Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Theron & Aila
Theron
Shadow bangs on the panel of wood that lines the walls of our hidden coven lair.
“Church in a couple of hours. Get moving.”
Reaching for the bottle of condensed fluids on the floor beside me, I drain the dregs and then let out a long sigh as the spirits hit my bloodstream. The smell of booze fumes fill the secret paneled room.
Using one of Tempest’s recipes, Luna brews a batch of concentrated fluids mixed with spirits once a year. When genetic material is exposed to alcohol, it disrupts the integrity of the structure, causing genotoxicity.
Do I remember this drink has the ability to get me totally hammered? Yep. But wasted as I am, I can’t block out what might happen if Aila decides to get on the ferry.
I’m fucked any way I care to look at it. If I ask her to stay, then I’m the guy who tried to cramp her style. If I allow her to leave, she’s going to butt heads with the Riders. Or she will cross over to the other side and disappear into the craziness of the Continental U.S. forever.
For a control freak like me, I hate all three options.
“I wish I didn’t have to see you first thing in the morning, brother.” Rundas is at least trying to cheer me up. “Because your face looks like you’re getting ready for Halloween.”
Without my bothering to put on my glamourous outer facade, my inner monster always makes an appearance.
Artim grunts. “Hunter would look right at home falling out of one of those fake coffins the myōps put on their doorsteps every October.”
“Fuck all of you.” I’m deadbeat, slurring and stumbling as I flop and crawl to the sliding door panel.
“Jaecar, help Hunter find his helmet and bandana.” As veep, Rundas is in charge of keeping a lid on things when us vampires get to drinking. “And maybe bring a belt, too, in case we need to strap him into his seat at the table.”
I’m going to have to let the booze fade out of my system with no coffee or perky line of cocaine to help me sober up.
Not only is Landslide a drug-free zone, but no willing victims are around to ingest the drugs first so that I can suck the stimulants out of them afterwards.
Sucking secondhand drugs in someone’s blood is like spinning the roulette wheel—you never know what you’re gonna get.
I hook my arm around Jaecar’s neck as he guides me to the underground tunnel linking the clubhouse to the basement. “Go on. I know you can crawl, brother. If you pass out, I’ll pull you out or push you forward, depending on what’s easiest.”
“Fuck you.”
Jaecar chuckles. “Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for that patented Hunter Rabane brand of charismatic charm!”
I manage to crawl to the clubhouse with Jaecar carrying my helmet behind me. It is one of our rules that are written in stone: No Rider is allowed to daywalk without taking a blacked-out helmet and a bandana with him. And this being summertime, the sun still lingers in the sky.
Rundas has a bottle of fluids open for me at the bar. I pound a few as I attempt to clear the fog from my brain by diluting the alcohol in my blood. Jaecar and Shadow shoot some pool as we wait for Luna. She walks in the door wearing her beekeepers’ suit.
“Houston, we have a problem.” Shadow loves teasing Luna about the outrageous costumes she wears to skate around her daywalking.
Lifting off the netting hat, Luna smirks. “Oh, funny ha-ha. Like I haven’t heard that one before. C’mon, let’s get this meeting started.”
She’s choosing not to notice my fucked-up state. Leaving the bottle of fluids on the clubhouse bar counter, I’m the last to stumble into the room and close the door behind me.
Shadow and Luna sit opposite each other at the head of the table. There are two seats empty for Ifan and Konner.
“Things have been changing so fast around here, it’s hard for everyone to keep up.” Shadow gets straight to the point. “Hunter’s pretty li’l obsession has decided to kick him to the curb, and he’s not going to fight it. That leaves us with the problem of Aila’s departure.”
“Let the cooze fuck off.” Jaecar is as callous as he is lethal. “Easy come, easy go. There’ll be another one right around the corner, am I right?”
Luna butts in. “Maybe Hunter didn’t share this little tidbit of information with you, but Aila guessed what he is. What we all are.”
That’s another one of our stone-written rules: No one outside of the Riders is allowed to know what we are.
Silence.
