Page 99 of Vampire Kings Box Set

Lorien was starting to get the very uncomfortable feeling he had fallen in with the wrong crowd. But going back to Maddox would be like crawling back to someone who didn’t even seem to notice he’d gone.

“Skip.”

“Skip what?”

“That’s my first name,” Chauvelin said.

“Skip,” Ivan laughed.

Lorien smirked. “A little vampire named Skip. Adorable.”

“I’m not little,” Chauvelin / Skip insisted. “And I’m not adorable. I was an FBI agent. I was a serious officer of the law.”

“You’re fairly compact,” Lorien said. “How tall are you?”

“Five seven. That’s average height!”

Lorien and Ivan both laughed a great deal at that. They were both significantly over six feet, and while Lorien was the tallest, being the middlest was not as bad as being the smallest.

“There's no such thing as average height. There’s tall and then there’s, what are those orange things?”

“The little pill-shaped candies?”

“No. The imported slaves by the cartwheeling candy baron. You know.”

Nobody knew what anybody was talking about, but they were all having a surprisingly good time. Lorien was pleased to discover such a thing was still possible.

Some faint knowledge rang in the back of his mind, something about how times this good always came to a rather nasty end, but he ignored his conscience, or common sense, whatever it was. It would all be fine. Probably.

“I don’t want to go back in the cage tonight. I’ll be saner tomorrow. I promise.”

Will knew the cage was the only sane choice but being locked away every evening like an animal was still galling. Every night he felt normal, or at least as normal as he had ever felt before he started eating people meat and turning into a fucking monster every day. It was getting to be that time of night when he put himself away and he never really felt like it, though he always did it. He wasn’t even really arguing with Maddox. He was arguing with himself.

“Good news, boy,” Maddox smiled. “You don't need to go into the cage tonight. I’ve made other arrangements.”

“Oh?” Will was intrigued.

“I don’t want you to take this as any kind of rejection…”

“You're sending me away.” Will folded his arms over his chest. “Do they have camps for wayward werewolves?”

“No. I’m not sending you anywhere.”

“Then where’s the rejection?”

Maddox put one hand on each of Will’s shoulders. “You're a werewolf, William.”

“Yeah. I noticed. Ruined my fucking appetite.”

“I am a vampire. An ancient vampire, but still just a vampire. I can’t give you what you need entirely. You need contact with your own kind. Someone who can guide you.”

“So far I’m not impressed with other wolves.”

“Ivan is not the last of his kind. I have had the unit searching for others. Others who are able to maintain a healthier existence.”

“And?”

“Captain Candy found one. Some actually, but one for now.”