Fangless.Sequel

A/n: I want to thank Nokia, Josie_h, Lush, babe, volume, and Serinah for their reviews. I'm glad you are liking the story thus far! *hugs you*


~2 Days Earlier~

“How lovely it is to see this.”

“Get out!”

“Why should I Lover? Isn’t this what you brought me here to see?” Darla’s smile never wavered from overflowing joy. Standing near Spike’s body, she hovered, eyes sparkling with glee - watching Angel’s reaction as she inched closer. Her fingernails gleamed with black polish as her hand came nearer to Spike's trembling head of brown and golden curls.

Angel snarled lowly as hot friction began to grind in his fists. He nearly leapt to strangle his former Sire but her hand retreated and she took a step back.

Angel stood at the far end of the room, his button-up shirt open, parted down the middle to reveal the pale expanse of toned muscle. The zipper of his jeans was undone in the same fashion.

“What?” Darla egged him on. “Didn’t think I could smell him all over you? Did you think I wouldn’t notice the stench of this little one covering every inch of your flesh?! You are quite the fool.”

He took the words at face value, passing it off as simple jealousy. But nothing about the happy look in her eyes read of envy.

“Oh, you can fuck me all you want, you can hurt me; but that doesn’t change the fact that your plan failed.”

Her words cut through him - pure venom. How could she know? His intentions weren’t clear, not even to himself. One second he had been in control, the next he’d lost it.

Angel remembered going out, hunting, killing anything he could get his hands on. Primal rage exploded as he brought his wrath down on any unlucky demon unfortunate enough to get caught in his sights; and still nothing deterred his thoughts from the fact that Spike was at the hotel, aching for something Angel just couldn’t give.

Then she'd appeared. Her scent filled the halls in a thick, blinding, aroma. He followed the alluring smell and found her in one of the third floor rooms - door opened, tempting him to step forward. And when he did she was standing behind a thin curtain veil, silent - staring him down until he leapt at her with a rage he hadn’t felt in so long. Blinding flashes in his mind - his lips on hers, pushing inside her, feeling her tremble under his excessive force - all leaving him sated but in dire need of sunlight. Then he had put on a show, throwing himself into the cold rainy night, panting furiously as he clutched his chest tight. However, nothing but despair came to him - utterly perfect despair.

Darla only stayed to watch his theatrics for a few moments before disappearing. When Angel had come to she was gone, but he felt her lingering presence and went searching for her. Now she was in the room - his - the one he closed off and reserved for Spike and himself. A dull numbness began to build in Angel‘s chest, making him stiff and unable to react as Darla continued smiling his way.

“You know he cried when you first left. So broken up and pining for you, our dear William was. He went on and on, just yammering about how his dear Angelus left him. Then Drusilla took your place. You know she’s the one who told me about this? And I just had to see it for myself.”

He knew she spoke of Drusilla’s visions. Had his other childe seen this? Yes, that’s what Darla was implying, and he knew all too well how accurate his clairvoyant childe was. And what was this? It was Spike, in this form, as he was now, malnourished and shivering on the bed as he slept in pale light. Angel was speechless and allowed Darla her time.

“What? Silent?” She sneered. “Not even a reaction from the great Angel? How typical.” Taking it a step too far, Darla sat on the mattress, close to Spike but not touching him. A low laugh sounded through her closed lips and she spoke. “You know I figured it all out. From the moment Dru told me of her vision, I knew. It’s what you feel inside, what you need but don’t have. It's belonging, my dear boy. You ache to belong and feel the love of another without the pain of the past plaguing you. But the funny thing is, you never will. As you are now, you’re worthless, no good to a single soul on this earth. And you realize that, don’t you? You know you’re worthless to everyone. Am I wrong?”

More taunting - Angel’s eyes narrowed, unable to concentrate with the swelling numbness growing inside.

Darla walked from the bed over to him, her hand reaching out and lightly grazing over his chest. She licked her lips and looked the big vampire in the eyes, smiling coyly. “Am I wrong?”

He couldn’t move, caught in her eyes, wanting to kill her. “Yes,” he responded, “you are.”

“No, I’m right. Tell me, why is it you tried to lose your soul to me tonight? Why is it you still look after this waste of space when you know he’s better off dust? I’ll tell you why. It’s because you know in your heart - that soulful, worthless heart - that Angelus is the last chance that boy has at becoming whole again. Because the simple fact is, he‘ll never want you.”

“No. You’re wrong.”

Her smile broadened and she began speaking in a chant. “Daddy sleeps with his mommy to gain the perfect bliss. Daddy wants the boy, so he’ll have a little toy. Daddy doesn’t know, but the toy has an owner. Master, master, oh where is he? Nowhere, nowhere - locked away in the mind. Daddy’s not the master, but he wants to be. He’ll sleep with his mommy to become the toy maker.” She pressed her lips to Angel’s chest, speaking against the flesh. “Our Dru goes on about it all the time. It took me a while to figure it out, but eventually I did. Weeks before now even, she knew. She said Spike wasn’t himself, that he’d come to you, and then I figured someone broke him in. Finally. And thanks to some helpful information from Wolfram & Hart, so generously donated by my adoring admirer, I pieced the rest together easily.”

Angel quickly grabbed her by the wrists, applying punishing force, and snarled in her face. “Who did this?!”

She merely laughed. “In time my dear boy, in time. You’ll figure it all out, you‘re too smart not to. Go find the truth for yourself Angel, you‘ll die I‘m sure. See I know what happened, but I‘m not going to say. Think of it as my pay back for you burning me.”

The ruffling of bed sheets and blankets on the mattress began to sound as the body stirred - Spike was waking.

“Looks like you have work to attend to.”

Angel’s eyes were focused behind Darla, at the bed, and his heart completely numbed. He found himself breathing slightly, unable to react with anything but stillness. Then something was pressed into his hand, hard and wooden, long and delicate fingers wrapping his larger ones around the object.

“Here,” Darla said. “I was saving this for you but you’ll probably need it more. One last thing though.” She kissed Angel‘s bare chest and stepped away. “I wanted you to know I heard about your slayer, the one you claimed to love enough to kill me over. I know you nearly drained her saving yourself, and then you left her high and dry with a broken heart. Now, isn’t that something?” She took a look back at Spike and then forward at Angel’s hand, his fingers wrapped tightly around what she’d given him. “Now do what you do best and kill yet another person dear to you. Spike'll be better off, being what he always should have been - dust. My boy, you bring nothing but pain into the lives of those you touch - remember that as he dies in your arms.”

Angel looked her in the eyes. “Get out!”

Her smile still in place she walked in the direction of the door, leaving the stake in Angel‘s hands.

Angel turned to watch her leave. “If you come back I‘ll kill you.”

“I won‘t be coming back,” she assured him as she entered the hall, “because like so many others in your sad, pathetic world - Angel - you have nothing left to offer me.”


~Ten Days Earlier~


Giles stared blankly as he removed his glasses and wiped them on the hem of his shirt. He gave the lenses a firm rub, sighing deeply before placing them back over his eyes. He looked up and placed his hands on the table, entwining his fingers and staring straight ahead.

“Let me get this straight,” he said. “What you’re saying is that Riley… is in love with a vampire?”

No response. Giles took a deep breath and continued. “Not only that, but you’re telling me it’s Spike. Spike, William the Bloody, who in fact is not dead like you originally told me, but is down in the Initiative as we speak.”

Silence swept the room again. Hands quickly tightened into fists and the watcher’s calm exterior quickly faded, replaced by a mask of rage. Slam! His fists were brought down on the table‘s wooden surface. “Damn it Buffy, say something!”

“Yes,” Buffy said, finally. “That’s it. The Initiative has Spike down in their labs, he’s Riley’s… pet.” She looked down as she spoke the last word, disgusted by the feel of it in her mouth.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Giles said, worried.

“It’s not what you think; it’s complicated. And, I just found out a week ago.” Buffy never made eye contact, not even minutes ago when she’d been explaining the information she‘d gathered the last few days. Giles was her Watcher, and a friend most of all. He deserved to know what was going on. She quickly found, however, that as she went on speaking she was unable to concentrate, mind clouded with inane and disparaging thoughts. All she said was that Riley had confessed he loved a vampire and Giles had snapped to attention. That concept in itself seemed so abstract that when Spike’s name had been uttered as the vampire in question she became as silent as Giles. Now she sat in the backroom of the Magic Box, unable to make contact with the disapproving gaze across from her.

