you're second on my list, not first."
"All right, but hurry. The media is all over this thing. Between them and the Church members, we are not having a good time."
"Ask them if Malcolm is the only vamp down there. Ask them if the basement is steel-reinforced."
"Why would it be?"
"A lot of the basements where vamps sleep have concrete ceilings reinforced with steel beams. The church's basement doesn't have any windows, so it could mean that the lower area was specially designed with vamps in mind. I think you'd need to know that even if you decide to open the floor up."
"We do."
"Take some of the bitching faithful aside and ask them questions. You need to know the answers either way, and it'll at least give them the illusion that something's happening until I can get there."
"That is the best idea I've heard in two hours."
"Thanks. I'll be there as soon as I can, promise." I had a thought. "Wait, Pete. Does Malcolm have a human servant?"
"A lot of the people here have vampire bites."
"No," I said. "I mean a true human servant."
"I thought that was just a human with one or two vampire bites."
"So did I once," I said. "A human with just a couple of bites is what the vamps call a Renfield, as in the character from the novel Dracula." I'd asked Jean-Claude what they called them before the book came out. He'd said, "slaves." Ask a silly question.
"What's a human servant, then?" Pete asked. It reminded me of Dolph.
"A human who's bound to the vampire by something called marks. It's sort of mystical and magical shit, but it gives the servant and the vamp a tie that we could use to see if Malcolm is okay."
"Can any vampire have a servant?"
"No, only a master vampire, and not even all of them. I've never heard of Malcolm having one, but he could if he wanted to. Ask the faithful, though I think if he had one, the servant would be yelling louder than the rest. It's still worth a shot. If you solve it before I get there, call. Dolph says there's plenty of other shit to go around."
"He's not kidding. The city is going nuts. So far we've managed to contain the fires to just a few buildings, but if the crazies keep this up, it's going to get out of hand. There's no telling how much of the city could go up."
"We need to know who's behind this," I said.
"Yes, we do," Pete said. "Get here as soon as you can." He sounded so sure I could help. I wished I was as certain. I wasn't sure I could do shit in broad daylight. I'd been told once that the only reason I couldn't raise the dead at high noon was that I thought I couldn't. I was about to put it to the test. I still didn't think I could do it. Doubt is the greatest enemy of any magic or psychic ability. Self-doubt is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
"I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Great. I won't lie. I'm relieved that somebody with vampire experience is going to be on-site. The cops are starting to get some training on how to handle the preternatural, but no one trains firemen for this kind of shit."
It had never occurred to me that firemen have to deal with the monsters almost as much as the police. They don't hunt them down, but they enter their houses. That can be just as dangerous, depending on if the monster in question realizes you're there to help or not.
"I'll be there, Pete."
"We'll be waiting. See ya."
"Bye, Pete."
We hung up. I went for my shoulder holster and a different shirt. The shoulder holster would chafe with just a tank top on.
Chapter 35~36
35
I changed into a navy polo shirt and didn't run into Richard. The water had stopped running, but he hadn't come out. I did not want to see him again, especially not half naked. I wanted away from him. Lucky for me the shit had hit the fan, professionally speaking. Police work, lots of it, maybe enough to keep me out of the house all day. Fine with me. The ambulance arrived, and Zane was loaded in. Cherry went with him. I felt guilty not going with him, but she could do more good than I could. The police had still not shown up for the corpse. I hated leaving the others to talk to the cops without me, but I