Bathing in Blood
By: Tropicwhale
Disclaimer: I own the characters I made up, the Grimmoire, and the plot. Everything else belongs to either Joss Whedon or Los Angeles.
Warning: Nothing...yet....maybe langauge, Slash.
Dedicated to: My Peanuts, for their support and unconditional constructive criticism throughout this entire series. I love you kids. Now tell what you think about this one.
Author Notes: I'm avoiding writing several papers, including a term paper by posting this. In truth I've had it, as well as the next five chapters, written for awhile now. I know I said that I'd be posting this in the Angel subsection of the site but a Peanut who will remain nameless (mostly because I forgot who actually gave me the suggestion) gave me the suggestion that I put it here because its really here nor there as far as the actual shows go....murr, but!...yeah, I got nothing. No, wait. I got something.
Now please enjoy the next in the Grimmoire Spander series, "Bathing in Blood"....
Chapter One
"So why are we helping Deadboy?" my boyfriend turned against his seatbelt to face me as Los Angeles flashes past us. I shrug. "Stop that. You've been doing that shrugging thing since we left Baltimore. Spike, I want to know what I'm heading into." I sigh through my nose. "And don't sigh at me either. I know that trick." God, he's worse than a woman. And how do you shut a woman up when she's nagging you?
"I love you."
"Spike." he says.
"I know you don't like Angel." I say.
"Neither do you."
"I know. You don't like vampires."
"Yeah, a big duh there buddy."
"This is vampire lore."
"What?" I glance over and back at the highway.
"You can't ignore what I am forever, Xander. It's just happening a bit sooner than I thought it would."
"Again I say what?" I glance over again. "I know you're a vampire, Spike. I love you despite that…and the whole male thing." I sigh again. "Stop that."
"You ignore it. The vampire thing. As much as you can. Well, you're not going to have that luxury anymore."
"What are you talking about?"
"This is a matter of Family."
"I don't understand." I look over at him for a split moment. That's all it takes for me to regret everything.
"I wish you did, Xander. I really wish you did." I stare at the road, feeling sad and frustrated. Being a vampire and the hierarchical blood ties that go with it isn't something you can explain to a human. It defies their reasoning. How do you sit there and make them understand that you love a person who you hate and feel compelled to go to their side when they called merely because their blood flowed through your veins? Whatever issues we have between us, Angel and I, we were still Family. Bound by blood to spend eternity together, creating a Childe isn't something a Master does lightly and I was his Childe. I owe him something that I could never explain to Xander. How could I explain to Xander that I saw Angel as Father and Brother, Lover and Enemy all in one package without him cringing away from what his society deemed to be abomination? The answer was that I couldn't. "All I can say is that it's blood calling to blood. Angel is my Family and Family needs help so I'm going to help. It also has something to do with the fact he's head of the Aurelius line now that the Master and Darla are dead."
"What does that mean?" How to explain it? How to sink this complex and being deep hierarchal concept into my lover's small brain? There was only one way, really.
"It's like the mafia. You and Buffy killed the old Godfather and now Angel is Marlon Brando."
"Oh. But do you have to listen to it? Him calling for help?"
"Normally? No."
"Then why now?"
"For three reasons. The first is that Angel doesn't call blood to him. Most of our Family are evil bastards and Angel's a goody-goody that wouldn't use the minions that is his right. He's invoked that power over me…because I am directly linked to him through Drusilla I have to go. The second reason is that he lost five minutes and it felt like Family. He was rolled like Dracula rolled you back in Sunnydale. He is the Master of the Aurelius line and that shouldn't happen, ever. Period. Third, the Grimmoiré was stolen. That, in and of itself, would have gotten me here. That book in the wrong hands is a bad thing." Not to mention I'm one of the good guys now...blegh.
"So I'm coming why?" I turn off onto our exit.
"You love me and we're this thing now where we are a team and it's as much your deal as its mine. Besides, we get to spring on Angel that we're lovers which should drive him up the wall." I grin over to see a matching grin on Xander's face. "We could even have sex on his bed so when he's getting ready to settle in for the day he walks in on us and can't sleep for a month. Think of all the bad hair jokes that would come of it." Such a good idea. Great, really. "Also? Think of how much he'll cringe when we get all lovey-dovey around him!" I'm getting hyper-happy just thinking about it.
"You're so evil."
