Chapter Thirty-Two
Dominion
The door from the basement was ripped off its hinges and thrown across the room. It slammed against the wall and shattered into pieces as a figure clothed in black emerged from the basement stairs.
Angel stepped inside, his face a mask of rage as he took a deep whiff. He had been agitated all day but as they were coming up from the basement to the building, he suddenly felt…violated. Like someone had stolen a piece of him.
Something was not right. Something, or rather someone, was committing a grave crime against him and his mate. Considering the anger he felt from Buffy earlier and that he now felt like someone just took a chunk out of his soul, he didn’t have to imagine what it was or who was doing it. He just had to find them and kill him…for good this time.
Spike didn’t ask any questions he just followed quietly behind, watching and listening. It was a little odd how agreeable he was to playing the part of the obedient vampire but what was even stranger was how right it actually felt. It had been centuries since he played this role, of course back then he had no choice and he went with it grudgingly and always with deep resentment toward both Angelus and Darla. Now he had a choice, he didn’t have to come here, he didn’t have to obey Angelus, yes he would most likely get his ass-kicked if he didn’t but it was still his choice to be made. For some reason, that for the life of him he couldn’t figure out, he felt more kin to Angelus now than he ever did. He wondered if it had anything to do with Buffy and the older demons bond with her. He didn’t know but he did know that Angelus and now Buffy were his family, and he would do right by them.
Angel turned and walked down the hallway and to the front of the building with Spike close on his heals. They were just rounding the corner to the front foyer when they saw Glory walking out the front door with a demon right behind her carrying a very special package.
“Dawn!” Spike exclaimed, his feet moving forward to follow them but Angel stopped him. “Let them go, we can’t follow them now.”
“But…”
“She’ll be okay; they can’t do anything until it gets dark.” Without another word he ran up the stairs at full speed. He could feel his strength leaving him, or rather Buffy’s strength, and a blinding rage consumed him. His demon whispered to him of the pilfering that was happening and it increased his pace. He was so fast that Spike was barely able to keep up with him.
Reaching the floor that he knew she was on he spotted the open door at the end of the hall and ran toward it. Angry snarls vibrated in the empty hall, its ferocity rattling the few pictures that hung on the walls. He didn’t even bother to stop when he reached it because he already knew what he would find inside. He ran into the room and straight for Riley who had his mouth attached to Angel’s property.
Buffy had been staring at the empty doorway, still in her shocked stupor. Physically she was in the room but her mind was not, her mind was on her failure. She was so engrossed in her own guilt and shame that she didn’t feel the sharp fangs as they pierced her skin. She didn’t feel the blood leaving her body. She didn’t hear the loud slurping sounds that were emitting out of the mouth that clung so desperately to her neck. She heard and felt none of that.
She started to get tired as she felt her life essence slowly drain away. Old habits were hard to break and the knowledge that she failed in her duty and that her mother was dead, were all too much and she started to give into it. For one fleeting moment she felt that she had nothing to fight for any more.
But then she felt Angel. She felt their bond expand and contract inside of her pulsating with life, thriving with violent energy and frenzied concern. She could hear rasped words telling her to hold on, that he was almost there, reassuring her that she did indeed have something to fight for.
She welcomed the boiling rage that filled her body and soul and it broke through her lifeless trance. Her eyes snapped open. She felt the floor rumbling underneath her and she heard the most pain filled, insane, bellow of indignation screech through her ears, rattling her brains. The pain that raw sound created was two fold because not only did it hurt her head but inside she felt like her gut was being slashed with a knife, over and over again.
That’s when she felt the fangs in her throat and remembered exactly where she was and who was with her. Her vision cleared but before she could react with her own righteous anger she saw a fury of black literally fly through the doorway and into the room. The trespasser’s fangs were harshly ripped from her throat. She looked up to see his body flying up and into the ceiling. Plaster and wood cracked. Dust and debris flew out everywhere as Riley disappeared up into the floor above them, quickly followed by the still bellowing figure dressed in black.
