Angelus:

William didn't like the smell in the first tavern they went into, so they moved on to another down the road. People clustered in the narrow streets, bundled against the cold, making their way from one inn or pub to the next. The vampires slid through the human throng easily until they reached the next tavern door.

Inside there were men singing a Scottish folk song and patrons were laughing in every corner.

"This is good," William said. "What do you think?"

His eyes made a quick sweep of the clientele and then a beautiful redhead pressed her ample body between the two of them in the doorway.

"I hope you handsome blokes are comin' in," she said, batting her round green eyes at William. "It's not every day we get such creatures in this place."

Over her head they shared a secret grin.

"No, lass," Angelus said, laying his brogue on thick. "I reckon it's not every day." Grabbing the woman, he shoved his way through the dense crowd and up to the bar. William was right behind him, pressed against him with that hard, lean body tense with anticipation.

They drank a few rounds of whiskey then took the woman off into a corner. She was happily drunk and enjoying the attention of two such attractive young men. Poor thing had no idea what was about to happen to her.

Finding a table in the dark, they sat the woman down between them. William put his arm around her almost bare shoulders and brazenly looked down the front of her blouse. Angelus smiled at his brashness, then leaned forward to whisper in her ear.

"My friend and I would love to kiss these breasts, luv," he said, making his eyes sparkle with lust. "They're so full and luscious."

She giggled and straightened her back to display her bosom even more.

Reaching out with his large hand, Angelus cupped the woman's left breast and lifted it up and out of the lacy bodice of her dress. The nipple was big and pink and he kissed it once before taking it into his mouth to suck. He was so gentle at first, relaxing her, feeling her arousal growing with the heat in her body. Glancing up, he saw William kissing her smooth neck, softly nibbling her earlobe and murmuring dirty little things to her.

She closed her eyes, smiling blissfully and then she let her head rest against the back of her chair. As soon as her neck was exposed, William covered that big vein below the jawline with his mouth and bit down hard.

Angelus felt her flinch but she didn't try to escape. Instead, she remained still, breathing hard, eyes closed. Her plump fingers toyed with the ends of Angelus' hair as he continued his soft suckling at her breast. He could smell the hot coppery odor of her blood as William lapped it, see the boy's throat moving as he swallowed. When he could stand it no longer, he drew the woman's nipple deep into his mouth and drove his fangs into that tender flesh.

The blood was so warm and sweet . . . like thin running honey. He moaned as it filled his mouth, swirling it around so it touched all his sensitive tastebuds. The redhead's big nipple tightening into a hard knot as he assaulted it, which made it even more succulent. Watching William enjoy their feast aroused him wildly and he couldn't stop watching his young companion. Those lips, that throat, those long thin fingers squeezing the woman's other breast as he drank. Thick wheat-colored eyelashes fluttering slightly against his cheeks. Angelus sighed when he saw those pale cheeks infuse with color from the blood he ingested.

William looked just like a child in that moment-a ravenous, greedy child sucking his mother's milk. Gorgeous, he was. So very primal.

Leaving the tortured nipple, he moved up to the woman's neck and dug his hands into William's curls. He pulled the boy's head back before he was ready and hot blood gushed over his pouting bottom lip. Unable to resist, Angelus leaned in and sucked that lip, brutally gnawing it with his still exposed fangs. William moaned and trembled under the woman's weight, the soft vibration of it passing through her body to Angelus. The kiss went on endlessly, an agonizing test of the other's threshold for arousal.

The woman was saying something, but her weakened voice was barely audible over the din in the tavern. Angelus looked down and found her watching them with round, terrified eyes.

"Your faces," she gasped. "What . . . what ARE you?"

Looking into William's blue eyes, Angelus grinned. "Finish her," he said.

With great enthusiasm, William did.

They left her in the corner with their empty glasses and slipped unseen back out into the night.

The next tavern they chose was even more crowded and they split up once they got inside. It didn't take them long to find victims and they met at the bar again for another whiskey. Standing together, they looked around the crowded room, assessing the faces of the patrons.

"Had enough?" Angelus said, his lips brushing William's earlobe as he spoke.

"Yes," the blond said. "Do you want to go back?"

Eyes sparkling playfully, Angelus said, "let's go someplace else."

The crisp night had cooled even more as it drew toward its silent middle point and the streets were beginning to empty. The Micklegate stood as the entrance to the walkway along the wall surrounding the city and there were two sets of steep, darkened stairs on either side of the gate. Angelus took William's wrist and led him up one side of the stairs until they were into the thickest, echoey darkness. There, he stopped and drew William close to him . . . close enough for their eyelashes to flirt softly.

