9
Welcome Home
“Long night?”
Lorien met Maddox at the door with the kind of charming smile that could absolutely in no way be trusted. Maddox did not dignify the question with a verbal reply. Instead, he answered it with a raised brow. Lorien was not usually first to meet him. Lorien usually swanned about doing whatever it was he was doing and ignoring the rest of creation. The only reason he’d be at the door now is if he were attempting some form of damage control.
“Now I don’t want you to be angry, but…”
“What have you done, Lorien?”
“It’s not… I haven’t done anything.”
“Where is Will?”
“Good news is he’s still here, and he’s fine. I mean he’s as healthy now as he was when you left.”
Maddox’s brow went higher still.
“He’s in the kitchen,” Lorien trailed off, somewhat guilty. He was very fortunate Maddox was in a spectacularly good mood.
Will was in the kitchen, Mads discovered. He was gagged and tangled in a ball of chains on the kitchen floor, to be precise. To Mad’s surprise there weren’t really many signs of a struggle. Will was tangled up in the chains on the kitchen floor. He had also been gagged. He was fast asleep with his head against the oven, apparently unconcerned about his unorthodox incarceration — or, more likely, having given up at finding himself in the predicament for an extended period of time.
“I didn’t want to let him go, as he was making threats,” Lorien explained from what he might have imagined was a safe distance. No distance would have been safe if Maddox had decided to discipline him for this act of rank bullying.
“I can imagine he was.” Maddox shot Lorien a dire look that promised a future reckoning as he stooped down, picked Will’s sleeping form up and carried him back upstairs. The chains were as easy to snap as cotton to him. He opted to do that rather than attempt to undo the tangle of links which held his pup captive.
Will stirred as he was settled into bed. “Lorien tied me up,” he said through half-closed eyes.
“I know.”
“Gonna kill him,” he added, grabbing the pillow and pressing his face against it.
Adorable.
Maddox left Will to sleep after what had clearly been a very hard night and and went back downstairs, wondering if it was worth it to attempt to censure Lorien, or if it would simply be giving him the attention he so clearly craved.
A little light hazing would not hurt Will at all. If anything, it would make his reflexes more keen and his aggression more keenly turned toward vampires. Familiarity breeding contempt was still a viable strategy as far as Mads was concerned.
“You cannot attack Will. He's delicate. He’s human.”
“Well. Human adjacent. I had to chain him up.”
“Why?”
Lorien looked about, as if an answer might appear written on the walls. He was a ninety-year-old vampire and sometimes he still had the mannerisms of a human a fraction of his age.
“Okay. I wanted to chain him up. I was home alone. It was boring. I can’t go out until Bertram and Ernest forget I exist. So…”
“Well. On that note, I may have some good news.”
“You got them to forgive me?”
Lorien really didn’t deserve the good news, so Maddox did not tell him. Besides, there was a knocking at the door, an inappropriately timed, excessively late, overly entitled knocking. He knew who it was even before he opened the door.
“Agent Chauvelin,” he greeted the federal agent.
“Could I ask you some questions?” Chauvelin didn’t bother apologizing for bothering him at home so late.
“Of course. Please, come in.”
The short man stepped over his threshold without anything obvious in the way of fear or hesitation. Mads was reminded of the saying about fools rushing in where angels feared to tread. Ironic that they had met in a place of worship.
Chauvelin looked around the place, inspecting everything with a keen and discerning eye. He would not find anything of interest. That was half the reason Maddox chose the absence of decor he did. Intruders had little to destroy or deface, and investigators had nothing to investigate.
“Is this your primary residence?”
“It is.”
Chauvelin cast another doubtful eye around the place. “You don’t have personal items?”
“Have you come here to get personal?” Maddox asked the question with casual softness. Chauvelin had come in with all the stuffed importance of a person with a federal badge, but this was Mad’s territory, and here he reigned supreme.
The agent coughed, blushed, and composed himself in a matter of seconds. It was a very impressive transformation.
“As I understand it, a fledgling of yours was attacked on the orders of B and E.”
