They called the oak tree in the center of town the Century Oak. It used to be called the Hanging Tree, but the ghosts of too many hanged men convinced the town of the need for a name change.
Under the shade of the oak tree sat two rocking chairs with a hogshead barrel between them. Honeysuckle grew wild around the barrel, twining up and around the chair backs. Nobody sat in the rockers any more; the checkerboard that had once sat on the barrel had long decayed into nothingness.
Two stones sat under the rockers, barely large enough to hold a set of initials. Crudely but legibly carved, one bore a W.P. while the other bore E.A.H.
If anyone in town knew what, or who, the letters stood for, they didn't come forward.
-----
The flash of sunlight off a gun barrel was all the warning she needed. The knife seemed to almost jump into her hand from the sheath at her hip, and then flew like a bullet to land between the eyes of the rifleman hidden behind the feed store grain barrel.
The echo of a six-shooter rolled through the small down, and a thin wisp of black powder smoke drifted skyward as the gun got holstered. "Nice work, love."
"Not a bad shot yourself there." The woman waited until the shooter came to the horse, and he helped her dismount fluidly. "Remind me never to piss you off."
"S'not me I'm worried about," he countered, going to retrieve her knife. He wrestled it easily out of the man's skull, and wiped it clean on his shirt before offering it to her hilt-first. "You throw that good, you gonna take my head off if we fight."
She leaned in to kiss him then, and smiled. "Guess it's a good thing we don't have to worry about that, isn't it?"
-----
"So what's a pretty little thing like you doin' in a box like this?" He pushed his hat back, letting it fall back around his neck as he looked down at the woman sitting on the crude wooden bench. He'd been ambling towards the post office, and he supposed he wasn't at all surprised to see the mail-order bride office right next door.
He was surprised to see the woman sitting outside the office, clutching a purse and a parasol with a carpetbag at her feet. She couldn't have been comfortable, sitting so ramrod straight on the bare wooden plank bench, but she was sitting properly anyway, parasol up and shading her delicate skin from the sun.
"I do not speak to strangers, sir," the woman said after a moment.
He was intrigued; knocking the dust off his chaps, he sat down on the other side of the bench, business at the post office forgotten. "That bein' the case, you're gonna have a hard time sayin' hello to… what? Your new husband?"
The woman's eyes flickered with interest as she sized him up, but her voice was still cool with formal disdain. "At that time, he will no longer be a stranger, but my husband, and I will be free to speak to him however I wish."
He rolled his eyes. "That hard up to get married, eh? Got someone you're tryin' to get away from, pet?"
She nodded, just a fraction. "That is why I am here, sir. There is a gentleman, an Irishman by chance, that does not wish to take no for an answer. And so I escaped to this part of the country, in hopes that I can find a husband before the Irishman forces the issue."
"Oh, I know all about pushy Irishmen," he agreed. "Tell you what. There's gotta be a preachy type in this town. How about you marry me, I'll take care of your pushy Irishman, and then we can go our separate ways," he offered. "Keeps me from bein' bored and it solves your problem."
The young woman got to her feet instantly. "There is a reverend that lives in the small cabin behind the church. If you would care to visit the baths and freshen up," she said pointedly, "I will gladly go and fetch him."
He laughed. "You go and do that, love. And I'll see you in the church."
-----
"Well now. Of all the people in all the world Miss Ellie could've found to marry, I never expected it to be you, Willy."
A growl. "When she mentioned a pushy Irishman, have to admit, you were the first on the list. Didn't really dream it'd be you, Angelus. Tell me, what's your interest in the girl?"
The two men were circling each other, guns holstered. Willy had a knife, and Angelus was carrying a larger blade.
"What's my interest in any girl?" Angelus asked, lashing out with the sword tip. "The spread of her legs and the red of her blood!" He laughed. "This one's got spirit. She reminds me of my dear darling Drusilla. … You remember Dru, don't you? The love of your pathetic life?" He lunged forward.
Willy danced back, knife knocking the blade off course. "An' of course you've had to chase her down, seein' as how she's told you no."
"Nobody tells me no, and besides." A cruel smile. "No one says no to me. They're all screaming for me by the end… well, they're just screaming. But it's because of me." The tip of his sword caught Willy's face, and left a jagged cut in his eyebrow.
"She's mine now, Angelus." He growled angrily as the cut bled down the side of his face, and he struck out towards the other man again. His blade scored, but only enough to slice open Angelus' waistcoat. "You'll have to go through me first."
"Oh, that's just the cream in the coffee," Angelus smirked. "I want my ring back, Willy. Darla has so been missing her walks down the Boston promenades."
"Darla can bloody fry," he hissed, striking out again and scoring again, a cut down the side of Angelus' face. "And so can you." Dropping the knife, Willy drew his revolver.
