Slay me, Save me Chapter 13: Into the jaws of death; into the mouth of hell (part 1)
Title: Slay me, Save me
Chapter 13: Into the jaws of death; into the mouth of hell
Pairing: Spike, Adam, Angel, Giles & the Sunnydale gang
Rating: NC17 for Spike swearing and torture, mutilation
Summary: Spike and Tara infiltrate Wolfram and Hart and Lindsey gets his just rewards with Lilah pulling everyone's strings.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters etc...
Feedback: Always welcome.
Type your cut contents here.
Chapter 13: …into the jaws of death; into the mouth of hell (part 1)
“Cannon to the right of them; cannon to the left of them, cannon in front of them volleyed and thunder’d,” Tara whispered as she broke from the incantation.
“Yeah,” Spike said, “plunged into the battery smoke, right through the line they broke. Exactly how I feel, but I’m not plannin’ on letting any Cossack or Turk get the better of us.”
Spike and Tara were waiting to be taken to the twenty fifth floor of Wolfram and Hart; to the library of ‘Mystic Revelations.’ As he tried to look casual and jaded in his expensive Hugo Boss suit, briefcase and alligator shoes, Spike knew he sounded far more confident than he felt. The Wolf, the Ram and the Hart were notorious throughout the demon world, and even with the new name and chic, minimalist building, they still reeked of evil. He was on edge; the hairs on the back of his neck bristled with apprehension, even his teeth itched.
He’d contacted Lila Morgan and she’d couriered a package containing a date, a time, the place, instructions and magical elements, plus the necessary incantation to allow a vampire access through the sanctified walls of Wolfram and Hart without being detected. A Wicca was required to assist and she was adamant no one on Wolfram and Hart’s ‘radar’ would be tolerated, leaving only Tara able to undertake the assignment. Spike wanted the witch, but there had been strong objections from Willow and Giles, the quiet girl announcing firmly she would be willing to accompany the vampire, giving a resolved look to rival that of her red haired lover.
Spike had purchased a new car with darkened windows and Adam had driven them to his apartment in LA, where they stayed and prepared for the evening ‘meeting’ Lila Morgan had arranged.
The vampire looked at the pretty, fair-haired girl at his side, quietly chanting at thirty second intervals as was required of her until their task was completed, and wondered if she would crack at the first sign of danger. As if sensing his thoughts, Tara smiled, and Spike saw steely determination in the blue eyes and an overwhelming sense of loyalty to the group he now belonged.
“All right, love?” Spike asked and Tara nodded, concentrating on the spell.
A sharp dressed, stoat faced man tapping rapidly into a palm PC, approached the couple. “Mr Taylor and Ms Maclay?” he asked. Spike nodded, trying to look superior to the mere minion. “This way, please.” Spike and Tara followed and were escorted to the elevator which sped them up to the twenty-fifth; stoat face indicating which room they were to take. “Messrs Allington and Yu will be with you presently. If you require refreshments, dial ‘two-four-one’ on the blue telephone and place your order. If you need to be shown the way out after the meeting, dial ‘six-seven-three’ on the yellow and someone will accompany you to the lobby. Good evening.”
Poncy twit, Spike thought as he quickly found the stationary cupboard as instructed and ushered Tara inside, opening the briefcase. “It’s eight twenty,” he said to the intonating girl, “at eight twenty five, you break the sachet into the container and pour the green liquid over the whole lot, then stir in the contents of the bamboo box as you cast the disclosure spell. You’ll only have thirty seconds to break from my incantation, so it all has to co-ordinate like clockwork. Have you got that?” She nodded and Spike kissed her forehead, closed the door and made his way to the library.
As he strode into the room, Spike felt a hand on his shoulder and turned. No one. A shove. Still no one. A slap on the buttocks. Fuck! He was here already. Bastard; fucking bastard! A slap to the face. Spike swung wildly. Another slap. Spike whirled around and spun again at the blow to his kidneys. Vampire senses were keenly tuned to any change in air pressure, body heat; sweat; but there was nothing except the sterile smell of the room. Crack! Something hard against his cheek; followed by a thud in the guts, causing him to double over and a smack to the head as he crashed to the floor.
