Chapter 21



Christian’s nerves were racing. He knew that if his heart was still able to beat, it would be pounding under the onslaught of adrenaline that was racing its way through his body. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with unneeded air before letting it out in a whoosh. It was a habit—a calming ritual he had picked up from the humans he had lived amongst over the centuries. It did nothing for him physically, but mentally it helped him prepare himself and allowed him to think more clearly—and hell, did he need to be sure he was thinking clearly. There was no going back after this, regret would be too mild of a word for what he would feel if later he found that he had made the most colossal mistake of his existence.

Christian ran an anxious hand through his hair as his mind raced over what he was about to do for the thousandth time. It flew in the face of everything he had ever known, and went against everything he had stood for since the night of his turning. The confidence that he usually wrapped around himself was absent. Everything of any importance that had happened in his existence had possessed a known outcome. He had known where he would end up when things had settled and that knowledge had given him the assurance he had needed to carry him through. Now he was standing out on a limb, in the dark and with nothing to hold onto if he fell.

The Aurelius mansion loomed in the distance, both a symbol of hope and something more foreboding that seemed to sit unmoving in the centre of his stomach making him regret his last feeding. Even his apprehension wasn’t enough to turn him away from the prize it offered, however, because his hope for something more far out shone the negative.

All his existence he had followed Silas, his master and sire. His own wants and desires had come second; the notion of making a childe had been out of the question, though it had been a subject that Christian had raised more than once. Buffy had made him see what he had been missing. Her interactions with Angelus had made him realise what it really meant to have a childe of his own, and he wanted it more than ever.

Christian had always believed that there would be time later to do the things he had always wanted to do. That once Silas had found Simone, he’d be free to carry on with his own existence. But nearly four hundred years after his turning, he was beginning to realise that Silas’s obsession wasn’t ever going to end. They had been so close so many times, and each time he had come that much closer to freedom, yet things never worked out. Things with Silas and Simone weren’t meant to work out.

Christian wanted things. He wanted things he was never going to get as long as he was Silas’s right hand man. He wanted a childe. If nothing else, in time, he knew he’d be free to do what he wanted with the Aurelians. That freedom had never been an option with Silas and never would be.

The faint buzz of a motor reached his ears and he readied himself for the confrontation that was about to occur. A spear of doubt lanced through him viciously before he ruthlessly shoved it aside. He would carry through with it, this was what he wanted.


*****


“You’re stupid. I’ve always thought you were, you know,” Angelus said to his childe as he climbed out of the car and slammed its door shut behind him. “It is going to take more than just one of us walking in, pilfering an item and walking out again. It’s a vault for fuck’s sake, it’s got protective shields surrounding it that are as thick as your God damned skull!”

A small frustrated growl escaped Spike’s mouth as he slammed his own car door shut harshly. “I know that, you git. It was a suggestion—the only one we’ve heard thus far, I might add. I don’t hear you coming up with any bright ideas.”

“That’s because I’m having trouble getting over the fact that you even contemplated breaking into the vault,” Angelus spat out condescendingly.

Spike smirked nastily at his sire. “Well, you always have had trouble getting over things, haven’t you?”

Angelus snarled and Spike suddenly found himself backed up against the car with his sire’s hand gripped tightly around his throat. “You’d do well to remember your place, childe.”

“Can’t handle the truth?” Spike forced out of his nearly crushed throat.

Angelus’ vicious growl was cut off abruptly as his sire’s voice cut through their bickering.

“Boys,” Darla cut in firmly. “You can play later. It appears we have company,” she finished in a pleasant tone as she turned to face their guest.

Sneering, Angelus gave one final harsh squeeze before forcefully dropping his hand from Spike’s throat, and all three vampires turned to watch as a figure made its way towards them from beneath the shadows cast by the front gate.

Spike arched an eyebrow as Christian slowly emerged from the darkness. He looked shorter, less cocky somehow, and although he hid it well, apprehension clung to his every movement.

“To what occasion,” Angelus began easily as he watched Christian’s approach intently, “do we owe the honour of your company tonight, might I ask?”

Christian stilled several feet away from them and watched with some small quirk of amusement as they discreetly positioned themselves so that they were each protecting one another.

“I’m not here on business,” Christian intoned flatly.

Darla gave a soft laughed as she looked at him with an air of superiority and a smirk firmly planted across her face. “Pleasure, then? I was unaware the two were separate entities for you.”

Christian ignored the comment. “Silas doesn’t know I’m here. He believes I’m out looking for Buffy.”

“So that’s not why you’re here then,” Spike asked sarcastically, “to look for Buffy?”

Christian shook his head. “No, that’s not why I’m here. I’m here because I want out. I’m sick of being a slave to Silas’s crazy obsessions, and never being allowed to be a slave to my own. But I know that if I turn from Silas then I’ll be exiled from my own clan,” Christian trailed off.

“So you came to us,” Darla stated. “How sweet, coming to your enemy for help. What makes you think we’ll do anything to help you?”

“I can offer you all the information you need on Silas and his obsession with Simone. I know more than anyone else in the clan, and I know what he plans to do with Buffy,” Christian stated, looking them each in the eye.