"You can see everything from up there on the wall," he whispered.

The young one pressed against him with his whole body, his arms slipping around Angelus' waist in the darkness. Cold fingers on his blood-heated back, warm lips against his own. Angelus closed his eyes and inhaled William's scent as they kissed deeply, wetly. That tantalizing ginger-honey smell . . . so warm and edible. Their tongues played together, stroking each other, tasting the other's saliva. Blood, salt and sugar . . . everything on William had a hint of sweetness.

Their bodies rose together in reflexive breaths, pushing forward and into each other. The kiss grew more urgent in the dark stairwell and soon the sounds of their rough panting echoed around them, seeming to gather the voices of nearby ghosts in the frigid night.

Inside the moist kiss, sharp teeth tingled and lengthened and clicked softly against one another. William purred and then nipped Angelus' hot bottom lip-quick, shallow punctures-tiny, pinhole wounds. He sucked and trembled all over.

Angelus sighed, thankful for the wall behind him as he felt dizzy and lightheaded suddenly. All his senses focused on the point where the blood was leaving his body. The soft rush like a tiny, whooshing breeze in his ears each time William drew. Again, the suckling sounds were maddening . . . intoxicating. He felt his skin begin to tingle as his erection tensed in his trousers. He held William's hips so tight in his hands, he could feel the curve of each bone beneath the rough fabric, under that perfect white skin. He knew he was moaning, he could hear it. And the moaning made him vulnerable. But there was no stopping it. The pleasure had taken him over.

The next few moments were a blissful blur of sounds and sensations. Angelus felt drunk and airborne, his mind reeling with color and light. His trousers were shoved open and pushed down, his body turned against the wall in the black stairwell and his hot cheek suddenly frozen against the wet stone. The sucking went from his lip to the nape of his neck, the tender spot at the top of his spine where the hairline hit. Piercing fangs, piercing cock, penetration and draining, all at once. Angelus cried out as his body instinctively opened to receive the pleasure, opened to give the blood.

In that instant, there was blinding flash inside him-some sudden, pervasive alchemy working its will on the core of his being. He felt completely overtaken and alive, virtually flying and falling with pleasure and release. And at the same moment, he was terrified. Angelus felt like he was being possessed.

William's hips rolled and pumped as he sucked, driving his swollen cock in as deep as it would go, then sliding it out with painful slowness. Angelus reached for the wall for support but his fingers slid on the damp stones. Still he tried to grip something and his palms made a flat, wet slapping sound each time he tried. He felt William trembling and groaning and he knew the end would be quick. His own body was racked with pain and ecstasy, the brutal scratching in his anus in perfect harmony with the bliss of the sucking at his neck. He felt his cock shudder and ooze, then kick against his belly as his prostate swelled to meet William's driving thrusts.

The wetness flooded into him, hot gushes as the boy gasped and his teeth slid out of Angelus' flesh. Moaning into the hollow darkness around them, they bucked against each other, both shimmering with convulsive pleasure-sparkling under the influence of some dark magic neither of them had expected.

His orgasm seemed to be all over him, stretching through every nerve and every cell. He exploded with it, bright bursts interrupting the wet darkness around them. Silvery ripples moved through his blood as the spasms finally waned. Angelus was only vaguely aware of William's weight on his back, collapsed there, as he was, chest heaving, face slick with blood-sweat.

There against Angelus' ear, William whispered. "Do you know what I like best about drinking your blood?"

Panting in the inky stairway, Angelus waited uncertainly.

"I love what I see inside of it," he said. "I love the images and sounds of you . . . of all those secret pleasures you deny yourself. I love the truth your blood tells me. The truth only I know now."

Turning as quickly as he could, Angelus reached for William's throat in the blackness but the boy was gone. His footsteps echoed on the cobbles halfway down the quiet street.

For a moment Angelus just stood there, dazed and furious. He licked at the throbbing wounds in his lip as they began to heal. He drew up his trousers and straightened his clothing, not feeling any need to rush back to their rooms. William would tell the women what had happened, no doubt. He'd laugh about it. Knowing he'd let the boy best him in a moment of vulnerability had him feeling both weak and angry-but those feelings cancelled each other out. He was left with nothing but numbness.

And a dreadful, nagging longing he had yet to understand.

"Bastard," he muttered.

Choosing to go in the other direction, Angelus went up the stairs to the narrow top of the wall. He walked around the entire city over and over until the sun threatened on the horizon. Only then did he go back to the hotel and just as he'd expected, he found his dark little family asleep.

************

Giles:

"And did he tell?"

