Chapter 11
Maxim had never made another vampire, but he had seen many experience their first days changed.
He still remembered his own change, the unpredictable nature of it and the deep wish to find out what it had given him.
He’d figured that out, always with Brea guiding him and right there to help him learn his strength.
Maxim had never heard of a fledge being thrown into a movie marathon such as Raven had been. He decided to keep a close eye.
“I mean, they’re ghost hunters, right?” Jason said.
Heath ran a hand through his hair. “They’re also brothers. That’s a little…much. It’s a lot.”
Jason pointed at the screen. “But you see the bromance, right? You can see that they have chemistry, yeah?”
Clement cocked his head. “You’re a human of interesting tastes. Those kinds of feelings used to be reserved for aristocracy.”
Bryan frowned. “For the depraved.”
Clement gave Bryan a sideways glance. “They’re much the same. Other than the castles, there’s nothing too wonderful about aristocracy.”
Heath shrugged. “Maybe that’s the actors. Maybe they had an affair while they shot this.”
“The haunted house is beautiful,” Bryan said quietly, angling the plate he’d been holding on his lap just a little bit closer to Heath.
Raven ran his left index finger around the rim of his glass. He’d barely even had a sip while both Heath and Jason were on their second refills.
“I wanted to see this in the theater. Now I can’t remember why I didn’t go.” Raven’s voice was more a whisper than anything.
Maxim leaned back. “Hmm. Did Jason distract you? He seems like a very distracting roommate.”
Jason stood. “I heard that, Mr. Vallois. Hey, can I get some more of this whiskey? I like this.”
Heath snorted. “It’s armament. No, wait, that’s not right. Bryan, what am I drinking?”
“Armagnac. But we have water too. Would you like some water?”
Heath turned to look at Maxim and showed his most contrary frown. “No! I drink water like wine. No. Wine like water? I can drink!” He grabbed the bottle and poured himself and Jason yet another drink.
Jason chuckled as Heath attempted to hold the bottle steady. “Whoa, dude. That’s a lot. Maybe you should be pacing yourself?”
Heath shook his head, and for a heartbeat, Maxim saw Heath’s mother there—the defiance and the unshakable, unstoppable, incorrigible independence that had defined her to the end. “No!”
Raven leaned over to Maxim. “Is he going to be all right?”
“Oh, Heath? Very. He’s just not really a drinker.”
Heath gasped and pointed at Maxim in accusation.
“I heard that, old bat! I’m sitting right here, and I heard that.
” He then finished the entire tumbler, made a face as the hard liquor went down, and coughed.
“I’m loving this. Could do it all day. Like the blood cake!
Jason, let’s share the blood cake! I’m on a blood diet now. Want to join me?”
Jason raised his hands as if in victory. “Yes!”
Clement clicked his tongue. “Human, you will make yourself sick from too much blood. I will tell you that I told you so when I rub your back while you throw up all of it.”
“You’re really strange, Clem.”
Clement looked as if he’d stepped in something.
Bryan cackled. “Clem! Like a clam shell.”
Maxim sighed and left the lot of them to it. “Raven? Would you like some more blood?”
Jason and Heath broke out in laughter, and Raven flinched, then looked guilty about it.
“I… You said I have to be thirsty?”
Maxim nodded. “That’s the thing to watch out for. You shouldn’t go thirsty, that’s what’s important.”
Raven stared at the golden liquid in his tumbler. “Then I guess I’m thirsty. Will… Is this going to get me drunk?”
“Not really. A little buzzed, most likely, if that. I don’t mean to pry you away from the movie, but if you’d like to take a walk—”
“Yeah. Yes.” He looked at Maxim, then back at the tumbler. “Where are we going?”
“I thought Morgan’s Bar and Restaurant. It’s a few floors down. Some of the tables have a nice view of the city.”
Raven nodded. “Okay.”
Maxim stood. “Follow me.”
Raven and Maxim were almost at the elevator when Heath started whistling.
“Da—bat. Old bat! Where to? Though shallst not pass!”
Jason pointed at them while chewing his blood cake. “No sneaking off and leaving me nothing but a note again, Mr. Vallois. ’S mean.”
“Darling, Jason, we are just popping downstairs to grab a few more snacks. Heath, will you be all right without me for a few minutes? If you’d rather I stay with you—”
Heath stuck out his tongue. “Nah-ah. I have cake blood and Jason, and Bryan is watching the movie for me. We’re good. Clem’s here too.”
Clement tsked. Bryan looked more gleeful by the minute.
“As you say, darling. But if anything is the matter—”
“One more round! Cannot hear you, old bat, having another round…”
Maxim hid his smile. “Let’s leave them to it, Raven.”
Maxim led the way to the elevator, which opened without having to be called. Bryan was still paying attention to all the minutiae of the house in order to keep things running as smoothly as ever.
“Didn’t see them getting drunk like that,” Raven said when they were in the relative calm of the elevator. The tumbler was still in his hand, and he took a small sip. “Jason’s really not like that though, and when he said he was responsible, that’s true.”
“I trust that he is, but everyone deserves to let their hair down every now and then. Did you know him before you came here for your university education?”
“No. I…” Raven heaved a sigh. “Everything was always hard. I was homeschooled. I was really good at picking stuff up on my own, luckily, and when I was, I don’t know, thirteen or so, I planned to throw a really big tantrum to get my mom to finally let me go to school.
I executed the tantrum, screamed myself sore.
