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Dan’s head was feeling fuzzy, a feeling he’d been trying to get used to for the past few weeks. His stomach felt unpleasantly empty with a type of hunger human food just couldn’t cure. But he’d be damned if he wouldn’t try. It had been 10 years, give or take, since the last time he’d tried this. But he’d kind of forgotten what would happen when he stopped drinking blood completely. He just… didn’t want to anymore. The shame he felt whenever he needed to drink was something that had been weighing on him heavily ever since he was turned into a vampire. So this seemed like the obvious solution, right? It didn’t matter that he was already getting lightheaded and his mood seemed to swing from annoyance to apathy and back without control. Nope, not at all.
He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts as he bit into a pastry Seán had made. The man in question was standing in front of him, looking very excited at the prospect of Dan trying his food. The pastry tasted good, he guessed, but his taste buds weren’t what they had been like before being a vampire, so he couldn’t say that with certainty.
“It isn’t that bad I guess.” He managed to say. Seáns smile grew wider at the comment.
“I knew you would like it!” He turned his head to the door that led to the library. “YOU HEAR THAT BRIAN? HE LIKES IT! YOU TAKE BACK WHAT YOU SAID NOW?” Dan flinched at the loud yell, the sound reverberating unpleasantly in his head.
“Jesus Christ Seán, keep it down. That was really fucking loud.” He snapped. Seán turned back to Dan, cocking his head in confusion.
“I’m… sorry?” He said. He was about to say more when another yell came from the library, this one belonging to Daithi and aimed at Kevin.
“KEVIN STOP! YOU CAN’T SET THAT ON FIRE! DON’T YOU DARE!” At that, Dan got up in a flash, anger bubbling up in his chest without control.
He marched to the library, Seán following him. The sight in the library was quite an amusing one, at least normally it would be, even for Dan. But the effects of blood starvation, unbeknownst to Dan, had firmly taken hold and were messing with his head. Kevin was standing next to a pile of cloth that looked suspiciously like the curtains that normally hung on the window. He was holding one of his lighters and looked like he was about to use it. Brian was standing behind him, clearly ready to try and rip the lighter out of Kevin’s hand. Dan actually growled at Kevin.
“Put. The. Lighter. Down. And. Give. Me. The. Curtains. Back.” He spat out, opening a hand that almost seemed to be shaking with rage. Kevin took one look at Dan, and for once actually listened.
Seán shared a quick glance with Brian and Daithi. Dan had been acting off for quite a few days, and they had tried to let it slide. But it was becoming more and more clear that something was wrong. If you’d ask him he’d probably never say it out loud, but Seán was concerned about Dan.
“Hey Daniel, can we talk for a bit? I normally wouldn’t do this but I think it’s getting necessary.” He said, sitting down on one of the chairs in the library and gesturing to one of the others. Dan crossed his arms and kept standing. The other lads got closer, some of them sensing where this was headed and others (Kevin) being able to make a good guess.
“Daniel, what’s wrong man? I’ve been giving you the benefit of the doubt for a while now but I can’t really ignore it anymore. You never behave like this, like-” Daithi struggled to find the right word. “-Like we are the biggest bother around.” He finished.
Dan scoffed. “Nothing, nothing is wrong. I’m fine.” He said curtly. That made even Kevin raise his eyebrow.
“The last time you said that you proceeded to faint because you hadn’t slept in a week. I’m not falling for that again.” Kevin said.
Flash, the anger was back in full force. Dan tried to hold it back, but it was outside of his control at this point. He started properly shaking (Or had he already been? He couldn’t quite tell anymore)
“Well maybe Daithi was right damn it! I don’t need your damn concern! Maybe you all do bother me! . You-” He took a shaking breath. “-You never listen to me, keep breaking my fucking stuff and keep putting your nose in shit where it doesn’t belong!” He shouted. Seán was about to open his mouth, but Dan wasn’t done yet. “You know what? GET OUT! Get out of here and don’t come back until I say so. I need some fucking peace and quiet.” He finished.
Seán tried to open his mouth again, but closed it again as all will to fight Dan left him.
“Fine. You want to play it like this? Fine. Your loss.” Brian said, and he proceeded to walk out. Daithi followed without a word, and so did Seán. Kevin tried to stay behind.
