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The house servant darted a look at Lyssa, but then bowed her head and disappeared, he supposed to comply. He tried to ignore the weighted silence and focused on his plate. Go back to talking to each other. Ignore me, ignore us...
He didn't get his wish.
"I assume it's because you're a made vampire that your digestive tract can handle greater quantities of food," Carola observed.
The born vampire condescension was evident as a wart would be on her pert nose, but Cai expected nothing less. He ignored the anxiety growing legs inside his stomach, an echo of what he'd felt at the doorway. If he succumbed to that pansy-assed behavior in front of them, he'd stake himself.
"Hell, no. I just throw it up later. That's the key. Eating's only problematic if you eat too much and wait for it to digest. That's a train that's not coming for us vamps, right? I once ate a whole shepherd's pie because I was missing the damn things so much. That's how I figured it out."
Mason was regarding him with fascination. Cai saw his female servant hide a smile. Cai liked her more for that.
Lyssa had an unreadable expression, while Helga and Carola looked less than friendly. Yeah, Jacob had warned him. He needed to tone it down.
You think?
Ssh. Be a good servant. Stay. Play statue.
Rand had such an interesting way of thinking Fuck off at him without actually saying the words. It was more of a feeling, a push.
"Um, thanks," he told the house servant when she returned and rolled another half dozen of the meat balls onto his plate. She was a neat little bland thing in a white apron and beige-colored dress. Ducking her head quickly in acknowledgement, she disappeared.
"It's a miracle you survived the Trads as many years as you did," Lady Helga observed, her voice flat. "Perhaps, Lady Lyssa, we could conclude our business with this male so that he may take his plate of food and go eat in the kitchen, where his lack of manners would be far less disruptive."
The surge of feeling that flooded him propelled Cai's head up. His gaze lasered across the table to lock upon the female vampire's. Even if he'd wanted to, he wasn't sure he could have pushed down or muted his expression. Suddenly things were a lot more still in the dining room.
It had been a hell of a week, and he had zero experience in political fencing. He shouldn't have ever come here, and he saw the regret in Rand's mind for pushing him to do so. But it wasn't the wolf's fault.
Rand hadn't been able to answer why he followed Cai in here, knowing what might happen. But Cai did know why. It was that instinctive loyalty and protectiveness, which he totally did not deserve from the wolf. But Rand deserved it from him.
Yeah, Cai didn't think a lot before he spoke. The truth had never required much thinking over. With deceptive casualness, he ate another meatball, holding Helga's gaze an extra second before he shifted his attention to Lyssa.
"My lady, do you consider yourselves Trads?"
The flash in Jacob's gaze was a clear, "Were you even listening?" reproof. However, at the end of the day, Jacob was a human and a servant, and Cai didn't answer to him. He didn't answer to fucking anyone.
"I'm sure you know we do not," Lyssa said coolly. "Though we are all vampires."
"Okay. Well, Trads, they take what they want when they want it. The only thing that stops them is someone stronger beating the shit out of them until they realize they can't have it, or the cost will be too great. I said I hadn't been to a vampire social gathering. But you told me the high-level version about them, when I third marked Rand. And I've heard about them. Hell, all the Trads have."
He swept his gaze around the table, over the assembly of attractive servants. "It's the Trad version of Penthouse letters, swapping blown up accounts of what happens at dinners for the 'civilized' vampires. My dick sure got hard, hearing about it. And some of it sounded real intriguing to me; can't deny it."
Cai broke open a piece of bread, so soft it could be used as a pillow, and put butter on it. When he met Helga's gaze, she was now wearing a downright hostile look. Yeah, he wasn't making any headway, but he was just going to say it like it was.
"Rand's not human. He became my servant to help me extract Dovia. I'm not one of you and I'm not a Trad. If I'm okay with him participating in something tonight, and he thinks he can handle it and wants to do it for the right reasons, then yeah, he will. But under no circumstances will that involve his wolf. Period. He's not a goddamn circus act. Whatever parts of him I command when he's human, it doesn't extend to the wolf. The wolf belongs entirely to him."
Feeling Rand's sudden stillness behind him, Cai put more words into that space. You told me. It's a sanctuary, isn't it? Everyone should have a sanctuary. It's the most goddamn precious thing anyone can have.
Cai took a breath. Every vampire here could annihilate him without breaking a sweat. Didn't matter. "If someone tries to take that away from him, those choices, then they'll end up just like that bastard Goddard. Or you'll kill me, and that will be the end of it, too. Same difference. But just as a point of 'etiquette,' if this is how you treat somebody who brought home one of your special 'born' vampires, then good luck finding someone to do it next time."
In the next ticking-bomb silence, Cai felt something he rarely felt from Rand. Speechless shock. And it wasn't the reproving, can't-believe-you-shot-your-mouth-off-like-that kind.
Lady Helga's eyes flashed with anger, but Lyssa raised a hand. "Enough," she said quietly.
All eyes turned toward her, telling Cai who was the head bitch in charge. As if there'd ever been any doubt.
"He's being rude and deliberately insolent," Helga pointed out.
"Yes. He is." Lady Lyssa considered him. Since Cai had just told everyone at the table off, he did his best not to squirm, but hell, she made it hard. "He has never lived among us," she said slowly. "Never internalized our ways. Nor does he have a desire to do so. Though that in itself does not exonerate his behavior, or give him leave to live outside our society, other factors must be considered."
Her attention moved to Rand. Cai recognized then the difference between her earlier appraisal of him versus that of Carola and Helga. Cai's possessiveness had made him want to shield Rand from her view. His need to protect was what provoked the desire with Helga and Carola.
Lyssa meant his wolf no harm. She saw him.
"We were unaware shifters truly exist, and now we know they do," she observed. "Rand helped bring back one of our own, and, according to Cai, saved his life."
She leaned forward, folding her hands on the table. Her back straight, chin up, eyes fixed on his shifter. "We are aware of the dangers of pushing our servants' minds too far beyond what they can handle," she said. "We've recently discussed putting in place measures to protect them from vampires who would destroy their minds simply because they can. Unfortunately, we still have doubts if it is enforceable before the damage is done, since how much a human servant can and wants to take from their Master or Mistress is often a very subjective matter."
Cai thought of the things he and Rand had faced together, shared together, and knew it for truth.
Lyssa shifted her gaze to Cai. "If it would be a serious breach of Rand's mental state to explore his sexuality in his wolf form, I feel that must be honored, even if he is a third marked servant. We are learning respect is a two-way street with other species, are we not? Our communications with the Fae over recent months have taught us that."
The Fae? News to him, but pretty interesting news. Lyssa continued. "Lord Keldwyn, our Fae liaison, would say so, as would Lord Uthe, who is involved in other Council business tonight and could not be here."
"Which explains why Keldwyn is not," Carola put in, in a more amused tone. She apparently wasn't as uptight as Helga. "He can't do without his weekly chess matches with your right hand, Lady Lyssa."
Lyssa acknowledged that with a faint smile. "The two of them make a formidable diplomatic team, so I expect Keldwyn's presence will be helpful to Uthe, much as he might deny it."
Sh
e shifted the subject back toward the topic at hand. "I think we have far more important things to discuss with Mordecai. Up until now, we have had a tolerance toward the Trads, a respect for a different culture and structure existing among those who are still part of our species. However, recent events may very well change that."
