"The second day is going to be the most difficult time in your transition. While the first dose of my vampire blood enhanced your metabolism to superhuman levels without harming your humanity, the second dose will attempt to kill your human nature in order to make room for your new vampire self. As a result, you will lose your ability to eat solid food, but will not be able to feed on blood yet. You will feel weak and nauseous. Your internal temperature will drop to a vampire's normal level, that is, room temperature. You will feel cold, very cold, but rest assured, ma chère enfant, that this is only temporary, as your brain will rapidly adjust and consider this temperature to be the new normal."
Thanks for the tip, Monsieur. In the meantime, I sure am hella cold and sick! Max thought as she sat there in the bathroom, shivering. Joyce barged in at that moment, a concerned look on her tired face.
"Max! I heard you get sick, are you okay?"
She knelt next to the girl and wrapped her arms around her shoulders in a motherly gesture, but backed off in surprise the second she touched her skin.
"Jesus, hon, you're so cold! And look at me… my god you look so pale!"
Of course I do. What did you tell me about it, Monsieur?
"You will acquire the natural white complexion of a vampire."
"Don't worry," the girl said with a coarse voice. "It looks worse than it is… I guess it's just an indigestion."
"You've been eating so much yesterday, hon, it was bound to happen! But let's get you back to bed and take your temperature, just to be sure."
And before she knew it, Max was safely tucked in with a thermometer in her mouth, and Joyce was downstairs making her an herbal tea.
No way I'm letting her read my temperature! If she finds out I'm, like, 70 degrees, she'll freak out and call an ambulance. Time to use the old trick…
She got up to put the thermometer on the heater. It made her chuckle. When she and Chloe were kids, they'd do that the morning after a sleepover to pretend they had a fever, so they'd stay in to play all day instead of going to school. It worked only once. Now this time, she did that to pretend she was fine. Once the thermometer had gone up to a good 98 degrees, the girl put it back in her mouth and hurried back under the sheets just as Joyce walked in with a steaming mug.
"Here, hon, this will do wonders for your stomach. Now let me see…"
The woman grabbed the thermometer and read it, then, satisfied, put it away.
"No fever, that's a good sign. How are you feeling?"
"Better, thanks," she said, smiling. "Guess it just had to come out."
"I guess so, but you look kind of weak and pale, maybe you should take a day off?"
"Oh, no, really I-"
"Okay," Joyce interrupted, "let me rephrase it, young lady: you do take a day off to rest, David will tell your teachers you're sick and you can ask Kate or Victoria to bring you your homework later." She chuckled. "Sorry, it still feels weird to think you and Victoria Chase are friends… anyway, am I making myself clear, hon?"
Max smiled. There was simply no way to negotiate with Joyce once she got into "mama bear" mode. So she nodded, and apologized for waking her up.
"No harm done, hon, it's six already, so I was going to get up anyway. We're gonna get breakfast before we get to work, do you want me bring you something?"
Max shook her head. The very idea of eating already seemed very alien to her.
"Um, no, thanks, I'll just rest a bit and make myself some breakfast later."
"Okay, rest well."
And she gave her a quick peck on the head and went downstairs. Soon Max heard the frying pan in the kitchen, and David go to the bathroom for a shower. She took out her phone and sent a quick text to her friends and Monsieur Lacroix:
Max Caulfield: I'm sick 2day, cant come 2 class
Victoria was the first to answer:
Victoria Chase: I'm not even surprised, you filthy stoner :P But you'll still be coming to the party, right?
Max could feel Victoria's anguish oozing through her phone. Man, she really wants me to come.
Max Caulfield: Wont miss it even if theres a storm ^-^
Victoria Chase: Awesome!
Then it was Kate's turn:
Kate Marsh: Oh no, r u okay? :o
Max Caulfield: Sure, dont worry, just an indigestion, I'll get better with sum rest
Kate Marsh: Good, want me to visit after class? I'll have some time b4 TOT
Max Caulfield: of course!
TOT? Oh yeah, Max remembered, Kate had set up a trick-or-treating party for the poor kids in town, as part of her charity program. The next reply was from her teacher:
Sébastien Lacroix: I will always be amazed by you modern kids and your inability to use proper spelling in your text messages.
Max Caulfield: saves time
Sébastien Lacroix: ma chère enfant, when you get as old as I am, you will realize what a ridiculous concept "saving time" is for the likes of us. Anyway, I was not really expecting you in class today. How are you holding up?
