Vices of My Blood

Disclaimer: The characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer are owned by Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Fox studios. This story is not meant to infringe upon anyone's rights, only to entertain.

Author's Note: Warnings: Torture, Extreme Language, Sexual Situations, Violence Buffy/Spike; Drusilla/Angelus Pairing

Chapter 19

Giles gathered the remaining Scoobies and Joyce at his apartment for two reasons; one, a disinvite spell and two, to inform them of the information that he had found in the prophecies. This time Willow's new beau, Oz, joined the group. The young man appeared to be quite intelligent and not surprised about the nightlife that infested Sunnydale.



The group gathered around the table as he showed them the sections that both intrigued and frightened the seasoned Watcher. He informed them that it was quite clear that Buffy belonged in some manner or other to the clan Aurelius. Her death at the hands of the late master of the clan, her romantic attachment to the current master, and her ongoing fight with the two remaining childer of the same clan proved the connection in Giles's eyes beyond a shadow of a doubt.




"I am deeply worried that Buffy's demon will seek out and claim her vampiric family if we don't somehow find a way to rescue her," stated Giles. "The thought that she might mate with Angelus is abhorrent."



Xander raised his hand just a bit and when Giles nodded to him, the rest of the group looked up at the teenager to see what he had to say.



"Don't think it is Angelus we need to worry about," the young man stated. He had yet to successfully block the scene between Buffy and Spike from his mind.



"What do you mean?" asked Joyce. All of this information was so mind-boggling to her; her daughter was a demon and now she was linked to vampires by more than her calling.



“I mean, I saw Buffy with Spike . . . um you know . . . doing things," Xander replied, his face turning a bright shade of red.



"What kind of things?" Cordelia questioned, suddenly uninterested in her nails and more on the conversation. Watching Xander turn beet red was much more interesting.




"Sexual kind of things," Xander whispered, trying to melt into his chair. God, he hated having to say it out loud in front of Cordelia. She probably would never let him live it down.



"Good God, when was that?" Giles asked, surprised. This was news to him, but closing his eyes he replayed the fight at the mansion. Buffy had turned to Spike for guidance at least once during the fast paced evening.



"Right before Angelus captured me. I peeked in a window at the mansion and saw them," replied Xander.



"Then we may be too late," Giles muttered, grabbing his books again.

**************************



Twice a day for a week, Buffy entered Angelus’ room, with or without Spike, to check on Drusilla’s health. She didn’t know why she cared so much whether her mate’s sire lived or died; only that she felt a deep connection to all three of them. To leave Drusilla uncared for was to abandon her own family. Even if the Aurelius Clan wasn’t her biological family, the primal force that had awakened inside her claimed them as though they were.




Twice she had been given chances to escape her captivity, to escape this fate, and twice she turned them down. The thing inside her had no desire to leave her new home. That’s what she considered the mansion now . . . her home. Her mate was here. He had seen to her every need. Now that February nights were cooler, Spike had had Dalton bring in more blankets for her, and as a belated birthday present the blond vampire had Dalton go out and buy flannel pajamas. Not to make up for being kidnapped on her birthday, but for the times when she was away from him.



She had asked Spike how he knew about the body temperature change and he had answered that she always felt cooler after being around Angelus and Drusilla when she was away from him. Buffy still found the temperature change confusing. Whenever she was taking care of Drusilla or around Angelus in the gardens, her body always dropped to that of a normal human. But that all changed every time she was near Spike. If she was in the same room with Spike and not touching him, her body heat would rise. And if they were touching or mere inches from each other, her heat skyrocketed to sweltering.



When Drusilla had gotten well, the first thing she ever voiced was addressing Buffy, calling her ‘our Sunshine’. Buffy merely smiled at the vampiress. After taking care of Drusilla for so long she had gotten used to the woman’s ramblings of burning cherubs and bad dollies.



