After Adam's defeat, the spoils of the 314 project are up for grabs. Spike & Willow find themselves at the centre of a web of intrigue.
Disclaimer: Any characters and locations from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel the Series are the property of Mutant Enemy
Chapter 18: The End
Spike grinned to himself as he looked down on the living girl in his arms. He wondered how many had he held like this since his second life had begun all those years before. So many faces filled with fear, so many bodies striving desperately to escape from his grasp. None of them had, of course. Would Willow? He guessed they'd just have to find out.
A part of him simply wanted to him to hurl her to the mattress and bury himself in her warmth, but if this was going to be his final curtain call he damned well wanted it to last.
He lowered his face into the juncture of her shoulder and neck, drinking in the scent and listening to the throbbing of her pulse - a rhythm that become faster as he nuzzled the collar of her pyjamas aside and allowed his lips to drift over the skin he had exposed. He could feel goosebumps rising wherever the chill of his touch passed. Nipping and tasting, his mouth moved slowly down to her collarbone and then up the column of her throat.
As he reached her jawbone he raised his head and stared into her eyes once more, then smiled crookedly and raised one eyebrow.
"Isn't it time you joined in the fun, pet?"
She smiled back at him then and wound her arms around his neck, meeting his lips in a kiss filled with the kind of sweet generosity that he had rarely met in his life or death. He pulled her close and lost himself in sensation for a long moment before sweeping her into his arms and depositing her onto the crisp cotton sheets of her single bed.
"Pity it's not satin," he remarked as he joined her, swiftly pinning her beneath him.
"With leopard skin pillows," giggled Willow, somewhat breathlessly.
"Well, who's a kinky little madam?" He enquired as his hands busied themselves with the buttons of her top, pausing each time to lick the skin he exposed and causing Willow to wriggle delightfully against him in the process. Raising himself up on his knees and pulling Willow with him, he supported her with one hand while his other opened the top and slid it down over her shoulders to pool behind her on the pillows. His head dipped and his mouth explored the peaks that he had just exposed. He could feel the flesh tauten beneath the sweep of his tongue as they rose and fell in time with Willow's shortening breath.
He moved downwards across skin that now glistened with sweat and tugged playfully on the waistband of her pyjama bottoms with his teeth. Obediently, she raised her hips and allowed him to pull them off and throw them to one side. Looking down at the sight he had just revealed, he pulled his t-shirt over his head and discarded it before resuming his journey.
Willow was writhing now, much as she had whilst under the influence of Reculance's drugs, except now it was Spike's touch that was the drug as he wove a web of desire around her with fleeting touches and slow caresses. He felt her hands slip between them and her trembling fingers fumble with the fastenings of his jeans. Only too happy to oblige, he raised himself and allowed her to undo the zip and push the trousers over his hips. As her hands became preoccupied with his buttocks, he hooked a toe into the hem, pulled them down to his ankles and kicked them off with an expertise honed over decades of practice.
Now that they were both naked Spike could feel his passion rise beyond control. He slid between her legs and drove into her welcoming body, starting a insistent rhythm that Willow met with a fierce passion of her own. As he pushed her relentlessly to the edge and over, he felt his own orgasm approaching with a pleasure so sharp it was almost pain - and with it his game face. If he was going to die so be it, but this time he was not going alone. As his body went rigid, he drew back his lips and prepared to strike. But before his fangs could break the skin of her throat a different kind of pain spiralled through his body. He fell forward onto Willow's suddenly limp form and knew no more.
Three people stood and looked down on the unconscious bodies of the couple. One, a woman whom Spike would have recognised had he been in any state to do so, lowered the tranquilliser gun she held and gestured to a slight young man at her side.
"You know what to do, Claudio."
As the youth moved over to the limp bodies on the bed, she turned to her other companion, Felix Radburn, who stood beside her looking as immaculate as ever.
"You chose well when you picked this one for your diversion, Radburn."
"Yes, he has certainly lived up to my expectations...if one may say that of the undead." he smiled mirthlessly at his companion, before continuing: "I congratulate you a job well done, Miss Morgan, your manipulation of Rauk was most impressive. May I also say how pleased I am that I wasn't called upon to put an end to you as a result of this mission."
