“I can’t tell you. I won’t betray her trust again.Ever.”
He stares at me a moment longer, then turns to the fire. The stacks of paper are now half the size, and even the flames are starting to shrink. “I get it,” he says. “I’m actually kind of jealous. I was tight like that with someone growing up, until his family moved away. I miss that.”
I can’t help thinking that’s what awaits me. Salma and I aren’t on the same path anymore. Her future is now all doctor’s visits and medications and procedures. And I have no idea how to go on without her.
I stare at the blackened scraps that are left, the fire now nearly out.
“Just tell me, what can I do?” Trevor raises his goggles as he turns to me. “There has to be something.”
“Don’t let her get killed by a vampire.” I take off my goggles and hand them back to him. “If we survive tomorrow, we can figure out the rest.”
CHAPTER 51william
William knows dawn is only a couple of hours away, and the vampires could be here any moment.
And yet, he cannot stop himself from seeing Lorena one last time.
He leaps over Huntington’s iron gates and sprints across the lawns toward the manor. He peers in through her window, and from their rhythmic breathing, he knows her roommates are slumbering.
As if sensing him, Lorena rolls over in the top bunk, her eyes already wide open, like she has yet to sleep.
She sits bolt upright, and he gestures with his head toward the door. Then he bounds to the first tower and climbs in through his window. As he darts through the manor in her direction, his senses are alert for any signs of danger.
They meet in the common area at the foot of the third tower, and when she rushes into his arms, William captures Lorena’s mouth with his own.
“What are you doing here?” she asks between kisses.
“I needed to see you again,” he says, pressing his lips to her jaw, her neck, her collarbone. “Was there a fire?” he asks, sniffing the smoke in her sweater and curls. It is also in the air of the manor.
“We made s’mores tonight,” she says, and her tone has an air of spontaneity,like she just thought of the idea. “Any sign of the vampires?” Her voice drops to a low whisper when she says the word.
He shakes his head. “Fabiana thinks they will be here before sunup.”
“That’s really soon! How are you going to be able to cut them off before they get here?”
“We sprung a trap,” he says. “Fabiana dug up Nate and Cisco’s bodies so the others will pick up their scent. Lenny has shown himself to be a patient vampire, and he likes to gather intel before acting. We think he will want to go find Nate and Cisco first. Especially when he picks up on Fabiana’s and my scent, too. I am heading there now.”
Lorena clings tighter to his sweater. “I don’t want this to be goodbye.”
“Nor do I.” He still gets the sense that she is not being entirely forthcoming. “Has everything been all right here?”
“You mean aside from Trevor escorting me to and from classes and carrying around a hiddenflamethrower?”
“Good,” says William, pleased that the boy is taking his assignment seriously.
“I still don’t understand why him,” she says.
“The only way I could avoid compelling him was to give him something he wanted more than my destruction.”
“A purpose?”
“A chance at redemption,” says William, thinking of the way Trevor’s father talked to him.
William’s parents became vampires when he was ten, and even though their affection and warmth waned in some amount with the transformation, they were always proud and supportive. He cannot imagine how it would be to grow up with parents armed with the capacity to love intensely and yet produce in them only derision and disdain.
“Lore, I must go.”
The sadness on her face combines with fear and concern, and she says, “Time Period Day is tomorrow. Minaro and the other teachers haven’t asked about you, so I guess you compelled them well.”
