“What? Right now?”
“Yes, boy.”
Will looked at the feeding vampire and felt something he had not expected to feel: fear. The memory of Mads drinking from him was still fresh in his mind, along with the complete submission he had fallen into when he’d had to give in to the fangs.
A hard smack on his rump reminded him that he had a job to do. It was not normally his wont to be reluctant to be violent, but Mads overestimated Will’s desire to kill — at least, his desire to kill those who hadn’t crossed him.
“I…”
“What is it?”
I don’t think I can. That’s what Will wanted to say. But those words would not be part of his vocabulary today, not in that order at least. Showing Maddox weakness was not an option. So he went down the wall, grabbing the fire escape ladder which obligingly shuddered down in a rusty complaining sort of way, delivering him to the ground safely, if not surreptitiously.
He didn’t usually worry about making a quiet entrance, though it occurred to him now he was on the ground that the element of surprise might have been helpful. Coming banging down in the middle of this scene was not his best idea. It might even have been his worst.
These revelations came too late for him to do anything about them. He stifled the desire to call out for help. Maddox hadn’t recruited him to cry and whine. He’d gotten him out of jail to kill on command. Should be a dream job. The moment he breathed in, it turned to a nightmare.
The vampire looked up and hissed. Its eyes were bloodshot. Its chin dripped blood. It released the body and turned toward him. It did not stand upright. It was hunched over, hands clawed. It breathed like a beast. It smelled like one too. He had expected the smell of blood. He hadn’t expected the rancidity of guts and rot and other unpleasant decay no human can tolerate.
Maddox had been right. These ferals were nothing like him. They were like animals. Dangerous, filthy, wild animals. He wanted to kill. He wanted to kill more than he had ever wanted to kill before. But he could not. He was frozen. Not out of choice, but out of primal animal instinct. Right now, the memories of countless ancestors of all species were in control of him. They turned his bones to stone, his muscles to useless meat. He could not even call for help. All he could do was stare at his fate as it approached him, bloodshot eyes strangely magnetic in these super-slowed final moments of existence.
Maddox landed behind the vampire soundlessly, as if his weight did not create any impact on the world at all. He raised an inscribed spike of iron just as the feral closed the last inches on Will. There was a sickening meaty sound as Maddox bashed a stake through the feral’s head. The cracking of skull and then the squishing of brain which leaked out in a messy cauliflower of flesh.
Will threw up and collapsed, yet again giving into two impulses which were squarely the domain of prey. Mads’ shadow fell over him. Will could only imagine the disappointment and likely rage he was about to be subjected to. He had not only failed, he had shown complete and utter weakness.
“Let’s go home, pup.”
Maddox reached down to help him up, but Will’s legs refused to work. He was still frozen like an animal caught in headlights. Maddox tossed him over his shoulder and carried him back to the car.
Will had never experienced such a low point in his life. Not even when twelve guards took turns beating on him all night long when he was in prison. Then he’d been unable to fight back. Today he’d just… failed.
“I don’t know what happened,” he mumbled, his head hanging low. He wished Maddox would not look at him anymore. He could feel his master’s gaze and it made him feel so shamefully weak he could barely stand it.
Maddox bundled him into the car, and together they went home, a silent pair sliding through the streets of the greatest city in the world.
The silence was worse than anything Will had experienced in a long time. He didn’t understand why it felt so bad, he only knew that he could barely stand it.
“I failed you. I fucked up. I’m sorry.”
Maddox was patient, and far more generous than Will ever imagined he would be. He ran his fingers soothingly through Will’s sweaty locks and made what might have been a soothing sound.
“The first kill is the hardest. A vampire, any vampire, is an apex predator beyond any you have encountered in your life. The human body reacts to that knowledge on an instinctual level.”
“So why did you send me down there?”