“That changes things a bit, wouldn’t you say?” Artim is already fantasizing about chasing Aila into the woods so he can suck her dry, I can tell.
Shadow deliberates. “I’m inclined to let her go. No one is going to believe her anyway. And the young woman has no friends.”
Luna adds her opinion. “Yes. Not once has Aila complained about being denied constant access to social media here. A sure sign that she has no one to Whatsapp or message. That mother of hers kept her quite isolated. All Aila wants to do is land in Minnesota and find a job and accommodation. She’ll be so busy doing that, she will not be inclined to stir up shit about Landslide. ”
Something stirs in my foggy brain.
“Hey…” It’s a struggle to string the words together, but I must. “Shouldn’t she… isn’t Aila going back to Winnipeg? That’s where her stuff is in storage, right?”
“Ferry isn’t heading that way. It’s a tight schedule because of the tides. Monty’s landing back at Long Point instead of Buffalo Point. She’s got her passport, which is American, by the way. She’ll be fine.”
Thanks for that, Shadow. Some damn help you are.
Lurching to stand up, I concentrate on getting the words out.
“What the fuck… can’t dump Aila in a foreign country. Gotta speak to Monty… set him straight…”
“Hunter. Sit down. You’re shit-faced.”
I sit down, but I’m finally paying attention.
“That actually brings us around to our next point of business.” Shadow bulldozes on. “Monty contacted Vince on the radio last night. One of our guests had a slight change of plans. When Monty found out about it, he called ahead. Luna, you go on and tell the Riders about it.”
Looking all business, Luna looks down at her notes.
“Right. We booked a family. Mom and her boyfriend, and two kids. But the mother arrived at Long Point with a change of plans. Turns out she dumped the old boyfriend and hooked up with a new one. But she still wants to come play happy family on Landslide this summer. I didn’t have time to research the new boyfriend much, but he’s got no ties to any of the agencies we have flagged.
I think he might be unemployed, because all he seems to do on his social media is pose and play. So I said it was okay.”
“All in favor, say ‘aye.’” Shadow lifts his hand. Grumbling, Rundas raises his hand briefly, saying, “Aye, but next time, run it by us. Her ‘family friendly’ online review of the island isn’t going to be worth much if she’s associated with unemployed playboy jerks.”
Jaecar and Artim start moving their hands up, but I’m not even waiting for them.
“Fuck this. I’m not voting for anything until I find out if Aila is okay with fucking sailing away to Minnesota!”
As I slam the door, I hear Shadow murmuring.
“I told you he couldn’t stay away from her. I win the bet.”
Aila
“What did Mom tell you?”
Ben shakes his head. “She’s not proud of it, Aila, but she was a different person back then.”
“Back when?” It’s costing me every last ounce of willpower not to pop off into a tantrum.
“Back in Winnipeg. That’s why your mom was so desperate to leave there. You see, your mom made a terrible mistake.”
If my dear mother wasn’t referring to Theron when she gave her speech in the dining room—the one about me not getting too complacent and how the man would come after me—then there is only one other person who fits that description…
Digging my nails into the palm of my hand, I do my best to stay calm.
Because there is no way my mom would ever compromise my safety.
She always makes sure to keep photos of me off her socials, and nor does she tag me in anything. Heck, she doesn’t even allow apps to gain access to her contacts information because my phone number is in there.
Over the years, we’ve learned to be careful.
I leave all the catfish sleuthing to my mom. She is hardnosed when it comes to sussing out if someone’s real or not, dropping their online pics into Google image search and everything.
“If my mom accidentally let it slip that we were in Winnipeg, Ben, then it’s probably for the best that I’m heading to the States.”
“Dang it!” Pulling over to the side of the road within sight of the jetty, Ben Magoo bumps the palm of his hand on the steering wheel. “I’m no good at this kind of thing.”
Cutting the engine and twisting in the seat to angle himself in my direction, Ben heaves a sigh.
“A man contacted your mother on one of those dating apps. All of his details checked out: Canadian and wealthy, with his name on the company head he said he worked for. Legit, okay?”
