“Me too,” Lorien said with a hint of a smirk.
“You have been sabotaging me at every step of late,” Maddox said, his full attention focused on Lorien. He saw the younger vampire cringe under his glare. “You created a war in this city, and now you have sent my boy to a distant monster. You, if I am not very much mistaken, are more of an enemy than any of my enemies.”
“I’m caught between you and a Will place,” Lorien countered. “I’m trying to help, believe it or not. I’ve kept the idiot thing alive for you when he was going to get himself killed. I’ve babysat. I don’t know what you think I owe you, but I think I’ve paid you many times over. And while we’re talking about family, there’s the matter of what you did to my maker.”
Maddox drew in a deep sigh. “I did nothing to your maker. She was reckless.”
“I don’t know if I believe that anymore, given what you’ve been telling Will. You’re a stranger to the truth, and you make yourself the arbiter of knowledge.”
Maddox let out a low growl. This was not the time for Lorien’s impudence or doubt. He was tired of being questioned and disobeyed. Someone was going to pay, and that someone was Lorien. He made a motion toward Lorien. Lorien made an equal and opposite motion right back, bringing them almost nose to nose. It was a laughable display of bravado. Lorien was thousands of years younger than Maddox. He was so much weaker he was barely the same species at this point.
“I’m not taking Will’s beating,” Lorien cautioned him. “Don’t take anything you have for that boy out on me. You’ll regret it. I’m not Chauvelin. I’m not a baby you can nail to the wall while he cries. I’m stronger than you think.”
“I’ll regret it, will I?” Maddox almost laughed.
“You will. Ever since Will got here, it’s been Will this and Will that. You're obsessed.”
“I’m in love.”
“Yes, well, it’s bloody tedious to be around, if I’m frank.”
“So you thought you’d get rid of him.”
“He got rid of himself!” Lorien almost exploded with annoyance. “What is it I was supposed to do?”
“TELL ME!” Maddox roared the two words, losing all patience. He grabbed Lorien by the hair which was always long and always provided excellent grip.
Lorien tried to bite him, and that was another mistake. Maddox growled and wrestled the younger vampire down over his desk where it was easy to pin him in place. In truth, the struggle was not to subdue Lorien. That was easy. It was subduing him without breaking anything that was difficult.
“You never fell for me,” Lorien panted. “What was so wrong with me?”
“Because you’re like a son to me,” Maddox replied, his forearm over Lorien’s shoulders. He could feel the muscularity beneath as Lorien shifted and tried to press up against his grip.
“Like a, but not a. You're not my true maker and you never will be!”
At that moment Lorien sounded so perfectly petulant it would have been a crime not to spank him. Maddox slapped his palm across Lorien’s left cheek and then the right, over and over, again and again, tight fabric stretched tight over his rear.
“I am your master. I am your owner. I am your king!” He punctuated each of those words with a slap harder than the one before it, yanking down Lorien’s pants and undergarments to bare his rear. It was red, but it would get redder. Maddox was going to finally discipline this insolent wretch properly, the way he should have done before Lorien got himself into so much trouble and caused even more.
“MADDOX!”
Someone was shouting his name. Everyone was shouting his name. Except Lorien. Lorien was shouting other names, curses and swears and unpleasant monikers calling Mad’s parentage into question. The general cacophony was enough to convince him to let Lorien go and go see what all the fuss was about.
The fuss was about Will, who was standing in the foyer. He looked very much worse for wear, the left side of his face swollen and bruised. Though he had only been gone for a day, it was like seeing a ghost. Some deep part of Maddox had begun to despair in a way he had forgotten he could despair. He had begun to think that Will was gone forever, that his attachment to the boy had been broken with the removal of the collar.
“Hey,” Will said. “I…”
Maddox grabbed him in a tight hug and did not let go for a very, very long time. When he finally did, he leaned back and looked down at his boy.
“What happened to your face?”
“Nothing,” Will said. “It’s fine. It’s just a bruise.” He turned from Maddox to Candy and the rest of the team who were now standing about looking various shades of awkward. “If you're looking for my father, the serial killer, I tied him up and left him in the back of his pickup. It’s parked out back.”