"Wait," the woman said to the men. She held out a hand to Chris. "Come, my dear. I shall take you to the high lord."
The high lord turned out to be a man dressed in a hooded black cloak, standing next to a pretty petite woman and another man with white-streaked black hair.
"It seems Locksley has sent this female to speak with you, my lord," the black woman said. "She is most anxious to deliver a warning."
"She is too late."
Chris turned to see the contessa standing beside the fountain. "She's gone crazy," she murmured to the black woman. "She's going to kill everyone."
"We meet again, Salva," Richard said.
The contessa's gaze shifted to Richard. "Good evening, my lord. How well you look."
Chris glanced at Richard, who had pulled back his hood. His face seemed to be part man, part cat. "She has a vial of her sister's tears." she said quickly. "She's going to use them to kill you."
The Kyn all around them fell silent and began to back away.
"Salvatora," the high lord said with icy politeness. "What are you doing here?"
The contessa gave him a little curtsy. "Keeping my promise to my sister. I swore I would avenge her death on you and your six butchers."
Richard nodded. "Very well. You should know that I and I alone gave the command to kill your sister. I shall give you my life in return. But do not endanger the innocent." He held out a wide, blunt-fingered gloved hand. "Give me the vial."
"What was Beatrice, if not innocent?" Salva asked, taking out the vial and holding it over the fountain. "She starved herself so that she would not kill. Did you know that, my lord? We had to drain mortals and pour the blood down her throat to keep her from starving to death."
"Oh, God." Chris remembered what Guy had told her on the flight from Rome, and realized then what the contessa meant to do. "She's not going to kill you. She's going to dump the tears in the water."
"Contessa," Braxtyn said, her voice tight. "You know that our fountains are fed by springs. If you put that poison into the water, you will release the Black Death upon the mortal world."
"I think it fitting that the Kyn should know the agony my sweet Beatrice suffered." Salva smiled. "There will be no more mortals upon whom you can feed. You will all starve, as she did, or become as the beasts you are inside."
An arrow sliced past Chris's face, burying itself in the contessa's arm. Salva staggered, but then straightened and fumbled, wrenching the top from the vial.
Chris didn't think; she ran, her hands outstretched to grab the vial. A second arrow came from behind, striking Salva in the back.
The contessa grabbed Chris, locking her arm around her neck and cutting off her air. "Stay away from me."
"Salva." Robin dropped down from the trees and grabbed her free hand, holding the vial upright. "Let it go."
Salva struggled wildly, trying to tip the vial into the fountain. As it spilled, Robin dove under her hand, forcing her hand to his mouth. With one swallow, he drank the contents of the vial.
The contessa screamed, pulling away with a savage jerk. Chris saw a tiny drop of blood fly from the lip of the vial to land on Salva's cheek. The red stain raced across her skin, covering her head and turning her eyes solid scarlet.
The contessa dropped like a stone, taking Chris with her.
Chris shoved the dead woman away and crawled over to the fountain. Robin lay half in, half out of the water, his skin already turning dark pink.
"Robin."
He opened his eyes, the copper irises fading to scarlet-tinged amethyst. "Did any of the tears touch you?"
Unable to speak, Chris shook her head.
He smiled. "I'll be waiting… for you… love. Take… your… time."
Robin sagged into the water and didn't move again.
Alex helped the redheaded mortal woman pull Robin's inert body out of the fountain.
"Someone tell me what this stuff he swallowed is," she yelled as she rolled Locksley onto his back.
"Poisoned tears," the redhead told her. "It kills Kyn on contact."
"Not this time." Alex wrenched open Robin's shirt. "He's still breathing. Richard."
The high lord came to kneel beside Robin. "He swallowed the tears." He sounded as if he were dazed.
"What difference does it make?"
He focused on Alex's face. "I cannot say. No one has ever done this."
"All right. Let me think." Alex pressed her hands against her face before letting them fall. "The pathogen is present in our saliva, blood, and body fluids. It must be trying to counteract the poison." She surveyed Robin's skin and the pink flush that was growing deeper and darker by the moment. "What's the antidote for this stuff?"
"There is none," Richard said softly.
"Bullshit. If the pathogen can fight it, so can we." She stood. "We need to get him downstairs so I can draw a blood sample and have a look at it."