Pieces of decaying plaster fell from the ceiling and would have landed on her if not for the hands that suddenly grabbed her shoulders and pulled her away. She was still in a daze; her mind was foggy and unclear. She didn’t know that she had lost a lot of blood. She wasn’t aware of the warm red liquid that oozed out from the elongated slices Riley’s fangs made when he was violently ripped away from her neck. But she knew she was alive and she knew by the ravaged turmoil inside of her that Riley the thief was getting severely punished for his audacity.
Spike crouched down next to her and gently caressed her cheek. Turning her head to the side he snarled at the angry bite marks that were on her neck. Riley was so stupid. He probably thought that by biting her he would make her his and shame Angelus in the process. But he was such a fledgling and so ignorant to their ways that he didn’t know what he was doing. He bit her on the opposite side of Angelus’ mark, the wrong side, which would only succeed in angering Angelus and killing Buffy.
He could feel Buffy’s distress and he could feel Angelus’. It was hard not to because they were irritably swirling around inside of him. They were disturbing emotions to feel because they were not his and he had never felt his connection to Angelus as deeply or as strongly as he did now. Why was that? There had to be a reason and when all of this was over he was going to sit down and really think about it. Maybe he should even try to find Whistler, because he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was much more to the prophecy that had yet to be revealed, and his gut was telling him that he was in it.
Buffy’s groan brought his thoughts back to her. He knew what he had to do and he did it quickly without even thinking about it. Gently he lifted her off the floor and held her in his arms, tenderly holding her head.
Confused green eyes stared back at him. “Spike?”
Her voice was soft and bewildered, and he gently cupped her chin and turned it to the left. “It’s okay Slayer, trust me.”
He answered her as the ceiling above them rumbled with the vicious beating that was going on upstairs. Their growls and snarls were deafening, and Spike eagerly wanted to join Angelus in paying Riley back for his bold thievery, but it was his duty to take care of his grandsire’s mate first.
Buffy gave him a fleeting smile. She felt him inside and intuitively knew what he was going to. “I do.”
Leaning down, his tongue came out and he quickly began to seal the deep wound on her neck. Her hand automatically lifted and threaded itself inside his hair, pulling him closer. Her eyes closed to the agreeable sensation of his tongue as it licked her skin. She was surprised by how right it felt. It wasn’t a sexual sensation; it was more of familial feeling, like she was being looked after by a brother or something like that. She didn’t question it because it made sense and she was no longer afraid of what she felt from her one time nemeses. She knew in her soul that he was as much a part of her as he was to Angel. He was her family now, just like Angel, just like…Dawn.
Her eyes snapped open just as Spike licked the wound closed. He stood up and looked down at her sternly. “Stay here.” Then he was gone in a flash as he jumped up through the hole in the ceiling.
Dawn.
Buffy jumped up and ran out of the room. Nothing else mattered, she had to find Dawn…she had to save her.
As Buffy fled the room in search of Dawn, Angelus was brutally assaulting Riley upstairs. He was in a deep primal haze of bloodlust. His mind was warped around the powerful unrelenting emotion. His actions were raw and uncontrolled yet precise and deadly. His punches were crisp and hard as they landed with no mercy on Riley’s profusely bleeding and battered body. His eyes were bright red almost sparking with petulant flames as he observed the devastation he bestowed onto the fledgling.
Riley was barely holding on against the onslaught of Angelus’ battering. Since the moment Angel came into the room below Riley had no idea what was happening to him. He remembered the euphoria he felt when his fangs sank into Buffy’s smooth skin. He remembered the feeling of her slack body against his heated crotch as he straddled her. He remembered being perplexed by the complex taste of her blood as it trickled down his throat. It was delicious and held more power than he thought it would but what really took him back was how convoluted it was. It was ethereally good yet it was also as evil as the devil himself. Its intricacy was confounding but the more he drank the more he wanted, and the less he cared about why her blood was steeped in mystery.
He had been so consumed with her and the emotions her blood invoked inside of him that he had no warning of the impending force that was about to strike him with unabashed ferocity. The only forewarning he had, two seconds before it struck, was the slight shift of the slacken body beneath him and then it was too late.
