BtVS/VMars: "Not Quite Queen of the Damned" (2/4)
Title: Not Quite Queen of the Damned (2/4)
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Veronica Mars
Pairings: , Faith/Vi, Mac/Cassidy, Dick/Kendall, Cassidy/Kendall
Timeline/Spoilers: Post-“Chosen,” with spoilers for all of Buffy. About a month after “Not Pictured,” going AU almost immediately after the end of that episode (or even a little bit before), and with spoilers for seasons one and two of Veronica Mars.
Warning: I do not provide warnings for story elements other than nonconsensual sex. This story does not contain noncon, but everything else is fair game. Consider yourself warned.
Summary: Faith and Vi hire Keith Mars to investigate the Phoenix Land Trust. Is its business being conducted from beyond the grave?
In This Chapter: Keith and Veronica snark, Dick and Kendall plot, and an old friend makes an appearance.
PREVIOUS CHAPTER
MEMORIES
Not Quite Queen of the Damned (2/4)
“Okay,” said Veronica, “I’m out.”
Keith frowned. “It’s dark outside.”
Veronica looked at him, incredulously. “That’s when the nightlife tends to happen, after dark. It’s funny how that works, you know.”
“Well, what’s wrong with daylife?”
Veronica shrugged. “Nothing. I’m quite fond of it-at least when my life isn’t sucking beyond the telling of it. But after an exciting day of daylife, sometimes I like to follow up with a little nightlife.”
Keith nodded, defeated. “Just . . . be careful.”
Now Veronica was clearly suspicious. “I’m going with Wallace and my taser, and besides all the PCHers leave me alone anymore anyway. I’d take Backup but I really don’t think they’d let him inside.”
“Just take this, too, okay?” Keith said, and handed his daughter a stake.
“Dad, it’s a piece of wood.”
“It’s a stake.”
By this point, Veronica’s expression had gone past “incredulous” and “suspicious” and was pretty much hovering around “this has to be a joke, right?”-which was a problem, since the entire point of warning her was to make sure she took it all seriously. “You mean like a-stake-though-the-heart type of stake?” Veronica asked. “The kind you use to kill vampires?”
When at loss for a thing to say, seize on a trick of language. And an opportunity to boast in front of a college-aged daughter one wants desperately to impress. “Well, I haven’t killed a vampire in years, but yes.”
Part of Veronica seemed to relax, as if she had been able to convince herself that yes, he was joking, but still there was tenseness to her. Deep down, she probably could instinctively recognize when Keith was joking, and knew he wasn’t joking. “Dad, there aren’t any vampires.”
“Aren’t any in Neptune, you mean. Haven’t been since you were six years old-it was one of the first things I got taken care of when I was sheriff. But, if you hadn’t noticed, somebody else is behind that desk now, someone you can be damned sure doesn’t believe in vampires, and I hear it from the professionals that the vampires are back.”
“There are professionals? You mean like Van Helsing?” Nope. She was so not taking this seriously. Damn.
“They’re all female,” he answered, knowing that factoid did nothing to alleviate the ready absurdity of the situation.
Veronica nodded, a gesture of exaggerated mock-seriousness which, for the moment, could be taken as almost as useful as the real thing. At least she was listening. “So less Van Helsing and more Anita Blake, then.”
“Who?”
Veronica sighed and took the stake from her father’s hand. “Never mind,” she said as she slipped it into her purse, quickly kissed Keith goodbye, and made for the door.
“Just remember,” he interjected before she quite made her way out of it, “there are four ways to kill a vampire. Stake through the heart, beheading, fire, and sunlight. Crosses and holy water will burn it but not kill it. Understood?”
Veronica nodded, then gave a mock-salute. “Understood, sir.”
Confident that, whether she believed it at the moment or not, she would remember, Keith at last gave a contented sigh as he watched his daughter leave. Raising a daughter was difficult enough in itself; raising Veronica was much more difficult still; having both vampires and Veronica in Neptune would raise the task to unprecedented levels of impossibility.
He crossed the apartment and opened a small drawer, from which he pulled out another stake and a small vial of holy water. There was no way he was going to spend the evening just sitting around when there were vampires in his city.
* * *
Kendall Casablancas stood on the roof of the Neptune Grand impatiently. Where was Dick, she wondered for the umpteenth time. It was not as if it were a question that was not often able to be asked of the boy. He was not known for his punctuality, nor for that matter for any positive quality save his wealth.
