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Kin of the Soul
Slash: Angel/Xander, Angel/Spike
Rated: ADULT
banner by objectivelypink
Does anyone else smell... is that... um, yes, I do believe I smell a spurt coming. We are coming down to the wire here, folks.
( Part One ) ( Part Two ) ( Part Three ) ( Part Four ) ( Part Five ) ( Part Six ) ( Part Seven ) ( Part Eight ) ( Part Nine ) ( Part Ten ) ( Part Eleven ) ( Part Twelve ) ( Part Thirteen ) ( Part Fourteen ) (Part Fifteen ) ( Part Sixteen ) ( Part Seventeen ) ( Part Eighteen ) ( Part Nineteen ) ( Part Twenty) ( Part Twenty-One ) ( Part Twenty-Two ) ( Part Twenty-Three ) ( Part Twenty-Four ) ( Part Twenty-Five ) ( Part Twenty-six ) ( Part Twenty-Seven ) ( Part Twenty-eight ) ( Part Twenty-nine )( Part thirty ) ( Part Thirty-one ) ( Part Thirty-Two ) ( Part Thirty-Three ) ( Part Thirty four ) ( Part Thirty-five ) ( Part Thirty-Six ) ( Part Thirty-Seven ) ( Part Thirty-Eight ) ( Part Thirty-nine ) ( Part Forty ) ( Part Forty-one ) ( Part Forty-two ) ( Part Forty-three ) ( Part Forty-four ) ( Part Forty-five ) ( Part Forty-six ) ( Part Forty-Seven ) ( Part Forty-Eight ) ( Part 49 ) ( Part 50 ) ( Part 51 ) ( Part 52 ) ( Part 53 ) ( Part 54 ) ( Part 55 ) ( Part 56 ) ( Part 57 ) ( Part 58 ) ( Part 59 ) (Part 60) ( Part 61 )
Chapter 62
“So, this Ben is the avatar?” Wesley brought the cup from the microwave over to Angel, but Angel gestured toward Spike.
“Seems like,” Spike agreed. He gave Angel an odd look, but he took the mug anyway. Xander had to agree that Angel was being unAngellike. He had pulled Xander so close that Xander had been forced to sit in Angel’s lap or end up on the floor. Wanting Xander on the floor sounded a lot like Angelus, but if Angelus had come out to play, that didn’t explain why Angel was nuzzling Xander’s neck. Not biting, just nuzzling. Nuzzling was more of an Angel thing, even if Angel never had been one for public displays of affection. Xander might have objected, but he was so tired that moving would require too much energy.
“So, do we attack the avatar or try and break the connection, force Glorificus out into the open?” Wesley asked as he prepared another mug of blood. While that was heating, he grabbed fried chicken out of the refrigerator and put it on the table in front of Xander and Angel.
“Thank you,” Xander said as he grabbed for a leg. He was starving.
“You’re quite welcome.”
Spike finished his blood and put the mug on the table. “Where’s Harmony?”
“She thought that absence was the better part of valor after her failure to stop Xander from his headlong rush into battle.” The microwave dinged and Wesley headed over to retrieve the blood. “But she did ensure we were well stocked before she disappeared.”
Spike snorted.
Xander decided to distract Spike before he decided to go hunt Harmony down. He owed her… he owed her even more after punching her in the face. He’d never hit a girl before. Okay, so Harmony wasn’t technically a girl, but she was close enough. “So, can we split Glory from this Ben person?”
“Who?” Wesley asked as he tried to offer Angel the second mug of blood. This time Angel didn’t even look up from Xander’s neck. Spike reached over to retrieve the second mug.
“Ben,” Xander said, and his frustration made Angel give a little growl. Wesley’s eyes went big, but he still had that blank look. This magic spell was going to get old really fast.
“Give it up, pet. That spell is going to hold until we can find someone ta take it off,” Spike said wearily.
“Spell, what spell?” Wesley took Spike’s empty mug and retreated to the sink.
“This is going to make conversations a little annoying,” Xander pointed out. Wesley was the only one who understood magic, so if they couldn’t talk to him about magic, they were pretty much screwed. Angel just got a constipated look on his face when someone mentioned magic, and Xander wouldn’t trust himself or Spike anywhere near anything magical. There was stupid and then there was flat-out suicidal.
