by Folsom, Tina
Before her eyes, the red in Oliver’s eyes dissipated, and the tips of his fangs pulled back, disappearing in his mouth. Even his claws vanished as if she had simply been imagining them.
“You’re vampires,” she repeated, her voice flat.
Oliver shook off the hands of Dr. Giles and the dark haired vampire, who had been holding his arms. Dr. Giles? She probably wasn’t even a doctor.
“I’m sorry you had to see this.” He took a tentative step closer.
She flinched. Immediately, he stopped in his approach, his eyes looking at her full of regret. Regret? No, she had to be mistaken. She’d never seen any vampire exhibit such a feeling. Their feelings were limited to greed, hate, and lust.
“I won’t hurt you.”
She listened to Oliver’s words and suppressed the urge to laugh hysterically. Of course he would hurt her, just like the other vampires had. So why pretend? Why lie to her? Why torture her? Maybe he was more cruel than even Dirk was. More cruel because he came in a package that had almost made her trust him, almost made her feel safe. Only to dash her hopes later.
The tears that she’d held back until now escaped from her eyes, making their way down her cheeks, burning hotly. She didn’t dare take a breath.
“Please don’t cry.”
His voice was soothing, and when she closed her eyes, she could imagine surrendering to it. Maybe it was time to give up, to stop struggling and accept her fate. She would always be a blood whore to them. They would never let her go.
She would never see her parents again. And she wouldn’t be able to help rescue the other girls. With her next breath, a sob tore from her chest.
“I want to go home.”
Her knees buckled, her vision blurred. She saw them move all at once, coming toward her. Would they drain her tonight? Would this finally be the end?
“I’ve got her,” Oliver said to his friends, his voice sharp and unyielding.
Then she felt him lift her into his arms and carry her back into the living room. The gentleness with which he placed her on the couch surprised her, but maybe she was delirious. As soon as she sat, he pulled the blanket over her lower body and stepped back.
“You’re safe here,” he claimed.
The other three had entered the room behind him and stood close.
“Who is she?” one of the men asked.
The doctor turned to him. “Oliver brought her here.”
He walked past her and stretched his hand out to her, giving her a charming smile. “I’m Blake.”
She stared at his hand and pressed herself deeper into the sofa cushions.
“She’s scared, can’t you see that?” Oliver admonished him and pushed him aside.
“Well, that’s probably because you scared her!” Blake countered.
“Stay out of it!”
“I live here too, so I have a right to know what’s going on!”
Oliver glared at him, then looked back at her. “I think I have to explain a few things to you now that you’ve seen what we are.” He cleared his throat. “You’ve already met Maya. She’s a doctor, but she’s also a vampire. And this—” He pointed to the dark haired vampire who hadn’t said anything yet. “—is Cain. He works for Scanguards. He’s one of our vampire bodyguards.”
So they called their prison guards bodyguards instead. Same difference!
Then he pointed to Blake. “That’s Blake. He’s my half-brother.”
Blake squared his shoulders. “I’m human.”
His claim stunned her. They had a human living in their midst? What for? As a constant source for blood? Her mouth gaped open as she stared at him. He was handsome, tall and a little broader than Oliver. And oddly, it didn’t appear as if he was restrained in any way. He seemed under no duress. On the contrary, it appeared that he was self-confident and ready to pick a fight with Oliver at the drop of a hat. The hostile glares between the two hadn’t escaped her notice.
“Human?” she echoed.
“Yes,” Blake answered and smiled at her. “It’s complicated. But let’s just keep it simple. For all intents and purposes, this dude here is my half-brother. As annoying as he can be.”
Oliver pressed his lips into a thin line as if trying not to contest Blake’s comment.
“How are you feeling?” the doctor suddenly asked.
Ursula looked up at her, clearing her throat. “Dr. Giles, I really don’t know why you care.” Why were they still pretending to be concerned about her wellbeing? What difference did it make?
Maya raised an eyebrow. “First, please call me Maya, everybody does. And second, I do care, because Oliver put you into this situation.”
Ursula’s gaze drifted to Oliver, wondering what Maya meant with her comment. She noticed how his facial features tightened as he glared back at Maya.
“As I said before, I didn’t do it!”
“Didn’t do what?” Blake interrupted.
Oliver swiveled on his heels to face his half-brother. “Bite her.”
“Nearly drained her,” Maya added.
“You fucking asshole!” Blake yelled. “How could you? Look at her! How could you do that to a nice girl like her?”
Blake’s hands balled into fists and he swung. Oliver blocked his hit, but before he could land his own fist in Blake’s face, Ursula interrupted them. “He didn’t bite me.”
Instantly everyone went quiet and turned to look at her.
“It wasn’t him who bit me,” she repeated, unsure why she even bothered defending him.
“You remember!” Oliver’s voice was full of relief. Suddenly his face split into a huge smile and before she knew what he wanted to do, he approached her and reached for her hands. He squeezed them hard.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” he said exuberantly, before he let go of her hands and turned to Maya, giving her a pointed look. “Well, Maya?”
Maya shrugged. “Well, the circumstances were . . . ” Then she stopped herself. “I’m glad I was wrong. I apologize for judging you wrongly.”
Ursula listened to the conversation, but nothing made sense. Why did it matter to any of them whether Oliver had bitten her or not? Why did they care?
“Since you remember, please tell us what happened.” Maya pointed to her neck. “I know you were bitten by a vampire. Who was it? We need to know so we can stop the bastard from doing it again. Obviously whoever did this was out of control, leaving you half-dead.”
Slowly Ursula shook her head, unable to trust her ears. Maya wanted to stop who’d done this to her? She must have heard wrong.
“You want to do what?”
Maya gave her a strange look. “Rein that bastard 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 lust for blood under control—” He tossed a pointed look at Oliver. “—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 assignments 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 ass.”
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 whores? 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 circumstances. 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 screwing 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 breasts 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 compassion.
“What did they do to you?”
Ursula thrust her chin up, her mouth setti
ng into a hard line. “They pimped us out as blood whores.”
“Blood whores?” Maya gasped in disbelief.
His own reaction wasn’t any different. “I’ve never heard of blood whores.” He turned to Cain to ask for reassurance.
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 whores. 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 h—”
“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?