“You fool, Luna.Don’t you see?Tempest begged me to kill her.She couldn’t take it anymore.You were her sacrificial lamb for the Crew.The MC’s scapegoat.Wake up!”
I refuse to take in what he is telling me.Wulf senses my defeat.
“Imagine your life if you agree to do this.Bleeding and brewing.Brewing and bleeding.Maybe the sex will be mind-blowing for the next twenty years or so, but then what?”
I try to fight his seductive rationalization, but Wulf’s reasoning is too strong.
“Vampires are manipulative predators, cuz.That’s what my father did to Tempest.And that is what Shadow Sylva will do to you.”
I have to get away!I need time to think.
Glancing at the phone, Wulf stands.
“I gotta bounce, darlin’.Sunset is coming and I am—and always will be—a creature of the night.”Holding out his hand to me as I dither on the couch, Wulf winks.
“Come with me if you want to live.”
ChapterTwenty-Seven
Shadow
The thick blackness in the room behind the panels tells me the sun has left the sky.There is only dead silence down here.
I can remember the sounds humans make when they are sleeping.The sighs and soft snores.The squeak of reindeer skin as bodies move.
My mother would make cooing noises as she nursed another child in her bed.How cool the summer air would be under the roof of our turf hut, what we call agammer.The snuffles and champing made by our reindeer herd outside.
Collectinglakkaberries in the fall.Spruce needle tea.Watching our shaman dance around the campfire mumbling his magic chant as he beats his reindeer hide drum.
My tribe is gone now, nothing more than dust in the wind.
Nothing more than memories.
I never thought that I would grow tired of death and blood, but I am.
Something tells me that Landslide has reached its limit.Modern life is starting to creep in.We’re not dealing with gullible homesteaders anymore.
The local folk can handle living an Amish-level existence, but not when their women are weak or dying.
I blame myself.I should have been able to see the long-term outcome of letting the crew feast so close to home for so long.All it did was force the residents to send their daughters away.
Mickey Farmer was chill when we visited him last night.Told us the entire family was in shock because Linda had been the picture of health when she came to Landslide to hand over the keys to Luna.
He had added that his father had grabbed a shotgun and gone out.We ended the conversation there, each man coming to his own conclusion.
Fortunately for us, shotguns blasting on Landslide are a regular occurrence.No one has connected the one made yesterday with Jake’s disappearance.
Mickey also told us that blood samples had been taken from Linda and were to be sent to the CDC in the States and the PDSA in Canada.
That kinda makes my pathetic attempt at inviting a scientist to come and test the water look real lame.
This tells me that nosy fucking authority figures are going to come sniffing around Landslide in the future.
Fuck Wulf!He did this on purpose!I want to rip that spoiled fucking man-child to pieces.
This business of running Landslide is turning sour.I am a warrior, a Midnight Rider, not some fucking admin bureaucratic diplomat.
Fuck that shit.
