Chapter 25


For hours, Simone sat curled in on herself, her back pressed tightly against the wall in the corner as she watched the light chase shadows across the room as the day slowly crawled by. Across from her, Silas had finally given up trying to talk to her and instead shifted his concentration to the slowly shirking patch of shadow he was confined to. She was glad for the silence, as it allowed her to concentrate more completely on the strange occurrence that had stopped her from stepping into the sun.

Was she going mad? She knew without a doubt that Silas hadn’t been able to hear the voice. Yet when she’d tried to speak to it once more, all her attempts seem to have failed spectacularly. After a couple of hours of attempting to communicate with the voice inside her head, Simone had come to conclusion that she was either quite delusional or she had to be in some sort of danger for the voice to be heard. Neither option was terribly appealing, unfortunately.

Simone briefly glanced across the room at her former lover. Of course, nothing could be confirmed until Silas had been dealt with. She knew the second the sun set that he would be across the room before she could blink, trying to coax her back to his side with pretty apologies and promises he would no doubt break in the future. She needed him gone, allowing her the privacy she needed to speak to the voice once more.

“Simone?”

Simone fought the urge to roll her eyes and instead settled for a deep irritated sigh of frustration. Resolutely, she blocked out his voice. She had nothing to say to him and he could have nothing to say to her that she wanted to hear.

“Damn it, Simone! I am your sire and like it or not you will acknowledge me! I won’t put up with this insolence from you any longer!” Silas snarled, his patience finally wearing thin.

Slowly, Simone turned to look at him. He looked pathetic, squashed into the far corner of the room as he desperately tried to avoid the last rays of the dying sun. Despite that, she could feel her demon cowering away from his anger somewhere deep inside her. Like it or not, he was her elder and the oppressive weight of his demon’s signature against her skin only grew in the face of his anger. She had no doubt that if she continued to resist long enough he could easily overpower her and take the decision from her hands. Idly, she wondered what had stopped him from resorting to such measures to begin with; clearly all that mattered to Silas was what Silas wanted.

“I’m sorry. It’s just so much to take in,” she said softly, her voice barely more than a broken whisper, her eyes downcast in submission that wasn’t entirely faked. “I need some time, Silas.”

Silas’ eyes immediately softened, the anger leaving his face almost entirely. “I know, beloved. I didn’t think it would be like this, but we’ll work through it. I promise.”

Simone shook her head.

“No. I need some time alone,” she clarified gently, careful to keep her voice soft and docile, not wanting to provoke her vampire elder when she’d already pushed him so far. If she was going to figure things out, then she was going to have to convince him to give her the space to do it. But she knew Silas. She knew the way he thought, the way he worked, the way he lived, and she knew that all she had to do to get what she wanted was to let him think he’d won and then guilt him into giving it to her.

Silas frowned. “I’m not sure that is such a good idea, my love. I don’t want anything to happen to you. You almost walked into the sun...”

“I promise.” She pressed on quietly, throwing his own words back in his face, “I won’t do anything rash. I was upset before, but I’m okay now—or I will be after I’ve had some time to sort through things. Alone.”

Silas watched her closely, the indecision on his face was easy to read, but her words stopped him from refusing her outright. He knew he was close to losing her, and so soon after he finally had her once more. He didn’t want to force her to take her place at his side, but he would if that’s what it came down to. Until then, however, he would give her the space she needed to come to the right decision.

“Okay.”

Simone smiled at him beautifully and Silas felt his heart lighten.

“Thank you.”


*****


Spike could smell blood.

Hunger pulsed through him hotly, and before he was even aware of what he was doing his demon’s guise had burst across his face and he inhaled deeply. The smell was like none other. The thick rich scent assaulted his nostrils and his demon growled deeply with a deep all consuming hunger.

“That’s it, childe,” a deep voice rumbled softly through his semiconscious mind. “Drink up.”

A drip on his lips—something warm and thick—and suddenly his mouth had latched on to a pale wrist drinking in deep pulls of the rich, powerful substance: sire’s blood. It tasted of both family and home. It was a reaffirmation of belonging and gave a sense of comfort that nothing else could offer. Above all, though, it was a gift of healing.

Spike sucked on the wound greedily to pull long heady mouthfuls of blood into his mouth, each swallow healing the damage Silas had inflicted.

