Page 18 of John’s Yearning

Oliver laughed and ran a hand through his shaggy black hair. “I wouldn’t call that babysitting. Those two are the furthest advanced in their training. Besides Ryder.”

“I notice you don’t include Grayson on that list.”

Oliver rolled his eyes. “Grayson is about as mature as my son.”

“Your son is what, eleven?”

“Twelve.”

“Well, then you’d better not let Grayson hear that you think he’s no more grown-up than Sebastian.”

“Don’t worry, I can keep my mouth shut.”

John nodded. “Can I ask you something?”

“Shoot.”

“You were involved in that blood brothel case twenty-something years ago, right?”

Oliver stiffened, the memory clearly not a pleasant one. Long before John had joined Scanguards, the company had exposed a group of vampires who’d kept dozens of women as blood whores. Like pimps they’d sold them to other vampires to feed on.

“Yeah, I was. We rescued Ursula and all the others. Made sure all of the vampires involved were taken care of. I killed their leader myself.” There was a satisfied glint in Oliver’s eyes, which now shimmered golden as his vampire nature rose to the surface.

“Yeah, I heard about that. Are you sure that nobody of that outfit is left?”

“Absolutely. Why you asking?”

John sighed. “It’s this case I’m evaluating for Donnelly.”

“What’s he sent you?” Oliver asked with interest and sat down in the chair opposite.

“Child abductions.”

“Hmm.”

“Yeah. They’ve got no leads. I went through the police reports to see if I could find similarities.”

“And?”

“Nothing that I can see. Some of the kids were abducted during daytime, some at night.” Which, in itself made vampire involvement doubtful. “No pattern that I can detect. And the kids come from different backgrounds. Some are black, some white, some Asian. Again no pattern. So I’m trying to figure out if something else connects them. I was thinking about the blood brothel case.”

Oliver shook his head. “You can stop right there. All the victims were Chinese. Actually, when I looked up their backgrounds after we’d freed them, we found that all of them came from the Chinese Emperor’s direct line. They all shared the same blood. That’s why they were taken. I can’t see how kids from diverse backgrounds could possibly have that kind of connection. I doubt it’s their blood.”

John knew the question had been a long shot, but he didn’t want anything to remain unexplored. “Hmm.”

“Did the parents get ransom notes?”

“No. Not a single one.”

“How old are the children?”

“Between nine and twelve. All girls.”

Oliver looked straight at him. “All girls?”

John nodded.

“Pretty girls? You know like JonBenet Ramsey pretty?”