The Crypt: A Different Path by Salustra and Cathelin

A Different Path 1/ ?

"Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time..."
-William Shakespeare, the Merchant of Venice

Angelus says, "Well, if you're lonely, Dru, why don't you make yourself a playmate?"

Dru replies, wistfully. "I could. I could pick the wisest and bravest knight in all the land - and make him mine forever with a kiss."

Just then a crying William bumps into them, dropping his notebook. He bends down to pick it up then stumbles on. He shouts, "You - watch where you're going!"

Darla looks after William. "Or you could just take the first drooling idiot that comes along."

Angelus laughs. "You think she'll find a good one?"

They walk on, but Dru keeps looking after William. Darla says, "I found you."

William is sitting on a bale of hay and finishing the job of destroying his poetry. He looks up at the sound of a woman's voice to find Drusilla standing serenely in the dark alley with him.

Drusilla says, "And I wonder... what possible catastrophe came crashing down from heaven and brought this dashing stranger to tears?"

William says, bitterly. "Nothing. I wish to be alone."

Drusilla says, "Oh, I see you. A man surrounded by fools who cannot see his strength, his vision, his glory." She pauses. "That and burning baby fish swimming all around your head."

William backs away from this strange woman, not sure what to make of her.

William says, nervously, "That's quite close enough. I've heard tales of London pickpockets. You'll not be getting my purse, I tell you. "

Drusilla smiles. "Don't need a purse." She points first at his head, then at his heart.
"Your wealth lies here... and here. In the spirit and... imagination. You walk in worlds the others can't begin to imagine."

Against his will, William is drawn to her words. "Oh, yes! I mean, no. I mean... mother's expecting me."

Drusilla slowly opens the collar of his shirt.

Drusilla keeps talking, softly and seductively, "I see what you want. Something glowing and glistening. Something... effulgent."

William is enraptured. She sees him, she understands him. "Effulgent." He repeats.

"Do you want it?" Drusilla asks,

"Oh yes!" He reaches out and touches her chest. "God yes."

She shifts into vamp face and sinks her fangs into his neck. His initial cry of pain turns into moans of pleasure as the force of the vampire bite overtakes him. Drusilla sucks his life greedily. She feeds him her own blood at the last gasp of death and he falls down dead.

Then, as he lies dead in the alleyway, she has a vision. A terrible rushing vision that leaves her shaken and gasping. She sees what William will become...what Angelus will make of him. What he will do to him, and with him. And how she will lose what little specialness she has left to Angelus. What bits of her human self remain and her demon both rebel. It *will not* come to pass. She will not allow it. It's too late to restore life, and she cannot, even for pity's sake, bring herself to unmake what she has made. So while this brief window of lucidity remains to her she sits down, grabbing the young man's pen and the last large bits of paper she can find and starts writing a note.

Then she gets him up and drags him, upright and arm over her shoulder as if he is a drunk, and finds the nearest inn. She takes a room and takes him up there and lays him upon the bed. She sits and waits for him to awaken, struggling for breath he no longer needs. She smiles at him. "You must listen, little William. This is very important. This note is your life and death now. You must read it and believe it. Do not ever speak to me again or come near me, no matter what I say to you. Nor anyone with me. My name is Drusilla."

"The woman in the alleyway!" He cries out. "Y-y-you bit me! Your face..."

Drusilla shifts into gameface. "Yes, like this." Then she shifts her face back. "Remember that. It's how you know the note is real, and not some fairy tale. I am leaving now, William. Never see me again."

Then moving quickly, before he can stop her, she is gone. He, still stunned and weak, pulls out the note she left and begins to read it.

"I am Drusilla, childe of Angelus, of the clan Aurelius. And now you are my childe. I have made you. These words mean nothing to you now but you will need to know them eventually. For now, I must teach you how to survive. I cannot take you with me as I should. Please forgive me. I should never have made you.

You are a vampire now. You will laugh, of course. It is ridiculous. But you are. Sunlight will burn you now, and crosses, and holy water. Wood through the heart will kill you, and fire. You possess great strength now, and the power to quickly heal damage. You will crave blood more than food, more than the finest wine. You are a demon now. Your heart no longer beats. You are a dead thing now, walking the earth, as I am. Some little of what you were may remain. Perhaps more than a little.

