Sometime Around Midnight

by Tropicwhale

disclaimer: Not mine.

WARNINGS! ah, boy. What's going on in this chapter? Vampire mind games and a little….um….M/M/F LIME? and some M/M Lime. I blame Dracula. This so not what I planned. What the hell? Ummm. Spike's sailor mouth? Violence.

Author Talk: Whew! So, I'm determined. I will finish this series. six books after this one. I've decided something about this and the next 'book'. I've realized that the harder I try to stick to my outline, the more difficult it is to write. So I'm letting up on my leash a little and going to see where this goes. Alright? Alright. Besides, outlines are more like guidelines anyways…a back up plan if you will. Right. Okay. Onto the story. Ps: thanks for all the reviews. I know this story isn't as fast paced as the others but I'm working on it. Experimental. Yeah!

Chapter 13: All the Vampire games

I. Am. Bored!

Really. Who knew vampires could be should long winded sots! Help! I'm about to be dusted by boredom! Someone let some blood or dismember something or disembowel a servant. ANYTHING! I'd rather attend a month-long research party with the Scoobies and the Bat Pack where Angel and Buffy spend the entire time making not-quite goo-goo eyes at each other and Kennedy keeps sneaking off to cheat on Willow and Giles and Faith make out to old David Bowie tracks than be here!

Where the hell is Xander when you need him? Do you think they'd make blood-filled donuts? I'll take a dozen with a large cup of blood with Wheetabix in it. And Xander should serve it to me wearing nothing but those leather pants and his eye-patch. Yum. Oh, and add an order of hot wings and one of those onion blossom things. God, the stuff of wet dreams that.

It's two am in the morning and we've been talking since an hour and a half after dusk. So far we've covered names….and a recap of Aneirin rising and this whole situation with vampires being out and about on television and in the global eye. We've also gone over the whole Twilight thing. And now Dominus and the great Bat of Transylvania have been posturing. I've sat back and tried to keep my eye lids from twitching in boredom. One of the Count Bat's servants hands out goblets of blood. I taste mine carefully. It was a young girl's spiced with her own fear and cinnamon. I only hope that she died quickly. I shift the goblet away carefully watching the floor show of Dominus and Dracula taking not so subtle barbs at the other's bloodlines. I count to ten slowly and roll my eyes to the ceiling. WWAD?

What Would Angelus Do? Nope. Can't eviscerate them. Be fun though. What Would Buffy Do? Nope. Can't stake them. Need them un-living to put the bite down on the human governments. What Would Xander Do? Give me head to keep from eviscerating or staking them? No, wait. That's what I'd have him do. What Would Illyria or Drusilla Do? Talk to the plants probably. Hmm. Running out of people. Isn't that always the problem? What Would Angel Do? Brood. Nope. Not an option. What Would Lorne Do? Probably start a sing-along. Gah, no. Dracula is already gay enough that if he starts singing he'll be worse than Lestat. And the world just doesn't need a vampire gayer than Lestat. Oz would probably just be quiet. What Would Patricia Do? Probably think 'hmm What Would Spike Do' and I so am not sharing Xander's mouth with her. Love her, won't share with her. What Would Giles Do? Read a library book. Willow? Nah…wait. What would Willow Do? Hmm.

"Are we boring you, Spike?" One of the female Cainites asks me suddenly, I recognize her as the sire of Patrick and the stupid fledge that fell off the balcony of the Mass. I blink and look around. Everyone is staring at me.

"Absolutely." I say. It throws them. Honesty usually throws old, dead things.

"Oh?" Dominus asks. He still looks young.

"I'm thinking about my Claimed with various wet food treats….it's passing the time that you waste having pissing contests between the two bloodlines."

"What would you have us do, Spike?" This comes from Dracula.

"I'd rather know what we can do about the humans and Twilight. He's been gaining speed with the demons as well. Also? I need your combined resources to find the Grimmoire of Morgana Le Fay."

"And what makes you think we don't know where the book is?" the female Cainite asks. So going to stake that bitch.

"Because you lot are evil. The Grimmoire is a source of unimaginable power. You'd have used it already. Aneirin-"

"Yes, Aneirin. I heard that she wanted you as her king, Spike. How do we know you don't want the book to give to her? As a wedding present?" I grin nastily.

"Why would I want to settle down with the gold bitch of England? I enjoy being the biggest bad in Paris, surrounded by my court and with access to the Court of Miracles."

"The King of Truands allows you to claim Mastery of his city?" Dominus is curious.

