Okay guys and gals... here goes. The title says it all. It really does and it is NOT all smoochy. If you are going to be too uncomfortable with what that title implies then STOP now. I can say no more as I think that this fairly obviously has a darkness and uncomfortable factor to it. I know it, now you know it. ANd guess what it is supposed to. But that is the focus of this part.
Just typing up the notes for some early thoughts on my next project... life moves on. So do W&T....*S*
Here it is Kittens.. Part 24.
Katharyn
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Title:
The Sidestep Chronicle – Kiss Me Witch (Part 24)
Author: Katharyn Rosser
Feedback: Constructive criticism always welcome.
katharynrosser@hotmail.comSpoiler Warning: Pretty limited. The story occurs in an alternate universe though reference is made to events that occur in both realities.
Summary: The time has long since arrived.
Disclaimer: I still 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.
Rating: 15
Couples: By the end…. Sort of... Yup that is what I said – sort of. Given what is going on I am sure you know what I mean.
Notes: You are not supposed to be entirely comfortable with this… otherwise I might as well stop now as declare this the end… much more to come yet.
Thanks To: Jo for another beta reading miracle… I rarely disagree with a thing that she says. Kerry… muse of mine. L – who would be a muse but really can’t be bothered with anything but the finished result. Sass and Zahir for reminding me of what was still needed.
The Sidestep Chronicle
Kiss Me Witch
By
Katharyn Rosser
It was time. It was time to end this dancing around and to take a taste of the witch. Willow had risen in the early evening and headed out as soon as the hated sun disappeared behind the horizon. The Master had not commented on her lack of progress in tracking the Mayor’s assistant down – yet. But he would eventually. And that assistant was the witch… She wanted confrontation, but not with the Master, not tonight – she had other plans. So she headed out before he rose from his lair to take his throne.
She had not been forced, yet, to see if she could lie to him and get away with it. He had a talent for sniffing out lies. Perhaps it was mystical, perhaps it was just that over the centuries he had learnt to read the faces and gestures of his Brethren. But she would try it… if she could not evade the issue then she would have to. There was just something about the witch that meant Willow could not, yet, strike her down nor offer her up to the Master – and when he asked…it would be one of those two options that he required of her.
Willow had been following the witch, watching her at work and… no, Tara didn’t play. She was never playing. She just worked and demonstrated the sort of powers in which Willow found herself more and more interested. Then, when her work was done, she went back to that apartment and she slept. Willow had tried to watch her but somehow the witch had known that she was there and they had faced each other at the window… separated by the glass until Willow had casually stepped back and let herself fall in a controlled way to the street below. Now she limited herself to watching Tara when she was out…
It was like watching a kitten… which she had never done even as a mortal, but she’d long since had her revenge for being denied a pet by her mother. Watching Tara was how she imagined watching a kitten anyway. Fascinated by the way that it moved. Explored. Practiced its hunting skills. By every little thing that she did.
Tara was the Kitten, the Kitten was still practicing. What she could do intrigued Willow but it was not enough to take on the full strength of the vampires of Sunnydale. It wasn't enough to destroy the Master. The Kitten was still growing up – learning her craft. More than good enough to deal with the foolish and those that she took by surprise… but if they were waiting for her? Then the Kitten would be in trouble and it wouldn’t be like being wrapped up in that ball of string. It would make her cranky… or she would get put down.
The more Willow had watched the Kitten, the more she wanted to play with her. But before she could play she wanted to feel that charge – that connection again. A connection which had made her draw breath… She wanted to make sure that it was still there; that it would be there whenever she wanted to play; that the Kitten was worth her participation in playtime.
She wanted… so much and patience was not something that she really possessed – she had hardly any virtues left… but for now she would settle for a kiss and backing the Kitten into this place would allow that to happen – dead end alleyway. The only way out was through Willow… and Willow wasn't about to let her out without getting what she wanted… Willow remembered this alleyway, over there by the dumpster she had once snacked on a student, a drunken student, not particularly bright either…
She wouldn’t be snacking here tonight. She had already eaten before the sun rose… just in case she got distracted by the Kitten and things led to other, more playful, things. There was always that hope. But she wasn’t going to spook the Kitten. No, Willow was prepared to take this as slowly as she had to. Within limits.
