After more minivans from Scanguards showed up, they transported all of the rescued women to a safe house in San Francisco. Several of Scanguards' staff went to work, contacting the women's families and arranging for their return home.

The rest of Scanguards had one more task ahead of them.

Oliver sat waiting in the situation room, tapping his foot impatiently. Even though he knew that Ursula was tired and needed to sleep, she had insisted on watching how the rest of her tormentors would finally meet their end.

"When do you want to call your parents?" he asked, knowing that there was no more reason to keep her from them. Just like all the other girls, she would want to return home.

And she would leave him and go back to where she belonged.

Ursula motioned to the monitor that still showed a live feed of the warehouse in Oakland. "After they're dead."

He nodded, his chest tightening. "You can fly to New York with the other women if you want. Samson has authorized the jet for it. Or you can fly out later . . . if you want to stay a few days longer."

He looked away, not wanting to show how eager he was for her answer.

"I really want to see my parents. I miss them," she said.

Oliver choked back the disappointment, knowing that within a few hours she would be gone. "Of course, I understand."

"About the other women . . . "

"What about them?"

"Will they remember what happened to them?"

Oliver looked up, shaking his head. "We can't allow them to keep those memories. They might promise today never to breathe a single word about vampires, but under pressure, they'll tell their families, their friends. They'll want to explain things to them. But our secrets must be kept."

"I understand. What about me? The memories you and I made?" Her big eyes looked at him, affection and trust shining back at him.

He swallowed hard. His next words were the most difficult ones he'd ever had to utter. "When you leave here, I'll have to make sure you won't remember anything."

"What if you got on that plane with me? Just for a week or two."

His heart suddenly beat a hundred miles a minute. "You want me to come with you?"

She stretched her hand out to clasp his. "I know that logistically it'll be tricky to hide from my parents that you're a vampire, but I'm sure we can figure something out."

He sat up and leaned closer to her. "You want me to meet your parents?"

"I can't guarantee that they'll take to you immediately. They're a little old fashioned, and me bringing home a Caucasian boyfriend might be tough to swallow at first, but I figured since they'll be so happy to know that I'm alive, they'll probablya""

"Boyfriend?" he cut her off. "You want to introduce me as your boyfriend?"

"And as the man who saved me, of course, that too."

He pulled her hand to his lips and kissed her fingertips. "Tell me something before I agree to this: are you planning on dumping this boyfriend after those two weeks, or can he hope to stick around for a while longer?"

Ursula's lids lowered halfway. "I was hoping to come back to San Francisco for something longer term. Maybe finish my studies here . . . "

"How long?"

"Can we maybe discuss this in a year or two and see how we're doing by then?"

Oliver pulled her onto his lap and brought his mouth to hers. "That's definitely doable."

"Does that mean I get to keep my memories?"

"I can do better than that: I'll help you make new ones." He kissed her softly, then felt her pull away.

"There's something else."

He brushed a stand of hair behind her ear. "Yes?"

"I want your friend Maya to do that blood test on me."

Her words rang in his ears, making him virtually dizzy with excitement. "Are you sure?"

Instead of an answer, she kissed him.

The clearing of a throat interrupted them. Oliver drew his head back to see who was disturbing his pleasant interlude with Ursula.

Thomas rolled his eyes as he entered, followed by half of Scanguards, Oliver's sire included. "Don't mind us, we're just here to watch the operation go down." He pointed to the big monitor on the wall.

Ursula scrambled off Oliver's lap, her cheeks bright red. Quickly, Oliver scooted his chair closer to the table so his lower half was hidden beneath it. If his colleagues saw his hard-on, they would tease him for the rest of his life.

"Let's get the show on the road then," Oliver said instead and watched as everybody filed into the room and took their seats.

"Sunrise is in two minutes. The charges were set earlier in the night, and we made sure that the security cameras in the area were obstructed at the time. n.o.body will a.s.sume foul play. They'll blame it on PG&E as usual," Thomas summarized as he typed something on the keyboard he was sitting at.

"All our staff have cleared out of the area?" Samson asked.

"Everybody's far enough away."

Samson added, "Any innocent bystanders?"

Thomas shook his head. "We made sure n.o.body is in the vicinity. We received the "all clear" a few minutes ago."

Ursula's eyes were glued to the monitor, when the live feed went black. "What's happening?"

The monitor flickered, then a video feed from a different angle showed up on the screen. "We've switched from the camera at the gas station across the warehouse to our own camera which we've installed on a telephone pole. It has its own power source. All power on this block will go out once we give the go-ahead. That way we can a.s.sure that there will be no footage on the security cameras."

They had thought of everything. Nothing would be traced back to them or expose any vampires to humans. Their secret would be safe.

"I think Ursula should give the command," Oliver suggested. He looked at his colleagues, and one-by-one they all nodded.

Thomas waved Ursula to change seats with him. "Take the mouse and point it to this icon here."

Oliver watched as the first rays of the sun started illuminating the street in front of the building. More seconds pa.s.sed. "Sunrise," he announced.

Ursula glanced back at him, then all that could be heard in the room was the click of the mouse.

"The electricity to the block is being shut off now," Thomas explained, and simultaneously all streetlamps and other building lights around the warehouse went out.

Oliver watched the screen, when suddenly an explosion rocked the warehouse. Even though he'd been expecting it, it still jolted him.

The fire spread, engulfing the building quickly and fully as expected: according to the blueprints, the building wasn't equipped with sprinklers.

The few vampires who tried to escape by braving daylight didn't get far. To a.s.sure none escaped, human sharpshooters, trusted Scanguards employees, had been positioned at strategic points, their weapons loaded with silver bullets. But no shots were fired in the end. Instead, the sun took care of the escaping vampires, adding their ashes to the dirt on the pavement.

