City of Fire and Ink

A Gift From The Universe

First order of business- tea.

 I was threatened with a cat attack from Rio if I so much as moved from the couch while Inez put the kettle on to boil. When it was done, she poured the boiling water into a mug patterned with penguins and brought the steaming cup over to me. The scent of lavender washed over my face like the first whiff of a warm shower. Each sniff of the herb steadily slowed my heart, the chest wracking heaves shifting into calm, deliberate drum beats. 

They took a seat across from me on the couch, their face worn in concern as they gently cleaned off my face. One hand cupped my jawline to keep my face steady, the other lightly scrubbed a warm washcloth over the dried blood. Thankfully, most of it wasn't mine. I managed to avoid any cuts to the face. Unfortunately, the throbbing in my cheek meant I'd wake up tomorrow morning with a nasty bruise. 

"Tigris is worse than we thought." The entire story was awful so I figured I might as well start at the beginning.

"How bad?"

"Dominic sent us to visit the quarantine zone."

"Were you careful?" I heard the unspoken question. Her voice was calm, methodical, but I knew that my statement unnerved her. 

"Would I be here if I wasn't?" 

They gave me a look that was a perplexing combination of suspicion and relief. I couldn't figure out how to decipher it so I kept going. "Dominic sent us to the quarantine zone today. I met with a woman. She was infected yesterday." I paused for emphasis. "The doctors said she only has two weeks to live." 

"Soil and sky, are you for real?" Inez sat forward. Her eyebrows knit in concern and her voice raised in that distinctly sharp tone I knew meant she was genuinely nervous. Inez had different tones of sharp; flirtatious sharp, demanding sharp, concentrated sharp. Nervous sharp was rare, which meant I needed to be careful.

"Yeah. That's basically how I reacted. But what was worse was how she looked. Her entire body was twitching like she was possessed, but she was weak enough that she couldn't leave the bed."

Inez sucked in a breath. "That's . . . intense. Is that what Tigris does to everyone?"

"We're still trying to figure that out. It's been reacting differently with everyone, with the only commonality being that they die. We haven't heard of a single survivor. This woman I talked too, she said that her heart has been pounding in her chest since yesterday."

"Is that why she was twitching too? Everything is moving too fast?"

"Probably."

"Is there an antidote?"

"I don't think even the Doctor's on the PCC would come up with an antidote that fast."

"Right" More nervous sharp. "I just thought Dominic wanted to control it, so he would probably get started on an antidote."

"I mean, we have Ayofemi and Yatzil. As much as a snob that man is, he's not magical. There's only so fast he can work."

"Who's Yatzil?"

"Yatzil is the Lourdes's top chemist."

"Chemist's aren't doctors." Inez crossed her arms. I felt somewhat guilty for coming to them with this mess of information but they were my best friend. It would be far worse if I didn't tell them. Still, she looked stressed enough that I felt like I should be making her tea or something. 

"I agree with you, but that's where Ayofemi comes in. He provides the knowledge. She makes the actual vaccine."

"Do you think that the Nostras have a vaccine?"