CHAPTER 69
Seven weeks later …
I held up the test tube, marveling at the perfect homogenous mixture of purple fluid and black sparkles.
With the stability of the toxin, Devryck was able to have some lighting installed throughout the lab, seeing as it didn’t particularly bother the uninfected moths we’d begun to study–the ones injected with a synthetic version of the purified toxin he’d taken from Andrea Kepling’s frozen sample.
Turned out, the toxin he’d saved from her autopsy was still viable, which meant no more killing.
Devryck had been able to replicate it, modify it in vitro , to produce a small supply that he planned to test on mice in the upcoming weeks.
“So pretty,” I whispered, before turning to him. “What do you plan to call it?”
“I was thinking Lilia’s Elixir would be appropriate.” Professor Bramwell stood off to the side, injecting the substance into the moth I’d named Hybris, for the annoying way it constantly flitted its wings against the glass for attention.
Multiple domes stood about the lab, housing a number of different test groups–all of whom I’d named. Moths we’d spent weeks observing, who’d once been paralyzed and were probably itching to break free from their cage to fly.
“I don’t know.” I carefully slid the tube back into its tray alongside the others. “Doesn’t feel right naming it after just me. How about BramLil?”
“No.”
“Okay, then, how about LiliBram? Oooh! DevLil? Sounds like Devil.”
“Definitely not.” Bramwell said, placing the fluttering moth back into its cage.
I playfully groaned. “Fine. If you want to name it after me, I’ll let you, I suppose.
” I lifted another of the test tubes, studying the fluid inside that one, searching for any sign that it hadn’t combined properly after centrifuging.
“You think this black rock is the reason my mother didn’t get sick with the swapped inoculations? ”
“Considering the timeline you gave me, and Francesca having confirmed that she enjoyed the black rock tea from the apothecary, yes. I think it gave her enough resistance to avoid infection.”
“Not enough to keep Lippincott from reinfecting her, though.”
His expression turned somber. “I’m afraid not. I’ve since learned the effects of the tea wear off, if not consistently replenished.”
A shadow of despair hung in the pause that followed, and I quickly switched subjects.
Conversations about my mother needed to remain surface.
Anything deeper, and I’d slip into the dark space that terrified me.
The shadows of my past that would forever dwell in the corner of my mind.
I still suffered the occasional nightmare and hallucination of her, but her form ultimately morphed into something else—the root of my fears that took the shape, scent and sound of Angelo.
“I can’t believe you move to clinical trials soon,” I said, switching the topic.
“Still a few months away, thankfully.” He tossed the needle into the sharps container and removed his gloves to wash his hands in the adjacent sink. “We’ve got a whole team to assemble and some details to work out before then.”
“Details shmetails. It’s going to be great. You’re going to be known as the doctor who reversed Voneric’s Disease. And who knows what else. There’s so much potential.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
Perhaps it was his prior failures that weighed heavy on him, but the man refused to get excited.
He’d taken one of the synthetic injections himself, a few weeks back, and in spite of his loathing toward the black rock tea, he drank it every night.
Since then, he hadn’t suffered a single seizure. Not so much as a cramp.
I was practically bursting out of my seams with how incredibly well the black rock casteyon had stabilized the toxin.
It made sense, though, the way nature offered a sense of balance.
The only issue was sourcing the casteyon from the treacherous underwater caves.
The Rooks had agreed to fund a team to collect samples of the element, but the deep ocean currents at Devil’s Perch still made it dangerous.
As a Rook myself, I’d since been given access to more of the sensitive information in the library, and I learned that the black rock had long been observed in the Cu'unotchke tribe–in their teeth, in the water they drank. It was where the black tea had originated, passed down to later generations. Unfortunately, they’d been branded evil by Dr. Stirling–wild animals that he’d taken to kidnapping and using to test his Stirlic acid, to banish the evil from their souls.
Ultimately, it wasn’t the Cu'unotchke tribe who’d attacked Stirling and Adderly, but the patients that’d been kept locked up and tortured.
Those who’d become infected with the black worms–the devil’s serpents as they were called then.
They went mad. Plundered and raped. When Adderly tried to stop them, they burned him and his men, the whole island, and then drowned themselves in the sea–hundreds of bodies washing ashore at what had become Bone Bay.
