Vanilla Lace

Bill went down the steps of Hotel An Dom with Analiese close behind him. He was excited, and treating this like an excursion. Analiese pulled Bill's wrist, bringing him close to her so that she could speak without being seen. "Let's just get the food and wait in the hotel for Oliver's call."

The teenage boy agreed and he beckoned the girl along. "Just open your mouth. It's not going to be weird. Trust me." Bill nodded at her assuringly, and Analiese sighed smilingly in reply. For a while, he was just staring at her. He noticed her finely shaped lips and briefly, he wondered how they felt. How they would feel against his own. Unknown to him, it was the part of his vampiric self that fired his sexual libido.

He was all but realizing that there was an awkward silence until Analiese's phone rang, and the both of them diverted their attention immediately to her where she slowly pulled her phone out and answered it. Bill licked his lip as he peeled his impure gaze off Analiese, a hand rubbing the other arm uncomfortably.

"Hello," Analiese answered after stopping and turning inwards to face the wall with a hand cupping the mouthpiece. She was trying her best to avoid Bill's growing oddness, a trait she knew because of what, and she cleared her voice. "Oliver?"

Oliver, on the other side of the line and the other side of town, smiled at the sound of the girl's voice. "Thank God," he muttered before quickly continuing, driving along a busy road through the nightlife of uptown Salzburg. "Where are you?"

Analiese looked around, unsure of the street name but she saw prominent baroque towers and a sign. "Near the town square," she said, glancing briefly at Bill before looking away. Bill's heart was beating fast, but only at the rate where he usually got merely excited when he sees a pretty girl. He wasn't lusting. Not much. Yet.

"I'll come by and get you two," Oliver said. "And we will talk later. Have you guys eaten?"

"No," the girl replied, turning away from Bill who was lowering his cap on his head. "We're by the fountain with the red lights."

Oliver sped up when the road was clear. "Stay there."

Analiese hung up when Oliver did, and she sighed to herself when her face was revealed to the public again. The fountains had blue and yellow lights, so they made sure to be at the green ones specifically. Analiese beckoned Bill with a tilt of the head.

"What is it?" Bill asked, his gaze tearing away from Analiese's shoulders and neck. He wasn't sure what had gotten into him, and he wasn't even aware he was more eager than usual.

Analiese made sure no one was looking her way and she crossed the dimly lit junction with Bill as she spoke. "He's meeting us there. The green fountain."

Bill looked at her, noticing her refrained form of speech. And he gave her an unsatisfied frown. "Why can't you just speak?" He asked, forgetting for a moment that her not deciding to speak was sort of a secret. And he bit his tongue on that.

"I don't want to," Analiese glared back at him, though soft enough to not channel too much annoyance at him. She loved him, and she appreciated his wishes for her but it was something she had not done for years and she still didn't feel comfortable in speaking in front of humans. She was just paranoid that she would be discovered. Like earlier, they thought that their friend Vlad was a real vampire. Not everyone remembered that dental modification existed.

Bill's frown became a despondent one as his earlier desires faded away. His arms wrapped around himself as he followed closely behind her. "I don't understand why you're so stubborn," he mumbled. The way he talked to her was like as if they had been friends forever, and that stubbornness was a famous trait of hers. He just wanted her to be able to talk freely.

The girl ran her fingers through her hair, in disbelief that Bill was calling her obstinate. "It's not like as if I don't want to talk," Analiese reasoned. She didn't want to make things awful in between them seeing that she was strictly going to bring Bill to safety again. She didn't expect too much. Being able to talk to him in his lifetime was already enough for her.

"Then talk!" Bill raised his voice at her. And before he could stop, he started to blabber. "Just talk, Ana! I want to hear your voice. It sounds so nice, and it sounds like everything's alive around me again. I miss my friends and family, but I'm putting them aside because this is a whole new world for me with you and please make it meaningful. I want you to just...just be yourself!"

"Why don't you understand?" Analiese shook her head, eyes filled with such dispiritedness. Never had she expected Bill to be that understanding, if anyone would note the sarcasm. Admiration from afar was perfect, but she knew he was really more to this than forcing her to talk. To her surprise, his face softened. A smile cracked across his previously disgruntled face. "What?" She asked, unamused.

