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Rand listened with half an ear, not really caring what the vampire was talking about as long as he kept his distance. He focused on the food. Then, as his first hunger abated, Rand realized something else. He was chained.
He lunged against the collar, realized it was too snug to slip, and it pulled him up short. Whirling around, whimpering a little at the sudden twinge of pain in his side and leg, he saw the chain running to the nearby tree. No. He wasn't going to tolerate being bound. Typical vampire, thinking a chain could hold him.
He was still healing, but he knew he was strong enough to free himself. Rand dropped, rolled and got the chain wrapped around his chest, under his leg. Enough of a harness that when he lunged again, the chain met his formidable strength, propelled through his shoulders.
One or more of the links should have busted. At the very least, stretched. He could compete with a tow truck in top form. Instead, the chain tightened around him, dug into his chest and shoulders, and held, though it didn't cut into his flesh, as he would have expected. As pain bloomed in his side, he did it two times, three, the panic of an animal trying to surface. Recognizing that for the trap it was, Rand stopped and forced himself to calm down. Panting, he rolled his eyes toward Cai.
"Been doing a little reading," the vampire said conversationally, though his gaze was on Rand, tracking his every movement. He squatted on his heels a short distance away, forearms loosely braced on his knees, thumb and middle finger of one hand flicking in idle, unconscious movement. Rand changed position, four feet braced as he faced off with the vampire.
"Went into town to snag the chain and collar, and raided the local library for the shifter stuff. Figured a lot of it was going to be complete bullshit, same as it is for vampires, though they do get some things right, like the darkness and blood." Cai lifted a book that was on the ground by his side. Rand flattened his ears in response, not sure of the intent of the movement until Cai laid it down again.
It's a damn book. Think. He could shift his mind to think like a human while in wolf form, if he focused. He just usually preferred not to do so. He'd done it that night with the hunter, tricking him into thinking he was dead, but he'd been particularly motivated.
"A few stories say if a shifter stays in his animal form for too long, he'll be stuck that way forever," Cai continued in that same annoying, persistent tone. "I expect most shifters would consider that a warning, something to be avoided. For someone who seeks oblivion and to forget the human side of things, I expect it would be really damn appealing. So I was thinking..."
Cai rose, and sauntered over to a nearby tree, taking a seat beneath it. "The best way to combat that kind of urge is to remind the shifter what's appealing about the human form. And I don't know a male in the world who won't act in the best interest of his dick."
With deceptive casualness, he unbuckled his belt, left it dangling as he pulled open the top button of his jeans. Working the zipper down with the pressure of his fist, he curled it around the cock he revealed, since he wore no underwear under the garment. "I think you're up to the reminder, and I'm done waiting. I'll be gentle, but I want that ass."
Rand fought his human side, tried to push it back, but his eyes locked onto the vampire's movements as he settled in to jack himself off. One knee was bent, the other rocked out wide as he slowly pumped his member and considered Rand. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and Rand's attention was all over him, the vampire's scent filling his nose, fueling his hunger. The vampire was right. His body was healed enough for his cock to be stupid.
"Yeah. I expect your shifter healing abilities and that second mark finally started to work in the same direction. You're not a hundred percent, but probably in about the eighty-percentile range. So you can have this as a reward." Cai tightened his fist around his stiff cock, with its scimitar shape and appealing thickness. "Or maybe it's my reward. Doesn't matter. I think by the time I'm done, you'll consider it a win-win."
Vampire arrogance was even farther off the charts than he'd heard. Rand told himself that, even as his eyes clung to what Cai's hand was doing, and his body trembled on that precipice, the human male inside the wolf wanting, and wanting badly. It had been so long...
"All you have to do to get it, and to get out of that collar, is come back to human form." Cai lifted his free hand and waggled the thumb. "Useful for unfastening buckles. Or unhooking chains, if you like the feel of the collar I put on you enough to keep wearing it."
That outrageous statement came with an infuriating, quick grin. It showed the tip of the vampire's fangs, both the real and the metal one. Rand had never heard of a vampire missing one fang. He didn't want to be curious. Didn't want to care.
Cai's gaze slid down as he fingered his belt with his free hand. "If you shift to human, I could strip this off and use it on your fine ass, punish you for causing me so much work."
