Viper (Nighthawks MC Book 1)

by C. J. Pinard

  I sat there a few minutes longer until I started to get cold. Nights in California didn’t stay as warm as the days. I stood and picked up my board, slid on my flip-flops, T-shirt, and baja hoodie, and headed toward the main street that lined the beach. I didn’t have a car; I walked everywhere. I strolled quietly, looking at the retail shops that were closing up for the night. The fun part of the beach would be a couple of streets over where the bars and clubs were. I thought about going to hang out with Andy while he worked but decided I was feeling tired from all the sun and surfing and thought a beer and some TV sounded better. I had to work tomorrow, anyway.

  As I rounded the corner to my apartment, something hard smashed into my face. I dropped my board and bellowed out in pain as I fell to the ground. Before I could blink or cry out again, I was flat on my back, a frighteningly beautiful woman on top, straddling me, pinning my arms to my side.

  I balled up my fists. “What the fuck? Get off—”

  She slapped me across the face. “Shhh.” She put a blood-red nail to her lips.

  Pissed as hell, I tried bucking her off, but she was freakishly strong. I slowly stopped resisting because of the look in her eyes. It was calming me somehow. That calm was short-lived, though, because after her eyes turned complete black like a demon, she opened her mouth, and I saw a set of very sharp fangs. My eyes widened, and before I could yell, she slammed her face down to my neck and bit into me—hard. My screams were muffled as she smashed her hand down over my mouth while she ravaged my neck. Relaxation began to overtake my senses, and when she removed her hand from my mouth, I lacked the energy to do anything but whimper and blink, trying to keep my eyes open. Eventually the darkness won, taking me under its blanket and putting me to sleep.

  The throbbing in my head woke me. I blinked my eyes open and realized I most certainly was not in my room back in my dinky apartment. How much did I have to drink and whose bed did I wind up in?

  Groaning, I went to get up to use the bathroom out of habit but realized I couldn’t. Seeing my right, and then my left arm tied with rope to the bed I lay alone on made me wake up real fast. I yanked at my restraints and sat up, thankful my feet weren’t restrained as well. I wore nothing but a loose pair of dark-blue pajama bottoms that certainly weren’t mine. Looking around the large room, I could see Victorian-era décor, including the bed I was on. It was a four-poster, with gaudy bedclothes matching the rest of the furniture. I blinked again in disbelief, trying hard to remember the last thing that had happened before I went to sleep.

  “Think, think,” I muttered to myself.

  I suddenly felt a huge wave of nausea overtake me. Since I couldn’t get up to use the bathroom, I leaned my head over the side of the bed the best I could and emptied the contents of my stomach. Not only was I shocked to see a large metal bowl on the floor that had caught my spew of sickness, but even more shocking was the fact that my vomit was mostly red liquid.

  “What the…?” I whimpered, tasting the coppery regurgitated blood.

  I sat back up and used my bare shoulder to wipe my mouth off.

  Ugh, I need some water. So thirsty.

  I closed my eyes and tried to remember.

  Surfing with Andy.

  Heading home.

  But I didn’t make it home, did I?

  My eyes slammed open. That Halloween-costumed bitch, she’d attacked me in the alley behind my apartment!

  “Holy shit!”

  Unable to get my hand to my neck to feel if I still had her bite marks on me, I began to thrash violently, trying to get the rope to snap. I had to get the hell out of here. What kind of weird shit was this chick into? I wasn’t sticking around to find out. I was already vomiting blood, for God’s sake. I clearly needed medical attention. Knowing that crying out for help would just make her, or someone worse, come in here faster, I tried to find a way to free my right hand. I stared at the knot in the rope against the bedpost. Looked pretty complicated, like the ones they tied on the boat when I used to go out on my buddy’s family’s yacht as a teen. They’d tried to teach me nautical rope ties, but it was lost on me. I just wanted to sit and watch the ocean. Wished I would have paid more attention—not that it mattered, now. It would take a sharp instrument of some kind to release me.

  I looked around the room again. I could see a large window to my right, but I couldn’t tell how big it was because it was covered by heavy velvet draperies that matched the god-awful bedspread I sat on. Hell, I didn’t even know if it was night or day at this point. I assumed morning since I’d just woken up.

  There was nothing I could use to break these binds. I straightened my fingers to make my hand as small as possible and tried to yank out of the binding at my wrist, but all that did was scrape the shit out of my skin and draw blood. I hissed in pain. The rope didn’t give at all. I looked up to see the ropes might slide off the post at the top, so I sat up with my back to the wall and tried to slide both arms up at the same time, but the ropes would not budge an inch. After ten minutes of trying to loosen them, I gave up. Beginning to get discouraged, my panic rose. I had to get out of here.

  A noise from the doorway caught my attention, and I watched as the woman and another man walked in. The man was very young and thin and wore nothing but a pair of jeans and was barefoot. I stared at him and then her.

  “Oh, good. You’re finally awake,” she said with a creepy smile. I stared at her pale, flawless, skin, dark wavy hair, and freakishly light-blue eyes. She was dressed like a villain from a comic book, leather pants, boots, and tits spilling out of her tight-ass top.

  “Why do you have me tied up in here, you crazy bitch? Let me go,” I snapped.

  She folded her arms over her chest and grinned. “No.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “You attacked me last night. Why did you bite me, you freak?”

  She tilted her head back and laughed. “Last night? Honey, that was three days ago.”

  My eyes widened in shock and I sucked in a breath. “What? No…”

  “Yes,” she said, grinning in triumph at my shock.

  I looked at the man, who seemed to be waiting on an order from the woman, and then back to her. “What do you want?”

  Her frightening smile got wider. “Oh, honey, you’re here for your own protection.”

  What the… “Protection from what?”

  “From yourself,” she answered a split-second before her eyes turned solid black.

  I gasped out loud and tried to scrabble up the bed further, but my back was already pressed tightly to the wall behind me.

  Before I could blink, she was on the bed, yanking me down flat and straddling me once more as she had that night.

  “Get off me!” I screamed, trying to buck her off once more and wondering how I could use my legs. I lifted my knee and smacked her in her backside, but it had no effect. She just continued to straddle me, staring down at me with those freaky eyes.

  “Come here, Sam,” she said, and I watched as the young man obeyed. Sam sat on the bed next to us and craned his neck to the side, almost robotically.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, mortified as the realization came over me that she had kidnapped me for some freaky orgy she wanted to have with me and this Sam guy.

  “Shhh,” she hissed, smoothing back my too-long hair from my face. “Listen to Sam’s heartbeat. Close your eyes and you’ll hear it.”

  I looked at the woman, then to Sam, then back to her. “No! What are you doing? Get offa me. Let me out of here!”

  Her eyes went back to blue, and an angry countenance overtook her already frighteningly stunning features. A piercing sting warmed my face as I realized she’d slapped me clean across the face. “Shut up, close your eyes, and listen to his heartbeat, Vane. I won’t ask you again.”

  “How do you know my—”

  Another slap that shut me up. I obeyed to avoid any more abuse and closed my eyes.

  “Listen to its steady rhythm,” she whispered.

  Concentrat
ing, just to appease her so I could figure a way out, I did as I was told. Sure enough, I could hear Sam’s heartbeat.

  Okay, now what?

  “Do you hear it, love?” she purred.

  “Yes,” I answered with a nod.

  “Open your eyes,” she commanded.

  When I did, Sam was sitting inches from me, his head turned to the side. I could see the blue vein throbbing in his neck and was suddenly mesmerized by it. I watched in fascination as it pulsed in rhythm with the sound of it beating in my ears. My mouth began to water, and I felt something sliding out of my gums. I opened my mouth and closed it again, rewarded by a sharp fang piercing my bottom lip—my own fang.

  What the hell is going on?! I screamed inside.

  But outside, I couldn’t really move.

