html> After Midnight pt.10
By: Michelle
TITLE: With a Sacred Authority
PAIRING: X&A
SETTING: Season 4 AU. You'll see.
SUMMARY: Angelus turned Xander. Xander's not a happy vamp. Nor is he willing to stay with Angelus.
DISCLAIMER: I don’t own the characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, nor do I make any profit.
FEEDBACK: Absolutely. Feel free. Also, concrit welcome. Just drop me a line.

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Angelus smiled, seeming to be pleasantly surprised. “So. You two know each other? I think that’s just...lovely.”

“Yeah. We know each other, you bastard. And you knew it. It’s my guess, Sire, that’s why you brought her for me.” Xander shook his head, lip curled in disdain. “You are one supremely stupid creature. You know this isn’t going to work.”

“Well, not right away. I’m not so stupid as to think you’d just, I don’t know, eat your ex right away. But trust me Xander. She’ll be yours. I’ll see you feast on her soon. And it will be so beautiful. Her flesh dripping from your lips, her blood smeared all over your face and hands. You won’t stop yourself. And you’ll love me for bringing her to you.”

“I won’t let you do this to me.”

“Oh, precious.” Angelus reached out a hand and caressed Xander’s cheek. “You don’t have a choice.” He walked away, leading both Spike - who had been silent throughout the exchange - and Xander into the room.

“Xander? Don’t try to stand up to this. He’ll get what he wants. He always does. You, being so new, don’t have a chance against his will. We, none of his childer do.”

Xander turned cold eyes on Spike. “I know you’re trying to help make this - I don’t know what to call it except ‘transition’- easy for me. But you never knew me before, not really. Drusilla, he drove crazy before turning her. You? Hated who you were when Dru turned you, so yeah, you fought to escape that persona and created this one. Sexy and dangerous it may be, it’s still just a persona.”

“Yeah, so?”

“I liked who I was Spike. I have no reason to turn my back on that and become something different. If I do, if there is a chance that I’ll abandon who and what I was before, it will be because he has broken me. And believe me when I say that when or if that happens? None of us will survive.”

“That a threat, pet?”

Xander laughed. “No. Just a statement of fact. Think about it. If, as a human, I could turn my back on my best friends and the man who meant so much more to me than just a father figure, what makes you think I won’t do the same thing as a vampire? A creature with no moral compass, no loyalties? If Angelus succeeds in his quest to destroy the last part of me that is human, then yeah. He’ll be destroying himself, and possibly you, as well.”

“We’ll see, Xander. We’ll see. But for now, let’s go. He’s probably getting impatient.”

Spike and Xander joined Angelus and the two women in the great room where Spike immediately went to the girl that was to be his. He frowned when he saw her lethargic state. “Angelus! I thought I said feisty! This one is barely still alive. What sport will she be now?”

“Well, Spike. She wouldn’t shut the hell up! And she continued to fight me even after four blocks. I got tired of her screeching, so I ripped out her tongue. But I promised her to you, so I didn’t feed from her.”

“That wasn’t the bloody point, Sire. I wanted her resistant! They’re so much more tasty when they’re struggling. This one is barely worth the effort to bite.”

“Just stop your whining and eat her. We’ll go hunting again later and you can find your ‘feisty’ prey.”

Xander observed the conversation with a curl of disgust on his lip.

“They do that all the time, Xander?” Cordelia asked him.

“What?”

“Argue like that.”

“Not that I’ve seen. But I’ve only been here a few days, and Spike only got here shortly after I did.” Xander took a deep breath. His demon was responding to Cordelia’s proximity with a bone deep hunger. Her heartbeat, frightened and elevated, was loud in his ears, enticing him to feed. But he refused to give in to that ugliness. The calming breath didn’t help. Her scent infiltrated his body, perking his demon to the fore, and he felt his face change, the whisper-click of bones rearranging and fangs descending.

“Oh god.” Her tortured moan caused him to look at her. “You’re turned.”

“Well. Yeah. What did you expect? You didn’t think human Xander would be hanging with a couple of vampires, did you?”

“I didn’t know what to think. You aren’t going to hurt me are you?”

Xander shook the demon off, and smiled over at Cordelia, once again wearing his human face. “I’m gonna try, Cordy. I’m definitely gonna try not to hurt you. But nor can I protect you.”

“Xander!” Angelus called to him. “You’re not hungry, Precious?”

“No.”

Angelus grinned. “You’re lying, but it’s alright.” Standing over Spike who was feeding from his victim, Angelus reached down and petted the short white curls of his other childe. “You’ll be hungry before too long.” He threaded his fist into Spike’s hair and pulled him up from the other girl. “Spike?”

Bloodied lips grinned, revealing an equally bloodied mouth. “Sire?”

“I think you’re going to get your feisty meal after all.”

Confusion marred Spike’s brow. “How so?”

“Well, my boy, it seems that Xander isn’t’ hungry right yet. He doesn’t want his meal.”

“And we get to have it?”

“No, silly. But we’re going to do something fun.”

