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He took a breath, and Rand heard that unsettling note in his voice, felt the intensity of it. "I'm a vampire now, and I'm cool with that. Thanks to the seed magic stuff, I was already something different from most humans. That was why I was taken. But she was my mother. I remembered her."
Cai paused, realizing he was letting his need to strike out take over his emotions. But God, he did remember her. Two hundred years, and he still remembered her smell, the touch of her hand, her eyes. Her smile. "I remember enough of her that, one day, when I'm strong enough, Graham will die at my hands. I've already taken two of the others who were at that audience. It's not my main reason for eating and sleeping, but I know our paths will cross when the time is right."
Silence ruled the room. When Lyssa did speak, it was in an unexpectedly mild tone. "Since you don't walk in our circles, you may not be aware. This Council bears no love for Graham. Because he has violated our restrictions one too many times, he was recently stripped of his overlord title and is on a probation that will end in his death if one more violation reaches our ears."
She unlaced her hands and placed the palms flat on the desk. "If that happens, his servant will be separated from him, if she doesn't wish to follow him into death."
Cai blinked. "You can do that? Separate a fully marked servant from the vampire?"
"We have had some limited success, for special situations." Lyssa waved a hand, indicating she wasn't going to be deviated from the topic. "She's not responsible for her Master's crimes. However, she is not the same one who helped your mother, I am certain, for he goes through servants at a distasteful rate. He's a disgrace to our society. But Lord Georg is not. He has been a good overlord before this happened."
"Before the Ennui got to him?"
Her expression closed. "You are aware of the condition."
"I know a few things about your world. It's also affected some Trads."
"Then you have shown more discretion and kindness than I anticipated from your attitude." She inclined her head. "Georg is an overwrought father and vampire seeking a target for his helpless rage, his fear for his daughter. But I expect you know that, which is why you requested a private audience, isn't it? So you could speak frankly without causing him more distress."
Rand's gaze slid to Cai, surprised when his face shuttered. Thanks to Cai's explanation of his background, most the ire he'd felt at the vampire's callousness had evaporated. He was still acting like an asshole, but Rand now understood better why. Though, because he could be an asshole, Rand wasn't entirely sure why Cai hadn't wanted him here.
Did he think finding out he'd been a victim would change--
Not a fucking victim.
Jacob started, and even Lyssa stiffened in surprise as Cai erupted from the chair, so violently it thudded to its side. In one step, he was facing off with Rand like he intended to attack. His fists were clenched, eyes like living flame.
It happened so fast, Rand reacted exactly as a wolf would. Flat ears, curled lip, hackles raised, tail out straight and feet braced. Ready for a fight, knowing he was standing right on the threshold on one. Cai met his gaze in unmistakable challenge, his mouth set in a flat line.
If that's what you think, then I mean it. Get the fuck out of here and don't you fucking come back.
He wanted Rand to attack. Rand had pressed the trigger that would let Cai act out, wreak havoc. Anything but having to sit here, talking in this absurdly civilized study about something wild and hellish unearthed from a place deep inside of him he didn't touch.
Rand had told Cai a shifter was a virtually foolproof lie detector. He hadn't explained that an extension of that was the ability to use animal intuition and human insight together to translate a language just as illuminating. His emotions.
Slowly, Rand's flattened ears lifted to a pricked-up position, his tail lowering from the pre-battle stiffness. He moved forward, watching the vampire's expression turn confused as Rand stopped next to him. Rand lowered his haunches to the carpet, the rest of him following as he settled into an alert, heads-up but lying-down pose on the carpet. His shoulder was against Cai's leg.
The vampire was facing away from Lyssa and Jacob, so they didn't see what Rand did, the easing of tension from his features, the bitterly rueful look. Cai closed his eyes, and his fist opened, his fingertips brushing Rand's face as Rand dipped his head to the contact, a dignified acknowledgment.
You're in my personal space, wolf.
Have your back. You piss off all.
It's my superpower.
Cai's shoulders lifted in a sigh, and Rand watched his face rearrange into a more neutral expression before he turned to face the desk again. "Sorry about that," Cai said politely. "Domestic issue. Where were we?"
