Blood
Title: Blood
Author:
alles_luege
Pairing: Gabe/William, William/Ryan
Rating: PG-13
Summary: This is a story about how William got turned and by whom.
Warning(s): mentions of sex, vampires, blood play
Author’s Notes: Midnight Land - again. I don’t even know. Also I took liberties with the time line.
Word Count: 3.254
Beta: tygermine
Disclaimer: Don’t know, don’t own, not real.
~1~
“Hey, William, my man, I was looking for you!“ Gabe says and William smiles at him.
“You were?”
“Yeah, I was. Remember that song about the snakes?”
William nods, how could he forget that one?! “Yeah, what about it?”
“I found the perfect female voice for it! She will be here tomorrow. Wanna go to the airport to meet her?”
“Sure,” William answers shrugging. He is curious after all. Gabe was talking about this song for months now.
~+~
“You are late!” Gabe exclaims, dragging William by the sleeve into the studio.
“Sorry,” he gasps, looking at the floor and trying to catch his breath again.
“Hi!” says a voice above him. William’s eyes start at her delicate ankles and work their way up her legs, that seem to go for miles, until they reach her smile. ‘Oh fuck me!’ William’s mind screams, his heart plummeting to his stomach.
“Hi! I’m Gabe, this is William,” Gabe says, she smiles, taking Gabe’s hand and then looking at William. William can’t bring himself to say anything or do anything for that matter. Gabe nudges him saying something like ‘He’s shy…’ and she laughs again.
Gabe talks to her all the way to her hotel about the song and her band and she is listening and smiling, laughing and totally ignoring William, as does Gabe. William is glad, he can’t deal with this. He just can’t.
~+~
“What is wrong with you? She thinks you’re a freak now,” Gabe says as they’re entering Gabe’s apartment. “Well, I would have if I was her.”
“Nothing…she, what’s her name?” William answers shrugging it off, he isn’t sure he wants to tell Gabe, besides she will be gone pretty soon. (Or so he hopes.) And she didn’t recognise him. She didn’t know who the fuck he was! How could she forget him? He could never forget her face.
“Maja Ivarsson…I think. She’s from Sweden,” Gabe answers, looking closely at William. William shakes hit head. Gabe shrugs. “Coffee?”
“Tea. With sugar,” William answers. Maja, he thinks. He never knew her name, he never thought that he would see her again. He never…Sweden, Gabe had said. Well, that explains a thing or two. He isn’t sure he wants to talk to her so much as rip her heart out instead. And despite being a vampire, ripping hearts out isn’t really his thing. Hmmm.
He’s still standing near the door as Gabe comes out of the kitchen with two mugs.
“What are you doing?” he asks, William shakes his head again.
“Nothing, thinking…”
“You know her?” Gabe asks, putting the mugs down onto the small coffee table.
“I…” he sighs and steps into the living room. Gabe looks a bit worried.
“Drink your tea,” he orders and William sits down on the couch and does exactly that. He can’t tell Gabe this, Gabe would flip and besides, she doesn’t know him. She forgot. How the hell could she forget?
~+~
“God, damn! She’s hot,” Travis says from his corner of the couch. They’re in the studio and watching Maja sing her part. She’s wearing a short skirt and an oversized t-shirt. Gabe nods. William doesn’t care if he finds her hot, he knows that Gabe will not cheat on him. As does everyone else for that matter. “I would hit that…” Travis goes on. William’s eyes snap to Travis.
“You really shouldn’t.” He says low.
“Why not? Does she have a boy? Or a girl?” Travis asks. William could lie, but Travis is his friend and he will not.
“She’s dangerous,” he says instead. Because that is the truth.
“I hope she is,” Travis answers with a lazy grin and William can’t take it anymore.
“I mean it!” he says too sharply, Gabe looks from her to him as does Travis.
“What the hell, William?” Travis asks.
“You’ve been acting like a dick ever since the airport. What crawled up your ass?” Gabe hisses at him from the soundboard.
“I wish we were done with this already. I can’t be in the same room as her,” William answers quietly.
“What do you mean?” Travis asks carefully.
“Just stay away from her.”
“Why?”
“Because I said so!” He nearly yells.
“Stop it! I want a fucking reason, and make it a good one!” Gabe says and Travis nods.
“Fine!” William snaps. “She’s like me!”
