Chapter Eight
“Did you find it?” Glory stood at the window overlooking the
dismal town that she had come to. She
really hated it here, although she had to admit that being this close to the
hell mouth did give her a rush. But she really couldn’t enjoy it; all she could
think of was finding her key and going home.
“I found the Slayer my most beautiful
goddess” Dreg said.
“And my key? Where is my key?”
“Well I ah gave her your message…”
“Yes and…”
“She said no.”
She turned around and looked at him
for the first time. “No, what do you mean no?” Taking note of the demons
appearance she squealed as she walked over to him. “Oh my poor Dreggy, what did
she do to you?” Scowling she whined, “You’re bleeding all over my rug!”
“Yes well she refused to hand over the
key and then staked me in the stomach.”
“Oh, what a bitch.” She turned away
and walked over to the bed. “Well I guess I should have gone myself, can’t
trust a troll to do a God’s work.” She
flopped down on the bed amongst all the shoes that were spread out.
Dreg watched her and proceeded with
caution. He had spent too many years with her to not know how unpredictable she
could be. “Perhaps we should try another way to retrieve the key?”
“Oh like what?” Glory said has she
toyed with the strap of a red stiletto.
“Well perhaps he would have better
luck.”
She dropped the show and looked at
him, her eyes crossed. “He won’t help me.”
He took a step closer. “Maybe he can
be persuaded.”
“Mmm that is something to
consider. All right, I will think of
something in the meantime I want you to follow the Slayer and all her little
friends’ maybe they’ll lead us right to the key and we won’t even need his
assistance.”
“Yes mistress.”
***
Buffy’s head was spinning as the
images of the dream played over and over in her head. After she awoke she scrambled quickly out of the dorm needing to
be outside. She didn’t even look to see
if Riley was still sleeping, she didn’t care. Now as she walked through the
graveyard she desperately tried to figure out what was wrong with her.
Should she believe the words that he
spoke in the dream? She wanted so much
to believe him. She wanted to believe
that she saw love in his eyes and heard guilt in his words. But she couldn’t! How could she trust anything he said anymore? There was no hope
in her any more he had taken that from her.
But knowing that how could she still
want him so much? How could she still
think that she belonged to him? The
dream had been so real, she felt him.
She felt his hard body pressed to hers.
She felt his cold length slid inside of her and she felt the absolute
joy in his possession of her. She took a deep breath of air she could smell him
on her skin. She could smell the scent
of her own blood that ran down his chin when he had pulled out of her neck.
Her pace quickened as her anger
increased. She hated him, didn’t
she? Hadn’t he thrown her away like she
was nothing to him? Didn’t he say that
they were never meant to be? Was she
going crazy? Why could she not stop
thinking about him? She felt powerless in the face of her emotions and desires.
She felt that she had no control over her own mind when it came to him.
There was a crunch of leaves in the
distance and she instantly kicked into Slayer mode. She ran in the direction of
the sound ready to kill whatever it was.
At least in this she still held the power and control.
***
Angel walked down the stairs of the
hotel quickly he didn’t want to be bothered with anyone he needed to clear his
mind, clear his thoughts, get rid of the tension in his body.
He was almost out the door when he was
stopped, “Angel?” Wesley called out to
him, walking out of his office.
He stopped with his hand on the
doorknob but didn’t turn around. “What?” he growled.
Wesley approached him cautiously he
sensed the vampires annoyance and he didn’t want to incite him. These days you
never knew how what the vampire was going to do. Half the time Wesley thought he was dealing with the demon and
not the soul. It was a little
disconcerting especially for Wes who never really faced Angelus. But seeing his friend like this he knew that
he didn’t want to.
“I um think we need to talk about
something that I’ve discovered in the Shanshu Prophecy.”
Angel sighed angrily, why couldn’t
they just leave him alone? “I don’t care about the prophecy Wes.”
Wesley tried again, “But it’s very
important, it concerns certain things that I’m sure you would be interested in
hearing.”
Angel didn’t even spare him a glance
as he once again tried to brush him off. “Wes can’t it at least wait till
tomorrow I have to go.’ He went to
leave but was stopped again.
“Well I don’t know…it…it concerns
Sunnydale.” Wesley waited to see what
he would say, what his reaction would be.
