Page 10 of Vampire Kings Box Set

“Why don’t you kill them yourself?”

“For the same reason I don’t sweep my own streets or run my own bank. These roles are specialized.”

“So you don’t really work for the government.”

“Of course I do. The government has a vested interest in its citizens not being slaughtered like cattle every time they step out after dark.”

“But… they… nobody knows about this. Not even the conspiracies cover this.”

“There are a lot of dark budgets out there, for a lot of dark things,” Maddox said with a slight shrug. “I do my work. I let others do theirs. Besides, the public does know about vampires, if it really stops to think about it. But it doesn’t want to. It wants to think about nice things. Human things. Happy families. Holidays. Pets. You and I, and others like us, are just some of the horrors who stand at the verges of the human world, keeping it safe from all the worse things lurking. Your natural desire to destroy has a purpose. But like so many of your kind, you were kept from knowledge of that purpose. You became feral in a sense yourself. Fortunately, you are not too far gone to be useful.”

“To who?”

“To the world, pup,” Maddox smiled.

4 WELCOME TO THE HUNT

They were out again in the city. It still felt very strange for Will to be allowed to roam freely, though admittedly while he was in Maddox’s presence there was not much in the way of true freedom to be had. The collar around his neck was a constant reminder of that.

“Up here,” Maddox said, leading Will out onto the roof of a building. Below there was a closed butcher shop, a travel agency, and a store that sold different kinds of pens. Up here, Brooklyn unfolded around them, brownstones holding human souls in conveniently boxed locations. Will couldn't help but think about how easy it would be to break in through a few windows and avail himself of whatever was inside. Criminal impulses to moments of opportunity were hard to shake, especially no more than a few days out of prison.

“Come,” Maddox said, beckoning him to the back of the building. There was an alleyway back there, a typical Brooklyn back passage filled with misery and dumpsters. Will was still wondering how much cash a pen store would have on hand.

“There,” Maddox took him by the back of his head and directed his gaze down to where a person in a ripped suit was hunched over the unhealthily pale, closer to gray body of a homeless man.

Will watched impassively. He had seen many terrible things happen behind bars. Not reacting was a well-honed survival instinct. That did not mean he was not horrified. Even the most graphic violence behind bars was usually limited to stabbing and biting. It was rare to see actual disembowelment. The victim’s innards were everywhere, strung about the place like a chaotic Christmas display of entrails.

It was not a person responsible for all this hideous mess, of course. It was a vampire. A filthy, dirty creature more like an animal than a person.

“That is a feral,” Maddox explained. “See the way it fails to hide its hunger? How it stalks in the open? How it kills indiscriminately without regard for the victim? How it has left a blood trail that any policeman with even half an interest in solving the crime could follow?”

“It is messy,” Will agreed.

“Very messy. I do not tolerate mess in my city.”

“So what are you, the vampire mayor of New York?”

“Something like that,” Mads smiled. “Now. Go kill.”

“What? Right now?”

“Yes, boy.”

Will looked at the feeding vampire and felt something he had not expected to feel: fear. The memory of Mads drinking from him was still fresh in his mind, along with the complete submission he had fallen into when he’d had to give in to the fangs.

A hard smack on his rump reminded him that he had a job to do. It was not normally his wont to be reluctant to be violent, but Mads overestimated Will’s desire to kill — at least, his desire to kill those who hadn’t crossed him.

“I…”

“What is it?”

I don’t think I can. That’s what Will wanted to say. But those words would not be part of his vocabulary today, not in that order at least. Showing Maddox weakness was not an option. So he went down the wall, grabbing the fire escape ladder which obligingly shuddered down in a rusty complaining sort of way, delivering him to the ground safely, if not surreptitiously.

He didn’t usually worry about making a quiet entrance, though it occurred to him now he was on the ground that the element of surprise might have been helpful. Coming banging down in the middle of this scene was not his best idea. It might even have been his worst.

These revelations came too late for him to do anything about them. He stifled the desire to call out for help. Maddox hadn’t recruited him to cry and whine. He’d gotten him out of jail to kill on command. Should be a dream job. The moment he breathed in, it turned to a nightmare.

The vampire looked up and hissed. Its eyes were bloodshot. Its chin dripped blood. It released the body and turned toward him. It did not stand upright. It was hunched over, hands clawed. It breathed like a beast. It smelled like one too. He had expected the smell of blood. He hadn’t expected the rancidity of guts and rot and other unpleasant decay no human can tolerate.