Page 230 of Vampire Kings Box Set

“Your mother has been problematic for a long time. She was a good detective, but a hit and miss mom. And thats, unfortunately, what people are like. They can be spectacularly good and bad at the same thing at the same time. It’s honestly ridiculous.”

Will smirked. Maddox had always kept his opinions about humanity largely to himself. It was very difficult for a vampire not to have contempt for the species. And as for Will, he’d been slaughtering people as a way of working through his personal trauma for weeks now. So.

“I guess we’re all flawed,” he said.

“Perhaps,” Maddox allowed. “That’s a very thoughtful observation.”

Will allowed himself a little smile. There was space inside his body for feelings of lightness now that he no longer had to hold the rage against his mom alone.

“You’re surprised when I say anything that has any thought behind it at all.”

“Well. Again. Perhaps. I haven’t heard anything more than a grunt, a growl, a curse, or a threat from you in a very long time.”

Will smiled a little. “I… I missed you too, by the way.”

“I know.” Maddox reached out and ran his fingers through Will’s wild curls.

“What’s going to happen to us now?”

“Well,” Maddox said. “In some ways, the problems might take care of themselves. Gideon has become fascinated by the pain Candy is capable of bringing, and he has Carter. So.”

“So they all run around chasing each other’s tails. And we get to live our lives together.”

“Perhaps. It might work. As long as her business remains unfinished.”

“And what’s her business?”

“If I had to venture a guess,” Maddox clenched his fingers in Will’s hair and drew him in for a brief, yet passionate kiss, “I’d say your forgiveness.”

“No fucking danger of that happening,” Will said, his expression fierce. “I thought she’d really come back for me. I thought, just for a fucking second, that I mattered. Guess I was stupid to think that.”

“You’re not stupid. You have never been stupid. But you have been hurt, and pain makes it hard to think. I thought Candy had returned for you too. I think in a real sense, she has, even if she is preoccupied with your brother for the moment. That may simply be the habit of a lifetime. I cannot presume to truly know. But I can tell you this. You are mine, and you matter to me.”

Will gave a little half-smile. “Aren’t you worried about Carter too? Isn’t he your baby?”

Maddox smirked. “Your younger brother is capable of looking after himself more than most. And though he may be my fledgling, he has plenty of older vampiric influence to tide him over. You are my priority. You need me. And I need you.”

“What?” Will seemed surprise by the last part of Maddox’s sentence.

“I need you, Will. From the moment we first met, I have needed you. I did not understand the depth of that need until Gideon interfered. Now I do.”

“Stop it,” Will said. “You’re being…”

“What?”

“Sweet. I don’t like it.”

“I can still be cruel, boy. If that is what you need. It may also be what I need.”

“Hurting me has always turned you on.”

“Punishing you has. Because you are so delightfully, eminently punishable.”

“So what do you want to do now?” Will asked the question with a slightly arched and very playful brow. “Beat me or fuck me?”

Maddox took his chin between icy cold fingers and looked into Will’s eyes with dark tenderness. “Both, my dear boy. Always both. Face down on the bed, please.”

“No.” Will smiled. “Make me.”