by Joey W. Hill
If he had to do it, he'd give Rand the third mark. Unless a third mark didn't lock into a shifter the way it did a human, it would save Rand's life. Nothing could kill him then, short of a metal stake through the heart or something irreversible, like a decapitation.
Cai wasn't sure if he believed the eternal soul-binding bullshit about vampires and fully marked servants, but there was enough about it out there he'd shied from doing it. Yeah, the wolf might not intrude on his solitude the way a human did, but hooking up souls for all eternity? Cai couldn't tolerate anyone more than a few hours, so a third mark might not prolong the wolf's life.
His lips twisted wryly, but then Rand called out hoarsely, hands reaching, grasping at something he seemed to miss catching, because they clutched and all his muscles spasmed. He arched his head back and let loose a chillingly real wolf howl, a cry of pain and need whose haunting poignancy and roller coaster volume made Cai back up a few paces.
"Okay, no," he said decidedly. "We're not doing that."
He dropped to his heels beside Rand, intending to stroke, soothe, do a few things like that to calm him down. Or shake him awake with a sharp command if necessary. Yet his skin was like ice. Rand's eyes opened, but they were seeing something beyond Cai and the camp. They were filled with an anguish that speared Cai through the chest.
"No...no..." Light died out of them and Cai's gut clutched. His one fang started to lengthen, instinctive response to his decision to third mark the guy if he came too close to that edge. But then he realized the dullness of Rand's gaze was an emotional response.
The shifter was doing something with his hands. Looking down, Cai noticed he was rubbing one hand in a scraping motion against the wrist of the other arm. Closer inspection showed it was a deliberate motion, not a convulsive tic, and the hand was curled as if holding something. Something that could cut.
Cai's eyes narrowed. He'd cleaned the male's wounds, but he was still in need of a bath to get all the blood and dirt off him the night's efforts had incurred. As a result, Cai hadn't catalogued the older scars the wolf shifter had. Suddenly, two were far more noticeable.
He gripped the male's wrists, tugging the moving hand with firm insistence away from the other arm. He stared at the thin vertical scar. Lifting the other captured wrist, he saw there was a matching one there, beneath the curl of his fingers.
Like most things, it pissed him off. But this bugged him more than usual, and he wasn't entirely sure why. People couldn't hack it and offed themselves. It happened. Life could suck too much sometimes and they didn't have it in them to push past it, strike out instead of self-destruct.
"Didn't let me." Rand's sudden coherent words and harsh chuckle startled Cai. Looking up, he met the shifter's eyes. Fever made the already vibrant color deeper, the gold like sparks of sunlight in the ocean. "Wolf took over...shifted. Somehow...pinched off the arteries. Wouldn't let me bleed out."
"So your wolf isn't the pussy that you are."
Rand didn't acknowledge the caustic comment. His muscles were all tight, sheened with sweat again even though he was shaking from cold. Yet his fingers were reaching, touching Cai's face, tracing it. Cai gripped his wrist, holding him. Feeling the ridge of the scar beneath his palm, he wondered if the scars would disappear if Rand was third marked. He didn't have a lot of experience with servants, but he'd heard that some old scars didn't go away, and no one knew why. Or maybe they did know why, and they just didn't want to talk about it.
Their clasped hands fell on Cai's chest and Rand's fingers curled against it. He'd removed his shirt again, giving the heavy weight cotton more time to dry from the earlier rain. Vampires didn't have hair below the neck, so Cai's chest was smooth, a contrast to Rand's, with its gleaming brown curls that Cai had been threading his fingers through as often as he pleased.
Another shudder passed through Rand and his eyes rolled up into his head. His jaw was twitching, teeth chattering. "Fuck it," Cai muttered.
Stretching out beside the shifter on the blanket, he wrapped it up around the two of them. He put his body flush against Rand's, arms around his massive frame, adjusting Rand so his head was tucked under Cai's jaw. It bemused him when the male's unconscious reaction was to wind his powerful arms tight around Cai, one around his waist and the other over his hips.
"Hang in there," he found himself murmuring. "Don't die. Soon as you're all right, I'm going to kick your ass for even trying."
