Maxwell
Thedawnwasstarting to creep over the grounds of the Sanguis Estate when Chloe and Maxwell, exhausted from their exertions, finally fell asleep. Sleeping seemed like a bit of waste of time, Maxwell thought, but perhaps it wasn’t so bad if he got to keep Chloe in his arms. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to be showing any signs of going anywhere.
But when Maxwell awoke many hours later, his arms were sadly bereft of one very lovely real estate agent. He rose from the bed, frowning, and pulled on his jocks. He really hoped she hadn’t left without so much as a goodbye.
His fears were allayed, however, when his ears caught the sound of soft singing from the direction of the kitchen.
“My baby, he sings off-key, but that’s alright by me,” Chloe sang. “Because what he does, he does so well, he makes me wanna yell—”
“I’ll have you know I have a delightful tenor,” Maxwell said, padding into the kitchen on bare feet and looking at her with an affectionate smile.
Chloe burst out laughing. “You caught me!” She covered her face. “Sorry, did I wake you up? I know you usually sleep through the day, and it’s only two.”
“I’ve had enough sleep,” Maxwell said. “Don’t want to waste time sleeping when I’ve got you all to myself, anyway.”
“Such a charmer,” Chloe grinned. “I’ve been trying to work out your fancy espresso machine. I think I got it right.” She waved a hand at two steaming cups of coffee. The smell indicated that she had indeed got it right.
“You certainly know the way to my heart,” Maxwell said, gratefully picking one up and gulping it down. “I don’t know if I’ve got any regular food here. There might be some stuff leftover from my poker nights—”
“Oh, I already found it,” Chloe said, holding up a half-eaten bag of expensive potato crisps that were cooked in duck fat. “I was starving. Someone made me work up an appetite.”
“You’ll have to tell me what you like for breakfast,” Maxwell said. “And lunch. I’ll get it in. I want you to be comfortable here.”
“That’s very sweet,” Chloe said, moving closer to him. He saw that she was wearing his shirt from the night before. Damn, if he had thought he looked good in it, he was nothing compared to her. “If you’re hungry, it’s totally okay with me if you need to…you know.”
“Drink blood?” Maxwell supplied. “Are you sure? I don’t like to do it in front of humans.”
“I don’t mind,” Chloe insisted. “I mean, you’re hungry, right?”
“A little,” Maxwell was, in truth, absolutely famished. Chloe had sucked all the energy right out of him. Not that he minded. Not in the slightest.
“Then eat,” Chloe said, waving a hand at the fridge. “Seriously, I once dated this bodybuilder who only ate protein shakes. That was way worse, I can tell you.”
Maxwell let out a brief laugh, but something inside him didn’t like hearing about Chloe dating anyone else, even in the past. Which was both unfair and hypocritical – he certainly hadn’t spent the last hundred years as a monk. That had been how he had gotten into this whole curse mess to begin with, after all.
“If you’re sure,” he said and opened the fridge to pull out one of the plastic packets that Sean had given him.
“So, how does it work with the blood?” Chloe asked. “I mean, I know you can’t just live on animal blood.”
“It would be much more convenient if I could,” Maxwell said. “But you can’t do it indefinitely. It’s like if a human only consumed Diet Coke and instant noodles. You can survive a while, but you’ll feel increasingly terrible.”
“So that’s…human blood?” Chloe looked at the packet with an expression somewhere between curious and nervous. “And you always get it like that, from a packet?”
“Always,” Maxwell said. “I’ve never fed directly from a human. Most of my kind don’t. Or, if they do, it’s from a very willing human in some fetish club. But that always sounded a little too kinky for me, so I never tried it.”
“Right,” Chloe said, clearly trying to act like this was all perfectly normal. “So, where do you get it? Do you, like, rob a blood bank?”
“No!” Maxwell shook his head firmly. “I’d never do that. It’s a shitty thing to do, really. I mean, humans in hospital need it more than I do.”
“Right,” Chloe said again.
“I get this from Sean,” Maxwell went on. “He’s got an ethical blood sourcing operation, actually.”
“Ethical blood sourcing?” Chloe sounded dubious.
“Really,” Maxwell said. “His only donors are people who can’t donate blood for medical purposes. And given that you Australians won’t take blood from anyone who was in England in the eighties, that’s a pretty big pool of people.”
“Oh, right,” Chloe nodded. “Mad cow?”
“That’s the one,” Maxwell nodded. “Blood-borne diseases would have no effect on me, so there’s no risk. He also gets it from people who have to have blood draws, because they’ve got too much iron. Hemochromatosis, I think it’s called. That’s really good stuff. Kind of like an energy drink for my kind.”
“Wow,” Chloe let out a little laugh. “That’s kind of cool.” She looked thoughtful. “So, the whole vampires attacking humans thing is just a myth?”
“Well, mostly,” Maxwell shrugged. “It’s like with humans, I guess. Most are perfectly normal; some are violent assholes who hurt people. Vampires who attack humans are tracked down by the authorities or vigilantes pretty fast.
“There are vampire authorities?” Chloe’s eyes were wide.
“Not specifically vampire,” Maxwell clarified. “More like a United Nations of paranormal beings. They operate worldwide, but if you mind your business, they leave you alone. I’ve never had anything to do with them.”
“I had no idea,” Chloe said, her coffee growing cold in her hands, her crisps abandoned on the bench. “Would Jesse know about it? Does he have to, like, register as a warlock?”
“Oh yes,” Maxwell said. “And pay taxes, too. Not a huge amount, but members of the magical community generally pay a levee. I don’t mind. I mean, it means they keep our kind a secret from the wider world and can ensure that anyone who’s hurting people gets shut down.”