Rand backed up, moved sideways, fought the chain again. He let the rage have him. The chain creaked enough to have the vampire's brow rising, which was gratifying, but it still held. He'd embrace it until he passed out, taking him away from a decision he couldn't afford. He didn't want to feel. Why wouldn't the vampire leave it alone?
The pain in his side built to fire, and he snarled as the vampire was suddenly on his feet and behind him, arms banded around his throat and the barrel of Rand's chest, holding him up on his hind legs.
"You aggravate that wound again, and I will fucking tie all your feet together," Cai breathed against his ear. The threat sent a shiver of sensation through Rand's body. "I'm glad I assumed you were at least as strong as I am. I've reinforced that chain with something you can't fight. It's cheating, yeah, but I want a level playing field. Come fight me, man to man. Shift."
Rand snapped at him, but the vampire stayed out of reach, his hold tightening. "If you don't," the vampire promised, "I'll prove how little of a moral code I've got. I'll shove my dick up your wolf's ass."
The idea was so repellent to Rand, he almost shifted then and there, but he pushed back the reaction for another few minutes to prove the vampire couldn't order him around or threaten him into doing his will. The problem was his human part wanted what the vampire was offering. The lust, strong and heated, surprised him, but the vampire had kept that need kindled over these past few days, hadn't he? Rand recalled it in quick flashes; a hand passing over his face, his chest, a wet cloth bathing his genitals...
He shifted, fur becoming flesh. The vampire moved with him, more smoothly than seemed possible with the quick, snapping convulsions that accompanied a swift shift. However, when Rand was done, he was still securely in the vampire's hold. He fought him to be free and this time he won, twisting out of the vampire's grip and backpedaling away, catching himself before he tripped. He had a momentary impression of the vampire's hands slipping away, and realized the male had had one palm molded over the wound in Rand's side to protect it.
The collar was loose on his neck now, but as Rand reached for it, he hit a field he couldn't get through. He couldn't even curl his fingers over the darn thing and try to pull it over his head, which he should have been able to do, since the wolf's neck and ruff was far thicker than his own.
Magic. He couldn't read the shape of it, but it was obvious that was what it was. He hadn't imagined that healing wash of heat after all. The damn male was a magic user and a vampire. Some
thing Rand had never heard of, but his knowledge of vampires was far from complete.
Regardless, it made the vampire double the trouble and annoyance.
Cai's fangs flashed in a grim smile. But as he moved in on Rand, Rand closed his hand over the chain, and realized he could touch that, even if he couldn't unhook it from the collar. The flash of oh shit in the vampire's eyes was mildly gratifying as Rand dodged past him and employed the chain as a weapon.
He just about clotheslined him. Cai ducked under the chain. He'd had the presence of mind to refasten his jeans so vulnerable things weren't hanging in the breeze, but Rand's body was still torqued by the erotic display of rippling muscle and grace as the vampire entered a warrior's dance with him, up and forward, around. Near pins, missed punches. Twisting, grappling, the chain clanking and the vampire dodging away and out of range before Rand could get Cai tangled in it. Then he closed back in again.
They were like a mirror, anticipating one another too well. Twisting. It occurred to Rand that Cai was in his head, and if he could follow his thoughts that fast, he'd stay ahead of Rand, get the advantage. Except Rand used instinct, not thought, and that leveled the playing field.
Then Cai got him pinned against a tree. Rand plunged a fist into his gut that knocked him back. It made the vampire swear, and emit an odd half chuckle. Then the fight got serious.
Damn it, Rand was tiring out. That eighty percent was working against him. But he wasn't going to stop fighting. Maybe the vampire figured that out, because suddenly he was outside the ring of combat, just beyond the chain's length. He stood there, studying Rand, arms crossed over his bare chest.
"Fucking hell," he murmured. "That was fun."
It had been...stimulating. Rand's hands closed into fists. He didn't want to feel that way. Didn't want to think about his cock being hard and stiff against his belly, and the vampire noticing it with avid eyes. Cai was just as worked up under his jeans, ready to go.
"Let me go," Rand growled.
Cai considered, then dipped his head, a short nod. He walked toward Rand, easy, casual, as if they hadn't just been grappling like enemy combatants. His clear blue eyes were intent on Rand's, yet seeming to cover every inch of skin at the same time, lingering on Rand's mouth as he arrived toe-to-toe with him.