He didn't know the guy. If he died, he died. But he still said it, meant it. Maybe because with his arms around Cai it was impossible to ignore that touch was the most basic of needs for almost every species on the planet. A need sometimes more important than any other.
Rand grunted, but it wasn't an acknowledgment. He kept muttering, saying very little that was understandable. Some of it sounded like wolf speak, coming rough and awkward out of human lips. He'd stayed in that form over two years. That was what Cai had read from the male's mind. Was that normal for a wolf shifter? He expected it wasn't. From how much Rand seemed to want to flee back into his animal self, Cai also suspected it wasn't the best thing for his long-term recuperation.
He had a couple ideas of how to handle that. But for now, he stroked the male's snarled hair, flattening his palm against the broad back and tracing his shoulder blades. When Rand pressed his bare hip into Cai's groin, his cock responded with a healthy push back under the denim, his ass tightening to help it along.
"Fuck you," Rand muttered.
Cai had no idea if it was a plea or a curse, and if it was aimed toward him, the universe or an unknown enemy, but he'd take it as a raincheck invitation. He cupped his hand over the male's jaw and face, his warm palm against clammy flesh as Rand shook some more. "It's okay," Cai said. "I've got you. You're all right."
No idea where the hell that came from, because he didn't do the nurture thing, but he kept saying it. It seemed to help the wolf shifter settle deeper into his embrace, his breath evening out, his turbulent energy easier.
"There you go. We can fight or fuck later. Just get better."
Cai had been alone a long time. He'd be alone again. But maybe, for just a little while, he'd enjoy what not being alone felt like, even if it was with someone who wished Cai had never come into his life.
Well, that wouldn't make Rand different from almost anyone else who'd ever known Cai, would it?
His lips twisted, but Cai found himself brushing them against Rand's brow. When the male tipped his face up, Cai thought what the hell, and kissed him again, a long, slow swim in fevered waters, where Rand's hands wandered over his body in unconscious response. He dug into Cai's back when Cai deepened the kiss, so Cai cupped Rand's muscular ass, holding him tighter against his groin.
Rand groaned into his mouth, his shuddering increasing, such that Cai made himself ease back. No good if he pushed the guy into the Reaper's hands by overtaxing him. But even injured, unconscious, the shifter's response was mesmerizing. Cai wanted him now. Only the desire to have him more than once reined him back. He wasn't above fucking his prey before they expired, sending them to the other side with a last good memory, heavily helped by the pheromones vampires could release with their bite. But he wanted more than a single memory with this one.
Yeah, Rand had admonished him about consent. The guy seemed to know more specifics about vampires than Cai would have expected, but that rebuke told Cai the shifter's knowledge was surface stuff. Because anyone inside the vampire circle knew the word "consent" wasn't in their vocabulary.
Cai had learned that the hard way.
Chapter Three
"Open up. Here you go."
Rand tried to avert his face, but the hand and cup followed, and the broth was pushed up against his nose. Realizing what it was, he followed it down to the ground and drank greedily. He needed meat. Not just meat-flavored water. His wish was granted, half a rabbit dropped next to the cup. It was cooked, not fresh and bloody, but he tore into it.
"Take it slow so you don't make yoursel
f sick. I thought you were getting better today. You've been in and out on me for three days." The vampire's voice sounded pleased. "Wounds are closed, no infection. No fever." His hand passed over Rand's head and shoulder.
Rand twitched away. Not pack. No touch. He showed his teeth, warning the male away from his food, never mind that he'd given it to him.
"It's intriguing to listen to your thoughts in this form. Far more basic, but understandable. Yeah, it's another reason I knew you were getting better. You shifted in your damn sleep, and were strong enough, even in that state, to keep me from overriding you. But the man's still in there. Which I think will turn out to be useful."
Rand listened with half an ear, not really caring what the vampire was talking about as long as he kept his distance. He focused on the food. Then, as his first hunger abated, Rand realized something else. He was chained.
He lunged against the collar, realized it was too snug to slip, and it pulled him up short. Whirling around, whimpering a little at the sudden twinge of pain in his side and leg, he saw the chain running to the nearby tree. No. He wasn't going to tolerate being bound. Typical vampire, thinking a chain could hold him.