Which was positive qualities enough as far as Kendall was concerned.
Luckily, it was a warm summer night and Kendall didn’t really mind waiting. She made her way to the edge of the roof and looked down. The Neptune Grand towered over Neptune, and from here she could see all the way to the city limits. All of this should be mine, she thought. One day, all of this will be. After all, it had been promised to her, had it not?
She looked down to the street below, and suddenly felt a twinge of sympathy-a rather unpleasurable emotion-for poor Cassidy. It was quite a long way down, and she couldn’t imagine that falling could be a very comfortable thing to do, nor that the splat at the bottom would be exactly painless.
At long last, Dick appeared on the roof. He crossed the roof to Kendall, and gave his stepmother a quick kiss.
Well, a long kiss. A very long kiss. On the lips. With their mouths open. With tongue.
“You’re late,” Kendall pointed out after finally broke off the kiss. “I’ve been up here nearly twenty minutes.”
“So?” Dick asked. “It doesn’t look like the party started without me. But now the Dickmeister is here, and we can begin.” He gave a little swing of hips to accentuate his point that Kendall would have paid money to be able to forget.
Kendall looked down at the street below again. “It gives me the creeps up here, considering.”
A shimmer of-not quite light, not quite darkness, but of color and shape-began to appear in front of them, first just an outline, then slowly taking form, depth, a certain vibrancy of color, until a complete three-dimensional figure stood for them, distinguishable only from a living human being by the occasional flicker which would pass through the spectral image. “Think what it must be like to be me, then,” Cassidy said once he had coalesced. “I’m the one who had to live through it the first time, after all. To be condemned to haunt this place for all eternity-well, it’s a good thing that’s not going to happen. Did you take care of what I told you to?”
Dick nodded. “Done and done.”
“Piece of cake,” Kendall agreed. “An idiot could have carried out your instructions, Cassidy.”
“Which is precisely why I gave them to the two of you,” Cassidy noted.
“Ha-ha, very funny.” Kendall crossed her arms. “There was one problem.”
Cassidy raised an eyebrow. “Which was?”
“Keith Mars showed up today asking why the Phoenix Land Trust was still buying property.”
“Dude,” said Dick. “That’s so not cool.”
“On the contrary, brother,” Cassidy disagreed. “It was assured from the beginning that eventually the Marses would learn that the Phoenix was rising from its ashes once again. Everything is going according to plan.” The ghost looked from the one living Casablancas to the other. “You understand what I need you to do tomorrow?”
“Don’t sweat it, bro,” Dick answered. “We’ve got you covered.”
“Just see that you get it done,” Cassidy said. “And that you’re here tomorrow evening, right at sunset. On time,” he added, with a pointed look at Dick.
“Okay, whatever, sure,” Dick said. “Are we done here? Because I’ve arranged for a little booty call tonight.” Oh god, he did that thing with his hips again.
“Go on, get out of here,” Cassidy said with an exasperated sigh.
“Thanks, Beaver,” Dick said, then turned to Kendall with a wink and a point. “And I’ll hook back up with you later night.”
“Oh, god,” she said once he had left. “He’s going to expect me to sleep with him tonight, isn’t he?”
“Don’t worry, Kendall,” Cassidy said. “After tomorrow, we won’t even need Dick anymore. I’m getting stronger, you know.” He brought a ghostly to her face and she realized with a start that she could feel each finger as it stroked across her cheek. “After tomorrow night I will no longer be tied to this dismal place. The world will be my kingdom once again.” His hand went insubstantial as he plunged it into her cheek, a cold shiver traveling through her as the wraithlike appendage pierced her flesh. “And if you want, Kendall, then you shall be my queen.”
She struggled to concentrate on anything-anything!-but that ghostly hand as it traveled its way down her body. “You really aren’t worried about Keith Mars?”
“Do you think I should be?” asked Cassidy, pausing the movement of his hand and letting it hover around the vicinity of her left breast. “What could he possibly do to harm me? I’ve already shuffled off this mortal coil. The question is, are you afraid of Keith Mars?”
And then he plunged that awful ghostly hand deeper, deeper as he went down, down, down. “And are you more afraid of me? I own you now, every breath you take is at my sufferance. Take it from someone who’s tried it, Kendall: dying is a dismal business. So be a good girl and do as you’re told.
"Do I make myself clear?”
