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Buffy dutifully sprinkled the foul smelling powder on the stairs leading back down to the landing before walking over to join the guys. “Okay, stinky stuff is a go.”
Wesley nodded, before beginning the ritual. "We call thee forth, Thesulac of the netherworld, we command you, leave our minds and join us on this, the physical plane." He paused and held out his hand to where Spike is standing with the rest of the supplies. "Orb of Ramjerin."
Spike handed it over, before giving the Watcher a smug smirk. “Careful mate, glowy orb things like that, tend to be fragile.”
Used to Spike after spending all of the night with him and Buffy as they planned out the details for the Hotel, Wes didn’t take his comment personally. It was just Spike being Spike. “We invoke the, by the power of the orb of priests of Ramjerin. What was once in our thoughts, be now in our midst."
The air itself above the stairs where the powder had been spread, began to undulate as though something was trying to force its way out of some invisible place.
“I’m guessing this is a good thing?” Buffy asked as Spike tossed her an axe.
“Careful of the tentacles luv.” Spike cautioned her, raising his own axe as a form started to become visible.
“There’s gonna be tentacles and you’re just telling me now?” She asked placing her free hand on her hip, but not talking her eyes off the shape taking form in front of them. “You are soo gonna pay for that mister.”
“Let me help you with that.” A low screeching voice called out, seconds before several tentacles appeared out of nowhere to wrap around Spike and Wesley. It dragged them to opposite sides of the wall, pinning them in place, as a deformed figure in a black cloak smiled down at her. “These two have been feeding me their worst since they’ve walked in here. I can’t wait to serve it right back to them until the fear and self-doubt turns to certainty and hate. They will be so delicious, mmm-mmm-mmm! But you, something tells me you’re going to be the real treat little girl…little witch.”
“Actually, I’m the Slayer so you wanna fight or are you just going to wait until I start chopping?” Buffy asked, giving him her most sinister smile.
“Tsk, Tsk, I can feel it you know, his doubt in you.” It said slowly going towards her. “Just like the other one, he stuck out his neck and they threw a rope around it. So the other vampire was nice enough to keep me fed these last fifty years but something tells me, you will keep me sated for the next fifty.”
“Judy, you‘re still feeding off her.” Buffy asked, suddenly realizing the Judy must have never been found because she’d never left. Instead of jail she must have been trapped here feeding this thing and that filled Buffy with a cold sense of purpose.
“She’s delicious, but as the years began to past she’s grown stale.” The thing said with a twisted smile gracing its lips. “Now your lover here, his own guilt and doubt is both old and new…it’s a very unique taste. Killed his mommy, not once but twice and now he wonders if he can keep you...make you stay. Everyone he loves turns away from him because he‘s never enough for them. Not strong enough, not smart enough and now he‘s worried he won‘t be good enough for you, without having a soul.”
“Souls don‘t make the man, I mean Angel had one and he left some poor girl here, so I‘ll take my chances with Spike.” Buffy said slowly shifting her weight so she could attack.
“Will you take your chances with me, pretty girl?” It asked, flicking its tongue out like a snake. “I can’t get through you’re shields, can’t taste you, which means inside there is something worth hiding…worth tasting. So if you let me in, I’ll let these two go and you can see if you’re as strong without your spells and incantations, witch Slayer.”
“NO!” Both Wes and Spike shouted as they renewed their struggles against the thick bulbous tentacles holding them.
“Oh trust me, I’m delicious alright.” Buffy said with a seductive purr in her voice as she mentally began an incantation. “Betrayal, loss, death, doubt, all of that is just swirling inside me. But if you want a taste of my darkness, you gotta let them, as well as the woman go, or else we‘ll just do this the old fashioned way.”
“Give me a hint, just a peek inside so I know if it’s worth it.” The thing asked, the interest in its voice unmistakable.
Nodding, Buffy concentrated on the way she had felt the moment Spike told her about Angel’s claim and dropped her metaphysical shields down just enough to expose that pain. When it sucked in a sharp breath and let out a long contented sigh she closed herself back down and sent him a cocky look. “Do we have a deal?”
Another tentacle snaked up the stairs and they heard the sound of a door being thrown open. After a few short seconds, it carried an elderly woman with steel gray hair and haunted brown eyes to the front door. Quickly, Spike and Wesley were moved beside her, before it looked back at her. “Drop you’re shield and I’ll let them go.”
“Let them go and I’ll drop my shield.” Buffy shot back, throwing her axe to the floor to give him more incentive.
“Buffy NO!” Wes screamed out, wondering why Spike was just silently watching the exchange. Th fear in his eyes was clearly evident but so was a dull sheen of resignation.
Doing as she asked, it pushed them outside the double doors of the lobby before wrapping all it tentacles around her in its hungry embrace.
The last thing Wes saw before the doors snapped shut behind him, crackling with some blue sort of energy field, was Buffy's tiny form being lifted into the air, her head tilted back so that her long golden hair was unnaturally bright against the thick ink colored tentacles.
