“Come, look at this,” Carol said.
She leaned back up to allow me a look. As I peered down at the sample, I could see all sorts of wriggling stuff going on that turned my stomach. My quiet gagging made Carol laugh.
“What am I looking at?” I asked once I’d regained control of my stomach.
“Not viruses, that’s for sure. I’d need an electron microscope for that.” She sighed loudly. “I had a fantastic electron microscope at Chemosys.” Her eyes went dreamy for a while, and she seemed to be lost in a little world of her own.
“So, what is it?” I asked, trying to bring her back to Earth.
“Bacteria. Fascinating things. Millions of them on every part of the human body, and some of them crucial to life on the planet. Some of them deadly, some of them useful, and more bacteria than there are plants and animals combined in the entire world. Every time you drink a glass of water, you’re probably ingesting a few hundred thousand bacteria, and yet you come to no harm, at least most of the time.”
She lost me when she started with them being all over the body. It just made me itch.
“Amazing,” I said, feigning interest, but not very successfully because she gave me a look as if to ask how I didn’t find tiny little things wriggling all over and inside me absolutely mind-blowing. I found it creepy. Both what they were and that anyone would find it interesting.
“You don’t mean that, do you?” she asked.
“You guessed,” I said, unable to stop the corners of my mouth from turning down in disgust.
“I’ve always been entranced by them. When I was a kid—”
I held up a hand.
“Sorry to interrupt and all, but how is looking at bacteria going to help us identify a virus?”
“They won’t. At least not directly. Not unless the virus affects the bacteria, in which case you would expect to see many dead ones floating around. There aren’t, which suggests the virus is specific to something in dragon blood.”
“Right?” I said uncertainly. She’d lost me again, and I knew it wasn’t even a particularly science-rich answer. I just had other things on my mind. “Listen, Carol. I need to go talk with Jevyn.”
“Go ahead. Just don’t let that Nindock in here.”
“I won’t. I promise.” I stood as if to go, and then something made me wonder about why she wouldn’t let Nindock in. “Are you scared, Carol?”
She looked up at me through her lashes but didn’t reply.
“Is that why you don’t want Nindock in here?”
A tiny nod was confirmation enough. “I’m not scared for myself.”
“So, what are you scared of?” I asked.
“What they would do to Ypalde if they find her sick. You know what they are like to sun dragons, and given the condition she’s in, I don’t really know how much trouble she could endure from them before something bad happened.”
I could see the fear in her haunted eyes and knew it was genuine. Whether things would have been so bad for Ypalde, I didn’t know for sure, but going on the little bit of history I was aware of, it seemed that Carol had a valid enough reason to not want anyone to know about Ypalde’s condition.
“I understand, Carol, and definitely no Nindock.”
“Thanks, Katie, I hoped you’d understand.”
I smiled to give her a bit of encouragement and headed out the door.
Nindock and Jevyn stood on the other side of the street, talking quietly.
Nindock’s gaze shifted to me when he spotted me walking over the muddy path to where they were. “You took your time. What’s happening?”
“Carol has started work on the samples to try and isolate the virus and find a way to control it.” I didn’t grin, not externally at least, but I was pretty proud of my explanation. It sounded technical enough to be convincing at the least. “She’s asked that you leave her alone to get on with it, and as soon as she gets any results, she’ll let you know.”
“How long?” he asked.
“How long what?”
“Before she gets any results, so we can work out what to do next.”
“She didn’t say, but it’s careful, painstaking work. You wouldn’t want to go giving anyone a cure that doesn’t work or makes people even worse, now would you?”
“No,” he said, staring at me.
I stared right back.
I wasn’t going to give him a reason to go barging in and finding out about Ypalde.
“I’ll keep in regular contact with her and update you as soon as I can. Have there been any more cases?” I asked.
“None so far. We’re keeping an eye on the family of the dragon who died.”
That was shocking news. “He died?”
“Yes. He tried to bite someone and suck their blood. The other person killed him before he could bite her.”
“His wife?”
“Girlfriend. They met once they came here.”
“I’m so sorry, Nindock. I understand that you feel responsible for encouraging dragons to come here and not being able to protect them.”
He took a quick step away from me. “That’s exactly how I feel. I brought them here and promised to look out for them. How did you know that?”
“Because that’s exactly how a good person would think. It’s how I would think too.”
He looked a little taken aback at my calling him a good person, and so did Jevyn, but the way I saw it, anyone who asked people to follow him, offered them the freedom they evidently wanted, and also followed up when things were going wrong couldn’t be all bad. He and Jevyn had their history, but that seemed to have been set aside in the quest for a cure for the vampires. Having to find a cure for the dragons was only going to bring them closer together in my judgment. Maybe they might even end up the friends they were when they were children.
“I’m going to head back and coordinate things back at the saloon. Jevyn told me about Derek. We’ll help as much as we can, Katie,” Nindock said.
“I know, and thanks.”
