BORN OF THE COVENANT

Fandom: BtVS/The Covenant

Pairing: Dawn/Reid

Rating: M

Summary: The events surrounding an attack on a student at Spenser once again set Dawn and Reid on an inevitable collision course.

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I have no claim over anything official to do with either ‘The Covenant’ or ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’.

Author’s Notes: Follows ‘The Ipswich Hunt’. This won’t make sense unless you’ve read that.

Reid brought his hand up to rub his brow, trying to ignore the repetitive, mind-numbingly mundane pop song that now rolled around Nicky’s as it tried to hammer its way through his skull. For a second he contemplated sending out a flicker of power to make the record change – he even drew the necessary energy to him – only to allow it to dissipate at the last minute. After his exertions while fighting vampires with Dawn, he had grown wary of giving into the urge to abuse his powers. The experience had left him feeling drained – emotionally and physically. It had been so easy to slip back into the habit of using his abilities - even with the spectre of what had happened to Chase looming large on the horizon - that he had been reminded of precisely how tempting taking the easy route out could be.

He snorted into the palm of his hand as he slid it down, over his face. He was turning into Caleb. The next thing would be for him to start giving lectures to the others all the time and begin rushing off to save damsels in distress. Of course, if he counted the other night, then he already had done the latter. Indeed, he had saved the three that he was now sitting around with.

Reid met Caleb’s eyes as the older Son peered at him over the pitted tabletop. He looked like hell. Half of his face was still covered in bruises after his trip out of the boarded up window of the vampires’ nest, and he was walking with a definite limp. The official story – much to Reid’s amusement – was that he had managed to sleep walk out of an upstairs window at his family home. Reid would have been even more amused if it was not for the fact that the female half of the school’s population – hell, of the town – had been going out of their way to coo over his elder counterpart. On more than one occasion, Reid had allowed himself to toy with the idea of how they might have reacted had they known that their precious pin-up would have been dead if it was not for him. Unfortunately, he would never have the opportunity to find out.

Almost as if reading his thoughts, Caleb rolled his eyes. He held up his glass and gestured towards the bar.

Reid shook his head. “I’ll go,” he said, and quickly stood up. The movement caused his chair to rebound off one behind him and he heard someone grunt in protest. Reid ignored them.

“I’ll have one,” Pogue called out as the blond began to walk away. “And get Kate something as well. She should be here soon.”

Reid looked back over his shoulder and raised his eyebrows. “I don’t suppose you’re going to give me any money, are you?”

Pogue smirked. “I’ll pay you back later.”

Reid made a fist and then slowly extended his middle finger.

Although it was a Thursday night iNicky’s/i was heaving. It took Reid longer than he would normally have liked to slide through the queue to get to the bar but for once he did not mind too much. The truth was that as he looked around the assembled crowd of students from Spencer and the odd local hanger on he could not help but feel that there was something missing. The feeling was utterly foreign but it was not inexplicable; he was missing Dawn.

With irritating predictability, his gut lurched at the thought of the intriguing assistant librarian. Six months ago if someone had told him that he would spend his spare time mooning over a ilibrarian/i then Reid would have said that they were crazy. To say that Dawn was not like any other librarian that he had ever come across was an understatement, though. To begin with, he was reasonably certain that being able to wield a wooden stake was not high on the job requirements. Spencer Academy – Ipswich in general – had no doubt seen its fair share of strange things over the years since it had been established but he suspected that Dawn was something entirely different.

She was also frustratingly closed off. For a short time, while they had been rushing off to rescue his friends, Reid had thought that she might be ready to open up a bit. Indeed, in the initial aftermath of that night she had opened up. Since then, however, Dawn had slowly retreated. She had built a wall up around herself and made sure that there was what Reid could only describe as a ‘respectable distance’ between them.

She had her reasons, of course - extraordinarily exasperating reasons that Reid had yet to figure out a way around. There was her job with the school to consider, and the age difference between them. Any friendship that they formed would no doubt be frowned upon, and Reid knew that he would never been happy even with that. His interest in Dawn was rather less platonic.

It was more than that, though. Now that he’d had the time to think, it had occurred to him that perhaps there were other reasons for her keeping her distance. She had certainly been shocked and worried when he had revealed that he knew her history – or at least part of it. It had crossed his mind more than once that there might be something in it which could stop her from telling him anything. Unfortunately, her reluctance to talk only made her seem more interesting.