"Bullets can't hurt me, or have you forgotten everything I taught you?" Angelus laughed as Willy's knife hit the dirt.
"Oh, I haven't forgotten a single bloody thing." He was following Angelus' hand with the revolver, and when Angelus swung the sword down, Willy fired.
Angelus screamed as the bullet mangled his finger. The twisted remains of the gold ring setting fell to the dirt, and Angelus ripped his ascot off to wind around his hand. Before he could roll out of the sunlight, his arm and hair caught fire, and he dropped to the ground, extinguishing the flames as he cowered in the shadows. "This isn't over, boy."
"Oh, I think it is. Y'come near me or Ellie again, and you'll not walk out a whole man." He holstered his gun, then picked the knife up off the barn floor.
-----
Fifteen short years that he'd been turned, and it felt like fifteen days. Five years since Angelus had kicked him out, and four since Drusilla had gone back to Angelus and Darla.
Good riddance to them all.
He'd found a new bird, and he'd convinced her to ride with him. She was interesting enough to be around, and had a fine knack for a brutal killing.
They rode in on matching Appaloosas, which would have normally been the first attention-getter. Matching horses were rare for riders; for stagecoaches and private carriage, sure, but matching riders? It spoke of money, wealth, and time. Time to find a breeder who bred the same stud to two mares, who foaled at the same time.
But in this case it was the riders. The riders were the attention-getters. Male and female, they were obviously not the rough-and-tumbles that you'd be used to finding in cattle land like Texas. Neither were they snooty Eastern types; they were obviously different.
It was a toss-up which you'd notice first. The man was tall, rather slender, with a pale cast to his skin and flashy jewelry. The woman was a darker tan, with hair in a long braid down her back and tied off with a leather thong. Hats shaded their faces from the hot sun, and the woman wore riding gloves and a bandana around her neck. Their clothes were clean, but not new, their spurs polished but not fancy, boots scuffed but not dirty.
The man's emerald ring flashed in the light, bouncing shards of sunlight off that and a gold band around his ring finger. The woman's gloves hid her ring, but it glared bright enough when she pulled them off and tucked them into the belt around her waist.
"Thirsty, pet?"
"I could drink."
-----
The preacher had not been hard to convince; several gold coins from her purse had quelled any of his objections, and they stood in the empty church with him. "Dearly beloved, we--"
"Let's just skip to the end, shall we? There's no beloved gathered anywhere, it's just us and the lady, so let's get to the good bits, eh?"
"Very well." The preacher cleared his throat. "Do you, William Pratt, take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife? To have and to hold, in good times and bad, in sickness and in health, to love, honor and obey, as long as you both shall live?"
"Yeah, of course I do."
"And do you, Elspeth Alexis Holden, take this man to be your lawful wedded--"
"I do."
"Then by the authority vested in me by the Lord Almighty, I now pronounce you man and wife." He turned to scrawl his signature across the wedding certificate, and passed it to Elspeth. "Here you are, Mrs. Pratt."
"Thank you, sir."
Before Elspeth could say anything else, the doors to the sanctuary flew open. "Ellie, my girl! How could you not invite me to the wedding, seeing as how I asked first."
Ellie shrank back against the communion table, moving to stand behind William. "That's him."
William laughed. "Are you for real? Angelus? He's your pushy Irishman?"
She nodded. "Yes, Angelus Morgan, his name is."
William kissed her forehead. "Go on and run. I'll take care of this."
The preacher interposed himself between William and the quickly-advancing Angelus. "Please! This is a house of the Lord! There can be no bloodshed in this place! This is a house of peace!"
Angelus' hand shot out and grabbed the preacher by the throat, tearing it to pieces and gorging on the hot rivers of blood that poured out as the man bled to death. "Just what I needed to make sure I kill you before I go after the girl."
"You'll not get the chance to kill either one of us." William pulled a large Bowie knife out and nodded at Angelus, who was unsheathing a thin, curved saber from the walking stick in his hand. "Let's have at it, then."
-----
"So you're a vampire too, then?" Ellie spoke quietly as she worked diligently to clean the blood off William's face. "Your ring's like Angelus'; you two know each other?"
"Ow!' William flinched just a little as the hot water splashed into the open cut. "Yeah, we're old mates. We go back a ways." He looked down at the ring. "You know?"
"Not by choice," she admitted. "He made me watch one evening as he and those devil women of his savaged a woman, a prostitute they'd found on the streets. It was not long after that I ran. I took all the gold that I could fit in my purse, packed the weapons my father left me when he died, and came out here, to the wilderness, hoping to find a man in need of a wife as desperately as I was in need of a husband."
"Lucky I happened to be the one to run into you, then, because I'm here to say, Angelus wouldn't hesitate makin' you a widow. Killed all of Drusilla's family, drove her out of her bloody mind he did, then he made her a vampire. He'd have no problem killin' the man you hitched to, then doin' the same to you," William pointed out.
