Giles and Willow shared a sleeping bag on Xander’s floor. Lying so close reminded them of what had interrupted at the house. When Rupert’s hand drifted down Willow’s lithe body, she wriggled until she had his hand exactly where she wanted it. He began to stroke her. Soon his fingers were slick with her juices. She whimpered, trying so hard not to make any noise, but it was difficult especially when he did that thing with his thumb… She moaned into his chest. He was very warm and very aroused! If she could just get her leg… round. Yessss! Contact! It was Rupert’s turn to groan. Willow so close to him, her perfume surrounding him, spurring him on; he couldn’t ignore her! Who knew when or if he would have another opportunity to love her?

Their movements were subtle at first but soon they got more insistent, the confines of the sleeping bag could no longer control them. With a growl, Rupert ripped the Zip of the bag down and Willow unfurled upwards like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis. Her fingers laced with his as Rupert moaned encouragement in stage whispers mindful of his inconvenient audience. Willow rode Rupert bathed in moonlight from the high window of Xander’s basement. Rupert’s face reflected in the same light and showed the effect that Willow was having on him.

Xander and Ethan had woken when the zip opened. Ethan watched Ripper and Xander watched them both. Willow’s back arched in a graceful curve as her climax swept over her. Rupert not far behind arching from the floor reaching round her body pulling her down harder onto his body showering hot kisses on her throat and breasts. They sank back down to the floor, sharing a tender kiss goodnight, tangled together in a lovers’ knot. The last thing Xander heard before sleep finally claimed him was the sleeping bag being re-zipped.

At dawn Willow, Giles and Ethan had to leave Xander’s. Giles carried the air tank from Xander’s scuba gear under his arm.

"Why do you need that?" Xander asked. In reply the ex-Watcher just tapped his nose, smiling. He hesitated at the door as Xander handed him a pocket penknife and answered Giles’ questioning look.

"I’m pretty sure this has a tool for un-jamming zippers.." He grinned at the ex- Watcher’s embarrassment.

With one last hug of thanks, they made their hasty exit from Xander’s basement and adjourned to Ethan’s hotel room. Ethan collapsed on his bed once inside the room. Willow made them tea whilst Rupert first prepared a circle to capture their pursuers and hid the scuba tank. They would need for the purging spell he had taught Willow on the way to the hotel. Then he strengthened the wards that Ethan had placed about his room.

"Ripper, you should go…Take your witch and go. I’ll take this out by myself" He gestured to his chest. "I don’t want you around." He tried a devil-may-care smile but couldn’t quite pull it off.

"No, I’m not leaving, and you’re not taking that out by yourself. I’ll find a way…" Rupert was desperate. Willow regarded the two men, knowing something was about to happen.

"You know as well as I, Ripper old chum, that the world would be a better place without me in it." Ethan sighed, rolling into a sitting position. "But if you won’t leave, then I will. They can’t find you if I’m not here…" He stood up shakily and Ripper caught him. Ripper turned his head and said her name, hoping that she respected his need for a private moment with Ethan. Ripper heard the door close.

"She’s gone Ethan, just us now. Like old times…"Rupert murmured by his lover’s ear and Ethan smiled. His mouth covered Ethan’s as he gently eased his friend back down on the bed. The kiss was tender and warm, a proclamation of his continuing affection. Ethan captured him in a warm embrace, bringing him closer as the kiss evolved into something more demanding. Ripper smiled at Ethan’s eagerness, and then his eyes stung with unexpected tears as he realised this might be the last time he loved his friend.

Ethan sensed Rupert’s change of mood. Glancing at his tear stained face, he put a jaunty grin on his face and Ripper smiled remembering the last time that grin had been used to devastating effect on a police constable in Brighton "Let me, Ripper. Unless you’d like to share…"

Rupert sniffed. This is for Ethan. You fool! "Share." He rumbled. "Like old times."

