Elisabeta can’t keep doing this every rising,” Ferro objected. “Gary, you see the toll it’s taking on her.”
Gary nodded. “There’s no doubt it’s hard on her. I still don’t know what’s causing the infection. I can heal the deep scoring to the brain, the one that results after the infection, as can some of the more skilled ancients, but none of us can actually take away the infection the way she can. I don’t know any other word to call it, although technically, it isn’t an infection. It isn’t bacterial or viral. If it was, I could heal it. I’ve tried to mimic her actions. She has a gift, Ferro. She’s unique.”
Ferro didn’t need to be told that his lifemate was unique or special or gifted. He already knew those things about her. He didn’t want to take out the frustration he was feeling at his failure to protect Elisabeta on Gary at every turn. He had hoped to give her female friends and a home, where she could slowly learn the things that would make her comfortable in their world, but instead, every rising she was called on to repeat the same duties, clearing up repeated infections.
Josef, Danny and Amelia were infected nightly, Tariq nearly nightly, the ancients the least. The numbers were increasing, although because everyone was scanned nightly, the scorching was much lighter and easier for Elisabeta to remove. Still, the number of people she had to help tired her, although she never complained. Sandu, Andor, Dragomir and Gary stayed closer, as concerned as Ferro about her health.
“We’ve been keeping track of what everyone has been doing throughout their days and nights,” Gary said. “Trying to find a pattern, something everyone has in common. Keep in mind, these are human, Carpathian, men, women and children. A huge mix.”
The door to Tariq’s large meeting room crashed open and Josef bounded in. Ferro tightened his arms around Elisabeta and swung her away from the entrance, shielding her with his larger body. Startled, the action took her out of Tariq’s brain, bringing her back into the mix with the various ancients who had come together to try to puzzle out what was spreading the infection.
Josef didn’t seem to notice the frowns or glares of the older Carpathians or the amused looks of the women. “I found it. I know what’s causing the infection. They were so clever. I can’t believe I didn’t figure this out sooner.” There was admiration in his voice. “Seriously. And by the way, Ferro, Cornel saying they were working on some new algorithm to track the hunters was a bunch a bullshit. He knew Sergey wasn’t going to understand whether he could or couldn’t do what he said. He wanted access to the computers. Although they do have a program that they started working on that senses energy if a hunter is moving in the air . . .”
“Josef.” Tariq sounded patient. “What is causing the infection?”
“Oh, yeah. It was a really simple idea actually, and I should have realized it. We all use computers now. Even the kids. They just needed to get someone to bring their program into the main computer and let the virus spread to all the programs. One of the kids downloaded a game that carried the virus and it spread slowly at first and then took off, moving from program to program. You don’t have to have the original game. Danny and Amelia both have the game. At first I couldn’t figure out how the scorching was happening in the brain, but then I had to think outside the box when nothing else added up. So eventually I came up with the idea that they were able to embed magic into the code through the process of elimination, and asked Julija to take a look.”
“Is that even possible?” Maksim asked.
Ferro kept his eyes locked on the kid. He settled back in his chair, Elisabeta beside him. It was no wonder Cornel had his sights on Josef. The boy really was a true genius. It would be such a relief to finally have the mystery solved.
“Not only possible, but they also programmed everyone who was infected to open the gates to the compound on command,” Josef continued. “That way, if one was stopped, a number of others would obey the vampires. The infection would cause chaos, hopefully turning the ancients against one another. It really is a stroke of genius. The code is simple but extremely effective. They covered all the bases.”
“Are you able to get rid of it?” Tariq asked.
Josef shrugged. “It’s eaten through most or all of your programs. Everyone’s personal computers have to be wiped as well. It’s going to take a while to fix this. Your security people, all the kids. It’s a process. I’m going to have to check your computers at the club as well. If you used any of the same programs, you could have infected those computers.”