“You want to exchange knowledge for our protection from you clan? Why not keep your knowledge and try to make it on your own?” Angelus asked.

“I don’t want your protection, I want your help. Either way, this needs to end and Silas needs to die. He’ll hunt me down regardless of where I go and before I take off I want to make damn sure that I don’t have an ancient on my tail,” Christian replied truthfully. “He may be weak and emaciated from self-neglect at the moment, but now that he’s found Buffy he’ll start feeding regularly again. It’s almost ritualistic, human victims only rather than just blood donors to help speed his recovery. Before long he will be returned to what he once was and then it’ll take more than just the four of us to even attempt to bring him down.”

“Why is he so bent on having Buffy for his own?” Angelus asked, pushing aside his animosity for the vampire before him in the face of the knowledge he was being given.

Christian chuckled. “Uh-uh, not until I know that I have your word that you’ll help work with me to bring Silas down.”

There was a weighted silence as each of them considered their options.

Darla was the first to speak. “We will require a blood oath that binds you to us and prevents you from working against us until Silas is dead and your word that what you speak is truth and not some ploy to get at what doesn’t belong to you or to sabotage our own plans to keep Buffy safe.”

“If that’s what it takes,” Christian agreed. “Now?”

Darla nodded. Together—their movements almost synchronised—they each struck, sinking their incisors harshly into the palm of their own right hand, causing blood to blossom from the wounds. Darla held her hand out and Christian grasped it firmly with his own, their blood mingling in the centre.

“Your oath to Aurelius,” she said firmly.

“My word in blood,” Christian replied in a strong voice, his eyes never wavering under the weight of her gaze.

A small growl was torn from his lips as the oath was completed and he pulled his hand away to inspect the small branding left in the centre of his palm. The Aurelian Crest.

“Looks like you’re with us now, Chris,” Spike said, with a smirk firmly planted across his face.

Christian snarled at him.

Spike laughed. “Now, now. It’s not nice to growl at your allies.”

Angelus clapped a heavy hand down on his childe’s shoulder. “Looks like a better idea came up after all, Spikey. No need to break into the vault now, is there? Christian here has all the information we’ll need.”

“Shove off, Peaches,” Spike said as he shrugged off his sire’s hand. “It was still more than I heard you coming up with.”

Angelus growled but let the comment slide. “Come on, we should be getting back to Giles’s apartment since there is nothing here that we need.”

“I thought I’d take the Nibblet back with us. Buffy hasn’t seen her since that night she was taken.” Spike shot a glare in Christian’s direction.

“Be quick,” Angelus said, even as Spike broke away from their small group to head inside.


*****


Giles was elbows deep in research papers and texts when he heard someone knock on his front door. So used to keeping nocturnal hours due to his vampire companions, it didn’t even register that it was too late for someone to be visiting. The only thought that occurred to him was perhaps Angelus, Darla and Spike had been unsuccessful in their bid to retrieve something from the vault at the mansion and instead decided to return to help continue research on the elusive Silas and his childe Simone.

Draining the remaining liquid from what was once a glass of scotch, Giles pushed himself to his feet wearily and made his way to the door. He was surprised to see a young man on the other side when he opened it.

“Uh, hello,” Giles said warily as he pushed his glasses further onto his face so he could get a better look at the man standing before him.

“Hi, I’m Riley Finn,” the man said, holding out his hand to the ex-Watcher who ignored it and continued to stare at the man before him. Riley nodded and dropped his hand awkwardly before continuing with a friendly smile. “I was wondering if Buffy was here?”

“Buffy?” Giles asked, feigning ignorance to the name.

“Buffy Summers?” Riley elaborated.

Giles frowned. “Why do you ask?”

An apologetic look spread over Riley’s face. “Oh, I’m sorry. I assumed she would have mentioned me. I’m the guy that helped her get away the other night. I, ah, overheard her saying on the phone that she was heading to a Mr. Giles’s place before Spike came and got her. I just wanted to check on her and see if she was alright.”

Giles just stared at the man before him. “Are you aware that it’s one—”

Giles cut himself off mid speech as he heard Buffy enter the room, knowing that the man before him knew there was someone else there too.

“Riley?” Giles heard Buffy asked in confusion from somewhere behind him.

Giles wanted to cringe, knowing that his story had been blown before he realised the friendly, if not a little confused, tone in which Buffy had addressed the man.

“Riley, what are you doing here?” Buffy asked again.

Sighing and realising the game was up, but feeling better knowing that Buffy knew the man before him, Giles turned his attention back to Riley who was trying to see past both him and the door by raising himself up onto his toes so he could peer over the ex-Watcher’s head.

“Buffy, hi, how are you?” Riley replied with a bright smile.

Sighing again, Giles stepped back from the door so the man could see in. “Please, forgive my suspicion, it’s been a long few days,” Giles said with a tired but friendly smile. “Won’t you come in.”


AN: I want to apologise to everyone for my erratic updating schedule and the long delays that are sometimes between chapters. Thank you to you all for your patience. I promise that I am trying my hardest to find time to write and get each chapter posted.

Also, thank you to Andrea for beta’ing my work, and to everyone who has reviewed so far :D Hope you all enjoyed the chapter…