Gee I duck out for a day and everything goes wild...
Thanks kittens*S*
Cicca - Oooh Cookies...
Sass - No one in this fic knows
everything that is going on, though more than one person thinks that they do.
And Lilah... not sleeping over
with Tara*S*
And everyone seems convinced Lilah is for it in this very part... read on.
Wizpup - Much better Jo my dear, much better. I am not sure that
I can fill in every gap but what I can do... yeah it is accurate! (I mean that...)
Amadan Daenaris - Nice to see a new face don't be a stranger! And as for "cruel" I taught her everything she knows... I am the taunt queen*S* Now I fear though that she has surpassed me... I wonder if I should issue a dummy part to spice up the spoilers... perhaps I already have... aha!
Xita - Nice compliment that and thanks once more. That's twice!!
The Woodchuck thing... I was about to say that there is no woodchuck in this fic... but then I got to thinking. The carving of Willow was carved from a piece of chopped wood Tara picked up at home... and we know how important that was. Perhaps there is a woodchuck struggling to get out! Freaky
Autumn - I am at GMT which is why I usually let everyone have an hour to measure it against... oops missed it this time... okay I think that Part 30 is going to post right about...
Now - and it's a biggie... have fun. (Talking of big I thought this was going to be about 50 parts... well we are not yet up to half way in the word count yet... though many of the later parts are longer than what has gone before... we have a while to go Kittens!)
Katharyn
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Title:
The Sidestep Chronicle – Duties & Listening (Part 30)
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: Following on from meeting Lilah, Tara takes the lawyer around Sunnydale and back to stay on her couch…
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: W/T after a fashion.
Notes: Continued directly from Part 29
Thanks To: Mariacomet for producing something so beautiful at the most necessary moment. I needed it then. Jo for more inspired beta and suggestions. Kerry who gave the original okay to this idea. The Kittens who feedback and “forced” me to make a very late change to this part. L…
The Sidestep Chronicle
Duties & Listening
By
Katharyn Rosser
DUTIESWhat the Mayor had made clear to Lilah, and she had observed herself over brunch with Richard Wilkins and his assistant – one of her Two Roses - was that Tara was not without a moral centre despite her employment. A very firm and strong one, no doubt ingrained by her upbringing – such things usually were. And by the time Wolfram and Hart got there it was usually too late. Tara knew what good and evil were. She knew that her employer was certainly an ‘evil’ entity. Even if she had found herself liking him.
That was clear too. Tara liked the Mayor, but she also feared him. Lilah was very, very good at reading people. It wasn’t necessary to be a seer to do that.
But Lilah also knew that Tara had subsumed any guilt that she might have felt over working for Mayor Wilkins, or what she did for him, beneath the accumulated benefits of her own brand of justice. Tara should have been a lawyer – maybe she still could be. Lilah smiled at that idea, appreciating that was not where Tara’s talents lay. Though the younger woman was comfortable with the Mayor, and seemed to grow more comfortable with Lilah herself over that brunch, Tara was not really a people person. Perhaps she had just never needed to be.
It was a pretty lonely life that she had led. Lilah knew that from the files. When the monitors had been able to keep up with Tara Maclay they had identified that numerous people that the witch had got to know had died.
Maybe that was why Tara didn’t try so much anymore. Maybe she never had. It hardly mattered. Tara only had to get to know two people. Willow Rosenberg – wherever in Sunnydale she was – and Lilah herself.
Tara noticed the half-smile Lilah’s thoughts had provoked and looked questioningly at the lawyer who widened the smile pleasantly and shook her head. Plenty of time for that. She was pleased that Tara was becoming more comfortable with her though. It would make things much, much easier – though she was unsure of the Mayors advice. How could she become Tara’s true friend? Oh, she could pretend. She had done so many times on Wolfram and Hart’s behalf, being one of their most productive recruiters. But against a seer? Or at least someone who was possibly one… A person who could recognise any sign of the lies that came to her so naturally?
There was no short cut. Lilah knew that she would just have to spend time with Tara Maclay… and it wasn’t an altogether unpleasant idea. There were things that she wanted to know. Both of her ‘Two Roses’ had fascinated her for a long time – now she could find out if the reality was in accordance with what the reports suggested. The town was nice enough too, in the daytime. She could work on her tan on the nearby beach and get paid for doing her job whilst keeping checks on Gavin from her laptop.
I can do this, Lilah told herself,
I can adapt to the needs of this project Especially when those needs were far more pleasant than most adaptations she had been forced to make in her career.
