Masters of Midnight by Michael Thomas Ford

Author:Michael Thomas Ford [Ford, Michael Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9780758204219
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2003-06-02T04:00:00+00:00

The hunt became a little easier over the next few months and years, but Bradon never acquired a liking for it. He hunted and fed with his father because he needed warm blood to stay alive. He dreaded the time every month when he knew he would have to accompany his father for a feeding. Many times, he questioned the need to kill the victim. Couldn’t they just feed on the humans for a while, and stop before they died? Couldn’t they leave them to wake several hours later, wounded and dazed, but still alive?

Victor was adamant about killing the victims and disposing of their bodies. Bradon refused to help him, and waited instead in the dark shadows of the night for his father to accompany him back home.

When Bradon turned ten years old, his hatred for the act of killing and the disgust he felt for his father’s hunger and excitement of the kill turned to rebellion. He knew his father was growing weary of his long-winded nightly stories of Rachel, and he spent hours adding more and more details until the tale finally lasted over three hours.

“We made a deal, remember?” he taunted Victor. “If I joined you for feedings once a month, you would listen to my stories of Mom.”

“I’m listening,” Victor said, even as he ran the vacuum cleaner or cleaned the house obsessively or worked on the backyard deep into the dark mornings.

On his fifteenth birthday, Bradon was told he would need to start feeding and killing on his own. His requirement for fresh blood was increasing to every two or three weeks. Bradon thought about refusing to feed solo, then decided that leaving his father out of these sickly intimate moments of his life might be good. Knowing that Victor so enjoyed the time they spent together on feedings would make the act of exclusion sweeter still.

Though Victor was excited to have his son embarking on solo feeds, he was also a little reluctant to let him do them completely solo, at least for the first few times.

“Something could go wrong, and I can’t have you botching things. There are consequences to sloppiness that come with a very high price. Higher than we are capable of paying.”

“Fine,” Bradon agreed reluctantly.

Bradon chose a cold, rainy September evening for his first solo kill. Victor pleaded with him to wait one more evening, when the skies were clear, but Bradon stubbornly refused. “I’m going tonight, with or without you.”

Victor grumbled as he grabbed his raincoat and followed his son into the dark night. He mumbled and complained all the way to the theatre. It was here that Bradon had chosen to claim his first solo victim.

“I don’t think anyone is going to come out that door,” Victor said after waiting outside the backstage entrance for over an hour.

“You’re free to leave if you want.”

“Damn it, you’re intolerably stubborn.”

“There she is,” Bradon whispered as the stage door opened.

A petite brunette stopped in the doorway, and opened her umbrella before stepping out into the darkened alley.

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