Dougall McCaleum

Dougall McCaleum

Age:  40

Height: 6’2”

Weight: 180

Pack Status: Master at Arms

Supernatural Status:  Liam’s second enforcer

Appearance:

            Human:  Doug is a human bean pole.  He is tall and skinny.  That slimness hides incredible strength.  He has soft, curly dark brown hair most women want to run their fingers through even though it’s always carefully arranged so the humidity doesn’t make it poof out into a clown wig.  He has chocolate brown eyes – dark chocolate at the iris that fades out to creamy milk chocolate at the edges – that are often filled with humour.  He has smooth cafe au lait skin that is marred by a few scars on his torso.  Long fingers are capable of caressing and pleasing or of great harm.  Soft but wiry hair is sprinkled across his chest and belly.

            Wolf:  His Wolf is larger than it should be, coming in at around 200 pounds, in big part because of his heritage.  He has milk chocolate fur and black eyes. 

*Never used his demon form

Background:  Doug was raised by a single parent.  His mother had been raped by a Demon walking around in human guise.  This Demon is a general in the Seventh Circle and was capable of hiding his scent well enough to get close to her.  There was a prophecy in hell that a Demon-Wolf would rule the Supernatural world and this general, it was decided, would be the one to begat just such a child. 

After much research, the Four Claw pack had been chosen to be the keepers of this Demon’s offspring and that Doug’s mother should be the one to raise him. 

Dougall was never blamed by his mother.  She did not believe that he was responsible for his creation or his birth.  So he was raised with love and much affection.  He was also raised to be able to strong, to be able to be the one to take control in a fight.  He was taught about weapons; blades, guns, anything that can be thrown or swung, he knew it all.  He knew their histories, their present technologies, their potential uses and their weaknesses.  And he knew how to use each and every one of them. 

He grew up with Liam, Marcus and then Michelle.  All four of them were a tight-knit group.

Weaknesses:  His Demon self is under-developed.  Other than that, his apparent lack of weaknesses leaves him unbalanced. 

Strengths:  His knowledge of weapons.  His humour. 

Abilities:  He is a shifter.  He has an innate knowledge of people – he can see who is Light and who is Dark.  He can sense where enemies are.

Marcus Cariston

Marcus Cariston

Age:  42

Height: 6’3”

Weight:  280

Pack  Status:  Beta

Supernatural Status:  Beta of the Four Claw Pack.  Right hand of the Alpha of Alphas, enforcer of his will.

Appearance:  

            Human:   Marcus is built a lot like Liam – big, broad-shouldered, big hands, big feet.  He towers over most humans and a large number of Wolves, standing at 6’3”.  His hair turned silver when he was sixteen.  He tried dying it once but after a shift during a full moon it reverted back to silver so he just left it; it seemed pointless to try and change it when his eyebrows and eyelashes turned the same colour. Now he keeps it just about shoulder length and cut into layers that always manage to stay swept back, no matter what he’s doing.  The silver hair only serves to make the denim blue of his eyes richer.  He has a strong, square jaw, hooded eyes and a straight nose.  The broad shoulders taper down into narrow hips, a tight ass and long legs.  Thickly corded muscles in his arms and legs and the rippled abs make women look twice and then a third time. 

            Wolf:   His wolf is huge, slightly larger than Liam.  He keeps his blue eyes, though they’re a pale, washed out version, like bleached jeans.  His thick fur is shades of silver and grey from smoke to polished silver.

Background:   Cubs don’t come into their Wolf until they hit puberty, even though the adults in the pack call their children cubs.  Marcus is the son of the pack’s only female Beta in recorded history and her Mate, the Gamma from a northern pack.  Marcus’s father moved south to be with his mother with his pack’s blessing.  Marcus grew up in a loving, joyous atmosphere and that love and joy didn’t disappear when his father was killed in battle when he was but five years old.  It became a little quieter at times but his mother was never one to wallow.  Marcus was her only child and she loved him. 

He met Liam when he was born, the day after his own first birthday.  He was taken to meet the Alpha’s son when Liam was just a day old.  The new baby opened those eyes, already green, and met the rich blue eyes of the new toddler and reached out with both hands.  Marcus had met Liam’s hands with his and the bond was formed.  Marcus’s mother spent a lot of time in the main house and he went with her.  He spent as much time as possible with Liam.  If Marcus disappeared from his mother’s side, he was found at Liam’s side. 

Marcus is a natural Alpha.  The pack speculated that one day the two friends would battle each other to the death for the Alpha spot.  Eventually it became clear that Marcus always deferred to Liam.  If the two children were given cookies, Marcus waited until Liam bit into his.  If they were forced to fight, Marcus always lost, though he never obviously, deliberately threw a fight. 

When Liam’s father was killed and his own mother challenged then killed by wannabe Alpha Rick and his thug, Marcus helped Liam bury their respective parents and get his mother to a safe place.  He also agreed to whatever Liam wanted to do to rectify the situation.  He swore fealty to Liam as soon as he could speak and then again when they hit puberty and their Wolves made themselves known.  He swore to stand behind, in front of and beside the man he considered his Alpha from day one.  He deliberately altered his own natural Alpha abilities to be able to serve and protect Liam better.  He will stand at Liam’s side unto his death. 

Weaknesses:  Marcus is somewhat inflexible in things as he puts the safety of his Alpha above all else.  His one other weakness is Michelle MacMichael.  She is the love of his life.  However, he doesn’t feel free to pursue it just yet and that hesitation is a tiny chink in his armour, the only uncertainty in his life.

Strengths:  He is a planner and a forward thinker, just like Liam.  He is capable of seeing both the Dark and Light.  His devotion to Liam, Anna and the pack gives him the ability to stand firm in the face of anything.  He is as skilled as Liam in defensive and offensive fighting techniques but a slightly better shot.

Abilities:  He can look at a person and see all the choices of their lives and know the one thing that will help them follow the right path.  He is an excellent tracker.  He has an almost terrifyingly accurate ability to read body language.  He is cunning and an exceptional strategist.

Anna Marie Connor

Howdy!

Over the next three… three?  Anna… Marcus… Doug… yes, three days I will be sharing the rest of the character bios with you.  They will be going up on the website soon (as soon as I get quick and dirty temporary book covers put together for HW3 and HW4!) but I thought I would share them with you.

