Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 110809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110809 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
“Yep. It’s toast.” He sinks into his chair, dark circles under his eyes. “Smallpox. Even that bastard of a virus can’t replicate in their blood.”
“What the fuck are they?” Evie asks for what has to be the millionth time. “None of this makes sense.”
“It doesn’t, but it’s all we have. Keep at it.” I dive back into my research and stew in my own disappointment. We’ve thrown so many different infectious agents at the vampire blood, but nothing takes hold. During our teleconference yesterday, Hamberg again threatened to send in an entirely new staff. Pressure is coming from all directions. Time is flowing away, and I feel like I’m losing ground.
“I’ll go back in later.” Wyatt leans his head back, his adam’s apple bobbing as he stares at the ceiling. “I have some bacteria samples I want to try on it.”
“Maybe we should try fungus?” Aang pipes up from the armchair he dragged in from the lobby. He’s made a little nest beside his desk with anime posters. “Maybe we can get a wider variety of pathogens from Atlanta. Not just viral. Widen the net to all the nasties. It has to interact with something.”
“Just sunlight,” I say before thinking, exhaustion and frustration loosening my tongue.
“Huh?” Evie grunts, and everyone stops what they’re doing. It’s like the dying whir of an engine that’s been shut down. The final, grinding gasps of power that end in reverberating silence. They all turn to me, their eyes questioning.
Shit.
“What do you mean ‘sunlight’?” Aang asks as he sits up straight.
I’ve kept that information to myself. To keep them safe. The more they know, the more danger they’re in. But as they look at me with first surprise and then distrust, a sick feeling swirls in my gut. I want to protect them, but I’ve been withholding information—it’s not lost on me that Juno has done the same thing to me. So has Valen. I’m in the dark about so much, and I’ve been keeping them in the same shadow, only divulging tiny bits of truth. But it’s the only way to save their lives. Ugh, how am I supposed to keep balancing on the knife’s edge without getting cut?
“Are you saying sunlight interacts with the cells somehow?” Wyatt, his eyes bloodshot, stares at me.
I don’t know what to say. I have zero doubts that there are cameras and listening devices in the lab. We’re being watched. We can’t trust anyone outside of these walls, and I can’t be honest with my team within them. Not if we want to survive.
My gaze bounces from person to person as my mind races. How can I fix this?
“No, that isn’t—”
Aang stands so abruptly that I jump, then he stomps over to a refrigeration unit and pulls out what’s left of the most recent sample.
“Aang, what are you doing?” Gretchen sounds leery.
“Let’s just see what sunlight does.” He glares as he storms past me.
“Aang, don’t!” I chase him and reach for the vial.
He breaks into a run.
“Aang!” Wyatt shouts from behind me.
Aang bursts through the doors. Heckle and Jeckle don’t even stir as we race past them.
“Aang, stop!” I swipe at his shirt, almost grabbing hold, but he’s faster. In only a few moments he’s out of reach. “No!” I scream as he runs out the lobby doors and into the street.
By the time I reach him, he’s holding up the vial as the sun frees itself from a fluffy cloud. The sample goes instantly black, the vial cracking and falling into tinkling shards on the pavement.
“Aang—”
“What the fuck, Georgia!” he yells and steps back from the ashy smudge. “What is that?”
The soldier who replaced Gage clears his throat. “Doctors?”
“Shut it, G.I. Joe.” Aang points at him as Gretchen and the others push through the lobby doors and join us on the street.
“What happened?” Evie drops to her haunches beside the broken glass.
“Just an accident. Aang dropped it.” I’m searching for anything, for a life raft in a rushing current. Something we can all use to survive. “Please, let’s just go back inside and get to work.”
Evie pulls a pen from her lab coat and pokes around in the ashes. “It just … combusted?” She looks up at me questioningly. “How?”
“Please.” I clasp my hands together in front of me. “Please, stop. Please let it go.”
Wyatt chuckles and elbows Evie. “You owe me a twenty.”
“What?” I turn to him.
He shrugs. “Our first day here, I bet Evie twenty bucks that we were dealing with vampires.”
My mouth drops open.
“Yep.” She gets back to her feet. “I hate to say it, but you were right. Total bullshit, by the way.”
“I remember.” Gretchen wheels closer and peers at the ashes. “Evie bet on aliens.”
Wyatt could’ve punched me in the tit, and I’d be less shocked.
“Guys, focus.” Aang crosses his arms over his chest, displeasure still writ large in the wrinkle between his eyebrows. “Georgia’s been lying to us the entire time. She’s known.”