Chapter Twelve

"Leo, I don't know how to help you," said Don after Leo let go of his arm.

"Just listen to me," Leo told him firmly, but his brother was shaking his head.

"First you cuss out Splinter," he muttered, mostly to himself. "Then you kick Raph around the room like a doll. And then you bite him like a freakin' vampire! Just what-"

Leo swayed on his feet and grabbed the nearest object for support. His mind whirled and his eyes went blind; the cover had been lifted. "That's it," he said hoarsely. "That's what she is."

"Who?"

Leo blinked and saw that he had grabbed Don by the shoulders. Don had his face scrunched up like he was in pain; Leo hastily let go. "Arella," he answered, breathless with excitement.

"I figured as much. What about her?"

"What you just said," Leo explained impatiently.

Don looked confused. "When? What did I say?"

"Vampire," Leo cried. "That's what Arella is. A vampire."

Now Don was staring at him like he had grown a second head - and maybe a third one while he was at it. Leo had expected as much, but he didn't have time for this. "I know, I know, I sound freakin' crazy, but I'm not jerking you around. Look, she just bit me a couple of hours ago."

Something odd flickered across his brother's face. "Um, well, some girls are into that sort of thing."

Leo let out an impatient huff. "Not like that, idiot. She was making a meal out of me. Check out my neck if you don't believe me."

That hadn't occurred to him before - and it should have. But the closed box had been opened, and now all sorts of things were flooding into his mind. Images of crosses, holy water, wooden stakes...if any of those things even worked. He still wasn't sure, but he was giddy with the thought of trying.

Only he couldn't do it alone. He needed help - he had to make his brother believe him.

Brow furrowed and mouth pulled down in a frown, Donnie was tentatively inspecting his throat. "There are marks," he admitted, sounding surprised about it. "But they could have been caused by just about anything."

Don was probably the worst one to go to. This was too out there for him, too big of a stretch for his scientific mind to take. Mikey would be a better choice - but he was mad at him. So was Raph - even talking to Raph right now wasn't an option. And he couldn't face Splinter. Not yet.

His only choice was to convince his logic-minded brother, no matter what it took. "She bit me," Leo insisted. "She grabbed me and she pinned me to a wall. She's stronger than anything or anyone I've ever fought with before. She could probably have kicked the crap out of the entire Foot Clan by herself."

"That tiny girl?" Don asked incredulously.

"She held my arms until they went numb, Don. Look!"

As he spoke, Leo thrust out his forearms, wrists facing upward. With a frown, Don looked - and made a sound. Leo could practically hear the limits of his knowledge - what he knew to be right and good in the world - being stretched beyond its capacity.

Leo's wrists were darkly bruised. Not in spots and speckles, like after he'd been in a fight. With the distinct markings of someone's fingers, each digit clearly defined. Each slender, delicate digit - fingers that had no business wielding that kind of strength.

Don ran a hand over his own forehead and took a step back. "Okay, that kind of scares me a bit," he admitted.

Leo's mind was churning, trying to come up with a course of action, but he was drawing a blank. That was what he needed Donnie for; he was too worn out, too spent. He needed Donnie's brain, and he needed it on his side.

"It's okay if you don't believe that Arella is the walking dead," he said slowly, absently rubbing his wrist. "As long as you believe me when I say that she's evil and trying to kill me. And maybe you, too. Maybe all of us."

Something else flickered across Don's face - something fearful. "But why?" he wanted to know.

Leo snorted. "Just hungry. Just enjoying the hunt. That's all."

And then he remembered a conversation the two of them had had. He started to laugh - laugh so hard he had to sit down on a nearby ledge. Don was eyeing him warily and didn't sit with him. "Because we taste better," he explained, gasping for breath. "She all but told me so - god, I can't believe how stupid I am. She practically spelled it out to me and I still didn't see it."

"I'm confused," said Don, who was shaking his head. "Suppose I believe this vampire thing - which I don't - but don't they feed on humans? We may be sort of shaped like them, but we're still turtles."

Leo hadn't forgotten that, or about Arella chiding him over his smell. "She told me something about humans having too many impurities in their blood these days. She's a couple hundred years old, if what she told me about her past is true; a lot has changed since then. Food is full of dyes and preservatives, day to day products are full of chemicals - and then there's drugs, booze and cigarettes. She's a bit of a gourmet and got tired of all that, so she found something close to human that doesn't have all that junk flowing inside them. Namely us."

