Beauty of the Beast

Rain had been pouring down steadily all day and long into the night, allowing a thick cloud of London fog to descend on the predators of the night. It should have been a perfect night for a hunt, but weather kept the inhabitants of the city inside, and those that were out were barely worth a second look.
A failed hunt always left him with a bitter taste in his mouth, and a gnarled knot in his chest; not bloodhunger, but a deep, aggravated disappointment at the lack of a good kill. He told himself tomorrow would being the joy of slaughter as he pushed open the door to the parlor and stopped dead. There was a strange scent in the house: wet and almost animal-like... and not all together unpleasant as he felt it should be. The smell was sweet, like damp hay... Drusilla's twittering from the den caught is attention immediately. This wasn't her usual babbling to her dolls... this was an actual conversation, if a one way one...
The shivering mass in her lap was the source of the smell, no doubt about that. Straw clung to the thin, muck-stained body and tangled in the creature's long, loose hair. Drusilla beamed up at him madly as she stroked her fingers up and down the lean back.
"I found a pretty pet, daddy! I can keep him, can't I? He's so beautiful, and now a stray with no home of his own. Let me keep him. I'll take the best care of him."
"What gutter did you find that in, Dru?" It was difficult not to turn up his nose at the mess the boy was making of the floor... and his Childe. At the same time, he found his gaze sliding over the youthful curves and softness of the nude creature Drusilla cradled face down in her skirts.
"In a horrible cage, poor little pet. A bed of hay and surrounded by terrible children taunting and laughing. I could hear him calling me in his mind forever away. It's why I came for him. They won't laugh and poke anymore, bad little boys. No more fun and cakes for them, isn't that right, sweet one?"
The boy's head raised slightly from resting on his arm as fingers petted down his neck through his loose hair. Blue the color of the afternoon sky after a long summer rain stared up at him, the pupils not black, but the dark indigo of a moonless night. With a soft sound, the eyes rapidly vanished as the head was lowered again, the fall of stringy bangs draping over his forearm again.
"If you want to... keep him, why don't you give your pet a good grooming?"
"Of course, daddy...."


It gave him time to think; sending Drusilla to get the gutter rat she'd brought home cleaned up. No, not a typical urchin... He was filthy, but not like the sort of youth you normally scrape up off the East End... and that filth was on bare skin. That would have gotten him arrested an age ago. And what was it she'd said about a cage? Sweet mother, had she brokeno ano an asylum...? That might explain his state, his lack of speech. She brought home a boy even more insane than her.
But those eyes...


Bathed, dried, and groomed, it made a huge difference. Head down, he followed Drusilla into the sitting room, still nude, with a leggy stride that reminded the elder vampire of a greyhound or show horse. Angelus could now see the boy was very young, late teens perhaps by his form. The dishwater blonde and mouse brown hair that had been so tangled with hay had been lovingly brushed by Dru and left to hang in soft mid-back waves of honey gold shot through with streaks of chestnut and silver-white. The cut was ragged, and his Childe had done nothing to even it out, leaving the strange youth with an uneven butchery of his otherwise lovely hair. Likely all the layers of grime had been washed away to reveal a body of the palest cream, mottled here and there with the dark purples and yellows left from a cane or whip.
Angelus stood and strode oto tto the boy, examining him while Dru looked on excitedly. The youth shivered as he circled him making appraising sounds. Muscles tensed beneath his hands as he ran them up and down the boy's body, feeling his tone, surprisingly strong. The elder vampire inspected his Childe's new pet as if he were the racehorse or fine hunting dog he reminded him of. He allowed his hands to linger on well-muscled calves before sliding up almost hairless thighs to grip narrow hips. Smirking, his hands shifted, one sliding over the smooth, rounded curves of the boy's backside. This got a slightly stronger reaction; a muffled grunt escaped from the youth's throat, fingers curling slightly. He was powerless but to grin when the boy yelped as his cold hand slid between his legs, cupping him from behind and fondling his sac for a brief moment before sliding up again to rest on his rump.
"He seems healthy enough, Dru. I suppose you can keep him if you clean up after him..." Both vampires knew that meant 'Dispose of the body when you're done torturing him, and don't stain the rugs with blood.'
"Thank you daddy! You'll see... he'll be a good pet, won't you?" The younger vampire gently stroked her find's face, and was rewarded with a soft thrumming from his throat. Angelus smiled and slapped the boy hard on his posterior, making him yelp again, louder this time, followed by a soft growl that he ignored.
"Does ynew new pet have a name?"
"They call me William... sir..." The voice was soft and rich, the accent West End and the words clear and well measured, if extremely cautious. It caught Angelus by surprise, and he caught William's chin in his hand, forcing him to look up and into his eyes. He met those wild blue orbs again, and held tighter as the boy struggled to pull away. Failing that, Will tightly closed his eyes, unable or unwilling to meet Angelus' gaze. Another cold smirk crossed the vampire's face.
"So, it CAN talk. And who is it that calls you William, boy?"
"The first ones to keep me...."
"Keep you?" The expression on Angelus' face would have unnerved the boy to primal fear had his eyes been open to see it, "Explain...."
"The first ones to own me... My mother was shot when I was still on milk... The man who killed her found me huddled in a patch of Sweet William... so that's what he called me."
"Poor pet... taken from his mummy. All alone, my pretty one, my Sweet William, no way to hear the moon call your name. But you called mine, and now the sky is lain bare for you again. Sky and land, yours..." Dru stroked her fingers through the blonde mane she'd just finished brushing, purring like a cat.


