by Joey W. Hill
But Rand couldn't argue with the look, which highlighted Dovia's delicate features, yet also underscored the set of her chin, her firm lips, that spoke of resolve. Determination. The ability to survive.
He expected Darcy, Fane and Lynn's fashion-conscious teen daughter, had likely suggested the cut. While Dovia wouldn't be able to see it in the mirror, when she woke, Rand bet money the shifter teenager would be ready to show her the magazine picture.
He remembered paging through one of those magazines the night before they went to rescue Dovia. It had been a culture shock dip into the world he'd been away from for over two years. How fast did vampire hair grow? Not as fast as visible wounds healed, but Rand expected it grew faster than a human's.
Idle thoughts. Normal things like that, they hurt and comforted at once. He remembered Sylvan's boys playing catch, the smell of Sheba's fried chicken...
Cai's eyelids were drooping again and Rand let his eyes half close, figuring their ease would help draw the girl back to the same kind of slumber. It did. She was drifting back into a doze, he could tell, even as she pressed closer, nuzzling her face in his chest.
A half hour later, he returned to a wakeful state. He wasn't exactly sure why, until he realized Dovia's hands were moving over his chest, then down, under his arm. She was...caressing him, her touch drifting around to his back, fingers exploring with obvious sexual intent.
He couldn't have been more startled if she'd turned into a two-headed wolf, right before his eyes. He stiffened when she slid both hands down to cup his ass, and knead. His gaze shot to her face. Her eyes were closed but her lips were slightly parted. Her body moved more urgently against his. She was asleep, mostly. In a half-waking dream state, somewhat conscious but not.
He should speak her name, wake her fully, but he honestly had no clue how to handle the situation. It made no sense to him. After what she'd endured, no female would want... What the hell was happening?
It wasn't manly, but panic rarely was. Cai? Cai.
"Cai," he hissed. Lifting his head, Rand realized, with both relief and annoyance, the vampire was awake and watching her progress. Cai lifted a "what?" kind of brow.
"We need to wake her. Now. She couldn't possibly want...this kind of thing." Rand spoke low but aloud. He'd hoped Daegan was asleep, but his wolf senses told him he wasn't, so he wanted to be sure the male with the lethal sword knew he wasn't encouraging this.
Cai's eyes sparked with humor, making Rand's teeth grind. "She's a vampire," Cai answered, just as low. "Remember, vampire libidos are like ten times that of a twenty-something human male's. It's as much a part of us as the need to drink blood, so claiming that for herself, doing it right now? It's a good sign that she's reaching for that. Even if in her sleep."
"But I...I don't..."
"It's okay." Cai put his hand on the young woman's shoulder, sliding his fingers along her arm, down to where it curved over Rand's hip. Cai covered her hand on Rand's backside, closing his grip on her wrist, caressing. As he gently brought her touch away from Rand, he spoke quietly.
"Dovia. Wake up, princess."
He eased her arm into a folded position where her hand was by her shoulder, and dipped his head to kiss her fingertips, an easy gesture. Her head dropped back on his shoulder.
"I'm awake," she murmured.
Rand had been wrong. She was awake, and her half-closed eyes were on him, her pupils big and dark, the tips of her fangs showing.
"I want him," she said, with an almost animal note to her voice that startled Rand anew.
She's a fledgling, Cai said, another reminder. When she wants blood or sex, her impulse control is almost non-existent. Take the stress of the past few days, add it to being safe now and wanting to reinforce that, by feeling in control of something... You're what she wants. A servant.
She's so young, Rand thought desperately.
She's twenty-two. Remember Giles and Petra? She wouldn't have used them only for blood. Lyssa said born vampires start combining blood and sex in their early to mid-teens.
Rand barely digested the information. His wolf was still struggling with the more immediate issue.
She wants me to have sex with her.
She intends to have sex with you, Cai corrected. She's a vampire; you're a servant. In this mode, she sees herself as in control. Rand, it's okay. You don't have to do it.
Cai wasn't sure why the wolf was looking so distressed about it. There were other ways to deal with Dovia's need. Nobody would question him if he denied a fledgling the right to enjoy his servant, since she had no authority or rank over him.
