Vampire's Soul

  The world was a much better place with him in it.

  Chapter Twenty

  The small airport was only a few more minutes of driving. The private jet put them in Savannah in short order, and they were back in another limo, headed for the Council's headquarters. Despite never having been in a private plane before, one outfitted like a luxury hotel suite, Rand didn't feel like saying much. Occasionally, Daegan and Gideon conversed about some things and Cai joined in. They attempted to keep Rand included, a courtesy he would have appreciated if his mind wasn't overwhelmed with a lot of other input. Like the faint tingle that lingered on his wrists, the psychological imprint Cai had left by defining what those marks meant.

  At length, they'd stopped trying to talk to him, and Rand suspected Cai had given them some type of subtle indication to leave him be, let him deal with what he was dealing with.

  After what Cai had done in that small grove of trees, Rand honestly wasn't sure where his mind was. He'd seen Cai vulnerable, had looked into his heart. Rand knew Cai had a ruthless side, a cruel side. But he'd overlooked the Master side. Or rather, he'd acknowledged it here and there as a sexual charge, something to lend extra spice to their fucking. Or even to take it to a deeper level.

  But in some way this time it had been different. Their unplanned stop, the fight they'd had, had unleashed that side of Cai in a way Rand hadn't experienced before. Or perhaps, hadn't let himself experience it. Maybe it was the anger, or some emotional fallout from the close call with Goddard, or the whole past several years' accumulation.

  Whatever it was, what had set Rand off balance, what had him feeling so pensive, was accepting his own response.

  He could hold his own with the vampire. Even Cai knew it now. But Rand had capitulated. Willingly. Cai was every bit as much of a Dominant and Master as the other male vampire in this vehicle, no matter the different shape of it. But unlike Daegan, Rand had looked at Cai as his Master.

  In a pack, an alpha would give way before a stronger alpha, and it didn't have to get ugly. But it had gotten ugly between him and Cai, and some of that had remained, adding to the confusing mix. Those echoes of conflict remained even now.

  Until Cai closed a hand over his, linked fingers. He put his other arm behind Rand's shoulders, curling his fingers in Rand's still loose hair. When he dipped his head, he brushed his mouth and nose against Rand's face. It was more a wolf gesture than a vampire one, something he would do because he knew Rand responded to it, would nuzzle back, open his mouth and nip Cai's cheekbone lightly.

  Rand felt the vampire's lips pull in a faint smile when he did. Lifting their linked hands, Cai touched his mouth to the top of Rand's. Turning it over, Cai did the same to the wrist, above the markings, sending questing tendrils into Rand's stomach.

  It's okay, wolf. What can I do to make it better?

  He didn't know. He didn't know...anything. Not this way. It wasn't like Cai to be gentle, considerate. But he had been, in the aftermath of the rough sex, and now. It felt like there was something driving it, something Rand couldn't put a finger on. Like they were on a sand timer with the sand running out.

  Their argument in the limo had started on that subject, but it was Cai's callous treatment of their friendship that had set Rand off, not the knowledge that their time together might be drawing to a close. Cai had always treated the marking as temporary. So as not to make Rand feel trapped. So Cai could protect himself from rejection.

  The vampire had noticed how Rand gravitated toward Fane's family. Maybe that was what had triggered what happened in the limo. Cai had decided the best thing was to treat their relationship exactly like a soldier thing. When the combat was done, they'd go their separate ways but still be friends, linked by the intense experience.

  And it had pissed him off, his reaction to anything that he didn't want to feel. Cai was damaged. No question. The family dynamics, the emotions that Rand felt and proffered so easily, were a foreign language to Cai. Maybe that was why Cai had switched gears now. Realizing there was no point to being pissed off. It was what it was, and all fighting did was squander the time they had left.

  He hadn't given Cai an answer to his question, but the vampire wasn't pressing him. His gaze had turned to Daegan.

  "How far are we?" Cai asked the other vampire.

  "About five more miles." They were going down a wooded two-lane road, and Cai peered out at it through the darkness. When he pressed a button to roll the window down, he let in the scent of deep forest. Rand lifted his head, nostrils flaring. "The estate surrounded by this, too?" Cai asked.

