“No-fangers were dangerous, crazy and sadistic, basically a bunch of Jack-the-ripper types. They were locked up,” he said quietly, and then admitted with distaste, “I suspect the scientists experimented on them, trying to remove the nanos.”
“So Atlanteans were enlightened-type people,” she said sarcastically. “Willing to experiment on the victims of their own inventions.”
“They were just people, Sherry,” he said quietly. “And as with every society, we had good people and bad people too.”
“Right,” she said on a sigh, then commented, “So if not all of you made it out, then your kind can die?” It had been sounding like they couldn’t.
“Oh yes, we can die. It is just harder to kill us. As far as I know, only decapitation or being consumed by fire can kill us,” he said quietly.
“I see,” she murmured. Sherry paused for a moment to consider that, and then went back to the original conversation. “So sixty percent of the Atlanteans with nanos survived—”
“That does not include no-fangers,” he inserted.
She nodded. “But those of you who survived were left with nothing. No home, no homeland, no transfusions.”
Basil nodded.
“So the nanos gave you fangs and . . . stuff,” she ended lamely.
“Fangs, extra strength, night vision, abilities and skills that would make us better able to get the blood we needed.”
“Okay, but I don’t understand how the nanos . . .” she hesitated, searching for the right words, and finally settled on, “knew to do that, I guess. I mean, you said they were programmed to repair injuries and stuff, but who programmed them to give you fangs and the other things?”
“I am very sure no one programmed that into them,” he said. “I believe it was just their solution to the problem when Atlantis fell and we found ourselves without any way to get blood transfusions to gain the blood they needed. Getting that blood was the only way they could carry out the directive to keep us at our peak. Without those abilities, we would have died. In fact, some of us did die without evolving.”
“So these nanos can think?” she asked with a frown.
Basil frowned too and started to shake his head, but then his eyes widened slightly and he said, “I guess they must.”
He seemed shocked at the idea, and for a moment they were both silent, and then Sherry let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding and said, “So, Atlantis fell, your people joined the rest of the world, grew fangs and— Oh, hey!” she interrupted herself suddenly. “Stephanie said Leo and his men were no-fangers. She said she was an Eden something or other too and then said she was immortal, so I’m not sure—”
“Edentate,” he explained. “It is an immortal without fangs.”
“Wouldn’t that be a no-fanger, then?” she asked with confusion.
“No. No-fangers are from the same batch of nanos as Edentates, but while the no-fangers were insane, the Edentates are the ones who survived the turn with their sanity intact. They are very like us, just without the fangs.”
“There was more than one batch of nanos?” she asked with interest.
“Yes. The first round of experiments with nanos were much less successful. One-third of the patients died, one-third came out of the turn insane, and only one-third came out seemingly fine. However, those who survived the turn from the first batch—insane or not—well, they never developed fangs after the fall. Most of them who survived the fall died when they didn’t produce fangs.”
“And Stephanie—?”
“Was turned by Leonius Livius, a no-fanger,” he explained quietly. “So was her sister, Dani. Fortunately, they both survived the turn with their sanity intact.”
“Leonius is the Leo from my store?” Sherry asked, and he nodded.
“Anyway,” Basil said, “when the first batch of nanos showed such poor results, they changed the programming, and the new improved nanos were the ones that immortals who later produced fangs came from. It’s very rare for a turn to die in the process, and no one comes out of it insane . . . well, unless they were insane beforehand,” he said with a smile.
“Right,” Sherry said quietly. “You’re an immortal . . . with fangs?”
He nodded.
Sherry hesitated, and then asked, “Can I see them?”
He blinked in surprise, and she suspected he wasn’t often asked that. Maybe even never, she thought wryly. Sherry doubted vampires ran around playing “You show me yours and I’ll show you mine.”
“Basil! Sherry! Pizza’s here!”