1
Death follows where the sinner lies. Even in the stiff cushions of a one star motel room, Summer can feel his spirit lurking in the shadows. He clings to her mind and soul with nothing more than a memory bordering life and death.
In the depths of unconsciousness she sees his brown eyes fade to grey, while his lips tinge blue. Her head nestles into the familiar cradle of his chest, where the beats slow to nothing.
Tears pour from Summer’s eyes as she wakes with a start. Her eyes blur and her head fogs with the flurry of memories. Pulling back the simple fleece blanket, Summer rolls to her side and onto her feet. The couch is low and the light from the bathroom is yellow but no light can stop the shadows in her mind.
Christopher, her brother, her big brother is gone. The heir of the lycan kingdom is dead and she is the reason for it. Only four years have passed and Summer is seventeen now and her eighteenth is fast approaching.
Summer can still remember the stares. The horrible screams of her mother when Chris disappeared into the earth.
Sweat beads at her brow and across her chest, slowly dripping down. Sleep slipping from her grasp leaves her leaning into the couch for support. Summer reaches for the water bottle on the coffee table and takes slow sips, pushing the outline of his face back into the shadows.
Looking at the clock, she reads 2:35 AM.
Pulling herself up, she knows tonight is one she’ll need some self medication to get more than three hours of sleep.
Kneeling, Summer pushes her arm under the couch until her hand connects with a cold tin box. With a quick tug she pulls the dollar bills from her last shift as a waitress in Erwin. Eighteen dollars. That’s all she has and it will take twenty to bribe the local gas clerk to look the other way for a minor plus the tab.
Summer pushes her hair back with her fingertips and sighs as the long night faces her. She could do nothing until tomorrow morning at her next shift at Baker Street Café but that too would only last for a couple weeks before she has to skip town again.
It is always the same. One town for two days or two weeks then it is off to the next. It is hard to settle down when the lycan kingdom is searching high and low to bring her to justice.
Summer knows that the only way left to get through the night is to go to the people she has avoided since she arrived in Dunn. The people she has hidden from since her brother’s death, the Faye. More specifically she needs a Bagungot, a Faye that feeds on nightmares.
Shoving her hands through her black hair, Summer searches the ground for her strewn jumper and shoes. She rushes out the door into the cool autumn wind.
Following the makeshift sidewalk, Summer walks a couple miles until she reaches the highway. She keeps a determined pace even when a stray car zooms down the road. She follows her nose to a small unlit store that sits alone at an empty intersection.
Upon arrival, the front door is unlocked and a shimmering portal opens and her lycan eyes glow, Summer slips through and into another world. Faye of all kinds wander with drinks in their hands and engage in small talk with their night conquest. Faye were sexual beings but all mate for life, at least that’s what Summer was taught back home.
Making a bee line to the bar, Summer shifts her weight onto a worn bar stool. The bar tender is a tall black man with simmering blue eyes. It is the same shimmer of the portal Summer came through, which means he must be a warlock.
“What can I get for you?” He leans in, placing his forearms on the bar. Summer knows warlocks are tricky people and tend to manipulate people for their bidding but she is far from home and on her own. Taking a deep breath she responds.
“I’m new here.” Her voice comes out small and soft in the crowding bar. A man even bumps into her back as he stumbles to the bathroom.
“I know that. What do you need?” His eyes train on her form, gliding from the top of her head to her perky breasts. She is young but over the years her body has been filling out and apparently it was changing enough to catch new found attention.
“Do you got something with lotus fruit?” Summer avoids his eyes as the question slips out into the air.
“Rough night?” He leans closer catching her eyes. She stares into them with the weight of the truth.
“Rough life actually.” Summer looks away, shame clouding her body as it folds into itself. There is a silence for a while filling with the bystander chatter.
“Sorry we don’t stalk that stuff here. It’s a small town. Not many call for lotus fruit.” He leans away and wipes the bar top with a white rag. His eyes now avoiding hers. Problems and bad energy tend to do that.
“Damn.” Summer turns to leave her eyes cast to the ground.
“Wait!” He yells out. He hesitates for a moment until his eyes meet with her pleading ones.
“There might be someone in town that can help.” His voice comes out with a huff and he anxiously begins to wipe the bar top back and forth.
“Who?” Summer steps closer to the bar until she’s leaning over it eager for the answer.
“Her name’s Ester, been around for centuries in this town but she doesn’t like being disturbed.” His voice is weary and Summer can tell Ester is someone that the small town fears somehow.
“If your dreams are as bad as you think they are she might help you out.” He whispers into the sider of her ear looking over her shoulder to the crowd surrounding them.
“Where do I find her?” Summer whispers back.
