"Well, if you want to be informed, I bet Jane could do it," says Kerron. "But my point wasn't about parents in general, it's that I grew up such that someone could die one day and play how-high-into-the-air-can-Kerron-be-flung the next."

"Depends on whether Mum's throwing me or Dad and whether magic's involved. I think the record is six stories up. This is when I was yea high, though." His hand hovers considerably lower than his current height.

He snorts. "Did you hit the ground when you came down?"

"Nah, Dad caught me. I would've been fine if he hadn't, though, half-vampires are pretty durable, like two steps up from a pet rock. Feed once daily, do not psychologically scar."

"Nice," he says, giggling.

"It's a pretty good deal. Also, I don't need magic to avoid wanting to go for your jugular, which is an advantage we have over vampires."

This notion cracks him right up.

"And we pass for human better and we sleep - not everybody agrees on whether that's a plus - but we have to breathe and we're slower and weaker and so on compared to full vamps. All kindsa tradeoffs."

"I think sleeping is a plus."

"I agree with you, some of my friends don't. There's magic going around for it now if they don't want to do it, though."

"Is there anybody who doesn't sleep and magics so they do?"

"If anybody does they haven't told me about it."

"Huh."

"I have some guesses, but for some reason it feels like intrusive gossip? Vampires all used to be humans, and wanting to go back to that seems like more private information than who's using - performance-enhancing hexagons to stay up late."

"I don't get it."

"Well, I was born a half-vampire, never been anything else. If I don't like it it's pretty neutral if I'm like 'Mum, can I have a hex' and fix whatever's bugging me. If a vampire does the same thing it means they feel like they lost something when they turned. That make any more sense?"

"N...maybe? I dunno."

Kerron shrugs. "I don't know another way to say it."

"Kind of academic, I don't expect you to want to turn any more than Mum or Harley."

"Do me-s just not wanna be vampires?"

"Mum and Harley don't. One of you was for a while but then undid it with magic because he had a fight with his girlfriend or something? I'm sort of peripheral to major social news like that, I don't have the ins and outs of that."

"It's weird that me-s have girlfriends," says Felicity. "It's weird that they have kids."

"I was an accident," says Kerron. "Bear that in mind when you're grown up and carelessly playing with shapeshifting."