Chapter Nineteen
When Joyce got home that afternoon, there was a large crate sitting on the front porch and she shook her head as she walked past it.
“Evenin’, Joyce,” came from the living room. “That an early Christmas present?”
“No,” she said with exasperation, “It is a very valuable and heavy sculpture that was supposed to be delivered to the gallery – not here. Now I’ll have to hire someone to move it for me.”
“I’ll do it for you,” Spike said, following her into the kitchen. “Got nothing to do till the Slayer gets here for patrol. I can load it in the back of your truck and unload it for you at the gallery. Why don’t you grab some dinner and then we’ll run it over there?”
“That’s very sweet, Spike. Thank you. But don’t you think we should wait until Buffy gets here? Between the two of you—“
“I’ll be fine by myself, Joyce. Give me a chance to get out into the world a little. I’m going a little stir crazy here –not that it’s not nice,” he hastened to add when she looked somewhat hurt. “But I’m startin’ to feel like a caged bird.”
“I don’t know, Spike. I appreciate the offer, but if Buffy still doesn’t think it’s safe...”
“We’ll be fine. I’ll be with you and the wanker isn’t going to do anything with the Slayer’s mum watchin’. Come on, Joyce. Please, huh, please?”
She had to laugh at his hopeful face and puppy dog eyes, even though she knew it was an act he was putting on for her benefit.
“All right, Spike. You win. I’ll get something to eat and then we’ll take it over to the gallery. I’ve got some new things I want you to see anyway.”
When the meal was over, she watched anxiously as he lifted the large crate and carefully set it in the back of her SUV. He slammed the tailgate and jumped into the passenger seat, looking for all the world like a little kid going for a ride.
As Joyce pulled out of the drive-way, neither one of them noticed a black van ease out of a parking spot down the street and begin to follow them through the dark streets. It stayed far enough back to be almost invisible in the dark; just another pair of headlights that appeared in the rear view mirror from time to time.
At the gallery, Spike quickly got out and opened the back of the vehicle while Joyce unlocked the loading dock door. She stood to one side as the vampire carefully set the crate on the dock, then jumped fluidly up onto it and pushed the crate into the shop. He pried open the crate for her and lifted the heavy work of art out onto the floor before saying, “I’ll just go shut the car up before you show me around, Joyce. Be right back.”
Nodding absently, she walked around the piece, making sure it was intact. A scuffling noise from outside caught her ear and she went to the dock and peered out into the dark.
“Spike? Spike, is something wrong? Spike? Where are you?”
Suddenly a black van with no markings and no lights, pulled away from the loading dock, tires squealing and engine roaring.
“Spike?” Joyce tried once more, but she knew before the words left her lips that there wasn’t going to be an answer. Her heart ached for her daughter as she quickly locked up the shop and turned her car toward home.
When Buffy got to her house, she was surprised, but not worried, to find her mother’s car not there. Joyce often stayed late after the gallery was closed to catch up on paperwork and bookkeeping. But when the Slayer entered the empty house and realized she couldn’t sense Spike anywhere, she was furious.
“That moron! Of all the nights for him to go out without me. When I find him, I’m going to—ooooh!” The Slayer fell to the floor, limbs twitching as she felt the shock of a tazer go through her body. She twitched for minutes, until she finally lost consciousness and awoke to find her mother frantically rubbing her face.
“Oh my God, Buffy! What happened?”
“Where...where’s Spike?” she got out through chattering teeth.
“I don’t know.” She lowered her head and said softly, “I’m sorry, Buffy. I let him talk me into helping me carry something to the gallery. It’s my fault. All I saw was a black van speeding off and he was gone.”
Buffy sat up slowly, waiting for the feeling to come back to her arms and legs.
“No, Mom. It’s not your fault,” she said in a tone her mother had never heard before. “It’s Riley’s.”
“What happened to you? Did he come here first?” Her mother looked in bewilderment at her seemingly uninjured and yet obviously debilitated daughter.
“No, he hit Spike with a tazer to knock him out.”
“But--”
“I’ll explain later. I have to find him. Will you call Giles for me, please?”
“How will you find him? Shouldn’t you wait for Giles?”
“I’ll know where he is. At least I will as soon as he wakes up.”
Cursing herself for not completing the claim and giving her that telepathic connection that Spike had alluded to, she went to the phone herself to call her watcher.
“He has Spike,” she said tersely when he answered. “I’m at my mom’s, I’ll wait for you here.”
