“I told Bat that you were nuts,” she admitted. “I know you didn’t want me to say anything to her but I did. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about that now, Dusti.”
“I thought you were like my friend Greg. He thinks aliens are after him when he doesn’t take his meds.”
Drantos rubbed her back. “I’m not crazy and I don’t need medication.”
“I think I’m going to lose my mind. Maybe I’m the one who needs meds.”
“Please don’t fall apart on me. Call me names, insult me, but damn it, don’t cry. I can’t handle that. If it helps, remember that your mother was pure VampLycan. She could shift.”#p#分页标题#e#
“You’re not helping.”
“Sorry. I just wanted to remind you that we’re all not monsters. I got the impression you loved your mother and she was good to you.”
“She was the best.”
“She loved you and cared for you. Not all of us are bad.”
“If that’s true, if she had to run away from her father, why didn’t she go to her own people to protect her from being given to some bad guy?”
He shrugged against her. “Maybe she feared it would cause deaths in whatever clan that took her in, if her father tried to get her back. I don’t know, Dusti. No one could answer that but her. We would have tried to protect Antina and welcomed her if she’d sought sanctuary. Maybe she believed everything bad her father ever said about us. He feels we’re too soft and weak because we’re not as bloodthirsty as he is. That’s why he wants to rule all the clans. It’s possible she felt we couldn’t protect her. We like to live in peace but that doesn’t mean we’re not deadly when we’re on the defense. We are. Was she happy in the human world?”
“Yes.” She fought tears. “My parents were really in love. You could see how much they meant to each other every time they touched. That was often. We were a happy family. She used to say meeting my father had been the best moment of her life, besides having her daughters. We had a lot of great times.” Memories of her childhood surfaced in her thoughts. “We laughed a lot.”
“Didn’t you ever notice anything strange about her?”
Dusti racked her brain. “She looked pretty young for her age. Everyone used to comment on it. Of course, it’s just in the genes. Bat and I get mistaken all the time for being in our early twenties.”
“How old are you?”
“Thirty-one, and Bat is thirty-three.”
“You don’t look it.” He paused. “You may have inherited the very slow aging process we possess.”
“What does that mean?”
“Vampires don’t age at all from the time they are turned. Lycans have a lifespan of about five hundred years.”
She couldn’t imagine. “Are you kidding me? How is that possible?”
“Vampires use blood to heal and survive. As long as they feed, it repairs most damage, including any from aging. Lycans heal much faster than humans. The same applies but they don’t need fresh blood. They just have to keep in good health by eating regularly and allowing the shift to happen from time to time. It would be as if a human refused to use their legs to stand and just sat around nonstop instead. Over time, it would make their bodies weaken.”
She let that sink in. “What about what you are? How long do you live?”
“We’re not sure.”
“How is that possible?”
“We’ve only been in existence for about two hundred years. We age slower than Lycans. “
“How do you know that?”
“Just meet a Lycan and a VampLycan born the same year. The Lycan will look a few years older than one of ours. It’s the best measure we’ve found so far. It’s estimated that we might live eight hundred years or so but that’s a guess. It would also depend on what traits are more dominant of the two. A mostly Vampire-blooded VampLycan will probably live longer than a mostly Lycan-blooded one.”
“My grandfather had gray hair when he visited us.”
“He probably dyed it and put on makeup to look aged before going into your world. He was playing a role for you and your sister. Some of us do that if we have dealings with the same humans long enough. We try to blend in and not raise suspicion.”#p#分页标题#e#
“What kind of dealings?”
He hesitated.
“Is it a secret or something?”
“No, I was thinking of a good example to use. There was a family who used to own some land by one of our borders. My father met them thirty years ago. They ended up moving away but kept ownership of the land. Two years ago they wanted to sell it, so they contacted my father and wanted him to meet them. He always makes it clear to surrounding human families that he’s interested if they’re ever willing to sell. He hasn’t aged in that time and they would have noticed. He had to pretend to be his own son.” Drantos chuckled lightly. “He didn’t want to wear makeup or dye his hair to appear older.”