“What?”

“Oh yes. She told me last night when I confronted her.”

“But does she have the virus now? Lucien, how could she—”

“No.” He tapped the paper. “Look again.”

She sorted through the numbers, wondering where he’d had the blood analyzed. Their lab was too small for the equipment needed, and Makeda didn’t even know if she’d be able to use most of it with the way she reacted to electricity these days.

She was getting sidetracked.

“Look at her antibody count,” Lucien said.

“This doesn’t make sense.” Saba’s blood didn’t show any of the markers they’d come to expect from Elixir patients. In fact…

“She’s immune?”

“She’s immune.”

“How? Are you…?” Makeda looked at the numbers again, but Lucien was right. Saba was producing antibodies that were fighting off the Elixir virus. And if Saba had immunity to something that could infect even Kato…

“It’s a retrovirus,” Makeda said.

“It’s probably been around for millennia, and she must have been exposed when she was human,” Lucien said. “Or very near when she became a vampire. She’s the oldest of us. If she had exposure to this virus when she was human, her system fought it off and she’s carried the immunity with her. She might be the only one alive who has it.”

“She’s the key.” She frowned. “So why didn’t her blood cure Kato when he was first infected? You told me they’d tried—”

“How could it? They never touched his marrow. They treated the symptom, but not the source.” Lucien smiled. “You were right. It all goes back to the source. And with vampires, Saba is the source.”

“So if we’re going to truly cure this virus—cure it and not just treat the symptoms—we need Saba’s help.”

“For patients whose sires are alive,” Lucien said, “exsanguination followed by new blood works. We don’t know exactly how, but it works.”

“But for those without a living sire, a transplant from Saba—”

“Going all the way to the marrow,” Lucien said. “Essentially remaking them as immortals. They would be her children. They would be connected to her amnis. Her element.”

“Not all of them will be happy about that.”

“No.” He took a deep breath. “We have to accept that some will prefer death to losing their elemental identity.”

Makeda said, “We have to give them the option, Lucien.”

“You’re forgetting one very big thing.” He grimaced. “For this to work, we also have to convince my mother.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Lucien tapped a pencil on the desk in Gedeyon’s home as he wrapped up the video conference with Brenden McTierney. The desk was intricately carved with crosses and other ecumenical symbols typical of the area around Lalibela, where his brother had spent his human years.

He wanted to take Makeda to Lalibela. And Gondar. Axum. Did Hirut still keep in touch with her family near Awassa?

McTierney was going on and on. The man was gentle as a lamb with patients, but with his peers… “Your Dr. Abel has got to understand that taking time to write up the kind of reports she wants is going to require hours that our team could be spending on—”

“If it’s just a matter of manpower, why don’t I send one of our colleagues from California to you, Brenden?” Lucien asked. “In fact, Ruben worked with Dr. Abel for months and will understand what level of detail she’ll want in order to monitor the trials from a distance. Why don’t I arrange for him to assist you during the next few months?”

“I’m insulted you think I need one of your people looking over my shoulder,” the Irishman clipped out. “I thought we had more respect between us, Lucien.”

“This isn’t a matter of respect.” Lucien soothed the irritated physician. “Or a matter of questioning your competency.”

“Trust me, with Makeda Abel, it was definitely a matter of questioning my competency. The woman asked me to mail her a copy of my CV and my most recently published study! Does she think working with Elixir patients lends itself to publishing in damn medical journals? Who does she think she is?”

“She’s young, Brenden.” Lucien managed to hold in the smile that wanted to erupt. Makeda was arrogant, but damn it, she had reason to be. “She was turned five weeks ago, and she’s stuck in isolation right now. She’s doing remarkably well during her transition, so please cut her a little slack. If time weren’t such an issue with this, she’d never have allowed anyone—including me—to run this trial without her.”

“Jaysus, Lucien.” McTierney looked suitably shocked. “She didn’t lose her composure the entire time we were arguing. I didn’t even realize she was vampire.” The Irishman’s cheeks went a bit red. “I’ll admit, I thought she was one of your…”

Lucien paused long enough to make the human squirm. “One of my assistants?”

“That’s generally what you call them.” McTierney shrugged. “Come on, you do have a reputation. I’ve never heard of your collaborating with a peer before.”

And that was just a bit pathetic, wasn’t it? Lucien was getting slapped in the face with his own past more and more these days. First it was his mother thanking him for finally bringing someone home who could carry on a conversation. Then it was Kato blithely mentioning that Lucien was finally growing up. Gedeyon’s gentle ribbing and Hirut’s quiet surprise every time Makeda cracked a joke with her sharp, dry humor.