"Immortals all have fangs," Marguerite said calmly.
"Right," Alex said with a scowl. "You all have fangs and consume blood to survive but you aren't vampires?"
Marguerite clucked her tongue impatiently. "Yes, I know there are similarities. The mythological vampires have fangs and feed off the living. However, they are also supposed to be the cursed, soulless reanimated dead. And I assure you I am neither cursed nor soulless. I am very definitely also not dead."
"Then what-?"
"I will explain. But you may find the explanation difficult to accept," she warned.
"More difficult than vampires really existing?" Alex asked dryly. "Go ahead. I think I can handle anything right now."
"I wish you would stop calling us that unpleasant word. It's really quite distressing," Marguerite said unhappily, but continued, "You've heard of Atlantis?"
Alex raised her eyebrows. "Yes. An ancient, mythical land that was supposedly more advanced than the rest of the world or something."
"Yes ... well it was not just myth. It was a country on the tip of a continent, surrounded by ocean on three sides and cut off from its neighbors by a mountain range that made travel difficult. It was isolated, and was far more advanced scientifically than the rest ofthe world, to the point where the scientists had begun to work with what are now called nanos. It seems one of these scientists thought they could be a medical aid and created nanos specifically programmed to repair injuries and combat illness in the human body.
"His idea was that these nanos could be shot directly into the bloodstream, which would carry them throughout the body and take them wherever they needed to go to accomplish this. For that reason, he designed them to use blood to propel themselves as well as regenerate themselves so that they could accomplish even the largest task like fighting off cancer in a body riddled with it."
Alex raised her eyebrows and asked with disbelief, "And when was this? "
"Well before the arrival of Christ, dear," Marguerite said solemnly.
"Okay, that's a bit wild," Alex acknowledged. "But what has that to do with vamp-immortals," she corrected herself at the last moment.
Marguerite smiled at her for making the effort. "Well, these nanos were supposed to dissolve and leave the body when finished with their work. However, there are countless illnesses and injuries a body may suffer, and programming individual groups of nanos for each such ailment would have been impossible, so he, or they really," she interrupted herself to say, "because while one man started the work, others finished it.
"But anyway, to avoid that problem, the nanos were simply programmed to repair any damage, fight any illness, and keep the host body at its peak condition. Unfortunately, the body always has something to repair. The sun, the environment, even the passage of time kills off cells and causes damage that the nanos see as something that must be repaired."
"They never dissolve and leave," Alex realized.
Marguerite nodded. "And they use blood to power and regenerate themselves as well as to make repairs. More blood than a mortal body can create."
"The need for blood," she murmured.
She nodded again. "In Atlantis, they combated the problem by giving transfusions to those who had been given the nanos before the flaws were discovered. However, when Atlantis fell-"
"How did Atlantis fall?" Alex asked curiously.
"I believe it was an earthquake. Whatever the case, Atlantis basically sank into the ocean."
"Like they say California will do someday," Alex murmured.
"Yes." Marguerite said, "And when that happened, pretty much the only survivors were those with nanos in them. They climbed over the mountains to rejoin the rest of the world and found themselves in a muchless-advanced society. There were no more doctors or transfusions."
Alex grimaced. "That must have been a bit of a shock."
Marguerite nodded. "It was apparently a very rough time for most of them. They still needed more blood than they could produce, but now had no way to get it. Some simply died, but in others, the nanos sort of forced them to evolve to adapt to this new habitat. Theysuddenly sprouted retractable fangs to get the blood they needed."
Eyes narrowing, Alex snapped, "I thought you said you didn't bite and couldn't feed on mortals."
"Yes, well, I should have said we don't bite anymore. But we cannot feed off mortals now that there is bagged blood, it's against our laws. An immortal who breaks that law can be executed."
"Can be? Or is?" Alex asked dryly.
"Exceptions are made in emergency cases when an immortal is in terrible need without bagged blood available," Marguerite explained. "But otherwise, if they are simply feeding off mortals because they want, they will be found rogue and put down."
Alex thought of Cale. He'd definitely been in terrible need ... and she'd taken the cooler of bagged blood away. If he couldn't get to it, and a passerby stopped, would he be forgiven for feeding off the person?