Mirror, Mirror

Chapter 16.
Author’s Note: For non-HP readers, a wizard clock has places or events instead of numbers on its face and the hands, however many wanted, designate people. So Harry can be at Work or Mortal Peril, depending on how the clock was designed.

~*~

Escaping back to Sunnydale with Riley was proving more frustrating than Angel had anticipated. No sooner had Giles left and he’d started his search for one particular blond when one of those strange little elves had popped into his path and announced that he was expected in the library. Shifting into gameface had scared it off, but only temporarily. A few halls later it appeared again to haughtily tell him he was going the wrong way. Angel ignored it, determinedly following his boy’s scent.

Then he noticed the portraits lining the hallways were watching and talking about him. A few shouted for Lucius, to destroy the Dark Creature, and the cry grew, passing from portrait to portrait. The echo of their ugly voices followed no matter what direction he took; he even heard muffled shouting through the doors he passed.

He ran. With supernatural speed he tried to out race them, cursing wizards and their freakish talking portraits. Angel careened around a corner. Another one of those elves popped up ahead of him and he barely broke stride leaping over the squawking thing. The Malfoys were certain to find him before he could get to Riley if this kept up! He needed to get out of sight, but the damn portraits lined every hall he turned in to.

Except outside. There might be some other means of monitoring the gardens that circled most of the manor (he immediately imagined statuary coming to life), but he was willing to take his chances. The faint scent of fresh air and plants overtook his senses, leading him where he needed to go.

Meticulously trimmed hedges spiraled about a menagerie of towering statues and interlocking stone courtyards. It was designed to make walking in a straight line impossible; a garden of function since it was probably used to host parties, but beautiful all the same. Angel remembered the beauty of the gardens as they’d been laid out from high overhead when they had flown in. Only an aerial perspective revealed that all the gardens that ringed the house were worked in intricate patterns: runes, protective wards Harry had commented. Undeniably beautiful. Anywhere else and he would have said magical, trite as that was, but not now, knowing there was truly nothing magical about this place. Angel wanted to burn it down; he could follow Riley’s scent even if he was on the other side of the estate, but this damn greenery’s layout was going to be a hindrance. Half afraid the bushes would start reaching for him he cautiously started to lope down the path.

The breeze shifted and the vampire stopped, Riley’s scent coming strongly on a brisk wind. Fresh. Lifting his face into the breeze turned him back towards the mansion and to the beautifully surreal sight of a pure white swan taking flight from one of the windows high overhead. The majestic bird fair glowed in the evening’s darkness, slowly winging to earth.

It looked like it was going to touch down a courtyard away, out of sight of the mansion’s windows. Angel didn’t think, breaking into a run down the looping path. Everything in him said that was no ordinary swan, not in this place.

He came around the last corner on silent feet, jerking to a stop to watch the majestic bird. If his eyes had not seen the magic he probably would have missed his quarry altogether. Swooping to earth the swan blurred, shrank. Feathers flowed into fur. There was no sound but a gentle humming as bird became feline. A sleek white tom nimbly landed on its four paws, tail up and ears perked. Little pink nose and whiskers twitching the cat took in his surroundings, bright bluish grey eyes hauntingly familiar. Hidden in the shadows with the wind still in his favor Angel tried to understand what his own senses were screaming at him. That the cat smelled like Riley.

With a twitch of his tail the cat made to slink off, starting Angel from his paralysis. “Riley!” the vampire bleated, coming out of hiding almost too late. The cat defensively hunched down, ears flattening at the sudden noise. Slowly, the sleek body twisted, large liquid eyes staring back at him. “Riley, that is you, isn’t it?”

A hesitation, the cat looking back into the bushes it had almost escaped into, and then the small body changed, stretching out into a man with a long, unbound silver blond mane. He turned to face Angel, posture still defensive. The silk shirt the dark vampire had seen him in earlier now clung stubbornly to his shoulders, torn with obvious violence and exposing far too much of his chest and stomach for Angel’s tenuous restraint. “Angel,” Riley said softly in his deep voice, licking his lips. “I thought you would have gone back to Sunnydale by now.”

Angel took a cautious step closer, not wanting to spook the boy. “I read about Transfiguration in the Hogwarts library,” he casually began, so very grateful for his earlier curiosity. “Those who master it can change into their inner animal. Is it normal to have more than one?”

“You read about animagi?” Riley looked genuinely shocked. “Why?”

“Because it matters to you,” he said simply. What he needed to say next made him internally squirm and inordinately grateful that he couldn’t blush. “What happened earlier, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to take it the way you did.”

Riley’s raised eyebrow clearly said, ‘What other way was I supposed to take it’, but all he said through stiff lips was, “It must have been quite the shock, waking up to find out you’ve just had sex with someone you’ve apparently loathed.”

“That wasn’t it! I do not hate you!” Angel hotly denied. “I remember everything, including how I felt.” He looked down at his feet, floundering for some elegance to give to his words. None came so he went with ugly truth. “It was that I didn’t care what I did so long as I got to keep you. When we shared blood, we forged an altogether separate bond that I did not think could be broken. That is what I was shocked to realize when I came to my senses. I should never have done it.”

“You’re talking about the infirmary,” Riley realized, staring at him hard. “You did warn me, remember?”

