5. Intervention.
”Why….the HELL… didn’t you come TO ME….right away?!”
Spike gazed at her without speaking, then downed his bourbon….all that Whistler had left him. Buffy was trembling with rage. Unmoving, she stared at him. She couldn’t take her eyes off him.
Beautiful. A most beautiful man. She hadn’t remembered him so….Spike. Slim, elegant, his chiseled face, unforgettable. Those blue eyes sparkling with life, in a way she had never seen before. That soft mouth that had taught her to kiss. Oh, how she had missed him! She hadn’t realized it until then.
She asked herself, now that she was trembling from sheer emotion, what it would be like meeting Angelus again.
“I’m sorry, baby” he replied, quietly. “If I had known you missed me so…I wouldn’t have stayed away so long” Spike looked at her, with steely eyes. “But, go figure…I guess that’s not really the case”
“You’re an idiot!” she shouted, hitting him across the face. Spike stopped her hand, as fast as lightning, and spoke to her firmly. “I’m an idiot because I don’t expect anything from you, Slayer? I wouldn’t say so”
He left her and sat down on his couch, leaving her alone, standing frustrated in the middle of the room.
“What the hell are you saying?” she shouted, still shocked that she had tried to hit him…without success.
“I mean, I saw you last night at the Bronze with that boy. A very bad choice, indeed”
“You could have stopped me”
“From making your mistakes? Since when? And don’t tell me I didn’t try, either”
“Do you think it was a mistake to give Angelus his soul back?” she replied “I lost him, but the world got the better deal. I killed the monster”
“You see, you’ve been here for what…two minutes? And we are already talking about him”
“We are talking about you, too…what have you become, Spike?”
“Do you care?”
“A lot”
“I don’t” Spike stood up and looked at her. Slowly, up and down. “Now - I’m busy. I have a rescue to complete, if you don’t mind…” He picked up Whistler’s book and caressed its cover.
Buffy covered his hand with hers.
He raised his eyes to meet her green, crystal clear ones. Both recalled the same gesture…two years ago. The other way round, obviously.
But that universe didn’t even exist anymore.
“Spike…” she said, the warm touch of her fingers on his cool ones. “Save me”
He looked at her, clueless.
“Yes….in Pylea…it’s another dimension. Whistler, I told you. No…obviously, no guarantee of return. You should be glad! Damn it, Angel, you’re insatiable!”
Buffy gazed at him as Spike paced the sitting room with long strides, the cellphone in his hand. Angel? Who the hell was he talking to?
“I know it. I’ll be careful. No, nothing about her. I swear to you. What? Go to hell! Ok, I’ll call you when I’m back. If I come back. No, I’m sure I’ll come back. Do you doubt it? Who would torment you then?”
With a neat click, Spike ended the communication.
“Oops” He smiled. “I forgot to give him your regards. How rude of me!”
“Who are you talking about?”
“About Angel. Your love”
“Angel?”
“You’re dense, Slayer. Angelus with the soul equals Angel. He’s too good and remorseful to keep the same nefarious name. It’s better, don’t you think? A bright finish on it, et voilà, the dark avenger, the enemy of demons, vampires, smugglers, Angel, the Helper.”
“Angelus changed his name?”
“Who knows? Maybe he doesn’t want anything to remind him…of you?” Spike smirked. “Isn’t it sad?”
Buffy let herself fall on the couch. Angelus, the Angelus she had loved didn’t exist anymore. A tear ran down her cheek. He was lost forever…and it was all her fault. She straightened.
Spike didn’t deserve this. Hell, Spike had been taught to expect only this from her, and she was fully confirming his expectations. “Tell me…something about you, Spike”
“Go to hell” he replied, hurt and bored. “I was at your Watcher’s, a few days ago. I heard it all. You only care about him, Buffy…and Angelus doesn’t even exist anymore. I’m sorry. Everybody hurts, we all lose, what do you want from me…”
“That’s not true! I…” Buffy bit her lip. “You, on the contrary. What mind games are you playing? Don’t you know that I thought about you, I missed you?”
“I’m not playing this game” He repeated, coldly. “I was deluded enough to think I could be important to you, but I was obviously wrong”
“No, it’s not like that…I mean…”
“Forgive me, but I have to go. I’ve a mission to accomplish”
“Let me come with you” she implored. “We’ll talk on the way”
“You wish!” he replied. “Give me that book”
“No! What the hell is this book for, then?” Buffy took it and opened it. She tried to read that strange language without vowels.
”Buffy, stop it - now! I…”
It was too late. With a terrible light, the dimensional portal opened.
Spike extended his hand, and she took it.
For a moment, they stayed entwined.
For a moment.
Then, the light went out and all was darkness.
Spike opened his eyes on a shining green and sunny world. Instinctively, he screamed and covered himself with his duster.
But it made no difference.
Meaning he wasn’t burning.
The sun caressed his skin, making it warm. His eyes had to adjust to the bright light of that blue sky….coming from the three suns.
Spike smiled and shrugged (knowing Angel, he would put money on it that, in his place, he would have stayed for hours dancing in the sun) and wandered away through the wood.
Buffy found herself in the court of an ancient, medieval-looking castle. She had landed on a stony pavement, among pebbles and dust. And people around her, people in a market, buying, selling, chatting.
A tall tower shadowed the square, protecting the fortress’s inhabitants. Buffy smiled. Welcome to Disneyworld.
But her smile soon vanished.
Oh, shit…
Spike saw a green creature running towards him, with a couple of little red horns on top of his head: apart from those, and the hooked nose, he looked much like a man. And he was smiling amiably.
“I’m glad you’ve arrived, William Shelby” the green man said. “You can call me Lorne”
“My name is Spike” the vampire replied abruptly. “And I intend to make this adventure in wonderland as short and painless as possible…here where the suns don’t burn…I’ve got things to do back in Sunnyhell”
Lorne stared at him, confused.
“Do the suns in your world burn? Since when?”
Spike sighed. “Mate, do you know what I am? You appealed to the Powers that Be to make me come here to rescue the girl…but I’m not a bloody spotless knight. Not one bit. I’m not really a person, in a way”
“Aren’t you human?”
“Not really” Spike laughed. “I can stand sunlight, here, but in my world I walk through darkness. To cut a long story short, I’m a vampire, a bloodsucker. I burn under the sun, I’m pretty immortal and I don’t love crosses. Entiende?”
Lorne smiled. “I knew you weren’t your run of the mill type. I got it when you sang. But anyway you’re the right man…ok, the vampire for this mission. You have a soul”
“Right. Life is weird, isn’t it?”