Lilah smiled. "The feeling is entirely mutual, Radburn. I hope we have the pleasure of working together again in the future."
Felix inclined his head graciously. "In this life or the next."
Lilah continued. "There were times when I wondered if you'd lose control of all your schemes, but it worked out rather well in the end. Our clients have got rid of their loose cannon, Wolfram and Hart has the serum with no one the wiser, and a potential threat to the Senior Partners has been removed. The only thing anyone will remember is that Rauk lost his grasp on reality once he'd taken the serum and caused a riot that destroyed the place. Even if they wanted to risk the experiment again, all of the data has been removed into our safe keeping."
"What about the Facility?" he asked.
"Once we've removed anything useful Reculance can sell it. Maybe they can persuade the military to take it back off their hands."
Felix nodded in agreement "Military Intelligence is indeed an oxymoron." Lilah grinned at him as he continued: "Nearly all of the loose ends are tied up. It's just a shame we can't simply eradicate these two - after all, thanks to your ruse with the antidote, the vampire didn't expect to survive the night so we would merely be fulfilling his expectations." He paused. "By the way, though I appreciate the neatness in arranging to find both of them in one place, why did you need to make him think he was going to be destroyed? After all, we already knew where to find the girl."
"Why not? Besides, it was fun." Lilah shrugged. "Anyhow, orders are orders. Both of them have potential that the Company could use in the future, so they've got to stay amongst the living - even if, as you so accurately pointed out, one of them doesn't actually participate in the state any more. Fortunately we have the talented Claudio to shut them down in the meantime." She turned back to the youth, asking: "Well? What's the verdict?"
Claudio opened his eyes and raised his hands from where they had been resting on Spike's head. "It shouldn't take much to overlay the memories of this summer with something more mundane. It should hold unless something happens to trigger off the real memories - that's always a risk."
Lilah frowned. "What sort of thing could act as the trigger?"
Claudio gestured at the pair, still as closely locked together as they had been during their desperate and interrupted coupling. "Unlikely though it seems, there's a strange sort of bond between the two, perhaps something born out of their shared experience. I would say that the greatest likelihood of them regaining their memories would occur should they become intimate again."
"Then we'll just have to make sure that they don't. Have you found anything in there we can work with?"
The youth nodded "Oh yes, the girl at least is very conflicted over her sexuality so she should be simple. She has feelings for the vampire, but there's a woman she cares deeply for, who makes her feel special. We can simply reinforce these tendencies and turn her existing attachment to the woman into a necessity."
"Do it," Lilah ordered. "Make it so she'd do anything to keep her, anything at all." Nodding in Spike's direction, she asked: "What about the vampire?"
"I'd suggest that we take the same tack, make him passionately in love with another - someone who's already a point of weakness."
Felix agreed. "The records show that he spent decades with a female called Drusilla, his sire and one of Angelus' get. It should be easy enough to re-align his loyalties back to her."
Claudio shook his head. "No - there's someone in there who's linked to blood and pain, but it's no vampire. A human, but more than human. She deals death to his kind and he both wants her and hates her."
Lilah gasped, and then broke into delighted laughter. "The Slayer? He's attracted to the Slayer? That's just priceless."
Felix raised an eyebrow "He's certainly a perplexing creature."
Lilah nodded in agreement. "He comes from a line of perplexing creatures, and one of them is not going to be at all happy if he starts moving in on the Slayer. The bosses are going to be very pleased, I really couldn't have planned it better if I'd been trying."
"Well, In the circumstances I'm sure the Company would be happy to underwrite a spot of celebration, should this town possess anything even remotely resembling a decent restaurant." Radburn grimaced faintly. "Would you care to join me for a little lunch?"
Lilah's smile became more calculating. "That would be delightful, Radburn."
"Please, do call me Felix."
"That would be delightful...Felix."
"Come then, gastronomic pleasures await." He offered his arm to Lilah. "Claudio, brief the clean-up crew and then get to work."
