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Den of Vipers
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I smelled the wolf blood the minute I killed the engine.
Our clubhouse sat in the middle of the warehouse district in downtown Shreveport, and I had never regretted the decision to establish it here. It was deathly quiet at night so we could hear if anyone or anything approached. I’d bought the entire building and had used a fictitious LLC to keep the locals out of my business. As far as they knew, we simply manufactured motorcycle parts and repaired bikes here, nothing more, nothing less. And it wasn’t a complete fabrication, we did work on our bikes here, we just got the parts from somewhere else. The back end of the clubhouse had a full mechanic’s shop. I was never interested in learning how to repair them, but we had a couple guys and one girl who were pros. In their spare time, they bought and flipped bikes for profit.
Wrinkling my nose at the stench of wolf blood, I plugged the code into the door and went inside. The familiar beeping sound echoed throughout the space, indicating someone had come through the door. A little added security never hurt.
I stalked through the main open space of the warehouse and looked around. The upstairs catwalk area was clear and quiet, but straight ahead, where we kept three cages we referred to as cells, I saw Phoenix, Shadow, Face, and Kovah standing in front of one of two occupied ones. A large brown wolf lay panting on the cement floor, blood leaking from its left hind quarter.
I could still smell the gunpowder. “You shot it?” I asked as I approached.
Shadow lifted a shoulder and let it fall. “It was either him or me.”
I stared at the creature and it stared back at me.
“Isn’t it supposed to shift back into a human when it’s hurt?” Face asked.
“Not necessarily,” Phoenix answered. “Only if they’re dying. Otherwise, he’s stuck like that until the moon goes away and morning comes.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Are we just going to let him bleed out like that?”
Kovah chuckled. “You gonna go in there and tend to his wound? It’s not like he can do it himself if we throw him some medical supplies. No opposable thumbs.” He wiggled both his thumbs and grinned.
“Well, at least sedate the fucker. Then maybe we can see what we’re working with when morning comes,” I said.
“On it,” Shadow said, heading toward the offices where we kept a small armory of weapons and other supplies.
The wolf woofed once at me. Then, the other wolf in the cage next to it also woofed.
I looked at Venom in his wolf form. “You can tell me what he said when morning comes. Now be a good little Nighthawk and go to sleep.”
He woofed again and I just shook my head. I hated having to lock him up every full moon, but he understood. He seemed to have a handle on his wolf in that form, but he was fairly new to the club, and I didn’t trust him fully yet. In my experience, werewolves were unpredictable and dangerous—even in their human form. I’d taken a chance on Venom because he’d proved himself by saving Phoenix’s life. Plus, having a wolf in the club could be to our advantage. For instance, right now. Wolves had a telepathy of sorts, the way they communicated in their beast form.
A pop and then a yelp caught my attention as I watched the dart enter the brown wolf’s neck area. He whimpered a few times and then went quiet, lying on its side. It looked dead but I could see its stomach rising and falling as it slept.
“Fuckin’ wolves,” Shadow said, slowly entering the cell to tie a bandage around the now sleeping wolf’s leg.
He was rewarded by an angry bark from Venom.
I looked at Phoenix and Kovah. “Get him some food and water. We’re not savages.”
They headed toward the kitchen area and I looked at Shadow. “What happened?”
He jutted his bearded chin toward the creature. “I went to take the fuckin’ trash out and this mutt attacked me. Jumped out from behind the dumpster. Thank fuck I had my piece on me.” He patted his right hip where the pistol hid under his leather jacket.
“Doesn’t make sense,” I said. “They don’t usually attack us, because they know if they bite us it’s not going to taste very good.”
That was an understatement. It downright burned their tongues and throats.
“I dragged it in here and the guys helped me throw it in there.”
I looked at the trail of smeared blood leading from the front door to the cell. “Well, these things are getting braver. I was at the lake earlier and one seemed to appear out of nowhere. It didn’t attack but just kind of stared at me. I had to throw my knife at it to get it to move along. I hate that we can’t communicate with them while they’re like this.”
