Gloom Rising (The Book Wielder Saga 1) (7 page)

“Fucking Trinity,” Lynette said viciously. “Sooner they’re gone the better, useless old pricks.”

“Hear, hear,” Alexander agreed.

They decided to stop for lunch before moving on. Alexander ordered a ploughman’s salad, Winston had a bowl of cheesy pasta with garlic bread on the side, and Lynette and Kavarne demolished several plates worth of steaks, bacon, eggs, and fries. They tipped the staff generously before setting off.

The way to Woodsholme took them steeper into the wooded hills of Rura. They twisted and turned around the perilously winding roads until they reached the approach to the mountain tunnel in the early evening, to the eastern part of the continent where it began straightening out again. The mountain tunnel cut all the way through a hill too large to be a hill, but too small to be classed as a mountain. Everyone just termed it as a mountain out of simplicity.

It was on the approach that they noticed they were being followed by three motorcycles, each with one driver and one passenger. The passengers on the back of the bikes were armed with sub-machine guns.

Alexander put his foot down on the accelerator and called Xavier on his phone. “Wake up, we’ve got company.” He agreed a few times and hung up. “Winston – Lynette and I are going to drive with you to the end of the tunnel while Xavier, Kavarne, and Veronica take care of these punks.”

Winston nodded as the first hail of bullets hit the van. A flash of lightning also leapt from the lead driver’s hand and struck the back of the van but it bounced harmlessly off a magical ward. Then several things happened at once.

Kavarne slid his bike to a halt, leapt into the air, and transformed into his wolf form so violently that it sent bits of his clothing to the far side of the tunnel. His wolf-form was an amazing yet terrifying sight; standing an easy nine or ten feet tall whilst hunched forward, he was covered in wild dark brown fur with long white razor sharp fangs and claws, and had glowing feral yellow eyes that seethed with anger and rage.

Lynette was already off the bike. Without transforming, she’d still managed to sprint to the side of the van and was climbing in, nudging Winston into the middle seat with her firm buttocks.

Veronica opened the van’s rear doors, looking as breath-taking as ever in a low cut black top and red miniskirt. She tossed a big vicious looking double headed battle-axe towards Kavarne as if it weighed nothing at all, and then she hurled a bolt of red blood magic at the lead driver who deflected it instantly.

Xavier was wearing his black trench coat with the red lining, and a black shirt and trousers. He was looking down the barrel of an assault rifle and with incredible accuracy he blew out the front tires of each pursuing motorbike, throwing their passengers off onto the road. Some landed gracefully – one did not.

Kavarne caught the axe in one of his beastly claws and brought it straight down onto the pursuer who hadn’t landed well. It cleaved straight through him and clanked onto the road, bisecting him perfectly down the middle. Kavarne immediately lifted the axe out of the road and swung it behind him, almost cutting another pursuer in half, but the blow was deftly dodged.

Alexander carried on driving quickly and soon the fight was out of view. “Triumvir?” he asked Lynette.

“Yeah, looks like it,” she replied. “Fuckers must’ve clocked us leaving the hotel.”

The Triumvir of Sorrow was an
other Supernatural gang and were the Shadow Circle’s biggest rivals. They were constantly trying to chip away at the Circle’s dominancy on Rura. Some wondered if they had ties with the Trinity of Old.

The end of the tunnel came into view but Triumvir had set up a road block with several off-road jeeps. Gunfire hailed the truck and Alexander pulled off an impressive 180 degree turn. He fumbled around in his pocket and selected a small vial of dark grey potion and gulped it all down, his veins bulging and turning grey, and soon his skin looked like stone.

“Lynette,” Alexander began, “take Winston to the middle of the tunnel. I’ll give these punks some artillery.”

Alexander hopped out of the van and Lynette took the wheel. Bullets pinged off his stony skin as he extended his arms out towards the jeeps. Fiery energy pulsed from his shoulders to his hands, orange magical runes hovered in the air around him, and soon his arms looked like they were on fire. A salvo of orangey red fire balls shot from his palms into the roadblock of vehicles. Each fire ball exploded violently upon impact. The jeeps were decimated and the explosions were deafening. Some of the Triumvir had been engulfed in the inferno but several of them had evaded it.

