Rescue missions were never straightforward—not least when Maddox had to evacuate a group of Opposers into Sanctuary Hope.
His shoulders strained with exertion, though to his relief, the operation had not ended in utter travesty.
The Opposers could have refused to come with him.
Fortunately, after a lengthy discussion prior to Maddox’s arrival, they agreed to relocate. Perhaps it was the provisions given to them, or the fact they were about to be saved from the rubble squalor they had been forced into. Or that their leader had forced them to go. Whatever had done the trick, Maddox was thrilled to welcome more survivors into his city. If the rest of the Opposers could only meet Maddox halfway, he would quite honestly give them the world. He just needed their help to rebuild it.
The sun dipped beyond the horizon, and his duty as the governor of Sanctuary Hope had been put to rest. From dusk to dawn, Maddox’s true nature rose to the surface, and what a terrifying nature indeed.
“Incoming call, Governor Caine,” the AI reported from Maddox’s laptop screen. “Do you wish to accept or decline this call?”
“Accept.”
“Connecting call, Governor Caine. Please wait.”
He trained his gaze on the laptop screen again. A wafer-thin hologram swelled into the air. Upon seeing the pixels transform into his secretary’s boyish-looking face, a nearly panicked reaction gripped Maddox, akin to mortal excitement.
Ezradel had come bearing news—news which Maddox had been waiting to hear.
He leaned back in his office chair and stared lazily at the pixels. “You have him, yes?”
Ezra inclined his head. “Yes, Governor. He is exactly as you detailed. Not an easy one to catch, given his background. Though I must say, I was astonished when he put his name down at the Procurement Center. He’d only been here a few hours. But Asher said his application was successful. When should I have him delivered to you?”
“This evening,” Maddox replied, eyes unmoving. “Have him sent to my private quarters.”
“S…Sir?” his secretary dared. His normally jade eyes flashed crimson, and his dark complexion tightened. “You want me to bring him up there? To your penthouse? You have never done that before, sir.”
“That won’t be an issue now, will it, Ezra?”
“Of course not.” Ezra wisely composed himself and dipped his head. “As for the younger one, what shall I do with him?”
Maddox pondered for a moment, his eyes flitting toward the penthouse window. His city slept peacefully at his disposal. A sparkling sea of lights glimmered underneath the twilight sky. A quick glimpse around his luxurious penthouse had him somewhat peckish.
“Bring him to my feeding quarters.”
He waved a dismissive hand and disconnected the call. Now it was only a matter of waiting for his new toy, and Maddox had all the time in the world to wait.
Meantime, he had other pressing matters to tend to in the next room.
Once he had crossed the length of his office, he approached a lattice door bereft of any locks or handles. A single camera, disguised as a meagre peephole, flashed upon his arrival.
“Governor Maddox Caine,” he announced clearly.
The camera scanned Maddox’s eye to register him. Nearly everything inside Hope was controlled by Artificial Intelligence—by Maddox Caine.
“Please enter, Governor.”
The door unhinged itself, pulled to the side, and Maddox stepped over the threshold. He emerged into an antechamber that had been stripped of any resemblance to the previous rooms. Now all that existed were solid, granite walls, which had been interlaced with a myriad of ominous tools.
No windows or visible doors: that was essential.
In spite of the room’s granite influence, the air had an acidic flavor to it. Maddox’s senses acclimated to the faint candlelight and low ventilation, and his eyes shifted from gray to sapphire-black. His eyelids blinked sideways. All that could be seen in the room was the dark figure slumped in the middle of the floor, legs oscillating from side to side.
“Gov…ernor…” the body managed, the wheeze of bloody spittle evident in his tone. “Please…”
Silently, Maddox approached the wall of equipment and pondered on which item to use first. He needed to punish his subordinate well enough to inflict pain but not kill him. Merely enough to injure a powerful vampire and leave a long-lasting impression. Perhaps a whipping doused in Maddox’s blood would suffice. His insides were acidic to his kind, and it would take his subordinate several hours to heal. Yes, that would do. It would also save Maddox a trip to his feeding quarters.
He retrieved the long leather whip from the wall and approached an elongated metallic countertop. His fangs sliced into his left wrist like it were a ripe pear. His venom trickled between his teeth and dribbled onto the floor, leaving splashes of ebony blood.
He held his hand over the washbasin, mixed the water with his venom, then dropped the tails of the whip into the bowl. His long, elegant fingers lathered the tassels with his blood, and he was about to pull the whip out when the body addressed him again.
