Severed Ties
Chapter 38
After Shock
AN: Sorry for the lack of updates but I've been in serious traffic jam mode. And it's not gonna let up anytime soon, thus the weekly update is history. What I will do, however, is make sure to pump something quality out every 2 weeks. It will probably be only one chapter but, depending on my work and school load, sometimes it may be more than one. Who knows. Just know that I will finish this. You have my word on that…and now, let me drop you back into the bad…
Jay didn't need her mother's confirmation that something was seriously wrong. The aura of the extremely not cool was evident once they entered the cemetery and it thumped in her mind when Buffy had exited Spike's crypt. At one point she thought she noticed the moonlight shining off Buffy's eyes as if a torrent of tears were being held back but nothing in the other's voice had alerted Jay to the issue of the potentiality of waterworks.
"I was thinking," Buffy said as they rounded the corner and onto Revello, "that me, you and Dawnie could have a Summers day tomorrow. We could go to the mall, catch a movie, do something relaxing before getting down to business tomorrow night."
"Do you think that's something we can really do?" Jay asked.
"I don't see why not. I'm not saying to throw caution to the wind the whole day but I think we do need a break, recharge our batteries, so to speak so we can be ready, lock, stock and barrel for when crap hits the fan." She paused. "And is there any other cliches I could possibly use to get my point across?"
Jay smiled. "Personally, I was waiting for 'getting our ducks in a row' and 'not putting all our eggs in one basket'."
The Slayer thumped her child on the ear. "Ha, ha. You're a bloody riot." Jay started to say something about Buffy's choice of words but the immediate pain in the latter's hazel eyes caused the young woman to stop in her tracks.
"Mum?" When Buffy didn't respond, Jay grabbed her by the arm. Standing in front of her diminutive mother, Jay stared into her beautiful features. Her entire face was shaded in melancholy and Jay had no doubt who was at the center of Buffy's grief. Using her fingers to lift Buffy's chin up, Jay made eye contact with her mother. "What is it?"
The Slayer opened her mouth to speak but stopped when something drew her attention down the street. Before Jay could ask, Buffy sprinted down the street towards her house with Jay not far behind. When her eyes fell on 1630, Jay saw what had garnered the other's attention. Angel's car was haphazardly parked on the curb.
"What the hell?" She sprinted across the lawn and through the door a second or two after her mother, stopping just before she ran into Buffy's back. "What's wrong? What's going on?" she asked no one in particular.
Like it had been for the past few weeks, the living room was nearly filled. Though Spike, Giles and the Wiccas were noticeably absent, everyone else was present. Xander and Faith stood against the wall, hands entwined while Dawn sat in the recliner with CJ acting as sentinel next to her. Jay shivered at his presence though he refused to look up at her. Shaking away her bubbling contempt, Jay focused on Cordelia and Angel sitting on the couch, an almost gaunt young woman between them. She was wrapped in a blanket and held a cup of coffee in her trembling hands. When the young woman looked into Jay's eyes, the slayer saw that the other woman had seen something a person should never see.
"Guys," Cordelia said, her voice strained. "This is Fred."
&&&
He refused to look at her even as her forked tongue slid along his cut skin. She sucked his blood from his body and her hand stimulated his still erect member. Part of him fell under the hypnotic rhythm of her tongue and hand, thankful for the attention she gave him. But another, even greater, part of him was sickened by what had just happened. He'd just let this woman take him into her every orifice, dine on his blood and he hers, for hours in the bed that he once shared with the Slayer…
Buffy. The sound of her name whispered in his mind caused Spike to wince, an action that caught the other woman's attention.
"Did I fuck you speechless, dear?" she purred, sliding her silken thigh between his legs. "You know, if you want some more, all you need to do is ask."
"Don't want anything from you…bitch," he muttered, hating himself for the lie. Oh, he wanted her all right. Wanted her in every way, shape and form. He wanted to thrust into her until she screamed as if he'd split her in two. He wanted to spend hours, no, days, inside of her, filling her with every ounce of his seed. He wanted to drain her and replenish her with his own blood. He wanted to claim her with a carnal necessity he'd never felt before. Even as his mind, clouded by her sex and blood, rebelled, with each touch of her flesh he succumbed more and more. His will was not his own and yet he still had a piece of himself that remained. And as long as that small portion lived, he would never willingly give himself to her mind, body and soul.
