Leroy didn’t warrant that with a response. It had to be something if he was babbling like a crazy person. He was upstairs in the house and worked his way down to the front room they decided was the parlor. 

What started with mild annoyance, turned interesting when he saw Max in the corner staring at a blank mirror. Now his interest was piqued. Maybe that crazy bastard was onto something and it made his babbling more sensical. 

He stood next to Max and showed up no problem in the mirror. “What’s going on with this?”

“I don’t know.” Max answered. “Haunted mirror? I’m thinking there’s a mirror version of me walking around here.”

“Well, did you stand in front of that before hand?” Leroy asked.

“I don’t think so? We set up shop in the dining room, this was the first time I was in here. Noticed there wasn’t a mirror me and-”

“And you assumed there’s somehow two evil versions of us walking around, stalking us, in this creepy-ass house?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Lemme try something.”

Leroy moved to stand behind Max now. It helped that he was a few inches taller than Max. The taller man could be seen perfectly fine in the mirror, no issues. Just no Max in the reflection. He even waved his hand in front of Max’s chest to double check.

“I think it’s just you, dude.” Leroy broke it too him as bluntly as he could.

“What?” He laughed, now he was the one talking nonsense. “No, it’s definitely the mirror.”

“You’re still seeing that girl right? That Goth baddie with the…?” he held his hands out from his chest to act like he was trying to say ‘tig ol’ biddies’.

“Yeah, Simone and I are still together.” He gave him a look. “Why? Are you getting jealous?”

Trying to get information out of him now, he played it cool. “Ya know you never really told me about the stuff you guys do. Kinda keeping that stuff under wraps, very un-Max-like.”

“Oh well Simone was very specific about what I told people.” He explained. “Since you asked though. Normally we’d go to this like, goth bar that she loves to go to. It’s so weird and I feel out of place, but it’s so cool that these girls keep throwing themselves at me. Simone is super protective and always has her hands all over me, it’s kind of great.”

“No kidding?”

“Yeah we went drinking a few nights ago and she was feeling it, took me into the bathroom and we… ya know.” He made a few hand gestures that did not mean a damn thing to Leroy. “After we drank some really damn good wine and made out. It was awesome, something out of a movie or something.”

“What kind of wine was it? I’m always looking for new stuff to try out.”

“I didn’t get a good look at the bottle. Looked really old though, no clue where they got it. Maybe it was homemade? I can ask her for you if you wanted to look for it.”

“Red or white?”

“Red. She refuses to drink anything but red. Kind of a wine purist that way.”

“She a biter?” Leroy arched an eyebrow.

Dumbfounded now, Max gave him a weird look. “I mean, sometimes. Sh-she said she was into some intense stuff.”

“Look, I’m no expert on this stuff,” Leroy pointed back to the Max-less mirror, “but I don’t think this is a haunted mirror.”

He managed to get a few videos of the mirror and the two of them standing in front of it. This was going to be a separate conversation after their debrief. Leroy managed to get the two of them back on track. It still bothered him though. 

Leroy went back upstairs and left Max to the bottom floor. Ten minutes later Leroy was calling for Max to join him in the attic. He was staring face to face with a woman in a Victorian gown. That had to be the ghost that was pissing off the owners of the house.

Max joined him and equally locked eyes with the spirit. Yeah definitely not a haunted mirror. Leroy took the chance to shoot it and that seemed to be the equivalent of throwing mini marshmallows at it. 

“I have a stupid idea, but it might work.” Max offered.

“I’m listening.”

Max found a hand mirror sitting on top of a few cardboard boxes. “We get her into the mirror and break it.”

“That’s seven years bad luck!” Leroy exclaimed.

“Do you have a better idea?”

He hesitated. No. He in fact did not have a better idea. It was either keep having a stare down with this ghost or do something about it.

“Fine.” He sighed.

Leroy distracted the ghost to let Max get behind her. This was ridiculous and was going to bring so much bad luck afterwards. Leroy was backing her closer to Max with the mirror in his hand. Once she was within arms reach, Max swung the mirror like a baseball bat.

That seemed to do the trick. She was inside the mirror and screeching to be let out. Max knew that Leroy wasn’t going to do it, so he took it upon himself to break the mirror.

“I hope this wasn’t a family heirloom.” He mentioned before taking it to one of the wooden beams and smashing it against an exposed nail. That did the trick, letting the broken shards hit the ground.

Leroy hadn’t taken notice if Max’s reflection was in that one as well. There was a ghost that needed to be dealt with. Now that it was dealt with, there was no chance of testing out another mirror.

“That doesn’t bother you? Breaking a mirror?” Leroy asked.

