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The personal note of resolve in Jacob's voice told Rand he'd had to do that with his own Mistress. A formidable challenge Rand was sure had been volatile and intriguing to watch.
"I'm not sure if that's what was driving him." Rand sighed. "And he may be right about some of it. I have to think."
"Did you keep the mark?"
Rand nodded. "I did."
Satisfaction flared in Jacob's gaze. "I was pretty sure you would. So go think. You'll be able to find him if you want him. But if you need help, my brother and Daegan won't mind taking a break to track his ass down. They're the best trackers there are."
Rand felt an easing in his chest. It didn't eliminate all the stuff churning in him, but it did give him some breathing room.
"Not the best trackers," he corrected. "But decent for a vampire and a human servant."
Jacob grinned and opened the limo door for him. Rand got in, taking the food and his pack.
When the driver pulled out, Rand dropped his head back on the seat and closed his eyes. He didn't want to think about how every mile passing under the wheels was taking him farther from Cai.
You'll be able to find him if you want him.
Want wasn't the problem. All the emptiness inside of him was filled with raw, aching want.
Returning to the present, Rand glanced over his shoulder as Fane joined him. The male was back in human form, which was curious, since they often didn't do that until they were close to the house. Fane took a seat next to him, joining Rand in watching the younger shifters feed.
"What do you think you're waiting for?" Fane asked at last.
Rand shot him a surprised look, and Fane shook his head. "Losing Sheba, Dylef and your children that way, it hurt something deep inside. Broke it. No wolf stays alone as long as you did when the hurt isn't grievous. You're a noble male, a strong leader. I don't claim to understand your attachment to the vampire, but maybe...there are so few wolves like you, preferring your same gender..."
Fane shifted uncomfortably. Rand offered a panting grin and sidled closer to him. Fane snorted and shoved at him. "Yeah, yeah. Make fun of the straight guy awkwardness. Have pity." He sobered. "What I'm saying is maybe the two of you were meant to be. You seem to fit together, in some hard-to-explain way. I think...he needs you."
Fane firmed his lips and nodded to himself, reflecting his certainty that he'd chosen the right words. "And you need him. You said he left without saying good-bye in person. That's what someone does when saying good-bye is going to be too hard. Doesn't sound like a guy who doesn't want to be with you, does it?"
Rand huffed a sigh and laid down, putting his head on Fane's thigh. Fane stroked his ruff, wrapping his arms over him and giving him a light bite on the nape. "We are brothers always. Go and find him. No bullshit about him being gone. You're blood-linked, which I know you told me he can shut down to make it harder to find him, but you're not human. You've got a nose and you're the best tracker I've ever met."
Rand said nothing and Fane heaved a sigh. "Fine. Cilya networks with pretty much every female shifter, coast to coast. You wait much longer to deal with this, I'll tell her to send out a blast that you're on the market. With pictures. They'll arrive in droves, bringing their best meat pies and fried chicken. I won't have to worry about feeding my own brood for weeks. Plus, I get to watch you squirm under their attentions and try to be polite."
Fane laughed when Rand wriggled free and tackled him. As they rolled, Fane shifted back to his gray and brown wolf. Rand pinned him then jumped back, letting Fane spring up and pounce, with an impressively ferocious sound that was all show. They continued to wrestle, tumbling down the hill toward the younglings. Having finished their meal, they were more than ready to join in the fun when they saw it happening.
Rand participated in the play, but Fane's thoughts had watered what was already well on its way to being a firmly planted tree. Or, since it was caused by Cai, a weed-like, invasive species. Rand felt a spurt of wry humor.
Either way...Fane was right. And because Rand realized that, the urgency that Brian said could be chemical, and Debra's smile said could be something else, seemed to triple inside of him. It wasn't long before Rand broke off from the play and headed back to the house at a lope. It was time to go find his other pack.
