FF: The Spiral Cage 14/?

[Carol.Clarke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Title: The Spiral Cage
Part Fourteen: Gravity
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Joss Whedon owns Buffy and Chris Carter owns the
X-Files. 
Rating: NC -17 
Pairing: Joyce/Dana the rest wait and see
Note: This story is in an alternate universe. It does not follow cannon
story lines. The people are different in places because they have lived
different lives. Dana Scully is a lot happier in this world. Dawn was there
from the beginning. And Buffy isn't the Buffy you know. Also there are many
kinds of vampires and demons, mixing them from the X-file world and BTVS,
and other myths. 
Thanks: I can't believe I forgot this: THANKS TO CHERYL HILL!

The Spiral Cage
Gravity

Hold me now
I am six feet from the edge
And I am thinking,
Maybe six feet isn't so far down.
Creed - Last Breath.

Rupert Giles felt dirty. The last time he felt this dirty was during the
Chaplehill problem. And it was more than sexually servicing his quote
unquote master. He was a Feral vampire, sex came naturally. Even same sex
relationships were normal for a Feral vampire. No, he felt dirty because of
his never-ending mission. Things were getting out of hand. 

It was just like it was in London in 1888. Both the counsel and Lothos had
thought he was responsible for all those poor girls' deaths. That's how he
got his nickname, Ripper. But he had been innocent of those women's deaths.
In fact, he seldom ever killed. And never working class women; Ok, he'd bit
his share in his 500 years, fucked even more, but he never killed them. 

He had once been a good guy, a watcher, white hat, and a human male. His
father before him and his father before him were all watchers. He had
transformed into a feral vampire by choice to aid the counsel. Lothos was so
close to making his Piadmon vampire slayer. Closer then he really knew, but
he was going to mess it all up with his need to over control and turn
everything he touched evil. The Piadmon slayer was a force for good, not
evil. That was the thing Lothos still didn't understand.

Giles shook off his feeling of doubt and melancholy and entered his
contact's house. Walking up the stairs he called out his contacts name,
"Lester?" He could feel something wrong. 

"Can I help you?" Asked a redhead from on top of the stairs leading to
Lester's apartment. A blond woman that had the air of a cop and a man in a
worn suit and blue eyes stood behind her.

"Is there something wrong, I am here to see a friend, Dr. Lester Smith."
Giles replied studying the people at the door. 

"Do you have any ID?" The blue eyed man in a wrinkled suit, asked walking
down the stairs to meet him. Giles opened his pocket and took out his
California driver's license. He then carefully handed it over to the red
haired woman, who had followed the man down the stairs. 

"Rupert Giles?" Mulder asked after taking the license from Dana and writing
down Giles name and address from the ID.

"Yes, that is my name." Giles said in his best British accent. He was
actually surprised by there presence in the apartment. He had sensed danger
but not humans. 

"And you knew Lester Smith?" Mulder asked carefully.

"Yes, he is an old friend." Giles asked quietly.

"How 'old'?" Liam suddenly asked from the doorframe of the upstairs
apartment, startling the feral vampire, even more then the humans. Giles
responded with a low growl. Knowing he was found out, Giles then took off
his glasses and cleaned them slowly refusing to run from the scene.

"Lester was human, I have known him maybe 20 years. I enjoyed his company, I
took several of his classes at UCLA over the decades, I believe you have
been known to take a few classes as well, Liam O'Connor," Giles used his
whole name as a sign of power, "Eternity does have it's problems. Finding
things to stay busy with has always been my biggest problem."

"So you don't know who killed him?" Liam asked letting his game face shift
on, and ending the question with a low growl of his own. Liam and Giles were
now in a vampire tug-of-war for dominance. 

"You're scaring the nice humans." Giles replied still cleaning his glasses,
still in human form. 

"No, he's not." Kate said amused in the doorway, but she had her hand on her
gun. 

"Actually I didn't know he was dead until just now. Poor Lester, he was a
kind man." Giles said quietly. He had honestly liked Lester, and thought of
him as almost a friend.

"Please come inside, I have a few more questions for you." Dana said as she
moved out of the door. In a few seconds they were all in Lester's living
room. The forensics team had long ago left the apartment. 

"What kind of vampire are you?" Dana asked taking out her note pad, and
smiling at the older man.

"Type? I don't know what you mean?" Giles said slowly, trying to buy time. 

"Feral, turned, not born. He is Lothos' number one aide." Liam growled out
still in game face, and growling slowing every few minutes.