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Lilah Morgan was an anomaly to Tara. The signs on the woman’s face and in her body language seemed to betray a lack of confidence in their presence. Perhaps not the Mayor’s so much – Lilah seemed to perk up when talking to him - but certainly in hers. The lawyer withdrew whenever she addressed Tara… or looked at her. It was disconcerting. This big town lawyer here in Sunnydale, why would she be nervous? Lilah, surely, couldn’t do her job if she was bad with new people. First impressions – weren’t they everything?
Lilah had made a pretty good one though. She was polite, had a few jokes that were not too bad and didn’t seek to bore Tara with details of a job which the younger woman knew nothing about. But the nervousness… was it forced? Perhaps that was just how the lawyer made people feel at ease? If she knew that Tara was bad around new people then Lilah could pretend to be the same and they would appear to be on the same level.
The Mayor had left them immediately after the brunch, he had a meeting with Dave Phillips from planning, and had asked Tara again, to show Lilah around town.
That had not taken too long at all. Most of the tourist attractions in town were long since closed down. Pretty much all there was by way of leisure was the old carousel and mini-golf. Both of them, being all there were, drew lots of people even during a working day. Mothers, fathers and children to the carousel. Lilah must have thought that Tara was just a little strange when she stood looking at the families there but their muted joy always had an effect on her. Everyone had lost… or if they were luckier just knew someone who had. It was a whole town filled with people like her.
Except not all of them shared themselves with a vampire. She wondered how they would react to her if they knew of her betrayal of their pain. Pain she was supposed to be sharing.
Then there was mini-golf… which both she and Lilah swore that they were useless at. Being in Sunnydale though – with the Mayor the town had – both also knew that they would end up playing there eventually. In Tara’s case again. She still was nowhere near to beating him.
With the leisure facilities out of the way Tara had then pointed out the key city buildings. After that the vampire dominated places that Lilah must stay away from once darkness fell. The stores that she could shop at and the places that Lilah could go for sanctuary if she was caught outside at night. Tara’s own more regular hunting routes where Lilah might stand some chance of being found if the worst did happen and she was trapped outside with no nearby shelter.
Tara hadn’t liked to stress the contingencies so much, the safer places, what to do in an emergency, but despite Lilah’s earlier bravado this really wasn't L.A. This was the Mouth of Hell and by night it definitely showed. The lawyers gung-ho attitude worried Tara. Lilah had to be ready for Sunnydale – especially if she
was going to come out with Tara that night.
Anything could happen.
It wasn’t the smartest thing, in Tara’s humble opinion, to have her show the visitor around. She was pretty new to Sunnydale herself, and her focus since her arrival hadn’t really been the attractions. But the Mayor was worried about her. He had said as much. He had tried to get her to take some time off. Not so that it would interfere with her work for him, which to date had chiefly consisted of eliminating vampires and gathering information for what was to come, but he was trying. And she had failed to obey. He let that disobedience pass as he probably would no other. It was masked as her dedication. The truth of it was that she didn’t want to have too long at any one time that she could be with Willow… days and days of that…
She could kid herself now that she was getting a ‘fix’ of the vampire every so often. Daily in fact… But to a spend holiday with her? All day. Everyday, and Tara knew that’s what she would do. That would be to surrender to thinking that this was some sort of normal life that she was leading and not a freak show.
A freak show that she couldn’t resist being a part of.
Besides that she had too much to do. Too much to prepare and too little time. The clock was always ticking on in the back of her mind, and in a few months the alarm would ring. And she would wake up a demon. Indulging herself with Willow… that was all the time she could afford. If not all she needed. He was probably right, she was getting wound too tightly. But she didn’t think she would snap. Willow was her relief and vampires, one way or another, were still her whole life.
When he could the Mayor spent time with her himself. Sunnydale had the mini-golf of course and in the last few weeks they had been there several times. She had enjoyed it but she held back from allowing him too close to her. When she had first come here it was the recognition of what he was that held her back… now… now there was both less and more reason to keep him away. Both of them had the same aim but if they got too close then she might let something slip. Something that she couldn’t never share with anyone.
Willow.
And of course he was… not a good person. But then neither was Willow.
He seemed less evil, Tara thought as she walked with Lilah, because she had let a demon into her life. Her bed. Her heart. But he wouldn’t understand. No one would. How could they? She didn’t understand it herself. She couldn’t expect anyone else to rationalise what she couldn’t. This wasn’t a rational thing that she was doing. It was crazy.
