Breathing By Rote, Chapter 11.
warnings: language and mental non-con.
Author's Note: Sorry this again took so long, but it's a big juicy scene. Real life isn't always accommodating. I was in an odd mood when I wrote this, as everyone will shortly see. Odd enough that Lord of War put me in a good mood, though someone needs to have a sit down with Mr. Leto (and that's all I'll say about that). I was in a manic, stomping mood for most of this. Might go back later and edit, but right now this is pretty much how it came out.
oOo
Buffy was completely enamored by her tragic Angel when she finally got around to introducing him to her breathing friends. Though having met an older Xander before Angelus really couldn't care to rouse himself out of his alter ego's dour personality to notice the chit's schoolmates. Will had driven him to violence countless times with his poetics and soliloquies about his mate and the girls he had grown up with. Briefly meeting the teenager's resentful gaze Angelus glared right back, feeling his torment of having had to endure decades of a childe in love far outweighed teenage lust for a blonde bint who had the emotional depth of shepherd's pie. When the boy flushed and looked away Angelus smirked before moving on to the little redhead and the Watcher. Rupert Giles was frowning at him, but Angelus didn't think the man suspected anything, firmly convinced of what his Council told him about the cursed vampire. The witch briefly held his attention, though he understood she'd yet to start dabbling. The girl deserved watching, soul binding savvy that she was. Spike had been fond of his 'Red', in ways he'd been fond of Dru, so much so that Angelus gave her careful scrutiny for any tells of insanity.
When Angel came out of the Sunnydale High School surrounded by happily chirping children he was to escort home as the solicitous vampire that he was he immediately scented the demon that was waiting in the shadowed branches of a tree across the street. The scent followed them to each Scooby's house, patiently waiting till he was alone, until curt permission had been given to reveal itself. To the casual passerby both of the men in the park looked entirely human, acquaintances casually happening upon each other. In truth, Angelus was impressed the fellow could comfortably contain so many tentacles in its human suit, even though the body was on the preferred obese side. The suit itself was remarkably fresh, but that had been one of the conditions for the Yellow to swear him allegiance. Most of the clan was located in his city of San Francisco, but several had relocated to Huxley to watch over his remaining children. To see one of the Yellow here could only mean one thing and Angelus felt his stomach clench.
"What is it?"
Besides their viciousness Angelus liked the Yellow for their blunt manner. They didn't quibble or pontificate or in any way waste their new lord's time. "An accident. The male child witch was struck by a drunk driver six hours ago." The Yellow paused, possibly hesitating because of Angelus' carefully blank face. "It is not good. The mother called another, an older male, and her other males are coming home."
Connor was injured? He'd just turned eighteen two months ago and finally finished the hotrod he'd been fantasizing over since he was old enough to reach the pedals in his mother's old towncar, built from nothing with the help of his older brothers when they could come around. The boy loved that car. "Was he driving his car?" Angelus asked the question even as he patted himself down for his cellphone. He was Master of Southern California; getting a flight to Iowa in the next twenty minutes wasn't going to be a problem. He needed to call Will so he could tell Elaine. Needed to call Alessandro so his wolves in the area would know to keep an eye on things.
"Yes," the Yellow answered shortly, falling in step behind him as he headed for his car. "The other vehicle was much larger. His car, it likely saved his life."
The gas guzzler was a classic, so it probably did. Having supped on his Master's blood since birth had done the rest, but the boy was still mortal. He could still lose one of his children and he had already lost Dru. Angelus could not think if his intervention had somehow brought Connor to this, because he wasn't going to allow anything to happen.
oOo
The small medical center in Huxley was not equipped to deal with the severity of Connor's injuries so he had been helicopter lifted to Des Moines General. On his way to the boy's room Angelus saw Maria Finn taking her youngest into the bathroom. Both looked like hell, tightening the fist in the vampire's chest. Three Yellow were standing guard throughout the hall, one even ingeniously dressed as a hospital security officer. Another followed the women into the bathroom after inclining its head towards the approaching vampire.
