"Damn! "  The on-line classical station she chose to calm her nerves wasn't helping.   It was either too soft or too noisy.  Damn, Pachabel.   And damn Wagner.

She stretched and rearranged the various piles of crap on her desk, ignoring the financial reports on the first quarter results.   Even ETERNIA's tidy profits couldn't interest her.   This would be so much easier if she were home in Montreal.   Spring would be in the air.   She could be at the stable right now taking Bear over some jumps. 

She sighed away from the memory of horse scent and tried to focus on the report before her.   It was a proposal on the effect of their first quarter earnings and where they should be directed.   She also had to send the Bonn office a letter of commiseration on their losses in their cleanup of a neo-nazi gang.  We won, of course, but the gang had been better prepared than they had expected.  They believed that there were no surviving members to spread the word against them.   She had to get there soon.
 

"God", she wished Spike would share his plan.  He obviously had it worked out.  He just oozed cocky confidence.  Vicious glee sparkled in his eyes whenever she brought it up.  He'd just kiss her forehead and say,  'Now, now , love.  It's a surprise.'  He knew she hated surprises, things need it be planned.  He'd just give her a little evil chuckle.  He'd told her it was very simple vampire thing and she'd learn all before the troops were assembled.  Well, they will all be here tomorrow night.

She couldn't stand it.  I've got to beat on something.  I wonder if anyone is in the gym.  She locked her screen and left the office without pause.
 
   
 

The 'danger room' to use a Scoobyism, was thick with vamp musk.  She'd take that any day over the smell her human employees could leave behind.    Vamp musk wasn't a bad smell; it just raised the hair on the back of your neck.  The beings responsible for the smell occupied the open area that was marked with various ball-court lines.  They performed a dance, a graceful battle played out with deadly precision.  It wasn't a battle of equals and the players knew it.  It had the feel of an adult panther teaching a cub.

Locust had the sinuous grace of an Egyptian cobra.  His combatant was Badger, whose compact body looked so human, when compared to her opponent's.  Badger had been her nickname in the forces.   A vamp that had ambushed her squad's little training mission had taken a liking to her 'spunk,' and decided to preserve it for eternity.   Thankfully, her demon hadn't driven away the her army pack mentality or her training.   Even in her youth, she was a valuable asset. 

The elder vampire seemed to have been taken with her spunk, as well.   Judging by his smell, this wouldn't be the only battle they would experience this evening.   Titia smiled at the odd pair.   She didn't mind fraternization amongst the employees, as long as they stayed with the same species.   Thankfully as the Boss, no one ever questioned her on breaking that rule.

She skirted the court and walked over to the left wall as to not interrupt the foreplay taking place.   Centred on the wall was a shallow staging platform held various pieces of work out equiment.    She took out her frustrations on a heavy bag.   Her bare hands assaulting the cloth with knuckle and palm.

She had moved up the attack on her stationary target to kicks by the time the deeply familiar trace penetrated her senses.  "Hello, Dillon," she said without turning.   She had not been in contact with her former lover since her return from Sunnydale.   She hadn't been looking forward to the confrontation.  Dillon. 

She turned to study the handsome noble face.   His long thick dark hair was tied back, his brown eyes hard on hers, his full lips pulled into a firm line.   His nostrils flared.  He must smell Spike.   His musk had surrounded her like a cloak, since she had Claimed him.   They had rarely strayed from each other's sides in the last week.  He must know.

She knew that Dillon had entertained the thought of becoming Master.   He already held some power in being her favourite.   He would lose those privileges.  He is exceptional.  Maybe I could leave him in LA, as second to Locust.   She might not lose so many minions if Dillon provided a buffer.

"Talk is, you've found a Master vampire to take over.   Is it a wise choice?"  His voice was low and seductive, with his faint Spanish lilt.   He studied her, predatory.   He circled in closer, to use those vampiric wiles he had never before dared to use on her. 

She snarled a warning, knowing by the super-real clarity of her vision that her eyes were gold.   He started, but was not put off.  "You could stop this.   I could take over and we could rule."

"You know I won't.   For the same reasons I have always given you."  She took his hand; he licked his lips as his eyes trailed lustily over her body.   She dropped his hand and stepped away.  "You are my favourite for more reasons than your abilities in the sack.  You have so much potential, Dillon.   If you stay here in LA and work with Locust, you will have the opportunity to grow.   By the time the war hits, you could be a primary player."

