Dead Before Dawn: The Vampire Curse

Chapter 26 - Again?!

As it turned out, Scott might have been on the same continent, but it didn't make it a whole lot easier to see each other. Max ended up with two numbers on his low rate tariff. He did get to see Scott occasionally though, because he had plenty of meetings in L.A. about upcoming roles.

Then came the Asian premiere for "In From the Cold 2" and he found himself jetting off to Tokyo. The production company had delayed the release in Asia because of some huge Hong Kong films going out at the same time as the Western premiers, but now it was back on the band wagon.

For the first day Max was doing the press junket with Lucas Karn, who played the villain of the movie. They had a lot of fun messing around and making interviewers laugh. But it was getting back to his hotel that had kept Max going the entire time.

He walked back into his room, slammed the door behind him, and threw himself at Gian, who was waiting for him in his suite. Gian had had work commitments which meant he had been flying in a day later. It has only been an hour ago Max has received a text from his boyfriend saying he had landed and where he would be.

"I've missed you," he said after a long, passionate kiss hello.

"And I you," Gian said.

"Please tell me we can order room service and make up for lost time."

He knew he had nothing on his schedule, but he never liked to assume when it came to Gian. The way his boyfriend looked vaguely apologetic did not bode well for the answer.

"I am sorry to say, Darius wishes us both to be on duty this evening," Gian said.

"Ugh," Max said, but he couldn't exactly argue with Darius, not after everything his friend had done for him. "What is it?"

"A party," Gian said. "When I spoke to him, Darius said he had been invited to a very exclusive event in the Tokyo suburbs. He wanted you, Kacie and I to go with him, to show our support. I believe the party may be a possible investor for future projects."

That nailed it; there was no way Max could wiggle out of this with something like that on the table.

"How long do we have?" he asked.

"Two hours," Gian replied.

"Dammit, that's barely enough time to eat and get ready."

Room service was not exactly speedy; very good and perfectly presented, but definitely not fast.

"I have already eaten," Gian said and smiled the most wicked, innocent smile Max had ever seen. "I thought perhaps we could, as you said 'make up for lost time' and you could eat while we were."

Blood was not exactly like real food for Max, but it did have similar effects on his metabolism. A smile slowly spread across his face as he thought about it.

"I love how you think," he said.

* * *

The house looked very modern and yet had an air of traditional Japanese about it as well. Max was impressed. It must have cost a fortune and Max was finally beginning to understand why Darius had asked him to come. This was clearly a very significant mover and shaker as far as Tokyo went.

If he had to play nice for Darius to close whatever deal was going down, he was happy to do so. He was glad Gian was there as well, because it was always nice to have backup and he was very glad their leading lady would be taking centre stage. Kacie looked stunning as always.

"Smile, Max," she said as she went to step out of the limo; "we're on."

Max rolled his eyes, but smiled anyway. It was always fun when you got on with the rest of the cast, but this evening was business and he was a professional.