They all went over to the van in the morning. They had one last thing or, in their case, two last people to take care of. William got the door open but kept his hand firmly on the handle.
"Don't get up," William ordered. His tone was firm and unyielding. "We're going to take you somewhere, so don't be surprised when the engine starts."
Ashe glanced at Houston, then at William, her eyebrow arched. "And may I ask you where to?"
"You may not." William's mouth twisted in a sneer, and he slammed the door shut, before turning to the others. "Well, Eleonora, Jackson, you'll have to ride with them, I'm afraid."
"Oh, it'll be fun." Jackson rubbed the palms of his hands together as he smiled.
"Mm-hmm, right," Eleonora said under her breath.
William put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a smile. "Make sure both Houston and Ashe come out of this in one piece and alive, will you?"
Eleonora looked away to flash a doubtful look at Jackson but nodded. "I will."
"Good."
William turned on his heel and made his way to the driver's seat. Trevor followed him. He shut the door, and Trevor did the same. They exchanged smiles, and William turned the key in the ignition.
The ride wasn't too long, and soon Trevor and William got out of the van.
"Get out," William ordered them as soon as he opened the door again.
They didn't try to argue, only got out and stayed quiet.
"You're both free to go now. Wherever you like," he said, and frowns appeared immediately on Houston's and Ashe's faces.
"What?" Ashe asked.
"You didn't do anything to harm us aside from following Miranda's orders. You didn't pay Griffin to capture us. It wasn't your idea to try chaining Trevor into a vampire. However, you, Houston, did the best you could to make it happen." Houston lowered his head and looked down at his feet. "You didn't try to initiate the shootings. You did nothing bad apart from choosing to follow Miranda and staying at her side, through thick and thin."
"She's our leader and friend. What were we supposed to do?" Houston asked with a frown.
"I don't know." William shrugged. "Find some common sense, you morons?" Trevor found the way they interacted funny, but he had to stifle the laugh that was forcing its way out. The moment was too serious. "Anyway, you're free to go. Be thankful for how merciful we are or whatever." They both seemed to be reluctant though, unable to tell if it was all right to run. "But wait. Not yet. You have silver chains around you. Don't you want us to remove them for you?"
Both Houston and Ashe nodded. Jackson already had his hands in gloves, so he gripped the chains and ripped them apart. It didn't seem like he'd put any effort at all into it.
"All right. Before you leave, remember you have enemies out there," William went on. "All your actions will have consequences from now on. All of them. If you do anything wrong, you have more than six people watching your backs and going after you. Understood? No more experiments that would put vampire genes into humans and make vampires out of them. The moment I find out about it, I will end one of you or both of you myself. Are we clear?" He crossed his arms and arched an eyebrow at them. Trevor liked to see him so decisive.
It was strange to see Ashe, who most of the time looked harsh and strong, now nod like she was afraid of William. Maybe they were. Or maybe it was Jackson and his maniac smile that scared them the most. Jackson was as unpredictable as Miranda, and they both seemed to know it quite well.
"Now go and don't make me see your ugly faces ever again," William said, turned on his heel, and put a hand to his eyes not to watch them disappear behind the distant trees as he walked off.
"What if they call the cops on us?" Eleonora asked. "There's a lot of incriminating evidence here, you know."
"Yes, I am aware of it, Elie. That's why we're getting out of here. That was Trevor's plan. You can thank him later."
Both Eleonora and Jackson shot confused looks in Trevor's way, so he decided to explain.
"I wanted us to celebrate William's birthday in a nice scenery," he explained. "Besides, it was—"
"It's your birthday today, William?" Eleonora demanded, speeding to catch up with him.
"Yes, it is. Indeed," he said shortly.
Eleonora raised a hand to her mouth and gasped. "How could I forget?"
"If it makes you feel any better, I forgot about it too, and I've been his buddy for about one hundred years now. So we kind of celebrated a hundred of them on the same day." Jackson appeared with his smile.
"It's not like we didn't miss it," William said with a shrug.
"Oh, Willy, we always did something. What are we planning to do now?" he asked, then wrapped his one arm around William and the other around Trevor. Trevor couldn't hide the grimace, as he felt like his ribs would break any minute. "Huh?"
"Ask Trevor. It was his idea," William told him.
"Someone's not in the mood, it seems." Jackson flicked a look at him.
"I'm not not in the mood," he lied quickly. Trevor could hear that from his tone. He then sighed. "But I don't know if letting Houston go was a good idea."
Jackson stopped, bringing them both to a halt with him.
"What'd you want to do with him?" he asked. "Don't tell me you'd lock him up in a cage or something."
