Page 3 of Vampires & Bikers

Tomás heard me and turned his dark eyes towards me.

“What?”

I knew he liked Grace, one of the strippers who was not on duty that night. We were friends, and she’d told me that he often asked for her, demanding private dances and anything else he felt like. All of us knew better than to say no to him.

“Grace?” His eyes narrowed. He motioned to his bodyguard to let me come closer.

“She’s outside in the car park,” I spoke quickly. “She asked me to call you. She wants to talk to you.” I took a quick breath. “Something’s happened, she’s upset.”

“Why?” he barked, his breath foul.

“I don’t know.”

It was better not to say too much so I shrugged and pulled a face. Either he’d buy it or he wouldn’t. For a moment, it could go either way. He stared into my face long enough for me to think he was probably going to headbuttme or something. His eyes were vacant, as if he was on something and he was definitely unpredictable, but he seemed to buy it as he jumped up and marched out of the club.

I closed my eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.

It was up to the vampire now but I knew I should get out of there. If Tomás came back I didn’t want to be around until I had gotten my story straight. I told the barman that I felt sick and was going home and got out of the club as fast as I could.

I didn’t check if they were out front and if the vampire had managed to get Tomás alone as he’d wanted. My job was done. I had the money I needed.

I went out the back, checking the lay of the land and once the coast was clear, quickly made my way home.

I didn’t want to think of the vampire’s touch on my breast or the way he’d spoken to me. The thought of him made my pulse race and I knew that this was the whole point of how he’d spoken to me. He’d wanted me to feel this way; desired, wanted.

This was the feeling I had to fight.

It could get me killed.

But I couldn’t help feeling that I would see him again.

That I wanted to see him again.

That I wanted him to touch me again.

Chapter 2

Luc

I was not expecting this.

These feelings. These very disturbing impulses.

Yet, the moment I saw Ruby in that disgusting club everything changed. I didn’t know this yet, but my life was about to be blown apart. At that point, I cared only about finding out who had killed my best friend, Matteo. He had last been seen in an area that was shifter territory. I had no idea what he was doing here or why. I had been told this was the hub of the local shifter and MC club activity. When one of my men reported that he had died here, I refused to believe it. They told me they’d found his remains, burnt. Still, I wouldn’t listen to them. Until they brought me the Lombardi belt buckle, which he had worn for as long as I’d known him.

It was his family crest, intricately carved, centuries old. It had been given to him by his father, whose own father had given it to him. The Lombardi were a proud Second Families house, similar to my own.

We had been as close as brothers, more than friends.

I could not believe he was gone.

Killing Matteo would not have been easy. He was one of the strongest and fastest vampires I’d ever known. He’d grown more powerful over the centuries as well. Eventually becoming one of the king’s most trusted soldiers.

I had to find out what had happened to him. Our men, who had gone out looking for him, concluded that he must have been surprised by a party of shifters, but I knew there had to be more than that. Matteo would have been able to finish off a regular pack of wolves.

“Let it go,” King Vlas, our ruler, told me. “We have more important things to focus on.”

But I had to know who had killed Matteo. I needed to avenge him. I told Vlas that it might be linked to a bigger plot, some development that we were unaware of. There had always been tensions between the vampires and the shifters, but the power balance had shifted since almost three quarters of the vampire community were killed by a virus fifty years ago. The shifters, on the other hand, had more than doubled in numbers. It had made them bold and ambitious, keen to take us on and take over our interests, which, of course, were considerable. Matteo had warned me that the shifters were planning something and wanted to get rid of us, an escalation in the conflict that was always brewing between vampires and shifters, but Vlasthought them too unsophisticated to organize such an attack.

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