Hey Kittens - Here it is, the promised update. Once again I'm updating first; thank-yous will be along sometime soonish.
Okay - this chapter (7) is Superstar...so the ride through the tunnel is gonna get bumpy, nasty and dark, but there is also light at the end and I promise it is not an oncoming train. This update is all good with just a little bit of potential badness. The next update (probably Sunday) will be similar in tone. Then there will be a short hiatus, probably about a week, so that I can write, because I want to post the three or four parts immediately following in quick succession.
Rating for this part is R - adult themes.
And Xita, I hope you've had a great day!
Have fun all.
****
Chapter 7 - Darkness, Darkness
Sarah lifted her head at the second pull on her ankle and whipped her free foot at her attacker’s face. She winced as her bare foot made contact with the demon’s hard skull. Her boot was gone. She rolled away, up against the wall, and glared, fangs out, at her cellmate. A hungry-looking Fyarl demon growled back at her and sneezed.
“Missed, fuckface.” She spoke first in English and then repeated it in Fyarl. It was massive in comparison to her, but she had no doubt that awake, she could take it. Horns, tufted ears, poison mucus and all. And she wanted to.
God, how she wanted to!
But it got up from the floor slowly, grumbling to itself. So she stood as well, sliding her back up the wall and keeping an eye on it. Standing, she immediately felt off-balance due to the missing boot. She considered her cellmate. Thin. Nearly emaciated. So food here was lacking. That could be a problem.
For the Fyarl demon, not her – it preferred its food more recently dead than she was. On the other hand, she could eat it, if she got hungry enough. But she would have to be pretty damn hungry.
“You. What is this place?”
It glared, exposing its teeth, and she suppressed an answering snarl.
“We can do this the hard way, or we can do it this way.” She leaned over and removed her remaining boot. Leather. Expensive, if money had meant anything to her or her cellmate. She dangled it from her fingers and pushed off from the wall. “Hungry?”
Its eyes told the story, as did the tongue that licked over the thin lips.
She smiled narrowly. “So talk, my friend. Tell me who my enemies are and when I leave this place, you will eat very well indeed.”
It bowed then, servant to master, the recognition nearly as sweet as infant’s blood. She tossed it the boot, waiting as it tore into the soft leather, the smile a bit more sincere.
Because that was what she was.
Master.
*****
Jo paced back and forth on the sidewalk across the street from the Espresso Pump. Too fast. She’d walked too fast after leaving Willow. She’d been annoyed, and she always walked fast anyhow. But now she was here and she was early. Way early.
And it was sprinkling.
She sighed and crossed the street. She was such a doofus. Why hadn’t she brought an umbrella?
Well, that was easy. It was those damn song lyrics. ‘It never rains in California.’ Except it does, but even after more than half a year, she still forgot.
Plus she’d been feeling nervous and rushed; she just hadn’t had enough time to get ready!
“I’m glad to see you’re not too sweet.”
“Huh?” Jo turned in the direction of Dani’s voice.
“That getting wet doesn’t make you melt,” Dani explained.
“Oh, I melt,” Jo replied and then blushed. “Uh ….”
“I meant like sugar, but the other is good to know.” Dani smiled broadly at her, putting her umbrella down, and stepped inside out of the rain.
“Uh … you’re early.” Jo stepped into the coffee bar after her … what? What was Dani? Oh, right. Her date.
“Uh … so are you,” Dani observed, mimicking her inflection exactly.
“Sorry, but ….”
“I was impatient. I wanted to see you.”
“You did?” Jo asked. astonished. “Really?”
“Uh-huh. Really.” Dani reached out and took her by the elbow. “They have couches towards the back. That way we’re out of the way and we’re comfy.”
“Out of the way?” Jo wondered, totally off-balance. Did Dani not want to be seen with her?
“Yeah, Jonathan is here having coffee with some girl. And he always attracts groupies, y’know?”
“Jonathan’s here?! Where? And how did you find out?” Jo looked around.
“In order: Yes, up near the bar at a table, and I said I got here early.”
Jo stopped and stared at her … date, all thoughts of Jonathan disappearing from her mind.
