by C. J. Pinard
“Fuck you. Fuck all of you and your stupid little vampire biker club. I’ll see you in Hell,” Henry snapped, his demeanor completely changing as an evil face replaced the innocent-looking one he’d been wearing this whole time.
“You first.” Viper reached down, wrenched Henry’s head to the side, and turned it all the way around until it disconnected from his body, blood and tissue flying onto him and those around him.
I screamed in terror at the sight. My breaths were coming too fast, the world swimming around me as I couldn’t control my breathing. Then, the blessed darkness found me.
The only thing I was grateful for as I was held captive with the monsters was that James never touched me again. I had had plenty of time to work on fashioning myself a weapon of wood from the window frame and bed and was prepared to use it if he ever came at me again. I slept with it under my pillow, waiting for him to attack me again.
However, that day never came.
I was allowed more freedoms as the months went on, to include different clothing and freedom to move around the house. The other female wolves tried to be nice to me, in their own way, but they would never be anything but monsters to me. I kept them at arm’s length.
One day, while under the bed reading a book, I heard screams and wails coming from downstairs. I crawled out and set the book on the bed before creeping downstairs.
James’s very dead body was laid out on the sofa while Mama April cried and wailed, her head on his chest. He had blood covering his entire head and face and bloody-white foam covered his lips. I pressed my hand against my mouth to keep from screaming.
I didn’t care if he was dead. I was glad. I had just never seen such violence before. I ran back into my room, closed the door, and crawled back under the bed with a blanket.
A few minutes later, Mama April came into my room with bloodshot eyes and snot covering her nose and mouth.
“MyAnna, honey, come out please.”
I crawled out and sat on the bed, staring at her. “What?”
She wiped her face with the back of her wrinkled hand. “Honey, your husband is dead. Filthy leeches killed him.” Her voice hitched in emotion and she began to cry.
I stared at her for a long time, and then said, “Okay, thanks for letting me know.”
She stalked toward me angrily and backhanded me in the face. “Ungrateful little bitch.”
The slap was worth the anger on her face. I hated her, James, and their whole family and I was going to have to hope for a miracle or pray someone rescued me so I could get out of here. Maybe James’s death would mean they’d set me free.
I learned later on that was not the case. They just planned to pawn me off to another male wolf, and that was when I knew I had to get the hell outta here once and for all.
Sounds of shouts roused me out of sleep. I blinked my eyes open to find myself in Viper’s bed.
“You asshole! Why did you let her stay there and watch that shit?” Viper’s voice.
Silence.
“I don’t fucking care. You should have put her back into the apartment. I’m gonna tear your eyes out!”
More silence.
“No, I will not calm down! She’s fuckin’ traumatized, and it’s your fault. Go to hell, Kovah!” A growl and then the sound of a loud crash resounded before my bedroom door flew open.
Viper, looking like a dark knight of Hell, his hazel eyes wild and blazing, stalked toward me. I slid off the bed and scooted underneath it, taking the bedspread with me. I put the bed covers over my face and curled up in the smallest ball possible.
Viper’s breaths were erratic, but I listened as he tried to even them out before saying, “MyAnna, baby, please come out from there.”
I didn’t respond. I didn’t want to. The guy was a vampire, I knew what he was capable of, but to see him commit such horrific violence was beyond my comprehension.
“I’m sorry you had to see that,” he said in a calming tone. “Kovah should have brought you back up here.”
“It’s not Kovah’s fault,” I said so low even I could barely hear it. “I made that choice.”
“Maybe so, shortstop, but he knows the rules.”
“It would be nice if I knew these so-called rules,” I said quietly.
Caught off-guard, I felt a hand drag me out from under the bed. I was placed on the mattress with Viper seated next to me. I attempted to pull the bedspread over my face, but it was ripped from my hands. I was forced to stare into infuriatingly beautiful hazel eyes, but I diverted my gaze down to the mattress, wrapping my arms around my knees that were up against my chest.
