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Title: The Master Willow Series: The Return Of Wicked Red
Author: psimetis
E-mail: psimetis@hotmail.com
Rating: NC-17
Feedback: if it pleases you, do :).
Summary: This Chapter: Tara-Kitten, Willow-Demon, And, True Faces By The Fire.


Chapter Nineteen

Willow was busy polishing Kitten’s cowboy boots when Harm finally approached her in the living area. Dusk was already approaching, and the blonde vampire knew it was time she and the boys headed out to do the work they were assigned.

“Send them in,” was all Willow said, never lifting her attention from her task.

Harm’s boys filed into the living area, went to their knees before Willow and kept their heads down. Willow continued polishing. Eventually she dropped Kitten’s boots beside her on the table and picked out a cigarette from the small lacquered box beside her. She lit it.

“You will go out,” she said, taking a drag, then exhaling. She shut the lighter off with a click. “Kill what you can kill, and what proves difficult, work together to annihilate. You’ll be wiping out nests with vamps that outnumber you. You are strong, but you will be smart too. Retreat when you have to. Return to finish the job.”

Willow took another pensive draw. “You are brothers. You are ruthless. You will show no mercy.” Four pairs of lowered eyes began to glow yellow before her. “You will destroy for me.”

“Kitten,” she then said pleasantly, her tone still calm but suddenly...affectionate.

Four pairs of yellowed eyes fought hard not to look up, the male vampires confused by the sudden change of voice of their Master. They became aware of a beating heart in the room.

Tara realized when she had entered the house through the kitchen, that Willow was speaking seriously to someone. She stood in the kitchen doorway and saw the female blonde vampire standing at a distance behind Willow’s armchair, hands formally behind her back. Four male vampires were kneeling submissively before Willow. Tara looked at Willow again when she heard the vampire address her.

Willow, from her position, did not turn to regard her Pet but merely continued smoking, and Tara realized that for the first time in their relationship, they were in the presence of other subordinate vampires and she was expected to fully play her role. Without further delay she left the doorway and walked silently and quickly to Willow’s armchair. Once she reached it, she took a seat on the floor by Willow’s legs. She hoped that she had guessed right as to her proper behavior. When she felt Willow’s hand caress her hair, she was secretly relieved.

“Eyes up,” Willow ordered quietly, and the faces of four male vampires, their eyes still tinged yellow, looked up and immediately fixed on Tara.

“This is my Kitten,” Willow said, as she caressed Tara’s hair and smoked her cigarette. “Regard her as you would regard me. You will address her as Mistress. You kill,” Willow continued, emphasizing the word. “To protect her, as you do to please me.”

“Yes Master!” the four vampires growled, their demon visages suddenly breaking to the fore.

“Go have fun,” Willow bade, and as the vampires rose and quickly followed their sire, Harmony, out the living area, Willow took one last, smug drag of her cigarette. Putting the small stub out in the ashtray and exhaling, Willow then bent forward and planted a kiss on the top of her Kitten’s head.

“How was your day, Kitten?” the vampire warmly asked.

“Very good,” Tara responded from her seat on the floor. She looked up at Willow. “I-is your business done for the day?”

“It most certainly is.”

Willow watched as Kitten lowered her blue eyes, biting her lip unconsciously. Before the vampire could ask what was the matter, Kitten spoke up.

“Willow...can you tell me how I’m supposed to behave, in front of your...”

“Minions?” Willow helpfully supplied, and her Kitten nodded. “Oh definitely. I do mix you up, don’t I, Kitten. You’re supposed to be ‘Pet’ you when I am acting as a Master, and yet when we’re alone or with Family, I want my ‘Playmate’ you. Unlike tradition, I give you so many liberties.”

Tara nibbled her lip. She rather hoped Willow would continue to give her those liberties.

“Which is what I love about you,” Willow concluded, kissing Tara on the forehead. “Let’s get you dinner!” the vampire then announced. “What would you like?”

* * *
“...karmic, isn’t it? I hated Harmony the Harpy in high school,” Willow finished relating to Kitten, as she lolled on the thick blanket and large cushions laid out before the pleasantly crackling fireplace.

