by Joey W. Hill
“Don’t stress over it, wolf. I have to feed, and I can do this at the same time, so neither you nor Giles has to get your shorts in a twist.” He leaned down, so he could speak in Rand’s ear, brush his lips against the curve.
“What did I say I was going to do, the first opportunity I had you to myself?” Cai whispered it. “To keep you remembering there’s a reason worth not hiding in your wolf.”
“Can’t believe you remembered that after a three-hour beating,” Rand muttered.
“You remembered,” Cai pointed out, his grip constricting. “I can tell.”
Rand struggled and tried to buck him off. It rubbed his rim against Cai’s cock, where the head of it nestled in between his buttocks. Rand bit back a groan.
“Tell me what I said. There you are.” Cai’s clever fingers had Rand’s cock springing to further attention, though he suspected it was his words as much as anything else that accomplished it.
“You were going to fuck me.” Rand growled.
“Fast and hard. We got interrupted. Didn’t mean I forgot, sweetheart.”
Rand elbowed him, and made solid contact with Cai’s jaw, enough to shoot a few stars through his already aching skull. “Don’t call me sweetheart. Ever. Got it?”
Cai cursed but emitted a harsh half-laugh at the same time. “Bastard. But that’s more like it. I like a fair fight, wolf. Don’t pull your punches. But right now, I want this. And your blood, if you’ll lend me some.”
“I didn’t think vampires ask,” Rand retorted. “They just take.”
“We take. But we also give.” Cai stroked and Rand’s hips quivered. He was fighting the arousal rising in his body that Cai wanted. Rand probably didn’t realize it would be the best soothing balm for any injuries Cai sustained. Or maybe he did, and that was why he wasn’t fighting harder.
“You’re very single minded,” the shifter complained, though there was a satisfying hitch in his voice.
“On the contrary, I can multi-task with the best of them. I just haven’t forgotten what my top priority was at the beginning of my evening. I’ll have that before the day can get any more abysmal and the chance slips away entirely. Carpe diem, and all that shit.”
“Today could get worse than it’s already been?” Rand tossed it off, a barbed response, but Cai felt the almost immediate mental pause in the shifter’s mind.
Yeah, it could. Guess we both know that, right? It can always get worse.
Rand’s head tilted. You never did tell me your sob story.
“No, I didn’t. And not going to right now. Talk about a mood-killer.” Cai reached over him and pulled out the lube he’d found in the drawer of the night table.
He used it, resting his free hand on Rand’s back, sitting on his thighs. The shifter crossed his hands under his cheek, forming a pillow of his overlaid knuckles and giving Cai an even more superlative view, thanks to the shift of back and shoulder muscles, the bunching of his biceps. His lashes swept down, telling Cai the male was pulling a glimpse of Cai working the lube over his cock. Cai’s shaft jumped in his hand as Rand moistened his lips.
“Getting harder, wolf?”
“I’m not the only one,” Rand grunted.
“Damn right.” Cai slid his greased hand under Rand’s body. Rand’s hips lifted. Not much, but even the slight accommodation sent a jolt of pleasure through Cai, the physical evidence that the wolf wasn’t merely putting up with him.
He tangled the other non-greased hand in Rand’s hair. “This mane needs combing and a trim. Maybe we’ll take care of that while we’re in civilization.”
“Cai…” Rand’s voice sounded strained, maybe because Cai was working him in his fist. Slow, the skin sliding up the shaft to the ridged head, then back down again, Cai’s thumb stroking the sensitive line beneath.
“Yeah?”
In answer, Rand adjusted, Cai moving with him as the male got onto his knees, using his elbows to balance on all fours on the mattress. When Rand dropped his head against his crossed forearms, Cai folded over him to brush a kiss between his shoulder blades. He felt tired suddenly, beat up, but glad to be skin-to-heated-skin with this particular male. Gratitude. It was an unsettling feeling. “You’re a good guy, Rand. You really should have run.”
“Yeah, maybe.” Rand’s body rippled in response as Cai guided himself into his tight backside, working his way through the muscles, loving the slick glide.
“Nothing like a quality lube. Makes enjoying the ride all the easier. Right?”
