Vampire's Soul: A Vampire Queen Series Novel

by Joey W. Hill

  Maybe because you’ve never been able to indulge the pleasure. You may be more of a pack animal than you think, vampire.

  If you’re going to insult me, I’m going to go sit next to Daegan. Mimic his stoic samurai pose until I irritate the fuck out of him and he goes to sleep.

  Or he kills you and we end this night as we expected. Dead.

  Cai lifted his gaze to Rand’s. Because he wanted to do so and couldn’t think of a reason to deny himself, he curled his fingers against the shifter’s hip, hooking his thumb in the waistband of the loose shorts. "I couldn't have done it," he admitted quietly.

  If our positions were reversed, I couldn't have left you, Rand, knowing what they might do to you. Dovia… I would have given her a head start, told her which way to go, maybe. And we would have both died. Dovia probably, too. You were the smart one.

  "Well," Rand said after a long moment. "One of us has to be."

  Cai snorted, but he could feel the male’s reaction to his words. A big, gushing emotional surge that would have discomfited Cai and made him regret his admission, if Rand hadn’t tempered it with the mildly insulting comment. Probably why he’d done it. The wolf got him. A useful thing in a servant, right?

  Another silence ensued. Cai had no idea how much Daegan was listening, but the hell with it. He needed to speak aloud before he said more stupid things in his head. “Fane and his pack want you to stay with them, you know.”

  Rand’s eyes had fallen shut again during their pause. They didn’t open now. “Sshh. Go to sleep.”

  “Did you really just ssh me?”

  The curve to Rand’s lips deepened, his lashes fanning his cheeks. “I did. Sleep, vampire. Now’s not the time for talking.”

  He didn’t think Rand was wrong, but him setting the terms were kind of annoying. He’d take him to task for that when he woke. Much later.

  As Cai closed his eyes and let out a long, relieved breath, Rand’s hand moved to rest briefly on his jaw, his fingertips slipping through Cai’s hair, a soft stroke, before he returned his palm to Dovia’s back, his knuckles resting against Cai’s chest.

  Yeah, Rand needed a pack. Needed to stay with family who could appreciate that kind of stuff. Because Cai really wasn’t a touchy-feely kind of guy. No matter how good Rand’s touch felt. Cai didn’t take another breath, because the motion only rubbed the jagged edges of the thought against his insides in a way he didn’t like. Rand was right. Now wasn’t the time for talking, even to one’s self.

  Maybe especially to one’s self.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Humans talked about the three a.m. hour being when demons would most likely walk on their grave, wake them with worries. From Cai’s struggle with nightmares, Rand had surmised it was between one and two in the afternoon for vampires, when the sun had settled into its peak time.

  Dovia was below ground and protected physically, but the hour still had the power to bring unrest to her that even their proximity couldn’t keep at bay. Though Cai had said it would be hard to rouse a vampire so young at that hour, no matter how deep below ground she was, obviously terror had the power to yank her from that rest.

  She woke fighting, thrashing, hissing, her cries echoing through the cellar. Between them, Cai and Rand brought her fully awake, helped her realize she was safe, and with them. Even so, in those first volatile moments, Rand wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d tried to shove them out of the bed or bolted from it herself. He could tell Cai was as ready as he was to give her enough room she wouldn’t feel trapped, while doing their best to keep her from accidentally harming herself.

  However, she started to calm without exiting the bed. As she relaxed inside the span of his arms, Rand crooned to her, rubbed her back. When she settled, Cai likewise adjusted himself back onto his pillow and folded arm. He ran his hand lightly up and down her arm, over her shoulder and hair.

  Lynn and her daughters had trimmed it, evening up the chopped section so it was neat, shoulder length on one side. On the burned side, they’d buzzed it evenly. Rand vaguely recalled the style from a couple of the magazines the women had lying around upstairs. A deliberate close crop buzz over one delicate ear, a straight fall of hair over the other. All she needed was a dainty nose ring or a rose shoulder cap tattoo. Greenwald would love that.

  But Rand couldn’t argue with the look, which highlighted Dovia’s delicate features, yet also underscored the set of her chin, her firm lips, that spoke of resolve. Determination. The ability to survive.

