AN: Yep, it really is Kendra and Spike. ;) Sorry for the delay, had to rewrite it because of content. Long winded but sent with luv, man. :)
//..// Lohrs thoughts.
continued....
~~oo00oo~~
Dahok Lohr caverns
4am.
//Two immortal enemies in battle; how bitter the irony, to discover that they are, literally, fighting for the same thing -- //
Kendra hissed her pleasure at seeing the recognition - the slight tinge of fear in his eyes. Ignoring the electric crackle of something dangerous as their gazes locked, The wind drops to be replaced by a voice in harsh whisper.
"Be in my eyes...." she ground out between clenched teeth, her minds eye stabbing at the phantom floating behind him. Pulling a stake from the debris like lightning, Spike comes under her unflinching gaze. "How's yer gelfriend?"
Spikes cool, blue, merciless gaze regarding her for a long while, sensing something darker in her that shimmered of the soulless.
"Dead," he shot back petulantly, arrogant. "And you?"
She heard the implication more than the insolence, felt herself tensing from the center of her body outward, her stomach knotting, her muscles straining against each other to hold themselves together. The destiny she had taken so much pride in, all driven away by that homicidal witch. Drusilla. Samfi woman!
She stares daggers at him, that intractable smugness rankling. She wouldn't show him any weakness. Deal with the dealer, then she'd find that Bantu witch and let her know just how much she appreciated a second chance at a rematch.
Their bodies collide and they fall together. Kendra immediately punches him, but her punches are easily deflected, hardly even worth the effort. She cried out in anguish, fists clenched, raining down ineffective blows to his chest and face. With vampire speed allows him to grab the slender wrists, still her attack long enough to determine if she is still the hallucination of a vampire souled. She is cool to touch but finding a pulse and senses rather than hears the heartbeat, stirring.
Memories that fall to her slowly, painfully, etching again her transgression. She would not fail again. Anger sweeps aside all else, just before she shrugs from his waning grip, torn with desire, and brings down the stake clutched in her hands.
~~*~~
The jade demon steps forward, reluctantly, he rather enjoys watching them try
kill each other. None of them has the strength too, yet, but try they must.
Both stilled in their action, Spike on the ground with Kendra straddling
him, her wrists caught in his hands, again, ready to strike him down with a
stray wooden branch. Spike realized then, that she was naked. Perspiration glistened over her copper skin, slicking a path his eyes dared to travel from her throat, down into the valley between her breasts, down further to her tight stomach and down --
**thwapp!**
The make-shift stake finds itself buried in Spikes shoulder. He roars with pain, angrily, and throws off the ex-Slayer, grabbing at the offending weapon and pulling it from his flesh. A string of curses hide the obvious pain she inflicted. But Lohr can still see her smile amidst the dust and carnage, wincing briefly as she rises on the shoulder she landed on.
Stake in hand, Spike uses the last of his energy to shimmy up the wall on unsteady feet. Yeh. Gonna repay the compliment. Lohr sighed emphatically, this could be fun.
"I see you two have met, then."
They both glared at the progenitor of the voice. To the demons chagrin, no doubt both wistfully playing with the idea of turning the tables on him.
Don't kill the messenger, kiddies.
"Who de devil are you?!" The Jamaican Slayer roared at the interloper. The anger burned hotter, fueled by embarrassment. Aware now of her predicament but unable to move from the shadows without giving either demon a thrill.
"Relax. If I wanted you dead, sweetcakes, you'd be dead." he turned his cool gaze to Spike, noting the girls venehmence. "Fiesty one, isn't she?"
Spike gingerly nursed his bleeding shoulder. "You have no idea, mate."
Kendra emitted a low fierce growl, so deep and menacing that the floor and walls momentarily vibrated with the sound. Spike met her eyes evenly, surprised by their brilliance and fervor. Wet and alive with her own desire that it stirred his own. Shutting down hard, he fought her heated gaze.
Lohr ignored their inner turmoil. Not surprised by it at all. "So, then, now that we're all here... to business. My name is Dahok Lohr. Granter of souls.. among other titles."
If the name meant anything to the Jamaican Slayer, she didn't show it.
"I have a few titles, you great hulking git!," Spike stood steadily now, the odd color coming back to his skin as though he were a picture on a television set and someone was playing with the dials. The low pitched, feral sound was born out of disgust. "What did you do, you double-crossing wanker?!"
