Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Luna
I am amazed when Shadow pats his lap. Does he want to comfort me or seduce me?
Still, I sit willingly on his lap, because he is right. I find him enticingly attractive, and I think I am halfway to falling under his spell.
“Let me tell the story in my own way and in my own time, Luna.”
Trying not to relish it when his large hand strokes the back of my hair, sliding down to the base of my spine in one long swipe, I wait for him to tell me the truth.
“Don’t be harsh on your aunt. She was isolated and innocent. Those are bad things to have in combination on Landslide.”
Taking a heavy sighing breath, Shadow explains.
“I can’t blame Ifan, either, for succumbing to Tempest’s invitation into her bed.
The Midnight Riders live for blood. But it can’t come from a bag or a syringe or a cut.
Nor can it come from a man. Animals can be fed on if there is no other option.
That is because we fed on animals when we were men. Do you understand what I am saying?”
It feels as though someone has just upended a bucket of cold water over my head.
“You feed on female blood.” Why do I sound so normal when I say it? This is crazy!
“Yes. Thick dark chocolate, rare-seared steak, or a delightful spun sugar caramel dessert—none of that could ever come close to describing how good a woman tastes.”
As he speaks, Shadow lifts my limp wrist up to his face and breathes in sharply. I can feel him getting hard as he closes his eyes and relives those tasty moments in his mind.
“Feeding on a woman’s blood is indescribably good. But it’s good for her as well. That’s why it is best for the Riders if we don’t get too hungry. Then we have enough control for a slow seduction.”
His voice gets gruff with the throaty rasp of lust as his mouth moves along my arm. I shiver when I feel the edge of his teeth brush against me.
“The orgasmic rush as the blood squirts into my mouth at the same time as my cumshot shoots into her tight pussy. Her screams as her climax melds with the pain, the endorphins sending pleasure to every part of her body. It is better than anything you can think of.”
I admit to myself that it would be kind of addictive if that happened in the way he describes it. My clitoris twinges with excitement as I dwell on the image of Shadow fucking me hard as he nibbles on my neck.
“Imagine what it must have felt like for Tempest that first night she invited Ifan into her bedroom. The hobby workroom was Sam’s bedroom, so they had to choose a night when he was sleeping on the boat.
How excited Tempest must have been to look up in the moonlight to see Ifan standing in the shadows. ”
Yes, I can imagine it. The expectation must have been overwhelming…
“He would not have laid down on her clean cotton sheets without removing his gear first. Tempest would have watched her lover strip off his layer of clothing one piece at a time until he stood in front of her as naked as a statue. That would have given her the chance to see his rampant excitement in all its glory before deciding to pull back her sheets and pat the space next to her for him to lie down.”
“Brave young woman.” I am there in that special moment with them. My eyes are closed as I think about how breathless with excitement Tempest must have been.
“You’re damn right, darlin’.” Giving my hair a small tug, Shadow lifts a lock of my hair up to his face like a silk tassel.
“Ifan was a big guy, and his body was in proportion, if you know what I mean. He must have had to get her wetter than an Olympic swimming pool to be able to thrust himself all the way inside her.”
I wriggle with discomfort as I hear the details about my relative’s intimate moment. Chuckling, Shadow hides my eyes for me by placing the lock of hair over my face. But then he lets it drop and carries on.
“He licked her virgin blood, and it bonded them together. I think she must have allowed him to feast from the blood of her neck, too, when they orgasmed.”
“How did she not die?” I’m flabbergasted at how calm I am. I mean, he’s telling me about some insane cannibalistic ritual. “And wouldn’t the blood from her virginity have been stuck on that big penis of his?”
I’m kind of jealous hearing about Tempest’s awesome first sexual encounter and try hard not to compare it to my own disastrous event.
Shadow smirks. “No doubt he went down on her to lap it up. Any kind of young female blood drives us into a frenzy of lust. Those are two of the most potent driving forces in life. Hunger for food and sex.”
Settling into the chair, he states the facts in a business-like tone.
“There is an enzyme in our mouths that dulls the pain and heals the bite site afterwards. And we can accurately gauge how much to drink from the way the heart beats. The minute it starts fluttering, we know to stop.”