Then, it seemed that the witch saw her there, blocking the exit from the alleyway, when she turned around Tara had a stake in her hand, ready with it as Willow had observed before. It was then that Willow realised that this little Kitten of hers wasn't as silly as she had seemed, being trapped here. Tara had led her there as surely as Willow had herded her – not knowing who was following her the witch had brought her pursuer here to destroy them. Not to be a victim.
Instead the Kitten lowered the hand that clasped the stake. Tara knew, Willow realised, that she was not there to kill the vampire hunter.
It took some of the spontaneity Willow wanted from the playtime … not having at least the possibility of a kill at the end. For either of them… The danger was not there. It should have bored her… but for some reason she found that she was very excited instead. Which was nice…
Willow leaned against the wall. “Hello little witch.”
“H-hello…” Tara replied, staying very still. “W-we have to stop…” the voice faded out. She didn’t say what they had to stop.
“Stop?” Willow asked, wondering what the witch could mean. She straightened up and walked towards her.
“Stop. Just stop.”
Willow just smiled, stood still, and then told Tara “But you don’t want to stop my little witch.” She was pleased to see that the witch shuddered at her words. Willow knew that she’d been right.
I was right… this little witch, the Kitten, Tara… she wants to taste me as much as I want to taste her…“You’re a vampire,” the Kitten barely breathed.
“You’re human,” Willow sneered back at her, then before Tara could react she launched herself over the narrow space between them. Knocking the witch off balance, but rolling and taking the impact of the hard concrete herself, pulling the witch down on top of her. There was that stake in the Kittens hand… resting right over Willow’s heart. “You’re human,” Willow said again. “And you don’t want to do that. I want to play… don’t you wanna play now?”
“N-no,” Tara replied to her firmly – but Willow didn’t quite believe it which was why, carefully bearing the stake in mind, she rolled them once more… both of them getting dirty so that Willow was this time resting over Tara. The connection that she had felt the last time she touched Tara radiated through her body wherever they touched – either skin to skin or through their clothing. It just made Willow want to play all the more… but that was not why she had come here tonight was it… she had come for a taste of what the witch could offer – not to take all that she wanted.
Look at me, Willow thought,
I’m being patient.Yay me. Mother would be so proud… if I hadn’t ripped her heart out of her chest and left it as a gift for my Father..Willow lowered her face towards the witch’s, feeling the point of that stake pressing against her breast as it was diverted from the only place it would do any good at all. The witch looked, saw that – and she didn’t seem bothered by the misdirection either.
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The loathsome creature that she was so fascinated with was atop Tara, and her attempts to escape and squirm away from under it were ineffective in the face of the creature’s strength. When she had been on top… that was the time to have staked it and escaped… never a better one. Maybe never again. The stake was right there… now… she looked along the connection between them and could see the stake was out of place, held by the weight of the vampire in the wrong area of her chest, dimpling the pale flesh of the vampire’s… Willow’s… left breast. Scratching, digging… drawing blood but not threatening. She didn’t want to hurt Willow but she was… and the vampire didn’t seem to care at all. It lowered its distorted, ridged face to within inches of hers. Tara could smell its breath, strangely cool and reeking of old blood, long since swallowed and consumed in its relentless, evil, hunger.
The vampire flicked out her fingers by the side of Tara’s face as if they were four switch-blades, and they might as well have been. The talons that tipped them were as razor sharp as the teeth bared by parted lips. Teeth that were both designed to rip and tear flesh open… or sink smoothly into arteries with deadly puncture marks. Willow dragged those nails across Tara’s damp forehead, ever so gently, not scratching. The perspiration was just gathered under those claws before Willow then moved her weapons down to the vulnerable neck and Tara ceased even her half-hearted attempts to escape immediately. Even accidental pressure applied by those talons would risk severing her blood vessels and killing her before the vampire could even think to drain her.
The vampire withdrew the hand and sniffed at it curiously.
“I smell you Kitten,” the vampire told the other, abandoning the fingers to lean forward and sniff at her face.
Tara didn’t reply to that. To a vampire… with their senses - Willow would have been able to smell her from clean across the alley. This wasn’t why the vampire was doing this. Not for a sniff.