"Nothing but what was required of me. You asked for a soul," Lohr intoned, seating himself on the fallen stonework of his temple, gesturing idly to the young Jamaican woman on the other side of the cavern, "And you got one."
"MY soul, you bloody tosser - not hers!"
"By de goddess," Kendra interrupted abruptly, glaring down at the vampire. "Dis is yer doin'?!"
Spike ignored her, or at least tried too. Desire bubbled in his veins. A delicious sense of prestige and vitality housed in voluptuously smooth skin, rippled with the same fever burning inside his own.
"The one and only," the demon intoned, casting his eyes to the back of the girl with nervous energy. "Seems as though you took Miss star-gazers incantation; 'Be in my eyes. Be in my eyes..' a little to literal."
Spike growled, frustrated. "Nothing to do with me, chum."
Lohr waved his hand in a sweeping half-circle, a green shimmer emerging from the darkness and solidifying briefly to play out the past.
"It has *everything* to do with you."
~~oo00oo~~
**flashback**
South America, 1998
Drusilla met Spikes wounded gaze from across the small divide, the Chaos demon retreating from her passionate embrace to leave. "You can't blame the ghoul, Spike," she says rueful, fighting the only demon she has left, "You're all covered with her. I look at you... all I see is the Slayer."
**end flashback**
~~oo00oo~~
"She didn't mean Buffy, William." The image faded quickly, under Lohrs gaze. "Dru saw the day when love would grant you your soul - she just made sure, it came with a price. One that wouldn't let you live long enough to use it. So here we are. Cosy."
The news hit Spike like a ton bricks. It sucker punched him and caused him to inhale sharply. "What do you mean, *she's* my soulmate?"
"I think the both of you know it's far more than that," Lohr barked roughly. "You can already sense each other more intimately than simply the Slayer or vampire senses allow."
Even with the distance between them, Spike was well aware of her thoughts, feelings and emotions crashing against his own. The doubt. The anger and humiliation.
Her presence bore open the wound. Had Dru managed to do the impossible? Turn a Slayer? She swayed precariously like a slender tree in the wind at the inclination. Kendra; Drusillas pet? The thought turned her blood cold.
Spikes brow furrowed, momentarily remorphing back to his human visage. Did he just feel sympathy for her? His eyes widened, as she met his fearful gaze, and he felt the stigmata from her self-crucifixion.
Yes. The answer was a ruddy; Yes. And sympathy wasn't the only emotion.
"You Bastard."
Lohr smiled then, a toothy grin of a ultimate predator. "As may be. But you are bonded together for the rest of your lives. For that; you owe me...."
"Me don' tink zo," Kendra in defiance was a beautiful sight. "I kill ya both, an' den we see who owes whom."
Two massive hands lash out, grabbing her throat. He manages to hoist her off of the ground as soon as he grabs her, forcing her to lash her hands up in defense. She does her best to fight his hands off as she gags, her legs flailing harmlessly in the air, but she's loosing. Lohr takes a moment to watch Spike as he grabs his own throat in empathy, his body reacting to remove the obstruction he feels tightening around his neck.
"Emotion, Slayer. You're filled with one now," he sours, indeterminately twisting his fingers tighter. "You think I don't see Drusilla all through you? The chance to avenge yourself? Your honor?" He presses her body close to his, face to face, as she chokes and splutters. "You kill him, that ends here. Without him, you don't have the strength to kill a butterfly. Without me; you don't get to survive the night or know about the legend you're about to fulfill."
With a disgusted sigh, he throws her over to the gasping vampire and watches them crash and hold against the dark wall. Their bodies cling together, unconsciously William's hands moved across her shoulders, down against her back to the sweet hollow beneath, easing there; the dark message of their union.
Soulmates.
Spike glances down, as she gasps in lungfuls of air, clutching at his shoulders to hold herself up. Khol dark eyes stared back. Sharpened by hunger.
Her breathing fast and furious beat, that spoke to the animal in both man and vampire. He viciously dug his nails into his palm to remind himself of Buffy, the woman who he had surrendered too. But the mark on the exotic slayers throat, still pulsed with his dominion. Even though she fought against it, he knew she felt it too.
He groaned deep in his throat. What the bloody hell was with him and Slayers?