With that the three who would remember the events of the summer left the room to the pair who would not.
~Fin~
Disclaimer: Any characters and locations from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel the Series are the property of Mutant Enemy
Chapter 18: The End
Spike grinned to himself as he looked down on the living girl in his arms. He wondered how many had he held like this since his second life had begun all those years before. So many faces filled with fear, so many bodies striving desperately to escape from his grasp. None of them had, of course. Would Willow? He guessed they'd just have to find out.
A part of him simply wanted to him to hurl her to the mattress and bury himself in her warmth, but if this was going to be his final curtain call he damned well wanted it to last.
He lowered his face into the juncture of her shoulder and neck, drinking in the scent and listening to the throbbing of her pulse - a rhythm that become faster as he nuzzled the collar of her pyjamas aside and allowed his lips to drift over the skin he had exposed. He could feel goosebumps rising wherever the chill of his touch passed. Nipping and tasting, his mouth moved slowly down to her collarbone and then up the column of her throat.
As he reached her jawbone he raised his head and stared into her eyes once more, then smiled crookedly and raised one eyebrow.
"Isn't it time you joined in the fun, pet?"
She smiled back at him then and wound her arms around his neck, meeting his lips in a kiss filled with the kind of sweet generosity that he had rarely met in his life or death. He pulled her close and lost himself in sensation for a long moment before sweeping her into his arms and depositing her onto the crisp cotton sheets of her single bed.
"Pity it's not satin," he remarked as he joined her, swiftly pinning her beneath him.
"With leopard skin pillows," giggled Willow, somewhat breathlessly.
"Well, who's a kinky little madam?" He enquired as his hands busied themselves with the buttons of her top, pausing each time to lick the skin he exposed and causing Willow to wriggle delightfully against him in the process. Raising himself up on his knees and pulling Willow with him, he supported her with one hand while his other opened the top and slid it down over her shoulders to pool behind her on the pillows. His head dipped and his mouth explored the peaks that he had just exposed. He could feel the flesh tauten beneath the sweep of his tongue as they rose and fell in time with Willow's shortening breath.
He moved downwards across skin that now glistened with sweat and tugged playfully on the waistband of her pyjama bottoms with his teeth. Obediently, she raised her hips and allowed him to pull them off and throw them to one side. Looking down at the sight he had just revealed, he pulled his t-shirt over his head and discarded it before resuming his journey.
Willow was writhing now, much as she had whilst under the influence of Reculance's drugs, except now it was Spike's touch that was the drug as he wove a web of desire around her with fleeting touches and slow caresses. He felt her hands slip between them and her trembling fingers fumble with the fastenings of his jeans. Only too happy to oblige, he raised himself and allowed her to undo the zip and push the trousers over his hips. As her hands became preoccupied with his buttocks, he hooked a toe into the hem, pulled them down to his ankles and kicked them off with an expertise honed over decades of practice.
Now that they were both naked Spike could feel his passion rise beyond control. He slid between her legs and drove into her welcoming body, starting a insistent rhythm that Willow met with a fierce passion of her own. As he pushed her relentlessly to the edge and over, he felt his own orgasm approaching with a pleasure so sharp it was almost pain - and with it his game face. If he was going to die so be it, but this time he was not going alone. As his body went rigid, he drew back his lips and prepared to strike. But before his fangs could break the skin of her throat a different kind of pain spiralled through his body. He fell forward onto Willow's suddenly limp form and knew no more.
Three people stood and looked down on the unconscious bodies of the couple. One, a woman whom Spike would have recognised had he been in any state to do so, lowered the tranquilliser gun she held and gestured to a slight young man at her side.
"You know what to do, Claudio."
As the youth moved over to the limp bodies on the bed, she turned to her other companion, Felix Radburn, who stood beside her looking as immaculate as ever.
"You chose well when you picked this one for your diversion, Radburn."
"Yes, he has certainly lived up to my expectations...if one may say that of the undead." he smiled mirthlessly at his companion, before continuing: "I congratulate you a job well done, Miss Morgan, your manipulation of Rauk was most impressive. May I also say how pleased I am that I wasn't called upon to put an end to you as a result of this mission."
