Page 152 of The Last Vampire
William can still see Grandsire’s silver eyes as he pleaded for his life.I beg you, do not do this—not yet. I am not ready—
Yet the leader of the vampires cared not for his descendant’s consent. He cared only that his plan be successful.
Just like when he orchestrated the Treaty. It did not matter to him that a sizable number of vampires disagreed and aligned themselves with Leonardo the Bloody. Grandsire simply forced the Treaty upon all of them, and those who defied his rule were shunned and abandoned to the Legion’s mercy.
William feels like something is traveling up his throat, and it is not the food he had for lunch.
“I’m sorry,” says Lorena. She takes his hand and holds it in silence. She does not ask about Grandsire’s motivations or try to find a way to make it all right. She just sits with him, and he realizes this is exactly what he needed.
“You make it sound like being a vampire is a bad thing,” she says after a while. “But you get to be young and live forever, so why couldn’t you have a great love now?”
The way her cheeks darken with blood makes him instinctively shift closer to her.
“When one’s heart stops beating, the effect is more than just physical,” he says. “Timedoeshave an effect on us: It numbs our emotions. Good feelings become less frequent and intense, like putting on glasses that filter out bright colors. We cannot love the same way again.”
Lorena nods like she understands, but William sees something like disappointment flit across her face. He buries a hand in her curls, feeling his way through the dense forest of her hair, eager to touch every strand.
When their lips meet, her breaths grow shaky. He snakes his arm around the small of her back, pulling her closer, her body radiating warmth like a portable heater. Their tongues tangle together until Lorena comes up for air, gasping.
“It feels like I’m making out with winter,” she murmurs.
“And I with summer.”
He wishes he could unzip her coat to feel more of her body, trace her contours, and absorb her warmth. “Would you like to come back to my room?” he whispers.
Her heart pounds harder. “Um, I’m not—I mean, if you expect…I’ve never had sex.”
She says the last part quickly, casting him a mortified look. Yet William’s expression stays unchanged.
“Neither have I.”
CHAPTER 44lorena
For some reason, I have a hard time processing William’s admission.
The vampire is avirgin?
“I see that you have made certain assumptions about me,” he says, and I try schooling my face into a more neutral expression.
“No, I mean—it’s just—well, you’ve been alive for—” Then I clench my mouth shut because I sound like an idiot.
William is smirking, as if my awkwardness amuses him. “When I was growing up, sex was considered more…sacred?” He frowns like he’s not sure if that’s what he means. “I was also, you could say, a bit of a romantic.”
I can’t help grinning.
“So I chose not to have sex until I fell in love.”
“You didn’t change your mind when you were turned?” I ask.
“I was tempted to. Yet, strangely, this promise I had made to myself as a man felt like the one thing I could hold on to from my humanity. A part of me that was still my choice.”
The more vulnerable he becomes, the more I want to be with him alone. In private. Where I can feel him close.
“Let’s get out of here,” I say.
He lifts me in his arms, and the world blurs around us. When he sets me back down, the air is warmer, but I can’t survey my surroundings yet. I’m stilltoo dizzy from the ride, so his arms linger around me. I stare only at him as my vision settles, a charged silence between us.
He looks down at my lips, but instead of kissing me, he asks, “Why is it you have never been in love?”
