by Jayne Fury
He felt the bark on his skin growing thinner. The time was coming to return to himself. No. Not yet! He pushed himself forward, faster, to get through the woods to the hidden ship.
By the great foremothers! What in the blazing planet? Elly couldn’t decide what hurt more, her head from being dragged by her hair over rocks and sticks, or the branches, sharp stones and poking twigs that dug into her skin at every bounce.
And she still could not shift into her canidiform.
But what good would it do? Make her a little lighter? Her captor would still be dragging her, except it would be by her tail, and she had seen the results of tail pull injuries. It wasn’t pretty.
Elly closed her eyes, tears stinging at the pulling. Gritting her teeth, she tucked her chin and brought her knees up to her chest. Her flexibility, even in human form, allowed her to bring her bound arms under her bottom and eventually to the front. With legs still drawn to her chest Elly worked at the binds of her ankles.
Staying in a ball helped the knocking about and that in turn eased the jerking on her head, allowing her to concentrate on the bindings. Her deft fingers prized the bindings free.
Davin didn’t seem to notice, he kept forward, whistling a ditty, uncaring and detached.
“Why are you doing this? Didn’t you have your revenge killing your father?” She tried to speak a few words but he tugged at her, jerking her head back. She bounced again and a pebble flew into her mouth. Elly spat it out coughing, working her tongue back away from her teeth as her body jolted yet again over another outcropping.
He sneered. “There you go, thinking too small. Revenge? Revenge is the fortunate byproduct of my plan. Hush now, don’t think. You’ll stay alive. I promise. Feed my Lich family, my dynasty. And be the mother of many more kin to breed for blood. And then… I will be unstoppable.”
The idea of breeding his own, her kits, for him to feed to his disgusting constructs made her want to vomit. At the word unstoppable her heart pound harder in her chest. She passed over another rock, her eyes searching around her to see if there was something sharper but nothing would break the bonds that she could find. She would have to wait until he stopped dragging her to wherever he was taking her and then take him on somehow, by herself.
Another few minutes of agonizing tugging and dragging and they stopped. She heard a click.
The second he let go of her hair she sprung into action.
From the crouch she leaped to her now unfettered feet and flew at him full force, with joined fists first, straight into his belly. It knocked the wind out of him as he staggered back. Davin landed on his back and wheezed. He glared, putting one arm down to steady himself.
But she wasn’t giving up. Not her freedom. Who needed hands anyway? She was a fox.
Again, she hurtled herself at him, leaping legs first, into his face, before he could stagger to his feet. There was a sharp crack as her bare feet met his chin.
She tumbled over him, hand-springing back to her feet again, twisting around to face him.
Even in human form she was almost as lithe as in canidiform and as ferocious as her ancient ancestors. Elly kicked at his face again, knocking one bare foot into his teeth. Bloodied he tried to stand. Rage growing in his face and body, his back hunched as he rose.
Elly bounced foot to foot. This she could do. As long as he kept his mouth shut. And kicking him in his mouth had done a great job of stopping the thrall that had paralyzed her each time she had encountered him.
He stalked towards her. She sprang backwards doing a full twisting somersault in the air, landing on her bound hands before jumping back to her feet.
As she turned, Elly stumbled back.
Something else came at her now, Davin’s eyes grew dark. His fangs, like the alley, grew longer in his mouth. His hunched body grew, arms elongating like a spider.
What the blazes? Elly watched in horror, fear rippling through her spine. She gritted her teeth and crouched. She couldn’t keep this up for long. Still tired, spent from the draining of her blood by this fiend, she could only put on one last spurt of power before succumbing to exhaustion. Even now she felt her limbs turning to jelly.
“Ssssssss…” he smirked. His tongue tripped through his long teeth then darted out towards her. A serpent? A spider? What was he?
They stood in face off, ten feet apart, Elly crouching, Davin transforming into something… The earth pounded beneath her bare feet. Elly mistook the thudding for her heart before but now it was—
“DAVIN!” A thundering sound echoed through the forest.
Davin turned away from her as Blaine, who wore tattered clothes and looked as though his skin was dried bark and his arms were spidery branches, approached. He had leaves in his thick long black mane and looked as though he’d been hit by a tree.
“I’m delirious. I’ve got spider lizard on one side of me and tree man on the other. What in the blazing…” She smiled over at Blaine but in that brief moment she felt a prick, a sting, like a bee bite at her jugular and the world began to grow fuzzy. She watched as Blaine moved, his tree stiffness apparent, but she could not move. Her body was stiff. Legs, arms, torso, nothing responded.