“Would someone like to explain the situation to me so I can share in the annoyance?” Wesley asked, and he sounded pretty damn frustrated already.
“Theoretically,” Spike said slowly, “it seems like Glory has her avatar hidden by some sort of spell that keeps people from remembering the identity of the human, even when they see her change or get told the truth straight out.”
“Oh dear.” Wesley leaned against the counter. “I take it that this is not as much theoretical as a way to avoid having the spell erase my memories again?”
“Maybe,” Spike admitted.
Xander sat up straight, and Angel made an unhappy little grumble before pulling him closer.
“Pet?” Spike asked.
Xander sighed. “First, the Angel weirdness is getting a little too weird, but putting that on the back burner, I have an even bigger problem. Why do I remember that Glory is Ben?”
“Ben? Ben who?” Wesley asked.
“None of your bloody business,” Spike snapped, most of his attention still on Xander. “And I can’t say I know, pet.”
“I’m still human, right?” Xander asked. After two rounds of growling and having fantasies of pulling people apart with his hands, Xander was starting to have a doubt or two.
“You still smell human enough,” Spike said, which wasn’t exactly a rousing endorsement.
“Yer human,” Angel added. He started with little kisses down the side of Xander’s neck, and Xander’s cock did very embarrassing things in his pants. Xander was just happy that none of the girls were around. Faith would tease him, and Harmony would probably ask to join in about two seconds before someone backhanded her into a wall. They weren’t exactly the poster children for function family life or domestic non-violence.
“Angel, think about this,” Xander said, shifting as his cock grew harder. He was a little large to fit into a lap comfortably, and with his growing problem, it was getting uncomfortable. “No human can remember the name of Glory’s human half because of a spell. I’m totally okay at remembering the whole thing. Therefore that implies I have some non-human bits going on. And actually, that’s freaking me out a whole lot less that it might have five years ago, but I’m still wondering what the hell is going on.”
“I would think the answer to that was obvious,” Wesley said in that superior tone Xander had always resented when Wesley or Giles used it.
“Obvious? Spit it out, then,” Spike warned, and Xander suddenly remembered how much Spike had hated Wesley back then. Completely hated Wesley. Homicidally, even, and Spike didn’t have a friendly look on his face right now. Wesley went a little green around the gills, but he straightened up and kept his gaze on Spike.
“As a consort, Xander is not entirely human.”
“Oh bloody hell,” Spike complained loudly, “not this rot again.”
Angel finally gave up Xander’s neck long enough to frown at Wesley. “Consorts are a myth, a legend made up by a vampire to bed some woman,” Angel said.
“And trick a whole lot of Watchers. Do you lot believe everything you read?” Spike demanded. “Bloody idiots.”
Wesley stiffened, but he didn’t drop his gaze. “The evidence-”
“Doesn’t exist,” Spike cut him off.
“Perhaps not before Xander,” Wesley said, and his gaze flicked back toward Angel as if looking for permission to keep going.
“Wait, are you saying that…. Actually, I don’t know what you’re saying,” Xander interrupted himself in the middle when he realized that he didn’t know what Wesley was even getting at. Angel and Spike had both agreed that consorts were myths. A vampire got its power from a demon, and the demon couldn’t take over without a person dying, so vampire powers were pretty much limited to vampires. After many long conversations back in Sunnydale, Xander had made two definite conclusions. First, Giles was pretty much an idiot when it came to anything the Watchers wrote down. If some guy in the fifth century had written that a Watcher had to wear purple feathers and jump up and down on one leg every seventh full moon, Giles would be out there, feathers and all. True, he’d do it because he loved Buffy, so that made it kinda admirable, but he was still an idiot. Second, vampires really were manipulative bastards. After living with Spike and Angel for so long, Xander knew first hand that both his vampires could be a little on the overbearing and devious side; however, the vampire who’d made up the consort myth just to get in some witch’s bed had definitely won the slime of the century award. Maybe he was just too tired to get his brain to put all the pieces together. It wasn’t like is brain was all that good at connecting random bits under the best of circumstances-at least not with stuff like this.
“I am suggesting,” Wesley said with a sort of false calm and a sideways glance at Spike, “that you are showing every classical sign of being a consort. You are psychically linked to your master, you know when he is in trouble, you have speed and strength greater than a human. While I would not recommend you go up against any demons, Harmony said that you hit much harder than a human would.”