No one came near them.
Richard lifted Robin's body into his arms. "I shall take him."
Alex didn't have to clear the way as she, Richard, Michael, and the redhead descended to the hospital; no one followed them but Nottingham.
"Why is everyone acting like pussies?" Alex asked Michael on the way down.
"They are being cautious," he said. "They remember what happened the last time Beatrice's tears were unleashed."
"They're being pussies," the redhead said, giving Alex a fierce look. "I'm Chris Renshaw. and I'll do whatever it takes to save him."
"Alex Keller." She gave her a tight smile. "Ditto."
Alex had Richard place Robin on an exam table and quickly drew a sample of his blood, from which she made a slide smear.
She put the glass slide under the scope and adjusted the power before she took a look. "This chick Beatrice wept this stuff he drank?"
"Her tears were blood," Richard said, "and her blood was lethal."
"Maybe not." She saw the pathogen colliding with a larger, mutated form of itself. The two cells shaped and reshaped themselves, each trying to absorb the other. After a few seconds the mutant pathogen engulfed the other and moved on. "Shit. Maybe so."
Alex moved away from the scope and back to Robin. His skin had turned a dark rose, and his body temperature was dropping rapidly. "Was there anything that stopped it?"
"Killing Beatrice," Richard said.
"We don't have time for jokes," Alex snapped. "This stuff is like leukemia on crack. If I don't do something, right now, he's going to be dead in a few minutes."
"What about a transfusion?" Chris asked suddenly. "Take out all the poisoned blood and replace it."
Alex shook her head. "I can't get every drop out of him, and the pathogen replicates too fast."
"How do you treat this leukemia in humans?" Richard asked.
"Acute cases? Radiation and a bone-marrow transplant." Her brow furrowed for a moment before her expression hardened. "It's not feasible."
"Why not?" Chris demanded.
"Assuming I could find a bone-marrow-donor match, I don't have the equipment to do it here," Alex told her. "Robin won't live long enough to make it to a cancer treatment center. There's just no time."
"Then we stop time." Chris turned to Nottingham. "Use your talent on him."
"Honey, I'm sorry, but his talent will only…" Alex's head snapped up. "Guy, get the hell over here."
Nottingham looked at Robin, and then regarded Chris. "Do you love him?"
"What?"
"Excuse me." Alex glared at both of them. "My patient is dying. Can you chitchat about your love life later?"
He bent and put his mouth next to Chris's ear, his cheek brushing hers. "Do you love him?"
"Yes."
He moved back and looked into her wet eyes. "If I do this, will you come away with me? Will you give yourself to me?"
"Guy," Alex snapped.
Here was the perfect revenge on Robin, and all Chris had to do was agree to it. "If that's what it takes to save him, then yes, I will."
"I thought as much." Nottingham lifted his chin and pressed his cool lips to her forehead before he moved over to the table. Arrogance filled his eyes as he regarded the other Kyn. "Give us the room."
Alex put a hand on Chris's shoulder as they went outside. "He'll be okay."
"How would you know?" Chris countered. "Did you perform that many bone marrow transplants back in the Dark Ages?"
"I'm not actually from the Dark Ages myself," Alex told her. "I was a reconstructive surgeon in Chicago before the Kyn sank their fangs in me. You?"
Chris leaned back against a wall and closed her eyes for a moment. "Federal agent out of Chicago."
"Robin. With a fed." The doctor coughed. "Hokay."
"I'm not here in an official capacity." Chris wasn't sure what she was now, except terrified. All at once she remembered Hutch and Robin's people. "The contessa has hostages back in the States." She filled in Alex on the details, and then added, "She may have already given orders for them to be killed, but if there's any way you can help them, I'd be grateful."
"We'll take care of it." She turned to the man with the white-streaked black hair. "Michael, can you send Jayr and Lucan with the cavalry?"
He nodded and took out his mobile phone.
Whatever Nottingham was doing seemed to take forever. As Chris waited, she saw frost slowly creep over the edge of the door to the exam room, and her breath turned white as the air temperature steadily dropped.
"Here, mademoiselle." Michael removed his jacket and draped it over her shoulders. "You should perhaps go upstairs. You will be warmer there."
