Die by the drop
~9~
William gives him the cold shoulder and freaking looks the whole morning until Andrej snaps.
“Is this about Alec?”
“Are you going to fuck every vampire now?” William asks.
“No, only the males,” Andrej answers sharply.
William’s fingers grab the edge of the table so hard the wood cracks. Great, Andrej thinks. He got this table from his grandmother. He loves that table.
“Not funny.”
“Do you see me laughing? Because I’m not. And I’m not freaking interested in girls either, you should know that by now.”
“Don’t do this,” William says, his voice only a whisper.
“Don’t do what?”
“Don’t tempt me.”
“We could work and you are too scared to try!” Andrej explodes.
“We could never work, because you’re going to die!”
Andrej takes a deep breath. It doesn’t really help to calm him down. “So, you don’t want to try because it wouldn’t be forever?” he asks. “That’s just stupid! Not even vampires stay together forever. You said it yourself you aren’t a cuddly bunch.”
William sighs, leaning back into the chair, closing his eyes. “It’s not only that. You are just so freaking fragile.”
“That is my charm, William,” Andrej says softly, touching his cheek with his fingertips.
William’s eyes snap open. He grabs Andrej’s wrist and holds it there in midair like he doesn’t know what to do with it.
“You don’t give up, do you?”
Andrej shakes his head. He doesn’t, he won’t. He leans down slowly, the grip on his wrist tightens, it’s nearly painful, but William doesn’t push him away.
“You can say no now,” Andrej whispers against his lips and William’s lips curve into a smile. A real one.
“I know,” he says just before their lips meet.
The kiss is gentle and careful, just lips touching lips softly. Andrej doesn’t want to make it into something hard and demanding and hungry. It would fuck them up for sure.
“Okay…that was good, wasn’t it?” Andrej asks after a while. His wrist is hurting. He is sure he’ll have bruises. The Hunter thing doesn’t come with super healing powers like in Buffy, which sucks a lot to be honest.
“Yes,” William answers, licking his lip. “But it won’t stay that way.”
Andrej kisses his cheek. He knows that.
~+~
Emilia comes home three days later and looks like death warmed over. There is a small cut on her arm and a bruise on her cheek.
“You got into a fight?” William asks. He’s stunned, just standing in the door, mug in one hand, cigarette in the other.
“Thank you Captain Obvious,” she answers tiredly.
“I mean…with who the fuck did you get into a fight?” William wants to know. No way could a human did that to her.
“Barbara,” she answers.
“Your spy?” Dimitri asks.
She nods. “Yes, my spy and friend Barbara.”
“Okay, I’m making coffee, you will sit down on the comfy couch we have and then you will tell us why you’re fighting with your childhood sweetheart,” Dimitri orders.
She nods, smiling at him. “Sounds like a plan.”
“I’m a great planner.”
~+~
The coffee warms her and the boys distract her from the pain in her body. It heals itself, but it still hurts like hell. She sinks further into the comfy couch and closes her eyes for a few seconds. Just listening to the boys putter around.
She takes a deep breath. “Barbara thinks I’m insane.”
“You are insane,” William supplies. She opens her eyes to look at him. He’s smiling, but she already knew that: Could hear it in his voice.
Emilia smiles back. “I know, for keeping you and also now this Alec kid. Barbara heard rumours about male vampires, but no one listens to rumours anymore in our community. They’re more like scary bedtime stories for young vampires.”
“Okay?” Dimitri prompts.
“She found out they aren’t. She found out what we found out and she thinks every male vampire with the ability to kill one of their, our, own by sharing blood - it’s the most erotic and sacred thing for a vampire - should be killed. No questions asked.”
“Yeah, I can see why you’re not on board with that plan,” Dimitri throws in. He lights a cigarette and inhales deeply. He has pretty lips she thinks. Like Andrej’s they look really soft.
“She’s scared,” Emilia answers. “And she should be. I am scared too. If the shadow men have an army now…I don’t want to think about it.”
“Are there vampires missing?” Dimitri asks.
She nods. “Yes and that is another reason why she’s scared. Only a few are missing and we don’t know where all of them are at any given time, but that is not reassuring.”
“No, it’s really not.”
“They’re picking us off one by one and we didn’t know about it and now…” she trails off.
“You think we’re on a brink of another war,” Dimitri clarifies.
She gives him a look. “We are, you aren’t. This is not your fight or Andrej’s for that matter. No humans are involved here.”
“We aren’t ordinary humans, we’re Hunters.”
She rolls her eyes and is up in a flash, pinning him down to the floor. Her teeth inches away from his neck. He shudders, she can feel it, but keeps perfectly still.
“You are still humans and they will kill you for being Hunters.”
“We care, Emilia,” he says softly, but firmly.
She lets him go and stands up. “I know. Still. I don’t want you to be part of this.”
“It’s a bit late for that,” he answers from the hard wood floor. “You fucked me up, badly.”
She looks down on him. Into his pretty green eyes and thinks, yeah, we really did.
~10~
Andrej disappears without a word two days later and Emilia just knows that the shadow men found them. She hoped it wouldn’t come to that. She really did, but well, now they have to deal with it. William is so pissed off she doesn’t even want to talk to him. He has been glaring at the wall and chain-smoking for an hour now. Dimitri is sharpening his knives in a corner.
She hates waiting for the other party to make a move.
She knows they will. She knows the shadow men know all about Andrej by now. Know how much he means to William. There is no way they can play this any other way.
Dimitri puts his knife away and looks at her. Not accusing, she was afraid for a bit that he would blame her, blame them, but it seems it’s not his nature.
“I hate waiting,” he says and William’s head snaps in his direction. She knows he is about to say something stupid and horrible and just plain mean, so she grabs his arm hard.
“Me too,” she answers.
“Why aren’t they sending notes already to meet them and have a hostage exchange or whatever?”
“Because they like to play with us. It makes them feel powerful,” she replies.
“I bet they like playing with Andrej as well,” William says softly. His voice is barely there at all. He is shaking with wrath and worry.
Dimitri balls his hands to fists and Emilia is pretty sure he’s going to punch the wall any second now. He takes a deep breath and relaxes.
“I don’t need to hear that,” he answers.
“Dimitri,” she says softly.
“Okay…okay,” he replies, but she isn’t sure what the hell he means.
~+~
Once things start, they progress really fast. It always happens like that. The shadow men call, because this is the 21st Century and a bloody rag or an ear isn’t necessary anymore. Some people still use a finger or something to get their point across, but these people don’t need to demonstrate what they are capable off. They already did by creating William.
The boys are hovering around her. She pushes the loud-speaker button. Better to have them in on everything. Dimitri is a trained Hunter, there might be things he could get from this conversation, she won’t because she’ll be too distracted talking to that scumbag that stole Andrej from them.
“Emilia,” the smooth voice on the other end says and she knows that voice. Knows it and it chills her to her bones.
“Tobias,” she answers.
“You remember me. I am so pleased.”
“I remember your brother better,” she replies sweetly. She just can’t help herself. It is a bad idea to provoke a psycho vampire who should be dead and whose brother she killed herself, but well. She doesn’t think he can get any more bat-shit crazy than he is now anyway.
“Of course you do. You slit his throat and cut out his heart and spilled his blood on his marble floor.”