And with a flash of coppery hair the vampire licked at the sweat on Tara’s forehead, a long lingering… lick. More than just a little suggestive. Tara tried to turn her face away in disgust but those fingers and their lethal claws were back at her throat. Not pressing – but just there. All Willow seemed to want was for Tara to know that they were there.
The worst thing was… disgusting as it had been… somehow it hadn’t been. It wasn't the lick that bothered her… or even Willow. It was what Willow was… and what Tara knew she had done. Would do. Might do to her at any time… because Tara was not sure that she could stop Willow.
“I taste you Kitten,” Willow said leering at her, yellow eyes right in her face, before it’s taunting tone changed to be curiosity. “You let me go,” the unstable vampire sounded confused.
“Yes,” Tara replied – if the vampire was confused it was no more than she was. Hopefully for very different reasons. Goddess above… what if they were both feeling the same things…
“But you’re the bad witch. You kill us.” The vampire pulled a face, as if trying to understand it. Every thought that went through its mind was readable on that bumpy, ridged, semi-demonic face. A face that was still Willow in some respects. Still the face that had haunted her for years. That she knew so very well.
Just bumpy.
“Yes,” Tara said.
The vampire dragged one nail down the side of Tara’s head, just in front of the ear and she knew that it had cut her, she felt the skin split open and the slick flow of blood begin from the head wound. It leaned to dab a finger at the blood and brought that to its mouth, sucking the fingertip clean with a smile, probably in some obscene appreciation of the tang.
The finger went back there and came away with more of her blood. This time it was presented to Tara’s own mouth. “Wanna taste?” the vampire asked?
Tara shook her head.
The vampire made a little disapproving noise, but didn’t object any more to that refusal, cleaning the finger herself, before leaning over Tara turning and her head to expose the small wound which she licked with a tongue that was as cool as her breath. “Mmmm.” She pulled back and let Tara turn her head back to face her, affording Tara a look down at the pushed up cleavage of the vampire woman. “All better now.” Tara’s blood stained Willow’s lips, until she licked them clean too… slowly and suggestively.
Willow looked down at herself, the blood that had emerged from the wound at her breast from the stake point. “Wanna taste of me?” she asked.
“N-no,” Tara said… not the blood. Never the blood. But the flesh… She closed her eyes. No. This couldn’t be. This couldn’t be. The stake had been freed by Willow’s movements. Tara knew that she could kill the vampire now. She could.
No, she couldn’t.
She moved her hand from between them and the stake clattered to the floor. Willow heard it, but seemed more focused on the rejection of a taste.
“No one wants to play with me anymore,” the vampire told her, sounding sad. “Everything is different.”
“I’m s-sorry.” And Tara almost was. Almost. She didn’t understand really what Willow meant… but she was sorry because Willow wanted her to be.
“Do you want to play with me?” The vampire asked, sitting up, swaying astride her, hands moving around her face, cupping Tara’s cheeks, stroking the chin, brushing at the hairline then down to her neck and shoulder. Teasing. “I’d like to play with you,” Willow told her.
“No.” Tara knew she shouldn’t want anything from this creature. She shouldn’t want to touch the vampire. To talk to her. To play with Willow. She should want to kill it.
But she couldn’t. This was all that was left of Willow.
Perhaps it was Willow… if the vampire, the demon, remembered Willow then…
No.
The vampire sighed, as if upset by her reply, then the eyes seemed to flash. “You let me go last time… so I will do the same for you…if…”
“If?” Tara asked. They had allowed each other to exist already but now she doubted that there was a true threat here… the vampire just wanted to have its fun.
“Kiss me,” the vampire demanded.
The thought turned Tara’s stomach. Kiss this demon filled thing? This creature of the night whose kind she had hunted for more than three years? Whose brethren had murdered her family and millions of other innocents who didn’t deserve that fate? But the turn in her stomach was not simply one of disgust. At some level it was… excitement. Nervousness… Her disgust was just what she should have felt… it was intellectual. It wasn’t a feeling. It was a thought.
You feel what you feel Tara. Yes Mr Mayor, I do.
And she felt about… for… this vampire. This thing. This Willow.
Tara looked up into the yellow-eyed demonic face and she couldn’t totally hate it despite what it was. If she could it would have been dust minutes ago, or when they last met.
But she couldn’t let herself kiss it either. Could she?
“Kiss me,” it repeated.
