Pia Does Hollywood (Elder Races, #8.6)

That wasn’t what she wanted to talk about. He said in a brief, flat reply, “I’m fine. How are you, Tatiana?”


He could tell by the flicker in her eyes and the tightening of her mouth that she hadn’t liked the sarcasm in that. But she chose to answer him honestly. “I’m pretty much as you might expect. My people are being decimated, so I’m enraged and worried.” She hesitated. “Would you consent to letting my doctors draw some of your blood? We need to find out everything we can about the contagion in order to stop it.”

He didn’t like that, and his knee-jerk reaction was to refuse the request. You could learn a lot by studying someone’s blood, and it was never a good idea to give anybody information about himself.

As she watched his face, she urged quietly, “Please, Dragos. You’re the only person we have so far who might provide clues about how to build a resistance against the contagion. Everyone else has succumbed in less than half an hour.”

Goddammit. He rubbed his forehead, struggling with conflicting impulses. Finally, he said, “The only way I’ll let you have samples of my blood is if we get a doctor that I trust into your labs to monitor what you do with it. And I want the samples destroyed afterward.”

“Damn it, Dragos, this isn’t the time—” she began.

Impatiently, he interrupted her, “I mean it, Tatiana. Like the guns you have trained on me right now—my decision isn’t personal. But you know as well as I do that Powerful spells can be built on someone’s blood. I’m not letting go of something that could be that valuable and dangerous to me without putting some guarantees and protections in place beforehand.”

Biting her lip, she nodded after a moment. “Okay, you have a point. It’s a deal. But what I was going to say is, the problem is how long it might take for you to get one of your doctors here. We need your blood samples now, not tomorrow. We actually needed them yesterday.”

He had already squandered the trip he had bargained for from Soren, so he told her. “That isn’t my problem. That’s yours. You’re resourceful. I know you can make it happen, if you put your mind to it.”

Her expression darkened. They both knew that in order to make it happen, she herself would have to strike a bargain with a Djinn. But damned if he would incur a Djinn debt just so that he could safely give her some of his blood.

As her silence grew prolonged, he remarked, “You know, I would much rather prefer to have my own doctors study my blood and give any synthesized results or antidote to the Light Fae, anyway. If you would prefer.”

“Fine,” she snapped. “Which doctor do you want present?”

The two doctors he trusted the most were Dr. Shaw and Dr. Medina. Both were privy to sensitive information. Dr. Shaw was the sentinels’ surgeon, and she had also consulted with him over his head injury, so she would keep any findings confidential.

But Dr. Medina was Pia’s doctor, and there was no better time or opportunity to send for her than this. She could be close at hand, if they needed to prolong Pia’s next injection. This could work to their advantage.

He glanced over to the verandah, where Pia and Bailey talked as they looked over the maps. He told Tatiana, “Collect Dr. Medina, along with my sentinel Grym. Grym can watch over Medina and your doctors, to make sure the lab stays secure. He’ll also see that the samples are destroyed when they should be. I’ll call them now to make sure they’re ready.”

Tatiana gestured an abrupt assent and strode back to her house, while Dragos quickly called Dr. Medina and Grym to tell them to prepare for an unexpected trip and assignment. The sentinel picked up on the second ring.

He told Grym, “A Djinn will be arriving momentarily to pick you and Dr. Medina up and bring you to the Light Fae demesne. When you get here, be sure to talk to Pia and Eva to get fully briefed on what’s happening.”

“What about you?” Grym asked.

“I’m not available for private conversations at the moment.”

“Okay. You got it.”

He hung up and punched Dr. Medina’s number.

“How’s Pia doing?” the doctor asked, when he spoke to her.

He glanced at the nearby Light Fae on the verandah. “I’m not able to talk freely right now. You’ll find out when you get here.”

“Okay.” The doctor sounded uneasy. “Just tell me this much. Do I need to bring an extra dose of the protocol?”

“No,” he said, and hung up.