“It was ugly,” she says.
“The floor? Yes, he never had a real sense for style,” Tobias admits.
She balls her hand at her side until she can’t feel anything except the pain. It helps her to concentrate.
“I thought you were dead too,” she says.
“That was what I wanted you lot to think.”
“So you could create a weapon in the meantime.”
“And it took me centuries.” He sighs. “It’s so typical for my life that you found him. You of all vampires. The one that wouldn’t bite and I bet you fucked that pretty boy more than once.”
She hates it when people get vulgar from one second to the next - it’s only fun when you’re having sex.
“He sure as hell knows what he’s doing with his mouth,” she answers.
She can hear him inhale sharply. Emilia isn’t sure if he’s pissed off right now or turned on. She thinks turned on would be worse. Urgh. Better not to think about it.
“We have your Hunter,” he says calmly.
“I know. I know you already played with him. I remember your brother’s favourite pastime so well, Tobi,” she replies, sweetly.
Another sharp intake of breath. This time definitely angry. “I remember you watching.”
She bites her lip. She was young back then, but she never enjoyed it. “Why are we still talking around it? You want William and you know I won’t give him to you.”
He laughs. “But that is not your decision, is it? Does the council know you were hiding a weapon that could kill them all? Don’t answer. Of course they don’t know. He is mine and I have something he wants. I even can understand why. This Hunter is a very pretty one. I wanted to bite him the second they brought him in. He smells delicious. Did William fuck him?”
She can feel William tense beside her. He lights a cigarette and inhales deeply. “Is that a no? How could he resist such a pretty thing?” Tobias asks, real curiosity in his voice. “I did.”
William punches the wall beside the window so hard the glass rattles.
She doesn’t even blink. Dimitri doesn’t either.
“Stop talking and tell me where you want to meet,” she answers, her voice cold.
“Why the rush all of a sudden. Don’t you want to know if he’s still alive? Don’t you want a proof of life?”
“I know you didn’t kill him,” she replies and she does know that. She knows Tobias, as long as he can play and fuck with everyone’s heads he will.
“You are no fun.”
“You’re not the first one to tell me that,” she says.
“I’ll text you the details. Say hi to my boy, would you?” he answers and hangs up before she can tell him to go to hell.
~+~
“So, you killed his brother?” Dimitri asks. He is smoking his third cigarette in five minutes.
“He, Bryan, wasn’t Tobias’ real brother…” she answers.
“I don’t particularly care,” he says. “Bryan is dead, you killed him, Tobias is still alive-“
“He should be dead,” she throws in.
“So some Underworld crap then, whatever. I don’t care. Someone lied and it comes back to bite us in the arse. Nothing new. Happens all the freaking time. What I want to know is what we’re doing to make sure that this time he stays dead,” he continues, lighting another cigarette.
“Well, first we’re trying to stop William from doing something stupid and then we’re going to kill them all.”
“Call Barbara, I bet she knows who fucked up badly all these years ago.”
“I have a suspicion myself,” she answers.
~11~
It’s always easier said than done, the whole kill them all thing.
“You knew!” Emilia yells.
“I didn’t know it was Tobias, okay? And I loved her, I couldn’t…” Barbara crosses her arms over her chest and doesn’t look at her. “I mean, she only said her brother. Could have been anyone. I didn’t know.”
Emilia sighs. “And you told her to tell her brother to go underground and never asked another question.”
“We never spoke about it,” she confirms. “I didn’t know.”
“Well, it’s too late for that now. We need to find Andrej - it doesn’t matter if he is alive or not - we need to stop Tobias and we need to kill every single one of the poisonous vampires he made.”
“Except yours.”
“Except mine, of course. I know he won’t fuck up and go on a killing spree. He wasn’t raised with lies about us.”
Barbara gives her a look. Emilia stares right back. Not telling is not the same as lying. “You in or what?”
“We aren’t going to tell the council about this, are we?” Barbara asks.
“No. They can never know about William and how badly you fucked up with Tobias. Tobias, Barbara.”
She nods. “We will need a bit of help.”
“I have William and Dimitri.”
“Dimitri is human.”
“And poisonous,” Emilia answers.
“We need more weapons and we need more than the four of us.”
“Who else is going to fight?”
“Let me call a few people,” she answers.
Emilia nods. Barbara knows her shit, she will find the three people who don’t care, or care enough to help them. Emilia is sure of that.
~+~
“People we don’t know?” Dimitri asks.
“Who the hell cares? I want to go there and get Andrej right the fuck now.”
“And get yourself and maybe Andrej killed in the process,” Dimitri shoots back.
William glares, exhaling smoke and then taking another deep drag. He is a wreck and he knows it. He can’t forget Tobias’s words. He can’t forget that he tortured Andrej and worse. He wants to kill the bastard with his own hands.
“Dimitri,” Emilia says softly and William is glad she’s here. Is glad that she can keep her cool, hates it right now, but a part of him knows that their chances are higher to survive this with her being professional and emotionless about this.
God knows he can’t be.
“Fine! But I don’t like that we have to wait until tomorrow to get him out. I don’t like that this pervert is torturing him right now for the fun of it. I don’t like it at all!”
William takes another drag. It might be the first time ever that it sinks in that Dimitri is as much invested in this, in Andrej, as he himself is. It’s wonderful and frightening, because if Andrej would choose Dimitri…he could be with Dimitri. They could be together.
He doesn’t want to think about it. He can’t afford to think about this. If he’s honest, he can’t afford to love Andrej either, but that, that is not an option anymore.
“I don’t like it either. But at least we know he’ll be alive when we get to him tomorrow.”
“You trust this Tobias guy?” Dimitri asks, playing with his matches. William thinks he looks like he wants to set something on fire. William can understand that desire only too well.
“I don’t trust him, but I know him. I’ve seen how he works. I know how he works. Andrej will be alive when we get there.”
“But that doesn’t mean he won’t fuck us over and kill us all except for William,” Dimitri concludes.
She nods. “Maybe he’ll keep you alive as well. It’s always good to have more poisonous Hunter blood.”
“I feel so special,” Dimitri says.
William laughs, startled. “Oh fuck. I need to kill something. Now.”
Dimitri gives him a look, but doesn’t object. Emilia nods in understanding.
~+~
Hunting is a single-minded business. It kills everything except the instinct to find, stalk and kill prey.
His body takes over for him, it’s nice to not have to think about anything at the moment. Usually he takes the time to look for someone who looks delicious and fuckable, but not tonight. Tonight he only wants someone with a lot of blood, maybe someone who’ll put up a fight, he doesn’t know. His body does.
When he sinks his teeth into the neck of the drug-dealer it’s bliss. For a few minutes he forgets everything else. The only thing that matters is the hunger, the blood rushing from his victim into his own veins.
William lets the body sink down and sits beside it on the dirty ground. He leans his head against the grimy wall and breathes. He always feels better when he eats someone. But then everyone feels better when they eat something delicious.
~+~
“Feeling better?” Emilia asks when he comes home. He wanted to stay out longer, but he needs to sleep a bit before they can face the whole hostage exchange thing. Even if he thinks that he will not be able to sleep.
“Yeah, a bit,” he answers. “Where’s Dimitri?”
“Sleeping.”