“Oh…a vampire…?”
“What the fuck else?!” William gives Travis a death glare.
“I mean, okay, she is a vampire, but how do you know and more importantly, why do you think she’s dangerous?” Gabe asks. Travis sits down on a chair and takes out his cigarettes.
“She is, okay? She is.”
“But how do you know?” Travis persists.
William sighs and looks from her to Travis and then Gabe. “She turned me, okay? I know because she sucked me dry, and suddenly I wake up a vampire. Bitch!” He feels totally drained. He hates her. He really hates her and he doesn’t want to have her anywhere near his friends or Gabe.
~2~
Gabe is speechless. Which for him is a rare thing. The problem is, he never really questioned William about his turn for the undead. He just accepted it because it really wasn’t that important.
But now, with her in the other room, it seems fucking important.
“And you didn’t tell me a few days ago because…?” he says, trying to stay calm, but he fucking isn’t.
“You need her and she doesn’t remember me and I didn’t think she would be here long enough to cause trouble,” William says, he’s itching for a cigarette. “Travis,” He motions, and Travis lights one for him. “Thanks.”
“No problem. You think she would have…” Travis points to his neck. “You know?”
“How the fuck should I know? I met her once and that was…I don’t want to think about it. I want her gone,” he answers, taking a deep drag. Gabe doesn’t think they’re allowed to smoke in the studio, but he can’t muster up the energy to care.
“What makes her so different from, say, Ryan?” Gabe pushes.
“Look, just because we have a common denominator of fangs, doesn’t make us the same. She is fucking dangerous. Trust me.” William answers.
“You should have told me,” Gabe says quietly.
“I couldn’t. You were so exited about this stuff. I know how much this song means to you. I know, okay?”
“William…” Gabe says, and doesn’t finish, because William should know that he means more to him than a song ever could. On the other hand, this is how William’s brain works, he wants to make them happy. No matter what. That’s why he said yes when Jon asked him about Ryan, that’s why he told Gabe, that’s why he told Travis in the end.
“I know, I just want her gone as soon as possible,” he says again and Travis nods, as does Gabe.
~+~
“Wanna tell me about it?” Gabe asks, as they’re lying on the couch that evening. The TV is on but muted and Gabe doesn’t even know what they’re watching, well, they’re not watching anything special at all.
“No,” William says and Gabe knows that he means it. He’s not happy about this. “I don’t want to remember,” he adds.
Gabe doesn’t think William could ever forget, not with him behaving like he does.
“Was it bad?”
“Gabe…”
“Just…tell me.”
“No,” William says firmly and gets up from the couch.
Gabe bites down his frustration. He wishes he never heard her sing in the first place. He should have known, but how the hell could he? Ryan is a vampire and Brendon is the fucking front man, and just because William is using his charms on the crowd doesn’t mean that every fucking front man or woman for that matter is a vampire. (See Brendon again.) He couldn’t have known.
~+~
Gabe watches her closely and he thinks that he wouldn’t have known if William hadn’t told him. Not with her, yeah, he couldn’t with William either or Ryan. You just can’t if you don’t know about it. And maybe if she stayed longer, maybe he would have seen something. Maybe.
~3~
“You know what I am….” She whispers into his ear and he shivers. She leans away from him and he is glad, because he can’t stand to be so close to her.
“But who was the little bird that told on me?” She asks, a bit too sharply for his liking. She really can’t remember him. Maybe it’s okay for her to drain a kid in a dark alley and wait for it to die. It’s not for William. That bloody heartless bitch, he thinks.
“What the hell is going on here?” Gabe asks from the door, his voice sounds teasing, but William knows he’s is pissed and concerned.
“Nothing,” she says with her sweetest smile. William is thinking about shark teeth. He can’t help it. He knows how those teeth felt breaking his skin, tearing him apart.
“I’m going for lunch, wanna come with me?” Gabe asks, and he is looking straight at William.
“Yeah…” he answers softly and she looks at him curiously, but shrugs it off.
“I want to see Ryan,” William says as they’re standing outside. The sun is warm on his skin and he feels like he can breathe again. He never wants to be alone in a room with her again.
“He’s at Jon’s…”
“I really need to see him, Gabe,” William answers, not looking at Gabe. With a sigh, Gabe pulls out his phone to book a ticket for William.
“You know I can’t go with you, right?”
