Hey guys, part 108 below. I am afraid there is no T/W here except by reference. It's all part of the setup of the story. Once we get going properly, soon now, then they will dominate it as they should do. Enjoy.
Xita - I love to write them being playful. It's sexier (in a non-smutty way) to me than anything to have them in conversation about nothing and yet to feel the love as I write it. Rocks my boat. Thanks babe.
Katharyn
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Title:
The Sidestep Chronicle – Second Chronicle - Getting it into Order (Part 108)
Author: Katharyn Rosser
Feedback: Constructive criticism is always welcome.
katharynrosser@hotmail.com Flames just demonstrate you have a tiny mind.
Spoiler Warning: Pretty limited. The story occurs in an alternate universe as set up in “The Wish” though reference is made to events that occur in both realities. Nothing is referenced that occurs after S5 though. Guess why? Most “spoilers” would be for the first chronicle of this fic rather than the show and if you haven’t read that then much of this will make no sense but you can try and get round it by reading the preface to Part 104 which summarises most of what went before.
Distribution This story was written for Pens. Pens is its home. No archiving off Different Coloured Pens (This applies to all of the Sidestep Chronicle)
Summary: New vampires in town – or very old ones.
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the copyrights or anything else associated with BTVS. All rights lie with the production company, writers etc, etc. I am making zilch from this series of stories. You know the drill and all the reasons it is there.
Rating: R – a general rating for occasional content. Individual parts might be less than this level.
Couples: Tara and Willow forever – others couples as necessary but nothing unconventional.
Notes: Well this was something I needed to do from the very start of Sidestep – cleaning up after myself and the world I chose to create. I left very few loose ends last time and this time I am aiming for none.
Thanks To: All My Brilliant Beta Readers (AMBBR) (Yeah I just noticed what AMBBR looks like too – I should find an E word to replace Beta) Kerry (Forrister) and Jo (Wizpup) who for some reason signed right back up for this fic after seeing the size of the last one. No accounting for madness is there. And Celia (TiredSoul) who should have known better but signed up anyway. *HUGS* and Big Thanks to all of you. Another of Celia’s and this time she went multicoloured! It was very pretty, lickily. Also Celia was good enough to go back and redo the starting scene cos I forgot to send it to her! Also thanks to Xita for doing unbidden what I should have asked for a long time ago.
The Sidestep Chronicle – Second Chronicle
Getting it into Order
By
Katharyn Rosser
The worst thing for Toni since her Dad had gone, other than seeing him every time she closed her eyes, was that there was no one left for her to be comforted by and to tell her it was okay. In a world of silence not having someone there to talk to was a lonely experience for her. The cell was about the same size as the one that she’d come from but with only about a fifth of the people. It was pleasantly cooler during, in the world above, what was the daytime than the other cell. There was no other difference down here so she just went off her watch. As far as she could tell some surface above absorbed the heat of the sun and eventually that seeped through to this world, down below where – probably because tunnels were sealed for the hunt – air didn’t really move.
Down here there was no real day or night. There was just the cell.
At night though, as the heat escaped back into the world above, the lack of warm bodies made it colder than she’d been in the other cell. The vampires hadn’t provided anything to sleep on or under, not that she had expected them to. Even the food was better here. Gruel had been replaced by actual real food. Bread. Cheese. Bags of chips sometimes.
The others had pounced on the food and Toni had been forced to struggle to get some for herself. She needed to be strong… and actually, she even needed to be picked out. Not right away, food would do her good, but she needed to be picked to get out of the cell. And it seemed they wanted those they hunted fed and stronger than the ones left in the other cells. If they were really hunting. Her Dad had been told they were hunting, which was what all her plans were based on but… She had to concede that maybe they were just eating.
Even so – out of the cell she had a chance. In here she was trapped.
The smallest boy there hadn’t even tried to get some food and even though Toni knew that the food was probably just to fatten them up – or whatever the vampire equivalent of that was – she couldn’t allow him to go hungry… meal after meal. So the third time he’d got nothing she’d given him some of hers.