“Sleeping?”
“I might or might not have put something into his coffee,” she answers shrugging.
“He will be so pissed off at you when he wakes up.”
“He needs to sleep, William. He is only human.”
“Yeah…” he enters the living room and sits down next to her. She pours him a whisky and he nods his thanks, gulping it down. And only then he notices that she is drinking tea. “Oh fuck. I hate you too!”
“You need sleep. I’ll wake you soon enough,” she answers, stroking his cheek.
He wants to get up and do something about it, but whatever she gave him it takes an effect fast. He doesn’t think he can even get up from the couch anymore. “Lay down, why don’t you?” she whispers. He really, really hates her, but it seems like a good idea. To close his eyes and just sleep for a while.
William wakes up to yelling and he wants to yell too. Dimitri is on it like it’s nobody’s business. William smiles despite himself.
“You drugged me!” Dimitri screams, it comes from the kitchen and sounds like he made that statement a few times already. He probably has.
“I drugged William as well and it was for your own good,” she answers.
“Our own good?” he shoots in their direction. He knows why she did it, but he still is pissed at her for it.
“You’ll get over it,” she answers, sweetly. “Get dressed. Barbara and her girls will be here soon.”
“Sure.” There is nothing else to do now anyway. They’ll just go with the girls’ game plan, because these girls were leading armies before he was even born.
~+~
Barbara is all business as she explains the plan. It’s not very complicated, but Emilia said that the best plans are the simple ones. He has to trust her, he has no clue about leading armies or making war. Dimitri looks like he knows what she is talking about. The other girls just nod in all the right places. He doesn’t know their names and he doesn’t care for them either right now. He maybe will when they come out on the other side victorious. They keep stealing glances at him. He’s sure they know what he is.
~+~
He rides with Emilia in the car. Dimitri is with Barbara and her girls. They were supposed to meet Tobias and his gang (or whatever) alone in an old warehouse with the number 13. Emilia had rolled her eyes at that. William understands, Emilia really hates the stupid clichés and if that isn’t a stupid cliché he doesn’t know what is.
They drive in silence, not even the radio is on and William tries not to think in what condition Andrej is in. ‘Alive’ doesn’t mean anything if you are being held hostage by psycho vampires. He knows he needs to stay calm and trust the girls to handle this, but it’s really fucking hard.
~12~
William suppresses a shiver as they enter the warehouse. It looks abandoned. Foreboding even.
“Welcome,” a man says, stepping out of the shadows.
“Tobias,” Emilia answers with a slight nod. William has no clue why the fuck they are being polite here, but he’ll go with it. He doesn’t want to get them killed or Andrej for that matter.
“Emilia,” he says and then with an amused look : “William. You are prettier than I remember you.”
“I don’t remember you,” he answers.
Tobias smiles. “Of course not. We never met.”
Oh, fuck all the mind games, he thinks.
“You didn’t make him then?” Emilia asks.
“No. How could I when it takes an infected vampire to make one like William,” he says smoothly.
William hates him. He doesn’t waste time on hating people, usually that is, but he takes the time to feel the hate and rage inside him now.
“It would be suicide,” he adds with a smile. Like they were stupid and needed to be educated on that subject. How to make a living, poisonous vampire weapon 101. William wants to roll his eyes. And this Tobias guy likes to hear himself talk. He is the worst kind of villain. He would maybe laugh in Tobias’ handsome face if it weren’t for Andrej.
“So, why don’t you make others then? Why do you need me?” he asks. He has enough of this.
“You are the only one who survived,” Tobias answers and William really doesn’t want to know anymore.
“This isn’t bullet-proof then. I’m shocked.”
Tobias smiles, he looks like a shark when he does it. It’s disturbing. “You want your Hunter back, you will come with me.”
Emilia tenses. “I want to see him first,” she says.
Tobias nods. It looks like he’s granting a child a wish. William really hates him. Seriously. He is glad that Dimitri isn’t here. He would want to try and rip this bastards’ heart out just to see him bleed.
“Bring him in,” Tobias says to the shadows.
~+~
Andrej feels like someone does when he’s been held captive and been tortured just for the fun of it as well, but he can at least walk alone which he counts as a win. He hopes Dimitri will rip this guy's heart out and do it slowly with a spoon maybe. He isn’t so sure on the details yet. His head feels heavy and his body hurts like hell.
The vampires holding him up don’t say a word, but they wear clothes to protect themselves from his blood. They’re too close and they’re smelling him, sniffing and licking their lips. Well, he thinks, just come and take a bite. He knows they won’t. He bets Tobias trained them not to give in into temptation. He is sure it was close to torture.
He stumbles into the empty dark hall of the warehouse, blinking.
“Here, see? Still alive,” Tobias says.
Andrej can see William and Emilia. William is practically vibrating with wrath. It’s reassuring.
“Hi,” he says, waving his fingers a bit, but he doesn’t try to smile. It hurts too much. It even hurts to be standing upright.
“Hi,” William answers, his voice tender.
“Now, Emilia, just take him before I change my mind about the whole thing.”
She reaches out her hand and Andrej is being pushed forwards. She is at his side in a flash, holding him up, her hands gentle around him.
“He’s not staying here, is he?” Andrej whispers.
“Quiet now,” she answers, stroking over his head. His blood soaks her dress, but she doesn’t seem to mind. She isn’t as paranoid about his blood as the rest of them. She never was.
“I don’t like this,” he says quietly.
“I don’t like this either, but we need to go now, okay?”
He nods against her shoulder.
~+~
She drives like the devil is chasing them. Andrej tries to keep still in the car, but everything hurts like hell. They left William behind. They left him with this lunatic who made William.
“We left him,” he says softly.
“We didn’t leave him, Andrej. We just need to get you out of the danger zone first. He cares about you. He wanted you safe.”
“You’re going back for him?”
“Dimitri is going back for him. I’ll stay with you.”
“You don’t trust Tobias.”
“Are you insane? Of course I don’t!” she laughs, throwing him a look over her shoulder.
“He’s evil, Emilia. Seriously dark and evil.”
“I know, honey, I know.”
~+~
Dimitri doesn’t like to work with people he doesn’t know. When he’s honest he doesn’t like working with people. Period.
And Barbara kind of creeps him out as well. She is just too... he can’t even describe it because he doesn’t have the words.
“That was Emilia. She and Andrej are on their way to the safe house,” she says, putting the phone away.
“Okay. So we can get William out of there and then kill them all,” Dimitri answers.
She throws a sharp smile his way.
“Yes, we can.”
~+~
Tobias isn’t in the slightest surprised when Dimitri storms the warehouse. William thinks he wouldn’t be either if he were in Tobias’ place.
“Well, the other Hunter. How nice,” he says with a smile like he doesn’t care at all. “So, you and Emilia are back to rescue the kid? Charming.”
“Well,” Dimitri answers with a grin, cutting his palm, “not quite. But you’re close.”
“You know that I am prepared for this, don’t you?”
“No,” Barbara says stepping out of the shadows, “I think you’re not.”
And then all hell breaks loose.
~+~
William has no idea what to do. He has really no clue, because he never used to fight. Thank god Barbara and her girls know exactly what to do. They’re slicing their way through the shadow men like they’re made of butter. It’s beautiful and disturbing. There is blood everywhere.
