He had a brief and very limited impulse to tell Maddox what had happened. He was proud to have finally slain a vampire, but he couldn’t be bothered with what would inevitably come next, the lecturing and the restrictions and the rest of it. It might have been sensible to tell Mad that he’d become a target, but Will was not sensible, and he had enjoyed himself far too much to let something like telling Mad ruin it.
“I’m going to go to bed.”
Maddox gripped him by the collar and drew him back, dipping him to position him for a rough, possessive kiss.
“I have missed you, boy.”
Will’s blood surged. He felt his cock swell with desire, and his skin prickle with heat. But he couldn’t forget how things had ended the previous day. When he’d woken his door had been unlocked, but there was no denying that Maddox had locked him away like an animal at his moment of most intense emotional need. He also still ached with the aftereffects of Maddox’s punishment. There were hot lines across his skin, and deeper aches that reignited when Maddox’s hand squeezed his ass.
Maddox lifted him up and carried him to the bedroom. Maddox’s bedroom, a place of opulence and rich, draped fabrics. It was rare that Will was taken here. Maddox liked to maintain a place of solitude, a bastion of debauchery. In his bedchamber he stripped Will of his clothing, raising a brow when the stake went clattering to the ground.
“Something you wanted to tell me, boy?”
“No,” Will moaned. His cock was painfully erect, the head of his dick throbbing until Maddox’s large, powerful hand wrapped around it and squeezed firmly, relieving Will of the effort of trying to discharge his own lust.
“You carry a stake when you’re out?”
“Have to be able to defend myself,” Will grunted.
“If you need to defend yourself, you shouldn’t be roaming the streets alone, boy. It is dangerous. You are royalty now.”
“I can take care of myself,” Will moaned.
“But I am the one who wants to take care of you,” Maddox growled, his voice deep and rich with carnal and romantic intention, a rolling baritone of pure possession. Will couldn’t quite work out what this was supposed to be. Makeup sex? A carnal apology? Or was Maddox just horny again?
All the questions fled as Maddox’s finger slid inside Will’s ass, finding the spot that gave him the most possible pleasure. He’d dipped his finger in a thick grease lubricant and that let him slide in deep and twist and find that button.
Will panted with the attempt to regain some kind of erotic control, but when he was in Maddox’s grasp, he was always and forever completely out of control. There was a pressure, a welling, an overwhelming impulse to empty his balls. Will roared and grunted as cum spurted from his body, coating Maddox’s hand.
The ancient vampire licked drops of seed from his hand. “You taste so perfectly alive, boy.”
Will was not coherent enough to reply to that. It had been a very quick release, but the speed of it did nothing to undermine the effect of it. He was exhausted after a very long night and several days of emotional turmoil. The minute he came he was ready to pass the fuck out.
“I want you home at night," Maddox said. “It’s not safe to wander once dusk falls. Understand?”
“Mnghhm,” Will replied. He was tired and compliant, satisfied and safe.
6
The Hunt
Will slept well that day. He did not care that he was missing the sun. When he woke it was already fading out of the sky. In prison his rhythms had been determined by rigid routine. In Maddox’s home he was beginning to discover some real freedom.
When he went downstairs, he found a casserole in the refrigerator and a note from Maddox mentioning that he was at the Library conducting vampire business. Lorien seemed to be absent as well, so Will ate the delicious meal alone, not bothering to reheat it.
He’d become a nocturnal latchkey kid.
Maybe it was because Maddox trusted him. Or maybe it was because Maddox was being absolutely overrun with political responsibilities. Maybe it was like Lorien said, Maddox lost interest once he had what he wanted.
The front door closed. Will perked up, thinking Maddox was home. He deflated just as quickly when he realized that he wasn’t.
“Oh. It’s you.”
Lorien strolled in from god knows where having been doing god knows what. Will hadn’t seen him in a few days. He did notice that he looked particularly proud of himself.
“Hello, human,” Lorien smirked, his long hair tossed to the side in a rough mane over a denim jacket. He had a packet of cigarettes sticking out of it. Will had never smoked, but he supposed it didn’t really matter if vampires did, did it?
Lorien usually looked slightly more put together than he currently did, Will noticed that much about him. He must have been slumming it somewhere, pretending to be a rougher, tougher customer than he really was.