18: Cruel intentions?
AN: I am sorry to have cut it short, but you should know my policy on writing romantic scenes. Just not comfortable with them yet, but I did the best I could. There's also the fact that I want to stay within the limits of the rating system.
It was quiet. There must have been cars out there somewhere, but it was as if the couple were caught in a safe little bubble where they saw and heard only each other. Erica wasn't quite asleep, but she was dozing in his arms beneath the second blanket. His shirt was unbuttoned, but they were wearing clothes again to make sure they didn't get themselves sick due to sleeping in the draft-prone building.
It had worked, he was sure of it. He felt as though he was a wire stretched tight, and he was now thrumming with energy. Her energy. Energy she hadn't even known she was capable of harnessing. But now that he had it he wasn't going to leave her. It hadn't all been lies. He genuinely liked her, but he'd been right about her being a useful asset if she trusted him.
The tattoo on his hand had faded; the siphoning power used up. He looked down at her peaceful face and felt a twinge of guilt. He hadn't mentioned any of it to her, even though he knew she couldn't be hurt by what he'd done. She had been with him willingly, and that was a key to the sharing of power. The Life-giving fire nearby and the fact that she'd already healed him once and therefore had connected with him had all helped him draw strength from her without causing the slightest discomfort. There were worse ways to steal power.
If anything he might have helped her. He knew she couldn't access all of her strength yet, and she would have plenty to spare. He'd read that if she became too slayer-like too soon it would kill her as the power inside her fought to hold onto it's place within her body.
… So why did he feel a pang of regret?
He hadn't asked. He had taken without permission. On some level it wasn't much different to rape, and that really bothered him. She may have consented to the physical act, but she hadn't understood what he was doing and hadn't been given the chance to agree to it. But it was done, and he was now better able to protect them both than he would have been last night.
She was facing away from him but her back was tucked into the curve of his body. Her head rested on his left arm. He leaned over her and kissed her cheek. He grimaced as his vision was flooded with a white hall and the image of two golden beings. They told him to bring the girl to them. He got the impression that they were not pleased with him.
He could see normally again and saw that Erica had turned toward him and was looking at him. "What's wrong?" she asked. "You just tensed up." She put her hand up to his cheek. "You have a bad dream or something?"
"Or something," he agreed. He kissed her forehead.
Erica sat up suddenly. "Someone's outside," she whispered just loud enough for him to hear. "I saw a shadow." She was looking toward one of the covered windows. Her next glance was to the small pile of broken wood near the fire.
Lindsey understood her at once and pulled the blanket off them before reaching for two improvised stakes. Vampire or not, sharpened wood tended to hurt a lot of things, and it was better than the arsenal of nothing that they had as an alternative.
Erica took the bulky stake and stood in a half-crouched posture. She backed up toward a wall and Lindsey followed her. Until they knew how many there were, it would be best to only have them come after them from one direction.
"Just so you know," Erica whispered to him, "if it's vampires, this is only my second encounter. The same goes for werewolves, witches, summoner demons and zombies." She tugged her cross out of her tank top. They usually only worked against vampires and certain demons, so Wolfram and Hart hadn't seen the harm in letting her keep it.
"Stay behind me," Lindsey cautioned. "They already know we're here from the fire."
"Well doesn't this look cosy?" a voice called. Someone was coming down the stairs. "You forgot to board up the second floor, kiddies." A punk-looking vampire with a Mohawk came down the stairs. "Although, you didn't even use nails to board up the windows in this level." He was shaking his head as if he was scolding them.
The humans jumped a little as the two boarded up windows that had faced an alley were beaten inward. Two more vampires entered. One was bald and wearing a heavy leather jacket and jeans, the other had blonde hair down to his shoulders, and was only wearing track pants. Blondie growled, baring his teeth. Both of them stopped and stood still once they got into the building.
Mohawk seemed to be the leader. "This was a good night for you guys to drop by," he said, coming down the last few stairs. "Brad here's new to the game; he needs something nice and fresh to feed off." He gave Erica the up and down, undressing stare and grinned. The blonde, Brad, growled again and smirked past his fangs.
Lindsey could tell that Erica was doing her best to stay calm and focussed. "What I wouldn't give for that crossbow, right now," she muttered. With their vampire hearing, the others had heard her.
"Nice try," Mohawk said, taking another two steps forward, "but the Slayer's in Sunnydale."
