The Ties That Bind (21/34 + epilogue)
Title: The Ties That Bind - Part 21
Beta: Blackcat1000
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Donna, John Hart, Owen and James Harper, Mickey/Martha, Toshiko/Tommy, Claudia, Phillip, Saxon, Rhiannon, OCs
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 75K+
Warnings/Contains: Explicit sex (does that need a warning?), witchcraft, horror, supernatural themes, character death.
Summary: Ianto is a powerful magical warrior, one which Jack Harkness has never been able to resist. Once enemies, then almost lovers, he broke his heart. Years later, Jack must return to his hometown and seek help before it is too late. Jack and Ianto must now put aside their past and work together to defeat an evil threatening to overwhelm and take control of Jack because of his unique bloodline. Secrets and foretold prophecies will plague them and in this paranormal battle, they will need more than magic to survive.
A/N: Jack is questioning his motives and strange changes again, and John questions Ianto about his own motives, too.
Chapter Twenty One
Jack did his best to stay focused as they headed down the M6 toward Blackpool where he’d agreed to pick up Phillip, before making their way over to Devon. But it was impossible. He knew he should send Ianto packing. Knew it was the best thing he could do for him. But…he just couldn’t do it.
Despite how pissed Jack was at him, Ianto still made him feel…right. Made him feel for the first time in forever, that he had a chance of fighting this thing. At the same time, he irritated him more than any other being alive. Drove him crazy with his smart mouth and his crooked smiles. With his secrets and his attitude. But he’d never wanted anyone more.
And he didn’t know what he was supposed to do with that knowledge. No matter what happened with the Master and the Pharis, he couldn’t deny that he was becoming something that wasn’t completely human. How would Ianto feel if those changes became more obvious? Would he finally look at him as if he was a monster? And how the hell would he be able to handle it if that day ever came?
He wouldn’t. He’d go out of his fucking mind.
And he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t tempted to drag his little ass into the nearest hotel room he could find and show him just how badly he wanted him. Probably not the brightest idea he’d ever had, but he felt compelled to do everything in his power to forge a connection between them. One that couldn’t be broken, no matter how many miles eventually separated them.
And he really did not want him to be a virgin. He wanted that issue resolved, so that no one got any more crazy ideas about using him to kill the Wraiths. He was being selfish, yeah, but he couldn’t help it. Who knew what would happen during the ceremony for the spell? No matter how important it was, he couldn’t let him risk his life like that. And that was just another item that could be added to the growing list of things he couldn’t do.
Couldn’t make him leave.
Couldn’t get thoughts of sex with him out of his head.
Couldn’t let him risk his life.
Couldn’t think straight for a fucking minute.
Needing a way to unwind before he stressed himself into a stroke, he reached into the compartment on the SUV door for his cigarettes-he hadn’t had one for a while-then grabbed his lighter.
“Isn’t it a little early in the day to be sucking down a cigarette?” Ianto’s voice was barely more than a whisper, no doubt to keep from waking the demon snoozing in the backseat.
“It’s never too early,” he rasped, taking an angry drag that burned his lungs.
“You know, if you’d asked,” Ianto said, his voice getting a little louder, “I could have told you that I don’t care for the smell of smoke.”
Jack rolled his window down, then slid him a dry look. “Better?”
“It’ll have to do,” Ianto grumbled, the sunlight that was streaming in through the windshield glinting against the ornate surface of the pentagram hanging around his neck. After what had happened at the bar, he’d decided that morning to give the Lumtae to Ianto, knowing he’d feel better if he was wearing the talisman. Ianto hadn’t wanted to wear it, arguing that Jack needed its protection more than he did, but Ianto had finally relented after he’d threatened to dump the damn thing in his bag and leave it there.
When he finished his cigarette, he checked the clock on the console and said, “We should be there in about twenty minutes.”
“We’re making good time,” Ianto said, sounding bored with the mundane conversation. Hell, he was probably bored of the long drive. Unlike yesterday, there’d been none of the easy banter or laughter that they’d shared during the trip. John’s presence was part of the problem, the demon’s smart-arse interference making it impossible to have a simple conversation. And the angry frustration simmering just beneath the surface of their relationship, or friendship, or whatever you wanted to call it, wasn’t helping, either.
