“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I didn’t choose this. It just happened. And I can’t make it undone. I am what I am. I didn’t mean to disappoint you again.”

When a soft palm touched his forearm, he jerked his head up.

Nina looked at him, her brown eyes focused on him. “Disappoint me? Oh, Eddie, you’re not disappointing me. You’re my brother, my family. I love you no matter what.” She sighed.

“Looks like my gaydar is completely off these days. I really didn’t see this coming.”

He tentatively returned her smile. Was she accepting him the way he was?

“How long have you been hiding this from me?”

He shrugged. “I’m not sure, Sis. I guess I’ve always known, but I suppressed it so much that I never realized what was going on inside me. But when I was turned, everything changed. My . . . uh . . . desires became stronger, you know. And then when I overheard somebody say that Thomas has the hots for me, I guess it triggered something in me.”

“You overheard somebody?”

“Long story. Doesn’t matter anymore. It happened, and I’m glad for it now. But I screwed up, Nina. I screwed up royally.” He sighed heavily, bringing his hands to his face, holding back the sob that wanted to escape from his chest.

Nina reached for him and stroked his cheek. “Screwed up how?”

He met her eyes and saw concern there. And something else: acceptance. How could he have ever doubted that she would still love him?

“Thomas wanted me to come out and admit that I’m gay. I couldn’t do it. I rejected him, Nina. I hurt him. That’s why he’s gone over to the other side. He’s joined those vampires who are committing those crimes all over the city. Because I was too much of a coward to stand up and tell everybody that I love him. Hell, I couldn’t even tell Thomas that I love him.”

“But you do love him?”

Eddie nodded. “With all my heart. I can’t lose him, Nina. I can’t.”

Nina wrapped her arms around him. “Then you’ll have to do everything in your power to get him back.”

He hugged her closely to him.

“Whatever you need, I’ll be there for you,” she whispered.

“Thank you.” Reluctantly he released her. Then he opened the door to the hallway. “You should go home now. We have a lot of things to take care of tonight.”

She nodded and followed him out into the corridor. “Call me as soon as you hear something.”

“I will. And I’m sorry I made you look for apartments.”

She smiled in response, and he watched her walk toward the elevator.

Behind him a door opened. “Eddie! You’re here.”

Eddie turned to see Gabriel motion him to his office, his face grim. “Just got back.”

“Good. Before you do anything else, you’ll need to reactivate my password. The idiots in IT

said they don’t have access, and I can’t do anything without going into our systems.”

Eddie marched past Gabriel and fell into the chair behind his desk, opening up a new window on the monitor. “I should be able to get in. Thomas gave me access to the management profiles.”

“That’s the best news I’ve heard all night,” Gabriel replied, looking over Eddie’s shoulder.

Eddie logged into the control system and navigated to the correct screen, scrolling down the list of names to find Gabriel’s. “Here you are,” he murmured to himself and selected Gabriel’s profile. A new screen popped up and Eddie started typing. He hit enter, but the line he’d been filling in didn’t populate with the new password. Instead, a beep sounded.

“What the fuck?” he cursed and typed the password again. Another beep sounded.

“What’s wrong?” Gabriel asked.

“I don’t know.” Eddie felt perspiration running down his nape and disappearing under the collar of his T-shirt. Suspicion crept up his spine like fast-growing ivy and curled around his neck like a boa constrictor. He minimized the window and opened up a different one, then logged into it. He clicked on the first icon that popped up and tried to open it, but a pop-up told him ‘access denied’. The sight made his blood freeze in his veins.

“Shit! Shit! Shit!”

He clicked on the next icon and tried to open it, but the same thing happened.

“Eddie, what’s going on?” Gabriel asked, his voice now more agitated than before.

“My access to the data nodes was revoked.”

“English please!” Gabriel barked.