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

When Anna came to, there were two faces looming worriedly above her. One the face of her boyfriend, evidently tired as hell but who refused sleep until he was sure that she was okay. Although his bruises had healed up Anna could still picture them there, decorating his beautiful face with harsh blotches of wicked purple. The second face was one of a friend who had become very dear to her since their first meeting. Pete could relate to her better than almost anyone. She didn’t know his whole story exactly, but she knew that it had something to do with the Dandies. It was a pretty taboo subject though, even among those who would talk about their crappy sex lives openly (namely Patrick, Andy and Joe).

“Anna!” Ryan sighed happily with a small smile of relief.

“Anna!” Pete all but squealed quite a bit louder than Ryan’s affectionate whisper.

“Hey,” she whispered hoarsely, smiling slightly at their mere presence.

“Are you alright?” Ryan fretted, kissing her cold forehead quickly.

She managed a strangled nod, feeling a bit like a soap opera character waking up all disorientated in hospital.

“I’m fine. What about you?!”

“I’m fine too. I promise.”

They took a moment to analyze each other, both biting their lips before smiles managed to hold themselves in place without force or struggled effort.

“Thank God you’re okay,” Pete breathed, hugging her briefly and gently. “I’m gonna leave you two alone and go tell the others.”

By the time he finished his sentence he was already out the door. A peaceful silence settled over Anna and Ryan, but as always it could only last a minute before uncertainties began to flood the comforting air.

“How long have I been out of it for?” she asked.

“About forty-eight hours,” he answered quietly. “I was really worried about you.”

“I’m sorry for scaring you.”

“Don’t apologize.” It pained him that she felt like even this was her fault. “It’s not like you could bring yourself out of a temporary coma.”

“But still…”

Silence settled again, but this time it was kind of eerie.

“What about Beckett?”

“What about him?” Ryan muttered darkly, but Anna gave him one sharp look and he caved with a hopeless sigh. “We haven’t heard anything yet, but Bella told me she’d send word if anything was really bad or if the world turned upside down and he all of a sudden didn’t care. At this point, no news is good news.”

Anna just had time to nod before Patrick, Joe, Andy and Pete flooded in. After a few rounds of the expected ‘Are you okay?’ questions, Anna sat up and everyone started towards her.

“Anna, you should rest…”

“Not so fast, sweetie…”

“Hey, take it easy for a bit…”

“Guys!” she exclaimed, exasperated. “I’ve just been unconscious for two days, so I have absolutely no interest in sleeping. My muscles ache from being in the same position for so long. I’m not a porcelain doll so just let me move around for a bit, okay?”

The guys reluctantly nodded as she swung her legs over the edge of thegurney bed and wiggled her toes as she stretched her arms above her head and inhaled deeply through her nose.

Mistake.

Something smelt positively wonderful; a blend of spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, as well as vanilla mixed with the scent of brandy and sultanas, with just a hint of spice in between. Immediately, Anna’s mouth began to water as she inhaled it again, eyes darting around in search of the source. Her eyes landed on Patrick and her throat dried up.

“No!”

She started choking on air and Patrick tried to come closer to see what was wrong.

“No!” she tried to scream, but her throat was too dry. He smelled so good…

“Anna, what’s wrong?” Patrick asked, trying to hurry forward.

“Stay away from me!” she managed a scream this time and clutched at her hair with her fingers, tugging as hard as she could to stop herself from launching towards Patrick and tasting his dizzying, heavenly-smelling blood.

“Holy crap…” Ryan started, but Pete had already run out of the room in search of a glass of the satiating blend.

Patrick, eventually realizing what was going on, widened his eyes and backed away slowly. One wrong move, one gust of wind and he was history. It had been so long since he’d felt like he was in this much danger… not since Pete was first turned…

As for Anna, she was doing all she could to stop herself. She couldn’t remember ever feeling like this, at least not until after the killing. She’d never had any reason to stop herself before. She went out to hunt, and the whole point was to drink blood. She hadn’t had any blood in so long now… not since meeting Pete… and she certainly had no practice in restricting her natural urges…

“Pete, quick!” she heard Ryan calling out, but he sounded so distant even though he was right beside her. She could still hear his panic, though. “Her eyes are rolling back, please hurry!”