Tobias is still in the middle of the room, like he doesn’t care one way or other. It’s disturbing to say the least.
Dimitri grabs his arm with his non-bloody hand. “You should get out of here now!”
William nods, he can’t help anyone anyway.
“Get the car and drive as fast as you can,” Dimitri instructs.
William hugs him tightly and then steps away before Dimitri can hit him for it.
He gets into the car and drives like hell into the direction of the safe-house.
~+~
Somewhere between fighting shadow men and trying to get William out of the warehouse Dimitri loses sight of Tobias, but that is okay, he reasons. He is sure they will get him.
Barbara gives him a look and then smiles widely, winks, slices someone’s head in two and throws herself into the battle again. She is a warrior librarian. It’s kind of hot.
~13~
“I knew you would come here,” Emilia says, stepping out of the shadows.
Tobias spares her a glance and then fixes his gaze on William and Andrej. “It was so easy to follow you. You’re like lambs.”
“With swords,” Emilia says, politely. She is smiling, she can’t help it. This whole thing reminds her of the time she killed Bryan. Except that this floor is hardwood and it will be a bitch to clean the blood of it.
Maybe Barbara knows a specialist.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m not him and you nearly lost against him.”
“No, you’re not, but I am not that young anymore either.” She cocks her head. “And I am not alone this time.”
“You have a half-dead Hunter and a vampire weapon that doesn’t want to be one…”
“Yes and some of Barbara’s girls,” she answers calmly. “You shouldn’t have come.”
He doesn’t even know what hits him. Three swords with Andrej’s blood on them pierce through his skin. There is screaming and harsh breathing and then he’s on his knees, bleeding on the floor and Emilia does what she has to, what she did when they were fighting for their freedom: she cuts his head off and lets the girls do the rest.
~+~
William never wanted to see how a vampire is killed. How this powerful creature is being cut into pieces - still living pieces, trying to put themselves together - and then the heart being taken out so they can burn it first. When that’s done the girls burn the rest of Tobias.
~+~
“This isn’t over,” Barbara says.
Emilia nods. “I know. I bet he made more. I bet he knows now what he needed to know. And he sure as hell had partners. He was too calm about all of this.”
Barbara doesn’t look happy about it all. “Shit is happening. I know it, you know it. I think the council should know it too.”
Emilia bites her lips. “You mean about William?”
“And Andrej and Dimitri. This isn’t only our fight now.”
“This will get really messy.”
“You want me to talk to the Hunters, don’t you?” Dimitri asks from the doorway.
Emilia nods, not looking at him. He lights a cigarette, she can smell the smoke. She likes his cigarettes.
“That would be good. Tobias might be dead, but this was in no way a one-man operation. Someone is creating weapons against vampires, against us, and they do it by using Hunter-blood. Do the math,” Barbara throws in. She doesn’t like it, but then no one does.
“I can try, but you know the Hunter-bunch. Paranoid as hell. I’m sure they’ll think I’m bewitched or whatever…”
Emilia looks at him then and sees him smile. “You are bewitched or whatever.”
“Yeah, but they don’t need to know that for sure, do they?” he answers.
“No, they don’t.”
~+~
Andrej is out of it for two days straight and it makes William crazy to only be able to sit there and wait for him to wake up. Dimitri is restless as well, chain-smoking on the balcony when William finds him in the early morning hours.
“You know, I wish the Hunter part would come with superhuman healing powers as well, like in Buffy,” he says, exhaling smoke. Dimitri is on constant alert now. No one can sneak up on him anymore. Not even William or Emilia.
“I wish for it too.”
Dimitri nods, flipping his butt onto the pavement under them and lights two new cigarettes. He hands one over to William.
“We don’t know if he’ll wake up,” he states.
William really doesn’t want to hear that. He inhales deeply and lets the smoke curl around his lungs.
“He will.”
“You’ve seen it in the intestines of chickens?” Dimitri asks.
“I have no idea how to read the intestines of chickens, but if I knew I would do it in a heartbeat.”
“Grandmother used to do that. She was very accurate,” Dimitri answers.
William nods. He believes that in a second. “And she didn’t pass it on?”
“She tried, but I find the intestines of chickens disturbing,” Dimitri confesses, exhaling smoke.
William smiles, but keeps silent.
They stay like that until the sun comes up and then Dimitri leaves to go to bed. William knows he’s checking in on Andrej as well.
~+~
Emilia is talking with Barbara on the phone in the kitchen when Andrej sits down on a chair. She stares at him and then tells Barbara that she'll call back.
“You’re up,” she says. He nods. “And I didn’t hear you entering at all.”
He shrugs. “I feel like death warmed over,” he answers.
She puts the phone down and gets up to make tea. “You look good.” And the weird thing is he does look good. She is glad, but he really shouldn’t look as well as he does if you consider what he has been through.
“Thanks, that’s nice, but I really feel like death warmed over and I can’t-,” he stops and she turns to look at him.
“What?”
“I can’t really remember what they did during my stay there,” Andrej answers carefully.
“It will come back.”
“I’m not sure I want it to come back, Emilia,” he confesses in a small voice.
She nods. “Drink some tea, okay?”
“Where are William and Dimitri?”
“I sent them grocery shopping. They made me crazy with their brooding and concerned looks.”
“And Tobias?”
“He’s dead,” she answers flatly.
“You don’t think this is over, do you?”
“It might be for now,” she replies, because it’s the truth. She sits down and looks at him. “You really look good.”
“This is a concern for you. You don’t think I should.”
“I don’t know what they did to you, but I know what Tobias liked to do to his human and vampire prisoners and you shouldn’t even be able to sit,” she says.
“That’s reassuring.”
“I know it’s not,” she answers gently, taking his hand and squeezing. “But we have to face the facts so nothing can surprise us anymore.”
“You know it doesn’t work like that. And there is no doctor who could just check me out and see what they did to me.”
“Andrej,” she says softly and he looks up at her and from their hands.
“I know what you want to ask, but I don’t think so. I mean, I can’t really remember, but it would’ve been madness, right?”
She nods, it would have been madness, but it doesn’t mean Tobias didn’t try to prove a freaking point. That he could resists the blood even while having sex. She squeezes his hand harder, but doesn’t know what to answer him. So she keeps quiet.
~+~
“You’re up,” is the first thing William says. Dimitri doesn’t say anything at all as he crosses the kitchen, puts the groceries on the table and hugs the life out of Andrej. Andrej buries his head in his cousin’s chest and breathes him in. He smells like smoke and rain and washing powder. He smells like home and being safe.
William waits, hovering at the edge of Andrej’s vision. Andrej lets Dimitri hug him one last time, brush a kiss over his neck and then lets go, turns to look at William.
“Yeah, I’m up,” he answers with a small smile. He is pretty sure it looks shy.
“Thank fucking god!” William says and Andrej faceplants into his chest because it seems like William is going to stand there and stare for the rest of his life.
“I’m glad you’re okay. I was worried,” Andrej whispers against his shirt and feels William shiver and then snort a laugh, his body shaking with it.
“I’m glad you are okay!” he answers, tightening his hold on Andrej. It nearly hurts, but it’s good. It feels like it should feel, desperate and loved and with an edge of pain.
