News always seems to have two sides; one good and one bad.
But at that current point in time, Neeran wasn't sure she'd ever hear good news again.
"Why are we looking for... that?" asked Janan, unable to force herself to say the word 'blood'.
"To save Ezra's life," said Neeran, beginning to go through cupboards. "Lock the door, Shakkuri."
Shakkuri had already tasked himself with that job and was already mostly finished when Neeran had asked him to do it, but knowing how unstable Neeran was at that point, decided it would be best not to tell her so as the family continued their search for what would save Ezra's life as Zach began to comfort an extremely confused and scared Ezra.
"What's happening?" asked Ezra in a whisper.
"Neeran's trying to save your life," said Zach.
"What's happened?"
Zach looked at Ezra sympathetically and sighed, "You've become one of us."
Unfortunately, it was Janan who found what they were looking for first.
"Mum!"
Neeran reacted instantly and was by Janan's side and moved her out of the way.
"Thank you Janan."
"One of you?" asked Ezra in a scared voice. Zach nodded and began to explain, "There's an operation that exists to allow a human to become one of us. But it's useless now. Your genes are too far removed from those that originally made this experiment possible. It's amazing that you've survived three years with this."
"Am I going to die?"
"Your body has been trying to fight this as an infection for three years," said Zach. "Your immune system has already mostly given up and that leaves you open to other, potentially life-threatening illnesses. The chances of you dying are exponentially high now."
A memory had sparked in Neeran's mind when Zach had mentioned 'threes years ago.'
Her mind flashed back to when she had looked Ezra over for any significant injuries after he had been rescued from Juan and the Black Sun the first time, around three years prior.
She hadn't found anything significant then but she had found an incision on his arm that she recognised as a point to draw or infuse blood from. When she'd asked Ezra what had happened, he'd only told her that the ponytailed man, who she knew as Juan, had taken a blood sample from him.
That should have sparked Neeran's suspicions about why Juan had taken a blood sample of a four year old human ex-slave but she had been more concerned with making sure he didn't have any infections about him or in his bloodstream.
And she had forgotten about it later...
"There is a way to save Ezra's life now," explained Neeran looking down at the bench and the label marked with the name Ezra Zaneshi.
"But you won't like how."