He was still healing, but he knew he was strong enough to free himself. Rand dropped, rolled and got the chain wrapped around his chest, under his leg. Enough of a harness that when he lunged again, the chain met his formidable strength, propelled through his shoulders.
One or more of the links should have busted. At the very least, stretched. He could compete with a tow truck in top form. Instead, the chain tightened around him, dug into his chest and shoulders, and held, though it didn't cut into his flesh, as he would have expected. As pain bloomed in his side, he did it two times, three, the panic of an animal trying to surface. Recognizing that for the trap it was, Rand stopped and forced himself to calm down. Panting, he rolled his eyes toward Cai.
"Been doing a little reading," the vampire said conversationally, though his gaze was on Rand, tracking his every movement. He squatted on his heels a short distance away, forearms loosely braced on his knees, thumb and middle finger of one hand flicking in idle, unconscious movement. Rand changed position, four feet braced as he faced off with the vampire.
"Went into town to snag the chain and collar, and raided the local library for the shifter stuff. Figured a lot of it was going to be complete bullshit, same as it is for vampires, though they do get some things right, like the darkness and blood." Cai lifted a book that was on the ground by his side. Rand flattened his ears in response, not sure of the intent of the movement until Cai laid it down again.
It's a damn book. Think. He could shift his mind to think like a human while in wolf form, if he focused. He just usually preferred not to do so. He'd done it that night with the hunter, tricking him into thinking he was dead, but he'd been particularly motivated.
"A few stories say if a shifter stays in his animal form for too long, he'll be stuck that way forever," Cai continued in that same annoying, persistent tone. "I expect most shifters would consider that a warning, something to be avoided. For someone who seeks oblivion and to forget the human side of things, I expect it would be really damn appealing. So I was thinking..."
Cai rose, and sauntered over to a nearby tree, taking a seat beneath it. "The best way to combat that kind of urge is to remind the shifter what's appealing about the human form. And I don't know a male in the world who won't act in the best interest of his dick."
With deceptive casualness, he unbuckled his belt, left it dangling as he pulled open the top button of his jeans. Working the zipper down with the pressure of his fist, he curled it around the cock he revealed, since he wore no underwear under the garment. "I think you're up to the reminder, and I'm done waiting. I'll be gentle, but I want that ass."
Rand fought his human side, tried to push it back, but his eyes locked onto the vampire's movements as he settled in to jack himself off. One knee was bent, the other rocked out wide as he slowly pumped his member and considered Rand. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and Rand's attention was all over him, the vampire's scent filling his nose, fueling his hunger. The vampire was right. His body was healed enough for his cock to be stupid.
"Yeah. I expect your shifter healing abilities and that second mark finally started to work in the same direction. You're not a hundred percent, but probably in about the eighty-percentile range. So you can have this as a reward." Cai tightened his fist around his stiff cock, with its scimitar shape and appealing thickness. "Or maybe it's my reward. Doesn't matter. I think by the time I'm done, you'll consider it a win-win."
Vampire arrogance was even farther off the charts than he'd heard. Rand told himself that, even as his eyes clung to what Cai's hand was doing, and his body trembled on that precipice, the human male inside the wolf wanting, and wanting badly. It had been so long...
"All you have to do to get it, and to get out of that collar, is come back to human form." Cai lifted his free hand and waggled the thumb. "Useful for unfastening buckles. Or unhooking chains, if you like the feel of the collar I put on you enough to keep wearing it."
That outrageous statement came with an infuriating, quick grin. It showed the tip of the vampire's fangs, both the real and the metal one. Rand had never heard of a vampire missing one fang. He didn't want to be curious. Didn't want to care.
Cai's gaze slid down as he fingered his belt with his free hand. "If you shift to human, I could strip this off and use it on your fine ass, punish you for causing me so much work."
Rand backed up, moved sideways, fought the chain again. He let the rage have him. The chain creaked enough to have the vampire's brow rising, which was gratifying, but it still held. He'd embrace it until he passed out, taking him away from a decision he couldn't afford. He didn't want to feel. Why wouldn't the vampire leave it alone?