You do not have to kill, little William. I have powers to see the future and I see already you have the power of a Seducer. You can call on the power of your own lust to infect others with it, to make them crave you, surrender to you. You can drink enough from them to slake your thirst and let them live and they will not turn against you. With all that, you may still wish to fight and to kill. It is your choice. Your demon is very strong and you could one day grow to be very powerful indeed among our kind.

I have changed your path. If you had come with me it would have been to slavery and ruination and pain. I free you to walk your own path. Do not waste it."

William folds up the letter. Why, he is not exactly sure. It is all poppycock, of course. A vampire. Ridiculous. But that face...and the biting. It's too much to be believed. He checks his purse and all his money is still there. So she was not a pickpocket, then. He sees he is in the room of an inn and he gets up and his head swims.

He is weak with hunger. He fights his way downstairs, intent on finding something to eat. On the way he brushes past a man on the way to his room and he can hear the man's heartbeat and smell his blood, and he feels muscles on his face shift. By instinct, he grabs the frightened man and pulls him close, sinking his fangs into his neck and drinking the hot delicious-smelling blood before he is even aware of what he is doing. By then it is too late. He is starving and he drinks his fill. The blood tastes finer than any food he has ever eaten, any wine he has ever drunk. He cannot get enough of it. He feels the man's life ebb away and then drops him. He is both horrified and exultant at the same time. Part of him recoils in disgust and regret, but most of him glories in the power of the kill, the ability to take life. He moves away quickly, realizing he must be elsewhere by daybreak.

He cannot deny the truth of the letter now. He *is* a vampire. And everything else it said must be true also. He pushes out into the streets and realizes he has very little time, and he rushes...home. The only safe place he knows. He goes into his room and locks the door. He works to carefully cover the windows, taking great care to pull the heavy drapes closed so that no sun can get in, and then secluding himself inside the draped bed, a double layer of protection from the sun. He can feel it, like fire on his senses, when the sun rises, and then he lies down to sleep.

He feels it also, when the sun goes down. He awakens at the sensation. He is stronger tonight, and realizes that it must have been the blood he drank. The man he *killed*. He has to deal with that. Instinct or not. Until he figures out how to control himself and do this 'Seducer' thing, he'll probably kill. He sits and thinks a while, and decides to go down to the rougher sections of town. He'll seek out criminals-murderers, rapists, thieves. All of him agrees with this plan-- his...'demon', Drusilla had called it, and what was left of his moral sense. He rises and dresses.

He makes his way downstairs to where his mother is waiting.

"William, dear lad, where have you been all day? I knocked and knocked."

"Sorry, Mother. I was out very late. I'll be out late tonight as well."

Anne rises to go to her son. William can smell her. She smells like food. Rosewater and powder and food. He swallows and backs away, heading towards the door. "Must rush, Mother. Goodbye."

"Goodbye, son," she calls after him.

William shakes his head as he leaves. He vows to come back before dawn and take his things and not return. Leave Mother a note. He can't endanger her again. He may now be a monster but he doesn't have to be a monster to those who deserve better. It should be reserved for the wicked and the cruel... like... Cecily. Yes. When he has perfected his Seducer power he would have to pay a visit to Cecily. Maybe several visits. Make her beg for him. That thought warms him in the cold night as he hails a cab and then walks into one of the dodgy parts of London.

It takes almost no time before he sees a gang of brutes holding a young woman down and stripping off her clothes. He wades into them, eyes flashing gold, his demon visage exposed, and makes short work of them. Fighting skills he has never possessed come into play. He takes down three before the others flee. He sucks the fallen dry. For good measure, he takes the money and watches and jewelry from them as their corpses lay drained in the alleyway. The hapless victim cowers in a corner, mostly naked and shivering.

William's demon visage smoothes before he turns around and approaches the young woman. He grabs the discarded coat from one of the would-be rapists and brings it to cover her. She looks up, eyes full of a mixture of fear and gratitude. Despite himself, he is moved to lust after the lovely young woman. He speaks to her softly, his voice surprising even himself. It is not his usual voice, but one softer and deeper and full of sensuality. "You have nothing to fear from me. Your attackers have fled. What is your name, little one?"

"J-Jenny."

William strokes her cheek. He wishes he knew how this Seducer power worked because he'd love to take this sweet and tender creature someplace and bed her. The thought surprises him momentarily that he would think this of a woman he just saved from rape, but then he realizes his appetites are that of a demon now. Actually he's never bedded any woman before but he realizes he knows things he should not know--- gift of the demon, perhaps, like his fighting skills. In his reverie, he almost fails to notice she is leaning into his touch. A poem springs to mind and he recites it, looking deep into her eyes.

"Jenny kissed me when we met,
Jumping from the chair she sat in;
Time, you thief, who love to get
Sweets into your list, put that in:
Say I'm weary, say I'm sad,
Say that health and wealth have missed me,
Say I'm growing old, but add,
Jenny kissed me."

And to his great surprise, Jenny gets up on tiptoe and pulls her face down to his, kissing him at first chastely and tenderly, then increasingly more passionately. By the time the kiss is over she is swooning in his arms. She whispers to him, "I am yours."

He is shocked to realize that somehow he has accessed his power. But he does not question his good luck. He sweeps the young woman up into his arms and carries her to a part of town good enough for cabs to be present, and takes a horsecab to a reasonably reputable, but not too reputable, inn. He takes a room, ignoring the overcurious stare of the proprietor. The possessive and clingy hold the woman has on him is enough to assure the innkeeper that she is there voluntarily.

Once in the room, his hidden talents and knowledge come to the forefront again, and soon the woman is moaning and gasping and winding her hands in his hair. The woman is not virgin, and William realizes that perhaps she is a prostitute. That would explain her willingness to be ravished by a man she barely knows. So perhaps his power is not that strong, and certainly he still isn't sure how to access it. But still, the headiness of being able to bend someone to his will is almost as intoxicating as the sex itself and the blood he had drunk in the alleyway before. Full as he is, he doesn't hesitate to add a bit of this woman's blood to his stomach. He bites into her thigh, and the taste is nearly overwhelming. It is charged, like some powerful fortified brandy, and delicious beyond imagining. He holds himself to several swallows. Once he lifts his fangs she is still bleeding, and quite by instinct he begins to lick and notices the wounds start to close. A rumbling starts in his chest that for all the world sounds like purring. It startles him for a moment but the young woman only looks at him with an expression of delight. He settles in the bed and pulls her close, for the moment sated and happy.

It takes only a few moments before he is ready to take her again, and both of them are amazed. He doesn't question his ability though and soon she is crying out for him. He takes her again and again, glorying in his power, until she passes out from the sheer exertion and bliss of it all. He leaves her some of the money so she can get home and buy a new dress and arranges to have breakfast brought to her, leaving to go home and get his things.

He had been worried what he will do for money but now he knows. Take it from the scum whose life he takes. Already he has enough for a week's stay in a fine inn. In less than a day's time he has gone from being a weak mama's boy to a god, able to take life and ravish women effortlessly.

He pays the cabman and goes into the house, moving more quietly than he knew he could. He packs a trunk of his belongings, taking only the things that he most prizes, and then sits down with pen and paper to try to write a note to his mother. In the end, his words are a flagrant tissue of lies, designed to make her think he has run away to sea. It is the kindest thing he can think of to say. Being elderly and ill, she cannot easily leave the house to check. He leaves the note, easily hauling the trunk to the curb, and hails a cab to take him to a fine inn. He settles into his room, locking the shutters against the morning light, and pulling the curtains around the bed as he falls into a deep and dreamless sleep.

He awakens before sunset. He prowls around the room, washing and dressing. Finally he goes downstairs into the common room and orders a fine dinner, complete with wine. He starts to eat and is startled a bit when the food seems nearly tasteless. A side effect, apparently. The wine tastes better, but still not as good as it should. He shrugs to himself and eats and drinks anyway. It will not do to appear any more eccentric than he has to, so eating and drinking will keep up the illusion of normalcy.

The next few weeks are a blur of activity. He hunts, over and over, and becomes better at it. He discovers that evil people have a different taste to their blood, and up close a really evil person smells just a little bit different. It's a last minute test, because he practically has to have his nose on them to smell it, but it lets him know he has the right victim. Occasionally he comes across a woman and somehow he charms her. He's still not sure how it works, but it is oh-so-satisfying when it does.

Once he sees Drusilla in the distance. She is walking with two other people-an attractive blonde woman, dressed in finery, and a tall dark handsome man, attired in the height of fashion. The sight of the man arouses strange feelings in him that he cannot identify. He stares as long as he dares, memorizing that face, and then he ducks back in a building so they do not see him.

