by Joey W. Hill
Lyssa's gaze went frigid when it was pointed toward Tyra and Voltaire. "This was not how the sorcerer's tool was to be utilized. He will not be pleased to hear the power was abused. And I do not know how you've bound our guest, but I won't repeat myself again. Free him."
Chavez scampered to Cai's side to do as he'd been bidden. His obvious terror of the female vampire was delightful, but Cai would have an easier time reveling in it once the fucking barbed wire was off. Staving off another of those stupid panic spurts about that, he tried to focus on what was happening around them. Knowledge was power, yeah. But he'd still prefer an Uzi and a bolt-action wooden stake launcher.
Lady Lyssa turned her attention to the vampire who'd attacked Cai. He was currently being held by the other two Council vampires. He'd struggled at first, but was now limp, seemingly dazed.
She moved to him, laying a hand on his arm to command his attention. "Lord Greenwald, I understand the pain you are feeling right now, but you must control yourself so we can make the most of this opportunity. If you can't, I will have you taken back to your bedroom and held there until we can formulate a plan of action. I suspect you'd much rather be part of those plans. Correct?"
The male nodded, though his gaze on Cai was still feral and desperate. It held so much rage, if he could have taken Cai down with it alone, he would have. That didn't really bug Cai. It was the uncontrolled look behind it which gave him an uneasy feeling. Not that the whole situation wasn't fucked, but there was a wrongness to the male that made him wonder about Lyssa placing that hand on him. It was as if she thought simple words wouldn't be enough.
"I swear, I didn't know my latest kill was your tailor." Cai swept a scornful gaze over the male. "But I expect you can find someone else to measure your inseams for you."
With a scream of pure, killing wrath, Greenwald tried to burst out of the vampires' hold. Which set off Rand again, such that the Viking and Lyssa's servant had to renew their efforts to keep the wolf from breaking his bonds.
Fuck it. Cai shut his mouth while Chavez started to remove the barbed wire. Lyssa had freaked the Goth out. He was muttering a chant to help with the removal, but he went too fast, because he cursed and had to start over, taking the words more slowly.
In the meantime, with a chastising look at Cai, Lady Lyssa moved toward Rand. Cai stiffened, but she knelt gracefully and put her hand on his broad, dark head. She'd smoothed the skirt modestly beneath her as she dropped to her heels, and it only made her look sexier. Her servant began to speak, probably to warn her, but she shook her head. Her small, slim fingers curled into the thick fur.
The power-radiating vampire queen and the large black wolf gazing up at her, created the type of picture displayed on glossy fantasy novel covers. Cai noted that Rand must have heard him and started to settle some, for though his gaze was hostile, the hellfire gold had retreated, so he had one blue and one gold eye again.
Rand was huffing through the hold of the ropes on his muzzle. He needed to breathe, to pant, damn them. Cai glared at Chavez, as if that would speed him up.
"You are more than you seem, beautiful wolf," Lyssa murmured. Her gaze lifted and met Cai's. "Is he what I believe he is?"
"A pain in my ass? A noble idiot? Yes, on both counts."
She kept looking at him with that eerie-ass, unblinking stare. Cai swallowed.
Stop being a fucking smartass and answer the lady's question before she rips Rand's head off to prove she can, he told himself.
"Yes."
Her eyes widened slightly, her servant's face reflecting the same surprise. Cai should have lied. He wasn't sure why he hadn't. He had a terrible vision of them tossing his ass on the street and keeping Rand imprisoned as a circus act for the rest of his life. Why didn't you just run, damn you?
He received a mixed bag of response, all in wolf speak. He thought of how Rand had touched his muzzle to his arm, an unexpected intimacy. Yeah, it was just the way wolves talked, no need to get mushy over it, but it had been a steadying connection. A new experience for Cai when he was in a jam. Usually his allies numbered one--the guy he looked at in the mirror but couldn't see.
"Demons," Lord Greenwald said, his voice cracking. "Demons come to take my girl. Kill them, and they will release her. Make them feel pain. My pain."
Cai noted a significant look pass between Lady Lyssa and the other two Council members. He also observed a less-hard-to-decipher communication happening between Voltaire, Chavez and Tyra. Anticipation, competition, and something unpleasantly on the edge of bloodlust. There was more happening here than the guy's daughter being gone. Lord Greenwald wasn't well.
