Our Destiny Is Blood by Clare Daly

Author:Clare Daly [Daly, Clare]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Clare Daly
Published: 2017-10-17T22:00:00+00:00

24

The night he was taken returned to him. The foulness of that cloak. Cocooned inside, travelling in its innards.

‘Rako gave me a blade, did you know that? Told me to hold onto it until the moment I needed it. Not big enough to fend off the creature’s attack. Just enough to slit my wrists. He took a risk giving it to me but I suppose it was small enough that I could have hidden it myself. He felt sorry for me.’

He wanted to say something else but instead let his silence speak. He waved his hand.

‘No matter now. I tried to cut through his cloak. I’d no idea if I went through it, how far I might fall but it was a risk worth taking. It was sharp, but not enough to even fray the threads of it. And so, I had to endure the journey in its belly until it spat me across the flagstones at his feet. The cloak receded back into him and he stood there, lost in that hood, his hands folded into his sleeves like some sort of holy man.’

He walked around the end of the table, his hand resting on Lincoln’s shoulder a moment. His friend had heard this tale once before and had Vladimir been there then, he would not have lived to hear the end of it. To hear it again in his presence, would be a test to them all.

‘A bear. A mountain cat. A myth. Do you remember that? Assuring me that’s all it was when you knew exactly. I looked at him in that cloak, hidden, the blade pressed in my hand and thought what can I do to him? I didn’t know the power he possessed. I didn’t even know what he was. Just a monster. Maybe if I got close I could drive that blade into his eyes, one then the other to blind him. But you see he wasn’t the only one.’

He caught the look on his brother’s face.

‘You knew that too,’ he sighed. ‘He announced my arrival to them by pulling a rope on the wall. One bell after another rang out deep underground. That’s when the drumming started. Fists on doors. I imagined hundreds of them, hungry for me. I held onto that blade, I can tell you. Two of them came. A woman, Bethezba and a wolf man called Grom. His lieutenants.’

‘A wolf man?’ Vladimir said.

‘Don’t they have them in your books?’ Sasha said.

‘He was a wolf?’

‘You should have come. I would have introduced you.’

Vladimir ignored his sarcasm.

‘What did he look like?’

‘He was neither man nor beast. He was both.’

He had the stature of a man, yet all his features were lupine. His grey hair, wild and thick. Blue eyes piercing beneath heavy brows. His nose and jaw protruding, his mouth vicious. Sharp teeth. Piercing his skin. He shook the memory away, only to realise that he had opened the door to them. It would only get worse.

‘The woman was human once, a warrior.

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