Author's Note: Wow, I'm feeling lightheaded. Seriously now, people - fifteen chapters and two prologues, and I'm just now finally beginning the meat of the story. And I mean meat, cuz, folks, remember that little thing about the thirteenth chapter? Well, fifteen is a big mark for me, really, so I just wanted to warn everyone that this is planned as a really long chapter, and as an important chapter as well, so, buckle up!
Also, I would like to point out that I did this chapter uniquely - each small section of it will be started by a piece of music that fits that particular section. For those who enjoy such things, there will be a final soundtrack listing for this chapter at the end of the chapter, as a sort of bonus for how long it's taken me to write this damn chapter.
IMPORTANT NOTE BEFORE READING: For all fans of this story who are reading it because they ship the Xangel (Xander/Angel) pairing: there is a Xangel archive site, for the first time ever! It's called of Knights & Champions, and it has a gorgeous set-up. It's amazing. True, it's just getting up and running and barely has anything on it yet, but it's an amazing site - look it up!
Also, Joss Whedon and Eliza Dushku are teaming up to bring us a show called Dollhouse on FOX in January! It looks like it's gonna be amazing (duh, it's Joss), so look it up and see if it's your cup of tea!
And a huge thank you again to all of my reviewers. This is kind of getting to be a sore spot with me, really, but it's a little tiresome to post these huge chapters and get about ten messages that the story has be favorited or I have been put on author alert, but only get like four or five actual reviews. So, once this chapter is over, please, PLEASE hit the review button. It means more to me than you'd guess. Please? For cookies?
AND A MESSAGE TO MY REVIEWERS - This is the longest story I've ever written, and it's the longest I've stuck with it. That's why I dedicate this chapter to every fan of this story, particularly to those who've reviewed on each chapter - you know who you are. You who've stuck with me through the insane breaks that occur between the chapters, for the fans of my psycho writing, for the fans that take the time to drop me a one line review to say they enjoyed it, or told me why, or gave me constructive criticism. I love you all (in an entirely NOT creepy way, of course J), and I dedicate this chapter entirely to you. Blessed be.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
the Passion of Angels and Demons
Chapter XV
The Kiss That Woke the Sleeping Beauty
I. Beauty Dreaming
In sleep he sang to me;
In dreams he came -
That voice which calls to me
And speaks my name…
Xander was dreaming.
He could tell, because he could feel that he was him, but at the same time he knew that he was someone else in this dream, in this dream-place, in this dream-time. Whoever, whatever, he was running through a dark street. A crescent Moon offered only evanescent light through the dirty alleys. Feet were slapping frantically on the cobblestones, though they weren't his feet. He was running far too fast for his steps to make noise. He flew through the air like a phantom, thrilling in his power, his mastery.
He took a deep breath, scenting the air. He could smell the clean smell of the air tempered with the rank smell of human piss and shit that had been dumped in the street like so much garbage. Through it all, the lovely tang of human fear and panic shot through his nostrils, and he made a slight adjustment to his direction. He was closing in on his prey…
Xander shifted uncomfortably in his sleep, a frown developing in between his brows as the dream and yet not-dream continued. He couldn't have woken himself up if he wanted to, which he did want to - didn't he?
The alleys were ending ahead of him, and there wasn't much more space for the man to run. He loved this part of the hunt, for the fear that filled the air was also spiced with the stale odor of despair that turned him on even more. The frantic human male grabbed the first large branch that he could find, swinging towards his invisible attacker. He looked on with scorn. Did the human think himself a Slayer? He grabbed the offending 'weapon' out of his prey's grasp and shattered it with a clenched fist, his every instinct whispering to him of his power, his mastery. He allowed his true face to show, his every sharp instinct honed to razor-sharp precision. The utter icy beauty of his power made him laugh, even as the human crumpled to his knees, a stream of piss adding to his vile human aroma. Pathetic.
He bent down and grabbed the man, slamming him roughly into the wall. The man's heart was pounding wildly, all that delicious blood just out of reach. He was bleating like a sheep sent to the abattoir, crying desperately for mercy. He just laughed harder, leaning in to the man's wildly pulsing neck. "Please!" the prey cried out. "Please! My wife, my children!"
Angelus, master of masters, leaned back and smirked. "Aye - I'm sure the boys will enjoy watching their mother being rode like the whore she is with a real cock before I kill them all, for dessert." With that, he leaned in and sank his fangs deep into the man's neck, letting the blood flow into his being.
There was no describing the taste of blood, at first coppery and sweet and yet spiced with so many human flavors. The flavor of love known and lost. The taste of fear and despair. The ambrosia of humanity that his demon despised even as it sought it out each night, each kill bringing he, Angelus, closer to Nirvana. It was a study in contrasts. He felt the hotness of the fresh blood washing into every part of him, making him warm, flush, hard. He dropped the pathetic meat sack once it was drained of blood. He looked down at his hard cock. He knew Darla was waiting for him, but he'd have enough for her, insatiable lady that she was, he thought fondly. Instead, he rubbed his sensitive balls and left to make good on his promise.
He was willing to bet that he'd be the most satisfying fuck the fishwife would have in her life before she died. No one could say that he was never merciful, after all…
He walked away from the body behind him, the flashes of life he'd glimpsed already fading from his mind, and never wondered about the fate of what had once been a man and was now merely an empty shell, drained of everything that had made it human and alive.
Xander woke up screaming so loud that it took him a while to realize that he'd torn his own chest open enough to draw blood in the effort to leave the body that was not his own.
II. Beast in Repose
Sing once again with me
our strange duet;
My power over you
grows stronger yet…
Angelus was confused.
Vampires did dream, contrary to anything you might hear from a Watcher, including about their human body's past, but rarely were vampires given dreams that were truly random, like humans. But this seemed to be one of those. For he was not himself, he knew. He was someone else. And he was afraid. He recognized this weakness and was furious to find it in himself. But he could do nothing about it. All he could do was follow the course of the dream…
He'd always been comforted by the Moon. One of his daycare teachers from the Center that he'd had to be sent to when he was younger had told him that whenever he was afraid, all he had to do was whisper to the Goddess of the Moon, and she would protect him. He wondered if the Goddess was particular of who could implore Her protection. For though some of his classmates had been missing for a while, nothing had ever happened to him outside of his home.
It was inside his home that Her shield seemed to falter.
Still, he looked up at her and whispered the charm that he'd been taught: "O, Mater Luna, Regina de Nocis, audiuvo me nunc," he whispered. The words calmed him down a little, even though he was now old enough to know that spells and magic didn't really work. Now that he knew that real monsters couldn't be fought off by the Moon. He rounded the corner to see his home on the corner.
Home. What a crock of shit term for the pile of bricks.
School had been easier today than it usually was, in that he and Willow and Jesse had been ignored more than usual by Cordelia and her gang and Larry and the football assholes. Sometimes it was really bad, but he'd learned long ago the lesson that Willow probably never would - if you let them actually see the damage that their thoughtless and cruel words caused, they left you alone more. Well, he couldn't actually say thoughtless around Cordelia - he could give her that much. She was smarter than she let on, because she could undress anyone with her eyes and in seconds find every single emotional weakness cut into the person's soul. Then she was vicious enough to dump a boatload of salt and lemon juice onto every single cut.
He shuddered a little as he stepped closer to the house. The lights were all off, but that was no guarantee of safety, he'd learned; nothing ever guaranteed safety. Not even the Moon. She gazed down in icy sadness on the young man as he walked slowly, like an old man, towards his home, unable to do anything else. He'd had defiance to his worthlessness beaten out of him early on.
It was when he was inside that he learned the real reason why the lights were out.