"You would leave me behind?   What about the rest of the battles we could fight?"  His eyes were hooded as he stepped toward her.   "I've missed you.  Vampires aren't the same.  I miss your heat."   He reached for her.   "Let me show you."

She raised her hands, stopping him.  "We can't work that way any more.   The Power's newest recruit is very jealous.   And I no longer want any lover but him." 

The anger behind his rigid stance told her there was little hope of placating him. He isn't going to survive Spike's take-over.   "Yes, I can smell him on you.   You are surrounded by him.   Does he have you in his thrall?   Have we lost our rational leader?   How can we trust you any more, Latitia?"

"You know that's not true.   If I was weak enough to fall for that, you'd have been leader long ago.   You want to fight?   Is that it?   Would it make you feel better to once again fall beneath my fangs?   I came down here for a fight."   She dropped into a defensive posture. 

"You know that's not the type of fight I was looking for, Titia."  He turned away.  "I will see you tomorrow night."

"Dillon."  He paused.  "You are more valuable alive.  If you go against him, you will die."

"It will be expected that I will challenge.  He is taking away what many besides myself feel is rightfully mine."  His dark eyes were on her again, holding more passion than she ever expected him to know.  She always felt he played at passion.   It was the hint of it and his smell that had attracted her to him.  Like Spike and Angel.  Passion and scent.

"I'm sorry, Dillon.  But I can't wish it could be otherwise.  Even if I did, the Powers have chosen.  Submit and Live."  She turned back to the heavy bag, tears in her eyes, assaulting it with renewed vigour.
 
 
   

"Hello, Kitten."

Titia looked up from where she had been trying to work. "Spike," she looked at the desk clock.  Seven thirty, "just in time."

She watched him as he scanned the room.  "So, this is your office."  He turned from the large wooden functional desk where she sat.   He passed his eyes over the filing cabinet, the curtained window, the bar fridge; and finally to the sitting area, with its two upholstered chairs, cherry coffee table and long overstuffed leather chesterfield.   He nodded, "Just as I pictured it." 

"The reps are all here assembled in the gym.  The appetizers won't hold them for long.   So what's the plan?"

He didn't answer as he turned and locked the office door.  "Let's sit over here,"  he offered his hand as she rose from her chair,  "and I will bring you up to date."   His voice was low as he pulled her into a deep kiss.   The kiss became fierce and hard; a deep rumble vibrating his chest.   He walked her backwards to the sitting area.   She felt his mouth change against her lips.

She stifled a squeak, as she was flung to the couch.  With a snap of his leather coat, he was on her, his face demonic, as that deep growl finally erupted and his fangs plunged into her left carotid. "Mine!"

Her mind exploded in ecstasy and her body sparked with dancing electricity under his Claim.  "Mine!"  He bit her again, deep.  "Mine!"' He bit, painfully, into her trapezius muscle, away from the erogenous zone of her neck, strengthening the Claim with pain as well as pleasure, demanding her submission to accept it's bonds.

She struggled to remain quiet and unresisting, her mind screaming against so complete a loss of control.   He tugged her shoes and leather pants from her.  He pulled her shirt over her head, leaving it entangled in her arms.  Leaving her exposed to his pleasure and torture, as he removed his own clothes. 

"Submit."  He growled, as he lunged into her, leaving her gasping as his coldness penetrated her consuming heat.  "Submit."  His cool lips traced over the hot punctures.

Her will fought him, she tried to suppress it and comply.  I must be in control. "Aah," she gasped.  You don't need to be here.  Let go.   He built up her pleasure until it was a bubble welling up, ready to burst.  A force within her reached up and held her neck exposed.

"Mine!" He sunk his teeth deep in her carotid again, shaking her to enlarge the punctures.  Releasing the pressure, she screamed his name as the climax shattered her will and mind.  His presence glowed white in her consciousness.

"Bloody hell." He gasped, panting into her neck as radiating energy flowed between them.  "I can see you."  They lay together, entwined, neither wanting to disturb the profundity of the moment.

As Titia's brain started to function again, the implications of Spike's timing started to sink in.  "Oh, no." She started to giggle.  It was so simple and profound, and profoundly embarrassing. "That was your plan."

He lifted his head to smile at her.  "Don't laugh, love.  It will work.  It's so blatant, every vamp in the room will understand it."

She sniffed the air, "and every human too."  She heard Dillon's words again 'Does he have you in his thrall?'  "What if they believe that you have me . . . enchanted?" 

