Oncoming Train

Just About Right Where We Left Off . . .

*
As soon as the door to the basement closed Angel dropped Riley’s legs and had him pressed to the wall, face burying in his neck. The blond panted and wiggled about until he could hook a leg about Angel’s, still riding the rush of desire he’d summoned to put on their show.

“Can you hear him?” Angel asked, but Riley understood. ‘Could he hear us?’ Riley shook his head and grabbed at the vampire’s thick tumble of hair to kiss him hard. What had passed between him and Graham, most of it had gone too fast for him to grasp the images. Just the impact of feelings, from despair to euphoria, leaving him shaking and lightheaded on that dirty floor. Overwhelmed until Angel appeared and he had never felt so grateful to see another being, to feel that blessed calmness at his vampire’s proximity He’d wanted to climb beneath Angel’s skin; he still did. That rush had quickly given itself to want, given him the boldness that now stained his cheeks, but it was still there, burning fiercely.

For the first time it was Angel who pulled away, ridged face reflecting the fury and possession in the hands that gripped his arms and thumped him into the wall with controlled violence. “Are you trying to drive me insane?” the vampire snarled, heated words he licked into warm, salty skin, his wicked tongue laving a path from collarbone to ear. Riley shivered and made a little sound of need that looped around Angel’s cock and jerked it forward. His erection rubbed against its twin, Riley surging into him with a needy groan. What the fuck, but he was primed to come right now! “Did you want me to fuck you right there? Did you want your soldier to see you on your knees, begging for my cock to take your ass?” Putting words to deeds Angel clutched at his ass cheeks, squeezing before sliding down to grip the tops of his thighs and lifting him off his feet.

“You want to fuck me now?” Riley gasped, flexing his arm around his lover’s neck to give him the leverage to thrust up into Angel’s tented crotch, long legs linking around the vampire‘s lean hips. He couldn’t stop blushing any more than he could get his erection to go away, but Angel wasn’t laughing at him.

“I want to fuck you all the time,” Angel husked. “Can’t think but to get inside you. You’ve possessed me.”

Oh yeah, that sounded about right, and Riley sought his lover’s mouth for another kiss, shivering at the feeling of those fangs pressing against his lips. It was possible they could have gone at it right there, but a faint shuffle of noise froze both vampire and seer. Glancing over Angel’s shoulder Riley frowned to see Xander standing at the other end of the hall, practically drooling at them.

“Xander?”

The teenager grinned, coming closer as Angel reluctantly let Riley back to his feet. “Hey, don’t stop. Please, for me, continue.”

Riley laughed softly, embarrassed at being caught acting like a slut, bemused at the idea of Xander wanting to watch. “Sorry, Xander.” Angel had let him down, but the big vampire was still crowding him into the wall, face buried in his neck. Feeling the ridges of his vampiric countenance, and the unabated steel bruising his hip, Riley realized Angel was still getting control of himself. Having an audience had deflated his own erection, but it figured his demon would be unaffected. Riley, hesitating for only a moment, reached up to cup Angel’s head, nails gently scritching his scalp. In response he felt Angel’s grip tighten.

Stopping just out of reach Xander cocked his head. “Don’t apologize for fueling my fantasies, man.” A finger came up, stabbing the air. “Though wait. Someone should be apologizing to someone for not bringing someone down for someone’s dinner. Now I wonder just who that someone could be.”

Angel sighed, and then with a final squeeze, shifted his weight enough to let Riley move. Now that Xander had mentioned food the blond’s stomach clenched, grumbling, loud enough that the brunette sighed. “Go eat.”

He tried, he really did try a look of reluctance, but Riley knew it was paltry. They weren’t, he wasn’t going to do anything with Xander standing right there, and Xander wasn’t leaving until he went, and he was starving, so . . . With a consoling pat to the vampire’s arm the blond eased away. “I am kinda hungry.”

Fingers curled under his chin, drawing him back for a hard buss. “So am I.”

Riley smiled, pulling away. Eyes more yellow than brown were watching his every twitch, predatory and consuming, assuring him that the most subtle invitation would have him on the floor, audience or no. Control was such a fine thing between them and he cast about for an olive branch, for something to help them both stay in this nice place. “Can’t stay away from you, remember? You gonna come with?”

Slowly, Angel nodded, caressing the mark hidden under the collar of his windbreaker before his gaze darted towards the waiting Scooby. “I’ll be right behind you.”

