Gideon could be so reassuring. At one time, Maddox had clung to that sense of reassurance. Now that he knew what cruelty it covered, it repulsed him.
* * *
Many years ago…
Madis awoke, shivering. It was very dark, and he felt cold stone around him. So it had ended after all. They had slain him, and he was to be forever entombed, suffering his greatest fear, that of being a sentient creature locked in a small space for eternity. He cried out in fear, not expecting to have anybody respond. He was frightened when somebody did.
“Shhh, little one,” a deep voice purred in the darkness. “I am here.”
Madis didn’t recognize the voice. Didn’t remember anything. It was as though he had incarnated anew in the darkness, a fresh creature without the baggage of his previous life. He reached out for the voice, for comfort, for relief, and to his great surprise he felt himself wrapped in arms of unimaginable strength and great muscularity. He was snugged close to a strong body, spooned tenderly.
“Blood of my blood,” the deep voice purred in his ear. “Sleep now. Regain your strength.”
Madis was so tired he did as he was told and closed his eyes. Time slipped by, a few moons.
When he woke he did so with the taste of blood in his mouth. The rich copper tang confused him at first. He thought it was his own. But a reflexive swallow, followed by a sense of spreading warmth and wellbeing told him that it was not his blood, and he was not himself anymore either.
“Good,” the dark voice purred. “Such a healthy appetite. You sleep-feed, my fledgling. It’s adorable. You’re such a good boy. Such a natural vampire.”
Madis made a sound of confusion. He felt better. Better than he had in a long time. He felt strong and well. Not just the kind of well that typified a lack of ill-health, but a youthful strength and vigor he had almost forgotten. His head felt clear, his thoughts sharp.
“Take more.” A bowl was held to his lips, a bowl full of warmed blood. It tasted more delicious than anything he’d ever eaten. It was like consuming the very essence of food itself, as if all the meats and vegetables and sweets that had passed his lips prior to this point were mere shadows of the concept of nourishment. He did not merely drink more. He drank it all, draining the bowl to the last drop. He then took the vessel in his hands and licked it clean.
“Easy, little animal. You do not need to scavenge for food. There is plenty more where that came from.”
Sated and finally truly awake, Madis looked at his savior for the first time. It was not a man. He knew that much already. The creature that had come to him in the night was a predator, a beast who existed on the very fringes of human understanding. His people had a word for such beasts.Lilu.
“You have made me what you are,” he said. “You have saved me, and taken me, and you have changed me.”
“Such an intelligent boy,” the creature said. “You may call me Gideon.”
“I am Madis,” Madis said. “Are you sure I may use your name?”
“You have my blood, you can certainly use my name,” Gideon said. “You are right. I have taken your human life and replaced it with a greater animation. You will no longer age as a mortal or be subject to a mortal’s illnesses. But for several hundred years you will be vulnerable to the sun, and to silver, and a small number of other minor inconveniences.”
Madis was listening, but his hunger was already stirring again, and so his first question was about food.
“I thought your, I mean, our kind, drank directly from the human?”
“Certainly. And there are some humans who eat straight from the ground. I prefer a little more refinement. I will teach you everything you need to know, Madis. I will give you a life longer and more rich than any you could otherwise have experienced. All you need do is obey me. For a while, at least. I am sure you will rebel eventually. All fledglings do. Tell me one thing. What had you done to earn such ire of your fellow man that you were flayed, honeyed, and left to die staked in the desert?”
Madis hesitated, wondering if his confession might spark the same disgust and loathing in Gideon it had in his people. But he owed Gideon his life, and if he owed him his life, then he owed him the truth too.
“They killed me for loving a man. They were going to stake both of us, but I dispatched him before they could take him. Then they called me a murderer.”
As Madis spoke, he was mentally confronted with the tear-stained eyes of his lover looking up at him, begging for release and hoping for salvation all at once. Outside their barred door, the guards were pounding with fists and shields. Soon they would bring the ram and break inside. It was too late to escape. Madis could do only one thing now — provide a merciful end for the one he loved more than anything in all the world, the man to whom he had pledged his life and love.
He held a short blade in his hand. The act of bringing it close to his lover’s neck was almost too sickening to bear, but he did it because he had to, because the man he loved was beautiful and gentle and would not withstand the pain yet to come.
“I will always love you,” he murmured against his lover’s lips. He flicked his wrist, releasing a flow of hot blood. It took the man he adored less than sixty seconds to pass. Madis was numb as the room rang with the efforts of the guards to break the door. He was certain he would never feel another thing again. Some part of him had died with his lover, some soft, tender, valuable spark had been snuffed out. He felt its absence, a great void opening up inside him, an eternal abyss yawning where his soul once was. When the door finally gave way, he no longer cared if he lived or died, and the pain they inflicted on him felt right. He had not resisted, because there was nothing left in him to resist.
* * *
“You are beautiful,” Gideon told him after he had recounted his tale. “And your passion for men is beautiful too. You may have suffered for your love, but you will never suffer again. I have given you eternal life. I have given you sup of the blood that will never die.” He pressed his lips to Maddox’s own and kissed him tenderly.
It was not the same kind of kiss he had given his lover. It was not full of human angst and yearning. It was a kiss of possession and protection. It was a kiss that made Madis anew.
“I have never lain with a man,” Madis said when Gideon broke the kiss. He did not know what to make of it, whether it was a seduction or something more innocent.