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Chapter Fifteen


“Spike!” Buffy’s cry was part anguish and part anger.

(What the hell did you think you were doing?)

(Puttin’ the already dead bloke in front of the bullet, you ungrateful bint.)

(I didn’t ask you to take a bullet for me) she growled, fear fueling her anger.

(Didn’t have to. No way was I gonna watch you get taken out by somethin’ we both know couldn’t hurt me.)

Aloud, he said, “Relax, Slayer. You know a bullet can’t kill me.” He examined the hole in his shirt and peered inside to see the hole pouring borrowed blood down his chest. “Hurts like a bugger, though,” he said, just before he slid toward the floor, grabbing at the desk for support.

Buffy immediately wrapped her arms around his waist and lowered him gently the rest of the way down. She looked up at her watcher and best friend, ignoring for the moment the furious woman Giles was gleefully holding immobile.

“I need something to cut a bullet out,” she demanded.

“Check my ankle, pet. There’s a knife there.” Spike’s voice was hoarse with the strain of both the pain he was feeling and his attempts to keep it from bleeding over into his mate. Buffy glared at Maggie as though the older woman had pulled the trigger herself. Riley, of course, had bolted out the door as soon as he shot William, using the confusion to put some distance between himself and the angry Slayer.

Buffy reached down and found the slender knife attached to Spike’s lower leg and pulled it out. She ripped his shirt off, exposing both his muscular chest and the still-bleeding hole in it.

“Damn! I liked that shirt,” she muttered as she tried to see through the blood and gauge how deep the bullet was.

(I can buy another one just like it, if you like it that much, pet. But I refuse to wear it where anybody but you can see me.)

Ignoring his attempt to distract her, she used the shirt to blot up the blood so that she could locate the bullet.

(I’m sorry) Buffy sent him quickly, as she probed the wound with her finger. He nodded at her to continue and went back into vamp face as the pain brought his demon to the fore. Her searching finger found that the bullet had lodged in the back of one of his ribs as it went through his body.

“I found it!” she said triumphantly, then sobered. “But I’m not sure how I’m going to get it out without doing more damage. And you’re losing a lot of blood.”

Buffy looked at Giles for help and he shrugged, shoving Maggie down in her chair not at all gently. He pulled the garrote from his unsearched pocket and placed it around her throat, anchoring it tightly to the back of her chair. He had Willow get another one from Spike’s pocket and used that to tie her hands securely.

Looking her directly in the eye, he said in his best Ripper voice, “If you try to move, you’ll strangle. Is that clear?”

An answering glare was her only response, and he nodded, turning to Willow.

“If she so much as breathes funny, turn her into a toad,” he instructed.

Willow made a face and cringed. “Ewww, Giles, you know I hate frogs and toads! Can’t I make her a kitten or something?”

Maggie listened to the perfectly serious exchange between the out-of-work librarian and the unassuming, but brilliant, girl with a combination of fear, shock and an overwhelming urge to learn more about these people. Wlillow folded her arms across her chest and fixed the woman with her best resolve-face glare, daring her to think about moving.

Giles knelt down on the floor near Buffy and looked into the wound.

“I suggest we go in from the back to get that out. With vampire healing being what it is, it needs to come out before the bone begins to grow around it.”

Using his ruined shirt as a cushion, Spike lay down on his stomach and clenched his fists as the Watcher picked up the knife and began to make an incision in the vampire’s back. Heedless of who else was watching, Buffy pulled one of Spike’s hands into her lap and began to stroke it gently as her Watcher cut into Spike’s back and dug the bullet out of the bone.

(I’m sorry, I know we’re hurting you, but it’s for your own good.)

(Bet you say that to all the demons your Watcher carves up for you) he snarked, fighting the urge to scream as the knife began digging into the bone around the bullet.

As the bullet was pried loose and popped out onto the floor, Spike’s control slipped and Buffy gasped when a stab of pain went through her back.

(Sorry, pet. Slipped there for a minute) Buffy could feel the weakness from the blood loss slipping up on the vampire and she rubbed his hand vigorously, ignoring her Watcher’s frown.

“Come on, Spike. Don’t leave us now. We still have to get out of here,” Buffy pleaded with the almost unconscious vampire.

“He needs blood, Buffy. Human blood.”

Slayer and Watcher turned as one and looked at the suddenly pale woman sitting behind the desk. They gave her several minutes to contemplate the obvious answer before Buffy said with a sigh, “The Slayer doesn’t kill humans, Giles. That’s the first thing Merrick ever taught me.”

The relief on Maggie’s face was visible – and short-lived. While Buffy turned back to the semi-conscious vampire and gently stroked his light brown curls, Giles leaned in to the wary woman and whispered, “My Slayer doesn’t kill humans. Neither I nor the vampire are encumbered with those issues.”

