Mercury Striking (The Scorpius Syndrome #1)(96)

It was time to call the president.

Lynne worked in the makeshift lab, where several pictures of Scorpius decorated one wall.

The damn blue blob looked fucking harmless, didn’t it? “Pretty pictures,” he murmured.

Sitting at a small round table, she glanced up from a stack of papers, her gaze slowly focusing. “You said you liked the blue.” Her voice came out scratchy.

“I like the blue inside your body because it’s inside your body, and I like you naked.” He looked at the macabre artwork. “I do not like the bacteria.”

She looked up at the pictures, her face pale and lines of stress tightening her pretty mouth. “You have to admire its strength. So small as to be invisible, it divides and conquers humans, who are so much more advanced and have heart and intelligence.”

He didn’t admire shit. “All I see is the enemy, which I’m going to take down without mercy. There’s no time for admiration.” Striding forward, he dropped to his haunches. “Let me see your neck.”

She batted away his hand. “It’s just a little bruise.” The hoarseness of her voice belied the statement.

“Humph.” He ignored her movement and slid his fingers into her hair, gently tipping her head to reveal the bruise on her neck. The sight pricked his temper, so he softened his voice. “Looks painful.”

“It’s fine.” She planted a hand in the center of his chest, slamming pain into his ribs, and he bit back a snarl. “How’s your injury?” she asked.

He met her gaze and released her hair. “Surface damage with no problems breathing.” If he could breathe, he could fight, and that was all that mattered. He pointed at the stacks of paper. “Find anything yet?”

“No, but all of it’s out of order, so I’m flying in the dark here.” She tapped the nearest pile. “This is research I actually sent to Myriad, but they made notations in several areas, so I’m reading those.” Several more boxes lined the floor by the far counters, and she pointed at them. “I’m hoping Myriad printed hard copies of all their research, but we don’t even know that for sure.”

He glanced around, restless with tension. “We’re under a time crunch.”

“Yes. The box of vitamin B won’t last long, and people like Tace really need a full six months of shots as Scorpius goes to work in their bodies. If we don’t find more B or a way to help the body produce the vitamin in larger quantities, we might lose Tace.”

Fuck. Jax couldn’t put down an insane Tace. His heart thumped at how hard Lynne was working for people she didn’t even know. He set his hand on her thigh, wanting to touch. “I’ve always liked smart girls.”

Her eyes lightened with a smile. “Have you, now?”

“Yep.” Seeing the genuine amusement in her eyes warmed him, and he stopped worrying about her bruise. She’d heal.

She shuffled papers in front of her, her gaze catching. “Wait a minute.”

He stilled. “Huh?”

She scrambled for a page toward the bottom. “Oh my God.”

His breath caught. “Explain.”

She reached for a pencil and began scribbling quicker than he could read. “They found something.” Her voice rose in pitch. “They have a formula for synthesizing vitamin B in the human body.”

He blinked. “A cure?”

She lifted her head, her eyes focusing. “No, not a cure. Not yet, anyway. But the formula includes simple compounds mixed with my blood—heated and mutated. Ingredients we may be able to find . . . and my weird blue blood from squid.”

His heart thundered. “Is it doable?”

She chuckled, joy in the sound. “I think so. I mean, if their math is correct, and once we see if any of this new lab equipment works, I may be able to create an injection that synthesizes vitamin B. It uses the actual Scorpius bacterium, which we can obviously easily get, mutates it with heat, mixes with my mutated blood, and creates a new form of the bacterium that interacts with our cells.”

“No more injections?” he breathed.

“No.” She blinked and looked back down at the papers. “The interaction, if it works, makes the body produce B like it would with antibodies and vaccines. Our kidneys and liver actually take over. We really found something at Myriad. It’s here. I can do this.”

“Good.” His tone of voice must’ve alerted her, because she leaned back and focused on him. “I want to contact Lake and Atherton now to set up a rendezvous. When Raze and I go to meet with them, if something goes wrong, and we don’t make it back, Tace is taking command.”

Her eyebrows lifted.

“I know, but even infected, he’s the best I have right now, and I can’t leave Raze here.”

“Why not? You still don’t trust Raze?”

“No, I don’t.” Jax shook his head. “I like the guy, and I have to believe he’ll have my back, but I don’t know him, and he has his own agenda.” Part of the reason Jax was allowing Raze on the mission was to keep an eye on him. “I trust Tace, even with Scorpius haunting him. He’ll protect you if it comes to that. The bacteria changed me, too, and I’m still fighting for the right side. I think.”

Her gaze softened. “You are. I’m sure of it.”