FicWad

At the sight of the gun, William closed his eyes and braced himself for the pain. When nothing happened after the gun went off, he opened his eyes to see the bullet sitting in mid-air, a few inches from his face where Sabine had managed to stop it. He looked at Pete to see him glaring at Sabine, despite the glares he was receiving from others. Although no one was sympathetic towards William, and their feelings for him hadn't changed, they had to admit that he was no longer a threat. William watched as Valencia reached out and clasped the bullet between two fingers, looking at it before she looked to Pete.

"The longer you stay here and try to murder my pet," Valencia spoke, her words icy, "the less time you have to gather your friends and put your efforts to saving them. Aren't their lives more important to you than a grudge of a few years?" She mused, her delicate brow lifting as a challenge to Pete.

Pete flexed the muscle in his clenched jaw as he stared at her, his anger reaching a dangerous level at her words. "Of course their lives are important to me!" He exclaimed as his hands balled into fists. "But even they would want him dead for everything he's put us through! Everything we've lost, or had to endure because of him!"

Valencia visibly stiffened as she eyed him during his outburst. "Young blood, do not dare raise your voice at me," she warned, even though it sounded more like a promise. "You have no place, or authority, to speak to me that way." She looked to William and rest her hand on his lower back after dropping the bullet to the ground. "I can assure you that while living under my roof William here will suffer greatly, for the rest of his life."

Pete gave a scornful scoff as he regarded her with disbelieving eyes. "Look at how you coddle the murderer," he said as he gestured at the two of them, "he'll never suffer around you."

Patrick, who had been fully listening to the conversation as everyone spoke, stepped forward and placed his hand on Pete's shoulder, gaining his boyfriend's attention. "Pete," his voice came out soft as he tried to make sure Pete didn't think he was publicly challenging him, "she's not saying she's going to make him suffer." Patrick looked at William. "Look at him Pete," he softly urged, not taking his eyes off of the pitiful thing that had lost it's outer shell of evil, "really look at him. He hates himself. He's going to have to live for the rest of eternity, or until a hunter brings him down, with the knowledge of what he's done during his time of freedom."

Pete had turned his eyes to William when Patrick had told him to do so, and as he listened to Patrick, as much as he hated to admit it, he realized that what the younger male was saying, was very true. William stared back at Pete, his eyes showing his shame and regret, and at the mention of his deeds, finally looked down as a lone tear rolled down his pale cheek.

"I can only hear what's not being spoken through telepathy, but just from reading his face, it's obvious he's suffering, even now." Patrick slowly stepped towards William, noticing that everyone, even William Beckett himself, tensed up at his actions. When he was only a foot or so away from the vampire, he looked into William's teary eyes. "I won't lie, William, I want you dead. That much is true. But if I let him kill you when you're not as you were before, and you're no longer a threat, it would make us no better than you on your cruelest day. I know that you know what you've done, and it's good to see that somewhere in you there is a heart, but I can't promise what will happen should you ever cross his path after today. Do you understand?"

William gave a small nod of his head and brought his hand up, lightly tapping his temple before motioning to Patrick's head, silently requesting permission to speak to him. He was grateful when Patrick nodded, even though he could tell he had done so reluctantly. "I understand what you're saying, and I understand your pain," he spoke in Patrick's mind, his sad, brown eyes staring at him. "Only a few of the horrible things I've done can be fixed, but as I told Peter, I wish to help fix as much as I can. If you find that there is something you need help with, simply get a hold of Mistress Rose and I'll see what I can do."

Patrick nodded and looked to Frank, who was more tense than anyone else since he knew the threat that the humans and vampires before them posed. He regarded Frank for a moment before he looked to William, who was watching him, before he turned to Valencia. "I'll see what I can do about making sure Pete doesn't try to stop you from taking him again, but I think it would be best if you allowed us to leave first," he suggested, "to make sure he Pete doesn't get tempted to follow you."

Valencia raised her eyes to Pete, who stood rigid with his friends, before turning her eyes back to Patrick. "I do believe that might be best," she finally said after a few moments of silence as she weighed his opinion.

"Actually, Valencia, I think they should stay here, all of them," Gabe said as he stepped forward, followed by Rayne. "The owner of the house is unceremoniously dumped on the floor in the foyer, and I'm sure that once he is fixed he will agree that until a new safe house is found for everyone that they should stay." He paused to look directly at the older vampire. "Tom's lover, Andrew, is also down there. I haven't told Pete yet, but he'll want to know. It would be best if he found his brother's body after you've taken William from here."

Valencia gave her new friend a nod and a smile. "You're right Gabriel, they should stay. I'm sure Tom would agree once he's been taken care of, seeing as they are part of the reason he'll be alive... Since William has informed me as to how Tom was killed I'll have to leave instructions with his medic on how to handle the healing."

"If it's alright with you, Lady Rose, I would be honored to escort the three of you back to your coven's home since you had to arrive without guards," Rayne said as she gave the vampire a respectful nod.

Valencia gave Rayne an appreciative smile before she shook her head. "Actually my dear I was going to see that Aubrey escorted me home," she said, and met the blue eyes of her old friend when she said his name. "He and I need to have a word with each other, and you need to stay to make sure you can help your friends reach their friends before the sun comes up."

Patrick went to Pete and slid his arm around his shoulders, looking at Gabe. "Can you please get us somewhere where we won't have to watch them go?"

[Author's Note: You know, you can all thank Sassy for this chapter since she gave a review and got me thinking about this chapter =) I actually have a small flow going right now, but this is the only thing I'm posting today. I hope you all like it and as always reviews are loved =)]