Of Cinder and Bone Read online

  He moved up higher, examining her wings. “Her wings should grow proportional to her overall body length. What worries me is if flying is an inherent behavior or if it’s taught like with certain birds.”

  “I suppose we’ll know once we determine her social behavior,” Kamala said. “Komodo dragons are typically solitary until mating season, so I doubt introducing her to Sarah would do her any good. Their young are mostly arboreal during their first year of life, and Pete is fond of climbing so far. That’s the trouble with splicing a new animal from an old one. She’ll be split down the middle both biologically and socially.”

  She glanced at her watch. “We’ve got maybe another twenty minutes before the little one wakes up. Let’s get all this information logged and then we’ve got interviews for most of the day. Better start practicing your fake smile.”

  “Fake smile? You kiddin’ me? I’m doing a Blue Steel into every camera pointing in my direction. Maybe then they’ll reconsider that poster boy idea.”

  ~ * ~

  Faye glanced up from her paperback copy of Magic Rises as the front door opened, spilling the two unbelievably exhausted scientists into the apartment. She caught sight of a couple of straggling reporters behind them, shouting questions, but Jack growled and slammed the door in their faces with utmost malice. She offered the pair a sympathetic smile and slipped a bookmark into the book, before sitting up straight on the couch.

  “Wow. Looks like you’ve had fun reaping the fruits of your labor.”

  Kamala marched over to the couch and flopped down onto it face-first. “I have never been this tired in my entire life.”

  Jack collapsed on the love seat, his long legs dangling over the edge, and pressed both hands over his face. “Kill me.”

  Faye laughed. “You guys are pathetic. So, what happened?”

  Kamala hugged a throw pillow. “After the initial physical examination, we split the time between logging all the data and being bombarded by everything from news channels to magazines to corporate sponsors to angry protestors to nosy MIT students. We finally had to hire a security guard at the lab to prevent people from barging in to gawk. We set up a formal nationwide showing of Pete for next week, but I don’t know if we can even make it that long.”

  Jack held up his phone. “See this?”

  “Yes,” Faye said.

  “Turned it off an hour after Pete’s birth. It wouldn’t stop ringing. Family members, former colleagues, students, anyone and everyone who’s ever bumped into me has been calling. My freaking high school girlfriend called me to ask me out to coffee, for God’s sake. And she’s married.”

  “To be fair,” Faye mused. “I did warn you to be ready.”

  “There is no way to prepare for insanity,” he grumbled. “My apartment looks like Woodstock is about to break out. That’s why she brought me here. I haven’t been able to shake them until now and it’s…” Jack checked his watch.

  “Holy shit, when was it midnight?”

  “I’m moving to Antarctica,” Kamala said firmly. “Tonight.”

  Faye shook her head in amusement. “How’s Pete doing?”

  “She’s fine,” Jack said with a belabored sigh. “We got her a little private pen at the veterinary hospital. Loaded her up with a bucket of dead crickets and some water and something to curl up on. We’ll work on her permanent lodgings tomorrow. If I’m still alive by then.”

  “Oh, it’s just the beginning, my friends,” Faye said, patting Kamala’s mussed hair before standing. “Wait until Oprah calls. Then Antarctica won’t be far enough. Try Mars.”

  “Good idea.”

  “Good night, nerds. See you when I see you.”

  She started for her room, but paused, glancing over her shoulder. “Really, though. Congratulations. I’m proud of you.”

  She escaped before either of them could say anything in response.

  “It’s scary when she’s nice,” Jack said.

  “Mm. You should see her cry. It’s like seeing your Dad cry.”

  “Gah. Nightmare fuel.” Jack sighed. “We’d better get some sleep. We’re pretty much booked through Christmas. I’ll take the couch, if you don’t mind.”

  “Jack, we’ve discussed this before. You’re too big for the couch. Just sleep in my room.”

  “I’m not making you sleep on the couch.”

  “No one said I was sleeping on the couch.”

  He paused. “You’re gonna sleep with Faye?”

  “No.”

  “…you’ve lost me.”

  Kamala rolled her eyes and lurched to her feet. “It’s a Queen-sized bed, Jack. There’s enough room for both of us.”

  Jack suppressed the urge to gulp. “Oh. Uh. Right. I mean, if it’s not a big deal to you or anything.”

  “Would I have suggested it if it were?”

  “Well, no.”

  “Then it isn’t. Let’s go. I’m beat.” She shuffled towards the bedroom, and he followed, trying not to trip on the way.

  He’d seen the inside of her room before, usually when she was digging around for notes to give him or lending him a textbook. It smelled of vanilla and spice, thanks to the incense on her armoire. Little fairy lights hung from the walls and the décor all had the same theme: yellow daffodils. The furniture was rich cedar everywhere, adding to that warm, comfy atmosphere that washed over him as he walked in. A small, decorated shrine sat on the main dresser, with beautiful illustrations of the gods Brahma, Vishnu, and the goddess Saraswati. The bed sat underneath the window and the walk-in closet was to the right, with a connected full bathroom to the left.

