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Chapter Two

When the vampire threw open the door and stomped through the room to the kitchen, Giles paused in what he was doing to glare at his unwanted house guest.

“If you’re going to think you can come and go at will around here, would you please try to demonstrate some manners?”

“Sod off,” was the snarled reply, as Spike went into the refrigerator for a packet of blood. He wanted the bruises and sore muscles left by the commando’s kicks to heal immediately. He wanted no reminders of this night at all, including the taste of the Slayer’s blood in his mouth. For once, he was grateful for the flat taste of the pig’s blood they’d been feeding him.

Buffy came in the door behind him, closing it gently before she shrugged off her jacket and sat on the couch. She carefully avoided looking at the scowling vampire as he brought his mug of blood back into the room and sat in the big chair.

The Watcher looked back and forth between the two obviously unhappy young people and asked, “Did something happen while you were out there? Is there a reason you came back together?”

“No!”

“Yes!”

“Aha,” Xander said, slapping the table in front of him, “things are back to normal. Buffy and Spike can’t agree on anything and all is right with the world.” He leaned back and smirked at the glaring vampire. “I’m surprised you made it back here, evil undead. I would have thought Buffy would’ve put a stake through your heart for all that hands-on stuff that went on while you two were…”

“Shut up, Whelp.”

“Shut up, Xander.”

“I’m just saying, you two were all cozy, cuddling there in that chair. All that kissing and…whatever. It made ME sick. I can just imagine how Buffy must—“

The growl from the vampire was matched by the angry hiss from the Slayer and for once the not terribly bright young man got the message and bit back the rest of what he wanted to say.

“All right, sheesh, I get it. You don’t want to talk about it. Can’t say I blame you, Buffster, but I would have thought—“

“Xander!” Buffy yelled just as Spike leaped to his feet and crossed the room too quickly for anyone to see. Before he could follow through on his clearly headache-inducing intentions, Buffy stepped between them and put her hands on his chest. She could feel him trembling under her fingers as she gently pushed him away from the table.

“Please,” she said quietly, unconsciously rubbing her thumbs against his tee-shirt covered chest in a soothing fashion. She felt the anger burning inside and couldn’t help agreeing with him just a little. What they’d done together had felt completely right at the time, and if what Spike had revealed about his feelings for her was true, then she could easily understand his rage at hearing it treated so casually.

As she gently ran her hands out to rub his upper arms, she could feel him begin to calm down and when he gave her an abrupt nod and turned away, she breathed a sigh of relief. She watched him go back to the chair and sit down, glowering at the bewildered boy across the room.

“Buffy! You saw that! He tried to attack me. Why isn’t he dust?”

“Shut up, Xander,” she snapped at him. “I don’t want to hear another word from you about the spell or anything that might have happened while we were under it. Is that clear?”

“Well, sure, Buff. You don’t want to talk about it. I get that. It must have been…But if you just stake him, you won’t have to think about it anymore. None of us are going to blame you for what the spell made you do, but if he’s not around to remind you…”l

“Leave Spike alone,” she said in her best Slayer voice. “All of you,” she added, casting a look around the room. “Just leave him alone.”

Her watcher’s eyes narrowed as he looked back and forth between the two powerful blonds in his living room. As upsetting as he’d found it to listen to them kissing and making plans for a life together while they were under the spell, he found it much more disquieting that they were not back to their usual snarking and arguing now that it was over. The fact that his slayer seemed to be protecting the chipped vampire was even more disturbing.

Although it was now well after midnight, everyone decided that they would head for their own homes and dorm rooms to try to get some sleep before beginning the day. Xander and Anya left first, the boy staying a safe distance from the chair holding the morose vampire. Buffy and Willow gathered up their things and told Giles “good night”. As they walked toward the door, Willow hesitated as though she was going to say something to Spike, then shook herself and kept going.

Buffy couldn’t help taking a last look in the vampire’s direction, only to find him staring at her with an unreadable look on his face. She flushed when his (sweet dreams, pet) echoed inside her head and before she could stop herself she thought (good night, Spike.).

When the door had closed behind the two girls, Spike turned his gaze back to the room only to find the watcher staring at him intently. He reminded himself that Buffy’s watcher, tweed coats and spectacle polishing to the contrary, was neither stupid nor incapable of dealing with vampires by himself. He flashed back to when Angelus had killed the gypsy computer teacher and a grieving Giles had taken on the older vampire armed with nothing but a torch and a stake.

