Vampires Are Forever

Her eyes widened incredulously. "What?"



When he simply nodded solemnly, Inez frowned in response. "But that means they were worlds ahead of the rest of the world. Why? How?"



Thomas shrugged. "They stuck to their own and didn't share their technology."



"But why?" she repeated. "Why stay so isolated? Why did they never travel beyond the mountains surrounding them? If they were as advanced as that, surely they had the ability."



"I'm sure they did," Thomas agreed and then shrugged. "But I don't know why they remained so isolated. My cousin once said something about an age-old feud with a neighboring clan and a peace treaty guaranteeing that neither people would cross the border of the mountains separating them."



"But they did when Atlantis fell?" she murmured and he nodded.



Inez considered that and then asked, "How did they survive when they suddenly found themselves without the blood banks and so on?"



Thomas saw the realization on her face even as she asked the question, but answered anyway, "At first it was bad. They needed blood, but had no way to get it. There were no blood banks outside Atlantis. But the nano's job was to do what was necessary to repair and regenerate the body and they needed blood to do it." He shrugged. "Their response was to make the teeth come on, I guess. Plus, the survivors also became faster, and stronger, and able to see better in the dark."



"Why the dark?" Inez asked at once. "If you aren't cursed and soulless, why can you not walk in sunlight?"



"They can," Thomas said, as he glanced nervously around to be sure none of their flight mates were paying attention. "They can walk in sunlight, but sunlight does the worst damage to the body, which means they have to consume more blood. They avoid sunlight to avoid the necessity of feeding more often."



When she frowned, he added, "Mortals weren't too happy to be considered cattle by immortals. Many Atlanteans were killed or at least injured horribly when they were discovered feeding on mortals. It was better for them to avoid sunlight as much as possible and live, sleep, and hunt under cover of night. Of course, the other abilities help with that."



"Being faster, stronger, and having night vision?"



"That and the ability to read and control the minds of mortals, as well as erase their memories so that they don't feel the pain of the feeding or recall it afterward. If not for that, it would be impossible to hide their existence. They would be hunted and eventually eradicated," he said quietly and then pointed out, "Mortals could defeat us-I mean, them, by sheer numbers alone."



She frowned, opened her mouth, then closed it and leaned forward to whisper, "But you didn't erase my memory."



"No," Thomas agreed quietly. He could see the question in her eyes, but shook his head. He wasn't explaining that to her here. He wasn't at all sure how she'd take the news that she was his lifemate and he didn't want her freaking out on the plane. Trying to steer her away from that subject, he said, "The older ones prefer being called immortals to vampire, though they aren't completely immortal. They can die, but not from illness, and not even by most injuries."



"How?" she asked.



Thomas hesitated. What she was asking was a dangerous question to answer. If she decided she didn't think mortals should have to suffer immortals living amongst them, she could use this information to hurt them. Unfortunately, he couldn't read her mind, so couldn't gauge how she was accepting this information. She didn't look as afraid as she had. In fact, if anything, Inez appeared more fascinated than anything else.... Still...



"Is it the stake in the heart like the mythological vampire?" she asked abruptly.



"That can stop the heart," he admitted carefully.



Her eyebrows drew together. "But it won't kill them."



"Not if it is removed quickly enough," he admitted.



"Then, how-"



"The only thing you need to know is that now that there are blood banks again, they do not need to hunt to feed," he said quietly.



"But you bit me."



Thomas glanced around again. No one seemed to be paying attention, but as he turned back toward Inez he glimpsed the woman in the seat in front of Inez through the slight gap between the two seats before them. The woman's head was turned sideways, her ear close to the gap. Narrowing his eyes, he focused on her thoughts, relieved to be able to read them until he realized she had indeed been listening avidly. And she suspected it wasn't just a story he was telling Inez. Thomas immediately began erasing her memories, replacing them with the thought that she'd slept through the whole flight. He then took a moment to put her to sleep for the rest of the flight before turning back to Inez.



She was glancing between him and the seats before them with suspicion. "What did you just do?"



