Chapter 26. Lorena #2
“That’s bullshit.” I cut her off because I don’t like where she’s going with this. “And you know Ma’s rule on dating.”
“You’re eighteen,” Tiffany reminds me across a row of clothing. “You really don’t need her permission anymore.”
“I’m bored.”
We spin around to see that Trevor has joined us. He scrutinizes the pink walls like they’re closing in on him. “How can you stand to be in here?” he asks, looking at Salma in her all-black getup.
“I can still admire other colors,” she says. “Even if I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing pink—sorry, Tiff.”
“I feel the same way about wearing all-black, so touché.”
“Where’s Zach?” I ask, scanning the store for him.
“He didn’t come.”
I look at Trevor so fast that I feel a crick in my neck. “But he was just at breakfast with us—!”
“I know, he sucks,” says Trevor. “But he said he needed to finish up some things for the paper, so he got permission to stay back.”
That doesn’t make any sense.
Did he decide to run with the story about William anyway? Why wouldn’t he at least hear me out? And why miss this field trip when he could be taking photographs of a new setting for the school paper?
Two customers enter the store, and I recognize Brooke and Cat.
“Oh good, you’re all here,” says Brooke upon seeing us.
“We read reviews about a bar that doesn’t card,” she says in a low voice when she comes closer.
“Jordan, Alex, and some of the others are going to meet us there. Why don’t y’all come?
You can tell William, too,” she adds, looking at me. “It’s called the Hangman.”
Tiffany opens a map app on her phone to look up the bar. “Got it.”
“Join us, Trev,” says Cat, giving him a coy smile.
“Ooh, you need those!” Salma exclaims loudly to Tiffany as she reaches for a $500 pair of shiny pink boots.
A saleswoman materializes at her side. “What size would you like?”
“I’m gonna find a bathroom,” I tell Sal before taking off.
I have a growing sense of unease about Zach’s absence, and I need to talk to William. I need to know he didn’t have anything to do with this.
I’m more than an hour early when I make it to the Chocolate Bar, but William is already at my side, like he’s been waiting.
Or watching.
I know he kept tabs on me at school in the beginning, and maybe he never stopped. He must have overheard my conversation with Zach. But when did the vampire have time to do anything to him, if we left breakfast together?
“Shall we?” asks William, waving me ahead.
“First, tell me what happened to Zach.”
His eyes narrow, but not in denial. “Why did you not tell me of his threat?”
“It wasn’t a threat,” I say, my heart pounding. “I could’ve handled it myself. What did you do to him?”
“Why were you afraid to tell me?” the vampire insists.
“Because I didn’t want you to do exactly what you did!” I snap. “Just tell me you didn’t kill him, please.”
William’s amethyst gaze dulls, like some inner light has snuffed out.
“After everything I have done to prove that you can trust me—abiding your request to wait eight weeks, apologizing to you for my behavior—you still assume the worst of me. Will it always be like this?”
“William, you haven’t exactly been a saint.”
“And you think I am the prejudiced one?”
He takes off in anger, and I just stand there, looking after him. We didn’t even make it a full twenty-four hours as friends. And worse, despite his show of outrage, William didn’t say what happened to Zach.
Nor did he deny my accusation.
I weave through streets so fast and distractedly that I have no idea where I am. It looks like storefronts have morphed into warehouses in the less populous part of town. I check the map app on my phone to see how to get back to the retail area.
“Hello.”
I look up at the sound of a guy’s voice. I have no idea where he came from.
“My name is Nate, short for Natalio,” he says when I don’t say anything. He looks college-aged, and he has a long ponytail and sharp smile. “What’s yours?”
“Not interested,” I say as I turn my phone around to orient myself.
“Nice to meet you, Not Interested. This is my friend Cisco, short for Francisco.”
I spin back around to find another guy has appeared. He’s tall and muscled, and he nods his buzzed head at me in greeting.
“We only want to ask you something,” says Nate, and the way he moves closer to me must activate my fight-or-flight instinct, because my heart pounds harder as adrenaline courses through me. “Who was that guy you were with? The one with dark hair and those striking eyes?”
