She felt his hand at the small of her back, gently guiding her forward. The touch wasn’t unpleasant, just as it hadn’t been unpleasant when he’d taken her hand earlier. Even though she’d seen what his hands could turn into, right now she could only feel the softness of his fingertips as he ushered her to an empty seat around the oval table.
“Here, take a seat. I need to have a quick word with Wes.” He pointed to one corner of the room where Wes stood talking to another man.
Instinctively she reached for his arm. “I don’t know anybody else here.”
“I’ll be just a moment.” He bent closer, dipping his face to her ear. “I’ll let you in on a secret: a vampire is the fastest animal on this planet. It would take me only a second to rush to your side if you needed me.”
Her heart suddenly hammered out of control. Could he hear it? Was the legend true that a vampire had more sensitive hearing than a human?
“Okay.”
She watched Blake walk to Wes and pat him on the shoulder. They exchanged a few words, and Wes looked in her direction, lifting his hand in greeting. She nodded to acknowledge him, then looked around the room once more. She couldn’t help but catch the furtive stares the men and women in the room gave her, though nobody approached her to confront her about her presence here.
More people entered the room, taking up more of the empty seats, while others continued to stand. Amaury was now coming in. He spotted her and walked toward her. Instinctively, she froze. He let himself fall into the chair next to her.
Nervously, she clasped her hands in her lap.
“So Blake told you about us,” he started without preamble.
Her throat was suddenly as dry as the Sahara. “He did.”
“Did he explain to you that we won’t tolerate anybody spreading our secrets?”
She lifted her chin. “He didn’t have to. I got that when he showed me his fangs and his claws.”
“Ah, you got a demonstration. Did you like it?”
“What are you doing, Amaury?”
She took a relieved breath at the sound of Blake’s voice behind her.
“Just chatting with your girlfriend,” he said casually.
“She’s not my—”
“I’m not his girlfriend,” Lilo ground out.
“—girlfriend,” Blake finished.
“Whoa!” Amaury lifted his hands in a show of surrender and got up. “My nose hasn’t betrayed me yet. And it sure isn’t lying now either.” He grinned triumphantly and turned away.
Lilo swiveled in her chair and faced Blake, who now sat down in the chair on her other side. “What did he mean by that?”
Blake ran his hand through his dark hair, an expression of embarrassment on his face. “A vampire’s sense of smell is ten times better than that of a dog. Amaury could smell me on you, and you on me. He knows we had sex.”
Lilo felt like sinking into the floor. “Oh, crap!”
“Do you really regret it that much?”
There was a touch of pain in his voice that made her meet his gaze. Their eyes locked. Did she regret having slept with him? If she could turn back time, would she make it undone? If she knew everything she knew now, would she still allow him to make love to her and surrender in his arms? Would she be the sensible one and stay away from him, or would she—just like Hannah—fall for a vampire, even though she knew that nothing good could come from it? That one day she, too, might disappear.
“Welcome!”
Wesley’s voice coming over the loudspeakers in the room saved her from having to come up with an answer, for both Blake and herself. She tore her gaze away from Blake and looked to the front of the room, where Wesley was standing at a lectern, speaking into a microphone. Behind him the desktop of a computer was being projected on a screen on the wall.
“Let’s all settle down. We need to get this started. There’s a lot that you all need to be brought up to speed on,” Wesley urged. He craned his neck toward the door, where more men streamed in. “Is everybody here?”
She recognized one other person now: Eddie, the man who’d analyzed Hannah’s computer was strolling in, a blond guy walking next to him. When they both went to the other side of the room, Lilo noticed the other man’s hand resting on Eddie’s lower back.
A moment later, she felt Blake’s breath near her ear. “You want me to tell you who everybody is?”
She nodded automatically.
“The blond man with Eddie is Thomas, his blood-bonded mate.”
“Two guys?”
“They were human once; their turning didn’t change their sexual orientation.” Then he pointed to the dark-haired man who she’d seen talking to Wesley when they’d entered the room. “That’s Samson, the founder of Scanguards.”
Lilo perused him. He was tall and handsome. And he oozed authority. So that was what an over two-hundred-year-old vampire looked like.
Blake directed her gaze to a man who looked like a younger edition of Samson. “That’s his son, Grayson. A hothead. Thinks he’s invincible.” He pointed to the young woman sitting next to him. “His older sister, Isabelle. One of them will run the company one day. My money’s on Isabelle.”
“Okay, settle down,” Wesley said, tapping the microphone. “I called this meeting because we have a serious problem on our hands.”
Silence fell over the room, everyone’s eyes on Wesley.
“First of all, before you all die of curiosity, Blake has asked me to make a quick introduction. The human woman sitting next to him is Lilo Schroeder. Why she’s here will become evident shortly. Just let me say this: you may speak freely in her presence. Blake has told her who we are and what we do.” He nodded toward Blake, then continued, “Now, let me start with this.”
He shifted the mouse and opened a file for all to see on the oversized screen on the wall. It showed a map of San Francisco. Dozens of red dots were spread all over it.
“John, who’s been working with the SFPD on this case, will start.”
From one of the seats in the front, a tall man rose and marched to the lectern. Wes stepped to the side, making space for him.
“Thanks, Wes,” he said. Lilo detected a slight Southern accent. “So, here’s the gist: over the last few months the crime rate in San Francisco has spiked. Home invasions and robberies, both commercial and residential, have increased over 200%. That’s astronomical. The odd thing, however, is that the spike occurred during daytime, suggesting that the crimes aren’t vampire-related. However, Donnelly, our liaison at the SFPD, begged us to look at it. I’m glad he did.”