Thralls

Title: Thralls, chapter 10
Disclaimer: ATS, BTVS are not and have never been mine.


Angel watched his thralls eating the steaks and eggs, toast and jam, downing orange juice and sliced fruit as if they had not eaten in weeks. Wesley apparently was feeling a similar amazement as he left his sausage, toast, eggs and tomatoes almost untouched in preference to watching the ravenous men devour the vast repast in front of them.

Angel felt a grim satisfaction as the food disappeared. Riley, the one from whom he had drained the most of everything, ate like a man on a mission, head down, knife and fork flashing. It was good to see him swallow the calories, replenishing his body and his fluids. Angel felt a surge of proprietary pride that he had given up on suppressing half an hour ago. His eyes sparked golden as he turned his attention away from Riley to focus on Xander.

Xander, was eating as well, concentrating with a single-minded-ness that made Angel smile, a slight quirk of his lips, lost in the brooding expression he wore. But, Wesley knew him well enough to see it. The former Watcher shivered. Angel was not...Angel right now, at least not the Angel Wesley was familiar with. Angel didn't look at anyone with that look in his eyes. He wasn't Angelus either, thank ghod. But, he was more intense, more frightening, downright scary, as he sat here in this bright windowed cafe, in the middle of the morning, in full sun, watching his....thralls, Lorne had called them, his blood-circle, eating.

Angel's eyes shifted to Graham as Wesley gave up on eating and merely observed his four table companions. Graham, in sharp contrast to the others, looked up and into the vampire's gaze as he continued chewing. The cool, assessing grey eyes met Angel's without flinching, they shared a long look, baffling Wesley, who only just managed not to blurt out his ten thousand questions.

There was only one question that mattered right now. Angel was out, in the light, and not burning to a pile of crisp, fluffy ash. How? That was what Wesley wanted to know. What Giles would ask of him. Because Giles was first on his list of people to call when he got back to the Hyperion. Hands down. Then Lorne. Because Lorne hadn't said this would happen, be possible at all. While he waited, Wesley sat and watched in this new, alternate reality, that allowed a vampire to walk around in daylight with impunity.

^^^^^^^^^

Buffy true to her calling was all for slaying when Giles managed to get her sitting down and explained what he had learned from Wesley. The rumors that Wesley had passed on to his fellow researcher, indicated that it was likely Willow, Tara, Anya, Dawn, and Jenny had been kidnapped and were part of this strange and doomed-from-the-start experiment.

Xander, Riley and Graham definitely were. They were in LA, with Angel, and, while they seemed to be safe, they were also Angel's thralls now. They could not be rescued, they could not be freed, or kidnapped, or stolen, or liberated...or any of the other words Buffy used.

Giles shook his head. "No. Buffy. There is nothing we can do. No one knows enough about blood-circles and thralls in general to predict what will happen. Except, that if a thrall is separated from his or her master, the thrall will die. No one has ever been successful keeping a thrall alive without it's master."

"We've run into unknown situations before," Buffy began angrily, anger was her response to everything lately. "And we have always come out on top. Why not now? Riley is mine!" She insisted hotly.

"Because it *is* Riley and Xander and Graham. And I don't think you or I can take having them die simply because we refused to consider the few facts that are known about thralls." Giles kept his voice controlled. "They have to stay with him. For now. If we can find out more, discover a cure, and it looks like we have a chance to save them...."

Buffy sprang to her feet. "I know that if I kill Angel, they will be free." She insisted. "I know it. I also know that Riley and Xander and Graham aren't going to want to live as thralls to any vamp. Xander *hates* Angel. He tried to kill him more than once. Xander is not going to want to live if it means that Angel *owns* him!"

Giles also stood. "No. Buffy don't do this....." he tried to touch her, but she stepped back, avoiding his outstretched hand. She backed up further, towards the door.

"I am going, with or without you. To LA. I have to do something. I have to try. I can't just let this go. I can't understand why Angel would agree to do this to them! I thought he was one of the good guys, now I can see just how wrong I was." Buffy ranted. "He has taken Riley from me. I know he was jealous, but he didn't have to do this. Why couldn't he stand to let me be happy for a while? Why did he have to take all of them? Why not just Xander and Graham? Why did he need Riley, too?"