Angel laughed humorlessly. "For whatever reason, no. In fact, he never told. As many times as we fought after that-as many times as we've been this close to murdering each other-he's never said a word. It's as though it never happened. Except . . ."

Giles leaned forward slightly, watching the vampire's face. "Except, what?"

"Except, it did happen," Angel whispered. "And . . . it does."

Heart pounding thickly, Giles' eyes widened. "You mean . . . it happens . . . still?"

Angel's dark eyes slid closed in answer, then he looked at Giles almost desperately. "You promised, remember?"

"Yes," he assured. "Not a word to Buffy. But, Angel . . . why . . . I mean, I don't understand. Why does it continue to happen? You and Spike are, for all intents and purposes, brutal enemies."

He shook his head. "Don't you see? That's always the problem. We're CHOSEN enemies, not natural ones. By nature we're family. By nature, we're . . . connected." Again, Angel looked down. "Something happened that night, Rupert . . . something chemical, in our blood. There was some sort of exchange that neither of us were aware would happen and it altered us somehow. We're . . . powerless to it if we get close enough to each other. Close enough to smell."

"It makes it so you can't kill him?" Giles asked.

"Oh, no," Angel said. "I could easily kill him. But I can't . . . stay away from him if he's too close. It's like an electrical charge. Magnetism. It's totally irresistible."

Mind racing, Giles sat back again, his brow wrinkled in thought. "What did Drusilla mean when she spoke to you tonight? When she said she wanted you to come to them and give Spike what he needs. What, exactly, does he need from you?"

Angel hesitated, then once again he glanced out the large living room window at the darkness there.

"Is she waiting for you?" Giles asked, feeling cold all over.

"He needs my blood," Angel said. "Dru got pretty strong from that little transference in the church, but she's still too weak to completely heal him. She probably brought him back from the edge of death, but . . . she needs me to bring him the rest of the way." He looked at the clock on the wall in Giles' kitchen and then he stood to get his coat on.

Giles noted the time was 9:40 as he stood also, walking to the door behind his mysterious guest. "So, you DO know where they are."

"Not yet. But I will in a little while."

"Will you, then?" Giles said. " Go to him."

Opening the door, Angel turned back and sighed heavily. "I don't have any choice. That's the thing . . . the guilt. He is the anchor for me, the thing that keeps pulling me. On the one hand, I can't bare the thought of killing him and on the other . . . I'll never be free of him until he's dead. But until he is . . ."

Giles nodded somberly, feeling a moment of true empathy for the vampire. "I see."

Stepping out onto the porch, Angel tucked his hands into the pockets of his leather coat. "Look, I just want to make sure we have an agreement about . . . you know."

Leaning in the doorway, Giles crossed his arms over his chest. The night was cold and there was a little breeze moving in the trees. "We do. As long as you understand that if you harm Buffy . . . I'll kill you myself. And I'll do it with a smile."

"Rupert," Angel said. "I have always understood that." He shook his head and his expression became that familiar mixture of brooding intensity and bridled anger. "You can't possibly know how this is for me. To care for her so much and to be unable to . . ." Looking down, his voice dropped to a ragged husk. "You just have no idea."

Giles frowned, shivering from the cold both outside and in. "No," he said. "I supposed I don't. But if you go there, and give him your blood, won't they simply kill you?"

Slowly, Angel moved down the walk and into the night. "I don't see why they wouldn't," he said wearily. "And I can't say I'd care much if they did."

"Buffy would care," Giles said, but only loud enough for Angel's acute ears to pick up.

The vampire looked back at him as he headed for the street. "Just remember our agreement. Not a word to her." And then he was gone.

Giles closed the door, rubbing his arms to warm up. Just like the night before, his house seemed strangely silent in Angel's absence. He couldn't help wondering if he really was alone or if he was still being observed by some hypnotic creature in the night outside.

Angrily, he stomped to the living room window, grabbed the curtains and yanked them closed.

**************

Spike:

Sitting uncomfortably in that blasted wheelchair, he circled the big table in the main room of The Factory over and over as he waited for Dru to return. He'd sent their minions to watch all the entrances, which left him alone inside. The fire crackled on the large hearth and the sweet scent of fresh roses perfumed the air. Dru had been gathering them all week to decorate the place for the party.

Above, on the stairs, he heard footsteps and then he felt Drusilla in the air.

He also felt Angel.

Gripping the arms of his chair, he wheeled to the corner so his back was to the wall. This way, he couldn't be attacked from behind in case his grand-sire had brought company. Waiting anxiously, he watched the stairs until his lover and their wayward brother began to descend.

When their eyes met, Angel offered a cold smile.

"Looks like the tables are turned, Spike," he said.

Spike could only sigh.

*****
tbc