Suzie moved over to take a closer look at Willow, her mind still trying to dissolve into laughter or tears over Maleficent being put to sleep by a spell, or terrified by the amount of power that it had taken. Terrified by the fact that Willow had channeled power from somewhere to cause the spell to work. Wasn't there a law or rule that no mortal witch or wizard could control that much power? Not even the Dark Lord? How had she done that? How had she done any of her spells without a wand?

Willow's breathing was shallow but steady. Her skin was pale and beaded with cold sweat, making her feel clammy and causing the smoke and dust in the air to settle onto her. The American Witch was entirely unconventional, but she might be good for Charlie. Her pulse was strong, and there didn't seem to be any serious injuries on her. Just the collapse after channeling a vast amount of magic.

"Charlie? Can you float William along with us? My wand... umm, Maleficent has it. I think I can carry Willow, but... we need to take William with us." She was feeling worried, especially since there was now nothing left to prevent the assorted frightening creatures from hurting her or Charlie.

He looked over at her, his face ash smudged. "I think he might need a hospital. And where do you think we can go anyhow?" Charlie glanced down at William, and shuddered. "Or maybe it's too late for him..."

"NO! We have to take him with us. And I can find Willow's house... we can go there. I just... I don't think we should stay here." She didn't want anything bad to have happened to William. He was handsome and interesting, and definitely a bit naughty, but it was the sort of naughty that she'd like to get to know better.

Charlie gave her a doubtful look, and then followed her nervous gaze to the various things lurking in the smoky shadows. "Time to go, right. I'll just levitate William, and you lead us to her place."

They made it with only a small amount of confusion, ending up in front of a two story house with an overgrown lawn and shaggy hedges. There didn't appear to be anyone home, so Charlie ended up whispering a worried 'Ahlohamora' to get them past the front door. There was still a dark and uncomfortable feeling to the night air, as if there was something lurking just beyond the light, something dark and hungry and dangerous.

She found a box of some plastic bags, and after layering those over the couch, she had Charlie place William there. She started trying to inspect him for his injuries while Charlie carried willow off, presumably to put her down on a bed where she could rest. There was a fireplace, but it was the sort that was small and essentially ornamental. Most definitely not something they'd want to use Floo-travel with, but certainly big enough to try to contact somebody. The interior had no signs of magic about, everything was muggle made. Solid, somewhat blandly solid furniture and blandly neutral decor that left an entirely impersonal feeling to the room. There were no photographs or paintings, no collected knicknacks or souvenirs. It didn't feel like this room was 'home' for anyone.

His ribcage was half collapsed, with various near points and unnatural angles declaring the ribs had been broken, most likely puncturing and slicing his lungs, causing them to fill with blood. His right collar bone and upper arm had been broken, possibly in several places, and his entire torso had an ugly purple black mottling to it, the color of deep, massive internal bruising. The force of the dragon's attack had to have caused some damage to his insides. His skin looked almost like pale ashes it was so pale.

For a moment, she wondered how he could breathe with all of those injuries. Then, she realized that he wasn't breathing. He didn't have a heartbeat either.

William was dead.

She didn't know what to do about that. He was handsome, and interesting, and she had been so certain that she could fall head over heels for him... She found herself sobbing, not terribly loud, but it felt as if she was choking on some horrible loss, the loss of potential. Her vision blurred away, and all she could do was cry, her tears falling onto his pale, still hand. A tiny part of her mind wondered if she should have packed a handkerchief for her trip.

"Tears, pet? Who are you crying over?" The words were barely more than a ragged whisper, but they were undeniable William's.

She looked up, and blinked furiously, trying to clear the tears from her eyes. It wasn't working, so she settled for a delighted but careful hug, amazed that he was speaking. "William?"

Something nagged at her as he wrapped one arm behind her, his face pressed against her shoulder. He hadn't been breathing, hadn't had a pulse. She pulled back, eyes clear enough to see, and looked at him. "William?"

His eyes were golden yellow, his brows a bit heavier. The features of a vampire, even if he did still have bruises over him, including a very prominent one over his cheekbone. "You're... a vampire?" Suzie felt a thread of fear go through her. A vampire with his face pressed against her shoulder...