"But what if he tries to find a way to make new vampires out of humans?" William asked. "It's not like new vampires don't pop up every now and then. The gene isn't dead. Obviously. We can't do anything about it. But making new vampires may cause some serious issues. What if people find out about the mutation, and it suddenly stops being just a myth? An old wives' tale?"
To everyone's shock, Jackson slapped William in the face without any hesitation.
"It won't happen," he said matter-of-factly.
William rubbed the place he'd been slapped, even if it didn't hurt. "How can you possibly know that?"
"Houston's scared shitless of us. He just won't. Besides, your logic doesn't work. What about Ashe? They shot Trevor and almost killed him." He pointed at the brunet, who suddenly felt self-conscious. "She shot Eleonora too. They shot me, though it was a miss. I didn't have a silver bullet up my head for years. Maybe I should try it? It'll make me feel something. Wanna try this with me?" His brows went up and down as he grinned at William's annoyed expression.
"You're unbelievable," William said, then rolled his eyes before walking away.
"That's why you love me!" Jackson shouted.
Trevor couldn't stop himself from glaring at him, and Jackson seemed to have seen his sideways look.
"Oh, don't worry, man." He turned to Trevor. "I don't mean it like this." Jackson gave a shrug and laughed. "We did hook up once, though."
Trevor's eyes popped in disbelief. "You did what?"
It only caused Jackson to laugh even more.
"William!" Trevor shouted and jogged after him.
"Chase him! But he'll tell you that's the truth anyway!" Jackson didn't seem like he could stop laughing. He laughed so much he reached for his stomach to grab it.
Trevor spoke as soon as he was at William's side. "Did you hook up with Jackson?"
William shot him a confused look, eyes wide. "What?"
"He told me you did."
William was frowning now, but there was no sharpness or unfriendliness in this. Then a smile appeared on his face. "Of course he did." He let out a chuckle. "And you're trying to tell me you're not jealous? Something doesn't add up here, Trevor."
Trevor gave a single laugh. "I'm not. I want you to answer."
"Yes, I did hook up with Jackson," he allowed. "Just once. It was years ago. That's it."
Trevor stopped. "'That's it'!?"
William did too. "Basically. What do you want me to say?"
"Maybe tell me why?"
William cleared his throat, visibly annoyed. "I was sad, devastated, and Jackson was—well, there. We did it. We didn't put much love into that. It was more about the act itself."
"And when did this happen?" he asked.
He couldn't suppress a chuckle. "I'm starting to think that you are in fact jealous, Trevor. All your denying starts to sound like a big lie. But the answer is: a few days after Gilbert's funeral."
Trevor's jaw dropped, and he gaped at him. "William! I didn't think you were capable of this."
"Of what?" He seemed clueless.
Trevor gestured at the vampire. "Of using sex to cope. I thought you weren't like this."
"Well, I am, then. Is that bad?" His brow went up.
"No, no. It's not, I guess. If you two were okay with this. It's different, not bad." He nodded more to himself than William, as if checking if he'd meant it. "But how was it?"
Both William's eyebrows shot up now. "Trevor," he groaned as he rolled his eyes.
Trevor couldn't help but laugh, and he laughed so hard he had to grasp his stomach. Maybe he did like to annoy William, but only sometimes.
"Let's better get out of here before they get a chance to call the police on us," he said, beckoning Trevor to follow.
William took the driver's seat, Trevor shotgun, and Eleonora and Jackson back seats. Trevor found a perfect location for the last day of their journey. They had to get stuff for this, though, so their first stop was the closest town, where they would buy supplies.
William stopped in the parking lot of a small shopping center. The biggest shop the city had, and Trevor stayed in the car with William as Eleonora and Jackson got out and headed for the shop.
"So it's almost over, isn't it?" he asked, breaking the silence. "For real now."
"Yes. It seems it is." He took his eyes off of the entrance to the shop and looked at Trevor. "Are you happy?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" He tilted his head with a smile, and William lifted his shoulder in a shrug. "I am, seriously. Can't wait. But I'm also glad we're going to celebrate both your birthday and our victory. I mean, I don't know if we should celebrate the victory part, you know. I don't know if it's fair for Daniel. But I do think we need to at least celebrate your birthday. And are you happy?" He smiled again.
William gave a smile of his own. "Uh-huh. I wished it didn't have to be like this though. I wouldn't have made you go through all this if I hadn't had to. You know that, right?"
Trevor raised a finger in protest. "I don't want us to talk about all the important stuff while they're away buying alcohol for us." He gave a gentle laugh. "It's not fair. And not the right place to do so."
"Do you think they'll sell it to them?" he asked with a laugh. Telling jokes already, huh?