"'Doesn't change the fact that the last vampire who thought I looked good enough to eat is now a pile of dust outside Benny's Bar," Erica said, trying to bluff her way out of the fight. One of her hands was holding up the piece of wood and pointing it towards Baldy and Brad, and her other hand was clenched in a fist and up at shoulder height. Her feet were already spaced apart, ready for the conflict.
Mohawk shrugged as if he didn't care what she thought she could do. "Go get your dinner, boys," he ordered.
Baldy and Brad rushed at the two humans. Baldy got to Lindsey first and swung a punch at his head. Lindsey ducked and tried to shove the stake up into his chest but Baldy blocked it with his other arm and shoved him backward. Meanwhile Erica had pulled off her cross and was using it to hold Brad at bay. The new vampire cringed and shrank back. Mohawk tried to get around behind her but Lindsey had deliberately placed himself so that he guarded her back.
Baldy took another swing at Lindsey. Lindsey grabbed the arm and kicked him in the stomach. He then staked him and turned to fight Mohawk.
Brad covered his eyes with his left forearm and swiped out blindly with his right arm. He got closer and Erica kicked him in the chest because he was protecting his face. She lunged forward to try and stake him but he grabbed her wrist and pulled her past him, letting go to let her stumble to the floor on her hands and knees.
Now that the cross wasn't pushing him back he pounced on her and pulled her to her feet with his arms around her shoulders. Erica elbowed him in the stomach and kicked his shins but he ignored the pain. She threw her head back to smack him in the face as he tried to taste her and succeeded in making him loosen his grip. He grabbed a handful of her top as she tried to lunge forward to grab her cross off the floor. She twisted in his grip and kicked him in the face.
Mohawk was thrown across the room behind them. Lindsey was stronger than they had expected. He pulled Brad backward by the hair and plunged his stake into the vampire's back before he could grab Erica again. Mohawk rushed at him. Lindsey sidestepped and grabbed the back of Mohawk's jacket and rammed the vampire's head into the wall, leaving a sizeable dent. He pulled him back out and threw him across the room again. Lindsey followed and staked him as he tried to get up. Miraculously, throughout the entire fight the bin of fire hadn't been knocked over.
Lindsey turned around to see Erica staring at him. "How did you do that?" she asked. She wasn't afraid of him, just surprised.
Lindsey was quiet for a moment, and then decided to come clean. She'd trusted him with her life, and he had no right to lie to her about what he'd done. "I borrowed some strength from you," he said.
"What do you mean?" Erica asked. "At the moment I don't have that much strength, I told you that."
"But you will," Lindsey said, "and it's there already, it's just inactive. You've got plenty of energy but you can't use it to defend yourself yet. I took some of it from you in a ritual to make myself stronger and faster. It will stay with me now, but your body will replace it eventually."
"What ritual?" Erica asked, "And when? What did you do?"
Lindsey didn't answer, but he looked toward the blankets on the ground. Erica understood.
"You used me?" Erica said, and Lindsey realised that he was on dangerous ground. "You slept with me so you could steal from me?" She took a step backward, her expression hurt. She looked away. "Did your bosses put you up for this, or did you volunteer?" she asked bitterly.
"They have nothing to do with this; they don't even know that we're here or what I did. I hid the research." Lindsey said. "I wouldn't have done it if it was going to hurt you, and I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think it was the best way to keep you safe."
"Who made you my protector?" Erica asked sarcastically, crossing her arms and staring at him.
"You did, when you trusted me to keep you safe. It was the act of trust that was the key. And that's what the ritual is for; to create a guardian. I'm supposed to use what I've got to protect you, and I'm going to do it. We'd be dead right now if I hadn't done it."
"Even if it doesn't hurt me, even if it helps us, you could have told me," Erica argued. "You could have asked." Her eyes were starting to tear up, but Lindsey knew better than to try and touch her. She was right. "I didn't think it was possible to treat someone like a child and a whore at the same time, but you did it. Congratulations, Lindsey(!) You've done what lawyers are supposed to do best; screwing the people who trust you for all they're worth."
"I'm sorry," Lindsey said, taking a step closer "It's not the only reason I wanted to be with you." He reached out as if to touch her face. Erica took another step back.
"Don't touch me," she spat. "And just… don't talk to me until it's time to leave in the morning. Please."
Lindsey sighed and nodded. Erica took one of the blankets and sat on the other side of the fire. She put it over her shoulders and faced away, watching the gaping windows and clenching her cross in her hands.
AN: Just a little head's up: For the next chapter I'm going to try switching back and forth between perspectives. You should be able to follow it; I'll be using my '888 system'.