  “Taste Sam. Drink from him,” she demanded, pushing his neck to my mouth.

  Oh fuck! No!

  But I couldn’t help it; it was too hard to resist. I leaned forward and bit down into that throbbing vein. I was rewarded by a rush of sweet liquid pouring down my throat. I sucked at Sam’s neck as he moaned.

  My dick getting hard was what drew my attention away from drinking and back to the present. The woman rubbing it through my pajama bottoms had me withdrawing my mouth from Sam’s neck, shrinking back from him, and trying to kick the woman away.

  “What the fuck did you do to me!” I screamed, kicking at them both, blood dribbling down my chin. I wanted to lick it away but then told myself that was disgusting. What I’d just done was abhorrent, unnatural, and downright sickening. “What have you done?” I whispered this time.

  She grinned evilly at me. “I’m Agnes. Welcome to my world, Vane Matson.”

  Chapter 4

  Bad Company

  Present Day

  After a few hours of daytime sleep, a hot shower, and some clean, fresh clothes, I left the house I shared with Shadow and drove to the clubhouse on my Hog. The night wind blew my hair back and I sucked in a deep breath I didn’t really need as I drove. After I parked, I put in the code and walked in, ready to start my evening.

  Most of us had our own places, and a few of the vampires all lived together in larger homes, but we did not keep living quarters at the clubhouse. We did keep one cot in the offices with a blanket and pillow for emergencies, along with a couple of comfortable couches.

  When I started this club, I thought it best to keep personal and professional lives separate—not that many of my men and women had lives. The Nighthawks were their only family for most—me included. My parents had died in a boating accident long before I was even turned, and the trust fund they’d left their only child was how I was able to afford this long life I led. I had lucked out and found an awesome investment banker at Andy’s bar one night who’d been able to double the million they’d left me. It had since quadrupled, thanks to the stocks I’d learned to invest in, and hence, how I afforded to pay cash for my houses, vehicles, and the Nighthawks’ needs.

  I headed straight to the cage where a man dressed in athletic shorts sat. He was scrawny, dirty, and was currently munching on a sandwich. I looked at the cell next to his to see it empty, the door open. I looked back at the wolf, who stared up at me with frightened eyes, a touch of defiance behind his fear as he chewed his dinner.

  I smelled him before he spoke. “Hey, boss.”

  Clapping Venom on the shoulder of his white T-shirt, I said, “What’s the good word?”

  He was also eating a sandwich and used it to point at the thin man in the cage. “Name’s Dave. Won’t say what pack he’s from. That’s all I could get from him.”

  I looked at Venom. “That’s it?”

  He nodded, shoving the rest of his sandwich down his gullet with one finger.

  I looked at the scraggly wolf, noticing his leg wound was nothing but a scab and the bloodied bandage lay in shreds next to him. “Why did you attack Shadow?” I jutted a thumb over my shoulder, sure Shadow was here somewhere.

  No answer. He just stared at me.

  I nodded and ran my fingers over my chin. “All right. You wanna play deaf-mute, that’s fine. You can spend another night in that cage. Is that what you want?”

  Still, no response.

  Venom pulled his cell phone from his pocket and waved it at the wolf. “We filmed your transition back to human this morning. Maybe we’ll put it on YouTube. You won’t say what pack you’re from, but when that shit goes viral, I’ll bet they’ll come looking for you. Maybe we’ll even ask for a ransom.”

  Dave’s eyes went wide. “Code.”

  Venom chuckled. “You think I give a shit about the code? Look who I roll with.” He pointed at me, and then the other vampires who had gathered behind us to watch the interaction.

  “Filthy traitor,” Dave growled.

  “Answer the fucking question,” I demanded.

  Shadow came to stand next to me. “Yeah, answer.” Then, he disappeared.

  Dave gasped, looking to where Shadow once was and then to me and Venom. “What the hell, man?”

  I shrugged casually. “He could be anywhere.”

  “Vampire speed,” Dave grunted.

