---

Chapter 1: A New Life

---

Buffy was out on her normal patrol. She had just moved to Sunnydale, CA from LA and was just getting her bearings.

She had met up with two people, Xander and Willow and they immediately became friends but something was missing.

She felt sad and isolated and no one understood her the way she wanted. She had lost it all, her dad, her friends, her school, all because of her calling. A calling she never asked for. Did anyone ever stop and ask her if she wanted to be the one chosen in all the world to take out vampires and demons and safe the world every damn night of her life? No of course not. So how was it her fault that she had to burn up the gym in her school to protect the school from vampires and secondly how was it her fault she got dismissed from the school and had to move away to return to school.

Her mother had handled it fairly well. She had grounded Buffy until she was able to relocate. She got a job and picked up her daughter after her husband had walked out never blaming Buffy for a minute and had Buffy enrolled in school.

She didn’t know why Buffy was acting out, but it wasn’t like Buffy was really acting out. She was saving the world and her mother never knew.

So Buffy had to live a double life, almost triple. Student, daughter and slayer when all she wanted was to be normal.

Buffy sighed kicking a tombstone as she walked by not even noticing the bright blue eyes staring at her as she returned to her home to get a few hours of sleep before school started.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Buffy struggled to keep her eyes open in her class as Willow poked her with her pencil to help keep her awake.

Buffy had been patrolling in this new town for over 2 weeks now and it was getting to her. Sunnydale sure was busy with vampires.

Every night she would see one or two, if not more. There were demons of all kinds, some she had learned from Merrik and some she had to ask Giles, the librarian (her watcher) what they were.

She was filling up her brain with names of demons. Was there a limit to how much a brain could handle? Was she wasting her precious brain space with slaying responsibilities rather than learning in school? Was that why school was such a challenge for her?

She sighed as the teacher continued to discuss what the paper due next week had to include. She hadn’t even started nor had a topic.

The only thing she had been studying lately was what the latest demon was she had met the night before.

She could hardly do a paper on that. Imagine the paper topic: Boone Demon. And the paper would include that it is very large and powerful as well as being blue skinned. She could just see her teacher’s reaction to this paper and let out a soft giggle.

Willow poked her again as the teacher looked in her direction and frowned but continued her lesson.

Buffy sighed and decided to pay attention instead of depending on Willow to repeat it to her later on.

She was really glad she had met Willow. She was a life saver. And what was even better is she knew about the whole slayer package due to her seeing her stake one on their first day of meeting. She had quickly told Xander so both were aware and seemed no judgmental which was always a bonus.

Friends who knew about her double life and didn’t mind. Who could have guessed?

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Buffy paused for a minute and twirled her stake around waiting patiently while sitting on a tombstone for the vampire to rise.

Giles and her had spent some time in the afternoon when she should have been focused on her paper but instead they were looking through obituaries to find the latest man who might rise to be a vampire.

The police were always vague on cause of death. The causes varied between unknown, animal death or natural causes. They never said murdered or attacked in order to not cause fear more than necessary in a already horrible place.

People seemed to just over look and never ask questions. Buffy pondered on this watching the vampire struggled to punch his way through the ground and attempt to pull himself up.

Buffy grimaced seeing the vampire was wearing a neon yellow shirt. Whoever buried this guy should have had some fashion sense taught to them.

She began to think again, trying to be patient as she wondered how parents could continue to live here knowing every day another person was killed.

Sometimes as many as 3 or 4 people were killed a night. If she had kids, she isn’t quite sure she would want them growing up in a small town where the population was kept low due to vampire killings.

Buffy sighed and hopped off the tombstone stating, “Hurry up, I haven’t gotten all night. I got places to go, people to slay.”

The vampire in question finally had managed to pull his way out of his grave and peered over at her with glowing yellow eyes that reflected a new vampire’s hunger, “mmm my dinner I presume?”

Buffy shook her head swinging her leg up and slamming her foot into his chest knocking him over.

He struggled to stand back up and backhanded her causing her to get mad and spin kick him again as she jumped on top of him and slammed the stake into his chest and sighing as she dusted herself off muttering to herself, “Sometimes I wish they would make it harder and not piss me off so much.”

She kicked her foot into the dust sending it flying as she turned to look behind her. Seeing nothing and figuring the tingling was just because of the dust she just stirred up, she walked out of the cemetery and onto the next.

The eyes from behind a tree glowed yellow for a minute before turning back to a solid blue before disappearing from sight again.

---

Chapter 2: SSDD

---

Buffy sat at the lunch table with Willow and Xander who were making pretzel people out of Willow’s bag of pretzels.

Buffy looked over at them and a gentle soft sigh left her lips as she wished for a relationship like that. They had grown up together and were so close. Sharing their lunches, even sharing the same bed sometimes, and the same hopes and dreams. Xander admired other girls and even Buffy but she knew as well as Willow that deep down inside, his heart belonged to Willow. He just didn’t seem to realize that himself. He would in time though.

For now Buffy got to sit back and watch them together and yearn for that bond with someone. But since she just moved here, chances of that happening weren’t high.

She’s a slayer, chosen ONE, not chosen two. She would always be alone she figured. She then realized Willow had said something to her and she turned and said, “What?”

Willow grinned and said, “Bronze tonight? It’s Friday. Perfect day to hang out, order some pizza, listen to some great music, and dance letting the school week fade away.”

Buffy nodded saying, “I’ll do a quick patrol then meet you there.” All three grinned looking forward to tonight’s outing.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Buffy spun around feeling the presence of the same tingling she has felt for now the last 5 days.

It’s like she was being haunted by a vampire. Just then 4 vampires came up to her and growled, “Looks like we got ourselves a little snack.”

Another next to him said, “Who gets to do the honors?”

A third said, “Why just one of us? Let’s share. She looks good enough to feed all of us.”

The fourth didn’t bother to reply and jumped into action with the other 3 following suit. Buffy had to kick and punch and spin in order to dust all four.

She thought she had a noise in the woods behind her as she finished dusting the last one but knocked it off to the sound of dust following. This was one intense fight.

One more cemetery and she could head to the Bronze.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Behind the tree in the woods, the blue-eyed vampire peered out at Buffy impressed by her fighting.

The more he watched her, the more fascinated he was with her. He was just studying her moves in order to know the best way to kill her.

First he’d tease her a bit while fighting her. The fight would be amazing and get the blood moving, then, he might even give her a choice to be drained or have her neck snapped.

Hopefully the draining was her choice. Nothing tasted better than Slayer blood and he should know. He had tasted 2 previously.

They were fighters but this chick had the moves. She might even give him a really good run for his money. He hoped so.

She moved so fast and appeared so strong and confident. That might just be her weakness, her over confidence.

He couldn’t wait to get his hands on the Slayer. Then he would have 3 under his belt and surely his grand-sire and sire would appreciate him.

He growled thinking of them.

Angelus was fucking his precious Dru every damn night. Angelus had Darla and still that wasn’t enough, he had to take Dru away from him as well.

Drusilla was his sire damnit. He needed her. Well thought he did anyway but apparently she didn’t need him as much.

As soon as they had met up with Angelus and Darla in Prague before the mob, Drusilla had been singing and happy about how her daddy and grandmum were back.

He was anything but thrilled. But this third Slayer would surely gain him the respect he needed to get his Dru back. If not, he wasn’t sure what he would do.

---

Chapter 3: Loneliness

---

Buffy enjoyed her night at the Bronze even though she had this tingling that wouldn’t stop the whole time she was there but it was a dance floor.

She figured somewhere a vampire existed but she was going to enjoy herself unless she happened to see him.

She danced her heart out until she was completely thirsty and went over to the bar to buy herself a soda.

While she was there though she caught the eyes of someone with the most beautiful blue eyes. They almost appeared to peer through her entire soul and see her inner most thoughts.

She shivered as he continued to watch her as she sipped her drink. He came no closer to her and stayed across the room but continued to watch her until her friends came back.

She started to tell Willow about the guy who was watching her but when she turned around, he was no where to be found.

She sighed in relief not wanting to admit his gaze was unnerving and that he was hot. Willow giggled seeing her distress but decided not to mention it.

Instead Willow, Xander and Buffy returned once more to the dance floor enjoying the live band that had been playing for the evening.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

That night Buffy lay in her bed thinking of how at the end of the night she felt left out again. Xander had walked Buffy home first and they were mostly quiet on the way home but as soon as Buffy had started up her stairs, she had heard them return to their continuous banter about who danced more and what they would do on Saturday.

She sighed. She hadn’t been invited. It wasn’t as though they intentionally ignored her but they just were used to it being just the two of them.

She couldn’t expect to move somewhere and in less than 3 weeks be part of the crowd enough to be thought of.

She was sorely tempted to sneak out and go on a patrol to look for some violence. She tossed and turned remembering the blue eyes that she had seen at the club.

She sighed wondering why she could never get someone to look at her like that when she was actually dating them.

He obviously wasn’t totally interested because she hadn’t seen him any more that night. But God he was hot.

She grinned thinking of how she had licked her lips at him as she studied him up and down while he studied her. He had smirked but he still disappeared.

Probably had a girlfriend he had to get back to. That was just her luck.

Buffy sighed and decided to just roll over and go to sleep. Patrol wasn’t going to gain her anything tonight and she was aiming to dream about that hot guy anyway. A little dreaming couldn’t hurt.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Buffy slept a lot of the day away and her mother came in midday to wake her up and tell her that she wouldn’t be home for about a week.

She had to go to Rome to see about some portraits and knew Buffy needed to stay for school.

Buffy sighed. Her mother had made the gallery her life already. She had gotten lucky and gotten this great job at a gallery and her mother just loved art.

She painted from time to time just for fun and knew how to appreciate good art. The lady who hired her was planning to retire within the next year and was planning to sell the place to Joyce.

Buffy smiled thinking of how excited her mother had been at this idea. Buffy hadn’t quite realized how much work her mother was going to have to put in to make this happen.

She would be gone sometimes all weekend and other times all night to travel around to different places to check out new pieces. In the 3 week time frame so far, her mother had traveled away for a weekend already, been gone Tuesday and Wednesday of one week, Monday of another and this past week was gone Thursday and Friday.

Buffy shrugged still thinking about it. She didn’t really care. It was easier to sneak out when noone was home. Much easier with no one to question her actions or tell her when to come home.

Her mother just had become a work alcoholic to deal with her father leaving. She knew and understood this. And mostly she accepted it.

Buffy sighed and closed her eyes to go back to sleep determined not to let the fact that she was alone on a Saturday bother her. Sleeping was a great escape to the loneliness.

---

Chapter 4: The Knockout

---

Before Buffy had realized it, nighttime had fallen. Buffy woke up and stretched and hopped into the shower to get ready for her patrol.

Her stomach growled loudly realizing she hadn’t eaten anything all day.

She quickly put a pair of shorts on with a tank top and some fancy new boots and skipped down the stairs grabbing herself a snickers bar and strawberry milk before running out the door again.

She would return after patrol and order herself a cheese pizza. She deserved it after all and her mother always left her money on the counter although she rarely used it.

On Buffy’s first cemetery sweep, it was empty. Empty as can be.

She sighed and thought that this night was going to be boring.

She swept through the second one only killing one minor fledging.

She frowned and went to the third. She felt a horrible tingling in the back of her neck, strong and solid. She knew she had found something. She walked forward and found herself surrounded by 9 or so vampires, and two demons that she had never seen before.

Both demons were covered from head to toe in huge spikes and horns that made it look even deadlier as if the size itself wasn’t scary enough.

She sighed and wondered if it was too late to run and then only kill the ones that caught up with her but as the first one advanced, she knew that wasn’t an option.

She was fighting the 9 vampires at a time as the two demons stood back and watched. They were getting good hits in too.

It was impossible to watch even the 3 vampires she had left as they circled her and teased her and threw punches and kicks at her almost as though they were in sync with the way they moved.

Watching from afar, she might have been impressed but instead she was too busy fighting for her life.

Finally one of the vampires got a solid round kick in knocking Buffy back into a tombstone, which broke but not before it swiftly knocked her out.

As her vision went black, Buffy saw her life flash before her eyes knowing she would die this very night by the hands of the vampires she was destined to fight.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

The glow of the cigarette was barely hidden behind the tree as he quickly moved to catch up with the slayer.

He had been running late after having a bad night trying to eat a local and having a bystander show up. He ended up having a two for one special but he had to rush to see the slayer in action.

When he arrived, the slayer was already fighting vampires and two demons. The two demons were not fighting her though.

They were standing there with their spikes and horns waiting for something.

The vampires though were in full attack. There were 5 in sight, make that 3. She seemed to be doing well, but they were hitting her pretty hard.