Lilah smiled. "The feeling is entirely mutual, Radburn. I hope we have the pleasure of working together again in the future."
Felix inclined his head graciously. "In this life or the next."
Lilah continued. "There were times when I wondered if you'd lose control of all your schemes, but it worked out rather well in the end. Our clients have got rid of their loose cannon, Wolfram and Hart has the serum with no one the wiser, and a potential threat to the Senior Partners has been removed. The only thing anyone will remember is that Rauk lost his grasp on reality once he'd taken the serum and caused a riot that destroyed the place. Even if they wanted to risk the experiment again, all of the data has been removed into our safe keeping."
"What about the Facility?" he asked.
"Once we've removed anything useful Reculance can sell it. Maybe they can persuade the military to take it back off their hands."
Felix nodded in agreement "Military Intelligence is indeed an oxymoron." Lilah grinned at him as he continued: "Nearly all of the loose ends are tied up. It's just a shame we can't simply eradicate these two - after all, thanks to your ruse with the antidote, the vampire didn't expect to survive the night so we would merely be fulfilling his expectations." He paused. "By the way, though I appreciate the neatness in arranging to find both of them in one place, why did you need to make him think he was going to be destroyed? After all, we already knew where to find the girl."
"Why not? Besides, it was fun." Lilah shrugged. "Anyhow, orders are orders. Both of them have potential that the Company could use in the future, so they've got to stay amongst the living - even if, as you so accurately pointed out, one of them doesn't actually participate in the state any more. Fortunately we have the talented Claudio to shut them down in the meantime." She turned back to the youth, asking: "Well? What's the verdict?"
Claudio opened his eyes and raised his hands from where they had been resting on Spike's head. "It shouldn't take much to overlay the memories of this summer with something more mundane. It should hold unless something happens to trigger off the real memories - that's always a risk."
Lilah frowned. "What sort of thing could act as the trigger?"
Claudio gestured at the pair, still as closely locked together as they had been during their desperate and interrupted coupling. "Unlikely though it seems, there's a strange sort of bond between the two, perhaps something born out of their shared experience. I would say that the greatest likelihood of them regaining their memories would occur should they become intimate again."
"Then we'll just have to make sure that they don't. Have you found anything in there we can work with?"
The youth nodded "Oh yes, the girl at least is very conflicted over her sexuality so she should be simple. She has feelings for the vampire, but there's a woman she cares deeply for, who makes her feel special. We can simply reinforce these tendencies and turn her existing attachment to the woman into a necessity."
"Do it," Lilah ordered. "Make it so she'd do anything to keep her, anything at all." Nodding in Spike's direction, she asked: "What about the vampire?"
"I'd suggest that we take the same tack, make him passionately in love with another - someone who's already a point of weakness."
Felix agreed. "The records show that he spent decades with a female called Drusilla, his sire and one of Angelus' get. It should be easy enough to re-align his loyalties back to her."
Claudio shook his head. "No - there's someone in there who's linked to blood and pain, but it's no vampire. A human, but more than human. She deals death to his kind and he both wants her and hates her."
Lilah gasped, and then broke into delighted laughter. "The Slayer? He's attracted to the Slayer? That's just priceless."
Felix raised an eyebrow "He's certainly a perplexing creature."
Lilah nodded in agreement. "He comes from a line of perplexing creatures, and one of them is not going to be at all happy if he starts moving in on the Slayer. The bosses are going to be very pleased, I really couldn't have planned it better if I'd been trying."
"Well, In the circumstances I'm sure the Company would be happy to underwrite a spot of celebration, should this town possess anything even remotely resembling a decent restaurant." Radburn grimaced faintly. "Would you care to join me for a little lunch?"
Lilah's smile became more calculating. "That would be delightful, Radburn."
"Please, do call me Felix."
"That would be delightful...Felix."
"Come then, gastronomic pleasures await." He offered his arm to Lilah. "Claudio, brief the clean-up crew and then get to work."
With that the three who would remember the events of the summer left the room to the pair who would not.
~Fin~