"That's where I usually settle," he agrees.

"He could've easily killed me but some combination of snarky banter and my clever trick with the crosses made him find me interesting, when we first met," shrugs Juliet. "So yeah. I did spend a while asking him if I'd get a head start if he ever found me boring, but I think he's in for the long haul, now."

"How reassuring," he says dryly.

"Hey, when we met, I started shooting at him," Juliet says. "He's never actually moved to harm me. Or my dad even though my dad shot him once when Sherlock was saving his life. I think if there's any reason for mistrust at this point some of it would be aimed in my direction."

"...Touché."

"The alts help, too," says Shell Bell.

"Yeah, although at the time I found out about alts I already trusted my Sherlock," says Juliet.

"How do the alts help?"

"Because he acts recognizably like the other Sherlocks," says Juliet, "even though he's a vampire. Sort of like Golden is recognizably like us even though she is a vampire, albeit one that doesn't usually come with a soul renovation. When I hear things about other Sherlocks who aren't vampires, I don't have to take them with a clove of garlic because vampires are usually evil - and then, insofar as my Sherlock is similar to those Sherlocks, I can assume that he will continue to be so."

"I guessed on my first try that this Sherlock was a Sherlock and not a Tony," adds Shell Bell, "even though they look alike apart from their habits and the Sherlock I'm most used to is a girl."

At 'take them with a clove of garlic', he snorts.

Homework goes on until dusk approaches to the point where it is time for the Bells to depart. On her drive home - even with Shell Bell around, Juliet drives; she doesn't want Charlie or her classmates wondering, and besides, Shell Bell could find a door home at school and want to take it right then - she brainphones Sherlock. [You up?]

[Arguably. What is it?]

[It's not urgent, if you want to go back to sleep. You could put up a busy message - or if you want to be wakeable by brainphone in case of emergency you could just give me a range of hours. But Mr. Giles doesn't know anything useful about edge cases of blood exchange with vampires and I wanted to know how you know - if you know - that "tasting" when I get scratched up sparring is safe.]

[You have to drink some of my blood, or another vampire's, in order to turn,] he says. [And I'm not sure the other way around is required at all.]

[How much is enough? If there's splatter when I'm fighting some random vampire - or you, though you're much harder to hurt and I would try to pull back before gouging you that bad if I got a lucky hit - and I have my mouth open...]

[At this point I'm guessing, but my guesses tend to be reliable. I don't think a few drops will cause you any trouble. And I think you would need to be dead before it became a problem in any case. The ideal condition seems to be completely exsanguinated but otherwise relatively intact. I've never heard of a living, uninjured person being fed vampire blood and turning from it, or for that matter of someone's midnight snack getting their teeth in and waking up three days later. All instances of turning seem to involve someone's deliberate effort, and more blood than you are likely to accidentally ingest. I'd even venture to say that it's not cumulative: if you get a little here and a little there over the course of your Slaying career, and have a heart attack when you're ninety, you won't end up a wrinkled little bloodsucker.]

[Okay. Do you know anything about the mechanism behind all this or does it just - add up right?]

[I have a data point you're not likely to get anywhere else,] he offers. [I was force-fed the blood of about eight vampires, in considerable quantity, and I turned in just shy of six hours after they killed me.]

[...that is interesting. Do you know why they did that? If the motive is common or the possibility is known someone could bypass my trips to the morgue.]

[I didn't leave them alive long enough to ask,] he says unapologetically, [and I haven't heard of it since.]

[Okay. I think this town is probably depopulated enough and unpleasant enough for vampires to walk around in by now that you couldn't easily collect eight of them now, anyway...]

[Have I neglected to mention the Bleecker Street bite shop? I'm sorry, I assumed you knew. Most of the vampires left in Sunnydale don't go outside. Their meals walk in on their own two feet, pay them for the privilege of a nibble, and walk out again afterward.]

[...Bite shop. No, I've never heard of such a thing. People pay for that? Like, in quantity? I guess that's pretty unobjectionable, if the business model works.]