Midnight in the Garden of Evil
Chapter 8
~*~*~*~*~
And each separate dying
ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Edgar Allen Poe
The Raven
~*~*~*~*~
Willow had met up with
Ripper at the library as arranged, reporting back on the situation with Xander
and Buffy respectively.
“I think that by now,
Buffy’s no longer the vampire Slayer, but Buffy the vampire.
Here’s hoping it cheers the miserable bitch up a bit.” He smiled at
Willow.
“Well, I’d think
Xander the virgin is much happier now he’s Xander the deflowered.”
At Ripper’s puzzlement,
she continued. “Drusilla was a
little bored so I told her to play with him.
He was my friend after all; I know he’d thank me.”
She looked a little hurt that Ripper would think otherwise.
“Bloody right – it’s
about time he had a shag, at his age! So,
we go and see Angel now, yes?”
“Yes.
We’ll wring our hands and look all worried that Spike and Drusilla have
our friend. He won’t even
question us, just be the eager puppy wanting to impress Buffy.
Can you imagine his face when he actually sees her?”
Ripper laughed.
“Fantastic! And won’t it
mean that Buffy’s his great-granddaughter?
It just gets better.”
“Right, let’s get to
it then. I’ll lead, all right?
It’ll be more convincing coming from me, and you need to keep your
distance in case he can sense Eyghon. No
point taking unnecessary risks.”
Ripper looked at Willow
with adoration. She was everything
and more he’d hoped for once he’d laid his plans.
She’d not only accepted her new role, but reveled in it.
Moving swiftly he grabbed her shoulders and locked her lips with his in a
ravenous kiss. She responded by
thrusting her tongue inside his mouth, wrapping it round his own as she ground
her hips against him. The power flowing between the two of them caused her hair to
float around her face as the link was strengthened by the sexual contact.
They broke apart reluctantly, having more pressing things to deal with.
The journey to Angel’s
apartment was spent in silence. Willow
composed herself; eyeing the clothes she’d changed back into in order to lure
Angel to the factory. It was
imperative that he wasn’t on the loose while Spike and Buffy got through the
initial stages of the Slayer’s turning. He
wouldn’t hesitate to dust the two of them and that would be a great waste and
a setback to Eyghon’s plans. Reaching
the door, she smoothed down the lurid purple skirt and fluffy purple and lilac
sweater and knocked frenziedly, as though in a panic. Ripper, or rather Giles, hung back in the shadows.
“Yes!
I’m here…what is it?” Angel
came to the door, bare torso gleaming in the light from the alleyway.
“Willow! What’s wrong,
where’s Buffy?”
He was already grabbing a
shirt and buttoning it quickly.
“Buffy’s fine, Angel,
she’s out on patrol -- but Xander…I don’t know where to look for her and
Xander’s been taken by Spike and Drusilla.
Please – you have to help me…please, Angel. I don’t know what to do.”
She squeezed tears from her eyes, but they were tears of laughter as she
looked at his heavy brow and soulful brown eyes, completely falling for her act.
“Giles!
Do you know where Buffy is tonight?
Can we go get her?” He
spotted the Watcher outside the apartment.
“Sorry,
Angel…there’s no time. We’ve
no idea what Spike and Drusilla have planned for Xander.
If anything happened to him, Buffy….” He flashed stricken eyes at the
vampire before removing his glasses and bending his head to clean them.
“You’re right, come on
– let’s move.”
The vampire grabbed his
jacket and shut the door behind him, leading the way to his own doom.
Ripper stifled a snigger at the look Willow shot his way, following back
to the factory. As they reached the
building, Willow whispered at Giles, “Hey!
Do you think we should try to find Buffy, tell her what’s up?”
“Good idea, Willow.
You should do that, Giles. I
can handle this. Really, she needs to know.”
“You’re sure?
Right then, I’ll be as quick as I can.”
Angel and Willow slipped
into the factory and made their way along the upper gallery to check out the
interior. Willow knew exactly where
Drusilla had Xander, but Angel would figure it out. He’d lead the way and then the trap would be sprung.
She couldn’t wait.
Drusilla, as if on cue,
danced into their line of vision, cooing and swaying whilst communing with the
stars. She retrieved a glass of
water and ostentatiously held it aloft as she danced back towards the back of
the factory, obviously showing the location of the hostage.
Angel warned Willow to
stay put as he stealthily stalked after his insane Childe. Willow stretched out from the cowed stance she’d affected
as the meek and timid student. She
skipped down the stairs to find her new clothes, donning her new persona as she
slipped them on. Drusilla would
take care of Angel now.
He rounded the corner and
watched, hidden by the wall, as Drusilla allowed the beaten form of Xander
Harris to sip at the water. She
patted him on his head and muttered some babble at him before kissing his
forehead and turning around. She
stiffened as she sensed the vampire, grinning to herself as she realized that
the ploy had worked.
“Daddy!” she shouted
out. “Daddy, where are you?
I’ve been a very, very bad girl and I need to be spanked.”
Angel rushed her and
gripped her throat in a meaty hand. “Dru
-- where’s Spike?”
“Spike’s gone to get a
present, a lovely present all wrapped up in a girlie skin.
He’ll be back soon, Daddy. Do
you want to play with my new pet?”
“No, Drusilla.
Let him go and I won’t kill you. You
get out of Sunnydale and take Spike with you.
You hear me?”
Drusilla laughed and
twisted out of his grasp. She
skittered out of reach and round the corner.
Angel wasted no time in entering the room where Xander was bound and
barely conscious. He didn’t
notice Willow tiptoeing up behind him, muttering under her breath, her eyes
black and expressionless and her hand pointing at him.
As she cast the spell, he fell to the floor, limp and motionless.
“Oh, that was fun,
Willow! Can we do it again?
Wake him up and do it again!”
“No.
Bind him, tightly. We don’t have time for games, Drusilla. Tie him to Xander and make sure he can’t escape.
And give him this.” She
handed Drusilla a syringe filled with blue liquid.
Drusilla rushed to comply,
her eagerness for play incongruous with her vamped out features.
After the serum was administered, Willow remained hidden and removed the
restraining spell. She didn’t want Angel to know of her involvement just yet;
it gave her more room to toy with him. She
watched from her vantage point as the vampire writhed against his bonds and
realized he was now a captive also. “Drusilla…let
me free!”
“Bad Daddy, shhh!
You have to wait for Spike; he made me promise.
He’ll be cross if I let you out to play.
And Miss Edith so wants to play with you….”
Angel screamed in pain as
the drug started to take effect. It
would essentially drain him of any nutrients in his blood, making him ravenous
and thirsty. It wouldn’t take
long before he’d crack, need to feed. His
eyes flashed blue as it continued its job and Drusilla clapped her hands with
glee.
She twirled off around the
corner and into the arms of Willow who’d watched the process, her mouth open,
eyes wide. It was working; it was
very satisfying to have that power. Drusilla
danced around with her, singing to herself about lambs in the blackberry patch.
Willow was caught up in the moment with the joyful vampire and clasped
her close, holding her raven hair in her hands and crushing her lips with her
own. Cool tongue met hot as the two
women rejoiced in their success. Angel’s
howl of agony broke them apart, laughing.
“Let’s go and watch,
Drusilla. See the demon waging with
the soul.” Willow led her back
towards the barred cell, watching from the corner.
Angel was hunched over in agony, clawing at the chains holding him to the
boy. He was desperate to put some
distance between himself and the tantalizing pumping of blood beneath the
boy’s skin, but his mouth was watering of its own accord, his demon features
already to the fore. His hands were
bloodied with his efforts to escape as he waged his internal battle, soul
against demon. The soul was losing.
The drug he’d been given was too strong for him; he had to have blood.
He shuddered as bloodlust
overcame him, then reached roughly for the warm and unconscious body of Xander
Harris. Sinking his fangs deep into
the teenager’s neck, he drank down great gulps of blood, the liquid soothing
his throat and his pain with every draught.
As the hunger was sated, he raised his head and stared in horror at the
very still form of the youth he’d previously sworn to help.
There was only one way to help him now; his mind still clouded by the
drug he rubbed a bloody wrist across Xander’s mouth smearing it with red
wetness.
“Well, that’s an
unexpected bonus,” Willow whispered to Drusilla who was watching the scene
with awe.
“Yes!
Yes! I’m going to have a
new baby brother…all shiny, all glowin’.”
Drusilla clapped her hands
in glee causing her anguished sire to turn in an attempt to locate the sound.
His vampire visage faded as he noticed for the first time exactly what he
was doing. He’d acted instinctively, just wanting to save the boy.
Instead he’d damned him forever. Angel’s
eyes were spilling over with tears, the blood he’d taken from the young man in
his arms still smearing his lips, the pain and guilt smearing his soul.
“Drusilla!” he
screamed. “Why?
Why did you do this?”
Willow nodded at the
female vampire, urging her on from her hidden vantage point to go and taunt the
tortured and broken Angel. Drusilla
skipped forwards, shushing her sire with a finger on her lips.
“Bad Daddy!
You’ll wake the baby…shhhhh!”
Angel looked again at
Xander’s pale and lifeless body, the mouth slack now and red with sire’s
blood. The transformation to
vampire would happen soon enough, then the innocent young face would be twisted
and evil, the soul gone and replaced by a demon.
“What have I done to you?” he whispered softly, cradling the curly
brown head in his lap and stroking the cooling features gently.
Angel made his mind up that he wouldn’t subject Xander to the hell of
life as a vampire, would dust him before he arose.
Angel was a Master vampire, strong enough to decapitate his soon-to-be
fledgling with his bare hands. It
was all that he could do to make amends. He
placed a reverent kiss on Xander’s smooth brow then began to throttle him with
two meaty hands, crushing flesh and bone in an attempt to remove his head.
“Ah, ah, ah Daddy –
you’ll break him. He’s a new
dolly, got to be gentle.”
Angel continued to
squeeze, ignoring the screeches from Drusilla, her ineffectual clawing at his
hands. Suddenly, he was ripped
forcibly from Xander’s body and flung against the far wall by an unseen force,
the collision enough to knock him out.
Willow’s leather-clad
form rounded the corner. She kicked
at the still figure of Angel as he was slumped against the wall, finishing her
prodding to see if he was conscious with a vicious kick to his head, splitting
his temple and spattering her boots with his blood.
Her ebony eyes were cold
and mirthless as she stepped over Angel to squat at the side of her oldest and
best friend. Willow took in every
inch of his dead body, the bite mark on his neck, the blood on his lips, the
slightly open eyes. She leaned
towards him, snaking out her tongue to lap at the drying blood.
“Mmm, salty,” she
murmured as she got to her feet. She
held out her hand to the keening vampiress who was crouched over Angel’s
crumpled carcass, stroking his high forehead with her pale hands.
“Drusilla…. come, we
have plans to make. Ripper needs to
be told that instead of a corpse we have a convert.”
Reluctantly, Drusilla left
her Sire in the cell with the boy.
~*~*~*~*~
Angel awoke to the feel of
a rough tongue lapping at his hand. He
struggled to focus, the drug he’d been given still lying in his redundant
bloodstream. What was licking him?
He opened his eyes and sat
up, freezing as he noted Xander’s kneeling figure and drawing back in horror
as the fledgling gazed lovingly at his Sire.
Oh god, what had he done? Buffy
would never understand this; never forgive him. He’d never forgive himself.
He had to get out of here,
find Giles, and see if he could do anything about this disaster.
He stilled as Xander continued placing kisses along his forearm, his
biceps and up to his neck. The
rough, cool tongue of his newest descendant affected him despite his revulsion.
He felt his cock twitch as the demon inside him basked in the adoration
and worship offered by the newly arisen vampire who owed him his very existence.
He didn’t have time for
this. Spike and Drusilla had
obviously planned something major. He
had to protect Buffy, warn her. And
Giles and Willow. None of them were
safe. He had to get free.
But as he locked his
piercing gaze with Xander’s, he wanted to dominate him and teach him what it
meant to be a vampire. His
Childe had risen; he’d failed to save him the pain of losing his soul and he
wouldn’t abandon him now. Feeling
the brow ridges slide into place and his fangs descend, he gave into his primal
urges and bent his head to bite down hard on the making mark he’d left
earlier.