"I am lucky," Ellie admitted. "I had hoped that a simple marriage certificate would convince him to find another prey who had fewer entanglements, but--"
"S'not your entanglements or lack of that he's interested in, pet. It's who you are, that makes Angelus crazed, and once he's got you in his sights, he won't give up that easy. But don't worry. I'll keep you safe enough from him." William was quiet and still after that, letting Ellie tend the wound with a gentle but sure touch.
"Whiskey bottle, two glasses, table for me and the lady." William ordered it at the bar.
"Table's free in the corner." Bartender passed over two glasses and a full whiskey bottle, and William laid the coins down on the bar.
He joined Ellie at the table, poured both glasses full, and he toasted her. "What's got your attention now?"
"The Hanging Tree," she answered. "So many people've been hung there, but look. There's a family having a picnic under it, a man's got his family there, and there's a little girl climbing up the limbs. So much death, and they're playing like there's not a care in the world."
"There isn't," William said. "Took care of the bloke in the street, won't no one else challenge us, and we've got three whole weeks ahead of Angelus. All he knows is we took the train out of the state, doesn't know which of the stations we used or where we went. Not to mention those Gorch boys just burned the next town over to the ground." He leaned across the table to kiss her. "We've got time, pet. Don't worry. I'll take care of you."
Ellie kissed him back, scooting her chair around the table so that she was sitting beside him, back to the window.
-----
William had been sleeping. His dreams were strange; he was dressed strangely, Ellie was dressed even more strangely, there were inventions about that he'd never even seen before, an indoors outhouse, luxury furniture, a bed big enough to swim in.
He jerked awake, instantly alert to the fact something was wrong. The moon was full, shining bright silver over the empty half of the bed, and William was going full bore in an instant. "Ellie?"
When he got no answer, he went to the window and peered out. Ellie was sitting in a rocking chair under the big oak tree, playing checkers with another woman. He got dressed in a hurry, but by the time he got there, the woman was gone, and Ellie was putting the checkers back on the board. "You shouldn't leave like that, love."
Ellie just smiled. "That was my aunt. She's been dead a few years now, but she came back to warn me." She looked up at William a little sadly. "She said it's almost my time, that she, and my parents, they're all getting ready for me."
"You're talkin' crazy." He reached out to touch her face, and drew back in the next instant. "You're burnin' up."
"Yes," she said simply. "I woke up hot, and came out for the breeze. That's when I saw Tabitha in the chair, and we played a game. I always lost when we played."
Ellie's eyes were glassy, and William didn't like it a bit. He picked her up, knocking the checkerboard onto the grass, and carried her back into the hotel. Once he'd gotten her in bed, he banged on every door in the town until he'd found the doctor.
-----
It took her weeks to recover. Ellie split her time between the hot springs behind the hotel, where her skin peeled and fell off, or napping in the rocking chair, where the soothing motion and strong wood cradled her aching body.
William hadn't left her side; when Ellie was in the hot springs, William sat on the rocks beside her, reading from any number of books he could get his hands on. When she sat in the rockers, they played endless games of checkers and sometimes chess, until she fell asleep.
"No chance of rheumatic fever," the doctor assured William. "Never seen a person with the scarlet fever come down with a rheumatic."
They became a fixture, the man with the six-shooter and the pale wraith of a woman he was always with. The children often watched their games of checkers, the girls often sat around and listened to William as he read to Ellie.
They stayed past their three week time limit, but if William ever thought about leaving, or taking Ellie with him, the state of her health prevented him from doing it. He didn't think about Angelus either, because he knew Angelus was limited to traveling by night, in the dark, without his ring. That would give them enough of an edge, he hoped, because he knew that Angelus was still determined to have Ellie for himself.
-----
Their actual wedding night was delayed for a week while they traveled. William did not want to stay anywhere close to where Angelus could get to them, and so he made sure that the stagecoach they took was a private one, and they traveled under a false name.
They disembarked in California a week later, the cobblestone streets of San Francisco a welcome surprise after the throat-choking dust. Ellie went and booked a room at the hotel for the both of them while William saw to dismissing the stagecoach and making sure the driver couldn't tell anyone who his passengers were.
When he got up to the room, Ellie was bathing behind a screen in the corner of the room. "They'll bring fresh water for you when you're ready, if you want to wash up," she said timidly from behind the screen. "Or you could join me."
"Sure the tub's big enough?" he asked, taking off his gun. "Don't want to push in where I'm not wanted."
"You are my husband, are you not?" she asked, and there was splashing as she moved around in the tub.
"Last I checked, yeah, that's what the paper in your bag says," he admitted. "Don't mean--"
"Then you are wanted."
