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Life is Change	By : trudyw000 Category: BtVS Crossovers > Misc - Slash - Male/Male Views: 9166 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Sentinel, I make no money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 22
- 23
- 24
Author's Note : Thank you to jujukitty for the review for last chapter, it was greatly appreciated. Sorry about the cliffhanger, when I saw the opportunity for it I asked my son, as a creative writing student, if I should go for the cliffhanger or carry on, his advice was to go for it so you'll have to blame him I'm afraid. So here it is, a little quicker than recent chapters, I'm hoping I've got a bit of a routine going, so far I'm managing about 1000 to 1500 words each weekend. Please read, enjoy and REVIEW!
Chapter 23
As the three men stood or knelt around the body of their dying friend, shocked at the abrupt turn events had taken, suddenly a heavy smell of sun-warmed fur filled the room, the harsh sounds of the breathing of four dangerously angry predators assailed their ears. The spirit animals were there and deeply distressed.
Jim watched silently as his panther moved to stand beside him and then leaned in to touch its forehead briefly to Blair's before moving to stand beside Spike. Blair's wolf was next, touching its forehead to Blair's briefly and giving Blair's jaw a gentle swipe with its tongue, carefully avoiding the deep wound and the smeared blood before moving to flank Spike on his other side. Trevor, Spike's white tiger and Lexi, Xander's hyena followed, each mimicking the actions of the panther before moving to sit behind Spike, one at his left shoulder, the other at his right. Now Spike was surrounded by the four spirit animals as they all stared deep into Jim's eyes.
Jim studied each of the animals, making eye contact with each in turn, finally he nodded acceptance of their message. As soon as he did so the animals sprang to their feet and bounding over Blair's prone form they were off out of the door and in hot pursuit of the woman who had done this.
Then Jim was pushing Blair's dying body into Spike's arms, "turn him!" he demanded fiercely.
"Jim no!" Spike was in shock, it was the last thing that he had expected, there was no time to explain why this was a bad idea. Either he could explain and Blair would die and Jim would hate him, or he could comply but Blair would be different, soulless and Jim would still hate him. It was a no-win situation and he looked to Xander for help but Jim hadn't finished speaking.
"Turn him!" he demanded again, "if it's the wrong decision I'll do what's necessary to fix it but there's not time now, turn him!" And with a reluctant nod Spike pushed the helmet from his head and reached for the zipper on the hood.
Seeing this Jim relinquished Blair into Spike's arms and stood to speak to Xander. "Xander, you said that your friend was able to give that other vampire, Angel, back his soul, call her, see if she can get here and do the same for Blair."
"I'll try" was Xander's only reply and he pulled out his phone and quickly selected Willow's number, however instead of hearing the sound of the ringing phone the call went straight to voice-mail. He closed the connection with an unnecessarily harsh jab to his phone, irrationally angered at the inappropriate chirpyness of Willow's greeting in this time and place. Selecting another number he tried the Magic Box but received an engaged tone there as well.
By now Spike had managed to remove his hood and one gauntlet, Xander could see that he was uncomfortably close to the sunlight but there was no time to move Blair further into the room, Spike was keeping his exposed head and hand within the shade of the door which hung crazily from its hinges whilst Blair lay mostly in the bright sunlight. As he watched Spike raised his head from Blair's ruined throat, his lips ringed with red where he had lapped up a token amount of the blood still flowing sluggishly from the wound. Now Spike nipped at his own wrist, opening a vein and pressing it to Blair's lips. Xander watched anxiously, holding his breath as Blair made no effort to swallow the thick liquid that was running into his mouth and spilling down his chin.
Then he heard a gasp from beside him as the tattered remnants of Blair's throat convulsed and the dying man began to drink. Dragging his eyes from the sight he saw Jim staring fixedly at his partner. Stepping forward he interposed himself into Jim's line of sight breaking the connection. As Jim's eyes dropped Xander carefully turned him, moving them both away from the little scene behind the door, over to the window where they looked out across the parking lot. Something glinted in the sunlight on the tarmac outside the room, drawing his Sentinel vision. He focussed in and realised that it was the bloody shard that the woman had used to rip out Blair's throat. At the reminder he started for the door but Jim stopped him, "She won't get far, not with those four on her tail."
