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Leigh considered it a good sign when there was no sound of running water co from the bathroom as she slid into Lucian&039;s room She was sure it meant he&039;d finished his shower, as she&039;d hoped It was only as she pushed the door closed with her foot and surveyed the empty bedroom that she realized she was lucky she hadn&039;t entered to surprise Lucian in his towel or even naked That could have been e her es that made her face flush, but not with e around with thathalf-naked in the kitchen

Forcing away the h crossed to the bedside table to set down the tray she carried It held two cups of coffee, a bowl of sugar, and a bowl of powdered ht the fixings with her

It was bribery, and there was no denying it She was hoping the coffeehi the tray for the moment, she walked to the bathroo fro

Leigh bit her lip Perhaps she&039;d missed hiaze slid around the bedroom, but it looked the same to her as when she&039;d left earlier Perhaps he&039;d fallen and hit his head getting out of the shower That was more worrisome than the first possibility, and she immediately raised a hand to knock sharply at the door

"Hello? Lucian? I brought you coffee," she announced When silence was her answer, Leigh frowned and shifted her feet uncertainly What should she do? Her hand moved uncertainly to the doorknob, but hesitated

"Lucian?" she tried once more When there was still no answer, she drew her shoulders up and turned the knob She had to be sure he was all right

"Lucian?" she whispered, her voice dropping as the door slid open to reveal the neat, white marble countertop with the sink in it, then a toilet, and finally the tub itself Her eyes widened in alarly unconscious, in the large clawfoot tub His eyes were closed, his long eyelashes fanning over thewith alarm, she rushed to his side and dropped to her haunches as she reached instinctively to grab his shoulder, though what she&039;d intended to do, Leigh couldn&039;t say There was no way she could lift him out of the water by herself Fortunately, there was no need The moment she touched hilance that went fro and splashing from the tub as he abruptly sat up

"What&039;s happened?" His voice was harsh, his expression dark with concern

Leigh stared, suddenly unable to speak as her gaze slid over his wide chest and dropped of its own accord down to where he disappeared below the bubbles that filled the tub She was surprised that he would have bubbles in his bath, and also disappointed at how it blocked her viehat they hid

"Leigh?" he snapped, reaching for the towel on the floor beside the tub

"I -- Oh!" Shaking her head back and forth with a jerky repetitiveand abruptly turned her back to hiave herself awrong I just -- I called out, but you didn&039;t answer, and I orried you&039;d fallen and hit your head or so"

When her only ansas the soft slosh of water in the tub as the water slowly settled, Leigh risked a glance backward Lucian had the towel in his hand, but was still seated in the tub, his expression blank

"You orried about me?"

She frowned at the surprise in his voice and the bemused look on his face Surely anyone would have been worried Turning away before she could be teed

"You said you were taking a shower but there was no sound of running water and no anshen I called out to you," she repeated

"I decided to take a bath instead I guess I fell asleep"

"Yes, I saw," Leigh e of hiht I&039;d surprise you with a cup of coffee"

"Hrunt, and wasn&039;t terribly surprised when it was followed by the sarcastic comment, "And no doubt to take the opportunity to ask some questions"

There was a soft splash as he shifted in the tub, then he said with exasperation, "You&039;re going to hound me until I answer, aren&039;t you?"

"No, of course not," Leigh said quickly, then belied the words by adding, "But if you could just answer a few questions ?"

His snort of disgust wasn&039;t encouraging, and Leigh sensed her chance to get answers slipping away

"I&039;etically "It&039;s just that this is my life And I have no idea what&039;s happened to ," she finished weakly

The silence following her words see time, then she heard a soft curse

"Oh, very well," he said with resignation "Ask your questions"

Leigh felt relief course through her, started to turn in her exciteht herself, then asked, "Would you like your coffee? How do you take it? I&039;ll fix it and -- "

"I don&039;t drink coffee," he interrupted

"Right" She frowned He didn&039;t drink coffee Should she offer to e my mind"

"Yes, of course Thank you," she murmured, then blurted the first question on her mental list "If we aren&039;t vampires because of some curse, how are we vah couldn&039;t help herself, she glanced over her shoulder in surprise

"Nanos?" she asked uncertainly

"Yes I&039;m afraid it&039;s due to plain old science, not sorimaced, aware that she actually was disappointed to learn it was science, not a curse Really, how stupid was that?