The entire rest of the night Angelus' attention was commanded by this.... William. For the most part the boy stayed close to Drusilla as possible, snuggling into her lap like a faithful dog as she cooed and coddled him, her newest doll. Angelus certainly wouldn't have lain there and allowed her to braid and unbraid his hair, tying black and violet ribbons in it.
The sole time his attention wavered was in turning away from the new housepet to regard a small, odd creaking of the bookcase in the corner. He saw Will at his side for a brief second out of the corner of his eye, then the boy was across the room in a bound, filling the space he'd been staring at. Angelus watched him crawl around with fingers and toes splayed, sniffing at the floorboards and investigating them, then he turned away from them with a soft snort of disgust before slinking back over to flop at Drusilla's side, eyes closed.
"Ancient trees, hewn and planed,
Standing yet standing no more
Give way to the weight of knowledge
And greedy yellow chisels
With the softest sound of pain."
This was the most the elder vampire had heard out of the boy all night... and despite the rich voice he spoke in, Angelus still wanted to lash out. Only a few short hours and he was already sounding like Drusilla... speaking in riddle and verse... Maybe the boy was crazy after all...
"And that means...?"
"Rat ate up the bottom bookshelf and it's breaking." The response was almost reluctant, spoken with a slight flare of nostrils and an audible intake of breath through them beforehand and after. Dru's fingers tangled in William's wavy hair and used it to draw him closer to her.
"Daddy doesn't like our songs. It makes butterflies in his head. Angry butterflies. Do you like bread?" Will's response was a soft murring as he pulled as much of himself into her lap as he could and closed his eyes in a light sleep.


Angelus couldn't understand why his most beautiful Childe failed to either kill the strange boy or turn him, or at the very least feed from him. That long neck remained entirely unmarked, though he often bared his throat to Drusilla submissively. There was a sweet naïveté to that display, one that made the elder vampire uncomfortable. In the past, his interest in males was in strength and sheer potential as a killer. William was strong in his youth, but he wasn't... brutal. In fact he seemed docile as a mouse... and that made him exceptionally, disturbingly attractive.
It was rare that this sort of rage was unprovoked. He crossed the room in half a stride and caught the still nude boy by the base of his hair, yanking him up from where he lay contentedly on the couch nuzzling in Dru's skirts. William let out a pained, surprised yowl as he was dragged to his feet, baring his teeth in a slight gape.
"Dru, put some clothes on your pet or I might be tempted to geld him... or worse."
I've nothing that fits him, daddy..." Dru purred, resting her face against the hip of the squirming, now snarling boy, "I think he's prettier this way... Pink and warm... soft, just like when he's white as snow...."
The final straw of it all was a combination of Drusilla's nonsense and William's wild clawing and growling. Hard, sharp nails dug into his skin through his shirt, and prompted Angelus to give the boy an extremely hard shake, drowning him out with a loud snarl of his own, locking vampiric eyes with him. A small sound escaped from William's lips as he ceased to growl, then looked away quickly, panting hard. His scent was strong and sweet to the demon, tinged with fear and submission.
He dropped the boy back into his Childe's lap and turned towards the door, needing to feed but on something... different from the morsel in Drusilla's lap.
"Decide what to do with him by the time I return..." It was a threatening tone, one the girl knew well, and she closed her arms around William, drawing the slightly shaking boy close to her.
"He's my pet, and I'll take care of him. The best care, for there's not another like him anywhere in Europe. My lovely, snowy pet...."
The demon railed at the mad affection the girl favored the streetrat. It was pleased, at the least, at the look of submission in William's bright eyes.


