Giovanni nodded. “You are welcome, as well. I have never forgotten your service to us in China.”

He had joined in Giovanni and Beatrice’s fight icepan>n China, even though it had not been part of his mission and Ernesto had not been pleased. “I failed in China.”

The other man shrugged. “That depends on your definition of failure, I suppose.”

He would have to think about that later. “I hope our presence does not cause problems for you with Ernesto.”

Giovanni laughed arrogantly. “I do not fear Ernesto. He knows better. And I told him years ago I would willingly have you on my side again in a fight.” He pushed away from the bookcases and said, “I don’t know that I would say the same for him.”

He watched the Italian walk away. Odd. That had to have been their most civil exchange. His ears perked when he heard Beatrice mention the word “elixir.”

“What did you say?”

She looked over her shoulder. “I said that it could be this is the first evidence we’ve seen of Elixir in America.”

“Elixir?” Natalie asked. “What’s Elixir?”

He walked over to her side and perched on the edge of the table. “Isn’t this what you were going after in Rome? I’d heard there was some crazy fight over it, but I thought it had all been destroyed.”

Giovanni shook his head. “We thought that too, but the missing boxes of Elixir were never found. And then last year, some of our friends found it in Ireland. Apparently, whoever was making it had bigger plans than just Rome. We think it’s being manufactured in more than one place now. We’re not sure how it’s being distributed.”

“Shit,” he muttered. If the rumors about the drug were true, this was a bigger problem than a few murdered humans.

“Can someone fill me in, please?” Natalie was annoyed. “What is Elixir?”

Beatrice was the one who spoke up. “It was intended to be a kind of cure. It was first made during the medieval period in the Middle East. An early chemistry experiment with vampire blood. Humans can’t drink our blood. It can be used on open wounds, but unless a human is at the point of death and means to be turned, their body will reject it, making him or her sick. Elixir was intended to overcome that, to make vampire blood ingestible to humans so it could heal them the way we can heal each other.”

“Okay…” Natalie was a little confused, but she was smart enough to fill in the gaps. “So it was made to be kind of a cure-all for humans. So we could heal the way you guys do. That’s not a bad thing, so something must have gone wrong.”

Giovanni said, “Along with curing humans, if a human drank the elixir, it made their blood…” He broke off, at a loss for how to explain it.

Baojia spoke up. “The rumors are that a human who drinks Elixir has supercharged blood. You don’t have to drink much and it’s like you’ve been fed for a year. And it tastes better than anything you’ve ever had.” Some memory tickled the back of his mind. “But those are just rumors. I’ve never met anyone who’s actually tasted it. I’m not going to lie, something like that would be popular, particularly with younger vampires. There were a lot of stories flying around the club in San Diego.”

Beatrice shook her head. “It’s like a drug, Baojia. Don’t ever drink from a human who’s taken it. It messes you up. It won’t kill you, but vampires who have tasted Elixir blood go wrong in the head. They’re really, really strong at first—”

“A quick burst of elemental power. Increased amnis,” Giovanni said. “But then—”

“Totally nuts,” Beatrice added. “Messes up your amnis. Weakens you.”younis

Baojia started. “Kills you?”

“Not exactly,” Giovanni said quietly. “But you’d be as good as dead. You might not even realize someone was after you. Or you might walk out into the sun without even knowing it.”

Natalie said, “So, it’s like any other drug. Seems amazing at first, but slowly kills you. Great. And it’s for vampires?”

Giovanni nodded. “It’s given to humans who the vampires drink from. And according to what we’ve heard, the rumors are true—Elixir blood does taste heavenly.”

“Well that might explain the bite marks,” Natalie said, looking up at him.

Beatrice asked, “What bite marks? What do you mean?”

“Of course.” Baojia took a quick breath. “Of course. They were… high. The vampires who killed the girls. It’s just like you said, Natalie. You asked Tulio and me if there was a drug, and we dismissed it. But there is a drug…” He stood up from the table when the realization hit. “Ivan’s giving it to the waitresses.”

Natalie stood too. “At the bar?”

He nodded. “When I went that night, I noticed a few… I almost grabbed one right then, even though I’d fed that night. They smelled that good. I didn’t think about it at the time because I was focused on getting you out of there, but they smelled incredible.”

Her mouth fell open a little. “Wow. Now I’m strangely insecure.”

He broke into a quick laugh and dropped a kiss on her mouth. “Don’t be. This explains everything. The women in the desert had been given Elixir. The vampires feeding from them must have lost control of their bloodlust and Ivan disposed of the bodies. And that explains the odd smell that Tulio and I noticed on the dead humans.”