No. Rand's jaw set. If that's what she needs...to feel better, to feel more in control, I can do it. I just...I don't know how.
Cai blinked. It works pretty much the same as it does with a guy. Just a different orifice. Usually. Though she might take that as an option.
No. Rand shook his head vehemently. I understand the mechanics. I want it to be pleasurable for her, and I don't...know how to do that.
The male's ears were turning pink. He was blushing like a damn school boy. Holy fuck. He'd never... Cai lifted both brows.
What about Sheba? You had a litter together.
Yes. We mated as wolves, because that was easier, more instinctive for me, more straightforward for her, not as difficult with her grief for Sylvan still so fresh. Not...man and woman.
"Ah." It struck Cai as ridiculously sweet, the wolf shifter wanting to make sure it was pleasurable for Dovia, do it right. And willing to do it against his own preferences and nature simply because Cai had told him it would help her heal the wounds that were far deeper than the physical.
Rand was strong, but a gentle male, too. With a hell of a tempting service sub streak.
Dovia's moist lips had parted. She slid her hands up Rand's chest to his throat, fingers stroking, digging in. Her nails had been cleaned and trimmed. Even painted, a delicate pink hue. Rand wet his lips and she stretched up to brush her lips over them, her fangs grazing his mouth. His wolf was still figuring things out. Slowing things down, Cai slid an arm over her chest and tightened his grip. It kept her from deepening the kiss and won a small annoyed hiss.
"Don't get petulant," he told her, putting his other arm at her waist, giving Rand some distance. She stiffened, but Cai wouldn't let her get caught up in a waking nightmare.
"See?" he whispered as she curled her fingers over his forearm. "It's like I said. They didn't take a damn thing from you."
It was nowhere near that simple, but Cai knew right now it could be. If it had only been her and him in the bed, she wouldn't have been capable of contemplating, let alone feeling, this kind of sexual hunger. A servant was different. A servant was theirs, completely under their control. Under her control. A way to feel back in control.
Today, Cai understood it, in a way he knew he wouldn't have, only a few days before. He remembered the first few times he'd had sex with his human prey, after leaving Goddard's fold. He'd practically received a contact high from holding the reins, having full control of a human's pleasure during sex. Cai could bring that reaction to the edge of pain, and inspire a thrill-ride kind of fear.
It made him want Rand all over again, to do it even better, harder, edgier. Cai wanted to explore those feelings a hundred ways with him, because it would never be the same with the shifter.
It was the difference between day and night, that desire and how Goddard took and gave nothing back. Hell fucking no. But having the right and ability to control a servant's pleasure? Dovia's naturally Dominant desire for that was feeding her already enormous fledgling hungers.
"I want him," she repeated. "I'm hungry."
"That's up to me, isn't it? He's my servant, and if I say he's off the table, he damn well is. Right?"
She stiffened again, but this time in typical aristocratic offense, making him smile against her delicate ear. "So don't tell me, princess. Ask me."
She released Cai to curl her fingers against Rand's chest once more. Over
her head, Cai held his servant's gaze. He could tell what Rand did and didn't want. He was apprehensive, but truly willing to give the girl what she needed. More important to Cai, Rand was willing for the right reasons. Plus, in that intuitive way of his, he'd also picked up what Cai had realized, why it had to be now.
At Dovia's home, she'd only have access to the safe, totally controlled servants she knew. Responding to what had happened to her, they would be almost too compliant, falling short of making her feel like she did in fact have control over this part of herself again.
"I don't want to feel...the others, inside me," she said. "Around me. Please let me...let me immerse myself in him, drink from him, have him inside me."
"All right," Cai said. "That's the right way to ask."
She won't ask me? Rand's expression reflected neutral curiosity, rather than judgment.
No, she won't. Vampires ask other vampires about their servants. Technically, the servant's opinion doesn't count, but that's because it's assumed the servant is on board with what his Master or Mistress wants. But she won't be as high-powered about it as an older vampire. If you're reluctant, she'll likely back off. And if she doesn't, I'll stop it.
