|
|
How to Treat Your
Lover
by Tami
Chapter 29
Chapter 29: Step 2 – Understanding (Part
12)
Los Angeles, Hyperion Hotel
Angel stepped up to the glass doors that led to the balcony of his second floor suite and looked out over the lights of the city. He knew he should be out there helping the lost souls, but how could he when Darla was dying in his own house. He never knew her as a human. She’d always been a formidable vampire. He’d never seen her so weak before. She was slowly wasting away.
“Hey,” Spike said softly behind him. He walked up behind Angel and slid his hands into the side pockets of Angel’s jeans. “Couldn’t sleep?”
Angel barely acknowledged him with a hum as he stared out the window. Spike knew he should be offended somehow, but he was too tired to care. It had been a stressful time since he showed up, with Lindsey trying to get Drusilla to turn Darla, learning of Darla’s impending death and Angel’s vendetta against Wolfram & Hart.
“I have to get Darla out of here soon. I don’t want her dying here. If Lindsey gets a whiff of her corpse, there’s no telling what he’d do. Probably get some foolish shaman to resurrect her again,” Angel said.
“Third time’s the charm, eh pet?” Spike inquired wryly.
“We also have to find a place for Drusilla for a few years at least. Just until Lindsey’s over his doomed obsession with my family,” Angel went on.
“Don’t think that will happen. Lindsey’s developed a yen for you. It’s hard to break someone of that,” Spike said.
“He’ll lose that soon enough after I rip his head off his shoulders,” Angel growled.
“Temper, temper. Your blood pressure’s going to explode,” Spike chuckled.
“We don’t have any blood pressure to speak of,” Angel stated.
“Lucky us then,” Spike commented.
Angel reached behind him and tugged Spike to his side by his waistband. “Got dressed too?”
“Only the jeans,” Spike said.
Angel draped an arm around the blonde’s shoulders. “I’m glad you never let Angelus break you when he tried. You’re the strongest fighter I know. You and me against the world again, baby boy.”
“You need to sleep Angel. I know we’re demons, but I prefer you drinking to this,” Spike said as he took his Sire’s hand from his shoulder and led him back to bed.
“I’m going to save her, Spike,” Angel declared as he followed.
“Of course you are.” Spike pushed his Sire into bed again and climbed in beside him.
“I’m going to save us all or die trying. I wasn’t brought back from hell to fail,” Angel said.
“Go to sleep, Angel,” Spike demanded.
**************************
A small building somewhere in Los Angeles
Cordelia took down a box of files from a shelf while Wesley was on sitting on the floor of their new office sorting through another stack of papers. The place was a mess as they had papers strewn everywhere.
“When they went out of business, they just left all this behind?” Wesley asked.
“Yep. Also, a single desk, we’ll share,” Cordelia replied.
“And, when we go out of business, we can just leave our stuff for the next guy,” Wesley said nonchalantly.
“Hey, hey, negative energy boy, with all of our money pooled together we can stay here a long time,” Cordelia stated matter-of-factly.
“Hmm,” Wesley thought about it. “Twenty minutes.”
“At least,” she said.
“Angel Investigations without the angel,” Wesley said thoughtfully. “Do you think we can do it?”
“Well, we better. I mean, what else can we do? And I still have the visions. That’ll keep us busy sometimes,” Cordelia said.
“We’re going to need a lot more than that,” Wesley said. “Like a steady, outside clientele.”
“It’ll happen,” Cordelia assured him. “This is our future, you know? And personally, I think it is pretty bright. Ow!” Just then, she stood up and knocked her head on a plant hanging from the ceiling. “Dead plant!” she cursed and then turned to Wesley. “Not symbolizing our future. Really!”
Gunn walked in the door with a small handful of flyers. “Okay, everyone parked within ten blocks has a flyer on their windshield. We just slightly irritated almost a hundred people.”
“Good job with the flyers. Now we can just sit back and let the calls roll in,” Cordelia said optimistically.
Gunn picked up the phone and discovered there was no dial tone. “They better roll in through a bullhorn. We’ve got no dial tone.”
“What?” Cordelia asked surprised.
“Perhaps it’s the wires,” Wesley suggested.
Wesley crawled under the desk while Cordelia checked the phone. “They said it would be on by now!”
Gunn eyed the desk. “We’re sharing one desk?”
“Aha!” proclaimed Wesley from under the desk. “Things are looking up. I think I found the right wire.”
Just then, all the lights went out.
“I’m so glad I met you guys,” Gunn said wryly. “It’s entertaining, really.”
