(no subject)
Tales from the Clan
Faith and Graham and a little flexibility
A short from the Kin of the Soul universe.
Faith threw herself on the foot of the bed, bouncing like an overgrown kid, and that image really did not match the tight nighty she’d chosen. “What do you think of Harmony?” she asked. Graham set his magazine aside and focused on Faith. When she sounded innocent, she could be most dangerous.
Thinking through his answer for a second, Graham finally said, “She’s sweet. And it’s really odd for me to say that about a vampire.”
“You like Spike and Angel.” Faith crawled up Graham’s body, straddling him and offering him a kiss on the nose before she flopped down beside him. Graham couldn’t contain his smile-he’d never had a lover as tactile as Faith, and he found himself hungry for every touch.
He reached out and threaded his fingers with hers. “Yeah, but I’m not going to call either of them sweet.”
Her smile turned wicked. “Oh babe, I would pay money to see that.” The tip of Faith’s tongue appeared between her teeth as she gave him a slow wink. From someone else, that might have been disturbing, but Graham had already figured out that for Faith, the line between fighting and love was frighteningly thin. Maybe that was her difficult childhood, but more and more, Graham was starting to think it was simply in her nature. Angel and Spike were exactly the same.
“Really?” Graham asked seriously. “Do you really want to see Spike’s reaction to that?”
The smile vanished and she cringed. “Maybe you should stick to calling Angel that.” Faith settled her head on his shoulder.
“Well, he is closer to sweet than Spike, and as a bonus, he’s less likely to break me into a million little pieces.”
Faith poked his stomach. “Spike wouldn’t break you more than two or three times.”
Graham caught her hand and brought it up to kiss the knuckle. “If you remember, he already broke me once, and trust me, I am not looking to repeat that.” Graham remembered to well what it felt like to have his arm snapped like a twig as a game-faced vampire pinned him to the damp grass of the cemetery. As a soldier, Graham had seen and fought some terrifying monsters, but none of them had put the fear of God into him the way Spike had that night. Not even Angelus had scared him that much, and Spike would probably love to hear that.
Faith have a little huff. “That’s right. He broke you for having sex with me.”
“You don’t have to sound quite so pleased.”
Faith traced circles against Graham’s chest. “Sorry, babe, but that was the moment that I knew he still considered me family. Up until that moment, I wasn’t sure he really wanted me back.”
“But the vampire who is willing to maim strangers is the vampire who considers you clan,” Graham summarized.
“Exactly.”
Graham shook his head. “It sometimes scares me that vampire logic makes so much sense at this point.” Some days Graham wondered how much his own psyche had warped and shifted to fit into the vampire family he’d chosen. He never regretted his choice. Never. He did wonder how much the choice had changed him.
Faith laughed. “I’m more comfortable with vampire logic than human logic. I mean, other than Xander and Blair… and you… every human I’ve ever known has hurt me.”
Graham slipped an arm around Faith’s shoulders and held her tight. He hated that her father had inflicted so many wounds, but he couldn’t save her from the past, no matter how much he wanted to. “Hey, you have Cordelia and…” Graham stopped. He had planned to add Wesley to that list, but Wesley was the watcher who had tried to hand her over to face a wetworks team from the Council. Graham still carried some resentment for that, but if Faith could get over that, he didn’t really have a right to stir the pot. So he settled for quietly stewing. It helped that Wesley was trying so hard to change-to recognize that different or even demonic didn’t mean world-ending evil.
“Cordelia hurt me worse than most.”
“What?” Graham pushed himself up on an elbow.
Faith gave him a shrug. “She had Xander’s love, and that made me so angry. I wanted that, and she had it and she treated him like it didn’t matter…” Faith stopped, but Graham certainly had enough psychology to understand.
“She didn’t value the very thing you wanted.”
“Yeah,” Faith admitted softly. The silence filled the room, and Faith settled back down, her body pressing against Graham’s. Her warmth made his cock start to harden, but Graham ignored that. Something was rattling around in Faith’s brain.
“So, you asked about Harmony. Why?”
She huffed. “Spike does not treat her right.”
“The hitting?” Graham guessed. He really was not comfortable with how often Spike punched Harm, but they were both vampires, and as someone with breakable human bones, he was not getting involved.
“No. He wouldn’t hit her if he didn’t care about keeping her in line.”
“Which is part of keeping her in the clan?” Graham guessed. If he heard a human woman make those arguments, he would have dragged her to a domestic violence shelter. Vampire rules required a little more flexibility.