Nindock headed off in the direction of the saloon. He hadn’t gotten ten paces away when people began to walk alongside him, presumably to ask him what was going on. Rumors were no doubt beginning to swirl around the town. The last thing Nindock needed was an outbreak of panic to go along with everything else.
“You need to stay with her.” Jevyn spoke from behind me, so I turned to look at him.
“Who?”
He flicked his head at Carol’s house. She was at the window looking out onto the street where Nindock had just walked off.
“Why?” I asked.
“To make sure she gets what she needs to identify this virus.”
“Because it affects the dragons?”
“No. Because it affects everything. We have dragons on Dracos with some kind of virus going on in Grayfair. Now we have dragons on Earth showing symptoms. If dragons start to die, and the rifts are still open, who knows what my mother will do? All I do know is that people will be clamoring for protection, and she will have to do something.”
“You mean close the rift?”
“Or send something through to protect the dragons here.”
“What? Like an army or something?”
“We don’t have an army as such. The ruling tribe is responsible for security, and there are millions of us. The damage a few thousand dragons being sent through the rift could do to Earth is beyond comprehension.”
“Would she do that?”
Jevyn shrugged. “Who knows, but doubtless people will be whispering it in her ear if things do get bad, especially over in Dracos.”
I thought back to some of the slimy courtiers I’d seen in Pathya. He was right. The less Lalnu knew about it, the better.
“I think you’re right,” I said after considering it for a moment longer. “But you need to be careful too. If there’s a virus going to break out here, I don’t want you to catch it.”
“I know. But what do you suggest? I can hardly go and hide myself
away in our quarters for the next few days. People will expect to see me out and about, helping. I can’t let Nindock carry the burden on his own.”
I laughed.
Jevyn looked puzzled. “What’s so funny?”
“I remember us having various conversations about me taking on too much, about being at the forefront of everything instead of letting others do things. Maybe we are more similar in that respect than you thought.”
He allowed himself a thin smile. “Maybe we are. I promise I’ll try to be careful; that’s the best I can do.”
“Okay. And I promise not to stay at Carol’s all night keeping her company. She has to sleep sometime, right?”
“Right.”
“Well, when she does, I’ll be coming to look for you, so make sure you’re somewhere easily found, okay?”
“You got a deal.” Jevyn held out his arms, and I moved in for a hug. Somehow it felt different. It felt like the first hug on a road that might lead us apart rather than one that was going to bring us closer together. If things went right—or wrong, whichever way you looked at it—this development could be the start of whatever process could leave Jevyn and me on different planets when the rift closed, as it surely had to at some point.
“Go ahead,” I said, gently pushing myself out of his arms. “Go find Derek and stay safe.”
“You too, and don’t let Carol drive you as batshit crazy as she is, and whatever you do, watch out for those sandwiches.”
I’d forgotten all about Carol’s sandwiches. Maybe offering to stay with her hadn’t been such a great idea after all. Hopefully in a day or two, Ypalde would be feeling better, and I could stop babysitting Carol.
Jevyn backed away and flipped a little wave. I returned the gesture, and suddenly all I wanted was to run to him and throw myself into his strong arms, be with him so we could face whatever we had to face together, stronger.
I didn’t. If this was the beginning of the end for us, I needed to be strong on my own.
I headed back to Carol’s house.
Three days later, I woke up in the morning with Jevyn’s warmth next to me. The day before Ypalde had given me strict instructions that she was back, as good as new, and that I was to get back to what I did best.
Truth be told, I was glad. Carol was driven, but she was also a little crazy—okay, a lot crazy—about what she was doing. She didn’t care much about who she might be helping. All she was interested in was finding out what the virus was and how to kill it, not who it might help.
Vampire or dragon, she didn’t seem to care, all she wanted was to find an answer and get her daughter back.
To that end, I was going to keep my word to her and go find her daughter.
I think that was, at least partly, why Ypalde had been so insistent. She didn’t look fully recovered when I’d left her the night before, but while I was staying with Carol for reassurance, I couldn’t go look for her daughter.
I heaved myself up and sat for a moment, just listening to Jevyn breathe.
It was looking like a big day already, and I couldn’t help but wonder what else would turn up.
Chapter Seventeen
Katie
The team’s quarters in Nindock’s town
“WHAT’S THE PLAN then, boss?” Frankie asked as we all sat around the table in the communal part of the quarters we were using. He leaned back, rocking on two legs of his chair.
“We need to do two things today,” I said. “Nobody has seen Derek.” I heard a sniff to one side of me and shifted my attention to the source. “Sorry, Sparks.” She nodded and held a tissue to her mouth in a clenched fist. I could see she was fighting back tears. “We need to find him, and soon. He’s the only one among us other than Jevyn who can open a reliable rip, and we need him back to make sure he’s not tearing rips left and right.” I stopped talking and looked around the room at the others. They all nodded. Although I wasn’t sure they understood exactly why I didn’t want Derek making rips, they seemed willing to run with it.
