EPILOGUE
Strike sat in his club, tumbler in hand. He regarded the amber liquid, swirled it slightly, and watched how it caught the lights from the dance floor.
The previous night had been a roaring success. A dozen new whelps were just now waking up to begin their new lives while his men cleaned up the mess from the resulting carnage.
The liquor went down easily. He enjoyed the burn in his throat, then poured himself another. Despite how much he drank, he knew nothing would be able to mask the taste of fresh meat lingering in his mouth. He touched his tongue to his teeth and almost expected to feel the sting of razor sharp canines.
He took a deep breath, the coppery scent of blood in the air almost sensual. As a wolf, blood ruled, but as a human he still appreciated it almost as much. Besides, the wolf’s time would come again soon enough ... perhaps sooner than even the Guild suspected.
For now, he had the memories of the prior night, fresh and full in his mind – not dulled in the slightest – to bolster his mood.
He still lamented the loss of the two from the month before, but he had no doubt that his fresh recruits could bring new life to the pack. They would be confused at first, looking to him for guidance, but that was as it should be. He was the alpha, their leader. And they would obey him. Why wouldn’t they? They were of a superior breed – other wolves mere dogs compared to them – and it was all thanks to him.
A new dawn was approaching for his kind, and he would lead them toward it with shining teeth.
THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR – RUBY CRUZ
Ruby Cruz is an author with varied interests in post-apocalyptic fiction, urban, fantasy, and romance. A night shift nurse by trade, she spends her non-work hours caring for her husband, two young daughters, and rambunctious dog, all while ignoring/despising any form of housework. In her non-existent free time, she foregoes sleep to type maniacally on a laptop and hope that whatever she writes is comprehensible and enjoyable to readers.
By Ruby Cruz:
The Nanotech Series (Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction)
The Infected (Book One)
The Recovered (Book Two – coming soon)
Meryton Medical Series (JAFF)
First Impressions: A Modern Retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
Second Opinions (A Lizzy and Dr. Darcy Story)
Broken Heart Rehab: A Modern Georgiana Darcy Story
Love’s Recovery (coming soon)
New Adult Romance
My Nemesis
With Rick Gualtieri:
The Lycan Evolution Series (Urban Fantasy)
Lycan Moon (Book One)
Lycan Dawn (Book Two – coming soon)
Follow Ruby on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/RubyCruzAuthor
ABOUT THE AUTHOR – RICK GUALTIERI
Rick Gualtieri lives alone in central New Jersey with only his wife, three kids, and countless pets to both keep him company and constantly plot against him. When he’s not busy monkey-clicking words, he can typically be found jealously guarding his collection of vintage Transformers from all who would seek to defile them.
Defilers beware!
Rick Gualtieri is the author of:
Bill the Vampire (The Tome of Bill - 1)
Night Stalker: A Tome of Bill Series Companion
Scary Dead Things (The Tome of Bill - 2)
The Mourning Woods (The Tome of Bill - 3)
Holier Than Thou (The Tome of Bill - 4)
Sunset Strip: A Tome of Bill Series Companion
Goddamned Freaky Monsters (The Tome of Bill - 5)
Half A Prayer (The Tome of Bill - 6)
The Wicked Dead (The Tome of Bill - 7)
Shining Fury: A Tome of Bill Series Companion
The Last Coven (The Tome of Bill - 8)
The Tome of Bill Series: Volume One
The Tome of Bill Series: Volume Two
Bigfoot Hunters
Lycan Moon
Midnite’s Daughter
Sign up for Rick’s Newsletter:
www.rickgualtieri.com/newsletter
Follow Rick on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/RickGualtieriAuthor
Follow Rick on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/RickGualtieri
BONUS CHAPTER
LYCAN DAWN
The dark streets of the rural town were a far cry from the ever burning lights of the city. Nighttime in Manhattan was more of an illusion than reality. If one stuck to the main thoroughfares, one might never even need consider what might be lurking unseen in the shadows. Out here it was vastly different. The new moon offered no solace to those daring to venture forth from the shelter of their homes. The stars above shone bright and clear, but they were too far away to offer more than the barest pittance of illumination.
The one advantage these streets had to the city, though, was that there was nothing to ruin her night vision, now well-adjusted to the gloom and aware of any movement that threatened to break the stillness around her.
There! Further down the quiet block, she saw her quarry step from the unassuming building that served as the small town’s library. He locked the door, as if closing up for the night, and walked away.
She smiled from her vantage point. The library had closed to the public over four hours earlier. She knew quite well that whatever was going on inside since then had little to do with cataloging returns or donations to their collection.
That was her hope, to gain some insight into those secret workings – insight that she hadn’t the rank to view before, and was certainly forbidden from now. A bitter grimace played at the corners of her mouth, but she swallowed it down. Now was not the time for ruing the hand fate had dealt her.
She turned and raced down the adjoining street, parallel to the one her quarry now walked on. She’d mapped out her course well in advance, plotting her way, step by step, while it was still light out – learning every potential pitfall that could trip her up or, more importantly, alert her prey to her presence before she was ready.