He'd realized too late, that he had telepathically broadcast his time with Buffy. And her part in giving he and Drusilla impunity to get to Angelus. The exquisite slayer tensed in his embrace, warmth draining from her body. She twisted roughly from his clinch, ignoring the pain it caused her, inching back along the same wall, panting with barely restrained rage. She wavered for an instant, as though one of the wires that had been supporting her was cut. But Kendra was not going to let him touch her again - she gritted her teeth and pulled her shoulders back. Steadied, like a pendulum subsiding.
Lohrs haughty slow laugh, rankled his prisoners no end, but they wisely kept silent.
"That's if you survive the mating ritual...."
~*~
That got their attention.
"You whot?!" Spikes glare cut him to strips, tearing his mournful gaze from Kendra.
"What started in the ether, must be concluded in the physical," Lohr sneered, a slight edge to his voice, as though he were telling him how little copulation with a sworn enemy; not Buffy, mattered. "Or you don't want to know what's gonna happen if you leave this bond open. That's where I come in, so to speak."
Mortified silence. He continues uninterrupted. "You've been under the influence of desire since you awoke here a few hours ago - part and parcel. What you don't know, is that until you consumate that bond, it will emit desire to the nocturnal where ever you go. A sort of aphrodisiac for demons. They'll hunt you down and, let's just say that you don't want that to happen."
"Wha' do ya get out of dis?"
Lohr leveled his demon gaze steadily at the defiant young lady, impressed, despite himself. "They're returning. Not even I have the power to hold them back from this crooked piece of earth." his voice falters briefly. "They're the first of the first, and no demon or vampire will stand when they walk.."
"You want sanctuary?!" Spike and Kendra share a wary glance, the answer found on their collective periphery.
Lohr releases a low growl. "Oh, no. I want far more than that--"
But Spike doesn't' turn back to the demon, rather he continues his view of the Jamaican slayer. They're talking about something, he doesn't hear it. Everything is on her. Through her.
Unmindful of her nakedness she moves, faltering on seemingly detached limbs. She glared down at her immobile feet, damning, then tries again, her world spinning. The stake Spike had pried from his shoulder, now clutched in her fist. Whatever Lohr had said; had decided his fate and well as theirs. Her intent wickering between them.
The fatality made Williams nerves tighten and his stomach float in his abdomen, so that he had to close his eyes to stop becoming ill. Death transmuted through a mysterious alchemy; tempered and shaped - cleaves him from himself, flowing like a thick syrup over the rubble towards her.
The contrition in the vampires soothing voice was not enough to quell the revulsion
that quickly gripped Kendra, as she swayed dangerously hypnotized by the still strong bond between her and English. Her body is flung forward instantly, teetering on the desperate, stunned by the dancing vibrancy of all the ancient colours of the earth walls, all those patterns in blood, all that kaleidoscopic detail in one mad hit of their newly restored soul bond, come down in torrents through her.
Everything happens at once. Kendras head lifts slightly, placing him, before she launches herself at him. "NEVER!"
Lohr bellows like an animal, struck down. His men rush into the deep chamber from strengthening the outer chambers to their masters behest. But they're too late.
Kendra freezes, lying on top of the beast. Only inches away his demon eyes glare back at her, not really alarmed. But very much pissed.
They stare at each other. Lohr strikes... his hand flashing and ripping open a large wound on her side and hip. A promise of things to come.
Frighteningly, she doesn't succumb to the pain, as he flings her off him and she skids to a halt a few meters away. His voice comes in consolation. "You've made your choice... now live with it!"
She's no longer listening. Slayer auto-pilot. Human minions and vampires come at her in a temporary rush - all are met by the Slayer.
From no where, a bitter cold wind slices through the room in monolith tides. The earth lurches upwards, throwing the advancing demons off kilter, scrambling for shelter or escape. Dahoks temple is crumbling from the inside out. Support beams, hastily resurrected, fall with the weight of crumbling stone and earth.
Somewhere in the back, she knows the reason for her strength is fighting just as hard to escape. "Bonded for life--" rings inside her mind, taunting her. No. No, it's not possible.