  As Daegan nodded, Cai's fingers tightened on Rand. "Pull over and let him out. He needs to run. He'll meet us there."

  Yes. Things loosened in his gut and heart like they'd been freed from a cage. Cai slid a knuckle along his cheek. "Give me your clothes and I'll take them with me."

  Rand took off the shirt. He stepped out of the car to remove the rest. He didn't look toward Daegan and Gideon. He only wanted to look at Cai. But he also wanted everything to disappear for a while.

  Before he shifted, Cai set the clothes aside and held out his hand. "Other wrist," he ordered.

  When Rand complied, he brushed his lips above that scar, closing the circle. "Meet us at the house, wolf. Just follow our mark or track my scent. I want your ass in my bed at dawn, though. Got me?"

  Rand should have a smartass remark for him, but he was the more serious one of the two. The one-liners didn't come to him the way they did to Cai.

  But as he met Cai's gaze, he didn't see any humor there. The vampire dropped his grip and nodded.

  Rand backpedaled and then turned. The forest was calling to him. The wolf, too, humming through his blood. God, he was glad for the freedom to shift and tune it out, run. He glanced back at Cai, but Cai had closed the door. The limo was pulling off. Rand had a weird compulsion to chase after it. He put that aside as some latent canine thing, something no wolf with any pride would indulge.

  That wasn't why he wanted to chase after the car. He wanted Cai to run with him. Maybe Cai could hear it in his head. Maybe he wasn't listening. Rand wasn't sure which option made him feel any better.

  So he shifted, and let it all go to run.

  Soooo... Here they were, in the fucking Council headquarters. Lots of brick and spires, gardens and fountains. According to Gideon, it was similar to Lyssa's primary home in Atlanta. The limo pulled up to the front door, set at the top of ten graduated marble steps. Gargoyles both menacing and majestic flanked either side of the doorway. Cai would have felt more comfortable entering through a side entrance. Garage. Kitchen.

  "With it being close to dawn, Lady Lyssa plans on meeting with you at twilight rising," Daegan said. "For now, you'll be shown guest quarters and given what's needed to see to you and your servant's comfort. The only vampires here are the Council delegation you already met, and the servants and house staff whose discretion is assured. With Voltaire dead, you don't have to be concerned about concealing your servant's nature."

  "Good enough. Kind of sorry I missed seeing him get his."

  "Not alone in that," Gideon grunted. "Think Mason also wished he'd had a shot at him."

  Cai hoped they'd made Chavez watch and he'd pissed himself at the warning. But in hindsight, maybe not. Oh, not about the Chavez thing. That would have been tons of fun. But on further reflection, Cai wasn't sure if he was in the mood to see anything killed for a while. Or even imagine someone else watching someone get killed. He turned his mind to better things.

  "I'm going to hang out until Rand arrives. Who do we need to see? Once he gets here."

  "Him." Gideon pointed to the wide and tall front door, which had opened and revealed a slim boy in early adolescence. Dark skinned and with expressive eyes that reflected keen interest in the new arrivals. Well, not the ones getting out of the vehicle. As his gaze darted over and past them, Cai suppressed a smile. Vampires were old hat around here. It was obvious he was looking for the wolf.

  Cai
didn't detect a full marking on the kid, but he was at least second marked, under someone's protection. With his superhero nose, Rand could probably tell him who, though Cai could make an educated guess. If the boy was confident enough to be escorting strange vampires to their rooms, then he belonged to Lady Lyssa. No one was going to fuck with a human marked by her.

  "Is she aware of child labor laws?" Cai queried.

  Gideon chuckled, and even Daegan's eyes sparked. "John's the grandson of her majordomo, Elias Ingram. John works with Lord Brian in the labs a lot, because he's a science geek, but he also likes to help his grandfather out. When he's not at school." Gideon tucked his tongue in his cheek and confirmed what Cai had suspected. "But he's Johnny-on-the-spot today because he heard a rumor that there's a shifter around."

  Rand, you might want to come in hot as a wolf. There's a kid here expecting to be mightily impressed.

  He didn't know if Rand would answer him. They weren't fighting, not exactly, but there was definitely a strangeness between them right now.