They’d already been reduced to letters, mere notations of their former selves. Most gratifying. Maddox took a seat and gestured for Chauvelin to do the same. The agent did not take the offer; he stood there being spectacularly awkward.
“I do not have any fledglings, or progeny of any kind.”
“Really? That’s atypical for a vampire of your age and origin.”
Maddox smiled gently. “I am atypical in many respects,” he agreed.
“Still, a young vampire who was worth your while coming to see the twins about, if not a fledgling of your own…”
“You’ve done your homework, Mr Chauvelin.”
“Agent Chauvelin.”
“Of course, my apologies.”
Maddox knew better than to volunteer additional information to a law enforcement officer clearly fishing for something.
“So an acquaintance of yours suffered injuries recently?” Chauvelin tried again.
“Vampires suffer injuries all the time. Many of them enjoy it. Pain is one of the few human pleasures left to us.”
“So you’re saying this individual enjoyed having his throat ripped out.”
“You speak as though you were there.”
“I may have been.”
The little shit was attempting to set a trap of some kind. To what end, Mads could not imagine. If Chauvelin had been there when Lorien was attacked, then Chauvelin knew a lot more than he was letting on.
“You do realize I am also a federal law enforcement agent,” he reminded the agent.
“You’re a liaison to a unit which does not formally exist.”
So that’s the game they were playing. My unit is bigger and more formally recognized than yours. Everything came down to a unit measuring contest with humans.
Maddox leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers together over his stomach, smiling, waiting for the agenda to become clear.
“B and E were essential to many of our New York operations. Their passing will not simply be written off.”
“And yet even if you were to discover the entity behind it all, you would have no legal recourse to challenge them, given that killing vampires is not illegal.”
“It’s not, is it?” Chauvelin said, his beady little eyes locked on Maddox with a sudden flare of intention.
There was threat in that gaze, a true nastiness. This was not professional. This was personal. He wasn’t here on an investigation. He was here because he was upset, and because he clearly thought Mads was behind it all.
“You must have enjoyed being their blood pet very much,” Maddox said, immediately hitting the very nerve he intended to find. Chauvelin blanched. His head jerked back as if he had been punched by an unseen fist. He tried to recover, but his fine fingers betrayed him, skittering around the lower hem of his coat like a nervous schoolboy.
“It is forbidden for federal agents to submit to vampiric control or…”
“Yes, but when confronted with two powerful immortal beasts, does the pulse not quicken and the blood run hotter? Does desire not rise against sense and regulation, Agent Chauvelin?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” A faint hint of color was rising to the man’s pale face. He was anemic, like many humans who gave themselves to their vampire masters and were fed from too often.
“I think you do.”
He was a filthy little fuck pet, furious at the passing of his masters. And he was dangerous, though not in the way he was attempting to present himself.
“I have enough.” Chauvelin leaped out of the seat as if it were suddenly on fire. “I will be in touch if I think you can assist us further in our enquiries.”
“Of course,” Maddox said, rising graciously. “Allow me to show you the door.”
No sooner was Chauvelin gone than Lorien appeared. He had clearly been listening in.
“Is it true? They’re dead?” He asked the question with the pent-up glee of someone who very much wanted to be excited, but also didn’t want to be excited before being certain.
“It is true.”
Lorien’s expression underwent several iterations before settling on very pleased. “Did you kill them?”
“You know it’s not polite to ask such things.”
“You killed two ancients to avenge me?” Lorien’s jaw dropped. He put his hand to his chest in a dramatic motion which somewhat undercut the sincerity of his words. “I didn’t know you cared.”
Maddox contented himself with a head shake and kept walking, with Lorien at his heels.
“What happened? Who killed them? How did they die?”
“Enough,” Maddox sighed. “I’m going to bed.”
“Since when do you go to bed?”
“Since I miss my boy.”
His door opened and Will rolled over in bed to see Maddox was framed in it, a dark and handsome figure silhouetted against the light.
“I have not had sufficient time with you,” he said to the darkness. “I apologize for that.”
“’S’okay,” Will mumbled, half-asleep and not sure what to make of the notes of apparent affection in Maddox’s tone. They were still largely strangers to one another, in spite of the rough intimacy they had shared almost immediately.
