Claimed Read online

  Shaking off a chill at the memory of her most recent nightmare, Galena skimmed the data Ankita had uploaded. V1’s exam and lab results looked perfect—so far, his immune system appeared to be functioning normally. With any luck, next week they could start the pathogen challenges, introducing a mutated but disabled virus into his bloodstream and monitoring the system’s response once the automutating vaccine was present.

  Satisfied that things were on track, Galena turned her attention to V2’s results. But they weren’t there. Instead, Ankita had entered a short note: V2 a no-show. Sent messages through all available contacts. Will try again tomorrow.

  Galena frowned. Each vaccine had to be customized to a person’s cellular HLA profile, and she had only five human volunteers at this stage. Her research team was still developing methods for more systematic customization so that the vaccine could be mass-produced. Because these initial volunteers were so important, she’d made sure each was compensated well and they’d all been given a clear appointment schedule for lab tests. And one of them was already flaking out?

  Or maybe something’s happened to her.

  Galena swallowed hard. V2. Her name was Nadya Odrova. She was graduate student at Tufts.

  You were a graduate student when it happened. You didn’t show up in the lab the next day. Or the day after that. You—

  Jian cursed quietly from behind the sequencers, pulling Galena from her spiraling thoughts. Her chest was tight as she rose from her chair. Purposeful mental calculations are incompatible with episodic memory recall. She tapped her fingers on Danny’s screen to generate the holographic projection of her automutating antigen, the tiny cluster of molecules, delivered as a vaccine, that would teach billions of immune systems to deflect any new pathogen. As soon as it arose in front of her, detailed and real, her heartbeat slowed. She poked at it, turning it in midair, already spotting a potential area of instability that might need an additional disulfide bond.

  At the sound of a loud beep, Galena looked down to see a light flashing on Danny’s screen. Someone was requesting entrance to the lab. Galena grinned. Her volunteer had finally showed! Normally, she didn’t do the lab tests herself, but her relief was so great that she was happy to make an exception, especially since Jian had his hands full with the sequencer.

  When she checked the view screen, however, she saw that it wasn’t V2. Galena’s heart skipped as she stared at the man standing at her laboratory doors. She hadn’t seen him in several days, but he’d crept into her thoughts many times since. She pressed the “Unlock” icon to let him in.

  Declan Ferry strode into her lab carrying a plastic bag. And despite her habit of avoiding men’s eyes, she couldn’t look away from his. She didn’t know him well, but she had already started to trust him, and not just because Eli did. Dec had nearly died in the fight to stop his brother Rylan from killing her. He didn’t look any the worse for wear now, though. He was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, plain clothes that only accentuated his tall, muscular frame. His black hair was charmingly messy, and his eyes were the kind of blue Galena had seen in history files, in pictures of the last of the arctic glaciers before they melted. Ice blue.

  “Hey,” he said with a friendly smile. “I wanted to see how you were doing, and Eli said you’d be here. I hope it’s okay that I stopped by.”

  Normally, it wouldn’t have been okay at all. Galena hated interruptions. But as she looked at his face, she felt a faint, foreign excitement fluttering within her rib cage. “It’s f-fine,” she stammered. “You didn’t have to, though.”

  He glanced over at her antigen holograph, floating a few feet away. “Looks like you’re busy.”

  “Thank you,” she blurted out. She’d wanted to say that for a week. She’d been meaning to call him, but nervousness and embarrassment had kept her from hunting down his number. “For everything you did for me.”

  He gave her an adorably crooked smile. “You’re welcome. It’s good to see that you’re back on track.”

  “Totally back on track.” Galena’s cheeks were burning. The thing was, she’d been this close to asking Eli about Dec before everything had happened. She’d noticed him at the Harvard fund-raiser a week and a half ago, strikingly handsome as he’d walked in with Cacy on his arm. She hadn’t been able to keep her eyes from straying toward his table that night. But their first official meeting had occurred the morning after his brother had attacked her, which obviously wasn’t ideal. She’d come stumbling out of her room—eyes swollen from crying, thoughts weighed down with sedatives—and Dec had been sitting on her living room couch. The way he’d looked at her . . . it was as if he thought she were about to shatter. She hadn’t been able to spare it much thought at the time, but in the days since, the regret had set in. Did he have to be right there to see her at her worst?

