Page 45 of Vampires & Bikers

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.

---