“Oliver!” Cain’s sharp voice made him jerk back and jump to his feet.
Oliver ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry. As I was saying, we won’t hurt you.”
Ursula nodded as if on autopilot, while her brain tried to understand what this development meant for her immediate future. Was she truly safe? It was too good to be true, and when something was too good to be true, it wasn’t true. Everybody who’d ever seen a commercial for a miracle weight loss pill knew that.
“This company you mention, Scanguards, what do they do?” Were they just another front for the blood trade that did the same nefarious things her captors had done to her and the other girls?
“Scanguards is a security company. We protect individuals: dignitaries, politicians, or celebrities. Anybody really who can afford us. We have both human and vampire employees. Humans work all daytime jobs, but the rest of us, we take on the nightshift if you will. Our assignments are generally more dangerous. But we’re trained for that.”
Ursula couldn’t help but notice the pride in his voice when Oliver spoke, nor the sheen of excitement that sparkled in his eyes now. Yet his words sounded so foreign, so impossible to believe. “Vampires who protect humans?”
Oliver smiled. “We’re the good guys.”
She couldn’t help but shake her head. There were no good guys.
Next to Oliver, Blake grinned at her too. “They are. When I was kidnapped by a bunch of bad vampires, all of Scanguards came to my aid to rescue me. They risked their lives for mine.”
Oliver tossed him a mischievous sideways glance. “Only because you’re Quinn’s grandson. If I’d had a say in it, I would have let them keep your sorry ass.”
Ursula watched the exchange with interest. Scanguards had fought other vampires to save a human? Could she hope that they would come to the rescue of those girls that were still imprisoned as blood whores? Or would Scanguards only lift a finger for their own family members?
“Admit it, bro, you love having me around.”
Oliver rolled his eyes. “Right.” Then he turned back to her. “Don’t mind him. But what he said is true: we come to the rescue when we’re needed or when one of our own, human or vampire, is in danger. I’ve been involved in a lot of rescue missions myself.”
Again, pride shone through his words. He clearly loved what he was doing. Had she stumbled upon the only group of people who could help her and the other girls? Could she trust them? Were they what they claimed to be, or were they no better than the vampires who’d held her in captivity for three years?
“And what do you do?” she asked before she could stop herself.
“Me? I’m a bodyguard.”
“Enough of talking about us,” Cain suddenly interrupted, his eyes narrowing somewhat, as if he was suspicious of her. “Why don’t you tell us what happened to you, so we can determine what to do?”
Ursula swallowed hard. Cain’s mouth was set in a hard line, which made him look determined and unyielding. Instinctively she realized that he wouldn’t allow the others to give her any more information than they had already.
Oliver exchanged a look with Cain, then nodded before looking back at her. “No offense, Ursula, but we’ve already told you more about us than we would tell any human under normal circumstances. You have to understand we need to protect our secrets.”
Secrets? Of course they had secrets. All vampires did. And they would not show her the skeletons that were in their closets.
“Tell us,” Maya insisted, her voice softer than Cain’s, but not any less urging. “What happened to you?”
Ursula hesitated. How much could she tell them? What if they were connected to the other vampires after all and returned her to them once they found out where she had escaped from?
When Oliver crouched down in front of her again and encapsulated her hand in his large palm, she shifted her gaze to look into his eyes.
His lips moved and expelled two whispered words. “Tell me.”
As if under a spell, she opened her mouth. The words were out before she could stop them. “I was imprisoned by vampires.”
10
Shocked, Oliver sucked in a breath. Had he heard right, or was the fact that he was so close to this beautiful girl screwing with his senses?
“Imprisoned?”
He briefly glanced at his friends, but they looked as stunned as he, clearly having heard the same words from Ursula’s mouth.