"If I can be candid with you, I am not sure how happy I am with this, either." The fear in him grows a little more prominent as he says it. He doesn't want his progress here to be derailed and more than that, he doesn't want Max to get hurt. The possibility of that brings a new rush of anxiety.

"It isn't what it sounds like. The man is, from what I can tell, masochistic and he is likely to harm himself without intervention. He begged me to drink from him, and I did. And he asked me to do so again, so I told him yes, on one condition: he would have to take better care of himself. That is the arrangement, Valdis. And the timing of it could not have been poorer for me."