"I&039;ive you the short explanation," Lucian announced, distracting her "If you want more in-depth answers, you&039;ll have to talk to my nephew Bastien He&039;s the answer man In future, if you have any questions or probleh ain in the water Leigh turned quickly ahen she realized that her eyes were drifting away fro bits

"The short version is I come from a people ere very advanced scientifically In search of a way to repair wounds and attack diseases such as cancer without invasive surgery, our scientists co to create bionanos These were shot into the bloodstrearaenerate cells froh when they succeeded," he acknowledged "Or seemed to be at first Several people were treated with it, nant with myself and my twin brother Jean Claude at the tih queried softly, and glanced back to see hi

"As I say, it see before they realized the nanos did more than intended They were supposed to repair the wound, or attack and kill the disease and then shut down and disintegrate, for the body to flush out What the scientists hadn&039;t considered was that the nanos were programmed to search out and find any ailment or injury in the body While they may have been introduced to a person to attack a cancer, once that was done, they didn&039;t shut down, but turned to other repairs needed in the body"

"And this was a bad thing?" Leigh asked with confusion

"As it turned out, yes The human body is in constant need of repair It&039;s attacked daily by sunlight, age, environain "The nanos turn their attention to those things, constantly regenerating theenerate new cells in their host"

"So the host never gets ill, never ages," she realized

When he nodded, Leigh considered what he&039;d said In effect, his people had found the fountain of youth She blinked as a question occurred to her "But why the fangs and the need for blood?"

"The nanos were developed to live in and travel through the body via the blood They also use the host&039;s blood to enerate cells as well as theh blood to support all their activities," he explained quietly "The nanos use up the blood at an excelerated rate and then attack the organs in search of h transfusions before Atlantis fell, but -- "

"Atlantis?" Leigh interrupted with disbelief So Lucian and others like hi It was just what she&039;d automatically assuhly advanced But now he&039;d referred to huh blood and Atlantis?

"Yes, I ah couldn&039;t help it, she whirled to gape at him "But Atlantis was that was " She shook her head with bewildero in history Atlantis was ru weary

God, she thought, staring at him with a fascinated horror He&039;d said his mother was one of the ones the nanos had been used on and she&039;d been pregnant with him and his twin brother at the tiinal Atlanteans "But that would ed dryly

"Older than h echoed with disbelief "Lucian, you&039;re older than Aland, even You&039;re -- " She cut herself off abruptly when she saw the closed look that ca

"Sorry," she muttered An uncomfortable silence filled the room, and then she cleared her throat and forced herself to recall what he&039;d been explaining before she interrupted him

"So, before Atlantis fell, this problem was dealt with by transfusions," she pro away as he apparently tried to find the thread of his explanations again The h found her eyes drifting down over his wide chest and flat stoe And now she supposed she understood why he was as crusty and grurandfather He certainly came by it naturally The man was ancient

"Yes, the transfusions" He cleared his throat "They used transfusions in Atlantis, but when it fell -- "

"How did it fall?" she interrupted, curious

His face darkened briefly with me his expression flat "A double whammy of a volcanic eruption and an earthquake Atlantis was on the tip of the continent, separated froe We were an insular society, never looking outward to see as beyond our ed that It split thethe volcano onto the city, then a second earthquake -- or the aftershock -- sed it up It just sank into the water"

He shook his head "The few of us who survived were all iy While Atlantis had been advanced technologically, the worldfound ourselves forced to join was peopled by far less advanced societies; hunters and gatherers, for the most part There were no more transfusions, nowhat they did and using up our blood to keep us alive and in peak condition Most of us had never known the hunger for blood until then and were consurammed to see to our survival, and on soes to see to that survival"

