Access All Areas Chapter 15
27 Aug 2007 06:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
curiouswombatIt's been another nice day here - dry, temperature about 66-68F, 18 - 19C, sun shining on and off - that's a whole week of more or less summer. Been good drying weather - I've been busy washing the bathroom mats, cushion covers, all sorts!
D-d is due back from the Leeds Music Festival tonight - I just got a text to say she was safely on the boat, and as it isn't very windy I'm expecting it to make good time, so she'll need picking up about 9.45. This is the first music festival she has ever been at where she hasn't needed her wellies!
apart from all the washing, and a bit of baking, I've finished the next chapter of Access All Areas - it is beneath the cut.
Chapter 15, word count 2,750, chapter is PG, story is NC17.
Previous chapters are here in Memories
The last chapter ended Buffy has been in touch and she thinks that the Bringers may be abroad......
“Sodding, frigging, buggering Hell, Watcher!” Spike swore, as soon as they were in the back of the car. “Why don’t you rustle us up a fucking dragon while you’re at it? Let’s have a proper party!”
This outburst actually made Dawn smile. “I thought you’d been there and done that, Spike?”
“Yes, well,” Giles spoke, saving Spike from answering that comment, “Buffy rang me because she had had a dream, and she feels that it was a Slayer dream. None of the others seem to have reported a similar experience to their Watchers; none of the girls who fought the Harbingers in Sunnydale as Potentials, and who would recognise them, seem to have dreamt about them. We will have to see if we can make some sense of what we have when we get to the hotel.”
Dawn tried to concentrate on the city that they were driving through. The others had landed at Atatürk Airport, but their flight came in to Sabiha Gökçen and so they had further to drive to reach the heart of Istanbul. Lights showed buildings that were mostly not unlike many other cities, but then suddenly they were climbing up onto a bridge, she could see light far below shimmering off water, and she realised that they were crossing the Bosporus. The breath-taking beauty of the bridge and the city by night almost took her breath away. She realised, as they dipped back down to firm ground, that she had briefly been in Asia.
‘Famed Byzantium’, she thought to herself, ‘under other circumstances this would be so exciting - in a more normal sense of exciting. Still, I guess it can just be one of those places Spike and I will come back to one of these days…’ She dragged her attention away from the view and listened to the conversation between Spike and Giles.
“Willow has got a trace on Ethan quite easily,” Giles was saying, “but we need to be somewhat circumspect. Dashing in and killing him, without knowing who else knows what, would be foolhardy. You will need to control yourself for a little, please, Spike.”
That last sentence was in Giles ‘brooking no argument’ voice, Dawn thought; and while Spike was grumbling about it she was amused to realise that he was agreeing. Sometimes Spike could cope with logical argument a great deal better than you might expect.
………………
“Faith called,” Willow greeted them, as soon as they closed the door of the hotel room behind them. Faith, unlike Buffy, was still an active Slayer. She’d moved around, had a number of Watchers and a number of lovers, but had had the same Watcher now for three years – Annie was a couple of years younger than Faith, had similar tastes in most things, and they had forged a good working relationship.
“She’d been up all night, and slept for a long time, but when she woke up she’d been dreaming about Bringers,” Willow told them. “Annie decided they’d better inform Huscote,” she went on, referring to the large country house that now housed the Watchers’ Council headquarters, “and when Andrew heard he suggested calling us here. I’ve recorded Faith’s description so that you can check it against Buffy’s,” Willow concluded.
“Can we go put our bags away and then eat while we think?” Dawn asked, wishing the world would just slow down for a bit.
Eventually they ate in Giles room, on a higher floor than Dawn and Spike’s room or that of the two witches, with the curtains open so that they could look out across the rooftops of the older buildings that predominated in the surrounding the area.
“Faith’s description does indeed agree with Buffy’s rather closely,” Giles mused, “and yet none of the others seem to have had anything similar occur. I wonder why?”
“Perhaps,” Mhairi said slowly, “they were the only Slayers at the time?”
Giles looked puzzled, his forehead creasing up as he stared blankly at Mhairi, and it was Dawn who was the first to understand Mhairi’s point. “You mean they’re seeing something that happened, not something that’s going to happen?” she asked.
“Bloody hell!” Spike said before Mhairi had a chance to answer. “Look out the window and then listen to Buffy and Faith’s description of where the girl was in their dream.”
“Good Gracious,” Giles said, “I think the pair of you might have something. If Ioanna Konstantios was attacked here in Istanbul as a Potential in 2003, but her father prevented her from actually being killed, then what Buffy and Faith dreamt may have been a replay of an historic event rather than foretelling one to come.
“That would be something of a relief. I would be very happy to find that there is no current threat from the ‘Bringers’.”
“But why would they both get a dream about it now rather than in 2003?” Dawn asked, and then provided her own answer. “Unless it is a sign that the girl is in danger again.”
“Well, not from us,” Spike said. “Did us a bloody good turn. Unless she tries to do anything to Dawn, that is, then she damn well would be in danger from us.” His scarred eyebrow quirked upwards. “Why the hell are they so set on destroying The Key anyway, Rupert, when some of that stuff you and Dawn found in Prague said that the Knights were set up to guard it?”
“Que?” said Willow.
“The stuff Dawn had in the books that were stolen when she was grabbed. The stuff Rupert and Dawn went back to the Public Record Office to find again. Said the first monk and the first Knight were brothers, right, and the monk told the Knight it was his job to bugger off to Constantinople, and stay there for many generations, ‘cos they were there to smite the evil-doers who might make use of The Key.
“Actually if you translate it a certain way it says ‘she shall Slay them’, which means it is probably your actual currently relevant prophecy. So why,” Spike finished, “do they all seem dead set on destroying it?”
“He’s got it! By George I think he’s got it!” Giles said, causing Mhairi, Dawn and Spike to grin, whilst Willow still looked somewhat confused.
“Did you not watch ‘My Fair Lady’ with your mother when you were little, a ghràidh?” Mhairi asked her, continuing “I am sometimes thinking that Spike learnt a lot from that film.”
This caused Giles to burst into laughter, and Spike to throw one of Giles’ pillows at Mhairi, whilst Dawn said “It’s the musical based on Shaw’s Pygmalion, Willow, we totally must have a girls’ night and watch it when we get home.”
The conversation seemed to be veering away from The Knights and The Key, Dawn realised, and again she marvelled at this ‘protection mechanism’. She was pretty sure that if left to themselves Giles, Mhairi and Willow, at least, would end up discussing musicals and forget about Spike’s question totally.
“I remember that bit,” Dawn said, pulling the conversation back. “It was one of the pieces that I had to stare at very hard to make the words behave.”
“Yeah, so why are they trying to destroy The Key when they should be protecting it?” Spike asked again. “What’s with ‘The Key is the link. The link must be destroyed’?”
Dawn reached for the notes that she and Giles had made in the Prague Records Office. “You remember saying ‘This explains a lot’?” she asked Giles.
“Oh no!” he answered, “It’s doing it again. I do remember, yes, but it seems to me now that it was over something very unimportant. Willow, Mhairi, could you please strengthen the de-cloaking spells for us?”
Soon the two witches were sitting with joined hands, candles and herbs burning between them, quietly chanting.
Giles shook his head gently. “I had not realised how the cloaking spells were still affecting me. Thank goodness that both of you seem to have some immunity. Now let us look again at our notes, Dawn,” he said, somewhat ruefully.
After some time Giles looked again at the piece of paper in his hand, phrases in Latin and Greek, translated into English, where Dawn had wielded a bright marker pen onto certain phrases. ‘For those who wouldst make profane use of The Key must be destroyed.’ ‘The link between us shall be severed, for such is the will of God.’
“And thus,” Giles said slowly, “black becomes white – protect becomes destroy. This Slayer has been trained by her family to destroy The Key, when the founding of their order was to provide it” (Dawn waited for his usual “Em, you,” but it didn’t come) “provide it with eternal protection.
“And in light of the piece that you found earlier, Spike, describing the friction between the Brothers and the Knights in the fifteenth century, this misunderstanding is of extremely long standing.”
“So how’re we going to tell the buggers?” Spike asked, cutting to the quick of the problem. “Just saying ‘You’ve had it wrong for six hundred years or more, get over it’, doesn’t sound all that likely to give instant results.”
“And we need to tell them that Ioanna is in danger,” Dawn added, “She is a Slayer, after all, and she doesn’t know that they’ve got it all wrong!”
…………..
The discussion continued late into the evening and, by the time everyone went their separate ways for the night, a plan had begun to take shape.
