Fet stepped back, wild-eyed, full of adrenaline he could not stifle. “He’s gone?”

Setrakian withdrew his blade, tapping off the soil on the edge of the box.

Eph’s disappointment was overwhelming. “He escaped.” Eph stepped back from the coffin, turning to the wasteland of slain vampires inside the stultifying chamber. “He knew we were here. He fled into the subway system fifteen minutes ago. He can’t surface because of the sun…so he’ll stay underground until night.”

Fet said, “Inside the longest transit system in the entire world. Eight hundred miles of tracks.”

Eph’s voice was raw with despair. “We never even had a chance.”

Setrakian looked exhausted but undaunted. If anything, his old eyes showed a bit of fresh light. “Is this not how you exterminate vermin, Mr. Fet? By rousting them from their nest? Flushing them out?”

Fet said, “Only if you know where they’re going to end up.”

Setrakian said, “Don’t all burrowing creatures, from rats to rabbits, construct a kind of back door…?”

“A bolt-hole,” said Fet. He was getting it now. “An emergency exit. Predator comes in one way, you run out the other.”

Setrakian said, “I believe we have the Master on the run.”

Vestry Street, Tribeca

THEY HADN’T TIME to properly destroy the coffin, and so settled for shoving it off its altar of rubble, overturning it and spilling the soil to the floor. They had resolved to return later to finish the job.

Getting back through the tunnels and out to Fet’s van took some time, and more of Setrakian’s energy.

Fet parked around the corner from the Bolivar town house. They ran the sunny half block to his front door with no effort to conceal their Luma lamps or silver swords. They saw no one outside the residence at that early hour, and Eph started up the crossbars of the scaffolding in front. Over the boarded door was a transom window decorated with the address number. Eph smashed it in with his sword, kicking free the larger shards and then clearing out the frame with his blade. He took a lamp and went inside, lowering himself into the foyer.

His purple light illuminated twin marble panthers on either side of the door. A winged angel statue at the bottom of the curling stairs looked down at him balefully.

He heard it, and felt it: the hum of the Master’s presence. Kelly, he thought, misery aching in his chest. She had to be here.

Setrakian came down next, held from the outside by Fet, helped to the floor by Eph. Setrakian landed and drew his sword. He too felt the Master’s presence, and with it, relief. They were not too late.

“He is here,” said Eph.

Setrakian said, “Then he already knows we are.”

Fet lowered two larger UVC lamps to Eph, then clambered over the transom himself, his boots striking the floor.