"Apparently, I am feral." Giles said rather amused by Liam's protective
display. He wondered if the humans understood the performance was for them.
Liam was clearly protecting the humans in the room. Giles had never known
Liam, or Angel as he was called 'in the life', but he knew the man had been
a champion of humans for most of his unlife. 

"You work for Lothos?" Dana asked putting down her pad.

"Yes, Dana Scully, step mother to Elizabeth Summers, youngest of Lothos'
pride." Giles said still smiling an evil smile, with a human face. "I
believe you are Kate Lockley of LAPD. And a remarkable demon hunter as well.
The male I don't know, but you, Angel, I know all about Angelus." Giles let
his eyes slip to their feral cat-like appearance just for a second as he
looked at the group and then he returned to his mild mannered human
appearance. 

"And saying a name gives you power over a person. That's a very old gypsy
custom, and I am willing to bet you've never been a gypsy." Liam said still
in full game face.

"All right, why don't we stick to the present, someone killed Lester or you,
the police, would not be here. I didn't know Lester had died, actually I am
very upset about it." Giles said changing his body language to humble
servant, a role he played well for Lothos. 


"When was the last time you saw Lester?" Mulder asked as the team began to
question their only witness.

&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&

After Giles left, Liam shifted back to his human face, and looked over at
Kate, "I am sorry about the game face, but I had to keep the face up.
Vampire hierarchy. I am really sorry. Kate, I never want to... I am just
sorry, OK." 

"Look, Angel, I am never going to be your friend, but I get the need to work
with you. Just like I get you were all fang-faced to keep that asshole on
edge. So don't sugar-coat it. I won't break." Kate said before walking over
to Dana to compare notes for a second. Dana and Mulder both smiled at Liam
as Kate had walked over. 

&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&

Buffy rubbed her scent glands into Tara's shoulder. Much like a cat, Buffy
had scent glands on the side of her head invisible to all. Buffy purred one
more time before rolling off of Tara and getting up and moving to her
homework waiting for her on the kitchen table.

"OK, that was really really weird." Dawn stated as she looked at her sister
returning to the other room.

"She is kind of possessive right now, just don't tease her about it." Tara
said quietly from her bean bag chair in the middle of the living room. 

"But you can both sleep with other people? Or can just Buffy sleep with
other people?" Willow asked from her own bean bag chair next to Tara's.
Willow was having a small crisis of faith, only Willow was too young to
really understand all that a crisis of faith entailed. 

"Honey, Willow wants to know if I can sleep with her?" Tara said with a
laugh, making Willow blush, from head to toe.

"Only if I sleep with her first." Buffy answered as she worked on her
history paper in the kitchen. Willow was beet-red and embarrassed. Her
reaction was to run out of the room and up to her bedroom, vibrating every
picture in the house with magic laced anger before she finally just slammed
her bedroom door. 

"Ok, so maybe we shouldn't have teased her?" Buffy said from the foot of the
stairs looking up at the now empty staircase. 

"I screwed up, I'll go talk to her." Tara said before she kissed Buffy on
the lips at the foot of the stairs. As she started up the stairs Buffy said
just loud enough for Tara to hear, "Tara, you can sleep with her if you
really want. Just don't hurt her." Tara just smiled at Buffy and continued
up the stairs.

Tara knocked on the door and waited. After a few minutes she knocked again
and said, "Willow, please we need to talk."

"Go away!" Willow said between tears.

"Fine, I'll do this the hard way." Tara said as the door flew open, Willow
could see the magic and wind circle around the room before things went
still.

"You couldn't just walk in, the door wasn't locked?" Willow asked from her
fetal position on the bed. 

"'Evil witch' remember." Tara said as she walked into the room and sat down
on the bed next to Willow. With a wave of her hand the door shut and then
locked.

"Well if you put it that way, go away." Willow said sitting up on the bed,
and wiping the tears away. 

"We need to talk, or at least I need to apologies. I didn't mean anything by
what I said. It was just a joke, ok at your expense. But it was only a
joke." Tara replied quietly while her hand gently rubbed Willow's arm. 

"You're both so sexual all the time, who could tell, right?" Willow said
rudely.

"It's a difficult period for all of us. For Beth and I, yes it's all about
sex and danger. Mating this way is very dangerous. And Beth is not always in
control. The answer to your question is both yes and no." Tara said
carefully, "I can have sex with other people as long as Beth isn't
threatened by them. I can't have sex with a rival, or someone would have to
die. It's deathly serious. Mating is a kind of control, like marriage, but
it's not like human marriage. And while Beth and I may have been joking,
Beth would allow me to have sex with you if you wanted. You're her
stepsister, not her sister. And she cares for you. In her own way she loves
you. But as a stepsister, you are not a blood relation. Is that what you
wanted to know?" Tara said frankly.

