Eyes Like Ice

A faint, almost empty smile wouldn't leave Spike's face as he gazed out into the cold, snowy November night. He was standing on his front porch with his arms crossed, impervious to the chilly weather, watching Dominick, Riley, and his beautiful little girl play in the thick layer of snow that covered the ground.

She really was a pretty girl. She had just turned three today, yet she already looked so much like her mother that it was almost scary. Long, straight black hair, pale, pale blue eyes, skin almost as white as the snow in which she played...and that Signum, that beautiful tangle of black curves and swirls that covered her entire back and bound her to a life of servitude. She also wore nothing but black clothing, though that was a similarity that her fathers had subtly forced upon her. Luckily, she seemed to have inherited nothing from her real father except a tendency to get restless on the night of the full moon, meaning that she could still be touched by sunlight.

Over the past three years, Spike, being a vampire, had remained virtually unchanged. Riley and Dominick, however, had both aged, though the changes weren't too severe. They both looked pretty much the same as they had the day Raven had died, albeit a little bit more haggard. Riley, amazingly enough, had become a renowned healer in the city, often sought out by an injured Levellua or vamp or Were and offered money for his services. This had given him what he needed to move out of his father's house and get his own apartment. Spike constantly offered to let the human live in his mansion, but Riley always refused in spite of the fact that most of his time was spent there with Raven's daughter.

Dominick had obtained a few scars on his neck from various fights he'd gotten into, but he was still basically the same as he'd been three years ago. Tough, pretty, cocky, still living with his master and following orders...He spent more time with Spike now, though, leaving the vampire's estate only when he absolutely had to.

"Kastalia Elaine Guthrie," Spike murmured as he continued to watch his child and companions thoughtfully. The little girl pounced on Dominick suddenly, knocking him back into the snowman they had built only moments ago. The Levellua completely destroyed the snowman when he fell. Kastalia giggled happily while landing on Dominick, and Spike's smile returned. He was glad his daughter hadn't ended up like her mother. She needed to feel. The three males still weren't sure how Raven had managed to keep herself going for all those years without emotions.

A pair of thin, pale arms snaked around the vampire's waist suddenly, and he grinned.

Well, speak of the devil.

"Shouldn't I be the one behind you?" Spike asked, a slight bit of playfulness entering his usually empty tone.

"Are you assigning me the role of helpless female that needs a lot of affection again?" Raven asked in return, her voice remaining smooth and emotionless.

"Of course."

"Then, yes, you should be behind me." She released him, and he quickly took his place behind her. His arms wrapped around her gently, allowing him to pull her body to his. A cold hand was laid upon his, and he realized she wasn't wearing a coat. Again.

"You're going to end up getting pneumonia and dying if you keep going around without a coat," he told her, his voice a soft murmur as he closed his eyes and leaned down to nuzzle the side of her neck.

She shuddered, her own pale eyes closing. "Like pneumonia could kill me. I've survived far worse."

Spike frowned at how right she was. She'd survived so much...Stab wounds, bullet wounds, deep, potentially fatal gashes...Hell, she'd even survived an attempted euthanization. They still weren't sure how that had happened. The doctor had filled her bloodstream with something that was supposed to put her out of her misery without harming the baby, and she had died for a few minutes, but when the baby had been removed from her womb, she'd just...come back. Started breathing again, blinking, looking around, everything. They'd sworn it was a miracle then, and they continued to think so today.

The looks Dominick and Riley gave Spike when they noticed he had his arms around Raven were angry and jealous, but quick, just a dark shadow that flickered across their faces. Then, they were perfectly happy again, dancing around in the snow with the child they considered their own.

"They're still jealous," Spike told Raven softly, having opened his eyes just in time to catch the maledictive looks he'd received.

The female shrugged calmly. "They'll get over it someday. Just give them a few more years."

"They've had three years already."

"So let's give them three more."

Spike sighed against his lover's neck, unable to stop a smile when she shuddered. He completely forgot what they'd been talking about, now thoughtfully rubbing her stomach through the black fabric of another tight-fitting T-shirt. He was wondering whether she'd allow them to have another child or not someday. They hadn't gone beyond kissing since the last time they'd had sex, when they'd conceived Kastalia.

"No, Spike," Raven said softly, as if she had read his mind. "I fear few things, and going through that again is one of them."

"Wouldn't it be different when you're older?" He didn't realize how she'd paled so much farther at the mere thought of another childbirth.

Without a word, she shoved his arms away from her and went back into the house. The playing ceased when the door slammed.

"What the hell did you do?" Dominick asked, glaring at the vampire.

"Watch your language," Spike snarled before going inside as well.

He quickly made his way to Raven's room, the one she'd shared with him ever since her master had allowed her to move in three years ago, only to find that she wasn't there. He checked Kastalia's room, but she wasn't there, either. He went back downstairs at that point, soon finding her in the parlor. The lighting here was dim, for that had always been how she preferred it, and she was sitting on the couch with her face in her hands, her elbows resting on her knees. She was trembling.

"We don't have to have another child," Spike told her quietly, feeling horrible for having done this to her. He'd known she would react like this, yet he'd insisted upon continuing the discussion.

God, he was such an ass.

The black-haired Levellua didn't speak, and soon, the vampire just walked away. There was nothing else he could do for her.

Outside, the playing had yet to resume. Kastalia was just staring at the door, waiting for someone to walk through it. Dominick and Riley were watching the child silently, occasionally glancing from her to the door and back again.

