“I don’t feel so good right now,” he pressed out.

“Of course, the blood loss,” Rose agreed quickly. “Why don’t you lie down in your room a little, and when you’ve rested, we’ll talk more, okay?”

He nodded, then looked toward the kitchen door. Without saying anything, the others parted to make way for him. Zane even held the door open for him until he’d stepped through it.

Blake briefly eyed the front door at the end of the corridor, but remembering how quickly Oliver had moved when he’d attacked him, he knew that even a mad dash for it wouldn’t succeed. He’d never reach it in time.

But he wouldn’t give up.

Determined to find a way out, he walked upstairs, leaving the vampires and their quiet murmurs behind.

31

“Zane, Cain, Amaury, watch the doors,” Quinn ordered as soon as Blake had walked upstairs. “Wesley, Nina, stand by. It’s still daytime for a few hours. Thomas, Eddie, you might as well get some rest while you can so you can relieve the others in a few hours.”

As his colleagues left the kitchen, Quinn was alone with Oliver and Rose.

“Quinn, I’m—”

He held up his hand to stop Oliver from saying anything else.

“Rose, can you give us a minute alone please?”

She nodded quickly and left the room. When the door fell shut behind her, he looked back at his prodigy.

“I blame myself. I knew you were having trouble keeping the thirst under control. Hell, all of us struggled with it at the beginning. I should have been there when you needed me. Instead, I . . . ” He glanced toward the door through which Rose had just left.

Oliver took a hesitant step toward him. “I understand. You have enough stuff going on right now. Rose . . . well, it’s important that you and she work things out. She’s worth it.”

Quinn felt a smile tug at his lips. “She is. But it’s no excuse for me to neglect my duties. I’m your sire, and you need to be able to rely on me to guide you through the worst. I haven’t done that. Far from it. I’ve pulled you out of your familiar environment, made you move in here, and then practically abandoned you.”

“I don’t feel abandoned. All my friends are here. Cain’s been helping me.”

Quinn combed his fingers through his hair. “The point is, he shouldn’t have had to.”

“Hey, man, don’t take it so hard. I’m the first one you’ve turned, right? I suppose it’s like being a new parent. They don’t get everything right at first either.”

Surprised at Oliver’s no-nonsense answer, he stared at the kid. Was he really as grown up as he pretended? But even if he was reacting rationally to this situation, it didn’t change anything. Quinn was still responsible for him.

“How are you feeling now? How is the thirst?”

Oliver’s gaze shifted past him, suddenly uncomfortable. “It’s ok. I can handle it.”

Quinn put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. “It’s fine if you want to lie to me, but don’t lie to yourself.”

Oliver sighed. “I didn’t want to believe you when you told me it would be hard at first. You guys all make it look so easy. I’ve never seen any of you go off the rails like that and attack somebody for blood. I thought it would be the same for me. I never realized . . . ” His voice died.

“That the thirst for blood would have you in its grip, control you, guide your every thought? That you could smell a human hundreds of yards away? That even now Blake’s blood smells more delicious than any of the stuff that’s sitting in the pantry?”

Oliver’s eyes widened. “How do you know that? That’s exactly how it feels.”

Quinn smiled. “We all went through it. We had to learn to control ourselves, to bury that part of us so we could begin to function in human society. It’s a choice we make. For some it’s easier than for others.”

“Zane never made that choice,” Oliver added, a hopeful glint in his eyes.

“Don’t go there, Oliver. Zane had his reasons. And he had himself under control even when he was feeding from humans. The point is not to never feed from humans again, but to make sure that if you ever do, you won’t put their lives in danger—and you make sure they don’t remember. Both things you’re not capable of yet.”

“So you mean later I can feed off humans again, when I have myself under control, I mean?”

There was an eagerness in Oliver’s voice that Quinn couldn’t dismiss. The kid wanted fresh human blood, not the bottled stuff. And who could blame him? Fresh blood still held the life force of a human and carried more strength and healing power.