AB/BtVS FF: Nightmares in Waking Life 43-4/?
(Sorry about the bad tags, guys! I wasn't really awake while posting...)
TITLE: Nightmares in Waking Life
AUTHOR: 38gnihsurc
RATING: en.sea.xvii overall
PAIRINGS: All the pairings from the previous two stories---and some new ones, too
SPOILERS: Up until Micah for AB; the whole TV series for the Buffyverse; Alive at Last and Living Underground.
WARNINGS: A little bit of fur... bdsm... the usuals for Anita's crazy, crazy world.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anyone---except for any original characters that I whip up to do my bidding ;)
NOTE: This story is a sequel to Living Underground.
Previous chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9-11, 12, 13, 14-5, 16-7, 18-9, 20-1, 22, 23, 24-5, 26-7, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32-3, 34-7, 38, 39-40, 41, 42
PART FORTY-THREE
"From beneath..."
Richard's head jerked up at the first sound of words from his Lupa's lips.
"Willow?" he whispered. He reached out and touched her stomach, spreading his fingers out to her ribs. "Willow... what are you saying?"
"From beneath," Willow repeated before yawning and turning her head into her pillows. She licked her lips and rolled her shoulders before opening her eyes. Her eyelashes fluttered open and her gaze landed upon the werewolf watching her before she fully processed her surroundings.
Richard watched as her eyes filled up with tears, as her body tightened, and as she sat up, curling her knees towards her chin.
"Willow... Will... what---"
"From beneath you it devours," she whispered, several times before he was able to sit up next to her and shake her out of her self-imposed trance. "She said... things are changing... from beneath..."
"Hold on," Richard said. He put his hands on her shoulders and gently massaged her tight muscles. "You had a dream?"
She nodded. "A witch... another witch. Not the scary mother vampire. Just a dream," she replied quietly. "Just... just a dream. But..."
"What happened in the dream?" Richard asked.
Willow's eyes changed. Richard could almost see the steel doors sliding into place behind them. Asher had called her his hummingbird, mostly because of those multi-faceted eyes, and Richard usually agreed with him. If he knew what he was looking for, he knew he could find it in her gaze. The look she had given him eerily reminded him of one from when she returned to them from being kidnapped---not very sure, not ready to share, and definitely thinking faster than he ever could.
"Willow... please," he insisted.
She shook her head a little. "It's just a dream," she whispered. "The witch wanted me to say hello for her," she explained in a soft voice. "I thought she liked you... it was probably just that you're here with me."
Richard smiled. He liked knowing that even her subconscious was aware of his proximity to her. "Maybe," he agreed. "I'm so glad to see you awake," he added before leaning forward and kissing her forehead. "Was it a bad dream?" he asked. "You looked pretty scared when you woke up."
She shook her head again. "No... no. It's fine. It's just... a lot to think about, y'know?"
"Are you having prophetic---"
"No," she assured him. "It was just a regular dream."
Richard frowned. He knew she was lying about something---but he couldn't pinpoint the lie to a specific question. He also knew that when Willow was feeling guarded, when she was upset and trying not to show it to anyone, it was best to give her some space before pushing her for more than she was willing to give to anyone.
"Do you want me to go get Lillian?" he asked.
Willow smiled. "No," she replied. "Just lie down with me while I rest, okay?"
The werewolf king gave into her request without hesitation.
&&&&
PART FORTY-FOUR
From beneath you, it devours...
...from beneath you, it devours.
Willow sighed and turned her body away from Richard's warmth. She was snoozing, barely asleep but barely awake---until she felt the cool press of Asher in front of her.
"Shhh, shh," he whispered. He brushed his fingers over her cheek and she found comfort in his touch. "Mon colibri... shh."
The redhead exhaled slowly, and with every touch of Asher's fingers to her face, she felt enough of the tension ebbing away so she could drift back into a less conscious state.
But, it wasn't as peaceful there as she would have liked. Having the vampire there with her helped, but the words had become a terrifying mantra as she remembered everything that had happened in that last year in Sunnydale. The power she had faced, the danger... the way the First seemed to inhabit everyone and everything, including her own magical ability. If that one of the Powers That Be decided to following her and Faith and Dawn to St. Louis... if she brought the First down upon her friends and family in her new home...
Behind her eyes, Willow saw images of disaster and destruction combined with images of Asher and Richard and everyone else she held dear in her new chance at life.
She whimpered as the images continued, despite her best efforts to stop thinking in that way, and when she couldn't take it anymore, she sat up quickly, freeing herself from Richard's and Asher's gentle hugs.
"From beneath you, it devours," she whispered to herself. "From beneath... from beneath... it devours..." The witch inhaled with an audible sniff and rubbed her hands over her face and into her hair. "Get a grip," she told herself.
"Mon colibri?"
"Will?"
She turned and looked at her lovers. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "I just..."
"What does it mean?" Asher asked. "You've been thinking it all this time."
The witch frowned. "I... I have?"
He nodded.
"How do you know?"
"Shielding isn't your strong suit right now," he said, brushing his fingers over her spine. "Lie back down and talk to us."
"I just had a dream," she explained. She tucked her hair behind her ears. "It was just a dream."
"Dreams can be deceiving," the blond vampire said, "as we all know too well."
Willow scowled. "It was just a dream," she insisted. "Mother of All Darkness... wasn't in it. Just another witch, like me, I guess. And this room... and... it wasn't very exciting. Just a lot of talking."
Asher sat up and kissed the back of her neck. Willow shivered as she tried to tuck thoughts of Sunnydale and the First away into the back of her mind. When Richard's hand started stroking over her spine, she shivered again and whimpered softly.
"You guys don't play fair," she whispered, moaning a little through her words.
"You have an unfair advantage, mon colibri."
The witch snorted. "Yeah, right," she muttered. "You're both nuts."
"We're both crazy about you, that's for sure," Richard commented. He sighed, but it was more of a relaxed sound than a sad sound. "Lie back down with us," he insisted. "Lillian said she'd be in, later, to talk to you about what's happened... how you're healing... and that you should rest as much as you can right now."
"Anita's not resting," Willow reminded them.
"Jean-Claude has been feeding for her, as has Damian and Nathaniel," Asher explained.
Willow craned her neck to look at him. "She allowed that?"
The blond vampire chuckled. "She is not allowing them to enjoy multiple bed partners, if that is what you're assuming," he said. Still smiling, he decided to continue his explanation of the situation. "Jean-Claude is taking in more blood. He will also be feeding from audience members at the club. Damian, I believe, is feeding through Faith as much as their baby will allow him to, and he has been feeding on the blood of some of the swanmanes. Nathaniel has been reluctant to feed l'ardeur, because he does not want to take a casual partner for fear of what Anita will think. He is currently experimenting with food, to see if he can pass energy on that way, but I suspect he will have to find someone soon so he can feed properly."
