Vanilla Lace

The darkened alleyways of an almost lifeless little quarter of Salzburg appeared intimidating to most, yet two nocturnal figures roamed the streets by weaving through the lesser-known routes.

It was silent, except for the slight throbbing coming from the clubs behind the brick-laden walls, whose graffiti-covered walls displayed anonymous street artists' talents. One could hear a cat rummaging the trashcans, scavaging hungrily, and a shriek escaped one of them when Karl kicked a can out of the way.

"We're getting nowhere," he grumbled, kicking at another empty can, aiming perfectly at the sign board hanging off a building wall, making the neon lights that illuminated it flicker.

Fabian ignored the other, being distracted by a distant squabble that was taking place at least a few more alleys down. He took a second glance further away as soon as he exited the present alley. Was it him, or was it really...?

"Matthias?" Karl exclaimed, a little too obvious for the elder's liking.

The silver-haired snarled at his companion, a hand balling into a fist. "And that's our Oliver," he scoffed, watching them walk and disappear further inwards, out of their view.

"I wonder what they're up to," Karl narrowed his gaze, walking straight up to the two other vampires right beside the leading Fabian.

Oliver growled at the younger vampire that he held in his tight grip. "Leave this place for Vienna. I'll tell them I found you there, that you helped me, and I'll have permission to bring you back! Let's just-for God's sake-get this over with, shall we?!"

Matthias narrowed his gaze. "Stop fucking following me, Oli," he spat, trying to shrug him off. "Can't a normal person have some time alone at a club?"

"I've got money," Oliver tempted, stalking the other. "I've got money, if that's what you want."

The younger vampire turned to Oliver. "What's the secret here? You want the rewards for yourself, don't you? To be glorified, am I right, Oliver? To show the people you caught those two little meddling kids who don't know the shit they're in. You want it all for—"

"Yes, yes!" Oliver groaned. "They're mine, and mine only. I want them for myself, to show Engel that I'm better than Fabian! I need those two younglings, really."

"And that's why you're even here at all. Like I was wondering," Matthias snorted, "what on Earth was someone like you doing here in the little streets or sleazy Salzburg? You were after them! I just knew it."

Oliver sighed, holding his forehead. "You are nuts," he mumbled under his breath. And then, he heard something. Someone. Two sets of footsteps. People were approaching. He could sense that they weren't human.

Matthias perked up, turning away from Oliver to see Fabian and Karl from a distance. "What the Hell are these two doing here?" He grumbled, glaring at the both of them, never forgetting what they did to him years back.

"Why else?" Fabian smiled at the vampire he helped put to exile. He came closer, finally face to face with the other two.

"They're not yours," Matthias growled, staring at Fabian.

"Neither are they yours," Karl reminded him.

"You know where they are," Fabian stated, his long, calloused fingers stroking the black cat that laid at waist level by a covered trash can.

Oliver's heart raced. He wondered if they had heard more than they should have. "They're not here anymore," he lied. At least, he thought he did. He had received no news of Analiese and Bill escaping to Berlin that night.

Matthias' hatred grew with every passing second, turning away to disappear from the scene when Fabian prevented his exit with a wave of the hand. Karl had reappeared in front of him, blocking his path.

"You're not going anywhere without telling me everything you know," Fabian demanded, going up to Matthias.

"Leave him alone, Fabian," Oliver gritted his teeth. He especially hated it when those two abused their authority like that, pushing others around. "You have no business here."

Fabian's icy blues froze whatever it laid its gaze upon, and Oliver felt himself being unusually intimidated. Fabian’s age and grace simply subdued him.

"Your father ordered me to bring Analiese and her little Bill Kaulitz back to him. Now, if you will, tell me how is it that I have no business here, when clearly, you know where they are?" The silver-haired vampire narrowed his gaze at Engel's beloved son.

The raven-haired vampire stared at Fabian, irked incredibly at the mere sight of him. He had to be holding tightly close his mental gate, not allowing his thoughts to flow out freely and endangering Bill and Analiese's whereabouts.

"Matthias," Fabian turned. "You. You tell me everything. Now."

Matthias glared at Fabian. "They're gone," he spat.

"What do you mean they're gone?" Karl took stepped closer, arms crossed, being as skeptical as usual.

"Tell me where they are," Fabian ordered.

The blond turned away. "I said, they're gone. They left this town—"

"Leave it to me, Fabian," Oliver interrupted, his voice firm and serious. "We'll find them and bring them back. Return to Nachtshatten and stay there and protect my father."

As if on cue, Fabian let out a sarcastic laughter, causing Karl to merely smile in harmony. "That's your job, the last time I checked, Oliver," he remarked snarkly. "This is clearly my mission and would you just tell me where they went—"

"They went to Hambu—"

"NO!" Oliver groaned, pushing a startled Matthias over. "Don't you DARE say!"

"Hamburg!" Matthias yelled. "We saw them a few hours—"

"NO!"

"—ago and they should be on their way there now on the train—"

Oliver lunged at the blonde-haired apostate-branded vampire, strangling him to zero volume.

“Get up, fools,” Fabian grunted, grabbing Oliver and pulling him off a choking Matthias.

“You Devil!” Matthias coughed, swinging his hand across Oliver’s face. A line of ruby red started to appear over the trail that Matthias’ unkempt fingernail left.

The vampire seethed, pulling back from Fabian’s rough grip and touched his cheek. He stared at his fingers and glared at Matthias.

“You don’t know what you’ve just done,” he gritted his teeth.

“Hamburg,” Fabian smirked. “Of all places, Hamburg. I was born there seven-hundred years back. What a tough time it was during the Great Famine.”