There was danger, certainly, but the general opinion was that the five of them should be able to cope. No-one wanted to bring any of the Slayers into the mix, as all the opposition were human and it was always best to prevent them having to kill humans; especially if there was any possibility of having to set Slayer against Slayer.
Ethan Rayne and The Ferret were the biggest immediate threat to Dawn because the cloaking spells apparently had little effect on them, they seemed to be convinced that Dawn guarded The Key, and they wanted it for their own nefarious purposes. It was agreed again that, for Dawn’s safety, the two men must both die and Spike still wanted to do the deed himself. Willow and Mhairi would not normally use their powers to hurt or damage anyone, except in dire need, but were willing to do what was necessary to neutralise any magic.
This should be done as soon as an opportunity presented itself. Once they were dead it would probably only be a matter of days, or weeks at most, before their connections amongst the Turkish underworld would forget all about The Key and the threat from that direction would be gone.
The Knights of Byzantium and Ioanna the Slayer were a different matter. Although the Knights seemed sworn to destroy The Key, and must have had some inkling of it being in Prague to have sent the team there, they were unlikely to know the exact nature of its link to Dawn; certainly they hadn’t known in 2001.
The Slayer Dreams of Buffy and Faith seemed to imply that Ioanna Konstantios was in danger; possibly the Mafiosi had identified her as the person who had killed their men in Prague. At any rate, she was a Slayer, and Dawn and Giles both agreed that it was their duty as Watchers to warn her. If her father was a senior figure in the Knights, as seemed probable, then Giles also wanted to discuss with him the documents that he and Dawn had found. If they could be convinced that their mission had been distorted over the centuries this would safeguard Dawn from them throughout the years to come.
Things were moving.
…………….
Alone in their bed Spike and Dawn lay in a post-coital tangle of limbs and bed sheets.
Spike was a bit like a coiled spring, Dawn thought, ready to go out and kill Ethan Rayne and the other guy for her. She should feel bad about it, probably. But she didn’t. He was a killer, but he was a killer under his own control, and Dawn thought that in the current circumstances even Buffy might approve of him looking forward to killing people.
If she knew about the threat to Dawn, which they had made sure she didn’t, Buffy would probably have broken all the rules she had always stuck to and flown over to help him.
Dawn felt as if she, too, was running on adrenaline and would only feel able to breathe freely when the threats from the mages and the Knights were both resolved. Not even the sex had made her relaxed enough to sleep. Maybe more would, she thought.
Before she could make any move, Spike spoke. “Can’t sleep, eh, pet? Pity we’d best not go out on the town just yet; looks a city to explore. Maybe by next week…”
“Mmmph,” Dawn said, rubbing herself against him.
“Tell you what,” Spike continued conversationally, despite his hands starting to play Dawn’s body like a favourite musical instrument, “We should set ourselves a challenge.”
“Mmmm?”
“How about we shag each other senseless in every capital city in Europe? Give ourselves five years, eh? Four down already after that little adventure in Hyde Park last month.
“Where do you fancy next?” he continued.
“Mmmm…”
“Now, now, that’s not very helpful of you,” he said, still in the tone of voice he’d been using to discuss the view with Giles earlier. “In fact,” he continued, “I might just have to sit here quietly until you decide.”
“Mmmm!!”
His fingers that had been curled inside Dawn stilled. His thumb that had been circling her clit stilled.
“Mmm… Mmmm… Moscow!”
“Bloody Hell, pet, I was thinking more Berlin or Rome. But if you want Moscow then Moscow it is!”
His fingers suddenly moved again, and Dawn could only answer “Mmm… aaaah!”
Some little time after Spike and Dawn lay in a post-coital tangle, of limbs and bed sheets, but this time Dawn slept.
……………….
Giles had found the phone number for Ioanna Konstantios’ father without too much difficulty, as there were relatively few Greek families left in Istanbul these days, and was deciding what to say to him. The Old Book Market was within walking distance of the hotel, and it called to Giles with a siren song, but he was going to make himself wait until after the phone call.
Mhairi and Willow, however, had no need to delay their shopping trip, and they were already in the depths of the Spice Market collecting spell components. Even rare ones were available if you asked the right questions; and the whole place itself was intoxicating to the senses, a swirl of colour and smell, a cacophony of sound.
Mhairi stood in the middle of an aisle, breathing deeply, a mixture of cardamom, henna, and dried apricots vying for her attention. The whole experience reminded her of the first time that she had ever visited Glasgow from her home village. ‘Not so much culture shock as culture awe,’ she thought. What a pity that it was not just a holiday.