“God…”
“Yeah.” Cai went deep, all the way to the balls, and stayed there a good, pushing, grinding, plowing moment before withdrawing and doing it again. Harder, deeper, if that was possible. Fuck, the male’s muscles squeezed down on him as he came out, pushed in, like he was resisting. Or gripping, so Cai couldn’t leave.
He moved a hand to Rand’s broad shoulder, the other coiled in his hair. Yeah, a trim, but not a cut. He loved wrapping his hands in the stuff. He yanked the male’s head up as he brought him off his hands and Cai slid his arm over his chest. He held him that way as he rocked and slammed into his ass, balancing them both on their knees on the bed despite the force. He might be somewhat under his normal strength, but he was still capable of being light as a cat on his feet and twice as agile. He pulled the hair to Rand’s right shoulder and grazed his bared neck with sharp fangs.
“Want to taste you. Nourish myself from your blood, wolf.”
Tension rippled through Rand. He didn’t say no, but Cai wanted to hear an answer, from the firm, sensual lips, the deep voice. “Say yes.”
Rand’s mind was surprisingly hard to read, as if he’d left the rooms of human reason in favor of animal instinct, so the former didn’t invade and cause problems. At least that was how Cai preferred to see it. A long pause, but then the broad shoulders shifted against him as Rand drew in a deep breath. “Yes.”
Cai struck, biting deep, almost moaning at the taste that flooded onto his tongue. There was a rumor among vampires about the legendary shifters. That a vampire-shifter servant pairing would be a match made in heaven, because their blood was supposed to be richer and more potent to a vampire than three humans at once.
He thought of how quickly Chavez had healed, merely from a fully marked human donor. The shifter blood might be all bullshit wives’ tales, but there was no denying the compatibility factor was off the charts. Cai wasn’t sure he’d ever want to drink another human’s blood again. Anyone’s blood but his wolf’s.
Not your wolf. Just a guy who unfortunately got dragged into your shit. He reminded himself of that, and turned his mind to what mattered. Feeling pleasure, and there was a lot of it to go around.
As he drank what was needed, Cai reached around Rand’s hip and stroked his thick, hard cock again. He reveled in the sounds the shifter made. The dip of his head and shoulder, as Rand leaned more on one elbow to brace himself against Cai’s thrusts. His thoughts, swirling and hard-to-pin-down though they were, were equally pleasurable. Rand liked how Cai yanked on his hair as he thrust.
Cai retracted his fangs and sealed the wounds when he’d had all the blood that he needed, but he wasn’t sure he’d ever get enough of the male’s beautiful body.
The part of him that loved to deny, to wait until the gratification was overwhelming, wanted to keep things going another hour, but he hadn’t lied to Giles. Or Rand. He knew time was ticking away, and, if nothing else, the sooner he gave Lady Lyssa whatever pointless info she needed, the sooner they could leave and they could spend hours at this. Well, if the wolf didn’t say so long and that was the end of it.
Cai released, jetting seed into the tight, gorgeous ass. Rand climaxed at the same time, hips jerking in a way that made Cai see bliss and stars and every damn version of Heaven there was.
This was just a quick, casual fuck on some nice linens. They’d made a hell of a mess. Well, Rand had. It pleased Cai to see it. He wanted to take the shifter all over again.
Stroking the
male’s back slow, he laid another kiss on the middle of it. Cai felt an unsettling urge to stay there, press his face into heated flesh, sink into the male’s strength. Let the clock tick away so he didn’t have to face whatever was outside this door.
Yeah, like that ever worked. Annoyed that the thought had unfurled anxiety and urgency in him, Cai straightened and took hold of his emotions. As he eased out of Rand’s ass, he gave it a satisfying swat that left a handprint and earned him a startled and delightfully dangerous look.
“Grab clothes or fur, your preference, wolf. We have to go rap with the queen.”
Chapter Seven
When they were ready to leave the room, it was once again as vampire and wolf, for Rand had shifted by the time Cai put on his clothes. The garments did fit reasonably well, a black button-down shirt over stressed designer jeans that made him look a step above homeless vagrant in this crowd. Fortunately, he still had his scarred and bloodstained hiking shoes to keep anyone from thinking he was too civilized.