His smile had been the first one that she’d seen since her Dad had been killed. Not a big smile, but a sad, grateful smile. It had been enough for them to find a bond.
Just a few days there in that place and she’d almost forgotten what a smile looked like. But after she’d given him some food, and as another night rolled around, she’d found him snuggled into her corner with her and they’d kept each other warm.
He hadn’t talk to her and she wouldn’t have heard him anyway. Besides, this was a place that removed the need for words. Sometimes she was glad that she couldn’t hear. Sometimes, as the others winced and she was sure that there must have been a cry or a scream out there. Then they’d started to talk to each other – or at each other – obviously panicked.
But obviously without any idea what they were going to do.
And then there were probably other sounds she was missing. The older boy and one of the other girls getting together in the cell. Whilst they were all there. Needing human warmth was one thing but that was too much for her to see. She’d just had to close her eyes and let them get on with it. She’d shielded her new friend from it on the other side of her. The sounds, if any, he’d had to deal with that alone.
She didn’t try and stop them though – not that she probably could anyway. She just sat in her corner, exercising her muscles occasionally, just in case they came for her, and watched the underworld outside the cage go by. Toni was pretty sure that she’d found out which directions most of the vampires were coming from at different times. She was certain that when she did run, she’d never be turning down those tunnels if she had any sort of a choice.
She still had no idea where to go – but any of those directions were right out – at least at the times the vampires were around.
And as for her friend, the boy she’d snuggled up with, she’d have tried to take him with her. If they’d been taken from the cage together.
But they weren’t.
They’d come in the middle of the night – laughing at the other boy and the girl as they’d been trying, again, to comfort each other through sex and were then forced to scrabble to get out of the vampires’ way. Maybe it was some sort of biological thing. Toni had thought that maybe it would cost one of them their lives, just another example of vampire cruelty. She’d needed to see where they would be taken – some indication. Better either of them, or the other girl, than herself or the boy that had been resting with her at least until she’d had chance to see where they took someone from one of these cages.
But instead their captors were amused by it. Mocking them probably, but mockery had probably saved their lives. Instead, they’d come over to Toni and her… friend?… Yeah, her friend. They’d never shared a word, but they were probably friends. Or had been then.
One of them, both of them maybe, had been in for it. Toni had been sort of ready to make a try to get out, even if she’d wanted a little more time, but she’d had no idea how she was going to help him – if they were both taken. It might have had to be as simple as grabbing his hand and pulling him along.
But what if he’d fought her, tried to go another way? Precious seconds would have disappeared and their loss might have got them killed.
Would she have left him then?
Would they have been better together then or apart?
The decision hadn’t been hers to make. They didn’t stop to think about it, nor did she see them say a word to each other. They’d just both grabbed him and lifted him bodily from his place beside her and the arms they’d linked, warily, together. Toni had dodged a flailing foot as he was carried away from her. She hadn’t heard him scream. She hadn’t seen it either.
But she’d known that it was happening.
And she couldn’t stop thinking about it now. Hours later.
Who wouldn’t scream then?
Well, she wouldn’t.
Not just because she’d never known what it sounded like.
She’d just go with them. She couldn’t risk being hurt before they even let her go. If she was bleeding… well, they seemed to be able to sense blood if that was what they wanted from people. Maybe they could smell it. She could hide from their sight. She could keep quiet. But she couldn’t stop them from smelling her – or finding her in some other way she didn’t know about.
She’d just have to run – and though she was confident she could outrun most kids her age, even most adults, these weren’t natural creatures.
If their obvious strength was matched by their speed and endurance…
She wouldn’t stand a chance in the race for her life if they were superior in that way. If she had to run that race, she’d be dead. She didn’t want to unless she had to. Running was what she did best – but it wouldn’t be quiet or subtle. She just wanted to hide and sneak away.
If she could do that. She hoped that she could.
Just get out.
To let someone know.
To find the police or something and get them to shut this place down. And then… then she’d have to have them to find her Mom. She didn’t really want to think about that – but when she closed her eyes, she saw her Dad. Dead. Her Mom was all she had now… if she was even still around. She’d left them before Toni could even remember. Dad had had a very old address for her, but she didn’t know where it was kept.