The pain in his side built to fire, and he snarled as the vampire was suddenly on his feet and behind him, arms banded around his throat and the barrel of Rand's chest, holding him up on his hind legs.
"You aggravate that wound again, and I will fucking tie all your feet together," Cai breathed against his ear. The threat sent a shiver of sensation through Rand's body. "I'm glad I assumed you were at least as strong as I am. I've reinforced that chain with something you can't fight. It's cheating, yeah, but I want a level playing field. Come fight me, man to man. Shift."
Rand snapped at him, but the vampire stayed out of reach, his hold tightening. "If you don't," the vampire promised, "I'll prove how little of a moral code I've got. I'll shove my dick up your wolf's ass."
The idea was so repellent to Rand, he almost shifted then and there, but he pushed back the reaction for another few minutes to prove the vampire couldn't order him around or threaten him into doing his will. The problem was his human part wanted what the vampire was offering. The lust, strong and heated, surprised him, but the vampire had kept that need kindled over these past few days, hadn't he? Rand recalled it in quick flashes; a hand passing over his face, his chest, a wet cloth bathing his genitals...
He shifted, fur becoming flesh. The vampire moved with him, more smoothly than seemed possible with the quick, snapping convulsions that accompanied a swift shift. However, when Rand was done, he was still securely in the vampire's hold. He fought him to be free and this time he won, twisting out of the vampire's grip and backpedaling away, catching himself before he tripped. He had a momentary impression of the vampire's hands slipping away, and realized the male had had one palm molded over the wound in Rand's side to protect it.
The collar was loose on his neck now, but as Rand reached for it, he hit a field he couldn't get through. He couldn't even curl his fingers over the darn thing and try to pull it over his head, which he should have been able to do, since the wolf's neck and ruff was far thicker than his own.
Magic. He couldn't read the shape of it, but it was obvious that was what it was. He hadn't imagined that healing wash of heat after all. The damn male was a magic user and a vampire. Some
thing Rand had never heard of, but his knowledge of vampires was far from complete.
Regardless, it made the vampire double the trouble and annoyance.
Cai's fangs flashed in a grim smile. But as he moved in on Rand, Rand closed his hand over the chain, and realized he could touch that, even if he couldn't unhook it from the collar. The flash of oh shit in the vampire's eyes was mildly gratifying as Rand dodged past him and employed the chain as a weapon.
He just about clotheslined him. Cai ducked under the chain. He'd had the presence of mind to refasten his jeans so vulnerable things weren't hanging in the breeze, but Rand's body was still torqued by the erotic display of rippling muscle and grace as the vampire entered a warrior's dance with him, up and forward, around. Near pins, missed punches. Twisting, grappling, the chain clanking and the vampire dodging away and out of range before Rand could get Cai tangled in it. Then he closed back in again.
They were like a mirror, anticipating one another too well. Twisting. It occurred to Rand that Cai was in his head, and if he could follow his thoughts that fast, he'd stay ahead of Rand, get the advantage. Except Rand used instinct, not thought, and that leveled the playing field.
Then Cai got him pinned against a tree. Rand plunged a fist into his gut that knocked him back. It made the vampire swear, and emit an odd half chuckle. Then the fight got serious.
Damn it, Rand was tiring out. That eighty percent was working against him. But he wasn't going to stop fighting. Maybe the vampire figured that out, because suddenly he was outside the ring of combat, just beyond the chain's length. He stood there, studying Rand, arms crossed over his bare chest.
"Fucking hell," he murmured. "That was fun."
It had been...stimulating. Rand's hands closed into fists. He didn't want to feel that way. Didn't want to think about his cock being hard and stiff against his belly, and the vampire noticing it with avid eyes. Cai was just as worked up under his jeans, ready to go.
"Let me go," Rand growled.
Cai considered, then dipped his head, a short nod. He walked toward Rand, easy, casual, as if they hadn't just been grappling like enemy combatants. His clear blue eyes were intent on Rand's, yet seeming to cover every inch of skin at the same time, lingering on Rand's mouth as he arrived toe-to-toe with him.
