After Midnight 6/? Lessons of Bone and Blood
Ok, everyone, (well, those that are still interested) I'm putting up chapter 6 now. As always with this one, this is totally unbeta'd. So any mistakes in grammar, continuity, word choice, characterization are all mine. If you see them, feel free to point them out. This one took some doing. I ended the last chapter in such a way as this one could only go to one place. Not sure I made it there, but here's hoping!
This will be cross posted to a_darker_angel, darker_spike, and _xangel, so my apologies to my flisties ahead of time.
Title: Lessons of Bone and Blood
Rating: FRM mature but not NC 17
Summary: Angelus reinforces some rules
Disclaimer: I don’t own em. Never did. Joss is the master.
Feedback/Concrit: Oh hell yeah. This is totally unbeta’d
Setting: An AU season 4 that follows from my fic After Midnight.
Warnings: Torture in this one. Not as bad as it could be, but.....
Previous stories are here in my Memories.
Story Banner by lit_gal
Previously: “It’s alright, Xander. I know.” Angelus reached out to pet the younger vampire, trailing his big hands through the impossibly soft hair. “I’m know what you need, baby,” he cooed and continued to pet Xander. Suddenly, Xander felt the gentle hands fisted in his hair. “Trust me to give it to you, too.” The voice was hard, menacing.
And Xander couldn’t wait.
Lessons of Bone and Blood
“Get up.” The fist in his hair pulled, making Xander wince. He refused to move, though. The monster that lived in him may want this, but he certainly did not. He wasn’t moving. “I said get up!” The fist pulled harder, eliciting a moan of pain. “Boy. Don’t make this harder than it has to be. If you don’t get up - ”
“What? What Angleus? You’re going to kill me? Again? Don’t you think that’s just a little overkill? I mean, even for you?” His head hurt. His head hurt bad and he was sure his scalp was bleeding, but there was no way he was going to let Angelus win. Not just like that, no matter what his demon wanted.
“No. I’m not going to kill you again.” Angelus’ long suffering tone almost made Xander laugh. Then he was face to face with gold eyes and long white fangs. “But I’m going to make you wish you were dust. I’ll make the pain so good you’ll beg for me to keep doing it. It’ll make you hard, and dripping and oh god, so fucking delicious. You’ll scream for me to fill you up, make you come.”
“Ahh. Good one, Angelus. So I guess you won’t mind if I watch, then, mate?” Spike taunted.
“Shut up Spike. Or you’ll be very sorry you reminded me you were there,” Angelus snarled without ever looking away from Xander.
“Like you could forget me.” Spike’s voice faded to a whisper, “Sire.”
Angelus’ eyes shifted to Spike, chained against the far wall. “Not your sire, Spike.”
“In all the ways that matter, you are.”
“Funny. You weren’t thinking that when you knocked me out with that candelabra and took off with Dru. It wasn’t on your mind when you left me to battle that little bitch alone. I think the word I’m looking for is betrayal, Spike. Childer don’t betray their Sires.” He rose and moved over to stand before Spike. “Do they, now?”
“They do, when they’re masters in their own right.” Spike whispered, head bowed in deference.
“Ahh. Well, perhaps I’d better make this clear from the start then. Look at me.” Spike lifted his head, blue human eyes meeting gold demon ones. “You’ll never be a master, so long as I’m around, Spike. I’m the Master of this Order.”
“Beggin’ your pardon, Angelus, you ain’t been around in, oh, bout a hundred years. Tosser.”
Angelus blinked.
“Dru weren’t strong enough. It was left to me. And dammit, Angelus, I was a fine Master. I think you’d have been proud.”
“Hmm.” Angelus thought for a minute. “Well, it’s only right. Dru may have turned you, but I made you what you are. I suppose if I’m to be congratulated for making you what you are, then I ought to be blamed for your betrayal as well.”
“Well, the thought did cross my mind, yeah.” Spike sort of laughed.
“Only one problem.”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t like taking the blame.”
Xander heard the sickening thud of a fist meeting flesh and not a split second behind it, the high pitched crack of bones breaking. He winced. Then the sharp sound of material rending, and he knew Spike was being stripped. He wondered what Angelus would do with the duster. He turned to see Angelus had taken off the precious leather, and smiled.
