Chapter 42. Lorena
lorena
Everything happens so fast.
I’m still processing that William has been lying to me all along, that he can turn people into vampires, that I have been aiding and abetting possibly the single greatest existential threat to humanity—when all the air escapes my body at once.
My throat is caught in Cisco’s viselike arm, and I can barely feel my neck anymore, much less move it.
Tiffany’s sobs break through my numbness, and I’m almost relieved. Her catatonia was far worse than her cries.
“Come closer, and she’s dead,” I hear Cisco warn. But I’m stuck facing the floor, so all I can see are Nate’s and William’s feet.
“Why are you doing this?” William asks. Only his voice sounds different than I’ve ever heard it. He sounds wounded.
Neither of them says anything for a long enough stretch that I wonder if they’re frozen. I can still see they’re upright and facing each other, but I don’t hear their voices. I scratch at Cisco’s arm, digging my nails into his skin, but it’s like he can’t feel it.
I want to scream, but I have no way of reaching my vocal cords. As if the line has been cut.
“Don’t worry,” says Nate suddenly, like he and William are mid-conversation. “I’ve come up with a solution that will keep us all happy.”
Cisco’s arm closes a bit more, and I squeeze my eyes shut from the neck pain. My head feels woozy, and I know I’m not getting enough oxygen.
“We’re going to kill Lorena,” I hear Nate say, as if from a distance. “And then you’re going to turn her.”
His words are a bomb going off in my chest, and my physical pain is eclipsed by my new fate. It’s only in this instant that I know I don’t want to be eighteen forever.
I don’t want to go into hiding. I don’t want to abandon my parents and Salma and everyone I care about. I’m not ready to die.
“I am the last Stoker, and I command you to stop.”
My thoughts are so fuzzy that I’m not sure if I’m hearing William or hallucinating. His voice is so full of authority that I feel the tension in Cisco’s muscles slacken by a fraction of a unit.
“If she dies,” warns William, “so do you.”
I suck in air as Cisco’s grip loosens a little more, and suddenly I fall to the floor coughing as something hard collides with him, knocking the vampire to the ground and making the whole room rumble.
My vision is still blurry, and I’m hacking as I feel around on the floor for Salma and Tiffany.
“Here!” says Salma, and my fingers find hers. We huddle closer together, against the wall, as the vampires fight. They’re blocking the exit, so we can’t get past them.
My vision settles, but the view doesn’t get any clearer. All I see is a blur of limbs, the three vampires punching, dodging, and kicking—until Cisco slams into a shelf, shattering it into a burst of books.
He doesn’t regain his footing quickly, leaving Nate alone to face off against William.
“Go,” he commands me, and I tug on Salma’s and Tiffany’s arms, pulling them up.
I don’t dare look back as we careen toward the tunnel. The three of us race to our room, running for our lives. We don’t even stop at the bathroom, even though I really need to pee.
I shut our door as soon as we’re inside, and we collapse onto Tiffany’s bed. She’s shivering violently, so I help Salma get her under the covers. “Are you okay?” she asks, but Tiff doesn’t answer, burying most of her head in the sheets, the whites of her eyes larger than usual.
“Should we get the nurse?” I ask.
“I don’t think we should go out there,” says Salma, cradling her cast. She’s still on Tiffany’s bed, and I notice that her knees are trembling.
“Get under the covers with Tiff,” I instruct, expecting Salma to resist. Instead, she lets me help her, and they lean into each other for body warmth.
I know Salma’s right that we should stay here. William can handle himself. Yet it feels like every molecule in my being is being tugged out that door.
“Don’t you dare,” Salma warns me.
“They came for him. We were only the bait.”
“If they killed him, they’ll be coming for us next,” she says darkly. “We’re loose ends.”
“They won’t kill him. They need him too much.” I’m only trying to reassure myself. The truth is, I have no idea what they’ll do.
All I know is I can’t just sit here and wait to find out.
“Lorena—!”
But Salma’s voice cuts out with the shutting of the door, and I’m racing down the stairs. As I hurtle toward the LUB, William’s words sound almost prophetic to me now:
You will always be a human first, and I will always be a vampire.
I thought things could be different, but it’s not just about how we see each other—it’s how the world sees us. Pretty much everyone we know would agree that William and I should not be friends. Even we know it. It’s common sense.
So why are we resisting this hard?
Nate’s voice runs through my mind: You’re just a schoolboy with a crush. I hear Salma’s words, too: You’re in love.
Is it possible the vampire could actually reciprocate my feelings?
I leap over the red rope, cut across the dusty room, and step inside the wardrobe. When I spot the soft glow ahead, I slow down in dread of what I’m going to see.
I don’t hear any sounds from the LUB.
By now the vampires must know I’m coming, so I keep going, sucking in a big breath as I enter the space—and the air blows out of me in a scream.
Two bodies are sprawled on the floor, half-drowned in puddles of blood, necks twisted at odd angles. Before I can register who they are, I bend over and throw up.
I’m trying to catch my breath after expelling everything I ate today, when I hear something. A whisper.
“Lor … e.”
I look at both bodies in alarm, forcing myself to see past the blood and focus on the faces. One of them has a buzz cut and broad features—Cisco. The other one is face down, his long dark hair fanned around him.
