“So, how did your poker night go?” Chloe asked as she got into the passenger seat. “You don’t seem hungover. Or is that just a vampire thing?”
Maxwell laughed. “Trust me, vampires are more than capable of getting hangovers,” he told her. “It was good, though.”
“Good?” Chloe tilted her head. It was hard to keep his eyes on the road with her beside him. “Good is all you’ve got for me?”
“It was a lot of fun,” Maxwell clarified. “Sean – I think I told you about meeting him – brought along his friend Charles, who knows everyone in town. There was a shifter called Anna and her friend, and Tobias – he’s a farmer. And Tamara, a fae. I think she has a yoga studio.”
“She does,” Chloe confirmed. “She’s…”
“Unsettling?” Maxwell offered.
“Very!” Chloe agreed. “I mean, she’s always been very nice to me, and I don’t dislike her, but she always makes me feel like she can read my thoughts. And I can’t imagine trying to relax and do yoga with her looking at me. But Julia loves her classes.”
“I felt the same,” Maxwell confided. “She was an excellent player, actually, even though it was her first time.”
“And so did you win?” Chloe asked, smiling. “I bet you did.”
“No, actually,” Maxwell said. “Tobias did. The farmer.”
“Oh, good for him,” Chloe said, and Maxwell didn’t comment. He hadn’t been displeased to see Tobias win, but there was something about the way Tobias played that Maxwell didn’t quite like. When the game was over, Tobias tried to push the others to start another round – for a higher buy-in. Maxwell hoped Tobias wasn’t expecting big wins from his games; that wasn’t the point.
“It will be even more fun when you come,” Maxwell said instead.
“So you keep telling me,” Chloe said, rolling her eyes, but she was smiling. “I brought a pickaxe, and a hand saw, by the way. I don’t know how to harvest a stalagmite, so I just asked Jesse for some tools.”
“You’re always prepared,” Maxwell said, smiling. His friends – the people he had spent his time with for a century – were never prepared for anything. Never planned anything more critical than a particularly alluring costume for a masquerade ball. Neither did he, for that matter. But he liked that Chloe did. He admired the way she pushed herself to achieve, how she was so diligent. Even if it was precisely the opposite of himself.
“Force of habit,” Chloe shrugged. “I don’t like not having what I need. I guess it’s because… Well, you know how I grew up.”
And Maxwell did. He didn’t push her on that point; she had already trusted him with that secret.
“I’m sorry,” Maxwell said quietly. “For what you went through.”
“It’s fine,” Chloe said. “I’m over it. Well, mostly, anyway.”
Maxwell paused before he asked the next question. “Do you still see your parents? If you don’t want to answer, I understand—”
“No, it’s okay,” Chloe said. “I don’t mind talking about it. Keeps my mind off where we’re going.”
“Still not keen on caves?”
Chloe made a face. “No,” she said. “I see my parents sometimes. Not a lot. I helped get them a place. Me and Jesse did, together. It’s nothing fancy, but at least they can’t get kicked out now.”
“That was very kind of you,” Maxwell said with a smile.
“Maybe,” Chloe said. “Or maybe I felt like they couldn’t ask me for anything else if I did that for them. And they haven’t. The sad thing is that when they stopped calling to ask for money, they stopped calling much at all.”
“I’m sorry,” Maxwell said, at a loss for something more substantial to say. “That’s…very sad.”
“Well, you don’t get to choose your parents,” Chloe shrugged. “Or your family in general. I got lucky with Jesse. That’s enough.”
“That’s a very positive attitude,” Maxwell said. “I was lucky with my family. My mother and father were good people. And my brother was my closest friend.”
“You must miss them,” Chloe said quietly. “It must be hard when you’re…” She trailed off, and Maxwell knew what she meant. It was indeed hard being immortal when the people you loved were not.
“It’s been a long time,” Maxwell said. “But I still miss them. My brother, especially. I thought he’d want to turn as well, but he didn’t.” He didn’t feel like he could say any more just now. He had already said more to Chloe than he had to anyone else.
“But you’ve got lots of friends, don’t you?” Chloe said. “Friends like you.”