It was the hard slam of his back on the floor that woke Decker. Blinking his eyes open, he saw that the closet door he and Dani had collapsed against had been opened. Justin, Mortimer, and Lucian now stood in a circle around his head, peering down at him with surprise. At least Mortimer and Justin appeared surprised, he thought with a sigh. Lucian looked stone-faced as usual, with just the slight arching of one eyebrow to suggest it might be unusual to open a closet door and have two half-naked people fall out.
"Well," Justin said finally when no one else seemed eager to speak. "I thought you'd never come out of the closet."
The younger immortal then burst out laughing at his own joke. When no one else joined him, he glanced from Decker's grim face to Dani, who lay still in a faint on his chest, and then to both Mortimer and Lucian. Shaking his head, he muttered, "You guys really need to go buy yourselves a sense of humor."
Turning on his heel, he stalked off to the kitchen.
Lucian watched him go, and then turned back to eye Dani briefly before telling Decker, "Get her up and into the kitchen. I need to ask her some questions."
"Did Leonius show up?" Decker asked at once.
Lucian shook his head and turned to head for the kitchen with Mortimer following.
"At least he didn't lecture me on our choice of spots," Decker muttered to himself as he watched them go.
"Are they gone yet?"
Eyes widening at that whisper from Dani, Decker caught her by the shoulders and raised her up slightly. Her face was completely bereft of any sign of sleepiness. "You've been awake the whole time?"
"Falling out of the closet woke me," she admitted on a sigh.
"Why didn't you get up or-" The question died as she glanced meaningfully at herself. He followed her gaze to see that the halter of her dress was resting on his chest, leaving her breasts completely exposed. His mouth began to water at the sight, and Dani immediately pushed herself upright to kneel between his legs and grabbed the ties of the halter to pull them up and around her neck.
Decker sighed as she covered all that loveliness, but knew it was for the best. It also reminded him that he had a bit of tucking and straightening to do as well, and he quickly took care of that before getting to his feet and offering her a hand.
"They didn't get Leonius, did they?" she asked quietly as they started up the hall.
"No," Decker answered. Lucian had merely shaken his head in answer to the question when he'd asked it. Dani, of course, hadn't been able to see that from her position facedown on his chest, but had guessed the answer. She looked so unhappy that he added, "We will. We won't stop until we get him."
Dani nodded, but didn't look as if she believed it.
Justin was sitting on the island beside the sink, Lucian was leaning against the counter across from him, Mortimer stood between the two men facing the door, and all three had a bag of blood to their teeth when Dani and Decker entered.
Decker felt Dani's fingers brush his as they paused, and he glanced down to see her watching the men with silent envy. Whether she envied the fact that they had no qualms about feeding in front of others, or that they could use their fangs to do it while she had to drink it like a mortal would, he didn't know, but Decker took her hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze of reassurance.
Dani turned to meet his gaze, and smiled slightly.
Lucian suddenly tore the now-empty bag of blood from his teeth with a curse. When everyone turned to peer at him, he said, "We were wasting our time waiting there. Leo's already been and gone."
Everyone looked startled by this announcement, but it was Dani who asked, "How do you know that?"
"Because I just read your mind," Lucian answered unapologetically. "According to your memories the house was in perfect array when you arrived, and he walked straight out after leaving the three of you in the basement."
When Dani nodded a silent acknowledgment to this, he added, "But when I got there the rooster teapot lay smashed on the floor with tea everywhere, the salt and pepper shakers lay in pieces by it, and the apple pie had been smashed by a fist." He shrugged. "Leonius must have come back while you were crossing the field."
"He would have heard the tractor," Mortimer pointed out. "Why wouldn't he head straight after it rather than-"
"He would have checked the basement first," Lucian said with certainty. "He probably found it empty and just smashed the pie and swiped everything else off the table on his way back out. Leo probably did check the field then, but we may have either been on the scene or running to the tractor. Our presence would have scared him off."
"Is there a brown pickup at the house?" Dani asked tensely.
Lucian shook his head.
"Oh." She sounded relieved, and then explained, "That's what he was driving. I was afraid he might have set out on foot to watch the house again." She turned to Decker and explained, "He was watching us in the barn that first day."
Decker felt his mouth tighten, but merely slid his arm around her waist and drew her to his side.
"He was going to try to trade me for his sons," she added.
"His sons are dead," Decker said quietly.
"All of them? How?" she asked, surprise lifting her eyebrows. When no one answered right away, she said, "Leonius was in the van from the clearing to the restaurant where we stopped while Justin got gas. He was under the tarp and said he pulled the stakes out on two of his sons. He said it was enough that they should recover."
