AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Getting into the limo, Cai found the wet bar and took a nice, burning swallow of what was there. Yeah, vampires couldn't get drunk, but it still felt good going down.
Treat his servant like he was hers. Just because he looked damn good taking care of a young woman, playing with pups, or teasing Fane's mate, helping with dishes and looking as domestic as any spread in Better Homes and Gardens, it didn't give her the right.
Didn't give any of them the right to act like he belonged more to them than to Cai. Even if he did.
And even if Cai damn well knew it was better that way.
He acted like all was good when they got back into the car, not wanting there to be any tension for Dovia to handle. She didn't deserve to have to deal with his shit. He felt Rand's questions, the male's blue and gold-flecked eyes searching his face, but he refused to engage, shrugging it off with a slight head shake that said, Forget it, I'm fine.
Rand didn't look like he bought that for a second, but that wasn't Cai's problem. Dovia asked Gideon and Daegan some polite questions about Anwyn, typical girl interest in another woman, and the conversation turned in that direction. She looked amused at both men's confusion when she asked them where Anwyn liked to shop in Atlanta. Proving his resourcefulness, Gideon texted his Mistress and provided Dovia some answers, adding, "Anwyn said if you come there, she'll be happy to take you out to the best nighttime shopping spots."
That seemed to please Dovia, but it also exhausted her ability to be polite and social as her obvious upbringing had taught her to be. She subsided, but her tension became a humming wire whose vibration level rose, the closer they came to her home. When they turned onto the long drive, her hand was on the door as if she'd jump out before the car even stopped. Rand had sat next to her for the final leg of the journey. When he ran a soothing hand down her back, she nodded, acknowledging the reassurance, but then Leona and Georg came into sight, standing in the driveway in front of the house.
Tears overflowed Dovia's eyes, her shaking taking over. The young woman who was determined to be impossibly strong was overridden by the traumatized girl who needed her parents' reassurance and love. At least for a few minutes.
Dovia practically sprang out as the car stopped. Her parents' arms folded around her as if they'd let her go in an eternity or two. Maybe. Thankfully, Georg seemed pretty lucid. He held both his women as if he'd protect them from hell itself. Dovia held them as tightly, sobbing, but also telling them she was okay. Cai saw her touch her father's face, hold her mother's waist. "I'm okay, Daddy. I'm all right. It's going to be okay."
No sign of Tyra or Chavez. Not involved with Voltaire's plan, but probably no longer in favor either, Cai supposed. He looked toward Rand, whose concern about Greenwald, about how it would all turn out for her, was obvious. Cai nudged him with his foot, drawing his attention.
No, we can't keep her. Sure, you'll promise to feed and walk her. But I know who'll end up taking care of her.
Rand curled a lip at him, that sneer that made Cai want to do all sorts of things to him, but as the wolf continued to look worried, he sighed.
"She'll be okay. And she knows she can call on us if ever she has need, right?"
Rand nodded. Daegan had emerged from the car with Gideon, and Cai and Rand followed them a few steps away, where they weren't infringing on the family reunion. Rand spoke in a low voice.
"What happens when he...when he can't be overlord anymore?"
"Lady Lyssa and the Council are very mindful of what is happening with Georg," Daegan answered. "Though his illness has been concealed as much as possible, word is spreading. The Council has made it clear that any who act to inappropriately take his title from him will face Lyssa's displeasure. When she transitions him out of the role, the Council will ensure he and his family are well protected."
"Will Leona go with him?" Cai told himself not to ask, not to reveal he was as worried about the girl as Rand was. Overnight, they thought they were a pair of big brothers.
"Yes," Daegan said, exchanging a glance with Gideon as if they'd discussed how much information could safely be risked with Cai and Rand. Cai felt oddly gratified that the decision was in their favor. "She loves her daughter dearly, but he is her Master. She cannot bear to be separated from him, and if she remained in our world, she would have to become bound to another vampire who might or might not have Dovia's best interests at heart. Dovia will become heir to her father's holdings and officially be designated Lyssa's ward, for her protection, until she has the strength to hold those assets on her own."
