Blood Pool

“That may be it. Let’s get to a rest stop and find a map.” Bo gazed up at the darkening sky. He had to get to the Keys before the storm hit and the authorities closed down the bridges.

“Shit!” Raven grasped her hair and gave a tug in frustration.

“Ma’am, is everything all right?” Mick asked.

After a few hours, Raven had given up trying to convince Mick to call her Doc, or any other name, for that matter. He was a gentleman, and that was just the way he spoke. His mother raised him to be respectful of women and men. They were ma’am and sir, end of story.

Raven tapped her fingers on the table. Nothing was going right. That was the understatement of the year. She was having a difficult time getting a handle on the virus. This was not her area of expertise. “No! This virus has me baffled. I want to try to introduce some of your blood into this soup. Maybe you built up anti-viruses within your Lamai DNA, and I can add it to the human DNA without somehow changing species.”

Mick cleared his throat. “Wouldn’t it be better to use the blood from the fae? Their DNA is closer to that of a human. I have a little experience with this. I studied pathogens a few years ago. Nothing beyond a level one.” In the world of bio-safety, level one referred to agents that don’t normally cause diseases in humans.

“Yeah, blood from a fae…” She drifted off thoughtfully. “I suppose it would be more effective.”

Raven got up from her chair and stretched her muscles. She went to look outside and noticed more dark clouds approaching. What a mess her life had become. Just when she thought she and Bo would finally be able to make a life for themselves as a couple, the mother of all curve balls got thrown at them at warp speed.

Where was her father? She’d had this image built up in her mind of the great Tobias Strigoi, so protective of his family yet at the same time so distant, as if he lived only for the time when his destined love incarnated. She knew her father loved her, but she never really experienced it. The man today was not the same man she remembered him being when her mother was alive.

Bo. Gods, how she missed him. She wondered why she hadn’t been able to feel him.

Then the truth of the situation hit her-again. The connection had vanished. She was mortal.

Raven propped her head in her hand. “I’m tired. Do we have any fae blood with anti-bodies?” she asked, taking a sip of hours-old coffee, trying to forget about Bo and whether he was looking for her.

Mick changed the empty IV bag. “Yes. We have some of Mordred’s blood.”

“Interesting. Mordred’s blood? I won’t even ask how you got hold of that. Get it for me, please.” A knot had formed in Raven’s neck and soon spread like wild ivy down her shoulders.

“Raul lifted it for Laroque. Doc?” he asked.

So maybe he is learning, she thought.

Raven vigorously rubbed at her neck. “Yeah?”

Mick walked over to Raven and looked deeply into her eyes. Apparently, the question he’d wanted to ask had finally found its moment. “Why are you doing this? I mean, he’s my boss-he pays me, and that’s why I’m here-but he tried to kill your man. Why are you trying so hard to save his ass?”

She didn’t mean to, but she laughed out loud. “I like your honesty. In addition to the fact I have a vested interest in creating an antidote for this virus and in saving my own ass, it’s because chances are I’m infected, too. You mean besides that?”

Mick looked over at Laroque.

His booming voice became a subtle whisper. “You’re not infected. He was very careful about that. The only way to become infected is through blood…a dirty stick or body fluids. It’s a lot more effective through a needle. Frank Dubois stuck him. I found the puncture mark on Laroque’s thigh. The back of his thigh.”

“How do you know it was Frank?”

“I saw him do it. I just shimmered into the room and saw Frank stick Laroque while he was passed out drunk one night.”

The knot in her neck tightened. “Shit! And we’re taking precautions. Why?”

“He wants you to think you can become infected so you’ll do exactly what you’re doing now. Besides, you don’t want to take any risks with this virus.”

He walked into the kitchen and opened the freezer compartment, removing the frozen sample of Mordred’s blood. Raven stood a few feet behind him.

She reached for the sample. “I can’t say I blame him. He’s desperate, Mick.”

He handed it to her with gloved hands and shook his head.

“You’re quite an odd woman,” he commented.

She smiled. “You know, I find I’m less angry now that I don’t have Lamai blood coursing through my veins. Maybe that’s it.” Philippe caught her attention, reminding her of Jade. “I have my reasons for doing this. Let’s just say I made a major error in judgment and someone I know, well, that person’s life will never be the same. I owe them.”

“Luke made fresh coffee,” Mick said. “I’ll get you some.”