“More than you could guess, William”
“Spike”
“Ok, Spike. But let’s get away from this passageway, it would be better if nobody sees you now. I’ll take you to a cave, and we’ll wait for nightfall there. I’ll introduce you to Fred, my dearest cow, and we’ll discuss how to save her”
“Cow?” Spike investigated, raising a brow.
“Human, I meant”
“Ha – Ha”
“Did you arrive alone? The old wise man says there were two of you…”
“She’ll take care of herself” Spike muttered. “She’s a bloody Slayer”
“Uh?”
“She slays vampires…those like me”
“Did she follow you here to Pylea to kill you?”
“No. She followed me because she’s a bloody woman, obnoxious and incapable of using her brain!” Spike replied, still irritated with Buffy. “And anyway, why should we wait for the night? Take me to this Fred immediately, and let’s get it over. I’m in a hurry to go back home”
“Fred is a slave, here” Lorne explained. “If she leaves the fields, they would notice. Believe me, it’s better to wait for the night. In the meantime, could you sing again? Please!”
Spike gazed at him, more and more amazed.
“No” He replied, obstinately, following the green creature up the very green hill.
”Catch that cow!” a farmer screamed, and Buffy turned, in time to understand she was the cow, and that armed soldiers were trying to capture her. She jumped swiftly on to a haystack and then, catlike, to a roof. But she was still dazed by the interdimensional journey…and she fainted. She fell into the arms of a muscular green soldier, who laughed, securing her hands with rudimentary manacles and putting something cold and metallic around her neck.
Buffy felt like crying tears of frustration. They had taken her. Those middle age yokels , all horned and green, had captured her. Like a…well, cow.
All the people in the market laughed and clapped.
”Take her to the castle dungeon!” A fat notable screamed, while she felt like vanishing from sheer humiliation. They put her on a cart, and took her up the cobbled road to the entrance of the Manor.
“Let me go!” she shouted. The only reassuring thing was that everybody around was speaking English. “I want to go back home”
They didn’t listen to her.
Some bearded creatures, looking vaguely like women, ripped off her clothes.
Naked and trembling, Buffy waited to know her destiny.
“Oh, Spike!” she thought, almost desperately, her cold naked skin hurting from the contact with the icy stone. “Come and rescue me…Damn it! Do one thing right and save me!”
Spike lit a fire in the wide cave whose walls were covered in symbols: at first glance, they looked like mathematical equations. Bored, irritated from staying cooped up there, and even a bit worried about Buffy’s fate in that strange world, he waited for Lorne.
When darkness fell, after having captured a couple of squirrels and sucked them dry, he went out of the cave and stared at the sky, entranced with the totally foreign constellations.
That was really another world.
Another reality, profoundly different from his own and possibly hostile. Where the hell had Buffy gone? He had to find her before he could leave. Damn it! What if she had landed on the other side of the planet? What if this planet was immense?
Lorne arrived with a very shy Fred. The girl was skinny, shocked, dirty and raw, with long dirty curls and broken glasses.
Spike felt tremendous pity for her. He understood she was terrified, exhausted, on the brink of madness.
It was time to take her home.
“Please” he said, kindly, taking her hands between his and making her sit next to the fire. “I came here for you. We’re going back home, you’ll see. Back to Earth”
“Your hands are cold” she replied, looking at him entranced. It was him. Her kind knight with bleached hair, her romantic poet. “A handsome man came to save her. Isn’t it weird?”
Spike gazed at Lorne, asking with his eyes whether the girl had lost her mind. The Pylean shook his head.
“Listen to me, pet” he explained. “My hands are cold because I come from Earth, but I’m not human. I’m a vampire, but a good one…I’ve got a soul. I won’t hurt you. I’m here to help you…and I swear I’ll do that…We’ll do it, together. We’ll soon be back home”
She nodded. She believed in him. She couldn’t believe that smile. That kind smile, that of William, the one Buffy had never seen.
Now, after Pylea, she could believe anything. Even vampires.
She would ask herself, later, when she was alone, what all of this meant.
For now, it just mattered that he was there, kind, handsome…and bent on helping her.
Lorne crouched next to the fire, warming his hands. “I’ve discussed with the old wise man. He has contacts with your world, Spike. There’s a book with a hart on the cover, and that’s the passageway we need to get back to the Earth. We have to find it. But there’s a problem. It’s under the ownership of the powerful priests of Pylea, down in the Manor”
“Whatever” Spike replied. ”We go in and we take it. I don’t see a problem”. The vampire stared at him. “Wait a moment. You said ‘We need’. Are you coming back home with us?”
“Yes” Lorne asserted, sternly. “This world suffocates me. I hate it. I want music. I want life. I want to come with you”
“Is it possible?” Spike asked. “I don’t have any objection, as long as it doesn’t bother…the girl. Fred?”
“Winifred Burkle” she introduced herself, hiding her mouth with her hand, with a shy gesture. “Please, call me Fred”
“I don’t think so” Lorne insisted. “We won’t be alone. There’s your friend, too”
“Uh?” Fred asked.
“You’ve arrived with a woman in tow” Lorne continued. “The old man told me so. He told me she is a fighter for Good, too…and that she’s very powerful. But, now and then, she loses her way. He feels her contradictions”
“Good for him” Spike replied, coldly. “I gave up trying to understand her long ago. I hope she gets out of here, somehow”
“I sent my cousin Landok to the Manor, to try to find out her whereabouts. If anything has happened to her, we’ll know it”
”Who is she?” Fred asked. “Your girlfriend?”
Spike laughed. “No, sweetie, she’s not my girlfriend. I’m too inferior to her to be that”
“I can’t believe that” Fred replied. She just couldn’t get around the idea any woman could refuse him.
“It’s like that, anyway” he added, bitterly. “But that’s not a problem anymore”
“What are you going to do?” Lorne asked.
“I’ll go to the Castle, as soon as you tell me the way. And I’ll look for the book. I’ll try to be as polite as possible…but I could be obliged to use violence. I’m sure Buffy will be ok, and we’ll meet here, somehow”
”She could need help…” Fred intruded.
Spike rolled his eyes. He just missed this type of woman in his life…
“I’ll need weapons. I might have to use them”
“I know,” Lorne admitted. “But I know you won’t abuse them”
A strange smirk appeared on Spike’s sensuous lips. Fred caught her breath.
“You really don’t know me, don’t you? Not at all. But I like your trust, it honors you”
“Be careful, please. In Pylea they are very cruel with humans…or with creatures looking like them. And you’re our only chance. Ah - Landok is coming. Let’s hear the news”
Landok was a well built bearded warrior who gazed at the two cows with a certain disdain.
