Viper (Nighthawks MC Book 1)

by C. J. Pinard

  “You called Archie’s Garage to fix your motorcycle?” he asked, side-eyeing me then looking back at the screen.

  “So? They had good ratings online.”

  “Archie? Hello?” he said, still biting back a smile.

  “I’m not usually this dense, but you’re gonna have to throw me a bone here, Jess. No clue why this is so funny.” I was getting irritated at his immaturity. Or maybe I was just getting crankier in my old age. I was technically turning fifty in a few months. Glad I didn’t look it or feel it.

  “Archie, the head of the Riders. That’s his shop.”

  I groaned. “Fuckin’ great,” I murmured under my breath. “Guess vampire hunting doesn’t pay the bills.”

  “Damn right,” he agreed. He pulled the ticket out of the machine and grabbed a pen before walking away from me.

  Well, I guessed I would have to see what happened tomorrow. If Archie recognized me from the bar last night, and I went out when it wasn’t absolutely dark, maybe he wouldn’t suspect anything. Not that I was worried about him that much, I could take him easily enough. Especially since I noticed he walked with a limp and used a cane.

  The next morning, I peered out the window as the day was beginning to lighten. It was raining and the sky was full of thick, bloated clouds. I showered and dressed in black leather from head to toe, including gloves. I was going to look stupid since I had no bike to ride, but I didn’t give a shit. Better safe than sorry from the murdering sun.

  Ensuring the sun was still hiding, I pulled the bike out of the garage and was happy to see the tow truck approaching. After it was loaded on, I rode in the cab with the smelly stranger in silence. Thankfully, it was only about four miles to Archie’s.

  I paid the driver cash after he unloaded the bike and then parked it out front. I immediately went into the small reception area. Nobody was around, so I waited for a bit, keeping an eye on the sky. One blast of sunlight would hurt, but not kill me. However, full, blazing sun would fry me to a crisp.

  “Hey there. Are you Vane?” Archie asked as he came out from the back room.

  The club had been dark Saturday night and today I got a good look at him. A little shorter than me, graying hair, wad of dip in his lower lip. Shiny diamond stud in his left ear. Jeans, black shirt.

  I didn’t remove my gloves before shaking his hand. “Yeah, that’s me. Got time to take a look at my bike?”

  He nodded and indicated for me to follow him out. I noticed he was favoring his left leg as he used the cane. He spat a wad of chew onto the ground and whistled low between his teeth as he studied my bike. “She’s a beaut.”

  With his back turned, I looked up at the sky to ensure I was still safe. “She is, but she won’t start.”

  He called out to one of the mechanics and told the kid to get it into the garage and take a look at it.

  “Do you want to wait here while he looks? Or I can call you when we figure it out. I’ve seen troubles with this model before, and we’re very familiar with fixing them so it should be done today if not tomorrow.”

  “Why don’t you just call me. Still have my cell number?”

  Archie limped through the garage and back to his office. His desk was a huge mess of papers and an old black telephone. “It’s right here,” he said, lifting the paper.

  “Great. Can I use your phone to call a cab?”

  He handed the receiver to me and dialed seven sevens. I remembered that from when I’d taken the cab to work and back last night. Easy to remember, at least.

  Once I hung up, I stayed in the waiting area and watched the sky. It was about 8 a.m. and the forecast called for rain all day, but I was still on edge. I hadn’t gone outside in the daytime in a very long time. I was also tired and was fighting to not fall asleep in this chair.

  I breathed out a sigh of relief once the cab dropped me off and I was safe in my house and bed.

  Chapter 30

  TOGVIADO

  Shreveport, Louisiana – 2008

  “Is there any way you can deliver it to Rico’s? I’ll pay extra,” I asked Archie. I was already in a cab on the way to work.

  “Sure, I can do that, but no extra charge. I got a buddy who works there. I’ll have one of my buddies follow me there.”

  Wow, that was nice.

  Twenty minutes later, before we opened, I looked out the window and saw Archie and another of his Rebel Riders buddies pulling up. Archie drove my bike, his friend in a sports car.