“He’s taking a lot,” a soft feminine voice murmured to his right.

“He needs it,” his sire responded in kind. “I thought Silas had taken too much. We cut things too close, Darla. I didn’t think we’d make it back to the mansion in time, and then when he wasn’t drinking…”

“I know. I’m just glad Dru knew we were coming.” A beat of silence passed between the two. “That’s enough for now, Angelus.”

Spike whimpered as the wrist was gently extracted from his mouth, only to be replaced quickly with a smaller wrist, a warmer one. He bit down without hesitation. The thick taste of warm human blood blossomed into his mouth and Spike moaned in ecstasy.

“Watch him and see that he doesn’t take too much,” his sire’s voice instructed quietly. “When he’d done with this one, bring in the next donor. You’ll know when he’s taken his fill.”

Spike barely registered the sound of his sire leaving the room; instead his focus remained firmly fixed on the soft warm wrist at his mouth. Gradually he drank until his stomach was fully sated and he fell into a healing sleep, thoughts of Buffy and Silas plaguing his mind as his body slowly began to heal itself.


*****


Dawn felt like her world was slowly but surely imploding around her. Truthfully she didn’t know how much more she could take. The thought of her sister with that monster, the thought that they might not get her back.… Even Darla and Angelus didn’t know what to do; she could see it in their eyes. Spike, Angelus and Christian had faced Silas down and now Angel could barely walk, the tendon in his ankle barely knitted back together from the blood Darla had given him, and Spike had practically been dusted.

Dawn scowled at the vampire sitting across from her. Christian. What a stupid name for a vampire. How that bastard had managed to come out completely unscathed she could only just imagine. She didn’t care what Darla said, that blood oath he’d taken was a crock of shit. It was hardly coincidental that he was the only one to walk out without a scratch on him, not to mention the fact that he’d simply let his sire walk away with her sister. She wanted to smack the smile right off his face.

“You’re worried about your sister,” Christian stated casually, his voice cutting through the tense silence.

“No shit,” Dawn snapped back, turning her gaze away from him as she wished she could turn her back on him.

“Don’t be. Silas is strong, yes, but if he has one downfall it’s magic and ritual. He doesn’t understand the complexities of it,” Christian explained. “Your sister’s Sire mentioned he had a witch working with them. If she knows her craft, as I’m sure she does, then I doubt Buffy’s situation will pose much of a problem once they’ve worked out the semantics.”

Dawn rolled her eyes, “You’re forgetting the fact that nobody seems to know what it is your butt ugly Sire did to her.”

Christian chuckled at her comment. It made Dawn see red.

“You’re so…spirited,” Christian grinned.

“And you’re such an arsehole. Leave me alone,” Dawn bit out.

“Is he bothering you, my sweet?” A melodic voice interrupted.

Dawn looked up to see Dru standing just off from them swaying lightly from side to side as she danced to music only she could hear. Dawn smiled welcomingly at the insane vampire. She liked Dru. There was something about the tall, willowy vampire that was different from the rest of the vampires Dawn had met since coming to Sunnydale—aside from the obvious that is. She knew Dru could be just as vicious a killer as the next, if she wanted to be—perhaps even more so without the necessary faculties available to her to temper her attack—yet there was a delicateness about her that the other’s seem to lack. Dru still looked breakable.

“Totally,” Dawn agreed emphatically, shooting a glare across the room at Christian. The other vamp was frowning up a Dru unwelcomingly, but he looked up to smile at Dawn as she looked across at him.

“Naughty,” Dru growled playfully at Christian as she swept by him to take a seat next to Dawn. “Wanting to turn our sunshine into night. Bad, doggy. The sunshine is not yours to take.”

Christian scowled at her in apprehensive distaste. He’d never liked Dru. Her mindless babbling freaked him out in the worst kind of way. Why Angelus had kept her as a childe was beyond him.

“What do you mean, Dru?” Dawn asked, worried that she was talking about Buffy. She knew Christian was up to something!

Dru smiled at her mysteriously, “The pixies are whispering to me.”

Dawn sighed heavily.

“They telling you you’re loony?” Christian asked sarcastically.

Dawn snorted, “No, they’re telling her you are.”

Dru hummed quietly to herself. “Old and new are all mixed up. It’s ever so confusing. Lamb to the wolf and the wolf to the lamb, back to front, which way is up?”

