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thismazTitle: Bloody Family
Part 3 of the Blood on a Sundial series.
Fandom: BtVS
Prompt: #18 - Wergeld
Previous parts, in reverse order, are here or in my memories.
At:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
tamingthemuse
Disclaimer: here.
Rating: Pg
Note: Some lines stolen from 'Halloween' and 'What's My Line, Part 1'
Note 2: I suppose this is getting to the point where I need a title. Any ideas?
Word count: 1,555
3. Bloody Family
Spike left him there - time to get the next one. Couldn't leave a trail of bodies if there was only one body, that wasn't even a straight line, more of a point. No, not even that. This one would stay alive, for now. Let them worry. They probably already had him dead, or turned. He could wait. They all could.
*****
Spike watched the car slow down to turn and the headlights sweep across the lawn as it pulled up to the front of the house. He had been hanging around behind a tree for over an hour, but now his prey was in sight. He left the shelter of the shadows and sauntered along the street. The driver's door opened just as he came level with the car and the woman clambered out, over loaded with shopping bags. Taking a couple more, hesitant steps, he leaned towards her, the picture of reluctant interruption. "Excuse me, love," he called "I wonder if you could tell me where..."
She started, almost lost one of the bags and half a dozen oranges and some tins spilled out onto the ground. He stumbled forward, all eager helpfulness. "Oh, I'm so sorry. Here let me..." He crouched down next to her and started gathering up the fallen fruit, putting it back into the bag.
Pausing in the act of collecting the rest of her spilled shopping, she looked at him, embarrassed but friendly. "Oh no, it's okay. It was my fault, I just wasn't expecting..." He hefted the bag and stood, extending a hand to help her up. She struggled to her feet, embarrassment turning to confusion. "I'm sorry, do I know you?" She peered at him, squinting with the difficulty of a woman too proud, or too busy, to acknowledge her short-sightedness, shaking her head as if to knock a memory loose.
Spike stood straight and spread his arms wide, casually and carelessly allowing the bag to fall to the ground. There was a sound of glass breaking. Before she could do more than gasp he had pulled her close and buried his face in her neck, smothered her cry in his shoulder. He ignored the hands battering at his arms and sides. The blood was rich and vital in his mouth and her struggles became weaker, in direct counter-point to the energy flowing into him. It was pure life. He relaxed and slowed his drinking, allowing her warmth to spread through him in delicious slow motion, relishing the taste and the slow fading of her life-force.
He flew across the grass and crashed into the trunk of a tree. Shaking his head to clear it, he gazed across the lawn and snarled - the Slayer was crouching over her mother's body while the Watcher rushed to the house, fumbling a set of keys as he ran. Damn them! He'd been robbed! That last heady drop, when the heart stopped, had been stolen from him. He growled and the Slayer's head snapped up, but she didn't rise from her protective huddle, or move the hand which was clamped onto her mother's neck to grab the stake he could see in her back pocket. For a moment he considered the chance that she would be an easy mark like that, too intent on keeping the rest of her mother's blood inside her body, to fight. But the expression on her face suggested withdrawal to be the better option, so he struggled to his feet and with one last snarl, backed into the shadows. He needed to check on Dru, anyway.
*****
It was disappointing. But Spike hadn't survived over a hundred years of unlife without being adaptable. He just needed a new plan. He considered reverting to his earlier idea and turning the boy. He considered going after the red-head, or the Watcher, while the Slayer was preoccupied. He worried about Dru getting progressively weaker, and his helplessness both frustrated and angered him. He needed to get the bloody Slayer out of his way. He paced.
A quick check on the boy, who was safe, if sulky, in the cellar store room and he headed back out to scout the Watcher's flat. The place was nicely secluded, with an unobtrusive door under the steps leading up to the flat above. Lots of useful places to lurk and he was using them to advantage when he felt it - the tingle along his spine that signalled family. And it wasn't Drusilla.
"Angelus," He turned and challenged the man who detached himself from the shadow of the gate post.
Angelus looked grim. "William."
Spike snarled. "Plonker! Why can't you ever get it right? I'm not your boy anymore. If you want to talk to me, you use my chosen name!"
Angelus conceded a nod. "Okay, and you use mine."
Spike paused, as if thinking that one over, but his Sire wasn't being violent so he must have something to offer. "Alright. 'Angel'." He put a bit of a sneer into the word, just so Angelus would know who was the petitioner here. "What do you want?"
"I'm calling in Wergeld, Spike."
Well, that was... unexpected. "Wergeld?" he asked, sceptically. "And how exactly does that work, Mate? Who did I kill that I owe a debt for? I've been playing nice with the other clans. Anything in the family doesn't count, and you know it. So if you object to what I did to the boy..."
