Once Crowe had gone, Stephanie looked at the data again.

She had assumed that the infection spreading across Chicago turning people into monsters was carried by the vampire. The vampire that had attacked and wounded her husband; the same vampire that was being dissected downstairs.

But the data told a different story. The infected were showing up randomly throughout the city. It could be airborne, but the spread of infection seemed to be confined to the city limits, which was impossible for a disease this virulent. It was almost as if the contagion was choosing whom it wanted to infect…

The door opened behind her. “Did you figure out what that racket was?” Stephanie asked, turning around. Entering the room with a dozen armed men was Agent West. “And what do you want?” she spat.

“You,” the mustachioed little man answered, a lunatic gleam in his eyes. “My mistress Lilith approaches and she will require a corporeal form to reside in.”

The armed men surrounded Stephanie.

“Yours will do nicely,” West said.