(no subject)
a little less 16 candles, a little more touch me, 2006
the sacrifice of life; living well is the best revenge (part one)
travis / william, gabe / william, 11 557 words (nc17)
-- i still remember the days when you didn't feel the need to escape and every demon you never face is the reason you're not safe; please understand that you've had every chance, you've had all the time, all the time in the world
gabe forbids ryan and brendon from even talking to each other for two weeks thanks to their colossal fuck up and making him look like an idiot. he doesn't threaten to kill them, because he is not maja, and he even takes brendon aside when he is seen looking like a dejected puppy one day and says, "i'm sorry kid, you know i love you and i would make out with ryan every chance i got, too, if i were you, but i have to keep up appearances."
there had been a definite shift in power since gabe and maja's fight, and no one seemed to mind this except for maja. it wasn't that she didn't care to take charge, because she was giving orders to find pete every day. it was that gabe was deliberately going behind her back and dismissing her orders, stripping her of any power she had left. he told tom and mike to put the knives away and go get a drink somewhere, forced alex and ryland to count the blood shaant had delivered rather than let them go out to track, and had to lock felix in his room because he was being so blindly obedient. he called them all to the sitting room one day and flat out told them they were not in some war against pete wentz, that he would find pete on his own and he would take care of whatever needed to be taken care of.
he had been doing so, sure, when he wasn't busy lounging around the house looking bored and haughty, but handsomely so, thinking up random activities for the dandies to do. he rationalized putting off finding pete to the fact that they had already been to his apartment and he had left town in a hurry. he didn't attack ryan and brendon because he was a bad person, he was scared and confused and if gabe was right, he wouldn't be back any time soon.
in the meantime, maja would have probably killed him in his sleep for his blatant disrespect towards her, if he had slept with her at all. he moves right into william's room and the two of them don't leave it for days, fucking as loud as they can to get on her nerves. it is childish of them, and downright rude, but gabe doesn't care. he's taken enough of maja's bullshit for too long to even want to put up with it any longer. if she wants to hold a grudge for the rest of their immortal lives, she can, but he knows she'll get over it sooner or later. some days he wishes she would just leave the coven to him, it would be much easier that way, but he doesn't dare think past that thought lest it lead to something else much more dangerous.
it happens though, not the way he would have expected it to, but it happens.
she leaves in the middle of the night, slides a note under william's door that says, "if you think you can handle it" and doesn't say a word to anyone. she leaves half of her clothes though, so gabe and william both know she's just being a dramatic bitch and she'll be back. she's left them before, when it was just the three of them. but she always came back.
it takes gabe all of two minutes after they find the note to decide that the dandies are going to be fun, easy going vampires free of drama and secrets and all the bullshit that has been plaguing them lately. it takes a little less than two weeks for his dreams to be shattered completely. however two days after maja leaves, william has his most brilliant idea ever.
-
"i want to go hunting," william states, nodding. he is lying on gabe's shoulder, their fingers entwined and resting on his chest. he can hear laughter from downstairs, rain falling steadily outside the window, the sound of brendon and audrey doing each other's hair from the next room.
gabe stares at him, eyebrows raised. "we don't need to hunt." he points out, nudges william in the rib and pulls him closer, kissing the side of his neck. "there's an entire storeroom of blood downstairs waiting to be poured into that delicious mouth of yours, drink that."
william makes an impatient noise and pulls away from gabe's kisses but fails. "i don't mean hunting like we used to hunt, but gabe, don't you miss the rush? don't you miss being feared?"
"gorgeous, being feared is what almost got us burned at the stake that one time," he murmurs against william's skin. "if you recall."
william sighs, content with the way gabe's mouth feels against his neck, his tongue following the lines of jutting veins. "oh right but-- gabe, stop that!" he pulls away and scowls at gabe's toothy grin. "i miss the days when people knew our names, now we're just a memory, just folklore told in small towns."
they both sit up and sigh. it seems like such a long time ago that they were the names being whispered around town, two rent boys who had an appetite for blood and a penchant for pleasing rich, married women whose husbands would find them dead with half of the house's wealth gone missing. it's how they made their way from city to city: stealing and drinking from the rich, feeding off their knowledge of the world, of society, of how to act mortal in their two person world of immorality. they became quite good at it, they stayed in london for years, gabe selling their stolen goods in back alleys, william falling hopelessly in love with young writers, inspiring stories of a man who never aged, only william's true self wasn't hidden in a painting.
when maja returned to them, they had to leave. they had overstayed their welcome, anyway, had made too many friends who all quickly became enemies. gabe often thinks, it would have been okay to stay a few more years, to push their luck and continue the jokes about the fountain of youth for a little while longer. if only maja hadn't come back to them then.
"it's all different now," william thinks out loud. "it's not just us, we're the dandies." he is nodding his head with pride but gabe suppresses a laugh, covering it up with a cough.
"william," he asks, shaking his head. "can you imagine anyone running in fear from a group called the dandies?" gabe can see it written on william's face, the ideas he is having. william raises an eyebrow, shrugs his shoulders innocently and smirks. gabe says, "i wish your brain could shut up, you're getting ideas of grandeur, i can tell. stop thinking." william kisses him on the neck, biting him playfully. "oh, what, now you want sex?"
william nods, pulling him down by his shoulders and laughs, "c'mere." gabe grins, all teeth and a glimmer in his eyes that says william will feel this for days.