  “Gonna take a shower,” Kamala said, swiping a handful of assorted clothing before heading towards the bathroom.

  “Kam.”

  She glanced at him over her shoulder. He was scratching his neck and staring at his socked feet. “About earlier… I’m sorry. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t been there. Thanks for not losing your head. Thanks for… everything, really.”

  She stared at him from under her thick lashes and then smiled. “Go to bed, you useless pagal.”

  She shut the door behind her. Jack sighed and took off his suit jacket.

  “Love you too,” he murmured, and then he climbed into her bed.

  ~ * ~

  Kamala had always been an early riser, since her parents used to wake her to do their morning prayers and meditation when she was a child. But after the rigorous hours she and Jack had worked over the past year on the project, she managed to fall out of the habit. She slept hard, often because she was only getting six hours or so per night, and woke up sluggishly, usually needing her alarm clock. This morning was no different. The tinkling sound of digital bells woke her and she moaned deep in the back of her throat with disgruntled misery.

  She tried to reach for the nightstand, only to realize something was in her way. Her arm was draped across Jack’s waist. At some point during the night, she’d managed to snuggle up against his back with her face in his shoulder blades, finding the warm, flat space comfortable. Amusingly enough, despite the vibrating and ringing cell phone, he didn’t move an inch, sleeping soundly on his side.

  Still moaning mutinously, Kamala pushed up on her other arm and reached across her partner, poking the cell phone quiet. She dropped to the pillow again and sighed. The weight of everything in her life washed over her and made her lie still for a few more minutes, contemplating hiding beneath the covers to avoid any further responsibilities. Wasn’t the worst idea ever, come to think of it. She really could use a couple more hours of sleep, and so could Jack.

  Speaking of which, she creaked an eyelid open. He still hadn’t moved. To her surprise, he didn’t snore. She’d hated sharing a bed with previous boyfriends for that exact reason, but with Jack, she felt oddly at peace. He hadn’t hogged the bed with his enormous frame, either; sleeping on his side with his legs mostly curled up so
they wouldn’t hang off the edge, one arm dangling off the side of the mattress, most of his face buried in the pillow. His hair stuck up at several different angles and she fought the urge to smooth it down like always.

  “Hey,” Kamala murmured in a sleep-heavy voice, ruffling said messy hair. “It’s time to get up, Jack.”

  A growl answered her. She giggled, having anticipated it. “Oh, don’t you start. I don’t like this anymore than you do.”

  He mumbled something unintelligible as she poked him in the ribs. “Come on. We have work to do. Remember the whole ‘we made a dragon’ thing?”

  Another Neanderthal grunt followed, and then he rolled over and pulled her up against him, settling his chin on the crown of her head. She stayed perfectly still, too shocked to move.

  “Too early,” Jack muttered. “Five more minutes.”

  She wiggled until she could look up at him. His eyes were still closed and his breathing was deep. Jack didn’t like to be touched, from what she could tell, so that led her to the conclusion that he was still half-sleep.

  “Jack,” she said patiently. “We have to get up.”

  “No, we don’t,” he mumbled into her hair. “We’re playing hooky today.”

  An actual sentence this time. He was waking up, bit by bit. “That sounds very irresponsible, Jack.”

  “S’fun, though.”

  Her shoulders shook with suppressed laughter. “Where are we going to play hooky? We’re world-famous scientists now, remember?”

  “Not going anywhere. Staying in bed.”

  “For how long?”

  “Forever.”

  Her shoulders shook harder. “Forever?”

  “Mm-hmm. S’nice. This is a nice dream.”

  “I hate to break it to you, but you’re not asleep, Jack.”

  “What?” He stirred finally and opened his eyes halfway, noticing the immensely amused look on her face from about two inches away. Then, he promptly let go and scooted away as if she’d burned him.

  “Shit! Sorry, Kam. I-I didn’t—I mean, I wasn’t—”

  She yawned, waving a hand to dismiss the apology. “Relax or you’re gonna fall off the bed.”

  He glanced over his shoulder and realized she was right, moving away from the edge. “No, really, though, sorry. I’m kind of a heavy sleeper.”

  “I noticed. I’m still contemplating that offer to play hooky, matter of fact.”

  He arched an eyebrow. “I said that?”

  She shook her head. “Boy, you must be out of it if you can’t even remember what you said ten seconds ago.”

  Jack paled a bit. “Uh, what else did I say?”

  “Oh, it’s too late. I know the truth. I know your big secret.”

  Jack’s heart started digging its own grave inside his chest. “What, uh, what secret?”