The taste of barmaid in his mouth was amplified by the strong smell of blood and fear in the house. The scent trail was easy to follow, and he smirked as it lead to the kitchen, the sounds of muffled screams and groans of pain echoing from behind the closed door. He expected his Childe was finally minding her pet as she should, and as he pushed the door open with intent on praising her, the words fell silent from his lips.
No words came to him for what he saw.
Drusilla held the gagged head of a nude young man, his fine suit piled beside her. She smiled, stroking his well-trimmed beard, looking from him to Angelus to William. Her pet was crouched at the side of the man, feeding on the soft meat of his thigh, keeping his legs pinned with long-clawed hands.
"See, daddy? I'm taking care of my pretty pet. oundound clothes and food for him in one package. He was so hungry..."
William readjusted himself on his haunches and looked up at Angelus with a bloodstained face that made the master vampire take in an unneeded breath of shock. It was a game face, but not a vampiric one. William ran his long tongue over fangs far larger than a vampire's set top and bottom in his mouth. He growled softly, leaning his head back slightly to sniff at Angelus, then cocking it. His blood-dampened nose twitched as he breathed in and out, cleft upper lip lifting slightly, revealing his fierce teeth to the gums. The ivory triangles of his ears lifted and strained forward from his crimson-soaked mop of hair, then flicked back to their normal angle.
Leaning down, William ripped a large chunk of flesh from the human's calf, ignoring his wet scream of pain, and padded over to his new alpha. The soft fringes of hair around his wrists were matted down with blood, more streaking the short, mouse-soft fur that the vampire could now see coated the boy's entire body. He dropped the piece of meat at Angelus' feet and sat back on his haunches again, his long white tail swishing.
White as snow.
"A gift to you from my dear William. See how much he likes you? He knows you're his master as I'm his mistress."
Too much sense. It suddenly made too much sense. Mother shot and killed... found huddling in a patch of flowers... kept in a cage as a pet... laying in Dru's lap like a spoiled Pomeranian.... Angelus started to laugh, causing William's ears to rise again, then lay flat against his skull, a soft whimper of curiosity and worry escaping his throat.
A werewolf.
Dru had caught herself a lovely white werewolf.
Angelus lunged for him, then, and William reflexively turned to avoid the snare. The boy barked as strong fingers closed around his snowy plume, bringing him up short and sending a bolt of pain up his spine. He came crashing to the ground, claws unable to get decent purchase on the blood-slick tiles. William found himself flipped onto his back and staring up at Angelus, who held his offering in one hand, letting the blood drizzle over the wolfboy's exposed stomach and chest. Unsure of what else to do, how to react, the wolf overran the human, and he drew his hands up to his chest and craned his head back, eyes closed, exposing as much of his white throat as he could. He felt blood trickle down his collar bones, but didn't look up until Angelus grasped him by a handful of sticky hair.
The vampire was glowering at his Childe, fingers tightening in William's wet hair. The mangled young man bleeding out on the floor behind them was forgotten in the sudden high energy in the room; the demon within Angelus wanting to tear his prettiest's throat out, then gut her little pet and use his pelt for a hearthrug.
"When? When were you intending on telling me what he was?" He shook the wolf hard, then shifted his grip to his throat, cutting off half his airway. William let out a choked gasp and whine, but didn't move otherwise. He knew instinctively one twitch could send the vampire into a rage that would end his life. These creatures were new to him, but he knew the smell of threatened dominance by instinct, and that the only fear he could scent in the room was from their meal and himself.
"I could smell it, couldn't you? That my pretty wasn't just a human in a cage like the others have been. Just pretending to be wolves, or raised by wolves. My William really IS a wolf, a beautiful wolf. White like an angel. A fallen angel..." Dru crawled over and rested one hand on Angelus' shoulder while stroking up and down the lupine's chest with her other, "My beautiful angels... My deadly, lovely Angelus, and my sweet, bloody William..." In response to her pets, William again closed his eyes, tail swaying slightly at the tip, sensing perhaps his she-alpha had calmed or distracted his alpha male enough to keep him from ripping is throat out, "Bloody William... William the Bloody... Yes... That's your new name, I think. We'll have to have a collar for you with that on there. In shining red letters. And think, my dark angel..." she purred, resting her head against her sire's shoulder "...who else of our kind can say they have anything like him? We'll train him to be the fiercest beast, and he'll hunt the Slayer for us. He'll keep us safe." William sighed as Angelus let go of his throat, but kept his head leaned back in submissive display.
"I'm capable of standing against a Slayer without the help of this-" Angelus couldn't think of the right words to apply to the subjugated beast on the floor, "Keep him if you like, but keep him on a short leash. If he brings the Slayer down on us, I'll kill him myself after her. And I'll take my time." He stood and stepped back, regarding William, turning thoughts over in his head. The werewolf cracked an eye at the prolonged silence, peering up at him cautiously with a slit of blue. "Get up." William moved slowly, unsure, and Angelus aimed a kick that caught the boy in the side, making him yelp, then scramble to all fours, crouched and looking up at him with confusion, mind still more wolf than human, "Get up. Finish eating and dispose of the remains. Then clean yourself, put something on, and come find me. We have things to discuss."
Perhaps Drusilla had the right idea, perhaps not, but Angelus would find out through means all his own, one way or another, if William the Bloody was truly worth being a companion to the Scourge of Europe. And that thought made him and the demon within smile.