“So now she works for you, to...”

Tara trailed off, as she fed Willow a black olive, which the vampire willingly accepted. The blonde witch had suggested ordering Greek food, and now the fresh repast was spread between them on the blanket.

“To bring unholy terror to others and instill fear of my Name? Yep, that’s Harm’s job,” the vampire glibly completed for Tara, as she finished chewing on the olive. She leaned back, craning her neck, and deliberately spat the seed into the flaming fireplace with a ‘ping’. Tara gave her a look of mock disapproval.

“Is this like a vampire gang war?” Tara asked curiously. She thought of Joyce’s ‘gangster’ analogy as she removed a roasted piece of bell pepper from a kebab. The witch then offered the stick to the vampire. Willow eagerly pulled off the flame broiled prawn. Tara was allergic to shrimp, unfortunately.

“If it were turf war, I’d have Harm make more minions and not send her out with just four boys. No, she’s just going to clean the town up for me. I’m really the only evil master vampire left in Sunnydale, Kitten. Harm is second strongest who remains of Aurelius, and she’s with me now.” Willow dipped her shrimp liberally in her wine glass of blood and bit it. She can get rather used to chewing. It was fun.

“Mmm,” she said, enjoying the texture and strong taste.

“H-Harmony’s boys are really big,” Tara chose to comment. None of the male vampires had looked under six feet tall.

“Oh yes, they’re very big,” Willow affirmed, grinning, as she pulled another shrimp from her witch’s kebab. Kitten just raised an eyebrow.

“Willow,” she finally decided to ask. “Are you going to be Master of Sunnydale?”

“Now who’s asking, Kitten,” Willow lightly admonished as she raised another bloodied shrimp to her mouth. “You, or Angel?”

Tara blushed. “Um, Buffy. And she wants to know i-if you plan to open the Hellmouth and end the world.”

“Buffy would ask that. She likes to get to the nitty gritty with evil types,” Willow reflected, and Tara wondered if the vampire was paying a compliment, or perhaps even...waxing nostalgic. But Willow did not appear wistful.

“Since I go to the trouble of renovating the mansion and ordering all sorts of nifty household prezzies, I’m just so ready to end the world tomorrow,” Willow stated sarcastically.

Tara grinned. “I did tell them something like that.” Willow raised herself up suddenly and pulled her witch in for a kiss.

A few kisses later, and Willow sank back onto her cushions again.

“So what did the Watcher have to say, Kitten, about you?” Willow suddenly asked, looking curiously at her witch.

“Oh. Um.” Despite the sudden change of subject, Tara realized what Willow was referring to. She self-consciously tucked some hair behind an ear. “He shares the same opinion with you and Anya.”

“There, see? Three,” Willow held up three fingers to emphasize. “Professional opinions. Objective, even. And we didn’t even charge!”

Tara nodded, too shy to look at Willow, but she couldn’t help her shaky smile. This was an incredible, yet somehow draining relief. To have lived with her fear and shame for so long, and now to know she was free. It felt surreal, and too good to be true.

Only last Friday, of which this night could be considered an anniversary, Willow had relentlessly hunted her down and made her a captive. Tara would have never imagined that fateful, frightening night that she would be here now, sharing an easy, enjoyable meal with that vampire. Yet that same cold, menacing creature lay before her now, a Willow shaped person, a person who had helped her--unselfishly--with absolving her of her lifetime burden. Willow seemed to appreciate the witch as herself, as well as a woman. Tara had sensed no mind game, no malice, no manipulation, since they’d been together. Though Tara often reminded herself not to forget what Willow was, it was easy to, during soft moments like these.

“W-when I was at Mr. Giles,” Tara began hesitantly. “I thought I’d read up a little, on Angelus, and the rest of your Family.”

Willow was picking out morsels of salty feta from Kitten’s salad and eating them as she watched her witch.

