Crimson Velvet
Chapter 3:
'Branded'
She was aware of being leered at no matter where she went. Faith shuddered and, not for the first time that night, pulled self-consciously at her "skirt". It was extremely unlike her to feel this way. Normally, she loved it when people watched her, it gave her a boost of confidence to know that they all wanted her. But normally, she wasn't alone in an unknown parallel universe looking like an escapee from the S/M version of the Playboy Mansion.
Cordy had indeed thought of something to do with her hair, but Faith wouldn't really call it "cute". "Interesting" would be the kindest adjective to describe it; "twisted", "freaky", and "yuck" were the words that came into Faith's mind. She had first braided Faith's hair, then put it up in two strange looking buns on the back of her head, with black lacy ribbon trailing down her back. She had also left out two large chunks that she had curled and now waved around her face. It had frightened Faith to look at her reflection…luckily, Crimson Velvet wasn't known for it's mirrors. She couldn't imagine why.
A shout from the other side of the room reminded her that she was balancing a tray of drinks and there were thirsty demons waiting. Sighing, she tried to brush some of the hair out of her face and headed over. She set down the tray a little to carelessly, and droplets of whatever neon green liquid was in the glasses sprayed over the table. A scaly looking demon hissed at her.
"Watch it, girly."
"Excuse me?" Faith couldn't help herself. She tilted her body and stuck a hand on her hip, unaware that she was making quite a few demons at tables behind her very happy with their seats. The demon narrowed it's yellow eyes at her and flicked out a pronged tongue.
"You should check that mouth," he stood up, and uncoiled. He was almost seven feet tall and Faith swallowed hard. Massive, angry snake-like demon: check. Slayer powers: uncheck. She looked away, bracing herself for the impact when he stretched his claws. But it didn't come.
"I think someone's unclear on the rules around here." She opened her eyes in shock to see Angelus, with a firm grip on snake-boy's…appendage.
"She insulted me," he hissed again, trying to wriggle out of the vampire's grip.
"Hmm, well then that's different," Angelus smiled at him, then punched him squarely between the eyes. The demon fell over backwards. "Let's review, people. You have a problem with my girls, you tell me about it. I'm a licensed professional." A majority of the clubbers laughed and returned to their drinks.
Faith sighed and started to head off to find someone to talk to, but his hand closed around her arm.
"You made me look bad in front of the customers, honey. We're going to have a nice, long chat about that later." Faith wrenched her arm away and he chuckled, "Don't take attitude with me, missy. We wouldn't want anybody to get…dead." Turning away from her, he sauntered off to do god-doesn't-want-to-know what. Faith shook her head and rubbed her arm, scanning the crowd.
She focused on a person standing by the door. She was blonde, small, looked very familiar. She was obviously wearing a Crimson Velvet uniform, but it wasn't the same one as all the other girl's wore. She wore a blazer made out of the same material as Faith's skirt with the burgundy lace at the cuffs, with a pair of black leather pants. Obviously this version of the uniform was meant to tease, rather than display.
"Hey," Faith tapped the shoulder of one of the girls who was laughing loudly at a joke a very old looking vampire had just told, "Who's that? I didn't see her earlier."
"Oh," the girl rolled her eyes, "That's just Buffy. She's a 'vampire slayer'. I honestly don't know why Angelus keeps her around."
"Thanks," Faith said, suddenly feeling detached. Buffy. There was someone else she knew in this dimension. She made her way over, and put a hand on Buffy's shoulder. Buffy spun around, all ready to fight. Faith had to do a double take. It was Buffy, but…she looked so different. She was deathly pale, with dark circles under her eyes. Her lips were raw and there wasn't a spark of life in her eyes.
"What do you want?" She sounded tired, drained of life and energy. And Faith knew why Angelus kept her around.
"I'm new, and I just thought I'd say 'hey'. So, hey."
"I don't talk with groupies," Buffy turned away and folded her arms, looking very much like she was trying to disappear.
"Groupie? I'm not a-"
"Angelus' groupies. All you girls who sit around and twitter and offer him your necks. You have no clue what he is." Wow, Faith thought, confrontational Buffy. Apparently this Buffy was a lot more assertive and world-weary than her Buffy. But then, living in a dimension where Angelus was in control…
"I'm not a groupie. I just got here yesterday, and one of the other girls brought me here. And once I was here, it's not like I could say, 'Gee, Angelus, I don't really think I'd like to work for the most vicious vampire who ever didn't live.'"
Buffy snorted with laughter. Faith grinned. Buffy tilted her head and licked her chapped lips.
"You really aren't like them, are you?"
"Never have been," Faith said. It was a little twisted. Here was a world where Buffy was an outcast because she was the noble vampire slayer, and Faith was part of the in-crowd because well, she could act like a whore. That was scary. In her dimension, they had both been branded as Slayers-Buffy triumphed and Faith suffered. Here, only Buffy was marked, and she was the suffering one. Twisted. Buffy smiled slightly and nodded, looking away. It was accepted now that Faith was like her. She was just another girl who was pulled into a bad situation. "How did he get you?"
