Spike paced back and forth as he pondered his next action. He had retreated to the safety of his bedroom, alone, and left Oz, Angel and Xander all but tearing at each other's throats. All that rage and anger and they were still no closer to deciding what would be the best approach to getting that Lindsey bloke turned and trailing Angel like the pet dog he would be for the first decade or two of his vampiric existence. Getting all the attention Angel had to spare! Getting in their way when they wanted privacy! Taking Angel's attention when it should be focused on their mortal, living daughter! Being all Angel wanted from the perfectly respectful childe he would no doubt be!
Like all he had ever wanted to be, until he had learned the full implications of his turning and subsequent abandonment. Then his step father had literally stepped in to be his salvation. His teacher. And never treated him as less than his son.
Now Angel was to make another childe, on the demands of their Gods no less.
He had been Angelus' last childe, after his creation his sire had taken no other young souls to be his childer. Minions, certainly, but he had not had the time to create any more childer before the Romany's had gifted him with a very guilty conscience. His so called training period had bearly finished before they had all gone to Romania at Darla's behest. It would be interesting to observe, first hand, what he had missed by not actually being raised by his blood sire's hand. All those tender, and not so tender touches Drucilla had talked endlessly of. All those secrets from her early years he had stayed with her just to hear. All those whispered stories he had fallen in love with listening to. Only to finally fall in some semblance of love with the story teller.
Was it the media or the medium? He giggled somewhat hysterically at his own question.
Then he realised that the previously invasive raised voices had reached some sort of stalemate, or that the vocal combatants had mutually annihilated each other and ergo had finally fallen silent; even if only for the moment.
Grateful for the brief respite in their on going war of words, he opened the door a crack, worried that he'd either be greeted by the smell of their freshly spilled blood or they'd simply wait until he emerged before recommencing their very private third world war.
On arriving in the sitting room he saw the whole group of them had split into three camps; Angel, Oz and Xander seemed to each be heading up their own small group of followers. Angel had his friends with him, and Giles and Faith. Oz had Hera and Harmony and Robert, who had seemingly arrived during his very private brooding session. Oz also had Buffy with him. Everyone else seemed to be with Xander. And that group included several vampires from the temple who no doubt had come along with Harmony. He also had Dawn's memories and feelings on any subject as well as having Tara and even Willow on his side physically.
But at least they were all quiet.
"So, no decision as yet I presume?" Spike looked at everyone, one by one, daring them to even speak. A room full of heads all shook in the negative however. "Why does it have to be so complex? We go in, we get the fucker, we leave again? Where is the complexity in that?"
"Oh, we all agree on that, it's the what happens next that we're fighting about now!" Oz informed him, less than helpfully as the war of words seemed about to erupt once more.
"Then Angel bites the fucker, turns him. It was all agreed... wasn't it?"
Spike looked at Hera for an answer, his mixed feelings at the idea of Angel turning anyone so clear to her in his confused, pain-filled eyes.
"Yes, my dear, it was. But, Oz did wonder how Angel's turning Lindsey would affect Angel's work for those damnable powers he works so diligently for. He quite rightly pointed out that we Olympians have no power to absolve him from a breach of oath he made in their names. They might see it as a breach of conscience and make him, and therefor you and Alicia, suffer. So that was where the fight started. If not Angel, then who should turn Lindsey MacDonald?" Hera shrugged her shoulders in a helpless manner. "I offered Harmony and Robert absolution from their oaths on this one very special occasion to perform the deed. Only neither of them have sired a childe before. Experience will count for so much in this turning. Lindsey is a powerful mind, trained in all forms of arcane combat."
"Oh." Was as much as Spike could manage at that point.
"And I said there were more vampires available than the three they offered up as choices. Harmony brought over all these other vampires from that temple you talked about earlier and a couple of them have as much experience with childer as Angel does. And they're not so prone to suddenly becoming evil mindless demons. They all agree that they pretty much started out like that and kinda remain like that even though they chose not to bite today. Bit like alcoholics do." Xander looked at the two oldest vampires on his side and shrugged in a self deprecatory manner. Being as friendly with vampires as he ever could be.
"Kinda gives a whole new meaning to the VA, doesn't it? Ain't the Veterans Association it's really Vampires Anonymous!" One of the younger vampires on Xander's side spoke out, right before he stood up. "Hello, I'm Alexander and I'm a vampire. I can't help myself, but I have a need to bite people..."
