The Immortal Hunter(86)

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."