Lilo sucked in a breath. His fingers had turned into claws, and she had no doubt that, should he really want to rip the guy’s heart out, it would be an easy task with those razor-sharp instruments.
“It wasn’t my fault,” Ronny grunted, his eyes wild when he glared at Blake.
Blake moved back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Wasn’t it?”
“No! I wanted to get out.”
“Get out of what?”
“Making the stuff. I’m into chemistry. At the beginning, I was just experimenting. You know, making the stuff to get high.”
Lilo turned to Rose. “Why didn’t he just do coke?”
“Conventional human drugs don’t work on a vampire. Alcohol, nicotine, and any other prescription or non-prescription drugs have no effect on us.”
Surprised, she focused her attention back on the interrogation.
“What happened then?”
“Well, it didn’t work,” Ronny barked. “None of the stuff I brewed was getting me high. I wanted to toss it all out, because there was no way I could sell this to a vampire when it didn’t work.”
“So you wanted to make a drug that worked on vampires and sell it on the street to make money?”
Ronny shrugged. “A guy’s gotta live. It’s not like I have a lot of job opportunities.”
Lilo rolled her eyes. There it was again: Ronny was full of excuses.
“But you didn’t destroy the drug,” Blake prompted.
“I ran into an old friend. He’d just gotten out of prison.”
“Steven Norwood,” Blake supplied.
There was a flash of surprise in his eyes. “So you’re onto him already.”
But Blake didn’t offer any more information. “What did Norwood want?”
“He needed money, too, just like I did. And he knew a few guys who weren’t opposed to doing anything it took to get ahead. When I told him about the drug I’d tried to manufacture for vampires, he had an idea. He thought that maybe it would work on humans, and instead of selling it to vampires, we could sell the drug to humans.”
Blake scoffed. “You’re trying to tell me you sold those drugs to the humans and then they committed those break-ins all by themselves? How stupid do you think I am?”
Ronny lifted his hands. “No, that’s not what I’m saying. That was the plan at first, but it didn’t work out like that. The drug didn’t give the humans a high. But it put them into an almost catatonic state where they do practically anything they’re told.” He swallowed. “Steven saw the potential in that. And once I tested how to control the human over a long distance, we put the plan in motion.”
“Hold it,” Blake interrupted. “How did you make sure the vampires could control the human over a long distance?”
“Every batch of the drug is the same, but before it gets administered, the vampire who’s in charge of that human mixes it with his own blood. It creates a short-lived bond via which the vampire can control the human’s mind. It assures that the human will only listen to his master, the vampire whose blood is in him. Nobody else can give him any orders. And mind control by any other vampire won’t work.”
“And without the blood?”
“Without it, the human goes into the catatonic state, and can be controlled by anybody. Even a human. We had to eliminate that possibility, otherwise we would have lost control over the humans we used.”
Ronny shoved a shaky hand through his hair.
“Continue,” Blake prompted. “What happened when you realized you could control humans with the drug?”
“Steven figured we could order them to rob stores for us, and homes. We wouldn’t have to get our hands dirty. And we could do it during daylight. Nobody would ever suspect us. It went well for quite some time. But I hadn’t really had any occasion to test the drug’s long-term effects, and I started seeing something…” He visibly choked back something akin to a sob. “We kept using the same humans, and I started to see what the drug did in the end.”
“Side effects?” Blake asked.
“You could say that. The long-term effect on a human is devastating. The longer the exposure, the more of the human’s mind dies. Like with an Alzheimer’s patient. It’s gradual at first, but it’s inevitable.” Ronny looked straight at Blake, his gaze open. “That’s not what I’d signed up for. I didn’t want to do this anymore. I wanted out. But—”
“Norwood wouldn’t let you,” Blake guessed.
A slow nod. “I was the only one who could manufacture the stuff. The others are nitwits. But Norwood, he knew how to keep the pressure on me. He knew about Hannah.”
Lilo’s heart contracted painfully.
“He confronted me, said he would hurt Hannah, if I didn’t do what he wanted.”
The video, Lilo recalled. The two had argued.
Ronny continued, “I tried to convince Hannah that we needed to leave, but she was stubborn and wanted to know why.”
“She didn’t know what you were doing?”
He dropped his head and shook it. “No. I had no choice, but to tell her then. I’ve never seen a person so disappointed. She threw me out. Oh God, she was so angry. I think she hates me now for what I’ve done. For what I’ve allowed to happen.” He sniffled. “I left, hoping she would cool down, but when I got back a few hours later, she wasn’t there anymore. Her dog was wandering around outside the building.”
“You brought him to an animal shelter.”
Ronny nodded. “She loves that dog, and I couldn’t take care of him, because I needed to find Hannah. I didn’t have to search for long. Steven called me. He put her on the phone so I would believe that he had captured her.”
“So you know where they’re holed up then,” Blake said.
Ronny lifted his lids, his eyes brimming with tears. Red tears. “Steven and the others had already moved their hideout somewhere else right after our argument. They figured they couldn’t trust me anymore. I checked out their old place. They were gone. I don’t know where they went or where they’re keeping Hannah.”
Lilo felt tears well up in her eyes. If Ronny didn’t know where Hannah was, how would they find her now?
“But they won’t kill her,” Ronny added. “Not as long as I keep delivering the drugs.”