Bill's grin turned into a slight smirk. "I like it when you get all annoyed by me trying to make you talk," he admitted sheepishly as they reached the fountains. Analiese went straight to the green one where there was but one old man sleeping at the side with a cat by his side. The cat sat up and purred at Analiese before she started playing with it. And it jumped on her lap as she sat down.

"I don't want to talk," she mumbled softly as she focused her attention on the cat that yearned her attention. Although she knew that Bill wanted hers as well, she ignored him a bit. "Just sit down and wait with me," she said, her speech once again muffled because she tried not to speak too obviously, looking down at the feline.

The other sighed, sitting close beside her, but enough space for the cat to roll over in between the two of them. "But I want you to talk!" Bill argued. When Analiese showed no response to him, he inched closer to her face that his lips almost touched her fair cheek near her ear. "I want to hear you telling me about yourself, about how you've been, about how you followed me for years. Just talk to me!"

"No!" Analiese exclaimed, making a face at the boy she loved. How could he be so difficult? "What is your problem?" She shook her head at him, feeling her eyes turn cloudy as his clear brown ones staid placid and still. "I don't want to talk, because I never did, so stop making me--"

"You're talking," Bill smiled. People passed by every now and then but Analiese seemed to have forgotten everything. It was like as if she was in a world of her own. In a world of their own. "You are talking, Ana. Can't you see? Can't you hear?" And his gaze flowed over the public. No one really cared about them. They had probably seen a thousand and one tourists enough to keep their ears and eyes to themselves.

Analiese's eyes settled, her nonexistent breathing slowing as she realized what Bill was trying to do. Suddenly, she gave a smile. A smile that showed that she knew what was going on. Her Bill was too smart for words. "Yes," she mumbled rather shyly as she eyes the ones around her with great awareness. "Reverse...reverse psychology," she bit her lip, scratching behind the cat's ear.

"I'd rather you say the parallel effect is working its magic once again," he smiled, looking quite shocked when the cat from Analiese's lap appeared on his. He slowly rubbed its soft fur of a glistening black, and it purred in contentment.

"Maybe," Analiese said softly, still looking down at the creature in between them. She wasn't that used to speaking openly, and she made sure she kept mum when she was in more obvious places like during the daytime. She just couldn't get over the fear, just yet.

Bill chuckled softly, eyes fixated on Analiese even though she failed to return the same affectionate gaze. "Maybe not," he said, causing her to look up at him soon after. He could see that her eyes showed a same understanding, but neither of them could comprehend it fully. It was confusing for the both of them, because it was only the beginning. And they had more important things to do.

Just as Analiese was about to reply to that, a familiar car pulled up by the side of the path. Oliver winded down the window screen a bit and beckoned her in with Bill. "Hurry," he said. Oliver was the kind who didn't like to risk things, less so risk being seen. Quickly, the two younglings filed into the back of the car in two swift jumps.

The car ride was quiet because they all sensed the tenseness in between them, the uneasiness of the situation. Bill was the most awkward one there, eyes kept on the view through the windscreen as the vehicle snaked through to the seedier parts of town. It wasn't soon before long when they arrived at their destination, and the two got out when Oliver did, following his paced, wide strides to a worn down building.

"Where is this place?" Bill suddenly spoke, unable to contain his words anymore. For so many days, his words have been limited for fear of the things he would say. He was no longer with the same group of people. He was no longer the touring musician but one that has disappeared without a trace. He was no longer the flibbertigibbet he was. At least, for now.

Oliver breathed nothing as he walked up the stairs. "This is my residence for as long as you're here," he gave his reply. And he could hear that Bill was huffing and puffing up the long, tall steps. Analiese's eyes dilated, adapting to the darkness that was the stairway. Oliver unlocked a door at the top of it, an apartment at the corner. The other doors were closed, but she had a feeling no one else inhabited them.

Bill blinked once or twice, realizing he was able to see outlines of most of the things. No, everything. He could see the figures of the little random pieces of furniture all over and the old fabric sheets draped over them. It was like no one had lived here before. He turned and saw a table and four chairs, and Oliver sat on one, turning on the dining table lamp right above them with a tug of the string that came down beside it.

They all settled, and Oliver broke his gaze from Bill after studying his looks for a while. The boy appeared uncertain and unpredictable, but he had the most surreal aura of honesty about him that answered his question as to why Analiese chose to protect him at all. And when he studied Analiese, he saw that she was in a very placid state. Her heart was very faint in sound, but he knew she was beating. Thumping. Breathing like humans do. And her eyes, they sparkle when they take in Bill's face.

"Oliver?" Bill interrupted unintentionally. His finger prodded Oliver's cold white skin that was visible only at his hands because of the long sleeves of the jackets he wore daily. Oliver positively shivered at Bill's warm-enough touch. His mind snapped out of his comprehensive thoughts, realizing this was not the time at all for such things. And he pulled away from Bill with a warm smile.

The vampire man cleared his throat, holding his hands together as his gaze scanned the two teenagers in front of him. His heart ached for a while for them to be in such a situation, but he hesitated no further. "I've shagged the others off my back, but only for now. My people are smart people, and they will stop at nothing to protect our kind, and they will do all they can to find the both of you."

Analiese gritted her teeth, hearing them screech lightly against each other, the sounds reverberating through to her ears. Oliver noticed her strain, and he gave a low sigh. Bill hardly noticed anything but her, and so he took in a similar agitation. The girl spoke. "Did they tell you anything about their plans?" She asked Oliver, knowing that since he was the only son of Engel, the ruler of the clan, he would have know something.

Oliver's eyes sparkled. "That's why I'm here," he muttered with half a smile while leaning forward. His eyes fixated on either of the two before him. "I'm going to help the both of you get out of this in one piece. In the end, you might have to change names, move elsewhere, I don't know. It all depends on—"

"But why?" Bill interrupted curiously, albeit brash and offhand. His brown eyes of growing inquisitiveness gleamed, showing how interested he was to know the answers to his questions. His gaze turned to the silent and composed Analiese. There was no answer and he looked to Oliver again. "Why are you helping us when you're one of them? This makes you a—"

"A traitor?" Oliver helpfully completed his sentence. "Is that it?" The man smiled with very subtle wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. "I've made my promise to Sophia—" His regard turned to the girl beside him. "—and I don't see why I should break that promise. I swore to take care of you when she dies. You're a part of my life now."

Analiese sighed, her eyes becoming sad and dark as she looked away. Bill could feel her heartache, and he reached to hold her hand from under the table, much to her surprise. A little part in her reignited, and she smiled a bit for him. Bill looked at Oliver. "But won't your people hate you?"

Oliver nodded, giving a deep contemplating look before he answered. "They never really liked me," he said truthfully, managing a rather deceiving smile.

Bill's eyebrows cocked up. "Why?" He blinked a few times, his hand still on Analiese's. "Why don't they like you?" He thought about all the possible reasons. Was he already a traitor before? Did he do something that made his people distrust him? What was it? Bill was extremely intrigued.

"To cut the long story short," Oliver started, "I did something that they didn't like." He paused for a while, wondering if he should spill all. He decided not to. At least, not just yet. He didn't want things to be awkward in between them. Especially him and Analiese.

"What was it?" Bill questioned very inquisitively. He had a high level of curiosity that surged through him, making his head bubble with questions. He looked at Oliver and he looked at Analiese. The girl shrugged, like as if she knew Bill expected an answer from her.

Oliver gave a silent laugh. "I'm not telling you," he said. "It's inappropriate. I won't tell you for a while. Right now, let's get things straight—"

"Who knew about it?" Bill cut, once again. Oliver shook his head, deeming this boy the most agog cat he had ever come across.

"Not everyone knew of it, but my father and his advocates did. They are poisoned people, those underlings. They don't want me to take over my father, but it's not like I want to. I have my own dreams, like you and like Ana. And those two, Fabian and Karl. They want to take over. Fabian as the head and Karl as his sidekick. It's been like that for so many years."

"So many?" Bill eyed Oliver suspiciously. "How many is many?"

Oliver strained to hide his smile. Analiese merely looked down, hiding her grin. She understood Oliver's plight. "Many, many," he replied, clenching his fists and knocking his knuckles lightly on the wooden table. "At least four hundred years before I was born."