Lyssa studied him. Rand could feel the current of tension through Cai. He wanted to get this done. Really wanted to be out of here.
Fortunately, Lyssa seemed to understand and didn't linger on the unexpected episode. "So you can lead us to where these Trads are," Lyssa said. "Do you think a single assassin could do an extraction? Or would an armed party have better success?"
Cai shook his head.
"I said I could draw you a map. But it won't help, whether you send one or a hundred. They'll hear you coming a mile off, because you don't move in their world. They'll take off with her as soon as they detect you're in the area tracking them. Which they will. If by some miracle, you corner them, they'll kill her just to spite you. Unless she's already conceived, which isn't likely unless some miracle happens that hasn't been pulled off to date. And when they kill her, they'll do it in the ugliest way possible, so her father gets back only a pile of meat, bone and blood."
As Lyssa's expression tightened, Cai tipped his head toward Rand. "If you want tactful, talk to him. Even when he's in the drool and fur state, he's subtler than I am."
"No doubt," Lyssa said. "I expect him to curb his drooling. Hard to clean out of the carpets."
See? Told you about the carpets.
"Would they trust you, Mordecai?" Lyssa continued. "To infiltrate their ranks and retrieve her, get her to safety and give us time to send you backup for the extraction?"
He blinked at her. "Don't know, because there's no way in hell I'm doing that."
She tapped a nail on the desk. "It has been my experience there is always something someone wants, enough to compel them to attempt something unwise or impossible."
"Both apply to that scenario."
"I can't compel you to do it," she said. "But I will ask you, is it possible?"
"No. Not if you're asking an amoral bastard like me to do it. Now, if you had someone who'd lived with the Trads who had his moral sensibilities," he jerked his thumb at Rand, "you might get a needle through that hell-tight sphincter."
"So if both of you went--"
"No." Cai's voice went flat with menace, right on the brink of the fury he'd displayed moments earlier. Rand noted Jacob tracking that aggression, but he stayed where he was. From Lyssa's still gaze, her deceptive relaxed state, she had things in hand, even if Cai came over the desk at her, which Rand sincerely hoped didn't happen.
"If I had an insane inclination to drop in on the colony that has her, he wouldn't be part of that. He's not my full servant, Lady Lyssa. He's second marked, but that was to help him heal from serious injury. He has no commitment to me and I place no bond on him. He's not human, so he's not going to out the damn vampire secrecy code."
"Indeed." She pursed her attractive lips. "Well, since you have no bond on him, I can ask him directly what his feelings about it are." She turned her gaze to Rand. Cai moved in front of him, just as fast.
"I said fucking no. You supposedly know a dozen languages. You have trouble understanding that word, bitch?"
Aw, hell. Rand was glad his wolf expression concealed his inner cringe. Damn it, Cai...
Lyssa had proven she'd tolerate a certain lack of manners from someone unused to her world. The wave of coldness, all amiability wiped from her expressio
n, said she'd reached her threshold. Cai had just stepped in it.
But from the set of his shoulders, Rand expected Cai knew that. Fuck, had he done it to protect Rand, just like he'd done before? But whatever the reason, a distraction was needed. Now.
Going to need those clothes.
He could shift in a matter of seconds when needed, though fluidity had to be sacrificed to speed. Fortunately, he managed it without it becoming too much of a bone-breaking, skin-splitting horror show.
Jacob's set expression, reflecting his lady's displeasure with Cai, transformed to fascination, and then a slow smile. It was the reaction shifters appreciated the most, somewhere between a kid realizing dragons did exist and always knowing they had been there, just out of sight. Lyssa, on the other hand...
Rand guessed he should have anticipated a vampire's reaction would be well-flavored by strong sexual interest. He was alive because of Cai's, after all.
The vampire queen's appraisal started at the feet and went up with lingering thoroughness. When she reached Rand's face, he thought he might be blushing.
"If all shifters looked like you, Rand, I expect vampires would have dug them out of the mountains long ago."
