Becca abandoned her marker and turned to face us fully. “I then introduced another vampire sample, this time from a blood type the same as yours, and again the same response. It seems to be programmed to attack the Anima Mortis virus no matter what form it enters as.”
I found myself leaning forward. “Why am I an ashpire then? Surely the cure would be attacking me, like an autoimmune response?”
Becca was almost giddy now. “That’s where it’s so incredible. You are literally a product of the Anima virus, and yet your antibodies are evolved enough to be able to tell self from non-self, even within the same virus set. There’s no evidence it has ever tried to attack your own cells. Which is something human antibodies would not be able to do. They attack foreign antigens, which is how they know something does not belong in the body. The virus is not foreign to you, it formed your very blood and organs and everything else, so there should be no antibodies to it. It should see the virus as self and not attack, and yet … somehow it knows.”
“Would it attack the virus in an ash?” Jayden asked, and I wondered for a second if he would choose to be cured if it were possible.
Becca blinked a few times, thinking before she answered. “I was just starting to experiment with that, introducing Charlie’s blood to vampires and ash to see what happens. I expect that in vampire blood her antibodies will destroy the virus, clean the blood, organs, and body from the effects. A full and total cure. Her antibodies hold the components which are missing from my blood. And I have my theories on what will happen with ash blood, but I need to experiment more before I confirm or deny the hypothesis.”
Footsteps echoed down the hall then, and I knew the rest of the enforcers were on their way. Becca must have heard them too, because she hurried on. “To answer you from before, Charlie, yes, I think if I have enough time, and some more of your blood, I can manufacture a synthetic version of your cure. Something we could use as a large-scale attack against the vampires.”
My body tensed as I jumped to my feet and strode over to her. I thrust my arm forward. “Take as much as you need and get me that cure. I have a plan, and I am going to need an ass-ton of the cure to make it happen.”
Becca smiled. “Vampire vaccine, here we come.” The determination in her eyes gave me hope.
The boys entered the room then and the look on Ryder’s face tore me open. He was trying to hide it but I could see he was in agony. I was one of those people who didn’t mind going through hell myself but it killed me to see those I loved in pain. I would rather save them from it all. I wanted to take him in my arms and tell him we would avenge them, every single one. But I wouldn’t do that in front of his boys. He needed to be strong for them. They all looked to their leader for guidance in situations like this.
Ryder was all business. “Becca, how safe are we out here? How far are the nearest neighbors? Who knows of you? Have you ever been seen? When do you grocery shop, get mail, water the garden?”
Whoa. My man was channeling his angers into OCD right now. Sam was giving Ryder a bit of a glare, but Becca didn’t seem worried. “We’re very secluded and safe, in my scientific opinion. The nearest neighbors are two miles south. They’re a small impoverished family that own a failing potato farm. They know of me, they think I’m a vampire. They would never turn me in. I saved their daughter’s life three years ago. I wear blue contacts when I go into town, and since female ash don’t exist and female vampires can’t go out in the day, everyone in town thinks I’m a human scientist. Still, I limit town visits to once a month.”
Ryder looked skeptical. “You let this farm family know about you? How are you sure they can be trusted?”
Becca squared her shoulders and stared my man down like an alpha. “I trust them with all of our lives.”
Holy shit, homegirl went from awkward nerd to possessive mom in two seconds. Jayden and I shared an impressed look. Ryder nodded, letting that line of questioning go.
“Okay, but I still want twenty-four-hour watch. We’ll trade days, sleep in shifts, and do four hour watches. It’s clear that the vampires will stop at nothing to find and punish us.”
The rest of the sexy six nodded.
Jayden raised a hand. “Yeah, that’s a problem for me. I need my beauty sleep.”
Ryder gave a tense grin, or more like bared teeth as he shook his head. “I didn’t include you, Becca, or Charlie in my calculations.”
I crossed my arms and glared at him. “Are you saying I need beauty sleep? I’m not sitting on my ass the whole time we’re here. I’m still training. I will take a watch too.”
Ryder stepped closer to me, lowering his voice, and the boys and Becca busied themselves with inspecting the floor or ceiling as Ryder and I got into it.
“I just lost a lot of people I cared about. I won’t lose you too. The answer is no.” His jaw was clenched as if he was daring me to fight him on it. And dammit, normally I would, but he was right. He’d just lost a lot of his friends and I didn’t want to stress him out now. Instead I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his rough stubbly cheek. “I’m conceding to you right now because of special circumstances. But don’t get used to bossing me around. We’re a team. Got it?”
He was no doubt feeling out of control and I would give him this one thing. Let him think he could govern my safety.
“Always a team, Charlie. I just need you to be safe,” he said, before turning to the boys. “By now the Quorum will know the truth about Charlie. They won’t stop at just the Portland Hive.”
Kyle frowned. “You think they would take out other ash? Other enforcers? All across the world?”
Ryder shrugged. “I think they see the scales tipping in our favor. We need to start thinking about the bigger picture.”
Silence descended on our small group and Becca and I shared a look. This right here, these eight people were my family now. If I couldn’t trust them I was fucked. So I cleared my throat and dropped the bomb.
“Becca is going to design a mass-produced-cure with my blood and I’m going to cure every single vampire. Every. Single. One.”
“No.” Ryder interrupted me, but I stopped him with a hand to the face.
“I believe in destiny, and I think this is why I’m here. My greater purpose. I’m going to cure the world of the Anima Mortem virus and return all these assholes back to their families.”
Jayden’s eyes were brimming with tears as he looked at me with pride. Holy shit, did I just grow up? Adulting sucked.
