Again, he was dazzled by me. He seemed suddenly embarrassed, his hands pressing along his sides like he should have thought of that already. “Sure. A few minutes.”

  When the door closed behind him, I pulled the syringe out of my purse.

  “GoneGodDamn.” Ananda wiped her tears away. “I thought he would never leave.”

  I stepped up to Johnny’s corpse, pulling the sheet back until his chest was exposed. It was like the OtherX had taken all the color out of him, everything that made Johnny an Other. And maybe that was true: it had blown all his magic from his body in just a few minutes.

  But he still had blood.

  When I touched his arm, it was colder than the air in the room. This wasn’t the first time I’d touched a dead body—so many human lovers who had passed, and then there was my best friend, Hinata, and her son—but it was still completely unnerving.

  I knew the OtherX was in his bloodstream, but right now, logic was nothing next to the irrational fear of somehow being exposed to the agent. Plus, I was drawing his blood straight out of his arm.

  I pulled a pair of gloves from my purse, slipped them over my hands. Before I started drawing from the crook of his arm, I noticed something under the hair on his chest.

  “Ananda,” I said, pressing aside the hair. “What’s this?”

  She leaned close. “Looks like some kind of insertion point.”

  “For a big, big needle.” I touched the spot, which was raised. “And it’s right over his heart.”

  “What do you think it is?”

  “OtherX is airborne, right?” I said.

  “That’s what Ms. Sparkle told us.”

  I glanced around me. “Are the other three exes in here?”

  Ananda passed around Johnny’s body. “I’ll look.”

  As I drew the blood from his arm, she searched. Finally, “Yes! Here’s Sylvia. And Alonso. And Brett.”

  “Brett?”

  Ananda pulled out another drawer. “The descendent of Cthulhu.”

  “The descendent of Cthulhu is named Brett,” I said in deadpan.

  She shrugged. “I always thought he was saying Brett, but he might have been saying something else. With all those tentacles, it was a wonder we could communicate at all.”

  I capped the syringe, tucked it into my purse. In the little time we had left, we examined the bodies of Ananda’s other exes.

  First came Alonso the satyr. He too had a lot of hair on his chest, but I was able to find a puncture wound in virtually the same spot as on Johnny’s chest.

  Next came Sylvia. I searched her chest, but I couldn’t find any marks. “Strange.”

  Ananda was flicking through her phone—one which she pretended not to have, I’d noticed, when Sylvia had pressed her on the matter—and I glimpsed a picture of food before she looked up. “What is?”

  “No puncture mark. But Johnny and Alonso both had them over the heart.” I reached out for her phone. “Give me that. I need to take pictures.”

  I pulled the sheet the rest of the way off Sylvia, cringing when I saw all eight of her legs curled up, and Ananda and I proceeded to search for a puncture mark anywhere on her.

  “Bingo,” Ananda said from the other side of the slab. When I came around, she was pointing at a wound on the spider-section of Sylvia’s body—the large abdomen. I snapped an image.

  Brett was last. We found the puncture mark near the back of his bulbous head.

  “I don’t get it,” I said as I surveyed all four bodies, taking pictures of all of them. “There’s no pattern to this. But they were definitely all stabbed with the same instrument. A large needle.”

  She shook her head. “I’m as lost as you are. But unfortunately, we’ve got to skedaddle. I hear footsteps.”

  We pushed all the bodies back into their drawers just as the attendant came back in. The two of us offered sorrowful smiles, and I clasped my hands before me.

  “That’s all the time I can give you,” he said.

  “It’ll never be enough time,” Ananda cried. “My Johnny.”

  “That was very generous. Thank you,” I said as I led her out into the hallway. Behind my eyes, I couldn’t stop seeing those puncture marks on their bodies.

  There was more going on here than I’d originally believed.

  Chapter 13

  Three days passed. Three days of working at Ms. Sparkle’s lab, trying to find the section of Other DNA that interacted with magic. Three days of bussing over to the Bellagio in the evenings, waiting for the MEOA guy to show his face.

