Luna introduces herself to the MC the moment she hears the truck engine cranking over.
“Hi, I’m Luna Blackwood.”
She doesn’t go around trying to shake everyone’s hand.Luna gives her fingers a little wave from where she’s standing.I don’t blame her for holding back.She knows she’s in a room surrounded by a coven of vampires.Huge, hulking, and hungry vampires.
“I will take that can of corn if you all aren’t going to use it.”Luna gives one of her cute smiles.She is not afraid.
Tossing her the can, Jaecar is impressed when she catches it easily with one hand.
“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 ourgákti.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 andgákti.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.Perkelemeans devil, but they turned the word into ‘percolated’ over time.Satanas perkeletranslates 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.”
