Page 53 of Immortal By Morning
“Atlantis was separated from the rest of humanity by mountains and the ocean. And while they had the equipment and ability to cross the mountains, or take ships around to their neighbors and the rest of humanity, they were very insular and uninterested in that. They—Well, actually they were kind of snobs, I guess,” he admitted with a grimace. “They did not feel the rest of humanity had anything to offer them, so they never shared their knowledge.”
“They never looked outside their own little island or whatever it was?” she asked.
“It was a peninsula, not an island,” he corrected. “And they did on occasion check on their neighbors. Every once in a while teams of scientists would go out and explore the rest of the world. They often returned with new plants never encountered before, or minerals and metals not readily available in Atlantis. The information they brought back was apparently put into our history books.” He shrugged. “But that was all they went for: historical and scientific purposes. There were no tourists traveling out and about. The rest of the world was, of course, not very advanced in comparison to our people, so there was really no reason for anyone but scientists or explorers to be interested in leaving Atlantis with all its advances.”
“Right,” she murmured thoughtfully, not sure if she believed him or not. Although, if he was lying, she did have to wonder why he would bother.
“Besides, Atlanteans did hold the belief that they should not have undue influence over other tribes,” he explained. “I mean, just imagine discovering a primitive tribe without any previous contact with the modern world. We with our cell phones, planes, and weapons would seem like gods to them. It would be terribly unfair and affect their natural development.”
“Right,” she breathed, and then said slowly, “So, they had these nanos that were basically miraculous. But they didn’t share them with others, and instead kept them for themselves.” She tilted her head and peered at him in question. “So how did they come to the rest of the world in the end? The Atlanteans with their nanos I mean. Like Lucian who you say was born there.” She arched her eyebrows. “I know Atlantis disappeared ages ago. Is that when they supposedly joined the rest of society? Because they were forced to?”
“Basically, yes. Atlantis fell. A series of earthquakes and a volcanic eruption separated the peninsula from the rest of the continent, and Atlantis sank into the ocean. Most of the population was lost. The only people to survive were those who had been given the nanos. Like Lucian. They crawled out of the wreckage and were forced to join the rest of the world.”
Abril stared at him for a moment, her mind ticking over the information he was giving. She still wasn’t sure she believed him, but decided to go with it fornow. “I don’t suppose any of the survivors thought to stop to grab the equipment needed for blood transfusions on their way out of the sinking Atlantis?”
“No,” he acknowledged. “I suspect they were all too focused on surviving the collapsing world around them to think of that.”
“So, no more transfusions,” she guessed, “and the nanos gave their hosts fangs to get the blood they needed to do the work they were programmed to perform.”
He looked almost relieved that she had been the one to say that as he nodded. “Exactly. They also made us stronger, faster, and gave us the ability to see in the dark.”
“She does not believe you, Nephew. She is just humoring you,” Lucian bellowed from the kitchen. “Show her your fangs.”
Eyebrows rising, Abril turned expectantly to Crispin, but he hesitated, and as he did, she began to wonder how Lucian had known she didn’t believe Crispin. She wondered, too, how the hell he knew what they were talking about. Her office was up a long hall, and the door was closed. Surely, he couldn’t hear them? And even if he could, he couldn’t possibly condone this nonsense his nephew was spewing.
“It is not nonsense,” Lucian called out.
Hecouldhear them. How the hell could he hear them from the kitchen? Wait! She hadn’t said that out loud. She’d merely thought it. How the hell did he know what she was thinking? She would have asked except that Crispin chose that moment to open his mouth wide. At first, there wasn’t much to see, justhis tongue and two rows of perfectly normal human, aka non-vampire, teeth. She was about to say as much when movement drew her gaze to his right canine as it began to shift and dropped down, suddenly becoming a very pointy fang. One that exactly matched the one on the other side of his jaw where his human canine had been a moment ago.
Twenty-Three
Abril stared at the fangs protruding from Crispin’s jaw for one horrified moment and then closed her eyes briefly. When she opened them again, the fangs were gone. They’d disappeared somewhere. His teeth looked normal again as he closed his mouth.
“Abril?” he asked softly when she just stared at him. Alarm entered his expression as if he could sense her emotional withdrawal.
“Stay with me,” he whispered, reaching for her.
The words weren’t really registering with her, but his touch did as his fingers found her. One set traced a path down her outer arm, while the other slid around her neck to cup her nape. Both sent shivers of awareness through her despite the fangs she’d just seen in his mouth. When the fingers on her arm trailed up again, and the ones at her neck shifted to glide into her hair, Abril closed her eyes and bit her tongue to hold back the moan that tried to escape her.
The moment her eyes were shut, her brain started shooting several scenes at her one after the other; the skull Lilith had unearthed in the garden, Crispin the first time she’d met him, a damp and newly washed Lilith on a mud-free floor after Roberts and Crispin had cleaned them both, Crispin taking the dog out for her, complimenting her on her chili, the kiss in the laundry room, their passionate moments in the pool; her, Crispin, and Roberts laughing and enjoying the moviePixels, her and Crispin talking as they played Pac-Man, the bliss he’d given her in her bedroom, their talk in her office, the sex dream, the fanged skeleton in the garden. Finally, the images stopped and her eyes opened so that she was left staring at him. Crispin. Detective Delacort. Crispinus Delacort... with nanos.
“Okay,” Abril breathed. After a moment she spent trying to calm her thoughts and body, she cleared her throat. “Wow. So that’s how vampires were really made. Not some ancient curse, just science.”
“We are not vampires!” Lucian bellowed, his voice reaching her all the way up the hall from the kitchen where he no doubt still sat at the island.
Abril blinked, feeling as if that ridiculous shout from the kitchen had snapped her out of some kind of fog. Lucian was ridiculous. A grumpy, bossy asshole, and if there was one thing she’d learned in her life, it was how to deal with assholes. As for Crispin, he was... Crispin. He was a man who had kissed and caressed her to heights of passion she’d never before experienced. Cared for her when she was wounded. Comforted her when she’d been upset about her sister marrying Agustin... Although, that had been adream, she supposed. But it hadn’t felt like one, and she wondered if he had somehow entered her dreams. Was that even possible? She supposed the only way to find out was to ask, so did just that.
“My dream... I was on the phone with my sister, and you came into my office. Did you—”
“We had a shared dream,” he said gently, interrupting her. “I was there with you. I experienced it all with you.”
“Oh,” she said faintly, recalling the conversation they’d had after Mary had hung up on her. She’d told him about her childhood and running away. She didn’t usually tell people about that so quickly, if at all. Barb and Crispin were the exceptions, and Barb had ended up being a surrogate mother of sorts. Better than the mother she’d been born with, certainly. She had obviously instinctively trusted Crispin just as she had Barb on first meeting. Perhaps she could trust her instincts here as well. Maybe Crispin was a good vampire.
“Explain to her that we are not vampires, Crispin!” Lucian shouted.
Crispin rolled his eyes with irritation at the man inserting himself into the conversation. He wished he could take Abril outside for a walk to finish this talk in peace, but knew that was not a good idea, so offered her a smile and said, “We are immortals, not vampires.”
Abril seemed to consider that and then asked, “What’s the difference?”
