There was movement in the room around them, but Jonas didn’t look up from his work, now determined to ferret out every single one of the enemy camps. That was how he looked at those nests. The ones attaching themselves to the red and white blood cells or platelets were assassins sneaking and attacking under cover of darkness. He and his woman would find and destroy them. Every single one. But as he was discovering for himself, the effort took tremendous energy.
Camellia staggered back and would have collapsed on the floor if Kyle hadn’t caught her. He eased her down, handing her the water bottle. She took it with shaking hands and held it to her mouth. Some of the water spilled, and Kyle helped her hold it. There was silence while he wiped what appeared to be beads of sweat from her face.
Jonas sat on the floor, his back to the wall, his eyes on his woman, nearly as shaky as she was. “We have a long way to go, don’t we?” he asked softly.
She nodded and leaned her head back, closing her eyes wearily. “We have to get into every bit of bone marrow producing active blood cells. This stuff is horribly invasive and something is feeding it. It reproduces very fast.”
“What is it?” Logan asked. “Was Lily right? Did this happen because of prolonged exposure to Zenith?”
Camellia sighed. “I don’t know for certain. I’ll try to get her a sample of what Mari’s been dealing with. She might be able to tell from that, but right now, I just want to sleep for a few minutes.”
Jonas wished he was sitting next to her. “Marigold’s bone marrow is compromised,” he explained so Camellia didn’t have to make the effort. “There’s some sort of green stuff attacking her healthy blood cells. That means we’ve got to check all of her marrow, in every bone. So far, we’ve only managed to clear the spine.”
Jack and Briony looked at one another, both frowning. “How does that make sense? Her bone marrow was checked,” Jack said. “They came back and told us she had a clotting problem, but no one said she had any kind of alien cell in her marrow.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Jack,” Jonas said. His arms ached as if he’d fought a battle holding a cannon. It was strange to feel so utterly worn out when he hadn’t actually used physical strength. “The invasion was very real and quite enormous.” He closed his eyes as well, raising the bottle of water Jeff had handed him to his mouth. “I will say it looked to me like that green stuff was hiding. Maybe they couldn’t see it.”
Green stuff? Camellia’s voice slid into his mind. Gentle. Teasing. So scientific of you.
You’re good for me. Because all he wanted to do was smile.
Her hand came up, fingers pressing against her lips to hide her smile, but when she lifted those long lashes and looked at him, her eyes held pure laughter. I know. She was teasing him. That long fall was getting longer. Dropping deeper. He was in it for the long haul. All the way.
Whitney paired us. Then he dosed both of us with Middlemist. And to top it off, he added the underground network, the fungus.
Um, first, she prefers to be called Red. And she’s always first. She has a bit of an ego for a good reason. Never put the underground network on top of her. She might short-circuit you for a while. And yes, he did pair us as well.
We’re connected three ways. He stated it with great satisfaction.
I suppose you could say that, not that I know why you’re puffing out your chest and getting all macho about it.
It means you can’t run off. I can find you anywhere.
She was silent for a long time, but her silvery-blue eyes drifted over his face carefully, examining every inch of it. I don’t expect you to ever give me a reason to run off. The others on your team maybe. Those above you in rank, but never you.
He liked the quiet confidence in her voice. He glanced down at his watch. They were already past the time they should have started up the mountain to intercept the army coming at them.
I can’t do this successfully without you. This time there was a hint of panic in her voice.
You can, but you don’t have to. I’m staying with you. It isn’t like this army is going to get here before we get to them. He poured honesty into his tone.
“Jonas, she’s beginning to run a fever,” Ken said.
“That was expected,” Jonas admitted. “Camellia warned you that might happen. Keep cooling her off with a cool cloth and ice. Kyle’s here, he can advise you if it starts to climb too high.”