**************************
Los Angeles, Hyperion Hotel
Angel felt lips brush against his abdomen and navel above his pelvic bone. Then, the hand wrapped around his erection began to move. The lips moved to open over the tip of his cock and took the head into a cool mouth. It seemed like forever since he last felt that. He cracked an eyelid and peeked down to see white blonde hair move up and down and his shaft disappear between Spike’s lips.
“Turn around,” Angel’s voice was soft and smooth.
Spike twisted around while trying to keep his hold on Angel’s cock. He was doing pretty well until he felt his Sire’s mouth engulf his dick. He pulled away and groaned at the feeling. Spike thrust into Angel’s mouth as he stroked the erection in front of him. Spike tried to rein in the oncoming orgasm. When he felt he succeeded, Spike returned to his task, leisurely sucking on the shaft.
“God, Spike,” Angel groaned.
Angel was about to resume teasing Spike when he heard the faint sounds of singing. He stopped with his fingers wrapped around the blonde’s erection and glanced at his closed bedroom door.
“Did you hear that?”
Spike raised his head and glanced at the door. “Hear what? I was listening to you moan up until two bloody seconds ago.”
Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light / what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Angel frowned and carefully extracted himself from Spike and got out of bed. Spike reached down and stroked his cock as he watched Angel put on a pair of jeans and sweater.
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight, / o’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
Angel headed towards the door with an angry stride when there was a banging on the other side. He opened it to see Drusilla dressed in a sheer slip of a satin nightgown that showed off every curve and yet managed to conceal all the important parts.
“Daddy! Daddy! There’s a green demon downstairs with big red horns!” Drusilla exclaimed with hand gestures.
Angel closed his eyes, trying not to imagine the Host seeing his baby girl in her current attire. “For the love of God, please tell me you didn’t go downstairs dressed in that.”
“Noooo,” Drusilla slowly shook her head. “I looked over the banister.”
Angel looked up at the ceiling gratefully. “Stay up here, Drusilla. I’ll go down and see what’s going on.”
“Come here, princess,” Spike said as he sat back against the headboard with his arms open.
Drusilla squealed and ran over to the bed, her nightgown swishing around her calves before she crawled up in bed with Spike. Angel watched them indulgently before he walked out and shut the door.
He went downstairs to the lobby, stopped on the landing. When he saw the green, horned lounge singer bellowing away in the center of his hotel, he crossed his arms and waited.
The Host turned, saw Angel and cut off his singing. “Hey, big fella. You gotta be singing in here, am I right? Come on, with these acoustics?” Then, he burst into song again. “And the rockets red glare!” The Host looked at Angel. “Do you hear that resonance?”
“What I hear, and maybe, hopefully, I’m dreaming, is the Star-Spangled Banner being belted out by a loud, green demon.”
“We’re all brothers under the skin, mi amigo, although, the garden hue and the horns have kept me out of some key public performances. Just once, I’d love to ring in a Lakers game with our national anthem. Is that so much to ask?” Lorne complained.
“Yes!” Angel growled. “Is there a reason that you’re here and I’m not upstairs getting my brain sucked out through my dick?”
“Geez, you’re grouchy when you don’t get laid,” the Host cringed. “There is a reason I’m here. What’s today, Thursday? Tomorrow night – the world’s going to end. I thought you might want to know.”
“So the world’s going to end,” Angel said disinterestedly as he walked down the landing steps to the lobby.
“Brings you right down, doesn’t it?” the Host asked. “Don’t feel the need to offer your guest a frothy cappuccino or a hot cinnamon roll.”
Angel sat down on the round parlor couch with his arms crossed and stated flatly, “I don’t.”
“Man, you just get darker and darker,” the Host said as he walked over to the reception desk and leaned against it. “And the weird thing is? Your aura is beige.”
“I don’t have coffee,” Angel said agitated.
The Host ran a finger across the top of the reception desk. “Or a duster, buster. I don’t know why you fired those three plucky kids. They were good company. Not to mention, Cordelia? Uh!” he groaned. “Hot-o-rama! In the ‘oh my sizzling loins’ sense of the word if you know what I mean, and the British boy?”
“Spike?” Angel growled as he eyed the Host.
“No, the other one. Keep your fangs in, I know better than to go after that scrumptiousness you have locked away in your bedroom,” the Host said.
Angel slouched back and glared at the Host. “Are you gonna get to the world ending or are you just gonna chat until it does?”
“All right, all right!” the Host surrendered. “Although my buoyant good will falling on your deaf ears is something we’ll need to look at in the future.” When Angel didn’t look impressed, he continued, “The world ending? Huh, it’s kind of a funny story. I’m at the club last night. It was fairly a typical Wednesday crowd. A Torto demon and his parasite were murdering the Everly Brothers . . . which is nothing compared to what Elian had done to my Sea-Breeze!”
