by Joey W. Hill
Despite the banter, there was a stillness in the hunter’s eyes that told Cai that Gideon was measuring his intent, likely down to having calculated several different ways to counter him—futilely—if thoughts of Lodell propelled him to murder. Which, now that they weren’t facing a life-or-death situation, could happen. Except Daegan had made it clear that Cai wouldn’t survive a second attempt on his servant. Keeping Rand alive had become important to Cai. It was a bitch of a dilemma.
A lot of things were.
“Rand said Goddard didn’t mark the women because of some purist bullshit,” Gideon remarked. “Kind of hard to get one pregnant that way.”
“What he most wanted was a pregnant female vampire, but he was adamant that legitimate attempts could be made upon human vessels without binding souls.” Cai shrugged. “A lot of the Trads, even if they shared his view of humans, realize you can’t argue with the science. None of us had ever heard of a born vampire with a human parent who wasn’t the fully marked servant of the other vampire parent.”
“Guess that was the only good thing about the guy,” Gideon said. “The woman who went to the hospital is going to make it.”
But how many years would it take her to believe she’d survived? Or want to? Cai pushed away that personal trip down memory lane. He hadn’t asked about the woman, but Gideon had volunteered the info as if he wanted to know. And he was still talking. Maybe it would be worth it to get run through again.
“If he’d third marked her, or any of her boys had, she would have followed them into the afterlife,” the hunter said.
“According to ‘civilized vampire’ crazy shit,” Cai said.
Gideon’s lips twitched, though his eyes became flint-like. “I sure as hell hope there’s arbitration on the other side. If there’s any truth to it, a person like her shouldn’t be bound forever to a vampire like him.”
“Unless the tables are turned and he’s at her mercy. That’d be justice.”
“Fucking A.”
Cai didn’t want to feel a sense of accord with the servant who’d murdered Lodell, so he settled for a spare nod.
Fortunately, Dovia, Rand and Daegan joined them then. They all got into the car, Rand holding the door for Dovia. Once they were settled, a couple more good-byes said, the family waving at them from the front porch—Christ, just like the Waltons—they were on their way down the mountain.
Done. Cai let out a breath, even as he felt a weird sort of pang that made him want to go back, say something nicer to Lynn. Thank Fane personally. Maybe check out that game box a little closer.
Pushing those unexpected thoughts aside, Cai focused on Dovia. He noticed her hand on the bunny was relaxed, but her other hand was a different matter. Lying on the door handle, at different times it tightened, her body making a little twitch that betrayed a great deal was happening beneath the surface as she stared out into the night. And it didn’t seem to be connected to nerves, caused by Rasheed’s handling of the limo on hairpin turns.
She’d wanted a window seat. Rand had chosen the seat facing her, his legs stretched out so they bracketed her neatly crossed ankles and folded legs. Cai had taken a position to her right while Gideon and Daegan were in the next row up, near the driver.
Cai shifted closer to her. “You don’t have to be this together, you know.”
She turned her gaze from the window. He caught the flash, a haunted look, before a polite distance settled into her expression. His kneejerk reaction was to assume the aristocrat was climbing back up on her pedestal, now that she no longer needed the riff-raff who had saved her ass. Rand’s mind provided him a different explanation, one that made Cai kick his own ass.
“Yes, I do,” she said quietly. “For my father. He won’t be able to handle knowing…what happened to me. He’ll of course know it, but seeing it too blatantly in my behavior…he can’t handle that. I don’t want to make things worse for him.”
“Your mother…”
“She’s a servant. You know our world. Or enough of it. There’s limited compassion for weakness, so I need to start being strong now. When I get home, I won’t allow anyone to think I’ve become an easy target because of this.”
The veneer slipped as Dovia bit her lip and shifted. But she touched Cai’s hand where it rested on his knee, a surprising reassurance. “My mother will bring me comfort, and so will my father, in the ways he’s still capable of doing. I won’t be alone in dealing with what happened to me. You’re kind.”
