Moon Magic
Rated Teen
Chapters Eleven - Fifteen
Go To Next Section
Chapter Eleven
"Where's Professor Snape?" Malfoy demanded. Riley might have been complimented at the implication that he had the power to do something to the professor, but Malfoy also stepped closer, clearly not seeing Riley as any sort of threat. It was infuriating to be dismissed so totally by a child... an obnoxious child.
"I have no idea." Riley answered truthfully. When in doubt, avoid lying. It just made things more complicated, especially when the enemy might be magically keeping tabs on you.
"Why are you out here?" Malfoy demanded, taking one more step closer so that Riley could have reached out and grab that wand hand before the brat could utter a word. But that would still leave Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb behind him. Riley couldn't take them all out, not without killing or maiming one or two, and he wasn't willing to do that.
"Aren't we supposed to be looking for--" one of the miniature thugs started.
"Shut up," Malfoy snapped without even turning to look at his companion. Riley watched with amusement as the larger boy just did as ordered. Riley remembered high school well enough to know that any scrawny little shit who got away with talking to people like that either fought dirty as hell or had access to the good drugs. Otherwise, the thugs tended to get cranky and beat the shit out of the scrawny little shits.
"So? Why are you out here?" Malfoy repeated.
Riley considered his answer for a second. "Dumbledore was giving me a tour, but he seems to have been called away. "Riley shrugged as he leaned back against the railing. The casual position let him get a hand near the knife he'd retrieved from Faith.
"Dumbledore?" Thug number two rumbled, sounding a little worried.
"Shut up," Malfoy repeated, but this time, he looked around nervously.
"I don't see him," Malfoy commented.
"Like I said, he got called away," Riley commented dryly. Malfoy turned to grace him with a vicious glare.
"Draco, we're supposed to be—"
"I said shut up," Draco snapped at idiot number two, turning his head to glare, and Riley itched to just reach out and pluck the wand from the child's hand. The frustrating thing is that he could. He could grab the wand, break it, and probably snap Draco's neck before anyone could say boo, but killing a child, even an obnoxious child, was not on his list of acceptable duties. So instead he leaned on the rail and watched the dynamics.
"If you're supposed to be doing something, shouldn't you get going?" he asked blandly. Draco turned and glared at him.
"I don't take orders from a Muggle."
"And as Professor Snape pointed out, I'm from another dimension, so I don't actually count as a Muggle," Riley countered. The two thugs just looked confused, but Draco was now focused all on him. On the stairs below, Riley could hear footsteps pounding down the stairs, and then they suddenly stopped. "You wouldn't want to fail on some task because you standing here harassing me, would you?" Riley taunted.
The two thugs looked concerned now, as though something he had said finally penetrated their skulls. Riley almost hoped those two were on drugs because if they were that stupid without any help from chemicals, they really were not destined for success.
"Draco, he's right. We should go check the stairs."
Riley watched calmly while Draco's lips thinned to a straight line. He looked from Riley to the stairs and back to Riley. "Something's going on," he finally proclaimed. Riley didn't comment, especially since he tended to agree. For Dumbledore to make comments about sacrifice and then leave in directly in the path of the little snot-nosed brat was entirely too much coincidence for Riley's taste, but he certainly wasn't going to kill Malfoy or his brain-impaired sidekicks. If that's what Dumbledore thought, if that's why he was asking about God--trying to figure out where Riley's morals lay--well, the man had made a serious error in judgment.
Draco held out his wand and hissed two terrifyingly familiar words: "Serpenta Mutalatis." Riley shrank down, his arms and legs pulled into his body so that he was again curled on the floor. This time he had a larger body, more brown than green.
Thug number one pulled his wand out. The idea of that idiot having a wand was scarier than Buffy behind the wheel of a car. "I hear something," he loudly whispered.
"Quick, hide," Malfoy ordered and Riley watched feet scramble, leaving him near the railing and slithering to get out of the way.
"Merlin's blood, the snake," Malfoy growled from some place off to the right, but Riley was using his larger body to make pretty good speed toward the stairs. Whatever Malfoy wanted to hide from, Riley was going to do his best to make a scene. Maybe he could trip someone or just scare them witless. If it ruined Malfoy's ambush, Riley was going to call it the maneuver a success. Of course, if he could do it without having someone cut his head off, it would be better, but he faced that danger every time he put his all-too human body up against a demon back home. The fear was a familiar battlefield companion.
Riley sent up a prayer that he could pull this off without getting himself killed. And short of that, he prayed that he wasn't doing something stupid and pointless. If he had to die, he was okay dying for something that made the world safer… made any world safer. But if Dumbledore had put him in the path of some high-school prank and he died for it, he would cheerfully haunt that man until the day Dumbledore dropped dead.
"Where is he?" Malfoy harshly whispered. "You idiots." Something thunked against the floor and then Riley could feel the vibrations of feet from below coming up the stairs.
"I think I hear them," one of the idiot thugs whispered pretty loudly if he didn't want to be heard. Riley reached the stairs and had a moment of panic as he slid face first down the step. He really hated being a snake. Above him, the landing had grown quiet, but Riley could feel the footstep from below reverberating through his stomach as he slid down step after step, each one giving him the same feeling of vertigo he'd had jumping out of a plane, only this time he didn't have a parachute. He could see to the bottom of the staircase, and his brain sent up an image of him sliding all the way to the bottom, which was impossibly far away, but Riley just kept moving.
When they got close, Riley curled himself and stuck his head as high in the air as he could. The sight of six feet hurrying up the stairs startled a hiss out of him, especially considering there weren't bodies attached to the feet, just feet.
"Shhh," a boy's voice urged, coming from where Riley might expect there to be a head if any of the feet in question had bodies.
"What?" a girl asked.
"Who's there?" the first voice whispered.
"What are you?" Riley mused to himself. Yeah, it would come out as a snake's hiss, but hopefully the feet with the disembodied voices wouldn't want to run into a snake. Personally, Riley would take his chances with a snake over random feet any day of the week.
"I'm a boy," the voice answered, and it took Riley several seconds to process that the voice had answered him. A head came poking out of thin air, wild brown hair that reminded Riley of Xander after taking a roll across a cemetery and round glasses that would have looked more appropriate on Riley's father than on this teenager.
"You don't have a body," Riley said. That wasn't part of his self-imposed mission, but right now, that was the information that seemed most significant.
"Who are you talking to?" a red headed boy stuck his head out of thin air, and Riley knew that face. "Oh, it's a snake."
"Well of course it's a snake, that's why he's talking in parseltongue. Really, Ron," came the exasperated tones of a girl.
"I knew that," Ron insisted seriously before pulling his head back in.
"We have bodies. We're hiding under an invisible cloak, the first teenager offered. We need to get up there, so if you'll excuse us," he said, and Riley was a little taken aback at a teenager who felt it necessary to be polite to a snake he found on the stairs. Strangely, that seemed more odd than a teenager who could talk to snakes in the first place.
"They're waiting for you up there," Riley quickly said when the feet went to hurry up the stairs.
"What? Hey, wait," the boy said, and all the feet stopped. There was rustling and shifting and then whatever made them invisible dropped down two inches and their feet vanished.
"Who's waiting?"
"Harry? What are you talking to the snake about?" the girl asked, and Riley realized they couldn't all understand him.
"The snake says someone is waiting for us up there."
"Merlin. If we get caught out again," Ron breathed.
"We aren't going to get caught. Do you know who's waiting up there?" the boy asked, and now Riley could hear how the question sounded more hissed than spoken. The kid didn't know he spoke English. For a brief second, Riley considered telling him the whole truth about being a human turned into a snake by that little snot-nosed Malfoy, but if he did that, he couldn't predict what these kids would do. Right now, Malfoy didn't know where he was, but Riley was willing to bet Dumbledore did. He'd ride this out Dumbledore's way and see what happened.