“Dan, are you-” Dan looked up at him again, pointed at the door and shouted again.
“GET. OUT!” With that, Kevin shot Dan one more look, and proceeded to leave as well.
Daniel moved to the living room and sat down. Finally, the anger left him was replaced by apathy. Part of him wanted to care, wanted to apologise to the lads and get them back, but it was drowned out. He closed his eyes. A nap seemed like a good idea right now, maybe that would quell that stupid headache that seemed to be forming.
___
Kevin was concerned, very concerned. Dan hadn’t contacted him, or any of the lads in the past few days. And while Dan could get angry sometimes, he never stayed angry for longer than a day. And he had not looked well when he told them to leave. Way too pale, even for a vampire. Kevin grabbed his phone and tried to call Dan, but it rang for a while and then went to voicemail. With that, Kevin made his decision. There was no way Dan had meant what he said, so Kevin was going to check up on him. He’d known him the longest, so Dan would probably not get as angry at him.
The drive to the mansion was short, but weirdly nerve wracking. Kevin was suddenly quite hyper aware that Dan was a vampire with much more natural strength than him, and that thought combined with Daniel’s past anger scared him a bit more than he liked to admit.
He arrived at the mansion. The door was closed, and he felt like going through the door seemed like a bad idea anyway. He looked around, spotting a window in the kitchen that Seán must have forgotten to close a few days ago. But why had Dan not closed it? He usually made sure that all windows were closed whenever no one else was around, to protect his house from spiders. Kevin squeezed himself through the open window, vaguely wincing at the pain that shot through his shoulder at the action.
The first thing he noticed when he entered the mansion was the familiar smell of fire. But not as in the smell of a fireplace. And that concerned him even more. He left the kitchen, went through the library and entered the living room.
The sight in the living room scared the shit out of him. Dan was sitting in his armchair, about the same colour of his white shirt. He was sweating, and seemed to be barely conscious. What was of more immediate concern was the fact that the fire that had been burning in the fireplace had spread and was starting to nip at the carpet. He shouted at Dan, tried to shake him, but no reaction came.
Kevin then ran to the place he knew Dan stored a fire extinguisher. Dan had bought it after Kevin had set the kitchen on fire. Quickly, Kevin put out the fire and turned back to Dan.
“Daniel, are you okay?” he asked, but again, no reaction except for a small groan. Kevin then did the first thing that came up in him. He grabbed his phone and called Brian. “Brian! I need help. I’m in the mansion and Dan looks like he’s hours from death or something. I really don’t know what’s wrong. Get the others and get over here. Please.” He could hear a pause on the other side of the line, before Brian answered.
“I’m on my way, expect me and the others in about 20 minutes.”
When the others arrived and saw Daniel they understood what Kevin meant.
“Brian, you know stuff. Do you know what’s wrong with him?” Kevin said, panicked. Brian analysed Dan before frowning.
“The only thing it matches with seems to be… blood starvation? Why would Dan be blood starved? He’d need to have stopped drinking any blood for at least a week or two. But this looks more like three or more.” He said.
Daithi’s eyes opened wide. “You don’t think he was trying to survive on human food only for a while do you?” He paused to think for a second before continuing. “He has been trying more human food lately. And while he doesn’t drink blood around us he never gets like this.” He finished.
“Whatever the reason was doesn’t really matter right now. He needs blood. We need to get blood from somewhere.” Seán said quietly.
“A blood donation centre?” Kevin suggested. “We’d need to… borrow from them.”
Brian nodded. “That seems like a good place to start.” He said, before looking at Daniel. “Stupid idiot could have died if you hadn’t checked on him Kevin.” He sighed.
“At least we are here in time. I swear Daniel will never get to lecture me on staying healthy ever again. Vampires aren’t human, and he needs to remember that because it’s not a crime.” Seán commented. “Anyway, let’s go to that centre. Kevin, you stay here and watch Daniel, call us if he gets any worse.”
And with that, The lads started collecting blood for Daniel and slowly helped him get healthy again. Daniel learned his lesson, at least for the time being, and the others learned to keep a proper eye on Daniel. So in a way, everyone learned something. That something being that Kevin was indeed capable of putting out fire as well (Although he promised to never do that again)