Cain lowered the human onto the sofa. Blake let out a sigh of obvious relief at being able to get off his feet.

“I’ll wash out his wound first, then somebody can give him vampire blood,” she suggested. She had already turned toward the ensuite bathroom to get water and a towel, when Cain stopped her.

“I’ll get it.”

Surprised at Cain’s willingness to help her, she smiled at him. “Thank you.”

While he disappeared in the bathroom, she took a pillow and shoved it under Blake’s head. “Here. That might be a little more comfortable.”

Blake tossed a look at the open bathroom door behind her before thanking her with a smile.

From the corner of her eye, she noticed Thomas and Eddie waiting. She looked at them. “So who’s gonna give him his blood?”

Eddie raised his hands. “Not me.”

Thomas hesitated, but didn’t get a chance to answer, because Cain’s voice now came from the bathroom as he stepped out. “I will.”

He walked to her and set a small bowl of water on the floor beside her, placed the towel on the armrest of the sofa, then crouched down next to the couch and loosened the knot of the makeshift bandage around Blake’s leg Faye had made earlier.

“You don’t need to do that,” she said, and kneeled down next to him. “You’re the king.”

“He’s my responsibility.”

Faye put her hand over his and gently pulled it back. “I’m much better at that than you are.” She held his gaze until he finally nodded and rose.

“Cain,” Eddie addressed him. “A word, please.”

“Excuse us. I’ll be back in a moment,” Cain said and followed Thomas and Eddie as they left the room. She heard them walk across the common area and open the door to the other guard’s room, before turning back to Blake.

“Now let’s have a look at your wound.”

Cain shut the door to Thomas’s room and looked at Eddie.

“You asked us to check out John’s story,” the young blond vampire started.

“Yes. What did you find?”

“I hacked into property records and searched for John’s and his lover’s names. John owns a little place in the French Quarter.”

Cain nodded. “Makes sense. That’s probably where this Nicolette lives. Did you check it out?”

“We did. Unassuming place, nice, but not flashy. She lives there, all right. We asked the neighbors.”

“What about the girl? What did she say?”

“We didn’t talk to her. She wasn’t in.”

“Didn’t you wait around?”

“We did, but she didn’t get back all night.”

Cain rubbed the back of his neck. “Where would she be? John came back to the palace without her. I think I would have heard if he’d brought her to the palace grounds.”

“There was something else really odd,” Eddie continued, his forehead furrowing. “Maybe it’s nothing.”

“What is it?”

“Well, on the outside the house is a little run down, needs some paint on the windows and the shutters and stuff.”

“So?”

“The door had just recently been replaced, and when I looked a little closer, I noticed that one of the hinges looked as if it had been bent and then straightened out again.”

Cain tilted his head to the side. “As if somebody had kicked the door in?”

“Yeah.”

“That might not mean anything,” Thomas interjected. “There’s plenty of crime in this city. Burglaries happen every night, I’m sure.”

Cain contemplated Thomas’s words. “You could be right, but I don’t like it.” He turned back to Eddie. “Did you mention any of this to the neighbors or ask them whether they heard any disturbances in the last few days?”

“I asked if they heard anything suspicious, but nobody did.”

“I want you to go back and dig deeper. I want to know where the girl is. John said she was injured. So it doesn’t make sense that she’d be venturing out in the middle of the night after just recently being attacked. She’s human, and even though John healed her, any normal human woman would be wary about being out at night without protection after having been assaulted. Find out where she is.”

Eddie nodded.

“We’ll go into the French Quarter tomorrow night and make inquiries,” Thomas said. “But first, I think we all need a shower to wash the stink of the bayou off us.”