She was amazing but surely she had been fighting for quite a while. There were more than 5 even based on her injuries.

Suddenly the one behind her got the drop on her and round kicked her right in the head bashing her into a tombstone, which broke and landed on her head knocking her out.

The vampire watched as the two demons gave the vampires in question some money and walked over and grabbed the slayer to prepare to run.

The vampire threw his cigarette down saying, “Bugger this.” And stepped out of the shadows to confront the two demons without giving much thought as to why.

The demons looked over at the vampire and whispered, “Spike” as Spike nodded and the demons said, “What are you doing back in Sunnydale?”

Spike shifted from one foot to another before grabbing another cigarette and lighting it up before smirking and saying in a voice that almost sounded growl like, “What’s it to you?”

The demons look at each other and one started stuttering in reply saying, “Nothing. I was just curious. We are just here to collect out bounty.”

Spike looked at the ‘bounty’ in question who was still knocked out cold and from the bruises and the cut on her head that was bleeding, appeared to be pretty sure to be out for quite a while, “Who wants her?”

The demons hesitated and said, “We were hired to retrieve the slayer dead or alive.”

Spike repeated his question, “Who wants her?”

The demons looked at each other and then the one that had been quiet finally said, “We don’t know for sure. We were just hired.”

Spike grabbed him by the neck causing the knocked out slayer to hit the ground and blew smoke into his face letting the cigarette get dangerously close to his skin before growling out, “Tell me about him?”

The demon gasped trying to breathe and as soon as Spike loosened the grip on his neck muttered out in a rushed voice, “Two men, human, one was wearing a mask but the other was old. Wore tweed and talked all proper and had an accent like yourself but had colorful speech. If I didn’t smell that he was human. I would have thought he was a demon with the way his eyes gleemed with power.”

Spike dropped the demon on the ground and said, “So what happens if you don’t succeed?”

The demon on the ground looked up at him and said in a hushed tone, “We leave town and hope we aren’t found.”

Spike nodded and said, “Best get a running start. She’s mine boys.”

The demon standing said, “Um why would you want her?”

Spike put a smirk on his face as he wondered that himself but was able to think on his feet before stating, “She’s the slayer ain’t she? I’ve got big plans for her myself.”

The demons laughed thinking it was some sexual fantasy thing going on. They nodded their heads at Spike as they noticed he was not as amused and turned and ran away quickly never looking back.

Spike looked down at the little slip of a girl who was left and grumbled to himself, “How the bloody hell do I get myself into these messes?” before leaning down and slinging the girl over his shoulder and dragging her back to his lair.

---

Chapter 5: Rescue

---

As Spike entered the lair, his minions backed away peering at him in question seeing him drag a human back to his lair.

They assumed this was a midnight snack although they have to admit, they had never seen him bother with such things before. If he had wanted a snack, he usually left to get it or demanded one from his minions.

But the girl seemed knocked out and really beat up so they assumed it was just something different.

Spike kicked open the door and dropped the girl on the bed as she bounced a little as he got a whiff of her blood. It smelled so sweet.

Before thinking he parted her hair where the cut was and gave it a lick twice before using his tongue to close the wound. He felt the slayer blood enter his system and his eyes closed in ecstasy.

There really is nothing in the world like slayer blood. Well other than sire blood. Seeing how he wouldn’t be getting that any time soon, this was second best.

Spike looked down at the girls body noticing all the marks that the demon’s body had put on her. Those spikes had done some serious damage. He was guessing they hadn’t even thought about that before slinging her over his shoulder.

He sighed and before giving a second thought, he took the clothes off her body to see where the blood was coming from. He tried not to bother to appreciate the girl’s body.

He couldn’t help but notice how well cared for it was. Not a scar on her body that he could see. For spending years fighting demons, she barely had anything on her other than fresh wounds. No battle scars.

Her legs were nicely toned, her shoulders bronze from the sun.

Her hair was blond but not naturally as he removed her underwear to see where the other blood was coming from.

There were three major wounds that were pretty deep and dozens of bruises covering her body.

He didn’t know much about slayers so he wasn’t aware of their fast healing powers so he sighed as he opened his door and yelled out to his minions, bring me a bowl and water, quickly. Dalton, his smart lackey, ran quickly to get water and a basin for his master.

When he returned he opened the door and saw Spike caring for this human.

The blood smelt sweet. He wondered how Spike could stand it.

Spike looked up at him and Dalton didn’t question and instead left the two items on the floor and quickly backed out of the room.

Spike knew him well enough to know nothing he saw would leave that room. Dalton could be trusted.

Spike went about cleaning the slayer’s wounds.

He didn’t take any time to decide why he was doing so. He used his tongue to lick the wounds to seal them before using the shirt off his back to rip strips to bound some of the nastier wounds.

He then took another shirt out of his drawer and went about redressing her to keep prying minion eyes out off of her and noticing she was shivering, pulled an old unused blanket out of one of his drawers and pulled it up and over her before stretching and climbing into bed feeling the sun beginning to rise.

He curled up beside her to get some sleep while she continued to be knocked out.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Spike slept all through the next day waking up just before sunset.

He looked over at the sleeping slayer beside him and noticed some of the bruises covering her body were beginning to heal turning to a lighter blue and black and even in some places a dark brown.

He was impressed with her healing ability and removed the binds on some of her wounds to see them. One was opened still so he used his tongue to close it and noticed the other 2 larger gashes were already on the way to healing.

He sighed finally taking a moment to figure out what the heck he was doing. He ran his fingers through his hair after pulling the shirt to once again cover her body.

He was thankful she was just a puny thing so the shirt nicely covered all her vital parts and he pulled the blanket over her body to cover the rest.

He wasn’t quite sure why she hadn’t awaken. It had been a full day since she was knocked out. He laid his head against her chest and felt her heartbeat strong and steady and her breathing gentle but still what he considered to be normal.

He wasn’t totally sure since he never spent any time around humans other than to drain them or to seek out his next victim. He looked at her face and noticed she was really quite pretty.

She had a gentle look about her, making her appear as a golden goddess. But still she didn’t stir.

He was nervous about leaving her alone with his minions but first off he had no food for her here and he needed to eat.

Not wanting to bother the minions with getting food, he decided to call for Dalton and said, “Dalton, watch ‘er for me. Don’t ask questions and don’t touch her. If she wakes out, see to it she doesn’t leave actually…”

With that he took the chains that he carried with him since Angelus had tortured him and using the strips he had ripped last night, bounded her up to the bed using the head and foot board but tied her wrists gently with the cloth to protect her skin from being hurt. He didn’t want to make any more marks on her than already existed.

Dalton looked at Spike curiously seeing the careful care he was putting into keeping this girl alive and well but said nothing.

Seeing he did a fine job, tucked the blanket around the sleeping slayer and said to Dalton again, “Don’t touch her. See to it no one else does either, ‘K? ‘ts time for me to feed.”

He decided not to mention that he was planning to pick up a few items for the sleeping slayer to eat and drink while he was away.

Dalton nodded as Spike disappeared out the door to his lair before sitting down on the floor next to the bed to wait.

---

Chapter 6: My Hero?

---

Spike returned with a few bags in hand and Dalton opened the door for him.

Dalton asked, “Anything more you need?”

Spike shook his head and Dalton did a bow and left the room closing the door behind him.

Spike looked over at his captive and sighed. He hated that he had to use the same chains on her that he had used on him by Angelus, Darla and Dru.

But he wasn’t sure he could handle a full strength slayer.

What was he going to do with her anyway? He reasoned in his head that she had been hurt and there was no real reason to let her be taken by some stupid demons when he should be the one to kill her. Yeah, that’s why.

With that he lit up a cigarette and turned on the tele.

Choosing a show he climbed up on the bed next to the slayer and glanced down noticing even more bruises had turned brown and realized she must really be healing fast.

He wondered if humans need food while sleeping.

He decided if she wasn’t awake tomorrow he’d do some research on how to feed a unconscious human but for now he settled in to watch a movie.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Spike was just about asleep when he felt the bed move slightly.

He sat up immediately and looked over at the slayer who was lightly twitching.

He thought she must be waking up and was tempted to undo the chains but decided against it after remembering how good this girl fought.

If she was good enough to fight, then she was good enough to be well but he didn’t like that reasoning.

For some reason he liked the idea of this girl in his bed and that he was helping her. Helping? Who said he was helping her?

He sighed as he realized that is what he was really doing, helping the bloody slayer.

God no wonder Dalton was looking at him curiously.

He ran a hand through his hair noticing the slayer’s eyes opening.

She looked up at Spike curiously before twisting and turning around to look at her surroundings.

Her eyes got wide and she looked really frightened.

Spike realized he needed to say something and fast.

He said, “Um saved you from some vampires. Do you remember anythin’, pet? You were attacked by a bunch of vampires and they got the upper hand. Knocked you silly, knocked you out and you were bein’ taken away by some bloody demons when I saved you.”

Buffy looked at him curiously trying to remember and make sense of what he said.

She remembered his eyes from somewhere, oh yes, the bronze that night. What beautiful eyes.

Then she returned to listening to him talk realizing he was talking to her.

She shook her head forgetting for a moment that she was tied up and said, “Huh?”

Spike sighed and repeated that he had saved her.

She said, “Thanks” and went to sit up and suddenly remembered she was chained up and then yelled, “Why the hell am I chained up if you saved me?”

Spike smirked amused by her reaction and realizing she must be doing well to have a voice yell like that, “Well pet, you see, Couldn’t have you rehurtin yourself or runnin off. Wanted you safe, see?”

Buffy said, “Well I’m safe, untie me so I can get home.”

Spike thought about doing just that but realized he liked this girl in his bed.

He shook his head and said, “No can do. You hungry?”

Buffy licked her lips and realized she was indeed hungry and said, “Yup, got anything to eat? Can you release me so I can eat at least?”

Spike again shook his head and said, “Nah, I’ll feed ya though. Wasn’t sure what you liked for grub so I bought snack food: chips, soda, some cake things, and some other crap. What ya want?”

He said backing away from the opened fridge and box full of stuff to let her choose.

She twisted her head determined to make the best of this and whispered, “Got diet coke? And chips?”

Spike looked down and saw he only had coke and pepsi, definitely no diet.

She was just a slip of a beautiful bint, what did she need diet for?

He sighed and rubbed his head through her hair realizing he said beautiful and turned back to the fridge pulling out a regular coke and then a bag of chips from the box on the floor.

He replied, “Just got the coke, not diet. Didn’t realize with you being so skinny you’d would require diet. Will regular coke do? If’ not I got Sprite and some other orange stuff.”

She nodded and said, “Whatever” meaning she didn’t care and he came over and crawled over her as he had done the last day or so.

He sat down on his side of the bed and set up the straw that he had luckily thought of in advance to feed her with.

He put the soda straw to her lips and she eagerly sucked on it drinking half the can in one large sip.

He then set the soda between his legs and went about opening up the bag of crisps and offered her one which she opened her mouth and delicately chewed on them as fast as Spike offered them to her.

They sat in silence with only the sound of her eating filling the room.

Finally when she had drank the soda completely and finished two bags of chips, she was full.

She turned and looked at Spike and said, “So how long do you plan to keep me kidnapped in here?”

Spike’s jaw dropped as he tried to think of an answer.

---

Chapter 7: Hard Questions

---

Spike sighed as he got up to pace by crawling over the small girl again and began to pace thinking about her question, “how long do you plan to keep me kidnapped in here?”

He never thought of it that way but that is what he was doing.

He realized he had really no reason to keep her here. No reason at all.

But he made up his mind, “Until tomorrow I guess. Then we’ll recheck your injuries. Make sure you are golden girl again and release you to handle your own battles. Just a warning, pet, someone is after you and ‘s willin to pay for your demise. Best watch your back. You might even be safer here.”

Buffy thought about that for a moment and said, “Can you at least unshackle me if I promise to stay? I’m uncomfortable and I have to use the bathroom.”

Spike nodded thinking if she left oh well, as long as she didn’t stake him.

He reached over and undid one of her shackles to wait to see how she would react.

He undid her legs leaving her one arm shackled in case.

He took a deep breath hoping he wasn’t being a fool and undid the last shackle.

Instead of getting up and moving Buffy moved to untie the wraps he had placed over her wrists and then over her ankles before lifting the blankets to see what the heck she was wearing.

She realized she was dressed in a black tee shirt. It covered everything but she didn’t have any underwear on. Where the hell were her clothes?

She began to panic then heard Spike speak up and say, “Your clothes, ducks, were ruined. Covered in blood. You were badly injured. Took them off, washed you up, redressed you to spare your dignity and keep you safe.”

