Archive: Hellbound 6/?
Original post is here.
Continued from here.
VI: Long Way Down.
~*~
It was your average night. If your idea of “average” was “as far away from average as inhumanly possible.”
Spike and Xander had half the Potentials with them on patrol, while Buffy, accompanied by Blake, had the other half. Kel and Dawn were holding the fort back at the mansion, supposedly studying the First but probably making out. Buffy hadn’t figured it out yet, and Xander figured that it wasn’t his place to inform her of the romance between her sister and his partner.
To everyone’s relief, Kennedy and Molly had been split up, with Kennedy on Buffy’s patrol team since Blake was the only person who seemed to be able to control her. Well, Xander could, if necessary, but he despised the spoiled little princess so much that he’d refused to take her, and had instead taken the more easygoing Molly.
All of the girls had some natural fighting ability, that was clear. Most of them had come to Sunnydale virtually untrained, however, which had made the last two weeks of heavy drills very necessary, even if the girls bitched about it.
Xander and Buffy had already decided on a plan for the newly-started patrols. Find a vampire, trap it somewhere enclosed, and leave the girls to fight it out on their own, while still staying close enough to come to their aid if necessary.
Unfortunately, the plan wasn’t working for Spike and Xander’s group. They’d already hit three different cemeteries, and they hadn’t found a single vampire.
“This is starting to get ridiculous,” Xander said. “What is it about vampires that they’re only there when you don’t want them to be?”
“Oi!”
“Didn’t mean you,” Xander said absently to an offended Spike. The girls snickered a little, and Xander reacted with nothing more alarming than a mild glare.
The man in front of him was not the same man who had snarled at Spike in the cemetery two weeks ago. That man, worn down to nothing but the essentials and bitter with it, had blossomed- the only word Spike could think for it- under Spike’s attention. And, Spike noticed with satisfaction, he’d been leaning more and more on Spike as Spike had learned his moods and triggers, and less and less on the wolf boy.
Not that Spike had anything against Kel. He wasn’t even sure that he was jealous. But he did know that not only had Xander not slept with Kel since the day Spike had, to all intents and purposes, moved into the mansion, but Spike had also replaced Kel as the person who was first in Xander’s affections.
“I don’t think we’re going to find anything,” Chloe said softly. Spike glanced over at her, remembering the night that she’d almost killed herself due to the First’s influence, and only a well-timed vision of Kel’s had given them a chance to stop her. Since then they’d all treated her a little less casually, and she’d started to gain a little more confidence, and, gasp, actually speak up every now and then.
“I think you’re right,” Molly said. Molly and Kennedy, despite their hot-and-heavy romance, were nonetheless the most together of the Potentials, and as such were the unacknowledged leaders.
Xander just shrugged his agreement. “Sure. Maybe Buffy and Blake had better luck with their group.”
Spike snorted as they started back to Buffy’s house, where they would drop off the Potentials before going home. “Speaking of luck, how’s Blake doing with Buffy?”
Xander grinned at him- carefree and easy, and Spike gave a little triumphant cheer in his head for causing it. “I don’t think she even knows that he’s- what is he doing, anyway? Every time I watch him make a move, I can’t decide if he’s courting her or stalking her.”
“Prob’ly a bit of both,” Spike said. “You know, he reminds me a bit of a Chaos mage I met once...”
“Ethan Rayne,” Xander said. “I know. Why Giles hates Blake quite so much. Leftover Ethan-rage.”
“They were shaggin’?” Xander glanced over at him, and Spike elaborated, “Giles and Ethan, you prat. Not Blake.”
“Fuck, yeah, they were shagging. And of course not Blake, he’s straight.” Pause. “I think.”
Spike ignored the bit about Blake. “Didn’t end well?”
“What do you think?”
“I think they fucked each other brainless in the Ripper days and now Giles won’t admit it, so Ethan kept coming back to Sunnydale to get the old boy’s attention.”