“Should it?” Max retorted.

“Seven years bad luck?”

“I swear, man, every week we have  a different conversation about the same superstitions.” Max went towards the door to head back downstairs. “Let’s get outta here. Too much damn dust up here, I’m going to be coughing up this crap for a week.”

“I hear you on that.” Leroy agreed.

The two walked back down to the dining room to get the rest of their equipment. Every so often Max would look across the hall to that damn mirror. Leroy had taken notice but kept his mouth shut. Something about it was sitting wrong. The detective brain never turned off.

What mattered was that they finished up earlier than anticipated and can go back to the bureau and chill the rest of the day. By chill, that meant give LaFrey the rundown of the case and write up the paperwork. 

They got back to the office and unloaded their equipment into the lab. Max offered to write up the report from their recent mission. No arguments there, Leroy agreed. Max got to work and finished rather quickly.

Within an hour of getting back, they were doing a debrief with LaFrey about their findings at the house. There were more jokes about the seven years of bad luck from breaking the mirror but it worked. LaFrey gave them thumbs up for a good job and sent them on their way.

Max settled back into his desk and went right into a new case that was sitting there. Might as well get some work done of some sorts. Leroy finally decided that it was time to talk to LaFrey about Max. He stood up from his desk and headed towards her office.

“Can I talk to you about something, Cap’n?” Leroy asked, knocking gently on LaFrey’s office door to get her attention.

“Make it quick, I have a lot to do before I need to catch a flight.” She looked up from her computer. “Sit.”

Leroy sat down across from her. “I’ll cut right too it. Something’s wrong with Max.”

She looked over her glasses as if to say ‘I think we all know that’. Leroy gave her a response look that he knew that much. He pulled his phone out and showed her the video. Now she was intrigued. 

“And this mirror wasn’t apart of anything?” She asked, double checking with him. “I didn’t remember seeing it in the debrief notes.”

“It wasn’t. This one was separate. Something just didn’t feel right. He’s been seeing this girl-” She gave a shocked but impressed look and Leroy nodded in agreement, “oh trust me, I know. She’s like, really out of his league. No offense to him. Anyway, finally got him to spill and I think there’s like, possibly, a group of underground vampires.”

“Vampires?”

“Look at the video, why isn’t he showing up in this mirror?” He took the phone back and pulled up a google search with the mirror. “This was made sometime in the late 1800’s when they were still using silver to make mirrors.” He pulled his cross necklace from under his shirt to show her. “I’ve been wearing this all day and he’s been squirrelly around me. Fidgeting and complaining that something was off.”

The two of them looked out to him at his desk. He had his glasses on and he was nose deep in a case file. Max looked like Max, maybe a bit paler than usual but he explained that he wasn’t sleeping much. They watched him look at something on the computer and there were dark circles under his eyes that were darker than usual.

“Are you certain?” LaFrey asked, pulling the attention back to their conversation.

“Obviously not, that stuff is bullshit.” He admitted. “But come on?” He took his phone and pulled up a text feed between himself and his partner. Clicking on a photo he showed it to their Captain.

“Oh. Oh wow.” She took the phone and admired how gorgeous the woman hanging off of Max was. And her, assets, on display. Even smiling with teeth, sure she had a bit more prominent canines, but some people just did. It wasn’t like they were fang fangs. “Her?”

“Simone.”

Staring a few seconds too long in disbelief, she handed the phone back to Leroy. “See if you can get him to see Barry.”

Leroy stood up and pocketed his phone again. Before he could even take another step towards the door, LaFrey stopped him again.

“Her?”

He turned with a baffled grin. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

Leroy walked out of the office and towards their own little cubical area. He sat down and checked his emails, making it look like he was working before getting his partner up. He was still nose deep in a case file, taking notes beside him.

He had to let Barry know what was going on before even thinking about mentioning any of this to Max. He typed out an email with the video attached, explaining that there might be something going on with Max. Plus the added note that the Captain specifically asked him to check him out and to not make it obvious.

About ten minutes later an email came back from Barry. He agreed that it was strange and offered to do a quick blood test. That was going to be tricky to get Max to sit still for that. Either way it was for the best in the long run. 

Leroy responded that they were going to head down and to figure out something to talk to them about. That part was going to be fun, playing along with whatever Barry Shaw could conjure up. If Max was the worst liar in the office, Barry was a close second.

“Hey,” he scooted closer to Max, “I just got an email from Barry asking to see us in the lab.”

“Did he say what for?” Max looked up from the file and took off his glasses.

“No idea, just that it was urgent.”

“Sure.” He put his glasses in his shirt pocket and stood up.