Max Caulfield: cold & miserable. Cant wait 4 2nite!
Sébastien Lacroix: SPELLING PLEASE
Max Caulfield: Sorry ^-^
Sébastien Lacroix: Hold on, dear, this is going to be a difficult day but the rewards will make it worthwhile. In the meantime you can have strong coffee and Tylenol. I will see you tonight.
Tonight, Max thought with growing impatience. The third dose. The complete transformation. A surge of strength and power like she'd never experienced before. The idea was as exciting as it was terrifying. Come to think of it, not going to class today was a blessing: she had to drive to Newberg to fetch her costume for the party, and tomorrow she wanted to go shopping for hardware and prepare the lair, now she could get all these things done today and be back here before Joyce or David came back from work, and pretend she'd rested all day and was doing much better. Yeah, okay, it was lying… a bit. But, come on, wasn't like she could tell them the truth, right?
So she waited patiently until the two adults left for work, sipping her tea in the meantime – it tasted like water, but at least it was hot – and once she was sure she was alone, she took a (hot!) shower, grabbed some Tylenol and went downstairs to make herself the thickest, blackest coffee she could make… to no avail. Sure it was black and thick as tar, but in her mouth, it tasted little more than slightly coffee-flavored water.
Well, she thought with a sigh, it's not like I haven't been warned: "Your tastebuds will be rewired for blood, so even if you can still drink liquids, the hardest liquor will be to you but mild water, and the strongest coffee in the world will taste like sock juice."
She'd giggled at this unexpected and rather unappetizing metaphor, but according to him this was a very common way to describe bland or watered-down coffee in France. Now she was starting to understand why Victoria liked this language so much, there was an undeniable poetry to it.
Half past four. Max was laying in bed, in the dark, resting. Pretty busy for a "day off"! Once she was sure Joyce and David had left, she'd jumped in the truck and driven all the way to Newberg for her shopping expedition: Halloween costume? Check. That awesome leather jacket in the mall she had not planned on buying but that looked way too cool for her to leave without it? Check. A shovel and a crowbar? Check. A large, veterinary-grade syringe? Check. Three buckets of pig blood from a slaughterhouse? Check (and pray there's a fridge in the lair, I don't wanna have to explain to Joyce why I'm storing this in her fridge). Then, after a lunch consisting of a large strong coffee and two tablets of Tylenol, she found out that her personal fortune now amounted to one dollar and ninety-three cents.
Ouch, I used all my November money already? Crap, and I can't really ask mom for more, she'll make a fuss about it and lecture me for hours on "responsible spending". Gonna have to find a way to make a buck. A part-time job? Or maybe ask Monsieur Lacroix, he could give me some money for being his assistant, right? And if he's really serious about this "vampire dad and vampire daughter" thing, we could discuss a "vampire allowance"?
Pondering on this, she drove back to Arcadia Bay in the early afternoon and made a stop at the barn on Matheson Road to visit and prepare the lair (note to self: buy two heavy-duty padlocks to replace the ones I had to break to get in). To her greatest relief, the bunker still had electricity and was equipped with a fridge. Actually, the first room was a cooking area, complete with a micro-wave oven and shelves stuffed with canned food. Not like she'd ever need any of that food, but the oven would come in just as handy as the fridge. The second room, the largest, was… well, the cops had done a good job cleaning the place up: it was clean, white, sterile. Perfect for her purpose, but incredibly depressing. Meh, gonna have to hang some posters and photographs… and why not a rug? It would really tie the room together.
Satisfied with her visit, she returned to Chloe's room with just enough time to take a nap before Kate's visit. She'd wanted to use Chloe's hi-fi system to put on some music, but couldn't find anything relaxing enough in her friend's collection of punk and metal CDs, and of course her system didn't have a USB port. So fucking retro! So she'd resorted to using her trusty earpods and was drifting away when she heard the doorbell. She could smell Kate's scent from here, but there were two other scents with her. Warren and Brooke? She took off her pods and fired Kate a quick text to let her know the door was open and she was upstairs. A few seconds later, the Christian girl entered the bedroom.
"Hi, Max! Wow, it's dark in here!"
"Oh, yeah, just a sec."
Max put on her sunglasses and went to open the blinds to let the fading daylight in. She hadn't even realized how dark it was. To her sensitive eyes, it was bright as day.
"Oh no," Kate said with concerned, "your pink eyes isn't getting any better?"