”I don’t know why I spend my time with you and your slaves, Krevlornswoth…but here is the news you were waiting for. The cow has been captured, at the Manor, and they have decided on her fate”
“And that would be?” Spike yawned.
“She will be beheaded. At dawn. That’s the standard punishment for disobedient cows.”
“Uh?”
“It’s all his fault!” Buffy exclaimed, hugging herself and fighting the cold in the thin robes the bearded women had given her. “I’m here, cold, terrorized, half naked, chained…and they’ll kill me in a few hours! Spike! He’ll pay for this!”
Nobody answered. She was alone in the tiny, smelly cubicle beneath the castle. Nobody had hurt her, yet, but she didn’t delude herself about her future. They would behead her.
Damn it!
Buffy cried. That was too much. That was simply too much.
What had possessed her to join Spike’s mission? God knew she had had her share of heroism in her nineteen years of life. She had died! It had to matter, didn’t it? It was unacceptable that her life had to end there, in that absurd otherworld reality.
“But I couldn’t let him go…like that” she said to herself, crouching in a corner, chin on her knees. She couldn’t accept the idea of him leaving angry with her, disappointed about her feelings, hurt, frustrated.
Buffy tried to understand herself. What she had felt in seeing him again had been really strong, it had been a sort of shock. In a heartbeat, she had forgotten Parker, she immediately knew with Spike it was something on a whole different level. She had understood she couldn’t forget him. She didn’t want to forget him, either. What she felt for Spike was strong, primeval, original. She desired him, without doubt, he had been her first man, the idea f of lying with him was like coming back home…but it wasn’t just a matter of sex, either, it had never been like that. He had been more grown up than her and he had understood it immediately. That was what had separated them, truly…that, and Angelus.
To know that Angelus had changed his name had hurt her, but it hadn’t surprised her. Not too much.
She had always known that it would be painful, for him, Spike himself had warned her about it: Angelus’ heart had dark depths you couldn’t possibly fathom, while William brought his in his expressive blue eyes. Two men…two vampires…so different.
Both were as necessary as oxygen to Buffy. How had she lived without them for the last two years? She just didn’t get it. And she loved Angelus, sure (she had never had doubts about that: she had reached her limits for him, she had given him body, soul, blood, she had destroyed herself and her relationships with the people she loved most), but she couldn’t deny either feeling some very strong feelings for Spike. She couldn’t deny this truth to herself any more.
She knew she had disappointed him. He hadn’t misunderstood her words to Giles: that was true, she couldn’t live without Angelus, without knowing what had become of him…but she couldn’t live without Spike either.
But it was too late. She had seen it in his gaze.
And now she was dead.
“I miss you” she whispered. “Spike, I miss you so much. Come back to me. Don’t let the disappointment, or any other grievance keep us apart. I beg you…save me”
She knew he would have saved her. If only he hadn’t forgotten her.
In a moment of deep self – consciousness, Buffy swore to herself she would be true to him….if only destiny would let her find him again.
If only she could survive the dawn.
Spike stared at the castle, at the light of the seven moons, all in different phases. What about darkness around here, he thought. There was more light than in Las Vegas! The vampire took his cigarettes from the duster and lit one.
He studied the manor. Impenetrable. Well, that was not the way.
It was time to study another way in. One such as….the main entrance.
During the night a couple of sentinels patrolled halfheartedly at the main access to the castle. Spike stunned one of them and took the other out from behind. He took the double bladed knife Landok had given him and with that he threatened the soldier’s throat.
“I need to talk to the priests. Now!”
The soldier opened the gate with trembling hands. As soon as they were in, a group of soldiers surrounded them.
“I cut his throat if you don’t take me to the priests! Immediately”
“A threatening cow? What a shame!” the captain replied. “Get him!”
“You try!” Spike laughed, stunning the second soldier and jumping around at a speed even superior to what he had at his disposal on Earth. It seemed his strength and agility were far enhanced here. He felt strong, confident…and that was a great way to start the night. He guessed things could only get better.
He succeeded in taking the captain’s back and putting his knife a mere inch from his heart. “What about those priests?”
The captain was shocked. This creature looked like a useless cow and instead it moved like a demon. The captain waved vaguely.
In a few minutes Spike was introduced into the throne room, in front of the Chief Priest.
Seth was the Chief Priest of Pylea and he had traveled enough across the worlds to have quite a clear idea about who William the Bloody was, and what.
The Pylea dimension gave terrestrial vampires particular strength, and even without that detail Seth didn’t feel the need to test personally that strange creature with weird hair and steely eyes.
Did he want the female cow? He would give her to him.
At a small price, obviously, one which would satisfy fully Seth and his acolytes.
“I know what you want, vampire” he said, his red eyes sparkling from behind the hood of his tunic. “You’ll have it. If you defeat the ten champions from Pylea, obviously. In that case, both of you will get out of here alive…or undead, as you please. Let the cow enter!”
One of the richly embroidered entrances opened and Buffy was introduced. She had chains at both her hands and feet. And a silver collar on her neck.
And she was almost naked: a few lavender veils covered her body strategically.
Buffy was both furious and exhilarated, a feeling she had learnt long ago to associate with Spike. He smirked when she raised her eyes to meet his. He was still man enough to appreciate the show.
She reddened under that explicit gaze, and she swore to dust him…after embracing him and loving and discovering him back, obviously…
“It seems the cow pleases you”
“You don’t know how much” Spike smiled. “But she’s too thin. I have to fatten her up” He ignored Buffy’s scandalized stare, which amused him enormously.
“I fear there won’t be time for that. You’ll fight the ten Champions at dawn”
“Ha - ha” Spike replied. “On one condition”
“Let’s hear it. I feel generous today” Seth laughed, knowing that all chances of success were in his field. A lone vampire against the ten strongest and wildest champions in the whole of Pylea…go figure.
Spike crossed the room and came close to Buffy, searching her eyes. She reddened again, feeling her body, even in these horrible circumstances, reacting to him. Spike raised a hand, caressed her burning cheek lightly. And then he took her chin in his fingers and sweetly, sensually, kissed her mouth.
Buffy moaned and opened instinctively to that burning assault.
Oh, how she had missed him…please, God, don’t let him stop that…ever.
But Spike let her loose. She still had her eyes closed, lost in the sensation.
“She fights with me”
Set and his men laughed. Big fat laughs.
“At the end, my love, we’re fighting together. On the same side” Spike smiled. She nodded. Yes, they’d be together. There wouldn’t be doors again to separate them, good from evil.