"Three boys," Riley said ambiguously. "Two stupid and one just rude," he clarified.
The boy under the invisible cloak went silent.
"Harry?" the girl asked.
"Draco, Crabbe and Goyle, they're up there."
"Gulping gargoyles," Ron muttered. "We can't go this way."
"They're going to be waiting for us no matter which way we go," Harry countered.
"I think I can come up with a distraction," the girl said, and from the tone she used, Riley was guessing that she was the dangerous one in this group. "I'll make that arrogant, greasy, rude little troll sorry he stepped foot outside the Slytherin dungeons tonight."
The three sets of feet reversed direction and headed back down the stairs. Mission accomplished, Riley slithered toward the corner and curled up. Hopefully no one would step on him and Dumbledore would show up soon because Riley was cold and cranky. He was used to being cold on his missions, but this was a different sort of feeling, this was a cold that sank into him and made his guts ache. This was a cold that made him want to close his eyes and not wake up, and that scared him more than snot-nosed, greasy little trolls. Riley just wished he could be around to see Malfoy get his.
Riley had no more than thought that when feet again rattled the stairs and made his body tense. A little yellow light bounced toward him, hovering over his head, and Riley considered it with an angry hiss.
"There you are. I should feed you to one of Hagrid's monsters for that." Malfoy grabbed Riley right behind the head. Riley thrashed, his snake body smacking into Malfoy but he couldn't bite or get any kind of leverage to wiggle free.
"Here." One of the thugs held out a black bag and Riley found himself stuffed inside, the string drawn closed before he could hiss a protest. Well great. Riley helplessly cursed as he felt himself pushed into something narrow and warm. He was guessing a pocket. Angling his head, he considered biting through as many layers of cloth as he could and hoping that this time he was a poisonous variety of serpent. Unfortunately, that would still leave him tied up in the bag. As long as there was hope, Riley was going to do what he had to in order to stay alive.
Chapter Twelve
"Either that's the backside of the same freaky little town we saw before, or you have two freaky little towns around here," Faith commented as the leaning shack and the weird collection of houses appeared in the distance. Some had that weird fish-scale trim, some had thick timbers, and others looked like a five-year-old's attempt to draw a house... not quite square, not quite straight, and not quite the right number of windows. One didn't have any windows at all, and Faith figured the inside of that one must have been about as cheery as her old cell.
"Hogsmeade," Severus agreed, naming the same little freaky town from the beginning of their walking tour of the hills.
"Okay, I've seen a forest that gives me serious weird-ass vibes, a lake, fields, and more cows than I ever wanted to. I prefer my leather already made into pants, thank you very much. Problem is, I'm still not seeing my witch," Faith pointed out. Severus simply sighed. The longer they walked, the quieter he got.
"I've found no unusual magical signatures. Her spell may have failed."
"Babe, I'm here. I think that means it worked," Faith pointed out as she watched a woman sail overhead on a broomstick. A face looked down at them, and then she was gone. Oh yeah, Faith was so getting a picture of that. Next Halloween, she was going to hang it up and watch Willow have fits.
"Her spell may have failed to bring her across. As a magical creature you do not follow the same magical rules, as I believe I have explained before," Severus snapped, and that was not a good tone of voice.
"Babe?" Faith asked as she stopped in the middle of the path. When Severus didn't stop with her, she reached out and grabbed his arm. He didn't fight her, but he did look down at her hand on him as though she'd spontaneously started oozing slime. "What crawled up your ass and died?" she demanded.
Looking at her blankly for a moment, Severus eventually just shook his head. "Your language is colorful enough that I can only hope you aren't referencing any actual event."
Faith blinked. Okay, not quite the answer she was expecting. When Severus tried to just keep walking toward Hogsmeade, Faith tightened her hold on him. With a heavy sigh, he glared at her hand on his arm for a moment before finally offering an answer.
"In case it has escaped your notice, we have walked nearly seven miles and it is getting late."
This time, Faith let him go when he pulled his arm away. He started walking, and now Faith could see the stiff steps and the way his arms hung at his sides. Oh yeah, the boy was ready to be taken home and tucked into bed, but his bed was still quite a walk away. "You could have just said you needed a break," Faith shrugged, refusing to feel guilty. Okay, so she did feel guilty, but she refused to feel too guilty. Hell, she'd done things in her life that made this less than a blip on the radar screen, so the traces of guilt she was feeling confused the hell out of her.
"I was too busy being annoyed by your stamina," Severus admitted dryly.
"Oh babe, you haven't seen anything," Faith said as she got ahead of him and started walking backwards. "Grandmother succubus left me all kinds of stamina that's more interesting than just walking," Faith wiggled her eyebrows in an attempt to lighten the mood. "Let's find someplace in your freaky little town and sit down for a while," Faith suggested when Severus didn't even bother looking offended at her sexual advance. Taking advantage of his exhaustion, she slipped her arm though his and started walking beside him. "So, are you sure Willow isn't out there just keeping her witchly self quiet?"
"Your appearance coincided with a rather unusual magical disturbance. I spoke with a wizard whose judgment cannot be doubted, and any use of magic from your universe would result in a similar disturbance."
"So, no weird magic ripples, no witchy Willow," Faith concluded.
"Could she have simply refrained from using her magic this long?"
"Red?" Faith snorted. "Maybe if she was unconscious. Awake, she's going to fall back on her magic pretty quick. Of course, if someone grabbed her and took her supplies, she'd be pretty limited in which spells she could cast, so can your magic radar pick up the little stuff... floating pencils and weird shit like that?"
"She can't cast without supplies?" Severus asked, stopping for just long enough to make Faith break stride since she still held his arm.
Faith shrugged. "Fireballs are about as big as I've seen her go without waving crystals or powdered fly eyeballs or some shit like that. I don't think she's as good with magic ropes as you," Faith said with a wicked smile. Even tired, Severus managed to give her a glare in return this time.
"The rules of magic are obviously quite different in your world. Powdered fly eyeballs are a rather rare ingredient, but they are limited to use in potions, not spells," he said as they reached a crossroad. One beaten path led up through a rocky hill to the distant castle, and the other led to the town just a quick walk downhill. With a sigh, Severus turned toward the castle.
"No way, babe," Faith vetoed him as she physically pulled him toward the town.
"I absolutely do not--"
"...want to walk back to the castle without sitting down, resting and getting something to eat. And now that I've mentioned food, I'm thinking we get a lot to eat. All that succubus energy means I'm a growing girl with a healthy appetite. And since I don't have any money that works in this universe, I'll let you buy me enough food to feed an army," she offered as she pulled him down the path.
"We should get back to the castle and Mr. Finn."
"Riley's fine," Faith said as she continued to pull him toward the town. Hell, Riley was probably better than fine with them out of the way. Severus had a way of emasculating a man with a few sharp words, so Riley could do with a little privacy. Funny, the way Buffy had described her ex-boy-toy, Faith had expected someone closer to Xander, someone who had more heart than good sense, but Riley had surprised her more than once so far. Now Xander, he would have gotten himself turned into something slimy when he went on the counterattack against Severus' sarcasm.
"Considering that you crossed universes to come and get him, isn't that a rather cavalier attitude?" Severus asked.
"If I knew what that meant, maybe," she shrugged. "But soldier-boy is sharper than you give him credit for, and right now, I'm thinking I'm going to end up carrying you up that hill if we try to make it back to the castle. Babe, you really should have just said something."
"I hardly think that would be necessary."
"You're going to hurt like a son of a bitch tomorrow, and we don't need to make that any worse."
"Do the offspring of bitches normally hurt?" Severus asked in such a serious tone of voice that it took Faith a second to catch the slight smile that only reached one corner of Severus' mouth. And okay, he might be making fun of her, but Faith decided to just take it as the man's sense of humor.
