Chronos' Puppet

They said barely nothing to each other as they made their way back to the house. Only the
slight brushing of the backs of their hands spoke to both men that this awas a mutually
agreable idea. The servants continued on their business, the day-shift preparing to pack up
for the evening. They didn't notice the barely retrained speed at which the pair took to the
stairs.

The guest room offered the most privacy as William's mother had a habit of
bursting in unannounced ot her only child's room. once inside Xander barely had a chance
to shut the door before he found himself pinned to it with William trying to rip his shirt off
between snatches of teet ant any skin available.

Xander chuckled, a deep throated sound that turned into a groan as the other man
pressed up hard against him to reach his lips. Humour gone, the brunette directed William
backwards, falling onto him as the back of the blonde's knees gave way at the edge of the
mattress.

*****

This was Pamela's second day at the modest home of the Bradshaw's, and already
she was starting to call it her second home. The other members of the household staff
treated her as one of their own kin, adequately juxtaposing the absent master of the house,
their stern mistress, and the silent, mousey son who most of the staff believed was a 'poof'.
Now with their younger master sequestered upstairs with that strange, dark haired man the
rumours had ressurected themselves like Bram Stoker's 'Dracula" to haunt the young man.
Pamela was certain that it had to be a mistake. William was sensitive, and the reason why
he never brought any girls home was because he had never found the right one. Pamela
was determined to be that 'one', and the best part was that she was already in the house.

The doorbell broke her from her daydreams of being Mrs. William Bradshaw with
a host of blue-eyed, curly blonde cherubic children. Shaking off her momentary fancies she
answered the door with a curtsey.

"Good eve'nin', Sir," her soft alto betrayed her Welsh ancestry. "What c'n I do
for ye?"

"Is the master of the house in? I need to speak to him about a most pressing matter
regarding his son."

The strangest chill came over the young maid. Something about his smile that
made him seem like one of the alley cats with a rat in its teeth. "Nah, Sir. 'M afraid he is't
in tonight."

"Oh...such a shame. Well then, may I wait indoors? It is quite wet out this evening,
as you can see." The man's eyes twinkled brightly under the brim of his bowler as he
countinued to smile. The edge of the hat cupped the water that fell on it from above, and
merrily poured the water it had collected onto the shoulders of the black trenchcoat of the
tall man.

"Well, he won't be back until late, sir..."

"I do not mind waiting, young miss. It is urgent, I assure you."

Even as she stepped aside and ushered the man through the door with the
invitation she knew it was the biggest mistake of her life. It was also the last as her scream
miscarried in her throat while the fangs harvested her juggular's rich river of blood. "Oh
William....' her mind twitched as her gaze rolled to the summit of the staircase, 'I'm so
sorry...'

*****


This was too easy. Solomon dispatched the other humans as they went about their
tasks, sneaking up from behind the other two on the lower floor and draining them before
they had a chance to make a sound. A cook, a butler, and that stupid redheaded girl that
had let him in to begin with. However, his mission was not yet over. His real interest
came in the form of whomever was on the second floor. He could hear them panting
harshly as their pheromones grew sharper with each silent step Solomon took up the
stairwell.

He was looking forward to this feast after tracking the brown eyed boy. Waiting
out the light of the sun teased him like a vindictive lover, while the other mortals had only
wet his appetite. The youth's blood would be the final touch to a glorious evening that
had barely begun.

*****

Xander pushed up onto his forearms as his body covered William, looking down at the
flushed pallor of his face with some trepidation. They had managed to keep enough blood
in their brains to negotiate around ties, buttons, and suspenders to reach their goal of skin
to skin contact. Will bucked up sharply, trying to get the other man to keep up the
momentum, but despite an answering groan as their erections slid against one another
Xander didn't move. Finally, Will cracked an eye open and the brunette was treated to
such an intense hue of blue that for a moment all other shades seemed as drab as a grey
November sky. 'Heh...some of the poet must be rubbing off on me', he mused.

"You stopped." Xander tried not to smile at the annoyed pout that had entered Will's
voice.

"Yeah." The American tried his best not to panic. Still, this was a potentially embarrassing
situation and he wanted to avoid it. 'Oh god! How do I tell him this? Okay, be cool, Xan.
Flash the puppy eyes, say you're really, really sorry when you tell him that you don't
remember a thing from last night and try to make it up to him. Shit, this is going to be
bad!' "Well, you see..." Xander smiled one of those 'you're not going to find this funny, but
you'll laugh later' expressions that Anya never liked.

