The Doctor and Enoch were in Dr. Eli Torneau's back room with the body of the young woman who had collapsed in the square earlier that day. Her body was stretched out on a table and she wore only a white linen dress. Her skin was almost as pale as the clothing.
The Doctor bent over her, inspecting the little wound on her neck. He had cleaned the skin to get a better look at the incisions. He borrowed Dr. Eli's tools and measured the circumference and width between the two holes. They matched the calculations for human incisors.
"Anything interesting, Doctor," Enoch asked, standing to the side and watching. He had tried to look over the Doctor's shoulder, but the Doctor had asked him nicely not to do that and Enoch didn't want to try is patience.
"There isn't much that's unusual. It's exactly what I'd expect from someone who bites the jugular and sucks the blood out of a living body." He looked on the other side of the corpse's neck, but there was nothing there. Dr. Eli entered the room carrying a strange device. It was a round bowl, with a spherical indent in the bottom. A little glass ball was resting in a metal frame, suspended over the bowl.
"Here you are, sir," said Dr. Eli. He set the device down and the Doctor took a little sterilized toothpick in a plastic bag out of his coat pocket. He swabbed the inside of one incision with it and put the tip in the indent at the bottom of the device. Then the Doctor leaned down over the glass ball and put his eye to it. Through the glass, he saw what was coating the inside of the wound, only magnified over one hundred times.
"What a marvelous device," he said, backing up from it and then bending to look again. "It's very advanced for such a primitive era."
"Thank you. I developed it myself. I'm still looking for a name," Dr. Eli said, looking pleased.
"You should call it a microscope," the Doctor mumbled. "Just a suggestion."
"A microscope," said Dr. Eli. He grinned. "I like the sound of that!"
"Shh," the Doctor hushed him and stared intently at the specimen. The view was a little blurry.
"You can adjust the focus by twisting that little knob under your chin," Dr. Eli whispered.
"Oh, thank you," said the Doctor. He did so and the view came into focus. He could see the cells of skin on the tip, but he could also see that they were in the middle of a transformation. A virus had begun to take them over before the host had died. Now the virus was dead too.
Feeling that he had seen all he needed to, the Doctor stood up and returned the microscope to Dr. Eli.
"Thank you for your assistance," the Doctor said. "I usually have my friend Jo with me to help, but she stayed with Enoch's grandmother."
"I'm glad I could help. Hopefully you can find a cure. It's surprising that an expert from the capitol is finally coming to help with our problem. No one has ever been interested before."
"Well," the Doctor shrugged, trying to keep his cover. "Medicine has never made such great advances before."
"Thanks again, Doctor." Dr. Eli showed them to the door. He shook hands with Enoch and told him to come again soon.
Enoch and the Doctor stepped out onto the street. It was already dark and cold. The Doctor was oblivious to the cold, his mind spinning over all the possibilities and ways to stop the virus. He could probably take some of the virus back to the lab in the TARDIS and run tests to come up with an anti-virus, but he wasn't entirely sure what would happen to the people if they took it. The virus carried similar characteristics to others he had seen. In the cases of the other viruses, the cell had become co-dependent on the virus. If that virus were removed, the host would likely die.
"You look concerned, Dotor. What is it?" Enoch asked. The Doctor told him his theory as they walked through town, back to the main square where Enoch had left his wagon and donkey.
"You see, Enoch," the Doctor said, "The virus isn't what kills the people, it's the loss of blood. Now, if a person were to be bitten and infected, but their blood was only drained a little, they would eventually recover from the blood-loss. But their body would still contain the virus and they would, I'm assuming, suffer the side-affects and become one of the very people who infected them.
"Yes, that makes sense," Enoch said, nodding. He followed along very quickly for someone who came from a primitive world. "But, Doctor, I'm wondering if we could, in some way, allow the virus to live on in the people, but not infect anyone else. Eventually the virus would die out."
"That would be something," the Doctor said. "But, if my theories about the side-affects are correct (and they usually are), it would take incredible amounts of will-power to keep the disease from spreading. Would it even be possible?"
At that moment, he heard the cries of "Doctor! Doctor!" and Jo came running towards them down the street. She ran to him, stumbling with exhaustion, and he steadied her. Jo was out of breath, but she did her best to speak.
"Doctor, I need to speak to you urgently. It's very important, and I need to speak to you alone." She glanced at Enoch, who stared back at her, his face unreadable.
"What is it, Jo?" the Doctor asked, taking her aside.
"It's Enoch," she said. "He's not human."
"Well, of course he's not. We're not on Earth, Jo."
She shook her head frantically and gulped more breathes of air. "No, I mean he's not like a normal person. He's something else. He's a vampire or something. I think he's called the Defender."
"But he couldn't be," insisted the Doctor. "The Defender is a myth that's hundreds of years old. Enoch couldn't be a vampire, he's not pale and bloodless like they are. And, besides, he if was a vampire, he would have already tried to drink our blood."
"But that's just it, Doctor. He doesn't drink human, I mean, people's blood. He drinks animal blood, like sheep. And he is bloodless, we just can't tell because his skin is so dark. It's the perfect disguise."
"Ah, I see!" The Doctor lifted his head to stare out into space, the truth dawning upon him. "But the Defender has been around for centuries. How could he still be alive?
"It's just a title passed down generation to generation," Jo said. "I found a book at the cottage with advice from past Defenders to the current Defender and Defenders of the future. I also found a genealogy and more tapestries describing what the Defenders have done."
"This could be very dangerous, Jo," the Doctor said.
"No, I don't think it is," Jo said, grabbing onto his arm. "The book talked about how it is a Defender's job to be the power of good and convince the other vampires to join him and become a sort of vegetarian, I guess. And I also saw something else on the tapestry…" She was going to tell him about the TARDIS being prophesied, but the Doctor interrupted her.
"Jo, where's Enoch?" The two of them looked around, straining their eyes to see into the darkest shadows, but they could see no sign of him. Enoch had vanished. There was a cry in the dark, suddenly, and Jo jumped.
"Quickly, this way," said the Doctor. He rushed towards the sound, his cape flying out behind him. Jo ran after him. Together, they ran through the streets, following the sound of shuffling and stomping footsteps always a few metres ahead of them.
They turned a corner and skidded to a halt. They had been led to the same place that the Doctor and Enoch had gone earlier that day on their pursuit of the killers. The church and graveyard were the only thing left in front of them.
"There!" Jo cried, grabbing the Doctor's arm and pointing. There was a thin slice of light cutting through the dark night. A door in the side of the church was closing.
"Good eye," the Doctor congratulated her and they ran to the church.
