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"I have some juice, too. It's better for you, really. I took more blood than I meant to and it'll help you recover."
Blood . . . yeah. That's what he was doing here. Being a donor. Because Stefan had to fight a monster . . . and dumb Stefan was planning to do it without any preparation. So they'd all offered . . .
"Where're the girls?"
"Meredith took Bonnie down to the car. She was pretty sleepy."
Sleepy. A vampire drinking your blood made you sleepy. Yeah. And it made the vampire . . .
"Hey, you're not drunk anymore."
There was a pause, as if Stefan was waiting for something more, or uncertain about something. Then Stefan said, "No. I told you; it burns off pretty quickly."
"Yeah." Despite the Coke, he was still feeling muddled. The darkness and silence when they weren't talking didn't help. Maybe Stefan didn't remember that humans needed light. Dumb Stefan, he thought, vaguely but affectionately.
"Why're you . . . all the way over there?" He squinted in the approximate direction of the voice.
"Because . . . " Stefan suddenly sounded much less cool, which made Matt realize how cool Stefan had been sounding in the first place. He could hear, sense Stefan coming a little closer.
"Matt, how much do you actually remember about what happened?" Now he sounded—torn. Sort of sharp, but puzzled.
"Um." Matt tried to think, turning the puzzle pieces around and around. "You mean about how—stupid I was in the beginning?"
"No. I mean about what happened."
"I remember . . . it didn't hurt as much as I thought. Not when I figured out how to do it." Cautiously, Matt sat up, feeling the piece of damp cloth fall away from his forehead.
He was a little dizzy, but not sick. He could remember the pain and . . .
Suddenly, he was sharply aware of the and.
"Jeez."
No wonder his hands were shaky. His gut was shaky.
"Stefan?"
"Yes."
" We . . . we . . . didn't . . . "
"No." Stefan sounded much more like himself.
“Oh. Okay.”
“Okay? That’s all?”
Matt felt defensive. “Well, what do you want me to say? Thanks a lot for drinking my blood?” He made an effort. I appreciate the Coke.”
Stefan dropped his face into his hands. “I thought you would hate me.”
“Because of . . . but you warned me, didn’t you? I figured it was probably like that.
Like—like symbiosis or whatever it is. In biology, where the plant makes nectar so the bee gets pollen on it and takes it to the next plant. Right?” Stefan
“Well—well . . . not exactly. Vampires and humans aren’t natural symbiants. They haven’t evolved together and all too often the human ends up—“ He realized he should shut up. Telling Matt that humans usually ended up dead or as vampires too was just the opposite of a good strategy.
“Oh,” Matt said again. Stefan was too drenched in relief to find any fault with the conversation. He was gradually realizing that Matt didn’t have the fears for his masculinity that made overcompensation necessary. Matt knew he was male and straight th