Riley was the only one who had been currently stationed in the country, a hop away in Colorado, and he was slumped in the chair next to his baby brother's bed when Angelus walked in. His boy looked as destroyed as his mother and sister, his dark honey blond hair greasy and sticking up at odd angles. As Angelus watched from the doorway Riley ran his hands through his hair again, oblivious to anything beyond the still figure in front of him. The young Marine was still in his BDUs, the jacket thrown over the back of the chair. Angelus could only see the side of his face, but could just discern the bleakness in his red rimmed eye and the pastiness of his normally golden skin beneath a day's worth of blond stubble. Reluctantly Angelus turned his attention to Connor.
His littlest boy was as tall as his brothers, though on the thinner side since he ran track. Though Angelus had never attended one of his meets the vampire kept as detailed a file on the boy as he did all the others. Connor had called the retired Dr. Carey to ask for a recommendation for a track scholarship. He was supposed to be finishing his senior year and getting ready for college next fall. Right now Angelus could barely see the boy beneath all of the bandages and medical equipment. The smell of death sweetened the air, made slightly bitter by the heavy swirl of chemicals and medicine. Beneath the most cloying odors the vampire could smell burnt flesh.
The two Yellow who had met him at the airstrip followed him into the room, disinterested gazes taking in the boy on the bed before moving on. There was another bed in the intensive care unit but it was empty, the curtain that separated the room tied back to assure them they had the room to themselves. Riley did not even notice them until one of the Yellow walked across his line of sight to check the window. Others of its clan had probably already triple checked the room, but all of the Yellow were visibly upset to those who could see the signs. They took their responsibilities seriously and Connor was clinging to life by the grace of their lord.
Seeing a stranger not dressed in hospital clothes penetrated Riley's shocked state and he started up from his chair in angered alarm. The boy's natural defenses were completely down, his emotions painfully raw against his vampire mate as Angelus opened his end of the bond he usually kept partially closed to protect them both. Suddenly feeling a presence he hadn't been aware of since he was seventeen Riley's head swung around, confused eyes landing on the man he consciously recognized as Conal and subconsciously? Pushing down his boy's awareness of himself as Riley Finn, US Marine, and pulling up his dual identity as Angelus' beloved the vampire spread his arms wide and smiled when his boy's weight slammed into him.
Riley shuddered in his embrace, face tucked into his neck and Angelus felt his lips mouth a familiar word. "Sire." Such desperate need was pouring off his childe. Riley trusted him to make this better, to somehow save his brother, and Angelus knew he would, even if it meant turning the boy.
"I am here, childe, put away your fears," Angelus husked, taking the moment to glory in having his beautiful boy in his arms. Nightly visits to his dreams sustained his needs, but paled to inconsequential shadows to feel Riley's breath against his skin, his heady masculine scent thick in his nostrils. His hands kneaded the hard muscles of his childe's lean torso, filled out to a broadness he remembered from centuries before. For a few delicious minutes he indulged himself, and then he got back to the tasks at hand. While it was good to see his boy, he couldn't have him as an audience. "Go to sleep for me, childe. Put your fears to rest."
To exhausted to struggle against the force pressing over him Riley relaxed quickly into his hold. Angelus pressed a kiss to his temple before swinging his dead weight up into his arms and carried him to the other bed. Stretching him out on the thin mattress the vampire breathed deeply of his scent, hand fisting in the thin fabric of his black t-shirt as he fought to control himself. First, he would save Connor and then he promised himself, he would renew his claim on his childe.
With a rumble of displeasure Angelus stepped away from Riley, turned his back and mechanically picked up Connor's chart from the foot of his bed. The master vampire never cursed his medical knowledge as he did then, staring at the words that starkly painted his youngest boy's chances at life. Sixty percent of his body was covered in second and third degree burns, two vertebrae shattered, pelvis, both arms, skull fracture . . . Yes, by all rights Connor should be dead. The shock of his injuries should have killed him if nothing else. The boy was far enough along on his training to know a few protection spells, but nothing strong enough to save his life. No, this was all on Angelus.
