Walker of Night Part 3
Mar. 23rd, 2020 07:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerMain Points:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer AU
Summary: Xander really shouldn't play with magical artifacts. Or vampires.
Word Count: 953
Rating: Teen (technically there's sorta a death except not really?)
Pairing: Xander/Spike
Spike wasn’t expecting a warm welcome, exactly, but he was expecting something besides this. Okay, so Buffy had tied him up, and it had hurt a little, but other than that they were kind of just acting as if nothing had happened. As if they’d expecting him ta wander in. He’d be growling, but Buffy’s pet didn’t look so well, all pale and sweaty, and something had changed since he was last here. Besides the whole ignoring him thing as if he hadn’t existed. They’d just invited him in like he wasn’t a Big Bad Vampire, and they’d even sort of expected the chip thing. Insulting, it was.
But the pet smelled different too, stronger and more confident, despite the fact that he also smelled of about seven different diseases. And no matter how ludicrous he found the whole Indian thing-they’d taken what they wanted, and he wasn’t the sort of person to see anything wrong with that, or with innocents getting hurt along the way-he’d be sad to see the poor boy bite the dust. And oh, wasn’t that a rich vampire phrase there.
“Can we focus first on the saving of me and then get on to the worrying of Spike?” the boy asked weakly, but somehow he’d found it in him to put on a show of strength. Nice. Had to admire that in a human, not wanting to show weakness and being strong enough to keep it from the others. Not that they were noticing much anyway.
“You’ll regret that, Donut Boy,” he snarled, and pounced on the little doe-eyed human quickly so as not to give the chip a chance to react. He sank his fangs into the neck, and to his surprise pain didn’t immediately force him off. The taste was brilliant, though there was less fear in taste or smell than he’d figured. Boy was a White Knight, you’d think he’d be pushing the evil undead off and calling the Slayer to kill him for evil behavior, but other than a little shiver, he practically went limp and yielding under Spike’s bite.
He gloried in it for a bit, savoring the taste of something that had been so long denied to him. Hunting. The blood. The power.
There was a reason the boy was a demon magnet, Spike realized. The blood tasted of innocence and a little bit of darkness that was intoxicating.
Then he realized that he’d had no idea how long it’d been, and the boy was going even limper underneath his hands. Bloody ‘ell, ‘e ‘adn’t managed ta drink the boy dry, ‘ad ‘e? Because he was pretty sure that was grounds for termination of his existence. Why hadn’t the boy struggled? If he had, he’d probably be safe right now, not turning blue and cold, and he’d be nursing the headache of a century.
Harris spasmed, but he still wasn’t being forced off, and he pulled away, feeling guilty for the strangest of reasons. He hadn’t gone and grown a soul, had he? Because if so, as soon as he could hurt humans again that entire bloody Initiative was going down in flames.
He looked down to see a really really pale, innocent boy shaking in his hands, spasms tearing through him weakly now, and a mouth form the word ‘Spike’ and eyes try to focus on him, before the head fell back and the breathing stopped and he was definitely in trouble. Now came the choice-let the boy drink, and condemn him to an unlife as his childe, in the probably two seconds he had left to live, or let him die. Either way, he’d be in deep, deep trouble. Buggering hell, he thought, and slit his wrist with one fang, bringing it to the brunette’s mouth. Boy was too pretty to die.
The kid latched on to his wrist and started gulping like he hadn’t had anything to drink in a long, long time. He felt a surge of affection and ran his hand through the boy’s hair. Soft. Nice. He’d take care of the boy; seemed he’d have to, since the bloke seemed to have absolutely no survival instincts on his own.
The kid, Xander, startled awake, and looked every inch as panicked as William had been when he was dying. It was okay, though. As his sire, Spike would try to make everything okay.
A shaking finger was pointed in his direction. “You killed me,” he accused unevenly, shivering with what smelled like fear.
“All ya had to do was show some pain,” Spike pointed out reasonably, still feeling unaccountably guilty for what had just happened.
He wasn’t sure what he expected, but an angry Xander flying across the room to tackle and bite him wasn’t it. He wasn’t sure why, really. Violence went hand in hand with vampires, and especially him, which just pleased him more. ‘avin’ a playmate who liked it rough was nice.
But then his childe was stumbling away from him, and he let out a growl. What was the boy playing at, anyway? The eyes were dark, deep with anger and lust and what might just have been hope. “Shut up, Spike,” he stated good-naturedly and proceeded to feel for a pulse.
“Ya won’t find anythin’, luv. Killed ya fair an’ square.” Why couldn’t he stop feeling so sodding guilty about the whole thing?
The boy grinned at him, and he knew he was just loopy now. Mad as Dru. “Nope, I’ve got a heart beating and everything. Just going to check.” Before Spike could do anything but make a dive that he had to abort quickly to avoid being dusted, the idiot opened the door and walked outside, into the sunlight, and Spike felt the sudden loss drive into him. Couldn’t even save his own childe.
He was midway into the third cigarette and stewing in his own utter impotence when the door swung open and he heard a voice he’d thought was gone for good. “I thought I told you not to smoke in my apartment, Spike.”
The fag dropped from his lips, and he couldn’t do much more than lean against the wall, staring like a loon. Now that he was thinking, he could hear the heartbeat from across the room, but how? The boy had died. He’d heard the heartbeat stop, made the decision to turn the boy rather than let him die, and yet there he was, still alive. But the boy’d also bitten him, and didn’t he feel all proud at that thought. Bitten and attacked him.
The boy shook his head at Spike, angry. “And don’t go getting any sire thoughts on me. I’m obviously not a vamp.” The kid looked deliriously happy and just a little bit off his rocker, but his body was trembling as he crossed the room. Luckily he hadn’t tripped on anything, which wasn’t like the boy at all. His hand was shaking as he picked up the phone and dialed the number for the bloody Watcher.
“Um, hi? Yeah, I know, Giles, it is late, but I…it’s kind of an emergency.” Now that he was looking for it, he could see the nervousness, adrenaline running through the boy. Maybe he was just wired, not completely insane. The voice dropped as the boy admitted, “I…um, I think I’m a Nightwalker.”
That made Spike sit up and listen. He’d never heard of it before. There was a kind of demon he’d never heard of before?
Apparently it made Giles listen, too, because there didn’t seem to be any more dithering about complaining that the boy was wasting his time. The boy gulped. “Nooo, I’m pretty sure it’s true, what with the fangs and the surviving in sunlight bit. And, oh, bugger, I’m hungry.” Boy had picked up a few words from him. Spike was so proud. Some more listening. “No! No no no no, I do NOT want to eat anyone I know. Just, gross and eww and maybe some of the bad, ya know?”
The breathing got harder, and Spike could smell the anxiety from across the room, and oh, no, did the stupid sod still have a soul? But wait, how’d he survive the sunlight? Too much going on and not enough answers, and Spike just wished he could still beat some out of people.
“But I really want chocolate, and pizza, and some of that Chinese, and lots and lots of soda, and more candy, and…and I still babble. Still of the babblage. That’s good, right?”
And Giles must have said something to comfort the boy, because he was actually smiling, and a growl worked out of his throat. It was his territory to comfort the idiot, not some old Watcher!
“Lookin’ forward to it, G-man. Kind of scarily so, actually. Again with the creepage.” Xander-that was his name, Spike remembered-frowned, and ran a hand through his pretty hair. “Look, talk about it soon? After I’ve eaten? Cause I’m hungry and I’m probably going to eat everything I have left in my fridge. And probably still going to be hungry.” When he hung up, he looked over at Spike and shook his head. “You can talk all you want, Spike, but I’m going to be eating.” He seemed a little pointed, maybe even obsessed, and Spike felt his hackles rising again at the fact that his pet was ignoring him. Again.
Yet he couldn’t help paying attention as his pet practically stalked over to the fridge and proceeded to grab out every food thing he could find. Except the blood, which was sitting in the back, and although Xander gave it a hungry look he ignored it. Stupid souls. More trouble than they were bloody worth. Unless, of course…all he had was pig’s blood, in which case, he didn’t blame the boy. Stuff was disgusting.
His pet proceeded to tear into everything as if he was starving, even eating some of the meat raw, and those were beautiful white fangs tearing into the meat as his beautiful pet forgot all about everything else and lost himself in the feeding. Okay, so it was human food, but that didn’t matter so much, and by the time the doorbell rang the food was all gone and Spike had forgot about the fact that he was supposed to be interrogating the pretty boy, not just staring at him. The sight of the human face without ridges and the delicate, almost dainty fangs was exotically beautiful.
Giles stepped in, looking warily at the two of them, and Harris had already grabbed the food and begun tearing into it hungrily. He looked up eventually, face covered with chocolate and tomato sauce, and Spike couldn’t help but laugh.
“I brought the blood, but…Xander, I’m not going to give it to you.” Spike stared over at the Watcher…well, former Watcher. Was the man an idiot? Withholding blood from a newly formed sort of vampire, even if it was showing signs of guilt and a soul and obviously wasn’t a normal sort of vampire, well, that just wasn’t something you should do if you wanted to stay alive for more than five seconds.
Xander groaned, a guttural, low groan that made Spike feel a twinge of excitement. He knew the feeling, and would gladly hold down the man for his pet to feed if he could. Donut Boy backed up, moaning in pain, clutching at his head and sliding down the wall. “Don't want to, I’m hungry, I need, but no, no, not G-man, not Giles, not friends, no, hungry, need, want, never, Giles, please…” He was crying, rocking himself back and forth in the pain, and this just brought back memories.
“I need to know it’s still you,” and Giles’ eyes were hard, and Spike actually managed to feel a bit of surprise and respect flow through him. Okay, so the man was utterly off his rocker, but he was putting himself in danger, all for a test. He began walking over to the boy, eyes hard, with a gait that just screamed ‘predator’, and that was something that Spike really found interesting. So there was a story to the ex-Watcher that he really needed to hear at some point. Giles crouched beside Xander, looking every inch as if he was the one that could hurt the boy and not the other way around, and bared his neck. Xander turned his head away and rocked faster, a low, pained whine beginning to tear its way from his throat, the level of panic rising quickly. “Not killing friends. Friends of the good. Killing friends of the bad. No killing, or biting, of the friends. Don’t wanna kill anyone. Just want it to go away-the pain, the everything.” A growl rose from Spike’s throat, that his prettyboy might even think about getting himself dusted. Apparently what with the panic attack and all his boy had passed the test, though, because Giles got up and went to his things to retrieve the blood, which he tossed to Xander.
Immediately on the smell the boy went into instinctual mode, fangs extending and ripping open the packet gently. He managed a quiet, “Don’t watch,” before getting all messy, blood dripping down his lips and making him look rather delectable.
“As if that’s ‘appenin’, luv. I’m the evil undead, an’ e’s supposed to watch.” About time someone remembered he was here.
He looked rather shamed, but finished the blood and wiped himself off. “That’s disgusting, and I can’t believe I enjoyed that,” he admitted, voice shaking only slightly.
“Now, you said you were a Nightwalker. Absolutely certain?” Giles asked, sounding serious for once.
“I kind of…yes,” Xander answered, at the same moment Spike answered, “Well, ‘e’s certainly not a normal vamp, wot with the sun. Pretty sure ‘e’s still souled too.”
“I am aware of both symptoms, thank you, Spike. May I assume that this particular predicament is your fault?” Spike was both insulted and pleasantly surprised. He hadn’t been immediately blamed for anything that went wrong. Well, he’d been asked about it at least.
“Idiot kid. Ya oughta teach ‘im ta struggle if someone’s bitin’ ‘is neck, ‘specially if that’s all ‘e needed ta do ta drive away the dangerous vamp.” The blame was best put on Xander, because as the Big Bad, Spike was just acting as he was supposed to. Right?
Giles sighed and turned back to Xander. “Might I also assume this has something to do with what happened three months ago?”
To Spike’s surprise and everlasting delight, his boy blushed. He really needed to hear that story. Then the brunette nodded wordlessly.
“Right.” The Watcher pinched his nose, despairingly. “What else have you noticed?”
“Stronger, faster, can smell emotion. And feel it, if it’s strong enough. Um, a little more of the wibbly wobbly. Just, kinda, like strands, on the air? It’s weird, and kinda worrying ‘cause…She never mentioned this. Really hungry, but then, you sorta noticed that. Also with the blood. No Game Face, just the movie normal person fangy. Oh, and the heart beating and the lungs breathing, always a good sign. And the being able to survive in sunlight. Haven’t tried crosses or holy water yet. Stakes could probably kill me just like the next human person, if it gets my heart. I mean, the whole bleeding thing would probably be of the bad.” He babbled on without breath, but no, that really was a steady heartbeat across the room there.
“Wot’s a Nightwalker, pet?” Spike asked, but they both ignored him.
“From my research I’ve concluded that the ‘wibbly wobbly’, as you put it, isn’t a traditional characteristic of the Nightwalker. There haven’t been any others of them as far as I’m aware, just you, but there has been some research into other dimensions. Instead of a defect in the turning method, I’m inclined to believe that it’s more of some sort of resistance…well, on your part now. Perhaps a mutation of some kind, or some sort of conferred magical protection.” Ah, the Watcher had gone into Research Mode.
“Just a suggestion, G-man,” Xander stated tiredly, “…but maybe you should call the girls so they…well, the Buffster especially…don’t decide I need staking. I’m not good with the staking.”
Giles was pulled back into the here and now, and that made quite a lot of sense. “Right. I’ll do that.”
