Page 71 of Hospital for Immortal Creatures

“Easy. I took a regular perfume and a vampire’s hair, I cast a spell, and it worked.”

“Just like that?”

“Yup! There’s one more thing, but I can’t really tell you – sorry! I will say this, though.” Dave scratched his neck. “No vampire suffered from the making of this perfume.”

“Do you have it with you?” Amelia asked, certain that the answer would be no and her ludicrous plan would never work.

“Always!” Dave pulled out a small vial from his jacket pocket. It was no more than two inches tall, and filled with transparent liquid. “I’m trying to start a business.” He became very serious. “I sell the perfume around the Hospital.”

Amelia stared at her salvation. “And how’s that going?”

“Not too good.” The boy shook the vial, pursing his lips. “Not at all.”

“I’ll buy one,” she said, before realising she didn’t have any money.

“Nonsense! You’re my friend. I’ll give you one for free.” The boy placed the vial in her palm.

The transparent liquid twinkled between her fingers. “Thank you, Dave. Is this enough?”

He perked up. “The vial is small, so you can easily hide it when you’re in danger. All you need is a drop, and then you’re a vampire.”

“How do you know it works?”

“Well, we witches, same as nymphs, don’t have a super strong sense of smell, so we can’t tell the species apart like that. But I asked a lycanthrope friend to help out, and she said it works. We go to school together, since she’s never been as a kid.”

“I see… How do you put it on?”

Dave pointed to the tiny cap. “Take it off and press the vial against your skin for a few seconds, until the liquid soaks through.”

“How long until it starts working?”

“Thirty to sixty seconds.”

“Awesome.”

The boy straightened up and stared at her with a gaze that, in that moment, made him seem older than his actual age. “Promise me something, Amelia.”

Despite her determination to regard him as a creature, her chest once again filled up with sympathy for the boy. “What is it, Dave?”

“If the Tribunal comes after you again, or they find you here, please use the perfume. I’ve heard that many of their agents are lycanthropes with a very strong sense of smell, so this will help throw them off your scent. Promise?”

“I promise, Dave.” What the boy didn’t know was that she intended to apply the liquid much sooner.

Fuck.

She shouldn’t have felt guilty for lying to Dave, but she did. She chose to change the subject, before she reconsidered. “Have you invented other interesting things like that?”

“Well…” He hesitated. “I told you already about the love potion.”

“Love potion? Sounds intriguing.”

The boy smiled sheepishly.

Amelia laughed and leaned back against the couch. “I think you mentioned that you used it on someone and it didn’t go according to plan?”

Dave stared at his feet. “Yeah, but it’s not something I like to talk about.”

Amelia reached out and ruffled his hair. “Don’t worry. We all make mistakes. When I was five, I hit the boy I liked in the face. Guess what happened?”

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