"I came here to kill him. I was a great Slayer. Killed everything I went after, never thought twice about slaying a demon. But he was different. He gave me puppy dog eyes and told me he was different. And I believed him," she shook her head and laughed mirthlessly at her own stupidity, "god, did I believe him. I needed to 'help' him. I 'loved' him. My Watcher told me that he was a lying bastard, but I couldn't believe it. Not my sweet little Angelus. He would never hurt anyone. He was misunderstood. Make a long, sordid story short: we had sex, he nearly drained me, I'm not strong enough to fight him anymore. So I work for him."
Faith shook her head. Not so different from her world. Because she was sure that wasn't the entire story. A Slayer's strength would return. It wasn't that she couldn't defeat him in a battle of muscle. It was the other thing. Angelus' specialty. The psychological card. He could twist her mind in so many different ways, and deep down, Faith would bet her normal clothes that Buffy still loved him, in a sick, perverted way. She still wanted to save him from himself. But she never could. Redemption…that was one word Faith got really sick of. But it applied, didn't it? He would never be able to redeem himself. So Buffy would just keep suffering.
"Say, the big A wants me to meet him later…any clues what that's about?" Buffy grimaced.
"We're cattle here, Faith. You know that, don't you? And you know what the rancher does to cattle, right?" Faith stared uncomprehendingly into her eyes for a few more minutes before it clicked. A wave of revulsion swept over her.
"He brands them," she whispered. Buffy nodded.
"Sure does. And you can judge how much he likes you by how carved up you are by the time he's done. Ask the girls after shift. They love to show."
"Well, everyone and the new girls get this one," Cordy ran her finger along the "basic" marking on the back of one of the other "new girls", a jagged looking 'A' burned on. "And you get a little bit more the happier you make him."
"Show her yours, Cordy!" One of the girls called, and murmurs of assent went up all around. Cordelia blushed and pretended to resist, but Faith saw the pleased sparkle in her eyes. Dramatically, she unlaced her corset, and let it drop. Faith almost had to run to prevent herself from being violently ill right there. But she held herself.
Cordelia's back was a garden of jagged looking flowers and vines. The 'A' was in the small of her back, and the rest spread out from there. It covered the entire bottom portion of her back, and most of her abdomen. Some of the scars were still red and raw, fairly new. Others had faded, but were still terrible to behold.
"Cordy's the lucky one," another of the girl's piped up, sounding unbelievably jealous, "Angelus adores her."
"Lucky," Faith murmured under her breath, gently touching the scars.
Faith was greeted by agonized screaming. She gently pushed the door open. Angelus was smiling up at a short young man with curly hair who was chained to the ceiling. He had several rather sharp objects protruding from various parts of his body, and Angelus was turning a fire poker over in his hands.
"I hope I'm not interrupting."
"Oh, of course not," Angelus rammed the poker through the man's leg. He wailed and blood oozed out of the wound. Angelus winced and grinned, "Now that's gotta hurt!"
"I could come back later if you're occupied."
"No, no," the vampire squinted up at his victim, "I think he's passed out. Rotten luck. But that frees me up. Have any experience in torture?"
"Some." Bad memories of some events involving Wesley that she'd rather forget flooded into her mind.
"Damn, we could bond over some corpses," Angelus smiled, "now, I believe you're here for some fun with a branding iron. Ooh, but you were naughty girl tonight, weren't you?"
"You know what I think?" Faith forced herself to sound cool and collected. Angelus cocked his head at her.
"That you'd prefer a whipping to the pokers?"
"I think," she ignored him as best she could, "that you aren't mad about this evening."
"Oh no? Because I know me pretty well, and I think I'm really mad."
"You're bored."
"Yeah? Enlighten me."
"You've got all these young, beautiful girls, just dying for you to torture them, do whatever you want with them." Angelus nodded.
"Yeah, not really seeing a problem with that," he started forward, but Faith stood up quickly.
"They're no fun anymore, are they? You haven't had a real challenge since Buffy, have you?"
"Oh, did dear ol' Buff tell you her sob story? I'll have to punish her for that. Do you think she'd prefer chainsaws or hot coals? Since you seem to have the insider's opinion on just everything," he flipped over the table with a crash. Faith backed up, but refused to stop talking.
"You want a woman who'll take charge, and deny you something for a change." He was so close now, his lack of breath was painfully evident. In her last ditch effort, Faith wrapped her arms around his neck, giving him her most sultry look, "and where will you ever find a woman like that?" She ran her leg slowly up and down his. He grinned.
"I think I like this plan," he pulled her in and kissed her, hard. Then he bit down on her lip until it started to bleed profusely. She was completely engulfed by him, and was painfully aware of how quickly he was drawing the blood from her. But just when she thought he was going to finish the job, he threw her down onto the sofa in the room. Wiping his mouth with a sleeve, he slid casually out of game face back to his handsome façade.
"Tasty," he licked his lips again, and was poised over her. Faith couldn't bring herself to look into his eyes, because she knew the lust she would see there, and desperately wanted to pretend she wouldn't. But he was distracted, by whimpering from above him. "Hey there, buddy," he tilted his head back and grinned a very wolfish grin, "did you sleep well?"
