Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Luna
If he wasn’t holding onto my ankle so tightly, I know I would be thrashing around, because the ecstatic throes of my arousal are almost overwhelming me.
But Shadow grips my left foot in an almost reverential worshiping way—with his hand and his teeth.
As my throbbing orgasm fades, I begin to notice other things. Slowly, I begin to make a list of what feel like injuries.
The cushioned plumpness of my pussy lips feels bruised and smooshed.
My jaw is sore from the way I have been clenching my mouth in a rigor.
The skin on the lower part of my face is raw from the rough brushing of Shadow’s beard scruff.
And I think I might have some kind of carpet burn from the sheets on the base of my spine, just above the dimples of my lower back.
This list takes a second for me to count as the best orgasm of my life slowly slips away and the reality of my down-to-earth world creeps back.
Wincing, I try to wriggle out from underneath him. But it’s as if Shadow is lost in a world of passion as he sucks my foot just above the arch.
For a moment, I am disassociated from what I can see is happening. And then it finally sinks in.
Shadow is feeding on me and cumming at the same time. His dark blue eyes drill into me as he tastes and breathes the tang of iron in the air.
I am fascinated as he holds me in his thrall, but my injuries are too many for me to forget them for too long. Pushing him in panic, I struggle to get him off me.
It’s over in an instant. Letting my foot drop, Shadow rolls off me with a lazy sigh.
“You’re even sweeter than I thought you would be.”
I’m still weak from my orgasm, so all I can do is bring my foot up to my face and poke at the bite site.
There is no pain. Nor are there any bite marks. As I probe the skin, a warm feeling of happiness floods over me. It reminds me of the time I fell and cut my knee open to the bone as a young child. The doctor injected me with a morphine-based painkiller to dull the discomfort.
“Are you addictive?”
I can’t help it. I just blurt out the question before I can think about it.
“Heh. You’re a cutie, you know that, Luna?” Shifting over so I can lie with my neck propped up by his upper arm—the muscles feel like a ridge of wood underneath me—Shadow chuckles. “It would suit me just fine if you were to take a long-term shine to me, sweetheart. But no, I’m not addictive.”
The post-sex glow I’m feeling right now is amazing. “Why would it suit you if I became addicted to having sex with you, Shadow? Do you want to teach me a lesson for turning you down before?”
He is unfazed by my teasing.
“Nope. But I want you to be my old lady, Luna. That would be a real sweet deal. I would treat you like a queen. Queen of the MC.”
That lazy afterglow is slowly increasing. When I look up at the ceiling, it might be spinning a bit. It’s difficult for me to get the words out. My mouth is starting to feel numb. “I… I’m not old, Shad… ooooh. I m-might not even b-be a lady…”
I’m dimly aware of him sitting up. Shadow stares down at me and then lifts my wrist to feel my pulse as if he can’t believe what his acute senses are telling him.
Is he going to eat me? That would be so lovely.
I want more…
“Luna! Luna!” He's slapping my cheek. “Wake up!”
Struggling to fight off the rosy glow that is threatening to rise up and take over my whole body, I roll over with great effort.
But when I try standing up, everything goes black. I feel his strong arms catching me as I sink down, down, down…
It’s bright and sunny when I wake up.
The tendrils of my delightful nightmare stick to me like the sweetest honey as the love story told to me last night slowly creeps back in.
Tempest and Ifan.
And their deadly incubus offspring; my cousin, Wulf.
And Shadow Sylva laying me down on the bed, spreading my thighs wide, and…
Gasping, I sit up.
Did I really sleep with a vampire last night? Well, I definitely had sex with him! My body has the slightly used feeling of being well and truly fucked.
I’m fucked in lots of other ways, too.
A coven of vampires lives on Landslide masquerading as a motorcycle club, and I think I might be falling in love with the club’s president.
No way.
Falling back down on the pillows, I promise myself not to get up until I have managed to make sense out of all of this.
The vampires must have lived here for a long time.
They came in riding on horses, for God’s sake.
They feed on women living around these parts.
And when they feed, the women experience nocturnal orgasms. The vampires like to give women nighttime visits and watch them come in their sleep almost as much as they enjoy feeding on them!