Angel closed his eyes against the
longing that engulfed him the second he heard that word. How it made him want to jump in his car
drive there immediately and take back what was his. But he couldn’t do that he
had made his decision no matter how much he regretted it and no matter how much
he wished he could take it back, he couldn’t.
His only remedy now was these dreams
that plagued him. Though they were
torture they also afforded him the luxury of telling her how much he loved her
and wanted her, how he was sorry for what he did. Even though she didn’t believe him he could at least have the
pleasure of trying to convince her by touching her and loving her, worshipping
her body and mind. In the dream world he could do all the things that he
couldn’t do in reality. It was all he had now; his dreams of Shanshu and a live
with his mate were no longer dreams, but delusions of desires that will never
come true.
His voice hardened, “That’s her town,
Wes. She can handle it.” With that said
he left Wesley standing there totally shocked that was not the reaction he was
expecting.
“But Angel?” He called out but the vampire was gone.
***
Riley sat at the bar of Willy’s
drinking his second shot. He had been
sleeping next to Buffy when the jostling of the bed woke him up.
When he looked at her his first
thought was that she was in the throes of a nightmare. But when he heard her moan and looked closer
he could see that she wasn’t thrashing from a nightmare but rather she was in
the throes of an erotic dream. And he
would bet his life that he wasn’t the star of that dream.
He had immediately risen from the bed
and left; he came here to nurse his bruised ego. He had tried to deny it but he
really couldn’t any more. She had
changed so much that he didn’t think he knew who she was anymore, if he ever
did to begin with.
She had always been slightly distant
but there was warmth and kindness in her eyes when she gazed at him. But now when she looked at him she did with
revulsion and pity. He knew that she
would go out at night hunting to release the pent up frustrations that she
couldn’t escape with him. He knew that
he wasn’t satisfying her and he didn’t know what to do to fix it.
He tried to hold on to her by giving
her everything she wanted. He accepted
her distance never pushing for that next step in their relationship because he
assumed that eventually she would come to him.
He realized now that she never would.
He laughed into his drink; he thought
he felt powerless last year with everything that happened to him. That was nothing compared to how he felt
now.
He was losing her to a ghost from her
past, a Goddamn demon! He snorted and
shook his head; he couldn’t deny it any longer. He could see the faraway look in her eyes when she didn’t know
that he watched her. He knew that it
was Him in her dreams, making love to her, giving her the pleasure that always
seemed to elude Riley.
One night he had even followed her after
she snuck out of the room thinking him asleep.
He had watched from the shadows as she walked detached through the
cemetery with a blank expression on her face.
She had fell to the ground on her knees and started to cry calling out
for Him. Pleading with Him to deny what he had done.
He had sullenly left her there crying
her heart out for a monster that should be staked dead. Riley thought if he had the nerve he would
do it himself. But he didn’t believe for
one minute that she would let that infraction pass, regardless of how she
claimed to hate him. Riley knew that she would protect the demon with her
life. Sadly, he knew she wouldn’t do
the same for him.
He had never met Angel and she never
once told him about her demon lover.
There was only that one time when he asked her about the mark on her
neck. Her answer had been something
about a puppy. He should have known then that she was hiding something from
him. He thought that he was astute when
it came to judging people but it seemed when it came to her, he was totally
clueless.
God he hated him, hated him with every
breath in his body. It was because of him that she would never truly be
his.
He drank down another shot and looked
at the women sitting next to him, she was a vamp. He was curious as to what
kind of lure loving the undead had on a person. Could it really be that different then being with a human?
He wasn’t naïve about the mating of
vampires. He had been witness to a few
couplings at the Initiative; they had been fervent and brutal. Riley himself had been both disgusted and
excited by the mixture of passion and violence. He understood how that combination could be addictive almost
hypnotic.
He took a long hard look at the
vamp. She was attractive, she had blond
hair and a slim face, in some sick way; she almost reminded him of Buffy. He wondered what it would feel like to feel
her fangs sink into his flesh and drink his blood. He was repelled by the idea
but he also felt his dick get hard.
Maybe there was more to it then meets
the eye. Maybe it was something that he
had to experience for himself to truly understand the lure. Maybe it would help him to give her more
pleasure to satisfy her fully, so she wouldn’t leave him. Maybe he could
somehow take control of this situation before she slipped even further away.