With a tired sigh he cleaned his sword off on her clothes, and then limped back towards the road.

"You okay?" said Mack as David approached.

David just nodded wearily, the motion only visible to the human in the faint light of a quarter moon because of his hat.

Mack shook his head as David walked closer and he could make out the many cuts and gashes on his body. They were mostly superficial, but there were a lot of them. "You don't look that great"

"I'll live," said David as he reached the road. "Just give me a minute." He sat down and took his hat off, setting it on the road beside him.

Mack stood there and looked at him for a moment. Then he nodded to himself and walked up to the vampire. He knelt down in the road at David's side held out his hand. "Here."

David looked up at him, puzzled. "What?"

"The story said that you took blood from the people you saved. I figured it was because you needed it. And it looks like you need something or other now, and I don't know what else it would be. I'm a pretty big guy, compared to you, I figure I have a little to spare, considering you saved my life."

David hesitated, staring at this surprising human for a long time. Then he nodded once. "Thank you," and he bent his head to take what was offered.

He took somewhat more than his usual single sip, but he was careful, he remembered how easy it was to lose himself in the euphoria of blood taking, and metered and counted his swallows carefully. After six slow mouthfulls he stopped, although there was something animalistic at the back of his head that howled for him to continue, to take it all. He ignored it and dropped Mack's wrist. "Thank you," he repeated.

Mack looked down at the two modest puncture wounds, his expression a little bemused. "Hey, no problem."

David got to his feet, feeling much better. He picked up his hat and dropped it on his head. "Well, I don't sense anybody else out there, but I should probably escort you the rest of the way to Cottonwood, just in case."

"Thanks," said Mack.

They walked most of the night in silence, each alone with his thoughts. As they came within sight of the city's glow, David stopped. "This is as far as I go," he said. "There aren't any other vampires nearby, so you should make it to the lights just fine."

Mack nodded. "Thank you again. I just have to ask one more thing though... Why?"

"Why do I hunt vampires?"

"Yeah. And why do you save humans? There's just one of you, and there's an awful lot of them. And you can't save us all."

David considered the answer for a moment, then he shrugged. "I can't save you all, but I will save who I can, because I was human once too."