S. Cedric - Of Fever and Blood

Finally, she arrived. The psychologist was a chubby woman with a round face and big caring eyes. She crouched in front of Eloise and spoke in a gentle voice. It had little effect, though. The girl refused to let go of her savior. Eva had to walk her to the psychologist’s car. Eloise still had not uttered a word.

“It’s all over,” Eva whispered in her ear. “They’ll never come back to hurt you. Now everything will be fine, okay?”

Eloise shook her head and held tight.

“Your family is waiting for you. You won’t be alone. You won’t be left alone, ever.”

She hated herself for lying this way. But she knew that sometimes lying was a lesser evil that was needed to do a little good, even if it was illusory.

Finally, the girl, her eyes still vacant, let go of Eva. The inspector’s heart was sinking, but she remained stoic as she leaned toward Eloise and pressed her lips to the girl’s forehead.

“Everything’s going to be all right, honey. I promise.”

Another lie. For her own good , she repeated to herself . For her own good .

Eva Svarta watched the car drive off and disappear.

Then she leaned against a tree. There she was. This girl’s fate was no longer in her hands. From now on, little Eloise would be left to shrinks. To drugs. To sleep filled with nightmares.

Like you. So long ago. Or only yesterday. It was only yesterday, wasn’t it?

For a moment, Eva couldn’t help wondering what would happen to that kid. How she would manage to live again after experiencing such horror. Could Eloise Lombard live a normal life, get married, have a family. Could she even set eyes on a man without feeling threatened?

She forced herself to refocus.

That’s the reason you became what you are. That’s why you don’t have the right to crack up.

Eva surveyed the farm, which now looked like an army barracks full of men in uniform. Another vehicle had just pulled up, and more technicians, all of them dressed in white, were getting out. They were busy unloading video cameras and other equipment. A bit farther down the road, she saw no fewer than three forensic vans approaching.

Her mind was churning. She did not want to think of the past anymore. That was another life. It was behind her, where it had to stay. But reality seemed to be fissuring once again. Her private demons were lurking, lured by the smell of blood. All that glistening liquid life spilled.

Eva clenched her fists in an effort to get herself together, to come back to the present. Sometimes her mind switched off. Like this. Like it had right now. It was as though no sound were reaching her anymore. There were so many people whirling around her, coming and going like ants, latex-gloved hands setting down yellow markers for every trace of blood, every bit of human meat.

Get a hold of yourself, Eva .

At the far end of the farmyard, she saw a young officer dashing to a corner to vomit. His colleagues gave each other commiserating looks before putting masks over their mouths and noses and resuming their dance. For it was a dance, wasn’t it? Some sort of intricate ballet in which she had no role. She did not know the steps anymore. She watched men pushing gurneys out of the barn. Body bags with broken flesh inside.

Eva bit her lip. She wanted to scream. The real and the unreal blurred. They had been right when they said she was nuts. But she had more immediate concerns.

She heard footsteps on the gravel.

It was Alexandre Vauvert. He had taken his bulletproof vest off, and all he wore now was a gray T-shirt that hugged his muscular chest and revealed a tattoo weaving up his right bicep. His left shoulder had been bandaged. He was amazingly pale. His scarred boxer’s face had a formidable look, but his eyes were brooding.

“You okay?” Eva asked.

Vauvert gave a bitter laugh. He glanced at the woman.

“I think we all have a limit. I’ve reached mine.”

He drew a pack of Marlboros from his pocket and lit one. He breathed in the tobacco, his eyes half-closed and his lips tight around the cigarette. The smoke flowed from his nostrils.

“Damn, I needed that.” He took in the mountain landscape before continuing in a low voice. “I’ve had more than my share of corpses in this fucking job. I’ve seen things so twisted no one would believe me if I told them. But this…” His gaze became distant. “This, Svarta, is beyond everything. It’s beyond what I can stand. There are about twenty victims in that barn. All women, of course. These sick fucks bled them like animals. They ripped their faces off, for fuck’s sake! What kind of a human being does something like that? When I think of all the doctors who had them under their care and who, each time, let them out.”

“They’re not going anywhere now,” Eva said with a trace of a smile.

“Yeah.”

Taking a drag of his cigarette, he watched the members of the forensic unit doing their thing. The first of the refrigerated vans holding the corpses left, lumbering away through the trees.

Then he turned to the Eva again.

“At least, you saved this girl’s life. I wanted to thank you for that. How was she doing?”

Eva shrugged.

“She’ll survive. That’s the main thing. She left with the shrink ten minutes ago. Her family is waiting for her at the hospital.”

“What she went through… I don’t know how a kid can go back to a normal life after something like that.”

“Don’t worry, we manage,” Eva said.

Vauvert studied her for a moment.

“How do you deal with it?”

“What makes you think I deal with it? You think it doesn’t affect me, just because they say I’m some kind of heartless machine, a monster hunting monsters?”

Eva took off her sunglasses, revealing the two red embers that were so unlike the blue and brown eyes of most other albinos. Vauvert saw that those scarlet eyes held glistening tears. The woman’s skin was white as chalk; her eyes had dark rings under them.

He gave her an embarrassed smile and nodded to show that he understood.

“For what it’s worth, I know you’re no monster, Eva.”

“Of course I am. But that’s off topic.”

“You don’t like talking about yourself much, do you?”

She put her sunglasses back on.

“You’re absolutely right. We all have a limit. That girl in the house, she had a knife stuck in her vagina.”

“I know,” Vauvert said. He hesitated, then asked, “Is it what was done to you that made you the way you are?”

Eva gave a cryptic smile.

“What makes you think that something was done to me?”

“Because you didn’t just neutralize that son of a bitch. You emptied your clip into his head. I’ve been a cop for fifteen years, you know. I’ve seen behavior affected by stress and panic. But that’s not you. You didn’t lose your cool for a second. What you came here for, it was no job. It was a crusade.”

“Ever thought of becoming a profiler, Vauvert?”

The inspector chuckled.

“Getting into people’s heads? No thanks. This job fucks with my brain enough.”

For the first time that day, she laughed.

“Thank you.”

Vauvert winked at her.

“My pleasure.”

He hesitated, then turned toward her again.

“There’s still something that’s bothering me.”

“What’s that?”

“I was wondering…” He looked around to make sure no one would hear him. “What I’m going to ask might sound strange, but, well, you are really sure there were only two of them, right?”

Eva frowned.

“Why are you asking me that?”

“Because…” Vauvert shifted his feet. “I just had an odd feeling.”

“Odd how?”

“I can’t say. There’s something in there that freaks me out. It’s a gut reaction, really. The air in this place makes my hackles rise. We know that those guys were draining their victims of their blood, but to do what? You think they were drinking it?”