"Yes," Kiki said.
"No," Ileana said at the same time.
She looked between them. Neither tried to explain their answers.
"When did the Immortal mating inscription appear?" Kiki asked.
"You mean the Gabriel tattoo?"
He nodded.
"Yesterday morning."
"Awww, you're a baby Immortal mate!" Ileana said, smiling. "Welcome."
Deidre poured more coffee. She understood why Daniela kept feeding her brandy the night before. Kiki's eyes settled on her shaking hands. He met her gaze then closed the laptop.
"We can wait," he said, the edge leaving his voice. "It's not an easy transition. Gods know we almost screwed up the last one beyond repair."
"That was out of our control." A dark look crossed Ileana's face.
"We have a more formal process now for transitioning Immortal mates," Kiki said, as if his explanation was supposed to mean something to her.
Deidre drew a deep breath with some difficulty. "I have to ask. You're saying there's a society of Immortals living in the normal world that no one knows about?"
"Exactly," Kiki said. "We're managed by a council that very poorly oversees Immortal activities in the mortal world and fights demons to keep the underworld dwellers from destroying the human world. We follow the Immortal Code, which dictates our interactions with humans and our obligations within our society."
They seemed to be waiting for her reaction.
"Okay. I appreciate how straight forward you're being," Deidre said. "Why am I … stuck in this new reality?"
"As far as we know, Immortal mates are predetermined. There's an anomaly in your blood that makes you compatible with our kind."
"You have my blood?"
"Of course. When we identified you, we obtained all your medical records, your credit history, basically your entire life," Kiki explained. "We created a file on you, so we could monitor and determine whose mate you became, if you did at all."
"That sounds like stalking," Deidre said.
"It's necessary, so we can protect you. Only two or three people ever see your file," Ileana added.
"You're ninety eight percent human," Kiki said.
"What's the two percent?" Deidre whispered, afraid to know.
"Other genetic material. We don't know. You might have an Immortal bloodline somewhere in your ancestry or a simple mutation."
"That makes me special?"
"Yes."
"Why didn't you find me years ago, if that's the case?" she asked.
They were quiet for a moment. It wasn't a pensive silence, but more of a silent struggle to determine how much they revealed. They, too, had a secret they were keeping from her.
"We didn't know we were looking for you until a couple of months ago," Ileana said at last. "It's been a rough year for the Council. Everything almost blew up a few months ago. Immortal doesn't mean omniscient or anything. We're closely related to humans, and we share many of the same limitations. We have more of an immunity to dying than normal humans."