“You’re talking about Harmony,” Xander pointed out. “I’m pretty sure my Grandmother Lavelle could take her down, and my grandmother is not the forever young and strong sort of old. She’s just old.”
“Be that as it may, you have shown some new characteristics since the soul returned.”
Spike’s scowl had turned into something more thoughtful, and that was freaking Xander out more than the cranky-face from before. Angry Spike was normal; thoughtful Spike was terrifying.
“You think I’m a consort? When consorts don’t actually exist? Why not just call me a unicorn or something more interesting?” Xander tried joking.
“Angel’s wounds are healing despite the fact that he hasn’t taken blood. You are eating huge amounts of food. Both are signs that he is drawing more on the demon, using its healing powers and drawing the energy to do so from you.”
“I’m…” Angel suddenly sat up and shoved himself back so fast that Xander nearly fell on the floor. “I’m taking his energy?” The look of utter panic was all Angel, but Xander felt a warm fuzzy feeling that Angelus cared enough to not veto signs of sponateous love and concern.
“I’m tired, not dying.” Xander caught Angel’s arms and held on. For a moment, Angel froze as he and Angelus had some internal debate.
“All the literature suggests that this cannot hurt the consort. The power sharing is simply a way to transmit human energy without the need to feed, although the literature also suggests that feeding and sex are used by the master vampire to both strengthen the bond and to generate excess energy, which he can then use-”
“All of which doesn’t change the fact that consorts are a soddin’ myth,” Spike cut him off.
“They were,” Wesley agreed. “I have read a number of demon texts which consider the topic somewhat of a joke-a social commentary on the worthlessness of the Watcher’s research system.”
“Because they are a bloody joke,” Spike muttered, but Wesley didn’t even bother to get upset at the insult.
“However, the symptoms all fit, including the fact that Angel could go up against a hellgod and fight her single-handed for so long before backup could arrive.”
“The Gem of Amara-” Spike started to say.
Angel cut him off. “She broke it.”
Spike’s mouth fell open.
“She recognized the Gem and tore it off my hand before I realized what she was trying to do.” Angel’s jaw clenched as he made that admission. “I had to fight her without the gem.”
Spike stood up so fast that the sent the chair flying backwards where it slammed into the wall and crumbled into three uneven pieces. However, Spike ignored the mess as he pulled out a cigarette. “So, we lost our single biggest weapon. Good job with that Peaches. Do you want to do anything else to hamstring us? Ya want to give her our address?”
Before Xander could blink, he found himself carefully and quickly tossed to the top of the table before Angel lunged forward, caught Spike by the neck and drove him back into the wall so hard that several glasses on the counter fell over, one shattering as it rolled off the counter altogether.
“Enough,” Angel growled. Spike watched with yellow eyes, but he didn’t argue. “How exactly could Xander become a consort when I don’t know of any magic that could perform such a rite, and I did no spell?” Angel demanded as he turned his glare on Wesley.
“I… um… well, that is to say….” Wesley was saved from stuttering himself to death when Angel growled and then promptly turned into a giant Angel-statue.
The unspoken threat got the words to come out of Wesley, though. “We know that Anyanka has the power to create entire dimensions, new worlds with twisted rules to fit the curse she’s fulfilling for her client. We also know that Xander’s mother wished for Xander to find his equivalent of the fairy tale love story, the happily ever after.”
“And she thought turning me into a demon consort was the happy ending?” Xander asked as he slid off the table. He really did feel weak, but now that he really looked at Angel, he could see that the horribly broken arm had set and the worst of the gashes had closed. Without blood, and lots of it, Angel shouldn’t have been able to heal.
“For a demon, human frailty and the short lifespan are rather formidable obstacles to happiness. Perhaps she truly believed that you could only be happy if you had some way to overcome these human weaknesses.” Wesley grimaced. “Perhaps she was simply twisting the spell in order to get some revenge for being forced to fulfill a wish that ended with men being happy rather than eviscerated. I cannot comment on the motivations of a wish demon.”
“But it means that she spelled Xander,” Angel said. He took a step back from Spike, still watching with a nasty glare, but Spike stayed quiet. Unlike Harmony, Spike knew when to avoid Angelus’ temper. “And I’ve stolen his strength to heal.” Angel clenched his teeth as he looked over at Xander. Angel might have more of the demon’s temper, but clearly he’d kept all his own guilt.
