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Lionesses	By : thelibrarian2003 Category: AtS/BtVS Crossovers > Het - Male/Female > Angel(us)/Buffy > Angel(us)/Buffy Views: 1380 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own AtS or BtVS. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 1
- 2
There are some lengthy author's notes - read them now, read them later, or scroll past them - it's up to you.

Lionesses

The fifth story in �The Nature of the Beast� Cycle

'The Nature of the Beast' won Best Buffy/Angel series at the Shades of Grey awards, round 9.

Feedback: Pretty please. Send it to thelibrarian2003@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: Wish as I might, most of these characters aren�t mine. If they were, I�d look after them better. The ones you�ve never heard of? They�re mine. No money will ever be made from this fic.
Distribution: The Angel Texts at http://www.octavesoftheheart.com/angeltexts/ and Angel Elders. You want it? Really? Gosh. Just tell me where it�s going please.
Spoilers: BtVS season 2/3. Angel didn�t get his soul back in season 2. Do not get me started on who sired Spike � it�s exactly as it says in this story.
Rating: NC17 for sex, some of which is not entirely consensual, and for some violence. Some of the thinking is from a demonic point of view and it�s, well, demonic.
Content: B/A(us) Alternate past reality leading to an alternate future, which is where we began, in �The Nature of the Beast�.
Summary: In �To Kill A Cat�, �Tyger, Tyger� and �Cometh the Hour� there are passing references to Angelus and his family having a not entirely delightful stay in Egypt. A sort of holiday from Hell, in fact. I�ve been asked to make good on those allusions, so here�s the story. It�s back-story to the back-story. It might help you to read the others first, but it probably isn�t essential.

The story is told from several different points of view.

Author�s notes

~~~~~~ Passages that are recounted memories of times long past.

1 Because this series is changing the events of the past, and because the inertia of narrative history is trying to tie knots and carry on, you can expect to see artefacts, and events, and perhaps meet people, in unexpected times and places. The timeline is fractured. If you don�t like it, that�s fine. Just make it your turn to write something for the rest of us to read.

2 Acathla is the demon in �Becoming� who is capable of swallowing the world into Hell. Giles says that Angel�s blood is the key to reviving him, although Whistler tells Buffy that Angel should have been the one to stop him.

3 Memento mori � a warning, or reminder, of death (Latin for remember you must die).

4 The Ten Commandments � you can find these in Deuteronomy, Chapter 5.

5 Cairo � from al-Qahir (the planet Mars), so named because that was the planet in the ascendant when work first began on the city in 969 AD. Cairo was largely built from the stones of the Pyramids of Giza, which is why the pyramids have virtually none of their original limestone casing left. The city was founded by the Fatimids in 969. The Mameluks ruled Egypt from 1240. The first Ottoman sultan began his reign in 1517.

Abd al-Rahman Katkhuda did indeed embark on a whole series of ambitious building projects in the middle of the eighteenth century, including palaces, mosques and other public works. His buildings are in a hybrid style that mixes Mameluk and Ottoman elements with a highly ornate overall expression.

The Lion Courtyard is borrowed from that Moorish masterpiece, the Alhambra in Granada, Spain.

6 Ancient Egyptian beliefs

Egyptian mythology is very complex, and there is a reason for this. The Ancient Egyptians were a mixture of different waves of tribal settlers, and different races. In each different locality, the early inhabitants accepted the beliefs of each new group of settlers and fused them with their own. They also clung tenaciously to the primitive tribal beliefs of their remote ancestors, and never abandoned an archaic belief even when they acquired ideas that seemed newer and more enlightened. They even showed a tendency to increase the number of their gods and goddesses by separately symbolising their attributes. The result is a bewildering number of gods and a confused mass of beliefs, some rather local in area, many of which are obscure and contradictory. Each provincial centre had its own distinctive theological system, so there was no orthodox creed, no homogeneous religion. One of the beliefs referred to in this story, the one about the soul reanimating the dead frame, was recounted by Egyptian priests to Herodotus, a visiting Greek historian born in 484 BC. It�s all fascinating stuff.