-
"do i have to wear this?" jon asks, tugging at his jacket and looking up at the brim of his derby, the way it is flattening his hair against his forehead. "i'm gonna get hat hair." in the corner, brendon is checking himself out in a mirror, audrey is tipping her bonnet over her hair so that the flowers show, hiking her skirt up and laughing at keltie who is twirling around ryan. he, most of all, looks like he was meant for this kind of attire. and ryland, of course, sipping tea from fine china while alex smokes a pipe.
victoria refuses to wear a "hooker dress with added flounce," as she calls it, so she wears william's old clothes, adjusts the suspenders and unbuttons the first few buttons on her shirt. other than jon, and the occasional frown from nate who misses his multi coloured hoodies, they all go out content with their new look, gabe and william feeling as though they are back on the streets of paris at the turn of the century.
their name spreads quickly, like wildfire, like a town crier has shouted it out to everyone around. they are the seducers of young men and women, the mysterious presence you can't help but be drawn to, they are the best night of your life. they are the well dressed, well educated, articulate and stylish children of the night, who disappear as the sun rises. they are the whisper on everyone's lips, the sound in everyone's ears, the image of a crowd of derby hats disappearing around a corner burned into your eyes as you stagger to your feet. they are perfection, harmony, young and lithe. they are the dandies, and they cannot be touched.
for two glorious weeks, they are gold, they are invincible. maja may have been out of her mind, but she kept the vampires at bay. they lived in fear of her, of what she would do to them if they came too close to her family. no vampire had stepped foot in their town while her name rang loud and clear in the streets. she could leave, for months at a time, but their home would still be safe. gabe and william know that she is behind the unraveling, that she spread the word of her possibly permanent departure. that she caused this, all of this.
for two glorious weeks, the dandies are invincible, that is, until the first few show up. not a coven, a pack.
these vampires are wild, they are not a family, they are not graceful, not effortless in the way the dandies are effortless. they steal, they break into houses and drink while children are sleeping soundly in the next room. they vandalize old buildings, school playgrounds, they are going through the town and destroying everything they touch. they are laughing down an alley way until they turn the corner and ryan ross asks, in that perfect monotone that once made william beckett weak in the knees, "having fun?"
alex, victoria, spencer and the butcher are beside him, standing in a perfect line. the other vampires look at them and laugh, until william steps out of the shadows, peeling white gloves off his fingers and shaking his head. they are silent when he speaks, slowly backing away as he walks closer. "boys, good evening," he nods, and tips his hat to them. "tell me, where are you off to on this beautiful night?" he looks at each of them, sizing them up. there are ten in total and they have the dandies outnumbered, but their fearful glances around the alley for an escape route tell william that won't be a problem.
one of them finally says, "we were leaving, just--" he stutters, but william is impressed that he spoke at all. "--going home."
william nods again, "yes, home." his voice is quiet, all around them, noise seems to be waiting for him to finish speaking. "you just came from someone else's home, though, didn't you?" he looks at the vampire who spoke, but he has backed away between two others. "you broke into that woman's house and you had your fill-- all of you." william's voice raises slightly, echoes in the empty space. "you left her there to die and that is just, well, in my opinion that's just unacceptable." william walks up to the closest one, lowers his voice completely and says, "you're going to go home, you're going to pack your bags, and you're going to leave this town, tonight." he turns around and walks back to the dandies.
spencer chuckles under his breath. "we'll be checking in on you tomorrow night, to make sure you're gone. and if you're not, we'll know, and our friend here will see to it personally that you're escorted out." he gestures towards andy who is grinning toothily, hungrily.
they all turn to walk off, william in front, ryan and spencer just behind him, alex and the butcher behind them. victoria lingers, biting at her thumb nail idly and chimes in, "they don't call him the butcher for nothing." she heads off with a quick glance back at the vampires and joins her family.
-
victoria says, "we have a problem, gabe," but he waves her off and walks away. she follows him down the corridor, rolling her eyes. "gabriel, we have a serious problem."
he turns around and shakes his head at her. "tell it to william, honestly, if i hear the word problem one more time today i'll shoot myself in the face with the uv rounds." he continues to walk and she continues to follow him because when victoria says serious, she doesn't mean brendon was playing with the holy water and burnt himself again serious, she means serious.
however, she interrupts that thought process to ask, "i thought those weren't ready yet."
"they're not," gabe says, casually. he's loading his crossbow, checking and double checking that it will work properly, pointing it at random spots on the wall, at the mirror, at victoria's head. he does a double take at the annoyed look she is giving him and decides it's best to explain. "they don't work the way we want them to, not yet at least. so far the rays don't get into the blood stream but they burn so we've been using them on our little emo friend downstairs." victoria nods along, half understanding. she starts to point at the cross bow with a raised eyebrow, but gabe interrupts her thoughts and starts talking again. "the guns aren't ready yet and i'm not about to get my hands dirty."
gabe turns and starts walking again, but he continues talking so victoria takes the hint and walks with him. sometimes gabe will do this and no one will listen which always results in a dramatic outburst on his part and the retelling of whatever he was telling in the first place to the entire group. it is almost always annoying.
"i don't know what she's doing, actually, but it's fucking amazing. sometimes i wonder what goes on in that mind of hers and sometimes i think that all the bleach she used to dye her hair when she was still mortal seeped into her skull and created something beautifully genius. either way, she still can't spell for shit." he's walked them all the way down to the basement where he pushes open a heavy door and smiles at audrey as a quick hello.
