“His name was Karl Lazar,” Mr. Daniels said, stroking his chin. “The story made quite a scandal in the black papers, because he was the son of a vampire count. And Karl didn’t just break the First Law. He broke the Second Law, too.”
“Falling in love with a human,” Mrs. Daniels clarified. That’s what must have happened with our parents, Ivy thought.
“Yuck!” little Bethany exclaimed.
“So what happened to him?” Ivy asked uneasily.
“The Lazar clan was strongly separationist,” Mr. Daniels said. “It was the worst of all possible situations.” Ivy thought of her father, and how he refused to meet Olivia.
“Karl ended up in exile, living with his human mate. He was completely isolated from his community and his family,” Mrs. Daniels concluded, and Ivy felt like a tiny stone had dropped inside her stomach and hit the dark bottom. Is that how I’m going to end up, cast out because of my relationship with my sister? she thought.
Mrs. Daniels looked at her children tenderly. “I don’t know how parents could stand to sever themselves from their own children in that way.”
A few minutes later Mr. Daniels unobtrusively gestured to Ivy that he wanted her to come outside to the barbecue. Ivy hurried over. Mr. Daniels was turning steaks. He pointed with his tongs at an unappetizing brown disk in one corner. “Do you have any idea how to cook one of these veggie burgers?” he asked in a low voice.
Ivy shrugged apologetically.
“The things humans find appetizing,” Mr. Daniels murmured. “Inconceivable!” The smoke rising around his head made his wild mane of gray hair appear even larger.
“Olivia and I read your research online,” Ivy said. “Do you really think it’s impossible for a vamp and a human to have babies?”
Mr. Daniels’s glasses flickered with the reflection of the barbecue’s flames. “That is exactly why I find you and Olivia so extraordinary,” he said. “Science is the study of empirical evidence. It is about what we can prove physically. And the existence of twin sisters, one vampire and one human, is nothing if not physical proof. I’m not certain what the two of you prove exactly. But we shall find out!”
He grabbed a fork from beside the barbecue and speared the veggie burger. “Imagine this is human DNA, the fundamental building block of human life,” he said. In his other hand, he picked up a huge steak with his tongs. “While this is vampire DNA, the essence of our existence. My research says they are incompatible.” He flung them both back on the barbecue, and the flames flared wildly. “But perhaps there is something we are missing.”
He sighed thoughtfully. “Perhaps,” he continued, “the helical structure of human DNA can be made to intermingle with the helical structure of our DNA.” He began spouting hypotheses. Ivy had no clue what he was talking about, but the cloud of smoke around his head was getting larger.
“Marc,” Mrs. Daniels called from the kitchen, “is something burning?”
Ivy and Mr. Daniels looked down at the barbecue. He quickly flipped everything over.
“I’d like you and Olivia to come down to V-Gen,” he said. “My colleagues would be very excited to meet you. Of course,” he went on in a low voice, “you should probably pretend Olivia doesn’t know about vampires. Who knows how ASHH might feel about that.”
“What’s ASHH?” Ivy asked, waving Olivia over from where she and Brendan were playing death tag with Bethany.
“The Agency for the Security of Human Hybrids,” Mr. Daniels explained.
“That sounds ominous,” Ivy remarked.
“There have always been legends in the vampire community about the horrific results that ensue when a human and a vampire mate,” Brendan’s father said.
“Like how I used to have four heads?” Olivia interrupted.
Brendan’s dad did a double take.
“She’s joking,” Ivy clarified.
“Of course,” Mr. Daniels said sheepishly. “In any case, it’s been a source of great paranoia. Vampires are terribly worried that a human and a vampire will produce some sort of monster, which might cause our existence to be revealed. For this reason, ASHH was set up by the Vampire Round Table to investigate reports of vampire human relationships. It’s all nonsense, of course,” he said, “but ASHH checks into each and every tabloid headline about a deformed offspring. They’re kept quite busy, as you might imagine.”
“Have they ever discovered any actual hybrids?” asked Ivy. Maybe that’s what Olivia and I are, she thought with a shiver.
“Not a single one,” Mr. Daniels answered. “I personally believe ASHH isn’t worth what it costs to run, but unfortunately I’m in the minority. And in any case they do do some good work—including funding a few projects for V-Gen.” He leaned close to the girls. “It helps that the agency’s office is in our building, but they do tend to poke their noses into our business more than I’d like.”
“Do you think they have files about us?” Ivy asked apprehensively. Olivia nodded like she’d been about to ask the same question.
“If they don’t already,” Brendan’s father said, “I expect they soon will. But don’t worry,” he added upon seeing Ivy and Olivia’s reaction. “Since you two being twins has become so public, ASHH wouldn’t dare kidnap you for study.”
Somehow, thought Ivy, that doesn’t make me feel better.
“Um, Mr. Daniels?” Olivia said, gesturing to the barbecue.