"He hasn't come after me and I've been there for over two years. Our paths don't really cross. He keeps to the mundane half of Paris where I police the supernatural set. It's mutually beneficial." I shrug. "I still need to find the book. Call me weak but I've grown fond of this world. If rumor and legend holds true than that book has a spell in that takes out all magic."

"You are weak enough for it to pass over. Not even two hundred." this bitch is starting to annoy me.

"I'm not willing to take that risk nor am I about to trust another creature to use its power for stupid reasons. I've learnt my lessons well when Angelus and Dru tried to suck the world into hell."

"So this is about self-preservation?" Dracula asks. "You'd have us believe you surround yourself with slayers and the forces of good to, what? protect yourself?"

"I'm not the only one in the room that uses slayers as bodyguards." I look at Dominus.

"Yes, but my slayers are brainwashed. I would never allow our enemies so close without some sort of measure so my childer will not be harmed."

"Your paternal instincts are touching." I say snidely. "I've found that winning loyalties among the slayers was not that difficult. The group that I keep in Paris were so hungry for a guiding hand it just touched my undead heart. They'd die for me now."

"And Xander? What of my manservant?"

"As you well know my Claimed has a direct line to all that Buffy does. She's gone and gotten herself a nice set up. It was in Scotland but now is somewhere in Tibet." There was a shift around the room. "Didn't know that?" I smirk.

"So this is what?"

"Increasing my chances of seeing next century. If you want to continue to play power games in this back corner of the world, go ahead. Help me get what I want and I'll leave you to it."

"What do we get in return?" Dominus asks. I smile.

"Buffy and Dracula fought to a standstill only because he has gypsy tricks up his sleeve. Would you fair as well?" I wonder aloud. "Would the Masses of Cain stand up to a direct onslaught of the slayers?"

"Are you threatening us?" another, male, Cainite asks. Dominus raises his finger and the vampire resumes his silence and seat.

"He is wondering why we fear the slayers enough to allow the human government to use us as a tourist attraction." Dominus says. "If we are truly the Scourge of God then we've no reason to fear the Shadowmen's puppets." Not exactly but let him think what he will.

"The Immortal feels the same way you do. He ousted Andrew Well's squad from the Seven Hilled City. Which is why they are in your territory." I explain. "Why be so obvious about a few dozen girls when there are bigger fish to fry? I've seen examples of them fighting. Buffy makes sure none of them know how to fight one on one."

"They've turned into pack hunters?" Dracula asks.

"Yeah. There's no challenge to kill a slayer anymore. You just take out the ones that aren't paying attention. They rely on their teammates a little too much and poof! Dead slayer. It's no fun."

"So, what do you suggest we do?"

"One, find Morgana's Grimmoire. Two? Send a representative to Rome to talk to the Immortal. If your bloodlines and his influence can reverse some of the damage that stupid bint, Harmony, wrought by killing that rogue slayer than Twilight and Aneirin will find it harder to take out the slayers because of all that positive publicity. It'll slow down their world domination plans long enough that me and mine can find a way of destroying the book."

"And what then? Have people fear us? Our kind would be wiped from existence by the mundane mob." Dracula says. I shake my head and lean forward.

"No. It gives us the chance to take our fights underground again. In public the whole slayer vs vampire thing will be a thing of long ago legend. Myths. We're civilized in this new day of technology and light. But, behind closed doors and in the shadows we go back to trying to destroy the other side. On our own terms. Any fights that pop into the public eye are a bunch of young rogues from both sides or reenactments or public justice like football." Dominus' eyes light up.

"A ruse. What you are proposing is a ruse. The mundane world has no right to our secrets and our mysteries. A worldwide cover-up! How progressive!" Dominus is gleeful.

"I don't trust him." bitch-face speaks again. "He hasn't touched his blood." I smile at her.

"Forgive me. I took a sip. I have found that having fresh, willing blood donors has ruined me to the taste of fear in my meals…but I enjoyed the cinnamon. It was a nice touch." she slumps back and Dominus taps the table with one finger.

"Forgive Phyllis. She speaks out of turn too often. I must punish her after the meeting is over." Phyllis doesn't even flinch. I cotted on to what they were doing. Phyllis was to play devil's advocate while Dominus got to be the fascinated but stern patriarch. Vampire version of good cop/bad cop. Didn't matter to me. I wasn't going to give them anything they could use or not figure out on their own.

"She doesn't bother me." I shrug it off and let the awkward silence fall. I let it stretch for a moment or two. "Do we have an agreement?"

