“This particular colloidal dispersion,” Daniels explained, “is a substance that can be directly applied to other mediums. The substance becomes so potent that its qualities are transmitted to its new medium in a ratio somewhere in the vicinity of six to one.”
Rolling her hand as if she was guiding a car into its parking spot, Paige said, “Which means?”
“Which means, in the case of the substance I devised using the Blood Blade, traits of the biological element will be directly passed on to a biological recipient in a manner similar to when those traits are passed on to the mediums of metal or wood.”
Paige hopped off her stool and started pacing. “Blood Blades are forged using some special Gypsy metal and shapeshifter blood just to give the metal a supernatural charge.”
“Charge isn’t the best term,” Daniels muttered.
Continuing as if Daniels hadn’t even spoken, Paige said, “Our weapons can change shape because they’re alive, or they used to be. They’re not as strong as the Blood Blade because we have to use wood instead of metal.”
“Metal with the special mystery element,” Cole added sarcastically.
Paige snapped her fingers and pointed at him. “Exactly! When raw, pure shapeshifter blood bonds to living things, it allows them to do things like grow fangs and claws, run from one end of a state to the other, throw big stuff…you know.”
“I think so,” Cole said as some of the fog in his head started to clear.
As she went on, Paige reminded him of a professor feeding a slow student his lines and hoping he caught on. “But if the shapeshifter blood bonds directly with the blood of a person…”
“They become a Half Breed,” Cole said.
“Yes.”
“Either give me a sticker or get to the point,” he grumbled.
Daniels stepped in. “The natural bonding process has bad side effects, as you mentioned. The bonding process used for your weapons requires so many treatments that the same side effects would be passed on to any living thing that’s more complicated than a stick. The process used on the Blood Blade, however, is different because it uses another element as a buffer. I don’t know exactly what the element is, but I did manage to separate it from the samples I’ve been given.”
Cole’s hopes for a simple explanation were dashed, so he looked back to Paige.
Leaning on the edge of her stool with elbows planted on her knees and the jersey hanging down low enough to show the top of her leather corset, she looked like she was calling for a very interesting huddle. “The stuff we use on our weapons is basically varnish. It would kill you if you tried to mix it with your blood. Whatever is used on the Blood Blade acts like a gateway between the shapeshifter blood and whatever it’s bonding to.”
“How did you come up with all of this?” Cole asked.
“I’ve been kicking it around for a few years. The details don’t matter,” Paige said dismissively. “The tricky part has been getting a Blood Blade to someone with more chemistry know-how than me to work on it. Now, after a few tests, we’ll be able to use this stuff to safely bond shapeshifter blood directly with our blood and use their power against them.”
Cole froze for a second and leaned forward, as if being closer to Paige and Daniels would help their words sink in. “Wait. You mean you could get the powers of a shapeshifter without becoming one?”
“Bingo!”
Daniels was quick to step in before either Cole or Paige could get worked up. “No. Not bingo. Not yet. I said certain traits could be passed along, not all of them. It’s got to be tested, but with all that’s involved in the distillation process, I can guarantee it won’t be a perfect conversion. I believe my ratio was in the vicinity of six to one, meaning any powers that are passed along will be six times weaker than the source. Most likely, only the basic predominant qualities will be passed along for a short time before being weakened by that same ratio.”
Cole felt the proverbial lightbulb start to glow over his head, but knew it was forty watts at best. “So, this stuff might make someone become just a little bit of a werewolf?”
“Actually,” Daniels said with a wince, “a full bond would be needed for transformation. With this process, only predominant traits like strength or endurance of the specimen would be passed on in a diluted form.”
“So if I injected this—”
Daniels shook his head and waggled his hands as if going into convulsions. “No direct injection into the bloodstream. That would be too dangerous. Paige has suggested another means of introduction into the system that might just work.”
When he looked over at Paige, Cole was surprised he didn’t see canary feathers dangling from her bottom lip.
“I sure did,” she said proudly. Being in the football frame of mind, Paige motioned for a pass from the Nymar, and had to scramble to catch the brick-sized package before getting hit in the face. Even that near miss wasn’t enough to dampen her spirits. She ripped off the brown paper to reveal a cardboard box, which she also tore open. Inside, wrapped in bubble wrap and plastic bags, was a cylindrical grip, some long needles wrapped in more plastic, and a piece of machinery that looked like a strange amalgam of spooled wires, small pistons, and metal brackets.
It wasn’t until Cole saw the heading on the receipt that he had any clue what those pieces were supposed to form. “Mustache Pete’s Tattoo Supply? Are you serious?”
He’d never seen a smile so wide on Paige’s face. “It’s perfect,” she insisted. “The stuff can’t be injected, so it doesn’t go into a vein. This is a way to get it right where it needs to be without going too deep!”
“You know how to use that machine?” Cole asked.
“I’m not making a real tattoo. I’ll just be drawing lines on arms or legs. It doesn’t matter what it looks like because it won’t even last. Right, Daniels?”
Daniels rolled his eyes and reluctantly nodded. “Every test I’ve run has resulted in the entire sample degrading over a relatively short amount of—”
“It breaks up, burns off, fades away, whatever you want to say,” Paige cut in. “I’ve seen it!”
“You’ve seen it on a pig,” Daniels corrected. “A dead pig! It’s not the same.”
Winking and grinning at Cole, she said, “He also tested it on himself.”
“I’m not exactly the same as you two,” Daniels said.
“But he’s still got human muscle tissue…Well,” Paige groaned, “a little muscle tissue. This stuff he tapped into his arm gave him enough of a boost to move his furniture without breaking a sweat. After a few minutes the stuff just faded away. It was beautiful!”
“Tapped in?” Cole asked.
“Old school Polynesian method,” she said. “Real tribal. Very manly. It worked pretty well, but he wanted to refine it some more. I gave him another week and here we are.”
“You’re two days early!” Daniels snapped. And just when it seemed he couldn’t be more annoyed, a grating buzz filled the apartment. “What the hell?” he muttered as he scurried to the front door.
Paige flew across the room to grab him by the shoulder. “Don’t let anyone in,” she hissed.
Matching her harsh whisper, Daniels told her, “I wasn’t. That’s the buzzer from the security door.”
“Are you expecting anyone?”
He shook his head.
Cole walked over to stand next to the television, which put him between the front door and the kitchen. He’d just spotted the panel in the wall next to the door when the buzz came again. From that distance it was loud enough to rattle his back teeth. “Maybe it’s just someone downstairs hitting the wrong button.”
“Maybe it’s those two that have been sitting in their car watching the building,” Daniels suggested.
“Can you point the car out from here?” Paige asked.