"i think i've figured it out," she whispers excitedly, but notices the crossbow and makes a face. "i'll tell you about it later," she decides and goes back to her work. gabe and victoria walk to another smaller room where the butcher and sisky are sitting on opposite sides of a chained vampire.
gabe asks, "have you decided to deliver my message for me?" he gets no reply, so he presses on. "listen, this should be really easy for you. do you want to live or do you want to die? i don't like taking the lives of other vampires, okay, it's not my style. maybe a hundred years ago, sure, but nowadays i've got more important things to deal with." he takes a moment to let this all sink in, but it doesn't even seem to register. "you killed a family," gabe says, disgusted. "two children, the mom was pregnant-- we don't do that kind of thing. you children, you think it's okay to stroll into a town and take what you want but it's not. this is our town and you can either tell your little friends to leave, or i can kill you now and i can kill them later." he looks at the vampire square in the eyes and half hopes that no one is listening. "don't make me do this," he whispers.
the vampire looks at gabe and sneers. "fuck you, old man." gabe sighs, he points his bow at the vampire's heart and shoots, slings it over his shoulder regretfully and watches the dust fall.
victoria nods, looking more annoyed as the time presses on. "now that we've taken care of that, gabriel, i was saying that we have a very serious fucking problem that you need to attend to right now, and don't tell me to tell william because he went out with mike and tom hours ago and they're not back yet."
gabe actually does drop his crossbow.
the first thought to cross his mind as he hurdles up the stairs wordlessly is that william's been taken captive and is currently being tortured for information. he will be held for weeks, weak and deprived of blood; he will be near death when gabe finally finds him. gabe looks at the grandfather clock in the corner and wishes for more time. he doesn't get much of a chance to freak out though, because as soon as he turns the corner, into the entrance hall, william walks in, muttering to himself, tossing daggers and guns and a crossbow identical to gabe's onto the couch completely disregarding the fact that they are all covered in blood and staining the upholstery.
mike and tom are both completely silent as gabe follows william into the bathroom. he is standing over the sink, shaking his head and unravelling the torn fabric of his shirt from his chest and around his shoulder. he notices them in the doorway and says, "are you gonna stand there looking like an idiot or are you gonna help me?" mike and tom glances at each other but william is talking to gabe who walks over to him slowly.
"mother fucker stabbed me," he seethes, turns the hot water on and grabs a hand towel, dampening it. he throws the remnants of a once crisp white shirt into the sink violently. "ruined my fucking shirt, fucking circus freaks."
gabe is quiet because he knows when william is pissed off, it's better to just listen to him rant and not to talk at all. william looks into the mirror and winces. there is the end piece of someone's dagger sticking out of his shoulder where it was broken off. he grits his teeth and pulls it right out, his fingers slicing on the edges as he does, spilling more of his blood onto the floor.
aside from wondering who william thinks will clean all of this up, gabe is glad that they got back when they did. he pulls william into a hug, suddenly, william's veins spilling onto his shirt, his blood warm and inviting. gabe would love nothing more than to take him upstairs and lick his wounds clean but he is obviously weaker than he is letting on, and more than annoyed. gabe kisses his good shoulder, holds him tightly and knows that when he lets go, william will be okay. sure enough, when he pulls back to kiss william on the mouth, there is a satisfied grin where their lips touch. "go upstairs, okay," he suggests, and william nods. "i'll be right up, i just have to put this stuff away." gabe takes the towel from the sink and wrings it out, presses it into william's shoulder and kisses him again, for good measure. he calls mike over to help william upstairs and it's a testament to just how hurt he is that he accepts, allows mike to half carry him up the stairs while he holds the towel tight against himself.
victoria doesn't even need to be told what to do. she heads back downstairs to get him some blood and probably to inform everyone down there of what's just happened. when william and mike are safely at the top of the stairs, gabe turns to tom. "what happened?" he asks, trying to stay calm, but he needs to be angry at someone right now.
tom manages to explain explain pretty well, though. "we found them all, or at least we thought we did. they didn't want to listen, so we were gonna leave-- william said he wanted to avoid a fight if possible, so we walked away and they stopped us, had some guys hiding out or whatever. anyway, mike was still in the car when he heard so he brought all that over--" he points to the blood stained couch and continues. "i mean, we weren't even armed, these guys were bold."
"why does william have a gaping fucking wound in his shoulder, tom, get to that part why don't you." gabe's arms are crossed over his chest and he is leaning against the door frame, tapping his shoe against the hardwood.
"okay, sorry," tom says, avoiding gabe's gaze. "it was just a couple of guys at first, five at the most, but they surrounded us. they've got more than we do," he recalls, sounding a little more worried. "one of them got mike in the back, it was just a graze, it's healed already. and they got pretty close to killing me. it happened fast, william just wasn't paying attention."
the end of the story is already written out on tom's face and gabe really should have known. he has seen this happen once before, long before, and that was the last time that william ever killed someone. still, he has to ask. his voice is quiet, quieter than it was even when he was trying not to be heard. "what did he do?"
tom sighs, he almost doesn't want to say it. "they're all dead," he whispers, finally. "he killed them all, didn't even let me and mike near them. i think the only reason he was still standing is because he was, fuck-- he was livid." gabe nods, and any anger he had towards mike and tom has since vanished. his original thoughts were that they should have made sure no one got hurt, but this is something entirely different.