I will not, however, be editing them here again.  *laughs*   They will be edited [better] before they go up on the site.

Enjoy!

 

Anna Marie Connor

 

Age: 33 (according to the government; 633 as a living Vampire this life)

Height: 5’8”

Weight:  210

Pack Status:  Alpha Mate

Supernatural Status:  Princess of the Vampires, daughter of Cain, heir apparent, holder of the Regnier seat on the Vampire Council, liaison to Dragon, Fae and Demon realms, Alpha Mate of the Four Claw Pack.

Appearance: 

            Human:  Anna is a curvy girl in exactly the right way, she is the kind of sexy Marilyn Monroe was; very fluid, liquid lines, generous breasts and hips.  Her hair is copper* with silver streaks, grows quickly and undergoes a random change in style every few months.  She was born with tri-coloured eyes that change colour with her emotions.  When she is happy they are pale green with copper around the iris and navy blue rims.  They darken to emerald green with passion, either ire or arousal.  When her ire reaches the point of fury or when the Vampire within her is hungry they turn black.  When they are forest green with a black rim she is feeding from the ambient energy around her.  She has sensual lips most often curved in a smile and a dimple in her left cheek that appears under sweeping cheekbones when she is delighted with something.  She has a long torso, long legs and long arms that all make her look taller than she is.  Her soft curves belie the strength her body carries.

*In Demon Plague Anna’s hair turns black after a battle with a griffin and later it turns white after an infusion of Demon essence.  She also acquires three thin scars from her right temple to the corner of her mouth, giving her a small, permanent lopsided smile.

            Vampire: Anna’s Vampire is harder, leaner and uglier, even her fingers lengthen as the nails turn into razor sharp claws.  The bones in her face become more prominent, sharper and more angular.  Her canine teeth lengthen and all her other teeth sharpen, giving her mouth the appearance of double the amount of teeth.  Her eyes turn black as her skin pales to the death white of her undead kin.

            Wolf:  Anna’s Wolf’s beauty is a complete polar opposite to the ugliness of her Vampire.  Because of her human weight she comes in larger than most of the pack’s other female Wolves at about 185 pounds.  Her fur is a deep, dark black like Liam’s but with the silver streaks from Marcus’s influence in her change.  Her eyes are a beautiful clear amber.

After her adventures in Hell in Demon Plague Anna’s fur is snow white, almost a crystalline purity.

            Demon: (Her Demon form comes out in Demon Plague during a course of events in the depths of Hell.)  Anna’s Demon is a blend of her Vampire and Wolf with a few changes.  She has the same facial structure of her Vampire but with a shortened Wolf snout altering the lower half of her face, giving her face a half-Vamp, half-Wolf structure. Long sharp teeth, snow white hair and deep-set black eyes complete the appearance.  Her skin turns ash grey and she is covered with short startlingly soft, white fur.  Her body tightens, slims, becomes longer, almost skeletal.  The claws she has in her Vampire form are nothing compared to what tips her fingers in this form.  The final detail is a pair of large, dull silver, bat-like wings that sprout from her back.

Background:  Anna is her human name but in the other Realms she’s known as Princess Sadira Chalthoum.  She is a living vampire with a purpose: to maintain the peace and good relations between the Vampires and the rest of the Supernatural world. She is born over and over again, choosing with each death to be reborn alive rather than become undead, so that she remains current in thinking with the shorter lived Supernaturals, such as the Lycanthropes.

Janelle, her mother, is half Witch and half Vampire and is the source of much of Anna’s magic.  Where Anna’s Vampire half, from her father, trumps the Witch, in Janelle the two are in perfect balance.  She is in a human body kept immortal by her Mate, Cain.

Cain is Anna’s father.  He is the Cain of Cain and Abel infamy, cursed by the Christian God to walk the night, feeding solely upon humanity.  He is the source of Vampire kind and Anna is the only genetic, living child he has ever sired.  He sits upon the throne, father and king of Vampires, a vicious and nearly merciless ruler.

Anna has been involved in the Supernatural world since birth (in all her lives it is the same).  She is generous, kind and sweet.  She is an excellent diplomat who works tirelessly to find peaceful resolutions but who can be as cold, hard and vicious as her father. 

Anna is the Vampire liaison to the Supernatural Council and it is at one of those council meetings that she meets Liam.  He had never attended before, having always sent his Beta, Marcus.  Their energies, their souls, were immediately drawn together.  They decided to keep talking after the meeting and eventually got together in the Astral Realm.  They fell in love quickly.  It was deep and true and within a few months they knew it was forever.  He and his pack bite her and bind her to them.

Weaknesses:  Anna is the absent-minded professor type; very powerful, fairly smart but most often stuck in her own head or in at least one other Realm at the same time. She is vulnerable to attack because she doesn’t pay attention to her physical surroundings.

Physical body is easily injured; power use drains her physical strength.

Always sees the good in people.

Strengths: Always sees the good in people.  Anna is fiercely loyal.  She loves deeply.  She always keeps her word.  She has the combined powers of Vampire, Witch and Wolf.  She is honourable.

Abilities/Traits: Astral projection, healing, fire (blue is healing and cleansing, black – which is Demon fire and comes in book two – is pure destruction), shape shifting (to Wolf form), body temperature rises with passion (anger or sexual) and can rise to the point of spontaneous combustion.  She can cut an opening in the seam of reality between realms to pull things out or put things in, after book two she discovers that she is able to move her physical body through the seams.

Anna is the only Vampire-Wolf hybrid in existence in any realm and is one of the singularly most powerful creatures ever.  And yet, she is vulnerable because of her human frailities and her innate need to see the best of people. 

Liam Taggart, the Alpha

I’ve been working on stuff for the website; biographies and the like.   I thought I’d share one with you.  

This is Liam’s and I’m quite proud of it.  I love the background I created for him.  

Take a look:

 

Liam Andrew Taggart

Age: 41

Height: 6’

Weight:  240

Pack Status:  Alpha

Supernatural Status:  Alpha of the Four Claw Pack, Alpha of Alphas of Scotland – ruler of the Lycans and Therianthropes in Scotland.

