G.G. had released something like a grunt, his legs instinctively closing protectively as she spoke. Now, he asked, “If hewas immortal, why didn’t he take control at that point and stop you?”
“I don’t know,” Ildaria said helplessly. “Maybe the alcohol was making me hard to control. Or maybe he was just so shocked and horrified that he didn’t think to take control of me then. But he didn’t,” she said with a shrug, and then added, “Instead, he pushed me away rather violently . . . which had the unfortunate effect of finishing what I was trying to do . . . I fell back on my butt with the amputated bottom half of his cock in my mouth.”
G.G. made a pained sound, but she ignored it and continued, “He dropped to his knees clutching himself and screaming in agony,then fell over and lay writhing on the filthy ground. I just watched him with a kind of horror at first. The rage was goneas suddenly as it had struck, leaving me confused and shocked by what I’d done. But when his agonized screams turned to moaning,I regained enough sense to know I should probably get out of there. I lurched to my feet and staggered away . . . I didn’teven realize I still had his member, or part of it anyway, in my mouth until I reached the end of the alley. I took it outthere and threw it across the road, and then I ran home.
“Or tried to,” she said after a moment, and then explained, “I hadn’t sobered enough to be steady on my feet, and then thepain struck and hampered me. I didn’t understand what was happening, but I’d taken in enough blood that the turning was starting.I did make it to the house, but not inside. My abuela found me on the doorstep when she came home. Apparently I was convulsingand moaning in pain.”
“You didn’t hurt her?” G.G. asked with concern.
“No,” Ildaria said at once. “No. Thank the saints. I couldn’t have lived with myself if I’d hurt her.” She sighed. “Fortunately, she recognized what was happening. I guess the blood on my face and the metallic glint growing in my eyes gave it away. She dragged me inside, and then ran to her employer. Señorita Ana came back with her, took one look and carried me back to her home. She was immortal, and why my abuela had recognized what was happening. Abuela was one of those servants who is trusted with the knowledge of immortals.”
“Which explains how Señorita Ana knew you were being abused when you were four. She read your mind back then,” G.G. said withrealization.
Ildaria nodded. “She read my mind and saw the beating of my mother that I had witnessed, as well as the abuse I’d suffered.”
“But your abuela worked days, not nights usually?” G.G. asked with a small frown. “If Ana was immortal why would she needa cook during the day? Most immortals sleep during the day.”
“The Villaverdes are a very wealthy and powerful immortal family. Ana had a huge sugar plantation with security and a largehousehold staff. She had both daytime and nighttime security and household staff as well as workers in the fields. Most ofthem lived on the plantation, either in barracks if they were single, or if they had family, in one of the bohios—huts,” she explained, “on the property. Almost all of them took meals there too. My abuela cooked for the daytime staff andsecurity and Ana’s first daily meal. She only worked nights when there were large parties and more help was needed.”
“So you lived on the plantation in a bohio?” G.G. asked.
Ildaria shook her head. “No. My abuela had her own home on the edge of Santo Domingo. She and my grandfather inherited it from his father who was a wealthy merchant. It wasn’t far from the plantation, an easy walk.”
G.G. nodded, and then said, “I’m sorry. I interrupted. Please continue. Your abuela brought Señorita Ana to you and she tookyou . . . ?”
“She took both myself and my abuela back to the plantation,” she finished, and told him, “Señorita Ana was very kind. Shesaw me through the turn, bringing me donors to feed on, making sure that I didn’t take too much blood from each donor, andensuring they didn’t feel the pain of my feeding.”
“This was before blood banks,” G.G. murmured.
“Si,” Ildaria agreed.
“What happened to the immortal who turned you?” G.G. asked when Ildaria fell silent.
She shrugged unhappily and pointed out, “He didn’t really turn me so much as I accidentally turned myself.”
When G.G. didn’t comment and waited patiently, she sighed and continued, “I didn’t remember what had happened when I firstwoke. The shock of the turn on top of the attack left me somewhat scrambled. Señorita Ana assured me that was normal and itwould come to me eventually once the nanos had finished their business.
“Anyway,” she continued when he merely nodded again. “Once I was through the turn, Señorita Ana explained the basics. That I was an immortal now. That I’d somehow ingested blood filled with nanos that had been programmed to keep me healthy and repair any wounds I sustained. She explained that because the nanos used blood to both do their work as well as to propel themselves, they used more blood than a mortal body could supply, so during the turn the nanos had provided me with fangs, added strength, night vision, mind control and mind reading to be able to get the blood I need. She also told me the origin story of the nanos, that they’d been created in Atlantis eons ago. That the mythological Atlantis was advanced technologically as some stories suggested. That scientists there had created the nanos as a noninvasive way to curedisease
