Heart Of The Wolf (28 page)

This is how he
would die, and maybe it was better this way – better to die here,
trying, than as a Trident who never knew any different. And a
Trident's natural death after their five years was up, was all
blood and guts and disintegration – very painful. Dehydration, at
least, held an element of decency.

“Get up.”

Oh, no fucking
way.

“Get up,
please.”

That voice –
it was the child again. And this time, he knew it was a
hallucination because a child could simply not survive out
here.

“I'm in
trouble.”

And then the
voice began to cry.

Oh, shit.

He really
didn't want that to be the last sound he heard before his lights
went out. That wasn't fucking fair. He wasn't the cause of her
pain.

With what felt
like his last bit of energy, he turned himself over towards the
voice, expecting to see nothing there, like last time.

A girl sat by
his side, head bowed into her hands as she sobbed. She was tiny –
maybe about five or six – and her long, dark hair hung in tresses
over the face.

“Don't cry,”
he tried to say. It came out more of a choke as his throat closed
up on him.

She looked up,
hope all over her pretty little face. And it was exceptionally
pretty – she looked like a princess with her ivory skin and her
almost black eyes.

“You're
back!”

No, he really
wasn't. He was at death's door.

“You need to
live. Please. She wants to kill me. You need to live.”

A shadow
loomed over him, across his left, and now there was no doubt in his
mind this was an aberration. A man with a dog's head stood to his
left – not a Trident or a werewolf … “Anubis,” he croaked out, just
a hoarse whisper that he couldn't have heard.

Anubis, the
guardian of death, come to take me away. When in Egypt, do as the
Egyptians do.

He laughed in
his mind at his stupid joke – couldn't laugh in reality because his
cracked lips bled when he moved them.

Another shadow
fell over him, this time across his right, and there stood Sekhmet,
her lion head blocking out the sun. It was funny … she looked
nothing
like his mother.

She spoke.
“The woman you have come here for knows what you are.”

He died right
then.

His lungs
might still be struggling to breathe, but all things ceased to
exist at that point.

Game over.

“She wants
nothing to do with you. She abhors you. But … we can give you your
life if you wish it back – you have passed the trials.”

Trials? What
trials? He'd been walking around in circles for two or more days,
thinking of absolutely nothing that was of any use to anyone.

“The trials
began the moment you uttered my name in a prayer, over the heat of
a flame.”

Oh.

The
candle.

He had lit a
candle for Sekhmet the morning he had left his home, before his
flight. And yes, he had prayed … for the first time in years.

“Life or
death. Your choice, son of Sekhmet,” said Anubis.

What was it
with this son of Sekhmet crap? He looked at the Goddess. The
reference didn't seem to bother her. She also didn't seem all that
inviting – not the cuddly type of mother. Ha! So there
was
something his mother shared with the Goddess after all.

“She will not
love you again. If you can live with that – with her loathing of
you – we will give you life, but it will not be the same life you
had before.”

Not the same?
Not a good-for-nothing playboy with no focus or direction? Not an
evil Trident with no hope for salvation? A different life is
something he could accept, whatever it was, but Sarah
loathing
him…

If she would
never love him, then what was the point?

Oddly, her
scent chose that moment to infiltrate him. He turned in its
direction, and there stood the girl. No … she didn't quite smell
like Sarah, but it was similar.

The deities
seemed oblivious to her presence. Was she real?

This was
clearly some kind of in-between place. Not reality, but not exactly
a mirage, and not the afterlife … yet.

The girl's
hair was matted to her cheeks with tears, hope she refused to give
up on, shining in her eyes because she wanted to live and someone
was trying to kill her.

Why she
thought he could help her with that little problem was a mystery to
him, but it was her hope that beat the words out of him. Sarah had
had hope that he would return – she had looked at him that way, not
willing to give it up.

This child
wasn't Sarah, but if he died, her hope would be crushed. For some
reason he couldn't fathom, to crush her hope felt like crushing his
own heart and soul.

He looked back
at the deities, or illusions, or whatever they were. “Live,” he
forced out of his parched throat. “I want to live.”

For a moment,
he thought they hadn't heard him because nothing moved. And then
Anubis crouched down and rammed his hand into his chest.

Amil screamed
in agony as his clawed fingers sank into his skin – and to think
he'd believed his voice box ruined.

The girl
sprinted towards him, joy all over her face. She knelt by his head
and stroked his hair, and all the while he screamed.

He felt the
God's fingers wrap around his beating organ and squeeze.

His scream
became choked and the torment increased.

He looked down
against his better judgement and saw black blood rise up from the
holes in his chest where Anubis had punched his way in. The blood
ran around the God's wrist and spilled down his chest as he
squeezed and squeezed.

