Page 37 of Immortal by Morning (Argeneau #37)

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 movie Pixels , 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 a dream, 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?”

“Vampires are mythical creatures who are dead and soulless. We, immortals, are neither dead nor soulless. We are humans who have been given a scientific ad vancement that allows us to remain healthy and live longer.”

Abril nodded slowly, but asked, “How did your people originally get fangs if they didn’t come with the nanos?”

“They did come with the nanos, just not right away,” he said quietly. “They were not a programmed part of the nanos, but when

Atlantis fell... Well, the nanos were programmed to keep their host at their peak. They needed blood to do that. But when the fall happened, the surviving Atlanteans

spread out into the world. None of them were scientists who had worked with the nanos, and as you guessed, no one had managed

to bring out any of the items needed for transfusions.

“On top of all that, most of those survivors were apparently injured during their escape, some grievously so. They all needed

blood, but with no transfusions to aid with that, they were quickly starving for it and in unbearable pain. Some set themselves

on fire to escape the pain. Others did it out of fear that the terrible pain would make them desperate enough to attack their

new neighbors. That they would become mad and vicious animals who slaughtered mortals to get the blood they needed and even

drink it, which of course they had never done before when transfusions were available,” he pointed out. “The very idea of

drinking human blood was horrifying to a lot of them.”

Abril nodded with understanding and he supposed she would naturally be horrified at the idea too.

Offering her a smile, he continued, “Fortunately, for those who remained, the nanos did what they had to do to ensure their survival. They brought on fangs and other things in their hosts to help them get the blood the nanos needed to continue to do their work.”

Abril’s head came up slightly. “What other things?”

“They made them stronger, faster, gave them night vision...”

“Abilities that would make them better predators,” she realized.

Crispin nodded, his expression almost apologetic. “Yes. Predators. But only because there were no more blood transfusions

and the nanos needed the blood.”

Abril grunted, her expression troubled.

“We are not the vampires of fiction,” he said firmly. “We are not dead and soulless, and we have laws. We do not just go around

preying on people. In fact, we do not bite people anymore at all. And even when we did, we were not allowed to feed to the

point of death. We could only take so much, and had to erase their memories of our presence, and replace them with pleasurable

experiences so that no one knew we existed.

“We understood that anyone finding out about us and our nanos would be a problem that could end in our being hunted down as

a people and killed. Or, if they did not outright kill us, they would want to be like us. And even back at the beginning,

directly after the fall, the immortals knew that would be a bad thing for the population at large.”

Abril nodded in understanding but couldn’t help thinking that others knowing would also have reduced the population they could

feed off as well.

“We have a lot of laws to protect both ourselves and mortals,” he assured her. “As I said we are not allowed to feed unto death, but the truth is, now that there are blood banks, it is against our laws to feed off of humans at all, unless it is an emergency.”

“An emergency?” she asked, her gaze narrowing.

He hesitated and then said, “If an immortal is terribly injured and has lost a lot of blood somewhere away from blood banks

or the ability to get bagged blood, it is safer to feed off of a mortal or two than to risk being overwhelmed by blood lust

and attacking and killing anyone.”

She nodded slowly at that, and then said, “Tell me about your laws.”

“We are allowed to turn only one mortal in our lifetime. We are allowed to only have one child every century. We are never

to do anything that would reveal our existence to mortals. And, as I said, here in North America we are never to feed off

mortals unless it is an emergency.”

“Here in North America?” Abril asked at once.

Crispin shifted uncomfortably before admitting, “Different areas have different councils and so different laws. North America

has the North American council with its laws, Europe has its own set of laws, and South America has its own council and laws

as well and so on.”

Abril almost asked if feeding off a mortal was legal or not in these other areas, but suspected she really wouldn’t like the

answer, so set it aside for now, and instead asked, “And how do they ensure these laws are followed?”

“We have immortal police not dissimilar to human police. They are called Enforcers. That is their official title. We usually

call them hunters, because that is their main task, hunting down rogue immortals who are harming mortals.”

“Is that what you are?” she asked. “An Enforcer masquerading as a homicide detective?”

“Not really,” he answered slowly, and then grimaced and added, “I mean, I would be included in the hunt if there was one in

the area—”

“As there appears to be,” she pointed out.

Crispin nodded. “Yes, that is why Roberts and I are on the police force here in London. So that we will be the first to become

aware if there is a rogue in the area that is harming, turning, or killing mortals. They have at least one immortal on each

of the police forces in every city, and a couple in each of the provincial police forces, and the RCMP as well. Our jobs are

to keep our eyes open for rogue activity, and if we spot any, report to Garrett Mortimer, the head of the Immortal Enforcers.

He then sends out other Enforcers to take care of the situation. Of course, the reporting immortals—in this case, Roberts

and I—would help the Enforcers get control of the situation.”

“Roberts is a vampire too?” she asked with surprise.

“We are not vampires,” he reminded her gently.

“Aren’t you? You have fangs and—”