by Joey W. Hill
"Bound to two, actually. Anwyn and Daegan." Brian glanced toward Daegan and the female bending over Gideon. He'd been coaxed or compelled to stretch out on the floor. Cai noticed Anwyn had opened her wrist and put it to his mouth. Her other hand was on his face, and her profile was worried. Angry.
"He's pretty much the most notorious vampire killer there is from the human race, and he's just part of the gang now?"
"It is a complicated story, and not mine to tell," Brian said firmly. "But it's why he and his lord are here. They have a vast repository of knowledge about confronting vampires in less than ideal circumstances. After you get blood, I suggest you talk to them."
"I won't be talking to Gideon Green, ever," Cai said bluntly. Lord Daegan, sitting on his heels, cocked his head and looked his way. Yeah, with vampire hearing, nothing of this conversation was going unnoted. Fuck, he was a creepy-looking bastard. Those dark eyes that had seemed almost too dark to be real now had crimson sparks in them and way too little whites.
Cai blinked, and they were simply dark eyes again, steady and cold upon him. Yeah, he'd resume his slice and dice routine if Cai kept shooting his mouth off. Which changed nothing. "He killed the only friend I ever had. If he comes near me again, I'll finish the job."
"Good luck with that. Bigger dicks than you have tried."
With those words and a rasping cough, Gideon struggled to a sitting position, no matter Anwyn's sharp word to him. The painfilled, midnight dark blue eyes were deep set in a strong face...and familiar. Which was odd, because Cai knew the male by scent more than sight. He'd only ever seen him at a distance, never close enough to recognize eye color.
The male had dark hair, a lot of muscle and concentrated energy, a honed hunter, thanks to the additional powers being a servant gave him. A servant marked by two vampires, one of them being centuries old.
"Without your Master, you'd be dead," Cai sneered at him.
"I'm alive because you announced yourself with that buffalo charge of yours. You would have done better to get a little closer, give me a friendly handshake instead of going berserker." Gideon's gaze locked with his. "Which I expect is the type of thing Brian wanted us to go over with you. Subtlety when strength isn't enough."
Cai laughed. He didn't care that it hurt, or that it sounded like the bark of a wounded moose. There were things in his gut that hurt worse. With a grunt, he started to get to his feet. Goddamn it, he was going to stand.
Though Rand had to help, he managed it, and pushed a pace away so he could stand on his own. Rand stayed close enough to be a prop, if Cai needed it. He didn't. Not for this.
"I lived a hundred years among Trads, vampire hunter," he told Gideon. "Every fucking day I spent with them as a human, I had to convince them why they shouldn't gut me, drain me. I spent my first couple decades being tortured in ways you wouldn't have survived, as a mortal or a servant. I know, because I saw the humans they brought to the camp die, while I continued to survive. Do you really think there's anything you can tell me about that environment I don't already know?"
He was aware a silence had fallen on the room, but he kept going, didn't look anywhere but in that male's face. If he couldn't kill this asshole, he'd see if there was a scrap of conscience in him that Cai could shred.
"And when I reached the end of what I could bear, there was only one thing that kept me going. Lodell. He patched me up, taught me how to survive. Eventually, he turned me. I hated him for it, hated his guts for the longest time."
He'd accused Lodell of figuring out the worst way yet to torture him. Making him more indestructible only gave Goddard and his crew a bigger range of ways to hurt him. Lodell had told him, "I've given you the way to survive, and win. You've proven you're too goddamn stubborn and mean to die. You were meant to be a vampire. We're both going to win this fight, boy."
"He left the Trads before I did. When I was finally free, I saw him a few times. We had our different paths. But then, not too long ago, I went looking for him again. I was told he'd been decapitated in an alley. He died next to a Dumpster, thanks to you. Sunlight made his ash part of the garbage."
Cai paused, his jaw flexing. "I tracked you, got almost close enough to take you. But then you disappeared. Otherwise, you would have been dead. I never thought to look for you here."
Gideon was another, like Graham, on his list to kill. Cai's voice was hoarse, his body shaking. He really needed to time his dramatic monologues better. "He was...a friend, in a place where no one offered friendship, because it would expose you to weakness. But he did. He cared for me. And you killed him like he was an enemy."