Then comes a night when he is prowling the waterfront, looking for a likely victim or three, and chances upon a ship disembarking. He stands in the shadows, watching the people pass. He has no desire to be seen. Suddenly one of the men, coming off alone with several trunks, looks over directly at William. He speaks a word to the coachman and then comes straight towards William. William turns to flee but the stranger moves even faster than he and pushes him against a wall.

The stranger is a handsome...almost even beautiful...man, with brownish hair and cobalt blue eyes. And as he touches William, William feels an odd tingling, stabbing sensation in his chest. The man nods as if he feels it too.

"Family," he says. "You're Aurelius line. But I do not know you. I am Penn the Engraver, childe of Angelus. Who are you?"

William flinches before his stare. This is another, and obviously much more powerful, vampire. But he is curious. And Drusilla never said in her note not to talk to Penn. Really, he has no choice in the matter. So he weighs and decides to tell the truth.

"I am William, childe of Drusilla."

"Drusilla? But she's still barely a fledge herself. You must be almost newly made? How long since she made you?"

"Three weeks."

"And you're hunting alone? You should still be watched by Drusilla, or even Angelus. Where are they?"

William shakes his head violently. "No. Can't see them. Drusilla said to never come near them."

Penn stares. "You present an interesting dilemma. I should take you and haul you straight to Angelus when I find him, but perhaps there is a good reason you were abandoned. Let us go someplace private and speak. Have you lodgings?"

"Yes, a room at an inn."

"As good as anything. I'll go there with you and take a room as well, and we can talk."

William nods and follows Penn meekly to the carriage. Soon they are at the inn and Penn has his trunks hauled to his own room while he follows William to his.

"So what is your story, little one?" Penn asks, staring at William with those incredible blue eyes.

And William tells him, the whole thing, from Cecily to waking up with the letter and draining his first victim to tonight. Penn listens to it all gravely and nods, not interrupting the torrent of words that pour from William. He stares at the letter afterwards, looking it over and over. Finally he sighs and settles back, staring at William.

"I still should take you straight to them. But Angelus puts a lot of stock in Drusilla's visions, so...I won't. I won't take you to them. I'll even go so far as to say nothing to them when I go to see them. You've done well, little William. Much better than an unprotected fledge should. You've definitely got the promise of the line in you. But you need protection, and someone to watch after you and teach you."

William bristles at this even as he acknowledges the likely truth in these words. He has been lucky, he sees now, not to encounter directly any vampires more powerful than himself. Penn could easily have killed him tonight. He ducks his head and then stares back at Penn. "And...who would do this? You?"

Penn looks back at William. He could see the lines of thought as clearly as if William had spoken them. Such a lovely and transparent youth. He moves forward and strokes William's cheek. "Yes. Me."

William feels an electric thrill at Penn's touch. It is much stronger than anything he has felt while with any of the women he has charmed, even in the middle of sex. He trembles. It reminds him, now, of what he felt while looking at the handsome man with Drusilla. Angelus. Maybe it was something to do with the family line. He clings to this thought even as some small part of him insists this is not the whole truth. He purrs and rubs back against the hand.

Penn strokes his other hand through William's hair. "Such a dear sweet creature you are. I can see why Drusilla couldn't destroy you." He bends down and kisses William on the lips, hungrily.

Part of William is shocked at this, and stiffens momentarily, but the warm heat spreading through him relaxes him. He lets himself go into the kiss, relenting, then actively kissing back, and finally moaning.

Penn pulls back finally, his other hand still stroking in William's honey-brown hair. "You have never been with another man, have you?"

William, unable to speak, just shakes his head.

"Then I will be gentle."

William swallows hard. This is a sin, part of him insists, but the demon in him hungers for the touch of this man...no, this *vampire*, who is family to him. So he does not resist when Penn takes him by the hand and leads him to the bed. He does not resist when Penn removes his clothing, kissing and licking and stroking on his naked body as it is revealed.

"My god," Penn breathes reverently. "You are beautiful. A work of art. Perfect. You must have better clothes, William. You hide this perfection in ill-fitting garments and the world has no idea the beauty you conceal. And we must pull back that hair so the world can see your face." He strokes William's cheekbones. "You are like some perfect alabaster statue made flesh. Angelus would have taken you from Drusilla. He would have made you his slave. That must have been what she saw. Ohhhhh. And a Seducer too. When you learn your power, you will be able to have the world at your feet."