Bill's eyes widened and his face beamed, and he quickly withdrew his hand from the girl. "How old are you, then?"

Analiese let an accidental laugh escape. Oliver smirked as Bill looked on interestedly. "Almost six hundred. In a few years. I can't really remember."

"Oh my God," Bill gasped softly, eyes still huge and twinkling. "You've been through so many ages, haven't you? Have you lived in Europe all your life? Did you take part in the World Wars?" He stopped for a while to breath before continuing. "Oh, and—"

"Wait!" Oliver raised his hands, shaking his head and stifling chuckles. Bill noticed that the two vampires were laughing at him. Slowly, his cheeks became pink. "Slowly, Bill," Oliver said. And he remembered, they didn't have all night. "Okay, first things first. When everything is over, I'll write you my autobiography if you'd like."

Bill smiled sheepishly. "I'm sorry," he said. "I just... I've never met, you know, vampires before. And then came Analiese, and you—"

"I'm half a vampire," Analiese reminded him. She didn't want to press it the first few times when he called her that, but only because she didn't want to appear rude. She winced. "I'm never a full. Just call me a half."

"Oh," Bill nodded. "I'm sorry," he said.

"It's fine," Analiese smiled slightly. "And Oliver, you were saying?"

Oliver nodded, a bit disheartened at Analiese's distaste towards her own kindred. "I've heard from my friends back there that my father has sent Fabian and Karl to look for you. They're very strong, and more than a millennium old. They have more experience than any I know, besides my father, and they are bloodthirsty. Just need you to know that."

Analiese nodded understandingly, taking in every word said.

"The main thing is, be on the move. They have people all over who sell you out easily. Trust no one."

"Trust no one?" Bill's eyes looked directly into Oliver's icy blues. And he felt shivers run down his spine when he did, and he realized Oliver wasn't joking.

"No one," Oliver answered gruffly. "Just the both you. Each other. Everyone you meet, they will be hunted down and Fabian and Karl will ask them about you. Like I said, they stop at nothing."

"So you mean I shouldn't trust you, either?" Bill raised an eyebrow skeptically. Analiese said nothing, looking at her elder for an answer.

Oliver shook his head. "It's up to you," he said. And he looked intently at Bill, his gaze narrowed. "Do you trust me?"

Analiese held back Bill from his answer. "Of course we do," she said, smiling and nodding. "We'd be nowhere without your help. Of course, it's my fault everything happened so far."

"But you saved a precious life," Oliver tried, pushing her confidence. He offered her a very generous smile, the wrinkles in his eyes creasing more. His youth was still perfect. "Do you regret that, Ana?" He asked, showing a slight smirk.

"No," Analiese said firmly, though a little soft. Oliver could tell she wasn't lying. She was more than happy to have Bill alive and kicking, and right beside her. She still found it dreamlike when she thought about it too much. Bill, who sensed her honesty, eyed her affectionately. Never had he had a connection so instantaneous with another girl. Damn the parallel effect, he thought. This had nothing to do with it.

Bill swallowed, rubbing his nose and sniffling as he tried to shake off the sudden sentimentality. "I think..." He said, his voice trailing off. And Analiese looked at him a bit curiously. He returned her gaze. "I think I need to go to the toilet."

Oliver nodded, pointing to another room down a narrow hallway. "I've never used it," he said. "I don't know if it works, but it's right down there." Analiese looked as the boy disappeared.

Bill nodded, getting up and going where instructed. He just needed a reason to be alone for a while. To think about things. He admitted to himself mentally, he had a sudden withdrawal back there. Finding the bathroom, he closed the door after turning on the light. There was no water in the toilet bowl, and he winced at the yellowed walls that went up all four sides of the room.

After doing what he wanted to do, he turned on the tap but no water came out. Grimacing, he turned the tap back off. And he realized it wasn't necessary. He sighed to himself, deciding to stay and sit by the bathtub to think about things. How long was this going to last? The more Oliver spoke, the more serious it became. It wasn't just an adventure, it was a game of survival.

Bill took out his phone to call Tom, and secretly. He pressed the phone to his ears, praying for Tom to pick up. For a while, no one responded. Bill cursed, hanging up on the second try. He turned off his phone, taking it as a sign from whatever Gods there was a time and place for everything. Tom not picking up the phone meant that he should just let things be, let sleeping dogs lie.

