Page 82 of Vampire Kings Box Set

Ivan didn’t respond right away. He was too busy limp-stepping around the campsite.

“You know how to fight,” he said, sounding impressed for the first time.

“I can take care of myself,” Will said. “Let me go.”

Ivan came back and ruefully untied him.

“You're like me," he said with a smile, as if he was pleased to see his son had spirit. “Won’t do anything anybody else wants you to do, even if it’d be for your own good.”

“I’m pretty sure eating people isn’t going to be for my own good.”

“That’s where you’re wrong. There’s no meat like human flesh.”

Will really didn’t want to talk about it, so he didn’t. He was used to shockingly violent criminals. Prison had given him the opportunity to mix with a great many of them and to witness some seriously callous cruelties. He’d thought nothing could shock him anymore. He was wrong.

“Let’s go,” he said, getting into the pickup. The woods didn’t feel freeing anymore. They felt like a place of hidden horrors. How many sets of bones lay dormant beneath gnarled roots? How many souls cried out for justice they’d never receive? He felt a shudder run through him.

They were about an hour into the drive west when he spoke again.

“I need to call Maddox. He’ll freak out when he realizes I’m missing.”

“Who is Maddox?”

“The vampire king of New York?”

“Vampires love royalty,” Ivan said.

“Yeah,” Will agreed, even though it wasn’t actually true as far as he was aware. Maddox barely cared about being king. He’d only done it to stop everyone killing each other. He didn’t think Ivan and Maddox would like each other.

“Do you know him?”

Ivan shook his head. “Nah.”

Will decided to definitely call Maddox at the next stop. They’d have to get more fuel eventually, and hopefully this time not murder anyone.

“So. Do you have, uhm, any hobbies?”

Ivan looked over at him with an icy stare, as if the very concept of hobbies was an insult. “No,” he said. “I spend most of my time trying to survive.”

It was about then that a series of three police cars went past, lights and sirens blaring on the other side of the road. Will noticed how Ivan’s knuckles whitened as they tightened on the steering wheel. If Will had to guess, Ivan had warrants out for his arrest. Probably a lot of them. Probably in states where they fucking fried you for killing people too.

He’d assumed his father would be older and wiser, know more about being a wolf. He supposed Ivan did, but his life seemed to be a complete fucking mess. Worse than Will’s, because Will’s life with Maddox was about as charmed an existence as you could get. He was suddenly remembering how ungrateful he’d been when he told Maddox he was only keeping him captive.

He'd had so many expectations of what his father would be like, and Ivan was not living up to any of them, except for maybe the part where he had really good hair and never wore a shirt, but that was a low bar when it came to judging fathers.

“What are we going to do when we get to where we are going?”

Ivan grunted.

“Sorry, what?”

“We’re going to survive.”

“I was surviving where I was,” Will pointed out. “Why don’t you just come back to New York? You can meet Maddox and I bet he’d help with the whole surviving thing.”

“I don’t need no vampire’s help, and neither do you.”

“You know I’m going to go back to New York eventually, right? I’ve got commitments.”