“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.”