"You want to do what?"

Maya gave her a strange look. "Rein that b.a.s.t.a.r.d in. He can't endanger humans like that. We'll have to make sure of it."

"But . . . " Ursula swept her gaze to the others in the room, who seemed as concerned about the situation as Maya. "Why would you do that? You're vampires too. You do the same."

Oliver moved closer, crouching down before her so he was eyelevel with her and she wouldn't have to crane her neck anymore. The gesture was kind, she realized, and wondered why he did it.

"We're civilized. We're all part of the same group. We work for a company called Scanguards. Most of us are bodyguards or security guards, and we're sworn to protect humans. Even against our own race."

She shook her head in disbelief. It was impossible. No, she had to be delirious to be hearing something so incredible. "No, that can't be."

"It's true," Blake chimed in. "As much as some have difficulty keeping their l.u.s.t for blood under controla"" He tossed a pointed look at Oliver. "a"Scanguards' men live by a strict code of ethics. Believe me, if that weren't the case, I wouldn't be alive today, nor be living among them without fear for my life."

She shifted her gaze back to Oliver. "You mean you don't bite people?"

A flash of guilt flared in his eyes before he dropped his lids to avoid her scrutiny. "Most of us drink blood from a bottle. It's donated. We purchase it through a medical supply company."

His careful phrasing hadn't escaped her notice. "Most of you?"

His eyelids swung open fully, his long dark lashes almost touching his brows. The intense blue of his eyes mesmerized her, just like it had when she'd first met him in the dark street.

"Not all. Some of us still struggle to . . . adjust. But it's not easy. The temptation is always there."

She noticed his gaze drift to her neck and felt a tingling sensation race through her body. Fear clamped down her vocal cords, making her unable to speak. At the same time she was unable to tear her eyes away from his.

Fear and desire collided as he inched closer, reminding her of their kiss. He had been so warm, so tender. And now she knew also how deadly his kiss could be. He could have bitten her then and finished what the other vampire had started. Still, she couldn't move, could only watch as he approached.

"Oliver!" Cain's sharp voice made him jerk back and jump to his feet.

Oliver ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry. As I was saying, we won't hurt you."

Ursula nodded as if on autopilot, while her brain tried to understand what this development meant for her immediate future. Was she truly safe? It was too good to be true, and when something was too good to be true, it wasn't true. Everybody who'd ever seen a commercial for a miracle weight loss pill knew that.

"This company you mention, Scanguards, what do they do?" Were they just another front for the blood trade that did the same nefarious things her captors had done to her and the other girls?

"Scanguards is a security company. We protect individuals: dignitaries, politicians, or celebrities. Anybody really who can afford us. We have both human and vampire employees. Humans work all daytime jobs, but the rest of us, we take on the nightshift if you will. Our a.s.signments are generally more dangerous. But we're trained for that."

Ursula couldn't help but notice the pride in his voice when Oliver spoke, nor the sheen of excitement that sparkled in his eyes now. Yet his words sounded so foreign, so impossible to believe. "Vampires who protect humans?"

Oliver smiled. "We're the good guys."

She couldn't help but shake her head. There were no good guys.

Next to Oliver, Blake grinned at her too. "They are. When I was kidnapped by a bunch of bad vampires, all of Scanguards came to my aid to rescue me. They risked their lives for mine."

Oliver tossed him a mischievous sideways glance. "Only because you're Quinn's grandson. If I'd had a say in it, I would have let them keep your sorry a.s.s."

Ursula watched the exchange with interest. Scanguards had fought other vampires to save a human? Could she hope that they would come to the rescue of those girls that were still imprisoned as blood wh.o.r.es? Or would Scanguards only lift a finger for their own family members?

"Admit it, bro, you love having me around."

Oliver rolled his eyes. "Right." Then he turned back to her. "Don't mind him. But what he said is true: we come to the rescue when we're needed or when one of our own, human or vampire, is in danger. I've been involved in a lot of rescue missions myself."

Again, pride shone through his words. He clearly loved what he was doing. Had she stumbled upon the only group of people who could help her and the other girls? Could she trust them? Were they what they claimed to be, or were they no better than the vampires who'd held her in captivity for three years?

"And what do you do?" she asked before she could stop herself.

"Me? I'm a bodyguard."

"Enough of talking about us," Cain suddenly interrupted, his eyes narrowing somewhat, as if he was suspicious of her. "Why don't you tell us what happened to you, so we can determine what to do?"

Ursula swallowed hard. Cain's mouth was set in a hard line, which made him look determined and unyielding. Instinctively she realized that he wouldn't allow the others to give her any more information than they had already.

