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She glanced back down at Cai, encompassing Rand in the look, since the wolf-shifter was dressed and standing at his side. Her gaze was no less appreciative of his form in the snug denim. Cai might not be pleased, but he couldn't argue with it. He wanted to ogle the guy himself, but he forced himself to keep his gaze on the vampire queen.
"I'll look forward to seeing you at our next rising," Lyssa said. "Job well done, all of you." Then she was gone. Not much of a chatter box. He liked that about her. He was starting to like a lot of things about her, despite his strong wish not to do so.
"If you'll follow me, sirs," John said courteously, pushing open the door. A glance around showed Cai that Daegan and Gideon were headed off in a different direction, apparently satisfied that John would come to no harm. Was that a communication from Lyssa, or something else? Regardless, Cai was glad not to have the watchdogging detail.
He ascended the stairs to follow John, Rand at his heels. Rand's hand brushed his hip, probably an inadvertent thing, but he liked the casual intimacy. As he'd suspected, Cai noticed the wolf had paid for that dramatic entrance, because his limp as they moved up the stairs was more pronounced, though Rand shrugged off Cai's offer of a shoulder to grab.
Inside the house, a wide foyer with lots of marble and mahogany led into an almost equally wide hallway. At the end of it, a ten-foot-tall stained-glass window provided the focus feature of an atrium decorated with palm trees and comfortable wicker furniture. Lots of windows for nighttime viewing of the stars. Or for servants to enjoy during the day, maybe.
The slim boy led them down a winding staircase from there to the underground levels. More marble, polished wood, torch lamps set in the wall, and fancy art. But it was warm stuff, not the type of pieces that made Cai wonder why anyone spent loads of money for crap. This was Council headquarters, but from what Cai had gleaned, Lyssa had to spend a lot of time here. She obviously wanted it to be a home, not just a monument to Council power, though he expected there were chambers here that made that part of things clear to anyone stupid enough not to pick up on it.
Though Cai could still see all the ideas bouncing around behind his steady, intelligent brown eyes, John remained obedient to Lyssa's order. He kept his questions relevant to their stay as he escorted them toward the quarters that would be theirs. "It's normally assumed that a visiting vampire wants his servant to be given a separate room in the servants' quarters," he said. "Close, where he can quickly respond to your call. Is that what you wish?"
"If that's the normal thing, why are you asking me?" Cai said.
The boy's dark skin flushed. "Lady Lyssa said you were raised among the Trad and your servant"--his gaze shifted to Rand--"is a wolf shifter, so it didn't seem courteous to assume you'd follow the normal protocol for vampires. I wanted you to be aware of all the options."
The way his attention lingered on Rand showed a boy's eager hope that the male would morph into a wolf again, right before his eyes. Cai could feel Rand's amusement and a tenderness toward the kid that was tempting him to do just that.
Hold off for just a bit. We don't know Lyssa's policy toward animals in this part of the house. And she just talked Bran and his pack out of tearing you apart.
Rand shot him a look as Cai tossed him a grin, then answered the boy. "We'll share a room. He's not entirely housebroken."
"Says the vampire who called Lady Lyssa names and attacked another vampire's servant," Rand said dryly.
John's eyes popped open even wider than they had when Rand shifted. "You called Lady Lyssa names? And who did you attack?"
"Someone who deserved it. Aren't servants supposed to be seen and not heard?" Cai asked John. "I expect you know the protocol better than we do."
He surprised a shy smile out of John. "It depends on the vampire and the servant, sir," he said with deliberate graveness. "Like Lady Lyssa and Jacob. He may not say a lot out loud, but there's plenty of talk going on between them. They don't always agree on things. You can kind of tell because he gets this look--Lady Lyssa calls it his stubborn Irishman look--or her eyes get a bit sharper, like icicles. But he won't have said a word, and she won't say anything to him. Most of the time the disagreements are about stuff to keep her safe. Or him safe. They love each other, see, so they have to fight about that kind of thing."
