Mirror, Mirror

Mirror, Mirror
Chapter 10.
AddictedtoBuffy: Considering all the sequels I have already promised and my currently load of WIPs I cannot promise a sequel to this one. The ending is already written and there will be a lot left unanswered so people are certainly welcome to come play in this AU. I totally sympathize with your first story still being unwritten. I’ve had to learn to pick an ending and write towards it, otherwise I never end. Good luck. Ethan won’t make it into this story but Angel and Riley finally reunite below. Thank you for the continued support!
~*~

The suite of rooms Riley was shown to were as opulent as the rest of the place though obvious efforts had been made to personalize it to him in a short time. Salem’s colors were white, light blue and silver and he could see those colors in the decoration scheme, even in some of the clothing he found in the pine wood armoire. Not surprisingly, everything was in his size. Narcissa, his mè’re, seemed like a woman who obsessed on the details. It actually touched him to see some small attempt to help him feel like he belonged here.

He sprawled out on the king sized bed, silver dragons winking at him from the blue and white stripped coverlet and the overhead canopy. The revelations of the last several hours came crashing down and he groaned at the headache that bloomed between his eyes. Sweet Morgaine, he’d actually found his father, the man he’d never seen pictures of or even known his name before today. He’d resigned himself to having to pry his father’s identity from his mother on her deathbed, for certain she’d not tell him a minute before. And now the man had found him and seemed to want him as a son. A father and a second mother. A little brother. Cursed to a vampire he was actually growing attached to and now kidnapped by his long lost father. Angel must being going mad. The blond yanked at his long braid, wrestling with his worry for the man. What would happen to Angel if he couldn’t get back to him? His thoughts chased one another and he zoned out watching the silver dragons sensuously dance over his head, trying to think of a way to appease his newly found parents and ensure Angel’s safety.

The sudden, loud ‘pop’ of a house elf’s arrival startled him upright. Had he fallen asleep? What time was it? “Master Cygnus!” Nobby wrung its hands, little body shivering as it balanced on the plush mattress near his knee. “There’s people calling for Master Cygnus downstairs! A Dark Creature is with them, making Lord Malfoy most unhappy! Most, most, most, most unhappy!”

“Angel!” Riley rolled off the bed and slipped out the door, distantly relieved to discover it hadn’t been locked from the outside. He raced down the maze of hallways, retracing the path his parents had earlier led him on, following the faint sounds of voices and an internal pull he knew as their curse. It was leading him back to the vampire, a small ache in his abdomen that steadily grew into a feverish heat.

He staggered against the wall, knees almost buckling as he panted for air. They must have gone too long without satisfying the bond, it was raging inside of him, worse than anything he had ever felt. Angel had to be close because he couldn’t go much farther. Gathering the scattered remnants of his control the blond straightened up and shoved through the nearest set of doors.

Bursting out onto a landing overlooking what must be the front foyer by the two story double doors that had been thrown open Riley took in everything he could. His Muggle friends, Giles and three wizards he didn’t know were ranged out below staring up at him mouth agape, including Angel. Riley felt his chest loosen to see the vampire in one piece and he grinned.

“Angel!” The grim faced brunette’s eyes narrowed in confusion at the first sight of him, but then they widened in recognition. His reaction was echoed by the others but Riley didn’t see anything but the hand Angel held out, demand clear even though Riley was too far up to hear him. How big was this place anyway? Was he hallucinating standing at least three stories up from the floor? It took more will than he thought he had to drag his eyes from Angel’s, looking to see the start of stairs that dropped quickly out of his vision at the end of the landing. Okay, stairs and then vampire, and then this stupid heat that was making everything wonky would stop.

His rush to the stairs was abruptly brought up short, however, by the impossibly strong grip on his arm. Lucius pressed in close behind him, wand unwaveringly aimed at the intruders below. Craning his neck around Riley saw Narcissa standing at the opposite end of the landing, wand out and covering the wizards with a decidedly unfriendly expression.

“Severus,” Narcissa hissed, “please explain to me why I shouldn’t crucio you along with the rest of these interlopers?”

