surface, and then she commented. “You call Robert your father.”
G.G. shrugged. “He’s the only father I know. I don’t remember my birth father. And Robert has been my dad in every way that’s important since I was five. That’s thirty-two years. He’s earned the title.”
G.G. glanced over in time to see her nod and curiosity made him ask, “What about you?”
“What about me?” she asked easily.
“What about your parents?” he clarified. “Are they—?”
“Dead,” she said, her voice flat. “Long dead.”
G.G. considered that, but then asked, “They weren’t immortal?”
“No.” Ildaria’s voice was almost hollow.
“So you were turned at some point,” he said, frowning now as the memory of his mother’s screams of agony rang in his ears, and the vision of the skin on her face jumping and rippling as if it were boiling came to mind along with the way she’d clawed at her stomach, as if trying to tear it open. Robert had been trying to stop her, but she had been unstoppable and G.G. had fled at the first sight of blood appearing under her clawing fingers.
“I was turned in a back alley in Punta Cana when I was fourteen.”
The words drew G.G.’s mind from his memories and he peered at her sharply. Her voice sounded empty, emotionless on the subject. He frowned briefly, and then said, almost with disbelief, “Your life mate turned you in a back alley?”
“He was not my life mate,” she said grimly.
“A rogue turned you?” he asked, his brow furrowing with concern.
“No. Si. I don’t know,” she said finally. “He was an asshole who attacked me, but I do not know if that makes him rogue.” After a pause, she admitted, “I turned myself, by accident, while fighting him off.” Sweeping the peppers up in her hands, she dumped them into a frying pan with butter and then plucked up the onion only to pause and purse her lips. “You like onions and peppers, don’t you?”
“Yes,” he said at once, and watched her relax and start to work at dicing the onion now. He wanted to ask about the attack and how she’d accidentally turned herself, but she suddenly seemed . . . removed. As if she had shut down her emotions. It seemed better to wait. Besides, it had probably been something like how Jackie Argeneau had been turned. Jackie was a private detective and the wife of Vincent Argeneau, one of Marguerite’s nephews. Jackie had bit into an immortal’s arm during an attack, and then had held on, inadvertently swallowing the nano-filled blood as she struggled with her attacker. She’d got enough to start the change. An accidental turn you could say.
The sound of the toast popping caught his ear, and G.G. turned to snatch the hot pieces of crusty bread out of the toaster. He dropped them on the plate and began to slather them with butter.
“Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
G.G. shook his head in answer, but then realizing she was watching what she was doing and not looking up to see the small movement, he said, “No. Only child.”
“Your mother and Robert haven’t had a child of their own yet?” she asked with surprise.
“Not yet,” he said easily, and then smiled faintly and added, “But I’m sure they will. I think my mother just wanted to wait until I was grown up. Or maybe they just wanted to enjoy each other for a while before getting into diapers and teething.” Finished buttering the toast, he set the knife aside and carried the plate to where she was working, adding, “I can’t imagine teething is fun with fangs.”
Ildaria chuckled at the suggestion. “No. I don’t suppose it is.”
He watched her finish with the onions and gather those up to throw in with the peppers and then commented, “Come to that, I doubt breastfeeding is fun with fangs either.” After a brief pause he added thoughtfully, “Or maybe not. Like mortal babies, immortal ones probably don’t have teeth when they’re born.”
Ildaria seemed to consider his words seriously for a moment, and then confessed, “I don’t know. But the job of the nanos is to see to our well-being. That means getting blood. Immortal babies need blood too, so they might be born with fangs already in place.”
G.G. grimaced at the thought of a cute little cuddly baby with fangs. Except . . . “Your fangs don’t show though. I mean, unless you’re using them. They just look like normal canines until they shift and drop or whatever it is