The Adventures of Captain Peroxide and Deadboy
The Angel/Spike Zone of the BtVS Writer's Guild
Ensouled
Part VI - History Lessons
Author: Tania
Summary: Spike comes to LA looking for Angel, together they try and figure out what it means to be Ensouled.
Rating: Mainly R/NC-17
Pairings: Angel/Spike, Angelus/William, Lilah/Wesley, Buffy/Spike implied, Angel(us)/Darla Implied
Timeline: Runs the gamut
Disclaimer: Joss created my darling boys, I just let them run around in my head until they must come out.
Distribution: Please ask, although why you would want to house a 41,674 word long story is beyond me.
Feedback: Please, by all means, Email Tania
Spike had taken Connor into Angel's office and shut the door, wordlessly. Outside Gunn and Fred had settled into the other smaller office and watched the pair through the large window.
"You're a vampire." Connor stated flatly.
"Yeah, thought that was obvious." Spike sat on the desk facing the boy. "And you are the child of two vampires. So maybe we aren't so different as you would like to think, eh?"
"We have nothing in common, demon."
"Now that's where you are wrong, little brother." Spike smiled at the thought of this waif of a boy being a childe of Angelus, he wouldn't have lasted a day.
"What do you mean little brother?" Connor asked as he began to pick at the chair he was sitting in, feigning disinterest.
"I'm going to tell you a little story, Connor. And it's not all pleasant, in fact most of it is quite gruesome. When I get to the end you're going to have some conflicting ideas about your Da’. You see Angel is an interesting fellow, much more interesting than Angelus ever was I'm sure."
"You knew Angelus?"
"Yep, and your bitch of a mother." The vampire watched his young charge for a reaction. "You are truly lucky to have never met her. The stories I tell you about Darla are much less interesting, they do tend to lead to blood and death though, so I'll be sure to save those for a bedtime story some night when you’ve been bad."
"I don't want to know about her."
"Right, that's why even after you buried your father at the bottom of Santa Monica harbor, you came back here. Nope, no curiosity there."
"That’s not why I came back."
"Ah, Ah, my story first, then yours."
Connor gave a small nod in agreement.
"Right then. I'm going to assume that growing up with Holtz playing the part of daddy you got to hear all the fun adventures of Darla and Angelus’s exploits through Europe?"
"I know how they killed my father’s family, raped and tortured his wife and turned his daughter into a vampire."
"You don't know the half of it, and pray you never do. I heard the tales my whole unlife. The pair of them decimated entire villages, starting with Angelus’s hometown. They killed his family and Darla helped him kill just about every bint he ever had as a mortal. She was a bit of the jealous sort. After they had laid waste to Ireland they just made a beeline for London, to meet up with the Master."
"Who’s the Master?"
"The Master was the one who turned your mum. Met him a couple times, creepy bat like guy. Not really an integral part of the story, other than the fact that the Order of Aurelius used him as a bit of a figure head for centuries, right up to the point where Buffy killed him a few years back."
"Order?"
"Of Aurelius. You and I, little brother, we have the blood of Aurelius in our veins. It's what makes us that little bit keener than others, makes our hearing a little better, our eyes a little sharper. For a vampire, it means you don't end up serving as a minion for a stronger vamp. For a pissant like you, it means you have the strength to take down one of the strongest vampires in the world and live to tell about it. Mind you, if you were anyone else, human or not, it never would have happened. Angel wouldn't kill you, but he could, and you’d do real well to remember that." Spike moved from the desk and pulled the large chair around to the front. He sat down, still facing Connor and continued with his story.
"This is where the story takes some bloody unusual turns. Angelus and Darla piss off the next century in Europe, Africa, parts of Russia. This is the part you know, late 18th Century, Holtz on their heels, mayhem. Then your step-dad disappears, just stops following them, so they have to find new ways to amuse themselves. Angelus really honed his torture skills during these years. They took to bringing each other presents. Finding the perfect kill, even turned a few here and there. Mostly it was just the two of them, minions now and then, but nobody entered the inner circle."
"They loved each other. My, Holtz, said they were inseparable."
"They were, but Angel will be the first to tell you it wasn't love. Funny thing about vampires. We retain more of our human selves than you might think. See, Angel, when he was human, Liam he was called, well Liam was not a lover. He had women every night, but he never loved them. He drank, he brawled, he fucked. That was his whole existence. To hear Darla tell it, that was why she picked him. He had no morals as a human, he made the perfect vampire. He was completely loyal to his sir, but never confuse loyalty with love. It had nothing to do with love."
"Now here’s the funny part, Angelus did not love, but he could obsess with the best of them. He studied religiously, languages, other demons, magic, you name it. He was ready for anything, could speak and read almost anything, so he obsessed, and when he got bored he would just find someone to torture. So anyway, they come back to London after a few decades of this random feed, torture, move on phase. Darla sees this girl, Drusilla, out on the town with her sisters and starts hunting her, but she was a bit of a seer and a virgin. So Darla gets a bug in her bonnet that she should be for Angelus. Well he goes nuts for her, follows her around town, kills her family while she watches, fucks Darla practically in her lap, rips her mind apart, makes her just insane."
