“Where’s it getting its nutrition to grow to this extent?” She definitely was talking to herself, not realizing she was speaking aloud. “What’s feeding you?”
Jonas glanced up toward their audience and shook his head quickly, warning them not to speak or move. Camellia was on the verge of discovery. He felt it. There was a peculiar sizzling along his veins, like the tingle in the air before lightning struck. Marigold didn’t move a muscle, but he knew she was also aware that Camellia was on the cusp of a momentous discovery.
“That doesn’t matter right now, Camellia, does it?” Camellia chided herself, still speaking aloud. “We have to find the source. It’s here somewhere.”
Then she was back internally again, turning that silver gaze onto the mass of red spongy-looking cells at the core of Mari’s bones, inspecting them carefully, looking to see if she could catch a glimpse of the damage Zenith had left behind.Marigold always had a strong immune system in the past, Jonas. Von Willebrand disease is caused by a deficiency in von Willebrand factor, which is a large protein made up of multiple subunits.
Jonas was in awe of the way her mind worked. She was figuring it out, putting the pieces of the puzzle together at a rapid rate whenhe would have been back on step one. He did feel the need to help her though. He could also see the sparking on the edges of Mari’s neurons, as if those starships were revving their engines, eager to join in the fight for Marigold’s life.
“The VWF is needed to bind to clotting factor eight in the blood. That’s what protects it from being broken down. You have to have that. It’s also needed to help the platelets bind to the inside of injured blood vessels.” Camellia frowned as she stared down at Mari’s body.
There’s no binding going on that I can see.
Exactly. She has little to almost no VWF to bind to clotting factor eight, which she desperately needs. She’s bleeding into her joints, her stomach, everywhere, because she can’t form a clot.
Jonas didn’t like the sound of that. Or her tone. Camellia sounded tired already and discouraged. When he looked at Marigold, he found her condition overwhelming, and he didn’t know her. He couldn’t imagine what it must be like for Camellia when the woman meant something to her.
Baby, look at me. Right now. Look at me. See me, nothing else. Not Mari, only me.
Camellia reluctantly lifted her gaze to his. Her eyes were pure silver beneath those long dark lashes.
One small section at a time. Only one piece. Don’t try to look at her like a whole. You’re letting the fact that you know her get to you. I’m right here with you. You can do this.He poured absolute confidence into his voice because, in spite of the mess that was Marigold’s insides, he believed in Camellia’s abilities.
Her tongue touched her upper lip, and then she gave him a faint smile and nodded. Once more, she turned her attention to Mari’s bone marrow.All right. We’ve got this. Red, we’ve got so much work to do.
Once again, Jonas wanted to ask questions, but he remainedsilent. Whitney certainly must have given Camellia a healthy dose of the plant. He knew he had to have some of the plant in him as well in order to connect with her on such a molecular level, but it was nothing to the extent of what Camellia had. She was extraordinary at what she was doing.
She concentrated on bone marrow in the spine first. She had that little frown on her face, and she began by immediately targeting a tiny cell that he had barely noticed among all the other cells. It was a putrid green color, and it seemed to be attached to nearly every cell that he could see. He thought it belonged because there were so many of them. Nests of them.
What is that?
I believe Zenith left this behind, and it’s multiplied in her.
He knew she wasn’t paying attention to him. Camellia was wholly consumed by what she was doing. Now that he knew those green cells shouldn’t be there, he studied them. They looked to be an invasive species, so tiny, a leech attaching itself to feed. She took out the nests first, destroying them with electrical pulses she sent from the starships—the neurons with the widespread arms reaching throughout Marigold’s body.
I can help with that.Jonas had seen her wield the neurons before.
He might not be good at too much of the healing, but he’d played video games, and he could shoot electrical charges into the larger targets and take them out. The larger targets were tiny, but not like those single cells, attached to the bumpy ones Mari obviously needed. He wasn’t going to take a chance on destroying those. He’d leave them to Camellia to finesse with her superior skills.
That will save us time.
She didn’t ask him if he thought he really could destroy the cells without harming Marigold. She acted like she was certain he could help her. She didn’t even look to see what he was doing when shebegan going after the single cells attached to the bumpy-looking cells.
What are those?
This is a lymphocyte, the rounder one that looks as if it has multiple cells inside is a neutrophil, and the third one that’s shaped kind of like a kidney bean is a monocyte. Basically, they’re white blood cells and are necessary to the immune system. They fight bacteria, viruses, fungi, anything invading our systems. This leechy thing is cutting off all aid to Mari’s system before she has a chance to even try to fight it.
Jonas concentrated on destroying the nests of green cells trying to hide among the field of red, white and yellow cells. The nests were so tiny that he had to really search for them. He learned to look with that veil of silver that was so foreign to him. He couldn’t think of anything but sending electrical pulses along the neuron’s long spike and out to the synapse. He could see the jump provided by Red increasing the pulse as it leapt to the next neuron and sizzled down the extended arm jumping from synapse to neuron until he guided his missile straight into the center of the putrid green nest. He had no idea of time going by, his complete concentration on the electrical pulses and the flood of chemicals fighting to save Marigold.
“Her temperature is going to begin to elevate,” Camellia informed the others in her distant voice. “You’ll need to be prepared to get it down. That’s her body trying to fight again.”
There was movement in the room around them, but Jonas didn’t look up from his work, now determined to ferret out every single one of the enemy camps. That was how he looked at those nests. The ones attaching themselves to the red and white blood cells or platelets were assassins sneaking and attacking under cover of darkness. He and his woman would find and destroy them. Every single one. But as he was discovering for himself, the effort took tremendous energy.
Camellia staggered back and would have collapsed on the floor if Kyle hadn’t caught her. He eased her down, handing her the water bottle. She took it with shaking hands and held it to her mouth. Some of the water spilled, and Kyle helped her hold it. There was silence while he wiped what appeared to be beads of sweat from her face.
Jonas sat on the floor, his back to the wall, his eyes on his woman, nearly as shaky as she was. “We have a long way to go, don’t we?” he asked softly.
She nodded and leaned her head back, closing her eyes wearily. “We have to get into every bit of bone marrow producing active blood cells. This stuff is horribly invasive and something is feeding it. It reproduces very fast.”
