Page 27 of Damian’s Conquest

“Yeah, I should have enough left for a second test. Can I drop it off with you sometime tomorrow?”

“Yeah, sure. So, can you tell me anything yet what this is about?”

“Not yet. I’m still trying to puzzle things together,” Naomi said evasively. She didn’t want to worry her friend. And if there really were blood sacrifices taking place at the Mezzanine, then where did that leave Damian? Was he complicit in it? Suddenly, she recalled his request to playact during sex. He’d pretended to bite her with his fake fangs, and later he’d even bitten her breasts—though very tenderly without leaving a mark. Was this his fetish? And if it was, was it getting out of hand? Was he doing this to other women too? Was he hurting people?

Oh God, what was she getting into? Finally, she’d met a man who actually seemed to like the fact that she wasn’t rail-skinny, and who looked at her as if she was the most beautiful woman in the world, and that man could be involved in a satanic blood cult? She sure knew how to pick them. No wonder she was still single at age thirty.

“Naomi?”

“Oh, uh, sorry, Heather, heavy traffic in the Mission. We’ll talk tomorrow. And thanks so much,” she said.

“Night,” Heather said, and the call disconnected.

Honking behind her reminded her that she was still at the light, which had now turned green. She quickly crossed the intersection, then continued on her way to the Scanguards headquarters building.

She didn’t really know what she could glean from visiting Scanguards’ headquarters, but she wanted to be thorough. It was too early to go back to the Mezzanine. While the club was probably already open, this early it wouldn’t be busy yet, and somebody might recognize her.

Arriving at the block where Scanguards’ offices were located, she stopped the car. The building with a glass-enclosed lobby facing busy Mission Street took over most of the city block. The two-story-high lobby was lit up and teeming with people coming and going. Naomi looked at her watch. It was already almost 9 p.m. Yet the office was still open and busy. Two security guards flanked the entrance, checking IDs and directing visitors to a reception desk inside. There was no way she’d make it past the lobby. She had to come up with another idea of how to find out more about the company and why they would be bottling human blood.

Not wanting to look suspicious, she turned at the next corner, and stopped on the side street flanking the Scanguards building, when she noticed a black Porsche drive out from a garage beneath it. For an instant, her headlights illuminated the face of the driver: Damian.

This was a stroke of luck she didn’t want to waste. She could follow Damian and see where he was going. Perhaps she could catch him doing something that would shine a light on the goings-on in the club and Scanguards’ involvement in a satanic blood cult.

Naomi put the car in gear and followed Damian’s Porsche. She had expected his license plate to be a vanity plate saying something like STUD, or DAMIAN, or HOT, but to her surprise, it was a regular plate without any obvious meaning.

She’d never taken a class in how to tail another car, but she’d seen plenty of movies where it was done, and knew not to drive too closely to Damian’s Porsche. Unfortunately, that also made it hard not to lose him in the heavy evening traffic. How did professionals do that? Luckily, her Mini Cooper was small enough to squeeze past other cars so she could keep tailing Damian, who seemed to drive around the city as if he had no goal. Was he cruising just for the heck of it? Or was he looking for someone or something?

When Damian took a right turn, the car in front of her suddenly stopped, blocking her, while the driver gestured to an old lady with two shopping bags to get into the car. Naomi tried to pass the car on the left, but right then, a bus drove up and blocked her in.

“Move it!” she ground out.

By the time the woman had gotten in the car in front of Naomi’s Mini, and she could finally turn into the street that Damian had turned into moments earlier, there was no sign of the black Porsche.

She slammed her hands on the steering wheel. “Fuck!”

So much for following Damian as if she were an undercover police officer.

~ ~ ~

A few minutes after he’d left Scanguards HQ behind, Damian had noticed that a blue Mini Cooper was following him. He’d been on his way to Mick Solvang’s flat to find out why he wasn’t answering his phone and hadn’t shown up at the club—and if he’d had anything to do with the theft of the crate of blood. But he couldn’t risk having somebody follow him to Mick’s place. To be sure that he wasn’t just paranoid, he’d taken a few turns, switching back and forth, and the car kept following him. It took him a few more minutes to discover who the driver of the other car was: Naomi.

This fact only enforced his suspicion of her motive of why she’d shown up in his office. On a dare! Yeah, right! She’d manipulated him from the moment he’d first laid eyes on her. And she’d gone as far as to sleep with him. And for what? To spy on him and his vampire friends and family. To expose Scanguards. And he’d been stupid enough to fall for it. But no longer. Now he’d turn the tables on her.

It wasn’t hard to lose her in the heavy evening traffic. And thanks to his training at Scanguards, he had no trouble following Naomi’s car as she zigzagged through downtown, clearly trying to see if she could pick up his trail again. But she was out of luck, because he knew how to tail her without her noticing that who she was looking for was behind her.

Let’s see how you like being manipulated.

After twenty minutes of driving around downtown, Naomi seemed to have given up. She suddenly headed in one direction, and it wasn’t hard to guess what her destination was: the Mezzanine. He stayed a few cars behind her with his Porsche. When they reached the block on which the Mezzanine was located, she started looking around for a parking spot.

Damian pulled into the alley next to the club and killed the engine. He pulled out his cell phone and made a call.

“Orlando?”

“Hey, Damian.”

“Do me a favor. In a few minutes, a busty blonde woman, about five foot five will show up at the door to the Mezzanine. She’ll want to get in. Tell her there’s a private party tonight, and send her away.”

“As you wish.”