Chapter 41. William
william
“They’re here!”
William hears Lorena’s voice, and he rushes over to intercept her on the way to the third tower. “What is it?” he asks urgently.
“Nate and Cisco! They have Salma and Tiffany!”
“I am not picking up their scent—”
“They left this note!” She shoves it in William’s face, and he calculates that the LUB must have special properties that prevent him from sensing their presence.
“Wait here. I will—”
“NO! I’m going with you.”
“They want to kill you,” he reminds her.
“I can’t let my friends take my place.”
“If you are there, I will prioritize protecting you over your friends.”
Her fierce expression slackens enough that William thinks she might back down—but then she grows stern again and says, “I’m going.”
They are only wasting time that Salma and Tiffany might not have. So, rather than keep arguing, he scoops Lorena up in his arms and races to the LUB.
“Ah, our guests of honor have arrived!” Nate exclaims.
William exits the wardrobe’s tunnel, still holding on to Lorena. She feels safest to him in his arms, where he can carry her away at the first sign of danger.
“Welcome to the party,” says Nate without looking over from the book he is flipping through.
Sitting on top of the closed coffin are Salma and Tiffany, their heartbeats loud in William’s ears. Cisco is in the reading armchair, examining its robot arms.
Lorena struggles to free herself from William’s hold, and against his better judgment, he sets her down.
“Run!” Lorena shouts to her friends as soon as she hits the ground.
“We can’t,” says Salma, her eyes wide and glassy, heavy black liner running.
“I free you from his compulsion,” William says when she meets his gaze, and she gasps. Tiffany’s eyes jump to him, and he repeats the same words.
Salma gets to her feet, but her knees are shaky. “Come on!” she says to Tiffany, but the girl is still frozen.
Not compelled but petrified.
Nate shuts the book. “Buried underground and discovered during construction,” he says, repeating the lie William told him.
Lorena rushes to her friends’ side and, along with Salma, tries to get Tiffany moving. “Come on, we have to go,” she urges her. They flank the girl, attempting to lift her between them.
“Looks like you were given luxury lodgings,” says Nate, “complete with a fake library and secret message.”
The lights shut off, and Tiffany screams.
The timeline reveals itself on the ceiling, and Nate manifests next to William.
“Why are you here?” William asks in a low growl.
“Lenny gave us instructions not to leave without you, and I’ve never failed him before.”
“It is never too late to learn how to think for yourself,” William retorts.
“STOP!”
William turns away from Nate and pulls Lorena closer as soon as he hears her shout. Cisco has taken Tiffany in his arms, and he has her head in the crook of his elbow. One squeeze, and her neck will snap.
“Let them go,” William demands of Nate. “You came here for me.”
“But you are so attached to your humans,” says the ponytailed vampire, “that it only seems right for them to join us.”
“My friends aren’t involved!” Lorena cries out.
“The thing that’s throwing me most,” says Nate, “what neither Lenny nor I can understand, is why you lied.” William shields Lorena’s body with his as the vampire orbits them. “Are you and Fabiana plotting something?”
“I barely know Fabiana. I only went to see her because I knew her father, and when I realized he was dead, I left. She knows nothing of use.”
“If you two aren’t working together, then why has she vanished?” Nate’s interrogative eyes search William’s. “See, ’cause Lenny thinks you’re both planning a coup to dethrone him. She was the one Grandsire trusted with the manifest, after all. It took a lot of work to steal it from her.”
“I do not want—”
“Oh, I know,” says Nate. “Lenny doesn’t know you like I do, so he assumes you operate the same way he does. He wouldn’t believe me if I told him you’re just a schoolboy with a crush.”
Lorena’s heart is pounding harder, but William cannot take his eyes off Nate long enough to look at her, or the vampire could attack.
“You don’t seek power at all,” Nate goes on. “You just want to stay here and keep playing pretend with your human. Unfortunately for you, that’s not going to happen.”
“If you really want me to even consider going with you, then let my friends go,” says William. “Lorena, get Salma and Tiffany and leave.”
“No, stay,” says Nate, moving closer, and William crushes Lorena to his side. “It’s time you learn the truth about your boyfriend.”
“He’s not my boyfriend!” she spits back, and even though William said the same thing about her before, he is surprised by how painful it is to hear her rejection now.
“Even the human has more sense than you.” Nate moves so close to William that the latter shoves Lorena behind him entirely. “You’re not mortal anymore. You’re one of us. And you’re coming one way or another.”
“Who’s Fabiana?” asks Lorena, and William knows her well enough to recognize that she is trying to buy him time.