The police would know where to find her. Wouldn’t they?
Why was she even thinking about a piece of paper that was hundreds of miles away and wouldn’t even matter unless she got out of here alive?
And why couldn’t she be sad that they’d taken the only person in here who’d shown her any comfort and concern for anyone other than themselves at all? She would be… when she got out of here. Now she was paying attention. She had to watch. She had to see where they took him and as she did she became sure that the quiet, seemingly defeated, way was the best. Then she could get them to let her go – push her along. Then to try and hunt her. Then she’d have her chance.
It was… she had to see it as her Dad’s last wish. On the floor, being beaten by them until he couldn’t move anymore, he’d flashed her those fingers with his outstretched hand and she’d issued the scream that she never heard.
L-I-V-E
She fully intended to do that for him. Not even for herself, she was going to live for him. And then she was going to get the police and then, it was them that would get hurt. The police would come down here, hurt the things that had hurt him and let the people out. And she’d watch and enjoy it. After that... then she’d feel sad for her friend who’d been taken from here. Then the idea came to her that maybe
he had a plan. Maybe he’d get away too?
Was it possible? He didn’t
look like he had a plan – and pretending he might be okay wasn’t helping either of them.
Once everything had stopped she closed her eyes but not until she’d glared at the other two who’d done the bad thing, amused the vampires and so somehow survived. She wasn’t going to help them. Not after that. If the police let them out… fine. She wasn't going to help them though. They shouldn’t have been doing that – not here. Not now. And they’d lived because of it.
And he didn’t have a chance to.
He wasn’t going to get away. He didn’t have a plan. He was going to die.
The older boy and girl wouldn’t meet her eyes and eventually she closed them. And then, she just her friend – what they were probably doing to him. The image faded and that then she saw her father’s hand spelling that word, before he pulled it into his chest and crossed it over his heart with his fist clenched.
Live.
Love.
She’d lost him. She pulled her knees into her chest and had to keep herself warm as she finally found sleep, knowing that at least she wouldn’t have to hear the screams.
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“Well I’ve got to say that I just love what she’s done with the old place,” Spike commented as he strode through the sewers. Fluorescent lighting? Practical maybe – for a human – but not exactly necessary for vampires who could see in almost total darkness. And the flickering annoyed him humans might not even notice it, but to a vampire’s senses it was just one big, flickering, waste of space.
But then again, Darla had always loved some of the more human traits in her character. almost as much as she’d despised some of the others. She’d never admit it – but she was just as human as Gengis Khan, Alexander and Hitler in some respects. Spike could understand the attraction of human things – as long as you kept a little perspective and remembered whose side you were really on – unlike that big poof Angelus.
Angel as he’d called himself up to the moment that he actually did go ‘poof.’ In a cloud of dust and all mopey because he had a soul.
Loser… as the Americans would probably say. It lacked poetry but it was certainly accurate. He couldn’t even say that he missed the old Angelus and their old days together. They’d never really got on – even as far as groups of vampires went – there had been some respect for each other’s strength and cruelty but no more than that.
Angelus and Darla, now they’d got on. They’d wanted similar things, she was his sire after all. Angelus had given her everything she wanted even down to human things. Darla liked her views too – even if that was simply the length of a sewer tunnel as it seemed at the moment.
“It flickers,” Dru replied thoughtfully as she showed him the way into the nest.
Looking at the wiring, Spike could understand that – new it might be, but quality? Nah. He guessed that the guy who’d fitted it was probably looking forward to lunch – or rather delaying becoming lunch. Not likely to do his best work in those circumstances, now was he? Darla would put up with shoddy workmanship simply because she wouldn’t have kept the fitter alive long enough to judge the quality for herself “Yes, Princess it would, cheapest bidder and all that.” Essentially free. Vampires hardly ever paid – not for that sort of thing anyway. There were some, especially in L.A., who actually tried to fit into human society. Of course in a town as parasitic as that one ‘fitting in’ was something which really didn’t require a lot of changes.
“No, love. The future… it flickers,” Dru told him patiently. She was always patient when she was explaining what he couldn’t see.
