Page 161 of Vampire Kings Box Set

Present day…

“Come in,” Gideon’s voice spoke to him again. “Show me your sins, my offspring.”

Maddox took a breath he did not strictly need and opened the door. Gideon was waiting, standing before the window so his form was silhouetted dramatically. His hair was long, his shoulders broad, his figure imposing. Maddox felt himself lighter and younger for being in his presence. Gideon’s particular quality of eternity always made Maddox feel ephemeral by comparison.

One never knew how Gideon would manifest. He was always strikingly handsome, and his features never truly changed, but the times themselves seemed to change him in tangible ways. Or perhaps he simply did not have as good a memory as he imagined. Maybe it was not Gideon who changed with time, but Maddox’s perceptions which became warped by the shifting sands.

Gideon turned to face him, and Maddox felt some internal hardness soften immediately. Gideon’s beauty was impossible to overstate. He was a creature of perfection and symmetry. The moderns would have made him a movie star, but his high cheekbones, olive skin, and noble features were suited to so much more than mere fame. They demanded worship and sacrifice.

“Look at you.” Gideon extended his arms as he spoke with true warmth and affection. Maddox was lured forward, commanded by the charisma of his maker. He found himself wrapped in arms of unimaginable strength and eternal power. Maddox had promised himself that he would fight Gideon on every level. He would hold himself apart, keep himself separate.

But there was no true separation to be had between progeny and maker. No matter how old Maddox got, Gideon still held a deeply intimate sway. If one were to peel Mad back to his core, it would be Gideon one found there.

He rested his head on Gideon’s shoulder and let his maker hold him for a moment. Maddox had not anticipated any soft feelings on seeing Gideon. The anticipation of seeing him had been all about fear. But when the creature embraced him and he felt their mutually held darkness flowing together, energies transmitted across vast amounts of time, he could not help but give into the feeling of coming home.

“Maddox. My youngest.” Gideon leaned back and properly greeted him with a broad, toothy smile that showed off both upper and lower sets of fangs. “How is my baby boy?”

“Gideon,” he said, trying to make himself sound like something other than a trembling fledgling. “It has been a long time.”

“It has not been that long. Why are the humans all talking to rocks now?”

“Since your last awakening, humans have become adept at making rocks think. The world has changed greatly.”

“There seem to be a lot more of them.”

“There were about two and a half billion people when you went to sleep. Now there are almost eight billion.”

Gideon’s eyes lit up. “Eight billion! Well. We will have to do something about that, won’t we. Thin the herd. Cull the meat.”

Maddox refrained from commenting on such a course of action. It was true that their food sources had become ubiquitous, but was that such a bad thing? A meal on every corner, or a couple hundred meals on every corner was not something to be dismissed lightly when one had known the pain of true hunger.

“I have missed you,” Gideon declared, clutching Maddox’s chin and using his grip to inspect Mads’ face with an intense stare that missed nothing.

“You were also missed,” Maddox said. It was not a good representation of his feelings, which were confused. He had not anticipated feeling anything positive upon reuniting with Gideon. His thoughts had been entirely on Will. Now they were split between Will and old needs he thought he had long ago outgrown.

“You are always so strange after my naps,” Gideon laughed as Maddox took a step back in order to put some distance between them. “I wonder if I shouldn’t have brought you with me as I used to do. You would sleep so sweetly. Watching you in the darkness of ages made the time pass without effort. You have always been such an exquisite creature, my little Madis.”

Maddox gritted his teeth and tried very hard not to remember his mortal incarnation. When Gideon used that name he was reminded of a time he had been weak and outcast, pained and broken. Gideon made the past feel very present, and Maddox did not care for that at all. He had become something much more modern and evolved since Gideon’s last rising. The world was moving faster and faster, a fact his maker was yet to come to terms with.

“You are stranger than usual,” Gideon commented. “I see strain and worry in your eyes. They make you look almost mortal. What is happening, Maddox? What trouble have you gotten yourself into?”

“Ray intimated you knew everything already.”

Gideon’s expression relaxed into an indulgent smile. Maddox knew the expression well. It was one he often wore on his own features when William was trying to lie to him. “You know I like to hear confession, Maddox. Especially when I hear my boy has been playing with rough dogs.”

It was inevitable that Gideon would ask about Will. Maddox had been thinking of little other than this moment from the time he’d been told of Gideon’s rising.

“Yes. I have a pet. What of it?”

“I hear he is more than a pet. I hear you are infatuated with him, that you have made him your mate.”

“He amuses me,” Maddox said with a light shrug.

“Does he.” Gideon’s eyes glittered. It was not a question. “I would like to meet him. I assume he is the scent you have smeared all over you, frail meat and ardent dog.”

“I do not think he is worthy of your attention,” Maddox said, attempting to flatter Gideon out of thinking about Will. It would be better to change the subject — but to what? Will was all he could think of, and Gideon knew it. Mad could hide very little from his maker. His thoughts were at times entirely visible to the one who had given him the gift of eternity.

“Bring him to me, Maddox,” Gideon ordered softly, but with authority. “I want to meet the trouble I see lurking in your eyes.”