“Why…?”
Maddox chuckled dryly, focused on oiling the whip. “You know fine well why. When I appointed you as general of my city I informed you that every civilian in North America must be accounted for. Even if it is without their knowledge, I expected you to keep an eye on them. Keep them safe.” Maddox further rolled up his white sleeves and then grasped the whip. “And yet, you disappointed me. You lied to me. Those children, your men, my men, were indeed injured—by your hand—yet you had the audacity to keep me ill-informed. For how long?”
“S-sir?”
Maddox’s knuckles blanched around the curved handle. “How long did you think you could fool me? I know it was you who preyed on them.”
Crack.
“Who destroyed their shelter and killed many.”
Crack.
“Who lied to me—your own master.”
Another crack.
“Urghhh! Forgive me, Master… They were Opposers, the leader, he slaughtered many of our warriors, and—aaaaargh!”
Three strikes, one after the other.
The leather tails licked around the general’s flesh. Maddox watched as his own blood seeped into the general’s wounds, sizzling his flesh like meat on a skillet.
“I made a mistake, Sir, by defying you… Please.”
A pity the plea would do him no good.
“So you did,” Maddox said, snapping his wrist forward again.
The tails caught the general’s cheek, and he cried out. He struggled and pulled at his shackles, but with his feet barely touching the ground, he didn’t stand a chance. Maddox whipped him repeatedly across his face, angling his wrist expertly against any vulnerable points. Blood spurted from the general’s wounds and sprayed over Maddox’s white shirt, turning him feral.
Not even breaking a sweat, Maddox slung the whip over the basin and turned to the general. “Disobedience must always be corrected, General Wolfe, even if one is to whip it into the marrow of their bones. I thought you of all creatures understood. Had I not trained you well enough, hmm?”
The general sobbed and rattled his chains. “Y…yes, Sir… I am sorry.”
“Indeed, you are sorry—sorry you lied to me and killed those innocent people.”
Maddox reached toward the ceiling and unlocked the general’s shackles. Dropping to the floor like a bag of pitiful bones, the general wheezed and choked, repeating over and over again he was sorry.
So weak.
Maddox found that, while he’d punished the general, for the most part, it wasn’t quite enough. Not when Maddox’s cock tented his trousers and his heartbeat pounded with adrenaline.
“I am not finished with you yet,” Maddox said, side-eyeing the general. “You will stay there.”
“Y…yes, Sir.”
He closed the vault door and glided through his office. His penthouse consisted of many doors and antechambers, but Maddox paid them no heed. Grabbing a swan-white towel from inside his bathroom, he then entered a lightless hallway positioned at the farthest, darkest corner of his home. Maddox swept by his kitchen staff and down a spiral staircase. Once he had reached the bottom, the rooftop seemed to expand, the walls turned gray, and everything was made of solid steel—including a metallic gate. Two guards flanked the entryway.
“Governor Caine,” they said simultaneously, bowing.
“I wish to see your newest arrival.”
“Of course, sir.”
The tallest guard stepped aside, unlocked the gate, and followed Maddox inside. They passed several rows of cages all mounted to a granite wall. Creatures sniffled behind the bars, sumptuously terrorized and stripped bare. While most of them were convicted felons, they knew better than to address Maddox: they learned early on doing so was useless.
He stopped outside the last cage. Now perfectly groomed and well-fed, the young hunter sat on his mattress, legs tucked underneath his chin and his arms wrapped around them. He was the only inhabitant to be dressed, should one deem tattered hunting rags to be clothing.
Maddox wiped the blood from his hands on the towel and signaled the guard to open the cage. At the sound of the gate jarring, the boy jolted and lifted his head. His emerald eyes tumbled over Maddox’s bloodstained clothes, and the fear present in them was palpable.
Petrified and jumping to conclusions. Typical of his meals.
But Maddox did not intend on eating the boy—that was what Sanctuary Hope’s delinquents were for.
He wanted a taste of one who resembled the infamous hunter, Cadmus Hudson. The one who had slain so many of Maddox’s friends and subordinates. Swimming among the limitless tabs running simultaneously in Maddox’s mind, all he could wonder was how the boy would taste on his tongue. Would he be as glorious and sumptuous as Cadmus once had, as fleeting as the bite had been? Or would he taste something entirely different?
There was only one way to find out.
“Come with me.”
