A Fall of Water (30 page)

“What? All of them?”

“Not Carla, thank God, but then, she never speaks to anyone but me and Gus. No, it’s the rest of them, Gio. They plot against me.”

Giovanni smiled, thinking of the most likely culprits. Deirdre, Isabel, and Gemma may have been scattered around the globe, but he had no doubt the three sisters could gang up on their father if they put their minds to it.

“I’ll keep that in mind. No daughters. Have you told anyone else yet?”

“Other than the cardinals? No.”

“How did they take it?”

“How do you think? Officially, they weren’t pleased. But they can’t say anything when,
officially
, I’ve never existed in the first place. Besides, I’ve always been an oddity. Most immortal priests were turned from the Roman church and have far more respect for the Vatican.”

Giovanni slapped his friend’s shoulder and thanked the waiter, who set down the wine. “You’ll be fine. This is good. You’re right; it’s a new life. I’m excited for you. So, who were you writing a letter to that you needed to hide it?”

Carwyn just grinned and took another drink. “Our friend is still inside with his wife. They look like a lovely couple, if I do say so. In no way does he resemble a minion of Satan.”

“The best minions never do.” Giovanni turned his eyes toward the large windows of the restaurant where Doctor Paskal Todorov was dining. It hadn’t been difficult to track down the chemist or the cosmetics factory, but they had decided they needed to question the director to find out precisely what he knew before they destroyed the factory.

“He seems like a nice enough fellow. It’s possible he has no idea who he’s in business with.”

“Considering that it’s Livia, it’s likely that he’s completely unaware. She’s never been very forthcoming.”

“Particularly with humans.”

“True.”

Carwyn grimaced. “I’m beginning to feel bad about destroying the factory.”

“Start another one and hire him to run it. It’s not like you don’t have the money.”

“I’m not—”

“Don’t lie.” Giovanni shook his head. “You were always sketchy about that ‘vow of poverty’ thing. Don’t even pretend you don’t have the funds tucked away.”

Carwyn’s only response was a wicked grin. “Now, what kind of vampire would I be if I didn’t tuck a bit away?”

“None. So, don’t feel bad about the good doctor; you can always give him another job. Most likely, he’ll find another on his own anyway.”

“Fine.”

The two vampires waited. Watched. The chemist ate a leisurely meal with his wife before they saw him finally stand and start toward the door. Carwyn threw a few euros on the table to pay for the wine before he and Giovanni stood and started following.

They allowed the humans to turn down the street leading to their home before they approached. It was late enough that most of the street was quiet, and Giovanni couldn’t detect any observers.

“Doctor Todorov?” he called out. The doctor turned, frowning at the two casually dressed men who approached him. “Aren’t you Paskal Todorov?”

“Yes? Can I help you?” the doctor replied in English.

Giovanni smiled warmly. “Forgive the intrusion, but I believe we have a mutual acquaintance in Rome.”

“From Rome?” The human was clearly confused, but must have sensed no danger from their approach. He stood patiently as Carwyn and Giovanni walked toward them.

Carwyn immediately approached the doctor’s wife and held out a hand in greeting. Giovanni held out his hand, as well. “Yes, I believe you know my associate, Lorenzo.”

As soon as Giovanni’s hand met Todorov’s, the amnis flooded over him. He glanced to the left, and Carwyn was quietly engaging the wife in some pleasant chitchat she was completely oblivious to.

“Paskal Todorov, do you know a man named Lorenzo?”

“I know a Lorenzo Andros. He works for my company in Rome. He has inspected the factory.”

Right on the first question,
he thought. Giovanni curled his lip, annoyed that Lorenzo had used his father’s name in his business dealings.

“And what are you producing at your factory, Dr. Todorov?”

“It is a cosmetics formula. A serum of some sort. I believe it is intended to combat aging.”

“I see—”

“But it is dangerous.” A frightened look came to the chemist’s eyes, and Giovanni knew that he was tapping into the doctor’s unconscious thoughts about the project. Possibly, thoughts he wouldn’t even recognize.

“Why do you say it is dangerous?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“Did Lorenzo say it was dangerous?”

“He is not a trustworthy man.”

