Taunting Angelus

Crossed

Spike wondered what he could do for today's amusement.

He had left Peaches alone for the whole day yesterday, and what a strain that had been.  He couldn't help it…it was in his blood to taunt.  Hold up…blood.

Spike smiled as he thought of the perfect thing to drive Angel batty for the day.

He arrived at the hotel a couple of hours later… during the day and when most of the other members of the LA crew wouldn't be around so he could carry out his plan.

Spike knew the day & time that Angelus would be drinking his 'prized' blood - it was Angel's special blood…the human blood that he allowed himself to drink just once a month because it was a special change from the butcher's blood that he usually drunk - and spent Angelus's sleeping hours engraving the small ornate cross, in the lightest of silver, so it couldn't be seen without close inspection, on the very on the bottom of the jars.  Then for added insurance that it would work, he took a small amount of holy water, he had acquired for just this purpose, and after squeezing a couple of drops onto the counter, placed the jar of blood back on top of it, where it was held in the special heating thermostat Fred had brought for Angel.

Then he settled down to wait for the fun to begin.

For the rest of the day, Spike got himself a kick.

He had positioned himself perfectly so he could watch Angel try to drink his blood, without making the others aware or Angel aware that anything was out of the ordinary.

Every time Peaches had attempted to get near the blood he would get disoriented and vamp out, backing away…and he had no idea why.

Spike was hard pressed not to laugh, but if this was gonna keep him laughing all day, he had to.

So he read his paper and watched his Passions, talked with Fred & Gunn…and watched Angel, snickering to himself.

After a few hours, Angel, who had had to drink some of his butchered blood so as to not loose control and kill someone, was upset. 

Wesley, Gunn, and Fred had all tried to talk to him, even help him figure out what was going on, but all to no avail. 

Angel started brooding on the subject.

What is the deal, he thought to himself.  He had just checked the blood yesterday…and nothing out of the ordinary had happened.  Now, the closer he got to it, the worse he felt…not to mention…he kept vamping out.  He didn't have to do that when he drank blood…so what was going on? 

And why the hell has Spike been here all day.

True…he's not doing anything other than he usually does when he stays here all day, except Wesley hasn't had him train yet, but still…

Hold up.  Spike hasn't tortured me for the past two days.

And I can't go anywhere near my 'Special' blood.

Angel growled as he finally worked it out.

Spike knew the second he had figured it out, but kept his faux innocence as long as he could.

He looked up and looked towards Angel.

"What's wrong with you Peaches?"

"What's wrong…what have you done now, Spike?"
"Me…what have I done?  That's just great…I leave you alone and you take out your unreleased tensions out on me.  Well fine…do that.  Only if you have any other aggressions to release…pent up feelings and what not…don't be trying to release them this way."

Angel growled louder, his face shifting between gameface and human face as he struggled to control his impulse to jump over there and twist off Spike's head.

Gunn was laughing… he knew Spike had been up to something.  He was there when they all had come in, but not for any particular reason.  Now he just had to find out what Spike had done. This should be good….

When he had more control and could control his facial features, Angel said in a short, clipped voice, interrupting Gunn's thoughts,

"What. Have. You. Done. To. My. Blood. Spike?"

"Why would I mess with your precious blood, Peaches?  Has it never occurred to you that someone else might have done it?"

"I know no one else would bother… just you.  Your determined to drive me insane, aren't you?"

"I don't know why you think that Gramps…you know I care about you," Spike said, squeezing out a tear and wearing a sad and mournful expression.

Wesley tried to turn his bark of laughter into a coughing fit, and had to flee the room cause he just couldn't quite do it.

Fred and Gunn had no intention of leaving the action, they laughed out right and sat down to watch the rest of the fireworks.

Angel had had enough of trying to reason with Spike and had, running at top speed, rammed him into the wall behind him.

Spike merely laughed, not even fazed.

Angel's face was inches from his.

Spike lifted his eyebrow and said,

"I thought I just told you to keep some of your impulses to yourself.  Maybe you didn't quite get my meaning, you giant poofter, but I meant that…."

Whatever Spike had meant to say was cut off as Angel rammed him against the wall again hard, leaving a giant crack in the plaster, and threw him across the room.

Spike rolled and bounced up, laughing.

"Thanks for that, Peaches.  I have to tell you…up close and personal is definitely not your thing.  For one thing…your breath is kicking.  You know they've made all sorts of advancements with dentistry and foul breath odors and all…you really need to look them up."

Fred and Gunn were on the floor laughing by this point.  They had slid off their seats and had fallen to the floor, clutching their stomachs.

Spike gave them a glance and smiled, but kept his senses on the pissed off vampire.

Angel ignored them completely.

"I'm gonna have to beat some sense into you, aren't I boy?"

"You can try…I could do with a workout," Spike said, bouncing around and stretching bit-by-bit.

Angel leapt forward, but Spike jumped over him and then kicked him in the back of his head, sending him careening across the room, into one of the support beams.

He shook himself, turned and launched himself at Spike, who was waiting for just this move.

Spike quickly dropped to the ground, on his back, and caught Angel's torso with his legs and his arms with his hands and then in a great fluid motion, using Angel's momentum, he flipped them, landing Angel on his back with Spike straddling him on top, where he proceeded to rain blows on Angel's head at lightening speed.

Spike then jumped up and backed away, waiting for the next round.

After a few seconds, Angel shook the cobwebs from his head, and they began to parry kicks and blows between one another.