Sekhmet
An Egyptian goddess. Among her titles were �Lady of the Place of the Beginning of Time�, and �Goddess of Vengeance�. She is often depicted as a lioness, or with a lioness� head. The legend tells that when Re grew angry at the whining and complaints of humankind, he ripped out one of his eyes and hurled it at the earth; this eye changed in flight to an avenging goddess, Sekhmet, who ravaged the earth, sucking blood from the peoples, and almost totally wiping out humankind before a remorseful Re could stop her.

She was the consort of Ptah, the god of Memphis.

Ptah
The local god of Memphis from the earliest dynastic times (c. 3100 BC), patron of artisans, and identified with the Greek god Hephaestos. His consort was the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet. He was thought to have fashioned the bodies in which the souls of men dwelt in the afterlife. Ptah gave life to the other gods by means of his heart and his tongue, although his essence was considered to be in his teeth and lips. Some statuettes of Ptah resemble the �wonder smith� of some of the Alpine cultures distributed along mountain ranges from the Hindu Kush to Britain. Ptah was believed to have first appeared from a cosmic egg.

Sokar
One of the oldest deities, a god of the dead, identified in Memphis as Ptah-Sokar.

Seth
Egyptians had a deeply held notion of duality. One duality is light and dark, represented by Osiris (light) and Seth (dark). This wasn�t quite the same as good and evil. Seth was a power, requiring respect and placation. His instruments were thunder, storms, whirlwinds and hail. He could take on a number of animal forms, one of which was the dog.

Book of the Dead
Funerary texts placed with mummies; collections of spells intended to ease the transition of the dead person into the afterlife. A different translation is �The Book of Coming Forth By Day�. The Pyramid Texts are texts engraved on the passage walls of Fifth and Sixth Dynasty pyramids at Saqqara; the Coffin texts are funerary texts engraved on sarcophagi; both are concerned with securing entry into the afterlife for the deceased.

7 Smilodon � the sabre-toothed cat. Smilodon lived in North America until around 11,000 years ago. Its sabres, the grossly enlarged canine teeth, were 7 inches long and serrated like a steak knife, and it weighed up to 440 pounds. Palaeontologists seem not to have quite decided how it hunted the large ice age fauna, with their thick layers of fat � whether it used the sabres to tear open the soft under belly of the prey, to hold the windpipe closed and choke it to death or, indeed, whether it lived off carrion. The fangs certainly couldn�t be used as a large cat uses its teeth now � they were far too brittle and would have snapped on contact with large bones, for example.

You and I have seen teeth of that ilk before, though. I think we can go along with those few palaeontologists who clearly watch the same TV shows that we do, and who have sensibly concluded that the sabres were used to penetrate to the deep blood vessels, and slash them so that the prey bled to death. And perhaps they drank all that blood, too�

8 Gebel el-Arak knife �this artefact is in the Louvre. It is an ivory-handled flint knife, thought to have belonged to a Pharaoh of Upper Egypt around 3,500 BC. One side of the haft is carved with scenes of battle, and boats, some of which may be Mesopotamian. The other side has a figure called The Master of Animals, holding two lions on their hind legs, above a pair of dogs guarding something thought to be the cosmic egg.

9 Simon Magus � a sorcerer named in the Bible. See Acts of the Apostles, chapter 8 verses 9-24.
LIONESSES

Have you ever got ready to go on holiday? Of course you have. All that packing and providing for your dependents � watering the plants, taking the pets to the kennels or to the neighbours, or if that is inconvenient, dealing with them in some other more permanent way, making sure that you�ve secured all your valuables, and making sure your friends and acquaintances will remember you while you�re gone? You think you know about the difficulty of all those arrangements, right?