She blasts off, in the opposite direction, picking up speed. Can't go back - Lohrs destiny awaits her. She stumbled, fell and scrambled on, regardless of the bleeding and the madding thunder in her head. Gasping for air, clutching her side, she's dying here. The mouth of the cave looms closer, obstructed by a vehicle of some sort. Kendra slams into the combat truck, Dahok Lohr had acquired for their transfer. She spins around, changing direction towards the cab. The door flings open, catching her unawares. A solider inside pistol whips her back, blinding her for a moment. Doubled images flow in front of her, Spike and herself, unexpectedly peeling back quickly - like senses tearing, revealing two bodies. Spike slouched against the wall by the jeep, mercury text staining his skin. He sits up wide-eyed, speechless and amazed to be alive. Then he sees an equally astonished Slayer looking at him. Kendra reels from the transmutation of his teleportation. Another curse of the bond. The solider is in shock, his gaze wide eyed and disbelieving. Gaining control just as fast as she lost it, Kendra answered the demon with a swift, immobilizing kick, pulling him from the cab and jumping in.
Hesitation. No, Lohr was wrong. The Slayer needed no-one, especially the boyfriend of the bloody murderess who had gotten her in this mess. The keys fire the ignition and she cranks it out of there. The tires squeal as she roars off to freedom - alone.
The jeep swerves, jumps and accelerates at speed, barely missing the villagers, rickshaws, camp fires and huts built around the temple of Dahok Lohr. The pot holed terrain, clips the vehicle into a spin, but she surges on regardless. Gunfire suddenly explodes, bullets whizz through the canvas top and the rear window shatters and sprays glass. Kendra ducks waiting for more gunfire. None comes. A flash look in the rearview mirror she sees huge plumes of smoke and dust boil from the cavern, the wave of dust and rock knocking down her hunters, a rumbling tremor following closely.
Spike!
Pain severs coherent thought, white heat of it, taking her hands from the wheel to clutch desperately at her head. The distance she had traveled now began to physically change her. The claws and nails of Spikes victims came for her too. Slice. Slash. Her smooth skin, rupturing with the invisible strikes, cutting her to pretty bloody ribbons. Everything he feels, she feels. And so much more. She ran and contemplated her fate if she didn't stop. She slams the brakes, the car skidding to a violent stop. Her gaze cuts to the mirror again, her eyes are turning black - an inky cauldron on a face paling to white marble. Drusilla?!
Hell no! If putting up with English is what it takes to bring Dru to her knees, then that's what it takes. Guess that was her 40 pieces of silver. Gears are stripped as she reverses. So, if fate determines her destiny, lets seem them do it blindfolded.
A malicious grin, she covers her eyes and allows fate to direct her to him. The jeep hits a pot hole, jerks, swerves to the left, pressing onward. The wheel rips to the left, slicing to and fro - for an instant she worries. The last of Lohrs minions that are left standing have no intention of confronting her, too busy nursing their wounds.
*BOOM!*
The back of the super-charger jeep, slams into the disintegrating mouth of the cavern, becoming part of the disintegrating support system. Ahead something looms out of the dust storm. Her body tenses, immediately on alert. She can't locate the vampire, but she senses *something.*
Her eyes are back to their normal color, the marks of crucifixion healing in the early dawn light.
Silhouetted against the clouds, he is there. Tension hung in the air between them as tight as a drum. His senses scattered, a massive tangle of live wires sparking through their connection. Spike reels at this - veracity wickering between them. He knows what it took to come back, as much as she had known what it took to watch her leave and make no move for retribution. Nothing needs to be said, to be understood. Spike pulls himself from the wreckage and scrambles in the back, his body bent and twisted by their separation.
The back of the jeep has no cover, and as she guns the big motor out again, Spike swears as the dawn sun starts to scorch him through the shredded canopy. He ducks under a worn out cloak to hide. He whimpers once, as the sun chars his hands holding up the tarpaulin. He whimpers, body twitching. Agitated. But she senses the immediate comfort and solace that their nearness imparts.
Spike made no move to touch her, but the heat of his body scorched her all the same. A fire ignited in the pit of Kendra's belly, reminding her of their union. He chances a look at her. The line of her back, the shoulder turned to him.
They become figures through falling debris, dust clouds and the stuttering images of two bodies in living contrast. Kendra ignores everything but her destination, she hits the supercharger - surging away.. She swerves, slaloms through the wrecks and accelerates.
Kendra risked a glance back to see that English had fallen to unconsciousness, thankfully, allowing her the respite of her own thoughts. Damned be the consequences of the bond; it was worth everything for revenge.
Everything. Everyone.
Sunnydale was in for one heck of a reunion.