  He expected Darcy, Fane and Lynn’s fashion-conscious teen daughter, had likely suggested the cut. While Dovia wouldn’t be able to see it in the mirror, when she woke, Rand bet money the shifter teenager would be ready to show her the magazine picture.

  He remembered paging through one of those magazines the night before they went to rescue Dovia. It had been a culture shock dip into the world he’d been away from for over two years. How fast did vampire hair grow? Not as fast as visible wounds healed, but Rand expected it grew faster than a human’s.

  Idle thoughts. Normal things like that, they hurt and comforted at once. He remembered Sylvan’s boys playing catch, the smell of Sheba’s fried chicken…

  Cai’s eyelids were drooping again and Rand let his eyes half close, figuring their ease would help draw the girl back to the same kind of slumber. It did. She was drifting back into a doze, he could tell, even as she pressed closer, nuzzling her face in his chest.

  A half hour later, he returned to a wakeful state. He wasn’t exactly sure why, until he realized Dovia’s hands were moving over his chest, then down, under his arm. She was…caressing him, her touch drifting around to his back, fingers exploring with obvious sexual intent.

  He couldn’t have been more startled if she’d turned into a two-headed wolf, right before his eyes. He stiffened when she slid both hands down to cup his ass, and knead. His gaze shot to her face. Her eyes were closed but her lips were slightly parted. Her body moved more urgently against his. She was asleep, mostly. In a half-waking dream state, somewhat conscious but not.

  He should speak her name, wake her fully, but he honestly had no clue how to handle the situation. It made no sense to him. After what she’d endured, no female would want… What the hell was happening?

  It wasn’t manly, but panic rarely was. Cai? Cai.

  “Cai,” he hissed. Lifting his head, Rand realized, with both relief and annoyance, the vampire was awake and watching her progress. Cai lifted a “what?” kind of brow.

  “We need to wake her. Now. She couldn’t possibly want...this kind of thing.” Rand spoke low but aloud. He’d hoped Daegan was asleep, but his wolf senses told him he wasn’t, so he wanted to be sure the male with the lethal sword knew he wasn’t encouraging this.

  Cai’s eyes sparked with humor, making Rand’s teeth grind. “She’s a vampire,” Cai answered, just as low. “Remember, vampire libidos are like ten times that of a twenty-something human male’s. It’s as much a part of us as the need to drink blood, so claiming that for herself, doing it right now? It’s a good sign that she’s reaching for that. Even if in her sleep.”

  “But I…I don’t…”

  “It’s okay.” Cai put his hand on the young woman’s shoulder, sliding his fingers along her arm, down to where it curved over Rand’s hip. Cai covered her hand on Rand’s backside, closing his grip on her wrist, caressing. As he gently brought her touch away from Rand, he spoke quietly.

  “Dovia. Wake up, princess.”

  He eased her arm into a folded position where her hand was by her shoulder, and dipped his head to kiss her fingertips, an easy gesture. Her head dropped back on his shoulder.

  “I’m awake,” she murmured.

  Rand had been wrong. She was awake, and her half-closed eyes were on him, her pupils big and dark, the tips of her fangs showing.

  “I want him,” she said, with an almost animal note to her voice that startled Rand anew.

  She’s a fledgling, Cai said, another reminder.
When she wants blood or sex, her impulse control is almost non-existent. Take the stress of the past few days, add it to being safe now and wanting to reinforce that, by feeling in control of something… You’re what she wants. A servant.

  She’s so young, Rand thought desperately.

  She’s twenty-two. Remember Giles and Petra? She wouldn’t have used them only for blood. Lyssa said born vampires start combining blood and sex in their early to mid-teens.

  Rand barely digested the information. His wolf was still struggling with the more immediate issue.

  She wants me to have sex with her.

  She intends to have sex with you, Cai corrected. She’s a vampire; you’re a servant. In this mode, she sees herself as in control. Rand, it’s okay. You don’t have to do it.

  Cai wasn’t sure why the wolf was looking so distressed about it. There were other ways to deal with Dovia’s need. Nobody would question him if he denied a fledgling the right to enjoy his servant, since she had no authority or rank over him.