Buffy eyed him trying to figure out what this man had to gain.

Then she suddenly noticed she was covered from tingles.

Her head didn’t really hurt but it was pounding with the sign that vampires were nearby.

She sat up in bed and asked suddenly, “Where am I? Who are you? Are you a vampire? Is this some sick joke to save me only to eat me later? Where’s my stakes?”

Spike smirked seeing she was sitting up in his bed, in his clothes, and panicking, “Well ducks tis like this. Name’s Spike but better known to some as William the Bloody. Yeah I’m a vampire. No I’m not going to eat you just yet. Want a fair fight. That means that pet if and when we do fight, it will be fair. You will be fully in your state of health. I’ll be fully in mine. We will do a fancy dance, you will die, and that will be that. But for now, you are safe ‘cause you aren’t well. So enjoy the tender care now while you still get it. As I said, tomorrow you’re on your own.”

Buffy suddenly felt so tired and asked, “Where is the bathroom?”

Spike nodded towards the door and opened it growling to get rid of the minions standing nearby and walked her to the next room standing guard as she wandered in, used the bathroom and came back out after washing her hands.

Buffy returned to the room so tired she could barely keep her eyes open.

She decided he hadn’t killed her yet.

He probably wouldn’t tonight.

He seemed to if nothing else be honest with his replies.

She curled up in his bed and closed her eyes without having any more thoughts.

They could wait until tomorrow.

Hearing her fall asleep Spike sighed and crawled into bed next to her and fell asleep himself wondering what tomorrow would bring.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Spike awoke first and find himself feeling warm for the first time in his life.

He opened his eyes to find himself staring at the blond slayer in his arms snuggled up against his chest resting her head on his shoulder.

Somehow in the middle of the night, she had snuggled up against him and he had held her.

He dismissed it as being used to sleeping with Dru but he had never held Dru while she slept.

In fact, he had never held anyone while they slept.

He liked the feeling of it. He almost went back to sleep until he felt her shift next to him.

He didn’t move and watched eagerly her reaction.

She didn’t open her eyes at first and snuggled deeper against him letting out a gentle sigh. She was so comfortable. She had never slept the whole way through the night before. She felt so warm and cozy and safe.

She then felt a yawn coming on her and stretched before noticing she was being held.

Not just by anyone, by someone who was slightly colder than her.

She jumped a bit trying to remember the night before.

As she jumped she felt pain pull through her body as she laid back down in pain.

Spike shot up in bed and looked over at her trying to see where she had hurt herself.

Without thinking he pulled up her shirt and noticed the bindings on the two biggest wounds were red and full of blood. He ripped them off and he lowered his head to them and licked them sealing the wound.

Buffy was in shock. She was just stripped of clothes and was licking her wounds.

She panicked and pushed him away as she heard him growl.

She demanded, “I’m not your dinner damnit. Stay away from me.”

Spike held her down with both of his hands saying, “You’re bloody bleeding Slayer. You reopened your wounds. Now you will have to stay here another day while you heal. Can’t send you out of my lair smelling like fresh food. What the bloody hell were you thinking? Now hold still and let me finish. This won’t hurt, promise luv.”

With that he lowered his mouth and finished licking the second wound closed.

Buffy looked down at him in awe holding up her shirt until he finished.

He then leaned down taking two strips that Buffy had thrown down the day before from her wrist and carefully bound her waist again with her slightly lifting herself to help.

She then lowered her shirt right as Spike placed a gently kiss over each wound without thinking.

Buffy gasped and whispered softly, “Why are you being nice to me? You’re an evil vampire. Vampires eat people, not heal them.”

She looked so confused and fragile that Spike sighed running a hand through his hair and whispered softly, “Don’t rightly know.”

Then he shook his head remembering the reality of the situation before straightening his body to sit up straighter and said, “You are the slayer. You deserve to be healthy when I kill you.”

She sighed although the first answer unnerved her.

She bit her bottom lip and whispered, “Spike? I’m hungry again. Mind if I eat? And I need a quick trip to the bathroom again.”

Spike crawled over her and went over the fridge saying, “I’ll get it pet. Whadya want?”

Buffy replied, “I guess coke will do, got anything other than chips?”

Spike said, “Some cake things and a ham and cheese sandwich. Some blooming onion stuff, buffalo wings…”

He trailed off realizing he was offering her some of his personal favorite stash that no one else knew he had.

She grinned and said, “Buffalo wings? Got any place to heat them?”

Spike shook his head then thought for a moment and said, “Be right back.”

He took out a bag of Buffalo wings and left out of the lair seeing how it was nighttime again.

Buffy laid back on the bed to rest until he returned not quite understanding where he went.

---

Chapter 8: Earned Respect

---

Spike was just walking out of the back of the pub with a freshly heated tray of Buffalo wings.

He had even picked up a cold diet coke from the pub.

He smiled as he thought of how happy Buffy would be that he thought of her.

He had gone to the bar just up the road and had himself a nice snack of a few clients as he waited for his wings to heat.

He had seen the soda container and noticed the diet coke on the top shelf and stole it.

His stomach was full and content.

Nothing like fresh warm blood with a tinge of alcohol to really make a vamp's night. It saved time on getting drunk.

He sensed Dalton's panic sending off bells in his head.

He went to ask what was wrong when he bumped into him.

Dalton was just turning the corner in front of the lair.

Dalton stopped him saying, "I couldn't get through to you. You must have been distracted so I came out running to find you."

He heard a commotion ahead of him and took off running as Dalton followed behind him saying, “There’s trouble boss. The slayer…the minions got a whiff of her blood when you left her and she opened the door and they spotted her and...”

Spike slammed open the door to see Buffy being held by one of the vampires while crying her eyes out and another was removing the shirt Spike had placed on her while another was fondling her breasts.

Spike roared as all the minions stopped and started at him.

The minion holding her didn’t drop her as Spike handed the tray to Dalton and walked over to the guy holding Buffy and twisted his neck and caught her to steady her ignoring the dust in the air.

He turned to the other two who were participating in the act.

He made sure Buffy was steady and did the same to the other two minions.

He looked around the room at the last two in the room who were cheering them on and twisted their necks clean off too leaving a ton of dust on the ground.

He looked at the group of minions who had gathered hearing all the commotion and turned to Buffy arranging her shirt sighing noticing the blood that was seeping out of one of her wounds.

He knew this would make the minions restless as he stated quickly, “Anyone who touches this girl will have to answer to me. She’s off limits. Mine. Got that?”

One of the minions who had been hiding just outside the door, smirked and said, “No mark on her saying she’s yours you know?”

Spike recognized him as a minion to Angelus originally and not really to him so he picked up the chair and didn’t even bother to break it throwing it across the room into his heart and watched as he turned to dust and then roared, “Any other questions?”

The minions all bowed their heads and muttered, “No Master.”

As he dismissed them, he turned to Buffy and said, “Sit down pet. I brought us food and need to tend to these bandages.”

Then he turned to Dalton and said, “Fetch me some water. Thanks for the warning.”

Dalton smiled and bowed as he exited the room only to return a minute later with fresh water.

Spike turned to him and said, “That will be all Dalton. If you want, you can take a wing or two off the plate as your reward for being all faithful “

Dalton grinned taking two wings before backing out of the room and closing the door.

Spike sighed as he lifted Buffy’s shirt off her body and removed the bandages and ripped the un-bloody part of the shirt she was wearing into pieces again to rebind the biggest gash.

He noticed the second one had begun to mend nicely and smiled thankful to see she was at least healing still despite all the issues.

The bruises on her body were down to a pale brown and didn’t hurt anymore to touch. He looked up at Buffy who nodded as he lowered his mouth to her wound licking it twice.

Once to savor the taste of her blood and again to seal it.

Buffy said nothing as he carefully washed the area and redressed it before walking over to the dresser and pulling out a new shirt and pulled it over her head.

He helped her to stand and walked to again to the bathroom letting her use it before helping her back into the room to sit back on the bed again.

He tucked the blankets back around her.

Then he went to the fridge pulling out two cokes and watched as she wiggled to the opposite side of the bed allowing him to crawl in next to her as he placed the plate between them.

He opened up her soda then one for himself and both of them munched in silence.

She finally got brave enough to ask and said, “Um Spike? Why are you eating with me? I thought vampires drink blood not eat food.”

Spike smirked with a slight shrug and said, “Still eat. These here
are my favorites. Taste bloody fine if you ask me. Don’t need to eat but I fancy some food from time to time. Doesn’t do anything for me but doesn’t hurt me either.”

Buffy let the information turn around in her head before she put her hand on his and said, “You aren’t a normal vampire.”

Spike shook his head and grinned proud she was realizing it, “One of a kind ducks. One of a kind.”

He frowned noticing she was touching him and gently pulled his hand away as Buffy continued to eat the rest of her wings.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Spike stopped flipping through the stations as Buffy yawned.

Spike looked over at her noticing she had a very tired look about her as he whispered, “Slayer, sleep. I’ll keep you safe, Promise.”

Buffy without giving it a second thought, curled up next to him resting her head on his shoulder, Spike adjusted the blankets to cover her as well as him nicely before whispering against his chest, “My name is Buffy. Night Spike.”

Spike looked down at his sleeping golden goddess wondering just how the hell he got himself into this situation and whispered against his better judgment, “Night Buffy.”

Determined not to deal with what he was getting into, he closed his eyes to sleep.

---

Chapter 9: House Visits

---

Buffy woke up first and couldn’t resist really looking at the man well vamp she was sleeping with.

He looked simply angelic when he was sleeping.

She had seen his vamp face once when he was protecting her from his lackeys but other than that, he didn’t appear to be a vampire.

He was cold but sweet and nice.

Sometimes when they were together, he almost felt warm enough to be human but she knew deep down he wasn’t.

He might eat normal foods, drink soda like her but he was still a vampire.

She felt him stir a little bit and heard him whisper, “’Morning luv.”

She grinned at that nickname and said, “I’m hungry.”

He chuckled and said, “Slayer, you are always hungry.”

She stopped for a minute before asking, “Is it morning or nighttime Spike?”

Spike replied without even opening his eyes yet and said, “Just after sunset why?”

Buffy whispered a little unsure of herself, “Can we go out somewhere and eat? It’s nighttime.”

Spike wondered for a brief moment why she didn’t ask about home or about school but dismissed it and said, “Sure pet. But you can’t go in that.”

She looked down at herself noticing that she had gotten used to the fact in the last few days, she had only been wearing a black tee shirt.

She frowned and said, “Can we stop by my place and pick up some clothes?”

Spike hesitated for a moment and said, “You sure you don’t want to go home yet luv? You are probably well enough.”

She shook her head then explained, “Mom wouldn’t be there anyway. School is on winter break so off until Monday. Not quite sure what day it is but I doubt it’s been 9 days yet. And mom won’t be back for 9. So I was planning to spend my break alone at home. Besides, didn't you mention some bad guys were out to get me? ”

Spike thought for a moment that she shouldn’t be left by herself on this Hellmouth in Sunnyhell by herself for 9 days. Say something happened to her. Hell something had already happened to her.

He frowned thinking why did it matter if the slayer died anyway. Another one would be called and he could just kill that one.

He should just kill her and get it over with but realized he had no real inclination to do so.

He shook his head at his thoughts and then said, “Sure we can go by your house. Let me just put something on.”

Buffy looked down at her outfit and watched as Spike without a second thought slipped off his pants right in front of her and slipped a new pair on.

Buffy gasped seeing him in his naked glory for just a minute as Spike turned towards her rebuttoning his pants and said, “See something you like ducks?”

Buffy turned bright red and slightly before thinking nodded and said, “Name’s Buffy.”

He nodded and then smirked and said, “So Buffy, better than boys your age then?”

Buffy turned an even brighter red and bit her lower lip before looking down at her feet embarrassed.

She finally admitted, “Wouldn’t know. Never seen one before.”

Spike filed this information in the back of his head for future thought before he turned around and looked at her standing there in just his shirt.

He sighed and handed her his duster, which he never let anyone wear. He said in a serious tone, “Don’t ruin that. I’ll drain you in a heartbeat if you ruin it. Want it back too. That’s important.”

Buffy looked down at it and asked, “Where’d you get it?”

Spike hesitated deciding whether or not to be honest and figured he hadn’t lied to her yet and he was a vampire after all and besides having her afraid of him might be a nice way to get passed this.

He finally admitted, “Got it off a slayer in New York.”

Buffy frowned and then said, “Spike, are you still planning to kill me?”

As she slipped the duster around herself and tied it tight to do a turn to see how much was showed off.

Satisfied it covered all necessary parts she turned to him to see about his answer.

