FAMILY

AUTHOR: Little Mouse (elf_night@hotmail.com)

DISCLAIMER: Once again, Joss', not mine. Still a lucky man.

WARNINGS: For explicit m/m stuff, and violence, and remembered abuse, and language, and lots of other stuff.

ARCHIVE: Please ask first.

SUMMARY: AU! Spike isn't in 'love' with Buffy, but has told Giles' the story of Drusilla turning him. He has the chip, but no soul. Angel's in LA. Anya doesn't exist. I moved forward the 'meltdown' of Spike's chip a bit.

CHAPTER TWENTY:

"He said he would meet me here," Willow pouted, curling up in her chair and clutching the mug of hot chocolate that Tara had handed to her. "He said we’d be harder to follow if we split up. I guess they went after him and not me. Maybe they caught him already."

"He probably waited until you were out of sight and them went right back in," Buffy scoffed. "You know he has to be loving all this - the way Angel’s acting and this dumb show they’re putting on. It’s probably just a big joke to him. Playing the victim and going with you just makes it funnier."

"More fun," Giles corrected absently.

"Whatever."

"I don’t know," Willow said, looking thoughtful, "I don’t think Spike’s playing anything. He was chained up."

"One ankle chain? That’s just for show," Buffy was still scoffing.

"It was magic," Willow protested, "I could sense there was a spell on it. I had to use one of the unlocking orbs that Giles gave me to get the cuff off of his leg. I had to use one on the bedroom door, too; he was locked in."

"Whose bedroom?" Buffy immediately wanted to know.

"I have no idea," Willow shrugged, "I just followed Xander’s directions until I got all turned around, then I used a locater spell to find the one he was in. It was a beautiful room," she paused, giving a little sigh, "like a bedroom from a prince’s castle or a gothic novel. All velvet and silk and antiques and dark wood paneling.... just gorgeous."

"And Spike in the middle of it all," Buffy laughed, "like a big old spider!"

Willow remembered how Spike had been lying on the bed, white-blond curls spread across burgundy silk, bone-pale face like an ice sculpture, beautiful body only partially covered by sumptuous bedclothes... she opened her mouth to say that he had actually matched the room pretty nicely, but a sharp shake of Giles’ head stopped her long enough to realize that just blurting that out might not be the best idea.

At least, not if she didn’t want to listen to Buffy ranting for the next three hours.

"So what do we do now?" Xander tried to change the subject.

"I think it’s time to discover just how truly good our acting is," Giles sounded very firm and very, very worried. "I had planned on the fact of Spike’s being here to protect us from Angelus’ wrath, or at least to control it enough to keep his Childer from burning the place down around us. Now we don’t have any kind of insurance unless we can find Spike again. He may not have been recaptured, after all... perhaps he only had to hide. He could show up any time."

"So you want us to fake it?" Xander stared, looking a whole lot more worried than Giles did. "But - vampires! They’re gonna know we’re nervous about something - won’t they figure out that we’re lying?!"

"They’ll just believe it’s a very natural nervous reaction to the fact that they are vampires," Giles assured him, "that’s if, of course, that they can truly tell that we’re nervous."

"Spike told me he could."

"You can’t believe a word Spike says," Buffy said scornfully, "He was probably just guessing."

"Then he always guessed exactly right," Xander muttered, looking stubborn.

"He could have been responding to visual cues or even picking up a faint scent of sweat. He might have even been familiar enough with the way you act while nervous to guess accurately." Giles frowned. "Speaking of familiarity, Xander, I think there’s something we need to discuss."

"There is?" Xander decided that he might as well start practicing his acting skills now. He gave Giles his absolute best innocent look.

Apparently he was going to have to work on it, because Giles immediately got his very own, perfected, sour-lemon look. "There certainly is," the Watcher said, sounding distinctly grumpy, "Why didn’t you tell us that Angelus was asking you questions about Spike?"

"Um... because he was asking us all questions about Spike?"

"He was asking us questions about where Spike stayed, where he liked to go, where he might b e hiding. He wasn’t asking us what Spike like to watch on television or what sort of horrible music he preferred."

"Ah, but he could have been!" Xander’s reply was unbearably perky. "I wasn’t always there when..."

"Someone was always there when anyone else was being questioned. I specifically told all of you not to be alone with any of them, and particularly not with Angelus. Not one of the others remembers Angelus asking you those sort of questions, so you must have been alone with him after I distinctly said not to. When did he talk to you?"

"Almost every night, right outside your door," Xander tried not to sound sarcastic, but he wasn’t sure he was managing. "When I had to leave ‘cause I had my most recent crappy job to go to, and he’d be waiting and ask me all kinds of stuff while you and Buffy were right inside arguing about something and no one ever noticed." He decided not to add the fact that Angelus often kept him cornered for a good half-hour or more. He could already see the scowls that said they didn’t believe him.