He had to smother a grin at the fear he could feel rolling off the arrogant professor as she understood his implied threat.

Keeping her back turned to the rest of the people in the room, Buffy reached a quick decision and used the sharp knife to slash her wrist. She held the bleeding wrist to Spike’s mouth and whispered, “Drink, Spike. It’s freely given. Slayer blood, come on, you know you want it.”

Spike’s demon took no time fastening his mouth on the bleeding wrist and the elixir coming from it. As he swallowed healing draughts of Buffy’s blood, the demon receded and Spike became conscious of what he was doing. He groaned as the powerful Slayer blood flowed down his throat and began the healing process. In spite of his wound, Buffy’s nearness, enhanced by her blood, had the same effect on him it always did and he shifted uncomfortably against the rapidly growing bulge in his jeans.

(I could make this a lot more fun, love, if we were just…)

(This is medicinal, Spike! Just drink and get better.)

Buffy was very grateful that no one could hear their thoughts as she blushed, remembering what happened that last time he drank from her. She closed her eyes briefly and let the incredibly sensual feeling wash over her. As his swallowing slowed and came to a halt, Spike ran his tongue over her wrist until the bleeding had stopped and the edges began to close. He finished with a light kiss to the wound, then moved Buffy’s hand back to her lap.

(Not that I don’t appreciate it, love, but what was that all about?)

Spike was allowing the feelings engendered by her gift to flow freely between them and Buffy found herself blushing again as his gratitude and undisguised lust filled her.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” she replied, trying to ignore his heated gaze. “And nobody wants to carry your lazy ass.”

The sound of Buffy’s voice brought everyone’s attention back to the pair on the floor and one look at Spike’s sparkling eyes and almost healed body had Giles grabbing his Slayer’s arms and turning them over. When he spotted the newly healed cut on her wrist, he dropped her hand with a growl that would have done credit to a vampire.

“What the bloody hell are you doing?” He shouted at her. “Letting William the Bloody drink from you? He might have killed you!”

“No, he wouldn’t,” she answered with a surety that paused the man in mid-rant. The Slayer and the man who’d been fired from the Council for being too fond of her stared at each other for a long minute. Spike rose to his feet and stood behind Buffy, resting his hands lightly on her shoulders.

“You know better than that, Watcher,” he said calmly. “You know I’d never hurt her.”

“Angel was in love with her, and he almost killed her when she let him have her blood.”

Spike’s face darkened and his grip tightened on Buffy’s shoulders. When she winced, he apologized silently and rubbed them gently.

“I told you, I am NOT the bloody great poof. My demon doesn’t rule me the way his does. I don’t hurt the people I…care about.”

“What’s done is done,” Buffy interrupted. “Now that he’s healthy again, we need to concentrate on getting out of here.”

She turned to look coldly at Maggie Walsh.

“I’m assuming her…employees…will not want to lose her, so she’s going to be our ticket out. I’ll handle any fighting we have to do, and Spike will –“ she turned to look at the vampire.

“Spike will do what needs to be done,” he said enigmatically, stepping around to stand beside her.

‘Well, don’t get shot again, please.”

(I don’t know, pet. Considerin’ the cure, it might be worth it…Maybe you could use me as a non-human shield.) His silent laughter told her she didn’t even need to mention that he was a pig.

“Your blood healed him.” Maggie’s flat, no-nonsense voice brought everyone’s attention back to her. She was staring at Buffy with undisguised fascination, and Spike stepped forward growling.

Buffy put a hand on his arm and he stopped, but he never took his icy blue eyes off the white-coated woman. She temporarily ignored him while she studied Buffy intently.

“How is it possible that your blood heals? What is the mechanism for it?”

Spike waved his hand at her face, “Vampire here, ‘case you’ve forgotten. Lives off blood? Quick healing? Can’t be killed ‘cept for certain methods? Stop me when I get to somethin’ you don’t already know from your little party games.”

Maggie turned her attention to him briefly. “You didn’t heal that quickly when you were fed blood before. When we—“

“When you what?” Buffy’s voice was deadly as she stepped closer to the woman who seemed so anxious to learn more about her. “What did you do to him while he was in here?”

Maggie was suddenly reminded of what Buffy had said about hurting her friends or family and she wondered exactly how strong the Slayer’s inhibition against killing humans was.

It was Spike’s turn to take her arm and distract her from thoughts of mayhem.

“She’s our ticket out of here, pet. Let it go.”

With a final glare at the nervous looking woman, Buffy relaxed and turned around.

“All right, here’s the plan. We use Cruella here as our hostage/bargaining chip/shield, whatever it takes to get us out of this place.” She looked at Spike, “Do you remember how you got out the first time?”

He shook his head, saying, “No, but I was on this level and I know I went out past the cages. There was an opening into some tunnels which led to the caves outside of town.”

“Let’s go then,” Buffy said, yanking Maggie to her feet.





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