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Chapter 24 Halloween (Part 3 of 3)

"Buffy! Get away from him!" came a frantic yell from behind her.

At first she didn't realize that she was the one being addressed. Then she remembered that everyone seemed convinced her name was Buffy.

She turned to look, and saw Spike had come running after her. His face looked normal again, but she still remembered what it had looked like only minutes before. Besides, what girl in her right mind would leave the company of a man named Angelus, for one who called himself Spike?

"We have to go," she told Angelus. "He's not what he seems to be, he's a monster."

"Is that so m'darling?" He chuckled softly. "And just what do you think I am?"

Bo Peep looked up at him and saw that his face had changed, just like Spike's. She screamed and tried to get away from him, but he held her tightly.

"Ah, the sweet smell o'terror. How I do love it. Ah-ah-ah," he said to Spike who had started to advance on them. "Come a step closer, me boy, and I'll snap her pretty little neck." He wrapped one had around her throat. "And neither of us wants that, now do we. The blood is just never as sweet when they are already dead."

"Now then," he continued, putting his other arm around her waist, and holding her tightly against him. "I think the lady and I are going to go have our selves a bit of fun."

"Then I think we have a problem, mate," Spike said, suddenly calm again. "See, I'd rather you snap her neck than let you run off with her."

"No! I think. . . That's a bad idea," protested a panicked Bo Peep.

She was so busy worrying about the two monsters who were arguing over her, she didn't notice Xander appear from the direction of the house, or that Willow was with him.

All at once Bo Peep heard a gunshot, and it felt as if something had passed just by her. Angelus' grip on her loosened, and she broke away from him without thinking. Running straight into the arms of Spike. She screamed again and once more found herself trying to break free from an impossibly strong grasp.

"Nice shot!" commented Willow.

Angelus roared behind her. "That hurts. I'm gonna have to make ya pay fer that."

"Take her," Spike yelled, pushing her toward Xander.

The vampires leapt snarling at each other, like two wolves fighting for dominance. Bo Peep had never seen anything like the savagery the vampires showed toward each other. For a moment she was mesmerized by the violence as the monsters tried to pound each other into dust.

Then she came to. Realizing this was her chance to escape them both, Bo Peep turned to run and. . .

Without pausing Buffy broke her shepherd's crook over her knee to make a stake. Then she dove into the middle of the fray, knocking Angelus off of Spike, who had fallen.

She expected Angelus to wrestle with her for possession of the stake. Time honored tradition said that they should both try and force the pointy end into the other one. But instead, Angelus rolled with the force of their collision, came up to his feet, and began to limp quickly away, leaving Buffy to try and get up without tripping on her full skirts.

As she got to her feet she looked back to check on her friends. Xander was looking at the toy riffle he was holding, Willow was gently poking him to test her solidity, and Spike was getting to his feet, although he looked completely thrashed.

For a moment Buffy didn't know what to do. The Slayer in her told her to run down Angelus, but the girl just wanted to make sure her boyfriend was okay. As she struggled with the decision, she looked away from Spike only to notice that Angelus had disappeared. Evidently, he could limp at super human speeds too.

The decision having been made for her, Buffy ran back to Spike to check out his injuries. As she was helping him up, Xander walked over to them.

"Hey, Buff. Welcome back," he greeted her.

"Yeah! You, too," she said, absent mindedly.

"You guys remember what happened?" Cordelia asked.

"It was way creepy. It's like I was there, but I couldn't get out," Xander commented.

"Yeah, I know the feeling," agreed Cordelia. "This outfit's totally skintight."

"You okay?" Spike asked Buffy.

"Me? You're the one who looks like a hamburger."

"Eh," he waved his hands as if it was nothing. "I've had worse."

He put his arm around her shoulders and led her away. They walked toward Spike's place. An uncomfortable silence settling between them.

Finally Spike broke it, "So what's with the get-up anyway?"

"You don't like it?" asked Buffy, crestfallen.

"You look beautiful. You always look beautiful, I just don't get it."

"I thought. . . you know, the other day you said you liked it, that I was innocent and stuff. I thought, I don't know. It's dumb. It made sense at the time."

She looked down at her feet.

"It's not dumb, and I meant it, about you looking gorgeous. But I like you just the way you are, pet. You know that, right?"

She nodded, and they continued again in silence.

"How did you know?" Buffy asked suddenly.

"Know what?"

"That Xander could make that shot. I didn't even know he was there, not that I was being percepto-girl."

"I didn't," came his solemn reply. He grimaced, then stopped and turned her face to look at him. "It was a gamble. Fifty/fifty. See, snapping your neck, that would have been clean - easy. Angelus doesn't kill like that - at least not his victims, his real victims. Only their families, their loved ones. Those he kills that way. Sometimes worse. Point is, I took a gamble that he was here, for you, and not me. And I was right. He wants you to suffer more before he kills you. Funny kind of way, that means you're the safest person from him in Sunnydale right now."

"Yeah, real funny."





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