Disclaimer:
The characters of Buffy – the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Forever Knight do not belong to me. I am only borrowing some of their characters.
Author's Note:
A note to all my fans out there. Thank you for encouraging me in this story. I apologize for the long periods between updates. Also, I know many of you are looking forward to seeing Spike. However, I may or may not ever do this. Let's just leave it as possibility.
Chapter Seven – Honey, Can We Talk?
--Part One--
Angel stepped into his apartment as the sun rose over the horizon. However, the apartment was lit not by the sun, but by a few lamps scattered about. He sniffed, he could smell coffee brewing in the kitchen. It wasn't the horrid swill Cordelia used to brew... no, it was the gourmet stuff that Willow sent from San Francisco. **Organic coffee. Only Willow would insist on organic coffee.**
He took off his coat and hung it up. He pulled off the gun holster that he was required to wear now. He had supposed it was important. It just seemed ridiculous. After all, it wasn't like he needed a gun to be threatening. Hell, he mused to himself. He could probably just growl and they'd pee their pants. He scented something different now. Vanilla. Mmmm. The smell that just evoked Buffy. He never tired of it. He never tired of her.
He still couldn't believe it. He felt guilt and delight whenever he thought of their relationship. Guilt because of the sacrifice. Xander's sacrifice so he'd never lose his soul again. Buffy's sacrifice. He knew his wife wanted children. Even though technically he had a son, he knew that he could never give her a child. She never mentioned it, however. That was the delight. She loved him. She was with him. They could be together in every way that mattered. Angelus would never be loosed again.
He looked up as he heard Buffy enter the room. He smiled at her as he stowed the gun away, being careful to remove the clip. “Ugh!” He heard her say. “Isn't there a way you didn't have to have that thing?”
He chuckled. It was funny. Considering the amount of death and violence the two of them had seen, they both were curiously disgusted by the weapon. For Angel, it was mainly the impersonality of the weapon. After all, if you're going to kill or maim someone, it really should be up close and personal. It seemed to him that if you care enough to kill someone, you'd care enough to do it in a more intimate way. Not this long range crap. “Well, I do agree, baby. It's just that the police force seemed to think I need it.”
She nodded at him. Her husband. It was still amazing to think of him like that. She smiled. “I know, sweetie. I just don't like them. I mean, if you want to kill something, it shouldn't be long distance. That's just so ... impersonal.”
Angel chuckled. “Exactly what I was thinking. We're so perfect – we even like to kill the same way. Come here.” He snaked an arm out and pulled her to him. Even though she was strong enough to resist, she never did. She always just let him be dominant. He lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her thoroughly. She snaked her arms around his neck. His lips left hers and moved to her neck. He nuzzled at the pulse point there. He could the distinct and delicious smell that was Buffy's blood. He could hear it pulsing through her veins. His stomach grumbled to life. He broke away from her reluctantly.
“Angel..” Buffy started, trying to pull him back.
“No, Buffy. Having a little blood during lovemaking that's one thing. I will not feed from you. Period.” Angel insisted, his face stern and hurt. She should know by now, he never wanted to think of her as food. Besides, he still needed to talk to her... About... He grimaced as he went to the kitchen for the pigs' blood.
Buffy followed him in there. She'd seen the grimace, he needed to know that she did understand. “Honey, I'm sorry, I understand. It's just... well, I like the feeling, you know.”
He snorted. He did know, vampires were highly sexual creatures. “I know, baby, just let's leave it in the bedroom.” He poured his blood and put it in the microwave to warm it. Not quite the same as straight from the vein, but at least at the right temperature. “Anyway, I need to talk to you about something.” He grabbed the blood and took it into the living room and sat down. He sighed. Damn, he'd better do this right. Or, well... Anything could happen.
Buffy grabbed a cup of coffee and followed him in. She curled up next to him, pulling her knees under her chin. He was certainly nervous. And, of course, that made her nervous. Very little made Angel nervous. Except maybe talking. He was much better at brooding. “Is it your new partner?”
**Oh! That was a good place to start. Work up to Dru.** “That's part of it. I did promise Nick I'd talk to you about his... um... family. I think he's a little concerned. I think probably the whole community of vampires here is.”
“Well, so? Me slayer... Me slay vampires! Ugh!” Buffy grunted. Angel chuckled.
“Honey, if you want to play caveman, I can pull you by the hair to our bed.... Hmmmm.... That sounds very appealing.” His mind drifted as it always did when he was reminded of Buffy in their bed. **Buffy naked. Buffy in a submiss... Oops!** He shook his head to dispel it of the rather enticing and alluring images. “Um, sorry for drifting. I was thinking of...”
“Angel, I know what you were doing. And it was not thinking.” She took another sip of coffee and arched an eyebrow at him.
He chuckled and tried to continue. “The thing is, these vampires are different. When one of them gets out of control and draws attention to the community, they police themselves.” Buffy snorted. “It's true, Buffy, they do.”
“Then they don't kill humans?” She asked in disbelief.
“Well,” Angel grinned sheepishly. “They do. They just tend to be discreet. They're not so much evil, as just above humans on the food chain. They also tend to be more loners than us demonic types. We tend to travel in packs. They form families, but none of this minion stuff.”
Buffy nodded, not really liking where this was going. She really didn't want to discriminate between types of vampires. Angel, well, he had a soul. And, that Nick, Angel said he wasn't feeding from humans. She could look beyond that as well. But, to just let a whole group of vamps go because they “self-policed” themselves. That really didn't fly with her. I wonder what Giles would say?
“Anyway, Buffy, Nick has a family, you might say. His sire and his sire's other favorite childe live here in Toronto. The other childe, her name is Janette. She owns a club here in town, called the Raven. She's really quite nice. The sire, his name is LaCroix and he has a radio show. I told Nick I'd talk to you. He wants you to, well, give the Raven a wide berth. A lot of vampires go there. Not to feed, Janette says she doesn't allow that. He also wants you to not kill LaCroix and Janette unless you had to.” He looked at her curiously. This wouldn't go down well with her. She didn't like it when evil wasn't, well, evil. It was hard for her to even consider demons and vampires as having any value.
But she had let demons and vampires into her life. She knew things weren't black and white. Maybe, she'd understand. He looked into her eyes. She was thinking about it, that was always a good sign. “Hmmm. I don't know. I mean, I suppose, I didn't have to seek them out. Make it a 'don't ask, don't tell' sort of thing. Maybe I could do that. But... I'd have to talk to Giles about it.”
“Isn't he retired?” Angel asked.
“Hey! He'll always be my Watcher... not to mention, he's more like a father than my own dad.”
A low growl emanated from Angel's chest at the mention of Buffy's absent father. Buffy stifled a moan. Any other vamp a growl just sounded like a mad dog. Angel... well, Angel just got sexier – if that was even possible.
Angel's nose delighted at the scent that had come from HIS woman. And that's was she was.. always.. HIS. Not Riley's. Not Spike's. She'd always been and always would be HIS. He keened. He doubted that Buffy became aroused at the mere sound of Spike. He KNEW she hadn't for Riley. Riley probably had trouble arousing himself, much less a female.
“Okay, okay. I'll give it a try. Is that all you wanted to talk about? I had the feeling it was something more serious.”
He sighed. Of course she was right. This was going to be the hard part. “Well, there was Dru.” He flinched for the coming explosion. **One.. two...**
“WHAT??!!!” **Three. Right on time.** “What the hell is that bloodthirsty nutcase doing here? No, no, never mind that... Where is she? I'm going to stake her sorry ass once and..”
“Honey, calm down. Dru isn't here to do what you think. She's lonely. She wants her family back.”
Buffy was struck dumb. An unusual occurrence, Angel mused. “What? What family? You and Spike? We don't even know if Spike is alive.”
“Oh, I think he is. Dru certainly didn't act like he had died. She would have been a little more subdued. Knowing him, he'll show up. No, Dru just wants to be a family again. She, well, she said she wants to earn her stepmummy's love.”
“Stepmummy? Who--” Buffy stopped in mid-sentence. **Oh, God, no! It was one thing to be Connor's stepmother. He was at least human-ish. But, Dru? Oh, damn. And, Dru didn't give up easily. She was going to--** “How? How is she going to earn my love?”
He smiled, he'd been watching her mind go through the motions. “Well, she's trying not to kill innocents.”
“What?!” She exclaimed. “She's trying not to feed on humans? That's incredible!”
“That's not what I said. I said innocents. She's feeding on guilty humans. You know, criminals and the like.”
Now, she was really confused. And where was-- “Where is she? I'm sure as hell not inviting her in here.”
“Oh, that's been taken care of. Janette took a liking to her. She'll be living with her at the Raven. I just hope Janette's lecher of a sire keeps away from her.”
“Huh? Now what are you on about? This Lackwa dude?”
He chuckled. Trust Buffy to always get the name wrong. He still remembered her calling Acathla Alfalfa. “LaCroix. Yes, I'm afraid he's taken a liking to Dru. Something my demon disapproves of. I'm still a vampire, darling. And she's still my childe. We do tend to be territorial about such things. Something LaCroix will have to get used to.”
She giggled. **Good old Angelus. Still flexing his muscles.** “Still, Angel. Do you really want me to NOT kill Drusilla? Can we trust her?”
“Of course not. I'm just talking about giving her the shadow of doubt. You did that for Spike. And he's much more deserving of being killed. Purely, on an annoyance level.”
She shook her in defeat. He still had big chip about that. She put her hand on his cool cheek. “Angel, I don't love him. I love you.”
He nodded his head. “Still, he never stopped reminding me that he could be with you and I couldn't.” He growled in memory, Buffy froze. “Do you think I can just forget that? I'm not human, Buffy, never will be.”
She nodded her head in agreement. “But... you never acted this way about Riley.” Her head shot up at the sound of Angel's laughter. It was a derisive, scornful laugh.
“Of course not. Riley was just a boy. Hardly anything to think of. But, Spike, he should have known not to go poaching.”
Buffy groaned and started to open her mouth to argue. However, Angel was no longer in the arguing mood. He was in the claiming mood. He needed to remind his woman... his mate... just who she belonged to. He snaked an arm around her waist, pulling her forcefully against him. He claimed her lips in a hot kiss of possession. Buffy was struggling for breath. But, not too hard. She understood this dance of dominance that was so important to Angel. At first, it was hard. She was naturally a leader and hated to be dominated. But, then, she realized that this wasn't about violence or power... this was merely one mate marking another as his own. She softened into his arms, letting him lead her. She was his. She had always been his. And she always would be.
--Part Two--
She was smiling beatifically. She knew he was back there. He'd been following her all evening. She could feel him. She could almost smell him. She smiled again. She started to slow her pace. Soon. He'd come after her soon. She felt her hair nervously. It would be so nice to see her reflection. At least then she could check on her appearance. It wouldn't do to look too disheveled. She wanted to appear her best.
It had been so very long, she thought to herself. So long. Spike hovered. But stalking, she shivered. She still remembered 1860 when her Daddy had started stalking her. At that time, it had been terrifying. Now that she looked back, she realized how exciting it had all been. She was the only one he had ever gone to that length for. Daddy had really wanted her. He'd cared. He had to have to have spent all that time on her. She keened, remembering what her Daddy had done always filled her with love and pride.
But, he was definitely stalking her. She really needed to give him time. Still, she frowned, he should really be making a move by now. She was nearly at Janette's salon. She'd made a promise to Daddy. So, he'd have to make his move soon. Maybe she should trip.. Let him know that she was interested. She hadn't been when she first met him. But, now that he'd started stalking her, well that was different. A girl liked to know when she was attractive. Spike had been sweet and very attentive. This man, though, he was more like that vampire from the movies... Lestat. It was all very flattering. She hadn't felt this flattered in a long time.
Really, she hadn't felt this way since... well, maybe Saigon. It had been during that war... she couldn't remember which. Although, Spike had said it wasn't really war. It seemed like one, she had thought, people were killing each other enough to be a war. But, maybe she didn't know all the rules. There were so many rules for being a mortal. It was really a lot easier to be a vampire. Stay out of the sun. Feed. Maim. Kill. It was so much easier. There had been this lovely boy. He wore a uniform – Spike said he was in the Navy. He followed her one evening, quite harmlessly. Well, she quite liked him – he was very pretty. Not as pretty as Daddy, but still... She'd let him catch her. She even acted like a mortal for him. They'd had a wonderful evening... She even gave him the choice in the end. Death or immortality.
It was such a strange expression he'd had when he realized what she was. Then he begged to be let go. He'd said he'd had an important job. He had been so brave. He wasn't begging for his life. He was begging because he wanted to fight more. He wanted to fight for his country. It had really moved her. She'd remembered the poor young men of her generation who had gone to fight in the Crimean War. It had been very thrilling. This poor little lion wanted to fight too. So, she'd kissed him and gave him her locket for luck and let him go. Spike had been angry. How, he had asked, could she not kill him? He would've died anyway! Still, she was definitely her Daddy's little girl. She had always been a romantic. She sighed at the memory. What had ever happened to him? Tommy. That was his name, Tommy Boone.
She looked up impatiently. What was wrong with him? She really didn't think of him as a shy man. Vampires weren't usually shy. She could see the salon up ahead. Yet, he was still trailing her. He wasn't even being threatening. **OOOOHHH!!** She stamped her feet in irritation. Tears started to sting at her. Maybe he didn't really want her. But he was following her!! He was going to drive her mad!! She giggled. **Too late.** She sighed as she came to the door of the Janette's salon. She looked up at the sign done in the very funny lettering. It wasn't fair, she thought. She'd done everything to encourage him. He hadn't even tried to rape her or anything. **OOOOH! He was no gentleman!!** She stamped the dirt off her shoes and headed in. **Well! I don't need someone like that, I can find someone else.** The thing was, she thought sadly, she did want him. He just didn't want her.
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