Williams looked much more human in the suit, which fit him well. It affected his demeanor as well, Angelus noticed. The boy sat up in the chair across from the master vampire, hair pulled back in a neat ponytail. Taloned paws were now slender hands clasped tightly in his lap. He still held air of nervousness, straining to maintain a semblance of dignity and bearing; clearly unused to clothes, but not unfamiliar with them, he kept shrugging and turning his head against the starched collar. Angelus smirked.
"Never wear a suit before, wolf?"
"Not in many years, sir.... Not since..." the words were so soft and full of hesitant sadness that it made the demon within laugh.
"Since?"
"Since I was a cub, living with Lady Rosaline and Lord Barrow."
"And who were they?"
"Lord Barrow is the man who shot m mother and found me. Never did figure out what my mother was doing in England in this time and age. Said wolves have been extinct for centuries. He saw my white coat, though, and how young I was and thought I might be keepable. Showed some pity on me. He took me home and put me in a kennel with his hunting dogs, for one of the she-hounds to raise. His wife-"
"Lady Rosaline."
"Yes. She fell in love with me. She had other dogs, little lap dogs, but I became her pet. She raised me, carried me around everywhere with her while I was small. Most of my early memories are laying in her lap and sucking on a bottle because I was too small to eat meat."
"How sweet, feeding the orphaned puppy. You must have been so cute." Angelus purred, then scowled as William gave him a little smile in response to his taunting words. Sarcasm was lost on the wolf, who just took the comment at face value, as a question. Dumb beast was listening to his tone more than his words. This turned the demon's mood quickly as he realized it was a new thing to instruct the creature in, one that should prove quite amusing.
"She told me often how cute I was, so yes. I suppose I was." Another shy smile passed over the boy's face before he continued his narrative. "When I was weaned, by that time I was truly too large to carry around, she still kept me at her side, and I was happy to be there. I followed her everywhere, and I loved her as a cub would his own mother... I frightened her friends, though. Her best friend the Lady Cecily, demanded of her repeatedly I be taken out and shot, or given away and replaced with something more refined, like a greyhound. That it was beneath a woman of her station to go about cavorting with wild, vicious beasts. That I was beneath her and that the only place for a wolf in England was in a zoo... or dead. Certainly not in the company of the well off, or in the sight of their guests. Lady Rosaline just casually brushed the comments off and I remained ever her closest companion and guard.
"She was very sick, though. I was at her side more than her husband; sleeping on the foot of the bed or next to her during the worst of the fits. The servants would have to bring me food as they brought her. I'd lay with my head in her lap and she'd read to me. Stories and poems. Especially poetry. She loved-"
"That's nice, William, but so far your little tale has NOTHING to do with clothes, unless she enjoyed playing dressup with her favorite dog." Angelus tented his fingers in annoyance, and saw the boy shrink slightly with an emotion playing on his face he couldn't even begin to find words for, so lupine it was.
"I-I was getting to that..." he stammered, tightening his fingers around each other in his lap, gaze lowering, "She was sick, as I said, and never had any children. She'd stroke my fur and tell me how much she always wanted a child to raise. That I'd been the closest thing to a son she'd ever had, possibly ever have. I'd long since learned English, at least to understand it, not speak it. I understood she wanted a cub like herself. Furless. One morning I woke up and, I was. When she woke and found a little boy at her side instead of her beloved pet, she was frightened and startled, as I was, but... She asked me if I was a gift of God, or was her friend right and I was a little demon. The only answer I could give was a little nuzzle of her hand, as I always did when she first woke.