“Coffee!” Willow said beside her. “I need coffee, or maybe a really cold drink.”
“I think I saw a sign to a tea garden by the ‘New Mosque’ exit,” Mhairi said, shaking her head slightly and concentrating now on her lover, “back this way.”
Sure enough, as they came out into bright sunshine, the New Mosque rose ahead of them - a grey stone confection of dome upon dome. ‘Surely not all that new,’ Mhairi thought, deciding that she must look in their hastily bought guide book for more than the map of the city.
There were tables visible amongst trees between them and the mosque and Willow was already walking towards them. Mhairi had to quicken her pace to catch up and so, when Willow stopped dead just before she reached the tables, Mhairi almost fell over her.
Willow had blanched, she was staring at someone sitting alone at a table as if she had seen a ghost, and Mhairi felt as if her own presence had been momentarily forgotten.
As if he sensed Willow’s eyes on him the man with the wavy red hair turned in his seat. He smiled, a gentle smile that lit up his face, and then stood and walked towards them.
“You’re early,” he said. “Your hair is still red.”
D-d is due back from the Leeds Music Festival tonight - I just got a text to say she was safely on the boat, and as it isn't very windy I'm expecting it to make good time, so she'll need picking up about 9.45. This is the first music festival she has ever been at where she hasn't needed her wellies!
apart from all the washing, and a bit of baking, I've finished the next chapter of Access All Areas - it is beneath the cut.
Chapter 15, word count 2,750, chapter is PG, story is NC17.
Previous chapters are here in Memories
The last chapter ended Buffy has been in touch and she thinks that the Bringers may be abroad......
“Sodding, frigging, buggering Hell, Watcher!” Spike swore, as soon as they were in the back of the car. “Why don’t you rustle us up a fucking dragon while you’re at it? Let’s have a proper party!”
This outburst actually made Dawn smile. “I thought you’d been there and done that, Spike?”
“Yes, well,” Giles spoke, saving Spike from answering that comment, “Buffy rang me because she had had a dream, and she feels that it was a Slayer dream. None of the others seem to have reported a similar experience to their Watchers; none of the girls who fought the Harbingers in Sunnydale as Potentials, and who would recognise them, seem to have dreamt about them. We will have to see if we can make some sense of what we have when we get to the hotel.”
Dawn tried to concentrate on the city that they were driving through. The others had landed at Atatürk Airport, but their flight came in to Sabiha Gökçen and so they had further to drive to reach the heart of Istanbul. Lights showed buildings that were mostly not unlike many other cities, but then suddenly they were climbing up onto a bridge, she could see light far below shimmering off water, and she realised that they were crossing the Bosporus. The breath-taking beauty of the bridge and the city by night almost took her breath away. She realised, as they dipped back down to firm ground, that she had briefly been in Asia.
‘Famed Byzantium’, she thought to herself, ‘under other circumstances this would be so exciting - in a more normal sense of exciting. Still, I guess it can just be one of those places Spike and I will come back to one of these days…’ She dragged her attention away from the view and listened to the conversation between Spike and Giles.
“Willow has got a trace on Ethan quite easily,” Giles was saying, “but we need to be somewhat circumspect. Dashing in and killing him, without knowing who else knows what, would be foolhardy. You will need to control yourself for a little, please, Spike.”
That last sentence was in Giles ‘brooking no argument’ voice, Dawn thought; and while Spike was grumbling about it she was amused to realise that he was agreeing. Sometimes Spike could cope with logical argument a great deal better than you might expect.
………………
“Faith called,” Willow greeted them, as soon as they closed the door of the hotel room behind them. Faith, unlike Buffy, was still an active Slayer. She’d moved around, had a number of Watchers and a number of lovers, but had had the same Watcher now for three years – Annie was a couple of years younger than Faith, had similar tastes in most things, and they had forged a good working relationship.
“She’d been up all night, and slept for a long time, but when she woke up she’d been dreaming about Bringers,” Willow told them. “Annie decided they’d better inform Huscote,” she went on, referring to the large country house that now housed the Watchers’ Council headquarters, “and when Andrew heard he suggested calling us here. I’ve recorded Faith’s description so that you can check it against Buffy’s,” Willow concluded.
“Can we go put our bags away and then eat while we think?” Dawn asked, wishing the world would just slow down for a bit.