"You have given us much to think on, William." Dracula eventually concedes. "I must have a night and a day to consider it."

"Mm, as do I." Dominus rises. "Tomorrow night...if Vladimir or I have decided to lend our weight to your cause, fledging, there will be a show of faith from all sides. Tomorrow. Come, my childer, I must feed." The Cainites rise and trail their master out of the room. Dracula slumps back and rings a bell that seemingly appears out of nowhere. A small scaly demon appears and whisks away all the dirty goblets.

"I must to my hunt as well. The night grows old. I will see that you are brought willing food, Spike." Dracula's lips hardly as he speaks so that his voice sounds from the air. I snort.

"You should have a dummy for that ventriloquist act." Dracula smiles softly.

"I usually do." He rises. "They will help. We've made no secret that Xander is important to us both and they know that I will help out of fondness for him. They know that if they do not act soon their Masses of Cain will be wiped from the earth or forgotten. Perhaps both. You played beautifully tonight. I had thought that I'd have to reveal my own intentions in protecting your interests. It pleases me to find it unnecessary."

"And wot are your intentions, Drac?" He gives a smile that mysterious then flashes some fang before letting his face drift back into a blank canvas."

"That would be telling, would it not? Goodnight, William, perhaps I will see you before dawn reaches my place of rest." He steps back into the shadows and is gone. Fucking Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. I sit for awhile contemplating my next move. Dracula didn't live up to his promise of helping me find Xander's room which was hardly surprising. I contemplate wandering until I found it but I wasn't about to go traipsing about Vlad's funhouse of terror on my own without a guide. Although, Dracula is the sort that would tell all of his servants to mislead me just so that I end up wandering into the main courtyard just as the sun comes up over the horizon leaving Xander all to Dracula's tender care….or, and here's the kicker, I could call Xander and get him to help me. I grab my cell from a pocket and flip it open. No reception.

Dammit.

I wander out the dining hall and toward the nearest window. "You wouldn't get an reception inside Castle Dracul or for two miles around it." A voice says and I fight myself not to jump. I turn slowly and there's a little Gypsy grandmother standing part in the shadows. "Not even satellite phones. Signal scrambler." A wolf howls outside the window. She cocks her head to the side. "Ah, the children of the night. Such music they make."

"I'd ask you to lead me back to the room I am sharing with my Claimed but I figure your Master would tell you not too." The old woman bobs her shaggy head.

"However, if I were to say that I was bringing a snack to the manservant." She holds up a tray of tea and fruit into the starlight. "And you were to follow me…that wouldn't be against my orders as long as I say not to follow me." She waits a beat. "Don't follow me." She starts off down the corridor. I wait a few seconds and follow behind her. Dracula's castle, Dracula's games and thus Dracula's rules. Bloody hell. What did I get Xander into?

Eventually, she knocks on a door and light spills out of it, silhouetting my lover but his scent was unmistakable as was his voice "Vadoma! Come in! How are you?" The old woman enters the room and I catch up just as the door starts to close. Xander blinks at me, lost in shock…and was that signs of hypnotism? I kiss him hard to break him out of it, just in case. After a vertigo inducing second, Xander responds and wraps an arm around my waist. The old woman snorts and walks around us to shut the door.

"He's a smart one, this fledging. Another second and I would have told you that a Cainite was following me and ask for protection. You have good taste, manservant." Xander pulls away to breath and answer the woman.

"Vadoma! That's horrible."

"Is expected. The Master sees the fledging as competition. I would be rewarded for ridding of him." Xander's jaw drops. I close it with a finger without loosening my grip on him.

"It is expected, Xander. Vampires live by death and blood." Xander looks at me.

"But, Vadoma's human." I shake my head.

"She's one of the sisters." I say gently then look at the old woman. "The blonde one, right?" She grins and transforms into a blond Circassian beauty.

"Only one that can cook. The Master won't be pleased that you sniffed me out."

"Eh, watch me care. You tried to get my lover to kill me." She grins like a wolf.

"I don't smell of vampire, how'd you sniff me out?"

"You used Drac's wolf line when describing the hunt call; 'children of the night'. It was an undead giveaway." She grins and grabs an apple off of the tray that she had set down on the end table across the room. She was fast. "Those tricks of Dracula's don't impress me, love."

"What tricks of my Master? These are my tricks, Mine and my sisters. Bite." She offers the apple to Xander.

