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

No one could quite believe it.

William Beckett couldn’t be gone. He just couldn’t.

But he was.

The Dandies were all at a loss. What were they supposed to do now? Their leader was gone. Their reason for existence was left incomplete. Were they supposed to keep fighting? They no longer really had any reason to. Did they? Everything was just so wrong.

Some of the humans were running, running far away from the nightmare they’d just witnessed; the nightmare that they’d just been a part of. Others, the ones that knew what was happening, lingered behind.

All was quiet except for the whistling of the wind against the headland, the seas still rough hundreds of feet below. No one dared speak, fearful of jinxing what had already happened. Everything was just left in an uncertain limbo. No one wanted to break the creeping silence that engulfed them all, until one surprisingly strong voice forced out a word.

“Ryan.”

He looked up sharply, eyes still wide from the shock of what he’d done, as Anna unfolded her limbs and stood up from her place on the ground. She looked different somehow. Her bright green eyes showed no sign of weakness, no sign of distress, and no sign of hesitance. Her porcelain skin was already recovering supernaturally quickly from the bruises and cuts she’d been dealt, healing before his very eyes. Ryan watched in an almost dream-like state as she walked towards him, slowly yet with some form of urgency. She stopped about a foot away from him, her gaze penetrating his with such forceful unspoken emotions that he had a hint of what she was going to say before she said it. That didn’t stop his eyes from widening in disbelieving shock, afraid to believe it.

“I love you,” she whispered.

He froze in panic. Did she mean it? He’d just vanquished the man she’d been forced to feel for, the man who had mistreated her so, the man who was her creator… But he wasn’t a man. He was a vampire. And he had disappeared, along with his venom, his poison, his influence.

He was nothing anymore.

“Do you mean it?” he whispered back, every speck of meaning and implication shining through his eyes.

She splintered a smile, her eyes never wavering from his, and nodded twice. He was astounded by the force of her smile. He honestly thought he’d never see her smile like that again. She hadn’t smiled like this since before they’d met, since before she’d been turned. That, right there, that was a real smile.

He couldn’t hold himself back from grinning in response and exhaling a breath of pure mirth before swooping in and capturing her awaiting lips in his.

Why is there such a fuss over a first kiss? Why is it always supposedly the best? Because this kiss, this particular touching of lips, was certainly a million times better than the first kiss Ryan and Anna had shared.

This time, they could inject every true emotion and meaning into their lips for the other to drink. Nothing had to be held back; nothing was forced to remain isolated and enclosed. Bare, raw, stripped; dangerous, yet completely ideal. This was what they’d only distantly wished to achieve.

The kiss was full of rough passion; they had no need to be careful anymore. The layers underneath of care and devotion and simple love were clear. In those moments, however stretched they may have seemed, it seemed that there was no possible way for any other couple in history to have shared a kiss quite as remarkable as this.

The pair smiled into it, pulling each other closer after what they’d dreamed of for so long. Their lips detached slowly, but the small amount of space between them seemed just as intimate. Their foreheads touched, and their eyelids fluttered shut as they reveled in their perfection.

“I can’t believe it,” Anna whispered, her breath icy on Ryan’s lips.

“It’s over,” he breathed, relief pounding in every syllable.

The few remaining onlookers smiled at the pair, Patrick and Andy high-fiving and Joe wolf-whistling. The couple smiled sheepishly, turning to face their friends. Guilt immediately washed over them, however, as they caught sight of the other two women.

Bella was smiling at them, but sadness dwelled in her eyes. As horrible as he was, even without the vampiric attraction Bella had been in love with William. She loved him for who he really was, who he once was. And of course she was happy that her friends could be together, and without danger or fear. She knew that William’s death was necessary. She knew it was the best thing. But that didn’t stop her from hurting slightly, especially at the realization that she was now alone, without William’s influence. She could barely even remember how to not be in a serious relationship.

