Blake's Pursuit (13 page)

He pointed to the chair next to the desk and she sat down, while he leaned against the desk.

She pointed to the USB stick in his hand. “I found this in Hannah’s appointment book. I think she was hiding it in case something happened to her.”

“What is it?”

“A video. It shows her boyfriend arguing with the man who attacked me last night.”

He straightened. “Oh. That’s quite a find. And you recognize the man with one hundred percent certainty?”

“Yes. It’s him. There’s no doubt. But there’s something else. It’s horrible. At first, I couldn’t even believe my own eyes. But there’s no doubt.”

“About what?”

She pointed to the stick. “Watch it for yourself.”

He walked around the desk and inserted the memory stick into a USB port, then concentrated on the screen.

Lilo wrung her hands, waiting eagerly. If she had told Donnelly outright that the video showed two vampires, he would have probably dismissed her as crazy and ushered her out of the police station as quickly as possible. But if he saw it for himself, without her suggesting anything, then he’d have to believe it.

The snapping together of his eyebrows indicated that he’d gotten to the part in the video where both men showed their glaring red eyes and sharp white fangs. Seconds later, he looked away from the screen and met her eyes.

“This is impossible,” he said. “I know what it looks like on the screen, but I think we’re both being tricked here.”

“But you see it, too, don’t you? Those two men are turning into vampires. Right there.”

“I’ll take this into evidence and have our IT experts look at it to see if the file has been doctored or if it’s genuine.”

“But we don’t have time. My friend Hannah is in their hands. They’re hurting her. We can’t waste time.” She pointed to the screen. “And now that you know what my attacker looks like, you have a better chance of finding him. He has Hannah. He and Ronny, they have Hannah.”

“We don’t know that for sure.” When she tried to protest, he lifted his hand. “But I’ll run the picture of both men through our system to see whether we can identify who they are.”

“Thank you.” Then she remembered something. “The one guy, I know who he is. Ronny Clifford. He lives out in the Excelsior district.”

Officer Donnelly raised an eyebrow. “And you know this how?”

“My friend, Mr. Bond, found out,” she said quickly. Then she realized that this might look as if she’d been withholding information from the police. “I was gonna tell you and give you all his information so you could look for him.”

Donnelly’s cell phone pinged and he pulled it from his pocket, typed a few words, then put it back.

“We’ll do everything we can, I can assure you, Miss Schroeder.” She noticed him glancing to the clock on the wall. “But let’s go over all the details once more. I don’t want to miss anything that might help us find your friend.” He underscored his request with a warm smile.

Lilo felt some of the tension ease from her body and sighed.

18

“And you didn’t try to stop her?” Blake growled.

If Wesley had been standing in front of him, he would have had him by the throat. But as it was, Wes was reasonably safe at the other end of the line.

“I tried, but your new girlfriend is pretty determined.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Blake grunted.

“Oh, my bad. I thought because she’s sleeping at your house… It’s not like you invite every client to stay with you.”

“She had no place to stay. I couldn’t very well let her stay in Hannah’s flat, where the lock’s busted.”

“Course not.”

Blake turned away from the forensics team that was examining Hannah’s car in one of the subterranean levels of Scanguards’ headquarters. “Where is she now?”

“With Donnelly. He’ll stall her until you can get there.”

Blake looked at his watch. “It’s still daylight for over half an hour.”

“He knows that. Text him when you’re outside. It’ll take you a half hour anyway to make your way through traffic.”

He disconnected the call.

Wesley was right, of course, but that didn’t diminish the feeling of helplessness that rose in him. The one thing about being a vampire he didn’t like was how limited he was during daytime.

He hit the elevator button and waited impatiently, slamming his fist against the frame for good measure.

“Come on!”

He couldn’t even imagine what Lilo was thinking right now. Every human reacted differently when confronted with the knowledge that vampires existed. He’d seen both sides of the spectrum, from calm and efficient acceptance to downright I-must-be-hallucinating denial. He had no idea what camp Lilo would be in. But no matter what, he had two options: come clean and explain everything to her, or wipe her memory, so she would never know what she’d seen on the video.