he leaves tom to attend to william, and on the way upstairs turns back to thank him. the butcher and sisky volunteer to clean up william's blood, probably because they want to stay out of the way for now or maybe, as gabe suspects, because they like finger-painting.
william kicks victoria and mike out of the room when he is settled; gabe sees them standing outside of the room when he gets upstairs, along with ryland, nate and alex who asks, as nonchalantly as he can manage, "everything okay?" gabe nods and gives them all a look that explains he can handle it from here. he waits until they are on their way down the stairs-- still peeking their heads around the corner for a glimpse-- before he opens the door and slips inside.
half hidden under the covers, william is curled up, his feet bare and sticking out at the bottom, and he is sobbing. mike has bandaged his shoulder up again and gabe can see that his left hand is tightly wrapped as well. gabe can't help but think that william is perfect in this moment. he is ever so graceful when he cries, biting his bottom lip, his eyes closed, eyelashes wet and clinging to each other, silent sobs causing him to flinch. his chest is heaving, his breathing uneven. gabe locks the door and goes over silently to lie beside him in bed.
william immediately melts into his arms, the warmth of gabe's body pressing against his, but not too tight.
"i never want to do that again," he breathes, his voice a shaky whisper "i don't know what happened--" he starts to say, but gabe interrupts him.
"they stabbed you, the fucking circus freaks." he kisses william's hair and smiles. "you were protecting mike and tom and i don't blame you. if i had been there, i would have done the same thing." william nods but he still isn't convinced that it's okay.
when gabe and william were alone once, one of the times maja had disappeared for whatever reason, gabe had gotten restless. they were passing through some random town and he had a craving that william and sex and the blood of livestock couldn't fulfill, but the people there were suspicious and superstitious and he ended up locked in a jail cell with an hour left of night and the sun lingering dangerously behind a purple sky. william had found him, saved him, and the following night he destroyed the town singlehandedly. it wouldn't have been safe for them if those people had gotten the news out of two men who drank blood and burned in the daylight, so william did what needed to be done, but the act alone was enough to make him stop completely. right there, they both swore never to kill again.
from then on, they only picked their victims up at bars and clubs, took as little blood as they could, only as much as they needed for the night, and made sure whoever it was wasn't seriously injured before leaving the scene.
everyone they had sired followed the same rules, respected their principles and never had a thought about disobeying them. it was the code they had to live by. no human, regardless or the status of their mortality, was ever killed by a dandy-- until tonight.
"i killed that kid we took last night," gabe sighs, more to make william feel better than anything, because he didn't want to admit it. "you shouldn't think too much about it, william, this isn't like before." william makes a noise somewhere between a whimper and a scoff, nuzzles into gabe's shoulder and sniffles. "these guys aren't innocent. they're robbing, they're killing, they're a fucking menace and they're giving peaceful people like us a bad name." he pauses because he wants william to understand that all of this is necessary. "i've given everyone permission to kill any vampire that disturbs the peace. this is our town, our territory, and if we don't protect it, who will?"
william doesn't want to admit it but he agrees. it didn't take very long after maja left for the town to become overrun and gabe was right-- someone needed to do something about it.
"how's the shoulder?" gabe asks, and william just sighs dramatically. gabe reaches over and takes the glass victoria was kind enough to pour (because william always complains that drinking out of the plastic hospital pouches is weird, whereas brendon drinks them with a straw like it's capri sun or something) and sits up, lifting william with him. "drink," he says, tipping the glass against his mouth.
before gabe can even ask him if he wants more, william is scratching idly at his chest with a pout that tells him to fill it up. he drinks three entire packets and ends up sucking on gabe's neck for good measure, his hand stroking him slowly under the fabric of his pants.
gabe would protest, tell william he needs rest and relaxation, but this is pretty relaxing and gabe knows his body is already healing itself, his insides readjusting. his skin is perfect once again, creamy and smooth under gabe's fingertips, warm with the flow of fresh blood. they can allow themselves this moment to get tangled under the sheets as they slowly peel each other's clothes off, gabe unravelling the bandages from william's body, kissing him slowly, like they have all the time in the world.
-
he only remembers that victoria said they had a problem when he wakes up in the middle of the day to the sound of brendon on the piano.
"there's a new coven in town, much bigger than any of the ones we've seen, might even be bigger than us." gabe scoffs, because it's not the size of the coven that matters, it's organization and dedication, a good base of operations and mortals you can trust. it's loyalty and love and integrity that matters, and style. style always wins out in the end. victoria snaps her fingers in front of his face to get his attention back and continues. "i was out with alex, ryland and nate and they found us, requested a meeting with you or william, smug bastards. but i don't know, they didn't seem like the others; they were somewhat civilized, didn't try to kill us or anything."
gabe nods at her, opens his mouth to ask a question, but she already knows what it is. "i just talked to ryan," she says, "went down the chain of command since you and william were busy," she smirks, her eyebrows raising. "he agrees that we don't negotiate, not anymore. it's our town and we don't share. they'll either let it go or wreak havoc and we'll see them again, either way," she shrugs, the end of her sentence lost in the sounds of ryan and brendon singing a song they wrote, something about reinventing love, something sweet that audrey and keltie are swooning about.
it's better to be safe than sorry, gabe thinks, so he tells victoria to call shaant and find out as much as she can about this new coven. civilized as they may seem, gabe isn't taking chances anymore. they thought the circus folk were virtually harmless, just a bunch of bearded contortionists and juggling clowns, and look how that turned out.
she comes back to him a few days later while he is sitting in the library with his feet up on the desk and completely interrupts his moment of peace. "they're from new york, been around maybe ten years, at the most, and there's a lot of them." gabe sifts through the papers she put on the desk and has to wonder how shaant comes up with these things and whether he and the boys have a life outside of vampiric goods trading, making black market purchases and apparently stalking vampires. there are semi-detailed profiles of several members, photos and an exact location.