William nods as he shivers and quivers and his body responds to the touches and words, and he hardens and aches. "Beautiful? But no one...I mean before..."

"Yes, but now the women climb willingly into your bed. It's not entirely the aura, William. You have the confidence you did not have before and your beauty shines out despite all your attempts to hide it." Penn keeps talking as he removes his own clothes. He is a handsome man himself, his body well-muscled and lean.

William notices this and becomes harder at the sight. Even the part of him that screams this is a sin has to concede that apparently he is perverse. He lusts for men as well as women. It is not entirely the demon that is fueling his lust now, and he knows it. He wants this. He rubs his hands down Penn's body with tentative and exploring touches.

"Ah, William, you of the woman-soft skin, have you any lanolin or other ointments about?" Penn asks.

William, confused by the question, nods and points to a jar over on the washing-table. Penn lifts up and brings back the ointment and applies some to his fingers. He takes one hand and lowers it between William's legs. "Spread your legs for me, young one."

William spreads his legs obediently, his lust pushing him hard. He moans and arches at the mix of pain and pleasure as the first finger penetrates him. Soon the finger is moving in and out, then another joining it. The whole time Penn whispers softly and reassuringly to him. William barely even registers the words, just the soft tone, and he relaxes as much as he is able.

Then Penn touches something deep inside him and William cries out and nearly comes off the bed. Pleasure beyond imagining. And Penn does it again and again, leaving William shaking and panting and trembling with desire and need.

"Are you ready for me to be inside you, William?" Penn asks in a hoarse whisper.

William swallows and makes the words come out. "Yes. Please."

Penn removes his fingers and soon William can feel a pressure on him, painful. He grits his teeth and holds on, and then there is a great release of pain and then Penn is inside him. And for a few moments, the pain overwhelms the pleasure. William finds though, that to his demon, even the pain is a little bit good. It carries him through until the pleasure begins to filter through and he starts moving back against Penn and moaning and whimpering.

They start moving together, Penn thrusting down into William, repeatedly hitting that sweet spot, and William pushing back for all he is worth. William is overwhelmed with sensations. He nearly goes over the edge when he feels Penn's slightly roughened hand reach between them and grasp his shaft, stroking up and down the length of it. It's only a very short while later when he does reach completion, spending on their stomachs, and Penn finishes not long behind.

Penn chuckles as they lie there, recovering. "Good thing you're not my Childe. I'd have to beat you for cumming without permission." William's surprise at this statement evidently shows in his face, as Penn laughs harder. "Don't worry. You're under my protection now but I will treat you like a brother, not a childe."

William chuckles then in relief. "I take it vampires are very strict on their children?"

Penn nods. "Yes. And I will have to teach you the rules. You have much to learn. Your Seducer power, for instance. I don't possess it myself but I understand the rudiments of how it works. Darla, Angelus' Sire, is a Seducer and she spoke about it often."

William perks up at this. "What are you, then?"

"A Warrior. Like Angelus. There are also Controllers, like Drusilla and The Master, Darla's Sire. They can cloud people's minds and make them see what they desire them to see."

William bristles a bit. "I can fight."

Penn chuckles again. "Yes. You are Aurelius. We are a Warrior line. All our line can fight. But you are also a Seducer. And that is your calling more than being a Warrior. I will school you in fighting so that you can hold your own with any lesser vampire, no matter how old. You will be a Master in your own right someday, and need to be able to do your own killing. Speaking of that, tell me why you were prowling about the docks and yet letting so many tasty meals pass you by."

"I feed only on criminals," William says.

Penn laughs. "A vampire with morals. Well, no matter. Fighting vermin who fight back is good warrior training. I have different methods of picking my prey but to each his own. Tomorrow we will find a proper place to live. Then we will start the training. But tonight we sleep like proper family." He slides off and moves behind William pulling him to him, spooning against him. "Like Angelus used to sleep with me." William purrs and settles back against Penn. This is oddly comforting and he quickly falls asleep.

The next night they meet with a real estate broker who apparently is used to doing deals in the evening over dinner. He takes them to a charming old house that both Penn and William like, and the deal is consummated that night. William is amazed that Penn has that sort of money to throw around.

Penn's eyes glow. "You will too, little one. I'll teach you. Your habit of going after criminals will prove useful to you yet."