“Follow the highway for four miles and then go east for ten. She’ll be in a clearing.” He leans away as he finishes and keeps his eye on the bar top.
“I owe you.” Summer grabs his wrist, bringing his eyes back to hers.
“Come back tomorrow night and we’ll settle it.” He still looks away avoiding her stare.
“Can’t tomorrow I’m leaving town but I promise you I’ll deliver on a future favor when the time comes.” Without hesitance, Summer turns her back to the bar and waves goodbye behind her back with a new found hope of finding relief for the night.
As she makes her way through the gyrating bodies a man with a red beard steps into her personal space. His hands brush up and down her arms with determination. His body leans into her and Summer pushes herself away only to be pulled back by the man.
“Leave me alone.” Summer places her hands on his plaid shirt and pushes back.
“Come on sweetheart.” He leans in putting his face between the crook of her neck placing a single kiss there. She can smell his familiar lycan scent waft in her nose bringing fear with it.
Her heart beat quickens and her breaths shorten as the weight of the man presses into her.
“I said leave me alone!” Her voice comes out as a huff but she still manages to put some power behind it as she pushes him away from her body again.
“You smell familiar. You wouldn’t happen to be that lost princess would you?” He grabs her arm, five seconds from discovering the royal mark at her wrist as her jumper sleeve raises revealing it.
“No!” Summer finds the strength to raise her knee quickly into contact with his groin. The man goes down in a single breath and Summer makes her way quickly out of the door.
Through the portal, Summer hunches over halfway placing her hands on her knees as she tries to breath. With a few more huffs Summer stands and begins her trek to Ester’s.
The journey is long, especially because Summer has to fight the urge to change into her wolf to get there faster. If she did she would put a mark on her back.
Summer is a white wolf, a highly rare kind of lycan that is only born every ten millennia. As the white wolf she has the ability to heal all lycans and speak to the moon goddess herself. Many sought after this power to cage for personal gain, even her parents had her training her powers from the moment she first shifted. It was a long and tiring butt according to her parents it was her duty as an heir of the lycan kingdom to serve its people to the best of your abilities.
Finally, Summer’s feet meet to earth and the next ten miles go by slowly. It is dark still but it will soon be light out and Summer needs a few more hours of sleep to cope with the coming day.
The clearing is at the base of a hill and it is laced with forget-me-nots along its edges. Few trees sprinkle at its center but a cabin stands short in comparison.
Making her way to the door, Summer knocks three times on the door before she is met with a white haired woman. Ester, she assumes, is a head shorter then her and reaches the base of her shoulders.
“Come child.” Ester waves Summer into the house. Inside a fire is lit and above it is a cauldron with something that smells like soup.
“Y-your not gonna send me away.” Looking around Summer finally allows her eyes to meet Ester’s. Ester makes a straight shot for a torn upholstered arm chair before sitting down.
“I can smell the nightmares on you.” Summer slows her short steps to a stop at the admittance. She stares at the ground as shame fills her once again about the memories that plague her sleep.
“Can you...” Summer begins only to be interrupted by Ester.
“Yes child I will eat them.” Ester motions Summer to kneel in front of her on the red decorative rug in the center of the living room.
“They are not like the other locals that come to me.” Ester watches Summer kneel between the arm chair and coffee table with a smile and hunger in her eyes.
“I smell death in them, violence and it is sweet.” Ester’s hands brace the sides of Summers and her eyes shut. Summer watches as the woman breaths in deeply and she can feel the memories transferring. The feeling of energy leaving the body hums throughout hers. It takes but a few seconds and Summer can feel the fear and sadness drain from her mind.
“Thank you for the meal dear. It has been a long time since I have been satisfied by a meal. Come by anytime you need relief.” Ester leans back in her chair with a smile. Summer slumps into herself as the heavy feeling in her body increases.
“I’m leaving tomorrow from town.” Summer seems to whisper her words as the weight of her eyes become unbearable.
“Then you’ll need this.” Ester scurries to her kitchen while summer watches with heavy lids.
“It’s lotus dust, very potent, just a sprinkle and you’ll be able to sleep soundly through the night.” Ester takes Summer’s hand in hers and places the small glass tube of lotus dust into her palm. Summer can feel the cool glass brush against her skin but confusion fills her.
“Why?” Summer looks into Ester’s eyes.
“Because, should you come through town again, please stop by.” Summer could tell it wasn’t a request or a simple offering of help but a demand for more. Summer could see the hunger has now been replaced with desire for more.
Nodding her head to agree, Summer felt her body start to fall to the floor.
“Good.” Ester says as she leans back into her arm chair watching the fire.
“Can I...” Summer’s head meets the ground and her eyes watch the hypnotic flames of the fire. Her eyes grow heavy and finally she allows the darkness to take over to give her much needed sleep.
