by Lynsay Sands
"Thanks," he murmured, taking back one of the plates. After a hesitation, he turned the tray so that it only took half the console. That left just enough room for their plates to rest next to it and they both set their plates down.
"It smells good," Divine murmured, peering over the folded-over flap of something pale yellow on her plate. "Tiny called it an omelet?"
"Egg folded over--" Marcus lifted part of the upper flap to see what was inside. "--cheese, onion, green pepper, and sausage."
Divine lifted the top corner of her half to peer inside. It looked a bit of a mess inside, but smelled divine.
"Christian loves these. Caro makes them for him all the time," Marcus commented, cutting off a piece. "I've never been tempted to even try one before this, but now . . ." He paused and smiled wryly as his stomach rumbled, then shrugged and popped the bite of omelet into his mouth.
Divine watched him chew and swallow and then raised an eyebrow. "Well?"
"Mmmm, amazing," Marcus announced, cutting off another piece.
"Thank you," Tiny called out from the other side of the curtain.
Divine chuckled and cut a piece for herself. She was more tentative about putting it in her mouth though. This eating business was really quite new to her still. She shifted the food around inside her mouth, chewed experimentally, and then smiled as she swallowed. Turning to the curtain, she called out, "He's right. Amazing."
"Thank you," Tiny repeated cheerfully.
They ate in silence for a bit, but it had been so long since she'd eaten that Divine was full before she'd eaten a third of her omelet. She hadn't eaten much last night either, she recalled as she set her plate down and turned her attention to the coffees on the tray. Madge and Bob drank coffee all the time. Divine had never tried it. Now she peered at the dark liquid uncertainly.
"Bob drinks his with cream and sugar, but Madge takes it black. Less calories she says," Divine commented.
"You don't have to worry about calories," Marcus said with amusement. "But if you aren't sure how you'll like it, try it black and then add cream and sugar and try it again."
"Good idea," she said, and picked up the nearest cup to take a sip, grimacing at the flavor. Good God it was bitter and . . . well, she didn't even know how to describe it. Swallowing the bit she'd taken, Divine set the cup back and put two teaspoons of sugar in, and then poured some cream in as well until it was a pretty caramel color. She stirred it for quite a while before risking tasting it again.
"Well?" Marcus asked.
Divine shrugged a bit. "Better."
He chuckled at her lack of enthusiasm and fixed his coffee the same way, then took a sip and sighed. "I like it."
She smiled at his expression. He looked . . . satisfied, she decided, and sipped at her coffee again.
"Shall I tell you about Atlantis now?"
Divine glanced up with surprise at the question. "Now?"
"You have anything better to do?" he asked.
Smiling wryly, she shook her head. She could hardly escape just now, unless she could come up with an excuse to slip his presence for a bit.
"Maybe you should tell me what you know about our . . . state?"
"Our state?" she asked with amusement.
"Well, why we're different than mortals. Do you know about nanos?"
Divine nodded. "Yes. My nanny only told me that I was different than others and needed blood to survive, but my gran told me once that I was different because I had nanos and they were what needed the extra blood." She smiled faintly at the memory. "When I asked what nanos were she said they were basically little tiny miracle workers in our blood that kept us healthy and well."
"That's it?" Marcus asked with a frown.
"It was bedtime and she was trying to get me to sleep," Divine explained and then sighed and added, "I did ask once or twice about the nanos, but we were usually in the middle of something when I thought of it; teaching me to control minds, or how to stalk prey . . ." She shrugged. "Grandfather promised they'd teach me everything eventually, but the priority was to ensure I knew how to survive and knew the rules about feeding. After that they could teach me our history."
"The rules about feeding?" Marcus asked, eyes intent.
"Grandfather had rules," Divine explained and listed them off, "I was never to draw attention to myself, my people, or what we are. When feeding, I was to always treat my host with the respect they deserved and never cause them pain or distress. And never ever was I to feed to the point of harming the health of, or killing, my host."