If the boy had said that Lyssa turned into one of the front porch gargoyles and flew around on full moon nights, he couldn't have startled Cai more. Yeah, he'd already put together that some of the vampire and servant pairings weren't what he'd expected, but to hear it said so matter-of-factly, and by a kid, as if it was no big secret, was another level of WTF. Cai masked his reaction with a tone of forced casualness. "I thought Council vampires were anal about saying that shit out loud."
John looked discomfited, as if he realized he was saying too much, but after reflection, he nodded. "A lot of them are. But she's not. I guess because she's the biggest and strongest of all of them. Nobody's going to say she's wrong."
"Well, strongest maybe. I'm a lot bigger. You're almost taller than her yourself."
John beamed. "Almost. Another inch or two. She measures me against the door of my room and marks it. Says when I'm taller she'll let me do more to help my grand-dad. If he's okay with it."
Picturing Lady Lyssa as a maternal aunt-type, one openly in love with her servant, was kind of freaking Cai out. Especially after the fish wife/gardener routine, calling down her dogs and having dirt smudges. So he wasn't unhappy when John took his leave with a courteous encouragement to use the house phone if they needed anything else.
"Better than a fucking Hilton," Cai muttered, looking around at the posh appointments. Cushioned chairs, deep couch and a wide bed with lots of pillows. Though they were below ground, it didn't feel like any basement he'd ever experienced. Even nicer than at Greenwald's, and that had been pretty nice. There were lots of green plants, kept alive God-knew-how. A wide screen TV was set up to show different views of the outside grounds. Good as having a window.
Rand was moving around, examining the bric-a-brac at the writing desk and night stand. His hair was still loose. It was in need of a brushing, which didn't detract from his good looks in the slightest. It did give Cai an odd desire to brush his hair. He saw one, with a variety of other toiletry items, set out in silver containers on the spacious bathroom counter.
He was fucking losing it. He needed air, but dawn was too close. Fuck it. He and Rand needed the forest. They didn't belong here. He should have gone to run with Rand, the way Rand had wanted him to. Fucking idiocy. All of it.
He noticed a mental wince from Rand and cocked his head.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"Not nothing. When I said fuck it, you winced. You don't agree."
"I do agree. I just wish you wouldn't curse so much."
Cai was able to read his mind, but that was so outside what he'd expect to hear from Rand, he realized he would have overlooked the thought as no more than wind in the trees if the wolf hadn't said anything. "Seriously?"
Rand shrugged. He was standing in front of the mounted flat screen. As he studied a garden view, he lifted his arms, combing his fingers with brisk practicality through his hair. With a distracting display of bunched biceps, he started to braid it. Maybe he'd heard what Cai thought about his hair.
"You talk the way you want to talk. It's okay," Rand added. "The profanity just gets a little heavy for me, sometimes."
"Oh." Cai thought he'd never noticed it, but now, thinking back, he realized that little wince had happened more than once. The Goddard thing had merely pushed it far down the things-to-notice list.
Rand had moved into the bathroom to check it out. After a moment, Cai followed. He laid a hand on Rand's forearm, drawing his attention, and touched the braid. He'd bound it with the tie he'd apparently retrieved at the convenience store and tucked back into his pocket. "You're supposed to brush this before you braid it."
"Women do that," Rand responded.
; "Well, yeah. But excess profanity seems to bother women more than men, too."
Cai laughed and fended off Rand's punch, though it took effort and skill. The male never did anything without focus and intent, his finger on the trigger always intended to shoot. Cai pressed him against the sink, arm folded up behind his back, and stared at him in the mirror. The strong face, mildly annoyed eyes, but with a slight curve to his mouth and a touch of heat in his expression. Cai rubbed his hardening groin against his tight ass and felt the surge of answering response go through Rand.
"Take off your clothes. I prefer you naked."
"Yeah? Same goes."
Cai put his mouth to the joining point of broad shoulder and corded neck, and slid his one functional fang along it. "Glad to hear it. But right now, I want you naked for me, while I stand here fully clothed and enjoy...
What's mine.
"...you."
From the look in Rand's gaze, Cai knew the shifter had picked up the meaning. Cai pressed past it, keeping it physical. Just fun and games. Mostly.
