Three

by
JezT

Part Four

Wesley had watched the events of recent days with a strange sense of foreboding, he knew what was going to happen, the theory was that the forthcoming full moon would bring with it a historic battle. The astronomers, stargazers and astrologists of the Alliance all saw it as a special night but none knew what was going to happen. Wes had no doubt that it was going to affect one of his pupils, he had been given two of the strongest additions to their number in a century and there was nothing that had told him that he was going to have to train them both at once. He was feeling the panic of his own worthlessness, that which had been ingrained in him by his father but knew that his own teacher had taught him that this was his chance to prove to himself that he was a better man than his father, that he could teach the young what he had failed to learn in his youth. There was a problem too with his employer, Angel was less broody which was obviously a good thing, but there was a problem in that the demon was more prevalent than the soul and he was reacting to everything as if he were a bloodthirsty Vampire with no remorse...the words hit him solidly, the thought that Xander had absolved his sins, had taken away the remorse and therefore the guilt. The soul was losing hold and he knew if they did not do something soon Angelus would be back. Flying into action he knew he had to get to Xander before the Vampire did, otherwise they may lose one of the Alliance to the dark side and a warrior and a sorcerer that powerful fighting on the side of the demons could swing the balance of power. The thought made Wesley freeze in fear, surely this was not the war that they were planning for?

Spike pulled Xander away from Angel in an angry display of protectiveness over their shared lover, there was only one stipulation in the bedroom and that was that blood play was only involved when *Xander* said so, the Vampires were both aware that the human body could only deal with so much blood loss and there was nothing that they wanted less than their lover's suffering, especially at their hands. It appeared that in his rage Angel had either forgotten or decided to ignore the rule. Xander was weak from a long session the night before and was now bordering on unconsciousness because he had had little time to recover.

"*Spike!*" Angel growled going into game face.

"*No!*" Spike returned vehemently, clearly ignoring the voice he knew to be that not of a lover but of a Sire. "*He* says when, not you." He reminded, Angel laughed a little, at the weakness that was his Childe, controlled by a mere mortal, then he realised that this was where he was too.

"I...I'm sorry." Angel said, allowing himself to regain control over his outburst, "I don't know what..."

"Well, you'd better find out what." Spike growled, keeping Xander close. "You're not coming near him again until you work out what it is that you have to say for yourself." This was a blatant misuse of their bond, a Childe was always submissive and the Sire dominant but even Angel knew that this was different. Not bothering to dress Angel went to sleep on the couch, allowing himself the chance to brood when he could not sleep over the fact that he was finding it more and more difficult to keep himself under control.

Spike held his unconscious lover close and felt the weak heartbeat that thudded inside the warm body, making sure that he was gentle enough not to wake Xander he slit his finger on one of his incisors and put it to Xander's mouth, allowing the blood to flow within him. 'A few drops' Spike reasoned, 'just enough to stop any real damage for Nancy boy's loss of control.' This done Spike found the glowing pendent that lay on their bedside and put it over Xander's neck before laying his head back on the pillow. The last thing that he did before falling asleep was checking the stake that he kept at his bedside, he had made a silent promise that if Angelus ever came back in full he would stake first and think later. It was looking more and more likely that he may have to keep that promise, but while his demon roared at the lack of respect for his Sire his human side knew it would do anything to keep Xander safe, Demon be damned.

Xander woke snuggled up to Spike, wondering why his back was cold, turning a little he saw that Angel was not asleep next to him and that a blanket was gone from the end of the bed, his eyes drifted out to the lounge and he saw the vampire asleep on the uncomfortable couch, he briefly remembered the beginnings of their lovemaking the night before but not why his lover had ended up out there, he tried to pull away but Spike instinctively pulled him closer. Instinct made Xander snuggle closer to Spike, but not before he felt the tingle of the bites on his neck, he saw the talisman that hung around his neck and could not recall how it had gotten there, this must be why he felt a strange feeling in his veins, it was healing his wounds. Perhaps they had gone a little too far last night and that was why Angel was asleep on the couch, it was probably to give he and Spike a little extra room to spread, or Angel had been up reading, that was it. He'd fallen asleep over a book and Spike had not had the strength to carry him to bed, God knows there was no waking Angel once he was asleep. That must be it.

