Page 205 of Vampire Kings Box Set

The conversation immediately turned to the creature that had attacked Gideon. They had not had a moment to discuss the thing before now, but Henry was very curious as to how Will had taken the discovery that his mother still lived, in a manner of speaking.

“We owe our freedom to the woman who attacked Gideon.”

“Holy shit,” Will shuddered, still naked. “Did you see her?”

“I saw her,” Henry growled. He was not pleased by her existence per se, though they were obviously beholden to the creature who had attacked Gideon and provided them the opportunity for escape.

“She’s supposed to be dead.”

“I think she is dead,” Henry said. “I think whatever she is now is something beyond my comprehension. A librarian might have some sense of what she is, but given the library exploded when Gideon woke, I have little hope in the relevant tomes being intact.”

Will went a flippant route. “So my mom, who dumped me in a dumpster as a baby, is a zombie now. Cool.”

Henry frowned at Will’s complacency as they both pulled on casual clothing. “It’s not cool. It’s a powerful magic. It’s an old magic. Maybe even older than Gideon. We really need to find a librarian.”

“You got some books you need to return?”

“We need to understand what’s happening here. You don’t understand, people don’t come back from the dead in any form other than vampires, and she’s no vamp. She’s something else. She’s powerful. She’s vengeful. She’s protective of you.”

“She’s a mom,” Will said, though he said it mockingly. “And the two kids she actually kept are dead, one way or another. Which means I’m left. It’s a bit fucking late for amends. She’s dead, and I don’t give a fuck anymore. I don’t care about her, or him. Or the other him. I’m sticking to the plan. I’m going to find my father if he’s still alive, and I’m going to go deep into the woods, deep enough I don’t see another person again until I’m old and toothless.”

“You can’t run away from this. All of this is happening because of you. Gideon woke because he’s jealous of you. Your mother was killed because she’s your mother. Don’t you see? This is going to hunt you down, pup. You can’t run from it.”

“Don’t call me that. That’s worse than whelp. After the last few months, I’m done with being talked down to.”

“You mean after Maddox.”

Will turned on Henry with a vicious blue stare, his jaw clenched. He spoke between his teeth in a low growl. “Don’t fucking say his name to me. I don’t ever want to hear that fucking name again.”

“Easy,” Henry said. “We’re making an escape. Not getting into a fight.”

“Exactly. Let’s head to the second location. Gideon will have trackers on us soon enough, and I don’t feel like fighting a whole horde of vampires on our own. We need to get out of here. Now.”

There was a car parked out back, the keys to which were in the apartment along with money and whatnot. Vampires could track fleeing wolves, but they weren’t nearly as good as following moving vehicles.

As soon as they got in that car they were free, and they wasted no time in getting in the car. Will’s thoughts were focused on getting away. As far away as possible from vampires, and one vampire in particular.

Henry insisted on driving. Will let him. The pack master liked to be in charge, even moreso now than before. It was one thing to cage a wolf who had lived much of his life in prison, but something else completely to be a pack master with authority over an entire pack of wolves and find yourself behind bars. Henry had struggled with the humiliation of captivity. Will was far too familiar with humiliation to be concerned by it.

The second location was out of the city, way into the woods. Wolf country. Will felt better the further they went and judging by the way Henry’s grip on the steering wheel loosened up, so did Henry.

“How badly do you think he was hurt?”

“Gideon? Bad, I hope.”

“You think she killed him?”

“I’ve got my doubts about that. Gideon is the definition of un-killable.”

“Nothing is un-killable. Like, what if you put him in a meat grinder. Would he be coming back from that?”

“I don’t know,” Henry said.

“What if you nuked him, would he survive that?”

“Maybe?”

“What about a mom zombie? A mombie?”