Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 50954 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50954 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 255(@200wpm)___ 204(@250wpm)___ 170(@300wpm)
“Yes, Father.”
Raymond extended his hand to Chauvelin to help him up from his knees.
“Come along,” he said. “You’ve done very well.”
Chauvelin’s smile was sweet. He did not seem to have been given much in the way of personal attention. He was starving, both for blood, and for anything in the way of guidance and care.
“Thank you,” he said, his dark eyes glistening with what might have been tears. “I have been trying. For a long time. By myself.”
Ray snugged him close. “You’re not alone anymore, Skip.”
There was a brief sob against his chest.
“Nobody has called me Skip in years. I introduce myself that way, but nobody ever uses it.”
Ray sighed inwardly. All these talented vampires in Maddox’s orbit, and of course his brother was unnaturally obsessed with a wolf. Sometimes it seemed as though Maddox was deliberately being as destructive as possible to everything that mattered.
“Who was it I just met?” Skip asked the question with more than a little reverence.
“Gideon is my maker. I call him father as a mark of respect. He could correctly be called the father of all vampires. Or most of them. There are others of his kind, but they have slept for a long time now. Gideon rises when humanity needs him most, in times of suffering and war.”
“We could do with someone responsible in charge,” Chauvelin said. “Maddox is obsessed with the wolf. He left the city in Lorien’s care, and…”
“Yes, I know,” Raymond said. “Don’t worry about it now. The adults are here.”
Chauvelin let out an audible sigh of relief. “You have no idea the chaos they have caused, the death, the…”
“I know,” Raymond soothed, pulling the young vampire into a platonic embrace and stroking his head gently. “I know. Don’t worry. We won’t let Maddox’s reign of terror continue. He’s been put in his place.”
Chauvelin cried actual tears of joy. “You have made me more happy than anybody has since I took this cursed cold form.”
“You are not cursed, little vampire. You are blessed. I am sorry nobody has taken the time to show you the beauty of your true nature. Do not worry. Things will be different now. Nothing will be as it was.”
“I put the fledgling to bed,” Raymond said, returning to Gideon.
“I may have been too impulsive in what I did to Maddox,” Gideon mused. “He was disrespectful, but now he is gone, and the other one too.”
“Brats,” Raymond said. “This house is full of brats.”
“And where has Maddox gone in his condition?”
Gideon knew precisely where Maddox was. The maker always knew where his blood was. Either he was going to let him run away and hide long enough to lick his wounds, or he was going to go and get him back and tend the wound he’d made.
“Obviously, Lorien endeavored to save him from you, not understanding how the maker’s blood works,” Ray said. “They all deserve to be punished.”
“I’ve punished Maddox enough,” Gideon said.
“Surely you do not regret teaching him a much needed lesson? He practically asked for it.”
“I do regret it. I want a good relationship with my boys. You have aways been so easy, but Madis has always been temperamental. He needs more than I can give him. He has always needed more than I could give him. And now he has found solace in a wolf. I wonder how I failed him?”
“You didn’t fail him,” Ray said, struggling to remain respectful. “Madis is… he likes to be in control. He is nothing like you in spirit or power, but he shares your penchant for power. He likes this wolf because the wolf is a messy, destructive, filthy little thing for him to control. The beast is no threat to you.”
“Perhaps you’re right,” Gideon said. “Perhaps indeed.”
14
At Candy’s house, insurrections were being planned. Maddox had little to say on the subject because he couldn’t say anything at all, but he did listen to Candy with growing concern. The woman was sounding borderline militant.
“We have to end him,” Candy was saying, stalking back and forth in front of the sofa where Maddox still remained. “I didn’t protect my son when he needed me. I will not make that mistake again.”
You can’t kill Gideon,” Maddox wrote, reminding her.
“I don’t need to kill him. I’m not a man. I don’t have to solve every problem with lethal force.”
Candy was getting sassy.
Maddox considered sending Candy away, but he knew Will’s independent, stubborn streak came in large part from his mother. The woman flowed through his veins like fire. Of course, Ivan took credit for Will’s power, but it was Candy’s strength that complemented the wild blood.
You may very well die today. Are you prepared to abandon your family for this suicide mission? No human has ever survived the wrath of Gideon.
Candy didn’t say anything in reply, but she stayed standing where she was with that look of defiance in her eyes that Maddox was starting to find very familiar.