He'd seen it happen to at least a couple of vampires, though there hadn't been a lot of time to register the symptoms, since where Cai grew up, such weakness resulted in an immediate death sentence. Ennui. The only hundred percent incurable disease that seemed to affect vampires, usually those over five hundred, which Greenwald clearly was.
From the cues being dropped all over the place like marbles, Cai concluded that Greenwald was probably an overlord. Lyssa calling him Lord Greenwald wasn't a guarantee of that, since born vampires immediately earned the title by birth. But Chavez, Tyra and Voltaire were acting like underlings vying to take his spot. When they didn't immediately correct their lord, it suggested they weren't averse to letting him believe his daughter had been taken by demons, which would goad his unstable impulses.
All just speculation, but Cai was good at putting together a puzzle with only a handful of pieces.
Lady Lyssa's gaze had passed over Greenwald's people, and though she was still as readable as a blank page, Cai figured she knew the lay of the land. He just couldn't tell whether she was for or against their machinations.
She stroked Rand once more and rose to her feet, gesturing to the Viking and her own servant. "Torrence, return to Lady Helga's side. Jacob, let Cai release the wolf from his bonds. I believe it will work better that way."
"There's no time for this," Lord Greenwald snapped.
"You're correct," she said, and her tone cooled. "If your vampires had brought him to us as instructed, instead of torturing him and working his wolf into this state, I expect we would right now be sitting down to discuss how Mr. Mordecai Wallace can assist us. But since--"
"He's a demon," Greenwald raged. "He's--"
"Georg." Lyssa spoke firmly, but with an uncontestable authority that apparently penetrated the fog capturing Greenwald's mind. She stepped to his side again so she dominated his field of vision. "We are not dealing with demons. You collected valuable intel that there was a Trad who had left their ranks within the last hundred years, who was unsympathetic to their ways. Our sorcerer helped you pinpoint his location. You sent three of your people to retrieve him and bring him here to help us."
"I'm not a fucking Trad," Cai said sharply. Lyssa lifted an imperious and quelling hand without looking his way. Her servant, the one she'd called Jacob, shifted to Cai's side.
"Let her talk him down," he murmured. "So you can get to your wolf."
Cai glanced at him, surprised. Jacob was the first to speak to him as if he was more ally than enemy. The queen's servant was neither to him, but there was a self-preservation benefit to acknowledging courtesy. He just wasn't usually smart enough to do it.
"Okay," he muttered. "But the next person who calls me a Trad is going to get fucked up the ass by my steel-toed hiking shoe."
Jacob's lips quirked, but he nodded gravely. "I might just tell Torrence to call you that, so you can carry out that threat. It would be endlessly entertaining."
Cai was glad the servant was amused, because he fucking wanted out of these bindings now, and he wanted to be at the wolf's side even sooner. Jacob hadn't sounded mocking, though. His eyes remained serious, his gaze sweeping over everyone as if gauging what would happen next so he could get ahead of it.
His legs were free. Cai was instantly on his feet, quivering with impatience as the Goth finished releasing him from the barbed wire. The r
elief from the pain and suppressed panic of being immobilized was so immediate and overwhelming he wanted to bolt. Or tear out Chavez's abundance of nose rings.
Cai did neither. He did stiffen when Jacob reached out courteously to steady him. The servant took the hint, abandoning the gesture in mid-motion. Lyssa gave Cai a slight nod, communicating that Greenwald had settled enough for him to approach and release Rand. Not that he'd been waiting for that. Soon as he was steady on his feet, he was headed toward the wolf.
When he knelt by Rand's side, Cai saw the wolf's gaze sweep him, all the blood and torn clothes. His panting increased. Cai felt his anger, the desire to bite and tear flesh. His patience at being held down was at an end.
He laid his hand on the wolf's shoulder and began to loosen the bonds, starting with the muzzle. Stay with me there, wolf. Easy. They've released me. We'll figure this out together. Don't run off, okay? The local horse farmers will freak the fuck out if they see a wolf the size of a cow running around. You with me? Give me something so I know you're on an even keel again. I don't want you to die here. Let's calm down and figure it out together.
