Choices - Chapter 19 Part 1
Sep. 26th, 2011 10:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madbottomsTitle: Choices
Chapter 19 – Into the Lion’s Den 1/3
Pairing(s)/Characters: Jack/Ianto, Owen, Tosh, John, OCs
Rating: NC17 (overall)
Warnings: supernatural themes, violence, m/m pairing
A/N: Apologies for the delay in posting the latest chapter. I sort of forgot! But I have been busy with trying to get my Reel Torchwood fic started and working on some artwork for the latest round of TW Big Bang. And on top of all that, I have to prepare for an interview for a different position in my organisation and research and write a major paper for my second assessment of Federalism. I’m feeling rather confident about it though ‘cause I just got my minor back with a surprisingly pleasing mark. Any, enough waffling from me and enjoy the next part.
19 – Into the Lion’s Den
*
IANTO
*
As Saxon moves, I can tell he’s weak. Jack’s crucifix did more damage than he let on. He shouldn’t need Lucy, but she’s following behind for back up, her glowing fist targeting the back of the car.
And then I drop the Shelby into reverse and floor it, sending Tosh and Owen to the floor in the back seat. I duck as Lucy’s blast takes out the back window. Saxon drops Jack’s wrist and lifts his fist just as I slam into him at full speed. He goes careening over the car and onto the dirt road in front of me, but I don’t wait to see if he stays down. I throw it into first and open the passenger door, slowing as I reach Jack. He throws himself into the car, and I floor it, car door still open, running over Saxon on our way to the main road.
He pulls himself up into the seat and slams the door shut, and looks out the shattered back window at the lump on the dirt—Saxon. Lucy is nowhere in sight. “Is he…dead?”
“Unfortunately, it’d take more than a car to kill him, but he’ll feel it for a while.” I can hear the shake in my voice. “Truth is your cross in his eye probably did more long-term damage. That’s going to set him back a bit.” I grab his hand. “Are you okay?”
“I think so,” he says, checking himself over as we finally pull out onto the main road.
I feel him shake as I wrap my arm around his shoulders and pull him close. This is as far from me as he’s ever going to get.
*
Jack straightens Tosh’s legs and sits next his friends on my bed. “Are they gonna be okay?”
“Yeah. It’ll take a while for them to come around. Demon possession can knock the Hell out of you.”
“You can just jump into someone’s body whenever you want?”
I nearly gag thinking about it, but then I remember being in Jack—how incredible it was. “If they’re tagged for Heaven they’re off limits, but otherwise, yeah. It’s usually pretty uncomfortable. It’s cramped…and sort of sticky and slimy.”
“How does it work? Are you like, both in there at the same time?”
“Pretty much. It takes a very strong mortal to hold his own against a demon trying to take control, so it’s usually like the mortal’s not even there, aside from taking up space. But it’s not always like that.” I think about dancing with Jack again and feel a little tingle work through me, making me shudder.
He looks at Owen and Tosh on the bed. “Will they remember anything about Saxon and Lucy?”
“Probably not. When a mortal is possessed it’s almost like they go dormant. They won’t remember, and it’s probably best if they don’t know what happened.”
He stands, walks over, and wraps his arms around me. “How did you know?”
And that’s the problem. I didn’t until it was almost too late. I shake my head. “My sixth sense was buzzing when we got out of my car. It never occurred to me that Saxon and Lucy would resort to possession. I figured when you left with Owen and Tosh that Saxon would make a move and follow and then I could take him down. But as soon as you drove away, the buzz stopped. I’m embarrassed to admit that it took me a few minutes to realise what was going on, and when I did, it was almost too late. I knew which direction you went in and then I remembered the quarry. Saxon was there that night.”
“What does he want with me?”
“Same thing I did.” My heart aches. I know how hard this is for him to hear. But he needs to understand that they won’t give up until he’s tagged—one way or the other. “They’ll keep coming for you.”
He stiffens. “I hate this. Why is this shit happening to me?”
I hold him tighter. “I don’t know, Jack,” I say, wishing I did.
He sighs and presses his face into my chest. “So, it’s always going to be like this.” A tear slips over his lashes, and I wipe it away. “I just want a normal life.”
I want to hold him and tell him it’s going to all be okay and that I will always be there for him, but I can’t lie to Jack anymore. “I think you gave up normal when you fell for a demon.” And maybe an angel. The thought sits like a stone in my core, weighing me down. I kiss the top of his head and sigh. “But I don’t see them stopping until they have you.”
“There’s nothing we can do?”
We can try running, but I’m not sure there’s anywhere we could go that they wouldn’t find us.”
His expression is suddenly determined. “I’m going to live my life. Otherwise what’s the point of fighting? I may as well just let them tag me now.”
