way. Continue lying, but it’ll make it only worse. If you at least showed remorse for your actions, I could convince Gabriel and Samson to be lenient with you, but since you’ve decided to be a hard-ass about it, don’t expect to be treated with kid gloves.”
In disbelief Oliver shook his head. This couldn’t be happening. He would be taken to task for something he hadn’t done. “That’s not fair! I’m innocent!”
Maya rolled her eyes. “Innocent? There’s nothing innocent about you. The only innocent in this house is that girl in the next room. And you’ve robbed her of that innocence. You should at least have the decency to admit your guilt like a man.”
Oliver closed his eyes. He knew it had been a mistake to help the girl. He should have followed his first instinct and turned around the minute she’d approached him. But no, knight in shining armor that he fancied himself, he’d wanted to help her.
Liar.
He cringed. Okay, so he’d only decided to help her after she’d made her outrageous offer of sex. Not that he would have ever held her to it anyway! It didn’t matter: he’d gotten involved, and now he was in a hell lot of trouble and as long as the girl didn’t admit the truth, it was his word against hers.
The evidence was damning: bite marks on the girl’s neck and massive blood loss. Maybe if he could talk to the girl and assure her that he wouldn’t collect on her promise, maybe then she would tell Maya what really happened.
He had to try it.
“I’ll talk to her again. Alone.” He made a step toward the door.
“Not a chance,” Maya objected instantly and blocked the door. “Do you think I don’t know what you’re trying to do?”
“Do what?” he ground out and ran his hand through his hair.
“You’re going to try and influence her, using mind control.”
Oliver narrowed his eyes. “Maybe you wanna get your facts straight for a change: as Thomas will be able to confirm, I haven’t quite mastered the art of mind control yet.”
In fact, he was having problems with it and assumed that his problems with being able to control his hunger for blood had something to do with it. They robbed him of the energy necessary to exercise mind control and being able to plant fake memories into his victims’ minds. He was, however, fully capable of erasing a person’s memory. It was a skill that required less finesse and was more instinctual than the art of mind control, even though the two skills were related.
Thomas, Scanguards’ IT genius and master of mind control, was tutoring him to help him over his issues. He was making progress, but he was nowhere near mastering the skill. At best, he succeeded only fifty percent of the time.
“Still, you’re not—”
“Damn it, Maya!” he flared up. “What do you want from me? You’ve already made up your mind about my guilt, and now you won’t even allow me to talk to the only witness who can confirm my innocence. Even in a court of law I’d have a better chance than with you!”
And he’d seen the inside of more than one courtroom. In his days as a human, before Samson, the owner of Scanguards, had taken him under his wing, he’d been in and out of jail for possession of drugs and other offenses. He’d never committed any violent crimes, but he knew if Samson hadn’t come along and taken pity on him, he would have gone down that road. The crowd he was running with was on that path already.
“We have our own rules,” Maya insisted.
Before he could reply, he heard the front door opening. Was the girl leaving? Panicked, Oliver fairly jumped at the door and ripped it open, peering out into the hallway.
Relief and dread collided instantly. The person who’d opened the entrance door was Blake, and behind him, Cain entered. Their gazes immediately landed on him.
“We’ve been looking for you,” Blake said, his tone accusatory.
“Fuck you!” Oliver replied. He wasn’t in the mood to have another confrontation. The one with Maya was enough for one night. He turned away.
A moment later, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He swiveled and faced Blake, shaking off his hand in the process.
“I’m not done talking. Cain and I searched the entire city for you.”
“You’ve found me. Now leave me alone.”
“Not so fast, little brother. I wanna know where you went tonight.”