Once It Begins

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Beta'ed by my precious Joolz.
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10 Caught

“Do you hear that?” Spike asks vamping out. He doesn’t need a reply from Angel, the *nervousworryanxiety* coming through the link is enough.
“Just one human.” Angel comments nevertheless and grips Spike’s collar, stopping him from rushing into the mansion. Spike snarls at Angel, on edge with concern for creation.
“I. Have. To. Go. In. There. NOW!” The restrained vampire growls.
“I. Know.” Angel answers, using his sire voice in an attempt to calm his instinct driven childe down. Spike takes a deep breath and… tries to break away once more, without success. “Sire!” he pleads.
“I’ll go first, you follow. No tricks.” Angel orders and lets go of Spike’s duster after the blond nods his agreement. ~ …chipchipchipchip… ~ His thoughts circle again and he knows without Angel he is as helpless as a kitten if he has to defend his childe and himself against one ~ bloody ~ human.

Silently the two vampires move inside the hall, pausing only for a second on the beginning of the staircase to reach out with their heightened senses, detecting no other being in close proximity.
One of the stairs creaks under Spike’s weight and he flinches, cursing his lack of concentration. Angel turns his head and looks at the other Master vampire with a cocked eyebrow, mocking him with a challenging look. ~Bloody poof!~ Spike thinks, and they complete the ascent noiselessly.

Stephen stops rocking back and forth when he hears the old wooden stairs creak.
From his corner, he watches the bleached blond when he steps into the room. A familiar but unfamiliar pattern starts in his head, he does not only look at the other man, he registers. Size, weight, build, possible strengths and weaknesses. Comparing them to himself and figuring out some kind of possibility to win against him. Then his immaturity takes over again and he thinks "Crazy hair for an officer.." just before the tingle of warning… or recognition… starts in his neck. The face drenched in silver white moonlight jerks in his direction and glowing yellow eyes… wait a mo… stare at him unblinkingly, a low warning snarl escaping the slender throat. Goosebumps tickle up his spine and if he wasn't trembling so hard as to make his teeth nearly rattle the other may have been able to detect the bone deep shudder going through the boy.

Another man, bulky in his appearance, dark where the other is light, enters the room and Stephen fixes his eyes on him… what the fuck? The tingle in the back of his neck is so insistent now it feels like knives slicing through his skin.

Angel comes to a complete stop as soon as his eyes meet the ones of his son. ~ Connor? Connor here? Why? What? connornonoherenono… ~

~ coldcoldcold
heartbeat… thumpthumpthump… not right.
not supposed to be here. heartbeat's not supposed to… what?
hunger hunger hungerhungerhunger
smells overwhelming him, hurting him…
panic sweet but…
hungerhunger..
decayed rotten musty old not like…
frustration bitter.
and thumpthumpthumpthump… getting on his nerves… thumthumthumthumthum…
don't like don't like dontlikedontlikeDONTLIKE
hungryhungry… sire? sire? siresirehungrysire… ~

The form on the bed moans and for the first time, the link opens ~ siresirehungrysire ~ slamming through it. Spike's complete attention is on his childe now. He makes to go over to him but is stopped by the youth nearly flying across the room and barring his way.

"Bugger off!" Spike growls, full vamp visage inches from Stephen's face. His heart is pounding so hard in his chest, that at any other time, Spike would have liked to rip it out of his chest to see its last furious hammering in his hand but now it's all chipchipchip… sending blue lightning bolts for the thought alone.. Ignoring it, he leans in more, intruding into Stephen's personal space mercilessly, trying to impress, try to bluff his way to his childe.

"No!" Stephen grits out and tries to make himself look bigger, pushing his chest out and dragging his shoulders back. "Show me your BADGE!"

"Badge?" Spike spits unbelievingly.

"Yeah you know… cops have…"

"Cops?" Spike asks, frowning and raises his hand to just push the weird youth out of his way but Angel moves with unexpected speed, tagging Spikes arms behind his back painfully. "Don't you dare touch him!" Angel yells and Stephen jumps back, shocked by the loudness and determination in the voice, and yes this one has the monster face too.

~ Master vampire – Sire ~ Spike's demon acknowledges and he keeps still for a second, waiting for Angel to… do anything but Angel doesn't, can't. He is still almost immobilized by the sudden appearance of his son, his mind following loop after loop of thoughts, coming up with nothing.

The figure on the bed *siresirehungrysire* moans and nothing matters for Spike anymore. *My childe. Mine. Coming. Coming.* He struggles to get free and is on the bed, hugging Xander to him in the next second. *here now. safe.*
*siresirehungrysirecoldcoldsire*

Angel and Stephen just look at the reunion, different emotions playing over their features. Angel gets a hint of what goes on on Spike's side of the link, inwardly smiling to himself.