"Where the fuck have you been?!" his mother screeched at him as he walked in. "You're late!" she whined, clearly already drunk on the orange juice that was seated in front of her. He didn't even know why she bothered to dilute the vodka anymore. She dumped so much in the orange juice that her taste buds had to be dead by now.
"And why the fuck is the god damn power out?! Why can't you even pay a fucking bill?!" she screamed, rounding on Tony, his father. "You fat, stupid, drunk, lazy asshat bastard! What the fuck are you good for if you can't even afford enough to pay a fucking bill?!" she continued hysterically.
"You know what I'm good for," he slurred, pulling her onto his lap. She wasn't in the mood, but Tony didn't care. He knew that his dad would come for him because when his mom fought back his dad wasn't satisfied enough and needed to get the fists out to finish himself off. He tried really hard to be asleep, but it was hard to do when the only lullaby you've ever known in you life is the sounds of your drunken father beating and raping your equally fucked up mother.
Angelus shifted in bed, aware that he was asleep, equally aware that there was nothing he could do about it. He was angry; angry that the dream body he was trapped in couldn't fight back, angry at the situation, uneasy at the sympathy it was garnering. He was a fucking demon! What the fuck did he care about some little pussy who couldn't stand up for himself around his home?
He never bothered to think about Liam's past and his despair over his father's attitude over him. He wasn't Liam. He was Angelus. A demon. He was soulless. Unknowingly, he pulled the boy in bed next to him closer. His Xander was shuddering, and his subconscious hoped that his embrace would calm the boy. He was as soulless as a stone. Damn straight.
Tony stumbled up the stairs, leaving Jessica broken and bruised and bloody on the floor to pick up the pieces, just like she always did. He was shuddering so hard his bed was shaking, rattling more than it should, which was weird, but his bed always did that when he was afraid.
His father stumbled into the room and pulled off his belt. The first crack burned like fire as it fell onto his soft, unprotected belly. He tried desperately to not scream, but by the fifth or sixth lash, interspersed with his father's meaty fists, he was curled into a fetal ball on the floor, strategically ensuring that no one at school would ever see how bad the bruises would be the next day.
He tied to stop the scream, but couldn't help himself. "Goddess," he moaned. That stopped his father and his insistent ramblings on his son's uselessness and stupidity and on how his son was a bitch and worthless and a fag anyway. Somehow, the word Goddess always struck something in Tony. He grabbed his son by the hair and hurled him as hard as he could across the room. Xander screamed in agony as he struck the wall and his head cracked against it. He could feel blood welling already, and he saw stars, before he sank to the floor. He heard his father turn and stumble out of the room, leaving his belt behind.
He dragged himself out of his bedroom and into the family bathroom. Angelus was shaking with a fury and a hatred and a despair so acute that when the body looked into the mirror and it was Xander's, he wasn't even surprised. He just opened his mouth and roared in agony at what he knew was a normal night in the Harris household.
III. Quickening
Everything burns
Everyone screams
Burning their lies
Burning my dreams
All of this hate
And all of this pain
Burn it all down
As my anger rains
Till everything burns…
Angelus snapped awake, confused and disoriented, unaware of his surroundings. For just a moment he clutched his ribs, remembering the pain of the makeshift whip and the humiliation of the hand delivering it. For a moment, he, Angelus, the demon, ceased to be, and it was just Xander who filled him. The scent of Xander was overpowering, the raw essence that was as intoxicating as it was dangerous to any demon's self-control. The scent of chocolate that somehow always managed to cling to his sun-kissed boy was all around him…too much so.
He shook himself to see Xander curled on the floor, staring up at him with wide, frightened eyes, blood seeping slowly in between fingers that were trying to hold it back. Angelus threw himself out of bed, instantly on the defensive, looking for the fool who dared to touch his boy, the rage left over from the dream/memory making him morph into game-face without a conscious thought. He calmed slightly when his enhanced vampiric senses told him there wasn't anything in the room save for himself and Xander.
So he turned to the boy, who was crouched, huddled in on himself. He looked afraid, which made no sense to Angelus, considering last night…he had to fight the cat-ate-the-canary grin which wanted to spread across his face at the thought of last night. He had a sense that Xander didn't need that right now. Where that sense came from, and, more importantly, why the fuck he cared that Xander didn't need that right now, he had no idea, but the fact that their joining - which had been the best fuck of Angelus' undead existence - hadn't made Xander any more amenable. In fact, the boy looked afraid. The demon had seen him stressed, pissed, a little scared, but there was real fear in the boy's eyes now.
What had put it there? he wondered.
"Xander," he tried to begin softly. Instead, the boy interrupted him.
"I had a dream," he said in a hushed voice. He didn't seem to want Angelus to leave, but he also shied away when the vampire moved closer. Angelus paused, utterly confused and unsure as to what the hell was going on.
"About me, I'd hope," he tried, in an effort to return Xander to his state of mind last night. Maybe if he got the delectable boy in his bed again, where he belonged, this could be put behind them. The boy nodded, but there was a strange look in his eyes.
"I think I was you," he said quietly. "And I killed them all." Angelus stopped cold.
"Killed who, sweet?" he asked softly.
"That man in the alley in France with the wife who still smelled like fish and the two little boys but I made them watch and they watched and they screamed when I but it wasn't me it was you but it was me and I was so fucking happy when I killed him and there was so much blood but that was good to but it was bad blood is bad and there's death and that's not good and-" Xander froze as a cold finger made his lips stop moving, cutting him off in full on Xander-babble mode. Angelus was next to him, impossibly, looming like a huge specter of Xander's nightmares and other types of dreams that were nowhere near as bad, but somehow all Xander wanted at the moment wasn't Angelus, but Angel; for even if the souled vampire had never returned Xander's unspoken feelings, he would have found a way to calm him down with a word or a gesture. Xander didn't know what to expect from Angelus.
"That wasn't you, boy. That was me," Angelus said, confused. He vaguely remembered the man's family the boy was talking about - he hadn't killed the youngest boy, which was probably the best of it; after he'd killed the mother and the older boy he'd heard the sister hiding out in the woodshed. There was supposedly the ghost of a crazed boy who'd killed his whole family and been hanged for it on that property, and he'd kill anyone who lived on it. Tell the truth, Angelus wouldn't be surprised if the boy had become a ghost. Anyone who was put through what he'd been put through had a right to be pissed enough to not move on.
"But I-"
"Listen to me," Angelus said calmly, not letting Xander argue. "We both dreamed last night of each other, and I don't have a clue what it means, but I'm not you and you're not me. What I do I choose to do. You don't have a say in the matter."
"You're an asshole," Xander said after a moment. Angelus nodded serenely, then smirked as he picked Xander up and tossed him back onto the bed. Xander squirmed in embarrassment, as if just realizing that he was naked. He blushed furiously as Angelus' cock began to rise. He pushed himself up, wrapping his arms around his knees, hiding himself from the insistent demon that looked ready to jump him.
"Nuh-uh, pal," he said firmly. "We need to talk about this." Angelus' eyes widened at the flat-out refusal in Xander's voice. "Why are we in each other's dreams? What the hell was last night? What now? Why did you bite me? Why doesn't my neck hurt? What the hell happened to your face? What the fuck-"
"Stop!" Angelus snapped over the rising volume in Xander's increasingly hysterical questions. He sighed and raked a hand through his hair. He didn't have the faintest idea what was going on, or, more importantly, what was happening to him. Things were changing between him and the boy, he could feel it. He could feel desire rising in him constantly, but there wasn't a desire to hurt - at least, not beyond the point that Xander wouldn't enjoy it.
