He had half a mind to strike Svana for interrupting him. But at least Vincent’s reaction had been rather enlightening.
Even more so was his own.
If Svana hadn’t intruded, Maddox was quite certain he would have shredded Vincent’s clothes and fucked his brains out before he could breathe a protest.
He grinned at the image and entered his penthouse. Svana sauntered in after him, her swan-white riding cloak billowing around her. While Freya’s mane flowed from her crown like a dark river, Svana’s glory had always been the pixie cut that wreathed her cat-like features. She twisted the snowy locks absently and pursed her cherry-red lips.
“Well, Father? Care to explain?”
“Sit down, Svana.”
“Come now. Haven’t you missed me?” She draped herself on the edge of Maddox’s desk and crossed her stilettos. “I rode alongside Wolfe’s blasted truck for nigh on two moons. Don’t I get a welcome hug?”
Really, Svana. Will you never learn?
While his youngest childe had progressed enormously since her Valkyrie days, a careless faux pas occasionally slipped in. Those he could rectify. It was her bloodlust and disregard for human life that concerned him. In the centuries since he had sired the twins, Svana’s lack of compassion often played a part in unraveling mankind. It was why Maddox had stationed her in Montana in the first instance. She had yet to re-earn his trust, for only then would she be allowed to deputize a Sanctuary City, just like her sister was doing.
“Father, has Freya by any chance contacted you? I have yet to hear from her, and it has been some months. I no longer hear her thoughts.” An edge of bitterness to her voice.
Maddox had been expecting the question. He hadn’t seen either of the twins since he’d separated them six months ago. He sat at his desk and gestured to the assortment of fresh fruit.
“I believe she contacted Ezra some weeks gone. You needn’t concern yourself with our European cousins. I have already explained that to you.”
“Yes, but she’s still my sister, remember?”
“And you still cannot be trusted.”
Svana flinched at his tone, then snatched a green apple from the bowl. She sank her fangs into the ripe flesh, and the blood from inside oozed down her lips. They couldn’t digest human delicacies otherwise. “I imagine Uncle Cerb is keeping a close eye on her, too. The poor thing. He was never one for letting us stray too far…or have any fun.”
“You created havoc in his city.”
“I created joy.” She waved a petulant hand and took another bite. Swallowed. Pinched her eyes. “I see not why I should be reprimanded for that and sent alone to Montana.”
“I will not discuss this with you again. Your disdain for humanity has consequences, and you must learn to accept that. Has my youngest childe learned nothing out in the Wastelands?”
“I learned there is but useless decay, Father, and rats. Many of them.” She dropped into the chair opposite Maddox, lifted her legs over the armrest, and took another bite. Her black leather boots dangled freely in the air. “Oh, Montana… To see that state in such a deplorable way. Dried up lakes. Ravaged neighborhoods. Opposers living like rodents in the gutters. Such waste.”
“Cities can be rebuilt. Tell me of Cadmus Hudson. What news have you?”
“It was like nothing I’ve ever seen, Father,” she said, closing her amber eyes.
“So it is true, then?”
Svana nodded. “I would prefer to say his claims were a hoax, but… I saw it with my own eyes, set loose into the wild. It had attacked one of their own and then ventured blindly into the Great Plains. It gave Titus a nasty shock in the evening, that was for sure.”
“Where is it now?”
“I couldn’t transport it from Montana. The beast already cost Wolfe three of his best men…in one strike.”
Maddox leaned back in and snagged his bottom lip between his teeth.
“How many are there?”
Svana shrugged a shoulder. “Impossible to say. With a glimpse beyond his military wall…eighty, maybe one hundred easily. And that’s not counting the ones he keeps inside or that are incubating.”
Breeding hybrids like bitches in heat? Maddox had heard it all now. He had seen it all, too, and how much destruction a single hybrid could cause. Should Cadmus build an army of them…there would be nothing left of the Sanctuary Cities. Nothing left of mankind, lest he planned to keep a narrow portion of them alive for sustenance. But hybrids did not feed like full-blooded vampires, nor did they rely on weekly transplants from a First Born to venture out in the sun.
A hybrid vampire survived on human flesh, not blood, and could go several days without eating, which begged the question. How had Cadmus kept eighty, let alone one hundred hybrids alive?
“Did you see any humans out there? Dusk Hunters? Survivors beyond their base?”