He looked at his feet shuffling them a bit before whispering, “Don’t rightly know Buffy. That was the plan though.”

Buffy nodded not wanting to think about it anymore before saying, “Shall we?”

Spike nodded and opened the door giving a warning growl watching the left over minions scatter.

Luckily it was nighttime so most were out on the hunt.

But always a few minions stayed behind either being fed by sharing someone’s meal or having already fed and returned already for the night.

Buffy walked in front of Spike as he said, “Right outside is my Desoto. We can use that to drive wherever you want.”

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Buffy stopped in front of her house before whispering, “Come in Spike.”

Spike looked up at her confused thinking he would just have to wait inside until she came back and immediately growled upset she would let a vampire into her house without a second thought.

Buffy looked at him confused as to why he was growling and heard him say, “You make a habit of inviting vampires into your house Buffy?”

He backed her up against the wall with his hands on either side of her head and growled again saying, “You have a death wish Slayer? I could solve that problem for you so fast you wouldn’t know what hit you!”

Buffy shook her head and said, “Only you have an invitation to my house. Never let a vampire in before. Don’t plan to.”

Spike softened at her admittance and said gently, “Thanks, pet. Now let’s get you some clothes and anythin’ else you want.”

Buffy lead Spike’s upstairs to her room eager to pack some items, not even stopping to think how strange it was that she was here in her house where she belonged with a vampire that she was moving out to live with pretty much.

She shrugged off the thought thinking she was just lonely.

She frowned for a second as the thought came bursting through her head saying that she must be pathetic to be a slayer and having a friend who is a vampire but he did save her after all.

She shook her head back to reality and she handed Spike a bag of clothes.

She bent into her closet to retrieve another that she started filling up with clothes as well.

Spike raised an eyebrow that she never noticed but was wondering why she was packing so many clothes for another possible 6 days. Probably more like 5 by now.

But he just followed her around. Suddenly as she entered the bathroom she asked curiously, “Um Spike? Do you have anywhere to take showers?”

Spike pondered for a minute and nodded and said, “Next room in the mansion has a shower and bathtub. Just rarely is used.”

Buffy nodded and then said, “Want me to bring my microwave so we can heat up food for us to eat?”

Spike got wide eyed and said, “Whatever you think is best pet” then as she collected her shower items, got to thinking about what the heck was going on.

The Slayer was acting as though she was moving in but for 6 days having a microwave, would be nice.

So he shrugged his shoulders, taking the second bag from her as she pulled on a pair of panties and shorts and slipped on some sandals and raced downstairs pushing the microwave into Spike’s waiting hands.

---

Chapter 10: A Date

---

Spike drove up to the diner Buffy had chosen which was right on the outskirts of town.

He opened the door for her and Buffy beamed a smile up at him at the kind gesture.

They then walked into the diner taking a seat in the corner.

The waitress came up to Spike and grinned saying, “Spike! Long time no see. What will it be? On the house of course. You know, Becky she’s doing great. You can hardly even tell she was hurt that time. You should stop by and see her and the family.”

Spike looked up at the waitress and said, ‘Sure thing Candy. I’ll stop by in a few days. How’s Sam?”

Candy grinned and said, “Just a great as ever. He’s been working hard on building that deck on the house. You can stop by and help him some evening. He can set up the lights you helped us with to be on the deck if you wanted to lend a hand.”

Spike grinned and said, “Sure tell Sam I’ll stop by in 4 days on your day off, and see him and the little bit and lend a hand for a few hours. You still have that day off?”

Candy grinned biting her the end of her pencil as she nodded saying, “Bring your girl along too If you want.”

Spike turned towards Buffy and noticed she didn’t correct her so he didn’t either and said, “Might just do that if she’s still around.”

Buffy smiled and Candy continued to grin and said to Buffy, “What will you be having?”

Buffy said, “Diet coke, eggs and pancakes with lots of strawberries?”

Candy laughed and said, “You sound like Spike. First time he came in here, he ordered pancakes with lots of strawberries. Strange vamp he is. Always ordering food with blood on the side. Just wait til you see him eat pancakes. Quite interesting if you ask me.”

Spike laughed and said, “Candy bring me what Buffy ordered only minus the coke and a side of blood.”

Candy said, “Ok I’ll be back with the O Positive and diet coke in a jiffy.”

She turned and walked away looking one last time at Spike then Buffy.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Spike sat across from Buffy and poured the second glass of blood onto his pancakes.

With the strawberries and strawberry syrup on it already, the blood kind of blended in.

Buffy watched in amazement as he picked up his fork, carefully used a knife and brought it to his mouth taking a large bite savoring every second.

Buffy shrugged and used her fork to cut a bite and began to eat hers as well.

She wanted to ask Spike questions but didn’t want to upset him.

They were getting along so well and here he was bringing her to a diner where he seemed to know them.

Her curiosity got the better of her and finally she whispered softly, “How do you know Candy?”

Spike cleared his throat taking another bite to think how much he wanted to tell her.

Again never lying to her decided to opt for the truth, “Well the bit, Becky, was playing in the park when I passed her by. I watched her for a moment noticing her dad was sitting on a bench reading not really watching too closely. Then out of nowhere, a demon jumped out of a nearby bush and attacked her. Scared her half to death. Heard later on, he was going to sacrifice her for some bloody stupid ritual. So anyway, since I was there, I jumped in, saved the day and all that stuff. Family’s been thankful and good to me ever since. It’s one thing to kill a bloke, another to attack a child. That was a few years ago when I was in Sunnyhell. Left for about 5 years touring the world with Angelus, Darla and Dru before I decided to return. Been making a point to stop by their house every week for the past few weeks I’ve been back in Sunnyhell.”

Spike took a few bites of food as Buffy sat thoughtful for a few minutes before replying, “Who are there? Dru, Darla and Angelus?”

Spike sighed almost tempted to tell her to back off before noticing how curious she really looked and then replied, “Dru sired me. You know, made me. Turned me vampire. Angelus turned her. Darla turned him. The Master turned Darla. So that’s the family tree, pet. Dru and I were involved for years…but it didn’t work out…I loved her but it was complicated.”

He got a far away look in his eyes and Buffy decided she didn’t need to know anymore. It appeared Dru didn’t feel the same about him.

Buffy sighed in relief and then caught herself and said, “I’m sorry.”

Spike shrugged and said, “Eh, it happens. Hopefully neither of us will ever see them again. Eat up. We should hit the grocery store before we head back and the whole sunlight thing might get in the way if we wait too long.”

Buffy nodded and went back to eating in a comfortable silence with her mind full of thoughts.

---

Chapter 11: Domestication

---

Buffy and Spike returned to the lair with their bags of groceries. Spike took Buffy into another room that was what appeared to be a different bedroom set up only this one was connected to a bathroom.

Spike put the stuff down and said, “Wait here.”

He went back to the car and brought in the second load of her two bags and the microwave and then came in with a third load of the fridge with the television on top from the other room.

He pulled the plug he had pushed through the wall to set up this place for new room and went away and Buffy heard the sound of banging and rattling and heard Spike yell, “Hold open the door for us luv?”

Buffy raced to the door to open it as Dalton, Spike and two other minion vampires entered the room carrying pieces of his bed.

They disappeared again only to return with drawers and his dresser.

Then finally on their last trip to return with two chairs, a table and Spike with an armful of his clothes.

He dismissed the minions but asked Dalton to stay and help him set up the bed.

Buffy sat in the chairs they had brought and took out a tablecloth that Spike had left her buy at the store and placed it over the table and set up the fridge and put the food in it and placed the microwave on top of it.

Then she shoved the dresser into the corner of the room returning the drawers back into it and cringed slightly feeling the last of her wounds pull at the strain of the twisting and turning she was doing.

She then carefully took up the clothes from her bag and his and went about fixing up the closet with one side his clothes, one side hers.

Dalton took a minute to watch what the slayer was doing and shook his head with a slight chuckle.

Spike looked at him curiously and then followed his gaze to see Buffy hanging up the last of his clothes carefully on ‘his’ side of the closet already having finished hanging up hers.

She then took the water basin and filled it up with water from the bathroom and took out one of the towels they had bought and used it to wipe some of the dust from the place since this room hadn’t been used before.

Spike had just moved into the mansion taking the room closest to the electrical outlets and cable lines that he had stolen from a local house.

He didn’t stop to think about things such as a bathroom and shower. Now he had to think for Buffy’s sake.

He finished with the bed and took a minute to grin at Dalton watching as Buffy wiped down the shower and set her bathroom items in there.

Dalton couldn’t resist one tiny question, “Um boss, what are you planning to do with the slayer here? Turn her? Keep her as a pet? Love slave?”

Spike looked down at Dalton for a moment thinking of the question and then whispered in a soft tone, “Honestly Dalton, I don’t know.”

Then he realized he was being too honest and cleared his voice and said, “Not rightly sure but I’ll know when the time comes right. Don’t mention it yeah?”

Dalton nodded, “Course Master. She is nice to look at and seems innocent enough. Anything else?”

Spike shook his head noticing Buffy was now looking at the two of them curiously as they continued to sit on the ground.

Spike jumped up just as Dalton did and Dalton bowed to Spike, smiled at Buffy briefly before exiting the room.

Spike pulled off his shirt and belt and hesitated at his pants. Looking up at Buffy he opted to leave them on and said, “Ready for bed doll?”

Buffy nodded removing her pants and looked at Spike as she turned around removing her shirt just as Spike turned her back around and looked at the wounds again.

Noticing one still hadn’t healed he lead her to the bathroom although she was naked and washed off the blood gently and Buffy gasped feeling his fingertips brush across her skin.

Spike dropped the cloth and used his fingertips to gently caress even more of her skin.

She leaned into his touch and reached her arms around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss.

It was her first kiss ever and she was a little nervous she wouldn’t be any good but based on the way she felt a groan escape his lips, she figured she must be doing something right.

He continued his gentle caresses of her skin as she gasped feeling his hand on her naked breast and he used that opportunity to slip his tongue into her mouth.

She quickly followed his lead and her head was spinning from the desires that filled her from just his kiss.

She can't imagine how the rest would feel if his kiss feels like this.

She whispered in his ear, “Make love to me Spike, please.”

Spike looked into her eyes in surprise and realized he couldn’t resist this beauty and asked just once, “Are you sure Buffy?”

She nodded happy he used her name as she wrapped her legs around his waist as he lead her over to the bed.

She was so lonely and she wanted to feel cared about, even if it was just for a moment. She cared about him and she could pretend just for a little bit that he cared too.

He laid her down on the bed and crawled up between her legs to give her another kiss filled with desire and passion and she eagerly returned it running her finger nails up and down his back.

He kissed her lips, her cheek, her ear, then down her neck.

Buffy wasn’t even nervous at all as he gently licked and sucked on her artery on her neck but he didn’t stop there and continued to kiss down her shoulder until he reached her breast.

He lifted one of his hands gently rolling over to lay on his side to lean over her take one of her nipples into her mouth.

Buffy moaned loudly reaching her hands down to run through his hair as he teased both nipples, one using his hand and the other using his mouth.

Buffy whispered, “Oh God” as Spike continued to tease her by sucking and nibbling until she could take no more.

He switched to the other breast and continued the same actions until she was withering around on his bed under him moaning loudly not even caring who heard.

Spike decided he couldn’t wait to taste her seeing how he could smell her excitement and it was driving him crazy.

He kissed down her stomach and Buffy spread her legs without a care in the world eager for him to touch her in the place she needed it most.

Spike spread her legs a little further as he kissed her thigh to her inner thigh finally reaching where she was dying to have him touch.

He used his fingertips to ever so gently spread her lips and looked at the pink flesh in front of him with a smile whispering softly, “Buffy, darling, you are so beautiful.”

Buffy blushed but couldn’t reply as he used his mouth to lick from her ass to her clit driving her wild.

Her hips arched off the bed so he took the opportunity to put them over his shoulder as to have a better hold on them.

She moved her hands down to the bed holding on tight to the sheets as he took her clit into his mouth and sucked and nibbled until she was practically screaming his name out.

He wanted her to come and to stretch her out knowing the first time always hurts so he entered a finger into her quim and groaned at how tight she was.

She was so tight and warm. God it was driving him crazy.

He felt her squeeze his finger even tighter and whispered, “Pet, cum for me. Luv let go and cum for me.”

Buffy moaned one last time and screamed out his name as she felt out of control releasing the pent up passion instead of her.

Spike didn’t stop his ministrations on her and instead entered a second finger determined to have her ready for him as to not to cause her too much pain.

He went in as deep as he could reaching her barrier but determined not to break it with his fingers, carefully but steadily moved in and out driving her crazy as she had yet another orgasm.

