TITLE: Fractured Images II

AUTHOR: Scorpio

ARCHIVE: The Nesting Place, BtVS, CKoS, S/X WoF, The Den, WWOMB, Xander Extreme and anyone else please ask.

FANDOM: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

PAIRING: Spike/Xander

RATING: R

CATEGORY: Future Fic, AU, drama

WARNING: Slavery, minor language

DISCLAIMER: Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own the boys and girls from the Buffyverse. I own nothing but the idea.

SUMMARY: Xander Harris inherits another vampire. Adjustments are required by all three men.

FRACTURED IMAGES II
by Scorpio

The office was posh and it spoke elegantly of wealth and power. The deep plush carpet was the color of red wine and that color was echoed by the painted roses on the silk wallpaper hung above the burnished wood wainscoting. A large mahogany desk dominated the far end of the good sized room, a wine colored leather chair behind it. A carved sideboard stood against the near wall and it held only the finest of liqueurs inside of cut crystal decanters. The far wall held a large bank of windows with expensive draperies discretely pulled closed. Closer to the door of the office, a fair sized round mahogany table stood with four brocade upholstered chairs placed around it.

The office was occupied by two people. The woman seated in the leather chair behind the desk was beautiful. Her skin was soft to the touch and had that "peaches and cream" look that appealed to so many men and women. Her brown hair hung like a veil of living silk around her linen clad shoulders and her make-up was perfection. Her clothing and jewelry were both expensive and tailored with the timeless class and elegance so popular in the business world.

For all her beauty and power, something was off about her. Her smiles never reached her eyes and her cultured voice never rang with true sincerity when she mouthed the ritual phrases of greeting or good fortune. And despite the extravagant amounts of money she spent on it, her perfume could not quite cover the strong stench of dark magic that hovered around her like a miasma.

The other occupant of the office stood silently in the farthest corner of the room where the deepest shadows could be found. Clothed head to toe in a hooded black silk robe lined with red dyed wool, the figure was tall, broad of shoulder and powerfully built. His face was hidden in the shadows of his hood, but there was no mistaking the silver chain and leather leash that hung down the front of his massive chest from the neck opening of his robe. A vampire.

The dark figure in the corner stood silently with a stillness found only among those who no longer lived. He drew no breath even as no blood raced through his still veins. His heart lay cold beneath his ribs.

The overly perky voice of the blonde woman stationed at the receptionist desk down the hallway by the elevator shaft suddenly broke the eerie quiet of the office, pulling the full attention of both the woman and the vampire.

"Ms. Morgan. There's a Mr. Alexander Harris here to meet with you."

The woman behind the desk looked up from the file she had been reading and pushed a button on her phone with one enameled fingernail.

"Thank you Sheila. Please send him down."

The woman unhurriedly shuffled her paperwork around until it was organized to her satisfaction and then carefully tucked it back into her file folder. A soft knock at the office door preceded it being opened. Sheila stepped aside to allow Ms. Morgan's guests to enter.

The first one through the doorway was an older gentleman dressed in a dark gray business suit. The cut of his clothing suggested that the suit was expensive and personally tailored to fit him, as did the hand painted silk tie and polished Italian leather shoes. His jewelry was simple yet elegant, showing a combination of wealth and good taste. The man's face seemed pale and tired, grief echoing in his dark eyes and yet the lines around his mouth and eyes suggested that he spent a lot of time smiling and laughing. His dark curly hair was cut short in a stylish fashion and he was just beginning to go gray at his temples. He exuded an air of competence and authority.

The second person to come through the office door was obviously a vampire. Shorter than the business man, his clothing and jewelry spoke louder than any words could of his status. Covered from head to toe by a heavy black and red leather hooded robe, not an inch of his skin was visible yet he fairly dripped jewels and gemstones as he was lead about on a painfully thin gold chain leash. Everything about this vampire virtually shouted "pampered pet" to all present.

Ignoring both vampires, the woman stood up from behind her desk and walked around towards the business man. Her file folder held in one hand, she extended the other and they briefly shook hands.

"Mr. Harris. Thank for you getting here so quickly. My condolences on your tragic loss. Would you like some coffee or perhaps a brandy?"