In as much as she explained anything that was. So much of being her paramour was a matter of interpretation of those things that only she could detect and feel. “The future?” Spike asked with immediate interest. “What do you see, pet?”
“Flickers,” Dru said happily and started to skip along beside him, taking his hand and swinging as they went.
He was sure that the declaration probably meant something to her but he was damned if he was going to spend the time to torture her and get it out of her. Okay, so he was already damned, but he was saving the torture for tomorrow morning when they went to bed. They’d have that sort of fun then – she wasn't going to drive him to it now. She’d just have to wait until the night was gone and they found their way to a place to see out the sunlight hours.
Always assuming there was such a thing as a bed in this underground world of concrete, dirt and flickering lights. He didn’t think he could have stood being here for too long. He was shocked that Darla had been down here for as long as she had been. Years by all accounts.
Besides, it was Dru that had insisted that as soon as he arrived, he had to go and see Darla. It smacked a little too much of showing respect. He wasn't sure what he was going to do yet. On general principle he loathed Darla. That was what came of spending years he didn’t want to try and count, more than a lifetime, travelling the world with her and Angelus. Being put down by her, as the junior member of their little group, for every single night of each one of those years. Even if it had been a hell of a time.
Still, when he’d left – and after Angelus’s departure had already shattered the group and made Darla’s mood even worse - Drusilla, his beloved dark lady, had gone with
him rather than stick with Miss Delusions-of-Greatness-Darla. Dru had been with
him ever since – at least when she wasn’t on an errand for the lawyers to see her grandmamma. She’d been the only reason he’d stuck with Darla and Angelus at all through all those years. She’d made withstanding their taunts easier because what Dru wanted she’d had to have – and she’d wanted a ‘family.’ And for some reason he’d never been able to fathom Darla had tolerated Drusilla and her ways too. If there had been a maternal bone in the elder vampire’s body, then he’d have said that the Darla had been looking out for her ‘grandaughter.’ The truth, of course, was that Darla had been persuaded by the value of Dru’s visions and the corruption of purity she’d once represented. And Darla had wanted to use them for herself.
Dru’s visions worked for no one but Dru. His goddess might reveal them, but they only really
meant something to Drusilla herself. Neither Darla nor Angelus had ever really figured that part of her out.
Visions or not, Darla knew Dru was insane and devilishly strong – and was again the experiences of Prague had faded into memory. Darla had never missed the potential of either of those qualities – and if he could remember the blonde vampire snapping at Dru a hundred times, then were a hundred incidents where she had berated him in the same way for each one of those times. Darla really hadn’t ever liked him. She had never been his choice – he had always been Drusilla’s. Which he was eternally grateful for. Literally.
Which was good because he really didn’t like Darla and he’d never understand the affection Dru held for the Sire of her Sire.
Vampires weren’t supposed to like each other – unless there was the sort of animal love that he and Dru shared. If they liked each, other then there wouldn’t be this whole power thing going on all the time. Once, it had been based on age and experience - that wasn't going to wash now though. Now Darla had the real, actual power. She would probably be all nice and pleasant to them if her followers were there to see it.
And for followers read slaves. She’d had them created, in hundreds by all accounts, just to serve her. That wasn’t the way things had always been done – she’d carelessly tossed the Order’s traditions in that respect out of the window.
But numbers gave her control. She could afford to be nice to him and Dru in front of the rest of the Order because she had the ultimate advantage of being able to have him killed at will. He was good but he wasn't up to taking on a hundred other vampires at the same time – not and Darla as well.
And if her ‘slaves’ weren’t there, in the audience chamber or whatever it was, then she’d just barely avoid being threatening towards him. Just like the old days. She’d be that nice mainly because she knew he could kill her before the ‘Order’ rushed to her defence. Or he could have a damn good try at it anyway. She was a terror when it came to humans but he was quicker and stronger than she was – despite her age.
Dru was too.
