Chapter ten: a.k.a Death Valley Queen
I'm trying to post faster; they will get faster after next Monday (when all my exams are over!!!) But then they slow again after mid July cos I'm a travelling person, country hopper, what ever you call it, over the summer months, and I've got weddings, and family reunions and all that Jazz in the USA to go to
Death Valley Queen
Spike's eyes blurred open, he couldn't feel anything below his neck, and even above his neck was going numb. He could just make out Angel sitting on the chair in the front of the moving vehicle.
"He's awake," Willow announced, but Spike could barely make out more then a hum of noise. Angel turned, he smiled slightly then frowned, it was getting worse. Angel sighed in frustration, he knew that Giles was going the limit, in fact he was going a little over, but Angel was still irritated. "Spike? Can you hear me?" Willow was leaning over the blond vampire and looking in to his eyes, she sounded truly scared. Spike wanted to nod, or acknowledge the fact that he could hear her, even if it was faint and indistinct, but he couldn't move his head, no matter how much he tried. Willow turned back to talk to Angel and Giles. "If he can hear me he's not showing it," She said sadly, she lent back in to her seat, her hand clutching Spike's in an attempt to give comfort. Angel kept glancing back at his childe, getting more and more anxious each time. The car suddenly halted, Giles looked about the street and nodded to Angel, this was the place. They all quickly got out of the car, Angel running around the car to open Spike's door and get him out, holding him like an injured child Angel carried Spike as he followed Giles up the stone pathway to a large, cream, Spanish-style house. Getting to the dark wooden door Giles knocked a few times and they waited. Angel started to bounce slightly, as if it would speed up the passage of time. Illyria and Buffy had been made to follow behind in a separate car, much to their protest. They were snipping at each other as they walked up the pathway, the door still not answered.
"You sure this is the right house?" Buffy asked, bored already, she'd recently decided that while she cared about Spike, she was angry at both him and Angel. Illyria just placed her hatred as immaturity and jealousy, there being no real reason to dislike the vampires, or at least, she didn't see a reason.
"Yes, I'm quite sure." Giles nodded and knocked again, this time he looked around and saw a curtain on the top floor be pulled back then dropped. They could hear foot steps as something made its way to the front door, they multiple locks were undone and the door was opened. Inside was a short but slender old man, he had thinning grey hair and his face was sunken in and his eyes pierced the very soul of the one who kept his gaze. The cold ice-like rocks he had as eyes scanned suspiciously over the odd looking group of people outside his door, he'd have liked to be able to say it was a rare occurrence for people to seek his help, but sadly it was becoming more and more frequent an obstacle of his. "Hello, I'm Rupert Giles; we spoke on the phone, about the vampire who ingested the poison." Giles held out his hand, it was regarded with suspicion by the older man who then clasped both of his bony hands around Giles's and nodded, shaking them vigorously.
"Yes, yes, terrible business that stuff. Come on in." He spoke in such a harsh yet hurried and proud tone that it didn't seem possible to be coming out of such a feeble looking man. They walked in to the Mediterranean decorated entrance hall. The man closed the door behind them, and led them down a hallway in to a large library with walls covered in books, and books in piles on the floor. The dusty furniture had been moved out of the centre of the room and a circle had been partly drawn. "I started setting up after you called, but left the real specifics out for the moment." He signalled for Angel to place Spike down on the table on the far side of the room, Angel complied. The man looked over the black marks which had grown almost all over Spike's body. He made 'thinking noises' as he prodded the bare skin of Spike's chest, seeing how hard it was, and he felt for a pulse, sadly he felt one. "It's quite far gone, it'll be very painful, and may not even be successful if we try anything." The man sighed, rubbing his eyes. It happened quite often, people got to him just a little to slowly, it was even worse when it was a human; they almost always died painfully, screaming in pain with all their remaining energy.
"We've got to try; if we try and fail then we at least we tried." Angel said slowly, quite quietly as well, he was unsure about his answer, was it really better to prolong Spike's life if it was going to be painful and still possibly end. The old man nodded, it was the course that seemed to only be taken by the un-dead, if it were a human dying then normally they opted to just end it quickly. After a few moments of silence the old man clapped his hands together loudly.
"Right, let's get started. You," He said, pointing at Willow, "Witch right? Get me a clean athame from the glass cabinet over there and that leather satchel as well." Willow nodded and quickly opened the cabinet and picked out a small ebony handled knife and a medium sized patchy leather satchel which had a red cord drawstring handle. Meanwhile the man had gotten Angel to place Spike in the middle of the unfinished circle, before leaving Spike's side for what could be the last time Angel whispered something in to Spike's ear and kissed his forehead. Buffy watched with burning envy from where she was talking to Giles, she nodded her head and pretended to be listening to what her old watcher was saying. Angel left the circle and went to stand next to Illyria, he was paler then usual and he was shaking even though the temperature was bordering the un-usually hot. Buffy suddenly felt very sorry for Angel, he looked so shaken up. She sighed and just walked over to him, leaving a mildly miffed Giles wondering why she had to be so rude. She put a hand on his arm and leaned her head against his shoulder. Angel was slightly confused when he saw her coming over but forgave her almost instantly when she leaned against him. He felt nothing for her anymore, but he knew that she had to be worried as well, even if she'd rather show her anger to hide her fear at loosing Spike again. Illyria didn't understand why the two of them just stood their, Angel wrapping and arm around Buffy and leaning his head on hers. Illyria was quite irate so she went to talk to Giles; she hadn't gotten a chance to speak to the ex-watcher quite yet. Giles intrigued her; he was like, in her opinion, a more mature and sober Wesley, but not as pleasing to her eyes.
