night changes. {a csi miami story}

four.

It wasn't until ten minutes after midnight that Horatio walked back into the interrogation room, pushing open the door and becoming surprised to find that Ryan was now standing, peering out the window with his head pressed against the glass. "Mr. Wolfe," Horatio spoke cautiously and carefully, removing his sunglasses and placing them on the table before walking over to stand beside him. "How are you holding up?"

        "I'm not," Ryan admitted, taking a deep breath and turning around ever so slightly so that the two were facing one another. "Have there been any breaks in the case that I need to know about, or are you just here to keep your promise about checking up on me?"

        "Actually," Horatio paused before continuing, a habit that Ryan had grown beyond used to after working with the older man for so many years. "There has been a break in the case."

        Ryan's head shot up even further, his hazel eyes glinting with a hidden emotion that was somewhere between anxiousness and the last thread of hope he had left, the small piece of reassurance that was still present in his jumbled mess of a mind.

        "There's been another murder," Horatio went on, acknowledging Ryan's silence as a sign to elaborate. "A young woman was found seemingly stabbed to death, drained of blood and left to bleed out on the beach—the same beach, Mr. Wolfe, that the previous victim was found." When Ryan still didn't reply he kept talking, speaking up on the small details he had left out in his earlier statements. "There was no knife left at the scene this time, but the cause of death was from two small wounds on her neck, just like the first case we have been working on. Two small bite marks."

        "You don't think these victims were stabbed, either," Ryan realized, an immense surge of relief flooding through him as he spoke.

        Horatio shook his head, a slightly amused smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "No, Mr. Wolfe, I do not. I have been a vampire long enough that I know when there are others of our kind running around, and judging from what I have seen in these past twenty-four hours I've concluded that there is indeed another vampire roaming this city and, more importantly, killing innocent people."

        Ryan nodded in agreement and returned his attention back out the window, staring at the eerie way the police cars and sidewalks were being illuminated by the streetlamps overhead. "We need to figure out who is doing this, H."

        "We always do," Horatio said, and the thoughtfulness to his tone gave Ryan the feeling that he was speaking more to himself than he was to anyone else. "I do have a feeling, though, that this vampire is smart, smarter than the ones I have dealt with before. He's done a good job of throwing us off his trail by leaving a knife at the scene and making us think the victim was stabbed, and he's also done a good job of making it seem like you are the one we need to be questioning. With this said it's going to be harder to track him down, but just because it isn't going to be easy doesn't mean we're not going to try. We are going to catch this monster, and we are going to do it soon."

        Ryan nodded once more, feeling oddly reassured yet again. Horatio always had a admirable trait about him that made anyone believe that what he said was the truth, even in the most dire of circumstances. However, in this predicament it was hard for Ryan to believe the man one-hundred percent, and because of this he decided to speak up on one of the many concerns still plaguing his thoughts. "More innocent people are going to die before we find this person, aren't they?"

        Horatio hesitated, unsure of whether or not he should truthfully answer Ryan's question. "It seems that way, Mr. Wolfe, but we are going to find a way to ensure that doesn't happen."