“The heart
must be weighed. The sin must be cleared.”

Oh, fuck! Oh,
FUCK!

Feather-light
caresses from tiny fingers soothed his brow. “It's all right.
You're going to be all right.” She placed a kiss on his forehead,
and her tears, still wet on her chin, marked his face. But her hope
was alive and it was heaven.

“Thank you,”
she smiled. “Thank you, Daddy.”

“There is no
easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass
through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we
reach the mountaintop of our desires.”
Nelson Mandela

Book
four,
Return Of The Wolf
, is scheduled to
be released October, 2014. An early release is possible. To keep up
with all updates, please join Dianna on
Facebook
or
Twitter
.

~*~

In the
meantime, take a look at Dianna's other paranormal romance series,
The Witching Pen series
.

www.TheWitchingPen.co.uk

Books one
to three of the UK-based paranormal fantasy-romance series that has
taken readers by surprise!
Book One:
The Witching Pen
Book Two:
The Sands Of Time
Book Three:
The Demon Bride
Elena, a thirteenth generation witch, is the most powerful witch on
the planet; Amy is hidden from her true self, and Mary feels the
pain of mankind.
On the appearance of a magic pen, three women uncover family
secrets and deep betrayal, to discover they are more than they've
been led to believe - for better or worse.
Alongside the men, demons and angels who love them, they are thrown
into a supernatural world where time becomes muddied, where new and
ancient merge, where forged bonds cannot be broken, and matters of
the heart are never black and white.
And then, there's the impending apocalypse.
Unique, fun, fast-paced, sexy and passionate, this is paranormal
romance that combines the dark with the light, and the sweet with
the gritty.

Followed by the
final instalment, The Last Dragon.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to my
awesome, super-hero Beta Readers, Ninfa Sferlazzo-Hayes, Elizabeth
Morgan and Jane Dudeney, for taking time out – often at short
notice – to read my mess and tell it to me like it is.

Thank you to
Alastair, my better half, for 'delaying Christmas' this year, so I
could get this book out on time!

Thank you to
fans of my work, who join in with daily online chats, spread the
word, leave reviews, and offer a massive amount of support simply
by being there. If I don't have an audience, I'm just some insane
person with an active imagination. Thanks to you, I get to call
myself an 'author'.

And thank you
to my childhood pet dog, Timmy – a bat-shit crazy Springer Spaniel
that had lots of affection, and many random growling sessions at
nothing I could ever make head or tail over. He died a long time
ago now, but I would not have had a handle on the characteristics
of canines as clearly as I do without his input.

About The Author

Dianna Hardy is
the international bestselling author of The Witching Pen series,
and the Eye Of The Storm series.
She combines a titillating mix of paranormal romance, urban and
dark fantasy into her writing, to bring you stories that are
action-packed, fast-paced and not short of heat, with the focus on
both character development and the plot. She writes full-length
novels and short fiction. She has also written poetry (first
published in 1997) and esoteric books and articles. Nowadays, she
chooses to concentrate on writing fiction.
In December 2012,
Releasing The Wolf
hit the Kindle
Paranormal Fantasy charts in both the US and the UK, where it
stayed for three months, enjoying a highest ranking of #20. Both
books in the Eye Of The Storm series have enjoyed success in the
top 100 of Fantasy charts on Kindle US, Kindle UK, and iTunes
(Australia, top 40). The Witching Pen series,
'Til Death Do Us
Part
and
A Silver Kiss
, have also hit the top 100 of
iBooks charts (Fantasy, Romance and Horror) in ten different
countries worldwide.
Although quite active online, Dianna prefers the quiet company of
nature and animals to the hustle and bustle of people. She loves
anything paranormal (she doesn't really consider it "para"),
organic food, walking barefoot, the smell of the woods after rain,
and summer days.
However, she is also sustained by coffee, chocolate and the
occasional vodka.
She currently lives in Surrey, England with her partner and their
daughter, where she devotes her time to parenting, publishing and
writing.

Official
site:

http://www.diannahardy.com

Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/authordiannahardy

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/thewitchingpen

Coming
Soon

The Spell of
Summer

Return Of The
Wolf (Eye Of The Storm #4)

Other
Titles

A Silver Kiss
(Vampire Poetry)

A dark and
daring addition to the literary world of vampirism, this is a
collection of rhyming and freestyle poetry that explores the often
taboo themes of power, possession and seduction.
Emotionally charging, each poem is written from a different
perspective, be it the hunter or the hunted and inspires a deeper
look into the psychology of the human mind and the darker aspects
of human relationships and society.
Age range: suitable for older teenagers to adults
Published by Bitten Fruit Books

All details can
be found at

http://www.vampirepoetry.co.uk

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reading this eBook!

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