“As you please” Seth replied. “I don’t know what you’ll do with a feeble cow…it’ll just hasten your death ”
“We’ll see” Spike smiled. “When are we meeting your ten champions?”
“At dawn. You have time to rest”
“Well. After you, my dear” Spike laughed, pushing Buffy toward one of the exits. “Let’s get out of here”
“Not at all” Seth intruded. “Nobody will leave this manor before the match is over! Lock both of them in the mirror room!”
Spike sighed and followed Buffy.
It would be a long and uncomfortable night.
“Where are they?” Fred asked Lorne, sitting in the cave, next to the fire. She had been writing down her equations on the stony walls for hours, and usually this gave her some relief…but now she was exhausted. She had worked restlessly in the fields all day long, and then all those emotions…
“Do you believe Spike will save her…and find the book?”
“I’m sure about that” Lorne comforted her.
“Will they be together?”
“I believe so. I feel a magnetic force in action” Lorne confessed. “I’ll tell you what we’ll be doing. Tomorrow they’ll be back, I’m sure about that…and I’ll get them singing. In that way, I’ll get it”
“And…you ‘ll tell me?”
“Yes…sweetie. I’ll tell you”
Fred scooted next to him. She already loved this sweet green maternal creature.
What would she have done without him? How long would she have resisted?
Suddenly the idea of going back to Earth with him and Spike didn’t terrify her any more. She felt she wouldn’t be really alone again.
Notwithstanding Buffy.
“Well, here we are, together again. What about the furniture?”
Spike observed the almost empty room critically and kicked the wide four-poster bed with its little golden columns, observing the row of mirrors on the north wall.
“Don’t care about the furniture” she whispered. “Do you really want to spend the time sleeping?”
“I need my beauty rest, Slayer” he smirked. “In a few hours we’ll fight…or had you forgotten?”
”Aren’t you afraid? They’re ten, we are two”
“I never fear anything. And the same goes for you, admit it. At least about fighting”
“Weird, because you seem like a big fat coward to me, now”
“You mean?”
“Old Spike would have jumped my bones, now, and I’d be halfway to Heaven” she replied, her body moving under her thin veils.
“Stop that, pet” he replied coldly. “It’s over. The Spike who bedded you with a grateful smile doesn’t exist anymore. We’ll fight together, we’ll find the book and we’ll go back to Sunnyhell. Nothing more than that. And then sayonara, darling, I’m leaving”
“You’re not serious about that crap”
“I’ve never been more serious”
“I can’t believe you feel nothing for me….the kiss! A few moments ago you kissed me, in front of the priest. That’s evidence”
Spike faltered under her eyes.
“That was just a momentary weakness. Just evidence, as you say, for the priest that you’re just a female, a mere object for a man’s desire…if that jerk believes that, he’ll deserve what he gets at dawn”
“I don’t believe you!” she replied, closing her fists.
“You have to, sweetie”
She pushed him violently to the other side of the room. Shocked, Spike found himself sprawled against the embroidered wall on the south side of the room.
“I don’t believe you” She repeated, taking possession of his mouth. She had discovered that with Angelus. Vampires reacted to the only language they knew: violence, blood, sex. Better not to waste long speeches on them: they were more stubborn than donkeys.
Oh, God…
The love he had always felt for her drowned Spike in a sea of passion. He knew he couldn’t resist her, even if this was deeply wrong, even if, the day after, in the harsh light of day, all of her scorn, of her refusal, of her love for Angelus would burn him again.
She let his mouth slide down on her neck while her hands went to his jeans. The noise of the pitilessly opening zip shook Spike to the core. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t believe it. He held her almost against his will by her buttocks, raising her to him, forcing her to open her legs. He took off her veils with a swift gesture and she sank down on him, taking him to the hilt. Buffy never stopped looking at him, eyes sunk deep in eyes, a mute, endless connection between them. He returned her stare, for a time void of all of his arrogance, of all of his self–confidence. The man who looked at her while she was unpityingly riding him, was William the Poet, all that was left of him once Spike had lost all of his defenses, built over years and years of violence and massacres. That gaze seemed eternal to both.
There was wonder, confusion, incredulity, surrender. They were just a man who was giving all of himself, who was baring his soul, and a woman who needed in that moment to communicate with her body all the confused feelings she felt.
There would be time after that to understand what it meant.
That eternal moment went by and Spike, without exiting her, pushed her against the wall, to find support, to possess her better. She moaned and wrapped herself around him. Playtime was over. It was time to fuck.
Incapable of holding her stare, Spike closed his eyes and hid his face in her neck, while she screamed her pleasure.
They were back home.
Spike opened his eyes and the moons’ light embraced him. He turned around: they were still in the big room, laying on the bed. He was still embedded in her. Still. They had fallen asleep like that, after several frenzied love–making sessions. He had stayed silent, incapable of confessing to her what he felt, the strength of which, after all that time, still scared him to death.
On the other side of the room, the mirrors reflected their naked bodies.
Their?
Since when could he see himself in a mirror? He was a vampire, damn it! But there he was, his taut, slim body, muscled and pale, entwined with hers, her long, elegant legs still surrounding his hips.
Something violent burst in him at that sight. Together. They were really together, this time.
But this couldn’t be just sex, although sex was a big part of it.
Spike bit his lips to stop him crying her name.
Something, maybe the violent emotions that were swirling in him, woke her.
“Look!” she exclaimed, full of wonder like a child. “You’re in the mirror! You’re reflecting!”
He nodded, caressing her shoulders, her small, tender breasts.
Buffy yielded all control to him, happy and contented. What had happened with Parker had just been a pale parody of this. For once, after so much time, Buffy tasted happiness.
Her sated body sang.
It didn’t matter that in a few hours she had to put her life at risk again. That was her existence, and she accepted it.
But she wasn’t alone anymore.
Stretching her arms above her head, she relaxed, feeling pampered, and smiled.
“I really needed this. You can’t guess how much”
Darkly, Spike loosed himself, got up and dressed.
Night was over and, eventually, it hadn’t led to anything new. It was just sex, to her.
Spike shook his head, lighting a cigarette: it was high time to fight.
Fred, Lorne and Landok joined the crowd in the Castle’s court, where soon the vampire, the cow and the ten Champions of Pylea would fight. The whole city had been informed about the event a few hours before dawn, and nobody loved a good bloodbath more than your run of the mill Pylean.
Bets kept running, and all of them were in favor of the home team. People laughed openly about the idea of a female cow fighting. That was just ridiculous!
“Your friend is an idiot” Landok commented politely. “That cow will slow him down”
Fred raised a worried stare to Lorne, who tried to reassure her. Should Buffy be as strong as Spike had told her, she would give the Pyleans a run for their money.
