Fledgling

Shori finds a road and follows it instinctively—when a car suddenly pulls up beside her. Inside is a young man who asks if she is alright. It takes a few seconds for Shori to recall language and how to respond, but she assures him that she is fine. When the man offers to take her home, she gets in the car even though she has no memory of where her home is. The man believes Shori is a child because she is small and confused. He tells her that he will take her to a hospital or police station. Afraid of either option, Shori tries to exit the car. When the man tries to stop her, she bites his hand.

At first, the man is angry, then confused when Shori licks the wound and claims he tastes good. He sets her on his lap and lets her drink from his neck. He even jokingly calls her a vampire. Shori notices that he finds pleasure in the bite and remembers pleasure as a good thing. The man is still confused but assures her that he wants to keep her and decides to call her “Renee.” Shori tells him about hunting and killing Deer, which clashes with his knowledge of vampire lore. He asks Shori what she truly is, and she asks him to help her find out.

Shori learns that the man’s name is Wright Hamlin. He takes her to his cabin where he will hide her. She remembers that taking too much blood from a single human can harm them, so she decides to find other humans to drink from. Shori remembers more things as she explores the cabin, such as the names and purposes of household items. Wright examines her body and has trouble believing she is older than 10 or 11 because she lacks breasts. Shori inspects herself in the mirror and does not recognize her own reflection. She also notices her scars are gone, and Wright’s bite wound is already healing. Suddenly she remembers that fresh human blood and meat will help her heal, grow, and eventually carry a child.

Wright gives Shori clothes to wear after she bathes and when he helps her undress, she realizes she feels comfortable with him because she bit him. Wright himself is frightened by how quickly he has become attached to her. Shori tells him that he is free to have sex with her if he wants, and they do; during the act, she drinks from him again. Worried about taking too much blood, she leaves the cabin to find other humans to drink from after he falls asleep.

Shori sneaks into a house three doors down from Wright’s cabin and drinks from the woman who lives there, Theodora Harden, to create a “bite bond.” At first, Theodora struggles against her but then enjoys the drinking process and wishes for the vampire to return. On the way back to the cabin, Shori bites four more people and realizes that her biting and drinking instincts are intact despite her missing memories. Shori’s slow, selective memory frustrates her, and she tries to remember more by thinking back to the cave she emerged from. Suddenly, she realizes that the first “animal” she ate in the cave was a human who seemed relieved to have found her alive; in her haze, she failed to recognize him until now. Shori feels remorseful for eating the man and worries about hurting Wright.

Shori asks Wright more questions about amnesia and vampires. She tells him about the burned ruins, and he agrees to take her back to them later. Before he leaves for work, he shows her how to browse the internet for information. When Wright asks about Shori’s sun allergy, he triggers a memory. She remembers that she is a genetic experiment—one that made her Black so she could withstand the sun better than others of her kind.

As Shori browses the internet, she finds unhelpful information about people with sun-triggered diseases and memory loss. She also finds news articles that incorrectly report the houses at the burned ruins as having been abandoned. She knows this is a lie because she’d smelled burnt flesh at the ruins and continues to feel a connection to the homes. When Wright returns from work, he brings Shori clothes and books about vampires. The books contain confusing, contradictory folklore about the creatures.

Later, Shori visits Theodora again for a full meal so as to not weaken Wright too much. Shori learns that Theodora works for the county library, and because she is older and smaller than Wright, she worries the woman will be weak the next day. Theodora asks her to come back soon, and they kiss before the older woman goes to sleep.

On Friday, Wright takes Shori to revisit the ruins, which she finds by scent. There, she notices another scent—that of a vampire who recently left. Shori makes Wright stay behind while she investigates, eventually finding a place where a helicopter recently landed. Suddenly, she catches a new scent belonging to a human gunman and races back to Wright. The shooter aims for Wright, but Shori pushes him out of the way just as he fires. When she charges the shooter, he fires again and hits her. Still, she knocks him unconscious and drinks his blood.

Shori is concerned about hurting Wright like she did the man in the cave, so she forces him to leave her in the woods while she recovers; he reluctantly agrees. Before Wright leaves, Shori asks if he still wants to be with her because she feels guilty about the bite bond seemingly controlling him against his will. She says she will help free him if he wants, but he insists on coming back for her.

While Shori sleeps hidden beneath rubble, the gunman regains consciousness and leaves. She awakens over the next couple of days and eats a domestic goat to help her heal. When she feels well enough, she finds the gunman’s home. Shori sneaks in, bites him, and commands him to reveal why he tried to shoot Wright. She hopes the influence from her bite will force the man to speak, but when he cannot give her information, she realizes that another of her kind has already bitten him and ordered his silence. The man is in pain because of the clashing commands of two vampires. Shori infers that the other vampire ordered the man to guard the ruins and shoot any trespassers. She feels remorse for causing the man pain and gives him a message for the other vampire: She will meet him at the ruins in one week. After she leaves, she meets Wright down the road and they return to the cabin.