“Just like Geber.”
Lucien offered her a sad smile. “You speak of the elixir.”
Beatrice blinked. “Yes! How do you—”
“Oh, my dear Beatrice.” Lucien nodded and slumped in his chair, staring into the burbling fountain. “I’m very well acquainted with Geber’s elixir. You see...” He looked back to meet her eyes. “I’ve taken it.”
By the time Beatrice noticed Ziri had joined them, she was immersed in Lucien’s story. The old wind vampire drifted around the edge of the courtyard, watching Lucien as he spoke.
“I looked over her charts, spoke to her doctors, but there was nothing more that I could do. Pancreatic cancer is one of the most vicious, you see. And very fast moving. By the time Rada was able to reach me, she was almost gone. Her family was devastated. And I knew that she would never accept immortality. We had discussed it many years before, but she...”
Beatrice spoke softly. “She was a friend?”
Lucien smiled wistfully. “A research assistant. For many years. And a... a dear friend, as well. She left me to go to medical school, marry, have children. It was good. It was what she wanted. But we kept in contact over the years, though her family never understood, as she did, what I truly was.”
“And she died?”
For a moment, a gleam of joy lit Lucien’s face. “No, she didn’t.”
Beatrice frowned, “But—”
“I was sitting in a cafe in Plovdiv, sipping a glass of wine and mourning her. You see, I thought that I had seen her for the last time that evening. I felt sure she would not last the next day. Her body was ravaged. Then, Lorenzo walked through the door.”
“Lorenzo?” Beatrice whispered, her fangs dropping in instinctive alarm. She could feel a brush of air soothing her shoulder, but didn’t know if it came from Ziri or Tenzin.
Lucien shook his head. “I remember thinking later that it was as if an angel appeared. Oh, I knew his reputation, of course, but you never know exactly how much of anything is true in this world. We started to chat. He was sympathetic when he heard of Rada’s illness. Who among us has not lost a multitude of human friends?”
Beatrice was willing to bet that there were no humans Lorenzo mourned, but she didn’t interrupt.
Lucien continued, “He seemed to sense that Rada was special to me. And then, he made his offer.”
A creeping suspicion took root in Beatrice’s mind. “When was this?”
“Eight months ago. October of last year.”
She whispered. “Almost a year after he took it.”
Lucien smiled bitterly. “As Tenzin informed me a few weeks ago.”
“He had the elixir.”
He nodded. “A form of it, anyway. He said that he was developing it for the pharmaceutical industry. That it was experimental, but would have miraculous effects.” Lucien shrugged. “What could it hurt? I thought. She is dying already. Practically a ghost in my arms. I took the elixir for Rada without hesitation. I gave it to her within hours of talking to Lorenzo.”
“And?”
“It was just before dawn on a Monday morning. I went to my home to rest and meditate, trying not to retain too much hope. I didn’t really think it would work, despite the gold I’d paid for it.” Lucien paused and brought a hand up to rest on his chin before he spoke again. “But that night, when the sun set, I still ran to the hospital. To her room, and there she was.”
Beatrice could see his red-rimmed eyes, and her heart ached.
“She had cheated death! She was still thin, but the color had returned to her face. The doctors called it a miracle. The cancer was completely gone. Her blood tests showed normal results.” He sighed and looked up at Beatrice. “I was convinced. How could I not be? It was a miracle. Lorenzo had developed the elixir of life.”
“Tell them,” Tenzin said gently. “Tell them the rest, Lucien.”
“I stayed at my home nearby for a few months. Rada seemed to be thriving, and I met with Lorenzo again to learn more about this medicine he had developed. He told me about Geber and the four vampires, though he did not tell me who they were. My instincts are always to be skeptical, but how could I be? I had seen the results with my own eyes. And it fit with much of what Ioan and I had theorized over the years. That blood had always been the key. The combination of elemental blood which linked to the four elements present in human blood—”
Beatrice broke in. “What do you mean? What do you mean the four elements in human blood?”
“Ioan and I had always speculated that there was something about human blood that fed the elemental energy in all vampires, which was why we must have it. Human blood, in a way, contains all four elements. The cells are made up of matter, as earth is. There is water, of course.”
“And then the oxygen it carries is the air,” she nodded. “I get those. But what about—”
“Fire?” Lucien grinned, and she saw the spark of the scientist in his eyes. “More elusive. But blood carries heat, does it not? It carries the energy of the entire human body, an energy grid of far more ancient design than the ones humans have developed.”
“So, what Lorenzo told you fit with what you and Ioan already speculated, so you bought into the elixir?”
He shrugged again. “As I said, how could I not? I had seen Rada’s results. And it wasn’t until later that he told me of its other benefits.” Lucien took a deep breath and let it out, slumping into his seat. “I cannot tell you what it felt like to hear, after thousands of years, that I might be free from the demands of bloodlust, Beatrice De Novo.”