Hunter's Moon #2 Read online

  Hunter’s Moon

  Hunter’s Moon (Volume 2)

  Ramón Terrell

  Tal Publishing

  Contents

  Ramón Terrell

  Hunter’s Moon

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Also by Ramón Terrell

  About the Author

  Ramón Terrell

  Hunter’s Moon

  Copyright © 2017 Ramón Terrell

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the copyright holder, except where permitted by law. This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination, or, if real, used fictitiously.

  * * *

  ISBN: 978-0-9937236-4-3

  * * *

  Cover painting by Martin Maceovic

  Cover Font by Nick Deligaris

  Tal Publishing

  Published by Tal Publishing Vancouver BC

  e-book Edition: January 2017

  First Edition: January 2011

  Printed in the USA

  For Tanya Terrell.

  Your love and support means more than I can express.

  Chapter 1

  Humans. An oblivious species. So caught up in their daily lives, and working so hard to dull their senses to everything around them, that they almost always failed to intuit danger when it was right in front of them. Animals were different. The lower on the food chain an animal lives, the more wary they are. Even predators gave Remy a wide berth. Not humans.

  Humans.

  So fragile, so clueless. So easy. Not all, though. No. He had walked through crowds of people, even receiving the occasional flirtatious grin from a passing female. Remy had always thought it rather humorous, like a deer smiling at a passing lion. Some few actually shied away from him. On rare occasions, a human would glance at him with nervous eyes, knowing he was trouble but not really knowing how or why.

  And then there were his current targets. Despite his firm belief that Yako’s skills were lacking, evidenced by his failing to dispatch two humans, Remy still had to grudgingly admit that these two were more careful and more alert than most. Remy had always enjoyed toying with his prey. Oftentimes he would walk right by them, making kindly eye contact. Then he would walk by them again, on another street, then another, causing his target to become disconcerted, then panicked. The increased rush of blood flow gave it a more tangy, sweet taste.

  The one named Jelani and his friend, Daniel, were somewhat … different. Remy had thought to play his game with them, and walk by on the street. Maybe he would even wink at them. Despite the fact that they were more wary, knowing someone was after them, they had reacted unexpectedly. One of them, Daniel, had noticed Remy as soon as he was within ten feet of them and alerted the other. They both had stolen several glances at him and moved to the other side of the sidewalk, all the time keeping an eye on him.

  Remy had to admit he was at least a little impressed. In the middle of a crowd of people walking on that sidewalk, they had felt something out of place about him and moved to avoid contact. The Hunter had chosen to continue on and not give any show of recognition. There would be time enough for a little reunion.

  He lifted his head and licked the blood from his lips. In his iron-like grip, a woman twitched uncontrollably. He glanced down at her with pale red glowing eyes. With a mind infinitely more focused than that of a frazzled human psyche, he managed to glean valuable information in bits, piecing them together into something resembling coherency. To be fair, he couldn’t imagine anyone maintaining any kind of order to their thoughts and memories when being unexpectedly attacked.

  “And what shall I do with you?” he hissed, though he knew she was beyond hearing. He had studied every person who worked in the department with one of his targets. There were twenty-two in total. This woman—Claire, her name was—had unfortunately been quite taken with the one named Daniel for over three years. After half a year of dating, they had mutually agreed to remain friends. Lovely Claire, here, had never quite gotten over her attraction to him. Apparently, Daniel loved the snow, hated the rain, enjoyed video games, and watching movies at the theater, as well as going for walks with his fiancée, Wen.

  Remy smirked at her. Through the memories embedded in the cells in her blood—blood he now had in his body—he could feel the envy toward the other woman as if it was his own. Remy never understood how humans could become so devastatingly taken with one another to the point of depression when things didn’t work out. There were over a billion of them walking the earth. Vampires accounted for a very small part of that population. Perhaps a shaquora could relate. Being a pureblood, Remy had no understanding of this aside from whatever information he gleaned from his occasional feedings.

  “And what do I do with you?” he repeated, playfully tapping the poor woman on the nose with a finger. He had brought her to the crossroad, as vampires called it. He hadn’t drained her to the point of death, but had not fully injected the vampiric essence that would seek to re-create her.

  Remy rarely re-created a human, having no love for the hated turned vampires who had little or no control over the thirst and reveled in their newfound abilities. Shaquora were the primary reason Hunters were necessary. The woman convulsed and Remy gently stroked her sandy brown hair.

  “Would you like to live forever or pass into the dark and the unknown beyond?” Her teary eyes were open, but the light inside them was fast fading. “Ah, well,” he sighed, and bit into her again.

