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Maddox and Lorien were back up on the roof in very short order, strolling directly up the vertical walls like they had suckers on their feet. No broken legs or fractured egos for them, they arrived in style.
“Good boy, you didn’t move,” Maddox praised Will, dropping a kiss on his head.
“Yes, what a good boy,” Lorien smirked in agreement.
“We have a problem,” Maddox noted, talking over Will’s head. Will had become background again, not part of the conversation so much as an observer of it.
“A problem? This feels like a war.”
“It is a war. It’s what happens when the dominant vampire is removed from a city. Every pretender to power is going to be making their move. And the lesser vampires, like you, Lorien. The ones less than a few centuries of age, they will be getting their first taste of power, imagining the possibility of becoming more than they are…”
Lorien looked vaguely uncomfortable, Will noticed. His expression had gone from smug and self-satisfied to mildly dyspeptic. Did vampires get heartburn?
Maddox decided it was time to go home. They took a different route on the way back, a path which made it clear that the city was starting to break down into chaos.
There was carnage on the streets, dozens of vampires flowing through the human crowds unnoticed and unseen, hunting one another rather than the people who thronged Times Square for the lights and the sounds, and not the spatter of blood and ash.
“Why aren’t the people paying attention?”
“Most of it happens too fast for them to see,” Maddox explained. “The human mind is a filter. It takes in endless amounts of information and narrows it all down to what it believes to be relevant. It is not, in any way, good at determining relevance. You would not believe what people can ignore, even though it is happening right in front of them. In fact, sometimes, you can even tell people what is happening and that will actually make them less likely to see it.”
“You’re saying people are stupid,” Will said.
“Oh, incredibly,” Lorien laughed.
For a moment, Will thought Maddox might tell Lorien to shut the hell up or similar, but it didn’t happen. Lorien seemed to get away with doing and saying anything he felt like doing or saying, no consequences necessary.
The rest of the journey home was busy. Not for Will, but for Maddox, who was clearly digitally rallying the troops. Will found himself staring into the mid-distance, wondering when he might experience something approximating freedom again. Prison had not been pleasant, of course, but at least he’d shared it with other people, humans who he had something in common with. He’d proved himself among the community there, earned some respect, developed a collection of ramen to rival any other inmate, and walked to the front of every mess hall line. In Maddox’s household, he was nothing and nobody. The bottom of the food chain in every sense. He hated it.
He wondered if Maddox might have some eventual plan to turn him too; clearly, Maddox had the ability to do so, and then he, Will, would be more powerful than ever. And yet, Maddox had specifically sought out a human to act as a hunter to ferals he and Lorien could dispatch in a matter of minutes. It all made less than no sense.
Returned once more to his room, Will limped around, frowning to himself and wishing he hadn’t been dumb enough to break his own leg. He could hear events taking place below, doors opening, voices entering. Being in Maddox’s possession was like being at a party he was never going to be invited to. Will was bored, in short. And frustrated. He was not good at experiencing such emotions. Whenever he felt any feeling strong enough to actually notice it, he usually hit something, or more typically, someone.
He couldn’t stay in the room. He couldn’t go to sleep, not after all he had seen, not when he was still not certain what role he was supposed to play in it all. His own presence was deeply confusing, and he could not forget it.
He went downstairs, and immediately regretted it. Over his short life, Will had developed a sixth sense when it came to law enforcement. The people he could see through the narrow gap between two thick steel beams comprising the upper stair supports were cops. He could tell by the way they stood, the way they talked — even though he couldn’t actually hear a word they were saying. The mere cadence of their utterances filled him with fury.
“What are you doing, welp?”
Maddox was suddenly there, apparently having used his vampiric powers to not only detect Will but come to him on the stairs.
“Nothing,” Will growled. He did not want to invite Maddox’s ire, but he had plenty of his own to deal with and nowhere to disperse it.