Flicking the end of my nose with one cold finger, he teases me.
“You have no idea how mind-blowing it is to fuck and suck at the same time, Luna.” I feel his fingers tickle my skin as he strokes my neck and collarbones.
“To have a man grinding himself into you as your pussy floods with warm juices. And as he pounds you with his hard cock, you feel his mouth suck you right about… here.”
I jump with shock as he gives the vein in my neck a small nip with his fingernails.
“Shit! Don’t do that without warming—I mean, warning me first, Shadow! Tell me how come Tempest did not die from all that sucking and fucking you’re talking about?” That slip of the tongue betrays my fascination.
“You’ve been reading too much fiction, sweetheart. A li’l pint or two of lost blood ain’t gonna kill you.”
“But it will make a woman sick!” I remember what Ben told me. “And it can make her infertile! It would be the same as someone going to donate blood every month or something!”
There’s that darn smirk of Shadow’s again!
“You lose a pint of blood every month anyway, Luna.”
Consider my mind officially blown.
“Are you talking about menstrual blood?”
Shrugging his wide shoulders, Shadow acts cool. “Focus, darlin’. You forget that blood loss did not make Tempest infertile, unfortunately for us.”
My mind is all jumbled as I begin to figure it out.
“Ifan got Tempest pregnant? But how is that possible? Aren’t you all… monsters?”
Standing up so suddenly that I almost tumble to the floor, Shadow begins pacing like a wild jungle cat around the living room.
“We were once men! The infection that lives inside us never asked our permission before entering our bodies! You cannot hold our dark natures against us.”
I wait for him to simmer down. The red rage boiling inside him is on the cusp of turning Shadow into a maddened, feral creature.
And yet I am not afraid of him. If it’s possible, I find him even more alluring in this moment.
“When there is no bond with a female, all our rules allow us to do is visit a woman’s bedroom in the middle of the night to feed on her until the heart flutters like a captured bird.
And only after she has invited us into her house.
It’s why the system has always worked so well for us in Landslide.
At first, we set ourselves up as lawmakers, going from house to house pretending to keep the peace.
All those women used to living on the prairie never suspected anything.
They opened their doors wide to invite us inside… ”
Yes, I can see that happening. A hardworking housewife hears a knock on the door at night. And when she opens it, she sees a rangy, raunchy cowboy dressed in chaps and a Stetson hat asking her for a bed for the night. Her husband’s on the mainland and the kids are asleep. Oh my.
Shadow shoots me a devilish grin. “You get the picture.”
I most certainly do.
Leaning against the wall, Shadow continues.
“A small nibble of her wrist or ankle. She wakes up sore, and when she looks more closely at the site, she finds it slightly inflamed and tender. We have gotten away with our aberration for centuries, Luna, because the darkness hiding inside us is so elusive. It leaves no mark, and our visits are remembered fondly as nothing more than a delightful nightmare.”
My short gasp punctuates his story.
“So it was you in my dreams, Shadow! And… and you were feeding on me?” Rubbing my skin, I try to get the sensation of being violated off me. “Ugh! Haven’t you ever heard of asking permission first?”
“That wasn’t me giving you delightful nightmares, Luna.”
He leaves the rest of the statement hanging.
Wait a minute. Maybe I should get things straight, because my mind has hit a brick wall that is making me refuse to believe. It feels as though I’m talking outside of my body as the words come out of my mouth like bitter bile.
“Where is Tempest’s and Ifan’s child!?” Their half human, half beast child.
In my mind, I count the number of years from the nineteen-eighties up until now. Is there a middle-aged person I don’t know about living somewhere on Landslide?
Shadow seems to blend into the darkness, leaving only his voice to explain. This is starting to feel more and more like a dream.
“They named the boy ‘Wulf’ as a joke. You see, even when he was a baby, he loved to bite.”
Wulf. Hilarious. But that’s not what I want to know.
“Stop talking in riddles, Shadow, and fucking tell me!”
“What they did was forbidden, Luna. Ifan was excommunicated, and the MC vowed to hunt all three of them down. But Ifan was a skilled nomad—he knew how to keep his family hidden. And then one day out of the blue, Tempest came back to Landslide, alone.”