"I find that difficult to believe," Giles stated, confirming Xander’s suspicions. "I’m sure we would know if Angelus was around."

"I’d know, for sure," Buffy was glaring. "Tell us the truth, Xander - why are you lying? Did one of those hocus-pocus vamps get all mesmerize-y on you? I be they’re trying to make us argue with each other, Giles, and then they think that will make us all weak and stuff!"

"A very good idea," an amused voice interrupted, "but sadly, not one of ours. Where is William?"

Every single one of the Scoobies jumped in surprise and turned to stare at the vampire... two vampires... uh, oh. Three vampires that were standing just outside the door, glaring at them.

The redhead named Daniel, the icy blond Lucinda, and an absolutely furious Drusilla. She was the only one in game face, and her golden eyes looked completely insane with rage. Lucinda had a tight grip on her arm, but they couldn’t tell from her expression if she meant to keep Drusilla back or shove her forward. It was only the lack on an invitation that was saving them from finding out.

"William? You mean Spike?" Giles had decided to try out his acting skills. "What makes you think we know where he is? The last time any of us saw him was when Xander said he was asleep on a couch in Angelus’ rooms."

"He was taken," Daniel said, his features still human and looking vaguely amused, unlike his two glaring Sisters. The Scoobies didn’t believe for one instant, however, that he was any less angry than they were. "He was taken by her." One hand lifted to point straight at Willow.

The little witch made an ‘eep’ sound and tried to melt into her chair.

"What makes you think that?" Giles tried, giving his own glare right back to them.

"Don’t try and play games with us, Watcher," Daniel smiled, "I could smell her scent all through the house as soon as your spell wore off. The place reeked of her and her little magic tricks. Now answer my question. Where is William?"

"We don’t have to answer you, not that question or any other question," Buffy jeered, moving to stand in front of her Watcher and her friends. "You better just pack up your sisters and get out of here before I stake all three of you!"

"Give him back," Drusilla hissed, making small, aborted lunges at the blonde girl.

Buffy tossed her hair back, looking smug. "Why? Even if we’ve got him, and I’m still not answering the question, why should we just give him back? Just ‘cause you say so? Please!"

"How about so we won’t rip your limbs off and leave you dying in a pool of blood?" Daniel asked, his voice still perfectly pleasant and mildly amused.

"I’d drink the blood while she was dying," Drusilla paused to say, her head tilted to one side as she looked Buffy up and down. "Lap, lap, lap, like a wee small kitten. She’s such an icky thing, but her blood will be all tingly. Spikey gave me some once, from the other tingly girl. It was very, very good."

"You are insane," Buffy shuddered, glaring at her, "that’s just sick."

"You’re a Brother-Stealer," Drusilla sniffed, "You stole my sparkly prince. That was very, very mean of you so I don’t care what you think. Give us back our Spike or I’ll use your intestines for hair ribbons."

Buffy blinked, and most of the other Scoobies looked ill. That incongruously disgusting threat in the middle of Drusilla’s little-girl talk was more unsettling than Daniel’s threat to tear off limbs could hope to be.

"Now, Drusilla," Lucinda patted her Sister, her eyes gleaming as she looked, not at the smaller vampire, but at Buffy, "Father will want to play with her first."

"Yes, but he’ll leave bits for me," Drusilla said, giving the pale-faced Slayer a decidedly wicked smile.

"Angel won’t let you do anything," Buffy managed, looking like she was about to throw up, but fighting it. "We have a truce; he’ll honor it."

"You had a truce. Stealing our Brother might be just a little outside the limits of what was agreed on, you know," Daniel said.

"He wasn’t stolen," Willow protested, forgetting that she was trying not to attract any attention to herself at the repeat of that outrageous accusation. "He was just, um... turned loose. And then he decided what he wanted to do. Just because he decided to leave doesn’t make him stolen."

"It does if you brought him back here and locked him right back up," Daniel wasn’t in much of a mood to argue over something so stupid. Despite his cheerful veneer, he wanted his little Brother back just as much as his Sisters did. "Father won’t play these word games with you, you do realize that? You’ll be lucky if he doesn’t just kill you."

"Angel is a little bit more of a gentleman than you seem to be," Buffy sniffed, "He won’t..."

"I wouldn’t try to judge what Angelus will or won’t do right now, little girl," Daniel growled, finally losing his last bit of humor, "you have no idea what you’re even saying. You shouldn’t spout off such nonsense when you don’t even have all the facts."

"What facts don’t we have?" the Slayer demanded.

"Quite a few," Daniel gave her a hideous grin, "but the main one you need to worry about right now is that when your precious, sophisticated, understanding, gentlemanly ‘Angel’ realized that his Childe was missing - he went completely feral. How do you plan on dealing with that?"

