Lycanthrope, Vampirism, and Magick

Lycanthrope Vampirism and Magic Chapter Twelve

Angel stood with Spike, watching from the shadows as the sun dipped below the horizon on one side of the roof and the moon appeared, golden and full, on the other. He could see the muscles in Xander’s back ripple as the man morphed into wolf. He stopped in his half-morphed form and looked at them. He’d only seen Xander as the wolf, never in this form, and from the way Spike inhaled he hadn’t either.

Xander in his halfling form was beautiful in an otherworldly way. The sweat pants that had been loose now fit tight around powerful legs that ended in clawed feet, and his chest and back seemed more muscular. He was covered in fur, his long hair giving him a maned look, and his hands were tipped with deadly claws. Best of all were the ears, Angel thought; wolf-like in appearance, they were higher on his head than when he was human, but he still found his fingers twitching to scratch them and see if Xander reacted in this form like he did in full wolf form.

The thought of seeing such a powerful and deadly creature lolling his tongue and thumping his leg made him smile.

“My, my, Pup. What big teeth you have.” Evidently Spike had the same urges as Angel did; the blonde was stepping forward and fondled the wolf’s ear and Xander’s eyelids lowered in pleasure. “Heh, you’re just a big fluffy puppy, aren’t you?”

Angel laughed as Xander growled threateningly at Spike, but the tail he'd just noticed was still swinging in pleasure. At the sound of his laughter Xander switched his death glare to him, but it was worth it to see the wolf look so threatening and so…

“Cute. You look like one of the monsters out of those Japanese cartoons Fred watches.”

Eyes narrowed at both vampires before the wolf chuffed deep in his throat and moved away from Spike’s hands and towards the door. Xander couldn’t speak human while in either of his forms but that was definitely the werewolf version of “Fuck you.”

“Come on, Xan, don’t be mad. Let’s make fun of Peaches for watching anime instead. I’m surprised Mr. Broodypants even knows what a cartoon is.”

“Hey! I can’t help it that Fred turns the sound up so loud. And some of them do mention demons. I was curious!”

“Come on, Peaches, the first step to getting help is admitting you have a problem. You can say it. Say ‘I like to watch Sailor Moon'. The blond girl must have reminded you of one of your ex’s, being so clueless and all.”

“Seems to me you know a bit more than just a casual observer Spike. Sure you don’t have something to confess first?”

Just as their bantering was about to turn into full-fledged bickering a sound caught Angel’s attention. Looking towards the door he was rewarded with the sight of a werewolf trying to giggle. He looked at Spike and then they both looked back at Xander.

“Shut it, Pup!”

“Xander…”

Then Angel found himself and Spike sputtering as the sounds of the wolf running down the stairs echoed in the night.

“Oh fuck, he slobbered on us! Werewolit, it, eww!”

Feeling the dampness on his face and seeing the look on his Childe’s face was too much and, once again, Angel found himself laughing.

****

All of the original AI team were waiting nervously in the hall outside Cordelia’s room, with the exception of Fred. She had been the one elected to be inside in case the Halliwell’s magick worked and Cordelia woke up, and Angel found himself very nervous.

What if she still loved him? Through time and guilt he had fallen out of love with her but still he cared for her very much and didn’t want to hurt her.

“You guys think this is really gonna work?” Gunn looked as nervous as he was.

“The Halliwells are quite proficient at magick, considering they have been mostly self taught, and with the help of Leo I do believe it will work. It has to.”

“Yeah, English, I get that. I just…worry. I still remember when she declared herself my protector, all long hair flying and blood on her shirt from where she saved my friend. It’s been weird seeing her like this, man, without her personality. Cordy’s just so small…”

“I know what you mean, Sweet-cheeks. Our Cordy has a personality and a half, and underneath all that superficial bitchiness is a heart of gold. Believe me, I know. If anyone can pull through this it will be Cordy.” Despite his words the green demon looked as worried as the rest of them.

With his vamp hearing Angelld hld hear the chanting going on inside, and the smell of sage and cedar filled the hallway. He really did hope this worked, if not there would be nothing else anyone could do for Cordelia except give her a dignified death.

Suddenly the chanting stopped and Angel felt the hair on the back of his neck rise at the feeling of powerful magicks being worked. He looked at the others and could tell all of them sensed something was happening on one level or another.

Finally he heard voices talking and the sound of a woman gasping for air. He felt his face stretch into an impossibly wide grin. It was Cordy!

“What, man, you hear something?”

“No, Gunn, Angel smiles at the drop of a hat. Of course he heard something.”

“No need to get nasty there, Wes.” Gunn turned to Angel. “What do you hear?”

Angel cocked his head and listened as a voice rough from not being used complained that she was being given tap water and not bottled. “The sounds of a prima-donna being reborn.”

“Well, all right! That’s our Cordy!” Gunn paused for a moment and then asked, “Are we gonna get in trouble for not storing her stuff right?”

Wesley looked up from his glasses polishing. “Very likely, for that and the fact that, while we’ve been washing her hair, it wasn’t with the right shampoo and conditioner and she now has split ends and she hasn’t had a manicure. I must confess that, while I am somewhat intimidated by the thought, I wouldn’t give up the upcoming tongue lashing we are all about to receive for all the money in the world.”

Before anyone else could say anything the door opened and Piper, Leo, and Phoebe slipped out of the room. Leo looked at the others and spoke to the group.

“She’s going to be okay. We had to turn her into a human again and strip her of the visions so you’ve lost your connection to the Elders, but I’m sure something can be worked out. Paige is gonna stay and help her out a bit; she’s had some training doing temp work as a home health aide and between her and Fred they’ll be able to give Cordy a bath and help her get back into bed. But first she wants to see all of you.”

“Is she…is she going to be all right?” Wesley’s clipped tone betrayed just how worried about Cordelia he was.

“It will take some time but, yes, she’ll be okay. She’ll need physical therapy because she hasn’t used her muscles in a long time, may even have to learn to walk again, but in time she’ll be okay. Don’t worry, we’ll help her. There’s only so much magic can do and for an illness that’s been this long term we can’t fix everything, but we can help.”

Angel couldn't help but smile at Leo. He knew the man had been a doctor in a former life and as a White Lighter had powerful healing powers. “Thank you, Leo, thank all of you. We had run out of hope.” With that he turned and slipped into the room behind the others.

****

Spike could not believe he was doing this…years as a master vampire had never prepared him for the terror he was about to go through. The pup was no help; too busy playing with Wyatt who had screamed for joy at seeing his Uncle Fluffy. If Spike didn’t know any better he would have sworn the wolf had planned it this way.

“What’s the matter?”

He turned around to find Phoebe, much to his joy.

“Here's your nephew. Do something about him!” “Wha“What? Eww. He needs his diaper changed, couldn’t you do that at least? Jeeze.”

“Sorry, Ducks, don’t know much about nappies. Can play with the tyke, possibly feed him but I figured you’d want the nappy on the right end of the baby so you’d better do that.”

The woman just laughed at him and pulled him to where they had the playroom for the babies set up off of the lobby.

“Here, you’ll need to know this at some point.”

“What? Why?” Would it be too bad to wish they’d be attacked in the next few moments? The baby put off a stench that most demons couldn’t match; he really didn’t want to see what caused it.

“Well, with Xander moving here he is our best babysitter. Paige can always orb the babies in if we’re having problems and you know he’ll look at both you and Angel and rope you into helping. So you need to learn. You can watch this time. Start with undoing the diaper but don’t pull it off, believe me. You get a couple of wipes, put one over his weenie so he doesn’t shower you and use the other to clean him up. Then you…” He watched as the witch picked the child up by the ankles and folded up the diaper so the cleanest side was up, as she used more wipes to clean the baby.

“Here, hand me a clean diaper from the bag over there.” He did as asked and opened it up, placing it under the baby as she lowered the child. “When you put the diaper back on you’ll need to make sure it’s not bunchy and, well, make sure he’s pointed down. I learned that the hard way with Wyatt; I changed him and was holding him about a half hour later and he played fountain all over me. Ick. Just make sure you stick it good and tight without pinching him and that’s it! Think you can do it again?”

