Page 60 of Blood & Ash

“So did I.” Del lowered the blade and set it on the ground. “Come back to the clinic. We can close the cut and find out whether he left anything behind.”

Clara looked between them. “What if he does it again?”

“Then we’ll know what it looks like. And we’ll be faster.” He offered his hand but didn’t move closer. Clara stared at it before placing her uninjured hand in his. Marcus helped her stand, keeping his grip gentle while Del watched the alley for movement.

They had gone three steps when a figure appeared at the far end. Sable stood beneath the broken streetlamp with her hands loose at her sides. No gold showed in her eyes.

Marcus moved in front of Del and Clara. “Come to finish it?”

Sable looked toward the clinic. Smoke still escaped through the broken window, thinning above the roof. “The instruction was delivery. The instruction is complete.”

“Then why are you here?” Del asked.

Sable’s gaze settled on Clara’s bleeding hand. “To see whether he was right.”

“About Marcus choosing the cure?”

“About what people protect when they can’t protect everything.”

Marcus glanced at Del. Sable had been ordered to observe, but Arrow might not have controlled the question she chose to ask.

“What did he expect?” Marcus asked.

“That you would leave the witch.”

“He was wrong.”

Sable studied him, and a faint gold ring formed around each pupil. “He dislikes that.”

“Good,” Del said.

The gold brightened. Sable looked at Del for another moment, then stepped backward into the unlit street. By the time Marcus reached the corner, she had vanished.

They returned to the clinic with Clara between them. Marcus treated her hand while Del rebuilt the ward across the broken window and examined the command woven through Clara’s blood. The remaining counteragent stayed inside the cold-storage box, eleven doses where twelve had stood.

The attack had cost them one measured dose and left twelve patients competing for eleven portions. It had also given them proof that Arrow could use the stolen names to move a coven member like a weapon. Marcus didn’t know which discovery frightened him more.

Clara slept on the gurney after Del removed the last trace of Arrow’s command. Dawn remained several hours away. Broken glass covered the gravel beyond the boarded window, and the smell of smoke clung to every surface.

Marcus stood beside the cold-storage box and counted the surviving vials again. Eleven doses wouldn’t be enough if every infected wolf lived until morning. Replacing the twelfth with a fresh working would require blood Del couldn’t safely give.

“Use mine for the missing dose,” he said.

Del shook her head. “We tested vampire blood. The suspension relapsed.”

“Then dilute yours with mine.”

“That risks all twelve batches.” She came to stand opposite him. “The suspension held above the required concentration. We can divide the eleven doses, add sterile saline, and still keep every dose within the effective range.”

Marcus looked toward Clara. “Arrow chose the loss deliberately.”

“He wants us to believe one person has to be abandoned.”

“I’ll not gamble twelve lives on an untested dilution.”

“Then we test it now.” Del touched the lid of the cold-storage box. “We use a fraction from each surviving vial, reproduce the final concentration, and watch the infected sample for relapse. If it holds, no one loses a dose.”

Marcus hated the calm in her voice because it meant she had already accepted the risk. “How long will the test take?”