The door to the room burst open, Will stumbling through and slamming the door behind himself. The blond took in his surprised sire, the sleeping Finns and the three Yellow in a glance before he turned to check the door for a lock.
"Will?" Angelus had been expecting his childe and grandchilde, but not quite in this fashion. "Where is Elaine?"
"Takin' her mom and the lil' bit to a hotel," Will distractedly answered. "Why doesn't this damn thing have a lock!"
"Because the people with needles don't like it when their patients lock them out. What's going on?"
"Lanie wanted to have a word with the drunk that hit Con, so we's stopped over in the ER where the copper said 'e was. 'Cept the driver wasn't. Cops are lookin' all over the place, broke right out of the handcuffs. Medium height, blonde woman. I smelled her, sire. It wasn't no drunk driver. It was her, that dead bitch is here."
Angelus carefully set down Connor's chart. "I staked her myself, Will. Darla cannot be here."
"I know what I smelled!" Will snarled, clearly panicked.
Was it even possible? Before his childe had traveled back in time Angelus would have vehemently denied it, but what if Darla was somehow alive and here? After all of these decades . . . Darla had found his nest, but how? Why didn't she come after him in Sunnydale? Too many questions and Angelus growled his frustration. "Make sure there is a guard on all of the Finns," he ordered the nearest Yellow. "Two of you stay here with Riley and Connor. You," he pointed a finger at the smallest one, "come with me and Will to the ER." Seeing Will about to protest Angelus sharply shook his head. "Don't argue with me, boy! Instead of tracking her scent you possibly led her right to us! If it's Darla and not some upstart trying for a take over by fucking with your head."
Will pouted, but turned back to unlock the door and lead his sire out, two of the guards at their heels. Angelus barked orders at the Yellow still stationed in the hall, making it perfectly clear that if anything happened to his mate their entire clan would suffer. "Where's the ER, Will?"
They were just entering the elevator when the entire twelve story building shook. "What the hell is going on?" Angelus roared, barely leaping out of the elevator car before the doors slammed shut. Will was down on the floor, sprawled out and dazed in the flickering hall lights. Reaching down for him Angelus was abruptly thrown back into the elevator's doors, briefly catching sight of the mottled dark yellow tentacles that snatched his childe and smacked him hard across the chest. Rolling back to his feet he snarled, giving chase. The Yellow had better have damn good reason for attacking their lord.
His growl deepened at being led back to Connor's room, not liking the implications. The hall was notably empty of souls, human or otherwise, and though the door to Connor's room was open, he could see nothing but white light. The trap was obvious, but then, what need was there for cleverness when the bait was irresistible?
They had his boys.
Angelus stepped inside.
In a glance he took in the room that appeared identical to Connor's. His youngest boy was still abed, hooked up to all of his monitors and various bags of fluid. Riley still slept in the bed over, an equally unconscious William now curled up next to him. None of the Yellow were in sight but a woman he didn't recognize was staring at him from where she stood at Connor's head.
And some woman who remarkably looked identical to Darla was staring hatefully down at his defenseless childer, her fingers playing in Will's bleached curls before they traced their way to Riley's stubbled jaw.
Angelus growled, instinctively shifting to gameface as he lunged to protect what was his. His rage and snarls increased tenfold when he was abruptly brought up short by the other woman appearing in front of him, surrounded by some invisible force that held him back. She looked polished, from her perfectly coiffed hair to her thousand dollar heels, obviously dressed to impress, and Angelus didn't give a fuck.
"Mr. Angel, if you-" she started, hungry and enticing smile not making a scratch.
"Get out of my way."
The smile didn't falter. "Mr. Angel, I am here to represent the interests of my employers -"
He stabbed a finger in the direction of the Darla clone who'd turned to watch him helplessly rage. "She's dead and if you're responsible for her getting out of hell, so are you."
