Page 31 of Mated in Flames

“You built this?” Dane asks as he steps closer.

I eye my setup. It isn’t the largest lab in the world, but I have the proper equipment and just about everything I need to test the poison and try to draw out the elements I need for an antidote. There’s a petri dish under the microscope now, though it’s empty and a vial of a bluish liquid sitting to the side.

“Actually, I think I’ve cracked it,” I muse.

“What?” Dane asks, startled; it’s the first real emotion I’ve gotten from him.

“When I had a close look at the poison I got from Warwick,” I say, ignoring the mutinous look from Dane as he hears that, “I found that the particles within the poison were not as complex as I’d originally thought. On top of that, this poison bears a lot of similarities with cyanide, surprisingly. So I looked at the properties of sodium thiosulphate to get some inspiration.”

I can feel Dane watching me, possibly caught by my enthusiasm. I can’t help it. I simply love toxicology. The only thing I regret about leaving Doctors Without Borders is that I have fewer chances to explore toxins and their antidotes.

“Since the sodium and the thiosulphate compounds have a 2:1 ratio, I experimented with different ratios as well as different elements that could be used to counteract your poison,” I continue. “Obviously, your poison is not the same as cyanide, even if they’re similar. I’m not entirely certain that sodium thiosulphate could actually stop death being caused by your poison, but there’s a possibility that it could either slow death down, or even halt the progress of the poison enough that further treatment could occur.

“Additionally,” I add, and part of me wonders why Dane is just letting me talk so much, “I didn’t want a stop-gap measure. I want an antidote. And, so, I’ve developed a possible formula. Unfortunately, we’ll have no idea if it actually works until someone is poisoned… and I don’t think any of us would want to try that.”

“Warwick would,” Dane says after a moment, eyeing me.

I can’t help but laugh.

“One of the reasons that I’m really glad that he isn’t here,” she says.

“Warwick said you might need help,” Dane points out, glancing at my equipment. “But I’m afraid I understood very little of what you just told me.”

“That’s normal,” I say with a grin. “I don’t think Warwick understands it, either. I tell him I need his help because he likes to feel useful, but then he just stands there and listens to me talk, and fetches me coffee if I need it. You really don’t need to be here, if you have anything else to do.”

I honestly thought Dane would take the out. But, instead, he pauses. There’s an odd, considering look in his eyes, and his expression isn’t as frosty as I’m used to.

“No,” he finally says, stepping forward and sitting in the armchair. “Let me know if you want coffee. In the meantime, I’m interested to hear more.”

I blink. Did I just make progress without meaning to? Perhaps, on hearing how hard I’ve worked on this, some of his attitude actually started to thaw.

“Right,” I say, and shake myself enough to smile at him. “Just stop me if I start to ramble too much. Now, where was I…”

* * *

I had thought I would eventually drive Dane away, but he ended up staying until the afternoon, and helped me do my chores. When I asked him about his farm, he replied that he and Warwick did a majority of their chores last night, and that Warwick had fed the animals that morning.

Despite being cooped up all afternoon, listening to me talking about animals, he seemed more than happy to stay a little longer. I’m pleased, because he’s been a little less stiff. I’m almost sorry when he straightens and says he has to go.

“Thanks for coming by and helping,” I say.

“It’s okay,” he says. He glances at me. “I didn’t have to, but part of me is curious about what Warwick sees in you. I think I’m starting to get an idea. There’s something interesting about you, and I’m not surprised Warwick couldn’t resist.”

He walks away before I, taken aback by his words, can reply. I close my front door and frown. What did he mean by that?

Not wanting him to catch me watching, I sidle to one of the front facing windows and watch as he trudges down the long driveway. Dane is definitely curious. Though I’m happy that I’ll be able to tell Warwick that Dane and I got along today. Who knows? Maybe, one day, Dane and I will even manage to be friends.

It’s as I’m smiling at that thought, that it happens.

Dane reaches the road, which was as quiet as always. As he steps onto it, however, prepared to cross, a black car screeches out of nowhere, barrelling toward him. Shocked, Dane leaps backward in a bid to not be hit, but the car skids to a half right beside him and a door opens. Arms reach out and pull him inside; Dane too surprised by what’s happening to resist. Then the door closes and the car speeds away.

It all happened in a matter of seconds. I blink, trying to process what just happened. Dane was there, and now he’s not, taken away by a mysterious car.

Then it hits me. Dane was just kidnapped right in front of me.

“Fuck.”

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