“Where are you?” Spike wheezed.
“Here, there and everywhere, vampire,” the voice teased.
“Mcdonald! I’ll rip you fucking lungs out, you bastard!”
Something much harder smashed his forehead, blood spurting from the wound, then another and another. Curled up but still striking out at the invisible assailant, Spike gasped as he was hit between the legs.
“Not sure how long this meeting is scheduled for, Spike” the voice said, “but you’re going to tell me who set me up; had to be an inside job.”
Something was hammered into Spike’s chin; bone splintering, and the vampire groaned, spitting blood. “Come on, Tara; come on.”
“What’s that? Tara who?” The voice asked.
“Tara King,” Spike said, as a pair of feet materialised. “Second best of Steed’s girls; ta ra ra boom de ay. Gotcha!” Scissoring his legs, Spike toppled Lindsey and mounted the surprised man; thighs either side of the human’s face. “You’re even uglier than I remembered, mate, but never fear, I’ll move some of your features around.”
Spike slammed a fist into his captive’s nose several times and smeared the blood with his palms, then ran a thumb along the shocked human’s brow and gouged out an eye, forcing the blob of jelly into the screaming man’s mouth. He picked Lindsey up by the scruff and tossed him against the far wall, leaping over to drag the fallen body by the ankles to the middle of the room where he took each hand in turn and, securing a foot under the moaning human’s armpit, dislocated the joints. Turning his nemesis, arms pinned painfully underneath, the vampire sat on Lindsey and calmly cut the buttons from his jeans, opening the flies and digging into underwear to fish out a flaccid cock.
Waggling the limp organ, Spike said, “I’d circumcise you if you weren’t already dick clipped, Lindsey, me old China, so it looks like I’ll have to Lorena Bobbitt you.” The sadist curled the shriveled penis around the sharp blade. “Come now, don’t carry on so; you did as much to me as I recall, the only difference, your knob won’t regenerate. But before I do that and worse, let’s chat like old friends do. What have you done with Angel? Is he still alive?”
Lindsey nodded, wracked with pain and fear, willing to divulge everything to his torturer. “Breuddwyd Caregan,” he spluttered, “you need the Breuddwyd Caregan.”
“What’s that, you little shit; a spell?” Spike rasped, cutting into the soft flesh of the terrified man’s penis. “At this precise moment in time, I hate everyone, and you’re just another on the list, so don’t fuck me about!”
“No, don’t, Spike, please…”
“Well, you’re not very much fun,” Spike sang, “’cause you’re cut, blind and dumb; but I’ve got no one to play with today. Now, one slip of the knife…”
“Sahjhan…time and dimension demon…Soltash…the scrolls…”
“I know about that fucker, so cut the crap; what have you done to Angel and where is he?” Spike demanded, sawing into the bleeding cock.
“I destroyed the Breuddwyd Caregan…very rare…even if you find him, you can’t…without another…ahhh!”
“You’re talking bollocks, you fucking cunt and I don’t have time for your lies!” Spike yelled, slicing through the organ, blood spurting everywhere. He flung it against the wall where the mass of flesh held for a moment before sliding down, leaving a trail of gore. Lindsey was screaming and Spike stood over him, one foot pressing into the gash where the human’s penis used to be and was about to slash open his scrotum when a squadron of armed security guards burst into the room and surrounded him. “What the..?”
“There he is,” Lila Morgan said, indicating the mutilated figure lying on the floor, “get him up and take him to the holding room on the eighteenth and wait for further instructions.”
“And this one?” the leader asked.
“He’s been instrumental in finding this piece of garbage and isn’t to be harmed.” She raised an eyebrow at Spike’s startled expression.
Spike stared in disbelief as the guards hefted the moaning body off the floor and carted it off.