He looked thoughtfully at Oliver and smiled, shaking his head.

“Just go home, son,” he said. “We’ll get those two for you.”

Karl glared at the two vampires on the floor, and he looked around to make sure no one was nearby.

Oliver felt a part him him burn up. “They’re mine.”

“How can the future leader of our precious little clan be so stubborn?” The silver-haired advisor chortled.

“Wait until my father hears about this, you covetous, scheming glutton,” Oliver clenched his fists as he stood up.

Matthias glared at everyone around him, feeling very much redundant at that moment.

“Wait until your father hears that you’ve been soliciting with this iconoclast,” Fabian’s nose raised high up. “You know how much our beloved people repel him. If only they knew what the mighty Engel’s son is doing right now, trying to hide those two delinquents from us. Wouldn’t it be a lovely story?”

With that, they walked away, leaving a helpless Oliver alongside the disbelieving Matthias.

The two stared at each other in utter silence, the cats around them starting to hide away. Oliver sighed and anticipated his healing of his scar quickly.

Matthias forced himself up after what seemed like eternity, dusting the grime off his elbows and back.

“Hamburg?” Oliver questioned, staring sideways at the other as he fingered his minor facial wound.

Matthias smiled, pulling out an old handkerchief from his jacket pocket to pass to Oliver. “What a tough time it was during the great famine.”

* * *

Bill awoke during the wee hours of the morning, opening his eyes to barely see whatever that was around him. He immediately heard a heartbeat, and he glanced towards the end of the bed, at the edge, where Analiese was sitting.

The loose end of the bedsheet draped around her torso, under her arms, concealing the rest of her body.

He sighed softly to himself before pulling away from his comforter, crawling over to her from behind.

Analiese didn’t move, didn’t breathe. She could feel Bill hovering over her, and soon, warm hands snaked around her abdomen and she closed her eyes when Bill’s lips grazed her neck. She tilted her head to accommodate him.

“Can’t sleep?” He asked, letting his tongue piercing run over her skin, his arms pulling her tighter against him as he slipped his legs down either side of her, dangling off the bed.

She let out a soft, shaky breath. “I’m most awake at night,” she murmured in reply, succumbing to Bill’s butterfly kisses as she relapsed.

Bill’s face sported a creeping grin that Analiese could only picture in her mind. She felt his lips curl.

“Don’t you want to lie down with me?” He asked, hands running up to settle right below her breasts.

The vampire girl pushed his hands away so she could turn, ignoring the little erection she felt behind her. Her sea green eyes appeared dark and brooding in the dimness, barely illuminated by a faint moonbeam from outside, but Bill could see the beauty of her visionary orbs.

“I love you,” she whispered, rubbing his cheek with an almost cold hand. She could feel his strong jaw flexing under her touch, and she traced the contours lovingly, committing his structure to memory.

“I love you, too,” the other cooed into her embrace. She smiled.

There was silence for a while as they sat like that, facing each other as she sat in between his legs, her thighs wrapped loosely around his waist. Bill looked at Analiese again.

“You know,” he started, his tone soft and gentle, just like that of an angel’s. “It’s the first time I’ve done this in three years.”

Analiese looked up at him. “Really?” She asked.

“Really,” he said, assuring her further by rubbing her arms soothingly. “I don’t normally do this.”

“Then why did you do this?”

“Because I know you love me, and unconditionally,” he answered, his nose pressed against hers. “I can feel it, I can hear it.”

Analiese smiled, her eyes twinkling as they set his gaze upon hers. “I do,” she said.

“And something tells me that everything that happened, it was all meant to lead me to you,” Bill continued, his lips against hers so subtly. “From the first time I met you, I just knew you were different. And it turned out, you are. You’re really my fantasy come true, Ana.”

There was a little chuckle from the boy, and the female vampire rolled her eyes.

“Just too bad that this fantasy is after your life,” she said.

Bill pouted. “Love, don’t think that way. I can tell Tom to put the band on hiatus, and no one will ever know. We’ll just fade with time, be forgotten by everyone, my band shall disappear and I don’t care, as long as I’m with you.”

Analiese could feel her heart drop, struck by Bill’s beautiful words that simply struck a chord within her. Her pale fingers ran up her chest to rest at where her heart was caged, and she spoke, “You just don’t know what you do to me, Bill.”

“I do know,” he smiled. “Trust me.”

Bill placed his hand delicately at the back of her neck, and the other at the small of her back, and he pulled her in for the most adoring kiss.

* * *

It was late into the afternoon of that same day when Bill roamed the streets of Berlin with Analiese. They stopped by at a café where Analiese entered to buy something to eat while Bill waited outside.

He pulled out his phone and turned it on, wondering if Tom had left him messages. To his surprise, there was nothing except more get well soon messages. Bill winced and slipped the phone back into his pocket, not turning it off.

That early evening, the pair loitered around the outskirts of a sector of the big city, walking through a park with sausage wieners and sauerkraut in hand.

“Why do I feel like somebody’s watching me?” Bill asked, laughing it off as he pulled back the wrapper of the sausage and bun.

Analiese raised her eyebrows. “What?”

“I don’t know,” Bill shrugged. “Maybe Oliver’s here.”

“How come you feel things I don’t?” She laughed.

The next moment, Bill raised his gaze and it landed on the most familiar-looking person ever. Right from behind a car at the side of the road was this tall, slender figure that was weighed down by his clothing.

Analiese merely frowned at the sight of this one boy. No wonder Bill felt it, and she didn’t.

“Tom?” Bill’s eyes dilated as he stopped dead in his tracks.