Decker exchanged a glance with his uncle, and then admitted, "The Council had them taken care of as soon as they finished reading them, Dani. They had to. We have no prison facilities, and rogues are like rabid dogs. They have to be put down to protect others."
Dani didn't comment on that, but announced, "Leonius said the tranquilizer didn't work on him, but did on his sons. He said he was too old and strong and it only affected him for a few moments."
"That's good to know," Decker said grimly. "We'll have to stick with arrows for Leonius then."
The other men nodded in agreement, and then Lucian shifted and glanced to Mortimer. "You may as well call the boys and tell them to start cleaning up everything so we can wipe the Parkers' memories and send them home."
"What if he does come back?" Dani asked, and then pointed out, "He might try to use the house as a spot to watch from again if he thinks you've cleared out."
"I doubt it," Lucian said, but turned to Mortimer.
"I'll put a couple men over there to keep watch until we catch him just to be sure," Mortimer said before he could say it, and then added, "I'll also send a couple over to our neighbor's on the other side to be sure he hasn't set up camp there instead."
Lucian nodded his satisfaction and then headed for the door. "I'm going to catch some sleep. Wake me if anything happens."
"You both look like you could use some rest," Mortimer announced suddenly, drawing Decker's gaze. "If you want to sleep I'll call you if the phone arrives."
Decker hesitated; he hadn't slept much in the last two nights and he was tired. Dani was looking a little wilted as well and could probably do with a rest. While she'd been unconscious all night, it hadn't been what you could call a restful sleep. Nodding, he turned Dani toward the door to usher her out.
She didn't resist, and he noticed as they walked up the stairs that her expression was troubled. It made him wonder what she was thinking.
He got his answer when Dani glanced at him as they entered her room and asked, "How exactly did edentates come into existence? Are they just a mutation of immortals?"
Decker closed the door before saying, "The edentata, both edentates and no-fangers, are the result of the first experiments with nanos."
She had started across the room, but stopped to turn on him with surprise. "I thought you said your grandparents were the first?"
"They were the first successful trials with the final batch of nanos," he interrupted, moving away from the door. "But there were unsuccessful trials beforehand."
"Unsuccessful how?" she asked as he urged her to the bed.
"Apparently the first batch used for human trials, the batch that produced the edentata, was tested on six individuals. Two died, two went crazy, and two seemed fine and didn't show issues until after the fall of Atlantis when blood transfusions were no longer available."
Dani watched him settle to sit on the ruined bed with his back to the wall and then moved to join him before saying uncertainly, "And Leo is one of the four who survived?"
"His father, Leonius the First, was," Decker corrected. "He was one of the two who went crazy during the turn."
"Why did he go crazy?"
"I don't know," he admitted. "I'm not sure even the creators of the nanos knew why, but having two thirds of the test subjects die or go mad was enough for them to cancel the trials and try to improve the nanos. They apparently did some tweaking, and the final result is what my grandparents got."
"What did they do about Leonius and the other no-fanger who was driven crazy by the faulty first batch?"
"They were locked away where they couldn't harm themselves or others."
She nodded slowly, but her mind had apparently gone back to what he'd said earlier and she asked, "What were these issues that showed up in the other two after Atlantis fell? The two of six who didn't go crazy? Was it just the lack of fangs?"
Decker hesitated and then said, "That was the most apparent difference. Some edentates also don't have the improved night vision, but otherwise they are pretty much the same. They have the increased strength and speed and the ability to read and control minds like us."
"So I will be able to read minds and control people?" She seemed surprised.
He nodded. "It takes a little time to learn those things, but yes, you'll eventually be able to do both."
"Hmm." Dani was silent for a moment, considering that, and then frowned. "If Leonius was locked up, how did he father Leo? I mean, they didn't allow conjugal visits or something, did they?"
"No." Decker chuckled at the idea, but admitted, "No one knows for sure, it's assumed that when Atlantis fell either someone let him and the other subject loose, or he simply escaped in all the chaos." Decker grimaced. "Whatever the case, he survived."
"And the other?"
Decker shook his head. "It's believed the other died in Atlantis."
"I wish Leonius had too," Dani said bitterly.
"Then I wouldn't have met you," he pointed out quietly. "You wouldn't have been kidnapped, wouldn't have been there for us to rescue from the clearing, wouldn't be here with me now."
