Page 221 of Vampire Kings Box Set

“It has been a long time since you had these,” Maddox said, putting a box of toaster pastry down in front of him.

“I’m not hungry,” Will lied. He was looking for escape, but he was never left out of someone’s sight. Sometimes it was Henry, sometimes Lorien. For the most part, it was Maddox. The master vampire had stopped trying to start conversations with Will, but remained nearby him, watching quietly in a way that infuriated Will beyond belief. He did not appreciate the close observation, nor the overtones of intimacy that remained between them in this remote cottage prison.

Maddox was dangerous, and being here was dangerous. Perhaps Maddox truly regretted his lies, but that didn’t change the nature of the situation. Will was being held captive by someone who had taken him captive before, and who had watched him be captive to another as well.

“They will be there when you are,” Maddox said. “If you are not hungry, it is time we talk. There is much to be said.”

“I don’t have anything to say to you.”

“Then you should listen.”

“No. I won’t. There are no words I want to hear out of your face. You took everything from me when you lied to me. I had never trusted anybody until I trusted you. And the whole time you were keeping one of the most important facts of my life from me.”

“I apologize.”

Will let out a borderline hysterical laugh and decided to have the fight.

“Do you? Really? Because the last thing you ever do is apologize, Maddox. And for months, you’ve been lingering around, licking Gideon’s ass, and watching me be treated as a slave. There’s not enough time in the world for you to say sorry as many times as you need to say sorry.”

“If I wanted to be close to you, I had to tolerate what Gideon did to you. My presence undoubtedly caused you more pain, I cannot deny that. I had to pretend to be indifferent.”

“But you weren’t indifferent. You never are. You’re a fucking sadist, and you enjoyed it. Seeing me bleed, seeing me hurt. You must have been so fucking hard. Did you fuck my little brother and think of me?”

Maddox made an expression of mild disgust at that suggestion. “I have never touched Carter in a carnal fashion. I have barely touched him at all. He is my forced fledgling. I did not choose him. And he never replaced you, not in any sense.”

Will’s lower lip was quivering with the attempt to maintain his angry self-control. Maddox wanted nothing more than to pull his boy into his arms and cradle him close, but he knew there were better than even odds that Will would violently reject him out of sheer fear and misery. It would take time to tame him again.

“Gideon is distracted,” Maddox said. “Your mother is drawing his fire. So, I have time to deal with you now. Time to remind you who owns you truly, whether you like it or not.”

“You don’t fucking own me,” Will cursed. “I own myself. You own nothing.”

“You think it did not hurt me, every moment of every day I was unable to be with you? Gideon knew your importance to me. He forced me to choose between separation from you and your death. I chose the former, because I would endure any pain than see you dead, Will.”

“What’s changed? Is he less evil? Is he somehow vulnerable?”

“Yes,” Maddox said. “He has encountered a power he has somehow avoided crossing in all his many thousands of years of life.”

“And what’s that?”

“A mother’s love.”

Will made a gagging sound and scowled furiously at that string of words put together.

“Gross,” he elaborated.

Maddox ignored the childish response. He knew it was covering much more emotionality.

“Your mother was killed, but she did not die. She rose again, not as a human, but as the incarnation of maternal revenge. She is capable of hurting Gideon, and perhaps even of killing him outright, because he took her children from her. All three.”

“He must have killed other women’s children before.”

“Many thousands of times.”

“So what’s the difference. Why would Candy,” Will could not bring himself to call her mother, “why would she be any different?”

“Candy was, is different. Her grief, no, guilt, over what she did to you was more powerful than I think any of us imagined. She was stronger than most mortals I know. She may have appeared plain to most, but there was magic in her. A force not to be crossed, another kind of eternal power, if you will.”

“An undead zombie mom. Living dead mom.”