Chapter 83

To my surprise, Malcolm was waiting for us when we walked into the hospital. “Hello, Malcolm,” I said, “fancy meeting you here.”

“This was too important to entrust to anyone else,” he said. “I presume Marco told you why you’re here?”

“In broad terms, yes, but he’s been a little shy about the details.”

“Dani,” Marco said, “I wasn’t about to say anything in the car. Even Sal doesn’t need to know all the details about this.”

Malcolm was speaking into his cell phone, and I caught the end of his conversation—“We’re on the way to the lab right now. Thanks.”

When we got to my lab, one of the vampires was waiting for us—referring to the phlebotomists who draw blood as vampires seemed to be the order of the day in hospitals everywhere. Malcolm signed for the vials of blood while I unlocked the outer lab. “Here you go, Dani,” Malcolm said. “Marco and I will tell you everything as soon as you get to a stopping point.”

“You didn’t use all the blood,” Marco said thirty minutes later.