  John's mark wasn't considered a sure protection in certain company, apparently, because as the kid came down the steps and they exited the limo, Daegan ambled over to a pretty trellis area. He took a seat on its bench, obviously intending to wait until Rand arrived and ensure that John had no issues getting them to their rooms.

  "I just got my ass barbecued to get Dovia away from those assholes," Cai directed bluntly to the male. "You really think I'm going to do something to hurt a kid? And Rand would chew off one of his own feet first."

  Daegan lifted a shoulder. "Dovia is a vampire. You follow the Trad preference to kill humans for food. So you assign their right to live no more value than the fisherman does the fish he has snared. While I don't believe you intend to harm him, your lack of regard for his kind means a mistake could be made. John is quite important to all of us."

  "I suppose the non-Trad kind of vampire is so much better," Cai said bitingly. "Where humans are important when it suits your purpose. Whether it's for food or fucktoys, or to be a bellboy, they're still being used according to vampire whim, right? Your property."

  John's eyes had widened. Maybe Lyssa didn't let vampires use rough language around him. Maintain the illusion that the kid was being raised in some Beaver Cleaver style household.

  It stuck in Cai's craw. He didn't like Daegan's even tone. Yeah, nothing he'd said was technically wrong. But Cai felt like the hillbilly vampire who might just decide to eat the help because he didn't "know no better."

  Fuck all of them. He'd sleep in the woods and, if he decided to hang around and talk to Lyssa in the evening, he would. Or he'd take off and say forget it.

  He'd opened his mouth to spout out just that when he felt Rand's approach. The wolf was coming in according to his suggestion. It distracted him enough that he turned to John, gave him a wink and said, "Look over there, kid."

  Rand emerged from the woods on the right side of the house, clearing a log as he did. He appeared to sail into the clearing, landing with powerful grace. Cai wasn't sure what the demo had cost the leg, but he did notice Rand slowed down quite a bit after only a couple loping strides.

  But that was before the pack of Irish wolfhounds came around the house at a full run.

  There were six of them, one giant male in the lead, his teeth bared and eyes lit. Daegan had realized they were coming even sooner, because he was already on his feet. But for the first time since Cai had met the male, he looked at a loss about what to do. Well, fuck that. Cai knew exactly what to do. He could break a few dogs' necks before they set one tooth into Rand. Rand was bigger and broader than any of them, but it was six to one, and the leader was no pampered poodle. He looked like he knew his way around a fight.

  Cai heard John and Gideon shouting, trying to call the dogs back. Standing on the porch steps, they were too far away to affect the dogs' course. They obviously didn't answer to any of the men present.

  Rand had spun toward the threat. Even before the male's eyes went full gold, Cai felt the wolf take over. He braced himself, a menacing growl in his throat, lips peeled back.

  It served the purpose of slowing the ongoing pack, but only so they could strategize. They split into a circle around him. Cai was already headed that way, vampire speed propelling him, his first target picked out, the tall gray male in charge.

  The upper window of the house slammed open and Lyssa leaned out. "Bran!" she snapped, strident as a fish wife who would gut anyone who didn't mind her. "Maggie! Down. Go to John. Go to John now."

  The pack leader hesitated, territorial aggression warring with something else. Lyssa kept those jade green eyes fixed on him like a laser. The rest of the pack milled, uncertain.

  Rand stayed in his impending attack pose, and now Cai knew what he could do. He reached for the human part of Rand. Shift, Rand. Let them see you're not a wolf. That will confuse the shit out of them and ramp everyone down a few notches.

  Fight...kill...threat.

  No. They live here. The dogs are protecting their home. It's okay. Lyssa's dogs. Shift, Rand. Shift for me.

  The wolf backed up, moved forward, shaking his head, fighting whatever compulsion he was handling. But Cai kept pushing. Relief swept him as Rand let out a frustrated snarl and his body shimmered with that energy that passed over him before the bones started to stretch and alter. His head bowed and then came back, twisting in the quick, startling way that gave Cai a sympathetic twinge in his own neck. Another couple blinks and Rand stood there. Impressively naked, but very much not a wolf.

