by I. T. Lucas
Didn’t she know how much he loved her? And that if he had kept something from her, it was because he had absolutely no choice?
She looked at him as if he was deranged. “Are you on drugs?” She shook her head. “God, I hope that you are because that’s a treatable condition. Insanity is not.”
Great. Anastasia thought that he was a druggie, even hoped for it. If she loved him, shouldn’t she have a higher opinion of him?
What if she didn’t love him enough?
Supposedly, they needed to form a bond before she could transition, but he was beginning to doubt that. Eva hadn’t bonded with Kalugal even though he’d induced her transition, and according to Bowen, Eleanor and Greggory had broken up, so they hadn’t bonded either.
It was a chilling thought, and Leon shoved it forcefully away. Anastasia was his truelove mate. He felt it down to his very core. She just needed more time.
“I’m not on drugs, and I’m not insane. I can prove it to you.” He pushed to his feet and started opening drawers.
Anastasia was immune to mind manipulation, so the only proof he could show her was his rapid healing.
“What are you looking for?”
“I need a surgical knife.”
“What for?”
“So I can show you how fast I heal.” He walked to the door. “I’ll be back in a moment.”
“Even if you show me, it’s not going to prove anything. It could be part of your genetically enhanced abilities.”
Damn. She was right.
He turned around. “What other proof can I give you? Would you believe it if you heard it from Julian?”
“He’s your friend. He would say whatever you ask him to.”
Rubbing a hand over the back of his neck, Leon considered his options. Perhaps he could just tell her the story whether she believed it or not, and once she transitioned, that would be his proof. Maybe it was even better. It would save him from having to deal with the tantrum that he’d expected her to throw.
“Okay, have it your way. I’ll tell you the story, and you can believe it or not. When you become immortal, that will be your proof.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “How will you prove that I turned immortal? Are you going to try to kill me?”
“Fates, you are a frustrating woman. Do you even listen to the nonsense that comes out of your mouth?”
She huffed out a breath. “Look who’s talking. A descendant of gods, my ass.”
Leon turned his eyes heavenward and prayed for patience. “When the first stage of the process ends, Julian is going to make a small cut on the palm of your hand. It will heal in less than a minute without leaving a trace.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“Then you didn’t turn immortal, and this is just food poisoning. But Julian and Bridget have enough experience with transitioning Dormants to recognize the signs, and he’s sure that you’re transitioning.”
She glared at him. “Let’s assume for a moment that I believe you, which I don’t, but I’ll suspend disbelief to give you a chance to explain. Why did you lie to me before? And why are you telling me the supposedly real story just now?”
He sat back on the bed, but as he reached for her hand, she pulled it away and shook her head. “Talk.”
“Humans can’t be allowed to know that we exist. Usually, it’s not a problem because we can thrall their memories of us away, but you are immune to mind manipulation. I hid what I was for as long as I could, but then you pulled the blindfold off, and I was forced to tell you part of the story. I didn’t lie. What I told you was all true, just incomplete, and I allowed you to reach your own conclusions without correcting your misconceptions.”
“So why are you telling me now?”
“Because you are turning immortal, which makes you one of us. But maybe I was too hasty. I should have waited for the first stage of your transition to be over and for Julian to perform the test. This would have been much easier.”
“What’s the second stage?”
“It takes six months for the transition to complete. It’s a slow process, but after the first stage, you already get the rapid healing ability, which makes you practically immortal, but your body continues to change and improve. You will become stronger, faster, your hearing and eyesight will become more acute, and so will your sense of smell. You will be able to detect people’s emotions by the scents they are emitting.” He smiled. “You’ll be able to tell when I’m horny just by my scent.”
She chuckled. “As if I need special abilities for that. What else?”
“Speaking of special abilities, you might hear more conversations in your head more often because your paranormal ability could get stronger. It does for some but not for others.”
“I hope it doesn’t. In fact, I hope those voices never return.”
Despite her protests, Ana’s responses indicated that she was starting to believe his story.
“You asked if you could join our village, and I told you that you would need to meet certain conditions. Well, you are meeting them now. Except for two exceptions, only immortals can live in the village.”
“What are the exceptions?”
“Not what, but who. You met one, Lisa. And her mother is the other one. Lisa and her mother are confirmed Dormants, but Lisa is too young to be induced, and her mother is too old.”
She arched a brow. “There is an age limit?”
Leon nodded. “Lisa is too young to have sex with an immortal male, which is how females get induced. And inducing someone Ronja’s age is too dangerous. Instead of gaining immortality, she would probably lose what’s left of her human lifespan. The transition is not easy on the body.”
57
Anastasia
After all the wonderful advantages Leon had listed, that was like a splash of cold water.
Could the transition kill her?
Was anything he was telling her true?
The thing was, what would he gain by making it up?
As unbelievable as it all sounded, Ana couldn’t dismiss it. Leon didn’t sound crazy, and he was talking about immortality and induction and transition without a hint of a smile, so it didn’t seem as if he was pulling a stupid prank on her either.
