Give Me Envy, Give Me Malice, Give Me Your Attention

William Beckett returned to his mansion as if he had never left to make a life-threatening decision. Ignoring the rumors, he continued with his head held high and paid no mind to Anna’s existence. Or so it seemed. He was thankful that he didn’t need to breathe; it would have been much harder if he had to inhale the thick rumors and remarks spreading through the air. The only thing that was different was that Anna could no longer talk to Bella when William wanted Bella to himself, which was the majority of the time. Other than that, she was allowed around the mansion. Beckett didn’t seem to begrudge anyone who hung out with her, so the Dandies assumed that everything was sorted and they were off the hook.

Not all were so easily fooled, though. Some had more sense than that. Anna and Ryan, for starters, knew how furious he had been, even though the evidential bruises were gone now. Bella also knew William better than anyone, and was not about to let her guard down on something that had shaken him so. Chiz and Travis were wary, but thought that the danger had passed.

Weeks flew by, and William still didn’t know how to go about his mission. He didn’t want to upset Bella. It had to look like an accident. You know, it’s much harder to set up a death for those who don’t die of natural causes. He watched Anna as much as he could. He didn’t want to miss any opportunity. However, in his observations he couldn’t help but notice that every now and then she’d disappear from the mansion with Ryan. At first he dismissed it, she probably just went somewhere to make out with her little boyfriend, but soon enough his bitterness transformed into suspicion, and he scoured the city with his eyes to try and find her. Nothing. This only heightened his suspicion. Often, he would give up looking for her and start searching for Andrew Mrotek instead. Much like Anna had, Mr Mrotek seemed to have disappeared from the city. It had been months since Beckett had been able to spot his former friend.

As William was growing more and more agitated, Anna and Ryan’s relationship was getting back on track. Of course, the mysterious place they disappeared to so often was the warehouse. With the subtle attempts of Patrick, Pete, Joe and Andy (collectively ‘Fall Out Boy’) at getting them closer, they had returned to the way they had been before Beckett had found out about everything. They were always watching their backs, not trusting any Dandies quite yet, but other than that, things were finally looking up.

“Anna?” Patrick asked her during one of their experimental visits.

She sighed and held her arm out for him, squeezing her eyes shut.

“Thanks,” he said quietly.

She didn’t answer or watch as he plunged yet another needle into her skin. She had gotten used to this. He was always taking blood samples and occasionally injecting her with something else to keep her stamina up to scratch. Vampire’s skin, however, is strong, so it took more force for the syringe to penetrate it than it would for a human. She winced from the pain, but Ryan was whispering comforting words in her ear and stroking her hair softly, and that was all she needed to get through the discomfort.

“Anna!” Came a sing-song voice as she held a cotton bud to where the needle had pierced her skin. She couldn’t hold back a laugh when Pete came in wearing oven-mitts and a duck-patterned apron.

“What on earth are you doing?” she questioned.

“Baking!” he replied excitedly. She raised an eyebrow. “I made fancy la-di-dah spinach puffs for the humans and I have found the way to make our mixture stuff actually desirable!”

There was a moment’s silence before she asked, in all seriousness, “Are you gay?”

He gasped in shock and fake hurt.

“Honey, if I was gay then I would’ve already made a move on your boyfriend here.”

Everyone burst into laughter. Why did Anna even live at the Dandy mansion? Everything was so much better here. She swung her legs over the side of the bench she’d been lying on and stood up, but immediately sat back down again when her vision swam.

“Don’t stand up too fast,” Patrick told her before turning to Pete. “How did you make the mixture taste good?”

Pete grinned. “Chocolate. I know that it’s supposed to taste like ash, but I tried throwing some in anyway hoping for an explosion of some sort and it worked! Come on!”

Anna climbed onto Ryan’s back and he piggy-backed her out to the kitchen/living room area where some steaming pastries lay on a tray and three glasses of a brownish substance sat waiting for them. Pete grabbed his glass and chugged the whole thing in a minute.

“There’s the manliness,” Joe joked.

As they sat around a rectangular dining table, Anna dared ask the question that had been plaguing her mind.

“Patrick?”

“Yes?” he said, his mouth full of pastry, spinach and cheese.

“Are… are we getting anywhere with this? I mean, you know I love hanging out with you guys and all, but is there any improvement on the… situation?”

Patrick exchanged glances with the others and they all swallowed their mouthfuls simultaneously. He sighed and looked at the anxious girl as Ryan sat beside her, holding her trembling hand.

“We’re… we’re getting there,” he started. “I think. It’s hard with only one set of blood. Ryan’s blood doesn’t seem to affect the outcome all that much, but Beckett’s probably would.”

Ryan opened his mouth to protest, but Patrick held up a hand.

“Don’t worry. We’re not asking you to get a blood sample from him or anything. We’re just saying that this is going to take time. You’ll need to be patient.”

Anna nodded her head and gave Ryan’s fingers a reassuring squeeze.

“It’s okay. We can be patient, right Ry?”

“Yeah of course,” he smiled at her, sitting back down beside her and kissing her lips quickly.

“You know,” Joe started, bemused. “I think that’s the first time we’ve ever actually seen you two kiss in front of us.”

“Really?” The two lovers asked at the same time.

“Yeah.” Andy confirmed.

Anna and Ryan looked at each other before smirking and leaning in to join their lips with more passion. His fingers entangled themselves in her hair to hold her there as the other guys wolf-whistled and Pete covered his eyes dramatically, yelling something along the lines of “Save it for the bedroom!”

After not long enough, they broke away from each other, dazzled smiles on their faces.

If only it could stay like that forever.

***

Bella was engrossed in a book when she suddenly felt familiar cool lips on her throat. She maintained her stoic exterior, as if fireworks hadn’t just burst into life inside of her. She sighed and lifted her reading glasses onto her head. She didn’t need them anymore, but still wore them when she was reading out of habit.

“I’m trying to read, William.”

He ignored her and continued to kiss along her jaw line, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind.

“I told you I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“Sometimes it takes more than sorry to be forgiven,” she said, her voice almost as cold as her unresponsive body.

He seductively kissed her neck again and bit down, earning himself one of her involuntary moans.

“Is this more than sorry?” he purred.

She spun around and attached their lips forcefully before tearing them away to draw a breath.

“No.”

Kiss.

“But it…”

Kiss.

“It’s getting there.”

Kiss.

He pulled her down on top of him to continue their little make-out session, but just as things were getting heated he spoke when he knew he should't.

“Do you…”

Kiss.

“Know where…”

Kiss.

“Anna and Ryan…”

Kiss.

“Disappear to?”

Kiss.

All of a sudden Bella froze and jumped out from under him and off their massive bed.

“What?” she seethed, eyes narrowed in a glare.

“I…” William started. “Uh…”

“Did you just use me to get information?”

“No! I just… uh…”

“Eugh!” She turned away from him, disgusted.

“Bella…”

“No, William. I can’t look at you.”

With that she fled the room, hoping to run into someone she could talk to. Maybe Brendon. She hadn’t spoken to him in a while.

And William Beckett, the great leader of the Dandies, was left alone and no closer to the truth.