Tonight, Selena stood within the brilliance of the Imperial Medical Corps Headquarters, the soft hum of machinery blending with the faint scent of antiseptics and metallic coolant. Around her, transparent cylinders glowed faintly blue, each one containing fragments of infected tissue, preserved samples, and vials of shimmering serum that pulsed with unstable energy.
Beside her was Lucien. His uniform bore the insignia of the Bloodstone family, but his presence here was more than official duty. It was personal. He had refused to let his wife face the dangers of experimentation alone, especially now that the contagion had begun mutating beyond prediction.