Xander nodded acceptance and moved back to stand at Jim's shoulder, to offer all the support that he could.
"Talk to me Xander, distract me" the muttered words were so low Xander barely heard them but he understood, he felt it too, Blair wasn't his Guide but he was still a Guide, and Xander was a Sentinel and the protective instincts were incredibly strong. Just five feet from where they stood Jim's Guide was dying and instead of trying to save him they were just standing there, letting Spike do whatever he wanted. The conflict must be ripping Jim apart, the primal Sentinel was a feral beast, unconcerned about the subtleties of any situation, what Spike was doing must be registering as an attack so he started to talk, at least that was one thing he had no trouble doing.
"I rang Willow, it went straight to voice-mail, the Magic Box line was tied up too, I'll try again later. Don't worry, I'll get hold of her, but she may not be able to help, there was all kinds of stuff she needed last time, and even if it does work, it's a curse, there's a get out clause but she's been working on that. Willow's really smart, she'll find a way to get around that clause eventually, especially if there are two vampires waiting for her to fix it, she works well under pressure so it'll be an added incentive."
The stream of consciousness stopped as Jim's hand suddenly gripped his shoulder, the fingers digging painfully into the muscle as they tightened. Looking up at Jim Xander realised the man had all his attention focussed on his hearing, but it wasn't Xander's babble that he was listening too. Focussing on his own hearing Xander understood what had caused the reaction and braced himself to endure the painful grip, the only solidarity he could offer. Behind them there was silence, the slow, struggling heartbeat that had been a backdrop to his words had stopped, Blair was dead.
Knowing that nothing he said could penetrate the fog of grief enshrouding his fellow Sentinel's mind Xander kept quiet, turning slightly in the relentless grip to look back towards Spike. As he looked he realised that Spike was in trouble. Blair was still drinking but Spike was looking incredibly pale, even more so than normal, in fact he seemed almost translucent and growing even more so as Xander watched.
Of Course! realisation hit Xander, Spike hadn't had the boost a vampire normally got from draining a victim before making a childe, and he hadn't been feeding properly for a long time, it must take a lot out of him to create a new vampire. Watching he saw Spike's head bow down, sagging as if too heavy to hold up but then the vampire rallied, lifting his head again. Xander looked on in anguish, seeing the pain etched in every line of his lover's face, but still Spike stubbornly held his wrist to Blair's mouth. Wrenching free of Jim's grip Xander crossed the room in two strides, stepping over Blair to crouch in the sunlight beside Spike he pushed back his sleeve he thrust his own wrist into Spike's face, mashing his forearm against Spike's bared fangs.
The fact that Spike didn't object or even hesitate told Xander just how bad the situation was, but Spike simply bit into the exposed flesh and began to drink with long slow pulls. Xander was glad that he was already on his knees, if he hadn't been he would soon have fallen, the feeling was different from the few bites he had experienced from Spike so far. Those had been brief, Spike allowing himself a single swallow before withdrawing, now he pulled steadily and as Xander's blood hit Spike's system Blair's feeding also picked up at the increased supply of blood available.
Now Jim watched, drawn out of the internal pain of his partner's death by Xander pulling out of his grip he looked on in confusion as Xander fed Spike and the vampire acted as a conduit, channelling the life-giving fluid from Xander directly into Blair. As he watched though he saw the young Sentinel begin to droop, he waited, expecting Spike to stop, but Spike didn't stop. He was too deep in the blood hunger, the demon's needs had full reign, for now neither Spike nor demon was in control.
Seeing Spike continuing to feed Jim knew he had to intervene, crouching on Blair's other side he tried to pull Xander's arm from Spike's mouth but the vampire only snarled, fixing him with vicious yellow eyes and sucking harder. A small groan escaped Xander's lips and Jim redoubled his efforts, stepping across to hunker down between the two men and trying to force Xander's arm free, frantic now he tried to force his fingers into the side of Spike's mouth to pry open his jaws. As he worked to pull Spike from Xander his hand slipped and he gashed his finger on one of the wicked canines he'd exposed. As the trickle of blood from his wounded finger hit Spike's tongue the vampire hummed in appreciation, the tip of his tongue working its way around to lick up the small spill.
