Page 57 of Night of the Living Manny
God, let Liam be a good man.
He closed his eyes, idly stroking Liam’s hip. He was so sleepy. They were safe here, protected. They could all rest.
Just for a little while.
Chapter Six
THEfucking virus kept morphing.
Liam lived in terror that it would change from a serum-borne disease to airborne. If that happened, it would be all over.
He ached, top to bottom, and stars sparkled in front of his eyes.Please, God. Let this one work.
Soon he was going to have to go out and find more blood to test on.
Shaking his head, he applied drops of the serum to the blood on the slide in front of him. He’d cobbled together a sterile box out of a plastic blanket bag with a zipper, so all he had to risk were his hands.
He got the blood on a slide and into the microscope. “Please. Please, God.”
There was a tiny bit of lightning in a bottle, with the cells reshaping themselves to look far more normal.
“Oh. Oh, damn.” That was… close.
He blew out a frustrated breath. He didn’t have enough infected blood.
“Liam? It’s late. You—you need sleep, man.” Brenden sounded worried.
“I can’t. Not yet.” He could see if there was enough blood to infect him.
Brenden came all the way down the steps. “What are you doing?”
“I think I may have it. I have to figure out how to test it.” He closed his eyes, trying to clear his mind, to make a logical decision.
“What do you need to test it?”
“I don’t know. I either have to find someone infected or infect myself.”
“Wait, what? No way. You are not infecting yourself.” Brenden marched over to poke his chest.
He blinked down, staring at that finger. “What?”
“You have kids! You have a lot to live for. What if your antidote doesn’t work? I know it sounds awful, but there are plenty of infected people out there. I bet we can find something to collect without putting us in danger.”
“Yeah, I can go mow a couple of schoolteachers down in the street.”
“Stop it.” Now Brenden took his shoulders in hand to shake him. “This is a mess, yes, but it’s not your fault. You were working against it.”
“I am. I have been. I swear to God.”
“Then don’t be stupid.” Brenden shook him again. “All we have right now is each other.”
Then Brenden kissed him, burning his lips and making him want to scream.
He wrapped his arms around Brenden and kissed back, his whole body awake for the first time all day. His eyes rolled up in his head, his body going tight. His tension ramped right up into something else, something far more sexual.
“Come upstairs. Everyone’s asleep. There’s a bed.” Brenden started walking him away from the basement.
“But the sample….”
