Page 94 of Taste of Forever
“Please, make yourselves comfortable.” Novak gestured to armchairs and couches placed around the study.
Laith sat, so I followed his lead. Cyan, Thorne, and Rhain remained standing.
“All right, so I tested the blood samples from Laith and Cyan’s clothes from the night of the fight.” Novak leaned against his desk and plucked a single sheet of paper from its surface, looking every bit the posh-but-casual Oxford professor. If they hired vampires, that is. “Do you want the bad news, good news, or the confusing news first?”
“Bad. Just spit it out.” Thorne held a cigarette between his teeth and lit it, his cheeks hollowing out as he inhaled.
Novak didn’t hesitate. “Kalix has definitely been given draitrium, I’m sorry to say.”
The vampires around me made lots of angry groaning and “Fuck”s.
“How bad?” Cyan asked.
“Pretty bad.” Novak scanned the sheet in front of him, which I assumed was some kind of toxicology report. “I don’t have a lot to compare to, but the concentration in his blood was the highest I’ve ever seen. Three times higher than from the Marrower blood samples you sent me. Which brings me to the relatively good news.”
Novak set the paper on his desk and shoved his hands in the pockets in his slacks. “The draitrium molecules bonded to a foreign blood source in both Kalix’s and the Marrowers’ systems. So they most likely came from the same source. Or at least, were dispensed using the same process.”
“Carpe Noctem.” Cyan’s lip curled with a snarl. “It has to be. Kal is their prisoner, and they stood only to benefit by drugging those Marrowers.”
Novak lifted a brow. “When Baros was trying to ally with me, he made it seem like he had no idea who was behind the Marrower attack. Doesn’t surprise me if he was lying.”
“Sorry.” I raised my hand like I was in school. “By foreign blood source, you mean blood that was ingested, correct?” As the only non-blood drinker in the room, I had to make sure my facts were straight.
“Yes, that’s correct.” Novak nodded.
“What’s the blood source?” Des asked.
“That’s what I’m hoping Heather can help with.” Novak’s eyes shifted toward me. “Because I’ve never seen red blood cells like that in my life. They’re not human, vampire, or brusang.”
I perked up, intrigued. “Do you have slides I can look at?”
“I certainly do. Over here.” Novak showed me to a corner of his study that was sort of a tucked away cubicle with a large microscope. It was an older model, but had definitely been state of the art during its time.
“What are you thinking the blood is, some kind of animal?” I watched while he switched on and adjusted the machine.
“Possibly that, or one of the other sentient species of Shyftworld.” Novak frowned. “I did eliminate dragon shifter, but that leaves werewolves or angels, both of which are forbidden to feed from.”
“Why is that?”
Novak laughed awkwardly as he stepped back from the machine. “There’s a long, ugly history between them and us. We don’t exactly get along.”
“I see.” I stepped up to the machine and adjusted the focus and magnification. “It’s not that different in the human world. A lot of nations have been fighting each other for years and years.”
“It’s sad to hear that war isn’t unique to supernatural species,” Novak said.
“It is.” I peered through the microscope. “Okay. What am I looking at?”
“Kalix’s foreign blood source.”
“Huh. Those blood cells definitely aren’t human.” They did look familiar, though. I thought back to my undergrad days, all the way to freshman year where I had to identify dozens of different samples under a microscope.
“You don’t happen to have a Raman spectrometer, do you?”
Novak cocked his head. “I don’t. What is that?”
“Oh, it’s a great tool for identifying all kinds of substances. Most government labs have them now. They’re very pricey, but I highly recommend one if you’re going to be trying to ID blood samples of different species.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” Novak grinned, his eyes lighting up with the prospect of a new toy. “Do you need one for this sample?”