“That’s smart, Kitten. I don’t know everything and Mum is pretty cryptic, being nutty and all. But those Watchers can be myopic about what they focus on. Was there anything you really wanted to know?”

Tara shook her head. “I don’t have questions now. I just wanted to get to know all of your, um, folks, a little better.”

Willow laid back and watched her witch carefully.

“Not the nicest Family to get to know, are they, Kitten?” Her witch shook her head in agreement, her soft eyes elsewhere. “So how do I compare?” Willow asked with gentle curiosity.

Kitten looked at her then, and contrary to the blonde witch’s previous hesitant behavior, the blue eyed depths were now assessing, sinking into Willow’s own green depths and searching.

“You’re different,” Kitten finally said softly, and then she slowly smiled, that one corner of her mouth lifting. “You’re quirky.”

Willow’s eyes widened, but she grinned back. “Well I guess that’s better than being called ‘insane’!” she laughed. Kitten’s appraisal pleased her. ‘Quirky’ could not begin to describe how unlike other vampires she was. She then made a playful, bitey action with her teeth at the plate of stuffed grape leaves by Kitten’s side. “Rrr, I want some of that.”

Kitten obliged, picking up one of the leaf wrapped appetizers. Instead of feeding one to Willow, she gazed half lidded, and bit into the thick, stuffed grape leaf herself. She offered the other half to the vampire.

“Mmm,” Willow appreciated in surprise, having accepted the food portion without any benefit of blood. “I’m beginning to like food.”

“It would taste even better with ouzo,” Kitten commented, as she bit into another. She offered the other half again to Willow, who decided to suck in Kitten’s fingers as well.

“Kitten,” she accused, around a mouthful of rice and leaf. “You’re not even twenty and you’re talking about exotic, hard liquor.”

“I, um, dated a Greek girl,” Kitten revealed. “And she had a bottle.”

“Really. I’m going to assume you don’t mean Greek as in a sorority sister.”

Tara shook her head, feeling vaguely uneasy by the subtle change in Willow’s eyes, as the vampire cooly tilted her head. It was almost as if she were--it was such a calculative look. Anya’s imaginative ‘girlfriends’ scenario suddenly came to mind.

“She’s no longer here, though. One s-semester at Sunnydale was enough for her.”

“Smart girl,” Willow murmured. “Are you involved with anyone right now, Kitten?”

Tara’s eyes widened in sudden fear, at Willow’s too casual tone for so loaded a question. God, had she been seeing someone else, been in love with someone else--

She would not be here now, not like this. She would be--things would be worse.

“No! N-no Willow, I...only you.”

“That’s good,” the vampire said softly. She was lying very still, watching Tara, as the fire flickered shadows over her deceptively relaxed body. She was still, Tara felt, as scorpions would be. “Would have been messy.”

Tara swallowed, and saw the familiar, cold glitter in Willow’s half closed, emerald eyes. ‘Messy’ seemed an understatement. Now Anya’s scenario didn’t seem so silly anymore. Her heart began to beat faster.

“Shhh, Kitten,” Willow murmured from where she lay, and raised a cool hand to place over her witch’s warm chest, right above her heart. The young woman’s heart beat faster, a self-conscious reaction to the vampire’s attention. “No worries for my Kitten,” Willow soothed. She was scaring her witch, she knew, but she could not help it. While waiting for Kitten to calm down, Willow reigned in the demon within. She had never scented another human’s intimate presence in Kitten’s dorm room, but a long distance or absentee relationship was easily possible. How very fortunate for them both that her witch answered in the negative.

“Shhh, Kitten,” Willow comforted, idly admiring the pleasing play of the fire’s soft light on her witch’s pale complexion and golden hair. Such a warm, inviting glow as was cast on Kitten’s anxious face made such a sensual contrast to the fear that scented the air. “I’m your vampire, aren’t I?” She removed her soothing hand to raise a finger and trail it down her Kitten’s pale throat. “I’m your killer.”