Leroy followed behind him and they went down the hall to Barry’s lab. He felt like a bad friend and partner for doing this, but he was more worried that something wrong was happening to his friend.

Barry was pretending to tinker with a few beakers when they walked in. “Oh, hey, what’s going on guys?”

“You wanted to see us, Barry?” Leroy gave him a look.

“Yes, that’s right.” He was so painfully bad at lying. “Do you mind closing the door behind you. This isn’t quite ready for the rest of the office yet, but I wanted both of your opinions on it.”

“On what?” Max asked.

Leroy shut the door behind them. Keeping this on the down low as much as possible was key. The rest of the office didn’t need to know that Max could potentially be a vampire. That could end up in a frenzy or even cause a panic lockdown again. They couldn’t go through with another one of those.

Barry panicked and Leroy could see. He hadn’t thought that far ahead. Max was starting to pickup on the fact that they weren’t there for something Barry was working on. 

“Barry? What’s going on?”

“What?” There was an affliction to his voice to indicate lying. “What are you talking about? There’s nothing going on.”

Leroy was doing his best to keep a straight face. “You wanted to show us something, right?”

“Yes.” Barry nodded, trying to think on his feet now. “Show you guys something…”

Max was growing annoyed now, thinking this was all a waste of time when he could be working on a new case file. Leroy also was annoyed, mostly at Barry for being just as bad of a liar as Max. Leroy met Barry’s eyes and gave him a nod just to do it.

Leroy had got behind Max and put him in a choke hold. “Stick’em, Barry.”

“Wh-What are you doing?” Max tried to struggle out of his grip but it wasn’t working. “Leroy, let-let go.”

With his free hand Leroy was able to grab his arm and extend it towards Barry. Within a grace of God, Barry was able to stick him with the needle and draw a few CC’s of blood.

“Got it.” Barry took the syringe and took it to the other side of the lab to get it prepped for a closer look under the ‘scope.

Leroy let him go and stepped back. “What the hell was that about?” Max asked, giving him a confused look. 

“What? Nothing.” He slowly made his way towards where Barry was setting up a slide to look at. “Don’t worry about it. What are you, a cop?”

Dumbfounded, Max sat there in surprising silence. If that’s all it took to stun him into silence, they’d have to do that a few more times in the future.

Barry began to look at the blood sample under the microscope. He was awful at keeping a poker face and grimaced. Leroy noticed and they had a small facial conversation before he stepped aside and let the larger man take a look. 

Now they were whispering. Max watched as Leroy took off his gold chain necklace and walk back towards him. “Check this out Max.”

He held out the necklace and let it fall onto his hand. Max grabbed it and immediately let it fall onto the table top. “Shit.” He shook his hand, as if it was hurt. “What the hell was that, man? I don’t appreciate being someone’s lab rat to test out some sort of creature repellent.”

“Creature repellent? Why?” Leroy grabbed his necklace again and put it back on.

“What do you mean ‘why’?” He held out his palm and there was a blistered red spot on his hand. “This is going to take at least a week to heal now.” He shook it out again, trying to get cool air onto it or something. “Jesus…”

Leroy and Barry exchanged looks. Barry nodded and turned to grab something. When he turned back around he was holding a stethoscope. “You’re right, Max. That wasn’t cool. Let me just double check that it’s not working like I intended.”

“Please.” Max was getting mildly irritated now.

Barry put the earpieces in and put the chest piece to his back. Left side first, then the right. Just to be sure, he checked his left side on his chest. Barry was behind Max and shook his head gently to Leroy. He looked between Max and Barry and gave a slight nod.

“Max?”

“I swear, if this was all a test for some sort of stupid repellant thing, I’m going to be upset.”

Barry took off the stethoscope and handed it to Max. “Take a listen.”

Getting more annoyed by the second, he took the stethoscope and put in the ear pieces. He put it over his heart and waited. Nothing. Now starting to mildly panic, he moved it slightly up and slightly down. 

“I have a very important question right now.” Max kept trying to look around for a sound. “Is that part of the test?”

“Max, there’s no repellant.” Leroy eased into it. “This is all you.”

“I don’t understand.” He gave up trying to find his own heart beat and handed the stethoscope back to Barry. “What’s this all about?”

“Go take a look under the microscope.” Barry gestured to the untouched slide.

Max slid on his glasses and walked over to the microscope and looked at the blood sample. None of this made sense. The blood was already coagulated as if it was sitting for days.

“What’s this about?” Max looked at the two.

“By all matters of science,” Barry began, “you should be dead. A few days dead.”

“Well obviously I’m not dead.” He gestured to himself before pocketing his glasses once more.