“So, I enrolled in Advanced Biochemistry next semester.” A quick study of another test tube showed the same perfect mix as all the others. “I understand Professor Golding is a prick.”
“He is. Stay on top of your reading and you’ll be fine.”
“A bigger prick than you?”
“I wouldn’t know.” He shot me an unamused glance. “And I suggest you stay away from any other pricks, unless you’d like one gift wrapped under your tree this Christmas.”
I chuckled at that. “What if I need help?”
“You know I’m always available to you.”
I placed the test tubes back under the hood and turned to Devryck, who peered into his microscope. With quiet footsteps, I snuck up behind and slid my arms around him.
Never breaking his study, he grabbed one of my hands, holding it to his chest, fingers gently stroking mine. “You make it impossible to concentrate,” he said.
My other hand reached down to his groin, and I felt him jerk against me.
“Lilia,” he warned, but his cock hardened beneath my palm.
The teasing was fun, but no more than a game.
A distraction from myself. Something dreadful still lived inside of me since the night I’d been attacked, and if I wasn’t engaged in something else, I’d see it sometimes in the shadows on the wall–beady eyes staring back at me, silently threatening to cut me into small pieces.
The playful banter with Devryck kept it hidden and tucked away. Safe in its burrow.
Another minute, and he twisted around on his stool.
“So, this team you’re assembling, do I get to be on it, Professor?” I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my lips to his, smiling against them when I added, “I’m extremely flexible and work well with others.”
At the tight grip of my ass, I gasped. “There might be an opening that needs to be filled.”
“Oh, it definitely does.”
“This particular position isn’t a team effort, though. More one-on-one.”
“I can handle that.”
“You certainly can.” His teeth grazed my earlobe, and he pushed to his feet, backing me up a step.
“Meet me in my office, Miss Vespertine,” he said, and turned toward the adjacent sink, where he washed his hands a second time.
As he rinsed, he sent me a what-are-you-still-doing-there cock of his brow, and wearing a grin, I quickly padded toward his office.
Once there, I crossed the room to his desk and caught sight of something on one of the bookcase shelves behind it.
Two small black frames each held a moth, and frowning, I rounded his desk, coming to a stop before them.
Patroclus and Achilles had been etched into small gold plaques below each preserved moth.
They’d passed two weeks prior, having completed their lifecycle.
What had compelled him to keep them? The gesture was so wildly out of character for Devryck, yet adorable at the same time, that it brought a smile to my face.
A slight turn and I caught sight of something on one of the lab coats hanging on the nearby coat rack.
Tipping my head, I squinted my eyes, catching the purple stitching just outside of the lapel.
I tugged the arm of it, to find my name above the title, Associate Researcher .
Smiling again, I ran my thumb over the stitched lettering that, as simple as it was, felt so official.
At the sound of approaching footsteps, I abandoned my examination and turned to face the door.
The moment he strode into the room, my heart kicked up like windswept leaves.
The man looked like a walking thunderstorm ready to strike, as he rolled up the sleeves of his black shirt and glanced at his watch, the sight of him casting a burn in my thighs.
“I have a board meeting in two hours. I need to kill some of this tension.” Having rounded the desk, he scooped me up into his arms, and our lips practically sizzled when he seized my mouth in a fiery kiss.
A growling impatience rumbled in his throat as he set me down on the desktop.
“You kept Patroclus and Achilles?” I asked.
He planted his palms on either side of me and kissed me again. “Had to keep my first successful specimens. Naming them was brilliant, on your part.”
“I told you.”
“And I’m telling you to turn over and spread your knees,” he whispered.
As commanded, I twisted around on the immaculate desk, knees and palms pressed against its surface, as I stood on all fours.
Hands reached up under my skirt, all the way up to the waistband, and he pulled down the thick tights I’d begun to wear since the temps had dropped. When he peeled them over my naked ass and halfway down my thighs, he paused. “No panties?”
“Panties are for the modest,” I said with a smile, lifting my leg to allow him to slide them down over my knees.
A devilish grin slanted his lips as he removed my boots and slipped the tights off entirely.