Eventually they ate in Giles room, on a higher floor than Dawn and Spike’s room or that of the two witches, with the curtains open so that they could look out across the rooftops of the older buildings that predominated in the surrounding the area.
“Faith’s description does indeed agree with Buffy’s rather closely,” Giles mused, “and yet none of the others seem to have had anything similar occur. I wonder why?”
“Perhaps,” Mhairi said slowly, “they were the only Slayers at the time?”
Giles looked puzzled, his forehead creasing up as he stared blankly at Mhairi, and it was Dawn who was the first to understand Mhairi’s point. “You mean they’re seeing something that happened, not something that’s going to happen?” she asked.
“Bloody hell!” Spike said before Mhairi had a chance to answer. “Look out the window and then listen to Buffy and Faith’s description of where the girl was in their dream.”
“Good Gracious,” Giles said, “I think the pair of you might have something. If Ioanna Konstantios was attacked here in Istanbul as a Potential in 2003, but her father prevented her from actually being killed, then what Buffy and Faith dreamt may have been a replay of an historic event rather than foretelling one to come.
“That would be something of a relief. I would be very happy to find that there is no current threat from the ‘Bringers’.”
“But why would they both get a dream about it now rather than in 2003?” Dawn asked, and then provided her own answer. “Unless it is a sign that the girl is in danger again.”
“Well, not from us,” Spike said. “Did us a bloody good turn. Unless she tries to do anything to Dawn, that is, then she damn well would be in danger from us.” His scarred eyebrow quirked upwards. “Why the hell are they so set on destroying The Key anyway, Rupert, when some of that stuff you and Dawn found in Prague said that the Knights were set up to guard it?”
“Que?” said Willow.
“The stuff Dawn had in the books that were stolen when she was grabbed. The stuff Rupert and Dawn went back to the Public Record Office to find again. Said the first monk and the first Knight were brothers, right, and the monk told the Knight it was his job to bugger off to Constantinople, and stay there for many generations, ‘cos they were there to smite the evil-doers who might make use of The Key.
“Actually if you translate it a certain way it says ‘she shall Slay them’, which means it is probably your actual currently relevant prophecy. So why,” Spike finished, “do they all seem dead set on destroying it?”
“He’s got it! By George I think he’s got it!” Giles said, causing Mhairi, Dawn and Spike to grin, whilst Willow still looked somewhat confused.
“Did you not watch ‘My Fair Lady’ with your mother when you were little, a ghràidh?” Mhairi asked her, continuing “I am sometimes thinking that Spike learnt a lot from that film.”
This caused Giles to burst into laughter, and Spike to throw one of Giles’ pillows at Mhairi, whilst Dawn said “It’s the musical based on Shaw’s Pygmalion, Willow, we totally must have a girls’ night and watch it when we get home.”
The conversation seemed to be veering away from The Knights and The Key, Dawn realised, and again she marvelled at this ‘protection mechanism’. She was pretty sure that if left to themselves Giles, Mhairi and Willow, at least, would end up discussing musicals and forget about Spike’s question totally.
“I remember that bit,” Dawn said, pulling the conversation back. “It was one of the pieces that I had to stare at very hard to make the words behave.”
“Yeah, so why are they trying to destroy The Key when they should be protecting it?” Spike asked again. “What’s with ‘The Key is the link. The link must be destroyed’?”
Dawn reached for the notes that she and Giles had made in the Prague Records Office. “You remember saying ‘This explains a lot’?” she asked Giles.
“Oh no!” he answered, “It’s doing it again. I do remember, yes, but it seems to me now that it was over something very unimportant. Willow, Mhairi, could you please strengthen the de-cloaking spells for us?”
Soon the two witches were sitting with joined hands, candles and herbs burning between them, quietly chanting.
Giles shook his head gently. “I had not realised how the cloaking spells were still affecting me. Thank goodness that both of you seem to have some immunity. Now let us look again at our notes, Dawn,” he said, somewhat ruefully.
After some time Giles looked again at the piece of paper in his hand, phrases in Latin and Greek, translated into English, where Dawn had wielded a bright marker pen onto certain phrases. ‘For those who wouldst make profane use of The Key must be destroyed.’ ‘The link between us shall be severed, for such is the will of God.’
