“Mr. Roscoe,” I choked out.
His gaze felt heavy. So heavy I wondered whether I would be able to move again if I tried.
“That wasn’t me,” he said. “But I believe it was another vampire. The same as attacked you on the heath.”
I remembered his words from earlier.What I’m saying is I easily could have.
“The rumors are true, then?” Fear lifted the pitch of my voice. “Youarea killer.”And Jack tried to warn me.
His eyes drifted to the window. “You’re not wrong, but it’s a little more complicated than that.”
“Howis it more complicated?”
My tone—half anger, half terror—drew his gaze. I was shaking—hard. The cold air in the tower bit into me, and I wrapped my arms around my chest.
He clasped his hands behind his back. “Your instinct, once you believed me, was the correct one. Flee, Miss Penrose. You’ve heard enough to understand why you must stay away from me.”
Free to go. One message of warning delivered and another received. Yet I hesitated, studying him.Hermit. Alchemist. Vampire.He didn’t look dangerous anymore; he just looked tired. And deeply sad.
He’s more lonely than I am.
“Youchose to tell me this,” I said finally, “and to make me believe it. A man has died, and I’m not going to leave here with half an understanding.”
He closed his eyes, letting out a breath.
My gaze moved again to the gourd-shaped copper vessel near the hearth. Steam and droplets collected in the vessel’s glass cover, and I heard a trickle of liquid traveling through a thin pipe into a second vessel.
“The medicine you make here,” I said, “does it somehow keep you from ...?”
His brows lifted. “That is excellent detective work, Miss Penrose.” While I wasn’t sure I knew what “detective work” was, I understood him to mean that I’d guessed right, and I breathed somewhat easier. He continued, “My vital essence is a replacement for the blood that I otherwise must drink to survive.”
“It doesn’t have blood in it?”
“No. I can explain if you like. It’s rather technical.”
“Please.”
He folded his arms, brow knitting as he gathered his thoughts. “The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote about the four elements that make up all matter—fire, air, water, and earth. These elements manifest the qualities of hot and dry, hot and wet, cold and wet, and cold and dry. In the human body, ideally these elements are in balance, but in reality, they often are not. Such imbalances are at the root of illness. Do you follow me?”
Though only just barely, I nodded.
“A vampire is an excess of earth—cold and dry. Blood is hot and wet, and drinking it helps make up for this imbalance. My vital essence is formulated to do this without blood. It is a distillate of Walachian wine. Early alchemists dubbed distilled wine ‘aqua vitae,’ but essentially it’s brandy. Between distillations, I infuse the wine with fenugreek,Angelica sinensis, elderflower, foxglove, and the dark berries ofAtropa belladonna—nightshade. Also dew of lady’s mantle, which purifies and potentiates the elixir.”
I followed his gaze to the shelves, where there were rows of bottles. The wine bottles with the labels I couldn’t read, but also bottles with amber glass containing dark liquid, or clear glass filledwith clear fluid and herbs. Other shelves held jars of dried leaves and flowers, and a few jars contained shiny, dark berries.Isn’t belladonna a poison?
“I’ve included herbs with warming and moistening qualities,” he continued, “andAngelica sinensisis also a blood tonic, as is elder. Foxglove helps my heart cope with the sluggishness of my blood, and the nightshade berry somewhat dulls my heightened senses. It also gives the essence an unusual side effect”—he raised the tips of his fingers to his bottom lip—“but the medicine is not as effective without it.”
“The bruised color,” I said. “And your eyes—is that why you sometimes wear dark spectacles? So people don’t notice the color?”
“Partly. But mostly because nightshade causes mydriasis.” I frowned, and he explained, “My pupils are always dilated, and daylight hurts my eyes.”
He crossed to the furnace and fed it some small pieces of wood, rousing the flames inside. I didn’t have his learning, and I didn’t fully understand some of the things he’d told me, but one thing seemed clear enough.
“It sounds to me like you are no longer a danger to anyone, Mr. Tregarrick.”
He turned, and his glower stopped my breath. “Let me be clearer, Miss Penrose. The vital essence gives me a fighting chance against a deadly craving. That is all.”
A deadly craving.
