The Lunar Effect

by C. J. Pinard

  I couldn’t help but burst out laughing at his ridiculousness. “You kill me, Beck. I’m venting about my jacked-up life and you call me a freak. You’re lucky I like you.”

  “I’m impossible not to like. I’m good-looking, witty, and charming. Nobody can resist me,” he said, his nose in the air, his cocktail sitting regally in his hand.

  I rolled my eyes. “Okay, whatever. But what do I do about the blood thing? I can’t sleep, I’m irritable, I’m constantly hungry, which makes me binge on junk food, and I am sad. I can’t live like this.”

  “So basically, you have wolf PMS,” Beckett deadpanned.

  I punched him in his scrawny arm. “Bitch, you haven’t seen PMS. You want me to have the real PMS on top of these symptoms? No, you don’t. You gotta help me.”

  He had the graciousness to look hurt by the punch to the arm by mouthing “Ow” and then rubbing it. He then smiled at me. “The solution is easy. Guess you’ll be learning how to feed tonight.”

  I stared at him in horror. “What? How am I supposed to do that when I’m not the wolf?”

  “Can you get your fangs to descend? Like this?” he asked. He bared his teeth at me and I watched as his incisors grew right in front of my eyes.

  “Oh, my God!” came a voice from behind me.

  A guy about my age stood there watching Beckett in fascination. “Where did you get those retractable teeth? I’ve been looking for those forever!”

  Beckett narrowed his eyes at the stranger and said, “Go away.”

  “Geez, don’t have to get so high and mighty, you queen!” the stranger replied.

  I stifled a laugh and waited until the stranger disappeared into the blackness of the club.

  “But seriously, how did you do that?” I asked, pointing to his mouth.

  Still glaring at the stranger’s backside, Beckett huffed out an annoyed breath and looked at me. “I don’t know, girl. You just have to visualize the teeth growing. That’s how it was explained to me, anyway.”

  Nodding, I closed my eyes, sucked in a deep breath, and then let it out. Concentrating long and hard, I wished—longed—for my incisors to grow so they would become sharp fangs.

  Nothing happened. Nothing at all.

  “I can’t. I only have fangs when I’m the wolf-girl, so it’s obvious that I’m only gonna get blood when I turn into cave-woman once a month. Then I’ll have to attack people in dark alleys and take it from them.”

  Beckett snorted with laughter. “You’re ridiculous. You will not be reduced to that, girlfriend.”

  “You have a better plan?”

  “No, but I do,” said a sexy accented voice from behind me.

  I turned to see Kellan standing there with his goons behind him. Twisting my body all the way around, I crossed my arms across my chest and met his defiant stare. “Oh yeah?”

  He nodded. “I know of your dilemma, and can help you with it, if you’d like.”

  Lifting my chin, I said, “Prove it.”

  Nodding slightly with a cocky smirk on his beautiful lips, he turned his back on me, but not before instructing the guys who had been flanking him to make themselves scarce. I had heard at least that much with my supersonic hearing.

  It took him less than two minutes to find a beautiful girl on the edge of the dance floor. After some small talk, he led her to a dark corner of the club, and I watched with interest as he kissed her briefly. The odd twinge of jealously that entangled around my gut as I watched the interaction irritated me. Kellan’s lips quickly moved to the pretty brunette’s smooth neck, and it was there I watched in fascination as his fangs pierced the supple flesh there, as though they were hot knives slicing through butter.

  Not more than a few long seconds passed before he withdrew his fangs, and craned back his neck with a satisfied smile on his lips as if he’d just taken a hit of heroin. Finding a nearby chair, he steered her toward it, but not before taking his long tongue and licking the dribbling blood from her wound, and then swirling his tongue around the two puncture wounds there.

  I should have packed an extra pair of panties, because mine were quickly getting damp. That was the single most erotic thing I had ever seen… and I’m no stranger to Tumblr.

