Page 91 of Blade's Battle
He reached for the zipper on his jeans while waggling his brows.
She giggled. “Not that type of sample, though it would work.”
“I thought you were joking,” he said as he sat down and gave her his arm. She licked her lips in a maddening way that aroused him all too quickly.
“I identified the genes that erase half the code during the blood-bond. To stop the code from erasing half of the bridge, I need samples from shifters taken as they are undergoing a blood-bond, so I can see which proteins are in play.”
He watched as she inserted the needle and drew two vials of blood. “Then why do you need more blood?”
“I have another theory. I’ll tell you about it if it pans out.”
“You can share your failures as well as your successes with me. I’m happy to listen. I won’t understand much, but I’ll still listen.”
She set the vials in the rack, kissed him on the cheek. “Tonight. Anything you want, if you let me finish without any more interruptions.”
“Anything?” His imagination was running with that one word.
Her laugh was music to his ears. “Anything,” she confirmed.
Blade shot up the hatch in seconds, pausing only to steal one last glance of her as she placed several vials into the centrifuge. She had never skipped out on a lunch date with him, and now she was promising him one hell of a consolation prize. His little devil—she’d just been demoted from angel to devil in his mind—had tossed him a bone to distract him, so she could finish her work. Oh, yes, she was definitely up to something.
* * *
ANNA
By the time Anna finished her work, she was dead tired. She dragged herself up the ladder and out into the cool night air. The insects were louder than usual, and the stars shone brightly above. When she closed the hatch and watched the pad display ‘locked’, she realized Blade wasn’t there waiting for her. Usually, he heard the latch unlock from a distance and met her before she climbed all the way out.
His wolf hadn’t been causing any trouble lately, and he’d been taking the opportunity to shift and run any chance he had. He loved to run in his wolf form, and she loved watching the sheer joy that overtook him each time he shifted. His shifts were effortless and a thing of beauty, not the tortuous event she’d come to expect with Kurt. Watching Blade shift—watching his zest for life—reinforced that she was doing the right thing. Protecting him as well as finding a way to repair the broken shifters was worth the risk.
She had isolated Blade’s damaged CLF3 gene, but her efforts to repair the gene had failed. The only alternative was blood-bonding. She had failed. How was she going to tell Blade that?
“What’s wrong?” Blade said, meeting her in front of the cabin.
Her spirits soared the second she saw his face. Of course, the way he pulled her into a tight embrace never got old. It was nice, really nice, having someone take care of her for a change, especially when she felt so worn down.
“Some setbacks in the lab, that’s all,” she said, sugar-coating the truth. She. Had.Failed.
“Sorry to hear that,” he said, genuinely sorry as he pulled her to sit on the step beside him. He didn’t even ask which project was having problems. In fact, he didn’t seem curious or worried in the least. Or he knew. Blade had great instincts.
“Will you be able to help Tess and any others who’ve lost their ability to shift?”
Yeah, he knew, and he wasn’t going to bring it up. He had never expected her to find a cure in time. Except time wasn’t up. She could try another course of action.
She snuggled in close, and her hand drifted to his ass and squeezed. “I found a combination of amino acids that show promise. I have a few more days of testing ahead of me, though.”
“That’s wonderful!”
“My breakthrough or my hands on your ass?”
“Both, but I’m partial to the latter. It’s something I understand at least.”
“The only way to know for sure is through testing, and I don’t exactly have mice or monkeys at my disposal. I need to test it on an affected shifter.”
“Tess?” he asked, looking slightly worried.
The only shifter affected in Damien’s pack was Tess, and Anna doubted Damien would let his mate be the first guinea pig. The treatment could work, be a complete flop, or cause more damage.
“Damien won’t let me test this on Tess, will he?”
