Havermouth, The PresentThe farm’s vegetable gardens had been trampled underfoot, without any care for the vegetables and fruits left unharvested, the Van Helsings having abandoned any pretence of the site being anything other than what it was – a military facility. Entrance into the farm from the main road was controlled by guards and cement roadblocks, however, away from the public side of the farm, the security relaxed. There were flood lights set at key points, but their focus was inward and in daylight, they had been turned off.One field contained neat rows of tents, and a portable shower and toilet building which was in use as Harry and Talen crept around it’s edges, someone singing an atrocious rendition of a popular love song as they showered.It made Talen pause, hearing that singer, and a fury began to burn in the pit of his stomach. The Van Helsings at this site were so at ease, so comfortable, that they sang in the shower, where he and his mates had spent nearly every mom
Havermouth, The PresentIt was one thing to ride a Unimog through town, and another to travel on one long distance for over an hour, Aislen thought grimly. She was certain that most of her bones had been shaken loose and that when she eventually did stand up, she’d collapse in a jumble of limbs like in a cartoon. She’d been trying to work on another Secret Keeper post, working in a notebook that she’d stolen from one of the desks in the bunker, but her handwriting was so shaky that she wasn’t sure she’d be able to read it afterwards.She also wasn’t sure if she was being optimistic in it’s message.However, if she wasn’t writing, then she had to focus on what was happening around her, where they were going, and the fact that they had to be getting close, and there still was no sign of Talen. Was he okay? She would know, wouldn’t she? She asked herself. If something had happened to him, she was sure that she would feel it somehow, like a wound to her heart.“He’s fine,” she said out lo
Havermouth, The PresentTalen kept watch as Harry set the explosives under the last of the guns. Of all five machine gun stations, this one was the most exposed, and Talen could feel the prickle of stress sweat between his shoulder blades. They had debated leaving this one completely and hoping that the explosions from the other stations would be enough, but the Van Helsings on duty there had been called to help load a helicopter that was waiting to take off, leaving the station as an open invitation for sabotage.When Harry eased out from under the station and slunk through the shadows to Talen’s side, the relief dragged through Talen’s muscles like the heavy refractory period after sex. He was exhausted, and that terrified him as he knew that the battle was ahead. Get through it, he told himself. Win this battle, and then take your mates to the river house, as Cameron had suggested, for three days and nights of f-king and feasting upon his mates as he turned them.It would be bliss.
Havermouth, The PresentRhett and Heath shifted into human form and the Triquetra threw their arms around each other and him, their hands smearing mud and blood onto each other unheeding in their relief that all four had made it through unscathed. Over Heath’s shoulder, Talen saw Morgana slip and slide through the mud, her cheeks streaked with tears as she saw them, and he held out a hand, welcoming her in, the Triquetra pulling her into the center of the embrace.It was where she belonged, Talen thought as he leaned his face into her hair and breathed the scent of his female mate into his lungs. Morgana had always been the center, the heart of their family, the piece that made the rest of them make sense together.“Everyone’s in one piece,” she pivoted slowly round the circle of her men, inspecting each for injury, smearing away blood and mud with her hands in order to make sure that they didn’t hide wounds below.“We’re fine. We are fine,” Heath laughed wetly. “Really, Aislen, we’re
Havermouth, The Present Aislen sat on the bench seat of one of the Unimogs whilst Talen and the Heath met with Rohan. There were lot of hand signals gesturing beyond the destruction of the farm and solemn expressions on their faces. When she looked up, she could see that Rhett and Cameron were busy helping to carry injured to the waiting vehicles and that the vampires and werewolf soldiers were destroying what remained of the farm’s buildings, ensuring that there was no way that the Van Helsings could return and continue to use the site. The crashing and shouting as they tore the buildings to pieces was giving Aislen a headache and she paused in her poetry writing to pinch her brows. “Here,” Bianca climbed nimbly up the Unimog’s ladder and offered Aislen a bottle of water and two pills. “Paracetamol. You’ve been sitting here rubbing at your head, so I know you’ve got a headache.” “Thanks,” Aislen took the pills and washed them back with the water. “Ah shit,” she said after she’d sw
Havermouth, Present TimeEight men all stood in their cells staring as Aislen turned the trundle bed on it’s side and dragged it around to create a corner that, when she was kneeling, gave her some privacy in which to use the bedpan.“Now, why didn’t I think of that?” Dr. James commented dryly from her bed.“I’m peeing,” Aislen replied. “Crouched behind a trundle bed, in a f-king cage surrounded by different types of zombies, and with eight idiots staring at me. I don’t really want to be chatting with you, Dr. James, right now.”“And yet, here we are,” Dr. James pointed out finger combing her hair. “Life is strange, isn’t it, Aislen? Who would have thought that we’d end up cell mates. It’s sort of funny seeing as we’ve both been trying to put each other into a cell all along.”“I didn’t kill my daughter in order to get my rocks off,” Aislen grumbled under her breath.“You’re not peeing.”“I have f-king stage fright,” Aislen snapped, her eyes going to the row of men who continued to st
Havermouth, Present TimeFeeding time was enough to curdle Aislen’s stomach. Hazmat suited nurses pushed a trolley down the aisle, and metal dog bowls of raw meat and bottles of blood were shoved through the flaps into the cages, where the occupants fell upon the food like wild animals.“Yeah, that’s not at all disturbing,” Aislen commented in revulsion as Dr James licked the bowl clean before licking at her fingers and arms. “You’re not precisely a neat eater, you know?” She complained. She had been served a microwave meal that might have come from her father’s freezer. It was only just warm, but after the food in the warehouse, she wasn’t picky.She did however scrutinize every mouthful in case there was anything pill-like hidden within.She was putting a brave face on the situation, she admitted to herself, but it was an egg-shell thin facade. Her anxiety over Heath, Rhett and Cameron made her skin crawl and her eyes prick with tears that she was determined not to shed, and her fea
Havermouth, Present TimeThe Point Crest Triquetra led the way through the main streets of town. In the darkness of night, with no traffic and no lights, the stillness was unnerving. The shop windows reflected their odd little group back at them, seeming to emphasise how vulnerable they were, Cameron thought with a grimace.Harry gleamed in the night with their vivid hair and clothing, as did Connery in his blue coat. The Point Crest Triquetra and Rhett, in their black, were least noticeable, whilst Cameron, Meguitte, Jules, the human woman and her children looked out of place in their casual clothing, caught between the glamour of Harry and Connery and the darkness of the Triquetra and Rhett.Their hasty footsteps and hyper-vigilance reminded Cameron of movies about the end of the world. It was always during scenes like this that someone died, he realized as they reached the street corner and the Point Crest Triquetra began to cross the road. The warehouse was to the right.“Where is