Argeneau Family 12. The Renegade Hunter(48)

"So?" she prompted. "How old are you?"

Nicholas peered at her solemnly and then admitted, "I was born in 1449."

Jo released her glass and gaped at him. "What? I think I heard that wrong. What did you just say? What year were you born?"

"1449," he repeated solemnly.

"How—You can't—That isn't possible," she said finally. "They didn't have that kind of technology back then. Heck, they—"

"My ancestors did," Nicholas assured her quietly.

"Your ancestors" Jo echoed blankly. "Well, where the heck are your ancestors from? Venus? Saturn? Mars maybe?"

Nicholas smiled faintly, but shook his head. "No, they were mortals from a place called Atlantis that fell before the coming of Christ."

"Atlantis?" Jo echoed, eyes wide. She'd heard of the place, of course. She doubted anyone hadn't heard of Atlantis. There were all sorts of myths about the place. Even its very existence was something of a myth since most people weren't sure it ever existed. Apparently it had… and jeez, he wasn't kidding about advanced technology if they were playing with nanos there way back when.

Atlantis, she thought on a sigh. Wasn't it just like her that in a country full of Canadians she falls for the oddball guy from Atlantis? That thought reminded her of an old show that she used to watch in reruns as a kid, The Man from Atlantis . The memory of it made her glance at his perfectly formed hands and then lean to the side to peer at his shod feet under the table. Straightening, she asked, "Do you have webbed feet, like the guy on the Man from Atlantis ?"

"No," Nicholas snapped with disgust. "Good God, woman, you saw me naked."

"It wasn't your feet I was looking at," Jo said dryly, and then her eyes widened as the man actually blushed.

Releasing a pent-up sigh, he said, "That show was a load of nonsense. We're vampires, not fish."

"But not traditional vampires, Atlantean vampires," Jo suggested with gentle teasing.

Nicholas smiled reluctantly. "The fact is, we prefer to be called immortals rather than vampires, but the vampire thing is more expedient when explaining things."

"I suppose it would be," Jo agreed. She peered at him silently for a moment, but then asked, "So Mortimer and the guys run around hunting down Atlantean vampires? I presume that's why he has those cells and the blood in the office and such. He and Bricker and the others know about your existence and hunt you down?"

Nicholas hesitated, and then sighed and said, "Mortimer, Bricker, Decker, Anders, and all the other men you met at the party are also Atlantean vampires… I mean immortals," he corrected himself with a grimace.

Jo's eyes widened. "Mortimer? My sister's boyfriend , Mortimer, is a vampire too?"

He nodded. „

Jo sat back in her seat with a frown. "So the blood in the garage…"

"Their supply," Nicholas said quietly. "We drink bagged blood now. It's against our laws to drink any other way."

When Jo arched her eyebrows at that and raised her fingers to the puncture wounds on her throat, he grimaced and added, "There are exceptions to the rule. It's allowed in cases of an emergency where bagged blood isn't readily available… or between lovers."

Jo almost smiled at the term. Lovers . She hardly knew the man. At least, she'd met him for only the first time last night, but lovers was a much nicer term than some she'd heard. She peered at him silently for a moment and then asked, "So Mortimer is one too and sneaks out to the garage for blood." She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "God, I have to tell Sam. She'll be—"

"She'll know," Nicholas assured her solemnly. "She's his life mate. He would have told her and then eventually he will turn her."

"Turn her?" Jo asked sharply. "You mean make her one too? You can do that?"

"We're each allowed to turn one," he admitted.

"Wow," Jo breathed, unsure how she felt about that. She supposed it was good news in a way. She wouldn't have to worry about Sam getting ill or dying, but… a vampire… jeez.

"In fact, he should have already, but the scuttlebutt on the street is that she's refused for now because it would mean leaving you and your other sister behind in ten years."

"Really?" Jo asked, unsure how to feel about that. "Why would she have to leave us in ten years?"

"Not just you, everyone she knows in this life. It's to prevent anyone noticing that she isn't aging," he explained. "We have survived as long as we have only because our existence is kept secret from the general population."