"Are you saying that it's a bad idea?"
"No. But we should wait until he goes off to fight a really slimy demon and do it in his shower. Then there would be the opportunity for stink jokes." I knew there was a reason I love him. He's a true evil genius when he puts his mind to it. I stop at a red light and lean over to kiss him on the lips.
"You're brilliant." I tell him with a grin. He laughs.
"Never been called that before."
"Normally, it's not true. Good Lord, you'd make such a great evil vampire. Like Angelus level evilness."
"HEY!!!" I laugh and turn back to driving. "There's not a single phrase in what you just said that wasn't completely insulting."
"You're beautiful when you're pissed off."
"I'm not a girl. That line won't work on me, mister."
"You're lying."
"Are not."
"Are too. I can smell it." I smirk at him and wiggle in my seat. So much fun to goat him.
"Did anyone ever tell you vampire guys that sniffing people is creepy? Hey, don't we have a rule about not sniffing me?"
"Nope."
"Well, we should. It's stalker-level creepy-oh wait, I forgot who I was talking to." I give him two finger salute.
"Oh you know you like when I do the stalker bit in bed, it gets you all stirred up for me. But in all seriousness do you want to tell Angel about us?"
"Do you?"
"I honestly could care less what the Neanderthal thought but I thought that you might not want to-"
"Spike, I'm not that shallow nor do I care what Dead-boy thinks but you seem to."
"I just-I want to get in, find the book, stop whoever the Big Bad is this time, and get out. Minimal time spent in this hellhole of a city is better."
"Spike." His voice held a warning and pity. Fuck him. Just not literally… for the moment, later it would be a different story.
"No. Didn't I just say that I didn't care what Angel thinks of our relationship? I just want to do the job and get back to Paris."
"Then why are you getting pissy?"
"I'm not."
"You are. Spike, talk to me. Tell me what's going on with you. You've been running hot and cold since our plane landed in California."
"Nothing."
"Spike, please." Dammit. He's not going to let this go. I pull into an empty parking lot and put the rent-a-car into park. I face my boyfriend. For his part, Xander meets my gaze head on.
"I'm worried about how you're going to take some of the stuff that I'm pretty sure is going to go down. This has to do with vampire culture, Xan, I'm sure of it. I think you may be the first human to ever experience it without having to commit to being turned and you-well, you're you, are you?"
"Wait, does this mean you have to turn me now?" He jokes, grinning. I glare and his smile slowly fades into a frown. "Spike?"
"I don't know what's going on. Just it has to do with Family and a Baddie big enough to make Angel lose five whole minutes of his life and steal a very old and powerful book right from his hand. That scares me and if it doesn't scare you it should. We're flying blind, all of us, here. I don't like that." He cups my chin and strokes my jaw. "Don't patronize me." He kisses me gently on the lips. "Stop that." He nibbles under my jaw line. I roll my eyes to the ceiling of the car. "You're distracting me." He bites down and sucks on my Adam's apple. "Angel's waiting for us." There was a hand fondling my crotch. Oh bugger it. I undo his seatbelt (I never wear one) and pull him over the emergency brake into my lap. I grab two handfuls of him, one of his shirt front and one of his ass, and jerk him into me so that our lips smash together. He moans and laughs as I'm pressed into the car door. He straddles me and loams over me and hands run down my chest and sides. "Xander" I mumble against his lips. There is a rapping at the window behind me. Xander's head snaps up to look out into the night and I crane my head back, my mouth open, to see a cop shining a light into the car. I look back up at Xander to see him blushing. Shit. Now it'll be months before I can convince him to have sex in a car again. I should have done his ass when I had the chance. Xander is back in his seat and I straighten up and roll down the window. "Can we help you, officer?" I say in what Xander calls my and I quote 'I-am-a-polite-Englishman-who-doesn't-understand-your-strange-American-ways' voice, end quote.
"Is everything alright here? Are you...gentlemen lost?" The officer asks with a cocked eyebrow like he didn't just catch us making out. Bastard. Everything was alright until you showed up and we aren't lost. Go away, I want to have sex in a semi-public place with my boyfriend. Don't make me whip it out.
"Yes, everything is quite alright, officer."
"Then I suggest you move along." The officer flicks a look at Xander who stares straight ahead, bright red. I growl low in my throat. The cop looks down at me and I put on a blank face and smile tightly.