End Prologue
~~~~~~
*
Bantu means accursed
Samfi is Jamaican for trickster or con.
//..// Lohrs thoughts.
continued....
~~oo00oo~~
Dahok Lohr caverns
4am.
//Two immortal enemies in battle; how bitter the irony, to discover that they are, literally, fighting for the same thing -- //
Kendra hissed her pleasure at seeing the recognition - the slight tinge of fear in his eyes. Ignoring the electric crackle of something dangerous as their gazes locked, The wind drops to be replaced by a voice in harsh whisper.
"Be in my eyes...." she ground out between clenched teeth, her minds eye stabbing at the phantom floating behind him. Pulling a stake from the debris like lightning, Spike comes under her unflinching gaze. "How's yer gelfriend?"
Spikes cool, blue, merciless gaze regarding her for a long while, sensing something darker in her that shimmered of the soulless.
"Dead," he shot back petulantly, arrogant. "And you?"
She heard the implication more than the insolence, felt herself tensing from the center of her body outward, her stomach knotting, her muscles straining against each other to hold themselves together. The destiny she had taken so much pride in, all driven away by that homicidal witch. Drusilla. Samfi woman!
She stares daggers at him, that intractable smugness rankling. She wouldn't show him any weakness. Deal with the dealer, then she'd find that Bantu witch and let her know just how much she appreciated a second chance at a rematch.
Their bodies collide and they fall together. Kendra immediately punches him, but her punches are easily deflected, hardly even worth the effort. She cried out in anguish, fists clenched, raining down ineffective blows to his chest and face. With vampire speed allows him to grab the slender wrists, still her attack long enough to determine if she is still the hallucination of a vampire souled. She is cool to touch but finding a pulse and senses rather than hears the heartbeat, stirring.
Memories that fall to her slowly, painfully, etching again her transgression. She would not fail again. Anger sweeps aside all else, just before she shrugs from his waning grip, torn with desire, and brings down the stake clutched in her hands.
~~*~~
The jade demon steps forward, reluctantly, he rather enjoys watching them try
kill each other. None of them has the strength too, yet, but try they must.
Both stilled in their action, Spike on the ground with Kendra straddling
him, her wrists caught in his hands, again, ready to strike him down with a
stray wooden branch. Spike realized then, that she was naked. Perspiration glistened over her copper skin, slicking a path his eyes dared to travel from her throat, down into the valley between her breasts, down further to her tight stomach and down --
**thwapp!**
The make-shift stake finds itself buried in Spikes shoulder. He roars with pain, angrily, and throws off the ex-Slayer, grabbing at the offending weapon and pulling it from his flesh. A string of curses hide the obvious pain she inflicted. But Lohr can still see her smile amidst the dust and carnage, wincing briefly as she rises on the shoulder she landed on.
Stake in hand, Spike uses the last of his energy to shimmy up the wall on unsteady feet. Yeh. Gonna repay the compliment. Lohr sighed emphatically, this could be fun.
"I see you two have met, then."
They both glared at the progenitor of the voice. To the demons chagrin, no doubt both wistfully playing with the idea of turning the tables on him.
Don't kill the messenger, kiddies.
"Who de devil are you?!" The Jamaican Slayer roared at the interloper. The anger burned hotter, fueled by embarrassment. Aware now of her predicament but unable to move from the shadows without giving either demon a thrill.
"Relax. If I wanted you dead, sweetcakes, you'd be dead." he turned his cool gaze to Spike, noting the girls venehmence. "Fiesty one, isn't she?"
Spike gingerly nursed his bleeding shoulder. "You have no idea, mate."
Kendra emitted a low fierce growl, so deep and menacing that the floor and walls momentarily vibrated with the sound. Spike met her eyes evenly, surprised by their brilliance and fervor. Wet and alive with her own desire that it stirred his own. Shutting down hard, he fought her heated gaze.
Lohr ignored their inner turmoil. Not surprised by it at all. "So, then, now that we're all here... to business. My name is Dahok Lohr. Granter of souls.. among other titles."
If the name meant anything to the Jamaican Slayer, she didn't show it.
"I have a few titles, you great hulking git!," Spike stood steadily now, the odd color coming back to his skin as though he were a picture on a television set and someone was playing with the dials. The low pitched, feral sound was born out of disgust. "What did you do, you double-crossing wanker?!"