The man smiled at her. It was a smile overlaid by tones of sadness.

"Coffee would be just fine. Thank you."

Sheila delicately cleared her throat and the two other humans turned to look at her.

"I'll be happy to go and get you that coffee Ms. Morgan. Is there anything else you will require?"

The woman smiled at the receptionist and once again, it never reached her eyes.

"No. Thank you Sheila."

The blonde receptionist nodded once and then she quietly shut the door and was gone. Ms. Morgan waved one manicured hand towards the round table and it's matching chairs.

"Please. Have a seat and make yourself comfortable."

Xander Harris let go of the leash he had held in one hand and the chain fluttered down softly against the vampire's leather clad chest. The creaking rustle of leather sounded through the room as the vampire stepped over and silently pulled a chair out for his master. The business man sat down in the chair and seconds later his pet vampire settled down on the floor at his side.

Lilah Morgan sat down at the table across from him and rested her folded arms over her file and leaned forward, a look of false sympathy plastered over her delicate features.

"I thought it might help you to know that Miss Chase didn't suffer. Her death was quick and painless."

There was a slight pause for a long moment in which only the vampire in leather seated on the floor could hear the subvocal whine of pain and sorrow burst forth from the vampire in silk standing in the shadows. Then Xander took in a deep shaky breath and nodded.

"Yes. That does make me feel a little better. Cordelia suffered enough in life, it's only fair that she was spared that pain in her death."

Then Sheila was back with a decanter of fresh brewed coffee on a finely appointed tea tray. She bustled about for a few minutes making certain that both Ms. Morgan and Mr. Harris had everything that they needed. The thick tension from earlier was effectively lifted and then they got down to business.

The first thing that Ms. Morgan did was reiterate her offer to sell Angel for him. Xander turned her down. Trying a different track, Lilah offered to ensure that the vampire was sold to a private collector instead of being put up on the auction block where he would be at risk to fall into government hands. Once again, Xander turned her down, this time a bit more forcibly.

Then Ms. Morgan went over Cordelia's will, outlining the relevant passages and clauses. Cordelia hadn't been extremely wealthy or famous, however she had acted in several movies playing supporting character roles and she had starred in many commercials. She was also listed as the sole owner of Angel Investigations.

With Mr. Wesley Windham-Pryce unable to claim any of his inheritance, most of Cordelia's estate would be held in trust for him for up to three years. If he *still* was unable to claim his inheritance, it would then fall back on the other people listed in her will. What was being held in storage ended up consisting of all of Cordelia's clothing, jewelry, furniture and real-estate.

Due to the immediate concerns of her other property, Xander was required to take over ownership of both the vampire Angel and Cordelia's private investigation firm. After the papers were all signed and witnessed, Ms. Morgan offered to purchase Angel Investigations from Xander on the grounds that he didn't hold a Private Investigators License.

For a long painful moment, everyone was eerily quiet as they waited on Xander's answer. Then, they all watched as the soft sorrowful visage of the business man's face slowly hardened, his dark eyes glittering with something close to possessive rage. With slow precise movements, Xander pushed back his chair and stood to his full impressive height of 6'2" as he glowered down at Lilah Morgan. In the blink of an eye, Xander Harris had transformed from a quiet older man into a dangerous and powerful enemy. When he spoke, his voice was coldly calm, low and frightening from all the terrible emotions contained and controlled within it.

"Ms. Morgan. I'm not in any mood to play these little games with you. I know what this place is and what Wolfram and Hart stand for. I saw and recognized at least twenty different species of demon just on my way from the parking garage to your office and I'm sure there were plenty more that I missed with my limited human senses.

If you are *any* good at what you do or if you are in any position of power and trust, you know *exactly* who I am. And what I can do. I don't know who or what is pulling your strings over this, but I'm *not* interested in handing Angel *or* those investigative files over to anyone.

I sincerely suggest that you inform your client to *back off* and leave this alone. I make a wonderful ally, but a terrible enemy."

