Cupidity - chapter twenty three

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Previous chapters here


All comments and feedback gratefully received!




Angel opened his eyes and felt like he was still asleep. He watched little shadows shift on the ceiling. He didn't think he could sit up, and he didn't want to try.

The bed dipped beside him, and Robin's hand settled on the top of his head. "Well. Was it good for you?" Robin said.

Angel looked over at his blank face and couldn't tell if he were joking or angry or what. He wasn't sure he cared right now. He felt too blasted to care. Empty, like she'd scooped out his guts and scoured his insides clean.

"Best I ever had," he croaked.

Oddly, Robin's expressed seemed to ease. "Yes, of course. She would be."

"I thought I was gonna die. She scared the fuck out of me."

Robin stroked his cheek. "And me as well."

Angel twisted his body until he could rest his head and arms across Robin's lap. He closed his eyes and felt himself slip away again while Robin stroked his hair.

When he woke again, it was dark, and Robin's hand was still. Angel looked up at him. His eyes were closed, and he was slumped against the headboard, asleep.

He checked the clock. It was past eight of what had to be the next night. He'd slept all day. He still felt exhausted, but less like his bones would crumble if he tried to stand up. There was a carafe of water on the bedside table, and he drank almost the whole thing.

When he turned the lights on, the first thing that caught his eye was Eos's golden bow and quiver, lying on the table amid the remains of their room service dishes. "Wow," he whispered.

He couldn't believe it'd actually worked. Had it worked? He'd got her blood all right, but it wouldn't do them much good in his stomach. Or. Wherever it'd ended up. He shuddered. The taste was still in his mouth, sweet and unreal. He ate the remains of a croissant and brushed his teeth, but it didn't help much.

"Robin," he said quietly.

Robin's eyes opened, and he licked his lips. "Do you feel better?"

"Yeah, a little. You okay?"

"Only tired."

Angel sat down heavily beside him. "Jesus. I can't believe I slept with your mom. We should be on Jerry Springer or something."

Robin was quiet for a minute, and then he said, "I think I would enjoy seeing my mother on that show. But only from a safe distance."

Angel would've laughed, but he was too damn tired. "Yeah, like a couple miles. We should eat or something."

Robin nodded. "And then we should go and see Alberich again."

***

There was no arch in the side of the mound this time. They crept through that cramped, dark corridor and emerged in the main room. There was a fire in the fireplace, and the tea set sat on the small table in front of it.
Angel frowned at the tea pot. He didn't remember it having red flowers on it. He felt Robin tense beside him.

"Stay here," Robin said.

"Oh, not on your life."

They both crept forward, a step at a time. Robin seemed to be testing the floor as if it might suddenly give way. They were close enough now that Angel could see those weren't red flowers on the tea pot, though they were definitely red. He fought the urge to grab Robin's sleeve and pull him away. He stepped forward instead.

There was more red on the floor, mostly dried, spatters and streaks. There were pieces of...something. Angel didn't look too closely at those in case they turned out to be what he was afraid they were.

They moved out farther into the room, past Alberich's chair. Alberich's head sat on one stool, long hair flowing down to brush the floor. His neck ended in tatters of flesh and dried blood. His eyes were open and empty.

Robin stepped forward and closed them. Angel turned away to be sick in a corner, but there was blood there too, and...other things. There was no piece bigger than his hand. He closed his eyes and swallowed hard.

"Jesus." His voice was shaking. "Jesus, what happened?"

"My mother and her women hunt like this sometimes. But she wouldn't... Not Alberich. Not like this, with no warning."

"Rose."

"I think so, yes."

Robin took his arm and guided him back outside, where Angel entertained the idea of being sick for real now that he had a place to do it that wasn't on Alberich. Instead, he sat down hard in the grass and held onto it like he'd fall off the planet if he let go.

"She wasn't always like this, was she?" Angel said.

Robin wouldn't actually look at him for several moments. Instead he rubbed hard at a smear of blood on the back of his hand.

"No," he said, eventually. "It's only since she touched you."

"We've got to stop her." It hadn't been real before, not properly, not even watching her kill that guy. Angel thought about what Robin had said before-- that if she were human, she'd be easier to kill. "I mean. We don't have a choice, do we?"

"I don't think we do," Robin said. "Mother will not be happy when she finds out."

"Oh, fuck. She's not gonna think we did it, is she?"

"No. She knows there's nothing either of could do to hurt him. Let alone this."

They were both quiet for a few minutes. Angel listened to the sound of the wind through the grass. He couldn't hear the goat's bell. Finally he spotted its body half hidden by the grass a few yards away. Flies buzzed around it.

