A few minutes later, Mr. Daniels, now wearing an apron and clutching the barbecue tongs, stopped next to where Olivia and Ivy were sitting at the kitchen table. “So, Olivia,” he said, clearly trying to sound casual, “what are your favorite foods?”
“Tofu,” she answered.
“Ew!” cried Bethany from where she and Brendan were playing with toy elephants on the floor.
“Inconceivable,” Mr. Daniels muttered again. His eyes focused on her shoulder. “Hmmm,” he said, unconsciously reaching down and plucking a loose strand of hair from Olivia’s shirt.
Just then, Mrs. Daniels came over with some pink lemonade. While Olivia was taking the glass, she saw Mr. Daniels carefully put the hair into his shirt pocket.
I bet he’s going to test my DNA, Olivia thought, slightly weirded out. But I guess one hair won’t hurt.
Mr. Daniels ventured outside to cook, leaving the door open so he could still join in the conversation.
“So tell me,” Mrs. Daniels said to Ivy and Olivia, “what was it like when you two first met?”
“Surreal,” Olivia and Ivy both said at once.
Mrs. Daniels nodded like she understood. She exchanged glances with her husband. “You must have wanted to share all your secrets with each other right away.”
Ivy shot Olivia a paranoid look, clearly worried that the Daniels were onto them. Olivia studied Brendan’s parents’ faces: Mrs. Daniels looked so sympathetic, and Mr. Daniels seemed so eager. They want to talk openly, Olivia thought, just as badly as we do. She looked at Ivy hopefully, but her sister responded with a brisk shake of her head.
Bethany suddenly came over to the sisters, twirling like a top. “I can’t believe you’re going to be in Vamp magazine,” she shrieked, “with all the most famous vampires in the world!”
Mrs. Daniels breathed in sharply, and outside, Mr. Daniels’s barbecue tongs clattered to the patio. Ivy looked completely panicked and Bethany suddenly froze, mid-swoon, realizing what she’d done.
“Oops,” she squeaked.
“You didn’t really mean vampires,” Mrs. Daniels said hurriedly, “did you, dear? That was just your little game.”
“Q-quite an imagination,” Mr. Daniels stammered, coming inside.
All at once, tears began pouring out of Bethany’s eyes, making her whiskers run. “Am I going to be condemned?” she bawled.
Mrs. Daniels bent down to comfort her as everyone averted their eyes. Olivia felt terrible. Bethany was clearly going to be scarred for life if Olivia didn’t let her off the hook. She crept up and took the little girl’s hand.
“There aren’t any vampires, I swear!” Bethany sobbed, shaking her head wildly at Olivia, her face soaked with tears.
“Bethany, it’s okay,” Olivia responded kindly. “I already knew.”
We’re staked! Ivy thought, her stomach sinking as she waited for horror to spread across the faces of Brendan’s parents. Instead, Mr. and Mrs. Daniels exchanged knowing looks, and Mr. Daniels bent down before his daughter.
“My nightingale,” he said, “you must never, never talk about vampires.” He glanced toward Olivia. “Especially when there is anyone around that you’re not absolutely sure is one of us. Do you understand?”
Bethany nodded and wiped her nose on her sleeve.
Mr. and Mrs. Daniels turned to Ivy.
Brendan’s parents are going to hate me forever! she thought. “I didn’t mean to break the First Law,” she blurted.
“Of course you didn’t,” Mrs. Daniels said. “But how could you not have? Olivia’s your twin sister, after all.”
Brendan came up behind Ivy and gave her shoulder a supportive squeeze.
“This is an exceptional case,” Mr. Daniels agreed.
Ivy felt relief spreading over her. It was like walking out of hot sun into cool shade.
“Remember the last time a human was told, Marc?” said Mrs. Daniels.
“I thought I was like the only one ever,” Olivia said nervously.
“It is very rare,” Mr. Daniels admitted, “but a handful of humans have learned the Blood Secret.”
“Of course, there was a time when anyone who discovered the existence of vampires was killed,” Mrs. Daniels said. Ivy noticed her sister turn white. “But things are different now.”
“What happened the last time?” Ivy inquired.
“His name was Karl Lazar,” Mr. Daniels said, stroking his chin. “The story made quite a scandal in the black papers, because he was the son of a vampire count. And Karl didn’t just break the First Law. He broke the Second Law, too.”
“Falling in love with a human,” Mrs. Daniels clarified. That’s what must have happened with our parents, Ivy thought.
“Yuck!” little Bethany exclaimed.
“So what happened to him?” Ivy asked uneasily.
“The Lazar clan was strongly separationist,” Mr. Daniels said. “It was the worst of all possible situations.” Ivy thought of her father, and how he refused to meet Olivia.
“Karl ended up in exile, living with his human mate. He was completely isolated from his community and his family,” Mrs. Daniels concluded, and Ivy felt like a tiny stone had dropped inside her stomach and hit the dark bottom. Is that how I’m going to end up, cast out because of my relationship with my sister? she thought.
Mrs. Daniels looked at her children tenderly. “I don’t know how parents could stand to sever themselves from their own children in that way.”
A few minutes later Mr. Daniels unobtrusively gestured to Ivy that he wanted her to come outside to the barbecue. Ivy hurried over. Mr. Daniels was turning steaks. He pointed with his tongs at an unappetizing brown disk in one corner. “Do you have any idea how to cook one of these veggie burgers?” he asked in a low voice.
Ivy shrugged apologetically.
“The things humans find appetizing,” Mr. Daniels murmured. “Inconceivable!” The smoke rising around his head made his wild mane of gray hair appear even larger.
“Olivia and I read your research online,” Ivy said. “Do you really think it’s impossible for a vamp and a human to have babies?”
Mr. Daniels’s glasses flickered with the reflection of the barbecue’s flames. “That is exactly why I find you and Olivia so extraordinary,” he said. “Science is the study of empirical evidence. It is about what we can prove physically. And the existence of twin sisters, one vampire and one human, is nothing if not physical proof. I’m not certain what the two of you prove exactly. But we shall find out!”