, home schooled us, but we always knew we were different. When Lord Artures and his coven arrived, they were going to kill us because half-breeds like us and vampires are supposed to be mortal enemies or something. Lanea’s grandmother Genevieve bit Granny as saw the truth. Some weird thing purebloods can do, reading the memories of the person whose blood they drink.” He shrugged, then continued. “They let us live and when Lanea turned 20 she realized Max was her Beloved."

"Beloved?" Essie raised an eyebrow at the term.

"Like a soul mate, and they got married. They have two kids that got taken. Now, we gotta get them back or that crazy sunwolf bastard will sacrifice them in some ritual. Anyway, that’s what Lanea sees him doing to any children he gets his hands on.” His mouth set in a hard line and Essie thought it made him look even cuter. Humans weren't really her thing, but then Jack wasn't technically human. He smelled... stronger.

“Don’t worry, Kai and Ketsu will find them and we’ll get them back,” Essie promised and as if on cue, Kaiyou’s giant wolf howled a hunt.

Del and Max walked out of the house together. They left Lanea standing beyond the light in the shadow behind the doorway. Jack got on his bike and turned to offer Essie a hand up but he’s caught offguard by her striping naked. She stuffed her clothes in a backpack that she handed to her sister.

Essie smirked at Jack’s expression as he gaped at her nudity, “What’s the matter Jack-aboy? Wolf got your tongue?” She winked, and in a minute, a large chocolate brown wolf stood where she was. It rubbed its head on his hand and then sniffed his crotch.

“Goddess give me strength,” Del groaned as she stuffed her clothes in the backpack before she handed it to Max. “You don’t have time for a booty call, Ess!” And then the naked Delphi changed, fur erupted from her pale skin and bones shifted and changed, Del was not as fast as her sister but it was still an amazing sight to behold. The wolves ran ahead.

“Fuuuu ck me,” Jack breathed out. “That is some messed up sh*t!, I mean, they’re both hot, but damn, they turned into dogs!”

“Wolves, they turned into wolves, and don’t talk to me about fu cked up sh*t when some crazy demon werewolf has my kids,” Max snapped then he stomped down, and revved his dirtbike, speeding after the wolves.

Jack just shook his head and followed. His life got weirder every day.

Four hours later, they were outside an old auto repair shop with the windows blacked out. Two large black wolves walked around the building, sniffing the windows and doors, and looking inside. Del and Max were watching the pair intently, but Jack was watching Essie get dressed.

“Like what ’cha see, Jack-aboy?“Essie practically purred, “Maybe if you’re nice, I’ll let you see my tattoos?”

Jack coughed then choked out, “You don’t have any tattoos.”

She lit a cigarette and blew a smoke ring, winking at him for the second time today, “Oh I do, but you can only see them at night. Like all female Servants, I’m moon-painted, you can only see them glowing when I'm naked in the moonlight.”

“Essie, leave it.” Del’s voice was low and firm. “What would Ketsu say?”

“We have an arrangement, or he can watch if he wants,” her sister answered smugly. “Besides I’ve never had a vampire, or even a half vampire. Don’t worry Jack, he won’t bite but I might.” And she clicked her teeth playfully and grinned at the effect she was having on his anatomy.

Muttering something under her breath, Del rolled her eyes at her twin’s outlandish forwardness.

Jack leaned over to Max and pointed at the two giant black wolves, “Which one is Kestu?”

Max looked him dead in the eyes in disbelief and then shakes his head, “Does it matter really matter, little brother? One bite and you’d be dead.” Those two wolves were easily twice the size of the ones they had faced before dawn, Max can’t believe his brother is even considering a tryst with one of their females.

The biggest one looked straight at Del and she smiled in a vicious way, “Eight wolves, all rogues, they are in the basement. The children are in the corner room. They are talking about waiting for someone named Helios Solson and he’s delayed, they are to bring the children to him tomorrow.”

Essie added “No electronic security or surveillance.” Her face a perfect mirror of her sister’s concentrated stare.