“I am so not kind,” he said, but she just smiled. Her touch became a full grasp of his hand as she turned her gaze back to the window. She also slipped her feet out of her shoes and curled them against the denim covering Rand’s calf, a prop.
Neither man broke the contact as she closed her eyes and laid her head on the seat back. In time, she slept a bit, her head shifting to Cai’s shoulder. Her hand was small and far too delicate in his.
Cai’s attention went to Rand. He was an appealing sight, his hair brushed and tied back, arm resting on the door handle. Those jeans of Stalker’s were a distractingly good fit. The T-shirt was tight, not a bad look. His long legs were bent and knees spread, the usual sprawl of a large man in a car that could accommodate his size.
Daegan had his eyes closed in the facing seat one row up, but with his straight stance, he looked like one of those stone statue guardians that meditated on the universe until summoned with one trigger word. Gideon was slouched down next to him, arms crossed over his broad chest, eyes also closed. They’d all been pretty much on guard for the past couple days. In a moving car, they could catch a few winks.
Daegan was the kind of authority figure who normally triggered Cai’s smartass switch to full volume, but something about the guy kept it toned down. He and Gideon had helped save their asses, and the relationship between Daegan and Gideon…well, it kind of interested Cai, how they pulled it off.
Vampire-servant relationships weren’t what he’d expected them to be, all formal and arms’ length, with the servant acting like a stiff butler from an old movie. And these guys were part of the top-of-the-heap vampires. Not on the fringes, where stuff like that would pass unnoticed. Plus, they were both total badasses and fighter types.
They’d also both been exactly what Dovia needed around her. Quiet, courteous, showing sensitivity to her situation but not smothering pity.
Like now. With all of them cognizant she was in an enclosed space surrounded by testosterone, everyone was going out of their way to keep their presence low profile, protective without treating her like glass.
Hard to get pissy toward the other vampire and his vampire-hunter servant when they were being like that.
See, he could be mature. Occasionally.
Rand’s gaze lifted, showing amusement, and Cai curled his lip at him. Nosy wolf.
“I want to stop here.”
Before Rand could reply to that, Dovia spoke up. It surprised Cai, because he’d thought she was dozing. But she’d lifted her head and had her hand on the door. The urgency in her tone suggested she meant right now. Was she sick?
All four men bolted into immediate action, mobilizing to handle the awkward possibility of female illness. Rasheed was already pulling over, responding to Daegan’s gesture.
They’d emerged from the cow path road system a while ago, and were now on a winding, still rural but four-lane highway. Though they’d been gaining on and passing the occasional car, for the most part they had it to themselves. Even so, Daegan and Gideon were out of the car first, scoping the area. Proving they knew their job, they didn’t allow anyone out until they gave the all clear, Dovia’s request notwithstanding. When they did give that go-ahead, Cai exited and offered Dovia a hand out, Rand climbing out behind her.
She brought the stuffed rabbit with her. The girl didn’t head for the roadside to get sick, as Cai had suspected. She headed across the two lanes toward the center median. Exchanging a glance with Rand, Cai followed her, the shifter trailing behind at a discreet distan
ce. Gideon and Daegan stayed where they were, by silent accord sharing lookout duty with Rasheed and giving Cai and Rand the personal bodyguard duty.
This stretch of highway participated in the state’s wildflower program, and the median was overflowing with a combination of red poppies, yellow lilies and lavender. Dovia went into them, her free hand trailing along the bobbing stems and blooms, her body turning as she looked at the flowers surrounding her.
“It’s so beautiful,” she said. “I haven’t been up this way before. And when they brought me here, they had…I was hooded, and tied.”
Cai moved closer to her.
“Can I borrow your knife?” she asked.
“Depends on why you want it.”
She held out a palm. Imperious little miss. He stared her down and she sighed. “I want to cut a lock of my hair.”
“Oh. Okay, let me do it. Sorry, but I’d feel better not seeing anything classified as a loose weapon near you for the next hundred years.”