Pounding on the door as a high piercing scream reached his ears, Wes turned back to Spike. “Help me damnit, we can’t just leave her there!”
“Buffy’s not the one screaming.” Spike told him calmly, half his focus monitoring his girl through the claim and the rest honed in on the woman clinging to his arm. Buffy had told him her plans through the link they shared, so all they could do was wait. “She’s the one that needs us now Wes, her heart’s weak. Use your cell and call 911.”
Inside, Buffy poured all her pain into the thing holding her, the spell giving it a physical presence so that it was like thousands of razor sharp blades tearing into the thing holding her. “Hurts doesn’t it, feeling the way you’ve made, who knows how many people feel over the years. How does it feel knowing I manipulated you, just like you had played all of them?”
“Stop!” It hissed, dropping her to the floor with a bone jarring thud. But the pain didn’t stop; it just kept coming, filling his body like a toxin and tearing into his insides, strangling them. Pain upon pain washed over him and left with no other choice it screamed, high and long.
“I killed him, he was gonna help me and I killed him.” Judy said softly from her place down on the sidewalk, feeling the need to confess her sins.
“Angel’s still alive, you didn’t kill the ponce.” Spike said gently, not sure of what to do but unable to step away and let Wes handle it. She had told them about what happened between them and how it had ended with Angel being hanged but it was clear she’d paid the price for her fear a hundred times over. “You’re free now, no-ones huntin’ you anymore. Everything’s gonna be alright now.”
Judy raised her hand up to his handsome face and hoping to do one final thing to make amends. “Lord I’m tired; just want to rest a spell. In the basement there’s a bag full of the money I took and now I want you to take it. Make a nice life for yourself young man; I won’t be needing it now.”
“Don’t talk like that pet, we’ll get you to the Doctor’s and you’ll be walking in the sunshine in no time.” Spike said, knowing it was a lie the moment it left his lips. He could smell the death slipping inside her veins, draining away her life. “You’ll wake up tomorrow, bright and early, feeling like a young girl again and we’ll have us a nice little picnic.”
She already felt like a young girl again with this handsome young man, paying such attention to her and she found herself smiling up at him. “I’d like that, tell me about the park…what it will feel like being out in the fresh air with the sun streaming down around us, warming my old bones.”
Unaware of the moisture gathering in his eyes, Spike tried to remember his last day in the sun. “It glorious pet, it'll dance across your skin, sinking deep down inside you, chasing away all the shadows. It’ll be like walking in heaven, all the light turning everything golden and such, as the sweet air fills your lungs until you believe you can fly.”
Wesley laid his hand on Spike’s shoulder as the woman’s eyes fluttered closed, seconds after the familiar wail of the approaching ambulance pierced the night. “Is she…”
“She’s at rest.” Spike said gently, using his free hand to ease off his beloved duster. Laying it beneath her head, he placed her arms on her chest, before rising to his own feet. “Stay with her, till they come, I need to check on Buffy.”
Stepping inside he saw her crumbled in the center of the lobby her face buried in her hands as she sobbed like her very heart had broken. Running to her, he pulled her into his arms without saying a word, just rocking her. Using they're link, they let all the pain they had been holding in, flow into one another, finally letting themselves heal.
Neither one noticed Wes walking into the room, Spike’s duster hanging over his arm, several minutes after the ambulance had taken Judy away. Not wanting to intrude on their moment, he turned to walk away when he heard a soft voice call out his name.
Catching his breath as the beauty of Buffy’s tear-streaked face tore at his heart he gave her a gentle smile. “I was just about to head off.”
“Stay. The pity party is officially over and it was long overdue.” Buffy said firmly, as she allowed Spike to help her back to her feet. “So, you ready to move into a house of pure evil, filled with unpleasant vibes of evilness?”
“It’s not that place anymore, in risk of sounding trite or clichéd, this place is now cleared of negative energies.” Wes said with a knowing smile.
“Bloody hell, that’s the reason we liked it.” Spike said in mock outrage. “We’ll just have to make a habit of killing things here then, fill it right back up.”
“Yeah, put up a few gruesome trophies maybe spill a little blood, it’ll be cozy.” Buffy shot back before giving him a pointed look. “But when my mother comes for a visit, you have to take full credit for the choice of décor.”
“Right then, throw a few throw pillows around get a bunch of those scented candles you fancy and take away the rest of my manhood while you’re at it.” Spike muttered darkly. “It’s not doing me much good, I‘m completely Slayer whipped.”
“Don’t worry baby, you’re definitely still the big bad.” Buffy said snaking her arm around his waist. “As soon as we get this place cleaned up and livable, I’ll let you chain me up to prove it.”
Spike’s brain went straight to fantasy mode at the idea of his girl, naked and flushed as she struggled against the chains holding her will he whispered all sorts of nasties in her ears. Being Slayer whipped had its advantages; he decided pulling her towards him for a heated kiss.