Angel was still unimpressed.
“Oh. The man is such a moron. You have no idea how I’m suffering since Ramón left.”
Angel rubbed his forehead to ease the oncoming headache. “Oh, I have an idea. Can you just get to the point already?”
“Yes, I can, if you’d let me get a word in edgewise, Mr. Get-to-the-point-y-pants. So, this guy I’ve never seen before gets up to sing. Usually I love it. You know, they sing, I read their futures, their auras, I see into their souls . . .”
“So this guy . . .” Angel prompted, getting angrier for being dragged down here for apparently nothing.
“The thing that was remarkable about him was there was absolutely nothing remarkable about him. He was just your average Joe about to mangle a tune and bore me with some bland vision of his bland future. But when he started singing, man he knocked me out!”
“He was good?” Angel asked.
“No, Angel-face,” the Host laughed. “He knocked me out. When I came to he was gone.”
“He didn’t wait to hear what you saw on him?” Angel asked tiredly. He wanted to be back in bed with Spike not here listened to a green demon confess his woes over an ungrateful patron of his karaoke bar.
“Nope,” the Host replied.
“So what knocked you out?” Angel asked. God, this was like pulling teeth.
And that’s easy! Angelus chuckled.
“I looked into this guy and I saw that he has no future after ten o’clock tomorrow night . . . and neither does anybody else.”
Angel stood up with his arms still crossed and glared at the Host. “Let’s say I believe you . . .”
“Oh, honey, let’s say a lot more than that,” the Host cut in. “We’ve got to find this guy. This is the big blackout we’re talking about. This guy is gonna do something between now and tomorrow night. I don’t know what, but it’s going to cancel everybody’s summer plans. We got to find him and stop him.
“So, why’d you come to me?” Angel asked skeptically. Just go away so I can have a great shag and go back to sleep. 1 pm is too early to be dealing with this. I’m a vampire, ergo I hunt at night.
“Isn’t it obvious?” the Host was agitated. “You’re a champion. A unique force for good in a troubled world . . . also, all the other champions I know are currently out of town or dead. Why? You don’t want to work with me? Is this because I sent you on a couple of missions that turned out to be a little . . .”
“Pointless and deadly?” Angel finished for him.
“As for example,” the Host cringed apologetically. “But I sent you on those missions in good faith. And we interrupt this broadcast to inform you: world ending! It’s kind of an emergency situation here. You might want to get on board.”
Angel growled softly. He wanted to be upstairs, pleasantly enjoying Spike and maybe Drusilla now that she was up there. Instead, he was down here trying not to throttle the green demon that was beginning to clash with his hotel décor.
“So why did this guy leave the club before you had a chance to tell him what you saw?” Angel asked irritably.
The Host shrugged. “People get scared. They come in for a reading and then, they don’t want to know. Especially when the psychic faints and . . . eh . . . let’s not dwell.”
“Maybe he’s just a guy who likes to sing karaoke. Maybe he doesn’t know anything about you,” Angel suggested.
“That’d make more sense,” the Host said thoughtfully. “So, what we should do is start with the other local karaoke bars, see if we can get a lead on him. That is if you’re not busy getting lawyers killed and harboring homicidal vampires.”
Angel’s glare became darker at the last comment and growled, “How I deal with my family is no one else’s business.”
With that, Angel went back upstairs to his room. He opened the door, intent on collecting his duster and a weapon when he was brought up short by the sight in his bed.
Drusilla was sitting on a very naked Spike with her nightgown bunched up around her thighs and Spike’s hands under said gown kneading her ass as they kissed. They hadn’t noticed him yet. They were always wrapped up in each other. It was intoxicating to watch and not be a part of. Angel just shook his head and retrieved his coat and weapons.
“At least someone in this relationship is getting laid,” he grumbled as he left the room. “Harboring homicidal vampires . . . I don’t know how he came up with that,” he said to himself before shutting the door. Spike and Drusilla chuckled to themselves like conspiring children when they heard Angel’s last comment.
**************************
The Host and Angel entered a dingy bar. One of the customers was slumped over a table, asleep, wrapped around a bottle. Another patron was on stage singing Greensleeves.
“Nice,” Angel commented.
“Hmm, it’s not that bad. Nothing a couple bottles of Lysol can’t cure,” the Host replied.
As they walked over to the bar, the Host watched the singer. “Interesting choice, too bad about the cuisine-Art tomorrow. You know, if we stop the world from ending tomorrow, the scar won’t even be that noticeable.” Angel looked at him. “Sorry, occupational hazard.”
“Is he here?” Angel asked.