  No dice on the MEOA front. And I still couldn’t puzzle out what had been going on with those puncture marks at the morgue. But I had made a breakthrough.

  I always considered three a magical number. Biblical, sure, but also magical. If you survived three days of heartbreak, you would survive. If you kept a habit for three days, you were more likely to repeat it. And if you studied Other DNA for three days straight, set your mind to the task after so many years of research, sometimes you’ll find the magic you were looking for.

  On the third morning, I pushed my stool out with a scrape across the floor. I had found the segment of DNA I was looking for.

  “Can you not do that with the chair?” Lux called from across the room. “It’s like nails on a—”

  “Lux.” I rose, turned toward her. “Lux, you beautiful bescrubbed pixie. I’ve done it!”

  She paused in her flight from one enormous machine to another, a tiny pair of tongs gleaming in one hand. “Are you making fun of my uniform?” I crossed toward her, but the tongs darted up into the air. “Hey, no coming over to this side of the room. Remember?”

  I stopped, looked down. The line she had drawn wasn’t really there, so I couldn’t exactly tell if I had crossed it. “Uh, sorry.”

  Like a little photon of light, she flew down and scrubbed a rag over the spot where my shoe had touched her side. “It needs to be clean over here. Much cleaner than your side.”

  I crouched so we could be level with one another. “Lux, do you know about Other DNA?”

  She kept scrubbing. “I’m a chemist. Why should I?”

  “Because it’s inside you.”

  She looked up at me. “And a whole host of the world’s chemicals are inside you, but I don’t require you to know about chemistry, do I?”

  I smiled down at her with perfect benevolence. In this moment, I found her curmudgeonliness cute. “No, you don’t.”

  My kindness seemed to have killed her, as the phrase went. Or at least, it softened her. She shrugged. “All right, tell me. Quickly.”

  I grinned. “I know which segment of DNA our magic comes from.”

  “Which segment our …” She looked horrified. “Our magic is from the gods.”

  “No, Lux. Our magic is from ourselves. The gods may have created us, but we carry our magic separately from them. That’s why, when they left—”

  She raised a hand. “Stop. I don’t want to hear any more.”

  I was stunned. “But you’re a scientist.”

  “I am. But our magic is sacred.” She rose into the air, flew back to her station. She busied herself with testing a fresh batch of crystals with her tongs.

  I straightened, watched her for a minute. I had met Others like her before; it was a common divergence of thought. Those like me believed magic was understandable, dissectible, able to be controlled. And those like Lux viewed magic with near religious fanaticism; they considered it beyond our understanding. A gift from the gods, not to be questioned.

  But she was the first religious scientist I had met.

  I turned back to my station. Right here in this lab in Vegas, I possessed one of the keys to power. The World Army—Serena Russo—had learned to splice Other DNA into humans’ bodies, but in the way a novice could swing an axe and still manage to split lumber. They got the job done, but without understanding exactly how they were doing it.

  That was why they’d created super soldiers like Justin and Daiski. They made them into guinea pigs, leapt into the technology without fully understanding how it functioned. It was why Serena had used me as a guinea pig for her theories about oracle DNA. It burned me through and through that she had violated me, used me. By splicing a little bit of oracle DNA into my body, she’d tested a theory. And that theory had proven correct.

  Even though she’d burned me, she had also—somehow—given me what I most wanted. And that certainly complicated our relationship. The point was: the World Army sought to retroactively understand the finer science behind what they did. But they didn’t—not yet.

  But I did. This was information the resistance needed. This was information Ananda needed to give us leverage over the World Army.

  First thing’s first, though. I walked over to the intercom on the wall, hit the button. “Hello?”

  I could sense Lux watching me from where she was still sorting shards of meth on her tray. She’d paused to eavesdrop. Fine by me.

  “Go ahead,” returned a male voice. Probably Ms. Sparkle’s security.

  “I’d like to have a meeting with Ms. Sparkle tomorrow afternoon.”