“Take the wheel,” Lynette told Winston urgently. “I’m going back to help Alex. Head towards the others, they should be finishing up by now.”

They awkwardly swapped positions and Winston began driving. Lynette started to quickly remove her clothes and he couldn’t help but steal a glance at her. Lynette’s body was athletically toned all over, and her lightly tanned skin was smooth and appealing. Her breasts were small but firm and pointed, and her nipples were long and dark brown. Despite the chaos, he was highly aroused. He thought that the adrenaline surge was to blame, but also wondered if his experience with Veronica had scrambled his brain.

Lynette caught him looking. “Never seen a naked Werewolf chick before?”

He went bright red with embarrassment and tried focusing on the road ahead. “Sorry!”

She laughed. “Bet you thought I’d be all hairy or something? Nah, I keep it all under control – well, except for a bit on top for decoration.”

She began seductively combing her fingers through her big trimmed triangle of pubic hair. It was wild and brown, and Winston was staring again.

Giggling playfully, she opened the passenger door. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell Veronica... or Kavarne.” She gave him a wink and threw herself out of the vehicle, transforming mid-air into a giant light brown wolf, and bounded down the tunnel on all fours towards the wrecked roadblock so fast she was just a blur.

Werewolf Swiftpaw’s transformations gave them an appearance more on par with a standard wolf, just enormously
bigger and faster. They relied highly on their extreme speed and agile manoeuvres to keep the upper hand in combat.

Winston drove until the first fight was in sight and then stopped the van.

Veronica had a Triumvir mage suspended in the air with his limbs outstretched, and the mage seemed to be putting all his effort into defensive spells but it was plain to see it was a losing battle.

Kavarne was wildly swinging his axe and spare claw at a Vampire Nightclaw who kept evading every hit. He had a long blade in each hand and kept trying to retaliate but couldn’t close the gap enough before Kavarne lashed out again.

Xavier was gracefully deflecting attacks from a female Vampire Ironfang with his elegant blade. Her muscles were tense and swollen, and she had elongated her finger nails into thick sharp claws that she was madly trying to slash and impale him with. Xavier was gradually baiting her towards Kavarne’s fight.

Veronica’s opponent finally lost his magical tug of war with her and ran out of energy. His veins began pulsing violently and his skin started steaming, blood running out of his nose and eyelids, and with a sudden bang he exploded in a burst of bubbling blood and gore. Veronica tossed his telekinetically suspended skeleton to the side of the tunnel uncaringly where it clattered into a pile.

Distracted by the immensely unpleasant sight of the legendary Blood Boil spell, the two Triumvir Vampires dropped their guard for a fraction of a second. Kavarne once again swung his axe at the Nightclaw’s head, but this time when he dodged he was met by Xavier’s blade which neatly nicked his head from his body. Xavier slid out of the way and Kavarne used the momentum from his feint attack to aim a second attack at the Ironfang. The Vampire Ironfang, who was so preoccupied with attacking Xavier, was caught completely off guard by the manoeuvre. The hit connected perfectly, impacting on her left shoulder and cleaving diagonally down straight through the right side of her hip.

Devoid of blood the Vampires turned to ash, and it was hard to tell what the other dead Supernaturals had been from their leftovers. Kavarne began throwing the body parts in a pile along with the victims’ trashed motorbikes. Wolf-form Lynette came plodding down the tunnel with an out of breath Alexander trailing behind. Winston exited the van and ran with them to the others.

“There was an ambush up ahead but Lynette and I took care of them,” Alexander explained. “Gave them a nice dose of my classic trench-buster spell.”

“Good work,” Xavier replied, cleaning his blade with a bit of cloth.

Winston could tell from the small clear crystal runes that were set in the middle of the blade that it was Spell-forged steel. They ran from the hilt to the tip of the blade on both sides and would grant it magical qualities like extreme durability or sharpness. It was a relic from before the Shadow Wars when the witch hunters had killed all the human blacksmith’s trained in the art. No one had been left to transfer the knowledge so the remaining Spell-forged items were tremendously rare and valuable.

Veronica gave Winston a hug and a long kiss. “Glad you’re okay, sweetie.”