“I’m coming!”

Pete threw himself into the room just as Anna was beginning to lose control. Ryan was trying to restrain her, one arm locked around her waist and the other holding back one of her arms. Her teeth were beginning to snap in Patrick’s general direction even though he was pressed against the opposite wall with Andy and Joe on either side of him ready to fight her off. Anna’s arms were trying to stretch outwards, making scratching motions in the air, but Ryan’s strong grip was holding one of them back.

“Quick!” Ryan gasped again.

“Hold her head still!” Pete roared.

Anna tried to fight Ryan off as he took her chin in his fingers, holding it so tightly it would have broken her jaw if she were human. He tilted her head back and opened her mouth, no matter how viciously she was trying to protest. Before he lost the chance, Pete poured the mixture into her mouth, watching her carefully to make sure she swallowed. After he had forced her to drink the whole big glass, she stopped struggling. When he thought it was safe, Ryan slowly let her go and she fell to the floor, twitching involuntarily.

“She’ll be fine,” Patrick said quietly at Ryan’s horrified expression. “Give her a minute.”

True enough, a minute or so later Anna had calmed down and was sitting up slowly.

“Shit! Patrick… oh my god I’m so damn sorry…”

“That’s okay, Anna,” he replied.

“No it’s not! What if no one else had been here? I would have killed you, Patrick!” she fretted, hastily brushing her hair away from where it stuck to her face with a sheen of sweat.

“Don’t waste time wondering about ‘what ifs’.” Joe said comfortingly, crossing the room with the others and holding out his hand to help her up from the floor. She didn’t need it though; as soon as she moved to get up Ryan had wrapped his arm around her and lifted her to her feet.

“Thanks.” She mumbled.

The six of them all made their way to the living room and slumped themselves down on the couches. A silence took hold of the room for several minutes. How many, no one could be sure. The contemplative silence, however, was harshly interrupted by the shrill ring of a cell phone. Everyone’s head snapped in the direction of the small electronic device. Pete, Patrick, Joe and Andy’s faces were immediately worried.

“No one ever calls Pete’s phone…” Patrick murmured. “At least not without warning…”

His mumbling was torn apart by a dreadful, violent snarl, but it wasn’t from outside. No. The angry rumble had erupted from Pete’s chest. Anna’s head whipped towards him in shock. Sure, he could be a bit of a bitch at times, but he generally had such a fun persona that it was overlooked or considered wit. This time, however, she saw no traces of friendliness on his face. His lips were set in a horrifying snarl, revealing his bright white fangs as he glared at the phone in his hand. His dark eyes held fury and pure malice. This was not the Pete she was used to.

“Who is it?” Ryan whispered, his voice fighting not to tremor.

“Beckett!” Pete hissed.

“What?” Ryan was startled, and then slightly afraid. “Why is he calling? Why not any of the lesser Dandies? This isn’t right…”

“Do I answer it, Pat?” Pete asked.

Patrick’s white face nodded solemnly, and Pete pressed the green button and put the phone on speaker.

“Hello Peter.”

A chilling voice sent its way beneath all of their skin from the small holes in the plastic of the phone.

“Beckett.” Pete sounded like he wanted nothing more than to jump into the phone and rip the older vampire’s perfect skin apart.

“Oh come now, Peter. No need for such harsh tones. We were best friends once, after all.”

This was an enormous shock to Anna, but she didn’t say anything. Beckett didn’t need to know that she, or anyone else, was listening. But how could the most evil being in the universe have ever been on even the slightest of good terms with someone as funny, warm and compassionate as Pete, let alone best friends?

“Once was a long time ago, Beckett. And before you ask, no, I will not call you ‘William’. You’re not William anymore.”