Some distant part of him understood all the conflicts and hypocrisy in his little speech. He himself hated Trads; would kill them all for what a small group of them had done to him. He didn't feel much more warmly toward the type of vampires in this room, for the reasons he'd told Lyssa. If he'd somehow found a way to be human again, he might have joined the ranks of those like Gideon Green, to destroy as many of them as he could.
But he'd met Lodell. And Lodell had showed him that not all vampires, not all Trads, were the same.
Gideon's expression had turned to stone. Not in rejection of Cai's words, but as if he'd needed to hold himself still to absorb the impact of the words. "I'm sorry about your friend," he said at last in a rough voice. "I became a hunter, because a vampire killed my high school sweetheart right in front of me. I got over it and figured out one vampire didn't make all of them bad. But it took me years to get there, and I didn't get over it until I met her. And him."
He glanced toward Anwyn and Daegan. Anwyn might have appreciated the sentiment, but she was occupied, leveling a murderous glare at Cai. If he twitched wrong, he was pretty sure she'd do her best to disembowel him. Daegan looked a little less murderous. He was far more capable of killing Cai, but vampires who'd been around a long time tended to get past shit like this faster. Probably because they had a lot of the same experiences to weigh them against.
Cai wasn't there yet. He still felt as homicidal as Anwyn looked.
"Perhaps I should have stated that not killing other guests is a house rule."
Lyssa stood in the doorway with Jacob. The displeasure in her tone was obvious. Jacob touched his lady's arm and moved past her to drop to Gideon's side. As he did, Cai realized why Gideon's eyes had seemed so familiar.
"Fuck, they're related," Cai muttered. "Great."
Jacob glanced toward him, but brought his attention back to Gideon. "Here I was, thinking you'd make it a whole week without someone trying to kill you, brother," he said lightly.
Gideon grunted. Jacob put his hand on his shoulder, his other moving to cover Anwyn's on Gideon's chest, a gesture obviously intended to reassure the female vampire.
"He's taken some of my blood," Anwyn said. "But he needs to lie down awhile and have some of Daegan's. His is more potent."
"Don't be making him fuller of himself than he already is," Gideon advised, looking toward the impassive Daegan. Then he looked back up at her, a faint teasing expression on his face. "See? This is why I told you I always conceal-carry wooden stakes."
Anwyn shook her head. "Which you didn't have time or opportunity to use."
"I had time and opportunity," Gideon rejoined. "I showed self-restraint, something you never give me credit for doing. Daegan had a dagger strapped to his calf, but did he use that? No, he whipped out the big-ass sword. He sleeps with that thing more often than with us. He's going to slice off his dick one night."
Gideon's words were laced with tiredness, though. He was no vampire and Cai had done him some damage. But when Daegan's eerily empty gaze remained on Cai, an unspoken but undeniable threat, Gideon put his hand on Daegan's arm and squeezed, drawing the male's attention. "If someone had killed one of my friends, I'd feel the same way," Gideon said.
The sardonic humor dropped, his tone weighted with the kind of memory Cai knew too well. "I did, right? For a long time. And every vampire I've killed was probably someone's fri
end or family member. It is what it is. Take it as another check on my long list of karma debts."
Daegan's jaw flexed. Cai suspected he was still debating whether to sever him into three pieces. But at last his attention shifted back to his servant. "I think you will need the nine lives of a cat to survive that list."
"Good thing I'm so indestructible."
"Not indestructible enough," his Master replied. Then he and Jacob were helping Gideon up, supporting his considerable bulk.
Rand closed the gap between him and Cai, and this time Cai had to accept the prop or let his knees buckle. Cai was impressed he didn't whimper like one of the wolf's pups. Fuck, that sword had hurt. Worse, it had messed up the expensive shirt he'd been given to wear. That sucked.
Anwyn stepped forward, meeting Cai's gaze with her own hostile one, drawing his mind from fashion regrets.
"You will not touch him again." Despite her youth, the steel in her countenance was impressively intimidating. "He's ours. You have a problem with him, you bring it to us. That's what a vampire does."
He was going to say something unwise like "oh, so I can ask you to kill him for me?" But the pressure of Rand's hand on his arm kept the snappy and stupid retort between his lips.