“Did you tell him yet?” LaFrey asked, poking her head into the lab.

“Tell him what?” Max looked between everyone now, feeling like he was being left out of something incredibly important. “Look, if this is some weird hazing ritual, it stopped being funny.” He then mocked, “oh you got me so good guys.”

“We’re uh, trying to ease him into it.” Leroy answered their boss. “It’s not going too well.”

“Please, stop talking about me like I’m not even here. What is going on? Straight answers only.”

The three standing there were exchanging looks on who was going to be the one who tells him. Eventually, LaFrey and Barry looked at Leroy. It was going to have to be him if it was going to be any of them.

“Max, you’re dead.”

“Obviously not, I’m standing here, talking to all of you.” He was annoyed now, his voice going up a slight octave. “Just tell me what the hell is happening.”

“You’re dead, the living dead.” Leroy was still trying to ease into it. “I think you’re new girlfriend is a vampire and she somehow managed to turn you into a vampire.”

“Just because she’s on the more alternative side?” Max rolled his eyes. “Oh come on. That’s so discriminatory.”

“You didn’t show up in the mirror,” Leroy began, using his fingers to count the instances, “my cross necklace burned your hand and you were a miserable mess in the car. When I picked you up this morning you had sunglasses on and complaining about a headache and miraculously went away when we got down here. Your blood looks like it was sitting around for days when we just stuck you with the needle. And the cherry on top?”

Leroy pointed to him and said, “you couldn’t hear your own heartbeat.”

“But not to worry, I’ve seen this three other times beforehand. It’s a process but it’s completely treatable.” Barry assured.

“Wouldn’t there be like, fangs or something?” Max tried to rationalize this.

“Man, you look like that normally. Your pale as hell and your canines naturally look like that. What about that chick, huh?” Leroy crossed his arms over his chest.

“I don’t know, I thought she just had sharp teeth, like people do.” He showed his own and they looked nearly identical. Maybe a bit sharper but who was really paying attention. “It’s not uncommon.”

Leroy took his necklace off again and went to hand it to him again. Instead of dropping it into his hand like before, he let it touch his exposed forearm. Max bit back a string of expletives before looking down at the burn that had formed in the shape of a cross. To even further prove his point, he handed the necklace to Barry. Barry took it and held it no problem.

“Oh…” Max finally let it sink in. “Oh damn…”

“So, do we have this under control now?” LaFrey asked.

“I believe so.” Barry got to work to get all of the materials they were going to need for this. “I’ve done this before and it’s very easy. Just a long process.”

“So… Simone is…?” Max was going into shock and Leroy was right there to help him through this whole thing.

“Yes.” Leroy put a hand on his shoulder.

“And she…?”

“Yes.”

“Which makes me…?”

“Yes.” He patted his shoulder to sort of ease the pain of the realization but knew it wasn’t going to help much.

“Not to worry,” Barry assured again, this time towards Max directly, “completely curable.”

“Feel free to use my office.” LaFrey offered. “Pull the blinds down and I’m sure that will be more comfortable that way. More privacy too.” Her watch beeped a few times and she looked at the time. “I have a flight to catch. I’m sure you all have this handled.” She went to leave but turned back to Max. “Oh and feel free to take the rest of the week, Max. Good luck.”

He went to say thank you buy she was already gone. Still distracted, Barry was able to stick him again with a needle. “What the hell? You can warn me next time.”

“Sorry,” he apologized, “no time to waste.”

Leroy excused himself to take a call. Plus he figured that this was an A and B situation and he needed to C himself out. 

Barry had already drew a pint of blood before he even started the machine. Something about getting the bad out first for testing and to get new blood circulating quicker. 

Max was already hooked up to both the dialysis machine as well as an IV drip. Lucky for both of them, everything had wheels. Barry pushed the cart with the dialysis machine on it while Max walked with the IV pole as a walker to keep upright. The shock of the blood loss was starting to hit already. 

Within no time at all, Max was sitting in the dark office with the assurance Barry would be back with books and games. Max insisted on being left alone regardless and he’d text him when it was time for a new blood bag transfusion. Every hour he was on that stupid machine, Barry wanted to draw a pint out and let a new bag drip in. 

Max barely had enough strength to keep his head up, let alone do anything else. Sitting in silence was perfect for now. Besides he did this to himself. Should’ve known a goth baddie wouldn’t go for him normally. 

Leroy had knocked on the office door around an hour and a half into the nightmare. He had watched Barry do the blood drain and new bag switch. He figured his friend was bored out of his mind and needed to yap. He had a few minutes to kill after all. Especially that the mother hen was out of the office for the day.

