The End of The Beginning XXVIII
Title: The End Of The Beginning
Part: XXVIII
Title: It's the fall that kills you
Pairing: Xander/Spike
Overall Rating: NC17
Chapter Rating: R
Beta: shakatany the magnificent
Disclaimer: Joss and M.E. own all.
AN: Abandon all hope ye who enter; this way lies pain.
Previous chapters
When he blinked an eon later, Blue Eyes was still looking at him expectantly and he decided on honesty, "Do what, Master?"
A quiet sound came from a corner of the room and he tracked his Holder as Blue Eyes spun to look at the sound, relaxing when a darkhaired woman came dancing forward. There was something in the way she moved that comforted him, even if he could only see her in his peripheral vision.
She hummed a snippet of something before turning her eyes on him, and he found himself looking back without realising he'd moved his gaze. "Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will tear me asunder," she half sing-songed.
There was something in her face, a remembered agony so like his own that he wanted to reach out and burn himself in it. "When blasphemy blooms, the mockingbird will laugh." She spoke with a seriousness that made him struggle to memorise the words. Before he had time to blink she had turned to his Holder, her gaze sharp, "Be very careful my once-prince, Rapunzel's hair is fragile and the diamond's setting is spun with glass."
"Dru..." The impatience in his Master's voice was obvious and his eyes snapped back to him without thinking.
"One step forward and two steps back. It's a dance on thorns, my Spike; move too early and blood will spill in rivers of regret." He amused himself with the fact that the ramblings of a madwoman made some sort of sense, his mind twisting the words until he found ugly truth.
"You can't mean-"
Brown eyes filled his vision, something behind them hinting at a woman just as lost as he was, just as tired.
"He forgot the moon to spite the stars." The woman whirled around to point a finger at his Holder, snarling, "False dawn is what you'll bring, and Orion will find the secrets much too soon."
It was like a tornado ripped into the room. Blue eyes glared fire before whirling away to tear everything apart. The woman began humming again, twisting in spirals that made her dress flare out. He sat still through it all, face passive as he waited for an order. Suddenly there were ice-hot eyes boring into his own trying to find something in his face he was sure he lost long ago.
"She's mad, but she's right, and I hate her for it. I will get you out, Harris, but I can't put Nibblet at risk. Promised Buffy, and I promised you. If I took you now, they'd find me, find us. But she needs you, so don't you sodding dare give up, she needs her bloody White Knight back." He was curious about the emotion in those eyes; self-loathing, despair, determination, fear.
The answer never changed; "Yes, Master."
Suddenly his Holder was up and moving again, barking orders into a phone. He'd barely had time to blink before another demon was in the room, and quiet words between the two soon had his leash handed over. His eyes once again lowered as he walked easily behind his new Holder. He didn't look back.
*~*~*
The silence of his holding cell was a comfort, for now at least. The agony wracking his body was enough to force convulsions from his muscles periodically. Every breath he took felt like a knife wound in his side, but he didn't remember any knives from this time outside the cell, nor the few before it.
A rib cracked under large claws. A shift behind him and more tearing pain... laughter and a stinging sensation down his flanks.
"Had enough, my little pet?" The voice was smooth and vaguely mocking.
"Only if it pleases you, Master." No thought required, it was all ritual, familiar.
More pain.
"Poor thing, are you hurt?"
Two answers to chose from, but the words didn't hesitate, "No, Master."
Delighted laughter soon drowned out by the rush of blood in his ears.
Chapters now located here