Disappointment filled Spike’s eyes, and a little regret which he directed toward Xander. “Fun sounds good, Angelus. What sort of fun?” The calm almost detached sound of Spike’s voice echoed strangely off the stone floor and walls.

“I think maybe he plans to torture me again, Spike.”

Spike frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“No. Not you, precious.”Angelus slid his gaze over onto Cordelia. “Her.”

Cordy’s already frightened eyes widened impossibly. “What? Me? Xander? What does he mean?”

“Angelus. You can’t be serious!” Xander knew, though, that his Sire was deadly serious. He moved closer to Cordelia. “Don’t hurt her, please.”

“Oh, Xander. I won’t be hurting her.” Angelus touched Cordelia’s face almost lovingly, trailing his soft artist’s hands over her cheek and lips, then he wrapped those fingers around her neck in a caress. When he felt her shiver, he smiled. “You like my touch, little beauty?” He leaned in and whispered in her ear, “I can make it so good for you, you know.”

Cordelia blinked and looked over at Xander. “This is how he torture’s his victims?”

Xander shook his head.

She snatched away from Angelus and took a step backwards away from him. Right into Spike’s arms. “Hello, pretty.” Spike whispered right before he took her earlobe into his mouth.

Xander watched as Cordelia struggled against her body’s reactions. He could smell her arousal and self disgust. He closed his eyes, hoping that removing the visual would ease his own desire to taste her skin, but the blackness behind his eyes only intensified his other senses. He could hear her panting breaths, her subsonic moans and quickening heartbeat. The heat emanating off of her enveloped him. He started to pant, wanting her so much, but knowing he couldn’t have her.

“Let her go, please?” He pleaded with his cursed family, “I can’t do what you want, please! Just let her go!”

His only answer were the sounds of kisses and licks, moans and heavy breaths and the slippery slide of leather falling to the floor and silk piling on top of it.

“Xander....please...” Cordelia’s terrified and aroused whimpers called to him, but he couldn’t justify easing her fear if it meant killing her. Seduction, sex, fucking was so much better than dead. Even he could admit that. He’d seen both sides of that coin, so he knew with a sacred kind of authority exactly what he was talking about.

“Don’t hurt her.” He whispered, and left the room, silent tears falling down his cheeks.

As he left, her heard her moan, and Angelus whisper, “Yes, pretty, we’ll make you feel so good.”

***

Several hours later, the house was again quiet. Cordelia’s aroused and unwillingly satisfied screams having echoed through the house, battering at Xander’s consciousness, ended with deep slow breathing and an occasional rumbling growl that sounded suspiciously like a purr.

He lay in the bed abandoned by his Sire, alone and on top of the covers. He heard the wind shift as the door opened, and he turned his head on the pillow to observe the intruder to his solitude.

“You can’t hide from this, Xander.”

“Spike. You can’t possibly like what he’s doing. I mean, I thought we were going to stick together.”

“No, Xander. I said I’d explain what he was doing. I can’t help you! I can’t not do what he tells me to do.” Spike moved to sit on the edge of the bed. “You don’t understand what it was like for me.”

“You were alone, Spike. Alone is easy.”

“Not when you’ve never been alone, Xander. I can’t lose my place again. I’m sorry.”

“So why is he doing this to her. To me.”

“Well. First, he doesn’t even see her, other than to know what happens to her affects you. He honestly thought us seducing her would get your compliance.” Spike thought for a moment. “I don’t think he understands you still. Ever the pragmatic one, aren’t ya? She’s better off seduced against her will than dead by you, right?”

Xander simply stared at him.

“Yeah. ‘S what I thought. He’s slow, our Sire, but he’ll catch on. You can’t hold out for long.”

“Watch me. I’ll get her out of here before he can hurt her. And Spike? He can’t make me kill her.”

“For a pragmatic sort, you sure can be an idealist. You’re not gonna win this one. You’re never going to win, Xander. Because you care. He’ll break the last bit of you. Sad thing? You’ll be too busy fighting it to see it happening to you.”

He rose to leave again, and Xander watched him from his supine position on the bed.

At the door, Spike paused. “You might want to come out for a while. He’s sleeping, and she’s not.” Then he walked out the door, leaving it standing wide open.

Xander heard soft muffled sniffles and the plop plop plop of tears falling on stone. He sighed and followed Spike out of the bedroom into the great room.

Cordy sat naked, her arms curled around her legs and her head resting on her knees. Xander tread over to her and folded himself down next to her. “I’m sorry, Cordy.”

“Why did you let them do that to me? Why?”

“Did they hurt you?”

“No. Not at all, and that makes it worse.” She sniffled again and angrily brushed her hand under her nose. Xander thought her beautiful even in the riotous mess she was in. Despite what just happened to her, she held her head high when she spoke to him. He'd always loved that about her; no matter her circumstance, she was always Queen C. He reckoned it came from growing up rich. “Don’t you get it? They made me like it. Made me scream for it! My own goddam torture, Xander. Made me ....beg” she spat the word out like bad wine, “for my own torture.”

