The Shadow Zone 2: Winning Madeline (2 page)

Then he would focus on her breasts and the beautiful length of her neck. He could so easily imagine running his lips along the flesh beneath the angle of her jaw, enjoying the fragrance of her blood while his hands palmed the gentle weight of her breasts. Her nipples were tiny red medallions when she was excited and he’d tease them gently, until she was so sensitive that she’d twist against him, arching her back to demand more of his touch.

Lost on the trail of his thoughts, Maddox sighed. His cock throbbed intensely.

He’d lower his mouth to the tiny ridge of first one breast and then the other, running his tongue all around each tight peak until she wrapped herself around him in a heated tangle. He wouldn’t rush. No, he’d take his time in savoring the taste of her skin and learning each delicate inch of her body. He knew from memory what her breathy little cries sounded like when she entertained the clients she was able to get, always wondering how genuine they were. Would she do that with him as he suckled her? Would her cries be more magnificent with him? After all, he wouldn’t be her client. He’d be her lover.

More than anything he wanted to be her lover.

So easy to imagine being surrounded by her unique smell when he’d ease down her body to the small patch of blonde down at the apex of her thighs. He could smell her private scent even now, could practically taste it on his tongue. Madeline would part her thighs for him, just allow them to fall open so he could smooth his hands over the creamy surface of her inner thighs.

She’d moan for him when his fingers reached the heated wetness at the top in her secret folds. Gently he’d part those inner lips until she had no secrets from him, until every part of her body was offered to him -- to worship, to pleasure. And he wanted that ownership, he realized. He wanted her to belong to him.
Only
him.

Maddox wanted to taste every part of her pussy, with his hands and his mouth, until she was mindless with pleasure beneath him. Her clients rarely lingered there, always too eager to dive right in with their cocks. How would she react to feeling a man’s tongue lashing her clit like a rare delicacy? How exquisite would her passion be when he kept her on the edge of orgasm while he satisfied his need to trace her opening with his tongue, to sink his fingers into her delicate warmth and ready her for his claiming?

“Maddox,” she’d whisper.

The need to have her say his name overwhelmed him at times. He’d imagined it so often.

He’d make her wait, make her come, before claiming her completely. When he sank his cock into her tight little body, she’d beg for him and wrap her limbs around him like a vine. She was so slight for a human, maybe half his size, and he’d remind himself to be gentle as he pushed inside her. He’d have to control his movements because of what he was. Because of what she was. So fragile…

His cock jerked at the thought of that challenge, and he groaned at the power of his desire for her. She’d fit around him so tightly, all wet heat that would drive him insane as he made her his. Her small breasts would be brands of fire against his skin. Her lips would blaze a path over his neck and shoulders and she’d move her hips to keep up with him.

He could make it last for a long time, make her come until she was exhausted. And he would. It would be hard with her pussy walls stretched so tightly around him and her liquid fire burning him, urging him on. He’d revel in all of it. He’d enjoy the feeling of her thighs clenched tightly about his hips and the scrape of her nails down his impossibly hard skin as she cried out over and over again at the pleasurable invasion of his cock.

His own orgasm would be so shattering it could well finish him.

Maddox smiled in the dark, watching her sleep. He could think of worse ways to end a long, lonely existence. Death in her arms would be bliss. The joy of holding her afterward, of having her gaze up at him with those beautiful violet eyes would be all he could ever want. She’d be his to protect, to touch and cherish whenever he wished.

Reality returned him to the shadows and the cold. He brushed his fingers against the soft skin of her cheek, not caring suddenly if it awoke her. Yet it didn’t. She even smiled softly in her sleep.
Soon
, he promised himself.
I’ll find a way to make you mine
.

It was the hardest thing to do, to leave her to go to the Elders as expected. Somehow he managed, knowing he’d be back very soon…

Chapter Two

Madeline stretched as she awoke, wishing she never had to leave the dark world of her dreams. In her nighttime world, she could go where she wanted, beautiful secret places where she was free in ways she’d never known in reality. She wasn’t trapped there by any circumstance or condition. There were no obligations, no fears. Only limitless opportunity to explore and experience…

If only she could stay in her dreams where she never gave a thought to being hungry or cold… She didn’t have to worry about a thing there and that freedom from all anxiety was her utopia, her impossible paradise.

It all slipped away so fast, spilling from her mind like the flow of sand through a sieve. She was awake now and reality lit up her small window with harsh light. Dawn challenged her with a new day to survive… if she could.

She’d carried two buckets of water up from the lake the night before and she quickly bathed herself with the water from one. The other she’d boil after she dressed for drinking and maybe make a simple stew if she could afford some meat to go with the vegetables she grew in her garden.

After she pulled on one of her two simple dresses, she went out to the garden, carrying the water she hadn’t used from her bath to water it. While the meager vegetables it provided didn’t grow extraordinarily well, they helped keep her from starving. The small makeshift community was centered around the lake and everyone tried to grow some things to eat.

