The day had fallen into dusk when Maddox returned home. A glittering ocean rolled beyond the translucent ceiling, and the nearly full moon shone in Maddox’s dark eyes.
It was odd to no longer see a sunset in Sanctuary Hope. But having journeyed from Montana by helicopter, Maddox had watched the crimson sun dip behind the horizon, and with it had gone his composure.
When he’d received Asher’s emergency phone call, he’d crumbled his cell in his palm, and his energy exploded from him like toxic fumes. Fortunately, Wolfe had managed to take cover outside Montana’s quarantine unit, or else he’d have died instantly. Unable to endure the company of others after such an episode, he’d left Wolfe and Yuri at Montana, and a private soldier had flown him back to Hope.
He had seen the hybrid with his own eyes, yet the beast was nothing compared to the one that raged inside him.
Ezra’s coat flapped behind him on the rooftop of Maddox’s penthouse. He escorted Maddox through the building and into the twilight-soaked garden below. He dared not utter a single word. A wise decision, for he could probably sense Maddox’s presence darkening by the second.
Asher must have been informed of Maddox’s arrival: he waited rigidly outside Vincent’s ward, his eyebrows drawn together and prominent bags lining his eyes.
“Sir, I want to apologize for everythi—”
Maddox swept into the room without an acknowledgement. At least Ezra had known no fruitless apology would be sufficient for the damage caused to his hunter. With Ezra close at his heels, he strode into the center of the room and found Vincent, who appeared to be sedated, prostrate on the hospital bed. Slivers of moonlight cut through the blinds and sliced over Vincent’s features. He appeared celestial laying there, dappled in the moon’s ethereal glow.
The fangs’ incision hacked into his shoulders and chest held Maddox’s attention. He followed the impressions toward Vincent’s neck. Ligature strangulation. The captain had clearly used a leather belt to throttle him. Not enough to kill Vincent, but enough to restrain him like some senseless barbarian. If the pressure had been applied properly, Vincent could have choked like that for several minutes.
It was a miracle he hadn’t died.
Maddox turned to Ezra, his fury seething from his fingertips. “Take me to her. Now.”
His white limousine pulled up outside of the Nellaf. The penthouse at the top had hosted Cerberus in late July. Over the centuries, his elder brother had grown a strict aversion to anything daylight and strived to make his surroundings totally obscure. He had succeeded with the Nellaf penthouse.
High-ceilinged, yet cold enough to vaporize one’s breath, the room showed no indication of an outside world. The coiled, wooden floorboards were beautifully designed, and the furniture was shrouded in luxurious silks, similar to the Synner dungeon. Except the unoccupied cages in the far corner ruined the ambience. They lacked that certain level of intimacy Maddox preferred while feeding.
Cerberus, however, fed openly and in groups. He had claimed there was nothing more satisfying than displaying his meal for all to see and having the creatures sniveling while he lounged in his enormous, granite pool integrated into the floor by the barricaded window—now turned into an extensive, floor-to-ceiling mirror.
The atmosphere smelled of Cerberus still, and Svana, who had not come alone.
Maddox strolled toward the bar surrounded by rich leather barstools. He poured a generous amount of whisky into two glasses, dropped in a cube of ice, then turned to his daughter. She had half-submerged herself in the pool, but now she straightened and looked at her father with blatant unease. He paid her no attention. He wandered across the room slowly, his stare pinned on Titus, whose reflection shimmered against the oval-shaped mirror. Maddox paused just inches from him and offered a drink.
“For all your hard work, Captain.” He raised his own glass and added with a smile, “May you continue to serve me as you have all these long, faithful years.”
Titus gave Svana a fleeting glance before he accepted the offering, clinked glasses, and swallowed the contents.
“Good?” Maddox probed, his hand clenched around his glass.
Titus set his jaw into a firm line and nodded. “Thank you, sir.”
“You are most welcome.” Maddox threw back his own drink and swallowed. As soon as the liquid touched the base of his throat, he sighed and dipped his eyes, savoring the taste of sweet vengeance coursing through his veins.
In one skillfully quick movement, Maddox seized Titus’ neck and smashed his skull into the mirror. Blood spurted into the air, and bones crunched gloriously against broken glass. He plunged a shard into Titus’ back and ripped through his spinal cord as though he were gutting a fish—up, down, yanking flesh apart like worthless meat. One final cut to the throat had Titus convulsing headlessly on the floor. Maddox discarded him similarly to how one would discard an overlooked fish—without regard.
“Father, I did not—”
Maddox locked his hand around Svana’s throat and hauled her out from the pool. “Let’s see how you enjoy strangulation, hmm?” His claws ripped through his leather gloves and embedded into Svana’s creamy flesh, lifting her feet inches from the floor. “Does it feel good? Do you enjoy how I am choking the air from your wretched lungs as though you mean nothing to me?”
