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Chapter Fourteen

     "Super speed?"

     "Yes."

     "What about burning in the daylight?"

     "You've seen me plenty in the sun."

     "Ugh, true."

Idris looked away from the road for a moment to look over at Alixandria's clenched fists, she was biting her bottom lip. He chuckled, "You think of Vampirism as what you see in the movies, try looking at it in a more epidemiological way."

She arched a thin brow, "So, like a disease?"

     "That's what we think."

     "We?"

     "Well, yeah. Did you think Ben and I are the only ones?"

     "No, but... well, how many vampires are there?"

     "That depends," Idris thought back to the handful of real vampires he'd met. "Half breeds are rarely considered vampires, because most of them are too weak to even be considered anything more than human." 

     "Half-breeds? What's that?" Now he really had her interest.

     "Half-breeds are vampires who were not conceived by pure bloods, but instead were turned. The further from the pure lineage the weaker they are."

     "I'm assuming pure bloods are vampires born from two pure blooded vampires."

Idris smiled at her, "You catch on quick for a shortcake."

Alixandria rolled her eyes. She hoped he had forgotten about that pet name. Why couldn't he call her something nicer like...flower? Ha, she cringed at how equally awful that was.

     "So, which are you? A fancy pure blood or a muggle—I mean half-breed."

It was Idris who rolled his eyes this time. "I'll give you a clue... half-breeds tend to have minimal power, whereas pure bloods are born with an abundance of gifts."

     "Hmm, well you can compel, you got that speed thing, you have heightening hearing since you seem to be able to hear when my heart is acting up and, you're obviously strong if you can jump from the roof of the school," she remembered that little incident, it had been right before he had kissed her, when she had told him what he felt for her was lust. "So you're obviously a pure blood." She smiled as Idris nodded his head.

     "Does that mean your mom and dad are vampires as well."

     "Yes." 

     "Are they...umm.—" She wasn't exactly sure how to word it, luckily Idris knew what she was trying to say.

     "Are they still alive?" He chuckled. "Yeah, they are, but they don't live here. Last I checked, they were in Hungary."

     "Wow, they travel a lot?"

     "Yes."

     "Do you miss them?"

Idris lightly scoffed. "I've been around a long time Alix, and so have they. Of course I miss them, but there is also a reason I'm a million miles away." He chuckled.

Alixandria sat in her seat thinking about it all. She'd read so many romance books on vampires and yet they'd all seemed so intense, so it was almost odd to hear that Idris had a family, parents that probably often called to check up on him.

It made her wonder what else was real and what was fiction.

     "So, if vampirism is a disease, then it can be transmitted?" She thought back to what he had said earlier, about thinking about it from an epidemiological standpoint.