"Yes, the boy." Angel interrupted. "Is he alive?"
"Alive, no. Nor undead. But it wasn't me what turned him. That's down to the old man. There was some prophesy or something." His brow furrowed with puzzlement. "Thought you knew all that. Weren't you there when the Slayer killed him?" Angel was wearing an expression of complete bewilderment. "Come on, Mate. Get with the programme. Anointed One, right? So I got rid of him. But that's family. Wergeld doesn't apply, and you know it."
"No. Not him. The boy. Xander. Is he alive?"
Spike shrugged. "Oh, him. Yeah, sure Mate. Got him safe and sound, under wraps. What's he got to do with anything?"
Angel sighed his exasperation. "For God's Sake, Childe, what were you thinking? You kidnapped the Slayer's friend, you attacked her Mother. She'll hunt you down, and she won't stop. She'll keep coming until she kills you."
Spike pulled himself upright and stalked away a few steps before swinging back round. He lifted his arms away from his sides in a gesture of offering. "She can try," he announced to the sky and, incidentally, to his Grandsire.
Angel sighed again. He did that a lot. "Spike, please?" He paused and looked at his Grandchilde, reassessing his approach. "How's Dru?" he asked.
Spike deflated. "Not so good. She's getting weaker everyday." He threw up his arms. "If I could just get rid of the damned Slayer, I know I could find a cure. But whenever I turn around she's there, muckin' up the works. She's the gnat in my ear! The gristle in my teeth! She's the bloody thorn in my bloody side!
"Spike!" Angel's yell, as much as the hands gripping Spike's shoulders, brought him to an abrupt halt. Angel started again in a more reasonable tone. "Spike. You don't have to do this. You can stop. I'll help you with Dru. I'll buy you the time you need to find your cure. But you have to stop this, before it becomes a blood feud. You almost killed Buffy's mother. She's lying in the hospital. She'll live, but Buffy isn't going to forgive this. I can negotiate a deal. All you need to do is pay the Wergeld."
"And why exactly should I do that? She's the enemy of the species. She's not clan. Wergeld doesn't apply to her any more than it does to the Annoying One."
"She's my clan," Angel said.
Spike looked at him, stunned by the realisation of just how twisted Angel had become. "Oh, I see. So I suppose now, I'm not? Now you have your band of humans, you don't have time for me and Dru. Is that it?"
"It's not like that. I'm trying to save you. You give Xander back and I'll make sure she accepts him as payment of your debt for her mother. And then you'll be free to sort out whatever's wrong with Dru."
"You bloody Bastard! You gave me that boy. And now you want me to give him back?"
Angel's voice took on a pleading edge. "It'll buy you the time you need to fix Dru. You said he's not dead. Come on, for once in your existence, be sensible. Buffy's strong and she's relentless." His mouth quirked in an amused and affectionate grin and somehow Spike doubted either emotion was directed towards him. "Even more so than you are." He gave Spike a little shake. "Pay the Wergeld and let me negotiate the peace. Take me to him, Spike. Let me help."
Spike's shoulders sagged and he took a deep breath. He thought about what it would mean to have Angel's assistance with Dru. He thought about sharing the load he had been carrying alone for so long. He looked up into Angel's face and grinned. "Okay Mate. Come on then. What are you waiting for? Follow me."
Angel's smile was more genuine this time. "Okay. Lead on, Childe."
Next Part
Part 3 of the Blood on a Sundial series.
Fandom: BtVS
Prompt: #18 - Wergeld
Previous parts, in reverse order, are here or in my memories.
At:
tamingthemuseDisclaimer: here.
Rating: Pg
Note: Some lines stolen from 'Halloween' and 'What's My Line, Part 1'
Note 2: I suppose this is getting to the point where I need a title. Any ideas?
Word count: 1,555
3. Bloody Family
Spike left him there - time to get the next one. Couldn't leave a trail of bodies if there was only one body, that wasn't even a straight line, more of a point. No, not even that. This one would stay alive, for now. Let them worry. They probably already had him dead, or turned. He could wait. They all could.
*****
Spike watched the car slow down to turn and the headlights sweep across the lawn as it pulled up to the front of the house. He had been hanging around behind a tree for over an hour, but now his prey was in sight. He left the shelter of the shadows and sauntered along the street. The driver's door opened just as he came level with the car and the woman clambered out, over loaded with shopping bags. Taking a couple more, hesitant steps, he leaned towards her, the picture of reluctant interruption. "Excuse me, love," he called "I wonder if you could tell me where..."
She started, almost lost one of the bags and half a dozen oranges and some tins spilled out onto the ground. He stumbled forward, all eager helpfulness. "Oh, I'm so sorry. Here let me..." He crouched down next to her and started gathering up the fallen fruit, putting it back into the bag.