"When I finish with them, they do," she laughed. "You should ask Riley. Rode the boy hard and put him up for the night still dripping sweat." The smile faded from Faith's face as she considered the possibility of Severus really asking Riley about that night. "Then again, you'd better not. Touchy subject," she admitted as she spotted a small group of men in long robes. When they came around the corner of a house, all three of them stopped dead in the middle of the stone road and stared at her. Faith gave them her best smile back and checked each one out in turn, studying their bodies as she threw a hip out toward them.
"If I have hired you, should you not be turning that charm on me?" Severus asked. "My reputation shall never recover," he sighed softly.
When Faith turned her smile on Severus, running one hand over his chest while holding his arm with her other hand, he rolled his eyes. "I don't want them to think you aren't getting your money's worth," Faith purred as she moved closer. As they passed the three men on the street, Faith could see their mouths hang open. Faith gave them a quick wink before turning her attention back to Severus.
"Maybe we should find somewhere private," she whispered as she pressed close.
"A dozen people have seen me with you already. Privacy as this point is..." Severus just sighed as he put an arm around Faith's waist and headed for a building. The sign above the door called it the Unlit Lantern, which seemed like a pretty strange thing to call a restaurant, but as long as Faith didn't have to kill the food before eating it and as long as Severus got to sit for a while, she'd deal.
"Privacy could be fun," Faith offered with a smile as Severus opened the door. She pulled away from him and checked out the room they'd come into. Three exits: one up the stairs, one into what would be a back kitchen from the smell, one door behind her. The two front windows were large enough that they should break easily, unless there was another spell. Faith filed that away and decided to ask Severus when they had a little more privacy. Right now, everyone in the room, from the old guy with the bulb nose to the young couple wearing matching red robes to the young man carrying food on a tray all stared at her. The server had even stopped in the middle of the room, his tray balanced on his hand as he stared. She smiled and lowered her head as she checked him out. Nice body. Of course, Severus might have an equally nice one, but Faith couldn't see with those robes. The serving boy... he had a nicely formed ass that his tight pants showed off. She winked.
"We should get a table," Severus said, his arm coming around her waist as he pulled her toward the back. Faith turned away from the serving boy and turned her charms on Severus.
"Or a room. Do they have rooms here?" she asked just loud enough that anyone who was really listening would hear. Faith guessed most of the people in the room had heard. A witch sitting at a table had a forkful of food halfway to her mouth.
"I thought you were hungry."
"Oh babe, I am," Faith said as she played her part, looking at Severus with all the hunger she could. Her body knew this dance, and Faith could feel the lust start to rise as he considered her with something that came close to fear in his eyes. "But then, I'm always hungry. It's one of my flaws," she whispered. They had reached the table Severus had been aiming for, a heavy oak thing sitting in the shadows of the corner, and Faith dropped into one of the chairs and draped her leg over the arm so she could lean toward Severus. When he tried to take the chair on the far side of the table, Faith held his hand and refused to let him move that far away. He sighed before sitting next to her.
The room slowly started moving again, the server heading for the young couple and the witch bringing her food to her mouth as Faith watched. She didn't particularly care that they watched her, but every time she met a gaze, the owner quickly looked away. Soon enough, no one would look at them, and Faith was left watching the big windows as people wandered by. The sun was getting low but still shone brightly so that it cast long shadows.
"Can I get you something?" the serving boy asked as he came up to them.
"Bacon and steak and mulled mead," Severus immediately ordered. "Faith?" he asked her.
Okay, no way was she ordering something only to find out they didn't know what hamburgers were or have them try to make it with ham or something even stranger that she just didn't want to think about. "Order something with a lot of protein for me," she asked Severus. He looked at her for a second in surprise. "Roast chicken and butterbeer," he finally told the server. The boy started to turn away. "Wait. Faith, how serious were you about needing more food than normal?" he asked.
"I can get by on one serving."
"And if you aren't getting by but really eating?" he asked.
"Usually three servings does it for me," Faith admitted. She didn't tell him that if she ate that much she'd have more energy than ever. Maybe she could talk him into working it off with her.
"Add a serving of shepherd's pie and steak and kidney pudding." The server looked at them for a second, and Severus gave the boy a withering glare that sent him backing up as fast as he could. Faith laughed.
"Careful with that weapon," she said as he laid her hand on his arm.
"The boy is a moron. We shall be lucky if we get one of the four dishes we ordered. Luckily all the food here is passable, so it should be edible no matter what the idiot brings us."
Faith smiled at the incredible display of bad temper. Oh yeah, Sev should have been tucked in bed already. He reminded Faith of a little boy who's parents had let him stay up so late that he got cranky.
"What?" Severus demanded as he frowned at her.
"You've known the kid two seconds and you're ready to declare him an idiot? I usually wait until I know someone at least five minutes," she shrugged.
"I was tortured with the task of teaching him potions for two years. I still have the scorch marks on the table," Severus said with a sour expression.
"You and teaching... I never would have guessed that. But then, I wasn't really much for school, so maybe I just have a narrow view of teachers." Faith stretched her back and tilted her chair using one boot on the leg of the table for leverage.
"At least you have the common sense most of my students lack." The server appeared with two drinks which he dropped on the table, sloshing some of the contents onto the dark wood before he retreated... fast. "Moron," Severus sighed with a resigned weariness.
"Boy just looks nervous as hell to me. Give him a little attention, steer him around a few curves, and he'll grow up fine," she disagreed. Severus gave her the sour expression now.
"Gryffindors do not grow up," Severus said seriously.
"Whoa, he's not human? Not human usually gives me the crawlies." Faith studied the boy again as he headed for the table with the witch who was finishing up.
"Not human?" Severus sounded confused.
"Gryffins? Never seen one, but I know I've heard of them."
"What? No," Severus said. "The clod was a Gryffindor, a member of the Gryffindor house at Hogwarts. They are, without exception, impetuous, self-important morons who lack both common sense and a health sense of reality." Severus sniffed as though the presence of a Gryffindor somehow offended him.
"Babe, you have to learn how to say what you're really feeling. This bottling up your emotions is so unhealthy," Faith teased as she tightened her hand on his arm. He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Gryffindor stupidity brought your Mr. Finn into our universe," he whispered, tilting his head so that his long hair hid his face from the other diners. "They thought to bring themselves assistance without ever considering the consequences of their actions on others, a common ailment among the Gryffindors."
Faith nodded as she watched the people. "Things start going bad, and sometimes you make dumb choices. Been there, done that," she said softly. This wasn't the time or the place, so she didn't say the rest of what she was thinking. They sat in comfortable silence, Faith rocking on the back two legs of her chair, until finally their food appeared.
"Hot damn, now that's food," Faith said happily as the server put huge plates of food down.
"The best is Hogsmeade," the server said with a smile at Faith. She winked.
"I hope so. I have to say I'm impressed with this place so far." She checked him out, and laughed when it made him blush bright red.
"I'm just grateful you managed to carry the food from the kitchen to the table without spilling. Truly, having seen your coordination under other circumstances, I doubted your ability to do even that much," Severus sniffed. Faith looked over in surprise as Severus just took a bite of steak and glared at the poor server. The boy backed away so fast that Faith was surprised he didn't trip over his own feet.
"Babe, you've got issues," she sighed as she pulled the first dish close. Severus didn't even bother pretending to look repentant, and Faith just shrugged as she dug into the first meal. Heaven. She didn't care as much about talking or about Severus scaring the poor server after that. Yeah, she had an empty glass, but she couldn't exactly blame the boy for avoiding them. She was halfway through her last dish when Severus sat up straight.
Faith looked quickly toward the large window, but she couldn't see anything particularly sit-up worthy. A few people wandered the street in the quickly fading light.
"Sev?" she asked. He pulled some coins out of his robes and dropped them on the table.
"Wait here," he said. She raised her eyebrow at that, but he didn't notice because he had already disappeared through the door to the little wizard's room.