When he made that observation to Rand, the wolf’s expression suggested there was no risk of that. Rand gave him an odd look as Cai took the armload of clothes Giles had brought for Rand and tucked them into a pillow case in the closet. “They’re too nice to leave behind,” Cai explained. “I’ll make an excuse to come back up here before we leave and toss it out the window, pick it up on our way out.”
At Rand’s disapproving look, Cai snorted. “Lady Helga’s on the Council. Torrence probably has new clothes for every day of the year. Man, he was a big son of a bitch. Probably no more than a nickel’s difference in your dimensions. Maybe he’s from your same litter and just didn’t get the shifting bug.”
As they stepped into the hallway, Rand chuffed a response which Cai assumed equated a snort. “You know, that stern look you did while sitting on my junk, your arms crossed over your sexy chest?” Cai tapped the wolf’s head with a finger and grinned at the show of teeth. “Maybe we’ll play ‘student takes ruler away from school master and paddles his ass.’ And see there? Who knew wolves could roll their eyes? It’s a miraculous world.”
They moved down the hall toward the staircase. However, at the cracked door to the missing girl’s room, Rand slowed and came to a halt.
Peering in discreetly, Cai saw Leona was still that same motionless lump beneath the covers. Well, not so motionless this time. Her shoulders were quivering and Cai could detect the muffled weeping.
“Rand…” Cai hissed, but the wolf had already pushed open the door with his shoulder and moved into the room. He went to the bed, jumped on it with surprisingly light-footed grace, turned a circle and lay down, resting his heavy head on Leona’s hip. Giving comfort.
Cai braced for screaming, but the figure became very still. Slowly, the covers were pulled down enough to show a silken fall of chestnut hair and a slim shoulder. She was wearing what scent and appearance suggested was one of Lord Greenwald’s shirts. Her hand slid out of the linens, reaching back to rest on Rand’s head. Then the fingers convulsed, slipping down to clutch his ruff as a harder shudder went through her. Cai studied the tableau and nodded.
Catch up when you’re ready.
Rand didn’t feel happy about Cai going on without him, but he looked even more reluctant to leave her. Cai was good with that. It bothered him, the woman lying here all alone. Because she really was alone, wasn’t she? Greenwald’s episodes of Ennui meant he was accelerating down the slope toward losing his mind. There was no good end to the disease. His term as overlord would end soon and, not long after that, he’d walk into the sun or be taken down by other vampires. Though from Lyssa’s surprising patience toward him, Cai thought the vampire queen might provide him more protection than Cai would have expected.
But Leona lying there crying, while her vampire master stomped around and had tantrums and delusions that sent his cronies to beat people up and look for demons? Greenwald had said he was going to check on Leona, but when Cai and Rand had come down here, not more than a couple minutes later, he’d been nowhere in sight. It kind of sucked that Greenwald hadn’t even thought to post another servant like Giles to watch over her fulltime.
Most times, Cai didn’t think of humans beyond their purpose as food. He had no particular liking for them as a species. He’d lost the empathy a long time ago, no matter his own human origins. But he didn’t torture his food and, when he took a life for his monthly blood needs, he made it pleasurable or quick, depending on the circumstances. He had no desire to make them afraid or suffer.
This was the problem with being social. You thought about shit you didn’t normally consider. It was hard to stay dispassionate, seeing those quivering shoulders and her fragile fist curled in Rand’s fur. In the vampire world, twenty-two was pretty much a baby. Dovia was a fledgling whose wings were still wet. Was Leona blaming herself? Probably. Every parent did when they had a child taken, right?
An image came to his mind, so quickly and viciously tamped down that Rand’s ears twitched, as if feeling the concussion from the slammed door in Cai’s head.
If anyone should be blaming himself, it was Greenwald. He was the overlord, the guy in charge, who kept everyone in line. Yet Trads had stolen his daughter right out from under his nose.
Having been beaten by his minions, Cai experienced some petty satisfaction about that, but it was short-lived. This was his child, to protect against every possible harm. And he’d failed.