Spike forced himself to look harmless and uninteresting as he stood up and carried his empty cup to the kitchen. He started to drop it in the sink when a loud cough from the watcher made him sigh and rinse it out carefully before setting it to drain on the side. He returned to the living room, giving the watcher an irritated glare just to reinforce his position as unwilling guest.

To his surprise, the other Brit went to the cupboard and came back with two glasses and a bottle of good Scotch. He raised his eyebrow at the vampire in query, then, at Spike’s suspicious nod, poured them both a full two fingers of the expensive blend. When they were both seated and sipping from their glasses, he looked hard at the vampire and asked, “What happened tonight?”

For a minute, Spike panicked, sure that the watcher was referring to his claiming the Slayer and that he was graciously allowing him one last drink before he killed him. Then he realized that Giles had gone back to the original question he’d asked before they were all sidetracked by Xander’s jealous insistence that Buffy stake Spike.

Taking a long sip of the smooth liquor, Spike laid it out for the Watcher.

“Ran into a bit of trouble with those wankers that did this to me,“ he gestured toward his head and the still visible scar there. “Did alright until one of them got me with the soddin’ taser and I went down. Slayer showed up while they were using me for football practice.”

Giles frowned. “Buffy stepped in? That was very foolish of her.”

“Yeah. Tried to tell the silly bint that, but I don’t think she listens real well.”

“You have no idea how right you are,” her watcher murmured, waiting for the vampire to continue.

“Yeah, well, anyway, she’s tells ‘em to get lost, they try to manhandle her out of the way, and…you can probably guess the rest. We ran until we knew they weren’t followin’, then came back here.”

“Buffy fought humans?” Giles sounded more upset than he actually was. He was more than aware of how evil humans could be and had no real problems dealing with them, but it was unlike his Slayer to be willing to hurt them.

“Well, not so much fought as tossed away from me. She only actually hit one of them. Big git, almost looked like he recognized her.”

“Did she know him?”

“Have to ask her that. They were all wearing masks and head covers – real ninja-type stuff. Would be hard to say what any of them looked like.”

“Would you be able to recognize any of them again?”

Spike didn’t bother to ask what the other man meant, he just responded thoughtfully, “Was tryin’ to keep my distance, so I didn’t get a real good chance to memorize anybody. Think I might be able to pick up on a couple of the scents though if I had a chance. Enough to know that I’d smelled it before, anyway.”

The Watcher nodded and continued to sip his drink. They drank in surprisingly companionable silence for some time before Spike cleared his throat and said, “Uh, Watcher?”

Giles raised his eyes, which had been focused on nothing as he digested what the vampire had told him.

“These…people. The ones that run that lab. I don’t think they’re all that fussy about what they label ‘demon’ and now that they’ve seen the Slayer in action…”

Giles sat up with a start. “Dear Lord! Do you think they will come after Buffy?”

Spike shrugged and finished off his scotch. “Jus’ sayin’. She’s not exactly your average co-ed, and now that they’ve seen how strong she is, I’m thinkin’ they’ll be wantin’ to take a closer look.”

“You could very well be right, Spike,” the Watcher said, finishing his own drink and taking the empty glasses to the kitchen. “I will instruct Buffy to be careful until we can find out who and what these people are and what they are doing in Sunnydale.”

He turned his head to look at the subdued vampire. “I suppose it’s pointless to chain you back up now that you’ve had the freedom to come and go as you please.”

“Not goin’ anywhere, Watcher. Not till the Slayer tells me to. Then I’ll try to find someplace to lie low till those wankers get out of here. Or until I can make them fix whatever they did to m’ head.”

“Well, I’m going to bed. If you are going to keep vampire hours, please keep the telly turned down low.”

“No problem. Prob’ly gonna catch some kip myself. It’s been a tiring couple of days and I’m a bit knackered.”

Giles shot a look at the vampire, but his expression showed nothing but weariness as he threw himself down on the couch.

“Nighty-night, Rupert,” he drawled as he rolled over and put his face in the cushion.

“Good night, Spike,” he replied before he realized he was responding politely to a master vampire. Shaking his head at the way Willow’s spell had changed them all, he went upstairs and shut himself up in his bedroom.

Below, Spike rolled back over as soon as the man left the room and lay on his back staring at the darkened ceiling. He relived every minute of the spell, beginning with his proposal and Buffy’s enthusiastic acceptance and all the way through to their short but intense moments of passion. He looked at the chair, trying to recapture the feeling of having his woman warm on his lap, the feel and smell of her as she wrapped herself around him.