~end~
William gives him the cold shoulder and freaking looks the whole morning until Andrej snaps.
“Is this about Alec?”
“Are you going to fuck every vampire now?” William asks.
“No, only the males,” Andrej answers sharply.
William’s fingers grab the edge of the table so hard the wood cracks. Great, Andrej thinks. He got this table from his grandmother. He loves that table.
“Not funny.”
“Do you see me laughing? Because I’m not. And I’m not freaking interested in girls either, you should know that by now.”
“Don’t do this,” William says, his voice only a whisper.
“Don’t do what?”
“Don’t tempt me.”
“We could work and you are too scared to try!” Andrej explodes.
“We could never work, because you’re going to die!”
Andrej takes a deep breath. It doesn’t really help to calm him down. “So, you don’t want to try because it wouldn’t be forever?” he asks. “That’s just stupid! Not even vampires stay together forever. You said it yourself you aren’t a cuddly bunch.”
William sighs, leaning back into the chair, closing his eyes. “It’s not only that. You are just so freaking fragile.”
“That is my charm, William,” Andrej says softly, touching his cheek with his fingertips.
William’s eyes snap open. He grabs Andrej’s wrist and holds it there in midair like he doesn’t know what to do with it.
“You don’t give up, do you?”
Andrej shakes his head. He doesn’t, he won’t. He leans down slowly, the grip on his wrist tightens, it’s nearly painful, but William doesn’t push him away.
“You can say no now,” Andrej whispers against his lips and William’s lips curve into a smile. A real one.
“I know,” he says just before their lips meet.
The kiss is gentle and careful, just lips touching lips softly. Andrej doesn’t want to make it into something hard and demanding and hungry. It would fuck them up for sure.
“Okay…that was good, wasn’t it?” Andrej asks after a while. His wrist is hurting. He is sure he’ll have bruises. The Hunter thing doesn’t come with super healing powers like in Buffy, which sucks a lot to be honest.
“Yes,” William answers, licking his lip. “But it won’t stay that way.”
Andrej kisses his cheek. He knows that.
~+~
Emilia comes home three days later and looks like death warmed over. There is a small cut on her arm and a bruise on her cheek.
“You got into a fight?” William asks. He’s stunned, just standing in the door, mug in one hand, cigarette in the other.
“Thank you Captain Obvious,” she answers tiredly.
“I mean…with who the fuck did you get into a fight?” William wants to know. No way could a human did that to her.
“Barbara,” she answers.
“Your spy?” Dimitri asks.
She nods. “Yes, my spy and friend Barbara.”
“Okay, I’m making coffee, you will sit down on the comfy couch we have and then you will tell us why you’re fighting with your childhood sweetheart,” Dimitri orders.
She nods, smiling at him. “Sounds like a plan.”
“I’m a great planner.”
~+~
The coffee warms her and the boys distract her from the pain in her body. It heals itself, but it still hurts like hell. She sinks further into the comfy couch and closes her eyes for a few seconds. Just listening to the boys putter around.
She takes a deep breath. “Barbara thinks I’m insane.”
“You are insane,” William supplies. She opens her eyes to look at him. He’s smiling, but she already knew that: Could hear it in his voice.
Emilia smiles back. “I know, for keeping you and also now this Alec kid. Barbara heard rumours about male vampires, but no one listens to rumours anymore in our community. They’re more like scary bedtime stories for young vampires.”
“Okay?” Dimitri prompts.
“She found out they aren’t. She found out what we found out and she thinks every male vampire with the ability to kill one of their, our, own by sharing blood - it’s the most erotic and sacred thing for a vampire - should be killed. No questions asked.”
“Yeah, I can see why you’re not on board with that plan,” Dimitri throws in. He lights a cigarette and inhales deeply. He has pretty lips she thinks. Like Andrej’s they look really soft.
“She’s scared,” Emilia answers. “And she should be. I am scared too. If the shadow men have an army now…I don’t want to think about it.”
“Are there vampires missing?” Dimitri asks.
She nods. “Yes and that is another reason why she’s scared. Only a few are missing and we don’t know where all of them are at any given time, but that is not reassuring.”
“No, it’s really not.”
“They’re picking us off one by one and we didn’t know about it and now…” she trails off.
“You think we’re on a brink of another war,” Dimitri clarifies.
She gives him a look. “We are, you aren’t. This is not your fight or Andrej’s for that matter. No humans are involved here.”
“We aren’t ordinary humans, we’re Hunters.”
She rolls her eyes and is up in a flash, pinning him down to the floor. Her teeth inches away from his neck. He shudders, she can feel it, but keeps perfectly still.
“You are still humans and they will kill you for being Hunters.”
“We care, Emilia,” he says softly, but firmly.
She lets him go and stands up. “I know. Still. I don’t want you to be part of this.”
“It’s a bit late for that,” he answers from the hard wood floor. “You fucked me up, badly.”
She looks down on him. Into his pretty green eyes and thinks, yeah, we really did.
~10~
Andrej disappears without a word two days later and Emilia just knows that the shadow men found them. She hoped it wouldn’t come to that. She really did, but well, now they have to deal with it. William is so pissed off she doesn’t even want to talk to him. He has been glaring at the wall and chain-smoking for an hour now. Dimitri is sharpening his knives in a corner.
She hates waiting for the other party to make a move.
She knows they will. She knows the shadow men know all about Andrej by now. Know how much he means to William. There is no way they can play this any other way.
Dimitri puts his knife away and looks at her. Not accusing, she was afraid for a bit that he would blame her, blame them, but it seems it’s not his nature.
“I hate waiting,” he says and William’s head snaps in his direction. She knows he is about to say something stupid and horrible and just plain mean, so she grabs his arm hard.
“Me too,” she answers.
“Why aren’t they sending notes already to meet them and have a hostage exchange or whatever?”
“Because they like to play with us. It makes them feel powerful,” she replies.
“I bet they like playing with Andrej as well,” William says softly. His voice is barely there at all. He is shaking with wrath and worry.
Dimitri balls his hands to fists and Emilia is pretty sure he’s going to punch the wall any second now. He takes a deep breath and relaxes.
“I don’t need to hear that,” he answers.
“Dimitri,” she says softly.
“Okay…okay,” he replies, but she isn’t sure what the hell he means.
~+~
Once things start, they progress really fast. It always happens like that. The shadow men call, because this is the 21st Century and a bloody rag or an ear isn’t necessary anymore. Some people still use a finger or something to get their point across, but these people don’t need to demonstrate what they are capable off. They already did by creating William.
The boys are hovering around her. She pushes the loud-speaker button. Better to have them in on everything. Dimitri is a trained Hunter, there might be things he could get from this conversation, she won’t because she’ll be too distracted talking to that scumbag that stole Andrej from them.
“Emilia,” the smooth voice on the other end says and she knows that voice. Knows it and it chills her to her bones.
“Tobias,” she answers.
“You remember me. I am so pleased.”
“I remember your brother better,” she replies sweetly. She just can’t help herself. It is a bad idea to provoke a psycho vampire who should be dead and whose brother she killed herself, but well. She doesn’t think he can get any more bat-shit crazy than he is now anyway.
“Of course you do. You slit his throat and cut out his heart and spilled his blood on his marble floor.”
