Chapter 39. William
william
William has gone centuries without breath, yet this is the first time he feels breathless.
While he could picture Lorena perfectly in memory, the effect of her physical presence cannot be replicated. Even the scent of her blood seems more alluring, unique from all the others here.
He has no idea how she will receive him after he abandoned her. What she will say—
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed the worst of you. I was wrong.”
An apology was not what he was expecting.
“Mr. Pride!” says Director Minaro. In his distraction, William did not even sense her entering the classroom. “When did you—?”
“No questions,” he compels, locking eyes with the instructor.
“No questions,” she echoes in agreement.
The door swings open.
“Oh my God! You’re back!” Tiffany stares at William with her jaw hanging open. Beside her, Salma’s eyes grow wide, and the blood drains from her face. Her heart rate increases in a way that signals distress and deep fear.
Is it possible Lorena broke her confidence and told her friend about him?
Before William manages to say a single word to Lorena, Salma pulls her away, toward their usual seats.
“Hey, you’re back!” Zach sounds genuinely thrilled about William’s return.
“Let us get started,” says Minaro. “William, we are reading Dracula.”
She hands him a pristine paperback copy, and he looks down at the cover. Stoker.
The name is haunting him.
The door swings open again, even though all the chairs are taken. Nate and Cisco nearly topple into each other in their haste. They look at William, and while Nate stalks toward him, Cisco compels Director Minaro out loud: “We need to meet with William.”
“Please go with these gentlemen,” says the director.
“Why do they need to meet with him?” he hears Tiffany ask on his way out.
They march him out of the manor, past the front gate, until they are ensconced in the woods and certain of their isolation. When they find a clearing in the foliage, the three vampires face off in a nearly equilateral triangle. It is only midafternoon, yet the sky is already darkening.
“She is my Familiar, and she is off-limits,” are the first words out of William’s mouth.
“Why won’t you answer your phone?” asks Nate.
“Why did you not warn me that Lenny was going to drink from me?”
“None of us receive any warning,” says Nate, like that justifies it. “Anne told us you purchased a ticket to Boston, and Henry followed your cab to Harvard. What did you and Bayona discuss?”
“Why not ask Henry what we spoke of if he was spying on us?”
“He had to stay upwind of you and keep his distance, or you would have picked up on his scent.”
William studies Nate’s dark eyes, wondering what his real role is among the vampires. “I gather you were a young detective when you were turned.”
“I was turned young because I have a special talent,” says Nate with a grim smile. “I can tell when someone is lying to me.”
William already sensed this uncanny ability of Nate’s.
“Are you going to disclose what happened, or should we question Professor Bayona?”
“First, tell me who you really are,” says William. “Because you make a terrible welcome committee.”
Nate halves the distance between himself and William. Cisco moves up by the same amount in a flawless choreography.
“I am Lenny’s hand on Earth.” Nate says the title heavily, like it is something of great value.
Yet William is not impressed. “Is that not Osorio?”
“Osorio is his caretaker. I am the enforcer of our laws.”
“And I’m Nate’s bodyguard,” says Cisco, cracking his knuckles in emphasis.
“Bodyguard?” asks William, now even less impressed.
“Not all my tasks are pleasant,” says Nate. “Most vampires don’t like it when I’m forced to do things like place them in a death-sleep because they’ve become careless about keeping our existence secret.”
William grits his teeth, hearing the threat implied in Nate’s words. “How does Lenny even know what happens aboveground?”
“Osorio doesn’t simply bring Lenny humans to hunt.” Nate’s steps toward William are mirrored by Cisco. “He also brings him people to compel who report back on our behavior.”
William cannot keep the surprise from bleeding through his expression.
“Lenny has spies everywhere, and he sends word to me to handle any problems that come up. Specifically, when vampires break the rules by doing things like making a Familiar. Then I get the honorable job of killing that Familiar.”
“Lorena is off-limits,” William warns again.
Nate narrows his gaze with interest. “What makes you think you are special enough to be above the rules?”
The question is not rhetorical because Nate studies William while awaiting an answer.
“I will find a place of my own, and when you have an assignment for me, I will accept it,” says William, imbuing his voice with authority.
“Until then, I have more to learn about modern times and everything I have missed. As I already have a cover at Huntington, I plan to attend the school for the time being.”
“You actually want to go to classes?” asks Cisco, frowning. “You could learn all this online!”
Nate moves closer, as if he needs to examine William’s eyes when he poses his next question. “All this for a mortal?”
The query jolts William. He is not doing this for Lorena but for himself.
