The House of the Valley of Wolves
an excerpt

FINISHED 50K on 12 Nov. 2007, at 6:45ish pm. w00t!

My story ran out at 42,148 words. So, onward to another story. Woohoo. Quotes from that one soon. (Title: As If To Challenge The Sun)

Quotes from AICS:

Now he was terrified, and nearly stepped on the cat.

***

"What are you in here for?”
Kirunh tried to speak and found his voice a croak. “I killed the king,” he said hoarsely.

Quotes from HVW:

Rats. He was out to get me. I hate when that happens.

***

"Are you drunk?”
Magnum looked at his vodka, half-empty. “Not yet,” he said. I immediately called for another drink. The drunker, the better. Me, on the other hand, I usually did far better when I wasn’t incapacitated. For one thing, I tended to get arrested less often.

***

I have a lot of charm and raw sex appeal (if I do say so myself) but for some reason some people just don’t like me. Beats me why.

***

“We'll see, won’t we,” Parker said. His grin was more of a baring of teeth. “May the best hunter get the kill, then.”
Oh, I would get the kill. If Parker had to die first, I would get the kill. Dmitri would regret this soon enough.
“Fine,” I spat. “I will.”

***
“I’ll kill you, Magnum,” Lopez hissed through clenched teeth. “I’ll kill you.”
“Isn’t that a lovely sentiment,” I said. “Ruminate on it once you’re the one who’s dead.

***

The heat and the water washed away the blood, the marks of the evening’s sin, but they could not wash away the scars on my heart. They could not erase what had been done. Nothing could erase that— I could never again truly heal.

***

La Casa de Guadalupe, the sign read in neon red, flickering now and then. Lights on the ground floor gleamed warm tungsten and I knew that all was busy downstairs, where I knew the business end operated.
“What does the name mean?” Dmitri asked quietly as I parked the bike half a block away.
“The House of the Valley of Wolves,” I said. “The demon’s lair.”

***

“What do you want in exchange for his life, then?” Konstantin asked.
“Yours,” I said.

***

But that wasn’t the problem. I simply preferred to be aware of everything that could go wrong, so that I knew I was on schedule when it did go wrong.

***

I saw Julia behind— she met my eyes. We exchanged truths in the space of a heartbeat across time, and I knew instantly that Julia, at least did not hate me. She knew my guilt, knew my role in the deaths of the pack, knew it all, but yet she did not hate me.

In that half moment of truths, I could almost forgive myself.

***

“Goldeneyes, goldeneyes, don’t leave me,” I murmured, over and over again, rocking her body back and forth as if that would keep her life within her. Her body was hot, so hot, burning up as it tried to rid itself of the lethal silver. It was the silver, though, that would rid itself of her, as the virus fought desperately against the deadly metal. “Don’t leave me, Maria. I can’t—“ Tears sprang to me eyes. I had not wept for Cesar, had not shed tears for Elisabet, but to take my Maria from me— it was too much. “What will I do without you?”

***

"I don’t want to wreck anyone else’s lives. I just want to go on living."

***

“Fine, Señor.” Somehow everything seemed okay at that moment. True, Maria was gone, and we would never be the same for it, but I was alive, and there was still hope. Still hope for a better life afterward. Julia and Rosa were going to live, and somehow that seemed like enough right then.