Putting down her fork, Faith crossed her arms and waited for Severus to come back out because she was not going to get ordered around like one of his minions, not that the man had minions. The way he talked to people, he wouldn't even be able to keep a dog for long, not without getting bitten. Of course, Faith could do some biting of her own, so he wasn't shaking her that easy. Pushing her plate away, she stood up and leaned against the table. The door to the little wizard's room came open, but some guy who wasn't Severus went brushing by her on his way to the front door. Whoa. Wait one second. Faith's eyebrows went up as she watched this new guy head for the street.
Chapter Thirteen
Pushing off from the table, Faith hurried after the stranger. His eyes were dark, but he had a small nose and mouth, too small for his face, which made Faith think of a rat for some reason. It wasn't a good look. At the corner, she slipped her arm around the man's as she fell in place next to him.
"What are you doing?" he demanded, his voice higher and definitely on the unmanly side.
"Following you, babe. Neat trick, but overall, I do like the old look better," Faith answered.
He blinked at her dumbly for a second and then started walking again, his expression still coming pretty close to Xander's dumbstruck look. "How could you know?" he eventually whispered as he led them down a new street.
"You're sore as hell. Just because you look different doesn't mean you walk different," she shrugged as she walked next to this new version of Severus. A few people turned to watch them walk, but they didn't attract nearly as many stares now. Damn. Faith had thought these people had an appreciation of some prime female flesh, but now it looked like they'd been staring at her being with Snape, not her. That was disappointing.
"So, who are we following?" she asked as she casually looked around at the people wandering by. They'd taken a turn into a bad neighborhood at some point. The stores looked pretty much the same, but the furtive looks from some and the thugs standing on street corners watching, that was all inner-city grit, even if the building still looked fairy taleish.
Severus glanced over toward her before answering. "Someone who died years ago."
"Vamp?" Faith whispered. She couldn't feel anything in particular setting off her slayer sense, but this whole town gave her a low-level creep, so maybe she'd missed it.
Severus didn't answer. He pulled them into the shadow of a doorway as he pressed into her, pushing her into the cool stone of the building.
"Hey babe, need something?" she asked as she gave her hips a shimmy and wrapped her arms around his neck. Her body tightened in expectation as his body touched hers.
He bent low as though kissing her neck and whispered in her ear. "You need to go back to the Unlit Lantern. If I don't come back in an hour, go to the castle and ask for Dumbledore." He started to pull away, and Faith reached up and caught him by the back of the neck, pulling him close.
"I don't take orders well," she breathed in his ear as she brought her leg up and rubbed it against his hip. Oh yeah, this was a terrible neighborhood because no one even blinked.
"This isn't a game," Severus hissed at her, his anger clear even in his whisper.
"I never thought it was," Faith said as she nipped his ear. "But I'm not leaving you to deal with this, so what are we following? Vampire? One of those inferi-zombies?"
Severus struggled for a second, but Faith easily held him. The boy definitely didn't remember his lesson from their little tussle earlier. After a couple of seconds, he stopped and sighed. "Someone is using a potion. It uses hair from someone to create an illusion. The woman who passed has been dead fifteen years, but I know who had access to her hair."
"So, we're following a big bad?" Faith asked, her mouth right against his ear.
Severus pulled back, and this time Faith let him escape. "Right now we aren't following anyone, and we shall lose her if we do not hurry."
He turned in a swirl of robes and headed down the darkening road. A few random sunbeams slid between the buildings, but the shadows dominated now, and there weren't many lights in this part of the town. Faith slipped her arm into Severus' again as she followed his lead. So they were following a female.
Faith considered the thickening crowds for potential suspects. A few older women with desperate expressions looked through the windows of shops. A girl just a year or two younger than Faith darted down the alley with a look on her face like she expected a father to come popping out of a door any second. Two women sat outside a gray building, chatting. And unlike most of the people around here who dressed like Puritans, these two were showing as much skin as Faith. They both stopped chatting long enough to give her a hard stare. Faith just winked at the working girls as they passed.
Faith could feel Severus stiffen beside her, and she spotted the woman. Immediately, Faith knew something was wrong. The woman looked old... way past Giles old and into Spike old, only without the immortality, but she moved without any of the caution or ache of an old woman. Looking around, the ancient bag checked out the street and then slipped through a door.
"I don't suppose vampire hearing would be one of your many talents," Severus whispered.
"Nope. If anything, I'm below normal in the listening department," she admitted. Severus looked around the street, his hand tightening on Faith's arm as his lips become a thin line.
"You need to go back," he said firmly.
"Not a chance."
Now he turned his coldest glare on her. "This is not a game, and you have no idea of who or what is at stake here. Go back."
Faith brought her hand up to cup Severus' cheek as she leaned in, a lover bending close to whisper nothings, only she had a whole lot of something to say about Severus' sudden burst of chivalry and testosterone. "You're my best chance of getting back to my own world if Willow's magic is wonky, so I'm not letting you out of my sight. And as for what we're facing, I've faced worse."
Emotions darted across Severus' face as Faith watched. He looked around desperately for a second. "I sincerely hope for your sake that you are exaggerating that claim or misunderstanding the danger in our current situation because I would not like to think of worse," he sighed. "If my identity is compromised, you will stay out of it," he said firmly.
"If I have to cut you loose to save my skin, I will," Faith said seriously. "I won't like it, and I'll do my best to try to get you out later, but I'm not into making the grand gestures."
Severus nodded, clearly relieved at her answer, and the boy had some serious issues if his happy place was knowing that someone would abandon him. "Ask for Professor Dumbledore at Hogwarts if something happens."
"You want a guy named Dumbledore to come to your rescue? I hope he's more competent than his name sounds. Then again, me being called Faith does rather disprove the theory that a person's name actually means anything."
For a long minute, Severus looked at her. "I doubt very much that Albus would rescue me," he finally admitted. "However, if my status with certain individuals has changed, as recent events implies, he should know."
Faith had all kinds of answers to that, like how a man who thought he'd been compromised shouldn't be walking in dark alleys without backup, but Severus had slipped his arm around her waist and was hurrying her toward the same door the other woman had vanished into. Oh yeah, nothing short of a sword at her neck was making her leave Severus because whatever was going on, he was just too willing to accept being thrown to the wolves. Maybe she was just a little sensitive considering the number of people who'd tossed her out with the garbage starting with her mother and going up through any number of council members, two watchers, and a manipulative little bitch from cellblock F.
Inside, Faith almost choked on the smell of sharp smoke and something disgustingly sweet that reminded her of marijuana, only marijuana had never smelled that nauseatingly strong. A tiny woman with a pinprick of a mouth painted red slid up to Severus.
"Can I offer you something, sir?" she asked. Faith's hand tightened around Severus' arm. Okay, this she knew. This was definitely a vamp. The small vampire looked at Faith through narrowed eyes.
"Only a place to sit and a drink. I brought my own entertainment," he said crisply. "Some place as private as I can get."
The vampire woman nodded and backed away, her head held awkwardly to the side as she slid backwards with an inhuman motion. "Wait here for a moment, please," she said with a freaky tilt to her body before she vanished behind one of the many curtains that lined the hallway.
In a few places, the blood-red drapes had been pushed back revealing archways and new passages. Faith shook her head at vamp-lady because that was just freaky. She wouldn't have passed for human even in Sunnydale what with the freaky body language, but maybe they didn't need to hide here. No one seemed to be banging down the door and offering to stake the owners of this little fun house. Faith could hear the clear sounds of oral sex—loud, enthusiastic oral sex. Yep, Severus had brought her to a suck house, and sadly, this wasn't even shaping up to be one of her worst dates. Heck, they could get captured and tortured and this date still wasn't hitting Faith's top ten list, and that really didn't say much about her love life lately. No wonder tall, dark, and spooky was making her body sit up and take notice.