“And you think you’re not kind.” But she pulled out the comb holding up her hair. The dark red strands rippled as she grasped one lock about three inches from the end. Given the hack job that had been done on it before, he hesitated, but she met his gaze, telling him it was what she wanted. When he cut the piece for her, using the pocket knife Chad had surprisingly offered him, she took it and sat down on the ground, her knees folded, the bunny on her thighs. It had a satin pale green ribbon around its brown neck, and she untied it, retied it, with her lock of hair in it. Then she positioned the stuffed creature against a clump of the cheerful poppies, the ribbon and hair in its lap.
She knelt there for a few minutes, silent. Her head bowed and Cai thought she might be praying. Unexpected. Not many vampires he’d met were all that religious, though some believed in a higher power. But then she spoke, and he realized, both from the words and the weight of the emotions they were carrying, that she’d been collecting her thoughts.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t be your mother,” she said quietly. “Please forgive me. I hope my selfishness, my inability to handle being a mother now, doesn’t keep me from having the privilege and honor of bringing another life like yours into the world. I know…” Her voice cracked. “You were not of him, nor of me, but a gift from God, and I should be stronger…”
She stopped. Cai dropped to one knee and slid an arm around her shoulders, under her chin. He pressed his lips to the crown of her bowed head. “God—whatever that is or means—understands. That kid, too,” he said shortly. “I feel it, you know. When I handle that spark, I can feel what it feels, somewhat. It understood. It knew now wasn’t the right time, the right circumstances.”
She stilled in his arms. “Truly. You’re not lying to me.”
“If I am, may I be damned to hell. Or have to wear bright, happy colors, which is the same thing.”
A slight smile pulled against his cheek, but she turned her head, meeting his gaze with a piercing look that told him yeah, one day this girl would be a hell of a mother. Or the next Lady Lyssa. “You’re telling me the truth.”
“I am,” he said.
He wasn’t. He was lying his ass off. He could feel that spark, yes, but not any thoughts that specific. But he could feel if it was distressed, and he’d felt nothing from it but peace, so it felt like he might be telling the truth.
As good as she was with “the look,” he’d had to lie to save his ass for decades. She wasn’t even in his league when it came to a believable poker face.
After a long moment, her shoulders slumped with relief. Her face was wet with tears, but she was quiet with it, no sobbing. Her head bowed again and he shifted his hands to her shoulders, backing off some. From dealing with his own shit, he knew sometimes you had to feel stuff to get rid of it, but he wished he knew how to bring a smile to her face, help her feel better. Put something on the scale to balance the overwhelming load of what she was carrying on her shoulders. She was too young to have to deal with this crap.
A rustling noise brought both their heads up. It took several blinks for Cai to process the unlikely sight of a giant black wolf bounding through the flowers like goddamn Bambi, apparently chasing a cadre of moths. The pale yellow winged insects flapped around in a confused vortex as he snapped at them. It made them dance away so he could continue chasing, large body spinning in wide circles, leaping. Practically cavorting.
He was sparing the leg, doing a lot of it on three, which just increased the Bambi bouncing effect. Dovia sat back on her heels, watching Rand as Cai rose to his feet. That put him in the right position to see a smile bloom on her face, as rare and precious as one of the flowers around them.
Yeah, flowers were something special. Anyone who saw a flower break out of a seed pod, push out of the ground and become something as delicate and beautiful as what it was, despite the inner strength it took to do all that, knew they were looking at something precious.
Dovia was up on her feet, chasing after the wolf, trying to catch the moths with her hands. Years fell away and she was a young girl playing, not a sexually mature woman. Rand brushed against her, and her hand dropped to hold onto him. She’d left her shoes behind and Cai collected the feminine pair of modest heels by the ankle straps, watching her dance and play. She didn’t laugh; he was sure she would again, but it was too soon for that. But she was smiling, her eyes possessing a promising light that showed her spark had not been doused.