"Hello Alexander!" The rest of Xander's group of vampires all replied at once, sharing the joke. Even Xander responded with they young male vampire.
Spike could foresee disaster if Xander and Alexander became inseparable friends.
"Hey, that's my real name, buster!" Xander muttered at the vampire once the joke was firmly over.
"Mine too. Snap! As the saying goes." Alexander grinned at his new found mortal ally.
"Oh." Xander was mollified that he was not being lampooned in any obvious manner. "Good joke by the way..."
"At last, someone with a real sense of humour!" And disaster had arrived.
Alexander and Xander clicked.
"And what, pray tell Angel, did you say to all these 'thou shalt nots' being bandied about so freely?" Spike's original accent was clearly in control of his voice. It gave itself over to hard biting sarcasm so much better than his faux Cockney one did.
"I said I quit the powers that be and offer my services to Hera." Angel smiled at Spike, hoping his beloved would champion his cause with the Olympian Goddess.
"And you said what to that, Hera?"
"I said no. We need him and Cordeilia as conduits to those damnable upstart deities and shouldn't do anything to risk letting them know he had changed sides. Quitting and taking up with us is just not a good move before we're ready to challenge them."
"I see. But his acceptance of your existence is enough to effectively have him denied the grace of his original God. He is that bloody minded. God that is not Angel. He's a damned sight worse, more stubborn in his heart of hearts than any poxy Johnny-come-lately God you could ever imagine!" Spike looked at the sea of faces before him. This was so like the old times, before Liam Saunders and he had ever met. A task force of human and demons under his command. Only, before, he'd never have had a vampire slayer, let alone two of them, nor would he have a pantheon of Gods and Goddesses at his beck and call. Polite beckoning and calling he hastily added to the thought.
Hera caught the thought anyway and giggled almost girlishly at him.
"Okay. I think we should stick with the original plan. But have back ups just in case of emergency. We go, we get that Lindsey bloke's corpse and finish it's turning. We take along Harmony and Michael from Xander's faction as back ups to Angel. The rest of us go in , kick butt, kill as many of the bastards as we can and retrieve as much documentation as possible. Anyone not on the attack force can head over to the Hyperion and vamp proof several rooms. We're not bringing that Lindsey shit back here. He can go stick by his sire's side at his place. When Angel's here he's my Sire!" Then a thought occurred to him. "Did anyone clean up all those bodies from the foyer of the Hyperion? I don't remember anyone saying anything on the subject. Was kinda pre occupied!" He smiled a little sheepishly and rubbed his ever bulging belly, gently.
Every vampire, human et al watched that unconscious action. It was something that gave them all hope, very different, yet surprising similar hopes at that. Hope for their ability to create new life, not simply steal an old one. Hope that their would be a living bridge between humanity and demon kind that hadn't existed since the fall of Greek Pantheism in 350 AD.
"Erm, the bodies have all been removed. We do require the services of a good builder who won't scream at the thought of vampires and all to do some urgently needed repairs however. " Wesley's almost shy voice whispered out into the profound silence Spike's unconscious action had caused.
"Xander and Alexander here are the very man and vampire for the job. Alexander had some interesting ideas about vampire proofing buildings and Xander has the talent and skill to carry them out...."
"Hey, I want to go kick butt and maim and kill the enemy..." Xander interrupted Spike.
"Me too!" Alexander added.
"Did you just compliment me?" Xander asked.
"I get to design the restraining room too?" Alexander asked.
"What's a restraining room? Restraining who?" Xander asked the red haired vampire now sitting beside him.
"For the childe, Lindsey what's is name. New childer are a fuckin' nightmare. They have to be held secure if you want even a minute's peace to scratch your ass or anything." Alexander informed the young builder.
"Sort of like sociopathic two year olds with superhuman reflexes and strength? Hmm, interesting problem." Xander was hooked. "What materials would you want to build with?" And now Alexander was hooked too.
"Shall we simply get on with it then?" Spike glared at everyone else in the room. All their fighting and impassioned arguments and all it took was a cool head. "But we eat before we go! I do not want anyone being tempted to snack on the enemy ok?" A few of the other vampires in the room had the grace to look almost mortally embarrassed, if that was even possible.