“Wait a minute; I haven’t got what I wanted out of him.” He rushed at Lila, but was prevented from reaching the smiling woman by several guards.
“You’ve had your allotted time with Mcdonald,” she said, “it’s not my fault you couldn’t get him to talk. I kept my part of the bargain, Spike, so I’d shake a tail feather and get out of here as quickly as you can. The spell only has five minutes to go before every weapon in this building, metal and mystic, will be trained on you.”
She turned to walk away, Spike grasping at her sleeve. “He hasn’t told me where Angel is or what he’s done to him. Let me have another minute.”
“You’re already down to four minutes before dust time, vampire,” she warned, “so I’d concentrate on getting yourself out alive. Oh, look how time flies; three minutes, thirty seconds and counting…”
“I need to get the girl.”
“She wasn’t part of the deal,” Lilah clarified, “my men have found her and she’s been treated as an infection in need of cleansing.”
“You fucking bitch!” Spike flew at the woman, stun guns shooting bolts of electricity through his body and he crumpled to the floor.
“Why thank you, Spike,” she purred, the toe of her shoe nudging the vampire’s quivering face, “that’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me.” Lilah departed, ordering two guards to cover her until she was safe from the maniac who was no longer any use to the company, but because of his help, was to be allowed to leave the building.
***
Recovering from the assault, Spike was torn between chasing after and smashing Lilah’s face in, finding Mcdonald or getting himself and Tara out of the building. He hesitated for an instant before drawing out a thin taper from the inside pocket of his jacket and lit the wick with his Zippo. It sparked to life and burned with a fierce turquoise flame, the vampire uttering the words to accompany the spell that would conjure up Tara. Closing his eyes and breathing in the heady, aromatic fumes, Spike thanked Giles for having the sense to devise a back up plan should their ‘serpent’ live up to their expectations. The ex Watcher and Willow had worked together to weave the spell that would allow either of their friends to find the other if separated.
The mists clouding Spike’s mind dissipated and he heard Tara’s jumbled, panicked thoughts clearly. The girl was terrified and the vampire strove to reach her with his mind, trying to calm her, hearing the screamed ‘twenty-two fifteen’ through her confusion, and the plea ‘hurry, please, Spike.’
Racing to the stairs, Spike flew down three flights, rushing through the empty corridor until he found room twenty-two fifteen and kicked the door in. Tara lay motionless on a cot in the centre of the room, and the vampire could see fear in her eyes as she stared at the ceiling. He wondered why she hadn’t stirred or gotten up when he burst in and then saw the ugly thing clinging to her ear. It looked like a fat, dark purple leech, and it glistened with moisture. He rushed to Tara’s side, brushing hair from her face, amazed the girl was still intoning the spell, and almost tugged at the filthy thing, remembering leeches often dug teeth into the flesh of their hosts as they sucked, so he shook into vampire mode and bit the vile creature, its blood spurting out and spattering his face. He spat out the foul tasting liquid and watched as the leech shivered and shrunk, its head emerging from Tara’s ear. Batting the parasite away, it fell to the floor and the vampire squashed it beneath his heel, kicking it out of sight. The girl screamed and Spike took her in his arms, telling her she was safe and the thing was dead.
“It…it was in my head,” Tara stuttered. “It was pulling out my thoughts, my memories and Spike…it was speaking to me. Sweet mother…it was inside me…”
“Shh…shh; it’s all right. It’s out and it’s dead; it can’t hurt you now.”
“It…was inside my mind, raping me,” she cried.
“I know, I know,” Spike soothed, as he lifted her off the bed and set her feet on the floor. “Tara? Tara, love, we don’t have much time; you have to keep casting until we get out of here. You have to be strong for a few minutes longer. Can you stand?”
Tara nodded and leaned on Spike as they made their way to the elevator, Spike supporting her until they reached the ground floor, where they managed to appear relatively normal crossing reception and out through the doors. Once outside, Spike gathered Tara in his arms and ran two blocks to Adam who was waiting by the car. The men carefully placed the weeping girl in the back, Spike slipping in beside her, and Adam started the car and got them quickly away from ‘Wolfram and Hart.’