He grinned and kissed the frown from her brow.  "That's were part two of my plan comes in."  She could feel him cooling within her again as he kissed the damage he'd done to her neck.  He kissed a trail along her jaw and down the right side of her neck to her breast.

She looked at his exposed throat, running a finger along the fading scars.  She sniffed the fragrant skin along his jugular, kissing it as he started to move in and out of her, again.  She responded by meeting his thrusts. 

His hands forced her hips still.  "Mine," pinning her down and kissing the unmarked areas of her neck. 

"Spike!" She growled in frustration.  The neck before her was surreally clear.   Her face exploded with pain, as she threw him to the floor.

His laugh became a gasp, as she simultaneously thrust down on him and plunged her teeth deep into his neck.  She didn't stop to drink, just plunged her teeth in repeatedly, before she summoned their climax with one last deep bite. 

Spike's Claiming had left her weak, and the strange flow of energy between them left her disoriented as the sharp anger quickly receded.  She licked away his pungent blood, whispering, "Mine." with each lap. 

"You are so easy to manipulate, Kitten."  Spike laughed, as she made a little snap at him.   The resolution at which she saw him finally returned to normal.

"Now what?" She wasn't quite ready to leave their uncomfortable position, between the coffee table and chesterfield.   The exultation she felt was tinted by anxiety and confusion.

Spike ran his hands along her back. "Now, the show must go on.  We are going to show them who is on the top of the food chain."

"I'll have to explain these,"  she said.   He shuddered underneath her, as she ran her fingers down the still open wounds and faded scars. 

"Yes.  You will.  It is part of why they will accept our union and our right to rule.   It will show them that we are equals.  That you're not under my thrall."

She smiled at him and laid her head down on his cool chest, "but I am."

He hugged her and kissed her hair, "There is one more thing."  He reached an arm up and tugged his duster off the chair.   Dugging into the inside pocket, he pulled out a tiny plastic zip-locked bag.  He removed to matching heavy gold bands.  "These are for the humans."  He took her right hand and slid the ring in place, and then put on the other.

Titia stared dumbly at heavily embossed design of an angel and demon in combat that covered a third of the ring.  It had a mediaeval feel.  She agreed with Spike's cavalier attitude toward the inconsequentiality of this human representation of their united state.  Again, he was right.   It was a human icon, a symbol they could understand.

Pulling her back down against him, he kissed her.  "Are you ready?"

Sighing, she broke the kiss and untangled herself from him.   Standing, she offered her hand to help him up.   They hunted for their clothes.  Readying themselves for the show, they collected themselves as best they could.   Titia dug a barrette from her purse and piled the hair from either side of her face on top of her head, to better display the trophies along her neck.   Spike ran his hands through his hair, but wasn't able to tame the blond locks.   Having gained as much dignity as they could out of their tumbled-in-the-hay looks, they left the office arm-in-arm.
 
 

They paused and kissed before entering through the gym's double doors.    Synchronous energy flowed between them as they strode into the chamber.   They were gestalt.  The swish of leather, timed to the solid sound of their stride heralded their approach.   Hisses and growls followed them from the vampires in the audience.   The few humans looked around wild-eyed at their co-workers.

She could feel the effect of their presence as she turned to face her audience.    The angry bite marks on her neck were visible to the crowd for the first time.  The hissing and murmuring grew as this sight was passed back through the crowd.  The agitation in the room grew as some recognized the cocky, confident vampire standing at the unprotected back of their leader.

The roar dulled as Titia raised her hands for quiet.  "Some of you are aware that I have been seeking the perfect leader for you.  One that could weld your power more effectively than I."  There were a few raised voices at this.  Spike's lips pulled into a vicious sneer as he noted the nay-sayers in the front rows.  "I have finally found him.  Some of you recognize him.  I bring him before you,"   she reached her hand back.   He took it as he stepped beside her, "as an equal.   My mate.   Do any object to my right to Claim him thus?"  She growled, her face flushed and painful, as her demon mask swelled in place.  It brought exclamations of shock and surprise from her followers, vampire and human alike.

"I do!" Came the first challenge, from the front row, "You're an abomination!"

She pounced on the challenger, roaring like a victorious lioness as she drove a stake through his heart.  She leaped up amidst dust, to face a second attacker's demonic face.  "Marlik, you always were stupid.  Think you can take me?"  He advanced and was dust before his second step.