Oliver exchanged a look with Cain, then nodded before looking back at her. "No offense, Ursula, but we've already told you more about us than we would tell any human under normal circ.u.mstances. You have to understand we need to protect our secrets."

Secrets? Of course they had secrets. All vampires did. And they would not show her the skeletons that were in their closets.

"Tell us," Maya insisted, her voice softer than Cain's, but not any less urging. "What happened to you?"

Ursula hesitated. How much could she tell them? What if they were connected to the other vampires after all and returned her to them once they found out where she had escaped from?

When Oliver crouched down in front of her again and encapsulated her hand in his large palm, she shifted her gaze to look into his eyes.

His lips moved and expelled two whispered words. "Tell me."

As if under a spell, she opened her mouth. The words were out before she could stop them. "I was imprisoned by vampires."

10.

Shocked, Oliver sucked in a breath. Had he heard right, or was the fact that he was so close to this beautiful girl s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g with his senses?

"Imprisoned?"

He briefly glanced at his friends, but they looked as stunned as he, clearly having heard the same words from Ursula's mouth.

Her big brown eyes were wide like saucers, and she appeared as surprised by the revelation as he was. Had she not wanted to reveal this or was she making up lies? Or was she simply a very good actress?

Maybe Cain had been right to cut off her questions, so he wouldn't reveal too much about Scanguards. After all, she was a stranger, and even though she'd been bitten by a vampire, it could have all been a setup to get close to them, to infiltrate Scanguards. What if some group of vampires was using her as bait? Even now, she could be under their control. Despite his physical attraction to her, he had to be careful. If he got involved, it would only end badly when it turned out that she was working for the enemy. He would never go against Scanguards, not even for the hottest woman he'd met in a long time. His eyes involuntarily dropped to her chest where her small b.r.e.a.s.t.s moved up and down as she breathed. At the same time he noticed how clammy her hand was and how fast her heart beat.

When he raised his gaze to look into her eyes again, he realized that what he was seeing were signs of fear. Did she fear him and his friends, or did she fear the vampire who had bitten her?

"Please," he urged her. "Tell me what happened."

Slowly, she pulled her hand from his. Reluctantly he allowed it.

"They held me for three years."

The words choked out from her throat as if she had trouble speaking.

Stunned by her words, he remained silent and waited for her to continue. She took several breaths, looking at his friends then turned her head to the side, avoiding eye contact with him.

"I was a student at NYU when they captured me one night after I left an evening lecture. I couldn't believe what was happening. Vampires didn't exist! They couldn't exist. They were just myth, folklore. They only existed in movies. I never thought . . . " Her voice broke.

Oliver wanted to say so much, but his throat felt parched all of a sudden.

"They took me to a building where they kept me locked up. I wasn't the only one. There were other girls like me." She looked up and met his gaze. Her eyes were moist, but she wasn't crying.

Of its own volition, his hand came up, wanting to stroke her cheek to comfort her, but in the last minute, he pulled it back, not wanting to expose his feelings to her or his friends. He had to stay impartial. It was the hallmark of a good bodyguard. Cain had been trying to teach him that very fact, and Gabriel had reinforced it countless times.

However, it didn't change the fact that he was affected by her words. He felt compa.s.sion.

"What did they do to you?"

Ursula thrust her chin up, her mouth setting into a hard line. "They pimped us out as blood wh.o.r.es."

"Blood wh.o.r.es?" Maya gasped in disbelief.

His own reaction wasn't any different. "I've never heard of blood wh.o.r.es." He turned to Cain to ask for rea.s.surance.

His colleague shook his head. "There's no such thing. There's no need for that."

Ursula pulled her shoulders up and straightened, her lips trembling as she continued, "They used me and the other girls as blood wh.o.r.es. Two, sometimes three times a night they would bring vampires in to drink from us; leeches we called them." She choked. "Some of the girls didn't make it. But they always found new ones to replace the ones who died."

Cain took a step closer. "That's impossible. There's no need to keep humans imprisoned for their blood. Even those vampires who don't drink bottled blood wouldn't have any need for this. They'll simply go out and ha""

"Find somebody to drink from," Oliver interrupted him quickly. Hunt, Cain had wanted to say, and somehow Oliver didn't think it was the right word to use in Ursula's presence. "No vampire would go through the trouble of keeping a human imprisoned just to have blood at hand at all times."

