"Are you going to tell me now what's going on?" she asked.
Dimitri glanced around, checking that no one was nearby, then took a breath. "You know about all the strange symptoms I've been having since that immortal bit me."
She nodded. "Your neck healed freakishly fast. Was there anything else?"
"Yeah." He let out a breath. "My senses sharpened. I no longer need glasses, my hearing is more acute, and my reflexes are lightning fast."
Mattie frowned. "Can the venom do all that?"
He chuckled. "Apparently so, but not in the way you think. I talked to Dave today, asking him questions about immortal physiology and whether immortals are born that way or are turned immortal later. I framed it as research for the enhancement project so he wouldn't suspect that I was turning into one."
He was turning into one of them? Mattie's gut twisted into a tight knot. "How is that possible?"
Dimitri turned to face her, his expression serious in the moonlight. "According to Dave, many humans carry dormant immortal genes, and those genes are activated by an immortal's venom. All the immortals you see on this island were born human and activated at puberty."
"How do they find them?"
"I don't know. I was afraid to ask too many questions. Perhaps they are born here on the island, so their bloodlines are known."
She still couldn't wrap her mind around Dimitri being one of them. He was too nice, too gentle, too human. Was he going to lose respect for other humans now that he was immortal? Would he start treating her as an inferior?
It would be intolerable, soul-crushing, devastating.
"I crushed a syringe today without meaning to," he murmured. "I just squeezed it, and the glass shattered in my fingers. I'm getting stronger. Dave described the symptoms associated withthe transition, and I have all of them. Not only that, but it happened fast. I couldn't ask him why, but I bet it carries significance."
The words hung in the air between them, impossible and yet somehow inevitable.
"You're becoming one of them," she whispered.
"Never," he said vehemently. "I might share the same physiology, but I'm still me, Mattie. The same person I was before. The only difference is that now I'm stronger, faster, and harder to kill." His voice hardened. "Now I can actually protect."
She stared at him, trying to reconcile what he was telling her with her Dimitri. The man who held her like she was precious, who looked at her with eyes that saw the person beneath the surface, the one who had risked his life to save her from Tarik.
It was almost impossible to equate who he was with immortality and all that it embodied.
"How could you have immortal genes?"
"Dave said the bloodlines spread widely in ancient times. Immortals must have had children with humans all over the world." Dimitri shrugged. "One of my ancient ancestors was one of them."
They started walking again, slower now, their shoulders almost touching as they made their way toward the lab building.
"How long until you're fully changed?" Mattie asked. "I mean, with the fangs and the venom and everything else."
"It takes about six months to complete the transformation. The fangs and venom glands develop last." Dimitri's voice wasmatter-of-fact, as if he were describing a scientific process rather than his own metamorphosis. "But the enhanced senses and strength are already happening, and so is my resilience to disease and injury, and those are the traits I need to be able to protect you."
In six months, the man walking beside her would be something other than human. He would have fangs and glands that produced venom.
But he would still be her Dimitri.
Would he, though?
As they reached the laboratory building, Dimitri keyed in the code to unlock the door and pulled it open.
"It's so sweet of you," Mattie said as the door closed behind them. "Wanting to protect me. But you're a scientist, Dimitri. Not a fighter."
He turned to face her, one eyebrow raised. "I attacked an immortal with a syringe to save you."
He had a point.