Appearance: 

            Human:  Liam is stocky, a big guy.  He has broad shoulders capping a torso that tapers slightly in at the waist.  Muscles ripple and flex under his skin as he moves, his muscles are naturally long and lean, defined without having that bodybuilder look.  Long legs are often encased in denim, regardless of the weather, that hides the power in them.  He’s heavy but it’s all muscle.

 Thick black hair falls across his forehead to drape across strong black brows, when he hasn’t made it stand on end by running his fingers through it in aggravation.  Equally thick lashes frame almost expressionless deep, green eyes.  Those eyes warm up when they land on Anna but otherwise show very little emotion.  His eyes do, however, turn yellow when he is angry.  Crinkles caused by stress and amusement and joy are already making an appearance, faint though they are.  He has a strong jaw, straight teeth and sensual lips framed by laugh lines deeper than the marks at the corners of his eyes. 

After Dagda touches him with his club in Demon Plague Liam has a silver streak at the center of his forehead.

            Wolf:  Liam’s Wolf is huge at close to two hundred pounds.  He stands almost four feet tall at the shoulder.  He has strong, nimble legs, a strong back and yellow eyes.  His fur is a deep midnight black that seems to absorb light. 

After the touch of Dagda’s club, he has a small silver lightning bolt that streaks from the end of his snout towards his left ear.

            Background:  Liam grew up as the son of an Alpha’s son.  He was groomed from birth to be the Alpha and yet he was still expected to fight his way through the ranks. He was made to study the laws, not only of their own pack but of Supernatural world.  He was involved in all pack business at his father’s side from a young age.  He joined the pack as an Omega and worked his way to Alpha.  He made friends with Marcus at an early age and they stuck side by side.  He watched his father die at the hands of an unscrupulous Wolf named Rick who thought only about himself and the power being the Alpha would lead. 

It was then that Liam learned the difference between a true Alpha and a poser.  A pack, he learned, has an energy connection that binds each Wolf to the one above, below and beside him.  That energy flows from the Alpha.  A poser weakens a pack and, left in place too long, will destroy it.  Liam had been an Epsilon, four down from the Alpha, when Rick took the pack by force.  Rick sanctioned a battle between the then-Beta and the thug he wanted in place.

Liam and Marcus buried their parents, spirited Liam’s mother away, (she died six months later of a broken heart), and then talked strategy.  They waited six months, building their strength and steadily taking the pack by energy and stealth.  Then Liam invoked the law involving paternal and hereditary rights to the Alpha position: Ascensionem Filius, Ascension of the Son.  There was nothing Rick could do but show up to the challenge or be labeled a coward.  Once Liam won the challenge, he set Marcus up for a challenge to Rick’s old Beta.  The fight never happened for the other Wolf ran.  After that, traitors were routed and the pack swore fealty to Liam.

Liam and Marcus have been Alpha and Beta for almost twenty-five years.

Liam is a contradiction – dead serious about everything and yet ready to see the humour in everything; ruthless and cold, yet overflowing with love and affection for his Wolf family.  He is often stressed, usually pressed for time about something and generally buried under paperwork but he is always ready to hear from his pack. 

            Weaknesses:  Liam’s only weakness is also his greatest strength:  his utter devotion to his pack.  It can make him blind to trouble within his pack.

            Strengths:  His devotion to the pack makes Liam a forward thinker and someone careful to consider the consequences of every action he takes personally or the pack takes as a whole.  His is able to see almost all sides of any situation and act accordingly.  He is physically strong, well skilled in offensive and defensive fighting techniques and a damn good shot. 

            Abilities:  He is a true Alpha; the power of the pack flows from him and back to him.  Because of that power exchange he is able to sense his Wolves, within a certain radius.  He has a natural charisma and magnetism that draws people in and bends them to his will; he can sometimes deliberately magnify that.  He is a shape shifter and can shift from Human to Wolf to Human with a thought as often as needed, requiring less resting time between shifts than the rest of the pack.

 

What do you think?  I think the biographies will help my readers understand the characters better.  Help the readers love the characters more.  It’ll be great!  :D

An Anthology, a Photo and an Update.

Greetings!

Boy, oh boy, I’m a bad, bad girl.  I have neglected this little space here for the last two weeks.  I had a short photo blog planned for last weekend.  Two blogs, really.  One to talk about the anthology and one to showcase a few pictures.  There were a few problems.  One, last Saturday we got busy and I never did get to the anthology blog (part of that is because I let the way things are going to come out – or at least start – percolate and I couldn’t, for the life of me, come up with an opening).  Then Sunday morning…

Well, Sunday turned out to be a really, really bad day.  I’ve talked a bit before about being gluten, corn and soy intolerant.  One of the things I’ve always felt was absolutely safe was jam/jelly.  In a commercial jam you expect to find fruit, sugar (at least two forms), pectin, colouring, flavouring and preservatives.   What you don’t expect to find is a five ingredient jam with the second being corn syrup.  Wal-Mart’s Great Value brand jam is just that.  We found that out the hard way.  I was violently ill for several hours.  So no blog found its way out of my fingers that day either.  It took me two days to recover.  The following two days were spent catching up on my editing of HW2 and being without internet at my home.  (Provider is a jackass)  Friday was… stressful and busy.

I am here now though and I would like to tell you about an exciting project I’ve just taken on.  Kallysten is an author I like not just for her books (which are wonderful, sexy, provocative) but for herself.  I don’t know her personally but everything I see about her, the things she does and the cheer she does them with, make me like her.

Recently she posted a blog about creating a second anthology to sell for breast cancer awareness/research.  I took interest and mulled it over.  It was only a day or two before I emailed her and volunteered. (Why?  Because my favourite aunt-in-law had breast cancer last year.  She had a double mastectomy and a lot of chemo.  She’s thriving now and I’m grateful.)  I don’t expect that she’s going to take ALL of the stories she sent, I’m sure her editor will have a thing or two to say about the size of the book, but I’m going to do my damndest to make sure I make the final cut.

“What will you write about?” you ask.

Good question.

