Page 16 of The Black Rider
“Anything good?” I asked.
“We found a log. They took blood samples from you once a week right from the beginning when they put you in that coma. The nurses taking your blood and attending to you were told you were immune to the mutation, and the cure might be in your blood. Isaiah told them you had been bitten, and it healed without you turning. Your blood was being brought to someone known as Doctor X, who was experimenting with it.”
“He’s like the mad scientist to end all mad scientists. I’d lay odds he’s been with Isaiah from the start and was instrumental in helping with the Rage Mutation. We are focusing on his notes right now, but he’s an egomaniac with a God complex. He probably used to have tea with Isaiah, and all they did was bro talk about how big their dicks are,” Aeron grumbled.
“Don’t all guys do that?”
Leif just grinned at me.
“Angels don’t. We don’t need to. We were all blessed with massive cocks when we were created.”
I pointed my burrito at him.
“I’m still not having an orgy in the Oval Office.”
Leif just smirked at me.
“Harbinger, love. They always come true.”
“Not this time, angel boy. I don’t even know Dice and Asher, and I can make it not happen by just saying no.”
Aeron and Leif were just sitting there with shit-eating grins on their faces like the fucking had already started. I had feelings for Aeron, and I was remembering why I had them for Leif, but I had zero histories with Dice and Asher. I didn’t care if they came as a team. My entire softball team didn’t give a guy an orgy because he helped us. Someone might fuck him because they were into him, but it wasn’t a team effort. And I wasn’t fucking all four of them to collect the Four Horsemen orgy set.
“We’ll respect your no, but if you happen to want to celebrate stopping Satan’s return with a little post Antichrist killing orgy, we’ll make sure you’re well satisfied,” Leif said.
I kind of wanted to throw this delicious burrito right at his face, but since it was the apocalypse, I didn’t want to waste food, and I was hungry. I was always hungry even before things went to shit.
“What’s on the agenda for today?”
“I need a blood sample. You can either stay in the lab with me after that, or you can go with Aeron. Aeron gets twitchy in my lab and starts breaking things, so he’s banned. Aeron will go out and help scout for survivors we could possibly bring back and kill anything that causes trouble.”
Well, shit. I wanted to do both. I wanted to be there in the lab and ask Leif a million questions about how my blood caused all this and be there if he found a cure. I also wanted to be with Aeron finding as many people we could to bring to the protection of this city.
I’d been outside these walls on the way here. Some land was totally scorched, and people were desperate enough to eat Rage Heads. My father had the dregs of what was left of humanity trying to herd Rage Heads here. Life was meaningless to him. I was his daughter, and the only reason I was still alive was that he wanted to do terrible things with my blood.
I didn’t think this mysterious Doctor X was locked in his little lab with samples of my blood for the good of humanity. The rest of that lab may have thought they were protecting a girl in a coma who was immune and could give them a vaccine, but anyone who went by the name Doctor X was just up to no good. That was a comic book villain name. I felt terrible for some people at that lab that died who were there for moral reasons, but I really hoped a Rage Head ate Doctor X’s face right off.
I needed to find out what he was doing with my blood. I’d made my decision. Aeron and Leif didn’t get to hog that laptop with answers about my past on it.
“While Aeron is off killing things and Leif is playing with my blood, I want to go through what was on that flash drive.”
“You can be an honorary Horseman and help with research,” Leif said.
“Aeron? Did you find this Doctor X at the facility? Did a Rage Head get him?”
“How do you think I got his research? I found him in an underground bunker and killed him myself.”
I think I just fell for Aeron a little harder.
Chapter 14
L
eif’s lab was pretty high tech. I could understand why he initially set up shop here, and they defended this place when the war broke out. The lab was underground and secure. There were so many gadgets here. I couldn’t even imagine what most of them did.
“What was this secret underground lab meant for before the apocalypse?”
“Me. I was called here during the Cocoliztli epidemic. Another Antichrist, another engineered disease. At that point, it was becoming a pattern. It was usually Dice, or myself that was called first, and Aeron often followed. The Antichrist has traditionally been a little predictable, no matter when they are born. They usually start with disease or war.
