Vampire's Soul

by Joey W. Hill

  That meant Lord Brian likely also was here to evaluate Greenwald's current condition, and treat it however they best could under the present stress load. But hearing the scientist might have a specific interest in Rand made Cai uneasy. He probably wasn't the only vampire who'd heard the legends about shifter blood.

  "His servant, Debra," Lyssa continued, "is his equal in running our Council research facilities. Her interest in Rand will be no less than his."

  At Cai's look, she shook her head. "No one will do anything to him against his will. You were invited as a guest, no matter how you arrived," her gaze sparked, "and your hospitality will not be further abused."

  "Unless Rand counts the million questions Brian will ask if he can corner him," Jacob observed dryly.

  If he comes back, Cai thought.

  Lyssa seemed sure of it. Cai wished he had her confidence. She rose. "It will take Lord Brian a few moments to get settled, but I expect he'll head straight from the guest room to the study to set up his mobile lab. Your first priority is to meet with him and go over the suggestions he has to help you with your mission. We all understand time is of the essence. I'll expect you to join him there in the next fifteen minutes."

  "Yeah." Cai said. It wasn't top of his mind right this second, but he'd said he'd go and he would. If he had to do it without Rand, well, he'd still do it. Safer for Rand that way, anyhow.

  Lyssa gave him a searching look, but nodded to Jacob and took her leave, a faint trail of floral scent and a swirl of energy left in her wake. Jacob turned to Cai. "Anything you need before I go?"

  A wolf to get his ass back here. But Cai shook his head. "This Brian guy. He's really a scientist?"

  "Him and Debra. Both brilliant. Ever seen any of the Bond films?" Jacob asked. "Think of Lord Brian as the vampire version of Q. You remember how to get to the study?"

  "Yeah."

  "Good. If you have need of me again, just hit zero on the house phone. As the Council head's servant, anything major regarding household operations goes through me, even if it's not my house, as long as my lady and I are in residence. If it's minor, hit 1, and you'll get the staff. They'll take care of you right away. You might have them make up a ton of food for Rand for when he comes back. I remember shortly after I was third marked, I felt like I could eat an entire cow."

  Jacob moved toward the door. He carried himself with a warrior's self-possession, even in the casual wear of jeans and a Wolverine X-Men T-shirt. Cai told himself not to ask, but he did anyway.

  "Why does Lady Lyssa think he'll return?"

  Jacob turned. "A sense of something between you two. New, but it's a bond. Plus, he cares what happens to Dovia."

  "He figures if he rescues her, it will make him feel better about losing his family."

  "Can't make him feel worse, right?" Jacob pointed out.

  "Yeah, maybe." Cai really wasn't up to arguing about anything right now. He was drained. "Um...your lady, she's all right. I didn't expect that. I've hated Trads so long, and the things they told me about non-Trads didn't seem much better. Particularly Council. Made them sound like a bunch of heartless tyrants more concerned with lording it over everyone than doing anything worthwhile for anyone."

  "Vampires aren't likely to win any humanitarian awards, and not only because they're not human." Jacob flashed a smile. "She can be brutal, but she's fair. She's overlooked your rough edges because she doesn't look at only the surface of things. But now that you've seen that, I suggest you do show her respect. Or she will rip out your lungs."

  "If I had a dime for every time I've heard that," Cai muttered as Jacob closed the door behind him, leaving Cai alone.

  He felt like crap. He knew Rand hadn't become bionic or been beamed thousands of miles away by aliens, because he could thankfully still touch the connection between them. If he closed his eyes, ghosted through those pathways Lyssa had shown him, he could hear the male's heartbeat, the rush of his blood, the turmoil of his thoughts. He was there, agitated. Cai could push deeper, but he didn't. He withdrew, and chose the considerate way. For once.

  Rand, just tell me you're okay, or I'm going to run your ass down. You know I will.

  Silence. Shit. I didn't fucking know. I didn't realize it was like that. Cai cut off that line of thinking, at least on an open channel to Rand. As Lyssa had said, he didn't need an audience for self-pity. But that part when Lyssa guided him in Rand's heart, mind and soul... Even though he was focused on helping Rand get through the shift and not losing his own mind, now that Cai was thinking it through again, he remembered the way it felt, being heart to heart, soul to soul with the guy. It was like standing in the same space in the universe, never feeling alone. Maybe the way twins talked about feeling, times a hundred. Only in that case, they remained separate people, affected by one another but neither controlling the other. Vampires and servants were different.

  Darker shadows closed around his mind as he remembered Lyssa's further explanation about the third mark. You are his Master, responsible for his care, capable of tearing him open or putting him back together. Fuck, he should have known. Vampires had always had a Masters-of-the-Universe thing going on. He just hadn't realized how literally true it was in the vampire-servant relationship. But he couldn't deny it was part of his makeup. How many times when he'd taken Rand had that "mine" feeling surged, wanting to take over the wolf completely?

  And it wasn't all about physical strength. Hell, since he was all alone in his own head, he'd admit it. The couple times he and Rand had tangled had left Cai thinking he and the shifter were on a level playing field as combatants. Rand just wasn't immortal. Cai recalled that intriguing exchange, which seemed a lifetime ago.

  I don't know much about shifter healing ability; if it's any better than human.

  Faster. And our bodies can bounce back from a lot more punishment.

  Cai thought of Lyssa's sensual tease, about punishments and pain being more enjoyable if they were planned. Cai didn't know if he would have been a sexual Dominant as a human adult. Hell, he was fifteen when he was taken, and sex with anything willing was of interest, no need to specialize into BDSM, gay, straight or otherwise. The Trads twisted him, fucked him up, and it took him decades of self-therapy to work it out. Even now, he wasn't always sure if he had the four-lane-highway-wide, sexually dominant streak of a typical vampire, or if he needed to be a celibate in the forest who didn't deal with that craving.

  Well, okay, he could answer the latter. Since the first time he'd seen Rand in his human form, every thought of celibacy was laughed over a cliff, falling so far he never heard the splat. Probably because he was too busy exploring the other male's long, muscular body and wresting moans from his corded throat. Fuck, that ass. Cai wanted it right now. Wanted to caress the broad, endless chest, tease the tiny buds of his nipples with flicks of his fingernails and watch Rand stiffen, blue eyes flash with desire and a predator's aggressive response. He wanted to take as much as Cai did. Maybe that was the key to why the wolf intrigued him.

  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 think 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.