Oncoming Train

CC: thanks for sticking around, and I believe you and Riley are in tune.
Krimson: thanks for the catch! I’ve read and re-read that sentence a hundred times and my brain just happily corrected it.
DunDun: hmmm. Boy + Boy + Boy + Boy does sound awful sweet, but is Angel really the regularly sharing type?
St. Remy Asylum: something naughty!

Sunday night.

Angel led the way back into the mansion, only listening to Wesley with half an ear while the ex-Watcher theorized as to how Riley's powers worked and what could be done to limit them. The master vampire's jaw ached, the pain dwarfed by the agony his groin was broadcasting. His boy hadn't checked his strength and Angel was still feeling it three hours later. His mistake had been to stand within striking distance of his volatile lover, a mistake he was never going to make again.

Cordelia and Dawn met them just inside the door as some Scooby form of a welcoming committee, complete with a weapons check, and Angel left them to it. He nodded to Spike on his way up the stairs, knowing his childe would keep anyone from following.

His bedroom door was still locked, but he hadn’t expected anyone to question the excuse that Riley needed to lay down from the visions; not with Xander and an unwitting Cordelia backing him up. For that reason the lights were out and Angel left them that way, perfectly capable of seeing each detail of his room in graphic detail.

The sound of the door opening stirred movement from the bed, a sharp rustle of sound. Stripping out of his clothes as he went Angel slowly walked to the bed, admiring the beauty laid out before him. Placed on his back Riley had been carefully restrained, the silk ropes Spike had miraculously produced looped and braided to cause minimal damage to the furious naked mortal. Even after Angel had drained him to the edge of unconsciousness, the blond had fought. Which was probably why rather than being simply trussed he’d been immobilized as he was.

Wrist to ankle, knees bent in the air with reinforcements at the joints and across his stomach and chest; it was a fairly comfortable position and one he was confident Riley could easily manage. Standard rope trailed from a flower loop at the small of his back, tying him in place on the bed from the sides, head and footboard. He couldn’t roll himself and risk bringing anyone into the room from any unexpected banging. Overall, Angelus was proud he’d resisted tying the stubborn boy into a suspension cradle or something far more uncomfortable.

Crawling up onto the bed and over the supine figure yellowish brown met stormy hazel in open challenge. Supporting himself one handed, the vampire trailed a proprietary hand down his mate’s front, tugging on ropes and lightly kneading the hard muscles. Above his gag Riley glared, refusing to be calmed. “Wesley and Faith are downstairs. Safe and sound. See, luv, I can do my job just fine so long as you do yours. Which includes staying back at base.”

In answer Riley screamed at him behind the gag, struggling furiously against the ropes that kept him from pummeling the pompous ass leering at him. With a confident grin Angel loosened the gag and Riley angrily shook his head. “Get your hands off me! I’m not some prom queen like Chase! I’m a US Marine! The sooner you get that through your thick skull the better! When these powers are gone and you’re off to your next conquest I’m still going to be fighting my own battles! Fuck! You want some damsel to put in a tower, go hang out at the mall!”

The vampire’s eyes flared gold at the verbal assault, but Riley was just warming into his tirade. Angel was going to get the dressing down of his undead life and the blond opened his mouth to continue when a large palm clamped down. “Next conquest? You. Are. My. MATE!” Angel roared, ridges rising to the surface as Angelus took control. “You are mine for the next millennia, onto death will you belong to me. No other shall come before you. Not even my childer.” Beneath him Riley stared with wide, incredulous eyes and the master vampire leaned down to whisper in his ear. “Mine to fuck. Mine to feed. Mine to protect. Mine to punish. You are mate to the Master of the Order of Aurlieus. All who owe fealty to me are sworn to protect your life. You think I’m doing this, keeping you isolated from the bombardment of your clairvoyance, out of some perverse pleasure?” He sat back of a sudden. “Very well then. I will withdraw my presence until you ask for it.”

Perhaps realizing he had pushed the vampire too far Riley frowned and tried for a more reasonable tone. “Ang‘, why can’t you understand? You can’t expect me to sit safe at home while you and the others risk your lives!”

Angel quickly undid the ropes enough that Riley could free himself with little effort. “You are speaking of luxuries you no longer have, but I am done with coddling you. You will accept this relationship on my terms or make your own way. Come downstairs when you’re ready.” An out an out lie, he wasn’t leaving his mate to fend for himself, but the boy needed to learn his situation had changed. The hard way. He picked up his clothes on his way out the door, stepping into Spike and Xander’s room to dress before heading back downstairs.

It was another quarter of an hour before Riley made his way into the living room where the others were trying to strategize a means to save Sunnydale. His seer looked pale and a little shocky stepping into the room, back in his jeans and worn windbreaker. Everyone greeted the blond warmly and Riley closed his eyes briefly before entering. He wouldn’t look in Angel’s direction and reluctantly took a seat next to Tara on the couch at her invitation. After a few minutes of disorganization Wesley resumed his lecture on what he’d learned from the Powers.

“Um, yes, where, ah, here we are,” the bespectacled detective shuffled his notes, torn pages of notebook paper randomly folded into squares and rectangles, a few of them written in English. “For the Hellmouth to shift its manifest axis -”

“Wait,” Xander interrupted, “the Hellmouth is moving?”

Paper shuffled. “In a day or two, yes.” Seeing the confused looks, Wesley sighed. “The Hellmouth is never truly stationary. It if was, well, imagine it. A Hellmouth in one linear place could be fortified, barricaded and zealously watched over.”

“I thought it was closed,” Dawn said. “How can it move?”

“It can never be permanently closed. For there to be a balance between good and evil, there will always be a Hellmouth. Without the darkness, we would be consumed in light.”

“So where’s it going?” Angel asked, eyes on his seer.

“I’m not sure.” The former Watcher stared down at his notes, an annoyed furrow wrinkling his brow. “Faith said she felt a pull towards Texas, but in truth it could re-appear in France. Wherever it takes root, however, the Slayer will track it.”

“It hasn’t decided yet,” Riley quietly interjected. When everyone’s focus swung his way he refused to look up. “The decision doesn’t happen until its free. It likes quiet and small.”

“Odd,” Willow mused, “you’d think it would gravitate towards meccas of evil. Like Miami.”

“Too noticeable, Red.” Spike shook out a stick, ignoring most everyone’s glare. Faith kicked him. “Wot?”

“Share, you selfish Brit.”

“Spike is right,” Wesley interjected. “Appearing in a large city would attract too much attention. Smaller towns are easier to influence, to get its citizens to turn a blind eye to the occasional apocalypse.”

“So if the Hellmouth is moving,” Dawn said, “then the demons aren’t coming after all?”

“No,” Riley answered. “They won’t know until they get to where the Hellmouth used to be. By then,” and he visibly paled, hands curling into fists in his lap.

“It’ll be too late for Sunnydale,” Angel finished. He could feel Xander’s glare, the boy knowing what sitting apart from him was costing the seer, but he refused to relent. This was a lesson Riley needed to learn. “Wesley, what needs to be done to move the Hellmouth?”

“We must remove some of the wards Giles placed. As the situation is now, if the Hellmouth were to un-moor itself, if you will, it would be catastrophic. The entire town would be eliminated in the backlash. Timing is of utmost importance. If the demons manage to open the Hellmouth before it moves, they could still unleash untold evils. Understand, we don’t want to completely unleash the gate to Hell; simply loosen the bindings so that at worst it will demolish the structure above it.”

“You mean the school,” Xander said.

“Well, yes.”

“The recently re-opened school that is bursting with tykes during the daylight hours.”

Angel cut to the point. “Can this be done at night?”

“I still need to narrow the exact time. The Frenkhin may arrive before the appointed time. Days before. With school in session I do not see how we can guard the Hellmouth without attracting undue attention.”

Distracted by Wesley, Angel at first did not see his mate clutch at his temples and bow his head. His muffled voice drew him back and he nearly left his seat but for Angelus’ temperance. “We can’t,” Riley gasped. “But the Initiative can. Give them -”

Sitting next to him, the empathic Tara frowned, his mounting confusion and pain rolling through her like a dark cloud. It was instinctive to reach out, to make a connection that would allow her to help. Riley’s reaction was unexpected.

At the touch of her small hand on his shoulder the seer screamed. “No!” He threw himself over the side of the couch and scrambled back until he hit the wall. “Don’t touch. Nobody touches. Oh God, what is this?” He was staring down at his hands in open shock, obviously unaware of the reality around him. “Wizards? No, go to Madrid. But I don’t recognize him.”

“The boy is whacked,” Faith commented, careful to keep her seat as everyone else surged up. Xander swung at Angel while his lover tried to hold him back; the witches were babbling and Cordelia was shouting at Wesley who Gunn was quick to defend. Dawn ran out of the room crying.

“You bastard! Why aren’t you helping him?” Xander screamed.

“He doesn’t want help,” the Master vampire coldly replied, eyes a solid yellow.