But there were a few things that needed to be said, before they met up with Phillip, so Jack stopped stalling and got on with it. “I know you’re probably not crazy about working with a vamp, but he is a good guy. I want you to cut him some slack.”
Ianto slid him a sideways look through those golden curls and laughed. “Don’t worry, Jack. I promise not to pick a fight with your pal.”
Jack tried not to scowl. “Don’t flirt with him, either.”
Ianto’s brows lifted so high, they nearly disappeared. “Wow, you must think I’m one complicated guy. You’re actually worried I’ll want to kill and screw him? Who knew I was so bold?” He clucked his tongue. “Or disgusting?”
Jack rolled his shoulder, refusing to offer an apology. Instead, he stayed on the attack. “You can get angry if you want, Ianto. But after last night, I’m realising I don’t know you at all.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself.” Ianto leaned his head back against the seat and gave a breezy sigh that he knew was meant to piss him off. “I mean, the whole virgin thing is hardly an image I work to project.”
He grunted, trying not to think of what Ianto ‘projected’ to anyone, knowing damn well this wasn’t a train of thought he needed to follow. He wasn’t going to torture himself over that. If he did, he might just explode.
Another thought occurred to him, and he asked, “Is your…virginity the reason you never dated John?”
“He’s a wild child,” Ianto said evasively, not really answering his question. “I knew there was no way he could keep it tame.”
“Amen to that,” John murmured from the backseat, obviously no longer asleep.
Ianto glared over his shoulder. “Put your damn earphones in and stop eavesdropping!”
The demon gave a gritty laugh. “Yes, sir.”
“So all that talk about your past lovers was just bullshit?” Jack asked.
Ianto turned his face away from him, staring out the window, but Jack knew he was rolling his eyes. “Virgin doesn’t necessarily mean innocent, Jack.”
Yeah, he knew that. There were all kinds of things people could do without actual penetration. Hell, he and Ianto had done some of them last night. But he didn’t think he’d done them with many others. He’d seemed… He didn’t know how to explain it. Not surprised by the things they were doing, but unaccustomed to the pleasure that came from doing them.
But why? He couldn’t wrap his mind around it. Ianto was the earthiest, sexiest, most responsive guy he’d ever known. What had he been waiting for?
He tried to remember if he’d said anything over the past two days that might give him a clue to his reason, but his brain was too bogged down to figure it out.
A few minutes later, Jack pulled into the parking lot of the little café where he was supposed to meet Phillip. He cut the engine, but made no move to get out.
Ianto looked at him, raising his brow again. “You waiting for an invitation?”
He let out a sharp sigh, and said, “No matter what happens, you are not to say anything to Phillip.”
“About what?” Ianto asked, refusing to make it easy for him.
“I could make a really good guess,” John offered with a husky laugh.
“I don’t want to hear it,” Ianto muttered, shooting the demon another warning look over his shoulder. He shot him a sexy smile and winked, so he ignored the idiot and turned back to Jack. “If you’re talking about my virginity, it’s not something you can keep a secret, Jack. They’ll need to know. That search in Eastern Europe might not turn up anything. And it’s really just a waste of their time. I mean, I’m not thrilled about the situation, but I’m already here.”
He took the keys out of the ignition and said, “It won’t be a waste, because they need to find someone else. You don’t fit the requirements.” Ianto could practically hear his teeth crunching. “They need someone trained to handle a situation like this.”
“You think I can’t handle it? I’m a fucking warrior, Jack,” he said incredulously.
Jack slid him a shadowed look from the corner of his eye. “This isn’t a game, Ianto. These are real monsters who will take you down the first chance they get. Whatever John has told you is going to happen during this ceremony, I can assure it’s going to get violent and it’s going to get ugly. I don’t want you anywhere near it.”
Pride had Ianto lifting his chin. “I know how to deal with things that are violent and ugly. I’ve handled more than you know. And my profession isn’t a game.”
“Isn’t it?” he rasped, and Ianto wondered if he was trying to piss him off on purpose. Was he trying to make him so angry that he left? Ha! As if it was possible. Didn’t the guy know he could give lessons in being stubborn?
“I help people, Jack.”
He snorted like a complete prick. “You just like beating up on people, Ianto. Getting your kicks. Who knows why? Maybe it has something to do with sexual frustration.”
Pain lanced through Ianto like the cutting edge of a knife, and he had to fight the urge to strike out at him. Taking a shaky breath, he said, “You son of a bitch. You’re just trying to piss me off.”
