Torchair Air Eideadh ~ Chapter Seven ~ Torch/Andra (7/7)

[dawnofme]

Title: Torchair Air Eideadh (Undead Torch)
Author: dawnofme
Pairing:  Torch/Andra
Rating:  R

Summary:  Andra can only see one way out, but things don't go quite as she planned.

A/N:  Much thanks to my betas mabel_marsters and slaymesoftly.  I made last minute changes to this chapter, so any and all mistakes are completely my own.  I'm sad to be done with this story, but I'm very happy with the way it turned out.  Thank you to those of you who took the time to read it and review, even though the story had no Spuffy or other BTVS characters. 

Read Previous Chapters Here







Torchair Air Eideadh


Chapter Seven

“I don’t want to be the slayer anymore!” Andra was saying through sobs as she shook Torch to wake him.

He sat up, rubbing his eyes.  “Andra?  What time is it?”

“Dinna you here me?  I don’t want to be the slayer.”  She got under the covers, fully dressed, and leaned against him. 

“I canna help you there, lass.  You are the slayer.”  He kissed her forehead.  “Now tell me what’s wrong.”

“Denton.  He refuses to listen to me.  He’s going to go to the Council. He says he has no choice but to let them know about us.”  She stopped and took a shuddering breath.  “I dinna know what will happen to me.”

“Nothing is going to happen to you,” he said, his voice rising.  “I willna let them touch you.”

“I’m not stupid,” Andra said.  “I have an idea of what they do to willful slayers if they can't make them change their minds and behave the way they want them to.  Another slayer canna be called until I’m dead.”

“Who is this Council?  I’ll kill them myself!”

“No!  They’ll just keep coming.”   She played with her hands in her lap.  “I went to Noble’s estate.”

“What!”

“I figured I could surprise him in the daytime and that if I got into trouble I could run into the sun where they couldna follow.”

“You could have been killed!”

“I know, but I’m the slayer and it’s my job,” she told him stubbornly.  “Denton would not let me rest with all his questions about you.  I just had to get out of the house.”

“And what happened when you got there?”  Torch almost didn’t want to know the answer.  If his sire were gone, it would be because of him. 

She shrugged and said, “The house was empty.  There was no one there.”

“You would go and risk your life to avenge a man that was going to turn you into this Council thing for falling in love with a vampire?”

She nodded.  “I did.  Denton cares for me, but he has a job to do.  I understand that.”  Andra gazed at him with those big blue eyes.  “Will you just hold me, please?”

They sat together on the mattress in his dark room in silence for quite some time.  Torch was content just to hold her.   He tried not to think of the problems she was now facing.  Then Andra shifted and spoke.

“I--I think I know what we have to do.  But, you would be the one to have to do it.”

“I’ll do anything for you, lass.  Anything.”
 
“We’ll have to act fast.  When I came home this afternoon, after coming back from Noble’s place, a man was leaving the house with a letter from Denton to the Council.  They might be at the house now, waiting for me.”

He clutched her tighter.  “You should not go home, then.”

Getting out of out of bed, she fumbled around until she had lit a candle and placed it on the stairs.  Torch was a little confused by her jerky and nervous movements as she paced in front of the mattress.

“I don’t want to be buried in the earth.  That isn’t necessary, is it?”

He stood up, not caring that he was naked.  “What are you going on about?”  A feeling of dread was settling in the pit of his stomach.

She smiled sadly at him while she undoing the stays on her dress.  “I don’t want to be under the ground.  I can be turned without that part, right?”

The dress fell to the ground as he backed away from her, shaking his head.  “You’re daft.”

“I might be,” she agreed, shedding her under clothes.

“You’re no’ going to be turned.” 

Torch took more steps away from her until his back was against the wall.  She stood in front of him, rubbing his chest.

“Yes, I am.  And you’re going to do it.”

He shook his head, not believing what he was hearing.  “You don’t know what you are asking.   Do you want to be evil like me?”

“I don’t want to be the slayer.  I don’t care what I am, as long as I can be with you.”

“I won’t do it,” Torch said emphatically.