But what if she didn’t have dormant immortal genes, and the story he had concocted was a cover for something else?
Like what? That he was a werewolf, and his bite was changing her into one?
That was even crazier than the story about gods and immortals. After all, the Bible told a similar tale about the sons of gods taking the daughters of men. Not that it was proof of anything, but what if it wasn’t a myth, like most people thought, and it had really happened?
But if all of what he’d said was true, then what she was going through wasn’t as harmless as how he’d tried to portray it. Come to think of it, he hadn’t mentioned anything about risks or lack thereof, which was so like him.
Leon hadn’t lied. He just didn’t tell her the entire truth and let her reach her own conclusions.
“You didn’t tell me that the transition can be potentially deadly.”
“It’s not for someone your age. You’re young and healthy. You should sail through it with ease.”
The shadow passing through his eyes made her suspect that once again he wasn’t telling the truth, or rather telling her a modified version of it that suited his needs.
“You said should, which means that there is a chance I won’t. Spit it out, Leon. I’m tired of your half-truths and your inventive ways of making things seem one way when they are actually something completely different.” She was getting angrier by the word. “Like telling me that you were genetically modified when in fact you were born immortal, and it had been your very distant ancestors who had contributed the modified genetic material.” Ana felt her cheeks getting hot, and not because she was blushing but because she was mad. “Better yet, ask the doctor to come in. Maybe he’ll tell me the truth.”
Leon let out an exaspe
rated breath. “We haven’t lost a Dormant yet, which is why I’m confident that you’ll do just fine, but there were a couple of close calls, and one of them was a woman your age.”
“Aha.” She pointed a finger at him. “Now I know why you kept this from me. You didn’t want to give me a chance to refuse.”
Leon winced, his guilt further fueling her anger.
“It wasn’t like that,” he mumbled.
“Really? Don’t you think that I deserved a fair warning before you induced me, potentially risking my life? Don’t you think you should have asked my permission first?”
“I couldn’t!” His eyes blazed with an inner glow. “Don’t you think that I wanted to? I felt horrible about doing that without getting your consent, but the safety of my clan comes first. My only option was to walk away, and if you remember, I tried.”
“Poor baby,” she mocked. “You were helpless against my irresistible seductive skills.”
“Stop it, Anastasia.” He lifted his hand. “Just stop. Remember when I asked you if you would take an immunization shot that could prolong your life even though it was potentially dangerous, especially to the elderly? You said that you would take it. That was as good as giving your consent.”
That shut her up for about a second. “I did say that, but that was after the fact. You were giving me your so-called love bites long before that, without asking permission even in that roundabout way.”
He shook his head. “You are working yourself up over nothing. It is done. You are transitioning, and the chance of something going wrong is lower than the chance of complications from an immunization shot, while what you are about to gain is so much more than protection from disease. You no longer need to fear swimming in the ocean because you can’t drown. You can ride a motorcycle and know that even if you are thrown off, you will survive because your body can heal almost all injuries. You’d even be able to regrow limbs if Fates forbid you lose them. Don’t you want to live your life free of fear?”
Ana swallowed, realizing that fear had fueled her anger. She was terrified of change, especially change that she hadn’t had time to mentally prepare for.
“Who wouldn’t want that?” she whispered. “But with my bad luck, I might be the one exception who doesn’t make it.”
“Oh, baby.” He wrapped his arms around her, careful of the tubes and wires attached to her body. “I will not let anything happen to you. And you are lucky, not unlucky. The Fates didn’t bring us together only to tear us apart. If there is even the smallest indication that your transition is turning difficult, I’m going to beg the Clan Mother to give you her blessing.”
She chuckled. “That’s nice. But I don’t believe in blessings.”
“Not even from a goddess?”
Ana pulled back. “A real goddess?”
“Yes. And she’s a sucker for love. She won’t turn me down.”
Ana shook her head. “What do you mean by goddess? What can she do? How powerful is she? Is she scary? What’s her name? Is she a known one?”
Leon laughed. “Annani is probably known by many names. She’s incredibly powerful, but she’s not scary at all. She is pure benevolence.”
“A real goddess,” Ana murmured. “I want to see her. Is she beautiful?”
“Some say that she’s the most beautiful woman in the world, but to me, that title belongs to you.”
“You’re such a sweet liar.” She leaned her feverish forehead against his cool one. “But don’t lie to me ever again.”
58
Leon
The heated exchange must have exhausted Anastasia, and she had slipped into unconsciousness again.
As he sat next to her, Leon’s eyes kept shifting from her to the monitors and back, their steady sounds reassuring him that she was doing okay, or so he hoped.
When the door opened, he turned to look at Julian. “What’s up, doc?”
“Just checking on my patient. You should go grab something to eat.”
“I’m not hungry.”
Julian shook his head. “I’m here, Leon. You can leave her side for a few minutes.”