At first the pain had been immeasurable. He had tried to fight back but it was useless. Angelus’ strikes came too fast for Riley to defend against and to powerful for him to lash out with his own. He felt like he was repeatedly getting hit by a freight train. After so many potent punches he felt completely disassociated from his body. He was numb yet he still felt each and every sharp strike that touched him. The agony worked like an electric current to his insane mind, shocking it back into reality. He had a moment of lucidity; just long enough to know that he had irrevocably encroached on something that he probably never should have touched. With every hammer stroke of the hand that connected to his body, he could taste her blood again. This was the evil that he had tasted, the immorality that had conflicted with her purity. It was evil…pure evil.
Spike stood to the side and watched happily as Angelus pummeled Riley with brute force. He had never seen anything like it before. The older demon appeared to have the strength of twenty demons. He swatted and moved Riley’s unresponsive body about as if he were a rag doll. He didn’t even think Angelus knew what he was doing he was just reacting and it was down right scary to see.
Angelus slammed his rock hard fist into Riley’s nose for the tenth time, and it still wasn’t enough. Blood spurted out and Riley cried out in pain, and that still wasn’t enough. There could never ever be enough punishment that he could inflict that would absolve Riley of his crimes. He wanted to kill him but he knew that even that would not satisfy this primal rage. There was so much that Angel wanted to say to him, so many expletives and angry taunts, but he could get nothing out. It was like he had no motor skills except those of fighting maneuvers. All he felt was a part of himself missing and he sensed that part in Riley.
Words finally erupted from his contorted lips as his hands gripped Riley’s neck, slipping slightly from the wet sticky blood that covered it. “It’s mine and I want it back!”
He opened his mouth and lowered his head ready to sink his fangs into Riley’s throat and take back the precious blood that he had stolen from him. But then he froze. His blood lust cleared for one second as he felt Buffy’s frantic energy pumping through his veins. Snarling with displeasure he suddenly dropped Riley and ran over to the hole and jumped through it landing on the lower floor.
Spike didn’t know what caused Angelus to abruptly leave but he took it as sign that it was his turn for retribution.
He walked over to Riley, smiling at him with harsh violence in his blue eyes. “How the bloody hell did a pounce like you get turned?”
His foot came out and kicked Riley in the stomach.
“What stupid imbecile thought you would make a good vampire? You don’t even make a good human being!” He kicked him again and then grabbed him by the throat, picking up where Angelus left off.
Angelus’ feet landed on the floor, his eyes scanned the room as he took deep breaths. Getting up he ran out of the room and down the hallway. He grabbed the railing on the landing and jumped down five flights of stairs, landing gracefully on the first floor. His knuckles braced his fall and he looked toward the now open door and the retreating figure of his mate as she ran away from him and down the street.
“BUFFY!”
He ran toward the door, calling out to her but she didn’t answer, and his fist came flying out punching the wall of the building with such force that the decayed wood crumbled under the blow. It cracked and a three foot section fell out and landed on the porch outside. Brilliant sunlight beamed inside the building and Angelus shielded his eyes as he turned away from it and retreated to the safety of the shadows by the staircase.
He was desperate to chase after her but he couldn’t and for one second he didn’t know what to do. He took a step toward the door again and his arm that shielded his eyes from the bright light sizzled as the suns rays touched him. Like a crazed animal he roared in frustration as he jumped back into the shadows.
Profanity spilled from his lips as he tried to get a grip on the rampaging storm that was steadily taking over his sensibilities once again. He had never in his life so easily and so abundantly been controlled by blinding fury, a fury of such magnitude that he didn’t even know who he was or what he was doing. But the pain in his soul that still screamed at the loss of something that was his, something that Riley had stolen from him, superseded any rational thoughts that had pushed through the bloodlust. He leaped up the stairs, the need to take back what was his once more compelling him into submission. He had no choice but to obey the darkness that coursed through him. But somewhere between the first and second floors logic knocked on his fevered filled mind.