“Hey. How you holding up, tiger?” Leroy walked in and sat in one of the chairs across from Max. LaFrey didn’t need to know he was in her proper desk chair. Hell, she was the one who offered her office anyway.

Max held up a tired thumbs up. “Great.”

“Was it worth it?”

“You saw her, what do you think?”

“Yeah,” Leroy laughed lightly, “I’d say it was worth it. How you feeling otherwise?”

“I felt my heart start beating about an hour ago,” he relaxed into the chair, “felt weird as hell and it’s been slowly picking up since. I wish I even knew when it stopped. One of those things you don’t take notice to. Probably happened overnight.”

As if on some hilarious cue, the blood pressure machine began to whirl. It finished and read 68/39. Max opened his eyes enough to read the results. 

“Five higher than fifteen minutes ago.” He put his head back on the edge of the chair back and closed his eyes. “Slow but steady.”

His lack of yapping was getting worrisome. Usually being left alone for any period of time, he was rambling a mile a minute. Especially after a near death experience. 

“You need anything, man?” Leroy offered. Actually hoping to get Max to talk more. 

“I was given strict instructions against most things.”

He finally asked it. “you okay man? You’re not being your usual nerdy, babbly self.”

“My head is pounding.” Max explained. “And moving it around makes me want to throw up. Blood pressure machine beeping keeps me from sleeping too. Counting down the agonizing minutes until I’m allowed to go home.”

“I gotta know one thing though.”

“Hmmm?”

“Where’d she bite you?”

That got a cheeky smile out of Max at least. He traced a circle on his inner thigh without moving his head. He’d figure that out about thirty minutes of sitting there alone.

“Ooo, you sly dog.”

“We fooled around a bit at her place once or twice. Though it was probably almost all for a ritual or something.”

“Almost?”

“Let’s just say I was able to use the condom I kept in my wallet.”

“My man,” he tried to get a high five or fist bump out of his friend but he was just as useful as a wet noodle. 

“I would if my limbs weren’t made of concrete.”

“I get it. You sure you don’t need anything?”

“I’m good, thanks Leroy.”

He patted Max’s shoulder a few times. “Text me if you do, got it? I’m right outside.”

“I appreciate the hell out of you. Thanks.”

“You’ll be back to your nerdy ass self soon enough.”

He gave another tired ‘mhmm’ and Leroy took that as a sign to leave him rest up. Once he closed the door he honed in on Annie making a cup of coffee in the breakroom.

“Annie, now that LaFrey is out of the office and you’re in charge now, what should we do about that vampire problem?” Leroy asked, finding her making coffee in the break room.

“Vampire problem?” She gave him a weird look. “There’s a vampire problem?”

“Not sure how many confirmed, but if we go after one known vampire then that would be enough to hopefully send a message to the other ones to get lost.”

“I hadn’t heard anything about vampires. Usually they’re quiet and keep to themselves.” Annie took a sip of her coffee.  “Normally we don’t bother with them since they don’t bother anyone else.”

“Well what if I told you I had proof of a vampire?”

“Coming from you?” She put a hand on her hip, “this I have to hear.”

He gestured for her to follow him  to his desk. Of course he had already started a file as quick as he did. He clicked on a screenshot of her facebook profile. “This is Simone Masters. Facebook says she works as a phlebotomist at the American Red Cross. Being showed how to use our programs, I was able to put her current photo into it and pulled other images and paintings dating back to at least the 1700’s.” He scrolled through a few various photographs followed by paintings.

“Okay? Like I said, usually vampires keep to themselves, and are pretty good about not killing people. They handle their own internally usually. What’s the sudden interest?”

He then clicked on the final picture. Simone and Max. Annie was taken aback. Not with jealousy, the same level of shock as the others had.

“Her?” Annie pointed to her. “And him?”

“That’s what I’m saying.” Leroy noted. “She managed to turn him without knowing until this afternoon. Now he’s sitting in Cap’s office in the middle of a reversal.”

“I’ve seen Barry do that to at least one other agent.” Annie nodded. “Usually takes a lot out of the person afterwards but it works.”

“Is it worth looking into? Simone, I mean.”

“Hard to say, Leroy,” she crossed her arms, minding her coffee mug, “usually they’re pretty good about doing their own thing. Even if that other person is Max.”

“What about sending a message?” 

She mulled it over for a moment. “Killing them is too far, but a gentle threat seems reasonable. Whatever keeps them away from our feeble minded agents.”

He gestured again to the picture of the two of them. “Come on, Annie. Do you really believe this?”

“I refuse to, actually. No offense.”

“I just need a firm yes or no if it’s worth looking into.”