"I was her secret, human only for her, and none else, not even her husband. She taught me to read, write... speak properly over the years. She had clothes she'd bought in the days of her health, when she was able to travel, and dressed me in those. Things she'd seen and gone 'When I have a son some day, he'll fancy this.' Or 'He'll look so fine and handsome in this!' and I suppose I did by her doting gaze."
"So you learned to control your shape for her, did you, boy?"
"Yes... yes, I learned to... wish myself into one form or another. She made the choice to keep me as a secret. To keep me safe, I imagine. She was my mother, after all..."
"Then how do you find yourself here, boy?"
"I-I told you she was sick... One morning I woke up beside her... her... she was weak... could barely move. Just enough to... one hand stroked my face, through the fur... 'Let me see my beautiful son, one last time...' she asked, and I changed for her, panic growing in my chest. She smiled and quieted my whimpers, petting my hair, telling me it would all be okay, and that she had been blessed by God to have been given me. S-She asked me to keep her warm... she w-was cold, and... I changed back... lay down a-as c-close as I could, taking in her s-smell..." Angelus pursed his lips as William's voice began to waver and crack. The well-kept pet would have to be broken of some of his gentleness. "S-she breathed... b-breathed out heavily a-after a s-short wh-while, like a-a sigh, and she w-was... was..."
It was a puzzlement that this crying, softly-whimpering cub was the same boy who'd been feasting on the flesh of a young man not two hours ago. The contrast was a stunning perplexity, and yet this was a werewolf... or a wolf-were, as the boy admitted to having been born a wolf. Which side was the wolf and which the man, he wondered.
"After she was gone... Lord Barrow kept me for a while; I reminded him a great deal of her, but... after a year or two, he and Lady Cecily...she demanded he get rid of me. He tried to sell me and give me away, privately, but no one wanted a wolf, white or no, unless it was just my pelt. The zoo rejected me as well. She refused to marry him unless I was disposed of, so... he sold me to a traveling show.
"They promised to treat me well, as my lady had. Liars. Bloody liars..." for the first time Angelus heard anger rise in the boy's throat a he spoke, lending a rumble to his tone, a roll to his R's. "They threw me in a small cage full of damp straw that they changed only if they felt like it. My water was filthy and my food... I went from venison and pheasant to rotting shanks of gristle beef. They threw rocks and eggs and all manner of foul substances at me, staining my fur. One, a small-man, would often stand just close enough to the bars to throw well, but out of reach of my jaws. I became so enraged then that I changed into... the way I was earlier, and reached through the bars... I was trying to pull him through when the others stopped me. Nearly killed him, wish I had.
"When they found out what I was, things changed. They stared viewing me as 'The Wolfboy' and there I learned to control my third shape. I'd speak to my keepers in perfect English, but they never acknowledged me. Only when I was acting the fierce, snarling beast because I couldn't take the abandonment and imprisonment anymore... Years of that... then she came and now... I'm here."