The woman just kept at it. "- who would like a resolution to several questions they have regarding your souled state."
Darla tsked softly, glancing at her errant childe sidelong. "They don't believe me, Angel. They found me in Hell, brought me back. I told them you were cursed, that you had to be cursed to leave your sire, but they don't believe me."
"Evidence is inconclusive and frankly, as confusing as hell." Angelus' attention flickered between the two women before he settled on the unknown threat in Verace. "Mr. Angel, my name is Lilah Morgan and I am here representing the partners at Wolfram and Hart." She glanced around the hospital room, lingering on Connor. "Our file on you has been confounding researchers for decades. Are you the vampire cursed with a soul or are you Angelus, and if you are, what's your interest in a poor white country bumpkin family? Some did not believe the information we collected, but here you are after one of these kids is threatened."
Implying they had arranged Connor's accident? Angelus did not feel any inclination to answer the woman, psychotically enraged golden eyes staring at her coldly, patiently. He knew the law firm she spoke of, of their offices in LA. 'Frankly', he had a few questions of his own. Like how this bitch was able to find out about the Finns. A few seconds in she shifted uncomfortably, slowly easing greater distance between them. Rallying herself took visible effort, but the vampire didn't take any pleasure in rattling her cage when his two most precious boys in the world were out of his reach.
"Ah, we, we know you were cursed by a gypsy clan." Lilah paused, frowning as she showed her first signs of weakness. "Weren't you?"
The bint was being insistent on this whole soul business, wasn't she? Angelus arched an inquisitive brow, casually crossing his arms. "You've gone to some trouble over this, haven't you? What do your senior partners care for the affairs of one lowly vampire?"
"The Senior Partners don't like mysteries, Mr. Angel. Two sons bitten by a werewolf, one daughter disappeared and this one," she gestured back towards Riley, "marked as a vampire's claimed so heavily its impressive he has any independent will left at all. Is the Finn family cursed? Darla says the boy there is yours. Yet you're off in Sunnydale panting after the Slayer and killing your own kind. None of this adds up, Mr. Angel, and my employers don't like that."
Angelus snorted, running his fingers across the invisible barrier, feeling for its shape, its range, any weaknesses that would let him through. "They don't like that?" he softly repeated in mocking horror. His demeanor abruptly shifted, snarling and raging. "Why should I give a fuck what they do and don't like?"
Lilah had jumped at his sudden personality shift, staring at him like she suddenly doubted his sanity. It was a good mindset for her to have. "The, ah, the Senior Partners are very interested in working with you, Mr. Angel. They want to invest in your future."
My future is on that bed behind you, you daft bitch, but those were not thoughts to say aloud. "They sure know how to show that interest," he growled, glaring at his resurrected sire.
"Darla assured us she could guarantee your good behavior as your sire." The lawyer sounded like she was doubting that one now too.
"Did she now?" Angelus grinned. "Was that before or after I ran her through with a stake?"
"That was Angel," Lilah assured him. "We are interested in doing business with Angelus." Her smile was brittle, but still had that professional polish. Angelus doubted it lost its shine even when she was getting buggered up the ass by her vaunted senior partners. "We require assurance, however, of who we are dealing with and what his agenda is so we can better serve each other."
"Hmmm." Angelus rubbed his chin. "Serve. Serve. Such a vulgar word you put to me. You stick your fingers into my affairs without invitation and you speak of how I would serve YOU?"
Did his tone give him away? He was so out of practice in equivocation. The chintzy anorexic whore suddenly backed up to cower against Darla, her sharp elbow prodding the blond bitch. Darla, however, did not step any closer, though she smiled beatifically.
"She doesn't understand, my darling. She doesn't understand that that nasty curse has you all confused." She turned to the openly skeptical lawyer, sneering. "Once you lift the curse Angelus will obey me, his sire. Why don't you believe me?"