His smile faded from his face rather quickly before he spoke again. "It is difficult, because I am not allowed to assist him or anyone else... nor are you. Richard could feed for her, but---"
"I'm going to help Willow when she's ready," the Ulfric cut in, his voice firm.
"But, I can take energy from the Earth---"
"You deserve as much help as Anita is receiving so you can get back on your feet," Richard interjected.
"But---"
"No 'buts,' mon colibri," Asher said. "So, lie back down with us. The sooner you rest, the sooner we may go home."
Willow shivered at the tone he used in his words. She sometimes wished his voice wouldn't affect her so much, but she knew she'd miss its effect on her if it ceased working its magic on her nerves.
"You guys are going to take me home?" she asked as she reclined back into the nest their bodies had made for hers.
"If it is daylight, if Richard has to go to work, notre aube has volunteered to take you home," Asher whispered after pressing a kiss into her hair. "She is coming later to visit."
Willow nodded. "Okay... okay. I'll rest. I want you guys to take me."
She thought about what words she spoken and even though she had experienced so much in her life both before and after moving to St. Louis, she blushed and closed her eyes.
Asher chuckled. "You will still be quite weak. I do not think you will be up for what your pulse tells me you are contemplating."
"We haven't done that in a long time," she whispered as she wriggled into a comfortable position. "I kind of miss it."
"Even though it was more of a distraction for you from the pain you were processing?" Asher asked.
"I don't miss the emotional state I was in at the time," she replied. "I just... I miss the good parts."
"Good parts?" Richard echoed
Willow smiled and nodded. "Yes... like... feeling you both all around me..." she blushed more and continued talking. "And inside me. And... just... the balance that came from having you guys there. It's almost like connecting our marks---the five of us, I mean, like that time we did it so we weren't always fighting and weak. Except, it's not the five of us together."
"Mmm... d'accord," Asher whispered. After pressing a kiss to Willow's shoulder, he said: "Imagine if the marks were open while the five of us---"
Richard grunted. Willow snorted.
"It'll never happen, Goldilocks," the redhead reminded him. "So, you just keep that in your spank-bank."
It took the vampire a minute to process what Willow meant, but when he caught on, he laughed until it felt like his entire body was shaking.
"Not that funny," Willow murmured.
Asher kissed her shoulder again. Then, he whispered: "Oh, but it is..."
"It's really not that funny," Richard reiterated.
"Mon ami, I know you do not like to think you play a role in my fantasies, but it has been a truth for a long time," Asher told the other man.
"Asher---"
"Your delicate sensibilities are safe," the vampire interrupted in a teasing tone of voice, "I will not take advantage of you."
Willow chuckled quietly. She felt better just having them there with her; she wasn't even borrowing from their energy reserves and she felt as if they were recharging her soul. She didn't want to sleep---she didn't want to dream---but she was content to lie there and listen to them quietly argue their differences.
However, her body had another plan in mind. Its favourite place to sleep was between warm and cold---she had trained it to love that, after many nights with Asher and either a familiar or her mate at her sides---and since that was where it was situated, it decided to fall into the custom of drifting off to sleep.
&&&&
The high school library was a mess. The floor was cracking open and for a split second, all Willow could think was that all of Giles' books were going to be swallowed up by the Hellmouth and the monsters that emerged from it. But, as the worm-like beast emerged, she heard the librarian-slash-Watcher begin to chant the magic that would hopefully bind the creature and she picked up her burning herbs and started chanting along with him.
Buffy and Faith were fighting the demon alongside Angel, Spike, and Gunn. Xander wasn't there; Willow hadn't seen him since he dropped off doughnuts during their weapon and spell preparation.
A noise in the corridor caught her attention but didn't keep her from repeating the spell over again. Her words did falter, however, when she caught a glimpse of Asher pushing against the door with all of his force.
"Hurry," a female, and vaguely familiar, voice said in her ear, near where Giles had been standing.
She turned and saw the older witch from her dream standing in the Watcher's place.
"Mari---"
"You don't have much time," Marianne told her.
"I know!" Willow exclaimed. She gestured towards the centre of the floor. "It's coming!"
Marianne nodded. "From beneath---"
&&&&
Willow bolted into a sitting position, gasping for breath.
"Willow?"
"From beneath you, it devours," she recited, still in a dream-like state.
The small whimper at her side brought her to her senses, allowed her to regain her bearings. When she saw that she was still in the not-so-standard-sized hospital bed, with Richard and Asher slowly sitting up behind her, with Dawn standing at the side of the bed, she let her own whimper escape her lips.
"Oh... hell," Willow mumbled as she rubbed her eyes. "I was dreaming again."
"'From beneath you, it devours?'" Dawn echoed, her voice tight was nerves.
The witch tried to explain but was unable to say more than a few useless words. Dawn put her hand on Willow's leg.
"Willow... you can't be serious."
Willow frowned and looked at the younger Summers girl as she sifted through her thoughts and what she felt about them all. She didn't like the conclusions her mind was drawing; the dream had happened twice, and while she desperately wanted the dreams to be meaningless, part of her mind kept coming back to a possible cataclysmic event in the shape of either the First or a hellmouth in St. Louis. "I think... I think I might be. This is the second dream with that in it, since I've been in here."
"Notre aube," Asher inquired in a calm voice, "what does that mean?"
Dawn swallowed hard and shook her head. "I... I really can't go through that again," she told the redhead. "It was hard enough already. We lost---" she broke off and took her hand off of Willow's leg. "No. You were just thinking about Sunnydale a lot lately, right?"
Willow shook her head. "No, not... not this stuff. Not the time the library floor opened up and---"
"Mr. Worm?" Dawn asked.
The witch nodded.
"Notre aube..."
Dawn shuddered. She started to look at Asher, but she stopped and looked down at the floor. She gave a slight shake of her head before looking back at Willow. "We beat it," she whispered. "We won. We... we survived it. Once."
"We don't know if it's going to be that all over again," Willow mumbled. "And it could still just be a dream."
"The earthquakes!" Dawn exclaimed. "And... and the bad dreams! And... and---" she broke off and looked away from the witch. She crossed her arms. "Should I call Buffy?"
Willow shook her head. "No," she replied, "she's busy in England with Giles, remember? And we don't know for sure."
"Yet," Dawn supplied.
"Yet," Willow agreed.