Spike may not know it, but Angelus was proud of him. Otherwise, the leather would be cut to pieces. Instead, it was removed with disguised care and draped over one of the tables. It never touched the floor.
Xander came to a realization about Angelus, but before he could formulate the emotions into a thought, he heard the sounds of fists and flesh again.
“You betrayed me to work with the Slayer, Spike. Did you think I would welcome you back so easily?”
“No. Knew I’d pay. Knew only you could make the betrayal worthwhile too.” Spike answered, his voice barely above a whisper. It was strange to hear the brash vampire reduced to docility. In the moment, Xander thought he was beautiful that way. The sharp edges of his face smoothed out, the hard line of his mouth soft, the glint in his eyes that hid him, gone. Xander didn’t think this was Spike, but he didn’t know who it was either.
“Beautiful.” He whispered, his eyes raking down the pale body. When two pairs of eyes looked his way, one exasperated, the other just plain angry, he started. “Oh shit. Did I say that out loud?”
“Yes. You did.” Angelus’ focus shifted back to him, but he never moved away from Spike. “You like my boy, Xander? You think he’s pretty?” Xander watched Angelus grasp Spike’s jaw and winced, knowing the bones to be broken, but he looked at Spike, really took in the face. “I made him,” the voice continued. “Well, Dru took him, but gods he was so beautiful then. None of this radioactive hair or swaggering bravado. Back then it was just William. My beautiful William.”Angelus turned again to look at Spike. “My poet, my boy. I broke you so well, didn’t I baby?”
“Yes, Sire.”
“You want me to again, too, don’t you, boy? You want my fist on you, in you. You want to feel your blood pooling at your feet from my hand. I bet, pretty William, I could douse you in holy water and you’d beg me for a cross.” Angelus stroked the fine face, tracing his thumb over the soft pink lips, following their movement when they whispered, “yes sire” like he knew they would.
“You’ve been very naughty, my William. Very, very naughty. I don’t think you deserve my attention. You tried so hard to get away from it before.”
“No! Please, Sire. Punish me. Hurt me again.” The voice Xander had so long associated with menace sounded wrong soaked in despair - a feeling he to which he could relate. The final words, “make me belong again” floated down to him, and he knew a kinship. Belonging. A place, acceptance. He wouldn’t have to be lonely again, and Xander, despite the raging anger at the unjustness of losing his life, wanted that.
He stood and moved to the two vampires who were lost in the past. He touched Angelus, trailing his fingers down the smooth cool skin of his arm. Dark eyes turned to him, snapping into the present. And the arm that he’d been ghosting his fingers down suddenly reached up and grabbed him by the throat. “Did I say you could rise, Xander?”
Without struggling, leaning his head back to ease the pressure on his throat, Xander whispered, “No, but I thought...I should say this...face to face.”
“Say what, young one?” Angelus eased his grip.
“I want to belong too. Break. Me.”
“Why?”
Xander looked at Spike, meeting curious blue eyes. Then he turned to Angelus. “Because I need it. I’ve been...alone....too long. I’m dead now, none of my friends would want me around, so all I’ve got is you, and you Spike, for family. It’s a fucked up family that I never would have joined otherwise, but it’s what I’ve looked for.”
Angelus stared at him for a minute, taking in the veracity of his words. Then, Xander watched as the dark face loomed in closer to his, a red tongue slipping out to moisten full lips and finally, Xander felt those lips on his. The kiss was almost tender, was almost an acceptance of fealty, of family. He felt the kiss end, and heard Angelus whisper, the Irish lilt stronger with emotion, “Him too, Xander. Kiss my boy, too.”
Family, belonging Those thoughts kept running through Xander’s mind as he stood before a naked Spike who wasn’t Spike, then leaned forward to lay his lips on the pink and bloodied ones of what would soon be his brother.
“Are we all on the same page now, boys?” Angelus spoke from just behind Xander, and Spike and Xander nodded, their foreheads pressed together, smiling into each other’s eyes. “Good.”
