Daniel observed Ana who went silent after she told him how Teresa and herself departed to the unknown. The expression of her face told him that her thoughts took her back to the time when the war ended. Time of abundance for her kind, he recalled her words. He didn't want to think about their true meaning, nor invoke the images of vampires feasting on the injured soldiers. His brother was a soldier too. Another life lost forever. In vain, Daniel thought.

He forced himself to stop thinking about Robert. Instead, he took a good look at Ana once more, before casting his gaze Teresa's way. He tried to imagine them as two ordinary faces in the sea of tormented souls in which a spark of hope was ignited after long period of darkness.

Teresa and Ana's escape didn't mean they too got away from darkness, he knew. It will follow them always. That was proven to him by that one ray of sunlight on Teresa's skin. But they did get freedom, like Ana said. He gave it another thought and realized that in the background of their freedom lurked insecurity.

"And ever since you ran away, you've been waiting for your clan to find you?" he asked.

"No," Ana shook her head. "Not our clan. Any clan."

Daniel's forehead wrinkled. "I don't get it," he stated.

"Of course you don't." Teresa closed Ana's suitcase and took it to the door as if it weighed no more than a bag of groceries.

Ana took mercy on him and provided an explanation. "We are two women, two female vampires without a clan. If a male vampire finds us, he can subdue us, make us a part of his clan. We would have no choice but to obey because in the world of vampires, females must be guided by a man."

"That's dumb!" Daniel concluded after a short pondering. "Based on everything I saw, I can tell you that you don't need anyone to guide you."

"We know that," Teresa said very close to his ear. He winced, not being aware of her proximity. "But what we know is not the same as the laws engraved into the essence of every male vampire. That is how we know they are coming for us. They won't let us be the exception."

Daniel looked at the suitcase by the door. Neither of them was prepared to give up, that he was sure of. "Well, at least you have a plan that's gonna take you away from here."

Teresa nodded, her jaw clenched in determination. "That we do," she said. "Now go get some rest. We're gonna need you fresh and rested in the morning."

Daniel complied. He didn't need any of them to command him to fall asleep, he was tired enough as it was. He didn't know how long he had been sleeping when he was suddenly awoken by a knock on the door.

Knock... knock... knock... knock...

He sat up straight, surrounded by darkness. He gave his eyes a moment to adjust, and while he was doing that...

Knock... knock... knock... knock... again.

He squinted, trying to see something, anything, in the darkness. He found two pairs of amber eyes somewhere down the hall.

Come here, quietly. The words were not spoken aloud, he only heard them in his mind, yet he felt incapable to resist them. He got up slowly, started to walk down the hallway, towards the ones who called him, thankful there were no obstacle in the way. At the end of the hall, an open door awaited him. As soon as he walked through, it closed with a faint metallic thud.

Afraid to speak, he stood in the darkness, waiting for someone else to break the silence. Instead of words came a small flower of flames on top of a wooden match. It moved through the air until it lit a candle. In its light he spotted a round table on top of which was a ceramic candleholder and nothing else. Ana and Teresa stood opposite one another, table dividing them.

"They found us," Teresa whispered. The flames were casting shadows over her face, making her features ghoulish.

"Then you should leave right away," Daniel replied in a hushed tone. "Is there a back door to this house?"

"We're not leaving. At the time being, we're safer in here."

Daniel thought about the metal door that closed behind him. Were they made of some kind of metal that has the power to repel vampires? Knowing there wasn't much sense in asking himself that question, he decided to try and get an explanation from the women bathed in subtle candlelight.

"Is it because of the door?" He reached behind in effort to touch the metal surface.

Ana shook her head. When she did that, the light made her hair sparkle. "No," she responded. "They only mute the sound so that the vampires can't hear us."

"But that also means that we can't hear them," Teresa added.

"So basically, they could be inside the house right now!" Daniel's whisper was louder this time.

"They can't come in," Ana said. "It's because of the threshold. Whoever is out there, won't be able to walk over the threshold. Not unless one of us invites him in."

Daniel thought back to the evening when Ana came to the factory. Did she have to wait for someone to invite her in?

"Is that another vampire thing?" he asked. "And what if there's a human at the door? Would he be unable to come into the house too?"

Teresa's eyes flashed in his direction when she said, "It's not a human. But you do have a point. If we don't open the door, they could command humans to come get us for them."

"One way or another, we're in trouble," Ana stated. Her voice sounded fragile, the tone Daniel never heard in it before.

"What trouble?" Daniel's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. "If they send humans after you, you can easily..." His hand moved in front of his neck, from one side to the other. He didn't need to explain the meaning of that gesture.

Ana shook her head. "No, we most certainly wouldn't do that. Killing innocent people isn't our way."

Daniel thought about her statement. Lucio came to mind, and it was well known that he was far from innocent.

"Maybe the one outside won't get other people to help him. I mean, he wouldn't risk exposing vampire world to the general public."

Teresa threw a cold glance his way. "He wouldn't risk it, you're right about that. But if it came to it, if he really did order humans to assist him in chasing us out, those humans wouldn't live long enough to tell about it."

"Or they could be commanded to forget," Daniel tried.

Teresa and Ana exchanged looks. "This is not his territory. He wouldn't take that risk," said Ana.

"Are you sure about that?" Daniel asked.

Ana nodded, and before he got a chance to ask what makes them so sure, Teresa said, "We wouldn't risk it either."

"You said that because of the metal door vampires can't hear you. Maybe the one out there doesn't know you're in the house." He tried to provide some form of hope. "How did you even know that you need to hide in here?"

The amber eyes looked into each other. For a moment Daniel was sure a silent conversation was taking place between them. After a while, Ana whispered, "The animals out in the forest sounded different tonight." She left it at that, like the statement was self-explanatory.

Daniel gave it some thought. He could imagine birds flying away at the unfamiliar sound. Heck, he'd run too if he were out there in the middle of the night. "So what? You plan to stay here until the one outside leaves?"

"He won't leave," Teresa replied quietly, her voice emotionless.

"How can you be so sure?" Daniel asked.

"We wouldn't if we were in his place," she explained.

"And if you go out there, will they hurt you?" he asked further.

"Not if we surrender peacefully," Ana said, but her voice let him know that she didn't want to surrender at all.

He didn't know when he began to care about theirwellbeing. After all, they did slaughter his friends, he should be glad to see them get the punishment they deserved, but somehow, he didn't want them to fall into the hands of the vampires that basically wanted to enslave them.

Therefore, he asked, "And if I go out there, will he kill me on the spot?"

Twenty chapters so far! Thank you for sticking with the story thus far.

I guess we should find out what's gonna happen with the ladies, as well as with Daniel. 

Any thoughts?

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Until next chapter...