A Eulogy for William’s Humanity
William delighted in the pursuits of the learned, the grace of the dance, and the freedom of the saddle.
He harbored dreams of a marital union forged in love, of begetting heirs, and of penning tales sprung from his own imaginings.
But alas, all that was William perished when his heart ceased its beat.
For what creed remains to a man who is betrayed by his own blood?
CHAPTER 16lorena
Vampires once roamed the earth. And somehow, humans defeated them. Then we erased them from history.
How is any of this possible?
Traffic was bad on the way back to school. Minaro gave us sandwiches for dinner on the bus, and we returned at curfew.
William vanished the instant we set foot in the manor, but thankfully my friends didn’t notice.
Back in our room, Salma, Tiffany, and I are working on our precalculus problem sets before bed, but instead of equations, I just keep seeing William’s family in that portrait. They look exactly how eighteenth-century people are described in our historical records. So how could we forget the part about fangs?
There’s no denying that William’s search for answers isn’t just his anymore. It’s mine, too.It’s the whole world’s.
The girls fall asleep quickly, but I stay up late readingJane Eyre. I’m midway through the novel, and even though a fire has just broken out in Rochester’s room, I can’t focus. So, when my roommates fall asleep, I sneak out.
I head to the library because I have a feelinghe’sthere, and I’m not surprised when I find him sitting in front of a computer.
“I have not summoned you,” says William without turning around. “Why are you here?”
“I need to know more. Why you were hibernating, why history was changed—”
“I am hunting those very answers,” he says, and by my next breath, he’s standing before me.
There’s something different about his eyes tonight. The purple seems faded, like it’s been watered down. It almost looks like sadness.
“You need your sleep,” he murmurs, and I realize he’s inspecting my face, too.
“You sound like—” I’m about to saySalma,but I catch myself. “Stop spying on me.”
“It is my duty to know my Familiar,” he says unabashedly.
“Thenas your Familiar,I need to know more about you, too.”
“You already know far too much.”
“I barely know anything! At least tell me how you became…this?”
He turns away from me, and I regret that my first question raised his guard, so I try another. “What was happening in the world when you went into hibernation?”
“I am trying to work that out.”
“Do you have a theory?”
He’s still not looking at me. “I assume there must have been a war between the species,” he says after a moment, “and we lost—”
“Buthow?” I demand, losing my patience with this question. “How could vampires lose to humans when you can just make more of you—?”
He whips around, full pigmentation returning to his eyes, and my heart catapults to my throat as I think he’s going to attack me.