"i think i'll thank shaant personally for this," he says, smiling, but victoria is actually kind of concerned.
"they have a new leader, gabe, did you get to that part? after ten years of being in new york, they get a new leader and come out here? for what? that can't be good." victoria isn't usually one to worry, so gabe leans back in his chair and looks at her seriously. "maybe we should rethink that whole no negotiations thing," she suggests, and he nods.
he stands up and walks to the front of the desk beside her, sits on the edge and nudges her in the arm. "i'll talk to william about it, okay, don't worry so much." the sun is rising outside, he can feel it; it makes his skin crawl, makes him shiver with a cold that he should probably be used to by now, but isn't. "we should both get some sleep," he tells her, "we've had enough work for one day." they walk out of the library together and gabe takes the papers to show to william.
everyone in the manor is already in bed and drifting. it's been a long few months for them all. the snow on the ground is barely there until it is swept away by harsh winds, a furious storm in the middle of a bitter day.
when christmas comes, they celebrate the way they have always celebrated: together, gathered in the sitting room singing christmas carols and sipping wine, exchanging presents and catching each other under mistletoe. they let themselves forget that outside the walls of the manor, something big is brewing, something they are caught right in the middle of with no way of escaping.
-
william rolls his eyes and groans, "you did what?"
tom looks back and forth between gabe and william who are scowling in the same way, both of them shaking their heads. "no one else was here," he explains. "victoria took alex, ryland and nate to shaant's, the butcher and sisky are getting the new daggers from sarti's, mike, michael and felix are still taking care of the football players and someone had to be here when audrey and keltie came back."
"which is exactly why you should have gone and left him here!" gabe throws his hands up in frustration. "what if there was someone there, you idiot? what's he gonna do, attack them with puppies and rainbows and fucking hugs?"
from the other side of the room, william shakes his head. "brendon can't take on the mimes by himself. he'll end up befriending them, taking them out for frozen yogurt, losing track of the time and becoming a pile of dust in a shopping mall parking lot." he pulls out his cell phone and dials brendon's number but of course he doesn't pick up. william glances at gabe and says, "he's probably not even there anymore."
"listen," tom interrupts, "i sent him out there about two hours ago. he's a good man, he'll do his job, i promise you." gabe and william raise their eyebrows at each other. "he'll be there. the job'll be taken care of."
gabe and william silently decide it's just not a good idea to trust this task to brendon alone. "ryan," william calls and he comes out of the kitchen tossing grapes into his mouth, spencer and jon in tow. "we need you to go back out and get brendon, he went to check that the mimes have left, which they probably haven't because they're arrogant little fuckers."
ryan's mouth completely misses the grape and it hits him in the eye. "by himself?" he asks, and doesn't ask any more questions, just heads back to the kitchen to put his grapes away and grabs his jacket from the coat rack by the door. spencer and jon go with him, both glancing at tom and trying not to laugh at his impending doom.
"we should kick you out of the dandies," william suggests, but tom sticks his tongue out and laughs.
"you wouldn't have the guts," he teases, as william walks towards the basement.
he turns back before heading down the stairs and laughs, "probably not, i'd make the butcher do it."
-
"why do covens have to be themed?" brendon asks, rolling his eyes. he looks down at the mime, pleading silently not to be killed and shoots him between the eyes, his body disintegrating before them. he and ryan continue walking around, making sure everyone un-dead is now completely dead. "i mean this is just getting ridiculous. we've encountered circus folk, cowboys, those pirate-like ones, jocks, the all girl coven, and now fucking mimes."
ryan nods along, turning over tables but thankfully finding nothing but dust and slowly disappearing bodies. "i know what you mean man. i think we're the only coven that isn't like that." he shrugs, and they join jon and spencer back at the car. ryan shakes his head, they didn't find anything, tosses the guns and bows in the trunk and glances at brendon who is staring at him, incredulous.
"ryan," he says seriously. "look at what you're wearing."
"what?" ryan asks, looks down, confused, "i thought this was just how we dressed." spencer laughs out loud and jon has to hold onto the car to keep from falling over.
brendon realizes as they are getting in the car to leave that the cavalry was called in for him. he scoffs to himself and asks, "wait a minute, didn't they trust that i would get this done?" no one says anything, they just avoid all eye contact with him. ryan goes as far as whistling, jon coughs. "those two sons of two bitches, remind me when i get home to shoot them both," he laughs and adds, "at close range."
the car ride is short but brendon manages to smack his head on the back of the seat when spencer stops too suddenly which causes them to burst out laughing for the third time since they left the warehouse. they saunter into the manor, jon shouting ahead that brendon didn't marry a mime and have mime babies while he was gone, but when they get to the sitting room, everyone is gathered around looking serious. william and gabe are standing in the middle of the room exchanging a look that says, fuck.
