Taking The Hard Way Out
PART: 7/?
AUTHOR: Juliatheyounger
FEEDBACK: hpayne@powerup.com.au
______________________________________________________________________________
"Ok, now that was just freaky," said Xander as he locked the
door to their suite very firmly.
"Tell me about it," said Cordelia. "I should have known being
transported into a luxury hotel room complete with Dolce Gabbana
originals could only end badly."
"Uh, Cordy, you know when we sort of saw into Buffy's room?"
Cordelia raised her eyebrows and looked at him expectantly. "And
you made a very mature comment about Angel falling over?"
"Um yeah," said Xander sheepishly. "Ok, here's the thing: I
swear I saw Spike sleeping next to Buffy."
"Spike and Buffy? In the same bed? Hello? God, Xander, you've
got to get over this fixation you have with Buffy having sex
with vampires."
"Seriously! Didn't you see them? He was all like, curled around
her, in a really cuddly, so not right way."
"Xander, Buffy was on the bed, Spike was on the floor. Everyone
saw it."
"On the floor? As in, not on the bed?"
"Yes!"
Xander brightened considerably. He looked over at his
girlfriend.
"So, uh, you want to continue doing what we were doing, you
know, before the screaming and door slamming?"
"Xander, hello? This place is obviously haunted. You really
expect me to get all naked and sexy in front of invisible
perverts?"
"They might not be watching," Xander said, then realised Cordy
really was freaked out by the happenings in the house. He put
his arms around his girlfriend comfortingly. "Hey, it's ok.
We'll be ok. We've got three vampires, a werewolf and a slayer
here."
Cordelia looked at him. "And that's comforting how?"
Xander grinned. "Besides…they gave us a great big four poster
bed…."
"Exactly! It's probably all a set up. Some sicko's probably got
hidden cameras in all the rooms."
"We'll turn the lights off."
"Infra-red cameras?"
"Then they'll only see our body heat as we-"
"Xander!" growled Cordelia in frustration, pushing him away from
her.
"Ok, no naughty stuff. I can handle that." Xander sighed, then
looked around trying to find something to do. He started opening
the drawers on one of the cabinets in the room. "Ooh look,
Gideon's been here."
Cordelia frowned and walked around the room. She wanted to make
use of that gorgeous bed as much as Xander. It was so annoying.
She'd been wanting Xander to take her somewhere special for
ages. Doing it at her house when her parents were at the country
club just didn't cut it. And there was no way she was getting
naked in Xander's place. Here they were, finally in a place
worthy of her admittedly exquisite taste, and it was all ooky
and haunted. It was so unfair. Life was always so unfair to
Cordelia Chase. She reopened the armoire that contained the
gorgeous designer outfits, for comfort.
Cordelia felt strong arms wrap around her.
"You know," Xander said in a low voice. "I still can't get over
being naked with you."
Cordelia smiled. "Guess all that arguing and being nasty to each
other DID mean we just wanted to get into bed together."
Xander laughed. Then he turned all suave Xander again. "How
about I run you a nice hot bath in the huge tub I found in our
bathroom, you relax, then we make use of that room service menu
I just found."
Cordelia smiled. "Ok," she said brightly. Xander mentally patted
himself on the back. Hey, it was easy to please Cordy when you
had someone else's money to spend.
"You're not worried about ghosts seeing you having a bath?"
Xander had to ask.
"Thanks Xander," glared Cordelia. "And no, I'm not. Who knows
how long we'll be here. If they've got cameras in the bathroom
it's their own fault what they see."
Several minutes later Xander came back into the room. He coughed
politely. Cordelia turned, curious.
"Miss Chase, your bath is drawn," he said in his best Jeeves the
butler voice.
Cordy rewarded him with the cute little nose crinkle that drove
him wild.
"Xander!" she exclaimed, then swept past him into the bathroom.
"I'll order room service while Miss is taking her bath," said
Xander.
"Thank you, Harris. If you're very good, I'll let you give me a
foot massage."
Xander grinned, then thought about that.
"You don't let your real butler do that do you?" he asked
through the door.
Later, Cordelia sat at the little table dressed in a white
bathrobe, brushing her hair and eating the lobster Xander
ordered because, hey, whoever sent them here could pick up the
cheque for that too.
"Wonder how Buffy's coping, having to share a room with Spike,"
she said.