Pausing in the act of collecting the rest of her spilled shopping, she looked at him, embarrassed but friendly. "Oh no, it's okay. It was my fault, I just wasn't expecting..." He hefted the bag and stood, extending a hand to help her up. She struggled to her feet, embarrassment turning to confusion. "I'm sorry, do I know you?" She peered at him, squinting with the difficulty of a woman too proud, or too busy, to acknowledge her short-sightedness, shaking her head as if to knock a memory loose.
Spike stood straight and spread his arms wide, casually and carelessly allowing the bag to fall to the ground. There was a sound of glass breaking. Before she could do more than gasp he had pulled her close and buried his face in her neck, smothered her cry in his shoulder. He ignored the hands battering at his arms and sides. The blood was rich and vital in his mouth and her struggles became weaker, in direct counter-point to the energy flowing into him. It was pure life. He relaxed and slowed his drinking, allowing her warmth to spread through him in delicious slow motion, relishing the taste and the slow fading of her life-force.
He flew across the grass and crashed into the trunk of a tree. Shaking his head to clear it, he gazed across the lawn and snarled - the Slayer was crouching over her mother's body while the Watcher rushed to the house, fumbling a set of keys as he ran. Damn them! He'd been robbed! That last heady drop, when the heart stopped, had been stolen from him. He growled and the Slayer's head snapped up, but she didn't rise from her protective huddle, or move the hand which was clamped onto her mother's neck to grab the stake he could see in her back pocket. For a moment he considered the chance that she would be an easy mark like that, too intent on keeping the rest of her mother's blood inside her body, to fight. But the expression on her face suggested withdrawal to be the better option, so he struggled to his feet and with one last snarl, backed into the shadows. He needed to check on Dru, anyway.
*****
It was disappointing. But Spike hadn't survived over a hundred years of unlife without being adaptable. He just needed a new plan. He considered reverting to his earlier idea and turning the boy. He considered going after the red-head, or the Watcher, while the Slayer was preoccupied. He worried about Dru getting progressively weaker, and his helplessness both frustrated and angered him. He needed to get the bloody Slayer out of his way. He paced.
A quick check on the boy, who was safe, if sulky, in the cellar store room and he headed back out to scout the Watcher's flat. The place was nicely secluded, with an unobtrusive door under the steps leading up to the flat above. Lots of useful places to lurk and he was using them to advantage when he felt it - the tingle along his spine that signalled family. And it wasn't Drusilla.
"Angelus," He turned and challenged the man who detached himself from the shadow of the gate post.
Angelus looked grim. "William."
Spike snarled. "Plonker! Why can't you ever get it right? I'm not your boy anymore. If you want to talk to me, you use my chosen name!"
Angelus conceded a nod. "Okay, and you use mine."
Spike paused, as if thinking that one over, but his Sire wasn't being violent so he must have something to offer. "Alright. 'Angel'." He put a bit of a sneer into the word, just so Angelus would know who was the petitioner here. "What do you want?"
"I'm calling in Wergeld, Spike."
Well, that was... unexpected. "Wergeld?" he asked, sceptically. "And how exactly does that work, Mate? Who did I kill that I owe a debt for? I've been playing nice with the other clans. Anything in the family doesn't count, and you know it. So if you object to what I did to the boy..."
"Yes, the boy." Angel interrupted. "Is he alive?"
"Alive, no. Nor undead. But it wasn't me what turned him. That's down to the old man. There was some prophesy or something." His brow furrowed with puzzlement. "Thought you knew all that. Weren't you there when the Slayer killed him?" Angel was wearing an expression of complete bewilderment. "Come on, Mate. Get with the programme. Anointed One, right? So I got rid of him. But that's family. Wergeld doesn't apply, and you know it."
"No. Not him. The boy. Xander. Is he alive?"
Spike shrugged. "Oh, him. Yeah, sure Mate. Got him safe and sound, under wraps. What's he got to do with anything?"
Angel sighed his exasperation. "For God's Sake, Childe, what were you thinking? You kidnapped the Slayer's friend, you attacked her Mother. She'll hunt you down, and she won't stop. She'll keep coming until she kills you."
Spike pulled himself upright and stalked away a few steps before swinging back round. He lifted his arms away from his sides in a gesture of offering. "She can try," he announced to the sky and, incidentally, to his Grandsire.
Angel sighed again. He did that a lot. "Spike, please?" He paused and looked at his Grandchilde, reassessing his approach. "How's Dru?" he asked.
Spike deflated. "Not so good. She's getting weaker everyday." He threw up his arms. "If I could just get rid of the damned Slayer, I know I could find a cure. But whenever I turn around she's there, muckin' up the works. She's the gnat in my ear! The gristle in my teeth! She's the bloody thorn in my bloody side!