Wesley came back into the room a few seconds later and noticed the two combatants.  

"They're sparring…how come no one told me they were going to be sparring?"
"If you hadn't of ran out here a few minutes ago, you would have seen," Gunn told him, he had finally gotten his breath back and was watching the two warriors fight.

"And you missed the coolest move ever."

"What move?"
"Well, actually it was two moves," Fred told him, her eyes not leaving the scene before them.

"Isn't any one going to tell me?"

"Oh…sorry.  Well the first one was…"

Gunn paused as they watched Spike spin and jump high and then low to avoid Angel's kick and punch, and then from ground position, push himself off the ground with his hands, soaring high into the air, twisting to an upright position and delivering an ax kick to the top of Angel's head, knocking the vampire out for a few seconds.

Spike used the seconds to get a breather, limber himself out a little more, stretching and whatnot, and waving to his avid viewers.

The last of which wasn't very smart, cause it caused him to take his senses off of Angel, who had just sprung back to life and delivered a very good two punch and a roundhouse kick combo knocking Spike across the room.

Gunn continued when Spike had risen once again, this time standing in Buffy's slayer stance to further tick of Angel.

"Okay…the first move he made was this high ass jump.  Angel ran full tilt toward him and he just leaped frog over him and on his way down, kicked Angel in the back of his head, sending him crashing into the wall."

"Angel used a pretty good body slam, but you know that didn't keep Spike still for long," Fred contributed.

"Yeah," Gunn agreed with her, before continuing, "and then the last move, before the one you just saw was oh so tight…he's gonna have to teach it to me."

"Well what was it?" Wesley asked, getting impatient.

"Sorry…okay…Angel comes flying off that wall, barreling at Spike in spear fashion, and Spike drops to the ground, on his back, and catches Angel, his hands catching his arms, and his legs catching his torso.  And before Angel has a chance to figure what the hell is going on, Spike used Angel's forward moment to flip them over completely, landing Angel hard on his back and Spike sitting on top of him.  Then Spike just rained punches down on him.  He moved so fast I couldn't even see some of those punches.  Those slayer genes really must be no joke."

Wesley smiled.

"Yeah."

If Spike was tired, he couldn't tell…the boy was practically bouncing, waiting for his next move.

"Why does it always have to be so difficult?  Why can't you just admit you did something to my blood?"
"I thought you wanted to fight, Angelus…but if your tired…I guess we could stop."

'What did you do?" Angel asked, ignoring Spike's taunts.

Spike smiled.

Angel groaned and Fred went over to Angel's jar of 'prized' blood and swished it around, looking to see if Spike had put something into it.

Not seeing anything she shrugged and tried to take it over to Angel.

Who shrank away from her as she got nearer to him.

Spike laughed this time; he was unable to help himself.

Angelus, the 240 and some odd years master vampire, was backing away from a scrap of a skinny and knowledgeable bookworm like Fred.

He should have been videotaping this, he thought to himself.

Gunn was laughing as well, but he went and rescued Angel, taking the jar away from Fred and walking over to the light to see better.  He didn't see anything until he flipped the jar over and looked closely at the bottom.  Then he saw the cross and burst out laughing.

When Fred and Wesley saw what he had they too burst out laughing.

When Wesley could talk again, he tried to take the jar over to Angel so he could see, but Angel kept backing up.

That set them off, laughing, again.

When he had finally calmed down a bit, Wesley told him, there's a cross here.  That's why you can't pick it up…and…if I'm not mistaken…there is water at the bottom of the container…now what would water be doing…oh…holy water."

That sent Gunn and Fred off in new peals of laughter.

Wesley shook his head.

When Fred calmed down she gave Angel a pitying glance and said,

"I'll just take this and get you another glass…"

Then she escaped the angry vampire's gaze by fleeing the room.

Spike rubbed his hands together and turned to Gunn,

"Well now that was fun…so…are you up for a rematch tonight?"

"Just as long as you know I'm gonna stomp you."

"Please…I've told you before…and I'll tell you again…. you don't have nothing on me…"

Their voices faded out as they walked out the hotel lobby, heading for Spike's place.

Wesley and Angel were the only two left in the room.

Wesley gave Angel a shrug and said,

"I think I'll go upstairs and continue to search for that demon we were looking up yesterday."

"Yeah…you do that," was Angel's soft reply. 

While not very menacing, it still was pretty alarming and because he had really not shown Angel any real loyalty that night, he knew he'd be nailing a cross to his door tonight…just for added protection.

Wesley escaped upstairs, leaving a brooding vampire in the lobby.

Fred came back a few minutes later to find Angel all alone.

"Where'd everyone go?" she asked as she handed Angel his blood, cross and holy water free this time, and warmed up nicely.

"Wesley fled from me, upstairs, Spike & Gunn went to Spike's place."

"How are you feeling?"
"Like I could easily murder someone."

Fred gave him a look, and then sat him down, not scared of his dark look.

"Here's your mug of good human blood.  Have a nice drink and then go down to your room to rest up…that or... DO SOMETHING!  I'll be in my room if you need me."

She told him as she casually ran up the staircase, stopping at the top to wave down at him, before continuing on.

Angel sat, drinking his 'Special' blood and thinking about the humans and not quite humans he had surrounding him.

He shook his head and then walked off towards his room…. until Spike strikes again, he thought…he should be safe for a little bit.  And with that thought, he went to rest.