Then it came to her. Oh god, Lilah was staying with her. She realised just what that would mean. She had to hide Willow. No, more than that, she had to stop the vampire from visiting her until the lawyer left. Painful as that was in itself… to do without the not-aloneness that Willow offered her… worse was the fact that she had no idea how to achieve that end. How could she convince the vampire, who so often seemed to treat her like a plaything, that she should not come to her this night. Maybe others too. Willow was just as likely to kill Lilah as agree to the request… what would Tara have to promise her? A bite?
No never, ever, that.
She must have let some of her inner turmoil show though because Lilah was looking at her once more, measuring and appraising her. “Sun will be going down in an hour or so?” the lawyer asked her, probably trying to open up more conversation.
“Five twenty two,” Tara told her. She always had the procession of sunset times for the next week committed to memory. Her watch set to exactly the right time. She never knew who she would be with – who should not be out in the nightmare darkness world that she inhabited for most of her waking hours.
A world she inhabited far too much for her own good. Some of the places that she had taken Lilah this afternoon, she’d never seen them in daylight before. What did that say about her?
Perhaps that she didn’t care enough about the people and places that she was trying to protect? To even bother to find out about them?
It was kind of nice to see those places that way though. Not as haunts in which vampires and demons hunted or just hung out. Not as sites for an ambush… just as places – with purposes in their own right. Perhaps it was really Lilah that was showing her around Sunnydale, opening her eyes to that world.
“You want some dinner?” Lilah asked her. “On the firm?”
“F-free dinner?” Tara had been hungry often enough to appreciate that offer - even from a source that she could not entirely trust yet. Food was food and Sunnydale still had some places that prepared meals that smelled lovely anyway. She smiled “Sure.”
Lilah took her arm like a close friend might and walked her towards one of the few remaining Sunnydale restaurants they had passed earlier. That wasn’t so bad because, apart from Willow and the Mayor, Tara didn’t have anything or anybody that even resembled a friend. The weirdness passed as they walked along.
Those restaurants, cafés and clubs that had endured in this town had all taken elaborate security precautions. The first thing was to ensure that the owner lived in the property. That way it became a home… and then all they had to do was place a drop of holy water on your hand before inviting you in. It was what the devoted business people had to do to ensure that the diners did not become the dinners of something else. It was only for a couple of hours though, no such establishment stayed open beyond eight. The people of Sunnydale had also learnt that if they were eating out they had to do so early.
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LISTENINGDarkness had already fallen when they emerged from the restaurant and Lilah was all for a tour of the town by night – despite both of them being stuffed. Running away… not really an option. They might manage a swift waddle in a pinch.
Lilah had been afraid through dinner, with no other distractions between them that the younger woman might have guessed that what really interested her here in Sunnydale was Tara herself. And what she was capable of. That really did interest her. Lilah wanted a
show to round off her evening and her interest was not actually strictly professional.
Jack MacNamara’s club back in L.A. was one of her few out of hours indulgences. A place where blood sport contests were not of the natural variety. There was something vibrant about a gladiatorial fight to the death. Especially when one was not personally involved. She had chosen her arena, corporate politics, and considered herself an accomplished survivor and winner. The club was filled with demons who would fight for her entertainment… and one human. She realised she was going to miss Charles Gunn’s twentieth fight. Maybe even the twenty-first.
But instead she would witness Tara in action… a woman who had been fighting much longer than any of MacNamara’s pit fighters. And winning. Lilah liked winners – especially as she considered herself to be one. She was willing to trust in Tara to keep winning for her. For the project and to ensure her survival out here in the darkness of Sunnydale.
Shared danger… That was another classic. It should create a bond between them. Seer or not, Tara would be able to see through that. The trust, the willingness to share the risk and face death with her. Lilah might not be able to fight but she could share in that danger at least. When had anyone shared the risk with Tara? Her monitors’ reports, which had better be proved accurate, said never. When had anyone taken an interest in Tara beyond what she could do for them? Again the reports said never – at least not since the death of her family.
And Lilah’s interest was genuine. There was no way, unless Tara was far more talented than even the most optimistic reports believed, that she could differentiate between the excitement of the fight and the excitement of just being with her as a person. No way to tell the difference between Lilah’s professional and personal interest. This night should go a long way to at least building trust.
Trust she hoped she would never have to violate. Tara was a pleasant enough young woman. Shy, certainly, but well-mannered and, though she attempted to hide it, fiercely dedicated to what she referred to as justice. It was a word that Tara had used a lot as Lilah had, carefully, drawn her out of herself.
But as a Senior Associate in Wolfram and Hart, Lilah thought that she knew what revenge looked like. Justice was simply legalised revenge. And Tara’s revenge was not strictly legal was it?
