Chapter 20 #2
Unable to help it, Yasmine’s fingers curled around the frame protectively. There was a single crack down the middle, but the image inside was preserved.
“I went back for it,” Bella said carefully. “Just in case you didn’t have a backup.”
Of course, Yasmine did have a backup; she had every photograph taken of Wallace digitally and physically archived, but her chest got unhelpfully heavy from the sentimentality of the gesture. It felt like Bella was trying to strangle her.
“That’s… sweet of you,” she whispered. She swallowed down the thickness in her throat. “But you really didn’t have to.”
Bella reached out and squeezed Yasmine’s hand, then shrugged.
“You’re someone who’s worth going out of my way for.”
Yasmine’s chest tightened. For once, Bella’s nails were bare, untouched by polish or extensions.
Her face was the same. No lipstick, just the barest amount of foundation painted over a bruise on her neck.
Yasmine didn’t put much stock in the equivalencies human men tended to make between makeup and honesty, but it was nice to see her like this—vulnerable.
Even if it was only for the sake of avoiding cross-contamination.
“Anyway,” Bella said, intertwining their fingers and pointing their conjoined hands towards the blood sample Yasmine had abandoned. “That one’s already a goner, probably.”
Yasmine flinched, returning to reality. “Damn it.” She dropped Bella’s hand, ignoring the way the other woman’s typically invincible smile dipped at the side.
Trying to react quickly, she scrambled for the collection tube. She drew a small amount of blood out of it before transferring a single droplet onto a glass side. Then she smeared the top with another slide so that the cells were all on one clean observable layer.
Ducking under the sterile hood, she moved to the microscope, haphazardly adjusting the knobs.
The image of Bella’s blood came into focus quickly, but the cells were already deteriorating. “Hell’s sake.” Her grip around the microscope tightened with frustration.
They’d taken almost thirty blood samples from Bella since they began yesterday, and not a single one had survived exposure to the outside environment.
In itself, that had been a fascinating revelation; blood wasn’t supposed to rapidly break down when it left the body.
But, if they were going to find this hypothetical fungus, they needed an actual sample they could analyze.
Yasmine gave Bella a harried look, and Bella laughed, understanding it immediately.
She laid back down and rolled up her sleeve.
They repeated the process, only this time, Yasmine didn’t let herself get distracted.
She already had the microscope set to the correct focus in advance, so she could slide the glass in as quickly as possible without sending it flying.
It came into focus immediately, and, ah, ah—
She slammed her fist onto the table.
“I saw something!”
“You did?”
“Yes. It was there for like half a second, but I swear. There were little spindly fibers.”
“Oh my god. You mean—”
“Hyphae,” Yasmine said breathlessly.
“Hyphae!”
Bella tugged Yasmine’s rolly chair forward, folding her into a hug.
Yasmine was too excited to shrug her off, even if this was the most ridiculous thing she’d ever embraced someone over.
Hyphae were the tiny, thread-like parts that made up fungi.
Red blood cells were round, uniform; they didn’t have any stringy bits.
Spotting hyphae with a microscope was no real marvel, but spotting it under these circumstances was.
For one, fungi shouldn’t have been so easily visible on an unstained slide; and two, the only time fungi ever entered the bloodstream was during something like fungemia, and if Bella had fungemia, she wouldn’t be laughing and kicking her feet painfully into Yasmine’s ribs.
Bella nudged her nose against Yasmine’s ear. “I told you so.”
Yasmine shuddered, and finally had the wherewithal to push her away.
“Bella,” she said, holding her gaze. “We need to set some… boundaries.”
“Oh, finally. I was wondering when this conversation would happen.”
Yasmine’s eyebrows rose, her steely face faltering.
“What conversation?”
“This one. That we’re about to have,” Bella said, tongue poking into her cheek. “About how you want me to stop flirting with you.”
Yasmine’s cheeks flushed. God, was this woman always ten infuriating steps ahead of her? “Well. That’s not exactly…” She stuttered. “Actually, yes. You’re right. That is the heart of it.”
“Let me do some more guesswork. It’s because you think it makes us unproductive,” Bella continued mechanically, as if they were going over a contract that she’d already read ten times over.
“And now that you know I’m a vampire, the adrenaline-pumping appeal of hooking up with your younger human post-doc has disappeared. Am I correct?”
Yasmines scoffed. “Not at all. You being younger and a post-doc were the main reasons I was avoiding it to begin with. It’s much more appealing…” Yasmine’s words trailed off as she realized the grave mistake she was making, but the hole was already dug. “...Now.”
Bella’s cocky grin melted off her face. Her knuckles whitened where they held the edge of the exam table.
From her expression, it looked as if she hadn’t considered the possibility that Yasmine was still attracted to her. How could she have possibly assumed that? It wasn’t like Bella had suddenly stopped looking like a Victoria Secret model.
“Now?” Bella said quietly, a frog in her throat. “Please elaborate.”
Yasmine covered her face in embarrassment. “I’d rather not.”
“You’re the one who started this conversation.”
“And now I’d like to be the one to end it, thank you.”
Bella grabbed her wrist, forcibly but gently peeling her hand from her forehead.
“Hey,” she said, pulling Yasmine’s hand to her mouth and pressing her lips to it softly. It was jolting. “I’m a big girl. I can handle rejection. Just tell me.”
“I’m not—this isn’t a rejection,” Yasmine breathed out.
Her chest felt like a stove burner that had been left on.
“We were just hooking up. Having sex. Which was great, I’m not saying it wasn’t, but now it poses a distraction to the real reason we’re here, so it’s best if we just drop it.
I’m sure you’ve had this kind of tryst with…
countless vampires. These arrangements come and go. ”
“Countless vampires? That’s a bit presumptive.”
“You’re built like a siren. It’s not presumptive at all.”
At that, Bella cackled, squeezing Yasmine’s hand hard. It hurt, but not in a bad way.
“You are ridiculous,” Bella chastised. There was an affection in her voice that made Yasmine tremble a little. “You make it sound like you’ve never hooked up with a vampire before.”
Yasmine blinked. Had she really made it that obvious? Oh, god. She couldn’t meet Bella’s eyes, squeezing them shut instead as her skin burned with embarrassment.
“Wait.” Bella’s voice cracked. “No way.”
“Yes, well—humans are far less complicated.”
“Yasmine. Never?”
Yasmine shrugged.
“Oh my god,” Bella exhaled. “You should have never told me that. Now I absolutely can’t honor this breakup. There is so much you’re missing out on.”