CONSIDER THIS ABOUT the Lumen.
Mr. Quinlan’s eyes were unusually vibrant when he said this.
There are two words consigned to the page indicating the Master’s Black Site: “obscura” and “aeterna.” “Dark” and “eternal.” No exact coordinates.
“Every site had them,” said Fet. “Except that one.”
He was actively working on the Bible, trying to shape it as close to the Lumen as possible. He had amassed a pile of books that he examined and cannibalized for pieces or engravings.
Why? And why just those two words?
“Do you think that is the key?”
I believe it is. I always thought the key to finding the site was in the information in the book—but, it turns out, the key is in the information missing from it. The Master was the last one to be born. The youngest one of them all. It took it hundreds of years to reconnect with the Old World and even longer to acquire the influence to destroy the Ancients’ origin sites. But now—now it has come back to the New World, back to Manhattan. Why?
“Because it wanted to protect its own origin site.”
The fiery mark in the sky confirmed as much. But where is it?
In spite of the thrilling information, Fet seemed distant, distracted.
What is it?
“Sorry. I’m thinking about Eph,” said Fet. “He’s out. With Nora.”
Out where?
“Getting some medicine. For me.”
Dr. Goodweather must be protected. He is vulnerable.
Fet was caught short. “I’m sure they’ll be fine,” he said, but now it was his turn to worry.
Macy’s Herald Square
EPH AND NORA exited the subway at Thirty-fourth Street and Pennsylvania Station. It was there at the train station, nearly two years before, that Eph had left Nora, Zack, and Nora’s mother, in a last-ditch attempt to get them safely out of the city before New York fell to the vampire plague. A horde of creatures had derailed the train inside the North River Tunnel, foiling their escape, and Kelly had made off with Zack, taking him to the Master.
They were casing a small closed pharmacy occupying the corner of the Macy’s store. Nora was watching commuters pass them, downtrodden humans on their way to and from work, or else on their way to the ration station at the Empire State Building to exchange work vouchers for clothing or food.
“Now what?” said Eph.
Nora looked diagonally across Seventh Avenue, seeing Macy’s one block away, its front entrance boarded. “We’ll go through the store and into the pharmacy. Follow me.”
The rotating doors had long ago been locked, the broken glass boarded tight. Shopping, either as a necessity or a leisure-time pursuit, no longer existed. Everything was ration cards and vouchers.
Eph pried a piece of plywood off the Thirty-fourth Street entrance. Inside, the “World’s Largest Department Store” was a mess. Racks overturned, clothing torn. It looked less like looting and more like the scene of a fight, or a series of fights. A vampire and human rampage.
They accessed the pharmacy through the store counter. The shelves were almost bare. Nora picked up a few items, including a mild antibiotic and a few syringes. Eph pocketed a bottle of Vicodin when Nora wasn’t looking and jammed it into a small pouch.
In a matter of five minutes they had what they came for. Nora looked at Eph. “I need some warm clothes and a pair of sturdy shoes. These camp slippers are worn down.”
Eph thought about cracking a joke about women and shopping but kept quiet and nodded. Farther inside, it wasn’t so bad. They walked up the famous wooden escalators—the first such set of moving stairs ever installed inside a building.
Their flashlights played over the vacant display floor, unchanged since the end of shopping as the world knew it. The mannequins startled Eph, their bald heads and fixed expressions giving them—in the first moment of illumination—a superficial resemblance to the strigoi.
“Same haircut,” said Nora with a faint smile. “It’s all the rage …”
They moved through the floor, casing the place, looking for any signs of danger or vulnerability. “I am afraid, Nora,” Eph said, much to her surprise. “The plan … I am afraid and I don’t mind admitting as much.”