  She bit her lip and turned to face her antigen so he wouldn’t see her blush. “You traveled all the way from Chinatown to check in?”

  “Um . . . yeah. I might have asked Eli how you were doing, and he might have mentioned he didn’t think you had eaten yet today. And I had just finished my shift, so . . .”

  She looked over her shoulder, and he held up the plastic bag.

  “I got you some dinner.”

  Galena accepted the bag and peeked inside to see a sealed container full of real lettuce surrounded by clear boxes filled with cut-up vegetables, various meats and cheeses, and a few different kinds of dressing. It was more than she could eat in a whole day. Some of the foods she’d only ever seen in image files—plump little tomatoes, emerald-green peppers, shiny black olives, a crumbly white cheese. This stuff had to have been shipped in from the Arctic Circle colonies or Siberia, or maybe grown in the private agri-labs that supplied food to wealthy buyers. She came from the land of nutrition bars and rationed water, and Declan Ferry had just casually handed her a feast. For the first time in days, she actually felt hungry.

  She glanced up to find his eyes on her. “I didn’t know what you liked,” he said quietly.

  That strange giddy feeling inside her intensified. “Thanks,” she murmured, setting the bag on her desk.

  “Well,” he said slowly, taking a step toward the door. “I guess I should go. I don’t want to stop you from doing your thing.”

  She did indeed need to do her thing. Except . . . she suddenly didn’t want him to go. Not yet. “Do you want a tour of my lab?”

  He raised his eyebrows, clearly surprised. “Yeah?”

  She couldn’t help her smile. “Yeah.”

  She’d just turned toward Danny when a curse and a clatter brought her wheeling around. Dozens of wires and chips scattered across the tiled floor beneath the sequencer Jian had been working on. Dec moved to the side, placing himself between Galena and the row of machines. Shielding her, she realized.

  “It’s all right,” she said, moving beside Dec so she could see Jian. “He’s my research assistant.” She leaned down and picked up a few parts just as Jian stood up, allowing her to see him over the top of the sequencer. “Jian, this is Declan Ferry.”

  Jian’s eyes darted to Dec, who said, “It’s nice to meet you” just as Jian said, “We have so much work to do,” in an almost pleading voice.

  Galena looked down at the parts she’d just picked up. She didn’t recognize any of them. But then again, Jian was the mechanical expert in the lab. She made her way past Dec to hand the pieces back to Jian, who had little beads of sweat at his temples. “Here you go.”

  He snatched them from her and cradled them in his hands. “I’m sorry for being clumsy.” He glanced at Dec again. “Do you really want other people here right now?” he asked Galena in a low voice. “I thought you wanted to keep everything under wraps.”

  “Here, you missed this one,” said Dec, coming around the side of the row and offering a small component with a screen, on which there was a numeric display. “Is that a timer?” Dec smiled. “It’s the only thing that looks even remotely familiar to me in this whole place.”
>
  Galena peered at the component as Jian grabbed it from Dec’s outstretched hand. “Dr. M,” Jian said, the pleading back in his voice.

  Galena touched Jian’s shoulder. “Go home,” she said gently. “Come back and finish this tomorrow.”

  Jian stared at her. “Are . . . are you sure?”

  “Completely,” she replied. “No more work tonight. Spend some time with your wife. Get some sleep.” She needed him to be efficient and productive, and instead he looked like he was about to detonate.

  Jian looked down at the component Dec had handed to him. “Okay,” he whispered. He dropped the reclaimed wires and parts into his metal box, shut it, and walked away. Galena watched him go. He’s human, she reminded herself. We all have our limits.

  She turned back to Dec, and her breath caught when his eyes met hers. Was he human? Eli’s explanation about the Ferry family hadn’t been totally clear on that. But as she looked at him, all she could feel was curiosity. And for the first time in a very long time, her desire to explore went far beyond the scientific.

  CHAPTER TWO

  He seemed kind of stressed,” Dec said as the lab doors slid shut again. He pushed down a twinge of guilt—he wasn’t sorry to see the guy leave. Dec didn’t mind being alone with Galena at all.

  She was gazing at the row of machines. “It’s been an intense few weeks, and the last week especially.” She sighed. “I think I’ve been kind of hard on both of my research assistants.”

  “I can understand that. I go out there and do the calls, same as all my medics, but I’m still the one who has to set their shifts and discipline them when they screw up. It’s not fun.”

  She had the most astounding green eyes, and right now they were searching his face. “I try to be nice,” she said. “But things have to be done right or—”

  “People die.” At least, that’s how it was in his line of work. Of course, if those people were fated to die, nothing a medic did could save them.

  “That’s it,” she said. “I know it might seem dumb, because I still have a few years of research to go before the vaccine is approved for the general population, but I have to do this right.” Her expression was so intense that he couldn’t look away. And then, just like that, it disappeared—or, maybe more accurately, submerged—beneath a friendly, casual smile. “So,” she said. “Do you want that tour?”

  “Lead the way.”

  Dec watched Galena’s face as she touched the screen of her computer and awakened the holographic projection of some übercomplex molecules, which hovered between them like a jumbled wire sculpture. The very first time he’d seen her, she’d had the same look in her eyes as she did now, this eager, adorable excitement. It was such a relief to see again—the last time he’d seen her, she’d looked devastatingly different. “So this is part of the vaccine?” he asked, hoping it wasn’t a stupid question.

  “Yes, this is the antigen, but it has to be altered based on certain genetic markers for each person.” Her slender fingers touched the molecules, rotating them in midair. Her full lips curved into a satisfied smile. “I alter the amino acid residues, and Danny makes sure the resulting peptide bonds are stable.”

  “Danny?” Dec looked around.

  Galena gestured behind her as her cheeks suffused with pink, which made his heart beat a little harder. “My computer. Since he does so much of the work, I figured he deserved a name.”

  She walked Dec around the lab space while she continued to talk, rapid-fire and full of enthusiasm, about her equipment, the samples and serums, the antigens, the cell cultures. Dec understood maybe a third of what she was saying, and he tried to concentrate, but he kept getting distracted by the movements of her hands, the lilt of her voice, the grin on her face. It wasn’t just that she was beautiful that got to him. It was the way her eyes lit up and her whole body came to attention as she talked about her work.

  It had been one of the first things he’d ever noticed about her. He’d been sitting in the audience at that fund-raiser, expecting to be bored out of his mind, when she’d stood up and headed to the front. She was slender but curvy, strikingly tall for a woman, especially in the heels she’d been wearing. He remembered smiling as she’d wobbled slightly on her way to the podium. Dec could have stared at her all night. She was the first woman in a long time to intrigue him. She wasn’t like the jaded, wealthy ones who flocked to his family like flies to a corpse, eager to fortify their own family’s power, nor was she like the salt-of-the-earth medics he worked with every day. She had this open innocence about her, this almost childlike glee that made her shine from the inside out. He’d been so captivated that it had taken him several minutes to figure out who she was.

  It took him only a second longer to realize how many supernatural beings wanted to kill her.

  Protect her and you protect the future.

  Those were his father’s last words to him, a week before he’d even met Galena. But as he’d watched this brilliant, gorgeous, fascinating woman talk excitedly about her scientific discoveries, he’d known for sure that she was who his father had been talking about. She was working on a vaccine that would cut the death rate by at least a third, if not more. Since his entire family, and all the Kere, made a profit off of every dead soul they delivered to the Afterlife, that meant she was a major threat to their income.

  The whole thing reminded him of why he wanted so little to do with the Psychopomps empire. Yes, he was a Ferry. He bore the Mark, the tattoo of the raven that covered his back. He wore the Scope, the window to the Afterlife that hung from the platinum chain around his neck. And he did his duty, guiding dead souls to their eternal reward or punishment. But he hated the politics and the greed. Always had.

  Now, though, he couldn’t avoid it. Not if he wanted to honor his father. And though he and Patrick Ferry had never exactly seen eye to eye, though Dec had always been the rebel son who fought all his father’s attempts to draw him into the corporate world, he would obey his father this time.

  It was why he’d come here tonight. He’d been happy to do Eli a favor, but it hadn’t just been about bringing Galena dinner. That afternoon, he’d overheard Cacy on the phone telling Eli that Galena’s transport security was being doubled. He’d felt an urge to go and see her for himself, to make sure she was all right. She felt like his responsibility.

  “And these are my nanopore sequencers,” she said proudly, patting one of the squat beige machines at the end of a row.

  “Nanopore?”

  “Tiny holes made of protein. We force the DNA through them in a single, long string, and because each nucleotide blocks the hole in a specific way, we can detect its composition by measuring the current passing through the nanopore in that instant.” She looked fondly at the machine. “It’s a little old-fashioned but pretty precise—and very versatile.” She eyed him with a hungry sort of curiosity.

  Dec arched an eyebrow. “What?”

  Her eyes focused on his Scope, which dangled from the chain around his neck. “I’m just wondering what your DNA looks like.”

  “You want to see my DNA?” He smirked. “Shouldn’t we get to know each other a little better first?”

  She ducked her head and chuckled. “Sorry. That was sort of presumptuous.”

  But I liked it. He was opening his mouth to say exactly that when a loud beep made Galena tense. “Someone’s at the door,” she said.

  Dec followed her around the row of sequencers and back to her computer. “Can you see who it is?”

  She nodded and tapped her screen. “Oh! It’s my volunteer.” She unlocked the door, and a young woman with a head full of wild corkscrew curls walked in. “I was getting worried!” Galena said to her.

  “Sorry I’m late,” the young woman said. “My apartment was broken into, and I was waiting for the police to show up all afternoon, and then my AC unit went on the fritz, and now it’s making this weird clicking noise.” She threw her arms up. “Basically, the worst day ever.”

  Galena b
lanched. “A break-in?” She wrapped her arms around her waist, folding in on herself. “Are you okay, Nadya?”

  Dec wondered if Galena was remembering when her apartment had been invaded. It made him want to go visit his older brother in the cell where Aislin was keeping him and punch him in the face . . . again.

  Nadya smiled. “I’m fine. It’s just a pain—they didn’t take anything, from what I can tell. Just made a huge mess.” She glanced at Dec. “Hi. Are you another volunteer?” Her eyes focused on his Scope, and he hastily tucked it into his collar, but not quickly enough. Her eyes went round. “Oh my God,” she said. “You’re a Ferry.”

  Galena looked back and forth between them. “You know about the Ferrys?”

  A crease formed between Nadya’s eyebrows. “Doesn’t everybody?”

  Dec cleared his throat. “Of course she does,” he said in a friendly, loud voice. The last thing he needed was for Galena to spill his family secrets. “Psychopomps Incorporated is a major Harvard donor, and in particular we’re supporters of Dr. Margolis’s research. She was just giving me a tour of the lab. But I’d better be going.”

  Galena’s eyes were so wide and guileless that he could see the moment the puzzle pieces dropped into place. “Yes! Oh, yes. The Ferrys are definitely patrons of the sciences,” she said breezily. Then she bit her lip, and Dec found himself staring at her mouth again. “Thanks for dropping by, Mr. Ferry.”

  He didn’t really want to leave. He’d actually been enjoying himself, which was kind of a rarity these days. But there was no way he’d interfere with her work. “Thanks for the tour, Dr. Margolis.”

  He returned her grin, then had to force himself to walk away. He paused and looked over his shoulder at Galena before he walked through the doorway. “Don’t forget your dinner.”

  “I won’t,” she murmured.

  Mission accomplished, he strode out of the lab. Suddenly, he was in a damn good mood. As he climbed the steps to the first floor of the building, he pulled out his phone and called Trevor. It had been a few weeks since they’d gotten together to shoot pool and have a cold one. Yeah, the guy was a Ker, one of the fiercest, but he’d also been Dec’s best friend for years. Trev’s phone rang a few times, and then the man himself appeared on Dec’s screen. “Hey, Trev, I—”