The blood brothel and its jailors were finally history.

The police would investigate, no doubt, as would other government agencies, but Scanguards had enough connections who would make sure that nothing would come of these investigations.

"Now our real work starts," Samson said, his voice serious. Everybody nodded.

When Ursula gave Oliver a questioning look, he explained, "We found Corbin's client list. Each and every one of those clients is a potential risk to the human population of San Francisco. We'll have to monitor them and lock those up who are most at risk until they've gone through all stages of withdrawal."

It would be an enormous task, but the mayor had offered Scanguards all resources at his disposal. Within a few weeks, the situation would stabilize, and San Francisco would be as safe as before.

39.

Two weeks later Oliver carried the two suitcases into the house and dropped them in the foyer. Behind him, Ursula set a small bag onto the floor. After almost two weeks in Washington DC, visiting Ursula's parents, he was ready for some major relaxation. He'd never been so tense in his entire life.

While Ursula had stayed with her parents, Oliver had resided in the house of a vampire Gabriel knew and only joined them in the evenings. After discussing it at length, Ursula had agreed to his suggestion to wipe her parents' memories of the past three years and plant new ones in their minds. All their pain would be forgotten as if it had never happened. They now believed that Ursula had transferred to UC Berkeley to study for her master's degree, and that she visited her parents at least twice a year. In addition, Oliver made sure that he was part of their new memories too, so that they would easily accept him as their daughter's boyfriend. Mind control had become easier for him after he'd used it to make Ursula feel his bite. Almost as if he'd simply needed the right motivation for it.

But simply wiping her parents' memories had not been enough: Oliver had had to enlist the help of Scanguards staff in Washington and New York to do the same with friends and family of Ursula's parents, staff at the emba.s.sy where her father worked, as well as the police detectives and reporters involved in the case. Thomas had hacked into the police computers and deleted all files of Ursula's disappearance and also erased the records at the newspapers who ran the story. It was a colossal task, but one that was necessary so Ursula could be with him. Had Oliver and his colleagues not erased every memory of her disappearance, her parents would have never let her leave again.

Apart from a few stolen kisses during their stay in Washington DC, Oliver hadn't touched Ursula until they'd boarded Scanguards' private jet to return to San Francisco. He'd practically mauled her during the flight home, but since they'd had to share the plane with a few staff members of Scanguards, there had been no occasion to have s.e.x with her, and his c.o.c.k was still as hard as ever.

"Where is everybody?" Ursula asked.

"Rose? Quinn?" he called out, secretly hoping that they were out for the evening, saving him from having to tell them about their trip when he'd rather lug Ursula over his shoulder to drag her into bed. "Blake?"

"Upstairs," Quinn's voice finally sounded from the upper floor.

Frustration howled through him. He had no idea how much longer he could pretend to be civilized before he would fall over Ursula and bury himself deep inside her.

"Come on up, we want to show you something," Rose called down.

Oliver grimaced and took Ursula's hand. "Let's go then."

When they reached the third floor, Rose and Quinn were standing in front of his bedroom.

"Welcome home!" they both said.

Hugs were exchanged before Quinn opened the door to Oliver's bedroom and motioned him and Ursula to enter.

Quinn rocked back on his heels. "We thought with Ursula here, you both needed a little more s.p.a.ce, so we knocked out the wall to Blake's room and moved him onto the second floor instead. That way, you'll have a little sitting area for yourselves."

Oliver let his eyes roam, taking in his newly decorated room. Not only was it almost twice as large as before, it had also been updated. An extra closet had been added to accommodate Ursula's clothes, and a cozy sitting area had been created.

"And if you don't like the decor, we can change that," Rose added.

Ursula turned to them, smiling. "It's beautiful. Thank you. I love it."

Oliver put his arm around her and pulled her close, then looked at Quinn and Rose. "It's perfect. Thank you!"

"You're welcome," Quinn said.

Rose tugged at his shirtsleeve. "We should leave."

Quinn nodded. "We're spending the evening with Zane and Portia, so the house is all yours tonight. Blake went patrolling with Cain."

"Patrolling?"

Quinn rolled his eyes. "Don't ask. He kept on nagging us to let him go on patrol."

Rose smiled mischievously, winking at Oliver. "Quinn caved."

But her husband merely shrugged. "Can't protect him forever." Then he reached into this back pocket and pulled out an envelope. "Before I forget it, Maya gave me this for you."

Excitement made Oliver's heart beat faster. He knew what was inside: the results of Ursula's blood test. Before leaving for Washington, Ursula had provided Maya with two blood samples: one before having s.e.x, and one after Oliver and she had enjoyed their last night in each other's arms before leaving for the East Coast.

His hand trembled when he took the envelope from Quinn's hands. When he looked up, their gazes collided. Quinn was smiling as if he knew what this letter meant. Then he and Rose turned and closed the door behind them. He listened to their footsteps as they walked downstairs.

Slowly, he released Ursula. She stared at the envelope in his hands.

"The results," she whispered.

With shaking fingers, he opened the letter and pulled out a single sheet of paper. His eyes took several seconds to focus, before he was able to read what was written in neat handwriting.

"Dear Oliver," he read aloud. "All tests I performed on Ursula's blood samples came back with the same result."

Oliver sensed how Ursula held her breath.

"It's confirmed: her blood is safe once she's had an o.r.g.a.s.m." Relief poured through him. "However, I cannot say how long her blood needs in order to return to its former potency after s.e.x. More tests will be necessary to determine that. But for now, as long as you only drink her blood right after she has climaxed, you'll be safe. Love, Maya."

He dropped the letter and pulled her against him. "You have to make a decision now."

She lifted her eyes. Mesmerized by what he saw in them, he stopped breathing.