“Nope.”
The dark vampire dropped down onto a barstool and rubbed his forehead. “Seventeen karaoke bars. I need to lie down and scrub out the inside of my head. I just want to go home and . . .” He sighed.
“Well, maybe we’re wrong and it’s a cold trail,” the Host said.
“We? We!? You came to me with this goose chase,” Angel growled softly.
Just then, the bartender was there and Angel shut up. “We don’t get your kind much.”
“Excuse me?” the Host asked offended.
“Demons,” the bartender clarified. “We get a couple now and then but they’re usually vampires passing for human.”
“Well, I never pass on anything mister. Especially when it comes with a little umbrella in the glass,” the host said.
“You worked here long?” Angel asked.
“Eleven years now. It used to be a regular bar, but then they put in one of those karaoke machines. Thought it would bring in the customers. Instead, it drove most of them away. We got a few steadies that make up for it,” the bartender explained.
“Steadies?” Angel asked.
“A lot of grad students,” the bartender shrugged.
“Fits the descript,” the Host said.
Angel turned his attention completely on the bartender. “We’re looking for a guy, early twenties, medium build, maybe one of your steadies, sings sad songs like ‘All By Myself’.”
“That sounds like the kid,” the bartender confirmed.
“Do you have a name?” Angel asked.
“I don’t know his name, but he comes in every few weeks. Runs with the whole broken heart song book. The first time, I thought someone died. After a couple of weeks I figured he was just one of those manic depressives,” the bartender replied.
“Hey, Goliath,” the Host chimed in. “You got a good picture of this grad student in your head?” When the bartender shrugged again, the Host went on. “Well, how about a few bars of For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow, hmm?”
The bartender looked skeptically at Angel.
Angel shrugged. “You know, he’s a demon. You better do what he says or he might . . . talk your ears off.”
After the bartender sang a couple of lines, the Host cut in. “Yeah, it’s him. It’s our boy. Fabulous tone by the way, really nice vibrato. You keep plugging away on that novel, F. Scott. Art is its own reward. Now about this grad student, which University would that be?”
**************************
University Library
Angel and the Host entered the library through a basement access door. Well, Angel stomped through the library, angry at the Host and the Host was trying to catch up.
“Where did you learn to drive?” Angel growled as he stormed through the room.
“Just now in your car,” the Host said. “Not bad for a beginner, huh?”
His tone would have been endearing had it been Spike. Angel missed Spike. You could banter with Spike. Arguing with his childe was entertaining and, in the end, very gratifying for the most part. As it was, this was the Host, and currently, a pain in Angel’s ass more than Spike could
have ever been. God, he was close to tearing the demon’s head clean off his neck.
“What? You nearly got us killed . . . four times!” Angel stressed in a loud whisper.
“Someone had to drive,” the Host said, trying to placate him. “You weren’t exactly qualified, huddled under a blanket in the back, hiding from the sun.” He turned towards a bookshelf as a student passed.
“Newflash: I wouldn’t be here at all! Right now I should be in bed enjoying post-sex bliss. But, as it is, Drusilla is getting that honor, because I’m here trying to track down someone who may or may not be ending the world!”
“I better stick to the shadows and think of something to say should we happen upon a comely co-ed,” the Host broke in on Angel’s rant.
Angel growled softly. “Tell her that you’re the new school mascot. Wait here.”
The Host pulled out a book and opened it to hide most of his face as he watched Angel walk up to the information desk. He duck his head quickly as a girl walked by, and then raised up to see the guy behind the desk handing Angel a stack of books.
Angel returned and handed over half the stack to the Host, explaining, “Student yearbook/faculty publications going back the past five years. Let’s see if we can’t find your little madman bent on destroying the universe.”
“I like to think of him as our little madman. That’s just me, team player, you know?” the Host said.
As he put the book back on the shelf and followed Angel, a raccoon-eyed demon stood on the other side of the stack. Angel sat down at a table with the Host sitting across from him and proceeded to look through the books.
“Is this him?” Angel asked, pointing at a picture.
The Host glanced up. “It is not.”
Angel dropped the book and picked up another one just when the Host found him.
“Oh, I got him. He’s a physicist and pretty good one according to this.”
“I’ll find out where the lab is,” Angel said as he grabbed the book from the demon. He went back to the information desk and showed the picture to the clerk. “Hi. I’m trying to get a hold of Gene Rainey? He’s a grad student in physics.”
The clerk looked at the picture and nodded. “Oh, yeah. He’s our own Stephen Hawking. What do you want with him?”