“No, I manipulated you, forced you into agreeing.” The words burned Angel’s throat to say them, he was possibly ruining any chance of Riley coming with him willingly, but he was equally tired of all the lies. “Do you not understand? I forged a blood bond between us. I wanted you in every way I could have you.”

Riley’s fingers brushed across his chest in remembrance of pain. “I did not even truly feel it until it was gone. It dissolved with the curse. It wasn’t real.”

“I still want you.,” Angel insisted.

“What? No.” The blond hair slithered against Riley’s shoulders and chest with the harsh, denying shake of his head. “You love Buffy, remember? You . . . you cannot feel anything for me,” he ended with sad conviction.

“Because you’re a wizard or because of what I am?” Angel fired back without any real heat beyond the desire to get Riley thinking. “I know how your parents feel about Dark Creatures. That’s what they call my kind, right? Creatures? Not human?”

Riley recoiled as though struck. Hurt filled his eyes and Angel wondered where his earlier coldness had fled. His grandmother had said harsher; did this mean he actually cared what Angel thought? “Do you really believe that of me?”

The vampire denied hope, denied mercy, pressing for the surrender he could smell was close. “The Initiative, your relatives, they all seem to believe my kind are the scum of the earth. Are you sure you think any differently?”

“They don’t really know you, Angel,” Riley denied. “I don’t really know you.”

“No, but I still need to hear you deny them. I’ve been trying to find you –“

“Why,” the blond interrupted.

“To make sure you’re okay. To ask you to come back with me, to give this,” and he gestured between them, “a chance.”

“Go back?” Riley murmured, grey eyes lifting to the windows they barely stood out of sight of. “My father . . .” He paled. “I can’t go back. What you just saw, it’s why the Initiative want me.”

“The changing from a bird to a cat?” Angel hazarded a guess, desperate to keep up with the boy’s quicksilver mind. So close to getting the conversation to where he needed it to go and Riley had dodged again, but not without sacrifice he learned when the blond finally started to talk again after a long hesitation.

“Yes. Animagi can change into one animal, the animal closest to their inner reflection. One,” and he held up a finger for emphasis. “Thanks to Master Walsh’s experiments I can change into the animal of any animagi I meet. Panmagi, one of a kind. Do you understand why I can’t go back?” Now that the Initiative had entered the young Auror’s mind he did an abrupt bout face, panic clear in his voice and pungent in the air. “They didn’t even know I was still alive before, but now thinks to Nana they do!”

“It’s going to be okay, Riley,” Angel tried to calm him down. “I won’t let anything happen to you.” Finally, Riley was trusting him with his secrets, whether he realized it or not. Angel felt like howling in triumph.

“They will come here, after Lucius and Narcissa. They don’t deserve that.” Real fear burned in Riley’s eyes imagining the Initiative coming after his parents. Angel stepped ever closer and Riley let him.

“I think the senior Malfoys can take care of themselves.” Angel spoke softly and with confidence, the same way he’d speak to lure any wary, half wild creature to his hand. “Let me take you away from here. If the Initiative come your parents can honestly swear they don’t know where you are. Give yourself time to think about all of this before you make any permanent decisions.” Angel cocked his head, forehead wrinkling. “Where were you running off earlier?”

Riley raked a hand through his hair, a sharp and angry gesture. “I don’t know! I can’t think! I have everything I thought I always wanted, but it’s all wrong!” His voice dropped, emotion bleeding out as he quietly whispered, “And now I want things I never thought . . .”

“Come with me,” Angel repeated. He held up the innocuous little box Giles had given him. “Giles said this is a portkey to Sunnydale. Come back with me. Call your mother about the Malfoys. You trust her, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Riley listlessly answered from ingrained obedience.

Angel did not like seeing his beautiful boy so emotionless, so beaten. Too much had happened in too short a time that it had finally overwhelmed Riley’s tolerances. More than ever, the vampire was convinced he needed to get Riley someplace safe where he could work on putting his life back together; safe under Angel’s protection and safe in his bed.

He stepped near enough to breathe in the warm, sweet scent of the blond and smiled when Riley turned into the ghosting touch. “Then talk to her,” Angel softly spoke into his ear. His caressed a silk draped arm, subtly guiding Riley in closer. “Give us another chance. Let me prove I really am interested in you, Riley Finn, wizard and,” he reached around the lean body to tweak a platinum strand, “natural blond.”

That got the smile he was looking for, with the charming blush that went unerring straight to his loins. Riley did not struggle from his loose clasp. If he had wanted, Angel could speak the magic word now and they would be gone, but he could see the yearning in those bewitching silver eyes. Riley wanted to believe in him; was so very close to forgiving him his earlier stupidity.

“A chance?” Riley breathed, eyebrows raised.

“Friday night.” Angel took the chance, made bold by the renewing warmth in Riley’s gaze. There was still a lot they needed to tell each other (like just why Riley was running away and who had dared to molest him), but they were standing here at the first step. “Let’s start over. So how about it, want to go to the movies this Friday?”

“I . . . think I would like that,” Riley tentatively answered, though obviously charmed by the idea if his quirky smile was any gauge.

Angel grinned and his joy melted the last barriers between them. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Riley smiled back before leaning in give his vampire a soft kiss. “Sounds like a date.”


The End.

There might be an epilogue up shortly.