She wasn’t going to become a cranky, surly, closed off bastard like him, beyond help or repair. He glanced across the road and confirmed Gideon and Daegan were still at the car. Gideon was grinning, and he spoke a few words to Daegan. Cai could have heard some of it if he tried, but he knew it wasn’t important. At his servant’s words, Daegan tilted his head toward Gideon, his serious lips curving.
“I’m ready to go home now.”
Dovia was standing in front of him, a chain of flowers in her hair, Rand at her side. The wolf panted happily, a moth wing stuck in his teeth. Dovia fastidiously removed it, showing no hesitation at reaching into that toothy mouth. Rand landed an appreciative lick on her wrist that had her making a noise damn close to a giggle.
Show off. Flirt. “Okay, shift back into a human so you don’t get hair all over the limo,” Cai advised. “Or we’ll tie you to the back bumper and make you run the rest of the way.”
“We will not,” Dovia said indignantly.
“Not your servant, is he?”
Cai said it more sharply than he’d intended, what the fuck. Rand’s ears pricked up. Cai felt the mental rebuke from the wolf almost before Cai registered Dovia’s instant flinch.
“Sorry,” he muttered. “I didn’t mean to sound like an ass. I’m just saying…well. Never fucking mind.” He pivoted on his heel and strode back to the car, leaving Rand and the girl to follow at their leisure. What did it matter to him?
Cai made sure to keep his mind firmly closed. Yeah, Rand maybe could read his emotions as easily as his head, but he was done letting Rand meander through it like he had the poppy field.
Getting into the limo, Cai found the wet bar and took a nice, burning swallow of what was there. Yeah, vampires couldn’t get drunk, but it still felt good going down.
Treat his servant like he was hers. Just because he looked damn good taking care of a young woman, playing with pups, or teasing Fane’s mate, helping with dishes and looking as domestic as any spread in Better Homes and Gardens, it didn’t give her the right.
Didn’t give any of them the right to act like he belonged more to them than to Cai. Even if he did.
And even if Cai damn well knew it was better that way.
He acted like all was good when they got back into the car, not wanting there to be any tension for Dovia to handle. She didn’t deserve to have to deal with his shit. He felt Rand’s questions, the male’s blue and gold-flecked eyes searching his face, but he refused to engage, shrugging it off with a slight head shake that said, Forget it, I’m fine.
Rand didn’t l
ook like he bought that for a second, but that wasn’t Cai’s problem. Dovia asked Gideon and Daegan some polite questions about Anwyn, typical girl interest in another woman, and the conversation turned in that direction. She looked amused at both men’s confusion when she asked them where Anwyn liked to shop in Atlanta. Proving his resourcefulness, Gideon texted his Mistress and provided Dovia some answers, adding, “Anwyn said if you come there, she’ll be happy to take you out to the best nighttime shopping spots.”
That seemed to please Dovia, but it also exhausted her ability to be polite and social as her obvious upbringing had taught her to be. She subsided, but her tension became a humming wire whose vibration level rose, the closer they came to her home. When they turned onto the long drive, her hand was on the door as if she’d jump out before the car even stopped. Rand had sat next to her for the final leg of the journey. When he ran a soothing hand down her back, she nodded, acknowledging the reassurance, but then Leona and Georg came into sight, standing in the driveway in front of the house.
Tears overflowed Dovia’s eyes, her shaking taking over. The young woman who was determined to be impossibly strong was overridden by the traumatized girl who needed her parents’ reassurance and love. At least for a few minutes.
Dovia practically sprang out as the car stopped. Her parents’ arms folded around her as if they’d let her go in an eternity or two. Maybe. Thankfully, Georg seemed pretty lucid. He held both his women as if he’d protect them from hell itself. Dovia held them as tightly, sobbing, but also telling them she was okay. Cai saw her touch her father’s face, hold her mother’s waist. “I’m okay, Daddy. I’m all right. It’s going to be okay.”
No sign of Tyra or Chavez. Not involved with Voltaire’s plan, but probably no longer in favor either, Cai supposed. He looked toward Rand, whose concern about Greenwald, about how it would all turn out for her, was obvious. Cai nudged him with his foot, drawing his attention.