Del finished, “Ketsu says, there is a panel van in the first floor garage. We can use it to drive the children away in.”

They sneaked up to the building, and Essie picked the lock, she gagged as the door swing open, “Eeww, they aren’t even using scent masking, at least they could shower.”

Jack sniffed, “I don’t smell anything.”

“Be glad!” Del had the back of her hand over her nose, “At least they won’t be able to smell us over their own stench.”

They stalked quietly through the building, then Kaiyou’s giant wolf leapt down the stairs, followed by his brother. After several moments of snarling and shouting, Del walked calmly down the stairs, Max and Jack just stared after her.

“Aren’t you coming?” Essie started down the steps but they don’t move.

“But what about the 8 other werewolves?” Jack demanded.

Essie raised an eyebrow and stepped back up, she puts her palm on Jack’s chin and squeezes his jaw and cheeks playfully, “Oh you are so cute! You’ve never seen werewolves fight, have you?”

“Essie, let go of his face and come open this door,” Del’s voice called from below, she knew her sister too well. Essie just winked at Jack for the third time today.

They followed her down, the floor, walls and ceiling are painted with blood, body parts are everywhere, and the two ebony wolves were eating Chinese out of take-out containers and growling at each other, like dogs fighting over tables scraps. While Essie picked the lock on a heavy door, Del cracked open a fortune cookie, and started laughing.

“What?” her sister demanded, annoyed as the lock stuck.

Reading the slip of paper, Del giggled, “It says ‘Misfortune awaits you if you stay inside today.’” The wolves make a sound like coughing or laughing, Essie chortled.

“OHhhh, Goddess, I love you sis.” Essie grinned, “And you love me too.” The lock clicked and the door swung in.

Max rushed in to see all 7 children, including his two huddled against the back corner of the room.

“Daddy!” A boy and girl shout together as they rush to hug him. In moments, he is surrounded by the other children. Those who were stolen are safe.

Max smiled then turns back to the wolves in the room, Del and Essie are tossing body parts into a steel oil drum.

“What are you doing?” Jack asks.

“Clean up,” Essie answers, “We never leave evidence that werewolves exist. Del, do you see a hose? There’s a drain in the floor. We need to wash the walls.”

Jack grinned, “Ladies, please allow me.” It was time to impress the beautiful werewolf who kept winking at him.

They stared confused, then amazed as he held out his hands and the blood peeled itself off the walls, and ceiling, and flows down the drain. The bloody scraps of flesh that were once rogue werewolves rose and settled into the drum. Even the blood splatter on Kaiyou and Kestu’s fur lifted away and disposed of itself.

The last bit of blood turned into a butterfly shape and flies around the room before disappearing down the drain. Essie gawked, but Delilah smirked and said, “So that’s blood magic. Impressive.”

“I need him to clean up all my little scuffles, can I keep him?” Essie begged her sister, blinking large, doe eyes at her.

Del gave her a half-scowl, “No, no pets.”

“Heeyyyy,” Jack whined, offended but both twins just laughed and for a moment, he couldn’t tell them apart.

Ketsu and Kaiyou shifted back from their wolves, much to the amazement of the children who had never seen a wolf or a werewolf before and loaded the barrels into the van. As they drove back to the manor, Kaiyou, Del, and Max talked in low voices about where they could send these vampires to keep them safe. Kaiyou knew of a place far to the north, nestled in the crook of a mountain range. An old, cold war era town that was abandoned, a city underground. They decided the place will be perfect for the coven. By the time the arrived back at the coven, it had been decided.

Delilah and Lanea spent hours talking, while everyone else packed. They shared everything they knew about the sun-wolf and his coming reign of horrors with each other. Lanea covered her mouth with her pale hand when Del tells her the worst part.

“He is Esther’s mate, her true mate. If he catches her, he will chain her with silver, force himself on her like a breeder, pull her teeth and claws, even cut out her tongue so she can’t pray, before he devours her soul,” Delilah shakes as she thinks about the possible horrors that face her sister if her mate finds her.