That, and the truth of the hunter's words, were something Cai couldn't ignore. Gideon had become a hunter because of someone who'd killed his girl. Cai had killed a lot of humans while with the Trads and even beyond. So how many family members felt the same way about him? He wanted to care, but often didn't, as if somehow the Trads had managed to excise his human conscience.
Moments like this suggested maybe, just maybe, it was still there. It could be restored. He just wasn't sure he wanted it to be, because he couldn't handle hurting, regretting, missing, wanting, and needing something else in his life.
Now Lady Lyssa was looking his way. Great. He knew when he was about to be raked over the coals. He braced for it, but she merely asked a question.
"Are the terms of our agreement still in place? Do you intend to honor them? If you do not, I need to know now, for we'll have to send someone else after her."
There was an uncomfortable pause in the room, or maybe it was just uncomfortable for him, feeling all those eyes on him. Most of them probably expecting he was going to bail. Well, he didn't give a fuck what they thought.
"I'll bring her back if it's possible."
It was that simple. No embellishment, no grand, noble speeches, just he'd do it. Damn if he knew why.
She blinked once. Those eyes were like a green vale, containing too much for him to decipher. "Very well." She shifted her gaze to Rand. "Take your Master to your room and tend to him. Then, if Lord Brian is done with you, and you don't wish to avail yourself of the knowledge Gideon and Daegan can offer, I expect you can be on your way."
Translation: You've overstayed your welcome. Or she wanted him gone before he fucked up something else and/or got himself killed. Fine by him. He didn't want to spend another moment in this mindfuck hole than he had to.
"Blessings on your journey, Cai," she said, that unsettling look resting on him once more. "We'll all pray your efforts are successful. Jacob will give you further details on transportation."
She turned and left the room. She was big on silent departures. Cai couldn't even detect her footfalls once she left his view. It wasn't exactly a pep talk, but it also hadn't been a vote of no-confidence. Good that someone had confidence in this trip, because he wasn't feeling much of that himself.
Jacob stepped closer. Cai knew he should be on guard in case Gideon's brother wanted to retaliate in some way, but Jacob's expression was neutral.
"The van that brought you here is yours to use as far as it will take you," he said. "It has a false floor and is reinforced with certain materials to allow you to handle sunrise. Not comfortably, but it'll provide protection and speed your journey. And speed is important," he added, as if anticipating Cai rejecting Greenwald's vehicle.
"Fine." Cai didn't assume a thank you would be expected. "Since my blood's already been shed in it, it'll feel like home sweet home."
Jacob nodded, another stoic response. Cai realized he really wasn't feeling any ill will from Lyssa's servant. Tapping into Rand's instinct-driven mind, Cai found the wolf wasn't, either. Maybe it was as simple and straightforward as Gideon had stated it. A warrior understood every life he took came with a cost to bear.
Even shining that same light on himself, Cai wasn't sure he could control himself if he had to look at the vampire hunter much longer. Fortunately, Jacob had turned to the other three and they were moving toward the door, Daegan and Anwyn still supporting Gideon.
Cai stared after them, but his mind was in the past.
Lodell. He'd been a skinny vampire, tough as three-hundred-year-old beef jerky. Bright eyes the color of red clay, long, lanky dark hair he kept wrapped in strips of leather made from human skin. He wore bracelets he claimed were strung with human baby finger bones. Though he'd told Cai later they were from the carcasses of a few racoons he'd found after predators were done with them.
It's all about appearing badass and being willing to back it up, boy. Don't matter how scared you are. How much pain you have to take. Make them believe you're tougher than they are. Don't show them any weakness...
But Lodell had shown him mercy. Sometimes in the daylight hours, he'd take Cai to bed with him in the tunnels where they'd had the Trad camp. He'd wrap his arms around Cai as he shook, sure he couldn't survive another day. But as a result of Lodell, he had.
The male had never touched him sexually, but every touch was intimate, a connection Cai hadn't had since Lodell had turned him. Because following that, Lodell was exiled to a nearby Trad camp where Cai saw him rarely. Well, he was exiled after Goddard had the male's leg cut off, making it permanent the same way they'd done Cai's missing fang. Fire and blood.