"Maybe I should do some research," the former Key suggested. "Just to see... maybe if there's a pattern with an increase in crime or---"
"Earthquakes in the surrounding area, too," Willow interjected. Dawn whipped out her handheld device and started using her thumbs to jot down some notes. "If you bring me a laptop, I can hack---"
"Would someone please explain what's going on?" Richard asked, cutting the witch off.
Dawn looked to the redhead. Willow didn't want to worry Asher and Richard---because anything she said would go straight to Anita and Jean-Claude, and to everyone else through them---so she quietly whispered a warning into the brunette's mind using the little magical ability she had in her arsenal at that time.
"Be vague. Hellmouth-stuff we've seen in Sunnydale. Something with a bit of truth. No outright lies."
After a second, Dawn turned her gaze to Richard. Willow could feel the tension radiating off of him, as well as off of Asher, and she could imagine the expressions that were facing Dawn. But, the university student didn't flinch. She frowned and worried her lower lip for a minute before speaking.
"I... we've seen this sort of thing at home. I mean, in Sunnydale. With a hellmouth and all. I... it was... it was probably worse because the Master was stuck in the hellmouth's doorway... or what passes as a doorway for something like that. But... it wasn't exactly a ho-down," she told the men.
"Should we... make plans?" Asher inquired.
Dawn shook her head. "No, not yet. Let me do some research, first," she replied. "If it's just the earth moving, then we'll all feel pretty silly, won't we?"
Willow could feel her nerves increasing in intensity and she knew Dawn wanted to flee. She cleared her throat and said, "Dawn, why don't you get out of here? I've got these guys here... and I bet you have homework to do on top of the research-y stuff."
The brunette gave a weak smile. "Yeah... good thinking. Essay on methods of studying preternatural subjects. Should be a blast."
She scurried from the room, nearly colliding with Lillian in the process. Willow knew that both Richard and Asher knew she had given Dawn an escape but she hoped neither of them would address the topic. The doctor's arrival seemed to be the best thing for that; however, when she shooed Asher and Richard from the room, she was worried that they would catch up with the younger woman.
"So, Doc, can I bust out of here?" Willow asked, feigning a cheery tone.
Lillian made a soft clucking noise with her tongue before setting Willow's chart down on a nearby table. "Well, I need to talk to you about something, first," the wererat said in a quiet voice. When Willow nodded, she continued talking. "I ran some blood tests, just to make sure you weren't affected in any other way by the siren's actions."
Willow nodded. "Okay, that makes sense."
"I found some things that concern me," Lillian said. "You're not sick. You don't have a rare biological condition. But, there are substances in your blood that really shouldn't be there."
"Like... what?"
"Well, I'd say they were drugs, but they didn't register on a standard drug panel," the mild-mannered physician told her. "I'm not sure what to make of any of it, quite frankly. Maybe you could enlighten me?"
Willow frowned. "I'm not... taking drugs. I... sometimes take a sleeping potion. A magic spell, in liquid form. No harm, no foul."
"What's in it?" Lillian asked.
The witch rattled off the ingredients as the doctor made notes on the papers she had brought into the room with her. When they were finished, Lillian clicked her pen and said, "I'm going to go check to see if these are what I'm seeing. Do you mind sticking around until I confirm this?"
The redhead shook her head. "No... not at all. I just want to get out of here before the sun rises---"
"So Asher can take you. I figured."
Lillian smiled and turned to leave.
&&&&
By the time the doctor came back into the room, Asher and Richard had returned. Lillian hadn't dismissed the men from the room; Willow found that, as well as the stern furrow in her brow, troubling.
"Alright," she said as she dropped the chart papers onto the foot of the bed. "So, it's the potion."
Willow frowned. "Oh," she whispered. "Trace amounts?"
"Looks like a build-up. Or maybe it lasts longer in your system than you think it does. It's strange," the doctor replied, "because you carry wolf lycanthropy in your blood and because you're Asher's human servant. I'm comparing you to Anita, I guess, because she metabolises drugs pretty fast, and some of the ingredients you gave me can be found in other forms in medical cures for different problems. But, maybe it's because of the magical properties---"
Cutting off the wererat, Asher cleared his throat. "What has been happening?"
Willow sighed and covered her face with her hands as she tried to put together an acceptable response to his question. Richard beat her to a reply, though.
"The sleeping potion," he said quietly. "I used it once, that time when Nathaniel was with her. But, he thought she used it more than that."
"Is this true, mon colibri?" Asher inquired.
Willow nodded.
The vampire rubbed her arm. "Pourquoi?"
"I need to sleep," she replied.
"Willow," Asher murmured, although grave seriousness was still in his voice and in his choice of words because he rarely used her name, "why are you relying on such aid to get the rest you need?"
"Is this really going to be the issue today?" she asked. "I mean, with Sampson and all the rolling going on... really? This is what you're going to focus on?"
Asher snorted. "Are you trying to tell me with what I can and cannot concern myself?" he asked. "Are you telling me that I cannot worry about the health and well-being of my human servant?"
"Asher---"
"Non," he interrupted, his voice firmer than a few minutes before. "Do not dictate my thoughts. Sampson's increase in power is serious. My nearly killing Anita and therefore all of us is serious. But your situation is serious, too, and very important to me."
"But---"
"Why are you taking these potions?" he demanded.
"Asher... please don't push."
The blond vampire shook his head. "Je ferai ce que je veux!" he exclaimed. Willow shivered at the tone he employed. "Dis-moi tout---maintenant!"
Richard tried to intervene on Willow's behalf, but the vampire was not going to allow a detour from the conversation. Willow was surprised that the wererat hadn't shrunk away from the scene; she was less impressed, though, by the curious expression on the doctor's face.
When Asher finished telling Richard that Willow would explain everything to them that night, no excuses or detours, Willow slumped away from both of them as much as her position on the bed would allow. She was sitting up again, feeling less unstable than she had the last time she tried the maneuver, but she still put her head down in her hands.
"I've been having a lot of bad dreams," she admitted quietly. "Nearly every night. I... they're hard to shake off. They're so real. I..."
The Ulfric's hand sought her bare thigh under the blankets. His touch was heavy and warm and it kept the panicked flutter in her chest at bay as she remembered each dream. When Asher's hand rubbed her back, she felt the tension in her spine begin to melt away.
"What sort of dreams?" Asher asked.
