Chapter 11
Spike sat in the dark, rocking back and forth, just watching the dead body lying across from him. "Oh God, what have I done?" he repeatedly whispered under his breath, waiting for his Sire to arise a vampire once again.
He rocked and chewed his thumb, waiting, not knowing who or what would awaken soon. Would it be Angel? Or had he just resurrected Angelus?
Spike couldn't wait anymore. He bounded to his feet and took his place over the still form, a stake clenched tightly in his hand. "I'm sorry," he said, the plea no more than a breath, and brought the stake down to impale the silent heart.
A cold hand halted the stake mere inches from its intended target. Spike gasped, not wanting to cry out as the pain shot up his wrist. He could hear the small fragile bones snapping like dry twigs under the crushing force of the undead fingers circling his wrist.
The chipped vampire felt eyes on him and met the burning gaze of his Childe newly awakened. He was mortally afraid at what he saw in the black depths of his Childe, his Sire. Spike had never wanted to run from anyone as much as he wanted to run right now.
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Time was running out. Buffy could feel it slipping away. She was fighting a loosing battle against the tears threatening to turn her into a blubbering mess.
Aurora was frantic. She couldn't understand what was going on with her mother. Something terrible had happened and it involved her father, but every time she asks, this stricken look enters her mother's hazel eyes and she turns away.
"Mom, please," she begged, close to tears herself. "What's wrong? What happened? Tell me!"
Buffy looked at her daughter, her dark eyes so worried, so young and innocent, so much like her father's. The tears collected in Buffy's eyes, making Aurora's face swim in front of her. She turned away, rubbing furiously at the salty droplets creeping across her flushed cheeks. "It's…"
A loud crash from above them cut Buffy off in mid-lie. Drusilla's cry of pain echoed down to the captive audience. Another crash, followed by Riley's bellowing roar, sounded. Darla's shrill voice drifted down the stairs, "Never again, Riley! Do I make myself perfectly understood? Never! You threaten Dru again and I will stake you myself!"
Drusilla was weeping miserably. Riley was stomping around in a fury, shouting at the top of his lungs at Darla, "You think you scare me?! I would welcome a stake through the heart if it would stop her incessant yammering about that thorn in my side! He is not a god! He isn't even a demon anymore! He's a flesh and blood human, but still you obsess about him! Both of you! I am so sick to death of competing with that fuck! God, I need to kill something! I think I'll start with the pretty baby Slayer."
"No!" Drusilla cried out through her tears. "You can't have the Slayers! Grandmummy, please! We need them for the party. Little birdies screaming for a feast…"
"You bitch!" Riley snapped, advancing on the cowering vampire on the floor. "You would deny me? Still, you would deny me?"
Darla stepped into the furious vampire's path. "Take the Watcher. Kill him, torture him, I don't care," she hissed in a rage at having her family threatened by this fledgling. "Touch the Slayers and deal with me." Her voice dropped into a deep growl as she vamped out.
Riley thought better of testing the elder female vampire, turning on his heel and storming off to get his consolation prize, grumbling under his breath that he will have his due.
The Slayers watched Riley's approach warily. The vampire was not in the greatest of moods, that much they gathered from the extremely loud conversation they overheard mere moments before and the black scowl contorting his vampire features even further.
Without a word to either of the women, Riley yanked open the cage door, grabbed Nate by the hair and started to drag his screaming, struggling carcass out after him.
Aurora flew at her enemy, screaming, "No! You can't have him!" Her tiny fist landed against Riley's jaw, making his head snap back under the preternatural force.
The vampire turned his glowering yellow eyes on the battle-ready Slayer and snarled, showing her his dripping fangs. His hand shot out, grabbing Aurora by her exposed throat and dragged her to him in one jerk of his arm. "You're daddy's whores won't keep you safe from me for long. Soon you'll beg me to kill you, little girl!" he growled, bathing Aurora's face in his hot, fetid breath before flinging her away from him.
The cage rattled as Aurora's body connected with the bars. Buffy was at her daughter's side, running her hands over the fast-bruising skin of Aurora's face. "Aurora? Baby? Talk to Mommy," she cooed, fear sneaking into her voice.
Riley's cruel laughter made Buffy's head snap up to meet the once-kind blue eyes that were now filled with malice and hate. "Touch her again, you son of a bitch, and you'll be the one begging," she promised, her daughter held protectively against her breast.
Riley just laughed, dragging his toy with him out of the cage and up the stairs.
"Oh God, please don't kill me!" Nate was begging Riley, cowering away from his captor as far as he could. Riley towered over the shaking, sobbing form of the Watcher at his feet, grinning mercilessly as he shifted the red hot poker between his long fingers.
"I'm begging you, please! Don't kill me! I'll give you anything you want! ANYTHING!!!" Nate's voice rose to a falsetto squeak, tears streaking down his reddened cheeks, his eyes locked in terror on the hot metal in Riley's hand.
"Anything?" Riley asked, his eternally handsome face splitting into a leering grin.