Willow and the old man worked quickly, closing the circle with black salt after drawing an ankh on Spike's chest using powdered consecrated silver. The silver hissed as it hit the skin; burning through the black and leaving a deep red and black gorge in his flesh which oozed the black. The man sighed, if he had been human he'd have felt all of that, it was what normally killed them. Standing out side the circle the man took the athame and held brought out a large grey rat from seemingly nowhere, taking the athame he held it close to the squirming rat's neck as he chanted some unknown words in a dead language, Illyria listened intently as she could understand what the man was saying. As he finished he pushed the athame in to the rat's neck, warm blood seeped over his hand, holding the rat at an arms length he walked around the circle, dripping a trail of blood. When he got back to where he'd started he disposed of the rat's body in a bin behind him.
"Will you all stand around the circle for me?" He said loudly, waiting patiently for the group to gather around the circle. "The vampire will need a partner during this; they have to be strong and deeply connected to the patient." Buffy looked at Angel, who was hesitating in case Buffy was going to try and step forward, she shook her head. Angel slowly raised his hand; the old man looked at him and nodded. "Please step in to the circle and kneel next to the patient." Angel stepped over the line of blood, if he hadn't seen magical things like this before he wouldn't have been wary about breaking the circle, but he assumed he wouldn't ruin anything sense the man had asked him to break it. "Now, will you all join hands?" Buffy felt silly, and Illyria was about to refuse when she saw that everyone else, even the Wesley like man, was taking it seriously. The old man was standing out side the circle by Spike's head, he wasn't joining his hands with Buffy and Willow who were each standing a fair distance from him to either side, instead his hands were raised above his head and he'd slowly started to chant something in the old language again. Illyria's breath caught in her throat, she knew this spell. She looked urgently at Angel, he was in danger, he could die if he wasn't strong enough, and you had to be very deeply connected to the person to even stand the slightest chance.
As the man continued Angel screamed in pain, a blinding light shooting from inside of him up in to an opening black portal above their heads. Buffy staring, a gut wrenching feeling of insignificance making her feel physically sick as she watched Angel slowly disappear in to nothingness and be sucked in to the black swirly portal.
0-o-0-o-0-o
There was silence and darkness. Nothing but silence and darkness, that is until Angel realised that his eyes were in fact closed. Opening his eyes there was an entirely different scene, it was still silent, but it was sunny to the extent of the looking like a set from the tellitubbies. The silence began to become truly un-nerve, almost as much as the general area, when he realised all the creatures and objects around him which should have been making sound. All Angel could start to hear was the slowly increasing sound of a heart beat. By the time he actually go to his feet to follow the sound it was almost intolerably loud. Slowly Angel followed the noise of the heart beat, every few minutes he fell to his knees in pain and screamed out, feeling weaker each time, but he knew that he had to follow that noise because he knew where it was leading him. As he got closer the sound got louder, it was so painful he couldn't even stay on his feet, but he didn't have to walk any further, he could see the body lying just a meter away. He was out of energy, he felt like he was about to implode as the bass sound of the heart pounded again. Angel was growling and fighting his game face as he tried to reach out to grab Spike's hand. It was odd, the sound of a heart beat getting stronger signified that Spike was dying, it meant that what ever it was, was gaining control and Spike was loosing. Angel could feel himself screaming as he reached out, the tips of his fingers flexing to try and touch Spike. It was excruciatingly painful, he was sweating more then he could ever remember, and he was crying. That surprised him; Angel couldn't believe that he would do that, even if it were Spike, even in that much pain, he never thought that he would have cried. Just as he heard the strongest beat, that final noise which steadied the heart beat and made it final, with one final scream of defiance Angel got to his knees and took Spike's unmoving hand and squeezed it as they both seemed to fade in to nothingness.
0-o-0-o-0-o
It had been hours sense they'd started the spell, Spike was now solid marble and Angel had disappeared. Buffy was fighting the urge to let go of Giles's hand and go to Spike's side, it was obvious he wouldn't be able to move but she could still sense that he was alive, she just knew he was. The old man had long sense let his arms fall to his sides, and now proceeded to check the time on his watch. Sighing he shook his head.
"He failed." He said blankly, "He obviously didn't do whatever it was he was meant to do to save the poisoned vampire." He turned around and went to get his cleaning equipment, he was going to make them help him, he didn't care if they were grieving, his floor would be stained if it wasn't cleaned. The others all just stood there, they were to shaken to let go of each other. Buffy began to slowly unlock her fingers from Giles's. Just before she did the lights flickered violently and the house seemed to shake beneath their feet. The lights cut off, leaving them all in total darkness. Slowly they turned on again, as if on a dimmer switch, revealing Angel and Spike lying within the circle, Angel clinging to the younger vampire who remained unresponsive.
"They are both alive." Illyria stated, letting her hand fall to her side, knowing that no more was needed. She watched on as the other three ran forward and babied the two vampires who were, ever so slowly, regaining consciousness. It amazed her how Buffy had forgotten being angry and how they seemed to truly care for the two of them, even though she could sense there was still unease and tension between most of them.
End of chapter
Umm…. Yeah, very nonsensical I know, but I just started writing, a slight idea where I wanted it to end, and it got there so I'm happy. It's weird because I was watching comedy shows on youtube whilst trying to write it, a serious chapter with much emotion, as you can tell I fucked up! Reviews, please? Anyone still out there?
S20e03