Wrong. You have no idea what it�s like to be about to take a holiday, a long holiday, with a vampire family to dispose of and an apocalypse to organise for when you come back. To have a Slayer to remind of your presence. You�ve no idea how much energy it all takes.

That�s what I�m doing now.

I�ve been back for a few months, and now I know exactly how everybody is going to pay for the century that I�ve spent in solitary confinement, in a sort of sensory deprivation; seeing, hearing, smelling and touching but unable to *do*. Sensing everything second hand, everything filtered through nauseating feelings of guilt, and remorse, of worthlessness and shame. Existing in misery and despair. In impotent rage, rage such as you have never seen before�No! I�m not going to start talking about that. I just want to forget the last century, forget the soul that has tormented me, kept me �cribbed, cabined and confined� in a way that you humans cannot begin to comprehend. I will have my vengeance.

Everyone on this miserable planet will feel the weight of my anger, believe me, but there are some for whom it will be worse than others.

The Rom. I�ll take all of them, the entire people. But the Kalderash are in star position. Every last man, woman and child of that monstrous clan will understand that the anguish and eventual demise of the human race is the responsibility of the Kalderash. That the disappearance of this planet from this dimension is a direct consequence of their childish attempts at revenge for the loss of a single daughter. I wonder if they will think that the stupid girl was worth the price they are about to pay? The Rom themselves will be my special playthings, in the Hell of my choosing, forever. Have you any idea how long eternity will be? How hopeless? How much agony I can inflict? You will soon, I promise. Word of a demon. The Rom will know it even better.

Buffy. She�s right up there, too. She made me lo�she made this body love her. Demons cannot love. Not ever. She made Soul Boy love her, and the after effects are here, in this body. The memories, the feelings, the chemicals of emotional addiction. This body, this flesh that is my earthly home, is polluted and corrupted. I have scrubbed myself under the shower until the skin bleeds, but I cannot remove the memory of her touch. How can I scrub away what is inside me, if I ct put purify the outside? Every moment is another torment, with these nauseating sounds and scents and sights in my mind, the memory of her skin on mine, the very taste of her. It is unbearable.

If I can�t cleanse this flesh, then I shall have to deal with the corruption in some other way.

Acathla.

I knew about Acathla, of course, but not until the idiots at the museum got hold of him did I know where to find him. He�ll do. There are lots of ways I can get this planet and its puling population removed into a Hell dimension, and to be honest I don�t much care which one. Just so long as I can have my vengeance. When that is over, I can be rid of this flesh once and for all, because living in it is most certainly Hell to me.

Acathla is in my Great Hall now, waiting for me to release him from the stone that imprisons him, to withdraw the sword that cages his power. Spike seems resentful, but Drusilla and I will deal with him. But for now, Dru has asked for a last holiday, a visit to some of the places we all knew together. A last request, I suppose. It�s inconvenient, but perhaps it will be a good thing to remind us all that there is nothing here for us. We are demons. We should be in a demon dimension. I�ll keep enough of you alive to provide us with food. You won�t need much in the way of comforts.

The preparations are almost complete. I�ve spent some of the time since I�ve been back leaving small gifts for the Slayer � slaughtered birds, dead roses, you know the sort of thing. I particularly liked the effect of the drawings I left on her pillow, the promise I sent her that I should come for her soon, and the necklace I made of Witchy Willow�s fish. The very special gift I left in the Watcher�s bed. None of them knows the other things I�ve done, the things that kept them safe, kept them undamaged until I am ready for them. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is going to hurt this little band of do-gooders. Nothing except me. I shall guard them until the time is right, and then I shall do with them exactly as I please, for as long as I please. So, I�ve seen off the other dangers and just let them have one memento mori after another. All of them, mine. None of them feels safe, now. Good. They won�t forget me while I�m gone.

The minions have spent the night carrying everything into the cellars for safe storage. Not that anyone with any common sense would break into a house with the reputation this one has. But, if common sense were so common, there would be more of it about, don�t you think?