She then picked up the phone and called Willow and Tara to tell them that she might be needing a locater spell, and they promised to arrive as quickly as they could.
While she waited impatiently for her help to arrive, she paced the floor, muttering threats to both Spike and Riley for putting her through this. Joyce went to the kitchen to fix hot chocolate for the arriving Scoobies, vowing to have a long talk with her daughter once they recovered Spike.
Just as Giles came through the door, Buffy’s head flew up and she grabbed the sides of it, screaming. When the scream had tapered off to a moan, she opened bleary eyes to see the worried faces of her mother and her surrogate father staring at her.
“Guess Spike woke up and tried to leave,” she said weakly, as Giles helped her to the couch. As the pain faded, she could faintly feel his confusion and anger coming through the claim. There was a surge of rage, and then her head snapped back as she felt Spike take a hard blow on the chin.
“Buffy! What’s happening? What’s wrong?”
“He’s beating him,” she gasped through the pain flowing to her from the vampire. “He’s, aaaah!, he’s breaking his bones....Spike!” She fell back on the couch, crying in pain and fear.
Her watcher grabbed her face and made her look him in the eye as he asked firmly, “Tell me what is happening. Why are you in pain?”
“Spike... He... I... Call Angel. He can explain it. He needs to come. Tell him I, we need him.”
She fell back on the cushions, moaning and crying out periodically.
The watcher went to the phone and dialed Los Angeles only to be met with Cordelia’s,“ What’s wrong with her now?”
There was some scuffling and arguing and then Angel was on the phone. “Yes, Giles. What is it? I apologize for Cordelia’s... What? He did what? And she knows this because...”
“I was hoping you could tell me,” the watcher said quietly. “I only know of one thing that would give them that kind of connection. I was hoping you might have another idea.”
“That son of bitch claimed her,” Angel growled, thereby removing any hope of another explanation. “I’ll kill him!”
“Actually, Angel, I believe Buffy is expecting you to come and assist us in locating him before Riley turns him to dust. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he appears to be in no hurry to do that. However, the pain he is inflicting on Spike is preventing Buffy from going to his rescue.”
“I’m leaving now. Be there in two hours.”
The phone was dead in Giles’ hand and he slowly replaced it in the cradle as he turned to look at his slayer. Buffy was lying on the couch, breathing hard, but with clear eyes.
“Buffy?” he asked hesitantly.
“He’s unconscious,” she said flatly as she struggled to sit up. “Either that, or he’s blocking it somehow.”
“Can he do that?” Giles asked, polishing his glasses. Neither of them bothered to pretend not to know what they were talking about.
“He can make it less; but I don’t think he could totally block that kind of pain. I think he’s unconscious.”
“He could be...” Giles looked at her sympathetically and heard Joyce gasp when she realized what he was implying.
“No.” Buffy said flatly. “I’d know.”
The older man nodded his head and sat down heavily in a chair.
“Angel’s on his way,” he said softly.
Buffy nodded and rested her head on the back of the couch. “Good. He should be able to help me find Spike.” He head shot back up. “Did you tell him?”
“I didn’t have to. He knew as soon as I told him what was happening.”
“Shit,” she groaned, dropping her head back down and ignoring her mother’s shocked, “Buffy!”
“Indeed,” her watcher agreed. “I believe it will be a toss-up which one wants to kill Spike the most.”
Buffy tried to sit up again. “I should go now, while he’s unconscious and I can function.”
“I really wish you’d wait for Angel,” Giles said. “If he attacks Spike again, you will be helpless.”
As much as she hated to do so, Buffy had to admit Giles was right, and she forced herself to wait for the arrival of Spike’s grandsire before she went looking for him.
However, when Willow’s locator spell showed that Riley was holding Spike in an abandoned factory near the waterfront, Buffy refused to wait for Angel, telling Giles to send him after them as soon as he got there. Against her mother’s protestations, and her watcher’s grumbling, she ran out the door heading for the waterfront and the man who was hurting her mate.
Chapter Twenty
Spike woke slowly and sent out his vampiric senses before he tried to open his eyes. As consciousness came back and his memory returned, so did the pain in his broken bones. As soon as he felt Buffy’s fearful response to his pain, he immediately damped down the claim as much as he could in his condition. In addition to wanting to spare her the pain he knew she was getting from him, he didn’t want her distracted from her search to find him.
He never doubted for a second that she was on her way to rescue him. Even without the reassurance he could feel coming from her, he would have known she was coming.