All this she had got from an afternoon with Tara who had, as time went by, opened up more and more to her, perhaps valuing finding someone to whom she could talk. As indeed Lilah had. She had taken the Mayor’s advice to heart. She would never risk an identifiable lie to Tara – even if one day that meant telling her the full truth. Tara was not a client. She was not an employee or someone Lilah worked for… and that meant she was pretty safe to talk to. About many things that she could not mention at Wolfram and Hart for fear of being perceived as weak. She too had unburdened herself and she knew Tara could see that.
Trust. It all built trust.
Lilah had deliberately not left Tara with any illusions about Wolfram and Hart. None at all. Besides to do so would have been to conceal or to lie. One day this young woman might be recruited into the firm anyway. But by unburdening as she had to Tara, Lilah was hoping that she might have given some hint of vague dissatisfaction with the firm. Something Tara could latch onto, with her moral centre, and put Lilah in the category of ‘possibly good,’ rather than ‘definitely evil.’
Which was only fair. Lilah didn’t even see herself as evil… she was just doing what a million other lawyers were doing. It was only her client base that differed.
Tara now knew more about her than anyone outside of her own family. In a number of short snippets it had all come out… Both of their stories jumbling together. As she had talked about her own experiences at Wolfram and Hart she could tell that Tara just… got it. Lilah was doing what she had to do. She was trying to do what was best… and sometimes that was wrong. Lilah knew that, admitted it to herself. But she wasn’t there to do good. Just like Tara. Tara had a goal… the eradication of The Master. Lilah had a goal… she was going to become a power at the firm.
It would cost them both.
It already had.
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“You’re s-sure that you want to d-do this?” Tara asked as her pendant started to itch at her neck. There was still time to evade the vampire that was out there, to get Lilah home then head out herself. But what if the vampire was Willow? She hadn’t mentioned Willow to Lilah. She had sidestepped the jokingly raised issue of her love life when Lilah had asked her over dinner. What was she supposed to say? That she had… feelings… for a murderous vampire?
If it were Willow what would she do then? She could never kill that vampire… yet how could she show Lilah that she was capable and that she deserved her place with the Mayor? To whom Lilah had apparently had every intention of reporting her impressions of this hunt. And Tara herself. The lawyer had made no secret of that fact. The Mayor knew that Tara was effective, but he had never known how she did her job.
But what were the chances of it being her Willow?
Next to none surely… unless Willow was playing games with her – again. She shouldn’t be. By silent consensus the stalking had stopped.
But what if she was out there? She would be somewhere out there. Willow too needed her dinner.
“There’s a vampire out there?” Lilah asked catching on as Tara reacted to the scratch of the pendant.
“Th-there are always vampires out there,” Tara told her bitterness dripping from her voice in a way that no other subject could inspire. “But there is one c-close. Are you sure about this? Once I start to hunt it then I – w-we are committed… We can’t just stop or it will hunt us.” Or kill someone. And she couldn’t allow that.
Lilah touched and then squeezed her arm. “I trust you Tara. You’ve been doing this nearly as long as I have been practising law… and I trust myself. So why shouldn’t I trust you?”
Trust me? You shouldn’t Lilah… because if this is Willow I might even feed you to her… if she asked me to. What if Willow saw her with Lilah and thought… Willow knew that she had no friends. What if Willow found Lilah at her apartment? It wasn’t that the vampire was irrational… it was that she was not controlled. Willow had self-control. It was just that the vampire didn’t like to use it. She just preferred to indulge herself. She was Willow. She was fiery, she was passionate and she was demon. Tara knew that she had to explain Lilah to Willow. Willow would find out… and if she asked then Tara wouldn’t be able to hide it. She would tell her vampire.
Then Willow would probably go after Lilah… and what would she do to her ‘Kitten?’ What price would Willow try to exact for a gracious promise not to kill the lawyer? A price that Tara would pay… and at the time enjoy. That made it no easier.
Tara took Lilah’s hand off her sleeve and gave it a comforting squeeze as she did so. The lawyer was reacting to the danger. Lilah’s breathing was quicker, she was getting either scared or psyched. Tara guessed it was the latter. “Stay b-behind me.” Preferably two blocks back… What if she got hurt or killed? Tara had never been so directly responsible for someone else on a hunt before and that scared her like no vampire could. The fear worked on her and made the hunt more difficult. She slowed as the pendant became still warmer. Getting closer. Breathe… When was the last time that she had been afraid of hunting a vampire? Of the actual process. A long, long time now.