At first, I thought I’d write about Marcus and Chelle, a sexy interlude between the two of them that shows how they feel about one another.  Then I thought about the lady, a very dear person to me, who has yet to be written into the Highland Wolves book, even though she is part of that group that so inspires the characters.  I thought about her enduring love affair with the man who inspired Doug.  And I thought that this is the perfect way to write her into the books.  Make it a Highland Wolves 2.5 novella.  

That, my friends, is that.  It’ll be Doug and McKenna (not so sure about the name as yet) and a steamy story that includes the pink.

I haven’t been taking many pictures.  It’s like the camera in my brain is defective lately but I do have a few.  Most of the pictures I see in my head happen when we’re doing 100 km/h down the highway.  Difficult to take them to say the least.  This one here is my favourite.  It came out absolutely beautifully right from the get-go so all I had to do was tweak the levels just a touch and resize it.  It’s a staple of Ontario summers.  It’s creepy as all hell and yet beautiful in its way.  We call it a mosquito hawk and I have no idea what it’s really named.  It eats the bitey little buggers though so I leave them alone.  This one landed for a rest on the picture window in the living room.

Lovely shot isn’t it? I like the lines. The focus is in the right place. The background is perfect.

The Update:

I do need to speak to my brother about how the website is coming since he hasn’t said anything but I am working on the things that need done.  I’ve been doing the first edit on HW2 so I can write a teaser for it.  It’s funny that I have to reread the thing so I can tell you what it’s about.  I knew the basics but getting a feel for the book again will help write something compelling.  

I will admit that I have been doing two things almost to the exclusion of everything else – the editing and reading J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series.  Man I love those books!  My kids hate that I’m reading them because I get lost in the book and tune out everything else.  ”Mom!  MOM! Did you hear ANYTHING I just said?” is the most common refrain heard from my son.  To me, that’s the hallmark of a great book.  

My point is that the character write ups for Liam, Marcus and Chelle haven’t been done.  I am thinking now that I need to do Doug and McKenna too, if I’m going to feature them in a novella.  That’s okay.  I’m glad of the work.  I do need to poke my brother though.  We need to get this site up and running.  

And we’re off for the afternoon.  We are going to a small outdoor fetish fair – what?  Is it that you thought it was kept to my characters?  Ever hear the adage ‘write what you know’? – and to do some errands.  I’m on a mission to find purple potatoes.  :D

Be well.

Muah.

Beheading Creation Myths

Made you look didn’t I?  ;)

Warning:

This is a long post!  It has bits of HW3 in it and me rambling about my newest challenge.

I promised on Saturday that I would share the work I’ve been doing with you… yesterday.  Well, Saturday my ex phoned me and asked me to take GirlKid to dance Sunday morning.  So Peter and I did that, along with a little grocery shopping.  After all that exposure to chemicals this weekend I was fried.  Just… fried.  My brain did not want to work at all.  

Saying that, though, I did manage to create two characters and assign genders to their children. *laughs*

So here I am this morning fulfilling that promise, albeit a day late.

First, the beheading.  As you know, Anna and a small crew are in Ballachulish – Marcus, Doug, Brock and Jules – and already they’ve had some interesting adventures.  Today, (in the story), they are being confronted by the Russian Bear clan sent by Alasdair and Liliya’s familiar, Kristina.  Anna and the gang meet a Naga clan, a Japanese Bear clan and a lone Harpy Eagle.  (Yes, I know a Harpy Eagle is a strange choice but they are vicious hunters, look intimidating and when you make one that’s half the size and weight of a grown man you have a terribly fierce and frightening predator.)  She has just exchanged bows with the - 

Ahem.  Sorry, had to pause and blow bubbles for the cat. Where was I?

Oh yes…

 - head of the Taiyou Bear Clan when we pick it up here.

Anna returned the bow, offering the same level of respect.  “I am honoured to make your acquaintance and to have your assistance, Sadao.  Perhaps, when this is over, we may sit and have a discussion.”

He tipped his head in acquiescence and the bears stood still as Anna found a boulder to stand on to speak to them all.  The air began to ripple with anticipation.  “I don’t know what or who we are facing but I thank you all for answering the pleas of my dear friend Nuada.  May you fight better than your opponent but if they prove superior may you die well and realize a place in your nirvana.”

Marcus held a hand up to Anna as she made a move to step down.  Just then they heard a voice from below and slightly behind them.  “Zdra-stvu-eetee!”

The pair looked down at the wide, flat hill to see a large, stocky man standing at the apex of a loose triangle of large stocky men.  Several more stood on the grass beside them.  Marcus answered, hand lifted in greeting.  “Hello!”  He led Anna forward to meet the man.

Viktor waited for the pair, ignoring the rumblings from his clan.  When the Wolves were close enough he swept a low bow.  “My brother, it is a pleasure to see you after so long.”  He gave an appraising look to Anna as he rose.  “And you, Lady Hybrid, are more beautiful than the rumours insist.”

“Thank you…”  Anna looked at Marcus, brow raised.

He took the hint and hurried to make the introduction.  “My Alpha, may I introduce you to Viktor Mindaugas.  He is my brother of my heart and, I am sorry to say, our enemy today.”

Viktor bowed his head.  “It is true, I’m afraid.  We have been hired to assassinate you.”

Anna stared at him in obvious confusion.  “Then why the confab, eh?”

“I wished to speak with you because I have a request.”  Viktor bowed his head.

“Anything you need, Viktor, you have but to ask.”  Marcus hastened to say.

Viktor lifted his head then looked first Anna then Marcus in the eye.  “I wish for you to kill me and let my family live.”

Marcus gasped and took a step backward.  “I cannot!”

Viktor surged forward in his eagerness and grasped Marcus’s hands.  “Kill me.  Let my family live.  They will tell a tale of how hard we fought.  Let us not fight today.  Kill me now, Marcus.  Do me this honour.  Allow me to do this for you.”

Marcus looked at Anna over Viktor’s head.  She looked at all the people there, all the people who could die, who would definitely be injured, maimed.  And she nodded.  Marcus closed his eyes in pain and nodded.  “For you, my brother, I will do this.”

Viktor stepped back and twisted his upper body before holding out his hand.  One Bear, scowling, brought forth a Russian Imperial sword and handed it to Viktor hilt first, holding the scabbard firmly as Viktor pulled the slightly curved blade out.  The sun glinted off the edge and Marcus and Anna could see that it was wickedly sharp.

