“Did you keep me like that all day?”
“I like you under my power, boy.”
That was all the explanation Maddox felt the need to give. That was how things were. Maddox wanted something and he got it. For now, Will was that something.
“Let’s try another outing this evening,” Maddox announced.
“I’m still…” Will pointed to his leg cast.
“You can be exposed to your prey without having to actually hunt it. It would be good for you to become acclimated to the city again. You have spent too much time confined. I wonder if it was not the sudden lack of confinement that caused your reaction than actual fear of a feral vampire.”
“Yeah. Maybe. I don't know.”
Will was not certain. He wanted to please Maddox, at least, some part of him did. But there were other stronger, older parts that wanted to just run again. Being locked up for years had instilled a desire for open vistas and nothing in the way of obligation. The collar about his neck reminded him that would never be possible, and the cast on his leg reminded him that following his impulses only made things worse.
“Lorien! We’re going hunting! Come on!”
“Lorien is coming?”
Will had hoped he and Maddox would be alone. Lorien filled up the space between them, talked too much, looked too much, had too many expressions. Stabbing him in the throat with a fork was one of the most satisfying things Will had done in a very long time.
“Lorien can show you different ways to take out ferals. It’s best to do it before they know you’re there. A silent kill is a kind kill.”
“I can’t kill like a vampire kills.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll do it in the simple, blunt way humans do things. You should be able to follow along if you pay attention.” Lorien appeared suddenly in the way vampires often did, making Will bristle. He was pretty certain that it wasn’t actually possible for Lorien to form a sentence that wasn’t inherently smug. If only he were human, and Will had him to himself for an hour or two. It would be so satisfying to…”
“Come, boy!”
They left the house in the car and headed out into the city. Will was not looking forward to this outing. He didn’t want to kill vampires. Being that close to one the first time had fucked his head up. It was like being in the presence of something rotten and fetid and also absolutely terrifying. He'd been disgusted and terrified at the same time, and both of those feelings had combined to overwhelm him. He didn’t see how he was ever going to get past it. How could he kill something he was too repulsed to touch?
He was so preoccupied with the problem that at first, he didn’t notice that their destination was the same building as before, the one overlooking the alley where he’d shamefully lost his nerve and frozen rather than kill his enemy.
“Not here again.”
“Here. Again,” Maddox insisted. “You don't have to do anything tonight. You need to watch and learn. I should have shown you myself in the beginning. What happened was not your fault. It was my fault.”
Will knew that was supposed to make him feel better, but he did not need to be shown how to kill. He’d done it enough times to see it in his sleep, and sometimes in his nightmares.
The alley was much more populated on this occasion. There didn’t seem to be any humans, though. If Will wasn’t very much mistaken, the whole crevasse of concrete was crawling with ferals. Dozens of them, at least, going back and forth from one end of the alley to the other, bumping into each other, biting and hissing like a hive of demented bees. The ends of the alley had been blockaded so they couldn’t get out. It was a very strange scene.
“What is this?”
“Bad news,” Lorien said. “Real bad news. I haven’t seen an abandoned brood of this size in a long time.”
“Abandoned brood?”
“It means someone turned a lot of humans and left them here, either with the intention of returning, or they’ve been rejected as unsuitable and left to burn when the sun rises.”
“That seems cruel.”
“It’s incredibly cruel.”
“Stay here,” Maddox said. “Don't move an inch. If I come back and see that you’re off the spot you’re standing on, you are in some serious trouble, you understand?”
“I get it.”
He watched as Maddox and Lorien descended into the breach and for want of a better word, slaughtered every feral down there. They killed swiftly and efficiently, turning tortured flesh to blissful dust. It took them less than five minutes and it was over, a complete extermination completed without so much as breaking a sweat.
Watching them with a mixture of awe, jealousy, and no small amount of sorrow that he was not allowed to get down there and join them, Will couldn’t help but notice the elegance both Maddox and Lorien brought to their violent acts. Some of the ferals attempted to fight back, but they all fell, one after the other with an inevitability that made their resistance absolutely futile. It might have seemed brutal to an onlooker, but it was an act of mercy and Will understood that.