  No. Rand’s jaw set. If that’s what she needs…to feel better, to feel more in control, I can do it. I just…I don’t know how.

  Cai blinked. It works pretty much the same as it does with a guy. Just a different orifice. Usually. Though she might take that as an option.

  No. Rand shook his head vehemently. I understand the mechanics. I want it to be pleasurable for her, and I don’t…know how to do that.

  The male’s ears were turning pink. He was blushing like a damn school boy. Holy fuck. He’d never… Cai lifted both brows.

  What about Sheba? You had a litter together.

  Yes. We mated as wolves, because that was easier, more instinctive for me, more straightforward for her, not as difficult with her grief for Sylvan still so fresh. Not…man and woman.

  “Ah.” It struck Cai as ridiculously sweet, the wolf shifter wanting to make sure it was pleasurable for Dovia, do it right. And willing to do it against his own preferences and nature simply because Cai had told him it would help her heal the wounds that were far deeper than the physical.

  Rand was strong, but a gentle male, too. With a hell of a tempting service sub streak.

  Dovia’s moist lips had parted. She slid her hands up Rand’s chest to his throat, fingers stroking, digging in. Her nails had been cleaned and trimmed. Even painted, a delicate pink hue. Rand wet his lips and she stretched up to brush her lips over them, her fangs grazing his mouth. His wolf was still figuring things out. Slowing things down, Cai slid an arm over her chest and tightened his grip. It kept her from deepening the kiss and won a small annoyed hiss.

  “Don’t get petulant,” he told her, putting his other arm at her waist, giving Rand some distance. She stiffened, but Cai wouldn’t let her get caught up in a waking nightmare.

  “See?” he whispered as she curled her fingers over his forearm. “It’s like I said. They didn’t take a damn thing from you.”

  It was nowhere near that simple, but Cai knew right now it could be. If it had only been her and him in the bed, she wouldn’t have been capable of contemplating, let alone feeling, this kind of sexual hunger. A servant was different. A servant was theirs, completely under their control. Under her control. A way to feel back in control.

  Today, Cai understood it, in a way he knew he wouldn’t have, only a few days before. He remembered the first few times he’d had sex with his human prey, after leaving Goddard’s fold. He’d practically received a contact high from holding the reins, having full control of a human’s pleasure during sex. Cai could bring that reaction to the edge of pain, and inspire a thrill-ride kind of fear.

  It made him want Rand all over again, to do it even better, harder, edgier. Cai wanted to explore those feelings a hundred ways with him, because it would never be the same with the shifter.

  It was the difference between day and night, that desire and how Goddard took and gave nothing back. Hell fucking no. But having the right and ability to control a servant’s pleasure? Dovia’s naturally Dominant desire for that was feeding her already enormous fledgling hungers.

  “I want him,” she repeated. “I’m hungry.”

  “That’s up to me, isn’t it? He’s my servant, and if I say he’s off the table, he damn well is. Right?”

  She stiffened again, but this time in typical aristocratic offense, making him smile against her delicate ear. “So don’t tell me, princess. Ask me.”

  She released Cai to curl her fingers against Rand’s chest once more. Over her head, Cai held his servant’s gaze. He could tell what Rand did and didn’t want. He was apprehensive, but truly willing to give the girl what she needed. More important to Cai, Rand was willing for the right reasons. Plus, in that intuitive way of his, he’d also picked up what Cai had realized, why it had to be now.

  At Dovia’s home, she’d only have access to the safe, totally controlled servants she knew. Responding to what had happened to her, they would be almost too compliant, falling short of making her feel like she did in fact have control over this part of herself again.

  “I don’t want to feel…the others, inside me,” she said. “Around me. Please let me…let me immerse myself in him, drink from him, have him inside me.”

  “All right,” Cai said. “That’s the right way to ask.”

  She won’t ask me? Rand’s expression reflected neutral curiosity, rather than judgment.