"I bit you because the cooler of blood Bastien was having sent to me at the Dorchester hadn't yet arrived," he said in a near whisper, ignoring her question. "I was distracted by my worry for Aunt Marguerite on the flight to England yesterday and only had one bag of blood. Bastien was concerned about my getting on the flight hungry and possibly being tempted to feed from someone at the airport or on the plane and being discovered."



"How much blood do you normally have to have a day?" Inez asked in a whisper, a frown on her face.



"Three or four bags as a rule," he admitted reluctantly.



"Three or four bags?" she asked with amazement. "That's like what? Three or four pints?"



"Something like that," he muttered with a shrug.



"You had one bag yesterday and none today, so you were about seven pints low when you bit me?" she asked.



"Something like that," Thomas repeated uncomfortably.



Inez stared at him for a minute and then said with certainty, "You didn't take that much from me. The human body only holds something like eight pints of blood, doesn't it?"



"No, I didn't take that much from you," he agreed. He had no idea how much blood the average person had in them. It wasn't something he normally considered.



"What happens when you don't get enough blood?"



Thomas hesitated and then admitted, "The nanos will leave the blood stream and go into the organs and skin in search of more blood to fuel them."



"Is it painful?" she asked, her expression solemn.



"Like acid traveling through your body," he muttered, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. Afraid of misjudging and taking too much blood after so long without feeding off the hoof, Thomas hadn't taken much blood from Inez at all...just enough to soothe the worst of the cramps at the time. It hadn't taken long for his body to run through the small amount he'd consumed and the pain and cramps of hunger had quickly returned. They'd grown more unbearable with the passing time, but he'd mostly managed to ignore it by distracting himself with the sights and sounds around them. However, now that they were discussing the subject, he was having trouble ignoring the pain. It would be a great relief when they reached the hotel in Amsterdam and he could raid the cooler of blood Bastien had promised to have waiting there.



Inez worried her lip as she peered at Thomas, her feelings pitched somewhere between relief and worry. She was very relieved to know that he wasn't some soulless, dead, bloodsucker like the fictional Dracula and his cohorts. That would have been a nightmare. She couldn't have accepted that even to keep her job. But the rosy cheeks she'd noted after he'd bitten her had been a temporary state. Staring at him as she had in the taxi, Inez had actually been able to see the pink glow fade from his cheeks during the hour-long ride to Gatwick Airport. By the time they'd arrived and checked in at the terminal, there was no glow left and he'd been terribly pale...unhealthily so.



Inez hadn't been too concerned at the time, but now that she understood just what he was she was beginning to be concerned. From what he'd explained, it seemed obvious that Thomas was really not much different than herself and other mortals...except that he had a certain longevity. He did have some special abilities that most humans didn't have; the added strength and speed he'd spoken of, the ability to see better in the dark, and the fangs of course. But he also had some rather terrible weaknesses, even afflictions. The man couldn't survive long without blood without suffering terrible pain. She could see the lines of pain gathering around his mouth and eyes. The first of those lines had begun to appear shortly after they'd arrived at the airport and had become more obvious by the time they'd boarded the plane.



Much to her shame, they hadn't concerned her overly much at the time. She'd rather thought it served him right since her neck was still a bit tender to the touch, but now that he'd explained how he was the way he was...



Inez stared at him silently, fighting the urge to offer to let him bite her again. Had it been a wholly altruistic urge, she might not have fought it so hard. She did hate to see others in pain, and really now that he'd explained, she wasn't so angry about his biting her. She didn't care for the idea of being "cattle" for an immortal as he'd put it, but it was really no different than donating blood to the blood bank, or for a friend. Except for the delivery of it...and therein lay the problem and the reason she was struggling with the offer. It wasn't wholly altruistic. Inez had enjoyed the experience; his kisses, his touch, his scent, the passion that had flooded her, and part of her was eager to experience it all again.



If this was how she was going to react to the man biting her, she really needed to work on getting herself a social life, Inez thought with self-disgust. Obviously her lack of one had made her desperate if she was willing to be bitten just to enjoy the passion that went along with it.