"Awful ones," she told the room. "Xander's back... he's with Buffy... they're planning to kill me... sometimes Edward shoots me. Sometimes Anita---" she broke off and tried to inch away from her men, but they followed her. They sat up and put their arms around her. She sniffed and closed her eyes before lifting her head and yielding to them. "It's always so bad. I started making the potion so I could get back to sleep afterwards, but sometimes I take it beforehand. Sometimes I have the dreams anyway, so I get up and take more---"
"I'm having nightmares, too," Richard told her. "But, I have people around me... to talk to or to distract me. You shouldn't be going through this alone."
"Everyone else is asleep," she reminded him.
"Then, I'll stay with you... and if Asher's not awake, then, you wake me up."
"Jason wouldn't mind you waking him, either," Asher said quietly. He sighed and pressed a kiss into her hair. "Mon colibri, you have to trust us... especially with this. I love you too much to see you hurting alone."
"I didn't want you to worry---"
"Tsk," he whispered. "I want to worry about you." He turned his attention to the doctor. "Will the potion's ingredients affect her health?"
Lillian shook her head. "No... but, I wasn't sure what I was looking at. Did you taste anything different?"
Asher shrugged. "Somedays, yes. But, I did not know what was happening... I could not connect the taste to anything mon colibri was doing."
The doctor nodded. "Well, hopefully there won't be any lasting effects." She paused and said, "I don't see any reason to keep Willow here until morning. But, she'll need to come by in a week for a blood test."
"If you could call the Circus with a time, that would be appreciated," Asher said to the wererat.
Willow frowned. "I'm right here, you know, and I can---"
The witch stopped talking when Jean-Claude opened the door and peeked ghed. inside the room. She didn't smile, but she did wave a little from her position between Asher and Richard.
"What is the verdict?" the Master of the City inquired. "Has our favourite witch recovered enough to return home?"
Lillian nodded. "I was just telling her that she can leave---if she comes back next week for a follow-up."
Jean-Claude nodded his head. "I will make sure---"
"I can get myself here all by myself," Willow muttered. "I don't need three alpha nursemaids."
Asher sighed. Willow could imagine the look he was sharing with Jean-Claude---one of both exasperation and concern---but she hadn't imagined that the black-haired vampire would start to chuckle. She looked up at the Master of the City and saw that he was very amused by the situation in front of him.
"What?" she asked.
"Oh, you are so much like ma petite sometimes," he murmured, affection in his voice. "I find it hard to believe that two so different people can share similarities... perhaps it is the bond, perhaps not, but still... it amazes me when I am not prepared for it."
He walked further into the room as Willow scoffed and rolled her eyes. His smile had not faded from his face. "Mon cher saule pleureur," he said tenderly, "how are you feeling?"
"I'm fine. Tired."
He nodded. "Sampson has not yet recovered from his increase in power. He is very weak and... well, silly, I suppose would be the best way to explain it."
"He's weak?" she asked, her curiousity overriding her bad mood.
Jean-Claude nodded again. "It is surprising, but it is also true. I have spoken to Samuel again... we've decided---" he broke off and shook his head. "Nevermind. It is not important---"
"No, tell me," she insisted. She blushed. "I mean... if you can."
The Master of the City smiled. He turned to the doctor. "Would you mind giving us a few moments?"
Lillian nodded. "No problem. It's all way above my pay grade, anyway. I'll go get Willow's things from our locker area. Just let me know when it's safe to come back in."
"Merci," Jean-Claude said to her. He waited until the wererat left the room and closed the door before turning his attention to Willow's inquiry. "We've decided to keep him in the Circus for now. Samuel has asked me to provide him with regular meals---to feed the desire that seems to be leaking off of him. I've put out a call to any available wereanimals and have received a couple of very appreciated replies. Haven has provided us with two of the female lions he brought with him to our city. For now, we will simply do our best to manage the situation and to keep it from Perdita until Samuel decides otherwise."
Willow nodded. "Alright. Is he.... being punished?"
"Samuel wishes for you to speak with him to come to some sort of repayment for what has happened," Jean-Claude said in response to her next question. "He has apologised to mon chardonneret and to myself, but he does wish to make amends to you as well. He knows how you and Anita are not traditional human servants and he knows he will repair the situation with you, too."
"Big of him," Willow said grumpily.
"It is, actually," Jean-Claude reminded her. "He is more traditional than I am, ma chérie. Do not forgot that we are the exception to the rule."
She felt as if she were being scolded, but that sensation faded as Jean-Claude reached out and brushed his cool fingers along her cheek.
"I am very glad you are alright," he said softly. She felt a bit of his power leaking into her through his fingers; it was the part of his power that he used to call wolves, and her own inner wolf was rolling around in a sense of pleasure, of being cared for and appreciated. She shivered and closed her eyes. "I know it is hard to live in different worlds... to adhere to different rules. And you've been through another ordeal. I know your men wish they could do anything to help you, because I would, too, if it were within my power---"
"Don't," she whispered. "I know I'm like tenth on your line of---"
"Shush," he whispered back. With a little push of his power, she stopped talking and looked up at him with wide eyes. "Don't belittle your importance in my life. Just accept it."
The witch nodded.
Jean-Claude's lips curved into a smile again. She felt her insides warm as he looked down upon her and she had to fight not to lie down, belly-up. Her wolfish spirit was reacting very strongly to him but she wasn't entirely displeased. She could feel Richard's disapproval rolling off of the Ulfric's body in waves and Asher's interest vibrating through his mind and along their bond.
"Is there anything else I should know?" she asked.
The Master of the City shook his head. "Non, I do not believe so. Would you like to return to the Circus? There is enough room in the limo for all of you."
"I brought my car," Richard said after Asher and Willow nodded. "I'll follow you guys there, but I can't stay long. I need to check on Emily. She was pretty freaked out when I left her with her sister."
Willow turned away from the vampire in front of her and looked to her werewolf mate. "Did anything happen?"
"No, I was able to shut it down pretty quickly. Probably because I wasn't the focus of all the power," he told her. He reached up and rubbed her arm. "Are you ready to go?" he asked.
She looked into the vampire's face as she spoke. "Yeah... but... I don't know... I mean, I'd like to talk to Doc Lillian about something safer I could use to fall asleep."
Jean-Claude frowned down at her. "You're having bad dreams, as well?" he asked.
"Who else---"
"Ma petite et notre loup," he said. "They've both admitted to having them... you have, too, but I did not know they were such a constant thing."
Willow nodded. "They are," she told him.
"D'accord," Jean-Claude said, a small furrow of concentration showing in his forehead. "I will go out and ask for the doctor to come back in so you may ask your question. And then, we shall return home?"
She nodded again.
As he walked away, she said, "Thank you, Jean-Claude."
The dark-haired vampire smiled at her over his shoulder. She thanked Richard and Asher with quick kisses, and then the wererat reentered the small room.