At that Jim knew what he had to do. Pulling his hands back he cast around him for something he could use. Immediately his gaze fell upon the mirror shards still littering the floor around them. Grabbing one up he stabbed the tip sharply into his forearm and as the blood began to well up he mashed the wound into Spike's face. The result was all he could have asked for as Spike pushed Xander's arm away and latched onto Jim's in its place. Jim wondered if he had done the right thing as he felt Spike begin to draw strongly upon the wound and the room began to spin as a light-headed feeling swept over him.
Then suddenly it was over, Blair was sated, his Sentinel's blood had done the trick and he fell into a death-like sleep from which he would awake to a new life as one of the undead. With the constant drain of Blair's feeding removed Spike quickly regained his senses and pushed Jim's arm away wearily. The horror of what he had done would follow later for now he just slumped where he was and watched his newest childe sleep, praying he'd done the right thing.
A noise from the street pulled Spike back to his senses and he shook off his fears and instead turned his attention to his two Sentinels, his at least until Blair regained consciousness and took Jim back from him.
As he looked at them, both barely conscious, leaning against each other as if that was the only way to remain even remotely upright, they knelt alongside him and he felt the horror at what could have happened begin to creep in. He remembered Jim fighting to break his grip on Xander's arm, and the glorious taste of Sentinel blood as Jim had forced his bleeding arm against Spike's mouth, drowning out the unparalleled perfection that was Xander's blood by sheer volume! It wasn't the same as Xander's blood but Sentinel blood was apparently a cut above the rest of the human population. Perhaps that was a thought he'd better keep to himself, and despite the gravity of the situation he felt his lips twitch in a small smile.
Deciding that they'd hung around far too long as it was Spike carefully slid his arms under Blair's body and heaved himself to his feet with the lifeless body of his childe clasped to his chest. Quickly he carried Blair to the nearest bed and laid him gently down on the covers which he then used to wrap Blair securely before hoisting him once more and carrying him out to the car. It was awkward trying to open the car door and manoeuvre Blair inside, especially in his weakened state but eventually he managed it and closing the door firmly he headed back inside to see to the Sentinels.
As he got back to the room he saw that Jim and Xander were beginning to revive somewhat, they had managed to pull themselves to their feet and were in the small kitchen area where they were each draining large glasses of water. Nodding his approval Spike called out, "when you've finished there get out to the car, I'm just going to grab our stuff and then I'll drive us all back to the loft, Blair's already in the car." Looking ruefully at the large blood stain on the carpet and the broken mirror, he added, "I don't think Giles is going to be getting his deposit back."
Xander followed his eye-line and choked off a short laugh, Jim however was looking at Spike, "Why is Blair in the car, I'll drive him back in the truck!" through the tiredness he sounded angry.
Spike looked up from where he had been pulling out their clothes and jamming them hastily into their bags, "Jim, you can barely stand upright, there's no way you're safe to drive in this state, help Xander out to the car, I'll be with you both as soon as I can, there's no way I want to have to come back to this place again." Even as he spoke Spike knew that the dismissive tone was not the right one to take with the big detective, but just now he was too bone-deep tired to care.
Jim looked like he wanted to argue, but as he lifted his hands from the counter-top and took a step towards Spike he almost fell, his legs barely able to support him. Xander was able to catch him although he wasn't in any better condition, it was touch and go for a while and the two of them nearly ended up back on the floor as Jim tried to fight off Xander's aid but Xander just muttered in his ear, "come on Jim, let's get you out to Blair yeah" and at that Jim's resistance crumpled and together the two weary men staggered past Spike and out to the car, unsteady but under their own steam for which Spike was eternally grateful. He seemed to have gotten away with carrying Blair out and man-handling him into the car, he was damn sure that he'd have someone calling the Bobbies down on his head if he was seen carrying three insensate bodies to the car.
As quickly as he could Spike finished packing up all their belongings and got them stowed in the boot. Lastly he cleared out the fridge, there at the back was their last remaining container of pigs blood. They would need to stock up and soon. Blair was going to be thirsty when he awoke.