***Earlier***

It took Angelus just a moment to realize what he was seeing. After looking over the plans Lucinda had made and consulting with his other Childer, he’d come to the bedroom to feed - and possibly play some more with - his youngest. He was very serious about putting William on a feeding schedule, and his darling had barely had anything today. What he had swallowed had been Gabriel’s blood, and although Angelus’ oldest Childe was incredibly strong, his blood still wouldn’t do for William what Sire’s blood could. He’d let his Little One rest after their earlier fun, but now it was time for a meal.

But there wasn’t going to be a feeding - he was just standing silently, staring in complete confusion at the bed that should have had an incredibly beautiful man in it and instead was just a mess of twisted blankets, with a length of silver chain and a shining shackle laying wide open.

Angelus felt rage like he’d never felt before clawing its way up the back of his throat - he threw back his head and howled.

All his Childer, even with no idea of what was going on, howled back.

All except for William, who had been taken. Taken!

Angelus was going to kill someone.

"Sire?" Gabriel ran into the room, but Angelus was already sniffing the air and following the scent of his youngest and whoever had abducted him out of the room, down the hall. He heard Gabriel give a growl of fury behind him; knew that his clever, clever eldest had immediately realized what had happened. Penn started calling for his Brothers and Sisters, but Angelus didn’t wait.

He was down the hall, out the door, and on top of the garden wall before Gabriel had finished calling all their names. He took a moment to scent the air - and then had to stop, almost vibrating in place but unable to decide what to do.

The scent trail of the intruder, who had managed to set his Childe loose and take him away from the safe place his Sire had left him, went east.

His Childe’s scent trail went west.

Angelus was torn - his demon wanted to hunt down the intruder right fucking now! and make them pay for what they had done - make them tell him where his Childe was and then rip them to shreds for daring to touch him.

At the same time, his demon also wanted to go after his Childe - his fragile, half-starved Childe who needed his Sire whether he wanted to admit it or not. It wanted to hunt him down and pin him down and teach him a lesson about why it was very, very bad to leave a place your Sire had put you. His demon was well aware that it couldn’t beat William - too many changes, promises, and he might very well break right now, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t spank his pretty ass, did it?

So what to do? He snarled, unable to decide, yellow eyes darting back and forth, east to west, kill or retrieve...

Movement to his right jerked his attention over - his Childer appeared like gargoyles on the wall next to him, all of them crouching there, in game face and snarling wickedly. He felt a surge of pride at the terrifying sight.

Three of his Childer leaped down, gave him a quick nod, and then darted away to the east, chasing after the intruder who had dared to invade their sanctuary.

That decision taken out of his hands, Angelus was free to vault off of his perch and away through the woods after his Childe’s fading scent. He couldn’t feel the bond between them very well, which was confusing, but at least he did feel it. His demon would have gone insane, otherwise.

He heard another of his Childer following him, and two more thumps hitting the ground before rapid footsteps went back toward the house. Good, those would be his two best magic-users, getting their wicked weapons ready for whatever came next. That was good, that was what he’d always taught them to do. He was so very proud of his Childer.

He was very proud of the one he was hunting, too, even as wanted to turn his ass red and then lock him up for the rest of his long, long life. His Little One was more resourceful that he remembered - the trail was winding and went off in odd directions, circling trees and going through bushes and then doubling back, and every little side-trail and distraction made the scent he was following that much fainter, that much harder to track.

If it hadn’t been for his Blood-Bond with his offspring, Angelus was sure he would have already lost the trail.

"Sire?" Gabriel’s voice broke into his thoughts, and Angelus had calmed down just enough that he was able to answer instead of growling.

"Yes?"

"I fear I’ve lost the scent. Can you sense him?"

"Yes," Angelus knew William and Gabriel had only a tiny bond - William had fed from Penn twice but only in small amounts, and Penn had taken none of his Brother’s blood. William was far too weak for that. It explained, though, why his First was already unable to follow his Brother’s meandering path.

Angelus, still not really able to talk beyond a word or two without snarling, just motioned for Penn to stay with him and kept on the hunt, following his William through the forest, into the town, into yards, into the street, back into the trees, until...

"Is that - Sire, he came back here?!" They had reached a familiar open area - one full of graves, tombstones, crypts and mausoleums.

"This is..." Angelus swallowed to soothe the growls and made himself continue, "...where he was?"

"Yes, Sire," Gabriel was striding toward a particular tomb, even his demonic face set into an irritated scowl, "this is the place they were letting him live. I can’t believe he’d even want to be back here." He started pushing the door open and Angelus shook off his disbelief and bounded over to help him.

The crypt was empty. There was a blanket on a sarcophagus and the scattered, shattered remains of something electronic - an old, broken down chair and a rumpled rug.

Nothing else.

Angelus felt the blood-rage climbing up in him again - he lost the little bit of self-control that he’d managed to scrape back together.

He started howling again, and this time he didn’t think he was going to be able to stop. He didn’t know how the Slayers little band of children had tricked him into thinking William had come here - but he was going to make them pay.