"Nothing but what was required of me. You asked for a soul," Lohr intoned, seating himself on the fallen stonework of his temple, gesturing idly to the young Jamaican woman on the other side of the cavern, "And you got one."
"MY soul, you bloody tosser - not hers!"
"By de goddess," Kendra interrupted abruptly, glaring down at the vampire. "Dis is yer doin'?!"
Spike ignored her, or at least tried too. Desire bubbled in his veins. A delicious sense of prestige and vitality housed in voluptuously smooth skin, rippled with the same fever burning inside his own.
"The one and only," the demon intoned, casting his eyes to the back of the girl with nervous energy. "Seems as though you took Miss star-gazers incantation; 'Be in my eyes. Be in my eyes..' a little to literal."
Spike growled, frustrated. "Nothing to do with me, chum."
Lohr waved his hand in a sweeping half-circle, a green shimmer emerging from the darkness and solidifying briefly to play out the past.
"It has *everything* to do with you."
~~oo00oo~~
**flashback**
South America, 1998
Drusilla met Spikes wounded gaze from across the small divide, the Chaos demon retreating from her passionate embrace to leave. "You can't blame the ghoul, Spike," she says rueful, fighting the only demon she has left, "You're all covered with her. I look at you... all I see is the Slayer."
**end flashback**
~~oo00oo~~
"She didn't mean Buffy, William." The image faded quickly, under Lohrs gaze. "Dru saw the day when love would grant you your soul - she just made sure, it came with a price. One that wouldn't let you live long enough to use it. So here we are. Cosy."
The news hit Spike like a ton bricks. It sucker punched him and caused him to inhale sharply. "What do you mean, *she's* my soulmate?"
"I think the both of you know it's far more than that," Lohr barked roughly. "You can already sense each other more intimately than simply the Slayer or vampire senses allow."
Even with the distance between them, Spike was well aware of her thoughts, feelings and emotions crashing against his own. The doubt. The anger and humiliation.
Her presence bore open the wound. Had Dru managed to do the impossible? Turn a Slayer? She swayed precariously like a slender tree in the wind at the inclination. Kendra; Drusillas pet? The thought turned her blood cold.
Spikes brow furrowed, momentarily remorphing back to his human visage. Did he just feel sympathy for her? His eyes widened, as she met his fearful gaze, and he felt the stigmata from her self-crucifixion.
Yes. The answer was a ruddy; Yes. And sympathy wasn't the only emotion.
"You Bastard."
Lohr smiled then, a toothy grin of a ultimate predator. "As may be. But you are bonded together for the rest of your lives. For that; you owe me...."
"Me don' tink zo," Kendra in defiance was a beautiful sight. "I kill ya both, an' den we see who owes whom."
Two massive hands lash out, grabbing her throat. He manages to hoist her off of the ground as soon as he grabs her, forcing her to lash her hands up in defense. She does her best to fight his hands off as she gags, her legs flailing harmlessly in the air, but she's loosing. Lohr takes a moment to watch Spike as he grabs his own throat in empathy, his body reacting to remove the obstruction he feels tightening around his neck.
"Emotion, Slayer. You're filled with one now," he sours, indeterminately twisting his fingers tighter. "You think I don't see Drusilla all through you? The chance to avenge yourself? Your honor?" He presses her body close to his, face to face, as she chokes and splutters. "You kill him, that ends here. Without him, you don't have the strength to kill a butterfly. Without me; you don't get to survive the night or know about the legend you're about to fulfill."
With a disgusted sigh, he throws her over to the gasping vampire and watches them crash and hold against the dark wall. Their bodies cling together, unconsciously William's hands moved across her shoulders, down against her back to the sweet hollow beneath, easing there; the dark message of their union.
Soulmates.
Spike glances down, as she gasps in lungfuls of air, clutching at his shoulders to hold herself up. Khol dark eyes stared back. Sharpened by hunger.
Her breathing fast and furious beat, that spoke to the animal in both man and vampire. He viciously dug his nails into his palm to remind himself of Buffy, the woman who he had surrendered too. But the mark on the exotic slayers throat, still pulsed with his dominion. Even though she fought against it, he knew she felt it too.
He groaned deep in his throat. What the bloody hell was with him and Slayers?