“Goddamn right.”
The Potentials, following behind them, were listening with wide-eyed fascination. Spike wondered if Xander didn’t notice, or just didn’t care.
They went the rest of the way back to Buffy’s house in silence, enjoying the night. Both of them were nocturnal people- Spike by necessity, and Xander by preference- but in the past few weeks neither of them had had a chance to get out much at night. It was refreshing for both of them to get a chance to stretch their legs, and the amusement they got from the nervous way the Potentials clutched their stakes and glanced down dark alleys was just a side benefit.
Just because Xander had relaxed a little didn’t mean he’d lost his sense of humor.
They’d been expecting Buffy’s house to be have a few lights on- these days someone was always awake, no matter what the hour, and Buffy had just taken the Potentials out- but they weren’t expecting the blaze of light that came from every light and lamp in the blaze being turned on. When they saw it, everyone started walking faster, knowing in their bones that something had gone horribly, horribly wrong.
Buffy met them at the door, horribly bruised and battered, with stitches in her cheek and puncture wounds in her throat. Silently she gestured for Xander’s Potentials to join the others in the living room, and when they were gone she told them, “Two of the Potentials are dead. It almost killed me. I don’t know what it is, Christ, it looked like some sort of vampire but far, far worse, and Blake said it was a Turok-something...”
“Turok-han,” Xander said. His voice was absolutely lifeless, and when Spike looked over at him, in surprise of both his knowledge and his tone, he saw that Xander’s expression was as dead as his voice.
“Yeah, that’s it,” Buffy said. She sounded as tired as she looked, and didn’t seem to notice the eerie way that Xander was giving off absolutely no emotion. “I managed to fight it off long enough for everyone else to run, and I got away only because I know the area better than it did.”
“Did it follow you?” And there was an emotion- urgency. Buffy looked alarmed.
“I don’t think so, but-“
And then there was a clawed hand around Spike’s throat and a rending pain in his shoulder. Apparently, he thought in the tiny portion of his brain that wasn’t focusing on trying to fight the thing off, the Turok-han had indeed followed her home.
He heard something- a feral snarl that reminded him of the year after he’d first been turned, and then several years back, sitting in a wheelchair in a factory. It was a vampire snarl of fury, and he’d never, ever heard anyone make that noise except Angelus. No one else had been able to pull it off.
But last he checked, Angelus wasn’t there. Was he?
And then he was on the ground, looking up to see the Turok-han (nasty-lookin’ fellow) run down the street. He didn’t have time to think about what had run it off before Xander was hauling him to his feet, staring at him with eyes that- oh Christ- were fucking glowing.
Well. Now he knew where the snarl had come from.
“It cut you.” That was Xander’s voice coming from his throat, but Spike really had to wonder if it was the same person saying the words.
“Er, yeah. Shoulder. Just a scratch, really, it’s not-“
“It made you bleed,” Xander said. “Its heart is mine.”
And Spike had a half-second to wonder exactly what that meant before Xander dropped his hands away and took off down the street, running flat-out in the direction that the Turok-han had gone.
Well. That couldn’t be good.
“Christ!” a British voice said from the doorway. Blake. “What happened?”
“The Turok-han followed me back here,” Buffy said, sounding shaky. Blake’s hand immediately went to her shoulder to steady her, and Spike wondered- how does she not know about his intentions, again? “It grabbed Spike, tried to choke him, and then Xander grabbed it and threw it off. It ran down the street, and then Xander grabbed Spike and his eyes were all glowy and weird and he said that its heart was his or something, and ran after it.”
“Fuck,” Blake breathed. “Oh, fuck.” He spun to Spike. “Go after him, now.”
Spike took off without a word, and Blake turned to Buffy. “I’m calling Kel. He’s been transferring to Spike, even I can tell that, but Kel’s been his anchor for two years now. He’ll listen to Kel. Oh, fuck, I hope Spike knows what he’s doing. Maybe if Kel can get there in time, the two of them can stop him.”
