“William is always planning something.”
“But it’s related, right? Did he engineer this disease for his purposes?”
“I really do not know. Right now, I am hoping to find a cure for those vampires who were not fortunate enough to get treatment early. Also, I would like to find out if there is an indicator I’ve missed in the human blood so I can begin testing a way to stop it at the source. Maybe if I had a sample of your blood…”
“No,” Reyna said immediately.
“It would give me a basis of comparison,” he finished.
“Absolutely not.”
“Miss Carpenter, you can be of value here.”
“While this was all enlightening,” she said carefully, “I don’t want to be of value in that way. I won’t be used for my blood ever again.”
“I understand your hesitation.”
“I don’t think you do. I find the blood diseases interesting. I hope you find a way to stop the cogitare anemia spreading in the city so that nothing else bad happens, but I amnevergoing to be anyone’s blood bag again. Got it?”
Washington sighed. “I do wish you would reconsider.”
“Don’t count on it,” she said before turning and hurrying out of the medical wing.
When Reyna wandered downstairs, she was hoping to clear her head, which was still full of the blood science talk with Washington. She felt like a hematologist after that one conversation. Antigens and antibodies and red blood cells, oh my!
She shouldn’t have been surprised that Washington had asked for her blood. That was the last thing she wanted to do with her life. In that moment, she missed her camera and the freedom to photograph whatever she chose. It wasn’t a job, per se, but it gave her purpose. She doubted she’d find anything like that here.
She passed the mess hall only to find her brothers sitting together at a table by the far wall. She angled toward them.
“Reyna,” Brian said, jumping up and more or less tackling her.
She laughed. “Um, hey.”
Drew was there in another second, pulling her into a hug. “We heard what happened.”
“You did?”
“You tried to run away?” Brian asked with a sigh.
“I didn’t try to run away.”
“Guys, breathing room,” Brian’s fiancée, Laura, said from her seat.
Reyna waved off both her brothers. She took a seat next to Laura and drew her into a hug. “It’s been so long.”
“I know. Sorry, I haven’t been feeling well or else I would have found you already.” Laura truly didn’t look too well. She had always been pale, but she looked a little green. Her blond hair at least shone as if she had taken special care with it. She’d even put on makeup. Reyna felt drab in comparison.
“I’ve been a bore. Let me see your ring.”
A smile split Laura’s face from ear to ear as she shoved her left hand in Reyna’s face. It was an oval-cut ruby with little crusted diamonds around it on a simple band. Nothing too fancy, but still classy, classic, and beautiful. The fact that Brian had been able to purchase anything on a meager warehouse salary was amazing.
“I love it,” Reyna gushed. “When is the wedding? Next year?”
She turned from Brian to Laura and back. Brian opened his mouth and then closed it. It wasn’t often that he seemed flustered, and he was never lost for words.
Laura’s cheeks flushed. “Well, actually, we were just discussing moving it up.”
“Oh yeah? To when?”
