The Reluctant Vampire Page 0,69

inside your body."

Drina didn't comment but thought it a possibility. Every turn she'd ever talked to had had the same, or similar, nightmares. Rivers of blood, fire, corpses floa ng past, and then being pulled under either by the corpses in the water with them or by the current itself, followed by the sensa on of drowning on the blood they inadvertently swallowed as they screamed. It was always the same with li le in the way of variation.

"Why don't we just leave it for now and do this another time," Mirabeau said with a frown. Tiny glanced at her with surprise, noted her shaky expression, and reached out to take her hand. "It's okay, Beau," he murmured. "Better to get it done. If it's the price of being with you . . . better just to get it done."

He pulled her hand to his lips and pressed a gentle kiss to it, then glanced from Anders to Drina in question. "So where is the shot with the nanos? Give it to me and let's get it over with."

Drina felt her eyebrows rise and glanced to Mirabeau in question.

"We haven't discussed the turn and what takes place," the woman admi ed on a sigh, though Drina supposed she needn't have bothered. Tiny's question had given that away.

"Well?" Teddy barked. "Where's the shot? Give it to the boy. Don't make him sit here worrying over what's coming. Just get it over with."

"There is no shot," Drina said quietly.

"No shot?" Tiny and Teddy echoed as one.

"Beau has to give you her nanos," Harper explained solemnly.

When Tiny glanced to Mirabeau in ques on, she hesitated, but then opened her mouth, let her fangs slide out, and lifted her wrist to her mouth.

"What are you doing?" Tiny asked, catching her arm to stop her. "You don't have to bite yourself."

"Yes, I do," Mirabeau said quietly.

"No you don't," Teddy said at once. "Tiny's right. This isn't a damned vampire movie. Drina there has needles. She can just pull some blood out of you and shoot it in Tiny, and, hey presto, it's done."

"That won't work," Drina assured him. "It would just be blood. No nanos would be in it. Or, at least, not enough to start a turn."

"What?" the old man asked with disbelief. "How would that be possible?"

When Drina sighed, it was Harper who explained. "Think of the nanos like rats in a pet-store cage. The shop owner opens the cage and reaches in, and all the rats run to the corners of the cage to avoid being pulled from their nice safe home. Nanos do the same when anything punctures our skin, whether it's a needle, or a knife, or fangs. They are programmed to keep their host body at their peak, and they can't do that unless they stay in the body. That is why you will not find nanos in tears, urine, sperm, or any other material that naturally leaves the body. So if you s ck a needle into any one of us, the nanos would immediately evacuate the area to avoid removal."

"No, no, no," Teddy said firmly. "From what I understand, our Elvi was turned when some vampire fellow was injured in an accident and bled into her mouth."

"A wound such as the one you're talking about, or like Mirabeau ripping her wrist open, is like someone tearing away the side of the rat cage and turning it to dump the contents. It's large and unexpected. The nanos in that area will be caught by surprise and get swept along in the blood that flows out. At least at first," he added dryly. "If the wound isn't big enough, or she's too slow pressing it to his mouth, she will have to do it twice, or even more, to give him enough nanos to get the process started."

"Barbaric." Teddy grunted and shook his head. "I don't know why you just don't mix up a batch of those damned nanos and keep them for turning people."

"Because no one's been able to replicate the process," Drina said dryly.

"What?" Teddy peered at her with amazement. "You people made them. You should be able to make more."

"Not us," Drina said with amusement. "Our scientists did, and they tested them out on guinea pigs first."

"You mean none of your scien sts tried it themselves?" Teddy asked with disbelief. "I find that hard to believe. It was their idea, and they'd surely want to be young and healthy forever too. It's probably why they came