Page 79 of Bad Luck Vampire

“No, I don’t mean just immortal children. But of course there are immortal children,” he said with amusement. “We have babies like everyone else. The nanos are passed down through the mother.”

“So, if we had children, they wouldn’t be immortal even though you’re immortal?” she asked with interest.

“Not unless you were turned first,” he said solemnly.

“Right,” Sophie muttered, and then cleared her throat. “So back to young immortals having trouble with inside voices.”

He smiled faintly, and Sophie suspected he knew she was avoiding the subject of turning for now, but after a moment, he said, “Well, it’s a similar thing. They can broadcast their thoughts without intending to. That’s also a real problem for new life mates.”

When she raised an eyebrow with interest, Alasdair nodded. “As twins, my brother, Colle, and I have never been able to read each other. But now he can read me. Because I met you.” He paused, and then added, “As can Tybo, who is younger than me and shouldn’t be able to read me. New life mates and younger immortals can tend to project their thoughts without meaning to.”

“Oh.”

“Anyway,” he said now, “the point is that constantly blocking incoming as well as outgoing thoughts can be exhausting. You can never really relax around anyone. It becomes easier to be alone, but the more time an immortal spends alone, the more chance there is that they could go rogue.”

“Rogue?” she asked at once.

“Basically, they go mad. Suicidal really,” he explained. “And then they go wild, usually harming mortals, which some think is the immortal version of suicide by cop, because Enforcers or rogue hunters will then hunt them down and—”

“Enforcers,” Sophie interrupted quickly. “That’s what you are. Vampire cops.”

“Immortal cops,” he corrected, and warned her, “The older immortals really dislike the name vampire.”

Sophie waved that away. “But you are immortal police, then, right? You go after rogues?”

“Yes,” Alasdair agreed.

“And then what?” she asked. “What do you do when you catch them?”

“We either take them in for judgment or just end them on the spot if they’re bad enough and have a death order.”

“But immortals can’t die,” Sophie protested with confusion.

“That’s not completely true. We’re very flammable and can burn to death, but it’s pretty nasty. We can also die if we lose our head, but it has to be kept away from the neck or the nanos will just reattach and heal it.”

“Oh,” Sophie murmured. “But immortals who find their life mates don’t go rogue?”

“It’s never happened that I know of,” he said simply.

“What about if an immortal went rogue, and then met their life mate? Would it save them?” she asked.

“That has happened, a rogue immortal finding their life mate. But it didn’t save them. Although, there’s some suggestion it did change them somewhat.”

Sophie nodded, but her thoughts had already moved on to the issue of her and Alasdair. “You seem pretty sure that I’m this life mate for you.”

“You are,” he assured her.

“But what if the nanos are wrong? What if I agreed to be your life mate and we didn’t get along in the end?”

“The nanos are never wrong, Sophie. I’ve never heard of life mates who didn’t work out. In fact, Nicodemus Notte, my great-great . . .” Alasdair paused briefly as if working it out in his head, and then finished, “great-great-grandfather, and my great-great-great-great-grandmother Marzzia were among the originals from Atlantis, and they are still together and still madly, passionately in love now all these millennia later.”

“And the sex is still good for them?” she asked, eyes narrowing.

Alasdair blinked in surprise, and then a laugh burst out of him that he appeared to quickly try to stifle.

No doubt to avoid waking everyone in the apartment, Sophie thought, and simply waited for his answer. Much to her relief she didn’t have long to wait before he mostly sobered, although he was still smiling when he said, “I love your boldness.”

“Boldness?” she asked with surprise.

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