by Joey W. Hill
Rand didn’t always have to win. He didn’t always need to be on top. But he relished fighting for it.
Sighing, Cai cleaned himself up and headed for the study, telling Rand in his mind where he was going in case he wanted to circle back and join in. He hoped Lyssa was right. Rand might not come back for him, but the plight of this female vampire had snagged his attention, and he had the rescuer complex. One would think finding his children clubbed to death would have cured him of thinking anyone could be saved.
Cai stopped, leaning against the hallway wall, and rubbed an impatient hand over his face. Fuck, he was glad he’d blocked that thought. He really was a shit most of the time. Maybe that was why he was doing this impossible thing, rescuing a female vampire from the Trads. Rand had convinced him it was the right thing to do, and Cai wanted that to matter to him again. Even if it was likely the last thing that ever did.
If he was one of these vampires like Voltaire or Tyra, he’d look around this place and see how good and comfortable life could be. He could have figured out a job, settled somewhere, right? But it was no wonder everyone kept accusing him of being a Trad. He’d lived with Trads for a hundred years and, though he claimed to hate everything about them, their ways had become his ways. Walls were a prison. Vampires weren’t supposed to live like humans. Yet why not?
He’d stayed in cities, knew all about running water and delivery pizza. He grudgingly understood both the “civilized” vampire and shifter viewpoint that, when one looked human, but wasn’t, it was important not to give up the camouflage that passing as human could provide.
So, as Rand had pointed out, he’d read Harry Potter and caught the occasional movie. When he needed money, he stole it in small quantities, or stole the item he needed. He didn’t need much, so none of that tripped his guilt meter.
But he always returned to the wild spaces. Maybe because there the noise wasn’t so loud. The towns triggered things in him the silence of the wood couldn’t. There, he could find the closest thing there was to peace. In towns, he saw humans doing things that made them far more than his food.
Yet even the forest was no longer enough. He didn’t know what would be. Or if anything could be. Maybe this was the answer to that. Go down for something, rather than living for nothing.
He found the study had been swiftly converted into a work space, just as Lyssa had said. Three computers were set up, along with a couple handcarts of file boxes and a large trunk of items that appeared half unpacked. Clothes, yes, but it looked as if the clothes had been carelessly tossed aside to get to other items. Things that belonged in labs, like test tubes and a microscope. Two giant stacks of printouts, heavily tabbed with sticky notes.
A young male vampire with sand-colored hair was studying some of the sheets in the notebook, flipping through them at a quick pace. “Damn it, Debra, where—”
A slim woman, her dark blond hair in a loose coil on her neck, her body clad in a modest linen dress that classily showed off an appealing figure, came to his side. Reaching over him, she picked another tab and flipped to it, putting her finger on what the male was seeking.
“Oh.” He snorted. “Of course.”
She bit back a smile and turned toward Cai. She didn’t seem surprised to see him, but vampires and servants had heightened senses. She and the young male would have heard him when he entered the hallway leading to this room.
“Mordecai?” she asked.
“Just Cai is fine. Only Lady Lyssa uses Mordecai.”
“I expect she’s fully aware of your nickname and prefers to use the proper one. She’s formal like that.”
“I noticed. Probably why I haven’t spent any effort on repeated correction. That, and she’d probably freeze my dick off.” Cai slid his hands into his jeans pockets at her startled glance. “Sorry. Yeah. So, they tell me Lord Brian might have some stuff to help me on my suicide mission. You or this other lab geek know where I can find him?”
The young male straightened and turned, his hazel eyes showing some amusement. “I’m Lord Brian.”
The guy couldn’t be more than eighty, and vampires optimally stayed close to their sires or parents until age fifty. Guy was practically the human version of a college student. He was supposed to give Cai tools to help him deal with Trads?
Brian obviously read his skepticism, for his lips curved in a grim smile. Taking a closer look, Cai noted a seriousness in the male’s direct gaze that suggested he might be far more mature than his years. Hopefully.