“I know. Believe me, I know.”

“Do you? Do you really? Because I hate to break it to you, Einstein. But you’re dead! They’ve already done the unthinkable to you!”

“Cordelia, trust me when I say that is so far from the truth. But, yeah. I am dead. And you aren’t. What he’s doing? Is designed to get me to change that.”

“Yeah, he wants you to be the one to kill me. I get that, Xander.”

Spike brought over a robe for her, jostling them out of the bubble they had seemed to be in. “Thanks,” she whispered as she put it on. Spike just nodded and left them alone again.

“Jesus. I’m thanking my rapists now.”

“I’m sorry. For what it’s worth.”

“Not much, Xander. Not much.” She curled back up on herself again, and all Xander could do was rub his hand down her back to ease her anguish.

He looked over at the sleeping form of Angelus, and felt - again - the warring emotions inside him. A want and need so great it almost overrode his sense of self, and anger and hatred so strong he ached with it. The duality was pulling him apart and the only thing keeping him sane was the small parts of him that were still human. The parts that kept him thinking, rationalizing, the parts that kept him from becoming the primal creature he knew he should be.

Angelus turned over in his sleep, sloe eyes cracking open and a satisfied smile lighting on his mouth. “I know you’re there, precious. I can smell you. So torn.” He sat up. “You need me, don’t you? And hate me just as much. Well, kitten. I only do what I do to make you better, whole.” He ran a finger over the silky skin of Cordelia’s spine. “She’s a ripe plum, my boy. Thinking I should turn her.”

“You don’t have to do that.” Xander frowned at him, and earned a hard smack along his jaw for the effort.

“You don’t tell me what I have to and don’t have to do, pup.” Angelus leaned forward to taste the quivering skin of Cordelia’s shoulder. “You smell ready again, lovely.” His hand snaked around to the front of her waist and his long fingers caressed her breast. Xander heard her heartbeat speed up and smelled her sex quicken with moisture.

“Please, don’t make me.” She never lifted her head, but Angelus laughed at the obvious plea in her voice and leaned in to lay biting kisses along the back of her exposed neck.

The hand that had been caressing her breast crawled with a life of its own to nest in the dark moist curls of her cunt, pinching the skin and pulling at the hair there as his fingers slid into her. Xander couldn’t help her or himself, but sat utterly still and watched as she moaned and cried as her legs fell open. He could smell the salt of her tears on the air, taste the sweetness of her femininity on his tongue, feel the heat of her desire all over his skin. He couldn’t move.

“Xander. Precious. Look at her; how she responds? She’s beautiful in acquiescence isn’t she? So unwilling, but so needy. Look how flushed she is, how close her blood is." He pressed into her folds, spreading them open for Xander to see. "See how swollen she is and how she throbs? I feel her pulse, Xander. It's so hard on my fingers, like it's battering me to get out of her." He manupulated her clit, forcing her arousal higher, and she arched her body into his wicked touch, tears running down her face. "Look at the way she glistens. Do you smell her? Smell how wet she is? The tang of fear and desire, of hate and sadness? So sweet.”

“Shut up.” Xander again closes his eyes, forgetting the futility of the gesture. He feels a body slide down behind him, hands draping over his shoulders, over his chest, into his lap, to cup his semi-erect cock. Then a voice, rich and melodic like waves over river rocks, “Pet. Don’t fight this.” A soft tongue on the skin beneath his ear, teeth nibbling where his pulse would be if he had one.

He leaned back into the caress, watching Angelus’ hand and fingers bring Cordelia to a writhing, moaning peak of unwanted ecstacy. Spike’s fangs lowered, stabbing into his skin and he felt the erotic pull of blood from his veins into the other vampire’s mouth. “Spike, god.” He reached back and gripped the pale blonde hair in his fists, holding Spike to his throat.

“Xander?” Angelus’ voice popped his attention back. “I can hurt her,” and he pinched her swollen sensitive flesh hard enough to draw blood and screams, “just as easily as I can pleasure her,” then his fingers swiped up the blood he’d drawn and he rubbed his thumb over her clit, eliciting a different kind of scream, “it is entirely up to you.”

Spike’s hands had unfastened Xander’s jeans and were now pulling on his thoroughly engorged cock. He arched into the caress and moaned, his gaze never wavering from Angelus’ hands in Cordelia’s cunt.

“Pleasure?” he heard again, and again heard her moan, “Or pain,” and he didn’t have to hear Cordelia cry out because Spike had pinched the head of his cock hard enough to make him scream out. When the pain abated a bit, Xander marveled at the synchronicity of their behavior.

“I can’t kill her!” Xander moaned aloud.

Then Cordelia’s wavering voice, “I’ll forgive you, Xander. I swear, I’ll forgive you. Don’t let them hurt me. Don't let them do this to me.”

“It’s better than being dead, Cordy.”

“I was hoping you wouldn’t say that, precious.”

“You selfish bastard...” The insult died on a scream as Angelus tore into her flesh.

---

Chapter 11

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