Page 109 of Land of Shadow

“Gotta go.” I sprint away from the major, feeling his eyes on me until I’m safely back in the lab. “What?”

“Look!” Wyatt points to my laptop screen, and I have to dodge a line of soldiers carrying microscopes to get to them.

Wyatt’s agitated, his hair flying every which way.

“Where did these come from again?” he asks.

“Just samples,” Evie trills.

“Umm, okay?” He gives her a confused look.

“You said you’d wait for me.” I plop into my desk chair and stare at the array of photographs.

“I couldn’t wait. Sorry.” Evie fidgets. “I did a preliminary peek.”

Wyatt starts at the first page of data and pulls it up, his fingers flying across my keys. “Human blood.”

Evie points to the numbers. “Carries all the parts and markers for an O positive, slightly low on iron, decent on all the other stats. Wyatt, pull up the cell imaging.”

It appears on screen.

My heart sinks a little. It’s just blood. I don’t see anything particularly memorable, no mysterious proteins or oddities. The red blood cells are of normal form, slightly dimpled in the center, opaque around the edges. None of the spikes carried by the vampire samples. It’s just regular human blood. My blood.

I rub my temples, warding off any impending headache. I was hoping for more. “What am I missing? I thought you found something?” I ask Evie.

“Just wait. Wyatt, keep going.”

Wyatt clicks through more data. “So, the fibrin is higher than normal. Nothing too off the charts, but it’s definitely noticeable. Abnormal.”

“Healing.” Evie bounces a little and takes over the keyboard. “Right, whoever this is will probably be able to make bulletproof scabs from the smallest papercut. But now look at this.” She pulls up another slide.

Wyatt leans closer. “That’s from the same sample?”

“Yep.”

“What the hell is it?” Wyatt asks. “It’s like … Like the cells are …”

“Like they’ve joined, but not just on a surface level. Look here.” She pulls another slide, this one showing a red blood cell—the edges darker than the center, everything where it should be. “The red cells, totally normal.”

“But the white…” I try to understand what I’m seeing.

“The vam—” Evie stops herself, then lowers her voice. “The ‘alien’ cells,” she adds air quotes, “have bonded to the human white blood cells. Almost like a parasitic or maybe mutualistic relationship. The alien red cells are boosting the white cells, and the white cells are protecting both the host and the parasite. The white cells are robust, like the bone marrow is on steroids when it produces them. And now check this—” She swipes again to another shot of specialized white blood cells.

I stare. “The sample was taken yesterday. The neutrophils should already be decaying. They aren’t. They’re just as strong as their longer lasting sister cells.”

“Neutrophils shouldn’t last more than a day.” Evie sits back in her chair, her eyes wide. “This is … it’s almost like the damn fountain of youth. If your white blood cells are this supercharged, your healing would be?—”

“Off the charts,” Wyatt finishes with wonder. “These white blood cells would clobber anything that came knocking.”

“We have to try it on the virus. Today. Right now.” I can’t take my eyes from the screen, from the miracle blooming right in front of us. This could be it. This could be what we’ve been looking for.

“I can suit up. Just give me?—”

The power drops, my screen going dark along with all the lights.

“No!” Evie yelps.

“The generator,” Wyatt says. “Just wait. It’ll cut on. We’ll be able to get a look before the Army takes everything.”

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