He'd realized too late, that he had telepathically broadcast his time with Buffy. And her part in giving he and Drusilla impunity to get to Angelus. The exquisite slayer tensed in his embrace, warmth draining from her body. She twisted roughly from his clinch, ignoring the pain it caused her, inching back along the same wall, panting with barely restrained rage. She wavered for an instant, as though one of the wires that had been supporting her was cut. But Kendra was not going to let him touch her again - she gritted her teeth and pulled her shoulders back. Steadied, like a pendulum subsiding.
Lohrs haughty slow laugh, rankled his prisoners no end, but they wisely kept silent.
"That's if you survive the mating ritual...."
~*~
That got their attention.
"You whot?!" Spikes glare cut him to strips, tearing his mournful gaze from Kendra.
"What started in the ether, must be concluded in the physical," Lohr sneered, a slight edge to his voice, as though he were telling him how little copulation with a sworn enemy; not Buffy, mattered. "Or you don't want to know what's gonna happen if you leave this bond open. That's where I come in, so to speak."
Mortified silence. He continues uninterrupted. "You've been under the influence of desire since you awoke here a few hours ago - part and parcel. What you don't know, is that until you consumate that bond, it will emit desire to the nocturnal where ever you go. A sort of aphrodisiac for demons. They'll hunt you down and, let's just say that you don't want that to happen."
"Wha' do ya get out of dis?"
Lohr leveled his demon gaze steadily at the defiant young lady, impressed, despite himself. "They're returning. Not even I have the power to hold them back from this crooked piece of earth." his voice falters briefly. "They're the first of the first, and no demon or vampire will stand when they walk.."
"You want sanctuary?!" Spike and Kendra share a wary glance, the answer found on their collective periphery.
Lohr releases a low growl. "Oh, no. I want far more than that--"
But Spike doesn't' turn back to the demon, rather he continues his view of the Jamaican slayer. They're talking about something, he doesn't hear it. Everything is on her. Through her.
Unmindful of her nakedness she moves, faltering on seemingly detached limbs. She glared down at her immobile feet, damning, then tries again, her world spinning. The stake Spike had pried from his shoulder, now clutched in her fist. Whatever Lohr had said; had decided his fate and well as theirs. Her intent wickering between them.
The fatality made Williams nerves tighten and his stomach float in his abdomen, so that he had to close his eyes to stop becoming ill. Death transmuted through a mysterious alchemy; tempered and shaped - cleaves him from himself, flowing like a thick syrup over the rubble towards her.
The contrition in the vampires soothing voice was not enough to quell the revulsion
that quickly gripped Kendra, as she swayed dangerously hypnotized by the still strong bond between her and English. Her body is flung forward instantly, teetering on the desperate, stunned by the dancing vibrancy of all the ancient colours of the earth walls, all those patterns in blood, all that kaleidoscopic detail in one mad hit of their newly restored soul bond, come down in torrents through her.
Everything happens at once. Kendras head lifts slightly, placing him, before she launches herself at him. "NEVER!"
Lohr bellows like an animal, struck down. His men rush into the deep chamber from strengthening the outer chambers to their masters behest. But they're too late.
Kendra freezes, lying on top of the beast. Only inches away his demon eyes glare back at her, not really alarmed. But very much pissed.
They stare at each other. Lohr strikes... his hand flashing and ripping open a large wound on her side and hip. A promise of things to come.
Frighteningly, she doesn't succumb to the pain, as he flings her off him and she skids to a halt a few meters away. His voice comes in consolation. "You've made your choice... now live with it!"
She's no longer listening. Slayer auto-pilot. Human minions and vampires come at her in a temporary rush - all are met by the Slayer.
From no where, a bitter cold wind slices through the room in monolith tides. The earth lurches upwards, throwing the advancing demons off kilter, scrambling for shelter or escape. Dahoks temple is crumbling from the inside out. Support beams, hastily resurrected, fall with the weight of crumbling stone and earth.
Somewhere in the back, she knows the reason for her strength is fighting just as hard to escape. "Bonded for life--" rings inside her mind, taunting her. No. No, it's not possible.
