“I’ll get him,” Candy said in a tone that strongly suggested she had some very old axes to grind. Maddox left her to it. He didn’t care about Ivan. He only cared about Will.
“I’m sorry,” Will was mumbling. “I thought. He… I didn’t…”
“You were carried away,” Maddox said, understanding. “You finally met the man who fathered you. I can imagine that was very exciting.”
“It was. But he’s an asshole.”
“Parents often disappoint,” Maddox sympathized, leading Will upstairs. “I missed you.”
“I missed you too. You should have seen the shit he was trying to get me to do. He wanted me to eat people. Like a fucking cannibal!”
“Shocking,” Maddox murmured in a tone that probably didn’t impart that much shock. He knew Ivan’s appetites very well. “I assume you did not indulge?”
“I don’t even eat salmon,” Will said. “What do you think?”
“I think you need a bath.”
“I’ll do a shower. How’s that?”
“I’ll take it,” Maddox smiled. His heart was full, and not merely because Will was back, but because Will had chosen to return of his own free will. He could have disappeared into the wilderness with his father forever, but he had no taste for Ivan’s cruelty. They might have shared blood, but they did not share a soul. Will had chosen his home, and it was with him. From the depths of despair to the absolute heights of adoration, Maddox could not have been happier.
He was so happy, in fact, that he did not notice Lorien leaving the house in a great sulking cloud of bruised ego and fury.
13
The Problem
Unfortunately, retrieving Will alone was not the end of the matter. Even having caught Ivan was only the first part of the problem. They’d bundled him into the basement, one part of Maddox’s home he considered practically escape proof.
“We can’t put him in prison. He’ll eat the other inmates and he’ll turn into a wolf. We can’t even put him through the court system. He’ll eat the fucking judge.” Candy was overwrought and panicked, understandably. She was being triggered by ancient trauma and then there were legal and logistical matters to worry about besides.
“I’ll kill him,” Maddox said simply. It was the only thing to do. It solved a myriad of problems in one single act and Maddox would enjoy a very tasty and satisfying feed as a by-product. Win win win.
“Is that legal?” Candy’s lower lip trembled dubiously.
“Go home, Candy,” Maddox said. “Go home to your family.”
Her eyes welled. Ever since she had revealed her true history, she had been particularly sensitive. She no doubt was wrestling with hiding the matter from her family who likely had no idea about Will or about the old lover in Maddox's basement.
“Go home,” Maddox repeated. “You need rest.”
Candy left, and Maddox went down to see his captive. He’d known Ivan briefly in the past, but not in a way that left any real impression upon him. Back then they had been two monsters passing in the night. The thought of killing Ivan held no more weight than the swatting of a fly.
At the bottom of the basement stairs, Maddox suddenly realized that due to a dose of loving attachment to William, things had changed.
Maddox saw Will in Ivan’s eyes immediately. The boy took after his father to the extent he may as well have been a clone. Ivan was a very handsome, very rough, very brutal creature. Maddox felt a surge of empathy he had not expected. He had intended to slay Ivan without comment, but it was not easy while the man wore Will's face.
He was tied to a chair looking maturer, older, wiser, but still just as vulnerable as his son had been. He was not as old as Maddox had imagined, either. He’d always pictured the contemporary Ivan as someone with graying hair and devious old intent. This man had yet to see forty himself. He was almost as much of a baby as Will.
“Come to get rid of me, vampire?” Ivan gritted the question out. He had to be afraid, but he was working hard not to show it.
“All you had to do was stay away. None of this had to happen,” Maddox sighed. “Or you could have come with some respect, gotten to know the boy in a sensible manner. Instead you tried to abduct him. A full-grown man. I can’t even imagine what desperation must have led to that.”
“I’m not desperate, fangs,” Ivan replied. “He's mine. I took him.”
Maddox surged forward in an instant, all that fury he’d felt when he learned Will was gone suddenly boiling to the very surface.
“He is mine,” he hissed, his fangs long and sharp, a fraction of an inch from Ivan’s nose.
“No,” Ivan laughed. “He's really not. He’s my boy. Has my blood. He’s killed before and he’ll kill again. He should be with me. I can show him what he needs to do to survive, even if he doesn’t like it yet. You’ve been filling his head with vampire dreams, and the rest of the world’s told him what he is is wrong. Well, it ain’t wrong. And I’m going to show him.”