He lowered his head down to lick most of the juices out and then to lick his fingers and then stood up for a minute to lower his pants.

Buffy mistook his actions and panicked looking at him as though she was ready to cry at the thought of him leaving her and thinking she did something wrong until he whispered, “Buffy, luv, I just have to remove my pants.”

Buffy sighed and waited patiently not even bothering to notice she was spread out completely naked before Spike.

Spike lowered his pants and Buffy looked at him and gasped muttering quietly, “That will never fit in me…it’s going to rip me apart.”

Spike smirked for a minute with pride before realizing she was turning really afraid.

Fear meant it would hurt worse or so he heard.

He quickly lowered himself down on her body and whispered, “I’ll try not to hurt you pet. Promise. It will feel good, I’ll make you feel really good.”

Buffy arched her hips up against him as he leaned down to kiss her taking her mind off her fears and making her return to the point of no worrying.

He gently moved to her entrance and slowly inch by inch started to move in. He whispered against her ear determined to make this feel good, “I’ll take it slow and gentle. Just a little at a time, yeah? You let me know if I hurt you, promise?”

Buffy nodded and bit her bottom lip before Spike took it into his mouth sucking on it gently.

When after much effort, he reach her barrier, he got an idea.

Not knowing much about virgins, he leaned down to lick her neck and gently slid his fangs in right as he moved into her in one fast motion breaking through her barrier and burying himself to the hilt.

He didn’t suck her blood as Buffy expected but instead pulled his fangs out and licked the wound then whispered love words into her ear.

He didn’t move allowing Buffy to adjust and then start to feel her moving under her.

He gently but steadily moved in and out of her setting a rather fast pace but still not enough to hurt her but wanting to make it feel as good as possible.

Buffy eagerly met every movement with her own and ran her fingernails down his back in utter ecstasy.

Spike knowing he wouldn’t last long feeling how tight and hot she was lowered one of his hands to her breast and the other to her quim, feeling for her clit and started rubbing it to the beat of his actions.

Buffy moaned and arched even further trying to get her release and then suddenly Spike sensing her issue, watched as Buffy turned her neck and whispered, “Please, bite me?”

Spike not one to argue and being lost in passion, turned and obligated, licking her neck before plunging his fangs gently in and taking a few pulls of blood sending her over the edge.

As her muscles squeezed him so tight he couldn’t move, he was sent over the edge to orgasm with her.

He pulled his fangs out of her, gently licked the wound feeling totally sedated as he rolled over to his back and pulled Buffy towards him to rest on his chest whispering to her, “Buffy, you were bloody amazed. Perfect in fact. That was the best I’ve ever had.”

Buffy smiled at him and whispered, “Really?”

Spike nodded really meaning it and whispered, “Sleep luv. I’ll keep you safe.”

Buffy nodded feeling safe and secure as she closed her eyes to drift off to sleep.

---

Chapter 12: First Time

---

Buffy awoke and looked down at herself feeling her muscles be a bit sore.

Not too bad but sore enough to notice them.

She sometimes felt this way after a really hard work out.

But these were muscles that never hurt. Muscles she didn’t even know she had.

She groaned as she stretched, then looked over at the sleeping Spike who was holding her close.

She pulled down the blanket hoping he wouldn’t notice and really got a good look at him.

He looked amazing, so handsome and so hot.

She gently rubbed her fingertips down his chest and over his nipples and pecs then over his flat stomach.

God he was hot. She looked up at Spike and seeing he was still sleeping, started to gently caress his penis.

It grew to life in her hand and she gasped noticing the difference as she held it.

It obviously liked being touched.

She couldn’t resist touching it and holding it and then gently pulling on it to feel it in her hands.

Spike moaned and arched his hips as he opened his eyes whispering, “Buffy, luv, what are you doing?”

Buffy blushed and whispered, “I’ve never seen one before nor touched it. I..I…I was just curious.”

As she pulled her hand back thinking she did something wrong. Spike smirked at her and said, “Anytime you want to touch and learn, you come see me. You can touch anytime you want.”

With that Buffy returned back to her touching and whispered to him, “Did I taste bad last night? Do you taste the same as me? Would you taste bad being dead and all?"

Spike studied her for a moment and whispered softly, “Buffy, you tasted wonderful. The sweetest I have ever tasted. Not that I have tasted anyone but Dru and one other chick who isn’t important. But you, you taste devine. Everyone tastes a little different. Not sure if I taste good since Dru never was really into that. She was more into the whole blood and torture and stuff like that. She never could be bothered with foreplay. Her idea of foreplay was a dead body, lots of blood plus she was always turned on without any work. You are just plain bloody amazing.”

Buffy beamed and then bit her lower lip whispering, “Can I taste you? Like you tasted me?”

Spike smirked knowing he would never turn down an offer like that and replied, “Sure you can. You don’t have to. Don’t mind if you don’t but definitely don’t mind if you do.”

He was a vampire after all. He would never turn down a free blowjob.

With that he helped Buffy to position herself at the right angle to be able to take him into her mouth.

She did but he was too large to really put it in her mouth so instead she swirled her tongue around him and heard him groan.

Buffy gasped and released him and whispered, “Can you tell me what you like and what you hate and give me pointers? I just don’t know what I’m doing.”

Spike smiled down at the eager girl and said, “Whatever you do I’m sure it will be bloody perfect but I really liked you licking it. Can you take it into your mouth and swallow a few times? See if that might help you take more in yeah?”

Buffy eager to take his suggestion, took him into her mouth and after swirling her tongue a few times, swallowed around it a few times amazed at how it helped her to take more into her mouth.

Spike felt like he had died and gone to heaven.

If he dusted at this very moment, he would die a happy man.

Her mouth was heavenly.

Everything about this girl was heavenly.

She was hot, sexy, warm and eager. What more could a bloke possibly wish for?

He got lost in the feeling of her sucking and licking him.

Then he needed an extra push so he whispered, “Luv, could you use one of your hands to fondle my balls? I know it sounds weird but it feels so good.”

Buffy did as he asked and felt him arching his hips even more.

She knew his time would be coming soon and was eager to suck him dry.

Spike whimpered and then whispered, “Buffy…Luv, if you don’t want to swallow, you’d better pull back now.”

Buffy moaned around him at his words which was enough to send him over the edge and Buffy eagerly sucked down every drop determined not to waste it.

Buffy licked his penis clean and then moved up his chest to look at his reaction noticing his eyes were closed.

She whispered, “Spike how’d I do?”

Spike opened is eyes and hugged her close to his chest and whispered, “God you’re a natural. Everything you do and touch is amazing. You’re bloody amazing.”

Buffy grinned at that and curled up next to him again closing her eyes, whispering softly, “Thank you Spike for everything.”

Before drifting off to sleep. Spike smiled down at his beautiful golden goddess and closed his eyes whispering, “Anytime pet, anytime.”

With the last thoughts that were in his head reminding him that he was head over heels in love with this girl and what he would do about it. He wasn’t sure.

---

Chapter 13: Thoughts

---

Buffy woke up first and was feeling much much better.

She stretched and felt no tightness or pulling.

She was just about 100%. She went into the bathroom and used it happy to not have to wake up Spike to ask him to ditch his minions to make it safe for her to go.

What was even nicer is that this door actually had a lock so it was even safer to do such actions.

Buffy looked in the mirror at herself noticing really how nice she looked despite the bed hair.

The normal dark circles that had been under her eyes since the day she found out she was the chosen one, were gone.

Her skin looked healthier. And more importantly she looked happier and well taken care of.

To think all that was because of a vampire that for some reason kidnapped her to heal her. Life is just so funny sometimes.

You never know where good things will come from.

She sighed and decided looking healthier or not, she needed a good long shower.

She went back into the room carefully moving around not to wake up the sleeping Spike and looked over at him noticing he had moved into her spot as though seeking the warmth she had left behind.

She smiled at that thinking that little things like that, made him seem even more human like and more loveable. Loveable…where did that word come from.

Buffy bit her lower lip looking still into their closet.

She looked in front of her still thinking of the word loveable and really noticed how she had managed to mesh her life with his the last few days.

It had to be Tuesday or perhaps even Wednesday by now.

In just those few days since Saturday night, she had moved in with a vampire, depended on him to keep her safe, learned that Spike even as a vampire, had feelings, could eat normally, could have normal sex well besides the biting which she had to admit, wasn’t so bad, and was so gentle and caring with her.

She gently touched the bite mark on her neck and noticed it didn’t hurt at all and instead felt good.

She grinned remembering how gentle he had been and how perfect it had been.

She picked out a bright red tank top and a black skirt and pulled from her side of the dresser a pair of red panties, which matched the tank top and a matching bra wondering if she could convince Spike to go out and patrol with her.

She was dying to get out there and blow off some steam and use her muscles that she was nervous had started to slack off a bit too much.

She always trained herself, every day but the last few days since she got hurt, she hadn’t used them at all only to have sex. Mmmm sex.

She pondered the word sex and wondered if she could call it making love.

She then felt cool arms wrap around her waist as she had stood in front of the dresser thinking and heard a whisper in her ear, “Sun is still out, come back to bed and I’ll make you feel real good.”

Buffy grinned and turned her head to put a gentle kiss on Spike’s lips and whispered, “You’ll make love to me again?” trying out her thoughts on him to see if he would correct her.

Spike smirked noticing the words she used but not bothering to correct them thinking that she might just have the same feelings he did and if so, he wasn’t one to fight.

No one had ever loved him. Only his mother decades ago and that was almost 100 and 20 years ago. She had loved him but she had turned into a monster and he shuddered at that thought. He was only trying to save her.

Buffy felt his shudder and thought she did something wrong and whispered, “I’m sorry I called it making love. I just” she paused for a slight second then continued wanting to explain, “I just wanted to think of it that way instead of just sex. I thought perhaps it meant more but I understand if it didn’t.”

Spike leaned over and gave her a kiss whispering, “Actually I was thinking about how nice it felt to hear the word love said towards me. No one has ever loved me except my mum.”

She whispered, “What happened to her?”

Spike tightened his grip on her but decided truth was the way to go.

If she was going to leave him, she had better do it soon because he was totally falling in love with her and it would hurt later on, “She got real sick right before I was turned. Was un-curable back then. Night I woke up after being tuned, I wanted to save her. Give her something special. So” he faltered for a second.

Buffy moved her hands to take one in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze so he continued, “Turned her. I turned my own mum. Just wanted her to live forever like me and be healthy. Dru didn’t stop me nor corrected me. I figured it would be ok. I was pretty much the same, she didn’t turn out that way. Dru danced and sang around the house waiting for her to wake up singing about how we’d be a big family with a mum and all that. Only when she woke up she wasn’t right. She wasn’t her really. She was a monster.”

Spike’s voice paused and tears started to pour down his face, “She kept saying I wanted her. Like wanted to have sex with her. She kept coming onto me. Kept touching me. Wasn’t right. Couldn’t take it so I staked her. I had to stake my own mum Buffy. Do you know what that feels like?”

Buffy shook her head biting her lower lip as tears rolled down her cheeks.

Spike buried his face in her hair as Buffy whispered near his ear, “Spike it wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know what would happen. You loved her so much, you wanted to save her. In a way, you did. You staked her and gave her peace, You could have ran away leaving her to destroy the world but instead you did the right thing.”

Spike tightened his grip on Buffy fighting to control his tears that were now pouring from his eyes before whispering, “She was the only person I have really sired. Made minions before as you could tell but those aren’t really siring, just more giving a drop of blood. I sired her. Never again.”

Part of Buffy was relieved that he never wanted to sire anyone else meaning he would keep her human.

Part of her heart bleed for Spike’s pain. What a horrible thing to live through.

Buffy whispered in his ear in an attempt to cheer him up, once she felt his body stop shaking and his tears stop flowing, “Want to shower with me? Do vampires shower?”

Spike chuckled taking up a hand and wiping his eyes and looked at Buffy with such a thankful look full of adoration and love and said, “We shower. Don’t have to but I enjoy a nice shower. We don’t sweat but we do get dirty, yeah? But I’d love to shower with you luv.”

With that he reached over to the closet and pulled a pair of black jeans off the hook and went to pull a white tank top and a red shirt as Buffy smiled and pulled out some white socks out of his drawer with a grin.

Spike took her hand and lead her into the shower.

---

Chapter 14: Another Date Night

---

Buffy stood in front of the mirror putting some makeup on her face as Spike talked behind her trying to do his hair without a mirror.

Buffy always had wondered how vampires had kept their hair in the proper way without a mirror.

Spike appeared to used gel and just pushed it back in a certain way that she guessed had been perfected with over a hundred years of experience.