They move their belongings into the already furnished house. Apparently a grisly murder had taken the lives of the previous owner, so the house was both inexpensive and well-appointed, as no one wished to buy the furnishings. There are three bedrooms but Penn moves them both into the master bedroom. "You'll be sleeping with me. If you have sports of another kind you can use one of the other rooms, but you will sleep in here." William sees no reason to argue. He had never, since he was a small boy, slept as well as he had last night in the arms of Penn.

Then they go hunting. Penn watches as William takes down a pair of robbers and then Penn swoops in and dispatches the victim that William just saved. William is both shocked and admiring all at once. He had already decided he could not judge Penn on his own moral standard. Vampires killed. William killed. And who they chose to kill was their own personal cross to bear. Then William robs the bodies of his kills, and Penn the body of his. They take a cab back to the house and Penn begins kissing and fondling William as they ride. William responds, highly aroused by the killing. It is a connection he had never quite made before, that the killing roused his lust as well. They go back into the house and make love again as the night before, only more rough and urgent, and then collapse into sleep.

The next night his warrior training begins. Penn instructs him and drills him and fights him and they sweat and clutch until they are too aroused to continue and have to grasp each other and stroke to completion. Then they hunt, and love, and sleep. Sometimes other things intrude, like getting William proper clothes and having his hair styled. It is a pattern that continues, only broken by the occasional night of Aurelius line history or vampire lore or instruction on his Seducer powers.

"The key, Darla told me," Penn says, "is to take your lust and push it out through your eyes, through your hands, through your voice. To focus it on the object of your intention so thoroughly that they feel there is no one else in all the world at that moment. Once they fall, they are yours for hours. You can use it on other vampires as well but depending on their age and strength it may last much less, maybe only minutes, or maybe only as long as you hold their gaze."

And then William practices on Penn. For hours and hours. And then it starts that he does it on and off during warrior training. Til eventually he is able to entrance Penn-- really, really entrance him.

"You're ready," Penn says. "Ready to take it into the real testing ground. We will procure an invitation to a salon and you will seduce some highborn lady who would never think of ruining her virtue before marriage. You do that and you can have any woman you choose...or any man, for that matter."

"Cecily," William whispers.

Penn grins. He has heard all about Cecily by now. "Yes. You can finally take your revenge on the vicious tart." Penn approves of William's desire to break and humble her. He thinks William thinks entirely too much about morality and a foray into the darkness of selfish vengeance will do him good.

It is a few nights later when they dress in their best and head out to the function to which Penn has somehow gotten an invitation. It is a gathering to hear music performed by some young gifted musicians, and the room is filled with a glittering array of wealthy and noble guests. William is instantly uncomfortable and unsure.

Penn looks over at him and then whispers in his ear. "They are all food. You could have any of them for dinner. You are so much more than they are. They should kiss your feet. You could reduce any of them to a groveling heap in less than a minute, so don't let them intimidate you."

This helps William and he walks with his now-usual confidence and regal bearing. He prowls through the room, looking for a likely candidate for his test. Penn sees this and chuckles. "No, dear boy, I will pick your test. Otherwise it is not much of a test." Penn scans the room and indicates a tender young thing dressed in blue. "Her. Barely past her coming out. Noble. I know her family. She is expected to marry well, and marry virgin. Perfect. Make her yours. And drink from her thigh after you take her. That way I will be able to taste her in your mouth and know you have done it."

William stalks over to her, with Penn beside him. He approaches slowly, scanning her delicate curves, even hidden as they are in her very proper gown. He can scent her, the sweet smell of innocence. It is intoxicating. His lust is rising already. He approaches her and bows properly, even as Penn introduces him. "Ah, Minerva Tollingsworth, let me introduce William Matthew Foster."

"Charmed, I'm sure," she says, holding out her hand, her tone bored. But her breath already begins to quicken by the time William finishes kissing her proffered hand and gazing into her eyes. It takes only a short while of small talk and gazing into her eyes and reciting a bit of poetry before she is moving with him out of the salon and into a deserted library. He gets her onto the couch and keeps talking, starting to touch her, on her arms, on her face. The more he talks, the more she surrenders herself to him, until eventually he has gotten under her skirts and is in her, taking her virginity, silencing her moans and cries with his lips. Then after, he slides down to lick her clean and to sink his teeth into her thigh.