Dawn frowned in confusion, trying to force the words into making some sense. “I… don’t understand.”

Christian snorted. “Oh, and you were meant to? I’m sorry; here I was thinking she was babbling nonsense again! How stupid of me!”

“Glad we can agree on something,” Dawn shot at him.

Dru smiled and patted Dawn on the head. “Would you like to come for a tea party? Miss Edith is ever so anxious to meet you.”

Dawn smiled. “Sure. Anything to get away from leech-boy over here.”


*****


Angelus hobbled down the hallway to their room slowly. His weight was resting almost entirely on Darla’s shoulders and not for the first time in his long existence, he found himself eternally grateful for her strength.

Making their way into the room slowly, he hopped his way over to the bed and collapsed face down with a dramatic sigh. His muscles were tense and tightly bunched; his neck and shoulders aching from the stress of the past few days. His ankle was still throbbing dully, though most of the pain had diminished as the tissue began to re-knit itself.

Quietly, Darla shut the door behind them and made her way over to the bed. Gently she reached down and slipped Angel’s shoes from his feet, before crawling up the bed to straddle his hips. Hiking his shirt up, she began to run her hands across his back in broad soothing strokes, her fingers finding all the knots in his back and working them until they loosened. Angelus moaned in pleasure as he felt his muscles slowly start to relax, the tension draining out of him like water.

“Feel good?” Darla asked with a smile.

Angelus nodded mutely.

It felt like heaven. It was just what he needed to put things back in order—realign his focus. As much as he didn’t want to admit it, their encounter with Silas had shaken him. He hadn’t expected to be able to beat him face to face, and he felt no shame at their defeat. Yet, the sheer strength and brutality of his attack had thrown him. Not to mention, it was considered more than just bad form for a vamp to kill another vamp by draining them dry. Buffy had done it, but she’d not been in full control and had yet to learn better. Silas on the other hand knew exactly what he’d been doing, and yet it hadn’t stopped him from damned near dusting Spike all the same. Spike had been barely clinging on to what was left of his existence by the time they’d made it back to the mansion.

It had been far, far too close.

“Stop. I can feel you tensing up underneath me again,” Darla scolded lightly.

Angelus shook his head. “I can’t. It was close today, Darla.”

“Too close,” she agreed softly, leaning forward and rolling off him so she was spooned against his side.

“I don’t know what to do. We can’t face him down like that again, there is no way we would survive it. But Buffy…I have no idea what he’s done to her, but I refuse to just let him get away with it. She’s my childe.”

“I know,” Darla soothed, pressing a comforting kiss into his shoulder.

“What if it’s too much, though? What if we can’t get her back?” Angelus asked, untangling himself and rolling onto his back so he could pull his mate into his arms, needing the reassurance of her body pressed against his. She settled into his side with an ease borne of centuries sleeping together.

“Thinking like that will get us nowhere. Whatever he did, it was done with magic. First thing tomorrow night we’ll talk to the witch and see what she can do about it. We’ll never win if we take this head on, but we might have a chance if we work at unravelling his plans from behind him.” Darla told him matter-of-factly. “We chose to welcome Buffy into the Order because she was strong, and so was her demon. She’s been through a lot already, but she’s strong enough to hold out.”

Angelus nodded broodingly. A stretch of silence passed between them comfortably. There was little more Darla could say, and she wasn’t in the habit of coddling him. There was little that could truly be done at this stage. Until they knew more about what Silas had done to their childe, their hands were tied. Angelus knew that, and she knew once he got done sorting through things in his head he’d come good again.

“One way or another, we’ll see that bastard fry,” Angelus muttered darkly, breaking the silence that had hung between them.

Darla smirked. “Oh, we’ll see him more that fry, my love.”

Angelus grinned slowly, his confidence restored for the moment. Moving at speeds too quick for the human eye to see, he hand her underneath him, his lips fastened tightly over hers.

“Tell me more,” He growled against her mouth.

Darla laughed. Yes, her man was back.


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AN: Woot! I finished my last ever nursing placement today! Two assignments to go and I'm finished uni!

*bounces around excitedly*

Anyway, just a little peek into what's going on with everyone in the aftermath of the last chapter. I hope it was worth the wait :) Let me know what you think...

Thanks to Slackerace for the beta, and to everyone whose been reviewing!