The Shadow of the Cross

[franceslievens]

paranoid_blonde asked me to write her a story with Angel and Spike and preferably NC17. When I started writing down everything I had in mind, I ended up with something that was much longer than I thought it would be at first. Therefore I'm posting it in two parts.
In honour of paranoid_blonde's demand this is adult lit, containing explicit violence and normal human speach patterns, i.e. swearing. Explicit sex is for part two.


The Shadow of the Cross

“Where is it?” His voice rang through the abandoned church they had taken as their shelter. With big steps he walked down the aisle. The current of air his pace created made his coat billow up behind him like a cape. He always made sure his entrances were perfect. The underlings had to know who to serve.
And these really needed to have that lesson spelled out again. Some shifted uneasy to the back of the group trying to hide. Others simply went on laughing, drinking, prodding with the hot pokers. He could just as easily have walked into a fraternity, where torturing was done for the sheer fun of it, where you laughed at the sight of terror in the eyes of your victim. His own eyes started to twinkle at the thought, but he didn't allow himself to smile. Not in front of this disorderly lot. They had to know this wasn't about fun, this was...
“Looking for information!” he yelled. “That's what I asked the sodding lot of you to do! Now if any one of you could bloody well tell me where to find it!” A sudden silence fell while the vampire searched their faces one by one. They were a bunch of ejits, wearing fangs and bumpy foreheads at all times as if it were some trophy. You should cherish your vampire assets, only get them out on special occasions to give you that extra thrill of feeling alive in your unlife. His eyes narrowed when he surveyed his clumsy troops. If he only tilted his head a bit like this, they might look smart, smashing even. A mouth opened to say something, but closed again. He was back in business. This was him as a hard-headed general and he was here to scold his men.
“The first one of you bumpy dickheads that dares to give me some sort of half-baked explanation for this...” He trailed of when he was rudely interrupted by a whiny voice from his left.
“Well Spike...” His hand shot out and hit the speaker off balance. Before the vampire collided with the floor, Spike had hurled around kicking him in the stomach with such force it sent him flying until he hit a pillar where he dissolved to dust the instant the stake reached target.
“...will be turned into a pile of dust by me, single-handedly.” There was some uneasy shuffling. However young and reckless, most of them wanted to keep their precious unlives and therefore would do whatever was his bidding. “That there,” he pointed at the human form on the altar steps, “is terribly not useful.” He paced over and yanked up the torture victim's head to stare into the motionless face of his grandsire.
The right eye wasn't simply swollen and bruised. It looked like a black tennis ball growing out of his head. See, it even had that little line on it, right there, where the eyelids open. Well obviously they didn't open for the moment or any moment to come, but you could get the jist. Spike felt a sting of jealousy thinking he would have been so pleased if it would've been him to have performed the blow causing it. He dropped Angel's head and inspected the chains. They had – oh irony – fastened him to a giant cross. Candles and the fire for the pokers burning in front of it made for sinister shadows on the limp body.
“Y'all did a great job in making sure he won't utter a word for at least a couple of hours. Not much fun to have then, innit?” Spike looked at his followers again, casually got his packet of cigarettes out of his coat pocket, took one out and lit it. “YOU BUNCH OF FUCKIN' WANKERS! NEVER DID IT COME UP IN YOUR BRAINLESS HEADS IT MIGHT BE A TINY LITTLE BIT INTERESTING TO AT LEAST TRY AND KEEP HIM IN SOME CONSCIOUS STATE SO THERE COULD BE QUESTIONS ASKED AND MOST OF ALL ANSWERS GIVEN.” His outburst had made the others rather jumpy. Spike smirked at this, took a drag from his cigarette and went to sit down on the altar steps. “Why don't you all take a seat,” he said with a hand gesture towards the prie-dieus and an intonation in his words that made one think he was about to give a class to a bunch of first graders.
“Torture is all about finding a need,” he kicked off a story that could go on for several hours. “You want something and can give something in return for it. You dangle it in front of their noses: the possibility that all this pain will go away eventually. 'Course it won't. Better to kill them off in the end, no matter what. Gives you less of a mess after.” He turned to the limp body of his grandsire: “You agreeing with me there, lad?” Angel stirred and murmured something before having a coughing fit. Blood trickled down the corner of his mouth. Spike jumped up at this and yanked the older vampire's head up again. “Lemme give you a hand, gramps. Seem to be having trouble getting the air into those dead lungs. Try this,” and with that last sneer he blew cigarette smoke directly into Angel's eyes.
Another coughing fit overcame the vampire, but in between the gasps for air he managed a leer towards Dru's child: “Angelus would've been so proud of you, Willy.”
“Don't you go calling me that,” hissed Spike. Angry he stubbed out his cigarette on Angel's bare shoulder. The older vampire didn't so much as whimper. With a wave of his hand Spike signalled to the others that the torture session could continue.

Comments

*blink blink*

[paranoid-blonde.livejournal.com]

Frances, I loves you!

wow!

Oooo...I have prologue redone...may send it to you later...

Hee, you liked it!!

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

*swells with pride*

I was completely not sure about my Spike writing & have been reading numerous other fics and transcripts to get it kind of right.
And then I realised I just have to let him speak like I speak English: a mixture of Americanised and British English.

[gingerpig.livejournal.com]

Ooh...I like it...Off to read part two ;)

Thanks!

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

Be prepared for more nastyness. *g*