So, not a minion after all. Giovanni wondered if, confronted with the truth, the doctor would voluntarily shut the factory down. Was it worth taking a chance to keep Livia in the dark about their actions? The minute the factory was destroyed, she would probably be aware that Giovanni was behind it. Could they shut it down without alerting her?

He looked over at Carwyn. “Keep the wife occupied, but don’t make it obvious. I’m going to talk to him.”

Carwyn nodded and began to ask the doctor’s wife about local sightseeing while Giovanni lessened his influence over the chemist. Todorov blinked at him when Giovanni released his hand.

“Yes, Doctor, as I was saying, the health commission has some concerns about this cosmetic serum. And I’m sure you can understand our reluctance to make our concerns public. It’s not an immediate health threat, but we do need your cooperation.”

“Oh… of course.” Todorov still looked confused, but amenable, and Giovanni knew that the doctor’s human instincts, even as dull as they were, had picked up some danger from Lorenzo. “But… who did you say you were with?”

“It’s a joint inquiry between our two countries. No one wants to make the concerns public as we do our investigation, but it is vital that we control the output.”

“Oh… of course. I did understand that the trials had positive results. Were there problems I was unaware of?”

Giovanni thought back to Lucien’s story that Carwyn had related on their drive to Bulgaria. “The immediate testing did have positive results, but there are some concerns about long-term use of the product.”

“I see, I see.” Todorov reeked of worry. “I do hope the commission knows that all proper procedures were followed by our labs. Our chemists are some of the finest, and I would hate if—”

“Your facility is not under scrutiny, Doctor Todorov. We know you manufactured the product in good faith.”

The doctor looked sheepish. “In all honesty, the formula… well, it was unusual. But since all the components were botanical in nature—and Rome was very strict about quality—well, it was unusual, but not enough to worry me. Not really. Though…”

“Yes?”

“I did think it odd, Mr.…”

“Rossi. Doctor Guiseppe Rossi.” He took out his wallet and flipped it open, brushing Todorov’s hand to create the illusion of impeccable credentials in the human’s mind.

“Of course, Dr. Rossi. I did think it odd that the office in Rome was so insistent on security for the factory. Any time you have employees, there can be theft, but they were most persistent in their measures. I even had to hand count the first shipment to ensure that the product was completely accounted for.”

A chill spread over his skin and he heard Carwyn’s friendly voice falter.

“What shipment?”

“The first shipment of Elixir. It went out on the trucks last week, Doctor Rossi. It’s on its way to Rome right now.” Todorov frowned. “I… I thought you knew.”

They stared over the boxes containing the blood-red liquid. It was packaged in frosted glass and deluxe, gold-trimmed boxes with ELIXIR stamped on the outside. The small vials held no more than half an ounce. According to Lucien, a few drops was all it took. A few drops to cure a human being of ravaging cancer. A few drops to weaken a three thousand-year-old immortal in a matter of months.

“We destroy it.” Giovanni picked up a box, almost cringing just to touch the plain brown cardboard.

“We’ll drive out to the country and you can burn it. Can you destroy it fast enough to eliminate flames and ash?”

“There will be ash, but we’ll try to contain it.”

Carwyn nodded. “And make sure we don’t breathe any of the smoke.”

“Agreed.”

“Thank God they haven’t made more than this.”

“They made enough for one shipment, Carwyn. A shipment that’s headed toward my wife and our friends.”

“Do you suppose there’s any way it’s detectable?”

“I don’t know.” Suddenly the idea of destroying all the computers seemed less than ideal and he wished he had Dez or Benjamin available to hack into the mysterious technology and find out more about it. He felt sick and desperate. “This is a disaster.”

Carwyn bent to help him and they began carting the small stack of brown boxes to the back of the Range Rover. “It’s not a disaster. We just need to find the truck.”

“And the boxes of Elixir. And make sure none of them went missing. Because that never happens at border crossings, does it?”

“Livia isn’t going to produce something she can’t detect, Gio. There has to be some way to detect it. Just calm down.”

He exploded. “She doesn’t know what the hell this does! None of us do! There is some sort of—of poison headed toward my wife and family, and I have no idea what it does or what danger it really poses, Carwyn. Do not tell me to calm down!”

