DANIEL HERON: BECOMING

26 - What did you do to me?

The night simply wouldn't end, or so it seemed to Daniel. After he allowed the vampire to feast on his blood, she stated that something was wrong.

Didn't she drink enough, he pondered, while his gaze wandered to the open wound on Teresa's upper arm. Was it just in his mind, or was the diameter of it smaller than before?

"What do you mean?" Ana's question broke his train of thought. "Aren't you healing?

Being right next to her, Ana took a closer look at Teresa's arm. Daniel's eyes followed. There could be no mistake; the open wound was shrinking. The blood no longer dripped from it, and the edges were closing in.

Teresa lifted her eyes to meet Ana's. "I wasn't talking about healing." She pointed her finger at Daniel without looking at him. "There is something wrong with him. His blood tastes strange."

Sure, Daniel thought, if I paid more attention in biology classes, I'd probably be able to name all the hormones released in a state of utter terror. Like the one caused by a vampire sucking out your blood.

"You need to see a doctor. As soon as possible."

After hearing Teresa's statement, Daniel's eyes widened. "Why a doctor?" he asked. "What did you do to me?"

"Nothing," Teresa replied. "It isn't about anything I did. You're not well."

While his eyes scanned the living room furniture, the dark green sofa with a wooden coffee table and two matching armchairs in front of it, Ana asked, "Are you sure?"

The question urged Daniel to turn his attention to the long-haired vampire whose eyes were fixated on Teresa. Just minutes after feeding on Daniel's blood, she was visibly stronger.

"You know I do not make mistakes about such things." Teresa's response only intensified Daniel's confusion.

"What things?" he queried, anxiety flooding him more and more with each passing second.

Teresa gazed into his face. Her brown eyes shown just a hint of amber. "You are not well," she repeated.

Daniel was beginning to feel agitation due to all that secrecy. "What to hell are you talking about? Am I turning into a vampire, or what?"

Teresa just calmly shook her head. She rested her hands on the backrest on one of the armchairs. "No," she said. "A person doesn't become a vampire if a vampire feeds on him. In order to become a vampire, you would have to feed on the blood of a vampire."

Daniel's face grimaced as he tried to imagine himself in that particular scenario. He shivered, then shook his head to chase the thought away. "What is it then? Why am I not well?"

Ana and Teresa exchanged another one of those looks that lead to believe they were having a silent conversation. That time, Ana answered him. "Teresa can determine whether the blood contains substances that should not be in the blood of a healthy person, just by the taste of it. For her, the blood of the diseased has a different taste."

Teersa's cold stare, combined by the previous statement, made Daniel's lips stretch into a grin. "What?" His voice was higher than usually. "What are you talking about? Diseased? As in, sick? You must be joking! I'm fine."

He turned from her and began pacing from the sofa, to the armchair Teresa sat on during the moments when it seemed that life was slipping through her fingers, and back to the sofa.

Neither Ana nor Teresa spoke. Daniel stopped for a moment, looked at the vampire who allegedly had a weird superpower, and repeated, "I'm fine." Then he walked up to the window clad in heavy curtain. He grabbed the edges that met in the middle, intending to pull them apart, but found himself staring at his own hands instead. "I'm fine," he repeated for the third time, whispering.