"It only happened the once!" Oz replied, also embarrassed.
"You snacked?" Buffy asked him, a firm glare fixed to her face. "You made puppies? Wolflettes, what ever?"
"Can't spread the wolfy thing unless I really want to Buffy. I just snacked. Just the once! Was really hungry..." Oz wolf whined under the slayer's reproving glance.
"We eat, all of us eat! You too Spike!" She glared at everyone too and headed out to the kitchen to hunt blood, snacks and other forms of sustenance for their small army. It was the only way Spike let her care for his needs, to care for everyone else's needs too. "Ok, hands up humans.... and me 9, ok, hands up werewolves, still only the 1 and the rest...1 Goddess and 10 vampires."
"Do we have enough blood in?" Giles followed Buffy into the kitchen.
"Yeah, well, me and Robert brought a load with us. Fresh and all. We thought we'd maybe need it." Harmony smiled hopefully at Giles, hoping someone that she sort of considered family would approve of her actions. And Angel could see it in her puppy dog body language. He also had a sudden shot of family feeling and decided that if Spike's adoptive childe needed reassurance then it was up to her order to give it to her. As head of the Order of Aurelius that task fell to him.
"That was very thoughtful Harmony. Good forward planing." Angel smiled softly at the girl, even as he stood up and crossed to gently touch his beloved's shoulders. As Spike turned to look at him he smiled and Spike's face lit up like the sun in his acceptance of his presence once more in his life.
"Yeah!" Harmony enthused at Angel's supportive comment. "It was, wasn't it?" She smiled to herself, relishing her adoptive Grandesire's approval.
"Sure it was!" Alexander broke away from his in-depth discussion over the size of cherry bomb you'd need to make a big kaboom throughout the LA sewer system to cheer on his priestess. "And if you brought some fresh lamb blood in with ya' I'd be tempted to marry you myself!" He too headed for the kitchen.
"Ew!" Harmony's scolding tones followed him. "There's no lard butt making lambs blood. Deal!" She put her hands on her hips and looked as if she were about to stamp her foot too. Alexander had turned to watch her performance. His favourite pastime these days was winding up the priestess.
"But you know I only like lambs blood." He mock pouted at her.
"But it's too fatty, not good for you. Pig's is closest to humans blood and you know it!" Harmony did stamp her foot. "It's my job to keep you all fed and healthy, so no lambs blood. Got that?" She tried to frown at Alexander, but it clearly had no effect on him. He just laughed at her.
"I don't want to be looked after. I can look after myself, make my own choices, and I choose lambs blood..." His tirade was interrupted by Angel. A lot of the vampires Harmony had brought with her knew of Angel by reputation. This was not a master vampire you wanted on your case. Ever!
"And if you want the distinctive sour smell that comes from drinking the fatty lambs blood, drink it! Just remember that if you do that you live, travel and fight alone! In a war that relies on stealth I don't want a rancid vampire by my side. But, hey, maybe Xander does? He knows exactly what it's like to live with a permanent target on his back. You drink Lambs blood again before spending time with him and you're targetting him too!" Angel had moved to stand beside Harmony. "Grandchilde, go help the others in the kitchen, will you?" He smiled at her and she saw up close what Spike had always denied seeing in his sire.
"Yes, Grandsire." She smiled, blushed and headed off to claim sanctuary with the Vampire Slayer and her watcher of all people.
"It's a little known fact that vampires can get fat, you know?" Angel turned at the sound of Spike's very amused comment. He smiled at his love, egging him on to finish his explanation. "Oh, come on sire, you remember that vampire nest we crashed in that ponsey mansion in Bishop Auckland? Outside Newcastle?" He jogged his sire's memory of happenings more than a century past.
"Oh, Gods, them? Bow to me the Lord high shit for brains! I remember him now. Oh yes, they were immensely fat vampires. Couldn't run or fight even to save themselves, or their thralls. Dracula was well pissed when we dusted the lot."
"That's them, the cheating bastard never paid up on his bet either, still owes me money. But at least I got to see him finally get his arse whipped, by the slayer no less. So revenge, of a sort, was finally had." Spike shot a sly grin at Xander making the young man feel the blaze of his embarrassment flushing his face.
"I whipped who's ass?" Buffy asked having brought Spike's blood out first.
