Divine shrugged uncomfortably. “I couldn’t just leave you in the stand for someone to find. You’d have attacked the first person who came along and drained them dry. Maybe the second person who came too.”
“Yes,” he agreed, sounding both weary and ashamed at once. Straightening his shoulders, he added, “Still, some would have left me anyway.”
“I wouldn’t,” she said firmly.
“No,” Marcus agreed quietly. “I know you wouldn’t. You might be a ball buster—”
Divine glanced at him sharply, surprised when he grinned.
“But you’re also the woman who does her best to help the mortals who come to you, as well as the carnies you travel with. You would not have left me screaming in a cotton candy stand at the carnival,” he said with certainty.
Divine shrugged and glanced away, then sighed and turned back, “Sorry about the . . . er . . . ball-busting thing. I—”
“I shouldn’t have just walked in,” Marcus interrupted quietly. “I gather that could get a man shot here in America. The truth is I walked right in because I didn’t think you’d invite me in,” he smiled wryly and admitted, “which probably means I deserved it, I guess.”
“You deserved to get hit,” Divine assured him. “But I didn’t mean to do . . . what happened,” she finished with a grimace. She really hadn’t meant to do that kind of damage. She just didn’t handle it well when people tried to take choice away from her. Now that he’d been through so much, she actually felt bad about her part in his suffering. Really, fate had over punished him.
“Well, fortunately, I healed. One of the benefits of being immortal,” Marcus said with a shrug and then added grimly, “A benefit that is definitely appreciated after that fire.”
Divine nodded solemnly. Healing was one very definite benefit of being immortal, but there were many; being stronger, faster, able to see in darkness, never getting sick . . . Some would say that never aging was an amazing benefit too, but that lost its charm after a couple centuries. At least it had for Divine. Actually, she would have been happy to die in her teens, but then she’d gone through something terrible at that time, a nightmare really. One whole year of her life had been hell. It had taken a long time to get over it, and she had got over it. But it was the kind of thing that had an impact on a person and shaped their personality. It would always be a part of her, but she had long ago got over the death wish it had inspired. The closest she’d got to that feeling since then was a deep weariness, a bone-deep boredom. She had been around long enough to have seen it all, well, at least when it came to human behavior. That boredom and weariness had begun to wane a bit the last couple of days though. Between the questions she suddenly had about her son, and the events that had taken place at the carnival, things had certainly turned interesting.
Her gaze slid to Marcus and she noted his pallor. She had seen him feed several times while he was going through the worst of the healing, but he obviously needed more. “You need to feed again.”
“Yeah. The problem is there’s no more blood in the refrigerator and it will take some time to get more delivered,” he said, sounding weary.
Divine arched an eyebrow with disapproval. “You know bagged blood is like junk food for immortals, don’t you?”
Marcus’s eyes widened slightly. “Where did you hear that?”
“From Ab— a friend,” she corrected quickly, and then shrugged. “Most of the nutrients are destroyed once they leave the body, and the longer it’s refrigerated, the less good the blood does. It’s like drinking from a dead person. Pretty much useless.”
Marcus frowned. “I’m sorry, but your friend was misinformed, Divine. If what he said was true, mortals couldn’t use bagged blood for transfusions and such. As long as the blood is kept at the proper temperature, it still holds on to its nutrients. It’s as good as getting the blood straight from the source.” He hesitated and then added solemnly, “That’s why immortals are restricted to bagged blood now. It’s just as nutritious, but doesn’t carry the risk of discovery like biting mortals does.”