“I shouldn’t have told her yet.” Leon rubbed a hand over his stubble. “She got all worked up, which I’m sure wasn’t good for her.”
“Her body shutting down unnecessary functions is a good sign. It needs to redirect all of its energy to the transition.”
“Yeah, I get it, but it’s scary. I would like nothing better than for Anastasia to wake up and yell at me some more.”
“She was upset? Why?”
“Wouldn’t you be if someone induced you without your consent?”
Julian shrugged. “Maybe for a couple of seconds. Immortality is a gift from the gods. She should be happy.”
Leon smiled. “She is. Anastasia just loves to argue about everything. Did you know that she studied law?”
“That would explain it.”
“She said that she did it only because her father wanted her to be a lawyer, but I think it suits her well.”
Julian nodded. “Humans like to blame their parents for everything, but in most cases, the parents just want what’s best for their children.”
“Did you always want to become a doctor? Or did Bridget push you to study medicine?”
“I’m a healer at heart. But I also enjoy my work at the halfway house, which utilizes my organizational skills. I had to scale down because my mother is too busy with the rescue operations to take care of patients on a daily basis. But she is also a healer, and she likes to be there for the transitioning Dormants, especially the more difficult cases.” Julian smiled. “She lets me handle the easy ones, like Anastasia.” He turned toward the door. “Do you want me to get you a sandwich from the vending machine?”
“Only if you are getting something for yourself.” Leon shifted in the chair. “By the way, did you get to see Emmett?”
“I’m not involved in his interrogation.” Julian opened the door. “They had to get blood for him. Apparently, it’s an essential part of his diet.”
“The guy is insane.”
“Or he might be telling the truth.”
“Didn’t Kian tell you my suspicion?”
Julian shook his head.
“What if Emmett purchased a Perfect Match virtual adventure and chose the Krall experience. He could have based his fantasy on that.”
Julian snorted. “That’s brilliant, Leon. How come no one else thought of that?”
“Beats me.”
“I need to ask Arwel how much of the blood Emmett actually consumed. If his story was a fantasy, he would have gagged on it. Humans can’t tolerate more than an ounce or two, and neither can we. I’m going to call him.”
A few moments after Julian had left the room, Anastasia’s leg twitched, and then her hand moved. “Was that conversation real, or was it just in my head?” she murmured.
As Leon jumped to his feet, he found that her eyes were opened but unfocused. “What did you hear, love?” He smoothed his hand over her soft hair.
“I heard the doctor talk about Emmett drinking blood.”
He laughed. “I thought that the voices were back. You heard a real conversation.”
“Where is Emmett?”
“Here.”
“Where is here? Are we in the village?”
“The clinic is located in the clan’s keep, which is in downtown Los Angeles. Emmett is in the dungeon, a few levels below us.”
Her eyes widened. “You have a dungeon? And you are keeping Emmett in there?”
“It’s a long story, and you are in no state to hear it.” He kissed her forehead. “You need to remain calm.”
“I am calm.” She smiled up at him and then frowned. “Did Julian hook me up to everything?”
Leon realized right away what she was worried about. “The nurse was here to do that. She will also come to remove everything.”
“Thank goodness.” Anastasia let out a breath. “If he were an old guy, maybe I wouldn’t have mi
nded, but he’s way too young and too hot.”
“Again with the hot? You are prodding my monster, and he’s a jealous bastard.”
She lifted her hand and cupped his cheek. “You are the only guy for me, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have eyes. Besides, you still have a lot of explaining to do, and I also expect a lot of groveling. I’m not going to let you off the hook that easily. You might not have lied, but you’ve twisted the truth and done things to me without my permission.”
He smiled. “I didn’t expect you to let me off the hook easily. How would you like my groveling to be served?”
“First, continue the story. I’ll think of ways for you to make it up to me later.”
59
Anastasia
“I don’t know where to start.” Leon sat on the bed next to her. “I've played it over in my head so many times, but now that it’s time to tell you the full story, I only want to tell you how much I love you and how elated I am that we are going to spend eternity together.”
“Eternity sounds like a really long time,” she whispered. “You said it yourself. Marriages are not forever. Half don’t last more than eight years.”
“Those are human statistics. Most immortals mate for life.” He smiled nervously. “I need to qualify that, so later you won’t accuse me of lying. Truelove mates can only be separated by death, but not every pairing is a truelove match.”
She rolled her eyes. “The word immortal implies deathless, so how can they be separated by death? And how do people know that they are a truelove match? Every newlywed couple thinks that they will love each other forever, and yet forty percent of first-time marriages end in divorce, and the rate goes up for second-time and third.”
He chuckled. “I see that you did your research on the subject.”
She shrugged, the movement pulling on the IV and making her wince. “It was before I joined Safe Haven. I wanted to find out what were my chances of finding my Mr. Right and keeping him forever. Realizing how slim those chances were was one of the reasons I decided to join.”