I'm not reluctant. As long as you're here...helping me.
Rand's blue eyes flickered. There were a lot of layers to that thought. Layers that made Cai's cock harden, his bloodlust rise and other things knot up in his gut. But he tamped that down. He didn't want Dovia to feel him getting aroused, even if it wasn't directed at her. This was a tightrope walk between what she was trying to grasp and what her fragile, traumatized psyche could handle. Something else he and Rand recognized in a way she didn't.
She was trusting them as strangers thrown together in intense circumstances did. Or like warriors emerging from a blood-soaked field, sharing an aftermath experience uniquely theirs, one that validated their life and worth. Their connection. Something he and Rand would have done in the forest if they hadn't both been beat all to shit.
But the short respite they'd had, and blood they'd exchanged, had equipped them to handle one kid-gloves encounter with a traumatized vampire female.
Rand nodded, an affirmation. Cai squeezed Dovia, warning her of a change in position. He left the bed, circling to the other side as Rand curled his arm around her waist and adjusted the two of them to make room for Cai to get in behind him. Cai first sat on his hip next to him, though, threading his fingers through Rand's hair.
"He's got gorgeous, fucking hair," he murmured. "All over. Enjoy it, princess. Enjoy every inch of him. Don't rush a good meal."
Her eyes glowed. Her fangs were lengthening, curving over her bottom lip. "I'd like for his hands to be out of the way. I want to control him."
The need for that rose in her eyes like a tidal wave, impossible to mistake. If Cai was detecting it, Rand was feeling it full force with his wolf senses.
Cai bent, spoke in Rand's ear. "Put your arms above your head and grab onto that pipe."
There was a water pipe running horizontally above the bed that seemed sturdy. At least Cai hoped it was, or that Rand would stay mindful of his own strength. Sending water spewing over them would be a literal cold shower moment. Plus, if they caused Fane a major plumbing issue, they probably wouldn't be invited back. Not that Lynn was going to add him and Daegan to her Christmas list anytime soon, Cai was sure.
Then his dry humor disappeared, his attention captured by the sheer beauty of his servant. Rand lifted his arms, his back muscles and ass tightening as he curled his large hands around the pipe. A sound escaped Dovia's lips; unmistakable female hunger.
You don't have to do a thing, wolf, except follow her lead. And respond to your Master's touch.
He wanted to call himself Rand's Master right now, particularly with another vampire touching him. Too damn bad if it bothered him, though Cai had a pretty good idea that it wasn't Rand who struggled the most with it. The wolf's arousal had shot up another notch, as soon as Cai spoke that trigger word.
He did a quick check over his shoulder. In the shadows beneath the stairs, Daegan lay stretched out on his cot, his ankles propped on the metal frame. His eyes were closed, arms crossed loosely over his chest--akimbo, not Count Dracula style--but Cai wasn't fooled. Daegan knew everything that was happening over here, but vampires were vampires.
It was as Rand had said earlier. What they were doing wasn't something that would alarm or anger Daegan on behalf of the girl or Lord Greenwald. It would be considered something she'd needed, requested, for her care. To help her take a step toward a semblance of normal. For vampires, it was all about control. Control, sex and blood.
Tell me about it. Rand's nervousness was still there, but his wry response almost made Cai smile.
Dovia's small hands fanned out over Rand's wide chest. When her nails scraped his nipples, he responded, his hips flexing. He immediately froze, as if he thought that was too aggressive. His courtly wolf wanted to make sure he didn't startle her. But him gripping the pipe, purposefully surrendering to her needs and demands, was a powerful statement. Despite Rand's instinctive understanding of dominance and submission in animal form, it might be impossible for the wolf to completely understand how a vampire experienced those feelings. Nothing he did would scare or deter Dovia now. It was far more likely to make her demand even more of him.
Dovia's head dipped, her fangs scraping and lips brushing Rand's heated flesh. Cai had third marked him specifically for their mission, but now he discovered the wonder of being able to stay deep in his wolf's mind, see all that was happening to him. All his responses.
