William was going to kill someone. Gillian Shaw- his Little Gilly Gumdrop- had a boyfriend. A boyfriend. The girl had just turned twenty one, for crying out loud. She was still a baby.

She had gotten over her crush on him a while ago. A fact that he wasn't at all upset about. Nope. Didn't bother him.

Anyway, even though she'd gotten over him, she'd never dated anybody. Oh sure, boys had flirted with her-they'd be crazy not to- but she'd never shown interest in any of them.

Until this bastard had shown up. He was from out of town, a foreigner, in fact. With an Irish accent. William knew a couple (thousand) things about women and he knew that no woman could resist the charm of an Irish accent.

But this one had better figure out a way. Because he would die before he saw his Gumdrop hurt, and this bastard had heartbreak written all over him.

They were out doing gods knew what right now. It was their millionth date so far. He wasn't even exaggerating (that much)! The only thing that kept him from hunting the couple down right now was the freakin' minor goddess of anarchy, Anya. The infuriating hottie had his book, and had warned him that she wouldn't hesitate to burn the thing if he "ruined Gilly's chance at happiness". As if he would do such a thing. The girl could be happy without a boyfriend. Or any guy for that matter. Except William, of course.

He growled in frustration. If only he didn't need that book. But William had gotten himself cursed a while ago, and the only way to break it was hidden in those old, yellow pages. And the damn thing was coded, to top it all off!

He paused his pacing to slam his fist into the wall.

"Ooh, look who's angry today. Maybe I should come back later," a familiar female voice drifted from his doorway.

Speak of the devil, William thought as he turned. Sure enough, there stood Anya. Tall, thin, and sexy enough to give any man a hard-on, the woman embodied physical perfection. Not unlike William.

She stood just inside his room, sucking on a lollipop. His door had been flung open, despite the fact that he had locked it. Of course. Even without the All-Key, Anya had a knack for appearing where she wasn't wanted. She placed a hand on her hip and pulled the candy from her mouth.

"Look, Mr. Grumpy, I just wanted to let you know Gilly will be back soon. And you'd better not try anything. I'll be watching, and sometimes those stupid old pages just refuse to stay in the book. Not my fault," she shrugged a seemingly delicate shoulder.

"Message received," William scowled, then his face brightened, "Where's Roses? Ooh, did you to break up already? Kaia and I have a bet going on."

Anya glared at him, "No, we did not break up, you dirty man-whore! My honey is out collecting souls. Which means he should be back any second."

William rolled his eyes. This place had gone from cool and dark to overrun with couples in a manner of months. Seriously. William wouldn't follow suit, he would make sure of that. He couldn't. He didn't know much about the curse, but what he did know told him that a woman would be his downfall. So there would be no "one woman" for him. And William didn't swing the other way.

"-listening to me?" Anya was snapping black-painted nails in his face. He blinked and focused on her again.

"What was that?"

"I asked if you were getting any of this. Which, obviously, you weren't."

William leaned back against the wall, "Where you talking about how sexy I am? How dreamy I look in this shirt? How much my muscles have grown?"

He flexed his arm to show her.

She scowled at him and flopped back onto his bed, "No, I wasn't. I was saying how Gilly's new man is really nice. And I want you to leave them alone. That girl deserves some happiness."

Gilly's man. As if.