  Kellan pierced me with a commanding stare and my body moved toward him without my permission. It was like he had some kind of gravitational pull on me. I stalked toward him, a bundle of excitement swirling around in my belly, but not feeling scared whatsoever. When I reached him, I looked up into his pale, chiseled face and saw he had a slight grin on his lips, his mouth closed. Then he wrapped one arm around my backside and pulled up against his body, and I may have groaned in the back of my throat at how amazing it felt to be commanded by him. I thought I was supposed to hate vampires… but I felt no kind of hate for this one. He leaned down and pressed his cool mouth to my warm lips and I opened up for him. The minute my mouth opened, his tongue, along with the sweet tang of blood began to pool in my mouth, and I greedily swallowed the blood down. He had shared the young human’s blood with me and I immediately felt a small buzz of excitement race through me. I knew this feeling well… I got it whenever we killed prey and then drank the animal’s blood after feasting on its flesh. But drinking blood while human… it was intoxicating.

  Kellan pulled back and looked down at me. Using his thumb, he wiped a dribble of blood from my lip and chin, and then thrust the finger into my mouth. I greedily sucked it off.

  “How do you feel now, little wolf?” he asked in that delicious accent of his.

  I blinked up at him, taking in his pale-blue eyes, and said, “Amazing. Why did you do that for me?”

  “Because, even though you are part wolf, you are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. And trust me, I’ve been alive for a long time.”

  I sucked in a breath at his comments, and said, “But you don’t even know me. I could be a crazed serial killer—a black widow.” I smiled coyly at him.

  “Oh, I’m sure you either already are, or will be in the future. Then we can swap stories about how fun it is.”

  My eyes widened, and then I realized he was playing a game with me; testing me to see if I’d bolt. Well, I wasn’t going anywhere. I lifted my chin and said, “I look forward to it.”

  I skated around him and headed toward Beckett, but not before saying, “Thanks for the blood.”

  “You’re welcome, little wolf,” he said with a chuckle, a little too loudly. That elicited a few looks from a bunch of pale faces, but I ignored them.

  “Damn, girl, that was hot,” Beckett said, pressing his finger to my ass and making a sizzling sound with his mouth.

  “Stop,” I said, trying not to laugh.

  I watched as Kellan and his two thugs disappeared in the darkness at the back of the club. With shaky hands, I grabbed the cocktail Beckett had ordered for me and took a large gulp of it. It was like he knew I was going to need something strong.

  “Thanks,” I said, lifting the half-empty glass.

  He patted me on the knee. “I know you so well already.”

  I nodded. “You do.” I took a deep breath. “Damn, that was intense.”

  “It was. Hot, but intense. The whole club practically froze. I thought everyone had suddenly decided to do the Mannequin Challenge, for real.”

  I laughed. “You’re crazy.”

  “So I’ve been told,” he said, waving a dismissive hand. He looked out into the club, then back at me. “I just can’t get over how hot that was. How intense.”

  My brow furrowed and I looked down. “I can’t believe I let him do that. I have a boyfriend—a very serious one. I love Ryder. What’s wrong with me?”

  He gave me a sympathetic look, and then said, “Don’t beat yourself up. We vampires can be very intense and influential. I believe Kellan was using a bit of control on you.”

  “Control?” I asked, confused.

  “Like vampire hypnotism,” he said casually.

  “Oh,” I said. “I think I’m immune to that.
That’s what Sanja told me anyway.”

  “Sonya?” he asked.

  “My college roommate-slash-witch.”

  “Well, that’s good, I guess,” Beckett replied.

  I shook my head and set my cocktail down. “Good? No, it’s bad. It’s very bad. It means I fell for his allure without any sort of ‘control’. I was just being a dumb girl falling under a handsome guy’s charms.”

  “I know the feeling,” he replied dryly.

  We both laughed.

  I sighed with a smile. “I don’t want to talk about me, Kellan, wolves, or anything else. Tell me about you, Beckett. I consider you one of my besties and I don’t even know how old you are or where you’re from.”

  His smile faded and his countenance took on a seriousness. “Do I have to?”

  It was my turn to pat his knee. “Yep. Cough it up. I want all the deets.”

  Beckett chewed his lip, and then took a deep breath. With his finger tracing the rim of his whiskey glass, he lifted intense eyes to mine. “This isn’t a pretty story. It doesn’t have an HEA, and it gets ugly at times.”