"Dracula's. Angel and I were just telling Xander the second here about a bunch of Drac's fat boys we dusted." Spike actually looked at her as he spoke. It was the first sign that he might eventually forgive her her rash and stupid actions of five months ago.
"So how did they get fat? I always thought that all that stalking and hunting kept a vampire all fit and trim. So long as they died fit and trim that is?" Buffy was picturing a nest of obese vampires in her head and the image did leave a lot to be desired in it's wake.
"They had been told to lay low. No hunting till Dracula got there himself. Vlad was off noshing on the snooty matrons and their delicate flowers in the resorts of Whitby and Scarborough further south a bit, on the coast. His little band of bad boys were noshing on the local sheep population, which was and probably still is, pretty vast in that area. Sheep's blood does indeed make vampire's fat! Seems we can't digest the high fat in it and since we don't..." Spike coughed delicately and waved a vague hand around his nether regions, Buffy cottoned on and blushed. "Well, not as often as humans do, so we can't get rid of the excessively fatty blood waste and we get fat. And stink. The fat goes rancid real fast and the smell is awful!"
"All right, all right! I get the picture!" Alexander snarled almost in Spike's face at the reprimand. What he didn't expect was Angel and the slayer to both draw stakes at him. He was doubly shocked when Xander dashed over and did the same.
"He is telling the truth, you know?" It was Hera's voice that had everyone backing down as they all turned to her. "Spike and Angel were both telling the truth. Hence why Harmony was acting on my instructions and not supplying lambs blood any more. Now, do you want to snarl at me? Maybe try and bite me and see what that earns you, hmm?" She glared at Alexander until he fully backed down before his Goddess.
"I'm sorry, Hera. It's just that it taste much sweeter than any blood I've had before. Maybe I've got a sweet fang?" He tried a sheepish smile and the joke in that idea made him laugh slightly, softly. "I'm feeling sheepish now..." He muttered to the room at large.
Xander groaned as he put his stake away.
"That was awful, worthy of me infact!" He guided his new acquaintance into the kitchen. "Time to pig out I think!" He punned right back at him.
"Well, don't have a cow about it!" Alexander replied.
"I was only horsing around!" Xander answered.
And thankfully the door closed behind them. Angel was having a bad enough time tolerating Buffy so close to his Spike, Xander and Alexander's pun fest was a little more than he could stand.
"They were beginning to get my goat... all those puns!" He looked so innocent as the room resounded with groans and requests that he desist.
Within the hour everyone was fed and ready for their respective roles in the upcoming action. Those that were assigned to helping Alexander and Xander with the essential repairs and vampire proofing as many rooms as they could left for the Hyperion. Everyone else headed to the faux travel agent's shop that fronted for the hidden cryogenic chamber Wolfram and Hart were storing Lindsey in.
Spike tried to put a lid on his feelings for their plan. If Angel had to turn this shit for brains lawyer, well he had to. He tried to not see this new Childe of Angelus as a threat to his renewed relationship with Angel. Even if they had not gotten as far as the relationship part of the deal. It was too soon and he feared what his feelings for this Lindsey being in their lives all the time would compel him to do. Something stupid too soon, before he was emotionally ready for it.
For Angel, the idea of sharing anything, especially his blood, with Lindsey was making him nauseous. He could imagine himself drinking from him, and keeping right on drinking from him. But giving him the drink of eternal life? The idea of that man's lips on his flesh for any reason made that same flesh crawl!
Hera could feel her favourite children's fears and contemplated the other vampire's as the journeyed to Wolfram and Hart's outlying stronghold. She did fully understand why each faction thought their idea the best. But she still saw Oz' as the only viable one in the long run. It was best if Angel did not do the turning. He could help supervise the training. But not do the biting. Nor could her dear William.
All Buffy could think of was that Spike had talked to her. Not a simple instruction, but a story from his past. He'd talked to her like friends talking together. Amongst all the anxious faces, hers wore a huge, happy grin.
***
In a quiet house, in a quiet village in the West Midlands in England, the morning post arrived. A brightly coloured envelope, with pictures of clouds and aeroplanes bore the occupier's name in clear type face. Gronmann tore open the envelope carefully and pulled out the contents. Travel documents, import licenses and a timetable sat in his hands. He looked at he travel date and smiled. A warm glow filled his heart as he reached for the phone and dialled the contact number on the covering letter. He knew this firm, new the demon that ran it. But he hadn't instructed him to arrange this travel for him and his charges. That mystery needed to be solved before he could let his excitement have full reign.