Lilah Morgan and Xander Harris stared into each other's eyes for a long breathless moment until Lilah finally glanced away, turning her head to face her desk. Xander nodded his head once and then turned and strode towards the door, snapping his fingers at the two vampires. The vampire that had come in with him flowed up from his seat on the floor in one graceful liquid movement and turned to follow. A stunned pause from the vampire in the corner that was only a mortal heartbeat long and then he too followed.

The leather clad vampire quickly grasped the door's handle and swung it wide open. Xander Harris stormed out of the office and down the hallway. The two vampires walked the customary two paces behind him, the short one to his right and the tall one to his left.

*

Angel lay in his new bed at Xander's large fashionable ranch style home. The room had originally been a guest room, but Xander had assured him that it was now his to decorate as he pleased. And it *was* a great room. The entire home was wonderful, a vampire's paradise. Which was only to be expected since designing and building vampire friendly homes and buildings is what had made Harris International Construction Company famous and in such demand world wide.

Yet, his sunlight-proof bedroom and all the luxury comforts a vampire could want didn't help relieve the pain and confusion inside of him. The loss of Cordelia was a sharp bright pain that sent soul-deep agony through his entire being and he worried constantly about Wesley. The man who had been one of his constant companions for the last twenty years was now trapped inside his own mind, locked away from the world by a coma.

And then there was Xander Harris. Angel and Xander had never seen eye to eye and most often agreed to disagree about almost everything. As such, he had never *really* kept in touch with the man, but instead relied on the fact that Cordelia *did* keep in touch with him to make certain that he was doing all right. That Xander was healthy and happy had been enough for Angel, he didn't need to know any more than that. Because of this, he hadn't even seen him for almost fifteen years. And now Angel was Xander's slave.

In a way it was disconcerting because his memories of Xander were that of a teenaged boy who had no self-esteem, no self-confidence and no direction as he aimlessly tried to please everyone all at once. Then he had memories of Xander as a young man, first starting up his own construction company out of his own home with just a small hand-picked crew of men.

Those memories clashed with the image he now held of Xander Harris, fast approaching his fifth decade of life, full of self-possession and authority running roughshod all over one of the humans that Angel hated most in the world. In fact, Xander had strongly reminded the ancient vampire of Rupert Giles when the long dead Watcher was feeling his inner "Ripper" boil up to the surface.

Those thoughts, of course, led Angel to wonder about Lilah's mysterious client. It was obvious that Xander thought that she was representing someone who had an unhealthy interest in either him personally or Angel Investigations, and frankly, Angel agreed with that assessment. He just didn't know who that could be.

Suddenly, all of his wandering thoughts came to a screeching halt as his sensitive vampire hearing made him painfully aware that he was not alone in the house. Not being able to stop himself from focusing in on the sounds, the low rumbling purr and deep husky moans brought to his attention the pounding of one strong heart and the panting of breath from two sets of lungs. And the wet slapping sounds of flesh on flesh.

Rolling over in his cold empty bed, Angel sighed to himself. Cordelia's death suddenly slammed into him hard and he desperately missed her warm soft body against his own. A lone blood tinged tear traced it's way down his pale cheek and he knew in his unbeating heart that it was going to be a long and lonely night.

*

Angel was forced to leave his bedroom wearing only the midnight blue silk pajama bottoms that Xander had given him the night before since all of his clothes were still at Cordelia's house and he wouldn't be able to get them until her effects had been completely shuffled through by her lawyer. He felt somehow exposed and vulnerable in the soft clinging pants, but he was starving and he needed nourishment.

Walking out of his room and down the hall, he soon found himself in a large tastefully furnished living area. There were no windows in any of the walls, but there were several large monitor screens which provided real time graphics of a beautiful sun drenched shoreline. The carpeting was bright blood red and the walls were a uniformly crisp white. The sofa and chairs were overstuffed black suede and the velvet throw pillows were white and red. Sleek acrylic accents decorated the various corners and shelves of the glass and chrome tables and entertainment center. All in all it was a lovely modern room.

The most beautiful object decorating it, however, was the half-naked bleached blonde vampire lounging across the sofa with an Andromeda 3 Game System controller in his hands. The quiet sounds of intergalactic battle filled the room, but Angel couldn't be bothered to look at the television screen. His eyes were too busy devouring his childe's hard muscled whipcord thin body wearing nothing except a sinfully tight pair of black leather short-shorts. And gold. Spike wore his jewel encrusted slave collar and twin gold hoops that were delicately threaded through piercings in each of his nipples. Then the vision of loveliness moved and Angel felt himself falling into the bluest eyes he'd ever seen.

"Oi! No drooling on the carpet Peaches. Either close your gob or at least have the decency to come drool on *this*."

With that, the blonde vampire reached down with one hand and cupped his leather covered dick and balls. Growling in frustrated annoyance, Angel tore his eyes away from his childe's sexy body and stomped off looking for the kitchen. Delighted laughter followed him out of the room and Angel sighed. This wasn't going to be as easy as he thought.

"Listen mate. Here, take this. It's from Xander."

Biting back another sigh, Angel turned around to face Spike. The younger vampire's face was a vision of decadent innocence and cheerfulness. His smile wasn't *quite* a smirk, but it was as close as one could get to it without actually *being* it. He held out one hand palm up, a small shinny disk balanced on his open palm. Carefully, Angel picked it up.

"Go on back into the other room and pop it in the viewer. I'll bring you in a steaming mug of A positive and you'll be right as rain, eh ducks?"

A couple dozen retorts and snide comments swirled through his head, but he didn't voice them. Instead he turned on his heal and walked back into the living area. It didn't take him long to find the viewer and get the disk set up inside so it could play. When he did, the television screen showed a brief moment of electronic "snow" and then an image appeared. It was Xander and he was getting dressed into another business suit.

"Good morning Angel."

From somewhere in the background Spike's voice floated into the recording.

"Oi! The bloody poufter won't crawl outta bed until at least noon, I guarantee it."

Xander looked off screen for a moment and his eyes crinkled up with a soft smile. Angel could easily see the love those dark eyes held for his childe.

"Okaaaaaay. Fine. Good afternoon Angel. I'm sorry that I can't do this in person, but I left a lot of things unfinished yesterday in order to keep your pretty ass off the auction block. I think it was worth it though. Not only do I *not* trust our friend Ms. Lilah Morgan, but if I didn't do something Cordelia would come back to haunt me and Spike would pout at me for a month."

"Would not! Don't listen to him Peaches!"

Once again Xander flashed a smile off screen and Angel felt one echoing on his own face.

"Anyway. I just wanted to give you a brief rundown of what's what. I spend a lot of time supervising the heads of various company departments and meeting with clients in order to secure, and keep, business flowing in. I try to arrange most of it to be done here in LA either in person or by video conference, but I *do* have to travel often. If and when that happens, you and Spike will be forced to come with me. I'll try to make sure that anything you might need or want during those trips are prearranged, but if you have any special needs I might not know about, tell me before hand.

Also, I'm pretty lax about things around the house. Only a few simple rules. Don't answer the phone, let the machine screen the calls. If it's Willow, Tara or Dawn either you or Spike can then pick up the connection. Just be sure to *not* record any conversations.

Don't let anyone into the house except for the cleaning crew. Spike knows who they are so he can introduce you if I'm not available. Don't make a mess, don't break anything and don't call me on any line but my cell phone. The office crew *won't* put you through once they figure out who and what you are.

If you plan on fucking or being fucked by Spike that's fine as long as it's mutual. I won't put up with any of that territorial vampire domination shit. As far as I'm concerned you are both *my* territory and that's that. If it comes down to that I'll punish you both. While I don't believe in defanging vampires I *do* believe in the power of a holy water bubble bath, so keep that in mind.

Tonight when I get home I'm going to pierce your nipples if they aren't already done. Don't worry. It won't hurt for long.

Well, I have to go now. Behave and have a nice time. There's plenty of books to read, games to play and music to listen to. Just ask Spike where everything is kept."

Feeling a touch numb, Angel watched with his mouth agape as the image of Xander faded into electronic "snow" once more. Suddenly, Angel felt a warm ceramic mug being placed gently into his hand and he turned to stare up a Spike. The younger vampire had a slightly sad and regretful look on his face.

"Here ya go Peaches. And welcome to *my* world."