The drive back to the loft was accomplished in silence and by the time they arrived Spike was feeling mostly restored to his normal self. Jim and Xander were still weak but they seemed stronger than they had when leaving the motel room and Spike was able to get them and Blair into the loft with a minimum of fuss.
Once inside he stood awkwardly just inside the door, he knew what needed to be done, but he also knew that Jim, although stronger was still too weak to do it and he wasn't going to like the suggestion that Spike should help.
Blair's wound had already healed and that was a good sign for his turning. But the blood that had flowed when the wound was first inflicted had pooled around him as he lay bleeding out on the floor of the motel room, now that blood was sticky, matted into his hair and soaked into his clothes. The layers of motel bedding had mostly protected the car seats, but as Spike held his precious bundle he could feel the blood beginning to seep through, if he put Blair down now the stains would be there forever to remind the loft's occupants of this dreadful day.
Gathering his courage he called out, "Jim, I need to get Blair cleaned up, and you and Xander have phone calls to make."
Jim looked up from his place, sprawled on the sofa when he realised that Spike hadn't laid his burden down. He knew at once what Spike meant and as expected he didn't like the idea. "No, I'll do it!" and he started to struggle back to his feet.
"Jim, I know you want to be the one to do this for him but at the moment you're still too weak, he's not going to know anything about it, please let me help you both."
"At least let me help," Jim pleaded.
"Jim, man, that bathroom is way too small for the three of you, let Spike do this, he's Blair's sire now, that's a special bond, like father and son but moreso, please?" Xander wanted to explain the sire bond, at least as much about it as he knew but he just didn't have the words, later when all this wasn't so raw they would all have to have a long conversation about it but for now he hoped Jim could understand what he was trying to say.
And it seemed he did, for a moment longer Jim stood with bowed head, one hand across his eyes, but then he pulled himself together, "alright, go, do what you need to do, I need to call Simon and tell him what's happened."
"Thank you Jim." Spike locked eyes with the older man before ending the silent interchange with a decisive nod. "Oh and Jim, whilst you've got the phone handy order some food for yourself and Xander, you both have a lot of blood to replace."
A little over an hour later, Jim and Xander were replete with pizza. Blair, clean and dressed in a pair of comfortable flannel pyjamas was laid out on one of the sofas, his head resting in Jim's lap as the big man gently carded the fingers of one hand through his lover's drying hair. Opposite them Xander sprawled on the other sofa, eyes drifting closed as his body worked on replenishing the blood Spike had taken.
That was when Spike remembered the call Xander needed to make "Did you get hold of Willow" he asked from his position on the floor, leaning against the sofa where Xander sat, Xander's knee intermittently bumping companionably against his shoulder. All thoughts of sleep fled as Xander sprang to his feet groping for his phone as he began to pace. Spike just smirked and catching Jim's eye he remarked, "I'll take that as a no shall I?"
A faint smile twitched at the edge of the Detectives lips in response, but he also sat more upright, hand stilled in amongst Blair's riotous curls as he concentrated on listening to Xander's side of the conversation.
This time Xander's call had been answered although the young man hadn't actually been able to get a word in yet. "Willow! Willow!" after several minutes Xander apparently got tired of listening to the tirade being poured into his ear and was finally able to break into the flow of mixed scoldings and promises of retribution for leaving them hanging for so long. "Willow, I'm sorry, things have been a bit busy around here." Xander paused again for Willow to talk but both Jim and Spike were trying not to listen in, trying to give Xander some privacy for which he was immensely grateful.
"Yes Willow it's me, Yes I'm fine, Yes Spike is fine, No we're not on our way home, in fact..." he puased, "look, let me put you on speaker, OK?" He listened for a few moments more before pressing the button and laying the phone down on the coffee table and resuming his seat.
"OK, I'm putting this end on speaker too, there's me, Tara, Buffy and Dawn here." Willow's voice floated up from the handset and Xander was a little surprised by the surge of homesickness within him at knowing his girls were all there at the other end of the line.
