Blood Queen

Prologue

Lightning raged across the dark sky of the night, thunder following at its heels.

A small carriage pulled by a single horse moved through the light drizzling of rain, the wheels going smoothly over the slick, paved cobblestones. The driver's eyes were wary and afraid, his gaze roaming the surrounding line of trees that flanked the road, and he couldn't help but think about his bed of straw pallets and the warm coziness of his cottage. He wished to be anywhere but here, in the cold, dark night, especially if the rumors were true...

He glanced back at the carriage he was driving. It wasn't his choice to make; when the boss needed something done, no matter how uncomfortable it made him, he had an obligation to comply with. Besides, he also knew that the boss was running away from something. Something enough to risk a very late night journey through the dangerous roads of Cyris with his wife and daughters.

And if he knew the boss, anything enough to make him this afraid had to be something big. Very big.

The driver shuddered as a clap of thunder resounded in the still night.

The carriage moved on.

He didn't even know where they were heading, he thought bitterly. When asked, the boss had just told him to drive far away from Cyris, which did nothing to ease his feelings. Far away from his riches? His properties? The big, cozy manor? But then again, it wasn't his place to ask questions.

No, he chuckled. That was certainly not what he was paid to do.

His thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a howl that cut through the night.

The driver frowned. Wolves? What were wolves doing this close to Cyris? The howl, loud and unnatural, sounded again, this time as if it were closer, making him urge the horse to move slightly faster.

He didn't know what business wolves had this near Cyris, and he didn't want to find out. Wolves were still plenty dangerous, and the sound of this one seemed to awaken a primal sense of fear in his blood.

He removed one hand from the reins long enough to pull his coat tighter and to adjust his wide-brimmed hat. The carriage wheeled steadily on the road. If his knowledge of maps was anything to go by, a straight, continuous journey would take them to Pyros eventually, though not without days and nights of camping out on the open road, enduring the harsh elements of the season, and on constant guard for road thieves and bandits.

A grunt of frustration left his lips, the sound lost in another thunderclap. The boss should have at least hired some guards. It was well within his capacity after all.

Yet anothet thing he didn't understand.

The howl sounded yet again, and this time, the driver knew it was definitely getting closer. The fear in him began to grow gradually, in sync with his troubled heartbeat. And it wasn't helping that a few moments later, the answering howls of more wolves split the night.

Even in the cold drizzle, a bead of sweat formed on his rough forehead.

Something about the howls was just . . . unnatural; strangely containing a hint of rage. Not just that, but it seemed like they were on the hunt. Like they were jointly hunting an animal, or...or—another sweat broke out—or humans.

A quickened knocking from within the carriage snapped him out of his thoughts. He leaned his head as far back as it could go in order to hear whatever orders the boss had for him.

And the order itself was far from reassuring.

“Forget about being quiet. Drive as fast as you can!”

For a second, the driver couldn't quite place this frightened and desperate voice with the cool, calm, collected boss he worked for right from his childhood.

Then, with a “hyah!” that was slightly higher than intended, the horse broke out into a full gallop, the carriage jostling behind, the hoofs of the horse clopping against the rain-slicked road. With the speed at which they were moving, the driver figured no wolf could ever catch up; not with the headstart.

A cursory glance behind destroyed that train of thought. His blood gained a sudden chill that was not at all related to the rain.

Wolves. Huge ones, he thought somberly. The shadowy shapes, though still sufficiently far away, were already closing the distance, moving with a deadly grace, their howls dispelling the quiet that had previously blanketed the night.

He urged the horse to go even faster.

The rain had now thoroughly drenched him, running down his face and entering into his eyes, but he dared not spare even a hand to wipe away the rain, only making do with blinking out the wetness.

He turned back again and his heart became full with dread. The distance had decreased drastically and now he could make out pairs of eyes that shone with malevolent light—green, yellow, blue; red.

It was all so strange. Never before had he heard of or seen wolves that were this big, with eyes that shone with almost human intelligence. The one with the glowing red eyes was particularly causing him to shiver with that deep sense of primal fear. The fear of prey before the predator.

It sounded like it wasn't only him. From within the carriage, the frantic sounds of the boss urging him to go faster carried out to his ears, and he could only wonder if maybe this was what they had been trying to escape all along.

Adrenaline coursing through him, the driver moved the poor horse to its limits, gritting his teeth as the wolves gained even more ground. He eyed the trees on either side of the road and wondered about the possibility of loosing them in the woods. They would have to abandon the carriage though, which probably wasn't wise.

He had never felt this frustrated before, and his frustration was compounded when he noticed more pairs of glowing eyes racing through the trees, aiming to cut off the advancement of the carriage from all sides.

And it was working.

The driver would have loved to say he was surprised to see more wolves awaiting them ahead, but deep down, he had already known there was no hope of escaping. The wolves' attack were too co-ordinated, not to talk of intelligent. And not just wolf-intelligent either. With the way they were perfectly synced, it was like they all possessed human brains.

When the driver let the carriage come to a halt, he didn't even have to try hard. The horse, wild with fear, stopped all on its own, clopping its hooves nervously. Even the horse had clearly seen there was no way to run.

Inside the carriage, the driver could hear the whimpers of the two girls, and the soothing voice of their mother. He himself sure needed a lot of soothing; he couldn't stop shaking like a wind-blown leaf, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down as he tried to swallow the bitter taste of fear in his mouth.

They were even more menacing up close—powerful muscles raised beneath their coats, some shaggy and rough, some sleep and glossy; wicked claws extended from their powerful-looking claws, and those eyes... Those eyes that burned with chilling human intelligence.

The wolves came closer, the glow in their eyes slowly fading. Then, as the one with the red eyes came even closer, he watched a more shocking thing take place.

Gradually, the huge, regal beast began to transform. Four feet became two, paws became hands; the sleek fur melted away, giving form to a sculpted body that looked like what a god would possess. The wolf's face became the face of a handsome man with a strong, regal chin and piercing red eyes, framed by long, thick hair that seemed to absorb the night. It was the form of a man that, even nude, was near-perfect in all manner of ways.

The lips of the man tilted up in a cold smile.

The driver almost peed in his pants.

The wolves didn't just seem like humans, he realized with a shudder. They were humans.