  “Thanks for the delivery. I didn’t want to be late for work,” I said to Archie as he handed me my keys.

  “What do I owe you?” I asked, pulling out my wallet.

  “Information,” Archie replied.

  I tore my gaze from my wallet to the old timer. “Excuse me?”

  He glanced around the parking lot before spitting a wad of chew onto the cement. Looking at me, he said, “I know you’re a vamp. Just like Jesse. Just know that we keep tabs on every last one of you.”

  Surprisingly, the way he spoke wasn’t hateful or disgusted. Just more matter-of-fact and businesslike.

  “How did you know?” I asked, curious.

  He jutted a thumb behind him at the car. “My buddy has a sixth sense about this stuff. Don’t ask. Even I don’t get it. But it is what it is.”

  I glanced at the driver once more, who seemed to be staring in our direction.

  “What do you want from me?” I asked.

  “Compliance. I find you or any of your bloodsucking friends feedin’ on humans, I take you out. All of you. You dig?”

  I bit back a grin at his threat and said, “Listen, I think there’s something you need to know about me. I—”

  He held up a hand, cutting me off with a head shake. “No, I know all I need to know about you, and that is that you’re a monster. I don’t kill unless necessary, so keep your sick, twisted desires beneath the surface and we can all coexist. Have a good night, Mr. Matson.”

  He turned and walked slowly toward the car, his cane clanking on the concrete.

  “I’m a hunter too, Archie,” I called out, my arms folded across the Rico’s tee I wore.

  He stopped his gait and slowly turned around. “What the fuck did you just say?”

  I lifted my chin. “Me… we… my buddy and I. We hunt those who need to be hunted. Out of control werewolves. Slimy humans. Rogue vamps. I’m on your side, Archie. I always have been, and I always will be. I don’t take human lives and never have.”

  Well, that was mostly true.

  Archie regarded me carefully as the driver got out of the Camaro.

  “He’s full of shit,” his friend said.

  I threw him an annoyed look and focused my attention on Archie. “I’m not full of shit. Tell you what, meet me at Benny’s Diner tomorrow night. Say, seven p.m. I’ll shoot straight with you.”

  After a long, uncomfortable silence, he nodded slightly and got in the car. I watched as they drove off, letting go of the breath I didn’t need before wandering inside for my shift. I had a small .22 pistol hidden under my pantleg and I prayed the whole time I wasn’t going to have to use it. Archie seemed like good people, and I couldn’t blame him for his standoffish attitude.

  Now the other guy, his “buddy”? I hoped he stayed out of my way.

  “I don’t think this is a good idea,” Shadow said, sipping the hot coffee.

  “And I don’t see how we have a choice. We just bought that fucking house and I’m tired of moving around, man.”

  He snorted. “I can’t argue with that. Guess we can just kill them all if they pose a problem for us.”

  I shook my head. “No, no killing. We will coexist with them. There has to be a way.” I trailed my finger over the rim of the water glass set in front of me. “Besides, I like Shreveport. I like my job. I like the upgrades we’ve done to the house. Maybe we can settle down here. Find some women.”

  “I’ve already met a few,” Shadow said, grinning.

  I rolled my eyes. “For a good fuck? Oh, I’
m sure you have.”

  “What else for?”

  “Stop it,” I said, biting back a smile. “You get info on that victim, by the way?”

  He set his coffee down and pulled a piece of paper from his pocket.

  The bell above the door to the diner chimed and I watched as Archie ambled in. He spotted us and headed our way. Stealing a vacant chair from a nearby table, he pushed it over and sat backward on it.

  The waitress came over and said, “Hi, Archie. The usual?”

  He nodded. “Yes, Krissy. Thank you.”

  She walked off and he turned toward us. “Start talking, Vane.”

  “I prefer Viper,” I said back.

  He rolled his eyes. “Of course you do. Bloodsucking snakes.” He looked up at Shadow. “All of you.”

  “Like I haven’t heard that before,” I commented wryly.

  “Get to the point,” Archie said.