"Hi girls," he greeted them and then "what no G-man?" he was a little surprised that the watcher wasn't there, when Willow had said that she was at the Magic Box he'd been hoping that Giles would be around to keep the red-head calm, at least Tara was there, she was always a steadying influence on her impetuous girlfriend.
"No," Willow replied, "he's off talking to a source about a prophecy that's come to light but that's not important right now. What's been going on up there, why haven't you called before?"
Xander heard noises of agreement from the other girls clustered around the phone at the other end. He could picture them all in his head, sat around the circular table in the middle of the shop, two blondes, two red-heads all leaning in to listen intently to the tinny voices coming from the handset placed between them. "I'm sorry, I'll explain it all to you later, for now I need to ask you a favour." He paused before plowing ahead, "Willow, do you still have all the things you needed to curse Angel's soul back in place?"
Perhaps the sudden furore that broke out at the other end of the line shouldn't have surprised Xander knowing the girls as long as he had but it did. The sound of chairs being pushed back, hurried footsteps and raised voices came down the line and it was clear that they had been forgotten for the moment.
Somewhat over a thousand miles to the south Buffy had sprung to her feet so suddenly at Xander's words that she had knocked her chair over backwards. Ignoring everything she hurried to the enormous gym bag that was never far from her and started pulling out stakes, shoving them into her boots, her waistband, anywhere there was space before moving on to stuffing vials of holy water into her pockets and anywhere too small to hold a stake. Finally she drew a heavy long-sword from the bag before heading back to the table, oblivious of Willow's and Dawn's demands to know what she was doing. "Xander, where is Angel now?" she demanded coldly.
"What's going on up there?" Xander demanded in return, "Why would I know where Angel is, presumably he's still in L.A."
"If Angel's lost his soul then I need to go to L.A. I was too sentimental to do what needed to be done before, I won't make the same mistake again!"
"WAIT, What, hang on a moment there, who said Angel had lost his soul..."
"You did!" Buffy interrupted, a confused frown breaking through the determination on her face.
"I asked if Willow still had all the stuff she needed for the curse, so far as I know dead-boy's still all souled up and as broody as ever." At the words the long-sword fell forgotten to the floor and Buffy slumped into the nearest chair, head in hands as the fight flowed out of her.
Dawn moved to crouch next to her sister, one arm curling protectively round the older girl's shoulders, feeling the tremors that ran through her slight frame.
There was a short silence, finally broken by a tentative question from Xander, "Buffy, are you alright?" he asked.
Buffy didn't move and Dawn gave her shoulders a gentle squeeze as she murmured soothing nonsense in her sisters ear.
"She'll be fine," Willow answered softly but then her tone became all business as she returned to the business at hand, "What's going on up there? Why do you need to know if I have what I'd need to curse a vampire with a soul?"
"Look, something's happened, Blair was attacked..."
Xander got no further as Willow interrupted again. "Oh my God! Are you hurt, what happened, I knew we shouldn't have let you go all that way on your own."
Tara reached out a hand to try to calm her girlfriend before she started to hyperventilate and as always her mere presence was enough to steady Willow's wild impulsiveness. But before Xander could resume someone else interrupted. Jim was getting annoyed at all the interruptions and wild conjecture coming from Sunnydale, to hear Willow talking to Xander as if he were a small child instead of a full grown man who Jim was coming to know as a good friend, an intelligent planner and a brave fighter was the last straw.
"Listen, Willow is it? Xander would be able to tell you what's going on much quicker if you would all just stop with the interruptions and the wild conjectures so he can get on with it!"
Xander had never before understood how a silence could be described as deafening. Now in the sound vacuum that followed Jim's short tirade he began to understand. He knew that Jim had been right and it warmed his heart to hear himself defended so vehemently, although he wished he didn't need defending against his oldest friend. He was about to open his mouth to apologise and try to soothe Willow's wounded feelings when he was bought up short by a new, slightly timid, faltering voice from Sunnydale.
"We're sorry Xander, some people here are too used to thinking of you as the mere human. That's not fair and has never really been true, we all need to accept that and move on. What has happened and how can we help?"
