Chapter 24. Lorena
lorena
If I felt dizzy spinning on the dance floor, it’s nothing to how I feel when he sets me down.
We’re in the plant-filled enclosure at the other end of the school, where hopefully we won’t be spotted. The vampire is dressed exactly as he was when we first met.
Yet nothing about him feels the same.
“Do you want to sit?” he asks me.
“I’m fine.” I rub my arms because it’s cold out, and he unbuttons his waistcoat, then pulls it over my shoulders. We’re both silent for a long moment.
“So,” he says. “Are you ready?”
I nod.
“Say it.”
“I’m…” I clear my throat. “Ready.”
The vampire moves closer, as if we’re about to dance again. Just thinking of how he held me on that dance floor makes my whole body quiver.
I’ve been both counting down to this moment and dreading it. Even though he’s bitten me three times already, this feels different. Maybe because tonight we’re acting as if I’m the one calling the shots.
He pulls down a little on the coat sleeve, exposing more of my neck and shoulder. Then pain rips through me.
I gasp for air as William drinks, cupping my neck in one cold hand, while the other presses between my shoulder blades.
My head slumps into his fingers, and for the first time, I don’t fight or resist. The feeling of letting go triggers a numbing sensation that dulls the sharp edges of the pain, infusing it with a shadowy pleasure.
Until the blood loss sends a wave of nausea through me, and I start to wonder if he will drink until I pass out again. Or maybe tonight he won’t be able to stop himself at all.
Any hint of surrender vanishes as I start pushing against his chest to shove him off. But my arms are as limp as my legs have become. His arm slides down to my lower back, and if he wasn’t holding me up right now, I would have fallen.
Blackness begins to blot everything, until I feel myself drifting off—
The pain cuts off as abruptly as it started.
“Are you okay?” he whispers, holding me to him with both arms.
Bleary-eyed, I look up at his red lips, stained with my blood. “I can’t—stand.”
My legs are swept off the ground at once. As he lifts me in his arms, I close my eyes because everything is spinning.
When I open them again, we’re outside my door.
“It’s … open,” I mumble.
Since I didn’t have a place to stow a key in my dress, we left the room unlocked. Tiffany had suggested I slip it in my cleavage, which would have led to quite a different scene right now.
William deposits me on my bed, then he starts to step back.
“I … I need help,” I say, pushing myself up to sitting, “taking off the corset.”
He stares at me as if I had just asked him to turn into a bat. So I twist my spine to show him what I mean.
“You just have to untie and loosen it.” I face the wall so he can get to work. “Didn’t you ever do this for a girlfriend in your day?”
I don’t think I could ask the question while looking at him.
“Perhaps one of your roommates should help,” he says, not coming any closer.
“They won’t be back for hours, and I can barely breathe.” I look at him over my shoulder. “Come on, you just fed on me.”
His jaw tightens, but my plea works because he moves in and perches on the mattress. Then I feel his fingers brushing my back, loosening the corset bit by bit.
Given the speed with which I’ve seen him move, I know he’s being gentle. Once the dress is fully loose, I hold the fabric against my chest when I turn to face him. “Thank you.”
“You have some…” He looks away from my neck, and his eyes alight on Tiffany’s tissue box. He plucks one and holds it out to me. “There is blood on your neck.”
The dreamy memory of him licking my neck clean comes back to me, and I blurt, “You can use your tongue if you want.”
I can’t believe I just said that.
William leaps back like he’s been shocked with electricity. And before I can take it back, he’s gone.
“SOOOO, WHY did you guys leave early?”
The instant I open the door to our room Monday morning, my wet hair wrapped in a towel, Salma is sitting up in bed with her chin in her hands. She was still sleeping when I woke up, and since Tiffany is in the bathroom, we’re alone.
“I had a headache,” I lie as I set down my toiletries without looking at her. “William walked me to our tower, then he left.”
“Lame,” she says. “Are you feeling better?”
“Yeah.”
“You sure?” I can hear the frown in her voice. “You don’t look well again.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not planning to be sick for our trip to Hanover this weekend.” I pull on my freshly washed uniform pants under my robe. “What happened with Trevor?”
There’s a long enough pause that I look up at her instead of reaching for my bra.
“We might’ve hooked up.”
My eyes take over more of my face.
“In an empty classroom.”
My chin drops.
“And I didn’t get back to the room until two hours ago.”
“What!” I squeal, standing on my mattress and clinging onto the rail of her bed. “Tell me everything!”
“A gentlelady does not speak of such things,” she says in faux indignation.
“Of course not. But what’s that got to do with you?”