The fighters were ready to go. Buffy had asked for and obtained a pair of trousers and a blouse (she wasn’t keen on amusing the whole city fighting in her transparent veils) and she had put up her hair. She was quite aware that Spike, the same vampire who had loved her tenderly and wildly that night, was now very angry. This wasn’t the moment for long speeches, he would not have even listened to her. Buffy decided to postpone any type of debriefing on that subject.
“Are you ok?” Spike asked her, briskly, handing her a sword and a dagger.
“Yeah. And you?” she enquired.
“I couldn’t be better” he answered, admiring her sober attire and her stern face. This was really not the moment either to recall the vivid memories of that night, or to muse on the consequences. If there were any.
For her, that could just mean the ultimate sexual escapade, and he had to accept it.
Spike raised a heavy ax, bent on giving their enemy hell.
Trumpets announced their entrance. Buffy seemed small and fragile next to the wide and mighty Pylean champions, but Spike knew he couldn’t find himself a better ally. The idea of fighting together, without restraints, excited him obscenely. Could it be that she arrived at his essence so easily, both in love and in war?
”It’s…that girl?” Fred exclaimed, surprised, while she observed the small, thin blonde warrior. “I thought she would be….bigger. In a Xena way bigger”
“Really” Lorne agreed “That’s Buffy, the vampire slayer”
Pylea’s Champions were of different races and from different worlds, since that reality was a sort of interdimensional bus station. Spike and Buffy took a defensive stance, back to back, sliding effortlessly into tactical schemes as powerful as they were instinctive. They had been created for that: fighting together. Vampire and slayer, lovers and allies.
But could that be enough for them, Spike asked himself.
It had to be enough now, Buffy told herself.
When the attack started, the Pylean crowd roared. The vampire was moving gracefully, with an impressive speed, far superior to that of his opponents. The slayer, far from slowing him down, was revealing herself almost as much a power of nature - nature running spectacularly wild.
Each taking on five, Spike and Buffy stayed head to head with their enemies. But when she took a wound to the leg, something strange happened.
The smell of her blood reached Spike and woke something primal in him, something different from bloodlust. He went into game face, hell bent on saving his mate.
His strength and speed gained momentum from that.
Buffy was lying on the ground and Pylea’s people had to watch, still, while the horrible monster Spike had changed into, with spikes and weird protuberances, slew the three remaining champions.
At the end, only dead bodies lay around them.
And the slayer.
The vampire moved towards her, his fangs bloodied and exposed, unaware of his monstrous appearance, totally different from his usual game face. He was only aware of her, her blood, her power.
Buffy got up, dazed. That wasn’t William. That wasn’t Spike.
That was a nightmarish creature she didn’t know.
Not even in Sunnydale, when they made love and he had gone into game face, had she felt the depths of his demonic nature as she felt them now. Here, in Pylea, pure demon and pure soul emerged, just as Lorne had said.
“Buffy” he roared.
Breathless, the crowded waited for that last coup de theatre. Fred clenched Lorne’s hand: that monstrous creature was the kind man who had helped her when hope was dead? How was that possible?
Buffy limped to the vampire, seeing though him and his demonic attire.
She raised a hand and caressed his bumps and ridges.
And then she kissed him, accepting him for what he was.
They had won.
Buffy’s sweet kiss acted as a balm on Spike’s soul and he succeeded somehow in taking back control over the demon, which he had let loose in the attempt to save the girl once she was hurt.
When he came to his senses, returned to his handsome human face, she had already left. She had jumped on the authorities’ stage and was pushing a dagger against the chest of Seth, the Chief Priest.
“I want the book with the Hart on the cover” she smiled “Now. And then we’re leaving.”
Seth waved.
Spike smiled. Buffy was extraordinary, although he could easily have killed her for having the nerve to run that risk while she was hurt.
The book appeared in the clearing suddenly, and Buffy took it, jumping into the sand next to Spike, an arm around his waist, while the delirious crowd greeted its new champions.
“Let’s go” Lorne said, taking Fred out of the crowd. “We’ll use tomorrow’s dimensional alignment and we’ll leave. I have to see my family for the last time”
“She is a warrior” Fred whispered. “And I’m nothing”
“Then, you’ll learn to be something as well” Lorne goaded her. “A new life will start tomorrow for all of us. I promise this to you, Fred”
She nodded.
If she had an ounce of the courage Buffy had shown…she would succeed.
Spike didn’t deserve anything less, after taking so many risks to save her.
Fred smiled. Lorne was right.
Life was just starting.
Lorne left his home followed by his bearded mother’s and brothers’ reprimands, while Numfar, his cousin, danced the Dance of Shame.
Notwithstanding this, he was happy. In this way, he had even less resistance to leave that world he had never felt at ease in, in which he didn’t belong.
When he got to his friends in the cave, darkness was again falling. Spike was tending to Buffy’s hurt leg, and she was gritting her teeth with the pain. Fred was preparing a herbal tea out of a weeping–willow wannabe wood, to bring her fever down. All of them seemed, on the whole, sad and embarassed.
“C’mon, people, we have won! Let’s go party!”
“I’ve got a high temperature” Buffy admitted. “I’m sorry, but I don’t feel too good. When I get home I’ll take some antibiotics – otherwise I might develop an infection, courtesy of those rusty daggers they used …”
“We’ll leave tomorrow morning…with my family’s curses”
“They haven’t been too kind?” Fred guessed. “Landok said he would come by to say goodbye later. He’s a bit grumpy, but he loves you”
“We grew up together…and he has always accepted me. Not like them” Lorne explained.
“I can relate” Buffy intruded, sighing while Spike’s nimble fingers massaged her painful thighs, still tense after the fighting. “I tried all my life to be a normal girl, with a normal boyfriend, a normal family, normal friends. Obviously, it didn’t work out that well”
“You don’t seem to me such a failure” Lorne laughed. “I’ve never seen anybody fight like you” he complimented her.
“The true hero today was Spike” she admitted. The vampire turned his angry face away, and Fred noticed he wasn’t at ease with her. She asked herself idly if they had had a quarrel.
“Well, it’s time to start” Lorne said, clapping his hands. “There’s an old tradition, here in Pylea. A guest sings something around the fire”
Fred stared at Lorne under her eyelashes, shocked and amused by his cheekiness.
“I sang, mate” Spike grumbled.
“C’mon, just a tune” the gentle green creature insisted.
“As you like” Spike surrendered, still in a very bad mood since the morning. Post coitum, all living beings are sad, it was said…and Spike seemed no exception to that rule.