When he’d been bothered enough to care, he’d wondered just how much of the Master’s power had slipped down through the generations. Darla, Angelus, Dru and now him. They were all big-bads in vampire terms and that was no mistake or coincidence. The way he’d heard it even those drippy kids had been badasses too. And why not? The pair of them had been sired by Dru and himself the last time they’d come to town – and that trip had been at the behest of the lawyers in L.A. too. Those kids – they must have shown some good level of potential - they’d pretty much kicked Darla out and taken her place alongside Luke as Master’s favourites. At least that was the way he’d heard it.
That sort of humiliation was something he would have loved to have seen. Darla had always been talking up her direct connection to the Master and to have seen two kids – new vampires – become bigger and badder than she was… Well, he’d just have loved to see it. He couldn’t even remember what those kids name had been. They’d burned brightly and now they were gone – and Darla was back.
Something about a tree?
Didn’t matter. There was definite power flowing through the Order and that had to have come from the Master, or even the one who’d created him. But, in general, new vampires weren’t up to their standards.
It was going to interesting to see which of Darla’s Order might have that power here. Especially being as every vampire in this place had, apparently, been turned directly by Darla herself. Give them a century and each of them could be truly dangerous. It was rare that there was an instantly deadly – instantly powerful – vampire. Nearly right from the moment of being turned was almost unheard of. In the eight or so years since he and Dru had last been in Sunnydale he’d seen a lot of new vampires created – he’d even done a couple himself – but those two kids, tree girl and dopey, they’d done last time they were here were the last he’d heard about with that sort of quick, devastating, development. This lot here in the Order… well the way he’d heard it, Darla had just shepherded them through the first few years, keeping them from getting dusted, and now she thought she could turn them loose and expect them to do everything she needed them to.
Good luck to her – she’d need it. He’d had lots of vamps working for him over the decades – tough ones too – but somehow it was never going to produce the results you wanted for yourself.
Besides, he instinctually chafed against keeping vampires cooped up like that because he knew that he could have never stood it himself. He had to admit that it was an interesting idea though. Maybe he’d have to stick around and see how that went – especially since Dru seemed to have her un-beating heart set on staying anyway. He just wasn’t going to be Darla’s bitch whilst Dru had her fun. Not just so he could stay here with Dru – not even to keep her away from the local Chaos demons she had some strange attraction to.
All slimy with the antlers…
He didn’t doubt the love they had for each other – but Dru… Well, his dark lady didn’t have a lot of focus. And if some Chaos demon, and he knew there were some around this town, caught her eye, she’d be off and running after them.
He just had to have a little faith in her. No matter what, they’d always stuck together. Trust didn’t come easily to him – but he trusted her to still want him. He truly believed she’d want him forever. That was the way it was meant to be – that was why she’d chosen him and given him such a glorious rebirth.
He glanced across at her skipping beside him and couldn’t help a possessively self-satisfied smile. It was easy to have faith in her – because she’d always need him to take care of her. She was so strong, so powerful and so vicious… but she needed him and he needed her. Having faith – well that was more a question of which ‘her’ he was having faith in. There were so many of them in there and all of them brought something different to the party.
“Granmama look! I’ve brought someone to see you,” Dru called across the large chamber that they’d reached, branching out on many sides to newly reopened tunnels. New at least since the last time he’d been here - which had been a while ago.
And Spike had to say that he was impressed by it all – but not in a good way. He was impressed by the scale and not so much by the content. This had been the Master’s chamber. The one he’d got trapped in all those years ago – at least it looked like it. The holes in the walls leading to other tunnels made it tricky to tell but he was pretty sure of that. They, he and Dru, had been here back in the forties, and back then this had been a dingy, candlelit… well there was no denying it… it had been a Church which had sunk into the ground during an earthquake.
When they’d last been here it had been a church with a huge pit of blood as a centrepiece of this chamber.
All that was gone as were the religious symbols that the Master had loved to test himself with – or as Spike had always seen it, showing off the ability to resist pain. This was totally changed from back then though. The church had originally collapsed into the sewer works beneath it when the Master had tried to open the Hellmouth and now the old church was long gone and the sewers had been restored too. Tunnels opened out with this place as the hub of a network now. That was just the structure though – the character had been changed more fundamentally than that.