“You think any vampire over the age of two hundred would be on the leading edge of vampire science?” Brian asked pleasantly. “Most of them don’t even know what a phone app is.”
“Lord Belizar has made some excellent progress,” Debra pointed out. “He sent that last text to you without incident. And he’s far older than two hundred.”
“Yes.” Brian snorted. “He spelled out every word. It was eleven pages long.”
“I’m not seeing any centuries-old vampire, let alone one with ‘lord’ tacked to the front of his name, getting into the whole LOL, OMG and BFF lingo,” Cai said, his feet back under him. “Let alone emojis. Though I could be wrong about that. Everyone likes using cute pictures.”
Debra hid a chuckle behind her hand. She had some of the delicate-beauty quality that Lord Mason’s servant Jessica had. But as Cai took the same kind of closer look he had with Brian, he noted the razor-sharp intelligence in her brown, long-lashed eyes. This was the human servant to whom both Lyssa and Jacob gave equal props as Brian’s partner in the lab.
Cai’s brain power might be seriously outmatched here. Didn’t stop him from making quips, though. Fortunately, it appeared Lord Brian had a sense of humor.
“Indeed. I shudder at the miscommunications which could happen if they even tried. Jacob brought me up to speed on where you’re going, and I’ve a couple things that might aid you. I also want to ask you some additional questions in case I’ve overlooked anything.”
His scrutiny increased as his gaze swept Cai, but his manner became even more polite, putting Cai on alert. “And later, when you return, I’d like to ask you further questions about the Trads. We know precious little about them from a sociological standpoint, and the more information I have about vampires as a whole, the more it contributes to the different divisions of work we do at our lab facilities.”
“The returning part is a big if, but sure, maybe.” Cai shrugged. “I wouldn’t give me anything that’s a prototype you want back, because my chances of succeeding are right up there with launching an arrow from the roof of this building and hitting the moon.”
“Yet you’re still going,” Debra said. “That’s very brave, to risk your life for a female you don’t know.”
“Not really. Just going to do it. Don’t care to think about the why, because if I did, I’d realize it’s monumentally fucking stupid, and I won’t do it. So let’s move on.”
She blinked. Lord Brian gave him another hefty scrutiny, but he turned to rummage through a plastic box of vials. After studying the labels on several, he handed one to Cai. “This doesn’t require refrigeration and its potency lasts about two weeks. Put it in something they’re all drinking, wine, whatever. No more than a few drops will knock a vampire out in a matter of minutes. Five tops, and it dulls the brain’s warning system so they feel like a drunk passing out and won’t fight it. At night, they’ll remain solidly unconscious for a couple hours, give or take a few minutes, depending on their age and will. If administered near dawn, the effects last longer. When they wake at twilight, they’ll have a short hangover period that can slow their wits.”
The scientist went to his stores, returning with a pack of gum.
Cai shook his head. “I really don’t chew gum.”
Brian smiled. “Chew a piece of the red gum if a vampire has forcibly taken your blood. The binding effects, their ability to track you, will be neutralized.”
“Okay.” Most of it was probably bullshit, but the guy seemed to thi
nk it would work, so Cai pocketed the vial and the gum. He looked curiously at the other things overflowing the trunk. “You don’t travel light.”
“I’ll be setting up a temporary lab here for a few days. It will keep me closer, in case Dovia needs care. I have several degrees, one of which is in internal medicine. Doesn’t apply to everything about vampires, but it can point me in the right direction.”
Since the multi-degreed guy was being professional and impressive, Cai realized he should make an effort to appear like he was thinking stuff through, too, planning ahead. “Okay. What will she need, if she’s in bad shape and we’re not close enough to get to you right away?” If we find her at all, if we rescue her, if we don’t all end up dead.
“Blood’s the obvious thing. From your servant ideally, depending on her state.” He paused and Cai tensed, anticipating a question about Rand’s blood, its potency, but Brian moved on. “Keep her warm, reassure her, and get her as far away from them as possible.”