He sang in his rich baritone voice an old English ballad, “Early one Morning”: How could you use a poor maiden so…”
Lorne choked. Let’s talk about unresolved feelings…
“Buffy, please…sing us something”
She cleared her voice. And tried Britney. “Oops, I did it again, I played with your heart…”
“Did you organize this?” Lorne asked, frustrated in his interpretational skills. “I could say just the words say it all”
Buffy and Spike exchanged stares, clueless. Lorne changed topic abruptly and the musical event was over, as swiftly as it had begun.
When Lorne and Fred were alone, on their way back to the farm, Lorne let silence fall between them, enjoying the crickets’ music.
“And so?” she asked, in her childish voice.
“What they sang. There wasn’t any need for big empathy, sugar, just a bit of intuition. He is mad with love for her, for ever, but he doesn’t know yet if what she feels for him is a true feeling, and now he fears being hurt again. She likes him, this is true, a lot. But she still doesn’t know whether she’ll be able to change her life for him. She doesn’t know whether she’ll be able to do that…and maybe she’ll never find out”
“That’s unfair!” Fred rose. “He fought to save her! He faced his inner demon for her. How can she use him so?”
“I don’t think it’s that easy” Lorne admitted. “Sometimes we meet in the wrong moment of our life. Buffy isn’t mature enough for a feeling like the one Spike feels for her. That’s not a star crossed love, the forever she waits for. He wants from her real feelings, feelings that are not void of quarrels, disagreements, daily problems. I’m afraid the slayer isn’t ready for that. I ask myself if she’ll ever be”
Fred stayed still for a moment. “How is it you’re so wise, Lorne? I bet you know what I feel”
“That’s my damnation, isn’t it?” He smiled. “Don’t be sad, beautiful Winifred. Do you want me to tell you what you feel?”
“No” Fred admitted. “It’s enough to have seen them fight together, the way she kissed him despite his monstrous face. They belong to each other”
“Maybe yes…or not. Who knows?” Lorne replied. “Don’t be sad, you’ll find your knight. And he’ll be all shining and yours”
“Yeah, whatever” she sighed. “But you’re right. Tomorrow we’ll be home, Lorne…and I want to let Spike know that we’ll be there for him, if things with Buffy go all to hell. Like he was here for us…”
“Yeah. We’ll be there for him. For sure, he deserves it.”
Both fell in a deep silence, reaching the farm for their last night under Pylea’s stars.
Buffy crouched on the floor of the cave, laying on the pallet Fred used when she escaped the farm looking for some privacy. Her leg hurt, she had a fever, and she heard Spike moving in the cave, nervously.
“Come here” she said. “Let’s sleep a bit”
He obeyed: he took his duster and put it over her. She smiled, grateful for the warmth. Spike stayed with his shirt on, laying next to her without touching, still, sulking in the dark with open eyes and his arms crossed behind his head.
“Go figure” she said, breaking the silence “Yesterday night I should have been at a frat party at Lowell House. It seems so far away, now…but it’s not that bad, here. There’s nature, silence and…”
“Buffy?”
“Yeah?”
”I’d like to sleep. Have a good night”
She tightened her lips, furious and hurt by his blunt coldness.
“Goodnight” she whispered, in a tearful voice.
“Oh, bloody hell!” he exploded, discomfited, and he turned and took her in her arms. They just slept together, her head against his still chest.
Neither of them knew what the return to reality would lead to.
The journey back home was even faster, this time. Lorne, Fred, Spike and Buffy gathered with the old wise mean in a clearing outside the cave, and Spike read from the Hart’s book.
In a flash they were back in Sunnydale, in Spike’s small apartment.
“Oh my God!” Buffy screamed, devastated at finding herself in front of a mirror in the ragged, dirty country rags she had worn to fight in. “I’ll die of shame if anybody sees me on campus in these…”
Fred wasn’t faring any better. Now that they were out of reach of the Pyleans, they took off her collar. That and her dirty clothes ended in the trash bin, with Lorne’s dress. Spike took the phone in one hand and Angel’s Platinum Visa in the other, and in a few minutes brand new jeans, shirts, shoes, make–up products and a beautician arrived at their door.
Fred and Buffy shut themselves in the bathroom and emerged only a few hours after, all remade. Spike took Fred’s hands and studied her from head to toes with a smile: her dark hair was now shining and clean, and it was falling in waves down her back. “I knew there was a woman in there, somewhere…”
“I feel like Eliza Doolittle” she smiled, shyly. “You’ll teach me to speak, Professor Spike?”
“Some lessons wouldn’t hurt, with that pesky Texan accent” he suggested, sincerely although rather bluntly. “We’ll take care of that”
“Do I look nice?” Buffy intruded, quite disturbed by those pleasantries.
“You do” Spike nodded briefly, ignoring her.
Sighing, Buffy put on the new tennis shoes and decided to get back to her dorm. Willow had to be crazy with worry.
“Don’t hurry, baby, in this dimension only a few seconds have passed”
“Uh?” she asked.
“You’re still in time to go to your next ex – boyfriend’s party, whoever he is. Time runs differently in Pylea”
Buffy gaped, more at Spike’s words than for the question of the time, about which she couldn’t care less. Did he want her to go to Lowell House?!
“That’s exactly what I’m doing” she said, briskly, and she left the apartment, banging the door, and limping with her sore leg.
“You treated her badly” Fred observed. “Are you sure you don’t want to discuss that with us?”
“Yeah” he sighed. “Let’s take care of your dinner. What are we ordering?”
“Tacos” Fred smiles. “I dreamt about them in Pylea”
“Let’s have Tacos, then” she smiled. “And you, Lorne?”
Lorne didn’t answer. He was watching “The Blues Brothers” on TV, and he had just discovered a new reason to live.
“Oh, my God!” the Pylean exclaimed. “God exists, and his name is Aretha!”
As soon as she got outside Spike’s residence, Buffy understood she didn’t care at all about Lowell House and Riley Finn. She was tired, hurting, disappointed, her leg was still sore and in dire need of an antibiotic. And she was hot again with high temperature.
She took a cab and paid for it with Spike’s money. Then, she climbed the stairs to her room in the dorm. Willow was studying.
“Buffy!” she greeted him. “Your friend Riley called. He said the party has been postponed”
“Great” Buffy sighed, laying on her bed and getting out of her jeans. Willow frowned on seeing her thick bandage.
“Buffy, you’re hurt! When did this happen?”
