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left to wonder
what she had been most upset about—that he had arranged for her to have an
office job, or that he hadn’t said a word to her since he had, despite passing
by her desk every day.
     
    * * * *
     
    My threats, as he called them, did not change
Will’s mind. The only thing that happened was that the next time I looked at my
file, the paper trail was gone. I hadn’t thought of making copies.
    I appealed to Bergsen, but with no result. He gave
me a speech about how all assignments were equally honorable, and how others
envied me, but he refused to let these others, whoever they might have been,
trade their places with me.
    That only left me one option.
    All the members of the Guard who have office duty
volunteer to take turns standing guard over the walls, usually one to two
nights a month. It’s a way to refresh their training in between active
assignments. I started showing up there every night. I would finish my shift at
the headquarters, go to the mess for a quick dinner, then change into combat
uniform and be on my way. Every night, I made sure I reported directly to the
commanding officer and gave him or her my name and official assignment. It
wasn’t long before they all knew me—and not much longer after that before they
started muttering that my current assignment was a waste of my training.
    Will showed up on the third night. He didn’t look
surprised to see me there, so I’m pretty sure he knew what I was doing. He
stayed around all night, and came back every night after that. I know he was
watching me. No, more than that, he was making sure I was safe. We were
attacked fourteen times during the five weeks I spent pulling a double shift
every night. And fourteen times, when I fought, Will was by my side. It was
easy to get used to it, and even easier, when it stopped, to miss him.
    I managed to fight well enough during this time to
earn praises from all the commanding officers. And during the same time, I
slacked off shamelessly during the day, sometimes even falling asleep at my
desk. The other soldiers at headquarters knew what I was doing, and they picked
up whatever duties I wasn’t completing; it was their way to show that they
supported my silent protest. Most of them had been taken away from the front lines
after being wounded, or because they were deemed too old. None of them liked it
any better than I did.
    One morning—I remember I had fought my hardest
battle yet that night, and had cuts and bruises all over my body to show for
it—when I arrived at headquarters, I found a huge bouquet of white roses on my
desk. I was curious, of course, but also a little uncomfortable; I was as
superstitious as any other Guard, and roses this color were said to be a bad
omen.
    The blossoms were still tight, barely opening their
soft petals to the world, but the scent was already heady. An envelope was
nudged between two flowers. Inside it, I found a new assignment sheet; I was to
report to the walls that same night. I also found a handwritten note, signed
simply with a ‘W’.
    The elegant cursive letters gave a short message
that I never forgot.
    “Hopefully those are the only white roses I’ll have
to buy for you for a very long time.”
    Wilhelm walked by, that day, on his way to see
Bergsen. I tried to thank him, but all he did was shake his head in reply.
    I reported to my new duties later that night, more
excited than ever and ready to take the entire demon army by myself. That’s
when I met Lorenzo.

 
     
     
    Chapter 5
     
     
    Hung high in the cloudless sky, the moon shone bright,
casting a cold light over the plain. To Wilhelm and to all the vampires
standing over the walls, everything seemed as bright as it was by daylight. It
was the same for demons, of course. The Guard had known the attack would come
ever since the weather forecast had warned of a beautiful night.
    The first wave came from the north just after
midnight. It took the demons a little more than four hours to trot