Maddox stepped onto the room, removing his jacket and waistcoat, and then his shirt. His body was lit by the ambient light of the hall, a faint red glow playing over the muscular lines and ridges of a torso perpetually in the very best of shape. Will felt himself throb in anticipation.
“I need you,” Maddox said, drawing Will close, wrapping an arm around Will’s neck and drawing him close, running his nose and mouth up the side of Will’s neck.
“What’s wrong? What’s with all the law enforcement? Is it about me?”
“Nothing’s wrong. Just what Lorien would call vamp drama.”
It sounded odd to hear Maddox speak so informally, but Will did not have time to focus on words, for the vampire master was all action, his large hand wrapping around Will’s cock with a possessive grip. Will stiffened, feeling his vulnerability and arousal both flaring into bright life.
“I forget you’re a vampire. You feel like a different kind of monster.”
Mad’s mouth was on Will’s neck, lightly nibbling, no fangs. Will’s cock throbbed in his iron grip.
“I meant to spend so much more time with you, pup,” Mads growled lightly in his ear. “I’m afraid business has interrupted that.”
“I’m… mnnnghh… good,” Will grunted as Maddox stroked his cock. The violent hunger between them was still there, looming between them, powering their intimacy. This creature was a stranger, still. A master who tripped the levers inside his head and yet remained unknown in so many respects. Will found himself searching for Maddox’s eyes, trying to drink in his essence, to understand the dark attraction which had been so compelling from the beginning.
“I will have to be careful with you, my broken boy,” Maddox purred, shifting Will into a more fuckable face-down position, pillows propped in all the right places to support his aching body.
He didn’t know why Maddox needed him. Will was certain there was nothing he had to offer a vampire. He was weak and he was human and he couldn’t even kill on command. He had a broken leg and a broken soul. And yet here Maddox was, stroking him like a good pet, making him feel wanted, making him feel valued.
“Reach back and spread yourself for me,” Maddox ordered softly.
Will did as he was told. He put his hands back, took hold of his cheeks and opened them, baring himself to the vampire master who owned every bit of him. He was still half-asleep, and there was something about that mental twilight which made everything feel better.
“Good boy,” Maddox purred. Will felt a flush of warmth run through him as he laid there, face down after an evening of unwilling bondage, now displaying himself willingly for the one who was truly his master.
“So tender. So pretty,” Maddox purred. “You really are a work of art, boy.”
Will had not received many compliments in his life. The words coming from Maddox found a soft and sensitive spot in him he did not know existed. Had he ever wanted to be pretty before? Had he ever wanted to be good? Had it ever seemed like it was an option?
It was an option now. All he had to do was lie there and be the hot, willing vessel for Maddox’s lust. He closed his eyes and he let out a long low moan as he felt Maddox penetrating him with that thick, ancient vampire cock. Hundreds of years of fucking had made him a master of the art of penetration. He knew how to move his hips, when to apply lubricant and when to use the slight grip of a less-than-lubed ass for his advantage.
“So good,” Maddox moaned, covering Will’s body with his own, stronger, longer, bigger frame. Will sank into the bed, his prone form absolutely dominated with a surprisingly gentle vampire lover. “I am proud of you for not reacting to Lorien. It shows you are beginning to get a hold on your temper.”
Will did not mention that he’d had no choice, that Lorien had gotten the chains on him before he had a chance to stab him with any cutlery. He wouldn’t have been able to form the words anyway. The firm, regular thrusts of the hard cock inside his ass were making it impossible to form words, let alone say them.
Was this his purpose? Had he been sprung from prison to be the fuck toy of a creature nobody knew existed? Would he spend the rest of what could be a short life wrapped around the dick of an unholy master, his own cock straining with need and burning with the heat of the orgasm rising in his balls?
He didn't know the answer to any of those questions. All he truly knew was that he was being claimed again, taken with rough care, fucked to the brim full of vampire seed. He was a dirty, filthy little toy, he was a submissive little toy, and in those beautiful moments where Maddox gripped him to his own spurting orgasm, he surrendered to all of it.