The place was scrubbed to the stonework and the bare rock where it still showed through towards the roof. Large lights hung from the vaulted ceiling and illuminated every corner. There were no shadows – what was a vampire’s nest without shadows? Some corners, Spike mused, needed to stay hidden – especially when they were as featureless as this. Apart from not having the large picture window she would have wanted it was just like Darla was trying to turn it into… well, something like a home.
She’d always liked her pretty things and her creature comforts – that had always just been ‘Darla’. And now she had them here too. A high backed leather chair replaced the Master’s wooden throne. Wall mounted lamps replaced medieval candelabras covered with decades of wax. There were other seats around the edge of the room – carefully placed to show your weakness if you chose to sit whilst in the ‘Great Darla’s’ presence.
“William,” she said almost warmly as Dru went over to stand beside her.
Almost.
Her smile as Dru went to her side was one that reflected the power she supposed she had over his lover. “Spike,” he said. She knew it - which was why she’d chosen to ignore it and use his human name instead. She’d been there when he’d changed his name and she’d heard him insist on it being used about a thousand times. And she’d watched him kill more than one person who’d never learned to he’d that request.
Of course he’d gone there to kill those people anyway so it probably hadn’t made an impression – and she’d never cared about what he wanted.
Fair enough, he thought,
I never cared what she thought either.And once again she ignored his correction, as someone in power was likely to do. “Welcome to the
new Order. What do you think?” she asked with a gesture around the expensively decorated chamber.
So she wanted approval? Was that it? He could do that. For a little while and in his own way. “New Order, very cute.” He watched the flicker of anger as she reacted to his description.
Okay, maybe he couldn’t do approval.
Whatever she’d detected in his voice it was worse than she imagined… though she went back a few centuries she was still an American, especially in the last few decades. She was taking ‘cute’ in entirely a different context to the one the one that he was insinuating.
It was ‘fluffy bunny’ cute in meaning and he didn’t think she’d got that.
This… well, he supposed it might have been stylish in the fancy magazines humans had, none of which really catered for sewer chic – though he really didn’t care. But it wasn't exactly… well, vampire. Darla never really had been ‘all-vampire’ though – at least not in taste when it came to buildings and homes. She’d never been a typical member of the order – neither she, nor Angelus. Those that had stuck close to the Master had been underground for centuries even before he came to Sunnydale. Darla… Darla had always liked her pretty dresses, feathered hats and the finest lodgings.
And usually she’d gotten them too.
Often, it was because she was of more use to the Master up above the ground - away from him for years sometimes - she’d been able to do things that no one else could have done for him. No one else he trusted that was. The Master had never trusted any of those she’d turned – or those they’d taken in their turn. He’d certainly
admired the games of Angelus and the delightfully playful viciousness of Drusilla, but he’d never trusted them enough to make any of them one of his favourites.
Living in the world above, in the grand style her victims’ purses had afforded her, had suited her down to the ground.
But then again, he knew where she’d come from. Angelus had let that slip once when he’d fed off a woman high on opium, which had lowered his guard and given Spike information enough to formulate his opinions. As he saw it, the demon which had replaced her soul… he thought that it was rebelling against the memory of whom she’d been when the Master had found her. Mostly dead, utterly unwanted and unloved - probably since she’d been a child.
A whore by any other name. Even if she’d been selling herself to the richest of men – seeking to live in their lives – she still wasn’t anything but a whore. She’d made herself into that – and in the end she’d revelled in it. It was all that she’d wanted. To die as she’d lived – alone and without sympathy. There had been no sympathy in the Master’s bite, he was sure of that.
And her end had just been the beginning of something else – as was the way for all of them. A better ongoing death than their lives had ever been.
All except, perhaps, for Dru. Not that she would see it that way – but objectively he realised that she’d had to have been driven insane to appreciate the existence that was being given to her. Who knew what she would have thought if she was in her right mind all of the time? Dear, delicious, Dru.
Dru, who stood beside Darla and beckoned him in - no matter what her ‘grandmother’ might have thought of his presence here. Dru was already making herself right at home and he wasn't too sure how he felt about that. She’d been here, with Darla, for a while now. Visits, well-paid visits, on behalf of the lawyers were one thing. Staying on was something else.
