Page 97 of Beyond the Temptation: Vol 2

We looked up to see Viper and Shadow walking into the breakroom.

I lifted an eyebrow. “I mean, I didn’t get his last name. Why, do you know any other Orvises?”

Viper shook his head. “I do not. He about my height, black hair, creepy eyes? Mean as a snake?”

I nodded. “That’s him.”

“He turned you?” Shadow asked.

“One of his cronies nabbed me off Decatur and took me to a house and did it, but yeah, pretty much.”

Shadow made a face. “He’s such a bastard. I’ll be right back.”

And to my disbelieving eyes, Shadow disappeared into thin air.

I blinked a couple of times. “What the fuck?”

Venom snorted. “You’ll get used to it. It’s when he reappears you never get used to.”

I lifted my eyebrows, vowing to ask about that later. “Okay…”

“Orvis is due for a visit next week. He wants to move his clan back here, but I told him he’s going to have to check in with us first. He’s not going to go around kidnapping humans and turning them, killing wolves unprovoked, breaking laws out in the open, or any of the other shit he used to do. That’s why they left. We kicked ’em out. But it’s been ten years, so we’ll see if he’s changed. Or will commit to keeping his people under control.”

“Well, he might recognize me if he sees me,” I said, setting the mug down that I’d almost dropped when I heard he was coming back to town. I wasn’t exactly afraid, but sure the trauma of what happened to me would always be triggered by that motherfucker’s name.

“He won’t touch you when he sees you’re a Nighthawk now,” Venom commented.

“Forgot this,” Shadow said, reappearing, and this time, I did drop the mug.

Thankfully, it was empty and just clattered to the wood tabletop and didn’t break. “Damn!”

The three of them laughed.

“Sorry, dude. Here’s your cut.” Shadow threw it at me, and I caught it.

I picked it up and put it on. COLT in all capitals, another patch reading PROSPECT, and a Nighthawks MC patch were on the front. It smelled like fresh leather and fit like a glove.

“Looks great on you, man,” Venom said, getting up and washing his lunch dishes.

“Okay, guys. Let’s go, we got an issue in the Quarter with a witch,” Viper said, walking out.

My jaw ticked as I sat in church a few days later. Orvis stood at the podium and Viper and his crew were firing questions at him.

“Are you going to expose our kind?”

“What? Of course not. I’ve never done that,” he replied, lifting his chin and swiping a stray strand of black hair from his face.

“You snatching humans off the street to turn against their will and biting them in public isn’t exactly keeping things discreet,” Phoenix said, his massive arms folded across his cut.

“We don’t do that anymore. But if it’s any consolation, my men were supposed to bring the humans to our place and turn them there, not bite them in public,” Orvis defended. “But, we don’t do that no more. Everyone in my clan, except some of the older ones, were voluntary converts.”

“Converts,” Face snorted.

I’d talked to the young former model-turned-vampire tech guy for the club, whose road name wasn’t a mystery. He’d told me how he was definitely turned against his will. In fact, in the less than two weeks that I’d lived here, I’d heard everyone’s stories. Even the wives and girlfriends of these guys, some human, some supes.

They continued firing questions at him, and I sat back, more relaxed that I was fairly sure he didn’t recognize me. After a lot of thought, I didn’t think he would, after all, I had only been with Orvis’s clan for mere weeks, looking much different than I did now. Even my voice was deeper.

“Leave us,” Viper said, shooing him out of the room. Then, he looked at me. “Prospect, escort him back to the clubhouse.”

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