Turning back to Marcus, Viktor took one step back then knelt before he offered up the sword, laid across his palms.  “Use this.  It has been in my family for generations and done little but hang on a wall for many years.  It would like the taste of blood again and,” he hesitated, “it would please me.”

Marcus reluctantly accepted the sword and moved to stand at Viktor’s side.  He took a two-handed grip, raised the sword high above his head and brought it down hard on the back of Viktor’s exposed neck.  Viktor’s head flew free and blood sprayed freely for several feet.  It caught all the Wolves to some degree before the body hit the ground and the blood began create a spreading pool in the grass.

 

Chapter Twenty-Six

 

For a long moment there was shocked, horrified silence and then a roar of outrage and pain split the air.  Viktor had not counted on the effect actually seeing him die would have on his brethren.  Pain and grief splashed outward from the Bear clan.  In the next moment the energy changed as men turned to beast in an explosion of fur and blood. 

The energy of shifting rippled over Anna as Marcus, Brock, Doug and Jules shifted.  Anna turned and ran back through the ranks of allies, dodging the shifters as they made their changes. 

She is heading for high ground.  I believe she is seeking to put a quick end to the fight but I think the sun is setting and with that will come something that will make it more difficult.  Or maybe something else is heading their way, something to help the Russians.  

The beheading has been changed because at first it looked like this:

 

Marcus gasped and took a step backward. “I cannot!”

 

Viktor surged forward in his eagerness and grasped Marcus’s hands. “Kill me. Let my family live. They will tell a tale of how hard we fought. Let us not fight today. Kill me now, Marcus. Do me this honour. Allow me to do this for you.”

 

Marcus looked at Anna over Viktor’s head. She looked at all the people there, all the people who could die, who would definitely be injured, maimed. And she nodded. Marcus closed his eyes in pain and nodded. “For you, my brother, I will do this.”

 

Viktor stepped back and twisted his upper body before holding out his hand. One Bear, scowling, brought forth a Russian Imperial sword and handed it to Viktor hilt first, holding the scabbard firmly as Viktor pulled the slightly curved blade out. The sun glinted off the edge and Marcus and Anna could see that it was wickedly sharp.

 

Turning back to Marcus, Viktor took one step back then knelt before he offered up the sword, laid across his palms. “Use this. It has been in my family for generations and done little but hang on a wall for many years. It would like the taste of blood and it would please me.”

 

Marcus reluctantly took the sword and moved to stand at Viktor’s side. He took a two-handed grip, raised the sword high above his head and brought it back down on the back of Viktor’s exposed neck. The sword jammed between the vertebrae and Marcus fought to get it out. He jerked it free and Viktor’s body fell forward, the head rolling grotesquely in bad angles from the head.

 

Chapter Twenty-Six

 

For a long moment there was shocked, horrified silence and then a roar of outrage and pain split the air.

*Obviously* Marcus is strong enough and has enough love for this friend (displayed earlier in the book within a phone call) to get it right the first time.  So I changed it.  I like it much better the first way I showed you.

So, I don’t know if I told you but I am doing CampNaNo.  Yes, I realize it’s completely masochistic of me to do it again so soon but I have been challenged.  And D, the guy Liam is based off of and one of the most important people in my life, won’t do it in November anymore.  I want to face the challenge with him.  I will not be doing it again in July or August though.  I have much work to do on the Highland Wolves books.  

He challenged me to a new genre so I am doing a fusion.  It will be High Fantasy Erotica.   High Fantasy is more difficult than anything I’ve done.  There are layers of story to consider.  A reluctant hero.  An Aragorn-style supporting character who gathers the troops and has his own story.  A great evil, a cool weapon, a cool horse or something, an artifact of doom (which will have its own history).  D is lucky, in this moment, he lives on the other side of the Atlantic.  *laughs*

So far I have the creation myth, the Gods, a most base description of what the reluctant hero is (until she has a name we shall call her RH), I think I have the artifact of doom too.  I do not have a title yet.  I’ll show you what I do have.   I went with the Welsh language to find names for my characters, btw.  I did try to choose ones that weren’t too difficult to remember to pronounce.  There will also be a key in the front of the book to help people remember – whether or not I get this thing published. *laughs*

First, the creation myth.

Creation Myth:

Human myth: Mother & father were in love and wanted to see one another.  With their love they created the sun.  When they wanted to rest but still see one another they created the moon.   They made love, enjoying the sight of each other in the softer light.  The Father loved the way her skin glowed and she loved the strength she could see in his eyes.   He swept some of the glow from her skin and she added his strength to create the stars.  From their union came 5 children (Fire, Air, Earth, Water, Spirit).  The Mother and Father loved their children so much they felt the need to share that love.  They took pieces of each child and put them together to create the world and humans, the smaller incarnation of their children.

Truth:  It was an experiment.  Mother & Father wanted to see if their children could get along enough to look after pets.  The Children prance and preen and prey on humans for sport.

It will be expanded, I think.  Both the Human side and the truth portion, but that’s a good start, eh?  

The Mother and Father  Gods are as follows:

Mother  – SEREN – (sair-REN): 

-          Benevolent, easy-going

-          Slow to temper

-          Willing to believe they are safe

-          Democratic

-          Long suffering, due to the antics of her children

-          Moves with a flowing grace, barely seems to touch the ground (doesn’t, that’s one reason she can travel from child to child)

-          Appearance: Hair like the night sky, black with sparkling highlights, almost to her waist; pale, hairless skin; eyes shift from turquoise to cerulean blue, the colours of the north Atlantic Ocean currents; luscious little mouth with delicate pink lips; lithe, slim body, petite; high firm breasts that stay that way despite being a little on the large side,  sensitive, pale pink nipples, small areole; a bar code style birthmark on the inside of her left outer lip

-          Aggressive masochistic submissive

-          Magic

-          Kinks - 

 

Father  – IORWERTH – (YOR-weth):

-          Dark, except when it comes to Seren

-          Quick to temper

-          Vengeful but often tempered by Seren

-          Rigid and unyielding except, again, when it comes to Seren

-          Strong, warrior (like a Viking)

-          Appearance:  Same pale, hairless skin; dark hair; eyes the colour of Arctic snow; barely 6 feet tall, stocky, slightly tapered body, well muscled; thick cock with a heavy, large sac below, just over 7 inches long, obvious veins and the same type of bar code style birthmark just behind his left ball; looks like a working man with large, thick fingered hands and substantial bundles of muscles throughout his limbs, defined pecs and abs

-          Magic

-          Kinks -

As you can see I haven’t figured out their kinks yet.  And yes, BDSM will be a part of this.  RH is living in a Gorean-style  community (see: book series by John Norman that has become a ridiculously popular way of life).  

