Royal Pains (Vampire Kings 2)

Will sat down at the kitchen counter and was presented with a bowl of vanilla ice cream. At one point in his life he would have turned his nose up at such a dish, now all he wanted was some…

“Toaster pastry to go with it,” Maddox said, reading his mind.

A hot toaster treat with apple strudel filling went perfectly with the ice cream. Sitting uncomfortably didn’t matter when he was being allowed all this mouth pleasure. But soon enough the bowl was empty and the general trauma of existence was asserting itself again.

“Did you know my father?”

“By reputation alone. I may have met him. I forget.” Maddox sounded uncharacteristically evasive.

Will looked dubious.

“When you live as long as I have, you do begin to forget things, boy. Believe me when I tell you there is much that has happened I cannot recall. I have quite literally forgotten more than you have ever known.”

“What was his name?”

“Ivan.”

“Ivan?” Will wrinkled his nose. “What kind of a name is Ivan?”

“One very popular in Eastern Europe. He was known as Ivan the Terrible.”

“Wasn’t that an old king or something?”

“It is the moniker of the first Russian Tsar. He was cruel in the extreme, even to one of my kind.”

“My father was?”

“No. Ivan the Terrible was.”

Will let out a frustrated sigh. “You said you’d tell me everything you knew about my father.”

“There is vanishingly little to tell. He and his kind do not make themselves known except by their atrocities. We are not here to discuss his crimes. We are here to address your most recent addition to an extensive and storied rap sheet.”

Will allowed himself the pleasure of a smirk. He did enjoy misbehaving. He was comfortable in this place of rebellion. Yeah, he was in trouble, but it wasn’t the kind of trouble where he was going to end up doing life. It was the kind that made him feel alive. He locked his eyes on Maddox, knowing that each and every one of his feelings was perfectly clear to the vampire master.

“You still haven’t apologized,” Maddox pointed out. “Nor have you made any sounds of contrition.”

“You want to beat me again? Fuck me again? I don’t care. I'd like it.”

“I will do both if I have to, boy. And I promise you that you will not like it. I will do whatever I have to do in order to keep you free and with me. Do you understand what the stakes are? You could be returned to that facility for the rest of your life. You could be in prison forever. I might never see you again.” Maddox’s expression was so grim and so full of emotion Will almost stopped finding the whole situation funny.

“I’m a fucking wolf, Maddox. Let’s see how long they can hold me.”

Maddox stiffened at that threat, surprising Will because Will couldn’t turn if he wanted to, and they both knew it. “Humans cannot know of your existence.”

“Why? Because I have to be your dirty little secret?”

“Because they barely know vampires exist, and because they hardly need anything else to panic about, do they?”

“I don’t give a fuck about humanity.”

“Charming.” Maddox sighed.

“I want to know who my parents were. You said you’d help me and all you’ve done is brush me off. So I went to find out myself. I am not going to say sorry for that.”

“You went out and broke into a federal courthouse. You are so lucky to be free, boy.”

“Free?” Will laughed brutally. “I haven’t been free a day in my life. You haven’t given me freedom. You’ve given me a different kind of incarceration.”

“I’ve showed you what and who you really are. I’ve given you a chance at living in society, you ungrateful whelp.”

Maddox’s tone was calm, but his words were emotive and Will was starting to get the feeling that Mad truly thought he was doing him a favor. But they both knew Maddox had his own agenda, and that agenda did not take Will’s needs into account.

“Oh, you saved me out of the goodness of your cold, dead heart, is that it?” Will got down from the kitchen counter and began stalking around it. He was starting to get riled again himself.

“Yes.”

Will laughed at the audacity of that claim. “You haven’t told me a single useful thing.”

“There is very little in the way of useful information to provide. Your father is a predator you would be fortunate to never encounter. Your mother was an unfortunate waif who has, with any luck, put the entire incident behind her.”

Will curled his hands into fists and slammed them both into a shelf of glassware, shattering it all. He rounded on Maddox with absolute fury in his eyes.

“I am not an incident!”

“Of course not. I didn't mean to say…”

Maddox had never, ever sounded uncertain before as long as Will could remember. He seemed to know he had said the wrong thing, for whatever that was worth. He shut up fairly quickly and instead focused on fixing the mess, pulling Will away from the broken glass. There were shards sticking out of his knuckles, preventing him from unclenching his hands.