If that were the case, why not drink it from a bottle? At least that's how he felt: he loved the hunt. The thrill of it was what drove him out there night after night. And he could only imagine that it was the same for those vampires who hadn't taken to bottled blood. They were in it for the chase. They wouldn't want the bother of keeping a human in a prison to feed from him like from a caged animal.

"They ran a business," Ursula insisted. "They charged a high price for our blood. And the leeches paid it without flinching."

"Why pay for something they can get for free on the street?" Maya threw in, her voice just as skeptical as Cain's comment had been.

Oliver searched Ursula's face for any tells that she was lying. Thomas was trying to teach him this skill, but he hadn't mastered it yet. However, from what he could tell, she wasn't lying. Unless, she didn't know she was lying: it was possible that a vampire had wiped her memories and planted fresh ones in her mind. She would never know that she was lying. The only question was, why would another vampire do this? Why concoct such a story? Was somebody trying to lead Scanguards into a trap by appealing to their sense of honor and duty, knowing they would help those in need?

Suspicious of her story, Oliver applied what he'd learned from Thomas: ask questions to see if the person could keep their story straight. Liars had a way of forgetting the small details of their carefully constructed stories and eventually made mistakes.

"You said you went to NYU. Did they bring you to San Francisco upon your kidnapping?"

She shook her head. "We stayed somewhere in New York for a long time. One night they suddenly packed everything up, and we were put in the back of a large truck and driven cross country. I arrived in San Francisco only about three months ago. I didn't even know what city I was in until tonight."

"Where did they keep you?"

She shrugged. "A large building, maybe an old apartment building or an old hotel. I'm not sure. It was dark when we arrived and I was never let outside. They kept us locked up, and even when we were led into the rooms where the vampires fed from us, there was always a guard to watch us."

"Where is the building located?"

Her eyes filled with tears. "I don't know. Not far from where you found me. I'm not sure about the exact location. I was only concerned with getting away from them."

Cain cleared his throat. "Yeah, about that. How did you get away, given that there was a guard?"

Ursula shut her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again, she looked away. "The guard wasn't careful. He was called to another room when there was an altercation with one of the leeches. He forgot to lock the door. I was able to get out through a fire escape."

"Was there only one guard?" Cain continued.

She shook her head. "There were many of them. But they were all busy watching the other girls," she hastened to add.

Oliver gave her a wary glance. Her heartbeat had accelerated and he could sense her glands producing more sweat. Not an unpleasant odor by any stretch, but nevertheless, she was sweating, and this meant she was nervous. Nervous because she was lying? Or simply agitated because she was recalling her ordeal?

If only he knew.

When her face turned fully to him, their gazes collided. Oliver sucked in a breath of air and with it her scent. Hunger instantly surged through him, even though he'd fed only a few short hours earlier. He shouldn't feel hungry; he shouldn't l.u.s.t for blood again so soon. He'd taken plenty from the juvenile he'd met in the Bayview district. More than enough. It should last him for twenty-four hours. Yet a strange craving came over him, and he wasn't sure whether he wanted to bite or kiss her. Either possibility seemed equally enticing. And equally wrong for the situation.

"Please, you have to believe me," she begged.

He felt Maya approach from behind. "You must admit, it's a fantastic story."

"And it doesn't make sense," Cain added.

"But couldn't it be possible?" Blake asked. "There are some bad guys out there as we all know."

Oliver turned, looking at Maya and Cain. "Blake is right. We can't just dismiss this. If she's telling the truth, then we have a problem on our hands."

Ursula jumped to her feet, drawing his attention back to her. "You think I'm lying?"

Oliver got up and instinctively reached for her, but she sidestepped him. "That's not what I'm saying."

Tears br.i.m.m.i.n.g at her eyes, she glared at him. "Then what are you saying?"

Nervously he shifted his weight, glancing at Cain who shrugged. "Want me to tell her?"

Clearly his colleague had the same suspicion as he did. And he seemed to have no qualms about voicing it. But Oliver was man enough to do his own dirty work. And accusing her of something she might be innocent of wasn't pretty. But it was a possibility he couldn't simply dismiss.

When Ursula nailed him with her questioning look, he sighed. "It's possible that the vampire who bit you planted these memories in your mind so you'd tell us about it and lead us into a trap. You wouldn't even know that you're lying."

She jolted, taking another step away from him. "What? You think this isn't true? You think it's made up? No! No! I lived through this. For three years, I endured their cruelty, the humiliation, the pain. I know what I saw and what I felt. It's real."

Her chest heaved from the effort it must have taken her to raise her voice to him and make her impa.s.sioned plea.

"For three years my parents have been looking for me."