“Stop him from what?” Buffy demanded, and he turned to her, looking very frightened and oddly young in his fear.
“From killing us all.”
~*~
Xander ran.
The wind rushed all around him, ruffling his hair and whispering in his ears, the only sound he could hear beyond the clumsily scuffling footsteps of his prey. Xander could smell the scent of blood, and knew that he opened a wound when he had pulled the beast off of Spike. His Spike.
Good. He planned to open many more.
He could even see the thing ahead of him, as he slowly closed the distance between them. It was laughable, the creature trying to escape him. The Turok-han was the first vampire, yes. The ancestor of the lesser demons. But Xander was not a lesser demon. He was the valve for an eternal wellspring of power, and the greater his focus, the wider the valve.
He was feeling... focused, tonight. And there was only one thing he was certain of, one thing he could even think of.
Tonight, this creature would die.
~*~
Spike was running flat out, and still he was falling behind. Xander wasn’t running like any other creature Spike had ever seen. It was like his feet were barely touching the ground. He was moving across the ground like rage incarnate, like the battle crow that heralded the beginning of all great battles. Spike’s merely vampiric strength just couldn’t compete.
It wasn’t long before he heard a growling yelp, and he glanced over to see a large, silent gray shape come barreling out of the shadows. The large gray wolf came up past his waist, far larger than any wolf Spike had ever seen, and fell into step with him easily.
Kel.
Infinitely comforted by the presence of the shifter that was Xander’s friend- and, he had to admit, his as well- he ran faster.
Straight into the middle of a battle.
~*~
Blake, thank god, was far more together than Buffy herself. When Buffy would have just run after them, Blake snagged her arm with his surprising strength and held her still while he quickly called Kel on his cell phone. The conversation was short and to the point, and within a minute he was off the phone and pulling her around the house, which confused her. Why was he taking her away from her friend, away from the fight, and going around to the garage?
Where Blake kept his motorcycle.
Oh.
So there she was, roaring down the street on the back of Blake’s bike, arms around his waist and clinging with all her strength. It only took them a couple of minutes to catch up with the others, but the fight was already on when they got there, and though Buffy threw herself off the bike and rushed towards them, she found herself helpless to do anything but stand there, beside Spike and a large grey wolf that must be Kel and Blake, when he followed her more slowly, and watch a man who only looked like one of her oldest friends fight a creature that had almost killed her.
It was both the most savage fight that she had ever seen and the most elegant. The Turok-han was almost animalistic in its single-minded attempt to destroy Xander, but Xander looked like he was dancing, he was so graceful. It could almost have been a game of keep-away, Buffy thought, except for the constant rumbling growl that came from Xander’s throat, and the red gleam in his eyes every time they were caught by the light. He might look like he was playing a game, but Buffy was all too aware that the man was driven by a rage that transcended everything but the need to destroy.
~*~
Xander felt like throwing his head back and laughing. The thing before him was so clumsy, so slow, that he was almost unworthy of Xander’s attention. But the thing had harmed his mate, harmed what was his (Spike! some distant part of his mind screamed, where the last of his humanity was huddled, but he ignored it) and that was not to be forgiven. That was an act that required punishment, and there was no one better on this earth than Xander to mete out exactly the punishment that the creature deserved.
Abruptly tiring of the game he was playing with it, Xander met the next clumsy swipe of a clawed hand with a swift movement that captured the hand and then shattered all of the tiny, brittle bones. When the thing howled with pain, Xander yanked on the arm, spinning it around and dislocating the shoulder with a nasty-sounding pop!, and stooped quickly to pull a knife out of his boot. The creature tried to cut him with its other hand, which Xander captured as easily as the first, and it wasn’t more than a moment before it was hanging limp from his hand, a knife buried longwise in its throat. Xander let it drop like the useless garbage it was, and turned his red-eyed gaze on the group of friends that stood not six feet away.