So, Seren and Iorwerth’s children are:

Fire – CARWEN – (CAR-wen) Goddess of purity (fire burns all things clean),  eyes like sunset on the water

Air – EIFION – (AYV-yon) God of

Water – RHIAN – (HREE-ann) Goddess of

Earth – EURWEN – (IRE-wen) God of fertility, home, hearth,

Spirit – CADFAEL – (KAD-vyle) God of philosophy, the heart, the mystical, mind-body connection

As you can see, I’ve made a good deal of headway this weekend, despite not being home and it’s shaping up to be something quite cool.  There is more in my head, just have to get it out.  

That’s it for me today, my lovelies.

Muah.

Oh!  I also figured out the back story for Seren and Iorwerth.  :D  You’ll love it.  I’ll share once it’s written out.

Moira’s Fingers

It was days ago that I finished the scene with Moira and Anna’s little machine but I am just now getting around to sharing it with you.  I was quite surprised by the end.  It’s not what I wanted at all but I can’t seem to reconcile what I wanted with what the characters have decided should be done.  

Here, take a look:

Moira paled and tried again, uselessly, to remove her hand from the crusher.  It ran through her head that it wasn’t worth losing her fingers over.  No employer is worth losing body parts for.  She pulled again and again, trying to get her hand out from under that weight.  It didn’t work.  Her breathing hitched, stopped, and then started again with a deep shuddering inhale.  She opened her mouth.  “Okay!  I’ll tell you!”  And she meant it.  She watched as Anna put her left pinkie finger inside that little alligator’s mouth and started hyperventilating.

Anna set the feet very carefully into the joint.  She applied just enough pressure that Moira would know the teeth were there but not enough to feel pain.  “Alright,” she said.  “Who do you work for?”

“Ballachulish Hotel.”  Moira wailed as she realized what came out of her mouth.  “No, no!  Please!  I’ll tell you, really!”  Then she screamed.  Anna had closed the alligator’s mouth with a snap and a thump of the side of her fist on the top of the snout. 

The steel teeth cut cleanly through the joint at the base of the finger, separating the small digit from its owner’s body.  Anna used her blue fire and immediately cauterized the wound to stop the bleeding.  Then she set fire to the finger as Moira, whimpering and sobbing, watched.  “You told me you were ready to tell me, Moira.  Are you ready to try again?”  When Moira nodded eagerly, Anna smiled.  “Good girl.  We’re going to try something different now, maybe it’ll help.”

Anna slid the alligator up Moira’s ring finger and closed the teeth around it, just tight enough to bite.  Then she began twisting a screw that tightened the jaws.  The tighter they got the deeper into Moira’s finger the teeth went.  Anna stopped only when she judged that the teeth were almost to the bone.  Moira was sobbing with little hiccupy screams here and there.  Anna grabbed Moira’s chin and looked at her face.  When Moira’s eyes began to roll back in her head Anna slapped her. 

“Who do you work for, Moira?”

Moira’s head lolled loosely on her neck, even with her head in Anna’s grip.  “Ballachulish Hotel.”  Even Marcus groaned in sympathetic pain.  In the next moment, Moira screamed again. 

Anna pulled the alligator up Moira’s finger, the jaws still tight.  The flesh began to shred.  Strips rolled up into the torture device as Anna braced a hand on the crusher and pulled slowly.  When she reached the middle knuckle she got stuck.  As she pulled on the alligator she asked again, “Who do you work for, Moira?”

“Kristina Gedeon!”  Then Moira threw up and passed out. 

Anna jumped to one side but couldn’t avoid the splatter that covered her shoes.

“Oh gross!”  Brock said.

Marcus’s question was dry.  ‘The finger or the vomit?”

“The vomit.  The finger looks kind of cool.”

“Gods Brock!’  Jules shot him a disgusted look then gazed at Anna in wonder.  “What are you going to do now, Alpha?”

“Fix her finger enough that she’ll avoid infection but in such a way she’ll always remember, clean the vomit off my shoes and then drag you guys along to find this Gedeon.”  Anna didn’t realize that this Kristina’s employers implanted triggers in the minds of their servants that all but destroyed their minds should they betray them.

Months later, Moira was still not all the way there mentally.  It was like something had snapped and broken her mind.  She often babbled about alligators named Kristina but nobody would listen to her stories.  The only thing that disturbs her, because she can’t remember what happened to her left ring finger.  It is missing stripes of flesh, exposing the myofascia, tendons and veins with hints of the bone.  Skin grafts had been tried, and fallen off.  It didn’t hurt, it was just her finger exposed.  When she’d told the police she didn’t remember they hadn’t believed her and investigated every part of her life.  It was only in her dreams that she saw the truth, the whole of it.  And those dreams reminded her that no one was worth keeping her mouth shut, no one earned that amount of loyalty from her.

Moira worked from home now, building tiny alligators out of metal and seed bead weaves.  It was all she could do anymore.

See?  Moira was meant to remember it all.  Anna wanted her to remember and left her finger to be an ever present symbol of her ultimate failure to hold to an oath.  It’s too bad that  neither Moira nor Kristina…well, ultimately Liliya… want her to remember.  

And now, finally, on to battle!  The most awesome thing happened!   Anna got a letter from an old friend, the Irish Fae Nuada (Nuada appears in book two), giving them help in the battle against the Russian Bears.  :D   Fabulous!   There will be a some harpy eagles, a snake or two and… I can’t remember.  Panthers I think.  It’s a good thing I make notes.

Have a good evening!

Muah

Animals, Contests and Mornings

Cranky.