Marcus sat back, expression thoughtful. When several moments passed like that, Divine asked, "So what are the nanos? And what has Atlantis to do with us?"
He hesitated and then said, "I'm going to give you the short answer."
"Okay," she said.
"Atlantis is where our ancestors came from. It was somewhat isolated from the rest of the world, and technologically advanced. While humans outside Atlantis were still wielding spears and sleeping around fires, our ancestors' technology was beyond what we have even now today. One of the areas where their science was strongest was in health. Their scientists set out to develop a way to repair the human body internally, to mend wounds and fight infection without the need for invasive surgery or antibiotics and such. Nanos were their answer. Minuscule little . . ." Marcus hesitated and then said helplessly, "I'm no scientist, I'm not sure what they are exactly. I know they're partially made up of human tissue or blood. They use blood to propel and reproduce themselves and they've been programmed like computers, with the human anatomy and whatnot and with the task of keeping their host at their peak condition."
She arched her eyebrows. "So our needing blood is because the nanos use blood to reproduce themselves?"
"And to make repairs and fight infections, etc.," Marcus said. "They also repair damage from the sun, pollution, illness, injuries, poisons, toxins . . . basically anything. And apparently it takes a lot more blood than we can produce to do all that."
"Okay," Divine murmured. She considered it briefly and then said, "So we were human once?"
"We are human," he corrected. "We are not a different species. The nanos simply make us stronger, faster, and able to live longer."
"And the fangs?" she asked.
"Ah, well, see--" Marcus grimaced and admitted, "I guess I skipped a part."
"Okay," Divine said patiently.
"You see the nanos were originally developed as a short-term aid. They were supposed to be injected into the host--a sick or injured human--where they would heal the wound, or surround and destroy the viral cells of illness or what have you. Once their job was done the nanos were programmed to then destroy themselves and be flushed from the body. But as it turns out, what the scientists didn't take into account was that the human body is constantly under attack by sun, pollution, and even simple aging. There is always something to repair or heal, so the nanos never broke down as expected."
"Ah," Divine said slowly. That made sense.
"And then Atlantis fell. Nearly every Atlantean died that day. The only survivors were the ones carrying the nanos. They crawled out of the ruins and over the mountains and joined a society much less developed than their homeland had been. While they'd had blood transfusions in Atlantis to help feed the nanos, those were no longer available. Some survivors died, but in others, the nanos followed their programming to keep their host at their peak condition and basically forced the necessary evolution on us to ensure that happened. They made immortals stronger and faster, gave them better night vision, and the ability to read and control the minds of other humans, and they gave us fangs. Every extra skill or strength they gave us was to make us better able to hunt and successfully feed off of mortal humans. It was so we could get the blood we needed to ensure their continued ability to fulfill their programming and keep us at our peak condition."
Divine nodded slowly, and then asked, "Is there anything else I should know?"
Marcus frowned and considered it brie
fly, and then said, "I think that covers it."
"Okay. Thanks," Divine said, standing up.
"Okay thanks?" Marcus echoed with disbelief, jumping up to follow when she carried her plate out through the lounge to the kitchenette. "That's it?"
Pausing at the sink, Divine glanced over her shoulder with surprise. "You were expecting something else?"
"Well . . . yeah," he said dryly as she opened the cupboard door under the sink and began to scrape the remains of her omelet into the garbage there.
"What were you expecting?" Divine asked curiously as she closed the door and began to rinse the plate in the sink.
"Well . . . I don't know," he admitted with a frown. "I gather most people react with shock and amazement to finding out the source of nanos."
"Really?" she asked, and considered that as she set her plate and fork in the tiny dishwasher next to the sink. Vincent really did like his luxuries, she thought, and then turned to Marcus and shook her head. "I suspect if they're shocked and amazed it's more by the fact that vampires truly exist than by their source being scientific. I already knew about us, just not the mechanics of what made us this way so there's nothing for me to be shocked and amazed at."
