rating: pg 13
pairing: Willow/Spike, William/Dru
disclaimer: nobody belongs to me.
note: in order to create a slightly more consistant victim profile, this
story will describe Mary Kelly ( a Ripper victim) as having dark hair. Historically, she is recorded as a blonde. Apologies if this upsets anyone.
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~Part: 11~
Willow woke up, her leg throbbing with dull pain, the tension of bandages around it. She could feel bruises on her back, undoubtably from William pushing her into those walls last night. He had some anger issues that he should really talk to someone about, prefferably someone that didn't bruise. It then occured to Willow what all this actually meant. She was still alive.
She was alive, which meant that William hadn't killed her, hadn't drank her blood down to the last drop. Maybe it was just because she culd still help him find Drusilla? Or maybe... maybe he just wasn't hungry, or she had tasted bad or something. She really didn't know, but she was fairly certain that most people would just be glad about surviving, instead of trying to figure out why.
Carefully, Willow sat up, her head feeling as if the world was spinning around her as she moved. She stopped, trying to make everything feel better, trying to think through the dizziness. It had to be from the blood loss, because the wound didn't feel as if there had been any sort of poison. So, she felt bad because she had a hole in her leg, and had lost a fair amount of blood through it, and had traipsed on foot through the cold air. Blood loss and exertion, and she hadn't really been eating very well before her little trip, so that might have contributed.
Closing her eyes, she tried to remember the healing spell that she had learned to try to help Buffy with her patrols. Buffy hadn't wanted it cast on her very often, claiming that Slayer healing would take care of things, but... maybe Buffy just hadn't trusted Willow's magic. She had used it on herself, as well as Xander and Giles on numerous occasions when they had been bruised or cut by some nasty creature. She placed her hand over the injury, the slight pressure making the wound throb painfully, and spoke the owrds, a short phrase in Latin. She felt warmth flow into the wound, and the throbbing faded away. It still hurt, and there would still be bruising, but no more gaping open wound. It occurred to her that maybe she should use it on William, after all, he had been injured as well.
The first problem with that idea was that she had no idea where he was, for that matter, she wasn't entirely certain where she was. She had been laying on a brown couch in what appeared to be some sort of sitting room, with heavy curtains , presumably over a window. There was a single door, closed. There was a dome covered tray on the small table, and when she opened it, there was a loaf of dark bread, a chunk of cheese, and a pair of small apples, and a note with a familiar scrawl 'eat up Red, you must be starving - W' letting her know that William had been responsible for the food. Obviously, he had brought her here last night, after they had been shot.
Willow ate some of the bread and cheese, as well as one of the apples. Carefully, she put the other apple and the rest of the bread into the pocket of her borrowed coat for later. Last night had reminded her that all night food places were a recent invention, and they didn't really have them in the late eighteeen hundreds. Yet another reason to return to her own time if she could.
Moving slowly due to the stiffness that was still in her leg, she moved to the door, discovering that it was unlocked. There was a hallway, and no sign of any people, human or otherwise. Shaking her head slighlty, she cast the locator spell, set to lead her to William, and began following it down th hall, up a staircase, and down another hall to a door. Listening, there was only silence from the other side, so if she opened the door, at least she wouldn't be interupting anything. Carefully, WIllow turned the handle, and the door opened, showing a dark room witha narrow bed and a small table. William was in the bed, his clothing dropped on the floor near the foot of the bed. He had apparently tossed in his sleep, and she could see his bare chest and arms, and almost all of one pale, naked leg revealed by the rumpled covers. He looked so still, the wound raw and angry on his shoulder.
She found herself moving closer, almost as if she was being drawn to him. Carefully, she brushed one soft lock of brown hair from his face. WIlliam didn't move, didn't twitch or even breathe. She put her fingers very lightly on the wound, barely touching at all, and whispered the incantation, concentrating on helping him to heal, speeding the closing of the wound and the repair of the torn muscles. A greenish gold glow spread over the wound, sinking into the flesh as it closed. His eyes opened, flickering from blue to gold, and he grabbed her wrist with a growl, looking around the room in an effort to figure out what had woke him.
"What... why are you in here? What were you... my shoulder?" He let go of her wrist, looking at his shoulder with a puzzled expression. There was still an angry red mark, but the wound was closed, no more than a dimple to show that ther had been a hole through his shoulder. He ran his fingers over the scar, as if not quite believing his eyes.
"Since I was awake, I thought I could do a minor healing spell. I already got my leg, and I thought maybe you'd like your shoulder to heal a bit faster... I didn't mean to wake you up. Sorry?" Willow wasn't quite certain what to do. She was fairly certain that he was naked under those covers. He hadn't really seemed happy to see her, and probably didn't like her anyhow, judging from the bruises over her back. But she had wanted to help him. For no explicable reason, against all logic and sense, she wanted to help him.
"umm... I think I'll just... umm... let you go back to resting now. Really didn't mean to wake you." She could feel herself blushing. She turned, and practically bolted fromt he room, her face hot, and the image of William in the bed, the covers only barely covering him burned into her mind.
She didn't stop until she was back in the little sitting room, the door closed firmly behind her. She could still feel her breathing, and her heart was racing from the view, however accidental it had been. "Wow... all that underneath his clothing. He is just so... gorgeous. Handsome... and entirely, hopelessly, obsessively in love with Dru. Dru, the vampire girlfriend. Meaning that he's taken, and still taken in a hundred and twenty years. I should just... forget the whole thing."
Willow was beginning to think that this century was hazardous o more thanjust her physical health. Physically, she had fallen on a vampire, been shoved into walss twice, and shot in the leg with a crossbow. Emotionally... she was afraid that she was falling for William. She knew that it ws hopeless. He was completely in love with Drusilla, and she was mortal. Vampires didn't get involved with mortals. If he even noticed her as a female, it was unlikely that he would care. It would be far worse than the hopeless crush that she'd had on Xander. William was actually likely to notice. If anything, he'd probably laugh at the mortal chit silly enough to fall for a vampire. Yeah, she really had to get home.
She had finally managed to get her pulse and brething back under control when a small tap at the door nearly made her jump out of her skin, and she voiced a very undignified squeak of startlement. Carefully, her pulse once again rapid, she turned, moving back from the door, and softly spoke. " Who's there?"
" Miss? Master William said that you had some questions about the recent... killings?" The voice was low, a pleasant tenor. Actually, it almost reminded Willow of Wesley Wyndham-Price, although it was clearly the wrong century for that individual.
She turned around, opening the door while smoothing her hair back into something approximating order. "Yes, I had.. sort of an awful idea that I wanted to get a bit more information towards. Eityher to discover that it's right or hopefully to prove it wrong."
On the other side of the door was a man, possibly in his mid thrities. He was dressed in a slightly shabby brown suit, and seemed fairly proper in some ways. His dark brown hair was pulled back, and he had a slightly red complexion, and was most obviously alive. "I'm Harold Sutton, an asssiate of the Rashe family. Master William sought a small measure of assistance from them last night after your... attack."
"oh. umm... I'm Willow Rosenberg. Please, sit down." Willow felt a bit nervous, she had never been particularly good at the social graces.
"Miss Rosenberg, may I ask what this particular unpleasant theory of yours was?"
"You know about the Ripper killings? It occurred to me that... William said that all the reoprted victims had dark hair. Have there been... other killings of dark haired women? Similarly... mutilated? Please, it's not that I find this intereting, but... I want to figure out how to stop him. If we ... or actually, maybe me, know what he looks for, then maybe we can find him. Get rid of him. It also occurred to me that he might not actually be... umm, human."
"Your reasoning seems quite sound. I have heard of several other mortal women, all dark haired and similarly... mutilated, yes, that's a very suitable word for it. They have been getting progressively... more elaborate. There have also been a number of dark haired female minions gone missing, most likely destroyed over the past few months. If the Ripper isn't human, he could have had something to do with it. Naturally, there were no bodies found..." He shifted, fidgeting akwardly with his shirt cuff.
"Then most likely, the Ripper has a body count significantly higher than the police are aware of, and possibly has extended that into the vampire population. Is it safe to assume that the female minions in question were... not particularly skilled at fighting?" Willow was almost thinking out loud.
"Most likely, yes. Which also increases the likelihood that the ripper is not human. Most likely, he is either a vamire or some other species of demon that can pass for human in the dark, anything to different would be noticed, even in the most dreadful sections of town." Mr. Sutton was watching Willow, clearly interested in her reasoning.
Willow sighed, her mind reviewing the possible types of demon that might be able to accomplish all of the things that the Ripper had done. "He's most likely a vampire. Stakes, beheading, or possibly putting him out into the sunshine, although this is London, there's an occasional shortage of sunshine..."
"I think that between you and Master William, you should be quite capable of finding a solution."
~Part: 12~
Willow had been left alone in the room to ponder the Ripper, and what to do about him. Her options were complicated by several factors. She wasn't positive what the Ripper was, although she was leaning towards vampire or demon. She didn't know where he laired, only that he hunted in and around Whitechapel. Someone seemed to be trying to kill her, for an unknown reason. Lastly, she had no weapons but her magic, and her only ally was William.
She was getting frustrated. Her mind kept running in circles, repeating the problems over and over, occasionally alternating with descriptions of the victims, and the pressing question of 'Where was Dru, and what would happen if she wasn't alright?' Willow was almost ready to just scream out of pure frustration. Just to change things, even if only for a few moments. She had resisted the temptation so far, but...
Instead, she continued her pacing, almost growling with frustration. She wasn't used to having so little to work with attempting to defeat evil. There had always been books, and weapons, even if she wasn't the one to use the weapons against the bad things. Here, the only resources available were William's knowledge of the area and vampire abilities, and her own magics, limited to what she could do with no materials or whatever scraps of materials she could find. It wasn't a lot, and she was far from certain what to do. "I need a plan... think, think... got to find him, kill him, and then..."
"Then I get my Dru back and we try to help you get home. That's how it's going to be, Red. We find Dru, kill this sorry pillock, and find a way to get you home." William's voice carried from the doorway, his accent making his words seem more powerful to Willow.
Willow jumped, a sharp gasp for air betraying her startlement. "Oh!! I um... didn't realize that you were up yet. I've sort of been... trying to come up with a plan. I haven't had much luck, I'm used to having some books for research, and weapons available. Not to mention being able to go buy anything I need for a spell right down the corner."
"Sounds a lot more convenient. What about the nightlife? Are there very many people to eat where you come from?" William's voice sounded almost wistful, but Willow didn't think he realized it.
"Oh, that depends on what time it is. Until about midnight, there are a lot of people outside, mostly teenagers and twenty something, or tourists. Make that stupid tourists. There are a pretty high number of vampires, and lots of... how did this one vampire put it? oh, yeah, 'lots of happy meals on legs'. Basically, yeah, lots of people to eat. Options. And a lot of abandoned buildings that get used as lairs." Willow's voice was balanced between a wistful urge to get back home and an awareness of the dangers of Sunnydale.
"Sounds like a great place to be a vampire. maybe I'll have to go there someday." William sounded thoughtful, as if he was already planning his arrival, and what sort of people to kill as a welcome to town feast.
"Yeah. I'm sure you will. Just remember - California gets a lot of sunshine. You, being a vampire, should stay out of sunlight so you don't get all flamey and scorched, which really isn't an attractive look, although I bet you could pull it off, especially with those cheekbones. Oh, I'm sure you already know this and I'm babbling again, I was really hoping that I'd grown out of this, but noooo, drop me into another century with the cute vampire and i get all babbly Willow and find him in his bed all naked..." She continued to pace the whole time, not even pausing for breath once.
"I have no idea how someone that actually needs to breath can manage to say so much at once. Although, warning me about the sunshine... someone might get the idea that you actually care about me." William's voice carried amusement and surprise.
Willow could feel herself blushing. Someone getting the idea that she cared... that would be very awkward. Because she did care, somewhere along the last few weeks in Sunnydale, she had developed a huge crush on Spike. He had managed to slip into her battered heart without her noticing, until one morning, she had woke up realizing that she had developed feelings for Spike, that she would miss him when he was gone, and that she had fallen victim to yet another hopeless crush.
What made it worse was the nature of those feelings. Sure, she loved to listen to him talk, his voice was all smooth and he had that sexy accent, and he had so many interesting experiences that he could remember, even if a lot of them involved blood or violence. Nor was it entirely lust for his incredibly sexy body, although if she had to pick one person that she had met in her entire life for a night of pure, passionate sex... It would never happen. She admired his persistence and resourcefulness, was fascinated by his mind, lusted over his body... and he was not only hopelessly devoted to Dru, but no man ever really noticed her anyhow.
She didn't want anyone to find out about it. Especially not William, who would eventually become the Spike that she had fallen for. He was pretty appealing in his own right, although he was even more off limits. Spike's Dru had left him, William's Dru had just gotten lost... or at least, that's all they thought had happened to her. He had his ripe wicked plum, his dark goddess. What interest could he have in a temporally displaced red head?
Spike wouldn't want her, neither would his earlier version, William. Especially not if he had his Dru, his curvaceous dark eyed temptress of a lover. His wicked obsession who would probably chain him up and torture him until he begged... although from what she had read in the Watcher journals, he would probably like that. It was far better if she hide her hopeless crush forever.
"You... aren't such a bad guy, even considering that you're a blood drinking occasionally ruthless vampire who has probably killed thousands of people. And besides, there... there really aren't very many people who even pretend to listen to me if I'm upset. I kind of want to keep one around, you know?" Willow was still blushing, and she could hear herself stumbling over her words.
William looked at her, his blue eyes filled with unreadable emotions. "You are really something else red. So, there's something I'm a bit curious about. When you were passing out last night, you muttered a few things. Something about not warning the tadpoles, and let's see, the phrase 'shanky bitch slut' and something about a Spike sundae, with chocolate sauce."
Willow sank onto the couch, her hands over her face, which had fist gone crimson with embarrassment before moving beyond crimson to a sickly pale color. She had really said... oh god, the mortification, the embarrassment. Could she possibly just sink into the floor now? She made a little whimpering noise from behind her hands.
"I've always been too curious, care to enlighten be a bit?" He was grinning, apparently enjoying her discomfort.
When Willow finally spoke, her voice was slightly muffled by her hands. "I have frog fear. And umm... remember I said my boyfriend cheated on me? He cheated with this skanky... the skanky werewolf slut."
"Frog fear? You have no big problem with vampires, seem pretty calm about getting shot, and you're afraid of FROGS?!?" William's voice was incredulous.
"Yeah. They're all slimy, and they have these big voices and they jump, and eeeuww. I know it's a bit strange, but... yeah, I'm afraid of frogs. I'd rather deal with scary vampires and would be apocalypses." Willow was feeling slightly better, but still horribly embarrassed.
"So what was this about a Spike sundae? And the chocolate sauce?" William's voice dashed Willow's fragile hope of a reprieve.
"umm... you know about ice cream? well... umm... oh, this is embarassing. If you sort of... umm... put the ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate sauce on... not a bowl... umm... I'm sure you... ahh... I'm sure you can figure it out." Willow was certain that if this didn't kill her, it was a positive discovery: you really couldn't die of embarrassment.
"hmmm... ahhhh." William's eyes lit up, flickering from blue to gold as the sundae concept clicked into place for this reference. "And then you eat the sundae... oh, I definitely have the idea now. Spike... he must be your ex-boyfriend. The one that cheated on you and run away. Sounds like a lucky bloke, having someone like you lick chocolate off of his... well, never mind. Must have lost a few of his marbles changing if he cheated on you and ran off."
Willow heard his words, and got so caught up in the idea of licking chocolate off of Spike that she didn't bother to correct his impression that Spike was the name of her boyfriend. She simply kept blushing.
While William was embarrasing Willow with mentions of Spike sundaes, the object of their search was no more than a few miles away. Drusilla reclined on a medium sized bed, the covers becoming stuff and slightly crusted, and numerous stains of blood and other things drying on the once clean sheets. She reclined, unabashedly naked, with harsh lines across her stomache and breasts as she watched her new lover playing with his toy. She smiled as the mortal woman screamed and pleaded, begging for mercy, or death. Her new lover had no mercy, and death would come later.
Dru smiled at the gift he had given her last night. Holding it up into the light, she admired the way the light caressed the subtle curves of the small object floating in the jar. The crimson of the blood had sank to the bottom, and when she shook it, the blood made bright swirls of color in the white wine, and she could watch the kidney spin in the jar. Such a pretty prezzie...
~Part: 13~
Eventually, the sun set, permitting William to move about outside. They would be able to search for Drusilla now. Hopefully, they would find her and she would be safe. Not that Willow was particularly fond of Dru, but William was. Willow wanted William to be happy, and he thought that happiness was being with Drusilla, so... off to find her.
"So, can you do that litle guide spell again? To show us which way she is?" William's voice was thoughtful.
"Of course. It only takes a few moments. I hope... I hope everything goes well for you and Dru. You'll have each other..." Willow couldn't quite stop the tear that slid down her cheek.
William reached over, brushing the tear away with his thumb. His expression was almost tender as he looked at her. "What's wrong, Red?"
"It's.... it's a bit silly actually. You love Dru, and you'll have her to be with. Back at home, my parents are never home, my almost parent, Rupert Giles has a girlfriend, my supposed to be best friend is to busy with her new boyfriend to have time for me. My boyfriend cheated on me and left town. I don't really have anyone to go back to, even if I do figure out how to get there. I guess I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself." Willow's voice cracked a bit with the effort not to cry.
Wiliam smiled at her, running his fingers through her short red hair. "Don't worry. If we can't figure out a way to send you home... WIllow, you are pretty, and so sweet and nice that it's hard to believe you're real. If you can't get back home, I could turn you. Make you part of my family. We wouldn't abandon you, not ever. We might be a bit much to adjust to, and the blood drinking would be a change, but... I'd be happy to bring you into my family. I'd turn you in a heartbeat."
Willow managed a small smile, part of her remembering Spike's words from the dorm 'I'd turn you in a heartbeat.' William sounded so sincere. "It's probably sad that that's the best offer that I've had in a long time. And it's actually very tempting. But... maybe we should try to figure out this whole thing with Dru before discussing me joining your family?"
William smiled, looking oddly pleased. "Dru, yeah. We should find her first. I meant it though, you'd be welcome in the family. Not just for a little while, and certainly not as a minon. You'd make a splendid childe."
Willow was actually smiling as she spoke the short chant that accompanied focusing her thoughts on Dru for the locator spell. The wispy globe of green formed, a bit more golden this time, and slowly began to move down the street, not to fast to comfortably follow.
She found it oddly reasurring that William would want her as his childe. Granted, her hormones were all in favor of the idea, especially since the Watcher's journals that she hadn't been supposed to read had made it clear that Sires and their Childer almost always had a sexual aspect to their relationship. Sexual relationship... sex with William... yum. Shaking her head and blushing, Willow tried to stop thinking about William and sex. They were supposed to be finding Dru, not allowing her to indulge in lustful fantasies.
They began walking through the dark streets, following the light, hoping to find Drusilla before anything irreversable happened. Willow was only seeking Dru to make William happy. After that... she would try to find a way to go home, home where she had nobody to comfort her, nobody to ease her loneliness, to hold her when she cried. She was quiet as they walked, her thoughts dark and unhappy.
The globe led then deeper into the maze of streets, twisting and turning until Willow was entirely lost. Finally, it hovered in front of a door, the building looking rather like a once sturdy warehouse fallen into disrepair. The bricks were darkened by soot, and the trash that had collected around the walls had a particularly foul and rotten odor, partly chemicals, and partly something like rotting flesh. It gave Willow a bad feeling to be near the building, as if her instincts were telling her to run the other way.
"I smell blood. Human, some fairly recent, some older... there's a lot of it. And the scent of fear..."
William's voice startled Willow, making her jump and give this little squeak, a noise that would have sounded more apporpriate from a mouse. "You smell... uh.. right. Is there... is there blood from more than one person? Can you feel Dru?"
William's face had shifted, and his teeth were sharp, his eyes golden and feral as he spoke. "Multiple people... most of them are older. I think it's all from women. And I can feel Dru... she's close, very close, but... she's shutting the link, I can't get any more than her presence."
Studying the door carefully, Willow felt for magic. There was a feeling of gahtered power, built up, but not focused. It hadn't been really 'stored' so much as just dragged out and left. The power felt dark, tainted somehow. There wsa a crude ward around the building, something that would most likely do little more than alert the caster to their presence. "Well, I think someone inside it trying to play with magic. There's power, and a really rough ward over the building... when we go in, somoen's going to know. Before you ask, yes, the spell says she's inside."
"Time to go to the rescue then." He grinned with unsettling glee, and kicked the door down. He stalked into the darkness, his eyes almost glowing. Willow followed, and her spell globe zipped ahead, weaving along in the building. She was certain that he was glad to have something that he could do.
It lead down a hallway, and into a room that reeked of blood and something else, a fouler stench that spoke of ruptured entrails. There was a body crumpled in the corner, her dark hair matted with congealing blood, her internal organs laid out around her in a pattern, lines drawn in the blood forming a shape around her, a crude circle. The feeling of almost gathered power hung thickest near the body.
Willow gagged on the combination. The scent of blood and entrails and death hung thick in the air. She could feel it coating her throat, the stench clinging to everything in the room, the gathered energy felt of stickyness and carried the almost echo of tortured screams, and Willow knew that the woman had been alive while the circle was drawn, alive while her parts were laid out around her. Her muscles quivered, and her knees felt as if they had turned to water. She could feel herself collapsing.
William caught her, looking a bit unsettled himself. "She's dead now. Nothing that can be done... and that's a circle around her, isn't it?"
"He did this to her... carved her open as she screamed, drew the circle as she watched, and then he laid out her insides, and al she could do was scream and bleed and die. He wanted to gather power... magic from her death."
The light was hovering across the room, by a set of stairs that led upwards. Willow and William, both unsettled by the woman's body, hurried towards the stairs, carefully following the floating globe up the stairs. As they approached the top, they began to notice little noises, small, almost rythimic creaking noises. Willow's bad feeling intensified, and she had the sudden certainty that she didn't want to see what was on the other side of the door at the top of the stairs.
William kicked that door open, and the greenish glow of the locator globe revealed the room. Small glass jars lined a shelf, each one containing a small bit of someone, eyeballs, kidneys, other bits that Willow's mind refused to identify. The floor and walls had been splashed with blood, and the only other furnishing was a metal framed bed. On that bed, Drusilla was naked, firmly and quite wilingly rocking on the naked man, clearly taking and giving sexual pleasure. He was also naked, and the image seared itself in Willow's brain, a horrible, awful image.
"Dru... oh god..."
The words from Wiliam were a barely shaped breath of pain. Simply from hearing them, Willow knew that his world was crumbling out from under him. He spun around, and with a growl, picked Willow up, flinging her over his shoulder, and he bolted from the room, not stopping until they were outside the building.
Scarlet tears were streaming down his face as he carefully put Willow back on the ground. "She... and him... how could she o that? I gave her everything..."
"I know you did. I don't know why she would do that... I wish... is there anything I can do to... try to help?" Willow wanted to comfort him, wanted to sooth his pain. She knew exactly how much that had hurt him, her own experieince of seeing Oz entwined with Veruca burned in her mind.
He looked at her, his expression hardening into determination. "You're a witch. Can you burn the place down around them?"
Willow looked back at the building, and then glanced at William, his golden eyes rimmed with bloody tears, their tracks down his face like wounds. "Yes. Just... if this makes me fall over, catch me before I crack my head on the street."
She focused, and with her own power, fucused a barrier around the building, like a bubble. She shaped it like the uninvite spell, trapping them inside the building. Then, she reached out with her power, touching the gatered energy of pain and death, sparking it as if setting a match to oiled rags. The backlash from her action, one deliberately done with intent to harm, leapt at her, pain stabbing through her body, bright spots dancing in front of her eyes before everything faded into a dark haze of pain.
William caught her, watching in stunned awe as the building practically exploded into green and yellow flames, the heat washing over him, the flames caught, as if in a giant, invisible egg. The fire didn't crackle, didn't roar as he'd expected, no, thi one howled like a soul in torment.
It was the perfect expression of his pain, giving voice to it as he could not.
He only smiled whn he felt the bond with Dru burn away to nothingness, her death-screams echoing inside his head.
~Part: 14~
Finally, as dawn was nearing, William looked away from the towering fury of green and gold fire. He still held Willow in his arms, in a pose that would look lover-like to an observer. She had slowly regained awareness, although it was questionable if she would be capable of walking on her own. She was also watching the flames, her expression a mixture of pain, awe and a hint of fear.
"We need to go away from this place. Away before the sun rises. Preferably somewhere to try and help with the pain. You don't look your best, Red, so I'm just going to carry you." His words were quiet, and oddly without emotion, as if all his emotion had been captured by the fire, taken from him leaving his heart filled with dust and ashes.
Willow's voice was slightly groggy, and slurred as if she had only just awakened. "There isn't medicine for broken hearts. Ripped out, thrown to the ground, and danced on, with slices of lemon thrown at the gaping empty hole... it hurts so bad."
"Not planning that sort of medicine, luv. I was actually planning more along the lines of numbing rather than anything else. Whiskey works pretty good for that. It won't fix everything, but it will numb things down a bit. I figure it wouldn't hurt, especially since we need to go somewhere for the day anyhow."
Willow simply sighed, possibly consent, possibly from pain, she wasn't certain anymore. She knew that it had been necessary to cleanse the building, to burn away the corruption and evil that had become imprinted into the walls and floor, held in the very air within the walls. She also knew that it had been bad to use her power to kill, to end the existences of two creatures, even if those two had been Dru and the Ripper. Did that make her a bad witch? She had put her pain at Oz's betrayal into the fire, her rage and hurt and suffering, had that been wrong as well? The fire had certainly not been natural.
The next thing she was clear on, she was sitting on a brown leather couch with William, a glass of alcohol in her hand. She had somehow lost her shoes, and her feet were curled under her, causing her to lean slightly towards William. She wasn't certain where they were, or how exactly she had gotten to this couch. Did it even matter now? She had used her power to kill, the one person that had shown any semblance of caring about her in this time had just seen his beloved screwing someone else and watched the building burn down around her. She was stuck in this time, and most likely, nobody in Sunnydale would even care. She raised the glass, and drank down the alcohol, which burned down her throat like fire.
"She was my everything... I devoted myself to her. Gave her anything she wanted... pretty dresses, flowers, pretty jewelry, pretty dresses with pretty girls in them... Why couldn't I have been enough? I mean, I can see why she went to Angelus... he's ... was her Sire. She thought he could do nothing less than wonderfully. But... wasn't I worth anything to her? Why did she do it? Why would she give herself to... to that sick and wretched excuse for a vampire?" William's voice was low, as if he didn't expect an answer. He was just giving voice to the pain inside of him.
"Must have been the same reason he went to her. She had something he wanted... needed. Something I couldn't give him, no matter how hard I tried... and I tried so hard. I would have given him anything, all he had to do was ask. I couldn't be enough for him, and he went of and got all... primal and had sex with her... that's all it could have been. Hot, primal sex, no caring, no tenderness... what if he never really wanted the tenderness? Maybe I was too human for him after all..." Willow's own words were not truly directed at William. She was remembering her own heart break.
"I killed nuns and schoolchildren for her... brought them to her so she could kill them herself. Found her dozens of those blasted dolls... dozens of little songbirds that she always let starve away into nothingness... Am I such a failure, even as a vampire?"
"I couldn't curse him. I wanted to... to curse him, both of them, misery for the rest of their wretched existences. I couldn't do it then, I still loved him even after seeing them all naked together. But then she attacked me... he killed her, you know. Right there... and then he didn't know me anymore, and almost killed me right after. He was gone the next day. I felt like he took a part of me with him, ripped it out and left me behind to bleed..."
"Then he was a fool, your Spike. Leaving someone like you, just for a wild tumble. You're lovely, smart, think good under pressure... damn powerful too. That building..." William paused, frowning as he tried to take a drink from his cup and found it empty. He poured it full again, topping Willow's off as well. "You're a wonderful person, Red. All gentle and powerful... like the tide. Not all brightly obvious like the sun, but irresistible as the tide, and with as many secrets inside of you."
"And Dru was obviously a mental basket case to leave you. I mean, yeah, let's leave Angelus out of the discussion, preferably way out... umm... right, Dru was an idiot. You would do anything for her... give her anything on a silver platter... pamper her, protect her... went to the hellmouth to help her get better after that angry mob... Only an idiot or someone insane would throw that away for a few nights with some inept would be sorcerer with a fetish for bottled body parts."
Willow took a drink from her glass, feeling the cool liquid slide down her throat. "Anyone can see, especially with those eyes, and your cheekbones... having you would be wonderful." She paused a moment, and then twisted slightly, her eyes growing wide as she looked at William. "You think I'm pretty?"
"Of course, luv. Bloody gorgeous, all green eyes like emeralds, and pale skin and hair like fire reflected on blood... and I bet you'd look right gorgeous as a vampire. I could do it, turn you... make you my childe." He looked at her, his eyes wholly serious.
Willow thought about it carefully. "I think you're drunk. So am I. That's not good... I don't want to die drunk. Besides... if you were going to turn me into your childe, so that we would have forever together, I want to be sure I remember it all when I wake up."
William grinned, revealing a dimple in his cheek as he did. "So... the idea of being my childe sounds good? And how would you rather be turned, if not while the two of us are both half drunk?"
Willow swirled her glass, watching as the liquid lapped at the sides, briefly fascinated by the shifting golden hues. "I want to remember it... I want it to be worth remembering. Maybe kisses... and just drain me slowly, so that I sink against you in wicked delight... wake up on silk sheets covered only by a scattering of rose petals. Yeah... that would be much better than the two of us drunk in... where are we anyhow? I wouldn't want you to turn be and regret it later. I've never been enough for anyone before, wouldn't want to have a Sire feel the same way."
She didn't notice his jaw drop at her description of what she'd prefer, didn't notice his eyes go amber, filled with lust at her soft words, at the picture of raw seduction that her words painted. Nor did she realize quite how much of her tormented longing for him had crept out, the hopeless desire exposed and quivering beneath her words.
"You've... put a lot of thought into that picture, luv. It does sound better. What did you mean about not being enough for anyone? I'm almost wondering If I could handle you... let that fire out a little and you burn like a bonfire. You could have the world at your feet, screaming in blood and fire."
"I thought I loved Xander... best friend since we were four. I wanted him to see me, to realize that I wasn't one of the guys, that I wanted him... he didn't see me. I heard him say it... I wasn't the sort of person whose lips he thought about. Not until... and then, it was more like he was sneaking little kisses because I was dating someone else. Little Willow wasn't good enough, but Willow who was someone else's girlfriend?" She gave a short, bitter laugh. "Nobody even wanted to kill me for myself, it was always 'oh, the slayer's little friend, it will hurt her to find your broken body.' or something like that. No sympathy when I find someone else's broken dead body... no, nobody cares about Willow's pain. Then he cheated on me, and he left... and it was only a few weeks ago, and they think I should have moved on already."
Willow tossed back more of the whiskey, her eyes almost fever bright now. "Buffy should understand. She's still talking about how torn up she is over Angel... he didn't cheat on her. Left months ago for her own good, 'cause he didn't want to loose his soul again... bad curse, stupid gypsies."
"Gypsies? What do gypsies and curse have to do with the Slayer and her boy-toy parting ways?" William looked at Willow, puzzlement over his face.
"He wasn't always Angel. Angel's okay, broods a lot, but not to bad. But that's with his soul. Don't eat the gypsies, not even the little ones. Makes their wicked sorcerers all pissy mad, and they start tossing curses out. Gave Angelus a soul, and he went all broody and miserable. Came to Sunnydale, fell into the clutches of Buffy the golden, and they had this tormented forbidden love thing... they got together after the nasty Judge... Giant blue smurf guy... wait a minute, I thing Dru had him put together, why would she do something so... crazy?"
"Soul? Gypsy curse? How much have you been drinking, red?" William frowned at her.
"Dunno, you keep pouring. Is that still the same bottle? Angelus ate a gypsy... her clan Kalla... Kader.. Ashes... some clan got all mad, and gave him a soul... guilt, misery, tormented dreams... it was painful. He came to the Hellmouth, fell for Buffy. They had sex... soul went away, he went evil psycho stalkery on her... so I gave him back the soul. 'Cept Buffy didn't care and sent him to hell anyhow. But he had to go away... otherwise they wouldn't be able to keep their hands away from each other, and, y'know, Angelus. He wasn't our friend. He killed my fishies... and my favorites teacher. Didn't have anyone but Giles then... he's a nice guy for a Watcher."
"That's... soul curse? Red, that sounds entirely unnatural. You gave it back to him? How.. why?"
"I wanted our friend back... and Angelus was trying to do something bad... Kathle demon... no, that's not right, Akathle.. Acathala? Yeah, he was going to open Acathala. Why try to end the world anyhow? I mean, where would you live if you get rid of it?" Willow was looking at William, her finger tracing over his eyebrow.
Suddenly, she sat up, he brow wrinkled in confusion. "I shouldn't be telling you any of this! I could change the future by telling you about things that haven't happened... fuzz the timeline... alter history. You haven't killed your slayers, and Dru hasn't killed Kendra..."
"Luv, Dru's not going to kill anyone. We burned her down, remember?"
"Oh, right." Willow leaned against William, her hand touching him, trying to trace his muscles through his shirt. "So the timeline won't ever be the same now. Cause... you won't be doting on her, and... um... the Judge, and the whole ritual thingy with Angel..."
William glanced down, trying to figure out why her words had trailed away, only to see that she had passed out, and the gentle warmth of her breathing and pulse of her heart was the only sounds from her.
~Part: 15~
Eventually, Willow woke up, her head throbbing. Her eyeballs hurt, and she felt almost raw, as if she had recently been sun burnt. Her tongue felt like it was being used to culture some possibly toxic mold, fuzzy and foul tasting. Her joints hurt, as if they had been bruised. She gave a small whimper, hoping to never ever again experience the combined cruel symptoms of magical backlash and a drinking binge. She had set the building on fire, the one where Dru and the Ripper were... doing horribly naughty naked things. Then, she had gotten extremely drunk with William... and where exactly were her cloths? She was naked, in a bed. Soft sheets and warm blankets had kept her as comfortable as she would get, but she was most definitely naked. She did not remember taking her clothing off last night.
What all had she done last night? Other than burning the building down over and around Dru and the Ripper... She could remember discussing heartache with William. He still thought that she had been dating Spike. There had been mention of lemons being thrown at wounds, or had that been metaphorical? She had mentioned the killing of Slayers, and how she could alter the future by mentioning...
Or by burning one of the key figures to death in a building a century before they could come to Sunnydale. She had just shattered the timeline, quite irreversibly. No Dru meant that she wouldn't be attacked by a mob in Prague, and Spike wouldn't go to Sunnydale to help her heal. She wouldn't have suggested the order of Taraka, or assembling the Judge, which had lead to Buffy and Angel... breaking his curse. Oh, she had talked at length about the curse. What if William told Angelus, and Angelus DIDN'T'T kill the gypsy girl and therefore didn't get his soul? That would set all sorts of changes into motion. Possibly bad changes. What could Angelus accomplish in another century of freedom? Willow cringed, and once again wondered what had happened to her cloths.
She was fairly certain that she hadn't removed them. So, someone else had to have done it. Had William undressed her? Had he seen her naked? Had he had her naked and at his mercy last night? If so, why hadn't he done something about it? She felt herself blushing at the idea, and more at the fact that she sort of liked it. The whole handsome naughty man taking advantage of the sleeping maiden was just so much like something out of a bad romance novel... But that didn't change two simple facts. One - she was naked. Two - she was certain nothing else had happened.
Peering around the room, she found a pile of what looked like fabrics. It proved to be a mostly folded set of clothing, not her original things, or even what she had been wearing last night. She pulled them on carefully, every movement feeling like agony. Staggering a little, she moved from the bedroom to a hallway, and with one hand trailing along the wall, she slowly walked along until she came to a dreadful obstacle, a set of stairs. Groaning with dismay, Willow very slowly moved down the stairs. Eventually, she made her way to the bottom, and a lucky turn brought her to a place where she could get one of the most wonderful thing in the world: a cup of cool water to wash this vile taste from her mouth.
Slowly, she wandered back away from the kitchen, eventually finding a familiar leather couch. She allowed her body to collapse onto it, and inhaled, catching the familiar scent of Spike... William. It had permeated the leather, soaked up the scent of him, holding his presence here even when he was gone. Smiling, Willow allowed her eyelids to sink closed, and she settled into a light sleep, her dreams filled with Spike, and William. Filled with the sorts of passionate interludes that had never happened with their waking flesh.
When she next woke, she was surrounded by the scent of leather, and of William. There was also a hand stroking her hair. She still ached, and her head wasn't happy yet, but she felt much better. Before, she would have been tempted to ask a vampire to kill her, simply to make the pain stop. Now? She simply didn't feel good. Besides, she could only imagine one person in this whole century stroking her hair like that. "Hey, William. What time is it?"
"Almost sunset. I've had a lot of time to think. Or drink... although if I remember correctly, we did both of those last night. It was all real, wasn't it? No chance that it was just a very detailed bad dream?" His blue eyes were filled with pain and sorrow.
"I'm a bit fuzzy on some of last night. I remember that horrible building, and the poor sacrificed mutilated woman. That we walked in on something I would dearly dearly love to forget seeing. That we... I burned the building down. Then that backlash hit me, and there was a couch, and alcohol... we talked about pain. Somehow, lemons came into the conversation." Willow was staring at him, memorizing the smooth, unbroken line of his eyebrow.
"You were all worried that by talking about the future, you would change it. But we already did. Dru is dead, that's going to change a lot." William's fingers had moved, and now they were caressing her cheek.
Willow winced, sinking lower on the couch, as if attempting to disappear. "oooh, we did. We really messed up the future. I have no idea how much this will change things, but it's going to be really big. This has got to be really bad for my karma... although, a lot of the things I remember Dru doing or causing were among the lines of violence and pain, so, maybe only naughty for my karma instead of really awful?"
"Red, any power that actually looks at you will know you were only trying to help. You didn't want to mess up fate. You didn't want to end up with me getting my unbeating heart stomped on. Probably better to find out now rather than later. There's also the simple fact that of all the times I've gone out with someone for a bit of mayhem, it's never been quite so impressive as what we did last night. You're sweet and good, but you can be wickedly bad if you let it come out. I could teach you all about being bad." His eyes had gone dark with intense emotion, and the air of his words curled over her cheeks, caressing her skin.
She looked at him, his face only inches away, his eyes focused on her, and felt her insides flutter with something. Her words were a faint whisper. "You want to show me how to be bad?"
William smiled, golden flecks appearing in his eyes, like tiny fires on an ocean. "Let me show you the wonders of the night." His lips covered hers, in a kiss. It started out slow, his lips caressing hers, his tongue tracing her lips, teasing them open, and sliding inside of her mouth.
It didn't stay quite so slow and gentle. Soon, their hands were roving over chests, shoulders and arms, their bodies close together, so close that Willow could feel every line of muscle on him, and he could count each rapid beat of her heart. It was as if he were devouring her, trying to taste her essence by kiss. Willow was kissing back just as intently, learning the contours of his mouth, the shape of his teeth, the feel of his lips and tongue.
Finally, his lips pulled away from her, and he kissed over her cheek, and along he side of her neck, causing Willow to melt against him, her knees going weak with pleasure and anticipation. Somehow, her blouse had slipped down, leaving her flesh exposed to his explorative fingers, and he was touching her, teasingly skimming over her curves, feather light touches that were driving her crazy.
She felt something almost like a pinching sensation, and then his teeth slid through the skin over her throat, and she could feel her blood flooding his mouth, coursing down his throat. An oddly primal sound of pleasure escaped her, and she pulled him closer, offering herself to him. Let her just have this one night... one night with him, all of him, man and demon, all hers, let her drown and crumble under his desire...
His lips pulled away, and she could feel him licking at her throat, the world having shrank to a narrow point of light. The pleasure and blood loss had left her dizzy again. Was this dying? Would he turn her, make her his childe to have at his side forever? AS if from a distance, she heard his voice.
"Not yet, luv. You're so passionate, so warm... I want to feel you warm around me before I turn you. I want to feel myself sinking into your heat... but not tonight. I'm sorry, red. I took to much... and this is the sort of thing you should be awake and participating in. Should have remembered... shouldn't have drank so much so close to you being shot. But you will be mine, my flame haired childe... my lover and partner for the rest of our nights. Rest now..."