Page 34 of The Black Rider
“Got the blood. We can shut the glass when he gets bored and goes back to his corner. They don’t really sleep, but they go into a sort of stasis every few days. I can’t explain it. They just stand in place and don’t blink. It’s kind of creepy. Jose always goes down for his every three days and snaps out of it about twelve hours later. He’s due for his stasis tomorrow. We can close the glass then. Shall we?” he said, offering me his arm like we were going on a pleasant stroll instead of him asking me to be zombie bait.
“You have a funny idea of what dates should be, Leif.”
“That totally wasn’t a date! That was work. When we do get our date, I will plan the best apocalypse date ever.”
“Movies and food were a good first date, Leif. I enjoyed snuggling with you.”
“Oh, we will have a date that’s just you and me like we originally planned. Then, you’ll have one with Aeron. I imagine you’ll eventually have one with Dice and Asher too.”
I stopped walking.
“Slow your roll there, cowboy. I don’t even know them, and you said I could change my visions. I already said no orgies. I can’t handle four boyfriends.”
Leif just let out this little huff like he knew something I didn’t. I didn’t know why Leif was okay with sharing me with Aeron. Why did he want to bring two more men in?
I changed the subject because I didn’t want to think about it.
“What did you need Zombie Jose’s blood for?”
“I combined your blood with mine and tweaked it a little. There’s a way to kill the Rage Heads without killing the rest of humanity. I have to figure out a vaccine first, so I need a little bit of Rage Head blood to do that.”
“How do you kill a Rage Head without killing the rest of humanity?”
“Mistletoe. I just need to use the strains not toxic to humans.”
“The Christmas kissing plant will be how we kill zombies?”
Leif just laughed and kissed the top of my head.
“Mistletoe is so much more than that. I’ve got some growing here. I planted it when I first set up the lab. I need to test this, Ariel.”
I shrugged. I’d kiss his happy ass under every single mistletoe plant in this lab if it worked. As for me, I had some emails to go through.
Chapter 25
L
eif had to let his samples do something for the night in one of his machines, so we took a break for the night. It was still early. Way earlier than it usually was when we stopped for the night. Leif kissed my hand as he led me out of the lab. And yeah, I held his hand again on the way out.
“I have something for you,” Leif said.
“A present?”
“Well, it’s mine, but I wanted to give it to you because it might help trigger some of your memories.”
“What is it?”
He just booped me on the nose with his finger. I know he did not just boop me on the nose. I snapped at his finger when he pulled away, and I was only half serious about not biting him.
“If I told you, it would ruin the surprise.”
Leif led me to the couch and sat me down. He came back into the room with something behind his back. He presented me with a book. I remembered the cover before I saw the title.
“TheBlood Feudomnibus?” I gasped, snatching it out of his hands.
“I thought you might want a different kind of gore in your life right now.”
I bolted to my feet and grabbed his hand.
