The Purge

"The purge !" he muttered.

"The what ?" I shouted.

"Sit down, Darren," Mr Crepsley said seriously. "We have a lot of talking to do. Harkat — go fill our canteens and fix a new fire."

When Mr Crepsley had gathered his thoughts, he explained to Harkat and me what was happening.

"You know that half-vampires become full-vampires when more vampire blood is pumped into them.

What we have never discussed — since I did not anticipate it so soon — is the other way in which one's blood can turn.

"Basically, if one remains a half-vampire for an extremely long period of time — the average is forty years — one's vampire cells eventually attack the human cells and convert them, resulting in full-vampirism. We call this the purge."

"You mean I've become a full-vampire?" I asked quietly, both intrigued and frightened by the notion.

Intrigued because it would mean extra strength, the ability to flit and communicate telepathically.

Frightened because it would also mean a total retreat from daylight and the world of humanity.

"Not yet," Mr Crepsley said. "The hair is simply the first stage. We shall shave it off presently, and though it will grow back, it will stop after a month or so. You will undergo other changes during that time

— you will grow, and experience headaches and sharp bursts of energy — but these too will cease. At the end of the changes, your vampiric blood may have replaced your human blood entirely, but it probably will not, and you will return to normal — for a few months or a couple of years. But sometime within the next few years, your blood will turn completely. You have entered the final stages of half-vampirism. There is no turning back."

***

Cirque Du Freak: Hunters of the Dusk, Chapter 9