Elly watched and began to choke. Unable to take a breath, feeling more and more light headed. She fell to her knees and onto her face in the loamy scented leaves.
“What are you now Davin? You shouldn’t be using the Will of the Forebearers,” said Blaine.
The monster screeched. Blaire watched in horror as a sharp tipped tongue darted out and slapped Elly’s neck. A drop of blood, Seannach blood beaded where she had been stung. In helpless horror, he watched as she fell to her knees, then crumpled into a heap.
Davin shifted again, long teeth receding back into his gums. He laughed. “Look at you. Wood and bone…You want me? Or you want to save her? The poison will only take seconds, Blaine. You know how to save her. But save one or save many?” Davin sneered.
Limping, Blaine forced his uncooperative legs forward to close in on his quarry.
Davin’s eyes bulged as he backed up towards the boxy vessel hidden under the low arched branches of a vine oakennwood. Beneath his hand the doorway opened, sliding to the side. He stepped back, one foot on the treaded rung.
“You’re not going anywhere, Davin.”
Davin stepped back, into the vessel. “I’m sure I will see you again. And again.”
Blaine raised a mighty branched arm, already half flesh. Anger roiled in him replacing his plan to capture with a plan to kill in a split second.
The last time he had made a choice, he chose to let Davin live. An impossible choice. He had to stop Davin, what he had become was Blaine’s fault. Had to. No matter the cost.
Blaine jumped towards the ship just as the door was sliding closed. He shoved his bark covered arm between the door and the lock.
The voice inside cackled. “You sure you want to hang on? The longer you play with me, the faster she dies.”
The ship began to rise in a quiet vertical ascent. Inching upward.
He looked over at Elly, her face was growing a pale blue. Davin wasn’t lying. She was dying, suffocating on whatever poison he’d pricked her with. He looked at his arm, still holding the door partly open. He could slip inside now… and kill Davin. But she would be dead by the time he got to her. Something wet and cold slipped down his cheek.
“NO!” Blaine cried and slipped his arm away from the ship, falling the distance between the vessel and
“Keep running, you’re never going to be safe until you’re dead,” Blaine yelled at the ship as it rose further away from him. The door slid closed with a bang. Blaine yelled, screaming helplessly as the atmospheric exit engines roared to life.
Blaine grabbed Elly’s body, stiffened from the poison, and dragged her away from the ship’s burner zone. Her breathing had stopped. He had so very little time but hopefully, enough to dribble his own blood onto the wound and counter the poison.
Eleven
Liar, Liar<
br />
On a moon she’d never been to before, in a city she’d never heard of before, in a government building of a government body she’d never had dealings with before, in a dark paneled room where she’d been sitting for over two hours, Elly was trying very, very hard not to squirm. Her foxkin self wanted to run around and slap a large quantity of very solemn looking people in the head and tell them to get on with it.
Her neck itched from the scab left by the poison dart. And to top it off, she was still recovering from the full blood transfusion that Ballylock General had put her through after Blaine had given some of his Sanguinary blood on her wound, and if she was to believe him, on her tongue. Yuck.
His chiseled face had been the first thing she saw when she awoke. Pain in his eyes. Had it been pain for her? Concern? Or was it at the price he paid to save her? She looked to her right, Blaine’s eyes were half-closed, his chin sinking. The foxkin elbowed him. He sat up straighter, not jerky or flustered, but in a very smooth regal motion. He turned his head to look down at her.
She stared back. “Is this normal?” she whispered.
“No, it’s not,” he answered, turning his head back to the droning Patriarch who was delivering another report, this time on the ship data of Davin’s stolen vessel.
“That’s good, I guess.” Her nose wrinkled. He smelled distrustful, like old shoes. “You smell… really bad.”
“You’re no bed of petosies, sweetie.”
Ellie ignored him, she couldn’t stand her own wet wool scent, either. “I just… how is it possible be fully clothed and still feel stark naked?” she said. Blaine’s eyebrows raised and a small quirk of a smile tickled the corner of his lips revealing shy dimple, just briefly, before it hid again in his stony expression.
“Be quiet,” Blaire said. He pursed his lips as though sucking sour pickles. But she could tell he was amused.
“What is going on? Are we going to be thrown in jail for letting him get away?”
The patriarch up front droned on and on. He leaned over. “I have no idea other than I had to fill out a ton of reports while you were in the hospital, you’re welcome.”
“Stop reminding me. I’d rather have been working.” She stopped herself from adding with you. That bordered on too personal.
