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"Don’t go getting all sappy on us, kiddo You’re forgiven You’re fah said"

"Besides, there are other issues now," Dante added, nodding his head toward Nicole

Jake glanced to her quickly, noting that she was eyeballing the Her trust in Marguerite was keeping her there, willing to listen to the her there

Sing, Jake sht, I suppose you’d like to know about this vampire deal first?"

Nicole nodded silently

Jake nodded as well and briefly debated how to do it In the end he decided that-- like ripping off a bandage--it was best to just get it done quickly "Okay, here’s the deal, while we do have sos in common with vampires, we are not vampires," he assured her quietly "We are huineered nanos that have been prograht illness and infections The nanos are kind of like supercharged robotic white blood cells"

"Nanos that heal wounds and fight illness," Nicole said slowly, relaxing a little It was only then that he realized while her trust in Marguerite hadto listen, she’d still been pretty anxious about it all

"Exactly," Jake said with a nod and then added, "Scientifically designed nanos, and they’re great" He paused briefly to offer an apologetic s that he’d changed his tune and this was the first ti through his blood He then glanced back to Nicole and added, "They’ve saved ood But while there are a lot of benefits to the nanos, they use more blood to carry out their work than any huet that extra blood fros, and at one tiet the blood they needed But now that there are blood banks we have laws that don’t allow us to bite necks and suck blood, as Dante put it We use blood froet the blood we need"

"Your kind bit people before blood banks?" Nicole asked with a frown "How long ago were these nanos developed?"

"Quite a while," he adrimace "They were developed in Atlantis before the fall Atlantis was quite isolated froraphy and it advanced both socially and technologically much more swiftly than the rest of the world"

"Itnanos there while the rest of the world was sitting around fires with spears," Nicole said dryly

"Yes," Jake agreed quietly "And that world with fire and spears was the world the Atlanteans with nanos found themselves in after their hoet the extra blood in Atlantis, but suddenly had no access to such things They rammed to ensure their hosts’ survival, so the nanos forced an evolution on their carriers: the fangs, increased night vision, evenand mind control," he listed off "All of itthe blood they needed to survive"

"I see," Nicoleit okay so far, but this was a lot to accept Deciding to hope for the best, he skipped on to the present He could explain the rest of their special skills and such later "Those nanos are the only reason I survived ht"

"You’re sure it was poisoned?" Nicole asked with a frown

"Yes Dani--" He hesitated and then asked, "You do re up here with Julius and Dani and those guys?" Jake asked, unsure how uerite had reuerite, Julius, Dante, Touerite’s nephew Decker, as well as his wife, Dani, were here," she said and then her expression turned troubled "I think I reht be poisoned"

"Yes," Jake said, relieved that she was reuerite had veiled those memories to keep Nicole cal back now that Dante and Touerite’s efforts

"Dani took a sample for analysis," he told her now "And the water in the hot tub has a high concentration of nicotine and DMSO Enough to kill quickly If you had got in the hot tub instead of me, you would be dead"

"And you think so to poison et in there by accident, Nicole And it wasn’t put there foryou"

"Right," she said unhappily

"I know it’s hard to accept that the ently "But Rodolfo--"

"I don’t love Rodolfo," she protested with a him, for heaven’s sake I’d hardly do that if I loved hih He didn’t really want to tell her that she was divorcing her husband because of Marguerite’s controlling her uerite had Nicole’s best interests at heart when she’d done it, so instead of telling her that, he pointed out gently, "You still have pictures of hiests you still have feelings--"

"I still have pictures of hiotistical idiot went and superglued theriasped even as Tohed and shook her head "Rodolfo is a spiteful, nasty, selfish creep I don’t knohat he was thinking If he thought it was a good way to one, or if he just doesn’t knoield a dalued or spackled to the wall Pierina and I tried to take theed to pry one off the wall, but it left a great gaping hole I’ to have to have professionals in to re like that and I’ve been too busy with all these commissioned portraits to call around, so I’ve just done lanced to one of the half dozen pictures affixed to the kitchen wall and added, "I considered buying a glass cutter and relass from each frame so I could at least remove the pictures, but then I’d be left with e it too y that way Like he’d so to do, so I decided to just ignore theet people in to fix it And nore them"

"Until someone points them out," Jake said quietly It was pretty obvious she was pissed right now just thinking about it

"Yeah Then I get annoyed all over again," Nicole adrimace, and added, "But that isn’t because I love hiain He’s decided ill be on my walls and made sure I had to live with it for at least a while And it’s because it re and petty little things he did when I bought him out of the house"