He had had that damn Slayer in his grasp, practically dead already last night, and he'd walked away. His face still felt like it was broken, and yet he'd walked away. It wasn't like he regretted Claiming Xander, yet…this was no ordinary Claim. He had an…awareness of Xander like the boy was an aura hovering over his skin. It had made the lov--the fucking so intense last night that Angelus doubted even Darla had made him come that hard before. But now the boy was dreaming things that he had no right to dream about. His powers weren't even slightly awakened yet, innate or no. Something was definitely happening to both of him.
What really bothered him was that he cared about how Xander felt about the whole thing. Like now, for instance. The dream he'd had during his brief sleep was enough to let him figure out why the hurt had flashed, huge and easily, across his boy's chocolate eyes before he carefully schooled his face into a mask, hiding from Angelus. The boy's father had a lot to answer for…but he stopped himself from thinking about it, lest his true face escape and frighten the boy more. He sighed and sat down awkwardly on the edge of the bed. He drudged up memories of his time as that souled pussy Angel, wondering what the hell it was that he was supposed to say.
"I got into a fight with Buffy last night," he finally said quickly, latching on to the easiest of the questions to answer. Which, as it turned out, probably wasn't the best one to address first.
"You WHAT?!" the boy yelled. "Is she alright? Did you hurt her? Did she hurt you? Is that what happened to your face? Oh, God, what about Willow--"
"YES, she hurt me!" Angelus said irritably. "Nice of you to notice," he said, rather sulkily. Great. Now he was getting jealous because the boy thought of his friends over him. Next he was going to be wooing Xander with flowers and poetry. Hells, no, he thought in dismay. I'm not Spike! A hand jolted him out of his reverie. Xander was suddenly next to him, his large, expressive eyes wide as he hesitantly, sweetly, brushed his hand over the worst of the bruises that lingered around Angelus' eye. He froze, but didn't pull away. Xander slowly traced the outlines of the two other bruises, the gash above his eye, the bite on his lip that the boy had put there himself. He noticed the boy's remorse about the wound he'd inflicted, and growled gently. Xander moved back, startled, but Angelus moved forward and caught his lips in a kiss.
He felt the boy melt against him instantly, again feeling that eerie feeling of union with the boy as he felt his own lips reflected against him a million times over, as he felt his own feelings and Xander's and as he took control, the sweet submission in his beautiful boy as he opened his mouth for his master. Angelus pulled back, wondering again at the loss of sensation as that which was him disengaged from that which was Xander.
"What's happening to me?" Xander asked breathlessly when they broke apart.
"I don't know," Angelus said softly. "But now yer mine, no matter what," he whispered, holding Xander close, owning him.
"What do you mean?" Xander asked, pulling back. "You bit me last night," he said, fingering the bite mark. A bolt of pleasure went through Angelus as his demon contemplated his boy touching the Claim scar. "It doesn't even hurt. And ever since you bit me things have been getting weirder than they already have been. Don't lie to me. Not after last night; don't you dare," Xander said, the same steel in his voice that had so aroused Angelus that night at the hospital.
"I Claimed you," he said flatly. "Now no other demon will touch you, unless they're too stupid to smell me on you or if they have a death wish," he continued. He could feel Xander's boiling point starting to hit on this strange empathic level they'd reached with each other, and he knew that yet again he had managed to say the wrong thing.
"You Claimed me?" Xander demanded. He could feel something of what he'd been feeling last night coming back to him in full force, and he was surprised at the amount of hurt he was feeling. "Great! So now I'm just some thing that you own? How could you not have just asked me? I get the fact that I was stupid to let last night happen; I mean, you're only after me because you have this freakish idea that I'm something I'm not—"
Angelus acted on instinct and kissed him again. Xander sighed and submitted to the strong tongue that explored his mouth, moaning helplessly. Angelus probed Xander's mouth, tasting chocolate and something that was just bright and sunny and dark and just Xander, feeling Xander feeling him, and it was that strange feeling of connectedness that he had felt last night, and suddenly he understood why Xander was actually hurt by what he said.
"Xander," he said, drawing back. "I'm not your family." Xander stared up at him, flushed, not comprehending what he was getting at. "I Claimed you because you're mine, and I don't want anyone else to have you. I want to keep you," Angelus elaborated. "It was also for your protection, considering you're a human in a factory full of vampires."
Xander's mouth formed a little O of comprehension and surprise as he peered up at Angelus, as if trying to figure out if the vampire was just telling him this to shut him up. Angelus felt a surge of rage at the boy's family, fed by his memory of the dream/memory that he'd lived through last night. Angelus leaned down and kissed him again, as soulful a kiss as a soulless creature could give. He pulled back, but Xander held on to him, clutching the demon as if he were the boy's last anchor to earth.
I'm in love with you, Angelus heard faintly, as if someone had whispered it to the back of his mind. He had a strange sense of Xander inside him, and he looked down in surprise. Xander was staring back at him, and the vampire was sure that the boy hadn't a clue that he had heard the thought. So he leaned down to kiss the boy again, rather than deal with whatever he felt about the thought.
He sighed when Xander broke the kiss, but when he leant to recapture the boy's mouth, the boy put a hand on his chest, stopping him. Angelus relented with a growl, and Xander smiled, that slow smile that was so rarely seen, that lit up his entire face. Angelus gave him a questioning look, but Xander answered it without words when he leaned down and captured one of the vampire's nipples in his mouth. Angelus tossed his head back with a moan and felt Xander's hand stroke across his pectoral and latch on to the other nipple, pinching and pulling at it till it was hard as a rock.
Angelus reached down to hold Xander's head there, but the boy stopped his hand and kissed his way up the vampire's broad, muscular chest up to his neck, where he bit down gently and sucked on the vampire's unbeating jugular vein. Angelus went very still, a loud growl escaping his lips as the boy raised a welt on one of his most sensitive body parts. Xander chuckled breathlessly and kissed the demon hard, but drawing back before Angelus could take control of the kiss. The demon growled at the boy's blatant teasing, but Xander only smiled before he went back to Angelus' nipples.
Xander didn't have a clue what he was doing; he was just acting on his desires. He reveled in every groan and growl that he wrenched from his demon's lips, feeling a strange feeling of being desirable shoot through him. He'd never felt like this before, and all that he could think of was Angelus' words: I want to keep you. He felt a small happy place in his heart that previously only Buffy and Willow could touch, and he knew that this could either hurt him so much he'd want to die, or it could be the best thing that ever happened to him.
Oh, well, he thought, loving the taste of Angelus' wondrously defined abdomen as he licked and sucked on the muscles there. Leave the future to Giles' old prophesy books. This was where he was now, come what may and hell to pay. With that last thought, he gave himself fully over to the sensation of Angelus that he could feel rising in him, and he dropped to his knees, gave the vampire a sweet smile, and then licked down his erection and gently started to taste his balls.
Angelus growled in surprised pleasure, letting the boy set the pace of whatever was happening between them. It was a loss of control that he'd always had around the boy, and he was surprised how pleasurable it was. His true face rippled into being, he couldn't suppress it any more than he could have lost his erection. He looked down at Xander, and a bolt of pleasure went through him when the boy looked up into his yellow eyes without fear or revulsion. Their eyes met for a moment, and Angelus found himself panting, desperately wanting to plunge his cock into the boy's mouth and holding himself back.
Xander firmly gripped the base of Angelus' massive erection, fastened his lips around the thick head, and started sucking. He could feel Angelus' growls and moans of pleasure throbbing through his very being as he went down as deep as he could. The vampire was so big he couldn't fit much in his mouth, but he sucked hard on as much as he could, swallowing around the thick head.
