Vampire's Soul

  Conflicted. Confused. And wanting to do way the hell more of it, enough he'd played with the idea of annoying the vampire into carrying out his threat. With the additional hope maybe it would make Cai feel better. Because now that the decision to rescue Dovia had been made, it had stirred up some bad debris in the vampire's subconscious. Rand could feel it, scent it.

  He considered how he would feel if someone said: "Hey, let's go back to the night your family was murdered. No, nothing will change. They'll still be dead, and all that horror will still be there, but maybe you can save one pup. Just one, mind you. And not one of yours. Or Sylvan's."

  If Rand had been given the opportunity to snatch even a stranger's pup away from that brutal death, he'd have taken the opportunity. Earth and stone, why was he even going down that road?

  Because he'd put Cai on this track toward his past, and he was concerned about Cai's state of mind.

  Rand ran a few miles under the cover of mist-filled patches of forest backing up to the farms. It kept him out of view of the early morning risers caring for their horses. But then he cut the run short and circled back. He bypassed the chance to catch a couple rabbits he flushed, deciding he'd get the second helping of meat from the servant. He just wanted to be back. Every stride was fueled by more urgency, until he was at a full run, favoring the lingering ache of his injuries as little as possible.

  As Rand closed in on that last mile, images swam into his mind that weren't his own. A darkness came with them, with a power so thick and heavy it was like a smothering blanket. Words erupted in his mind, screamed into a void. He startled, an animal fight-or-flight instinct that knocked him off his path. But he recovered fast, leaped forward, his stride covering over three times his length with every bound.

  No. Stop... Mama...

  If he'd been human, the hairs would have risen on the back of his neck, because the last word was screamed in the voice of a teenage boy whose voice was just beginning to break toward manhood. It held all the desolation and desperation of a mind pushed toward an edge where the fall would break it irreparably. In the blink between one terrified heartbeat and the next, the boy had become a broken, scarred man.

  Rand barged through the kitchen door as a maid was coming out of it. He ignored her shriek of surprise, his nails scrabbling for purchase on the tile floor. He hit the butcher block island hard enough to jar his shoulder and tip the fruit bowl on it, sending oranges and apples over the edge. He ignored that, too, and the startled looks of more servants, as he shot past them and ran through the house.

  When he reached the top of the stairs to the lower bedrooms, there were a couple servants set as a posted watch. However, they could hear a muffled version of what he'd heard in his mind, echoing up the stairs, and let him through.

  By the time he reached their guest room door, he'd shifted to human and turned the latch without a pause. To hell with who saw him, though fortunately the hall seemed deserted and all doors firmly shut. He'd forgotten his clothes, where he'd hidden them on the periphery of the garden.

  When he lunged into the room, he realized what was causing the smothering sensation. Cai was used to sleeping beneath the loosely packed earth where he could move as needed. He'd somehow wrapped himself in the blankets so tightly it was almost like he'd been shrouded, the covers over his head.

  Rand shoved him out of the bed, unrolling and shaking him loose rather than trying to touch or hold him. Cai exploded into a standing position, chest heaving, fangs bared, fists clenched. Rand backed into the corner, dropping to his heels. He was breathing hard himself, a combination of his long-distance run and the sudden sprint to get here. He spoke aloud and in his mind, hoping one or both methods would get through. He said what came to mind, no analyzing the meaning of the words. That didn't matter.

  "You're here, vampire. With your wolf. Not with them. Take a breath. Be easy."

  During the short time Rand had known Cai, the vampire had handled both Rand's dangerous animal and pissed-off human side with a sort of unflappable control. Even when the vampires had been beating on him, his attitude had been virtually unassailable. But that initial panic attack when bound, and the explosion of rage in the study, had opened the vampire up to Rand's ability to reach far deeper into him.

  Lyssa had called it right. Cai's behavior was a full, adhered-to-the-skin armor, containing what was within as much as it was to defend himself from what was without.

  As Cai stood there, swaying, fangs bared, eyes wild but unfocused, part of him was in the here and now, while another part was still in the dream. Rand saw a two-hundred-year old male who looked far younger, and yet ancient beyond the expression of time. The look the young had in the middle of war zones.

