Eph stood in the book-lined hallway of Setrakian’s apartment. He was looking in on Zack eating a Devil Dog at the old man’s small kitchen table, where Nora was asking him about school, keeping him occupied and distracted.
Eph could still feel the sensation of the Master’s grip on his head. He had lived a life built on certain assumptions, in a world based on certain assumptions, and now that everything he thought he could rely on was gone, he realized he didn’t know anything anymore.
Nora saw him watching from the hall, and Eph could tell by the look on her face that she was frightened by the look on his.
Eph knew that he would always be a little insane from now on.
He went downstairs two flights to Setrakian’s basement armory. The UV alarm lights at the door were turned off, the old man showing Fet his wares. The exterminator was admiring the modified nail gun, looking like a longer, narrower UZI submachine gun, but orange and black, and with its loading nail magazine feeding the barrel on a slant.
Setrakian came straight over to Eph. “Did you eat?”
Eph shook his head.
“How is your boy?”
“Scared, but he won’t let it show.”
Setrakian nodded. “Like the rest of us.”
“You’ve seen him before. This Thing. The Master.”
“Yes.”
“You tried to kill it.”
“Yes.”
“You failed.”
Setrakian squinted, as though looking directly into the past. “I was not adequately prepared. I will not miss again.”
Fet, holding a lantern-shaped object with a spike on the end of it, said, “Not likely. Not with this arsenal.”
“Some parts I pieced together myself, from things that came into the store. But I am no bomb maker.” He clenched his gloved claws as proof of this. “I have a silversmith in New Jersey who molds my points and needles.”
“You mean you didn’t pick this up at Radio Shack?”
Setrakian took the heavy, lantern-shaped object from the exterminator’s hands. It was constructed of shaded plastic with a thick battery base, a six-inch spike of steel on the bottom. “This is essentially an ultraviolet light mine. It is a single-use weapon that will emit a cleansing spray of vampire-killing light in the pure UVC range. It is designed to clear a large room, and will burn very hot and fast once charged. You want to make certain you are out of the way when it does. The temperature and the radiation can get a bit…uncomfortable.”
Fet said, “And what’s with this nail gun?”
“This is powder actuated, operating on a shotgun load of gunpowder to drive the nail. Fifty nails per load, inch and a half brads. Silver of course.”
“Of course,” said Fet, admiring the piece, getting a feel for the rubber grip.
Setrakian looked around the room: the old armor up on the wall; the UVC lamps and battery chargers on the shelves; the silver blades and silver-backed mirrors; some prototype weapons; his notebooks and sketches. The enormity of the moment nearly overwhelmed him. He only hoped that fear would not turn him back into the powerless young man he had once been.
He said, “I have waited for this a very long time.”
He started upstairs then. Leaving Eph alone with Fet. The big exterminator lifted the nail gun out of its charger. “Where did you find this old guy?”
Eph said, “He found me.”
“I’ve been in a lot of basements in my line of work. I look around this little workshop here, and I think — here is the one crazy who’s actually been vindicated.”
Eph said, “He’s not crazy.”
“He show you this?” Fet asked. He crossed to the glass specimen jar, the afflicted heart suspended in fluid. “Guy keeps the heart of a vampire he killed as a pet in his basement armory. He’s plenty crazy. But that’s okay. I’m a little crazy too.” He knelt down, putting his face close to the jar. “Here, kitty, kitty…” The sucker shot out at the glass, trying to get him. Fet straightened and turned to Eph with a look of
Eph shook his head. “Be my guest.”
Eph returned upstairs, slowing in the hallway, seeing Setrakian with Zack in the kitchen. Setrakian lifted a silver chain off his own neck — containing the key to the basement workshop — and with his crooked fingers he placed it over Zack’s head, hanging it around the eleven-year-old’s neck, then patted his shoulders.
“Why did you do that?” Eph asked Setrakian once they were alone.
“There are things downstairs — notebooks, writings — that should be preserved. That future generations may find helpful.”
“You’re not planning on coming back?”
“I am taking every conceivable precaution.” Setrakian looked around, making certain they were alone. “Please understand. The Master has power and speed well beyond that of these clumsy new vampires we are seeing. He is more than even we know. He has dwelled upon this earth for centuries. And yet…”
“And yet he is a vampire.”
“And vampires can indeed be destroyed. Our best hope is to flush him out. To hurt him and drive him into the killing sun. Why we must wait for the dawn.”
“I want to go now.”
“I know you do. That is exactly what he wants.”
“He has my wife. Kelly is where she is for one reason only — because of me.”
“You have a personal stake here, Doctor, and it is compelling. But you must know that, if he has her, she is already turned.”
Eph shook his head. “She is not.”
“I don’t say this to anger you—”
Setrakian nodded after a moment. He waited for Eph to compose himself.
Eph said, “Alcoholics Anonymous has done a great deal for me. But the one thing I never got out of it was the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.”
Setrakian said, “I am the same. Perhaps it is this shared trait that has led us to this point together. Our goals are in perfect alignment.”
“Almost perfect,” said Eph. “Because only one of us can actually slay the bastard. And it’s going to be me.”
Nora had been waiting anxiously to speak with Eph, pouncing on him once he stepped away from Setrakian, pulling him into the old man’s tiled bathroom.
“Don’t,” she said.
“Don’t what?”
“Ask me what you’re going to ask me.” She implored him with her fierce brown eyes. “Don’t.”
Eph said, “But I need you to—”
“I am scared shitless — but I have earned a place at your side. You
“I do. I need you here. To watch Zack. Besides — one of us has to stay behind. To carry on. In case…” He left that unsaid. “I know it’s a lot to ask.”
