“Immortals are restricted to bagged blood?” she asked with surprise.
He nodded and walked slowly back to join her behind the vehicle. “Except in cases of emergency, we aren’t supposed to consume anything but bagged blood.”
Divine frowned at this news. “And if they do?”
“They’re considered rogue,” he said quietly. “At least they are here in the U.S. and in Canada. Feeding off the hoof is still allowed in Europe and some other places, but even there it’s frowned on more and more.”
Divine sank to sit on the end of the SUV. She hadn’t realized they had made that rule. She hadn’t realized that bagged blood could even sustain them. Abaddon had said— Divine closed her eyes and bowed her head. She should have known better than to trust anything Abaddon said, and normally she was skeptical of everything he told her, but it had sounded so logical. Not that it would have made much difference. She didn’t have access to blood banks and would have been forced to feed off the hoof anyway. That thought made her glance to him curiously. “So, what do immortals do? Rob blood banks or something?”
Marcus smiled crookedly at the question and shook his head. “They run their own blood banks. They collect the blood, and immortals purchase it like a mortal would buy steak or potatoes at a grocery store.”
“They actually sell it in stores?” Divine asked with surprise.
“No, of course not. Immortals order it and it’s delivered to their residence or where they’re staying,” he said with amusement.
“Oh,” Divine murmured. “So how do you order it?”
“Argeneau Enterprises runs the blood banks and distribution of—”
“Of course they do,” she said on a sigh and stood to walk around to the driver’s seat. If the Argeneaus were involved in the distribution, she couldn’t risk ordering it and drawing attention to herself. She would just have to continue on as she was going. It was a bit distressing to think that she was considered rogue now though.
Well, she’d been considered rogue before this, Divine supposed, but unfairly in her opinion. This, however . . . well, she knew the rule and could order the blood, but was choosing not to, so she supposed she truly was rogue now.
“Come on,” she said, slipping into the driver’s seat.
Marcus closed the back door and walked around to get in the front passenger side. “Where are we going?”
Divine paused, and then asked, “How long would it take you to get blood delivered to you?”
Marcus grimaced, and shook his head. “Bastien said to let him know when I was down to a couple days’ supply because it would take him that long to get fresh blood to me.”
Divine nodded and turned forward to start the engine, “Well then, we’re going to find you donors. You can’t wait two days for bagged blood, you’re pale and sweating. I’d guess you’re in pain too?”
He nodded reluctantly when she glanced over. “Yes, but—”
“There are no buts here, Marco. You need blood and this is an emergency. You haven’t seen yourself. You’ve healed to the point of scarring, but the burn scars aren’t going away. The nanos don’t have enough blood to work with. They’re obviously trying to find it though.” She peered at him solemnly as he felt his face, and then leaned over to flip down the visor so that he could see himself in the mirror on the underside.
Marcus winced in shock at the sight of his own scarred flesh.
“It’s an emergency,” Divine repeated grimly. “The nanos still have a lot of work to do. You’re going to be brainless with bloodlust pretty quickly if we don’t get some blood into you.” She flipped the visor back up again and shifted the car into gear. “So, we find you a donor.”