“It was ugly,” she says.
“The floor? Yes, he never had a real sense for style,” Tobias admits.
She balls her hand at her side until she can’t feel anything except the pain. It helps her to concentrate.
“I thought you were dead too,” she says.
“That was what I wanted you lot to think.”
“So you could create a weapon in the meantime.”
“And it took me centuries.” He sighs. “It’s so typical for my life that you found him. You of all vampires. The one that wouldn’t bite and I bet you fucked that pretty boy more than once.”
She hates it when people get vulgar from one second to the next - it’s only fun when you’re having sex.
“He sure as hell knows what he’s doing with his mouth,” she answers.
She can hear him inhale sharply. Emilia isn’t sure if he’s pissed off right now or turned on. She thinks turned on would be worse. Urgh. Better not to think about it.
“We have your Hunter,” he says calmly.
“I know. I know you already played with him. I remember your brother’s favourite pastime so well, Tobi,” she replies, sweetly.
Another sharp intake of breath. This time definitely angry. “I remember you watching.”
She bites her lip. She was young back then, but she never enjoyed it. “Why are we still talking around it? You want William and you know I won’t give him to you.”
He laughs. “But that is not your decision, is it? Does the council know you were hiding a weapon that could kill them all? Don’t answer. Of course they don’t know. He is mine and I have something he wants. I even can understand why. This Hunter is a very pretty one. I wanted to bite him the second they brought him in. He smells delicious. Did William fuck him?”
She can feel William tense beside her. He lights a cigarette and inhales deeply. “Is that a no? How could he resist such a pretty thing?” Tobias asks, real curiosity in his voice. “I did.”
William punches the wall beside the window so hard the glass rattles.
She doesn’t even blink. Dimitri doesn’t either.
“Stop talking and tell me where you want to meet,” she answers, her voice cold.
“Why the rush all of a sudden. Don’t you want to know if he’s still alive? Don’t you want a proof of life?”
“I know you didn’t kill him,” she replies and she does know that. She knows Tobias, as long as he can play and fuck with everyone’s heads he will.
“You are no fun.”
“You’re not the first one to tell me that,” she says.
“I’ll text you the details. Say hi to my boy, would you?” he answers and hangs up before she can tell him to go to hell.
~+~
“So, you killed his brother?” Dimitri asks. He is smoking his third cigarette in five minutes.
“He, Bryan, wasn’t Tobias’ real brother…” she answers.
“I don’t particularly care,” he says. “Bryan is dead, you killed him, Tobias is still alive-“
“He should be dead,” she throws in.
“So some Underworld crap then, whatever. I don’t care. Someone lied and it comes back to bite us in the arse. Nothing new. Happens all the freaking time. What I want to know is what we’re doing to make sure that this time he stays dead,” he continues, lighting another cigarette.
“Well, first we’re trying to stop William from doing something stupid and then we’re going to kill them all.”
“Call Barbara, I bet she knows who fucked up badly all these years ago.”
“I have a suspicion myself,” she answers.
~11~
It’s always easier said than done, the whole kill them all thing.
“You knew!” Emilia yells.
“I didn’t know it was Tobias, okay? And I loved her, I couldn’t…” Barbara crosses her arms over her chest and doesn’t look at her. “I mean, she only said her brother. Could have been anyone. I didn’t know.”
Emilia sighs. “And you told her to tell her brother to go underground and never asked another question.”
“We never spoke about it,” she confirms. “I didn’t know.”
“Well, it’s too late for that now. We need to find Andrej - it doesn’t matter if he is alive or not - we need to stop Tobias and we need to kill every single one of the poisonous vampires he made.”
“Except yours.”
“Except mine, of course. I know he won’t fuck up and go on a killing spree. He wasn’t raised with lies about us.”
Barbara gives her a look. Emilia stares right back. Not telling is not the same as lying. “You in or what?”
“We aren’t going to tell the council about this, are we?” Barbara asks.
“No. They can never know about William and how badly you fucked up with Tobias. Tobias, Barbara.”
She nods. “We will need a bit of help.”
“I have William and Dimitri.”
“Dimitri is human.”
“And poisonous,” Emilia answers.
“We need more weapons and we need more than the four of us.”
“Who else is going to fight?”
“Let me call a few people,” she answers.
Emilia nods. Barbara knows her shit, she will find the three people who don’t care, or care enough to help them. Emilia is sure of that.
~+~
“People we don’t know?” Dimitri asks.
“Who the hell cares? I want to go there and get Andrej right the fuck now.”
“And get yourself and maybe Andrej killed in the process,” Dimitri shoots back.
William glares, exhaling smoke and then taking another deep drag. He is a wreck and he knows it. He can’t forget Tobias’s words. He can’t forget that he tortured Andrej and worse. He wants to kill the bastard with his own hands.
“Dimitri,” Emilia says softly and William is glad she’s here. Is glad that she can keep her cool, hates it right now, but a part of him knows that their chances are higher to survive this with her being professional and emotionless about this.
God knows he can’t be.
“Fine! But I don’t like that we have to wait until tomorrow to get him out. I don’t like that this pervert is torturing him right now for the fun of it. I don’t like it at all!”
William takes another drag. It might be the first time ever that it sinks in that Dimitri is as much invested in this, in Andrej, as he himself is. It’s wonderful and frightening, because if Andrej would choose Dimitri…he could be with Dimitri. They could be together.
He doesn’t want to think about it. He can’t afford to think about this. If he’s honest, he can’t afford to love Andrej either, but that, that is not an option anymore.
“I don’t like it either. But at least we know he’ll be alive when we get to him tomorrow.”
“You trust this Tobias guy?” Dimitri asks, playing with his matches. William thinks he looks like he wants to set something on fire. William can understand that desire only too well.
“I don’t trust him, but I know him. I’ve seen how he works. I know how he works. Andrej will be alive when we get there.”
“But that doesn’t mean he won’t fuck us over and kill us all except for William,” Dimitri concludes.
She nods. “Maybe he’ll keep you alive as well. It’s always good to have more poisonous Hunter blood.”
“I feel so special,” Dimitri says.
William laughs, startled. “Oh fuck. I need to kill something. Now.”
Dimitri gives him a look, but doesn’t object. Emilia nods in understanding.
~+~
Hunting is a single-minded business. It kills everything except the instinct to find, stalk and kill prey.
His body takes over for him, it’s nice to not have to think about anything at the moment. Usually he takes the time to look for someone who looks delicious and fuckable, but not tonight. Tonight he only wants someone with a lot of blood, maybe someone who’ll put up a fight, he doesn’t know. His body does.
When he sinks his teeth into the neck of the drug-dealer it’s bliss. For a few minutes he forgets everything else. The only thing that matters is the hunger, the blood rushing from his victim into his own veins.
William lets the body sink down and sits beside it on the dirty ground. He leans his head against the grimy wall and breathes. He always feels better when he eats someone. But then everyone feels better when they eat something delicious.
~+~
“Feeling better?” Emilia asks when he comes home. He wanted to stay out longer, but he needs to sleep a bit before they can face the whole hostage exchange thing. Even if he thinks that he will not be able to sleep.
“Yeah, a bit,” he answers. “Where’s Dimitri?”
“Sleeping.”
“Sleeping?”
“I might or might not have put something into his coffee,” she answers shrugging.
“He will be so pissed off at you when he wakes up.”
“He needs to sleep, William. He is only human.”
“Yeah…” he enters the living room and sits down next to her. She pours him a whisky and he nods his thanks, gulping it down. And only then he notices that she is drinking tea. “Oh fuck. I hate you too!”
“You need sleep. I’ll wake you soon enough,” she answers, stroking his cheek.
He wants to get up and do something about it, but whatever she gave him it takes an effect fast. He doesn’t think he can even get up from the couch anymore. “Lay down, why don’t you?” she whispers. He really, really hates her, but it seems like a good idea. To close his eyes and just sleep for a while.
William wakes up to yelling and he wants to yell too. Dimitri is on it like it’s nobody’s business. William smiles despite himself.
“You drugged me!” Dimitri screams, it comes from the kitchen and sounds like he made that statement a few times already. He probably has.
“I drugged William as well and it was for your own good,” she answers.
“Our own good?” he shoots in their direction. He knows why she did it, but he still is pissed at her for it.
“You’ll get over it,” she answers, sweetly. “Get dressed. Barbara and her girls will be here soon.”
“Sure.” There is nothing else to do now anyway. They’ll just go with the girls’ game plan, because these girls were leading armies before he was even born.
~+~
Barbara is all business as she explains the plan. It’s not very complicated, but Emilia said that the best plans are the simple ones. He has to trust her, he has no clue about leading armies or making war. Dimitri looks like he knows what she is talking about. The other girls just nod in all the right places. He doesn’t know their names and he doesn’t care for them either right now. He maybe will when they come out on the other side victorious. They keep stealing glances at him. He’s sure they know what he is.
~+~
He rides with Emilia in the car. Dimitri is with Barbara and her girls. They were supposed to meet Tobias and his gang (or whatever) alone in an old warehouse with the number 13. Emilia had rolled her eyes at that. William understands, Emilia really hates the stupid clichés and if that isn’t a stupid cliché he doesn’t know what is.
They drive in silence, not even the radio is on and William tries not to think in what condition Andrej is in. ‘Alive’ doesn’t mean anything if you are being held hostage by psycho vampires. He knows he needs to stay calm and trust the girls to handle this, but it’s really fucking hard.
~12~
William suppresses a shiver as they enter the warehouse. It looks abandoned. Foreboding even.
“Welcome,” a man says, stepping out of the shadows.
“Tobias,” Emilia answers with a slight nod. William has no clue why the fuck they are being polite here, but he’ll go with it. He doesn’t want to get them killed or Andrej for that matter.
“Emilia,” he says and then with an amused look : “William. You are prettier than I remember you.”
“I don’t remember you,” he answers.
Tobias smiles. “Of course not. We never met.”
Oh, fuck all the mind games, he thinks.
“You didn’t make him then?” Emilia asks.
“No. How could I when it takes an infected vampire to make one like William,” he says smoothly.
William hates him. He doesn’t waste time on hating people, usually that is, but he takes the time to feel the hate and rage inside him now.
“It would be suicide,” he adds with a smile. Like they were stupid and needed to be educated on that subject. How to make a living, poisonous vampire weapon 101. William wants to roll his eyes. And this Tobias guy likes to hear himself talk. He is the worst kind of villain. He would maybe laugh in Tobias’ handsome face if it weren’t for Andrej.
“So, why don’t you make others then? Why do you need me?” he asks. He has enough of this.
“You are the only one who survived,” Tobias answers and William really doesn’t want to know anymore.
“This isn’t bullet-proof then. I’m shocked.”
Tobias smiles, he looks like a shark when he does it. It’s disturbing. “You want your Hunter back, you will come with me.”
Emilia tenses. “I want to see him first,” she says.
Tobias nods. It looks like he’s granting a child a wish. William really hates him. Seriously. He is glad that Dimitri isn’t here. He would want to try and rip this bastards’ heart out just to see him bleed.
“Bring him in,” Tobias says to the shadows.
~+~
Andrej feels like someone does when he’s been held captive and been tortured just for the fun of it as well, but he can at least walk alone which he counts as a win. He hopes Dimitri will rip this guy's heart out and do it slowly with a spoon maybe. He isn’t so sure on the details yet. His head feels heavy and his body hurts like hell.
The vampires holding him up don’t say a word, but they wear clothes to protect themselves from his blood. They’re too close and they’re smelling him, sniffing and licking their lips. Well, he thinks, just come and take a bite. He knows they won’t. He bets Tobias trained them not to give in into temptation. He is sure it was close to torture.
He stumbles into the empty dark hall of the warehouse, blinking.
“Here, see? Still alive,” Tobias says.
Andrej can see William and Emilia. William is practically vibrating with wrath. It’s reassuring.
“Hi,” he says, waving his fingers a bit, but he doesn’t try to smile. It hurts too much. It even hurts to be standing upright.
“Hi,” William answers, his voice tender.
“Now, Emilia, just take him before I change my mind about the whole thing.”
She reaches out her hand and Andrej is being pushed forwards. She is at his side in a flash, holding him up, her hands gentle around him.
“He’s not staying here, is he?” Andrej whispers.
“Quiet now,” she answers, stroking over his head. His blood soaks her dress, but she doesn’t seem to mind. She isn’t as paranoid about his blood as the rest of them. She never was.
“I don’t like this,” he says quietly.
“I don’t like this either, but we need to go now, okay?”
He nods against her shoulder.
~+~
She drives like the devil is chasing them. Andrej tries to keep still in the car, but everything hurts like hell. They left William behind. They left him with this lunatic who made William.
“We left him,” he says softly.
“We didn’t leave him, Andrej. We just need to get you out of the danger zone first. He cares about you. He wanted you safe.”
“You’re going back for him?”
“Dimitri is going back for him. I’ll stay with you.”
“You don’t trust Tobias.”
“Are you insane? Of course I don’t!” she laughs, throwing him a look over her shoulder.
“He’s evil, Emilia. Seriously dark and evil.”
“I know, honey, I know.”
~+~
Dimitri doesn’t like to work with people he doesn’t know. When he’s honest he doesn’t like working with people. Period.
And Barbara kind of creeps him out as well. She is just too... he can’t even describe it because he doesn’t have the words.
“That was Emilia. She and Andrej are on their way to the safe house,” she says, putting the phone away.
“Okay. So we can get William out of there and then kill them all,” Dimitri answers.
She throws a sharp smile his way.
“Yes, we can.”
~+~
Tobias isn’t in the slightest surprised when Dimitri storms the warehouse. William thinks he wouldn’t be either if he were in Tobias’ place.
“Well, the other Hunter. How nice,” he says with a smile like he doesn’t care at all. “So, you and Emilia are back to rescue the kid? Charming.”
“Well,” Dimitri answers with a grin, cutting his palm, “not quite. But you’re close.”
“You know that I am prepared for this, don’t you?”
“No,” Barbara says stepping out of the shadows, “I think you’re not.”
And then all hell breaks loose.
~+~
William has no idea what to do. He has really no clue, because he never used to fight. Thank god Barbara and her girls know exactly what to do. They’re slicing their way through the shadow men like they’re made of butter. It’s beautiful and disturbing. There is blood everywhere.