"you should probably sit down," gabe says.
jon and spencer are looking at them, confused, but ryan and brendon already know what's going on. "where's keltie?" ryan asks, scanning the room. william shakes his head. "she and audrey didn't come back." it isn't a question, more of a realization that he never wanted. his voice is small, too quiet for everyone to hear; brendon says nothing at all.
"that coven," gabe starts, "the one i should have taken more seriously-- i'm so sorry-- they picked them up about an hour ago. we just got the call, they want to meet with william since i've already denied them."
the chain of command is as follows: maja, as head vampire, the leader of their family, however estranged she may be at times; gabriel, her second, her first, the one she has been with the longest; william, maja's child, gabriel's love, the glue that holds the three of them together and finally; ryan, who gave them a family, a home, a reason to exist for all eternity. this decision lies with him and him alone.
"it's dangerous," he says, "it's obviously a trap." brendon stares at him, appalled, he looks as though he might cry. ryan looks up at william and says, his voice shaking. "but we have to get them back, you have to bring her back to me."
william's lips curve into a crooked smile and he nods.
the house is alive with sound and scattered movements, guns and daggers being stored in the trunks of cars. the butcher and sisky spend too much time admiring an old sword gabe had stashed away while victoria slides a sharp wooden stake up her sleeve. ryan and brendon are quiet, collecting holy water from the cellar (because in a situation like this, sometimes you have to fight dirty) and speaking in hushed whispers, ryan's bottom lip trembling, brendon's eyes red.
they park the cars far away and walk to the house, just a random, old, boarded up house. it is nothing like their house, nothing like their home. it doesn't have a big tree in the yard, like their tree, the one brendon pushes audrey on in the summer time. it doesn't have a fountain to sit by, to read to each other like alex reads to victoria, which always leads to a bigger audience to listen to him or them passing the book around after each chapter. this house doesn't have christmas decorations up, despite it being well into january. there isn't mistletoe hanging in the doorway or a wreath or a wonky looking snowman that sisky made and mike destroyed.
william thinks, there isn't anything worth loving here. these vampires, whatever their agenda, they must be doing these things for foolish reasons. they couldn't possibly understand what it's like to protect someone.
the plan is that william goes in alone, they will all wait for him. it shouldn't take more than fifteen minutes and if it does, they will have no choice.
gabe pulls william aside and asks him, "are you okay?" and william honestly can't answer. he knows if this goes wrong, people are going to die tonight. even though they've had to kill quite a few vampires to keep the city clean, william has managed to stay away from it since the circus coven. he will threaten, he will intimidate, he will go as far as to injure someone if they're posing enough of a threat, but he won't kill anyone. he shrugs, not really paying attention. he has to concentrate on this task, right now. he has to save the damsels in distress and somehow save the city because the city is at war and no one else seems to want to help. gabe's hands are on his shoulders, pulling him close. "you don't have to do anything, okay, you can sit in the corner and sip tea for all i care." he kisses william on the mouth and smiles, reassuring him. "i will take care of you," gabe says. "as long as i am alive, i will take care of you. i won't let anything hurt you."
when william knocks on the door, he is calm and composed and completely ready for whatever will happen. he is let in by a dorky looking kid with big hair, the kind of kid who you would send to wave the white flag. he says, smugly, "we've been expecting you," and lets william in. the hallway is dark, not lit by elegant lights like in the manor. it is small and crowded with too many people, too much going on, there isn't anywhere to escape to, to be alone.
"where are my girls?" william asks, getting right to the point. the kid mutters something about, follow him or right this way or something like that so william just goes in the direction he goes and keeps his eyes focussed for sudden movements, his senses working extra hard to detect if something is wrong. they are here, he knows that much. the smell of audrey's perfume still lingers in the entrance hall, keltie's flowery shampoo hangs in the air.
the kid stops outside of a room and turns to william. "sorry it had to be this way, but we needed to make sure only you came." he shrugs and is about to open the door but william stops him.
"why?" he asks. "there's seventeen other people in my family you could have played mind games with, why me?"
the kid shrugs, "wouldn't know, the boss doesn't really tell us much, but he has his reasons. said it had to be you, no one else." he pushes the door open and reveals audrey and keltie, sitting pretty in their old fashioned dresses, looking incredibly bored. william holds his hand out for audrey to take and she hugs him to say hello. keltie rolls her eyes but hugs him too.
"they didn't even let us watch tv," audrey complains, "i don't think they can afford tv, but still, it would have been nice." keltie nods. "we were bored." victoria was right about these guys, william thinks. gabe told him that she said they were civilized (living in the ghetto, but still civilized). they could have hurt the girls, hell they could have killed them, but they didn't. there isn't even a wrinkle in their dresses or a hair out of place.
they start to walk away but the kid grabs william's arm and stops him. "where are you going? the boss still needs to talk to you." william slowly looks at his arm with a raised eyebrow and the kid lets go quickly.