TITLE: Nightmares in Waking Life
AUTHOR: 38gnihsurc
RATING: en.sea.xvii overall
PAIRINGS: All the pairings from the previous two stories---and some new ones, too
SPOILERS: Up until Micah for AB; the whole TV series for the Buffyverse; Alive at Last and Living Underground.
WARNINGS: A little bit of fur... bdsm... the usuals for Anita's crazy, crazy world.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anyone---except for any original characters that I whip up to do my bidding ;)
NOTE: This story is a sequel to Living Underground.
Previous chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9-11, 12, 13, 14-5, 16-7, 18-9, 20-1, 22, 23, 24-5, 26-7, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32-3, 34-7, 38, 39-40, 41, 42
PART FORTY-THREE
"From beneath..."
Richard's head jerked up at the first sound of words from his Lupa's lips.
"Willow?" he whispered. He reached out and touched her stomach, spreading his fingers out to her ribs. "Willow... what are you saying?"
"From beneath," Willow repeated before yawning and turning her head into her pillows. She licked her lips and rolled her shoulders before opening her eyes. Her eyelashes fluttered open and her gaze landed upon the werewolf watching her before she fully processed her surroundings.
Richard watched as her eyes filled up with tears, as her body tightened, and as she sat up, curling her knees towards her chin.
"Willow... Will... what---"
"From beneath you it devours," she whispered, several times before he was able to sit up next to her and shake her out of her self-imposed trance. "She said... things are changing... from beneath..."
"Hold on," Richard said. He put his hands on her shoulders and gently massaged her tight muscles. "You had a dream?"
She nodded. "A witch... another witch. Not the scary mother vampire. Just a dream," she replied quietly. "Just... just a dream. But..."
"What happened in the dream?" Richard asked.
Willow's eyes changed. Richard could almost see the steel doors sliding into place behind them. Asher had called her his hummingbird, mostly because of those multi-faceted eyes, and Richard usually agreed with him. If he knew what he was looking for, he knew he could find it in her gaze. The look she had given him eerily reminded him of one from when she returned to them from being kidnapped---not very sure, not ready to share, and definitely thinking faster than he ever could.
"Willow... please," he insisted.
She shook her head a little. "It's just a dream," she whispered. "The witch wanted me to say hello for her," she explained in a soft voice. "I thought she liked you... it was probably just that you're here with me."
Richard smiled. He liked knowing that even her subconscious was aware of his proximity to her. "Maybe," he agreed. "I'm so glad to see you awake," he added before leaning forward and kissing her forehead. "Was it a bad dream?" he asked. "You looked pretty scared when you woke up."
She shook her head again. "No... no. It's fine. It's just... a lot to think about, y'know?"
"Are you having prophetic---"
"No," she assured him. "It was just a regular dream."
Richard frowned. He knew she was lying about something---but he couldn't pinpoint the lie to a specific question. He also knew that when Willow was feeling guarded, when she was upset and trying not to show it to anyone, it was best to give her some space before pushing her for more than she was willing to give to anyone.
"Do you want me to go get Lillian?" he asked.
Willow smiled. "No," she replied. "Just lie down with me while I rest, okay?"
The werewolf king gave into her request without hesitation.
&&&&
PART FORTY-FOUR
From beneath you, it devours...
...from beneath you, it devours.
Willow sighed and turned her body away from Richard's warmth. She was snoozing, barely asleep but barely awake---until she felt the cool press of Asher in front of her.
"Shhh, shh," he whispered. He brushed his fingers over her cheek and she found comfort in his touch. "Mon colibri... shh."
The redhead exhaled slowly, and with every touch of Asher's fingers to her face, she felt enough of the tension ebbing away so she could drift back into a less conscious state.
But, it wasn't as peaceful there as she would have liked. Having the vampire there with her helped, but the words had become a terrifying mantra as she remembered everything that had happened in that last year in Sunnydale. The power she had faced, the danger... the way the First seemed to inhabit everyone and everything, including her own magical ability. If that one of the Powers That Be decided to following her and Faith and Dawn to St. Louis... if she brought the First down upon her friends and family in her new home...
Behind her eyes, Willow saw images of disaster and destruction combined with images of Asher and Richard and everyone else she held dear in her new chance at life.
She whimpered as the images continued, despite her best efforts to stop thinking in that way, and when she couldn't take it anymore, she sat up quickly, freeing herself from Richard's and Asher's gentle hugs.
"From beneath you, it devours," she whispered to herself. "From beneath... from beneath... it devours..." The witch inhaled with an audible sniff and rubbed her hands over her face and into her hair. "Get a grip," she told herself.
"Mon colibri?"
"Will?"
She turned and looked at her lovers. "I'm sorry," she murmured. "I just..."
"What does it mean?" Asher asked. "You've been thinking it all this time."
The witch frowned. "I... I have?"
He nodded.
"How do you know?"
"Shielding isn't your strong suit right now," he said, brushing his fingers over her spine. "Lie back down and talk to us."
"I just had a dream," she explained. She tucked her hair behind her ears. "It was just a dream."
"Dreams can be deceiving," the blond vampire said, "as we all know too well."
Willow scowled. "It was just a dream," she insisted. "Mother of All Darkness... wasn't in it. Just another witch, like me, I guess. And this room... and... it wasn't very exciting. Just a lot of talking."
Asher sat up and kissed the back of her neck. Willow shivered as she tried to tuck thoughts of Sunnydale and the First away into the back of her mind. When Richard's hand started stroking over her spine, she shivered again and whimpered softly.
"You guys don't play fair," she whispered, moaning a little through her words.
"You have an unfair advantage, mon colibri."
The witch snorted. "Yeah, right," she muttered. "You're both nuts."
"We're both crazy about you, that's for sure," Richard commented. He sighed, but it was more of a relaxed sound than a sad sound. "Lie back down with us," he insisted. "Lillian said she'd be in, later, to talk to you about what's happened... how you're healing... and that you should rest as much as you can right now."
"Anita's not resting," Willow reminded them.
"Jean-Claude has been feeding for her, as has Damian and Nathaniel," Asher explained.
Willow craned her neck to look at him. "She allowed that?"
The blond vampire chuckled. "She is not allowing them to enjoy multiple bed partners, if that is what you're assuming," he said. Still smiling, he decided to continue his explanation of the situation. "Jean-Claude is taking in more blood. He will also be feeding from audience members at the club. Damian, I believe, is feeding through Faith as much as their baby will allow him to, and he has been feeding on the blood of some of the swanmanes. Nathaniel has been reluctant to feed l'ardeur, because he does not want to take a casual partner for fear of what Anita will think. He is currently experimenting with food, to see if he can pass energy on that way, but I suspect he will have to find someone soon so he can feed properly."
His smile faded from his face rather quickly before he spoke again. "It is difficult, because I am not allowed to assist him or anyone else... nor are you. Richard could feed for her, but---"
"I'm going to help Willow when she's ready," the Ulfric cut in, his voice firm.
"But, I can take energy from the Earth---"
"You deserve as much help as Anita is receiving so you can get back on your feet," Richard interjected.
"But---"
"No 'buts,' mon colibri," Asher said. "So, lie back down with us. The sooner you rest, the sooner we may go home."
Willow shivered at the tone he used in his words. She sometimes wished his voice wouldn't affect her so much, but she knew she'd miss its effect on her if it ceased working its magic on her nerves.
"You guys are going to take me home?" she asked as she reclined back into the nest their bodies had made for hers.
"If it is daylight, if Richard has to go to work, notre aube has volunteered to take you home," Asher whispered after pressing a kiss into her hair. "She is coming later to visit."
Willow nodded. "Okay... okay. I'll rest. I want you guys to take me."
She thought about what words she spoken and even though she had experienced so much in her life both before and after moving to St. Louis, she blushed and closed her eyes.
Asher chuckled. "You will still be quite weak. I do not think you will be up for what your pulse tells me you are contemplating."
"We haven't done that in a long time," she whispered as she wriggled into a comfortable position. "I kind of miss it."
"Even though it was more of a distraction for you from the pain you were processing?" Asher asked.
"I don't miss the emotional state I was in at the time," she replied. "I just... I miss the good parts."
"Good parts?" Richard echoed
Willow smiled and nodded. "Yes... like... feeling you both all around me..." she blushed more and continued talking. "And inside me. And... just... the balance that came from having you guys there. It's almost like connecting our marks---the five of us, I mean, like that time we did it so we weren't always fighting and weak. Except, it's not the five of us together."
"Mmm... d'accord," Asher whispered. After pressing a kiss to Willow's shoulder, he said: "Imagine if the marks were open while the five of us---"
Richard grunted. Willow snorted.
"It'll never happen, Goldilocks," the redhead reminded him. "So, you just keep that in your spank-bank."
It took the vampire a minute to process what Willow meant, but when he caught on, he laughed until it felt like his entire body was shaking.
"Not that funny," Willow murmured.
Asher kissed her shoulder again. Then, he whispered: "Oh, but it is..."
"It's really not that funny," Richard reiterated.
"Mon ami, I know you do not like to think you play a role in my fantasies, but it has been a truth for a long time," Asher told the other man.
"Asher---"
"Your delicate sensibilities are safe," the vampire interrupted in a teasing tone of voice, "I will not take advantage of you."
Willow chuckled quietly. She felt better just having them there with her; she wasn't even borrowing from their energy reserves and she felt as if they were recharging her soul. She didn't want to sleep---she didn't want to dream---but she was content to lie there and listen to them quietly argue their differences.
However, her body had another plan in mind. Its favourite place to sleep was between warm and cold---she had trained it to love that, after many nights with Asher and either a familiar or her mate at her sides---and since that was where it was situated, it decided to fall into the custom of drifting off to sleep.
&&&&
The high school library was a mess. The floor was cracking open and for a split second, all Willow could think was that all of Giles' books were going to be swallowed up by the Hellmouth and the monsters that emerged from it. But, as the worm-like beast emerged, she heard the librarian-slash-Watcher begin to chant the magic that would hopefully bind the creature and she picked up her burning herbs and started chanting along with him.
Buffy and Faith were fighting the demon alongside Angel, Spike, and Gunn. Xander wasn't there; Willow hadn't seen him since he dropped off doughnuts during their weapon and spell preparation.
A noise in the corridor caught her attention but didn't keep her from repeating the spell over again. Her words did falter, however, when she caught a glimpse of Asher pushing against the door with all of his force.
"Hurry," a female, and vaguely familiar, voice said in her ear, near where Giles had been standing.
She turned and saw the older witch from her dream standing in the Watcher's place.
"Mari---"
"You don't have much time," Marianne told her.
"I know!" Willow exclaimed. She gestured towards the centre of the floor. "It's coming!"
Marianne nodded. "From beneath---"
&&&&
Willow bolted into a sitting position, gasping for breath.
"Willow?"
"From beneath you, it devours," she recited, still in a dream-like state.
The small whimper at her side brought her to her senses, allowed her to regain her bearings. When she saw that she was still in the not-so-standard-sized hospital bed, with Richard and Asher slowly sitting up behind her, with Dawn standing at the side of the bed, she let her own whimper escape her lips.
"Oh... hell," Willow mumbled as she rubbed her eyes. "I was dreaming again."
"'From beneath you, it devours?'" Dawn echoed, her voice tight was nerves.
The witch tried to explain but was unable to say more than a few useless words. Dawn put her hand on Willow's leg.
"Willow... you can't be serious."
Willow frowned and looked at the younger Summers girl as she sifted through her thoughts and what she felt about them all. She didn't like the conclusions her mind was drawing; the dream had happened twice, and while she desperately wanted the dreams to be meaningless, part of her mind kept coming back to a possible cataclysmic event in the shape of either the First or a hellmouth in St. Louis. "I think... I think I might be. This is the second dream with that in it, since I've been in here."
"Notre aube," Asher inquired in a calm voice, "what does that mean?"
Dawn swallowed hard and shook her head. "I... I really can't go through that again," she told the redhead. "It was hard enough already. We lost---" she broke off and took her hand off of Willow's leg. "No. You were just thinking about Sunnydale a lot lately, right?"
Willow shook her head. "No, not... not this stuff. Not the time the library floor opened up and---"
"Mr. Worm?" Dawn asked.
The witch nodded.
"Notre aube..."
Dawn shuddered. She started to look at Asher, but she stopped and looked down at the floor. She gave a slight shake of her head before looking back at Willow. "We beat it," she whispered. "We won. We... we survived it. Once."
"We don't know if it's going to be that all over again," Willow mumbled. "And it could still just be a dream."
"The earthquakes!" Dawn exclaimed. "And... and the bad dreams! And... and---" she broke off and looked away from the witch. She crossed her arms. "Should I call Buffy?"
Willow shook her head. "No," she replied, "she's busy in England with Giles, remember? And we don't know for sure."
"Yet," Dawn supplied.
"Yet," Willow agreed.
