All The Queen's Horses {Myrnin, Morganville Vampires}

I Am...Willing...If You Want

Chapter 5 - I Am...Willing...If You Want

Myrnin was hunched over a lab table that looked like a small explosive befell it recently. Diagnostic and measuring tools were scattered amongst an apothecary of glass vials filled with diverse textures and colors of liquids, and books stacked precariously high, teetering nervously.

"Did you work through the night?" I asked to his back, even though I knew he had. He was wearing the same clothes that he had on the day before. I hated that my human body insisted I stop to do lessor important tasks - like eating and sleeping.

"Hmmm? Oh, yes..." he answered distractedly, never turning his attention from the tissue sample, tucked into the microscope, in front of him.

I walked to his side. "What can I help with?"

He pointed to a stack of slides.

I picked up the top slide. It contained a thin sliver of sectioned tan tissue. I slipped it into the deck of a microscope and adjusted the sight. "What am I looking at?"

"Describe it to me," Myrnin said.

I focused, eying the little glass piece carefully. "The cellular structure looks uniform. Except, what is that dark edging?"

"Cauterization," he replied grimly, looking up at me.

"It's burned," I breathed, my eyes wide.

"Yes. Amelie's initial comparison of the pain to the effects of silver, appear to be spot on. Whatever this pathogen is, it is comprised of some sort of silver-based compound, but I am still unable to identify two of the elements."

His shoulders dropped as he continued, "And even if I could, unless the silver is somehow extracted from their bodies, it will continue to burn its way through their cells."

"What about neutralization? Can we alter its properties at the atomic level?" I asked Myrnin, grasping for any solution.

"Very good," he nodded. "Yes, but every binding agent I have tried, has yielded no results."

As I stared at the microscopic piece of burned flesh, another horrible thought occurred to me, "Myrnin, even if we find a favorable binding agent, would the existing damage be reversible?"

I tried to keep the tears from my eyes as I thought about the three comatose vampires. They had families, people who loved them; plans and dreams for the future. If we couldn't reverse the damage and bring them out of the coma's, I knew none of them would want to spend an eternity desiccating, frozen, unable to move - and in pain? I cringed. The answer to that was probably yes.

"In theory, yes. Vampires heal exceptionally fast, but I am hesitant to rely on theory, in this situation. From a purely biological perspective, there would be treatments we could employ to jumpstart their blood vessel repair; drugs that promote vasodilation."

"Widening their blood vessels," I murmured to myself.

He nodded in approval again. "You have a solid understanding of medical concepts. Have you considered the field of medicine?"

I looked at him in surprise, "No...I have not considered anything other than physics."

"Don't limit yourself, love," he smiled gently at me.

I grinned back and was reminded once again why we were best friends. He just got it. He understood me perfectly and actually had that much confidence in me. Myrnin had played with almost every aspect of science, over the course of centuries. Centuries. I still couldn't wrap my brain around the concept of that much time.