The Way We Were
Chapter 4
A/N: I'm sorry for the long wait on this chapter, but as most of you know, I've had some computer troubles. I've managed to save all my fics to a different computer now, so stories will once again be regularly updated.
An middle aged man stepped out of the shadows, a crossbow already aimed and pointed at Darla's heart while two others advanced on her baring crosses. "Bring the rest of your clan out, vampire" the head watcher boomed, his small beady eyes glaring at Darla with seething hatred, "So that we may send to back to hell where you belong."
"With an invitation like that, how could I refuse?" Darla asked with a courteous smile, as the other watchers got closer, shielding themselves with heavy wooden crosses. Darla batted them away keeping her face a mask of calm as she turned and opened the door to the house a crack, "Angelus, come here if you please"
Angelus walked out of the house after muttering a gruff "stay here" to the childer and promptly snapped one of the watchers necks' while Darla simultaneously snapped the others.
The head watcher faltered a moment at their perfectly timed execution and then fired the crossbow missing both vampires by feet as they advance on him.
Just as Darla and Angelus moved in for the kill, William burst from the house and yelled, "Look out behind you Angelus!"
Another pair of watchers came at him from the back and he pushed them off quickly, but he was distracted as yet another watcher emerged from the thick forest bordering their home and attacked Will. Dru ran from the doorframe to help her struggling childe and from there was complete chaos.
Darla heard stakes and arrows zing past her as she fought with the head watcher. She felt a flurry of movement beside her and heard Drusilla's screams some ways behind where she was struggling for control over the crossbow with the watcher, but she didn't have time to look around, she couldn't lose a moments concentration.
More flying stakes and another scream before a watchers body fell heavily at her feet and Angelus's arms tugged on the silk sleeve of her gown, "Darla, make haste with this one, Drusilla got burned with holy water and William's not much help."
"In a moment" Darla replied with ease as if Angelus was asking her to come in for tea and they weren't amidst a battle scene. She wrestled away the crossbow from the watcher and shot him in the foot with it so he couldn't get away, "I'll deal with you in a moment" she replied before turning away and walking towards Dru.
Angelus snapped the necks of the last two watchers as Darla knelt on the damp leaves next to Dru and examined her burned fingers and hands while Will hovered near them, worry for Dru evident on his face.
He had been burned by it too, but he wasn't going to say a thing. He didn't want his elders thinking he couldn't fight, and beside, Dru was the first priority.
"Your hands will heal in a few days time" Darla told her, helping her stand and then handing her over to Angelus before she turned to Will, a look of annoyed disgust in her eyes, "Are you hurt, boy?"
"No Madam" he answered automatically, tugging on his sleeve to hide the circle of charred flesh on his wrist where that damned water had splashed him.
"Good" Darla said, standing up and starting toward the last watcher left alive who was frantically trying to crawl into the woods leaving a trail of blood in his wake. Darla grabbed him by the throat and drug him into the clearing in front of their home, standing him up and putting her slender hands on either side of his neck, about to snap it.
"Grandmum, wait!" Drusilla exclaimed making her pause, "Can't we keep him? I haven't had a pet in so long and besides" Drusilla licked her lips, "He looks fun."
"No, Dru" Angelus interjected, leading her back to the house, "Let Darla do what she will with them, you can get a playmate after your hands heal."
Dru pouted a moment and then nodded, letting Angelus lead her into the house.
Darla rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to the watcher before pausing and looking at Will who stood uncertainly between the pile of bodies and their cottage. "Come here, boy." She said and shoved the watcher to the ground in Will's direction. "You snap his neck, it'll be good practice," Darla told him, crossing her arms and watching as Will nodded and picked up the watcher, ducking a punch and grabbing onto his neck. The watcher punched him again and slid out of his grip, falling to the ground again because of his damaged foot.
"William, do hurry. We don't have all night," Darla prompted looking bored.
Will ducked his head and grabbed the watcher again, mumbling a "Yes Madam" before concentrating on the watcher in front of him and twisting the neck with all his strength. He stumbled back, surprised when the neck completely severed and the head came clean off in his hands.
Darla laughed at his started expression and took the head from his hands, tossing it aside, "Next time just snap the neck, William, don't take the head off" she chided, but there was a definite gleam of pride in her eyes at the childe's strength.