Lilah glanced between sire and childe, possibly thinking the same as Angelus did, that her jaunt to Hell had swept away the last traces of sense haunting her empty head. "Because he looks like he wants to stake you all over again and I don't think that's going to change," she bluntly answered.
So she was smarter than her fashion sense or else that micro skirt was disguising some impressive balls. Didn't mean she was going to be any less dead. A vampire had to adhere to the principles of these things and he was feeling a mite peckish.
Darla was laughing at the lawyer when she suddenly stopped. A golden light suffused the room, blinding and giving Angelus a fright before two freakishly dressed people appeared. A man and a woman, their gold skin a shade darker than their togas, practically identical in their androgyny. Nothing about them smelled human or demonic and Angelus growled, now convinced his entire day had just gone to shit. Who wanted to fuck with him now?
The newbies had popped into the party at the end of the bed his two boys were on, underneath the ceiling mounted crappy little TV. Lilah the lawyer started cursing shrilly at the sight of them, but Angelus knew that didn't necessarily make them good news for him.
The male-ish one flicked a dismissive hand at the women. "Be gone, agent of chaos."
"Hey now," Angelus objected, not wanting to be alone with the freaky twosome. "I was going to eat one, maybe both." Well, not really. He shuddered to think of what Darla would taste like after having whored for who knew how many blokes to finagle her way back to this dimension. Probably tasted like a two month dead rat left at the bottom of a urinal.
The lawyer had never ceased her tirade and so didn't hear the dark vampire's protest. "Now see here, the laws clearly state-" she began, only to abruptly vanish, taking Darla with her.
Watching the bizarre twins, Angelus was unconcerned about Darla and her new bitch by the simple attention to the truth they were no longer here. He reached out a finger and poked where the barrier had divided the room. When nothing resisted him stabbing the air he rushed to his boys, rumbling reassurance and briefly nuzzling his face into the shadowed space betwixt their throats. All too briefly he took in their mingled scent, hyper aware of the two watching him show this crippling weakness.
"Angelus Aurelius," the vaguely female one summoned, "Master of the House of Aurelius, we call on you to answer the Powers That Be."
Straightening from his boys the dark vampire rubbed one ear, convinced he hadn't heard right. "You want to repeat that, because it sounded like you just asked the Scourge of Europe to work for the penultimate good guys."
"The Powers That Be are neither good nor evil. Those are the province of lesser beings. The Powers That Be are the balance that governs between. We call on Angelus Aurelius to aid in the balance between these forces."
Angelus smirked, liking where this was going. "Too many saints running about in your opinion? Need me to cull the herd? Give all them nasties a fighting chance?"
The male frowned in open frustration. "As Champion to the Powers That Be you will be charged with safeguarding those innocents who will be weighed into the balance."
By all the gods of Hell, were they serious? Realizing they were he burst out laughing, loud guffaws that drowned out the beeping of Connor's equipment. Maybe he should have gone with the evil lawyers. It was a hard choice to make, stupid or insane? The dark vampire collapsed against the bed, chortling while the Dynamic Duo not so patiently waited his answer.
Slowly Angelus calmed, putting a hand to his chest as he made a production of recovering his nonexistent breath. When he caught the male silently huffing out of the corner of his vision he straightened up, suddenly again serious. "While your offer to waste my time helping those too weak and stupid to save themselves is refreshing, I'm gonna have ta turn it down. Scheduling conflict, sorry. I'm on a tight timeline to take over all of North America. You understand. Empire building is just exhausting, and with the kids and the second job, I barely have time to suck down three squares a day."
"Refusal," the female intoned, "will result in immediate and permanent expulsion from this dimension."
Well, shite. "Hunh. That's a strong counter-offer, I gotta say." He glanced up from frowning at his Italian loafers. "You do know I'm not Angel, right? That the whole thing in Sunnydale is just pretend like?"
