The Adventures of Captain Peroxide and Deadboy
The Angel/Spike Zone of the BtVS Writer's Guild
Title: William's Choice
Author: Evil Willow
Plot partner: Crazy Evil Dru (crazyevildru@y...)
Series: "William" (This is story #10)
All Stories are either R or NC-17, for m/m and m/f smut and some violence. Dark fics, all of them.
Spoilers: More for the previous stories in the series than anything Joss has done, by this point. General spoilers for the very vague history he's given us of Angelus, Darla, William the Bloody and Drusilla.
Rating: R
Content/Warnings/Keywords: Hints of Angelus/Darla and of earlier activity between Aus/William.
Pairings: Angelus/Darla, hints of Will/Dru feelings
Disclaimer: The characters are not mine, though some of the plot ideas are. The characters and overall canon belongs to Joss Whedon, and whoever else he says owns them.
Summary: William didn't get far enough away. Now he's confronted with yet another difficult choice.
Author's Notes: This story is part of a series that is *my* take on the history of Angelus, Darla, William and Drusilla. You'll notice that I refuse to accept Joss' revisionist history that Dru is William the Bloody's sire. Otherwise I try to stick close to his canon.
Dedications: To CrazyEvilDru, of course. My beta and who I can always turn to for ideas/suggestion when I'm blocked on this series. Which has been often. To all of those who sent me feedback on this series and continue to do that. Your kind words have been a great encouragement!
Trapping William
One week later
William wandered down the street, looking for another victim. He’d already drained one girl and left her body in the alley. He needed to feed more. But he was smart enough to get some distance between himself and his last kill, first. He didn’t think anyone had seen him walking with her, but he wasn’t certain. All he knew was he didn’t intend to get himself caught. Not now that he was on his own and was the only one to keep himself alive.
He’d intended to get out of London, long ago, but he hadn’t. He wasn’t sure why. He just couldn’t bring himself to get on a train out of that city. He knew part of the reason was he felt guilty about leaving Drusilla, when she was so frail. He often wondered how she was doing, now. He worried about her, and wished he could take her away with him. *No good,* he reminded himself. *She’s too much to deal with, I couldn’t do it on my own.*
He was still hurting from the beating he’d gotten from Angelus, but he was healing. He’d discovered that demons truly *did* heal much faster than humans, at least. That was one advantage. He ignored the nagging thought in his head that insisted he’d been hurt more than physically by Angelus. *I *dont* care about him* he frowned. *Bastard doesn’t care about me, why would I care about him!* He never could seem to convince himself of his lack of feeling for his sire, however, so he usually just ignored the whole train of thought
He saw a young blonde woman walking into an alley nearby, and decided she was as good a victim as any other.
He followed her to the alley, but was confused when he didn’t see her there. "What the hell?" He frowned, moving farther into the darkness. He realized his mistake too late. He sensed the presence of another, right before he was slammed into the wall and pinned face-first against it. "Damn it all to hell! Leave me alone!" he howled, struggling against his attacker. He tried to fight even harder, once he realized who it was.
He was turned around roughly and Angelus grabbed him by the throat. "Well, well, well. Isn’t this a surprise, Darla?"
"It is, Darling," Darla agreed, walking closer.
William understood then that *she’d* been the blonde that he’d followed. *Bloody wonderful luck* he thought, completely aggravated with himself. *This is why I should’ve gotten the hell outta here, seven days ago.*
"You’re going to stake him, right?" Darla asked, pressing herself against Angelus’ back. "Do it, Angelus. Then we can finish our hunt."
"I haven’t decided *what* I’m going to do about him yet," Angelus replied. He stepped back but kept his hand around William’s throat. "Perhaps William has an idea?"
Darla rolled her eyes and moved away. "Well, I’M bored and hungry, so I’m hunting," she replied. She turned and stalked away, angrily.
William didn’t dare raise a hand against Angelus. He knew he’d lose any fight with the older vampire, who was much more powerful than he. He did try to pull that hand off his throat, however.
"You yell again, and I’ll rip your head off," Angelus growled.
"Not gonna yell," William croaked around the pressure on his vocal chords. He tried to press himself further into the wall, as far away as possible from his sire.
Angelus smiled, before releasing him and putting his hand on his boy’s cheek. "Good, that’s a start then. Well, William. You disobeyed me, and you tried to run away. What do you have to say for yourself?"
William didn’t reply, since he had absolutely no interest in debating this issue with Angelus. He tried to ignore the hand that caressed his face, though it made his skin crawl with revulsion. He felt something else, too that he shouldn’t have felt. A part of him craved the physical contact, wanted Angelus to hold him and tell him he'd forgiven him and he could come home. He was horrified at this realization and tried to resist those feelings. *NO! I don’t want anything to do with him!*
"Where’s Dru?" he asked, noticing she was conspicuously absent. *Good,* he thought, relaxing. *That’s a subject I can deal with.*
Angelus smiled, and the cruelty in his eyes made William realize he didn't want the answer to his question. "Drusilla’s in a state, Boy, and it’s all because of you. I had to chain her up." William growled and Angelus laughed. "Of course, you still want to protect her, don’t you?" he asked. "How noble," he continued, his voice silky and smooth but his eyes hard. "I think you’ve exposed a weakness, Will, My Boy," he smirked. "I don’t know why *I* didn’t notice it before. I suppose I thought punishing you would be enough to get you to submit. Obviously, I was mistaken. Perhaps because punishment, even *that* punishment, isn't all that new to you?"
William winced and looked away. Those were memories he had fought hard to forget.
"That’s what I thought. So you might hate me, but you’re not going to change your behavior in response to those forms of discipline. Am I right? Well, then... would you behave if Drusilla’s life depended on it?" Angelus wondered.
"What are you asking me?" William asked quietly. He tried to control his anger, though he knew *exactly* what Angelus was saying. The older vampire intended on using Drusilla against him.
"I think you know," Angelus said. "I have grown tired of Drusilla. Her visions don’t make her remotely worth the trouble she causes. But since she seems to be fond of you, I think you could manage her. So here’s the deal. Come back, accept your place in the family and take care of Drusilla. If you do that, I’ll consider the slate wiped clean between us and things will go back to the way they were before. If you don’t agree to return, I’ll stake you here and rest assured I'll do the same to Drusilla when I return to the house."
William looked away, to hide the relief he wasn't supposed to feel in response to being given a reason to return home. He tried to convince himself he didn’t want things to go ‘back to the way they were before.’ He didn’t *want* to be Angelus’ property anymore. "Why can’t you just let me out?" he asked, his voice a whisper.
"You are part of this family." Angelus replied firmly. "I made you. I *own* you. You exist only because *I* allow it. You know all these things, Will. You also should have known I wouldn’t let you leave just because you wanted to do so."
William’s eyes darted to the street and he wondered how he’d managed to get himself cornered like this again. No way out. No choice that would be a good one. "Sire, please," he pleaded with Angelus, looking back at him.
Angelus shook his head. "There will be no more argument. Make your choice, William."
Will stared up at the dark sky above them, resisting the urge to cry. *Choice? What bloody choice? ‘Slate wiped clean’ my arse. How long will it be, before he forces himself on me again?*
"Tick tock, Will," Angelus broke into the younger man's thoughts.
"I’ll come home," William mumbled, looking down at his feet.
"Good choice," the older vampire smiled and put his arm around his childe’s shoulders. "Let’s go, then," he said. They walked out of the alley and soon blended in with the humans.
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