He growled under his breath. It did not help that Caleb, Pogue and Tyler seemed to agree that keeping company with Dawn was a bad idea. While they appreciated the fact that she had helped them, they were wary enough of what little they did know about her past to still be wondering whether her presence in town had not been the catalyst behind Ipswich’s sudden vampire infestation.

Once he reached the bar, it didn’t take long to get served. As Nicky handed Reid his change he gave the blond a pointed look – one that suggested that any trouble would not be tolerated. Reid’s eyes widened slightly as he wondered what he had done to deserve such a warning, only to realise a second later that he had undoubtedly been scowling as he waited for his order. Nicky had a sixth sense where trouble was concerned, and he certainly knew his patrons. Maybe he knew something that Reid didn’t.

Carefully balancing the circular tray that he had been handed, Reid turned and began to make his way out of the pack waiting at the bar. As he emerged, an all too familiar voice called, “Got a new job, Garwin? You sure do make a pretty waitress.”

Reid drew in a deep breath, thought ‘what the fuck!’ and sent Aaron’s drink hurtling into his lap with a tendril of power.

Caleb was frowning as Reid reached their table, no doubt having sensed the tiny explosion of energy coming from the direction of the bar. He did not say anything however – he could not say anything; Kate had joined them in the interval while Reid had been at the bar and was now perched on Pogue’s knee. She immediately reached over and grabbed the bottle of fruity something-or-other that she always drank from the tray.

“Why thanks, Reid. No problem, Kate,” he quipped, sitting down and leaning back on his chair. From the corner of his eye he could see a rather flustered looking Aaron still pressing a wad of paper napkins against his unfortunate wet patch.

“Thank you,” she said primly, rolling her eyes before turning her attention back to Pogue. They kissed and Reid looked away sharply. To one side, Tyler cringed and managed to look almost as disgusted as Reid felt.

Ever since Pogue had gotten out of hospital after his run in with Chase, things had been different between him and Kate. It was almost as if the fight had finally knocked some sense into Pogue, prompting him to decide that being less possessive was probably a good idea. Of course, Kate did not know that he had been involved in a fight. She knew the official story – the one that they had told the police and the world in general. As far as Kate was concerned, Pogue had been speeding when his bike had caught a slick patch on the road leading him to crash. For her part, Kate seemed to have become more possessive than ever before. The irony would have made Reid smile if it was not for the sick feeling that he got in his stomach whenever he was forced to be around them too long. They were worse than Caleb and Sarah.

“No Sarah?” Reid inquired after glancing around the bar. Where Kate went, Sarah usually followed – especially if she knew that Caleb would be there.

Kate pulled away from Pogue long enough to shake her head. Reaching again for her drink, she said, “I asked her but she couldn’t come. She’s kind of stressed at the moment.”

“Still?” Caleb asked.

Reid glanced aside at him, surprised when he noted the frown that had appeared on the elder Son’s face. Maybe everything was not so perfect after all. He just refrained from commenting. Just.

“She’s not been sleeping so great. I think she just wants a little downtime.”

That, to Reid, sounded like an excuse. From Caleb’s expression it was pretty clear that he thought the same.

Reid pursed his lips.

The truth was that since Sarah had made it clear that it was Caleb she was interested in Reid had not spent a great deal of time thinking about her. Well, maybe that was not completely true. He had thought about her. He had thought about the fact that he always seemed to come in last where girls were concerned. Even Tyler had a better record with them than he did. Oh, it wasn’t that he didn’t have any luck with them. He could always find a date if he needed one, and he was rarely left unsatisfied. Time was that he had thought that was enough. Now he was not quite so sure.

It did not help that Sarah’s continuing presence in Caleb’s life had proved that there were girls out there able to handle the truth about the covenant without calling the nearest nuthouse or turning to drink. It made him wonder whether Dawn would be the same if he told her everything. As things stood, he did not know whether he would ever get the chance to find out. The most irritating part was that Dawn probably even suspected – or knew – more than Sarah had at the time that Caleb had revealed all to her.

The sudden sensation of his phone vibrating made him start. Leaning back he dug around in his pocket until he came up with his phone. His eyes widened in surprise as he saw the name on the display.