Her touch alone couldn't arouse Rand. Partly because he was too protective of her, seeing her as a female he'd rescued. Partly because of her age, too close to what Sylvan's teenage wolves would have been now. But mostly because he truly was a man's man, a female touch doing little for him. Yet he genuinely wanted to be responsive, to care for her, give her the satisfaction she needed. So he'd asked for Cai's help in that. Cai liked knowing that it was his Master's touch Rand needed, wanted, the most.
Cai scraped back the thick, long hair and wrapped it around his fist. It gave him unimpeded ability to put his mouth on Rand's throat, suckle him hard, tease him with his one fang as he pushed his pelvis firmly against Rand's superior ass. He slid an arm around Rand, loosened the drawstring tie of the shorts, and made short work of the garment, tugging them off, though he was careful of the leg. Despite her blood lust, Dovia seemed to be staying mindful of it, too. Though her feet shifted restlessly, she hadn't hooked her leg over it, since Rand rested on his non-injured leg side. Cai approved of her kindness. It made him like her even more.
She showed less mercy in other ways. He liked that, too.
Rand drew in a breath as Dovia gripped him, her small fingers far stronger than they appeared. She licked her lips, her eyes glowing. Cai enjoyed the multiple feedback readings from Rand's mind. He was registering everything Dovia was doing with her unexpectedly experienced touch--well, unexpected to Rand. Stroking him, cupping his balls, spreading her other hand over his abdomen and learning the shape of every impressive muscle. Tugging on the arrow of hair on his lower belly.
She tasted him; chest, stomach, upper arm, giving him small bites, some of them sharp enough to draw blood. Her hunger was rising, the primal noise constant now, as if she were one of Fane's wolf children. Both species were predators, after all.
Dovia kept her eyes on Rand as she put her hands to the hem of the nightshirt she'd been given. She was riding the tide of her own lust, wanting to feel him, skin to skin. But when she curled her fingers around the cloth and started to lift it, that was when other things interfered. Under Rand's intent male gaze, her own faltered. Cai could almost feel the flashback slam into her. Probably a memory of Goddard and his hell spawn stripping her, staring at her, exposing her in every way.
Before Cai could even think it, Rand lifted his gaze to where he held the pipe.
"You're beautiful," the wolf shifter rumbled. "But I wil
l only look at you if you command me to do so, my lady."
Fuck. Whatever good meant, that was Rand. He understood so much.
She wouldn't expect Cai to be submissive as Rand was being, but he wasn't going to disrupt her with a male stare, either. He made sure his attention remained on Rand, though he did sneak enough of a discreet look to verify that Lynn and her daughters had cared well for her, and the blood Rand had given the girl had helped.
Dovia's skin was like unblemished cream, her body a lovely sculpture of sweet curves. It really was on the border of obscene, how fast vampires could heal from things that took much longer to heal on the inside. Rand had acknowledged that, felt it, answered and healed the rawness of that wound when Cai had struggled with it in the forest.
Cai pushed away the darkness that path in his mind could take. He had better things to command his attention. To command, period.
He caressed the shifter's back between his shoulder blades, dipped down to the lower back, that shallow valley that led to the enticing rise of his tight buttocks. He stroked with his knuckles, gave him a hard pinch or two that had Rand muttering an oath as Dovia reclaimed his mouth with scraping fangs, and a needy, moist heat.
Her fingers still gripped his cock as if she intended to lead him around by it, stretching that connection with deliberate discomfort. That thing in Rand that roused when Cai gave him pain and took control, responded. He was getting harder, pressing into her touch as Cai slid his fingers over and dipped into his rim, caressing. The male rocked and shuddered at the dual stimulation. Cai pressed on the opening, enough to awaken nerves, make the sensitive opening twitch under his fingertips.
"How would you like that, wolf? To have me inside you while she fucks you?" Cai whispered it against his ear, his eyes meeting Dovia's lust-filled ones. She had a nice storm of sensation moving through her, helping to obliterate other kinds of thoughts and noise she didn't want. She had closed up the wound on Rand's neck, done with her blood feeding, but she licked the residual from her lips. Cai inhaled the scent, and felt some of the same hunger stir. He might have a taste himself before this was over.
