"What happened?"

He listened for any sound from outside the door before he continued. "We have to be quiet. Quinn and Rose will be p.i.s.sed if they find me in here."

"Are they very old-fashioned?"

"No, just very protective of innocents."

"But I'm nota""

Even in the darkness, he noticed how she blushed. He couldn't resist pressing a kiss on her pink cheek. "I'm sorry about what happened earlier."

"You mean them showing up unannounced?"

He shook his head. "No, about what you saw in the van. When I was . . . hungry."

"Oh."

"I know I scared you. It won't happen again. I'll make sure I feed more often, so you won't have to see that again." When she didn't answer and dropped her lids instead, he wondered whether his words were making it worse. After all, he was still feeding off humans, even if he promised her not to bite her. "I am what I am, Ursula. I'm trying hard to change, but it's . . . difficult."

She laid her hand on his forearm. "I understand."

His heartbeat accelerated. "So we're okay? I mean, you and I, are we good?"

"We're good." She smiled up at him. "You said you had news."

"I found the vampire whose wallet you stole."

Oliver sensed the excitement that went through her.

"Please tell me what he said." Her eyes hung on his lips.

"He confirmed that he went there for the blood. He knows it has a drugging effect."

"Did he tell you where they went?"

"He says he doesn't know."

Disappointment spread over her face. He used his hand to tilt her face up. "Don't worry. It's early yet. If they moved the blood brothel somewhere else, then it might take them a few days to notify all their customers. We have to be patient."

She nodded, even though he could see that she wasn't fully convinced. "I hope you're right."

He stroked her cheek with his thumb. "In the meantime, I'll be checking out another lead."

"What other lead?"

"Leave it up to me. When I have something more concrete, I'll tell you about it. I just don't want you to get your hopes up in case it doesn't pan out. Please trust me, we'll find them."

"I hate waiting."

"It won't be long." Then he stood. "I'd better go."

She put a hand on his arm, holding him back. "Please stay for a little while, just until I've fallen asleep again."

"I shouldn't." But her eyes pleaded with him, and there was no way he could resist. "Just for a few minutes."

He pulled the blanket aside and slid underneath it, pulling Ursula against his fully clothed body. "Is that okay?"

"Yes," she whispered and snuggled up to him.

His arms went around her back, one sliding down to her backside. As he palmed it softly, she purred like a kitten and draped her leg over his thighs.

"Sleep now," he murmured and stroked his hand over her silken hair.

24.

Cain sat in a small office behind a gla.s.s window that looked down into an interrogation room below. Next to him, Thomas gulped down the rest of his bottle of blood.

"About time that jerk is coming *round. I need some shuteye."

Cain couldn't agree more. After they'd brought the rogue vampire to Scanguards' headquarters, the punk had pa.s.sed out as if in a drunken stupor. At least that meant he'd stopped screaming for real blood, whatever he meant by that. For hours Thomas, Zane, and Cain himself had waited around in the V Lounge for the captive to gain consciousness. Amaury had long gone home after his mate had called him.

Even Cain had been able to hear Nina's seductive voice on the phone, describing to Amaury what she was wearing. He'd never seen his fellow vampire move faster. Not that they needed Amaury to question the rogue. Zane had volunteered for that particular job, and he was already tapping his foot impatiently, waiting for the rogue in the room below.

Cain snapped his head to the door of the interrogation room as it opened and two vampires dragged in the struggling captive. His hands were cuffed in front of him. In order not to cause him any unnecessary pain, the vampire's wrists had been bandaged so that the silver handcuffs wouldn't touch his exposed skin. Whether the bandages remained on his wrists during the interrogation depended on his cooperation. And by the look on Zane's face, Cain's superior clearly hoped that the prisoner didn't cooperate immediately so he could inflict some pain.

Thomas flipped a switch so the sounds from the interrogation room now came through the loudspeakers in the observation area.

"Leave him!" Zane ordered the two guards. They released the captive from their hold and left the room, shutting the door behind them.

Thomas pressed a b.u.t.ton, locking the room remotely so it couldn't be opened from the inside. "You're locked in," he announced through the microphone by holding the speaker b.u.t.ton down, then releasing it again.

Zane nodded in acknowledgement, then grabbed the prisoner by the neck and slammed him into the only chair in the room.

"Now we talk."

Cain watched intently, knowing that he could always learn something from Zane.

The captive looked up defiantly, his eyes wild. He bent forward on this chair, seemingly unable to keep still. His hands twitched, and the cords in his neck bulged.

"I want blood!" he demanded, his eyes narrowing.

"You had enough last night," Zane claimed. "You almost drained that girl. You're lucky she's alive."

"Or what?" he spat in response.

