[Reviews - 335]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Microsoft Word Chapter or Story | ePub eBook Chapter or Story | Printer Chapter or Story

Has been viewed 3468 times

- Text Size +




Author's Chapter Notes:
Thanks as always to my delightful reviewers... this is the last of the stuff I typed up on nights. so it will be a bit longer between updates for a while
The biggest shock, if shock it could be now, was that Giles had sold out Buffy to Maggie Walsh, given her the final information that had been needed to kill her. It had only been dumb blind luck that had allowed Buffy to escape again. Giles had also paid Spike to cause trouble between the Scoobies, to torment Xander, to belittle the fragile Willow, but something had always protected Dawn. Spike knew it was because he wanted her for himself, but it was Spike’s own nature that led him to first try and kill Buffy, then to love her despite all the interference Giles threw their way: the way that Giles had tried to teach Buffy that demons couldn’t love. He had tortured Spike when he'd been held hostage as well, a single drop of holy water in the pigs blood Spike was eating had burnt the inside of Spike’s mouth. All thanks to Eyghon. Spike had seen the tattoo and had known what it meant. That had been the main reason Giles had set up the episode with Robin: to kill Spike before he said anything to the Scoobies about the tattoo. He hadn't been sure that his spells would affect the vampire. They didn’t always work the same way on demons.

Giles had to go, but before they could do anything about him they had to get rid of the demon controlling, no, living with him. That had been one of the things that Spike had been made to forget, how to rid Giles of the outside influence. But William the Bloody knew, his knowledge gained from living with one of the foremost seers in a thousand years. Druscilla’s dreams and ramblings had always had meaning, and she had taught her childe well. Ethan and Giles both needed to be cleaned, their tattoos burned off their skin before they could do anything else, and to do that they needed both white magic and demonic help. Then they would pay for all their crimes.

Buffy and Spike sat quietly. Dawn had made them both hot chocolates, complete with little marshmallows. Robin had joined them; he still felt a little uncomfortable around the vampire but was fighting the feeling. He hated that Giles had manipulated him into attacking the warrior, but after all the man, vampire, had killed his mother. But they were supposed to be on the same side.

‘Did she die quick?’ He asked quietly, trying to keep the malice out of his voice.

Spike looked over his mug at the man. He still wanted to rip him limb from limb for risking his girls before the fight with the First.

‘Who?’ although he knew the answer, he wanted time to think up how to answer the man truthfully without completely pissing him off.

‘My mother, did she die quickly?’

Spike took a deep breath, this wasn’t the conversation he wanted to be having. Buffy looked at them both.

‘Yes she did,’ the vampire answered, ‘neck snapped between one breath and the next.’

‘Why didn’t you drink from her? I was told you didn’t bite her.’ Robin was breathing deeply, trying to maintain his temper. He wanted answers and that meant he had to talk to the only being who had them. Septamus and Morgana moved closer: they knew they might be needed in the next few minutes and wanted to be well placed to step into the conversation.

Another question Spike didn’t want. He knew how much Robin hated vampires and rightly so, and knew the answer was going to really annoy him when he got it.

‘Answer him,’ Septamus said.

Spike looked at the watcher and the older witch. ‘You know?’

Morgana nodded. ‘Yes we know, but he needs to hear it from you.’

Spike took a sip of the hot chocolate: its flavour brought him back to the peace of Joyce’s kitchen. Then took a deep, unneeded breath.

‘I couldn’t,’ he said quietly, ‘she was claimed and it was a mating claim from a master vampire. It was the only thing that stopped me.’

Robin wanted to scream and shout, to deny that any vampire, let alone a master, had anything to do with his mother’s life, only her death. To deny everything he was being told. But somewhere in his heart he knew it was true.

‘Mating claim?’

Spike nodded. ‘And it was strong,’ he continued. ‘Must have been renewed regularly ‘cause it stopped me biting her.’

Buffy looked up at him. ‘Are you telling me that if I’d let you claim me no other vamp could have used me as a chew toy?’

‘No love, but claims are serious things. You feel everything the other person does, and you have to be with them or you go loco. Any claim stops us sinking our fangs in, but a mating claim is the strongest of all.’

Robin looked at Spike. ‘Do you know who it was?’