Buffy laughed. “You’ll never believe me”
Willow put on her resolute face. “Hey, you’re talking to me, Willow Rosenberg. There’s nothing in this world, and beyond, I couldn’t believe, coming from you. Get it out”
“I went to Spike’s apartment…Willy told me where he lives. I read a sentence from an old book and we found ourselves in another dimension, where we saved a Texan girl sent there to be used as a slave to green masters by her professor. And we say Dr. Walsh is evil…”
“All of this…in how much time?”
“A couple of days. Which amount to few minutes, here”
“Good Lord. How did you get hurt? And the girl? Did she come back safe and sound? And Spike?”
“Spike and I fought against ten local champions to win the book that allowed us to come back. And they wanted to cut off my head: Spike was so nice to try to save me. The girl is ok, she’s at the residence with Spike and a friend she made in that reality, named Lorne. Spike is fine. And he loathes me”
“Buffy” Willow whispered, running a hand over her brow. “You’re hot. You need an aspirin”
“And antibiotics” Buffy laughed, bitterly “And a Band-aid on my heart, Will”
“What on earth happened?” her friend asked her.
“We made love. And now he treats me like a rag to wipe his floor” Buffy let herself fall on the couch. “What is it about my effect on men? As soon as they bang me, they become monsters”
Willow didn’t answer. She had too much of a clear idea about Spike’s real feelings for Buffy to stop at that superficial imagining.
“Maybe you should be honest with him…you could have told him you care…”
“I tried” Buffy admitted. “I really tried. But he didn’t listen to me. He didn’t even want to touch me. I had almost to force him”
“I’m sorry” Willow said, but she didn’t look it. At all.
Buffy was just too tired and hurting to notice.
Willow smiled, and went out to go to the Infirmary.
Worried, Buffy went to the phone. She took it in her hands, heavy in her fingers, real, and she fished out of her pockets a note on which she had written a number. She had stolen it from Spike’s cell, without him noticing.
She pondered a little…and then she dialed, with shaking hands.
It rang and rang…and eventually someone answered. A woman’s voice.
“Hallo?”
“Cordy?” Buffy astonished. “Cordelia…is that you? Why in the world are you at…Angelus’?”
“Angel Investigations” she corrected. “Hallo, Buffy. I work here. How are you?”
“Tired and hurting. I’d like to talk with Angel”
“Angel is out, now” Cordy answered, not too warmly. “With a girl”
“Ah”
“Wish to leave a message?”
“No, don’t worry. It’s not important”
“Well, then…goodbye, Buffy”
Buffy greeted her and closed the communication, swearing.
She had better forget it.
Lorne and Fred got acquainted with their new apartment in the same residence as Spike’s, only on the southern side to take advantage of the sunlight. Lorne was amazed: this world was an incredible cacophony of sounds and colors to make him dizzy, but, God, how he liked it!
Fred was blossoming. Spike had given her his VISA and she had bought clothes, adoring the kind vampire blindly. Lorne was tasting this world with a massive exposure to music and TV and listening to humans. When anybody questioned his appearance, he replied he was a circus freak, as Spike had told him to do. Nobody in Sunnydale wondered about anything, after all.
Nevertheless, both Lorne and Fred were discussing moving to Los Angeles. She had what was left of her life there, and a big score to settle with Professor Seidel. Lorne would find it easier to blend into the demonic underground of the big town.
Lorne understood his destiny the night Fred took him to the Bronze for the weekly night dedicated to Karaoke, while Spike resumed patrolling.
Shocked and moved by the continuous revelations of the Bronze’s patrons, and the happier for that, Lorne understood he wanted a place like that of his own, where he could always sing, and he wanted it now. That could be his personal way to do the right thing. Spike commented - when they discussed the matter – that Angel would gladly finance such an initiative. A place like that could prove useful in his fight for good. Lorne could gather some useful information, about evildoers’ intentions, thanks to his gift.
“Angel?” Fred asked, while they talked in Spike’s cozy sitting room.
“My dear grandsire” Spike explained. “AKA Angelus, Scourge of Europe. Probably, the worst vampire to walk across the continent. At least, until a certain Miss Buffy Summers that you had the privilege to meet, gave him a soul”
None of them knew the details of where and why Spike had had his soul back. But this confidence confirmed their suspicions that dear Buffy was in the mix.
“He is….like you?” Fred asked.
“Not at all” Spike said resentfully. “We have very different coloring and he’s as dull as a table lamp”
“Come on, he can’t be that bad” Lorne smiled. “I feel from here affection and consideration on your part”
Spike shot him a glance.
“Does he save the…innocents?”
“There are no innocents in L.A.” he answered. “Yeah, he goes to the rescue of helpless victims of Evil. And he’s great at that, I have to admit it”
“And Buffy loves him” Fred sensed with some gall. Spike gaped at her…and then closed his mouth. “As you do”
“She’s his bloody star crossed lover” he admitted, briskly.
“Why in the world, then, are they apart?”
“What could we offer to her?” Spike mused. “Angel knows this even better than I do. He’s the one with the good sense…I’ll admit that, too”
“Spike, I like your….scarce good sense” Fred smiled in return. “That was what saved me”
“Happy about that. About Angel….the more evil he was, the more repentant he is now. A terrible bore, I say”
Spike took his duster, his stakes, and retired to his bedroom.
“What a couple!” Lorne smiled, while he went back with Fred to their apartment. “Two vampires with a soul, sharing a slayer’s love. I’d bet studios would get a hell of a movie from that. Pitt and Cruise, maybe. I’d die to meet him”
Fred smiled again. “Buffy Summers is one lucky girl”
The lucky girl was bitching under her breath, limping around with her hurt leg and looking for trouble in the fields near to the campus. Spike, Spike, Spike…where the hell had he gone? Oh, she knew he was still living at the residence, she had placed a discreet call to Reception.
The other two were there, too, in another apartment. She felt his presence at night, in the empty warehouses, across the usual paths. He was working for good. He was avoiding her. Fuck him.
To discuss the matter with Willow was no help, either. She underrated her feelings, and her problems relating to Spike. Willow was quite sure Spike still loved her friend, and the only fault was Buffy’s. Buffy was tired of feeling guilty. What about him? He had the nerve to get back to her after two years….what was he waiting for? A bloody declaration of eternal love? Uh?
But she couldn’t ignore him, either. The night spent together in Pylea was simply unforgettable. There was no need of a Psych Mayor to understand that Spike had been disappointed by her apparent lack of feelings. What a stupid I was, Buffy thought. I could have said some sweet word, after all….
The sound of fighting broke her train of thought. Relieved by the distraction, Buffy ran as best as she could with her hurt leg.