"Yeah, that's got to be the wiggiest thing this side of….the
last wiggy thing that happened in Sunnydale," said Xander. "I
know the Buffster can take care of herself, but still, it's
Spike, evil undead guy, her mortal enemy. Can't be comfortable."
He felt much happier though, knowing it had just been his
imagination that Spike had been getting all cosy with a sleeping
Buffy.
"He is kind of cute."
"Cute? Spike? Yeah, next you'll say Angel's hot." Xander sat at
the table as well. He had also made use of the huge bathtub but
only after Cordelia had finished. He was wearing some purple
satin pjs he'd found in his own collection of mysterious
host-supplied clothes.
"Well he is." Cordelia paused, letting Xander get all bothered.
"And so are you," she added, taking pity on her boyfriend.
"I'm hot?"
"Well duh, wouldn't be getting all squishy with you otherwise."
"Heh," said Xander, pleased with himself. "I'm hot too."
"Well," said Cordelia suddenly. "I think I'm done here." She
wiped her fingers daintily and put the serviette on the table.
Then she stood up and slipped the bath robe off her shoulders.
Xander just gaped. Cordelia was wearing a slippery, satiny, dark
red nightdress that did everything to show off her figure.
"Um, same here," Xander managed, putting his own napkin down.
"I think we should probably go to bed," said Cordelia. She
raised an eyebrow. "UNDER the covers."
"I think that idea just shows how incredibly smart you are, as
well as sexy," said Xander, very pleased that Cordelia seemed to
have gotten over her aversion to getting up to naughty stuff in
the hotel. Cordelia turned on the bedside lamp and Xander got
the main light switch. Watching each other, they slipped under
the bed covers.
"Ohhhh that feels nice," moaned Cordelia as she slid between
expensive sheets.
"Mmm comfy," said Xander, plumping the pillow then turning on
his side towards Cordelia.
Cordelia turned out the bed lamp and turned towards Xander.
"Uh, that's a very sexy night dress," said Xander.
"You like?" Cordelia asked in the kittenish voice she reserved
for such occasions.
"I like very much," said Xander, finding Cordelia's shoulder in
the dark and slipping a strap off.
"Uhuh," murmured Cordelia, and didn’t say much else as they
found each other's lips in the dark.
Xander was so busy running his hand over Cordelia's thigh as he
moved between her legs, that he didn't notice the room become
perceptibly colder. Cordelia was so busy kissing Xander and
removing his satin pajama pants that she didn't notice the room
become colder either.
They did notice the brilliant light that flooded the room.
They froze, staring at each other in horror.
"I told you this was a bad idea," Cordelia hissed, trying to
rearrange the top of her night dress.
Xander moved onto his back, and they both stared at the vision
at the foot of the bed. It was a woman, dressed in white with
bright white hair and surrounded by violet light.
"Um, hey," said Xander, babbling nervously. "Are you the person
who arranged this hotel for us, because, heh, about all the room
service we ordered-"
"The waiter was really rude," interrupted Cordelia.
Xander shot an embarrassed look at the spectre. "We, uh, really
didn't mean to order the lobster. I said toast, really-"
"Xander! They locked us up here. They can pay for our room
service. Don't apologise."
"Cordy, much as I love you, and you know I do, we don't want to
leave supernatural forces with a bill for the mini bar."
"I hope you didn't tip that waiter."
"What-"
"The two." The sound stopped them both. It came from the woman,
but her lips didn't appear to move. "Vampire. Slayer. Together
as one. Join as you do. Together as one."
And then she vanished.
"Ok," said Xander. "I think that was supposed to be important."
"Oh, well, that's easy," said Cordelia. "Slayer, duh, equals
Buffy. Vampire, obviously Angel. Buffy and Angel have to do the
horizontal tango."
"Like us," grinned Xander.
"Don't even think about it," said Cordelia. "That ghost knew
what we were doing. I feel all…ooh, actually, it's kind of
kinky."
"Knowing that someone might be watching?"
"Yeah, sort of…naughty."
"Good naughty?"
"Yeah…good naughty."
Xander grinned and, while they kissed, did something very
naughty with his hand.
"Xand- ooh! Mmmm."
