went flying. I kicked one of the table legs again and again until it snapped up and the table collapsed.
Ilya touched my shoulder. “We should get out of here.”
“Let’s go check on Jonah,” I said.
At the Bella Maria we found Jonah awake, but weak. Ilya insisted on resuming his patrol of the downtown eastside and took Cole for protection. To my surprise, Faith volunteered to join them. Jonah and I were alone at last.
“So you found another Innoviro research site.” Jonah sat up in bed.
“And we found Doctor Kingston,” I said.
“Did he help you?” asked Jonah.
“He did. He gave us a thumb drive with Compendium documents on it before he died of what looked like internal bleeding.” I showed Jonah the small plastic rectangle on my palm.
“I’m so sorry.”
I shook my head. “I’ve seen two people die in the last week. Technically, I also witnessed my parents’ death last month. I don’t think I’m handling it very well.”
“Nobody expects you to watch people die and just bounce back. If you did, there’d be something wrong with you.” Jonah reached a hand towards me, but I shook my head.
“I’ll tell you what I’m never going to see. You are not going to die on my watch.”
“I’m not dying. I overdid it a bit. And then I went for a walk in the sun. I wasn’t being smart.” Jonah smoothed the blanket down on either side of his hips.
“Please, please take it easy. We don’t know when or if we’re going to find a treatment to help you. I know you don’t want to lie in bed while the rest of us investigate, but there’s no choice.”
“I’ll stay in bed if you’ll join me.” Jonah tried to smirk at me, but it wasn’t very convincing.
“I want to stay, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.” I looked at the wall to avoid Jonah’s eyes.
“You never know, I might drain you again and we’d be trading places. Kiss me, Irina and it could be you in this bed.” Jonah cocked his head with another weak smile.
“That’s not funny. We both know that won’t happen. The last time we were together, you didn’t drain me. I think I hurt you . The injections Tatiana and Brad gave me made me stronger in general.” I looked down at the ground.
“You didn’t hurt me.”
“You’re still too weak for us to get close again, Jonah. I won’t risk it.”
“How about we lie together for a while? Nothing heated. We can watch TV. I’ll pull the sheet up between us and if I start to feel weaker, I’ll let you know.” I let my gaze connect with his again. Jonah looked at me intently with those glacial eyes. “I promise.”
I stared back helplessly, grateful Jonah didn’t have a mind-reading gift. We had established that he was attracted to me too, but I couldn’t imagine he felt as strongly about me as I did about him.
I got into bed with him, careful to stay on top of the inner bed sheet. I let him wrap his arms around me. I clicked through television channels until I found an episode of Doctor Who . I burrowed against Jonah’s side. “Here. Let’s have something stranger than us for once.”
Ilya, Cole, and Faith walked in moments after Doctor Who ended. Cole carried grocery bags full of food while Ilya had a whiteboard and Faith had a full cardboard tray of to-go coffee cups.
“Okay.” Ilya propped the empty whiteboard up on top of the dresser. “We need get organized and come up with a plan of attack.”
Cole began shelving groceries. “We’re fumbling around playing catch-up, but you can be damn sure Ivan knew exactly what his next steps were.”
“We’ll never catch up to him, let alone get ahead if we’re roaming and groping in the dark,” said Ilya.
“The first thing I’m going to do is copy everything on this thumb drive to Irina’s laptop.” Faith distributed coffee cups. “From there I’m going to run a script cross-referencing what I pulled off the Innoviro server and plant doc’s files. Any common terms might be important.”
I had to
Ilya touched my shoulder. “We should get out of here.”
“Let’s go check on Jonah,” I said.
At the Bella Maria we found Jonah awake, but weak. Ilya insisted on resuming his patrol of the downtown eastside and took Cole for protection. To my surprise, Faith volunteered to join them. Jonah and I were alone at last.
“So you found another Innoviro research site.” Jonah sat up in bed.
“And we found Doctor Kingston,” I said.
“Did he help you?” asked Jonah.
“He did. He gave us a thumb drive with Compendium documents on it before he died of what looked like internal bleeding.” I showed Jonah the small plastic rectangle on my palm.
“I’m so sorry.”
I shook my head. “I’ve seen two people die in the last week. Technically, I also witnessed my parents’ death last month. I don’t think I’m handling it very well.”
“Nobody expects you to watch people die and just bounce back. If you did, there’d be something wrong with you.” Jonah reached a hand towards me, but I shook my head.
“I’ll tell you what I’m never going to see. You are not going to die on my watch.”
“I’m not dying. I overdid it a bit. And then I went for a walk in the sun. I wasn’t being smart.” Jonah smoothed the blanket down on either side of his hips.
“Please, please take it easy. We don’t know when or if we’re going to find a treatment to help you. I know you don’t want to lie in bed while the rest of us investigate, but there’s no choice.”
“I’ll stay in bed if you’ll join me.” Jonah tried to smirk at me, but it wasn’t very convincing.
“I want to stay, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.” I looked at the wall to avoid Jonah’s eyes.
“You never know, I might drain you again and we’d be trading places. Kiss me, Irina and it could be you in this bed.” Jonah cocked his head with another weak smile.
“That’s not funny. We both know that won’t happen. The last time we were together, you didn’t drain me. I think I hurt you . The injections Tatiana and Brad gave me made me stronger in general.” I looked down at the ground.
“You didn’t hurt me.”
“You’re still too weak for us to get close again, Jonah. I won’t risk it.”
“How about we lie together for a while? Nothing heated. We can watch TV. I’ll pull the sheet up between us and if I start to feel weaker, I’ll let you know.” I let my gaze connect with his again. Jonah looked at me intently with those glacial eyes. “I promise.”
I stared back helplessly, grateful Jonah didn’t have a mind-reading gift. We had established that he was attracted to me too, but I couldn’t imagine he felt as strongly about me as I did about him.
I got into bed with him, careful to stay on top of the inner bed sheet. I let him wrap his arms around me. I clicked through television channels until I found an episode of Doctor Who . I burrowed against Jonah’s side. “Here. Let’s have something stranger than us for once.”
Ilya, Cole, and Faith walked in moments after Doctor Who ended. Cole carried grocery bags full of food while Ilya had a whiteboard and Faith had a full cardboard tray of to-go coffee cups.
“Okay.” Ilya propped the empty whiteboard up on top of the dresser. “We need get organized and come up with a plan of attack.”
Cole began shelving groceries. “We’re fumbling around playing catch-up, but you can be damn sure Ivan knew exactly what his next steps were.”
“We’ll never catch up to him, let alone get ahead if we’re roaming and groping in the dark,” said Ilya.
“The first thing I’m going to do is copy everything on this thumb drive to Irina’s laptop.” Faith distributed coffee cups. “From there I’m going to run a script cross-referencing what I pulled off the Innoviro server and plant doc’s files. Any common terms might be important.”
I had to
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