Turning to Faith as though saying something, Severus opened his hand and whispered a few words. The dust in his hand transformed into an arrow that slowly rotated until it picked a direction. Severus closed his hand destroying the arrow before he headed in the direction the arrow had pointed. Okay, that was magic Faith could get behind. No mumbo jumbo or Giles trying to explain the significance of something—just an arrow and a nice, clear direction.
She unobtrusively checked out potential escape routes as Severus led them to a small niche with a tacky red velvet couch. Red curtains offered privacy, and Severus threw himself down, faking a carefree attitude so hard that it didn't exactly come off natural. Faith covered his awkward motions with her own sultry dance as she pulled the drapes shut again. When Faith continued her performance, a private lap dance that would have made Xander come in his pants, Severus raised an eyebrow, but Faith didn't pause as she slowly closed in, grinding and swaying as the words from the next cubical drifted in.
". . . didn't get it."
"Fool!" A slap followed the sound of an old and tremulous voice.
"There was a woman there. . . "
Ah, Faith placed the voice. The ever-flustered Aurora from Severus' chambers. The old woman laughed, a girlish giggle filled with madness that sent a cold shiver down Faith's back. She glanced at Severus, but his face was frozen into a mask of indifference, even as his hands now rested on her hips.
"This booth is not available," the vampire woman from earlier hissed as she pulled the curtains back. Faith continued her bump and grind act, backing up only enough to give Severus easy access to his wand as her body blocked his movements. Immediately, Snape's hand slipped inside his robes as he straightened up.
"We grew tired of waiting, perhaps you can show us to another booth," he said smoothly as he stood up. Faith turned slowly, keeping herself between Severus and the vamp woman, her own fingers itching for a stake. When she turned, she found the old woman with the insane laugh standing there, sharp eyes studying her, Faith simply checked her out with all the indifference and contempt a working girl could show to someone who was obviously too old and too poor to deserve her services. When those eyes darted toward Severus, Faith knew they had a problem. Vamp-girl did too because she up and vanished.
"Babe, I'm getting horny here, and you promised me action. A girl can only go so long without, and I'm definitely coming up to that point of not being willing to go without." Faith leered at Severus, catching her tongue between her teeth as she shimmied her body. Look at me you old bat, she thought to herself as she swayed to the music in her own memory.
The old bat in question did. She stared at Faith so hard that Severus' word from earlier floated to the top of her memory: legilimency. Oh yeah, see what you can't have, old bat, Faith concentrated on the new thought. The old bat would never be able to touch Faith's smooth skin. She'd never know the heaven that could be found between Faith's legs because she was old and disgusting. Filthy old bat. Faith let all her disgust gather as she looked at the ratted hair and the blotchy age spots that covered the rough face. Her nose looked like one of those cardboard cutout witches, huge and hooked. She just needed a hairy mole, and she'd be perfectly repulsive.
"Come on, babe," Faith said as she pulled on Severus' robe, urging him to follow the now-vanished vamp to a new booth.
The old woman stepped in their path, her eyes again going right past Faith to focus on Severus.
"Snape," she said, her old woman voice trembling, but then she gave a hyena laugh as she brought her hands up, wand ready.
Immediately, Severus had his own wand out and Faith slid to the side because no way was she getting between two wands. "Bellatrix," he answered with a calmness that was just a little too calm to be real.
Chapter Fourteen
Severus stood, his wand ready, and Faith's whole body tingled, that pre-fight adrenaline running through her, making her want to strike out. At moments like this, she became the fight, or at least she wanted to become the fight. That pure violence, the feeling of muscle and blood and victory, it offered to wash her clean of all other thoughts. But she'd learned a few things since Sunnydale, and one was how to hold back when every cell in her wanted to pound her fists into something.
"I never trusted you." The old woman had a weird simper to her voice that really just wanted to make Faith hit her all the more.
"About which I am entirely disinterested," Severus answered coldly.
"I'll tell Him." The old woman cackled, her voice capitalizing "him" even if Faith had no fucking idea who "him" might be. She was guessing it was going to be one more person she desperately wanted to hit. She glanced toward Severus, looking for any sign that this woman was on the ass-kicking list. He calmly stared ahead, his fingers tight on his wand.
"He knows what I do. You are in no position to judge me."
"Halfblood," she spat. Severus stiffened at the word. Okay, she was guessing that was an insult. Faith had a brief fantasy of showing this old bat what half her blood looked like.
"Sev?" Faith asked as two more wand-holders stepped up behind the old women. One was an enormous man, dark hair and a forehead that stuck out way too far for him to be all human. He seriously needed some plastic surgery. Damn. That boy would never get laid looking like and extra from a horror movie. And he moved like dumb muscle, his eyes focusing right on Severus and ignoring the rest of the room. The second man pinged a little stronger on Faith's radar. With his wand pointed straight at Severus, he studied the room, his watery gaze locking on Faith for long seconds as he took a sheltered position near the arch. With big and ugly in the way, it'd be hard to get to him in time to keep him from using his wand. Faith silently cursed. Glancing at Severus, she gave the man credit for having stones. He still had that same calm expression.
"Who is she?" bat-face demanded.
Okay, no way was Faith staying out of it now, not if she was going to get dissed. Prison had taught her one thing—you let people take cheap shots at you and you're going to be getting shot at all fucking day long. Of course that wasn't the only thing she'd learned. Prison had taught her a lot of shit, including the stupidity of trusting a sweet smile, but right now the not letting people get cheap shots in lesson seemed a little more important because no one in this room had a sweet smile or inspired trust.
"She has a name. She might even answer your questions if you ask *she* nicely," Faith said as she took a step closer. One lunge to break ugly's neck. She could probably grab bat-face before the first spell. The only worry was whether she'd get caught in Sev's crossfire or if the man knew to target the other goon. That worry kept Faith in place, her arms crossed over her chest as she considered the bat-faced woman with contempt.
"It's rude," the woman whined to Severus. He quirked an eyebrow in Faith's direction.
"Yes, I had noticed. I do not employ her for either her conversational skills or her manners. Her skills lie elsewhere. Now, what do you want?"
"You lying dead at my feet," she laughed, and then smiled wide and backed off a step. Faith nearly acted, but Severus' low chuckle stopped her. His world, his game.
"You've wanted that for a long time now, Bellatrix. You are no closer now than ever."
"Oh Snapey," she shook her head. "I'm not fooled you know. You never were one of us. You never quite fit in, too much like that father of yours. And now you're off with filthy muggles. He won't be pleased."
"Then He shall call me," Severus said calmly, and again, Faith could hear that capitalization.
That's when the smaller goon spoke up. "This is entirely too public. We can't afford to end up in The Daily Prophet, not now." Bat face glanced over at him. "If we get caught now, you'll end up back there," he warned. Faith had no idea where "there" was, but the old woman did. Her hand tightened on her wand until her knuckles went white, and her face grew even more cold. This bitch had some serious Drusilla-level mental issues because after a second, she laughed as if that was the funniest thing on the whole fucking planet.
"I would endure that place a thousand years for my lord," she said proudly, practically hissing the words as she glared at Severus.
"Clearly, you are a fool," Severus said, his words crisp. All three looked at him with shock. "You would make unnecessary sacrifices and deny Him his soldiers when he needed them most. Your fanaticism is of no use. Martyr yourself if you will, but I will have none of it," Severus calmly tucked his wand inside his cloak, reaching out a hand for Faith.
She quickly stepped close to him, staying a step ahead so she could react to a threat. None of the three moved. Ugly looked at the other two, confused. Bat-face looked ready to use that wand, her lips parted and Faith could practically feel her desire to rip and tear and hurt. Oh yeah, the bitch had issues. The third one, his wand still out, stepped forward.
"You're protecting that thing that came through from the Moon Magic spell. You have a mudblood in your room. You've warded your room from Slytherins and yet you give that stuffed up headmaster permission to enter. He's been seen coming and going."
