“All you need is a scent?”

“It would help,” Thomas admitted.

Maya looked up at Gabriel. “You just said that the rogue already fed me some of his blood before he was interrupted.”

“That’s right,” Gabriel answered.

“Then can’t you take that scent that’s in me and find the rogue with that?”

Thomas inhaled deeply, then shook his head. “All I can smell is your own scent and the faint underlying scent of Gabriel. Whatever was there from the rogue is long gone.”

“Damn.” Maya let herself fall back into the couch.

“It’s not a bad idea though,” Gabriel admitted. “Thomas, Eddie was one of the guys who found her. Why don’t you talk to him and ask him if he noticed anything?”

“Sure. But you know Eddie is still young. Even if he smelled that rogue on her, there’s no guarantee he’ll remember the scent and would be able to find out who the guy was.”

“Try it anyway. Talk to James, too. It’s worth a try.”

“No problem, I’ll talk to Eddie when I get home. He should be done with work soon.”

“You guys work?” Maya asked, totally confused. What kind of jobs would vampires have?

“Of course we do,” Thomas answered. “Not for the money, mind you, even though the pay is not bad. But when you’re immortal, you need a hobby or a job, otherwise you’ll just get bored out of your skull.”

Maya could only imagine too well. After a week on the beach she was generally ready to climb up the walls and try to find something useful to do. Not that lying on the beach would be an option these days. “What do you do?”

“We’re bodyguards,” Gabriel cut in. “We run a company called Scanguards. Samson started it, and one by one we all joined.”

“Who does the company protect?”

“Politician, entertainers—anybody really who can afford our services.”

“But you’re vampires. I thought you can’t go out in daytime.” Something didn’t make sense.

“That’s right. But not all our employees are vampires. We have lots of human employees who work the dayshift.”

“And your clients know?”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. “About us being vampires? No. We’re careful. Only some of our most trusted human employees know.”

Maya could barely get her head around the news. Vampires who protected people. “You’re a bodyguard too?” Maya let her gaze sweep over Gabriel’s muscular form. She could fully imagine him protecting somebody—he could guard her body any day or night.

Looking at Thomas and then at Yvette, she could definitely picture them as bodyguards too. And Zane? Well, Zane was just pure evil and anybody who was willing to have Zane protect him had to be completely loony if anybody asked her.

“That’s how I started out, but these days I don’t do any fieldwork anymore. I now run the operations in New York,” Gabriel corrected.

For some reason his statement made her feel disappointed. Why should it matter to her where he lived? Wasn’t it better that he lived in New York and would soon be physically removed from her temptation? At least then she could come to terms with the hunger she was fighting. Even now, she could barely stop herself from attacking him to drink his blood. And the closer she was to him, the worse it got. Maybe if he was back in New York she could find a way to deal with this.

“Maya.” Gabriel’s voice jolted her.

“What?”

“I asked whether I can have permission to delve into your memories.”

All three vampires looked at her expectantly. “How do you do that?” The idea that he wanted to somehow probe around in her head didn’t sit well with her. What if he saw things she didn’t want him to see? Would he see that she lusted after his blood? And if he found out, what would he do about it? Lock her up so she couldn’t attack him?

“It’s a psychic gift I have,” Gabriel explained calmly, “I can reach inside a person’s mind and see their memories. It won’t hurt.”

Maya wrapped her arms around her waist. “Does that mean you can read my thoughts?”

He shook his head. “No. I can’t read minds. I can only see memories of events the way the person saw them with their eyes. I can’t see what a person was feeling or thinking.”

Relief washed through her. At least this sounded less like a violation than she had first suspected. “Fine. Go ahead. But I’m telling you, I don’t remember anything else.”