He gave a slow, very small nod, accompanied by a grimace of pain. "Yeah... bloody dragon... how much got broken?"

"You're... not dead? But a vampire... oh dear." She felt like her head was spinning. There had been so much that had happened so quickly...

"I was a vampire before, when we were chatting in the park. Doesn't make me a raving homicidal maniac. Suzie? Can you check the fridge, see if Willow has any blood in there for me?" His voice was low, and filled with pain.

"Blood? In the refrigerator? Umm... oh... I can go check..." She felt like she was fleeing the room.

She stopped in the middle of the oddly harsh looking kitchen, all gleaming porcelain and steel, harsh edges and sharp planes. There was no feeling of home here either, despite the gleaming copper kettles over the stove. She opened the refrigerator, looking inside with caution. There was a small bag of grapes, a few apples, some cheese and something pale blue in a glass jar on one side, and a few pale containers with something dark red inside sitting on the larger open area. Those had to be the blood for William. Her hands were shaking as she reached inside, picking up a pair of containers, wondering what had bled for them, and where and how before the unwelcome shivers told her that there was only fear and confusion that way.

"William? Will... I wasn't certain how much, so I brought you two of them. Are they too cold?" She wasn't certain if she wanted the answers even as she asked, a small corner of her mind wondering why Willow had blood in her home, and why her seeking had brought them here when nothing so far made this feel like anyone's home.

"Two's good... for now anyhow. And at the moment I think having it now's better than trying to warm it up." He reached with one hand, attempting to sit up, and his face got even paler and there was a low growl as he settled back on the couch. "Bloody hell that hurts..."

"You've got broken bones! You can't just sit up like that!" She found herself at his side in an instant, on hand resting on his stomach, the other brushing over his forehead. Where were the containers of blood? The small table... "You need to heal some first. Here, let me help you drink this..."

He swallowed the blood, his eyes still golden and resting on Suzie. Finishing, he licked his lips, the movement almost sensual, which was a bit disturbing. "Maybe I do need to heal some before I go trying to be active. Going to nurse me back to health?"

Something fluttered in her middle as she watched his features shift back to the handsome face from earlier, the bruise on his cheekbone already fading. "I think I just might..."

end part 9.

Charlie carried Willow to what had to be the only room in the whole building that felt like it had really ever been lived in. There was a soft bed with a multi colored green, blue and golden quilt and some stuffed animals. The walls showed signs of having held posters, carefully removed but not replaced. A small terrarium sat near a window, and there were shelves full of an odd assortment of books, some clearly bought for pleasure, and others school books, ranging from Algebra to History to Demonology and Herb lore. He settled Willow on the bed, carefully removing her shoes.

A quick trip to the bathroom gave him a washcloth, and he found himself momentarily baffled by the wholly muggle plumbing. Shaking his head, he returned to her room, where he carefully wiped the ashes and dust from her skin. She looked so pale, and a lot more fragile when her intense personality wasn't in effect.

She was pretty, with features that looked almost delicate. Nothing in her appearance hinted at her power. Not only had she been using magic without a wand, but there was that whole curse that put Maleficent to sleep... She had been floating, hair turning into red black shadow over her, blowing in an unfelt wind and her eyes pits of blackness that had given him this unsettling feeling of falling into her...

Groaning slightly, Charlie realized that now, he had to figure out some way to get a very large sleeping dragon back to Romania. It most definitely wouldn't do to leave her there, but... How did you move that many tons of sleeping dragon? It wasn't like he could just crate her up and send her by parcel post.

It was quite easy to decide that he'd rather think about Willow, and how to gently break the news to her that her friend was dead. He couldn't have survived all of those injuries. But how to tell Willow that? He held one of her hands in his, thinking that she looked so fragile to have so much power, to have done so much. He still had no idea how she'd been casting without a wand.

Before long, Charlie fell asleep, ending up sort of curled over Willow, his head resting on her stomach, still carefully holding her hand in his.

He woke up slowly, everything stiff and aching, and this sort of dry feeling almost like a sunburn inside his head that told him he'd done a bit more magic than he should have. He was sort of hunched and slumped, his head resting on something soft and warm... something that moved gently. He blinked as he realized it was Willow's stomach that he had been using as a pillow. She still seemed asleep, although it looked more like a normal sleep now, and less... well, she'd looked bad last night. Maybe he should go down and check on Suzie... see how she was handling things.