  Maybe the primary reason he was still here didn't have to do with a kidnapped female, though that was important enough. Since Dylef, Sheba and the pups, no one had needed him. Or rather, Rand hadn't let himself be put in a position to be needed, because he couldn't handle the responsibility without getting the shakes, just thinking about the chance of losing someone again.

  But this situation, this male, had saved his life and linked their paths. Cai was strong and capable, a good fighter and a dangerous vampire. He wasn't helpless, but that didn't mean he didn't need help.

  This was where Rand was meant to be. Cai needed Rand, and so did a young female vampire. If the danger to her had not been evident before, seeing it drive Cai out of this bed and stand, ready to fight, with a look of terror and desperation on his face, was a full broadcast of it.

  Rand shifted back to wolf and left his corner, padding across the floor. He pressed his body against the side of Cai's, giving him a literal reminder of his presence that backed up his words. It startled him when the vampire's knees buckled. He adjusted fast so he broke Cai's fall. Cai clutched his thick ruff, his face buried there, the rest of him shaking. He was ice cold.

  Rand made as much of his body available to him as possible, to share warmth. Cai was gasping, and vampires didn't have to breathe, not like that. But the vampire was trying to slow it down, reassuring Rand that he was heading in the right direction. He just needed to be here, quiet and patient. He'd shifted for the same reason he'd gone to Leona as a wolf. Sometimes there was nothing so comforting as a dumb beast, something living, warm and affectionate who required no exchange of words, merely the physical contact that could offer so much more.

  Rand's heart lurched at the words he heard murmured into his fur.

  "So fucking scared...hate it. Just fucking hate it."

  Be with you. Scared...together.

  It took a while, but at length a sigh lifted Cai's shoulders. His chest flattened against Rand's massive torso.

  "Okay," the vampire murmured at last. "Okay."

  He rose. Rand stayed close to his side. When Cai slid back into the bed, Rand leaped onto it. Cai tugged on him so Rand lay down before him, and the vampire laid an arm over his barrel chest, his face pressed into Rand's thickly furred nape.

  "This is nice," the vampire murmured. "But when I wake up with a hard-on, you better be the human version of you."

  Rand dropped his head back to bump Cai's nose with the flat of his skull and earned a muttered oath. "Asshole."

  As things settled, Rand felt the male's body temperature returning to a more normal heat level, his occasional shudders getting further apart. Finally, Cai's breath evened out and stilled as he trusted himself to fall back into dreams. Or the pull of the daylight sun above became too strong. But he continued to hold onto Rand as if the wolf could keep him from sliding into nightmares. Rand hoped so.

  But as he thought of what Cai had said, he made a mental note to shift before he fully fell asleep. When the vampire woke, that armor would be back in place, with the attendant barbed sense of humor. Rand didn't put it past him to try and stick himself up Rand's wolf ass just to piss him off. And then Rand would bite his dick off.

  What does it matter? Cai's thoughts were slurred, sleepy. It's still you in there, right?<
br />
  Yes, but the wolf...it's a sanctuary, of sorts. A haven from everything. That feels like an invasion. Using a battering ram on a door that hasn't been opened to you.

  Cai snickered against his back. "You compared my dick to a battering ram. I feel so virile and manly."

  Rand let out an exasperated huff. And bit back a mental smile.

  Armor it might be, but damned entertaining armor.

  Twilight closed in. As a shifter, Rand was more nocturnal, often sleeping during the day and hunting at night, so his sleep patterns worked well with a vampire's. Though as he woke, he found himself wondering about the servants in the kitchen who'd obviously anticipated a busy few hours taking care of business for their Masters and Mistresses while the vampires slept. Maybe third marked servants had less need for sleep. What other changes would he notice? Would all of them be the same for a shifter, someone not fully human?

  I know precious little about servants, so couldn't tell you. Guess we'll find out. But it's the best protection I can give you for where we're going.

  The vampire's arm slid further around his chest. He muffled a warm chuckle against Rand's back as he threaded his fingers through his chest hair. "Even as human, you're still furry." His hips crowded up against Rand's bare ass, testing. "Keep yourself lubed up around me, wolf. Saves us both some time."

