Title: Blood Rite
Fandom: Angel
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Joss is the genius behind these characters; I am but
a lowly follower. I make no money from any of this, so please don't sue
me.
Written for: The LJ Community Church Of Spike's ChairFic
challenge
Notes: Spike/Fred. Knox finds a scroll he says has a "cure" for
vampirism, using the blood of a souled vampire. But it's entirely
possible he has ulterior motives...
Spike slouched insolently and bonelessly in the chair in Angel's
office, his leg flung over the arm of the square red seat. He and Angel
were doing what they did best--sniping at each other--when Fred walked
in. Her heart went "ker-thump" at the sight of him like that, and she
firmly shooed it back into its cave. She had more important things to
think about right now than the hotness that was...Stop that, she
told herself.
"Sorry to interrupt...whatever it is you guys are doing...but I
need Spike in the lab," she said.
He cocked his scarred eyebrow at her. "What's our fetching mad
scientist up to, then?"
"I need some of your blood."
His other eyebrow joined the first one up on his forehead. "What
for?"
"Anything I need to know about?" Angel asked.
"Only if it works."
"All right. Keep me posted."
On their way to the lab, Fred explained, "Knox found the Scroll of
Menuo'Erithizon'n, and it's got a cure for vampirism using the blood of
a souled vampire."
"Because souled vampires are as widespread as mosquitoes?"
"Well, no, of course not; that's why this isn't common knowledge."
She grinned in delight. "Can you imagine the implications if we can
make it so vampires don't have to drink blood, and they can just eat
ordinary food to survive?"
Spike decided to keep his thoughts to himself, but they were
something along the lines of vampires not lining up to be "cured"
because they actually enjoyed being bloodthirsty killers. But she was
so cutely enthusiastic that he hated to burst her bubble.
They walked into the lab together, and Spike was startled to see
Knox shoot him a look of pure, venomous hatred. Fred didn't notice, and
went chattering on blithely about how cool it would be when vampires no
longer needed blood to survive. She had Spike sit in a chair, and a lab
tech drew some blood from his arm. Another tech led a nervous-looking
volunteer vampiress from the steno pool into the room.
"You're the guinea pig, eh, pet?" Spike said sympathetically.
She twisted her fingers together. "I heard what Mr. Angel did to
Eli. We've got a pretty cushy deal here. I don't want to take any
chances on slipping."
"Don't blame you there."
Knox lit four dark green candles and put the blood in a chalice. He
sprinkled sand in a small circle on the floor, put the candles at the
corners of the compass on the sand, and placed the chalice in the
center. Chanting in a demon language, he sprinkled the requisite herbs
inside the circle around the cup. A puff of smoke erupted from the
blood, and the candles extinguished by themselves. Knox raised his head
with a smile. "That did it." He handed the cup to the vampiress. "Drink
it down, Rachel. I think you'll notice an immediate change."
She took a deep breath, then swallowed the blood in one long gulp.
The change was immediate, all right--and horrifying. Rachel vamped,
threw her head back, and emitted a scream that turned into a hiss. Her
body shrank until it was about two feet tall, at the same time
sprouting three-inch spines all over the back and sides, with a strip
of five-inch spines along her backbone. Her fingers and toes stretched
into claws, and batlike wings grew from her back and propelled her into
the air. Her face elongated into a muzzle, and her teeth grew too large
for her mouth, long and sharp. She tore out of her clothes and left
them on the floor.
Her head whipped around, and, faster than thought, she flew at
Spike, knocking him backwards in his chair, putting her claws through
his ribcage, and fastening her teeth into his throat. Sucking noisily,
she drank from him in heavy draughts, while he thrashed back and forth,
impaling his hands on her spines trying to grab her. His struggles grew
weaker as she drained him, and, still holding his ribs with her toes,
she grasped his head with her hands and smashed it onto the floor,
knocking him unconscious.
In the few seconds that passed, the lab had emptied of techs. Knox
and Fred were the only ones left, and she stared in horror as he simply
stood there with his arms crossed and a grim expression on his face.
Okay, no help from that quarter. She picked up a chair, took aim, and
sent the creature halfway across the room with a wild swing that hit it
just below the wings. She took the time that bought her to grab Spike
by the wrists and drag him into her office, slamming the door and
locking it just as the demon hit it.
"That bastard!" she seethed. "He knew! He did that on purpose.
Dammit." She peeked out the window, noting with some satisfaction that
whoever had been last out of the lab had the presence of mind to close
the door--and now Knox was cornered in there, with the thing he'd
created dive-bombing his head in a rather bored manner. She hoped
spitefully that, when it used up all its energy from Spike's blood, it
would start in on Knox's. She picked up the phone and dialed.
"Wyndam-Pryce," said the voice on the other end.
"Oh, thank God."
"Fred? What's wrong?"
"Knox did this ritual using Spike's blood, and one of the stenos
turned into this spiny bloodsucking creature that attacked and drained
Spike, and now I'm locked in my office with him and he's unconscious
because it hit his head and I don't know what to do."
"Slow down. What ritual?"
She took a deep breath. "Knox said he found this scroll. He said it
would make it so vampires wouldn't need blood to survive anymore. The
Scroll of Menuo'Erithizon'n? He said, he said that he needed the blood
of a souled vampire..."
"Can you spell that?" She did, and he clicked his tongue. "That's
what I thought you said. Fred, that ritual can use the blood of any
vampire, and it causes the vampire that drinks it to turn into the
creature you described, and then attack the donor vampire. It's an
assassination rite."