I pull him closer, wishing it could be that easy. “There’s your Sway, Jack.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your Sway. If it’s strong enough to change me, you should at least be able to defend yourself.”
“How does it work?”
“That’s something you’ll have to figure out on your own, but once you learn to control it, it should be some protection.”
He looks up at me, and I see the fear and trepidation in his eyes. “What was Saxon going to do?”
“Saxon is a creature of lust, an incubus, so his technique usually involves seduction and soul sucking. But that’s only with mortals who are already tagged—I think.” I remember my conversation with Saxon under Jack’s tree. “He did say the rules were changing…” I feel him shudder in my arms.
“This sucks,” he says, looking back at Tosh and Owen on the bed.
And just then, Owen’s eyes snap open. He gasps and sits up. “What the fuck…?”
“Hey Owen,” Jack says, walking over and sitting on next to him. Tosh groans and opens her eyes, still looking groggy.
“What’s going on?” She looks around suspiciously and checks her clothes.
“Just hanging out,” I say with a little push.
Tosh sits up, still dazed.
“Hey Tosh. How you feeling?” Jack says.
“Like shit,” she answers.
Owen swings around, stares at me and growls, “Where the hell are we, Harkness?”
“Welcome to my humble abode,” I say through a smile with another push. “Don’t you remember coming up?”
His eyes glaze over a little. “Maybe…”
“You want another beer?” I head to the fridge.
“No!” Tosh practically shouts, rubbing her forehead.
*
We get Tosh and Owen loaded into Tosh’s car, which Jack and I circled back to retrieve, and watch as they pull out. I look around and sigh in relief, thinking about how close that was—for all of us. I loop my arm protectively around Jack as I steer him back up to my apartment. Once inside, he latches all the deadbolts and locks while I throw up a field, my own infernal deterrent. The he grabs me and holds me tight, and I feel my heart speed up. He’s still shaking a little…or is that me? I’m not sure. “You okay?’ I whisper in his ear.
He presses into me. “I am now,” he says. Then he’s looking at me with curious eyes. “So, what you said before about possession, about being able to go into other people’s bodies…”
“Yeah…”
“I was kinda wondering…could you…you know, do that with me?”
I look at the floor, feeling more than a little guilty, and watch the toe of my boot scuff the filthy floor. “I have.”
I’m surprised when I look up to find him smiling. “When?”
“Just before I first kissed you.”
“You mean when I first kissed you.”
I crack a wide smile. “Actually, I kissed you first. You just slept through it.”
“Kinky,” he says, laughing. “Could you do it again? I mean the thing where you’re inside me. I promise I’ll stay awake this time.”
My heart takes off. But as I fantasise about slipping through Jack’s lips, being that way with him again, I realise that I might not be able to do it anymore. Things are changing for me—fast. “I’m not sure.”
He kisses me, then gazes into my depths and whispers against my lips, “Try.”
I kiss him again, pulling him to me as tightly as I can, and as his lips part, I let my essence flow into him. I’m surprised again at how effortless it feels—because he’s inviting me in, I’m sure. I feel the same overwhelming rush of sensations I felt the first time, many of which I now have names for. Love, for sure, but also joy, hope, and pure awe at his sheer beauty. He’s more beautiful on the inside, and that’s saying something. We dance—and I’m in Heaven.
I leave just enough of myself behind to control my body, and as I hold him in the outside, I caress him on the inside, drinking in his gasps and moans as I explore him, inside and out. I feel his physical body’s reaction—not to mention my own. Before I know it, we’re on the bed, shirts on the floor, and it takes everything I have to stop. My heart aches as I reluctantly pull my essence back, and I’m left with that same feeling of being empty and alone in my human shell.
He sits up on the bed and huffs. “Why’d you stop?”
“A knowing act of lust with a demon will earn you a one-way ticket to the Abyss. I’m sure of it. We can’t do this until I know it’s safe for you.”
“They…you…you’re taking everything. My life…everything,” he shouts, and then says more softly, almost pleadingly, “This is all I want. Just this one thing. Please? You’re almost human.” I am more than tempted to just say, ‘To Hell with it’ and take him. He has power over me to be sure. But I can’t do that to him.
“I don’t know that. It seems to be the direction I’m headed…and I really want to…obviously.” God, how I want to. “But just the fact that I can still do…that,” I shudder, “means it’s not safe yet.”
He flings himself back into the pillow and I can’t help but stare at his bare chest heaving in frustration. “This bites big time.”
I shift onto my elbow and kiss him softly. “You’re the only one who’s ever known who I am, who I’m not, and who I want to be. And somehow you love me anyway. I’m not taking any chances with you, Jack Harkness.”
