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"You were supposed to convince her that she wasn&039;t drealy He&039;d never seen his noring the wet-drea as if she hadn&039;t just walked in on an aardfilled with clothes collected froht be more comfortable in them than Etienne&039;s cast-offs Then she had asked Rachel to come belohen she was ready

Next, she had ushered Etienne out of the roo hi room, he tried to defend himself "I tried to convince her it wasn&039;t a dreauerite snapped "The girl thinks she&039;s having an erotic dream, for God&039;s sake!"

"An erotic dream?" Bastien echoed His tone was half-a" Lucern--a carbon copy of Bastien, except taller--pulled a pen and pad out of his pocket and jotted solared at his older brothers, then took a deep cal back to histhe idea of being a va her brain and contorting her thoughts in theit"

"Perhaps you haven&039;t presented it properly"

That deep male voice drew Etienne&039;s attention to the bar, and he raised an eyebrow in surprise at the couple standing there The aze found his sister first Except for the fact that she was blond, Lissianna was an exact replica of their mother She always looked beautiful, but now, as she crossed the rooed obviously agreed with her

Etienne glanced at the ood-looking, Lissianna&039;s fianc¨¦ s

"I didn&039;t realize you tere coht you were busy edding preparations"

"Never too busy for faed him "Besides, I had to hting hi co this was all a wet drea his arm around Lissianna She released Etienne and stepped back "Perhaps you siht"

"Of course he hasn&039;t," Lissianna agreed, s "Once she knows all the benefits, she&039;ll take to it fine"

"I told her the benefits," Etienne insisted

"Bet you didn&039;t tell her all of therin so his abilities

"Bet I did," he countered

"We shall see"

Lissianna shrugged and s Etienne aware of so as he took in her outfit She had been wearing dress pants, a blouse, and a lab coat both tiue She had been naked, wrapped in a sheet, or wearing one of his shirts here in his hoht, faded jeans and a T-shirt that barely reached her midriff Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail and her face was hteen A very sexy eighteen Etienne ed

"Umging nervously on the bottom of her T-shirt in an effort to draw it down to hide her belly "I don&039;t suppose you brought any other clothes back from my apart?" Marguerite asked Getting to her feet, she approached "Aren&039;t they yours? I got them out of your closet They were the only casual clothes I could find"

"Yes Yes, they&039;re mine," Rachel said quickly "But they&039;re old IUniversity, and I&039;ve obviously outgrown theain "I should have thrown the of a packrat"

"No, you look wonderful" Marguerite took her hand and drew her to the couch Once she was seated, the woman patted her hand and said, "From what Etienne has told us, you appear to be a little confused"

"I&039;er sure that was the case This dream had taken a surreal twist She wasn&039;t sure as happening Dreas?

"Ah Well" Marguerite s you recall before waking, we could work froic was co to be a va Rachel was, either Maybe this would all work itself out

She ran her tongue over her upper teeth, relieved to find thes She rubbed absently at her chest where the ax had severed skin but left no scar She was probably co her weird dreams Not necessarily bad dreams Those few heated moments in the bedroom hadn&039;t been bad at all In fact, the only bad part to her mind was that it had ended so abruptly--and without satisfaction

"The last thing I rehts aside "I was at work for the first tiuerite nodded encouragingly

"Tony was off, and Beth was late" She glanced up and added, "Car trouble"

Marguerite made a murmur of possible sympathy for the unknown Beth and her car

"Fred and Dale, a couple of EMTs, brought in a crispy critter"

"A crispy critter?"

Rachel glanced at the man seated across from her He, like the man from earlier, looked a lot like a brunette Etienne, but a little gru notes on She stared curiously at the notebook on his knee and answered, "Burn victim"

"You call them crispy critters?" Bastien, the first brunette, asked in distress

Rachel heaved an inward sigh It was difficult to explain such seeave it a try

"Death can be pretty grim Sometimes we use such teredy And every case is a tragedy, whether burn victim or heart attack Every individual is loved by sorieved over We&039;re aware of that, but we have to push it to the back of our minds or we simply couldn&039;t do our jobs" She could tell by the expressions of those around her that they didn&039;t really understand She supposed no one really could Her job was difficult work, both technically and emotionally She and her co-workers did their best to respect the dead, but so ht in a burn victilanced curiously from her to the woman who&039;d collected her clothes The two could have been twins but for the difference in their hair colors Then Rachel&039;s gaze slid to Etienne again, and confusion filled her "Yes, a car explosion victim Fred and Dale left, and I started to process the burn victi away as if it wasn&039;t burnt skin at all but soht I saw his chest move So I tried to take a pulse, but as I did" She hesitated This here things got murky Not because she couldn&039;t recall--Rachel would never forget that ax entering her body--but because there was no wound now and nothing made sense

"But as you did" the ue slammed open" She forced herself to continue "A man was there, dressed in khakis and a trench coat He whipped the trench coat open and had a rifle hanging on a strap from one shoulder and an ax froaze flicked with uncertainty to Etienne again, then away