"Well, I guess we'll just be going then." I purposely put my seatbelt on and watch as Xander does the same and start the car. I nod to the policeman and drive out of the parking lot. "Well, that was off-putting." I grouse as I hit the power to the window, closing it. I can tell he's not looking at me, still red as a beet. "You're pretty as Buffy when you blush." Three. Two. One.
"DID YOU JUST CALL ME A GIRL?!" Embarrassment gone. Mission accomplished.
"Well, when you screech like that it's hard to tell any different, yeah? And besides I compared you to a woman with superpowers that is really beautiful and we both were attracted to at one time but yeah, I called you a girl."
"Well, at least I don't need to go to a salon once a month to get my roots done."
"Girls flock to me. When was the last time a girl hit on you? Renee?"
"Oh shut up, Spike. For your information there was mutual hit-age with Renee."
"Uh. Huh. Willow and Buffy probably told you to ask her out because you were being oblivious to her sexual advances." There was a sharp head turn toward me, his mouth opening and closing like a landed fish.
"How did you kn-no, no. That's not what happened at all."
"Xander, I love you but I know you better than that. You don't do well with women."
"So speakth the devil of bad relationships with women."
"Your poetry, it's... they're... not written about me, are they?" A dark haired woman in Victorian clothes says in slight horror. I blinked at her. I'd never hoped to have this conversation with her, beautiful Cecily Underwood. My heart was pounding.
"They're about how I feel."
"Yes, but are they about me?" Cecily persisted.
"Every syllable." I whispered reverently.
"Oh, God!" I could tell that my poetry made her sick. I understand. Only Mother could really stomach it. I knew that I wasn't a good poet but there wasn't any other way. If I didn't have an outlet then I'd explode. No one person could hold all this emotion inside of them and stay sane. It's enough to drive a person mad.
"Oh, I know... it's sudden and... please, if they're no good, they're only words but... the feeling behind them... I love you, Cecily."
"Please stop!" I could stop. I couldn't stop. I had come too far to not continue. I didn't want-all I wanted was Cecily's love. It's really not a lot to ask for. All I wanted was some small sign of affection, a sign that someone besides Mother actually sees me.
"I know I'm a bad poet but I'm a good man and all I ask is that... that you try to see me-" I was so desperate for her to give me anything, anything to stop this burning inside my soul, the pounding of my heart, the spinning in my head. I was drunk, intoxicated, off of her very existence. If she could give any scrap of sympathy to me then I could die fulfilled with this terrible thirst, this hunger, within my blood slacked.
"I do see you. That's the problem. You're nothing to me, William. You're beneath me." She stands and walks off, leaving me devastated and alone. Alone until the next one found me, then I found the next and the one I was thinking about when I was with her.....
"You know I'll be there. I'll slip in... have myself a real good day." I stared intently into her eyes, then step back. "Here endeth the lesson. I just wonder if you'll like it as much as she did." Well, she did ask. Fear rolled off her, thick and spicy, then anger bitter and sharp.
"Get out of my sight. Now." She says. Slayer to the end. So beautiful. How much would I want to twist myself inside her with all that heat, passion fueling her. Heat my cold skin right up.
"Oh... did I scare ya? You're the Slayer. Do something about it. Hit me. Come on. One good swing. You know you want to."
"I mean it." More conviction. I can't hit back but the bruising would be so magnificent I'd have it for days. Nothing better than wearing the mark of the one you love for all to see. I just need to push her a little further. Just a little further and she'd give me a black eye, at least. I knew she wanted it. She'd see that I care for her…to wear her mark like that.
"So do I. Give it to me good, Buffy. Do it!" The tension is burning between us. So beautiful. So hot.
"Spike..." My passion aroused, I lean in to kiss her. She backs away in horror. No matter. I'd get her in the end.
"What the hell are you doing?" More fear then anger now. I grabbed her by the arms, words a breathless pant.
"Come on. I can feel it, Slayer. You know you want to dance." Dance of Death, of the Game. Like a moth to the flame I to her. Drowning in the green fire of her eyes…oh that's good. I should write that down. If I remember it later.
