Chapter 9
Spike, Xander, and Robin were out dealing with arranging plans for the Slayer that had been killed the night before. Out in the court yard, the rest of the girls were training with Giles and Faith. Buffy, however, had decided to stay inside and help Willow set up the rest of what she needed to perform the spell. Hopefully it would work and work permanently this time, but there was no indication that was going to happen. Still, with Ethan Rayne gone, there was one less person to worry about ruining everything.
Buffy had disappeared into the large kitchen, where Robin had stocked it with enough groceries to probably last a month. What she really needed was some aspirin, so she downed some and took a long gulp of water from the tap. Her head was pounding, and she wasn’t sure if it was from stress or from the noise. It seemed even louder than in Sunnydale, where there were even more girls in a smaller space. But the halls echoed, so any sound was magnified about ten times.
“You alright?” Buffy spun to see Angel standing in the doorway.
“Yeah,” she muttered, putting the glass down. “You missed out on this the last time. Lots of teenage girls running around, getting into everything.”
“They’re pretty weak right now.”
“Yeah. Well, hopefully by the end of the night, that’ll change.”
“Yeah,” Angel said with a nod. “Or they’ll die.”
“Or that. Hopefully we can avoid that. They’re just vampires. Pretty pissed off vampires, but still, they’re nothing I can’t handle. But there’s just…so many of them. Of course, it’s nothing compared to what we faced in the Hellmouth. And Spike went all bright and shiny and ended up killing off most of them. We don’t have that luxury this time around. Even if we did, I wouldn’t use it.” She studied Angel’s features for a moment, unable to read his emotions. She used to be able to figure him out quite easily. When she realized that wasn’t the case any longer, she started to walk away. “I should check and see if Willow’s ready.”
“Is there anything I can do?” Buffy thought for a moment and then a thought came to her. She knew it was cruel to ask of him, but he was her only option right now, considering Dawn was doing homework like she was supposed to.
“How do you feel about babysitting?”
“Babysitting?”
“Bella, especially. If…when Willow’s spell kicks in, I want somebody to be with her and let me know if anything happens.”
“Okay,” Angel said apprehensively. “Anything I should look out for?”
“If something changes, I think she’ll let you know. She’s a pretty in-tune kid. When the Slayers lost their power, she felt something right away.”
“Okay,” he said slowly. “I guess I can do that.”
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
“No, it’s fine.”
“I understand if you don’t want to. I mean…given our past…I don’t expect you to just feel comfortable with…”
“I said I’d do it.”
“Yeah, but you’re all scowly. I know you don’t want to.”
“Buffy, I said I’d do it. I want to help, and if watching your kids is helping…”
“It is.”
“Then I’ll do it.”
“You’re sure?”
“When did you get so frustrating?”
“I’ve always been…hey!” She crossed her arms. “Sorry. When you’ve got hard-headed kids like mine, pointless arguments are an everyday thing.” She saw the twinge of jealousy in his eyes, and she frowned. “Sorry. I didn’t meant to…I mean…I know that with Connor…”
“It’s fine. I’ll be upstairs.” He stalked off, and she wasn’t certain if he was angry or annoyed or what. She couldn’t sense those things anymore. Not with him.
Shrugging it off, Buffy left the big kitchen and headed off to find Willow. It wasn’t long before she found her in an empty corridor, seated on the floor with books and candles surrounding her. Different colored sands and dirt were sprinkled out before her, and her eyes were closed. Her lips moved quickly in silent speech, and Buffy could do nothing but stand there, curious about the things her friend could do. She’d seen Willow work miracles, but she wondered what it was like to actually be the one working them.
Willow looked so intense, her brows wrinkled in concentration. But within moments, she sighed in frustration and opened her eyes.
“Wil?”
“I lost it,” she admitted. “I guess it takes the mouth of hell opening up and unleashing it’s billions of fanged friends to get the mojo working.” She sighed and stood up, wiping her hands on her jeans.
“You’ll get it, Wil. I know you will.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Buff. I think I’m gonna take a little walk and clear my head.”
“Want me to come with?”
“No, that’s ok. I just need to think. Today’s not exactly the best day to be trying out spells and…”
“Why not?” Buffy asked. “What’s wrong with today?” Willow eyed her. Buffy thought about the day. It wasn’t the 7th of May, so it wasn’t the anniversary of Tara’s death, so what was it? As if reading her mind, Willow frowned and looked away.
“It’s the anniversary of the day I met Tara.”
“Oh,” Buffy said quietly. “Sorry.”
“No, it’s ok. That was a good thing. It’s better to remember the good things, right? Because the bad things…that leads to bad things. Like evil, veined-out Willow who’s not quite as lovable as much nicer, red-haired Willow.”
“I do like this Willow much better,” Buffy smiled. “If you need to talk…”
“I know. Thanks, Buffy. I’ll be alright.”
“’Kay.” Buffy watched her friend walk away, and she sighed, slumping down onto the floor and looking over at one of Willow’s books. Mildly curious, but mostly bored out of her skull, Buffy lifted the heavy book into her lap, and being cautious to mark the page Willow had had it turned to, she began to flip through the pages.
There were drawings of all sorts of demons, many of whom she’d come face to…really ugly face with. She flipped the book closed and studied the front. This was a book she hadn’t seen before. Must be one of Willow’s most recent finds.