“Here.”
I turn abruptly to my left when I hear the whisper again, and I gasp.
“Will!”
I drop to his side, the metallic smell of blood invading my nose and summoning more nausea. It looks as if he was trying to make his way to the tunnel when his energy gave out.
“Oh!” I see the blood pooling on the other side of his body, and I realize he’s bleeding out, just slower than the other vampires.
“I thought you healed quickly,” I say, though I’m not sure I ever heard him say that. It’s just part of vampire lore.
“Knife,” he manages to say, and that’s when I see it. A dagger is embedded in William’s lower back. “Pull.”
“You want me to get it out?” My voice is pure panic, and he shuts his eyes, like it’s taking too much effort to speak.
I have to do this.
Or not, argues a small voice.
And I flash to Minaro’s class from this afternoon, which feels like it happened months ago.
When I spoke of Count Dracula being a monster because he was drunk on power, William looked as if he had taken my assessment personally.
Probably because at this moment he is literally the most powerful being on Earth.
He’s been lying to me from the start. He’s worse than Rochester, Darcy, and Dracula put together.
Yet as easy as it would be to write him off as a monster, William just nearly gave his life to protect mine.
And worst of all, Salma is right.
I’m in love with him.
I wrap my hands around the knife handle, getting blood on my skin and clothes. Then I tug with all my might.
William moans once the blade is out, and I watch how the blood stops spilling, like the closing of a faucet. He’s even paler than usual, and as he tries to shift position, I help prop him up against the wall.
He looks like a corpse, same as the first time I saw him.
“Are they dead?” I whisper, tears mingling with my sweat.
“Death-sleep. Once they have blood, their spines will heal, and they will awaken.”
My heart races as I realize we’re far from out of danger. “What can I do?”
“Go.”
I’m not sure I heard him correctly. “What?”
“Bar the door. Soon, I will go into death-sleep, too. If Fabiana comes looking, tell her you are my Familiar, explain what happened, and ask her to transport our bodies far from here.”
I shake my head, refusing his instructions. “I have a better idea.”
I move closer.
The first time he bit me, he was just as weak as he is now, held up only by the wall. Except then, he had to compel me to show my neck. This time, I offer it to him voluntarily.
“No,” he murmurs against my skin. “Go.”
Tears burn my eyes, but I don’t let them fall. “I’m not leaving you.”
“It is better for you this way. Your friends, too.”
I press my neck to his mouth, and still, his lips don’t part.
“I need you, William,” I whisper. “Please, don’t abandon me.”
When he still doesn’t do anything, I ask, “How can you be sure we’re safe? What if Nate and Cisco told someone else where you were? Lenny could know about this school! How will any of us be safer without you—?”
His fangs sink in, and I inhale sharply from the pain.
Agony consumes me as William drinks, and I count the seconds, hoping he will stop, until it feels like he never will. My eyes shut on their own, my thoughts growing muddled, my limbs succumbing to sleepiness—
The vampire pulls away abruptly.
“Are you all right?” he asks, holding my face in his hands.
“Mm-hmm,” I say in assent, blinking my eyes open. “Little dizzy.”
“I am sorry for bringing this danger to your life.” William’s amethyst eyes are large and glittering from up close. “I promise I will not give them any reason to threaten you again.”
I frown, the lightheadedness giving way to anxious thoughts. “What do you mean by that?”
“I will turn myself over to Lenny, on the condition that nothing should happen to you. No harm shall come to your friends because I will alter their memories before taking off.”
“That’s a terrible plan!” I say, his words waking me up as effectively as a few shots of espresso.
“Lorena, I cannot stay.” His voice is firm and deep, undercutting my own. “You see that, right? I cannot protect you from here. Without more blood, I am no match for them. And even with more blood, I could not take on fifty vampires at once. This terrible plan is the only option we have left.”
I hate this terrible fucking plan.
I keep trying to come up with another resourceful argument, but I’m drawing a blank. Probably because he’s right.
“What about them?” I ask in a surly voice, gesturing with my head to the two hibernating vampires.
“I will bury them until I have brokered a peace with Lenny. Only then will I awaken them.”
In the span of minutes, he’s thought of everything. There’s nothing more I can say. “I guess this is it then. I can’t convince you to stay.”
“Goodbye, Lore,” he says softly. “Proving you wrong in English class has been one of my life’s greatest achievements,” he adds with a wistful half smile.
“When did you ever prove me wrong?” I demand, but I also can’t help smiling.
Rather than retort, William’s expression grows grave, like this playfulness isn’t helping. “You should go now. Dragging this out will not make it any easier.”
“Last night, you said something about a proper goodbye,” I say, noticing how William’s eyes are growing rounder. Probably because I’m leaning in, ever so slowly.
The vampire doesn’t inch forward to meet me.
But he doesn’t move away, either.
I feel a slight tug on my hair, and I realize one of his hands is corralling my curls. I worry he’s going to push me away, but I keep moving in … until at last, my mouth presses into his.
William doesn’t react to my kiss. It seems like he’s not going to respond.
Then his lips part—and I gasp as a chilly tingle whispers across my body, like stepping outdoors on a frigid night. Far from painful, the touch of winter is soothing.
Because inside, I’m on fire.