“Cute?” Darla said.
With the words was a smile which he’d learned that someone had to fear. Someone that wasn’t him. She had no hold over him. He wasn't one of her flunkies. He’d never been anyone’s flunky. He was here for Dru and that was all.
“Understand you’ve got a job on?” he reminded her. Maybe the ‘cute’ thing had been a little unwise – at least until he’d spied out the lay of the land and where he could exploit her weaknesses. He had no loyalty to Darla. He’d work with her – but never
for her – and he’d have his fun returning the vampires of Sunnydale to their ‘rightful’ position. Mainly because Dru wanted to do that and the lawyers from L.A. were giving his lady anything that she wanted - maybe a doll and maybe a fortune in gold doubloons or anything in between.
That was reason enough. Dru was always reason enough for him.
Whilst Darla was no reason at all.
“You’re aware of the little problem we have here?” Darla asked him entirely reasonably, as if she was leading a meeting.
“One of them had been a very bad little girl,” Dru interjected merrily – sounding almost proud of that fact for some reason… and she probably would be.
“Shhh honey, I’m talking to William now.”
Spike watched Dru’s response to that request. More of an order really. He knew that he was jealous of anyone calling Dru by a term of endearment – any endearment - not that it meant anything between these two. He was sure Darla knew all that too. His dark queen just smiled and gave him a look in return that suggested that she knew what he was thinking. Dru always knew what was in his head.
She liked to play her games… and he knew there were Chaos demon’s here in Sunnydale. Dru, for some reason that he’d never been able to fathom, liked Chaos demons. She’d have come back to him of course. But if he’d stayed away from Sunnydale whilst she was here, well then, she’d have had her fun elsewhere eventually – and Darla would have enjoyed that too much for him to stand here and watch her amused, smug face.
But that was just the way they were. They needed to be together to be
together.Apart they were alone.
”You know what I mean, don’t you William?” Darla asked him again.
“Spike. Yeah, I know. This place has got a reputation for being like an iceberg… tiny on the surface but lots more substance underneath,” he replied. It was shocking how blind those ‘problems’ must be to have missed it. Every vampire over ten years old on the West Coast probably knew there was something going on here.
Half of them even knew the details.
And the people who were sitting right on top of the Hellmouth obviously had no idea.
“We like to hide our strength… for now,” Darla told him, as if reading his thoughts.
Which he in no way liked.
“That’s not the way I heard it. I heard you were running scared of the two witches and that you had to stay hidden just to stay here at all.” Now
that felt good, seeing her discomfort. When there was such a thing as truth amongst vampires then it was always interesting. “That’s a bad piece of luck,” he went on. “I mean one witch might seem unfortunate. A Slayer doubly so… but allowing one of your own to become another witch…” He trailed off. He wasn’t going to flat out accuse her of clumsiness or stupidity here in her own place – but the implication was very clear indeed. Besides he didn’t have all the facts - like which of them they’d lost even – it was better to stick with less than he’d liked until he knew.
And by being ‘polite’ until he knew who and where the Witches were, there was less that she could call him on – but with a definite suggestion of disrespect all the same.
“That was in the Master’s night. This…” she waved her hand as Dru sat down cross-legged on the floor next to her. “This is my night, William. The Order’s night.
My Order’s night.”
“Spike,” he said for at least the third time. It was getting old correcting her over and over again. So she wanted to pin the thing with the Witches on the Master? Fine. He wasn’t the one copped up in here. “And let me guess, you want to make
every night your night?” It was always that way. They were all going to ‘stretch forth the hand of darkness and engulf, if not destroy, the world.’ Yeah, yeah. No one had managed it yet and this bint wasn't the one to do it either. Not alone anyway…
But with Dru’s strength and visions - along with his own strength, skill and speed at her side – well, there could be a real future in a town like this. Especially one with its very own Hellmouth and all. At least enough of a future to get it out of Dru’s system so they could then go somewhere with good hunting.