Riley took her blood…Buffy’s blood…Dawn’s blood.
With speed and strength even he didn’t know he possessed, he crouched down on the steps and then jumped up. He flew straight up bypassing two floors and landing with a solid thud on the fifth floor. He had no time to contemplate this newfound ability of flight that he had seemingly acquired somewhere along the way. Instead he ran into the room and then jumped up through the hole and onto the sixth floor.
Spike’s hands were wrapped around Riley’s neck, squeezing them slowly. Hearing the sound of shoes slapping against wood he released Riley’s neck, his forearm slid underneath his chin as he turned toward the sound.
“Spike don’t!” Angelus screamed.
“Relax, I’m not killing him, I know you want that honor.” Spike answered with a smile on his face.
“I do but unfortunately we need him.”
“Need him! Have you flipped your gel-haired lid! He drank from her you poof! Stole something that didn’t belong to him! He deserves to die!” He vehemently declared.
“I know and he will, but not now.
“Angelus...”
“Spike, I’ll explain it to you on the way to your crypt. For now, just put him to sleep.”
Spike stared back at him. He didn’t understand this turn events but he figured if Angelus wanted Riley alive there had to be a good reason. Otherwise he’d be dead…again, and this time for good. “If you say so.”
With his forearm against Riley’s throat, he applied pressure. “You’ve just been given a reprieve but it won’t be for long.”
Riley’s eyes started to fall, as blackness slowly started to seep in, the last thing he heard right before he passed out was Spike’s jauntily whispered words rasping in his ear. “Nighty-night Captain Cardboard.”
********************
Meanwhile outside a building on the edge of the industrial area, Cordy, Willow and Xander were just walking out of the second building that they’d searched. They had taken out two vamps a piece but they didn’t find anything else.
“I don’t know what we’re doing down here. I mean would Dawn even come here?” Willow asked.
“I don’t think so, but then again what do I know? It seems that there are lots of things going on that I’m clueless about.” Xander whined.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that something funny is going on between those two. You heard what Angel said that Buffy said. Just what did that mean? She wasn’t there?”
He noticed that Cordy hadn’t said a word and to Xander that was telling enough. He turned and faced the cheerleader. “What’s going on Cordelia?”
“Why are you looking at me?”
“Because these days you seem to be Buffy’s best friend,” He commented and the jealousy that Cordy heard in his voice made her smile she loved it when her ex was rankled. “…and best friends talk so…talk.”
“Look Xander I’m as clueless as you are, okay?” she said walking away from him.
It was of course a lie. She knew exactly what was going on. She didn’t mean to eavesdrop at Angel’s bedroom door but she had just come back from picking up Wesley and was on her way to the bathroom when she heard the raised voices coming from room. She couldn’t help but hear what was being discussed on the other side and she had been immediately sucked into the intriguing conversation.
“You can’t lie to me CC I always know when you’re full of shit. And sweetheart right now you reek with the stench of it. “
“Come on Cordy we have a right to know. We’re involved in this as much as you are,” Willow added.
Cordy stopped walking. She really didn’t feel like it was her duty to explain to them what was happening but she did agree with them. Now was not the time to keep secrets plus she agreed with Willow, they did have a right to know. With her decision made she turned around and faced them. “They’re…bonded, connected to each other.”
“What do you mean, like with crazy glue or something?” Xander stupidly said and Willow turned and looked at him dumbly.
Cordy’s eyes crossed, “No you moron.”
“Mentally bonded Xander, not physically…duh.” Willow rolled her eyes; she knew exactly what Cordy was talking about. She had in the past come across articles about Vampires mating and bonding together. She had read them all finding them to be very compelling material, of course she also thought that a lot of what she read was fabricated. She turned to Cordy, “So it’s a real thing?” she asked with wonderment in her voice.
Cordy nodded. “Is it really surprising considering this is Angel and Buffy we’re talking about here?”
Willow shook her head smiling, “No, not at all. It makes perfect sense.”
Xander looked between them, “Okay…what the hell are you two talking about?”