(It’s what she does, my beautiful girl. She rescues people – even vampires.)
Memory of who had beaten him, and why, surfaced and he flexed his arms to see if the chains he remembered being anchored to were still there. He could feel blood trickling down the back of his head and wondered briefly how and why the much larger man had hit him back there.
The sound of the chains clanking brought Riley back into the room to observe his prisoner.
“So, you’re awake again,” he remarked. “Let’s see what I can do to make it interesting for you.”
As he spoke, he walked over to the immobile vampire and waved a large knife at him, clearly hoping to see fear. He was gratified, although somewhat surprised, to see that the vampire was, in fact, frightened. He hadn’t really expected it to be that easy. Mistaking completely the reason for Spike’s concern, he puffed himself up and said, “Yeah, that’s right, vampire. I’ll teach you to touch my girl. We’ll see how she likes you when she sees you crying and begging for me to stop. I think I’ll start with that prick she seems so fond of.”
“You won’t just be hurtin’ me, you stupid git. You’ll be hurtin’ Buffy every time you cut me.”
Riley had expected all sorts of reasons why he shouldn’t begin cutting on Spike; but that was certainly not one of them. It was so ridiculous, it almost sounded real; but he quickly discarded it as an attempt by the vampire to avoid more pain.
“Right,” he sneered, “I suppose this is more of your vampire mumbo jumbo.”
“I claimed her. We’re bonded. Did they teach you nothing in that soddin’ laboratory?”
“I knew you’d be a coward about this, but I had no idea you’d try to drag Buffy into it. You’re pathetic,” Riley blustered. He wanted very badly to believe Spike was lying, but he knew there was a great deal more to know about demons than he had been taught in the Initiative. He hesitated for just a minute; then went back to his original plan.
“I know you can’t bleed to death like a human,” he said coldly, “but it would be an interesting experiment to see exactly how much blood you could lose before the need to feed could override the chip. That would have been one of the experiments we could have done on you while we had you in the lab, if you hadn’t escaped.”
“Pretty stupid move, there, Cardboard; since the only thing I see to feed on in here is you.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I’m pretty sure your next snack is on her way here already. I just need to be sure you’re hungry enough to appreciate it when she gets here.”
“She? You can’t seriously think I’d ever...”
“We’ll find out, won’t we? I’ve been doing some research on my own, and going over the results of the Initiative experiments. It seems like blood lust is just about the strongest thing going for the undead. It’s even more powerful than ordinary lust,” he finished with a meaningful look.
“I won’t touch her,” the vampire said with no expression. “I’d starve first.”
“So you say now,” he growled as he ran the knife down the front of Spike’s body, slitting the tee shirt and allowing a growing line of red to spread out from the cut. “I think you’ll change your tune by the time I’m done with you.”
Slowly and methodically, the ex commando used the knife to bleed the vampire. He watched with interest at the slowly growing pool of blood collecting under the table to which Spike was chained. As he watched the vampire gradually weaken, he knew that the broken bones he’d inflicted on Spike earlier would prevent any sudden movement on the vampire’s part. When he was comfortable that Spike would be unable to move quickly enough to catch him, he unlocked the chains and stood away from the table.
The vampire looked at him with amber eyes that glittered with hunger. His face was ridged and frozen into a snarl as the starving body yearned toward the blood he could hear pounding through the big man’s veins.
Riley looked at the snarling, snapping vampire with satisfaction.
“Oh, yeah. This will do. Even Buffy will have to see where her duty lies now. ”
At the sound of footsteps echoing through the open door, he threw a wooden stake on the floor and slipped out a side door.
“By the way, Spike,” he said as he left the room, “the chip is out.”
Buffy approached the warehouse with caution, even though everything in her body was screaming at her to rush in and rescue her mate. She noticed the van her mother had described and saw that the door was open as though the driver had been in a hurry to get his cargo inside.
This close to him, she could feel Spike in spite of his attempts to mask the pain for her. Suddenly she was hit with a stab of hunger so powerful it brought her to her knees and she fell to the floor gasping for air. The masking Spike had been doing was gone as the demon took over in the starving vampire and she remained on the floor, moaning in pain and snarling in anger at her helplessness. Forcing herself to remember that HER bones were not broken, and her body was not bleeding, she summoned the will to move forward toward the opening that she knew would lead to the source of the pain and hunger she was feeling.
