Ronen
Chapter
Forty-Nine
Besides the mud caked across Igor’s skin, he’d appeared normal. He had no damned horns or demonic features. He had to have just been turned.
“Show me your teeth!” I bellowed to the Nightmares as Hadrian snarled beside Aspen. Blue flames pulsed across his fur and lit the inside of his maw.
My sword leveled at Damion as he bared his teeth. The rest of the Nightmares did the same. All of them were pale and wide-eyed, staring at the spot where Igor had been. Their teeth were dull. But I had to be sure.
“Cut yourselves,” I snapped, every muscle in my body tense as I leashed my panic.
We had time. Aspen was powerful. Sam said that slowed the progression.
By what? A day? Two?
FUCK!
The Nightmares all drew their blades and sliced their hands.
Red.
“Get inside and debrief with Alexei. Follow his orders!”
They left, and I glared at the bite mark on Aspen’s neck.
“Does Lucille feel anything?” Aspen asked softly.
I didn’t sense any panic from her or the guardian bond at all. “No. Did your mental block hold?”
He nodded.
Good.
“Sam’s. Now.”
We luscelered there, Hadrian right on our heels.
I about broke down Sam’s lab door with how hard I pounded, earning looks from the healers nearby.
Sam opened the door a crack.
“Who is it, Sammy?” Oliver called out.
I gave Sam a sharp shake of my head, and Aspen tilted his neck to the side.
Sam’s face didn’t pale. His eyes didn’t widen. He stared at the bite mark like it was his newest challenge.
“Just Bree. A patient is in critical condition.” He lowered his voice. “I’ll grab supplies. Meet me in the last private room.”
We went to the room, shutting the door behind us. As we waited for Sam, all I could do was pace in front of the bed.
And pace.
And pace.
I focused on the tap-tap of my boots, counting my steps and attempting to keep my anxiety low so I didn’t alert Lucille.
“Hey, look on the bright side. Now you don’t have to kill me anymore,” Aspen drawled.
Hadrian snarled at him, and I stopped long enough to glare, satisfied when Aspen winced.
It was entirely too ironic that we were at this point in our relationship.
Sam finally entered carrying a bag full of supplies. He pulled out vials—two with blood in them and three without—a microscope, syringes, and other lab equipment.
“Have you figured out a cure yet?” I demanded, because Aspen seemed only capable of joking and touching the damned bite mark.
“We’ll see.”
“We’ll see, Sam? That’s your answer?”
He put on gloves and readied his syringe. “Better than no.”
Well, he fucking got me there.
First, Sam healed Aspen’s wounds, then he took his blood. He analyzed it beneath the microscope, keeping us in suspense.
“You are infected.”
“Thanks for the confirmation, Sam,” Aspen commented, like he’d just been handed a basket of fruit.
I squeezed my fists—hard.
Sam lifted his head, eyes eager. “But your blood is fighting it, as my studies suggested.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means out of all the samples and studies I’ve done with everyone’s blood, his is the only one that fights the infection and wins. For a time. Then the power in his blood weakens, and the infection would take over again.”
“So what? He has weeks instead of days?”
Sam nodded. “Most likely.”
I didn’t like it, but I’d take it.
“So it gives you more time to figure out a cure.”
He made a noncommittal noise, picking up glass plates, dripping different blood samples onto them, and sliding them under the microscope to study.
I looked at Aspen, and he just shrugged.
Shrugged.
It had to be shock. We both knew this was bad.
“For the longest time, I couldn’t understand why Aspen’s blood only partially eradicated the demon corruption,” Sam said, eye pressed to the microscope. “It disrupted the infection, but it never fully displaced it. Then Oliver told me about the Severance Rune.”
“Severance Rune?”
“You’ll have to get the full story from Lucille. But it seems she learned Aspen’s mother placed a Severance Rune on him along with the guardian bond. She mentioned the rune would be on your neck, Aspen.”
“What?” we chorused.
When did she figure that out?
Last night after our—
I gritted my teeth against the throb in my chest.
Must’ve been.
Seven Hells, the resilience of my hellion astounded me.
“You’re saying my mother separated and hid half my Seraphim powers within me and placed the guardian bond on Lucille and me?” Aspen demanded.
“Again, Lucille has more of the details,” Sam replied.
“His Glory,” I murmured with a huff. “That’s why they keep targeting you.”
“What are you talking about?” Aspen asked, shifting his head to the side.
And there it was.
The scrolling Severance Rune marked the side of his neck.
Aspen touched the spot I stared at, asking a question with his eyes.
“It’s there.”
“And you think this is why they’re targeting me?”
“Yes. I asked Lucifer how we could stop the infection, and for a second… he seemed almost lucid. Then he said, ‘His Glory,’ like the words were dragged out of him. A second later, he tried to brush it off. I think he was talking about you.”
Sam straightened, changing out the blood samples. “I agree. I’ve concluded the rune acts as an inhibitor. It prevents purification from completing. My first thought was amplification. But introducing additional blood samples would’ve destabilized the host entirely.”
He lowered his eye to the microscope again and hummed, sounding pleased. He inserted a needle into a vial, filling it with blood, then walked over to Aspen.
“I needed a compatible catalyst. A power the blood would recognize. Accept.”
“Lucille’s,” Aspen said.
Sam nodded and injected Aspen with the blood.
“You two caught me just as I was about to combine her sample with Aspen’s and introduce it to freshly infected blood.”
“So now I’m your test subject?”
“Yes.”
We waited in silence for five agonizing minutes, letting Lucille and Aspen’s combined blood run through his system. Then Sam took a new sample.
“Let’s see if it worked.”
I sank onto the healer’s bed, rubbing my neck and holding my breath. Aspen ran a hand down Hadrian’s flame-flickering fur, looking lost in thought.
Sam laughed.
It was the first time I’d ever heard the sound come from his mouth.
“It worked.” He laughed again. “It worked!”
“You cured him?” I stood.
“In a sense. The corruption stopped completely. The infection can’t anchor or spread. But this isn’t a cure. The damaged cells remain. Not that he had many.”
Overpowering relief sank me back onto the bed. I rubbed my face.
“We’ve got immunity, gentlemen.” Sam smiled, then stuck a needle in my arm, giving me back the ability to use my shadows without fear of ending up an infected pile of mush.
“Thank the fucking Weaver,” Aspen muttered.
I snorted. My sentiments exactly.
“Aspen, if you have the full power of a Seraphim bound by the Severance Rune, then if we can find whatever your mother chose as the key to unlock the bind, there’s a high probability we could win this.”
He slumped back in his chair and gazed up at the painted ceiling. “Problem is, I have no idea what she’d use as the key.”
“You’ll know when she wants you to know,” Sam said, making a good point.
But seers could still get it wrong, and we only had a few days to figure it out.
“We are not telling Lucille about this.” Aspen gestured to the bite mark.
“If she chooses to ever talk to me again, I won’t hide this from her. But I’ll be the one to tell her.”
If their guardian bond acted up, I’d be there to stop it.
Aspen considered my words, opened his mouth, thought better of it, and finally asked, “Why did my mother do this?”
“Maybe Lucille knows.” I walked toward the door. “Let’s go. Your near-liquified-flesh experience won’t prevent you from helping train our military.”
“I need more vials of your blood first,” Sam interrupted. “Then Oliver and I will work on making batches and having healers dispatch them to everyone.”
Music to my ears.
We finally had a chance.