Page 17 of Vampires & Bikers

She was referring to the Hattari queen, a woman who, in the past, had preferred a traditional lifestyle closer to the ancient ways of the Hattari.

“What does that mean?” I asked her. “Exploring her options?” When she wouldn’t answer, I pressed on. “Do you know who the other bidding party is? Could they be sympathetic to the shifters?”

Her shoulders tensed and that was all I needed to know.

“Damn it! Alexandra! You could have warned me!”

“Why would I?” she shot back, her tone cold as ice. “You were always so arrogant, so all-knowing.” Her voice became mocking. “Vampires have been around longer than any other species! Remember your words? Telling me how powerful you were, how much more superior to anyone else! Your superior intellect!” she spat the words at me. “And now you have to ask me for help! A mere mortal. Oh, how, ironic!”

She was right, but I could not admit it. “I am trying to remedy the situation,” I began, shaking my head.

“Matteo didn’t find it that difficult,” she said, her voice taunting me.

“Matteo? What do you mean?”

She gave a step closer to me. “He was coming to meet me, the night he was killed. I was waiting for him at the lodge where I was brokering a meeting with Marran-Da but he never showed up. They got to him right outside the lodge.”

“Who? The shifters?”

She laughed, mocking me. “Of course not.”

“I was told shifters killed him. My men reported his death to me, they said the body was torn apart. They brought me his belt buckle!”

Her beautiful eyes narrowed. “I saw his body before the flames destroyed everything. He had been killed by a silver spear in the heart. Then his head was severed before he was set alight.”

She waved a hand and conjured up an image of the scene. I could see Matteo lying in the grass, his eyes staring unseeing. She was right, there was a silver dagger in his heart. It had a decorated handle, which was not handed over to me as evidence but the bigger problem was that this was a vampire dagger. I recognized it. It meant that Matteo had been killed by one of our own. I didn’t doubt that Alexandra was telling me the truth. Even though I knew she hated me, she had taken a vow of Truth. I was reeling from the information she had shared with me.

“Did he tell you anything?” I asked her.

She paused. “He was worried about the increase in shifter activity and thought there might be a link between one of their leaders and the al-Hattari. He said he talked to you about it but you thought he was being paranoid.”

She was right, but I didn’t want to hear how I had let my friend down.

I ran a hand over my hair, trying to make sense of what I’d just heard.

Alexandra flicked her wrist again and a new image came up, of Marran-Da at some kind of event. There were a number of people around her, but closest to her, was an extremely tall and thin man. His hair was slicked back with a distinctly reptilian air about him.

“Sunny The Snake,” I said with a sinking feeling, noting how close he was standing to Marran-Da, with an arm draped visibly around her waist. “Is this the man she is thinking of marrying?”

Alexandra shook her head. “Nothing has been decided.”

But she didn’t finish her sentence.

“Matteo wanted to find out what Vlas could do to secure the deal for VCOM. I thought he had a good chance,” she shrugged. “Then he was killed.”

She gave me a cool look. “There are some who say the time of the vampire has passed. Your numbers are small. Too many of your families are old and weary. Do you think you have it in you to win this fight? Yet another war?”

I knew what she meant. Many of the royal vampire houses had seen too many wars and didn’t want to become involved in yet another fight. Some lived in castles in distant lands, presiding over their own villages. They felt that shifters could take over areas where they had no involvement. The South was not important to them, but this was where the oil was. We had taken our eye off it and as a result, the shifters were moving in.

I had heard that some of the older vampire families had sent word they wouldn’t send fighters to the royal army, which was treason. Our numbers were low but losing was not an option and certainly not to shifters. I would fight them to the end.

I briefly thought of Ruby, lying in her arms last night when the wolves attacked. I had easily defeated them, more than a match for both of them. It was a mistake to think of Ruby, though, Alexandra saw her in me, right away.

“There is someone else now,” she said slowly. “A woman?”

I nodded, there was no point lying to her.

“I sensed the change in you,” she says. “I wondered what it was… now I see it, the softening, the human in you awakening.”

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