"I do declare, vampire flesh.Perhaps this is a new flavor I may come to enjoy."
I looked away.It sounded as if Gurg was eating a chicken wing.After a few moments of contemplative chewing, Gurg coughed and retched.
"That's awful," he said."Oh, how delightfully disgusting.Mellow notes of human—but not just human.Golden blood.More of that night sky filled with stars flavor.And then the trenchant, fishy amphibian taste.You've been transforming quite a bit, Nagi."
"Astute observation."
"It flavors the meat so nicely," Gurg said."Now, the interesting bit is here."
Gurg spat up the bone on the plate again.
"Notice.There are no corrosion marks on the bone.That means whatever this was was not a chemical catalyst capable of dissolving calcium.That means, more than likely, that this was a non-human chemical.Human chemicals tend to be a bit more brute strength and take everything out with them.And yet another subtle flavor—it also had an effect on your DNA sequence, causing advanced decomposition, despite your mitochondrial light-speed.It was able to overwhelm your healing factor and destroy the cells, until you broke the transfer sequence."
"That sounds like what happened," Nagi said.
"Whatever this is is some kind of quick-speed pathogen," Gurg said."It spreads from cell to cell, destroying them and implanting itself into the next cell.It mutates and kills as it goes.I think I've discovered just about all I can discover from this sample.It may be a little more useful to give me, perhaps, some human tissue tainted with whatever this biological agent is."
"Already ahead of you," Nagi said.
"Drink your tea, darling," Gurg said, looking at me.
"I have a caffeine allergy," I said.
"Good thing there ain't no caffeine in this cup," Gurg said."This is fresh-brewed sassafrass tea, filled with the healing waters of my swamp.Men used to travel for miles to get a cup of the water I swam in.You're staring at Montezuma's fabled folly, my dear."
"And I so appreciate that," I said.I held the cup up and pretended to take a sip.I closed my eyes.It smelled like sulfur and eggs in my nose…
"Samples," Nagi said.His taloned hands, minus a finger, passed over a glass vial."This was an extraction of spinal fluid."
Gurg picked it up, removing the cap and sniffing in deeply.
"Ahhhh, how refreshing," Gurg said.
I couldn't watch it.He made a noise like someone slurping through a straw, and then the vial was drained.I could see him swish the fluid around in his mouth like it was wine, and then he swallowed deeply.
"Yes, yes.Very pure morpheum, that.And a bit of intelligence.Heavy undertones of marijuana.Terpenes of a particular variety.The deceased was a heavy cannabis smoker and recreational opiate addict.Not just any old regular addict, mind you.He was a gourmand, a man of particular taste… yes, I would wager it was a man, judging by the testosterone overlay.Any other extracts you have for me?"
"Some organ and brain matter," Nagi said.
"Some liver pate may just be what I need," Gurg said.
"I'm afraid the organs were all splattered," Nagi said."This is more of a mid-body slurry than anything else."
Gurg looked at the next vial with some distaste and then nodded.
"A man must do what a man must do," he said and knocked it back.His eyebrows—more suggestions of fleshy overhangs than furred parts over his sunglasses—shrugged upwards."I declare.That is a mess of an endocrine system.This man was two steps away from renal failure.Judging by that and the cell degradation, I would wager he was an older fella, at least for a human being.Approximately sixty to sixty-five years of age.Strong constitution, did regular work, but it was a matter of time.This might have been a blessing, all things considered."
"Anything other that you're detecting?"Eddie asked.
"I'm getting there, and it'll be in my time," Gurg said."What else have we in the way of horsie doovers?"He said it this way on purpose, with a twinkle of glee in his cheek, and it made me want to hurl.
"A little bit of brain matter next," Nagi said."This was a struggle to crack into with an audience."
The snake-like tongue slid out of Gurg's mouth and into the vial, and he inhaled rapturously.
"Oh my," Gurg said."Oh, oh, oh.This is the real pleasure."
He smacked his lips, salivating, and rippling bodily.