"I kind of liked him."

Robin nodded slowly. "He was almost kind at times."

They walked back to the car in silence, and Robin started them along the road back to town. All Angel could think about was that it hadn't smelled at all. If anything, there had been a trace of perfume in the air; lilies, or violets.

"I don't know how to make the spell without him," Robin said.

Angel felt like Alberich should've gotten more than five minutes of silence, especially after dying like that. But there just wasn't time. That could've been Neil, or his mom, or Marco and his wife. Anyone.

"Gimme your phone," he said. "I think I know someone who can help us."

***

They stood outside Jenny's favorite bar. "Just wait here a second, okay?"

"Why?" Robin said.

"Because she looked kind of creeped out by you when you were a hundred miles away. I just want her to have some kind of warning before you walk in."

"Too late," Jenny said, from just behind them.

"It's okay," Angel said. "He's not actually that Robin Goodfellow. He told me himself."

Robin gave him a look, but Angel just shrugged.

"Well," said Jenny. She gave Robin a doubtful once over. She had her backpack and stick with her, accessorized with a plastic bag that bulged with shopping. "How bad is it?"

"Reasonably bad," Robin said.

"Seriously fucked up," said Angel.

She looked between them. "Let's have a beer. I certainly need one and I think you both do, too."

Surprisingly, Robin followed her into the bar as meekly as a lamb. He paid for the beer too, and they got tapas. Sitting at one of the tables, surrounded by people, Angel could almost trick himself into thinking that his life was nothing more than this. He was out with his friends and they were doing nothing more exciting than having a beer and a nice time. Except that when he closed his eyes he saw Alberich's teapot, spattered with red things that weren't flowers.

"Tell me," said Jenny, touching his hand.

So they did. Robin did most of the talking. Angel slumped at Robin's side and listened, wondering if he was going to be able to tell anyone else about this, ever. He imagined writing Neil about it. Hi, I screwed the fairy queen, and her son too!

Robin sounded nuts, from an objective point of view, which Angel was failing to have. He was too scared. He drank his beer too fast and tried to pay attention.

"So, let me get this right, you're using socks in your spell?"

"Yes," said Robin. "Angel said so."

He sounded weirdly emphatic, like just because Angel said it, it must be right. Angel wanted to hug him.

"Huh. Magic. It's unpredictable," Jenny muttered. "And you said it needed her blood?"

"I have it. Uh. Sorta."

"Sort of?"

"I...kind of drank it?"

Jenny stared at them. "Well. Way to leave out the best part of the story there, bucko."

"Will my blood work?" Angel said, quickly, because he couldn't see anything good coming out of her calling Robin bucko.

She was quiet a second. "I don't think you'll need it as an ingredient. You have it in you. Just make sure you're the one who shoots the arrow."

"I can't shoot!"

"Oh, I don't think you're going to have a problem with that."

He was pretty sure she was wrong there, but it didn't seem like he had a choice. "Fine, whatever. So it'll work?"

"I'll need to think about this." She stared at the wall for a few seconds, eyes glazed and mouth slightly open like she was having some sort of vision, or possibly a stroke. "Yes. Okay, I think it's doable."

"Your thinking didn't take long," Robin said, frowning.

"The bigger the problem, the less you should think about it," Jenny said. "At least where violent and nihilistic supernatural beings are concerned."

Robin drew his brows together. "Perhaps you have a point," he said.

"Have you got what you need?" Jenny said.

"No," said Robin.

"Um, yeah, we have," said Angel. He rooted in his pocket and pulled out a pink cashmere sock, a couple of coins and a tea bag.

"What about the tears?" Jenny said.

"Can we just use an onion or something?" Angel said.

"If you want the spell to not work at all, yes," said Jenny.

Angel looked at the random objects on the table. There were plenty of things he could cry about, but he just never had. What was the point? It wasn't like crying would ever help with anything.

"Can they be mine?" Robin said, quietly.

Jenny sipped her beer. "Considering the nature of the problem, yes," she said. "I think they would do very well. In that case, I think we'd better get on with it."

The bow was wrapped up in a hotel towel in the trunk of the car. The three of them drove out to the fields again. Angel was in the backseat again, of course. He sighed to himself.

When they got there, he could still see traces of Mariposa's circle traced in the dirt. It was a shock to remember that had all happened only the day before yesterday. Jenny herded them inside it and redrew the scuffed out sections with the toe of her shoe.

"Is this why we're here?" Angel asked.

"It's a good place. It's been used for this kind of thing a lot. Well. Not exactly this kind of thing, but close enough."