“And thus,” Giles said slowly, “black becomes white – protect becomes destroy. This Slayer has been trained by her family to destroy The Key, when the founding of their order was to provide it” (Dawn waited for his usual “Em, you,” but it didn’t come) “provide it with eternal protection.
“And in light of the piece that you found earlier, Spike, describing the friction between the Brothers and the Knights in the fifteenth century, this misunderstanding is of extremely long standing.”
“So how’re we going to tell the buggers?” Spike asked, cutting to the quick of the problem. “Just saying ‘You’ve had it wrong for six hundred years or more, get over it’, doesn’t sound all that likely to give instant results.”
“And we need to tell them that Ioanna is in danger,” Dawn added, “She is a Slayer, after all, and she doesn’t know that they’ve got it all wrong!”
…………..
The discussion continued late into the evening and, by the time everyone went their separate ways for the night, a plan had begun to take shape.
There was danger, certainly, but the general opinion was that the five of them should be able to cope. No-one wanted to bring any of the Slayers into the mix, as all the opposition were human and it was always best to prevent them having to kill humans; especially if there was any possibility of having to set Slayer against Slayer.
Ethan Rayne and The Ferret were the biggest immediate threat to Dawn because the cloaking spells apparently had little effect on them, they seemed to be convinced that Dawn guarded The Key, and they wanted it for their own nefarious purposes. It was agreed again that, for Dawn’s safety, the two men must both die and Spike still wanted to do the deed himself. Willow and Mhairi would not normally use their powers to hurt or damage anyone, except in dire need, but were willing to do what was necessary to neutralise any magic.
This should be done as soon as an opportunity presented itself. Once they were dead it would probably only be a matter of days, or weeks at most, before their connections amongst the Turkish underworld would forget all about The Key and the threat from that direction would be gone.
The Knights of Byzantium and Ioanna the Slayer were a different matter. Although the Knights seemed sworn to destroy The Key, and must have had some inkling of it being in Prague to have sent the team there, they were unlikely to know the exact nature of its link to Dawn; certainly they hadn’t known in 2001.
The Slayer Dreams of Buffy and Faith seemed to imply that Ioanna Konstantios was in danger; possibly the Mafiosi had identified her as the person who had killed their men in Prague. At any rate, she was a Slayer, and Dawn and Giles both agreed that it was their duty as Watchers to warn her. If her father was a senior figure in the Knights, as seemed probable, then Giles also wanted to discuss with him the documents that he and Dawn had found. If they could be convinced that their mission had been distorted over the centuries this would safeguard Dawn from them throughout the years to come.
Things were moving.
…………….
Alone in their bed Spike and Dawn lay in a post-coital tangle of limbs and bed sheets.
Spike was a bit like a coiled spring, Dawn thought, ready to go out and kill Ethan Rayne and the other guy for her. She should feel bad about it, probably. But she didn’t. He was a killer, but he was a killer under his own control, and Dawn thought that in the current circumstances even Buffy might approve of him looking forward to killing people.
If she knew about the threat to Dawn, which they had made sure she didn’t, Buffy would probably have broken all the rules she had always stuck to and flown over to help him.
Dawn felt as if she, too, was running on adrenaline and would only feel able to breathe freely when the threats from the mages and the Knights were both resolved. Not even the sex had made her relaxed enough to sleep. Maybe more would, she thought.
Before she could make any move, Spike spoke. “Can’t sleep, eh, pet? Pity we’d best not go out on the town just yet; looks a city to explore. Maybe by next week…”
“Mmmph,” Dawn said, rubbing herself against him.
“Tell you what,” Spike continued conversationally, despite his hands starting to play Dawn’s body like a favourite musical instrument, “We should set ourselves a challenge.”
“Mmmm?”
“How about we shag each other senseless in every capital city in Europe? Give ourselves five years, eh? Four down already after that little adventure in Hyde Park last month.
“Where do you fancy next?” he continued.
“Mmmm…”
“Now, now, that’s not very helpful of you,” he said, still in the tone of voice he’d been using to discuss the view with Giles earlier. “In fact,” he continued, “I might just have to sit here quietly until you decide.”
“Mmmm!!”
His fingers that had been curled inside Dawn stilled. His thumb that had been circling her clit stilled.
“Mmm… Mmmm… Moscow!”
“Bloody Hell, pet, I was thinking more Berlin or Rome. But if you want Moscow then Moscow it is!”
His fingers suddenly moved again, and Dawn could only answer “Mmm… aaaah!”
