He muttered something that sounded like a curse. “Around the year 1066.”
I nearly choked on a bite of pancake. “Did you say 1066?”
“I’m relatively young,” he said. He waited for a moment while my brain tried to process that the man I was sitting across from was nearly a thousand years old.
“You said ‘born,’” I pointed out when I’d finally regained control of my brain. “I thought a vampire bit you, and then you died, and you became a vampire.”
“That is one vulgar way a vampire can be made.” He grimaced as if the thought of it was unappetizing. He pushed a bit of egg around with his fork. He’d yet to take a single bite.
“I thought you said you ate food, but you haven’t really touched yours,” I said.
“I’m not a huge fan of scrambled eggs.”
There was something about the way he said it–as if he’d been offered a sandwich without the crusts cut off–that felt so at odds with everything he was telling me that I couldn’t help myself. I burst out laughing. Julian tilted his head, looking perplexed at this reaction.
“I’m sorry,” I said, still unable to get my laughter under control. “It’s just that you’re a thousand years old–”
“Almost,” he cut in.
“–and you’re a picky eater,” I finished.
“Maybe later you can explain the joke,” he said dryly.
“Sorry.” I forced myself to stop. I had no idea how long my coffee date with a vampire was going to last. I needed to focus on getting answers. How else would I be able to decide if I wanted him to compel me to forget everything? “So, what’s vulgar about being bitten and becoming a vampire? Wait!” A terrible thought occurred to me. “Is Carmen going to become a vampire?”
“No, there are a few more steps involved to be turned,” he reassured me.
“Thank God,” I said with a groan. “I can’t imagine how full of herself she’d be if someone made her immortal.”
“Not her biggest fan?”
I shook my head. Now wasn’t the time to discuss Carmen or me or any other petty symphony drama. “What else is involved?”
Julian sighed as if he’d rather not discuss the particulars of how one became a vampire. “A human must be drained entirely of blood and then offered vampire blood at the point of death.”
“Why does that work?”
“Most vampires believe it’s magic.”
“But you don’t?” I guessed.
“Some vampire scientists have researched it. There’s clear evidence that vampire blood overwrites human blood.”
“I feel like I should have paid more attention in biology class,” I confessed. “So basically, if you gave me your blood, it would turn me into a vampire. So why won’t Carmen turn?”
“As I said, it’s a bit more complicated. Vampires generally don’t discuss the process.”
“Because they don’t want humans to know how to do it?” I asked.
“Because it’s rather private,” he said. “At least, it should be. Making another vampire is an intimate choice.”
“Have you ever done it?” I wasn’t sure if I wanted him to answer that question. Not with the way he said intimate.
“Not like that,” he said. “There are other ways.”
“Oh.” So he had made other vampires. Envy crept through me, and I stabbed a piece of pancake with my fork. I wasn’t sure what I had to be jealous about. It didn’t sound particularly pleasant to become a vampire. It was more the idea that Julian’s fangs might have been in another neck. It was a ridiculous thing to be upset over. He was over nine hundred years old and a vampire. He’d probably bitten hundreds–maybe thousands–of other women. “What other ways?”
“A ritual exchanging of blood,” he said.
“That’s it?” I asked.
“Believe me, you don’t want to hear about the other ways.”
But I did. I got the impression that Julian did not, however. “So, then what do you mean you were born a vampire?”
“Exactly that. I was born to a vampire mother and father,” he said.
“Vampires can have babies?” I dropped my fork. This couldn’t get any weirder.
“Yes, Thea,” he said in an exasperated tone, “Vampires can have babies.”
“So, wait, do you have kids?” I tried to imagine Julian with children. An image of him sitting grouchily at a soccer game while tiny vampires ran around formed in my mind.
“I have no pureblood children,” he said.
“So vampires that are born are purebloods,” I clarified. It felt like I should be taking notes to keep all of this straight. I doubted Julian wanted a notebook full of the vampire rules floating around the world, though.
Julian nodded.