"Spike!" Angel's yell, as much as the hands gripping Spike's shoulders, brought him to an abrupt halt. Angel started again in a more reasonable tone. "Spike. You don't have to do this. You can stop. I'll help you with Dru. I'll buy you the time you need to find your cure. But you have to stop this, before it becomes a blood feud. You almost killed Buffy's mother. She's lying in the hospital. She'll live, but Buffy isn't going to forgive this. I can negotiate a deal. All you need to do is pay the Wergeld."
"And why exactly should I do that? She's the enemy of the species. She's not clan. Wergeld doesn't apply to her any more than it does to the Annoying One."
"She's my clan," Angel said.
Spike looked at him, stunned by the realisation of just how twisted Angel had become. "Oh, I see. So I suppose now, I'm not? Now you have your band of humans, you don't have time for me and Dru. Is that it?"
"It's not like that. I'm trying to save you. You give Xander back and I'll make sure she accepts him as payment of your debt for her mother. And then you'll be free to sort out whatever's wrong with Dru."
"You bloody Bastard! You gave me that boy. And now you want me to give him back?"
Angel's voice took on a pleading edge. "It'll buy you the time you need to fix Dru. You said he's not dead. Come on, for once in your existence, be sensible. Buffy's strong and she's relentless." His mouth quirked in an amused and affectionate grin and somehow Spike doubted either emotion was directed towards him. "Even more so than you are." He gave Spike a little shake. "Pay the Wergeld and let me negotiate the peace. Take me to him, Spike. Let me help."
Spike's shoulders sagged and he took a deep breath. He thought about what it would mean to have Angel's assistance with Dru. He thought about sharing the load he had been carrying alone for so long. He looked up into Angel's face and grinned. "Okay Mate. Come on then. What are you waiting for? Follow me."
Angel's smile was more genuine this time. "Okay. Lead on, Childe."
Next Part
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-11-11 03:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-11 04:08 pm (UTC)As for more, we'll see what the prompt brings tomorrow.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-11 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-11 06:01 pm (UTC)"She's the gnat in my ear! The gristle in my teeth! She's the bloody thorn in my bloody side!" Hah, that made me laugh like crazy.
Nice use of the prompt, I liked Angel calling Buffy part of his clan, but poor Spike, automtically assuming that means he's out in the cold.
More good stuff, I'll scratch my head and see if anything springs to mind title wise.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-12 12:57 am (UTC)Hope Spike doesn't let Angel get away with it too easily, he meant what he said about Buffy *grr face*
putting humans ahead of family *pout*
Love your Spike.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-12 02:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-12 02:51 pm (UTC)A title would be good. I'll have to start taking it seriously, if I find a title *pauses, thinks, 'nah'. wanders off singing - Oh there's 3 wheels on my waggon, and I'm still rolling along.....*
no subject
Date: 2006-11-12 02:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-12 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-12 04:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-12 04:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-12 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-12 10:44 pm (UTC)Cindy
no subject
Date: 2006-11-13 01:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-13 02:50 am (UTC)I just LOVE the picture of Spike going to all the trouble of kidnapping Xander, not knowing what to do with him, and finally giving him back! That's SO Spike, though. He's got the evil intentions, he's just missing the foolproof plan...
no subject
Date: 2006-11-13 03:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-13 06:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-13 06:24 am (UTC)Well, I thought of killing Joyce, but if Spike had succeeded, there was no way Angel could offer a Wergeld deal, so Joyce had to live. Anyway, I like Joyce. *thinks* I wonder if she will react as badly to learning about vampires in this world, as she did in cannon. There's a thought to ponder for the future.
Yes, Xander. Well.....
*Grinning* Thank you very much for commenting.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-13 06:26 am (UTC)As for Angel.... You know? I have no idea. But I will have by next Saturday - promise.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-13 06:28 am (UTC)Thank you so much for commenting.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-15 03:31 pm (UTC)Well done!
no subject
Date: 2006-11-16 06:12 am (UTC)This whole series is a week by week surprise to me *silly grin 'I said series' - Willow voice*
I think you might be right. *g*
Glad you are enjoying it.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-06 04:17 am (UTC)I'm kinda wondering about Spike just giving in and 'letting' Angel help. Doesn't seem like something Spike would do. Esp considering his history with his Sire.
Thanks for the lovely words, C
no subject
Date: 2007-06-06 05:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-11-10 10:27 pm (UTC)I lost sight of this smart, entertaining story, so i was delighted to see a link at fantasmagoria. I'm going to enjoy finally finishing it off.
no subject
Date: 2008-11-11 05:55 am (UTC)And I am very glad you found BoaS again. I hope you continue to enjoy it.