“Don’t waste your jealousy on her,” says Nate with a cold half-grin. “Worry about Anne. She’s brilliant and beautiful and rich. And the two of them went on a date.”
William hears Lorena’s heart stumble, so he retaliates in kind. “I only met with her because I wanted information,” he says to Nate, “and when she wanted more, I turned her down.”
“Oh shit!” says Cisco, but William is only focused on Nate, whose whole face narrows with fury.
“When you introduced yourself as William Pride,” says Nate, no longer sounding like he is enjoying himself, “something felt off about the way you spoke the name. As if it wasn’t yours.”
William feels just as he did when Lenny’s fangs clamped down on his neck—trapped. Not by Nate’s deadly tone, but his words. What he knows.
“Have you told her who you are?” Nate presses.
“Yes,” says William, but even he can hear the way his voice catches. It is obvious he is lying.
“Lenny knew as soon as he tasted you,” says Nate. “Yet he wanted to learn what you were hiding, so he let you go. I defended you. I said you were young and inexperienced and probably just needed time, but he told me I was a fool. He was certain you would go see Fabiana—and he was right.”
Nate moves in so close that their noses are nearly brushing. “Just as he was right about your true name … William Stoker.”
The name hits William like an anvil across the face, and he is glad that Lorena cannot see him. It seems to echo through his insides like a bullet ricocheting in a metal chamber. The destiny he can never escape.
His crown and his curse.
He feels Lorena step away from him, and he looks at her.
“Stoker,” she says, but it sounds more like a snarl. He cannot tell if it is a question or a condemnation.
“Lore, please—”
William’s voice cuts out as Tiffany crumples to the floor, and Cisco strikes.
The brawny vampire takes advantage of the space between William and Lorena to sweep her off her feet, trapping her head in the crook of his elbow.
A roar-like cry escapes William’s lips as he leaps at Cisco, but Nate intercepts him, striking William on the side and sending him careening into a bookshelf.
The vampire regains his balance before crashing into the furniture, just as Lenny did when William sent him sailing toward the oak barrels.
Nate and Cisco stare at William, surprised by the power of his reflexes.
He may not like to fight, but he has always been well suited for it.
Grandsire used to say that since they carry magic in their blood, Stokers are often born into bodies strong enough to protect themselves.
He made William and his cousins start training in sword- and hand-to-hand combat before they turned seven.
“Come closer, and she’s dead,” Cisco warns when he sees William eyeing him and Lorena like he is strategizing.
Taking on both vampires will be a significant drain on William’s energy. He has not had blood in days. Should they manage to cut him up badly enough that he takes too long to heal and loses too much blood, he could fall into a death-sleep.
“Why are you doing this?” he asks Nate.
Salma holds a shaking and sobbing Tiffany in her arms, and Nate moves between William and the others. As if demanding the Stoker’s full attention.
“We need you.”
Nate’s voice comes out a dozen decibels lower than usual—beyond human hearing.
“This is not the way to gain my trust,” William answers him in that same low register.
“You really don’t understand what it’s been like.” The ponytailed vampire’s eyes are no longer narrowed in suspicion, nor is his expression a stoic mask to guard his true face. He sounds sincere.
“Back in our day, we lived by the Treaty not because we respected or feared the humans—we did it so our food source would not run out. Some of us could control our appetites, while others could not, which is why this framework was important for our species’ survival.
But in the process of coexisting, many of us developed a fondness for the mortals, the same way humans care for their animal pets.
Through this, we even learned something from them: Being part of something was better than being alone. ”
William nods. “I know all this.”
“But you don’t know what it’s like now, when we’ve been forced to become less than shadows—we’re ghosts.
We have no presence, no community, no hope.
Once, time could not touch us; yet now it is all we have.
Our faith that in time, we will have our power back.
Either the spell will end and our forebears will return …
or a Stoker will come along and lead us out of the dark. ”
This whole time, William could not allow himself to think of what it meant that he is a Stoker. If the weight of the name was hefty in his day, its burden is intolerable now.
“That is all I am asking for,” says William. “More time.”
He is not sure how that will change anything, but right now he cannot step into that role. He is not ready.
Yet he realizes that was the wrong thing to say as soon as Nate takes a step back.
“Don’t worry,” says the ponytailed vampire, raising his voice back to a normal volume, his vulnerability retreating into his mask. “I’ve come up with a solution that will keep us all happy.”
He looks at Cisco, and William follows his gaze to Lorena, whose eyes are squeezed shut like she is struggling to breathe. William can feel how close to death she is because his own heart feels like it is being burned at the stake.
“We’re going to kill Lorena,” says Nate, his dark eyes now alight as they meet William’s.
“And then you’re going to turn her.”