~*~
It was the best fight that Spike had ever seen, and Xander was absolutely beautiful- rage incarnate, and the thought of having that power turned towards him sent a shiver of pleasurable fear down his spine. But he knew that Xander was also a danger like this, to others and to himself, and he had no intention of becoming his lover’s next victim. When Xander turned towards them, he put both hands behind his back and arched his neck slightly, a submissive posture that he could only hope would cool Xander’s rage long enough to get him within touching distance.
It worked, and Xander pressed one boot down on the knife, sending it through the Turok-han’s neck and effectively beheading it. Xander ignored the shower of dust, and moved slowly towards Spike, almost stalking over to him. It took everything he had, but he stood still, allowing the man- beast- Hellbound- to approach him, lean down, and bite his neck.
It wasn’t a gentle bite. It drew blood, and the smell of it added to the little slice of pain caused Spike’s cock to jump. The involuntary reaction wasn’t lost on Xander, and a little bit of humanity bled back into his eyes. Spike, sensing his chance, whipped his arms around Xander’s waist and clung, holding him tightly and trying to impart all the love and tenderness that he had in his demon heart and would never be able to voice.
Kel joined him, suddenly human and clothed, and the two of them stood there, embracing the man they both loved, and hoping that he’d come back to them.
~*~
It had been absolutely the most terrifying thing Buffy had ever seen, and the most beautiful at the same time. The intensity of Xander fighting was like lighting- you couldn’t help but stare, but at the same time you hoped that it never, ever turned towards you.
It was a different kind of beauty to watch Xander, embraced by Spike and Kel, both of them murmuring to him, and Xander slowly relaxing, muscles coiled tense by battle and rage smoothing out and the red gleam of his eyes fading back to his ordinary brown. After a minute Blake apparently deemed it safe, and moved over to join them. The four of them stood there, and Buffy realized that this wasn’t her world. This was family, and while Xander was her ally, and maybe somewhere in there he was still a little bit her friend, she wasn’t welcome there.
So she turned away, walked away, and waited by Blake’s motorcycle with her back turned to something she didn’t have with her heart heavy in her chest.
~*~
Spike could feel the moment that Xander was himself again, and he felt relief coursing through him like never before. And also triumph- I brought him back from that. It was a tangible sign of just how much he meant to his lover, and it was something he’d be able to hold close for years to come.
Finally Xander stepped away from the tight circle of arms and strength and caring, and stood on his own. Before Spike could feel too bereft, however, he reached out one long arm and snagged Spike, pulling him close with an arm around his shoulders for the simple pleasure of contact. Spike grinned to himself and kissed Xander on the side of his neck, and got a reassuring squeeze in return.
“Buffy.” Xander even sounded like himself again, and it got Buffy to turn around and face him. “This isn’t over. I need to speak to everyone. If you and Blake would go ahead of us and round them up, it would be much appreciated.”
“Alright,” she said, her voice a hoarse imitation of its usual strength. Blake silently moved to her side, and the two of them walked silently over to the motorcycle. Xander watched them with his deceptively human eyes as they climbed on, Buffy hanging on to Blake perhaps tighter than was entirely necessary, and rode off down the street.
Kel, in his wolf form again, pressed up against Xander’s thigh with a whine. Xander dropped one hand down and stroked it gently over the smooth fur of the wolf’s head, soothing the man who had been his only friend for years. Spike pressed against his other side, and Xander dipped his head to kiss the vampire that was his lover.
Time spun away then, lost in the wet heat of Xander’s possessive kiss, lost in the sense of family and home and mate and forever. Then the kiss was ended and the real world returned with a thump, and they were walking down the street, Xander’s right arm still around Spike’s shoulders and his left hand still buried in Kel’s ruff. They moved like one unit, and Spike thought that it might be the best thing he’d ever felt, and silently he swore, not for the first time, that he would do anything he had to in order to keep from losing this.
tbc.