She looked at the photo on the computer screen and looked into the dark office where she knew Max was sitting. It didn’t help that this happened outside of work hours, but the reversal was happening now. Finally she sighed.

“Do what you need to do, Leroy. I won’t tell LaFrey whatever you decide.” She took her coffee back to her desk.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” He sat down and got to work trying to figure out where she was going to be that night. It was going to be the plan after he took Max home.

An hour had passed and it was quitting time. Before she left for the night, Annie poked her head to see Max. She gently knocked on the side of the door to get his attention. 

“Hey, I just wanted to pop in and see how you were doing.”

Shit. Now he had to look nonchalant with her around. Despite the deep throb in his skull, he picked his head up and gave her one of his signature cool guy shrugs.

“You know how it is,” this was a terrible idea, “nothing I can’t handle. Its all NBD, ya know?”

That was until Max needed to push down a dry heave. He then coughed hard into his arm and that seemed to irritate the headache. Everything was a mistake. Moving was bad.

“Have a good night, okay Max?” She smiled to him, finding it a bit endearing.

“Night.” He somehow choked out. 

Once the door shut he groaned and laid his head back in the same spot it had been for the past three hours. That was one of the dumbest things he had ever done. 

The lights flipped on and blinded Max immediately. “Last draw for the day,” Barry sang as he walked into the room with a full bag of blood and an empty bag, “ready buddy?”

“No, but yes.” He wanted the lights off so badly for his headache.

“I know I said another hour on the machine, but I’m going to have to run a few tests and put you on one more transfusion. Possibly draw some more.”

“God, I’m a human pin cushion.”

“Well, about 87% human. As of the last blood draw I checked.”

“Leroy’s my ride, I need to tell him it’s going to be longer than planned.”

“Oh don’t worry, I can tell him for you.”

“Or ask him to just come in?” He knew better than to have Barry attempt conversation with him. He’d completely abandon the main point of the chat and forget to tell him anything.

Leroy must’ve sensed something and poked his head into the office. If it was anyone else Max would’ve asked them to leave in the nicest way possible. He could stay.

“How’s our favorite nerd doing?”

“I’m doing great,” Barry smiled to Leroy, “thank you for asking.”

“I was talking about Max.” he pointed to the one who looked like he wanted to crawl into a cave.

“Oh, right.” Barry nodded. “Another two hours or so. One for the machine, one for a few more tests. Less, if this sample is above 95%.” He held up the bag that was draining now.

“95% what?”

“Oh, human cells.” Barry explained like that was normal. The blood pressure machine whirled to life and took another reading. “117/75, that’s looking great.”

“It’s been around there for a bit.” Max explained. Now that his heart was beating again, it was actually getting to become a dull ache. He had no idea how long it wasn’t beating, and now that it was again, it felt tight. Similar to a panic attack.

“Excellent.” Barry smiled and stopped the line and stood up. “That’s done.” He then moved to put the new bag and attach that to the IV on his opposite arm. “Last one while still on the machine.” He held up the blood he had drawn. “I’ll check this out and report back.”

He scurried out of the room and shut the door behind him. Didn’t even bother with the lights. Leroy took it upon himself and flipped them off again.

“Thank you.” Max thanked tiredly. “Sorry to make you wait around.”

“I’d rather wait around for you to get this out of your system than worry about you biting me on the drive back to your place.” Leroy tried to lighten the mood at least. “Holding up okay?”

“Yeah, being poked and prodded at like a pin cushion for four and a half hours is a blast. Definitely recommend it.”

“What are you gonna do about Simone?”

“Did not get that far.” He admitted.

“Your game is really thrown off. Normally you’d think of like four plans, only one of which is plausible.” 

“For starters, probably never donate blood again.”

“Dude.” Leroy sighed. “You met her, a vampire baddie, at a blood donation event? None of that alerted you? No red flags there?”

“Well she wasn’t like, full goth when we met. She had a white lab coat on and seemed like a normal person.” He took a second then thought. He lifted his head up and actually looked to Leroy now. “Wait, no… that would really explain why she was so excited that I was A negative.”

“Is that like, a delicacy for them?”

“I don’t know, maybe?”

“Do you think that ‘wine’ you were talking about was actually wine?”

“Oh damn.” Now that was a thought.

“Dying takes a lot out of your brain, doesn’t it?”

“No, I think that’s the blood loss and coming back to life, not so much the dying part. I don’t remember that part.”

“Well who could when a woman like that’s on top of you?”

“On top… underneath…” he trailed off, “behind, in a stall…”

“You dog.” Leroy laughed. “All of that sounds so worth it.”

He sighed, “yeah maybe. Probably for the best. I don’t have what it takes to be a vampire anyway.”

