“Yes,” she whispered so low only he could hear it.

The intimacy of her action wasn’t lost on him. Giving one’s blood to another person, a stranger at that, was a gesture so pure and personal, he could only speculate why she’d offered it.

When her blood reached his stomach, his entire body coiled like a tight spring. He tensed at the foreign feeling.

“Relax.” Her coaxing word in his ear soothed. “Let go. I’m here.”

There was something strangely comforting in her words. He allowed the tension to flow from his body and took more of her blood into him. Her taste was intoxicating, and coupled with her body close to his, there was nowhere else he’d rather be at this moment.

He drew on her vein, getting addicted to her taste.

“What the fuck?” Wesley’s voice reached him, just as Haven noticed Yvette going slack behind him.
Eleven

“The only odd thing I found in Yvette’s house was this.” Zane tossed the bag with Yvette’s hair onto the kitchen island. Everybody was assembled in Samson’s house: Samson, the owner and founder of Scanguards, Gabriel, Thomas—their IT genius—, Amaury, and Eddie, the youngest of the vampires. In addition to the vampires, Oliver, Samson’s human assistant was with them. As always in a crisis situation, Samson’s Nob Hill Victorian had turned into their command center.

From upstairs, Zane’s sensitive hearing picked up conversation fragments. He recognized Nina’s voice. It appeared that Amaury went nowhere without his headstrong mate. Completely pussy-whipped if anybody asked him, which of course nobody did. Maya’s voice mingled with Delilah’s a moment later. It figured that Gabriel couldn’t leave his wife at home either. Well, at least Maya was a vampire, so she was useful in combat, whereas both Nina and Delilah were human, and if anything, would only prove to be a distraction.

“What is it?” Samson asked and reached for the bag.

“Hair.” Zane shifted from one foot to the other. He wasn’t sure why he’d even brought the damn thing, but somehow he’d been compelled to. It was something out of the ordinary, and he’d been trained to watch for anything that didn’t make sense. Whether it would help them find Yvette in the end was another matter.

Samson pulled out a handful of strands of the black mane. “Whose is it?”

“Yvette’s.”

Samson sniffed and nodded.

“Yvette cuts her hair?” Amaury wrinkled his forehead. Zane tossed him an indifferent look. His linebacker-sized friend with the black, shoulder-length hair and sparkling blue eyes reached for the bag and inhaled. “Yep. It’s her.”

“Might be strange, but I doubt this’ll get us any information on where she is,” Thomas interjected. The biker with the IT-geek brain frowned and ran his hand through his sandy-blonde hair.

Eddie, the young vampire he was mentoring and Nina’s brother, nodded in agreement. He slapped Thomas on the shoulder. “You’re right. Maybe she’s just not into long hair.”

Almost as tall as Thomas, he was built a little slimmer, yet no less strong. His face had dimples, now that it relaxed into a half-smile. Just like Thomas, he ran his hands through his dark-blonde hair. Did he have to imitate everything his mentor did? That was irritating.

Zane cursed silently. Did everyone here have a full head of hair except for him? Was that why he’d brought the bag in the first place? To torture himself?

“What else have we got?” Gabriel asked.

Thomas leaned over the map which was spread out on the kitchen island and pushed the bag with the hair to the side. “The limousine was found here.” He pointed to a location in the Richmond district. “Luckily, the company had an antitheft device in the vehicle. So we were able to track it.”

“And the driver?”

“Still looking for him. The company was a little vague about who he is. Eddie and I will be paying them a visit in person to see what’s going on.”

Samson nodded. “Good. Amaury, I want you to go and inspect the limousine. See if you can detect anything, any traces of scents, blood, anything.”

“Will take care of it.”

“Has Kimberly’s agent received any demands for ransom?”

Gabriel shook his head. “I just got off the phone with him. Nothing. He’s going to cancel her appearances for the next days, telling everybody she’s come down with a severe flu and is contagious. Hopefully, that’ll keep people from asking questions until we know what’s going on.”

“Sensible,” Samson commented. Then he looked at Thomas again. “Any luck with tracing Yvette’s cell phone?”