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“Really.” Maddox gritted the word out. Will was in the unenviable position of trying to work out what specifically Maddox was angry about. Several things had happened that would not likely please him.
“Yeah?”
“What did I tell you this morning, boy?” Maddox fixed Will with his dark stare. There was no escaping that stare. It went into the very middle of Will and locked him in place. Vampiric influence was a bitch, but Will had the suspicion Maddox wasn't even using his. It was just sheer force of personality that made William’s muscles freeze and his mouth go dry.
“Uhm. I don’t know. I don’t think I saw you this morning?”
“I told you that I want you home at night. That it is dangerous out there for you. Do you remember that?”
“I guess?” Will shrugged.
It was precisely the wrong thing to say and the wrong gesture to make. Maddox exploded across the room at him, moving with incredible vampiric speed. Will didn’t have time to realize he’d made a mistake before Maddox’s fingers were in his collar.
Lorien had disappeared, of course. He wasn’t hanging around to see what happened or take any blame for it.
“Lorien asked me to go out!” Will immediately dropped Lorien in it. Once upon a time he had subscribed to the “snitches get stitches” school of thought, but that had changed in Maddox's home. Besides, it was the truth. Lorien had urged him out, to…
“And where did Lorien want to take you? He’s never shown an interest in outings before.” Maddox tipped Will’s head back with a strong and icy finger, pinning him with an equally strong and icy gaze.
“We just, uh. We were out in the city.”
“You’re lying to me, boy.” Maddox made the statement with more than a hint of disappointment in his tone. “You’ve been so rebellious of late, getting arrested, and now roaming and fighting… yes, I can see you've been fighting, boy. Remember, humans bruise. Your truths are written all over your body.”
Will did not know what to say. He had agreed with Lorien that they would not tell anyone what they had done that night. It was desperately illegal, and Maddox would have to punish the pair of them severely.
“You must be aware that I was not born yesterday,” Maddox continued, using his free hand to brush a curl of dark hair from Will’s eyes. “I hear and see what is happening in my city. You may feel that I am not here, boy. But I assure you. I am.”
“I don't like sitting at home alone when I’m awake.” That was true. That was something Will could say. “So I go out. I’m not trying to fuck with you. I’m trying not to go fucking mad.”
“You could come to the Library with me.”
“And what? Sit in the corner and read books?”
“It would be far from the worst thing for you, boy. At least you would not end every evening under my lash.”
“Is that what we are doing now, then?”
“It is, boy. It very much is.”
Every bit of Will wanted to rebel. He had not done a thing wrong besides disobey Maddox, but who was Maddox that he had to be obeyed in all things?
“There’s so much rebellion in you all of a sudden," Maddox murmured. “What happened to the little whelp who worried about disappointing me?”
“Maybe he grew up.”
“Maybe,” Maddox allowed. “Or maybe it was when you turned wolf. Maybe it awoke something wilder in you.”
He seemed much less angry already. It occurred to Will that most of his anger seemed to have been coming from a place of concern. He was worried that something would happen to Will in the night. Something had happened, but nothing like what Maddox imagined.
“I was fine," Will said. “I was with Lorien. Nothing bad was going to happen to me.”
“You are placing an awful lot of confidence in a ninety-year-old,” Maddox said, his tone suggesting Will’s claim to safety was akin to declaring that he was safe as he had his attack chihuahua with him.
“Do the city's vampires have so little respect for you that we would not be safe?”
“I think you’re trying to talk your way out of a punishment that was promised to you if you disobeyed me. Go and shower, then present yourself to me on the bed.”
“Fine,” Will sighed. “Whatever.”