The girl cocked her head at Spike when he emerged from the house. "Where's Mommy?" Her face was an emotionless mask, a look she undoubtedly got from her mother, and her gaze was simply unnerving. It was so intent and knowing...Too intent and knowing for someone her age. It was the one they all remembered from the day she was born, when she'd silently waited in the doctor's arms, watching calmly as her mother came back from the dead in a panic.

Spike shuddered at the memory. Raven had been unable to speak when she'd first awoken, so all she could do was frantically claw at her throat and glance around at all of the shocked people in the room, wide eyes silently begging for help. Oddly enough, she'd calmed down when she'd noticed Mr. Hanwell's bloody remains in the doorway. Dominick had slaughtered the man only moments before her initial awakening, so the pieces of corpse were still very, very fresh. She'd seemed absolutely intrigued by them...

Spike came back to find himself saying, "She's...ah...resting right now. She'll be okay in a moment."

Kastalia's look turned suspicious. "Liar."

"...Who wants presents?!" Spike asked brightly after a brief pause. Luckily for him, his genius child was still easily distracted by the promise of gifts.

"I do!" she and Riley squealed in unison.

Everyone looked at the human, confused, and he got all defensive. "What? I do."

Kastalia stared at him for several seconds, then she ran toward the door while squeaking, "None for you!"

"Aw! No fair!" the human whined with a grin as he and the other two males followed.

Spike forgot all about Raven until they reached the parlor. He flipped the light switch beside the door, causing the chandelier suspended from the ceiling in the center of the room to add its radiance to that of the single lamp in the corner. Raven was illuminated now, and Spike was pleased to see that she was no longer trembling so violently. She had her arms around her middle, though, and she was shivering lightly, as if she were cold.

She raised her eyes to meet Spike's, and he swore their haunted depths held a hint of hysteria. "Spike," she nearly whispered, "I'm cold."

It was Riley who slid his dark blue coat off and draped it across her shoulders, soon pulling it tighter around her slender, scarred body. He sat down beside her, frowning as he put an arm around her and pulled her closer to him, offering his body heat as well as his coat. "Better?" he asked, though the word was lost beneath a possessive growl from Spike.

Riley shot the vampire a glare, but Dominick was the one who spoke. "Oh, get over yourself, vampire," he spat, his voice a pissy growl. "It's not like you were doing anything to help her. Hell, you're the one who caused the problem to begin with."

At this, Spike bared his fangs and lunged. A thin body collided with his before he could get close to Dominick, and he fell to the floor with a pissed off Raven on top of him. Her own slight fangs were bared no more than an inch from his face.

"Such a good example we set for Kastalia," she hissed, gesturing in the petrified child's direction.

Spike immediately calmed down on the outside, though that possessive anger was still raging inside him. He got to his feet once Raven had stood, and all three of the males followed her out of the room.

She spun to face the group following her once they were all in the dining room. Her glare was frightening enough to scare even them.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she asked angrily.

"I'm so sorry I'm a possessive bastard," Spike replied sarcastically, now utterly pissed.

"God, Spike! Do you still think you need to protect me from them?!" the female shouted with an angry gesture toward Riley and Dominick.

"Of course! They want you just as much as I do, and I don't want them to take you away from me!"

"We've been over this, Spike. Because of Kastalia, my bond with you has strengthened too much to allow me to choose anyone else. I love them just as much as I love you, I would die for them like I would for you, but you're the one I've chosen." By now, Raven's emotionless composure had returned. She calmly crossed her arms and said, "Now, stop traumatizing our child and acting like I'm going to leave you."

There was silence for a moment, then Riley said softly, his voice cracking because of repressed emotion, "So we don't stand a chance?"

That was when Raven realized she'd never mentioned her deep connection with Spike to either of them.

Damn.

"No," she answered after a momentary pause. "Neither of you stand a chance. But you are still part of this screwed up little family we have here. You're still just as much fathers to Kastalia as Spike is."

"Hm," Dominick mumbled before turning and leaving the room. Riley followed silently. Raven sighed and went after them with Spike at her side.

They ended up back in the parlor, where Kastalia was silently staring at the presents waiting for her on the coffee table. She was emotionless again, an exact copy of her cold bitch of a mother.

"You can open them," the stoic woman stated when she saw the child. She sat down on the couch and slid Riley's coat on, now silently watching her daughter.

Kastalia didn't say a word as she unwrapped her presents. A storybook, a music book, a doll were all revealed and put aside, never evoking any kind of reaction from the normally excitable little girl.

As she continued to wordlessly open her presents, her mother glanced around the room, displeased by everything she saw. Her daughter quiet and uncaring, Riley hurt and frowning, Dominick angry and glaring, Spike apathetic and staring at nothing...She caught a glimpse of herself in the gold lamp that rested on the table beside the couch, her figured distorted by the curving base. It was easy to see how empty her own face was, even with the distortion. And it was easy to see that this was all her fault, even without a reflection of the situation.

While her child listlessly tore the paper away from another doll, Raven stood silently. She slid Riley's coat off, dropped it on the couch where she had been sitting, then strode past the little girl and the three men without a word. She was soon walking briskly through the cold, snowy night, leaving like she always did when her family grew so quiet.

In Spike's mansion, all movement ceased. Spike, Riley, Dominick, and even Kastalia all stared at something without seeing, undoubtedly thinking the same thing Raven thought.

Somehow, they were better off without her.