Xander shifted himself above Cordelia, and she slid her long
legs alongside his. Their kiss deepened as they writhed against
each other. Xander slipped Cordy's nightdress from her shoulders
and pushed the skirt up her body.
"Very naughty Miss Chase," he murmured. "No panties."
"Took you long enough to notice," breathed Cordelia, one hand
sliding under his pajama top, the other freeing Xander from his,
by now, very constraining pajama pants.
Xander slid down Cordy's body, kissing and nuzzling until he was
right where her panties should have been.
Cordelia ran her fingers through his hair and giggled slightly
as he kissed her inner thigh.
"Would Miss Chase like me to pleasure her orally?" Xander asked.
Cordelia stifled a laugh.
"Yes, Harris, Miss Chase would, and when you're finished, you
may come up here and kiss me."
"Yes, Miss Chase, very good." Xander bent his head back between
Cordy's legs, then looked up again. "And what would Miss Chase
like me to do once I have pleasured her and kissed her?"
"Once you have performed those tasks satisfactorily, I may
permit you to penetrate me with your…oohhh Xander!"
And they didn't say much after that, aside from some giggles and
some moans and, at the end, a very enthusiastic, "Oh yes,
Xander! Yes!" and, "Yeah, Cordy, yeah, ohgod yes Cordelia!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PART: 8/?
AUTHOR: Suaine
FEEDBACK: saskia@dcse.de
______________________________________________________________________________
Despite what he said earlier, Giles had no intention to rest and
let things develop on their own. This place was extremely
dangerous and he WOULD NOT be responsible for any of the kids
getting hurt. No, he was the only adult, and had to find a way
out.
Pondering over the possibilities, and not getting anywhere, he
decided to take a walk. Somewhere around, there were clues:
clues that he was going to find. His stroll took him down the
corridor. The path forked in front of him, one way leading down
some very suspicious looking steps, into the darkness. The other
way looked just like the corridor behind him. The small part of
him that was Ripper wanted to descend the stairs and take on the
dark. The sensible watcher/librarian, on the other hand, was
quite certain the other corridor was the better choice.
As it turned out, the librarian was right once again. When Giles
followed the corridor around a corner, his eyes lit up with
delight. Before him was a huge room, illuminated by torches
along the far wall. Shelves crammed full with books covered the
other three walls, almost up to the ceiling. In the center of
the library there was a group of tables with more books in high
stacks and rolls of parchment. All this had the feeling of
ancient secrets to it.
**This is it! With all this knowledge, it's only a matter of
time before we get out of here.**
He made his way to the table, and a worn sheet of paper caught
his eye. It seemed to have been ripped from a notebook of sorts.
The handwriting on the paper was quite pleasant and easy to
read. He could identify the language as Latin, with some Gaelic
influences. The piece probably dated back about two hundred
years.
He sighed. The words were easy enough to decipher, but the
meaning of some phrases escaped him. And, much to his dismay, he
knew just the person who had grown up learning both of the
languages.
Angel.
Yes, he knew Angel had a soul and was fighting for the good guys
now. He also knew that Angel would never hurt any of them, and
that he loved Buffy with all his heart. Still, he couldn't quite
quench the uneasy feeling he got around the vampire.
Nevertheless, this vampire had his uses.
With a stoic statement and a deep breath, Giles knocked on the
door to Angel and Drusilla's room. He was greeted by Dru, who
smiled at him like the loony she was. He fought the urge to roll
his eyes, and asked to be let in.
"Where's Angel?"
Dru's eyes lit up with mischief. She leaned closer to Giles,
almost as if to tell him a secret. Then she blew lightly in his
ear, stepped away, and started dancing with Miss Edith. Her
voice, reminding him of sunshine and flowers, called out to her
sire.
"My Angel, someone is here to see you."
A mumbled, "Who is it?" came from the bathroom. Giles related
his problem, all the while watching Drusilla dance. She was
beautiful, in a way, her predatory grace and deathly nature
competing with eccentric, somehow childish innocence.
Angel called, "I'll be right out," but Giles barely noticed. Dru
had captured him with her glistening eyes, her mind probing in
his thoughts.
Dru was happy. Her Angel was here with her and Miss Edith. The
Watcher had come here to dance with her. And the stars were
singing with angels' voices. There, in his delicious psyche, Dru
could see what the Watcher wanted.