Without a backward glance, Maddox turned on his heel. Emory had the sense to pick himself up and out of the cage and scrambled after him. He was silent until they arrived at the main gate, where an outpour of cries burst from his pathetic little mouth.
“Abraham. Abraham, can you hear me? Abe!”
There was no reply.
The guard followed Maddox and the boy to the penthouse, stepping outside of the dungeon’s hidden door.
“I have no need for you,” Maddox announced dryly. “Judging by the pup, he’s barely past his hunter training. You are dismissed.”
“Thank you, sir.”
The guard bowed and departed from the penthouse. Maddox turned to the boy, who cowered from him with more tears streaming down his flushed cheeks.
“You will follow me into this room and make not a sound. Speak and be punished or have your silence rewarded. The decision is yours to make. Understood?”
The boy’s eyes swelled into saucers, and tears glistened triumphantly.
“Good boy. Now, watch me train a bad dog how to obey.”
Maddox pivoted and repeated his name to the scanner. When the doors pulled aside, he found General Wolfe still knelt on the floor, caked in blood. Knowing it would take him a long while to heal, Maddox grinned. He deserved the punishment for deceiving him.
Maddox curled a finger at the boy, then pointed beyond Wolfe’s shoulders. A redwood table, surrounded by candles, had been placed in front of the bricked wall. It was narrow but long enough to accommodate the length of a grown man, which Emory nearly was.
Carefully, Maddox untangled the chains latched to the wooden edges, and had Emory drape himself on the surface. He locked the shackles around Emory’s trembling wrists, and applied the same effort to his ankles, holding the boy completely at bay.
He looked so much like Cadmus that Maddox couldn’t wait to devour him.
Hearing the steady footsteps of his Master, General Wolfe lifted his gaze from the floor. His cobalt eyes had suffered a burst artery; a red disk now shadowed his iris, and the prominent laceration wounds displayed chunks of bone.
“Governor, please…” Wolfe rasped, every scrap of pride and authority erased from him. “I disobeyed your command and, yes, I deserve to be punished…” His shackles scraped over the ground as he inched toward Maddox. “But let me explain…”
“And why should I let those below me offer an explanation? I gave you an order. Protect my people. Instead, you hunted beyond my wall because they were Opposers of my campaign. You let politics get in the way of following my orders. So foolish of you.” Maddox bent down, grabbed on to the general’s hair, and tilted his head backward. “But I shall give you a choice, Wolfe, since we are, after all, acquaintances.”
The general looked up from the floor, battered and well-bruised. Maddox sighed. A normally attractive vampire, Myka Wolfe was hardly recognizable underneath all the blood and misery. But Maddox had to punish those who disobeyed him, regardless of how long he had known him.
“Submit to me the old way, and I shall accept your apology. Refuse and I will ensure every bone in your body is pulverized into dust.” Maddox side-glanced the hunter, whose eyes were stark with fear. “You ever witnessed a man fuck another into submission?”
“N…no, sir,” Emory answered, his voice barely a whisper. “I don’t want to be here. Please, please let me go! I won’t tell anybody anything—I swear. I promise!”
Maddox raised an eyebrow at him. “Silence, remember?”
The hunter smacked his jaw shut. In the faint glow of candlelight, his throat choked back a sob; three days under Maddox’s care had taught him well, for the most part. Hold your tongue and speak only when spoken to. You are a prisoner. Meat to be discarded should the governor desire it. Obey him. He is your Master now.
But he swore to protect us?
He is protecting you. In return, you shall give him your everything, including your soul.
Not entirely accurate, but he digressed.
“Now,” Maddox said, unbuckling his belt. “Your answer, Wolfe? I am growing impatient.”
The general didn’t hesitate at that point. “Anything, Sir… I only want to serve the First Born!”
“And serve him you shall. Spread your arms against the floor and lift your ass into the air. Quickly now. Do not have me waiting.”
The general threw his shackles onto the floor in a fervent display of servility.
“Better,” Maddox noted. He bent over the countertop and unhooked a silver knife from the wall.
The room crawled into a beautiful standstill.
Maddox bent down, forced the knife into the back of the general’s pants, and ripped until the material exposed his ass.
Such a glorious sight—a proud leader brought to their knees.
It was a pity it happened to be the general, but no matter how great of a light he saw his kin to be in, he could not stand for disloyalty.