Continued from here.
VI: Long Way Down.
~*~
It was your average night. If your idea of “average” was “as far away from average as inhumanly possible.”
Spike and Xander had half the Potentials with them on patrol, while Buffy, accompanied by Blake, had the other half. Kel and Dawn were holding the fort back at the mansion, supposedly studying the First but probably making out. Buffy hadn’t figured it out yet, and Xander figured that it wasn’t his place to inform her of the romance between her sister and his partner.
To everyone’s relief, Kennedy and Molly had been split up, with Kennedy on Buffy’s patrol team since Blake was the only person who seemed to be able to control her. Well, Xander could, if necessary, but he despised the spoiled little princess so much that he’d refused to take her, and had instead taken the more easygoing Molly.
All of the girls had some natural fighting ability, that was clear. Most of them had come to Sunnydale virtually untrained, however, which had made the last two weeks of heavy drills very necessary, even if the girls bitched about it.
Xander and Buffy had already decided on a plan for the newly-started patrols. Find a vampire, trap it somewhere enclosed, and leave the girls to fight it out on their own, while still staying close enough to come to their aid if necessary.
Unfortunately, the plan wasn’t working for Spike and Xander’s group. They’d already hit three different cemeteries, and they hadn’t found a single vampire.
“This is starting to get ridiculous,” Xander said. “What is it about vampires that they’re only there when you don’t want them to be?”
“Oi!”
“Didn’t mean you,” Xander said absently to an offended Spike. The girls snickered a little, and Xander reacted with nothing more alarming than a mild glare.
The man in front of him was not the same man who had snarled at Spike in the cemetery two weeks ago. That man, worn down to nothing but the essentials and bitter with it, had blossomed- the only word Spike could think for it- under Spike’s attention. And, Spike noticed with satisfaction, he’d been leaning more and more on Spike as Spike had learned his moods and triggers, and less and less on the wolf boy.
Not that Spike had anything against Kel. He wasn’t even sure that he was jealous. But he did know that not only had Xander not slept with Kel since the day Spike had, to all intents and purposes, moved into the mansion, but Spike had also replaced Kel as the person who was first in Xander’s affections.
“I don’t think we’re going to find anything,” Chloe said softly. Spike glanced over at her, remembering the night that she’d almost killed herself due to the First’s influence, and only a well-timed vision of Kel’s had given them a chance to stop her. Since then they’d all treated her a little less casually, and she’d started to gain a little more confidence, and, gasp, actually speak up every now and then.
“I think you’re right,” Molly said. Molly and Kennedy, despite their hot-and-heavy romance, were nonetheless the most together of the Potentials, and as such were the unacknowledged leaders.
Xander just shrugged his agreement. “Sure. Maybe Buffy and Blake had better luck with their group.”
Spike snorted as they started back to Buffy’s house, where they would drop off the Potentials before going home. “Speaking of luck, how’s Blake doing with Buffy?”
Xander grinned at him- carefree and easy, and Spike gave a little triumphant cheer in his head for causing it. “I don’t think she even knows that he’s- what is he doing, anyway? Every time I watch him make a move, I can’t decide if he’s courting her or stalking her.”
“Prob’ly a bit of both,” Spike said. “You know, he reminds me a bit of a Chaos mage I met once...”
“Ethan Rayne,” Xander said. “I know. Why Giles hates Blake quite so much. Leftover Ethan-rage.”
“They were shaggin’?” Xander glanced over at him, and Spike elaborated, “Giles and Ethan, you prat. Not Blake.”
“Fuck, yeah, they were shagging. And of course not Blake, he’s straight.” Pause. “I think.”
Spike ignored the bit about Blake. “Didn’t end well?”
“What do you think?”
“I think they fucked each other brainless in the Ripper days and now Giles won’t admit it, so Ethan kept coming back to Sunnydale to get the old boy’s attention.”
“Goddamn right.”
