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Author's Chapter Notes:
Sorry for the delay in updating, but it's finally here! :) Thankyou to Andrea for the beta and to everyone who has reviewed and kept reviewing throughout the stroy. You guys are great!!

Also this story has now been nominated at both Vampire Kiss Awards and Love's Last Glimpse Awards. Thank you to whoever enjoyed the story enough to think of nominating it.
Chapter 19
A/N: Taken liberties with the events that happened before Buffy’s calling as a Slayer and assignment to the Hellmouth


Buffy took a cautious step forward. Her eyes were wide with disbelief and fixed on the man before her. She felt paralysed, unable to comprehend his presence or the malevolent smile which twisted his usually kind face.

“What…” Her mouth continued to work even as no more sound left her lips. The man gave her a mockingly saccharine smile at her apparent speechlessness and pointedly let his eyes trail across to Spike, who hung a foot in the air unable to move due to the magic that bound his body before sliding his gaze back to her.

Buffy let her gaze flit back to the vampire quickly taking in his captive state before shock won out again and dragged her gaze back to the man before her.

“What? No hug, sweetheart? I’m disappointed,” he stated, his overly sincere tone belying the smirk that twisted his lips “I thought you’d be glad to see me again, Buffy.”

Buffy felt the sting of tears rise unbidden to her eyes and she blinked furiously to push them back. This couldn’t be happening—not now, not ever! “Come now, you’re a big girl now and big girls don’t cry.”

She clenched her teeth and tried to take deep calming breaths through her nose as she fought to control the swell of emotion that was threatening to overwhelm her and leave her utterly useless before him.

Buffy tried to get her vocal chords working, but they refused to issue a sound. Instead her mouth opened and shut uselessly as she looked at his strange twisted expression of smugness and resentment.

“All I ask is that you come quietly. Do that, then neither your vampire here nor any of your friends or mother get it. Understand?” Buffy’s eyes shot to Spike’s once more and she could see him trying to tell her to say no through the use of his overly expressive eyes.

“Buffy?” The tone with which he said her name made it a warning as he magically tightened his hold on the vampire. “I could dust him with no more than a mere thought. Do we have a deal?”

“Yes,” she finally managed to get out, her voice no more than a whisper and her eyes never leaving Spike’s.

“Yes what, darling?” Buffy turned her gaze back to the man before her.

“Yes, daddy,” she managed to get out before a flick of her father’s wrist sent her into unconsciousness.


***


Spike watched helplessly as the Slayer let her father magically knock her out before his two little minions in the background shuffled forward and began to bind her wrists together behind her back and tie a black blindfold around her eyes.

The spell that the great hulking pillock before him had used still bound him tightly, coiling ever tighter the more he tried to struggle against it. What had the Slayer called him before she was knocked out? Daddy?

He reached out his senses as best as he could and sniffed in the air around him. The magic he could scent in the air was strong. It was masking most of the other scents around him. But he could pick up two things: the scent of the wankers from the Council that had been hunting them last night, and the familial scent of the Slayer that he could smell whenever he was around Joyce.

He felt his stomach clench in revulsion. This man was her father.

Spike’s eyes trailed up to meet those of the man that could claim partial responsibility for the life of the best Slayer he had ever come across. They were staring straight back at him, glinting in amusement and the kind of wild excitement that could only be found in the eyes of those who weren’t completely there upstairs.

He watched as the Slayer’s father’s eyes flashed black just seconds before he was sent careening back into the wall behind him. Five wooden stakes appearing in midair in front of him before they too came hurtling in his direction. He couldn’t help the cry of pain that was torn from his lips as this hands and feet were pierced by the wood, effectively nailing him to the wall seconds before the fifth stake embedded itself into the centre his chest only just missing his heart.

“Stakes soaked in holy water. Ingenious, really. They’ll slowly burn away at any skin that touches them without actually killing you. I’m told it’s painful.” He gave a small chuckle as he turned away briefly and motioned for the two Council men to pick up his daughter. “I think I can say with little doubt that you’ll be begging to be dusted by the time the afternoon sun reaches through that window.”

Spike’s eyes flicked to the two semicircular windows on the other side of the room.

“I’ll leave you to it then,” he said as he shot Spike one last smile and left the room.


***


“They should have been back by now,” Joyce said as she paced restlessly in front of the door, only stopping to check out the window occasionally.

“I know,” Giles said simply. The rest of the Scoobies had gathered in the living room and were waiting the return of their best friend and the bleached menace that had been living with them for the last couple of days.

“Why aren’t they back yet? It’s been HOURS!” She continued to rant throwing her hands in the air and flopping down onto the couch “Something’s happened. I can feel it.”