Angelus froze. He couldn't take it anymore; he grabbed Xander's head and started thrusting desperately into the sweet, hot mouth. Xander kept a firm grip on the base of the vampire's cock, using his grip to keep himself from gagging as Angelus fucked his mouth. He used his tongue to push against he bottom of his cock as he sucked hard on the rest of the vampire's cock. Angelus threw his head back and howled his pleasure as he came, filling Xander's mouth with his seed. Xander greedily swallowed it all down, savoring the flavor of Angelus in his mouth.
Angelus stared down in wonder at Xander, who smiled slowly at him. He had no idea what was happening between them…but somehow, he couldn't find much to motivate him to care. All he knew was that Xander was with him, alone, in their room, and he could feel some basic need that he had never known he had being fulfilled. He kissed Xander hungrily, loving the taste of himself in Xander's mouth, and carried his boy to bed.
IV. Claimed
My hands are searching for you
My arms are outstretched towards you
I feel you on my fingertips
My tongue dances behind my lips, for you
As fire rushes through my being
Burning, I'm not used to seeing you
I'm alive
I'm alive
I can feel you all around me
Thickening the air I'm breathing
Holding on to what I'm feeling
Savoring this heart…
Xander had thought that he was going insane before, but now he felt like he was going to crawl out of his skin.
Every moment that Angelus was gone was like a constant nagging ache in his chest that he could barely ignore. He felt Angelus on a primal level deep within him, and whenever his vampire was coming home Xander stopped whatever he was doing and waited impatiently by the door. Most of the time Angelus couldn't even walk so much as a step into their chamber before Xander was in his arms, legs wrapped around his waist, desperately pressing kisses into the vampire's skin as the boy reassured himself that the demon was there.
Angelus never failed to respond to the assault. Xander was getting used to being a little sore in the hind area lately. He didn't mind it; it just reminded him of Angelus. More and more he felt like he was leaving his old life behind him. Thoughts that used to center on Buffy and Willow and his friends were becoming obsessed with Angelus. Sometimes when he was alone he would start to think about Buffy, and indeed about Angel, but he always shied away from these thoughts. He'd made his choice when he'd left the Bronze with Angelus.
Thinking about why he'd left the Bronze in the first place was troubling now. Ever since the night that Angelus had Claimed him (he still couldn't help smiling stupidly and fingering the scar on his neck when he thought of it), something had been happening to him…something weird. Like how when he and Angelus were together that strange feeling of being joined in more than just body, or how he could read Angelus' mood before he even spoke. He'd tried it on Lucien too, and had confounded his bodyguard when he'd been able to tell that the vampire was lying. Xander was having dreams that had a habit of coming true: things that vampires around him would say, for instance. While a large part of him didn't believe anything that Angelus had told him about his supposed 'power,' and was merely staying here because of the vampire, a smaller part of him was beginning to become afraid that the demon was right.
And if he is right, Xander thought, what do I do then?
Angelus was in a foul mood, and the particularly luscious blonde that he'd just drained did nothing to alleviate him. He let her drop to the floor and banged his head against a blood-splattered wall. What the Hell was wrong with him? He looked around. The small suburban house was a nightmare; he'd followed the girl home and tricked her into inviting him in. He'd then proceeded to fuck her (she'd been so easy to seduce) hard enough that she screamed and her parents came charging in to find their darling daughter riding a stranger's cock with an ease that descried practice.
It had been such fun to see her father's face when Angelus, still naked and hard, laughingly punched the horrified mother hard enough to knock her out. The father had followed. Angelus then tackled the screaming teenager and finished his business. The torture that had followed had been long and satisfying…but still he felt a sense of unfinished disgust as he looked at the girl. In weeks past, he would have relished such a hot fuck, and her blood had been laced with such guilt and utter despair that he was surprised she hadn't driven herself as crazy as Drusilla when she'd seen what he'd done to her parents.
And yet all that he wanted to do now was go home to Xander. A smile forced itself onto his face as he thought of how his beautiful boy would greet him when he came home, assuring himself of the vampire's presence. Angelus took great pleasure in his boy's devotion, as any master vampire should. But it was more than that. The boy wasn't a pet; Angelus had enough of those. He was…he couldn't come up with the words needed to describe it. He felt the boy down to his toes, and it had gotten worse since he'd Claimed him.
All those old myths about the Cruor Aduro that he'd so easily dismissed had turned out to be true; no matter how much hot blood he glutted himself on, nothing could satisfy his thirst until he drank from Xander's neck. And yet, all he needed was a sip to feel his power grow to its fullest. He doubted that the Slayer could stand up to him while he was filled with his boy. And it was clear that Xander was feeling the effects of the Claim as well -- the undeniable passion the boy exhibited whenever he went home to their room was infectious and…endearing.
Angelus sighed in disgust. It couldn't be borne; he ached for Xander. His taste for the hunt was gone, his pleasure in torture was following. He was joined to his boy on a primal level that even his demon didn't understand, and it made him feel weak. Dependant. He, Angelus, the master of masters, had become enthralled with a mortal! This wasn't the plan! Xander was meant to be putty in his hands, a living weapon that depended on Angelus for everything that the vampire might turn him against the Slayer and rid himself of that troublesome bitch once and for all! But instead, here he was, barely an hour after leaving the factory, rushing back to be with Xander.
He strode into the factory, his mood darkening when he was intercepted by Jesse. The little fire crotch had become insufferable lately; he should never have fucked her in the first place. The only problem with dispatching the little slut was that she was one of the few minions that he'd made since assuming command over Sunnydale that had an ounce of brains left to her, and he needed as many smart vampires as he could get. No matter how Beach Barbie Buffy could act at times, she was a conniving little bitch with an unprecedented talent for destroying demons which, in collusion with the Watcher's brains and the witch's magic, was making her a very large thorn in his side.
"Master," Jesse said breathlessly, staring up at him with big doe eyes.
"What?" he snapped irritably, letting his mood show on his face. Her face fell as she realized that he was in no mood to fool with her. "What?" he snarled, daring her to show her clear displeasure to him. She gave him a clipped bow and a 'welcome home' that would have had Napoleon checking his food for poison, and turned to leave.
Suddenly, she turned around, incensed. "What the hell does that little human boy" she sneered unexpectedly "have that I don't have? You didn't seem to mind the gender change last time," she said almost mockingly. He growled threateningly, but she only smiled back. "And don't go growling at me - ask anyone in this house. Ask your own Childers, for Hell's sake: this boy was supposed to be part of some big plan of yours, and instead you're too busy fucking him to so much as look at the Slayer, and with those idiot grunts that keep showing up here, the bitch is gonna follow someone home and I won't be in the least bit surprised when we all wake up on fire." With that parting shot, she left without a backward glance, hiding the fury smoldering in her eyes from him as she stormed down the stairs.
Angelus let her go. The only problem with her insubordination was that she was right. Jealous whore that she was, she'd just given a voice to the problems his mind had been wrestling with all night.
"Master?" Lucien asked suddenly. Angelus looked up to see Xander's bodyguard at the foot of the stairs, watching him warily. He inclined his head for the other vampire to speak. "Could it be that she is right? The boy is your Cruor Aduro; the tales…" he trailed off.
"She is right, Lucien, that's the problem," Angelus said. He sighed, feeling like that souled pussy Angel as the weight of his problems settled on his shoulders. He wanted to see Xander but at the same time he knew that seeing his boy would only cloud his thinking until Xander was all that he could think of. Hell with it - he was Angelus, wasn't he? He could take this into his own hands and to Hell with the consequences. He was still in control of the boy; he'd probably die for his demon. It was time to prove it.
