"I doubt that very much. It was a lucrative business."

"Why do you care?"

Oliver gave Corbin a long look. He didn't appear to be an addict, making his claim that he'd been there only once plausible. But still, he was a former client of the blood brothel, and as such he might have a way of contacting the vampires who operated it.

"I need to get hold of the people who operate the place. But I'm afraid they haven't let me know where they moved the business to." Oliver dropped his lids, hoping he could fool the man. "You see, I do like the way I feel when I feed there."

"I'm afraid I can't help you. As I said, I was there only once."

"If they contacted you, let's say to let you know where they moved to, would you let me know?"

Corbin gave him a curious look. "If you've been to the place, and by the sounds of it more often than I have, why wouldn't they contact you directly? Surely they wouldn't want to lose a good client just because they moved?"

Oliver's mind worked quickly to come up with an excuse. "See, my contact information changed just recently and I'm afraid I'd forgotten to let them know. They have no way of contacting me. That's why I was so glad when I found your wallet and figured you might be able to help me."

Corbin nodded slowly. "Of course. But, as I said, I doubt they'll contact me."

Oliver pulled out a card from his pocket and handed it to him. It only had his first name and phone number on it. Scanguards preferred it that way, not wanting to give away too much information.

Corbin took the card and looked at it. "Thank you. And, may I ask you for a favor in return?"

Oliver shot him a curious look. "Yes?"

"May I ask you to please not tell anybody about the fact that I went to a place where they keep women with drugged blood? I really don't want to be judged by my peers. I'm new in town, and you know how it is when gossip makes the rounds."

"Your secret is safe with me."

Oliver left the house, satisfied that he'd been able to confirm Ursula's claim. She had told him the truth, and that news made him feel a whole lot better. However, he wasn't any closer to finding out where Ursula's captors had taken the other girls.

23.

Ursula eyed the two newcomers cautiously. They had arrived minutes earlier with big suitcases in tow and worried expressions on their faces. Blake had greeted them enthusiastically and introduced them as Rose and Quinn, his fourth great-grandparents.

Neither of the two looked any older than twenty-five. Rose was a cla.s.sical beauty with long golden hair and a model figure to die for. Quinn wasn't any less handsome. His blond hair looked windswept, and his hazel eyes were alert and beautiful.

"You must be Ursula," he greeted her and offered his hand.

Not wanting to be impolite, considering she was staying in his house, she shook it. "Nice to meet you." Whether her statement would prove to be true wasn't decided yet.

When he released her hand, he addressed Blake, "Where is Oliver?"

"Out."

"Out where?"

Blake crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't know."

Before Quinn could say anything else, Rose put a hand on his arm, making him look at her. Instantly, the expression in his eyes softened, and he smiled at her.

"Don't, love. He'll be back." She motioned to Ursula. "I can't see him staying away for long."

Slowly, the tension in Quinn's shoulders seemed to ease. "You're right. I just feel that we should have never left. He's not ready yet to be left alone."

"Don't coddle him," Rose cautioned. "He's a grown man."

"I'm still responsible for him."

Ursula watched their exchange with interest. So this was Oliver's sire, the vampire who'd turned him. And by the looks of it, he was nothing like any of the vampires she'd encountered in the last three years. Rather, he looked like a concerned father. He reminded her of her own father, how he'd worried when she'd moved to New York to go to college. At the beginning, he'd called her daily to rea.s.sure himself that she was all right. Maybe that memory was the reason why she now wanted to soothe Quinn's concerns.

"Oliver went out to feed. He'll be back soon." She kept the fact that he was looking for the man whose wallet she'd stolen to herself. It wasn't something she could reveal without giving away things she wasn't willing to share. The situation was complicated enough.

Quinn let his eyes wander over her face. "So you know that he doesn't drink bottled blood. Does that scare you?"

She hesitated. When she'd seen Oliver only a short while ago with his extended fangs, his sharp claws, and his red eyes, she'd felt true fear course through her, but now, that memory seemed so distant that she couldn't recall the feeling. "I don't know," she answered honestly.

"Why don't we all sit down for a bit? I'm exhausted from the trip," Rose confessed and pointed toward the living room.

