Jardin stood up, bowed to Angel, then Spike, and finally to his peers.  “The Counsel of Aurelius is now called to order,” he formally intoned.

*   *   *

In the end, Angel felt absolutely no hypocrisy in regards to the final plan agreed to, which involved a series of attacks on various Houses and Clans of the Merovian Order which would appeared random, but would in fact be very well timed to cause the most chaos, giving their opponents the least amount of time and resources to respond.  The Aurelians would go on the attack, and they would keep the Merovians on the defense while little by little they whittled away their opponent’s members and infrastructure, until finally they were utterly destroyed.

No, Angel felt no hypocrisy over this plan.  The end result would do what the Order desired where the Merovians were concerned – eliminate them as a threat.  Of course there was one tiny little piece of the plan that the Clan Members were not privy to, and that was that if any of the Merovians chose to join them rather than accept defeat, Angel would, where possible, admit them into the Order of Aurelius.  The Clan Masters couldn’t possibly know that the plan within the plan was to gather as many souled warriors as possible to fight a far different battle on a much larger, more epic scale.

In fact Angel hoped that one day the Order of Aurelius would have the resources to rival the very foundation of evil in this dimension; Wolfram and Hart.  He suspected that day was very far off in the future, but he wasn’t getting any older, after all.  He had time, and he could be one patient bastard when need be.  This looked to be one of those times.

The thought of the long years of time stretching out before him brought to mind the one thing that made the thought of the tediousness of that existence bearable.  He reached back and hooked a hand around Spike’s elbow, drawing his childe down to the arm of his chair, then shifted in his chair and leaned back against the solid strength behind him, unconsciously taking the pose depicted in the painting hung directly across the Hall, above the door.  He could feel the stiffness of the blond at that contact in this public venue – the other Masters still milled about the main floor, discussing the details of the plan with their peers in the aftermath of the evening’s formal conclusion – but a second later, the smaller vampire’s muscles relaxed and a hand came to rest on Angel’s far shoulder.

Angel settled back, relaxing a bit more under his childe’s touch, and thought about what would happen the next night.  The battle counsel was finished with their business, and the second night of their gathering would be dedicated to the social aspects vampire clans indulged in when brought together as an Order.  There would be reveling, tall tales, an excess of public sex, and in the end, something none of the demons currently guests in his childe’s House expected.

As worried as he was about the success of that last event, Angel couldn’t help the small smile that formed at the thought of the strange mix of things that would occur tomorrow.  It would be a day long remembered in the annals of the Aurelius Order, that much he knew, regardless of the outcome.  He wondered if it would be recorded in the Watcher’s Chronicles, and decided that yes, of course it would.  A very strange alliance would no doubt be formed between the two unnatural but growing groups of souled vampires and activated slayers if they were successful in their plan.  Once it was done, Angel himself would no doubt update Giles and Buffy on the events that had transpired.

Once it was done, but not before.

Too much depended on secrecy now, at least for the next twenty-four hours.  After that he suspected that the whole demon world and those that kept watch over them would quickly learn what had transpired at the House of William the Bloody during these three warm summer days at the end of July and beginning of August.  He wondered if the stars would be consulted, and decided yes again.  There were demons for whom astrology was a central driving force, and he had no doubt that they would conclude that this was the cusp of some star or other rising to intersect with some planet or other in descent, resulting in the birth of a creature that was both evil and good, ancient and yet brand new.

It was all crap, of course – he doubted the Powers that Be were influenced in any way by the position of the stars or planets – but it would provide him with some entertainment for a few weeks or months, and Angelus had always liked to be entertained.  He smiled again, unaware that it was, in fact, a very Angelus-like smirk.

The Masters surreptitiously watching didn’t miss it, though.

As they had at the beginning of the gathering, the other Masters of their Order couldn’t help but cast their eyes between the image at the back of the Hall and the very real vampires relaxing in and on the chair at the other end.  Any that had thought that perhaps the alliance between Angelus and William the Bloody presented at the Masters Conclave in the desert had been a sham put forward for purely political reasons now put that thought aside.  It was clear that there was indeed a strong bond between these two powerful creatures, and considering their age and place in the Order, that power was now increased dramatically in comparison to the rest of them.  Those that had thought to test the power of Angelus, and perhaps, with the strategic assistance of a few of their peers, usurp it, regretfully dismissed those plans.  They were Aurelians, and they weren’t stupid.

“Something tickling your fancy, pet?” Spike murmured, glancing down at the quirked lips of his sire.

“Just thinking about tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that…”

“You’re one kinky bastard, you know that?” the blond said with a smirk of his own.