Dani lowered her head. She wanted to say she'd prefer that to being what she was, but it wasn't wholly true. She couldn't say she loved Decker yet, she wasn't sure if she did or not, but she did care for the man. Certainly her heart ached at the prospect of never seeing him again. Perhaps had Stephanie been rescued from that clearing too, it would be a different story entirely, but she hadn't, and Dani couldn't be pleased to be what she was or fully enjoy the relationship forming between her and Decker. It seemed her mind was constantly slipping back to worry about Stephanie.
Sighing, she shook these thoughts aside and said, "So Leonius managed to escape Atlantis, wreaked havoc, but also met his life mate and had Leonius the Second?"
"Leonius had several sons and he more than wreaked havoc, but I'm not sure if he ever met his life mate."
"Then how-?"
"Leonius didn't just attack mortals, but immortals as well," Decker explained, expression grim. "He had a real liking for kidnapping immortal women and forcing them to bear his children. Leonius had a lot of sons."
Dani raised an eyebrow. "No daughters?"
"Apparently he had no use for them and usually killed daughters at birth."
"Nice," she muttered.
Decker continued, "Leonius is part of the reason for the hundred-year rule. He was having children by the dozen, keeping mortals like cattle to feed them, and it began to look as if he were creating an army of his own offspring. That's when the first Council of immortals was formed. My grandfather Ramses got several other immortals together to try to figure out what to do about Leonius and his brood, and after much deliberation, it was decided that they had to be stopped. The immortals formed an army of their own, attacked Leonius and his brood, and thought they'd wiped them out. It appears they missed one."
"Leo," she said on a sigh.
He nodded.
They were both silent for a minute, and then she asked, "I have the faulty first batch of nanos now, right?"
"Well, yes, not the original ones, but clones that have been recreated over time."
She hesitated, and then asked, "Is there any way to fix it? Maybe give me a transfusion of your nanos, or..." She let her voice trail off when he began to shake his head.
"I'm sorry, Dani. I don't know much on this subject, and you'd have to talk to Bastien. He'd know more, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't work. Your nanos would see mine as invading bodies and kill them as they do cancer cells and viruses."
"Right." She let her breath out on a sigh, and, playing with the now much shorter rope on her wrist, asked, "So, if I were to have a child, would that child have only a one in three chance of not being stillborn or insane?" Children were a consideration. Dani was over thirty and had been recently thinking she would like to get married and have a baby or six like her parents.
Decker was silent so long she stopped fiddling with the rope and turned to peer at him. The answer was in his expression, a shocked look of dismay that told her that yes, it would, and that he was only now considering this.
"We don't have to be life mates," she said softly. "I won't blame you if you..." She paused when Decker turned on her sharply.
"We are life mates, Dani," he said firmly. "And I want to be. Nothing will change that. We'll just put off . having children for a while. Bastien has people working on this kind of thing. He'll come up with something."
"And if he doesn't, or I'm already pregnant?" she asked.
Decker blinked, apparently not having considered that they'd just had sex in the closet downstairs without any kind of protection, not to mention several times in the barn the day before that, but she'd been mortal then and there had been no worry about her being an edantate.
Dani watched Decker close his eyes with dismay and sighed to herself, then glanced to the door when Mortimer shouted for them from downstairs. She turned back to Decker as he blinked his eyes open; he hesitated briefly and then stood and helped her to her feet, saying, "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."
And definitely be using protection from now on, Dani thought as he tugged her out of the room and down the stairs.
"What is it?" Decker asked as they reached the bottom of the stairs, where Mortimer stood with a man Dani had never seen before.
It was the newcomer who answered. Stepping forward, his gaze locked on her, he said, "Bastien asked me to bring this for a Dani?"
She glanced down, and her eyes widened as she saw what he held out.
"My phone!" Dani took it from him and offered a grateful smile. "Thank you."
He nodded, expression solemn, and then turned to slip back out through the still open front door.
"Call Nicholas," Mortimer said at once, and when she hesitated, pointed out, "You'll find out if he knows where your sister is... if he answers."
Dani opened the phone, looked up her call list, and found Nicholas's number. As she engaged the call, she wondered why Nicholas hadn't blocked his number so that it wouldn't show up, but then the phone picked up, and she forgot about it as she waited for him to say hello. Instead what she heard was a recorded message.
Dani closed her eyes, snapped the phone shut with a disappointed sigh, and said, "The number's no longer in service."
Decker hugged her close and murmured, "I'm sorry. I know you were counting on him."
Dani nodded, but didn't say anything. She was aware that Mortimer was slipping away, allowing them time alone. Sighing, she slipped her phone back in her pocket and raised her face to ask Decker what they should do now to find Stephanie when the phone began to ring and vibrate in her pocket.
