Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 48783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 163(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 244(@200wpm)___ 195(@250wpm)___ 163(@300wpm)
“I’m not afraid of a…what did you call it?” Maxton asked.
“But I—” Damien attempted to interject but was cut off again.
“A roller coaster,” MF said. “And you don’t even know what that is, so how can you say you’re not scared?”
“Anything called by that name will never frighten me.”
“I’m sorry to nip this in the bud,” Damien barked, “but I’m tired, hungry, and I have some sort of rash on my cock. Feels like a friction burn. Must’ve been the heat. So there will be no going out, since I’m the only one who can guard Maxton.”
“I do not need a nursemaid, tailor,” Maxton snarled. “I am a vampire, and I will decide where I go and when.” Maxton marched out the front door.
MF looked at Damien and shrugged. “I guess we’re going out.”
“MF, don’t let his fine suit and good looks fool you. He can be extremely dangerous if he loses control. Take Bonbon and Gorgonzolina in the demon stroller with you. They can slow him down if he starts looking agitated.” He turned for his room to shower. “Call me if anything comes up. Or better yet, don’t.” Maxton wasn’t his problem anymore. The deal with Cimil was complete, and now he had to do the unthinkable: decide between Sky and Willa. His heart and guilt versus his loyalty and guilt.
“What do you think?” MF asked as she and Maxton strolled through the mall, where children on sugar highs ran with ice cream ahead of parents escaping the summer heat before bedtime. She was eager to get Maxton’s reaction to this new way of shopping. Just wait until he finds out about the internet. He’ll flatline. Again.
“I am unsure,” Maxton said, frowning.
Maxton still seemed troubled after his visit with Cimil. Lots of grunting and growling under his breath. Not so dissimilar from Damien when he was struggling with something.
“You’ll like this next store,” she said. “It’s the perfect place to take your mind off—”
A little girl in a unicorn shirt ran up, wanting to pet the Chihuahuas in her stroller. Thankfully the netting was completely closed.
“No touching,” MF said sternly. “They are demons who’ll suck the life force from you. Also, that shirt is evil. Now go away.”
The little girl ran to the shelter of her mother’s hand three stores down.
MF smiled. “Now, where was I? Ah, yes. The mall is a place people hang out for free AC—that’s air cooling. It’s a necessity in this part of the country.”
“Cool air is for the weak,” he grumbled.
“Spoken like a true—” she lowered her voice “—vampire. But for us humans, well, I’m sure you remember feeling hot in the summer.” Vampires could feel heat, of course, but they were usually more worried about sunlight, which drained their energy. Left outside long enough, it could kill them.
“I was far too busy being a vampire slave to be concerned with such things.”
“Vampire slave?” she whispered.
“Yes.”
This was news. “But how? When?”
“My human parents sold me to my master when I was very young. He wanted me for luring unsuspecting merchants or women looking for work in his home. I would pretend to be his houseboy and greet them. Sometimes I would entertain them while I waited for my master to wake.”
“Entertain?”
“Sing, juggle, recite poems he had me learn. As I grew bigger, he hired a caregiver—whom he eventually drank—to teach me to read. Then he hired a personal chef to teach me to cook, whom he drank. Then he hired a piano teacher, tailor, and gardener. Drank them all. I was the most educated, well-dressed child in all the world. And then one day, he drank me.”
MF winced. What a sad, sad story. “What happened to him?”
“After he turned me? I killed him.”
MF blinked. “Jesus. That sounds rough.”
“He had it coming. Though, if I had been smarter, I would have waited. I’d been taught everything except for how to be a vampire. He held that back, believing it would prevent the exact scenario that ended him.”
“He thought if you needed him, you’d never turn against him,” MF concluded.
“Exactly.”
“Fucking asshole.”
“Indeed. I often wondered if he spared me as an act of cruelty.”
“How so?” MF asked.
“He brought those people into his home to care for me. The moment I cared back, he took them away, and each time he allowed me to live, my guilt grew. I think he enjoyed it.” Maxton smiled. “The day I killed him was the greatest joy I’d ever known, though that too came with a price; no one to guide me in the ways of the vampire.”
MF was beginning to put the puzzle pieces together. Maxton had spent his entire human life hating his vampire master. Then he was left to his own devices as a new vampire and never learned control, so he ended up hating himself just as much.