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“You look very handsome, William,” Jeeves said approvingly. “And you too, Henry.”
Will wanted to say he didn’t give a shit what the vampire thought, but again, the kindness and the genteel compliments got under his skin and make him a little softer than he wanted to be.
“Now for the good news. Gideon, in his infinite mercy, has decided that the pair of you should be kept in slightly more comfortable quarters. But first, he wishes you to be presented to him. I would ask that you keep your own counsel, especially if it should involve disrespectful language or rough cursing. I did not bathe you merely to see you covered in blood. Now. Hands and knees, please.”
“Ah, my hounds,” Gideon greeted Will and Henry as they crawled into his presence. It was a humiliation and a cruelty, but Will had become used to both in the prison system. He was staying alert, checking out his surroundings, looking for weaknesses. The fact he could keep his head down and his eyes furtive only played into that plan.
“All the way up to my throne, please.”
Gideon’s throne room was an obsidian temple of black skulls and bones. Fifty shades of black, all layered atop one another in increasingly menacing patterns. His throne was a giant skull hinged open at the jaw. It should have looked campy, but instead managed to be menacing.
“Now,” Gideon said. “When I am able to better trust you, I wish for the pair of you to act as guards here. Patrolling the grounds, eating intruders, that sort of thing. In order to do that, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with those who should be here, and those who should not. Let me show you some of our guests. I do adore the modern camera technologies. It is like having a thousand eyes. Now. Where shall I start. Oh. Here we go. Now, look well, especially you, William.”
William looked at the tablet being presented in the ancient’s clawed hand. It showed a video feed of what must be one of the rooms in the mansion. The figures there were familiar, one more than the other. Will would have known Maddox anywhere, the broad lines of his shoulders, the sweep of his hair, the elegant danger with which he moved his dancer’s body. Will felt immediate yearning and rage at the simple sight.
But Maddox was not alone. He had a shorter, blonder figure by his side. Will recognized him as Candy’s kid. His own half-brother. And now, apparently, Maddox’s fledgling.
Will was subjected to another wave of jealousy, loss, and longing. Maddox had his hand on Carter’s shoulder and was speaking quietly but firmly. Will remembered when Maddox used to speak that way to him, usually when he was being a brat.
“Maddox is going to be very busy for the next hundred years or so,” Gideon explained. “Your younger brother will make a fine vampire. He has your spirit, but none of your animal burden. Maddox may, in time, forget you completely. But don’t worry. I will have a place for you in my kennels, always.”
Will felt Gideon’s harsh claws scratch over his scalp in a gesture of dark affection. For the first time since his capture, he felt like crying.
EPILOGUE
Maddox had once imagined the worst possible thing Gideon could ever do was kill Will. Now, he wondered if Gideon hadn’t possibly found something worse. The loss of life, the embrace of darkness, that was an inevitability for a mortal. What William now suffered in the court of the ancient king was humiliation beyond the pale.
He watched, silent and terribly complicit in the awfulness unfolding before him. Henry and Will strained under the weight of heavy chains and thick, iron collars. They were forced to crawl on hands and knees, even in human form, for their place in Gideon’s court was as nothing more than whelps and curs. If they tried to stand, the collars would dig in with moonsilvered spikes and cause immense pain. It was a pathetic sight. They were both impressive specimens in their own right, two muscular wild things forced to remain in human form, though every instinct demanded their animal sides explode in full force.
Mad could see Will’s muscles rippling with every motion. He was being kept lean, but muscular. The same could be said for the tattooed pack master. They were allowed the dignity of leather leggings, but their feet were bare and the palms of their hands were callused. Both of their heads had been shaved in an effort to make them look like a pair, though it was clear for anyone to see that they were of different lineages. Maddox felt his cock stir and his heart sink at the way his boy, the love of his life was being treated. Every bone in his body, every sinew and bit of flesh commanded that he do something to intervene - but he could not. This was Gideon’s court, and the punishments handed down here were unspeakable.
Maddox was being tortured, though not in a physical way. He had been stripped of the right to his own abode. Gideon had made it clear that the only place his family would be permitted to reside was his new stronghold. The very faint silver lining was that this way Mad was able to see Will from time to time, usually at a distance. Gideon was keeping Will under lock and key very tightly. It was only on occasions such as these, grand courts, that Will and Henry were trotted out as signs of power and opulence and perhaps even mercy in Gideon’s twisted mind.
Gideon’s inner circle was a family affair. He had assembled Maddox and Ray, and of course, Chauvelin as Ray’s adoptee, and Carter as Maddox’s fledgling. Lorien was at the rear, hiding his face. He was part of the family, and yet, not. A strange cousin, one who lingered in agony at the sight of Henry chained.
“For fuck’s sake, this is so fucking boring.” Carter interrupted Maddox’s morose thoughts with a whine. Maddox redirected an unimpressed gaze at his fledgling, who was leaning on Gideon’s throne with a familiarity that belied the dark connection between the two of them.
Carter did not seem to remember the circumstances of his making. The trauma of death had taken a sledgehammer to his memory, and so the anticipated bitterness and fear he might be expected to have toward Gideon was simply not there. That was not a state guaranteed to last forever. He was still a very flesh fledgling, and there was a decent chance much of his memory would return. When it did, Maddox could only imagine the chaos that would unfold. Carter had some of Will’s fiery temperament, though it was soft and privileged, rather than hardened and brutalized. He was spoiled, and lazy. From time to time, a glance or an expression would painfully put Maddox in mind of Will, but for the most part, Carter was his own young man, one Mad would not have chosen to turn in a thousand years.
“Stand up straight,” Maddox prompted Carter. The young man was dressed in a suit that mirrored Maddox’s, his hair cut after the same fashion. As much effort as Maddox made to civilize him, Carter had been turned at the moment when a man is at his most naturally feral, the age of eighteen, when he feels no natural fear. He was reckless, and like Will, he was often angry. He was yet to come to terms with all he had lost in becoming a vampire. He wanted desperately to live his old human life again, to see his friends, to attend concerts and college. Maddox had been forced to deny him all those things.
“I’ve got a game to go to,” Carter was saying while Maddox stared at the back of Will’s collared head longingly. “I’ve got tickets to the Knicks.”
“You’re not going to any game.”
Carter lifted his chin and made an attempt at defiance. “You can’t stop me.”
“I can, and I have.” Maddox straightened Carter’s tie for the dozenth time. Carter seemed to think it looked better when everything was askew. Maddox suspected his messiness was a small form of rebellion, or perhaps the action of a boy who missed his mother. He was a technical adult, but one in name only.
“How long is this thing supposed to go on for, then? It’s boring.”
“I do not know.”
Gideon heard every word and smiled throughout. Maddox did not miss that. He was being punished with the burden of fatherhood and with proximity to the man he loved, the man who now seemed to be broken to Gideon’s collar and full of loathing for Maddox in particular. Not a word had been spoken between them since Will fled into the arms of his captor. Maddox craved closure, forgiveness, reunion, but the secret he had kept was too great to allow any of that. Will was bitter, broken, and perhaps forever beyond his reach.
“I’m hungry,” Carter said. He was always hungry. Fledglings usually were. Maddox had been careful to keep him away from any humans, knowing that his instincts were still wild and untamed.
“There’s blood in the reception area. Go and help yourself, then come back. Don’t wander.”
