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"Lady Lyssa," Tyra said in a tight tone of fear and respect. She dropped to one knee.
Cai had laid back his head and closed bloody, swollen eyes, as if uncaring who was coming to look at him. But since Rand felt her even before he angled his face to see her, he looked.
Vampires had a certain scent. So did Fae and shifters. She had some of all three scents, which was intriguing enough. But there was also a solid wall of power around this vampire. Chavez's panic, Tyra's reaction and Voltaire's sudden tension telegraphed it.
All vampires were beautiful, and she was no exception. Long, straight dark hair, slightly Asian features, jade green eyes. Deceptively petite and slim-boned. Her head might reach Rand's chest. He wouldn't underestimate her based on her size. Not a chance with that power beating against his senses like a "realize she can kick your ass twelve ways to Sunday" wake up call.
She was wearing a fitted skirt that stopped a couple inches above her knees, a silky blouse that clung attractively to small curves, and toothpick heels. She navigated the paved drive in them with as much grace and ease as a basketball player in athletic shoes.
She had a male with her that Rand guessed was her servant. He had midnight blue eyes, russet-brown hair to his broad shoulders, and a muscular physique. He emanated the calm readiness of a veteran fighter.
Two other vampires, one male and one female, accompanied Lady Lyssa. The male had cool, amber eyes and long copper-colored hair tied back. Compared to Lyssa and the other vampire, he seemed to project an old-world style, though his clothes were modern enough. Khakis, dress shirt, shiny shoes. The third vampire, the other female, had German features, a voluptuous body well-displayed in a classy outfit of slacks and blouse, and an equally steady brown gaze. Her blond hair was in a thick twist on top of her head.
Servants accompanied them, too. The woman's was a big Viking-looking guy in a kilt. The copper-haired vampire's servant was a female with brown hair, delicate features, but who projected a strong will. She also seemed very interested and concerned about Rand, her lovely gray gaze resting on him, her brow furrowed. She had a kind heart and didn't like to see him bound this way, though she spared very little attention for Cai, seeming to avoid looking at him.
It wasn't that she didn't care, Rand realized, taking a deeper scent. Violence and blood distressed her, stirred up some bad things. The copper-haired vampire's gaze had gone to her, picking it up, but she tightened her jaw and resolutely nodded. An I'm okay message. His expression softened slightly, but when he turned his attention back to their group, it was flat and unreadable.
Like most fully mature adult vampires, all of them looked around thirty years old, but Lyssa felt ancient, and the other two vampires weren't far behind. None of these were fledglings. Neither were the three who had caught them, but now that Rand had a comparison, he knew Voltaire, Tyra and Chavez were much younger.
Another vampire arrived then, one who didn't look cool and steady at all. He wore a white shirt, black jacket, and slacks. Despite the tailored elegance, he seemed disheveled. Maybe vampires couldn't do physically rumpled, so it only manifested internally. The outside said GQ. The inside vibrations said a guy in tatters, likely ripped by his own fists.
At the sight of Cai, he leaped forward, hands curling into claws he set upon Cai to jerk him off the ground. Rand peeled back a lip. He'd kept his wolf contained, but under all the current stresses, that grip was getting more tenuous. Seeing yet another person hurting the vampire, his inner beast said it'd had enough.
And then he got a break. Literally. One of the ropes snapped.
It loosened the hold of the others. Rand thrashed his way out of the bonds, quick as a twisting snake, too fast for the others to react. The helpless anger and banked ferocity of the past few hours boiled forth, his wolf ready to tear something apart.
While normally those tasty horses would take top billing, something else loomed larger in his mind. He had one goal, and he got right to it. He didn't have to think or plan. That was the beauty of being a wolf fueled up on a hundred percent high octane pissed-off.
He hurled himself at the male vampire attacking Cai.
Chapter Six
"No...fuck..." Cai spat out. He was trying to get words past the choke hold the berserker vampire had on him when Rand landed on them both and sank his teeth into the attacking vampire's shoulder, same as he'd done with Chavez.
Since the fucking wolf was a tank and pure muscle, Cai could only imagine the pressure of his jaws. The other male communicated the information graphically.
This vampire was stronger than Chavez. He managed to throw Rand, but Rand was back on him like the duck on the proverbial June bug. Necessity had the vampire releasing Cai to grapple with the wolf. Their three captors moved in, shouting in alarm, eyes wide and worried. Cai would have been grimly satisfied by their troubles, but Rand was all wolf now, his mind in full attack, offense and defense mode. Both eyes were that lava gold color. Cai couldn't reach him with normal modes of logic. Fuck, they really were going to kill him this time.