"He yelled to get back, that the burn victi the ax as he came I realized he meant to cut off my burn victim&039;s head, but I couldn&039;t let him I wasn&039;t sure theto stop him, but he was already committed He couldn&039;t stop, and the ax" Her voice trailed off, and she reached absently to rub below her collarbone

Silence reigned for a moment, then Rachel cleared her throat and finished, "He was horrified by what he did He tried to help me, but I was in shock and scared, then I think soue He spooked, told me help would soon arrive, told me to stay alive, then turned and fled"

"Bastard," Etienne breathed He turned to the others "I definitely say we call the police and claim he kidnapped her Let them lock him away"

"But he didn&039;t kidnap me," Rachel said

"That doesn&039;t ainst his, and someone saw him enter the hospital eapons They&039;ll believe you"

"But he didn&039;t kidnap me," she repeated

"No, he just tried to kill you," he replied sarcastically Turning back to the others, he added, "We can have her call the police from a phone booth near his house and clai that," Rachel interrupted "I&039;ll tell the police that he accidentally hit ret it at once, but I will not clai"

Her host huffed with exasperation "Rachel, he tried to kill you"

"Actually, no, he didn&039;t," she argued "That was an accident"

"Okay So he tried to kill me," he snapped

"Well, if you&039;re a soulless bloodsucker like you claiasped Then Marguerite burst out laughing

Etienne gaped at her "Mother! How can you laugh at that?"

"She&039;s so delightful, dear," she excused, then turned to pat Rachel&039;s hand "He isn&039;t soulless, child None of us are Neither are you"

Rachel looked uerite apparently decided not to convince her, but to take a different approach She said, "Let me introduce my children You&039;vesaze skated nervously to hihter Lissianna, and her fianc¨¦ Gregory" Marguerite sestured to the pair, then waited for Lissi and Greg to shake Rachel&039;s hand and welcome her She next turned to her elder sons "And these arelike that, boys You&039;ll make Rachel uncolare covered his face when he saw the way both

"Uuerite "Did you say your children?"

"Yes" Marguerite s to--"

"Thank you, dear," Marguerite interrupted with a laugh "But I am much older than I look"

Rachel&039;s eyes narrowed "How much older?"

"I&039;m seven hundred and thirty-six"

Rachel blinked, then cleared her throat "Seven hundred and thirty-six?" she echoed

"Yes, dear" Marguerite nodded

Rachel nodded

They all nodded

Then Rachel shook her head, closed her eyes, and Etienne distinctly caught the words, "I&039;ain"

Much to Etienne&039;s surprise, his ain and patted her hand "It&039;s not a dreahtmare Or even a wet drea We are--though we don&039;t much care for the term--vampires, and I really am seven hundred and thirty-six years old"

"I see" Rachel nodded again, then closed her eyes and shook her head

Her eyes blinked open and she cried out in surprised pain as Marguerite reached over and pinched her "You aren&039;t drea," the woman said "That pinch would have woken you up This is all really happening We are vampires And you are now, too"

"You say that like it&039;s a good thing," Rachel muttered Then she added, "This whole family is loony"

"Perhaps if Bastien were to explain the scientific basis of it," Greg said suddenly He wore a sympathetic look that reminded Etienne he had only recently dealt with all of this himself

"Yes" Bastien stood and et up and e He suspected hisa little drink from his private stock of blood He doubted if any of the over They were all concerned about this e and obsession was a threat to the Rachel&039;s hand and s at her in a way Etienne didn&039;t care for" &039;Vampire&039; is a term that we didn&039;t choose It was applied to us, and we accept its expediency when dealing with mortals--er non-vampire types, I mean But it isn&039;t quite correct"

"It isn&039;t?" Rachel sounded wary

"No At least not in the way that vampires have come to be known We aren&039;t this way due to any curse," Bastien explained, "or because God shunned us Hence the reason religious symbols have no effect on us"

"I see," Rachel said slowly

"We are not possessed by deht in torturing people"

"Uh-huh"

"There is a scientific explanation and basis for our state"

That caught her attention She was listening, Etienne noted with relief

"You see, our ancestors are very old," Bastien explained "They&039;re from before Roman times, before the birth of Christ Before recorded history, actually"

"Oh?" Rachel was looking uncertain again

"Yes Our original home was a place some people refer to as Atlantis"

"Ah" Etienne knew froain She had that skeptical look on her face once more

"Our scientists there were quite advanced They developed well, the easiest explanation is a sort of nano"

"Nanos?" She relaxed, back on sure scientific footing again

"Yes And they co to create specialized nanos that act as a sort of benign parasite"

"Parasites?" Bastien definitely had her interest now, and Etienne felt his hopes rise that she would finally accept as happening

"Yes They feed off the blood we produce"

"So it&039;s a science experi a little when Bastien nodded "But how did these nanos get into your people?"

"They were deliberately introduced," he adineered to reside in the bloodstreae done by injuries--rather likefrom the inside, so to speak But once these nanos were introduced to the bloodstream of our ancestors, it was found that not only did they repair tissue, they regenerated it as well, and fought illness"

"I see So they repair and regenerate your body, in effect keeping you young and healthy, and in exchange then feed off blood?" she asked slowly

"Exactly" Bastien smiled