“Thanks. Definitely needed a few medical degrees to figure that out.”
Brian gave him a humorless smile, but produced one more vial. “This will help her sleep. Only two doses at a time, though. She can’t overdose, but the mix can put her in a prolonged sleep that could turn on her. She could get caught in her dreams and feel trapped there.”
It reminded Cai uncomfortably of his nightmare earlier, that smothering feeling. He took the vial without any further snark and added it to his pockets.
“I’d like to be as prepared as possible,” the scientist said. “What do you think her condition will be?”
“Depends on her will. We’re different from humans, aren’t we?” Cai said. His tone had gone flat, but he didn’t know how to change that and answer Brian’s question. “She’s an object to them, a means to an end. They’ll have no empathy for her, and the longer she’s with them, the more she’ll question if she has any identity at all, if she’s become an ‘it,’ because that’s how they see anyone not part of their circle.”
He’d been there himself. But they hadn’t broken him, had they? Maybe it was the vampire strength Lodell had given him that had turned that tide, or something else, but Cai had to wonder. How many human women had he seen the Trads break? Captives who eventually could be left unbound during daylight hours, because it didn’t occur to them they had any choices that were their own to make.
Debra looked startled by the concise summary, but there really wasn’t a way to fucking soften it, was there?
“Thank you.” Brian spoke the words neutrally, but his hazel eyes had gone cold, his jaw tightening. “We will prepare for it.”
“How?” Cai asked abruptly. “How does anyone prepare for that? Make that easier?” He lifted the bottle. “Except with this. Total oblivion. Even that, if you take too much, it puts you right back in the middle of it.”
“We take a couple things with us that’ll tie her back to this life, to the comfort and love of her parents. To remind her that broken isn’t dead.”
Cai turned. Rand was leaning in the doorway. It was hard to sneak up on a vampire, but Rand had managed to do it. Maybe because Cai had convinced himself the shifter wasn’t coming back.
He’d been wrong.
Chapter Ten
Rand had a teddy bear tucked in the crook of one elbow, both hands in his jeans pockets. His expression was unreadable, and his mind likewise oddly free of thought. He only noted simple, random things, like the rosemary and lavender smell of Debra’s soap and shampoo, and Brian’s chemical and male scents, a mix of lab and man.
“Concept’s good,” Cai said with forced casualness. “We just have to accomplish it another way. The bear carries her scent, and they’d wonder why we have it.”
Cai moved to the doorway and stood before Rand. The male looked put together, but what was beneath the surface was untamed, raw. Their eyes met and held. Even with all the stuff unresolved between them, Cai couldn’t help taking the wolf shifter in through all his senses. And feeling guilty for how much he meant the next words. “Glad you came back.”
When the male said nothing, Cai plucked the bear out of his hold and lifted it. “Fortunately, you can convert to a fuzzy cuddle toy if she needs it.”
Rand’s gaze sparked. Yeah, now wasn’t really the time for Cai to be a wiseass, but that always seemed to be the time he found it impossible not to do it.
Rand had talked about being able to shift his brain to mostly human while in wolf form. Apparently, he could also do the reverse. Cai realized the shifter was keeping his mind in a passive state by letting the animal side hold onto as much of it as possible. Intriguing.
“You still coming with me?”
“I wouldn’t have returned if the answer to that was no.”
“Not true. Because you’re not like me. You like closure and being polite and noble. I like things rude, messy and left dangling like a dick in the wind.”
Brian cleared his throat, drawing the two men’s attention back to him. “The gum works for neutralizing the tracer on a vampire or a human servant. But I don’t have enough information about shifters to say for certain it will work on him.”
“Nobody’s putting their mouth on him but me unless they want to experience a full fang extraction.” Cai lifted his lip to display both of his.
Brian’s gaze sharpened and he came closer, peering at Cai’s mouth in an alarmingly intent way, as if he might stick his hands in there. “Why do you have an artificial fang? The original should have regenerated.”