He looked at the giggling child, the smug witch and the mess she was cleaning up.

“Not for all the money in the world, Ducks.”

A half hour later he knew it had been a set up on Xander’s part and was sitting quietly ignoring the wolf.

“Aw Spike, diaper duty isn’t that bad, quit sulking.”

“Not sulking, Peaches, I’m sitting quietly and what…” He was about to ask Angel what he knew about diapering but remembered Connor just in time. Angel had never talked about it much but Spike had cornered Lorne one night and learned that the dark vampire had all but snarled at anyone who tried to help him, even changed the diapers. “Yeah well, you change it next time. Show me how to do it proper, eh?”

Angel looked at him like he was going to say something else but let it drop. “Nope, you do it and I’ll watch, make sure you do it right.”

“She did tell me how to avoid getting spritzed, I’ll have you know, not like you’ll get to see that.”

“Yes Spike, whatever you say, Spike.”

They were in Angel’s office, Spike sitting on the desk while Xander lay on the floor in full wolf form. The babies had been put to bed and their parents were guarding them, giving Xander time to spend with the vampires while all three made periodic circuits of the hotel to make sure it was secure. Xander was currently giving him puppy eyes, trying to make up while lying at Angel’s feet.

“Stop that, Pup! I’m not forgiving you cause you’re not sorry. You’d do it again given the chance.”

The wolf cocked his head to one side and then gave a doggie grin. “Yeah, thought so. Wanker.” He watched as Xander rolled to show his soft underbelly and gave in and laughed.

“Oh, Xander, I told Cordy you were here. She said to come up and see her in the morning. Evidently she’ll let you see her without make up but the rest of us males must wait till Fred and Paige have made her up ... and she's demanded a dressing robe.” Angel rolled his eyes as Xander snorted his amusement but Spike found himself worrying.

“So, does the Cheerleader still love you? Cause that would be about our luck, both the Slayer and the Cheerleader after me and Xan.”

He watched as Angel’s eyes went vacant for a moment, thinking of the girl that had woken up from the long sleep upstairs, and Spike found himself dreading the answer. It was bloody romantic in a way, a long sleep to find her true love waiting for her. He shifted on the desk and Xander got up, putting his head on Angel’s knee.

“No, no she doesn’t. It’s weird, we thought she’d only been taken over since she was supposemademade a higher being, but she doesn’t remember anything after her birthday. That was a couple of months before that. She remembers liking Groo, and Pylea. She remembers Billy and Connor’s birth and all, but not too much after that. It’s just odd to think she wasn’t really there for all of the rest of it, Connor being kidnapped and Holtz and all of it. She just doesn’t remember.”

“I’m thinking if I gave birth to a full grown woman who was intent on making the entire world Stepford people I wouldn’t want to remember it. 'Course, that’s just me and I remember burning to ashes so…”

Before he could finish Xander had looked up with a growl and then started to run for the door, morphing into halfling form on the way. Spike listened for a moment and heard it too; someone was sneaking into the hotel.

Angel looked at them and they both took off at a run, following the scent of the wolf. Spike spared a moment to grab the sweatpants that were hung on the door and to wonder if the wolf could hear better and then stopped all thought.

They caught up with Xander near one of the back doors of the hotel that the group rarely used. Usually they used the doors at the front of the lobby or to the garden. Xander was growling deep in his throat quietly and Spike felt his demon rise to the fore.

He could sense one person, quietly opening the door and stepping in. A familiar scent assailed his nose but before he could stop him Xander had pounced, throwing the intruder up against the wall as hard as he could and pinning her there.

Spike and Angel followed, waiting till he had the girl in place before looking at each other.

Angel broke the silence first. He grabbed the pants from Spike and shoved them at Xander and the wolf broke his hold, pulling on the pants but never stopping the deep growling.

“What do you think you were doing, sneaking in the hotel at this hour, Kennedy? For that matter, what were you doing going out?”