Did the boy know, Angelus wondered, how much he was giving away? His fears and displeasures? What could be used to break him, or build him up only to topple him again? That every world was a clue to the vampire on how to train his new pet? Rising from his seat, he came to stand before William, whose eyes were locked on the floor, staring at the pattern on the carpet. Demon forced animal to look up at him, holding his face, his gaze locked, burning yellow staring deep into arctic blue. Angelus gently ran his thumb across the plane of the boy's sculpted cheekbone, feeling the wetness from crying on that soft skin and thought that soon he would be the cause of the boy's tears. He smiled, showing no teeth, no aggression.
"Had you tasted human flesh before this night?" A slow shake of the head despite his grip, "A new thing for you then, William. And what did you think of it?"
"It was... very different. Not as good as venison, but better than pork, sir. Although I was rather too hungry to care much what I was eating." Angelus almost laughed at this critique given as if he were at a restaurant.
"You'll learn to enjoy it, my boy. When it's steeped with fear and pain and last hope of life after many days of preparation. The blood is sweet as wine, then, and I imagine the meat will be the most flavorful you've ever had. It felt good to prey on the ones who'd caged you, didn't it?"
"His kind at least, yes..." The boy read Angelus' expression as a prod to explain further "Cultured and haughty; they were the type who'd laugh at my lady's stories and poems as women's follies and a fool's waste of time. Only thing that mattered to them was the pound, and they regarded my lady's library of verse as an immense waste of it." A derisive snort and slight arch of the back accompanied his returned disdain, "She was a fine poet, and I always wanted to bite them for their words. They were the Lord's friends, however, and I knew my lady would be heartbroken if I had to be shot for harming one of them."
"Those days are over, child. Your new Master and Mistress will take care of you, and show you your real potential. You'll learn to hunt those upright sheep just as we do, to catch and kill. You do want that, the hunt? We'll teach you everything you need to know, and you'll show them what happens when the wolves return to London, won't you? You'll show all of Europe. Pay them back for the slaughter of your kind, for wiping them out across the continent. Remind them why wolves should be respected as well as feared."
William's eyes glowed blue-white for a moment as he smiled ear to ear at the thought of rampaging through the freak show and slaughtering all those who'd made his life a living hell for all those years. Of going back and ripping the harsh laughter from the throats of the men who'd made his lady cry with their ridicule of her sweet poem about her favorite pet. Of pulling the flesh from Lady Cecily's bones as he screamed at her who was beneath whom now? And wasn't it beneath a lady to seduce her best friend's husband less than a year after she's died? Marry him less than two years later?
He wanted to see the light of pleasure and delight in his new lady's eyes and in the eyes of his new lord... mistress and master... alphas. To avenge his kind, and his lady's tears. Drusilla's fingers through his hair and fur felt so much like Rosaline's... her soft words, kind words... Just like the past. His lost past returned. Yes, this was a good pack, the right pack. He'd no longer have to fight his need to hunt and it made his heart beat faster. He thought he could also get very used to the strong hands stroking over his face and hair. Purring like a contented cat and butting his head against Angelus' palms, William decided that yes, he was ready to learn and taste the blood of all Europe on his lips.

*****************

Trees have dropped their leaves,
Clouds their waters
All this burden is killing me

Distance is covering your way,
Tears your memory
All this beauty is killing me

Oh, do you care,
I still feel for you
So aware,
What should be lost is there

I fear I will never find anyone
I know my greatest pain is yet to come
Will we find each other in the dark
My long lost love
-Nightwish "Beauty of the Beast: Long Lost Love"