"Summon Drusilla to my chambers, Lucien," he ordered, and marched up the stairs toward their room. The bodyguard bowed respectfully, but Angelus could sense that Jesse had been right - whatever he was going to do with Xander now, he'd have to do it soon, else he'd lose control of the minions. The Master, moldy old bastard that he was, had at least had the right idea when it came to controlling minions.
And yet, despite everything, when he stepped into the room and Xander predictably ran to him, he couldn't stop himself from pulling the boy to him hard enough to hurt and plundering that delicious mouth with his tongue as he felt their very essences joining together in a forge of passion that no ice could quench.
V. The Scent of Obsession
I hate everything about you
Why do I love you?
I hate everything about you
Why do I love you?
Jesse waited until he was out of sight of her Master before she exploded. She screamed in rage, she let her ugly vampiric nature come to the fore and snarled so viciously that three other minions ran out of the room. She smashed a chair against a wall until it snapped into so many pieces, just as she dreamed of doing to Angelus' precious little boy whore until he understood that she could give her master what a pathetic mortal simply could not.
She picked up a makeshift stake and grabbed a newer fledge - a pretty boy, she thought with a sneer: he looked kind of like Xander, a brunette with tan skin anyway, and she slammed it up against the wall hard enough for a few of its ribs to snap.
"AM I BEAUTIFUL?!" she screamed into its face.
"Yes!" it screamed desperately. She slammed her fist into its puny face, smirking as one of its teeth flew out. She slammed a finger into its right eye, enjoying the squishy pulp and ichor as the demon under her fist screeched its pain. She threw it to the floor and kicked it in its already damaged ribs a couple of times, reveling in the pathetic thing's screams of pain and fear. She threw her shirt off, exposing her sizeable breasts, and knelt over the thing.
"Do you want me?" she asked quietly, running a hand over one of her nipples. Dazed and confused, the demon underneath her nodded, desperately trying to appease her. "Then what the HELL IS WRONG WITH ME?!" she screamed, venting her fury on the thing's worthless hide as she hit it again and again. She threw its pants off, smirking as she saw the pale erection the lesser vampire was sporting. She gripped it hard enough for the creature to wince and go completely still. It was a thick thing, making up for in girth what it lacked in size (nothing compared to Angelus, of course, but not bad), and it hardened even more under her touch.
She slowly stood. "Take off my pants," she ordered coldly. The vampire hurried to obey, tearing her pants in the process. "I liked those pants," she hissed coldly, slapping it across the face, irritating the welts her demonic nails had left there already. It trembled in terror as she kicked it down to the floor.
"You want me?" she demanded, crouching over him. He nodded desperately. She was barely aware of the eyes in the corner, watching all of this with a shocked sort of curiosity as she impaled herself on the cock waiting for her. She rode him punishing hard, punching him at intervals as she nearly sobbed with frustration as she tried to picture Angelus underneath her. It wasn't working. She brought herself to climax, screaming "Cum for me, you worthless little shit!" The demon underneath her screamed as a painful orgasm reamed through his bruised and abused body. She climbed off of him. "You'll see," she whispered to her pretend Angelus in her mind. Then she lifted the stake and slammed it through the creature's heart as hard as she could. With one last pathetic screech of pain, it exploded into ash beneath her hands.
She slowly stood, breathing hard with oxygen that she didn't need. She suddenly slumped on the wall, letting out a frustrated sob. It wasn't fair! Angelus had turned her himself. He'd captivated her with his beauty, he'd flirted with her, elevated her, made love to her, and then tossed her aside, and for what? For some worthless little mortal that was best friends with the Slayer! How could he do this to her?
She'd show him, oh god, she'd fix him until he was begging to have her back. She took a composing breath. She needed to feed, needed something hot and thick to calm her down. She looked down at her ruined clothes. She could get dressed, but she didn't even feel like hunting. But why hunt, she wondered when there was…so…much…here… She froze. Of course! How fucking stupid was she? She could get rid of that disgusting mortal, and she didn't even have to risk angering Angelus by doing the world a favor and killing him!
She giggled to herself. Dear god, this was beyond perfect, it was set up for her, practically, by her master himself! As she headed off to the room she made for herself, fixing her plans in her head, Spike stepped slowly out of the shadows. Interestin', that, he thought to himself as he lit up a cigarette. He'd watched this idiot since Angelus had shown an interest in her. But Spike knew firsthand that those who his unbelievably beautiful and stupid Sire tossed aside had a way of getting smart and coming back to try and kill him.
Now, he could repay his Sire for healing him by telling him that a conniving and vicious attack was about to be placed on him. Or, he could pay his Sire back for all the fucking with him and Dru and for all of the insults and the torture and the abandonment for centuries by not telling him and watching the fun begin. Decisions, decisions, he thought with a smirk. But as he watched Drusilla walk up to Angelus' room without hesitation, he knew that his decision had truly been made for him a long time ago.
He turned his back on his Sire as his Sire had done to him more than a century ago and walked away.
VI. Forever Yours, Eternally Mine
And I want to take you down
But your soul could not be found
It doesn't matter much, you say
'Cause your disease has killed me
And you know it's only right
'Cause it feels like paradise
I know nothing is for free
'Cause your disease has killed me
Xander returned Angelus' kiss greedily, moaning at the taste and the feel of joining again with this magnificent creature that for some inexplicable reason was here with him, loser Xander Harris. He could feel Angelus' hard need against his thigh as Angelus pulled him tight, and Xander broke away to breathe as Angelus trailed hard sucking kisses down his neck. Xander didn't even tense; he just pressed his neck against Angelus' mouth. Angelus growled his approval as he felt Xander's hand on the bulge in his pants as he shifted to his true face and bit down on Xander's scarred neck.
Xander moaned ecstatically as the pain quickly dissolved into pleasure as he felt himself psychically joined to Angelus in the most intimate of embraces he could ever know as Angelus gulped a draught of his blood. The vampire moaned in rapture as he tore Xander's shirt off in one move that still made Xander hot no matter how many times the vampire did it. He slumped in sensory overload as the vampire bit at his sensitive nipples, grinning savagely as Xander groaned and held his head there. Xander fucked like a demon, and Angelus loved every minute of it.
Xander fell to his knees and freed Angelus' straining hard on from his pants, licking it eagerly as Angelus' head fell back against the door and the vampire quickly divested himself of his shirt, letting Xander's hands play across the vast muscular wonderland that was Angelus' upper body. Hot fingers found his wine-dark nipples and Angelus let out a purr of pleasure as Xander suckled him, taking as much of his cock down as he could. Angelus watched with greedy pleasure as Xander took him in.
He reached down and hauled Xander to his feet, stripping the boy of his pants as he went. Xander leapt onto the vampire, wrapping his legs around Angelus, feeling the vampire's hard cock rubbing at his hungry little hole as they humped. Angelus growled and carried Xander to the desk, finding a tube of slick and rubbing it onto his cock. He didn't bother with preparing Xander with his fingers; Xander let out a growl of his own and pulled Angelus into him. Angelus moaned as he sank into the tight honeyed heat of Xander's ass, kissing Xander hard as they thrust together desperately.
Parting for even as long as they had been was bad, they both simultaneously decided as Angelus found a new angle that hit Xander's sweet spot with every thrust. Demon and boy, boy and demon joined together in ecstasy as they fell together, every inch of flesh that could be touching rubbing together as they reaffirmed joint claims. Long ago Xander would have been embarrassed by the sound of Angelus' weighty balls slapping against his ass as the demon rocked harder, but now it only turned him on more as he felt himself getting closer to that peak.