"We do not know of whom you speak," the male said while the woman answered at the same time, "Your affairs beyond the execution of your duties do not concern us."
Well, that raised his eyebrows and the vampire gestured expansively to include the various comatose males filling the room. "So it doesn't matter to you none that I've corrupted an entire line of children?"
"They do not weigh. Angelus Aurelius must champion the balance."
What they were babbling about finally clicked. They wanted Angelus to balance his own deeds, a good for an evil. HE was to exist in balance. They really meant to botch up his plans with this innocent nonsense, but something William had mentioned came back to him. "Say I take on this championship, is your issue with the how of their salvation or the result?"
"They must be weighed."
"Yeah," he scratched the side of his nose, feeling his left eye starting to twitch. Could they be less communicative? "That really helps. So, do I just pick up a police scanner or do you have a, I don't know, phone book I could use? How does Batman do it?" Angel had had his little after school club slash hotel brothel thing going on. He'd planned to just make AI a glorified daycare center for the losers Angel had latched onto, but maybe he could actually put it to use. Now who had filled up that little club?
"The Seer will guide the Champion," they said in stereo and then vanished. Or maybe he did because Angelus suddenly found himself staring at the back of Will's head as his childe pushed open the door of Connor's room. Three Yellow were in the room and Riley was curled into a cold ball on the second bed. A less self assured demon would have wondered if he'd imagined the last several minutes, but Angelus was possibly a sociopath, criminally genius certainly, but he wasn't inclined to hallucinations without a heavy dosing of narcotics.
"Will, hold up," he stopped the blond's charge out the door with a large hand on his shoulder. William swung around in ready protest, but Angelus just yanked him back into the room. "I'll explain later, but something's just happened." Looking at the surrounding Yellow he noticed their human suits were quivering. "Did you guys see any of what happened?"
"You vanished, then came back."
"Wot?" Will exclaimed, letting himself be shoved back into a chair. "That bitch Darla is downstairs!"
"Not anymore, I don't think." Angelus scratched the back of his head, mind whirling with everything that needed to get done. "None of the Finns are safe right now. We need to get Moira to LA where Alessandro can watch her and I'm gonna need the twins for daycare duty full time." Elaine could take care of herself, and those were the easy decisions to make, the children already fully sworn to his House. There was also the issue of just who had betrayed him to the law firm because he didn't believe for a second Darla had been the one to find out his secret.
"You can't yank the boy out," William said unnecessarily behind him and Angelus waved a quieting hand, staring at his youngest boy slowly dying. He had a germ of an idea as to how to protect Riley in this dangerous time before he transferred into the Initiative. The bigger worries were Connor and Bridge. They were both still in school, his little chatterbox with two years left. "Their father is coming up on retirement," his oldest seemed determined to read his mind. "Lanie's mentioned often enough about them always wanting to see the country in one of them shiny sausages."
Brigit loved acting, the attention, and she was good if the awards she decorated her shelves with were anything to go by. Nothing better than a captive audience to listen her talk. "Isn't there some performance high school in LA?"
William shrugged. "Be surprised if there wasn't"
Sitting on the edge of his bed Angelus carefully studied Connor's battered body. By the partial mark he'd placed on the inside of his left wrist the vampire could faintly feel the boy's agony, his struggle to live. That tie to his master was keeping the youth alive more certainly than all of the drugs and modern gadgetry violating his weakened flesh. That mark could keep him alive if Angelus called on it, used it and deepened it. Through that mark Connor could heal, though it would take months, possibly years, and he would have horrible scars to show for it. If the boy fully learned his dark magicks, that time would compress to a number of healing spells. The ordeal was going to be agonizing, tied to a broken body while his mind struggled to learn what took most dark practioners decades to master. Angelus doubted Connor was going to weather the torture unchanged, but the boy was his, as all his siblings were, and he would do what was demanded of him or break in the trying.