But the women get sick from all the blood loss, so Tempest got her dad to build the inn so the vampires could have access to more variety in their diet. My God! Was my aunt as monstrous as the coven?
It makes total sense for Tempest to have fallen in love with a vampire. It was her destiny.
How did she fall pregnant? It makes no sense. Aren’t the reproductive organs of vampires inert?
Throwing back the bed covers, I stare at the crumpled sheet underneath me. Running my hands over the sweat-stained cotton, I feel it. A damp spot. It’s easy to see because it’s tinted lightly with blood. Is that my blood, or is that part of Shadow’s intoxicating essence?
Daring myself, I lower my head to sniff at the wet patch.
Fuck that man! He’s got me acting like more of an animal than he is! Hang on, Luna. Pump your brakes.
Shadow is not a man. He was a man. Big difference.
From what I can tell, he’s firing on all six cylinders despite being only half-human. The sheet is stained with cum mixed with my pussy juice.
Swinging my feet off the bed, I test to see if I’m still dizzy before trying to stand up. Only then do I see the scrap of notepaper under one of the pillows. Tentatively, I pick it up.
Please don’t let it be from Wulf. I will die happy if I never have to hear the name of my cousin again. How sick and desperate does he have to be to visit me in such a way? I know Wulf’s nocturnal visit was just a dream, but it was a violation of my privacy all the same.
The note is from Shadow. He has scrawled my name with some strange symbols next to it:
LUNA
????
His handwriting is worse than a kindergartener’s; the pen strokes are crude and pressed into the paper so hard that some of the surface has torn from the force.
I have no doubt that when I go to the work room next door, I will find my notebook with the grooves of these words deeply embedded into the top five pages.
Without a second thought, I fold the note four times and tuck it into my bra as I get dressed. I feel all warm and good about the day. Sure, my face is shockingly pale when I go clean my teeth in the bathroom, but I’m still young and healthy enough to be able to handle this.
At least I hope I am.
Clattering downstairs, I see Muohta lolling on the couch. He woofs when he sees me. When I check his bowls, I see that Shadow already gave Muohta food and water.
My blond and brawny domesticated vampire lover.
Muohta looks up when I snort with laughter.
“Sorry, Mu, but you wouldn’t get the joke.”
Making my essential cup of coffee and popping a tub of fruit yogurt open, I lean against the kitchen countertop. I muse about the forthcoming day while spooning the cold strawberry-flavored slop into my mouth.
Gone are the days when I could snap a photograph of Shadow’s note and flick it over to Google image search to find out what those squiggly lines mean. I wonder if my blood-obsessed lover will translate it for me tonight? I also want to know more about incubi.
Maybe it’s time for me to pester Ben for local knowledge again.
There is so much I want to know about Landslide, now that I have some background on its origins.
The chill in the mud room doesn’t hit me so bad since spending half the night with Shadow’s cold body next to me. Tempest left me with detailed instructions about the island’s recycling system, so the general store is only allowed to sell yogurt in glass pots.
Flipping the lid of the glass bin open, I throw in the rinsed glass pot. My aunt wrote that I should rinse everything because recycling doesn’t get done during winter once the island gets iced in.
Only when I step into the warm shower do some of my injuries begin to bother me.
My pelvic floor actually aches. I’ve never experienced such a weird pain before. Tender and sore at the same time. When I wash between my thighs, I am shocked to find my clitoris is still engorged. The hard nub pulses with anticipation as I delicately dab at it with the cloth.
No thanks. No more finger banging required. I would much rather wait for the real thing.
As nightmarish as the concept of Shadow is, he has become more real to me than any man could ever hope to be.
Looking in the wet bathroom cabinet mirror with shower mist swirling around me, I loosen my hair from the clip and let the damp strands fall down my back.
Yes, I look different. Not only is my face so pale the blue-mauve veins can be seen threading under the skin, but my pupils are small pinpricks of black in the middle of the tawny irises. The whites of my eyes are bloodshot, too. I blink rapidly as the morning sun rises over the pine trees.
I look like a pink lab rat. Hurriedly sifting through my makeup bag, I find my green-base cover stick and dab it over my abraded chin and nose.
And mascara. Lots of mascara.
