Page 4

Luc

I stick around for a bit after leaving Ruby’s. The town fascinates me with its lowlifes and the buzz of criminal activity. Ruby is such a precious jewel, in the middle of all this filth. I have to be careful though, I know that news will have spread by now of a vampire being in town, which means they will come hunting for me. I can’t afford that. Rather regretfully, I leave Ruby’s street, determined to come back, of course.

There is no way that I will be able to stay away after what just happened.

Thinking about our urgent coupling in her kitchen makes me hard again, wanting her even more but I want to take my time with her, explore her body, find out where her pleasure lies. I want more time with her, to get to know her better. A quick fling will not satisfy me but I will have to be careful with all these shifters about.

I make my way back to the club where the bikers have started gathering, revving their engines. They’re clearly heading out somewhere. A group of men are standing apart, looking at the bikers and I can feel them getting ready for action. I stand back, downwind, keeping out of sight. I wait for them to go off and disperse before finding one of the bodyguards going round the back to find his bike.

I jump him and subdue him, pushing him up against the wall.

“Where do I find Sunny the Snake?”

The man’s eyes are bulging in his head, he looks terrified. I don’t want to loosen my grip and give him the opportunity to shift. I open my mouth, show him my fangs and watch him quiver in terror.

“Talk or die. Your choice.”

The man is stammering now, “Sunny. The boss. Over at the ranch. At Sunside Swamp. That way,” he jerks his head east.

“How far?”

He blubbers, “I don’t know. 100 miles or so?”

I drop him in a shivering heap on the floor. I had no interest in killing him or sampling his blood, contaminated as it would be by alcohol and drugs. I only ingest the purest and highest grade of synthetic blood. The virus had shown us that vampires were vulnerable too.

I take the man’s bike and head off in the direction he pointed, swiping his jacket and boots to complete the picture. No one would mistake me for a biker but I need to blend in as much as possible. I don’t want to be in shifter country for longer than I have to. I only want to get answers about Matteo’s death, but Ruby has complicated things.

As I leave the club, and look ahead, I allow myself to think of her body, her willowy beauty. She had been surprisingly resistant to my attempts to seduce her, fighting me more than I had expected. There had been many women in my life, countless, really, but a few have stood out.

Not recently, however.

My closest relationships were right after I changed. Those had been the happiest years of my life. I’d had a wife, a family, my own castle and lands to look after. I’d been wealthy, bequeathed several estates by the then-king, Vlas’s predecessor. However, I lost so much when my wife and children were killed. I had a son left but he died from the virus. After that, I was careful when it came to relationships. I stayed away from commitments or responsibilities. It was easier that way. The D’Essay ancestral home was still there. I had caretakers and visited every now and then but I never stayed long, too many memories. I was a general in Vlas’s army now, helping him stay in power. Matteo and I had been brothers in this cause, protecting our way of life and our kin. Without him, I felt a little unmoored.

But Ruby was drawing me towards her in a way that was new.

I couldn’t remember any woman having quite this effect on me.

I thought of Carmen, a vampire from Old Europe, whom I had married after my first wife died, a long time ago. It was an arrangement, made to join ancient families and solidify the D’Essay power in the Shadow Land. When we separated, she took our children with her but the virus killed all of them too. Then, briefly, I had been involved with a human witch, Alexandra. She was powerful and exotic, but dangerous too. She was an advisor to the Human Council and had her own agenda but it had never been like this with her. What I had experienced with Ruby, when I was inside of her, that was something quite different. I longed to feel it again.

I decided I would see her again, no matter what.

I’d find a way to outsmart the stupid dogs and get her out of that dump. I entertained a fantasy of taking her to the city where vampires were protected and safe. Where there was the finest food and luxury, where she could buy and wear whatever she liked. She would be indulged and treated like the princess she was.

My thoughts surprised me.

I could not remember the last time a woman had preoccupied me like this.

Be careful, I told myself.

You need to find Matteo’s killer.

The landscape was changing, it was becoming more forested. The air was warmer too, more humid. It was uncomfortable for me, vampires preferred cooler climates. One of the advantages of being as old as I was, was that I had found some tolerance for daylight. Not glaring sunlight, but I could be out during the day, as long as it wasn’t too bright or hot.

I could see the sky lightening up in the east, auguring the arrival of a new day.

Some cars passed me by, men staring at me hard as they slowed down to pass me, then speeding up again and continuing. I knew being out here alone was not good. I was drawing attention to myself.

Fortunately, Sunside Swamp was not hard to find.

There was a sign with a few bullet holes a few miles down the road.

The road dipped and then a few houses and shops emerged, in considerably better condition than Buzzard Creek, which was not that far away. I spotted shops with window displays and the main road was tarred too. I saw a hotel just off the main road and decided to check in and get a room, do a little digging for info on this spot. Where was all this wealth coming from?

Once I had a basic room on the top floor, I locked the door and draw the curtains. I down a few vials of my emergency blood supply and lie down on the bed. I call my team in the capital. Tick is a computer nerd and a hacker who has come in handy many times before. I recruited her and turned her, when I learned that she was dying from one of the many human diseases. The promise of eternal life was hard to resist. Now, she is an important part of my team, on the intelligence side.

She picked up straight away.

“Where are you?” She sounded annoyed.

“I’ve been following leads on Matteo’s death but it’s taking longer than I’d hoped.”

“His Royal Highness is not impressed.”

“What else is new,” I snort. “I told him this needs doing first.”

“He wants you to help schmooze the Hattari deal,” she says.

“He told you that?”

She snorts. “As if, I just… happened to see it.”

“Where?”

“Personal email. To Harris.”

Jon Paul Harris is King Vlas’s chief advisor and we don’t always agree. I am more hands-on and he is the knife-in-the-back type.

“Careful Tick,” I tell her.

“Yeah, yeah,” the kid says. I bet she’s rolling her eyes.

Tick monitors internal comms and also runs several bots across various Internet sites to ensure we stay on top of the chatter out there. There is no vampire intelligence agency as such, but I try to stay on top of things. We keep it under the radar though. Even among our own, we never know who is really on our side. You trust no one.

“I want you to look into a town called Sunside Swamp and an individual called Sunny, who may be some kind of drug lord down here. He is connected to the shifter MC club Diablos.”

“On it,” she says.

I lie back and let my thoughts run over the events of the past day. What I have seen in the South has changed my views on the Southern territories, areas that have always been predominantly shifter areas. They used to be under developed, sleepy areas where not much was happening outside of fishing and drinking. Sunside Swamp was affluent and organized. Things were happening here but, what exactly I wasn’t sure, and why did I have the feeling that it was not good news for us?

While I waited for Tick to report back, I thought again of Ruby and the fear in her eyes when she spoke of her boyfriend. There was no love lost there but she was obviously afraid of him. I needed more information on her too.

I sent Tick a message:

Get me info on Ruby Winton from Buzzard Creek too. Anything you can find.