Trickster Sequel 3
Mar. 4th, 2006 10:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lit_galTrickster's Sequel returns after a week off for real homework.
Warnings: Spike/Xander, dom/sub, dom Xander, slash, bondage
Xander's vamp side keeps popping out
"Not much use out here, am I then?" Spike asked as he walked through the gates of Grove cemetery behind Xander.
"Oh, I don't know. I'm betting on a least a few fledges we can take out some aggression on. With the Initiative running around, it seems like every vamp with a decade under his belt is trying to get a couple dozen fledges around him. Yeah, like having huge clumps of vamps makes them less conspicuous. Morons."
"So, we're going to find some fledges so I can watch ya get turned by someone else?" Spike's voice sounded more angry than anything, and Xander looked over at his arch enemy/favorite childe.
"Well, I'm hoping that if a fledge gets past the bad jokes and holy water and stake that you might, I don't know, rescue the guy who has the human blood in his refrigerator." Xander pulled out his lime green water gun and started looking down the neat aisles of gravestones.
"If you're counting on that, better start uncounting what with the chip." Spike tapped his head."
"Ah, but I know something you don't know," Xander sing-songed before catching a glimpse of Spike's mortified expression. "And I'm thinking the sing-song isn't working here. But the part I know that you don't know is the part where you can kill demons even if you can't pinch an old woman without a migraine. Which really, can I say I'm grateful because those guys are looking cranky." Xander nodded toward a group of four fledges walking toward them, arms arrogantly swinging and game faces on.
"I hope your bloody right or this is going ta be a short fight," Spike said as he rolled his head from one side to the other, stretching with cat-like motions.
"Oh, I'm right," Xander said even though he suddenly worried that the way the chip affected Vinji might not be exactly the same as a vampire. Either way, he didn't have time to shout a warning because Spike leapt forward, a sharp fist striking out at the lead vamp. Xander immediately knew that the Initiative used a one size fits all chip because Spike danced back with such joy that Xander couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"Think you can take the Big Bad, do ya?" Spike asked as the other three rushed at him. Xander leaned on a granite marker as Spike danced right before doing a neat reverse spin that made his coat billow and sent a red-haired punk boy slamming into a tree.
Spike dusted two quickly, snapping one neck and staking the other with a branch he ripped from a tree. Then he amused himself with the two remaining vampires, trading kicks and punches with a gleeful violence that made Xander think of Nusa on those days when she would find some hunter or slayer seeking her. Killing villagers provided food, but hunting the hunters gave her joy. Vamp number three disintegrated into ash and now number four started looking nervous, and Xander had to wonder at the fledge's stupidity because Xander had known from Spike's first punch that these four didn't have the experience or years to compete.
So, when the skanky vamp with the greasy hair and Spike both froze mid fight, their bodies frozen into a stillness that only the dead could manage, Xander felt the hairs on his arms stand up.
"Soldier boys," Spike hissed.
"Oh fuck," the other vamp added, and then Spike drove the broken branch through the vamp's chest so that the shocked face turned to ash. Spike's eyes focused on the brick wall behind Xander, and Xander didn't even wait to see the enemy coming over the wall, he just started running, dodging around headstones and digging in his jeans for the keys to his Grenada at the same time.
Pulling the keys out, Xander scrambled around to the far side of his blue lady and shoved the key into the lock with far more force than necessary, and then flinched at the sound of breaking glass as Spike found his own way into the car. Xander slid in and started the engine, throwing her into gear just as a soldier appeared in the beam of his headlights.
The figure wore fatigues and a mask as it clutched one seriously big ass gun, and Xander didn't even try to steer around him. Luckily for the soldier, trained reflexes sent him rolling to the side just in time to avoid becoming a grisly hood ornament. Xander gritted his teeth and steered his lady around a turn as he both thanked god that the man had gotten out of the way and wished that he had hit him.
Yeah, killing was of the bad, but Xander decided that some humans deserved to belong in the "evil" category. Spike's body curled in a fetal position on the floor of the passenger side convinced him of that. Well, actually the petite Vinji woman with the skin stripped from her back convinced him of that, but Spike's terror wasn't making him feel any more charitable. While he was all for killing the dimension-conquering flesh-eating demons, and he could even understand Buffy's enthusiasm which occasionally led to a few mistakes, this genocide and torture approach made Xander want to feed a few of them to the Scourge.
He took several looping detours before heading for his apartment. Not even the Initiative would follow them into this neighborhood at night, and Xander pulled his car into the dark shell of an old factory, Spike had casually brushed the broken glass off the seat and perched himself with one boot up on the dash and a cigarette in his right hand where he could easily flick the ash out the window. He remained silent, following Xander around to the front of the building with numbered doors and open stairs to the second and third floors.
Xander fished for his keys again as he headed for his apartment. Even though Spike hadn't said a word, Xander could read the tension in every twitch of Spike's shoulder when he spotted a human on the street and every deep draw on the cigarette that made the red-ember end glow in the dark. He'd proven to Spike that he could still fight, but he'd also reminded him that he had no defenses against humans. Xander hated it. But at least now they were safely home.
"Spike, come in," Xander offered as he opened the door to his apartment, flicking on a light as he walked in. Spike tossed his cigarette onto the sidewalk and stepped over the threshold.
"Well this is… it's bloody white trash, pet," Spike commented the minute he stepped in. Xander looked around the small room where the couch, a second-hand coffee table, the Barcalounger, a worn T.V. stand and the fake tree Buffy gave him filled the entire living room. A tiny island with a two burner cooktop and a single barstool divided the space from the kitchen which included a half-size refrigerator with eight inches of counter separating it from a kitchen sink that doubled as the bathroom sink.
"Very white trash," Xander had to agree as he tossed his jacket down on the chipped coffee table and headed straight for the kitchen. Or at least the end of the room that pretended to be a kitchen. From there he had to push open a vinyl folding like his grandmother had in the old R.V. she had driven across the country, parking in Walmart parking lots on her last great voyage. She made it as far as Black Duck, Minnesota before dropping dead in the house wares aisle of the chain store.
"Coming?" he asked Spike.
"Wot? You inviting me in for a shower?" Spike rolled his shoulders, and with the coat gone, his tight t-shirt showed every inch of flexing muscle as his backbone followed in a serpentine movement that made his hips slowly twist. As the fear of humans retreated in that unique way vampires had of living in the now and forgetting the past, Spike reclaimed some of his lost confidence. In return, Xander's cock jumped up and did a jig at the invitation in that motion, in the raised eyebrow, in the taut lips and sharp cheekbones. Spike blew air out through his nose and then took an intentionally deep breath, closing his eyes as he face rippled with demonic ridges. Xander could imagine what Spike smelled, and his reaction made Xander ache even more.
"I'm inviting you into my real place, but if you vant to stay here and play these games…" Xander shrugged as he reached over and flushed the toilet, slipping around to the shower before the pipes could fill again. Stepping into the ancient stall with sixties green tile that had grown in popularity only because most people in the sixties were too stoned to know the difference, Xander threw his shoulder into the back wall, and an entire section popped back six inches.
"Bloody hell," Spike had been leaning indolently against the framed door opening with his best 'come hither' look, but now he stepped forward and Xander reached for his keys, turning a gold one in the lock and then pushing the recessed section of wall back revealing a doorway.
"The locks are all mechanical. The tile section is held in place by water pressure, so unless you release that pressure by either flushing the toilet or running the shower, the section is solid. When you come in, let the door fall closed, and the section of wall will set back in place," Xander explained.
He walked into his real apartment, and considered the space with a new eye now that he had shared this inner lair with his first guest. How funny that Spike and not Buffy or Giles or Angel or even Willow would be the first to see this. While not a palace, his real apartment had four times more floor space arranged into four open living areas.
A huge bed with a modern steel four-poster stood angled against a far corner with a rack of weapons behind it. Casting his eyes in a counter-clockwise circle, he next considered his small but state of the art kitchen with stainless steel and a granite-topped island. His living room contained only a low black couch and big screen television flanked by a built-in book case that contained his movies and game systems and stereo, and the fourth corner was his library, a very Gileseque desk in oak surrounded by shelves of heavy volumes. The bookcases against the wall extended all the way to the ceiling, but the ones in front of the desk stood only four feet high. And every section angled toward the center with corner shelving against the support beams so that no one could lay in ambush.
After what happened to Nusa, Xander found himself rather wary of ambushes and lairs. Which really... not much with the making sense since technically that hadn't been him standing behind his sire while he watched her turn to dust. Fifteen hundred years of vicious wisdom and jealous love and cold rage turned into dust to be trampled beneath the feet of her sisters.
"Hell, what is it with you Drac vamps? Bloody nesters havin' to have some nancyish lair."
"Drac vamps?" Xander turned to Spike just in time to see him let go of the door, watching in fascination as it first slammed shut and then slid forward so that the tile on the other side hid the opening.
"Yeah, knew Dracula, or rather him and me locked horns a bit. But this reminds me of him."
"Don't suggest I am anything like him," Xander immediately snarled, stepping up and slamming his forearm into Spike's chest, and sending the vampire reeling back into the heavy oak bookshelves with a crack of skull against wood. Xander stood there, his rage and loss and frustration roaring through his veins until he finally turned and stormed across the empty center of the room, his boots echoing across the stone tile floor.
"Right, what the hell's that about then?" Dropping the keys on the kitchen island, Xander put his hand on the cold granite and tried to catch his breath. He couldn't let memories that he hadn't lived command him.
"I'm sorry," he offered, pulling open the refrigerator and searching for a soda. He wanted something more, but he found that when he needed a drink, he needed to stay away from drink. Nusa's childe ran near the surface when he drank, and even Willy had asked him to take his drinking else where after a small accident involving two froctor demons, a vamp and a dozen or so bar stools.
"It's worse than keepin' up with Dru's emotions."
"Don't start vith me," Xander snarled as he turned around
"Right then, you're back to playing sire."
"I'm not playing at anything."
"Are you sure 'bout that? Not playing with me, then?" Spike stepped forward, and Xander retreated around the kitchen island.
"Enough," Xander finally said as he stopped on the far side of the island, and Spike stepped right up into his personal space, pressing his own chest to Xander's as he ran a tongue along the inside of his lower lip. Xander gasped as he felt lust burn through him, making his face flush as he cock hardened.
"You sure 'bout that?" Spike asked, strong fingers reaching up and closing around Xander's upper arms until Xander narrowed his eyes as the dull ache began to grow. "You sure this is enough?" Spike leaned forward and whispered the words in Xander's ear as he pushed his groin forward. Xander could feel needs that he had forced into some repressed corner surface, feelings he had shoved in with the knowledge that Angel was hot and the memory of Larry's blood in his mouth and the fear that he liked raping the two Aurelius vamps. Oh yeah, that closet door creaked slowly open.
"You don't vant to go there," Xander said as he tried to pull back. He didn't have the strength to force Spike to let go, but he flinched as his arms began to throb with the lack of circulation.
"Maybe I do," Spike answered, his own eyes narrowing in pain. "You remember what it felt like, pet? You remember feeling me filling you up, making you squirm and cry for more as your skin grew hot? Remember that day?" Spike's voice took on a low, cultured whisper which sounded more Giles than Spike with the sexiness, and Xander really didn't want to think about how Giles-voice came to sound sexy.
"I remember we both did what we had to if we wanted to avoid the whole world endy thing," Xander countered, remembering all too well the feeling of being held down by a force strong enough to break him in half, a force that had wrung screams of pleasure out of him as sharp teeth scored hieroglyphs in his skin while first fingers and then a cock had pushed into him.
"Maybe you brought me here for an encore," Spike suggested. Strong hands slid down his arms and the moved to his hips, holding him tightly. Xander remembered the reasons why he had submitted on that day, first to Spike's lust and then to Angelus' rape, but those reasons ended with Angelus' little trip to hell. And now Spike couldn't break him in half.
Xander slammed into the granite countertop, crushing Spike's hand and doing enough damage to himself that he yelped in pain because, yeah, that hurt. It obviously hurt Spike more because he let go of Xander and fell to one knee as he cradled his head and cursed colorfully. Using Spike's blinding pain as a distraction, Xander took a couple of steps toward one of the three weapons racks hanging in his bedroom corner and grabbed a manacle and chain. Coming back to the kitchen area, he snapped the heavy metal in place even as Spike still cradled his head in his hands, rocking gently.
Xander held the chain and looked down at the injured creature in front of him. He could feel a twitching need to stake Spike, to punish him for submitting to humans, and yet he felt a need to hold him and feel him submitting more. Yeah, he had issues. Xander wondered briefly if any local therapists treated almost humans with more holes in their brains that actual working brain cells.
"Come on, up you go," Xander got an arm under Spike's arms and lifted without letting go of his new chain leash.
"I can bloody well stand," Spike snarled in full game face as he jerked back away. Xander quickly wrapped the hanging chain around his fist so that Spike couldn't pull free without seriously hurting him... and therefore seriously hurting himself. "You little--" Spike hissed through fangs as he shook his hand as though he could shake off a locked manacle.
"You are the one who voke these memories," Xander said as he pulled on the chain. Spike stood immovable. "You reminded me that of all the rules and lore, there is only one that really matters," Xander commented as he considered his damaged wrist, the one that Spike had fed from at Giles' house. Spike had accepted his blood along with the title of child, and now Xander just had to find a way to enforce that. In the bright light of his kitchen, the bruises and puncture marks blending into a form of modern art.
"Oh, what's that, mate?" Spike resisted the pull of the chain, but he didn't try and step back. Instead he stood with his head warily cocked, obviously not willing to either submit or fight and have the chip go off again.
"The rule that says one may act however one wishes as long as one is able to defend oneself." Xander took the thumb of the hand tangled with the chain and pressed a thumbnail into his damaged wrist. Almost immediately, blood rose to the surface in a thin line.
"And you think you can get away with playin' sire? Not bloody likely. Soon as I get this chip out--"
"Vhat? You'll attack me? I'm well aware of a vampire's need for revenge having survived Angelus' version of it. However, plenty of spells would tame that blood lust of yours when it comes to me. There's a nice little Doegean thrall spell I translated last year that would ensure that you behaved yourself.
"You wouldn't." Spike raised his lip, showing the sharpened front teeth in their full glory.
"I vould," Xander answered. "I don't have strength to defeat you any more, but I have other assets." Xander considered the thin trail of blood now running the length of his forarm. Bringing his arm up, he licked the blood from his own skin while watching Spike's expression shift. The younger vampire wanted the blood, needed it. Xander continued to trace the meandering trickle up the arm, licking slowly. Finally he reached the source and closed his mouth around the wound, not sucking but still enjoying the expression of pain and lust and hunger on Spike's face.
"Soddin' little shit," Spike finally cursed.
"I have access to human blood--not just my own, but enough to keep you fed and strong. I can get you permission to hunt and feel your opponents' bones snap beneath your hands. I can help you find someone with the knowledge to deal with that chip. I can use that chip to manipulate you and force you to submit. And I can set a spell around you that will bind you to me forever. Your submission is not a question because I can force you to submit and you cannot defend yourself." Xander could feel a twinge of guilt over the last statement, not so much with the saying it as with the taking advantage of it; however, he knew he needed Spike's submission as much as Spike needed to truly submit. Without a sire or a mate, he would be alone, and solitary vampires simply did not exist.
"I can get those things from the English git," Spike countered. "That's why I bloody went there."
"You went there because you could not find me," Xander answered confidently. "And Giles will never give you human blood or even understand your need to either dominate or submit. He will not give you vhat you need, but I will."
Spike stood silent, defiant, unmoving. Xander reached to the limit of the chain and grabbed for the kitchen phone, hitting the speaker phone button before speed dialing L.A.
"Angel Investigations."
"Cordy!" Xander said in his most non-threatening, enthusiastic voice.
"Xander? Hey, what's up?"
"Need to talk to Angel," Xander answered without pointing out that he asked for the same thing every time he called and she should be able to guess by this time.
"Hold on a sec." Xander eyed his cold soda sitting on the far side of the kitchen by the refrigerator and tried to decide if he had enough chain to get there. Probably not.
"Xander?" Angel's voice came over the phone sounding slightly tinny. "Is everything okay?"
"Other than my ungrateful childe being a pain in my ass, everything's fine," Xander answered cheerfully. He actually felt fairly cheerful because Spike's resolve was already starting to crumble at the sound of his grandsire's voice. The childe was too young, too injured, and too scared to be alone, and Xander just had to get him to admit to it.
"Spike? Is he--?"
"He's fine, standing right here in fact. I just need you to get me a dose of sire's blood. The soldiers cut his head open and with the chip sending a few thousand volts through his brain on a regular basis, I don't want any more damage done." Xander asked casually and without further arguments even though asking a vampire for his own ranked right up there with asking a Da'halia for his horn or asking a human for his finger. Not lethal, but certainly a rather large request.
"Xander, I--" Angel sounded like he would protest, and then stuttered to a stop. "I'll send you up a few pints with Cordelia," he finally answered. Xander wondered whether the change came from Angel's unwillingness to fight with the man he had raped or Angelus' desire not to lose one more Master of the already endangered Aurelius line. He even wondered whether Angel understood how his own compliance affected Spike. Angel, the current head of the Aurelius line had submitted to a human in a very intimate way, and now Spike's stiff body curved and softened.
"But you have to pay Cordelia for the trip," Angel added, his voice sounding grouchy enough to make it clear he didn't like the demand. And really Xander found that even more helpful. Angel didn't want to give in to Xander's request, but he did. Now the grandsire had paved a trail for Spike to follow.
"Not a problem," Xander assured him. He often translated for trade items, and he kept some of the more exotic jewelry for just such an occasion. Xander reached over to hit the speaker phone button and cut off the call without any further courtesies and then he found much more slack in the chain.
"You want some blood?" he asked.
"Yeah." Spike didn't fight the chain when Xander walked to the refrigerator and opened the wide side. In a drawer, the human blood he'd bought lay in packs. He grabbed two packs, and then he hesitated. If he handed them over with directions to the mugs and microwave, Spike would gain some independence, but Xander had to admit that he didn't want that right now. He wanted his hellcat looking to him for food and protection, and he could no longer provide food by hunting with Spike.
He closed his eyes against the memory of Larry's heart slowing and finally stumbling to a stop in his embrace as he drank the warm, fresh blood. He even remembered appreciating the taste of a human on such a rich diet since the blood itself carried the heavy taste of cream with all the fats in it. Yeah, Larry had been a schmuck, but he often wondered who the boy would have become if Xander hadn't eaten him on that horrible night. Maybe he would have grown out of his bully phase and become a doctor or a civil-rights lawyer or a world famous actor. Okay, he had a better chance of growing up to be a drunken waste of space like Xander's own father, but Xander had stolen those other possibilities.
"You planning on givin' me that or just standing with you head in the refrigerator all night?" Spike's demand brought him out of his memories.
"Mind your betters," Xander commented as he slid the blood drawer closed and kicked the refrigerator door shut.
"Yeah, right," Spike snorted. Xander stopped with his hand half way to the cupboard with the cups.
"Excuse me?" Xander could feel every nerve and muscle in his body tighten at the challenge. Spike had been bouncing slightly, his eyes on the blood. Now he stilled, and yellow eyes moved up to Xander's face. Even with the animal blood at Giles' house, Xander could see the almost painful need for a quantity of fresh human blood. A part of him flinched away from that pain, wanted to take it away. Human sympathy rose at the sight of that raw need. Another part of him whispered that Spike needed someone who would be firm. He wanted to let go of the authority that sat so poorly on young shoulders, but he couldn't without knowing that Xander could handle it.
"Wot?" Spike demanded arrogantly as though he didn't know why Xander would be upset.
"You vill acknowledge your betters."
Spike didn't answer, but the yellow eyes searched the room without making any move to apologize. Xander felt a desire to beat the attitude out of his hell cat rise up to challenge his human sympathy. He compromised.
Detouring to the sink, Xander grabbed a knife out of a drawer and stabbed the plastic skin. Blood spurted across the silver surface of the sink, creating a fan-shaped pattern and filling the air with the metallic scent that both revolted and attracted Xander. Spike took a step forward, his eyebrows going up as he watched the bag drain into the metal basin, collecting around the drain before sliding out of sight in the pipe.
"Bloody fucking hell."
"I have 900 years of memories, I have the blood, I have the obedience of your sire. You'd better think about who is your better, hellcat of mine," Xander said softly as he lifted a corner of the plastic and let the last of the human blood dribble out. Shaking the packet a bit, he used his toe to open the door to the garbage and dropped it in before turning on the water.
"I... bloody hell, the fucking universe hates me," Spike groaned as he leaned his back into the island as he watched with yellow eyes.
Xander left the second bag sitting on the counter as he stepped close this time, Spike's body remaining slumped as Xander now pressed in, trapping the vampire between his body, which Spike couldn't strike out against without triggering the chip and the unyielding granite.
Even though Ethan's spell had provided the details, he could still remember what it felt like to have his first childe at his side: the devotion, the power, the adoration and the fear. Now Xander pushed his body into Spike even harder, allowing his hands to travel up the strong, corded arms until his fingers explored under the edge of the sleeves. Just like on that night years earlier, Spike couldn't bring himself to say the words, and so he dropped his head to the side, the curve of his neck lengthening until Xander could feel a triumphant growl echo through his mind even if his body could no longer form one.
Xander dropped a kiss onto that exposed neck while he tightened his hands into Spike's arms, feeling the links dig into his palm on the hand that held the chain. Without warning, he sunk dull human teeth into that pale flesh, feeling the skin yield even as the stretched muscle resisted his bite. With his own body pressed to Spike, he could feel a tremor run the length of Spike's body and then he released the bite and kissed the reddened skin, licking a few drops of blood that oozed from a line where his lower teeth had broken the skin.
"My beautiful hellcat. I vill get that chip out of your head," Xander promised.
"Right, and then?" Spike didn't move his head, his neck still stretched submissively before Xander.
"Um, we'll figure it out then? But you know random killing is so totally off the menu," Xander admitted without stepping back. "But there's always much killing of blood-sucking demons and drinking of bagged blood to look forward too."
"Bollocks, I'm bloody cursed with barmy sires," Spike snorted. Xander would have taken offense except that he had accepted his own fragile hold on sanity a long time ago. Besides, he'd take getting called barmy if it meant that Spike finally accepted him as sire again, and as that lithe body slowly relaxed, Xander moved his arms to encircle Spike.
"You must have done something horrible in a previous life," Xander agreed.
"Horrible thing is that I never got around to doing anythin' horrible," Spike disagreed, but now hands found Xander's waist.
"Let's get you fed, childe," Xander said as he turned and grabbed the second bag. This time he pulled a mug out of the cupboard and poured the thick red liquid into it before turning around and putting it in the microwave inset into the kitchen island under the cook top. Finally he dropped the chain and let the heavy links swing as the mechanical whirr of the microwave continued.
"I'm going to go use the bathroom," he explained as he headed toward the corner where a wall behind the television cut into the room at a 45 degree angle, hiding a small, triangular bathroom. He needed to get himself away from Spike before he threw the vamp over the counter while the blood cooled and spoiled. He needed to remind Spike that submitting had its pleasures.
[Poll #684649]
Warnings: Spike/Xander, dom/sub, dom Xander, slash, bondage
Xander's vamp side keeps popping out
"Not much use out here, am I then?" Spike asked as he walked through the gates of Grove cemetery behind Xander.
"Oh, I don't know. I'm betting on a least a few fledges we can take out some aggression on. With the Initiative running around, it seems like every vamp with a decade under his belt is trying to get a couple dozen fledges around him. Yeah, like having huge clumps of vamps makes them less conspicuous. Morons."
"So, we're going to find some fledges so I can watch ya get turned by someone else?" Spike's voice sounded more angry than anything, and Xander looked over at his arch enemy/favorite childe.
"Well, I'm hoping that if a fledge gets past the bad jokes and holy water and stake that you might, I don't know, rescue the guy who has the human blood in his refrigerator." Xander pulled out his lime green water gun and started looking down the neat aisles of gravestones.
"If you're counting on that, better start uncounting what with the chip." Spike tapped his head."
"Ah, but I know something you don't know," Xander sing-songed before catching a glimpse of Spike's mortified expression. "And I'm thinking the sing-song isn't working here. But the part I know that you don't know is the part where you can kill demons even if you can't pinch an old woman without a migraine. Which really, can I say I'm grateful because those guys are looking cranky." Xander nodded toward a group of four fledges walking toward them, arms arrogantly swinging and game faces on.
"I hope your bloody right or this is going ta be a short fight," Spike said as he rolled his head from one side to the other, stretching with cat-like motions.
"Oh, I'm right," Xander said even though he suddenly worried that the way the chip affected Vinji might not be exactly the same as a vampire. Either way, he didn't have time to shout a warning because Spike leapt forward, a sharp fist striking out at the lead vamp. Xander immediately knew that the Initiative used a one size fits all chip because Spike danced back with such joy that Xander couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"Think you can take the Big Bad, do ya?" Spike asked as the other three rushed at him. Xander leaned on a granite marker as Spike danced right before doing a neat reverse spin that made his coat billow and sent a red-haired punk boy slamming into a tree.
Spike dusted two quickly, snapping one neck and staking the other with a branch he ripped from a tree. Then he amused himself with the two remaining vampires, trading kicks and punches with a gleeful violence that made Xander think of Nusa on those days when she would find some hunter or slayer seeking her. Killing villagers provided food, but hunting the hunters gave her joy. Vamp number three disintegrated into ash and now number four started looking nervous, and Xander had to wonder at the fledge's stupidity because Xander had known from Spike's first punch that these four didn't have the experience or years to compete.
So, when the skanky vamp with the greasy hair and Spike both froze mid fight, their bodies frozen into a stillness that only the dead could manage, Xander felt the hairs on his arms stand up.
"Soldier boys," Spike hissed.
"Oh fuck," the other vamp added, and then Spike drove the broken branch through the vamp's chest so that the shocked face turned to ash. Spike's eyes focused on the brick wall behind Xander, and Xander didn't even wait to see the enemy coming over the wall, he just started running, dodging around headstones and digging in his jeans for the keys to his Grenada at the same time.
Pulling the keys out, Xander scrambled around to the far side of his blue lady and shoved the key into the lock with far more force than necessary, and then flinched at the sound of breaking glass as Spike found his own way into the car. Xander slid in and started the engine, throwing her into gear just as a soldier appeared in the beam of his headlights.
The figure wore fatigues and a mask as it clutched one seriously big ass gun, and Xander didn't even try to steer around him. Luckily for the soldier, trained reflexes sent him rolling to the side just in time to avoid becoming a grisly hood ornament. Xander gritted his teeth and steered his lady around a turn as he both thanked god that the man had gotten out of the way and wished that he had hit him.
Yeah, killing was of the bad, but Xander decided that some humans deserved to belong in the "evil" category. Spike's body curled in a fetal position on the floor of the passenger side convinced him of that. Well, actually the petite Vinji woman with the skin stripped from her back convinced him of that, but Spike's terror wasn't making him feel any more charitable. While he was all for killing the dimension-conquering flesh-eating demons, and he could even understand Buffy's enthusiasm which occasionally led to a few mistakes, this genocide and torture approach made Xander want to feed a few of them to the Scourge.
He took several looping detours before heading for his apartment. Not even the Initiative would follow them into this neighborhood at night, and Xander pulled his car into the dark shell of an old factory, Spike had casually brushed the broken glass off the seat and perched himself with one boot up on the dash and a cigarette in his right hand where he could easily flick the ash out the window. He remained silent, following Xander around to the front of the building with numbered doors and open stairs to the second and third floors.
Xander fished for his keys again as he headed for his apartment. Even though Spike hadn't said a word, Xander could read the tension in every twitch of Spike's shoulder when he spotted a human on the street and every deep draw on the cigarette that made the red-ember end glow in the dark. He'd proven to Spike that he could still fight, but he'd also reminded him that he had no defenses against humans. Xander hated it. But at least now they were safely home.
"Spike, come in," Xander offered as he opened the door to his apartment, flicking on a light as he walked in. Spike tossed his cigarette onto the sidewalk and stepped over the threshold.
"Well this is… it's bloody white trash, pet," Spike commented the minute he stepped in. Xander looked around the small room where the couch, a second-hand coffee table, the Barcalounger, a worn T.V. stand and the fake tree Buffy gave him filled the entire living room. A tiny island with a two burner cooktop and a single barstool divided the space from the kitchen which included a half-size refrigerator with eight inches of counter separating it from a kitchen sink that doubled as the bathroom sink.
"Very white trash," Xander had to agree as he tossed his jacket down on the chipped coffee table and headed straight for the kitchen. Or at least the end of the room that pretended to be a kitchen. From there he had to push open a vinyl folding like his grandmother had in the old R.V. she had driven across the country, parking in Walmart parking lots on her last great voyage. She made it as far as Black Duck, Minnesota before dropping dead in the house wares aisle of the chain store.
"Coming?" he asked Spike.
"Wot? You inviting me in for a shower?" Spike rolled his shoulders, and with the coat gone, his tight t-shirt showed every inch of flexing muscle as his backbone followed in a serpentine movement that made his hips slowly twist. As the fear of humans retreated in that unique way vampires had of living in the now and forgetting the past, Spike reclaimed some of his lost confidence. In return, Xander's cock jumped up and did a jig at the invitation in that motion, in the raised eyebrow, in the taut lips and sharp cheekbones. Spike blew air out through his nose and then took an intentionally deep breath, closing his eyes as he face rippled with demonic ridges. Xander could imagine what Spike smelled, and his reaction made Xander ache even more.
"I'm inviting you into my real place, but if you vant to stay here and play these games…" Xander shrugged as he reached over and flushed the toilet, slipping around to the shower before the pipes could fill again. Stepping into the ancient stall with sixties green tile that had grown in popularity only because most people in the sixties were too stoned to know the difference, Xander threw his shoulder into the back wall, and an entire section popped back six inches.
"Bloody hell," Spike had been leaning indolently against the framed door opening with his best 'come hither' look, but now he stepped forward and Xander reached for his keys, turning a gold one in the lock and then pushing the recessed section of wall back revealing a doorway.
"The locks are all mechanical. The tile section is held in place by water pressure, so unless you release that pressure by either flushing the toilet or running the shower, the section is solid. When you come in, let the door fall closed, and the section of wall will set back in place," Xander explained.
He walked into his real apartment, and considered the space with a new eye now that he had shared this inner lair with his first guest. How funny that Spike and not Buffy or Giles or Angel or even Willow would be the first to see this. While not a palace, his real apartment had four times more floor space arranged into four open living areas.
A huge bed with a modern steel four-poster stood angled against a far corner with a rack of weapons behind it. Casting his eyes in a counter-clockwise circle, he next considered his small but state of the art kitchen with stainless steel and a granite-topped island. His living room contained only a low black couch and big screen television flanked by a built-in book case that contained his movies and game systems and stereo, and the fourth corner was his library, a very Gileseque desk in oak surrounded by shelves of heavy volumes. The bookcases against the wall extended all the way to the ceiling, but the ones in front of the desk stood only four feet high. And every section angled toward the center with corner shelving against the support beams so that no one could lay in ambush.
After what happened to Nusa, Xander found himself rather wary of ambushes and lairs. Which really... not much with the making sense since technically that hadn't been him standing behind his sire while he watched her turn to dust. Fifteen hundred years of vicious wisdom and jealous love and cold rage turned into dust to be trampled beneath the feet of her sisters.
"Hell, what is it with you Drac vamps? Bloody nesters havin' to have some nancyish lair."
"Drac vamps?" Xander turned to Spike just in time to see him let go of the door, watching in fascination as it first slammed shut and then slid forward so that the tile on the other side hid the opening.
"Yeah, knew Dracula, or rather him and me locked horns a bit. But this reminds me of him."
"Don't suggest I am anything like him," Xander immediately snarled, stepping up and slamming his forearm into Spike's chest, and sending the vampire reeling back into the heavy oak bookshelves with a crack of skull against wood. Xander stood there, his rage and loss and frustration roaring through his veins until he finally turned and stormed across the empty center of the room, his boots echoing across the stone tile floor.
"Right, what the hell's that about then?" Dropping the keys on the kitchen island, Xander put his hand on the cold granite and tried to catch his breath. He couldn't let memories that he hadn't lived command him.
"I'm sorry," he offered, pulling open the refrigerator and searching for a soda. He wanted something more, but he found that when he needed a drink, he needed to stay away from drink. Nusa's childe ran near the surface when he drank, and even Willy had asked him to take his drinking else where after a small accident involving two froctor demons, a vamp and a dozen or so bar stools.
"It's worse than keepin' up with Dru's emotions."
"Don't start vith me," Xander snarled as he turned around
"Right then, you're back to playing sire."
"I'm not playing at anything."
"Are you sure 'bout that? Not playing with me, then?" Spike stepped forward, and Xander retreated around the kitchen island.
"Enough," Xander finally said as he stopped on the far side of the island, and Spike stepped right up into his personal space, pressing his own chest to Xander's as he ran a tongue along the inside of his lower lip. Xander gasped as he felt lust burn through him, making his face flush as he cock hardened.
"You sure 'bout that?" Spike asked, strong fingers reaching up and closing around Xander's upper arms until Xander narrowed his eyes as the dull ache began to grow. "You sure this is enough?" Spike leaned forward and whispered the words in Xander's ear as he pushed his groin forward. Xander could feel needs that he had forced into some repressed corner surface, feelings he had shoved in with the knowledge that Angel was hot and the memory of Larry's blood in his mouth and the fear that he liked raping the two Aurelius vamps. Oh yeah, that closet door creaked slowly open.
"You don't vant to go there," Xander said as he tried to pull back. He didn't have the strength to force Spike to let go, but he flinched as his arms began to throb with the lack of circulation.
"Maybe I do," Spike answered, his own eyes narrowing in pain. "You remember what it felt like, pet? You remember feeling me filling you up, making you squirm and cry for more as your skin grew hot? Remember that day?" Spike's voice took on a low, cultured whisper which sounded more Giles than Spike with the sexiness, and Xander really didn't want to think about how Giles-voice came to sound sexy.
"I remember we both did what we had to if we wanted to avoid the whole world endy thing," Xander countered, remembering all too well the feeling of being held down by a force strong enough to break him in half, a force that had wrung screams of pleasure out of him as sharp teeth scored hieroglyphs in his skin while first fingers and then a cock had pushed into him.
"Maybe you brought me here for an encore," Spike suggested. Strong hands slid down his arms and the moved to his hips, holding him tightly. Xander remembered the reasons why he had submitted on that day, first to Spike's lust and then to Angelus' rape, but those reasons ended with Angelus' little trip to hell. And now Spike couldn't break him in half.
Xander slammed into the granite countertop, crushing Spike's hand and doing enough damage to himself that he yelped in pain because, yeah, that hurt. It obviously hurt Spike more because he let go of Xander and fell to one knee as he cradled his head and cursed colorfully. Using Spike's blinding pain as a distraction, Xander took a couple of steps toward one of the three weapons racks hanging in his bedroom corner and grabbed a manacle and chain. Coming back to the kitchen area, he snapped the heavy metal in place even as Spike still cradled his head in his hands, rocking gently.
Xander held the chain and looked down at the injured creature in front of him. He could feel a twitching need to stake Spike, to punish him for submitting to humans, and yet he felt a need to hold him and feel him submitting more. Yeah, he had issues. Xander wondered briefly if any local therapists treated almost humans with more holes in their brains that actual working brain cells.
"Come on, up you go," Xander got an arm under Spike's arms and lifted without letting go of his new chain leash.
"I can bloody well stand," Spike snarled in full game face as he jerked back away. Xander quickly wrapped the hanging chain around his fist so that Spike couldn't pull free without seriously hurting him... and therefore seriously hurting himself. "You little--" Spike hissed through fangs as he shook his hand as though he could shake off a locked manacle.
"You are the one who voke these memories," Xander said as he pulled on the chain. Spike stood immovable. "You reminded me that of all the rules and lore, there is only one that really matters," Xander commented as he considered his damaged wrist, the one that Spike had fed from at Giles' house. Spike had accepted his blood along with the title of child, and now Xander just had to find a way to enforce that. In the bright light of his kitchen, the bruises and puncture marks blending into a form of modern art.
"Oh, what's that, mate?" Spike resisted the pull of the chain, but he didn't try and step back. Instead he stood with his head warily cocked, obviously not willing to either submit or fight and have the chip go off again.
"The rule that says one may act however one wishes as long as one is able to defend oneself." Xander took the thumb of the hand tangled with the chain and pressed a thumbnail into his damaged wrist. Almost immediately, blood rose to the surface in a thin line.
"And you think you can get away with playin' sire? Not bloody likely. Soon as I get this chip out--"
"Vhat? You'll attack me? I'm well aware of a vampire's need for revenge having survived Angelus' version of it. However, plenty of spells would tame that blood lust of yours when it comes to me. There's a nice little Doegean thrall spell I translated last year that would ensure that you behaved yourself.
"You wouldn't." Spike raised his lip, showing the sharpened front teeth in their full glory.
"I vould," Xander answered. "I don't have strength to defeat you any more, but I have other assets." Xander considered the thin trail of blood now running the length of his forarm. Bringing his arm up, he licked the blood from his own skin while watching Spike's expression shift. The younger vampire wanted the blood, needed it. Xander continued to trace the meandering trickle up the arm, licking slowly. Finally he reached the source and closed his mouth around the wound, not sucking but still enjoying the expression of pain and lust and hunger on Spike's face.
"Soddin' little shit," Spike finally cursed.
"I have access to human blood--not just my own, but enough to keep you fed and strong. I can get you permission to hunt and feel your opponents' bones snap beneath your hands. I can help you find someone with the knowledge to deal with that chip. I can use that chip to manipulate you and force you to submit. And I can set a spell around you that will bind you to me forever. Your submission is not a question because I can force you to submit and you cannot defend yourself." Xander could feel a twinge of guilt over the last statement, not so much with the saying it as with the taking advantage of it; however, he knew he needed Spike's submission as much as Spike needed to truly submit. Without a sire or a mate, he would be alone, and solitary vampires simply did not exist.
"I can get those things from the English git," Spike countered. "That's why I bloody went there."
"You went there because you could not find me," Xander answered confidently. "And Giles will never give you human blood or even understand your need to either dominate or submit. He will not give you vhat you need, but I will."
Spike stood silent, defiant, unmoving. Xander reached to the limit of the chain and grabbed for the kitchen phone, hitting the speaker phone button before speed dialing L.A.
"Angel Investigations."
"Cordy!" Xander said in his most non-threatening, enthusiastic voice.
"Xander? Hey, what's up?"
"Need to talk to Angel," Xander answered without pointing out that he asked for the same thing every time he called and she should be able to guess by this time.
"Hold on a sec." Xander eyed his cold soda sitting on the far side of the kitchen by the refrigerator and tried to decide if he had enough chain to get there. Probably not.
"Xander?" Angel's voice came over the phone sounding slightly tinny. "Is everything okay?"
"Other than my ungrateful childe being a pain in my ass, everything's fine," Xander answered cheerfully. He actually felt fairly cheerful because Spike's resolve was already starting to crumble at the sound of his grandsire's voice. The childe was too young, too injured, and too scared to be alone, and Xander just had to get him to admit to it.
"Spike? Is he--?"
"He's fine, standing right here in fact. I just need you to get me a dose of sire's blood. The soldiers cut his head open and with the chip sending a few thousand volts through his brain on a regular basis, I don't want any more damage done." Xander asked casually and without further arguments even though asking a vampire for his own ranked right up there with asking a Da'halia for his horn or asking a human for his finger. Not lethal, but certainly a rather large request.
"Xander, I--" Angel sounded like he would protest, and then stuttered to a stop. "I'll send you up a few pints with Cordelia," he finally answered. Xander wondered whether the change came from Angel's unwillingness to fight with the man he had raped or Angelus' desire not to lose one more Master of the already endangered Aurelius line. He even wondered whether Angel understood how his own compliance affected Spike. Angel, the current head of the Aurelius line had submitted to a human in a very intimate way, and now Spike's stiff body curved and softened.
"But you have to pay Cordelia for the trip," Angel added, his voice sounding grouchy enough to make it clear he didn't like the demand. And really Xander found that even more helpful. Angel didn't want to give in to Xander's request, but he did. Now the grandsire had paved a trail for Spike to follow.
"Not a problem," Xander assured him. He often translated for trade items, and he kept some of the more exotic jewelry for just such an occasion. Xander reached over to hit the speaker phone button and cut off the call without any further courtesies and then he found much more slack in the chain.
"You want some blood?" he asked.
"Yeah." Spike didn't fight the chain when Xander walked to the refrigerator and opened the wide side. In a drawer, the human blood he'd bought lay in packs. He grabbed two packs, and then he hesitated. If he handed them over with directions to the mugs and microwave, Spike would gain some independence, but Xander had to admit that he didn't want that right now. He wanted his hellcat looking to him for food and protection, and he could no longer provide food by hunting with Spike.
He closed his eyes against the memory of Larry's heart slowing and finally stumbling to a stop in his embrace as he drank the warm, fresh blood. He even remembered appreciating the taste of a human on such a rich diet since the blood itself carried the heavy taste of cream with all the fats in it. Yeah, Larry had been a schmuck, but he often wondered who the boy would have become if Xander hadn't eaten him on that horrible night. Maybe he would have grown out of his bully phase and become a doctor or a civil-rights lawyer or a world famous actor. Okay, he had a better chance of growing up to be a drunken waste of space like Xander's own father, but Xander had stolen those other possibilities.
"You planning on givin' me that or just standing with you head in the refrigerator all night?" Spike's demand brought him out of his memories.
"Mind your betters," Xander commented as he slid the blood drawer closed and kicked the refrigerator door shut.
"Yeah, right," Spike snorted. Xander stopped with his hand half way to the cupboard with the cups.
"Excuse me?" Xander could feel every nerve and muscle in his body tighten at the challenge. Spike had been bouncing slightly, his eyes on the blood. Now he stilled, and yellow eyes moved up to Xander's face. Even with the animal blood at Giles' house, Xander could see the almost painful need for a quantity of fresh human blood. A part of him flinched away from that pain, wanted to take it away. Human sympathy rose at the sight of that raw need. Another part of him whispered that Spike needed someone who would be firm. He wanted to let go of the authority that sat so poorly on young shoulders, but he couldn't without knowing that Xander could handle it.
"Wot?" Spike demanded arrogantly as though he didn't know why Xander would be upset.
"You vill acknowledge your betters."
Spike didn't answer, but the yellow eyes searched the room without making any move to apologize. Xander felt a desire to beat the attitude out of his hell cat rise up to challenge his human sympathy. He compromised.
Detouring to the sink, Xander grabbed a knife out of a drawer and stabbed the plastic skin. Blood spurted across the silver surface of the sink, creating a fan-shaped pattern and filling the air with the metallic scent that both revolted and attracted Xander. Spike took a step forward, his eyebrows going up as he watched the bag drain into the metal basin, collecting around the drain before sliding out of sight in the pipe.
"Bloody fucking hell."
"I have 900 years of memories, I have the blood, I have the obedience of your sire. You'd better think about who is your better, hellcat of mine," Xander said softly as he lifted a corner of the plastic and let the last of the human blood dribble out. Shaking the packet a bit, he used his toe to open the door to the garbage and dropped it in before turning on the water.
"I... bloody hell, the fucking universe hates me," Spike groaned as he leaned his back into the island as he watched with yellow eyes.
Xander left the second bag sitting on the counter as he stepped close this time, Spike's body remaining slumped as Xander now pressed in, trapping the vampire between his body, which Spike couldn't strike out against without triggering the chip and the unyielding granite.
Even though Ethan's spell had provided the details, he could still remember what it felt like to have his first childe at his side: the devotion, the power, the adoration and the fear. Now Xander pushed his body into Spike even harder, allowing his hands to travel up the strong, corded arms until his fingers explored under the edge of the sleeves. Just like on that night years earlier, Spike couldn't bring himself to say the words, and so he dropped his head to the side, the curve of his neck lengthening until Xander could feel a triumphant growl echo through his mind even if his body could no longer form one.
Xander dropped a kiss onto that exposed neck while he tightened his hands into Spike's arms, feeling the links dig into his palm on the hand that held the chain. Without warning, he sunk dull human teeth into that pale flesh, feeling the skin yield even as the stretched muscle resisted his bite. With his own body pressed to Spike, he could feel a tremor run the length of Spike's body and then he released the bite and kissed the reddened skin, licking a few drops of blood that oozed from a line where his lower teeth had broken the skin.
"My beautiful hellcat. I vill get that chip out of your head," Xander promised.
"Right, and then?" Spike didn't move his head, his neck still stretched submissively before Xander.
"Um, we'll figure it out then? But you know random killing is so totally off the menu," Xander admitted without stepping back. "But there's always much killing of blood-sucking demons and drinking of bagged blood to look forward too."
"Bollocks, I'm bloody cursed with barmy sires," Spike snorted. Xander would have taken offense except that he had accepted his own fragile hold on sanity a long time ago. Besides, he'd take getting called barmy if it meant that Spike finally accepted him as sire again, and as that lithe body slowly relaxed, Xander moved his arms to encircle Spike.
"You must have done something horrible in a previous life," Xander agreed.
"Horrible thing is that I never got around to doing anythin' horrible," Spike disagreed, but now hands found Xander's waist.
"Let's get you fed, childe," Xander said as he turned and grabbed the second bag. This time he pulled a mug out of the cupboard and poured the thick red liquid into it before turning around and putting it in the microwave inset into the kitchen island under the cook top. Finally he dropped the chain and let the heavy links swing as the mechanical whirr of the microwave continued.
"I'm going to go use the bathroom," he explained as he headed toward the corner where a wall behind the television cut into the room at a 45 degree angle, hiding a small, triangular bathroom. He needed to get himself away from Spike before he threw the vamp over the counter while the blood cooled and spoiled. He needed to remind Spike that submitting had its pleasures.
[Poll #684649]
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-03-04 06:35 pm (UTC)I'm loving this Xander who's created his own secret Nest. He comes across as so competent which he should be with all those memories (and most of the Scoobies haven't noticed this). Looking forward to see where you'll take this.
Shakatany
no subject
Date: 2006-03-04 07:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-04 07:29 pm (UTC)Shakatany
no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 09:58 pm (UTC)Trickster's Quarry
Quarry's Turnabout
Trickster's Turnabout
Quarry since Spike is the Initiative's quarry and the Initiative will shortly become Xander's quarry
Trickster since the spell that started this is still in effect.
Turnabout because the power keeps changing hands and Xander has had a turnabout in beliefs.
Hell, I'm coming up seriously short on the title front here.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 01:24 am (UTC)Shakatany
no subject
Date: 2006-03-04 06:39 pm (UTC)The dynamic between the two is great. I loved it, can't wait for the next part.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-04 07:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-04 06:51 pm (UTC)Wonderful chapter, I can appreciate Xander like this. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-03-04 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-04 07:02 pm (UTC)It's cool to see the difference between how Xander is seen by others (the first room) and how he is. In RL I would love to gave a place all for my myself and unknown by others. It shows how important Spike is to Xander, that he is invited in. Great chapter!
no subject
Date: 2006-03-04 07:28 pm (UTC)And yes, Xander's willingness to have Spike in the lair does say something significant.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-04 07:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-04 07:38 pm (UTC)And I'm glad you like the balance here between the human and vampire, although more vampire is coming out right now just because Spike is here.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-04 08:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-04 08:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 12:34 am (UTC)I have to wonder if Angel has a clue what Xander is doing and so semi-played along to get Xander authority. Even if he didn't, Xander's using a wonderful blend of vampiric and human instincts to deal with Spike. This Xander is so perceptive, he must have picked up on the fact that Spike's real fear of submitting is that, just like Halloween, once the chip is out it's all over and he's sireless again.
More tantalizing bits of that night in the mansion. Lovely.
BTW, love the new layout.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 04:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 12:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 04:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 02:05 am (UTC)And Giles knowing and not saying anything? How much does he really know? All or just some. Shouldn't he be worried about Xander?
Very nicely done. Just love how you write these characters.
Thank you!!!
no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 04:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 03:14 am (UTC)Thanks!
no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 04:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 07:19 am (UTC)Oh and the idea of xan having his own secret super cool place behind the "white trash" one was pretty sweet. Very superhero (or superspy) kinda thing to have i reckon but something everyone dreams of ;-)
...waiting with baited breath for next chapter *grin*
no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 03:27 pm (UTC)And I'm glad you like the hidden lair. I think that any vampire who's been around for a while is going to want a secret hiding place, and so is Xander!
no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 11:51 am (UTC)Anyway I'm glad to finally read more ElderVamp!Xander. Are you going to write a fic or interlude about what happened between this one and Trickster? Unless you already have and I've missed it...?
no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 03:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 07:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 09:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 07:36 pm (UTC)Marie
no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 09:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 07:40 pm (UTC)Ok, over the past 2 days I read all of Trickster, then moved to this.
I am gonna try to give some decent feedback. What to say, what to say...
Can I just say I adore this. The borderline personality disorder Xander has comes across clear and unmuddled, and the desire for dominance and submission is wonderful. You have got some serious "I am my own Grandpa" vibes goin' on, but they are sexy vampire Grandpa vibes, so that is fantastic.
The James Bond Villain/Dracula lair is awesome, as was that bathroom scene in part two of the sequel *shivers and sighs*
I could say a million other things, but I will stop there.
Just...more? Please? There's gonna be more, right?
no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 10:01 pm (UTC)And I'm glad you like the very physical descriptions. This is a much more descriptive universe than some of my others. I often call Trickster the world's longest PWP, and the only award it's won actually was as a PWP. And yes, there will be more.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-05 10:23 pm (UTC)I really love the whole dom turnaround you have happening. Another wonderful hot winner from you!
no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 01:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 05:40 am (UTC)Maybe the titel should be:
Resolving Unlife
no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 01:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-06 04:21 pm (UTC)*waits patiently for counter sex*
*looks at watch-taps foot*
*continues waiting*
;D
The UST is killing me! I love it.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-15 04:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-07 06:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-15 04:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-07 11:41 am (UTC)The characters in this are just so complex, with all the relationships being shaped by the dynamics of what happened under Ethan's spell and I love that Xander recognises that his hold on sanity is fragile and that he can make Angel obey him when it comes to helping Spike. I do wonder what Cordy's going to say when she delivers the blood - that's going to be one fun meeting.
no subject
Date: 2006-03-15 04:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-03 05:56 am (UTC)Now, as for a title of this story, I have only read this far, but trickster, butterly, chaos, seem to be your themes, so how about Strange Attractor, or something of that nature, as that seems to be what ties them together.
"Since such systems remain within the grip of their strange attractor while the details of their fluctuations appear to be random, nevertheless, their chaos is contained within a particular range of all possible behaviors."
no subject
Date: 2006-04-09 04:36 am (UTC)Oh, great quote. I love that quote on systems. I can see Ethan living by that, and Xander going outside of his range of all possible behaviors.
*feels bunnies born in the brain*
Um, that sounds kinda ew, doesn't it?
Anyway, thank you for such beautiful feedback!