“Oh, don’t think to spare me your affections, ‘Cissa,” the wizard standing next to Giles drawled. “As I’ve obviously completely lost my mind a little excruciating torture may be just the thing.”

“Snape,” Giles warned.

The black haired wizard, Snape, pointed a finger at Giles. “Start with him first so I can watch, won’t you?”

“A new friend, Severus?” Narcissa raised an eyebrow, mouth twitching as she resisted a smile.

“Lover, actually, but please, don’t let that stop you.”

“If you do not all immediately vacate my property crucio will not be the Unforgivable you will need to fear,” Lucius snarled.

“Father,” and how odd was it to say that word? “They are my friends,” Riley said, urgently trying to catch Lucius’ shuttered gaze. His parents weren’t actually going to crucio everyone, were they? Seeing Angel alive had sent a heady rush of elation from his heart south, heat traveling his body in waves, and he resisted the urge to squirm. He was starting to shiver with a growing need to have Angel close, to touch and smell him. Remotely he could also feel Angel’s own desire and the dangerous flare of temper at seeing his mate being kept from him. This whole curse business was getting downright frustrating.

Lucius rubbed his cheek against Riley’s, tilting his face to look down at those watching below. “None of them can be trusted, my son, not any longer,” the elder blond whispered in his ear, drawing his attention from the watching vampire. “You are a Malfoy in the eyes of the wizards below and they would rather kill you than give you a chance to prove you are more than your past mistakes. Go on, meet the hate in their eyes. Turan hid your true appearance because to them a Malfoy is nothing more than a dark wizard.”

His father did not lie. Most of the men below he did not know, yet even Giles stared up at him with distrust and anger. He knew that look from when he’d first confessed being one of the Initiative, but he had thought he’d since earned the older wizard’s trust. If superficial changes in his appearance could so quickly undo the friendship he thought they’d had than there had been little there to begin with. Riley jerked his eyes away, angry flush climbing his cheeks.

“As for your Muggle friends,” Lucius hissed, “are they truly? Did you tell them what you are? Did you trust in their friendship enough to tell them you are a wizard?” Listening to Lucius’ words, to the painful truth they confronted, Riley numbly shook his head. It had honestly never occurred to him to tell Buffy the truth. If her own Watcher felt she couldn’t handle who and what he really was given how much Buffy loved him than he’d really had no reason to believe it would be any different for him. He couldn’t even blame his pureblood upbringing on those instincts, but it made him wonder. If he’d never thought he could trust Buffy then why had he let her catch him in the first place? Curiosity? There had to have been affection somewhere there in the beginning but Riley could barely look her way now, guilt clawing at his insides.

“Tell them to leave.”

“I can’t,” Riley swallowed, tasting bitterness. “The curse won’t let Angel leave me and they won’t leave him.” Buffy would never abandon her true love; she’d proven that and the Scoobies would not leave her.

Lucius considered his words before finally he lowered his wand. “Very well.” He stepped around his son, making sure Riley stayed behind him. Crossing his arms Riley stared at a point off in the distance, struggling against a resurgence of heat and Angel’s mounting ire. “I should have you all arrested for violating the sanctity of my home.” Lucius’ voice carried clearly across the foyer. “You can thank my son that for the moment, I will not. He tells me of your concern to break the curse binding him to this Dark Creature so I will allow you to stay until this has been done and for no longer.”

“I brought Riley here to make use of Hogwarts’ library,” Giles voice floated up, irritated and angry.

“You will use the library here,” Lucius dismissed. “The Malfoy collection has a far more extensive collection of Dark Arts texts.”

Hiding behind his father Riley slumped against the wall, closing his eyes as he concentrated on holding himself together. Just a little longer. Once all the posturing was done he’d be able to go down to Angel and satisfy this stupid curse. If he could make it down those stairs. That was an awful lost of steps. Couldn’t his parents install an elevator? Lovely Muggle convenience, elevators. Or those moving stairs they always had in malls. //Stay//

“A house elf will escort you to the library,” his father continued, but Riley’s strained voice interrupted him, too low to be heard by most of those out of his sight.

“Father, I need Angel, now.”

“The Dark Creature may come up,” Lucius continued without missing a beat before stepping back to Riley’s side. “Riley?” His father’s voice came from down a suddenly long tunnel, almost drowned out by a fast thumping he couldn’t place. Something pulled on his arm but he resisted. No, he was to stay right here, didn’t they hear that? Obedience calmed his inner conflagration and reality slewed back into hazy focus with his father’s hand on his forehead. “No, dear, I don’t think it’s the curse. It would have done this before now. This is someth-“

“Get away from my mate!” Riley knew that voice! What had the big lug been waiting for? Anything else his father might have said fell on deaf ears as Riley shoved the man away and threw himself at the vampire, practically purring in glee. Angel grunted from the impact but kept his feet, hugging him tightly in return. Nice, cool vampire, leeching away his fever as he thrust his tongue into the brunette’s mouth in a hard kiss.

Sanity returned with his hands clenched in Angel’s waistband, wantonly rubbing himself against the vampire’s hard length, tongue dueling for space in his own mouth. What the hell had gotten into him? He jerked away with a blush burning all the way to his ears, staggering on shaky legs. “I’ve gone insane!” Angel’s happily stunned look didn’t do much to console him, especially when Riley briefly saw guilt flit through his soft brown eyes. “What the hell is happening to me?”

Narcissa was immediately at his side, drawing him away from Angel with a withering glare in the vampire’s direction. He resisted at first, feeling like a man about to be denied oxygen, his chest painfully constricting even as he still shook with angered confusion. Then Angel stepped back, staring down at his feet, and Riley snapped free. Air rushed in and he staggered into his mother. “Have strength, kitten,” Narcissa hypnotic voice whispered in his ear, calming him further. “Your father and I will ensure this curse is ended.”

*

She didn’t specify how they would go about her promise and Angel narrowed his eyes at the viper disguised in heavy silks coiling about his love. No doubt she would prove handy with a stake if things came to that. Her equally venomous mate moved to purposively place himself in Angel’s way. Riley glanced back at him once before he disappeared through the doors, still obviously confused, but Lucius’ cold voice drew his attention back to the older blond.

“My son’s reactions to this curse are most peculiar,” Malfoy senior softly warned, obviously not willing to let his voice carry. “If I find you have done anything to undermine his free will or in any way coerce him to your wants you will pray to greet the dawn. I have survived two dark wars and stood unflinching alongside the greatest evil of the last century even as I worked to annihilate him from all existence. You are nothing. Come between me and mine and I will not only exterminate you I will wipe the very memory of you from my son’s mind.”

Angel growled, prepared to show this greedy little boy just how a two hundred and fifty year old vampire dealt with threats to his own. Movement in the doorway froze him in place, however, his vampiric visage rippling back into his beauteous mortal guise with barely a flicker of golden eyes.

“All of you, cut it out.” Riley had made it about ten feet down the hall before he realized he’d just left his trigger happy father and not quite sane vampire alone on a very tall balcony. Narcissa tried to keep him from going back but since she was unwilling to pull her wand on him then all she could do was follow after, mouth set in a thin line.

Big surprise, Angel and Lucius were literally growling at each other, looking about a heartbeat from settling things with their fists. It’d almost be funny if Riley wasn’t still feeling loopy and nauseous. Instead it left him irritated and he didn’t try to repress it in his voice. “None of this matters. Do you get me? You’re fighting over nothing. I want this damn curse broken, end of story. You guys feel the need to duke it out after, fine. I’ll referee. But for now? Angel, come here.”

Suitably chastised, the big vampire slipped around a flushing Lucius, looking anywhere but at Riley. “A bunch of idiots,” the blond muttered, snatching Angel’s arm and tugging him out of the room. Grey eyes met black. “Mère?”

Narcissa smiled, dipping her head in rueful acknowledgment before she called to her husband. “Come along, Lucius. It is just like having Turan back home, yes?”

