Predators (Vampire Kings 1)

15

Return To New York

Having fuckedhimself into a marginally better mood, Maddox returned to a city which remained embroiled in chaos. Fortunately, summer hours and long evenings meant that the violence was contained from ten in the evening to around four in the morning. None of the young vamps vying for position wanted to be charred because they were caught out too late.

“I say we corral the ferals and bake ’em,” Candy suggested. “Killing them one by one is time consuming and ineffective. Drawing them all out into the light, that could be done with the right kind of bait.”

“It’s an effective idea, but a cruel one. And it solves the symptom. Not the problem. We need to install a new leader.”

“Who, sir. You?”

“Definitely not me,” Maddox said. “I cannot imagine a worse living torture.”

“I have some more footage, if you’d like to review it, sir. I think it gives a…”

She trailed off as Maddox waved his hand, indicating she should play it. He really didn’t care. He was barely watching as the bodycam footage played out before his disinterested eyes. There were hundreds of ferals. Candy and the others had dispatched some themselves, but not nearly enough. It was all hopeless until a new king took the throne. He and his unit could go out every night and kill a swath of ferals, they’d just be back the following evening. He was about to call the meeting to an end when something caught his eye.

“Wait. Stop the footage. Roll it back.”

Candy did as he asked. Maddox looked over at Lorien with a raised brow. “See anybody you know?”

It was actually someone they both knew.

It was Chauvelin. And he was drinking from somebody. Maddox would have known that round, weasely little face anywhere. Even half covered in the bloody essence of some poor soul, he was instantly recognizable.

“Huh,” Lorien said. "Well, that's unexpected.”

And that was when Maddox snapped.

He burst out of his chair, grabbed Lorien by the collar and bodily hauled him across the room with vampiric speed. He usually tried not to display his powers before the humans. It unsettled them. They liked to pretend he was just a charismatic rich man, and they could not do that when he was flashing past them at the speed of sound.

He pulled Lorien into his office, shutting and bolting the doors so they could not be disturbed. What he was about to do would forever traumatize the humans if they were to see it happen.

“Okay. So. I’m sensing some anger. But…”

“What have you done!?” Maddox rounded on Lorien with a furious roar, his eyes rolling black, his fangs extending long and sharp. He was furious, so angry that the very air vibrated with the promise of violence.

“What the…. hey! Easy there fella!” Lorien put his hands up and backed away. It was too little an appeasing gesture and it came far too late. Maddox had found the limit of his patience, and it was beginning to cower before him.

He grabbed Lorien by the neck and hurled him across the room, before grasping a cane from the stand by the door and striding after the younger vampire as he tried to scramble to his feet. The cane was used with harsh vigor across Lorien’s ass, and across the back of his shoulders, two harsh cracks which did him no real harm, but caused him very real pain.

“This isn’t my fault!” Lorien shouted as Maddox grabbed him again, this time by the arm, and threw him down on the desk, holding him in place and whipping both his ass and his upper back with the cane. Crack after crack echoed around the room, interspersed with Lorien’s cries.

Unlike when he punished Will, Maddox did not have to worry about doing any damage to Lorien. Lorien would recover from whatever he might do to him.

“You had one job, Lorien! To bury the body!”

“I DID!” Lorien screamed the words with enough anguish to still Maddox’s cane.

“So you didn’t turn him?”

“No! Fuck!” Lorien grunted the word against the desk. His usually composed facade had slipped. He was breathing hard, even though he didn’t need to breathe. It was a carry over from his human memories, a reaction to the energy of being beaten.

“It’s been some time since I punished you,” Maddox said, laying the cane over Lorien’s ass and holding it there, still. “I think you’ve forgotten it is always an option I will have when it comes to you.”

“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.”

“But anybody could rise to power.”

“I know. But we have one last ace that might make a difference for you. You have aspirations to power, Lorien. That kind of drive never goes away. You will either fulfill it, or it will consume you. Better you take the throne now than be denied it.”

“And what's that ace? Will?”

“Will.”

“He's not ready,” Lorien said. “I can tell you that right now. He’s got no… he’s just human.”

“He’s not just human.”

“I’m not just human?” Will’s voice chimed in unexpectedly. He was holding toaster strudel again. They never seemed to notice him when he was foraging for food. Too wrapped up in vampire concerns, he supposed.

“And he’s always wandering around listening into conversations he’s not supposed to be a part of.”

“I’m NOT just HUMAN?” Will shouted the words, furious. “What the fuck does that mean?”

Maddox sighed. He should have explained this earlier, and in a more delicate way, but events were overtaking them at an ever more rapid pace.

“You’ve never wondered why you were so much more aggressive than others? Even the ones who were so violent they were imprisoned with you? Did you not wonder why your blood boiled so easily, why you felt compelled to defend those you considered family, even those you didn’t like? Why you killed for Lorien and felt no guilt?”

“Because I’m a sociopath.”

“No. You're not. You’re wired differently…”

“That’s what being a sociopath is.”

“It’s not. Sociopaths don’t feel empathy. You do. Too much sometimes. You have loyalty in your marrow. Sociopaths don’t have it. You’re something different.”

“What am I?”

“You’re a werewolf.”

Will stared, and laughed, and laughed. And then he laughed some more.

“Werewolves aren’t real.”

“They’re real. They’re just rare. Much more rare than vampires. There may be less than a hundred left in North America. You’re one of them.”