Pete sounded so sure of himself in everything he said. This was the first time since their first meeting that Anna had ever been intimidated by him. This was the guy who went around wearing a duck apron, for crying out loud!

“Whatever you prefer.” Beckett said, although they could sense his annoyed tone. Perhaps he wasn’t expecting Pete to be so self-assured. “But back to business. I believe you have something of mine.”

Ryan was about to snarl into the phone, but Anna’s cold finger to his lips stopped him. Pete spoke on behalf of them all, though.

“Don’t you dare refer to her as yours,” he was dangerously angry again.

“Oh, but she wishes I would. Why deny her what she wants?”

Hearing his taunting voice again, Anna was stinging inside more than she let on. She managed to hold off the tears this time, however, and had to attach her lips to Ryan’s to stop him from either breaking the phone or giving away that Beckett had an audience. Even when Ryan had calmed down, she kept her lips on his. They weren’t kissing, but their lips were resting on each other’s.

“There’s no way I’m giving her back to you after what you’ve done to her. After what you’ve done to Ryan. After what you’ve done to yourself.”

Patrick gave Pete a slightly disapproving look. It would not be a good idea to infuriate Beckett now. Beckett seemed to have himself in check, though. Of course, this was only from his tone of voice.

“And what if I don’t want her back?”

The sentence sent a wave of pain to erupt in Anna’s heart, slowly spreading itself outwards to her skin and making it tingle. Ryan could almost feel the pain and quickly slipped his tongue into her mouth, hoping that this would somehow ease her hurt rather than heightening it. It seemed to be a welcome distraction as she pulled his head closer to hers and returned the favor rapidly.

“If you didn’t want her you wouldn’t have bothered calling,” Pete spat bitterly.

“True. You know me so well, Peter. This is why you should…”

“I’m not changing my mind!” Pete yelled into the phone, jumping up. Anna was confused as to where the conversation had gone, but tried to lose herself again in Ryan’s passionate kiss.

“Nevertheless, it seems like such a loss. But I did not call to discuss that. Bella has told me what it is you’re trying to do.”

“You can’t stop us,” Pete whispered, deadly.

“I’m not trying to stop you. Not anymore. I’ve had time to think about this. Bella has convinced me to let you do whatever it is you’re doing to try and get around this. I want to be a part of this. If you need me to do anything to help with the cause, I will. I’ve made up my mind. This has gone far enough. Tell Anna and Ryan that we’ve got much more important enemies than each other, and that if this can be stopped I want to speed up the process.”

There was a prolonged silence throughout the warehouse. Was this some sort of trick? What on earth would it have taken to convince the leader of the Dandies to swallow his pride?

“Wentz? Are you still there?”

Pete shook his head, his eyes still a bit distant.

“Yeah I’m here,” he said gruffly. “I’ll call you back.”

“Do.”

With that Beckett hung up and they were met with a dial tone. Pete hung up after a bit.

“What do you think?” he asked softly.

Anna and Ryan had separated their lips now, but their bodies were still held close together. Everyone was breathing in an air of doubt and disbelief. Eventually, Joe spoke in an attempt to lift the mood. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite aware that Bella was Anna’s best friend and that it was just making things worse.

“I think that this Bella character must have fucked him pretty hard in order to get him to change his mind!”

Anna winced and felt Ryan’s cool hand on the back of her neck. Immediately, she spun around and kissed him fiercely again. Anything to try and get rid of Beckett from her mind. Pete didn’t approve of her method of trying to forget, but they’d have to work on it later. If it made her happier for now, it would have to do. After ten seconds or so, Anna detached their lips again, leaving Ryan in a bit of a daze.

“You know what?” she said spiritedly, as if the whole Beckett ordeal hadn’t just happened. “I think we’re both going to take you up on that sleeping idea.”

Pete picked up on what she meant before the others, and he pulled them out of the room as Anna dragged Ryan back to theirs, tugging off his shirt as they went.