Mordred, Vortigern and Nathan
Mordred screamed as Gwen burnt herself. Huge blisters followed the path of the lighter she took over her own body, duplicated on his. Hank rushed out as Mordred thrashed from side to side, moaning as Gwen followed it up with ice.
"Please, love, please, don't...hurt me instead, please, hurt me..."
An agonizing pain started in his knee, and he cried out again.
"OH SWEET MOTHER OF CHRIST!"
"Spike, I can't...hurts, Spike, please..." Vortigern moved his head weakly, and Spike let the now unashamed tears slip down his face. He looked up as the door opened.
"The cat's away, the mice will play..." Nathan whispered, the eerie tones carrying clearly to Spike's ears. "Burning, the heat will eat them alive. Burn, burn, burn." The now blind and insane mutant crept into the room and went to Mordred's side. "She touched you and you fell into the fire. Poor child."
"What do you see?" Spike asked in a hoarse voice.
"He said no, no. She said, *love me*. Want me, need me, *burn* for me. He burns for her." Nathan nodded slightly, and moved gracefully out of Hank's way as he administered an anesthetic to Mordred and started to stich up the horrible wound in his leg. Blood stained the white sheets.
"What?"
"Love, love lost." Nathan let his hand flutter over Mordred's now gaunt face like a dying bird. "He's lost without his love. He'll never forgive himself. The cat is selfish. She saw, she wanted, she took. But she could not betray her nature."
"Her nature?"
"She is a cat, after all. Cats...mate."
"She was on bloody heat?!" Spike demanded in an outraged voice. "All of this...because Nyx was on heat?!"
Nathan shot him an amused glance. "Yes."
"I'm going to kill her."
"You can't vampire, you can't. She's needed yet. They are needed too, and they'll recover. Whether the earth will still turn round, is not yet known. You failed. Love is lost in the flames." Nathan slipped out again, and Spike returned to his vigil, burning with anger.