Nate looked up at the grinning vampire, hope jumping in his gut. "Yes! Yes! Anything!" he cried. Maybe he would get out of this with his skin intact, the Watcher thought feverishly.
Riley knelt down, regarding the weeping man intently. 'Oh yes,' he knew. 'This man would sell his own mother to save himself. But would he sell what I want?' Riley decided to put it to the test.
"I want the Slayer. I want Buffy Summers."
Nate gasped with relief. For an instant he thought he would have to choose between himself and his charge, but if this soulless demon wanted the mother, he could have her. "Fine! Yes! Take her. She's yours!"
"I'm pretty sure her little brat won't like it if I take her bitch mommy like I took her Watcher," Riley commented.
Nate almost jumped to reassure his tormentor. "I'm her Watcher. She'll do as I say. You don't have to worry."
Riley snorted at the flushed man's ignorant statement. "Really? If you believe that, you're more worthless than I thought."
He raised his hand, the poker glowing hot red as the air rushed past its overheated tip. Nate followed the arc of the poker with eyes sparred wide open with panic. "Drugs!!" he screamed franticly, his crotch darkening as his bladder betrayed him for a second time. "I could drug her! She wouldn't be a problem."
Riley halted his hand a hair's breadth from the sobbing Watcher's unprotected eye and smiled a pleased smile. "Good thinking, little man, but I don't think Mommy would just stand by and watch her baby bitch get drugged. She would probably kill you, me and everyone else here. Think of another plan."
The poker sizzled and Nate's bellows of stark terror and intense pain filled the house like sweet music as his watchful Watcher-eye cooked in its socket.
"Drug them both," the Watcher mouthed. He had no oxygen left in his lungs and the fire eating its way through his face up into his brain and down into his toes was robbing him of what little voice he had left.
Of course, Riley had already thought of that. He was never stupid, not even when he was a human fighting on the side of good. He just wanted to hear the begging man scream. He loved making fragile things scream. Plus now he had a much bigger bargaining chip to ensure the Watcher's full cooperation. He could do as Riley ordered and have only suffered the loss of an eye, or he could be defiant and loose his life piece by agonizing piece.
As Riley explained to his new puppet what he wanted, Nate nodded dejectedly. He didn't want to hurt the girl under his care, but if the death of her mother would keep him alive one second longer, he would do whatever is necessary to have that one second.
Two minions carried-dragged the half-unconscious body of Aurora's Watcher back to humans' prison. Aurora, pacing the small floor of the cage like a frustrated jungle cat, sped to the door. Her heart screamed in fury at the sight of the horror his face had become.
Buffy was keeping a close eye on the two minions still standing outside their cage. Why aren't they leaving, the elder Slayer wondered suspiciously. She got her answer when Aurora yelped behind her.
Buffy's eyes fell on her daughter's slumped body on the floor. "Aurora!" she called in a panic. Then she saw the needle in Nate's hand. "What did you do?" she asked, hate and pure fury raging through her powerful body.
Nate didn't answer. He just looked miserable, his bloodied and swollen face a mask of sorrow.
"What the fuck did you do?!" Buffy demanded, slamming the badly beaten man against the bars, eliciting a hoarse cry of pain from his split lips.
Nate turned his remaining eye on the small woman whose hand around his throat could snap his neck with a mere flick of her wrist and whispered, "I'm sorry."
Buffy felt the two minions behind her. She turned to confront them and protect her unconscious daughter when she felt a prick in her neck. Suddenly the world swam out of focus and the night fell behind her eyes as the drug from Nate's second needle took effect.
When the world swam back into painful, throbbing focus, Buffy found herself pinned down. Again. 'Didn't we do this already?' she thought sluggishly.
"Finally. I thought Slayers had accelerated healing ability. I guess that doesn't count for horse tranquilizers."
Riley's voice snapped Buffy to full alertness. She scanned her surroundings as much as she was able to from her precarious position on the hard slab table. She wasn't in the dungeon anymore. The cage, Aurora and Acathla was nowhere to be seen.
In fact, there was nothing to see. The walls were bare except for… Buffy's heart jumped when she saw the blood splattered walls and the strategically placed chains hanging from the walls. Someone was whipped here to within an inch of his or her life, Buffy knew and had to suppress a chill chasing up her spine.
"Oh, don't worry," Riley said conversationally, noticing Buffy noticing the chains and the blood. "We have plenty of time. You'll get to try out all of my toys."
Buffy followed the vampire's gaze and had to suppress another chill when she laid her eyes on Riley's 'toys'. Each implement was shiny and sharp. Some had cruel teeth or hooks, others wicked points and barbs. All of them were meant to inflict unbelievable agony.
Then her eyes fell on Riley's pride and joy. The whip had seven short braided leather lashes with metal hooks braided into the lashes. The whip was meant to rip the flesh off the body wherever it struck. And judging by the dark rich color of the leather, this particular toy has been used a lot.
Buffy couldn't help herself. She gulped.
Riley laughed happily. The stench of fear radiating off this woman was like ambrosia to him. This was going to be fun, he thought, mentally rubbing his hands in anticipation.
It was 1 hour until midnight, and the Night of Argonius.