William sighed, and peeked around the screen. "I ain't Angelus, love. I'm not gonna--" He saw that she had stood up and was waiting for him. "What's all this?"
"You've been terribly kind," she answered quickly. "And over the last week, you have not pushed your advantage when you could. And I've gotten to know you, at least a little, and I find that I like what I know. If you don't… want, then I won't offer it again, but as I am your wife, I would like to know you. In every way." She was blushing, and he found that endearing.
"I'd have to be crazy to not want," he pointed out, pulling his shirt off and tossing it on the bed. His pants followed, and he came around the screen.
Ellie's breath caught in her throat, but she reached out and took William's hand, pulling him over and offering to steady him as he stepped into the tub. Once he was situated, William pulled Ellie back down into the tub, picking up the rag and cake of soap to start washing her body with.
Turning her head over her shoulder, Ellie kissed William slowly, bringing a wet hand up to stroke his cheek.
-----
"No! Don't do it!" William was fighting tooth and nail against the two cowboys holding him, but he couldn't budge against their double-vampire strength.
"Sssh." Angelus dragged the back of his fingers over Ellie's cheek, nuzzling the side of her neck. She was shuddering in revulsion, her eyes closed as tightly as she could get them, and he laughed in her ear. "Don't do what, Willy? This?"
In an incredibly quick instant, Angelus' hands were on either side of Ellie's head. There was a sickeningly sharp crack, and she hit the ground as soon as Angelus let go of her. "Oops."
William screamed angrily, agony and fury mixing inside and stealing his words. He fought harder, finally breaking free of one of the cowboys as he threw himself at Angelus.
Angelus threw him off like he was nothing, and William fell back over Ellie's body. "What do you want? Why did you have to do that, she was mine! She loved me, and I loved her!"
Angelus shrugged. "Because I could, buddy! Because I had her first, because you stole my ring, and do I really need a reason to have a little fun?" He clapped William around the shoulders. "I never should've let Drusilla turn you, sitting there crying like a little woman on that stack of crates and hay. You're the worst mistake I ever made."
"Yeah? But I'll be the last." William pulled the stake out of his boot. Ellie had made him take it; he didn't want to carry the thing with him, but Ellie had begged, and to ease her mind, he'd done it. Now, he was glad of it. As he spoke, he drove the stake upwards, catching Angelus in the briefest unguarded second during the gloating.
He barely had a moment to relish the shocked look on Angelus' face before he turned to dust. He could feel the dust of Angelus' death sticking to his face where he'd been crying, spewing spittle and he could taste the dust on his tongue and he spat it out instantly.
The cowboy vampires had fled, leaving William alone under the Hanging Tree, holding Ellie against him.
-----
"Can you do that for me, nibblet? Tomorrow morning, after the sun comes up, I want you to take these outside and put them under the rocking chairs, okay?" William gave the little girl a shiny gold coin, and then gave her the small closed purse that Ellie had always carried. "Give that to your mum, all right? Should be enough to take care of you and your family."
The little girl, Liddy, took the two rocks that William gave her. "Okay. Are you leaving, Willy?"
A wince at the nickname that he couldn't quite hide. "Yeah, I am. Ellie and me, we're leaving town, and I don't think you'll ever see us again."
"Can't you stay?" The little girl hugged him tightly, and William was surprised by the child's trusting action. "Just a while longer?"
"'Fraid not," William answered, kissing the top of her blonde curls. "Got places to go, got people to annoy. But you won't forget us, will you?"
Liddy shook her head, and clutched the rocks and the small bag of money to her chest. "Bye, Willy!"
"Goodbye, nibblet."
-----
Taking the ring off, William buried it in the ground under the barrel. It was nearing sunrise, and he wanted to be ready. Before the sun rose, he picked up the bucket that held the ashen remains of Ellie, and he spread them carefully over the chair and the ground around it, all under the tree.
Tossing the pail aside, he sat in the other rocking chair, waiting for the sun to come up.
William, came a whisper on the wind, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw Ellie perched in the other rocking chair, reaching out for his hand. Hold my hand, William, and I will be with you again soon.
Just as William reached out for Ellie's hand, the sun crested over the horizon. The first early morning rays of the sun hit the rocking chairs, and William's hand turned to ash and dust just as his fingers closed around Ellie's.
-----
Liddy had been waiting for sun-up, but she'd fallen asleep. Instead, she was wakened by her mother calling her for breakfast. "Liddy! Come on and wake up, girl!"
Liddy ran downstairs, out of the front door in her nightgown. "Willy!" she shouted. "I'm sorry I missed sunrise!" Darting down the road, across the main square in her nightgown, Liddy placed the two rocks that William had given her under the rocking chairs.
Her mother wasn't far behind her, and grabbed her up by the shoulder. "Elizabeth Anne Summers, what is wrong with you, running out like the devil's got hold of you?"
The End