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"Mordecai?" she asked.
"Just Cai is fine. Only Lady Lyssa uses Mordecai."
"I expect she's fully aware of your nickname and prefers to use the proper one. She's formal like that."
"I noticed. Probably why I haven't spent any effort on repeated correction. That, and she'd probably freeze my dick off." Cai slid his hands into his jeans pockets at her startled glance. "Sorry. Yeah. So, they tell me Lord Brian might have some stuff to help me on my suicide mission. You or this other lab geek know where I can find him?"
The young male straightened and turned, his hazel eyes showing some amusement. "I'm Lord Brian."
The guy couldn't be more than eighty, and vampires optimally stayed close to their sires or parents until age fifty. Guy was practically the human version of a college student. He was supposed to give Cai tools to help him deal with Trads?
Brian obviously read his skepticism, for his lips curved in a grim smile. Taking a closer look, Cai noted a seriousness in the male's direct gaze that suggested he might be far more mature than his years. Hopefully.
"You think any vampire over the age of two hundred would be on the leading edge of vampire science?" Brian asked pleasantly. "Most of them don't even know what a phone app is."
"Lord Belizar has made some excellent progress," Debra pointed out. "He sent that last text to you without incident. And he's far older than two hundred."
"Yes." Brian snorted. "He spelled out every word. It was eleven pages long."
"I'm not seeing any centuries-old vampire, let alone one with 'lord' tacked to the front of his name, getting into the whole LOL, OMG and BFF lingo," Cai said, his feet back under him. "Let alone emojis. Though I could be wrong about that. Everyone likes using cute pictures."
Debra hid a chuckle behind her hand. She had some of the delicate-beauty quality that Lord Mason's servant Jessica had. But as Cai took the same kind of closer look he had with Brian, he noted the razor-sharp intelligence in her brown, long-lashed eyes. This was the human servant to whom both Lyssa and Jacob gave equal props as Brian's partner in the lab.
Cai's brain power might be seriously outmatched here. Didn't stop him from making quips, though. Fortunately, it appeared Lord Brian had a sense of humor.
"Indeed. I shudder at the miscommunications which could happen if they even tried. Jacob brought me up to speed on where you're going, and I've a couple things that might aid you. I also want to ask you some additional questions in case I've overlooked anything."
His scrutiny increased as his gaze swept Cai, but his manner became even more polite, putting Cai on alert. "And later, when you return, I'd like to ask you further questions about the Trads. We know precious little about them from a sociological standpoint, and the more information I have about vampires as a whole, the more it contributes to the different divisions of work we do at our lab facilities."
"The returning part is a big if, but sure, maybe." Cai shrugged. "I wouldn't give me anything that's a prototype you want back, because my chances of succeeding are right up there with launching an arrow from the roof of this building and hitting the moon."
"Yet you're still going," Debra said. "That's very brave, to risk your life for a female you don't know."
"Not really. Just going to do it. Don't care to think about the why, because if I did, I'd realize it's monumentally fucking stupid, and I won't do it. So let's move on."
She blinked. Lord Brian gave him another hefty scrutiny, but he turned to rummage through a plastic box of vials. After studying the labels on several, he handed one to Cai. "This doesn't require refrigeration and its potency lasts about two weeks. Put it in something they're all drinking, wine, whatever. No more than a few drops will knock a vampire out in a matter of minutes. Five tops, and it dulls the brain's warning system so they feel like a drunk passing out and won't fight it. At night, they'll remain solidly unconscious for a couple hours, give or take a few minutes, depending on their age and will. If administered near dawn, the effects last longer. When they wake at twilight, they'll have a short hangover period that can slow their wits."
The scientist went to his stores, returning with a pack of gum.
Cai shook his head. "I really don't chew gum."
Brian smiled. "Chew a piece of the red gum if a vampire has forcibly taken your blood. The binding effects, their ability to track you, will be neutralized."
"Okay." Most of it was probably bullshit, but the guy seemed to think it would work, so Cai pocketed the vial and the gum. He looked curiously at the other things overflowing the trunk. "You don't travel light."
"I'll be setting up a temporary lab here for a few days. It will keep me closer, in case Dovia needs care. I have several degrees, one of which is in internal medicine. Doesn't apply to everything about vampires, but it can point me in the right direction."
Since the multi-degreed guy was being professional and impressive, Cai realized he should make an effort to appear like he was thinking stuff through, too, planning ahead. "Okay. What will she need, if she's in bad shape and we're not close enough to get to you right away?" If we find her at all, if we rescue her, if we don't all end up dead.
"Blood's the obvious thing. From your servant ideally, depending on her state." He paused and Cai tensed, anticipating a question about Rand's blood, its potency, but Brian moved on. "Keep her warm, reassure her, and get her as far away from them as possible."
"Thanks. Definitely needed a few medical degrees to figure that out."
Brian gave him a humorless smile, but produced one more vial. "This will help her sleep. Only two doses at a time, though. She can't overdose, but the mix can put
her in a prolonged sleep that could turn on her. She could get caught in her dreams and feel trapped there."
It reminded Cai uncomfortably of his nightmare earlier, that smothering feeling. He took the vial without any further snark and added it to his pockets.
"I'd like to be as prepared as possible," the scientist said. "What do you think her condition will be?"
"Depends on her will. We're different from humans, aren't we?" Cai said. His tone had gone flat, but he didn't know how to change that and answer Brian's question. "She's an object to them, a means to an end. They'll have no empathy for her, and the longer she's with them, the more she'll question if she has any identity at all, if she's become an 'it,' because that's how they see anyone not part of their circle."
He'd been there himself. But they hadn't broken him, had they? Maybe it was the vampire strength Lodell had given him that had turned that tide, or something else, but Cai had to wonder. How many human women had he seen the Trads break? Captives who eventually could be left unbound during daylight hours, because it didn't occur to them they had any choices that were their own to make.
Debra looked startled by the concise summary, but there really wasn't a way to fucking soften it, was there?
"Thank you." Brian spoke the words neutrally, but his hazel eyes had gone cold, his jaw tightening. "We will prepare for it."
"How?" Cai asked abruptly. "How does anyone prepare for that? Make that easier?" He lifted the bottle. "Except with this. Total oblivion. Even that, if you take too much, it puts you right back in the middle of it."
"We take a couple things with us that'll tie her back to this life, to the comfort and love of her parents. To remind her that broken isn't dead."
Cai turned. Rand was leaning in the doorway. It was hard to sneak up on a vampire, but Rand had managed to do it. Maybe because Cai had convinced himself the shifter wasn't coming back.
He'd been wrong.
Chapter Ten
Rand had a teddy bear tucked in the crook of one elbow, both hands in his jeans pockets. His expression was unreadable, and his mind likewise oddly free of thought. He only noted simple, random things, like the rosemary and lavender smell of Debra's soap and shampoo, and Brian's chemical and male scents, a mix of lab and man.