Glancing back at Spike cradling Tara, whispering and curling her hair around a finger, Adam decided not to ask his vampire what had happened inside the building. He wasn’t sure if the girl was injured, she seemed unharmed, but knew appearances could be very deceiving in the strange world he now inhabited. He drove as fast as legally permitted and reached Sunnydale in just over an hour. They delivered Tara to the safety of her lover, explaining what had happened, and drove to Giles’s house.
***
Enjoying a glass of chilled white wine, Lilah Morgan sat curled in a chair viewing the newly captured CCTV footage on her laptop. William the Bloody was a helluva vampire and a damn good-looking man. The image of Spike torturing and mutilating her old adversary was particularly arousing and her hand crept up to her crotch as she watched, imagining herself in Mcdonald’s place. Not the mutilating, of course, but on the receiving end of the awesome, irresistible power that was Spike. He’d need a restraining collar, she agreed, as the vampire was obviously a loose cannon and totally unpredictable, unlike Angel, who she had always thought boringly predictable. She hoped he was dead and out of the picture; she only needed one ensouled vampire anyway. Entering her moist cunt, she paused the screen with a close up of Spike’s ecstatic face at the moment he hacked off Lindsey’s penis.
***
“A fucking waste of a new whistle and shoes,” Spike ranted, downing a large shot of whiskey. “That bitch played me for a fool and like that fool, I acted the part to perfection.”
“We couldn’t have foreseen all the variables, Spike,” Giles said. “We knew it was a risk and dared to take it. Now, I need you to settle yourself to enable us to analyse the situation fully.”
Spike paced the room, gesticulating wildly, snatching the bottle of Scotch from the ex Watcher and drinking straight from it. “There’s nothing to sodding analyse; I got nowt from the redneck except a load of bollocks.”
Adam placed a hand on the agitated vampire’s shoulder. “If you tell us everything Mcdonald told you, perhaps we can…”
“Nothing made sense,” Spike snarled.” “Don’t you understand? Even though I cut off his cock, he was still taunting me; shafting me, like he’s shafted Angel…all of us.” Spike punched the wall in frustration, looking at his bleeding knuckles as if the answers lay within the bruises, Adam taking the injured hand and shaking his head.
“That’ll need attention,” Giles said, lifting Spike’s other hand and placing the injured one in it for support. “Hold that and I’ll get something to put on it.”
“I failed Angel,” Spike said quietly, slumping onto the sofa, Adam joining his vampire.
“What was the ‘bollocks’ Mcdonald spoke?” Adam asked, using police technique to draw out information from a reluctant witness. “In what seemed a very confusing situation and your feelings of failure now, you might not be aware of the significance of anything he said.”
Pushing Adam aside, Spike stood and announced he was going to get disgustingly drunk, stomping out the door and heading for the car. Adam was at his side instantly, trying to get his blond Avenger back into the house, but knowing he wasn’t going to dissuade the angry vampire, and got into the car before him. “Okay,” he said, “get in and I’ll drive you wherever you want to go to release your pent up aggression.” Spike slid into the passenger seat and lit up, mouth pursed like a petulant teenager. “This is gonna be a laugh a minute,” Adam said.
Giles poked his head inside the window and told Adam to take care of ‘our boy;’ to allow him to let off steam, go a bit wild but not obscenely so, and to call if and when there were any problems, the boy nodding as he drove off.
Watching them speed away, Giles longed to accompany the pair, having felt neglected since Adam’s arrival. It wasn’t that he disliked the man or had any ill-feeling towards him; he was charming and handsome and…young. He and Spike looked right together; no one would look at them and assume one was paying for the pleasure of the other’s company; unlike the old buzzard he saw in the mirror when he shaved. It was fitting spike should have a lively, dynamic young partner at his side and it hurt he could not be that partner. Sighing, he returned to his empty house, made a sandwich, gathered a stack of books and prepared to wait for their return.