"From what I've seen of that girl's strength of will, that'll be about a minute or two from now," Cai observed.
Gideon grunted an assent, his eyes glinting. "She's one tough little lady. And look out, she's coming back this way."
"Probably to hug Rand one more time." Cai started to retreat for the car, but Rand curled his fingers around his elbow, holding him. Cai shot him a scowl, but since the alternative was a juvenile wrestling match in front of Daegan and Gideon, he held his ground as if he meant to stay, rather than preferring to bolt like a rabbit.
Sure enough, Dovia hugged Rand, speaking softly in his ear. She had to stretch up on her toes to manage that, even with him bending over to accommodate her. But then she turned to Cai.
For a long moment they studied one another, a couple feet between them. Before he realized he was doing it, he'd run a light fingertip over the peach fuzz on one side of her head. She self-consciously followed the motion with her own hand, brushing his. "My parents wanted to thank you personally, but I knew you'd hate that, so I told them it was best to send a note."
"Yeah. I'll work on that address thing."
"They haven't thought of that yet, so you better make your escape while you can," she said with a faint smile. While tinged with a sad tiredness, it held peace and relief, too. Reaching up, she slid a hand along his face. In involuntary reaction to being touched without his say-so, he gripped her wrist, but he didn't push her away, and she didn't stop stroking his cheek. Her legs trembled some, and suddenly Rand was behind her, steadying her with hands on her shoulders.
She kept her eyes on Cai. "You know what you told me, about not letting them take away my ability to love whomever I want to?"
"I think I said 'fucking want to.'"
That faint smile came again, but it didn't detract from the seriousness of her gaze. "You should take your own advice."
She tossed a meaningful look upward, indicating Rand, without letting the wolf see the look. Then she hugged Cai's stiff body, gave him and Rand one more poignant smile, and returned to her parents, and her world.
Chapter Nineteen
As they were pulling out of the long drive, Cai's thoughts were turning to where Daegan and Gideon could drop them. Daegan had other ideas.
When he sat back and surveyed Cai from head to toe, it was with an unsmiling look that instantly put Cai on guard.
"Lady Lyssa has requested"--the vampire said it with the type of stress that Cai immediate
ly understood as required, commanded, get-your-ass-down-here or I'll fuck it up good --"that you attend her at Council headquarters in Savannah before you depart. Her plane has been made available to us to shorten the trip, and she says once she has spoken to you, commended you on your help in this matter, that you can request any destination of your choosing."
"But we have to see her first before we're free to go."
"She said you had an interest in Lord Graham's status and whereabouts. She has that information."
"She could text me. Or I'm sure I can find him on my own in another hundred years or so. Or he'll be dead. I really don't care if I'm the one who kills him. Dead is dead." Not exactly true, but he wasn't going to be bribed or baited. Or manipulated in any way. This was why getting in bed with Council vampires was like stepping into the mouth of a giant killer shark who promised not to bite.
"Cai," Rand said. He was sitting next to Cai, his warmth and strength near. "You did an amazing thing. Let her say thank you. Let them thank you."
"Having lots of friends and family is important to you. Not to me. I don't need to do this. You can go in my stead like an ambassador or some damn thing. Maybe she's going to give you a key to Vampire City. Don't really care. It won't mean anything. It never does."
He knew their departure from Dovia's had tripped his asshole switch, but he really didn't deal well with good-byes and transitions. He thought of Dovia, standing there with her two parents, so straight and tall, because she couldn't afford to be anything different. No matter how she'd been abused and raped. Then he thought of himself, nearly falling apart the first time Rand had fucking spooned with him.
"I'll tell you what the plan is," he said abruptly to Daegan. "Drop me off here at this convenience store coming up. Let Rand out wherever he wants to go so he can get back to Fane and his family where he belongs, and we all say how nice it was to meet one another, blah, blah, blah. Unless you want to drag my bloody body before her the same way Greenwald did."
