Page 21 of The Mech Who Loved Me
Ava threw her hands in the air.Coward. "Whoisa match for adhampir? One of them took down both Byrnes and you without breaking asweat."
"That's not the point," he said, his voiceheating.
"Or should I say... by breakinganose?"
Kincaid winced, and she focused on the slight hook to his nasal column. "The point is neither of us is suited for a confrontation with a creature that could rip our throats out without even blinking. If there is a link between Mr. Thomas's death and Zero's, then we're calling in Malloryn and the others, and gratefully handing thiscaseon."
"Fine.Ifthis leads to thedhampir, then we wash our hands of it." She didn't have to like it. This case washers. "I'll go with Mr. Thomas to the morgue at the guild and see if I can sit in on the autopsy. I want to see if he's bleeding internally, asZerowas."
"You'll becareful?"
Ava looked upsharply.
"This is the fifth blue blood that has died like this," he pointed out. "What if itissome disease? I'm fairly safe, but who knows if you couldbecomeill?"
"If it is a disease, then it's not very contagious." At his blank look, she continued. "It was compulsory for unapproved blue bloods to be listed before the revolution overturned the process. I checked the blue blood registry before we came, and there are certain boroughs of London that were approved for blue blood housing. This borough was a hot spot, which means there are quite a few blue bloods living in the area—probably the cause of the rumblings of discontent we ran into. Last year's census showed over thirty in this borough alone. If the disease were contagious, you'd expect more cases. This is the only one in this district. Clerkenwell's the only borough with more than one deathwithinit."
"We don't know what's causing this. So promise me you'll be careful. Justincase."
Ava sighed. "I promise. I'll wear a mask during the autopsy, and I'll make sure I don't get any blood onmyskin."
"There is one other way it might be transmitted... if itisadisease."
There was? Avalookedup.
"Something that might, ah, control the spread of the disease. It depends how they caught it, after all." Kincaid's face grew curiously flat. "Similar to theFrenchpox."
Oh. She understood what he was trying to say. "All of the victims havebeenmale."
"Women were never allowed to be infected with the craving virus, so that doesn't mean it applies onlytomen."
"Nor were any men who didn't have aristocratic blood flowing through their veins, but accidents happen," she said dryly, gesturing to herself. "And there are more female blue bloods out there than you'd think. A few cases have come out of the woodwork now it's no longer so strictly controlled. But I see your point. It could be only men who've been stricken down because there are more male blue bloods by a factor of a thousand, or it could be... because they're more prone to sharing certain bodily fluids. But where is the index patient? Something like syphilis is easily spread. We'd see more cases among the blue blood population if this disease was spread by sexual contact." She thought about it. "Unless we're catching this early. Maybe there was a... a lady in common. Or they've all visited the same brothel? Maybe it kills them before they've had a chance to spread this? Or perhaps humans don't develop the disease, but onlycarryit?"
Maybe it didn't have anything to do with Zero and thedhampir? Her shoulders slumped a little. It wasn't as though she wanted to come face-to-face with the terrorists, but this case.... She'd thought it might be her break. Her first chance to really prove herself for the Company ofRogues.
Anyone could do thelabwork.
Kincaid knelt and picked up her discarded gloves, tucking them behind his belt so she wouldn't have to touch them. "Might not even be adisease."
"Then they're ingesting something, but poison doesn't affect a blue blood. Not permanently. There's no mark upon him, nothing to suggest a needle, or a cut. Not even underhislips."
"Could've healed. And you haven't checkedeverywhereyet."
Ava growled. "Maybe, maybe, could have, and possibly.... This is utterly perplexing. I'd hoped we'd have more togoon."
"Wait for the autopsy," he said, with a shrug. "You'll knowmorethen."
Including what—precisely—had killed DavidThomas.
* * *
"Internal bleeding,"Dr. Gibson confirmed the following afternoon, pushing his goggles up on top of his head, and removing his gloves with the kind of pristine care a cat used to groom itself. "Myocardial rupture. Ruptured spleen. Bleeding in the liver, the kidneys, and thegallbladder."
Exactly as suspected. Ava frowned. "What caused it? He's a blue blood,afterall."
She hadn't been able to isolate theagent.
Gibson sighed and tossed his gloves toward the medical waste bin. "Your guess is as good as mine, lass. Something caused the late Mr. Thomas to bleed out internally, and destroyed his organs. Something stopped his body from healing the ruptured veins and capillaries. No sign of poison in his blood work, but then the craving virus is rabid at detecting threats and removing them, so that's no guarantee. Only those odd-shaped blood cells that keep popping up here and there, but then is that a response to whatever happened to him? Or thecause?"