Svana’s amber eyes dilated into crimson orbs, brimming with oil-like tears. Whatever script she had rehearsed prior to his execution now abandoned her.
Through her pathetic, wheezing gasps, she clung to her father’s suit in a desperate plea. Her sodden feet flailed like a rag doll, dangling as naked as the day she was born. “He… Titus…he claimed…only wanted to see…the hunter…for h-himself… I did not…know…until…now.”
A scathing laugh erupted from Maddox. “You did not know? You have no concept of how greatly you have impacted our future. How foolishly you have quite literally given Cadmus the upper hand in this war. And yet… You. Did. Not. Know.”
He could quite easily kill his daughter, like he had Titus and the performer who’d dared mark Vincent.
“You know my rules, childe. You of all people know of them!”
“I only…want…to make you…proud.”
He relaxed his grip on Svana’s throat. With those seven words, Maddox strayed into the past. His daughter turned into a newborn before his eyes—fourteen, unpredictable, excitable, the ripe vampire coming of age.
She had come seeking Maddox after her first kill: a local farm boy who’d been throwing stones at her and Freya.
“I only want to make you proud, Father, and protect our family. He attacked first. Why must they fear us so?”
Maddox wrapped an arm around Svana’s shoulder and brought her close to him. “Humans fear what they cannot comprehend. But fearing a monster does not mean we, by extension, turn into one. Do you understand me, Svana?”
His daughter turned to the window. The human’s blood covered her mouth like a smeared stain and dribbled down her front. “How I wish we could all just get along.”
He released his grip seconds before Svana slipped from his fingertips. She pooled onto the floor, gasping and spitting mouthfuls of ebony blood.
“You will leave for Montana in the morning.”
“Y-yes… Father.” Svana stumbled to the side of the pool, seized her lace nightgown, and scrambled to the door.
“Svana.”
His daughter turned, wide-eyed and afraid.
“Should you ever do something like that again, I will not hesitate twice.”
His daughter bowed, and a tear slipped from her eyelashes. “Til min faders aere.” To my father’s honor.
Maddox inhaled deeply. “Go.”
She went, banging the door behind her.
Maddox eyed the corpse dumped by the mirror. Shards of glass poked out from its now rotted flesh, and blood oozed from the tips, dripping onto the carpeted floor. Prior to Maddox leaving the penthouse, he pressed a shoe onto Titus’ forehead and crushed his skull.
He wiped the blood from his hand on a silk handkerchief and caught Ezra glancing into the rear-view mirror of his limousine. The vehicle rolled to a halt outside his penthouse.
“What would you like me to do with Titus’ remains, sir?
Maddox threw the cloth onto the seat beside him and kicked open the car door with his heel. “Burn them. Bring me his fangs.”
Ezra smiled into the glass. “Of course, sir.”
The full moon wasn’t predicted for several days, but Maddox could feel the strain of the recent events weighing down on him. Only virgin blood would satiate him until feeding night. Unfortunately, he had none locked in his feeding quarters, which meant he’d have to go hunting and hope a virgin mongrel violated his law.
His last one, Gabriel, had barely sustained him the whole night.
Entering his penthouse, Maddox kept the lights off and dropped into the chair at his desk. He loosened his gray tie and leaned back into the leather, his thoughts drifting. The hybrid snarled into his mind, foam gushing down its chin, and malformed claws thrashed and bent the chains pinning it to the stone wall.
With one hundred creatures like that, Hope wouldn’t stand a chance. His fallback had been on gaining Vincent’s trust. The former Dusk Hunter was the only one skillful enough to infiltrate Cadmus’ base, confirm the hybrid numbers, and expose a weakness. No creature on Earth, including First Borns, were infallible. There had to be something that linked the hybrids. For instance, who sired them? Kill the sire or dam, kill the offspring. If Maddox wanted to save his kin and the humans, he required that weakness in order to crush it.
Except, thanks to his daughter’s oversight, he’d lost Vincent’s trust. He had managed to build a layer of trust with his acceptance; he did not have the time to obtain that again. Mind control would not work on him. He could control Vincent’s mind until they reached Cadmus’ base, but he could only manipulate those who were within proximity. Vincent could quite possibly betray Maddox upon entering his uncle’s domain. After all that had transpired, he may even join him.
Why do you care for him so?
Maddox had thought he’d known the answer to that. When he’d looked over Vincent’s application, he saw an asset—someone with whom he could put an end to Cadmus’ insanity once and for all. Now, he saw something greater, or perhaps worse. He saw a creature he wanted to enthral.