There was no spell in all of his books that indicated how to replace a soul before it was lost, there were ways to return them, ways to curse people (in fact the Gypsy law was full of curses for all crimes real and imagined) but nothing to save them from the carnage that was bound if Angel lost his soul. Of course Wes had already known this deep in his heart, after the Rebecca Lowell tradgedy he had looked but this was different, he needed it now not only for a threat taht may never occur but one that they were waiting for. It appeared that Xander was not as strong a sorcerer or caster as he would have liked to hope, maybe if the boy and Faith united their power then they would stand a chance but this was going to be a difficult task when Faith could barely use telekinesis and had not yet mastered the finer points of alchemy. If only he had gotten to her sooner, or he had restricted Xander's power until after the boy gained complete control, still hindsight was 20/20. For now he would have to do well enough with what he had, it was more frustrating to know that he could not intervene, merely guide. This was to be their test, not his.

Part Five

She watched the stars, they shined brightly as if they were alive and she liked that, it reminded her of her childhood. It was not often that she thought of these times, times before the evil and pain entered her life, before there were Vampires and demons in her life and before she had lost her innocence. She had gained a new family out of the evil but it was not enough, not for Drusilla.

"Come little Sister, we have a lot to do." Penn said, pulling her out of her day dream. He barely tolerated her usually, the sister that Angelus had thrust upon him after he had gone against his Sire one too many times, but she had found him and told him of the rumours that Angelus and Spike were together again. The Big Bad and the Big Poof, fighting evil, not causing it. Penn had always hated his *nephew*, Drusilla's Childe, the one that Angelus had adopted as his favourite, despite him not even being his own, it hurt Penn more than he cared to admit, he was first, he was meant to be the favourite. Still they would get their revenge.

"The stars say that Daddy is coming back to us Penguin." She said, he wanted to stake her every time she used the infernal name, but unlike his Sire who had staked Darla and his *nephew* who had fought with the Slayer, he was not about to kill his own family, no matter how annoying she may be. "Miss Edith says that a dark force is coming and he will have to decide between us." Penn smiled, between Spike, a neutered white hat or his two evil children, there was no choice, if Angelus was back he'd stake his favourite sooner than let him live as a freak, maybe Dru was worth something after all.

Part Six

The old Angel would have been brooding over his mistake, this new one was not. That was the first thing that alerted Spike to there being a problem, the second was that his Grandsire was more aggressive, more demonic, in short he was more Angelus. It was not often that he talked to Wesley, despite living in the same place the younger Vampire made a point to ignore the watcher and his slayer if for no other reason than the fact that by nature they ought to be enemies. Now he found that he needed to talk to him, to find out how, if possible, he could save his Sire from becoming Angelus again without staking him. To most people it would have seemed odd that Spike did not want the soul to evaporate forever, to get back the Sire that had been denied him for so long, but he more than having his Sire back Spike wanted a family and at that moment Xander was giving him a happier family life than he had had in centuries.

"Watcher." Spike called, carefully walking in the shadows at the back of the lobby and avoiding the sunlight. "I want to talk to you about Angel, I think that you need to reinforce his soul or something."

"There is no way to do it." Wesley said flatly, not even looking up from the book that he was reading from. "I've looked, all we can do is hope that he does not meet any nice looking virgins who give him that "pure happiness" " Wesley said.

Outside the library where they spoke Angel's demon growled at the mistake that his souled self had made, it was not perfect happiness that turned him but pure happiness, all he needed to regain complete control was to find and use a virgin. LA may be the wrong city for that but there was a chance that he would find one if he looked in the right place.

Angel felt as if he had returned from a dream, the haziness of how he had gotten to the library confusing him more than the mix up with Xander the previous night. He had not had black outs since childhood, maybe there was some strange connection to the Powers that would need investigation. He yawned. 'After I've slept.'