"Well, but...he's not dead."
"Did it get a chance to bite his head off?"
She looked down at Spike's bloodless body. The wounds on his
throat, hands,
and ribs were dry and pale. "Ew! No, it just drained him, I think. I
knocked it off before it had a chance to do anything more. Wesley?
This thing is fast and strong. How do we kill it, or turn it back into
a secretary? It's trapped in the lab, with Knox, for now, but Spike and
I are trapped in my office. And what about Spike, anyway? I think it
got all his blood."
She heard him suck his breath in. "Spike is locked in your office
with you?"
She was still watching the insensate vampire. His eyes suddenly
snapped open--yellow, she noticed with a lurch in her stomach. Then his
hand closed around her ankle with preternatural strength.
###
Wesley heard Fred make an "Eep!" noise and drop the phone. Rather
than shout uselessly into his own instrument, he snatched his gun from
his desk drawer and a crossbow from a cabinet. Pounding down the hall,
shoving lawyers out of his way, he hit the fire staircase and charged
to the lab's floor.
A glance in the window showed him the creature flying around, but
no Knox. Gunn, carrying his hubcap axe, came running up as he was
trying the door. At Wesley's questioning look, he explained, "One of
the lab techs just told me."
"The door's locked, and Fred's trapped in her office with Spike,
whom the demon drained of blood."
"Well, that can't be good. Break it down?"
"On three..."
"Crap, man, she's coming out."
###
"Oh, screw this," Fred said. Her free foot lashed out and connected
with Spike's head, knocking him out again. She looked out into the lab
and saw that the creature was still flapping through the lab, but Knox
wasn't
visible anymore. She took her white coat off and stalked over to the
door. Flinging it open, she stood there and waited for the demon to
notice--which didn't take long. She had time enough to think, Dang,
that thing is fast! before it was upon her.
With exquisite timing, she tossed her coat over it, entangling its
wings and sending it crashing to the floor. Then she calmly and
deliberately picked up a chair and began bashing it over and over
again, until it lay motionless.
The door to the lab crashed open, and Wes and Gunn came charging
in. "Are you all right?" Wesley's question was slightly breathless.
"Sure." Fred moved a loose strand of hair out of her face. "Spike's
hurt, though. And we need to do something about this." She pushed on
the still form under her lab coat with her foot, carefully avoiding the
spines. Picking up a phone on a desk, she dialed the infirmary and told
them to send a team over, with restraints, stat.
"Where's Knox?" Gunn asked. He noticed a shoe sticking out from
behind a table. "Oh." He stepped around the table and looked down. "Oh.
Ugh." He tried to shield Fred's view. "You don't want to see that."
"Yes I do." Her face expressionless, she gazed down at the
bloodless body
lying there with its throat torn out. "He caused this. On purpose." She
walked back into her office and knelt down next to Spike. "It wasn't
Spike's fault. He thought he was doing something good."
The medical team bustled in and strapped Spike to a gurney. He
awakened, yellow-eyed and struggling, as they fastened the last
restraint. Fred put her hand on his arm. "Spike," she said gently. He
growled, but quieted. "We'll get you some blood real soon," she assured
him. He growled again, softer, and turned his head into her hand when
she touched his hair.
###
"Bloody hell, pet." Spike didn't want to face her. "'Fraid I gave
you a bit of a fright there." He sat up in a hospital bed in the
infirmary, a cup of blood at his side, back to normal.
"Spike." Fred grasped his chin and made him meet her eyes. "It.
Wasn't. Your. Fault. Okay? I know what happens to a vampire when
they're drained. It was Knox. He's been planning this for weeks.
Jealous little creep."
He lifted an eyebrow. "Jealous?"
"I found an ugly little rambling journal he was writing. He
noticed...things." Now it was Fred who didn't want to meet Spike's
eyes. "The way you look at me. The way I look at you. He thought--" She
stopped awkwardly.
Head tilt. "He thought we had feelin's for each other?"
Her voice was a whisper. "Yeah."
"And do we?"
She kissed him, surprising them both. It surprised them both even
more when he put his hands on either side of her face and kissed her
back, very thoroughly. When they stopped, after a series of small
kisses, she smiled at him tremulously . "Yeah. I guess we do."
He grinned back. "Well, then. That's a bit of all right."
###
Angel had left a message on Fred's voicemail that he wanted to see
them both when Spike was better. His sour expression didn't change much
when they entered his office, closer together than was strictly
necessary. Spike slouched in the red
chair, while Fred perched on the arm. After they told him what had
happened, he said, "What about Rachel?"
Fred grinned. "Wesley found a reversal ritual. She's a little
banged up, but she'll be okay."
"So, everyone's all right but Knox?"
She bared her teeth in a gesture that wasn't a smile and rested her
hand on Spike's shoulder. He covered her hand with his. "I reckon he
got what he deserved, mate," Spike said. "And Madam Curie here saved my
bacon, right enough." He pulled her into his lap and kissed the top of
her head, while she blushed.
"Okay, great." Angel made a notation on the yellow legal pad in
front of him. When he looked up again, Spike and Fred had locked lips.
"Jeez, guys, get a room."
They broke off. "Got one." Spike curled his tongue behind his teeth
and gave Angel an infuriating smirk.
Angel closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. "Not this one."
"Fine, fine." Spike exchanged glances with Fred. "Can we at least
have the chair?"
Finis
Author's Note: In case anyone's wondering about the scroll,
"menuo" is Latin for "blood," and "Erithizon" is the
genus for the North American porcupine.
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