“We can go out for something to eat,” Justin said quietly.
“That is best, and you perhaps should stop and get groceries on your way back,” Gia said, turning to head for the door. “Have fun, piccola. I’m to bed for a nap. Wake me when you get back if you want to talk.”
“Why does she keep calling me piccola?” Holly asked the moment the other woman was out of earshot. “What does it mean?”
“ ‘Little one,’ ” Justin answered.
“It can mean that,” Decker agreed, “But it also means ‘young one.’ It’s a term of affection. Gia must like you.”
“She hardly knows me,” Holly said dryly.
“She can read your mind,” Anders pointed out quietly. “She probably knows you better than -people who have been in your life for years. We all do.”
“Except me,” Justin said with a scowl. “I can’t read her.”
“Except Bricker,” Anders allowed.
“Oh,” Holly murmured and immediately began to worry about what might be in her thoughts. Just how well could they all read her? Did she have to consciously think of something for them to read it? Or could they pluck out thoughts and memories from her mind like a harpist picked strings, all of them visible and available and there for the plucking?
“Between being a new turn and—-” Decker’s gaze slid to Justin. “Other things, you will be very readable to most immortals. Younger immortals will only be able to read your surface thoughts. Anyone over three or four hundred years old, though, should be able to read some of the thoughts not on the surface unless you use tricks to block them.”
“There are tricks to stop you from reading me?” Holly asked with interest and when all three men nodded, she asked, “What are they?”
“That is part of your training,” Decker said.
“You have other more important things to learn first, though,” Anders added firmly.
“Right,” Holly muttered with resentment. To her, preventing their reading her was the most important thing. Of course, they wouldn’t think so. No doubt being able to read her came in handy. For instance, she could hardly plan an escape with them able to read her every thought.
“True,” Decker said with amusement, obviously having read the thought she’d had. Standing, he crossed toward her adding, “Come on. I need food before I faint . . . and Justin can explain about nanos on the way to the restaurant,” he added coaxingly.
Holly wasn’t hungry, but supposed if she wanted answers she’d best go with them, so didn’t protest when Decker took her arm and turned her toward the door. At least they weren’t going to keep her locked up in the house like a prisoner.
“You are not a prisoner,” Decker assured her.
“Unless you try to escape,” Anders added, stepping up to her other side.
“She won’t try to escape,” Justin said, sounding annoyed and Holly glanced over her shoulder to see that his expression matched his tone of voice as he followed them.
“You can’t read her, Bricker,” Anders said solemnly, which made Justin turn a worried gaze her way, his eyebrows raised in question.
Holly just turned her head forward. What did he expect? She didn’t know any of them. She’d been knocked out and transported to some house outside Los Angeles and was being kept there for training with four strangers. Of course she had thoughts of escaping. That was just common sense, she assured herself. So why had his expression made her feel guilty?
Seven
“So . . . nanos?” Holly prompted. They were in an expensive black sedan with tinted windows, one that belonged to her absent hosts, Vincent and Jackie, would be her guess. Anders was driving, with Decker in the front passenger seat and Justin in the back next to her. But she couldn’t help noticing he was scrunched up against his window, as far away as he could get. Holly tried not to be insulted by that. Was he afraid she’d try to bite him again? Shrugging the question away, she said, “Justin? Nanos?”
For one moment Justin continued to peer out the window and she thought perhaps he hadn’t heard her, but then he turned and said, “That’s what I gave you with my blood. Nanos. Right now there are millions of bio--engineered nanos racing through your blood stream, traveling to any parts of your body that need repair, or where viruses or germs have gathered.”
“Millions?” Holly asked with disbelief. “Surely you didn’t give me millions when you—-”
“No,” he assured her. “But they multiply quickly when necessary, using our blood to clone themselves. That would have been the first thing they started doing after I gave them to you. Well, one of the first things. Some would have been busily doing that while others were sent to stop the bleeding and begin repairs on your chest wound. They act like white blood cells and surround and remove germs, parasites, fungus, poisons, and whatnot from our systems, but they also repair anything that needs repairing in us: organs, cells, skin—-”