“I know. I will be okay. You already have my part anyway.”
“Of course, but the video William, you need to come back for that.”
“Yeah, I know,” William answers.
~+~
“You look like shit,” Jon says and hugs him. William smiles into Jon’s shirt. He likes how Jon smells, he always liked how Jon smells.
“I feel worse…”
“Good thing Ryan is here then,” Jon answers, grabbing his hand and leading him into the living room. “I’ll make you some tea.”
“Thanks,” William says, Brendon and Spencer are making room for him on the couch, so he can sit beside Ryan. Ryan’s chilly body feels like home, like family and nothing like her. Brendon pets his hair and William sighs, he really likes Brendon. How can you not like someone who always tries to make you feel better?
“So…you want some hot alone time?” Brendon asks, his breath ghosting over William’s skin. Ryan laughs softly on his other side. Spencer keeps quiet.
“No…maybe later. I just need to be here…” William says. Ryan goes rigid beside him. He knows that something is wrong.
“Here you are,” Jon says, putting the mug into William’s hands.
“Thanks,” William answers, and he really means it. Jon smiles at him.
~+~
“You smell wrong,” Ryan says later that night. They’re lying on the bed in Jon’s guest room. The moon outside is the only light.
“I feel so wrong…” William whispers back.
“What’s going on?”
“Do you remember how you got turned?” William wants to know. He hears Ryan take a deep breathe.
“I don’t…I mean, yeah, but I’d rather not. I felt…”
“Violated…” William whispers.
“Yeah,” Ryan answers softly. He grabs William’s hand and squeezes. “What’s wrong?” he asks into the dark.
“She…I mean that vampire that made me, I’ve seen her again. A few days…fuck. It’s that Maja chick from The Sounds,” He finishes frustrated.
“Does Gabe know?”
“Yeah, he’s not amused…”
“You didn’t tell him straight away,” Ryan sums up.
“No, I didn’t…I couldn’t. He wouldn’t understand anyway,” William answers.
“Because he doesn’t know how it is.”
“Yes, we are so careful, he knows, Brendon does, too, they all know we wouldn’t hurt them. She wanted to hurt me. She wanted it, she likes the pain, she likes to see that. I was…”
“Too young?” Ryan supplies.
“Yeah, too young.”
“And freaked out.”
“That too.”
“Scared…to die and after.”
“That was the worse thing. After I mean, after I figured out what she did,” William whispers.
He feels more that he sees Ryan leaning over him.
“You want to talk about this?” he asks, his voice low and husky. William shivers. He isn’t sure he wants this, he isn’t sure he doesn’t want this.
“I want to rip her heart out…” he whispers. Ryan kisses his temple. “She left me there to bleed to death,” he adds. (He still wonders why he didn’t die, how it works, how he got turned in the first place, he can’t remember the first few minuets after he blacked out, he doesn’t know what she did, or if she did anything at all. Maybe Ryan knows, but he doesn’t want to ask Ryan. Ryan has his own scars.) Ryan licks from his jaw to his collar bone. He feels his pulse speed up. “I hate her so much,” he hisses as Ryan bites down. The smell of blood fills the room.
“I know,” Ryan says, his lips leaving bloody smears on William’s body.
William believes him.
~+~
“You look better,” Travis says as he picks him up from the airport a few days later.
“I feel better.”
“Gabe is going insane,” Travis says, pulling out a cigarette, he gives one to William too. They smoke in a quiet corner near Travis’ car. It’s raining in New York again.
“I’ll talk to him.”
“He’s worried. He wants her gone too,” Travis says throwing the butt away.
“I’m sorry. It’s such a mess.”
“It’s not your fault,” Travis answers.
“Yeah…”
~4~
He knew he had to see her on the set again, but he didn’t know it would be so fucking difficult to stay out of her way.
“You are one too,” she says behind him. He manages not to jump out of his skin. He turns away from the buffet and looks at her.
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” he answers. She laughs, the edges tinted with something deadly, sadistic. Poisonous.
“You know exactly what I am talking about,” she says, her accent thick. He could like that voice if things were different. “And your little boy toy, he knows too,” she adds. He can’t stand her.
“Don’t talk about him!” he says sharply, as she smiles at him. It could look sweet, but it only looks cruel to him.
“So, you are keeping him around…to…do what, exactly? Fuck him, drink from him?”