Severus stopped, and Faith stopped with him, more than willing to crack a head or two if he so much as whispered the word. Instead, Severus looked calmly at the smaller man. "I am no more concerned about your opinion, Lente, than I am about Belletrix's."
"He wants to run off with his mudblood and warn Dumbledore that we have the one from the Moon Magic spell," Bellatrix said smugly.
Faith felt her heart lurch, but she just continued to glare at the woman without reacting. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Damn boy-toy couldn't even sit in a room without getting kidnapped again. What was it with Buffy's crew? They all got hit with some damn unlucky stick at birth or something. Or maybe it was just hanging with slayers too much because it wasn't like Faith's men had any better track records. Wood made it… what? Three months? Faith felt a twinge from that cold wound, but now was not the time to go crying over dead bodies. They just had to get boy-toy back before he was one more death she had to drag around with her.
Severus chuckled again, a cold laugh that might have made Faith believe the man was evil if she hadn't already seen him tear himself apart over the choices he'd made. "You are too easily threatened, Bellatrix. Our lord gave me no instructions regarding the muggle, and he poses no risk. But as long as it was not I who removed him from Hogwarts, my position at the school is safe enough. Enjoy your time with Mr. Finn. I find him remarkably unremarkable." Severus gave a small push, and Faith moved with him, giving the others a little leer in passing, but then the small one, Lente, was there in their path again.
"He comes to examine the muggle in the morning. Let's all go back to the house and discuss this then," the man suggested, but the wand in his hand, the wand pointed straight at Faith's stomach, didn't seem like a suggestion.
Faith glanced over her shoulder, waiting for the signal to act, and Severus' eyebrow twitched again. The hand touching her back shifted so that Severus gripped her arm and pulled her until Faith was behind him. Oh yeah, the boy might claim to be a bad ass, but scratch that surface and he had the whole chivalry thing going for him. Poser. Faith rolled her eyes and glared at bat-face since that's who was closest.
"Your threats are ridiculous. I am the only one here in a position to help our lord, so I am not afraid to face him."
"You should be. Harry Potter lives," bat-face snapped, the hand without the wand curling into a claw, and Severus used his height to look down at her in disgust.
"I do not presume to make plans without His knowledge. I do as I am told, as should you. Did He send you here, or are you pursuing some agenda of your own?"
Lente answered. "I don't know what's going on, but let's take this somewhere private," he insisted, his eyes darting toward the hallway, and Faith had to admit that she was hearing a whole lot less of the noisy oral sex, so they probably did have an audience—a very silent audience who was probably trying to not get cursed into a bloody pulp. Smart people… or vampires… or whatever the hell kind of weird shit was behind those curtains very silently and carefully not having sex right now.
"You have no authority over me," Severus sounded pretty fucking regal saying that as he took a step forward. Unfortunately, Lente wasn't backing off. Severus ended up standing at the tip of Lente's wand, his cloak catching on the end.
"Do you think we won't curse you?" bat-face demanded.
"Bellatrix, I always count on you to do something entirely idiotic, but Lente knows that I'm telling the truth. Our lord has use of me, so you would not dare harm me."
"I know He has use for you, but that may change when he finds you are hiding filth in your rooms," Lente's eyes darted back toward Faith. Oh, no fucking way was she taking that.
"Look babe, whatever your issue is, let's you and me handle it. I don't mind a little tussle, and I'll enjoy kicking the shit out of you," she offered as she stepped to Severus' side.
"Shut up," Severus offered as he shoved her back again.
"Don't even…" Faith stopped when Severus turned and gave her the sort of cold expression that Faith rarely saw on a human face. Sure, she'd seen that look on Angelus and even that one time when Willow fell off the back of the magic-wagon. But it still stopped her dead. She was looking at a man who didn't care about anything, and that just wasn't the Severus she knew. The man was as fucked up as old bat-face. Hell, get Drusilla here and they could have a regular crazy as bat-shit party. Her slayer sense gave a twinge as she faced a Severus Snape who suddenly looked like he could be the enemy. And then, in a flash, the coldness was gone, and something hot and desperate flashed in his expression before the calm returned.
"A thousand years, dirt like that has hunted us," Lente snarled, his wand shifting toward Faith. "They hunt us and burn us and the Ministry passes laws about how we're supposed to act, about how we're supposed to walk away if they hurt us… if they kill us. Tell me, Severus, what would that wonderful Ministry do if she tried to kill me right now and I cursed her? I'll tell you what they'd do. They'd send me straight to Azkaban. Cursing some muggle… no defense for that, is there? I didn't think Bellatrix was right, but you taking that whore to your bed, your quarters—that's not on His orders and you can't even claim Dumbledore ordered you to it."
"Your logic is as flawed as it always has been, Lente. I was too kind to you in school. You never should have passed potions with such an inadequate mind." Severus' words were soft, dangerous.
"Then explain this," Lente said.
"He can't. He's nothing but a dirty halfblood. He was never faithful to our cause. Curse him. Curse him," bat-face hissed.
Severus gave a snort of amusement. "Yes, she would have you perform the curse and endure His wrath. Bellatrix was always an expert in survival, or she would not be here today. When you face Him, the curse still on your wand, He will not be pleased…" Severus paused and crossed his arms to consider Lente with a small, cruel smile on his lips. "Or merciful."
That made Lente pause, and Faith twitched with the need to act. Now, when doubt would give her a fraction of a second, a hint of an edge, now was the best time. Her hand slid into her jeans after her knife, and Severus' hand found her wrist, holding her in a grip she could easily break, but it was enough to make Faith hesitate. Severus obviously wanted to play this some other way, but Faith wasn't good at plans. The only plan she'd ever liked was the one that said to jump in and fight until the other guy was dead and you weren't. Severus' fingers tightened on hers just a little. Sighing, Faith let her muscles relax, signaling that she would follow his lead. If she ended up dead, she was never letting him forget it.
"I have no reason to fear His visit. So, enough with fighting, let us go to this house of yours," Snape said, tilting his head toward the small man. Bat-face narrowed her eyes and exchanged suspicious looks with the other two. Of course, the big guy was too dumb-looking to actually have a suspicious expression, so he just came off looking constipated. They seriously needed to watch the interspecies breeding, Faith thought to herself as Bellatrix and Lente reached some sort of decision.
Bellatrix brought her wand up higher as Lente reached across and dug around in Severus' cloak fishing for his wand.
"You going to charge him for giving him a quick grope under the robes?" Faith asked with a smirk. Lente found the wand and jerked his hand back. Severus continued to just stand motionless, his arms crossed as he was disarmed.
"Shut up," Lente snapped.
"Small problem, babe, you aren't paying me. Now if Severus gave me something to keep my mouth too busy to talk, that'd be a different story," Faith said as she rubbed her hand up Severus's shoulder. If they were going to play this through, well, Faith could play with the best of them.
"Whore," bat-face said, her voice again the simper of a child.
"Babe, I have the goods to be worth selling," Faith said with a leer and a twist of her hips. Bat-face turned and stormed out of the suckhouse. Lente and ugly goon just stood and waited, wands still out, as Severus turned to follow her, his arm slipping around Faith's shoulders.
"You could attempt some decorum," Severus sighed softly.
"If I knew what that meant, I would probably tell you where to shove your decorum," Faith answered with a sugary cheerfulness that did not match the sinking feeling in her guts as they followed Bellatrix out into the dark night, two armed goons behind them.
"You probably would," Severus agreed, his voice sounding suddenly tired as they stepped off the stoop and headed down the street trailing after Bellatrix.
Chapter Fifteen
Back at the house, Bellatrix seemed to take charge again, and when the potions wore off and that old face sort of slid around, rubber features settling into something younger and infinitely crazier-looking, Faith wasn't exactly reassured. The crazy witch giggled like a girl, her eyes darting around the house, and that damn wand was always in her hand. This bitch had issues to go with her issues.
