“William Pride.”
Nate studies him before asking, “When did you wake up?”
“A few months ago.”
“Where?”
“Similar story,” says William, opting for a simple lie. “When a construction site was demolished, they found me.”
“How did you meet your Familiar?” asks Nate, still scrutinizing him.
“I was ravenous, so I trapped her,” says William, trying to sound as casual as possible. “I could not feed much at once, so I made her catch me up on how this new world works. Then the feeble mortal fell in love with me.” He might or might not be borrowing some ideas from theTwilightmovie. “I have emotional control over her and do not deem her a threat.”
“Do you deemusa threat?”
Nate steps closer to William, and so does Cisco.
“No,” says William, looking between them and trying to decide which one to incapacitate first if it comes to that.
“Then tell us,” says Nate, “what assignment is the human working on for you?”
“I have her tracking down all the members of the Stoker family within a hundred-mile radius.” William came up with the idea while running, since he had a feeling Nate would bring up Lorena again.
“That won’t get you anywhere.” Nate sounds both unsurprised and disappointed, as if he expected this answer but hoped for better. “There are plenty of human Stokers in the world, but without a Stoker vampire to turn them, they’re useless. It’s like having all the matches we could want but no way to light them.”
It takes a moment for the meaning of the words to hit William.
There are no Stoker vampires left.
Panic stirs in his gut, making it hard to keep a neutral expression. Yet Nate seems to have already gotten his read of William, because he starts running again without another word.
Something heavy knocks William a few times on the back, and Cisco says, “We know how you feel, brother.”
“How”—William is interrupted by another of Cisco’scomfortingpats—“how many of us are left?”
“Fifty-four. Including you.”
William feels as if his insides have hollowed out entirely.
He cannot have heard correctly. Fifty-four.Fifty-four.Only fifty-four vampires left in the world!
“Life isn’t what you remember,” says Cisco mournfully.
“What happened to us?” asks William, no longer caring how raw he sounds. “How did we erase ourselves from history?”
“Not here,” says Nate from far ahead. “Keep moving.”
WILLIAM HASnever ridden a train before.
He follows Nate and Cisco into the underground transport station, where they stop at a machine with a screen, and Nate starts tapping buttons.
“Life was a lot easier before everything became automated,” Cisco says to William in an undertone. “Back then, you could compel people to do anything. But machines don’t work that way.”
They weave through the crowd, following numbered train tracks until they get to the right one. William stares in open awe at the feat of man that surrounds him. They look like metal snakes, and having read about all the different styles of engines in Huntington’s library, he is curious to know if these are electric or—?
“William, over here,” says Nate from a good distance away.
Inside, the train is even nicer than the bus. William imagines the ride will be smoother because it is a bigger and more stable vehicle, and it runs on tracks.
