Hair of the Wolf (21 page)

Sighing contentedly, a final smile lit his lips. His body dissolved and glowing motes of gold floated gently, gently away from his decomposing form, dancing to the ground and vanishing into the tiles of the hall.

Once the god was gone, Bathory licked hungrily at the shears, stealing the last bits of Loki’s essence.

Nyx smiled warmly at her great-grand-daughter. “You have done well. We have won.”

***

Kaine

Vlad stared at his father. “I don’t understand. The Wolf wasn’t there when the Vampire was created. We have captured neither. Mina and Jon both survive, and though they are apart, both work against us … it feels like everything has come apart at the seams. We have been stopped, beaten.”

Kaine smiled. “The gods have fallen. The only one left is my mother. Both the Vampire and the Wolf are alive. The failing of our cause is not the end for us, it is the beginning. We have nothing but time to achieve our ends, and there is no one left to oppose us.”

***

Spyke

Chrprrrdrk watched the apple core intently. Moonlight glinted tantalizingly off of the juicy remains, promising a full belly and making his taste buds sweat in anticipation.

An average squirrel might see a feast this delicious once or twice in the course of their lives. Chrprrrdrk waited patiently though; oh yes, he had learned that virtue well. An encounter with General Razorclaw, a leanly muscled, evil-as-Mussolini neighborhood tabby cat had left him his veteran’s stripe—a scar that ran diagonally across his face from the left ear to the right side of his nose.

So he hung onto the trunk of the old birch tree, tucked upside down in the shadow of a branch—well off the white bark that was so readily reflecting the moon’s calm glow. Carefully, he watched … waited.…Seconds crawled by like minutes, and still he was patient. Finally, sure that Razorclaw was nowhere to be seen, he darted down to the apple core, ready to claim his prize.

“PREDATOR!!!” screamed his instincts as a flash of silver glinted off something shiny to his right. A muffled “Yip” was the last thing Chrprrrdrk heard as Spyke’s fangs sank into his neck and shuffled him off this mortal coil. Spyke drained his victim dry, licked his chops, and contentedly padded back to the doggie door to find Jenny and cuddle.

From the yard next door Wells smiled at the night. “I’m coming for you, brother mine.”

Winston, Spyke, and the werewolves will return in

Gothier Than Thou,
Book 1 of
The Bloody Countess
.

Ian Stone will return in

Drowned Memories,
Book 1 of the
Stone Cold Case Files
.

And …

Loki will return in
The Divine Prank
.

***

About the Author

Throughout the course of his life, Peter has acted in movies, he has designed—and written story-lines for—games, written novels and other fiction, and was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for his first graphic novel. Currently, he is the managing editor of Kevin J. Anderson & Rebecca Moesta’s WordFire Press.

Over the years Peter has worked on the Cyberpunk Games, on the set of Alias, and is the writing protégée of Kevin J. Anderson. His first bestseller,
Bloodletting Part 1
came out in early 2014. His most recent work
Second Paradigm
is available via WordFire Press at:

http://wordfirepress.com/books/second-paradigm/

***