Thinking of it that way made it hard to get any mileage out of the gloat. Cai worked hard to be a soulless monster, but today he was falling short. If Leona was blaming herself, a servant who was subordinate to her Master, where important decisions were his, not hers, to make, how much more of that was Lord Georg experiencing? Cai could understand the guy letting the disease take over more of his mind, if it gave him respite from the agony he must be feeling.
When he felt a glimmer of reaction from Rand’s mind, Cai realized he didn’t have to look further than the shifter to know how the loss of a kid could eat someone from the inside. But making that connection still took Cai into not-fucking-going-there territory for himself.
He was still leaning in the door. Cai told himself his unwillingness to leave had to do with the distasteful task of meeting with the contingent upstairs, but that wasn’t all of it. Rand lifted his head, gold and blue eyes focused on him.
Maybe he did have some information that would help them find the girl. Cai wouldn’t hold back on that. But he gave himself one more second to step away from the uncomfortable blowback of feelings about the situation and remember just an hour ago. Rand beneath him, the strong body flexing as they wrestled. The tilt of his head as Cai stroked his back. He didn’t have to think when he was around the wolf. Crazy thought, right? They’d known each other like two minutes. But maybe that wasn’t a relationship thing. That was Rand’s animal nature, making it as easy to be around him as if he truly was all animal.
It suggested Cai enjoyed fucking a wolf more than a human or vampire, which so didn’t sound right to say. At least not at cocktail parties. A real problem, because he went to tons of those. Not.
Suppressing a sigh, he pushed off the doorframe. Feeling Rand’s attention upon him as Cai left sent a weird spike through his chest. Pushing that away, too, he headed up the stairs, following voices to a spacious ground level sun porch. It provided a nighttime view of a pond with a lit fountain in the middle of it.
Greenwald, Lyssa, Mason and Helga were sitting on the porch. An in-depth discussion of some kind was happening, but Cai wondered if Greenwald was hearing any of it. His bloodshot eyes lifted at Cai’s appearance and filled with malevolence. Yeah, if the Council hadn’t been here, the torture fest would have continued. Cai had no doubt of that. Took care of his empathy, that was for damn sure. Dried that well right up.
“Where’s the wolf?” Voltaire demanded. He was standing behind his lord’s chair. Lyssa’s admonition may have toned down his behavior, but he was keeping himself front and center. A reminde
r he was the one who should be considered as a replacement when Greenwald faltered just enough. It made Cai want to see his limbs tied to a foursome of tractors. Their slow amble away from one another would make his dismemberment a satisfying spectator sport.
“He’s with the girl’s mother. She needed comfort. Being a big goofy dog lying next to her was more desirable to him than sharing your company,” Cai said.
Greenwald gestured to Voltaire and the younger vampire headed for the door. Cai stepped in front of him, bringing Voltaire to a halt.
“If you’re checking on her wellbeing in his care, I’ve no objection to that,” Cai said, and meant it. The overlord’s quick dispatching of his minion to her side was the first evidence he’d had that her state of mind mattered to Greenwald. “But you fuck with him in any way, and I will rip your fucking head off. We clear?”
Voltaire’s fangs showed. Cai didn’t give a shit. He stood his ground. Voltaire wanted to throw down with him, but with the Council here and Greenwald, he was hampered. Cai wasn’t.
“If all is as you say it is, Voltaire will cause no harm to the wolf,” Lyssa said. “I’ve stated you are a guest, and your beast belongs to you, Cai. He’s safe.”
Yeah, as long as circumstances didn’t change, which they could in an instant. But it was as good as he was going to get. Giving Voltaire another hard look that was answered with barely veiled contempt, Cai made a mocking gesture of courtesy toward the double doors. He also sent a message to Rand that the vampire was coming and his intent, and received a push of acknowledgement.
Greenwald rose. “I’ve waited long enough. Tell me everything you know, Trad. Or nobody here will be able to save you.”
“You’re going to have to narrow that down. I know lots of things. Like how to navigate by the stars, fix a great PB&J, get blood out of clothing so your fabrics last longer…”
He could have tried to move out of range, but Greenwald had him by a few hundred years and they were only a handful of feet apart. Avoiding the blow would have been pointless, so Cai merely braced himself.