Disclaimer: I own nothing, other people do. I own a laptop.
Summary:
AU: In a world where Vampires rule the world and Werewolves are forced into a life of forced servitude, where do the humans of this world fit in? In order to find a place and regain a world that used to be theirs, they must look to Buffy Summers, the Slayer, to lead them in their darkest hour. But what happens when she falls in love with something not entirely...human.
xXx
Chapter 2: Restless Woes, Toes
xXx
Angelus was bored.
And hungry.
The only source of light and warmth came from the fireplace located not too far from him, illuminating his angel-like features as he wandered around the large stone-walled chamber, pacing back and forth, his dark pelt brushing along the floor.
Each step he took echoed through the nearly hollow hall, like a metronome ticking away.
And as he paced, the other three presences within the room simply sat idly, two on one side, one in the corner, their attention focused on his erratic movements and unending pacing.
Even though they didn't show it, each one of them understood Angelus' restlessness, they themselves pent up with unspent energy that tore at them from within the very core of their being.
They were all growing more and more impatient with each passing second.
They could all sense it.
The moon would be full in a few days and every one of them within the proximity could feel the increased intensity of it.
They all craved it.
Every fiber within their being screamed out for it and they could already begin to feel the changes that would soon occur within their bodies.
For when the moon was full, their power would be at its peak around the three nights surrounding the full moon and The Master would once again let them out to hunt, let them roam under cover of darkness, and once again let them feed. But every night after that, after three days of pure, unadulterated feeding, they were not allowed out from their confines after the sun set and darkness fell on the land.
And until the next full moon, they would have to take whatever scraps The Master and the other cold ones decided to spare and that only made to worsen the dull gnawing pain of hunger within them.
But that was the law.
That was his will.
For even though Werewolves and Vampires were both creatures of the night, the night was not dark enough for both of them. So because of this, the cold ones ruled the night while the Wylde ones were forced to run in the day, something not in their nature to do.
But The Master had commanded it, so they, the last of The Wyldes, with their lives bound to him and to him only, had to obey, protecting The Master and the others from harm while the cold ones slept during the day.
Angelus sighed, making one last trip around the room and sat down, moving to place his head onto the cold hard floor of the large mansion. A low growling sound emitted from him as he stared absentmindedly at the wall opposite his view, lost in thoughts of maiming and hunting.
She had been watching him with great interest and when she saw that he had settled, Veruca walked over to where Angelus had chosen to rest. She sat down besides him and nuzzled his bare back, showing her loyalty and respect for him as she attempted to soothe him. Parker and Ethan had also risen from their respective resting places and now began to pace, the sound of footsteps once again echoing through the cold, hollow hall, replacing the previous moment of silence. When she saw that Angelus did not respond, nor acknowledge her, she rose from his side and walked to where her lover stood, entering Parker's embrace.
Suddenly, the chamber door opened and all four turned their attention to the person who had entered the lair.
It was Harmony.
Angelus bolted upright and moved to meet her halfway. He could smell the scent of battle and blood not her own upon her.
"What happened." He demanded.
"Well…" The tiny blonde started, looking away.
Silence returned to the room.
"What."
He was growing impatient.
"The Slayer." She answered, still looking away.
It was a simple answer, but it was enough to let him know what had happened. She brought her head back up to meet his eyes and cringed slightly when she saw that his eyes had turned a dangerous gold filled with anger.
He took a deep breath attempting to calm himself.
"Did she kill him?" He asked, voice steady.
"No. But they managed to knock out Jesse though, and Ben was hurt." She looked sad for a moment but grinned brightly instead. "No one died though!" Then she paused, thinking of a way to break the news of The Anointed one's defeat to the large angry man in front of her. "And…"
"And what?" Impatience lined his tone.
Well…" She smiled awkwardly, her eyes meeting his. "They…kinda, sorta dusted Collin though…and most likely his followers too."
Angelus walked closer to her, closing the distance between them. "How dare they attack the House of The Anointed." He snarled, eyes blazing. "Where were you and the others?"
Harmony felt small and tiny under his unfaltering gaze.
"Well, they had tranquilizer guns…and silver stakes!" She replied nervously. "I tried to stop them but…"
She trailed off.
"And The Master's slave shipment?"
"One died while the others were rescued…The Master won't be too happy. That's for sure…"
Silence fell for a moment before Angelus spoke again, causing her to jump.
"I want her dead." He spoke in a calm, too calm, voice. "Kill the Slayer and bring her body to The Master as penance. Fix your mistake. Do you understand?"
He didn't wait for her reply. "Now go tend to the wounded then report back to me afterwards. We'll have to deal with this problem."
"Yes sir." She nodded. "Will do. Look. This is me. Going. I'm practically gone."
