I presume the Born is studying it avidly.
“Correct. That doesn’t worry you?”
To the eyes of the unworthy, it would take years to decipher.
“Good. So you’re not in any rush. Maybe I should step back, then. Wait for a better offer from you.”
And maybe I should draw and quarter your son.
Eph wanted to run his sword through this undead child’s throat. Leave the Master wanting for a while longer. But at the same time he did not want to push the creature too far. Not with Zack’s life on the line. “You’re the one bluffing now. You are worried and are pretending not to be. You want this book and you want it very badly. Why so soon?”
It did not answer.
“There is no other traitor. You are all lies.”
The feeler remained crouched, its back against the wall.
“Fine,” said Eph. “Play it that way.”
My father is dead.
Eph’s heart skipped a beat, stopping dead in his chest for a long moment. Such was the shock of hearing, as clear as though he were there in the room with him, his son Zack’s voice.
He was shaking. He fought hard to keep a furious scream from rising in his throat.
“You goddamned …”
The Master returned to Kelly’s voice. You will bring the book as soon as you can.
Eph’s first fear was that Zack had been turned. But no; the Master was just throwing Zack’s voice, pushing it to Eph through this feeler.
Eph said, “Goddamn you.”
God tried to. And where is He now?
“Not here,” said Eph, his blade lowering a bit. “Not here.”
No. Not in a department store men’s room in a deserted Macy’s. Why don’t you release this poor child, Ephraim? Look into its blind eyes. Wouldn’t striking it down give you great satisfaction?
He did look into its eyes. Glassy and unblinking. Eph saw the vampire … but also the boy he once was.
I have thousands of sons. All of them absolutely loyal.
“You have only one true offspring. The Born. And all he wants is to destroy you.”
The feeler dropped to its knees, raising its chin, baring its neck to Eph, its arms hanging limp at its sides.
Take him, Ephraim, and be done with it.
The feeler’s blind eyes stared into nothingness, in the manner of a supplicant awaiting orders from its lord. The Master wanted him to execute the child. Why?
Eph pointed the tip of his sword at the boy’s exposed neck. “Here,” he said. “Run him into my sword if you wish him released.”
You have no desire to slay him?
“I have every desire to slay him. But no good reason to.”
When the