Angelus felt it inside of himself too, and threw back his head and roared loud enough to shake the desk they were on as he emptied his large load into his boy's hungry hole at the same time that Xander howled in pleasure as he exploded in white drops of hot cum that splattered his chest. He slumped onto Angelus' heaving chest, holding Angelus closer, refusing to let Angelus' limpening cock fall from his hole. He liked it best like this, when Angelus didn't have to worry about being the big bad vampire and would just hold him close, nursing in the afterglow.
"Gods, sweeting, what you do to me," he whispered in Xander's ear.
"I love you," Xander whispered back, for only Angelus to hear. As always, Angelus purred with pleasure at the words and Xander tightened his hold on his vampire. But Angelus pushed away, falling out of Xander with a sigh. Xander sighed himself at the loss, but Angelus picked him up and carried him to the bed. "It's time, Xander," he murmured into the boy's hair.
"Time for what?" Xander asked muzzily.
"You'll see," Angelus said cryptically. He swatted Xander playfully on his rump and rose from the bed, reaching for clean clothes. Xander tore his gaze away from Angelus' ass (it sounded like this might be serious), and stood to find a pair of pants that wasn't shredded. Angelus stopped him with a hand to his arm. They didn't need to speak as much in the bedroom since the Claim - usually one or the other could sense what the other wanted. It was one of those topics that they didn't discuss. Xander wordlessly took the leather pants and white button up that Angelus gave him and slipped them on. He didn't worry about taking a shower; if they were going to leave the room, Angelus would want him smelling of sex and his ownership - it was a vampire thing. Xander didn't question it; indeed, it felt kind of sexy, carrying Angelus' scent on him: it marked him as belonging specifically to Angelus.
He had barely struggled into the pants when there was a light tap on the door. Xander turned, suddenly feeling a sense of foreboding that he couldn't explain. When Angelus opened the door to reveal Drusilla, who was wearing a blood red cloak and a deep purple gown that made her look like a faerie princess, Xander turned to Angelus, a question on his lips. But Angelus simply motioned towards Drusilla, who held out a hand for him. Xander stared at her nervously. Before Angelus could say anything, however, Drusilla spoke for him.
"Don't be nervous, kitten. Mummy won't hurt you, mummy wants to make you part of the family!" Drusilla said, dancing into the room. Xander stared at her, caught up in her madness. He had a sense of power behind her that he hadn't been aware of before - everyone always wrote her off as crazy, but he knew that she wore that insanity as a shield, hiding the power within. He had a sense that he could watch her dance all night if she wanted him to, but she sashayed toward him, ignoring Angelus' possessive warning growls, and gently stroked his face. "Don't worry," she repeated, holding his gaze in hers. "All will be well, and all will be whole, just like days of old," she sing-songed. Xander nodded, glancing toward Angelus.
"That's enough then," the vampire said, placing his hands on Xander's shoulders. Drusilla nodded, smiling to herself, and led the way out of the chamber. Xander walked behind her, followed by Angelus, and he could swear he felt like Sleeping Beauty following Maleficent to her seeming doom. He reassured himself that Angelus could kiss him awake, and followed. Angelus, feeling Xander's acceptance, smiled to himself as he followed his Childe out of the factory. It was time…and Xander was his.
VII. By the Pricking of my Thumbs, Something Wicked this Way Comes
How can you see into my eyes
Like open doors?
Leading you down into my core
Where I've become so numb
Without a soul
My spirit sleeping somewhere cold
Until you find it there and lead
It back home
(Wake me up)
Wake me up inside
(I can't wake up)
Wake me up inside
(Save me)
Call my name and save me from the dark
(Wake me up)
Bid my blood to run
(I can't wake up)
Before I come undone
(Save me)
Save me from the nothing I've become
Bring me to life
(I've been living a lie
There's nothing inside)
Bring me to life
Frozen inside, without your touch
Without your love, darling
Only you are the life among the dead
All of this time, I can't believe I couldn't see
Kept in the dark, but you were there in front of me
I've been sleeping a thousand years it seems
I've got to open my eyes to everything
Without a thought, without a touch, without a soul
(Don't let me die here)
There must be something more
Bring me to life…
The Moon hung huge and heavy in the sky tonight, a pregnant goddess lighting the way with a glow like witch fire as Drusilla led the way outside. It was quite the strange procession, Xander would remember later on: the insane psychic vampire leading a mortal boy who was trailed by his possessive vampire master. Xander paused to simply breathe; it had been more than two months since he'd been outside to breathe the outside air. The air felt charged, as if some secret magic was already whispering around him - if only he could hear!
He remembered Willow saying something about how the full moon was the sign of the goddess, a Wiccan holy day when magic is performed. But thinking about Willow was painful, now that he was outside of the factory, so he willed the thought away. As if sensing his inner turmoil returning, Angelus placed a hand on Xander's back, leading him to follow Drusilla. They headed deeper into the factories, following a warren of alleys that Xander knew he couldn't keep straight. They were all silent, save for a little tune that Drusilla was humming. He knew that if he turned around Angelus would be in game face to see in the dark. As it was, he had only the hand of his Claimant to guide his way.
He felt drunk on the air itself, on the power of this night, on the expectation of what was to happen. He had the powerful feeling that he was back on the balcony of the Bronze, on a precipice where there was only two choices: to leap into the unknown or to run backwards toward safety, lovely and tedious as it was. He'd jumped that last time, and this was where it had gotten him. He had the urge to giggle. The Moon was supposed to drive people crazy. Maybe he was already crazy.
Here he was, following Drusilla to god-knew-where, with Angelus, who he was sleeping with, following behind them, and here he was, Xander Harris. He thought about Lucien and wondered what the hell that big silent bastard did when he wasn't there, and he thought about how worried his friends must be, and then he wrenched his thoughts away from that place in his mind and instead wondered if the rats in Sunnydale were demonic too, because that would be just his luck. Then he wondered where that thought came from. Sometimes I shouldn't think, he berated himself.
He smelled something on the air that he couldn't at first identify, until they came out of a back alley and he saw the Fish Tank. They were near the wharf, he realized; they must have been walking for at least an hour. Huh, he hadn't even noticed. Xander-babble did strange things to you, even when you were the one babbling it, he thought to himself. The scent on the air was brine. He hadn't realized because he was used to smelling it on the cleaner beaches of touristy Sunnydale Beach, instead of the nastiness of Sunnydale Harbor, where all the dead fish and stuff came in. Drusilla headed down for the fairly skanky looking sand below the dock, and he turned to question Angelus. But the big vampire only looked at him, and Xander sighed and followed after her.
As he squelched down in the muddy sand, he knew that he'd never ever wear these shoes again. No matter what. He was fairly sure that the water they were walking near smelled worse than the ass crack of the whore of Babylon, whoever that was. Religion was way beyond him even at the best of times, and this was clearly not the best of times. He fought thinking as he squelched down the sand, so he fell back to randomness, because it was what he did best.
How do douches work? he found himself wondering. He'd called people douche-bags plenty of times, but what did that even mean, anyway? What went in the bag? He'd seen a douche commercial for "Intimate Mist" and he'd flipped away from the channel quickly. How weird, spraying some fruity thing up god knew where so that you could get rid of…well, did dirty girls actually smell like fish? Who'd made that little jump? I wish I had a chocolate bar, he thought to himself. He jerked when Drusilla stopped. He looked around and noticed that they were on a deserted beach, much cleaner than the one they'd stopped on. There were already about five vampires standing around a circle of stones.
Xander stopped uncertainly, looking around. Drusilla had already stepped to the head of the circle, and had turned to look at him. Xander had the unnerving feeling that every vampire was staring at him. He noticed there was a cauldron in the middle of the circle that was frothing over a low fire. He turned to Angelus, and saw the big vampire staring at him, expressionless.