"She's probably right," Tiny commented.
Marcus glanced to him, then back to her, and then relaxed and smiled wryly. "Yeah. She probably is."
Divine turned to Tiny and Mirabeau then to offer them both smiles and said, "Thank you very much for breakfast. I appreciate it."
"Tiny did all the work. He's the cook in the family," Mirabeau admitted with a smile. "All I did was make the toast."
"And it was delicious too," Divine assured her, and then hesitated before saying, "Now, I suppose I'd best go relieve Jackie."
"Actually . . ."
Divine had started to turn toward the door, but paused at that one word from Mirabeau. Turning slowly back, she arched an eyebrow in question.
"We've arranged a play day for you," Mirabeau blurted.
"What?" Divine asked on a half laugh.
"Well, half a play day now," Tiny put in wryly. "A play evening, I guess."
Divine peered at them with bewilderment. "A play evening?"
Tiny nodded. "What with one thing and another you two have had a rough couple of days. Both of you. So, we got together with Jackie, Vincent, and Madge and arranged a play day for you. Madge gave us these passes for you." He turned to pick up two passes off the counter and held them out and she glanced at them curiously as Marcus took them. They were VIP passes, allowing them on all the rides. "Jackie is going to continue at your readings, Vincent is going to continue at the Tilt-A-Whirl, and you two get to have fun for the evening."
Divine frowned and started to shake her head.
"Oh come on," Mirabeau chided. "I bet you've never ridden on the rides. From what I've heard you're always trapped inside with a long line of customers outside the door waiting for their readings. Madge says they keep you going from the time you open, usually until several minutes after closing. But tonight you'll have the freedom to go where you want and do what you want. You can have a little fun for a change."
Divine stopped shaking her head. Mirabeau's use of the word trapped had caught her attention, and the comment about being free to go where she wanted and do what she wanted had too. Both made her realize that if she took over reading customers she would be trapped inside the RV until after closing. But taking them up on this offer would give her some freedom. She wouldn't have five babysitters watching her, she'd only have Marcus, and surely it would be easier to give him the slip than to try to get away from all of them? It was suddenly sounding like a really good idea.
"Okay," she said finally. "A play evening it is."
"Great," Mirabeau said and then suddenly held up a bottle of lotion. "SPF 100," she announced. "The sun is still out and it's better to be safe than sorry. Fortunately, it's spray-on, so easier to apply. But we'd better do it in the bedroom or the apples will all taste like lotion."
"Right," Divine said wryly, and turned to lead the way into the bedroom.
Eighteen
"Who gets the rip cord?"
"She does," Marcus said at once and when Divine glanced to him with surprise, he added, "Well, I'm sure not pulling it. I hate heights. We'd be sitting up there forever if it was left to me."
"You don't hate heights," she said on a laugh as the two girls attached their harnesses to the rig for the bungee drop. Divine and Marcus had been on the Zipper, the Yo-Yo, and every other high ride available and both of them had laughed their way through them as everyone else screamed. Divine hadn't known what she was missing never bothering with the rides at the carnival. Honest to God they were incredible; exhilarating, exciting, fun as fun could be. She'd been having a blast all evening, and Marcus had seemed to be too. The two of them had done the Zipper three times, the third time at his insistence. Divine felt like a kid again, or maybe for the first time, since she'd missed out on anything resembling a normal childhood when she'd actually been a child.
"I do hate heights," Marcus assured her, laughing even as he said it. "I mean I know I'd probably survive a fall even from incredible heights, but the healing . . ." He grimaced and shook his head.
"Well, why didn't you say so?" she said with exasperation. "We don't have to--"
Her words ended on a gasp as their legs were suddenly swept out from under them, leaving them dangling in the air Superman-style.
"Okay, I'm going to count to three and then say pull. When I say pull, you pull the rip cord, Divine," Kathy Walters instructed, drawing her attention. "When I say pull, you pull. Got it?"
