Page 48 of The Mech Who Loved Me
Ava patted his arm warmly. "You worry too much, Doctor. And my employer's offer was better than yours." A means to spread her wings outside this laboratory, and perhaps work a case of her own, one that might saveLondon.
Gibson clamped a hand over his heart. "Aye, lass, you've a wounding tone. What could be better than working herewithme?"
Ava's smile died. This room held its own ghosts for her. Once, she'd thought it a safe haven, but lately she'd begun to wonder if it was becoming a cage. "I needsomethingmore."
"I know you do," he said, kissing her on the forehead in a grandfatherly fashion. "Just don't get yourself killed while you work out what that somethingmoreis."
"It's not as though I lead an exciting life, Doctor," she scoffed, heading for the door and her coat and scarf. "I'm a laboratory assistant, and a crime scene investigator. What on earth couldhurtme?"
"Someone clearly didn't want it to be known the vaccine had been tampered with. And we don't know whom. Or why theydidit."
She looped her scarf around her throat. "'Yet,'as you always say," she said, "Someone, somewhere has slipped up. I just have to work out how and where and when. Everybody leaves a trace, or a secret, or a witness. Leave no stone unturned, andwhatnot."
Gibson couldn't help rolling his eyes. "Get out of here before it's too late. You're even starting to soundlikeme."
Ava smiled to herself as she exited the room. "Not an entirely bad thing, Doctor. You're efficient, ifnothingelse."
* * *
Something botheredAva aboutthecase.
Oh, not about the vaccine. That trail led to a dead end for the moment, but she couldn't help picturing Mr. Thomas's black-veinedface.
If she put the facts together she could fill in enough gaps: Mr. Thomas, a staunch humanist, received his vaccine six weeks ago, not knowing the vial wastamperedwith.
He began to exhibit signs of the craving virus, though they'd likely have been minimal and he might not have even known until it wastoolate.
And then somethingkilledhim.
It wasn't the vaccine. But was it the virus someone had changed the vaccine with? Had he been infected with some sort of mutated craving virus? She'd never heard of any complications, but then... that didn't mean therewerenone.
Ava frowned, pacing the small laboratory she'd set up in Malloryn's safe house. "No," she whispered to herself, thinking about Zero, thedhampirwoman who'd been found dead in her basement cell in Malloryn's hidden safe house, black veins streaking like obsidian lightning through her skin. There'd been an injection site onherbody; evidence someone injected something into her, whichkilledher.
Butwhat?
Poison? Hemlock was the only thing that had been discovered to have an effect on a blue blood, and that wore off in minutes, depending on how high the blue blood's CVlevelswere.
It couldn't be some rare mutated form of the craving virus, one that killed its host as it tried to transform them. Because it wasn't isolated solely to bluebloods.
True,dhampirwere evolved from blue bloods, a step along the evolutionary chain, if one had readThe Origin of Species, as she had. They required anelixir vitaeto help with their ultimate transformation, but their blood work was just different enough to a blue blood's, and their bodies even more invulnerabletoharm.
So she now knewhowMr. Thomas became a blue blood. She just didn't know what had killed him. Or Zero. Or the other fourvictims.
She felt like she was missing something... like a thought hovering at the edge of her mind, but the more she chased after it, the more it dissolved intonothing.
"Penny for your thoughts," said a deep voice from thedoorway.
Ava spun with a gasp, all of her senses heightening when she saw Kincaid resting a shoulder against the doorway. She'd barely seen him since last night, after they parted ways when they returned to Malloryn's safe house—she to the guild, and he... to do whatever it was that kept him busytoday.
"Sorry," he said, looking anything but apologetic. "I thought you'd have heard me, or smelled mycologne."
Little more than twenty-four hours ago, he'd pinned her to the wall of the art gallery and driven her to the point of orgasm. And she was clearly not the only one reminiscing, judging by the twinkle in hisblueeyes.
When he smiled like that he stole her breath. The slightly crooked slant of his nose, the fullness of his mouth, and the faint dimple on the right side of his mouth stirred her in ways she couldn't quite comprehend. She could still taste that mouth on hers, and Ava swiftly looked away, trying to busy her hands before he noticed her fascination with him. They didn't have time to play games today, but he'd promised her the next time he kissed her, he didn't intend onstopping.
"Busy day?" sheasked.
Kincaid stepped inside the room, taking it in. "I slept," he admitted, "since you had little use for me, and then I visited Orla and Ian this morning, and returned for lunch. I'm not much help with the laboratory work, I'mafraid."