She listened to Spike as he said what he thought was plans for the evening, “I’ll take you out to a nice restaurant if you want since we both look so nice and we can take a walk on the beach at the edge of town. Then we can do whatever else you want to only I need to make a stop somewhere. I need to eat.”

Buffy turned around at that admission and whispered, “Do you kill people every night?”

Spike hesitated his answer worried this might be the kicker in the relationship to ruin it, “I have been yes. Sometimes I leave them dying but not dead yet. But usually I kill them yeah.”

Buffy gasped at hearing the truth and frowned not knowing what to do with this information, Spike continued, “If it’s really a problem, I can’t stomach the animal blood but I can take from the hospitals or something. I need blood to survive but slayer blood, it lasts a while in my system and I should be able to get by with a bag of hospital blood a day. Would you prefer that Buffy?”

Buffy looked at Spike happily knowing that it was a total compromise on his side and she wasn’t even bothered thinking about the transfusions that would be denied with the blood he was ingesting and instead thought of the number of people who would live instead of dying if he wasn’t feeding.

She wrapped her arms and legs around his body peppering his face and neck with kisses whispering, “Thank you Spike, thank you thank you. Oh I love you so much.”

Spike gasped at her admission and if he could have blushed he would have and instead moved his hands to hold onto her ass to keep her against him as he whispered, “Buffy, luv? Do you really mean it?”

Buffy stopped her kisses to look him in the eyes and replied, “Spike, we have only known each other for a few days.”

Spike looked so sad Buffy continued, “But I mean it. I’ve never felt this way about anyone. Never before depended on anyone. Never felt so close to them. Never could imagine my life together with them. I can do that with you. Do you love me too?”

She asked the last question full of hope as she bit her lower lip hoping for the best.

Spike grinned at her cuteness and nervousness as he whispered, “Of course I do pet. I love you Buffy. Not sure how, how sure why but I do.”

Buffy beamed and gave him a passion filled kiss.

Spike broke the kiss and chuckled, “Um don’t start something we can’t finish if we want to go out and get some grub yeah?”

Buffy nodded as she slid down the front of him and was promptly lowered to her feet.

She took a minute to whisper, “Thank you.”

He whispered back, “Thank you as well.”

With that, she turned around and redid her makeup to cover the crying she had done earlier and they turned to start their evening.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Buffy slipped her hand into Spike’s as they sat together on the beach watching the waves come and go as she felt so happy after making love to Spike on the beach.

Dinner was also perfect. It was the most perfect evening she had had in her whole life. Her first true date. Her first true love. Her first time making love on the beach.

After they had made love, they both said I love you to each other and then sat and enjoyed the waves.

It was like a fairy tale only with a fresh bite mark adorning her neck.

She decided to approach the idea of patrol with Spike wanting a bit of violence before turning in for the night.

She turned towards Spike and tried to explain her thoughts,
“Spike?”

He said, “Yes pet?”

Buffy said, “I know it probably isn’t proper for me to ask but could we patrol together? I mean I know you’re a vampire and killing your kind isn’t your favorite thing to do but they kill people and I cant have them doing that and there’s demons out there too that need to be taken care of and I’m afraid to go myself because I’m out of practice not having been patrolling the last few nights due to being with you. Would you mind horribly if on the way home we stop and patrol through a few cementaries?”

Spike looked down at their joined hands not sure what to say.

It was going against his kind but he had always kept in the back of the head that she was the slayer.

He couldn’t keep her cooped up forever.

He decided killing with her would keep her safe.

He didn’t want something to kill her. He didn’t want her dead at all.

He nodded and said, “To keep you safe, I will.”

Buffy sighed in relief as she took the hand he offered as he stood up and walked side by side with him back to the car.

---

Chapter 15: Chains and Slayer Background

---

Buffy spun around trying to dodge another kick that was thrown in her direction.

She stumbled back feeling the muscles that were usually so well used pull and not work as well as they were supposed to.

She frowned down at her skirt that was flying around her waist and tried to push her feet together to push the quickly invading vampire out of her face.

She managed to do that quickly glancing in Spike’s direction as he was fighting three vampires at a time.

She sighed and turned her attention back to the vampire she was fighting then noticed a larger demon in the corner of her eye watching.

She had a moment of memory which reminded her of the night she got hurt and it was enough to throw her off and cause her to stumble back as the vampire knocked her out again.

Spike heard the noise and Buffy yelp as he quickly managed to dust two of the vampires he was fighting and turned to the last one as the demon lifted Buffy into his arms.

He was peering closely at the vampire fighting his hired vampires and turned to take her away bolting off into the woods.

Spike dusted the last vampire turned to help Buffy noticing she was gone but smelt her blood in the air.

He panicked yelling, “Buffy. Buffy!!”

He noticed one of the vampires she was fighting had a wad of cash and was taking off running into the woods.

Spike caught up with him and spun him around and grabbed him by the neck and vamped out asking, “Where did he take her?”

The vamp looked scared and said, “I don’t know.”

Spike roared and asked again, “Where did he take her?”

The vamp trembled and stuttered, “I don’t know. He wanted her for a ritual. He didn’t tell me much. I met him at an old warehouse at the edge of town. Perhaps he took her there?”

Spike dropped the vampire then dusted him picking up the huge wad of cash and putting it in his pocket to help pay for the slayer and his expenses and took off to get in his car and head towards the warehouse.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Buffy woke up and found herself chained to a wall surrounded by three demons, a few men in heavy woolen coats of different colors.

One had glasses on.

They were all talking to each other ignoring her.

She looked down and noticed her feet were also chained but she was still dressed completely.

She felt like her head was on fire but other than that, appeared to be unharmed.

She figured someone must have knocked her out and kidnapped her.

She panicked for a moment and whispered, “Spike” wondering where he was.

A demon turned around and she had seen him before.

He was the one who was watching the fight she was having just a little while ago and he appeared amused.

The man with glasses turned towards Buffy and noticed she was awake, “Awake my dear? Well that’s good. I guess those slayer powers do well for you.”

Buffy yelled clearly annoyed, “What do you want with me?”

The man replied, “I don’t want anything with you. I want you dead. I need a new slayer. Someone younger. Someone without your history. You cause trouble everywhere you go. Do you know what it took me to deal with your last school episode? You burnt the gym down! I had to go through tons of hoops to see to it you weren’t jailed. And now, you have the bite of a vampire on you. You are tainted worse than I thought. So who was the vampire helping you out? How did you get him to do that? Are you his sex toy? His blood fountain?”

Buffy felt tears pour down her face at such horrible things being said about Spike and yelled out in anger, “He loves me. It’s not like that. Who are you?”

The man straightened up his coat and said, “I work for the Council and for Mr. Travers who regrettably can’t be here. He wants you dead Miss Summers. Do you understand me? Dead!”

Buffy shivered not wanting to die yet. She was still too young!

So instead she tried to focus on where the guy had said he was from.

The council, where had she heard that place before.

Suddenly it hit her. Merrik! Her old watcher was a part of the council.

His death must have triggered this whole thing. “Merrik was part of the council correct? My old watcher?”

Buffy asked almost dreading the answer.

The man pushed his glasses onto his face a little further and said, “That is correct young lady. Merrik was your watcher and assigned to you. He was to teach you all you needed and then let you do your own thing. But instead you got him killed.”

Buffy shook her head back and forth feeling the pain from Merrik dying, hitting her all over again, “Merrik saved me. He was bitten by a vampire. I didn’t get him killed. He sacrificed himself for me.”

The man looked unimpressed and unmoved by her eyes that had filled with tears and her words and merely replied, “Slayers are expendable, watchers are not. Watchers are human, slayers are not.”

Buffy got angry at hearing that he was saying she was not human.

She was just a human as can be and spitted out at him, “Of course slayers are human. I’m just like you only with strength.”

The man laughed an evil sort of laugh and replied, “Don’t you know where your slayer strength comes from? Demon. A demon possessing you when the previous slayer dies and it gives you your slaying power. Therefore it makes you part demon, expendable.”

Buffy shook her head trying not to listen to what he was saying.

She couldn’t be part demon.

She had a mom and dad and she was just a normal human girl with special powers.

Just because she would fight and slay demons and vampires didn’t make her one herself.

She was horrified by what they had said. Just then the back of her neck tingled a familiar tingle and she gasped.

---

Chapter 16: Rescue Mission

---

Buffy gasped as she saw Spike stand in front of the council men and demons with his face vamped out.

She hadn’t often seen this and it was amazing. He had come to rescue her!

She struggled against her binds and watched as the man with the glasses moved toward Spike and he growled in reply.

The man spoke up and said, “Who are you?”

Spike replied, “Name’s Spike.”

The man said, “Spike?”

Then turned around to the other man behind him who held a book in his hand and was flipping the pages very fast and answered, “William the Bloody, Dickens.”

Dickens turned around and looked Spike with a curious look, “What brings you in here Spike?”

The two demons in the room rushed to speak up saying, “He was with the girl when we brought her in. He was fighting his own kind and was trying to protect her.”

Dickens raised an eyebrow in Spike’s direction clearly intrigued and confused as he said, “Why are you working with the slayer?”

Spike smirked and said, “Well, she’s mine you see. I protect what’s mine.”

Dickens looked amused and said, “No actually vampire, she’s ours. She belongs to the council to do with as we please. So run along and we won’t stake you today. The sun will be up in a few minutes and if you hurry, you can probably find shelter.”

Spike shook his head and roared not liking the idea that Buffy was not his, “I’m not going anywhere without my girl.”

With that Spike launched himself at Dickens and promptly knocked him out and as the two demons sprung forward, he easily twisted their necks.

The other men in the room looked from Spike to the ground and one made a loud whistle to have a few vampires come in from another room to tackle Spike.

Spike took them on fighting as hard as he could. Managed to dust 2 but still had 3 on him.

They got a few good hits in but Spike after a few minutes of hard battle dusted them as well.

By the time he had finished though he turned around and saw the two men had knocked out Buffy yet again and was dragging her out of the factory and to their car.

Spike saw it was daylight outside and couldn’t risk Buffy so he put his heavy leather coat over his head and rushed out knocking the two men aside.

He grabbed the unconscious Buffy and quickly stashed her in the car, hissing as one of his hands burned.

Spike didn’t even stop as he put his foot on the gas pedal and high tailed it back to the lair to take care of her.

He roared when he entered the lair mansion and his minions rushed out to see what had happened.

The sight they saw of Spike carrying an unconscious slayer yet again only this time, he had burned hands, a slight burn on his face and was very upset.

They parted for him curiously and watched as he went into his room bellowing at Dalton, “Come here” before slamming the door shut behind them.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Dalton watched as Spike gently washed Buffy hair while Dalton held her head in the water in the shower.

Spike was gently licking her wound using vampire’s saliva’s natural healing properties to close it.

The wound looked pretty deep but there wasn’t a lot of blood loss. She should survive.

Then Spike turned to Dalton and said, “Help me wrap up my hands.”

Dalton took the strips that Spike had laid on the ground and took the basin in the corner and said, “Be right back Master.”

Spike nodded knowing he was going to make up that special cream he had invented.

Dalton was useful because he had been a smart doctor before he was turned. Well he was studying to be one anyway.

Dalton’s natural book-smartness reminded him of himself but he lacked street smart.

In fact Dalton often chose to feed off low lives instead of off real victims. He fed off robbers and abusers.

Only requirement Dalton had was that the neck had to be clean.

He often carried wipes in his pockets to clean the dirt and grim off his victims before indulging.

Spike groaned as Dalton used his elixir to dip the strips into the basin and tried to wrap up his hands.

Spike sighed and said, “How long will this take to heal?”

Dalton shook his head unsure and said, “Um two days? Perhaps three? Longer if you aren’t feeding properly.”

Dalton assumed that since Spike had a human, perhaps he wasn’t still feeding properly since he always seemed to be taking her out when he went out and he couldn’t imagine him feeding in front of her.

Spike nodded wondering why he felt the urge to explain to Dalton that he was feeding then without realizing it exclaimed, “I’m feeding Dalton. Not just slayer blood either but real blood, just not killing. Hospital bag blood is fairly fresh and definitely human. It isn’t so bad. If you want, you could join me.”

Dalton’s face lit up because he still had a tad of the human side on him and hated feeding from humans, “I’d love that boss. Thanks.”

Spike smiled and Dalton said, “Want me to pick you up some more bags when I get me some?”

Spike nodded grateful since his hands were still hurting making it hard for him to imagine restocking anything.

Then he realized he wanted to get Buffy a present of sorts and said, “While you’re out, can you send for the wizard? I need his help with something.”

Dalton nodded and bowed as he exited the room closing the door behind him.