"No," Max replied with a feigned sigh. "Joyce said I should see an ophthalmologist if it doesn't get better in a couple days. But don't worry, it doesn't hurt as long as I have those glasses… Kate, you look gorgeous!"
Her friend blushed and giggled and thanked her. Max meant her words: Kate's costume was an old-fashioned blue dress with a white apron, white tights and black mary-janes. She had undone her usual bun and was wearing only a black ribbon in her long, lush blond hair. Totally Alice from the classic Disney movie. The kids were gonna fall in love with her for sure!
"Oh," Kate said, "I didn't come alone, I hope you don't mind? They insisted."
At this moment, Warren and Brooke entered the room, and Max didn't even need to feign surprise, so unexpected a sight these two were. She almost didn't recognize them in their costumes! Brooke had let her long black hair loose and was wearing a black skirt, black tights, boots and a black shirt under a purple trenchcoat, and black velvet gloves. Warren was wearing an all-black three-piece suit and tie with a blood-red shirt. His usually shaggy hair was elegantly slicked back. Max also noticed a jewel representing some kind of occult or cabbalistic symbol on his tie, and a similar jewel hanging on Brooke's neck.
"Holy shit," she cried out, "you two are dressed to kill!"
They both chortled and Brooke thanked her: "It took us a while to get those costumes right," she added. "And lots of money. Now we're both officially poor!"
"So what's your costumes? Cult leaders?"
"Nah, we're having a Vampire: the Masquerade all-nighter with Alyssa and a few others, at Blackwell. So we're dressed as our characters, a Tremere couple."
"Tremere?" Max asked.
"Not much of a VtM player, are you?" Brooke replied with a smirk. "Tremere are one of the main clans in the game. Magicians, wizards and scholars."
"Suits you well."
"Yeah, we thought so too. What about you, Max? What're you doing tonight?"
"Going to the Vortex Club party in town."
"Max," Kate asked with concern in her voice, "are you sure it's okay to go there? I mean, you just got sick. How about you come trick-or-treating with me and the kids?"
"Thank you Kate, but I promised to Tori, and I think she's really happy I'm coming, don't wanna let her down. I'm okay, really, I had a pretty bad indigestion tonight, but I rested well, had a light lunch, now I'm feeling much better!"
"Okay… just, promise me you'll be careful?"
Max looked at her friends, at her big pleading eyes. Poor Kate, I know why she's so worried about me going to that party, she doesn't want what happened to her to happen to me. It won't Kate, I swear, first guy who tries to put a roofie in my drink will suffer my wrath!
She gave her a hug and promised. Relieved, Kate then volunteered to go make tea downstairs and asked Warren for help.
"Me?" he asked, surprised.
"Yes, you," Brooke said with a commanding tone. "C'mon, go go go!"
Then, once she was alone with Max, the Asian girl sat on the bed beside her.
"Hope you don't mind us coming? It was I who asked Kate, I'd just realized I never got to thank you for… you know…"
Max smiled. "Hey, no problem Brooke. I'm glad it's going well between the two of you, and I hope we can be friends now? Lastly you seemed a little…"
"Bitchy?"
"I was about to say something like, 'passive-aggressive'…"
"Which is basically the same. Yeah, sorry, I got this jealousy issue I guess… I really acted like an idiot with you."
"Don't mention it, it all belongs to the past. So, how is it going? Are you dating?"
Brooke rolled her eyes.
"What?" Max asked.
"Well, officially yes, we're dating, but… gosh, he's an absolute idiot! We went to the drive-in, and then last night we went out again, having dinner and then walking down the beach… it was perfect, but what the hell is he waiting for to kiss me?"
This made Max giggle. "I'm sorry," she said, "I guess this may be my fault…"
Brooke frowned: "Your fault?"
"Well, yeah, he… he asked me how to… how to do, with you… well, I have no dating experience, but what I didn't like about him when he was after me was that he was coming on too strong, so I told him it could be a good idea to take it slowly with you."
The girl sighed: "Well, I guess he's following your advice a little too well. Thanks for letting me know, I'll think of ways to loosen him up a bit… so, no dating experience, eh?"
Max remained silent for a short while, taken aback by this remark and by the sly smirk that came with it. What exactly did she mean by that? Did Warren tell her she was gay? Was Brooke wondering if she was to her liking?
"N-no," she just said. "It's, uh, well, I don't really like to talk about it."
