He walked past her and stretched his hand out to her, giving her a charming smile. “I’m Blake.”

She stared at his hand and pressed herself deeper into the sofa cushions.

“She’s scared, can’t you see that?” Oliver admonished him and pushed him aside.

“Well, that’s probably because you scared her!” Blake countered.

“Stay out of it!”

“I live here too, so I have a right to know what’s going on!”

Oliver glared at him, then looked back at her. “I think I have to explain a few things to you now that you’ve seen what we are.” He cleared his throat. “You’ve already met Maya. She’s a doctor, but she’s also a vampire. And this—” He pointed to the dark haired vampire who hadn’t said anything yet. “—is Cain. He works for Scanguards. He’s one of our vampire bodyguards.”

So they called their prison guards bodyguards instead. Same difference!

Then he pointed to Blake. “That’s Blake. He’s my half-brother.”

Blake squared his shoulders. “I’m human.”

His claim stunned her. They had a human living in their midst? What for? As a constant source for blood? Her mouth gaped open as she stared at him. He was handsome, tall and a little broader than Oliver. And oddly, it didn’t appear as if he was restrained in any way. He seemed under no duress. On the contrary, it appeared that he was self-confident and ready to pick a fight with Oliver at the drop of a hat. The hostile glares between the two hadn’t escaped her notice.

“Human?” she echoed.

“Yes,” Blake answered and smiled at her. “It’s complicated. But let’s just keep it simple. For all intents and purposes, this dude here is my half-brother. As annoying as he can be.”

Oliver pressed his lips into a thin line as if trying not to contest Blake’s comment.

“How are you feeling?” the doctor suddenly asked.

Ursula looked up at her, clearing her throat. “Dr. Giles, I really don’t know why you care.” Why were they still pretending to be concerned about her wellbeing? What difference did it make?

Maya raised an eyebrow. “First, please call me Maya, everybody does. And second, I do care, because Oliver put you into this situation.”

Ursula’s gaze drifted to Oliver, wondering what Maya meant with her comment. She noticed how his facial features tightened as he glared back at Maya.

“As I said before, I didn’t do it!”

“Didn’t do what?” Blake interrupted.

Oliver swiveled on his heels to face his half-brother. “Bite her.”

“Nearly drained her,” Maya added.

“You fucking asshole!” Blake yelled. “How could you? Look at her! How could you do that to a nice girl like her?”

Blake’s hands balled into fists and he swung. Oliver blocked his hit, but before he could land his own fist in Blake’s face, Ursula interrupted them. “He didn’t bite me.”

Instantly everyone went quiet and turned to look at her.

“It wasn’t him who bit me,” she repeated, unsure why she even bothered defending him.

“You remember!” Oliver’s voice was full of relief. Suddenly his face split into a huge smile and before she knew what he wanted to do, he approached her and reached for her hands. He squeezed them hard.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” he said exuberantly, before he let go of her hands and turned to Maya, giving her a pointed look. “Well, Maya?”

Maya shrugged. “Well, the circumstances were . . . ” Then she stopped herself. “I’m glad I was wrong. I apologize for judging you wrongly.”

Ursula listened to the conversation, but nothing made sense. Why did it matter to any of them whether Oliver had bitten her or not? Why did they care?

“Since you remember, please tell us what happened.” Maya pointed to her neck. “I know you were bitten by a vampire. Who was it? We need to know so we can stop the bastard from doing it again. Obviously whoever did this was out of control, leaving you half-dead.”

Slowly Ursula shook her head, unable to trust her ears. Maya wanted to stop who’d done this to her? She must have heard wrong.

“You want to do what?”

Maya gave her a strange look. “Rein that bastard in. He can’t endanger humans like that. We’ll have to make sure of it.”

“But . . . ” Ursula swept her gaze to the others in the room, who seemed as concerned about the situation as Maya. “Why would you do that? You’re vampires too. You do the same.”