***
Chapter 13: Into the jaws of death; into the mouth of hell
Pairing: Spike, Adam, Angel, Giles & the Sunnydale gang
Rating: NC17 for Spike swearing and torture, mutilation
Summary: Spike and Tara infiltrate Wolfram and Hart and Lindsey gets his just rewards with Lilah pulling everyone's strings.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters etc...
Feedback: Always welcome.
Type your cut contents here.
Chapter 13: …into the jaws of death; into the mouth of hell (part 1)
“Cannon to the right of them; cannon to the left of them, cannon in front of them volleyed and thunder’d,” Tara whispered as she broke from the incantation.
“Yeah,” Spike said, “plunged into the battery smoke, right through the line they broke. Exactly how I feel, but I’m not plannin’ on letting any Cossack or Turk get the better of us.”
Spike and Tara were waiting to be taken to the twenty fifth floor of Wolfram and Hart; to the library of ‘Mystic Revelations.’ As he tried to look casual and jaded in his expensive Hugo Boss suit, briefcase and alligator shoes, Spike knew he sounded far more confident than he felt. The Wolf, the Ram and the Hart were notorious throughout the demon world, and even with the new name and chic, minimalist building, they still reeked of evil. He was on edge; the hairs on the back of his neck bristled with apprehension, even his teeth itched.
He’d contacted Lila Morgan and she’d couriered a package containing a date, a time, the place, instructions and magical elements, plus the necessary incantation to allow a vampire access through the sanctified walls of Wolfram and Hart without being detected. A Wicca was required to assist and she was adamant no one on Wolfram and Hart’s ‘radar’ would be tolerated, leaving only Tara able to undertake the assignment. Spike wanted the witch, but there had been strong objections from Willow and Giles, the quiet girl announcing firmly she would be willing to accompany the vampire, giving a resolved look to rival that of her red haired lover.
Spike had purchased a new car with darkened windows and Adam had driven them to his apartment in LA, where they stayed and prepared for the evening ‘meeting’ Lila Morgan had arranged.
The vampire looked at the pretty, fair-haired girl at his side, quietly chanting at thirty second intervals as was required of her until their task was completed, and wondered if she would crack at the first sign of danger. As if sensing his thoughts, Tara smiled, and Spike saw steely determination in the blue eyes and an overwhelming sense of loyalty to the group he now belonged.
“All right, love?” Spike asked and Tara nodded, concentrating on the spell.
A sharp dressed, stoat faced man tapping rapidly into a palm PC, approached the couple. “Mr Taylor and Ms Maclay?” he asked. Spike nodded, trying to look superior to the mere minion. “This way, please.” Spike and Tara followed and were escorted to the elevator which sped them up to the twenty-fifth; stoat face indicating which room they were to take. “Messrs Allington and Yu will be with you presently. If you require refreshments, dial ‘two-four-one’ on the blue telephone and place your order. If you need to be shown the way out after the meeting, dial ‘six-seven-three’ on the yellow and someone will accompany you to the lobby. Good evening.”
Poncy twit, Spike thought as he quickly found the stationary cupboard as instructed and ushered Tara inside, opening the briefcase. “It’s eight twenty,” he said to the intonating girl, “at eight twenty five, you break the sachet into the container and pour the green liquid over the whole lot, then stir in the contents of the bamboo box as you cast the disclosure spell. You’ll only have thirty seconds to break from my incantation, so it all has to co-ordinate like clockwork. Have you got that?” She nodded and Spike kissed her forehead, closed the door and made his way to the library.
As he strode into the room, Spike felt a hand on his shoulder and turned. No one. A shove. Still no one. A slap on the buttocks. Fuck! He was here already. Bastard; fucking bastard! A slap to the face. Spike swung wildly. Another slap. Spike whirled around and spun again at the blow to his kidneys. Vampire senses were keenly tuned to any change in air pressure, body heat; sweat; but there was nothing except the sterile smell of the room. Crack! Something hard against his cheek; followed by a thud in the guts, causing him to double over and a smack to the head as he crashed to the floor.