“There…” Lilah pointed at the vampire, victim in hand, as they moved through the back streets that Tara had led them into. Tara didn’t need Lilah to tell her that and didn’t reply. The lawyer got the message and stayed quiet. She obviously knew when to be silent and when to watch. She was watching very intently now.
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Tara gestured to her to stay back and took a stake from her shoulder slung bag. It seemed incongruous to find this young woman, dressed in her long skirts and with her braided strands of hair and a brightly coloured bag hunting vampires. But that, Lilah guessed, was who the woman making her way slowly forward was. Tara refused to give up some parts of herself to the ‘needs’ of the hunt. Besides, everyone knew that vampires were attracted to brighter colours. To dress like any normal person, outside of Sunnydale, would obviously make life easier as a hunter. Tara could be her own bait. Certainly easier than picking your way through puddles and trash in open toed heels. Lilah winced as water flooded under her toes and then ignored the discomfort to move behind the corner of a building and watch as Tara made her approach.
Why was the witch not seeking cover? Or moving quickly? Instead she was just walking towards the vampire. Far too late for the victim, a young man by the looks of him. Why delay?
Because Tara needed the vampire to drop the victim… she was inviting the vampire to come for her. To fill its attention. Even though its back was open to attack. She wants to see it, to see its face as it dies perhaps? Justice and revenge rolled into one.
The vampire eventually turned to her and Tara just held out her hand, almost as if asking it to take it. Even though it would rip her arm off as soon as bite her. In the hand though was a stake. But only for a second. The street light and the angle was good enough that Lilah could see the stake rise into the air just a few centimetres and the vampire lost its cocky arrogant glare. Instead of ‘I’m going to eat you’ the look said ‘what are you?’
Good question.
But it would never know the answer to that. It tried to move backwards but it couldn’t move at all. At first Lilah thought that it was held by some force… but that was only partly true. It was ever so slightly off the ground. A few inches and it had not even noticed. Unable to move away from the hunter. And now it panicked, flailed arms and legs, hissing and scratching at the wall beside it… but even pulling itself on that it stayed where it was. And so now what was Tara waiting for?
A shot at the heart. Lilah could see the problem for Tara. As it flailed she might have missed, risked losing concentration and lost the vampire. Or allowed it to attack them. So she was making sure. Because she was there, also in danger? Perhaps. But Tara was, Lilah could tell, very good at what she was doing and it was only seconds after the vampire realised that it was airborne that it fell to the ground as dust. Not quite the ground though. Not right away. For a few seconds the dust remained above the ground until Tara let gravity have its way with it.
The young woman came back over to her. Not showing any sign of effort, though it must have taken something out of her. Magic always did. But she had done this often before. Lilah knew that. She had read the reports of those who had watched her. She had done this a hell of a lot. It was Tara’s life. And for some reason, despite that being the whole point for Lilah, it made her a little sad. Tara had told her that during the day but she hadn’t quite got it then. But to see it – what Tara did every night.
Every single night…
She pitied the blonde haired killer of vampires. Tara wouldn’t want her pity, but she had it anyway.
“Let’s go home,” Tara told her.
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Lilah was settled on the fold out sofa bed in the living area, despite Tara’s protests that she would take that more uncomfortable option. Having slept in less salubrious places Tara was more than willing to take the floor. She hadn’t even known that it was a sofa bed that she had in the living area. Handy. Coincidence? Or had the Mayor always intended the occupier to take in guests? Had someone else lived here before her? Someone who worked for him? Doing these things that she was being asked to do? And what had happened to them? Irrelevant really.
Especially as Tara had more than one visitor tonight. First the itch of the pendant, then a burn as she came closer and…
At the window a shape… a shape that she knew very well by now. A shape she had explored and memorised in detail. She didn’t turn her light back on. Just allowed Willow to exist in the shadows outside her room. The window was off the latch. Willow could get in if she wanted – long since invited. As long as she still had the charm – and Willow never, ever, took that off. For now, though, she seemed content to look in at Tara. As the vampire turned her head to something in the outside world her eyes flashed, and then she turned back fixated on the human in the bed once more.
Tara allowed her to look, not speaking for fear of disturbing Lilah. Not moving or posing. Not welcoming or dismissing. If her Willow wanted to enter then she could. As always it was her choice. It would always be her choice and Tara would never dare try to dictate anything other than that. Not out of fear that Willow might kill her, but out of fear that she might leave her alone. Alone again.
Willow had tied her so quickly. Tara knew that she
was bound to the vampire. At some deeper level. The place where the dreams came from – that was their connection. Whatever it was that was holding them together.