Curiosity got the better of her, and she flipped toward the back of the book, looking up her most common enemy. Vampires. Of course, she knew everything there was to know about vampires, right? What with the bumpy faces and the pointy teeth, they were pretty vicious. But get a little holy water on them or drive a stake through their heart, and they were mush in a Slayer’s hands. Dust, rather. A little sunlight, a little spontaneous combustion, she’d seen it a thousand times.
“Vampires,” she muttered. “Blah, blah, blah, soulless, blah blah blah, unless…huh?” What was with the unless? She pulled the book closer to her face and began to read. “Re-siring. Huh…now that’s interesting.”
Buffy could hear the doors opening at the front of the building, so she knew the guys were back. Putting the book back down, she hurried to greet them and find out if they’d taken care of it all. By the looks on their faces, Kiki’s death was taken care of.
“How’d it go?” she still asked.
“Ruled as an animal attack. Most likely snake,” Xander said quietly, pulling his coat off. It was over, just like that. No justice for the poor girl. The vamp who had staked her was dead, and that was that. The last several hours had been a blur. Buffy was tired, hadn’t slept much. Everybody was concerned about what would happen at sun down tonight. It was going to turn into chaos pretty soon, she figured.
Xander and Robin headed to opposite ends of the building, leaving the Slayer alone with her husband.
“Where was Red going?” Spike asked his wife. Buffy shook her head.
“She’s clearing her head. She’s thinking too much, and she can’t grasp the spell.”
“What’s so difficult about it? From what I heard, she went all white witch with golden sparkles dancing about her. Thought it would be easy as pie, considering most of the stuff she was into turned her into the wicked witch of the…”
“It’s the anniversary of the day she and Tara met.”
“Oh,” Spike said, feeling like a git. “Right then.” He cleared his throat and looked around. “Where’re the kids?”
“Upstairs with Angel,” Buffy said slowly. Spike gave her a strange glance, and she sucked in a sharp breath.
“I told him to watch Bella and see if anything happened if the spell worked. I guess I can go tell him that he’s off duty now.”
“I’ll let him know, luv.” Buffy rolled her eyes.
“Please don’t tell me you’re going to start pulling jealous vampire crap. Okay, well, jealous ex-vampire crap…”
“Please? Me jealous of him? Peaches isn’t a threat, pet.”
“No, he’s not,” she insisted. “If you need reminding that I’m a one-man woman, I think these rings might prove it.” She placed her hand against them, their rings shining against each other. “And if you need more convincing…” She placed her hands on his chest, as his arms quickly slinked around her waist. She smiled, feeling his warm breath against her lips, and she leaded in, pressing her lips ever-so-gently against his. “Need more convincing?”
“Mmm…couldn’t hurt, luv.” Buffy grinned against his lips and gently backed him against the wall, her body pressing solidly against his, slowly grinding against him until she felt his cock straining against his jeans. He groaned from somewhere deep inside, and he moved his hands to her hips, roughly bringing her as close as he possibly could. He felt her shudder against him, and for a moment, her eyes closed, and a moan escaped. He cocked his head and gave her an accomplished grin. “What were we talking about, Slayer?”
“Suddenly, I can’t remember.”
“Whaddya say we let Captain Forehead babysit just a little longer, hmm?” he asked.
“Okay, dissing my exes? Not exactly a turn on. It just makes you look…”
“Jealousy isn’t turning you on?”
“Thought you weren’t jealous,” she said wickedly, her hand moving between them to press against the hardened bulge. She could have sworn she heard him whimper.
“Right,” he muttered. “Come on, Slayer. I think we can manage to find an empty room.” She laughed, as he roughly took her hand and whisked her off for a quick rendezvous in an empty classroom.
***
Faith lagged behind the group as they made their way back to the old school. She hadn’t gotten a call from Buffy about Willow’s spell, and none of the girls felt their Slayer senses tingling, so apparently, the afternoon was a bust.
She pulled out a wrinkled pack of cigarettes, fished one out, and lit the tip. She took a long drag and let the air out slowly. She got a few glances from bewildered Slayers, who wanted nothing more than to take care of their bodies. The way Faith looked at it was that she was probably going to die before she was a little old lady, so why not?
She could see the school building up ahead, and she wasn’t really thrilled about going back to the awkward tension that happened to settle around them like tear gas every time she and Robin were in the same room together. He hadn’t even attempted to talk to her about Nikki. It wasn’t like there was any explanation. So he had a kid. Good for him. It’s what he wanted, after all. It’s not like she would have made a good mother, anyway. She wasn’t cut out for it. It didn’t make the fact that she’d lost their baby any easier.
No, she told herself. She wasn’t going to think about it. She was going to push it behind her. That’s what she’d always done with the crap that seemed to fall down around her everywhere she went.
She closed her eyes for a minute, taking in another smoky puff of air. She wasn’t relaxing. Normally a good smoke would do just that. But now, the closer she got to the school, the tenser she became.
She tossed the butt down and put it out with her shoe. She jogged ahead toward Giles.
“I’m gonna hang back, go check out the area. See if there’s any signs of a nest nearby.”
“And if there is?”
“I got protection.” She raised an eyebrow, motioning toward the silver knife in her boot and the stake in her coat pocket.
“Surely you can’t take them on alone.”
“I can handle it, G. I know how to take care of myself in a fight.” Before Giles could protest, Faith was off to work out the frustration she couldn’t shake otherwise. Normally, sex would do the trick, but she was going to put everything into killing the baddies, so maybe she could get the hell out and away from him a little bit sooner.
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