Page 345 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

‘He has you and Iron Star.’

It doesn’t feel like anywhere near enough. ‘Yeah.’

‘Kade, I need to take more of your blood to replace the stores.’

‘Later.’

‘I know you. Later won’t happen.’

‘I can’t just sit around while—’

‘What if, while I take your blood, we discuss Lachlan Tanner’s blood?’

Noah leads him into the smaller treatment room next door. Kade settles into the collection chair while Noah ties off his arm, prepares the collection bag and labels it for storage.

‘His blood can’t survive outside a living host.’

Kade blinks. ‘Oh, just… jumping right in.’

‘It becomes non-viable in less than half an hour. Even in anticoagulant, it coagulates and hardens.’

‘How do you know?’

‘Who do you think Cole and Finn brought their samples to?’

‘Right.’

‘I would like to test it on living human tissue and, given that you and Riley already have independent healing abilities beyond the human spectrum, I am volunteering myself.’

‘What?’

‘I’d like to combine his blood with a living human tissue culture grown from my own cells.’

‘Oh. I thought you meant…’

Noah chuckles.

The needle goes in.

Kade doesn’t look.

‘Yes, I know what you thought. So, what do you think?’

‘Why do you want to do it?’

‘So I can see whether it really does heal human tissue or whether it’s just accelerating your own natural ability to heal rapidly. I want to see if it might help Luca.’

‘You said you didn’t want to risk that.’

‘No, I said I don’t know enough to recommend it. This would help me understand and learn more, but I wanted to run it by you first. Lachlan seems to be your area, so to speak.’

Kade nods slowly. ‘I’ll ask him to give you a sample.’

‘Thank you.’

‘What you said about Riley before, giving him Lachlan’s blood. Are you still unhappy about it? He seems OK now.’

Noah’s expression darkens.