Andra pressed and rubbed her body slowly against his.  “Make love to me one more time before we do this.  I want you so bad.”

Trying to fight his emotions and his arousal, Torch closed his eyes, but he could still feel her and hear her pleas for him to love her.  He growled as he tossed her onto the mattress.  She moaned and sighed as he kissed her breasts and fingered her. 

“Now, Torch.  I want you now.  Don’t make me wait.”

She clawed at him as he covered her with his body, moaning in pleasure when he entered her and began to move slowly.  She moved beneath him, attempting to quicken the pace, but he stilled her hips and kept up his leisurely motions.  Andra, being as stubborn as she was, didn’t put up with his maddeningly slow pace for long.  She slapped at his hands, demanding that he move faster.

Later, as they rested, cuddled together on the mattress, Torch began to relax, thinking that maybe her crazy notion to become a vampire had passed. 

His eyes flew open again when Andra said, “When are you going to do it?”

Torch spent the next hour arguing with her.  She had no idea what she was asking for.  Would she really like to go on existing, never being able to walk in the sun?  Torch had never turned someone.  What if something went wrong and she stayed dead?  He begged her to wait for a couple of days to think it over and maybe see if the problems weren’t as bad as she thought they were.

She pleaded with him and shot down all his arguments.  Insisting that it was what she wanted, Andra kept trying to force his mouth to her neck.  She enticed him with the notion that he’d be one of the few vampires that could boast about killing a slayer.  She brought up the fact that she’d never get any older and that they could be together forever.

Quite effectively, she wore him down until he agreed to do it.  As soon as he nodded, she pulled his mouth to her neck with trembling fingers. 

“Do it now before you change your mind,” she insisted.

Torch pulled back and vamped out.  “You want to be like this?  Like me?”

“Yes,” she whispered as she stared back at him without blinking.

If she’d shown any fear--any hesitation at all--he would have walked away and called it off, but her gaze was steady.  Thinking of the irony of it all, Torch lowered his head.  He was hesitating while his victim begged for it. 

Andra gasped when his fangs pierced her neck, but then she wrapped her arms around his neck to keep him there.  It doesn’t take long for a heartbeat to slow, but this time it seemed like an eternity.  She took one last gasp of air into her lungs, then let it out slowly.  He moved away from her neck and ran a razor sharp tooth over his wrist before offering it to her.  She was fading fast, but her eyes met his and a small smile formed on her lips as his blood dripped into her open mouth.

When it was over, Torch went prone on the bed next to his dead lover and wept until he fell asleep.

Torch woke up a few hours later and touched her cold hand.  It would be another twenty-four to forty-eight hours before she’d rise up, if she did at all.  He couldn’t be certain if he’d done it right. 

He berated himself for letting her talk him into this.  He’d heard of people rising with very different personalities.  What if she hated him for doing this? Unable to take the anxiety of having to wait, Torch got up, got dressed and left the lair in search of water.

He came back with a full pail of tepid water and lugged it down the stairs.  Taking his time, Torch washed her body.  With much difficulty, he dressed her.  After smoothing down her dress and brushing her hair, he covered her up with the blankets and went upstairs.

It was not easy staying away from her, but he didn‘t think he could remain down there.  He was going to go mad; he was sure of it.  He found a set of books in a corner and wished now that he’d paid more attention when Noble had tried to teach him to read. 

Giving up on trying to distract himself, he went down the stairs with a candle in hand and knelt beside the mattress to watch her.

As pale as she was, her freckles stood out against her skin.  She would lose most of those, just as he had, and he was going to miss them.  He ran his hand through her beautiful hair and was glad that would not change.  

Agitated, he stood up and turned his back to her body.  She just had to wake up.  He ran a hand through his hair, then taking off his clothes, he slipped into bed.  He was tired and once she woke up, she would need him.  Turning to stare at the wall, he willed himself to go to sleep.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

The next day held as much agony for Torch as the first.  He didn’t leave the building, but paced it like a caged animal.   He went to sleep next to her again, feeling acutely depressed.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

 

Torch woke up to the sounds of sobbing.   He sat up and instantly felt for Andra.  The bed was empty.  Jumping up, he pulled his pants on as he stumbled up the stairs. 