“Where are you?” Spike wheezed.
“Here, there and everywhere, vampire,” the voice teased.
“Mcdonald! I’ll rip you fucking lungs out, you bastard!”
Something much harder smashed his forehead, blood spurting from the wound, then another and another. Curled up but still striking out at the invisible assailant, Spike gasped as he was hit between the legs.
“Not sure how long this meeting is scheduled for, Spike” the voice said, “but you’re going to tell me who set me up; had to be an inside job.”
Something was hammered into Spike’s chin; bone splintering, and the vampire groaned, spitting blood. “Come on, Tara; come on.”
“What’s that? Tara who?” The voice asked.
“Tara King,” Spike said, as a pair of feet materialised. “Second best of Steed’s girls; ta ra ra boom de ay. Gotcha!” Scissoring his legs, Spike toppled Lindsey and mounted the surprised man; thighs either side of the human’s face. “You’re even uglier than I remembered, mate, but never fear, I’ll move some of your features around.”
Spike slammed a fist into his captive’s nose several times and smeared the blood with his palms, then ran a thumb along the shocked human’s brow and gouged out an eye, forcing the blob of jelly into the screaming man’s mouth. He picked Lindsey up by the scruff and tossed him against the far wall, leaping over to drag the fallen body by the ankles to the middle of the room where he took each hand in turn and, securing a foot under the moaning human’s armpit, dislocated the joints. Turning his nemesis, arms pinned painfully underneath, the vampire sat on Lindsey and calmly cut the buttons from his jeans, opening the flies and digging into underwear to fish out a flaccid cock.
Waggling the limp organ, Spike said, “I’d circumcise you if you weren’t already dick clipped, Lindsey, me old China, so it looks like I’ll have to Lorena Bobbitt you.” The sadist curled the shriveled penis around the sharp blade. “Come now, don’t carry on so; you did as much to me as I recall, the only difference, your knob won’t regenerate. But before I do that and worse, let’s chat like old friends do. What have you done with Angel? Is he still alive?”
Lindsey nodded, wracked with pain and fear, willing to divulge everything to his torturer. “Breuddwyd Caregan,” he spluttered, “you need the Breuddwyd Caregan.”
“What’s that, you little shit; a spell?” Spike rasped, cutting into the soft flesh of the terrified man’s penis. “At this precise moment in time, I hate everyone, and you’re just another on the list, so don’t fuck me about!”
“No, don’t, Spike, please…”
“Well, you’re not very much fun,” Spike sang, “’cause you’re cut, blind and dumb; but I’ve got no one to play with today. Now, one slip of the knife…”
“Sahjhan…time and dimension demon…Soltash…the scrolls…”
“I know about that fucker, so cut the crap; what have you done to Angel and where is he?” Spike demanded, sawing into the bleeding cock.
“I destroyed the Breuddwyd Caregan…very rare…even if you find him, you can’t…without another…ahhh!”
“You’re talking bollocks, you fucking cunt and I don’t have time for your lies!” Spike yelled, slicing through the organ, blood spurting everywhere. He flung it against the wall where the mass of flesh held for a moment before sliding down, leaving a trail of gore. Lindsey was screaming and Spike stood over him, one foot pressing into the gash where the human’s penis used to be and was about to slash open his scrotum when a squadron of armed security guards burst into the room and surrounded him. “What the..?”
“There he is,” Lila Morgan said, indicating the mutilated figure lying on the floor, “get him up and take him to the holding room on the eighteenth and wait for further instructions.”
“And this one?” the leader asked.
“He’s been instrumental in finding this piece of garbage and isn’t to be harmed.” She raised an eyebrow at Spike’s startled expression.
Spike stared in disbelief as the guards hefted the moaning body off the floor and carted it off.
“Wait a minute; I haven’t got what I wanted out of him.” He rushed at Lila, but was prevented from reaching the smiling woman by several guards.