"I thought he was dead." Stephen murmurs, voice strangely high, and Angel feels alarm bells going off in his head. He turns to his only alive offspring, eyebrow raised in question. "I came here" Stephen pants, panicking. "and found him and I thought he was dead and I called the cops 'cause that's what they tell you. If you witness a crime or something you have to call them… have to call the cops… they fix it… somehow…"

Inwardly Angel groans and when he hears the faint sound of sirens he knows he has to do something.

*** *** ***

"Dru suddenly squeals and laughs, singing something about dead kittens awakening and a new daddy. It triggers a fuzzy memory in Giles' brain but he can't get it clear and shoves it away for now.

*** *** ***

Stephen cocks his head to the side and his face brightens up. "They are coming!" He yells excitedly. "They are coming! I'll go down and guide them up, I'll go and wait for them!" He says and makes a dash to the door but Angel stops him with a hand on his wrist and yanks him back. Instinctively Stephen turns out of the half embrace and jerks his arm up, his elbow connecting hard with Angel's jaw, making the head fly back. Golden eyes flash in the half dark and Angel roars at the struggling youth. "Lemme go, I have to get down and sorry maout out that, wasn't meant, just lemme go, they'll know what to…"
"No, you'll do what I…"
"Fuck off. Lemme go." Stephen's knee comes up and Angel avoids that but then the heel of Stephen's docs connects with his left toes and Angel howls in pain. Angelus rips to the surface, unusually upset by this respectless behavior of one of his and he curses and barks at the youth to “keep the fuck still!"

*loudloudloud don'tlike don'tlike*
*alright safe here, all safe here hush, childe*
*hungrycoldhungrysirecoldhungry*
*soon childe. open your eyes first, will you childe?*

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Stephen screams right back and finally Angelus and Angel lose their temper and Stephen is knocked out with one well placed, controlled right hook to the temple. The dark vampire catches him and looks around helplessly.
~ Wonderful Angel. And now? ~ he asks himself.
"Spike!" He hisses. "We have to get going!"
After a long moment of no response from the blond, Angel repeats his command in sire's voice and Spike manages to look up.
"How the bloody hell do you want to 'get going'?" He spits at his sire, his eyes pointing at his childe's slumped, still unconscious form against his chest.
"Fuck, we just…" He trails off when the sirens' sound is fullfully loud and car doors are opened and slammed shut. "We just have to… the window! Open the window."
Spike growls.
"What do you think they'll do if they" Angel nods in the direction of the door. "get here? Finding you with a dead man in your lap?"
Spike growls but gets up, carefully laying Xander down on the bed again. He opens the window and looks down. Two storeys, about fifteen feet down. Bloody hell.
"How are you…"
"I'll go down, you throw them, I'll catch them."
"Them?"
"He has to come too." Angel tightens his grip on the limp body.
"And why the hell *does* he hto cto come too?"
Opening his mouth to explain, Angel decides against it and just scratches a fingernail over the boy’s neck, a bit of blood wells up and he scoops it on his fingertip, pressing it urgently against Spike's lips which – trustingly – open up, as if one hundred years of estrangement never happened.

When the taste of fresh blood hits Spike's tongue and fills his senses he recognizes it instantly. *bloodchilde* slams so hard through the link that Xander and Angel groan.
"Why can't I catch them?" Spike asks still staring disbelievingly and in awe at his sire.
"Because your chip will fry your brain right after you caught Connor."

"This is the Police! Is anybody up there???"

Both vampires leap into action and Spike takes Connor from Angel's arms, handling him as if he is a fragile piece of glass.
*sirecoldhungrysireSIRE*
*safe. soon. hold on.* Spike sends back, trying to calm the nearly thrashing childe on the bed. Not long now ‘til he wakes up completely.

"S.P.D.! Are you upstairs? We are coming up now!"

Angel is out of the window and waiting with wide open arms for the first … to be thrown down. Spike looks down, one knee on the window sill for balance and with a nod he lets Connor fall. The chip doesn't give a twinge. Glad, Spike hurries to turn around and grab his childe. He strokes the contorting face, somewhere between death and human and vampire, *coldsirecoldhungrysirehungry* kisses his childe's forehead and then leans out of the window and *soon. safe. all safe.* lets him fall.

Angel catches him easily, hugging the trembling body to his chest, gaze fixed on the rippling face, again fascinated by the gorgeous transformation of a first change, on half parted lips through which he can see the fangs grow and gleam virgin white. Eyelids flutter and orange-golden orbs focus on his. "Sire?"

***

Tell me I'm evil?!