The Potentials, following behind them, were listening with wide-eyed fascination. Spike wondered if Xander didn’t notice, or just didn’t care.
They went the rest of the way back to Buffy’s house in silence, enjoying the night. Both of them were nocturnal people- Spike by necessity, and Xander by preference- but in the past few weeks neither of them had had a chance to get out much at night. It was refreshing for both of them to get a chance to stretch their legs, and the amusement they got from the nervous way the Potentials clutched their stakes and glanced down dark alleys was just a side benefit.
Just because Xander had relaxed a little didn’t mean he’d lost his sense of humor.
They’d been expecting Buffy’s house to be have a few lights on- these days someone was always awake, no matter what the hour, and Buffy had just taken the Potentials out- but they weren’t expecting the blaze of light that came from every light and lamp in the blaze being turned on. When they saw it, everyone started walking faster, knowing in their bones that something had gone horribly, horribly wrong.
Buffy met them at the door, horribly bruised and battered, with stitches in her cheek and puncture wounds in her throat. Silently she gestured for Xander’s Potentials to join the others in the living room, and when they were gone she told them, “Two of the Potentials are dead. It almost killed me. I don’t know what it is, Christ, it looked like some sort of vampire but far, far worse, and Blake said it was a Turok-something...”
“Turok-han,” Xander said. His voice was absolutely lifeless, and when Spike looked over at him, in surprise of both his knowledge and his tone, he saw that Xander’s expression was as dead as his voice.
“Yeah, that’s it,” Buffy said. She sounded as tired as she looked, and didn’t seem to notice the eerie way that Xander was giving off absolutely no emotion. “I managed to fight it off long enough for everyone else to run, and I got away only because I know the area better than it did.”
“Did it follow you?” And there was an emotion- urgency. Buffy looked alarmed.
“I don’t think so, but-“
And then there was a clawed hand around Spike’s throat and a rending pain in his shoulder. Apparently, he thought in the tiny portion of his brain that wasn’t focusing on trying to fight the thing off, the Turok-han had indeed followed her home.
He heard something- a feral snarl that reminded him of the year after he’d first been turned, and then several years back, sitting in a wheelchair in a factory. It was a vampire snarl of fury, and he’d never, ever heard anyone make that noise except Angelus. No one else had been able to pull it off.
But last he checked, Angelus wasn’t there. Was he?
And then he was on the ground, looking up to see the Turok-han (nasty-lookin’ fellow) run down the street. He didn’t have time to think about what had run it off before Xander was hauling him to his feet, staring at him with eyes that- oh Christ- were fucking glowing.
Well. Now he knew where the snarl had come from.
“It cut you.” That was Xander’s voice coming from his throat, but Spike really had to wonder if it was the same person saying the words.
“Er, yeah. Shoulder. Just a scratch, really, it’s not-“
“It made you bleed,” Xander said. “Its heart is mine.”
And Spike had a half-second to wonder exactly what that meant before Xander dropped his hands away and took off down the street, running flat-out in the direction that the Turok-han had gone.
Well. That couldn’t be good.
“Christ!” a British voice said from the doorway. Blake. “What happened?”
“The Turok-han followed me back here,” Buffy said, sounding shaky. Blake’s hand immediately went to her shoulder to steady her, and Spike wondered- how does she not know about his intentions, again? “It grabbed Spike, tried to choke him, and then Xander grabbed it and threw it off. It ran down the street, and then Xander grabbed Spike and his eyes were all glowy and weird and he said that its heart was his or something, and ran after it.”
“Fuck,” Blake breathed. “Oh, fuck.” He spun to Spike. “Go after him, now.”
Spike took off without a word, and Blake turned to Buffy. “I’m calling Kel. He’s been transferring to Spike, even I can tell that, but Kel’s been his anchor for two years now. He’ll listen to Kel. Oh, fuck, I hope Spike knows what he’s doing. Maybe if Kel can get there in time, the two of them can stop him.”