She had just assumed that Willow had received her message, a hastily scrawled note shoved under the door of this bedroom where Willow would have been resting in those daylight hours. With Lilah in tow how could she explain any more than that? She was just glad that Willow had chosen to accede to her request and had avoided the front door that she hated to use anyway.
Actually Tara had asked her not to come at all… but that was too much to hope for. And not even what she
really wanted anyway. They were tied so tightly that it seemed impossible to strain at the emotional ropes…
Finally the vampire stopped looking at her and reached through the window, lifted the latch that held it just open and stepped inside, sealing it behind her once more. Willow intended to stay then. Despite Lilah’s presence just meters and a door away, Tara couldn’t say that she wasn't glad. No matter what Willow was and what she did, Tara knew that she would always want her close by.
Whether she could continue to have her was the real question. And Lilah was one of those things that could bring matters to a head. If they were discovered. If Lilah told the Mayor, what then? Consorting with the enemy…
And not just any vampire this one. Willow was special to others as well as Tara. As one of her enemy’s favourites….
“You told me not to come Kitten.” Willow’s voice was low but not the whisper that Tara would have wanted – or the silence that there should have been.
“A-and you did anyway,” Tara told her. So Willow had known, and she was still here. Of course she was. What had she expected from the vampire when she left the note? She had sort of expected this. Or worse.
“Ready to play… the hunt was boring tonight. Nothing good out there for me.” Willow approached the bed where Tara lay.
And, wondered Tara, did good mean challenging? Tasty? Alluring and desirable? “Y-you shouldn’t have come,” Tara told her as she reached out and pressed a hand to Willow thigh, stroking the smooth, tight, leather.
“But you’re glad I did aren’t you Kitten?”
Tara stopped her movement as Willow sat on the bed beside her, and placed her hand on the vampire’s cool cheek. “You shouldn’t have come.” Her body was saying one thing. Her mouth another… and her heart… still another message there as it pounded in the vampire’s presence.
Willow leant over her and teased the hair away from Tara’s face looking in the darkness deep into Tara’s eyes. “But you’re glad that I did.” Not a question this time.
“Yes.” Tara confirmed. “I a-always am. You know that.”
Willow grinned, triumphant having got Tara to admit something, again, that should never have been. “I know and that is why you are mine Kitten. You know that I’m not good for you but you don’t care. It’s nice.” She moved her fingers into Tara’s hair and combed it through, rubbing the blonde’s scalp. Then sniffed the air, turning to the door. “Who is she? I can smell her…who is she Kitten? Tell Willow.” There was already jealousy in the voice.
“She works for the Mayor. She’s his lawyer.”
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Outside the door Lilah listened to the soft words that were being spoken. Willow Rosenberg was here, with Tara. Already. The idea itself filled Lilah with excitement. So soon! They were already involved and the project… the project was moving forward as it should. If ahead of schedule… Things couldn’t get much better than this. She thought about moving away, going back to her bed and just basking in the success that was sure to be hers as a result of this turn of events.
Credit for nothing…
But she wanted to hear this… she wanted to know what the vampire had planned for Tara. She wanted to know what Tara said about her too. She needed to know if the young woman, the young human, had started to trust her – or not. She thought that Tara had but… but it was sort of essential that she did, and that meant Lilah had to know – not just suspect. Even if it meant exposing herself, with no defences, to the wrath of the vampire. She would just have to trust in Tara to protect her from an unstable Willow.
Funnily enough Lilah did. Trust didn’t come easily to her, but it was there now.
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“Oooh the law… scary,” Willow said, distinctly unimpressed by the description that Tara had given her.
“She doesn’t work like other lawyers. She knows things. She does things. She’s dangerous… Willow,” Tara told her… trying to show the vampire why she must remain hidden from Lilah. But was the real reason that she just wanted to keep their relationship a secret? Was it that she feared the result of exposure to the Mayor’s lawyer?
Or was it that she wanted to keep Willow for herself? And be kept herself as a secret? Right now they were each hiding the other from the worlds in which they walked and Tara kind of liked that. It was sneaky… but it was the only way that things seemed like they could work. For some reason sneaky felt sort of good too.
“How dangerous will she be whilst I suck the marrow from her bones and squeeze the blood out of her heart onto your body so I can…” Willow swooped and pulled her tongue along Tara’s neck “… lick it from you?”
“Willow. No.” Tara insisted. Not a protest or a plea – just an instruction. There was no way that she was going to allow that to come to pass. No way. Lilah would be safe – here at least. There was no way…
No way unless Willow forced her to choose… but the vampire couldn’t know that. Willow couldn’t even know what that choice would be… how could she? Tara didn’t herself. But she did strongly suspect.
“No?” the other asked, a little surprise showing in her voice. Tara supposed that must be because her ‘Kitten’ had never really tried to restrict the vampire before. Not even when she had known that Willow was on her way to hunt and kill. Willow had to be wondering what the Kitten was doing protecting the lawyer?
“No.” Tara repeated the word firmly.
“No… you don’t want me to kill her or no you don’t want to play?” Willow insistently probed following on from the lick.
That… that was never something that Willow had subjected her to… exposure to the blood of the innocent as part of their ‘fun.’ It wasn’t somewhere Tara ever wanted to go and she didn’t like the threat. Even if Lilah seemed to lack the innocence by her own admission. Blood… big
no to blood. “She mustn’t even see you Willow.”
“Don’t worry, Kitten, I’ll snap her neck before she sees me,” Willow promised in the same voice that she always used when she was trying to taunt Tara. It was so like her normal voice though… who could tell? And was there just a twinge of something else there?
“Y-you mustn’t kill her Willow. The people she works for…” Willow just seemed pleased that Tara had not denied her all the fun… only the fun with Lilah. Tara had no desire to play that way… but where Willow was concerned desire was… a given. When the time came she would let Willow have her play. And she would delight in it along with her. But first she had to deflect the vampire from targeting Lilah or even allowing herself to be seen by the lawyer.
“They’ll what?” the vampire asked her, teasing at Tara’s chest and watching as the evidence of Tara’s desire started to heave and arise.
“They’ll t-take y-you away from me.” And that was the worst thing. She could think of killing Willow herself. The goddess knew that the vampire deserved it. They all did. But she… she was
Willow too. And though Tara might want to kill her, she never wanted to be away from this creature. Which meant that she never would.
“Never Kitten. They’ll never take me away again. Been away far too long.”
“Never,” Tara repeated.
“It’s for eternity.” Willow teased her, running her hand down to Tara’s smooth belly and under the sweat pants before reaching a silkier patch where it lingered and twirled.
“Eternity.” The very word filled Tara with dread. Forever. Good word. Always even better. She could imagine wanting this to be for always. But eternity. That was how Willow referred to herself sometimes. Eternal. One day, she knew, Willow would try to keep them together for eternity. By making her Kitten into what she despised and hated most in the entire world. It would be the only way that they could have eternity. Always would have done Tara nicely.
Always was enough.
Eternity was too much. Too far.
“And always…” Willow said, as if reading Tara’s mind, then moved her hand to that place that Tara physically felt her the most in these most physically intimate encounters causing her Kitten to give a tiny little cry of desire.
“Always?” Please Willow… Tara wanted to be told that the vampire meant always. She wanted to hear that more that a million times more than she wanted those fingers to continue to caress her. Not eternity… never eternity. Never that.
Willow turned away from her, hands still working, and looked at the door. And suddenly her smile shifted to one that reminded the Tara of the leer that Willow had showed her right at the start of their ‘fun’ together… A time that now seemed like a lifetime ago. A lifetime of desire, pleasure… affection and horror. To Tara’s mind Willow might have been considering the woman out there in the other room. The threat that Willow had made. Was Willow considering the taste of the lawyer’s blood in her mouth? Tara reached up and turned that pale face back to her. “No… not her Willow. Me.”
“Is she pretty Tara? Would I like her? Do you? Could I play?”
--------------
Lilah was acutely aware of her own vulnerability. She could hear every word though the thin barrier of the door… but she could see nothing. She could imagine though. Sights and thoughts that were going on in there. She could also hear every sound and it seemed clear as time passed that the vampire and the witch were getting more than simply intimate. That cry which she supposed was from Tara had been one of passion. Not fear or pain. Just passion.
They really were together in every way.
And stood here, covered only by her nightdress as she was, Lilah felt for the first time both the stirring of desire thinking of what might be occurring in there between those two and the effect of fear upon her. It was difficult to know which was making her shiver and which was keeping her there. The vampire had already threatened her… and she did not suppose that it would have a single reason to hold back on its threat. Unless Tara could persuade it. Her life was in Tara’s hands. Just as Tara seemed to be in Willow’s hands.
“Yes,” came the witch’s answer to the question. Though which part she was answering Lilah couldn’t know. All of them? Was she saying that Willow would enjoy torturing her? Was she saying that they got on well? Or that Tara “liked” her? That she was pretty?