Rand's gaze slid up to his, held. Cai pressed his lips together, his hand resting briefly on Rand's head after he removed the snug tie that had pulled it down and attached it to his front feet. He wasn't sure why he took a second to do that, but he did.
When he lifted his palm, Rand stretched his head back, loosening the neck muscles. Cai automatically moved his hand there to massage. While Rand didn't reply in his mind, he arched under Cai's touch, accepting the cosseting. His bi-colored gaze focused on Cai's upper body. Abruptly, he shifted into an upright position, extended his long nose and began to lick the blood off Cai's chest, where the shirt was torn open. He was tending him, the sleek fur on his head rubbing Cai's jaw.
Some weird emotional reaction set up camp in Cai's chest, making him want to tighten both hands in the wolf's ruff and...do what? He had no idea except holding on. And this was so not the moment to explore that reaction.
He murmured to the wolf, nothing coherent, just a reassurance, and rose. He rested his hand on Rand's shoulder to hopefully keep him at his side. No such luck. The wolf apparently recalled himself, whatever wolf-insanity that had made him be so affectionate probably replaced by more human-Rand sanity. He stalked away, flattening his ears and baring his teeth at the vampires, but he took an alert stance about fifteen feet away from all of them, staying watchful.
It was a smart idea, since it gave him a vantage of anything coming up behind Cai, but Cai didn't know if that was why Rand had done it. He couldn't parse Rand's thoughts from the wolf's, and the wolf's were still sometimes a little too cryptic for him to translate perfectly, especially when Rand was worked up.
Have back. Want horse meat.
Okay, clear enough. Hopefully he'd sit on that last urge, at least right now.
"Good." Lyssa had been watching the two of them shed their respective bonds and make it to their feet. Now she turned at the appearance of another human, this one a slim male whose wary look toward Lord Greenwald suggested he was a house servant used to his Master's erratic nature. But Lyssa took charge of things. "Giles, escort Mordecai and..." she glanced at Cai, then significantly to Rand.
"Just Wolf," Cai said. "I'm not sentimental enough to name him."
A lie, but he couldn't believe he'd confirmed what he thought he'd confirmed to her. Maybe if he played dumb she'd think he'd meant something else. No need to make it worse.
Her gaze flickered. "In a moment, Giles, I wish you to escort Mordecai and his wolf to a room where they can clean up. Provide a change of clothes in the appropriate sizes. Mordecai is here as a Council guest."
Her attention cut to Greenwald's underlings, and then to Greenwald himself. "From this moment forward, any who treat either him or his wolf otherwise will answer personally to me. Do you understand, Georg? You are an overlord. Do you doubt my ability to handle this situation properly?"
Greenwald seemed to be regaining control of his faculties. He rubbed a hand over his face, a brief gesture of vulnerability and helpless fury that had Lyssa's hand resting on him in comfort this time, instead of to admonish restraint.
"It's all right," she said. "I know stress makes it worse. But you're all right. You're with us again. Just try to stay as calm as you can. That's what Dovia needs right now, isn't it?"
His gaze lifted to her. He had light brown eyes, a bisque complexion and a short crop of black hair. He was tall and lean, a male who, when he straightened and took a breath, showed the command that had landed him the role of overlord, before the illness had taken him. "Yes, my lady. I'll... I'll go check on Leona."
Clearing his throat, he strode back up onto the front stoop and disappeared into the house. Lyssa leveled her gaze on Voltaire. The jade green eyes were abruptly as sharp as Rand's teeth. "Overlords are appointed by Region Masters and confirmed by Council members. Keep that in mind, Voltaire. To some, taking advantage of your lord's illness might seem like initiative. To others, it seems cruelly opportunistic, especially if your actions are designed to take advantage of a terrible situation, and push him further toward the inevitable conclusion of his state."
She took a step forward. Whatever Voltaire saw in her expression had him stepping back, Tyra and Chavez likewise shrinking away.