If the details of the letter were accurate he would be in Los Angeles in three days. 72 hours until he would see his beloved boy for the first time in nine decades. He had had so many letters from him over the years, but they were not the same as seeing his Alicia's youngest son on a daily basis. His William hadn't really ever know his real father, nor much of his actual vampiric sire.
He was going to be with his dear son in three days time.
The phone was eventually answered by a voice he knew well. A fellow Trasker demon.
"Nemalian? I greet you, brother Trasker, and pray to the Pantheon that life treats you well. It is I, Gronmann that does greet you. I received from your company some three set of travel documentation. May I enquire as to the origin of the instruction to issue such documents?" He waited for a response before he let his hopes rise even further.
"Gronmann? I greet you too brother Trasker. It has been such a long number of years since you moved throughout the world as is only right. But, rest assured your devine task is almost at an end. Your documentation was called for by the high Goddess herself. I was given the privilege of sharing words with her. My praise to you dear friend that you raised such a fine son as your human child William. He is her very right hand! And she sang his praises to me as she bid me bring her dear William's father to his side. I will have a team of helpers over to your residence on the hour of ten tomorrow to assist you packaging everything for the journey. Everything is arranged for you." Nemalian sounded like an over excited child rather than the coolly logical adult demon Gronmann knew him to be. He had been a friend of his own parents whilst he had been little more than a child. Gronmann had known this demon that long and this behaviour was so atypical that it added to his own building excitement.
"It will be good to see my son again. To know that if he has recalled my charges then his heart is his own once more. I always knew he would return to the way of living beings. Maybe he is still a vampire, but his heart is no longer the demon's to rule. Did the high Goddess say anything directly about my son? Is he well? Happy?" Gronmann's voice trembled slightly at he idea of being greeted by his son's embrace in three days time.
Three days plus the flight over there. He would count the hours but was unsure how many he should count.
"How long is the flight?" He asked his old friend.
"The flight is of 9, maybe as much a 11 hours if the wind is wrong. The Goddess did not say much of your William, she may not have known that I had knowledge of the boy from meeting the man demon as a human child. But I think he needs his father's hand to help him. She said he had need of his father, as children are wont to do as their lives change. She said he made her tasks on this world possible. That she valued him as a she would a child of her own. Such fine words for a Devine being as she to utter about a child born human and childered in such an unsavoury fashion. Give your son warm greetings from my heart and let me wish you a fair and swift journey to his side." Nemalian sighed as he pictured the moment his old friend's son and his human born child would meet up before the eyes of one of the Devine ones.
"I thank you for your information and for your warm greetings. I will share them with William gladly, in three and one half days hence. May they who are the Devine go with you and guide your choices and course!" Gronmann smiled as he spoke the traditional benediction of his people for the first time since he last bid farewell to his William.
"And may they go with you too and guide your hands in your endeavour and your steps in your journey. I will see you in three days before you board the plane. Till then dear friend..." Nemalian hung up.
As the dialling tone sounded in his ear Gronmann could still hear his friend's unspoken excitement, that their people's stories of equality and a fair share of the sunshine were about to come true. That humanity was finally going to have to remember their demon brothers and sisters as something other than a nightmare filled with hate and loathing. After all, his own dear grandfather had told him of life when they could walk the Earth as equal as humanity. Of the time before the new Gods had deposed their own Devine Beings.
The only thing he lamented was that he would never walk beneath Apollo's sun with his dear William again. Sharing only the night was nothing compared to the joy of sharing all of the day.
But he would accept with a full heart a walk in the night with his beloved William. He welcomed the hope of sharing his son's life once more. In three and one half of a day hence.
Gronmann put aside his urge to run around his home and shout for joy. He had a journey to prepare for. He had his goods and chattels to pack away. He had his guests to inform of their impending reunion with their body's own souls. Not that he thought they might hear him, but it seemed the only polite thing to do.
"My dear friends, we unite with William in three and one half of a day from now. The final days of your forced sleep is here. Patience just a little longer my friends." And he set to washing and dressing his charges for the day. Planing what he must pack himself and what his dear friend Nemalian's people could safely be left to pack for him.
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