Back on Revello Drive, a dark sports car roared into the driveway, barely stopping before Angel and Cordelia jumped out and ran to the door, which Giles was opening for them. They hesitated on the threshold only long enough for Joyce to say grudgingly, “Come in, Angel,” before entering the house.
Nodding his thanks, Angel stepped into the room and looked around.
“Where’s Buffy?”
“She left already,” the watcher sighed. “She refused to wait. She wanted to get there while Spike was unconscious and she couldn’t feel...”
The vampire turned his angry gaze on Willow and asked simply, “Where?”
The frightened witch held out the map and pointed at the building where they knew Spike was being held.
“It’s over by the—“
“I know where it is,” he cut her off and whirled toward the door.
When Buffy didn’t immediately run into the room where Spike was struggling to get off the table, Riley frowned and moved to where he could see the rest of the warehouse. He watched in amazement as she pulled herself across the floor, tears streaming down her cheeks as she forced her body on.
He ran out to her, oblivious to the feral look in her eyes, and pulled her to her feet.
“Buffy, what’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
The incongruity of his being worried about her physical well-being, even as he was setting up her for what he hoped would be a devastating emotional ordeal, didn’t bother him for a second. In order for her to do what he was confident she would once she saw and was attacked by chipless Spike, she needed to be physically ready. And the way she was wincing and struggling to stand erect did not fit with his plan.
“Get out of my way, Riley,” she got out through her gritted teeth. “I need to get to Spike.”
“Oh, I know that, Buffy. I know you do. Here, let me help you.”
The big man picked her up and carried her to the open doors of the room in which Spike was still struggling to sit up. He set her down in the doorway and pushed her inside, saying, “There he is. You know what you need to do.”
When she turned to look at him with a puzzled frown, he added, Just so you know, Buffy, the chip is out.”
He slammed the two doors closed behind her and dropped a bar across them. He then ran up to a catwalk that overlooked the lower room to watch as the Slayer and the starving vampire faced off.
Buffy froze just inside the door when she took in what she was seeing. A gaunt, skeletal Spike was clinging to a blood soaked table, balancing on the one leg that appeared to be unbroken. She didn’t even bother to register that he was in game face as she ran to his side and gently tried to put him back on the table.
“Oh my god, Spike. What did he do to you?” Tears fell onto his bloodied shirt as she ran her hands over his body, assessing the damage. She ignored the strangled snarls coming from the vampire as his demon fought to mark his property again.
“Buffy!” Riley shouted from the cat walk, “The stake! Get the stake!” He was pointing frantically at the wooden stake he’d left on the floor for her.
She glanced up once, then disregarded her ex boyfriend as she determined what needed to be done to help Spike recover. Baring her neck and holding his head against her throat, she said softly, “Here, baby. Drink from me. Let’s get you back on your feet so we can leave this place.”
Above, a panicked Riley began to rave as he watched her present her throat to the growling vampire.
“Buffy! Stop! What are you doing? Oh my god, he’ll kill you!”
“No he won’t,” came a deep, cold voice right behind him. Something about the sound made Riley’s hair stand on end and he turned slowly to find Angel blocking his exit from the catwalk.
Swallowing hard, he gestured below. “Yes, he will. I...bled him almost dry. He should be completely controlled by his blood lust by now. She has to stake him. It’s the only way to save herself.”
Completely unconcerned with what was going on below, Angel leaned toward the other man and asked in a deceptively mild tone, “So you’re the one who did this to my grandchilde? You beat him and bled him?”
Riley had never been comfortable around Buffy’s ex. In fact the only time he and the souled vampire had met they spent most of the time fighting. But the jealous anger he’d seen on the vampire’s face that time was nothing compared to the frightening aspect facing him now. His blood ran cold as found himself looking into the amber eyes of what he could only assume was Angelus.
He whirled in an attempt to run the other way on the narrow walk, but only got a step before a large hand closed around his arm and he was yanked back. He gave a frightened yell as he felt himself tossed over the side to land in a painful heap on the cold floor below. Angel jumped over the railing to land easily beside him and hold him in place with a meaty hand.
“Watch and learn, boy,” he growled as they looked at the two blonds leaning against the table.
Buffy and Spike were ignoring the activity around them, as the demon nuzzled her neck before gently sinking his teeth in to her flesh. Buffy gave a happy moan when she felt her blood being pulled into the vampire’s mouth and felt the energy that immediately infused his body.