  "Or maybe you should let me handle your needs a different way." Rand turned and pushed Cai to his back, earning a heavy-lidded look hard to interpret. The vampire stretched, a distracting work of art as his arms, legs and torso rippled, arched and spread, then he was back to a resting pose, his fingers laced behind his head.

  Rand turned his gaze to his target, the heavy wakeup erection resting on Cai's belly, his testicles an appealing cushion for the thick base. His body had the smooth perfection of a Grecian statue, a marked contrast to Rand's thick pelt of chest hair, the layer of dark threads on legs and arms, the thatch between his legs. It didn't seem to bother the vampire, though.

  "Why would it?" Cai unlaced one hand to reach up and coil it in Rand's loose, long hair, stroking and gripping at once. Bringing him down with a tug. "I love all your hair. I want your mouth, wolf. I want it now."

  Rand resisted. He'd always been the one in charge, even with Dylef. Being treated as the bottom, it wasn't that he disliked it; it unsettled him how easy it was for him to embrace it with Cai. As if he deferred to him as the alpha of their two-man pack, which was usually something that had to be earned. Not taken, as Grey had tried to do it.

  Cai's gaze drifted to Rand's mouth. "I dreamed of that mouth on my cock. My hand in your hair like this, tightening, pushing you down, watching all those muscles in your ass and back flex as you were bent over me. I was dreaming how I'd take you afterward. Just fuck you good and hard, so when we go upstairs and start this circus, my come will be in your ass, my scent all over your body."

  He propped himself up on his elbows, his expression becoming something more serious.

  "I don't have your need to belong," he said abruptly. "Grief's kept you a lone wolf, not your nature. You've just been alone too long, Rand. You need a pack, and I'm pretty much what you've got. I stumbled across your path. That's all."

  Rand frowned, but Cai shook his head before he could say anything. "Sorry as hell for that and, if we both don't end up dead, I hope something better comes along for you. But I can make some parts of it not so bad. Like this. So put your fucking mouth on me. Don't make me get rough."

  Rand was caught between lust, humor and annoyance, all of which came with a surge of adrenaline at the vampire's deliberate challenge to turn things in a different direction.

  He wouldn't mind fighting it out with the vampire, see who ended up with top dibs, but maybe not this morning. For one thing, the furniture in this room looked expensive. For another, Cai had already pissed Greenwald off a couple times, and Lyssa at least once. He'd been lucky to leave his audience with her with both testicles.

  "Yeah, she's one scary bitch," Cai noted. "Hot as hell, too. Jacob's one lucky blood bank. Rand."

  The one word wasn't like a command. It was one, and Rand obeyed, because his mouth was begging for the taste of the handsome male, particularly after that unconsciously provocative stretch. He closed his mouth around the broad head and worked his way down the shaft. He might not have a wolf's tongue in this form, but he'd learned a lot about its versatility, and some of that could be translated to a human mouth. Cai approved, if his sucked-in breath and sudden thrust were any indication. It was a different kind of full body stretching, giving himself to pleasure, and he took Rand with him.

  His hand flexed in Rand's hair, pushing him down deeper on him, as he'd warned. Rand relaxed his throat, let it happen, taking him all, and kept working his tongue over him. He liked the taste of the vampire, salt and earth. Heat. He spread his hands over Cai's abdomen and chest, the narrow line of his hips. Reaching between his legs, nudging them further apart with his knuckles, he cupped and rolled his testicles, stroked and probed at his ass, and earned a muttered, reverent curse. He dampened his fingertips on Cai's pre-come and played between his cheeks at the rim, adding to the sensations.

  "Going to fuck you through this mattress," Cai growled. "Suck me."

  Rand complied with a thorough enjoyment. It was nice, having regular access to another male, to satisfy his need to give and take. This felt like both. Cai had initially tensed when he was caressing his chest and stomach, his hips, but as Rand kept doing it, he relaxed into the stroking, gravitating toward it. The male was very sexually adept, but he acted as if all those skills had been honed toward driving the pleasure of his chosen partner, not seeking any intimacy in return during sex. Just sexual gratification centered on his cock and ass.