"Angelus…" he started, nervously. Angelus put a gentle finger over his lips.
"Do you love me?" he asked unexpectedly.
"What?" Xander asked, taken aback.
"Do you love me?" he repeated, staring at him, through him with unfathomable yellow eyes. Xander hadn't even noticed the shift to game face. Angelus waited for an answer, not moving, unblinking. Xander felt frozen in time, him and this magnificent demon, a creature capable of humanity, yes, but an animal nonetheless. He knew that he was standing at the edge of that precipice again, and that there was nothing but blackness at the bottom. He thought of his crappy life made lighter by his friends, he thought of never finding love until…he knew there was no way happiness could come of this. But he was no coward. And he'd never be complete without this either. So there was really only one answer to this.
"Yes."
Angelus leaned in and kissed him, hard. Xander returned the kiss with a passion that he hadn't thought he'd be able to display in front of the other vampires, but there was a power here, a melding of angel and demon in his flesh that was coming alive at Angelus' touch, a whisper of power and of glory and pain and blood and death and life and love all at the same time, until he whimpered at the primal song roaring to life inside of him.
"I'm bleeding," Xander said dazedly, pulling back. Angelus smirked at him, licking his lips. He licked Xander's bleeding lips, till his vampiric healing saliva kicked in. Xander allowed himself to be led to the circle, until he was in the middle, next to the cauldron. Drusilla and Angelus stepped forward, a signal apparently to the other vampires, who began a creepy chant in Latin or some other archaic language for which there was no name.
Drusilla lifted her voice to the heavens as she threw her head back and chanted
Child of the Elements
Child of the Earth
Child of the Firmament
Of Lillith and of Angels
Of demons borne we call to thee
Awaken!
Angelus stepped forward, ripping Xander's shirt open. He noticed rather belatedly that the fire under the cauldron was blue in the light of the moon. He gasped as Angelus' deceptively human-looking finger slit a strange sigil onto his chest. He abruptly yelped in pain as fire shot from the sigil through to his very being. He stared disbelievingly at Angelus that he would allow this pain inside of him, but the vampire only kissed him quiet.
The door is open
The vessel is ready
What was once dormant
Is now ready to wake once more
Elder gods, we call to thee
Bless your son
And bring him forth!
Angelus let the blood from his finger drop into the cauldron, which turned a mad garnet, frothing madly like an epileptic mid-seizure. Xander twisted and turned, the smoke from the fire and the fire in his chest combining to make him dizzy and crazy and delirious. Tears ran down his face as he felt something awakening within him, a darkness, a fire and an electricity that he'd fought so hard to keep at bay. But there was no fighting it now, there was only accepting its presence.
Blood to blood I call to thee
Blood to blood return to me
Enter your child
And reunite the death stars once more!
Drusilla screamed the end of the chant ecstatically, and Angelus cupped his finger in the burning water. Xander screamed in pain, and Angelus hurled a handful of the liquid into his mouth. A crack of thunder. A flash of lightning. The screams of five vampires turning to dust. The pain was all he knew. And then blackness.
Hello, Alexander. We've been waiting for you…
VIII. Sleeping Beauty the Prodigal Shatters the 100 Year Dream
I'm not dead
Just floating
Right between the ink of your tattoo
In the belly of the beast we turn into
I'm not scared
Just changin'
Wrap me in a cigarette and a devilish smile…
Xander woke up on their bed. He was alone in the room, he knew without being told or opening his eyes. He sat up quietly, and was not surprised when he noticed that there was a scar in the shape of the sigil that Angelus had cut into his chest. He whimpered at the memory of the pain that night, at the sound of vampires turning to dust. He needed to see Angelus, needed to ask him what had just happened to him. He was scared, he was pissed, he was so many things that he just didn't know how to compute anything anymore.
He could feel something smoldering within him, a new awareness. There was a sharpness to everything that he could not identify. He knew without a doubt that whatever Angelus and Drusilla had tried to do last night had worked. But what had happened to him? He couldn't summon up enough energy to be terrified. All he could do was wish that Angelus was here. He threw himself to his feet. Or at least he meant to; what he ended up doing was launching himself across the room and hitting the wall.
"OW! What the HELL?!" he screamed. He jumped. He should not have ended up ten feet away from his starting point. He ran to the door, somehow reaching it in two seconds. He pounded on it, hard, and screamed when he saw a dent in the door. "HELP!" he screamed. "ANGELUS!" He waited, but there wasn't a sound from outside the door. No one was coming. He was here alone.
Xander crumpled to his knees, a tear coursing down his cheek. He plucked it off of his cheek dully, staring at it in wonder. What was happening to him?
888
He heard, felt, sensed a presence outside of his door and more carefully ran to the door. He pulled it open, gratified when the lock clicked. "Angelus?" he asked hopefully, but it was only Lucien. "Oh," he said quietly, turning away.
"The master wishes you to eat," Lucien said quietly, staring at Xander oddly. Xander turned around eagerly.
"Where is he?" he demanded. But Lucien was still staring at him.
"Quit staring at me, dammit! Where is Angelus?" Xander screamed, beyond patience.
"He can't tell you what he doesn't know," said an icy cold voice from the door. Xander turned and saw a fiery redhead. She had an…aura of cold rage, a vicious intent toward the world, and Xander was shot through with a sudden sense of foreboding. He knew without a doubt that this person wished him all the harm in the world, and he backed away from her. She threw him a cold sneer that had all his hackles rising. Lucien merely looked pissed.
"You are not allowed in here, Jesse!" he snapped. "Take a fucking hint, you stupid whore, and go away."
The fury in her eyes could have melted him if she were a witch. Instead, she merely sashayed toward him. "Aren't you forgetting something, dear Lucien?" she whispered.
"What's that?" he asked irritably.
"This," she said with a laugh, and threw a bright red liquid in his face. He gasped, dropping to his knees, shaking.
"What have you done to me?!" he whispered in pain.
"Oh, you'll see," she said with a truly wicked smile. Then she whistled, and another vampiress walked in, already naked. Lucien looked up with a desperate look in his eyes, and leapt at her with a speed that made Xander dizzy to look at. Lucien was stripping clothes as he went, and Xander watched, stunned, as his straight-laced bodyguard threw his clothes off and went after her. Before he could say anything, Jesse had his arm in a surprisingly strong grip and had hauled him out the door.
"What did you do to him?" Xander asked, twisting in her grip.
"I hit him with one of the more powerful vampiric aphrodisiacs," she said with a smirk. "You wouldn't believe what I had to do to get my hands on the stuff. The best thing about it all is that Angelus will kill him for letting you off guard before Lucien can even explain. That's yet another thorn in my side I'm about to pluck with this," she said, looking quite proud of herself.
"What do you mean?" Xander asked nervously.
"Are you kidding?" she eyed him irritably, starting down the stairs. "Always swishing around like he owns the fucking universe, a vampire that acts like he's got a stake up his ass? Disgusting. We got rid of that when Spike killed the Anointed One, thank GOD," she said. Xander started to get really scared when he noticed there was no one on the main floor.
"Where is everybody?" he asked desperately.
"There's another beautiful part of my plan," Jesse said with a smirk. "See, the Slayer is a little touchy about the fact that her ex has you and is busy screwing your worthless little brains out. So a little tip-off from me and every vamp in the place is busy fighting a little army of the Slayer and her gang. Which you used to be a part of. With any luck, they'll all die, and that's even more annoyances out of my way," she giggled.
"Let go of me!" Xander said, alarmed.