Will smiled too and nodded, "Yes, Madam." He looked down at the headless body seeing the blood that seeped into the packed dirt ground with a slight frown, "Soding waste of good blood" he muttered kicking the body in annoyance is if it was the fallen watchers fault.
Darla smiled, "You'll have your fill of blood William, don't worry" Darla told him with a smile as she surveyed the damage, "Bring the bodies inside, we don't have to go hunting now" she said walking back into the cottage satisfied that they'd been successful in their encounter.
When she walked into the house Drusilla was kneeling on the floor in front of Angelus as he examined her hands with a frown.
She nodded and sat on the couch next to Angelus, gently taking Drusilla's hand from him and turning them over in hers.
"Where's the boy?" Angelus asked wrapping an arm around Darla's slim corseted waist.
"He's collecting the bodies" she replied, "Go and get a bit of cloth, I need to bandage her hands before they get infected."
"I can't die from it, can I?" Drusilla asked in a high whiny tone, "The evil bad man with the fire water, he poisons us all, the evil water seeps in my veins and poison me…evil…evil…swimming around-"
Drusilla stopped talking when Darla put a hand over her mouth and said sternly, "Drusilla hush."
"A bit of cloth, from where?" Angelus asked, "The only cloth I can think of is the bedclothes and our under clothes. Unless you want to tear a strip from your own petticoat…" Angelus said with a shrug of annoyance, "You talk of me spoiling the childer."
Darla clenched her jaw in irritation and pulled her skirts up, grabbing a piece of the cream colored fabric that made up her petticoat, tearing off a piece for each of Dru's hands. "That is exactly what I intend to do" she replied and pulled Dru's hands out flat, "And I don't spoil anyone, but her hands will scar if their not cared for and if you want to hear her whine endlessly for it then by my guest, but I do not." Darla told, "And anyway, Dru isn't that idiot childe William, the only thing he deserves is a good staking."
Dragging the four watchers corpses, Will walked in at the end of Darla's sentence and grimaced. She had been so happy with him only moments ago and now she was back her undying hatred of him. What had changed? Will saw the malicious glint in Angelus's eyes and knew it was because of him, he was bating her somehow; but that wasn't his concern now. Drusilla's hands were burnt and bloody and she was making a whiny sound like a hurt animal.
"Dru" he said kneeling next to her, dropping a kiss on her cheek, "Are you okay? He looked at Darla concerned, "Will she be okay?"
"I don't know" Darla replied, "She could die from it" she told him, sharing a secretive smirk with Angelus at her joke.
Will gritted his teeth and resided the urge to rip her throat out. How dare she make jokes now, with Drusilla crying at her feet? "I was only concerned Madam," he said with a steely calm in his voice.
"Then make yourself useful and go fill a basin with water" she ordered, "I need to rise her hands before I bandage them" she said and looked down at Dru's hands in annoyance as if this was just another chore for her as she started to peel the dead skin from the younger vampire's hands revealing raw blistered skin under it while Drusilla screamed.
Hearing her screams, Will hurried with the basin of water, rushing out to the pump and filling it as fast as possible before rushing back in and shoving it near Darla, accidentally sloshing it on her. "Here Madam" he said, his eyes wide with worry for his sire.
"Angelus, go bring Dru a body to eat while I do this so it'll shut her up. I'll get a headache with all this screaming." Darla ordered soaking Drusilla's hands in the water, clouding it with red blood.
Angelus compiled quickly, dragging a body from the top of the heap and baring the neck towards Dru's mouth, all but shoving it towards her fangs. Drusilla latched on and her screams died down only to whimpers as she drunk the thick dead blood.
Angelus got a body for himself and tossed one to Will, with the order, "Drink up, boy"
Darla wrapped Drusilla's hands in the cloth from her petticoat and then dried them off on her dress and looked down expectantly at her, "Now don't pick at them, but you'll be fine" she said pulling her onto the couch and grabbing a body form the stack for herself.
"We need to talk" Angelus said dropping the drained body on the floor and motioning for Darla to come upstairs, the glint in his eyes suddenly gone and his faced turned serious.
A/N: Next chapter, Darla and Angelus have a 'talk', and Angelus gives her an ultimatum. Please review!