"The fangs," Leigh breathed, understanding

"Yes The nanos et the blood they needed we needed They er and faster to be ht vision so we could hunt at night and avoid the da rays of the sun that would increase our need for blood, and they gave us fangs to get the blood we needed"

"They ht predators," she realized

"Yes And you are now one, too," Lucian said quietly

Leigh stared at him with dismay "But other humans are our prey"

"It&039;s not as bad as it sounds," he assured her quietly "Especially now that there are blood banks again"

Leigh felt relief rush through her Of course, there were blood banks She wouldn&039;t be expected to run out and attack poor unsuspecting people and suck on their necks

"Despite popular lore, we do not have to kill our prey," Lucian said quietly "In fact, it&039;s better if we don&039;t Asthe cow that gives the milk It also would draw attention to our existence Before the advent of blood banks in this society, we fed a little here, a little there, and did our best not to do anything that would increase the need to feed; hence the reason we avoided sunlight"

"But we can go out in the sun," Leigh said, wanting to be clear on that point

"Yes, but itmore blood," he reminded her "And the less we had to feed back then, the better if anted to avoid detection Of course, noe can go out in daylight when necessary with little proble as we have a supply of extra blood with us"

"I see," Leigh said slowly, then asked, "Howand really fast"

Leigh considered his words, recalling hoiftly Donny had ht She wasn&039;t sure how hts had shifted to her attack and turning, other questions crowded into her thoughts

"Why didn&039;t you kill h&039;sclearer as time passed and her confusion lifted She&039;d heard the shouts and sounds that broke out once the men left her in the kitchen and hurried down into the basement She&039;d understood at once that Morty and Bricker and the thirdthe vampires she&039;d seen in the baseet out of the house and try to escape By that point, she&039;d been fleeing thean and Donny

"There was no need to teran hadn&039;t had a chance to convince you that you were one of his ghouls, and get you to feed offshe was lucky in the ti of her attack and when Lucian and the others had ue You weren&039;t So you were spared," Lucian said siue&039;?"

He paused, considering before answering, "There are rules our kind have to live by If you break these rules you&039;ll be considered a rogue and go up before the council If you can defend your actions, fine If not, or if you don&039;t show up, you&039;ll be ue?"

"Yes"

"Why? What are these rules?"

"The first rule is that you can turn only one mortal in a lifetime The second is that you can only have one child every hundred years"

"One child every hundred years?" Leigh stared at hi, but one every hundred years? Dear God "Why?"

"Population control," he answered prorow the blood source"

"Oh, I see," shemore than one mortal in my life and no more than one child every hundred years"

"Yes The other rule is we are restricted to bagged blood except in cases of eood rule to her She had no desire to go around chohbors and friends anyway, but just to be clear on things she asked, "What kind of an eency?"

"If you&039;re in a car crash, or an airplane accident away from blood banks and unable to call in help," Lucian said as an example "You could feed on a huh said dryly

"Unless you&039;re decapitated, your heart&039;s ripped out, or you&039;re trapped and burnt up, you will survive," he assured her "And even with the burning, you quite literally have to be burnt up You&039;ll survive third degree burns all over your body You basically have to be creuessing the biting is what ue He bit me"

"He did more than that, he turned you," Lucian pointed out "He&039;s turned a lot ofon otherpeople willy-nilly and he&039;s turning the a face, Lucian shifted unhappily in the tub "Thethe off other mortals and only ust and added, "He, like other rogues before hi out some heartless, bloodthirsty i a really bad vah tilted her head curiously "Do ue?"

"Our kind," Lucian corrected, re her she was one of them now He paused and seeue and turning innocent h supposed that was true "What makes them turn?"

"What?" He see this? I , he probably thinks he is a soulless, cursed creature of the night" Or rather, child of the night, as she recalled Morgan using that tered "Madness, boredoh arched an eyebrow "You have no idea? All these years and no one has noted even one siue?"