Grayson's Veil

Chapter 40

The moon was beautiful.

So bright, large, and round.

It provided an intense amount of light for the lurid scene that was unfolding in front of Grayson.

Perhaps if the moon was not so bright, it would not have been so bad.

But there was so much light.

Too much...

Grayson watched as everything seem to happen in slow motion.

His group was taken down. The people they were following had turned on them, attacking their horses and grabbing hold of everyone.

One of them was extremely quick, grabbing his sword before Grayson could draw it out.

He was impressed at the speed and strength, making him silently wish he had those types of soldiers in his battalion.

Grayson inhaled deeply, only to end up coughing from the smell of blood drenched dogs.

The scent made his jaw click with anxious energy.

His brain was trying to understand where such a smell could be coming from but could not, causing the rise of his frustration to blend in with the anxiety.

So, he attempted to reach out to his demon, but silence was his only answer. He was on his own.

And Avice was nowhere to be found.

He could not feel her through their blood link, which meant she was either poisoned like he had been with Uphir or she had abandoned him and was too far away.

Either possibility made him glower, whether the actual reason was her fault or not.

A wolf howling and the loud drum beats brought Grayson out of his thoughts.

He watched as the other people formed a circle around his group and the people holding them. After a moment of everyone simply staring up at the moon, they began to take off their clothes.

Grayson eyed them. There were fifty in total, including the three detaining them and the odd fellow that was covered in mud beating the drum.

As the man with the drum continued in a rhythmic chorale, Grayson wondered how he was able to withstand the cold. The mud would surely make him colder, and it did not appear the man was wearing anything else underneath.

Maybe that was part of this ritual Grayson stumbled upon. Not that he cared, just intrigued, and a welcome distraction from the promise of being some sort of tool in their gathering.

The group lifted their heads up to the sky and howled in unison.

The sounds caused Grayson to sneer.

Annoyance creeped up his spin, these people acting like fucking animals only made him want to slash their fucking throats.

The crunch of bone and a cry of pain made Grayson turn his head.

For a moment, he thought Avice had come back to help and was shifting to an appropriate animal.

But the cries increased, and by many different voices.

Bones were breaking and realigning. Skin was sloughing off their bodies, exposing extra sensitive skin that was replaced by rapidly growing hair.

The drum beat picked up ever so slightly.

One person in particular watched Grayson as they changed. She held his eye as she screamed in agony, and another emotion he could not decipher.