“I thought that’s what you loved about me,” his sire retorted.

Silence followed and Angel’s smile disappeared.  He’d slipped up, introducing the word they never mentioned between them.  He searched his brain to come up with a suitable insult that would counteract that word, but before he could, his childe spoke again, so softly that he almost didn’t catch the words.

“One of the things, at any rate.”

Angel froze, considering the words he wasn’t sure he was supposed to have heard.  In an instant he had gone from lazily relaxed to hard as a board.  Screw it, he finally decided, standing up abruptly and clapping his hands.  With no hesitation whatsoever, Spike stood with him and Jardin rushed to his side.

“Get them back to their wing – we’re done for the night,” he instructed.  “Wesley,” he called out.  “Escort my Steward and his charges back to their rooms.  Illyria, take Maria.  Spike, you’re with me.”

Without further ado he descended the risers and strode through the center of the star and the crowd beyond it with Spike hard on his heels.  The Masters quickly opened a path and dropped into obeisance as he passed.

In a minute they were in the east wing and at Angel’s door.  It had barely shut behind them when he turned and shoved the blond against the wall that divided the kitchen from the seating area in the outer room of his suite.

“I hope you’re all rested up, Will, because I’m so fucking hard I think I might explode.  I’m gonna fuck you until you can’t walk and I can’t move.”

Spike tucked his tongue behind his front teeth and smirked teasingly.  “Do your worst, da.”

“Be careful what you wish for, boyo,” the older vampire growled, grasping the waistband of his childe’s leather trousers.  A twist of his wrists and the buttons popped open.  Angel dropped to his knees, dragging the leather down with him until it gathered tightly at the blonde’s knees, and without pause swallowed down the large, hard prick straining between the smaller vampire’s thighs.

“Christ!” Spike cried out, slamming his hands down hard on the wall behind him.  He scrabbled at the faded wallpaper, trying desperately not to dig his fingers into the dark strands of his sire’s hair, knowing that despite the older vampire’s current position on his knees with his childe’s cock stuffed down his throat, Angel was completely in control of them both right now.  He would do whatever he wanted, when and how he wanted, and Spike would be the lucky recipient of the incredible pleasure that would result.  Letting down his barriers and just taking it was the hardest thing for him to do, but in the end, when he managed to do just that, he always thanked his lucky stars, because there was nothing that compared with the erotic power his sire wielded when he let everything go and just dominated the shit out of his prodigal and precocious son.

“Jesus, Angel, please,” Spike whimpered, his balls drawing up so tight and hard he thought he might pass out.  Black lights were sparkling behind his eyes when his sire’s mouth was taken away and replaced by a tight hand around the base of his throbbing cock and aching nuts.

“What do you want, boy?” the dark vampire demanded, getting to his feet to tower over the blond.  “Tell me.”

“Want…   Want…”  He couldn’t finish the thought, gasping for air that felt absolutely necessary, despite all vampire evidence to the contrary.

“Want what, little one?” the bigger vampire urged, changing his tack.  He leaned in and licked the delicate shell of his boy’s ear, a long-known erogenous zone, and Spike shuddered, both from the words and the caress.  “Whatever ye want, whatever ye need, I’ll give it to you, Will.  You’ve only to ask.”

“Da…” the word trailed off in a long, moaning sigh.

“That’s right, childe, let your da take care of you.  Give over to me, Will, there’s a good boy.”

“No…” Spike groaned, tossing his head feverishly against the wall behind him, waging a fight he in no way wanted to win.  But they both knew that holding out brought its own reward, increasing the pleasure that came with capitulation ten-fold.  “Can’t…”

“Why not, lad?  Don’t you want me?” his sire asked, pumping his fist open and closed slowly about the handful of cock and balls he still held securely.

“God!” the blond exclaimed, jerking back and thumping his head hard against the wall.  His eyes were closed, but he could see the adorable pout on his sire’s very kissable mouth.

“Stop pouting, tosser, ‘s not fair and you know it,” he managed to gasp out.

Angel chuckled.  “Ah, childe, what’s fair got to do with it now, eh?  You’ll spread your legs for me, and those pretty rounded cheeks, and let me in because you want me there, my fat cock filling your tight, tiny hole, my hands on you, squeezing the cum from your full balls and holding it back, all at the same time, until you’re dizzy with the pleasure.  Come on, baby, you know you want it,” he whispered wickedly.  “Tell your da.”

“God,” Spike said again, this time in a soft whisper, as though he actually appealed to some deity that might hear his plea and aid him in holding out against his overpowering sire for just a few more minutes.