There was some back-and-forth, but in the end I got my way.
” He took another swig. “I’ve worked so hard ever since.
I mean, there was so much I didn’t know.
I did know that if I wanted to build my own life, I had to get out, and in order to do that, I had to go to college. ”
The elevator arrived with a ping, making Raven look up. “Sorry. You didn’t ask for me to blabber at you like that.”
Maxim led the way. “That’s quite all right. So that’s when you met Jason?”
“Right. Yeah. What is this?”
Maxim had stopped at the automatic sliding doors that led to the bar and restaurant so Raven could have a look inside through the glass first.
At close to midnight, it was quiet here, just a few of the on-site donors having late snacks or using the quiet restaurant area as a coworking space, some warm drinks sitting next to their laptops or notebooks. Apart from the servers, Maxim didn’t spot any of the supernatural staff.
“A place to eat and drink, for humans, vampires, and everyone else. Should we sit?”
Raven finished the last of his Armagnac. “Okay. You said by the window? To see the city?”
“If you’d like to.” Maxim pointed. “If you go left around the bar, you’ll find the quiet tables.”
He waited, letting Raven decide where to go, standing there while the fledge’s eyes wandered over the other guests. It might be the blood and his senses sharpening. Or not.
After a good ten seconds, Raven moved forward, looking around the space.
In many ways, Morgan’s was what you might expect in any posh hotel or special little place not many people knew about.
Maxim had wanted it to be more quiet and private than any other supernatural bar in the city; a place where no stray humans would offer their necks just for the novelty of it.
Raven made for one of the tall bar tables.
It was tucked into a corner and offered a very generous view of the city.
At all hours of the night, you could see lights from here—car lights, streetlights, the lit windows of people’s homes—and when the sun was up, the chrome, glass, and stone of New Amsterdam’s architecture.
Raven set his empty glass down and stood in front of the window, looking out.
Maxim took one of the bar chairs. “Pretty, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“The thermos earlier, was that okay?”
Raven crossed his arms, hugging himself. “Yeah.”
Maxim texted the kitchen rather than waiting for one of the servers to find them, then turned his attention back to Raven while taking one of the tall bar chairs. “I take it the view meets your standards?”
“The view… Yeah. It’s really nice. Thank you.”
“No need to be that polite.”
“What… I don’t know. What’s next?”
A server brought out some of the fresh blood, not in a traveling thermos but rather in a nice mug more typically used for coffee and such. She picked up the empty tumbler too, and being fae, she read the room clearly and left in silence, giving Maxim only a curt nod.
“There are options. You get to choose.”
Maxim tapped the side of the mug with his nail. The small noise was enough to get Raven to turn. Hearing’s already sharpening. Good.
“Is that for me?”
“Yes. All fresh. I’d say freshly squeezed, but the donors don’t like my jokes. Have a taste.”
Raven climbed onto the other chair. Maxim saw the hunger in the young vampire’s eyes, something that was rare in this day and age, especially for one newly made.
Everything is planned nowadays, and they know they have to drink.
No one is turned and left to fight for themselves anymore.
That’s how it should be, and he doesn’t even know it.
As Raven reached for the mug and drank, Maxim wondered whether he’d already failed him, whether he should’ve done better, whether he should’ve focused on getting blood into Raven instead of taking him to the dorm where he knew the whiplash of the old normal had been lurking.
But his wounds were fresh. Still are. He needed to know he could choose.
Like an echo from a long time ago, Maxim felt the ache in himself, that scar he bore, so similar in shape to the hurt Raven had suffered. Everything had been dull, right after. Maxim recalled it like something that had happened to someone else.
Raven put the mug down with a click. “It’s good. I really like this.” He giggled. “Fuck. It’s freaky. I like drinking blood. I’m a vampire.” He met Maxim’s eyes. “I need to know…what I have to do.”
Maxim straightened. “The bureaucratic aspect is minimal, and once he sobers up, Heath will be happy enough to handle that for you. Typically, one informs their family. That is certainly your choice. Again, your schooling is also easily enough managed, and we can make arrangements that suit you there.”
Raven shook his head. “I don’t know if that’s for me anymore. School. I just…I don’t know if I can go back.”
Maxim tilted his head. “General advice for new vampires is to let the blood settle and to not make big decisions in the first year.”
Raven looked back out the window, his gaze drifting, drifting. They sat there in silence for long minutes, whatever turmoil was roaring inside of Raven barely showing on his face.
“You said something about an internship?”
“Yes. We can find something that might strike your fancy.”
Raven’s jaw muscles worked, even as his gaze remained fixed on the outside, some distant point near the horizon. “Can I do…just something where I… Quiet. Something that’s quiet. Maybe some secretarial work or… I don’t really know. Stocking shelves?”
Maxim kept his face still. “I’m sure we can arrange something to your taste.”
“Are you going to tell my mother?”
“That you’re a vampire? No. This is something you may do in your own time. If and when you’re ready.”
Raven nodded and picked up his mug, his attention coming back from the horizon. “If I… Can I have some more of this? I think I like it.”
What a blessed relief. Maxim pulled out his phone. “Absolutely. Let’s see if we can get two. I’m feeling just a tad thirsty myself this night.”
Raven watched as Maxim placed the order through his phone. It wasn’t incisive, inquisitive attention, but it was Raven taking part in what was happening around him, and Maxim was almost as grateful for that as he’d been for his son’s first breath.