“What’s the other thing?” Nova asked. He’d been quiet, and I’d thought about asking Jevyn to bring Famil over. First to help Carol and second to help Nova, but in the end, with the virus claiming its sixth victim the day before in the camp, I decided not to even raise the issue. Knowing Nova, he wouldn’t have wanted to put Famil at risk any more than Jevyn would. Trying to fight both of them was beyond even me.
“The second thing is to go rescue Carol’s daughter,” I said. “I’ve been promising it for a while, and this is the first chance I’ve had to actually to do something about it.”
“What about supplies?” Penny chipped in. “We’re running short of medical supplies in camp, and I could really stand to eat some of Frankie’s spaghetti right now.”
A murmur of agreement went up among the group. Frankie’s spaghetti sauce was awesome, and it had been a long while since any of us had tasted it.
“Okay, so third is supplies,” I agreed. “I think a couple of us should stay here to make sure Nindock and Kam are okay. Sparks, how about you and Marty stay behind. If Derek does turn up, he’d want to see you first. Right? And Marty has only just recovered from being shot, so best you stay here too.”
Both of them nodded.
I faced the rest of the team while Sparks started to sniff again. I thought Marty put his arm around her to comfort her, but I didn’t look, as I was trying to keep my focus. I’d felt much too ineffective lately.
Jevyn had already departed to help Nindock with caring for the people who had gone down with the virus that was affecting the camp. A temporary quarantine had been set up in one of the buildings to try to contain things, but . . . I hadn’t said anything to anyone. My gut feeling told me that it was too late. Four cases so far that morning was a bad sign, and I just hoped Carol could identify and find a cure for the virus in double-fast time; otherwise, a few more days might see the end of Nindock’s town and the people in it.
Twenty minutes later, with the order of action arranged, Nova, Frankie, Penny, and I headed into Boise. Although we had raided quite a few stores in town, there was too much for us to take alone. Most of the stores that weren’t back operating as proper stores were on the outer edges of the city, and one of those was our first call. When we arrived, it was a relatively simple job to get in and load up with some of the things we needed. Satisfied that we had made as good a start as could be expected, our next stop was to see if Derek had somehow found his way back to Lynnette’s shop.
I remembered when we raided the cash truck that the lights had been on in the shop, and I half-expected to find Lynnette there, but the whole place was locked up tight by the time we arrived. There were no lights anywhere inside, and judging by the dust on the door handle, nobody had been into the shop in a long time.
Stage two was a bust, so it was time to move onto stage three. Finding Carol’s daughter and somehow persuading Carol’s mom to let us take Carol’s daughter away.
When we arrived at the address Carol had given us, it looked about as promising as Lynnette’s shop, but as we rolled to a gentle stop, I saw a small face dodge back behind the curtains in the front downstairs window.
“Penny, you come with me.” Then I addressed Nova. “You and Frankie stay in here and try not to look too scary, okay?”
“Whatever you say, boss,” Frankie said.
“I wish you’d stop calling me that, Frankie,” I said quietly as I climbed out of the car door. “I’m nobody’s boss. We’re all in this together, you know?”
“So, how come me and Nova are being left in the car?”
“Because the child is six years old, and I don’t want to scare her with two big guys coming in with us, but if you think you should come in, be my guest.” I held out my hand to him.
He looked at it for a few moments and then sat back in his seat. “Sorry, Katie. You’re right. I’m on edge is all. You know, we haven’t had any blood for a while, and I think the effects are starting to wear off now.”
“I didn’t want to make a fuss.” He wrapped his arms around himself, and I swear he was trembling. “I thought the dragons getting the virus might need it, you know?”
I looked down at him and then leaned forward and kissed his stubbled cheek. “You’re a sweetheart, Frankie. When we get back, we’ll all top off with some blood It’s been too long, you’re right.”
I realized then that I was feeling a little out of sorts, and when I looked at Nova, he was pale and wan, his skin looking slightly sallow. The only one of the four of us who looked good was Penny, but that might have had more to do with the makeup she insisted on applying before she left the camp.
“Come on,” I said to Penny, and we headed up the brick driveway to the house.
The place was a bit rundown. White paint was turning yellow and beginning to peel away from the façade. The house number on the door was missing a digit. The lawn was at least eight inches long, but the place still looked homey enough. I knocked on the door and waited, listening for signs of occupation inside.
No reply was forthcoming, so I knocked again and waited.
Still nothing.
“Let’s go around the back, shall we?” I suggested.
Penny nodded and set off in front of me.
Just as we reached the back of the house, I heard a door squeak open. I dodged around the corner as quickly as I could and ran into a young girl who came up to somewhere around my middle.
She staggered back, but she had hit my diaphragm and knocked the wind out of me, so I couldn’t talk properly. Penny stepped around me and grabbed the stunned girl who immediately began to scream—loudly. Penny clamped a hand over the young girl’s mouth and dragged her back into the house. If there were any neighbors about, the last thing we needed was anyone poking their noses into something that didn’t concern them.
While the girl struggled and screamed into Penny’s hand, I squatted down in front of the girl, so we were on the same level.
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