"Okay, sorry, none of my business. Say, uh… Warren told me you've become your photography teacher's assistant? The French guy, what's his name again?"
"Lacroix?"
"Right. So, he told me Lacroix takes those cool old-fashioned portraits of students, so I was wondering… do you think he'd make a portrait of Warren and me?"
"I guess, don't see why he'd say no. Want me to call him?"
Brooke nodded, and Max grabbed her phone to make the call:
"Hi, Monsieur, it's me Max. I'm calling you cause Warren… you remember Warren? Right, so his girlfriend is with me here, and she's asking if you'd make a portrait of them… what, really? Dog, that's… of course I'm glad, thank you very much, just… it's a lot of pressure! Are you sure I'm… okay… tonight? I'll ask her."
A wide-eyed Max turned to Brooke to tell her: "So he said he won't do it, but I will, this will be my first experience with the daguerreotype all by myself, he'll just stand aside and watch. Shit, now I'm terrified of fucking up!"
"Come on," Brooke scoffed, "believe in yourself, for once! There's no reason for you to fuck this up! Did he say tonight?"
"Yeah, he's available, if you-"
"We're in! That's just perfect, we're in our costumes, that will make a great souvenir of our first Halloween together!"
Max then turned back to her phone to confirm and hung up, just as Kate and Warren returned with a tray of tea. They drank and chatted merrily for a while, then insisted for Max to put on her costume so they'd take a picture together. Finally, it was time for Kate to leave for her trick-or-treat party, and for the others to go to Monsieur Lacroix's place for their photo session.
Almost seven o'clock. Warren and Brooke were leaving Monsieur Lacroix's house and walking back to Warren's car, satisfied with the superb portrait Max had made of them. She'd done the job like a pro, which had earned her a lot of praise from her teacher.
"So what do you think about him?" Warren asked. "Pretty cool, huh? Bit of a show-off, but…"
"Warren, please! Don't tell me you fell for that!"
"Fell for what?"
"He's not 'bit of a show-off', this guy is a smooth-talking, self-important jerkass! Seriously, did you hear how he absolutely has to pronounce every single syllable? I could feel contempt oozing through his every words!"
"Oh, come on, Bee, aren't you a little hard on him?"
"No, I'm not. Just saying things as they are. He's the very embodiment of that 'sophisticated European coming to bless us poor American hicks with his superior culture' cliché. And I can't believe Max fell for that!"
"You really think she did?"
"I know what I saw, Warren. And it's time to confirm with some good old drone-spying!"
And on these words, the girl took her drone in the trunk of the car, turned it on, and flew it toward the back of Lacroix's house.
The night before, as Brooke left the campus to meet Warren for their date, she'd decided to save time by cutting through the grove behind the dorm. A decision that had allowed her to witness quite a disturbing scene. So, a couple hours later, as she and her new boyfriend were strolling down the beach, enjoying the night air, she'd talked to him:
"Warren, you're still friends with Max, aren't you?"
"Well, yes of course. Are you worried about us-"
"No, no… just wondering, how well do you know her?"
"How well? Hard to tell… we've been pretty close since the year began you know, so that's only a couple months, but I think I know her enough to trust her. Why?"
"Well I… I think she's banging her photography teacher."
Warren had startled and yelled out: "What?"
"I said-"
"I heard you, but… where does that idea come from?"
"Just… when I left the dorm, I cut through the grove, and I saw… she was with him, behind the dorm, they looked like they were hiding, and… she was kissing him."
"Kissing him?" he'd asked with utter disbelief. "Like, on the mouth?"
"On the arm, actually. His forearm, and she looked like she was really enjoying it."
Warren had shaken his head. "That can't be."
"Why not? You know, she's a girl, he's a guy, he offered her to be his assistant… I'm just worried about her getting into some kind of sketchy shit, I mean for all we know he could be just another Jefferson who's seducing her for his creepy art projects, so I wanted to-"
"Brooke, Max is gay."
It was Brooke's turn to yell out in astonishment: "She's what?"
"Yeah, she told me."
"She told you... think she could be lying? You know, to let you down gently?"
"I don't think so. That's not like Max. Besides, she sounded really sincere when she told me, said she felt confused about being into girls, and didn't know how to deal with it. I'm sure she was telling the truth. So, what you're telling me, it doesn't add up. Are you sure of what you've seen?"
