other cells.”
“What?” Snod looked over at Frankie for a translation.
“It’s a bacteria that cannot survive in the presence of oxygen,” Frankie said patiently. “That’s why
humans aren’t automatically turned into vampires when they drink vampire blood. The bacteria can’t
survive in a normal human body because there’s too much oxygen-rich blood.”
“Which is why a potential baby vampire has to be drained almost dry,” Lorenzo added. “Once all the
oxygen-happy blood is gone, the V will freakin’ flourish and take over when the parent vampire gives
them their vampified blood. It took us forever to figure that out.”
“And what was the thing about a buh-loid?” Snod asked slowly.
“Bdelloid,” Frankie answered with a smile. “They’re a very special microorganism that are, well,
biologically immortal. They can repair their cells indefinitely as long as they have access to fresh
genetic material. Namely other bdelloids or other microorganisms, but the function of V is the same.
It’s how we are able to live forever. As long as we are getting blood, our bodies never age.”
“All the V needs is tasty blood to keep on regenerating,” Lorenzo chirped excitedly. “It’s an
incredible, incredible bacteria. It actually repairs not only itself, but the cells of the host body. We’ve
also been trying to study the connection between the bacteria and like, Frankie’s powers, but it’s been
slow going. But! Oh! We do know why he can day walk!”
Snod turned over the first omelet, doing his best to keep up. He had to wonder if the Order would be
interested in any of this information, and he was trying to pay attention.
“V is super sensitive to sunlight. Fries it on the spot when it’s exposed. But! Some bacteria react to
high levels of stress in super magical ways,” Lorenzo went on, his eyes bright and excited. “They can
revert to a super tough dormant form that we call an endospore. Like suuuuper tough, like boiling for
ten hours will not kill these babies. Tuberculosis is like that! Like, oh, where they’ve found living
endospores of TB that are like, thousands of years old.
“V is already sort of like an endospore because it already has this really nasty and rigid cell wall. But
here’s the fun part. When we compared Frankie’s blood to other vampires who can’t day walk, his
cells are even thicker than theirs! We think when Frankie took his little stroll into the sun, his cells
didn’t just lie down like a wussy and fry. Oh, no! They went like freakin’ super-Saiyan and turned into
this badass super resistant endospore type cell, and now sunlight doesn’t touch him.”
“But why did that happen for you and other vampires die?” Snod asked, frowning as he plated the
