When they walked into the lab Vivi and Rheia were talking a mile a minute and Aiden's eyes looked glazed over.
Feeling sorry for the bear-shifter, Serenity caught Vivi's attention. "Do you need him anymore?" she asked pointing to the Unit Commander.
Vivi shook her head. "Nope, I already have his blood."
Serenity turned to Aiden. "You're free to go."
"Thank the gods! Call me if you need me again," he said quickly and before she could blink he was shutting the door behind him.
Over the walkie-talkie Ryuu's voice came through. "If possible, could Law relieve Etain guarding Meryn? Etain has been called to the hospital."
Kendrick picked up his walkie-talkie as Law left. "He's on his way."
"Many thanks," was the squire's polite reply.
Vivi was mid-sentence talking with Rheia when she stopped. "Why was Etain called to the hospital?"
"Oh, that. Ellie has been asking the fae warriors to rotate shifts at the hospital. They can easily lift the children, as well as the adults for sheet changes. It makes keeping the patients comfortable so much easier," Rheia explained.
Vivi blinked. "That makes sense. I'm really the worst person when it comes to nursing. Give me a microscope and slides any day."
"Speaking of slides, what had you running out the meeting with your hair on fire?" Serenity asked Rheia.
Rheia blushed. "It's what Meryn said about the warriors not getting sick. Normally I would say it's because they are paranormals and paranormals don't get sick right?" She waved her hand about. "Except we now know they can get sick. We have shifters and vampires ill up on Level Six, but not the warriors."
"What does that tell us? How are they different?" Serenity asked thoroughly confused.
Rheia grinned wickedly. "Last year our menace conned the public works of Lycaonia into completely updating our clinic. But the downside to that was that they started asking for weekly reports on what was being done, kinda checking to make sure the money was well spent. Well, short of having the warriors break each other's bones on a weekly basis, which would have gotten really old, really fast, I suggested that we give all the guys physicals."
Micah nodded. "Doc St. John did those here too. He said that the warriors' care had to be uniform across all four pillar cities."
Rheia clapped her hands excitedly. "Exactly! The physicals included inoculations getting everyone an updated shot record!"
Serenity felt around for a stool and sat down. "One of the vaccines made them immune?"
Rheia and Vivi nodded enthusiastically. Vivi held up a slide. "That's what we're hoping anyway. If we're right it will take some time to isolate which one it is, but we finally have a direction to go."
Vivi turned to Rheia. "I want to apologize. When you first suggested Meryn I was skeptical about what she could contribute, I thought she would distract us. But she really came through."
Rheia gave a smug smile. "Our menace is amazing."
Kendrick nodded. "That she is."
As Vivi and Rheia entrenched themselves with the new testing Serenity made her way over to Kendrick. She looked over to Micah and made a circle with her finger. When her mate was done casting the soundproof spell she leveled her gaze to Kendrick.
"Do you want to tell me why you're testing for elemental presence when it has nothing to do with a cure?"
CHAPTER FOUR
Kendrick sighed. "I should have known you'd pick up on that." He pointed to his table. It was evident from the multi-colored plates that he was testing for elemental influences. "Technically, finding out the elemental magic used in the virus can help. I have deduced that there is a sort of self-destructive command encoded within the virus. Once it drops below body temperature it erases any traces of the virus and magic within seventy-two hours, give or take."
Serenity nodded. "So by isolating the elemental magic used, you can nullify that magic giving Vivi more time to study the virus."
Kendrick nodded. "Exactly."
Serenity stared. "And?" He gave her a devilish grin. "And, if I can figure out which element was used I can begin tracing the magic back to the witch." He eyed the table. "There are very few witches in the world who can create something this intricate. I mean, you're talking about magic on a molecular level." He shrugged. "I can do it, but that's not really saying much."
"Kendrick..." Serenity growled impatiently.