Ronen #3
“Yes. I think there’s something else going on with him.”
“Fine. But only if you ask MJ to grab more of my Angel’s Gone Wild magazines. They’re under my bed.”
I raised my head to his painted ceiling. “You jack off in here, and Sam might cut off your wings just for the fun of it.”
He snorted. “How do you expect me to jack off when my dick is smashed into the bed in this position? The magazines will give my eyes a break after all the dry texts.”
“You’d find a way,” I muttered as I walked out.
His short bark of laughter followed me, easing the tightness in my chest. He’d be okay. Even if Sam had to remove his wings, he’d be okay. And if he weren’t, I’d make sure he was.
I found Sam scanning charts at the healers’ station and speaking with Bree, his one and only sub-elite healer.
“Thanks, Bree. Make sure you tell the rest of the healers the protocol.”
She nodded and left.
Sam gestured to the door to his lab.
“Follow me.”
No one entered Sam’s lab besides him. He created his special elixirs, treatments, and who knew what else in there. So if he was allowing me in, I had to assume he’d found a solution to study the infection.
He gripped the glowing yellow door handle, unlocking the seal with his blood, then opened it just enough to squeeze us through before shutting it behind us.
I never realized how big his lab was. The size was deceiving from the healers’ station. Every inch reflected meticulous organization, from the rows of empty vials, beakers, and devices I couldn’t name, to the labeled herbs and substances lining the walls.
It didn’t surprise me in the least. Actually, the obsessive organization and cleanliness fit Sam’s stern, intelligent character.
He walked to a side counter and picked up two different vials filled with a black substance like he’d handled them a hundred times before.
“Did you disobey Lucifer?”
“That depends.”
“On?”
“You.” He met my gaze with a lifted chin.
“I overheard your conversation. By the sound of it, we’re at a point where the stakes are too high not to study the blood.
Not that this is blood. It could just as easily be Nerium poison to the untrained eye.
But my answer will depend on what you’ll do with the information I give you. ”
I crossed my arms, holding back a grin. Who knew the scientist was so devious? Not that I approved of disobeying orders, but standing there, holding my gaze and leveraging his information against me to hide the truth took balls. It also showed me his priorities, and I agreed with them.
“And how does one receive a trained eye?” I inquired.
Sam’s shoulders relaxed, and eagerness broke across his face.
“By observing.”
He raised the vials to the muted light filtering through his two windows. The one in his right hand appeared black but was a touch translucent.
“Ni’s blood.”
He twisted his left hand, which contained a thicker black substance.
“And the mutated soul’s blood.”
“Never knew you had it in you, Sam.”
He lowered the vials, staring me dead in the eye.
“He forfeited my loyalty when he threatened to expose you for wanting to tell Lucille the truth about her mom’s energy.”
Sam chose to put me above Lucifer?
Of course, I never held it against him for obeying the merciless king. Lucifer would’ve killed him if he’d said a thing. I figured I bore the truth alone. But it seemed Sam felt the weight as much as I did.
“I plan to tell her,” I admitted.
A sly grin lit his face, revealing the boyish nature that lurked beneath the strict scientist. Sometimes I forgot how much younger he was than me.
“So you finally got your head out of your ass then?”
I lifted a brow. There was something in his expression.
“You know.”
“You ordered me to heal her muscle aches. Then, when she almost died, you were scared to hand her over to me. I deduced the rest from there.” He raised the vials again, turning them in the light. “I imagine the king doesn’t know.”
“No.”
Sam nodded.
“Good. Now, what differences can you find between these two vials?”
Their consistencies and appearances seemed exactly the same.
“None.”
“Correct.” He waved me over to two microscopes. “How about now?”
Peering through the first scope, I noticed black and smaller red disks surrounded by a clear substance that glowed with an orange and blue hue.
“What am I looking at?”
“Black demonic cells and red blood cells surrounded by plasma. The glowing orange tint is Ni’s power signature. The blue—I have two theories on, one more concerning than the other.”
In the second scope, the image showed the same red and black cells but surrounded by a dark gray plasma instead of clear, along with a deep violet and green glow.
I lifted my head from the microscope, turning to Sam for the information I lacked.
“At first, I thought the low-level blue emission was a result of being a twin to Ichi. It’s plausible, except for the fact that Ni’s sample contains numerous red blood cells.
Souls are mainly made up of plasma with remnants of their blood cells, making them, I believe, the perfect vessels for the infection.
So my theory is that the infection is a blood-bound venom.
” He pointed to the second scope. “Rodderick gives more merit to this theory. He is a soul with the ability to wield earth. Explains the green emission, not the purple. He doesn’t have a twin.
I suspect the other color comes from the owner of the red blood cells. ”
“What do the blue and purple emissions mean?”
“I believe the original infection contained blood from a lower-level elemental angel, while the second is a different strain of the infection with a higher-level angel’s blood, making the venom more potent.”
“You’re saying there are two strains of the infection. It isn’t a mutation of the first.”
He nodded.
“What else?” I asked.
Sam stepped aside, revealing a third microscope.
“This is the blood of a blood-banded infected with the second strain.”