Lothar couldn't tear his eyes away. "See? I told you they were monsters," Alston scoffed. "Parasites on humanity."
"We are not monsters," insisted Medivh. "We need blood to live, yes, but that doesn't mean we're monsters." He turned to face Lothar, letting his features return to normal. "When these bodies started turning up, apparently killed by one or more of my own people, I couldn't believe it. Because the murderer was doing the exact opposite of what one of us would normally do. First of all, it goes against our instincts to harm any human we've taken blood from, plus leaving feathers behind would have immediately drawn suspicion onto us from any humans who knew what we were. And most importantly, there's the blatant fact that it's physically impossible for one of us to drain someone completely when we feed. It would be like you eating an entire side of beef in one sitting. That's why I was almost certain more than one person was behind this – and why I've been trying to examine the victims as soon as they're found, because it would give me a better chance of picking up on who might have killed them."
"How so?" asked Lothar, when he'd finally found his voice again.
"My people can sense if any of our abilities were used on a human, provided too much time hasn't gone by. There's a sort of residual signature left in the tissue, both when we feed and when we heal someone afterwards. But as I said, there's no way for us to drain someone's blood all at once. Since each body only ever had two puncture wounds on the neck, I assumed there were either multiple perpetrators, or one of us had fed from each victim over an extended period. In both cases, all the wounds other than the final one would have been healed," he explained. "So when the young man who found the latest victim contacted me, I called Khadgar, hoping one or both of us could make it to the crime scene in time to get a reading. But when we got here, there was no arcane signature on the victim at all. Even though his death was very, very recent." His expression was a mixture of anger and regret. "But it was a trap all along, to lure myself and Khadgar out so this murderer could claim two more victims…ones who wouldn't be just 'collateral damage'." His voice was cold. "Tell me, sergeant, how does it feel to consider your own people expendable? Disposable? Because that's what they are to you now. You lost the last shred of your humanity when you started killing them."
"Shut up, monster—"
"We are not the monsters here," Medivh pronounced.
"You make it impossible for any human to resist what you're doing, and you take from us without our consent. How is that not monstrous?" demanded Alston. "How is that in any way different from rape?"
"It's very different," he shot back. "This isn't about power – we're not doing this to hurt anyone, or to dominate them. The simple fact is, if we don't take human blood, we die. And I can state quite confidently that my people prefer to draw from someone we're close to, someone we care about, but we still need blood even if we don't have someone like that. So many of us are forced to acquire it from strangers or casual acquaintances…but either way, we're not doing it to deliberately cause harm. But because most humans wouldn't accept us, we make it so they can't remember." The angry edge was back in his voice. "My people have hidden themselves out of necessity. For those of us not lucky enough to find someone who accepts us for what we are, we'd be putting our lives in danger every time we had to feed. It's not that we want to mislead or take what isn't freely offered, but many of my people have died because they told the wrong person the truth. Because they tried to 'do the right thing'." Medivh's eyes narrowed. "People like your wife."
"You have no idea how fine a line you're walking, Medivh," Alston growled, raising his gun so it was pointed at the other man's head. But before he could say more, the sound of footsteps came echoing through the mostly empty warehouse; and Lothar quickly moved away from Alston to stand with Medivh and Khadgar, his own weapon aimed once more at the other officer.
"Sgt. Daniel Alston," he said. "I say again: you are under arrest for the murder of your wife, as well as for the string of murders you've committed since the time of her death. Anything you say can and will be used against you—"
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he snarled indignantly.
"That backup you didn't think I came with?" Lothar said. "I called them in as soon as I saw you holding a gun on two of my friends. And afterwards I came out and showed myself, so I could keep you talking until they got here." His eyes were like ice, cold and hard. "I told them we had a hostage situation involving two of our own people, held by a serial killer who just so happened to be a rogue cop."
"Two of your own people? Those things aren't people, Lothar." His face was red with anger. "And to think I was actually going to thank you for making all this possible." He gestured at both the body and the two men he'd been threatening. "Because it was meeting you, and realizing you were being fed on, that made me finally decide to hunt these things actively. This was all because of you, detective – how can you do this to me, knowing what you know now? Knowing what these two are?" he demanded. "How can you side with these monsters?"
Lothar shook his head. "There's only one monster here, sergeant," he declared. "And it's not Medivh or Khadgar."
"And you're actually ok with letting yourself be used by these things?" demanded Alston. "You're pathetic. A traitor to the human race." His gun swiveled towards Lothar. "Which means you probably deserve this even more than they do—"
"No!" Khadgar cried, diving at Lothar in a desperate attempt to push him out of the way. And he was successful, moving the older man out of the projectiles' path…so that instead of hitting Lothar, the bullets hit Khadgar instead.