Excerpt: Dark Moon Rising

The smell of blood wafted over the cool breeze and the animal lifted his face to the dark sky and inhaled its tantalizing aroma. His mouth watered as the beast began to walk toward the scent of its prey its footsteps muffled by the damp ground beneath it. All around him the sounds of the wood echoed loudly within its sensitive ears.

As it made its way closer to his prey, clouds parted exposing the full moon behind them. The beast lifted its muzzle to the night sky and let out a long plaintive wail scaring off night birds and sent other small creatures scurrying off into the darkness.

Ice blue eyes scanned the area before him as he stalked though foliage until the carcass appeared before him partially bathed in the silver moonlight. The beast crouched down low as his lips peeled back from its muzzle, exposing long canines.

He pounced.

The carcass rolled bringing it fully into the light. The beast jumped back as the body was completely exposed to him.

The woman’s lifeless blue eyes settled on the beast. Her blond hair soaked with blood, her mouth open as if her scream were cut off before it could really begin. Her slender throat was ripped open by claws, her chest mangled by teeth.

The beast recoiled. His mind screamed in horror at the sight, but his instincts warred with what his mind wanted. The more he tried to move away, the more tempting the lure of tasting her became and he took that first critical step toward his meal.

He sniffed around the body inhaling the coppery scent of her blood and his stomach clenched in anticipation. At once he felt gnawing hunger pulling him closer until his muzzle touched the cold, dead flesh of the woman lying on the hard packed earth.

As his mind screamed no, his jaws opened and snapped shut. Taking a large mouthful of flesh and tearing it from bone. He closed his eyes and savored that first succulent taste of feeding from a fresh kill. As he went for another bite he didn’t give another thought to the woman he’d hunted.

Alexander Christofides bolted up in his bed, his body covered in sweat, his breathing hitching as if he’d been sprinting. He looked around with wild, confused eyes as he slowly took in his surroundings. His alarm rang without mercy, its shrill piercing wail interrupting what little sleep he’d managed to get this morning. His heart racing, he scanned his stark bedroom. No bodies lay across the floor torn apart by wild animals. He slowed his breathing as wide whiskey brown eyes looked for what had awakened him. He found the clock/radio blaring on the other side of the white room and cursed for thinking it was a great way of getting out of bed and ready to start the day. Grabbing a pillow, he threw it at the offending electronic terror knocking it off the dresser and managing to silence it.