“No trying about it,” John drawled from the backseat. “He’s definitely pissing you off. The question is why are you letting him get to you? What do you care what he says or thinks? He’s not your daddy.”
“You’re right, John. He’s not. Which means I don’t have to listen.”
“But you’re going to,” Jack growled, putting one arm over the back of his seat as he turned to face him.
“Oh, yeah?” Ianto gave him a mean smile. “Make me,” he said, glaring at him, sounding more like a child than he cared to admit but Jack was being a complete arse.
Jack returned his hostile look, the silence getting thick and heavy, a muscle pulsing in the side of his hard jaw. Finally, Jack scrubbed a hand over his mouth and said, “I don’t want you to mention anything to Phillip about the Master’s bite, either.”
Ianto couldn’t hide his surprise. “They don’t know you were bitten?”
“Yeah, they know about the bite. They were there when it happened. But they don’t know about the…other stuff.”
“You haven’t told them about the changes? Why haven’t you confided in them?”
He practically forced his response through gritted teeth. “Because it’s not exactly something I want people to know.”
Ianto could sense the things he wasn’t saying. That he was afraid of how they would react. Worried they would judge him or lose their trust in him. It saddened Ianto that he felt that fear, but he knew he didn’t want his pity.
“Fine,” he said. “I won’t say anything about the bite.”
“And the other?”
Ianto knew Jack was talking about his virginity and the ceremony. “We’ll talk about it later.”
He clearly didn’t like this response, but he didn’t press the issue, which was good, since Ianto was still pissed at him for what he’d said. He climbed out of the SUV, and started to close the door, then stopped himself and leaned back in, pinning him in place with a dark, glittering stare. “You keep pushing me like this, Ianto, and I’m going to end up taking this damn issue into my own hands,” he muttered, before slamming the door shut.
Ianto took a few moments to enjoy the view as Jack walked across the car-park, since the man’s arse was too perfect to ignore. Then he unleashed on John, warning him to cool it with the idiotic comments or he was going to contact his ex and tell the woman exactly where she could find his irritating arse.
John winced when he delivered the threat. “Damn. You’re a cruel man, Eye Candy.”
“I’m not cruel,” he snapped. “What I am is tired of dealing with you two idiots!”
“Aw, well, you know I’m a wanker. And you should cut Harkness a little slack,” he said, propping his arms on the front seat. “Poor man’s head is spinning. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a guy so twisted up about anyone before. That man wants you, Ianto. Real bad.”
“Shut up, John.”
“I’m serious.”
“It doesn’t mean anything,” he argued, picking up the Coke Jack had bought him when they’d stopped for fuel and cigarettes. “Jack’s just one of those guys who always wants what he can’t have.”
“Bullshit. Harkness isn’t just screwing with your mind. He’s acting like a guy who’s found that one thing he wants more than any other. He’s just too scared to do anything about it, because he knows damn well where it’ll lead.”
Setting the can down again, Ianto asked, “Why are you pushing this, John? Are you trying to drive me out of my mind? I mean, you’re the one who said there was a reason for my forced virginity!”
“And I still believe there is,” John said gently, reaching out and gently brushing his cheek. “But you won’t have to stay a virgin forever, Ianto.”
Baffled, Ianto said, “How do you know that?”
A low laugh slid lazily from his lips. “I just know, Eye Candy.”
There was something John wasn’t telling him but he was too tired to figure it out. John knew about the prophecy that had kept him single for so many years. Because of that prophecy, he’d never trusted a man enough to have sex with him. Not even John, and the guy had definitely tried before their relationship had settled into that of close friends. But Ianto knew that if it wasn’t for the current mess they were in, he’d have been tempted to take that risk for Jack.
He just… He didn’t think he could ever risk anything more. Already, he was feeling too hungry for him. Too achy. Desperate. Those pulse-pounding minutes he’d spent with Jack in that hotel room had been more than he’d bargained for. He’d had no idea just how emotionally destructive it would be. The intimacy, the closeness. They might not have officially done the deed, but he’d broken through his defenses, breaching those parts of him that had always longed for things from this man. Things that weren’t meant to be his.
There was too much risk, because Ianto would never be able to keep things casual with Jack. It wasn’t his virtue that needed protecting. It was his heart.