Blake's Pursuit (18 page)

“Amaury.”

Amaury’s gaze shifted to Lilo and a flash of recognition filled his eyes for a moment. He stopped a couple of feet away.

“I hope you have a good explanation for this.”

His superior didn’t need to clarify what he was referring to. Blake knew the rules well enough: no humans were allowed on the executive floor. Well, no humans other than the human mates of Scanguards’ upper management.

“I know: no humans up here.” Blake bent to Lilo. “Lilo, this is Amaury LeSang. He’s one of Scanguards’ directors. A vampire, in case you were wondering.”

Amaury sucked in a sharp breath. “What the f—”

“Lilo knows the truth. She’s vital to this case. Without her, I doubt very much that Wesley would have been able to figure out what’s going on in this city.”

Amaury ran his eyes over Lilo, assessing her. “The drug case?”

“Yes.”

“Drugs?” she squeezed out.

Blake looked at her. “Hannah’s disappearance involves drugs.”

He caught Amaury raising his eyebrows. “I didn’t realize you were on that case. I thought you were in charge of Nicholas and Adam for the week.”

“Ryder is watching them right now.”

“Why don’t I call the twins? Let them do their share and help Ryder out.”

Blake nodded. “Appreciate it. I sent Ryder out to grab some pizza with the boys. Have them call him to see where he is now.”

While Amaury pulled out his cell phone, Blake ushered Lilo toward the conference room.

“What twins?” Lilo whispered.

“Amaury’s got two boys. They’re in training to become bodyguards.”

“So he’s blood-bonded. To a human or a vampire?”

“You learn fast. He has a human mate, Nina. She’s one hell of a woman.” He smiled. “A lot like you. Blond. Lots of spunk. And she’s got Amaury wrapped around her little finger so tightly the poor guy has no chance of ever denying her anything.”

Lilo looked over her shoulder. “He doesn’t look like a pushover to me.”

Blake chuckled. “As I said earlier: tame lambs.”

She turned her head back to him and rolled her eyes, but her lips quirked into the beginnings of a warm smile.

25

Lilo stopped at the open door to the conference room, Blake next to her.

She knew exactly what he was doing: he was making small talk to put her at ease. She had to admit that it was working. Blake’s sudden willingness to answer all of her questions, not just with a perfunctory yes or no, but with a full explanation helping her understand the vampire species better, helped calm her nerves.

Despite the fact that she was now in the lion’s den, or the vampire’s lair, if that’s what they called it, she felt oddly safe. The building they were in looked like an ordinary office building, and this almost sterile environment helped give the impression that Scanguards was truly just another security company.

So far none of the people they’d encountered on their short walk to the conference room showed any outward signs of being vampires: no fangs, no glaring red eyes, no claws instead of fingers. Everybody looked… civilized.

She peered into the conference room. By her estimate it could hold around thirty people, and it was currently half full.

“Ready?” Blake whispered from next to her.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

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.”

He exchanged a look with Wesley. “At the beginning I couldn’t make heads nor tails of it, but then the police caught one suspect in a recent liquor store robbery. He was completely zonked out. We figured he had to be under the control of a vampire to be so out of it.”

Lilo shot Blake a questioning look. He leaned in and whispered to her, “Mind control.”

But before she could ask more, John continued.

“We were right, in a way. But I’ll let Wes explain those details to you.” He stepped aside and returned to his seat.

Wesley clicked on something on the screen, and a picture of an herb appeared. “When I examined the suspect of the liquor store robbery, I found traces of Höllenkraut in his blood. What you’re seeing on the screen is the herb in question.”

“Höllen-what?” one man asked.

“It’s German, it means herb from hell.”

Lilo leaned closer to Blake, getting just as impatient as some of the assembled vampires. “What does all this have to do with Hannah?”

“Patience,” Blake urged.

“I did a little research,” Wesley continued. “In one of my old books I found some interesting information. Turns out that Höllenkraut when combined with a few other herbs turns into a quite potent drug that will render the user highly susceptible to suggestion. In other words: mind control. Now this wouldn’t be anything new, since any vampire already has this power. However, with this drug, the vampire can control the human without being anywhere near his victim. This is how we think a group of vampires has been executing these crimes: by using humans who don’t even know what they’re doing as minions. When they come out of their drug-induced state, they have no idea what they’ve done. Or who made them do it.”

Several men cursed.

“There’s more,” Wes continued. “We have a lead. Or rather two. This is where Miss Schroeder was instrumental.” He opened an image file, and suddenly Hannah’s face was right there on the screen. “Some of you may know Hannah Bergdorf, one of our Vüber drivers. She went missing several days ago. Both Blake and Miss Schroeder have been looking for her. Thanks to their efforts, we know the following.” He opened another image file: Ronny now grinned at them from the wall. “This is Ronny Clifford, Hannah’s boyfriend. He’s a vampire, one of her Vüber clients. We raided Ronny’s home and on his computer we found evidence that he’s been researching or working with Höllenkraut, the same substance that renders a human pliable. Considering how rare Höllenkraut is, and how dangerous, we believe that these two cases are related.”

He clicked on the play button of a video file. Lilo’s eyes widened. It was the same video that she’d shown to Donnelly. She turned to Blake, and he leaned closer.

“Donnelly sent a copy to our IT guys the moment you left the station,” Blake explained, anticipating her question.

Surprised to see how attuned he was to her, she just stared at him, but Wesley was already continuing with his explanations.

“Miss Schroeder found this video hidden among Hannah’s personal items. It appears that it was taken in secret in Hannah’s flat. And for some reason that we’re not quite sure of yet, Hannah hid it. The man on the right is Ronny, her boyfriend. The other man we’ve identified as Steven Norwood. He’s in our database. And listen to this.” He switched to another application. A man’s face appeared on the screen. “Luther, you’re on.”

“Hey guys,” the rugged-looking man on the screen said. He was wearing black riot gear, as if he worked for the military or a bomb squad.

Greetings echoed through the room.

“Steven Norwood was released from the Grass Valley vampire prison eight months ago,” Luther continued. “According to his file, he was no trouble. Served his time in peace and quiet.”

Was she hearing correctly? There was a vampire prison?

“I’ve sent his file to Thomas. There’s an old address in San Francisco, but I doubt Norwood returned there. I would lend you one of our trackers, but we’ve got our hands full here right now and can’t spare any.”

Samson rose and took the microphone from Wes. “No worries, Luther, thanks. Anything else you can tell us about the guy?”

Luther leafed through the file. “Nothing really. He’s got ordinary written all over him.” He motioned to somebody off camera. “Sorry, guys, gotta go. We’ve got a situation here.”

“Thanks, Luther,” Samson replied and turned back to the assembly, while behind him the screen went dark. “Let’s talk about how we’re gonna find these guys and put a stop to their operation. Tactical teams, get together your best and brightest. I want suggestions presented to me in two hours.”