Page 20 of The Black Rider
“Because I’m an expert on angel blood, and we have his research from the original mutation, and I can go through what he was trying to do at the lab. Do you doubt me, Speedy?”
“Just still trying to process that my blood is the cause and cure for all this. I think I will look at these emails again.”
I focused on the laptop again. My father was a petty bitch about the email. Leif was right. He wouldn’t get more demon blood. He warned Doctor X not to waste a single drop of Patient Q’s blood and told him if he was smart enough to create the Rage Mutation the first time, he could do the impossible with my blood. I just wish he had fucking said what that was because I still didn’t know.
It wasn’t a vaccine. I had a feeling whatever it was, he wouldsayit was a vaccine because his water supplement magic trick wasn’t going to work during the apocalypse, even though I was pretty sure more than one person had gotten murdered for a stash of water they might have had. Besides, Aeron had gone around warning a lot of people. Clean water might be scarce in certain parts of the world, but surely people weren’t dumb enough to fall for that a second time.
What was I even saying? Of course, they were. Not all of them, but some. The ones that knew better and did it anyway were just desperate. Water was the one thing you couldn’t go too long without aside from air, and Isaiah turned it into a biological weapon.
Still, my father was arrogant. He always had to have the latest toys and newest fashion. I didn’t reallyknowhim on a deeply personal level because he didn’t want me to, and after a point, I didn’t want to either. But I knew he thought it was gauche to wear the same tuxedo to more than one function, and I just knew that fucker felt the same way about mass genocide.
My father was the Antichrist, but he was also a colossal douche who would consider it tacky to murder everyone the same way twice. He would want something new and original, like all his designer clothes and custom cars. Yeah, he was one ofthosefucks. He used to buy all my clothes like I was some doll and not a living, breathing person that might have opinions on what I wore.
I looked up, and Leif was huddled over his microscope, looking at blood. I got distracted because he was muttering to himself. He was kind of adorable like that. He was this massive angel, and he looked a little dangerous with his black hair and eyes, but there he was in a fucking lab coat and huge goggles muttering at my blood like it could talk back to him.
“Problems there, Tiger?”
“I’ve never studied Nephilim blood before. I’ve never needed to. This is fascinating.”
“Are you popping a boner over my blood?”
“No, but I was trying to hide one when we were snuggling in bed watching movies. You wriggle a lot, and I’d been wanting to snuggle with you for a long time.”
“You hid your boner quite well if it’s anything like Aeron’s.”
“You and Aeron…”
“Oh, god no. I was pissed at him for most of the trip down here for keeping secrets from me, and at first, he was this total asshole to me because he didn’t want to say anything to hurt me. We almost did in a tent when we got here, but then some gang members showed up and wanted to trade me for Aeron’s life. No, I saw him in the showers we had to take before we came in.”
“You know that sneaky mother fucker snuck into the women’s showers just to show off naked for you, right?”
“Aeron has a stick up his ass. Hedoes notsneak into women’s showers just to show off his cock.”
“You rode on Meremoth with him all the way from Washington State to Mexico and didn’t figure out helovesto show off?”
“That mother fucker. He was probably checking out my tits too.”
“Nah, if I know Aeron, he was showing offandmaking sure you were protected. He nearly went crazy, blaming himself when you went missing. The only reason he’s left your side right now is that he knows you’re safe with me, and I’d end up kicking him out anyway when he started distracting me.”
“Discover anything exciting about my blood yet?”
“Still looking. Find anything on that hard drive?”
“Doctor X was trying to create something new with my blood and Patient Q’s blood, but he needed to do something Doctor X said had never been done before to my blood before he could do it. I’m not sure what that is since the Rage Mutation shouldn’t be possible.”
“Your blood type is AB positive. It’s not common. It represents just about six percent of the world’s population. Everyone alive right now is AB positive, avoided the water supplement, or has managed to avoid being bitten by a Rage Head. Isaiah wantseveryonegone. He wants a clean playing field when his years of peace are up.
“He doesn’t want human interference. What do you think will happen if it gets far enough and humans see angels and demons fighting? You can’t even imagine what demons look like. Even the humans that have started raping and eating people would try to kill them. The ones that think your father is doing an expert job and think sending Rage Heads to Mexico to kill everyone is a good idea would join the fight against demons.
“Isaiah isn’t leaving anything to chance. He wants to turn the entire world into monsters to help Satan return. Have you noticed Rage Heads don’t eat animals? It’s only ever humans. They got that from Patient Q. If war broke out between Heaven and Hell, they wouldn’t attack demons, but they would be hungry for angels. We’ve already figured that out being in the field with them.”
I didn’t want to imagine that world. I needed to know how far Doctor X had gotten on his research because I needed to know if something worse was coming. I’d met good people in Gabriel’s Haven, California, and now San Quintin. They couldn’t have survived the Rage Mutation and World War Three for my father’s big plot twist.
“Then, we need to stop talking and get to work. It’s never been more appropriate than right now to saynot today, Satan.”
Chapter 17
T