“Didn’t you say Buffy was hurt? They are probably just waiting around at the school until nightfall so it’s easier for them to get home without Spike going up in flames,” Willow said quietly from her position on the arm of Oz’s chair. Although she had suggested it, she didn’t believe a word she was saying.

“I did block up the sewer access under the school,” Oz added trying to back up his girlfriend. She turned and gave him a grateful smile.

“They could’ve just unblocked it. I mean it would be kind of stupid to stay in one place when you have the big, gun-happy, not to mention HUMAN Council men after you. The first place I would look would be the school,” Cordelia bluntly stated.

“So not helping, Cordy.”

“Oh shut up, Harris. You know I’m right.” Xander had opened his mouth to send back a retort when Giles cut him off.

“That’s enough, both of you.” Giles effectively stopped any impending bickering with the harsh tone of his voice. “Unfortunately, Cordelia does have a point. However, as I was led to believe while talking to Spike, they had little choice when Buffy was injured last night.”

“So they could be still there? Right now? Needing our help?” Joyce questioned, getting ready to stand.

“Well, yes. But it is also quite possible that they’re on their way here as we speak.” Joyce frowned and studied the man beside her.

“So we split up then. Two teams. Cordy, Willow and Mrs. Summers stay here and wait to see if they show up and Oz, me and the G-man head over to the school,” Xander ordered, stepping into the commanding position with an ease that came from the residual army training left over from the previous Halloween.

“I’m coming with you,” Joyce said, standing just as the others had.

“Joyce, Xander is—dare I say it—right.” Giles ignored the surprised then smug look that came over the boy’s face with that declaration. “You need to stay here in case Buffy and Spike get back. If something has happened, we’ll call you immediately but otherwise you’ll be safest here. Buffy would never forgive any of us if something happened to you.”

She looked as if she was going to hesitate for a moment before finally conceding with a heavy sigh and a quick nod. Giles smiled and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder before quickly gathering the weapons needed and moving towards the door with the two boys.

“Take my Jeep. With the way your car handles, you won’t arrive until tomorrow,” Joyce said with the same sarcastic tone in her voice that was so often heard in that of his Slayer’s. Giles let out an involuntary chuckle and grabbed Joyce’s keys before quickly marching out the door.


***


The pounding that was echoing throughout her head seemed to grow louder as her eyes fluttered open. Buffy groaned and tried to move her arms but noted with no small amount of bitterness that they had been bound behind her back.

She let out an unconscious growl as she twisted at the bindings on her wrists in a vain attempt to free herself. The ropes prickled and bit into her wrists, rubbing them raw as she tried to loosen the knots. She let out a frustrated sigh as they refused to budge. She wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all. Like she didn’t have enough on her plate without her father kidnapping her, tying her up, and putting her in…

For the first time she took note of her surroundings. She was in a steel box—a cage. Five of the six sides were pure steel, unmalleable and unescapable. The sixth wall had heavy iron bars running vertically across it so that she could see out into the room before her.

The room wasn’t overly large, but it looked like no place she had ever seen in Sunnydale—not that that meant much. She had no idea where she was, but she got the impression that she wasn’t just being held in your average hotel or motel room, though it had the same distinctly comfortable yet impersonal air to it that they often had.

The carpet looked soft and plush and was a bland creamy colour that seemed to match the light taupe colour of the walls. Buffy couldn’t see any windows in the room but judging by the pattern of the light hitting the floor, she could safely assume that they were on the wall behind her.

The room was plain, almost completely void of furniture if you didn’t count the cot made up in the corner of the room, the mini-fridge and microwave beside it, and her steel box. She strained to see if there was anyone else other than herself nearby, but nothing came into her line of vision.

What bothered Buffy most of all about her surroundings was the perfect circle that seemed to be burnt into the carpet of the floor in the very centre of the room. It had to be at least two meters in diameter and it had five candles placed around its boundaries in even intervals. It reminded her of the books she had read in the library about rituals and sacrifices. She had though the information in the dusty tomes to be of little use to her at the time, but now images of her father serving her up to some hell-raising demon were swimming before her mind unbidden.

She was about to renew her attempts to get out of her ropes again when the door on the far side of the room swung open, admitting her father once more.

“Just as a promised you,” he said as he stared at her coldly, stepping back to allow the figure behind him entry.

“Excellent,” Travers replied as he stared down at Buffy with a gleam in his eyes, one she found unnerving to say the least. He didn’t look as angry or particularly disgusted as she thought he might. Instead the look in his eyes was positively hungry—as though he were a starved man just served his first meal in months.

She felt her gut clench in fear and suddenly wondered whether she had been all that smart allowing her father to take her just to save her friends. She should have fought him. She should have tried to help Spike and then made a run for it. But even as she let those thoughts filter through her mind she knew she could have never left the others to be harmed while she saved her own skin.

She just wasn’t sure whether Council’s intentions were to study or destroy.





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