“How could you not have told me?”

“I...I…” Buffy stammered. “I didn’t know how to react. I wanted to, to… I don’t know. But when Riley told me I thought he was kidding. But when he didn’t make with the laughing I just stood still staring at him, I couldn’t talk - because I knew. It made sense. Everything finally made sense and I just couldn’t handle it.” Buffy looked up, meeting her Watcher’s eyes. She didn’t know how to say the words that were forming in her mind.

“So what do we do now?” Giles said.

“We don’t do anything,” she replied. “I need you to be quiet while I talk. Promise you’ll listen?” Wrapping her arms around her chest in an insecure fashion she waited for Giles to give a consenting nod. He did.

“Alright,” he said.

Buffy waited a moment to begin. “The reason I’m telling you all this is because I don’t know who else to turn to. You didn’t see the look in Riley’s eyes as he watched Spike…”

“What?” Giles spoke, breaking his promise as his outrage cut into the middle of Buffy’s sentence. His muscles tensed and he fought to hold back his anger.

“Riley snuck me into the Initiative to show me what they‘d done,” she said, lowering her eyes.

The Watcher’s voice evened out. “That was very dangerous,” he commented.

“I know.”

Twice. The number of times Buffy had been shot was two. Neither resulted in anything but a few days in bed, but the threat was there. In both instances Buffy had ventured too far into Initiative territory - the government facility had secretly taken control of most of the town, leaving the slayer highly ineffective at guarding the Hellmouth. The animosity they held toward the slayer and anyone who associated themselves with her was all too evident to both Buffy and Giles. They’d all been lucky nothing too serious had yet to spark from the rivalry.

The Watcher’s brow became heavy as he was deep in thought. “So I’m guessing you two aren’t together anymore.”

“You’d be right,” Buffy said. “But what’s going on with Spike and Riley isn’t the reason I’m telling you all of this.”

“Then why?” Giles asked, confused.

“Two nights ago I ran into something at the college; or, what I mean to say is - it ran into me.” She looked her mentor in the eyes again, a dead stare. “It was a thing. I‘ve never seen a creature like it. It was big and made of demon and human parts combined - mostly demon. The look of it just reeks of their work. Not only that but it’s strong too, even stronger than I am. I barely managed to get away.”

Giles stayed silent and removed his glasses - a bad sign. He raised the specs in the air toward the shining light above, looking up through the lenses, and spoke. “Must we fear Riley now?”

“No. I don’t think he knows about this or what exactly it is the Initiative is planning. But, we shouldn’t trust him completely.”

“Yes, I suppose his mental state could be brought into question now - he may be unstable.” Buffy gave a small nod. “So, what are you planning to do?”

“Riley wants to save Spike - if you’d seen him like I had then you’d know it’s probably foolish - but that’s what Riley wants. So I gave him Angel’s information with instructions to leave Spike in L.A. He’ll do it; I know him well enough to know he will.” Buffy paused before she spoke again, afraid to reveal what she’d tried to deny for so long. “Giles, I want you to know that I need Angel right now. As it stands he’s the only person I trust to leave Dawn with.”

“What does Dawn have to do with this?” He replied.

“That thing that attacked me didn’t kill me, and it could have. It told me something Giles.” They stared each other in the eyes as Buffy’s voice became low and withdrawn.

“Mother wants the Key.”

Nothing more was said and both were left to reflect on what those words meant.
“Is it Walsh?” Giles finally spoke. “How could she know? And what would she want to do with it? We don‘t even know what it does.”

“That’s just it, I don’t know. But whatever it is, I’ll figure it out. Once Riley takes Spike to L.A. I’ll try to see if I can use him to get what we need to prepare. Then I’m taking Dawn too.”

“Have you told Angel about any of this?”

“No I haven’t. I’ll explain it to him when I get there. I need to tell him face to face.”

“What about Spike? Angelus is his Sire - Angel won’t be pleased.”

“I know. Hopefully he’ll be in a good mood.”


~TBC~