Having no reason to refuse her invitation, Ursula walked into the living room. She eyed the clock over the mantle. Oliver had been gone for a long time. Had he run into trouble with the vampire whose wallet she'd stolen? She knew she shouldn't worry about him. After all, he was a vampire and a trained bodyguard. And he was armed.

A p.r.i.c.kling at her neck suddenly made her turn her head back to the door. Her heart nearly stopped: Oliver was back. He stood between door and frame and stared at Rose and Quinn, not even noticing her.

"What are you doing back so soon?" he asked, his voice clipped.

"Is that the way you welcome your family these days?" Rose replied, bracing her hands at her hips.

"Of course not," Oliver deflected quickly and walked toward her. "Welcome home, Rose, how was your honeymoon?" He pulled her into a quick embrace, when his eyes suddenly fell on Ursula.

When he freed himself from Rose, he nodded to his sire. "You must be tired from the trip. Why don't you two go upstairs and rest? I can carry up your suitcases."

Quinn frowned. "Oliver, I'm older than you. So don't think you can just brush me off. We're home early because of what's happening here."

Oliver tossed a glare at Blake. "I could've handled the situation without interference from anybody."

Blake squared his stance, glaring back. "Right!"

Quinn lifted his hand to stop their argument in its inception. "Blake didn't call us. Maya did. She was concerned about you two being alone with Ursula."

Oliver stared at his sire, clearly fuming. "I don't need a chaperone!"

"Neither do I!" Blake immediately took his half-brother's side.

Ursula almost had to chuckle. One minute the two were practically at each other's throats, the next they stood side by side against the head of their family.

Ursula caught how Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Kids," she heard her murmur softly. Then Rose looked at her. "Ursula, why don't you and I go upstairs and leave these three alone to work out their differences? I for one can't stand any more display of testosterone right now."

Hesitantly, Ursula nodded.

"I'd better take all my clothes out of the guestroom so you'll be more comfortable," she added.

"But I was sleeping in Oliver's room," Ursula blurted, before she could stop herself.

Rose's head snapped toward Oliver, her eyes glaring at him. "Oliver! I can't believe you'd take advantage of a frightened young woman like that. That's despicable!"

Oliver thrust his hand through his hair. "I didn't do anything! I didn't sleep in my room!"

Rose huffed indignantly. "Of course you didn't sleep!"

Before Ursula could say anything else to defend Oliver, Rose pulled her out of the room.

Oliver watched as Rose and Ursula left the room. This was terrible timing: he didn't need Quinn and Rose sticking their noses into his affairs right now. He had too many things he had to keep quiet: the fact that he hadn't followed Zane's orders to put Ursula on the next plane to Washington DC, the fact that Ursula's blood was a drug, and that he'd been able to find an actual client of the blood brothel she'd been held at for three years. Until he knew how to proceed, he couldn't let anybody at Scanguards know about these things.

He hoped he could keep Quinn in the dark for long enough to figure out a strategy. If Maya was the one who'd told him about this situation, then Quinn didn't know very much yet. Maya didn't know what had transpired in Hunter's Point; neither did Blake. Therefore Quinn couldn't know that Zane had ordered him to send Ursula away. And he couldn't know yet that they had found nothing at the building in Hunter's Point and therefore dismissed Ursula's claims.

s.h.i.t, how had everything gotten so complicated?

"Everything is under control, Quinn, trust me." Oliver forced a confident look onto his face.

"Sure it is," Quinn said dryly. "Why don't you explain to me what's going on?"

"What did Maya tell you?"

"Enough for us to pack our bags and leave England to rush home. So, update me. What's happened since?"

Oliver swallowed. "We found the property in Hunter's Point where Ursula was held. But they had already cleaned everything out by the time we got there. I a.s.sume they figured she would come back with help, so they fled. We don't have any leads yet where they might have taken the operation."

He felt his body get hotter. How he hated having to lie to his sire. But the less he knew at this point the better. If he was aware of Zane's orders, there was a chance that Quinn would try to separate him from Ursula, and he couldn't risk that. She trusted him to protect her, and he could only do that when he was with her. Besides, he needed to speak to her in private to tell her that he'd been able to confirm her story.

