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“I can feed you first if that’ll help.”
Anything would help. Max wasn’t sure how he felt about having a casual dinner with a powerful vampire. It was like having dinner with the parents on steroids. No one sane looked forward to that. “Breakfast. Then I’ll look at my schedule.”
“Fair enough.”
Chapter 8
After what happened the night before, Zander was loathe to let Max out of his sight for long, but Max was adamant about visiting his father. Ergo, he drove Max to the hospital.
It was a pretty day, barely a cloud in the Max, the temperatures for once moderate. Zander had the sunroof open to enjoy some fresh air as they drove through the city.
“I haven’t had a chance to ask, why were you on campus last night?”
Zander had almost forgotten his original purpose. “I wanted to surprise you, take you to dinner in your new car.”
“So it was impulse?”
“Thankfully, I followed the impulse.” Zander refused to imagine what it would have been like if he hadn’t. The darker side of his mind tried to picture it anyway and he mentally shook it away. He tried to change the subject a little. “I do find it amusing that two best friends are dating two other best friends. Well, Ronan and I are brothers by sire, but we were friends first before Fernando turned us.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. We also met on the racing strip. Ronan’s one of the best mechanics out there and I asked him to tune up my bike. We hit it off pretty quickly. How did you and Chase meet?”
“Freshman orientation. He’s the type to introduce himself to everyone and get phone numbers. We also hit it off pretty quickly. I knew he was dating Ronan—he didn’t even try to keep it secret from anyone. Was Ronan changed the same time you were?”
“More or less. I think we were three months apart? Ronan before me. He keeps trying to assert he’s the big brother because of that, the brat. I refuse to call him that.”
Max snickered. “Somehow, I can see this.”
It was good to hear him laugh. Zander could count on one hand the number of times he had heard it. It might be his favorite sound yet.
The nearer they got to the hospital, the more a question bubbled to mind. Zander had honestly expected Max to ask it well before now but he never had. Not once.
Finally, he couldn’t stand it any longer and put the question out there himself. “You’ve never asked me to donate blood to heal your father.”
“Zan,” Max answered with exaggerated patience, “if youcoulddonate blood to my father, you would have done it already. You give me everything you can think of before I can even ask for it, of course you would have already done this if it was possible.”
This perfect faith Max had in him was both awe-inspiring and humbling. It made Zander ridiculously happy. He caught up Max’s hand and put a kiss on the back of the knuckles, then kept holding it. Just because he wanted to.
“The doctor did pull me aside recently and talked to me about that,” Max tacked on, staring at his hand as if resigned to not getting that back anytime soon. He was correct, he would not. “He said my father’s condition was too fragile, for one. Your blood’s powerful enough to send him straight into shock. He also said there were things not quite right inside Dad still, and they couldn’t risk having them heal wrong. It was better to wait until the last surgery was done before trying it.”
“Good, I’m glad someone explained. I did ask. I know you want him out of that hospital bed sooner rather than later. I can assure you that the original diagnosis is now incorrect. Once he has my blood in his system, he’ll heal fully. He won’t have any lasting effects of the accident.”
Max’s fingers tightened around his as he made a noise of relief. “Really?”
“Yes. A vampire’s blood is a powerful healing agent.”
“Thank Buddha.”
Of course he’d be relieved to hear this. Max had sacrificed a great deal to get his father back on his feet. Zander was pleased to be able to further the healing process along. Also giddy that Max trusted him to do it.
He looked right at Zander and warned, “You are not allowed to go buy me something outrageous because I made you happy.”
“Why are you so mean?” Zander whined.
“I’m putting my foot down right now. This is a bad habit you’re forming. There is not a single blessed thing I need. Behave yourself.”
Zander was reasonably sure he could get around this somehow.