No higher power appeared.  The blond shook his head hard, eyes squeezed shut tight, but in the end it was impossible, he wanted it too much.  “Please, da, please.  I’ll be good, I will,” he began to babble.  “Whatever you want.  I’ll do whatever you say, say whatever you want.  Please, da,” he begged again, now shamelessly pleading.

“Good boy,” Angel murmured softly, kissing his childe’s pale, glistening brow.  “You’re such a good boy.  Your da can’t deny his boy anything, can he?”

Spike whimpered.

“It’s all right, little one, your da will take care of you,” the dark vampire said softly, pushing his childe’s duster off trembling shoulders.  “Shh, childe, I’m here,” he soothed again, nimbly unbuttoning the shirt that covered the slender muscled chest he coveted.  When the buttons were undone, he spread the edges open and stared at the pale flesh framed by black silk.  With a sigh of delight he leaned down and licked lightly over one turgid nipple.  Spike hissed and bucked beneath his tongue.  He tried valiantly to be still after that first, instinctive response, but he couldn’t stop the trembling, which increased dramatically.

“Have I told you, Will, how pleased I am with your body after all these years?” the dark vampire asked, still staring at his childe’s chest.  He reached out to pinch the other nipple, watching it turn red as the borrowed blood rushed to the surface and his boy hitched in another completely unnecessary gasp of breath.  “I didn’t think it was possible, but you’re even more beautiful than you were a hundred years ago.  When this is all over, I’m going to do another painting, this one for our eyes alone.  I’m gonna strip you down, boy, and lay you on a thick rug before a blazing fire.  God, I love the way the flames make your skin glow like amber.  Would you like that, hmm?”

“What else?” Spike managed to gasp out.

Angel smiled with delight.  So he’d finally gotten deep enough to reach the part of his normally quite dominant childe that craved to submit everything to his sire.

“Hmm…” he murmured, considering.  “On your belly I think, with your legs spread just enough so that I can see your round balls peeking out.  Or should your cock be down, do you think, like we did two days ago?” he asked conversationally, tweaking the other nipple until it matched the first one in redness.

Spike shook his head, but “Yes…” is what came out of his mouth.

“I think I’ll paint myself into it.  Sitting by your side, stroking your pert bottom.  Would you like that?”

Spike shook his head, then gasped and switched directions, nodding vigorously.

“God, what I’d really like to paint is me fucking you, but then we couldn’t see your gorgeous body,” Angel said regretfully, finally pushing the shirt off.  It pooled to the floor on top of the duster.

Spike whimpered and bit his lip.

“You think there’s a way?” his sire asked, seeing how the blond appeared to be biting back something on the tip of his tongue.  Spike didn’t immediately answer, but Angel waited patiently, lifting one foot and slipping it into the crotch of the leather gathered at the smaller vampire’s knees before pushing down and stripping the tight leather the rest of the way down to the blonde’s ankles.  His motion was stopped by the high-topped leather docs his childe always wore.

Spike gritted his teeth, clearly trying to hold the words in, but at that moment Angel reached down to where one hand held back his childe’s imminent orgasm, and with the other cupped the tender balls and rolled them in his fingers.

“Christ!” the smaller vampire growled, arching into the touch.  “On my back, tosser, on my back!” he cried, the words torn from him.

“Me kneeling between your thighs with your legs over my shoulders?” Angel asked, as though he was considering the suggestion purely as a favor to his childe.  “Hmm…”

“Bastard!” the blond spit out, wriggling shamelessly into the working fingers.

“Spread your legs, Will, so I can give you a nice finger fucking,” the older vampire requested, almost as an aside, still clearly thinking on the image proposed by his childe.

Spike whimpered yet again, spreading his feet as far apart as the leather gathered at his ankles would allow.

“A bit more, please,” Angel asked, as though he were asking him to pass the sugar bowl for his morning coffee.

Spike gritted his teeth, but finally bent his knees outward and slid down the wall a bit, spreading his thighs that way, since the other wasn’t possible.  Angel stared down at the scowling face, knowing his childe was feeling particularly vulnerable and exposed in this position, not to mention humiliated by the fact that he’d taken it without a hand raised to force him.  The blonde’s features were twisted with all those emotions, but also with an almost euphoric abandon.  Oh yes, he had definitely reached the submissive part of his childe.  Getting there was hard work, but the payback was well worth it – for both of them.

“Good boy,” he praised, easing one finger away from the full balls to stroke over the perineum just behind them.  He slid further back to touch the marble disk.  “Time for this to go, lad,” his sire said.  “I think you’re full enough of me for the others to know who you belong to, don’t you?” he teased.

