THE PERFECT TEN (Boxed Set)

of his lab coat. Of course, he then had to jam his left hand in the other pocket to counterbalance the weight of the weapon. “I was just about ready to finish here for the night. Let me shut a few things down and I’ll ride up with you.”
    “Oh, but I’d love to have a look around. Can I?”
    Dammit. Had he left anything incriminating lying around?
    “Please? I won’t contaminate anything. I just want a quick tour.”
    No, he’d secured everything. He’d only been delaying going upstairs in the hope that she’d retire before he returned. He pasted on a smile. “Then a tour you shall have, but I warn you, there’s not much to see.”
    It turned out to be anything but quick. She was full of questions. Some things she recognized — microscopes, centrifuge, incubators, autoclave for sterilizing instruments, biological hoods to provide a sterile environment for working with specimens. But other equipment needed explanation.
    “Holy cow, you’re as well equipped as any hospital lab. Better, probably.”
    “Most definitely better, unless they’re doing primary research and have need for a DNA sequencer or gene mapping software.”
    She glanced around the lab. “Where’s that?”
    He indicated a room to their left with a nod of his head. “But it’s nothing special to look at. A big box and a computer.”
    “So is this a genetically engineered vaccine you’re working on? I mean, as opposed to a traditional vaccine like polio or flu?”
    The conversation was veering into dangerous territory. He’d have to choose his words carefully, and shield his thoughts even more carefully.
    “Exactly. My aim is to engineer such a vaccine. Unfortunately, as I’ve mentioned, vampires are immune to practically all blood-borne diseases. However, there are recorded cases of vampires dying from the blood of certain victims who gave every evidence of being completely healthy. Such reports date back to the earliest days of vampire history. Thus, the focus of my work has been to search out such individuals whose blood has proven lethal. Armed with their blood, I’m confident I can eventually isolate the anti-vampire gene from the genome.”
    Her brows came together. “There are people walking around with an anti-vampire agent in their blood?”
    “Precisely.”
    “And have you found such a person?”
    He rubbed the back of his neck. “They grow harder and harder to find.”
    “Wait a minute — can’t you create your own vaccine without such a person?”
    He shook his head. “I’m afraid not.”
    “But I thought every vaccine started with the infectious agent itself.” The skin between her eyebrows pleated in a frown. “Shouldn’t you be working with a weakened version of the vampire virus, if you want to immunize people against infection by that same agent?”
    Ah, but she was a smart one. “I’ve already done that. I took the vampire virion, crippled it and produced a vaccine. I even used the vampire virus as a gene delivery vector. And yes, it works flawlessly. Specifically, it changes the genotype that makes the cells susceptible to infection in the first place.”
    “So what’s the problem?”
    “The problem is, even if I render you immune to the vampire virus, it won’t stop a vampire from killing you. No matter how invulnerable you may be to infection, no matter how many antibodies you express, your blood won’t harm a hair on the head of the rogue who drains it from you.”
    “Doh.” She rolled her eyes. “Guess it’s late. I didn’t think of that.”
    He laughed. “It was a fair question. Until I tested it, there was every reason to hope it would deal serious harm to the attacker, or at least put them off the victim before they’d taken life-threatening amounts of blood. If I hadn’t had high hopes, I wouldn’t have labored so long to create it.”
    “You must have been very disappointed.”
    Disappointed? Try devastated. His hopes had been so high. True, earlier, cruder vaccines had failed, but he’d thought altering the genotype— 
    Enough. It hadn’t worked.
    He smiled, consciously smoothing his expression. “Very much so,” he agreed. “But the work must continue.”
    Her eyes rounded. “You have one, don’t you?”
    Delano blinked. “Have one what?”
    “You’ve found someone with the anti-vampire blood!”
    His heart stopped, then leapt into a hard thudding. “What makes you say that?”
    She gestured to a workbench where incubators hummed. “You must think you