“Are you describing Maddox’s place?”
“I’m not, not describing his home, but at least that has tactical advantage. I’m talking about the ones made…”
Will never discovered what Lorien was trying to describe because at that moment there was a crash in the distance. Someone was trying to leave the house in a hurry and making a complete fuck-up of it.
Will gave chase, the same way a terrier gives chase when it gets the scent of a mouse. He ran through the old house, skidding around doorways and diving down stairs. His prey was not as quick as he and also had the disadvantage of having been in the basement from which there were limited options for escape.
He saw the shadowy figure making a last desperate dash for the small window at street level and leaped from one side of the basement almost all the way to the other side. He needn’t have bothered with such physical exertion, because Chauvelin could not have made it through the narrow gap if he had wanted to.
Will’s tackle brought Chauvelin down. The vampire hissed and twisted with surprising strength. This was no show of force. It was an attempt to slash Will with his fangs. They may not have been as long as Maddox’s, but they were dangerous enough if they hit the right spot.
“UMF!”
That was the sound of Lorien kicking Chauvelin in the mouth.
“Thanks,” Will said as he clambered up to his feet. Lorien had Chauvelin’s neck under his boot, and that gave the pair of them the chance to look around and see the little nest the vampire had established for himself in the basement.
It was sad. Even sadder than the empty mansion upstairs. The ex-FBI agent had attempted to make something like a decent home, but out of furniture reclaimed from items put out on the side of the road to be picked up by passing trash collectors. It smelled musty and of indeterminate urinary origin.
The more Will looked around, the sorrier he felt for the captive vampire fledgling. Chauvelin really was so fucking pathetic. The cherry on the top of this pathetic sundae was the throne set up in the small room. You could call it a throne, though it was really a dinner chair sort of jacked up on some pallets, and disturbingly, bones. The whole thing had been coated in gold spray paint.
“You see this shit?” Will walked over to it and sat down in it. It creaked and almost collapsed under his weight. Chauvelin made a sort of gasping sound of horror at seeing yet another throne desecrated by Will’s muscular and mostly human posterior.
“He’s playing make-believe king. So desperate to hold onto the world as it was. It's a common failing of humans and vampires alike,” Lorien said. “We have to kill him.”
“Please…” Chauvelin grunted the word. Lorien eased his foot off his neck just enough to let him speak. Chauvelin was no longer breathing so that was not an issue, but air was still necessary to speak, whether you were vampire or human.
“What?”
“You’ve taken everything from me,” the man complained bitterly. “The twins were going to turn me. They were going to make me one of them. I was going to be in line to the throne.”
Lorien laughed. “They were never going to turn you. Look at you. Scrawny, short, balding. What kind of a maker would want a fledgling like you?”
“Ouch,” Will muttered. He was the murdering kind, but hurting feelings the way Lorien had just savaged Chauvelin’s made him almost feel sorry for the scrawny, short, balding vampire man. “Kill him already.”
“I thought you’d like to do the honors.”
Will shrugged. Yes, Chauvelin had led them into a trap and tried to kill them. But he was so pathetic. Killing him would feel like weakness. And yet….
7
The Trouble
“And where were the two of you?” Maddox’s quiet question belied the intensity of his gaze. He was not happy. If Will had to describe him, he’d say Maddox was pissed the hell off. The master vampire met them in the vestibule as they walked in the front door, almost as if he had been pacing back and forth for a very long time while waiting for them.
“Out,” Will said.
“Around,” Lorien replied.
“Really.” Maddox gritted the word out. Will was in the unenviable position of trying to work out what specifically Maddox was angry about. Several things had happened that would not likely please him.
“Yeah?”
“What did I tell you this morning, boy?” Maddox fixed Will with his dark stare. There was no escaping that stare. It went into the very middle of Will and locked him in place. Vampiric influence was a bitch, but Will had the suspicion Maddox wasn't even using his. It was just sheer force of personality that made William’s muscles freeze and his mouth go dry.