  She leaned forward, her dark hair sliding down from behind her ear, a sly smile forming on her lips. Jack tried his best not to appreciate the simple beauty of her; even disheveled with no makeup, she was still beyond gorgeous.

  “You’re a cuddler.”

  Jack’s heart stuck its head out of the grave and did a fist pump. He tried not to let the relief show on his face. “Oh. That. Well, yeah. What’s wrong with cuddling?”

  She shrugged and propped her head up on one hand. “Nothing. It’s just surprising. You don’t like it when people touch you.”

  “Depends on who’s doing the touching, I guess.”

  She lowered her lids a bit. “Jack… are you coming on to me?”

  “Haaaaa. Good one, Kam. Let’s not forget who invited who into whose bed.”

  “Point taken. Regardless…” She patted him on the cheek playfully. “Time to get up. Let’s go.”

  She kicked the covers off her legs and slid off the bed, walking into the bathroom humming under her breath. The door closed.

  Jack collapsed face-first into the mattress and pulled the pillow over his head, moaning in shame. “Useless pagal.”

  ~ * ~

  Due to their overnight fame, Kamala and Jack headed into the lab as early as possible, arriving just before six a.m. to avoid the less-devoted press members who wouldn’t rouse until seven or eight. With only a glint of dawn wrapped around the city, they slipped into the building easily and retrieved the nest of unhatched eggs that had been stored for further research. Kamala had a lot of friends in the medical school, so she was able to get access to the coroner’s lab to determine the cause of death for the unborn hatchlings.

  Jack took a deep breath and snapped on his protective goggles, glancing at his partner. “Ready?”

  “Not as much as I’d like to be,” she said, running a gloved finger down the side of one egg. “This hurts a lot more than I thought it would. Hard to keep a scientific distance when we literally engineered them from just tiny cells.”

  “I know,” he said. “But we owe it to them to find out what went wrong. Let’s get started.”

  They took photos of each egg from every angle and then sent them through the x-ray machine one by one, assigning each egg a letter to keep track in case there were differences between them. Once everything was fully documented, Kamala made a careful incision on the first egg. The fluid had gotten a thicker, more viscous consistency after a day of inactivity, and formed a gel around the dead baby dragon. She carefully lifted its corpse out and onto the coroner’s table under a bright lamp. Jack clicked on the mic hanging from the ceiling as she began.

  “Discoloration,” Kamala said as Jack hovered by her right shoulder. “That’s the first thing of note on record. The sac fluid around Pete was light yellow and this is reddish-brown.”

  She took pictures of the remains inside the egg shell and then moved on to the body of the dragon. “No external C.O.D, but we predicted as much. Autopsy commencing.”

  She made careful, neat incisions down the chest cavity of the animal and then one in the skull. “Discoloration of the brain, which might indicate suffocation or atrophy. Pupils dilated to extreme proportions, especially for a reptile. Heart appears to be the cause of death. The tissue is dead and the veins and arteries are also discolored.”

  “Do you think it was a by-product of the Komodo dragon’s DNA? After all, they have hundreds of kinds of bacteria in their mouths that enable them to catch and kill prey or defend against other predators.”

  Kamala shook her head. “As far as I can tell, the splicing worked perfectly. The original DNA didn’t reject the Komodo’s chromosomes. It was practically poetry. Something else must have happened.”

  She swabbed the liquids surrounding the heart, lungs, and intestines, then carefully put them on slides one by one. Jack set up the microscope and she climbed on the stool, checking out the sample tissue and liquid from the heart of the fetus.

  After a moment, Kamala blinked her eyes hard and sat up straight, her delicate brow furrowed nearly as deeply as her father’s. “That can’t be right.”

  “What?”

  She peered into the lenses again. “There’s something attached to these blood cells and to the tissue, but it’s not from the dragon. It’s organic, alright, but…”

  Kamala stood and gestured towards it. “You have more experience in animal and plant science. Tell me if you recognize it.”

  Jack nodded and stooped over the microscope.

  “No. That can’t be what I think it is.”

  “What is it?”

  Jack sat back, his face suddenly pale. “That’s atropa belladonna.”

  “Poison?” Kamala choked out. “As in deadly nightshade?”

  Jack nodded, swallowing hard. “Took a few botany classes in graduate school. We’ll still run the tests to confirm, but that’s it.”

  “How the hell did they get belladonna in their systems? That makes no physiological or biological sense. Their organs couldn’t have naturally produced it. Even the dragons we’ve studied
who could manufacture poisonous glands, didn’t make belladonna. Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

  Again, Jack nodded. She stepped back. “You think someone poisoned our hatchlings while we were gone?”

  “I think that’s exactly what happened.”

  Kamala strode back to the table with the intact eggs on it and picked one up. Jack came up behind her with a flashlight and held it beneath the egg. Towards the very bottom of the shell came a tiny red light, one so small it could have been missed if not for the light shining through the other side.