  “No, not vampire speed.” Venom chuckled. “The fucker can literally disappear. Why do you think we call him Shadow?”

  “Boo!” Shadow said, appearing inside Dave’s cage.

  Dave screamed.

  Shadow disappeared again, reappearing next to me.

  All the vamps behind me laughed.

  “Talk,” I demanded again.

  “Fuck off,” he said.

  I looked at Phoenix and nodded. With a flick of his wrist, he shot a stream of fire at the wolf and it set his foot on fire. Dave screamed before he dumped his water bowl on it to extinguish it.

  “Asshole,” he said.

  “Spit it out,” I snapped.

  “Okay, okay,” Dave replied, panting, but not taking his eyes off Phoenix. “Cedar Grove pack sent me here. To see what you bloodsuckers were up to.”

  Wow, one zap of fire and he’d sung like a canary.

  Venom laughed. “Cedar Grove pack? That bunch of mangy mutts?”

  Dave spat at Venom, and the wad of spittle landed on his boot. “Fuck off, traitor.”

  Venom’s smile dropped as he looked down at his boot. “You dick.”

  Annoyed, I said, “Keep talking.”

  “We know you been killin’ wolves. Just tryin’ to find out why.” He glared at me.

  I glanced at my watch to check the date. Last night had been the third night of the full moon, and I was grateful he wasn’t going to turn again while we had him. We needed answers.

  “We kill rogue wolves who attack humans,” Face pointed out.

  Dave looked at Face and then back to me. “It doesn’t matter. The pack wants penance for killing one of their own.”

  “You mean one of your own,” Venom said, producing a candy bar from his pocket and unwrapping it before taking a bite. Did the guy ever stop eating?

  “Let me out of here. I told you what you want to know,” Dave said, now sounding scared and irritated.

  I looked at Venom and jerked my head toward Dave. “Let him make a call. I want to meet with the pack leader.”

  Venom took out his phone and tossed it at Dave. “Start dialing.”

  I walked away and headed toward my office. My men could handle the rest. Once the pack leader arrived, I would go out and make my presence known. Until then, I had paperwork to do.

  “I’m shocked he even showed up,” Venom said, staring at the large man seated inside the chapel.

  He stood about six-foot-four, his leather jacket reflecting the lights from above. He had tried to bring his whole posse inside, but I’d only allowed him one crony to accompany him.

  My five lieutenants, Phoenix, Shadow, Venom, Kovah, and Face, all stood by my side as we stared at the two wolves. “You sent your little lap dog to spy on us. Why?” I asked.

  “You killed my lieutenant,” the man said, a wad of dip in his l
ower lip.

  “What’s your name?” I asked.

  “Larry,” he answered. “This is Mick.” He pointed to the wolf next to him.

  Damn, these fuckers were huge. Shadow was tall as well, standing at least six-foot-seven, but he didn’t have the bulky muscle mass these wolves did. I supposed morphing into animals once a month gave you some of their DNA.

  “Listen, Larry,” I stared. “If we killed a wolf, it was for good reason. We don’t just wander around looking for wolves to murder.”

  “Coulda fooled me,” Mick responded, glaring at us. “He wasn’t doin’ nothin’ wrong.”

  I sighed. “You’ll have to be more specific. When did this happen?”

  I wasn’t sure why I was entertaining wolves or hearing their side of the story, because at the end of the day, I knew what we did here was on the up and up. We didn’t kill wolves for the hell of it, we only did it when we were protecting our own or humans from them. And wolves weren’t the only creatures we had killed, either. There were a lot out there.

  “Couple months back,” Larry said, using an empty glass to spit his wad of chew into. I was sure Kovah had offered them drinks, if not for any reason but to help them loosen up and talk.

  I rolled my hand, encouraging him to continue.

  “Down by Cross Lake. One of you bloodsuckers took him out,” he said.

  We all just stared at him. Definitely not enough information, because nothing was jogging my memory. But it did confirm there was a pack down near the lake. I tucked that little nugget away to chew on later.