“Nah. I’m not,” Will wiped tears from his eyes. “Goddamn. That’s funny. That’s really funny. Good one. I’m going to bed. Fucking werewolf. You’re more mental than I am.”

Briinnnnngg…. Brinnnnng!

Back in Maddox’s office, his phone was ringing. He still had a landline. He liked the anachronism, he was one himself, after all.

“Maddox speaking.” He took the call casually.

“Yep,” Sheriff said, not bothering with any pleasantry or politeness. “Had another hundred civilian deaths today. Not good enough.”

“As I may have mentioned in the meeting, this situation is not one that can be immediately…”

“Listen. You don’t get that city under control, and I’m going to have my troops roll through there and light you up. Anything sensitive to UV light is going to be obliterated, you understand me?”

Maddox’s fangs dropped with the desire to drain every last drop of blood from the man on the phone.

Sheriff saved him the trouble of answering by hanging up on him.

Maddox dropped the phone into the cradle. He had to do something. Time was running very, very short. Will wasn’t ready yet. He still didn’t know how to kill vampires. And these things couldn't be rushed. The last thing he wanted was to break his boy. And yet…

While Will slept, Maddox and Lorien lurked beside him. Maddox had a small glass vial in his hand, filled with a deep purple liquid which turned gold when it was shaken before seeping back into a royal violet hue once more.

“What’s that?” Lorien gestured toward it.

“It’s an old tincture designed to help one with wereblood make the first shift. I have been waiting for Will to make the change himself organically, but the only killing he has done has been of another human.”

“I thought they did that spontaneously. The shift.”

“Only purebloods, and he’s not pure. He’s going to need a little help. I thought killing vampires would be the push he needed. Usually a werewolf who kills a vampire finds themselves in the change whether they want to be there or not. But Will…”

“He’s always needed a little help, hasn’t he,” Lorien smirked. “You’re going to give it to him now while he’s asleep?”

“He’s not asleep. He's in trance, under my influence. He…”

Will snored.

“He’s asleep,” Maddox admitted. “I feel this might be a lot simpler if he is. The reason you’re here is to help contain him if this works.”

“He is a lot less trouble when he's passed out,” Lorien agreed.

“I am not merely doing this for myself, you understand. If this shift works, I will allow you to hold his chain from time to time. Owning a werewolf is going to change the political landscape of the city forever. It gives you some chance of cementing your legacy.”

“He’s not mine though, is he?”

“No, but he’ll be at your command.”

“No, he won’t," Lorien laughed. “Will has never been at anybody’s command. Not yours, and definitely not mine. He has to be forced into compliance.”

“He’ll be much easier to control when he takes his animal form. He’ll be much more instinctual, and much less mouthy. He might bite from time to time, but he won't have anything to say. He’ll do what he’s told to do. Chained and leashed and made to be obedient.”

“You’re dreaming,” Lorien laughed. “But give him the drug anyway.”

Maddox lifted Will's sleeping head in his hand and lifted the vial to his lips. The swallow reflex was strong enough to ensure that Will dutifully took the full contents of the vial without argument, a much easier task than it would have been if he was awake.

They watched, hushed as Will twitched in his trance sleep, waiting for the moment when his jaws would elongate, fresh canine teeth would replace his grinding teeth, and fur would flow from his skin. Seconds ticked by. Minutes followed. Then a full hour crept in. Will turned in his sleep a few times, but remained stubbornly human throughout.

“It does not appear to be working. Is it like an edible? Takes a couple of hours?”

“It is not like an edible. It’s just not working.” Maddox did not like hearing the tension in his voice. It wasn’t like him. It represented a loss of control, and he did not lose control. Not even when he was facing what he suddenly realized was his biggest disappointment in many hundreds of years.

“I thought he had wereblood.”

Maddox gritted his teeth. “He does.”

“He’s not turning.”

“No. He’s not.”

“Did you get him tested?”

“No.”

Lorien looked at Maddox. “Is it possible you’re wrong about him?”

“Anything is possible. But how could he be so naturally violent, so utterly without remorse, so impossible to control? He has all the traits.”

“Except he doesn’t have all the traits, does he? Not the furry ones. Not the teethy ones.”

“If he’s human… then…”

They looked at one another and shared a mutual shudder. A werewolf who did what Will did was natural, understandable. A vampire fledgling with his hunger for destruction was likewise relatable. But a human with those tastes, impulses, and instincts? That was nothing other than a monster.

“Let him sleep it off. He never believed he was a werewolf anyway. And don’t worry.”

Lorien stretched, yawned, even though he had absolutely no need whatsoever to yawn, and left the room. He’d lost interest, but it was not so easy for Mad.

Maddox was worried. Deeply so. He believed he knew everything about Will. Everything down to the date and time of his conception, his birth, and his abandonment. His passage through an adoptive home that surrendered him into state care at the age of six because he was impossible to control even then. He’d run away from foster care at ten and never returned to a home. Prison had been his only stable place of residence. These were the simple facts of the whelp’s history. They were all to have been redeemed by his transformation from man to wolf — but if he had no wolf inside him, then he was nothing besides a broken boy grown into a very dangerous man.

A human Maddox had already allowed himself to bond with. A human who would perhaps be damaged even beyond, beyond repair if he were to be cast aside.

Maddox watched Will sleep, and worried.