He led Ethan through dark, secret, seldom trod paths to ecstasy. Ethan loved every moment he and Ripper shared. It was so sweet to have him again, his touch so light and sure. Eliciting the most pleasure from the least effort, he lay on his bed as a drained Ripper spooned on his side behind him. They dozed until he sensed a familiar body in the room with them.

"Willow," Ethan whispered. "Take care of him, I give him to you. There’s a hot tub in the bathroom…" He shared the smile that broke on her face. She kissed him and he noticed her tears as well. Gods, this would never do! He was evil, nasty and a trickster of the highest order! He couldn’t have people weeping over him. It just wasn’t cricket!

Rupert stirred and moved closer to Ethan, and then he froze as he saw Willow and his expression darkened. He panicked and felt for Ethan’s pulse.

"Oi, watch where you’re grabbin’." Ethan protested. "Willow wants to have her wicked way with you in the hot tub, don’t you love?"

"Well, yes … Would you like to…" She smiled that sensuous coy smile of hers and Rupert hardened. Ethan hissed, as the erection thumped up his back.

"I think he’d like to, Willow, a hell of a lot!" Ethan smirked.

Rupert got up and stood by Willow, head bent, he towered over her. She looked up. Ethan smiled at the picture they made, then his eyes closed; he needed to sleep. He hiked up the covers absently.

"Go on, before I change my mind and join you…"

Willow slid into the warm water next to Rupert and switched on the jets. He gazed on Willow, her creamy shoulders and graceful neck bobbed just above the bubbling water, his desire re-ignited by the wanton lust on her face. She seemed so much sexier than usual. Then she knifed through the water and clambered aboard. His hands clasped her close to his body as she impaled herself gasping as she did so.

"Eager, little one?" Rupert smiled moving his hips so that her breasts bobbed out of the bubbles. He captured her nipple and sucked the sweet flesh. Her fingers laced round his neck locking his mouth on her breast. She moaned as her head slid back and her eyes closed in bliss.

Dominic dreamt.

A nightmare of monotone grey remembrance and nothingness. his life, memories, and existence gone. All faded into the grey. Then suddenly, there was light! He was born again! He jerked upright, gasping for breath. Hands appeared from nowhere pulling him down. He felt leather straps bite deeply into his chest and arms. He… He had been dead. Was this hell? It certainly could be. And then came the most sickening memory. His death and betrayal his final unanswered question lat the very moment his heart gave-way. He bit back his tears as he thought of Cathy. Why had she done this to him?

He stared at the light overhead, the glow filling him with nausea. He heard a familiar rhythmic click, and spun his head catching but a glimpse of her, his love, his betrayer, before his unseen attendants pushed the trolley he laid on through a set of doors, removing her from his sight.

*NO* His mind screamed as he looked around desperately. More masked grey figures. He turned his head frantically, seeing a large mechanical arm occupying the centre of the room; a tray full of surgical instruments lay alongside it. He caught a glimpse of its “hand” into which was set a suction tube encircling a needle– pointed black thorn, easily four inches long.

He thrashed violently against his bonds, an attendant approached. He struggled against the strap on his left hand, feeling it weaken and begin to buckle. Without warning a third attendant struck from his blind side and he screamed in pain as a hypodermic needle bit into his hip. He tried to kick his assailant, but his leg would not move. The metal hand hissed and his fear–filled eyes followed its hypnotic movement closely, his heart threatening to rip free from his chest, as he lived his worst nightmare.

The “hand” settled over his heel. For a second he felt nothing, as the tube created a vacuum. Then sudden searing pain, as the thorn ripped through his heel, propelled by inhuman force. He tried to scream, but the drug that filled his veins would not even allow him that. The tube settled over his right heel, he turned pleading eyes to Cathy. Why was she letting them do this?

For a second time, he felt a thorn rip into his foot. It seemed to amplify the pain of the first, to join with it in a sickening loop of anguish. A thousand minds entered his and his sense of self began to fade, and he raged against it. The pain and power the thorns brought, slowly made his body stir. He roared in anger and strained against his bonds the drug wearing off under the thorns’ influence.