Her words snapped Lucius’ head up, jerking him from everything and back into that lonely space he shared with the wife who had stayed. Turan, with her quick moods and contradictory level head, was very evident in her son just then, refusing to let them have their row with stubborn indignation. “Yes, it is.” Lucius tucked his wand away, reminded again by his love just what they were striving for.

Family.

~*~

Ten feet seemed to be Riley’s distance. Angel leaned into him, hand tentatively hovering above his platinum head before it settled, fingers splayed wide. “We need to talk.”

Right, talk. Riley could practically see the tension vibrating through the vampire’s body; the man was probably holding onto his control with everything he had and Riley did not want him to lose it in front of his parents. “Father, I need to take Angel to my room for a few minutes.”

Lucius and Narcissa obviously did not like that suggestion, but Riley just pushed Angel towards the correct hall. “Can this not wait, my love?” Narcissa hissed, glaring at the dark vampire.

Riley met his father’s eyes and after a long minute the older blond nodded. “Very well, son. You have ten minutes.”

*

“What have they done to you?” Angel growled into his ear. They had barely gotten through the door before the vampire was on him, touching every part of him that he could. Riley squirmed at some of the groping, not entirely from discomfort. He didn’t like sudden grabbing, but Angel was touching places that made him want to instinctively purr.

“They didn’t do anything to hurt me, okay?” Riley finally succeeded in wriggling out of Angel’s tentacle grasp, blushing and already beyond irritated with his long hair. He shoved it back behind his ears, but that only drew Angel’s attention to said ears. “This is how I normally look,” he sighed, tilting his head against the cool touch that brushed across the slightly pointed tips, strands happily escaping to curl about his fingers. “It’s called a legacy – traits that pureblood wizards in a family will inherit to distinguish them.” He scratched at his head. “Mom always insisted on hiding mine. I thought she did it so I wouldn’t stand out so much at school, but apparently not. The Malfoys are pretty notorious around here.”

“I’ve gathered,” Angel said absently, still focused on the way the light reflected off Riley’s hair. “It’s almost silver. Spike is going to be insanely jealous,” he added with entirely too much relish.

Riley snorted. “He’s more likely to call me a girl if I let him see it before it’s cut.”

“I like it long,” Angel said with an obvious pout and hopeful look. “You should keep it like this.”

“No way.” The blond shook his pale head. “It’d already be gone if I was any better at charms.” Wizard hair was one of those funny things in their society, especially for purebloods. Beyond the vexation of insisting on a particular color and length wizard hair needed specially charmed scissors to strip the shorn locks of any magical residue that could trace back to the wizard. All number of potions and spells required the inclusion of something of the target, hair being the easiest to add. No reason to make it easier on your enemies to horribly curse you. “I’ll get Graham to cut it.”

The subject obviously did not end to Angel’s satisfaction but the vampire let it drop. He glanced around Riley’s room with a tight set to his mouth, eyes glinting over the efforts made to personalize the room. “So are they really your parents?” he asked.

“I believe so.” Riley eased around the large vampire, taking in his room with a small smile. “Lucius is my father; my legacy comes from him. Turns out my Mom was in a threesome with him and Narcissa. They got politically involved with a wizard who turned out to be a megalomaniac who killed a lot of people before he was taken out. Mom had left them without them knowing she was pregnant.”

“How many innocent people did they kill?” Angel quietly asked.

Riley turned to face him. “I didn’t ask. They made mistakes, Angel, awful ones, but so have I. I know how easy it is to fall off the path.”

So did Angel. He reluctantly nodded, but Riley could see he remained unconvinced. “Not too many think highly of the Malfoys. Your grandmother especially. They may still have reason for that.”

“Not too many think highly of me back home,” Riley fired back. “The Scoobies barely tolerate me, certainly don’t trust me, and the Initiative wants me in a jail cell for desertion. And don’t listen to anything my grandmother tells you. I never understood why she couldn’t stand the sight of me, but you’re right, she hates the Malfoys, me included. I took away her daughter, the only person in the world she cares about.”