Drusilla, Spike and I are packed. I�m taking the three most sensible minions as our servants, and the rest I�ll stake when they�ve finished all the heavy lifting. Well, you didn�t think I was going to do all the menial stuff myself, did you? We�ll start with San Francisco, and work our way on from there. Istanbul, Prague, Budapest, London, Vienna, Paris, Rome� It will take us some months, but time doesn�t matter to us.

Right now, I�m sitting in the tree outside the Slayer�s window, watching her as she undresses. She�s like a cat, a golden, tawny cat. Sometimes I think of her as a cheetah, when she�s sprinting after her prey. Sometimes I think of her as a leopard, prowling in the dark. Just now? She�s like a lioness, pacing in pent-up anger. If you want a real killer, don�t look to the male of a pride. Look to the lionesses. I think she must have found the body I left as a gift for her. There�s simply no gratitude nowadays, is there?

She�s beauti� she�s an impressive enemy, even I have to admit. No match for me, of course, but then who would be? I love to watch her in a rage like this. Her hair, the finest sun-spun silk, tossed in the wind of her fury, her body simply begging for fingers as knowing as mine to bring it to raptures of pain and pleasure, her skin soft and yielding, belying the iron strength that lies beneath it. My lioness.

No!

This body, these memories, give me no peace! I feel unclean, violated, possessed � I must go back and take another shower. Perhaps if I scrub a bit harder, I can at least get rid of the smell of her�

****************

It was all my fault, of course. Well, it bloody well would be, wouldn�t it? He always blames me for everything that goes wrong. But in this case, it really was. Angelus had sent me to the docks in Istanbul to sort out our transport to�where was it now? Ah, yes. Athens. I got distracted, though. There was this really tasty-looking youth � you have no idea how tempting some of these young Turks are � and it all took longer than I expected. So I was in a bit of a rush. And I don�t speak Turkish all that well. So we finished up not going to Athens. Angelus was very displeased. I didn�t know why at the time. I do now.

It was Drusilla�s idea, but of course she�s far from rational. Not stupid, you understand, but she�s just not in control of her faculties. When she wants to, though, she can twist both me and our Sire around her little finger. That�s what she did. He was going on about freeing Acathla. I mean, can you imagine anything more stupid or suicidal? As if any of the demon dimensions would offer a warm welcome to a family of vampires, even if we did come bearing the Earth as a trophy? Well, come to think of it, it might be a very warm welcome; a bit too hot for comfort. We would be their *toys* for all eternity. To a pure bred demon, we are half-breeds, the lowest of the low, fit only to be their slaves. I�ll pass on that, thanks. It�s been bad enough since he�s been back � he�s madder than Dru, now, after all that time imprisoned by the soul. In fact, I think I preferred the souled version, nauseating as it was. Until he came clutching the Harris whelp, pretending to be a real vampire again, I�d no idea what had happened to him after Romania18981898. I was sure he wasn�t dead � I�d have known � but Darla would never tell me. I think Dru had some idea, though.

Anyway, I�m rambling a bit. Where was I? Angelus said he wanted to have the Earth and all its occupants sucked into Acathla�s Hell. I was trying to find a way to stop him � I�ll try to kill him if I have to, although I�m not likely to succeed because he�s older, bigger and stronger � and then Dru got that crafty look on her face that she does when she�s planning how to get us to do what she wants. She asked him for a last holiday. Revisit all the places of her youth, sort of thing. And I�ll be damned if he didn�t agree.

So, we�ve eaten our way through the capitals of Europe. None of us have been particularly tidy in our habits, not even Angelus, who would normally have my hide if I left a fang-marked corpse to be found by any passer-by. After all, if we�re going to drag humanity to Hell, what does it matter?