If only life were that simple.

There were a few families in the small community though not many children. There were an abundance of older people, it seemed, and those who were entirely on their own. Those who were able to produce something useful like clothing, weapons, or tools did well. Others, like her, did the best they could with what they had to work with.

Madeline had never wanted to sell herself for money. Her parents had raised her in a similar community to this one, and her father, along with a couple of his friends, had maintained large crops of vegetables and sold them. She’d had an older brother who was to have inherited the business. The son of one of her father’s partners had showed an interest in her. It had seemed right. He’d been attractive enough, and in those days she’d known she couldn’t do better than to find a husband, someone to protect her. They could help with their fathers’ business and make a life of their own.

When her father had disappeared, her life had fallen apart.

People disappeared all the time. It had been the way things were her entire life. People vanished. There were scary stories about the devil’s parties and stolen souls. They were the sort of stories that were only supposed to be scary in childhood but these grew worse the older she got, and more and more she realized that there must be some truth to them.

When her father vanished, so did her family’s sense of security. Her brother had been eighteen but their father’s partners decided he was too young and they claimed her family’s portion of the business. Just took it. Her brother was allowed to work for them for practically nothing.

The young man who she thought might one day be her husband began raping her not long after that. Madeline’s mother and brother both knew about it though she did her best to keep it from them. Her mother, who’d made herself ill from the grief of losing her husband, died within weeks. That left Madeline with a brother whose eyes she couldn’t meet. She couldn’t stand the rage there that came from the fact that he was powerless to protect her. She was a burden to him and knew he’d be so much better on his own.

So one night she’d left and found this community where no one knew her. Another older woman had taken her in, showed her the ropes of prostitution. She’d been aware of such women all her life and it was a common thing to see. Yet she never thought she’d be doing it.

The humiliation she expected to feel wasn’t so hard to bear. It was better to willingly trade herself for money, something she could use, than to be forced and get nothing but pain. After a while she had a few regular customers and began to earn a modest living for herself. Sometimes it was for money, sometimes it was for food. Things weren’t the way she wanted, but her fate hadn’t been as bad as it could have been.

“Maddy,” a tiny voice called to her.

She glanced up from watering her garden to see the small daughter of one of her neighbors, a widower who paid for her services once in a while, making her way through the garden. The girl was no more than seven and Madeline tried to keep an eye out for the child since her father was working all day, leaving her alone. There were sick people out there with a taste for children and the girl’s loving nature had twined around her heart, making Madeline feel very protective of her.

“Come here, Ivy.” She motioned the girl to her. Reaching into her pocket for the scrap of cloth she used as a handkerchief, she dipped it into the water and began to wipe the dirt from the girl’s face. “How are you this morning?”

“Okay.”

The girl’s stomach growled with the ferocity of a small, vicious animal.

“Are you hungry?”

Ivy nodded, the soft brown curls of hair bobbing.

Madeline took her hand, led her around to the front of her shack. She had the bread she’d saved for her own breakfast.

“Here you go.” She handed the child the stale bread, poured the last of her drinking water into a small plastic cup for her.

Ivy began devouring the bread with horrifying speed.

“When’s the last time you ate, Ivy?” Madeline was afraid to ask.

The girl shrugged her small shoulders. She did stop long enough to mumble with her mouth full.

“Daddy said he’d bring home something tonight.”

Madeline shook her head. They weren’t doing well. But then who was?

She watched the child eating the last of her food, confident in the fact she’d make it until later. Vincent was coming by and he paid her well-usually enough to get her through an entire week.

While she wouldn’t have minded him coming by more often for the money, she detested his touch. The fact he was a werewolf made her a little edgy. At first she’d been afraid he might transform into his animal self during their intimacy but he never had. He was, however, rough with her, often leaving bite marks and bruises in the shape of his hand. For some reason, she thought he meant to do it, enjoyed it. But she couldn’t, and wouldn’t say anything. A few marks and bruises were much better than an empty stomach.

Ivy finished the bread and water in record time and Madeline rumpled her hair.

“Would you like something else? Some tomato?”

The little girl shook her head. Then she flung herself at Madeline, wrapping her small arms around her hard.

“Thank you, Maddy.”

She hugged the child just as tight. Wishing she had more time to spend with her. Yet as she watched the girl skipping out of her shack, she knew she had limited time to tend her garden and straighten up before someone darkened her door, looking for sex.

* * *

Vincent was agitated, growling and pacing as he spoke in hushed tones to two of his underlings. They didn’t notice Maddox perched on the rotting roof of someone’s shack, just over their heads. They had no idea that no matter how quietly they tried to communicate, he could hear them as clearly as if they were shouting.