"I can help you," she uttered in a moment of clarity. "My Angel
wants to be alone. He's all confused; the slayer is in his
head."
Giles took a look at the closed bathroom door. He hadn't heard
any water, neither from a shower nor from a bath, and it fed his
growing suspicion.
**Buffy's in his head... that wanker better not...**
His irritation with the vampire had just multiplied by about a
million. With another sigh he held his arm out to Dru. The
vampiress took it, and Giles led her out of the room.
When Angel stepped into the main room he was greeted by silence.
Giles wasn't there anymore, and Dru was gone as well.
**What the hell?**
Angel was a little confused. Giles' problem had sounded, while
not urgent, at least pretty important. Why would he leave
without him? Why would he take Dru? Why had they not waited for
HIM?
He paced, trying to decide what to do.
**Follow them**
**Stay and brood about Buffy. ... Hmm, Buffy, all golden and
innocent...**
Shrugging, Angel decided it couldn't have been all that
important.
********
Oz nuzzled Willow's neck, his hands roaming over her delicious
body. He wanted her so much. Never had he imagined he would meet
someone so warm, so loving as Willow. Her body responded to him
almost immediately. He smiled as his left hand moved down lower.
Tracing her soft curves, he rested his palm just above the
waistband of her panties. Then he slipped lower, tickling her
through the cotton. It caused her to shudder, but when he looked
at her eyes they weren't luminous with pleasure.
In fact, she had a worried frown on her face.
**Am I that bad?**
No, something else must be upsetting her. "What is it, Will? Not
in the mood?"
The smile she gave him made his heart melt. Willow sighed, and
then fell silent again. He didn't want to prod her, but even HIS
patience wore thin in bed. Before he could ask again, Willow had
made up her mind to tell him.
"It's Buffy."
"Are you worried because she's in there with Spike?" he
wondered.
Willow shook her head. "No. Well, yes, but that's not all. She
wanted to tell me something... I can tell it's really bothering
her."
To his surprise, Willow broke into another smile and shrugged.
Her eyes reflected her awakened desire. "I'm sure it can wait
until tomorrow." With that, she caught his lips in a searing
kiss, and all thought of Buffy and evil vampires left his mind.
Just when it was about to get serious, a white figure appeared
in front of their bed. Willow yelped, and Oz glared towards the
ghost. He was REALLY out of patience now. The figure pointed at
them.
"A match as night and day, the slayer and vampire bear the key.
Only together will the door open to them." Then the ghostly
apparition exploded into white light.
Oz shrugged. "Nice exit."
Willow decided that she had had enough interruptions as well.
She could be bold too, and right now she wanted to. "Ready to
give our dead audience a show?" Of course she was talking about
the ghosts, but Oz couldn't help himself.
With a slight frown he said, "Angel and Spike would enjoy that,
but I don't think I'd like them ogling my girl."
Willow grinned. He expected a witty comeback; instead she
reached down his pants. "I'm about done with talking for
tonight," she whispered huskily.
Oz agreed. Without words.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PART: 9/?
AUTHOR: Diurnal Lee
______________________________________________________________________________
Waking in someone's arms proved comfortable and -- strangely
familiar. Buffy puzzled over that while she processed her
surroundings.
Light played across her eyelids, and the faint scents of
cigarette smoke and something vaguely floral tickled her nose.
She lay curled around the heavy weight of her bladder, with a
firm, slightly cool body curled around her. A harder lump
pressed against the back of her thigh. Her ear hurt, a little,
where her head rested on Spike's arm.
**Spike's arm. Spike's cool body. Spike's --**
The realization woke her completely.
**Is Spike awake? Does he know he's -- doing that?**
At once mortified and curious, she held her breath. Her hormones
warred with her common sense. He had tried to kill her. He had
kissed her and called her beautiful. And he was still holding
her, had apparently held her all night. She hadn't dared hope
that Spike would be as attracted to her as she was to him, but
--
The vampire lay completely still, apparently dead to the world.
Finally convinced he was asleep, Buffy let curiosity win out
over caution, and wriggled her bottom deeper into Spike's lap.
He thrust his hips forward with a sort of strangled groan.
Buffy tensed, panic coursing through her system. **Did Spike's
erection just -- twitch?** "You're awake," she accused.
