Severin braced both hands on the table and then hissed as pain flared in his burned palm.Hebarely felt it.Hismind was racing too fast.
If the virus was using her reproductive pathways, then her symptoms would not look like infection at first.Theywould look like arousal.Heat.Sensitivity.Need.Perhapsemotional attachment.Perhapscraving forRavik’sscent and seed.PerhapsevenSeverin’sown essence.Anythingthat made her feel close and aroused would help fight the virus and her body was going to crave it.
He swallowed hard when he considered the implications.BloodKindredessence was a healing agent, but it was also a bonding agent.Itcarried proteins, enzymes, and pleasure-triggering compounds directly through the bloodstream.Hisbite could deliver anti-viral components more efficiently than any injection, but ifCassandra’sinfection was already rerouting through pleasure and reproductive need, then his bite might not simply heal her.
It might complete the circuit…or overwhelm her…or both.
He forced himself to sit again and ran another test—Cassandra’spost-seed blood mixed withRavik’sinfected blood.
The virus retreated more strongly than before.Cassandra’sblood, activated byRavik’sseed, now attacked theHungerVirusinRavik’ssample with far more efficiency than her baseline blood had.Theviral filaments shriveled away from neural markers, andRavik’scellular immune factors surged.
Severin nodded to himself.Thiswas good—it was promising.
It might also be dangerous.
He then mixedCassandra’spost-seed blood with a freshVisskousinfected sample.
This time there was a stronger reaction than there had been with her honey alone.Theviral replication slowed by nearly forty percent.Someof the mouth-colonization markers degraded.Butafter several minutes, the virus began to adapt again, trying to rebind through another pathway.
Severin clenched his jaw—this was not enough.Heneeded more.
Then he added one microscopic drop of his own blood to the mixture and the reaction intensified.
Cassandra’s activated blood,Ravik’sBeastimmune markers—carried through the seed she had ingested—andSeverin’sBloodKindredhealing factors created a stronger response than any two components alone.Thevirus shuddered, for lack of a better word.Itsreplication machinery stalled.Proteinshells cracked.Theblack viral filaments withdrew from the cellular receptors.
For twelve seconds,Severindid not breathe…then the reaction destabilized.
The viral shells began rebuilding.Slowly, but visibly, the sample clouded at the edges and theHungerVirusstarted creeping back.
“Damn it,” he breathed.“Close…so damnclose.”
He knew what was missing—blood was not enough.
His blood carried part of the answer, but not the delivery mechanism.BloodKindredhealing did not live primarily in the blood—it lived in the essence glands.Inthe fangs—in the bite.Hisessence was designed by biology and theGoddessto enter another body and change it…heal it…pleasure it…bind it.
Which meant the final compound would not stabilize in a tube—it needed a living host.
It neededhim.
He sat back slowly, staring at the ruined sample.Thereit was—the shape of the cure.
Cassandra’s body was the catalyst.Ravik’sseed had awakened theBeastimmune component andSeverin’sblood provided a partial healing bridge, but his essence would be needed to lock the reaction into place.
And the virus, clever little monster that it was, was already trying to exploitCassandra’sneed for the very materials that might save her.
Severin rubbed the bridge of his nose with two fingers, careful not to touch his oculars.Howin theSevenHellswas he supposed to explain this to her?
Cassandra, your infection is taking a nonstandard pathway…
No—too clinical.Maybethe direct approach was best.
Cassandra, the virus isn’t making you crave flesh.Itappears to be making you crave sex and seed…
Severin winced as he imagined telling her.Shewould either slap him or accuse him of inventing the most convenient diagnosis in medical history.Andhonestly, he could hardly blame her.
The worst part was that the finding would be impossible to separate from his own desire.Hehad wanted her before the data proved she might need him.Hehad watched her withRavikand wanted to be included.Hehad imagined his mouth on her, his fingers in her, his fangs in her throat while she came around his hand.
Now science was handing him a reason to be with her…that actually made him trust himself less, not more.