“I dunno man, you could rock one of those dorky shirts in one of those clubs no problem.”

“You really think they’re dorky?” He looked down at the blue shirt he was wearing with little fish patterned on it.

“They work for you.” He tried to save face.

He let out a heavy sigh. “Cannot wait for this to be finished. I am ready to go home and sleep this all off.”

“Holding up okay?” Leroy went back to being nice. He did legitimately care for his partner. No way was he going to lose another one, especially after something like this.

“Ever have a panic attack? That’s what it feels like. A full body panic attack. Chest hurts, nervous system working over time, pounding headache. If I already knew I was coming back to life, I swear it feels like I’d imagine dying slowly feels like.”

“This is reminding me to drink water and take care of my kidneys so I don’t have to do dialysis.” Leroy mentioned. “I don’t think sitting around for four hours three times a week for the rest of my life sounds very fun.”

That got a small laugh out of Max. “Right? I can’t imagine. One session is bad enough.”

“Good news.” Barry flipped the lights back on when he walked back into the room. “This last sample was at 97%. By the time that bad boy turns off, you’ll be back to normal. Well, human at least.”

“Are you not going to shut this off now?” Max asked, desperately willing the lights were off again.

“It’s automatic. The thing is on a timer so it should shut off at exactly four hours unfortunately.” Barry did walk over and remove the blood pressure cuff. “But this can come off. Your heart seems like it’s back to pumping blood on it’s own.”

“Mhmm.” Max agreed. “Oh, I can feel it alright.”

“Shouldn’t be much longer. I told you it was an easy process, just long and drawn out.” Barry assured.

“Thanks again, Barry.” Max offered. “I appreciate the fact you know how to do this.”

“We have cures for lots of these things.” He answered. “Vampires, werewolves, and selkies to name a few. Have not gotten around to figuring out spirits.”

“Dude, that’s cause they’re dead.” Leroy gave him a weird look. “Once you’re dead, you’re kind of dead.”

“I’m sure there’s a way to cure death.”

“There’s a number of books and movies explaining why that is not a good idea to mess with.”

He shrugged. “We’ll find a cure someday at the Bureau.”

Max and Leroy were exchanging looks of disbelief. Before they could continue this conversation, Barry dipped out to go back to the lab.

“There are some days I wonder about this job.” Leroy admitted.

“You can say that again.” Max agreed.

“Please tell me you’re not going to see this girl again.” Leroy finally asked.

“I was supposed to meet her tonight.” Max answered. “That’s not happening. Yeah I really should block her or something.”

“For your own sake, breaking it off seems like it’s the best idea. You wanna risk all of this again?”

“Absolutely not.” He grabbed for his phone, “blocking her now.”

“I’m proud of you, man,” Leroy nodded approvingly, “sorry that the first girl you tired to date after your wife turned out to be a vampire.”

“Eh, just seems like it would be my luck anyway.” He hit a few options on the phone and closed it. “Done and blocked.”

“Somehow it could’ve been worse.”

“Could’ve been a demon or an alien.”

“An alien would make sense for you though.” Leroy joked.

“You think?”

The two chatted until the machine finally turned off. There was a heavy sigh of relief from the two, finally having that damn thing turn off. A few minutes later Barry came in and looked over everything, finally removing another IV. 

He did take more for researching and to triple check that he was alright to leave. It was probably fine to let him leave, but there was nothing wrong with making sure they weren’t going to lose another agent to a vampire.

Barry gave them both a thumbs up about twenty minutes later. He finally removed the last of the IV’s in Max’s arms, bandaids on all of the holes as well to keep from bleeding more. The good blood was supposed to say inside now.

He also handed Max a juice box and cautioned to take his time with how much blood he had lost and dealt with. Barry said goodnight to the two agents and headed home. 

Leroy told him that he would grab their stuff and head out then, shutting off the lights on the way out. It wasn’t his job but at least if they were the last ones out it would be nice to do.

Max assured that he was alright when he came back, juice box just being tossed in the trash. He held out his hand for his jacket and briefcase. Leroy didn’t fight him on anything and handed it over. He slid into his brown blazer and dug out his sunglasses from a pocket.

He wanted to make fun of him or call him Corey Hart or something, but decided against it. His partner went through enough that day as it was. The last thing he needed to hear was him make a joke about wearing sunglasses at night.

That was until they got into Leroy’s car and when he turned the radio on, the song was playing on the radio station. Leroy laughed and nudged Max a few times, getting him to break. He at least found it amusing, but they really did help with the headache.

“Thanks again for taking me home.” Max thanked his friend.