Philippe cried out in his sleep. “Jade!”

Outside, the trees slapped against the windows, and for a moment the house went dark. The generator started buzzing, and soon the lights returned.

The home sat high on a hill, but the sound of crashing waves pounding below echoed around the residence. Rain smacked against the windows in a steady stream.

“The bridges are closed,” Luke, the other Lamai, announced. He warmed thick seafood bisque in a kettle and placed a loaf of whole wheat bread in the oven.

The house smelled divine, and Raven’s stomach began to grumble. If the circumstances were different, she would almost look forward to dinner-almost. Slowly she became familiar with the feelings of hunger.

“Luke used to be a chef,” Mick said with a smile. “You wouldn’t want to eat if I had to cook.”

“Hmm, I’m not the greatest cook either,” she answered, not even hearing the other remarks made. Her thoughts filled with images of Bo. She’d saved him. It was all that mattered to her. The icy fingers of death that had clawed their way around her heart were gone. She could breathe easier knowing the only man she’d ever loved was safe.

Raven attempted to concentrate on the work in front of her. She buried her head in the notes scattered on the table as she jotted ideas and reworked formulas. Thank goodness Laroque’s penmanship is legible, she thought. The pieces of this very odd puzzle were fitting together. This was more than likely the reason Laroque chose Derrick. His background with the CDC and working with hot agents, no doubt, was something that had to interest Laroque. He’d told Raven he experimented with creating vaccines. Poor Derrick.

Leaning over the work area where she was attempting to produce the vaccine for humans, Raven added vectors to the growth medium in the petri dish. Vectors were important agents that entered the DNA. To construct a vaccine, she had to duplicate them. She added bacteria and waited.

The final process of creating a vaccine involved harvesting pure vectors only. Taking a biofilter and detergent, she was able to access the DNA. When she inoculated Laroque, billions of copies of the altered vectors would enter his body. She knew that only about one percent would work their way into the nuclei of the cells.

Hopefully, Laroque’s immune system would respond to these proteins once they left the cells. The altered vectors would react to the proteins incorporated into the cells’ walls. In this way, the vaccine would act like a live vaccine. The risk of the live pathogen would be eliminated, avoiding the possibility of spreading the virus further. It was time-consuming work and something Raven was not very familiar with, so it took even longer.

After a few hours, Raven took a syringe and filled it. Mick gave his approval with a nod and moved to the opposite side of Laroque’s bed.

“Philippe,” Raven said, holding the syringe. She could end it all at that moment, just let him watch her dispose of the vaccine and let nature take its course.

A big part of her wanted to, deep down. A very big part of her.

She wanted to torture him.

For everything. For putting Bo through all that physical torment and the pain Laroque caused her.

Just for knowing her mother, she wanted to torment him.

Because he fell in love with her…made Nicolette want him, and because that wanting made her mother have sex with him.

And that broke her father’s heart, and, in spite of everything, she loved her father fiercely.

Inside she knew that no one had made Nicolette do anything. Well, with exception of perhaps the fae’s magick, but Raven wasn’t certain the fae was that powerful. Rumors floated around that the fae had been punished for not producing the desired results. She also wasn’t ready to blame her mother. Not yet.

But most of all, she wanted him to suffer because he’d almost killed Bo.

She wanted to destroy him.

Because in order to save the man she loved, she had to sacrifice everything they had together. Their life as a couple would never be the same. Her life would never be the same. The characteristic that made Raven who she was, was gone. Forever.

She wanted revenge.

He looked up at her with a weak smile. “I knew you could do it…” He groaned. “I knew you would…”

She averted her eyes, not wanting him to be able to read the truth they betrayed. She wanted him dead. “I hope we got it in time. You’re only starting to show symptoms, so I’m hopeful.” She tried to manage a smile, but couldn’t. Raven was tired down to her soul.

In one swift motion, she plunged the needle into his muscle and released the vaccine into his system. It was all up to his body now. She hoped his immune system wasn’t too badly compromised.

“I need some sleep,” Raven said as she sat on the couch opposite the bed. She leaned back.

“You want to eat first?” Mick asked, but when he looked over at her, she had already passed out on the sofa. He went to the couch, covered her with a throw blanket, then tended to the extra vaccine, storing it properly.

All they could do was wait.

Chapter Nineteen