Page 52 of Vanessa’s Bravery

“But they kill people because they drink their blood,” Cole protested.

Vanessa put her hand on his forearm. “Yes, the rogues do that. But in general, the vampire population in San Francisco doesn’t hurt humans. A vampire feeding on a human doesn’t kill the human, nor does it hurt, not when it’s done right.”

“Vanessa is right,” Thomas interjected. “Most vampires keep to themselves. And as long as they don’t hurt anyone, we leave them alone. But somebody is turning humans without teaching them the rules. Whoever it is, is most likely offering them something they don’t have now.”

“My money is on power,” Eddie said with a nod.

“I feel like I’ve landed in Men in Black.” Cole pressed his lips together in a grim gesture. “Oddly enough, if they are really doing this voluntarily because they are promised something valuable in return—power, immortality—it makes it easier for the algorithm to find who’s susceptible to such an offer.”

Cole logged into his computer and looked at Eddie. “Can you give me the dead rogue’s info? Name, date of birth, address. You probably don’t have his social.”

“We do,” Eddie said and walked over to his computer, and tapped on a few keys. “I’m ready when you are.”

“Great! That makes it easier. I’ll set it all up in my cloud, and then I’ll send you the access code so you can watch from your computer.”

“How long until we get results?” Thomas asked.

“A few hours, since we’re only covering San Francisco. If we don’t get enough data from that, I’ll expand it to the East Bay and the Peninsula.”

“That works,” Thomas said.

As Eddie dictated the rogue’s information, and Cole entered the data into his computer, Vanessa ran her eyes over him. She would have never pegged Cole for a computer genius, but it was clear that he was in his element. The way he carried himself, the way his entire body was all muscle, no fat, he didn’t strike her as the kind of guy who spent hours sitting hunched over his computer, writing code. But there was no doubt that what he’d told them had impressed Thomas and Eddie, and was clearly giving them hope that he could deliver on his promise to find other humans vulnerable to be turned into a vampire.

A sense of pride filled her. Her intended mate wasn’t just a pretty face and a hot body. He had a brilliant mind on top of it. The more time she spent with him, the more layers she unpeeled, the more facets of his character he revealed.

Vanessa slid her hand onto his thigh, wanting to feel physically connected to him. Cole cast her a loving smile, their eyes locking for a brief moment, before he turned his gaze back to the computer screen.

To make her happiness complete, there was only one more thing for which she needed to find the courage: to confess that she was a vampire hybrid lusting for his blood.

25

While Cole knew that his algorithm would eventually produce the desired results, he hadn’t expected it to work so quickly. Only a little over an hour after he’d fed the data into his computer, it spit out promising leads.

“Samson and Gabriel are ready to meet with us in the conference room,” Thomas announced, and put down the receiver.

“We’ll need my computer, so I can show them the data.” Cole closed the lid of his laptop, ready to take it with him, when Eddie stopped him.

“It’s all networked. I’m feeding your data from the cloud to the monitor in the conference room.”

Cole nodded, but wasn’t surprised. From what he’d been able to glean, Scanguards was extremely well-equipped when it came to IT, and both Eddie and Thomas were a step up from every IT professional he’d ever worked with.

He met Vanessa’s smile. “I knew you could do it.” Was that pride shining from her eyes?

“Your mate is a pretty smart guy,” Eddie added.

Cole blinked. Mate? Did everybody already know that he and Vanessa were made for each other? It certainly hadn’t been Vanessa who could have told Eddie and Thomas about it, since he’d been with her ever since he’d found out himself. Which only left her family.

“You guys know about that?”

“Good news travels fast,” Thomas said with a smirk.

“Guess it does.” Cole took Vanessa’s hand. “Lead the way.”

The four of them traveled several floors up in the elevator, before alighting on the first floor, where Thomas swiped his keycard and opened the door to a mid-size conference room without windows.

Inside it, Gabriel was already waiting for them. Next to him stood a tall man with black hair and hazel eyes.

The man extended his hand. “I’m Samson Woodford, owner of Scanguards. Nice to meet you.”