He ran the knife along the general’s spine and paused between his shoulder blades. A cluster of freckles dotted the pale skin. Maddox twirled the edge of the knife and then pushed down. The metal penetrated Wolfe’s skin, bringing to the surface a beautiful blush of red that trickled over his writhing skin.
The general didn’t so much as move, never mind scream. The gush of ebony blood caught Maddox’s eye—his pulse quickened, throat swallowed— and he knelt to lick around the wound. His fangs extended and latched on to the general’s skin. He drank from him, but it was a tasteless refreshment. No great fear or misery permeating his blood. It was nothing compared to feeding on a human on the brink of ecstasy or despair.
Maddox glimpsed the boy, whose own eyes glistened with mouth-watering terror and disgust. Removing the knife from the general’s back, Maddox approached Emory with long, careful strides. The boy shrank from him, rattling his chains, and his heart pounded like a machine propelling itself against a metal cage. So petrified. So delectable. This is more like it. This is why I brought you here, boy.
He dropped the knife between Emory’s thighs, slicing the edge of the blade into the wood.
“Do you enjoy music, sweet thing?”
“Don’t…. Don’t come near me! Stay the hell away, you monster!”
Oh, deary me. Wrong answer.
Maddox hardened his features, and he crawled around the other side of the table, brushing his fingers up Emory’s bowed legs. “There are few of mankind’s creations which I truly enjoy. My subordinate”—he gave the general a glance, who spread himself over the floor, unmoving—“can vouch for that.”
“Yes, Sir, I can…”
Maddox paused at the boy’s head, where, underneath the table, stood a century-old phonograph machine. Maddox had stored it there for moments such as these—when he had one’s life dangling at his fingertips.
Contrary to what one would normally assume, the device was not an antique covered in dust and unused in fear of injury. It was an instrument Maddox quite frequently put to use in his day-to-day life. It was one of few creations he thought man worthy of constructing.
“But I will admit, dear hunter,” Maddox resumed, pulling the groove down and sliding it onto the vinyl; in the background, the opera music began slowly, delicately. “The choral perfection achieved within the libretto of sopranos is a masterful creation. A true, immersive experience through such an unlikely device. To me, it is almost as orgasmic as the taste of your blood filtering between my teeth.”
Maddox bent down to meet the boy’s gaze. Droplets of Wolfe’s blood dripped onto Emory’s forehead, but the boy’s eyes were knitted shut—refusing to look at his captor. Not for long, though. When Maddox plunged his fangs into the boy’s neck, Emory quickly released his eyelids, and he screamed.
“Aaaargh, no! Please don’t eat me!”
“Eat you?” Maddox chuckled with dark conviction. He snaked a hand down Emory’s fluttering chest. “Dear boy, I am going to drink from you, then I am going to fuck you into utter oblivion. You won’t be able to think let alone breathe when I am done with you.” A wicked smile tugged at his pale lips. “Afterward, I will fuck my subordinate like the little slut he is, then I shall order him to fuck you and fill your sweet little ass with his seed. My guards will take turns on you throughout the night. Yes, yes, that would please me greatly, Emory. Very much so.”
His slid a gloved hand into Emory’s pants, the fine, blond hair trimmed neatly to his flesh, and cupped his flaccid cock. His fangs tickled the plains of Emory’s smooth neck, tongue lapping at his creamy skin. Meanwhile, he moved his hand up and down Emory’s shaft.
The hunter tried desperately to escape him and pulled at his binds, but his cock began to harden, much to Maddox’s delight.
“Seems to me you are quite enjoying this arrangement.” Maddox quickened his pace on Emory’s cock, brushing the tip with feather-like caresses. “Does your little virgin hole agree with me, too?”
“No! Please… I’ll… I’ll do anything!”
“To survive another day,” Maddox breathed, sliding his other hand underneath Emory’s back. He prodded his fingers into his pants and between his ass cheeks, circling the puckered hole. “Or to not be touched by the vermin you think me to be?”
“B-both!” Emory choked. “Please, sir!”
His response amused Maddox. Retrieving his fingers from Emory’s flesh, he left him breathless on the table and prowled to the other side. His own erection tented his suit pants, and his desire to feed would not be quenched anytime soon. Wolfe had been the entree. Now, Maddox would enjoy his main course. He just needed an extra garnish of…ah, yes, fear. Yes, that would do the trick.
“Perhaps I will not touch you ever again,” he said. “Instead, I will leave you to rot in my dungeon, and every night you will beg me to come to you. To touch you, for I have left you with nothing—no human contact, no glimmer of hope or compassion. Only the confines of four brick walls for the remainder of your pathetic, inconsequential, little sad life.”