A human hand gripped his foot and placed a thorn against his flesh, it rooted… He shook his head; the feeling of so many threatened to destroy him. He looked down and saw Cathy there. Confusion reigned, he realised her plan a split second before the mallet she wielded drove the thorn into his foot. He moved and stopped the thorn going in cleanly. She took a second swing and it sunk in deeply. He howled in fury and pain, but he could feel the bonds with his masters waning.

She moved to the other foot. He felt the thorn root in his skin. With a wrenching creak, his hands were finally free. He grasped her throat, the minds’ inside his head urged him to kill, to stop the pain.

The attendants moved away as his grip tightened. She regarded him calmly, unresisting, searching his eyes. He studied her, as the minds’ inside his head screamed for him to snap Cathy’s neck. He remembered her eyes from times past, before now. There was a before now? His mind slowly stretched back, remembering when there had been only one voice in his head. He would not let them decide for him.

Staring at her his grip softened. Who was his enemy her or them? He made his decision and let her go. He fell back against the bed, an icy calm filling him. At last he understood that this was her gift to him resistance to the rage of the thorns. His hands caught the edge of the metal frame, as she hammered the thorn into his foot.

He heard a door hiss open, and she fell back, subserviently. He glanced as best he could to the door. A tall pale humanoid stood there, its body covered in silver skin, a wide toothless mouth opening to whisper a greeting.

"Ah, the new recruit. We are most pleased with you. We have long awaited the arrival of the second Watcher–Hunter."

Dominic woke first, bathed in sweat; he’d had the nightmare again. Cathy looked at him, her eyes full of concern. He shook his head and breathed the painful memories away. They both became quiet and focused; their quarry had flown.

In the blink of an eye, they were dressed. The same unisex garb they always wore had a few personal touches now, courtesy of the colour thorns. She wore a silver blouse and bangles he wore a blue shirt and heavy slave bracelet. The masters would not approve.

Cathy led the way because she was more attuned to the thorn in the Watchers’ friend. They arrived outside a hotel and found that one room was radiating magic. The Watcher was in there. This was too easy! Cathy had her suspicions about what lay on the other side of the door but Dominic’s rush of power and aggression at the thought of a kill, blocked all thought of a trap from her mind. She wanted him!

They opened the door and gasped at the presence of unbridled magic. Breathing its heady scent, they came across the wounded man. Cathy leapt to Ethan’s side, forced him awake with a slap, and then dragged him upright with his arms caught up behind his back bound by a length of her whip. "Where’s the Watcher?" She whispered in Ethan’s ear, as she pressed the thorn deeper into his flesh. Ethan didn’t answer, but his eyes flickered to the bathroom door. "Thank you…" Cathy smiled giving him a peck on the cheek. She dragged him off his bed, with the handle of the whip hard against his windpipe. She was breathing heavily, her eyes glittering with excitement.

Willow and Giles exited the bathroom murmuring together. Dominic appraised the Watcher. Cathy exchanged glances with her partner. Then she held out her hand and he took it, returning her light grip.

Rupert glared at the woman who had Ethan in a strangle hold. She looked ruthless. The man looked dangerous, much younger, a little taller, and probably faster than he. This was going to hurt…

The man shifted to the side easily, dodging Giles’ first blow. He caught Giles’ arm as it went past, wrenching the elbow. He backhanded Giles in the face, feeling his victims nose cave in. He whirled around facing Giles; his feral grin told how much he was enjoying the fight. Giles came at him again, but his blow was blocked again and his arm was twisted away, leaving him open for a straight palm into his chest. Giles recoiled, in pain and anger.

That smile was really starting to annoy him! Practically pouncing forwards, Giles’ fist connected with his assailants’ chin, knocking his head back. He continued to smile, in spite of a trickle of blood escaping from his lip. Giles aimed for the smile, hitting him hard with a straight right. His head went back and Giles aimed one low for his stomach. But his opponent’s hand gripped his fist painfully. Giles looked up, in time for a head butt to connect with his already damaged nose, he staggered back and the man was on him again gripping his head whilst firing hard lefts to his stomach.