The elevator doors suddenly opened and he nearly collided with John, who was rushing out.

“Blake,” John greeted him, shoving a hand through his hair. “Couldn’t get a hold of Wesley. Line’s busy all the time. So I was looking for you.”

“I just spoke to him. He’s at my place.” Blake darted into the elevator and pressed the button for the level where his car was parked.

“We got the results from the blood tests back.”

“Blood tests?” The doors were already starting to close.

“Yeah, from a human Donnelly transferred over to us. Wes is gonna wanna know right away.”

Blake extended his arm and stopped the elevator doors from closing. “What did you find in his blood?”

John did a one-shouldered shrug. “Some strange herbs. The lab tech said only Wes would know. It had a foreign name. Something German sounding.”

“Höllenkraut?”

John gave him a surprised look. “Yeah. How did you know?”

“Just a gut feeling. Call Wes, you should be able to reach him now. And send Ryder to my house to watch the hybrids. Wes will want to head back to HQ and his lab.”

“Will do.”

Blake removed his hand to allow the doors to close. “Thanks.”

Moments later he was in his car and speeding out of Scanguards’ underground garage, merging onto busy Mission Street. The sun was hanging low over the horizon, but the specially designed windows of his Aston Martin protected him from its burning rays. The glass was covered with a UV-impenetrable film. In addition, the glass had been strengthened so that in case of an accident occurring during daylight hours, the windows wouldn’t shatter and expose the vampire inside.

This improvement had been necessary after an incident four years ago, when a damaged rear window had nearly cost him his life. But thoughts like this only distracted him from the task ahead: to make sure Lilo didn’t—whether on purpose or not—announce the existence of vampires to anybody who wasn’t authorized to handle this information. Once he’d contained that threat, then he’d have to make the decision of whether to tell Lilo the truth or wipe her memory.

The thought of doing the latter knotted his stomach uncomfortably. He’d never taken somebody’s memories lightly—he’d only ever used his skill to protect himself and his family: Scanguards. But today he was reluctant to even entertain the idea. Lilo was a brave woman, coming to San Francisco to look for her friend. And with her help alone, they’d already made progress: finding out about Ronny, and now having a visual of the guy who’d broken into Hannah’s flat and attacked Lilo. As soon as he could get his hands on the memory stick, he’d get Thomas to run it through facial recognition to identify the assailant.

Could he really punish Lilo for having seen something she shouldn’t have seen? Punish her by taking away her memories? Was such treatment warranted?

Blake gripped the steering wheel tighter. Maybe it wouldn’t have to come to that. Maybe she was reasonable and would take it all in stride. And eventually accept the facts: that not only were Ronny and her assailant vampires, but that he, the man she’d kissed the night before, was one, too.

Maybe it was that kiss that now helped him come to a decision.

He pulled to a stop in the parking lot and immediately texted Donnelly, while the sun set behind him. By the time he was finally able to get out of the car, Lilo was already exiting through the double door of the police station. He rushed toward her, meeting her halfway up the stairs.

“Blake!” She practically threw herself into his arms.

“Lilo. I came as soon as Wes told me.” He wrapped her in a tight embrace, feeling how her body was trembling. Instinctively he pressed a kiss on the top of her head and rocked her in his arms. “It’s gonna be alright.”

She lifted her head, looking up at him, her eyes full of doubt and fear. “Did he tell you what’s on that video?”

He nodded. “Do me a favor, Lilo, wait in the car for me, while I quickly talk to the police officer.”

She sniffled and nodded. “Yes, see it for yourself. If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed it myself.” She eased herself from his embrace.

Blake motioned to the car. “I’ll only be a minute.”

He watched her walk to his car and get in, then hurried into the building. Donnelly was already waiting for him, and ushered him into his office in the back. When the door closed behind him, Blake let out a breath.

“Fuck!”

Donnelly nodded. “That was close. You guys were lucky that I wasn’t far away and managed to get to the station before she could show that video to one of my colleagues.”

“I know. I owe you.” Then he pointed to the computer. “Show it to me.”

