A Shade of Vampire 79 A Game of Death - Bella Forrest Page 0,60

copious notes on my tablet, registering every single figure I’d collected from these people.

The recent arrivals were awake, more alert than their fellow Aeternae, their gazes following me around as I took out several glass vials from my kit bag, along with slender catheters and sterilized needles. One of them frowned as I approached her.

“It won’t hurt a bit,” I said, smiling softly. “They’re hypodermic needles. Chances are you won’t even feel a pinch.”

“What are you doing now?” one of the nurses asked.

“I’ve got their heartrate, blood pressure, and temperature, so I’m moving on to blood samples,” I replied, without even looking at her as I prepared the catheter and vials for extraction. “I will need blood from all the Rimians and Naloreans who worked with these Aeternae in close quarters. One or more of them might be carriers and not even know it. Based on your accounts of the disease, of course.”

Petra nodded at the nurses. “You should bring the samples out,” she said, then looked at me. “We collected them earlier, like you advised, Amal.”

“Thank you.” I gave the first Aeternae patient another reassuring smile. “Okay, now hold out your arm with your palm up and make a fist, squeezing as tightly as you can.” She sighed and did as I asked. The needle pierced her skin, and she barely flinched, quickly surprised by the minimal discomfort that I had caused her. We both watched as the blood was drawn through the catheter and into the vial, which I sealed with its rubbery cap. “There we go… all done!”

“It didn’t hurt,” she whispered.

“I told you it wouldn’t,” I replied with a friendly wink. “How are you feeling?”

The girl shrugged. “Like my whole body is made of molasses. Soft. Heavy. I don’t really feel like moving.”

“Permanent exhaustion, huh?” I asked.

“Yes. And whenever I move, I get nauseated. My head hurts. I can’t take two steps without everything spinning around me.”

I nodded slowly, looking back at Petra. “This is the first stage, isn’t it? The fatigue, the thickening and darkening veins…”

“It is. They will be like this for a while, and then it will get worse and worse,” Petra said, her voice low and sorrowful. She felt sorry for these people. I could tell from the look in her otherwise cold blue eyes. She sympathized with their suffering, more than the nurses.

Looking at the vial I’d just filled, I noticed the blood was a dark red, almost black in color, and strangely thick in consistency. Whatever the disease did, it clearly started with the blood. The thicker it was, the harder and slower it flowed, thus causing exhaustion and muscular weakness. There were bound to be clots, too. The fever was connected to all this, the body’s reaction to a virus that rampaged its insides.

“Where is my mother?” the Aeternae girl asked, her gaze wandering around, as if she was hoping to see her here. The disappointed look on her pale face nearly broke my heart.

“I’m sorry, darling, but you know the rules. No other Aeternae are allowed to get close to you, in order to stop the virus from spreading,” Petra said from ten yards away. “You wouldn’t want your mother to get sick, too, would you?”

The girl shook her head, closing her eyes and taking a deep, ragged breath. She would soon be asleep. I moved to the next, more recent patient, a young male Aeternae with hair kissed by fire. He stared at me as I pointed at his arm. I didn’t have to tell him what he needed to do. He turned his palm up, squeezing it into a fist, and I went ahead with the catheter and the vial.

He didn’t say much, other than asking me about my world and what it was like. There was a keen sense of curiosity coming off him—a pleasant contrast to the wary looks I’d gotten on my way down here. He genuinely wanted to know more about what went on beyond the hazy spell surrounding Visio, Rimia, and Nalore.

“It’s beautiful,” I said, watching the dark blood drip into the vial. It was slightly thicker than the girl’s, though she had fallen ill before him. Chances were his symptoms would worsen sooner than hers, though I wasn’t sure why. Maybe it had something to do with his metabolism. “The ocean is endless and turquoise blue. There aren’t any large continents, like you have here, but thousands upon thousands of islands… some lonely and wide, others small and in clusters.”

“Lots

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