The living room was dark, the sort of deep gloom that came from having absolutely no natural light at all. Suzie was curled up in a chair, and William... was still draped over the couch.

"You know you have a black eye, Weasley?" William's calm voice was an utter shock.

He felt himself gaping. Entirely apart from the fact that he hadn't realized, William was talking? "But you... you're chest was... crushed. How could you have survived that?"

William was remaining still on the couch, most likely in an effort to keep the broken bones from hurting. "We left out a few things in our introductions. I'm a vampire, so while I am technically dead, it's not any more dead than I was last week. Just a lot worse shape... ribs are going to take a while to heal... at least a week."

Charlie felt like the ground was spinning, and he carefully settled himself into the other chair, still staring at William. "A vampire... does Willow know? Is she human? You didn't... "

"Willow knows all about me being a vampire." There was an odd smirk there, as if there was a complicated history between Willow and William. "Red's as human as any other magic user is. Just stronger than some, and a lot more stubborn. Nobody ever told her a witch needs a wand, you see, so she does without. Suzie's asleep... last night took a lot out of her."

Part of Charlie was worried, wondering how safe any of them were with a vampire in the house, even if he was wounded. "But she's... You seem in much better shape this morning."

William made a rather rude sounding snort. "I didn't hurt her. She's just exhausted. There's a complicated explanation, but I'm not going to hurt you, or Suzie, and especially not Willow. She's my friend... the only one I've got. And if you break her heart, Weasley, that thing about not hurting you is off. I'll find you, hunt you down to the upper hells, and make you beg for death if you break her heart."

For some bizarre reason, that almost made Charlie feel better. "Right... the upper hells. Umm... any suggestions on how to get a fifty ton sleeping dragon to Romania? Or maybe about breakfast?"

"Breakfast is easy. Moving the dragon... can't box her up, can't call the council and say here's your dragon, take her... can you? Let them worry about the hows? Maybe a levitation and an invisibility... but how to apparate a dragon... oh bloody hell, I think we either end up putting the dragon in a huge box and sending her by boat or see if Willow can come up with something. Let's settle on breakfast... I'll give you directions, since the kitchen has a window and I'm a bit flammable. I got some blood in the fridge for me, but I think you'll want something more solid." William had this sort of smirk again, and he very carefully moved, hissing slightly as he rose to his feet, eyes flickering yellow.

Charlie found himself reminded all over again that William wasn't human. He also found himself both delighted that Willow had blood in the refrigerator and curious as to why it was there. "So... a vampire from the Longbottom family?"

"Yeah. Wasn't that strong of a wizard... better at the books than the spells part of it. I got turned, left home, and dropped the last name. William Longbottom won't do in vampire circles... I became William the Bloody." He was moving carefully, but still seemed to almost stalk across the house to the kitchen, pulling out a white container, a delighted smile on his face. "Red is a great friend..."

The name sounded almost familiar to Charlie, as if he'd heard it somewhere. "I'm going to regret this... but why do I feel like I should recognize that name?"

The vampire looked at him, carefully placing the tub into the microwave, pushing a few buttons to start the muggle machine humming. "William the Bloody... along with Dru, Darla and Angelus. Scourge of Europe... we were infamous. Should have made the be careful- run away lists in the Defense Against Dark Arts Books... At least, if the people writing them were any good we should be in there."

Charlie felt like gaping, or maybe running away out into the sunshine. William the Bloody, of the Scourge of Europe? "Wh.. What happened to the other three?"

William gave a small shrug. "Darla got herself staked, Dru's somewhere in Brazil with a fungus demon, I'm here and stuck on good behavior, and Angelus got himself cursed into a brooding nancy-boy. Calls himself Angel now and runs a detective agency." The microwave dinged, and he pulled out the container, the scent of blood filling the room. "Breakfast is good..."

Somehow, watching the vampire drink his blood, Charlie didn't feel so hungry anymore. "Yeah... breakfast. I think... maybe I'll just go sit down again."

end part 10.