Some little time after Spike and Dawn lay in a post-coital tangle, of limbs and bed sheets, but this time Dawn slept.
……………….
Giles had found the phone number for Ioanna Konstantios’ father without too much difficulty, as there were relatively few Greek families left in Istanbul these days, and was deciding what to say to him. The Old Book Market was within walking distance of the hotel, and it called to Giles with a siren song, but he was going to make himself wait until after the phone call.
Mhairi and Willow, however, had no need to delay their shopping trip, and they were already in the depths of the Spice Market collecting spell components. Even rare ones were available if you asked the right questions; and the whole place itself was intoxicating to the senses, a swirl of colour and smell, a cacophony of sound.
Mhairi stood in the middle of an aisle, breathing deeply, a mixture of cardamom, henna, and dried apricots vying for her attention. The whole experience reminded her of the first time that she had ever visited Glasgow from her home village. ‘Not so much culture shock as culture awe,’ she thought. What a pity that it was not just a holiday.
“Coffee!” Willow said beside her. “I need coffee, or maybe a really cold drink.”
“I think I saw a sign to a tea garden by the ‘New Mosque’ exit,” Mhairi said, shaking her head slightly and concentrating now on her lover, “back this way.”
Sure enough, as they came out into bright sunshine, the New Mosque rose ahead of them - a grey stone confection of dome upon dome. ‘Surely not all that new,’ Mhairi thought, deciding that she must look in their hastily bought guide book for more than the map of the city.
There were tables visible amongst trees between them and the mosque and Willow was already walking towards them. Mhairi had to quicken her pace to catch up and so, when Willow stopped dead just before she reached the tables, Mhairi almost fell over her.
Willow had blanched, she was staring at someone sitting alone at a table as if she had seen a ghost, and Mhairi felt as if her own presence had been momentarily forgotten.
As if he sensed Willow’s eyes on him the man with the wavy red hair turned in his seat. He smiled, a gentle smile that lit up his face, and then stood and walked towards them.
“You’re early,” he said. “Your hair is still red.”
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 27/08/2007 06:26 pm (UTC)Sami
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Date: 27/08/2007 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/08/2007 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/08/2007 07:33 pm (UTC)Thank you - it is one of the scenes that has existed since the beginning, and determined the course of the story - so I am glad it works!
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Date: 27/08/2007 07:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/08/2007 08:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/08/2007 08:09 pm (UTC)That's just so great! (Although, I hope it doesn't mean trouble for Mhairi and Willow as a couple, I rather like them together).
Great chapter!
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Date: 27/08/2007 08:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/08/2007 08:43 pm (UTC)Btw, I really like your icon.
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Date: 27/08/2007 10:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/08/2007 09:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 27/08/2007 10:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 28/08/2007 01:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 28/08/2007 09:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 28/08/2007 03:46 pm (UTC)Wonderful update. OF COURSE! Lost over the centuries the real purpose (how very.......typical of any group that stretches back that far). ‘For those who wouldst make profane use of The Key must be destroyed.’ ‘The link between us shall be severed, for such is the will of God.’ That makes SO MUCH SENSE!
I really hope they get through to the Knights since they mean well and it would be a shame to have them subvert their real cause in the misunderstandings of the years. Of course there is the likelihood that forces or people have deliberately altered the texts for their own purposes.....the plot thickens.
Love this story and pairing.
Kathleen
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Date: 28/08/2007 06:18 pm (UTC)The scene with Oz has been in my mind since before we started writing at all - it was one of the plot drivers, so I am glad it works for everyone who has commented.
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Date: 28/08/2007 07:31 pm (UTC)The sacking of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 was what did most of the damage.
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Date: 28/08/2007 11:28 pm (UTC)The plot thickens . . .
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Date: 29/08/2007 09:16 am (UTC)Hee - well spotted.
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Date: 30/08/2007 03:29 am (UTC)This is getting better and better. Also, you make me want to go to Turkey, which I've never really wanted to do (except to cross the Bosporus because I always thought that would be too cool).
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Date: 30/08/2007 09:20 am (UTC)I've had Oz up my sleeve, so to speak, for a while.
My knowledge of Turkey is gleaned from Google Earth and on-line guides....
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Date: 30/09/2007 05:36 pm (UTC)So was I! I love it when a story does that.
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Date: 30/09/2007 05:54 pm (UTC)Thank you - I'm glad that worked for you.