Page 156 of The Last Vampire
Against all reason and odds, we met and fell in love. I can’t regret that.
I suddenly want to be with William and not waste another instant apart. I hurry down the hall, past the busy game room, and I keep going until I’m climbing the steps of the first tower. As I approach his room, the door is cracked open a sliver, and I hear voices inside.
I slow down and peek through the opening. I barely have a chance to register what I’m seeing before William is at the door, facing me with his fangs out and eyes narrowed.
But my gaze goes past him, to the long-legged girl clad all in black sitting on the couch’s armrest, wearing an equally panicked expression.
“Lore, it’s not what you think,” says Salma, springing to her feet.
And that’s when I see the blood on her neck.
CHAPTER 45william
William imagines how this must look to Lorena. He only hopes her prejudice will not outweigh her trust again.
“What the fuck?” she asks, her gaze jumping back to him, an accusatory intensity in her eyes.
William gives Salma a chance to answer, but when she stays quiet, he says, “Salma asked me to—”
“Bite me,” she finishes for him. “I—I was afraid to tell you.” She approaches Lorena. “I want to be his Familiar, too.”
It is hard for William to discern the cocktail of emotions on Lorena’s face as she stares at her friend. Betrayal and surprise are the most evident, but she also looks concerned and disappointed.
“Why?”she asks Salma at last.
“Nate and Cisco couldn’t compel you because you’re William’s Familiar, and I don’t want them to compel me, either.”
William is impressed by Salma’s quick thinking.
“Sal, that’s not going to happen,” says Lorena, concern taking over as her main emotion. “William isn’t going to let any vampires get close to us.”
“What ifhe’sthe threat?” asks Salma, staring hard at him all of a sudden. “I don’t want him to erase my memories.”
“He won’t. I told him not to.” Lorena looks up at William, her gazesharp and not at all soft and sunny like it was this morning. “Tell her you won’t.”
“I will not alter your memories,” he says to Salma, “as long as you do not pose a risk to me.”
“Why don’t you want me to be his Familiar?” Salma asks Lorena, a hint of annoyance in her voice. “It just means he can have two sources of blood instead of one, which helps you out. And it’ll guarantee me that my mind won’t be messed with. What’s so bad about that?”
“They’ll kill you,” says Lorena with ice in her voice. “If other vampires realize you can’t be controlled, they’ll kill you.”
Salma frowns. “Then… they’ll killyou.”
“I will protect her from any harm,” says William. “It would be harder to do if I had to protect more people.”
Salma takes a deep breath. “Just forget I asked then,” she says, staring at him without blinking, like she is trying to transmit a secret message.
“It is forgotten.”
As much as he does not like lying to Lorena, he also knows better than to come between her friendship with Salma. This issue is for the two of them to work out.
“I’m going to head back to the room with Sal,” Lorena says to him. “I’ll be by later.”
Since she does not look at him as she turns to go, he worries that she is pulling away. It makes something twist inside him, and all he wants is to know that her feelings for him have not changed.
Yet the answer will have to wait.
Neither friend speaks until they reach the bottom of the tower, then William hears Salma say, “Please don’t be mad at me.”