The vampire’s blue eyes flared. “Don’t pretend you have any more at stake than the rest of us, Gio. We need to get in contact with Rome and let them handle it so we can keep going.”

“We need to go after the—”

“Jean and Gavin are still in Rome and those two smugglers know more about tracking down shipments of dodgy goods than we ever will. You’re right; we don’t know what this does. The most important thing for us to do is find the answers.”

Giovanni took a deep breath and nodded. Carwyn was right. “We need to find Arosh and Kato.”

“If we find them, then we know what to worry about. If we find them, we find the truth.”

They burned the boxes on an empty stretch of road outside the city a few hours before dawn. They stood downwind of the fire, blocking their mouths and watching as the smoke rose from the pit that Carwyn dug. When the flames were finally out, the earth vampire sunk the remnants and covered the ashes with dirt and rocks.

“There. It’s gone.”

“That bit is, anyway.” Giovanni sighed and turned his face west.

The lights of the city glittered in the distance and he could still see smoke rising from the fire at the factory. Hopefully the small fire he’d set would conceal the destruction of the computers and the theft of the boxes and the computer that Dez told them she would try to access. There weren’t many computers. Only seven. And they fed into an unassuming tower in Todorov’s office. The metal box was swathed in blankets in the back of their vehicle. They would ship it to Rome as soon as they reached Istanbul.

Hopefully, the computer would give Beatrice and Tenzin a better idea of how the formula had been manufactured and what its effects were. They had tracked down the registration of the truck that had taken the small shipment to Rome and sent it to Matt. Giovanni only prayed that his friends could find the truck before it reached Livia.

“Come on, Sparky. We’ve got to get down the road a bit before dawn.”

“What if they can’t find the truck, Carwyn?”

“You can’t think that way. You just can’t. Besides, Jean and Gavin will track it down. When has Gavin ever failed to steal something he really wants?”

“I suppose that’s true.”

Carwyn slapped him on the shoulder. “Come, my friend. Let them do what they do best, and we’ll get on with finding the legendary missing vampires in their mythological fortress in the Caucasus Mountains using only vague directions and landmarks that haven’t held the same names for four hundred years. If we’re very lucky, Arosh will burn us before Kato pulls the water from our bodies and leaves us shriveled husks of the vampires we once were.”

Giovanni nodded. “But we have a letter.”

Carwyn turned and walked to the car. “We do. And it better be a damn good one.”

Giovanni followed him. “Speaking of letters…”

“I’m not going to tell you who I was writing, so stop asking.”

Chapter Twenty-One

Residenza di Spada

August 2012

“Yes,” Ziri said, “that is the formula that I remember."

Lucien and Dez were sitting at the desk, going over the printouts from the hard drive that Giovanni and Carwyn had sent from Istanbul. Dez had spent the previous week going over the contents with a fine-tooth comb. Since Beatrice still had trouble accessing electronics, the printer had gotten a workout.

Dez had quickly pinpointed the shipping information of the single truck that had taken the first shipment from Bulgaria to Rome. There were only five boxes on the manifest. Apparently, someone hadn’t wanted to wait. Jean and Gavin had immediately called contacts in the area, and the truck had been delayed in Serbia. They left the following night, hoping to intercept it before their favors were preempted by whomever Livia had in her pocket.

Ziri was still speaking. “It is amazing to me that they manufactured it so quickly. It took us months to put it together, even after Jabir perfected the formula.”

Beatrice perked up from her chair by the fire. “Ziri?”

“Yes?”

“How
did
Jabir perfect it? Did he test it on humans before Fahdil and Kato tried it? What did he do?”

Ziri walked over and sat across from her. Beatrice could feel Lucien and Dez’s eyes on them.

“He did test it on humans first. There was no shortage of ailing people in that part of the world, but he only tested it on the sickest of them. The first attempts did little. The human’s metabolism destroyed any benefits our blood might have offered. But slowly, there were small improvements. An extra hour before the blood was rejected. Then a day. It took over a year, but he finally found the exact formula to keep the human body from rejecting the blood. From there, the results were quite startling. One elderly woman in particular showed an amazing recovery.”