“What? I said I was impatient. I saw you wearing out the sidewalk across the street and decided to rescue you.” Dani tugged her into motion and steered them through the tables and benches. “That was a hard decision, by the way.”
“What decision?” She really was trying to follow the conversation, but the hand on her elbow was distracting her.
“Whether to rescue you or not.”
“Why did I need to be rescued again?” It was a nice hand. She just knew it.
Dani laughed aloud and pulled her down onto a couch. They bounced a bit and bumped together.
This was nice. But was she sitting too close?
“From the rain.” Dani’s hand released her elbow. “It was tempting to watch you get wet.”
“Why?” Her voice squeaked as the warm weight of Dani’s arm descended and rested across her shoulders. Oh – not too close at all.
“Oh, many reasons. I wanted to see the raindrops beading in your hair like they are. And there’s just something that I like about the smell of rain on skin. And,” Dani’s eyes twinkled a bit, “then there is that whole thing about wet shirts, y’know? So deciding to rescue you was kind of a difficult decision.”
Jo automatically looked down at her rain-splotched shirt, but it was barely damp. Her eyes lifted to Dani’s. “You’re teasing me –,” a little uncertainly “– aren’t you?”
“A little. Do you mind?” Dani’s hand lifted from her shoulder and stroked her hair gently.
“No.” Oh, god. “No, I don’t mind at all,” she whispered, unable to find air to speak.
Just then the waitress arrived. “Are you ready to order?”
“That would be good.” Jo grabbed frantically at the intrusion, grateful to have a lifeline.
“Two double lattes,” Dani ordered for them as the silence stretched again. “That okay, Jo?”
“Fine. All good.” Jo watched the waitress depart, all too aware of the young woman beside her, her scent, her warmth, her softness – her boldness. The hand in her hair was … doing interesting things to her. She hadn’t known that someone’s hand in her hair could do what it was doing.
“I enjoyed dancing with you last night,” Dani said as they waited for their coffees.
“I’m not very good.” Jo turned a bit toward her
“Let me be the judge of that.” Dani leaned forward and pulled gently with her hand.
Soft lips met hers, and Jo’s heart skipped a beat as her chest constricted. Last night’s kiss paled in comparison. Not that this one was overly long. Or too short. No, it was just right. Jo opened her eyes half expecting to see the three bears.
Instead, she saw Dani smiling at her.
“Okay,” she agreed.
******
Buffy tilted her cup and swirled its contents around, gazing at them as if they held the answers of all her questions. She sighed and lifted the cup to her lips. Maybe there would have been answers if she was drinking tea, but then there would have been leaves, and she hated that – they always got caught between her teeth. She sipped and met her companion’s eyes. Setting the cup down on the table, she tried to find the right words.
“It’s all Faith’s fault. She’s like poison. No, worse, like acid that eats through everything. Or maybe a bomb.” She watched the expression on Jonathan’s face, but it remained earnest and interested, not bored as she’d feared. She sighed again. “The point is, everything’s going great with Riley and then she comes along and messes it all up.”
Jonathan rested his elbows on the table edge and steepled his fingers, reminding her of a kind counselor. He cocked his head to the side slightly. “Buffy, you know what I think? I don’t think this is about you being angry with Faith. I think you’re angry with Riley.” He held her eyes, paying scant attention to the fan whose book he was signing. Just waiting for his words to sink in.
Although she did blame Faith, it wasn’t as if what he said was wrong. She’d been wallowing in her anger at Riley all week. She just hadn’t thought it was so obvious. Willow might have noticed, but she was Willow, her best friend, not a casual acquaintance like Jonathan, even if he was well known for being observant. Still in quasi-denial of his astuteness, she repeated her ‘boyfriend’s’ name. “Riley?”
“Sure – I mean, you have this amazing connection with him,” Jonathan continued, “and then, at the one moment when it matters most, he looks into your eyes and he doesn’t even see it’s not you looking back at him.”
“Oh. But … but he couldn’t have known.” She had known when it had been Giles who had been transformed. Well, ok, not immediately – but she had figured it out. Of course, the circumstances were somewhat different. She been fighting her Watcher, but Riley had been … she stopped her train of thought before the images grew more disturbing. “I mean, you don’t just go, ‘hey, that’s not your body. Get out of that body with your hands up.’”
