“None.”
“Correct.” He waved me over to two microscopes. “How about now?”
Peering through the first scope, I noticed black and smaller red disks surrounded by a clear substance that glowed with an orange and blue hue.
“What am I looking at?”
“Black demonic cells and red blood cells surrounded by plasma. The glowing orange tint is Ni’s power signature. The blue—I have two theories on, one more concerning than the other.”
In the second scope, the image showed the same red and black cells but surrounded by a dark gray plasma instead of clear, along with a deep violet and green glow.
I lifted my head from the microscope, turning to Sam for the information I lacked.
“At first, I thought the low-level blue emission was a result of being a twin to Ichi. It’s plausible, except for the fact that Ni’s sample contains numerous red blood cells. Souls are mainly made up of plasma withremnants of their blood cells, making them, I believe, the perfect vessels for the infection. So my theory is that the infection is a blood-bound venom.” He pointed to the second scope. “Rodderick gives more merit to this theory. He is a soul with the ability to wield earth. Explains the green emission, not the purple. He doesn’t have a twin. I suspect the other color comes from the owner of the red blood cells.”
“What do the blue and purple emissions mean?”
“I believe the original infection contained blood from a lower-level elemental angel, while the second is a different strain of the infection with a higher-level angel’s blood, making the venom more potent.”
“You’re saying there are two strains of the infection. It isn’t a mutation of the first.”
He nodded.
“What else?” I asked.
Sam stepped aside, revealing a third microscope.
“This is the blood of a blood-banded infected with the second strain.”
The sample had both red and black blood cells, but that was where the similarities between the samples ended. Stringy, almost curdled-looking plasma surrounded the small disks, and it looked as if the red blood cells were absorbing one another, their union turning them brown, while the black cells seemed to be dissolving.
“What’s happening?”
“Based on my studies, angels can’t share blood without their powers attacking one another unless they have the same power. The foreign red blood cells are creating a catalyst of degradation.”
“Which is why they die, and souls are the perfect vessels,” I finished.
“Exactly.”
“And this blood-bound venom—is it spread only through biting, or is their blood poisonous too?” I asked. The whole reason Lucifer didn’t want Sam studying the blood was because of the hypothetical risks.
“Those infected with the first strain can only spread their toxins through a bite. The second strain, because of its potency, can spread through both bite and blood—but only if the blood enters the body.”
Seven Hells.
That meant my power was practically useless against them, andanyone who so much as received a cut and was exposed to their blood would either turn or die. I’d have to send out another missive today warning everyone.
“How did you figure this out?”
He stared at me calmly.
“Through testing.”
He didn’t say anything more, and since he appeared fine, I let it go.
“Okay, so how do these discoveries help us find a cure?”
“I know almost every color of plasma and the power associated with it. You know the color I’ve never seen before?”