Spike sighed and crawled into bed next to the still unconscious Buffy thinking how much his life had really changed in the last week.

He pulled her close to him careful of his painful hands and rested her head on his chest as he closed his eyes letting her steady heartbeat lure him to sleep.

---

Chapter 17: Answers

---

Buffy awoke to a splitting headache and opened her eyes smiling as she felt Spike holding her close.

She also noticed a new table next to the bed with a bottle of aspirin and a fresh glass of water.

She looked at Spike who was sound asleep even though it was clearly night time.

She stretched and reached over and gratefully took out two aspirins and swallowed them with the water that was still cool and rested her head back down on Spike’s chest contently.

She realized Spike was purring. She smiled at such the gesture thinking that the Big Bad Vampire wasn’t so big and bad after all but she would never tell him that.

She snuggled back down on his chest noticing the burn mark on his cheek and that his hands were wrapped up in almost what appeared to be papier-mâché wrappings.

She gave Spike a kiss in an attempt to wake him up as she suddenly remembered she was last kidnapped by the council.

She had been chained up to a wall but somehow she was back with Spike.

He was hurt though and her head was killing her but she was safe.

She wiggled a little against him and he moaned out a gentle, “Buffy” and she smiled realizing he was purring in his sleep while dreaming about her.

She almost was tempted not to wake him but she was curious.

Just then the door opened to the room and Dalton entered carrying a ton of bags of blood and he carefully placed them in the fridge and turned noticing Buffy was awake.

He nodded at her and then spoke in gentle tones, “I left aspirin for you near the bed and oh it looks like you already drank the water. I figured your head would ail you when you awoken. Aspirin would keep the swelling down and make you a little more comfortable."

Buffy sat up noticing she was still dressed in the clothes she had on yesterday and asked Dalton, “Do you know what happened?”

Dalton shook his head, “Not exactly. Spike brought you in and you were unconscious with a few blows to the head. Spike was in serious pain from burns on his hands and one small one on his cheek. It was daytime you see so he shouldn’t have been out in it. But I’m guessing he was saving you. He must really value your life by saving you miss.”

Buffy smiled at that thought and whispered, “My name is Buffy Summers. You can call me Buffy. You’re Dalton right?”

Dalton nodded and then thought about explaining his place in Spike’s life as a minion and how minions don’t address people by their first names.

He figured since she wasn’t a vampire, it wasn’t his place to tell her.

Plus he decided he liked the name Buffy and she seemed nice, “Well Buffy, he and I cleaned up your head wound. He closed it up and then I dressed his hands with what you see on them and put some ointment on his face to help with the healing.”

Buffy cringed thinking of what Spike must have went through for her and whispered softly, “Where they bad?”

Dalton nodded and said, “The ones on his hands were. The one on his face wasn’t bad at all. Will you let him know I restocked his blood supply and got some for myself as well Miss Buffy. Might make you rest easier knowing at least one of his minions is bagging it. I can’t speak for the others though. Sorry.”

Buffy nodded appreciating him and Spike’s gestures.

She knew drinking bagged blood couldn’t be so pleasant.

She then asked him, “Do you have a room of your own, a fridge or a microwave?”

Dalton replied, “I took Spike’s old room last night and brought in a fridge and microwave. Just a little one. Nothing like what Spike has but it does the job.”

Buffy nodded and Dalton said, “I’d better go. Don’t want Spike finding me in here talking to his girl.”

Buffy smiled liking the fact she belonged to someone and watched as Dalton backed out of the room before bowing slightly to her.

Her last thought before she dozed off into peaceful sleep was that if she ever saw Dalton outside of Spike’s care, she would spare his life. He was a good sort of vampire to have around.

---

Chapter 18: Demon Responses

---

Spike and Buffy went out to dinner the following night.

Spike realized they had officially been together six days now.

He was head over heels in love with her but in just three days; they would have to figure out what to do.

He didn’t want to let this weigh his thoughts down though.

He was determined to make the best of his time with Buffy and not worry so much about what the future would bring.

The wizard had stopped by earlier while Buffy was still sleeping since being unconscious hardly counts as sleeping so she was extra tired.

He carefully explained to the wizard what he wanted and sent him on his way to return in the middle of the day today with the item requested.

He was rather excited about giving her a present hoping she would appreciate it.

It would help him as well as her tons.

It was really the perfect gift and he couldn't wait until the wizard was finished with it.

They enjoyed dinner at the restaurant and he realized today he really wanted to spend the night with her making love but she asked to patrol again.

Patrolling was making him nervous but he figured he couldn’t hide from those wanker council people forever and having her go alone was definitely out of the question. So he agreed.

The night was mostly uneventful though but after watching Buffy in her little red skirt, knocking the piss out of some vampire, he was totally turned on.

He grinned and said, “Ever get it on in a crypt before?”

Buffy laughed and flirted right back saying, “Oh Big Bad Vampire, you make me so nervous. Are you saying you want me?”

With that Buffy swung her hair over her shoulder and wiggled her hips to entice him.

Before she knew what was happening, Spike was pushing her into the crypt and shoving her against a coffin and stripping her clothes off.

He quickly stripped his off as well.

He grinned and whispered in her ear with a husky voice, “Hope you’re ready for me luv cause I’m ready for you!”

Buffy giggled and whispered, “Always ready for you” and with that Spike drove into her in one big lunge making Buffy’s hips arch high off the stone coffin.

Between Spike’s cool fingers and the coolness of the coffin under her, she was in heaven and already really hot.

Spike slammed into her over and over again before using his fingers over her clit and sinking his fangs into her neck.

He was so caught up in the passion that before he knew it, his demon had taken over and he was roaring, “MINE! You are MINE!”

Buffy answered without thinking, “Yours, always yours.”

And she came undone beneath him as he took a few more pulls of her blood before removing his fangs and licking the wound shut.

Spike a little shaken by what had occurred and worried about the consequences, pulled Buffy to her feet and said, “We need to go home.”

Buffy nodded not totally understanding why Spike was pushing her to go home after such a wonderful love making fest but followed dutifully.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Upon returning to the mansion, he found Dalton using his microwave.

Buffy had offered it to him and Spike had said during the night hours he didn’t mind if he used it since Spike was rarely home.

Dalton muttered a quick, “I’ll be out of your way shortly" and almost dragged his blood out of the microwave before it was finished as Spike rested is hand over his and said, “Tis fine. Take your time.”

Just then Dalton caught a whiff of the newly claimed Buffy and his eyes got wide.

Before he could say anything, Spike noticed and nodded to him, their eyes speaking unspoken language as he finished heating his blood and took it with him leaving the two behind to talk.

Dalton wasn't wanting to be near them during this conversation.

He was a bit nervous about the results of it.

Buffy looked up at him and whispered, “What was that about?”

Spike paced the room a few times not quite looking at her unable to believe what had happened.

He knew it wasn’t Buffy’s fault.

Hell she probably didn’t even realize what she had agreed to but he knew he had to tell her.

It was a huge change and he had never planned on claiming anyone ever.

He had thought about claiming Dru a few times but Angelus never put up with the thought much less the actions.

He would be severely punished for attempting it.

He frowned remembering a few of the torture sessions that had followed suit after his attempted claims.

After a really bad torture session that had almost resulted in his death, he had given up on ever having a mate and now his demon had decided his mate was a human.

Not just any human but a slayer!

What was he going to do now?

Buffy finally was getting dizzy watching him pace like he was.

She was getting anxious and really nervous not understanding what was going on.

Buffy finally had enough and whirled him around to look at her and he could feel her confusion and worry.

He knew he needed to explain claims to her but wanted to do it in a way to not make this harder than it already was.

It was Thursday and they had 3 days to get used to it.

He sat down on the bed and pulled Buffy into his lap which she snuggled up to him still worrying about what everything meant and why he seemed so upset.

Spike for a slight selfish moment was thankful she didn’t claim him back.

This made it harder on him than her because he would feel everything she felt but she wouldn’t have to deal with his feelings.

He felt safer this way.

He was free to have his own thoughts and fears but not have to have Buffy know them. It was a small comfort.

---

Chapter 19: Claimed!

---

With Buffy curled up on his lap, he began to rock her thinking of how to explain the changes that were about to take place.

He finally took a deep breath and decided to find out how much she knew, “Have you ever heard of claiming luv?”

Buffy shook her head and he sighed knowing this was going to be quite the lesson for the young girl.

He felt her curiosity echo through the claim as he started to explain, “Well when vampires bite someone, they can do what is called a claim. There are a few types of claiming. There is a master and minion claim. Dalton actually… hold on.”

Then he yelled out loudly to Dalton and watched as Dalton entered the room bowing before him.

He pointed to Dalton’s neck and Buffy looked up and watched as Dalton pulled his shirt to the side showing off the bite mark on his neck.

Then Dalton sat on the floor without Spike saying a word.

In Spike’s head, he had given Dalton the direction to sit down and relax while he explained to his new mate what everything meant and wanted him to stay and help explain knowing Dalton sometimes was better with words than he was.

Buffy looked up at Spike questioningly but waited until Spike started to explain again, “See the mark on Dalton’s neck. He has one on each side. One is his mark from when I sired him. I gave him more than a minion’s amount of blood but not enough for him to be a master vampire. I was tempted to make him a master vampire but Dru wouldn’t hear of it and Angelus was pissed enough I had turned a doctor without his permission anyway. That’s why Dalton stayed behind to care for Mrs. Dudley while I was in Europe. I figured he was safer here than there. So anyway, the mark on his left shoulder is my siring mark and the one on his right is the mark saying he belongs to me. Vampires have these marks to let other vampires know, who they can and can’t mess with. Any vampire who goes to attack Dalton here, would see the mark of mine and would know that by attacking him, he is in a sense challenging me. A vampire who has been disowned by his master or sire usually gets killed within a day or two due to having no protection. The mark on Dalton protects him from anyone who isn’t higher than me in my ranking. Any harming of him would be punishable by me and my family. Only ones higher are Angelus, Darla and Dru and the master. They are the only master vampires. Even Dru and Darla are iffy. They are not given the title master because they are female. Unlike your world Slayer, females aren’t treated equal. Since no one of higher ranking are in Sunnyhell, he’s safe.”

Dalton nodded at Buffy who tried to process all this then she asked, “What are the other types of claiming.”

Spike said, “So you learned about the dominance claim. But Dalton’s is a special dominance mark. It’s an allegiance mark. Back when he was first sired by me, he agreed to pay respects to me and be my loyal servant. He’s the only one that has that mark. I am able to communicate with him anywhere in the world. If I choose he can communicate back to answer me. If he needs me, he is able to request assistance by merely thinking directly to me and I will hear it and respond. It’s a highly trusted mark. He is the head of my minions. Only one I really trust too.”

Dalton smiled at that and Buffy said, “So he can hear you without you speaking. You could tell him to do something and he would obey even if you were in England or Australia?”

Spike nodded, “I can also find him anywhere I wanted.”

Dalton looked to Spike who nodded granted him permission to speak, “When you were being attacked, I had used my mind to request Spike’s assistance. I was able to immediately tell him to come home and deal with it to protect you. That is why he arrived so fast.”

Spike softly said to Dalton, “Still am appreciative of that mate.”

Dalton nodded as Buffy asked another question, “So are there more types?”

Spike nodded and said, “Well mating claims. There are one-sided and complete. Problem with one sided from what I understand which I might add isn’t much. Mostly from books and a little from Angelus who used to make fun of mated couples, but mating claims are forever. You can’t break them other than by death. What this means is that when a vampire mates with someone it really is till death do us part. If your mate dies, supposedly you will soon die with them. Often times, mated vampires when their mates are dusted will walk out into the sunlight unable to handle it or will dust themselves. A mated vampire never lives long without their mate.”

Buffy nodded still not understanding what is going on.

Spike noticing her eagerness and confusion continued, “So one sided claims. The vampire bites the girl, the girl agrees, they are mated. The girls never returns the favor so therefore the bloke never really belongs. The girl gets to feel like she belongs but the bloke has to spent his life attached to someone who never returns the favor. The bond is weak at best. Usually one sided for feelings. Usually used for protection only. Often times, will end poorly due to loneliness. With that type of claim, there is no on and off switch. No way to control. So the feelings poured through the bond are harsh and intense and often painful. When the mate gets hurt, instead of being able to protect the mate, they have to work through the pain of the mate in order to respond. So it would be like you getting hurt, me feeling your pain and having to fight even though I wouldn’t be ‘hurt’ as much as you. Doesn’t always work well enough, some vampires are really strong and can live in pain. Like me.” Spike beamed proudly.

Buffy still appeared confused so she questioned, “What’s the other type?”

