Chapter 45
William jerked away from me, but I was so drunk feeling I was unable to move. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that,” William whispered, not unkindly, and rolled away from me.
“You didn’t do it…I did.” I had my eyes closed and was still smiling, but had started to come around. When I gained enough strength I turned toward him and lay my head on his chest. He put his arms around me and held on tightly. “Did you mean what you said earlier…you’re in love with me?”
“I’ve loved you since the first time I saw you,” he whispered, pushing a few damp tendrils of hair away from my eyes. He looked at me in a way that seemed genuine enough, but how would I really know for sure.
I slowly began to feel normal again and that confused me. Once I’d been bitten, I thought I would almost immediately start going through some kind of change, but I just wasn’t feeling anything. I sat up and stared straight ahead, thinking for a minute before saying anything. “I thought I would feel different,” I uttered, turning to look at him.
William raised an eyebrow. “Why?” He asked earnestly.
“Because. I thought being turned would feel different.” I lowered my eyes feeling cheated somehow.
William laughed light-heartedly, shaking his head. “Is that what you think happened?” He laughed again. This time a little more heartily as he reached for me. “Come here,” he said, with his sexiest smile.
I lay back on the pillow, and he propped up on his side, gently running the back of his fingers down my jaw. It tickled, and I finally smiled.
“You weren’t turned,” he said matter-of-factly.
“I get that. But why not? You bit me…and you drank my blood.” I searched his eyes for an answer.
“That’s not how it works. If it was, this planet would be completely overrun with vampires.”
“Oh?”
“The only way to turn is to drink from the blood of a mature vampire.”
I quickly sat up, looking at him. “Drink your blood?” I threw my hands up. “It just figures all those vampire movie writers would get it wrong.” Afterward, I dropped my shoulders and sighed deeply.
William sat up and put his hand on my knee, and stared intently into my eyes, seeming confused. “Why do you want me to turn you? He asked, but didn’t wait for an answer. “You are an Adlet Princess. You have responsibilities to your kind.”
“I’m not strong enough to defeat Zane yet. It taes time to build Adlet powers. Time that I don’t have.” William wiped away a single tear that ran down my face.
“I don’t think you have thought this thing through. If I turn you, your wolf powers will disappear, and you will leave your people without a leader.”
“If I don’t turn, Zane will kill me anyway, and my “kind” still won’t have a leader.” That was the truth. Even the chief had told me I wasn’t strong enough to defeat Zane. “I’ll just have to figure all that out later. I have to do this.” I wasn’t ready to tell him what the chief said. If William knew, he would never agree to turn me for the sole purpose of killing Zane.
“It’s more painful than anything you’ve ever imagined. I just can’t put you through that kind of pain.”
“It would be nothing compared to the pain of losing my mom twice. That is what’s going to happen if I don’t get to her soon.” I snapped, but didn’t mean to. “He will really kill her this time. I just couldn’t bear the guilt of knowing I could have stopped him but didn’t.
“If I turn you and you kill Zane, it would be like putting a target on your back.” He shook his head. “I just can’t do that to you.”
“Why? You said yourself that you were sent to stop him.” I pulled away, eying William severely. “Was that a lie?”
“No, it wasn’t. The difference is the Amalric sent me. If I turn you, and then you kill him, the Amalric will have you hunted down.”
“I don’t care.” I scooted off the side of the bed, and grabbed up my shoes and jacket.
“Where are you going?” He stared at me, perplexed.
“I’m going to find my mom,” I said in a low growl.
“That’s crazy. You said yourself that you’re not strong enough.” He hurried off the bed.
“I don’t care. I have to try, William. At least if I’m killed, my mom will know that I died trying to save her.” I grabbed the doorknob. “Not running away because I was a coward.”
I threw open the door and took two steps before William crossed the room in a blur and ended up front of me.
“Wait!” He held his hands up to my shoulders. “I’ll do it,” he uttered softly, sounding defeated.
“You will?” I asked skeptically.
He lowered his eyes. “Yeah…I’ll do it,” he said, sadly. “On one condition. Promise me that you won’t go after him until I say you’re ready.
I couldn’t help but grin. I raised my hand excitedly. “I swear!” I took his hand and followed him back into the bedroom. The reality of what I was about to do hit me, and I started to shake.
“When was the last time you ate?” He asked over his shoulder while walking into the bathroom.
I furrowed my brow. “Um…hours ago. Why?”
William came from the bathroom carrying wash cloths, towels, and a garbage can. “Sit down.”
I got really nervous, and began having second thoughts. What if I had misunderstood the chief, and turning into a vampire wasn’t what he was referring to? I shook it off, because it really didn’t matter. One thing I was certain of was I couldn’t beat Zane in my current state. Turning into a vampire was the only way. I would be as fast as Zane, and he wouldn’t be expecting it . I would defeat him with the element of surprise.
William raked his arm across a table beside the bed, knocking everything to the floor, then placed the wash cloths and towels on top. He then crossed the room to a built-in bookcase and removed an old book.
“Are you going to read to me?” I asked bemused.
He glanced over his shoulder at me briefly, then turned back and did something causing the bookcase to swing inward like a door, revealing a small room.
“What’s that?” I leaned, trying to see around William.
“After you turn, you will need to feed, so I have to make sure there is plenty of blood on hand.
I raised an eyebrow. “Huh?” I guess I hadn’t thought about where the blood would come from. I just assumed everything would magically fall into place. I also started to wonder where I would get my blood from after I turned. Would I have to go bite people? I found the thought kind of silly and smiled.
“All right,” William said when he came back out of the room. “There’s enough blood in there for two or three feedings. That should be enough for now.
“Let me ask you…where do you get the blood?” I asked earnestly.
“Actually, there’s a couple different ways. One way is to bite someone. But, in a case like yours, where you’re just turning, your bloodlust will be so high it would be too hard for you to stop before completely draining someone and killing them. So, we also have help getting blood. There are doctors’ offices and blood banks we can buy it from.”
“So, what…you just like, go in and order blood?” I laughed nervously.
“Yeah, pretty much.” He smiled, but I detected sadness in his eyes.
I patted the bed. “Come sit by me.”
He closed up the room and walked to the bed, flopping down next to me.
“I know you have mixed feelings about doing this, but there’s really no other way.”
I looped my arm through his and rested my head on his shoulder, staring at the door. He said something, but I wasn’t paying attention. For some strange reason my chest ached when I thought about Joseph and how he would react when he found out what I had made William do.
I promptly shook the thought from my mind. If I kept thinking about Joseph I wouldn’t be able to go through with it, and I had already made up my mind. No matter what the consequences were, I was d
oing what I had to in order to save my mom.