  The wolfhounds whined, started back. All but that lead dog, the one who still had wolf smell in his nose. Cai guessed he was Bran. He kept his steady gaze fixed on Rand, his posture remaining stiff and combative. With a huff of frustration, Lyssa disappeared. Less than a blink later, she was next to John, pressing a brief hand on his shoulder before she marched down the rest of the steps.

  "Males," she was muttering. "Testosterone-driven idiots, the lot of you." Her hair was caught in a tail on her nape and she wore a dress that had dirt on it, suggesting she'd been...gardening? There was a smudge of soil on her nose. Cai wondered if she knew it, but he sure as hell wasn't going to point it out.

  She'd reached the dogs and put her hand on Bran, tugging at his collar. Noting the eye contact between them, Cai wondered if she'd marked the wolfhound. Geographical mark would be like microchipping, so that would make sense, but would she have done a second mark on the canine? He'd never heard of a vampire doing that to an animal.

  There were rumors that if a vampire second marked a human who didn't speak the same language as the vampire, they might not be able to understand one another when speaking aloud, but the mark translated it into the proper language inside each brain. Did it work that way for animals?

  Had hearing Lyssa's thoughts freaked the dog out at first, both getting a glimpse into a language neither one could speak fluently? Cai guessed he was in a position to sort of answer that question, since he and Rand didn't have too much problem figuring one another out, even when Rand retreated fully into the head of his wolf side.

  Bran stood down reluctantly. He followed Lyssa's insistent command and imperious finger to plod up the stairs to John, disappointment emanating from every stiff stride. The other dogs followed. When they were assembled around John as she'd required, Lyssa nodded, satisfied. "Kitchen," she said briskly.

  Canine eyes that had been filled with menace brightened, tails came up. The pack clattered down the marble stairs and took off around the corner, though Bran cast Rand one more speculative look on his way.

  "Well, I did say make a dramatic entrance. Nice of you to arrange for that," Cai said, meeting the shifter halfway to the stairs. Rand rolled his eyes.

  "Got my clothes?"

  "Yeah. So?"

  Rand gave him a searing look. Cai grinned and returned to the limo, pulling them out and tossing them to Rand, who'd followed him. Lyssa sent Rand her appraising look, the very thorough one that tempted Cai to
block her view. He managed to quell the embarrassing compulsion. Barely.

  "I would have made him leave them off," the queen said. "It's good to have you back safe and sound. All of you." Her gaze encompassed Gideon and Daegan. "Lord Greenwald has already called to express his deepest thanks. Cai, he said if there is anything you ever need, you have won a favor from him."

  "Tell him to kill Chavez and stake himself. Then we'll call it even." Cai said it without much malice, though.

  "Not Tyra?"

  "She had a decent rack. Be a shame to let that go to waste, and she wasn't as much of a sadist. Think she pulled one or two of her punches, and she only kicked me about half as much as the other two."

  He could literally feel Rand's wince, and Gideon choked back a snort of laughter. Cai straightened, trying to look like he knew how to behave. Lyssa's eyebrow lifted in dubious acknowledgment.

  "I'll let you think that message through before I pass it on," the female vampire said neutrally. She turned her attention to Gideon, who still appeared amused, but no longer about Cai's comment. "What?" she said testily.

  To Cai's bemusement, Gideon closed the distance between himself and the Council head before rubbing his thumb over her nose, removing the dirt. Lyssa blinked at it, then smiled.

  "I was adding new plants to the pots in the upstairs sun room."

  "Don't you have a servant to help with that? Or is he lying on his ass somewhere? Hard to find good help these days."

  "Yes, it is. Daegan and I were just talking about that." She nudged him. "Jacob had errands in town, but will be back soon. John, please show Cai and Rand to their rooms. Do not assault Rand with too many questions. Give him and Cai time to rest, and then he may answer some of them for you."

  "Yes, ma'am," John said. His calculating expression suggested he was already contemplating creative ways around the mandate. But Lyssa put a firm hand on his shoulder until he met her gaze and repeated his response, this time with honest intent. "I will, my lady. It's just so hard not to ask questions."

  "I know. You'll be giving Lord Brian a run for his money before you're in high school." She smiled at him and brushed his cheek with her long-nailed fingers. "Take good care of my guests."