They both walked around to look at the screen, and Donnelly replayed the video. It was as Wes had described: two men arguing and then turning into vampires. Aggressive vampires. Shit! This wasn’t the kind of introduction to vampires he’d want any human to face. Let alone Lilo. First impressions were hard to forget. This would make it even harder to gain her acceptance once he revealed the truth about himself.

“At least we now know what Lilo’s attacker looks like. I can have IT run it through facial recognition.”

“I already sent a copy over to Thomas for you. I figured you’d want to find out who this guy is,” Donnelly said.

“You’re the best.”

“I know,” Donnelly replied dryly and pulled the USB stick from his laptop. “You’d better take this. It’s not safe at the station.”

Blake took the memory stick from him, shoved it into his pants pocket and turned to leave.

“What’re you gonna do now?”

Blake hesitated at the door and glanced over his shoulder. “Try to make Lilo understand that we’re not all bad.”

“You’re gonna tell her the truth about Scanguards and about yourself?”

“Do I have a choice?”

Donnelly sighed. “We always have a choice. The question is what’s less painful? Coming clean or erasing what she’s seen?”

“Painful for whom?” Blake murmured to himself and left the office.

19

They’d barely spoken in the car. He’d told Lilo that they would talk once they were home. After all, the car wasn’t the right place to confess to her that vampires truly existed, and that he was one of them. What if she panicked and jumped out of the car, trying to run away? No, he had to get her home first, calm her down, and then gently tell her the truth. He could only hope that she would understand.

Blake opened the door leading from the garage to the hallway and ushered Lilo inside ahead of him. The voices of the boys were coming from the living room.

“Ryder?” he called out.

The twenty-year-old hybrid appeared almost immediately. He was mature for his age, one of the more serious and responsible of his hybrid charges. Ryder was less wild than Amaury’s twins, and less stubborn than Grayson, Samson’s eldest son. “You’re back.”

Blake pointed to him, while looking at Lilo. “Lilo, this is Ryder, one of our bodyguards-in-training.”

Lilo nodded, her “Nice to meet you” sounding automatic and distracted.

Ryder smiled. “Same.” He came closer. “I checked with the vet like you told me. Turns out Hannah did indeed keep her appointment for the dog. Wanna know what she had done?”

Blake raised a curious eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“She had a GPS chip implanted in her dog. You know, one of those you can trace in case the animal gets lost.”

“Good work,” he praised the young hybrid. “Let’s see if we can find the dog. Maybe he’s with her.”

Next to him, he noticed Lilo draw closer, hope lighting up her features.

“I’ve already put a request in to get the info for the chip. We should have it soon, and then IT will trace it,” Ryder reported.

“Thanks, Ryder, I really appreciate it.” Then he motioned to the living room. “Can you do me a favor?”

“Sure.”

“Take the boys out for pizza. I need to talk to Lilo alone.”

Ryder cast a quick look at Lilo, then nodded. “Not a problem.” Then he called out, “Nicholas, Adam, Sebastian, we’re going for pizza.”

While the boys came running, Blake asked, “Sebastian is here, too?”

“His mother dropped him off earlier,” Lilo said.

Sebastian was already coming toward them. Blake pulled him into a quick hug. “Hey, buddy. Good to see you.”

The boy beamed back at him. “Hey, Uncle Blake.”

“We’ll hang out later, okay? I’ve just gotta do a few things first, while you guys go for pizza, alright?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Okay, guys, let’s go,” Ryder commanded. “I’ll take the van?”

Blake nodded. “Keys are inside.”

Moments later, the house was quiet. He looked at Lilo. She was shivering now, and there was a watery sheen to her eyes.

“Come, let’s talk.”

She sniffled, drawing up her shoulders. “They’re ugly, evil monsters.” She raised her face to look at him. “They’ve hurt her. I know they have.”

“Lilo, please, you need to calm down.”

“Calm down? I can’t. Don’t you see what’s happening? Our very existence is being threatened by these… these vile creatures. They’re abominations! They shouldn’t even exist. Blake, why is this happening?”

Tears dislodged from her eyes, and he couldn’t bear seeing her like this. Without a second thought, he pulled her into his arms and cradled her. “Oh, baby, everything will be alright. I promise you.”