I never wear perfume, and I don’t need to apply deodorant under my arms—redheads are not prone to sweating much. But there is a bottle of scented body cream in the cabinet, so I rub that over my aching limbs. I guess this is how an athlete must feel after playing a hard game.
Bundling my cotton nightgown into the wash basket, I notice the torn fabric. As much as I hate housework, I might as well do a load of washing while I’m out. There is a soft smile on my face as I strip the sheets off the bed.
I feel like a bride the morning after her honeymoon. Is this how Tempest felt? This is the same house, the same bed where Ifan and Tempest spent their first night. So romantic.
With the machine on, I call Muohta.
I can see my breath in the air as I wait for the engine to start. Winter on Landslide. Spring and summer on Landslide, too. It’s the modern world that feels alien to me now.
“We’re going to Ben’s, Mu.” I like talking to my dog when I’m lonely. “You like Ben, don’t you?”
The Samoyed huffs. He would enjoy visiting more if he were allowed to chase the chickens.
It’s nice to know I won’t be taking any more wrong turns. Once again, I find Ben splitting logs in the front yard. Beckoning with his hand, he goes into the house ahead of me to put on the kettle.
He leaves his work boots in the entrance hall, so I kick off my sneakers. It’s not yet winter, but the path is muddy from the rain. Did Shadow ride back to the club in the rain early this morning?
“Morning, Ben. You’ll let me know what I owe you for firewood, won’t you?”
The homesteader grunts.
“Mr. Sylva stuck a note under my door this morning. Says he’ll be paying for your firewood from now on, Luna.”
I open my mouth to say something, but I honestly can’t think of anything to say. Fortunately for me, Ben comes to my rescue.
“His daddy, Dante, had the same deal with Tempest. The old man paid for your aunt’s utilities. Nice family, the Sylvas.”
Whew. That saved me from looking like a freeloader.
Handing me the mug of coffee, he gives Muohta a pat before sitting down.
“What brings you visitin’ today?”
“Please can you tell me a bit more about Landslide? Shadow wasn’t very helpful with that.”
Sipping his drink, Ben thinks hard before speaking.
“Hell, it’s pretty straightforward. My granddaddy’s great grandmother was brought here by one of the Farmer boys after they got to wooing.
Later on down the line, one of the Farmer girls got into trouble on the mainland and wanted to come back to the island to drop the child.
Gave him the father’s surname of Magoo. The baby grew up to be a healthy boy, so it was my…
great great grandfather who was given this parcel of land a while back. ”
“Who gave it to him?”
Ben shifts in his seat. “The club, I guess. All them good ol’ boys hanging out round the log cabin by the inn. Only there wasn’t any inn back in those days.”
“But who owned the island originally?”
“Luna, the MC has always been judge, jury, and executioner as far as running the island goes. My grandfather told me the Canadian government tried to claim Landslide as part of its border when he was a youngster—they wanted to cede it to the Northwest Angle Indian Reserve—but the local tribe told the government they did not want it. Canada lost interest in owning the island after that.”
“There’s no crime?” There is so much I want to know.
“No one has dared to say boo to a goose for ages, Miz Luna. Dante came round once to ask me to parcel up some of Magoo land for others to use, but I told him no. What’s the point? All the kids move to the mainland the first chance they get—”
Ben and I cock our heads to listen at the same time. A truck is laboring down the lane at breakneck speed.
As one person, we go out to the porch after putting our shoes back on.
Jerry Steele stumbles out of his truck. “Ben! Oh, it’s you, Miz Luna.”
The poor man looks frazzled. Jerking his head, Jerry makes it clear that he needs us to get into the truck cab. “Come on. Things are gonna pop off!”
“Why so?” Ben wants to know.
“The news just came in. Poor Miz Linda Farmer just died on the mainland. Her mother, Betty, says her daughter was as sick as a stuck pig when she came back from handing off the keys to you, Luna. Says there was nothing the doctors could do to save Linda. She passed two days ago.”
Oh no. Please don’t let this be connected to Shadow.
It feels like I’m dreaming when Ben goes back inside and then comes out with a shotgun. He gets into the cab next to Jerry. The two men look at me.
“You coming?”
“Where are you going?”
“To the clubhouse. All this damn dying has got to stop.”