Dena bent over the microscope to examine Taurian's blood again. Her stomach tightened at seeing the microscopic organisms mutating Taurian's red blood cells at an alarming rate.

Why, she didn't know. It was different than the sample of Kohl's blood she'd inspected or the alien fragment of the spear. And she wasn't a specialist to know exactly what was in his blood or what it was doing. If she had some of their father's blood, then she could do better ...