A lifetime of training paid off as her muscles nimbly carried her the way she’d planned, sidestepping anything that could have given away her position.
She doubled back to the other street through an unfenced yard, and lay in wait behind a large front porch. It was the perfect ambush point. The home to her right was owned by an old lady in her eighties. She went to bed early and was quite deaf once she turned off her hearing aid. An unoccupied bank foreclosure lay to her left, giving her an ideal place to do what needed to be done in a manner that was unlikely to be seen or heard by anyone else.
Footsteps alerted her that her quarry was closing in. As expected, he’d crossed the street to this side, and was moving at the unworried stride of one walking a well-traveled path. This was a quiet town. There was little to hinder the man’s progress and, even if there was, she knew he was well equipped to deal with it.
There were few things that could surprise a well-trained hunter, but she was willing to bet she was one of them.
Now!
The man stepped past her hiding spot and, even in the darkness, she saw his muscles tense, no doubt his honed instincts alerting him that something was wrong. Pity they were a fraction of a second too slow.
She sprung at him from behind, grabbed hold of his neck, and pulled him off balance.
As he reached up to try to pry her off, an amateurish move obviously borne more out of surprise than anything else, she dragged him back between the two houses.
“Relax,” she hissed in his hear. “I’m just here to ... OOF!”
An elbow caught her in the midsection, his training finally coming into play. She released her grip and quickly backpedaled two steps out of his reach.
The man spun toward her, simultaneously drawing a hunting knife in one fluid motion. Had the moon been full, she knew it would have glinted in its light, the silver in the blade practica
lly glowing. On a night like this, however, it was merely a shadow, albeit a lethal one. Regardless, she’d been ready for his counterattack.
With a quick move of her own, she drew the tactical flashlight from her side and flipped it on, shining the light directly in the man’s face and temporarily blinding him.
He cried out and backed up a step, allowing her to turn the light on herself and pull back the hood she’d been wearing, revealing her long locks of brilliant red hair. “Carlos, it’s me!”
The man blinked several times, no doubt still dazzled by the light, but then he paused and stared at her. “Rowan?”
♦ ♦ ♦
“Jesus Christ! What the hell are you doing here? Are you trying to get killed?”
“Quite the opposite,” Ro replied, eying the knife in the man’s still raised hand. “I’m here because I’m trying to avoid dying needlessly. Speaking of which, are you planning on using that?”
“I’m not sure that anyone in the Guild would blame me if I did. Hell, there’s a few folks who would probably give me a medal.”
Ro grinned. “That doesn’t answer my question.”
Carlos glared at her for a few seconds, but then lowered the knife. “Son of a bitch.”
“Good to see you, Los.”
He glowered back at her, but then said, “Fuck it. Come here, you!” He stepped forward and grabbed her in a tight hug, which she gratefully returned.
Carlos Botelho was one of her oldest friends from the Guild, her training partner when they’d both been little more than snot-nosed apprentices. Though it was risky to approach anyone, now that she’d been labeled as a rogue, she was counting on their long hours spent training together to stay his hand. And she was counting even more on him remembering how she’d saved him during their first live mission, a wolf hunt that had almost gone very badly for the two rookie hunters.
He pulled back after a moment. “I reiterate my question. What the hell are you doing here? And please tell me all this shit I’ve been hearing about you is just that, bullshit.”
Ro stepped away and leaned against the side of the unoccupied home. “What have you heard?”
“Just rumor mostly. Some are saying you lost your nerve on a hunt. Others are saying you lost your fucking mind and ran off with a wolf.”
Ro almost smirked on hearing that latter, but decided to play it coy. The truth was, his answer had caught her by surprise. “Rumor? Are you saying there isn’t an official sanction out for me?”
“Are you saying there should be?”
“Just answer the question, Los.”
He let out a sigh. “I see the years haven’t done much for your personality. To answer your question, no. There’s lots of talk, and your name’s been scratched from all the assigned rosters, but so far as I’m aware there hasn’t been an official sanction issued. If there was...” He glanced down at the sheathed knife by his side.
“Would you?”
“We took an oath, Ro.”
“That’s not an answer.”
He shrugged, then folded his arms in front of his chest. “So spill. What happened and why are you here? Gotta be something important going on. And don’t hit me with any “just popping by to see an old friend” bullshit. It’s after ten, long past taking me out for lunch.”
Ro let out a chuckle. Carlos hadn’t been the most impressive hunter in the field, but he definitely wasn’t stupid, something attested to by his current position. “I heard you got reassigned to the archives. How’s that going?”
“Can’t complain. Long hours, but nothing down there is trying to eat me.”
“Good, because I was hoping you could check a few things for me.”
“Do I look like I work for Google? There’s shit in there that’s highly classified, and that’s even if you weren’t currently persona non grata.”