“You’ve had your allotted time with Mcdonald,” she said, “it’s not my fault you couldn’t get him to talk. I kept my part of the bargain, Spike, so I’d shake a tail feather and get out of here as quickly as you can. The spell only has five minutes to go before every weapon in this building, metal and mystic, will be trained on you.”
She turned to walk away, Spike grasping at her sleeve. “He hasn’t told me where Angel is or what he’s done to him. Let me have another minute.”
“You’re already down to four minutes before dust time, vampire,” she warned, “so I’d concentrate on getting yourself out alive. Oh, look how time flies; three minutes, thirty seconds and counting…”
“I need to get the girl.”
“She wasn’t part of the deal,” Lilah clarified, “my men have found her and she’s been treated as an infection in need of cleansing.”
“You fucking bitch!” Spike flew at the woman, stun guns shooting bolts of electricity through his body and he crumpled to the floor.
“Why thank you, Spike,” she purred, the toe of her shoe nudging the vampire’s quivering face, “that’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me.” Lilah departed, ordering two guards to cover her until she was safe from the maniac who was no longer any use to the company, but because of his help, was to be allowed to leave the building.
***
Recovering from the assault, Spike was torn between chasing after and smashing Lilah’s face in, finding Mcdonald or getting himself and Tara out of the building. He hesitated for an instant before drawing out a thin taper from the inside pocket of his jacket and lit the wick with his Zippo. It sparked to life and burned with a fierce turquoise flame, the vampire uttering the words to accompany the spell that would conjure up Tara. Closing his eyes and breathing in the heady, aromatic fumes, Spike thanked Giles for having the sense to devise a back up plan should their ‘serpent’ live up to their expectations. The ex Watcher and Willow had worked together to weave the spell that would allow either of their friends to find the other if separated.
The mists clouding Spike’s mind dissipated and he heard Tara’s jumbled, panicked thoughts clearly. The girl was terrified and the vampire strove to reach her with his mind, trying to calm her, hearing the screamed ‘twenty-two fifteen’ through her confusion, and the plea ‘hurry, please, Spike.’
Racing to the stairs, Spike flew down three flights, rushing through the empty corridor until he found room twenty-two fifteen and kicked the door in. Tara lay motionless on a cot in the centre of the room, and the vampire could see fear in her eyes as she stared at the ceiling. He wondered why she hadn’t stirred or gotten up when he burst in and then saw the ugly thing clinging to her ear. It looked like a fat, dark purple leech, and it glistened with moisture. He rushed to Tara’s side, brushing hair from her face, amazed the girl was still intoning the spell, and almost tugged at the filthy thing, remembering leeches often dug teeth into the flesh of their hosts as they sucked, so he shook into vampire mode and bit the vile creature, its blood spurting out and spattering his face. He spat out the foul tasting liquid and watched as the leech shivered and shrunk, its head emerging from Tara’s ear. Batting the parasite away, it fell to the floor and the vampire squashed it beneath his heel, kicking it out of sight. The girl screamed and Spike took her in his arms, telling her she was safe and the thing was dead.
“It…it was in my head,” Tara stuttered. “It was pulling out my thoughts, my memories and Spike…it was speaking to me. Sweet mother…it was inside me…”
“Shh…shh; it’s all right. It’s out and it’s dead; it can’t hurt you now.”
“It…was inside my mind, raping me,” she cried.
“I know, I know,” Spike soothed, as he lifted her off the bed and set her feet on the floor. “Tara? Tara, love, we don’t have much time; you have to keep casting until we get out of here. You have to be strong for a few minutes longer. Can you stand?”
Tara nodded and leaned on Spike as they made their way to the elevator, Spike supporting her until they reached the ground floor, where they managed to appear relatively normal crossing reception and out through the doors. Once outside, Spike gathered Tara in his arms and ran two blocks to Adam who was waiting by the car. The men carefully placed the weeping girl in the back, Spike slipping in beside her, and Adam started the car and got them quickly away from ‘Wolfram and Hart.’