It matters to me. I�ve been watching for some sign of the old Angelus. The one who was hungry for everything this world had to offer. Whose appetite for pleasure was insatiable. Who said he only cared about his own satisfaction, but who took damn good care of the rest of us, whenever we needed it. Who loved life, unlife, whatever you want to call it. I began to see that Dru had the right plan. Keep him away from Acathla until he�s back in his right mind. If ever he�s back in his right mind. I wish vampires had a god to pray to. Or, better yet, a good psychiatrist.

The capitals aren�t what they used to be. Two world wars and the impoverishment of the aristocracy have largely done away with the glittering ballrooms, the soirees and the good old-fashioned decadence. Not that I mind personally � I could never stomach all that simpering crap, but Angelus enjoyed being lionized, almost more than anything else, and we could have done with a bit of that. Anything to bring him back to himself, to remind him of all the things that make our existence pleasurable.

Even so, I thought things were going reasonably well � at least, he wasn�t in any great rush to get back to Sunnyhell � until we visited Istanbul. Then I screwed up big time.

He�d got wind of a cruise ship, full of rich old bats. We could �replenish our resources� he said. �Feed well and steal a lot of money� was what he meant. I�m OK with that, of course, but he likes to put a bit of a gloss on things. The minions were sent to check out the ship and to sneak onto it with all our baggage. I was sent to take out a couple of its passengers so we could have their tickets and their cabin. As it happens, it would have been better if the minions had done all of it. I got us a cabin all right. On the wrong ship. Well, it *looked* the same. And I�ve told you I don�t speak Turkish all that well. Next stop for the one we got onto was Port Said, in the one country he had flatly refused to visit. Egypt.

Everything might still have been alright, but Dru got hungry. All the old buffers got off the boat for the two hour coach trip to Cairo and the Pyramids, and even in our current devil-may-care attitude to corpses, Angelus was not inclined to take members of the crew. Too much of a hue and cry when they went missing, he thinks. He said that he would go out and bring something in for us. He forbade us absolutely to leave the ship. But he was gone a long time, and Dru got hungry. So we did.

*************

Miss Edith told me that, if we did what she said, there would be crumpets for tea. I haven�t had crumpets in such a long time. Crumpets, with lots of butter and strawberry jam, bright and glistening and red. I like red.

She said we could all have crumpets for tea if we got off this boat, and everything would be right. If we didn�t, Daddy would make sure there were never crumpets again.

My Spike doesn�t want Daddy to do that. Miss Edith doesn�t, either. So, we have to get off the boat. Spikey will do anything I want; after all, I�m his dark goddess. So I�ll say I�m hungry, and I�ll whine about it, and keep thinking about those lovely crumpets and we can forget that nasty statue in the hall...

************

I�ve got a streetwalker here. She�ll do for Spike and Dru. I�ve already eaten; just a quick snack, and the body carefully hidden, the neck wounds disguised as a slashed throat. Enough blood left in the body so that suspicion isn�t aroused. Nothing to draw attention to us. Still, I feel as if I�m being followed. I�ve doubled back and I could see nothing. I�ve waited patiently in the shadows to see if someone is there, but I�ve found nothing. I wouldn�t be surprised, though. A vampire�s personal space extends for a very long way � much further tthe the pathetic bubble of sensibility that you humans have. And I can feel that I�m being watched. I know it. Damn! This is the last place in the world I wanted to come to. So long as we stay on the ship, now, we�ll be fine. Only an overnight layover, but while we are here, I might try to find one that leaves earlier, and is berthed nearby. I don�t care where it�s going to, as long as it�s away from Egypt. And soon. Especially if *he* already knows we are here.

But, when I get back to the cabin with the swooning streetwalker, it�s all taken much longer than it should have, and Spike and Dru are gone. Damn.