"Hmm. What else?"

Oliver shrugged, trying to look casual. "Nothing else. We're working all our contacts to find out if anybody has heard of the place and knows where they might be now. They're holding a dozen other girls captive. They need our help."

"And the fact that you guys didn't find anything at the property in Hunter's Point didn't bother any of you?" Quinn wondered.

"Would have made me wonder if she's telling the truth," Blake threw in, looking at Oliver. "You know we all had doubts, even you."

"Go ahead and bother Zane by asking him if he still has doubts about her story. See how he likes it being questioned," Oliver bluffed. Would Blake fall for it? And more importantly, would Quinn stop asking questions?

"Fine, whatever. Just saying. I wish you guys would let me go with you to those raids. I never get to do anything fun," Blake complained. "No wonder I'm always out of the loop. Even Cain gets to patrol the city for those crazy vampires, and he's only been with Scanguards for a few months."

Quinn put his hand on Blake's arm. "What do you know about those crazies? It's cla.s.sified information."

Blake grinned. "Cain told me *cause I'm family. He said they were going crazy in the city, like some drugged out animals."

Oliver's ears perked up. Drugged out? He'd never heard them described that waya"when the vampire staff at Scanguards talked about them, they used words like bloodl.u.s.t, but what if those vampires were on drugs? Or rather drugged blood?

Was it possible that there was a connection between the blood brothel and those incidents they'd heard of where vampires had gone completely crazy as if they were suffering from bloodl.u.s.t?

Tonight, Zane had gotten a call that several of those crazies had been spotted at a nightclub in town. Oliver had to find out what had transpired there. Maybe it would provide the lead he needed to find the new location of the blood brothel.

"Hey, Quinn," he interrupted. "Listen, it's great that you and Rose are back. We missed you. Didn't we, Blake?"

His half-brother nodded quickly.

"I'd better turn in. It's close to sunrise, and it's been a busy night." He hugged his sire.

"It's good to be home, son." Quinn smiled when he released him.

Oliver was about to turn, when Quinn put a hand on his shoulder. "About the girl." He motioned to the upper floor.

"What about her?"

"Don't do anything you might regret later. She's vulnerable."

Oliver was careful not to show that the remark irked him. He knew she was vulnerable; he didn't need Quinn to tell him that. "If you're insinuating that I might bite her, let me tell both of you once and for all: I won't."

And that was one promise he was determined to keep. No matter the cost.

Oliver waited for the noise in the house to settle down. Finally, it seemed Rose and Quinn had gone to bed and Blake had withdrawn to his room. Rose had set Ursula up in the guest room, clearly not wanting her to stay in his room again. But they would have to do a lot more to stop him from seeing her.

He waited an additional hour after all the noise had died down before he snuck out of his room and walked barefoot toward the guest room. The floorboards creaked under his feet, but n.o.body seemed to hear him.

When he reached the door to the guest room, he listened for any sound coming from inside, but heard none. He couldn't risk knocking, afraid that Rose or Quinn might hear him from the master bedroom across the corridor, so he simply eased the door open and squeezed inside, pulling it shut behind him.

The curtains were drawn, but some light filtered into the room, enough to clearly see that Ursula was sleeping, even if he weren't a vampire with night vision. He quietly approached the bed and sat on the edge, leaning over Ursula. With his mouth at her ear, he whispered to her, "Ursula, baby, it's me, Oliver."

A choked breath came from her. Afraid she might make too much noise, alerting everybody in the house, he slid his lips over hers and pressed a soft kiss onto them, ready to intensify it if necessary.

"Oliver?" she mumbled.

"Yes, baby."

"Mmm."

The humming sound she issued was reason enough for him to urge her lips apart with his tongue and delve into her inviting mouth. Within an instant, his hunger for her pushed to the surface. He had to force himself to pull back, reminding himself why he was here.

"I have news."

She opened her eyes and pulled herself up to a sitting position. She still wore one of his T-shirts, and that fact pleased him. Of course, if she were sleeping in his bed, she wouldn't be wearing anything. Instead, he would cover her with kisses and caresses.