“Listen, and listen good. I tried to get you your own place. I warned you that I’m not good and that my world is full of death and violence. You chose to stay, and against my better judgment, I let you. But you’ve chosen a world of murder and pain. A dark world full of agony and blood. I vowed to do my best to keep you from the ugliness of this life, but short of locking you in a tower, I can only do so much. I’m sorry you had to witness that earlier, but I’ve done much worse, shortstop.” He paused to push a strand of hair behind my ear. “I’m not good and haven’t been since becoming this.” He gestured to himself and the blood spatters on his clothes.
I slowly blinked up at him. “I’m no stranger to ugliness and death. I found my mother dead when I was eighteen. Then I was subjected to James’s torture and assault on my body.”
Viper’s eyebrows hit his hairline. “What the fuck did he do to you?” he roared.
I shook my head. I wasn’t going there. With him or anyone. Ever.
He slammed his hand on the nightstand and the framed photo of his parents he kept there fell down. He ignored it and gritted out, “I’m gonna dig him up and kill him all over again.”
I laid a hand on his arm. “Stop. Just stop. He’s dead, and it’s done. Please just leave it in the past. I’m not going to talk about it again.” I chewed the side of my lip, which was wobbling. “Please don’t ask me to.”
He stared hard at my mouth as his jaw ticked in annoyance before he nodded. “Fine.”
“What I won’t sit here and listen to is you telling me you’re not good. Vane, I’ve been around monsters for months. Like humans, there are good and bad ones.” I placed my hand on his cheek and stroked my thumb along it as he bored his gaze into mine. “You’re not one of the bad ones. I understand why you did what you did to Henry. I just need to learn to control my reactions. I’ve seen a lot of blood and death, but that was pretty… shocking. So my reaction… it won’t happen again.” I lowered my eyes, then my face to my knees and rested my cheek on them.
“Look at me, MyAnna.”
I slowly moved my gaze to him and waited.
“Tell me right now you want to go be on your own. Tell me you want that apartment Face set up for you and we’ll get on my bike this minute. God knows you’ll be safer there than in this den of predators.”
I began shaking my head before he could even finish. “No. That’s not what I want. Nobody here is a predator. Aside from y’all being vampires, everyone has been nice to me and I feel safer here than I ever have anywhere else. Hell, I was kidnapped out in public behind my old job, so I wasn’t even safe there. I don’t have a place to belong. A family. All my siblings moved away. My parents are dead. Braden betrayed me. I belong here.” I hugged him and he immediately wrapped his arms around me in return.
“Then it’s here you’ll stay,” he replied, immediately calming. He pulled me from his chest and looked down at me, rubbing a thumb over my cheek. “But know that if you stay here, you’re mine. Forever. You understand? You’re fucking mine. Anyone else so much as looks at you, they’ll lose a limb.”
“Whoa, slow down, snake boy. You don’t have to worry about me.” I leaned up and pressed my lips to his. “I only have eyes for you. My heart is yours. Just don’t freaking break it.”
He reached over and grabbed my hand, placing it on his ridiculously hard cock. “He only works for you.” Then, he
kissed me. First, hard, then he slowed down to let our tongues slither and mingle together. His fingers untied my low-cut vest and when it flew free, his hands explored my breasts. I breathed hard as his fingers slid down my stomach to my leather pants, unbuttoning those as well. I kicked off my boots so he could slide the ridiculously tight pants off me. Bared naked to him, I felt both vulnerable and sexy.
“Fuck,” he murmured after laying me down on the bed and letting his gaze roam over my body.
After his clothes came off, he leaned down to lavish attention on each breast, biting into my nipple before moving lower, peppering kisses along my stomach. When he reached my mound, he kissed around it until he found my wet center. He speared two fingers inside me and then latched his mouth onto my clit. I cried out, shuddering as he pumped them in and out of me while pinching my hard nipples. Intense pressure built in my lower belly and a climax roared through me right as he inserted a fang into my lower lips and began to feed. The feeling was indescribable.
