Fic: Ashes In The Wind 1/1 M7 AU Xover
Ashes in the Wind.
By: Lopaka Tanu
Disclaimer: I do not own Angel: The Series, Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, or World of Darkness.
Author's Note: Final part in the Marshals AU.
Summary: Problem for the man who has never known home, he may not recognize it when he finds one. ________________________________________________________
Winter - 1977.
Two year old Lindsey cried out, screaming in anger at not being allowed to be with his mom. The doctor had said she died in child birth, but all he understood was that they weren't allowing him to see her. Gripping the man holding him back, he tried to force his fingers from around his shoulders. His efforts were to no avail.
A few moments later, the doors to the room they had taken his mother in to were opened. The large cloth draped table was wheeled out and her hand fell from the table. Lindsey knew it was her, she was still wearing the chain he had found for her.
Biting the man's hand, he ran for it after he was released. He made it to her arm before he was captured again. He tugged at the chain and pulled it from her arm as he was dragged away. Crying her name, he tried to get her to wake up. Why wouldn't they let him see her?
Lindsey held close to his little sister. Of the once six, there were now four. She had died in the middle of the night, having lost the fight against her chest cold. The twins and their older brother were all that was left. Holding her stiff body close, he bit back on the coughs that tried to wrack his body.
There would be no help for him or the others as they came down sick. His father was in the other room recovering from being beatin the night before in a bar fight. Little could be said for the man other than he wasn't. Lindsey knew that his father had given up hope after the loss of their mother.
Pain filled him as he touched the bracelet around his neck. It was too big for him to wear any where else. He silently swore to himself to make sure that he would never get so attached to someone as to endanger the lives of those he cared about.
Seven year-old Lindsey fought to hold his tongue as his father had told him. The men from the county had come with the Sheriff's order for them to be evicted. His jaw hurt from having to clench it so tight.
"Sorry to have to be such a bother. This place ain't much, but it's got a great view of the city dump." Chuckling, Jack McDonald signed over the deed to the property and handed it to the deputy. His hands twitched in helpless frustration so he stuck them down the pockets of his ratty jeans. "We through here?"
"Yes, Jack, you can go. Just don't let me see you around here again." Folding up the papers, Deputy Johnson stuck them in his jacket pocket and turned towards the door. "Get your kids and get out."
"Yeah, sure." Holding out his hands, he reached down and picked up the twins. Jack kissed their heads and glanced back at Lindsey and Kyle. "Come on, boys. Let's go, don't forget your bags."
Lindsey committed the face of the deputy to memory before grabbing his bag. Walking passed the man, he slipped his hand down the large man's pocket and snatched his wallet. A little extra cash couldn't hurt anything and he was good enough not to be caught. As they were led out on the porch, Lindsey drop kicked the leather in to the ditch next to the drive way.
The man had two fifties and a wad of smaller bills. Pocketing them, Lindsey glanced about the town one last time. They would all pay for this.
"Lindsey, get a move on!" Jack, having placed the kids in the back of the old busted up station wagon, called for his son.
Kyle wrapped an arm around Lindsey's shoulders. He sighed when he was rebuffed. "Come on, Lindy, let's go."
"Fuck off, Kyle, I'm movin." Grabbing at his bag, Lindsey stormed to the car.
Lindsey stepped off the bus in to the terminal at Stanford. So, this was his school. Big deal. Glancing at the carefree people, he growled in anger. Fuck them and their preppy bull shit. Tugging on his mom's old Navy Duffle, he headed for the registration building. Better sooner than later in his opinion. If he was going to get his room, it had better be sooner.
"You are offering me what?" Lindsey stared at the grinning old man with a look of pissed off boredom. This old man had just come up to him like a John and propositioned him. Only like the other old men he usually serviced, the only currency he was offering was a real job. This was too good to be true. "What's the catch?"
"There's no catch, Lindsey. My associates and I are very interested in what you have to offer us. We believe we can come to a mutual, beneficial agreement." Holland pulled up his briefcase up and set it on the dinged up bar with a look of disgust. "Your new place of business will of course be down town. I suggest you acquire new clothing before showing up the first day. Don't be late." Handing over the contract, he smiled at Lindsey. "Take your time in reading and signing it, I don't want you getting in to anything you can't handle."
Taking the contract, Lindsey slammed his elbow in to the nose of the guy rubbing his hands over his ass. Grabbing the cursing man, he slammed him face first on to the bar and held him there as he passed out cold. Lindsey let the man drop with a smile and pulled the chewed straw from his mouth. Using it, he picked up the blood from the bar as ink and signed the contract.
Holland's smile grew three sizes as he accept the contract. "Welcome aboard, I believe we shall work well together."
Lindsey sat at a large board room table, the nervous twitching of the pencil in his fingers the only sign of emotions. His blue eyes flickered shut with annoyance as yet another person from their team was eliminated from the running of firm's special projects division. There was only three positions available and there were seven of them...make that six.
Opening his eyes, he stared boredly at the inquisitor. It was a gray demon with white eyes and yellow teeth, one of the ugliest beings he had seen in a while. The creature was standing next to him, its sword sticking in the neck of his former friend. It pulled the blade from the dead lawyer's body with a wet sucking sound.
