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 ofus. 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 aboutAnne. She’s brilliant and beautiful and rich. And the two of them went on adate.”
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 WilliamPride,” 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 toldherwho you are?” Nate presses.