"first of all, you should be thanking me. i'm letting you live, if only because i don't want to wash blood out of yet another shirt. you could have killed them, and you didn't, so i'm letting you live." he pauses, glances at audrey who is yawning, pulling at the ribbons in her bustier, and keltie, who is tapping her foot on the floor impatiently. "we're going now, and you're not going to follow us or contact us or have anything to do with us anymore. i'm just here protecting my family, and if you want this to end well, you'll let us go and protect yours too."
the kid starts to interrupt him, something about how that can't leave, something about the boss. it's annoying and william's patience is running thin. "the boss? what is that-- is that a codeword? i got a codeword for you: fuckin dead." his voice is raising steadily, his last two words emphasized, but he isn't yelling; william beckett doesn't yell in the face of those lesser than him. "you took my girls off the street and you brought them here to do what, exactly? you haven't hurt them, haven't tried to get information out of them. you just wanted to play fucking games. you ever pull something like this again, you ever come near my family, it'll be the last thing you do." he turns around, still holding audrey's hand and starts to walk away again.
audrey turns back and sticks her tongue out at the kid as keltie adds, "you should probably leave town like, tonight. william may be forgiving but his boyfriend sure as hell isn't."
another vampire stops him on the way out and at this point, william is about to punch someone in the face. at this point, keltie looks as though she might punch someone in the face. "william," the other vampire says, "travie would like a word with you."
william is suddenly aware that he is shaking, audrey squeezes his hand in a concerned sort of way and glances at keltie, confused. "what did you say?"
the vampire repeats himself. "travis would like a word."
william turns to audrey and smiles. "i'll meet you at the car," he whispers, and she nods at him, links arms with keltie and starts to walk out of the house. william calls after them, "if i come back and you're doing your nails like last time, i'll kill you. you know how i am about the upholstery!" she glances back at him and bites her bottom lip, nodding. so she can't spell simple words and messes up basic sentence structures, but at least she understood the code. if he's not back in ten minutes, the dandies will have no choice.
the door closes behind audrey and keltie and william turns to the second vampire. "take me to him."
the walk up to the second floor of the house feels like forever. william's feet stick to the floor, his limbs are weighing him down. he has to stay focussed on what's happening here and not what's happening outside of the house. gabe is probably furious and nervous and terrified all at once. the boys and victoria are probably restless, tapping shoes against the cold concrete. ryan and brendon are probably sitting on the curb holding keltie and audrey in their arms and not listening to a word they say about how they aren't hurt.
the vampire leads him to a room at the end of the hall, smiles simply, and lets william push the door open. he steps inside and closes it behind him. travis is staring out of the window, a cigarette in hand. "took you long enough, shit," he says, the same drawl william loved to listen to complain about work and bills and william using all the toothpaste. he turns around to face william and smiles, but everything is different. aside from a few new tattoos, and his hair style changing, his eyes are lighter, his jaw is awkward, his teeth taking up too much space in his mouth.
"what did you do?" william asks in a small voice, meek and sad. he is barely aware of his actions, walking over to travis and touching his face, running his fingers over the harsh lines of his face, over his lips. "why did you do this?" he whispers, shoulders sagging, a frown on his face. "you were perfect, you were so perfect and then you fucking left me."
travis takes his hands and frowns as well but more in an amused way. "boy, did you really think i wouldn't come back?" he kisses william quickly and smiles, his teeth sharp and sticking out in a way william's not sure he can get used to. "william, " travis says, seriously, "i couldn't die in a world where you'd have to be alone."
against his better judgement, william tilts his head up and kisses travis. it is different, but still the same as it was so many months ago. they are still passionate and romantic, william sighing soft moans into travie's mouth. he pulls away suddenly and remembers what he told audrey. "i have to go," he says quickly. this feels like the first time they were together, the morning that william had to rush out of the house. "i'll see you again," he says against travis' lips. "i don't know when, i don't know, but i'll see you, somehow."
he takes the stairs two at a time and would run out of the house but he doesn't want to alarm anyone. two more minutes and they would have come storming in, killing anything that crossed their path to get to william. he walks across the street and gabe doesn't even bother asking what kept him, he just pulls william close and holds him while the other dandies start walking back to the cars.
william laces their fingers together as they walk, being as nonchalant as he can. gabe looks over at him with a frown on his face. gabe says, "so," and william smiles. "so, travis is back."
-
william has told them time and time again that travie's coven is obviously not a problem, but gabe and ryan (because gabe and william both agree he deserves more responsibility) sit william down in the library and lay out the ground rules, anyway. "under no circumstances will you be allowed to spend the night away from the manor," gabe says across the table.
"under no circumstances will he be allowed to enter this house; no vampires in the manor unless they're dandies," ryan states.
"you will not share family secrets, weapons, blood or any kind of information or resources with him. he cannot know about our daylights. he cannot know about vegas, or the mormons. don't tell him about safe houses. don't tell him about the money. he absolutely cannot know about what audrey is doing." gabe thinks of something else to say because he's sure he's forgetting important points. he and ryan exchange a glance and decide that's good enough for now. gabe reaches his arm across the table and takes william's pinky tight in his. "promise?" he asks.
"i promise," william says, amused and they link pointer fingers as well, lean far over the desk and kiss each other's thumbs.
they settle back into their seats and gabe adds, "he's not a dandy, william. he'll never be a dandy, and you will always be a dandy. you will always be part of this family."
william smiles at the both of them, and nods. "i'm not going anywhere," he assures them. "and i'm not sharing anything. my relationship with travis will exist the way it did before, only now we have an ally against the other covens. he's willing to help us, if you'll accept his help, that is." he is smiling in a way that says he knows gabe will accept, smug little bastard.
"if we need his help," gabe decides, "we will ask for it. otherwise it's best for them to just stay out of our way." he and william are staring across the table at each other, sneaky smiles playing at their lips. ryan coughs, making his presence known, but neither one of them are paying attention.