“Del, since we know the soul of the sunwolf isn’t his own, that he took the body he has now after leaving the one I saw 25 years ago, perhaps the original wolf’s soul that was in the body was her true mate and that is how he is connected to your sister. By devouring the younger wolf’s soul, he somehow gained the bond.”

Delilah sighed heavily, “Then the only way to truly free her is to kill her or him. The bond will always draw his wolf in her direction unless she is marked by one in his bloodline.”

Lanea squeezed Del’s hand, wondering how to save one condemned by another’s evil.

Just after sunset, Delilah and Lanea hug, the seers of two species trying to save both their peoples and everyone in the world.

“Thank you for saving my children, Delphi.” Lanea said the words but they do not convey how deeply she meant it.

As Delilah hugged her back, she responded, “You are my sister, Augur Vampyr. Just as our Goddesses are sisters. Your children are mine too.”

The 5 Humans, 2 Halflings, and 6 Adult Vampires leave in several vehicles with 2 Werewolves. The 7 children were already asleep before they were a mile down the road, so traumatizing was the last day and night. Two other werewolves run the opposite way, dragging ropes tied with bundles of rags made from bedding and clothes. They leave a scent trail for the enemy to follow to a dead end. The Oracle of one goddess helping the Seer of another, as it should be.

He had caught her, knocked her unconscious after killing Ketsu and her grandfather. She had woken as he raped her on the altar of the Goddess. He wasn’t a wolf, he was a demon. Everyday just before noon, she was dragged from her cell to be beaten, dosed and waist-chained down on a stone platform surrounded by censers of burning blood. He did things to her body she didn’t want to even think about in her worst nightmares.

The apostate alpha’s name was Helios Solson. He was the illegitimate son and half-brother of the Alphas of the Des Rues. He would kill his father and his brother as soon as she was pupped, in the power struggle for dominance of the central territories that would lead to all out war. He was as charismatic as he was cruel, arrogant as he was perverted, but Esther preferred the term insane. He needed a Luna and heir from her to legitimize claim, as he sent his pack of rabid rogues out to bring him more blood.

He had told her that first afternoon, she would be his mate or he would slowly torture her to death. But she had vowed she would not make it easy for him and fought him with everything she had in her soul, every moment they were together. She was fighting him when she broke his nose. As his blood ran down his face, he had kissed her and she bit him hard, then he had choked her until she passed out. She woke to a corpse-like creature, ancient and decaying, raping her. She screamed...

Esther screamed herself awake, gasping and trembling at the terror that would be wrought by her true mate on her soul and body. Trembling, she lit a cigarette and reached for the bottle of cognac. A cool hand caught her wrist and she shrieked but could not pull away from the firm grip. The Augur Vampyr's brother, Larson looked at her with sad eyes as she tried to still her frantic heart.

“Don’t do that,” she hissed.

“What have you seen that causes you to wake the dead every time you sleep? You act like my sister.” He sounded more curious than cross.

Essie gave a weak laugh, “Once upon a time, I was an oracle too. But I was hurt and the price our Goddess demanded for my life, was my gift. I can no longer walk the Tides, I hurt all the time, but I still have dreams, nightmares really. I see the horrors to come and one of them is my own mate.” Jack had quit sleeping with her and having sex with her after she had described one of her lesser nightmares to him. That was weeks ago.

Larson took the bottle from her and swallowed some of the burning liquid. “Is it really that bad?” he asked breathily.

She held out her wrist and he looked at her funny, “Go ahead, take a bite. Jack says you purebloods can see the memories of those you bite in their blood. See if it is as bad as I think it is.”

He ran his fingers over the pulsing point in her wrist, “If I bite you, Esther Ayala, I am going to want more than just a taste, and more than just your blood.”

His tone made her quiver inside. The moonlight shining behind him made his white hair and pale skin glow. She could see the pearly tips of his fangs, and the scars on his cheek. Had it really only been a month since Del had dragged her out of the Temple to save the Augur Vampyr?

Essie smiled up at Larson, she’s never had a vampire before. So she offered, “Would you like to see my tattoos? I’m moon-painted.”