Mary glared at him resentfully, obviously not appreciating the question, but said, “Well, I’ll just explain about immortals and—”
“You cannot tell her about us,” he interrupted firmly. “Keeping our existence from the rest of world is a necessity. It is how we have survived so long as a people. If mortals knew we existed, fear alone would make them hunt us down and—”
“You told me,” Mary interrupted almost accusingly.
“Yes, but you are my life mate,” Dante pointed out solemnly. “I hoped to turn you. If the situation had arisen where you refused to be my life mate, I would have had to let Lucian wipe your mind of all memory of me and everything I told you.”
“He can do that?” she asked with alarm.
“We can do that,” Dante said gently. “Including you. You are one of us now, Mary.”
She frowned slightly, and then shook her head. “Well, that’s all right, and I can still tell her. I want to turn her. I want to turn her husband and children too, and my son and his—”
“You cannot,” Dante interrupted and hated himself for having to do so. He was quite sure if their places were reversed, he would wish to do the same with his family. However, it just wasn’t possible. “Mary, each of us is allowed only one turn. It is necessary,” he added firmly. “If every turn, turned every loved one, we would soon outstrip mortals in number.”
“So?” she snapped impatiently.
“So whom would we feed on?” Dante asked practically and saw the revulsion that immediately crossed her face. “I am sorry, but that is reality. Your reality now.”
Mary swallowed and shook her head, but then said, “Fine. But I can turn one?”
“Each immortal can turn one individual in their life,” he agreed quietly, already knowing where this was going. “They usually save it for their life mate.”
“You’re my life mate, though,” she pointed out. “So I want to turn my daughter.”
“It is your choice,” he said mildly. “However, you have to gain her permission first, and she then would have to leave her husband and children behind.”
“She can turn her husband,” Mary said at once, and then added, “And he can use his one turn for his oldest daughter, who can use her turn on her sister, who can turn my son, her uncle, who can turn his wife, who can turn their son.” She smiled triumphantly. “And then we can all be immortal.”
“What if your daughter’s husband is not her life mate?” he pointed out.
“They’re married,” she said with a laugh.
“That does not mean they are life mates,” Dante said solemnly. “And if he is not, life together would be unbearable.”
“They love each other and live together now,” Mary pointed out. “They would be fine.”
“They may be fine living together as mortals, but that would not be the case if they were immortals and not life mates,” he assured her. “It is difficult to live with someone when you can hear their every thought.”
“But if they were both immortal—”
“Then they would both hear every thought the other had about them,” Dante said solemnly.
“You mean you guys can always read each other?” Mary asked with surprise. “It isn’t just a new life mate thing?”
Dante hesitated. He’d really been looking forward to getting back here with the condoms and actually using them. However, that wasn’t looking very likely if he had to explain—Sighing, he pushed those thoughts away. This was important to Mary. He needed to explain, “Immortals can read each other if they do not guard their thoughts. If they are guarding their thoughts, it is impossible to read immortals who are older than themselves, and harder, but not impossible to read the thoughts of immortals about their age or younger than themselves. We quickly learn to guard our thoughts, but it takes constant effort and can be exhausting, and immortals often end up avoiding spending time with each other because of this. Life then can become very lonely if they stay by themselves, or heartbreaking if they befriend mortals who age, sicken and die so quickly in comparison to us. It has led to immortals going rogue and doing things they should not,” he added solemnly. “And that is why we have hunters, or Enforcers.”
“That is also why life mates are so important to us,” he continued without giving her a chance to interrupt. “A life mate is the one person, mortal or immortal, that we cannot read and who cannot read us. We can relax together and enjoy each other without the need to constantly guard our thoughts.”