Page 183 of Tamed By Her Touch

“Oh my God,” she murmured. “My levels are so much lower than they were this morning!”

Kaelus frowned.

“By how much?”

“Approximately seventy percent,” Maera said.

Clair looked from her own reading to his.

“So I really did transfer it to him,” she said. “Through sex.”

Maera gave her a little smile.

“Apparently you were determined to test your own hypothesis immediately.”

Clair felt her cheeks getting hot.

“She had no choice,” Kaelus said soberly and she felt a stab of guilt coming from his direction. “After Sendar injected me with the virus, she felt obligated to save me.”

“It wasn’t an obligation—I wanted to save you,” Clair said softly.

His face twisted.

“You risked yourself. I could have killed you.”

“But you didn’t,” Clair said lightly. “And that’s all we’re going to say about that.”

For now, anyway. She wanted to talk to him privately about what was going on between them, but now was not the time or the place.

“The important thing,” Maera said, “is that we now have the mechanism. veloria itself is not the cure. Female metabolism converts the plant precursor into the active neurological inhibitor, which can then be transferred to a male through bodily fluids.”

“Saliva works for maintenance,” Clair said. “But not for an acute infection.”

“Apparently not,” Varell said mildly.

“And sexual transfer delivers a much higher dose,” Clair went on.

Kaelus was studying the numbers intently.

“If the active metabolite can be isolated and synthesized, there may eventually be no need for direct transfer.”

Clair nodded eagerly.

“Exactly. We should be able to manufacture it once we know the final molecular structure.”

“And until then?” Varell asked.

Clair and Kaelus looked at each other.

“Well,” Clair said slowly, “there are going to be some interesting conversations with the wives on Glenvarren.”

Varell’s mouth twitched and Maera laughed outright. Only Kaelus didn’t smile.

Then one of the diagnostic displays chimed and Maera turned toward it. Her smile faded and became a look of uncertainty.

“What is it?” Clair asked, immediately alert.

Maera didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she studied the new data with a deepening frown, then looked from Clair to Kaelus and back again.