Page 34 of Vampires & Bikers

“His full name,” Rat Man demanded to know.

“Don’t know,” I shook my head and he came forward threateningly.

“You fucked him without knowing his full name? What kind of a slut are you?”

“Don’t know his full name,” I repeated. “He wanted to talk to Tomás about a dead friend.”

“His dead friend? Who?”

I thought long and hard, but I couldn’t recall his name. Had Luc mentioned the name to me? I couldn’t recall. Rat Man didn’t believe me. I got another slap for that. I didn’t lift my head back up again after that. I felt that maybe death would not be so bad.

Rat Man went away. I heard the door close and I didn’t care.

I thought of my mother, of growing up with my parents in the small house behind the shop. It wasn’t all bad, my childhood, there were moments where we laughed and had fun, before my mom got sick.

Suddenly I remembered one time when I was about eight years old. I’d gone playing in the forest with my friend Charlie. We explored some caves and lost track of time, not realizing that our parents were fraught with worry when it became dark and we weren’t back yet but the real issue was that our parents couldn’t find us, the best trackers were not able to find our scent. When we emerged and made our way home, our families were frantic and then overjoyed at our return. When I told them where we were, the adults fell silent, exchanging strange looks. Charlie was taken home and my parents put me in the bath but I heard them talking in their room.

I snuck out to listen at the door and I heard my father telling my mother that we must have gotten into the tunnels. She asked, what tunnels and he became evasive. She pressured him to tell her and he said he wasn’t allowed to talk about it. None of them were. It turned out all the members of his biking clan had been working on the tunnels. It was a vast connected underground network and nobody knew how long it extended for but work on the tunnels had been going on for years. When someone was down there, their scent was buried and their energy was blocked.

I knew then, with certainty, that this was where I was.

I was in the tunnels.

Chapter 16

Luc

I left the capital and headed south, far south.

I wanted to get out of the Capital and didn’t feel safe at the Castle. I wasn’t sure who to trust anymore.

Before I left, I gave an order to call up the underwater diving squad that we used to have in the army. For some reason, it had been disbanded. They used to provide security at the energy plants. We called them the Sharks. They were highly efficient and excellent warriors underwater. I called Captain Dennington and gave him the order to organize them into teams. The Sharks were to patrol the remaining plants and search for any insurgents or vessels and destroy them on sight. I didn’t get approval for my plan from any of the war generals.

I acted on my own as I no longer knew who was pulling the strings or in charge.

My loyalty lay to my kind, though, and our assets needed protecting.

Before I left, I had Tick check on the king. She said the word at the Castle was that he had fallen ill but he was all right.

Then I turned my attention to Ruby.

I couldn’t ignore the effect her disappearance was having on me.

I felt an almost physical pain at my core. She was clearly in mortal danger and being threatened physically. It frustrated me that I couldn’t find her. I arrived in Buzzard Creek in the early morning and approached her house. She wasn’t there, I could tell right away. I had a quick look around and saw that she had probably left the place in a hurry. There were unwashed plates in the sink, food in the fridge.

I had someone at the Castle trace her phone calls and map her location. I saw that the last location her phone had been active in was a place called Wellington, best known as a correctional facility for Section 2 criminals. It didn’t take me long to find out that her father was being held there and that he was currently being treated in the medical ward after he had been seriously injured following an attack.

I travelled to Wellington and did a quick survey of the facility and the guards. Then I waited for the guard in her father’s ward to come off duty. I followed him back home and as he got out of his car, pulled him aside and did a number on him.

I showed him Ruby’s picture and asked about her father.

In the typical monotone, he said. “We were asked to look out for her and call if we see her.”

So they were waiting for Ruby. They knew she would come to see her father.

“Call who?”

“I don’t know, I wasn’t given the number.”

---