Standing the Test of Time

Author: Erin-Starlight

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters nor am I making money off this. This is just for fun.

Summary: When captured in the aftermath of a battle Spike finds himself at the mercy of his old rival--Count Dracula. Will he be saved before it’s too late or will he be lulled into something even more dangerous than the Counts’ wrath?

Warning: This is slash. It will have some Spike/Dracula and Spike/Angel in it. This is a challenge I took up to do a Dracula slash fic with the guys. I'm not usually a slash writer but I did it for this challenge, where I had to set in up some in my last fic.

Authors Note: This story takes place after my one shot “William Restored.”

Spoilers: For the Peter David IDW comics Spike vs. Dracula 1-5.

Jane couldn’t help flinching whenever Sarah moved by her. The tight bandages with hints of red brought her unwanted gaze to the throat it was wrapped around. Which was the point, he wanted them all to pay attention to this lesson.

She had watched Sarah’s pained face when the food had been passed around on the drive. How the woman could only answer with shakes or nods now. Carey had claimed the process could be reversed, Jane didn’t know if that was false comfort, she had no idea what Roger had done. Whatever it was didn’t look comfortable.

"Is there a problem?" Much to chagrin she had not heard his movements and jumped at the voice.

"No, sir." She answered automatically half recalling Carey’s words about not complaining.

"You are not comfortable around me, are you girl?" The tone he used demanded the truth and too scared to refused she complied.

"No, sir. I...I’m not use to your methods."

"I run a tight ship to get the best results of my missions some can not understand and are too weak to do what is right. They are usually lured into the belly of the beast themselves." Bitterness crept into Roger’s voice but she did not question who he was referring to then. "Tell me girl, what do you think of demons?"

"Their evil," Jane replied as if it should have been obvious, "we were given these gifts to smite them. To protect the ones who can not."

"That’s true, sadly there are members of the Council now, ones who do not belong on it in the first place that disagree. They would have slayers back off on areas that are demon populated because the monsters are considered "harmless." Soulless beings are not to be trusted." Thrusting a finger at the blinking dot moving on the labtop he laughed humorlessly, "Angelus and William the Bloody though have souls. Ms. Summers and her friends are fine with letting them live because of this. They forget that a soul does not change the demon, the evil still remains and corrupts. We must do what others can't."

Jane frowned, what he said had made sense to her but she wasn’t sure if she wanted to believe it. Surely Mr. Giles had to have seen that these creatures didn’t deserve to live. They weren’t human in any respect, an affront to the lord and dangerous to them all. Once Roger had sat back down Jane whispered to Carey, "Did your first watcher act like him?"

Carey bit into her lip for a moment not bothering to reply and her friend wasn't even sure if she heard the question.

"What?" Carey whirled around to face her watcher in astonishment. "You want me to go out on a date with boys?"

"Well one would do as I’d imagine they would be fussy in groups. Though if you preferred girls--"

"That’s not what I meant and you know it." She scoffed. "I mean--why bother? I thought it was a.) Against the rules, and b.) Pointless anyway."

Mary Jarvis had been her guardian for as long as Carey could recall raising her almost since birth. When she was called (or if) they would fight on the field. Mary had taught her all about the slayer lore, the handbook, and the rules about fighting alone. Friends and lovers were distractions. That was how the girl before the current slayer had died. Giving up her own life to save her lover (her own watcher) and her dog. The evil forces won because she hadn’t had the heart to do what was needed to win. Carey was determined not to repeat her mistakes.

"You’re nineteen now and I know neither one of us has wanted to consider that...you may never be called." Mary’s eyes shone with compassion doing nothing to lessen the impact on Carey.

"I could though, it’s happened before with slayers who were called at a later age. Ones that were older than me." The girl added stubbornly.

"It has also passed several potentials in a generation and occurring later in life is very rare." Pushing a strand of greying hair from her eyes Mary sighed. "I know it’s a disappointment for you Carey, it is for me as well but these things can not be helped. It is simply out of our hands. I think it would be best if you could adjust to normal life just in case."

"How?" She had no idea how normal girls acted outside of television. Not with friendship nor lovers. How did you know if you would make good friends much less find a boyfriend? The guys she met at the library and at stores all acted the same. Were men suppose to be that blunt? Was she supposed to take that and swoon?

"Just give it your best shot." Her teacher encouraged.

-- --

"No." Carey finally answered not taking her eyes off the road. "She didn’t. Maybe if she was she wouldn’t have been killed."

Glancing at the screen she informed the group that they would be within range in five hours. Then perhaps they would get results. No, they WOULD get results. She didn't accept anything less anymore.

-- --

Angel found himself in the middle of a vast bed nude. Candle light bathed the area in a warm glow making his own skin appear golden. A fake tan, he mused. He ran his callous hand over his arm until the skin he touched skimmed over another body. Such a beautiful lean one that he could not resist tracing it’s contours with his bare hands. Absently he wondered if it was the male version of Pygmalion. A body sculpted to perfection that the creator adored. Whoever it’s creator was had been foolish to give it up without a fight.

A tongue darted out over those tempting lips and Angel captured it at once. He enjoyed the taste and let himself drink it in with great relish. Strong confident hands tangled in his hair and down his back. It seemed his lover couldn’t get enough of him either.

"Like that, luv?" The mans' sultry voice asked between small nibbles of his ear lobe.