I’m praying he’s going to tell me that Ifan and Wulf are dead, but no.
“By observing Wulf’s feeding habits, Tempest had discovered a way to brew a drink that could satisfy our hunger without us having to feed on females. She offered to make it for us in exchange for forgiveness.”
Okay, maybe I was overreacting about a monstrous cousin lurking in the woods somewhere! “You forgave all three of them? That must have been one great-tasting drink!”
A flicker of a smile makes Shadow’s teeth gleam in the moonlight.
“It was a winning solution for those of us living on Landslide. No more weak, infertile women from blood loss. No more suspicious husbands when their wives died young or stayed sick. If anything, the drink enabled the MC to reconnect with our humanity. We could give a woman delightful nightmares without feeding on her. The drink allowed us to go for months—years—without the urge to feed on prey.”
Now I find that interesting. “Why bother? I mean, isn’t being with a woman all about the sex-blood thing?”
“Are you seriously complaining about a man who enjoys giving you pleasure, Luna?”
He’s right. “Okay, judge. I withdraw the question.”
Chuckling, Shadow comes to sit down on the couch and pulls me to sit next to him.
“It was almost normal here for twenty years. Girls grew to become women and have kids. They moved to the mainland to live healthy lives. Sam Aherne built the inn, which brought visitors. And the female visitors would return home in one piece—with maybe a few delightful nightmares as fond memories.”
“But it didn’t last.” I feel safe in saying this. Landslide might still be a popular tourist destination from all the letters sent to the chalet inn, but the local population looks as if it’s on its last legs.
Sighing, Shadow agrees. “Yep. And no one could be sorrier about that than me, darlin’.” Draping his arm over my shoulder, he pulls me close. As cold as he is, I feel warm in his rough embrace.
“The truce was the best thing that ever happened to Landslide. Tempest would brew and bottle the drink in the basement before going back to the mainland with a vat of the stuff for her own family. She was happy for Ifan to feast on her, but Tempest did not want Wulf to grow up with female blood on the menu. She showed me photos of her strange family once. Ifan had cut his hair close to the scalp and was sporting a goatee. The dude looked real civilized… and happy.”
“And Wulf?”
Shadow unexpectedly kisses the top of my head. His mouth feels like cold steel when he does it.
“Wulf refused to abide by the rules as he grew older. He was greedy for both blood and drink. And when Ifan attempted to discipline his son, Tempest got in the way.”
I am torn as I imagine the scenario. What would I have done if I were the parent?
“What happened?”
Looking genuinely sad, Shadow sighs. “Ifan bounced, y’all. He was always a half-wild nomad at heart. There was no way he was going to stick around with an ol’ lady who didn’t respect his authority. And if you think Wulf was out of control when his daddy was around, you should have seen him after.”
Single-parent households are difficult at the best of times without adding a monstrous son into the mix. Poor Tempest.
It’s as if Shadow can read my mind.
“Tempest didn’t waste time feeling sorry for herself, Luna.
I don’t know how she did it, but she was able to brew some kind of fortified elixir that brought Wulf back under her control.
It was too late to save Maria Magoo and Mrs. Steele, but the new fluids satisfied Wulf in a special way.
His deadly visits to Landslide stopped.”
I shudder when I think it was my own cousin who killed my neighbors’ wives. And I am beginning to understand how important it is for us to get the brewery at the inn making bottles of that drink again!
“It’s important that you never forget Wulf is a killer, Luna. When he hears a woman’s heart fluttering, it makes him suck harder. He takes pleasure from the seduction. Visiting a female, flirting with her, making her fall in love with him. He gets off on it.”
“Ugh!” My reaction is spontaneous. “No, thanks. I will never invite that creep into my house.”
Shadow hugs me closer. “Sweetheart, Wulf is different from the other Riders. He doesn’t need an invitation to come inside. And he doesn’t get knocked unconscious from the sun.”
A rising horror begins to flood my body. I am no longer able to fight the panic.
“What can I do to keep him out? What the fuck is he—man or monster?”
His deep voice rumbles as the awful truth comes out.
“Wulf is an incubus. A half-breed. An aberration. Absolutely forbidden in our world. And you can’t keep him out, Luna… because he’s already been here.”