  I smiled sweetly at him. “That’s okay… because, one, your story isn’t finished yet, and two, it seems ugly is all I know anymore. I can handle it. Go.”

  He nodded and exhaled dramatically. “I was born in a Los Angeles suburb in 1968. I grew up in a very average home, with one brother and one sister. We were a happy, well-adjusted, typical happy family. Nothing about my childhood was dysfunctional or unhappy.”

  I smiled at that. “Sounds like we had a similar upbringings.”

  “When I was sixteen, I decided that the cookie-cutter, preppie life wasn’t for me. I dyed my blonde hair black, got some piercings, and began to experiment with various drugs and things. I wore black every day to school. I was listening to a lot of Depeche Mode back then, by the way, if that’s any indication.”

  “Who?” I asked, confused.

  With a heavy sigh, but a with grin on his lips, he said, “A popular eighties British goth band. Do the world a favor and pull up Blasphemous Rumours on YouTube.”

  “Will do,” I said with a chuckle.

  “Anyway, I did graduate high school, eventually, and began to hang out at all the goth clubs in LA. It was there I met Jaquez.”

  “Go on,” I said with a nod, wanting to hear his story.

  “This guy... he was this crazy, handsome, passionate Mexican vampire. He took an immediate liking to me, and I to him. We began this intense relationship that lasted two years.

  “Once I turned eighteen, he told me he wanted to be with me. That I was going to be his companero—his partner for life. He even asked me if that was what I wanted… and I of course said yes. I was hopelessly in love with Jaquez by that point. He was so beautiful and perfect. I was mesmerized by him.

  “With a smile, it was then he laid me down on his bed, bit into my neck, and drank deeply from me. I was confused, upset, and in pain at that point. I had no idea he was real vampire. I thought he had been playing a game, putting on a façade, much like the people in this club.” He gestured around Moon Chasers, and I followed his stare to all the young people dressed in black with pale-face makeup and heavy black eyeliner, piercings and tattoos littering their bodies.

  “After taking my blood, he then speared his own wrist with his fangs, dribbling his vampire blood into my gaping mouth. Little did I know that the venom he’d already injected into me was going to make me what I am today.”

  “So why feed you blood?” I asked, fascinated by his story.

  “Blood sharing. It’s a vampire tradition, if you will. Especially between lovers. It kind of seals the deal, if you will.”

  “Wow,” I breathed.

  “I woke three days later utterly confused. I remembered the encounter, but knew nothing else. It was then I realized that it was close to seven p.m. three days later and I knew I felt different. I woke with a thirst like I had never known. Jacquez had shown me that night how to feed, how to get the blood I needed without actually killing a human. He’d also told me that if I accidently drained one of too much blood that that was okay, too. Accidents happened. He followed that up with wink.”

  The look of disgust and shame on Beckett’s face made my stomach roil. This creep who had turned him was beginning to get higher on my list of vampires I wanted to take out.

  Seeing the disdain on my face, he grinned sadly. “That’s not even the worst part of the story, girlfriend. About six months later, I woke up without him by my side. I waited in his pretentious, glass-walled, high-rise apartment for weeks—and I do mean weeks—for him to return. He never did. Eventually, the sheriff came pounding on the door in the middle of the day with an eviction notice. Thankful for the deep, dark blackout curtains Jaquez had installed, I answered the door and was greeted with a piece of paper by a couple of officers. After reading the eviction notice, I had no idea what to do. It was the eighties; we had no cell phones, Internet, or anything else, and I had no way of getting ahold of him. I found out later he had fled to Mexico like the fuckin’ coward he was. He’d been dealing cocaine. I had no idea.

  “Regardless, I stayed at his place for as long as I could until I was evicted. Thankfully”—he gestured around—“Jaquez had taken me to a big vampire club in LA several times called El Diablo. It was much like this one. It was there I contacted Selena, a woman who had befriended me on one of my many visits to the club. She graciously set me up with a place to live and let me work at the club cleaning up and doing a little security. I was and still am eternally grateful to her for her graciousness. Still, my heartache over Jaquez’s betrayal never left me. I never got any closure as to why he didn’t want me or come back for me. One day I’ll find him, though.” His eyes took on a hardened look.