"Nuh-uh," she said flatly. "See, you are just a worthless little mortal that isn't worth the shit I used to use as a mortal to wipe my ass. And what do I get for being better than you?! Fucked and tossed aside!" Spittle flew from her lips as she dragged him toward the quarters of the factory that he hadn't yet been allowed into. "My love is up there fucking you day and night, when he has everything he could ever need down here?! Fuck that!"
"He wouldn't--" Xander yelled. He didn't even see the hand that slapped him, but before he knew it he was up against a wall with a deranged vampire holding him up by the throat.
"Wouldn't what?" she screamed. "Fuck me?! Are you fucking kidding me?! He's a fucking demon, you ignorant little suck ass! He fucks a new mortal a night - it's how we kill, you worthless faggot! He's fucked me more than ten times since you've fucking been here!" She punctuated each enunciated word with a punch to the face.
"STOP!" he screamed, tears streaming down his face.
"Aw, did the little queer get his hopes up?" Jesse sneered in his face. "Did he think that because Angelus Claimed him that the vampire actually cared about him? HA!" she screeched, and slapped him across the face. "He doesn't give a shit! You are just a means to an end, a diversion while he made you loyal to him so he can kill the Slayer! You don't mean shit! You don't mean shit!"
Xander gave a hopeless sob, slumping down. She kicked him again for good measure. Pain was rocking through him as he curled in on himself. Angelus…he thought desperately. Why? She pulled him up by his hair, but he didn't fight her. She sighed in disgust, dragging him after her.
"You wanna see what happens to mortals who he likes?" she demanded. "Look your fill!" With that, she threw him down a flight of stairs. Xander landed in a crumpled heap, screaming in pain as his arm snapped. She leapt down and landed nimbly next to him. He curled in on himself, the physical pain almost nothing to the emotional knives slicing through his heart with each venom filled word that the bitter, enraged, and psychotic vampiress slung at him. She grabbed his hair and forced him to look up.
There were four humans in the room. He could hear their heartbeats like thunder in his ears, the fragile sound of humanity. They were starving, beaten, tortured…and each one of them had some vampire's Claim scar on their neck. Just like his.
"No," he whispered. "No." Just like his. Just like his. He was nothing. Angelus was just using him. He was shit. Jesse was right. Why had he ever thought differently?
"Oh, yes, my dear. This is where you're gonna end up. If I were you, I'd just kill myself now, because these little bastards are too miserable to even try right now. We keep them for in house snacking and the occasional hot fuck when we're bored. That's gonna be you, sport. That's all Angelus needs you for."
Each word burst with a pulse of pain. Each word was a knife to his already-torn heart. "NO!" he screamed. "ANGELUS!"
Jesse smiled with satisfaction, revenged at last.
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Ten miles away, Angelus was overseeing a desperate battle with the Slayer's little band of vampire hunters. How the hell had Buffy known where to find them?! He thought desperately as he watched yet another minion get dusted. Thank hell's gods and demons that Xander was safe with Lucien, he thought fervently. He only had ten demons left to him, and Spike was back at the factory attending to Drusilla, still weak after the ceremony the night before.
His inattention cost him, however, as Buffy's small, knuckley fist slammed into his nose hard enough to break it if he'd still been human. As it was, he fell. Her foot slammed into his throat and another fist slammed his balls hard enough to make his eyes water. He yelled in pain as a stake slammed into his stomach, then was pulled out and slashed across his face.
He'd never seen Buffy fight this dirty before, and he was completely unprepared for the sheer savagery of her attack as she raked a pair of spiked brass knuckles across his face. It was as if she knew that he'd be weak from the night before, and was going for ever weak point she could find.
"Where," she began, slamming a finger into the stake wound in his stomach and twisting, making him scream in pain. "Is," she continued, in a conversational tone of voice, squeezing his balls hard enough for him to scream again. "Xander?" she finished, head butting him hard enough to make him see stars. He desperately threw her off of him, but before he could get to his feet a shock of magic slammed him back down. Willow, her face as flushed as her hair, had finally grown a pair, it seemed; she was glaring at him with the fury of a Medusa as she raised her hand to strike again. Cordelia was there with a stake and a knife and a dark look on her face, with a new scar on her neck that he had no idea was there.
Giles was looking more like Ripper than ever, and had two knives with an expression on his face that he'd love to use them on him. He looked around and saw Oz finish off the last of his forces. He had one choice - to tell them where Xander was and find a way to get him back later, or die…
ANGELUS! he heard in his head, a cry of such utter heart wrenching agony that he screamed in pain as he felt Xander sob in the back of his mind. He knew suddenly that Xander was in trouble, desperate trouble, and needed him now more than ever. Angelus gasped at the sheer emotional pain he could inexplicably feel radiating from the boy. Buffy took a surprised step backward. Angelus couldn't think straight; all he knew was that Xander needed him. He threw himself to his feet and hurled his coat at Willow. It blocked her spell, and he kicked Buffy in the face while she was distracted. She fell, which gave him enough space to turn and run.
"NO!" Cordelia yelled, and hurled a bottle of holy water at him as hard as she could. It turned out that the hidden depths of Cordy hid quite the arm, because it cracked the back of his head and he could feel it burning its way down his neck and back. He roared in agony and ran as fast as he possibly could, faster than a coward, and tried to desperately get Xander to feel him coming. He could shake off the pain. His boy needed him.
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"GOD DAMN IT!" Buffy screamed, kicking a dumpster so hard that its side buckled. The others winced, but she didn't even notice. Instead, she screamed "Stay with them!" at Giles, grabbed Oz, and sprinted after Angel. The werewolf allowed her to carry him without a word of protest, both of them ignoring the others' distressed cries.
"Turn left!" Oz called to her from her shoulder as she ran. She turned, letting Oz's nose sniff out where she needed to go. Angelus was nearly finished. She could deal with the emotional pain later. All that mattered was getting to Xander and getting him back. That was all that could matter at this point.
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It was, as it all turned out, a little too late. Bad timing, bad judgment, who could tell. But Angelus had awakened the beast within beauty, given Sleeping Beauty the kiss of dark desire, and Xander was too far gone. He screamed as something dark and glorious spread its wings inside of him, slicing through ties that had long since held it, spreading through Xander's being like poison.
When Jesse turned to see him, Xander was floating in the air. She froze. His hair was blowing in an invisible breeze, and his eyes were red as blood. Ash colored wings spread from his back, and she screamed as he turned his gaze on her. There was no mercy in his gaze, no…anything. His were dolls' eyes, predators' eyes. And she heard the wind outside, and she knew what it meant.
The Air Elemental had awakened within Xander Harris. Lightning spread from his fingers as he screamed in pleasure, in pain, in everything in between.
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Angelus stopped in front of a burning factory. There was nothing inside that could possibly be alive; he'd seen twelve different lightning bolts arc down from the sky and hit the factory all at the same time. There was nothing left but ashes. He fell to his knees and screamed, loud as a banshee. Xander's name was on his lips as he collapsed, unconscious.
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Buffy and the gang had just entered the library in defeat when they stopped stunned, to see Xander…or what looked like him, in a pair of leather pants. "Buffy…help me," he whispered, the wings he now wore flapping desperately a time or two. Then he slumped over, unconscious, the name Angelus on his lips.
A/N: More than twenty fucking pages! TWENTY FUCKING PAGES! My god, this chapter ate my life. I'm so fucking sorry that it took me this long to update, you have no idea! So, with that out of the way, what do you think of this cliffhanger? Do you hate me? No? You love me for updating? Good…I have trained you well. ;) Don't worry, guys. I'm not gonna leave you hanging for another couple of months for this one - the next chapter will be shorter! I love you guys. But as you've just read the twenty pages (!!) that I've written, I'll leave you at this. See you next time!