The idea filled him with such helpless rage, things connected to old pains, that he couldn't fucking bear it. He didn't care that the barbed wire had his nerve endings screaming in agony, and his head hurt from landing on it twice now--once when he was thrown from the van and second when this guy dropped him. He summoned all his energy and thundered out his reminder, because he was pretty sure it hadn't been memo'ed out to the Council delegation standing here.
"Hurt the goddamn wolf, and you get nothing from me, you psychotic, bloodsucking, arrogant, shit-for-brains, assholes." He ran out of air to fuel the words, but not descriptive expletives. He finished them up in his head and took another breath. "Stop it. Stop hurting him. He doesn't understand, goddamn it."
He'll keep fighting you, because the closer to death he is, the better he feels. Cai didn't question the tight feeling in his gut that came with the thought, but if they did irreparable harm to the wolf, he was going to take his own pound of flesh in retribution. If he could get out of this damned wire.
He'd succeeded in drawing attention to himself. An order was barked and miraculously, Tyra, Voltaire and Chavez jumped back as if that hot stick had been used on them. They were replaced by the Viking-servant and the one with Lady Lyssa, the broad-shouldered male who'd been standing by Lady Lyssa.
The Lady Lyssa. Even Trads and vampires who lived in the remote corners of the world knew who she was. If they didn't, her power signature alone would warn she was top of the psycho vampire pyramid. Last of the royal line of the Far East clan, over a thousand years old. Reputedly carrying Fae blood as well as vampire.
He'd expected her to be taller. But even at five-foot nothing, the slim, elegant woman emanated power like a convoy of Mac trucks screaming down an interstate at a hundred miles per hour.
Her servant was no lightweight, either. However, he and the other servant were having a hell of a time containing Rand. They'd thrown some of the rope back and forth to each other and used it to snug his head down, tie his feet. Unlike Voltaire and his two cronies, however, their entire goal seemed to be quelling the wolf's attack, not to harm or enrage him to the point the fight became uglier. Lady Lyssa's servant was even speaking quietly to Rand, as if to soothe him.
That wouldn't work. Cai's lips twisted in grim satisfaction when the wolf snapped at the male's hand, latching on and tearing out a hunk of flesh. Cai tensed as the male swore creatively. B
ut he didn't retaliate, instead muttering, "Yeah, if I didn't see that coming, I deserved it."
The other servant shot him a grin which he quickly lost as Rand almost nailed his forearm. The men left off their banter and concentrated harder on keeping the big wolf pinned down. Even tied, he was fighting like Godzilla taking Tokyo. Admiration surged inside Cai for his determination, but he'd better not let it get too far. Or the wolf might kill the two servants and they'd be back into execution-by-vampire territory. But Rand was still in there, because he seemed to recognize the difference between psychos like Chavez and the manage-and-contain strategies of the two servants. He was fighting, but not necessarily with lethal force.
Which suggested though Rand had retreated back into his wolf, the second mark bond might have some pull. A leash the wolf might heed.
Easy, Rand. They're not hurting me anymore. It's okay. Just relax. I have a feeling this is about to become a more manageable situation.
"If you'll take this fucking thing off me and let me stand up, he'll be much better," Cai grated, tossing the comment to the vampire queen. "What, I'm going to bolt and cleverly conceal myself in acres of open field and horse shit? Or single-handedly attack your army of vampire thugs?"
"Your wolf seems to embrace the idea," she observed. She had a voice that put sultry tags on every syllable. There was no apparent urgency to her, but she was an emotional wall. She could be having a panic attack and no one would be the wiser.
"Yeah, well. Dumb animal. What can I say? He's all about foolhardy acts of honor. I'm about living to stab you in the back another day when the odds are all in my favor."
He heard gasps from Tyra and a couple of the others, but really? He had anything to gain from sucking up when they were already kicking the shit out of him?
"Take off the wire," Lady Lyssa instructed Chavez.
She'd given Cai's thrown-out threat the weight he knew it carried. He could come on that female in bright daylight, with her in a full vampire sleep, and she'd still kill him before he was within ten feet of her. With or without the help of her servant, who was doing a pretty damn good job of sparring with the shifter.