The house she'd led them to was a big old thing with tall windows, and Faith counted five goons on the way into a living room that would make Giles orgasm what with all the dusty books. Had even more of the damn grandmotherish furniture here and a yellowed chandelier hanging in the middle of the ceiling.
"Charge extra for group sessions," Faith quipped as she considered the various goons with a twist of her hips and an aggressive expression that just challenged them to make a play for her. The youngest one, with a sallow face and a bulbous nose, oh yeah, he was their weak link. He'd fall for her in a second… he was already getting hard for her. She watched his eyes grow wide as he physically twitched, caught between fleeing and jumping her. Thank god for boy hormones, they made men stupid.
"You're not performing for a group," Severus said shortly, his hand still on her elbow.
"You're the boss," Faith shrugged as she looked at Severus, hoping he caught her hint. He gave her a blank expression, but then he'd pretty much given everything a blank expression since losing his damn wand.
Bellatrix fixed her eyes on Severus now. "Weakness. Needing someone, paying them. It's weakness, Snape. I always knew you were weak." Belatrix laughed. "So weak. Our lord is going to see how you're endangering his plan, how you didn't bring the other to us. Your weakness will be the end of you, traitor," she sang.
"I have always known you to hold that opinion; however, it is not the opinion of the Dark Lord. And I rather value his good will above your own," Snape answered coldly. Faith might have thought he was unaffected by the goons, but she felt him tense when an older man with threads of silver in his hair came between them and the door out. Faith might not be as smart as Giles or Willow, but she sure as hell knew how to smell shit when she was up to her neck in it, and this qualified.
"One day, you'll make a mistake," Bellatrix warned in her little girl whine. "Your whore may be the mistake that gets you killed."
"Oh, I have already made many mistakes," Severus answered calmly. "And I can assure you that I shall make more. But more importantly, I can name the many mistakes you have made over the years. Your devotion to our lord does not excuse some of the errors in judgment you have made."
"I don't answer to a halfblood," the witch just about screeched, and Faith found herself tensed for battle--only Severus' fingers tightening on her arm kept her in place. And then that ridiculous smile was back and she sing-songed her words. "Our lord is coming. He's coming here. He's going to know what you have done!" Bellatrix's happy expression creeped Faith out more than all the threats in the world. This bitch was seriously off her trolley. The elevator wasn't even making it past the basement. Hell, she was so nuts that Spikey would be panting after her.
"And when he arrives, he shall find that you have interrupted his plans for nothing," Snape warned.
"We'll see," she smiled insanely. "He'll come, and he'll be able to see into your perfidious heart, half-blood, and then we'll see. Escort Professor Snape and his friend to a room for the night," she said, her emphasis on professor certainly suggesting she had her nose out of joint about something related to the school, but no one had given Faith the decoder ring for crazy girl's head. And now crazy girl was backing up, rubbing her hands in glee. "Our lord is joining us tomorrow!" she almost sang in her joy. Faith glanced at Severus, watching to see how he would play this. Severus stood looking at the crazy bitch for a second before he tilted his head her direction.
"Then I shall retire for a night with Faith. I shall look forward to morning when you will be sorry that you started this insanity," he offered coldly before he rested his hand on Faith's back and guided her toward the two thugs guarding the door.
"We'll see!" the woman said, her childish voice giving Faith an urge to bitch-slap her into taking the whole kidnapping seriously. But instead, she followed Severus' lead and trailed after some neckless thug up the stairs and into a room that was an odd cross between haunted house creepy and old-lady weird. These people seriously needed a makeover show or two in their world or possibly just a good bulldozer. Without a word to either thug, Severus slammed the door so that he and Faith were finally alone in the room.
For a moment, Severus stood, his hand flat against the wood of the door as he just stared at it. Knowing just how he was feeling, Faith just backed up to the bed and sat on the hideous vomit-green bedspread. It took Severus several minutes of just staring at the door before he finally curled his hand into a fist and pushed away from the door to look around. Yep, Faith knew that feeling of being so fucking trapped you couldn't even breathe, of being so fucking caught between throwing yourself against the bars and sinking into a corner and crying that you couldn't even moved.
Been there too fucking much both before and during her prison days. That was the feeling that just about got Xander dead with her hands around his throat because she'd wanted to break down and cry and confess everything and have him hold her and forgive her, and she knew he would. But at the same time, she wanted to blame him and all his fucking friends because they had homes and knew where their next meal was coming from and none of them was ever there when she was alone and fifteen and waking up screaming from nightmares where she wallowed in death. Caught between crying and screaming, she'd just tried to kill him. Faith pulled her legs up under her Indian style and scratched her leg as she watched Severus silently work through his own demons, and not the kind with claws.
He pulled green curtains back and tugged at a window that didn't move. He poked furniture and peered behind a huge cabinet-looking thing. He paced. Pulling out the knife no one had bothered taking from her, Faith cleaned under her nails and waited. She'd gotten good at that.
Finally, Severus pulled out a small bottle and sprinkled the red dust into the air, watching it carefully as it drifted to the floor and joined all the other dust down there. He muttered something, circling the new dirt and watching it carefully on the floor. Faith just picked and catalogued potential weapons: a forgotten fireplace poker, the rope ties on the curtains, a chair that looked fragile enough to smash.
Then again, if these people were afraid of conventional weapons, they would have taken her knife. Those wands were just pissing her off because a knife or a fireplace poker weren't going to match up. Then again, a good throw, and she could probably launch either through someone's throat before he had a chance to fire off some curse. She wondered how many of them she could get before some wand caught up to her. Severus threw more red dust in the air, muttering words that made it sparkle.
Severus had taken her out the first two times they'd tussled, but then those loses had taught Faith something about taking these people out. Close quarters, killing strikes, target the voice and no hesitation—she could probably take three to four before one got her. Problem was, it would only take one hit from a wand to take her out, and her and Severus really didn't know each other well enough to fight in close quarters without accidently taking each other out in the crossfire. She resigned herself to following Severus' play on this one, which meant bluffing their way through. Faith just really hoped that bluff didn't mean throwing Riley to the wolves. All this talk about 'him' wasn't improving her digestion.
"No one is listening or watching," Severus finally announced. With a sigh, he stood up and looked at Faith, his expression unreadable. The man could teach Angel a thing or two about having a poker face.
"Well, this is interesting." Faith stretched her legs out and leaned forward on the bed.
"That would depend on one's definition of interesting." Faith couldn't help smiling at Severus' dry humor.
"Oh babe, I find most any reason to get locked in a room with you interesting."
"I assure you, we do not have an audience here, so you may cease your antics." Severus looked just so damn lost, Faith couldn't resist.
Faith laughed. "You're assuming it's an act."
"I'm assuming that I'm at least fifteen years older than you." Severus sighed and leaned against the tall, carved bedpost as he poked the dusty green bedspread with obvious disgust.
"You know what they say about assuming: it makes an ass of you and me," Faith pointed out as she stood and stretched her back. All that tension with no fight wasn't good for a growing slayer.
"You are an endless fount of irreverent sayings; however, I am not interested in continuing this conversation."
"That's funny because you're looking mighty interested to me." Faith reached out and cupped Severus' crotch with her hand, and he reeled back until he stood near the end of the bed looking vaguely panicked. Oh yeah, boy was hard. Faith had known he would be because he'd been watching her stretch, but damn she hated how those robes hid everything.
"What do you think you're doing?" Severus demanded, and all of the calm and the cool indifference had vanished under a shocked expression.
"Just double checking. With all those robes, it's hard to be sure, but that was interest, Sev."
"And if you hadn't found me hard?" he demanded, but Faith could see the amusement just threatening to make him lose that dour expression he wore. She wondered if his attitude was as fake as her sexual aggression. Fact was that she hadn't spread her legs for anyone since Wood, and she was guessing Severus didn't actually eat babies, no matter how mean he tried to look.