"Well, I think they might sell to Eleonora. I mean, it's not like Jackson looks so young. How old is he? His body, I mean."
"Jackson underwent the mutation when he was about nineteen, so his body is nineteen. Younger than mine."
"Wait, how old is your body?"
"Twenty-one."
Trevor arched an eyebrow. "You haven't aged since then?"
"Not a day. Apart from my hair, nothing has changed."
"Wow, it sounds like... well, what if you didn't like your body? Are you locked in it forever?"
Willian gave a knowing nod. "I knew a couple vampires who didn't like their bodies. Jackson still kind of doesn't. I mean, he's hot, but you know." Trevor frowned, and William took it as a sign to explain. "He changes his aesthetics a lot. Most of them are edgy. His natural hair colour is brown, but he dyes it blonde. Also, he didn't have his piercings before. Funny thing is that he couldn't use stainless steel, so they had to figure out something else. His wound will never heal, so it's often bloody and oozing."
"Really interesting, William," he admitted sarcastically. "Thanks for sharing it with me. So, were you planning to have this Prince-Charming vibe all along?"
William laughed and shrugged, and looked long at Trevor before responding. "I don't know. Maybe? Or maybe I will go with something darker." William's smile widened at Trevor's interested expression. "You know, dark academia. Or something like that."
"I'm impressed!" he began. "I didn't think you'd have any idea about today's pop culture."
"Because I mostly don't. Clothes always were one of my interests, though."
Trevor smiled, and William did too. But then the blond bent forward in his seat.
"They're coming back," he said.
Eleonora and Jackson packed the items they'd bought into the trunk and got into the car.
"Do you have everything we've asked for?" Trevor asked as they buckled up.
"Yup," Eleonora said. "We're all good."
"Very well then, to the campsite we go," William said, then turned the key in ignition.
The ride wasn't long, though Trevor managed to nap during it. As soon as William killed the engine, he turned to sit sideways and gently shook Trevor awake. The brunet's first reaction was to swing his fist at William, so he had to dodge that, and Trevor didn't miss by much. His aim got much better.
"Sorry," he said, and shot him an apologetic smile, all shy and embarrassed.
"It's alright," William said, smiling as well. "It's not your fault. If it's anyone's, it's mine. You've gone through this because of me." He gently pushed a lock of Trevor's hair behind his ear.
"Oh, shut up." He rolled his eyes as he put his hand on William's face to push it toward the window, away from him. "You told me to stop blaming myself, and now you're blaming yourself? That's not a good example for me."
"You got me. I think I must stop in that case." When Trevor took his hand off, William looked back at him and shot him a sad smile. "Just kidding. I don't know if I ever will. But you don't blame me then?"
"I don't. Honestly? If you did stop Miranda beforehand, we would've never met, don't you think? I think it's better this way. I mean, I don't know if I'm lovesick or wearing those pink glasses people talk about. But I must admit, all this"—Trevor gestured at the car—"wasn't easy to take. Every day was a struggle, but we did it in the end, didn't we?"
"Certainly. We did it, love."
Trevor arched an eyebrow at him. "Love?"
"I didn't get a Trevie pass, did I? So I have to use love."
"But do I love you to be called love?"
"You do," he said, then leaned over the gearbox to Trevor. "You surely do. You just want to act all tough and strong."
"I—I... Well, fuck it. You can have this one. I do, William. I really do. I don't know if I'm the stupidest person in the world for loving you. But I do." He put a hand on William's face, his palm against his lips. "But it doesn't mean I have to kiss you yet. Your punishment isn't over yet."
William spoke with his mouth covered. "You gave me a punishment, and I haven't heard about it?"
"It was my mental note, not a worry of yours," he explained, and took his hand off.
"How long does this punishment last?"
"I don't know yet." He shrugged. "It all depends on how you do. So be on your best behaviour."
"Better hurry. Jackson is still around."
Trevor shot him a glare, while William got out of the car. "Bitch. You'd better not have meant it."
Surprisingly, William leaned back into the car, holding the door open for himself to fit through. "You know it was a joke, don't you? I didn't mean it. I would never." He placed a hand on his chest.
"Yeah, you would lose too much if you'd meant it." Trevor shot him a nonchalant smile and left the car himself.
Somehow, he knew William would never, ever do such a thing. His thing with Jackson happened after Gilbert's death. He was technically grieving, of course. But single! Trevor didn't even know if it had been William who had initiated it, as it could have as well been Jackson. He would have used William in his vulnerable time. Trevor had to shake his head to get this uncomfortable thought out of his mind, since he should slam the door shut and join the others.