  Which was a waste, because exploring the male's body, watching how it responded to the lightest tough, was a gift.

  Rand didn't think Cai was in his head right now; he was riding too high on the physical wave of lust. But confirming Rand's thoughts, Cai brushed his hands away too soon, guiding them back to his cock and balls.

  It deflated some of his own desire, but not enough he couldn't give Cai what he'd promised. Rand sucked him all the way to the edge and drew satisfaction from the anticipation of bringing the vampire release.

  Cai had different plans. Before Rand could forestall him, he'd moved with vampire speed, exercising brutal strength to switch their positions. He put Rand on his stomach on the bed, thrust his hand between his thighs and took a firm grip on his balls. He used that hold to make Rand lift his hips off the mattress. Using the lubrication that Rand's mouth had left on him, Cai drove in. It wasn't quite enough lubrication, so the thrust wasn't entirely pleasurable, but he realized Cai intended that.

  He covered Rand, pushing him down flat on the bed when he was all the way in, his lips at Rand's ear. "Next time I tell you to keep yourself lubed for me, you'll remember. And if I wake up and want to fuck you, that's not a negotiation where you get to suck me off instead of giving me your ass. Got it?"

  Rand's first instinct was to fight him. Something had Cai's ire up and was making him drill in the point, literally and figuratively, and Rand bristled at it.

  But despite his ability to remind the vampire he wasn't with a human he could overpower, Rand found his feet knocked out from beneath him by something he didn't expect. An overpowering wave of physical and emotional response from Cai.

  The vampire had a body meant for sex, and knew how to use it. But beneath that, what had driven the nightmare, the rage in the study, and that moment at the sink, when the vampire had stared sightlessly at the mirror, reached out with hard, edgy need. It found an answer in Rand, deep down where his own aggressive, erotic cravings recognized something in Cai's approach that could coat past wounds and losses, paint the way to a different level of connection between their bodies.

  And what a connection. When he was forceful, intending to underscore who was on top here, Cai could be damn well irresistible. Plus, he knew what he was do
ing on the mechanical end of things, hitting just the right rhythm, friction and placement with that capable dick of his. Rand's balls were tingling from the impact of Cai's slapping against them. The vampire knocked Rand's legs out wider, leaving his hips only inches off the bed, just enough to achieve the right angle. It rubbed Rand's cock against the bed linens and oh hell, that friction.

  "You want to come, don't you? Prove who your ass belongs to."

  He'd wrap a rubber band around his cock rather than confirm that statement. Cai chuckled darkly and reached between them to caress Rand's balls. Taking a firm grip on Rand's dick, he tugged it as Rand bucked beneath him.

  Okay, now was the time the wolf needed to come out. Rand shoved himself up, one hand clamping on the head board. Cai moved with him, wrapping his hand around Rand's throat. He sank his fangs into the pumping artery, sealing his lips over the spot. The vampire slid his arm around Rand's chest to hold him up, his cock buried deep in Rand's ass as he fed.

  No, not just fed. Rand stiffened as Cai released something into his blood. Something that charged and burned, sizzled. It reached out to all four limbs, but it was when it hit his brain that the real fireworks began. It unleashed a wave of emotions, formless, as if waiting for something to bring them clarity, something that made him crave blood. Cai's blood.

  The third mark. He was giving him the third mark.

  Cai eased them both to the covers, lying full upon Rand. His breath caressed Rand's neck as he held his mouth there another few moments for a gentler sucking. When he withdrew his fangs, he lifted enough to do something that jostled their coupled bodies. He held out his wrist before Rand's face, and Rand saw the movement had been caused by the force of Cai's strike on his own wrist. Blood oozed out of the two puncture wounds.

  "Drink. That will close the third mark loop and link us."

  Rand didn't have to stop and think. He'd made his decision. Though the vampire would deny he'd said it exactly that way, Rand knew it would maximize their chances to help Dovia against already impossible odds, so there was nothing left to debate. Rand closed his mouth over the vampire's wrist, gripping it with his own hand to steady the connection.