Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Shadow
Jaecar moves to where the bikes are parked against the clubhouse. The orange crescent of the sun has barely sunk below the horizon.
“Where are you going?” I’m jonesing for fluids. It makes me irritable and dangerous. And if I can’t go and feed on the mainland, then no one can.
Jaecar’s expression remains immobile. “Rundas asked us to draw straws to see who would stand guard at the Aherne house tonight.” Jerking his thumb towards his chest, Jaecar smirks.
“And guess who drew the short straw? The least I can hope for is that furnace hot redhead coochie walking around the house naked, am I right?”
The territorial beast inside me roars with jealousy, but I cannot show my hand just yet. Every young woman visiting or living on Landslide is officially on the menu, and I can’t start breaking my own rules yet.
“Stay here. I’ll go. I’ve seen more of the recipe than you have. I’ll be able to recognize the missing page when I see it.”
Artim lets his hunger show. “Fuck the recipe. And fuck protecting Tempest’s niece. If you want to feast on her, just come right out and say it, brother. But don’t think you can keep her from us.”
Snarling, I go head-to-head with him so fast that my surroundings blur. My fangs feel so amazing as they are exposed to the night air. I forget how sensual that connection to the outside world can be. Me and my fangs displayed for a swift death as the hidden beast within strains to get out.
Pressing my forehead against Artim from my superior height, my voice rumbles like thunder when I growl.
“Luna holds the key to the future of Landslide, and you dare question my orders?”
Artim backs down. “Fine. Go search for the fucking recipe. I’m out of here. I’m going to the mainland. Who’s with me?”
Jaecar, Rundas, and Theron look at me. Jaecar tries to reason with me.
“It would satisfy us to cross the creek, brother. We can leave the bikes here if you like. Make it look like we have everything under control.”
I cannot object to that. We all need to feed. “Get back here before midnight. Hunt the campsites, hiking trails, and RVs around the Lake of the Woods only.”
I know why the Riders are so grumpy. We feasted on the city streets for a year while we waited for Tempest to find a solution to our problem. All that sweet junkie blood is hard to resist, and it is very easy to develop a craving for more.
The Riders are going through their own personal detox right now, but the most they will get high on tonight is THC and beer. Hikers and campers are notoriously straight edge for the most part.
Me, I am craving to see Luna again. Damn, but that woman is addictive. The memory of her rounded ass and thighs make me drool with lust.
A few moments later, I’m riding to the house on the hillside, trying hard not to imagine what it might be like to sink my fangs into the soft skin of her neck. Or her feet. I’m partial to sucking both.
Fuck, but I’m already rock hard at the thought of biting her. Keep focused. My priority is to make her safe from him.
If anyone is going to give Luna Blackwood a delightful nightmare, it is going to be me.
The second the sky turns red in the west, I’m within smelling distance of Tempest’s house. I’m no psychic, but I can feel something is brewing. I take this as a good sign. We need to get the distillery into production as soon as we can.
And I must try to persuade Luna to come stay at the inn.
I know my way to the house blindfolded. Opening the throttle, my motorcycle climbs from the road to the porch in seconds.
And Luna is waiting for me on that porch.
This is a common Landslide practice. Traffic is close to zero and noise pollution is non-existent.
That’s why the locals’ only complaint to me is the “terrible racket” the MC’s bikes make when the crew rides forth.
Little do the local folk know that they should be way more upset with us when they can’t hear us coming.
But she’s waiting for me for some other reason.
Her heart-shaped face shows a certain dogged determination. A small smile reveals Luna’s front teeth as she watches Muohta clatter down the steps to lick my hand hello, but she goes back to being serious again straight after.
Not waiting for me to kick the stand out, Luna goes inside, leaving the door open for me behind her.
Muohta licks my hand again and whines. The chill of my skin makes the dog long for the snow. “It’ll be snowing soon enough, Mu. But we have a lot to sort out before the ice locks us all in together.”
Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I stomp upstairs and walk into the house with a swagger. “Hello, darlin’. You look all ‘business as usual.’ How was your day?”
Running my fingers through my tangled hair, I cock my head to one side and wait for Luna to say her piece.
She starts shooting straight from the hip as she flops down on the couch.
“Why didn’t you tell me that Tempest had a baby? What the fuck!? I asked Ben about my aunt, and he told me. So, Dante Shadow Sylva or whatever the fuck your name is, do you mind telling me the truth?”
“Someone’s been a busy little bee today.” Sarcasm will only hold off Luna’s wrath for so long. Truth is, I don’t know where to begin. Moving to the kitchen, I start filling the kettle. But her scream of frustration halts me in my tracks.
“Oh, for the love of God, can we stop with the fucking masquerade already? Puh-leez? I’ve had supper, so I don’t need you to pretend I need feeding.”
The last of the dim red light from the sunset fades away and leaves us in darkness.
A soft sob puffs out as Luna bites back her tears of terror.
“I know you don’t like the light, Shadow, so I didn’t turn them on. I’m not going to offer you something to drink, either, because… because I don’t think I would like the real answer.”
She knows.
I’ve kicked off my boots, and I’m seated in the high-back armchair before Luna can inhale her next breath.
All she would have seen was a blurring shadow before I materialize in front of her.
A sharp gasp is followed by silence as she bites back all outer signs of fear.
Her eyes have adapted to the darkness. Luna’s pupils have dilated into huge black circles as she stares at me.
“When did you find out?”
Taking a deep breath, she tells me. “Since last night. Since forever. You only come at night. You don’t eat or drink. Nor do you sell drugs or do whatever else my dad always told me biker gangs do.”
“Your dad?”
“He was a cop. But now he climbs mountains and writes about it. Before I came here, I left a voice message on his satellite phone to tell him I was moving to Landslide for a spell.”
It’s a subtle warning: If anything happens to me, my ex-cop dad will be all over you like white on rice.
I take that on board. Luna’s father is a cop, and she told him she was coming here. That could be a problem for us down the line.
Luna continues. “But none of this explains why all the Landslide women get sick, and why no female wants to live here. And when they do live here, they get the same wonderful dreams as I do. But that was until I factored in your true nature, Shadow.”
Standing up, Luna begins to pace, clutching at her hair in a frenzy.
“Oh God, please don’t let it be you who is draining those poor women of their life blood.
If it is, I swear I’ll be on the first boat out of here.
No, wait, what am I saying? I’ll use Tempest’s boat to get the fuck out of Dodge this instant—and I promise not to ever come back! ”
Sitting still and attentive in the chair, I wait for her paroxysm of confusion to die down before replying.
“Why are you telling me this, Luna?”
Whirling around, she comes closer as if she’s trying to force a confrontation.
“Because I need you to tell me I’m crazy!
Do I absolutely want you to deny what I’m saying?
You’re damn right, yes!” A haunted look comes into Luna’s eyes.
“But there is something about Landslide that tells me the MC’s motto is based in truth…
the dead really do ride fast.” Stumbling over a crease in the rug, she seems lost and confused.
“I’m praying that you’ll tell me I am wrong. ”
“If you want the truth, then I can’t do that. Sit down, please. I want you to know about Tempest’s… child.” I can barely say that last word.
Flopping down on the couch, Luna huffs and shakes her head to clear it. Then she looks at me from under her lashes. “What are you waiting for? Tell me everything. You owe me that much.”
I thought being honest would make me bear-headed with reluctance, but I was wrong. Luna is Tempest’s blood relation. If anyone is ready to hear the truth, it is she.
“There are seven Riders. Long ago, it was decided that two of us would become nomads. The population on the island, and round about these parts, couldn’t support all seven of us, so two of the original seven became wanderers.
It was easy at first. A stranger riding into a two-bit town on a tired horse at night was nothing unusual.