Giles drew his arm back, fingers extended and jabbed them into the Hunter’s eye. He released Giles with a snarl and they faced each other, breathing hard.

Giles attacked first, as he feared he would not have the stamina for a longer fight, they traded equally matched blows, until a feint set up a savage heel to Giles’ throat, and he crashed to the floor, the wind taken out of him, wrenching his back and grimacing with pain. He had no time to recover because a moment later he was airborne, as that bloody grinning bastard had him by the throat. The hunter half turned glancing at his partner whilst holding Giles. She unclipped a holster on her leg, and handed him a gun. Ethan twitched against her, recognising it. She glared at him and he stilled. Her partner took the gun from her and flicked a switch. The thorn turned red, the prescribed colour for instant death. He pushed the muzzle hard into Giles’ chest over his heart. He looked into the ex-Watcher’s eyes, his smile widening, as his finger tightened on the trigger.

"WILLOW!" Rupert shouted. He wrestled the gun away from his chest so that the thorn fired harmlessly into the air. Willow muttered the spell and performed a closing gesture round the room. She watched anxiously as the air left the circle where Cathy and Dominic stood. Both hunters dropped after a few seconds. Rupert shared the air from the hidden tank with Ethan, then scrambled out of the circle his lungs bursting, struggling with Ethan’s weight on his back.

Willow muttered the reversing spell. The air seeped back into the circle slowly. Once out of the circle Rupert untied the whip and threw it aside. Willow looked over at the circle to find that the hunters were getting to their feet. They looked disoriented. They held hands instinctively and turned to face their captors.

Rupert wiped himself down then hugged Willow. Without her help they would never have been able to capture the hunters. Ethan looked up at Rupert from his bed, looking disoriented. Rupert passed his hand in front of his friend’s face.

"He can’t see, Willow…" He muttered. His face set in rage. Willow took care of Ethan when Rupert charged at the circle.

He paced slowly past the hunters. "You’d better tell me how to remove the thorn, because believe me, I can conjure things that you’ve not met even in your worst nightmares! Oh, and another thing, you twits! I’m not a Watcher anymore!" He shouted. "Bastards fired me! So why are you here? Someone fucked up in another dimension, have they?" He stopped and stared at the hunters. He’d hit a nerve.

"They have, haven’t they? Let me guess, you’re not typical hunters are you?"

"Giles!" Willow’s stricken voice from the corner brought him to Ethan’s side in a moment. His friend had ripped the bandage from his chest and clawed at the thorn. It moved nearly to the surface.

The hunters exchanged worried glances; they wouldn’t survive the blast. They had to act and trust this ex-Watcher. Their masters had obviously abandoned them to their fate. His eyes begged for her permission Cathy nodded and gave it.

"Wait!" Willow, Giles and Ethan whirled round and stared at Dominic.

"The thorn has to be extracted underwater by one of us, after that your friend will recover rapidly. In two to three hours it will be as if he never sustained an injury." Cathy said.

"If you try to get it out yourself…" Dom Pantomimed a big explosion with his hands then smirked. "Kaboom!"

"Dominic. Hush. I’ll take it out. Release me." She stepped closer to the circle’s edge. Her partner grabbed her hand. "If something goes wrong, I want to be with you … Go out with a bang!" He grinned, his eyes betraying his true feelings.

"Rupert, they’re rogues. They love each other. The masters can’t control them because they control each other…" Willow scrutinised the two hunters clinging to each other in the circle. Rupert looked at Willow then at the hunters. She was right of course. He released them with a sweeping gesture of his hand and they approached Ethan’s bed, lifted him up and took him to the bathroom.

"Leave the hotel." Dominic ordered. Willow dragged Rupert out.

End of part 8

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