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He lifted his head and met Cai's eyes on the other side of the clearing. Goddard likes to keep a human female or two for menial labor, the vampire supplied, and on the off chance they can impregnate one. They usually give up on that after a week or so. They don't believe in fucking humans for pleasure, and they refuse to mark them; against their extreme purist principles. Don't look for any kind of help from them. Their minds are likely broken.
Rand squelched his anger with effort. If Fane had scented them, I'm sure he would have tried to free them.
And he or others in his family would have died. Doesn't matter, Cai thought, cutting him off. There's a lot of bad shit in this world you can't do a damn thing about. Shit is what it is.
Cai could tell the wolf was dissatisfied with that answer, but there was no good answer for that kind of thing. Plus, Cai had to have a different focus now. An unwavering one. There was only one ball that could matter in this game.
Showtime. He cracked his neck and his fingers, drew a couple deep breaths, and let it all go quiet. No fear, no feeling, no nothing. He heard Lodell's voice in his head, as if the skinny bastard had popped up at his elbow.
To get free, you become nothing. Nothing to notice, nothing to fear...until the day you are. To do that, you have to learn to be nothing 99% of the time. That left-over 1% stays buried down so deep inside, the whetting stone for the blade, waiting until the right moment for the killing stroke. All while that 99% plays the dumb slave, the helpless idiot.
Let the fear show. That helps you. Bury the rest. Let it rot in the ground, and every night you emerge from the earth, don't bring it up with you. That fear's not going to help you. 'Nothing' is what helps you.
"Nothing helps you." Lodell had repeated it as a play on words, with a chuckle.
At that point, Cai hadn't even remembered what laughter was. He'd quelled the urge to touch the man's mouth, explore the gesture. He'd wanted to understand what laughter was again, but he'd been afraid understanding would bring more pain.
Cai opened his eyes, and let it settle over him. Nothingness. He vaguely remembered the wolf and sent him a message. Going in. Watch my back, but everything is mind-to-mind. Stay clear, no matter what, because you're the best chance to pull her out. They don't know about you.
Just like that. It took Rand by surprise, not just the suddenness of it, but Cai's abrupt mental distance. Their gazes locked over the expanse of the clearing, but Rand could have been looking at a brick wall. Cai had gone somewhere else in his head to deal with this. Rand wasn't sure if that was good or bad.
Cai going ahead, no further discussion, made an unsettling kind of sense. They were as prepared as they were going to be, so there was no real reason to wait. The plan was fairly straightforward, while any contingencies would be unpredictable, resolved on the fly.
Cai, do you think...
It's best not to, when dealing with Trads. Just go by instinct. You're good at that. If things go bad and the numbers are too great, leave me. I mean it. There's nothing you can do for me or her at that point. Just go back to your woods and to Fane's family. You'll do well with them. You felt happy...when you were with them.
What the hell? But Cai was done with talk. He rose, and that adrenaline pumped through Rand as the vampire made himself as visible as a neon sign against a dark sky. Cai moved down the short bank, jumping lithely over the wide creek and landing easy as a panther on the other side.
Downwind, Rand could inhale every nuance of the vampire's scent. Beneath all of it, there was densely packed strata of emotion that might have contained fear, loathing, hatred. As well as the desire to be as far away from this as possible, but not even a trace of it was visible in the upper layers. On the outside, Cai looked as relaxed as if he were walking into a McDonald's to order a burger.
It occurred to Rand then that, despite the tragedy in his life, the loss, he'd always been where he could express it. He could grieve, rage, pine. There were those like Fane and his family to whom he could have reached out. Cai, on the other hand, had not had those options with the Trads. He'd tailored his emotions to what would allow him to survive, thrive, overcome and ultimately free himself from them. Which meant the way he expressed his emotions might be totally fucked...but it made them no less genuine.
Rand didn't regret what had happened last night, but he did wish he'd figured out a way to keep Cai close. The vampire had pushed him away pretty decisively, yes, and maybe he'd needed his alone time to prep himself for this, but still...