There are those who will wish you good morning. If it is a good morning, which I doubt. ~Eeyore

I was woken 40 minutes early by cat purring on my face and a dog whining from the living room.  When you get up at 5:30, 40 minutes is far, far too early.  I had to wake Boykid to walk the dog. That was like waking a hibernating bear.  A hibernating polar bear.

The dog isn’t mine, she belongs to my kids and the ex but one night a week the ex goes to his girlfriend’s house in London and because he works in between his house and her’s and has to come back to town here after work he can’t take the dog with him when he goes.  So I dogsit.

The cat and the dog drive me batshit crazy.   

Pardon the language but it’s the truth.  They don’t have enough exposure to each other to completely wear off the novelty so they fight.  Sometimes it’s play fighting.  Sometimes there are yelps.   They tear after each other all over my apartment all day long.  It’s exhausting and nerve wracking.  I’ve tried tying her up but that seems cruel.  I asked Dad for some advice and he said to let them have at each other so today I’m going to grit my teeth until they crack and do just that, hoping they get it out of their system.

Anyway…

I do have a purpose for this morning’s blog.

I am FOURTEEN followers away from 100 for my blog!  And I am, oddly, 14 away from 50 likes on my Facebook page.  I also have a lead on getting my website built.  So here’s what I’m going to do:

When we hit 100 blog followers and 50 likes on my page I will give away THREE personalized autographed copies of Witch Hitlist together with a handmade book thong each.  I may also give away a few other things, I need to discuss that with The Boyfriend since he helps me with these things (like more copies of the books, whatever else we can come up with).  I will see about maybe doing another giveaway when the website is up and running.  

The book thongs look something like this. Each one is hand made and unique.

Have a wonderful day folks!

Muah.

Deer Hunting

Image courtesy of Cryptomundo

Greetings!  (As The Boyfriend is wont to say)  How are you?  

It has shamefully taken me three weeks to write approximately a thousand words.  I finally finished the scene last night and I know it needs work, it needs fleshed out some more. I was working on that this morning but I need to move on so I’m going to leave it to the edit.

January was a long, long month and February is shaping up to be the same way.  However, I am determined to write EVERY day.  There are no days off when you’re as behind schedule as I am.  I have said this before, and failed, but I say it with intent.  Just have to work on the follow through. 

Anyway, I thought I’d share Anna’s first hunt in her new form with you while my cat opens all the kitchen cupboards just to see what’s inside.  Muffin tins in the one he just slipped into…

Oh, just as a point of interest, Anna’s fur colour has changed as well as her demon form, which we saw in Demonizing Anna.  It is now a glacier white with pale silver (is that possible?) tips so she gleams like raw silver in the moonlight.

Have a wonderful day!

Muah.

Chapter Twenty

 

Anna’s wings curled around her body, hiding it from view.  She lowered her head in embarrassment.

Marcus held out a hand.  “Anna, don’t.  It’s a beautiful form.”

You really think so?  Anna’s wings relaxed a little bit.

Though somewhat startled to have her voice in his head, Marcus smiled.  “Absolutely.”  Just then the others raced back into the clearing.  As one they skidded to a halt in a semi circle in front of her.  They stared with almost identical postures and expressions – both ears straight up,, tails hanging down behind them, front feet spread slightly wider than shoulder width apart, noses twitching as they tested the air.

Jules took a step forward and when Anna didn’t move she sniffed all around Anna’s feet and up her legs to the edge of the wings.  Then she sniffed the wings as high as she could reach, making Anna’s giggle reverberate through all their heads.  At the sound, Jules wriggled her nose between Anna’s wings and peered up the length of Anna’s body. 

Anna looked down and giggled helplessly in their heads as her wings spread wide.  Jules took advantage and laid her body against Anna’s legs with a thump.  In the next moment she almost fell over as Brock and Doug added their weight to Jules’. 

“See Anna, you’re beautiful and we love you no matter what shape you’re in.”  Marcus grinned at her.  “Let’s hunt shall we?”

You’re a pain in the ass, she thought at him with a smile in her voice.  Anna rolled her shoulders, thinking about the placement of her wings.  They were attached just behind the mid-point of her collar bone down through to the bottoms of each shoulder blade.  She thought for a moment then spread those wings, tilted them slightly with a shift of the muscles across her upper back and lifted them up.  She pushed the air down beneath them and, to her shock, actually succeeded in lifting off the ground a few inches.  Another, more powerful gesture with her wings and she was well above their heads.  Hunt!

Marcus shifted with a shudder and stood there with his head hanging, panting for a brief moment.  He looked up as Anna lifted above the tree tops and hoped she’d be alright. 

Anna hung there in the air, instinct guiding her motions like it had when she first shifted to her Wolf form during her first hunt with the Pack.  A push with her wings and she drifted backwards through the air until she could no longer see the physical forms.  She blinked, trying to see in the night and to her shock her vision shifted.  Suddenly she could see heat signatures. 

Lots of little purple dots littered the trees.  Anna guessed they were birds.  Two huge masses of orange and white, alongside a smaller one caught her attention and she glided towards them, skimming the treetops.  She started to smell the animals almost immediately and made an adjustment in her flight path to stay downwind as she identified them.  Marcus!  Doug!  Brock  Jules!  She called to them all as she zipped back towards them.  Anna scanned the woods below and caught the large wolf shaped blobs of colour.  She paused, hovering, to look at them.  They were black on the tips of their noses, orange and red on the edges and white in the middle.  Deer!

Anna wasn’t surprised not to get words back but she did get a sense of their interest and hunger.  She took a deep breath in through her nose to see what she could smell.  She caught a snoot full of trees and dismissed it.  She sorted through the rest of it the way a wolf does, compartmentalizing it all.  Birds, their nests and feces.  Owls.  Squirrels.  She could smell the rot of the leaves on the ground. 

As the Wolves veered in her direction, Anna moved back towards the small family of deer.   You’re getting close.  There’s a clearing just ahead to the north and a mountain to the south.  She made another swooping pass.  The large one lifted its head and Anna stopped, hanging there in mid-air.   There is also a path east that they could take.