Lara was there, but she wasn’t even watching her vampire friends. Instead, her blue eyes remained on the stationary body of her love across the square. The tears had stopped for now, but as she stared numbly with absolutely no feeling she knew that another hot flow of emotion from her eyes would be soon to come.

“Fuck it,” Pete started, flying across the courtyard and startling everyone out of their swirling thoughts.

No one could have predicted what he was about to do, and he took everyone by surprise as he took Bella in his arms and pressed a soft kiss to her mouth. Of course, no one was more surprised than her. He pulled back after a moment to search her eyes for a reaction.

Bella had to take a few seconds to compose herself. Sure, Pete had casually flirted with her once or twice, threw furtive glances her way, but this wasn’t quite what she expected, especially only a few minutes after William’s death.

But did she ever really love William? Honestly? She didn’t even know. She was in love with the idea of who he used to be, but she’d never truly known him like that. She’d known glimpses of it, but the William she knew was so much more cunning, plotting, and deceitful. So had she ever really known love?

And Pete… he’d been there for her when she’d needed a friend. He’d talk to her late at night, when Lara and Andy were in bed and Anna and Ryan were out. He’d hear her deepest feelings and she’d hear his, and neither of them would spill a word of it to the others. The others knew nothing of their close companionship, so naturally mouths were left agape when Bella grabbed the front of Pete’s shirt and pulled his lips back to mesh with hers again, wasting no time in deepening the display of affection. Pete responded only too eagerly, and when they pulled away not long after they both wore devilish grins mixed with a form of relief and happiness.

There weren’t many people left at the congregation anymore. The Dandies had all split, either heading back to the mansion or to find a new place or refuge. Michael Guy Chislett and Travis McCoy remained, loitering around the back near the exit but unable to bring themselves to leave. The only others remaining were Lara, Bella, Anna, Ryan, Pete, Patrick, Joe, Andy, Lara’s father and Jon, who had arguably been the savior seeing as he had assisted in setting Ryan free, certainly looking the part with his ruggedly handsome aesthetic. Everyone who remained, however, let their emotions slip from their faces and turned towards Lara, who now stood with her shoulders hunched, dress soaked and ripped, and messy hair. They all started towards her, offering words of comfort, but she held a hand up to stop them all.

Silently, she staggered towards the motionless figure on the floor. She knew she looked like a hopeless mess, but that mattered so little to her at this point. She had to crawl the last few feet, taking Andrew Mrotek’s cold hand in hers, squeezing it in the feeble hope of a response. She gently brought her shaking fingers up to comb the soft brown curls from his closed eyes. The tears slipped mutely and uselessly down her cheeks, and although she felt several pairs of eyes on her she couldn’t care less. No one disturbed her. No one moved to touch her or bring her away or shield her eyes. They just left her be, watching on distantly at the heartbreaking scene before them that contrasted so ironically with the two previous.

Lara couldn’t hold in her sobs, and her body began to rack up and down. She cried her eyes out and she didn’t give a damn, stroking her husband’s cheek lovingly. They hadn’t officially been married, but no widow had ever felt so heartbroken or inconsolable as she did now. She began to shake violently, and pressed her wobbly lips to his as a final gesture before going to get up.

Before she could stand, his lifeless body rolled over to the side to face her, and she glanced down once more. After that glance, however, she couldn’t pull away and her eyes were drawn to him as she gasped, bringing her hands up to her mouth.

Alerted by the noise, the crowd slowly began to huddle around her to see what had shocked her so. Many more gasps echoed around the courtyard, and as a part of the cluster Anna looked up to Ryan where they held each other to read what the other was thinking. They were both thinking the same, eyes wide with a glimmer of hope.

Perched on the left side of Andrew’s neck were two careful puncture marks, a little blood trailing from each one, and his mouth had fallen open just slightly to reveal two perfect, white, elongated canine teeth.

And out of view of everyone, Adam T. Siska slipped out the door with a small relieved smile at the resolution, wiping blood from his lips.