“Andra!”

She glanced up at him from the couch, but quickly turned away.  “Please, don’t look at me.”

He tied his pants and went to her, kneeling in front of her.  “Look at me, lass.  Don’t be afraid to let me see you.”

Andra lifted her face and he swallowed at the lump in his throat.  He reached out to touch her and she reared back.  “Don’t.  I’m ugly.”

“You are not ugly.”

“There’s something wrong, Torch.”

He sat on the couch and put his arms around her.  “Why do you say that?  This is what you wanted, isn’t it?”

“I’m hungry.”

“Shall I go out and bring someone for you to eat?”

Jumping up and out of his arms, she said, “No!”  She shook her head.  “No!  I can’t.  That’s the problem.”  Andra sat back down and grabbed his hands.  “Help me, Torch.”

“What do you mean you can‘t?  Of course you can eat.  You have to.”

“I--I need to go see Denton.  He’ll know what’s wrong.”  He opened his mouth to protest, but she held her hand out.  “No.  I have to go see him.  Help me change my face back.  I’ve tried, but I can’t.”

“You need to eat first,” he told her sternly.

“I willna kill a man, Torch.”  She took a deep breath.  “I--oh, God--I have a soul.”

He tightened his hold on her hands.   “That’s not possible is it?“  She shrugged.  “Are you sure you have a soul, lass?”

“I‘m pretty sure.  I feel so bad for what I’ve done.  For what I made you do.”  She hung her head.

“It’s my fault somehow.  I did something wrong.  Don’t blame yerself.”  He lifted her chin and caressed her face.  “You look beautiful to me.”

“Oh, Torch!” she wailed as she launched herself into his arms.

After she’d calmed down, he got her to feed from him and when she was full, he helped her to relax enough to morph back to her human visage.  Torch tried to get her to stay with him, but when she insisted that she needed to see Denton, he agreed she could, but only if he could go with her.

She allowed him to walk her to the house, and he watched from the gate as she knocked on the door.  Denton and Andra talked at the door for a few minutes, but then he let her in.  As soon as the door closed on them, Torch went to a window to make sure they were alone. 

Confident that she’d be safe with her watcher, Torch left to find his own meal.  He felt free to walk the streets, knowing that Noble was on his way to Scotland.  After he had eaten, he walked beside the Thames again and worried about Andra. 

Andra was not in the lair when he returned right before sunup. Had he lost her for good?  He didn’t know, but it wasn’t a good sign that she was not back yet.   Panic started to set in as he paced the room.  He imagined all the bad things that could have happened to her between Denton’s place and his lair. 

He stopped pacing.  Would Denton try to harm her?  Andra was adamant that he would never hurt her and that was the only reason he’d left her alone with him.  Now he wondered if it wasn’t a huge mistake. 

As he was going towards the stairs to get a blanket so he could go look for her, the door blew open and then slammed shut.  Andra stamped down the smoking blanket she had covered up with and smiled hauntingly at Torch.

He rushed up to her and lifted her off the ground.  “I was so worried about you.”

She clung to him as they kissed, and when they parted, she said, “I have to leave town.  Will you take me away from here?”

“Yes.  Where should we go?”

“Denton suggests that you take me to Italy.”

“Denton wants me to take you away?”  Torch asked.

“Yes.  He’s going to tell them that I was turned and that I walked out into the sun and dusted,” she told him in a sad tone.  “I can’t come back this way until after they are all dead and I’ve been forgotten.  Denton says that if they know I‘m a vampire, they will hunt me down.”

Torch hugged her.  “I was beginning to think you weren’t going to come back.”

“Of course I was coming back,” she said, hurt that he would think otherwise.  “I love you.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Torch stood there looking at his new childe.  Whatever he’d felt for her before, it was stronger now.  A feeling of elation came over him as he thought about the fact that there were no obstacles in their way now.  They would go to Italy immediately.  He’d teach her all she needed to know about being a vampire and he would protect her at all costs.

Torch whirled her around before saying, “I love you, too, lass.”

--The End--