In 1880, William was a struggling poet, often mocked by his peers who called him "William the Bloody" behind his back because his poetry was so "bloody awful." The true origins of this nickname were not revealed until three years after it was first mentioned in season 2, when it was believed to have purely violent connotations. William showed a strong capacity for loyalty and devoted love, which remained after his siring. After his romantic overtures were rejected by the aristocratic Cecily, William wandered the streets despondently and bumped into Drusilla. She consoled him, drained him of blood and made him drink of her blood, thus transforming him into a vampire – "siring" him, in the jargon of the series. Spike's grand-sire, Angelus, became his mentor (leading Spike occasionally to describe him loosely as his sire): "Drusilla sired me, but you, you made me a monster." Whereas new vampires in the Buffyverse often delight in killing their families once they become evil, William was a notable exception. Having always been very close to his mother, he turned her into a vampire to save her from tuberculosis. But his mother, as a vampire, taunted William and insinuated he had always had a sexual fascination with her. William chose to stake her because he found he could not bear to see his mother behaving like the soulless vampire he had made of her. She, like most vampires, lacked his unusual capacity for some of the softer human emotions, like love and compassion.