“What part of this didn’t you understand?” Vincent’s voice sounded preternatural, as if he were on the verge of transforming into his animal form. “All I asked of you was to plant some bait there in the market, knowing that Evers would be there looking for a victim. All you had to do was catch him and you failed. How hard is it to catch a single human?”

One soldier leaned against the wall of the shack whose roof Maddox occupied. He could feel the young Lycan’s fear of Vincent. He was right to be afraid. He, himself, had watched Vincent rip his own soldiers limb from limb when he was angry enough. It was the reason he was terrified every time Vincent visited Madeline…

The other soldier’s breathing was a rough, loud sound. Fear would soon consume him. He knelt on the ground at the feet of his superior, his heart pounding so loud it seemed inevitable that it would break free of his rib cage.

“Do you have any idea how long it took us to even identify Evers? How many sacrifices were made just to discover the identity of
one
of them? Their anonymity is their best and only real defense. Now that we know him, how can we not have him?”

“I’m sorry, sir.” The soldier standing was the only one capable of speech. “He must have picked up on the man’s fear. He
did
piss himself.”

A low growl rumbled from Vincent’s chest. “Now what? Do we have to wait for the next ceremony? A month from now?” And oh, Vincent’s tone led them to know it would be someone’s head if he
did
have to wait a month.

“No,” the soldier replied quickly. “He came away empty handed. I don’t think he smelled a trap so much as he realized the man -- the bait -- knew he was coming for him. Maybe that put him off.”

“He could have procured someone else by now.” Vincent’s tone had lost none of its menace.

“No, sir. Ramsley is watching him. I told him to radio at the first indication that he might have someone else but he went back to the facility to work. We think he will come out again later, maybe tomorrow. He has to have someone by tomorrow.”

Vincent’s sporadic growls eased at that. He blew out his frustration in a huge, loud exhale. “Then we will make sure he has someone.”

There was a long pause before he spoke again. The pounding staccato of his soldiers’ hearts were like pouring rain in Maddox’s ears as he waited. “We need someone who trusts us. Someone who doesn’t know the fate in store for them.”

“We’ll probably be able to grab Evers without them being harmed,” the soldier interjected.

“That doesn’t matter to me. Collateral damage. I want Evers. He’s the key to everything for us.”

Maddox waited again for Vincent to speak. The wolf was thinking on the situation. He shook his head at Vincent’s long pause. What he wouldn’t give to have Rick’s ability to read his mind already. Regardless, he had a bad feeling about the entire development.

“Who shall we get, sir?” the soldier asked.

“I have someone in mind.” Vincent’s confidence was growing. “I was going to go visit her later anyway.”

Oh, he couldn’t mean
… Maddox tried to control his emotions. Madeline wasn’t the only prostitute Vincent visited though she did seem to be his favorite. For that reason alone, he couldn’t mean Madeline.

“Her, sir?
Which
her, sir?”

“The blonde one from this village,” Vincent explained.

Maddox felt the rage welling up inside him. The bastard had learned the identity of one of the human cult members and he intended to use Madeline as bait to capture him. She was collateral damage to him? Expendable? All because she trusted him?

“But, sir, you visit her…”

“She’s a whore,” Vincent growled. “A human whore. I have others. More enthusiastic ones. I’m tired of her.”

Anger locked Maddox’s limbs, held him immobile. He wanted to leap from the roof and tear Vincent apart. He easily could. While the Lycans were strong, they had a strength similar to humans. It grew until they reached their prime and diminished as they aged.

A vampire’s strength only increased with age and Maddox was several centuries old. He could move with great stealth and be done with the son of a bitch before the other two soldiers were aware of what had happened.

But what would his action do to the mission? Would he expose the Lycans? Put them in more danger than they were already in? Maybe that would be for the best. If they came to realize the danger they were in, they would stay out of the zone and away from the cult. They’d be out of the way of his kind. Then the vampires could find a way to stop the cult once and for all.

Maddox ground his teeth together, shook his head.

No, his job was not only to keep the Lycans from delving too deeply into the cult, but to learn information about them for his own kind. He’d never hear the end of it if he made any mistake at all.

He knew he should go the Council immediately for direction on the development he’d discovered. Would they want him to capture the cult member himself? To stop his abduction at the hands of Vincent? Who knew?

Maddox knew only one thing. If he left, even for an instant, anything could happen to Madeline and he could lose her. The thought was unbearable to him. An unacceptable risk.

No, if he knew one thing, he knew he had to save her. Steeling his resolve, he considered the consequences of his actions. What was the worst they could do to him, really? They could expel him which he wouldn’t care about. He’d even considered going out on his own before. Most of his kind at least thought about it once in their existence.

They could punish him, he supposed. But considering his age and strength, there were really few things they could do to him to inflict even discomfort.

And any of it would be worth it just to know that she still existed. That Madeline lived. Even if she never saw his face or knew his name, he knew he didn’t want to be in a world where her precious light was extinguished.