He gathered some things together, hiked back out to civilization, and hitched a ride on the rural highway. It would lead to one of the towns where he kept a cache of human necessities in a storage facility. Riding in the back of the rattling pickup truck gave him time to think about the best strategy for finding Cai.
He'd kept the vial, even after he'd emptied it, so he had that scent. He also still had the pillow case. Slept with it under his own pillow. Since Lynn could ferret out any hidden laundry, Rand had had to tell her to leave it unwashed, and suffer the unmanly flush summoned by her knowing look.
Did Cai know he slept with it? He'd wondered how much of his mind Cai had tapped. Unlike Rand, who could only wonder what the vampire was doing, Cai could check in anytime, until he was a few thousand miles away.
Rand had a bad moment, thinking of that possibility. For two weeks, there'd been nothing but silence in his head. He'd expected Cai to eventually speak to him, just a deceptively casual reaching out, but nothing. Not even a random flash of emotion. Cai had done the vampire equivalent of shutting off his cell phone.
Rand had attempted more than once to reach out himself.
I want to come see you, talk to you.
You promised me a trip to the desert.
Where are you? Are you really going to make me track you?
If you really meant that "we can still be friends" bullshit, you wouldn't be acting like this.
Asshole.
Nothing.
Cai would know Rand hadn't had the mark removed. What had he thought of that?
Yeah, Rand could track him. It would take time. There were about a million acres of forestland where he might be. Like Rand, Cai preferred the wild spaces. Or maybe Cai had planted himself in the middle of a human population somewhere, the way he'd distanced himself from the Trads when he left their ranks. It irritated Rand to think that Cai would use the same tactics to avoid him he'd used to avoid Goddard.
But there were other reasons Cai would do it. He would need human blood. He might go with the camper or hiker routine, but Rand had a feeling--hopefully not wishful thinking--that Cai might not revert to killing on a routine basis again, particularly if he was staying in more populated areas. Which meant he'd need wider and more frequent access to humans, to secure that "milk cow" approach to feeding.
He'd said his compulsion skills weren't highly developed, but with his looks, he wouldn't need magic to attract prey. That thought brought a snarl to Rand's lips, unfortunately timed, since at that point he was in a mini-mart and startled the clerk.
But that was when another idea hit him. Which would work, as long as Cai truly wasn't out of range. A good hunter knew when to track prey, and when to bait a trap. Thinking of all the things he knew about vampires in general, and this specific vampire, one sprang to mind in front of all the others.
Cai had vulnerable moments when he'd let Rand take the upper hand. But his core was vampire, which could make itself known in sudden, dangerous and pleasing ways. Dominance was an integral part of him. Possessiveness. And Rand was his servant. No matter that Cai had presumably let him go, Rand thought the emotions provoked by that bond weren't easily set aside.
A gay bar for a casual-hook up wouldn't be enough. He knew exactly where he was going to go. To a BDSM club. And not just any club. He would head for Atlanta. If he let his mind drift into some interesting areas, revealing some of his plans, though not the underlying strategy... If he could keep his thoughts high level and somewhat vampire proof, he maybe could draw Cai to him. Even if Cai was geographically far off, maybe that would get him headed in Rand's direction. So Rand wouldn't actually have to go all the way through with the plan he was concocting.
But if he had to, h
e would.
After the mini-mart stop for gas, the driver of his hitched ride dropped Rand off near the storage units where Rand kept clothing, a small box of personal memorabilia, and an old Honda motorcycle in running condition. When Rand swung his leg over it and started it up, he liked the humming vibration it sent through his whole body, as if he were a live wire.
It was what he felt like, the whole time he rode to Atlanta. Once close enough to the city, he checked into a hotel that backed up to a forest and used the room phone to call Club Atlantis.
Despite his short stay at the Council's Savannah headquarters, there'd been time to pick up some interesting tidbits of servant talk. Like how Anwyn ran a BDSM club, and that was where she and Gideon lived. Daegan as well, Rand assumed, when he wasn't traveling on Council business.