She heard Thomas take in a deep breath and glanced his way to see that he was letting it out slowly through his nose. Inez recognized at once that it was an effort to ease the pain he was suffering and opened her mouth, the offer to let him bite her again trembling on her tongue when the seat belt sign suddenly came back on.



"We're losing altitude," Thomas said as he did up his seat belt. "We'll be landing soon."



Inez closed her mouth on the offer she'd been about to make and quickly ducked her head to peer around for her seat belt. There was no need to make the offer if they were nearly there. Part of her was relieved. Another part was disappointed indeed.



Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam was just as busy as Gatwick had been, but Thomas had less patience for it. The crowds shifting around him ramped up the cramps he was suffering. Eager to escape the press of bodies, he rushed Inez through the airport to platform one, relieved when he saw that a train was pulling in. Pausing at a ticket machine, he waited impatiently for the young man already there to finish his purchase, then bought their tickets and hurried Inez onto the train, boarding just before the doors closed.



The main floor was three-quarters full, crowded to Thomas in his state of mind. When Inez moved toward a pair of empty seats along one wall, he urged her past them and to a set of stairs leading to the second level. As he'd hoped, the upper compartment was much less busy. Thomas steered Inez to an empty table for two and dropped his knapsack on the floor by his feet as he sat down.



"I'm surprised Bastien didn't arrange for a car to collect us," Inez said with a breathless laugh as she dropped into her own seat.



"He offered to," Thomas admitted. "But the train is probably faster. Besides there isn't a lot of car traffic in Amsterdam. Most people walk or travel by bike. We'll take the train into the city, and then catch a tram to the hotel."



Inez nodded, her gaze sliding out the window to watch the passing scenery as they moved out of the train station. There wasn't much to see. It was night, and dark with a scattering of lights. That was all. Apparently no more enchanted by the sight than he'd expect her to be, she turned back to glance at him and asked curiously, "Have you been to Amsterdam before?"



Thomas nodded. "Many times. You?"



The way she quickly shook her head made him smile and he suggested, "Scared off by its reputation?"



Inez smiled wryly and nodded.



"It isn't what it's famous for," Thomas told her quietly.



Inez tilted her head and raised her eyebrows dubiously. "Pot isn't legal here and there is no Red Light District?"



"Well, yes, and yes," he admitted with a grin. "But that's just one aspect of the city. It's really a lovely place. There aren't a lot of cars in the city. Most people walk or bike around, and then there are the trams and buses. The lack of cars keep the pollution down and the buildings are older than you'll find in London, very picturesque. I think you'll like it."



"We'll see," she said noncommittally.



Thomas nodded and glanced out the window, then back to her to say, "Bastien was having some clothes and necessities delivered to the hotel for you."



When her eyebrows rose, he shrugged. "I reminded him that you would be flying without luggage."



"That was thoughtful," she said quietly, her expression solemn.



Thomas waved the compliment away and said lightly, "I'm a thoughtful guy."



"Yes, you are," she agreed and he was made uncomfortable by how seriously she said so. He was made even more uncomfortable when she asked, "How old are you?"



Thomas grimaced. Because of the way Bastien and Lucern always treated him, he usually felt like the baby in the family even though his sister Jeanne Louise was younger. Now, however, knowing that Inez couldn't be more than thirty, he was embarrassed by how old he was. Finally, he simply said, "I'm old."



"How old?" Inez persisted and then grinned and explained, "I only ask because they say men become more considerate as they get older and you're very considerate."



"No more than most men," he argued, and she snorted with derision at the words.



"Thomas, you are definitely much more considerate than every other man I've met in my life." When he opened his mouth to argue, she began counting facts off on her fingers. "First you drew me that bath and ordered me tea and breakfast when you found out I had rushed out to collect you without, and now you've seen to it that I am not without clothes while here in Amsterdam. You always take my arm to walk me about, open doors for me, and-aside from the jog through Schiphol airport-generally measure your stride to mine," she pointed out and then arched one eyebrow and said, "If consideration in men is commensurate with age, that must mean you're at least a thousand years old."