According to Lauren’s father, Scanguards bodyguards were the best-trained bodyguards in the nation, and apparently the most lethal. She’d gleaned from Oliver’s ID, which he’d presented when he’d picked her up to take her to her classes, that he had a class A clearance. It had meant nothing to her until Lauren had explained that it was Scanguards’ highest security ranking, and only the best of their guards, and those who knew about the existence of vampires would receive such honor.

Portia snorted. She could still take that kid and lift him right out of his fancy shoes. After all, Oliver was human. It appeared even Scanguards, which employed not only humans, but also a large number of vampires, didn’t have a hybrid on staff to assign to her. And that put her in the stronger position. Whenever she was ready to make her move, she’d leave her human bodyguard in her wake while she went off to find herself a suitable candidate to take her virginity. Bodyguard or not, her father wouldn’t win this fight.

“Do you want to get a takeout for dinner?” Oliver asked as he left the campus behind and navigated through rush hour traffic.

Portia wondered whether she should make him drive out of his way to get to some obscure greasy food place, but decided against it. She wasn’t mad at the bodyguard but at her father, and she wouldn’t let her anger out on an innocent. Oliver was just doing his job. Besides, he had behaved very discreetly all day while she’d had classes. Even though he’d followed her around, he’d blended in and not indicated to anybody that he was there to protect her. No, she corrected herself, watch her. At least, she’d been spared the embarrassment of everybody knowing she had a fucking nanny. Luckily, the others had just assumed he was a new student. At least for that she was grateful to Oliver.

“I’m not hungry. Besides, I can always snack on you later.” God, she hadn’t wanted to say that, but it was too late to take it back now. Maybe she should simply keep her mouth shut when clearly nothing civil was coming out of it at present.

He tossed her a get-real look before concentrating on traffic again. “Try it and you’ll regret it.”

Portia frowned. “You’re bluffing.” Not that she’d even for a moment contemplated making good on her threat. Truth was she’d never bitten anybody in her life. When she needed blood to supplement her human diet, she drank it from the bottles her father ordered from a vampire-owned medical supply company. She didn’t particularly like the stuff, but luckily her hybrid body required blood just twice a week to maintain its superior strength. She’d realized during exam stress the year before that if she increased her intake of blood, she had more energy and could pull all-nighters if she needed to. It had come in handy once or twice.

“Just because I look unarmed doesn’t mean I am.”

“Whatever.” Portia looked outside, not particularly in the mood for a chat. It was still January, and the sun was setting fast. In half an hour it would be dark. But even with her eyes closed, she would have known when sunset occurred. It was in her bones. For full-blooded vampires, this instinct was a survival mechanism, but for her as a hybrid it wasn’t essential. She was lucky: she could be out in the sunlight whenever she wanted to. However, she preferred the dark. Even as a young child, she’d gotten up in the middle of the night to stare at the stars in the dark night sky.

“Why do you work for them?” She hadn’t meant to ask, but her mother had taught her to make polite conversation, mostly to blend in. And she felt bad for having behaved so bitchy with Oliver so far.

Oliver shrugged lightly. “It’s a good job. It pays well.”

“Aren’t you afraid of them? What if one of them bites you?”

Oliver suddenly chuckled. “You think I’ve never been bitten?”

Portia whirled her head to stare at him. “You just told me I’d regret if I bit you!”

“And that’s still the case!”

“But you let others bite you? What’s wrong with me then?” Was she some sort of outcast? Granted, she didn’t know a lot about how vampire society functioned, but did that make her undesirable?

“Nothing’s wrong with you. But I only let a vampire bite me when there’s an emergency.”

Her heartbeat accelerated by a notch. “What kind of emergency?”

“When one of the guys is wounded so severely that he instantly needs blood, I let him have mine.”

“Wounded? Why the hell would they get wounded? They’re just working as security guards, probably sitting in some office building all night.” How dangerous could that be?