Harmony turned to go.
Angelus walked over to where Ethan and the other others stood and promptly punched Ethan in the face.
Angelus sighed and smiled slightly. "Ahh. I feel better."
Ethan fell to the ground, blood running down the side of his jaw and onto the floor from a cut above his lip. "Bloody fantastic."
From his spot on the floor, he looked up and gave Angelus a dirty look. "So are you going to help me up or not?"
"Of course." Angelus replied brightly, extending an arm to help the older man up.
He suddenly remembered something and released his grip, with Ethan promptly falling back onto the floor with a startled 'oomph!' and a single thought: Damn Angelus.
He could hear Parker and Veruca chuckling in the background.
"Oh, and Harmony?" Angelus called out, turning around.
She stopped in her tracks and swiftly turned around, just in time to see Angelus open his mouth to speak again.
"I'm holding you personally accountable for this."
But that wasn't true. It wasn't her fault. In fact, it was his fault. He knew that The Master wouldn't be happy and would hold him accountable, and he knew that he deserved to be punished. But hey, in the meantime, why not scare her a little? The fear might actually do her some good.
"But-" Harmony walked to where Angelus stood and started to whine, but the glare she got from him shut her up.
She nodded obediently.
"Don't come back until you've killed her with your bare claws."
She was confused.
"Bear claws?" She looked around. "Where would I get bear claws?"
"Harmony…" He said her name with annoyance clear in his tone.
As realization dawned on her she smiled sheepishly and snapped her fingers. "Oh…right…Heh. Gotcha boss."
Harmony walked toward the entrance and left quickly before he could change his mind about letting her live.
Angelus groaned.
He was surrounded by idiot subordinates everywhere he turned.
And that was a LOT of idiots.
He could hear Riley laughing behind him.
Riley's voice rang against his ears like sandpaper. "Pretty girl Angelus, though tsk. Too bad she's as dumb as a post."
Great.
HE was here.
Big brother was paying him a visit.
That meant Tara wasn't too far behind.
He turned around and sure enough, he saw the large, bulky figure of his brother Riley and the not quite-so-large figure of his sister Tara.
Angelus smiled upon seeing her but inwardly groaned at the thought of having to deal with Riley.
Tara walked to him and ran a hand gingerly over his cheeks in greeting and smiled. "Hello little brother."
"Hello Tara." Angelus lowered his head, as a sign of respect. He saw that she was hurt, the normally white pelt around her shoulders stained and splattered with blood. There was also a, what appeared to be, large gash on her forehead. But then again, it didn't come as a surprise to him. Tara's pack-mates were the ones who were guarding the House of The Anointed and the ones who were overlooking the slave shipment. She must have joined the fight when she heard about the attack.
"Are you okay?" He was beginning to feel more and more guilty.
"I'll be fine." Tara smiled and nodded, reassuring him. "It's just a flesh wound. It'll be healed before the moon rises tomorrow."
Riley spoke up.
"Yeah little brother, it's no big deal." He flashed him a teasing smirk as he circled the younger man. "Our big sister isn't weak like you."
"Or, as I recall, you." Angelus replied simply, a tiny smirk of his own graced his features when he saw how fast his comment had wiped the cocky smile off his brother's face.
Tara rolled her eyes as the tension between Riley and Angelus filled the room.
She mentally sighed.
Brothers.
Parker, Ethan, and Veruca, sensing that this was more than just a family reunion, bowed out quietly and left the chamber, leaving the three to speak.
After a few more seconds of the two staring each other down, Tara was getting annoyed. "Ahem. Guys?"
Though pure instinct told him it was time to charge Angelus and teach him who was superior, his sense of reason told him that it was not. That and because if he did, Tara would probably beat him senseless. So Riley relaxed, mentally saving a can of whoop-ass for his overconfident brother.
Angelus saw that Riley had backed down so he had also relaxed slightly as well.
"So…" The annoying smirk was back. "It seems like my boots were too big for you to fill huh little brother? You know you made the wrong decision when you decided that three puppies were enough to oversee the shipment. It was a bad call Angelus." The smirk was gone now, replaced by a grim expression, anger in his tone. "Your bad call ended up involving Tara which got her hurt and The Anointed One dead. There's a reason I'm the Alpha male. You should think twice before the next time you ask The Master to let you lead the pack. That is, if he lets you live eh?"
For once, Angelus had no response.
Because, for once, Riley was right.
Riley's tone lightened a little when he saw that Angelus had nothing to say and because Tara had just elbowed him.
Hard.
He sighed. "I'm pretty sure this doesn't earn you any points with The Master little brother but don't worry, I'm sure he won't kill you. Maybe just torture you a bit?"
Angelus didn't care.
He had failed and would gladly give his life to make up for it.