Silence for a moment, then, "Hardly blame a bloke for not
wanting to miss this." He squeezed the breast he held in one
hand, and Buffy realized she'd missed a few body parts in her
initial survey.
Suddenly, it was all too much. **What am I doing? In bed, with
Spike, evil vampire,** she wondered. **The same evil vampire who
saved my life, played paramedic, then held me while I slept.
Grr. I hate it when I rebut myself!**
Moving around had jarred her bladder, and Buffy leapt at the
excuse to be elsewhere. She pulled herself free of Spike's hold
and hurried to the bathroom without a backward glance. Competing
portions of her brain took time out from thinking about Spike's
body to notice that they had been assigned a room with
north-facing windows.
Giles' summons postponed any further embarrassment for the time
being.
* * *
"I'm sorry, Jim, but this puppy's dead." Xander leaned back from
the gory remains of his breakfast, and made a bet with himself.
Sure enough, within seconds, the fancy tray thingie disappeared
from his lap. "We'll dispose of it by transporter, Bones. That
is so cool!"
From the facing couch, Willow gave him an indulgent smile that
quickly seguéd into Concerned Frown #2. He followed her gaze to
see that Buffy and Spike had finally arrived. They stomped to
opposite corners of the room, and squared off like fighters in a
ring. They had a kind of weird tension thing going that he
didn't quite get.
"Buffster! I see your roomie is still among the unliving. Well,
there's no better way to start off the slay than with a healthy
breakfast!"
Not even a hint of a smile. **Whoops,** he thought. **Okay, so
Buffy isn't playing today.** He decided to let Giles pitch the
tough questions, and tried to concentrate on not being bored.
Looking at Cordelia didn't help, because of the "No staring at
my boobs in public" rule.
"Good morning, Buffy," Giles said, balancing his teacup on his
knee. "I trust you're well?" He waited for her nod before
continuing. "Now that we're all here, I'd --"
"Where's Dru?" Spike interrupted. His glare made it clear that
Angel was supposed to answer.
From his seat by the roaring fire, Deadboy obliged with, "She's
sleeping."
The younger vampire appeared to consider that, then he hitched
himself up on the corner of a little table and lit a smoke. To
Xander, it looked like Spike didn't trust Angel any further than
he could throw him. Which was probably a lot further than Xander
himself could. Which meant -- well, actually, those proportions
worked out pretty well.
Willow piped in with, "Buffy, what happened? I was so scared,
and then we couldn't get into your room."
While everybody told ghost stories, Xander studied the room. The
"West Parlor", as lobby-guy called it, was loaded with dark wood
furniture and heavy curtains and upholstery in dark reds. There
were small tables scattered all over, and cluttered with old
knick-knacks. The room was so full of carved stuff that it was
hard to find a flat surface anywhere. Even the coasters bore
elaborate designs.
They were also round. Xander picked up the stack from the low
table in front of him to examine more closely. They were thin
and wooden, with smoothly rounded edges. **Perfect.**
He flicked a coaster at Cordy.
"Ow! Doofus!"
**Oops.** His aim was a bit off, there, but at least he hit a
soft spot. His girlfriend actually got up from her throne-like
chair to come over and personally thwap him. Which in itself was
good, but it drew too much attention his way.
He bided his time, waiting for the revelation that at least one
of the ghosts wanted Buffy and Angel to do the horizontal mambo.
While everybody was distracted, Xander launched two coasters in
quick succession. The first, Buffy snatched out of the air
inches from her face. The second deflected off Angel's shoulder
and struck the carved mantle, sending wooden shrapnel flying
into the air.
Xander winced. **Oops, again.**
"Xander, will you KINDLY stop vandalizing, and focus on -- Oh,
dear." Giles set his saucer aside so quickly, it sloshed tea all
over the side table. He headed toward the fireplace, patting his
pockets frantically.
Buffy sounded exasperated. "Giles. A hint here, please. Was
that, oh, dear, Xander's set off the Apocalypse, or oh, dear,
I've left my hankie in my other jacket?"
The coaster had knocked a chunk of smoke-darkened carving off
the mantle, leaving behind a patch of clean, paler wood with the
outline of the original carved leaf. Giles held up the torn
piece of parchment with the prophecy fragment on it. In the
margin was drawn a leafy design that matched the carvings on the
mantle perfectly.
Parts 10-12: Barb, Bree & Vic