Her evening threatened to move from nasty to downright horrible as soon as she caught sight of Spike’s unmistakable form and duster.
In front of him Riley Finn towered in camouflage, complete with laser rifle. Uh? Riley? The quiet professor Walsh’s TA? What the f….
The two were fighting. A lot.
Oh, shit….
“Hey, hey!” she shouted, jumping in the groove. Spike was at his fastest, not as much as he had been in Pylea, but enough to top Riley, who was rather effective too.
“Riley?”
In a camouflage? With weapons?
“I’ll send you both to hospital. Just stop”
“He started it” Spike protested. “The toy soldier!”
“Buffy, I…”
“Riley…are you gonna to explain to me what the hell you are doing here, in camouflage? Are you a kind of…vigilante? Is it a game?”
“No, but….”
“Haven’t you got it yet, Slayer?” Spike intruded. “He’s working with Uncle Sam. They’re a special force which deals with Evil…he’s doing our job”
“Our?” Riley mused.
“Mine?” Buffy repeated.
“Do you know each other?” Spike replied. “If that’s the case, I’ll just go. I’d hate to be held responsible for having destroyed your only shot at socializing with adequate human companions of your age, even if this spells disaster”
“What the hell he’s talking about, Buffy?” Riley exclaimed.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she replied.
“He’s ….what to you?” the boy insisted.
“Nothing. It doesn’t matter anymore”
Spike, bitter and disappointed, shook his head and went away. Exactly, what was he waiting for her to do? Hadn’t she proved herself yet as unfaithful?
Buffy swallowed her rage and disappointment for the umpteenth time at her unquenchable stupidity, and took a new course of action. She tried to concentrate her rage on Riley.
“Why were you attacking him? What does all of this mean? The camouflage, the rifles…who are you…and what do you represent?”
“That’s really funny!” Riley laughed. “I was attacking him because he’s a vampire. Wait a moment” Riley stopped, getting a sudden clue about her strange behavior and her indifference. “Why in the world am I getting the impression this doesn’t surprise you…well, at all? Why aren’t you looking at me as if I were a madman to discuss…vampires? Why….Buffy, what the hell is happening here?”
“I know he is a vampire” she spat. “I know vampires, demons, evil creatures exist. I’ve known it since…well, quite a long time… longer than you know, I bet. And he’s not your average vampire. Not by a long shot. He’s William the Bloody, aka Spike. And he has a soul, sergeant”
“I’m not a sergeant, I’m a…”
“I don’t care!” Buffy replied, furious. “Spike has a soul. He fights for Good. I guess better than you and your soldiers could do. If you eliminate him, you’d eliminate a wonderful force, which can fight against Evil as you could never do”
“Do you love him?” Riley asked suddenly.
Buffy didn’t answer.
“You know him, right? Since when?”
“I’ve known him for two years. And…I know what he’s capable of. In any sense. Riley, listen to me, Spike is no enemy! Quite the contrary!”
“Were you his girlfriend?”
Buffy nodded.
“How could you? Christ, Buffy, he’s not even a person”
“No, but he is more than a man…so much more I doubt our race could be”
“Were you…his lover?”
“Yes!” she shouted. “I’m not ashamed of that. Truth is I really am not ashamed at all”
“Buffy…I was seriously interested in you, but now…”
“Don’t say a word. Don’t, you just don’t get it” she replied. “Stay away from me. I’m the slayer. It’s me who fights against Darkness. Your weapons are useless. You simply don’t get it: this is not your mission, it is mine”
Riley gaped at her, incapable of reacting to that new devastating revelation.
“You’re…what? You, a girl, fight against vampires? Come on, I’m not buying this…”
Buffy turned, one last time.
“Believe what pleases you, Riley, but this is my mission. And his. Spike knows his game. What about you?”
With that last question, she left Riley Finn and his toys.
The man looked at her, going away, incapable of believing any one of her words.
And specially that one.
That she had been that monster’s lover.
It was raining.
Spike ran, wishing only to be in his cozy apartment, drinking some old booze and some blood. God, now boys played soldiers. What the fuck! Exactly what you need in Sunnydale.
Buffy had some sort of infallible taste for men. She always chose for herself the troublesome ones. She was never wrong at that.
Spike laughed bitterly, shaking his wet head and opening the door with his key. That big, muscled Ken doll was even bigger than Angel. That had to be her type.
I’m totally out of her league then, he smiled, with my height and weight. Better like this, who cares…
He warmed the blood in the microwave oven, and poured himself a brandy. He went to the hi – fi and put on some music. Lorne had just arrived on Earth and had already showed an insane passion for divas: Gaynor, Franklin, Streisand, Houston, Cher, Dion. Spike felt like puking but put Mariah and her “Hero” on.
He felt exactly like Bridget Jones, a male, vampire Bridget: English, single, desperate.
Alone.
And he listened under the rain to horrible music, which hurt him.
That was simply too much. Stop with the self – pity. Thank God, the telephone was ringing.
“It’s me” Fred whispered. “We’re back from the theater and Lorne is on a high. I decided to make him stop drinking cappuccinos. That stuff excites him too much”
“What a guy!” Spike admitted. “He’s quite weird, uh?”
“Totally. What are you doing? Are you coming over?”
“I’m a bit down. I’d better stay alone”
“You said you never get blue”
“Maybe once a year…it’s a thing. Angel does it non stop”
“Are you blue about …Buffy? Is it…over?”
Spike laughed, with some bitterness. “Over? It was never on, to start with. Don’t worry, really. I’ll be fine very soon”
“As you like. We’re here. You’ve just to knock” she replied kindly, but with a touch of shyness.
“Thanks, good. Have a good night, Fred”
“You too, Spike” she smiled, hanging up.
Now the room was gloomy. Spike’s eyes could see the furniture’s contours, and their long shadows, but the night had already begun. Darkness became his mood, then, more than light.
When the brandy was gone and Mariah still sang, somebody knocked. The vampire opened the door, with jeans, bare feet and nothing else on. Fred had to learn not to disturb him when he was like that…
It wasn’t Fred.
On the threshold, wet and dripping, Buffy Summers stood . She had her huge green eyes fixed on him.
“Spike” she whispered. “I can’t lie to myself anymore”
“Let’s hear the truth, then” he said, not drunk enough to show his indifference at its best.
“I beg you…let me in. Into your life. I can’t live without you”
Buffy closed the gap between them and water slid from her shoulders to the mat.
“Spike…I love you”
Mariah shrieked and rain fell in the early dusk.
Spike, going against his best instincts, opened his arms and took her in.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Sorry for being late:( Chapter 6 is coming, too.