“No!” Emory’s heartbeat accelerated, his shackles twisted faster, his limbs trembled against the table. “You can’t…”
Maddox wetted his lips and yanked Emory’s thighs. “But I can, sweet meal of mine. Perhaps I will leave you to die with no hope at all. Would you like that? To rot in a dungeon? No sunlight? No people?”
“God in Heaven, please forgive me… No, I wouldn’t. Please don’t leave me down there… I’ll die if you leave me there.”
More tears rushed down Emory’s cheeks, and the poor creature had truly meant what he’d said. He’d rather Maddox fucked and fed on him than be left alone in the darkness. Were all hunters, nowadays, so predictable? Maddox had barely even pushed the boy. Still, he was as ripe as Maddox needed him for a pleasant bite.
He pierced his fangs into Emory’s thigh, and crimson blood spurted out, pouring onto his lapping tongue. The juicy, tender meat swelled between Maddox’s lips, and he sucked the blood deeper down his throat. But it was not enough to satiate him. He pulled his lips away and ran a finger over the wound.
“L…let me…go,” Emory wheezed, flushed from head to foot, his chest pounding. “What did you do with Abraham?”
What Maddox had promised to do.
“I am told I too often play with my food,” Maddox mused, smearing blood over and around Emory’s thigh. “I, however, like to disagree. I think of it as simply tasting the meat as it cooks. What do you think?”
“You’re a psychopath!”
“I prefer unconventional.” He sucked on the wound, drank, and then slapped a hand on the side of Emory’s ass. “Now, stop writhing or I will bleed you dry. Do not tempt me, boy. I am on the verge of doing so.”
Emory obeyed him, although his hands and ankles rattled in his bonds.
“Submit,” Maddox breathed into his ear. “Be afraid of me. Let me drink from your flesh like it is a rare wine.” He ran his fangs up the boy’s neck, inhaling the sweet nectar of fear that pumped through his veins. “And I may let you live to see another day.”
If he couldn’t physically attack Cadmus, he’d at least torture a decoy who looked like him.
The sound of Wolfe’s own chains scraping over the floor roused Maddox’s attention.
“Ah, I had almost forgotten about you, my sweet Wolfe.”
Since his cock had already hardened at the sight of Emory, he’d put the general to good use while he was there.
Maddox unhooked his belt and laced it between his fingers before dropping it to the floor. As he undressed beside the table, the music shifted into something sinister, dark, unfolding around the room like a blanket of delicious, ice-cold darkness.
The candles wavered while Maddox, now free of his clothing, strode toward the general. He gripped the vampire’s waist and angled him forward. Wolfe’s back arched, and a hiss burst from his lips as Maddox impaled him with his thick cock. No preparation or lubricant, save for the blood that trickled from the general’s wounds. Healing nice and slowly, just as Maddox desired.
That would serve him right for slaughtering innocent people.
Vampires were known to fuck like beasts. There was nothing slow or comforting in the movements of a vampire filling his prey with his own seed. Their actions were animalistic, fast and brutal, with a feral need that encompassed the air and everything around. But for their precious onlooker, Maddox slowed his movements to that of a human. He thrust Wolfe hard, yes, but steady enough for Emory to see the general taking in every inch Maddox’s cock. To see how their sexual energy, and that of his own, fed Maddox so exquisitely.
“You are hungry for me, my sweet Wolfe?”
“Yes, Sir… I am thankful for this gift, Sir.”
“Well, it has been some time.” Maddox chuckled, then he fixed his gaze on Emory. “Perhaps you will tell our guest here how good it feels.”
The general pushed back to meet his Master’s thrusts, his balls slapping against him and his cock leaking. “It’s…it’s good…so good, boy, to feel our Master inside of us… To gift us with his touch, his seed…his anything.”
A fond smile, if ever he could call it that, graced Maddox’s lips.
“Did you hear that, Emory? Now this is a dog who has been well punished. Would you like to taste what that is like?”
No answer.
Maddox thrust harder into Wolfe, who groaned and met his hips just as hungrily.
“Would you like to feel that kind of utter acceptance? Acquiesce in its finest, most beautiful form?”
“No,” came Emory’s reply. “I never want to be a part of this.”
“Too bad.” Maddox buried his cock deep into the general’s twitching hole. “You already are, sweet thing.”