Lindsey saw the demon scan the other six candidates with an air of grim pleasure. It poked at several of them, chuckling when they drew back in fear. The demon tried the prodding with him. When the blade came close, instead of flinching, he grabbed the flat between his palms. Taking advantage of the inquisitor's shock, he jerked the blade from it and twirled the handle towards himself.
"I don't know about the rest of you, but I've had enough of this shit." Slicing down, he cut the demon's sword arm off. "Your death is going to be as slow as this fucking deliberation!" Lindsey ducked out of reach of the inquisitor's other arm. Twirling the blade, he removed its remaining hand. He hit the floor and cut its legs out from beneath it.
Cheered on from the other lawyer's excitement, he cut the demon piece by piece until only the head and torso remained. He lifted the blade one last time and then brought it down to silence its screams of rage. "Fuck you!"
Holland stood up from the head of the table, smiling at Lindsey. "I understand your need for a quick end, Mr. McDonald, I share it even. Just one question, how shall we decide which of you is not WolfRam and Hart material?"
Three more heads hit the floor. Lindsey grinned at Holland, the sword at the old man's throat. "Looks like the competition just got cut."
Lindsey pulled the knot out of his tie and let the cloth fall to his feet as he walked down the hall of his apartment building. Cursing the loss of his first major client, he reached in to his pocket for the keys to his door. Just as he was about to reach out for the handle, a cold hand slid around his throat from behind. "Step back, vampire, or I will dust you fast."
"Your threats didn't impress me back in the office today, they don't impress me now." Angel blew a cold breath over the back of the Lawyer's neck, smiling as he shivered. The distinct lack of fear made him step closer. One hand slid up the young man's back side while his other hand tightened on his neck. "I came to warn you, stay out of my way or things will get unpleasant."
"Keep that up and you won't have to worry about it." Reaching up, Lindsey placed his palm to Angel's wrist and squeezed. As he thought, the vampire brought him closer. "I can make it very good for you, Angel."
Snorting, Angel pried Lindsey's hand from his wrist and let the boy go. "I recognize your tactics. Since you know who I am, then you also know I am very familiar with the tricks of whores."
Lindsey snarled as he whirled around to strike at the vampire. He found only an empty hallway. Growling in anger, he adjusted his coat. "This isn't over, Asshole!"
From down the hall, Angel watched the lawyer with yellow eyes. "Not by a long shot."
Lindsey sat back in the chair at his new desk, hand clamped around the stump of his right arm. The pain was immense. He should have been taking the medicine provided, but he refused to be drugged or become dependant on them. After his encounter with Angel last night, he was feeling more than a little willing to be destructive.
Which brought him to why he was here on a Saturday. Their plans for Angel were picking up and Lindsey wanted to be the center of the action. If there was going to be someone who put that smug, self righteous bastard to the stake, it would be him. Of course, they wanted him dark, Lindsey just wanted him dead.
He snorted. Too late, Angel had been dead for a very long time.
It burned him to know that he could not strike fear in to the heart of the little vampire as he did to Lindsey. But very soon, he would have something infinitely more satisfying than fear.
Reaching over, he flipped the switch to the monitor he had installed in his office. On the monitor, people were trying to tend the psychotic whore. So this had been Angelus' sire, pathetic. Then again, he supposed, she was probably just faking it.
"Yep, faking it." He grimaced as she slashed the woman's throat who had been patronizingly trying to feed her. It intrigued him that she would use a couch spring in such a manner, but whatever was at hand. "She may have some use yet."
Lindsey lay back against the road, his body battered and face swelling from the beating he had just taken. At times like this he wished he could see the stars in L.A. There were so many things missing in his life since he came to this hell hole. Perhaps it was time to seek a new life else where.
Turning over, he slowly put a hand down to steady himself. He would have to take it easy to get up. There would be no using his stump after this, and the fake hand, what was left of it, was a goner. Climbing to his feet, he groaned in pain.
He had to make a few halting steps before he could gain his balance. When he did, he swooned again and fell back against a car. Despite his attempts at fighting them off, tears started in his eyes.
She had used him to get her revenge and he had obliged. He wanted Angel to suffer, he wanted him to pay for taking her instead of him. God, how he wanted it to have been him tonight that Angel had fucked in to his mattress. But Angel had made his choice, there was no point in fighting it anymore.
Gathering his jacket to him, Lindsey shuffled towards home.
As he drove from L.A., Lindsey kept silent the entire time. It didn't matter to him that Angel had shown up to say good bye. It didn't matter that he had wanted the vampire to tell him not to go. It didn't matter at all that he was going it alone from here on out, that there was no one to go with him. It just didn't matter anymore.
As he drove passed the 'leaving L.A. sign', he just kept on going. It didn't matter.
Lindsey awoke with an excruciating pain in his lower back. He tried to come up off the bed only to find his hands and legs held down by four people. Screaming when the skin was pried apart along the cuts, his fingers dug in to his hands and he ground his teeth. Something wet and sluglike was pressed against the seams of his flesh and began to slide in around the base of his spine.
He felt the creature push aside his internal organs as the pain slipped passed his ability to cope with. Eyes sliding up in his head, the last thing he heard was the voice of someone speaking in his head that all would be taken care of soon.