  I reached over and squeezed Beckett’s hand. “And I will help you. My list of a-hole vampires is growing, and I’ve just added this Jaquez douchebag to the list.”

  He smiled at me. “You’re a good friend, Ayla.”

  I nodded.

  “After working at El Diablo for a couple years, I just one day decided to pack up and move here. I wanted a change, but I don’t care for the heat, I never have. Not that it affects me like it used to, I just like the cold better. I’m glad I chose Colorado, it’s beautiful, and of course I’ve met the nicest people.”

  “Thank you,” I said, meaning it. “You’ve been a great friend—a godsend, really, to me. If you need anything, you know I’m here.”

  “I appreciate it,” he said back. “I want to help you get vengeance for your family, though, so I’m going to keep my ears open around that hot-ass Kellan. Maybe I’ll even ask if he has any jobs for me.”

  I gave him my concerned face. “I don’t think you should be doing that. What could you do anyway?”

  “Same thing I’m doing now—computers. Right before I moved here, I got my bachelor’s in computer science, and a minor in web design. Every business needs a computer guy, right?”

  I now just looked astonished. “Who do you work for now?”

  He lifted his cocktail to his lips. “It’s an online global marketer. I work from home fixing their systems and updating their websites. Never even met one of them, but they deposit a nice chunk into my bank account every two weeks, so I don’t ask questions. I obviously work at night, but I think they’re in Europe somewhere, so they don’t notice or care.”

  “Nice,” I said, lifting my drink and clinking it with his.

  Chapter 25

  I patched the call through to the latest disgruntled homebuyer, and looked up when I heard someone enter through the front glass doors of the office.

  A very handsome guy about my age, with dark hair in a messy but stylish cut approached me. His clothes were neat and his eyes were friendly. He smiled.

  I smiled back. “Hi, may I help you?”

  “Yes.” He nodded. “Are you Ayla St. John?”

  Confused, but holding my smile, I said, “The one and only.”

 
; “Do you have a minute to chat?” he asked, and I detected a slight Southern drawl in his voice.

  The phone beeped and I held up a finger, pressing the receive button. “Carter Homes, how may I direct your call?”

  “To Jim Allen, and don’t put me through to his voicemail,” an angry voice said on the other line.

  “Please hold.” I dialed Jim’s extension and patched it through, not waiting to see if Jim was in the office.

  I looked up to the cute stranger and said, “As you can see, I don’t have a minute to chat. Who are you and what is this about?”

  “My name is Evan Grant. I’m part of a clan here in Northern Colorado. I’d like to speak to you, if you have the time.” For a brief second, his blue eyes turned yellow, and then back to blue, a mischief behind his gaze as they did so.

  My eyes grew wide and I looked around the small reception office, even though I already knew that I was alone. I glanced at my computer’s clock. It was a little past one p.m. and I’d already had lunch, but I was dying to hear what this guy—this wolf—had to say.

  “Okay. Give me a couple of minutes. Meet me at The Pour House down the street. It’s that way, about two blocks.” I pointed to the left.

  He nodded. “I know the place.”

  I watched him leave, and the switchboard rang again. I patched the person through, and then dialed Nan.

  “This is Nan,” she answered.

  I groaned. “Nan, it’s Ayla. I think I have food poisoning. I need to go home.” I faked a gag noise. “I’ve almost thrown up twice and I feel feverish. Can you relieve me?”

  “Oh, my God! Of course, I’ll be right up.”

  I squirted some water from my water bottle and splashed my face and neck with it. When I heard her heels clacking on the marble floor from behind my desk, I slumped in my chair, and laid my head on the desk.

  “Oh, honey. You gonna be all right?”

  I lifted sad, dramatic eyes to her and wiped my lip. “Yeah. I just need my bed.”

  “Shoo, go home,” she said as I stood and grabbed my small purse from the bottom drawer.