Xander was reading the book that Angel had loaned to him avidly, the Lore and History of the Aurealis Vampires was fascinating, but the description of his lovers battles was scary as well. To read about Spike, Darla, Angelus and Dru travelling Europe and tormenting whole families, stealing jewels and money and causing havoc as they went made him glad that he was not with them and that Darla was gone. There was other books in the sequence too, at least there were references to other volumes, owned by other lines of the family. This was something else that was a new idea for Xander, the Order were one of the oldest and most influential of Clans in the Vampire world and stretched further than his two lovers, there were more children of the master and references that indicated that some of them were still alive.

His lovers were both out, although chances are that despite the tendency of Vampires to hunt in packs (something that Xander had recently learned) his lovers spent less and less time together so they were probably out separately. Settling back down to read about the Summer of 1920 Xander was unaware of the turmoil on the minds of his two beloveds.

Angelus watched the Catholic School gates as the pupils came in and out of the concert that was taking place there, if there was one place that he was likely to find a virgin in this city this was the place. All he had to do was use his 'angelic face' to get one of them to come to him of their own free will and he would be whole again. He was enjoying the fact that he had more and more control over his soul, this way he would be rid of it forever.

*****

Spike had been out fighting, it had seemed strange to him at first but killing demons was almost as much fun as killing humans, the blood even tasted better with some of them. There was a weird feel to the night, a bitterness to the air that Spike had felt only twice before in his life, once when he had lost his Sire and the other when he had regained him. There was a sixth sense in his blood, one of the gifts of his clan that he could feel those directly in his line, but this was odd. The foreboding he felt led him to the demon bars, calling in favours to get any information on spells or avenues to strengthen a soul, the only other answer that he had was a stake through the heart, and he knew that both he and Xander needed Angel too much for that. There had to be another way, all he had to do was find it before his Sire reverted back to his demon self.

He returned home late, it was near dawn and frustratingly he had found no answers, was nowhere near finding the *cure* that his Sire so badly needed. All he wanted was to fall asleep and wake up, the whole damn thing having been just a bad nightmare. It was how he had felt when he had first been turned, the guilt that racked through him at the immortality he was given despite being the last person to deserve it. He heard the whimpering of his lover and made his way to their room, troubled when he saw that Xander's discomfort came from the fact that he was alone. Angel was not home yet and Spike could not go back out to look for him, not when the sun was due to rise in ten minutes, he settled for holding his other lover, finding a little solace in the fact that he could be of use to at least one of them.

Within minutes Xander had stopped shivering, he snuggled closer to Spike and the Vampire allowed him to, he wanted to feel him close, needed to be needed and most of all was desperate to know that the boy was safe, because if he failed to stop Angel from losing his soul then he would never feel that way again.

Xander woke for the second morning in a row to find himself asleep with only one of his lovers. It was as if his real life had ben taken over by one of his fantasies, the ones that he had had of he and Spike while the neutered Vamp had still been living with him in his parents basement. Back then the fantasies had been just that, something that he had never thought would come true, but now it only felt like there was something lacking, he had tasted the sweet delight of having both Sire and Childe in his bed and he could not go back to having just one. Some might call him greedy, others mad for taking two demons into his bed, but he felt that he was blessed. Spike stirred a little and Xander realised that he was not the only one feeling the loss, no matter how possesive his two lovers were of him there was also the need that they had for each other, if possible it was an even greater need than the one they had for him. For Angel and Spike to be together was more than sex or love, it was a bond, borne in their heritage and sealed in blood, something that had bound them together even when they were sworn enemies.

"Liam. Taim i' ngra leat." Spike muttered in his sleep, Xander was not sure that he recognised the words, he had heard the two Vampires talking in other tongues when they were discussing him or when they were in a heated argument, Spike having explained that demons just had much better expression than humans, but he had never heard such tender words spoken in a foreign tongue. Xander was about to shake Spike when his lover woke abruptly, a small look of fear in his eyes as he tried not to startle his young lover. Xander though had seen the single blood tear that streaked across his lover's face, the contrast of crimson blood on the alabaster skin too potent not to miss.

"Spike?" Xander asked, scared that there was something going on that he did not know about. A voice that Xander was not sure was of this world spoke to him as he felt a shock of pain.

< It is begun >

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