“Christ, mate, they can probably smell me all the way over in the West wing right now,” Spike ground out, wriggling his behind like a puppy as he panted out his lust.

“Hold your cheeks open for me, Will, so I can get it out.  I need to be inside you.”

Spike groaned loudly, shook his head hard, but then slammed his hands against the wall behind him again, before whimpering and reaching behind himself to spread his buttocks open.

“There’s a good lad,” his sire praised again, slipping his fingers further back to grip the base of the cavetti.  He pulled and it came out with a pop.  Angel tossed it aside and slipped a finger back to rest it firmly over the tight bud.  A slick trickle of his own seed wet his finger, and he smiled, spreading it around the pucker.  With his other hand he pulled the still tightly held cock and balls up and to one side of the taut, pale belly, then stepped in closer to the trembling figure until his own knees were inside the spread ones.  Pressing outward with his longer legs, he helped his childe hold them open, taking some of the trembling weight onto his own steady thighs.  This time the blonde’s groan held a hint of gratitude in it.

“I’ve got you, boyo,” Angel repeated.  “Never fear.  Now, let’s find that spot you like so much,” he said, as though to himself.  Pressing hard he breeched the tight ring, instantly covered with the lube of his own seed.  He slid his finger in to the first knuckle, rotated it slowly, then continued its descent, stopping only when he brushed over the spongy bump inside.  “Ah, I think I’ve found it, childe.”  He pulled back, and with the angle clearly in mind, jammed it back in hard, directly on the gland.

Spike cried out and arched up, his eyes wide and nostrils flaring.

“Yes, that’s definitely it,” the dark vampire said, obviously well pleased with his efforts.

“Please, da, I need to come!” Spike begged.

“Now, now, boy, I’ve only got a finger in you,” he said, setting up a steady, deep stroking motion in the blonde’s tight channel, giving him the finger fucking he’d promised a few minutes before.  “Don’t you want to wait for my cock to fill you?”

Spike whimpered, shook his head, then stopped with a grimace and nodded.  “Yes, please, I want your cock in me, da, your big, fat, long cock.  God, I want it so bad, want it to fill me,” he whispered, the sound dying away to a growling whimper at the back of his throat.

“Soon, boy.  First I want to watch a bit.  You know how I like to watch,” he said, pulling his finger out, releasing the throbbing cock and balls, and then stepping back.  “Turn around,” he commanded calmly.

Spike hesitated a moment, then turned to the wall, the long muscles of his back trembling.  He raised his arms to rest them, crossed, on the wall over his head, then leaned his forehead against where they were crossed.  The muscles there trembled as well, making the replica of his sire’s tattoo flex and move as if it were alive.  Angel was fascinated by it, and suddenly understood why his childe had traced and licked it so often back in the day.  He reached out to stroke it lightly, then leaned in to trace it with his tongue, just as William had done over a hundred years ago.  Finally he leaned back and let his eyes drift down the length of the pale spine to the firm, rounded cheeks below.

“Spread your legs, Will.”

Spike groaned but opened his knees as wide as he could, dipping down a bit to maximize the spread.  Angel reached between his thighs and gripped the base of his childe’s cock and balls again, pulling down and back so that he could see a bit of both.  “Good boy, lad,” he soothed.  “Cheeks now,” he instructed.

Spike whimpered but obeyed, reaching back to spread himself open and expose the tight bud that had so recently been full of his sire’s meaty finger.

“Good boy,” Angel repeated, rubbing the tip of his finger over the red circle for only an instant before thrusting it in all the way and immediately taking up where he’d left off, with a hard, fast finger fucking that struck the blonde’s prostrate every third time or so.  He watched his finger moving in and out, and William’s buttocks flexing with the motion, despite the pale hands that covered the flesh there, loving the sight of his childe so open and exposed to whatever his sire wanted.

“Ah, Will, I wish you could see this.  You’re such a beauty, childe,” his sire sighed with delight.  Come on, let’s get you comfy so your da can give you a proper fucking, eh lad?”

Spike whimpered his agreement, unable to say anything else at that moment, since Angel’s last three thrusts in, before he’d removed his finger, had unerringly pummeled his prostrate and had him seeing stars.  Luckily for him he didn’t have to get across the room on his own, because it seemed that Angel’s objective to ‘fuck him until he couldn’t walk’ was already met, and well before the actual fucking had begun.

