The Other Side

Chapter 9

Landon was sitting at his desk, signing some papers and other documents that had begun to pile up since Alex had come to his mansion. He had just left him to sleep after Yiri's healing session, so it was a fair bet that he wouldn't be awake for a couple more hours.

His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he pulled it out. It was Marion, the head scientist on the team working on Alex's DNA and magic.

"Hello?"

"Prince Landon, I hope I'm not calling at an inopportune time," she said, her voice low and a little hard to hear.

"No, not at all. Is everything okay? How is the research going?" Her tone worried him slightly. She wasn't one to be overly anxious, which is why he put her on this job.

"Well," she began, "there's actually an issue. A pretty big one. Are you alone right now?"

That didn't sound good. "Yes, I'm alone."

"The only people who know about this are my research assistant and me, I haven't told the rest of the team yet. I actually sent everyone home early because of this."

Landon furrowed his brows. "What happened?"

There was a pause on the other line before Marion began to speak again. "There's been a new mutation in Alex's blood samples. His DNA is changing. We've never seen anything like it before. I'd like to think that the samples we have were contaminated, and that a foreign contaminant is causing the change. I think it's best if we bring Alex in for more testing. This could be incredibly dangerous."

Landon took a moment to think. "What does it mean if his DNA is changing?"

He heard Marion sigh. "I don't know. Like I said, there's no documented cases of something like this happening before. Ravi and I have been researching for the last seven hours trying to find something, anything to give us a clue as to what's happening. We caught it this morning, it seems to have started overnight. So far, the change has been slow. Just a couple of cells every hour. But it's speeding up."

This was very bad news. It had been hundreds of years since the Demon War, and no one had any idea how Demons had evolved in that time. It was entirely possible that Alex had caught some kind of Demon virus or bacteria that was slowly affecting his DNA. "I'll bring him in tomorrow. Get the lab clear of any non-essential personnel. Call in Lamont as well. I want this to be considered a crown secret, understand? No one knows about it without my permission first."

"Of course, sir," Marion said. "Ravi and I can take care of the tests. No one else has to know."

"Thank you," Landon said before hanging up. He rested his head in his hand, trying not to let himself get too worked up over what he'd just learned. He would get himself tested as well. As the person who had been spending the most time with Alex, it was the fastest way to see if whatever this was was transmissible. He should call Lamont. Marion would contact him as well, but Landon should ask him to bring whatever materials he could think of from his library.

Landon entered the number and hit the call button. It rang three times before Lamont picked up.

"Landon? I wasn't expecting a call from you. Did something happen?" He sounded tired. Landon felt a little guilty for adding more to his brother's workload.

"There's been a... problem," Landon said. "We had plans to meet with Alex in a few days, but something came up. Can you make it to the lab tomorrow? As early as you can."

"I can get my assistants to clear up my schedule for the day. What happened?"

"I don't think it's a good idea to tell you over the phone. Just bring whatever you have on Demon and human interaction. Marion is going to call you later."