Fledgling

Content Warning: The Chapter 9 Summary contains a sex scene.

The next week, Shori and Wright return to the ruins and search the rubble. They find a gold chain Necklace of a bird, which Shori then wears. Wright notes that Shori looks like an “elfin little girl” (60). Suddenly, a helicopter arrives, and a blond, pale man steps out. He immediately recognizes Shori and calls her by her name. He introduces himself as Shori’s father, Iosif Petrescu, and explains that the ruins were where she and her mothers, the Matthews, lived because males and females of their species live separately. He also explains that their species is called Ina, and that they are different from fictional vampires. Ina cannot be created, only born; they must sleep during the day and drinking blood allows them to live for hundreds of years. The humans they drink from are called symbionts; they live longer, healthier lives in a “mutualistic symbiosis” (63). Iosif reveals that Shori is 53 but still considered an Ina child; she will continue to grow and be able to bear children at around 70.

Iosif tells Shori and Wright that he was the vampire who bit and ordered the gunman to guard the ruins, because he believed the murderers might return to relive their crime.