The Immortal Hunter(87)

"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.


"Dani?"

"Nicholas?" she gasped in shock, recognizing his voice from their first call. Her eyes flickered to Decker as he moved in closer, and then to Mortimer as he suddenly paused and turned back. Both men looked grim, and she could feel the tension filling the air.

"I'm sorry I didn't call sooner," Nicholas said. "I know you've probably been worried sick, but I didn't want to call until I had some good news for you."

"My sister?" she asked eagerly, encouraged by his mention of good news. "Do you have her?"

"No." He sounded apologetic. "But I know where she is and that she's alive."

Dani closed her eyes. Alive was good. She'd take alive. Everything else could be repaired either with counseling, or by having Decker or one of the other men wipe Stephanie's memory.

"I imagine you aren't alone?" Nicholas asked.

Dani opened her eyes. Judging by their expressions, Mortimer and Decker could hear both sides of the conversation. It was that nano-hearing of theirs, she supposed as she admitted, "No. Decker and Mortimer are here."

Both men looked put out, but she ignored them.

"Does your phone have speakerphone capabilities?"

"Yes," Dani said, for the first time grateful that she'd allowed the salesman to talk her into getting it.

"Put me on speaker then," Nicholas requested.

Dani did, then held the phone out in front of her. "Go ahead."