A wry smile tilts the corners of my lips. “I’m sensing there is a ‘but’ coming.”
Ben tries to smile, but it fades before it can widen.
“On the first date, Amelia really opened up to him in her usual feisty fashion, you know. Telling him all about her work at the diner and her precious daughter. And then she let it drop that the two of you were still living together.”
I’m not seeing the danger in this.
“So? She always tells her dates that in advance. Didn’t my mom tell you that we came as a package deal?” Huffing, I try to laugh it off. “Lucky for you I’m leaving.”
Another sigh as Ben shifts back to stare ahead through the windscreen. He doesn’t get my little joke.
“The man settled the bill, walked your mom to her car, and told her he would message her soon.”
Interesting. My mom has a trick for when that happens. She waits for the man to begin walking back to his car and then follows him, pretending to want to give him something.
A business card or a phone number. Anything that will allow her to leave the man with a lingering impression of her fabulous ass as she sashays away from him for one last time.
“Amelia got out of her car to give the man the diner’s contact details in case he wanted to come by for a coffee.”
Bingo. Thank God the apple fell far from the tree with me and Mom.
“But he didn’t go to his car. He was meeting up with someone who was waiting for him around the corner. And when your mom saw who it was her date was meeting up with, she knew she’d been conned. The man had been a front all along.”
The interior of the truck is stifling. It’s got no AC, and the dust from the road seems to be settling in a cloud around me.
There is only one person who would go to all the trouble of setting up a sting to entrap my mom.
Piers Jordan the Third.
I think I must have said the name out loud, because Ben agrees.
“Ay-yuh. The same. She didn’t mean to be indiscreet, Aila, but what’s done is done.” Ben risks giving me a side glance. “Now, do you begin to see how awkward this is? Your mother says that will have put him back on your track.”
That has to be the understatement of the year, Ben, but by all means spell it out for me.
Ben starts to count the facts off using his fingers.
“This Piers fella might know where you are. And if he knows you’re on Landslide, all he has to do is post someone to wait for you when the ferry docks on either side of the lake.
Amelia says this is the closest he’s come to locating you since college. ”
Well, that’s a lie. But it’s a lie I prefer to keep to myself.
When Ben lays it all out on the line like that, my future doesn’t look so bright anymore.
Bye-bye to all those lovely dreams I had of being able to travel and have a career. This is what it feels like to have a sword hanging over my head when the thread holding it up is about to be cut.
I have made a huge mistake.
“Ben, can you please take me back to my mom?”
“No, Aila. Not if you are going to cause a fuss. Amelia had no idea that man was a decoy. You can’t blame her. I won’t let you.”
How sweet it must be to have someone in your corner, ready to defend you.
“N-no, it’s not like that. I just want to be with my mom. For a hug.”
I’m right back to being that scared little teenage girl with hidden bruises and low self-esteem. Goodnight moon, and all.
“Brave girl. I told Amelia that you would understand. Here’s Mr. Steele with the hayride. The holidaymakers catch a ride with the hay wagon, and I transport their luggage. Nothing like a hayride on a balmy summer evening to set a nice tone for the rest of the vacation.”
Jerry Steele is sitting atop a tractor pulling a wagon lined with hay bales behind him. It’s a cute touch, but I’m in no mood to appreciate it.
Hopping out of the truck, Ben waits for Monty to let down the back of the ferry to form a gangplank.
In the deepening twilight, I see a large group of people begin trooping down it.
When they reach the wagon and hay bales, they begin to separate into smaller groups, chatting excitedly with each other.
For one crazy moment, I am tempted to grab my bags and make a dash for the ferry. I am sane enough to realize that would only give me the illusion of escape.
Four people are still waiting on the ferry for the crowd to thin so they can disembark.
A woman is pushing her young kids forward, telling them to be careful because it’s slippery.
But I’m not paying any attention to them.
Because I recognize the silhouette of the man standing behind her, and every alarm bell in my body has just erupted like a siren.