Svana paused, then took a final bite of her apple. “I saw them feed on an innocent child. Survivor. No more than eight. Ghastly stuff.”
Ahh. So he uses his supply of survivors to sustain them? What a barbaric fool.
And he had the audacity to call Maddox a monster? At least he offered his people hope. Those ‘survivors’ lured into Cadmus’ walls were no less than pigs thrown to the slaughter. He must go there and put an end to Cadmus once and for all.
As if reading her father’s thoughts, Svana said, “I had it locked down in the quarantine unit. I suspected you’d want to see it for yourself. Plus, you can see the others, too. The fool has them guarding the entrance like bison on steroids.”
Maddox collected a scrunched up piece of paper from his top drawer and rose from his chair. “I will leave immediately. In my absence, I entrust you with the hunter.”
“Why do you care for him so? There are plenty other volunteers in this city.”
She had voiced the question many of his kin pondered, including Cerberus.
“Wolfe shall accompany me to Montana, and I leave Ezra in my stead,” Maddox noted, disregarding her question, for the answer was quite clear: unlike vampires, Vincent could enter his uncle’s base uninvited. Maddox just had to gain his trust before he could utilize that. “Under no circumstances must any harm come to Vincent.”
“Vincent?” she repeated, disgusted. “What happened to hunter scum?”
He departed without another word and sought out Ezra. He found him outside Vincent’s bedroom, carrying an empty tray of food.
“I depart for Montana on the hour. I trust you to handle any of my upcoming appointments. Postpone them if need be. You will also attend the university speaking engagement tomorrow on campus, as mentioned by Chancellor David.”
Ezra stepped away from the door. “I will make the necessary arrangements, sir.”
“Had you informed Vincent of his new diet? I want him fit and healthy again. Give him access to the gym. Any displays of foul behavior will have each privilege revoked, one by one.”
“Yes, sir.”
Maddox thrust open the door and charged inside. The white-hot fury at what his daughter had eluded boiled him to the core, and he fought to keep his powers from expelling. Doing so would only harm Vincent.
He sat on his bed, a book drooped lazily in one hand. His expression said that he’d been expecting Maddox. Perhaps he anticipated a conclusion to their prior episode. Or perhaps he’d sensed Maddox’s presence close by. The hunter’s senses were beyond the average human’s.
“I am leaving Hope for a while. I shall return in a few days’ time.”
The declaration clearly startled Vincent. His thick eyebrows furrowed, and his pupils dilated. When he did not speak, Maddox lay the paper on his bed. Vincent scanned it.
“What is that?” He remained on the bed, though Maddox sensed he itched to clamber to his feet.
“I understand it is a drawing of a grizzly bear—you, it would seem—illustrated by your niece. She produced it in kindergarten two sunrises gone.”
Now, his eyes found Maddox and they lit up. “You mean, she’s in kindergarten? Is she happy there? Safe?”
He lumbered from the bed, grabbed the paper, and pored over the messy lines. Hardly what Maddox would call a bear, but the concept was amusing. When he had first encountered Vincent, he’d been all brute muscle and hair. A bear fitted him.
Was the blind orphan happy now that she lived like a child again?
“I believe very much so.”
“Does…” His voice cracked. Eyes blinked at the paper. “Does she, or the others, ever ask for me?”
Maddox withheld his response. He couldn’t divulge too much information in one sitting. As it was, he had already bent the rules on numerous occasions for Vincent. He could not afford him too long of a leash.
His attention strayed to the light bruises imprinted on his neck. He wanted to lap at those wounds and claim Vincent at last. Collar him. Drink him. Own him. The first bite had already been stolen from him. With such a rare creature in his possession, he wanted every moment to be his own.
Maddox, of course, had accepted volunteers in the past, but none were quite so…special.
He peered at his watch. If he wanted to arrive in Montana by dawn, he would have to depart in less than ten minutes. Not nearly enough time to collar Vincent: he wanted that moment to be memorable.
“While I am gone, I expect you to honor last night’s agreement. Your submission means I now have your trust and allegiance. Just as a reminder.”
Vincent kept his eyes fixed on the drawing and dipped his head absently.
“Then I will see you when I return.”
Before he disappeared entirely, he heard Vincent mutter softly, “Thank you…thank you!”, and a smile curved the edge of his lips.