Page 80 of Dark Rebel's Fortune

He turned to Kyra. "I think Jasmine should make a movie explaining this so we wouldn't have to go through this over and over again. We need to come out with irrefutable proof."

"Immortality doesn't exist outside of religious texts and fantasy novels," Soraya insisted.

"I thought the same thing," Kyra said. "Until I realized that I'd gotten so strong that I could break through chains and tear down doors, and that I could eavesdrop on conversations I shouldn't be able to, given the distance. Then I joined the resistance, and despite years of fighting and constant exposure to danger, I wasn't dying, and I wasn't aging. Injuries that should have killed me healed in minutes. It was difficult to hide from my team, and they suspected that I was different. I didn't know why I was that way, and I suspected that I'd been subjected to some experimental drugs or genetic manipulation. I didn't know that I had always had that in me, and that the scumbag who my father asked to brainwash me into forgetting who I was and turning me into an empty vessel was an immortal who induced my transition to immortality. "

"Even if—and this is an enormous if—we were to believe this," Soraya said, "where is your proof? Where is your evidence that you're our sister Kyra? You look like her, but that's not proof either. Do you have birthmarks that you can show us?"

Max shook his head. "Even if she did have any blemishes like that before, they would have disappeared following her transition."

"How—" Soraya began.

"Convenient," Kyra finished for her. "I know." She slipped the two rings from her fingers—the ones Jasmine had given her. "Do you recognize these?"

Recognition flared in Parisa's eyes. "I forgot you showed them to me. One was our grandmother's and the other our mother's."

"These could have been stolen," Soraya argued, though with less conviction.

"What about this?" Kyra asked, pulling the small velvet pouch from her pocket. She opened it, spreading the tarot cards on the small table between them. "These were mine. I left them with my daughter when I disappeared."

Parisa leaned forward, examining the cards with a frown. "I don't remember you having tarot cards."

"I must have gotten them in America," Kyra said. "But I thought it was worth a try. I don't remember where and when I got them."

The youngest sister looked troubled, her gaze flicking between Kyra's face and the artifacts spread before them.

"Those things prove nothing," Soraya insisted. "Show us something that can prove you are immortal."

Max was ready to volunteer one of his tricks, but Kyra lifted her hand. "I'll do it." She pulled a daggerfrom one of the pockets of her cargo pants, and before anyone could even ask her what she was doing, she nicked the palm of her hand and held it out for her sisters to see. "Watch how fast it heals and then try to explain that."

The women were compelled to watch, and as the wound started closing before their eyes, Rana gasped. Yasmin murmured something that sounded like an incantation, and Soraya remained motionless, watching the wound until no trace of it remained.

"Convinced now?" Kyra asked.

"That shouldn't have been possible." Soraya lifted a pair of awed eyes to Kyra. "You really aren't human. Not anymore."

Kyra let out a relieved breath. "I'm not, and neither are you. You can all turn immortal, and so can your children. My Jasmine turned immortal just recently."

"How?" Rana asked. "You said that the bad guy from the asylum violated you and inadvertently induced you. Does that mean that the genes are activated through intercourse with an immortal?"

These women were really sharp. They didn't miss much.

"Yes," Kyra admitted, "but that's not the whole story. Adult female Dormants are activated by having unprotected sex with an immortal male and getting bitten by him. Males get activated by a bite alone, but they have to fight an immortal male to get himaggressive enough to bite them. Max's people have a special induction ceremony for that."

Yasmin's hand flew to her chest. "So, we will have to do it in front of people?"

"Hold on." Soraya lifted a hand to stop her sister, who sounded hysterical. "I think only the males have a special ceremony, am I right?"

"Correct," Max said.

"Now to the more important question," Soraya continued. "What do you mean by biting?"

"Oh, that." Kyra cast him a sidelong glance. "That's probably where the vampire stories come from. Immortal males have fangs and venom, and they bite during sex and while fighting other immortal males. Naturally, the venom produced is different depending on the trigger, and the one triggered by desire is much less potent than the one triggered by aggression. That's why a bite alone is not enough to induce a female."

That was actually one of the best explanations Max had heard, and he wanted to compliment Kyra on it, when he felt four sets of eyes drilling holes into his scalp.

"What?" he asked.

"I don't see fangs," Soraya said. "I assume that you are immortal, right?"

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