“Shut up! You know nothing about me!” William answers.
“But you know about me…how do you know about me?” He doesn’t like the look in her eyes. It seems to him that she wants to remember something she’d really rather forget. “I thought you were a girl,” she finally whispers.
“What?”
“I thought you were a girl…all those years, I thought you were a girl - and well, dead by now,” she says.
“I don’t know what you are talking about…”
“I made you,” she says, and she doesn’t seem happy about it. “I fucking made you…”
He doesn’t know how to answer her.
“Are you sorry?”
“Only that you lived.” She sneers.
He would like to tell himself that he doesn’t feel shocked by her answers, but he fucking does.
“I’m sorry to disappoint.”
“You really don’t. Disappoint that is. You are fucking gorgeous, perfect and still. I wish you were dead,” she answers.
He wants to say something, but someone calls his name and that they need to be on set in a few minutes and she steps away from him, leaving him there.
~+~
“You don’t look too well,” Travis observes, feeling a bit like a broken record these days.
“I fucking hate her,” William answers, smoking a cigarette out of the packet he stole form Gabe.
“What did she do?”
“She fucking knows, and she doesn’t regret anything, except that I fucking survived. I hate her…all that pain and she feels nothing,” he answers.
“She’s different.”
“Yeah, she is. Maybe they all are like her and Ryan and I, we’re damaged somehow,” William muses.
“Maybe she is damaged. You seem perfectly healthy to me,” Gabe says from behind them.
“I…thanks.”
“No biggie,” Gabe shrugs, leaning against him. William burrows into his side, for the warmth. It’s cold. Or maybe it’s just him.
~+~
They don’t see each other again. Neither Travis nor Gabe offers her a ride to the airport. William is glad. He doesn’t like her being around him or his friends for that matter.
He veers between wanting to ignore her for the rest of eternity and wanting to pick her brain, just to find out what she knows, or maybe how old she is, he doesn’t know anything about his condition. Neither does Ryan, but he never spoke about this with Ryan before, they never discussed this part of their….condition. It is difficult enough at it is. And he is glad he knows Ryan and that Ryan is happy with things as they are now.
“You are not like her,” Gabe says from the kitchen, William gets up from the couch, crosses the living room and leans on the kitchen counter watching Gabe preparing dinner.
“I know.”
“So, that wasn’t what you were brooding about?” Gabe asks, while slicing carrots for the curry he is making.
“No, it wasn’t,” William answers. “This smells delicious.”
“Thanks, I learned a trick or two while I was away,” Gabe says around a smile.
“I know for a fact that you learned this from Disashi,” William answers, smiling.
“Well…I was still away when I learned it.”
“Yeah, you were,” William says.
“So, what were you thinking about?”
“Her.”
“I figured that,” Gabe says.
“I don’t know why, but I want to talk to her….and rip her heart out at the same time. She left me there and she wanted me to die, but she is still…”
“Family? Kinda?” Gabe supplies.
“No, she is not. Ryan is, she is…just something that is similar to me. Does this make sense?”
“Yes, it does. As far as this whole thing is making sense. You know, before you I didn’t even know vampires were real and now I can’t turn a fucking corner without meeting one,” Gabe answers, stirring the curry.
“Hmmm….”
“Do you want rice or bread with this?” He asks.
“Bread,” William answers absently.
“It’s ready in a few, set the table.”
“Yeah.”
“You know that this doesn’t change a thing, don’t you?”
“Yes, I know.”
“And you know that I’m glad you didn’t die…” Gabe continues. William knows Gabe is dying to ask, to find out, but he keeps it well under wraps.
“I know. Maybe I will tell you about it one day…I just can’t. Not now,” William answers, setting the table. He knows Gabe’s home like his own, maybe better, seeing as how he is spending more and more time here.
“You don’t have to, it doesn’t change a thing. It doesn’t change you.”
“It changed how you see her,” William says.
“But just because she is…not like you. I don’t love her. I could never love her,” Gabe says, he says it casually, but William knows it’s really not.
“Thanks.”
“Whatever,” Gabe answers, putting the pot onto the table.
“You forgot the bread…” William says.
“It’s in the fridge.”
“Don’t put it there, I never can find it when you’re putting it there, besides it’s cold…”
“Shut up and eat your curry,” Gabe answers, rolling his eyes.
William smiles and does.