Angelus snatched Xander back by his hair, and slammed him into the brick stone wall. He felt and heard the back of his skull crack with the contact. Immediately, his jaw was gripped in a powerful hand and snatch down, the joint snapping cleanly. “Lesson one about family, Xander. You don’t spit in the bed you lie in. I think a broken jaw will prevent that, in the future don’t you?”
The next sensation Xander could recognize was the feel of both of his knees kicked sidways out from under him, both dislocating. He screamed. “That’s a good boy. You scream. Let me know you’re learning. Lesson two? You stay where you’re put, or I’ll incapacitate you.”
The heavy click of shoes on the stone floor let Xander know that Angelus had left him, moved over to Spike. And he heard, “Lesson three is for you, Spike. You remember lesson three, don’t you?”
“No, Sire. I’ve forgotten. It’s been a while. Remind me. Please.”
“Oh, god William, you still beg so prettily. All meek in voice, but there is fire in your eyes. I love it. I’ve missed it. Lesson three dear boy, is,” Xander heard the sound of a foot coming down hard onto flesh and Spike’s answering howl of pain, “You do not leave. You leave, and I break your feet. Remember?”
“Yes,” Spike’s voice sobbed out.
“Xander. Get up and come over here.” The order was bewildering. He couldn’t walk with busted kneecaps.
“Sire?”
“Don’t question me! Get your ass over here!”
“But I can’t-”
Angelus stormed over and snatched him up by his broken jaw. “When I tell you to do something, you do it. I don’t want to hear excuses.” He slammed Xander up against the wall again. “You are nothing but trouble, you know that? Always backtalking, disobeying me. Spitting in my goddam bed. The more I think about that the angrier I get.” He moved in close to Xander. “Do you know what I do when I get angry? What I’m like?”
“No. I’ve only been dead for five days, Angelus. Don’t you remember? I have no idea what you’re like when angry.” Xander paused. “Oh, wait. Is that when you’ll draw me to death?”
Angelus laughed. “Oh, that mouth. I have got to do something about that mouth.” He leaned in and kissed Xander again. But this time the kiss was not a kiss but a bite. He bit through Xander’s lips until his teeth clicked together, smiling at the feel of the cool blood gushing onto his tongue and Xander’s loud moans filling his ears. “You won’t be so smart mouthed now, will you boy? Kinda hard to talk with your lips bitten through.” He licked his lips. “And that girl you killed? Damn, boy but she tastes good.”
“Angelus...”
“Shut up, Spike.”
“But he won’t be able to feed.”
“Like you won’t help him, you softie. I know you helped him earlier. You two are all over each other. It really kinda pisses me off. You belong to me. He belongs to me.” Angelus reaches up to Spike’s hands, caught in the manacles. He grips the fingers lightly, almost caressing them. “You remember what happens when you touch what belongs to me, William?”
“Yeah, I rememb-” Spike screamed when his fingers broke all together. “You bastard! You’re supposed to do those one at a time!”
“Why? Did you touch him one finger at a time?”
“No, you daft bugger! I didn’t touch him at all!”
“Oh, William. Now you’re lying.”
“No, I swear. I didn’t touch him.”
“I can even tell you how.” He draped his arm over Spike’s shoulders. “It was like this. You put your arm around what belongs to me, boy. You know better.” With a hard shove, he snapped Spike’s shoulder. “He stinks of you, and I don’t like it.”
Xander turned tear-filled eyes on Angelus. “Well, if you had marked me, he’d have known, wouldn’t he. I may be new, Angel, but I’m not stupid. You turned me, but that makes me your fledge. I don’t belong to you. Yet.”
“Is that really what you want?”
Xander rolled his eyes. “Isn’t it what I asked for? Or are you hard of hearing lately?”
“God. Your wicked, wicked tongue, Xander.” He leaned into Xander’s space. “It makes me want you even more. You think you can handle that?”
“Yeah. If I absolutely have to, I can handle anything.”
“I’ll just have to test that, then won’t I?” He lifted Xander over his shoulders and carried him back to the bedroom, forgetting Spike hanging in the manacles.