"Maybe I should do some research," the former Key suggested. "Just to see... maybe if there's a pattern with an increase in crime or---"
"Earthquakes in the surrounding area, too," Willow interjected. Dawn whipped out her handheld device and started using her thumbs to jot down some notes. "If you bring me a laptop, I can hack---"
"Would someone please explain what's going on?" Richard asked, cutting the witch off.
Dawn looked to the redhead. Willow didn't want to worry Asher and Richard---because anything she said would go straight to Anita and Jean-Claude, and to everyone else through them---so she quietly whispered a warning into the brunette's mind using the little magical ability she had in her arsenal at that time.
"Be vague. Hellmouth-stuff we've seen in Sunnydale. Something with a bit of truth. No outright lies."
After a second, Dawn turned her gaze to Richard. Willow could feel the tension radiating off of him, as well as off of Asher, and she could imagine the expressions that were facing Dawn. But, the university student didn't flinch. She frowned and worried her lower lip for a minute before speaking.
"I... we've seen this sort of thing at home. I mean, in Sunnydale. With a hellmouth and all. I... it was... it was probably worse because the Master was stuck in the hellmouth's doorway... or what passes as a doorway for something like that. But... it wasn't exactly a ho-down," she told the men.
"Should we... make plans?" Asher inquired.
Dawn shook her head. "No, not yet. Let me do some research, first," she replied. "If it's just the earth moving, then we'll all feel pretty silly, won't we?"
Willow could feel her nerves increasing in intensity and she knew Dawn wanted to flee. She cleared her throat and said, "Dawn, why don't you get out of here? I've got these guys here... and I bet you have homework to do on top of the research-y stuff."
The brunette gave a weak smile. "Yeah... good thinking. Essay on methods of studying preternatural subjects. Should be a blast."
She scurried from the room, nearly colliding with Lillian in the process. Willow knew that both Richard and Asher knew she had given Dawn an escape but she hoped neither of them would address the topic. The doctor's arrival seemed to be the best thing for that; however, when she shooed Asher and Richard from the room, she was worried that they would catch up with the younger woman.
"So, Doc, can I bust out of here?" Willow asked, feigning a cheery tone.
Lillian made a soft clucking noise with her tongue before setting Willow's chart down on a nearby table. "Well, I need to talk to you about something, first," the wererat said in a quiet voice. When Willow nodded, she continued talking. "I ran some blood tests, just to make sure you weren't affected in any other way by the siren's actions."
Willow nodded. "Okay, that makes sense."
"I found some things that concern me," Lillian said. "You're not sick. You don't have a rare biological condition. But, there are substances in your blood that really shouldn't be there."
"Like... what?"
"Well, I'd say they were drugs, but they didn't register on a standard drug panel," the mild-mannered physician told her. "I'm not sure what to make of any of it, quite frankly. Maybe you could enlighten me?"
Willow frowned. "I'm not... taking drugs. I... sometimes take a sleeping potion. A magic spell, in liquid form. No harm, no foul."
"What's in it?" Lillian asked.
The witch rattled off the ingredients as the doctor made notes on the papers she had brought into the room with her. When they were finished, Lillian clicked her pen and said, "I'm going to go check to see if these are what I'm seeing. Do you mind sticking around until I confirm this?"
The redhead shook her head. "No... not at all. I just want to get out of here before the sun rises---"
"So Asher can take you. I figured."
Lillian smiled and turned to leave.
&&&&
By the time the doctor came back into the room, Asher and Richard had returned. Lillian hadn't dismissed the men from the room; Willow found that, as well as the stern furrow in her brow, troubling.
"Alright," she said as she dropped the chart papers onto the foot of the bed. "So, it's the potion."
Willow frowned. "Oh," she whispered. "Trace amounts?"
"Looks like a build-up. Or maybe it lasts longer in your system than you think it does. It's strange," the doctor replied, "because you carry wolf lycanthropy in your blood and because you're Asher's human servant. I'm comparing you to Anita, I guess, because she metabolises drugs pretty fast, and some of the ingredients you gave me can be found in other forms in medical cures for different problems. But, maybe it's because of the magical properties---"
Cutting off the wererat, Asher cleared his throat. "What has been happening?"
Willow sighed and covered her face with her hands as she tried to put together an acceptable response to his question. Richard beat her to a reply, though.
"The sleeping potion," he said quietly. "I used it once, that time when Nathaniel was with her. But, he thought she used it more than that."
"Is this true, mon colibri?" Asher inquired.
Willow nodded.
The vampire rubbed her arm. "Pourquoi?"
"I need to sleep," she replied.
"Willow," Asher murmured, although grave seriousness was still in his voice and in his choice of words because he rarely used her name, "why are you relying on such aid to get the rest you need?"
"Is this really going to be the issue today?" she asked. "I mean, with Sampson and all the rolling going on... really? This is what you're going to focus on?"
Asher snorted. "Are you trying to tell me with what I can and cannot concern myself?" he asked. "Are you telling me that I cannot worry about the health and well-being of my human servant?"
"Asher---"
"Non," he interrupted, his voice firmer than a few minutes before. "Do not dictate my thoughts. Sampson's increase in power is serious. My nearly killing Anita and therefore all of us is serious. But your situation is serious, too, and very important to me."
"But---"
"Why are you taking these potions?" he demanded.
"Asher... please don't push."
The blond vampire shook his head. "Je ferai ce que je veux!" he exclaimed. Willow shivered at the tone he employed. "Dis-moi tout---maintenant!"
Richard tried to intervene on Willow's behalf, but the vampire was not going to allow a detour from the conversation. Willow was surprised that the wererat hadn't shrunk away from the scene; she was less impressed, though, by the curious expression on the doctor's face.
When Asher finished telling Richard that Willow would explain everything to them that night, no excuses or detours, Willow slumped away from both of them as much as her position on the bed would allow. She was sitting up again, feeling less unstable than she had the last time she tried the maneuver, but she still put her head down in her hands.
"I've been having a lot of bad dreams," she admitted quietly. "Nearly every night. I... they're hard to shake off. They're so real. I..."
The Ulfric's hand sought her bare thigh under the blankets. His touch was heavy and warm and it kept the panicked flutter in her chest at bay as she remembered each dream. When Asher's hand rubbed her back, she felt the tension in her spine begin to melt away.
"What sort of dreams?" Asher asked.
"Awful ones," she told the room. "Xander's back... he's with Buffy... they're planning to kill me... sometimes Edward shoots me. Sometimes Anita---" she broke off and tried to inch away from her men, but they followed her. They sat up and put their arms around her. She sniffed and closed her eyes before lifting her head and yielding to them. "It's always so bad. I started making the potion so I could get back to sleep afterwards, but sometimes I take it beforehand. Sometimes I have the dreams anyway, so I get up and take more---"
"I'm having nightmares, too," Richard told her. "But, I have people around me... to talk to or to distract me. You shouldn't be going through this alone."
