Chapter 23 Ash, the Drunken Avenger   The Final Chug burned all Ash's insides raw. Turned the whole night sky from pitch dark to bright violet. Filled with milky stars. Hazy white glittery mist. The cobble beneath his back jabbing him. Jagged pokes against bruised ribs and spine. The chills washed away with burning sweat. The lampposts still dim but now more than clear. Their artistic curve. The walls, despite being splattered by blood, clearly depicted the fruits and fun this city was meant to be. The splashing wine that should be the only liquid staining the stone walls. The...

Chapter 22 Ash, Drunken Failure   At the screech of Penny's voice, Ash gasped. Heart leapt pumping cherry sweet. Who else but that redheaded pigtailed nutcase of a beauty would save his stupid ass here? With streets full of corpses and blood. As full as blood as the back of his gurgling throat. The air so thick with the stink he could taste it too. Along with too much of his own blood. Lampposts so dim any monster could strut up to your face and eat you whole before you knew it. Or a stone wall could mug you and...

Chapter 21 Ash, Desperately Doomed   Ash don't know what twisted his gut more – the scent, the sight, the tickle of blood and gore covering Mandy and Snow, it all suddenly vanishing into thin air, or how milky the moonlight made Snow as she trembled at the sight of her very evil mother behind him. The lampposts were dim enough that the details of the buildings were engulfed by darkness. The utter silence of everything – from down the maze of roads and alleyways, from the many shuttered windows, from even the far distance … It sent so many...

Chapter 20 Gordack, Clutching Victory By the Throat   If the Darkest Gods bothered to peer into the narrow canyons these lightlings called streets, inhaled the aromas of fresh blood and gore congealing on the cobble, and drooled over the numerous corpses soon to be brought back to life – Gordack chuckled. How many more dead bloodied in the insides of the shuttered buildings. Too cramped together to provide necessary escape routes. No. They simply barred them inside. Penned them. Whole families for slaughter. Their crude pine furniture wasn't even worth chopping into firewood. Their ragged fabrics, the curtains and...

Chapter 19 Snow Lost But Foolishly Found   The winding streets were as twisty and wrecked as the bleed gash through her chest. Her legs wobbled as flimsy as the plate of overcooked noodles the city designers used as a blueprint for these roads. It didn't help that the tall buildings were so cramped together. They might as well have been chunks of venison smothering in brightly covered spices only those who imagined themselves immensely rich bothered with. The kind of people who then paled at the price of an exotic fox lycan after Snow put on the usual show...