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the host cells before I can test it on someone.” He reached up and tugged on his earlobe. The weirdest nervous tic I’d ever seen, but he pulled it off.
    “Who do you want to test it on?” We were down to Grandma Jean and my mom as test subjects.
    He shrugged. “I don’t care.”
    More importantly… “How’d you do it? What was the problem?”
    Travis’s eyes focused on my face. His voice evened out and he raised his hands to choreograph the telling. “I’ll keep it simple.” Great. “We had all of your saliva and cells to figure out the markers but we were ignoring the main component of immunity to the virus – Heather’s contribution. When I broke it down and compared genetic coding of the mitochondria inside the enzymatic acting cells, I realized we were trying to match the markers to each other, when what we should have been doing was excising them.”
    And what? But he didn’t notice my confusion as he grabbed my upper bicep, his excitement palpable in the early evening shadows. “Heather doesn’t have the specific marker that makes her even accessible to any virus activity in that part of her body.”
    “What part of her body?” I couldn’t be more interested in Heather’s body. This was a topic I understood. Things were looking up.
    “Her brain.” Travis beamed like I was a well behaved student who’d asked exactly the right question on cue.
    “But brains don’t get sick, do they?” It’d always seemed like body sicknesses when I had a cold, or flu, or the measles. Oh, the measles had sucked. But never had my brain been sick.
    He pulled back at the simple question. “Of course they do. Haven’t you ever heard of anorexia? Dementia? Alzheimer’s? Schizophrenia? The brain has numerous diseases and syndromes. We haven’t cured most of them or come up with a successful treatment plan yet.”
    James hadn’t shown up and with a fresh mountain lion dead on the deck, the conversation didn’t hold as much appeal as I would like. Yet, Dr. Duncan wanted to talk about his discovery and I needed to have an inkling of how close we were to a solution.
    “So this is like Alzheimer’s?” I tried to stay on track, but his mind had accelerated since he’d changed and his feeding had improved his thought processes with the immediate intake of blood. Keeping up couldn’t be more difficult – unless I was a human.
    “In a way. See, what happens with Alzheimer’s is the brain deteriorates and the body continues to function. But according to your report, this works the opposite way. Exactly like Lou Gherig’s. Either way, the brain is affected.” He’d lost me. I wouldn’t lie.
    I shot a quick glance over my shoulder. I was about to suggest something extremely unethical. Not even a hint of guilt plagued me. Actually, I was kind of excited to give it a shot. “Do you have the vaccine ready?”
    He pursed his lips. “No. I need Connie. She has to complete the rest of the process. I’m not familiar with the final steps.”
    “Connie should be coming from that direction. Grab her. We need this vaccine.” I turned him and gave a gentle push toward the woods. He didn’t hesitate in following my directions. I had no doubt he would. Now, I just had to get the stranger to do what I wanted. Without biting him.

Chapter 5
     
    His name was Brian and the ass wouldn’t stop staring at Heather. My heat rose, only increasing my need to eat sooner. He’d better hope he wasn’t around when I needed a meal.
    I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned my head back. From under half-lowered lids I sized him up. I could totally take him – even without the virus onboard. “Brad. How do you know Grandma Jean?” Smooth, establish myself as someone who was close enough to call her Grandma Jean. And get his name wrong.
    “It’s Brian. I grew up about a half mile from here. Heather and I hung out way back when we were in diapers. I haven’t seen her since last summer. I watch their place when Grandma Jean