Lodell had fucking survived that, had eventually gotten away. But then died in an alley at the hands of the male Cai had just done his best to kill. A fucking human had brought down Lodell.
"We don't belong here," he said aloud, his voice strange to his own ears. "Go. We need to just go."
"All right." Rand tucked himself under Cai's arm, his own around his waist. "You'll feed and we'll go. Okay?"
"Yeah, fine." Cai didn't want anyone's help to walk, but right now he needed it. Fortunately, Rand didn't make a big deal of it, but before they passed through the door, Cai looked back into the study. Brian had stripped off his shirt and was sitting on a stool, studying his closing wound as if he was cataloging data even faster than the healing rate. Debra was setting aside the cleaning solution and cloth she'd used to clear off the blood. Her fingertips lingered on Brian's bare shoulder, and it was a nice shoulder. Cai had been right about the scientist's physique. He had a good-looking upper torso, layered with toned muscle.
"Very efficient and powerful," the scientist observed. Lifting his gaze from the wound to focus on Rand, he added, "I suspect your jaw pressure is significantly more than that of a standard wolf."
"A wolf can crush an elk's leg bone," Rand said thoughtfully. "I've never hunted anything bigger than that, so I couldn't say. Sorry, though, for using any of that pressure on you."
Brian shook his head, a light smile crossing his features. "Such things are part of our world. A day without blood and violence is a rarity. At least this time it was educational."
Yeah. Fucking educational. Cai didn't feel in the mood for conversation, so he was good with letting Rand make the good-byes.
They traversed the hall and stairway to the lower level without meeting anyone. With it being nighttime, all the vampires might be upstairs. Even Daegan, Gideon and Anwyn might have chosen an upstairs room to help the hunter recuperate.
When they reached the bedroom, Rand found a towel in the bathroom, spread it on the bed, then eased Cai down on it to protect the linens. Cai wouldn't have thought of it. The wolf was more civilized than he was. Though Cai had picked up the night tab
le and chairs, set them where he thought they had been, before he left to meet Brian.
"I still want to kill him. Don't think I could stay here and see him, and not do that."
"I get that. That's why we'll go, soon as you're ready." Rand slid onto the bed next to him, over him, curling his arm around Cai's shoulders to lift him more securely into the cradle of his burly arms. It put Cai's head on his chest, an unsettlingly nurturing pose, but Rand acted matter-of-fact about it. At Cai's look, Rand shrugged. "Throat's the strongest source, close to the heart, right? Better than the wrist?"
"That's not what I'm concerned about. Far as I know, the side effect of a fucked-up third marking is not warm and fuzzy feelings toward the vampire. Unless you're one of those whacked personality types that gets all forgiving and gooey when the guy you're pissed at is suddenly weak and needy. Not that that's what I am at the moment. But it might appear that way..."
He trailed off at the light in Rand's eye. "You're laughing at me. I'm going to punch you in the nuts."
"No." Rand shook his head, and that light disappeared, but it settled into a rueful twist of his firm lips. "It's not that. And if you punch me in the nuts, I'll twist yours off."
"Yeah, right." But Cai gave him a closer scrutiny. Rand was still holding him, the hand curved around Cai's back moving in an absent up and down caress of his upper arm. Well, hell. He could just reach into Rand's head, right? Figure out what was happening. Was he too chickenshit to do that?
Lyssa had told him a vampire could tear a servant's soul in half by delving too deep, in the wrong way. Rape Rand's soul, strip his mind. So yeah, maybe after the fucked marking, Cai was a little gun shy.
He didn't want to hurt Rand, more than life already had. As Rand stayed lost in his own thoughts, Cai's attention dropped to Rand's other forearm, lying loosely on Cai's abdomen. Cai reached for it, gripped and turned it over to look at the scar on Rand's wrist.
He'd intended to use it as a validation of his own thoughts. Instead he stilled, staring down at an indelible mark that had changed.
Well, not exactly. The disturbing scar the shifter carried was still present--the third mark hadn't made it disappear as Cai had wondered if it would--but now there was something over it. Something that looked a lot like a figure eight brand, a raised, precise design.
