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Lorien ran toward him. Henry could not contain himself. He ran toward Lorien, catching him as the vampire flung himself at him.
“I have missed you so much.” Henry wrapped his arms around Lorien, holding him close. “I am so sorry I was not there to help you. I should have put you first, not Will.”
“That would have been nice. But I have eternity, and Will has, well, at the rate he is going, days at most.”
“Our future has to be about you and me,” Henry said. “Nobody else. In times like these, we have to look after our own. You are mine. We will leave the city. We will go to the country. Somewhere with buildings for you to sleep in and people to feed on. I’m going to make this right for you. I’m going to be the mate you deserve.”
“Aw, what a pretty speech.”
Henry’s arms tightened around Lorien. He felt a spear of ice run through the very core of him. The voice came from the depths of history. It was old. It was powerful. And it was angry. He was trapped. He could feel it. Malevolence surrounded him on all sides. He was a predator, but suddenly he knew what it was to be prey, to feel himself at the mercy of forces so much more powerful than himself.
“What a pretty speech,” Gideon growled in the darkness.
“Run!” Lorien cried the word out, but it was too late.
They were surrounded. Gideon had not come alone. Raymond and Chauvelin were flanking him, and there were many others besides. Two dozen vampires at least, and not young fledglings, but the city’s old blood, those who had tired of the chaos in the period following the deaths of the twin kings.
“There you are, baby vampire,” Gideon said, stepping into a beam of moonlight. “I have been looking for you. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to find you keeping the company of a beast.”
“Gideon, please.” Lorien’s voice trembled. “Henry has nothing to do with this. He’s not like Will.”
“He is exactly like Will in every respect that matters,” Gideon corrected him.
“It’s not your fault,” Gideon said. “How were you to know any better, given the example Maddox set for you? Our kind does not mate with wolves. They are, at the very best, pets. I have seen nothing of any of these wolves I have thus far encountered to grant them pet status. Thus, they will be tolerated to live as trophies.”
“Please,” Lorien begged. “Just let him go. He has a life outside of this, outside of me. He could leave and never come back.”
“Ah, but look at him, poor thing, marked with the images of a lifetime of frailty. He has bonded with you, and so he is likely to try to return. Do not worry. I have plans for the both of you. Come peacefully and no blood need be shed.”
“Do you promise?” Lorien’s question was plaintive and hopeless. What did it matter if he promised? Gideon could do as he pleased. Henry himself was absolutely shocked by the sheer power of the beast. Looking at Gideon was like staring into the eyes of a dark god. He felt himself weaken, his resolve to live somehow dimming. He knew how it was to be a deer beneath his own jaws. The same natural order of things was asserting itself, and he was on the losing side.
“William has decided to taunt me by casting me out of Maddox’s house and cutting me off from my very own progeny. I have decided to exact revenge on each and every person connected to him. So. You, Lorien, will tell me all you know about William. If you do that, Henry’s life will be spared. If you try to save William, or spare him any pain, then I will kill him, and you will watch. Do we understand one another, baby vampire?”
* * *
Meanwhile…
“We can’t do this,” Candy pressed her hands against Ivan’s hairy chest. They had already done it several times. Dozens, actually. Her once pristinely domestic lounge was now a much wilder place. She’d been cleaning it up, but with Ivan around anything clean quickly became dirty again, and with most of the world taking refuge from the sickness, it didn’t really feel like it was worth it anymore. Ivan had a tendency to shed whether he was in his human or beast form — and he had taken both frequently lately.
Chuck and the kids were still with his mom in Utah. She had been lonely. She had been bored. She had been mad enough to let Ivan scratch his rough beard across the back of her neck and from that moment on she had been caught in a cascade of carnality.
“Of course we can,” Ivan growled, his rough voice sending thrills through her. She’d only just showered and dressed, which he always seemed to take as some kind of a challenge to both destroy her clothing and cover her in sweat, semen, and saliva.
“We have to stop. I’m married.”
She said that at least twice a day. She didn’t know why. It only served to excite him. When Maddox freed him, Ivan’s first action was to come to her and beg her to help heal his wounds. One thing had led to another and now she was not so much cheating on her husband as basking in infidelity. The world was ending as far as anybody could tell, and Candy was getting railed.
“Yes,” Ivan growled down at her. “That married pussy is mine, though, isn’t it? Has been from the beginning.” He lowered his head and put his teeth on her neck, and…
There was a rattling at the front door. A sound of keys being fumbled, and then dropped.
Candy’s eyes widened. She shoved Ivan off her, for real this time. Her adrenaline was flowing. Was it Chuck? Had he come home to claim her? Was she delusional for believing in a world where that was going to happen? The blandness of their lives had become a catalyst for separation once the sickness struck. Having him at a distance made it almost impossible to consider a world where they would ever be together again. Change was in the air, deep transformation that would not be denied.
The front door unlocked itself. Candy launched herself toward it, buttoning her shirt up again. Ivan sat on the couch unconcerned. Candy threw a blanket over him in a vain attempt to make him blend in.
“… Hi,” Carter grunted as he came through the door, hair in his eyes, a general air of annoyed disinterest about his person. He was almost sixteen years old, skinny, blond, and largely non-verbal at the moment. He was wearing a mask dangling from one ear and a near perpetual scowl.
“What are you doing here, sweetie?” Candy tried not to sound shocked or unwelcoming. She was thrilled to see her son. Of course. Naturally. She wasn’t a monster.