"Don't you just love to watch her work?"  Came Spike's commanding voice from the front, drawing the attention from his golden-eyed mate as she prowled through their ranks, looking for further resistance.  "I think she has demonstrated her right.  Are there any here who doubt her choice?"  His voice and attitude accentuated his natural charisma and power.

A voice spoke up, its owner keeping his eyes lowered.  "I heard that you were seriously wounded and were unable to feed."  There was a murmur in the crowd.

Spike laughed as he pounced on a human in the front row, plunging his teeth into his neck.   Then gleefully picking his victim up and ploughing him into the crowd.   He regained the stage at a leisurely pace.  "Some might say the accounts of William the Bloody's wounds were greatly exaggerated.   I feel great.  Thanks for asking."  He licked the blood from his lips.  "Are there any among you that question my right to Claim her and take the place of Master at her side?"  Titia stepped from the crowd and into his arms.   He lowered his head and kissed his marks on her neck.

There was a great growl from the side, and a darkly handsome vampire walked through the path created before him by the crowd, his beautiful face shifting as he reached the front.

"Dillon," Titia whispered with a sigh.  Spike nodded.  She shook her head as she stepped behind her mate.

Spike shifted his features as he approached his challenger.   They came together snarling.   Dillon managed to land several blows.  But, Spike had a half-century on him and was by far the superior fighter.   He quickly subdued his opponent.  Raising his hand, he caught the stake Titia threw him without taking his eyes from his rival.

"Sorry, mate."  He plunged the stake into Dillon's heart.  "It sucks to lose the girl."

The hall was silent.  Most knew Dillon was first among them, and their leader's favourite.

Titia took the stage again,  "For those of the human persuasion, who may not have understood our little tableau, I would like you to welcome, William the Bloody."  She took Spike's hand. "Spike is my 'husband' and, as of five minutes ago, accepted as the Master of our forces."  She smiled at him, then at her audience.  "I would like to assure you that the rules have not changed, despite my mate's little demonstration.  Are you okay, David?"  Spike's human victim, shaken, nodded his head warily.  "My William has a flare for the dramatic, in this case a necessary one."

She scanned the room.   It was calm, but there would still be a few problems yet. "David, Percy, Kramer, Locust and Matthews.  I'm calling a meeting in the boardroom, in an hour.  Montreal, Bonn and Sydney, our meetings will be an hour after sundown tomorrow, as planned.   LA, be back here by one.  Your leaders will speak to you then."

They left more leisurely than they had came, arm-in-arm, to the same rhythm.
 
 

Titia sighed, as they entered her office.  Spike kept her arm and led her to the chesterfield that they had only recently vacated.   He lit a cigarette and grabbed an embossed brass coaster as an ashtray.   She could feel him still vibrating from the excitement.

"Sorry, pet."  He said, turning his large grey eyes on her.  She took his hand, "I told you he was unlikely to back down."   He blew out a jet of smoke.

"I know.   I didn't really think he would.   It makes it worse really.   It means he was all the more worth saving.   If he'd only been a little older, or I had beaten him a bit more.   I don't know.   He might have bided his time and had a chance to come around."  She shook her head.  "His death cemented your mastery.  So at least it wasn't a complete waste.  Now, the humans."  She sighed and lowered her head to his shoulder, resting her brow against his cool neck.  "This will be a little trickier.  There may be problems now that my humanity is in question.  We can't afford to lose them or their skills."

He stubbed out his cigarette, and blew out a last jet of smoke before drawing her closer.  "You have to convince them that you are still whole heartedly in support of the cause."

"And you will have to convince them that they're not perceived as a snack."  She laughed at the memory of the vicious glee in his eyes, the gore on his face.  Her hand traced the wounds on her neck.

"It worked.  I can bite if I don't intend harm.  I was prepared for one hell of a headache.  It had been my main worry that I'd be asked that before taking on the challengers."  He hopped up and went to the bar fridge.   He grabbed a bag of blood and downed it.   Wiping his mouth, "how long do you think the meeting will last?"

"I can't see us getting out of here before midnight."  She told him as he settled back down next to her.

"Let's keep it as short as possible, Kitten."   He wrapped his arms possessively around her and kissed her neck.

"Oh, god."  She gasped at the intensity of his touch.  She had been so focused in the gym that the strengthened response to his kiss had been noted but deeply suppressed.  She ran her fingers through his hair as her lips found her own marks.

"Oh, fuck," he gasped into her neck; his attentions became more rapid, until they were once again naked and panting on the cool leather on the couch.