************

A hungry vampire can *always* find something to eat at the docks. We fed more neatly than we had in weeks � for some reason, we both knew that Angelus did not want us to draw attention to ourselves here, although he hadn�t explained why not. It would really help if he told us a bit more, you know � if he had, months of starvation wouldn�t have got us off the boat. Probably. But he�s never been into sharing, just issues orders like the alpha male he thinks he is. OK, the alpha male he is.

We hadn�t gone very far � just far enough for a floater in the water not to be associated with our ship. The trouble started on our way back. We were almost there, making our way through a stack of cargo crates that had been offloaded for transport to Cairo, when a heavy net was thrown over the two of us. Whoever was handling the net knew their business. A few whacks over the head and it was goodnight Irene, sort of thing. When I came round, we were still together, Dru and I, but I was pretty damned sure we weren�t in Port Said anymore � I couldn�t smell the sea for one thing � and we were both chained up. Solidly. Shit.

*************

I could smell where they had been, since the trail was so fresh, and I soon found the body they had left behind. They had taken a slightly different route back. I found signs of a scuffle, and more individual scents. Vampires. They�re *his*. Shit.

I could leave them. I�m almost sure he won�t kill them. But they are mine. My property; my possessions. Not my responsibility � that�s a human thing � but they are mine, and I�m not going to let someone else have what�s mine. I haven�t seen him in over two hundred years, but I don�t suppose he�s changed. He didn�t need to hunt me down. He knows I�ll come for them. I know where he is. Cairo.

*************
We haven�t met, I believe? I�m Aurelius, head of Clan Aurelius. And you?

Thank you.

So pleased to meet you.

You want to know about current events? Egypt is my personal territory, all of it. It has been since I was born. So far as humans are concerned, I like to keep an ordinary, low profile, and that practice has helped me to survive for a very long time. I have no objection to other vampires making a spectacle of themselves, the one you know as the Master, for instance. He was called Nest, and was the childe of a very favoured daughter of mine. Someone I loved, in fact. Oh, not as much as I loved P� No! I�m not ready to talk to you about her. Let us just say that I had lost my soul mate and Isabella had lost hers. We gave each other comfort, as best we could. And, as best we could, we loved each other.

So, I was disposed to look kindly on Nest. Once, during a period of, well, let�s just say whilst the balance of my mind was disturbed, I allowed him to join the clan councils, thinking that it would be wise to allow the eldest surviving childe to replace those of my own who fell in this battle for survival called life. Unlife. That gave him big ideas. He liked to pretend he was more important than he actually was, but he was a fool. And he was not even strong enough to stop the demon from permanently etching itself onto his features. Idiot.

I do not allow other vampires into my personal territory uninvited. My family and minions here keep watch. Not much comes through the deserts, and most intrusions are along the Nile. We keep a very close eye on places like Port Said. We knew as soon as these two came ashore. And *him*. They are family, of course, although I have never met my two guests before. But I know who they are. William tloodloody and the Mad Drusilla. Their Sire should have brought them to a clan gathering before now, but he hasn�t. He never visits, not after the last time. He hated me for what happened then, but it was necessary. He will understand that in time. He knows where to find his whelps. I don�t need to have him brought. He�ll come.

And there is an gan gathering for him to come to. I hadn�t intended our next meeting to be at a clan gathering. To be so�public. This will be�interesting.

************

We�ve been here maybe twenty-four hours now. Wherever here is. It�s a large house, more of a mansion, really, and there are a lot of vampires. They all smell like family, which is really weird. And they all seem to be drinking bagged or bottled blood. That�s even weirder. Are we in some sort of temperance society?

We�ve been given blood, and made comfortable, but otherwise we�ve just been ignored. Now we are being taken from the small room where we were to a large hall. There are about a dozen burly vamps surrounding us, so there�s no point in making a fight of it. And I don�t think Dru would fight. She seems�content. Content to be here; pleased, even. I don�t know what maggot has got into her head now, but if I make a break for it, I don�t think she�d come, even if I succeeded.

