Page 4 of Vampire Kings Box Set

Mad looked back and in that glance, Will understood. Maddox was sensitive. Not in a way that made him weak, but in a way that made him exquisitely attuned to his prey. Mad felt him. Knew him. Could smell him. Could probably hear his fucking pulse.

He’d helped him settle though. The fear which had threatened to bubble up dissipated again into calmer waters.

“Who are you, really?”

“Who is not the question, is it, boy?”

He was right. The only question that really burned was what was he.

In the darkness of the underground parking garage, he had a pale appeal. There was something unholy about this man. Something entirely wrong and yet wildly charismatic. In the prison he had seemed like just another suit. Here he was something else again. A chameleon, shifting to be what the moment required him to be.

“Come,” he said. “You will be eager to see your new home.”

Will was not eager, but he was curious. Maddox had promised him a great deal for what seemed to be very little. There had to be a catch. He was certain of it.

The parking lot felt as oppressive as any part of the prison. Familiar too. Solid concrete walls, lights designed to be harsh and cold in tone and not very good at actually illuminating the spaces over which they hung.

Maddox walked toward elevator doors. Will followed. He wondered why there were not more people here. It was not safe to be alone with a criminal like him. Maddox should have known better.

Behind the man, Will felt his hunting instincts come to the fore. Neck. Kidneys. Knees. So many devastatingly vulnerable places he could strike. What would Maddox’s pain sound like? Would he scream? Probably not. He seemed like a growler.

The elevator doors opened as if they had been waiting for Mad. Will stepped in behind him and stood next to him. The violence which had flashed through his mind stopped for the moment as they rose up through the core of his new home.

Mad cast a glance over at him, his thin but sensually shaped lips curling with some secret amusement. Will pretended not to notice.

When the elevator doors opened, it was onto a large space in which furniture seemed to languish. It was probably a very modern and expensive apartment, but Will had never seen the point of houses so large you could conceivably ride a bicycle around their interiors. There was nothing cozy or home-like about a place like this.

“Nice,” he said, lying. It was not nice. It was gray. The floors were polished concrete, the walls were of similar construction. It was as though the place had never been fitted out properly, just given a coat of lacquer. The only notes of color were the red glass backsplash in the open plan kitchen which floated like a ship on a stormy sea, and in a few paintings dotted around the monstrous space, all of which shared the red theme. “Is this where you live?”

“This is where we will reside,” Maddox said, removing his coat and hanging it on a black hook next to the elevator doors.

“Just you and I?”

Maddox smiled and his teeth flashed uncomfortably pristine white with a grammatical correction. “You and me.”

One of the many incongruent oddities suddenly stood out to Will. The place was large and bare and nigh barren. It should have sounded like the inside of a tin can when they spoke.

“Why isn’t there an echo in here?”

“The walls are insulated very well, as are the floors and ceiling. The place is designed to absorb sound.”

What an elegant and refined way of saying nobody will hear you scream.

Will’s fists clenched. Again, he thought about attacking Maddox. This was not a safe place. This was a trap. It looked like one, and it felt like one.

“Don’t,” Maddox said calmly. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?” Will looked at him with resentment and fear. The calming influence was not working anymore. He wanted to be out of here, out of the presence of this man.

He swung.

It was a mistake.

Maddox pulled his hand from his pocket and casually hit him with thousands of volts of electricity via a small handheld tasing device. It was like being hit by a very painful truck. Will went down within a split-second, convulsing and cursing. This wasn’t his first time encountering a taser, but tasers had a way of making themselves feel fresh and new, every body-destroying time.

“Stay down.”

It was not just good advice. It was an order.