“Actually, you share strength. Most of the time, that means he gets more strength from having this connection. However, when you’re injured….”
“I steal his strength,” Angel finished. “I willna do that.” Angel’s voice was soft and thick with guilt, but the Irish lilt suggested that Angel wasn’t the only one feeling that sentiment.
“Hey, I get to eat as much as I want without getting fat. This is a good thing,” Xander pointed out as he grabbed another piece of fried chicken. “Calories good.”
For the length of time it took Xander to blink, Angel had another of those statue moments. In a fraction of a second, it passed. “Call Harmony. I want high-calorie human foods over here now. Hot pizza, chocolate cake, anything with calories to help Xander recover. Then I want two humans from the suckhouse. Tell them they can have a master vampire, but they are not paying, and if they say one word I don’t like, I’ll kick them out of my house, and I won’t guarantee what shape they’ll be in when I do it,” Angel growled.
“But-” Xander shut his mouth so fast that his teeth clicked.
“Ye look like you’ve lost twenty pounds in a day,” Angel pointed out. Xander looked down and he realized that his pants were nearly falling off. That was seriously freaky. “I won’t have my consort starve for me.” Angel sounded way too Angelusy for Xander to argue the point.
“Wesley, call Harmony about the food. I’ll take care of the humans myself,” Spike said. “Sire.” With a tilt of his head toward Angel, Spike headed out of the kitchen. Xander could hear the front door open and slam.
“I’ll call her now,” Wesley said quietly as he inched toward the door to the living room.
“Wesley,” Angel said softly. He waited, and the silence was heavy enough to feel like a weight on Xander’s chest.
“Yes?” Wesley finally asked.
“Can this hurt Xander? Is there a way to fix it?”
Wesley sighed and seemed to gather his thoughts before answering. “If Anyanka used Watcher lore, then the change is permanent. The Watcher’s always questioned whether such a spell would damage the soul of the human, but other than the moral objections, there really is no downside for the human.”
“Other than the danger of losing his soul,” Angel said dryly.
“Hey, I am not about to lose my soul,” Xander objected. When he pushed away from the table, he could feel his legs wobble under him, but he walked over to Angel anyway. Once there, he punched Angel as hard as he could in the arm. “Look, first it was that I’d be corrupted if I hung around you, and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t corrupt when I led the fight against the mayor. Then you tried saying that I would be corrupted if we slept together, but after we were sleeping together I fought off Wolfram and Hart and the strange Powers demons who wanted the happy-happy end of the world. Now you’re saying this consort thing is a danger to my soul. I think I’ve proved that my soul is a little tougher than you think. So you worry about your soul and I’ll worry about mine.” Xander gave Angel his nastiest glare. For a second, Angel just stared at him blankly, but then he started to smile.
Angel’s hand came up to rest against Xander’s cheek. “A’choi, you always have been my partner, haven’t you?”
“In demon fighting? Hell no. In being able to argue, yes,” Xander agreed. When Angel reached out and wrapped his arms around Xander, Xander just let himself be pulled into that strength. They’d get through this fine. Hell, there wasn’t even anything to get through, as far as Xander was concerned. This was a win-win. He could share Angel’s strength. They could feel each other’s pain. Now as long as Glorificus didn’t start torturing either of them, that was all good.
“Wesley, after you call Harmony, I need you to track someone down.”
“Oh?”
“Ben. He works at the hospital as a doctor or an intern. Finn might know more.”
“Why are we looking for him?” Wesley asked. Xander sighed. Yeah, this spell shit was getting old.
“With a spell affecting Xander, draining off his energy, we would like someone to look at him. I understand that Joyce has been ill. Maybe a doctor that looked at Joyce should look at Xander. However, keep security in mind and don’t give our location away,” Angel finished in a harsher tone.
“It’s likely that all Xander’s symptoms result from-”
“Wesley,” Angel said, cutting Wesley off with one exasperated word.
“I’ll check on him. Ben from the local hospital,” Wesley agreed. Angel’s arms still held Xander tightly, so Xander could only hear the footsteps as Wesley left them, a door closing in a distant part of the house.