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"I can't," he says. "Even if it costs me your affection. One day, you'll understand and forgive me."
He turns away, staring through the open drapes to the night sky. I don't know if I can block him, but if he can't trust me enough to tell me the truth, I can't know that his motives are honorable. I close my eyes and turn my face away.
You're a monster.
I say it in my mind to see his reaction. When he does nothing, when nothing in his bearing makes me think he can hear me, I relax.
"When I recover, you're going to let me go free," I say plainly.
He turns back, sadness in his eyes.
"What do you think you're going to do with this newfound freedom?"
"I'm going to kill Soren," I say, remembering something else I picked up when he'd lost control. I can kill them – the Ancients. The Council has a way. My mother was involved in its development but Michel’s afraid to use it.
"You're going to show me how."
I recover enough to sit up in bed and drink a cup of hot tea Vasily brings to me along with some toast. Michel sits on the bed beside me, watching me eat and drink, an expression of resignation on his face. He disapproves of my desire to kill Soren, but I'm not going to let up unless he lets me do what my mother was hoping to do – stop those out for Dominion when vampires rule over mortals.
Michel's pretending to be on Soren's side, his lieutenant, helping him gain power. Their relationship is one of subservience – Master and slave for Michel is now his creation. He gave Michel the waters of life – a substance derived from Ancient blood that transformed Michel, bringing out the traits of the fallen angels who created vampires. They used these same traits to create me. I have fallen angel in me.
"Tell me about this nanotechnology the Council's developed using my mother's research," I say as I down another piece of toast.
It’s what Reynolds was working on.
"It targets specific vampires using their DNA. Each of us has a unique DNA pattern. The nanotechnology seeks out certain sections on their DNA and attaches to it, then releases micron-sized particles of silver, which weakens the vampire at the cellular level. There's nothing left but molecules. Virtually impossible to reconstitute because of the damage done to the DNA."
"So it won't hurt someone without that DNA sequence?"
He shakes his head.
"Your mother was searching for one specific sequence of DNA common to all Ancients but absent in made vampires so she could kill all Ancients permanently. All made Vampires would be preserved because while we have Ancient DNA in us, we don't have the exact sequences."
I think about this for a moment. "You took the waters of life. How does that affect you?"
"It causes dormant genes to become active, giving us greater powers of transubstantiation. So I can create these at will. And other things."
"I drank your blood," I said. "So I have your DNA in me?"
He nods. "It wrote itself into your genome and has become part of you, altering your abilities. Your mother was searching for one specific sequence that all vampires and all Ancients possess that we could use to target us all, destroy us all."
The thought repulses me. As much as I hate vampires, as much as I hate Soren for what he did to my mother, I don't hate those who abide by the treaty. To kill them all – to exterminate them as a species – seems barbaric.
"Why do you support this plan? It's terrible. It's genocide."
He shrugs and glances away.
"The Ancients have betrayed mortals from the time they first encountered you. They've done you no good, infecting you with this disease, bringing you into their battles, ruling over you like gods. Vampires are parasites. They rely on human blood for existence and that takes it away from humans who need it. They give nothing back. Why should either continue to exist?"
The thought almost turns my stomach.
"I don't like the fact that vampires have been killing mortals for thousands of years but I don't agree with the plan. There must be another way for both to exist without either vampires ruling us or preying on us."
"If there is, no one's found it. There are many who can't deny their predatory ways. They don't want to deny it. They love it."
I put my cup down. "They're the minority, and like any other psychopath they're the aberration and we have to deal with them the way we do with all killers – try to stop them, try to diminish the harm they are able to do. But to just wipe out the entire species…" I can't accept it.
"You're more generous than many," he says to me, his head tilted to one side.