Cai noticed that Jacob had gone from the casual stance he'd adopted during their conversation to a far more alert and hard-eyed look, as had Torrence and the female vampire Lyssa had called Lady Helga. Ditto on the death-look from the copper-haired vampire. His servant managed somber well enough, but unlike the others, she fell short of menacing. From the glint in her eye and set of her chin, she could be tough, though.
"If you wish to explore the depths of cruelty and how far it can take you in this world," Lady Lyssa continued, "I am happy to show you that personally, until you will beg for Hell. Re-evaluate your tactics."
"Yes, my lady," Voltaire said, wisely not choosing to argue the point. He bowed, his eyes lowered, his jaw tight.
"Good. Be gone from my sight. You'd do best to stay that way awhile."
The three vanished like smoke. Cai didn't blame them. He cleared his throat.
"If I'm a guest, does that mean I can say thanks but no thanks and hitch a ride out of here?"
When Lyssa's frosty eyes landed on him, he knew for sure he was an idiot. But what else was new? "Do you go by Mordecai?" she said, after a moment heavy with tension.
"Cai," he said.
"Cai, then. There is a reason you've been brought here. A very important one. We're hoping you will be able to advise us on the best course of action. Lord Greenwald's daughter is twenty-two years old and she has been taken by an Appalachian sect of Trads. I expect you're familiar with them, since you grew up among them. Yes?"
The world grew black for a second. Black, dark, and it turned upside down. Cai fought out of that mental oaken barrel ride, swearing if he did something mortifying like faint he'd just kill himself when he woke up. He shoved back a million images, most of them populated with screams, blood and other things that belonged to horror shows, and blinked once, twice, three times. Slow. Then he spoke.
"Yes, my lady."
He didn't know how she knew his origins, let alone how they'd decided he was a "Trad unsympathetic to their ways," but he wondered how much else she knew.
Rand's gaze snapped to him when he made the honorific.
Yeah, I do know how to be polite. Don't die of shock.
Lyssa was continuing. "While he had you brought you here in a brutal and unsanctioned manner, Lord Greenwald loves his daughter and is not thinking quite clearly. I'm sure he might tender an apology to you, especially if you have information that can help us."
"Don't know how much help I'll be, and don't want an apology from him." Cai couldn't inject too much venom into the comment, though. Now that the puzzle pieces were in place, he saw the desperate, enraged father beneath the savagery. Not that he wouldn't punch him in
the mouth if he got the chance. "I'll tell you what I can. Like to be headed back the way I came before the night gets too late."
"Good. Go with Giles and refresh yourself, clean up. Join us in the study as quickly as possible." She nodded in a noncommittal way and gestured to Giles. The servant took the lead and Cai followed, though he paused at the front stoop. Waiting for Rand.
With another baleful stare around him, the wolf trotted through their ranks and joined Cai, so they mounted the stairs together.
Under far too many prying, expectant and overly curious eyes.
The house was what Cai expected. Reeking of money and comfort. From a couple quick questions to Giles, he learned Lord Greenwald had been overlord of the territory for nearly twenty years.
When they reached the underground level, they passed an open door where a small shape was curled on a king-sized bed, covers pulled up high. The room looked like it belonged to a young woman. A girly teenage decor, including a graduation cap, stuffed animals and a couple posters of beefcake, were mixed with touches brought to it by the older version of the same female. Vase of flowers, a few pictures. College school books rested on the desk.
A worried look crossed Giles' face and he drew the door to a small crack. "Leona, Lord Greenwald's full servant," he said quietly. "Dovia's mother."
In Dovia's room, no doubt. When they moved on, Cai realized Rand wasn't following. Looking back, he saw him nudge open the cracked door to stare inside. Giles came to a full halt when he realized it, his expression tightening in a way that said he knew he couldn't protect the woman, but he wasn't going to do nothing. Cai appreciated the guy's protectiveness enough to give him a heads up.
"Believe me, the last thing that wolf will ever do is harm an innocent. Or a grieving mother. He's cool."
Giles studied the wolf's quiet posture. After a moment, Rand turned and padded toward them. Cai resumed their trek, Giles breaking into a trot to take the lead again. He showed them to a guest room and turned on the bathroom light. "Towels, soap and other toiletries. If you tell me your sizes and preferences, I'll find you some clothes."
Cai glanced at Rand. You want him to bring some in your size?