Watford Tales

In the Dark

Baz

I wake on a cold cement floor to someone patting my hand and calling my name. It's Mordelia. I open my eyes and it makes no difference. The darkness is complete. I can smell blood, though. Bunce's probably. I hear her stir and moan across what sounds like a fairly large space. Crowley, what a disaster.

Where's Simon?

Mordelia's still patting my hand and I sit up with a groan and pull her towards me. I don't think I'm really hurt, just banged up, and everything aches. My fangs want to pop with the smell of the blood but I manage to keep it together, thank Merlin. Mordelia is shivering in my lap.

"You all right?" I whisper to her.

"Yes," she whispers back.

"He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"Who?"

"The Mage. Nico. Anyone."

"I only ever saw the man with the holes in his mouth. He was scary. And I was cold. I'm still cold, Baz."

I chafe her arms and try to warm her by pulling her close to me, but of course, I'm a cold blooded bastard and not much good for that. She smells different, the usual floral soap scent I associate with my sisters is replaced by a more basic smell of unwashed little girl. She buries her head in my shoulder and starts crying. I hear Bunce moan across the room again.

Where. The fuck. Is Simon?

"All right, Bunce?" I say, hoping it's true. She moans again. Shit. She must've taken a bad hit to the head.

"Baz?" says Simon's voice, thank Merlin, from another corner of the room or dungeon or whatever we're in. Basement probably.

"Here," I say. I hear him get up with a moan and then stumble across the floor toward the sound of my voice. My eyes are adjusting to the dark and I see the outline of his wings then his tail whipping around, feeling for me.

"Where are you?" I hear him whisper.

"Here," I say again and he grabs my shoulder and finds my mouth and kisses me, once. And I let him. Weakly. But I'm so relieved he's okay I don't even care.

"Mordelia's right here," I say. "Go check on Penny. She's not really responding."

"Simon?" I hear her say. Simon starts stumbling toward her.

"Here," I say, shoving Mordelia at him. "Warm up Mordelia." He's radiating heat as usual. "I can see Penny better than you."

I approach Penny. She moans and half sits up.

"Bunce," I say. "You doing okay?"

"Baz," she say weakly.

The smell of blood is stronger close to her, and fresh, and then, damn, my fangs do pop but I just ignore them. No one can see anyway, it's so dark.

I pull off my ripped shirt and wrap it around her bleeding head as well as I can, tying it up tightly to try to stop the bleeding.

"Ow," she says as I work.

"It's for your own good," I tell her. "There. Feeling all right?"

"A bit wobbly," she says, "Where are we?"

"The basement of the hotel, I think," I tell her. "Simon and Mordelia are right over there."

"Hey Penny," comes Simon's voice out of the dark. "You okay?"

"I think so," she says. "You?"

"Yeah," he says.

"I'm okay, too," pipes up Mordelia.

"Of course you are," I say. "Penny, do you still have your ring?"

"Yes," she says. "They must not have realized it was magic."

"Simon, do you have your wand?" I hear him feeling around.

"Nope," he says. "I can still call my sword, though."

"We've just the ring,then," I say. "And the sword. And Simon."

"Unchanneled Simon," says Penny.

"Better than nothing," I say.

"Thanks," says Simon.

"What's going to happen, Baz?" comes Mordelia's voice, small and scared.

"We're trying to figure it out, love," I say. I stride over and take her from Simon. My eyes are definitely adjusting to the nearly pitch dark. I bury my nose in her hair and breath in the little girl smell of her. It's strangely comforting, and my fangs pull back. She's not shivering any more. Simon puts an arm around me and I smell his smoke. His warmth envelopes me.

Simon.

"Do you think we could blast out of here?" I ask, in a low voice.

"Probably," he says. "Maybe you could use Penny's ring. But then what? It'd be nice to know what we were blasting into."

"Crowley," I say. "What a mess."

"I'm scared Baz," says Mordelia.

"Don't be," I say. "We've got this far. We're going to get out of here."

*********

Penny and Mordelia are slumped on the cold cement floor, their arms around each other, dozing. I think Penny's lost a lot of blood. She seems weak.

Simon and I feel our way around the dank, pitch black room. It's definitely a basement. Cement floor. Rickety stairs leading to a firmly locked heavy door. It's nearly completely empty. Some old sacks and boxes against a wall. Nothing we can really use. There's a few rats lurking in a corner. As no one can see anyway, I grab them and drain them, quietly as I can, slaking my thirst. For now.

"Baz, c'mere," comes Simon's voice, low and urgent, from under the stairs.

He's found a stick. He grabs my hand and for a moment, his magic glows over both of us, casting the room into an eerie green light. Then the light is gone and he hands me the stick.

"Try it," he whispers. He's still holding my hand and I feel the magick pulsing from him to me, through my body, and out the end of the impromptu wand. I sweep it through the air and a few green sparks come out. Good, that's something. I give his hand a squeeze back, and then his mouth is on mine, and Aleister forgive me, I'm kissing him back. The relief and the goodness of it are flooding through me, his hand snakes to the back of my neck, and he's moving his chin against mine, like he does, and we just keep going. At last he pulls back and whispers in my ear, "I just don't care Baz," he says. "If you bite me, we'll deal with it. I'm not afraid of you. I've told you and told you. I never have been and I never will be."

"You're insane," I say.

"I'm in love with you," he says. "I need you. I can't face him again without you."

And that cold heavy weight that's been sitting in the center of my cold, cold heart just melts. I love him past all reason. I feel for the mouth guard Agatha gave me, still tucked deep in my pocket. We'll work it out.

"Okay," I say, and I sag against his shoulder. His wings enfold me. I'm home in his arms. Thank Merlin.

"Good," he says. He holds me close and relaxes against me, in the soft, forgiving darkness. And in that moment, holding him, I feel our two hearts beating as one, my icy, undead one, and his fiery, dragon one. Time stands still. This is all there is. It's eternal, beyond time. Beyond sex and fear and fighting and death. Beyond revenge Just us. Just.....love.

A moment later his mouth nuzzles into my ear. "Let's get the fuck out of here," he says.