“I—I can’t.”
“You sure? Because if I tell the world you’re William’s Renfield, I don’t think your mother’s reputation will survive it.”
“What are you doing here?” asks Trevor, and Tiffany and I turn to look at him at the same time. “You’re a little fucking late.”
Tiffany screams as a pair of silhouettes step out from the tunnel.
“You didn’t think we’d miss Time Period Day,” says the ponytailed vampire, “did you?”
CHAPTER 53william
Lenny’s blow strikes William’s abdomen too suddenly to block it—and William rockets across the meadow, crashing into a tree.
Every bone in William’s body rattles, his ribs and spine searing with pain.
Before he has regained his balance, the silver-eyed vampire slams him to the ground and lands a series of punches to his face and ears. William’s hearing grows muffled, and his vision flickers, but he can still make out Lenny’s taunts.
“This is embarrassing for you, boy,” says the vampire. “I almost doubt you are a Stoker.”
William’s senses have yet to reset when Lenny knees him in the chest. He hears two of his own ribs snap as a sharp ache scrapes him from the inside. Then Leonardo the Bloody lifts him into the air and launches him into another tree.
“What would your dear Grandsire say if he could see how you have failed him?” Lenny does not hurry to strike again, knowing that William cannot get up. “Such a tragedy, resting all his hopes onyou.”
William struggles to summon his strength, knowing he needs to move,now—
Lenny yanks him by the hair and stomps his boot into William’s abdomen, again and again and again.
“AH!”
It is the first time William cries out, and Lenny’s supporters cheer. The starry-eyed vampire takes a pause to flash them a sharp smile, then he reaches for the ceremonial dagger in his belt. He is making his final move.
“Behold, your Stoker is at my feet!” Lenny declares to his audience, and William knows what comes next.
Leonardo the Bloody will bleed him out until he concedes defeat.
If William refuses, Lenny will probably imprison him in his laboratory. Torment him until he submits.Kill Lorena.
Something protests within him, and William knows he needs to get up. Yet his whole body is in agony.
He cannot believe a moment ago he thought he could actually be a match for Leonardo the Bloody.
“The vote was twenty-eight to twenty-four. You’ve already won over more than half of us.”
Fabiana’s voice is low, and even though all the vampires can hear her, she is talking to William.
“Are you going to let us down by taking the easy way out? Or are you going to take a stand?”
She is right, and yet as Lenny raises the blade to strike, William still cannot move. His body is too broken. He has nothing to offer the world or these vampires or Lorena.
He has failed them. Failed Grandsire. Failed himself.
“What’s your love worth if you won’t fight for her when it matters?”
Fabiana’s question is the kind of challenge William has come to expect from Lorena. Her point is hard to argue with—if he does not rise now, everything he has said and done to protect Lorena will be rendered meaningless.
If he is going to lose this fight, he should at least go down swinging.
The dagger is stabbing into William’s thigh when his hand shoots out and curls around Lenny’s wrist. Then he seizes the ancient vampire’s full arm and snaps it free of its shoulder socket.
