Rated: PG13
Pairing: W/A/S
Disclaimer: All things BtVS belong to Joss Whedon, etc.
Distribution: WLS, WLF, BMP, NHA, Aislin.
Author’s Notes: Holiday Quickie #9. Pairing #82 at The Quickie Challenge: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WitchsLoveFanfic/files/quick.html Everyone is invited to play – come write a quickie for us all to read!!!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
She didn’t know how many minutes or hours it had been since she saw her lovers last. Nor did she count the seconds waiting for their return in her favorite chair, positioned just right so that she could see the front door of the one bedroom apartment they all shared together.
But that didn’t mean that she didn’t miss them.
Five days had gone by since a vision from Cordelia had sent them screeching off into the night, to some city in Nevada. Someplace that she had never heard of. It was a real place, though; she had looked it up on the internet to give them the map they needed just to get there.
They would be back as soon as possible, her brain whispered.
And, at first, she had believed her own reassurances.
Angel would call her, at night, to give her updates on the status. The vision crisis had been averted but there was a demon running around. One that he and Spike would need to dispatch before they could leave. So she smiled and bit down the sadness in her heart, hoping against hope that they would be back before Christmas.
Which would be happening as of tomorrow, now.
She looked at the tree, still sitting so brightly in one corner of their living room. It was decorated in a mixture of blues and greens, with some silver and gold tossed in for color. Those were her lovers’ favorite colors. Blue and green.
A sniffle escaped from her mouth before she could stop it, a broken hearted cry of despair following it as she collapsed into that same chair that she had not sat, waiting, in for days on end.
Tonight was looking to be the second night in a row that she hadn’t heard from them. It was already almost midnight, almost Christmas; usually Angel called before nine, just so he didn’t accidentally wake her up. He knew how cranky she got about being woken up in the middle of the night.
A ghost of a smile crossed her lips, squelched ever so quick by the pain in her heart. Something had gone wrong, she was becoming increasingly sure of that as each hour tolled by. Why else would they not call to let her know they were okay? What other possible reason could there be?
It felt odd, now, she realized, to even think of life without the two of them. Her Spike and her Angel. They had been together for nearly three years, living in LA, fighting the baddies of the world and doing it well. She had never once imagined a life without them during that time, and couldn ’t remember how she had managed without them for so long to begin with. They were her soul’s mates, as possible as it was to have two of them at one time. And she was their love, their ever patient human lover.
Funny, it should have been her to go first, not them. She had never thought of them not being there for her because, quite honestly, that wasn’t even something that was remotely likely to happen. They were vampires. Not humans. They would outlive her by hundreds of years, maybe even thousands, if they played their cards right and didn’t get on the wrong end of something pointy.
But her?
She was human. Very proud of that fact, too. And she had a finite period of time to traipse and frolic on this earth. She knew that one day she would die, and they would continue on.
But, no, she had never thought of it the other way around.
Faced with that reality, now, she didn’t know how to cope, how to deal, with this painful ache in her chest.
Calling Buffy was out of the question, the insipid blonde hadn’t shown the slightest interest in renewing her friendship with Willow since the day she found out that the red head was dating not one, but two, members of the vampire population – one of whom happened to be Buffy’s former lover. Xander was just as bad, though he would still occaisionally speak to Willow. He would never agree to help her find her missing lovers, though. Not in a million years. Giles was back in England – he’d be of no use in this situation. Cordelia and Wesley had gone to her parents’ house for the holidays, the day after dispatching Angel and Spike on this godforsaken vision quest, for that matter. She hoped they were happy, announcing their engagement to her family, while she was miserable, thinking on all the bad things that could have happened.
‘Stop that!’ She screamed silently. ‘No more of this! They’re probably undercover or something and can’t get to a phone. . .’
But even as the thought ran haphazard through her mind she knew that it was unlikely at best. Angel would never let her go this long without hearing from them. Nor would Spike. They cared about her, didn’t like to see her worry.
And worried, she was.
She curled up in the oversized leather chair, tucking her nightgown up around her legs. The tree lights twinkled merrily in the dark room, the only light she was allowing her tear-filled eyes. She laid her head down on the squishy arm of the chair, just watching as the lights flickered and danced in their preset formations of holiday merriment. A soft sigh escaped her mouth, a tear trickling from the corner of her eye. The lights were so pretty, she wanted to share them with Angel and Spike; to show them how she had decorated the tree, just for them, the night they left. It was supposed to be a surprise, though now it looked like it was a surprise they would never see.
Quietly, without even realizing it was happening, Willow let the sparkling lights hypnotize her into a fitful state of sleep.
~*~*~
“Will-ow. . .”
“R-e-d. . .”
Willow shifted, her nose scrunching up, one arm flung over her eyes to block out the annoyance of light that had suddenly flooded her field of vision. She frowned, the faint line between sleep and wakefulness fading with each moment, as the whispery, sing-song voices continued to breathe into her ear.
“C’mon, Red. . . wakey, wakey . . .”
She opened her eyes, blinking under the shield of her eyes.
“Spike?”
“The one and only, pet.”
She flung aside her arm, staring up at the two vampires that were peering down at her, a growing smile spreading across her face.
“You’re home!” She cried, leaping from her chair to shower first one, then the other, with frantic kisses of pure happiness. “Oh, goddess. I’ve been so worried about the two of you. You haven’t called. I thought – “
“Thought what?” Angel’s eyes looked amused, his mouth held a smirk she wasn’ t accustomed to seeing. It reminded her of something, though; she just couldn’t put her finger on it.
“Well. . . I thought something went wrong.” She murmured, her heart suddenly fluttering with an anxiety whose meaning escaped her. Something was tugging insistently at the edge of her consciousness, trying to warn her, but she couldn’t see what it was through the fog of the human brain’s inability to remember everything at once. “Nothing went wrong, did it?”
“Not at all.” Spike drawled, taking a step closer to her. She could see the same thing in his eyes. Amusement. How was this funny to them? She had been *worried*! “In fact, something went very, very right. We think, anyway.”
“Really?” She whispered, instinctively taking a step backwards. The backs of her knees hit the chair and she sat down heavily. In one swift motion Spike was kneeling next to her, his blue eyes sparkling with that faint amusement. But there was something else there, now.
And that something terrified her.
“Yeah. Something wonderful.” Angel agreed, kneeling on her other side. “We just couldn’t tell you over the phone, love. That wouldn’t have been. . . right. This was something was needed to tell you in person.”
“Wh-what?” She stammered, her eyes darting back and forth from the dark to the light, her heart fluttering rapidly in her chest so much so that she felt as though she would soon pass out from the exertion of it all.
“You see, that demon we needed to get rid of – well he was a one of a kind type of guy, Red.” Spike purred, his lips nibbling at her neck. She resisted the urge to lean into his embrace, not comforted in the least by the familiarity he was showing her.
“Really nice guy.” Angel nodded, holding her hand.
“What kind of demon was it?”
“Antianima.” The vampire on her left, Spike, whispered, his breath tickling the fine hairs of her neck. “Heard of it?”
She hadn’t heard of it before, to be honest. But she knew what the name implied. Anti-soul. To oppose the soul.
“Oh goddess.” She whispered, frightened. She tried to scramble away, past them and to the doorway. If she could just get into the hallway, could just scream –
Then, what?
Others would die.
She sobbed, broken, her eyes screwed shut as strong hands held her in place.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. I don’t think she liked our surprise, Spike.”
“You know – you could be right. Open your eyes, pet.”
Willow shook her head. She didn’t want to look at them. Didn’t want to see the soulless demons that now inhabited her lovers’ bodies. Anti-soul. It all made sense now. They hadn’t called her because they weren’t her Angel and Spike anymore. Angel was Angelus and Spike was the same heartless bastard he had always been.
She was as good as dead.
“C’mon, sweetheart.” It was Angelus speaking, and that silky voice was nothing like Angel’s, now that she thought on it. How could she not have seen it? “The surprise isn’t over yet. And you’re the star attraction in the second part. You didn’t think we’d stop *loving*,” The word was hissed, and full of menace. “Just because of this, did you?”
“I think she did, mate.” Spike was sneering, she could hear it in his tone. “Silly chit. You’re ours. Forever.”
It was the word forever that made her eyes snap open. And fear was replaced by abject horror.
“No.” She snarled, shaking her head. “No. You can’t do this to me. Please. No. Just kill me. Don’t. . .”
“Kill you?” Angelus laughed around fangs that were sharp and deadly. His demon was out to play. “Why would we give up the best piece of ass we’ve had in decades?”
Willow sobbed, shaking her head, terrified.
“Please. Don’t. Goddess. . .”
“You’re goddess can’t save you now, Red.”
It was Spike that struck first, and only the thought of innocent bystanders rushing in and getting killed kept her from screaming out loud. The pain of his bite was followed swiftly by Angelus’, though. Red hot lances of pain radiated down from the marks on either side of her neck, burning a stream of pain throughout her body. She shuddered, feeling lightheaded already. Blood loss. Two vampires kill a lot quicker than one. She felt her consciousness slipping away, like bathwater down the drain.
And then, as the blackness finally reached her brain, overwhelming her thoughts, she heard the last, sneering, remark from her former love.
And was glad that she was soon to be dead. Or undead. Either way – it wouldn ’t hurt anymore soon.
“Merry Christmas, *luv*.”
~*~End Fic~*~