“Fuck that! Help him before he ends up like Drusilla!” Angel flinched at that, but he still refused.

“Sire,” Spike began.

“No. He has refused. He is my mate. I can protect him from everyone but himself in this.”

“Would you shut up, woman,” Wesley snapped, shoving past Cordelia. “I am well aware that Riley’s precognitive abilities outstrip your own.” Kneeling in front of the babbling seer, he pulled a small stone jar from inside his jacket. “I had not realized he was this far gone, however.” Pulling out the quartz stopper he revealed the other end flattened into a spatula of sorts. The small implement was smeared with a dark grease. Leaning forward, Wesley marked Riley’s forehead. The incoherent voice stuttered and Riley slid sideways to the floor, limp though a glint of green reflected through his dark blond lashes.

The questions started again, though Angel’s was the loudest as he suddenly appeared at Wesley’s shoulder. “What did you do to my mate?”

“What was in that?” Willow asked, her disappointment plain when Wesley carefully re-pocketed the jar without letting her examine the contents.

“A unicorn’s right eye, everyday eye of newt, swamp grass from the Sahara desert, and the blessing of a kami. It works in dulling the senses, stupefying if you will. Most effective in use on precognitives.” He reached for Riley’s shoulder, and when his touch elicited no reaction, he checked his pulse and breathing. “Unfortunately it leaves them thus, in a near comatose state. He can hear and see us with his regular senses, but he cannot engage them. A temporary solution at best.”

“How long will it last?” Xander asked, worming his way past everyone to pull Riley into his arms.

“A few hours at most. The tonic can be applied as needed, but this is obviously not a desired state. If he has an actual vision, he will be unable to communicate.” Wesley sighed, standing up as he rubbed at his nape. “I had planned on contacting the Oracles tomorrow, but perhaps I should try tonight. Does anyone have an idea what he was trying to say?”

“He said the Initiative,” Tara quietly answered from the back of crowd. “To give them something.”

“Not Riley,” Xander growled, protectively hugging his friend.

“Of course not,” Wesley snapped.

“Maybe he was thinking army versus army,” Gunn said. “The Initiative is an army, right?”

“And they could protect or even evacuate the school,” Willow said excitedly, latching onto the idea.

“Which would leave how many soldiers being obliterated with the school?” Angel murmured, not that opposed to the idea, but knowing it needed to be said.

“Oh,” Willow pouted, “we would need to work around that.”

“Possibly,” Angel relented. It was rankling, how tightly Xander was holding his mate, making it difficult to think past rending him limb from limb. “We would need to get the Initiative here first, without putting ourselves at risk. Wesley, we need to know the time frame on the Hellmouth. That takes priority.”

“And what about Riley?” Xander shouted. “We can’t keep him like this!”

“Riley knows how to deal with his powers. He just needs to accept it.” To accept me, the way the Powers intended. “Everyone who is needed will help Wesley. Wesley, the library is at your disposal, three doors down. Cordelia, would you and Gunn please find Dawn? Faith, familiarize yourself with the weapons downstairs.”

“You got it, boss,” the Slayer snapped off a salute Angel ignored. The rest nodded and trickled out, the witches going with Wesley. Spike remained, standing off to the side, watching his sire and mate with open wariness.

“Xander, why don’t you help Wesley?” Angel really tried to keep his voice easy, but he could feel his ridges rippling just beneath the surface of his smooth human guise.

“Fuck you, Deadboy. I trusted you to take care of Riley. Not fucking torture him!”

“Boy,” Angelus growled, “Riley is my mate. If I wanted to whip him in the garden or sodomize him over the dinner table in front of all of you, that is my right!”

“Xanpet, ya know how stubborn the hayseed is being about this.” Spike was clearly conflicted, but he too intimately understood from where his sire stood. What Angel had threatened Riley with he had done to his childe and more with far less provocation. “Riley needs to learn what it means to be mated to a master vampire.”

There was a stubborn set to Xander’s jaw and Angel realized he would have to change tactics unless he was willing to come to fisticuffs with his childe’s mate. “Xander, you saw yourself Riley refused to stay in our room. He needs to accept that he has limitations right now. If I force him as I did earlier, what hope we have for a peaceable union will sour into hate. I did not force these powers on him and he needs to accept that also. Would you prefer I keep him tied to the bed? Maybe this will prove to him he needs to act with discretion around others, especially when I am not near.”

Xander jerkily nodded. “Let me talk to him. Just, just let me talk to him.”

TBC.