He gestured toward the couch, and we sat at opposite ends, angled to face each other.
As soon as I was seated, he asked, "You are really willing to give up your humanity for my daughter?"
I didn't hesitate. At least this much I was sure about. "Yes, sir."
He studied my face. "You seem confident. But perhaps that is because you do not know what being a vampire is truly like. Shall I tell you?"
Less sure I wanted to hear this, I forced a nod. Might as well find out the gory details of what I was getting into. Though part of me would rather find out later once I was turned and couldn't be tempted to chicken out.
"We vampires are an evolved species," he began. "Things that were once dire problems, such as daylight, are no longer threats to us. It may seem that we are the perfect beings, able to walk among humans, appearing relatively normal, with only fire, staking or decapitation to worry about. We are immortals. No sickness will ever harm us, and we will never age past the point in life at which each of us is turned. We are able to read the minds of fellow vampires and humans, but not descendants. We gain great speed, strength and agility."
He paused, letting silence fill the room so long I was forced to reply. "Doesn't sound like being a vampire is all that tough so far."
His silver gaze, a more intense version of Savannah's, locked onto me. "Yes, it would seem so. But within hours of first awakening as a vampire, you feel a thirst that is like nothing you could ever imagine. It is the bloodlust clawing at your very insides, the craving for human blood, and any human's blood will do. In the first few weeks, many vampires accidentally kill even their loved ones because of this blinding thirst."
Okay, not so great to be a vamp in the beginning. "But it goes away, right?"
"The bloodlust lessens after a while. But it never completely goes away. And being around someone like yourself with such powerful, magic-laced blood in your veins presents special challenges. That power calls to even the oldest of vampires as strongly as if we have just been turned. Even at my age of over three hundred years, I find it difficult to be around a descendant for long."
I shifted uneasily, making the couch creak. "But you can do it. I mean, you married Sav's mom. And you were around a bunch of descendants in the woods a couple weeks ago and you were okay."
His lips stretched into a cold smile. "With Savannah's mother, I had the assistance of a charm her mother created for me-a spell that only Savannah's grandmother knew, which dampened the bloodlust and made it bearable. And in the forest with the Clann, it is true that I managed not to attack anyone, but it was a great struggle not to. If I had been younger, I might not have had the control to stop myself."
I turned my head to stare at the empty black opening of the fireplace. "So I wouldn't be able to be around my family for a while."
"If it even worked. Unfortunately, it is impossible to successfully turn a descendant."
I stared at him again. "I've heard the stories. I don't believe them. They're just lies to keep descendants from trying to become vamps."
He was gone and back so fast I felt a breeze, returning to stand by the coffee table with a knife and two saucers. "I will prove it is the truth. Cut yourself, just a little, please, and catch the blood in a saucer. Then add my blood to yours and see what happens." He sliced his finger, and a dark red puddle rapidly formed in one saucer. Then he handed me the knife, his finger already healed as if it had never been cut in the first place. "When you are done, we will continue this discussion outside."
Then he was gone, leaving the front door open. Apparently he didn't want to test his control around a bleeding descendant. Was it really that big a problem?
I cut my finger like he had, letting the blood drop onto the clean saucer. When the pool was roughly the size of a dime, I used the knife to scrape up a few drops of his blood from the other saucer and drip it into mine.
I'd thought he and everyone else had been lying. But when I saw the two combined types of blood turn into one thick, gooey black circle that smelled like rotting roadkill left in the sun, then sizzle and give off tendrils of smoke, I knew it wasn't a myth. And that was from a few drops of vamp blood. What would more vamp blood do inside a descendant's body?
There was no way to turn me into a vampire.
I noticed a piece of paper stuck to the back of the saucer. A Band-Aid. I tore its thin wrapper open with my teeth and covered the cut on my finger, then headed out to the porch on shaking legs.
"If you knew, why bother telling me what being a vamp is like?" He'd been toying with me since I got here, making me think I had a shot at becoming a vampire and being with Savannah forever. If he hadn't been her father, I would have been tempted to punch him.
"So you would know just how impossible it is for you two to be together."
I stared at the street lamp, its light throwing long shadows across the yard.
Sheer desperation made me say, "There has to be a way we can be together. If you love her, tell me what to do, what to say to make them change the rules. You know it can be done. You did it yourself. You married her mother. Give us the chance to have that, too."
"But it did not work. Even after Savannah's mother was kicked out of the Clann, our union was a danger to the peace treaty because of what it produced."
"You mean Savannah."
He nodded. "You two could produce another dhampir like her if she does not fully turn vampire first. And the council, as well as the Clann, will never allow that to happen again."
An image flashed before me of a little girl with curly red hair like her momma. And maybe green eyes like her daddy. I'd never thought about being a dad someday, but something clenched in my chest all the same, making it hard to breathe.
Mr. Colbert didn't seem to notice. "That child would be a danger to vampires and descendants alike, even more than Savannah is. Like Savannah, it could grow into a fully immortal vampire with its father's legendary Coleman magical abilities, or into the next Coleman witch with the speed, strength and agility of a vampire. Either way, it would present enormous risks. Risks that the council-and I am sure the Clann-will never consider acceptable."
I couldn't be turned into a vampire. And as long as I was still human and Savannah could still have kids, the Clann and the council wouldn't let us be together. "What happens if she fully turns?"