For a long time, Faith didn’t answer, and Graham could almost hear the wheels turning in her brain as she planned out her words. Sometimes he hated that she wasn’t secure enough to just talk to him, but they were getting better. And when she trusted him totally, he had a diamond ring waiting in the closet. “He doesn’t fuck her enough,” Faith finally blurted.
Graham tried to exhale and inhale at the same time, and something got caught in between, leaving him choking.
“And then he acts like he doesn’t fuck her. It’s not right.”
Graham sat up and struggled to get air past a burning throat.
“She acts like she’s all five-by-five, but she’s left out, and even Wesley acts like he never falls in her bed. Prick.”
Graham focused on breathing as Faith kept right on.
“No one should be denied like that, like she’s not good for anything but fucking behind a closed door.”
Faith looked defensive now, and Graham reached out and caught her had. “I know. I do. I can’t do anything about Spike and his attitude, but I’ll talk to Wesley. He’s British. They like to keep their kinky perversions more private that we do over here,” Graham promised. That would be a seriously awkward conversation, but for Faith he’d do it, especially since she was right. Harm was starved for acceptance, and Wesley couldn’t keep playing games with her. This clan had different sexual rules and norms, and Wesley needed to start accepting that before he hurt someone. “I’ll tell him-”
“Do you want to fuck her?”
Graham fell silent. Staring at his beautiful, dark-haired lover with her intense dark eyes and beautiful curves, he couldn’t even come up with an answer for that. It took several seconds for him to find one. “I would never pick Harm over you,” he finally said. He didn’t want to deny any sort of attraction, because with his luck, Faith would see that as some sort of challenge.
Surprisingly, Faith rolled her eyes. “Of course you wouldn’t. I’m just asking if you would fuck her. She’s beautiful with all that long, blonde hair you could wrap your fingers in as you rode her hard and she has that pouty mouth.” Faith’s eyes dilated, and now Graham was truly confused. And concerned. If Faith wanted Harmony, what did that say about her feelings for him?
“Would you rather have-”
“Babe, you know I prefer a good healthy cock in my bed,” Faith cut him off before he could finish, and she punctuated her remarks by grabbing Graham’s cock and running her thumb over the head.
“Damn.” Graham breathed the word out as his body shivered in need.
“Fuck you’re easy.”
“Hell yes,” Graham agreed. “I’m pretty much horny the second you get within six feet.”
“And if Harmony was inside that six feet with me?”
The pieces finally clicked. “You want to invite her in as a third?” Graham mentally composed a quick letter in his head. Dear Penthouse, my incredibly sulty demon-fighting, super-powered girlfriend recently asked if I wanted to include a blonde bombshell of a vampire into our sex life. Yeah. Not believable, even by their standards.
Faith suddenly turned nonchalant, which usually meant she wanted something badly. “If you don’t mind. No biggie. I just don’t like the idea that she gets pushed to the side. I’m five-by-five either way. It’s not like we need her.” Faith’s look turned salacious as she twitched her body.
Graham turned his back and grabbed for a robe as he stood.
“Where are you going?” Faith sounded alarmed, and Graham turned around as he tied his robe.
“My incredible girlfriend just pointed out that there’s a woman who feels alone and rejected, someone who needs us. Now that this woman I love who has a heart bigger than the world has pointed that out, I’m having some trouble dealing with the guilt because clearly I’m an idiot who never noticed.” Graham leaned down and kissed Faith on the lips. “It’s a good thing you’re the smart one in the family.”
“You’re okay with it?” Faith asked, an unusual caution in her voice.
“As long as you’re okay with me telling Harm right up front that while I like her, I will always choose you first,” Graham said seriously. “Always.” His sexuality might be getting more flexible living in this house, but some things would not change.
Faith rose up onto her knees and let her hand ghost up his body to rest against his cheek. “I love you, too babe.”
Graham smiled.
“Now go get her. I’m going to show you want kind of curves I can steer you around when I have a co-pilot.” Faith’s look turned salacious again.
“I’m going to be sore tomorrow, aren’t I?” Graham asked with a groan.
“Aw hell, yes. If you aren’t, I’m doing it wrong.” Faith let her tongue show between her teeth and gave a wiggle. “So go get my co-pilot.”
Feeling very glad that he kept up with military physical training, Graham tightened his robe and headed downstairs.