“I know that. Listen, I’m gonna lay my cards out on the table and let you decide: help me or shank me.” He gestured for her to go on. “The rumors are true, but only in a sense. I didn’t lose my nerve on a hunt, but I did side with a wolf.” She quickly held up her hands as he tensed. “Hold on, let me finish. The guy’s a bio-chemist. I wound up in a ... situation, where my father was bitten and we needed to use my blood to save him.”
“Yeah, yeah, the treatment. Get to the point.”
The treatment? Somehow he seemed to know what had taken her over an agonizing week to figure out. She was tempted to ask him about it, but realized her time was most likely short. Better to focus on what she needed than what she already knew. “Fair enough. Anyway, this guy thinks he can use the antigens in our blood to synthesize a cure and, before you say anything, he’s not just blowing smoke either. He’s smart. I think he’s on to something.”
“Let me guess. Not everyone there agreed with your assessment?”
Ro raised an eyebrow. She remembered both her father’s and Kane’s reaction to talk of a cure. They met her with ridicule and anger. Carlos, however, had just brushed off her revelation with barely a bat of his eyes. “Yeah, something like that. Call it a difference of opinion.”
“A difference of opinion?”
“During a full moon.”
Her friend sighed as if that answered everything. Hunter blood ran through his veins too, so chances were it was answer enough.
“That’s my story,” she said. “Now tell me what you know.”
“What makes you think I know anything?”
“Because we didn’t just have a similar difference of opinion.”
Carlos let out a deep breath as if realizing he’d been caught. “Nothing gets past you, does it?” She stared at him patiently. “Okay, fine. But you didn’t hear this from me. I’m serious. If I hear that you ratted me out, I’ll shoot you myself.”
“Yeah, yeah. Get on with it.”
He muttered, “Bitch” under his breath, then said in a louder voice, “Back when I first got this job, I was doing a deep dive, trying to modernize some of our older history, hoping to put it all into a searchable database.”
“Are you sure you don’t work for Google?”
“Fuck you, Ro. Most of it was boring crap. Dusty old parchments detailing family names, who begat who, that sort of shit. But I found this one account, buried deep in one of our vaults, so deep that I doubt anyone even remembered it was there.” He stopped and looked around, as if suddenly unsure they were alone.
Ro’s interest was definitely piqued. “What was on it?”
“I didn’t take a long look. I’m not stupid. I know when I see something that’s not meant for my eyes.”
“What was on it?” she repeated.
“Damn thing was in old Germanic. I’d just started translating it, but it told about someone who came back.”
“Came back?”
“Yeah. Bitten, whelped out, and then became human again. I thought it was some kind of parable or fable, an ancient hunter nursery rhyme or something like that. I brought it to the elder counsel, showed it to them. They took one glance, confiscated it, and told me they’d look into the matter.”
“And?”
“And that was it. Never heard a peep back from them. Problem was, it got me thinking.”
“How so?”
“It didn’t read like no fable. The small part I translated sounded more like a historical account.”
Her eyes opened wide. “Wait, are you telling me they know of a...”
He grabbed her by the shoulders and stared at her hard. “I’m not telling you anything of the sort. I don’t know.”
Ro’s mind was already racing with the possibilities. While it was likely this was nothing, little more than a story from the past, it was exactly what she’d been hoping to find. She knew it was a long shot coming here, fully expected to be told there was nothing more to be learned, but she had to try. Anything to help Dean. Now, suddenly there was a potential lead. “I need you to find that scroll again. See what the whole thing say
s.”
“Are you crazy? You don’t just walk up to me and ask me to spill our deepest secrets.”
“You said it yourself. It might be nothing.”
“If it was nothing, I doubt it would have disappeared.”
“Exactly.”
“I can’t do this. They’d sanction my ass in a second.”
“Only if they found out.”
“And you think they won’t?”
“Well, I’m not gonna tell them. Come on! I can see it in your eyes. You know they’re hiding something.”
“Even if I did, that would be like an army deserter demanding open access to the Pentagon’s files.”
She stared at him hard, refusing to lower her gaze. It was time for the ace up her sleeve. “You owe me.”
He backed up a step. “Really, Ro? That’s low even for you, calling me on that. That was years ago.”
“I’m sorry, Carlos, but I wouldn’t do it unless I had to. You have to believe me. We’re on to something here, something that could change the game for us all. Think about it. Haven’t you ever wanted a life away from this? A chance to live without wondering how close the next moon was?”
He was silent for a moment, then slowly nodded.
“Good then...”
“But even if I wanted to,” he said, “I couldn’t.”
“Come on, man, you just...”
“You’re not listening. You’ve been out of the loop. This is not a good time. The entire Guild is currently on edge. They’ve been running us all ragged.”
“They have?”
“Yeah. I mean, why do you think you haven’t been sanctioned yet? Hell, I’ve seen hunters put down for far less, for just speaking their mind. It’s because you’re small potatoes right now. We’ve got bigger fish to fry.”
“What happened?”
“Last week, they found some fresh bodies down in Central Park. Pretty obvious it was a whelp attack.”
“So?”
“So, they were fresh. Less than a day old.”
Lycan Moon: An Urban Fairy Tale (Lycan Evolution Book 1) Page 31