All he needed to do was give Connor that time.
oOo
The doctors pronounced Connor dead in the early morning. His mother wailed into her grim faced daughter Elaine's shoulder, the young woman's other arm about her shocked baby sister. They advised immediate burial, within the next day if possible, as soon as the family could be gathered. Elaine nodded, the apologetic Yellow in his spiffy new MD certified human bodysuit quite convincing when he talked about burn severity and body decomposition. He was the doctor who had been treating Connor since he had been first brought in, after all, and Maria and Brigit were too distraught to notice if he stood differently than before or occasionally shifted oddly.
Hearing his brother was dead and watching the silent nurses began their work of unplugging Connor's body had sent Riley out into the hall. He wandered aimlessly, unaware of where his feet took him, the loss of his little brother detaching him from even his most basic senses. He was a soldier, he understood death, but not like this. Not quiet little Connor. The denial of it screamed inside, deafening him to the noises of the hospital, of his own labored breathing as he ran oblivious to the pounding of his feet and the voices shouting after him. The ache grew inside, a terrible pain that he whimpered for, a desperate part of himself he did not even recognize calling out for relief.
Everything stopped. Riley shivered, sliding down a wall he did not remember coming to, unseeing the darkness that closed in on his slumped figure. His feet were out somewhere in front of him but his eyes couldn't make sense of his black boots so they just faded away with the rest of him. Distantly, he realized he was crying. His world had just broken open and spilled everything good and worthwhile out onto the dirt.
He looked like an abandoned doll, Angelus thought coming out of the darkness. If he could have spared his cherub this pain, he would have gladly explained their ruse, that Connor was going to live. Yet he couldn't, because the very forthright earnestness that he loved cursed his boy to this torment. If he thought for one moment Riley could lie and act the honest lover with Summers . . .but Riley was too possessed of honor to play at such games. Not when he was unwittingly playing in a far more dangerous one.
And in the darkness he would keep him. Riley's responses to his touch were mindless, unconscious. It was not the reunion of flesh Angelus had dreamed of. It was almost mechanical though not without passion, tainted with desperation and grief. Those beautiful hazel eyes did not even look at him as he moved over his boy, into him. He did not have the strength to deny his body's craving, but for the first time in his long existence, Angelus hated what he did, hated his need for this boy. It was not even fucking, Riley pliant and unresponsive to his rhythmic thrusting. When he came he growled at the familiar sweep of pleasure, angry that his body could find any satisfaction in raping his precious childe.
He despised himself with a blackness of heart that would in the coming months see a bloodbath unleashed on his enemies, on those who had brought them to this. Wolf, Ram and Hart would learn the cost of fucking with his family. Yet, he could not stop what needed doing. He leaned down to lick the tears from his cherub's face, purring to reassure him. "Listen to me, childe. You will let this grief fade from you. You will let Connor go." Riley whimpered and tried to turn away, but Angelus took firm grip of his jaw, forcing him to meet the mesmerizing yellow eyes staring down into his own. "No disobedience, boy. You will forget and let go of this pain. Connor loved you, remember that. Loved you as I love you. Now let him go." It was an order, one that lodged itself like a bullet in the depths of Riley's carefully manipulated mind and exploded the last of his resistance.
Riley wailed beneath him, a mad sound of grief and denial pouring out along with all his pain. Through their bond he could feel the boy helplessly fighting against the exodus, his struggles as ineffective as a moth fluttering against the inside of a jar. Angelus' command did more than drain the pus from the wound Connor's loss had inflicted, it cauterized it. From now, when Riley thought of his brother, it would be without any of this crippling pain. Was it wrong of him to deny Riley his mourning? Connor lived and that was justification enough for Angelus. Let his boy only remember the good times and be spared the backlash from his enemies' orchestrations.
After all, had he not promised anything to see Riley completely his? For he was indeed a selfish beast, jealous of even grief if it took his boy's devotion from him for even a moment. A jealous, despised beast that forgot every self-flagellation when his boy smiled into sleep beneath the heavy watch of his gaze.
TBC.