Xander looked into the bleak blue eyes as he and Angelus left the room. He mouthed “wait” at Spike and nodded when the blond head fell in acknowledgment
TBC
and there you have the next chapter.
This will be cross posted to a_darker_angel, darker_spike, and _xangel, so my apologies to my flisties ahead of time.
Title: Lessons of Bone and Blood
Rating: FRM mature but not NC 17
Summary: Angelus reinforces some rules
Disclaimer: I don’t own em. Never did. Joss is the master.
Feedback/Concrit: Oh hell yeah. This is totally unbeta’d
Setting: An AU season 4 that follows from my fic After Midnight.
Warnings: Torture in this one. Not as bad as it could be, but.....
Previous stories are here in my Memories.
Story Banner by lit_gal
Previously: “It’s alright, Xander. I know.” Angelus reached out to pet the younger vampire, trailing his big hands through the impossibly soft hair. “I’m know what you need, baby,” he cooed and continued to pet Xander. Suddenly, Xander felt the gentle hands fisted in his hair. “Trust me to give it to you, too.” The voice was hard, menacing.
And Xander couldn’t wait.
Lessons of Bone and Blood
“Get up.” The fist in his hair pulled, making Xander wince. He refused to move, though. The monster that lived in him may want this, but he certainly did not. He wasn’t moving. “I said get up!” The fist pulled harder, eliciting a moan of pain. “Boy. Don’t make this harder than it has to be. If you don’t get up - ”
“What? What Angleus? You’re going to kill me? Again? Don’t you think that’s just a little overkill? I mean, even for you?” His head hurt. His head hurt bad and he was sure his scalp was bleeding, but there was no way he was going to let Angelus win. Not just like that, no matter what his demon wanted.
“No. I’m not going to kill you again.” Angelus’ long suffering tone almost made Xander laugh. Then he was face to face with gold eyes and long white fangs. “But I’m going to make you wish you were dust. I’ll make the pain so good you’ll beg for me to keep doing it. It’ll make you hard, and dripping and oh god, so fucking delicious. You’ll scream for me to fill you up, make you come.”
“Ahh. Good one, Angelus. So I guess you won’t mind if I watch, then, mate?” Spike taunted.
“Shut up Spike. Or you’ll be very sorry you reminded me you were there,” Angelus snarled without ever looking away from Xander.
“Like you could forget me.” Spike’s voice faded to a whisper, “Sire.”
Angelus’ eyes shifted to Spike, chained against the far wall. “Not your sire, Spike.”
“In all the ways that matter, you are.”
“Funny. You weren’t thinking that when you knocked me out with that candelabra and took off with Dru. It wasn’t on your mind when you left me to battle that little bitch alone. I think the word I’m looking for is betrayal, Spike. Childer don’t betray their Sires.” He rose and moved over to stand before Spike. “Do they, now?”
“They do, when they’re masters in their own right.” Spike whispered, head bowed in deference.
“Ahh. Well, perhaps I’d better make this clear from the start then. Look at me.” Spike lifted his head, blue human eyes meeting gold demon ones. “You’ll never be a master, so long as I’m around, Spike. I’m the Master of this Order.”
“Beggin’ your pardon, Angelus, you ain’t been around in, oh, bout a hundred years. Tosser.”
Angelus blinked.
“Dru weren’t strong enough. It was left to me. And dammit, Angelus, I was a fine Master. I think you’d have been proud.”
“Hmm.” Angelus thought for a minute. “Well, it’s only right. Dru may have turned you, but I made you what you are. I suppose if I’m to be congratulated for making you what you are, then I ought to be blamed for your betrayal as well.”
“Well, the thought did cross my mind, yeah.” Spike sort of laughed.
“Only one problem.”
“Yeah?”
“I don’t like taking the blame.”
Xander heard the sickening thud of a fist meeting flesh and not a split second behind it, the high pitched crack of bones breaking. He winced. Then the sharp sound of material rending, and he knew Spike was being stripped. He wondered what Angelus would do with the duster. He turned to see Angelus had taken off the precious leather, and smiled.