Spike took only enough to make the demon recede and his bones begin to heal, before pulling his fangs out and licking the wounds closed. He slid his arms around Buffy’s trembling body and whispered, “Thank you. Love.”
For several minutes they held each other and allowed the mutual feelings of relief and love to flow back and forth between them. Finally, Buffy straightened up and turned to face a furious and still clueless Riley.
“What did you do to him?” she asked in a voice that was pure Slayer.
“I took his chip out. And he bit you, so obviously you have to kill him now.”
Riley’s words were much more certain than his tone of voice as he took in the way Buffy was leaning in to the still-weak vampire, showing absolutely no inclination to pick up the stake still lying on the floor.
She cocked her head and looked at her former lover for a good minute before she asked softly, “I thought you cared about me, Riley. Why would you try to make me do something that would hurt me that much?”
She looked at him with genuine bewilderment as his face darkened and he threw off Angel’s restraining hand.
“Because you’ve forgotten what your real mission is. You’re more vampire layer than Slayer. Slaying is what you were supposedly ‘called’ to do, the other is just...disgusting and sick. You needed to be shocked out of this obsession you have with vampires.”
“Says the man who reeks of vamp whores,” Spike wheezed out through his rapidly healing throat.
Riley dove for the stake lying on the floor and rolled past it to spring to his feet facing the three astonished and powerful beings. He moved toward the blond vampire, saying coldly, “if you won’t do your duty, Buffy, I’ll have to do it for you.”
While Spike struggled to stand erect and meet the much larger man advancing on him with a stake, Buffy stepped in front of him to say quietly.
“You really don’t want to do that, Riley.”
He paused momentarily at the look on her face, then shrugged, “Don’t try to stop me, Buffy.”
“Are you insane?” she asked him, waving her hands in the air. “Hello! Pissed off Slayer here; master vampire there.” She gestured toward Angel who had moved closer to the two blonds. “And extremely pissed off, unchipped vampire also right here. Do you have a death wish?”
Riley shrugged again. “I’m human, you can’t kill me. And he’s still too weak,” he said gesturing toward Spike. “And your other undead lover has a soul, as you keep reminding me. So, I’m figuring I’ve got a pretty good chance of ridding the world of this vermin.”
He again moved in Spike’s general direction, only to find himself once again face to face with Angel.
“Buffy, why don’t you go outside while Spike and I have a talk with the boy?” he said softly.
Riley’s calm assurance was shaken when he saw Spike’s head whirl toward the older vampire. Although he had no idea that the tone and choice of words sounded more like Angelus than Angel, something about the worried look on the blond’s face made Riley’s balls clench.
“Now, Peaches, I know finding out about me and Buffy didn’t give you any kind of a happy, so what’s with the Angelus imitation?” He studied his grandsire a little longer, then relaxed. “ Don’t tell me you’re alright with us being bonded?”
“Buffy,” Angel repeated, never taking his eyes off the soldier, “please leave us for a while.” He spared a quick glance at his grandchilde. “I’ll talk to you later, Will. And no, I am not alright with it. But you’re mine to deal with, not his. And, Buffy?” he added. “Close the door behind you,”
Buffy looked back and forth between the man who had beaten and tortured her lover and the vampire who she had once thought was her true love. She could feel Spike’s assurance flowing through her and knew that, as scary as Angel appeared to be at the moment, it WAS Angel and not Angelus. She breathed a sigh of relief that she was not going to be forced to stake the other vampire that was part of her life and with a chaste kiss on Spike’s cheek, she moved to the door.
She pushed against the double doors until she snapped the bar on the outside. Behind her, Riley was beginning to realize that he was being left alone with two vampires famed for their torture and killing sprees throughout Europe.
“Buffy!” he shouted. “You can’t leave me in here with them. I’m human! You have to protect me!”
She met his suddenly frightened eyes and then turned to look at the burly vampire glaring at him.
“I’ll be outside, Angel. Don’t be too long, I want to get Spike home.”
With a finality that terrified her former boyfriend, she closed the double doors and walked away.
Inside the blood-soaked room, Riley made one last attempt to avoid the fate that seemed to be awaiting him. He hefted the stake in his hand and said hopefully, “You have a soul.”
As the old vampire moved swifter that the eye to snatch the stake away, he said slowly, “It’s not a chip, boy. It’s just a soul. Just like yours.”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Almost finished. Only one or two chapters to go after this one - I had started an epilogue/sequel, but I never finished it and I don't remember where I was going with it so...