I relaxed slightly after the initial wave, and my eyes slammed open when Viper’s huge cock slid into me, stretching me to the max. I gripped his shoulders, not breaking eye contact with him as he rocked in and out of me.
“You’re so damn beautiful,” he whispered, gazing at me.
“I love you, Vane,” I said, using his real name, as he seemed to love that.
“Fuck,” he murmured under his breath, and I could swear I felt his cock swell even harder inside me.
I lifted my hips to meet his thrusts as I felt another powerful climax building. Closing my eyes, I gripped Viper’s shoulders and spread my legs to the max, loving that friction on my core. When he leaned down and pulled a nipple into his mouth, I groaned and panted, gripping his hair as the orgasm blasted through me like a rocket.
He rammed himself inside me faster and harder, now up on his knees as his hands gripped my hipbones almost painfully. He watched my core take his thick cock with eyes hooded in lust. Suddenly they closed and his head arched back as his seed spilled deep inside me. It was such a beautiful sight.
After he collapsed on top of me, he quickly rolled off and pulled me into the crook of his arm. “I love you, MyAnna. You’re never going to leave my side. Ever.”
“I don’t want to,” I whispered before closing my eyes to sleep, feeling safer than I ever had in my life.
Chapter 29
Rough Ol’ Road Life
Shreveport, Louisiana – 2008
Shadow and I wandered through most of the South for about five years. We’d find a small town, and for one reason or another, would have to leave it after a few months to a year. Large vampire “clans” demanding we join them or be hunted. Too much of a werewolf population. Too much sunlight. Too small of a town and people grew suspicious and wouldn’t mind their own business about us. While we’d try to settle, we’d find a remote house or trailer to rent to lay low. I’d bartend and he would get a job bouncing at the door to nightclubs. Lord knew he was large enough to intimidate anyone. We met a few women along the way, none worth keeping around.
After having to leave Texarkana, Texas, due to the large number of werewolf clans, we headed south. A few hours later, we stopped to rest in Shreveport, Louisiana.
We liked it immediately and decided we’d try this city to settle in.
Sitting at a popular chain diner, we both ordered coffee and surveyed our surroundings. People seemed nice enough, nobody really paid much attention to us (we always got a lot of stares due to Shadow’s size and our “biker” look), and it was a short couple of hours’ drive to New Orleans, which I had always wanted to visit. There was a large lake in town where I could get my beach and water fix. The cost of living was low, and there were plenty of bars and clubs in town for jobs.
The great recession had hit the economy, so jobs were harder to find. I hadn’t had to compel anyone in years, so I felt a little bad telling the owner of Rico’s Bar and Grill that he definitely needed another bartender, believing one or two were getting ready to quit.
We found a two-bedroom house that was in foreclosure and actually ended up buying it. It was a screaming steal due to the economy and we had the $80,000 in cash for it. It needed quite a bit of cosmetic work and upgrades, but we weren’t worried about it. It would get done eventually.
Two weeks later, on a very busy Saturday night, the bar was slammed with patrons and I was busting my ass to get all the drink orders in. I looked up to hand a guy his receipt when a group of human bikers walking in caught my eye. This wasn’t the type of place bikers hung out. It was more of an after-work crowd during the week and college kids on the weekends. The four of them looked out of place. They also looked like they were up to no good.
They walked up to the bar and asked if they could talk to Jesse, who was the only other vamp who worked here. I nodded and waved Jesse over. Taking more orders at the other end of the bar, I kept my ears open to their conversation. What seemed to be the leader of the group, an older guy probably in his fifties, was asking him questions about an assault down at one of the other nightclubs—the Blue Room, coincidentally, where Shadow worked the door.
What the hell did bikers care about crimes at clubs, and why did they ask for Jesse specifically?
Jesse didn’t seem to know anything—or he wasn’t saying—and when they left without ordering anything, I waited for a lull in customers before I pulled my friend into the back room.
“What the hell was that about?” I asked.