“I know you know that. But you have to believe it.” Jonathan reached across the table and touched her hand. “Buffy, if any part of you is blaming Riley for what happened, well then, it seems like there’s a part of you that needs to forgive him.” He sat back in his chair, letting her absorb what he’d said.
Buffy toyed with her empty cup, thinking over Jonathan’s observation. She smiled at a young woman who rushed up to their table. Another fan. ‘Yay, Jonathan,’ she thought, totally without cynicism. It was pure pleasure to see how people adored her former schoolmate.
“You’re Jonathan Levinson, OH MY GOD! My name is Karen and I think you’re … you’re wonderful. Omigod!”
He greeted her just as politely and warmly as he’d greeted the previous eight fans. “Hi Karen. Thank you. Is that my book? I could ….”
“Yeah, please. I didn’t wanna bother you …. It’s Karen with a ‘K’.”
Unfazed by her interruption, he signed her copy of his book, “Oh, Jonathan!” Buffy grimaced inwardly, knowing full well that she wouldn’t have been able to be so nice about it.
Karen clutched the autographed book to her chest and scurried away, calling out over her shoulder, “Thank you so much! Thanks!”
Jonathan bestowed a smile on Karen’s back and then turned his now-undivided attention back to Buffy. “What do you think, Buff? If I’m wrong, smack me. ‘Karen-with-a-K’ will lend you a book – and it’s pretty heavy.” He grinned charmingly at her.
Buffy decided to admit her angry feelings – and her fears. “Maybe I have been blaming him. How do I get past it? What … what if it’s too late? What if – after all this – what if he doesn’t want me anymore?”
Jonathan looked at her solemnly. “He does. It may not be easy, Buffy, but you guys are special together. That’s worth a little hard work.”
She remembered last night in Riley’s room, when he had put his arms around her, to show her how to shoot baskets with the little orange ball. It had felt nice, but then suddenly it had felt wrong, somehow. She’d squirmed out of his arms and almost run from the room.
“But I don’t know how to talk to him.” They hadn’t been able to talk, and then she’d run away. “How do I? How do I make it okay again?”
Jonathan stood up from the table and smiled, mirroring his pose on a large ad on the wall behind him.
“If you really want it, you can make anything happen.”
****
Jo gazed at the hand that had ever so casually stolen its way onto her thigh. Everything was a haze. Between the caffeine and the adrenaline, her heart was hammering in her chest. She had never been so aware of her body before. Not only could she feel Dani’s body along one side, she knew every point of non-contact between them. For example, there was a little bit along her left side, near her waist, that didn’t have Dani snugged up against it. And another bit on her left calf and a third near her left ankle – those bits felt terribly isolated.
And then there was Dani’s hand.
She didn’t know when it had come to rest on her thigh, but it was probably during one of their kisses. It was there now though, and generating enough heat within her to warm all of Wisconsin.
It wasn’t as pretty a hand as Tara’s, nor was it as delicate a hand as Willow’s. No, she’d have to describe Dani’s hand as strong. Broad palm, short nails, long, tapered fingers. She shivered and reflexively licked her lips. She shifted on the couch while trying not to lose any of the contact with Dani’s body, and Dani lifted her hand. Jo’s lips parted and she turned towards her date.
The look in Dani’s eyes was warm, and lazy, and altogether knowing. Well, she supposed it was a good thing that at least one of them knew what she was doing.
“I think I’d like to go to the movies,” Dani murmured.
“Uh ….” Her voice didn’t want to work, it was all hoarse and rusty sounding. She cleared her throat, and tried again. “Uh, what’s playing?”
“Does it matter?”
And Jo realized that it really didn’t.
*****
Tara stood in front of her closet, considering her clothes. The last time she’d been at the Bronze, it had been totally casual. This, though – a performance by Jonathan – was special. Suddenly she smiled and pulled out a pale blue denim skirt. Her sheer blouse with the dark blue vines would be perfect over a camisole.
Willow liked her in blue ... if she had to wear something.
by barnabasvamp » Mon Dec 02, 2002 12:52 pm 
- can't wait for the next parts...
