“Not anymore anyway,” Nina added. “He sowed his oats when he was in his twenties, but then he got serious.”

“For him to have a woman stay with him, well…” Delilah hesitated. “He must care about you.”

“I’m just staying with him to make it easier to work together finding Hannah. You must have heard…”

Delilah made a dismissive hand movement. “We’ve heard. And if anybody can find your friend, it’ll be Scanguards.”

Nina nodded. “But your staying with Blake has nothing to do with that. He has you stay with him, because he wants you around.”

“And you’re staying with him,” Delilah added, “because you want to be around him. Or would you have accepted his invitation if he weren’t quite as good looking and charming?”

Lilo opened her mouth to respond, but the lie wouldn’t cross her lips. Delilah was right: she’d accepted Blake’s invitation because she enjoyed his company and she was attracted to him.

Delilah smiled knowingly. “And now, dear? Do you still feel the same now that you know what he is?”

She met Delilah’s green eyes, and contemplated the question. But she wasn’t ready to answer it, for Delilah or Nina, or for herself. Too many conflicting emotions warred inside her, and she was too exhausted to analyze them.

27

They’d stayed longer at Scanguards’ headquarters than Blake had anticipated, and now, as he drove toward Presidio Heights, it was close to sunrise.

The interrogation of the human in their custody had yielded no results. As Wesley had reported, a human drugged with the Höllenkraut concoction—of which Wes had yet to find the formula—had no memory of his actions. Not even Gabriel’s ability to delve into a person’s memory, and see what they had seen, had been of help. Apparently the human brain couldn’t form clear memories while drugged, and thus could not replay them for Gabriel.

When the meeting had reconvened, several good ideas had been shared as to how to find Hannah and the vampires behind the dangerous drug. Teams were formed, and when the night had drawn to a close, all the vampires had made their way home, leaving the hybrids in charge of executing those parts of the plans that could not be delayed.

Blake turned into his street. Next to him, on the passenger seat, Lilo sat with her eyes closed. He couldn’t blame her. It had been a long and stressful night, and she wasn’t used to the hours vampires kept. He couldn’t deny that he too needed some rest.

When he slowed down as he reached his house, he noticed the trashcans that stood in front of the driveway, blocking access to his garage.

Blake ground out a curse. His neighbor’s housekeeper was getting sloppy and had clearly not considered that she was blocking his garage. One trashcan had overturned, maybe from a gust of wind, and the contents had spilled on his driveway.

Lilo jerked up. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing to worry about. I just can’t park in the garage right now.” He pulled in front of his house, parking the car at the curb. “It’ll be fine here.”

He could always have Ryder or the boys remove the trash and the cans later and then park the car for him. But with only fifteen to twenty minutes left until sunrise, he wasn’t in the mood to spend any time outside.

Blake switched off the engine and got out. He walked around the car and reached the passenger side, before Lilo had a chance to slide out of her seat. Reaching for her, he helped her out and closed the car door behind her.

“Thank you.”

She smiled gratefully and didn’t seem to mind when he put his hand on the small of her back and guided her up the stairs. When they reached the landing, a motion-sensor switched on the light outside the front door. Blake took a step toward the scanner, the same type that was installed at the garage, but before he could reach it, a sound from across the street made him snap his head to the side.

There was a flash, followed by a loud bang.

His reflexes kicked in instantly. Blake whirled around and lunged for Lilo, covering her with his body as he went down. Simultaneously, a searing pain shot through his shoulder.

He cried out in agony. This kind of pain could be caused by only one thing: a silver bullet.

Another bullet whizzed past his head and hit the door.

Beneath him, Lilo was trembling.

“Are you hurt?”

He heard her mumbled “no” and breathed a sigh of relief. But the danger wasn’t over. The shooter was still across the street. If he couldn’t get Lilo and himself into the house, they’d be as good as dead. He didn’t carry a gun on a regular basis, but inside the house, in the hallway, behind one of the wooden panels, he kept various kinds of weapons for emergencies.

“Stay down,” he cautioned Lilo, and turned his head slowly in the direction of the shooter.

And there, across the street, hidden behind a tree, he stood. A vampire, no doubt.

“Coward!” Blake cursed.

The insult did what it was supposed to: for just a split second, the shooter peeked past the tree trunk.

“Ronny,” Blake ground out.

Lilo gasped, and he sensed her fear rising.

“Stay down, no matter what,” he whispered to her and jumped up, twisting his body so he could lunge for the scanner. His hand hit the smooth surface and he pressed his thumb onto it. But before the scanner could even recognize him, the front door was ripped open, and somebody shot into the dark.

Blake sank to the ground and rolled toward where he’d left Lilo, but she was gone. His heart stopped.

“I’ve got her,” Ryder yelled, reaching for him with one hand while Damian raced past him, a small caliber handgun in his hand. Amaury’s son knew where Blake hid his weapons, and reacted quickly. But Blake wasn’t going to let the hybrid hurtle headfirst into danger.

“No, Damian, get inside! It’s too dangerous,” Blake yelled.

“I’ve got him covered,” Benjamin, who now came running, a gun in his hand, assured him. He followed his brother in pursuit of the shooter.

“Let ‘em go,” Ryder advised, dragging him into the hallway and slamming the door shut behind him.

Inside, Blake didn’t even look at his wound, despite the pain it was causing him. Instead, his eyes searched for Lilo.

“Lilo!”

She was just getting up from the floor, most likely having been pulled in by Ryder or one of the twins to get her out of harm’s way. Blake tried to move toward her, but he couldn’t pull himself up. The silver was already taking its toll on his body, doing severe damage.