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.”