Willow was shocked and yet a part of her liked the idea more than she was
willing to admit. "That's insane!" Willow said scooting off the bed and
ending up in the floor. 

"In human terms maybe, I haven't dealt in human terms in a lot of years."
Tara said quietly on Willow's bed. She was sitting on the edge of the bed
and was waiting so patiently she was almost meditating. 

"So you're like her slut, you sleep with whoever she tells you to?" Willow
asked more shocked by her own words than anything Tara had said. Willow
scooted across the floor to the far wall, trying to get away and hide.

"Yes and no, I am to keep her entertained sexually for the next two years.
That involves sleeping with who she wants me to sleep with. And no, I have
limits. Sleeping with you would not be one of those limits, I find you very
beautiful, and I enjoy our witchcraft. Doing spells with you is very erotic.
I thought you felt the same way, was I wrong?" Tara asked very patiently
again, waiting for Willow to get her own feelings under control. Tara
already knew where this conversation was leading. 

"So you enjoy all of this, you're really a slut?" Willow asked pushing
herself up against the wall and letting her eyes flash purple in purple.
Something they were doing all the time now. 

"I guess I am a slut, you seem to have decided that all for yourself. In
human terms, I guess I would be a slut." Tara said pushing herself back on
Willow's bed and slowly unbuttoning her shirt. 

"What are you doing?" Willow asked alarmed, as her eyes became human.

"Getting undressed, isn't that what you wanted?" Tara asked as she finished
unbuttoning her shirt and letting it fall open. She pulled it slowly off
letting Willow watch her careful movements. Tara was very good at doing
shows. It was something years of playing in the blood clubs had taught her. 

"Why are you doing this?" Willow asked weakly. She couldn't turn her head
away from Tara's beauty 

"Because I am listening to you carefully, to what you're really saying."
Tara said pointing at her head with one hand as her bra joined her shirt on
the bed.

"And you like being a slut?" Willow asked standing up and moving over to the
bed to touch Tara's bra.

"Being a slut has it's own rewards, and you don't really think I am a slut,
do you?" Tara asked as she slowly removed her shoes and socks.

"Not really, Tara, do you really want to do this?" Willow asked shyly, she
could feel her own lust surfacing. Her crisis of faith was temporarily put
to the side in the blindness of pure sexual need. 

"Buffy said I could if I wanted to, She didn't tell me to do it." Tara said
with a smile before kissing Willow on the mouth. Willow was lost in the
kiss. All thought just stopped. Nothing existed except her new lover and
herself. 

&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&

"I can't believe that just happened?" Dawn asked from the living room still
looking up the stairs. With her slayer hearing she had heard much of Tara
and Willow's conversation. She could definitely do without the sex sounds
bouncing all over the house. 

"What just happened?" Buffy said with a smirk. Dawn studied her for several
more seconds.

"Mom and Dana are going to freak." Dawn said slowly still studying her
sister.

"Only if they find out, and they are not going to find out, are they?" Buffy
said with her feral eyes staring at her sister, fangs peeking out of her
mouth.

"Buffy, they will find out!" Dawn said looking back at her sister.

"Well then they will just have to find out about, "OH XANDER, HARDER OH
YEAH! COME ON XANDER!" Buffy said with an evil smile before she turned back
to her history paper in the kitchen. 

"So not fair! And... At least I like guys." Dawn said crossing her arms and
following her sister into the kitchen.

"Guys are so over rated. And, Dawn, you are using protection?" Buffy asked
as she added another point from her index cards into her paper. 

"I am the condom queen. Willow bought them for me." Dawn admitted sitting
down at the table. 

"Good, no glove, no love. Dawn, this thing with Willow and Tara; it's about
the magic. It had to happen sooner or later and well, I trust Tara, some
other witch, I might not trust. And just for the record, I like Xander
Harris, he is nice for a guy." Buffy said as her eyes switched to feral
again. 

"And what happens when you don't like someone I or Will goes out with?" Dawn
asked seriously. 

"Dawnie, I can honestly say, I hope that never happens. Right now, I could
kill them. I am still learning to control my emotions. You and Will, and Mom
and Dana. You are mine. Well, Tara's mine too, but differently. I need to
protect you all. Even from yourselves." Buffy said sadly, as her eyes and
ears became human.

"Buffy that's not good enough." Dawn said frankly.

"I know, and I am working on it." Buffy said getting up to get her jacket.
She needed to hunt. 





Carol Clarke

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