“Stop him from what?” Buffy demanded, and he turned to her, looking very frightened and oddly young in his fear.
“From killing us all.”
~*~
Xander ran.
The wind rushed all around him, ruffling his hair and whispering in his ears, the only sound he could hear beyond the clumsily scuffling footsteps of his prey. Xander could smell the scent of blood, and knew that he opened a wound when he had pulled the beast off of Spike. His Spike.
Good. He planned to open many more.
He could even see the thing ahead of him, as he slowly closed the distance between them. It was laughable, the creature trying to escape him. The Turok-han was the first vampire, yes. The ancestor of the lesser demons. But Xander was not a lesser demon. He was the valve for an eternal wellspring of power, and the greater his focus, the wider the valve.
He was feeling... focused, tonight. And there was only one thing he was certain of, one thing he could even think of.
Tonight, this creature would die.
~*~
Spike was running flat out, and still he was falling behind. Xander wasn’t running like any other creature Spike had ever seen. It was like his feet were barely touching the ground. He was moving across the ground like rage incarnate, like the battle crow that heralded the beginning of all great battles. Spike’s merely vampiric strength just couldn’t compete.
It wasn’t long before he heard a growling yelp, and he glanced over to see a large, silent gray shape come barreling out of the shadows. The large gray wolf came up past his waist, far larger than any wolf Spike had ever seen, and fell into step with him easily.
Kel.
Infinitely comforted by the presence of the shifter that was Xander’s friend- and, he had to admit, his as well- he ran faster.
Straight into the middle of a battle.
~*~
Blake, thank god, was far more together than Buffy herself. When Buffy would have just run after them, Blake snagged her arm with his surprising strength and held her still while he quickly called Kel on his cell phone. The conversation was short and to the point, and within a minute he was off the phone and pulling her around the house, which confused her. Why was he taking her away from her friend, away from the fight, and going around to the garage?
Where Blake kept his motorcycle.
Oh.
So there she was, roaring down the street on the back of Blake’s bike, arms around his waist and clinging with all her strength. It only took them a couple of minutes to catch up with the others, but the fight was already on when they got there, and though Buffy threw herself off the bike and rushed towards them, she found herself helpless to do anything but stand there, beside Spike and a large grey wolf that must be Kel and Blake, when he followed her more slowly, and watch a man who only looked like one of her oldest friends fight a creature that had almost killed her.
It was both the most savage fight that she had ever seen and the most elegant. The Turok-han was almost animalistic in its single-minded attempt to destroy Xander, but Xander looked like he was dancing, he was so graceful. It could almost have been a game of keep-away, Buffy thought, except for the constant rumbling growl that came from Xander’s throat, and the red gleam in his eyes every time they were caught by the light. He might look like he was playing a game, but Buffy was all too aware that the man was driven by a rage that transcended everything but the need to destroy.
~*~
Xander felt like throwing his head back and laughing. The thing before him was so clumsy, so slow, that he was almost unworthy of Xander’s attention. But the thing had harmed his mate, harmed what was his (Spike! some distant part of his mind screamed, where the last of his humanity was huddled, but he ignored it) and that was not to be forgiven. That was an act that required punishment, and there was no one better on this earth than Xander to mete out exactly the punishment that the creature deserved.
Abruptly tiring of the game he was playing with it, Xander met the next clumsy swipe of a clawed hand with a swift movement that captured the hand and then shattered all of the tiny, brittle bones. When the thing howled with pain, Xander yanked on the arm, spinning it around and dislocating the shoulder with a nasty-sounding pop!, and stooped quickly to pull a knife out of his boot. The creature tried to cut him with its other hand, which Xander captured as easily as the first, and it wasn’t more than a moment before it was hanging limp from his hand, a knife buried longwise in its throat. Xander let it drop like the useless garbage it was, and turned his red-eyed gaze on the group of friends that stood not six feet away.