"Yes I am, Warren, I always trust my eyes. If what you're telling me is true, then yeah, it's strange, but I'm sure there's something fishy going on with her teacher. And you know what? We're gonna find out."
Warren had smiled: "Didn't know you cared so much about her!"
"I know I don't talk much about it, but I was really shaken by the Jefferson shitstorm. What he did to Kate, and Rachel and the others, it was so... sick, and disgusting! So if I can help keep another thing like that from happening... besides, I always love me a good mystery to solve. You're in? I think I have a plan…"
Standing beside the car, Brooke was now focused on the screen of her tablet, carefully maneuvering the drone from one window to the next, looking for Max.
"You sure they won't see or hear it?" Warren asked, concerned.
"I'm being careful not to be seen," the girl replied. "As for being heard, nope, not worried about that at all. After all, did you hear it take off?"
She looked up at her boyfriend with a mischievous grin, for she already knew the answer. He'd heard nothing at all.
"Super-silent blades," she explained. "I installed them last week, after Mrs Grant gave me shit again for flying it too close to the dorm walls. Y'know, her usual talk about protection of privacy, blah-blah-blah… so now I can fly wherever I want to and nobody can hear it."
Warren took a look at the screen. There wasn't much to see, for Monsieur Lacroix had a habit of never fully opening his curtains, but by chance they eventually took a glimpse of Max through a narrow opening. Brooke zoomed in on her: the girl was standing with a wine glass in her hands, studying a book shelf. Monsieur Lacroix could not be seen, but then again their line of sight was pretty narrow.
"Max drinks wine?" Warren exclaimed. "Last time she tried, she took just one sip and hated it!"
Brooke turned her microphone settings to the max. No matter how lovingly she'd customized her drone, it still wasn't CIA material, and through the window, and with all the leaves rustling and other noises around the robot, they could barely make out bits of sentences:
"-really did great, ma chère-" Lacroix said off-screen. "-bright future ahead-just be careful with the-chloride-"
"Chloride?" Brooke asked. "Why are they talking about chemistry?"
"They must be discussing daguerreotype technique," Warren explained. "When we came here with Kate, he gave us a lecture of the development process, it involves treating the plates with a gold chloride solution."
They turned back to the screen to listen as Max was talking while pointing at the book shelf:
"Did you really-writers?"
"Of course," Lacroix answered, "-friends for-inspired-"
They had no idea what they were talking about, but Max looked positively impressed. They talked literature for a while then (that's what it sounded like at least, from what little they could hear), and eventually Lacroix offered to take a picture of Max in her Halloween costume and… something-something quickly or she'd be late for her party. Brooke frowned and turned to Warren. She wanted to make sure she'd heard that "something-something" right:
"Did he say 'third dose'?" she asked. "Did you hear that too?"
"Well, yeah," the boy replied, puzzled. "Thought I heard that too…"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I don't know…"
"Warren," Brooke said sternly as she grabbed his arm, feeling her pulse quicken. "I think we're digging up some real fucked-up shit right here."
The boy grew pale and stammered: "W-what do you mean?"
"I think… Max does drugs. And Lacroix's supplying her. Maybe he's even the one who got her hooked, so she'd be under his control."
"Bee, are you… shit, this is crazy, are you sure?"
The girl shook her head. "No, I'm not, but it's what it looks like. What else could that third dose be? Guy's not a doctor!"
"So what should we do? Get her out of there?"
Brooke shook her head again: "Can't really barge in there with no evidence. Plus, she looks willing, if she's already hooked she might just tell us to fuck off and there'll be no way she'll listen to us… no, we can't do anything right now, but we should be careful around her now, keep our eyes peeled, get evidence… and then we'll see how we can help."
"Spying on her?" Warren asked. "I don't know if I can do it, it... doesn't feel right."
"Then we can spy on him instead. Know what, that's exactly what we're gonna do, dig up as much shit as we can on Mr Frenchman and bring the fucker down! We'll be the new heroes of Blackwell, Warren and Brooke, Crimebusters!"
But her boyfriend didn't share her sudden enthusiasm. He looked somber, worried.
"Hey, are you gonna be okay?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said, then added sheepishly: "Sorry."
"Don't be. You care about your friend, that's okay. Just remember she's not in immediate danger, so we can and must take our time to find out just what's going on and how to help her. We've got this, together."
She ended her sentence with a kiss on his cheek that made him smile, then she flew her drone back and they went on their way to their roleplaying session.