“At least it’s only once a month that we have to deal with them,” Kovah said, opening Venom’s cell door and setting down two big bowls. The wolf immediately dug into the raw steak, making disgusting slurping and snorting sounds as Kovah closed the cell door and threw the bolt closed at the top of the cage.
“Get that blood cleaned up and let’s meet for church,” I said, jutting a thumb toward the red smears as I headed to my office.
“On it,” Phoenix replied, heading toward the kitchen.
Before I reached my office, I stopped and popped my head into the mechanic’s shop. There were two bikes up on lifts and another lay in pieces on the ground.
Dash turned his head when he heard the door open. “Hey ’sup, boss?”
I hated when they called me that, but I couldn’t get them to stop, so I mostly just ignored it. “Anything going on?” I asked.
He shook his head, his long ponytail sliding along his T-shirt as he turned back to the bike he was working on. The pieces were on a red cloth spread out on the metal table. He looked like he was putting together a metal jigsaw puzzle. “Nothin’,” he replied.
“Church in five,” I said, looking at the other two, a man and a woman, sitting around drinking coffee.
I left the shop and made a pitstop for my office before heading to the chapel. It was actually more like a bar, but it was the only place in the warehouse that could seat us all for church, so it had been dubbed the ‘chapel.’ The fact that fully stocked bars took up the length of two walls, and the irony wasn’t lost on me.
Seeing most of the group was already seated, I headed toward one of the bars and pulled out a wine bottle before yanking the cork out. I lifted a glass and poured the bottle’s thick, bloody contents into a glass. I put the bottle back and headed to the front of the room.
After a sip, I set the glass down on the podium and opened up my notebook I’d retrieved from my office. Face told me he could put an app on my cell phone where I could take notes, but I preferred hand-writing them. Technology, not my favorite thing.
I pounded the gavel, and the room went quiet. Before I spoke, I looked out at the group of vampires who made up the Nighthawks and felt a little bit of pride for the men and women who had chosen to follow me and help me keep the streets of Shreveport relatively clean. I hoped the bombshell I was about to drop on them would be taken well.
Clearing my throat unnecessarily, I thanked them for being here, and then said, “I have some news.” You could hear a pin drop now as they all stared at me in rapt attention. “I’ve decided to move our main operation to New Orleans.”
Whispers and murmurs sounded throughout the room, a few hands in the air like school children wanting to be called on.
I held my hand up. “Let me finish. All your questions will be answered.” I took a gulp of my bloody cocktail and set the glass down. “The move will take place over the next six months. This clubhouse will stay here, and I’ll be asking for three volunteers to stay behind to run it, and to monitor the activity in Shreveport. I’ve already secured a location twice this size for a fix shop, offices, an armory, living quarters, and detention cells. There’s an adjacent bar-nightclub I’ve purchased for extra income. I’m upping our recruiting efforts for more vamps to help us run the new place, as the dozen or so of us won’t be enough. I want to emphasize that recruiting means willing participants. I will not, under any circumstances, tolerate turning any humans against their will. We will accept both men and women, as long as they can pass the initiation process. All prospects will go through me. My lieutenants already know about these plans and they will be my right-hand men in completing this transition.”
Without raising his hand, Dash asked, “Can I ask why?”
I nodded. “The answer is simple: The supernatural crime rate is quadruple there than it is here. Plus, the Rebel Riders already take care of most of it here in Shreveport.”
A fairly new member of our club, Jewel, snorted. “Those old coots. Humans. They won’t last long.”
I glared at her. “Yes, but for now, they take care of business. They’re also recruiting younger members.”
“Don’t underestimate them,” Kovah added. “They kick ass.” He grinned, his sunglasses reflecting the lights from the ceiling. He took a swig from his beer. Lucky bastard was a human-vampire hybrid and could not only go out in the sun, but could catch a good buzz from booze. I hadn’t been drunk since 1987.