And he sooo not wanted to think about her at that moment.

"You have a girlfriend, don't you?" The look in Will's eyes made him cringe inside, the
haunted, dull glaze of the well used. "She's waiting for you to return to her and you're
having second thoughts about cheating on her with me. Is that what you're stalling over?"

Xander nearly gaped in disbelief. Where the Hell did THAT come from! He knew that the
poet was shy, but coupled with that imagination it was no wonder he was so insecure.
Xander used his weight to trap Will under him as the blonde tried to slide out of bed.
"Yeah, you're right. She is waiting for me to come back, but she doesn't know that I won't
goingoing home. I want to stay here. I'm happy here." He never realized how much sense
that statement made to him until the words spilled into the air. The grin that lit his face
from the simplicity of it, of giving in to reality, such as it was, lifted a enormous weight off
his back.

"Right." Xander allowed himself to be pushed back as thondeonde sat up and regarded him
coldly. "Well, glad to see you're happy with yourself. This was just a shag after all, so let's
get on with it but you leave afterwards, alright? Get your own place if you want to live in
London so badly."

"Will..."

"What?" Will was wondering why the brunette was still smiling. Maybe it was too much to
hope that love at first sight wasn't a fairytale.

"You read romance novels don't you? My mom read a lot of those when I was a kid, and
I'm getting a 'Fabio' sort of vibe from this." At the blonde's confused, yet still infuriated
glare he quickly continued. "I want to stay because you're here. We rushed into this too
fast, but here we are, and I for one don't want to let that stop me from finding out what
we could have had. And the real reason why I stalled before you decided to go Sherlock
Holmes on me was that I didn't know how far we went last night and I was trying to find a
way to ask without sounding like a moron."

"That's it? That was what you were worried about?" Completely relieved, His body
shook with silent laughter before it was replaced with something Xander had not yet seen
in Will's daily expressions; hunger.

Xander gulped.

Will tackled him, straddling Xander with the sprawl that brought his face inches from the
other man's lips. "I can fix that." The blonde felt the arms circle him, palms kneading into
his lower back and traveling south before his hips were pulled down. "I don't love you,
you know that right, James?" he breathed into Xander's mouth.

"What about like?" Xander kissed him back hard, trying to banish the slight sting of those
words he had heard.

"I can work with like." William took the chance to detour, working down the collumn of
the other man's neck in search of a collarbone to nibble on, and Xander laughed both in
relief and in the ticklish sensation of the blonde's questing lips.

"Same here."

"Excuse me, gentlemen. I hate to interrupt your romantic interlude, but there's a matter
that concerns the dark haired man that needs to be addressed." Solomon had been listening
at the doorway, amusing himself with eavesdropping on the conversation for the moment.
It was charming really, plus the prey's witty yet baffling colloquialisms had him biting back
a chuckle a few times. He had been curious to see whether they would walk out into his
arms or not, but when it looked as though things had been resolved Solomon decided that
it had gone on far enough.

Dealing with the various forces of badness that stomped around his neighbourhood,
Xander reacted almost instinctively. He pushed William off him before crouching in front
of the blonde on the bed, forgetting his nudity. "Wow, you ever heard of knocking on a
guy's door before doing that? I'm not up to handling 'matters' right now, thanks." Xander's
glare turned to shock as the face began to grow ridges, as fangs dropped down into
Solomon's almost benevolent smile. Behind him Xander could feel William stiffen in what
was certainly terror.

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice, boy," answered Solomon before the vampire lunged at
him. Xander pushed Will off the bed, landing on him in their fall to the floor before he
scrambled to his feet. Dark eyes desperately traveled everywhere looking for anything that
would work as a stake. "Will...got anything wooden and pointy?" He didn't see the nod,
but the blonde's hand darted under the bed in search of the pencil that had noticed rolling
under it after the fall. Xander meanwhile was dodging the vampire as best as he could
while trying to keep himself between his lover and the intruder. "Hurry, Will!"

The blonde heard something large crash into the far wall as he reached frantically for the
pencil, and with one final stretch his fingers curled around the object. "James, I got it!" Grinning,
he pulled himself out from under the bed and met the yellow gaze of Solomon in full
gameface. Behind the vampire Xander lay sprawled by the door, the bloody gash at the
hairline screaming the reason for his unconsciousness. "Hello, Master William. Thank your
catamite over there. I was going to toss you out the window but I may have a use for you
after all." William's sight was filled with the gleam of moonlight fangs before the world
went dark.