*
The boys left with Riley giving him a parting glance over his shoulder. With his mate’s scent slowly fading Angel was able to wrest control of his features from his unsatisfied libido. It seemed ridiculous to think he had only had a few days with Riley, not when his body and demon reacted this way. Angelus grumbled at his silliness, reminding him that time meant nothing when a demon found its mate. And that he didn’t have this luxury, not when Riley could have another attack out of his sight. Xander had seemed to be minding his boy’s space, but what if one of others came across them and got all touchy-feely? The vampire growled, arousal abruptly replaced by fear tinged rage. If it wasn’t for his stupid conscience, he’d kick them all out of the house. Didn’t any of them get it, that Riley was safe only with him and him alone? They were all a threat and he was tired of-

A sudden awareness, a trickle of scent, and Angel’s mad rush out of the basement jerked to a stop, yellow eyes narrowed on the shadows ahead. The distraction worked in re-centering his emotions and he took a deep breath, deeply ashamed at how quickly he’d succumbed to his darker side. Knowing he had the older vampire’s attention Spike emerged into the weak light of the basement’s hall.

“Sire,” his youngest greeted, uncharacteristically polite and deferential.

Angel narrowed his eyes, taking deep calming breaths. His boy had never been so well mannered as when he wanted something. “William.” Spike was an established master vampire in his own right, but William was his childe and the petite vampire allowing the address without even a token growl told his sire much.

Leaning against the wall Spike huddled in on himself, gaze drifting anywhere but near the dark vampire watching from feet away. Spike fastidiously took to inspecting his nails. “Xan knows a lot about vampire society, ‘bout how things are done. Wanted to do right by me out in public.” A small smile skirted his mouth then, sign of his joy at the lengths his chosen mate was willing to go. “Even knows how being my mate has changed him. Accepts what needs accepting.’

Angel had decided that their relationship was none of his business since both seemed happy in it, but Will had brought the subject up, so his sire asked the questions he wanted. “So he knows he will one day turn? That when that day comes he will have even less choice than you did?”

Spike glared at his bluntness but jerkily nodded. “He knows. Already got his soul bound.” Lips twisted. “Think on how much snaff he gets into, for the best anyway.”

“So what doesn’t he know?”

Manicured nails scratched at the brick wall. “Queen bitch’s dead and me Princess’ off somewhere in Africa . . .,” pale blue eyes briefly cut his way, “you . . . Never really got around to explaining how families work, the needs he’d have. Didn’t see much of a need.”

Angel stared hard at his child, working through the pieces of the puzzle Spike had given him. When it all clicked he snarled, not at all amused at the mess his childe had landed them in. “Riley and Xander.”

A pointed chin notched the air. “You stroll into town like you always do, without a care to how things are standin’. The whelp was ours so much as he lived in our space. Ain’t gonna say I was ever gonna love the boy but Xan likes protectin’ wounded doves. Was one more bad night from takin’ the hayseed into our bed. Boy’s got the urges of any dominant, to consolidate power, make a family.”

And Angel’s arrival would not have changed that nesting need. A dominant liked to surround himself with subservients. It was why he and his own sire Darla had never gotten along. No matter how powerful a master, a vampire could not change its nature. Darla had never been able to accept the rule, that she had sired a childe capable of dominating her. It was the order of things. Subservients like Darla, like Spike, gained enough power to leave their masters, but they always sired a dominant to replace the one they forsook. One of their choosing, one they could inversely control through the sire-childe bond if they were smart enough. Dominants did not sire dominants, it was not the way.

A mate was chosen by similar means. Xander was being influenced by Spike’s demonic nature through their bond, but was still tempered by his human constraints. If Xander had been a vampire already Riley would have been an ideal childe for him. Might one day have become one if Angel had not interfered. Yet he had. Spike had chosen a gentle natured dominant, a protector rather than a bully. It was possible for Angel to establish himself as the alpha without bloodshed. One day in the far future, when Xander fully turned, his demon would need to be reminded its place as his beta in the House, but he could ally the boy to him now much easier.

“You want to keep this in the family?” he asked, wanting Spike to be certain he’d go along with this.

His childe shrugged. “Time’s are gettin’ dangerous wot with every old evil comin’ out of hidin’ to make a pain of themselves. Might be a good idea if the House of Aurelius put up a united front, gave out a right proper ‘fuck off’.”

His boy had a point.

TBC.

Krimson: glad you like my Xander. I’m trying to keep him a guy in transition, which makes me scratch my head and re-read myself, but he’s my uber-teenager, a boy growing into a man in a twisted way.
Alice: Yay to Angel/Riley cuddling!
CC: sorry for the confusion. I think about how all of Sunnydale walks around with blinders on to all the demon stuff happening on their doorsteps, and is there really a reason the other Scoobies, who try so hard at normalcy, wouldn’t be blind to their own monsters? Vampires are all about pretense.