"This is me," she said with a smile and a shrug. "The only man who ever didn't get hard around me was Andrew, and trust me, women don't do it for him. One of these days Spike is going to figure out that Andrew has a fairy-sized crush on him and break all the boy's bones, but aside from Andrew, all the guys like what they see."
"I can imagine how interesting that must make your dinner parties." And there was the Severus she knew, all hard-edged humor and that flat voice of his delivering a stinging insult. Of course, Faith wasn't exactly insulted. Giles had learned that asking her to dinner with any stuffed shirt who needed impressing was doomed to failure. Yeah, Buffy with her blonde shit was a whole lot more dinner-party appropriate than Faith.
"Oh babe, you have no idea. So, is that one of your fantasies, doing it on the dinner table, maybe with all your little friends watching?" Faith gave a twist of her hips and tilted her head.
Severus sighed and considered her with a raised eyebrow. "I assure you, I have no interest in having anyone watch."
"Ah. So you'd prefer it if we just did it right here? That can be arranged rather easily." Faith slid closer.
"I'd prefer we not engage in sexual activity at all," he answered quickly, backing up a step, and again, that glum mask slipped. Faith smiled as she caught a glimpse of the need and the pure panic below.
"You're lying to yourself, Sev." Faith moved in on him, expecting another round of objections and retreat. Instead he stood still as her palm rested against his chest.
He sighed heavily. "It's a skill I have honed over years of practice," he admitted softly.
"Oh, babe. You're just all tied up in there, aren't you? Would it help if you were all tied up out here? 'Cause I have to say, the thought of you squirming helplessly under me, that could work," Faith teased. The softening she'd seen in Severus' expression hardened, and once more she faced that perfected mask.
"I think I've had quite enough of feeling helpless already, thank you."
Faith backed off a step as the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees. "Hey, five by five with me," Faith quickly said, feeling her advantage slip away from her. "You want to work it the other way? Mmmm. I don't normally take the passenger seat, I prefer to guide a guy 'round the curves, but for you I could make an exception." Faith slowly stalked forward again, pressing in when she saw that subtle amusement return to his face.
"You are really quite annoyingly persistent," he sighed, but he didn't give any hint that he was giving in. The man had to be hard, but he just wasn't responding the way a hot-blooded male should, and Faith knew Sev had some hot blood under all that dour. Problem was, she didn't have time to play the game, especially when he wasn't playing with her. She crossed her arms and considered the stubborn SOB.
"You haven't seen anything. See, there's this little thing called breathing. I'm fond of it. And if we spend the night and come out looking like nuns... I don't think I'm going to keep breathing. Although, I have to say, with that robe, you definitely look more nunlike than I do," she offered as she looked him up and down.
"Do I even want to know what a nun is?" Severus asked, but the question didn't have the undertone of humor… it had something closer to distress.
"Probably not," she shrugged. "But the point here is that I figure I can get a little hot and sweaty action with someone who's easy on the eyes and save my own neck, so it's a two for one as far as I'm concerned."
"I hardly think—"
"That they'll kill me? Sev, think about it. This guy who's coming, he likes you, or at least he doesn't hate you which I get the feeling is as touchy feely as this lot gets. But me? Oh, that crazy chick would just love to check out my insides."
"I have no doubt she would—"
"And you said this lot can read minds, so I'm thinking you want to keep the lies as close to the truth as you can." Faith slid closer and put her hand back on his chest.
"That's a safe assumption. You show a clearer understanding of legilimency than Mr. Potter ever managed, but I would never allow—"
Faith held up her hand, brushing her fingers against Severus' lips to silence him. "Stop right there, Sev. Don't go making promises you can't keep. Better yet, don't go making promises you *shouldn't* keep. This shit is big, and you're right in the middle of it, aren't you?"
"I put myself in the middle of it with my foolishness. I was an idiot, an idiot far too afraid to take a stand when it would have mattered."
"Sev." Faith stopped. She knew how he felt, and he had to find his own way out of the guilt choking him to death. "Been there, bought a whole fucking wardrobe of t-shirts," Faith she settled for saying. From the look Severus gave her, he had no clue what she was talking about, but he was smart, he'd get the gist of it. "But you can't afford to make a stupid move now, so if that cow wants to use my guts for Christmas decorations, you're going to let her."
Severus' hands had been moving: smoothing his robes and checking his emply wand pocket and generally twitching. Now they stopped. "You cannot mean..."
"Babe, you know I mean it.
"Mr. Finn would gut me." Neither of them mentioned that Riley had less of a chance of getting out of this than Faith.
"Mr. Finn wouldn't have a chance against you, and he knows it," Faith countered. "And you need to give the boy some credit. He knows the score, and he knows about acceptable losses."
"Perhaps then I am the one to whom you ascribe too much credit." Severus stiffened, his hand grabbing the post of the bed so hard that his knuckles turned white.
I love how you get all your fancy words going when you get your panties in a wad," Faith said with a small smile. "But you know it's the truth. So, since I don't really want to see if divine justice really exists, at least not until I've earned back a few karma points, it seems like bumping uglies is a pretty good idea to me. Not that I think a guy's uglies are all that ugly. Like right now, I'm wondering if you're circumcised. A man who's not is just so much more… sensitive."
I think we should--" Severus stopped.
"We should," Faith agreed.
"I didn't mean."
"Oh, I know what you meant. Just forget them and this weird hang-up you have over our ages and look at me. What do you see when you look at me?" For a few seconds, Severus looked everywhere except her, and Faith finally resorted to reaching up and cupping his cheek with both hands, drawing his eyes to her.
"What do you see?" she repeated softly.
He took a deep breath. "Someone who very well may be part succubus."
"I think that means you like me," Faith said with a smile.
"More than I should, I suspect. I hope you're not planning on checking again," he said with an arched eyebrow that almost could have been a smile.
"I thought I'd make a more thorough examination this time. I always did like playing doctor."
Severus' expression slipped again, the fear sliding through a crack in that smug arrogance he wore around him. "I don't know if I can."
"Oh, babe, you can."
"To save your life?"
Shaking her head, Faith let her hands slide down to his shoulders. Severus was strong… a weak man would have panicked by now. He would have sold her out or gotten himself killed, and from the sounds of it, he'd played this game a long time. But this was a different sort of strength than most men she bedded. There weren't the heavily muscled arms and wide shoulders. He wasn't eager and fighting to press her back into a wall. But his calmness even in the middle of this bullshit attracted her. "Sev, don't think about anything outside this room. This is just you and me, and you can because you feel this between us. I know you do, so just... just let this happen," she asked.
Faith stepped even closer, pressing her body to his and watching the panic growing in Snape's eyes. Bringing her hand up, she rested just one palm against the side of his face. Slowly she used just her thumb to stroke his face, wondering if that mask of his would slide off as he reached orgasm. From the widening of his eyes and the sudden gasp of breath, Faith was guessing that whatever lovers he had in his past, there hadn't been a lot of tenderness there. But then, tender didn't describe most of her sexual encounters either.
She pushed up onto her toes. When she slipped her hand around to the back of his neck, strong hands found her hips, steadying her. Faith opened her mouth just a little and then Severus' lips were on hers. He kissed her hungrily, mouths and bodies pressing together, and for a second, Faith waited to get tossed on the bed. Instead, after that first frantic moment, Severus slowed, his desperation turning to tenderness as he kissed her lips and then her cheek and then his mouth was on her ear, whispering words she couldn't hear or understand.
Faith tangled her fingers in his hair and arched her back at the soft touches.
"I don't--" Severus said, his hands pausing on her body.
"Shhh. Just, just let it happen, okay, Sev?" Faith whispered as she leaned into him, her hands working his robe. "Just let this happen."
Severus shivered and made a sound that Faith couldn't even begin to interpret, something desperate and pained. And then his fingers found her bare stomach, ghosting over her skin reverently and Faith was the one shivering. Slowly, they sank onto the bed, and Faith took her own advice... she just let it happen.
Next