Lilah knew that she could die tonight just for being here… but as she padded back to the foldout bed she was happy to think about a scenario in which Tara would sacrifice herself to the depredations of the vampire’s lusts in order to safeguard her. It appealed to her darker nature and gave her a feeling of power. She knew it wasn't true… it seemed clear that the vampire was in control and would just take what it wanted from the young witch anyway. There was no self-sacrifice going on in there. But it made for interesting dreams.
Dreams such as Lilah hadn’t had for a long, long time. And never with such subject a matter. It was almost as disquieting as the threat of imminent death. Still she slept well knowing, from the muffled sounds that emerged from the room, that the vampire was otherwise occupied and wouldn’t be coming out here to suck the marrow from her bones. She didn’t suppose that Tara would accept any thanks at all for that.
After all Tara seemed to be getting what she wanted right now.
A promise and a touch.
------------------
“So,” The Mayor started as he regarded Lilah the following morning, “We’ve got ourselves a courting couple have we?”
“I should say so,” Lilah told him with a self-satisfied smile, though ‘courting’ was not the word that she would have used. But he was an old fashioned sort of gentleman. She loved it when she was right… The Mayor had been convinced that ‘his’ Tara wasn’t seeing Willow Rosenberg. Or anyone else. He’d been wrong and she had been right. God that always felt so good.
Even if it was all happening a bit sooner than
anyone had anticipated. It wasn’t so long since Willow had been recalled from… well wherever it was that she had been.
“You know, Lilah,” he said after a moments consideration, “I’m not at all certain that I like what is happening here.”
“You helped us set it up sir,” she pointed out. He wasn’t the sort to get cold feet – but he was the sort to start feeling a loyalty to his staff. Everyone had flaws… as far as they went that was a small enough one.
“I know, I know… it’s just that my Tara is such a wonderful girl and now you tell me that she is involved with…” he tailed off and putted the golf ball.
“Another girl?” Lilah wondered.
“Oh no.” He smoothed his carpet with the putter and then turned back to her. “That was always going to be the case, no one had any illusions about that. I mean with a vampire. I just can’t see that going anywhere healthy. I can’t see it providing her with lasting happiness and then there is the sanitary issue – I mean sucking blood off so many different people... That has to be a health risk. But mostly I am looking to her future.”
“It could last her eternity,” Lilah reminded him, taking the putter and preparing to take a swing herself, adjusting her stance.
“No, these things never last… especially with a vampire. They aren’t the most stable of creatures you know – the personality gets messed up. Neither one thing or totally another.”
Lilah nodded, she had noticed that, then turned her attention back to the ball, the putter and the ‘hole.’
“They get so fascinated, sometimes for decades,” he told her, “but ultimately it is about the blood. One day that Miss Rosenberg, still so young and girlish – never growing up – will look at my Tara and see an eighty-year-old woman. If they get that far – and then she will lash out and Tara will be dead. I have to say that I’m not looking forward to that at all.”
Lilah thought about that. It certainly made a lot of sense given her own experience of vampires – and being Mayor of Sunnydale he had more reason to know that most. She took her shot and missed. “Your carpet pulls to the left,” she told him certain that her shot was on target.
“You have to compensate for that,” he replied and retrieved the ball to let her have another try. “It’s part of the fun.”
“You don’t think that they can be happy?” she asked him, concerned about the prophecy… the prophecy was quite clear on that point – but it had no upper or lower time limit. It didn’t say when they would be together – nor did it say if that would end. But the whole fate thing… surely that was a guarantee. It had better be a guarantee or this whole thing would be for nothing. This couldn’t be it already could it?
He watched her lining up the shot again. “A little to the right – and I don’t think that. We don’t even know if they are happy now… the young people today will leap into bed with anybody and anything pretty darn quickly. I despair sometimes, I really do. But I didn’t think my Tara was like that.”
As a woman who still, broadly, regarded herself as one of those young people Lilah wanted to disagree on behalf of her generation, but that wouldn’t be good politics now would it? “I don’t think that she is… you know the prophecy as well as I do Sir,” she told him.
“All I am saying,” he continued, “is that – as they are now – there can be little chance long term future… even if this Willow wasn’t a bloodthirsty creature of the night. Still it
was part of the arrangement – I knew that before we started. I just find myself, against all expectations, liking Tara so damn much. I want what is best for her and I intend to see that she gets it if at all possible. That might be this Willow… I sort of hope it is in one way – Tara deserves to be happy and it is fated.” He thought about it for a moment then repeated, “I just want what’s best for her – a good healthy future.”
“So does Wolfram and Hart. We want what is best for both of them… and yes, I like her too,” Lilah told him. One of those statements was a lie. She left him to figure out which it was. “Fore!”
***********
You hear that baby? I am going nowhere.