~*~
It was the best fight that Spike had ever seen, and Xander was absolutely beautiful- rage incarnate, and the thought of having that power turned towards him sent a shiver of pleasurable fear down his spine. But he knew that Xander was also a danger like this, to others and to himself, and he had no intention of becoming his lover’s next victim. When Xander turned towards them, he put both hands behind his back and arched his neck slightly, a submissive posture that he could only hope would cool Xander’s rage long enough to get him within touching distance.
It worked, and Xander pressed one boot down on the knife, sending it through the Turok-han’s neck and effectively beheading it. Xander ignored the shower of dust, and moved slowly towards Spike, almost stalking over to him. It took everything he had, but he stood still, allowing the man- beast- Hellbound- to approach him, lean down, and bite his neck.
It wasn’t a gentle bite. It drew blood, and the smell of it added to the little slice of pain caused Spike’s cock to jump. The involuntary reaction wasn’t lost on Xander, and a little bit of humanity bled back into his eyes. Spike, sensing his chance, whipped his arms around Xander’s waist and clung, holding him tightly and trying to impart all the love and tenderness that he had in his demon heart and would never be able to voice.
Kel joined him, suddenly human and clothed, and the two of them stood there, embracing the man they both loved, and hoping that he’d come back to them.
~*~
It had been absolutely the most terrifying thing Buffy had ever seen, and the most beautiful at the same time. The intensity of Xander fighting was like lighting- you couldn’t help but stare, but at the same time you hoped that it never, ever turned towards you.
It was a different kind of beauty to watch Xander, embraced by Spike and Kel, both of them murmuring to him, and Xander slowly relaxing, muscles coiled tense by battle and rage smoothing out and the red gleam of his eyes fading back to his ordinary brown. After a minute Blake apparently deemed it safe, and moved over to join them. The four of them stood there, and Buffy realized that this wasn’t her world. This was family, and while Xander was her ally, and maybe somewhere in there he was still a little bit her friend, she wasn’t welcome there.
So she turned away, walked away, and waited by Blake’s motorcycle with her back turned to something she didn’t have with her heart heavy in her chest.
~*~
Spike could feel the moment that Xander was himself again, and he felt relief coursing through him like never before. And also triumph- I brought him back from that. It was a tangible sign of just how much he meant to his lover, and it was something he’d be able to hold close for years to come.
Finally Xander stepped away from the tight circle of arms and strength and caring, and stood on his own. Before Spike could feel too bereft, however, he reached out one long arm and snagged Spike, pulling him close with an arm around his shoulders for the simple pleasure of contact. Spike grinned to himself and kissed Xander on the side of his neck, and got a reassuring squeeze in return.
“Buffy.” Xander even sounded like himself again, and it got Buffy to turn around and face him. “This isn’t over. I need to speak to everyone. If you and Blake would go ahead of us and round them up, it would be much appreciated.”
“Alright,” she said, her voice a hoarse imitation of its usual strength. Blake silently moved to her side, and the two of them walked silently over to the motorcycle. Xander watched them with his deceptively human eyes as they climbed on, Buffy hanging on to Blake perhaps tighter than was entirely necessary, and rode off down the street.
Kel, in his wolf form again, pressed up against Xander’s thigh with a whine. Xander dropped one hand down and stroked it gently over the smooth fur of the wolf’s head, soothing the man who had been his only friend for years. Spike pressed against his other side, and Xander dipped his head to kiss the vampire that was his lover.
Time spun away then, lost in the wet heat of Xander’s possessive kiss, lost in the sense of family and home and mate and forever. Then the kiss was ended and the real world returned with a thump, and they were walking down the street, Xander’s right arm still around Spike’s shoulders and his left hand still buried in Kel’s ruff. They moved like one unit, and Spike thought that it might be the best thing he’d ever felt, and silently he swore, not for the first time, that he would do anything he had to in order to keep from losing this.
tbc.