DANIEL HERON: BECOMING

29 - Why are you all staring at me?

In the dead of night, cloaked by the darkness, stood a cabin. Behind its walls, sitting at the kitchen table, sergeant Novik still pondered about what he had recently heard from Ana and Teresa. They briefly described their fight with the vampire who came to subdue them. He ran away, they said. He was injured, but he managed to get away.

"These murders," the sergeant eventually spoke, "are they his attempt to lure you out in the open?"

"No, they're his way to heal a wounded body," Ana replied. "Living blood is a powerful remedy for injured vampires."

Teresa shook her head, defeated. "You should have gone after him when he was still weak."

"And leave you in the state you were? You know I would never do that."

"What was Teresa's state at the time?" Sergeant Novik's eyes traveled from one woman sitting across him, to the other.

Ana looked at her friend with care in her gaze. "It was bad. The poison was spreading through her body, it weakened her significantly."

Sergeant's stare fell to the photos scattered on the kitchen table. For a minute he was silent, then he asked, "Didn't you say that he's killing people because he needs living blood to heals his wounds?" Lifting his head, he looked at Teresa. "You seem to be fine now. How did you heal? Are there going to be more dead bodies uncovered around here?"

Teresa stood up and vigorously shook her head. She walked up to the window, where Daniel stood during the whole conversation. She faced the dark, heavy curtain, without saying anything. Ana was silent as well, but her eyes briefly wandered to Daniel. Novik didn't miss it.

"I was under the impression you don't feed on the living," he remarked.

"We don't," Teresa reassured him.

Daniel didn't like the look on sergeant's face as he observed Teresa and Ana. Feeling the urge to stand in their defense, he moved away from the window, approached the table and said, "It was my idea."

Novik's eyes felt like daggers when he looked at Daniel. Maybe he's looking for the signs of me becoming a vampire, it occurred him, so he added, "I'm still a normal human being. Nothing changed. My fangs are still normal size." To emphasize what he said, he briefly lifted his upper lip with his index finger.

After what felt like half an hour, sergeant Novik finally let his stare drift away from Daniel's face. It found its way back to the photographs of the victims, the latest reasons of his insomnia. As his hands rubbed his tired face, he asked, "How do we stop him? Is it too late? Did he already call for others?"

Teresa walked up to the table, leaned on her palms and said, "No, he didn't. He is not one of the more influential members of our race. If he were, someone would already be here. But he came alone, and the expression on his face when he realized who he discovered... Well, let's just say he was too happy to see us; it's difficult to hide greed. I'm convinced that he stuck around because he hasn't given up the hope of overpowering us by himself and then turning us to our creator."

"Let's hope you're right." Sergeant Novik interlocked his fingers and rested his chin on them. "In that case, we still have the time to take action."

He sat like that for a minute, then he arranged the photos neatly side by side. "There must be something that will help us locate him," he stated. His fingers tapped on the surface of the table as he observed them. "There just doesn't seem to be an obvious connection between the victims."

Three more pairs of eyes joined the sergeant in observing the photographs. Only Daniel's gaze longed to wonder away from the unsettling scenes, and he let it happen.