Musical Wars
Chapter 15 -- Family
He could see Cordelia react first, her hand snapping up to her hip as though she could intimidate the vampires into letting him go. Of course, she did have some practice what with the whole intimidating Angel thing. His foot caught on a piece of discarded pipe, and he stumbled, the vampire behind him pulling his arm damn near up to his shoulder at the same time the knife at his neck dug in slightly. He gasped and tried not to stumble again.
He watched as Cordelia pulled on Doyle’s jacket. The man turned, and Xander could hear his Irish cursing as Cordelia pointed toward his journey down the hill. Of course they were very near the bottom now, so it wasn’t all that difficult to hear Doyle’s colorful response. One minion went ahead, and Cordelia and Doyle backed away from the door they supposedly guarded.
“No need for anyone to get hurt here,” Doyle pointed out. Yeah, right. Like the minions thought they’d shown up with stakes in hopes of finding a whittling class. At least Xander now knew that he wasn’t the only to say stupid things under pressure. The minions didn’t even bother to answer. The one opened the door and the whole mob, Xander in the middle, entered the giant bunker-like building.
Xander tried not to choke on the dust and smoke in the air since one really good cough and he could decapitate himself. He squinted in the dim light before it dawned on him that he had better options. Ignoring the hands that pushed and pulled him, he closed his eyes in order to concentrate. When he opened them again, the burning sensation had disappeared and the smoke seemed to vanish in the sharp-edged demon vision. Of course now the smell of gasoline nearly made him vomit, but at least he wasn’t working blind.
The minions stopped, and Xander could see Spike and Angel in a corner, fighting like archangels in this book his grandmother had once bought him, and could you go to hell for comparing demons to archangels?
“Stop,” roared a voice, and the minions all stopped as though they were puppets on strings. A short round vampire who looked more like an accountant than a master vampire stepped forward with a sword in hand. Angel shifted to one side holding his own sword, and Spike gave his battle axe a twirl as he took up a position next to his sire. Xander could tell from the bounce in Spike’s knees that the vampire was enjoying himself.
“Drop your weapons or you’re precious pet will soon be screaming in agony.” Xander watched as Spike’s eyes scanned the room until meeting his own.
“Yeah, the whole leave me at the car thing didn’t really work out well,” Xander would have shrugged and played it off like nothing except the knife now dug into his throat so he had to strain to look at anything except the ceiling and he couldn’t really shrug with his arm twisted nearly out of the socket.
“Let him go,” Spike snarled, and Angel reached out and put his free hand on Spike’s arm. Xander knew that he was dead. No matter what happened, the asshole at his throat was going to kill him.
“Surrender first,” accountant-vamp ordered.
“You won’t free him either way, so that’s not going to happen. I’m sorry Xander.” Xander could see the honest pain in Angel’s eyes, and Spike’s bounce had turned into a deadly crouch. Yep, this wasn’t ending well.
“It’s okay, I know the score. Just make sure you take these bastards down for me.” Xander kept his eyes on Spike even though it required him to tilt his head down just enough for the knife’s point to prod the sensitive skin under his chin. That pain just didn’t matter any more, but he knew Angel was doing the right thing. If they dropped their weapons, this master would kill both of them, and Xander could face his own death, but he couldn’t bear to watch Spike dusted.
“I heard you’d gone soft, but maybe I heard wrong. Kill the pet.” Xander had trouble telling the exact order of events, but within a couple of seconds, Doyle and Cordelia appeared tossing what appeared to be water balloons. As he tried to process the image of bright blue and red balloons in the middle of the battle, the balloons started hitting and smoke rolled off vampire arms and faces. Screams echoes off the concrete walls and he ended up on the ground minus the guards.
Doyle appeared near Spike and Angel, and Spike dusted two vampires lunging at the human with incredible speed even as the blond vampire moved toward the middle of the room. Xander realized that Spike was fighting to reach him at the same time he realized that Cordelia had gotten separated. She fought far better than he ever expected, but she clearly wasn’t holding her own. He reached for a shard of wood that had fallen to the floor and pulled himself up to go help Cordelia.
His arm didn’t really work right yet after being twisted so sharply, and his knees felt weak either from fear or from breathing gas and smoke although he did notice that the air was quickly clearing. Obviously someone had propped open some doors. He blamed all these circumstances for what happened next.
Xander grasped the wood and stepped toward Cordelia when a vamp stepped up in front of him. Xander feigned to the right and then tried to stake from the left, but he had practiced against short weapons, and he couldn’t get around the broken pole the vamp waved as a weapon. Realizing that the weapon’s long reach made it almost impossible for him to stake the vamp himself, he backed up with his opponent in pursuit hoping to reach Spike who he could hear shouting advice from the other side of the room. When he felt a strange tingling behind him, he spun and staked a strange vamp trying to get him from behind before turning in time to see his first opponent drive forward with the length of the wooden pole.
Xander watched the impromptu spear slide into his body with the surrealistic feeling that it wasn’t his body. The grinning vamp jerked the wood back with a wrench, and he could feel himself pulled forward into that grinning face. With arms that had already begun to feel cold, he pulled up his stake and drove it into the vamp’s heart at nearly the same time as the wood pulled free from him, sending him to his knees in a cloud of dust.
He put his hand up to his stomach and felt the warmth around his chilling fingers. Funny enough, all he could seem to focus on was that the vamp had just ruined one of his favorite shirts. He would have wanted to be buried in this shirt, but he suspected the blood would never come out, much less the hole torn when the vamp drove the broken pole through his middle.
Around him, the fighting continued, but he slid from his knees to his side, no longer capable of tracking which side was winning. He could see vampires dissolve into dust, but he could only hope that wasn’t Spike-shaped dust. Spike. Shit. He suddenly realized how hard Spike would take his death; the vampire spent five years getting over his last lover. But then again, Xander sighed as he felt the pool of blood under him grow, he was no Dru. Besides, Angel would be there to comfort him.
He had trouble breathing now, his chest hurting with each inhaled breath. He almost wished he could just die now, just stop the pain.
“Xander!” he heard shouted from a distance. “Be alright, pet.” He couldn’t decide if Spike was asking him a question or giving him an order, but all he cared about was having the vampire’s hand to hold as he died.
“Spike?” he called, his voice weak and thready to even his own ears. The vampire appeared in his dimming vision, the ridged features and yellow eyes suddenly comforting.
“Bloody hell, no,” Spike whispered and Xander could see the pain and fear even in the vamped out features. “You bring up the demon,” Spike ordered roughly. Xander tried to laugh, but he couldn’t get enough air to finish the gesture.
“Don’t work that way, Fangface,” he coughed.
“Don’t you tell me how it works, ya bloody git. I told ya to pull up yer demon, and you’ll bloody well obey me or I’ll beat ya senseless.” Xander tried to laugh at the image since a wet noodle would probably do the job at this point, but he felt the stirrings of the demon answering Spike’s call anyway.
“Ya hear me? You’ll bloody well do as you’re ordered or you’ll be soddin’ sorry.”
“William!” He heard Angel shout from far away, as though a veil slowly descended over his senses.
“Stay outta this, Pouf.” Spike turned again to Xander, “you listen up and get yer sorry arse out ‘ere before I soddin’ beat ya black and blue.”
Xander could feel the demon moving, and he intentionally stepped back, allowing the demon access to the world. For the second time in his life, he felt the wind of the demon rushing by him to take control. Suddenly he watched though someone else’s eyes as the world appeared bathed in reddish light. He wondered if he would see his eyes if he looked in a mirror now or if vampire eyes would prove as invisible as vampires, leaving his face with two empty sockets according to the mirror. Wow, he could still mentally babble at the point of death. Of course, by pulling up the demon Spike had made the pain go away, and maybe that was the point, he mused. He watched as the demon’s nose twitched in response to some delightful smell.
“Drink,” Spike ordered, and he felt an arm at his lips, the most delightful, richest, warmest taste ever hit his mouth, but it wasn’t his mouth; he simply sat in a dim corner and watched and felt from his self-exile. Or exile in the self. Whatever.
“Childe, you will stop,” ordered some deep voice far off in the void. He couldn’t care as long as that taste remained. He could feel his own lips close over the source and suck.
“Not turnin’ him, ya idiot. I’m savin’ ‘im.”
“No human can drink that much.”
“Didn’t drain him first, did I? Case you’ve forgottin’ how to make a childe, ya gotta drain ‘em first before feedin’ ‘em.”
“If you don’t turn him, you’ll kill him. Let him go NOW.” Xander felt the source of the wonderful taste ripped from him, and he could feel the growl in his own chest. Strange feeling really, like being in the passenger side seat of your own car. His eyes swung over to glare at Angel, and he didn’t fight the impulse when he felt his own lip lift in a growl.
“Oh my god. What did you do?” Cordelia shrieked, and he felt his head swing over to her. She stood in the far corner, which was now empty of vampires except one cringing minion that huddled on the floor. Cordelia walked over and calmly staked the creature.
“Stay down ‘n let that stomach heal,” a voice ordered, and his eyes swung back toward the sound, unable to turn away. He inched toward voice, pulling his own body along the floor, once he saw Spike being held back by Angel.
“Boy, what have you been up to?” Angel demanded, and he could see the shock on the older vampire’s face which had fallen back to human features even though Spike’s ridges remained.
“Not anythin’ I’ve done,” Spike argued as he obviously struggled to pull the arm away from his neck. “He just needs to stay like that ‘til he heals.” Xander felt his own head cock to one side as he watched the two vampires.
The demon inside him panicked, confused at why the master of the line and his master would fight. Xander sent comforting thoughts from his dark corner, now realizing what Spike had done. Spike had called up the demon so that the demon would heal him. But the demon complained of the wound. The wood had struck deep; the wound caused pain, but the demon didn’t want to show weakness, so he remained silent. Xander sent more comforting thoughts, promised the demon that both vampires would help if they only knew the pain. He pushed and cajoled and encouraged until he felt the demon let out a whine of pain.
At once, both vampires turned yellowed eyes to him, and Xander could feel the demon struggling to retreat. The weak were killed, the demon thought at him, but Xander pushed back from his corner. Trust Spike. Trust Spike, he sent back as loudly and strongly as possible. The demon reached out toward Spike, and the blond vampire pushed away from his sire to kneel down and gather him into his lap. Xander settled, sure that Spike would take care of the upset demon. He felt his head cradled in Spike’s neck, a wonderful smell tantalizing him, and he could feel the demon hoping. Hoping for what? Xander didn’t know what the demon wanted, but he suggested a means for the demon to get his way. He heard his own voice beg, “Please.”
Spike had been rocking him gently, but the word made him stop. Xander waited confused while the demon waited impatiently.
“Go on, then,” Spike commented as he began the rocking again. Xander could feel himself biting down on the neck, his teeth sliding into the flesh, enjoying the taste of old, rich vampire blood that made the pain go away, made the torn flesh mend. After feeding, Xander felt his mouth detach and the demon begin to purr as the pain and damage faded under the influence of Spike’s blood. Suddenly Xander understood. He sent the thought to the demon, and the demon rumbled back a happy affirmation. He pushed forward and felt the demon yield and step back so that Xander could whisper the one word that made everything right again.
“Sire,” Xander whispered in Spike’s ear, and he felt Spike tremble.
“Yeah, ‘m here,” Spike agreed, holding even tighter. Xander retreated again and let the demon have its moment with its sire, knowing that when the time came he would be able to regain control, but for now he was quite happy to wait. Besides, the demon babbled less than he did, so hopefully he would be smart enough to avoid commenting on the stupid expression on Angel’s face.
---Epilogue---
Xander finished packing his bag. Dinner tonight with his mother and then the open road. He had expected to leave most of his things behind as they hit the road on the motorcycle, but Spike had appeared with an old Desoto, the windows blacked out. It didn’t look safe to him, but then riding behind Spike on the motorcycle wasn’t exactly safe either. He reached inside, and could feel the demon happily curled within him, so he went back to packing his duffle.
He remembered the night when everything had fallen into place, and he still didn’t like the answers Spike and Angel came up with to explain the presence of the full grown demon hiding in him. Spike suggested that Cassidy shared too much blood; Angel countered with the possibility that the lack of other vampires to keep the small piece of demon in his place had caused the demon to grow. Spike argued that Xander might be one of those people who just naturally corrupted any magic cast on him, including the blood magic used to make a pet; Angel rebutted with the possibility that the magicks that Cassidy had used might have affected the vampire’s blood.
He had stayed out of the debate until Doyle had suggested that he might have demon blood that interfered, and he had protested at that…well he had until he discovered Doyle’s own heritage, then he just tried to pry his foot out of his mouth.
Cordelia had just calmly walked around the dead master’s alter destroying the magic objects while complaining that she was getting calluses and would never be able to work as a hand model if they didn’t stop worrying about it and help her destroy things. The only real conclusion Xander came to was that Angel and Spike would never agree. That and that he did actually carry a full demon. He still had lots of questions. Would they eventually merge? Would he age? Would he be able to stay in control or would the day come that he found himself locked in his own mind? Unfortunately, no one had the answers, so the three of them would just have to work that out, just Spike, Xander, and baby demon.
He felt the stirrings at the nickname. Little demon? Petite demon? Mini demon? Xander really felt the unhappy turnings now, and he laughed. Diminutive? Tiny? Miniature? The demon now made little distraught sounds in his mind, and Xander had to laugh. Okay, okay, he relented. His powerful, covert demon. Maybe even his clandestine, dangerous demon. Wow, he could tease himself he pondered as he laughed again.
“Oi, no goin’ loony on me,” Spike complained as he came down the stairs for another load.
“Nope, no looniness here. Just teasing myself.”
“Not bloody fair, that’s my job, Spike commented with a lewd leer and a cocked eyebrow.
“Oh not even! We’re supposed to be at my mother’s, and I am *so* not going to turn up with those thoughts on my mind.”
“Move your arse, then. If I have to put up with human in-laws, I want this evenin’ started and over quick as possible.” Xander followed Spike up the stairs with duffle in hand. Everything else had already been thrown into the car. Thrown with enough force that Xander slightly worried about the CD collection.
“Hey, I have to put up with Angel,” Xander pointed out.
“True enough,” Spike conceded. “So, any thoughts on where we’re headed?”
Xander waited until Spike had locked the door to their abandoned lair before answering.
“Been thinking of visiting the hell mouth.” Spike looked at him with his confused, head cocked to one side expression for a couple of seconds before shrugging.
“Wherever, pet. One hell mouth coming up. Right after we survive dinner with your mum.”