So now we are being chained in the large hall. We have enough slack to be able to sit, and lots of cushions to sit on, but the chains are solid. Apart from the minions, there are perhaps a dozen vamps in here, and the one that seems to be in charge is *old*. Take my word for it. Older than any vampire I ever came across. And yet he doesn�t look much older than Angelus. Looks a lot like him, in fact. I wonder if it�s a family resemblance? Who are these demons?

I hear a murmuring of conversation at what must be the door � I can feel the fresher air that has come in � and the sound of footsteps. I�d know that tread anywhere. He�s come. Angelus.

Most men need to occupy a lot of space, to make themselves look big, like a tomcat fluffing out its tail, a dog raising its hackles. Angelus has never needed that. He can dominate an entire room simply by standing still. It�s as if the space simply shapes itself around him. When he had the soul, he tried not to do that. He deliberately sank back into shadows, tried to make himself inconspicuous. It only made him look as if he were hunting. It didn�t diminish his air of dominance one little bit. He never understood that. He�s dominating the room now, just by being in it. Him and this old vampire both. They have a lot in common. Me? I just fluff out my tail. But not here.

He�s got an air of insouciance about him. He always has, mind you, but it�s more so, now. He�s putting on a front, and a damned good one, too. He stops in front of the old vampire, and I can see them both weigh each other up. The older one speaks first.

�Angelus.�

It�s Angelus� reply that stuns me for a moment.

�Aurelius.�

Aurelius? I thought he wong ong dead. Angelus has never, ever spoken of him. But if he�s head of our clan, why are we chained up?

And we won�t be the only ones. The same burly minions who brought us into this room have lined up behind Angelus. Who, would you believe, is casually twirling a highly perfumed rose of deepest, darkest red.

�I seem to remember that this was growing in your outer courtyard when I came with Darla. She liked it. Does it have a name?�

�None that I am aware of, and yes, it is the same rose. It does well there.�

�Perhaps you should name it for me. It is clearly persistent, and�hm.�

He stops to examine his thumb. A thorn has ked ked him, leaving a small bead of blood as dark as the rose.

�Persistent,� he repeats, �And capable of becoming a thorn in the flesh.�

You really have to hand it to him. He�s got the biggest balls in the world. He�s here with his great great grandsire, and a pack of the most ancient vamps on earth, and he�s *issuing threats*! In the most elegant way.

Aurelius speaks again. His smile is all the more deadly for simply being a normal smile.

�Nothing worthwhile ever came without a sting, and I only permit thorns where I want them. You will realise the necessity of what I am about to do, of course. There is much for which you must answer to me and to the clan. It just so happens that we have a gathering. The hearing will take place tomorrow afternoon.�

He nods to his minions, and Angelus is chained on the other side of the hall from us. He simply accepts it, and doesn�t struggle. Probably figures it wouldn�t do any good if he did. I think he�s right. But before they�d laid a hand on him, bugger me if he didn�t hand the rose to Aurelius, calm as you like. A thorn has pricked Aurelius� finger. I can smell the blood from here. He�s still smiling, though.

**************

A clan gathering. Why did it have to be a clan gathering? Isn�t it bad enough having to come and ask *him* to release Spike and Dru? I recognise most of the clan masters here. They were here last time. There were more of them then, though. It would probably have been all right, with just him and his immediate family. Well, better, anyway.

But the clan masters? They�ll want me to answer for Soul Boy�s actions. Oh, *he* would have, too, but he might have exacted a more reasonable price. Now it�s clan business, and who knows what might happen. But Spike and Dru are MINE, and I�m not one to walk away from what is mine.

Dru has a strange look on her face, almost like the one she gets when she has a premonition. And yet she looks peaceful. Untroubled. Perhaps we�ll get out of here alive.

Spike is looking to me for instructions. Just stay there, boy, and don�t make this any worse than it�s already going to be.

***************

Continued in chapter 2
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Lionesses