When Angel put him down again, Spike found himself laid belly-down on a small ottoman, hands and knees on the ground on either side.  Angel reached under him, urging him up from his belly for a minute to fish out his cock and balls and position them downward against the edge of the leather so that they could be seen.  Spike groaned at the pressure of the position, but let his sire maneuver him as he wanted.  And then Angel was prowling around him, inspecting him like a fine work of art, slipping the docs and trousers off so that he could move his knees further apart, spreading his butt cheeks and tucking his aching balls up as high as they would go so that the cheeks were held open by them a bit, and exposing a peek of the tight anus waiting in the cleft.  Angel stood up and moved a step back, eyeing his backside critically before sighing with obvious pleasure.

“You look perfect, lad, but I’m feeling a bit on edge.  I’m afraid it will be hard fucking you’re in for, and I’ll need a bit more room to move.  Hold yourself open for me, boy, so I can fuck you good and proper.”

“For god’s sake, ‘Gelus, get on with it, will you?” Spike demanded.  But despite those words, he did as commanded, reaching back and spreading his cheeks to hold them open with trembling hands.

“If you insist, lad,” his sire said, a roguish twinkle in his eye that Spike couldn’t see, but was absolutely certain was there.

The bigger vampire dropped to his knees behind the spread figure and inspected him close up.  “A little extra lube, mayhap?” he mused to himself before leaning down and tonguing the tight ring energetically, licking up the trickling drops of his own cum as he did.  Spike’s whole body began to shake.

“That’s it, lad, I can’t wait a minute longer,” Angel said regretfully as he pulled back, positioned the plumy head of his cock at the wetly glistening hole.  He didn’t wait, but thrust in with all his strength, burying the full length of his long, hard cock deep inside his spread childe.

“Sire!” Spike cried out.

“Don’t let go of those cheeks, boyo,” Angel warned as he set up a steady rhythm, pumping and thrusting deep and hard.  He reached up and gripped the taut shoulders, using them as both leverage and to anchor his weight to the slimmer, slighter body beneath him.  “Christ, Will, I’m going to fill you all the way, boy.”

Spike whimpered and spread his cheeks even wider.  “Please let me come, da, please,” he whined.

“Ah, childe, give me just a minute.  I’m not done with your sweet hole yet, though I know I can’t last much longer meself, you’re so tight and slick with my seed,” he said, his voice husky and thick with the Irish.

Spike didn’t think it was possible, but his sire picked up the pace, pounding into him over and over again, groaning loudly.  “Christ, I love being inside you.  You’re so tight, Will, and so warm.  Why are you so warm?” he groaned again, falling forward to blanket his childe’s slim torso beneath his bulkier weight.  He reached beneath the blonde’s hips and pulled him backward, partially off the back edge of the ottoman, then fumbled to grasp his cock and balls, working both furiously.

“Now, da?” his childe pleaded, still holding himself open as ordered, but managing to rock in a hard, fast counterpoint to his sire’s rhythm.

“God yes, childe,” Angel groaned out, unable to hold back any longer.  “Come for me, Will.  Come now.”

“Sire!”

Angel’s words weren’t fully out of his mouth before Spike complied, shots of slick seed pulsing out in time to the rapid rhythm of his sire’s knowing hands.

“Will!”

Angel’s own release followed hard on his childe’s.  He pumped half a dozen times more, then collapsed heavily on the thin but preternaturally strong body beneath him.

When Spike finally became aware of his surroundings again, he lay in Angel’s big bed on his belly with his sire sitting astride his legs, apparently giving him a backrub.

“What’re you doing, tosser?  ‘m trying to sleep here.  You wore me out with all that alpha shit, you big freakin’ dom,” he said, sounding smugly satisfied despite the sarcasm of the words.  A huge yawn stopped him from adding any further invectives, pretended or otherwise.  “And got a busy day tomorrow, what with the ensouling and all.  Plus,” he added, glancing sleepily over at the bedside clock.  “Gotta take my turn at the Watch soon.”

“Not for hours, yet, baby, now be quiet and just relax.  Go back to sleep if you want to – I’ll be done here soon.”

“Done with what?” Spike asked, craning his neck over his shoulder to see what the older vampire was up to.  He yelped as thick fingers probed between his legs, slipping inside to swirl about for a moment before being withdrawn once more.  Angel’s hands returned to work along his back again, sliding down to message his buttocks firmly, and Spike drew in a gasping breath as he realized that his sire was rubbing a week’s worth of his own seed, which had been stored in his childe’s tight channel, into the pores of his pale flesh, marking him a way that no demon, vampire or otherwise, could possibly miss.

“Freakin’ dom,” Spike muttered again.  He spread his legs wider to give his sire easier access, then dropped back into an easy sleep.