“I should have known,” he shook his head, dragging me along the hallway to the staff quarters. “I shouldn’t have been so stupid.”
“What?” I asked, struggling to keep up.
“I’m sorry, Amy. I thought we were safe when she didn’t show her face. But she bought all the tickets to opening night, and I should have known she would show up today. She’ll be watching tonight, for sure.”
“Do you think she wants to hurt me?” I asked, fear leaping into my throat. Liam shook his head.
“No. Selene is not usually the...violent type,” he said. “And even if she does try, there will be truck loads of security there, to make sure we’re safe.”
“Uh…Did you get vampire security or something?” I asked, as he put his key in the lock.
“Sort of,” he replied, ushering me into the room. I turned to give him a funny look, but when I entered the room, I saw what he meant. Sitting crossed legged on his bed, looking about four shades paler, Porsche was slowly doing her makeup.
“Porsche!” I cried, flying across the room to give her a hug.
“Hey, Amy.” Her voice was soft, and she felt about ten pounds lighter, her already thin frame feeling skeletal under my arms. She was burning with heat, her face shiny with sweat and her heartbeat could be heard even by my human ears. “How are you?” I could see the lesions on her arms, and subtly, when she opened her mouth, I could see the sores. I didn’t think it was possible to downward spiral as fast as she did and I wondered how long she had been hiding it from me, and from Liam. He seemed just as shocked as I was to see her this way.
“Forget me, how are you?” I asked. Porsche’s eyes went above my head, to meet Liam’s, who sighed.
“It’s better that she’s here, Amy. For you … and for her. So that she’s closer to me if anything happens.”
“And for him,” she said, with a soft smile. “My power grows every hour. By tonight, neither Liam nor Selene will transform.”
“But that means…” I said, trailing off with horror. She shrugged.
“Doesn’t matter anymore, Amy. It’ll all be over soon. But tonight, don’t worry about me. Worry about you.”
“It shouldn’t happen this quickly,” I said, looking up at her. “I mean, you’ve only been off AZT a few months.”
“I’m refusing treatment,” She said, putting down her mascara brush. She looked skeletal, her eyes cloudy and her cheeks hollow. “I’m done with all this.”
“So why not now?” I asked, looking to Liam. He shrugged.
“Porsche’s stubborn. She wants to protect us first. So we’ll wait as long as she can hold out…the run of the show at least.” Although he was speaking the words, I believed he disagreed with it as much as I did. His face was stony, and his eyes were dark.
“Thank you,” I said, turning back to her. She smiled, her eyes a bit teary.
“Anytime.” She said. “I hope we can still be friends when I’m on the other side, Amy.”
“Of course,” I replied. “It’s much more taboo for you to back an actor with no experience than for me to be friends with a vampire.”