Cai drew back, bumping into Rand, an involuntary white coat reaction to the scientist’s unexpected eagerness to touch, probe. Reminding himself he was a grown-up who could set this guy on his ass, Cai planted his feet.
“Fire and blood. It was cauterized with my blood. Not going into the whys. None of your damn business.” He’d told Lyssa, but that was different. He was getting antsy. He wanted to be alone with Rand, resolve some of this shit. Get on his way. Get out of here.
Fortunately for the scientist’s long, elegant fingers, Brian didn’t attempt a dental exam, but his attention remained on Cai’s mouth. “If you’ll let me take some quick dimensions before you go, I can have a replacement one made that fits better, without the wiring, and has retraction ability. We had to do something similar for another vampire, one caught in a house fire.”
Brian’s turned back to Rand. The gleam in the young vampire’s gaze reminded Cai of Jacob’s veiled warning about a full interrogation. “I recognize your quest is urgent,” the scientist said, “but I’d also like to request a blood and hair sample from your servant for study, and about fifteen minutes to ask him some questions.”
“You can ask all day long,” Rand said. “But I’m standing right here and saying no.”
Brian’s expression cooled. “You’re his servant.”
“We’re blood bound due to circumstances and to up our chances of survival,” Cai said. “That’s all.”
“Oh.” Brian sent Cai an odd look. “You truly aren’t very well versed in our ways.”
“The first hundred years of my life I was with Trads, and the rest has been as far away from vampires as I can put myself. So yeah, that’s accurate.” Cai’s brow furrowed. “What, because he’s my servant he has to do everything I say?”
Lyssa had pretty much said the same, but hearing it reinforced under practical circumstances made it more unsettling.
“Yes,” Brian said simply. “In the eyes of our society, he’s your property. You’ve third marked him. We’ve only recently been able to unmark servants from vampires who feel the relationship was not what they intended it to be, but permission for that is being granted on a case-by-case basis. Some vampires…are not patient.”
“They kill their servant, because that’s allowed,” Cai guessed.
“Yes.” The male vampire looked uncomfortable. “Not advised, and not officially sanctioned by Council.”
“But not punished, either.”
Brian said nothing. Ca
i noted Debra’s expression had become flat as a still pond. He wondered if that was how she covered disapproval, or if she simply didn’t have an opinion on it.
Rand’s mind was a still pond, giving away nothing. Though the look in his eyes, trained on the younger vampire, suggested more of the wolf than the man. Despite Debra’s reaction to her Master’s words, she’d noticed it too. Cai saw her studying Rand as intently as Brian had been studying Cai’s mouth.
Cai shifted partly into the field of view between the shifter and the scientists, commanding the attention of the latter. “We’re different,” Cai said. “I’m not a Trad, but that doesn’t make me part of your world, either. We’ll do this job, and then I’ll cut Rand loose.”
He’d invited him to go to Syria, but since Rand didn’t say anything to contradict him, Cai guessed being future travel buddies was off the table.
“That’s not permitted,” Brian said. “Simply cutting him loose.”
“He’s not a human. He’s no threat to exposing our world. All due respect, how are they going to stop me?”
“They could track him down and kill him,” Brian said in a neutral tone. “He would be safer if you could discuss it with Lady Lyssa, when the time comes. If it comes.”
Cai bristled at having to discuss any decision with anyone other than his own damn self, but if it would keep Rand safer, he might be okay with another chat with the queen. And maybe getting that new fang wouldn’t be bad. Least they could do if he brought them back their vampire girl.
While he allowed the scientist to take some fang replacement measurements, Cai took his mind off the guy having his hands in his mouth by watching Rand. The shifter moved out of the doorway and took a seat in a cushiony chair. He stretched out his legs and crossed them at the ankles, a deceptively easy pose. The watchfulness behind his gaze remained the wolf, scrutinizing everything with those glittering eyes.