“Dude there is no way you are coherent enough to drive, even if I did drive you in this morning. I don’t even like the idea of leaving you by yourself.”

“I’ll be fine, really. Just going to fall into a mini coma is all.” He closed his eyes, despite still wearing his sunglasses. The street lights were still too bright for the pounding headache.

“Seriously though, man, if you need anything just text me.” Leroy insisted.

“I promise you, I’m gong to slam a Gatorade and crawl into bed.” Max insisted. “But I will. Thanks for your help, man. I owe you one for this.”

“Think nothing of it. You don’t owe me anything for this.” Leroy pulled up to Max’s building. “Need any help getting in?”

Max had gotten out of the car okay, even managed to grab his briefcase. The sunglasses stayed on until he finally got into the confines of his home. He was grabbing onto the window that was rolled down.

“I think I got it from here. Crazy day, huh?” He laughed a bit, more to himself than anything else. “Thanks again for sticking around.”

Leroy took of his cross necklace one last time and handed it to Max. “Prosperity’s sake?”

He hesitated a bit but grabbed it, holding it tightly. “Just a necklace.” He handed it back to Leroy and that seemed to ease everything. His partner was back to his usual self. “Have a good night, Leroy.”

Max tapped the window a few times before making his way into his apartment. At least it was on the ground floor and easy to get in and out of for moments like this. Only once he stumbled on the steps but held a thumbs up to show he was okay. 

Leroy waited until he watched Max get inside the door before he took off towards the bar. Some days he was grateful for the fact that people wouldn’t shut up about their lives online. Facebook especially. Looking into Simone’s history, she frequents this goth bar in Hollywood. That mad man was so down bad for her he was going to Hollywood for her? Insanity.

When he walked inside, he was completely out of his element. If he was out of place, he could only imagine how Max looked. Any of these goths could be doubling as vampires and he would be none the wiser.

“Looking for Simone,” Leroy leaned up against the bar towards the bartender, “know where I can find her?”

He gestured to the end of the bar where she was sitting by herself with a wine glass of red liquid. Doubtful it was red wine. Leroy sat next to her and she adjusted in her seat.

“Simone?” He looked around the bar, trying not to make it obvious.

“Who are you?”

“I’m Max’s business partner,” he explained, “you know Max?”

She nodded and took a sip of her wine. “Perhaps I do. I’m waiting for him actually.”

“You’re going to be doing a lot of that, but I think we both know that you’re used to it. Waiting a long time for things.”

“What do you want?” She sighed into her glass.

“To stay far away from Max. He isn’t one of your little friends anymore. Delete his number, and never speak to him again. Got it?”

She pulled her phone out and annoyingly did as he asked. Leroy watched intently as she deleted their text feed, followed by his contact, and blocked. “Done. Happy?”

“Yes, I am.”

“He didn’t mean anything.” She assured. “Just another play toy with delicious blood. Not completely my fault he got turned.”

Hearing it aloud really bothered Leroy. Sure he knew his partner was annoying and takes a special sort of person to get used to, but he was still human and deserving of love. He was kind, smart, good at his job, and didn’t need to waste his time with this girl.

“Keep away from him and we won’t have any issues.”

“We won’t.”

Leroy stood up and left the bar. That was that. He went home and double checked to see if Max texted him. Silent. Hoping that was for the best. 

The next morning he got up and went into work, sans his partner that day. It was going to be a more or less relaxed day without Max and LaFrey there. Annie probably didn’t have anything major planned, and if they were lucky they’d convince her to order pizza for lunch.

About midmorning, Leroy finally got a text from Max. 

10:33 am (Max J) Awake, sore, but good. Look at this

He sent a picture of his inner arm with a large black and blue bruise from the needles. It looked angry at being prodded as much as he was the day before. Cut off was the cross burn that was still there on his arm. That part he did feel a bit bad about but it was to prove a point.

10:34 am (Max J) Other side looks the same

10:34 am (L Wright) glad to hear youre good, man. feeling up for a movie night?

10:34 am (L Wright) i can grab beer and tacos

10:34 am (L Wright) we can watch Lost Boys

10:35 am (Max J) Yes to tacos. absolutely not to movie choice

10:35 am (L Wright) Blade?

10:35 am (Max J) Nope

10:35 am (L Wright) Interview with a Vampire?

10:36am (Max J) I’m going back to bed 💤

10:36am (L Wright) Sleep tight, don’t let the vampires bite

10:36am (L Wright) Make sure to drink your blood to regain your energy 

10:37am (L Wright) Stay out of the sun till dusk to make sure you don’t burn

10:45am (Max J) Bite me

10:46: am (L Wright) You already were