  Chapter 2

  Jelani drew in a deep breath. Deeper, deeper, deep into the stomach, the diaphragm, the groin. He blew out, until there was no air left inside him, then drew his breath in again. He became more aware of his body, his organs, the lungs that expanded and contracted with every long breath. He was aware of the steady beat of his heart, pumping oxygen-rich blood through his body while his mind steadfastly attempted to distract him, until finally it gave up and went quiet.

  He visualized a single point in the upper center of his line of vision, a pinprick of light like a single star in a pitch dark sky. Jelani centered his mind on that tiny dot of light, then narrowed his focus into it. Slowly at first, the light grew bigger as he drew closer to it. Then he was enveloped in a soothing, white light that encompassed everything around him, everything in him. The light burned away all negativity, all worries and fears, angers or disappointments, or guilt. Enveloped in this light, he was able to forgive and be forgiven, and to forgive himself.

  The light began to recede, and with it the energizing, blissful power that had cradled him in its warmth and love. Slowly, very slowly, he became aware of sitting on a mat. He became aware that the mat was on the floor in the living room of his apartment. His pinky finger twitched, and he was aware of it. Reluctantly, he opened his eyes.

  For a while he sat, staring at the floor in front of him. Drawing in a deep breath, he slowly exhaled, letting his stomach expand and contract. Again, he filled his lungs and emptied them, and filled them once more. He blinked several times, then his gaze went to the clock on the far wall. Seven thirty in the morning. An hour and a half had passed. “Personal record,” Jelani whispered to the empty room.

  He slowly unfolded his legs and extended them out in front of him, placing them together and leaning forward to grab his feet, then gradually pulled himself forward till his face rested on his shins. The stretching felt good and got the blood circulating.

  “Finally awake, hmm?”

  Jelani looked up to see Alisha leaning in the doorway and smiling at him. She wore a pair of sky blue sweatpants and a workout bra. Well, the workout bra was underneath the matching shirt she was wearing, but since the bra was black, it was simply impossible not to notice. Just like it was impossible not to notice that her nipples were showing through two layers of material. No, he was not a pervert! How could he not notice? She should wear thicker clothes when she went out. There was no telling how many real perverts had been ogling her as she bounced … jogged, down the street.

  “Damn, do you see something you like?”

  Jelani blinked. “Oh, no! I mean yeah, no, I mean …” He took a breath. “I was just thinking you should wear something thicker. There’s a lot of bad people out there, and you’re quite pretty, you know, and …”

  She held up a hand. “And I’m going to allow you to stop talking now before you completely swallow your foot.”

  He stopped talking and smiled at her. Alisha was absolutely stunning no matter what she was wearing. Her alluring, smooth, dark skin contrasted with those amazing and piercing hazel eyes and that long black hair. Her dark,
full lips stretched into a smile even as she frowned. She was irresistible.

  “You look like you want to …” She stopped, holding up a hand again and shaking her head. “Never mind, I don’t even want to know what’s in that perverted head of yours.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Jelani leaned back on his hands. “I’m not a pervert!”

  Alisha snorted. “You’re not a functional pervert; I’ll give you that.”

  “Functional?” Jelani frowned. “I didn’t know there was more than one type.”

  “You’re the kind of pervert that keeps his sexually charged thoughts to himself and rarely …” she eyed him, “… or should I say barely acts on them. The other kind is simply a womanizer.”

  “You sound like an expert on the subject.”

  “Every woman who has learned not to be taken advantage of is an expert on the subject.”

  “So you think I’m a nonfunctional pervert?”

  Alisha rolled her eyes. “You have control over about every part of yourself except your eyes, baby.”

  He loved it when she called him that. Even though she wasn’t his girlfriend, occasionally she spoke to him a little more affectionately when her guard was down.

  “What are you looking at?” she asked, exasperated.

  “Someone sexy.”

  “Will you quit staring at me?”

  “You’re asking a lot.”

  “You know I’m not going to have sex with you, so you’re just torturing yourself.”

  “You waiting for marriage?” he asked.

  “Familiarity. I don’t have sex with someone who’s not my boyfriend. You already know that.”

  “Your beliefs?”

  “My comfort zone. People can ‘get it on’ after marriage or on the first date. Whatever is comfortable for them is their business. For me, I feel comfortable with someone I’m close to. And only my boyfriend or fiancé or husband, or whatever, can claim as much. You already know that, too.”

  He did in fact know it already. He just liked talking about sex with her, no matter how brief or fruitless the conversation was. He didn’t care if he had to wait. Being in her presence was enough for now. Hopefully, things would move in a deeper direction someday. Jelani found himself drawn ever closer to her as the weeks passed. He could easily see something special between them. He wondered if she saw the same.

  “You know,” she said, breaking into his thoughts. “While my ego enjoys your fawning over me, I would advise you to consult your brain before your emotions activate your mouth.”

  “Huh?”

  “Don’t say something you can’t take back, Jelani. I’m not feeling like jumping into anything committed right now, and you’re a guy. I understand that. But my understanding stops at the point where you say I have your undivided attention.”

  He knew what she meant. She knew he had slept with Melinda on more than one occasion and was not bothered by it insofar as they were not in any kind of relationship. The moment he said that he wanted to focus only on her, they would still take things slow, but they would proceed with the intention of forming a lasting relationship.

  He nodded, feeling guilty.

  She laughed at him. “Jelani.” Alisha crossed the room and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I know you better than you think. You’ve given me reason to trust you, and to a degree, I do. Just know that if, or when, you tell me you want more, I will have certain expectations.”

  “I know,” he said. And he meant it.

  The lock on the front door clicked, then turned, and the door opened. Daniel hobbled through, holding two bags of groceries in each hand. Alisha rushed over to help while Daniel pried his feet out of his shoes.

  “I like a man that knows his way around a grocery store,” she teased. “Wen better hurry up and marry you before I take the back door and beat her to it.”

  Daniel laughed casually, but the crimson stain creeping up his neck told a different story. Jelani held his laughter inside, knowing all too well what it was like to be on the receiving end of flirtation by Alisha, whether innocent or not.

  “Where is my best friend anyway?” she asked.

  “Went to work early.” Daniel sat the bags on the counter. “They’re designing a new building in West Van and everyone involved is being consulted. Gonna be some long days ahead, but payday will be big, and the recognition will be bigger.”

  “My girl is going to do some amazing things,” Alisha said. “It comes so natural to her.”

  “Yeah.” Daniel beamed. “I’m pretty lucky.”

  “You are,” Alisha agreed. “You both are.”

  “Thanks.” Daniel smiled. “So what have you been up to?”

  “I went for a run,” she indicated Jelani, “while the monk meditated for a few hours.”

  Daniel cast him a disbelieving look and Jelani patted the air in front of him, rolling his eyes.

  “No, man. I wasn’t meditating for that long. About an hour and a half. Time just flew.”

  “Not bad,” Daniel said.

  Jelani responded by addressing Alisha. “And will you please stop calling me a monk?”

  She laughed, holding up her hands defensively. “Hey, don’t snap at me. I call it like I see it.”

  He just sighed.

  “Well, I’m off to my place to get cleaned up and head out to work.” She went into Jelani’s room and reappeared with a duffle bag. “Be good, boys.”

  “Of course,” Jelani said deviously. She shook her head at him and gave Daniel a hug, then placed her hand on Jelani’s chest and leaned forward on her tiptoes, giving him a gentle kiss on the lips. It was like he felt a surge of electricity whenever she touched him.

  “Bye. See you tonight.”

  Daniel opened the door for her, and closed it again after she left. “So what’s up with that?” he said, turning his brown-eyed stare on his best friend.

  “Not much right now,” Jelani answered.

  “She still doesn’t want to commit, or you don’t?”

  “It’s a little bit of both, kind of.” Jelani followed his roommate into the kitchen to help put away the groceries. “You bought a lot of food. How much was all this? A thousand?”

  Daniel blew through his teeth. “Felt like it. Fill up one shopping cart in that place and you come out a couple hundred bucks lighter and a burning wallet.” He pulled open the produce drawer and filled it with a variety of vegetables. “And don’t change the subject. What’s going on with you two? I’m an inquiring mind.”

  “Not much has changed,” Jelani replied, handing him a couple packs of fish. “She’s still not ready to do a serious, committed relationship so soon after her breakup. She says when it feels right, she’ll open up to the prospect.”

  “And you?” Daniel asked, closing the refrigerator and following Jelani into the living room. They each sat down on one of the two couches, one facing the fireplace, the other facing the wall of window overlooking the boardwalk and the ocean beyond.

  “I’m not gonna lie,” Jelani said. “I really like her, and I want to go further with things when she’s ready. She says she’s willing to casually date, but not get serious.”

  “Which means you’re seeing Melinda.”

  “That’s where things are starting to bug me,” Jelani said. “On the surface, it seems like there’s nothing wrong with what I’m doing. Melinda made it clear that she wants to pursue something, but is enjoying the time we spend whether we get together or not. Alisha is fine with things the way we are, until I make it clear that I want to start dating her for real.”

  “So,” Daniel said, his tone sarcastic, “you’re gettin’ it on with Melinda while you can, till you decide to make things serious with Alisha. Nothing wrong with that at all, dude. Nothing at all.”