“In other words, we’re not wrong for wanting to change our guys back,” Dara interpreted.
“You are not wrong in the least,” Nathan concurred. “Even if your men were to retain their faculties forever after the change, I still would not wish this life on them. Or on anyone. It is a blighted existence.” Seeing the anxious look on Lucy’s face, he picked up his earlier thread. “Anyway, yes, Lucy, in theory, killing the master should break the curse. But I think it is important you know it may not work, either. As with everything else concerning vampires, Kiefer and I have both heard many conflicting reports regarding this ‘cure.’ It is possible it only works with some vampires and not others, or only during specific time windows. We cannot be certain.”
Lucy nodded, but she wasn’t about to let go of hope that easily. She would believe the cure would work until she saw with her own eyes that it didn’t. She couldn’t allow herself to entertain any other possibility. Not if she didn’t want to disintegrate into a blubbering mess.
Meanwhile, Jessica was gazing at Nathan with amusement, her lips tipped up at each corner. “So, you were first young back in the seventies? Does that mean you used to run around in bell-bottoms?”
An abrupt laugh broke from the vampire. “Please,” he said, “flare-legged trousers, perhaps. And do not judge me; everyone wore them.”
The women laughed.
“If you were turned in the seventies,” Dara said, smiling at him in the rearview mirror, “why do you sound like you’re from the eighteen-hundreds?”
“Or maybe the future,” Lucy added without thinking. “Like an android or something.”
“Lucy!” Jessica gasped, her mouth dropping open.
Uh-oh. Lucy knew she must’ve really stepped in it if Jessica was offended. She felt her face heat up, and she looked at Nathan with a sheepish smile. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it in a bad way. Androids are, um...They’re pretty awesome.”
Another laugh escaped Nathan’s throat, and it was tinged with surprise, like he could hardly believe these were the questions these humans had decided to ask him. “Kiefer theorizes that my maker was quite old,” he said, “and that I somehow ‘inherited’ her speech patterns when she turned me. When I am in mixed company, I make an effort to use contractions, but I often forget. I know it is strange. Some have even said…a bit off-putting.”
“Well, it isn’t,” Jessica said, her eyes locked on his face. “I like it. It makes you sound genteel. Like you should be wearing a tailcoat and a cravat and riding a stallion across the heath in some Merchant Ivory movie.” A dreamy sigh escaped her, and she added, “Or a romance novel.”
Lucy watched Nathan scratch his jaw self-consciously, and she suspected that if the interior of the vehicle had been brighter, she’d have seen him blush again.
“How come I can see your reflection in the mirror?” Dara asked, watching him in the rearview again.
“Only masters can hide their reflections,” he replied, “and only if they wish to.”
“Can you eat?” Lucy asked. “Regular food, I mean? Jessica already told us you don’t drink people-blood.”
“Yes, I can eat in small quantities. But it is…unpleasant. I can, however, drink plain water without any trouble. In fact, I must drink quite a lot of it, or I become uncomfortable.”
“Can you turn into a bat?” Dara asked. “Or a wolf or anything?”
“No, I cannot transform into anything.”
“Are you allergic to garlic?”
“No,” he laughed.
“Do you sleep in a coffin?”
“I sleep in a bed,” he replied. “A king size bed surrounded by heavy curtains, and with a Memory Foam mattress and organic cotton sheets. It is extraordinarily comfortable.”
“Oh,” Lucy raised her eyebrows, “I see. That does sound extraordinarily comfortable. But why were you staring at Jessica the whole time you were describing it just now?”
“What? I was not,” Nathan said, even though he totally had been. “I mean, I…well...”
Lucy chuckled, and Jessica leaned forward, pressing a finger to Lucy’s forehead. “Please pay no attention to our class clown,” she said to Nathan. “I think the excitement might be getting to her.” She widened her eyes at Lucy and tipped her back into the front seat. She sat back and crossed her legs and, with a syrupy smile, batted her eyelashes at Nathan and changed the subject. “So…tell me how you have such an incredible tan, Nathan? I thought vampires were supposed to be practically translucent.”
Nathan, looking amused, ran his fingers through his thick hair. “This is what I have always looked like. A hint of Greek and Italian ancestry making itself known, I suppose. It seems vampirism preserves almost everything about a person’s appearance at the time of their turning, although I do have to trim my hair and shave from time to time.”
Lucy opened her mouth to needle the vampire some more—and to try and make him blush again, since apparently it was so easy to do, particularly where Jessica was concerned—but then Dara poked her leg and distracted her. “I feel like we should be writing all this down,” she said. “101 Vampire Facts.”
“Kiefer has beaten you to it,” Nathan informed her. “He has established an online catalogue for vampiric data. A few other reliable hunters have access to it as well, so that they may submit their knowledge to the pages as it suits them.”
“A vampire hunters’ wiki?” Lucy asked, sharing a grin with Dara. Lucy looked at Nathan again, preparing to ask him if other supernatural creatures existed. Were there werewolves running around out there, too? Ghosts? Demons? But Jessica had recaptured his attention with a more personal question.
“So…this ancient vampire who turned you. Who was it?”
Nathan’s face dimmed. “A master named Marta,” he replied stiffly.
“Why?” Jessica asked.
“Why?” he echoed, looking confused.
“Yeah, why did she turn you?”
He looked at her with wry amusement. “You may as well ask how a cancer chooses its victims. Who knows?” When Jessica looked puzzled, he went on, “I was out at a bar one evening, when Marta lured me away from my group
