Page 46 of Vampires & Bikers

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.

Chapter 21

Ruby

I wake up and sit up in a bed, twice the size of mine at home.

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