Tobias is still in the middle of the room, like he doesn’t care one way or other. It’s disturbing to say the least.
Dimitri grabs his arm with his non-bloody hand. “You should get out of here now!”
William nods, he can’t help anyone anyway.
“Get the car and drive as fast as you can,” Dimitri instructs.
William hugs him tightly and then steps away before Dimitri can hit him for it.
He gets into the car and drives like hell into the direction of the safe-house.
~+~
Somewhere between fighting shadow men and trying to get William out of the warehouse Dimitri loses sight of Tobias, but that is okay, he reasons. He is sure they will get him.
Barbara gives him a look and then smiles widely, winks, slices someone’s head in two and throws herself into the battle again. She is a warrior librarian. It’s kind of hot.
~13~
“I knew you would come here,” Emilia says, stepping out of the shadows.
Tobias spares her a glance and then fixes his gaze on William and Andrej. “It was so easy to follow you. You’re like lambs.”
“With swords,” Emilia says, politely. She is smiling, she can’t help it. This whole thing reminds her of the time she killed Bryan. Except that this floor is hardwood and it will be a bitch to clean the blood of it.
Maybe Barbara knows a specialist.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m not him and you nearly lost against him.”
“No, you’re not, but I am not that young anymore either.” She cocks her head. “And I am not alone this time.”
“You have a half-dead Hunter and a vampire weapon that doesn’t want to be one…”
“Yes and some of Barbara’s girls,” she answers calmly. “You shouldn’t have come.”
He doesn’t even know what hits him. Three swords with Andrej’s blood on them pierce through his skin. There is screaming and harsh breathing and then he’s on his knees, bleeding on the floor and Emilia does what she has to, what she did when they were fighting for their freedom: she cuts his head off and lets the girls do the rest.
~+~
William never wanted to see how a vampire is killed. How this powerful creature is being cut into pieces - still living pieces, trying to put themselves together - and then the heart being taken out so they can burn it first. When that’s done the girls burn the rest of Tobias.
~+~
“This isn’t over,” Barbara says.
Emilia nods. “I know. I bet he made more. I bet he knows now what he needed to know. And he sure as hell had partners. He was too calm about all of this.”
Barbara doesn’t look happy about it all. “Shit is happening. I know it, you know it. I think the council should know it too.”
Emilia bites her lips. “You mean about William?”
“And Andrej and Dimitri. This isn’t only our fight now.”
“This will get really messy.”
“You want me to talk to the Hunters, don’t you?” Dimitri asks from the doorway.
Emilia nods, not looking at him. He lights a cigarette, she can smell the smoke. She likes his cigarettes.
“That would be good. Tobias might be dead, but this was in no way a one-man operation. Someone is creating weapons against vampires, against us, and they do it by using Hunter-blood. Do the math,” Barbara throws in. She doesn’t like it, but then no one does.
“I can try, but you know the Hunter-bunch. Paranoid as hell. I’m sure they’ll think I’m bewitched or whatever…”
Emilia looks at him then and sees him smile. “You are bewitched or whatever.”
“Yeah, but they don’t need to know that for sure, do they?” he answers.
“No, they don’t.”
~+~
Andrej is out of it for two days straight and it makes William crazy to only be able to sit there and wait for him to wake up. Dimitri is restless as well, chain-smoking on the balcony when William finds him in the early morning hours.
“You know, I wish the Hunter part would come with superhuman healing powers as well, like in Buffy,” he says, exhaling smoke. Dimitri is on constant alert now. No one can sneak up on him anymore. Not even William or Emilia.
“I wish for it too.”
Dimitri nods, flipping his butt onto the pavement under them and lights two new cigarettes. He hands one over to William.
“We don’t know if he’ll wake up,” he states.
William really doesn’t want to hear that. He inhales deeply and lets the smoke curl around his lungs.
“He will.”
“You’ve seen it in the intestines of chickens?” Dimitri asks.
“I have no idea how to read the intestines of chickens, but if I knew I would do it in a heartbeat.”
“Grandmother used to do that. She was very accurate,” Dimitri answers.
William nods. He believes that in a second. “And she didn’t pass it on?”
“She tried, but I find the intestines of chickens disturbing,” Dimitri confesses, exhaling smoke.
William smiles, but keeps silent.
They stay like that until the sun comes up and then Dimitri leaves to go to bed. William knows he’s checking in on Andrej as well.
~+~
Emilia is talking with Barbara on the phone in the kitchen when Andrej sits down on a chair. She stares at him and then tells Barbara that she'll call back.
“You’re up,” she says. He nods. “And I didn’t hear you entering at all.”
He shrugs. “I feel like death warmed over,” he answers.
She puts the phone down and gets up to make tea. “You look good.” And the weird thing is he does look good. She is glad, but he really shouldn’t look as well as he does if you consider what he has been through.
“Thanks, that’s nice, but I really feel like death warmed over and I can’t-,” he stops and she turns to look at him.
“What?”
“I can’t really remember what they did during my stay there,” Andrej answers carefully.
“It will come back.”
“I’m not sure I want it to come back, Emilia,” he confesses in a small voice.
She nods. “Drink some tea, okay?”
“Where are William and Dimitri?”
“I sent them grocery shopping. They made me crazy with their brooding and concerned looks.”
“And Tobias?”
“He’s dead,” she answers flatly.
“You don’t think this is over, do you?”
“It might be for now,” she replies, because it’s the truth. She sits down and looks at him. “You really look good.”
“This is a concern for you. You don’t think I should.”
“I don’t know what they did to you, but I know what Tobias liked to do to his human and vampire prisoners and you shouldn’t even be able to sit,” she says.
“That’s reassuring.”
“I know it’s not,” she answers gently, taking his hand and squeezing. “But we have to face the facts so nothing can surprise us anymore.”
“You know it doesn’t work like that. And there is no doctor who could just check me out and see what they did to me.”
“Andrej,” she says softly and he looks up at her and from their hands.
“I know what you want to ask, but I don’t think so. I mean, I can’t really remember, but it would’ve been madness, right?”
She nods, it would have been madness, but it doesn’t mean Tobias didn’t try to prove a freaking point. That he could resists the blood even while having sex. She squeezes his hand harder, but doesn’t know what to answer him. So she keeps quiet.
~+~
“You’re up,” is the first thing William says. Dimitri doesn’t say anything at all as he crosses the kitchen, puts the groceries on the table and hugs the life out of Andrej. Andrej buries his head in his cousin’s chest and breathes him in. He smells like smoke and rain and washing powder. He smells like home and being safe.
William waits, hovering at the edge of Andrej’s vision. Andrej lets Dimitri hug him one last time, brush a kiss over his neck and then lets go, turns to look at William.
“Yeah, I’m up,” he answers with a small smile. He is pretty sure it looks shy.
“Thank fucking god!” William says and Andrej faceplants into his chest because it seems like William is going to stand there and stare for the rest of his life.
“I’m glad you’re okay. I was worried,” Andrej whispers against his shirt and feels William shiver and then snort a laugh, his body shaking with it.
“I’m glad you are okay!” he answers, tightening his hold on Andrej. It nearly hurts, but it’s good. It feels like it should feel, desperate and loved and with an edge of pain.
~end~