  A pause. “Why?”

  “Tell her I’ll have what she needs.”

  Another pause, this time for longer. Finally, “She’ll meet you in a car outside the office building tomorrow afternoon at three.”

  “Perfect.”

  I stepped back from the intercom, and Lux pretended not to be watching as I turned around. I winked at her, but she only scowled and lowered her tongs to the crystals.

  I doubted she knew the kind of jeopardy her life was in, and that her annoying labmate was the one working to save her.

  But as I lifted the vial of Johnny’s blood from where it had been waiting, I realized it didn’t matter if she knew or not. I wasn’t doing this for glory. I was doing it because it was right.

  “Lux,” I called out as I stared at the vial, “you know a lot about needles.”

  The pixie gave a little groan. “Don’t patronize me, please.”

  I turned toward her. “I’m actually doing the opposite. I need your expertise.”

  The little shard of light jumped, and I sensed her turning her face toward me. “Why?” she said warily.

  “I’m trying to figure out a puzzle, and it involves needles. If I figure out the puzzle, it’ll help me save a lot of lives.”

  She flew over with crossed arms. “I’m not interested in puzzles. And I really doubt you’re saving anyone’s life, but fine. Tell me.”

  I raised four fingers. “Let’s say four Others of different species each had a single needle puncture on their body. A minotaur and a satyr both have punctures in the center of their chest, right over the heart. An arachne has one at the back of her spider’s abdomen. And a descendent of Cthulhu has one at the back of his head.”

  Lux just stared at me. “And?”

  I lowered my hand. “Why?” I said. “What’s the connection between all those spots?”

  “That has nothing to do with chemistry or needles,” Lux said, rolling her eyes. “It’s just basic anatomy, biologist.”

  “Anatomy?”

  “Not every Other’s heart is in their chest.” She sighed. “I can’t believe I have to tell another Other that.”

  My mouth dropped open. I had to double-check to confirm, but I felt almost certain Lux was right. A spider’s heart was in the abdomen, and an octopus heart—which was probably what the descendent of Cthulhu had—was in the head.

  “Are we done here?” Lux asked.

  I grinned at her. “Go make your meth, you brilliant little spot of light, you.”

  ↔

  The next afternoon, I climbed into the back of the black sedan parked outside the office building. Inside, I found Ms. Sparkle on the facing bench seat, her camisole draped like a queen’s robes across the black leather, and Edward the white bichon frise with his face on his paws.

  The two of them gazed at me, and I wasn’t sure which face unnerved me more.

  I pulled the door shut behind me. “Thanks for coming.”

  “It’s not me to be thanked.” Ms. Sparkle opened a mini-fridge. “Sparkling water?”

  I nearly laughed before I realized she wasn’t making a pun. “Sure.”

  She lifted a long-necked Perrier from the fridge and plucked two tumblers from the holders by the window. She filled both three fourths of the way, then extended hers to mine for a toast.

  “To saving all of Otherdom,” she said.

  Our glasses clinked. “I hadn’t even told you …”

  She took a short sip. “You said you had what I needed.”

  “I have the counteragent.” I pulled a syringe from my purse, extended it to her.

  She received it with both hands, holding it up before her eyes to examine under the car’s roof lights. “Yellow, just like the poison itself.”

  “Yes, but it’s definitely not poison,” I said. “I found the section of the third strand on the helix that interacts with magic. OtherX attacks that segment, but what I’ve given you neutralizes that attack.”

  She glanced at me. “Completely?”

  “Well, in theory. I haven’t exactly had any test subjects.”

  She nodded. “Does it matter whether it’s administered before or after the OtherX injection?”

  “Before. It has to occur before, like a vaccine, or it’s not nearly as effective. And …” I paused.

  She lowered the syringe, and the dog lifted his head. “What is it, Isabella?”

  “I think we have another advantage over them.”

  Ms. Sparkle set a stroking hand over Edward, obscuring his eyes with her fingers as she petted. “And what is that?”