“W-why?” My throat sounds parched.
“I think I recognize him from somewhere.”
“Then you’ve got him confused with someone else.”
“Can you just tell me his name?”
“I don’t know it.”
“Looks like she’s not cooperating,” says Cisco, and before I can scream, his hand covers my mouth.
My heart thunders in my chest as they drag me into the nearest warehouse, and a pressure builds in my head from all my attempts to shout.
Cisco doesn’t remove his hand when we get inside, and even though my nose is in the clear, I feel like I’m not getting enough oxygen. I struggle against him, but his arms are vises, and they hold me in place as Nate stares intently into my eyes, like he’s trying to read my thoughts.
“You will tell me who that was.”
Who are these guys?! Could they be members of that Legion William warned me about?
Cisco loosens his hold enough for my lips to move.
“Let me go!” I manage to say.
“Answer me,” says Nate, his brown eyes growing shinier.
“Why do you want to know about him?”
Nate looks surprised by my question. Then a slow smile creeps across his face. “I see,” he says, as if I’d just answered him. “Let her go,” he instructs.
I can hardly believe my luck when Cisco’s arms spring open, and I’m free.
“I know how he’ll get my summons,” I hear Nate say as I run toward the exit—
Hands suddenly close around my throat, squeezing so hard that my eyes bug out of my face. I can’t breathe.
He’s going to kill me—
Cisco goes flying into a metal container. Like he was punched by a fist made of wind.
Nate lets go of me and raises his hands. “Wait—!”
His cry dies as he sails through the air, just like Cisco, and lands at the other end of the room.
Then I see him.
William approaches me with his fangs out and eyes aglow. He must have just killed those two guys—
“I only wanted to get your attention.”
I gasp as Nate materializes next to us, the movement too quick for a human. Cisco joins him and bares his fangs, and then I know for sure.
They’re vampires.
William seems to already know this because he stands in front of me as he faces them. “Who are you?”
He sounds more curious than furious. Probably because he’s just discovered he’s not alone in the universe.
“We’ll be the ones asking the questions,” says Nate, brushing dust off his shirt.
“I think not,” says William. “You crossed a line when you attacked my Familiar.”
“You speak like you only woke up recently. How long—?”
“How many of us are there?” asks William, and though he speaks with deep authority, I can hear how eager he is for the answer.
“As I said, we will be asking the—”
“How did the Legion annihilate us and get rid of every record of our existence?”
Nate’s frown grows less pronounced. “Humans?” He sounds more confused than upset. “Where would they get the kind of power to pull that off?”
“Then … are you saying it was us?” William tries to keep his face neutral, but I’m sure my own expression must be slack-mouthed and wide-eyed. “Why would we do such a thing to ourselves?”
Nate crosses his arms, making his biceps bigger. “How is it you know so little of what happened?”
William doesn’t speak. It’s almost as if he’s lost in his memories.
“If you want answers, you’re going to have to give some,” Nate warns. “We can take you with us to meet others, but first, you should know we don’t mess with Familiars anymore. They can’t be compelled, and there’s too much technology that would make them a threat.”
William locks eyes with me, and I’m sure he’s thinking of the same thing.
My video.
“When you start a meal, you finish it,” says Cisco, looking at me with hungry eyes. “And then you get rid of the corpse.”
I feel the blood draining from my face.
“Kill her, then we’ll explain everything,” says Nate.
William looks at me, and I know that anything can happen now. All along, he’s been teetering on the verge of ending my life, and the only thing that’s held him back is my company. But he’s not alone anymore. He doesn’t need me.
“My Familiar is performing a task,” says William, sounding unmoved, as if they were asking him to squish a fly. “You do not have to worry about her. Should she fail me, I know how to find her—and everyone she loves.”
Meeting my eyes, he commands, “Leave us. Now.”
“No—”
“Lorena.” His eyes grow large in warning, and I hold my breath at the deliberate way he says my name. As if it has multiple meanings.
Including goodbye.
“GO!”
I inhale sharply, like I’m short of air. Then my legs carry me away as fast as they can, and I never look back.