“Thanks, glad you’re okay too!” He had missed her quite a lot throughout the day considering they’d only spent one night together. “That was some amazing blood magic and an impressive fight!”

She shrugged confidently. “They were amateurs and we’re pros. It was bound to end badly for them.”

Xavier was already on the phone to Lucius; Winston imagined that a reprisal was already in the works.

Kavarne had finished his gruesome task of piling the remains, so he transformed back to human and Lynette followed suit. They kissed romantically, completely comfortable with their nakedness. Kavarne was still quite an imposing sight as a human. His body was incredibly muscular and his huge cock slapped about his legs as he casually walked towards the van to get some spare clothes. Lynette also strolled to the van, her firm ass wiggling as she walked, to get her clothes out of the front. They both took their time getting dressed, and no one really took much notice except Veronica. It seemed like the group was quite used to seeing the couple naked.

“Quite the hot couple, aren’t they?” Veronica asked cheekily.

“Yeah...” Winston said, unsure of what to say. He felt a little less guilty for checking Lynette out, and he took another glance at her getting dressed.

“I don’t know who I’d want fuck more,” she said carelessly. “Maybe we could share both?”

She raised her hand to his temple and sent a quick surge of naughty thoughts into his head. For a few seconds, multiple foursome fantasies flashed through his mind, including Veronica being fucked from behind by Kavarne while her head was buried between Lynette’s legs, while the feisty Werewolf babe was greedily sucking down Winston’s cock all the way to his balls. Veronica sent another thought where Winston was on his back while Lynette was furiously riding his dick and Veronica was sitting on his face, with the two girls fondling and licking Kavarne’s impressive manhood as it sprayed them down with over-exaggerated amounts of cum.

Winston flinched back and exhaled loudly. Veronica laughed and kissed him passionately, and he wondered if all Supernatural girls were horny and crazy.

“Got to pass the time somehow – immortality is a long time,” she replied to his thoughts. She smiled a naughty smile and climbed back into the van.

Alexander was standing next to the pile of remains, wispy green energy throbbing from his fingertips,
and soon the bodies and bikes were rotting and rusting until all that was left was dust.

“Revenge on the cards?” Kavarne asked Xavier after he’d hung up.

“It’s in the works,” Xavier replied. “Lucius is looking to branch out into their territory anyway. A maintenance crew is on the way to repair the damage to the tunnel, so we should be on our way.”

Winston walked over to the van and gave Veronica kiss. “See you in Woodsholme.”

“See you soon, sweetie.” She kissed him back harder until Xavier interrupted to get into the van.

Winston got back into the front of the van with Alexander, Lynette and Kavarne got back on their bike, and they carried on their journey.

They came out of the end of the tunnel, which had sustained serious damage but otherwise showed no evidence of what had transpired, and Alexander flicked on the radio. Some alternative rock music came on as they overlooked the forest and farm encircled villages and towns of eastern Rura.

The music suddenly stopped and a news reporter cut in. “This is an emergency world news report. Autocrat Edgar II has just had seven of his twelve councillors executed by firing squad for allegations of treason and corruption. The Autocrat has commented saying that his actions coupled with the reallocation of his forces to the World Government buildings in Imperia, Industria, and Tropica city are only the beginning, and that his Inquisition will purge the world of evil and corruption once and for all. This has been Katherine Summers for the World Imperian News Service.”

“That’s not good. The new Autocrat isn’t wasting any time making his mark,” Winston said.

“We’ll figure something out,” Alexander said optimistically. “I don’t think he realises how deep our culture is dug in."

“I hope so, or I chose a really bad time to change career,” Winston joked awkwardly.

As they neared Woodsholme, Winston guided Alexander to his house. They passed by mines, farms, and lumber yards first and then bungalows and quaint houses as they got nearer to the towns and villages. Rura was abundant in lumber and fertile land, and its hills held rich deposits of useful metals and coal. It was evening when they pulled up at Winston’s parents’ house and he prepared himself for the awkward encounter.

“Your parents that bad?” Alexander asked, noting Winston’s hesitation.

“They’re not that bad. We’re just two very different types of people.”

“Remember the hotel manager cover story? Need some help with the dialogue?”

“Thanks, but they won’t even care,” Winston sighed as he exited the truck.