It was all Kendall could do to nod.
TBC . . . here.
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Veronica Mars
Pairings: , Faith/Vi, Mac/Cassidy, Dick/Kendall, Cassidy/Kendall
Timeline/Spoilers: Post-“Chosen,” with spoilers for all of Buffy. About a month after “Not Pictured,” going AU almost immediately after the end of that episode (or even a little bit before), and with spoilers for seasons one and two of Veronica Mars.
Warning: I do not provide warnings for story elements other than nonconsensual sex. This story does not contain noncon, but everything else is fair game. Consider yourself warned.
Summary: Faith and Vi hire Keith Mars to investigate the Phoenix Land Trust. Is its business being conducted from beyond the grave?
In This Chapter: Keith and Veronica snark, Dick and Kendall plot, and an old friend makes an appearance.
PREVIOUS CHAPTER
MEMORIES
Not Quite Queen of the Damned (2/4)
“Okay,” said Veronica, “I’m out.”
Keith frowned. “It’s dark outside.”
Veronica looked at him, incredulously. “That’s when the nightlife tends to happen, after dark. It’s funny how that works, you know.”
“Well, what’s wrong with daylife?”
Veronica shrugged. “Nothing. I’m quite fond of it-at least when my life isn’t sucking beyond the telling of it. But after an exciting day of daylife, sometimes I like to follow up with a little nightlife.”
Keith nodded, defeated. “Just . . . be careful.”
Now Veronica was clearly suspicious. “I’m going with Wallace and my taser, and besides all the PCHers leave me alone anymore anyway. I’d take Backup but I really don’t think they’d let him inside.”
“Just take this, too, okay?” Keith said, and handed his daughter a stake.
“Dad, it’s a piece of wood.”
“It’s a stake.”
By this point, Veronica’s expression had gone past “incredulous” and “suspicious” and was pretty much hovering around “this has to be a joke, right?”-which was a problem, since the entire point of warning her was to make sure she took it all seriously. “You mean like a-stake-though-the-heart type of stake?” Veronica asked. “The kind you use to kill vampires?”
When at loss for a thing to say, seize on a trick of language. And an opportunity to boast in front of a college-aged daughter one wants desperately to impress. “Well, I haven’t killed a vampire in years, but yes.”
Part of Veronica seemed to relax, as if she had been able to convince herself that yes, he was joking, but still there was tenseness to her. Deep down, she probably could instinctively recognize when Keith was joking, and knew he wasn’t joking. “Dad, there aren’t any vampires.”
“Aren’t any in Neptune, you mean. Haven’t been since you were six years old-it was one of the first things I got taken care of when I was sheriff. But, if you hadn’t noticed, somebody else is behind that desk now, someone you can be damned sure doesn’t believe in vampires, and I hear it from the professionals that the vampires are back.”
“There are professionals? You mean like Van Helsing?” Nope. She was so not taking this seriously. Damn.
“They’re all female,” he answered, knowing that factoid did nothing to alleviate the ready absurdity of the situation.
Veronica nodded, a gesture of exaggerated mock-seriousness which, for the moment, could be taken as almost as useful as the real thing. At least she was listening. “So less Van Helsing and more Anita Blake, then.”
“Who?”
Veronica sighed and took the stake from her father’s hand. “Never mind,” she said as she slipped it into her purse, quickly kissed Keith goodbye, and made for the door.
“Just remember,” he interjected before she quite made her way out of it, “there are four ways to kill a vampire. Stake through the heart, beheading, fire, and sunlight. Crosses and holy water will burn it but not kill it. Understood?”
Veronica nodded, then gave a mock-salute. “Understood, sir.”
Confident that, whether she believed it at the moment or not, she would remember, Keith at last gave a contented sigh as he watched his daughter leave. Raising a daughter was difficult enough in itself; raising Veronica was much more difficult still; having both vampires and Veronica in Neptune would raise the task to unprecedented levels of impossibility.
He crossed the apartment and opened a small drawer, from which he pulled out another stake and a small vial of holy water. There was no way he was going to spend the evening just sitting around when there were vampires in his city.
* * *
Kendall Casablancas stood on the roof of the Neptune Grand impatiently. Where was Dick, she wondered for the umpteenth time. It was not as if it were a question that was not often able to be asked of the boy. He was not known for his punctuality, nor for that matter for any positive quality save his wealth.