"Then he killed her?" Connor asked.
"Oh, we are paying attention. No he didn't kill her. He set her free. She thought she could join a convent and live insanely ever after. So Angelus waits until the night she takes her vows. He snuck into the convent, because he has this thing for nuns that goes back way farther than Drusilla, and he kills all the women living in her cell, then he drains her right in front of the little chapel in her room. Then he turned her. He made her a vampire so she would suffer forever. Her beauty preserved forever, but her mind long gone. This is where you say ‘That’s diabolical Batman.’ No, okay, easy to forget you aren't exactly a TV generation kid."
"So what happened to her after that?"
"Angelus and Darla dragged her around for a couple decades, then they grew tired of her. The sight is useful to a vampire, but the babbling made them start to feel the pinprick of insanity too. So, one day I'm at a little party in London, having a pint with some mates and I see this girl. Cecily, gorgeous woman, I went weak in the knees. I started waggling invitations to all the dos she would be at, basically drooling at her feet. I was in university, thought she might want a fellow with a brain, started writing some bloody awful poetry and slipping it into her bag when she wasn't looking. My mates thought that was a right good time, took to calling me William the Bloody, it wasn't a term of endearment exactly. So I finally think I've wooed this girl, she'll be all ripe with want after reading the sonnets of my heart and all that blather. I get the balls to ask her out, she told me I was beneath her, breaks my heart right in front of my mates." Spike shifted in his seat remembering the mortal he had been.
"I ran outside, and literally ran over Angelus. I tried not to look up, but I could feel him watching me as I walked away. Really I was feeling Drusilla’s eyes. She was lonely, Angelus and Darla were sick to death of her. They told her to go make herself a playmate, what they meant was babysitter. She followed me down the road, came and sat beside me. She was lovely, these big knowing eyes, she told me I would be something special someday. Then she kissed me. Just like that. In those days no one but a harlot would just kiss a stranger full on. So here I am, shocked to the core, this ravishing goddess is kissing me, I've just been shot down, and she is practically swallowing me. I look up at her, opening my eyes just a little, afraid if I say anything she’s going to disappear. Then I notice we’re being watched. So then I'm torn between virtue and hard on. Do I stop kissing her and tell this voyeur to sod off, or do I keep kissing her and just watch him? He was so large, I mean tall, powerful, he just exuded sensuality. He watched us with this little lilt of his lip, it kind of curled as Dru licked at my mouth. I wasn't even paying attention to her anymore, just watching him."
"Angelus."
"Yes, Angelus." Spike laughed. "I was so busy looking into those deep chocolate eyes, I didn't even see Drusilla’s face change until her fangs were almost in my neck. The last thing I remember hearing before I died was ‘Daddy, I don't know how to do it.’ and him answering, ‘Here Dru, we’ll do it together.’
"So, Angelus made you?" Connor was on the edge of his seat, clearly not liking the story.
"Near as I can tell. I woke up four days later in a cemetery, dug my way out of a coffin and the first face I saw was Angelus. For the next week he showed me how to feed, how to kill safely without drawing attention, and he beat me. He beat me half senseless. He told me I was only there to take care of Drusilla, and that if I couldn't he would stake me that night. Mind you, I hadn’t even seen Drusilla since I woke up. He had locked her away somewhere in this huge house in the London countryside. I could here her screaming every now and again that I was hers and he was not to hurt me. Angelus would just laugh and beat me again, harder because she tried to protect me."
"He finally let me see her, she cleaned me like a cat. Dressed me up like one of her sodding dolls." Spike stopped at the memory.
"And then you and she joined my ’parents’." He snarled at the word. Parents.
"Yeah, we killed, tortured, played." Spike leaned closer, his expression changing to a serious one. "Connor, I don't want you to think Angel misses it. He doesn’t. He hates that part of himself. But that doesn’t mean he forgets. He remembers every kill, every scream. Every device he ever used to torture his victims. He hears them all when he closes his eyes."
"And you? He's the one with the soul, do you still torture your victims? Or do you just drink their blood and let them die?"
"You think you're so smart, don't you? You think being a vampire is just about the blood, that it's so simple. Maybe for some it is, but not for us. It was never just about the kill, it was about the hunt, the passion, the chase." Spike stood again. "That need never goes away. That desire. But no, to answer your question, I don't feed on humans anymore. Haven’t for a while now. Which is why I'm sporting this fabulous famine victim chic. It's all the rage in Africa, I was just there, I know."
"You don't feed? Why?"
"That’s kind of the million dollar question, isn’t it?"
*****
Have wondered how it would all end.
Copyright 2002 - Tania
Violators will be beaten to death with a shovel
(A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend)