Title: Keep Me Cold
Author: Crazy_Girl_Mary
Email: crazy_girl_mary@yahoo.com
Feedback: It's a beautiful thing! So email me already damnit!
Disclaimer: They’re all Joss’ and probably some other people but hey I’m a rebel so I play if I want damn it!
Summary: Sequel to Hot to Cold. Faith has turned against the Scoobies and after giving into Angelus he made her a vampire. They obtained the list of Potential Slayers and slaughter will begin but sooner or later they'll end up in Sunnydale. This fic coincides with The First problem on Buffy so I guess it's an Alternate Universe. Uncomplete! I'll be posting new sections as I write them.
Pairings: Faith/Angelus so far.
Category: angst and suspense I suppose.
Spoilers: Spoilers for the episodes where The First is in Sunnydale. No Angel spoilers. Sorry people I don't know the episodes so just read it.
Rating: NC-17 for graphic torture and sexuality.
Author’s Comments: Hey guys! Check me out! I'm so on top of that request for the sequel! This fic is dedicated to Jezzie who supported me, and told me the things I needed to hear and pushed me to make a sequel. I’m having a ball writing it and I don’t know that I would’ve without her requests. Also thank you for all the feedback and requests. When people email me and tell me how I really can grasp the character of Angelus or describe the way his eyes roam over a tortured body makes me feel like I might just be doing this right and I may just have a grip on this whole writing thing. Also thanks in advance to anyone who may feel the urge to email me because I suck. Please do! I love it. I wanna know why I suck or what sucks.

London


François let the hot water run over her bruised and battered body trying desperately to find comfort in the fact that the bathroom and shower were completely immersed in light. It did little to cool her nerves and she knew without question that behind the pink shower curtain was a huge window that embraced the onyx night almost as much as her dark enemy did. She finished showering and turned off the water hesitating before throwing the curtain back to reveal her empty bathroom.

Maybe she was losing her mind. The thought had crossed it several times, but if she were losing her mind would she really be able to recognize it? She didn’t know, and considered that maybe that was another sign that she was. She wrapped a towel around her body and went into her bedroom leaving the door purposefully open behind her. These days she left all the lights in the one-room flat on all the time but when she opened the bathroom door the lights behind the screen leading to her bedroom were out and the rest were dim memories and she knew exactly why.

She pulled the towel closer to her body and up on her chest until she could gather the courage to turn around. She wasn’t at all surprised to see him lounging across the small loveseat like a welcome guest. “The lights were a real mood-killer babe,” he muttered sensually and she backed away a little waiting for him to strike, knowing he would, and also knowing she was pretty much helpless to do anything about it.

“Not the only mood killers here,” she answered.

“I’m hurt,” he said standing and taking one small step in her direction. “Are you suggesting that you had no intention of fucking my brains out given the chance? Come now Frankie, you’re quite the little vixen.”

“Is that what you say to all the girls?” Frankie asked, trying for false bravado, only inducing proof of her fear in the form of a crackle at the back of her throat and a few more backwards stumbles.

“Of course not doll… you’re special.” He was drawing ever closer with his words and she had no idea when these short movements would be replaced with the attack.

She knew of course why she was special. She had been a potential slayer, was now a watcher in training, and was one of the elite few with access to a list of all the potential slayers alive. He wanted the list, but if she read into his mindset correctly, he wanted to play first. She couldn’t come to grips with the fact that she didn’t stand a chance. “Special in the keep around for a few days kinda way?” she asked slowly, her back hitting the rice paper glass screen and rattling it slightly.

“Don’t be silly,” Angelus said with a smile and she was temporarily relieved with the fact that her death might come quick, temporarily… “You’re much more special then that sweetheart.” He finally sped up his pace and was standing before her after a few long strides.

“I’m touched,” she answered.

His hands came up and easily pulled her towel away, “You will be,” he retorted with an evil little smirk she had already grown to hate in the days he had been visiting her. The smirk was usually accompanied by a few threats but tonight he had promised all action and he was here to keep that promise. He wanted to fuck with her mind before he got what he wanted because with his psychotic logic there was no other way to do it.

She felt a shudder roll down her glistening back brought on by a light winter breeze sneaking through all the cracks in the windows. The backs of his knuckles grazed slowly over her left cheek but his eyes weren’t as patient and wondered to other regions of her exposed body. She was shocked when he turned quickly away and went back to the loveseat as if his closeness was only a small shattered deception. She wasn’t quite naïve enough to forget he had been their or deny that he would be back.

“You’ve been reading up I see,” he said holding up a few books that had been strewn across the floor. She couldn’t make out the titles in the darkness but she knew what they were, books about him. Books she had taken out of the library at the Watcher’s Council Headquarters when he had finally revealed his name a few days earlier. He was right. She had read up on him. She had read each of the five books cover to cover and it wasn’t enough to quench her curiosity, in fact, that small taste only proved to heighten the thirst.

She knew a lot about him, knew most of his games, but it didn’t keep her from regretting the fact that he wasn’t still touching her. This was a common reaction amongst his victims and it hurt and confused her even further then it was intended to. She was hurt and confused because she was reacting like everyone else, and because she wanted him deep inside, and because he was playing with her before giving her what she wanted and before getting what he wanted.

He stopped staring over her still exposed body and stopped waiting for a response. He opened the first book to the middle. The book was recently made and was full of first hand accounts of him. She thought it was rather ironic that he should pull forth that book. She had been confused about it at first because every single other book in the library relating to him or his family was published hundreds of years earlier and this one lone book had drawl her eye. She learned in it that there was a surge in curiosity after he died in 2002.

The account he choose to recite had also caught her eye because the person who wrote it seemed to know him very well yet had escaped him.

“Angelus is a master at provocation. He can elicit all the emotions and feelings a person locks deep inside of their soul. He plays with you, goes after the ones you love, and tries to ruin you mentally before he ruins you physically… because it’s fun. That’s the only motivation for his actions, having fun and feeding his thirst.”

“Nice,” he commented after a while, “I’ll have to find the author and thank them personally.” He tossed the book aside and stood again preparing for the take down, “Of course I’ll eventually make my way back to her, it’s always been the plan. I’m a little upset she didn’t mention my good looks, charm, and that I’m a real pro in the bedroom but I understand how she might want to forget.”

“Buffy Summers,” Frankie whispered.

“Yeah,” Angelus breathed with a little nod. She thought maybe she should pick up her towel but didn’t know if she had the courage. “Are you going to dress doll?” he asked suddenly and she was sure the shock was sprawled across her face. “We certainly can’t go out with you looking like that. I’m a traditional man after all.”

The old man heard the knock as he was passing the hallway to the door on the way to his office. The knock was furious and fast and seemed to mock his aged pace as he hobbled to the door. When he opened it there was a young man outside with the body of a woman, hanging limp in his arms. “Help!” The young man seemed close to hysteria, “I found her just outside the gate.”

Lyle stepped back and opened the door. “Who is it Lyle?” his assistant Monica called from the start of the hallway in a thick English accent. “Oh God it’s Francois!”

Lyle took another look at the limp young girl with the short black hair and noticed through his foggy glasses that it was she. “Dear God! Come in! Come in!”

The man stepped across the threshold and took on the face of his true nature. “I thought you might say that,” he mentioned carelessly dropping the body to the floor. By now Monica had made her way to Lyle’s side and he felt her strong hand wrap around his frail upper arm. “Run Monica!” the old man screamed as he jumped towards the older vampire. Angelus just giggled and threw the man aside. Monica hadn’t run. She hadn’t even moved, and she didn’t think she ever would again.

Frankie heard voices swirling in her head. She knew what this was. She was no stranger to unconsciousness but never had the coming back to reality been so devastating. It meant that she wasn’t dead yet, and the ropes she felt around her wrists and ankles meant she wouldn’t be for a while. He wanted to play. She opened her eyes to welcome his unwelcome visage. He was scowling at her, displeased with her, displeased by what, she didn’t know, but definitely displeased with her.

“I’m not happy,” he stated.

‘Gee, I never would’ve guessed’, came to Frankie’s mind but she didn’t say it. She didn’t even know if she could talk. Her mouth and throat felt extremely dry and when she tried to swallow it away it did little to alleviate this.

“You all know what I want,” he said turning the room. This was the first time Frankie realized they weren’t alone. “Yet, none of you will just tell me what I want to know,” he finished.