‘No, no idea at all, but I’m surprised I survived. I laid low for a couple of years afterwards. Knew whoever it was would be after me for vengeance.’

Robin looked shaken. ‘Is it true?’ he asked Morgana

‘Yes child, it’s true, in fact it’s more than true. Only a Master vampire, or someone with a master vampire’s blood in his lineage can ever get a slayer pregnant. The vampire that claimed your mother, he was your father.’ She answered

Septamus began to look uncomfortable, he squirmed and jiggled from foot to foot. He didn’t like the way the conversation was going. Sex was not his best subject. Morgana took pity on the man ‘Go on, off you go to your books,’ she smiled. ‘I don’t think I need your protection and I’m sure that if they need any more formal questions answered, Robin or Spike will find you later.’

She made shooing motions with her hands, and sent the obviously uncomfortable and blushing watcher away.

Robin was furious. ‘So what you’re saying is that some Master Vampire raped and claimed my mother, leaving her to look after me and fight her battles alone.’

‘It doesn’t work with rape.’

‘What?’ Robin snapped.
‘The claim, it doesn’t work with rape.’ Spike seemed uncomfortable about talking about something so personal: it wasn’t hard to see the Victorian Gentleman behind the punk rock façade. ‘The female has to instigate it and the male accept, she has to do all the work; so won’t work with rape or even if the lady thinks its her duty, it has to be really freely offered and accepted.’

‘Is that why you never mated?’ Buffy asked gently.

Spike nodded and stared into his mug. ‘Dru never offered it to me. I’m glad about that now, but then, yes I would have accepted.’

Robin looked back at Morgana for conformation. The intensity of Spike’s stare was almost too much to bear.

‘There’s more, isn’t there?’ He asked.

‘Yes child, there’s more. Your father loved you more than you could imagine, but he had lost his mate and knew that even if he’d lived through that pain, you would have been used as a weapon against him. So he transferred all his wealth to your mother’s watcher, and dusted himself. He lay on your mother’s grave and waited for the sun. He wanted to be as close to her as he could.’

Robin sat back in his chair and tried to take it all in, the strength needed to sit in one place and wait for dawn, just to keep your child safe. That really was devotion.

Morgana gave him a few minutes before adding, ‘Then you were taken across country and a new life was built for you. One with money and privilege, everything your parents could dream of for you but never give you.’

‘Can I ask, how did my mother, and Buffy, well how did they get pregnant? No disrespect Spike, but I thought vampires shot blanks.’

‘They normally do, but if there is true love and respect, it alters the body’s chemistry. That’s the first step. Second is that the vampire must be in full demon mode, not just face but whole body, and must be submissive, allowing the female to make all the running, without demanding anything in return. Everything must be for her pleasure and at her instigation. He has to be totally submissive.’

Buffy and Spike looked at one another, remembering back to the last night before the great battle. Buffy had come to him with nothing but love in her heart, and he hadn’t wanted a thing from her she wasn’t willing to give. It was a wonder that she wasn’t carrying triplets after that. At least they now knew how to recreate the miracle.

Morgana looked at Robin. ‘Right: family history. Your father was an English Lord turned in about 1820, he was rich, clever, powerful and skilled in many areas. He was the only other vampire I knew that ever went after slayers. He was fascinated by them.’ She looked pointedly at Spike and Buffy, who were starting to kiss on the sofa.

‘He took out two of them. I think that’s why he started following your mother around: wanted to make her his third. He tried for her on a couple of occasions, but obviously didn’t succeed. I think they finally met at Caritas in New York. You can’t fight there and they got to know one another. They sang, they talked, they laughed, but one night Nikki got drunk. Robert offered to escort her home, promising to be the perfect gentleman. The rest as they say is history: you came along a year later and when you were four everything changed. Robert was beside himself. He’d been leading a council wet team away from Nikki and you when she was caught by them. She escaped but had been hurt, and injured she faced Spike and lost. Now that we are all emotionally exhausted and struggling to believe everything we’ve heard, I suggest we take a break and go and get something to eat.’

Morgana led the way to the kitchens, and as she passed the slayer she brushed her shoulder with her hand. Buffy immediately felt the heat and strength, power and health flood through her body, healing her completely.





You must login (register) to review.