Oliver shoved a hand through his hair. “You can’t. This case is strictly vampires only.”

“Damn it, I can help. I know enough about it to be of use. There must be something I can do.”

Oliver felt his frown deepen. “You can find Ursula; that’s what you can do.” Even though he knew that Blake had even less of a chance of finding her than Oliver did himself.

“Man, I had no idea they would just take her away. Doesn’t seem fair. You were the one who protected her in the first place.”

Oliver nodded, somewhat surprised that his step-brother was taking his side. “I did. She trusts me. Can you imagine what she must be thinking now?”

“But Zane’s never gonna tell us where he took her. You know him.”

“Hmm.”

“Who else knows?”

Oliver motioned his head toward the corridor behind him. “Thomas. But he isn’t talking either. I already tried. Unfortunately he isn’t gonna tell you either.”

Suddenly Blake grinned. “But he might tell Eddie.”

“Eddie?” Oliver echoed, when he felt a light bulb go on above his head. “My god, you’re right. Why didn’t I think of that? Thomas would tell Eddie anything. Everybody knows he’s got the hots for him.”

A movement to his left made Oliver snap his head to the side.

He stared right into Eddie’s wide open eyes.

“Oh shit!” Oliver cursed.

Blake let out a heavy breath.

It had been an open secret for a while now that Thomas harbored more than just friendship for the young vampire who lived with him. Everybody could see it, no matter how hard Thomas tried to suppress his feelings for the straight young man. The only one who didn’t know was Eddie himself—well, until now.

Eddie stared at him, frozen in place and shocked to his core. “Thomas . . . he . . . ” As if trying to shake off the words, Eddie shook his head. He looked distraught.

“Listen, Eddie, forget what you heard.”

The cords in Eddie’s neck bulged. “How the fuck can I just forget that?”

“Believe me, Thomas is an honorable man. He’ll never act on his feelings since he knows they’re not reciprocated.”

Shit! Not only was he not going to get Eddie to get any information out of Thomas, now he found himself defending Thomas even though he was pissed at him for denying him access to Ursula. But what he was telling Eddie was the truth: Thomas would never make a pass at Eddie. He’d kept his feelings under wraps ever since Eddie had been turned, and there was no reason to think he’d ever try to make the young vampire uncomfortable by exposing him to his feelings.

“God, I wish I’d never found out.”

“I’m sorry.” Oliver put a hand on his shoulder, wanting to calm him down, but Eddie pushed him off.

“Don’t touch me!”

Eddie turned on his heels and left.

Oliver exchanged a look with Blake who seemed just as sorry about this incident as Oliver.

“Fuck!” Oliver cursed again. He’d made a mess of things. A royal mess. How was he ever going to clean this up again?

28

After convincing Blake that it was unwise to stay on the executive floor, and making sure he left the way he’d arrived, Oliver headed for the meeting room, where the meeting was already under way. The least he could do right now was see if he could help apprehend the vampires who ran the blood brothel. After all, he had some information that he hadn’t shared with his colleagues yet. It didn’t mean, however, that he would stop looking for Ursula.

Oliver stopped at the open door to the meeting room and peered inside. Over a dozen vampires were assembled, and since there was no empty seat, he remained standing at the door.

Zane had arrived in the meantime, and he and Thomas jointly led the meeting, filling in the assembled vampires on what had happened at the nightclub and whatever information Ursula must have given them about the blood brothel. Surprised murmurs went through the crowd.

“We must assume that one sip of the blood these women carry can turn you into an addict,” Zane continued.

“I beg to differ,” Oliver interrupted, drawing the crowd’s attention to him.

“So you decided to join us after all,” Thomas said.

Oliver ignored the stab and stared back at Zane. “I met a previous client of the blood brothel earlier tonight.”

“Why are we being informed of this only now?” Zane griped, clenching his teeth.

“If you hadn’t been so busy getting me out of the way so you could snatch Ursula behind my back, maybe I would have told you earlier!”