A hand tapped his shoulder. Franks thought about tearing it off, but these agents had been loyal enough to Dwayne Myers to come here, so he let it go. “What?”

Jefferson sounded very hesitant. “I’m sorry, Agent Franks, but you need to see this.”

Surprisingly, Strayhorn was sitting up. He had a glazed look on his face and a small bottle in his hand. A single drop of liquid was rolling down the side of the bottle. It was glowing. The drop sizzled when it hit Strayhorn’s fingers.

“The Elixir of Life,” Franks stated.

“He had some on him. He just drank the whole thing,” Jefferson said. “I didn’t know.”

The rookie had just committed suicide. It would speed up his inevitable end, but he’d picked the most painful way possible to do it. The government’s best scientists had never gotten the mixture to work on any mortal-born being without the Elixir’s forced purification ripping their imperfect bodies to pieces. Strayhorn should have just asked Franks to put him out of his misery and been done with it. Shooting him in the head would have saved them all time.

All the other human test subjects from over the years would have been vomiting blood by now. Strayhorn dropped the empty bottle and it rolled into the river. The expected convulsions were not starting. He struggled to his feet, and stood there, wobbling. The rookie’s blood-soaked shirt was hanging open. All the capillaries around the bullet hole were glowing blue.

“Probationary Agent Strayhorn. Reporting for duty.” He was incoherent from the blood loss. Even on Franks, the Elixir needed time to work.

“How?” Franks asked suspiciously as he reached for his Glock.

Myers touched Franks’ arm. “Turns out . . . your descendants can use the Elixir.”

Franks didn’t have descendants. “Impossible.”

“It’s true,” Myers whispered.

Strayhorn stumbled over and fell next to Myers. “I tried, Dad. I’m sorry.” He put his head down on Myers’ chest and began to sob.

Franks couldn’t tell if it was tears or rain that was rolling from Myers’ eyes. “Can I do—”

“It’s in your hands now, Franks. All of it. The mission . . . Our safety . . . I’ve made mistakes. So many mistakes . . . But I tried my best. I always did my . . .”

Myers trailed off.

Franks stayed there, kneeling in the rain. Dwayne Myers was dead.

I have failed.

The mortal world would never understand what a valuable defender they had just lost. Even mortals on the same side of this war could never know all that he had sacrificed to protect his country. Myers was one of the only humans he’d ever known who had the guts to do what was necessary.