Or maybe just until he could get Darla alone and shove a stake into her heart. Alone and away from Dru – who probably wouldn’t take to that very well. She had strong opinions about her ‘family’ which he didn’t like to mess with because she’d beat the hell out of him.
Besides the Witches here, they were running around like Slayers. Spike knew just what to do with Slayers. It might even be fun to try his luck.
“
We want the night,” Darla confirmed and ruffled Dru’s hair in a maternal gesture that wasn't fooling anyone for a second – anyone but Dru anyway. So she’d caught Dru’s interest huh? He’d known that. Dru had been acting as messenger for the lawyers – mainly because Darla was slaughtering all the humans they’d sent – and now Darla had sucked her in.
But Spike knew that he was the only person who’d ever really caught Dru’s attention for any length of time.
She would get bored with Darla soon enough. Though soon, in vampire terms, was a relative thing.
“I get bored staying in, Spike… I want to see the stars whenever I like,” Dru told him.
And they all knew that he was lost. Dru was staying here with Darla and he was staying here with Dru. And if Dru wanted to go out into the night, here, to rule it… then he wasn't going to do anything but help her do that. Even if it meant helping Darla.
“Okay, okay Dru… I’ll give your pretty stars back.” He just wanted to make it clear whom he was doing this for. Not for Darla. Never for Darla… always for Dru. If Dru wanted to do it for Darla then that would be just fine too though.
Besides, he’d never squared off against a witch before. It should be interesting. The way that he saw it in his mind, they died even easier than Slayers – it was just that you had to get right up close to them to make it happen. Sort of like a Slayer with a crossbow. Difficult to get close into killing range, but once you were, there then it was going to be easy. “You tell me everything I need to know about them and I’ll kill your Witches for you,” he told Darla – but he was really talking to Dru, of course. He wasn't going to do it right away, there were the obvious question of ‘who’ and ‘where’ they were. Not to mention what the hell they could do to him if he screwed up. “Then we’ll talk about rewards…” And this time he was talking to both of them.
Not that he needed a reward but it was fun anyway. Dru’s black eyes lit up with anticipation whilst Darla’s flared with anger. But she couldn’t say a word. She needed him now. The Master would have had him roasting over hot coals for a month for suggesting that he should be rewarded for obeying what would have been a command.
What Darla needed to realise was that she wasn’t the Master. It was obvious to everyone but her.
She was just some blonde bint who dropped into the role by not being there at the end of the old Order.
Darla didn’t agree or disagree with his assertion about rewards and that told him everything that he needed to know about her and her power. She certainly wasn't the Master. She was probably running this whole show – and he had to admit it was impressive how loyal the vampires in L.A. and the rest of California were to her – through the promises of rewards or the withholding of them.
Of course every vampire who’d worked for the Master did so because there was a tiny share of his power there for them in the absence of pain, but she was probably offering them more earthly pleasures.
Once a skanky ho, as the people around here would say, always a skanky ho.
Such was her way and so he decided to throw her a bone. To make himself appear beholden to her. “So whom do you have to see to about getting a bite to eat around here?” he asked. He was looking forward to testing out the hunting range they’d managed to put together to keep the edge on the food, whilst they still maintained their secret. Besides, asking her for food could only help her feel in control. And letting her
think she was in control remained important – for now.
“What do you think you might like?” Darla asked with a proud smile on her face. “We have quite a selection. I never know what I’d like either. So difficult to decide.”
Spike looked at Dru. “Young… female… dark hair,” he replied absently as Dru did her dog barking impression. Oh yeah. Young, female, dark hair would do nicely. First he’d play and then he’d get to the serious business of loving and satisfying his black-hearted princess. “Want to share Dru?”
*******************
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If I want a little pussy, I got my own to play with.
Chance in
Chance.------------------------
(
. The moment where her father said goodbye to her was painfull to read, hopefully Toni draws strength from his last word to her... live girl, live!
Even though I have no idea who Debbie Gibson or Tiffany are.
is still somehow in the music business. I know she was on Broadway a while back.
she'll find an exit to daylight really fast, or hides really well.... (would that work with vampire smelling so well?)