"You will be mine," she whispered, challenging his unspoken vow. In a single breath, she was atop him, her walls accepting him into her inner sanctum. Spike gasped at the heat that radiated from this creature. His spirit broke a little more as his hands, of their own accord, grasped her hips, and chaperoned her slow grind. "I do not know why you fight it, Spike. Do you know the power that I possess? In four hundred years of existence, no one has ever been able to fight their desire for me once my fangs have tasted their flesh." She leaned close to him, her breath hot and velvety, like white roses. Her tongue darted out, tracing the inner shell of his ear and when her words came, they stabbed into his heart because he knew she spoke the truth.
"I have made mean mutilate themselves, women give themselves over to demons to be defiled in ways no human could imagine. I've had mothers give their children to me and men torture their wives, all because of a single command from these lips." Though he couldn't see her face, he heard the smile tugging at her lips. "Oh the things I could make you do. All it would take from me is a breathy whisper and you would do anything; kill your friends, turn that dark-haired brat, the slayer's sister. Why, I'd wager you'd gut that precious little daughter of yours…"
"No," he choked out. Her words were a drug and Spike knew that with each thrust of her hips, with each flip of her tongue, that he was closer and closer to falling from the narrow ledge that kept him from being completely under her control. Morrigann must have sensed the waning resistance and, with a cruel delicacy, she slid her fangs into his already pierced neck. As she swallowed his blood, her saliva mixing into the wounds, Spike felt the last embers of his defiance burning out. By the time she stopped, a single tear fell from his eye because in that moment, Spike knew. He was hers, utterly and completely.
"But I won't ask you to do that," she said, never ceasing her motion. "What I want you to do is second nature to a creature such as yourself. After all, it is what you are famous for."
Spike tried to fight, tried to bring forth the love he felt for Buffy and Jay and Dawn. He clawed at the vow that would come from his lips once she finished her request, attempting to vanquish speech from his mouth and thought from his mind. He wanted to immolate himself from the inside and, for one moment, thought that he could, the rage was so great. But in the end he could only listen as her request made its way into his ears. He nodded dumbly and Morrigann smiled as she crested over to her orgasm, her spasming muscles bringing him along.
They lay in silence, Morrigann's violet eyes on him the entire time. "Now," she said, "that wasn't so hard, was it?" When he did not speak, she tut-tutted him and slapped him playfully across the jaw. "William, you are not being nice, you know. I asked you a question and I expect an answer. Let me ask again; that wasn't so hard, now was it?"
"No."
"See," she said and kissed his nose. "Told ya. So, are you going to do what I asked?"
"Yes."
"And when you do, are you going to enjoy it?"
"…"
"William…"
"Yes I am."
"Excellent." She frowned slightly and Spike watched her beautiful face burn with a malice he'd only seen in the eyes of Angelus. "But I forgot what I asked of you," she said, her voice falsely cheerful. "Do you remember what I asked of you, Spike?"
"Yes, Morrigann, I do."
"And what was it?"
"To kill the Slayer, Buffy Summers."
She cocked her head to the side and ran slim fingers through his hair. "Is that all you're gonna do?" He shook his head. "Then what else?"
"I'm gonna make it so no one will ever be able to identify the body." As the words left his mouth, Spike lost contact with everything else around him. He didn't hear Morrigann's Drusilla-like cry of excitement or her adorations of her new man. He could only hear the promise of what he would do to his Buffy. And on the inside his soulless shell cried for there was no doubt in his mind that, if he saw her again, he would kill Buffy.
&&&&&
Like a child sitting around a campfire, Buffy sat in the middle of the floor, legs crossed, and listened to Fred's account of the past twelve hours. Fred cried during the entire recap, and Cordy and Angel comforted her with gentle caresses and soothing words. Though Buffy's face displayed the horror that should would've have felt any other time, her mind was on other things.
Selfish bitch, a part of her swore. She couldn't dispute that claim. Aside from the panic that bubbled within her at the sight of Angel's car pulled onto the curb and Fred's tale, it was all overshadowed by the images that continued to play in Buffy's mind. She had no doubt that when the time came to perform her slayerly duties, she'd be the consummate professional, casting aside the potential distractions. But the fact that, aside from sympathizing with Fred, there was nothing more to be done tonight, she couldn't help but shine the spotlight on her vampire in bed with another woman.
"Take your time, Fred," she whispered when the frail woman couldn't speak over the lump in her throat. Good, she thought, her interaction would keep the others at bay for the time being. They didn't need to know about Spike and his infidelity. It didn't concern them.
A quick glance at Jay and Buffy knew her daughter was cognizant that something wasn't quite right with the Slayer. She gave Buffy an encouraging smile before turning back to Fred but the squint of her cerulean-green eyes screamed out her suspicion.
Buffy tensed involuntarily. She'd deflected any inquiries Jay may have had on the walk back by talking about anything and everything. She'd attempted to maintain some sort of calm but towards the end, as the images of Spike and the other woman continued to play out, she knew that she was near the breaking point. Thankfully, Jay hadn't seen through the charade and the Slayer had thought she'd been home free. But now, even amidst Fred's tale, she knew that Jay would want answers.
"And he saved me."
"Who saved you, Fred?" Buffy asked, returning her attention to the young woman.
"I…I don't know. I never really got to see him. I mean I did but…"
"It was the same guy that put me in the hospital," CJ said, speaking up for the first time.
"I thought you said she turned up on your doorstep," Angel said and Buffy heard the accusation in his voice.
CJ opened his mouth to answer but Dawn responded to Angel. "Does it matter," she said, "if he didn't tell us right away? He would've had to repeat it when Buffy got here anyway, what's the big?"
"The big--" Angel began but a single glance from Cordelia cut him off.
"It doesn't matter, guys," the seer said. "As long as we know now."
"So what did he look like?" Buffy asked.
"Your typical white night," CJ replied, "and I do mean that literally." As the young man's words clicked, Faith glanced at Xander.
"X-man," she said, "I hate to put you on the spot like this but I think it's time you came clean." Buffy watched the silent conversation occur between the couple and she couldn't help but smile. Her love life may have been in shambles but at least Xander's seemed to be on track.
"Okay," he said. Xander exhaled but the unease visible in his posture refused to abate. "I'm gonna tell you guys something and I don't want you freak out on me, okay?
"For all intents and purposes, Frost is…well, he's my brother…"
&&&
The instant Morrigann walked through the doors of the lair, she knew there was trouble. Of course, watching Frost nearly choking the life out of one of the Zidiahni while the other--M'ul At--staggered to his feet just below the impressive crack in the wall.
"Looks like a few somebodies have been busy while I was away," she purred, smiling when all three turned towards her. Her gaze flitted over the twins but focused on the cold eyes of the white warrior.
"I see someone has enjoyed her time out," Frost spat, his grip tightening around D'bahn's neck.
"He has betrayed us, Morrigann," M'ul At growled, and pointed the gun attached to his right arm at Frost.
"Your brother will be dead before you could think to fire, demon."
M'ul At cursed. "But you would be, too."
"Are you willing to take that chance?"
Morrigann watched the display with a keen amusement and as much as she would have loved to see blood shed, time was not to be wasted.
"If you ladies can quit with the demonic testosterone from flowing so thick, you'd see that I have some news." Frost's eyes narrowed to slits but she saw the recognition behind his ice blues.
"Where is he?" he whispered and relinquished his grip on D'bahn. He stalked over to her, stopping a foot away. "What is your game, succubus?"
She smiled, pouring all her energy into it and couldn't resist the chuckle when she saw him falter, if only for an instant. "Believe me, Frost, nothing less than is required for our victory."
"What are you speaking of?" D'bahn rasped while his brother helped him to his feet.
"I'm speaking of our new ally," she said and glanced over her shoulder. "You can come in now."
The figure crossed the threshold and smoke hugged his form like the leather duster that draped his lithe form. The ceiling light reflected off his platinum hair and when he looked up, the mixture of blue and violet was clear in his eyes.
"G'day, mates," he said and flicked ash from his cigarette to the floor. "Heard you had some problems with a handful of slayers."
"What is this, Morrigann?" Frost asked.
"This," she said and slid her arm around Spike's waist, "is William the Bloody."
"I know who he is…"
"Doubt that, mate," Spike said and cocked his head to the side. "Tell 'em, luv. Tell 'em who I am."
Morrigann smiled and devoured his lips in a searing kiss before turning back towards her allies. "This is William the Bloody," she repeated. "Our new associate."
"And why would he want to join us?" M'ul At asked.
Spike turned to Morrigann and whispered (though everyone heard clearly enough) "You were right, they are some daft buggers." Ignoring their protests, Spike extricated himself from Morrigann's arms and approached the two brothers. He all but ignored Frost.
"Quite simple, really. 'M here to get rid o' your problem."
"And what problem would that be?" Frost asked.
Spike gave the warrior a cursory glance and shook his head. "There's only one real problem you have, mate, and that's the Slayer. Singular. The other ones are good, but that Summers is the sparkplug for the rest of 'em.
"I'm gonna make that sparkplug doesn't fire."
"How?"
The vampire shrugged. "The only way I know how; by killing the bint."
TBC in The Unknown Soldier…