I leap back and dodge the pillow she tosses at me.
“I know this is the jealousy talking,” she says while I turn my back to her to shed my robe and pull on my bra. “And just because I want to make you even more jealous, I’ll share this: He’s a Jonas.”
I swing around, a grin tugging on my lips. Jonas is the main character from The Giver, so that’s our word for a guy who gives more than he takes.
“And?” I press, buttoning up the white uniform shirt. “What does this mean? Are you giving him a chance?”
She rolls her eyes at my wordplay. “We’re friends with benefits,” she says, still clinging to the rail a bit too tightly as she gets down from the bed.
“You won’t even consider—?”
Salma’s smile wilts into a grimace as she reaches for her toiletry kit, like she’s just pulled a muscle. “What is it?” I ask.
“Slept on my arm funny.” She switches the kit to her other hand and steps into her slippers. “Going to the bathroom.”
I grab my own things and hurry after her. “Need to do my hair,” I say when she casts me a suspicious look on the stairs.
I watch every step she takes on the way down. I know I’m the one who’s catastrophizing now, but I’d rather be spiraling than right.
WHEN WE enter the dining hall, I feel people’s stares.
I’m used to getting collateral attention when I’m with Ma or Salma. Even when that video of me went viral, the focus was mostly on Ma. But right now, I’m not caught in someone else’s spotlight.
Everywhere I look, I lock eyes with someone.
They’re talking about me.
“Where’s Will?” asks Salma. All five of us are at the table with our plates loaded, yet the sixth chair remains unoccupied.
I shrug.
“You don’t know?” she presses me.
“He must’ve found my tracking device and deactivated it.”
“Ha,” she says sarcastically, but Trevor laughs for real. Even though both he and Sal have purple bags under their eyes, his greenish gaze has never looked so serene. And it strikes me that Trevor isn’t normally at peace. His mind is troubled.
Is that the thing William picked up on that he doesn’t like? It would be ironic, given that the vampire must be the most tormented soul I’ve ever met.
“There he is,” says Tiffany, and I turn to see William approaching. It feels strange seeing him back in modern clothes, and I’m reminded that his Halloween disguise was the real him. This uniform is his costume.
“Hello, Lorena,” he says, and I give a nod of greeting before biting into my toast. I wish I could take back the last thing I said to him last night. What was I thinking?
“So, Hanover this weekend,” says Trevor, surveying all of us except William.
“I’m so excited,” says Tiffany, tapping the table. “We’ll have phone service again!”
“I don’t understand why that hasn’t been fixed yet,” says Salma. “Didn’t you guys say the paper was interviewing Minaro about it for the next issue?”
“Fran’s writing the article,” says Tiffany. “They’re the editor in chief.”
Salma stands up, scans all the tables, and turns a quarter circle clockwise. “Hey, Fran!”
“Yo!” Fran’s blue pompadour pops up two tables away.
“What’s up with the Wi-Fi? I thought you did a whole investigation?”
Minaro looks up from the staff table, and some of our classmates’ chatter dies down as people tune in to Fran’s answer. “I did!”
“And?”
“You’ll have to read it in this month’s edition of The Hunter!”
“Seriously?!”
Fran beams a big smile before sitting back down.
I steal a glance at William. He’s already watching me, and there’s something unsteady in his eyes, as if there’s been a shift in our energy.
Like last night crossed some sort of line.
“Since Hanover was on the official list of field trips,” says Tiffany, pulling out her phone, “I researched it before coming here and made a list of interesting places to check out. There’s a café called the Chocolate Bar that’s one of the oldest chocolatiers in the country.
It’s supposed to be pretty romantic, so it’s a good date spot. ”
She looks at the vampire. “William, you should take Lore there.”
My heart stalls.
Tiffany just used the words romantic and date and Lore. She’s never called me by my nickname before.
“For my finder’s fee,” she goes on, her gaze swinging to Trevor like she’s implying he should take Salma there, too, “I want one of their signature black-and-white chocolate bunnies.”
“Lorena and I are not together.”
William’s declaration is like a blast of cold air chilling our table.
My friends look from him to me, like they’re waiting on an explanation of some kind, and I don’t know what to say.
“There is nothing remotely romantic between us,” he goes on, “and I would never court her.”
The last part was so unnecessary, it’s cruel.
“O-kay,” says Tiffany. “We heard you.”
I can barely feel Salma’s hand on my leg, gripping me like she’s loaning me her strength. William’s never is a blade stuck in my torso. It hurts more than his fangs ever could.
“I’d be happy to get you a bunny, Tiff,” says Zach, clearly trying to keep the peace.