"To my knowledge, water isn't a deterrent, running or otherwise. Why do you ask?"
"You've never been to a building after a fire, have you?" he asked.
"No," I said.
"Unless the basement is airtight, it'll be full of water. A lot of water."
Could vampires drown? It was a good question. I wasn't sure. Maybe they could, and that was why some of the folklore talked about running water. Or maybe it was like saying that vampires could shapechange, not true at all. "They don't always breathe, so I don't think they'd drown. I mean, if a vampire woke with his coffin underwater, I think they could just not breathe and get out of the water. But, truthfully, I'm not a hundred percent sure."
"Can you tell if he's okay without going down there?"
"Truth is, I'm not sure. I've never tried anything like that."
"Will you try?"
I nodded, realized he couldn't see it, and said, "Sure, but 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."