TALL DARK AND HUNGRY Page 0,116

with the cashier at Victoria's Secret. No, Bastien decided, Terri had put the clerk in her place, but she had not got snippy with the girl.

"You're a vampire." Her voice was disbelieving, and she was nodding her head up and down in a way that didn't look promising. "Fine. Bite me."

Terri held her arm out in challenge, and Bastien frowned. "Terri, I don't want to bite you," he said. Then he paused and said more honestly, "Well, actually, I am a pit peckish right at the moment, but I'd rather not--"

"Uh-huh. Bite me!" she snapped. "If you're a vampire, bite me."

Bastien peered at her arm for a minute, then took it in hand, lifted it up, and bit her.

"Ouch!" Terri leapt off the couch, retrieving her arm as she went. Bastien had to snap his teeth back double quick to keep from ripping her vein and flesh. "You bit me! You've got fangs!"

"Now do you believe me?"

Clutching her arm to her chest, she began to back away.

"Please don't be afraid of me, Terri. I love you," he said softly, taking a step after her and holding out his hand in pleading. He was relieved when she hesi¬tated. "Honey, this is a good thing. Really. You'll never have to worry about my dying a horrible, lin¬gering death," he offered. "I won't die like your mother and Ian. I can't."

She stared at him. "Your father is dead. Was he staked?"

"No. He burned to death. We can burn to death." Then he added quickly, "But that wouldn't be a long lingering illness. None of the ways we can die are long and lingering."

"So, the blood in your fridge..."

"Was to feed. We don't bite humans anymore, not unless absolutely necessary."

"You aren't human."

"Yes, of course we are. Sort of. We're just a differ¬ent nationality, really. We're almost immortal, as opposed to mortal. Atlantean rather than British. Well, we're Canadian now. At least my family is." He paused and frowned; he was really making a flub of this. "Look, honey, sit down and I'll explain every¬thing. Our vampirism is scientific in basis, not a curse or something. We aren't soulless. That night-walking demon thing everyone thinks vampires are--well, it was all just a big misunderstanding."

Terri didn't sit down; instead she narrowed her eyes. "So vampires can walk in daylight?"

"Yes." He frowned. "Well, the sun does a lot of damage, of course. And going out in it means we have to consume a lot more blood to make up for it, but we can go out in it without bursting into flames or anything."

She seemed to accept that, but then, she had seen him in sunlight. She asked, "How old are you?"

Bastien sighed. "Four hundred and twelve."

"Four hundred and--jeez." She sat, then stiffened. "So, all that stuff you knew when we visited the museum..."

"I was there for the stuff I was telling you," he ad¬mitted. "Not the medieval stuff, just from the 1600s through now."

"Is that all?" she asked dryly. Then shook her head and muttered, "This is nuts."

"No, it's science," Bastien explained. "See, our At-lantean scientists made nanos that would repair and regenerate the body, but they use blood at an acceler¬ated rate to do so, a rate the body can't keep up with. Thus, we need to ingest more blood to feed them and stay healthy. We drink blood to survive, like diabetics need insulin injected because they don't produce enough of their own."

"Atlanteans," Terri muttered. "I went and fell in love with the man from Atlantis." She glanced up sharply. "You don't have webbed fingers and toes, too, or something, do you?"

Bastien sighed, trying to remain patient. There was so much myth around both Atlantis and vampires. None of it ever tied together, however, thank good¬ness. "Honey, you've seen me naked. All of me. You know I don't have gills and fins."

"Oh, yes." She was silent, then cleared her throat. "Bastien?"

"Yes?" he asked hopefully.

"I think I'd like you to leave. I need some time to... er... digest this."

He felt his stomach drop. "How much time?"

"I'm not sure," she admitted.

Bastien stared at her for a minute, then stood and moved to the door. He paused, then glanced back to ask, "You won't tell anyone, will you?"

"No, of course not. They'd think I was nuts, anyway."

He nodded. "Good. Because you'd threaten my whole family--including Kate."

"Kate?" Terri's head snapped up.

Bastien nodded. "Lucern turned her. She's his life mate."

"Was she willing?"

"Of course she was," he snapped. "We don't go turning people without their permission. Well, we did Rachel,"