A Germ with a Collective Intelligence

I have been hashing out with myself a scene in my current book that deals with vampirism. I wanted it to be realistic. Though I can understand where the sparkly idea came from, and I can even imagine it being true, I'm more interested in how traditional vampirism could occur.

As we all know, vampirism is transmitted by a bite, one that breaks the skin. We also know that if the victim is sucked dry the germ isn't transmitted, or at least it cannot grow. Therein lies my theory, and I am really interested in knowing what you think of it.

Just so you know, this is only for a single scene. There is not going to be another vampire book out there. I know you are all heaving a huge sigh of relief.

In two and a half years (book time) Derrick will encounter a rogue vampire. Before anyone else finds him, Derrick must hunt him down and either kill him or return him to the hidden vampire society where his 'family' can deal with him. Yes, just like in Twilight, vampires move among us with some restrictions, but they have agreed to be obscure. It's either that or eradication.

At any rate, the fight will go pretty much as expected. Derrick will win after a fashion, but he will also lose - he will be bitten. Rapidly weakening, he must go to the closest place he can reach, the grove near his home. This grove is a focal point of magical energy, plus a clan of dryads live in the oaks around the perimeter. Between Derrick's magic and that of the dryads, Derrick and the vampire are bound on the surface of the cromlech to await the coming sunrise and their demise.

A druid dying in his grove is the worst thing that can happen to a grove, but Derrick couldn't go anywhere else, he didn't have the energy or the time. The dryads, however, opted to do what they could to keep Derrick alive. They 'fed' him. They gave him what he needed to live. What they didn't realize was that dryad blood wasn't what the vampire germ needed to survive. Herein is my theory. Dryad blood is like unto tree sap; it does for trees and dryads what blood does for people, and since it's dryad blood, and not tree sap, it did for Derrick what was most needed at the time. It fed Derrick but not the vampire germ.

The vampire germ has a collective intelligence - the more of the germ grows in the body, the more intelligent it becomes, and the more it takes over the body. As it multiplies, it of course kills the body, but it also keeps it animated, an animated body is needed in order to continue to feed the germ, and the brain is the perfect location for the germ to collect its intelligence. Thus develops the vampire.

New vampires need to feed. The germ grows at a furious rate right at first, devouring what blood is contained within the host, thus sparking the insane hunger that drives new vampires. Derrick couldn't help but feed, and he couldn't stop himself. Fortunately, he wasn't the one in control. Being bound, the dryads could dictate how much he fed off of which one. They could then retire to their tree to recover.

Derrick's elf friends came looking for him and they continued the treatment. It was obvious something was working because the ashes of the vampire were still there, but Derrick, though very ill and very pale wasn't even sunburned.

At the Crystal Palace (the elvin home in the Rockies), the dryad colony was much larger. Therefore the donation pool was also much larger, taking the strain off the grove dryads. The germ was tenacious though, and the human body fabricates new blood all the time. So, in the hopes of eventually starving out the vampire germ entirely, the elves hooked Derrick up to a dialysis machine to keep feeding him dryad blood and to clean human blood from his system.

I'm having this take days or maybe weeks (I'm open for suggestions here). During this time, Derrick goes between a desperate vampire personality and the extremely weak human druid who isn't sure how many dryads he managed to kill in his grove. At some point, his wife is brought in in the hopes of giving him reason to continue to live. If he gives up, nothing will keep him alive. Of course she has some extra news for him, news that works even better than just her being there cheering him on. She's going to have his baby.

Well, that's my idea. What do you think. I've left out much of the drama that will occur, and the fight scene is still a blur in my head. What do you think?