As for Angelus, after his veiled – or not so veiled – threat he had kept his distance from her, excluding those few times in the gardens when he had inquired about his childe’s health. He had occasionally helped Buffy with the care of Drusilla and relieved her of her vigilance at night so that she could return to Spike’s side. Otherwise, they rarely spoke and never looked at each other. Angelus was Master of his Clan and even with the tentative byplay between she and Spike, he still imposed his stature and taunts over them.



On the last night Buffy saw to Drusilla, Angelus had come in to relieve her. He lay next to her on the bed. The vampiress’s fragile appearance belied the strength of her demon. With a look of gratitude he dismissed Buffy and once the two vampires were alone Angelus almost became loving toward his childe. Almost. It would have been called loving had he ever felt the emotion of love at all.



Angelus gently combed the dark hair out of Drusilla’s eyes and stared at her beautiful face. A face that enchanted him the first time he saw her and fueled his impulsive obsession to drive her completely insane before he turned her. He had turned her for many reasons, many often selfish reasons, and had kept her at his side for those very reasons.




First, for her beauty; he was beguiled by her gentle, flawless, ethereal beauty. He had stood outside her window and watched her for many nights. Then when his obsession had become worse, he stalked her during the day, moving through lengthened shadows, just following the sway of her slim hips.



During the day is when he had found that she was completely devoted to the church. He found that she was pure, chaste, untouched by any man and wholly devoted to God. He had a taste for the blood of nuns but nothing like what he had for Drusilla.



He spent a week watching the Catholic Church Drusilla attended in her small village. He had killed the Mother Superior and was feeding on the Father in the confessional when Drusilla had stepped in on the other side of the grated window.



**************************



London, 1860



Angelus walked down a street filled with people in regency clothing and horse-drawn carriages. He was about to pass the mouth of a deserted alley when he stopped and turned to walk into it. He held out his hand, and a woman took it, letting him help her up.




“I thought we were meeting in the Square,” Angelus inquired teasingly.



“I ran into Lord Nichols - horrid little man,” Darla shuddered as she looked down at a body with bite marks on his neck lying on the ground. “He was propositioning a streetwalker and dickering over the price - can you imagine? I told him I'd do him for nothing.”



“Ahh, Darla, You're very charitable,” Angelus grinned at his sire.



Darla delicately dabbed at her mouth with a handkerchief. "I so loathe cheap royalty.”



Angelus leaned in to Darla for a kiss and licked the trickle of blood from her lips. “They all taste the same to me.”



"My boy does have the touch,” Darla moaned softly.




“Darla, sweetheart,” Angelus crooned.



“Yes?” Darla asked innocently.



“Why'd you kill the streetwalker?” Angelus asked with laughter in his voice.



Darla looked down at bodies on the ground again. A woman lay next to the dead man. “Oh - I just liked her,” she said nonchalantly before getting excited again. “Guess what's next?”



The two vampires walked out of the alley and back onto the main street together.



“What is it?” Angelus chuckled at his sire’s giddiness.




Darla looked at her childe in mock hurt. “It’s a surprise. You have to guess!”



Angelus gave himself up to her teasing. She had never been this excitable before. He scanned the street and finally spotted a family with three young daughters coming out of a quaint little shop.



“The three daughters, they are all virgins,” Angelus said without taking his eyes off them.



“Close,” Darla taunted him softly.



“The one in the middle has something delicate and unique . . . Did you find me a Saint?” Angelus asked surprised.



“Better than that, my dear boy, she has the sight,” Darla confessed.




The girl in the middle turned as if Angelus’ mind had beckoned to her. It was Drusilla. She looked straight into Angelus’ eyes.



“Visions. She sees the future,” Angelus said as he started walking toward Drusilla with Darla clinging to his arm. “She is pure innocence, yet she sees what's coming, she knows what I'm going to do to her. I'll really have to come up to snuff for this one.”



Drusilla panicked a bit and turned away from the two vampires, herding her sisters away. Darla put a hand on Angelus’ chest to stop him from following further.



“Down boy, let the plum ripen,” Darla chastened.