It was probably the longest speech Xander had ever heard from Tara and he was glad to see that the steel that he had long suspected lay beneath that mild-mannered exterior was finally beginning to show through. He knew Willow, loved her even, but he worried that eventually, if Tara didn't begin to stand up for herself then Willow would walk rough-shod over her without even realising what she was doing.
"Thank you Tara." he hoped that his genuine gratitude made itself felt through the many long miles between them. "I'm fine and so is Spike, Blair was attacked at a crime scene, I'll give you the details later but basically this woman was working with a vampire to kill and drain humans so they could sell the blood to vampires who thought the blood came from an ethical source." Xander stopped at the sound of Willow's voice, abruptly cut-off at the other end of the line.
"Please carry-on Xander," Tara's encouragement was as calm as ever and only Willow saw the death glare directed her way as she attempted to interrupt once more.
"Erm, yes, well, the night clerk at our motel was killed last night whilst we were at the Loft with Jim and Blair. Simon, Jim's boss, thought it was Spike at first, once we had convinced him Spike was innocent we headed to the motel to check it out. We were ambushed and Blair was attacked, she ripped out his throat with a shard of glass, there was no way to get him to the Hospital in time."
"Blair's dead!" This time Tara couldn't contain Willow's outburst, she was in too much shock herself. They had carried on researching Sentinels after Xander and Spike had set off on their road trip and a lot of that research had centred around the young anthropologist so that by now she almost felt like she knew him.
"No, well kind of, the spirit animals turned up after the attack and basically ordered Jim to get Spike to turn him, now we need Willow to get here pronto and work the mojo to put back his soul!" Xander finished in a rush and then held his breath awaiting the explosion from the other end of the line.
"The spirit animals wanted Blair turned?" Willow asked, her voice sounding strangely strangled in her throat.
"Yeah, man you should have seen it, as soon as they knew Jim had got the message they took off after the bitch who attacked Blair, they were really steamed, I wouldn't want to be her when they catch up with her." Xander sounded deeply satisfied at the thought of the vengeance the animals would wreak upon Lauren Van Den Haus when they caught up to her.
"So they were angry about what had happened to Blair?" Willow asked.
At this point Spike took over seeing that Xander was thrown by the unexpected trend of Willow's questions. "Actually no, they were already angry when they arrived, when they saw what had happened to Blair they seemed more distressed than anything, I don't know much about how this spirit animal thing but I'm not sure that they even knew about the attack until they got there."
"Wow, that's... odd. And they're not back yet?" The strange strangled tone was back in Willow's tone and Spike was beginning to wonder just what had been going on back in dear old Sunnydale.
"No, but I'm sure they'll turn up soon. So, have you got what you need, can you restore Blair's soul?"
"Yes, I can do it, but the flights, a hotel, I don't know when Giles will be back and I don't have nearly enough savings to cover it..." Willow trailed off to be replaced once more by Tara who seemed to have forgotten about the listeners in Cascade.
"It's OK, we'll work it out honey, let's get you home and get everything packed, I've still got some of my college fund left, that should be enough to get you to Cascade at least."
"Don't worry about the flights, just get to the airport, the tickets will be waiting for you. Xander will call you back shortly with the details." Jim's no nonsense voice took over, the longer they messed around worrying about inconsequential details the greater the risk of Blair waking up before his soul was back in placed and the Sentinel didn't even want to think about that possibility. "Tara?"
"Yes?" the blonde girl responded to the interrogatory note in Jim's voice as he spoke her name.
"Pack for two, I think we could use both of you here." There was a warmth in Jim's tone that would have pleased Tara if she wasn't so distracted by her girlfriend. She didn't know what exactly was going on, but if ever Willow had looked guilty of something it was now.
"Thank you Detective Ellison, it'll take us about an hour to get packed and get the airport."
"No, thank you Tara, and please call me Jim. Xander and Spike will collect you and Willow from the airport at this end, we'll see you soon."
Tara waited only long enough to hear the click of the closed connection before rounding on her soulmate. "Willow Rosenberg, you tell me what you've done and you tell me right now!"
A/N : Well there it is, hope you liked it, please feed the author, REVIEW!!
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Life is Change