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"Concept's good," Cai said with forced casualness. "We just have to accomplish it another way. The bear carries her scent, and they'd wonder why we have it."
Cai moved to the doorway and stood before Rand. The male looked put together, but what was beneath the surface was untamed, raw. Their eyes met and held. Even with all the stuff unresolved between them, Cai couldn't help taking the wolf shifter in through all his senses. And feeling guilty for how much he meant the next words. "Glad you came back."
When the male said nothing, Cai plucked the bear out of his hold and lifted it. "Fortunately, you can convert to a fuzzy cuddle toy if she needs it."
Rand's gaze sparked. Yeah, now wasn't really the time for Cai to be a wiseass, but that always seemed to be the time he found it impossible not to do it.
Rand had talked about being able to shift his brain to mostly human while in wolf form. Apparently, he could also do the reverse. Cai realized the shifter was keeping his mind in a passive state by letting the animal side hold onto as much of it as possible. Intriguing.
"You still coming with me?"
"I wouldn't have returned if the answer to that was no."
"Not true. Because you're not like me. You like closure and being polite and noble. I like things rude, messy and left dangling like a dick in the wind."
Brian cleared his throat, drawing the two men's attention back to him. "The gum works for neutralizing the tracer on a vampire or a human servant. But I don't have enough information about shifters to say for certain it will work on him."
"Nobody's putting their mouth on him but me unless they want to experience a full fang extraction." Cai lifted his lip to display both of his.
Brian's gaze sharpened and he came closer, peering at Cai's mouth in an alarmingly intent way, as if he might stick his hands in there. "Why do you have an artificial fang? The original should have regenerated."
Cai drew back, bumping into Rand, an involuntary white coat reaction to the scientist's unexpected eagerness to touch, probe. Reminding himself he was a grown-up who could set this guy on his ass, Cai planted his feet.
"Fire and blood. It was cauterized with my blood. Not going into the whys. None of your damn business." He'd told Lyssa, but that was different. He was getting antsy. He wanted to be alone with Rand, resolve some of this shit. Get on his way. Get out of here.
Fortunately for the scientist's long, elegant fingers, Brian didn't attempt a dental exam, but his attention remained on Cai's mouth. "If you'll let me take some quick dimensions before you go, I can have a replacement one made that fits better, without the wiring, and has retraction ability. We had to do something similar for another vampire, one caught in a house fire."
Brian's turned back to Rand. The gleam in the young vampire's gaze reminded Cai of Jacob's veiled warning about a full interrogation. "I recognize your quest is urgent," the scientist said, "but I'd also like to request a blood and hair sample from your servant for study, and about fifteen minutes to ask him some questions."
"You can ask all day long," Rand said. "But I'm standing right here and saying no."
Brian's expression cooled. "You're his servant."
"We're blood bound due to circumstances and to up our chances of survival," Cai said. "That's all."
"Oh." Brian sent Cai an odd look. "You truly aren't very well versed in our ways."
"The first hundred years of my life I was with Trads, and the rest has been as far away from vampires as I can put myself. So yeah, that's accurate." Cai's brow furrowed. "What, because he's my servant he has to do everything I say?"
Lyssa had pretty much said the same, but hearing it reinforced under practical circumstances made it more unsettling.
"Yes," Brian said simply. "In the eyes of our society, he's your property. You've third marked him. We've only recently been able to unmark servants from vampires who feel the relationship was not what they intended it to be, but permission for that is being granted on a case-by-case basis. Some vampires...are not patient."
"They kill their servant, because that's allowed," Cai guessed.
"Yes." The male vampire looked uncomfortable. "Not advised, and not officially sanctioned by Council."
"But not punished, either."
Brian said nothing. Cai noted Debra's expression had become flat as a still pond. He wondered if that was how she covered disapproval, or if she simply didn't have an opinion on it.
Rand's mind was a still pond, giving away nothing. Though the look in his eyes, trained on the younger vampire, suggested more of the wolf than the man. Despite Debra's reaction to her Master's words, she'd noticed it too. Cai saw her studying Rand as intently as Brian had been studying Cai's mouth.