"You always come up with something new,” Angelus told her, smiling.



“Keeps me young,” Darla teased.




A few weeks later Drusilla walked into an abbey and moved behind the pews toward the confession booth. Before entering she faced the altar, knelt and crossed herself. She looked up briefly before standing again and stepped into one of the booths. As she crossed the threshold an arm jutted out through the curtain of the adjacent one where the priest waited. The muffled noises and struggling didn’t seem to penetrate Drusilla’s mind. The arm was pulled back in as quickly as it appeared.



Inside the confessional, Drusilla sat down and pulled her shawl loose. She pressed her head against the grate window, and pleaded softly, “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.”



In the next booth Angelus was caught by surprise, and dropped the dead priest. He listened intently to the lilt of Drusilla’s soft voice.



“It's been two days since my last confession,” Drusilla said. When she received no answer, she called out, “Father?”



Angelus was starting to like this idea. Maybe he should use this as a ruse to get even more victims. He filed the scheme in the back of his mind and decided to play along.



“That’s not very long,” Angelus said, trying to sound like a priest.




“Oh, Father, I'm so afraid,” Drusilla said with a trembling voice.



Angelus turned his head and recognized Drusilla as one of the three daughters. The one with the visions. She didn’t sense his demon presence and for this little scheme to work, he was grateful that she hadn’t discovered him to be a fraudulent priest.



He faced forward and encouraged her. “The Lord is very forgiving. Tell me your sins.”



“I had . . .” Drusilla started to say erratically. She took a deep breath and tried again. “I've been seeing again, Father. Yesterday, the men were going to work in the mine. I had . . . a terrible fright,” she drew in a frightened breath and continued. “My stomach all tied up, and I saw this horrible . . . crash.” She calmed a bit, assured that she was voicing her fear to her trusted priest. “My mummy said to keep my peace, that it didn't mean nothing. But this morning . . . they had a cave-in. Two men died.”



Angelus’ demon raged happily inside him at the images of death that the girl across from him painted. He fought to keep his stoic appearance in place. “Go on,” he urged.



“Me mum says . . . I'm cursed,” Drusilla exhaled. “My seeing things is an affront to the Lord,” she inhaled again to calm her jumbled nerves. “That only he's supposed to see anything before it happens,” she inhaled again and sobbed. “But I don't mean to, Father, I swear! I swear!” Drusilla began to cry. She didn’t ask for the visions that plagued her. They just occurred. “I try to be pure in his sight. I don't want to be an evil thing.”




“Oh, hush, child. The Lord has a plan for all creatures; even a Devil child like you,” Angelus taunted.



Drusilla was taken aback. “A Devil?”



“Yes! You're a spawn of Satan. All the Hail Marys in the world aren't going to help. The Lord will use you and smite you down. He's like that,” Angelus continued to taunt her. In some way he was also talking about himself.



“What can I do?” Drusilla asked frightened.



“Fulfill his plan, child. Be evil. Just give in,” Angelus urged softly.




“No!” Drusilla cried. “I want to be good. I want to be pure.”



“We all do, at first. The world doesn't work that way,” Angelus tried to cajole her.



“Father . . . I beg you . . . Please . . . Please, help me,” Drusilla implored through her tears.



Angelus rolled his eyes. She would be easy to ruin. “Very well. Ten Our Fathers and an Act of Contrition. Does that sound good?”



“Yes,” Drusilla said with a relieved sigh. “Yes, Father. Thank you.”



“The pleasure was mine,” Angelus smiled. It was going to be so easy to drive her completely around the bend. “And my child . . .” He called out as he raised his hand to the grated window between them.




“Yes?” Drusilla asked expectantly.



Angelus stared at her beautiful face, flushed from crying. “God is watching you.”