Which was positive qualities enough as far as Kendall was concerned.
Luckily, it was a warm summer night and Kendall didn’t really mind waiting. She made her way to the edge of the roof and looked down. The Neptune Grand towered over Neptune, and from here she could see all the way to the city limits. All of this should be mine, she thought. One day, all of this will be. After all, it had been promised to her, had it not?
She looked down to the street below, and suddenly felt a twinge of sympathy-a rather unpleasurable emotion-for poor Cassidy. It was quite a long way down, and she couldn’t imagine that falling could be a very comfortable thing to do, nor that the splat at the bottom would be exactly painless.
At long last, Dick appeared on the roof. He crossed the roof to Kendall, and gave his stepmother a quick kiss.
Well, a long kiss. A very long kiss. On the lips. With their mouths open. With tongue.
“You’re late,” Kendall pointed out after finally broke off the kiss. “I’ve been up here nearly twenty minutes.”
“So?” Dick asked. “It doesn’t look like the party started without me. But now the Dickmeister is here, and we can begin.” He gave a little swing of hips to accentuate his point that Kendall would have paid money to be able to forget.
Kendall looked down at the street below again. “It gives me the creeps up here, considering.”
A shimmer of-not quite light, not quite darkness, but of color and shape-began to appear in front of them, first just an outline, then slowly taking form, depth, a certain vibrancy of color, until a complete three-dimensional figure stood for them, distinguishable only from a living human being by the occasional flicker which would pass through the spectral image. “Think what it must be like to be me, then,” Cassidy said once he had coalesced. “I’m the one who had to live through it the first time, after all. To be condemned to haunt this place for all eternity-well, it’s a good thing that’s not going to happen. Did you take care of what I told you to?”
Dick nodded. “Done and done.”
“Piece of cake,” Kendall agreed. “An idiot could have carried out your instructions, Cassidy.”
“Which is precisely why I gave them to the two of you,” Cassidy noted.
“Ha-ha, very funny.” Kendall crossed her arms. “There was one problem.”
Cassidy raised an eyebrow. “Which was?”
“Keith Mars showed up today asking why the Phoenix Land Trust was still buying property.”
“Dude,” said Dick. “That’s so not cool.”
“On the contrary, brother,” Cassidy disagreed. “It was assured from the beginning that eventually the Marses would learn that the Phoenix was rising from its ashes once again. Everything is going according to plan.” The ghost looked from the one living Casablancas to the other. “You understand what I need you to do tomorrow?”
“Don’t sweat it, bro,” Dick answered. “We’ve got you covered.”
“Just see that you get it done,” Cassidy said. “And that you’re here tomorrow evening, right at sunset. On time,” he added, with a pointed look at Dick.
“Okay, whatever, sure,” Dick said. “Are we done here? Because I’ve arranged for a little booty call tonight.” Oh god, he did that thing with his hips again.
“Go on, get out of here,” Cassidy said with an exasperated sigh.
“Thanks, Beaver,” Dick said, then turned to Kendall with a wink and a point. “And I’ll hook back up with you later night.”
“Oh, god,” she said once he had left. “He’s going to expect me to sleep with him tonight, isn’t he?”
“Don’t worry, Kendall,” Cassidy said. “After tomorrow, we won’t even need Dick anymore. I’m getting stronger, you know.” He brought a ghostly to her face and she realized with a start that she could feel each finger as it stroked across her cheek. “After tomorrow night I will no longer be tied to this dismal place. The world will be my kingdom once again.” His hand went insubstantial as he plunged it into her cheek, a cold shiver traveling through her as the wraithlike appendage pierced her flesh. “And if you want, Kendall, then you shall be my queen.”
She struggled to concentrate on anything-anything!-but that ghostly hand as it traveled its way down her body. “You really aren’t worried about Keith Mars?”
“Do you think I should be?” asked Cassidy, pausing the movement of his hand and letting it hover around the vicinity of her left breast. “What could he possibly do to harm me? I’ve already shuffled off this mortal coil. The question is, are you afraid of Keith Mars?”
And then he plunged that awful ghostly hand deeper, deeper as he went down, down, down. “And are you more afraid of me? I own you now, every breath you take is at my sufferance. Take it from someone who’s tried it, Kendall: dying is a dismal business. So be a good girl and do as you’re told.
"Do I make myself clear?”
It was all Kendall could do to nod.
TBC . . . here.