Blake jumped back, eager to get out of the guy’s reach, but unfortunately, this . . . thing . . . Amaury, was between him and the door. Could he make it to the window, open it and jump out? He tossed a quick look in that direction. The blinds were drawn. Nina had done that earlier to make it easier to see the PowerPoint presentation.

Maybe if he could pull the blinds up fast enough, the sun would kill the bastard. He lunged for the cord, but a split-second later, Amaury had him by the collar again and held him back.

“What’s going on here?”

At the sound of Quinn’s thundering voice, Blake let out a sigh of relief. He whirled around.

“He’s a vampire! Amaury’s a vampire. You gotta help me.”

Quinn rolled his eyes and stared at Amaury. “That’s just great. I brought you here to help, not to mess things up.”

“He accosted Nina.”

“He was trying to flirt with me!” Nina corrected him. “He didn’t succeed, but my big macho man here had to burst into the room in vampire speed and flash his fangs at our guest.”

Amaury narrowed his eyes at her. “You and I will have a word in private in a minute.”

Nina didn’t back down from the threat. Instead, a red flush crept up her cheeks.

Blake did a double take. What the fuck? This was all just too freaking weird! He had to get out of here. Using Amaury’s temporary distraction, he ran for the door.

Cain cut him off, holding him back, slinging his arm around him. As Blake struggled to free himself, his opponent didn’t even take an extra breath.

“What do you want to do with him now?” he asked Quinn.

Suddenly the door opened and Rose entered, wearing a short robe. Blake couldn’t stop his eyes from trailing down her long legs. Yeah, shit, that kind of thinking was what had gotten him into trouble in the first place.

Rose glared at Cain. “Let him go.”

Cain looked at Quinn, asking for approval. “If I let go of him, he’s gonna run.”

“Why?” Rose’s tone was sharp.

“He saw Amaury in his vampire form,” Quinn explained.

“Oh, my god! How can you do this to him? You have to wipe his memory. Now.”

Blake twisted and turned under Cain’s hold. They wanted to wipe his memory? How on earth were they gonna do that? He knew what he’d seen, and there was no way in hell he’d ever forget that. They could inject him with whatever drug they wanted, but this memory would stay with him.

“No! Let me go. You can’t keep me here, you can’t do this to me. I’m an American citizen, I have rights,” Blake yelled.

“Join the club,” Cain said dryly. “We’re American’s too. Same rights.”

Quinn glanced at him, then back at Rose. “Maybe he should know. He has a right to know what’s going on.”

Rose vehemently shook her head. “No. He can’t know. He has a right to a normal life.”

It took seconds until Quinn finally nodded. “As you wish.” He motioned to Amaury. “Do it.”

Panic thundering through his veins, Blake thrashed about, kicking Cain, but the man wasn’t even swaying an inch, as if he was built as strong and indestructible as a tank.

“Shit!”

“It won’t hurt,” Amaury assured and locked eyes with him.

For whatever odd reason, Blake couldn’t pull his gaze from the vampire. Fascinated, he stared into his blue eyes. He’d never seen anything that blue. Even the ocean couldn’t compete with the beautiful color.

In the background he heard words, but as soon as they entered his head, they vanished again. Around him everything felt like cotton candy, soft and warm. His eyelids felt heavy, falling over his eyes. For a moment everything went dark and quiet.

When he opened his eyes again, he needed a second to find his bearings.

“Darn fire alarm,” Quinn said, yawning. “But not to worry. It was just a fuse blowing. We’re good.”

Blake nodded and looked into the round. All the trainers were assembled. The door opened and Wesley and Oliver trotted in.

“What’s going on?” Wesley asked.

“Didn’t you hear the fire bell go off?” Quinn asked.

Wesley’s chin dropped. “Huh?”

For the first time, Blake sympathized with Wesley: he hadn’t heard the fire alarm either. Maybe he’d been too engrossed watching his pretty trainer as she presented the most boring slides about the history of security anybody could assemble.

“Well, since we’re all awake now, we might as well get ready for our next training assignment,” Quinn announced.