“What happened? Was this Ivan?”
Her eyes rolled back and her body arched in pain for a moment. Father Andrade knelt beside her, placing a tablet between her lips and offering her a sip of water. “She goes in and out. The doctor who came said it looks like she is starving to death, but even a feeding tube didn’t help her. We tried.”
Her blood held none of the sweetness of the other girls. It smelled of fermented fruit baked too long in the sun, pungent and on the way to sour. “Constantina, did Ivan give you a formula? An elixir of some kind?”
“The Elixir of Life…,” she whispered. “He didn’t drink from me after that, even though I could tell he wanted to. He stayed away. Said it was too soon. If it worked, he would be able to keep me for much longer.” Her smile was bitter. “I was aging. He couldn’t have a wrinkled mistress to introduce to his guests. Ivan was too proud for that.”
“Who gave him the Elixir, Constantina?”
She gave a weak shrug. “I don’t know. I always thought I would die very quickly or all alone. Even if I survived him, he’d shove me off somewhere when I became too old.” The thin woman sighed. “And I had peace about it. I loved him. Stupid, I know. But I did. And I enjoyed the power and attention I had, for a time.” She reached for Father Andrade’s hand. AndradehanI hBut the wages of sin are death, aren’t they, Father?”
“Please, Constantina.” The old man had tears in his eyes. “Let me take you to the hospital. Let me find you proper care, my dear. You are too young to waste away like this.”
“It won’t help. I could tell by the look on his face when I first started to lose weight.” She looked straight into Baojia’s eyes. “He knew. Ivan knew what was happening.”
“Who else did he give it to?” he asked.
“Some of the waitresses. And he told some of his men—not the good ones, the stupid ones. Told them to drink from the girls. They became… addicted. Those girls were the most popular at the club. All the men wanted to drink from them. Ivan let many of them, but not all. That’s when I knew that it was a poison for your kind, too. Then the girls started disappearing, but no one noticed at first. There were always more girls. I noticed the ones who had taken the same drug I had disappeared after only a few months. More showed up in their place. They would pick a few and give them the drink.”
“New girls?”
“Or annoying ones,” she said with a weak smile.
“How long ago was it?” Baojia was still trying to figure out a timeline. Were the effects immediate? If a girl was taken by Ivan’s people, how long did she have? They had to know how much time they had before another hunt would take place. “How long did it take the waitress’s blood to become affected?”
She frowned. “Only two or three days, I think. So…”
“So if a girl was taken—”
“If they gave her the drug right away, she’d only have to wait a couple of days before she’d become everyone’s favorite drink.” Constantina’s lip curled in disdain. “I was only Ivan’s woman. No one else drank from me. These other girls… they fed anyone who asked. Putanas. I left around the time the lock showed up on the basement door. He was keeping women down there. I didn’t want to know why. I left.” Her eyes flickered closed. “No one came after me.”
Father Andrade said, “When she came here, I tried to take her to a hospital, but she refused. Constantina, please let me call someone. I beg you.”
Baojia had a feeling that there was nothing the human doctors could do. Carwyn only confirmed it.
“Just make her comfortable, Father.” He sat in a chair next to the woman and brushed a bit of hair from her forehead, looking down on her sadly. “There is nothing the human doctors can do for her. We are still trying to find a cure ourselves.”
She had fallen asleep, and in that rest, Baojia saw a shadow of the beautiful woman who had charmed so many. Had Ivan intended to kill his favorite mistress? Somehow, he doubted it. But the vampire seemed to have no hesitation about using the knowledge he had gained to further his own ambitions. He was not mourning his woman or seeking a cure, he was spreading it for his own benefit, whatever that might be. Perhaps he had truly intended for it to be good, to keep her young and at his side. Perhaps. But he had still used Constantina as a test subject. He hadn’t fed from her, and that told him Ivan knew the drug could be harmful.
“Father Andrade, does she have any family?”
“No one.”
Baojia rose from his knees. The sick woman rested uneasily, her eyes jerking under her lids as she dreamed. Baojia backed out of the room, certain he would not see her alive again. They climbed the stairs and took their leave of the priest, exchanging phone numbers so Father Andrade could call them if any ll the room, more useful information became known. As they were leaving the house, a teenage girl came running up the walk.
“I can’t find her, Father!”
“Carmen?” The priest’s eyes widened in alarm. “You can’t find Carmen?”
Carwyn walked over to the girl’s side. “Who is this?”
Words tumbled out of the girl’s mouth. “I told her not to take that job. I told her—” She eyed Carwyn suspiciously. “I told her they weren’t like us. That they couldn’t be trusted. But the money was too good. She needed the money. That’s the only reason she went there. We have to find her!”