William Holloway

I'm a devil in disguise

Despite his initial hesitation, William didn't regret following her up the stairs to the loft of the warehouse. That very need to be near the woman he loved forcing him to follow her quite like a lost puppy. He was well aware of the changes that existed in the girl's demeanor now, just as he was sure that she was well aware of how different he was as well. But he was back now, didn't she understand? He was back and willing to be hers once more. Though, really, he had never stopped being hers. He had thought of her every single day that he had been away. It was her body that he ached for, her skin his fingertips longed to touch. But instead of that playful teasing that he had grown to expect from the young witch, his declaration that he hadn't willingly abandoned her was met with a cruel, humorless laugh. For a moment, William merely paused as he observed that icy demeanor of the woman he loved.

He couldn't blame her for being angry with him, not really. After all, until thirty seconds ago she must have thought that he had abandoned her entirely, not that he had been taken captive. But then again, she had seen the after effects of a hunter attacking him. She had been the one to patch up the Hunter's broken body after he'd had that long slice driven down his back. She, of all people, should have understood. But four years was a long time to learn to hate someone. William crossed the room then, plucking that bottle out of her fingers if only because he wanted to hold her hands. William didn't hesitate as the woman stiffened in his grasp. Vhalla had never been the most warm of creatures, after all. But he held onto her as he explained where he had been, as if the simple explanation would erase the past four years for them both. And perhaps in William's idealistic mind, it very well could. Besides, Sebastian had forgiven him entirely, hadn't he? Why shouldn't Vhalla?

William paused as he finished speaking, waiting patiently for the young woman in front of him to speak. He expected some anger from her, of course, but what he didn't expect was the way that her eyes narrowed as soon as he uttered those intimate feelings for her. It wasn't as if she'd never heard him say 'I love you' to her. William had been entirely willing to allow the woman into the depths of his heart and had so often worn his heart on his sleeve. The Englishman remained entirely still as he waited for her response, though he hardly expected the way that she so abruptly pulled away. The Duke reached out for her once more, his fingers catching the air as she moved away from him and darted across the room to lean against the table.

William stood then, though he didn't move forward to cross the room either. Instead, his eyes stayed steadfast on her as she took off the tattered leather jacket that she wore. She was beautiful, even despite the new scars that laced her skin. How he longed to touch them, to brush his fingertips and her lips across the cruel lines and to convince her that he loved her in spite of them. But he didn't speak those thoughts yet, instead he just watched the way she took another drink from the dark bottle, as if she needed to be inebriated to simply be in the same room with him. It broke his heart to see her like this. But that was nothing compared to the way his heart so shattered at the words that she spoke. William's lips parted slightly to protest when she continued. She'd stopped loving him? Stopped... thinking of him? How could she do that when he had spent every free moment of the last four years thinking of her?

"Vhalla," William started, though his mouth was far too dry for him to continue any further than that. His lips felt chapped then, as though all the moisture had been zapped out of him. "Vhalla you don't mean..." He started, though his words trailed off as he watched her drag that hand down her face, his body focused entirely on the words that she spoke. "I never thought you were weak," He protested, though that hardly gathered the reaction she expected. William had expected that he might get that very result, that she might be his once more. "Vhalla, I didn't leave you. I didn't stop thinking about you," He crossed the room again, coming to stand right in front of her. He didn't touch her this time, instead simply stared at the girl in front of him. "I know you're angry with me, but I don't... I refuse to believe that our feelings for each other are just gone."

That anger that existed in the man's stomach at the whole situation seemed to flash then. That anger that he'd been forced to leave in the first place combined with the anger at everything that he'd lost... William hardly thought about what he was doing as he reached forward, his hand encircling her wrists as he roughly pulled her forward and against his chest, entirely unwilling to let her go. "You of all people should understand. You should know what it's like to do things... to be forced to do things you don't want to do. You saw what that Hunter did to me that night. You knew they were after me. You knew everything, and you can't understand?" That madness that had gripped the man for the past few years so threatened to consume him then as he tightly held onto the girl, determined to make her understand.