"Buffy. Angel didn't start this. It is very clear that he is also a victim here. He has just done what he had to in order to survive and to keep the young men alive. They can't live without him. I am sure he wasn't any happier to find out what was happening than you or I." Giles tried to keep his voice calm, careful. Not lecturing.

"No. You are wrong, Giles. He had a choice, he could have called us for help. You forget, I know Angel. He could have resisted." She was stubbornly certain of her false facts. Giles sighed. Wrong, but sure she was right. He reached for his jacket.

"Let me lock up and then we'll head out." He said to his slayer. It was the work of only minutes to close the shop down and pocket the key. Then they were in his ancient Saab, and heading for LA. Not even a toothbrush packed. Giles knew Buffy was too impatient to allow reasonable and sensible planning or packing. He would have to buy what was needed when they arrived. If Angel didn't kill them first, before they even needed a toothbrush.

From the extensive reports of negative outcomes he'd read so far, Giles concluded newly joined masters and thralls weren't the most approachable group Giles could think of. He hoped they'd all survive the encounter. It would be a damn shame to have defeated hundreds of demons, vampires and other bad guys simply to be killed by someone they considered a friend and ally. At least that was how *he* felt about Angel. Buffy seemed to be nursing a huge grudge right now. A woman robbed of her lover. Not good for her perspective.

^^^^^^^^^^

Angel led the group back into the Hyperion. Wesley shied off at once, heading for the phone, and Angel made no comment. It was perfectly clear that Wesley was going to have to get in touch with his sources and figure out what was going on. All well and good, because Angel wasn't talking, and Wesley would be occupied and out of his hair for a time. He didn't know much, himself. And what he might know he wasn't going to share. Not right now. It was only going to upset everybody when they learned more. So in the interest of peace, Angel was going to let ignorance reign. As long as possible.

Right now the burn was back. Not the sunlight and vampire flesh kind of burn. Instead, it was the master vampire and thralls needing to get naked and bitten, licked, fucked and sucked kind of burn. He sighed. This thrall thing was cutting into his business. He couldn't work when he couldn't spend more than a few hours out of bed. But he couldn't do anything about it all, not yet. He had to wait until the bond was set, firmed, and settled. Then maybe...

They went, without protest, when he herded them up the stairs. Angel reflected on how he should handle this. He'd taken as much blood as was safe from Riley. Weakening the young man was not what he was shooting for. He knew that the ex-soldier's metabolism and recovery was no longer human slow. But it wasn't wise to push the envelope, not until he figured out for sure where the safe boundaries were. He grinned at that oddly foolish thought. Safety had little to do with taking thralls.

Xander was fucking terrified of the thought of Angel and sex being in the same sentence, the same room, the same bed, the same state. The reality might kill him, simply from pure panic. It might be better to take Graham this time, and prove to Xander that Riley's survival was not a freak accident. Conversely, the longer the younger man had to think about the situation and dread it, the higher his fear might go. If his heart rate climbed any higher, he was going to give himself a heart attack.

"Angel." The voice calling up the stairs after him set his nerves on edge. This was not the time he needed to talk to Cordelia. She and he got on well normally, he appreciated her blunt honesty. But now wasn't the time. He was barely rational right now, what with the aching need singing through his veins. He was about to turn and show her his full gameface, when he heard Doyle. The half demon was pulling on the woman's arm.

"Princess. Not now. I thought we'd agreed..." Doyle was hissing at her, a note of real concern bordering on alarm in his voice. She was huffing back at him. Outrage ringing in her tone.

"He is taking them upstairs, to his *room*, Doyle. Again. It isn't even noon." She complained. Angel didn't bother to wait for Doyle's reply to that. He rushed the other men into the suite of rooms he had claimed as his own. The door made a satisfying thump as he slammed it behind them, and turned the deadbolts.

Then, despite his best intentions, Angel seized the body nearest his own. Xander screamed.

ne'ichan
faestion1@yahoo.com