"Bite the apple, bite. Nothing bad happened to me and the snake said it was okay." I parrot. Xander, who had almost accepted the fruit, stops. "Don't accept anything from the sisters, Xander." She scoffs.

"We like the manservant. He's nice to our older forms. No one is nice to our older forms. They prefer us young and subtle." She pets Xander's cheek and I can see his eyes start to glaze over.

"Vadoma…how'd I not see you were one of the vixens?" She grabs his hand a lays it alongside her neck.

"Fake a pulse. Smell human." She turns red glowing eyes to me. "Come to bed now." I'm on the bed with my clothes off next to an equally naked Xander before I realize what's happened. Vadoma is kissing her way down my body while slowly milking his erection to fullness. I'm already there. She scraps small, sharp fangs down my stomach and laps at the pooling blood. Ah.

It's been awhile since I've a lover that liked a little violence with their sex. She makes another set of parallel cuts on my left thigh and I groan to look over at Xander. Vadoma's fingers have disappeared behind Xander's balls and the he's kissing me as two small, slender fingers enter me. Xander and I moan into the kiss. Got to love having a lover who has several centuries of sexual experience under their belt.

There is a cool mouth wrapped around me and I reach down to stroke Xander. He thrashes against my side and accidently claws a nipple. I'm about to roll over and pin him for that when Vadoma finds my prostate and I'm pretty sure I just experience real death for a moment because I'm looking down at my body thinking 'holy fuck!'. Then I'm back in my body and Xander's purposefully playing with my nipple and there's all sorts of fun things going on in the bed and the bedroom door slams open. I break away from Xander, whose mouth latches onto an ear, to growl in my true face at the intruder. I was having fun here!

Dracula was suddenly over us and flinging Vadoma across the room by her fuzzy hair. They were hissing back and forth in what I'm sure was a six hundred year old backwoods dialect of Romanian so quickly that most Romanians wouldn't have know what they were saying much less me. Xander, completely still enthralled, was starting to hump my leg.

That, in of itself, is a major distraction. Who cares what Dracula and one of his little brides are saying when I have a warm, nummy treat rubbing off on me. I reach over and grab his erection and use it as leverage to roll us over. Then I'm flying through the air, ass backward. I have just enough time to think 'wot the bleedin' 'ell?' before hitting the stone wall. I blink and recover to see Xander trying to paw Dracula onto him. Dracula grabs his hands and swings him out of the bed so that his feet are dangling a few inches off the floor. Seeing as Dracula is the shorter of the two it's impressive on sheer physics. Xander whines and that clears my head more than the head-to-wall impact did. I'm on Vadoma like white on rice and slamming her into the wall before Dracula can say "Everyone stop." We all freeze. I'm glaring at Vadoma careful not to meet her eyes. "That is enough. Vadoma, you will behave yourself or else." Really? or else? Is that really effective? Vague threats are no body's friend. Threaten to drop her out the window into the river with anvil stilettos. That's a threat.

"Yes, Master. I will behave." Vadoma looks past me. Bah, wimp. Xander wouldn't fold for such a cheesy vamp.

"Manservant, please get control of yourself."

"Yes, Master."…..I blame the gypsies….and Victorian Gothic literature. Dracula wasn't nearly this bad before that bloody book was published.

"Spike." I steel myself and slip inside that place where nothing really matters. Dracula is at my side in what feels like normal time. Although, Xander's inhale tells me that it was faster than human. "Spike." Dracula whispers and wraps an arm across my waist.

"She fucked with me and mine." I hear the dead sound that comes out of my mouth; predatory and I couldn't bring myself to give a fuck. "By right, you lot can die tonight." I snarl when Xander comes up on the other side of me, arm around my waist, stinking of Dracul. My hand tightens on Vadoma's neck.

"It's true." Dracula admits. "Our lives are forfeit for the insult Vadoma paid you this night." Vadoma looks at her master until I dig my nails into her skin. She starts breathing. A pulse beats under my fingers. Ridges slip out along on my face, spine, and fingers, and my nails lengthen into claws. My fangs descend. I pull my free arm up and push Dracula away. Vadoma whimpers. There's only one way for this to end and it's bloody.

"Spike. Please, don't kill her," a soft voice asks in my ear "for me?" I glance at Xander and the violent moment passes. I crack my neck and my human features slip to the fore. I wretch Vadoma into Dracula before releasing her neck.

"Get out." I tell them, still staring at my Claimed. Dracula nods and leads his bride out of the room. Shutting the door behind them. Xander touches my sides, softly. "Don't touch me."

Author After Talk: eep!

Tropic