Ah hell. It was something to think about and revisit when they made it out of here. If they did. Cai seemed pretty sure that was wishful thinking, but the emotion that surged in Rand, watching the vampire walk willingly into a world he abhorred, made him determined to succeed against those impossible odds. That trip to Syria was sounding more and more appealing. Hell, compared to this, it was going to be the Disneyland.
The two captive humans didn't stir, but the women's eyes were open. If they'd been second marked, they'd just warned the vampires they had company. But Cai had seemed sure they weren't. Beyond that, he wasn't trying for stealth.
"Goddard, you there?" Cai called out. "Half the night's already been pissed away. You still in your coffin?"
Noises inside the main cabin and the two outbuildings, movement. Rand's sharp ears calculated perhaps three or four occupants. When the door to the main cabin opened, he saw Cai's description had been spot on. Goddard was a tall rangy vampire who reminded Rand of a bent oak tree stripped of bark and leaves. He wore camouflage pants and a tight dark green T-shirt over a compact, powerful frame. He was fastening his pants and tucking in his shirt. Rand's senses went on full alert when he heard a small sound escape from the inside before he shut the door.
A stifled sob. A female one. A second later her scent hit him. Dovia.
The doors to the outbuildings opened, producing two other male vampires. They wore camouflage outfits like Goddard's, and matching unfriendly demeanors. Rand's nose received an information dump. Guns, explosives, old blood. Rancid body odor. They didn't bathe or, if they did, they didn't do it often.
Female fear, a sharp wave of it. It was coming from the two women chained to the well area. Cold anger shot through him.
You can't do anything for them. Try to rescue them now, and you'll die here. One of them's too far gone already.
Not too far gone to feel fear. Rand was surprised Cai had spared time to send him the thought, for his attention appeared absolute on the vampires circling him. They projected a menace comparable to an army of wolves a breath away from attack. Even as Rand tensed, prepared to jump into the fray if needed, his human side heeded Cai's warning and stayed on top of the wolf instincts, so he wouldn't act precipitously and lose their advantage.
The wind shifted, and Rand's attention snapped away from the clearing. Too late. Something hard struck his head, eliciting a painful whimper, and then there was darkness.
He woke, bound up in rope. He was still in wolf form. From the throbbing, he suspected
his head had a serious dent in it. He was inside a building, the main cabin. Outside, the Trads' odor had been offensive. Inside, it was overwhelming.
"It's awake." A toe prodded him and he snapped, a thwarted reflex, since he was muzzled with more rope. "You never were very clever, Cai."
It was Goddard talking, standing near Rand's head. "Voltaire wants to be overlord of Greenwald's pathetic little kingdom," the Trad said. "What better way to make sure Greenwald completely loses his mind to Ennui than to help Trads kidnap his daughter and ensure their one rescue attempt fails? Easy enough when Voltaire gave us the heads up about the idiot being sent to snatch her back. And his pet wolf."
Rand couldn't move his head enough to see him, but he could smell Cai's blood. Seemed to be Cai's week for getting the shit kicked out of him. He was awake, though, and Rand detected so many compressed volatile emotions from the vampire, there was no separating them. His wolf wanted to tear flesh, to protect what was his, form a barrier of teeth and fur between Cai and this situation, but he kept a lid on it.
"Now, who's the idiot?" Cai scoffed. He might be in pain, but his refusal to appear cowed by anything was in working order, reassuring Rand. "They snatched me, beat the fuck out of me, threatened my life and said 'hey, we'll let you go if you rescue this vampire bitch for us.' Of course I said I'd do it. Why do you think I came here? To tell you that, so you could move camp before they send anyone else after you. Could have saved myself the goddamn trip if I'd known Voltaire was behind it all. Why in the fuck would I help Council vampires?"
Goddard prowled the cabin. With the limited range his bonds provided him, Rand noted his males were a trio of sinister figures lurking in the shadows, sitting on rough-hewn benches and tables.
"Why bother coming to warn us at all?" Goddard said. "Why not simply bolt when they cut you loose, put a few thousand miles between you?"
"Because I survive by not burning bridges. By coming to you, I can at least convince them I made the attempt. By coming to you, I have your protection from them, rather than making a run for it and getting caught."