And people dropped dead like flies from all sorts of things back in the day, so a lone cowboy was not likely to be associated with the death. ”
“Horse?”
“Yeah, darlin’. We rode horses before we rode motorcycles. Been here a long time.”
Seeing Luna nod in the dark, I continue.
“Ifan and Konner. They got to prefer being nomads. Never had to shave their beards or cut their hair to pretend they were younger. All they had to do was move on to the next town. Every ten years or so, they would circle back to Landslide. Bring us news of what life was like beyond Angle Inlet and the Lake of the Woods. Can’t say they made it sound very appealing. ”
Luna gives a tiny chuckle. “Modern life has its ups and downs.”
I’m pleased to see that my story is making Luna forget her fears. The sweet thing should learn to relax more. If I haven’t hurt her yet, it’s not likely I’m-a start now.
“And when they circled back to Landslide in the mid to late eighties, our troubles began. Y’see, Tempest was no longer a cute li’l tween girlie by then. She was a ripe young teenager—only with a different taste in men compared to her peers on the mainland.”
Luna goes quiet as she thinks. “My mom was all about the electronic boy bands back then. Before my time.”
I allow myself to reminisce a little bit.
“Tempest grew up surrounded by Midnight Riders, Luna. Boy bands were definitely not her favorite thing. Sam set up a television and VCR for her so she could watch shows and movies on tape, but it didn’t change her tastes.
Tempest was attracted to bikers. Travel stained, windswept, gruff and dirty bikers.
She was pretty much immune to the Riders’ charms, because it would be like lusting after a brother or something. But fate had a different plan.”
Luna is sharp as a knife. “She fell for a nomad?”
“Yep. Tempest fell hard. She took one look at Ifan sitting astride his sweet XLH eleven hundred ride—a mean, gleaming black beast with matte chrome—and she nearly came in her lace panties.” I forget who I’m talking to as I get to telling my story, so Luna edits my language for me.
“I can do without you describing the state of my aunt’s panties to me, thanks, Shadow. And what the fuck is an XLH what’s-it?”
Luna never fails to raise a smile out of me.
“It’s not too dissimilar to my ride, which is a Harley-Davidson Dyna Super-Glide Sport, only mine has a custom T-bar.” Luna nods, so I carry on.
“Ifan was the last Rider whom I would believe capable of love. He was this great hulking brute of a man with a mane of long, black hair twisted into wind-blown braids. In all his existence, all he ever did to maintain the illusion of humanity was trim his beard every few years.”
“I’m getting the image of a real beefcake bear in my head, Shadow.” Luna’s sense of humor peeps out. “Was Tempest a full-bodied woman? I mean, she must have been to be able to handle all that! Do you have any photos of her?”
A bark of laughter breaks my somber mood.
“Do I look like the sort of man who likes taking snapshots, Luna? Tempest was similar to your body shape. Maybe a little taller, maybe less curvaceous. She was no thick and juicy coochie. As for Ifan, he was like all of my brethren. Tall, grim, and long-haired. But he was magnetic to Tempest. And I suppose you could call the Midnight Riders’ appearances enticing. ”
Bouncing off the couch, Luna gets animated.
“Enticing like you? And which appearance are you referring to? Your human disguise or your real one?”
For one moment, I struggle to keep my raging beast inside its cage. The fiendish thing that lives in my veins wants to rip her to shreds to protect its secret. I have no trouble wrestling it into submission. I have way too much practice disciplining my instincts.
“The inner me is not so different from my outward appearance, Luna. The thing that infects me lurks inside, hidden from the myōps. It can only be seen briefly during those transitions between light and dark—and if I am not paying close attention.”
“Let’s not pretend I know what a myōps is, Shadow.”
“That is the word we use to describe warmbloods, Luna. It means ‘those who walk around with closed eyes.’”
Luna steps closer. Her thighs brush against my knee under the denim.
“What is it about your infection that likes to stay a secret, Shadow?”