Lilo could only stare at him in disbelief. Was she really listening to a vampire making her a promise, a promise she was inclined to believe? She searched his eyes to find the truth in them. Would he keep his word?

The chiming of a cell phone cut through the silence of the room. Blake pulled it from his pocket and looked at the display.

“Sorry, I have to take this.” He connected the call. “Wes?”

Lilo couldn’t hear Wesley’s words, only Blake’s reply. “We’ll be there shortly. Thanks.”

He disconnected the call and looked straight at her. “Wesley is calling a meeting at headquarters. He’s figured out what Ronny’s been up to.”

24

Blake slowed the Aston Martin and entered Scanguards’ well-lit underground parking garage, while tossing Lilo, who sat in the passenger seat, a quick glance.

“We’re here.”

She nodded. “Good.”

While she’d gotten in the car without protest, knowing he couldn’t leave her alone at his house, Lilo had carefully avoided touching him, always keeping distance between them. Her eyes had been vigilant at all times, watching him for a sign that he would pounce. Without a doubt, he’d rattled her with his confession, though he was pleased to see that she wasn’t hysterical and had accepted his revelations with stoic grace. And a pinch of apprehension, though not fear. Fear was too strong a word; he didn’t think that Lilo feared him. She was too smart and too brave for that.

But just because she didn’t fear him, didn’t mean that she welcomed him with open arms. How he could ever regain her trust, he didn’t know. But he was willing to try anything, because never making love to Lilo again wasn’t an option.

Blake pulled into his assigned parking spot, and switched off the engine. Lilo was already reaching for the door handle, but he put his hand on her forearm.

Lilo shrieked and whirled her head to him, shock lighting up her eyes.

“I didn’t mean to startle you.” He eased his hand off her arm, regretting the loss of physical contact. “When we’re in the office, I want you to stay close to me. Don’t wander off. The building is crawling with vampires, and without an employee badge they’ll assume you’re an intruder. I’m breaking a few rules by taking you inside. Some people won’t like that.”

“Okay.”

Blake got out of the car and watched Lilo do the same. At the elevator, he turned to Lilo, who’d followed him.

“Most of my colleagues are like tame lambs once you get to know them.”

“Well, excuse me if I take that with a grain of salt,” she said and tossed him a you’re-shitting-me look.

“Fine, maybe not like lambs, but real laid-back guys.”

She tilted her head to the side. She wasn’t buying it.

He shook his head. “Okay, you’ve got me. Every single one of my colleagues is an alpha. Including the female bodyguards.”

For the first time in the last half hour, Lilo’s face lit up with genuine interest. “Female bodyguards? Are they vampires?”

“Yes. Does that surprise you?”

The elevator doors opened and he ushered her in.

“I just thought… I mean you said vampires bond with human women to have children.” She suddenly froze. “You told me you were sterile. But you admitted that vampires can father children with human women. Does that mean you—”

“Lied about being sterile? No. I am sterile. For now. Every unbonded vampire is. Only once he’s blood-bonded is a vampire able to impregnate a woman—and then only his mate. Not that a bonded vampire would ever want to touch a woman other than his mate.”

“I understand.”

But he wasn’t done talking yet. This was his opportunity to tell her about his world. “Vampire males can of course also bond with vampire females. And have offspring.”

“You mean children born as vampires? But would they grow up?”

He understood where she was coming from. “Well, actually, they would still be hybrids, half vampire, half human.”

“I don’t get that. Where would they get their human part from, if not from their mother?”

“That’s where science comes in. By nature, vampire females have always been sterile, and they still are. But Maya, the wife of Scanguards’ second-in-command, Gabriel Giles, was a doctor before she was turned. And she’d made it her mission to find a way for vampire females to bear children. She succeeded.”

“How?”

“By implanting human stem cells into the vampire’s uterus so she could get pregnant and carry the child during pregnancy.”

“I’m surprised.”

“Why? Maya is a brilliant doctor.”

Lilo shook her head. “Not about that. But about the fact that a vampire female would go through so much trouble to have children.”

He smiled. “Vampire females are just like other women. Some of them want a family as badly as human women. They’re no different in that respect.”

“Mmm.” She nodded. “I think I would like to meet a female vampire. I can’t quite imagine what a woman like that must be like.”

“You met one the other night: Rose.”

“Your cousin?”

Blake made a grimace. Another lie he had to set straight. “Rose isn’t my cousin.”

Lilo’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.

“Rose is my grandmother,” he hastened to say.

“Grandmother?”

“My fourth great-grandmother to be exact. In 1814, when Rose was still human, she gave birth to my third great-grandmother. Rose was turned shortly after that and from then on watched over her human line from afar, until she had to reveal herself to me to save my life.”

Lilo stared at him in stunned silence. “Oh my God, she must be over two-hundred years old!”

Blake winked at her, smiling. “Granny doesn’t look it, does she?”

When Lilo chuckled unexpectedly, he added, “Don’t tell her I called her granny, or she’ll stake me.”

He noticed Lilo swallow hard. “So the legend is true: a stake through the heart will kill a vampire.”

He nodded slowly. Should he be careful about revealing how a vampire could be killed? What if she used this knowledge against him? But when he looked into her eyes he didn’t see a woman scheming, but he saw the writer in her, the person who wanted to understand the process.