"i'll just go now," he mutters, says something about checking in on keltie and leaves the room, closing the door behind him.
william stands up and walks over to gabe, sits in his lap so they are facing, william's legs long and dangling at gabe's sides. "everything is different now, eduardo," he whispers, tongue rolling the r with perfection that gabe knows he has been practicing for centuries. "we're not alone anymore, we don't have to be. i know sometimes you want it to be just the two of us again, and sometimes i want that too, but we've both spent too much time being alive instead of living." gabe nods in agreement, and he truly does understand what william is saying. "everything is different now," he says again, "the world is changed."
gabe leans up and kisses him, his tongue gentle on william's lips. he pulls away and smiles, "eugene," he croons, and william immediately melts into his arms because only gabriel saporta can make a name like eugene sound perfect, the harsh g fading out against william's lips. "the world is changed because you are made of ivory and gold." william grins toothily at the words, recalling a time when he had read them in a letter given to him by a playwright, a soon to be novelist. gabe kisses the corner of his mouth and closes his eyes. "the curves of your lips rewrite history."
-
"fuck," william breathes, sinks his teeth into travie's shoulder and moans around his skin, nails dull and digging into his back. he has never tasted travis this way before and it is strange the way his blood spills into william's mouth. william's not sure he can get used to this. travis tastes different now. his skin used to be sweet mingling with sweat and tasting of honey, now he is bitter and metallic and all william can think about is that the blood running through his veins is no longer his own.
he misses the way they used to be. travis used to make him feel more than just alive, he used to make william feel human, and that's something he thought he had lost forever. it was the way he was always warm, the way he didn't nee blood or sex to warm him, it was just him. william misses the way he used to breathe, the way he used to swear he would quit smoking because it would kill him, now he just does it out of habit. william misses the way he would smoke on the balcony and talk about how beautiful the city looked when the sun was high in the sky, how william should come around and see it sometime.
he misses the way travis helped him control his bloodlust, without even knowing it. william was always in control of his cravings, always able to just shake it off and hold out, wait until he got back to the manor. now travis' blood is right here for the taking and william decides that drinking from him is something he won't do again. to him, travis is still mortal, still perfect and flawless and able to bask in the daylight at any time of day.
he closes his eyes and smiles, because travis feels the same. he is still all ribs and broad shoulders, arms around william and holding him tightly, like he is going to lose him. they are tangled in bed sheets illuminated by the light of the moon just outside of the window. the air is crisp and cool, a winter still lingering in the streets, still clinging to the branches of trees.
they are a perfect fit, william thinks, his legs wrapped around travie's waist, kissing the corners of mouths, nibbling on earlobes. they are a perfect fit, hips colliding and hands roaming freely over delicate skin. he shivers against travie's touch but he is warm inside and out and breathing a steady stream of sighed moans and low whimpers.
"i missed you," he sighs against travie's skin. "i missed the way you feel." travis agrees in a moan and kisses william's neck. it's things like this that make him think of the first few times they were together: the excitement, the thrill, the sloppy kisses and fumbling hands. he can't help but think, how many times did they end up just watching a movie, just lying in bed tracing their fingertips over hipbones and ribs, over veins and major arteries.
travis is so deep inside him that he is dizzy, drunk off the taste of his blood and wanting more, but that isn't a part of who they are together. together they are perfect, they are wild and they are carnal but blood has never been a part of it and william doesn't want it to be. he likes travis the way he is, with smooth skin and no scars (the one on the side of his neck from whoever turned him makes william the slightest bit jealous, the slightest bit nauseous whenever he sees it). he prefers travis to be only skin and ink, all over his arms, his chest and up his neck. william likes the way he is thin and lanky under baggy jeans and big hoodies, but he has always been a strong guy and now he is powerful in this incredibly sexy way that william feels on his wrists, on his hips and right between his thighs.
it is strange looking at him, at the way his face has changed, but william loves him regardless of how different his eyes are, how sharp and threatening his teeth look. as long as he holds william's hand and whispers i love you's into his ear, as long as they sleep with travie's nose pressed against the back of william's neck, arms around him and holding him tight, as long as they can lie in bed together and just exist, he will be happy.
a noise that sounds somewhere far off interrupts his thoughts but travis just fucks him harder. it's more like making love, though, because he whispers an i love you and a you're beautiful and makes william blush just slightly. it is the nice, deep kisses in between sharp breaths and colliding hips, it's the hands on the small of his back and the tongue around the edge of his ear that has him shaking, biting down on his bottom lip and collapsing into travie's arms.
"your phone," travis says, amused, but they lie down and recuperate for a moment, wiping off their chests and grinning at each other. travis nods his head in the direction of william's phone and he decides to find out who called because it might be important.
he reaches over and grabs it from the floor, sees brendon's name on the screen and redials his number with a sigh. when brendon answers he is serious for the first time in his life, frantic and running up stairs as he speaks, shouting to spencer about where to put the guns.
"shaant is coming to pick you up," he says into the phone, and william is slipping into his pants before he can even finish his sentence, buttoning his shirt with one hand and looking around for his shoes. "the punks have gone and joined forces with the goths and they are seriously pissed off." brendon takes a moment to tell audrey to get his mother on the phone, then says, quietly, "we need you here, beckett."
he looks at travis, who nods, understanding that something urgent has come up and william hangs up after agreeing to come right home.
--
THIS WAS TOO BIG FOR ONE POST LOL
continue to part two of part three!