“Good. But itchy. Look!” She raised her leg and scratched it.
“Oh, that’s too bad. But Dr. Maxwell is going to take care of you. Isn’t that right?”
“Yeah!”
Maxwell nodded. “I’ll do my best to get her treated as fast as possible.”
“Good.” Pierce nodded. “Keep me updated. This will be an interesting way to gain knowledge about dhampirs.”
“Right,” Maxwell said.
“Should she also stay away from her cousin, since this is a contagious condition?” Pierce asked, pointing to Luna.
“Er, yes,” Maxwell confirmed. “We don’t know if viruses spread the same way in dhampirs as they do in humans, but it won’t hurt to be safe.”
Lark frowned. “No Luna?”
Benji stroked his daughter’s hair, trying to soothe her. I had a feeling he was trying to get her to continue the act, too. “Only for a little bit, honey. But after you can play with her as much as you want.”
Thankfully Lark just sighed dramatically and said, “Okay…”
“Great,” Maxwell said quickly. “Now let’s get you into my office and see what we can do for that itching.”
“And I’ll get you some ice cream, too,” Benji added to make Lark more excited and hopefully forget that she couldn’t be around her cousin in front of Pierce for a while.
“Yay!” Lark cried, instantly forgetting about her sadness.
As Benji, Caleb and their daughters filed out, Pierce called out softly, “Wait, you two.”
Maxwell and I paused. I turned to face my older brother. “Yeah?”
Pierce smiled at Maxwell. “I trust you to do a good job taking care of my daughter. She means the world to me.”
“Of course I will!” Maxwell said.
Pierce nodded, then glanced to me. “And you, Theo. I trust you to control yourself around our new resident human.” His eyes glinted. “Can you do that?”
“You know I will,” I said seriously. “I’d never hurt Maxwell.”
Pierce took this in, then nodded again. “Then, off you go.”
* * *
“This is great!”I cried as we arrived back at Maxwell’s bedroom. “I can’t believe that worked. Holy shit.”
“Me neither.” Maxwell let out a huge sigh of relief as he flopped onto his bed. “I thought I was gonna pass out. I’ve never had to lie like that before.”
“It’s just a white lie. It doesn’t mean any harm. And besides, it’s for a good cause.” I grinned. “Me!”
“I still feel bad about lying to Pierce’s face, but… I didn’t want you to suffer because I said no.”
My smile fell slightly. I didn’t realize how much turmoil I’d caused Maxwell. Did he really only accept this crazy plan for my sake?
I strode over to him and took his hand, holding it firmly. At my touch, his cheeks turned a bright shade of pink, which had been happening a lot recently. It looked good on him.
“Thank you,” I said. “I really mean it. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you weren’t here to help. Adriel would probably lock me up for the next hundred years or something.”
Maxwell grinned. “He’s not that bad. I’m kind of surprised he didn’t make a bigger fuss about the chicken pox thing.”