“Hey!” Angel moved faster than Riley could react, crushing him into a hug. He did not want to be held, he didn’t!, and he hissed and growled in warning, but the thickheaded vampire just again ignored all his struggling. He held on, stroking Riley’s back and purring until the blond slumped in defeat. “I’m the last person who is going to judge you or your parents for past sins.” His cool breath stirred in Riley’s ear, making him twitch and press his face into the brunette’s neck. “Your parents came into a school with the sole purpose of taking you, by any means necessary. Narcissa came in through the front, drawing everyone’s attention so Lucius could slip undetected into the infirmary. Where he then attacked us and kidnapped you. Their actions do not inspire confidence.”

Riley shifted his head to Angel’s shoulder, staring at his hand curled around the man’s shoulder. “I’ve only just met them, Angel. I can’t defend their every action, but I want this to work.”

Fingers stroked his jaw, catching his chin and then lifting his face to Angel’s. Resigned brown met determined grey. “Okay. I will reserve my opinion for now.”

Riley kissed him quickly, impulsively, smirking at the vampire’s stunned expression. His shock let Riley slip free and he darted for the door. “Thank you. We need to go, our time’s almost up.”

Angel dumbly followed after.

~*~

The Malfoys did indeed have an impressive library. When Riley and Angel entered on the heels of a nameless house elf the vampire barely refrained from whistling as he automatically located everyone under his charge. Tara and Willow were with Narcissa over at a comfortable cluster of couches with Harry hovering nearby, though the boy’s attention seemed more on Giles than anyone else. The blond witch was shrewdly watching the girls, too interested in their naïve excitement over a swirling globe they held between them for Angel’s peace of mind. Giles was with Lucius, pouring over a large volume that Angel would swear he could hear talking back to the two wizards. The redheaded wizard was seated away from the girls, disinterestedly flipping the pages of a book in his lap; put a slice of pizza in his hand and he could have been Xander. Snape was glowering in his lonesome with a steaming cup of what Angel’s sensitive nose identified as chamomile tea, comfortably slouched in an overstuffed armchair. His hooded gaze was fixated hungrily on Giles’ lean figure; Angel hid his grin behind his hand.

Buffy started for them as soon as they cleared the door. “Riley, I want some answers, now, and I think I deserve them.” Angel felt Riley stiffen next to him, shoulders going back as he braced for the coming barrage. The petite Slayer didn’t even wait for his nod, firing off questions. “Are you a wizard? Are the Barbie twins really your parents and what is with the wig? You’re like those robot chicks.”

“Stepford wives,” Willow elaborated. “Brainwashed into acting like the patriarchic ideal of submissive obedient women, slaves to their husbands’ every whim. It was a movie made in 1975. Not that you’re a woman or anything?” She made it sound like a question and Riley bristled.

“I’m not brainwashed.” His glare answered the second question and the redhead wisely kept her trap shut. He turned back to Buffy. “Yes, they are my parents. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was a wizard, but my being one had nothing to do with us.”

“Nothing to do with us?” Buffy shouted. “I told you about being the Slayer, I told you everything, and all I get is an ‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you?’ How about ‘Sorry for lying to you’ or ‘Sorry for making everything we had meaningless’ or yeah, ‘Sorry for leading you on’ or may-be –“

“Buffy,” Giles snapped. “This really isn’t the time or place to have this conversation.”

“It never is!” Buffy shook her head. “I’m sick and tired of hearing that!” With barely restrained Slayer strength she shoved Angel and Riley out of her way and ran from the room. Tossed to the floor Riley scrambled up and raced after her before Angel could grab him.

Narcissa gracefully rose in the ensuing silence. “I shall go make sure they do not lose their way.” As she passed Angel she saw the intent to follow in his yellowed gaze and sharply shook her head. “You will remain here. They do not need your help in resolving the pain in their hearts. Not when you are the cause.”

Though every instinct in him screamed not to, Angel stayed behind, guilt at the truth in her words gluing his feet to the floor.

~*~

TBC.