  “Shadow and I come from a club in Michigan, the Serpents. Our leader, Cobra, taught me everything I know. Taught us,” I said, pointing at Shadow. “We protect our own and get rid of those who threaten to fuck with our way of life. That includes other supes. We don’t play that comradery game. Anyone or anything that threatens to expose us, we take them out. Period. We hold no loyalty to anyone but our club brothers.”

  Archie looked surprised but quickly recovered. “And what club is that?”

  “Here you go, hon,” Krissy said, setting a basket of cheese fries and a fizzing Coke in front of him.

  “Thanks, babe,” he said as he picked up the soda and gulped half of it down as Krissy walked away.

  I wrinkled my nose in disgust. The fries looked nasty as well. I couldn’t even remember what human food tasted like. The only human thing I consumed was coffee or other liquids, and only when I needed to appear human. “We don’t have a club. Not anymore. After Cobra was murdered, we left. Been bouncin’ around the South for about five years. But we like it here in Shreveport. I give you my word you won’t have any problems from the two of us.”

  A greasy fry paused at his lips, Archie said, “How can you be so sure? Your nature makes your kind unpredictable.”

  “Because I can prove it.” I looked at Shadow and nodded. I had no idea if he had good intel on the vamp who’d attacked the female employee from the Blue Room, but I was willing to share the information with Archie to gain his trust. I really didn’t want to have to fucking move again. I was getting tired of that shit.

  Shadow thrusted a drawing of a man toward Archie.

  He wiped his hand on a napkin before picking it up and studying it. “Who the hell is this?” He looked at us both.

  “I heard you asking Jesse about the attack. Shadow works there. He also has mad drawing skills. He convinced the girl to tell him what the vamp looked like. This is what they came up with.”

  Archie narrowed his eyes at Shadow. “You mean you hypnotized her into telling you?”

  Shadow chuckled as he stroked his beard. “Whatever works, man. She won’t remember the conversation. It’s harmless and I got good intel out of it.”

  “You motherfuckers are gonna give people brain cancer or something if you keep using that shit on them,” he seethed.

  I grinned in amusement. “How do you know that?”

  He shoveled a cheese fry into his mouth but said nothing.

  Awkward.

  “So… do you know who this guy is, or what?” Shadow asked, starting to lose his patience.

  Archie stared down at the drawing. “I’m not sure. I’ll ask around.” He shoved the drawing into the inside pocket of his jacket.

  “So, are we straight then? You steer clear of us and we’ll steer clear of you?” I asked.

  Archie took another gulp of his soda and then set it down. “I was thinking more along the lines of helping each other out.”

  That surprised me. The guy was such a hard-headed, vampire-hating prick, but I supposed we had shown some kind of trust factor. A patch on his cut caught my attention. Forming a circle were the letters TOGVIADO. What the hell did that mean?

  I looked at him. “I can work with that, as long as we have an agreement to not fuck with each other. We don’t kill humans, but if we have to take out a supe, you stay the fuck out of our way.”

  Archie chuckled and threw his napkin onto his plate. “Kill all the supes you want. I don’t give a shit. In fact, call me if you need help.”

  “We won’t,” Shadow replied.

  I pointed at the patch. “What does that stand for?”

  Archie glanced down at his cut, then back at me with a shit-eating grin on his face. “The only good vampire is a dead one.”

  Archie had agreed to work with us, but it was painfully clear that he does and would always hate vampires. I couldn’t help what I was any more than he could, and I knew there had to be some changes made.

  On a lazy Tuesday night, I wandered out into the living room of the house to see Shadow sitting in front of the television, sipping from a blood bag. Some sort of wrestling show was blaring from the TV.

  I looked around at all the modern upgrades we’d done to the small house and was proud of what we’d accomplished. The place went from barely livable, to dare I say, comfortable. But I needed more.

  An idea that had been rolling around in my head wouldn’t stop nagging at me, so I decided to run the idea past my best friend, even as I knew I was going to go through with it regardless. Maybe I just needed the validation. Who knew.

  When a commercial came on, I sat on the sofa adjacent to the recliner Craig sat in and folded my hands together, resting my elbows on my knees.

  “What are your thoughts about starting our own club?”

