Chapter 85

Chapter 85: Chapter 85

Maya’s hands paused for a fraction of a second before she resumed her examination. "Berthanon poisoned Hunter G? Are you sure of that?"

"Yes!" Freya cried. "Please, Maya, you have to do something. You have to save him!"

"Move aside and let me work."

Maya’s voice was sharp enough to cut through Freya’s panic. She checked Zeke’s pulse, then pressed her stethoscope against his chest, listening carefully to his heartbeat. Her brows drew together as she moved the instrument to another position, then checked his pulse again, as if hoping she had made a mistake the first time.

His heartbeat was irregular.

Maya immediately reached for the equipment beside the bed and began preparing a blood sample. She drew a small amount from his arm, careful to avoid the most prominent blue veins, and transferred it into a testing vial.

The residue of the poison he had taken should still be circulating in his blood, and if she could identify it, she might at least discover what they were dealing with. She also needed to determine what had been inside the syringe, since the second substance might have reacted with the first and turned an already dangerous situation into something far worse.

"Freya, I need you to tell me exactly what happened," Maya said as she worked. "Did he take anything before he collapsed? Any medication, herbs, or other substances?"

"He injected himself with what he thought was his antidote," Freya replied, wiping her face with the back of her hand. "He said he’d hidden it in his drawer, and he had been using it to control the poison Berthanon gave him. But when he checked the syringe, he realised someone had switched it. He said the smell was different, and the mark he’d put on it was gone. Then he tried to stand, and he just collapsed!"

Maya’s jaw tightened. She placed the vial into the testing apparatus and began running the analysis, her movements becoming faster as the results appeared. Freya watched her anxiously, unable to stop her hands from shaking. She wanted to ask a dozen questions, but the look on Maya’s face warned her that interrupting could cost them precious time.

Beside Ingrid’s bed, Lysander had risen to his feet. His purple eyes were fixed on Hunter G, and the air around him seemed to grow colder as he studied the blue veins spreading across the hunter’s body. He said nothing, but the tension in his expression made it clear that he understood how serious the situation was.

After what felt like an eternity, the testing apparatus gave a short beep and as Maya looked at the results, all the colour drained from her face.

For several seconds, she didn’t move. Her eyes widened, and her fingers tightened around the edge of the table as she stared at the information displayed before her. Freya noticed the change immediately, and the fear already twisting inside her grew so unbearable that she could barely draw a breath.

"Maya?" she whispered. "What is it? What poison is it?"

Maya didn’t answer straight away. She checked the results again, then leaned closer to the display, as if she desperately wanted to find an error that would make everything less horrifying. When she finally turned towards Freya, the expression on her face was enough to make Freya’s knees weaken.

"Tell me the truth," Maya said, her voice low and strained. "Are you certain it was Berthanon who poisoned Hunter G?"

Freya stared at her. "Yes! I told you that already! He did it! Now tell me what the poison is. Can you cure it? Is there an antidote? Maya, please, I need you to tell me if Zeke is going to survive!"

Maya clenched her fists, and for the first time since Freya had known her, the nurse looked genuinely frightened.

"It’s called Black Vein," she said. "It was a classified killing poison that existed long before the zombie apocalypse. It was banned decades ago, and even possessing it was enough to get someone imprisoned or executed. The poison attacks the body’s vital systems, disrupting the heart and gradually shutting down the organs. The blue veins you’re seeing are a sign that it has already spread through his bloodstream."

Freya shook her head, refusing to accept what she was hearing. "Then give him the antidote! You work in the Hunter’s Guild. You must have something that can treat it!"

"Freya, listen to me." Maya’s voice broke through her frantic demands, but there was no reassurance in it. "Black Vein has no known cure. That is why it was banned. It was designed to kill, and the people who developed it made certain that ordinary treatments couldn’t reverse its effects. Even before the apocalypse, there were no documented survivors once the poison reached this stage."

Freya took a stumbling step backwards, shaking her head so violently that her hair fell across her face.

"No," she whispered. "No, you’re wrong. There has to be something. Zeke knows every poison listed in the Hunter’s Guild Ledger. He knows how to treat them, and he had an antidote. He wouldn’t have kept using it if he didn’t know what he was doing!"

"The antidote he was taking may have been suppressing the effects of the first poison," Maya explained, forcing herself to remain composed. "But the substance he injected into himself today is something else entirely. The tests show traces of a second compound, one that would be less dangerous on its own. Unfortunately, when it reacts with Black Vein, it creates a highly toxic mixture that accelerates the damage to the heart and other organs. Whoever replaced his antidote knew exactly what they were doing, or at least knew enough to make the consequences deadly."

Freya’s lips parted, but no sound came out. Her gaze drifted back to Zeke, to his colourless face and the blue veins standing out beneath his skin. He had trusted that syringe to save him, believing it was the one thing that could keep him alive until he found a way to free himself from Berthanon’s control. Someone had taken that fragile chance away from him, and now he was lying unconscious while his own body turned against him.

"How long?" Freya finally asked, barely audible.

Maya looked down at the test results, and her expression grew even grimmer.

"The poison has been in his system for more than four hours. I can’t tell you exactly how much time he has left, but the irregular heartbeat means his condition is critical. The second substance has made everything worse, and I don’t know how quickly the damage will progress from here."

Freya pressed both hands over her mouth as a sob escaped her. Four hours. Zeke had been poisoned for more than four hours, and all that time, Berthanon had been walking around the Guild as though nothing had happened.

Maya looked at Freya again, and the anger in her eyes was now impossible to miss.

"If Berthanon really used Black Vein against Hunter G, then he never intended to give him an antidote," she said. "The original poison was already a threat he could use to force Zeke into obedience, but this is different. Whoever switched that syringe made certain that even the treatment Zeke had prepared for himself would become a weapon against him. This wasn’t a warning, Freya. The person who did this was aiming to kill him for good."