[ He can't hide behind beside Conrad forever, so Ashton has moved away as he contemplates if he shouldn't just leave. He promised he would stay and pay attention, but the more people that showed up the more he felt like he just didn't belong.
Yes, he fit the criteria for a vampire (even if that wasn't the proper term, enough of the details lined up to make the term appropriate in his mind) but it was something that just sort of... happened to him. Another unfortunate circumstance of his existence, just like the dragons had been, only utterly irreversible.
Ashton sighed, looking like a little kid who was dragged off to some adult function when all he wanted to do was go home and sleep. ]