Embracing the Shadows by Gavin Green Read Free Book Online Page A

Veleti, and at a young age
became a warrior for his people. Besides dealing with any internal
conflicts, there were continuous clashes with Obodrites and Saxons.
It sounded like Viggo led a hard, bloody life.
    One late autumn day, sometime in the later
fifth century, Viggo and two of his men had begun the long trek
back home after a hunting trip near the North Sea. They were woken
up that night by the sound of distant chanting. Viggo and his guys
were camped on the edge of a forest; the noise came from deeper
into those woods, and they decided to check it out. I thought about
that scene, moving through dense woods at night to check out a
bunch of strangers chanting. Those guys had balls.
    It wasn't hard to find the chanters; they had
a few torches burning around the perimeter of a small clearing. The
leader of the group was a woman whose inhuman presence had Viggo's
guys wanting to get the hell out of there. Viggo, on the other
hand, was immediately attracted to her.
    Long story short, he approached the assembly
alone. The leader, who was revered by her people as a goddess,
apparently liked Viggo's bravery and imposing size. She made him a
minion that night, and ordered him to hunt down his two men and
bring them back to her. He managed to do it; they weren't far away,
and weren't a match for him. Two nights later, one of Viggo's men
was tied to a tree and sacrificed in a bloody ritual. About a week
later, so was the other one.
    Just to make it clear, both Viggo and the
priestess/goddess woman were basically pagans - a lot of people
back then still were. Barnabus didn't elaborate, so I didn't know
if all pagans worshipped the same set of gods or what. In any case,
the priestess had a very different way of expressing her particular
set of beliefs than Viggo's people did. Or maybe she was just on a
power trip, and it was all about the blood. No one knows for
sure.
    Her name was Fennore. She was a hemo in
Ireland and had been doing her druid goddess thing for a long time
there. That ended when Christianity swept over the island in the
early fifth century. She and her followers, which included most of
her mortal descendants, got a big boat and got the hell out. They
sailed under England and all the way around Denmark, finally
landing in Obodrite territory. Fennore had some trouble with those
people, so she and her followers started migrating east near the
coast.
    For the sake of her follower's safety, Viggo
convinced Fennore to have them join the Veleti. She stayed away
from those settlements, feeding on animals and human sacrifices
brought by her followers when they visited. As Fennore's minion,
Viggo spent a lot of his time with her. She knew he felt a strong
duty and connection to his people, so equal time was allowed for
him to be with them as well. Even better, Fennore realized that
ordering Viggo to attack his own men that first night really upset
him, so she never asked that he bring another sacrifice unless it
was an enemy. Aw, how nearly human of her.
    I shouldn't have thought too poorly of
Fennore. I mean, Viggo saw something good in her, so I should've at
least kept an open mind. By the things Barnabus told me, though,
that wasn't easy to do. But just to stir the pot, it turns out that
I was very distantly related to her. I'll get to that in a bit.
    Things went on that way for a while.
Fennore's followers blended in, some changing their names to
Germanic ones or marrying in. Viggo divided his time between being
seen among his people, getting into battles and skirmishes with
enemies, and visiting Fennore. I guess they had a real connection.
She brought him into the night, and they became lovers. I wondered
how that worked. Barnabus avoided the topic of bodily functions and
explained that the sharing of hemo blood is very intimate, and
gives greater ecstasy than feeding on human blood ever could.
Better than a strong orgasm? I had my doubts.
    A number of years later, when it seemed the
right time, Viggo made a point of