Angel closed the book and shook the clerks hand as if it were a business meeting. “I’m sorry. I’m Leonard Taubman from the Taubman Foundation. We just freed up some new grant money and I was hoping to earmark it for Gene.”
“Wish I was a genius,” the clerk grumbled. “He’s got his own lab in the physics department.” The clerk picked up a map of the University grounds and was showing Angel how to get there when he glanced up and saw a raccoon-eyed demon. “What is that?”
Angel assumed the Host was standing behind him and didn’t turn around when he answered, “Don’t worry. It’s just the school mascot.”
The demon decided to strike at that moment and Angel dropped onto the information desk as the Lubber demon hit him in the back with an odd looking ax and then advanced on the Host. The Host ducked and the Lubber demon’s ax hit the computer monitor instead. He was trying to yank it free when Angel went up behind him and started to fight. The Host said something to Lubber demon in his own language, then picked up a book and threw it. The Lubber demon moved out of the way and the book hit Angel instead, knocking him back onto a set of stairs.
“Sorry,” the Host apologized and continued to watch the fight at a safe distance.
Angel ducked another hit with the ax and then kicked the Lubber demon over the railing of the stairs. The demon picked up a chair, said something to Angel in his native tongue and threw the chair at him. Angel batted the chair aside and watched the demon run away.
Angel turned to the Host and asked, “What did you say to it?”
“I said ‘we come in peace’. I don’t think he believed me,” the Host replied.
“Well, what did he say to me?” Angel asked irritated.
“He said ‘you shall not stop the golden child, the one for whom we have waited’. Lubber demons, they have a way with words,” the Host translated.
“What the hell is a Lubber demon?”
“Fanatical sect, waiting for a messiah who will usher in the end of all human life. A lot of your demons don’t yak about it in mixed company, but it’s a pretty popular theology in the underworld,” the Host explained.
“So this mad scientist has these demons worshipping and protecting him while he blows up the planet . . . or what?” Angel was confused, which is what happens when you’ve had little sleep. “What’s he going to do?”
“Let’s get to his lab pronto and find out. It’s pretty clear we’re dealing with a criminal mastermind,” the Host said.
Upon finding Gene’s lab, they discovered that the physicist had taken his equipment elsewhere and also what his experiment would ultimately do. They were now driving around L.A. trying to find his apartment.
“So there is another gear after that number two thingy?” the Host asked and received a glare from Angel for his trouble. “Oh, relax. I’ll pay for a tune-up. Unless the world ends, then I’m off the hook.”
“Well, if it saves you some money, then I guess it’s a good thing,” Angel said sarcastically.
“Oh, this whole sour pussy mode of yours, it’s starting to grate. I don’t know how that blonde bombshell of yours can put up with you for so long,” the Host said. “You know what your problem is? Are you listening?”
“Do I have a choice?” Angel asked glibly as he drove.
“Your heart isn’t in it anymore.”
“I don’t have a pulse so technically I don’t have a heart.”
“Technically, someone puts a stake through it, you don’t have anything anymore. So, Bubba, your heart counts,” the Host told him.
“I have no idea what you’re babbling about,” Angel said.
“Yes, you do. If the world were to end tonight, would it really, in your heart of hearts, be such a terrible thing?” When Angel didn’t answer, the Host took it as an affirmative. “Now, now, is that a fun place to be?”
“I think you should shut up now,” Angel said gruffly.
“I’m the host. Have you met me? I never shut up. You pushed your friends away. The only one you have now is your childe. You went from helping the helpless to hunting down the guilty. Blood vengeance is a luxury of the lesser beings. You’re a champion, Angel. I mean, you were at least.”
“What do you want me to tell you?” Angel asked.
“Everything,” the Host said. “What’s in your heart, why you stopped caring? You know the whole ball of wax so I can help you get back on your path. No need to rush, we got time. You know – not a lot.”
The Host was humming to himself while Angel glanced over at him from time to time. Finally, Angel broke down and started to talk.
“Do you want to know what my problem is? I’m screwed. That’s my problem. I can’t win. I’m trying to atone for a hundred years of unthinkable evil. Newsflash! I never can! It’s never going to be enough. Spike understands that. He’s helping me to understand it, fine. But now, I got Wolfram & Hart dogging me, it’s too much! Two-hundred highly intelligent law-school graduates are working full-time driving me crazy. Why the hell is everyone so surprised it’s working? But no, it’s ‘Angel, why are you so cranky?’ ‘Angel, you should lighten up.’ ‘You should smile.’ ‘You should wear a nice plaid.’
“Oh. Not this season, honey,” the Host chimed in.
“Then there’s the redemption. Darla has a shot at redemption. She wants to die finally. She’s come to terms with that. But, that little punk Lindsey just keeps after her. He believes that he’s in love with her. Well, fuck him. He’s not getting anywhere near her or Drusilla again. I’ll hide Drusilla on the other side of the world and see that Darla gets her wish. And when that is fulfilled, I’m going to burn that fucking law firm to ground. After that, maybe I can get a measure of peace with Spike. Cordy, Gunn and Wes – they couldn’t handle that. That’s good. It means that they’re still human. It means they’re better off fired.”
“You kind of left them in the cold,” the Host said.
“It’s a lot colder in here,” Angel growled.
“It can’t be too cold in there. That morsel of salty goodness is still with you,” the Host said.
“Can you stay out of my relationship with Spike,” Angel said flatly.
The Host sighed. “It’s not always going to be this way. The song changes – unless, of course we don’t get there in time, in which case you’ll be frozen in this crappy mood forever. I shudder to think.”
Angel looked over at the Host and assured him, “We’ll get there.”
“Look out!” the Host yelled staring out the windshield.
Angel looked straight ahead and saw a figure standing in the middle of the road. The car hit it and sent the object flying over the car as Angel slammed on his brakes, abruptly stopping the car. He and the Host got out and checked on who they just hit, but when they turned the body over they discovered it had been a Lubber demon.
Angel and the Host stood up and saw more Lubber demons advancing on them from all sides, carrying the oddly shaped axes. He started to fight the Lubber demons fast and dirty, while the Host stood on the sidelines watching the action. Two of the Lubber demons decided to attack the Host. The Host let out a high note, causing them to drop their weapons and cover their ears in pain as glass shattered out of car windows. The Host used the advantage to kick on between the legs and punch the other across the chin, dropping them both before watching Angel again.
Angel knocked his opponent down when he heard the Host call out, “Hurry!” He ran over to the car, jumped into the driver’s seat without opening the door while the Host climbed in the passenger side and sped away.
A while later, Angel finally stopped in front of Gene Rainey’s building. He and the Host got out and looked around.
“Okay, if I had a machine to stop time, where would I put it?” Angel wondered aloud.
“Probably where the demons can guard it,” the Host said pointing at a Lubber demon coming at them.
While Angel fought his way into the basement one or two demons at a time, Gene was in bed with his girlfriend. When she was distracted by what he was doing to her, he reached over and turned on the device he had set up in his bedroom that he had passed off as clutter.
In the basement, Angel was fighting two Lubber demons. He knocked one of them down, then grabbed its neck and smashed its head into the open door of the dryer and knocked it out. The second Lubber demon hit Angel from behind. A second punch was hard enough to send Angel flying to top of the basement stairs.
The Lubber demon charged up the stairs after him. Angel rolled onto his back and used his feet to catapult the demon into the opposite wall. Then, he jumped off the stairs to the basement floor. Before he could get to the power source, the Lubber demon launched himself into the air to stop Angel, but the time bubble was already spreading down to the basement and froze the demon in mid-air.
Angel ducked low and scrambled over to the machine, pulling on a fistful of wires. Immediately, the bubble started to recede. The freed demon lands on the hard ground instead of on his target. Angel grabbed the ax and buried the blade in the demon’s back. He stood there, breathing heavy from injuries he received in the fight and then climbed the basement stairs as if they were Mount Everest.
**************************
Gene Rainey’s Apartment
The Host, a fully-dressed Gene and Angel were sitting around the kitchen table. Angel had told the human what almost happened because of his little experiment. Gene came to the conclusion that he had used the wrong perimeters and the experiment was a bust.
“I can’t believe this,” Gene repeated for the fifth time. “Listen, I am really, really sorry. I had no idea I was putting the whole world in jeopardy or – or that there were all these demons, although the idea of aliens among us is consistent with Murdoch’s multi-verse. I just – I just didn’t want her to leave.”
The Host looked pointedly at Angel and motions for him to talk to Gene.
Angel glanced back and forth, sighing resignedly. “Well, you know love . . .it’s a fire.”
“You’ve been there,” Gene said insightfully.
“It burns you alive,” Angel went on. Gene frowned at him, but he continued. “Down to the bone, and then it turns the bone to ash . . .”
The Host rolled his eyes at the hopeless vampire. “I think what my chipper friend is trying to say here, Gene, is that the wheel keeps turning. You can’t stop it. Sometimes things get worse, sometimes they get better.”
“I want the wheel to stop,” Gene said petulantly. “Which probably explains the whole time-in-a-box disaster? I can’t emphasize enough how sorry I am about that.”
“It just doesn’t work, Gene. It’s like a song. Now, I can hold a note for a long time,” the Host said and the laughed to himself. “Actually, I can hold a note forever.” That got an eye-roll from Angel. “But, eventually that’s just noise. It’s the change we’re listening for, the note coming after and the one after that. That’s what makes it music.”
“I guess,” Gene hesitantly agreed. “You guys like beer?”
“A beer sounds great,” Angel groaned.
Gene got up and left the room.
“You’re connecting with a human,” the Host praised Angel. “That’s a start, although I’d go easy on the bone and ash metaphors for a while.”
“Well, the guy is a disaster at love, and nearly destroyed the world. I can relate,” Angel said and then, finally admitted, “I guess I did kind of leave them in the cold.”
“What, your buddies? By firing them?” the Host asked.
“Yeah, I guess I made it hard for them. But, nothing I can do about it right now. I just want to go home,” Angel said tiredly.
Gene came back with the beer and handed one to Angel.
Angel took it. “We’re going to go, it’s getting late.”
**************************
Los Angeles, Hyperion Hotel
Angel trudged slowly into the hotel and upstairs. The incline of the stairs seemed higher than he remembered. He felt winded by the time he got to the landing. Damn demon fighting was more of a constant ache than a workout. He checked on Darla to find her sleeping comfortably, but no Drusilla. She must still be with Spike.
Angel went to his room and found Spike in the sitting room with Drusilla watching the TV Spike insisted on having. He ignored them until he had a shower. Then, he put on sweats and went to bed again. When he passed his childer and Spike said something Angel didn’t even try to decipher in his tired state, he just grumbled and crawled into bed.
Soon, the TV shut off and Drusilla left to go back to the room she shared with Darla. Spike slid into bed next to Angel and felt his Sire wrap around his body.
“Missed you, baby boy,” Angel mumbled against Spike’s neck.
“What did the lounge lizard want?” Spike asked.
“Some guy tried to keep a girlfriend from leaving him by stopping time and it went wrong,” Angel replied.
“Drusilla and I didn’t really do anything,” Spike assured him.
“That’s a shame. I thought for sure one of us was going to get sex,” Angel said.
“We just teased each other, nothing too much.”
“Spike, it wouldn’t bother me if you did anything with her. She’s Dru. Just because we’re mated doesn’t mean I’ll just forget we have a history with her,” Angel said.
“Is that how you want me to react if I ever catch you in a lip-lock with Buffy or Darla?” Spike asked, testing the waters.
Angel sighed. “No. Drusilla’s different.”
Spike accepted the answer. He knew Drusilla was different from any woman they both knew, insane or not. He felt Angel’s hand lazily caressing him.
“Don’t worry about it, Spike,” Angel whispered, brushing his lips against his neck. “She’s your sister.”
“We’ve been at this for a year, you realize that?” Spike asked.
“I had a vague idea that it has been a while. Was trying to celebrate with you earlier, but we got interrupted by the world ending . . . again,” Angel chuckled.
“Bloody apocalypse can’t wait for a more appropriate time? You left me hard. Drusilla had to take care of it for me,” Spike said.
“I thought you said you didn’t do anything with her,” Angel said skeptically as he sat up to get a better view of Spike.
“Did I? Well, there was no intercourse,” Spike smirked.
“That’s it, no sex for a week for you,” Angel teased and turned away from Spike.
“Yeah, but then you’d return to being a eunuch again,” Spike pointed out.
“Not if I can talk Dru into fucking me too,” Angel countered. “And, I’m not a eunuch!”
“Well, no,” Spike drawled. “Not now. You’re getting laid on a regular basis.”
Angel turned back over and looked at his childe accusingly. “A regular basis? I haven’t had sex in weeks! Every time we try, we get interrupted.”
Spike grinned wolfishly. “Well, there’s nothing to interrupt us now.”
Angel tilted his head and looked at his companion, considering the idea and then pounced on him, knocking the blonde over on the bed. He buried his face against Spike’s neck and growled teasingly as Spike reached for the liquid hand cleanser on the nightstand. Angel skimmed his human teeth over his childe’s skin, down the chest to the stomach and nipped at the indent scars left there from the last time he sank his fangs into Spike’s stomach.
Angel moved lower and sucked Spike’s erection down. The action took the blonde vampire by surprise, causing him to drop the bottle on the mattress and lace his fingers in the dark, spiky hair. Angel blindly reached for the bottle and flipped it open. He squirted the liquid on his fingers and tossed the bottle aside. Then, he worked a couple of fingers inside Spike’s body and sat up, grabbing the base of the younger vampire’s erection with the free hand. Angel watched his boy’s face contort in pleasure as he fisted the younger vampire’s dick and thrust his fingers inside him, teasing the bundle of nerves.
“Angel, now,” Spike groaned as he rocked his hips with his Sire’s ministrations.
Angel slipped his fingers out of his childe’s body and held him open with that hand on Spike’s thigh as he licked up his childe’s stomach to bite on a nipple, causing Spike to arch off the bed. Angel used his free hand to guide his erection inside his boy and stroked Spike’s dick as he entered him.
“God, Angel,” Spike purred as he moved with his Sire.
Spike grabbed the back of Angel’s head and pulled him up to thrust his tongue deep into his mouth. He dragged the flat of his tongue along Angel’s teeth roughly, cutting it open, then groaned as he felt Angel suck on the copper fluid. He mumbled into the kiss when Angel started to thrust his hips against him harshly.
Angel pried his mouth away from Spike and sat up. He lifted the younger vampire’s legs up to his chest and glanced from the reactions flittering across the sculpted face to watch his dick disappear inside the willing body repeatedly.
“Fuck me, Angel,” Spike urged as he looked up at his Sire’s face which had a determined expression.
Angel released his hold on Spike’s legs, letting them fall and wrap around his waist. He slid a hand around the blonde vampire’s neck and turned his head to the side before mouthing his throat. Spike moaned and opened his mouth for Angel’s fingers as they moved up to tease his lips.
“Talk to me,” Spike encouraged as he moved against his Sire.
“What do you want to know, baby boy? Want to know how your ass feels when it squeezes around my cock? Want to know how it forces me to thrust into you harder because the muscles are so tight I have to push my way through? Or what it’s like to be buried completely inside you and how intoxicating your blood is when you cum?” Angel thrust faster every time Spike groaned and whined at his words.
“Then, when I have you so far gone that you can’t think straight, the chants go from ‘God, Angel’ to ‘please, daddy’.” Spike whined around his fingers and clenched the inner muscles around his Sire’s dick as it plunged deeper inside him. “You’re so responsive, William. I’ve never come across anyone who reacts like you do.”
“Angel,” Spike groaned.
He reached down between them to stroke himself as listened to his Sire’s words and felt the cool breath fan his ear and cheek. When he was close, Angel reached down and clamped down on the base, cutting his orgasm off.
“Controlling bastard,” Spike cursed as he glared up at his Sire with heated eyes.
“Not so soon,” Angel purred in his ear. He angled his hips and started to slam into his childe. “It’s been a long time since I enjoyed a long, drawn out orgasm.”
“Angel, this is killing me,” Spike groaned.
Angel swooped down and kissed the blonde hard as a way to silence him. He picked up the pace of his thrusts, hearing Spike grunt or growl with each one. Angel stopped before Spike could come, causing the younger vampire to growl in frustration.
Angel's cock slipped out when he rolled over on his back taking Spike with him. He grabbed their cocks and fisted them together while he peppered biting kisses all over his boy’s neck. He blindly reached for the bottle of makeshift lubricant and squeezed the liquid against Spike’s anal opening. The feel of cool liquid startled the blonde vampire. Then, he thrust up inside his childe again.
“Fuck, Angel,” Spike hissed at the invasion.
“Ride me.” Angel’s voice was rough and husky with the demand.
He gripped Spike’s erection in his hand again and let the other vampire’s movements control the speed of the strokes and penetration. When Spike sat up, Angel reached his free hand under him and massaged the tight sacs. He thrust up to meet his childe’s downward strokes.
Angel tried to suppress the urge to roll Spike over and pound into him again. His hands flexed around his childe’s shaft and balls with the effort to control his desires. Spike saw the need to dominate in Angel’s eyes. He grabbed his Sire’s hands and held them down against the pillow. Spike used the leverage of his hold on Angel’s wrists to bounce with the thrusts. When Angel stretched his neck, Spike leaned down to run his tongue along his throat.
It finally got to be too much for Angel. He grabbed Spike by the waist and turned them over again. He sat up with his childe bent back, shoulders on the bed while Angel held his hips and thrust deep. Sometimes the strokes were slow and measured, other times they were hard and fast. It was driving Spike insane that Angel propelled him to the point of orgasm, but never let him release.
Spike arched into an almost painful position as Angel pounded into him. He was trying to get the most out of the sensation as well as to escape the pleasure-pain. Then, Angel hit his prostate just right and sent him over the edge. Spike came, releasing cool semen over his torso. The muscle contractions helped bring Angel over with him. The dark vampire growled through his orgasm.
Angel carefully extracted himself from Spike and leaned down to lick up the cool spending that covered his boy’s torso. When he was sure he got every drop, Angel lay down and curled around Spike protectively, an old habit that was never truly forgotten after so many years apart.
|