Then he turned back to Frankie and she opened her eyes fully and despite the darkness in the room and the flickering shadows coming from a large fireplace on the far side of the room she could tell where they were. They were in the great hall of the Watchers Council Headquarters. It was the room where all the important meetings took place, the place where the Watchers from destinations all over the world convened to establish the whereabouts of particularly ruthless vampires and determined where Watchers or Slayers might be needed. The far side of the room was a comfortable sitting area but the side they were on was the side where the heart of the meetings took place. It held a massive oak table that she always admired for it’s shear size and perfect gleaming surface, and the table was surrounded by chairs. She realized with shock that she was tied to a chair that was on top of the table and he was standing next to her.

The others, however, were not on top of the table. They were tied to chairs situated in a wide circle around the slab so they would have a good view of the proceedings. He was putting on a show for them on the massive stage, it was obvious to all, and she knew she was his first act.

She finally returned her eyes reluctantly to his and saw that he was staring at her intently, his eyes gleaming with the evil desire to do all the things he wanted to do to her, all the things that had been prohibited during life, now in death were embraced to the fullest. “Any requests?” he asked then he leaned over to pick up a small dark wooden box at his feet and she caught his implication.

“There’s always been a soft spot in my heart for a good hack saw,” she said wryly.

He smiled and pulled out a serrated scalpel, “This will have to do love, I’m not much for starting out with a hack saw, as you know, I want it to last long enough to scare all your colleagues into giving me what I want.”

“They don’t care if you kill me,” she answered a little bitterly but she knew that was just the situation’s effect.

“I’m not going to kill you,” he said kneeling before her, “I’m going to hurt you very very much.” He put the glinting knife carefully between his teeth and hooked his hands around the collar of the button up shirt she had put on and ripped the front quickly open. She shuddered as her body was once again revealed to him and the twenty odd sets of eyes around the room watching intently with fearful bewildered eyes. She didn’t have a bra on and he pulled the fabric back from her shoulders and stomach as best as he could but then he just got frustrated and ripped the whole thing off of her.

He kneeled before her legs and pulled the knife from between his teeth. “Like a blank canvas,” he said running the knife tip between her breasts and down her stomach, “Except of course for this,” he caught the end of the knife in a hoop just above her belly button. “Kinda in the way wouldn’t ya say?” he asked. She didn’t even have time to hold her breath or clench her jaw before he yanked the loop out and a deep gasp escaped her lips. She didn’t know if anyone else could hear it over his or her own horrified gasps and screams.

They were her friends, and colleagues. Joseph, a young watcher to her left had a crush on her and they went on a Watchers trek together last year. Marcus a man in front of her was to be her Watcher had she been called. They had always kept in touch and he was like an uncle or even a father to her. Julia an older woman to her right had been a Watcher years and years earlier, then she had trained Watchers and now she worked as a field advisor and secretary of sorts. Frankie saw them all almost everyday. There were others she had never seen before. They were here for the meeting coming up this weekend about the problems going on in Sunnydale California. The point was that these people and Frankie herself now realized that they would all witness her gruesome death and be the last people to see her alive.

Angelus smiled and flung the ring into the fire, and then he leaned down and started to suck the blood from her navel. She couldn’t help but shudder with pain, and more sickening, pleasure. He swirled his cool tongue over her navel for a few excruciating moments then pulled his face away a little satisfied in the moment with her blood coloring his purple lips. “Mmm, this is going to be fun,” he said licking his lips.

Frankie’s eyes darted away from her captors when a loud crack claimed the silence. She saw that Joseph had fallen over in his chair, the wood cracking wood, as he tried to break free of his restraints to help her. Maybe she should just tell Angelus everything and spare the horrible torture of the others present.

“Do you have something to say to me before we start?” Angelus asked, his eyes lit, when she finally turned her head back to face him no longer aware to make eye contact with the others in her embarrassment.

“Yes,” Frankie said slowly. She didn’t know what he was referring to or hoping for but she definitely had something to say to him. “Don’t even dream of being gentle.”

“Oh baby, I knew you were a firecracker,” he said running the knife-edge over one hard nipple. “And don’t worry, I wouldn’t dream of it doll, that would be far less then a woman like you deserves.”

“I’m glad we can agree on something,” she said and he leaned forward suddenly to wrap one hand around the back of her head and claim her in a forceful hard kiss. He released her lips with a smacking sound and continued to tongue and suck his way down her chin and neck to her collarbones. He was surprised that she leaned her head back to give him more room and from the shear pleasure of it all. Maybe she was hoping he would lose control and kill her right there but he had kept control in far more tempting situations.

He was the master of control and she was just a little plaything for the moment. He didn’t even expect to get the information he wanted from her. She was far too young and had far too much to prove to the others. But she was fun, and sexy, and she would be a great example for the others if they proved obstinate.

“You think we can get this started? I’m a little bored.” Frankie said but her guise wasn’t fooling him.

“Anxious?” he asked with a smile and began to trace the knife-edge slowly over the other nipple. “Soon… you’ll regret that I ever started.” Then he made the first small \ over her right breast and she didn’t even sigh to show the pain but he knew it was early for that and finished the little X design. He stopped to admire his work and then he leaned in to lick away the excess blood before starting another one next to it. This one was much deeper and she gasped from the pain. He licked away the blood but it only continued to flow and he made another shallow X next to that, starting a pattern that he would continue from her shoulders to her waist.

When he was done Frankie was still holding on like a trooper but several of the woman in the room had fainted or screamed themselves hoarse and a few more of the men’s chairs hit the floor. This was exactly the reaction he wanted. It meant Frankie could go on for hours more and the audience wouldn’t have any choice. He put down the knife and jumped down off the table to pick up all the men’s chairs so they could clearly see what he was doing to their friend. He mentioned in each of their ears that if they fell again he would simply pick up them, chair and all, and place them in the huge fireplace.

Then he jumped back up onto the table and kneeled before his playmate again. “Enjoying yourself yet?” he asked.

“Are you kidding?” she asked in a lame attempt to fake enthusiasm, “This is the most fuckin’ fun I’ve had in years! You sure know how to treat a girl.”

He smiled and reached for the knife to put it away and get out his chemicals. He didn’t even hear a noise or sense a movement until the right front leg of her chair came crashing down on the back of his hand. He couldn’t contain a howl and pulled back his hand in pain and anger. Because of the unbalanced and heavy landing on the old chair the left leg broke off but remained tied to her foot. She threw her chair back and kicked the leg up to his chest with all her reserved energy.

Angelus looked down at the wooden stake protruding from his chest. She had been trained well, but no Slayer except maybe his, would’ve been able to make that mark falling backwards with the opposite foot. She wasn’t a slayer, but she would’ve made a great one had she been called, he could see it in her eyes and taste it in her blood.

He gripped her knee with both hands and she struggled uselessly to pull it back away but it was too late and he was too strong. He wrapped both his large hands around her slim knee and squeezed with all his might until he heard a satisfying pop and she screamed in excruciating agony.

He dropped her leg, “I always promised I’d make ya scream baby!”

Now he was pissed off, and he embraced it. He kneeled down again and punched her hard in the face to disorient her while he untied her from the chair then he laid her in the middle of the table on her back. He knew how she felt right now. The pain was nausea inducing, and she wouldn’t be able to move her leg even a little bit to even try to get away. It would be better this way. When he started to hurt her again she would be free to move and her body wouldn’t be able to keep from doing that and in doing that sending even more pain from the leg movement through her whole body.

“Goddamn this is fun!” he screamed and he turned back to his box giving Frankie the opportunity to try and crawl away, knowing she would try. He fiddled in the box for a moment finding the chemical he was looking for and heard her moan behind him and fall hard against the table top. He turned and saw her face down on the table a few feet away from her previous spot. He smiled. She had managed to stand and take a step or two. That was a pleasant surprise. She could really take what he was giving out and he remembered how fun that was in many respects. This made him hungry for his mate but he knew he had to do this and he could be home with her in a few more days.

It was pretty amazing that she wasn’t unconscious but he figured she’d been there for so long it was hard for her brain to go back again, and he knew she wanted to be around for all the presents he would give her body. “Come on Frankie!” he screamed and he leaned down and grabbed the back of the waistband on her pants and lifted her whole body off the table by it. She screamed from the pain in her leg and all over her chest and wretched all over the table. He frowned at the vomit and threw her body up into the air and she landed flat on her back. The sound of the air escaping her lungs was echoed by gasps from the audience only she was unable to inhale again.

He straddled her body with three sections of rope in one hand. “Are you enjoying yourself yet sweetheart?” he asked with a smile as he tied the first length of rope around one arm. She was unable to fight at all and he quickly tied the next arm and stood to take the ends to the corresponding table legs and tie them off. When he was done he went back and did the same to her uninjured foot figuring that the other one wouldn’t be doing much kicking.

“All tied down, torture, lies and deceit,” she said with a forced smile and he marveled at her strength, “beginning to feel like a marriage.”

He smiled, “I never lied to you,” he started, “but I’m starting to feel a special bond between the two of us too.” He leaned down close to her face and let his cheek brush up against hers, “Whadda ya think babe? After this little party we can hit Vegas.”

“You’re on,” she said but her voice was coarser and slower, and the look in her eyes was another signal that her body may be headed towards shock. He knew how to bring a victim away from the edge of shock, with pleasure but he wasn’t quite ready for that just yet. He went back over to the small bottle he had left by his box of tricks and brought it back to her.

“Sodium based,” he said removing the small lid and putting it next to her, “It’s an acid that eats away at the skin so slowly and painfully I’ve heard it’s a lot like a vampire disintegrating or exposed to the sun only much… much… slower.” He held the bottle carefully over her heaving chest and let one small drop run to the furrow between her breasts. The drop sizzled slightly on her hot skin and ran down her stomach before pooling in her wounded belly button. The liquid cleared a small trail of white skin through the blood and sweat only to turn it raw pink. Her scream was unlike any he had heard in a very long time. He hadn’t truly tortured someone since before he acquired his damned soul and even then he couldn’t recount a pain-filled scream that brought a smile to his lips and a dance to his dead heart quite like this one did.

The scream was so violent and purely aching that he just had to taste it and he quickly lowered his lips to hers and swallowed the beautiful sound. He swirled his tongue hastily over hers exploring the warm moisture and reveling in the taste of her boiling blood from the bites in her tongue she had made to keep from screaming for him.

“Mmm, now that was refreshing,” he said when he finally pulled away. He heard the young man Joseph’s chair hit the floor yet again as he tried to be the knight in shining armor and he regretted that he had to temporarily leave his quarry. He went over to the tipped chair, which still clattered violently as the man tried to escape. He shook his head in mock disapproval and “tisk tisk”ed but the smile lighting his face proved he was happy to keep his promise. He lifted the man, chair and all, and approached the fire.

“No!” Frankie screamed frantically, and a few others who could still scream followed suit. “Please God don’t! Don’t hurt him!”

Angelus pivoted slightly to see the last ounce of hope glimmer in Frankie’s eyes before he easily tossed the man in the roaring fire. His screams were guttural and painful, unlike anything most of the human’s present had ever heard. Angelus basked in the torturous cries and pulled a cigarette from his pocket to light it in the fire. He watched as the mans flesh boiled and burned off of his body and after a few minutes the sound of the contracting tendons pulling the body into the fetal position stopped and he turned back to her. The tears had stopped flowing and she looked deep into the fire without really focusing. She had finally given in and shock had set into her beautiful body and face. He flicked his butt into the fire and walked back over to the table. The fact that it was over quicker then he had planned was a little regretful but he knew he couldn’t have much more fun with this one.

He picked up the scalpel that had been sitting on the tabletop waiting for him and straddled her body again. He turned her head towards him but it just fell back into its place and her breathing was already distant like her body was trying to kill her to spare her a death at his hands. He wasn’t prepared to allow that. He slowly inserted the knife in her chest and waited for the pain to register in her eyes but it didn’t come. He could hear the air from one lung sifting through the whole he made and the smell of her blood and the burning flesh was heady. He leaned down and sucked voraciously at the whole he had made and when he finally pulled away she still wasn’t responsive.

It was a pity to have to end her life but he had plenty more in waiting and the sooner this business was done the sooner he could get back to Faith. He licked his way up her scored and burned torso to her neck and then to her mouth where a trail of blood from her lungs was escaping. He kissed it harshly away and still her eyes didn’t register any pain or pleasure. He licked his way back down to her neck, felt his facial feature contort to demonic, and plunged his teeth roughly into her unclaimed jugular. The hot blood flowed slowly into his mouth because it was being pushed to so many other places it was needed and after only a minute the well ran dry and he pulled his mouth from her throat. When he looked up at her dead face he saw her bloody lips were forming a smile and her dead eyes were somehow frozen and glittering in happiness.

Her death had been her release and he was happy to give it to her. He ran his hands up her arms savoring the lingering warmth of her body underneath his and regretting that they had never gotten around to the real self-despising torture. When his hands came to her wrists he untied them then stood and untied her other foot. He planted one foot firmly on her still chest and pushed to body down the smooth table top and smiled at the bone breaking thud it made when it hit the floor so very close to a few captured at the end of the table.

“Now,” he surveyed the crowd, “Who wants to go next?”




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