He stared at me with large brown eyes and raked a hand through his short black hair while blowing out a breath. “I kept meaning to warn you about those fuckers. They hunt vamps.”
My eyebrows hit my hairline, and I let out a scoff. Pointing out to the front, I said, “Those old guys? Humans? Seriously?”
Jesse nodded. “Yes, and don’t underestimate them. They don’t look like much but they’re sneaky bastards. Kill you in your sleep and shit.”
“Did the guy make me?” I asked.
“Nah, Archie didn’t even give you a second look or ask. He must think you’re human.”
“We’re gonna keep it that way, too,” I said, kicking myself for buying that house because now we were probably gonna have to fucking leave town. I refused to live looking over my shoulder just because I was a vampire—something I didn’t even ask to be. I only fed on willing donors or blood bags and I don’t kill anyone or anything. Not even animals.
“They’re called the Rebel Riders,” Jesse said, heading toward the front to get back to work. We could hear the clamoring of customers waiting for drinks.
“Yeah, I saw their cuts,” I replied. “I want to talk to you later about what they were asking you about. My buddy works the door at the Blue Room.”
“Okay, after work,” he replied.
We had no downtime for the next three hours between pouring drinks, collecting glasses and plates, and cleaning.
About half hour before we closed, I texted Shadow: Meet me @Ricos when u get off
Shadow: Ok. Everything good?
Me: Yes
I loathed texting.
After we locked up, Jesse agreed to meet us outside in the deserted parking lot to talk. Shadow needed to know about these “Rebel Riders” as well.
“What’s up?” Shadow asked, killing the engine to his bike but remaining seated on it.
Jesse relayed what he’d told me, and then I mentioned the assault at the Blue Room.
Shadow nodded. “Yeah, one of our employees got attacked as she was taking out the trash. Vamp grabbed her then fed off her. Left her passed out, almost dead. Police don’t know what to think, from what I’m told.”
“That’s why the Riders are asking. They want to hunt down this vamp,” Jesse commented.
“Maybe we should find him first,” I said, grinning wickedly.
Shadow met my fist-bump.
Jesse raised a dark eyebrow. “Are you insane? Leave it to those guys, like I said, they’re good at it.”
I shoo
k my head. “Nah, I’m bored. It’s been five years since we’ve hunted.”
“What does that mean?” Jesse’s eyes went wide.
“Werewolves, mostly, but we’ve gotten a few rouge vamps off the streets as well. We’re fuckin’ good at it, too,” Shadow remarked.
Jesse snorted. “Okay, well, you two have fun with that. I’m staying out of it.”
“Have a good night,” I said to him as he got into his car.
We watched him drive off and I asked Shadow, “Does the employee still work there?”
He nodded. “Yeah, she took a few weeks off, but she’s back now.”
“I wonder why those old guys are asking about it now if it happened weeks ago.”
Shadow shrugged. “Maybe they just got wind of it. Or are hitting dead ends.”
I went to my bike and started it up. “You’re probably right.”
We drove off into the dark night toward home.
The next night, I went to start my bike and it wouldn’t. I knew enough to do basic maintenance on it but none of my troubleshoots were working. We only had the motorcycles for now, and I refused to ride on the back of Shadow’s, so I called and cab so I could get to my shift at Rico’s.
Thankfully, Sunday nights were less busy, and I was able to use the computer in the back to find a bike repair shop in town. I decided on the one with the best reputation. The trouble would be getting it there during business hours. I checked the weather to see it was going to rain all day tomorrow, so I took a chance and called the shop. Since it was Sunday, nobody answered but I left a message.
“Hello, I have a 2005 Harley Roadster that needs to be looked at. I’m going to be there first thing at seven when you open to drop it off. I hope you get this.” I recited my cell phone number and hung up.
A chuckle from behind me had me turning around. Jesse was sniggering under his breath as he pushed buttons on the computer screen to total out an order. I threw the rag I’d just picked up over my shoulder and folded my arms across my chest. “Something funny?”