"Feels so good baby." Angel moaned gazing down at Spike in all his glory spread out for him. He really didn’t know where to start and didn’t want to finish for some time. His wandering hand ran up the length of the muscled legs between the thighs seeking out--

"Yeah he says that now," called a female voice causing the distracted Angel to give a shout of alarm. "But just wait until the glow wears off. He’ll be calling you a pro." Buffy Summers rolled her eyes. "What insensitive moron treats you like that after your first time together anyway?" She asked addressing Spike rather than Angel.

"Buffy? What are you doing here?" Angel squealed trying in vain to cover his nudity but the covers seemed to have disappeared. The sole abject that he could find was a ugly pink heart shape pillow that he clumsily placed in front of his groin. Spike, far from bothered watched the scene with a sense of detracted curiosity. Why wasn’t she picking on Spike?

"Wow, I’m here all of two seconds and you already want me gone? That new record for you?" She mocked giving him the classic Buffy stance with her arms crossed as she stood judging him."Not that I’m big on the amazement. That is your M.O., taking off when things get to hard."

"Like you’re one to talk." It might have been childish to say but dammit she had no call to go there.

She shrugged as if words that usually would have had her snapping at him with righteous fury couldn’t faze her now. "There’s a different though, right? I was just a kid, you should have known better. You didn’t even want to make it work."

"Neither did you." Angel countered. "Admit it Buffy, you were happy that your freakshow of a boyfriend wasn’t keeping you in the dark with him. You never accepted that part of me."

"And I didn’t?" To Buffy’s left another blonde sat in the shadows in a red dress with a dangerously high slit. In contrast she wore a modest white jacket that might have looked out of place on anyone else. Darla always could get away with anything. Compared to Buffy’s baggy attire she appeared more mature and would not likely to be mistaken for the girl next door.

"No, you couldn’t accept the soul." He corrected wondering briefly why Darla and Buffy would team up to haunt him. Maybe it was a blonde thing. Mostly likely it was an ex-girlfriend thing. Interrupting sex seemed like something that they’d plot together against an ex. Maybe Worfram and Hart was behind it. Stopping sex with Spike seemed like a really evil thing to do.

"Did near the end, didn’t I darling? You were relived to be free of me again. You never were much for commitment."

"Like you were with the Immortal?" Angel shot back sourly.

Darla smirked, "Never said I was. One would hope that you could be."

"Truth is Angel..." His unbeating heart twisted at the appearance of the third woman. He didn’t want to hear her berate him too. She never let him off easy.

Cordelia Chase smiled fondly wearing the same clothes she had when he had last seen her "alive." Spike winked at her and she responded by blowing him a kiss. Okay that didn’t seem like the Cordelia he knew...

"You never even give anyone the chance to get close. You let us all slip through your fingers. After the third or fourth time that’s gotta tell you something, buddy." She winked much like Spike had and his patience snapped as the pieces fell into place. That son of a bitch wouldn't--

"You know I used kill people for less. I’m not in the best of moods right now so I’d quit with the little mind games, Sergio." Angel growled at the Cordelia image in front of him half wondering if he could be intimating nude next to Spike clutching a tacky pink heart pillow. "Cordelia" quirked an eyebrow at him, "Darla" huffed in frustration and "Buffy" snorted. In the back round a woman that sounded frighteningly like Nina stalked off into the shadows muttering about not getting to the good parts yet.

"How did you guess, my darling boy?" Darla asked playfully stroking up his arm.

"Besides the fact that Cordelia and Darla died?" He hissed pulling the woman’s hand off his shoulder forcefully. "That Buffy would have likely been more stunned that I’m in bed with Spike than to rant about our old relationship? Or maybe I remember how your little illusions feel."

"Wow, you really get to the heart of things." The brunette woman remarked vaguely impressed. "You know me Angel, I can’t just let anybody waltz in, have to see where their state of mind is. Since I can’t do that with the fangy ones the dreams are the only path I have left."

"What, did you think I’d risk you going all Angelus on us?" Buffy asked continuing from where Cordelia left off as she brunette had done with Darla.

"Why are you using them to talk for you?" Angel questioned studying the three women who had affected his life the most. "And why are they acting--"

"I can only speak through dreams, I can’t appear as myself unless I’m on the person’s mind. They represent, in your mind--such as it is--different aspects of your relationships and how you left them." The female vampire said slowly as if Angel couldn’t understand the simplest concepts. "Though I think it’s certainly educational to know who is on your mind." She smirked at the sprawled figure of Spike. "Can’t say I’m caught off guard by this. The clothes clued me in a few decades back."

"Why does everyone assume things because of my clothes?" Angel grumbled pushing away Spike’s greedy hands. "There’s nothing wrong with taking a little pride in how you look."

"Spike" snorted. "Little pride doesn’t mean hogging the loo for hours on end to get your hair all poofy." He snickered. "Your hair's atraighter than you are, peaches."

Even in a dream Spike ignored the angry glares Angel sent him.

"Why would it take a vampire that long without a mirror?" The Cordelia image asked.

"It just takes a while to figure out how you got the hair lined up and--" realizing the ridiculousness of talking about hair care Angel abruptly changed track, "look we don’t have time for this."

"I take it you want a favor." Buffy remarked all business now.

"That’s putting it mildly."

-- --

"Are you sure?"

"No, I pulled your ass over here because I wanted to jump your bones." Connor flinched at her sarcasm glad that he had given up on his crush on her. She cursed at the small device in the palm of her hand.

"If it’s a tracking device shouldn’t we crush it?" He ventured since no one had suggested any other options.

"Yeah, like that would do shit." The slayer turned it over face hardening in thought. "If this was on you since our last rumble in the jungle they have to have been following up. We crush it and they’ll know we found it. They wouldn’t wait it out. Just go all out."

"What do we do?" She didn’t answer him.