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Luc

I suspected that the shifters were using Ruby as a trap. That is why I didn’t go into the forest without a plan and a bag full of weapons. Even so, I had not expected a hundred wolves to jump at me. If it had not been for Ruby’s dog whistle, I would not have made it out of there alive. We would both have been killed.

As I lifted Ruby up into my arms, I felt two wolves attacking me from behind. I managed to shake them off, but their teeth had sunk into my back, ripping out chunks of flesh. I couldn’t get very far in this state, I needed medical attention.

There was a vamp-friendly hotel near McAlister and I called the owner, an old friend of mine called Louis. He gave me the top floor and sent up meds for Ruby and some Extra for me. Extra was a blood product with medication and accelerated healing properties. I could hear Ruby muttering about her mother and knew she was worried about her. I called Dennington and asked him to move her mother to a safe location. Ruby told me the name her mother had been checked in under as well as the name of the facility.

I was shocked at the sight of her.

Ruby looked like she had been in a gruesome car accident. It was hard to believe that her own people had beaten her up like this. She would have scars, perhaps even permanent injuries as a result of the torture she’d been subjected to. I hated that this was done to her because of me.

If I hadn’t come into her life, this would never have happened.

I owed it to her to take care of her and her mother, regardless of what happened between us. She couldn’t go back to her home and would have to begin a new life, one way or another.

I lay down next to her and rested, waiting for my medication to kick in as well. My back was aching and in the mirror, I could see that I would need a doctor so I called Louis and asked him to send someone up.

The doctor was a white-haired vampire with kind, brown eyes.

“Both of you look like you barely got out alive,” he commented.

“Shifters,” I said and he met my eyes, shaking his head.

“This war is bad for us,” he said and it wasn’t the first time I'd heard this. In the past, we were always confident of victory, but for the first time, it wasn’t certain.

He examined Ruby first, applying disinfectant to her cuts and bruises.

“It looks like she cracked a rib,” he said. “She needs plenty of rest.”

The stab wound in her arm required stitches but she didn’t even wake up when he inserted the needle into her skin.

When she was safely tucked in bed, I took off my shirt and he looked at my back. I winced when he doused me in antiseptic.

“They got you all right,” he said. “You need to rest too. You are not invincible.”

After he left, I lay down next to Ruby and closed my eyes.

My thoughts started drifting and while I didn’t exactly fall asleep, I started thinking of events that had happened many years ago.

There was one conversation that came back to me. Me and Matteo had been on a mountain patrol, looking for some errant vampires said to have become drunk on contaminated blood who were terrorizing a village. We were taking a break, resting at a scenic viewpoint quite high up in the mountains. We were teasing each other, joking around. Matteo said he knew what my weakness was and when I challenged him, he said, “Beautiful women.”

I scoffed at him. “Who doesn’t like a beautiful woman?”

He shrugged. “Me, for instance.”

“You don’t like a beautiful girl?” I challenged him.

He sat up and shrugged. “Not like you do.”

“And how do I like them?” I asked him.

“You don’t see past the face,” he said.

That remark annoyed me. “And you do?”

“I think so. There has to be more.”

“Like what? Money?”

He scoffed. “No, like character, purpose, a mission.”

I remember thinking he was mad. “Where do you find a woman who is beautiful, has character as well as purpose and a mission?!”

“It is possible.”

The way he said it made me think he had found someone like that.

“Who is she?” I asked him but he suddenly got up and walked away.

He never referred to it again.

Now I wondered who Matteo’s mystery lady was. Oddly enough, I thought of Alexandra. I wouldn’t put it past her to try her luck with him. She was beautiful and she had character. Would she become involved with him to spite me? Would she go so far as to kill him to get back at me?

It was a harrowing thought.

I remembered our conversation and realized that the oath she had sworn to tell the truth only held for certain circumstances. If she felt she needed to lie to me, to be true to her cause or mission, I believe she would have.

I wasn’t well enough to travel so I called Louis and asked if he could drop by with some Extra. A few minutes later, he was at the door. I took him to the living room of our suite and we put our feet up, downing a few of the sachets.

“You look like you could use the real stuff,” Louis remarked.

He gave me a knowing look.

“Do you have any?” I asked him. Real blood had become scarce since the outbreak of the war. The shifters had bombed one of our major suppliers and since then, the price of real blood had gone sky high.

He pulled out a few vials and handed me two.

“I’m going to leave for the capital,” he said after a while. “If this part of the world is going to fall, I need to get out of here. I’ll get some people to run the place for me.”

“You think the South is going to fall?”

“You don’t?”

I had not spoken to anyone at the Castle in over a day. Louis informed me that major losses had been incurred on our side. There was a common belief that the vampires should retreat to the capital and hand over the South to the shifters. They would not try to enter the capital where our numbers were big and our influence was strong.

“I’ve heard of more shifters getting influence in the capital and getting closer to the ruling council.”

“You seem to be very well informed,” I said and Louis laughed slyly.

“Let’s just say I have friends in high places.”

It seemed to me he knew more than I did.

“I had an affair with a Secretary,” he admitted. “We see each other now and then, she tells me things.”

“Like what?”

“For instance, the tide is turning against the vampires. They have perceived as too controlling. Shifters are more human after all, not a natural enemy,” he shrugged.

It was not unlike what Alexandra had told me. I had not paid it much attention, which seemed to be an error on my part. Smoothing things over with the human authority had always been Vlas’s role, but if he had been ill and absent, it may have been possible for a snake to slither into that space and poison them against us.

I felt like I needed to warn Harris.

I wasn’t quite ready to travel back to the capital yet. I wanted to spend time with Ruby, make sure that she recovered.

After Louis left, I listened to my messages from Tick, informing me of the latest events. She confirmed most of what Louis had already told me, that there was a turning point in the war against us. The attacks on blood stores and blood supplies was worrying. Already there was fear among the humans that hungry vampires would turn to hunting for blood again.

“I’ve heard there is talk of standing with shifters against the vampires.”

There was fear in her voice.

This was bad.

I tried to get hold of Harris but he didn’t answer his phone.

However, I felt like my place was here, with Ruby now.

I thought of what the doctor had said about me being able to die.

For the first time in many, many years, I was enjoying being alive.