Wiping his hands briefly on the back of his jeans, he went back out. Analiese was talking to the man before stopping when Bill came back out. Bill merely stayed silent but then he popped suddenly, coming up with a question as he sat back down. "Will I crave blood soon?" He asked. "I was thinking about it just now."

"In the bathroom?" Oliver teased him slightly.

Bill's lips grew taut. "I was just wondering," he smiled, sitting down. He decided not to ask about his growing sexual urge. It was a part of vampire literature that was right, in Bill's mind.

"We...well," Oliver loosened his collar. "We keep animals. We kill animals. We drink their blood diluted with holy water."

And Bill made a face involuntarily. "You actually drink it?"

"We're vampires," Oliver answered. "We need blood to survive."

"Do you drink it?" Bill's question was directed at the girl beside him. Analiese looked at him with bright and clear eyes. "Do you?" He repeated.

Analiese bit his lip. "I told you," she said. "I never do it on purpose. It was all part of when I was little and my mother made me do it. I've only ever had my meat quite raw...just a little cooked."

"She doesn't need much," Oliver helped her. "But she does get bloodlust. You will, too, in time." He sighed. "As well as primal lust, and I have a feeling you know."

"You mean desire for sex?" Bill bit his lip. The subject he was most eager about yet most awkward to talk of was here.

"I mean desire for sex," Oliver said. Analiese looked down, hugging herself as she listened. "I'm sure it has already started...hasn't it?" Bill wrinkled his nose and bit his lip, nodding. Oliver chuckled. "It will be almost uncontrollable for you, but I'm sure Ana will help you with it."

Bill reddened, not even taking the chance to look at the girl vampire beside him. He mentally chided himself for acting so ridiculous, but he couldn't help it. He was, after all, a teenager with raging hormones. Not to mention, his raging hormones were aggravated easily nowadays. Quickly, he changed the subject. "What about downfalls?"

"Downfalls?" Oliver raised an eyebrow. "You mean kryptonite?" Bill gave a slight nod. He pulled a chain from his neck, the metal glistening in the faint light. The pendant he held up for Bill to see was of an ivory cross. "What's this?"

"A cross," Bill answered. "So you are not affected by that?" And Oliver shook his head, keeping it back in.

"But no stakes through our hearts. The sunlight fear is a farce for most of us —" And Bill swore he heard Analiese's grunt of disapproval. "— and so is the garlic. We're just really photosensitive. In the earlier days, we were entirely allergic to sun but we have evolved over time. We try to stay in the shadows." And Oliver thought about it some more. "But we cannot take silver. The vampires won't come after you with that, but the Austrian Royal guards will definitely. It has been their choice weapon since the age of our kind. They'll make silver stakes and—"

"We're not full vampires, Oliver," Analiese hissed, frowning slightly. She hated being branded one. She just wanted to be normal, like everyone else. Hearing Oliver associate her and Bill with the living dead was just unnerving.

Oliver shook his heads. "As long as you have our blood, you are a vampire, whether you want it or not. We are the dominant, no matter how much human blood you have." And his gaze turned to Bill. "You're a vampire."

Bill gulped. "I really am?" He asked, his voice quaking with uncertainty. "But I don't have...I don't have those..." And he licked his canines. They were almost blunt, though sharper than most normal people. "Although I have better senses now."

"You're fairly new," Oliver reasoned. "Your teeth won't grow overnight." Analiese then blushed slightly, a trait that showed her human part of her. She realized her reasoning was quite incorrect. "And besides, you weren't born one. It would probably take a very long while."

"But I'll find that one way that you could be human again," Analiese promised, nodding at Bill. Bill bit his lip, wondering if it was this life he wanted, or his old one back. He did dearly miss Tom and everyone he once knew. "Promise."

* * *

"Right. I see. Thank you."

Karl looked at Fabian who was in the driver's seat. The two were across the hospital once again, and Fabian had just hung up his phone.

"What's your plan?" Karl asked, eagerly awaiting an answer from his senior. He crossed his arms, tapping his fingers on his arms.

Fabian narrowed his gaze at the dark and quiet street before him. "They're in Salzburg."