Zane jumped, grabbing his neck once more. The captive's hand came up. However, the silver handcuffs that made contact with Zane couldn't do him any harm: Zane wore a long-sleeved shirt and leather gloves.

"Or I would have ripped your heart out while you watched!"

Cain glanced at Thomas. "He's bluffing, right?"

"He's done it before. I don't see why he wouldn't do it again."

Cain tried not to show his shock at Thomas's words, and instead focused back on the events in the room below. It appeared that the prisoner was reasonably intimidated by Zane's claim and shrunk back into his seat.

"You won't feed until I have the information I'm looking for."

"You can't hold me here forever."

"Can't I?" Zane tossed his captive the semblance of a half-smile. "p.i.s.s me off and I'll throw you into an underground cell and forget you."

The wary look on the vampire's face was evidence that he started to believe that Zane was capable of doing just that.

"What's your name?" Zane asked.

There was a short hesitation, then the answer. "Michael Valentine."

"Not his real name," Thomas commented to Cain while he already typed it into the keyboard in front of him.

"Funny name! How about your real one?" Zane continued.

"That's my name. I was turned on Valentine's day in 1900. Somebody's idea of a sick joke. So I took the name."

"What was your name before that?"

"Garner," he pressed out.

Zane glanced up to the window, a silent question on his lips.

Thomas pressed the speaker. "Give me a minute." Releasing the speaker b.u.t.ton, he continued typing on the keyboard. A moment later, he went back on the speaker again. "Checks out. Continue."

Cain looked at the computer screen where a message blinked. "No entry found," it said. He gave Thomas a questioning look.

Thomas shrugged. "Zane might not bluff, but I do. We just want him to think we can check on anything he tells us. It'll make him more likely to tell us the truth."

"But if Garner isn't his real name either, he would realize you have no way of checking on what he's saying."

Thomas smiled. "But Garner is his real name."

"How do you know?"

"Experience. I watched the movement of his eyes. It tells me a lot about whether a person is lying or not."

"I see. And what about the database then?"

"We don't have a complete database of all vampires past and present, n.o.body does. There must be hundreds of men named Michael Garner. It would be a waste of my precious time to go through all public databases and the internet to find the right one. However, I'm adding to my database every day. And that punk's name is in it now."

Cain looked back down to Zane and the vampire who called himself Michael Valentine. Zane stood only a few feet away from him now, his legs broad, his arms at his sides. He looked almost relaxed, but the captive would be a fool to a.s.sume such a thing. Zane was ready to pounce if Valentine made a single wrong move. Cain had seen Zane in action before. He knew what to expect.

"So, here's the deal, Michael Valentine: I ask a question, you answer it. Do you get that?"

Valentine nodded.

"What happened at the nightclub? Why did you feed in public?"

He lifted his head and grinned up at Zane. "That's two questions."

Before the last word had left his lips, the back of Zane's hand hit right across the idiot's cheek, whipping his head to the side so violently that Cain almost expected it to separate from his neck.

"f.u.c.k!" the prisoner hissed as blood dripped from his nose. "You broke my nose!"

"Well then you'd better start talking before I'll break something more precious."

Finally, Valentine seemed to heed the warning and understand that Zane meant business. "Fine, I was ravenous. I needed a fix."

"A fix?" Zane repeated. "Elaborate!"

Valentine's eyes darted to the window as if he was worried about who was watching him.

Zane growled. "I'm waiting!"

"A fix, you know. Of blood. To get high. And the chick, she was Asian. I figured she might have what I needed. She looked like the others. But . . . "

"But what?"

"It was just ordinary blood. Nothing special. I couldn't get high. It wasn't the right stuff."

Zane looked up to the window, a strange look on his face, as if wanting to ask Thomas and Cain if they knew what Valentine was babbling about.

Cain pressed down the b.u.t.ton for the speaker. "What makes you think the blood would get you high?"

Valentine jerked up at hearing the voice from the loudspeaker and looked up to the window. But Cain knew he couldn't see him, since the window was mirrored on the other side.

"Because I've had it many times. But they're not there anymore. And I needed a fix. I needed the rush. It's not my fault. Once you start, you can't stop."

Cain recognized an addict when he saw one. And this vampire was an addict. But what was he addicted to? Blood? Was he falling victim to bloodl.u.s.t? Before he could ask anything else, Zane continued questioning him.

"Let me get this straight. You're claiming you're suffering from bloodl.u.s.t and that's why you went berserk on that girl?"

Valentine shook his head. "No! I'm not in bloodl.u.s.t! Are you crazy, man? I've just got a substance abuse problem. It's nothing major. I can handle it. I just need a fix and I'll be fine."