She took a couple of sticks, a jar of olives, and a bottle of saffron out of her shopping bag. She shoved the sticks into the ground and suspended the bag between them. "Think of it as a bubbling cauldron if it helps," she said.

"What are the olives and saffron for?"

"My dinner. Ready?"

"Ready as we're gonna be."

Jenny nodded. "Don't expect anything too fancy. It's not like the movies."
She drew a little rune in the dirt and muttered something not English under her breath as she knelt beside the shopping bag cauldron.

"What's that mean?" Angel said.

"Nothing."

"Bless this space and look favorably upon our undertaking," Robin said. Jenny glared at him.

"Heh. Sounds like the movies so far."

"I can't help how I was taught, shut up."

She closed her eyes. Within a few seconds, Angel felt something gathering around them, like a storm. There was a strange pressure in the air. He looked overhead for clouds, but the sky was clear.

"Get those ingredients out," Jenny said.

He laid them out in a row. They didn't look very impressive. The teabag in particular looked like it had no business being here. "Now what?"

"I need the base ingredient," she said, and looked at Robin. She reached out and pressed her thumb between his eyes, so lightly that she hardly seemed to touch him.

His eyes shimmered and tears spilled down his cheeks.

"Oh," he sobbed. "No."

"I just need the one, little bird." Jenny swiped her thumb across his cheek and flicked it into the bag. Angel stared between them. She shouldn't know that name. Angel shivered.

Robin looked stricken, for a long terrible second, and then he put a hand over his mouth and turned away. Jenny took the tea bag and tore it open, so that its powdery dark flecks rained down. She flipped in the coin and took the crumpled sock by its toe and dropped it in. The plastic rustled as it landed and Angel had a sudden vivid memory of sitting on Robin's lap in Burberry, letting Robin dress him up like a doll.

"The essence of your life," she said, which sounded so fucking stupid, because there was just pointless crap in that bag. But when she looked at Angel her eyes were darker somehow, and she looked bigger than she had a minute ago, more solid, and her edges more defined against the leaves and the trees behind her. The pink of her cheeks was too bright. "These are the elements from which everything flows."

The flimsy sides of the bag bulged, like it was full and about to burst, and Angel didn't know how that could be even possible. Just behind him, he could hear Robin's muffled sobs.

"His heart is open," Jenny said. "Just for a little while. It'd be cruel to leave it that way forever."

The pressure in Angel's ears hurt now. The sky had flushed pink. Jenny wasn't quite Jenny anymore. Her face wavered in front of his eyes, just as if heat was baking up from the ground. He couldn't feel any heat though.

"Will he be okay?" he said. That half-choked sound was hurting him.

"All magic is bargaining. We all pay. But, yes, probably he will."

He didn't like that 'probably'. She tied the handles of the bag into a knot and gave it to him. It dragged his hand downwards like it was made of iron. He didn't want to be touching it, or even near it. The plastic was greasy and warm in his hand and the bag twitched like something was in there, wanting to get out.

"I don't want it," he moaned, staring down. "Jenny, please."

"Keep it with you," Jenny said, her voice slowing. "It's your power and your protection." Her head drooped, and her knees buckled and she sat down with a jolt. "Everything will probably be all right," she said, before tipping slowly backwards.

"Jenny?" Angel knelt. "Fuck. Don't give out on us now. Are you okay?"

Jenny's eyes cracked open. She pointed to the towel-wrapped bow. "Aim for the heart," she croaked, sounding like herself again. "Obvious, but people do forget."

"Maybe to you," Angel said. "What's wrong with you? D'you need some kind of, uh, potion?"

Jenny waved her hand. "No, I just need a lie down and some aspirin. I'll be fine. You'd better go and do whatever it is you're planning to do next."

"Yeah."

That would be great, if only Angel knew what that was. Robin was watching him, his face wet with tears. He wasn't making any more painful sounds though.

"Hey," Angel said.

Robin scrubbed at his face and avoided Angel's gaze. "I'm all right," he said, in a throaty voice.

"Yeah, because you look it." But he touched Robin's arm. The bag twitched against Angel's leg, as if it was impatient. "Let's just get this over with?"

Robin nodded and picked up the bow, unwrapping it. He slung it over one shoulder and then picked up the towel and laid it over Jenny, tucking it around her. She was snoring a little now. Then Robin took the arrows and dipped them one by one into the bag. They shone when they came out.

The tips of the bow were sharp and wicked-looking and they gleamed. Angel knew he should feel more scared then he was. Instead, the sight of the bow and its quiver of arrows made his stomach lurch suddenly with something more like excitement. He only had a moment to wonder about that, and what Eos might've done to him, before Robin took his hand and pulled him from the world.