Forty-five minutes later, weak and exhausted, but smiling like children with a new toy they again tried to ready themselves for the outside world.   Spike was unable to tame his spiky blonde locks this time,  and Titia's silk shirt was rumpled beyond smoothing.   Her panties were not anywhere to be found, leaving her to dress in the regimental style her lover had always favoured.

She felt the most anxious at their smell.   Being newlyweds, the signs of recent sexual activity might bring leers and snorts of disgust, but would be overlooked.   The incredible pungency of Spike's musk and her own hormone-scented sweat was redolent in the air.   It would be perceivable to the most olfactorilly impaired.   It was embarrassing.

Other than a vain annoyance of his hair, Spike showed no sign of awkwardness at his state.  Ah, for some vampire sensibility.  She shook her head and pulled herself erect and tried to copy her mate's air of nonchalance.

"Right then."  She smiled at Spike, as he offered his arm.  Taking it, she led him to the boardroom.

She was so glad she never had time to follow through on the plans  to shrink this main meeting room.  It still had the large corporate feel from the high tech firm that had previously tenanted the space.  It had allowed the lovers to keep their distance from the seated humans and Locust.

All eyes were on them as she led them through her reasons for Spike being the only candidate for the job.  "I was sent to him by the Powers.   As I have said before They are always right.   Remember how many times Their interference has saved our bacon."  She looked around the room.  "Any questions?"

"So you're married?"  Said the dark curly-haired woman called Matthews.  She had been their inter-business co-ordinator for five years now.

"To vamps, it goes a bit deeper than that.   It's not a formality."  Titia turned to the pale luminescent being, sitting apart from his human co-workers, "Locust, you are likely the most knowledgeable.  Please give us the vampire perspective."  She tried to remain still as she felt Spike begin to pace behind her.

"There are few things that Vampires traditionally hold . . . ah, sacred, for lack of a better term.  The strongest and most common is the bond between Sire and Childe.   Many of you already know my thoughts on the downward trend there.  The second, and ever more rare, is the bond between Mated pairs.  These are both bonds of blood."  Locust readjusted his lounging position.  "There is no adequate metaphor for it in the mortal world.   It is eternal and profound.  Unlike the Childe/Sire bond, the Claimed bond grows with renewal and age.  This is one of the reasons it's so rare, the loss of a Mate can be devastating to the remaining one.   The other reason for its increasing rarity, is that it is the ultimate acceptance of devotion and trust.   Both qualities rarely survive the Turning."

Locust's normally unreadable face had taken on a sullen quality in Titia's eyes.  Is it possible he is speaking from experience?   This may be part of the reason he is with us.  She would have to find a tactful way to bring it up in private.  She continued to observe him as he finished.  "The reasons for Claiming are simple, beyond the emotions necessary to bring it on.  Someone to watch your back in the hunt and better control over the legion or clan."

"So that's why you did this?  So you rule the vamps as a clan,"  interjected Percy.

"No.  My timing in returning Titia's Claim was to make sure the evidence to the bonding was strong and inescapable." Spike replied.

"William was sent to me because my energy toward the cause was failing.  He is my reward and my strength.  And, he is the right Master for our minions.  I believe you misread me, while our union is necessary to control the troops, it is not to increase my power over you.  The fight we wage must be done as a team.  It's not my private war.  I may be the one who was directly Called, but every one in our organization is here for a reason.  That reason is their own calling.  I hope no one doubts this."

They all seemed to accept this and had put on their boardroom meeting faces, except Locust.  His dry raspy chuckle broke the silence, "What I find the most interesting is how the humans are more interested in vampire relations than the changes so evident in our fearless leader."

Titia dipped her head and took a sighing breath.   For a minute there I thought I had escaped this.  "I don't believe the changes are new.  I believe that this is the way I have been since the Powers changed me.  The vampire's demon that my mortal body houses was always the source of my power."

Locust smiled like the evil serpent he was.  "But it seems to have gained it's own aspect.   Pray what could have occurred to allow it to come the fore after all these years."

"Locust," Titia growled, already used to the preternatural sound it now contained.  "You're evil."  His grating laugh was joined by a deeper one from behind her.   She turned to the humans gathered at the end of the table to the right.  All were looking at her expectantly.  She sighed, "Spike made me mad.  Well, . . . in a vampiric way."  She stuck her tongue out at the ancient vampire and stepped back to take William's hand.  "I think that pretty much sums it up.  I will be seeing you all at various meetings tomorrow to cover the clean up at Montreal and Bonn.  Have a good night."