  No, she won’t. Vampires ask other vampires about their servants. Technically, the servant’s opinion doesn’t count, but that’s because it’s assumed the servant is on board with what his Master or Mistress wants. But she won’t be as high-powered about it as an older vampire. If you’re reluctant, she’ll likely back off. And if she doesn’t, I’ll stop it.

  I’m not reluctant. As long as you’re here…helping me.

  Rand’s blue eyes flickered. There were a lot of layers to that thought. Layers that made Cai’s cock harden, his bloodlust rise and other things knot up in his gut. But he tamped that down. He didn’t want Dovia to feel him getting aroused, even if it wasn’t directed at her. This was a tightrope walk between what she was trying to grasp and what her fragile, traumatized psyche could handle. Something else he and Rand recognized in a way she didn’t.

  She was trusting them as strangers thrown together in intense circumstances did. Or like warriors emerging from a blood-soaked field, sharing an aftermath experience uniquely theirs, one that validated their life and worth. Their connection. Something he and Rand would have done in the forest if they hadn’t both been beat all to shit.

  But the short respite they’d had, and blood they’d exchanged, had equipped them to handle one kid-gloves encounter with a traumatized vampire female.

  Rand nodded, an affirmation. Cai squeezed Dovia, warning her of a change in position. He left the bed, circling to the other side as Rand curled his arm around her waist and adjusted the two of them to make room for Cai to get in behind him. Cai first sat on his hip next to him, though, threading his fingers through Rand’s hair.

  “He’s got gorgeous, fucking hair,” he murmured. “All over. Enjoy it, princess. Enjoy every inch of him. Don’t rush a good meal.”

  Her eyes glowed. Her fangs were lengthening, curving over her bottom lip. “I’d like for his hands to be out of the way. I want to control him.”

  The need for that rose in her eyes like a tidal wave, impossible to mistake. If Cai was detecting it, Rand was feeling it full force with his wolf senses.

  Cai bent, spoke in Rand’s ear. “Put your arms above your head and grab onto that pipe.”

  There was a water pipe running horizontally above the bed that seemed sturdy. At least Cai hoped it was, or that Rand would stay mindful of his own strength. Sending water spewing over them would be a literal cold shower moment. Plus, if they caused Fane a major plumbing issue, they probably wouldn’t be invited back. Not that Lynn was going to add him and Daegan to her Christmas list anytime soon, Cai was sure.

  Then his dry humor disappeared, his attention captu
red by the sheer beauty of his servant. Rand lifted his arms, his back muscles and ass tightening as he curled his large hands around the pipe. A sound escaped Dovia’s lips; unmistakable female hunger.

  You don’t have to do a thing, wolf, except follow her lead. And respond to your Master’s touch.

  He wanted to call himself Rand’s Master right now, particularly with another vampire touching him. Too damn bad if it bothered him, though Cai had a pretty good idea that it wasn’t Rand who struggled the most with it. The wolf’s arousal had shot up another notch, as soon as Cai spoke that trigger word.

  He did a quick check over his shoulder. In the shadows beneath the stairs, Daegan lay stretched out on his cot, his ankles propped on the metal frame. His eyes were closed, arms crossed loosely over his chest—akimbo, not Count Dracula style—but Cai wasn’t fooled. Daegan knew everything that was happening over here, but vampires were vampires.

  It was as Rand had said earlier. What they were doing wasn’t something that would alarm or anger Daegan on behalf of the girl or Lord Greenwald. It would be considered something she’d needed, requested, for her care. To help her take a step toward a semblance of normal. For vampires, it was all about control. Control, sex and blood.

  Tell me about it. Rand’s nervousness was still there, but his wry response almost made Cai smile.

  Dovia’s small hands fanned out over Rand’s wide chest. When her nails scraped his nipples, he responded, his hips flexing. He immediately froze, as if he thought that was too aggressive. His courtly wolf wanted to make sure he didn’t startle her. But him gripping the pipe, purposefully surrendering to her needs and demands, was a powerful statement. Despite Rand’s instinctive understanding of dominance and submission in animal form, it might be impossible for the wolf to completely understand how a vampire experienced those feelings. Nothing he did would scare or deter Dovia now. It was far more likely to make her demand even more of him.