Tara saw the distress on her younger brother's face and reached out. "It's okay, these things are unforeseen. It's just that, with the moon nearly full and The Master's plans so close to completion, tensions are high."
Angelus nodded. "I know."
He moved and walked towards the door, ready to meet The Master and receive his punishment. He hugged Tara and bid her farewell while simply grunting as he passed Riley, and quickly left the chambers.
He was ready to serve his penance.
He awaited for The Master's return come daybreak.
xXx
"Achoo!"
Buffy Summers sneezed violently for the fourth time in a row.
Spike, who was sitting next to her writing a poem for one of the girls they had just rescued stopped and gave her an odd look. "Getting sick?"
"I don't think so." Buffy shook her head, sniffling a bit. "At least, I shouldn't be. Do Slayers even get sick?"
Spike shrugged. "Hell if I know."
A quizzical, thoughtful look fell upon her face.
"Maybe someone's saying something bad about me."
She frowned.
That would be bad, not to mention mean of whoever was doing the bad-mouthing.
Spike shrugged again, his attention obviously back on the poem he was writing for the girl he was smitten with. "Maybe…"
He scribbled some more on the paper, trying to concentrate.
But it was hard with Buffy talking so much.
A man needed complete and utter silence when writing a manly poem!
"Go bother Wesley would you? I'm busy." He sighed. "I wonder what rhymes with woes…"
Buffy rolled her eyes.
Wooing a girl was obviously more important to her brother than his own sister.
Ugh.
Brothers.
"Whatever Willy. I don't even see why you like her so much anyway. I mean, you just met her a day ago. Do you even know her name?"
He stuck his tongue at her childishly.
"Love needs no labels." He declared simply.
"Right…you were probably just too afraid to ask."
That was true, but since he felt that he didn't have to share that info with his little sister, Spike simply ignored her.
"Wait."
Buffy suddenly remembered something.
"Speaking of a day ago, what did you do with the doohickey you got off the vampire that you dusted?"
"You mean the 'Annoying One'?" Spike looked up. "He wasn't tough at all. I bet the vampires spread hyped up stories about him on purpose so that we'd be afraid." He began to ramble. "Heck, maybe The Master isn't that bad either! Since no one's ever really seen him, maybe he's uber tiny! Like a kitty, a blood sucking kitty…and uhh," He cleared his throat, as if trying to gain back some of the nonchalance he had before going off on his tangent. "I gave it to Wesley. He said that he'd do some research and get back to me."
"Okay, good cuz I totally got the willies, hehe no pun intended…" Buffy winked.
Spike rolled his eyes.
"…when I saw it."
Spike returned to his poem. "This is me ignoring that pun and well, you know Wesley. He loves research almost as much as…" He stopped writing.
Buffy sighed, knowing whose name Spike was going to say.
Life was a constant battle for survival.
They were constantly fighting.
They were never safe.
Not even when the sun was up.
They had learned that the hard way.
"I miss Giles…"
Oh oh.
Taboo territory.
At the mention of Giles, Spike put the pencil down and placed his hand on Buffy's. "I do too. I mean, we owe him so much. He was a great man…so I reckon that we better do him proud yeah?" He smiled.
"Yeah." Buffy smiled back.
Then her smile dropped a little. "But even though it's been five years already…"
Spike placed a hand on her shoulder. "Yeah, I know. It still hurts. But we're doing the right thing here. He would have wanted us to keep fighting."
Buffy nodded. "So that's what we'll do."
"Yep."
"Thanks Willy."
Comfortable silence fell between the two siblings.
"Toes! Brilliant!" Spike suddenly shouted happily, slightly startling Buffy. He picked up the pencil and hurried to scribble some more on the piece of paper, stopping only to mutter 'It's Spike' and shoot her an angry glare.
Tender moment came to an end.
Buffy took a few seconds to digest what her brother had just said.
Was he seriously going to rhyme the words 'woes' and 'toes' in what was supposedly a romantic love poem?
Like Eww.
He was such a bad poet and he didn't even know it!
Spike was still busily scribbling away on the desk, eager to give the poem to the intended recipient as soon as he could.
While sitting next to him was Buffy, chuckling at her, though lame, private joke.
After a few seconds she sighed contently and returned to fixing her training-damaged crossbow, hoping that the group that went on the supply run hadn't run into any trouble, particularly with werewolves, and wondering when they would return from gathering supplies and the other essentials.
It was good that she did because it was in just a mere 48 hours, her life was about to become far more complicated and the crossbow that she was currently working to fix up would be the very thing that saves her life.
xXx
A/N: Review? Pretty please? With Buffy and/or Angel on top? :D Also, is it just me or are the chapters getting longer and longer with each update...