**************************



Angelus thought back to what happened after that day in the church. After her confession, he had waited until dark and followed the girl’s scent to her home. There he slaughtered her entire family in front of her. However, Drusilla managed to escape to a convent in the countryside where she had attempted to become a nun to help cleanse her soul of the horrors she had experienced. Angelus had followed her though and, on the day she was to take the veil, he rushed the convent and annihilated every last nun. That thought put a sinister smile on his face. Killing every nun the convent had to offer before he had kidnapped Drusilla and taken her back to Darla. That was when Darla surprised him with a reward for his conquest and he made love to his sire in front of the trembling, now-insane Drusilla and then turned the girl.



Angelus looked at his childe now. Drusilla was still his obsession. Through all her manic behavior, even without Spike’s help to quiet her delusions, she was still his obsession. Now that she was well again . . .




Angelus kissed Drusilla’s face, her temple and cheek, licking her lips. “How are you feeling, princess?”



“Better. The sunshine healed me and she stayed with us,” Drusilla said in a sing-song voice.



“That she did. The sunshine took delicate care of you,” Angelus said, indulging his childe’s play on words.



“We’re a complete family again, no one is alone anymore,” Drusilla whispered.



“No, no one’s alone, Dru, we’re all together,” Angelus agreed.



Drusilla smiled dreamily and snuggled against her sire. Angelus crushed her to him and buried his face in her throat.




**************************



Buffy was out in the garden cutting a few small branches of jasmine blooms for Drusilla. For some unnamed reason she didn’t seem to mind taking care of Drusilla. It was stressful at times, even demanding at others. But she thought it would be a nice gesture to make a small bouquet of flowers for the vampiress’ room.



That was how she appeared to Xander and Willow when they spotted her through the trees. They stepped just inside the hedges and whispered to get Buffy’s attention. When the Slayer turned to see who was behind her she was surprised to see Xander and Willow with a tranquilizer gun. She gave them a look of confusion.



“What are you two doing here?” Buffy asked in puzzlement. She lowered her hands holding the blooms and shears. “With a tranq gun?”



“Oh, well. Oz is a werewolf on the loose now,” Xander provided.



“A werewolf? Oz?” Buffy was even more baffled.




“Yea, nothing out of the ordinary for Sunnydale,” Willow said.



“You should go with us, Buffy,” Xander suggested. “Get away while you still can.”



“No, Xander, I told you before, my place is here,” Buffy said.



“But Buffy you have to come with us, you can’t stay as a prisoner to Angelus anymore. We can help you!” Willow said adamantly.



“No Will, I’m not leaving my family,” Buffy stressed.



“Your family, Buff, your mother is at home. There is no other family holding you here,” Willow tried to get her friend to see reason.




Buffy’s eyes flashed at the way her friends ignored what she wanted. All the time she was a human slayer, her actions had been dictated by the reactions of her friends and Watcher. Now that she had found some measure of peace – one couldn’t be completely peaceful around Angelus – with her family and mate, she didn’t want to give it up. She didn’t want to return to the human world; it had no place for her there as she was an unclassified demon . . . or whatever she was.



Buffy’s eyes flashed turquoise before she spoke with a deadly calm to her friends. “I am not leaving my family and my mate. Now leave.”



“Buffy? This isn’t like you,” Willow whined, assuming her friend was under a thrall of some kind.



“Once we get you away from this place your head will clear and you’ll be thinking straight again,” Xander said.



“I told you guys to leave,” Buffy growled as her demon came to the forefront.



Willow jumped a bit surprised by Buffy’s demon. Just then Oz, or a wolf-like animal whizzed by them. Xander yelped as that scared him. Both Willow and Xander forgot Buffy for the time being to chase after the werewolf.



Buffy waited to see if her two friends would return when she heard a shot ring out from the tranquilizer gun and Xander’s yelp of “Jesus God I’m dying! You shot me Will. I think I lost all feeling in my left side” and Willow’s spat of “Buck up Xander, stop that wolf!” before their voices were out of her hearing range.



Buffy shook her head and rubbed Spike’s mark as it became warmer. She picked the last of the bouquet and went inside.