“Can’t you just kill her and get it over with?” asks Nate.
“Or we can do it for you!” says an enthused Cisco, like he is being helpful.
William will not repeat himself a third time. Whatever his expression, it must make quite an impression on Nate because the latter’s eyes take on a furious intensity. “We can’t just give you permission for this,” he growls. “It’s Lenny’s call.”
“Then I would remind him that I just woke up. Unlike the rest of you, I do not require sleep yet. I will be ready at all hours, and I will feel you coming.”
“A threat like that would be a lot scarier if you had ever killed anyone.” Nate’s head tilts to the side, like he is examining William from a new angle.
“I could tell from the way you play Call of Duty, how you don’t initiate and only return fire.
For a vampire, you don’t seem to care for violence. ”
“You are welcome to test me,” says William, looking between them, hands curled into fists at his sides.
Nate’s brow is a hard V, yet he does not move. Apparently, he only attacks on Lenny’s command.
“I will be home for winter break,” says William, turning his back to them. “See you then.”
WILLIAM SKIPS dinner.
He cannot bear to think of all the questions he will have to answer, nor does he feel like forcing food down just to regurgitate it.
He only has room in his mind for her. It feels like he has been gone years, not weeks.
For some irrational reason, he is eager to tell Lorena about his travels and the vampires he met and the world he encountered.
Even though that is the last thing he should do—the more he shares with her, the more danger she is in and the greater threat she becomes.
“You stayed!”
She is out of breath when she finds him seated on the windowsill, the door to his room open. She stares at the space heater he carried in a moment ago and all the lit candles, and something in her face softens. “Guess you knew I was coming.”
She removes her coat, and rather than her usual stretchy pants with an oversized shirt and hoodie, tonight she wears tight jeans with a sapphire-blue sweater that grows snug around her chest. In her hands is the green book that bears the Legion of Fire logo.
“When you didn’t show up to dinner, I thought you’d gone.”
“I came to get my things, but I see you have already claimed them.” He gestures with his chin at the text she carries.
“This is the only thing I took,” she says in her own defense.
“And our photograph from the dance,” he corrects her.
She smiles, like she is pleased he brought that up. “It wasn’t yours in the first place. It belongs to both of us.”
“Fair enough.” He pulls away from the window and meets her in the middle of the room. Her breath catches and her pulse picks up, only rather than savoring her fear, he now wonders if he should keep his distance.
“I stayed to say a proper goodbye,” he says, expecting the news will put her at ease. Nate and Cisco’s visit must have been a stark reminder of what she was not missing these past few weeks.
Yet her expression falls, and her heart rate quickens.
“You must be relieved to stop feeding me,” he prods, trying to fathom how she is feeling.
“You’re leaving with Nate and Cisco again.” As usual, he cannot tell if she is asking or telling him.
“With my kind.”
She blinks, her golden gaze brightening with awe. “Does that mean you met others?”
He nods in assent, and even though he wants to say more, he fears the consequences. “It is a lot to explain, and I do not want to endanger you more than I already have.”
“Okay then,” she says with a shrug. “Since we’re not sharing, then I guess I won’t tell you the discovery I made with this book.”
William stares at the green text. She found out how it works when he could not? How is that possible?
“Show me,” he says, staring into her eyes as if he could compel her.
“First, tell me,” she insists without breaking contact.
Was she always this irritating? He is suddenly not sure why he was so determined to see her.
“I do not think you understand just how much danger your life is in,” he says, trying to refrain from snapping at her.
“Nate showed up at my school, put his fangs to my neck, and threatened to kill me—I know I’m in danger.
” Her voice quivers, as if she is going to cry.
Except her expression only grows graver.
“My life has been at risk from the moment you came out of that coffin, so how is keeping me in the dark going to save me now?”
Since it seems he is not going to win this argument, he pivots. “How did they find you here? I never told them about this school.”
Lorena’s gaze drops to the floor.
“How?” he presses, sensing that she is hiding something.
“I went back,” she says softly. “To Hanover.”
He does not understand. “Why?”
“Because … I thought this book might be important. To you.”
She still will not meet his eyes, and he cannot comprehend why she would endanger her life to help him when he was not around to force her hand. “Why would you care?” he asks.
“For the same reason you came back and saved my life.”
Her gaze rises to meet his again, and this time he feels as if she were compelling him. He could not look away if he tried.
“We’re friends, William. Even if you don’t like it.”
Her words melt an ice shelf in his chest, freeing a chunk of his heart that he thought had died with his mortality.
Yet all along, it had only been frozen.