Ronin: Within You Part 16A

                  Angel leaned back against the window frame again, wrapping one long leg under  him to peer out at the garden below.
                  He felt like a vouyer, an old, dirty  man, eavsedropping on children; and in a sense, he was.

                  He had left his window seat overlooking the blackened sea when he heard  voices in his - the - garden. Voices and
                  laughter and the unconstrained,  carefree sounds of lovers. He watched as Druscilla chased a half nude Spike  around
                  the overgrown bushes, pelting him with flower petals as she divested  herself of her own clothing. He watched as they
                  rolled through the grass;  pale, gleaming gods in the light of the Wind Moon. He watched as she climbed  up into the old
                  fountain, her shapely legs purposefully kicking water up into  the amused countenance of her lover.

                  He watched and his chest tightened, and the small hairs stood up on his arms.

                  Spike had been so certain, so sure ,,,*he* isnt here, Sire,,, the younger man
                  had said, only an hour before. Angel wasnt so convinced. This was *his* house. These were his rooms, his food and
                  drink, his bed.

                  His lovers.

                  And although Angel had been invited to join them, he had hesitated. No, he  had out and out refused. The danger of it
                  rippled through his skin like  firewater. He had a difficult enough time keeping Angelus at bay when he had  sex with
                  Spike. He had no idea what would happen if he let him out to play  with both he and Dru.

                  No, Spike had been dead wrong. *He* was here. Because he was always here. And  the house, the garden, the
                  memories, they were just convenient excuses.  Angelus was awake and aware every moment, even while Angel had to
                  sleep. *He*  never did.

                  Angel watched as William stripped completely, and followed Dru into the knee  high water,  ducking behind a marble
                  angel carrying a watering spout. Dru  stood under the spray, her blue black locks catching the droplets first,  before
                  throwing back her head to let the fierce stream course between her  pale breasts.

                  William sprang upon her then, and together, they tumbled back into the cool  water, laughing. It struck Angel then what
                  hurt so much about this scene. It wasnt  seeing Will happy with someone else. He loved his Childe enough that he
                  could  never begrudge him that. Rather, it was the kind of happiness he was  witnessing here. It was almost like--- life.
                  William and Dru had never had  that, not when Angelus was around them, nor after he left them. The
                  emotional  wreckage he dallied in so casually had seen to that.

                  And it didnt matter to Angel that Spike swore up and down it was all fine  with him in the end, because it had all given
                  him Dru. Of all the harm his  demon had inflicted, this sin was unforgivable. This one alone was worth the  price of
                  admission to Hell.

                  He watched the pair in the garden begin to kiss, his minds eye filling in the  details even his preternatural vision couldnt
                  make out in the distance and  the darkness. He saw the tongues dancing over wet, red lips, the hands  curling in wet,
                  shiny hair. He heard the small sighs and whimpers, followed  by low pitched grunts and growls as the demons within
                  them awoke. He smelled  the heady aroma of male and female arousal, and the sharp, sweet tang of  vampire blood.

                  And the longer Angel watched, and the more the he thought about it, the more  he realized something else. He felt
                  abandoned.

                  He *was* jealous. He *was* angry. And those feelings didnt spring from his  demon. They sprang from him. From his
                  soul.

                  He laid his head back on the wall as emotions overtook him, and somehow,  knowing that they were being urged along
                  and even  magnified by the Essence  Demon didnt help one small bit.

                  **{{.....I enjoyed the dreams, Cordy.....}}

                  Angelus had held Druscilla down on the bed once, and with Will helplessly  tied to a chair watching, lathered the area
                  between her legs with warm, soapy  water. He shaved off all of her dark pubic hair with a straight razor. Clean  and
                  smooth. Angel couldnt even remember now what she had done to incur his  wrath. Probably paid too much attention to
                  Will, and not enough to him. Maybe  just had the audacity to moan louder when Will touched her than when Angelus  did.
                  Whatever the infraction, this was his way of branding her again, of  making sure everyone would know who owned her.
                  Completely. Utterly. Because  the hair would never grow back.  And everytime anyone would see her, lay with  her, she
                  would be reminded of this night, and of his posession of her.

                  {{...Who do you belong to, Spike?.....}}

                  When Angel met Druscilla again, years later, in his souled incarnation, he  had remembered that night vividly. Recalled
                  how she cried, but not too much,  eager as always to set things right with her *Angel*, her *Daddy*. Recalled  the blue
                  eyes burning a hole in his back as he set about his task, the look  of immaculate hatred in those eyes when hed
                  completed it, and turned to look  into them. Conjured up how he had laid William between those still spread  eagled
                  legs, and bid him to lick the remaining dew and soap clean.

                  He looked into Druscillas vacant green eyes all those years later, and saw it  all play out there.

                  And he had been aroused.

                  {{...Its not the demon in me that needs killing, Buffy, its the man....}}**

                  Angel opened his eyes to the night, to the knowledge that it was within him,  always, to the sight of his Childer reinacting
                  the scene from Genesis in the  garden, and saw the emereld gaze find him....She looked right up at him,  through the
                  night and the window, through him....and she smiled....

                  Angels hackles rose, and he leaned forward, pressing his forehead against the  cold glass, straining to get a better
                  look....William was inside Dru, on his  knees over her, and didnt notice when she pulled something from behind
                  her  back...Angel spread both palms on the window with a thud....he opened his  mouth to scream, but there was no
                  voice inside him.....it was like one of  those horrible dreams where your feet are moving and you run and you run
                  but  you never really move....and he saw the sharpened piece of wood in her fist,  and he heard Dru say, so clearly, and
                  without any malice really....

                  *The sins of the Fathers, daddy*

                  And when the howl finally came it was too late, because she was alone in the  fountain now, and a small cloud of dust
                  was settling over the water.

                  End 16a
 

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