"Everyone else is asleep," she reminded him.
"Then, I'll stay with you... and if Asher's not awake, then, you wake me up."
"Jason wouldn't mind you waking him, either," Asher said quietly. He sighed and pressed a kiss into her hair. "Mon colibri, you have to trust us... especially with this. I love you too much to see you hurting alone."
"I didn't want you to worry---"
"Tsk," he whispered. "I want to worry about you." He turned his attention to the doctor. "Will the potion's ingredients affect her health?"
Lillian shook her head. "No... but, I wasn't sure what I was looking at. Did you taste anything different?"
Asher shrugged. "Somedays, yes. But, I did not know what was happening... I could not connect the taste to anything mon colibri was doing."
The doctor nodded. "Well, hopefully there won't be any lasting effects." She paused and said, "I don't see any reason to keep Willow here until morning. But, she'll need to come by in a week for a blood test."
"If you could call the Circus with a time, that would be appreciated," Asher said to the wererat.
Willow frowned. "I'm right here, you know, and I can---"
The witch stopped talking when Jean-Claude opened the door and peeked ghed. inside the room. She didn't smile, but she did wave a little from her position between Asher and Richard.
"What is the verdict?" the Master of the City inquired. "Has our favourite witch recovered enough to return home?"
Lillian nodded. "I was just telling her that she can leave---if she comes back next week for a follow-up."
Jean-Claude nodded his head. "I will make sure---"
"I can get myself here all by myself," Willow muttered. "I don't need three alpha nursemaids."
Asher sighed. Willow could imagine the look he was sharing with Jean-Claude---one of both exasperation and concern---but she hadn't imagined that the black-haired vampire would start to chuckle. She looked up at the Master of the City and saw that he was very amused by the situation in front of him.
"What?" she asked.
"Oh, you are so much like ma petite sometimes," he murmured, affection in his voice. "I find it hard to believe that two so different people can share similarities... perhaps it is the bond, perhaps not, but still... it amazes me when I am not prepared for it."
He walked further into the room as Willow scoffed and rolled her eyes. His smile had not faded from his face. "Mon cher saule pleureur," he said tenderly, "how are you feeling?"
"I'm fine. Tired."
He nodded. "Sampson has not yet recovered from his increase in power. He is very weak and... well, silly, I suppose would be the best way to explain it."
"He's weak?" she asked, her curiousity overriding her bad mood.
Jean-Claude nodded again. "It is surprising, but it is also true. I have spoken to Samuel again... we've decided---" he broke off and shook his head. "Nevermind. It is not important---"
"No, tell me," she insisted. She blushed. "I mean... if you can."
The Master of the City smiled. He turned to the doctor. "Would you mind giving us a few moments?"
Lillian nodded. "No problem. It's all way above my pay grade, anyway. I'll go get Willow's things from our locker area. Just let me know when it's safe to come back in."
"Merci," Jean-Claude said to her. He waited until the wererat left the room and closed the door before turning his attention to Willow's inquiry. "We've decided to keep him in the Circus for now. Samuel has asked me to provide him with regular meals---to feed the desire that seems to be leaking off of him. I've put out a call to any available wereanimals and have received a couple of very appreciated replies. Haven has provided us with two of the female lions he brought with him to our city. For now, we will simply do our best to manage the situation and to keep it from Perdita until Samuel decides otherwise."
Willow nodded. "Alright. Is he.... being punished?"
"Samuel wishes for you to speak with him to come to some sort of repayment for what has happened," Jean-Claude said in response to her next question. "He has apologised to mon chardonneret and to myself, but he does wish to make amends to you as well. He knows how you and Anita are not traditional human servants and he knows he will repair the situation with you, too."
"Big of him," Willow said grumpily.
"It is, actually," Jean-Claude reminded her. "He is more traditional than I am, ma chérie. Do not forgot that we are the exception to the rule."
She felt as if she were being scolded, but that sensation faded as Jean-Claude reached out and brushed his cool fingers along her cheek.
"I am very glad you are alright," he said softly. She felt a bit of his power leaking into her through his fingers; it was the part of his power that he used to call wolves, and her own inner wolf was rolling around in a sense of pleasure, of being cared for and appreciated. She shivered and closed her eyes. "I know it is hard to live in different worlds... to adhere to different rules. And you've been through another ordeal. I know your men wish they could do anything to help you, because I would, too, if it were within my power---"
"Don't," she whispered. "I know I'm like tenth on your line of---"
"Shush," he whispered back. With a little push of his power, she stopped talking and looked up at him with wide eyes. "Don't belittle your importance in my life. Just accept it."
The witch nodded.
Jean-Claude's lips curved into a smile again. She felt her insides warm as he looked down upon her and she had to fight not to lie down, belly-up. Her wolfish spirit was reacting very strongly to him but she wasn't entirely displeased. She could feel Richard's disapproval rolling off of the Ulfric's body in waves and Asher's interest vibrating through his mind and along their bond.
"Is there anything else I should know?" she asked.
The Master of the City shook his head. "Non, I do not believe so. Would you like to return to the Circus? There is enough room in the limo for all of you."
"I brought my car," Richard said after Asher and Willow nodded. "I'll follow you guys there, but I can't stay long. I need to check on Emily. She was pretty freaked out when I left her with her sister."
Willow turned away from the vampire in front of her and looked to her werewolf mate. "Did anything happen?"
"No, I was able to shut it down pretty quickly. Probably because I wasn't the focus of all the power," he told her. He reached up and rubbed her arm. "Are you ready to go?" he asked.
She looked into the vampire's face as she spoke. "Yeah... but... I don't know... I mean, I'd like to talk to Doc Lillian about something safer I could use to fall asleep."
Jean-Claude frowned down at her. "You're having bad dreams, as well?" he asked.
"Who else---"
"Ma petite et notre loup," he said. "They've both admitted to having them... you have, too, but I did not know they were such a constant thing."
Willow nodded. "They are," she told him.
"D'accord," Jean-Claude said, a small furrow of concentration showing in his forehead. "I will go out and ask for the doctor to come back in so you may ask your question. And then, we shall return home?"
She nodded again.
As he walked away, she said, "Thank you, Jean-Claude."
The dark-haired vampire smiled at her over his shoulder. She thanked Richard and Asher with quick kisses, and then the wererat reentered the small room.