"Say it's true. Say I do want to." Yes! She shoves me to the ground and looks down at me with disgust, contempt. I need that fire, such a burning in my veins, a roaring that wouldn't stop like the ocean in a storm. "It wouldn't be you, Spike. It would never be you." She tosses the wad of cash at me contemptuously. "You're beneath me." Buffy turns and walks off, leaving me alone in the dark alley. I gathered up the money, this side of- how quickly did my need for her heat get me burned. Did she know? I thought I left that out of the story. I know I left it out of the story. How did she know that-I always did fall for the ones that never saw me, or wanted to see me, never wanted me. No one ever wants me. Silly William. Stupid, silly William even as a vampire you never get what you want, never get-fuck her, fuck all of them. May they all rot in hell with me.
I walked into the hotel room to see Angelus humping some bit in white. My grandsire, my teacher. God, he was sunlight where Drusilla was air to me. Maybe he'd let me have a go at his victim after he was done. I grin. "Well... looks like you haven't had your fill of her after all-" Angelus leans back, revealing that's he's been with Drusilla, my dark princess, Drusilla. She rolls her head over to look at me.
"The little children didn't come out to play." She sits up, leaning closer to Angelus's chest. "Did you miss me, pretty William?" Angelus just smirks.
"I'm sure he did, Dru. After all... you are his destiny." She smiled.
"Oh. That's so sweet." My world dropped out from under my feet.They laugh at me. Everyone is always laughing at me. When I was human, when I'm vampire, a ghost. I hate him. He knew and he still-I charge. He beats the crap out of me and then… Angelus throws me into the wall, squeezing my neck, asserting his dominance as my grandsire and teacher. I still fight.
"Don't touch her!"
"Little late for that, Willy. And I really don't like it when you raise your voice to me." I shut up. I know that tone. My ass still hurt from the last time, nearly a week ago.
"William, don't play such a sad tune." Dru said, reclining. "Give us a kiss, then."
"Why did you...? You knew. You knew she was mine."
"Did I?"
"You bloody well knew!" I wrench free and punch the lying bastard. He wasn't suppose to-I charge him again. "Unh-aaaugh!"He deflected me easily and pushed me to the ground.
"Just don't get it now, do you?" He picked me up like a rag doll throwing me onto the couch. He pushes corpses off the couch and sits beside me. I cringe away from him. "Well, you're new... and a little dim. So let me explain to you how things are now. There's no belonging or deserving anymore. You can take what you want, have what you want... but nothing is yours." Drusilla walks out into the doorway. "Not even her."
"You're wrong. We're forever, Drusilla and me." Dru clasped her hands over her heart dramatically.
"Are we?"
"Ah, still the poet now, aren't we, Willy?"
"William." My name. Names are important. So Mother says...or said, whichever.
"Right. William. You know, you really should find a new name for yourself. It just doesn't strike the right note of terror." He patted my knee, stands and goes to stand behind Drusilla. "Tell you what... William. If you want her-" He slipped his hands around Drusilla's body, at the waist, "come and take her." Drusilla holds her hands out, beckoning me. Then there was that whole thing with Mother-
"Spike? Spike? Are you in there, Spike? Eureka Maru to Spike, come in, Spike" I pull myself out of my memories.
"Wot? You say something?"
"I asked where you were just now."
"I'm sorry, I was having a flashback."
"I see. These flashbacks happen often?"
"Increasingly... today." Figure that quote out.
"DID YOU JUST JOHNNY DEPP ME?"
"Don't screech. Sensitive vampire hearing here."
"Oh don't bite me, Spike."....he's learned the hard way what happens when I hear the phrase 'bite me'. I glance over. He's doing the same. We grin at each other and turn back to watch the road. "I have a question….do you even know where you're going?"
"He's my grandsire. It's only a matter of following the feel of Family."
"Uh?" I make a face at that. A sort of 'why am I with you dimwitted dork' sort of look.
"I can feel him here." I tap my temple. "And here." I point to the vein in my throat. "Blood calls to blood."
"Like Dracula?" I throw him a dirty look.
"You bitch." I swerve toward the side of the road.
"AHHH!! Spike, don't do that." I grin when he clutches the seat and I press my foot harder on the gas, speeding down the streets of Los Angeles toward Angel. I'm back. And this time I'm gay! Also, I'm dating a guy…well Xander, he sort of counts as a male. Wonder what Angel will think. I can see his face now. The horror, the revulsion, the reluctant horniness. It's going to be fun.
Author After Notes: It begins. Review if you'd like.
Tropic