by Mark Tufo
I was even now wondering if an assassin had found his or her way into the room and was stalking me as its final kill because everyone else had already been taken care of. No matter how hard I strained to see, it was as if a curtain had been placed over my vision. There was no doubt in my mind it was darker than it was supposed to be. There are degrees of dark. Being outside in the pitch black of Maine during the dead of winter is dark; being a hundred feet underground in a cave is another type. What I was experiencing now was that closed in, total lack of light. It had a weight and a claustrophobic feel to it. It wasn’t natural; this was the point I started to think that quite possibly I was in the midst of a world-class nightmare.
“That’s it,” I said, realizing how flat the words felt as they hit the deadened air. “Your bladder is so full it’s affecting your second brain and you're having a doozy of a dream right now.” I knew the cure to wake up was to just take my junk out and start pissing. My mind would start to wonder how I could go for so long without feeling relief. Worked like a charm every time, because invariably my body would say screw it and would be on the verge of releasing everything for real. That’s when I would awake. But as much as I wanted this to be a dream, I knew it wasn’t.
I turned back and got low, blindly reaching out with my hands. I touched fur, but it was the cat. I nearly recoiled because her first reaction should have been to jump up, hiss like a snake, and take a razor sharp claw swipe at me. Nothing. She did not move. There was heat coming from her body, but I could detect no sign of her breathing, no rise and fall of her chest. I ran my hands over the length of her trying to see if I could feel some blood or a wound. Again nothing. She could have been a statue out in a park on a warm spring day. I moved to Oggie; my heart missed a beat or two as I got the same result. I knew there was no possible way I could go over to Azile and the babies. If the same thing happened, I was pretty certain I would spin into depths I would not recover from.
“Dream, Talbot. This is all a dream,” I said as I stood up. The word “enchantment” drifted into my head, uninvited. “Who, though? Ganlin is gone. His brother, maybe? His ex-wife pissed off that she was no longer going to get alimony payments?” I was heading back to the bed, not that I wanted to, but I needed to know. And if anyone could break through a spell, she was lying on our bed. Maybe I could shake her awake, maybe kiss, maybe I could just randomly wave her arms about and mumble incoherently; I was bound to strike on something that would work. I was absolutely terrified that this was my new reality. I would be surrounded by those I loved but would never again be able to interact with them. That seemed exactly like what a lesser god would do to someone like me.
There was some laughter out in the hallway beyond our door. It trailed away in a dying echo. I was on the move, about to chase whatever or whoever that was to the ends of the world if need be, for some answers. That was right up until a tapping came on the window. When you’re twenty feet from the ground and there’s a knocking on your window, that gives you pause for concern. Now I was frozen. It’s one thing to chase, it is quite another for something to be bold enough to come a-calling. As distasteful as it was to head toward something deep, dark and dangerous which had absolutely no fear of me, it was where I needed to go. I ripped the right window off its hinges; the left was going to need some work as well.
A figure, blacker than the surrounding darkness, was somehow visible, if only because the dark around me swirled into it. I knew what it was long before it spun its head at me and exposed its white eye. It was the raven, my raven. Light brighter than the surface of the sun poured out from the eye, over and through me; illuminating the room so brilliantly it washed out all the other colors. I had to turn away from the intensity of the vision before me. Azile was still on the bed; she appeared to be resting as comfortably as Snow White—and had the pallor to match. Then came a voice I thought would snap off a thick blood clot from somewhere in my leg and lodge itself into a deeply folded part of my mind, choking off all flow and hopefully killing me instantly.
“I need help, Mr. T!” Tommy begged
Epilogue
Green Man Goeth
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THE FIRST LYCAN war had been a limited success; he’d found four of the six heroes, but there were two very important pieces to the puzzle still missing, and when the war was cut short by Michael Talbot’s actions, he knew he would need to take a more direct hand in events. That was when he sought Lunos out and directed him how to finish what his brother had started. Lunos had needed far less prodding than his brother. Coming across the Veil Piercer had been a stroke of good fortune. With the boy, he would be able to take his own army across the vast expanse, where they would set up rule for the next thousand years. All living beings would bow to him in one way or another.
When the final battle for Denarth was being waged and Azile had placed the ring of fire over his neck he should have been able to deflect it. It was at that very moment his powers betrayed him and a mysterious voice entered his mind. The last words he heard spoken were in a voice low and gravelly and most certainly not of human origin; “You have served your purpose,” they hissed, and he knew no more.
Lycan Fallout Series
Lycan Fallout 1 Currently Free
Lycan Fallout 2: Fall Of Man
Lycan Fallout 3: End Of An Age
Lycan Fallout 4: Immortality’s Touchstone
About the Author
Visit Mark at www.marktufo.com
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Also by Mark Tufo
If you enjoyed Lycan Fallout and would like to continue with Michael Talbots adventure, Zombie Fallout 1 is FREE now!
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Zombie Fallout
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Also From DevilDog Press
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Zombie Fallout by Mark Tufo
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Forneus Corson By Heath Stallcup
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All That Remain By Travis Tufo
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Shifters A Samantha Reece Mystery By Jaime Johnesee
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Mossy Creek A Maggie Mercer Mystery By Jill Behe
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