He rolls on his side and stares into my eyes. A wicked little smile curls at the corner of his pouting lips. “That was amazing, you know,” he says, tracing the lines of my cheekbone with the tip of his index finger and making me shudder. Then his smile widens. “Probably better than sex anyway.”
I smile back, dying to prove him wrong. It was amazing. Mind-blowing, in fact. But I can’t imagine sex with Jack would be anything less. “How much do you remember?”
His smile widens and he trails a finger down my chest to the button of my jeans. “All of it.”
I can’t stop my own smile. “Interesting.”
His finger trails along my stomach at the waistband of my jeans, driving me insane, and I’m right on the edge of diving back inside of him when he says, “Where is Hell, anyway?”
I almost laugh. “At the core.”
“Of the Earth?”
“Yep.”
“So all those kids digging for China are in for a big surprise,” he laughs.
“Literally,” I chuckle.
“How did you get there? Did someone like you come after you?”
“No. I’m a creature of Hell.” I shoot a sideways glance at him, not sure how he’ll take that, but he just looks thoughtful.
“What do you mean?”
“Demons are created in Hell. We were never human.”
“I don’t get how that works.”
“We’re born from sin. My sin is pride, just like the original—King Lucifer. My name—my real name—is a dead giveaway. Only creatures of pride are arrogant enough to take His name.”
His eyes shift to his hand on my chest. “Would it be really weird if I said I think I knew all along?”
I smile. “Yes.”
His eyes lift to mine and away. He opens his mouth to say something then closes it again.
My smile widens. I lift his chin with a finger and fix him with my gaze. “What?”
He blushes and his face pulls an embarrassed grimace. “Nothing,” he says, lowering his lasses.
“It’s obviously something.”
“I want to feel your horns,” he blurts without looking at me.
I grimace. “Why?”
He rolls with his back to me. “Forget it. It’s stupid.”
I roll him back and shift onto my elbow above him. “You’re not going to run screaming from the room?”
He lifts his eyes to mine, then lifts his head and kisses me. “After what we just did? What do you think?”
I close my eyes and push off my human shell and shudder when I feel Jack’s fingers running slowly through my hair. There’s a tremble in his touch as he traces one finger around the base of my left horn, then up to the tip and back. I feel both of his hands wrap around them as he pulls me down into a heated kiss, and they vanish as I sink back into him.
Jack has a hold over me that is impossible to stop and when I finally pull back, I stare into those sapphire eyes and all I see is love. There is no disgust, no fear, just love and I can’t believe it is directed at me.
“Will they try that again…with Tosh and Owen, I mean?”
I sigh and trail my finger down his nose, over his lips, down his chin and along his neck and stopping short of the insanely hot nipple piercing. “Probably not. They know we’ll be looking out for it.”
“What are we going to do?”
I roll off him and shake my head. “I don’t know. My sixth sense is slipping. This is dangerous, Jack. I can’t see them coming like I used to. I’m not sure I can protect you anymore.”
He smiles. “I need another cross, and I think you need a talisman. Something to ward off evil spirits.”
“And just where am I going to get this talisman?”
If I didn’t know better, I’d swear his eyes were glowing. He sits up and moves his hands to his chest, rubbing his nipples, and then undoing the piercing on his right one and sliding it out. As I watch, I feel things…stirring…and it’s taking every ounce of self-control I have not to pounce. He grabs my hand and turns it palm up, placing the ring in my hand and closing it again.
“Your talisman,” he says.
“If you think this is going to ward off evil spirits,” I say looking at it, “then you don’t know much about evil spirits.” But I close my fist and hold it tight. I look at him and work to control my breathing. “You have no idea what you’re doing to me.” Truth is I have no idea what he’s doing to me either. This is completely unchartered territory. But, whatever it is, I think I like it.
Grinning wickedly, Jack says, “I’m not sorry.”
But then I see it. The answer. I hesitate for just a second, letting my eyes eat Jack alive, before putting the nipple ring in my jeans pocket and tossing his shirt to him. “As much as it pains me to say, you have to get dressed. John has something we need.”
no subject
on 2011-09-26 03:33 am (UTC)I don't know, Ianto. That might be a better talisman than you think.
*patiently awaiting more* :)
no subject
on 2011-09-26 03:43 am (UTC)I'd be pretty happy with the talisman too.
More soon.
no subject
on 2011-09-26 04:02 am (UTC)And guh, yes, Jack...he's frustrating me, too!
Damned soul tagging thing.
:P
no subject
on 2011-09-26 04:05 am (UTC)This really isn't easy for Ianto,but he has to be strong for Jack and for himself.
no subject
on 2011-09-26 09:10 am (UTC)no subject
on 2011-09-26 09:37 am (UTC)