Cai shifted partly into the field of view between the shifter and the scientists, commanding the attention of the latter. "We're different," Cai said. "I'm not a Trad, but that doesn't make me part of your world, either. We'll do this job, and then I'll cut Rand loose."
He'd invited him to go to Syria, but since Rand didn't say anything to contradict him, Cai guessed being future travel buddies was off the table.
"That's not permitted," Brian said. "Simply cutting him loose."
"He's not a human. He's no threat to exposing our world. All due respect, how are they going to stop me?"
"They could track him down and kill him," Brian said in a neutral tone. "He would be safer if you could discuss it with Lady Lyssa, when the time comes. If it comes."
Cai bristled at having to discuss any decision with anyone other than his own damn self, but if it would keep Rand safer, he might be okay with another chat with the queen. And maybe getting that new fang wouldn't be bad. Least they could do if he brought them back their vampire girl.
While he allowed the scientist to take some fang replacement measurements, Cai took his mind off the guy having his hands in his mouth by watching Rand. The shifter moved out of the doorway and took a seat in a cushiony chair. He stretched out his legs and crossed them at the ankles, a deceptively easy pose. The watchfulness behind his gaze remained the wolf, scrutinizing everything with those glittering eyes.
Tell me you're okay, Rand. You know I didn't know any of this shit. We won't let them dictate to us. I won't let them. Okay?
Rand met his eyes. Cai saw a slight softening of his mouth and he inclined his head, a bare nod. Not exactly a vote of resounding trust and confidence, but at least it was direct communication.
Brian was finished and typing in some notes on his computer to wind things up. Cai pivoted as he sensed another human coming down the hallway. The place was crawling with house servants, so he should have ignored it, but there was something familiar about this one.
A blink later, the hairs on the back of his neck prickled, and something with jagged edges gouged his gut from the inside. When the male stepped into view, entering from the second door to the study, Cai already knew who it was.
This was no human servant. There could be no reason this male was here, except to deceive and kill vampires.
Cai was in motion before his brain had to order it. The human was as good as dead.
Instead, the male managed to twist and duck at the last second, despite Cai's speed. It was as if he anticipated the movements of a vampire and was ready to counter them, even if he had no chance of repelling them in close quarters.
No more than what Cai would expect from a fucking vampire hunter, a human who made his kills through cowardly deception, not hand-to-hand combat. He was going to learn what it was like to be torn limb from fucking limb.
Cai caught him, seizing him by the throat and shirt front. The thundering in his ears was like the white noise after an explosion, muting sound and leaving only a faint ringing, like a toneless bell. It deafened him to everything but the need to do what he was trying his best to do. Kill this human, make this moment his very last.
Cai swung the male into the wall like a sack of bricks, savagely pleased with the thud, the grunt of pain. He absorbed the hit to the face, the kic
k, noting the strength was considerable. Guy was built solid, all six feet of muscle. But it wasn't enough to deter Cai or make him let go. He rammed his fist below the rib cage. Fueled by fury and vampire strength, it punched through flesh, and his lips peeled back in a victorious grimace. Cai was going to rip his fucking heart out. So easy and so quick. Guy wasn't so tough now, when he didn't have the element of surprise.
He saw the flash in the hunter's midnight blue eyes. He knew he was fucked. No fear, but a great deal of pissed-off. Didn't matter to Cai. Dead was dead, however you got there, but some fear would have been gratifying.
Lord Brian grabbed his arm, trying to pull him off the human. Not going to work, since Cai had over a hundred years of strength and speed on him. Rand joined the fray with a snarl that told Cai he'd shifted. Damn it. Brian cursed as the big wolf latched onto his arm.
Brian fell back, taking Rand with him. Cai had a brief impression of Debra's wide and startled gaze. Brian shouted an order at her to stay clear of the scuffle, but she was already looking for a weapon to drive Rand back, get him to release her Master.
Cai knew the wolf was acting in his defense, rather than with an intent to maim or kill. No way in hell he was releasing his death grip on the hunter, but he didn't want Rand hurt.
Before he could spare a thought through his killing rage to get Rand to ease off, another barked order penetrated that white noise, powerful enough to vibrate a house on its foundations.
