The next week, Shori and Wright return to the ruins to meet the other vampire he is Iosif Petrescu, Shori’s father. Shori gives the gunman a message to relay to the other vampire-to meet her in a week. Days later, she finds the gunman’s home by scent and learns that another vampire compelled the man to protect the ruins. She hides in the ruins and hunts deer while she recovers eating meat helps her heal more quickly.

Suddenly, a gunman appears and shoots Shori while she tries to protect Wright. They find a golden bird necklace that Shori claims and wears. The next week, Shori and Wright return to the ruins to investigate further. She searches the internet for more clues about vampires. She also remembers being the product of a genetic experiment meant to help “her people” withstand the sun her dark skin provides protection from sunlight. Theodora is afraid at first but quickly grows attached to Shori and wishes for her to return.īack at the cabin, Shori realizes that the animal she killed in the cave was actually a human, and she feels remorseful. She finds an older woman named Theodora and feeds from her. When he falls asleep, she ventures out to find more humans to drink from. She tells Wright that they can have sex, so they do. Shori slowly starts to remember the names and purposes of common things, as well as instinctual behavior from her past. Wright takes Shori to his cabin to get cleaned up. He suspects Shori may be a vampire, and she asks him to help her figure out exactly what she is. He lets her drink from him and expresses his desire to keep her. Wright is also confused because he finds pleasure in the bite. She is surprised to find she enjoys the taste of human blood. Shori is afraid and instinctively bites him. He tries to help her, confusing her small stature and confusion for those of a lost child. She makes her way down a nearby road when a young man, Wright Hamlin, pulls up in a car beside her. Eventually, Shori stumbles upon burned ruins that she feels she should remember. She heals quickly and hunts deer to survive for a few days.

She is blind, injured, and starving, so she kills and eats a nearby animal.

Content Warning: Fledgling contains sensitive material such as sexual content, racism, and violence.įledgling opens with the protagonist, Shori Matthews, waking up with amnesia in a dark cave somewhere outside Seattle.

Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler