Warning: A little bit of violence and lots of sex. That's why it's earned that R rating!!
Chapter Eight – Keeps Me Wanting
"I do not know . . . ," Roger started but did not get to finish.
Wesley turned away from his father, heart racing at what Faith was feeling at the moment. She had inadvertently opened their link wide, so he saw exactly what was happening. Faith was shaking, trying to hold herself together. A man was holding her close, too close for her comfort. Then Wesley saw what he was about to do.
"Bastard," he mumbled to himself, shutting out the conversations going on around him.
"Why don't we have a little fun until the package is delivered, shall we?" the man told Faith.
Faith struggled in his mind, but couldn't break free of his hold. This vision was real, and was happening as they stood in the hotel room, looking for clues.
"Wesley?" Willow quietly shook him.
She was worried about how he had been acting since the time they walked into his father's hotel room. As she watched the others turn things upside down, she noticed that he had moved away from his father as Giles interrogated him. The cruel things that his father had said to him must have hurt. Although her parents had been indifferent, but not ever saying one negative thing about her, she still didn't understand why a parent could be this way. Wesley was extra smart, actually nice when he wasn't sneering at someone, and could be quite sweet, at least to Faith.
She walked up to him to make sure he was alright. As he turned his head slightly to look at her, she noticed something odd about him. Before she could comment on the look, a wave of dark magick swirled around her. His eyes now bored into hers, drawing power from her, even though they were not touching.
"Wesley?" she yelled to get his attention, hoping to break his hold and to warn the others that something was very wrong.
Before anyone could move or ask what was wrong, the room literally shook from the walls to the floors to the ceiling. Willow concentrated to break his hold, knowing that in the end she was the stronger of the two. But his natural affinity to use the magicks made it harder than she thought. Finally she put up her hand to shield herself, trying to create a feedback loop, and stopping him in his tracks.
Her effort though had some side effects. Everyone in the room was flung to the floor, unable to move, including herself. But it broke the hold.
Faith couldn't believe the prick actually thought he'd get some from her, and then wait until he got a delivery. The man must have a Napoleon complex a mile long since he was short and old and just downright skanky.
Faith angled her elbow to take his face off of her neck. Before she was able to perform the maneuver, her mind flashed a brilliant light, blinding her momentarily. Rayne was flung across the room somehow by something coming from her body. It didn't hurt her, it just felt really weird. Then she noticed that she had opened the link all the way, allowing Wes to see everything that just happened. He was the cause of the damage. He had used her, controlled her to slam Rayne against the wall.
Quickly, she came to her senses, and ran for the door, wrenching it open. Rayne didn't stop her this time. Sprinting down a hallway, she opened another door into a large room, much like a gym that had been abandoned. Running at top speed, she ran to the opposite wall to another door. She wasn't fast enough, because coming through the other door were the Three Stooges. As soon as they saw her, they all drew their weapons.
All three fired them at the same time. She watched the bullets head towards her as if in slow motion. As she held her hands up, she waved away the bullets, which made them slam into the wall behind her. Walking forward, she deflected more bullets, until each had emptied the chambers on their guns.
Wesley grabbed Willow's hand and took off out the door as fast as he could. He now knew where Faith was from the link. Now that he discovered that Willow could enhance the link and his magical abilities, he could save Faith from the people who had kidnapped her. But Willow wasn't coming willingly. As a matter of fact, she was trying to break away from him as they raced down the stairs.
"Stop, Wesley, stop," she cried as they reached the bottom stairs.
"No," he growled deep in his throat
The others were following them, but he had been faster down the stairs. Pulling Willow out of the hotel with him, he ran across the street. He could feel the bullets fly all around Faith. She deflected them using the power that they shared, but it might not last as long as she needed. Finally the three in front of her stopped firing, since they were out of bullets.
Willow pulled against him as he kept up the brutal pace. He still needed her power to keep Faith safe, so he couldn't just let her go. She finally managed to stop him by falling to the ground. Not having the time to wait, he started to pick her up. Just as he bent to the ground, Willow flung him through the air.
"She's going to die, Willow," Wesley yelled at her as he scrambled up off the hard pavement.
"You both will if you don't calm down," Willow answered, eyes coal black.
Wesley saw the others had almost caught up with him. He couldn't let them stop him from his mission of finding Faith. So he left Willow sprawled on the sidewalk for the others to take care of.
As Faith reached the three bozos, they each stood in a fighting stance. She had so wanted to take each of them out the last time they tried to harm her in Los Angeles. But she hadn't been able to since Angel had taken out the one in the helicopter, and Buffy had taken one out on the roof. She found out later that Wes had taken out the first one with a syringe throw to the neck. Impressed her when Angel had told her. But now they were all hers.
She took out Weatherby with a roundhouse kick to the face. He fell flat and didn't get up. The other two proved to be harder than she had anticipated. Both decided that they could take her on at the same time, instead of waiting for one or the other to take the first shot. As they both charged her, one of her fists went flying while her elbow connected with the other's chin. She heard grunts of pain from both the guys.
It still didn't deter them from coming back for more. Ducking to avoid a punch from Collins, she was able to block a body shot from Smith very easily. Spinning, she efficiently took down Collins as he tried to strategize his next move against her. He landed hard on his backside. Then she slugged Smith in the jaw, sending him crashing to the ground on top of Collins. The two tangled on the floor in a mass of limbs.
"Jackasses," Faith told them as she backed away just to make sure one of them didn't take her down with them.
"Ah, Faith. There you are," Ethan Rayne said from behind her.
Dammit, she hadn't taken the guys down fast enough to escape. Turning, she decided that she might as well confront the guy right then.
"If it's all the same to you, I'm leavin'. I've had about enough of your hospitality as I can take."
Faith started to back away from Ethan, thinking that she didn't want to turn her back on the man since he was very dangerous. As she backed away, she collided with something solid. But she didn't have to turn around to know exactly with whom she had run up against. She had felt him running for her for the last few minutes. She had just hoped that he would make it in time to lend her a hand.
Ethan's eyes widened when he saw who was behind her.
"Ethan Rayne," Wesley ground out, taking Faith's hand in his.
"Oh, lookie here. Pryce junior has arrived. Daddy not around to protect you, eh?"
Faith felt Wesley stiffen behind her. Any mention of his father made him shut down, so that she couldn't talk or reason with him. This was no exception. Wesley moved out from behind her, putting her out of harm's way. Not exactly where she wanted to be at the moment, since she was the one that had been kidnapped. She had wanted to take the guy on, but by the look in his eyes, Wesley was probably the better opponent.
Slowly, Wesley made his way closer to Ethan, making sure he kept Faith protected from Rayne's magicks. When he got far enough away from Faith, he stopped and crossed his arms over his chest, willing the other man to come closer to him.
"You always were a chicken, Wesley. Let's see what you're really made of," Ethan taunted as he threw a fireball directly at Wesley's chest.
Wesley threw his hand up, stopping the thing just inches from contact. He smiled at the older man, and then took the fireball in his own hands.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you not to play with fire," he said as he launched the thing right back at Ethan.
Rayne ducked just in time before it connected. "I see the boy has learned a few tricks along the way."
Ethan tried to slam Wesley to the ground with his mind, but Wesley managed to dodge the words by rolling quickly off to the side before Rayne was able to perform the feat. But before he was able to get off another trick of his own, the magicks that he was feeling running through his veins disappeared. Ethan also dropped to the floor, rendered powerless by some unknown force.
"Boys will be boys," Willow called from the doorway.
Wesley took that opportunity to tackle Rayne to the ground, bringing his fist back to connect with the man's jaw. Then he took a hold of the guy's head and slammed it down several times before Faith finally stopped him.
"Down boy," she told him as she pulled him off of Rayne.
Giles and Willow walked over to the scene.
"Ethan. I should have known you were behind all of this," Giles sneered at his contemporary lying on the floor.
"Just trying to collect on a promise, old boy," he answered back, holding his nose that was bleeding.
Wesley turned to see his father between Connor and Cordelia. "What were you trying to collect, Rayne?" he asked as he looked directly at his father.
"A book. It's as simple as that. But Pryce Senior broke his promise. So I held his slayer until he complied."
"His slayer?" Wesley hissed, questioning Rayne's statement.
"Told me that Faith was going to get assigned to him. Never should have taken his word on it."
As Ethan tried to get up, Giles put him back down with one punch to the face.
"Ow, Rupert. That hurt."
"Stay down," Giles told him as he stood over him.
"What makes you think the Council would ever assign Faith to you, much less any slayer?" Wesley shouted to his father.
"She was supposed to be mine in the first place. If she had been assigned to me, she would have never gone rogue. This is all your fault, boy. All of it."
Wesley stalked over to his father quickly. Connor stood at the ready to do whatever the ex-watcher wanted him to do. Which made Wesley pull back slightly. He had responsibilities that he couldn't shirk. And one of them was to not kill his father in front of his friends.
"You come near Faith or any other member of my family ever again, I will deal with you. Do you understand?"
"Who do you think you're talking to? I'm your father."
"Not anymore."
Even that statement made Cordelia gasp. For him to totally cut ties with his father was hard. But it had to be done to protect his newly formed family. The man had brought it on himself from years of abuse and neglect of his only son. He'd never get to see his grandchildren.
"Ethan," Giles yelled as he and Willow fell into a heap on the floor.
Rayne took off from where he had come. Wesley was just too tired to stop the older man.
"Now help us break the link, asshole. I don't have any problem breaking your nose if you don't," Cordelia said to his father.
"He knows?" Wesley questioned her.
"He knows. And will fix it, right?"
No one messed with Cordelia. Wesley smiled at her in return for her help and support.
"Giles, you need to pick better friends," Faith said as she helped Giles and Willow up off the floor.
"Ethan Rayne is not a friend, Faith," Giles told the slayer.
"Oh good. So the next time I see him, I can kill him."
"Faith," Wesley, Giles and Willow managed to say at the same time.
"He was just eww." The rest of the team laughed at her assessment of the man. "And he didn't feed me, the jerk. I'm hungry."
Wesley hugged her tightly to him, happy that she hadn't been injured in the fight. But he had made a serious error in judgment using Willow to help him. He had drawn on her power without her permission. But as he looked over at her, she wasn't paying the least bit of attention to him. All of her attention was focused on Giles.
As he bent down to take Faith's lips with his, he could hear an audible gasp from his father. It was better that the man knew now that his love for Faith was real and that he could never deter his son from breaking from her.
"Get a room," he heard Cordelia say as they led Roger away.
"Don't say a word," Connor told the man as he pulled him out of the building.
"You know that cinnamon smell kinda makes you smell like an apple pie," Faith whispered to him in his ear.
The rest of the team slowly made their way out of the room. Wesley noticed that the Council henchmen had also slithered away unnoticed. Undoubtedly Giles would send out someone to find the three and stop them for good. They were now rogue. Contracting out with a dark wizard wasn't the smartest of ideas on their part.
Faith's hands traveled down his back, caressing him the whole way. She smiled into his neck, knowing exactly what she was doing to him.
"Faith, this is not the time," Wesley lovingly told her as his hands made it to her head, pulling it back so he could draw his mouth over her neck.
"I'm hungry and I'm horny."
"Let's take care of the first one. Then . . . ."
"Better hurry. We might shock that asshole of a father of yours."
Wesley held Faith even tighter. "I'm not letting you out of my sight for the next seven or eight months."
"Hey, I was thinkin' much longer," she told him, as she looked into his eyes, entirely serious.
"Forever, then?"
"I'm thinkin' longer. Much, much longer."
"Will you two get your asses in gear?" Dawn shouted from the door.
"Your fault," Wesley pointed out as they walked towards the outer door.
"Nu uh. Not my word."
"Blame Cordelia," they both said in unison.
"I am so glad this is almost over with," Willow told Giles as they sat in the library together.
The rest of the team had made it to their beds after Giles and Willow had gathered the information they needed from Wesley's father. Now they had the correct spell to perform on Wesley and Faith, binding them the way they should have been back in Sunnydale.
"Thank goodness Robin is going to be alright. But on another issue, Wesley used you, your power. Have you talked to him yet?"
"Nope. And I'm not gonna any time soon. I would have done the same if it would have been you, or, or, Buffy, Xander, you know," Willow stuttered to a halt.
"But the magicks involved, that he borrowed?"
"Weren't dark. I was able to let him borrow only enough good energy to protect Faith."
"Then why did you try to stop him?" Giles wanted to know.
"Because I didn't want him to get hurt. The man really throws caution to the wind," Willow answered, glad that Giles had changed the subject quickly away from her statement.
"That doesn't mean that he's not going to have to learn how to manage what power he has inside of him."
"He will. I did with your help, remember?" Willow vividly remembered how Giles had taken care of her.
"Let me look at your knee now," Giles asked her as he moved to her chair.
"What? I'm fine."
"You limped quite a bit getting back here."
Willow raised her skirt so that Giles could look at the scrape on her knee that she had gotten when she fell on the sidewalk.
"See. Just a scrape." Giles gently kissed the injury, looking up at Willow after he performed the ministration. "Oh, that um, feels better?"
She really didn't know what to say to the man. His green eyes sparkled in the dim light from the desk lamp. Her eyes got wider as he slowly made his way on his knees in between her now spread legs.
"Willow?" he whispered as he was just inches from her face.
"Yeah?" she gulped, not knowing if she should respond.
He took his glasses off, laying them on the table beside them. Gently he brought his lips to hers, moving expertly as she closed her eyes to the sensation of him finally kissing her like she wanted to be kissed.
She couldn't stop the tears from coming. She had been through so much in the last couple of years, and having one of her best friends in the world there with her, actually comforting her, making her feel wanted and alive again made her cry all the more.
"Willow?" he asked as he pulled back from her slightly.
"I'm OK. Now, I'm OK," she told him as she pulled him back to her mouth and kissed him with abandon.
He tightly embraced her as their kisses became hotter and more intense. As he made his way to her earlobe, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that the door was still open. She gently closed it with her magick, and then turned her mind and body back to Giles. As his hands made their way up her shirt and her back, she groaned in pleasure.
He slowly picked her up off of the chair, swept whatever books were on the table away, and laid her down to come in between her legs.
"The books?" Willow questioned.
"They will live. I will not if I cannot be with you this instant."
Being in a library would never be the same for her again.
"You know, adults amaze me," Dawn started.
"Why is that? We're adults now," Connor pointed out.
The two sat in the dark training room against a wall.
"Ha. You're what one year old, and I'm three, technically I mean."
"Not really Dawn."
"I know, I know. Sometimes I think that's how old I am by the way they treat us."
Connor took her hand in his, rubbing his thumb over her palm. Dawn shivered at his finger's movement.
"Connor? Do you like me?"
"Of course I like you. What makes you think that I don't?"
"No, not like like but really like."
She turned so that she faced him. He grinned at her statement. "How about really like, Dawn?"
Dawn smiled as his head descended to hers. He lightly placed a kiss on her lips, and then pulled her into an embrace.
"Nice little trick you pulled there," Faith told Wesley as she wrestled him for position.
"Which trick, the one with the bullets or the fireball?" he told her as he flipped her over onto the bed, giggling as she poked him in the ribs.
"Both. Damn that was slick."
"You talk too much."
Faith then giggled. She talked too much? This coming from the man who couldn't shut up most of his life?
"Then shut me up."
Wesley opened her mouth up to his and thrust his tongue inside to duel with hers. Faith groaned in pleasure as his hands found each part of her.
"OK, since I had to wait this long . . . ," she started.
"Now?"
"Indeed," she whispered to him as he took her into his arms.
TBC
Next: Can you believe that's this is almost done? A little bit of closure in the next chapter, which I think will be the last (I've said that before). That doesn't mean that I won't go back and revisit the duo. It's just I need a break from all the adventure.
Thanks to: Moondoggy (hey, new reviewer!!), qkith (who has a great fic going too), Steph (just for you, ahh no e-mail address, it is slayerfanfic(the first time I tried to type and include it, fanfiction actually bounced it and didn't include it in my author notes), and it's under crayonbreaky gal and it's called Sunlight NC-17 rating), Insane Sketchbook (I wish I could be that funny), pari106 (loyal, loyal reader and has a great fic too going), Vilandra4, and everyone else that I've missed. I can't believe that you guys are still reviewing. This has been so much fun to share. And if you want me to review some of your stuff, just as long as it's Buffy or Angel, drop me a line. I'll try to fit it in (no wonder I don't go to bed before 2 am sometimes).