Spike may not know it, but Angelus was proud of him. Otherwise, the leather would be cut to pieces. Instead, it was removed with disguised care and draped over one of the tables. It never touched the floor.
Xander came to a realization about Angelus, but before he could formulate the emotions into a thought, he heard the sounds of fists and flesh again.
“You betrayed me to work with the Slayer, Spike. Did you think I would welcome you back so easily?”
“No. Knew I’d pay. Knew only you could make the betrayal worthwhile too.” Spike answered, his voice barely above a whisper. It was strange to hear the brash vampire reduced to docility. In the moment, Xander thought he was beautiful that way. The sharp edges of his face smoothed out, the hard line of his mouth soft, the glint in his eyes that hid him, gone. Xander didn’t think this was Spike, but he didn’t know who it was either.
“Beautiful.” He whispered, his eyes raking down the pale body. When two pairs of eyes looked his way, one exasperated, the other just plain angry, he started. “Oh shit. Did I say that out loud?”
“Yes. You did.” Angelus’ focus shifted back to him, but he never moved away from Spike. “You like my boy, Xander? You think he’s pretty?” Xander watched Angelus grasp Spike’s jaw and winced, knowing the bones to be broken, but he looked at Spike, really took in the face. “I made him,” the voice continued. “Well, Dru took him, but gods he was so beautiful then. None of this radioactive hair or swaggering bravado. Back then it was just William. My beautiful William.”Angelus turned again to look at Spike. “My poet, my boy. I broke you so well, didn’t I baby?”
“Yes, Sire.”
“You want me to again, too, don’t you, boy? You want my fist on you, in you. You want to feel your blood pooling at your feet from my hand. I bet, pretty William, I could douse you in holy water and you’d beg me for a cross.” Angelus stroked the fine face, tracing his thumb over the soft pink lips, following their movement when they whispered, “yes sire” like he knew they would.
“You’ve been very naughty, my William. Very, very naughty. I don’t think you deserve my attention. You tried so hard to get away from it before.”
“No! Please, Sire. Punish me. Hurt me again.” The voice Xander had so long associated with menace sounded wrong soaked in despair - a feeling he to which he could relate. The final words, “make me belong again” floated down to him, and he knew a kinship. Belonging. A place, acceptance. He wouldn’t have to be lonely again, and Xander, despite the raging anger at the unjustness of losing his life, wanted that.
He stood and moved to the two vampires who were lost in the past. He touched Angelus, trailing his fingers down the smooth cool skin of his arm. Dark eyes turned to him, snapping into the present. And the arm that he’d been ghosting his fingers down suddenly reached up and grabbed him by the throat. “Did I say you could rise, Xander?”
Without struggling, leaning his head back to ease the pressure on his throat, Xander whispered, “No, but I thought...I should say this...face to face.”
“Say what, young one?” Angelus eased his grip.
“I want to belong too. Break. Me.”
“Why?”
Xander looked at Spike, meeting curious blue eyes. Then he turned to Angelus. “Because I need it. I’ve been...alone....too long. I’m dead now, none of my friends would want me around, so all I’ve got is you, and you Spike, for family. It’s a fucked up family that I never would have joined otherwise, but it’s what I’ve looked for.”
Angelus stared at him for a minute, taking in the veracity of his words. Then, Xander watched as the dark face loomed in closer to his, a red tongue slipping out to moisten full lips and finally, Xander felt those lips on his. The kiss was almost tender, was almost an acceptance of fealty, of family. He felt the kiss end, and heard Angelus whisper, the Irish lilt stronger with emotion, “Him too, Xander. Kiss my boy, too.”
Family, belonging Those thoughts kept running through Xander’s mind as he stood before a naked Spike who wasn’t Spike, then leaned forward to lay his lips on the pink and bloodied ones of what would soon be his brother.
“Are we all on the same page now, boys?” Angelus spoke from just behind Xander, and Spike and Xander nodded, their foreheads pressed together, smiling into each other’s eyes. “Good.”