* * *

The night progressed, much as Tara had expected, with seduction, her submission, and sex by the fire. Willow was charming, Willow was oh so beautiful, and Tara knew she had been lost to this lovely Willow-face and the promises it seemed to hold, promises beyond the darkness of its demon eyes, since that Bronze night. Yet, even when lost to this face, a bittersweet part in Tara still wondered; if she managed to somehow endure her vampire’s darkness, what then?

Willow was gentle, Willow was lovingly, beautifully attentive tonight. Every deliberate touch was so unlike the raunchy playfulness or carnal intensity of their previous encounters, and Tara responded in turn with all the tenderness, sensitivity, and...love, within her. To touch like this was how Tara liked to make love. Under the sweet caress of gentle, cool hands and the press of slow, worshipful kisses, Tara wanted to weep, because her fears were finally coming to the fore tonight and were weakening her. Desperately, she wanted to ask: why that night? How did you find me? Did you plan that I should stay? How long will I last here with you? Her heart’s questions were finally obliterated by Willow’s loving mouth on her most intimate place. Tara arched and twined desperate fingers in Willow’s hair.

When they finally lay sated, Willow atop her, Tara turned her head to stare into the fire. She didn’t realize that moisture had fallen from one of her eyes until Willow tenderly licked it away.

“Why so sad, Kitten?” Willow whispered softly. “Am I really so bad?” Tara felt her heart hurt, to hear that.

“No,” she whispered back, still watching the flames. “I just...” She turned back then, to Willow, needing to see her eyes. “Will you...can you keep your promise to me?”

Willow remained silent a moment, wondering if Kitten had lost faith in her already. Perhaps the Journals had told her witch too much, or, as to be expected, far too little. Willow could prove them all wrong, if Kitten was strong enough to survive her.

“I can only try,” Willow offered softly. “The thing is, do you still want my evil self as a friend, Kitten?”

“Yes,” Tara answered quietly, caressing Willow’s hair back. “I do.”

“Then I promise you my unlife, I will try,” Willow vowed.

* * *

‘Tara Maclay visited today.’ Giles wrote in his Watcher’s journal. ‘She seemed in good spirits and did not appear to have been physically harmed. Neither Joyce or I suspect that she would hide any mistreatment from us, but it is possible that other dark intentions may be worked on her that we cannot detect; possible lies being laid, perhaps, or other controlling manipulations.’

‘Angel still refuses to confront and kill Willow unless his grandchilde proves herself an obvious threat. Without his help, we have no real chance of freeing Tara in the near future. Kendra is an effective warrior, as her kill rate attests, but she has no experience in facing magic, nor is she mentally versatile enough, yet, to face as calculative and controlled a vampire as Willow. Kendra cannot challenge Willow thinking her a mere beast, for that is a severe underestimation.’

As synchronization would have it, Giles heard the open and close of his front door, signaling the return of his second Slayer. A glance at the clock affirmed that Kendra was punctual, as usual, in returning home by four a.m. Giles turned the page of his journal to a new blank surface.

‘Buffy, discovering Kendra’s rather simplistic views with regards to slaying, tried engaging the second Slayer in ‘What if’ scenarios, and it became apparent that Kendra needs more adversarial, rather than ‘seek and destroy’ (as Buffy would phrase it), experiences in order to read and react to complex situations. Kendra will require more guidance than Buffy had needed, or to put more appropriately, had often resisted.’

‘It is clear that Buffy’s independence and versatility had made her an invaluable Slayer. Despite her confession that, like Angel, she would be reluctant to stake Willow, I don’t doubt that were she able bodied now, she would be the Slayer more capable. Knowing this, I can’t help but be frustrated for Tara’s unfortunate situation.’

‘I can only hope that Tara will remain in the vampire’s care, for lack of a better word, without further harm, to mind, spirit, and body. It is a tragic circumstance that the one who had saved Sunnydale from its enslavement to the Master is now enslaved herself, and we, her only possible rescuers, can do nothing to help her. I deeply regret having asked for Tara’s help, and yet, were it not for it, all would have been lost.’

Giles closed his journal, and removed his glasses. He stared silently for a while.

“And no one can thank you for it,” Giles softly concluded.

* * *

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