  I wasn’t sure I wanted to reveal to her that Ananda and I had snuck into a morgue and stolen blood samples from dead bodies. “My sister and I were present when the OtherX attack occurred a few days ago. I saw the attacker stab one of the victims in the heart with a syringe.”

  Ms. Sparkle’s eyes fluttered. “Are you saying the syringe had something to do with the OtherX attack itself?”

  “I think that was the attack,” I said. “I don’t think it was airborne.”

  “You’ve gathered one data point,” Ms. Sparkle pressed. “In a moment of crisis, I’ll add.”

  “I could be wrong,” I hedged. “But that’s what I believe. I think OtherX is currently more limited in usage than we realize. I think it has to be injected directly into the heart … but my counteragent doesn’t.”

  A tiny smile appeared. “Interesting. You can inject it anywhere in the body?”

  I nodded.

  “Well, I’ve no doubt you’re right about the heart. You are a biologist, after all.” As if to punctuate her statement, Edward sneezed twice in succession. She sighed. “You’ve done good work, Isabella. But we’ve got bigger problems.”

  “Bigger problems?”

  “We’ve gotten new intel. It may be limited in its capabilities right now, but this group is on the verge of taking OtherX airborne. As in, within the next few days.”

  My heart punched against my chest. “A few days? How is that even possible? To go from what I witnessed three days ago to ...”

  She leaned toward me. “They’re getting dark money from the World Army. Do you know how much money the World Army has?”

  My eyes narrowed. Why did the GoneGodDamn World Army have to be such a pain in my behind? “A lot.”

  “More than a lot.” She handed me back the syringe. “This country has the biggest defense budget of any nation in the world. And they’re backing the World Army’s efforts.”

  I sighed, staring down at the yellow liquid. “So you want me to take what I’ve just created airborne.”

  “Can you do it?”

  The eternal question. It pinged around inside me day and night, a fact which Ms. Sparkle wasn’t even aware of. Can you do it, Isa?

  I closed my fingers over the syringe, lifted my eyes. “Depends on how long I’ve got.”

  Ms. Sparkle took a sip from her tumbler. “Less time than you need. That’s always the answer.”

  Chapter 14

  I returned to Ananda’s apartment after midnight. I’d skipped the stakeout, instead choosing to spend all evening at the lab working on sending the counteragent airborne.

  When I knocked on the door, Justin’s face appeared. Normally he looked happy to see me, but tonight something else crowded in there. Trepidation? Uncertainty?

  “You look like hell,” he whispered as I came inside.

  Before me, Hercules and Cupid were asleep in the living room, both snoring at lung capacity. Which meant Hercules sounded like a bear, and Cupid sounded like a teacup pig.

  “When I close my eyes, all I see are DNA squiggles,” I said. “That’s a bad thing, isn’t it?”

  “Probably. But no worse than living on a diet of caffeine, sugar and saturated fat. I feel like a Dorito.”

  “I take that to mean you haven’t caught the guy.”

  He shook his head. “Nope.”

  “Ananda?” I asked.

  “She’s asleep in the bedroom.” He took my hand. “Come on, let’s go on the balcony.”

  I followed him through the sliding glass door onto Ananda’s tiny balcony, where two wrought iron chairs encircled an ashtray set on the floor. I didn’t even know she smoked, but the ashtray was full of butts.

  Live fast, I thought.

  Justin closed the door and sat down in one of the chairs. When he looked up at me, his eyes told me exactly what he wanted.

  So I sat down across from him. “What’s up?”

  He shrugged. “Does anything have to be up for me to want to talk to my girlfriend alone?”

  “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” I gazed out over the parking lot.

  “It’s been a while since it was just you and me,” he added. “Before Cupid and Hercules entered the picture.”

  “Feels like a lifetime.” But it had really only been maybe a month. And we had evaded death more times than I cared to count in that month. So that saying about your life flashing before your eyes? That certainly held true when it came to my sense of time now.