He stalks, triumphant, back into the salon and Penn takes him out into the darkness of the garden where he can kiss him in a bower and taste the sweet taste of the deflowered virgin in his mouth. Penn smiles and strokes his hair. "You did it, my boy. You did it. I am so proud."

William purrs and rubs his head against Penn's hand. "And there was never a problem, never a hesitation, never a chance she might escape me. It was perfect. Just like you taught me."

Penn shakes his hand. "It was you. I gave you only the barest instruction. It's you that are perfect. When you are a Master you will have a city not only cowering, but trembling for you."

William's eyes shine. They sit for a while, talking, and then from inside the mansion the airs of a popular song drift across the lawn. William starts singing it. To his surprise, his voice is no longer the thin, uncertain one he used to possess but is full of body and grace.

"Young Peggy blooms our boniest lass,
Her blush is like the morning,
The rosy dawn, the springing grass,
With early gems adorning.
Her eyes outshine the radiant beams
That gild the passing shower,
And glitter o'er the crystal streams,
And cheer each fresh'ning flower..."

And at this Penn interrupts him, pulling him into a kiss. "Stop singing or you will entrance me right here. You are a siren now."

William's eyes light up in surprise. "I didn't even know I could do that. I... I was indifferent at best before. Mother had me take lessons but my voice was never that strong."

"Well it is now. You could make your living, singing like that. Charm the money right out of their pockets. If you ever needed an honest living...which, of course, you don't."

William nods. "So, back to the party?"

"Only long enough to make our excuses. We shall go home, change, and go hunting. Then," and Penn's eyes glow, "I want you to sing for me tonight."

The next night, William asks to start going again to the places that Cecily haunts. It is time to begin his plan for her downfall and his revenge.

He walks back in, dressed in the height of fashion, both he and Penn. They make a circuit of the room and eventually end up near the group of tossers that used to make fun of William's poetry. They have been asked to cards and several hands played before one of them even makes the connection that this is the same William they know. They are all exclaiming over the difference in him when Cecily walks by. She looks at him appraisingly and smiles with frank interest. William wishes her good day, bows, kisses he hands, and gazes into her eyes. She begins to pant. William lets go her hand and returns to the card game. She walks off, slightly miffed.

"I say, William my lad, ought you not go chase her down like you always do? At least today she shows interest."

"Thomas, we are playing cards. I *never* chase ladies while I am playing cards. I can be lucky in only one thing at once." William smiles as the others laugh at his remark.

Cecily passes by a few more times and William inclines his head in respect but pays her no more notice than that.

The next night he arrives again and he and Penn get drinks, lounging on one of the settees. Cecily comes by and he greets her again, kissing her hand. This time she sits down next to him without waiting to be asked and presses Penn into service to get her a drink, giving her a few moments alone with William.

"Why, Cecily," he drawls. "I thought I was beneath you. Whatever are you doing sitting so closely next to me. It's not even a proper distance. Your mother would be shocked."

"William," Cecily replies. "I spoke hastily. You were poorly dressed and behaved ridiculously then. Evidently your new patron has done you a world of good."

"Yes, he has." William smiles to himself...if only poor innocent Cecily knew how *much* good Penn had done him. "So suddenly I am no longer beneath you?"

"Oh, please, William, *do* forget I ever said that. I would really ever so much enjoy having your company now."

"Proper courting, then," William says. "Only I attend nothing during the days any longer. I am busy with lessons and business now."

"Of course," says Cecily, sounding disappointed as if she expected quite a different...and more intimate...response.

So begins a round of very proper and formal courting. Meeting at parties, attending suppers together, going to salons and dances. Each time he would turn on just enough of the aura just long enough to have her panting and needy by the end of the evening. He sends her lovely notes full of the poetry she despised and she treasures each one, having him read them aloud the next time she sees him. Finally, at a large ball, she manages to drag him off to an abandoned study and "convince" him to have his wicked way with her.

Then he stops calling on her. Stops attending parties. Stops sending her notes. When he does see her, he greets her coldly then makes an excuse to leave. The third time he does this she cries bitterly and throws herself at his feet. He picks her up and drags her outside.

"You harlot," he says. "No proper woman would do what you did. I can't have anything to do with such a jade. I have a reputation to consider. You are beneath me, woman." Then he walks off, leaving her crying.