Glancing back at Spike cradling Tara, whispering and curling her hair around a finger, Adam decided not to ask his vampire what had happened inside the building. He wasn’t sure if the girl was injured, she seemed unharmed, but knew appearances could be very deceiving in the strange world he now inhabited. He drove as fast as legally permitted and reached Sunnydale in just over an hour. They delivered Tara to the safety of her lover, explaining what had happened, and drove to Giles’s house.
***
Enjoying a glass of chilled white wine, Lilah Morgan sat curled in a chair viewing the newly captured CCTV footage on her laptop. William the Bloody was a helluva vampire and a damn good-looking man. The image of Spike torturing and mutilating her old adversary was particularly arousing and her hand crept up to her crotch as she watched, imagining herself in Mcdonald’s place. Not the mutilating, of course, but on the receiving end of the awesome, irresistible power that was Spike. He’d need a restraining collar, she agreed, as the vampire was obviously a loose cannon and totally unpredictable, unlike Angel, who she had always thought boringly predictable. She hoped he was dead and out of the picture; she only needed one ensouled vampire anyway. Entering her moist cunt, she paused the screen with a close up of Spike’s ecstatic face at the moment he hacked off Lindsey’s penis.
***
“A fucking waste of a new whistle and shoes,” Spike ranted, downing a large shot of whiskey. “That bitch played me for a fool and like that fool, I acted the part to perfection.”
“We couldn’t have foreseen all the variables, Spike,” Giles said. “We knew it was a risk and dared to take it. Now, I need you to settle yourself to enable us to analyse the situation fully.”
Spike paced the room, gesticulating wildly, snatching the bottle of Scotch from the ex Watcher and drinking straight from it. “There’s nothing to sodding analyse; I got nowt from the redneck except a load of bollocks.”
Adam placed a hand on the agitated vampire’s shoulder. “If you tell us everything Mcdonald told you, perhaps we can…”
“Nothing made sense,” Spike snarled.” “Don’t you understand? Even though I cut off his cock, he was still taunting me; shafting me, like he’s shafted Angel…all of us.” Spike punched the wall in frustration, looking at his bleeding knuckles as if the answers lay within the bruises, Adam taking the injured hand and shaking his head.
“That’ll need attention,” Giles said, lifting Spike’s other hand and placing the injured one in it for support. “Hold that and I’ll get something to put on it.”
“I failed Angel,” Spike said quietly, slumping onto the sofa, Adam joining his vampire.
“What was the ‘bollocks’ Mcdonald spoke?” Adam asked, using police technique to draw out information from a reluctant witness. “In what seemed a very confusing situation and your feelings of failure now, you might not be aware of the significance of anything he said.”
Pushing Adam aside, Spike stood and announced he was going to get disgustingly drunk, stomping out the door and heading for the car. Adam was at his side instantly, trying to get his blond Avenger back into the house, but knowing he wasn’t going to dissuade the angry vampire, and got into the car before him. “Okay,” he said, “get in and I’ll drive you wherever you want to go to release your pent up aggression.” Spike slid into the passenger seat and lit up, mouth pursed like a petulant teenager. “This is gonna be a laugh a minute,” Adam said.
Giles poked his head inside the window and told Adam to take care of ‘our boy;’ to allow him to let off steam, go a bit wild but not obscenely so, and to call if and when there were any problems, the boy nodding as he drove off.
Watching them speed away, Giles longed to accompany the pair, having felt neglected since Adam’s arrival. It wasn’t that he disliked the man or had any ill-feeling towards him; he was charming and handsome and…young. He and Spike looked right together; no one would look at them and assume one was paying for the pleasure of the other’s company; unlike the old buzzard he saw in the mirror when he shaved. It was fitting spike should have a lively, dynamic young partner at his side and it hurt he could not be that partner. Sighing, he returned to his empty house, made a sandwich, gathered a stack of books and prepared to wait for their return.
***