She watched her Wolves split up and begin to circle the deer family.  Anna dropped down closer and the stag bolted for the eastern path as he scented her.  The doe and fawn followed suit and Anna cursed.  She dived towards them tucking her wings against her body.  She dodged the treetops and shifted a few feet above the ground to land on all fours in Wolf form.  She stood there in the stag’s path, snarling with her fur standing on end.  Her teeth were bared and she stepped forward, stiff-legged with her head down and shoulders up. 

The stag skidded to a stop.  He lowered his head, antlers down as he stared at her.  Anna  growled again, projecting menace.  A long moment passed as the stag debated his odds against the creature in front of him.  Finally, he turned tail and ran back the other way with the doe and fawn racing frantically after him.  Anna followed them, snarling intermittently.  She could feel Marcus, Brock and Doug closing in.  She knew they’d herd the deer towards Jules. 

Marcus and Doug cut the fawn off from its parents and it bolted, crashing through the woods.  The four Wolves chased the stag and doe north, heading for the clearing where Jules was waiting.  The deer broke through the brush into the clearing and Jules sprang up in front of them.  They soon had the deer surrounded by a small pack of snarling, hungry Wolves.

Chapter Twenty-One

 

The stag must have been feeling brave for he lowered his antlers and charged Brock.  Brock charged right back, momentarily forgetting how sharp antlers are.  He ducked under the first swipe and sank his teeth into the stag’s leg and bit down hard enough to crack the bone.  The stag screamed in pain tilted his head and stabbed at the Wolf.  He managed to scrape and bruise Brock’s spine just as an enraged and hungry Jules leapt at his neck. 

Jules tore at the throat with her teeth and the stag whipped his head around, skin and fur hanging from the tines, with another scream of pain.  Arterial blood sprayed over Jules until it dripped from the tips of her fur as Brock let go of the stag’s leg and stood back to watch.  He staggered then stumbled and fell to his knees with Jules still shredding his throat as she worked her jaw up and down and side to side.  She put a front paw on him to hold him down and ripped a huge piece out.  She gulped it down then howled as the stag breathed its last and died.  The other Wolves joined her in celebration of her first big kill in the Pack.

The musical notes wove through the trees then hung over the town, leaving the townspeople cowering inside their homes.  Anna, Marcus, Doug, Brock and Jules ate their fill of the deer and lazed around the clearing in the moonlight.

Pain, Life and Work

So today I wanted to get to work.  I wanted to dive right back in there and make myself happy by accomplishing things.  A little writing, a little blogging (oh hey, will ya look at that? Here’s a blog!), little time on my Facebook and trying to figure out what a website should have – content, photos, etc., maybe do some work on filling out my Goodreads profile some more.

Instead I’m sitting in a pain puddle.

Actually electricity hitting water but hey, who wants to be accurate. Photo courtesy of Loreescience.ca

The motorcycle show was awesome and I’d do it again.  Just… differently.  Use my cane, sit more, something. I have been left unable to walk without searing pain in my legs and feet.  Man oh man does it ever blow chunks.  So I’m taking acetaminophen with codeine and ibuprofen to try and cope. 

Unfortunately, with the kids back in school my weekdays start out busy, which means I’ve over done it already.  

I am going to try to work though.  We’re still here in HW3:  

Anna tapped a finger on the page.  “We need to find these people.  And I need Elsie.  Jules, you start with the newest one.  Brock, the one before it.  Doug, take this one,” she handed them out as she spoke.  “Marcus, this one,” she gave him the next oldest, “and I’ll take the remaining.  First though, I need to get Elsie.”  She leaned forward and set the last two books on the low coffee table in front of her then stood up.  “I’ll go to the bedroom.”

A small, grunted chorus of agreement from Wolves already deep into ancient journals reached her ears just as she closed the bedroom door.  She smiled and crossed to the bed and sat down lotus style.  Anna closed her eyes as she rested her hands palm up on her knees with the fingers relaxed.  Three deep breaths later and Anna was deep into a practiced meditation.

Her astral self drifted from her body and she reached for Elsie.  Anna popped up beside Elsie and Alasdair and wavered a little bit before firming up.  “Phew!” she said, “It’s warm in here.”  She looked around the ethereal home they’d fashioned in the valley of the caldera and smiled.  “I like it though.”

Alasdair jumped about a mile.  “Damn ye!  Don’t you ever knock?”

Anna smiled sunnily.  “Hard to knock on smoke walls, MacIain.”

The Laird growled then chuckled.  “What can we do for ye, lassie?”

“Marcus found some journals.  We need Elsie to help us wade through them.”

Elsie stood.  “As you like, young Miss.”  She kissed her husband and popped into Anna’s hotel bedroom as the Hybrid opened her eyes.

“Thank you, Elsie.”  Anna unfolded herself from the bed and went back out to the sitting room, the ghost following closely.  “We’re back,” Anna announced.

“Welcome back, pretty ghost.”  Marcus smiled at Elsie.

“Ah ye young bucks all think with that monster between your legs, doncha?”  Elsie grinned at him.

“Only when one so lovely as you is about.”  Marcus leered at her.

Anna chuckled as the others groaned.  “Marcus you flatterer, go back to your reading.”  She sat down and opened the journal very carefully.

“What do you need help with, Missy?”

“Deciphering this journal for starters.  I took a quick peek before I went to you and I can’t read it to save my life.”  Anna opened it to reveal a page covered in old words scrawled in smudged ink.  It was barely legible, let alone anything Anna could understand.

Even Elsie squinted at it before reading out loud. 

I know what I want to put there… well, knew.  I just have to find it again.  

*rummages*

Ah here it is:

What in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That to the highth of this great Argument
I may assert th’ Eternal Providence,
And justifie the wayes of God to men.
~Book 1, Paradise Lost, John Milton

That will be the start of the very first journal and then Elsie will simply translate the Gaelic, without me showing what the Gaelic text is in the first place.  I can’t imagine trying to figure that all out!  Gods that would be hard.  I’d have to learn the entire language, which would be fascinating but something I don’t have time for right now.  Getting a tutor to learn would be relatively simple I think, given my friends.  But no, I don’t have time.  *gives her head a shake*

My brain is now running on almost all cylinders so we shall see what’s in that first journal.  

Have a great day folks!