"Yes, but--" Divine let her words die as they started to rise, pulled back and up by the cord the girls had attached to their connected harnesses. She glanced to Marcus uncertainly. "I could slip into her head and have her bring us down. I can do this alone."
Marcus just smiled and shook his head, reaching out with his left hand to rub her left arm where it was linked with his right arm. "Nah. I'm with you. If you go down, I do too."
"Hold on to your wrists," Kathy yelled from below. "Don't break the hold."
Marcus smiled wryly and returned to clasping his wrists with his hands as Divine was doing before muttering, "Let's just hope we land safely."
"I'm sure we will," Divine said. "They've never had an accident yet since I joined two years ago."
"So what you're saying is, they're due for an accident."
"No," Divine laughed. "I--"
"One!" Kathy shouted from below.
"Oh, are we up all the way already?" Divine asked with surprise, glancing around. Yep, they were up, pretty damned high too.
"Two!"
"Oh, look I can see Vincent at the Tilt-A-Whirl," she said brightly.
"Three!"
"Yeah, he looks like a bug from here. Just how far up are we?"
"Pull!"
Rather than answer, Divine released her wrist long enough to pull the cord and then quickly caught her wrist again as they suddenly plummeted downward. Despite his claim that he didn't like heights, Marcus laughed his head off as they dropped, but Divine didn't join him at first. For those first five seconds it felt like they were going to plummet to the earth. It wasn't until their cord pulled tight and they suddenly swung forward, swinging on their stomachs in their harnesses, that she began to smile and then laugh. This was madness, crazy, awesome!
They were allowed three swings that took them out over the midway and then back above the back lot, before Kathy shouted at them to grab a rope she was holding up on a pole.
"Is she kidding?" Marcus asked with disbelief. "We'll pull her right off that stand she's on."
Divine shrugged and--trusting that the girl knew what she was doing--grabbed for the looped rope as they flew past. Marcus caught it first. It didn't jerk them to a halt or drag Kathy off the stand, instead the loop pulled out, showing that it was attached to a chain. It came out more slowly than they would have gone had they not held it and slow
ed them to a stop after thirty or forty feet, then began to pull them back toward the takeoff pad.
"Well," Marcus said and then grinned at her. "That was fun. Want to do it again?"
Divine laughed at him. "I thought you were afraid of heights?"
"Not afraid. I just don't like them," he corrected. "But I find with you there are a lot of things I didn't used to like or didn't care about that are suddenly interesting and fun."
"Same here," she acknowledged, her voice husky as she thought of some of those things.
Marcus's arm tightened on hers where they were linked at the elbows and he tugged her closer, his face moving in. She knew he was going to kiss her and closed her eyes as her body began to tingle at the very idea and then she blinked them open again in surprise as they suddenly jerked to a halt.
"How was that?" Kathy asked by her ear, and Divine tore her eyes from Marcus's and glanced around to see that Kathy and the greenie working with her had caught and positioned them over the landing pad. Even as she noted that, the back of their harness was released and they both swung to a standing position again.
"It was great," Divine said with a grin as the girls worked to unhook them.
"Want to do it again?" Kathy asked, pausing in unhooking them.
"It's up to you," Marcus said when she glanced his way. "I'm game if you are."
Divine hesitated, but then glanced to the line-up the girls had. "No. Thanks, Kathy, but you have a heck of a line-up there. Besides, I'm kind of hungry."
"Yeah, so am I," Marcus announced as the girls continued unhooking them. "We can always do this again later if you want."
"Come by at closing," Kathy suggested. "Lots of us take turns at it after the carnival closes."
"Sounds good," Marcus said, stepping out of his harness. He then turned to hold Divine's hands as she stepped out of hers and slid his arm around her waist to lead her away. "What do you feel like eating?"
"I'm not sure," Divine said with amusement. "That omelet this morning and last night's casserole are the only things I've eaten in ages."
"Me too," he acknowledged, and then let his hand drop from her waist to catch her fingers and said, "Come on. I have an idea."