Angelus snatched Xander back by his hair, and slammed him into the brick stone wall. He felt and heard the back of his skull crack with the contact. Immediately, his jaw was gripped in a powerful hand and snatch down, the joint snapping cleanly. “Lesson one about family, Xander. You don’t spit in the bed you lie in. I think a broken jaw will prevent that, in the future don’t you?”
The next sensation Xander could recognize was the feel of both of his knees kicked sidways out from under him, both dislocating. He screamed. “That’s a good boy. You scream. Let me know you’re learning. Lesson two? You stay where you’re put, or I’ll incapacitate you.”
The heavy click of shoes on the stone floor let Xander know that Angelus had left him, moved over to Spike. And he heard, “Lesson three is for you, Spike. You remember lesson three, don’t you?”
“No, Sire. I’ve forgotten. It’s been a while. Remind me. Please.”
“Oh, god William, you still beg so prettily. All meek in voice, but there is fire in your eyes. I love it. I’ve missed it. Lesson three dear boy, is,” Xander heard the sound of a foot coming down hard onto flesh and Spike’s answering howl of pain, “You do not leave. You leave, and I break your feet. Remember?”
“Yes,” Spike’s voice sobbed out.
“Xander. Get up and come over here.” The order was bewildering. He couldn’t walk with busted kneecaps.
“Sire?”
“Don’t question me! Get your ass over here!”
“But I can’t-”
Angelus stormed over and snatched him up by his broken jaw. “When I tell you to do something, you do it. I don’t want to hear excuses.” He slammed Xander up against the wall again. “You are nothing but trouble, you know that? Always backtalking, disobeying me. Spitting in my goddam bed. The more I think about that the angrier I get.” He moved in close to Xander. “Do you know what I do when I get angry? What I’m like?”
“No. I’ve only been dead for five days, Angelus. Don’t you remember? I have no idea what you’re like when angry.” Xander paused. “Oh, wait. Is that when you’ll draw me to death?”
Angelus laughed. “Oh, that mouth. I have got to do something about that mouth.” He leaned in and kissed Xander again. But this time the kiss was not a kiss but a bite. He bit through Xander’s lips until his teeth clicked together, smiling at the feel of the cool blood gushing onto his tongue and Xander’s loud moans filling his ears. “You won’t be so smart mouthed now, will you boy? Kinda hard to talk with your lips bitten through.” He licked his lips. “And that girl you killed? Damn, boy but she tastes good.”
“Angelus...”
“Shut up, Spike.”
“But he won’t be able to feed.”
“Like you won’t help him, you softie. I know you helped him earlier. You two are all over each other. It really kinda pisses me off. You belong to me. He belongs to me.” Angelus reaches up to Spike’s hands, caught in the manacles. He grips the fingers lightly, almost caressing them. “You remember what happens when you touch what belongs to me, William?”
“Yeah, I rememb-” Spike screamed when his fingers broke all together. “You bastard! You’re supposed to do those one at a time!”
“Why? Did you touch him one finger at a time?”
“No, you daft bugger! I didn’t touch him at all!”
“Oh, William. Now you’re lying.”
“No, I swear. I didn’t touch him.”
“I can even tell you how.” He draped his arm over Spike’s shoulders. “It was like this. You put your arm around what belongs to me, boy. You know better.” With a hard shove, he snapped Spike’s shoulder. “He stinks of you, and I don’t like it.”
Xander turned tear-filled eyes on Angelus. “Well, if you had marked me, he’d have known, wouldn’t he. I may be new, Angel, but I’m not stupid. You turned me, but that makes me your fledge. I don’t belong to you. Yet.”
“Is that really what you want?”
Xander rolled his eyes. “Isn’t it what I asked for? Or are you hard of hearing lately?”
“God. Your wicked, wicked tongue, Xander.” He leaned into Xander’s space. “It makes me want you even more. You think you can handle that?”
“Yeah. If I absolutely have to, I can handle anything.”
“I’ll just have to test that, then won’t I?” He lifted Xander over his shoulders and carried him back to the bedroom, forgetting Spike hanging in the manacles.
Xander looked into the bleak blue eyes as he and Angelus left the room. He mouthed “wait” at Spike and nodded when the blond head fell in acknowledgment
TBC
and there you have the next chapter.