Thankfully, a Patriarch with a shiny shield called their names. Blaine stood so Elly did too. He stiffened his back, so she did. Except the rush of getting up made her dizzy. She wobbled
He looked down at her, checking on her movement and placed his hand on her shoulder. “You alright? Do you need to sit down?”
“I’m fine,” it was her turn to suck pickles. She crossed her arms over her chest.
During the proceedings, it became very clear, her kind, the Seannach, were no secret. At least not to the Patriarchs, nor to the Interlunar Council that they now stood side-by-side before as the combined council of kindred went over what happened on Westmeath, in Ballylock.
Elly and Blaine faced the panel of representatives who sat around a round half-moon shaped dais. So many strange faces and yet they all held secrets beneath their skins. Secrets that Elly was only now learning about. Foxkin. Sanguinary.
In the hush of the room, after the speaker had finished, the admin tapped away at her transcription machine documenting the praise for their work. But Elly didn’t feel like being praised. And she was certain Blaine didn’t either.
Davin got away. That would not do. Not for her, nor for either of them.
Over the course of the proceedings it became increasingly clear why the Assembly of Seannach had chosen her, because there was something wider, bigger and better for her to be sinking her foxy claws into. She wasn’t exactly sure what that was they were heading towards, but after tasting this tiny bit of the worlds around her, Elly wanted in. But only if…
She bit her lower lip and looked up at the dais then back to Blaine. He’d saved her life. Let a madman get away to save her. Would they make him into a scapegoat? Blame her?
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the old librarian. Maester Paulen beamed a wide toothy grin at Elly while he stuffed more nicotiana in his pipe. Next to him, a strange grayish colored Council member continued. Maester Paulen waved his pipe, bringing Elly back to the room and the gray female who was speaking.
“It has been decided. The pair of you, now exposed to the truths of the Ghael Interlunar kindred, all brought here by the Forebearers, will together form a special task force to be directed at our pleasure and for the benefit of all the kindred of Ghael. Your first order of duty is to find and stop Davin of the Blood of Ysbal Fortier.” Patriarch Icarus continued, “Elinor, of the Den of Morgan and Blaine, Blood of Solblaine Cornell, we officially commission you, under the Seal of the Council, as Guardians of Ghael.
Elly frowned at them, then pulled her face back to a deadpan but not before she saw Maester Paulen’s eyes twinkle. She addressed the old reynard on the Council. “What, if I may ask, does ‘Guardians of Ghael’ mean?”
“It means you have a lot of work to do, young lady,” Maester Paulen grinned.
Blaine looked down at her. “There are people out there that needed to be protected from Davin,” Blaine said.
“Like me?” she said.
“You were an easy choice,” he said.
“Liar.”
* * *
The End
This is the first book in the Guardians of Ghael Series!
She’s a fox(kin) and he’s a kin of a different kind. They’re searching for a serial killer making a blood buffet of the ancient kindred of Ghael.
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Also by Jayne Fury
SOLAR FLAME SERIES
Freedom Bound - Book 1 (SERIAL)
Episode 1 - Prologue - wide release
Episode 2 - Unhinged
Episode 3 - Mateu
Episode 4 - Slipping the Leash
Episode 5 - Lies and Pirates COMING in 2019
Episode 6 - Bomb's Away COMING IN 2019
Still Life - BOOK 2
Aion's Laurel - Autumn 2019
Stars Shining Bright Above - Spring 2020
Other Series by Jayne Fury Omniverse
GUARDIANS OF GHAEL
Fox Trap - Book 1
Fox on the Run - COMING IN 2020
STEAMPUNK FAIRY TALES
Royal Ruse - Late 2019
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Who is Jayne Fury?
ONE MUST ALWAYS “BE PREPARED”
Jayne Fury was raised in New York by a Boy Scout and a flock of canonical penguins. She went to university in Rome where she developed her lifelong love of shoes. When she returned she promptly moved West because she's left handed and claustrophobic. She has walked across Spain. Thrice.
The author lives on her urban farm in the Pacific Northwest with cats, velociraptors, ukuleles, all the yarn, and extremely tolerant husband.
Jayne writes quirky space opera with a little pulp and a little romance. Her noir detective paranormal series about Space Vampires and Fox Shifters and is the lovechild of Bones and Cowboy Bebop.
Factoids:
• Star Trek garden gnomes sit on Jayne's desk as a reminder to write or die. The gnome Gorn doing stabby stabby is especially convincing.
• She is obsessed with colored pens. Obsessed.
• All the cool people have names that start with J. So she's told.
Jayne Fury is a member of Broad Universe, a nonprofit international organization of women and men dedicated to celebrating and promoting the work of women writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror.