A Sire's Privilege
Angel was uncertain as to why he thought to stop by the house instead of dropping by the school library. Something had drawn him to the Summers’ home. How odd. Light seeped out upon the side door porch. The kitchen door must be open.
Swiftly, yet silently, Angel rounded the house to spy within. He watched as Spike and Joyce talked at the kitchen counter. He looks well. Angel could not stop the thought from transpiring. Yet, totally depressed. He looks as if he has re-enacted the moment when he found out what demon-mummy was all about.
Snatches of the conversation were carried on the wind. Dru’ got bored of sit-and-spin. Angel growled at himself as he realized he was channeling his demonic nature. Poor childe. If only there were someway to alleviate that pain! Drawing an unneeded breath, he couldn’t help but smile as he found that way.
Drawing himself up to the proud dominant sire he once was, Angel strode to the open doorway. He watched as his depressed childe sniffed the air before speaking. “Druscilla will always be fickle in her affections, William.”
Two pairs of eyes darted to the door. Gasping, Joyce jumped to her feet when she saw the vampire standing in the pitch of night. “Get out of here, vampire! Stay away from Buffy!” Silence followed the amusing statement.
Dazed eyes fell upon Angel as Spike rose from his seat. That smell. So familiar, yet not the same. Older, wiser, yet still the scent of a sire, a powerful sire. “Its been an age.” He spoke sedately.
Angel continued to remain silent, waiting for the young one to look him directly in the eye. Sad blue eyes moved upward, frightened. Spike licked his suddenly dry lips and gulped, unsure of what was in store for him.
Blue eyes met brown as Joyce looked on, confused. “Spike? What?” She watched as the two stared at each other. “Am I missing something?” As the tension grew thicker, she looked into Spike’s eyes. Respect. Why does Spike respect Angel? I could have sworn. . . Didn’t Spike want Angel gone? Didn’t he help Buffy with getting rid of him? As her internal questions failed to cause any revelations, Joyce turned to Buffy’s former beau.
Intense eyes were what she found. She blinked. Missing something big. She ascertained. A noise came from the inner entrance to the kitchen. Turning, Joyce watched as Buffy paused in the entryway. Relief effused Joyce as she saw her superhero slayer daughter was as confused as she. “Oh Buffy! Thank god you’re here.”
“William.” Angel spoke once more, undemanding yet commanding as well.
Joyce turned a questioning gaze towards Buffy, hoping she could help clear some of the issues. “Who is William?”
A simple four-syllable sentence.
“Spike.” Buffy answered. Upon seeing the still uncertain look on her mother’s face, she continued. “Before he was. . . turned, Spike was known as William the Bloody.” Snarling answered Buffy’s statement.
“William!” Spike’s morphed features faded instantly. Thoroughly downtrodden, he turned back to the commander of the situation. A dark glower had taken over his sire’s features. Closing his eyes, Spike sniffled, tears leaking silently down his face. Shaking slightly, he opened his eyes and sought for a welcome in Angel’s stance.
Angel sought out the desperation in his pale childe’s eyes. Upon seeing it, he opened his arms slightly. A blur was all he saw before a slender pair of arms wrapped around his neck and a wet face was pressed into the crook of his neck. Angel sighed slightly, before folding the sobbing body into a comforting embrace. “Shh.” Angel slowly rocked his favored childe back and forth.
“Spike, no! He’s a vampire!” Joyce cried out. She watched, even more confused as the two men hugged. A small chuckle came from Angel. Why did he laugh?
Buffy answered the unasked question. “So is Spike.” A look of horror engulfed Joyce’s features, but it went unnoticed by all. Regaining the ability to more, Buffy advanced on the pair of the vampires. “Angel? Why are you. . ?”
Grasping the sobbing vampire’s jaw, Angel turned Spike to face him. “William. You know Dru’ will never be able to curb her desires.”
Now dry eyes closed as Spike collapsed completely into his sire’s embrace. “I missed you calling me that.” A quiet affirmation of his enthrall. A hitch came suddenly, before fangs silently descended from Spike’s upper jaw.
Sensing the change, Angel drew his head sideways. “Go on. I know you need to.” A sharp kiss ensued. Angel closed his eyes as he held the childe’s head in place.
“Angel!” Buffy gasped, horrified at the scene before her. Why would he allow Spike to maul him like that? What are they doing?
“What’s going on here? And why did you say that you and William were in a band together?” Joyce asked, furious at the display before her.
Spike turned about in the blink of an eye at the atrocious error the elder female had just made. Still vamped out and growling viciously, he made for a fearsome visage. Immediately, the slayer became all business as she saw the enraged being turned on her mother.
Fortunately, the slayer was cut short as the vampire was restrained by the Irish sire. “Stop. She didn’t know.” Halted, the angered vampire turned back into the welcome arms of his sire.
Sputtering slightly, Joyce became incensed. “Know what? You called him Will-!”
“Yes.” Angel interrupted. Silently pleading with the woman to not say that name again, Angel pushed the childe back to his neck. The young one mellowed a bit as he smelled the sweet blood that ran slightly out from the mauled neck. Lapping it up with surprising efficiency, Spike nuzzled against the strongly muscled neck before him.
Sneering slightly, Joyce could not refrain from the next biting remark. “What makes you so special?!”
“Sire’s privilege.” Spike answered as he peered into Angel’s eyes, now sufficiently calmed.
Shocked beyond all reason at what was occurring before her, Buffy sat down. “Sire’s. . ?”
“Privilege.” Angel finished. Making sure that his depressed childe would not lash out anymore, he continued. “There is nothing more sacred to a vampire than their mortal name. The only one who may speak it, without previous permission, after the turning is their sire.”
Still flustered at the actions of her ex-boyfriend and reeling at the newfound information being presented to her, Buffy attempted to gather together the fragmented pieces of her universe. “But that doesn’t explain why you let him bite you, Angel.”
“Poor, pathetic, Slayer.” Spike chuckled. Turning himself about in his sire’s arms, he wrapped his long digits around the overlarge hands grasped in front of him. “There is nothing more desirable to a vampire than their sire’s blood. And nothing more soothing, either.” Sighing, Spike rested his head back onto his life size teddy bear. “Oh, by the way, you still taste of peaches, Peaches.”
Angel lightly cuffed the childe upon the head. “Wretched tease.”
-Finis-
Click to join twin_swords