Predators: A Dark MM Urban Fantasy Paranormal

“I didn’t do anything,” Lorien said.

Maddox lifted his arm and brought it down swiftly, cutting the cane down across Lorien’s haunches with another harsh stroke.

“You have done a great deal. Do not insult me by imagining I don’t know what is happening in my city. I run an entire team of detectives. There’s only one thing I don’t know. Who turned Chauvelin? Did you feed him your blood? Is that what happened? Tell me the truth, Lorien. I do not have any patience for another disobedient subordinate.”

“I don’t know. I buried him like you told me to. I promise.”

Maddox tapped the cane lightly against Lorien’s ass, keeping a firm grip on him in case he gor the very bad idea of trying to get away. “Someone’s turned him.”

“Could have been any of the vampires looking for an edge, turning as many as they could. It's easier to hunt the recently deceased.”

“No. You can’t turn the deceased.”

“Which means….”

“I buried him alive,” Lorien said, making a distinct ‘my bad’ face. “That’s rather… that’s not… hmm. He probably didn’t enjoy that.”

“No. I’d say he probably did not.”

Maddox stepped back and gestured with the cane to indicate that Lorien could rise. He did so with an ashamed expression that held not a little guilt.

“I know it was you,” Maddox said. He was tired of the games. He was tired of the lies. He was tired of playing games on top of games. It was time to come clean. For all of them.

“It was me what?”

“You killed Bertram and Ernest. I knew it the moment I saw them. It was an act of vengeance, and it had your quirks all over it. How did you do it?”

Lorien’s lips turned down, and then up in a bright, irrepressible smile. “You have no idea how hard it has been keeping that to myself.”

“How. Did you. Do it?”

“I entered the kitchen and sedated them with silver and garlic in their blood tea, plus a little extra ingredient I discovered in one of the old texts. Not enough to put them under. Just enough to make them a little slower. And you saw the rest. It was just wood and hammers. Very simple.”

Very simple and remarkably cruel. Lorien did not wear his perversion on his sleeve. He kept it hidden beneath a charming veneer, but it was there, and it was deeper and more dangerous than almost anybody supposed.

“You started a war. It is time you put an end to it.”

“How?”

“By taking their place.”

“You mean become king?”

“Yes.”

Lorien shrugged the suggestion off, literally and metaphorically. “I’m ninety years old. I can’t stand the midday sun. How can I take their place?”

“What did you think would happen when you killed them?”

“I thought you would take their place.”

“Me?”

“Why not? You’re an ancient. You’re always in control.”

“Did it occur to you that I might not want to be the figurehead of the entire city? Heavy is the head that wears the crown.”

“You’d be better at it than they were. Vampires like you, or at least respect you. In all this, there’s not been one incursion here. Not a single one. They've been murdering each other in the streets, taking out humans, forcing ferals into the light…”

“I know. But my position is considered safe here because I am not involved in politics. In spite of various suspicions, the fact that I have not made any move toward power has meant I am left alone, which is precisely what I want to be. I do not want to be lord of the vampires. And you had no right to assume you could manipulate me into it.”

Lorien’s lower lip trembled, and for a moment he looked like a little boy.

“They had me attacked publicly. They had me almost killed. I crawled away like a dying dog and waited for a month to be strong enough to come here. It was painful, it was humiliating, and I was…” Lorien paused, as if he didn’t want to say the word. “I was scared. Nobody makes me scared. So yes, I got rid of them.”

“You didn’t just get rid of them. You tortured and humiliated them,” Maddox lectured. “You were vicious and sadistic — but you were also wrong.”

A small smile appeared on Lorien's face.

“So you forgive me?”

“There's nothing to forgive. But I will not be taking their place,” Maddox informed him as he opened the door again and escorted Lorien out. The unit was gone, having taken their leave in a very sensible way. It was best not to hang about the home of a furious vampire lord faced with the betrayal of his ward.

“Then who will?”

Maddox gave a half-shrug. “These things have ways of working themselves out.”

“No, Maddox. You have to. You’d be perfect.”

“You know I walk a different path. I cannot hold official rank in vampire society while also working with human governments. It would be what they call a conflict of interest.”