Page 17 of The Black Rider
“I decided it would be an excellent idea to have a lab and a base I could call home instead of floundering around trying to find one every time I got called. It doesn’t matter who is in power in Mexico. They know if shit goes down, this lab will be staffed to save them, and there’s a bank account to pay for upgrades. They don’t know we’re angels, but there’s a lot of superstition around this lab. It’s not just the money or the promise of help. They think it will bring evil luck not to do it just in case.”
“Well, technically, it is. We’d be fucked without this lab.”
“I’d make do, but I prefer it here. Do you mind if I take a blood sample?”
“I hate needles,” I said, holding out my arm.
“You’re covered in tattoos, and you regularly jam them in people’s skin to create art. How are you scared of needles?”
“Tattoos are different. Something beautiful comes out of that. Every time I get blood drawn, it just reminds me of those experiments when I was a kid.”
Leif jumped up and pulled me into an enormous hug.
“Sorry. That was a stupid thing to say. Do you want to do this later?”
“No, do it now. I can deal with it. We’re on a time table.”
I didn’t look, but there was something to be said for Leif’s bedside manner. I barely felt the needle, and it was over before I knew it. I might be covered in tattoos, but any time I had to have blood drawn, I practically had a panic attack because I was four years old again and back in that lab. That didn’t happen this time.
Leif taped a piece of cotton on my elbow and kissed my hand.
“All done. I don’t have a sucker, but I can get snacks sent down. Just keep them away from my table so my samples don’t get contaminated.”
“Who is behind the delicious salsa that magically turns up in your bedroom?”
“Maria. This lab has been the responsibility of her family since I set it up. They don’t know the full truth, but stories have been passed down in her family about how a man with black eyes will always come when things start getting terrible. They think I’m a bruja, not an angel. Her father is a scientist, but Maria has powerful faith.
“With a name like Armilus, I didn’t trust that water supplement and kept it out of San Quintin. Juan is a scientist, but Maria is a politician. She helped make that happen. All she knew was that I asked her to help me, and she did. Her father helps out in the lab sometimes. When we narrowed it down to the tainted water, she realized what she had actually done.
“She didn’t give herself credit for getting it done. I may not have been able to keep the water out if she wasn’t such an eloquent speaker and found better words to say than some mysterious bruja with a secret lab said it was a dangerous thing. Really, she deserves all the accolades for saving San Quintin from becoming Rage Heads, but she puts it all on me. She also happens to be a talented chef and brings me food all the time.”
“What about her father? Will he be down here working with us?”
“He wants to be, but he’s in his eighties now. He’s still sharp as a knife, but he has arthritis in his back. Maria and I make him stay in bed, and I bring him notes to go over.”
“Will I get to meet her? She sounds great?”
“Oh, yeah. She’ll stick her head in soon. She will want to meet you. She knows we were looking for you. I’m shocked she hasn’t already come down to introduce herself. I know she knows you’re here because she sent extra food.”
“What exactly are you planning on doing with all that blood you took from me?”
“Compare it with mine and then try to sequence it. I’ve never needed to study Nephilim blood before because no one has tried to weaponize it before. And you’re a little more angel than human. I need to study the properties of your blood before I can figure out how to work with it.”
“How did my blood manage to do somethingthisbad? If angels are the good guys, how could my blood do that?”
“If I tell you this, will you stop blaming the apocalypse on yourself? It wasn’t just your blood. Angels aren’t supposed to get scared. It’s not a reaction they program us for. If we are in a scary situation, our bodies release chemicals to strengthen us and make us braver to fight our way through.
“You have to understand, though, angels are never children. When we are created, we are fully formed with all the knowledge we need to do our jobs. Nephilim are different. They are born babies, and they have to learn. Their blood reacts the same as ours, but they don’t know how to process those feelings. They know they should fight, but most of the time, their angelic parent is gone, and all they see is someone bigger than them threatening them. Their blood gets confused. They don’t fight back.
“Your father needed you terrorized to get those angelic chemicals pumping in your blood when he took it, but it wasn’t just your blood that did this. There were two blood sources combined to make the Rage Mutation. One was yours, and the other was only ever labeled Patient Q. The notes on you were detailed, but the only notes on Patient Q were that the samples were limited, so don’t waste them. A small sample was analyzed, and it wasn’t human. I’m guessing Isaiah summoned Satan and asked for blood from a creature in Hell. It wasn’t just your blood that created the Rage Mutation.”
“Well, then how do you plan on stopping this with just my blood?”
What was this shit? They gave me all this hope that getting here and giving Leif my blood would kill all the Rage Heads. Aeron hadn’t said a word about Patient Q. He let me think all of this was on me. I would kill him when he got back from murdering things. There would be a lot of murdering going on in Mexico today.
“Your blood gave people with AB negative blood immunity to the Rage Mutation. I think I can not only kill the Rage Heads, but I can also create a vaccine. I can do this, Ariel.”
“Aeron should have told me about Patient Q,” I grumbled.