The vampire’s strong hands roamed over her face and bare neck, stroking, teasing. Caressing and cajoling. But the hands were as cold as the night air. Surely that was why she was shivering. Tara looked once more into those inhuman eyes and shuddered but the vampire mistook her reaction and smiled a cruel smile. The only type of smile possible with a mouth full of fangs.
“Kiss me Kitten, or you die and you will never have your revenge on him.”
So Willow had figured it out… it didn’t take too much. Willow knew that she was here for the Master. For revenge. She couldn’t know the details… She should kill the vampire now, before she could tell the Master about her. But she wouldn’t, Tara knew that.
And that was it wasn't it? So what if the Master knew about her… it would do him good to fear for once. And all she had to do was trade a kiss for her life’s purpose. It might kill her anyway – that purpose. She knew that, and was personally ready to accept death at any time, but the world… the world needed her to have her brand of justice imposed on her enemy. The price of justice was a kiss?
She’d pay.
It was probably just a rationalisation… because really at some level Tara knew that she wanted the kiss… the vampire, Willow, had just given her the excuse that she needed to allow it.
Tara shut her eyes and Willow must have known she had won… it brought its hands to Tara’s eyelids and gently prised them back open… so gently. Teasing. Like unfurling a butterfly’s wings. Those hands could have crushed her skull, plucked her eyes out to be eaten. But they were gentle. The vampire just wanted to be seen as it bent to her.
It lowered its demon countenance to Tara’s unresisting mouth and their lips met. The warmth of the living connecting with the cool of the dead… and the electricity of the unknown flowed through Tara.
It was a tiny thing. A kiss only in the strictest definition, more a brushing of lips and then the vampire withdrew, looking down with the curiosity of a cat watching a trapped bird. The hands at rest on Tara’s shoulders. No pressure there, but ready to hold her down. “Mmmm,” Willow made the sound that Tara would have made if she had not clamped down on her emotions and her reactions.
And then with one blink of Tara’s eyes, the creature had gone and in it’s place was Willow. The same but very, very different – at least in her mind. It wasn’t the vampire – this time it was Willow who invited her.
‘Kiss
me’ Willow said to her. Willow was still restraining her as she leaned forward once more. So close to Tara that the living woman could just move a little and find her lips once more. Find… She had to seek Willow out this time. She had to do the kissing.
That electricity was still there… and it wasn't just unknown that created that. It was the connection. Tara chose to brush Willow’s lips with her own. But lingered there allowing their lips to truly connect. They were so soft, but still cool to the touch. The kiss dragged on and on into eternity and Willow’s lips picked up a little of her heat. There was no lip movement. Certainly no tongue. Just… touch.
Until eventually they separated and Willow lifted herself from atop Tara. She didn’t help Tara up from the ground either. “The Kitten likes to play…” Willow suggested and Tara couldn’t deny it as she levered herself up on her elbows. She knew that she should get away or stake this vile thing. But she couldn’t leave Willow. Not yet.
Willow turned her back to her. A test was it? There were enough wooden objects around… and the stake where she had dropped it. She could do it. She could kill Willow.
But she didn’t. And when Willow turned around again… it wasn't Willow. The creature was there once more, taunting her probably because it knew that Tara preferred the human face of the thing she had so willingly kissed. “Good Kitten. Kitten can go now.”
Tara headed for the mouth of the alley but the vampire came after her, behind her. Had it…she…Willow… in her obviously precarious mental state, changed her mind. Was she to die anyway?
“Kiss
me,” the vampire asked her again. No compulsion this time. “Kiss me,” and once more it was Willow. She was playing with her… showing her both sides… not letting Tara escape from the fact that both of them were in there. They were Willow. Both of them. And so that request was a request from the creature of the night with the face of an angel… or a goddess. There was no coercion. No threat. Tara knew she could just have left.
But she kissed Willow anyway before she broke away and ran, Ran to the mocking accompaniment of the vampires mocking laughter.
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EDITED: To address some italics problems and to add that this WILL NOT be the path of the VW/T relationship. There is something in this fic that will not occur again. To me it is the worst thing in it... actually two things... neither will occur again but they were important here... god there I go panicing again.
K
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You hear that baby? I am going nowhere.
at: 4/23/02 4:16:21 am