Don was sitting down now, rubbing the side of his head. Leo could tell that the gears of his mind were turning, and turning hard. "But even then, we're still not human," he said. "We're still animals. If animals are okay, why doesn't she just stick to wildlife?"

Even though Don didn't believe a word he was hearing - even though he thought Leo was crazy - he was still trying to work out logical reasoning behind what Leo was telling him.

Bless you, Donnie, thought Leo.

"I'm pretty sure we can forget the Hollywood rules," Leo said thoughtfully, "but some things might be true. Some stories say that animals can keep them alive, but they aren't satisfying. A vampire who feeds only on smaller creatures is a weak and perpetually hungry vampire. Something about the size, strength and intelligence of humans...they feed on that right along with the blood. Our bodies aren't human, but our minds are the same."

In fact, Arella had probably rejoiced when she found a worthy alternative. And that was why Leo believed she planned to feed on them all slowly, one by one. She was going to savor them for as long as she could...but eventually she would drain them all dry.

"That would make sense," Don allowed slowly. "You know, if you were right. If all this was real."

Leo looked at him hard; Don recoiled a little. "How about this, then? Something's happening to me. She told me that..."

She had told him she wasn't interested in making him her pet. That must mean there was something more that had to be done to make him like her. Sharing her blood, probably. So far all he'd had was...

He gave his head a shake. "She's bitten me. I don't know how many times - she did something to my mind so I can't remember. But it was enough times for me to notice a change."

He continued to stare at Don; Don stared back with the look that said his knowledge was being stretched too far again. "Look at it this way; it's like an infection. Can you handle it if you think of it like that? She bit me and now her saliva is inside me. Whatever she is, whatever she has, she's given it to me."

Leo closed his eyes for a moment; his hands were trembling. "I feel tired during the day and stronger at night. Even soft light hurts my eyes. And earlier..."

He swallowed thickly. He had been trying hard not to think about that moment, but now he had no choice. "Earlier, when I bit Raph."

Don cringed. "That..."

"I was only trying to get him to understand," Leo said quickly. "I couldn't say it. I wanted to scream at everybody, "Arella's a vampire!" but I couldn't. She blocked the word out of my head somehow. So I thought I'd show what she is."

Leo shook his head and rubbed his eyes. "It was crazy - I know it was. But it's worse than that."

What was worse was that he had liked it. He had liked the taste of his brother's blood, the feel of it in his mouth. He had wanted more.

Leo hated admitting this to Don, but he did. He explained it all in shame, with tears stinging at his eyes. But when he finished, Don didn't run away. Instead, he leaned back a little and sighed. His eyes were distant.

"Okay, I don't really understand all of this," he said slowly, quietly, "but I can definitely see that something is really, really wrong here. And it all started when you met her - she must have done something to you. I don't know what - hypnotic suggestion, maybe? To make you babble about craziness like this so no one will believe you and leave you vulnerable to what's really going on? I don't know, but..."

He sighed again and stood. "But I'm not leaving you alone right now. We're going to figure this out."

Leo wanted to throw himself at his brother's feet and weep his gratitude. He didn't care that Don didn't completely believe his story, that he would rather believe that something else - something safer - was going on. As long as Don believed he needed help and was willing to give it to him, he was happy. The rest would come later.

"The logical thing now is for you to keep away from Arella," Don said sensibly.

Leo smiled grimly. "I tried. I fought with all my might a little while ago, but it was no use. She called to me, and I went to her - just like she said I would. Right now I feel like I would sooner chop off my own feet than go within fifty yards of her, but she'll probably make me come to her again the next time. She has my will so tight in her hand, she may as well have me on a leash."

Don was making a face; the gears were spinning again. "That's some seriously messed up brainwashing," he decided.

"Call it what you like."

"So, keeping away from her won't help if she can manipulate you like that."

"Nope."

"Well, what's our course of action, then?"

Leo smiled grimly again, and when Don drew back with a look of worry, Leo knew that his eyes were glittering with the same fire that burned in Arella's. "Simple. We have to kill her."