He felt himself growing hard as he thought about their kissing and touching, and the way she’d innocently brought him off with her tongue like he was an adolescent boy. He groaned and unconsciously pictured her sucking on him, her golden hair spread across his bare abdomen and her head bobbing up and down in rhythm with his hips.

He unzipped his pants and allowed his aching erection to spring out and into his waiting hand. While he pulled on it vigorously, he imagined Buffy sitting astride him again, riding him hard, her head thrown back as she arched over him.

Suddenly, he could feel her as she woke up, writhing with the sensations building in her body, the frantic movement as she tried to increase the pressure on her clit. He didn’t stop to think about how she would react to his being in her head while he was servicing himself, he just sent his thoughts out as he pulled even harder on his cock.

(Come for me, love. I know you can feel me. Want you so bad. Make yourself come for me, Buffy. I’m here, with you. Are you thinking about me, love? Can you feel how much I want you? How hard I am just thinkin’ about you? Come with me, Buffy. Let yourself feel me the way I’m feeling’ you.)

(Oh my god. Spike? Spike? What are you…oooooh….why am I…How is this happening? Why does it feel like you’re touching…mmmm…you have to stop…stop…don’t… stop…you’re making me…oh god, I think I’m going to…Gah!)

When he felt her find her release, he let himself explode in his hands, gasping her name as he spent himself. He lay still on the couch, taking unnecessary panting breaths as he let his thoughts go where they might. Suddenly, there was a tentative voice in his head.

(Spike? Can you hear me? Did we just… what just happened here? How did you…What the fuck???)

He winced as her initial satiated bewilderment turned to outrage when the reality of what happened sank in.

(Sorry, pet. I didn’t realize I was projectin’. I was just thinkin’ about you while I…well, was just thinkin’ about you. That’s all. Didn’t know it could carry that far…or that you would…Didn’t know it would effect you like that till it was too late to stop.)

(Well, how the hell did you think it would effect me?. Suppose I hadn’t been alone? It’s just lucky that Willow went down the hall to the bathroom while I was sleeping. If she’d come back a few seconds sooner…Oh, this is sooo not good.)

(I thought it was pretty good, pet. Seemed to me like you were enjoying--)

Buffy could hear the smirk in his voice.

(Don’t even go there! You got into my head when I was sleeping and…and…)

There was silence for a full minute, silence that was permeated with anger and regret. Finally the vampire could stand it no longer.

(Buffy? Talk to me, love. I didn’t mean to do it. I swear I didn’t. But was it so awful? What’s wrong? Talk to me, Slayer)

(What’s wrong, Spike,) He flinched at the venom he could feel coming through as she said his name. ( What’s wrong is that you got into my head while you were…whatever you were doing…and made me do it with you. It’s like…it’s like you raped me.)

The accusation tore through him, rendering him incapable of coherent thought.

(She thinks I…it felt like rape? I never meant to…would never…could never…not rape…never force her…jus’ want to love her…can’t help what happens to me when I think about her…how can she think…)

While he was able to block many of his incoherent thoughts from going through to the Slayer, there was no way for him to hide the anguish that her words caused. He curled in on himself on the couch, clutching his stomach and choking back the sobs that wanted to burst from his throat in a very unmanly fashion. As soon as he had enough control to do it, he set up the barriers between them, not wanting her to know how much her thoughts had hurt him, and unwilling to take the chance that she wasn’t through with him.

Across the town, on the campus of Sunnydale University, Buffy was sent into her own gasping ball of pain as the anguish the vampire was feeling poured into her. Very few of his words came through coherently, although she picked up enough to get the gist of what he was thinking, but the incredible emotional pain, regret, shame and sorrow her words had inspired was overwhelming.

“Buffy? What’s wrong?” Willow’s concerned voice penetrated the rapidly fading pain and the Slayer sat up to look at her friend sorrowfully.

“I…I’m all right, Willow. It was just a sudden cramp. I guess I pulled something tonight throwing those big soldiers around. Go back to sleep. I’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” her friend said dubiously as she watched Buffy sink back down onto her bed. “If you’re sure you’re all right.”

“I’m fine, Willow. Just fine…” her voice trailed off as she sent her newly awakened senses out trying to find Spike, but there was nothing for her to follow. It was as though the vampire didn’t exist. She couldn’t sense him at all and was amazed at how alone she suddenly felt.

She eventually went back to sleep, her fingertips resting lightly on the scabs on her neck.





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