RING – RING – RING
Ignoring Xander, Cordy reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. “Hello?”
“Ah ha, okay. See you there.” She flipped the phone closed and looked at Willow. “That was Angel he said that we should go back to the mansion and wait for him there.”
She turned and started to walk to the car with Willow following her. “Did he say if they found Buffy or Dawn?”
“No but he didn’t sound like his usual happy self.”
“His usual happy self? And what pray tell does that sound like?” Xander asked as he followed along.
Cordy sighed, “I was being facetious Xander.”
“No were you really Cordy?” Xander sarcastically answered.
She just looked at him irately, again wondering what she ever saw in him.
“He sounded very disgruntled.” Her face puckered with confusion, “Actually if he hadn’t told me his name I don’t think I would have known who it was. He sounded very…different, not himself.”
Xander still had no idea what she was talking about. He didn’t think Angel had been acting himself since he showed up in town but he figured he would find out sooner or later what she meant. He always did and usually at the worst times. “So what’s this bond thing you two are talking about?”
********************
Buffy was running through the streets of Sunnydale at an incredibly fast pace. She was not aware of where she was running to, she was simply following her senses, well Angelus’ senses actually, and she went wherever they took her.
She allowed herself only one moment of amazement with how quickly she recovered from almost dying. She knew that Spike sealing the wounds had helped immensely but she also knew that it wasn’t the real reason. She was different now and she knew that Angel knew why. It was a future conversation she was really looking forward to, that and the explanation as to why he lied to her about Riley.
Well that wasn’t entirely true she knew why he didn’t tell her and she also knew what emotions drove him to hurt Riley in such a way. She felt those same driving emotions when she saw Kate. She had enjoyed hurting the other woman more than she would like to admit…well, at least now. But in the moment, if Willow and Tara hadn’t shown up, she would have killed her, happily.
That’s where things got a little gray for her, because while she enjoyed dishing out the pain her ultimate goal was to kill Kate and be done with her. But Angel or rather Angelus saw things a little differently in regards to that. He enjoyed the torture which she knew but it was still hard to accept that her sweet souled Angel, someone that she knew never would have inflicted such torture to a human being before now found pleasure in the deed. In some ways she felt responsible for that. Their bonding had changed them both. Their darker sides were growing stronger and becoming a bigger part of them. She wondered what that meant to their future and to their souls…to his achieving Shanshu. Were they changing for the better or the worse? It was a question worth answering.
Her thoughts were quickly brought back to Dawn as she caught her sister’s scent on the wind. She turned, quickly running toward it and then abruptly stopping in front of an apartment building.
Her head tilted to the side as she considered the unfamiliar building. She thought she had seen everything in this town, but as she studied it further she knew that she had never seen this particular piece of property before.
She started to walk towards it and as Dawn’s scent got stronger her feet moved faster. Reaching the door she opened it and walked brazenly inside. There was not one iota of fear in her body. There was no hesitation, no thought as to whether or not she was being rash in coming here alone. She was determined to find and save her sister and she wasn’t going to let anything or anyone get in her way.
She walked up to the elevator and pushed the button, the doors immediately opened and she stepped inside. The doors closed and the elevator rumbled as it kicked into gear and started to rise. Her foot tapped impatiently as her eyes followed the arrow as the elevator passed each floor.
It shook slightly as it came to a stop on the fifth floor. She stared straight ahead willing the doors to open. When they did she stepped out and into a brightly lit red room. She took two steps further inside the room, her hard cold eyes staring at the twenty or so demons that filled the room…all staring at her with a purpose.
“Oh am I late for the party?”
“No sweetie, you’re right on time.”
The two-by-four came from by behind and whacked her upside the back of her head before she could respond.
“Are they all this troublesome?” Glory asked as she watched Dreg drag the knocked out Slayer into the back room.
“I don’t know Mistress.”
Glory shrugged and turned away bored with the subject already. She had better things to think about. She had her key. She had the Slayer all tucked away nice and neat, and darkness would soon be falling. It was only a matter of time now before she would be home once again.