  Shadow sat forward in his chair and muted the television. “That’s fuckin’ weird, bro.”

  I was confused. “Why is that weird?”

  “Because I’ve been thinkin’ about the same thing. Archie’s cool but I want no part of his geriatric vampire hunting club. We need our own. Like we had in Muskegon, like Cobra created.”

  I sagged in relief. “Fuck, I thought you were pissed for a second.”

  He chuckled. “Nah, I’m just glad we’re on the same page.”

  “No more snake-themed shit, though,” I said.

  I pulled up my shirt to show him the huge tattoo of hawk wings I’d gotten on my chest yesterday. “I was thinking Nighthawks. We ride only at night and we watch over the city, like a hawk.”

  Shadow jumped up out of the chair to inspect my tattoo. “That’s fuckin’ bad ass, man.” He stood tall and imposing in front of me as I stared up at him.

  He stroked his beard with his fingertips and nodded slowly. “Nighthawks. I like it.”

  “Yes,” I said, standing up and embracing my friend in a back-pounding man hug.

  “Where the fuck did you get that tat though, bro? Because I’m gonna need one ASAP.”

  I laughed and told him about an all-night tattoo shop here in Shreveport. He snatched his keys and cell phone from the kitchen table and said, “Let’s go.”

  I followed him on my bike to the shop. It only took a couple of hours, but he now had the same hawk wings emblazoned across his left shoulder.

  “Bad ass,” I mimicked him, smiling like an idiot at the artwork. It looked amazing. I turned to the tattoo artist. “Thanks, man.” I handed him a wad of cash from my pocket as Shadow and I left the shop talking nonstop about the plans for our club. The Nighthawks MC. We would forever defend those who were too weak or fragile to defend themselves.

  Chapter 31

  Unapologetic

  Present Day

  Growling in frustration, I bent down and got right in his face. “You attack a woman behind the bar and then have the fucking nerve to lie to us about it? Try again, asshole.” I reared my arm back and shattered his nose with my fist.

  He howled in pain as his eyes went black and his fangs descended just before he spat blood into my face. “Fuck you, snake.”

  I kicked him in the ribs and l
ooked at Shadow and Archie. “If you don’t kill him, I will.”

  Shadow smiled sadistically at me. “My pleasure.”

  I pulled a handkerchief from my back pocket and wiped the asshole’s blood off my face, pacing the warehouse floor.

  Turned out the Rebel Riders had their own clubhouse, and to my shock, Archie and the rest of their brothers told us we were welcome at any time.

  Over the following weeks after we’d met at that diner, one of Archie’s Riders, Aspen, had been able to easily identify the imbecile. “That’s Oren. He works at the TGI Friday’s,” he’d told us. “No idea why a vamp is working there, but he flirts with my human girlfriend and I’m about to pay him a visit.”

  “Seriously?” I’d deadpanned.

  “As fuckin’ cancer,” Aspen had replied.

  “Who turned you?” Shadow asked, leaning down and staring into his face.

  “Doesn’t matter, Lurch. Get out of my face before I fuck you up,” Oren replied.

  Shadow laughed out loud before gripping Oren’s head and slamming it repeatedly onto the concrete floor. The loud crack of his skull was music to my ears as blood began to pool under his head. The light went out in his eyes right before his body turned to ash.

  “Good work, boys,” Archie said, offering me, Shadow, Aspen, and the rest of his men fist-bumps.

  “Gotta soak this leg, though. Until next time,” Archie said, offering a hand over his shoulder in a wave as he headed toward the front of the warehouse. I’d learned recently that Archie had been stabbed in the thigh during a bar fight in the late 1980s and it had severed some nerves. I actually felt bad for the guy.

  “Clean up on aisle eight,” Shadow called out with a laugh.

  Two young, human Rebel Riders prospects arrived immediately with a broom a shop vac as we walked out of the warehouse.

  I blinked my eyes open, gasping at the lucidity of the dream—memory, from years ago. I sat up in bed and swiped my hand down my face. I glanced at the blackout curtains to see a faint light glowing around them. Then, I saw my phone charging on the nightstand declaring it was 4:22 p.m.