Isaiah cocked his mouth to the side. “If it works, you’ll age, you’ll die.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
“Then you’ll return to what you were before the ichor.”
“A corpse.”
“I’m afraid so.”
“What about Luca? Will his cancer come back?”
“He’s a Cana. As long as he’s around us, he won’t age, and the energy of our wolves will keep him from becoming ill. If he’s ever injured, they will heal him. A lot like the Anubis, only they will never take from his being. We’ll age a bit faster, but it’s a small price to pay to keep him well.”
“You age?”
“Yes.”
“How long do you live?” It had to be longer than a human.
“Our life expectancy is based on our wolves, so it’s different for each of us.”
“You’ve been alive for over a thousand years now.”
Isaiah shook his head. “We’ve been existing, not living.”
Nox didn’t understand and said so.
“Think of it like hitting the pause button on a TV show. We won’t become a truly living being until we have our wolves back. Until then, we can’t reproduce so when we die, there will be none of us left.”
“I’m sorry.” Apologies seemed to have become Nox’s MO.
Isaiah shrugged. “It is what it is.”
Most of the time. But Nox had a chance to change Luca’s future and make it so he never had to apologize for what the Anubis took from them. “When do you want to start?”
“You’ll need to talk to Luca first.”
“It’s not like we have a choice.”
“There’s one other possibility, but I know you won’t do it, and neither will Luca.”
Nox already knew. “Leave him here and run alone.”
Isaiah dropped his gaze. “Even if there was some chance of him agreeing to that—and we both know there isn’t—the Anubis would never allow it.”
It could even kill Isaiah and his people for keeping Luca away from it. “How will you keep the Anubis from retaliating when you do this?”
“In all the time you’ve been with the Anubis, have you ever had it worry about dying or understanding the concept of being destroyed?”
“It sure as hell didn’t like the idea of you showing up.”
“And now?”
“It’s not afraid of you but it doesn’t like your wolves.”
“No, I suspect not.” Isaiah laughed a little. “But sitting here talking about killing it hasn’t gotten its attention, has it?”
Nox felt for the Anubis’s presence. It stirred but had no desire to pull its attention from the object of his obsession currently standing at the door of one of the RVs and knocking.