Chapter 12
SEVERIN
The latest anti-viral serum wasn’t working.
Sev stared at the sample he’d mixed with Ravik’s blood last night in dismay. When he’d looked at it under the scope that morning, it had shown definite promise—which was why he’d injected his best friend with a healthy dose of it.
But now, the sample showed a definite regression. The Hunger Virus had taken over, hollowing out the cells to make tiny new virus factories that were pumping out replicates of themselves at an alarming rate.
Any scientist in his right mind looking at this sample would conclude that the subject who had been injected with this particular strain of the anti-viral agent Sev was working on had received no benefit from it at all.
And yet, Ravik was a thousand times better than he had been just that morning. He was talking again and even though he thought the curvy little human was his mate, at least he was thinking and reasoning once more. His eyes weren’t filmy anymore either—it seemed like he was on the road to recovery.
But how?
How, when the anti-viral clearly wasn’t working?
“Maybe it’s a combination of the one I gave him today and the one he had yesterday,” Sev muttered to himself.
Quickly, he made a new sample slide, injecting a tiny amount of the Beast Kindred’s blood and adding a drop of both the latest batch of anti-viral and the batch before it. He made sure it was mixed well, then looked at it under the electron microscope.
At first it seemed to be working—just like it had appeared to work that morning. But as Sev watched, the blood was slowly overtaken by the Hunger Virus. Before he could even begin to make notes about it, the entire sample was overrun.
Sev rose from his semi-crouched position, reached under his oculars—which he wore mostly for work—and rubbed his eyes. What in all the Seven Hells was going on? How could Ravik be getting better if the anti-viral wasn’t working? What—?
“Ahhhh!”
His frustrated musings were interrupted by a feminine scream coming from down the corridor and Sev’s head jerked around.
“Cassandra!” he muttered and a wave of wholly unexpected possessive protectiveness rushed through him. Had the Infected got in somehow? Was she in danger? Whatever it was, he had to get to her!
Leaving the lab at a run, he hurried down the metal hallway to find out what was wrong…and to kill anyone or anything who dared to threaten the curvy little human.