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Edges of My Mind
by Tami
Chapter 7
Angel’s eyes popped open. A small indistinct noise had woken him. He looked around the room for a possible intruder but saw nothing. There! He heard it again. He tilted his head and listened. It was a sound between a whimper and moan. He sat up to listen better. It was faint even for his enhanced sense of hearing. Angel’s eyes widened when he finally figured it out: Spike!
Angel leapt off the couch and hurried into his bedroom. The sheets were twisted around the blonde’s legs and waist. He was mumbling and moaning in his sleep. Angel sat on the edge of the bed and shook Spike to wake him.
“Spike, wake up,” Angel called out.
Spike didn’t hear Angel. He was still stuck back in the crypt. His body was jolting with every thrust Riley made and he couldn’t stop him. He bit into his tongue to stop the agonized screams that threatened to erupt and tasted blood. His blood. Aurelian blood. How did it come to this that an Aurelian vampire was taken down this way? If he made it through this he would beg Angel to end his existence. This was beyond embarrassing, beyond shame. This couldn’t be happening.
Angel scented the blood. He examined Spike again. He could have sworn he had taken care of all the bleeding. Was there something he missed? Glancing up, he saw the blood trickle from the blonde’s mouth. Oh, God! What if Spike had internal injuries that weren’t healing?
Angel grabbed Spike’s arms and shook him slightly. “Spike! Wake up! You’re bleeding all over my sheets, boy!”
Angel thought the authoritative sound of the Sire would help. He stilled a minute to see if it registered with his boy. Never having been in a situation like this with Spike before he didn’t know how the younger vampire would react.
“You’re bleeding all over my sheets, boy!” Spike heard faintly. Bloody hell, Angelus would have his hide for sure if he bled all over his 1021-thread count shimmering silk sheets. Spike tried to get out from under Riley but the soldier’s dirty nails bit into his skin anchoring him to the floor.
“Angelus, I swear! I didn’t mean to! Help me!” Spike screamed in his mind.
“Help me,” Spike mumbled in his sleep.
Angel thought he was going to be sick. Did vampires get sick? His boy was reliving something horrific and he couldn’t pull him out of it. Angel jumped back a little when Spike shifted into his demon as a defense mechanism against the thing in his dream.
“Spike, I will help you, but you have to wake up!” Angel yelled hoping to break through the nightmare.
“Wake up!” Spike heard faintly. What did they mean ‘wake up’? He was awake. He was awake and being violated again. A few seconds later it was over as Riley was thrown off him. Well, that was new. Spike looked up with wide eyes and met his Sire’s dark chocolate gaze.
“Spike?” Angel asked tentatively.
Spike growled, still in vampire visage. Angel shifted and growled back in command. Spike’s demon recognized his Elder’s position and calmed. Angel waited until the blonde shifted back to his human guise before letting his demon recede. They stared at each other. Neither one spoke.
“Spike, are you in there?” Angel inquired softly.
“Kill me, Angel,” Spike finally said.
“No, I won’t kill you, Spike,” Angel said.
“Angel, it’s the order of things. I have brought disgrace to the Aurelian line more than once. But, I think this is the last time. I’ve killed thousands of people. I’ve lived a much fuller life than I ever expected to. But, I can’t live with this. Kill. Me.” Spike said solemnly.
“No! You are stronger than that. If you can survive Angelus’ treatment, then you can survive this,” Angel said.
“That was different. You were different. I’ve brought humiliation to the Aurelian line. We were a force to be reckoned with, the four of us. But now, I have this bloody chip in my head and I’m weak. I allowed a human to violate me. You have to do what’s expected and kill me,” Spike said.
Angel stared at Spike in horror. He shook his head frantically. “No! You didn’t allow this to happen. It was something that was done to you. You’re stronger than him. You can beat him. I don’t care about the Lore. When have we ever followed Lore anyway?”
“But Angel--” Spike started to contradict his Sire.
“You are going to heal, and then I’m going to start that Sire-claim. After that, we’ll remove the chip. You’ll feel like your old self again.” Angel thought about what he had just said. “Well, not too old. There will be no hunting in my city.”
Spike bristled at the reminder. He looked away from Angel. He got the message. Just because the scene had changed, did not mean the rules did. Once he was free of the chip, he still couldn’t go after humans. Fine. He supposed Angel’s band of merry do-gooders couldn’t be any worse than the bloody Scoobies. He nodded in agreement.
“What was that Spike?” Angel cocked a dark brow.
“Yes, Sire,” came the begrudging reply.
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Pacific Coast Highway
Buffy was fuming as she drove back to Sunnydale at a normal speed this time. She couldn’t believe the scene she left in L.A. Angel was helping Spike . . . willingly! She blindly reached for her cell phone and punched the speed dial for Willow.
“Hello?” Willow’s voice said distractedly.
“Wills? I can’t believe he did that. He just kicked me out and told me to go back home. He’s going to remove Spike’s chip. I can’t believe this!” Buffy started in on a rant without a preamble.
“Huh? Who? Did what? Spike’s chip is gone?” Willow asked confused as she only heard half of what her friend was saying.
“Angel! He told me to go back home and live my life and not to worry about Spike! Spike’s a soulless demon, a killer and Angel’s helping him! Angel said he was going to remove Spike’s chip,” Buffy told her friend angrily.
“Wait a minute, Angel kicked you out? He’s going to remove Spike’s chip and help him kill again? Who are they killing?” Willow asked through the static as Buffy had driven under an overpass.
“Willow! Are you even listening to me?” Buffy asked agitated.
“I’m trying to!” Willow said in her defense.
“Never mind! I’ll tell you about it when I get home,” Buffy said and clicked off the phone. She continued to drive home, staring out the windshield with eyes hardened in anger and hurt that Angel had told her off and then told her to leave. He had no idea how hard it had been for her this past year being back from the dead. What the hell did he know about it?
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Los Angeles, Hyperion Hotel
Spike had drifted back to sleep after agreeing not to hunt in Los Angeles. Angel was starting to worry about him. Not over the hunting issue, but the nightmares that plagued his childe’s sleep. The blonde vampire had always been the type to bounce back from just about anything. But, with the dreams that caused unrest in his boy, Angel didn’t think that would happen this time.
Making a decision to watch him more closely, the dark vampire lay down next to Spike and curled around the slight body protectively without putting pressure on any tender, healing wounds. The very idea that a mere mortal had knowingly used the younger vampire’s altered state to violate him caused Angel to grind his teeth in anger.
When an unwitting growl escaped him, Spike echoed the sound in his sleep and burrowed closer until his Sire was half-covering his body. Angel felt his lips tug into a smile at the gesture. It was something William did when he was a fledgling. As he fell asleep, Angel made a mental note to talk to Lorne about what he could do to possibly ease Spike’s inner torment.
The blonde vampire was surprised to find that Angel had stayed with him. They hadn’t shared a bed in over a century. He should have been angry or standoffish to know that Angel was curled up around him. It wasn’t like they had been close all the years. His Sire was full of surprises tonight: taking his side over his precious Slayer, vowing to remove the chip, effectively kicking Buffy out of the hotel, and now the poof was curled around his body. Did he mention how Angel told the Slayer off? Bloody brilliant that was! Instead of being offended as he normally would, Spike tunneled underneath his Sire’s big frame. In moments the blonde was drifting off to sleep and, for the moment, feeling safer than he had in years.
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Guatemalan Jungle, Central America
At the headquarters for the Army unit in charge of locating and neutralizing demons, Riley and Sam Cannon-Finn reported to Captain Ellis’ office to give a report on their progress in Sunnydale.
“You two are alive and well, so I assume the mission was a success,” Captain Ellis noted.
“Yes, sir,” they said in unison.
“Was everything accomplished according to task?” the captain inquired.
“We are sorry to say that the Svolte could not be neutralized, Sir. It seems there was an overzealous Vampire Slayer residing on the Hellmouth and she killed it . . . sir,” Sam said.
Captain Ellis bowed his head at that news. “Ahh, it’s a shame. We were going to use that particular Svolte as a model to study the specimen more closely.” He looked up at two of his best specialists. “You say a Vampire Slayer killed it? How is that possible?”
“She’s been protecting the Hellmouth for several years now and she’s quite good at her vocation,” Riley explained.
Sam rolled her eyes, “Captain Can-do over here enlisted her help and forgot to mention the goal of our mission. She assumed we wanted the demon dead and broke its neck. However, upon further inspection, we discovered that she had already delivered her litter.”
“An informant knew the demon who had the eggs and they were destroyed, Sir,” Riley broke in with a frown. He didn’t bother to elaborate any more than that. He still hadn’t told Sam about finding his former girlfriend in bed – or was that sarcophagus? -- with his archrival and a demon on top of it.
After he had attacked Spike, he collected Sam and gotten away from Sunnydale as fast as he could. As long as he stayed to his assigned missions and kept a low profile, he thought he would be safe from anything Buffy or Spike might be planning to do in retaliation.
“Well, that’s the good news I suppose. It’s so hard to keep a demonic population under wraps when the locals insist on advocating for the lives of these destructive things. Good work in any case. I’m sure you’re jet lagged. Go to your quarters and try to get some rest,” Captain Ellis ordered.
Riley and Sam nodded to their superior and walked out of the room.
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