I consciously waited until he was finished and presented the vials of corpse blood to me before I spoke up.

"I meant from you," I mused, a sly smirk of sharpened teeth stretching across my face.

The assassin's posture stiffened and his spidery fingers tightened around the glass vials. I could see the fire in his eyes as he tried to stifle a fit of childish anger.

"You asked for blood. I am giving you blood."

"I said, what I need from you is a few vials of blood. Your blood." I approached the lithe man and took the corpse's fluids from him. "That's why I asked if you wanted to handle it yourself."

I lightly threw the things onto a nearby table and produced a fresh syringe and a couple empty vials, different in shape than the other three.

"Your arm, please," I told him.

Lye only scrunched his face up a bit as if he was in dire need of a trip to the toilet.

I cocked my head to the side, my amber eyes flashing in annoyance. "Give me your arm or I'm going to stick this thing in your eye."

Reluctantly, the Master Hand slid an arm out of his black duster and presented me with the pale flesh of his elbow. With deft hands, I removed the cork that protected the end of the needle, cautiously stuck it into the vein located in the crook of his arm, and withdrew enough blood to fill the two vials.

I withdrew the needle from his arm, and moved back towards the table where I tossed my equipment. I produced a small bandage and tossed it Lye's way before sticking the tip of the needle into the vials, filling them with his tainted blood.

Without spilling a single drop, mind you, because I am a fucking professional.

After I finished up, I turned back towards him. He had already put his coat back on. The bandage I offered was lying on the table next to him, unused. The ungrateful prick.

"So here's the deal," I said, breaking the bitter silence that always seems to fill the air whenever the two of us were in the same room together. "It's going to take me a few weeks to come up with any real results, but I'm going to examine and run a few tests on these samples here." I motioned towards the tray with the five glass vials of blood and the twisted scrap of bone he originally showed to me.

"I'm not sure what I'll find just yet, so don't bother asking." The last thing I wanted to confirm was that the briars I planted around his heart somehow seeped some of their magicks into his bloodstream, mutating his own innate abilities to control bone matter into something far more dangerous. If that were the case, then... Well... We'll cross that bridge and light it on fire when we get there.

"But when I do discover something, I will let you know. Okay?"