“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 Can-you-believe-this? “This is all a bit more than I bargained for when I woke up this morning.” He sighted the nail gun on the jar, then pulled off his aim, liking the feel of it. “Mind if I claim this?”

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—”

“She is not!”

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.”