She blasts off, in the opposite direction, picking up speed. Can't go back - Lohrs destiny awaits her. She stumbled, fell and scrambled on, regardless of the bleeding and the madding thunder in her head. Gasping for air, clutching her side, she's dying here. The mouth of the cave looms closer, obstructed by a vehicle of some sort. Kendra slams into the combat truck, Dahok Lohr had acquired for their transfer. She spins around, changing direction towards the cab. The door flings open, catching her unawares. A solider inside pistol whips her back, blinding her for a moment. Doubled images flow in front of her, Spike and herself, unexpectedly peeling back quickly - like senses tearing, revealing two bodies. Spike slouched against the wall by the jeep, mercury text staining his skin. He sits up wide-eyed, speechless and amazed to be alive. Then he sees an equally astonished Slayer looking at him. Kendra reels from the transmutation of his teleportation. Another curse of the bond. The solider is in shock, his gaze wide eyed and disbelieving. Gaining control just as fast as she lost it, Kendra answered the demon with a swift, immobilizing kick, pulling him from the cab and jumping in.
Hesitation. No, Lohr was wrong. The Slayer needed no-one, especially the boyfriend of the bloody murderess who had gotten her in this mess. The keys fire the ignition and she cranks it out of there. The tires squeal as she roars off to freedom - alone.
The jeep swerves, jumps and accelerates at speed, barely missing the villagers, rickshaws, camp fires and huts built around the temple of Dahok Lohr. The pot holed terrain, clips the vehicle into a spin, but she surges on regardless. Gunfire suddenly explodes, bullets whizz through the canvas top and the rear window shatters and sprays glass. Kendra ducks waiting for more gunfire. None comes. A flash look in the rearview mirror she sees huge plumes of smoke and dust boil from the cavern, the wave of dust and rock knocking down her hunters, a rumbling tremor following closely.
Spike!
Pain severs coherent thought, white heat of it, taking her hands from the wheel to clutch desperately at her head. The distance she had traveled now began to physically change her. The claws and nails of Spikes victims came for her too. Slice. Slash. Her smooth skin, rupturing with the invisible strikes, cutting her to pretty bloody ribbons. Everything he feels, she feels. And so much more. She ran and contemplated her fate if she didn't stop. She slams the brakes, the car skidding to a violent stop. Her gaze cuts to the mirror again, her eyes are turning black - an inky cauldron on a face paling to white marble. Drusilla?!
Hell no! If putting up with English is what it takes to bring Dru to her knees, then that's what it takes. Guess that was her 40 pieces of silver. Gears are stripped as she reverses. So, if fate determines her destiny, lets seem them do it blindfolded.
A malicious grin, she covers her eyes and allows fate to direct her to him. The jeep hits a pot hole, jerks, swerves to the left, pressing onward. The wheel rips to the left, slicing to and fro - for an instant she worries. The last of Lohrs minions that are left standing have no intention of confronting her, too busy nursing their wounds.
*BOOM!*
The back of the super-charger jeep, slams into the disintegrating mouth of the cavern, becoming part of the disintegrating support system. Ahead something looms out of the dust storm. Her body tenses, immediately on alert. She can't locate the vampire, but she senses *something.*
Her eyes are back to their normal color, the marks of crucifixion healing in the early dawn light.
Silhouetted against the clouds, he is there. Tension hung in the air between them as tight as a drum. His senses scattered, a massive tangle of live wires sparking through their connection. Spike reels at this - veracity wickering between them. He knows what it took to come back, as much as she had known what it took to watch her leave and make no move for retribution. Nothing needs to be said, to be understood. Spike pulls himself from the wreckage and scrambles in the back, his body bent and twisted by their separation.
The back of the jeep has no cover, and as she guns the big motor out again, Spike swears as the dawn sun starts to scorch him through the shredded canopy. He ducks under a worn out cloak to hide. He whimpers once, as the sun chars his hands holding up the tarpaulin. He whimpers, body twitching. Agitated. But she senses the immediate comfort and solace that their nearness imparts.
Spike made no move to touch her, but the heat of his body scorched her all the same. A fire ignited in the pit of Kendra's belly, reminding her of their union. He chances a look at her. The line of her back, the shoulder turned to him.
They become figures through falling debris, dust clouds and the stuttering images of two bodies in living contrast. Kendra ignores everything but her destination, she hits the supercharger - surging away.. She swerves, slaloms through the wrecks and accelerates.
Kendra risked a glance back to see that English had fallen to unconsciousness, thankfully, allowing her the respite of her own thoughts. Damned be the consequences of the bond; it was worth everything for revenge.
Everything. Everyone.
Sunnydale was in for one heck of a reunion.
End Prologue
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*
Bantu means accursed
Samfi is Jamaican for trickster or con.