Chapter 20 #2
“Let me guess. Only child, and your daddy wanted a son?”
Luna shakes her head slightly. “How did you know?” She looks at me as if to say, “Have you been telling stories about me behind my back?”
Jaecar explains. “Nah. The way you catch shows some skill. Your old man probably got you to play ball in the backyard, am I right?”
Luna smirks. “I’ll admit that my dad broke out his old ball and mitt from time to time. But what else was he meant to do? It’s not like he could sit in my room and play dolls.”
“Luna’s old man is a cop.”
I might as well tell the MC now. I don’t want them to think I’m holding out on them. The Riders stay quiet, each one of them busy with his own thoughts on what I just told them.
“Can I have one of those beers?” Luna points to the bar. I can tell the poor honey is trying to break the ice, but she doesn’t realize the MC has a polar ice cap’s worth of suspicion around us.
“Whoo! You don’t waste time getting the party started.” Shrugging out of his leather jacket, Rundas shakes the cuffs of his shirt out. “But alas, Miz Blackwood, every bottle is empty. Please feel free to drink the tap water at the inn.”
The Riders chuckle at the joke, their teeth glinting white under the fluorescent lighting.
Coming straight out with it, Luna says what’s on her mind.
“You don’t smell human.” Her nostrils flare as she inhales deeply.
“It’s bizarre. The only things I can smell in this room besides logs and concrete are leather and cotton.
There’s no stale beer scent. No cigarette smoke.
And no weed or meth. You might want to work on your man sweat funk a little bit. ”
Artim butts in. “Blood drinkers don’t sweat. I thought you would have noticed that last night.”
Luna is not impressed that I told the Riders about our sensational sexy night together. Crossing her arms, she huffs.
“How old are those clothes you’re all wearing? Are you going to keep wearing them until the rags rot right off you?”
Theron explains. “It is our tradition to be buried in our gákti. You see the problem?”
I interrupt. “Yeah, Luna. We feel more connected to our heritage wearing the same costume as our ancestors. All our leather is made from reindeer hide.”
“R-reindeer hide?” she stutters, her face a picture of confusion.
More laughter from the Riders. They are enjoying chatting with a human. We haven’t spoken so freely with a human since Tempest left.
Spinning around, Luna insists. “Shadow! You have to get the internet running. All these strange words. Incubus and gákti. It would be so much easier if I could just stick them in a search engine to find out what they are. And please don’t get me started on the local folk saying ‘percolated’ and ‘Satan’s grandfather.
’ Sometimes I feel like I’ve landed in La-La Land. ”
Time for me to explain. “The locals began using the same curse words as us. Perkele means devil, but they turned the word into ‘percolated’ over time. Satanas perkele translates as ‘the devil’s grandfather,’ so I guess they adapted that as well.
It’s not like we’re going to start correcting them now.
We’re in enough trouble as it is without adding eighteenth century word origins into the mix. ”
Flinging up her hands, Luna fumes. She can be so stubborn sometimes, but there is a firm discipline underneath it.
The clubhouse falls into one of those unnatural silences only found in isolated places populated by unnatural beings. They call it “dead quiet” for a reason.
I know the Riders are listening to the firm beat of Luna’s heart and relishing the sound of the air pushing in and out of her lungs. They are gauging how long it will be before she’s ready for another bloodletting. I know this is what they are doing because it is what I am doing, too.
Rubbing my hands up and down my thighs as if my palms are sweaty, I break in on their bestial thoughts.
“I’ll get the internet going for the next few days. That should be long enough for the single men to arrange to hook up with a woman on the mainland. One of you is going to have to volunteer to help Ben when he leaves the farm.”
Theron lifts his hand. He was once a farmer himself, albeit with a real big axe.
“I’ll do it. It goes quick with that new milking machine Ben installed.”
“Sounds good.” Facing Luna, I invite her into the conversation. “I’m-a need you to contact a mainland scientist or marine biologist. Invite them to test the water once the winter curfew is lifted.”
Rundas reminds us. “Message that daddy of yours too, Miz Luna. Don’t want him getting all freaked when you don’t get right back to him.”
Luna rolls her eyes. “I left a message on his satellite phone. Told him about the scatty connectivity.”
Artim has been sitting silent. Raising his head, he asks Luna something. “Can you search for a doctor in Minneapolis on that computer engine? Goes by the name of Dr. de Doorns.”
If Artim wanted to upset Luna, he is going the right way about it. She’s the only one who doesn’t know that Dr. de Doorns was the doctor Tempest was seeing before Wulf murdered her.
“I don’t need a search engine,” Luna explains. “Dr. de Doorns is a really famous fertility specialist in Minnesota. I saw a video about him online.”
From the blank looks on our faces, Luna can see our confusion, so she goes into more detail.
“A fertility doctor helps women fall pregnant. Some women are fertility challenged. Some men are sterile. And then some women get their eggs frozen for later.”
It’s as if she is speaking another language. And Theron is way out of his depth. “Frozen for later?”
“Yes. Women can wait until they are fifty or sixty years old before falling pregnant now. The doctor injects them with hormones.”
“Okay, darlin’.” Stepping up, I place my hand in the small of Luna’s back and begin propelling her towards the door. “That’s enough science for one day.” Moving at lightning speed, I pull on leather gloves and grab the full-face helmet and bandana. “Let’s get you some lunch.”
It happens so quickly and all at once.
I am jerking the door open before Rundas can say the words. “There’s someone outside!”
Jake Farmer sneaked up to the clubhouse while we were inside absorbed with our conversation with Luna.
He waits for the door to open all the way before pulling the trigger of his double barrel shotgun.
“That’s for my Linda, you fucking no-good biker bastards!”