Spike chuckled at her eagerness and said, “Getting there pet. So then there is what is considered a complete claim. I haven’t ever actually seen this, never even really heard of it occurring. In fact, I’ve only really seen one mated vampire pair in my unlife. We crossed paths with them when I was first turned back in 1886. I was turned in 1880. Anyway, Angelus had smelled it on them and it was an incomplete mating pair. The male appeared miserable while the female appeared happy. It didn’t look like it was going well but I don’t know how it turned out. Angelus came home roaring about how funny it was to see such a mess and how they would stake themselves in a week. But anyway, complete claims. As I was saying, don’t know much about them. Both parties do the biting, both agree. Supposedly both can feel the feelings, both are protected and both are connected for life. Serious stuff actually.”

Spike hesitated not liking the next part.

Dalton stood up and bowed after hearing Spike’s command to exit quietly so he could explain to Buffy what had started this conversation.

Buffy noticed Dalton’s leaving but decided just to snuggle closer into Spike’s arms suddenly nervous where this conversation was going.

Spike took a deep breath and exclaimed, “So Buffy, we are mated.”

---

Chapter 20: Mates

---

Buffy took a deep breath listening to his words echo in her ears, “So Buffy, we are mated.”

What did that mean? Wouldn’t she notice and know it? Can you be mated without even knowing it?

She looked up into Spike’s eyes very confused.

Spike held her closer whispering gently to her trying to calm her fears explaining, “During our love making in the crypt, I bit you. Sure I had bitten you before but my demon took over this time being hungry and claimed you. Member how I roared mine?”

Buffy nodded so Spike continued, “Well you answered with yours. That mated us together. I’m guessing some primal part of you answered without you realizing it. So um it’s a one sided claim. Doesn’t affect you at all. I can get vibes from your feelings, can sense where you are, if you are upset or bothered. Not sure of anything else yet. I’m as new to this as you are.”

Buffy closed her eyes not sure how she felt about this. Sure she is in love with him, but forever? She’s only 17 years old. A senior, she has her whole life ahead of her but she tried to think about this as an adult.

She whispered, “Does this mean I can never go home Spike?”

Spike shook his head and said, “No pet, you can go home. I can find you and rescue you. Also with this mark, it should make vampires less likely to try to bit you. Not saying they won’t still fight ya, cause they will but they won’t try to mark you. Some might even run from you but I wouldn’t count on that. The ones you find in Sunnyhell are mostly made by minions, are rarely marked, and are usually not up on the rules of vampires. So they probably will only smell the mark and not understand it fully and will fight you anyway.”

Buffy whispered softly almost too softly for Spike to hear, “So I’m really yours?”

Spike smiled at well she was taking this and nodded, “Yeah, you’re mine. All mine, always for as long as you will be mine.”

Buffy frowned a bit saying, “But you’re not mine right? This isn’t a complete claim. I never bit you…did I do wrong?”

Spike cuddled her closer and whispered, “I’m yours pet but not in the vampire sense. I’m not totally sure what happens to a slayer who is mated. Not sure if it works the same way or not. If you wanted to someday, we could find out, but not until you’re ready.”

Buffy nodded thankful she had time to think about it and was suddenly very tired.

She closed her eyes leaning up against Spike’s chest and Spike feeling her tiredness laid them both back on the bed pulling the blanket over them.

Spike placed a gentle kiss on her head as Dalton entered the room and redressed Spike’s hands and noticed how fast he was healing.

He didn’t say anything and Spike nodded in response to his questioning of, ‘Results of slayer blood?’

Dalton smiled and thought back, ‘Make that healing time about a day.’

Spike grinned and Dalton bowed out leaving them to sleep before crawling onto the small bed he had found in another room in the mansion and closed his eyes.

Every night he was thankful he had met Spike.

If Spike hadn’t of turned him that night that he had been hit by a car and left for dead, he wouldn’t be alive and further more, Spike was a good master, he always watched out for who was his.

Look at him, still alive, in a mansion, fresh bag blood so he didn’t have to kill. Nice warm bed to sleep on. A microwave and fridge and for once in his life, he felt complete, a tad lonely, but complete.

He felt Spike send waves of comfort his way not realizing he hadn’t closed off the bond and then smiled falling asleep.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Buffy woke up with her mind heavy with thoughts.

She belonged to Spike. Not her mom, not her missing dad. Not some weird relative but Spike.

He wouldn’t leave her side, wouldn’t go on long trips leaving her behind to fend her herself and wouldn’t get tired of her.

He couldn’t leave her.

This wasn’t just some words said under a beautiful arch of flowers wearing a white dress that can be changed hours later when you ‘change your mind’. This was binding, permanent.

Buffy sighed in happiness actually even though she was a tad nervous.

She was happy she belonged to someone.

She wondered what it felt like to be mated.

She didn’t feel any different. She couldn’t even sense him.

She decided then and there, she was going to bite him back next chance she got so the claim would be complete.

Then would she sense Dalton? Could Dalton get into her mind whenever he wanted to? Would he be able to be in there during sex? Ewww

She wasn’t into the idea of threesomes.

She just is getting used to the idea of Spike and her and all that yummy sex but to think of a third party.

That just grossed her out.

She wondered if while he slept, if her thoughts could invade his mind.

She was guessing not or he would be laughing at her and her worries and probably be putting her mind at ease.

Well she realized, he said feelings can be felt.

Perhaps she’s not having serious feelings right now.

She stood up and went to the bathroom continuing her thoughts.

What will her mother think once she found out she was in a sense married to a vampire. She was 17 so she was sure it was legal well are mating rituals legal?

It’s not like her mother could make it go away. It’s permanent.

She looked around in the bathroom spotting Spike’s and her toothbrush side by side in a cup along with Spike’s gel, comb, hairbrush and makeup bag on the sink. On the towel rack was two towels: one for her and one for Spike. In the shower was her shampoo and his along with her puff, his wash cloth and their shower soaps.

She was surprised at how well they just sort of moved in together.

She actually didn’t miss home at all.

She missed her mom but mostly her mom hadn’t been caring for her for so long anyway.

She was always so busy with something or another. Whether it be so busy volunteer in the school that she forgot about Buffy or was so wrapped up in her divorce and now her job.

It had been a really long time since someone sat down with Buffy and gave her their undivided attention and now for six days, she has had Spike’s and she wasn’t sure she wanted to give it up.

Buffy grabbed some meat and cheese and made herself a sandwich and eat it in silence still thinking.

With her full belly, she made a vow to herself as she crawled back into bed.

She wouldn’t be giving this up.

She was going to give it all she was and never give up Spike, not for anything.

---

Chapter 21: Upholding of a Vow

---

Buffy woke up to Spike making love to her. She quickly responded and the orgasms she experienced were beautiful.

She smiled as she came back to the world of the living from being in lala land unable to think and snuggled up close to Spike whispering, “You were perfect.”

Buffy then realized she was so worked up she forgot about her vow.

Determined not to think about it too much and to have her way now, she whispered again, “Want you again. Want you already. Make love to me again Spike, please.”

Spike with his vampire stamina wasted no time in rubbing his erection against her folds and slipping right in.

Buffy moaned loudly feeling him fill her completely.

She arched her back and eagerly met every stroke and every movement he made with her own.

Spike was moaning and groaning and whispering love words. Most she couldn’t’ make out but some she could, “Kitten you feel so perfect. So tight, so hot, so right…Want you all night…The way you make me feel, amazing. Buffy, luv don’t stop.”

Those things just made her feel even hotter. It was driving her over the edge so she licked up his chest past his nipples to his shoulder and licked his neck.

She smiled seeing it was the opposite side of his sire mark and figured he’d appreciate that as she gently sucked on it trying to get the blood to the surface knowing her dull teeth wouldn’t make such a dent in it unless she bit hard.

Spike groaned feeling her pay close attention to his neck. He could feel her pleasure and desire and love through the claim and amazing didn’t even know what her plan was until she opened her mouth and bit down hard drawing blood.

As she tasted the blood in her mouth she yelled “Mine! You are mine Spike. MINE!!” Spike hesitated in surprise looking at her and then answered, “Yours Buffy, forever and always.”

The feelings of Spike overpowered her sending her into a powerful orgasm which caused Spike to bit into her neck yelling, “Mine Buffy mine.”

Buffy answered even though she knew the claim had already taken effect on her, “Yours Spike always and forever.”

This caused Spike to go into a powerful orgasm as well feeling Buffy’s muscles milk everything from him before she finally laid still and quiet.

As they both shook in aftershocks, he pulled her close and whispered, “Wow pet, that was amazing.”

Buffy smiled and thought to herself, ‘Very amazing.’

And Spike said, “Glad we agree.”

Buffy looked at him confused for a moment thinking to herself, ‘Did I say that out loud?’

Spike blinked and said, “I heard it clear as a bell.”

Buffy whispered, “I didn’t say those things Spike. I thought them.”

Spike looked at her and tested it out himself, ‘Like this Kitten?’

Buffy nodded her head hearing his voice in her head. It was a little different than his actual voice. A little bit like being in a tunnel. It echoed too in her head.

She thought loudly, ‘Is this what happens with Dalton?’

Spike nodded, ‘A little only this is more I think. I get feelings, emotions, thoughts, fears, and everything through this. With Dalton it’s just for a minute or two. It’s not always open.’

Buffy thought loudly, ‘Dalton?’

Spike looked at her confused, “Why are you calling me Dalton? Don’t you know who I am by now??”

Spike spoke that out loud because he was very angry at the idea of his Buffy calling out his minion’s name.

In fact he was tempted to tell Dalton to get in here and stake him.

Buffy shook her head and said, “Um no. I wondered if I could hear him and he could hear me through your connection”

Spike let out a deep breath he had been holding and said, “Doesn’t work that way pet. For bonds to be formed, you have to share blood.”

Buffy said, “Oh.”

Spike hugged her a little closer enjoying the feeling of completeness with her and Buffy smiled feeling it as well.

This was better than marriage any day.

Spike looked over and Buffy and said, “We have to get you fed. Want to head to the diner? I want to remind Candy we are heading to her house tomorrow night on her day off. That ok pet?”

Buffy nodded and rolled out of bed.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

They patrolled after the diner but it was uneventful in that most were easy targets. No one special seemed to show up and those that did, were easily disposed of.

Buffy staked three vampires. Spike staked six or so.

Buffy had been pouting because she didn’t get to stake as many but Spike explained they were staying away from her and hitting him because he was the one who put the mark on her.

A master vampire claimed her so that meant the only way to really get to her when he was around was through him. They knew that he would die protecting her.

This meant that vampires were spending their time trying to kill him in order to do away with her protector to have a more even fight.

Buffy felt a bit upset that her special chosen one title didn’t seem to matter anymore. Vampires had always rushed her because she was the Slayer or smarter ones ran away. Now she seemed as though she was taking on leftovers but shook it off in good faith that she would still be the chosen one.

She was just now not the only chosen one. She had been given the gift of a helper. Someone who would never leave her side and for that she was eternally grateful. He couldn't even leave her side if he wanted. That thought alone made her smile. She would never be alone again.

She felt him tighten his grip on her probably hearing her thoughts but he had chosen not to respond to them..

She looked over as she walked next to him and smiled. He returned the gesture and together they walked to his car to drive to the diner, with his hand around her waist.

---

Chapter 22: A Friendly Visit

---

Buffy and Spike woke up together realizing today was the day he promised to meet up with Sam and Candy.

Taking the car, he drove Buffy and himself over there.

Becky raced up to the car being now 10 years old with a huge smile on her face seeing Spike.

She hugged him tight and asked where he had been.

He hadn’t visited since last Thursday which was a week. That’s a long time to a little girl.

She was just four years old when he had saved her and she had two pictures of her hero on her dresser that she looked at every day.

Her parents told her stories of how he had saved her life and how thankful they all were for her still being alive.

Spike returned the hug and looked down at the girl saying, “Poppet, how are you? Is school going well? Any boyfriends yet?”

Becky giggled a girlish giggle and replied, “I have a boyfriend. His name is Benny and he’s in four of my classes. Mom said that I’m too young to have a boyfriend but we have been together since last Friday. That’s a long time don’t you think?”

Spike nodded his head at the little girl and she continued, “School is going great. Dad said you went to school in England a very long time ago but that you would agree school is very important. He said you were an English major and enjoyed writing poems just like me. My poems are probably silly but you can read them if you want. My birthday is in a week, will you come visit on my birthday and bring me a present?”

Candy came out of the house at the point and looked disapproving at Becky for talking about someone bringing her a present when Spike hadn’t even made it into the house yet.

Candy smiled at both Spike and Buffy and said, “Come in. Sam’s out back Spike if you want to see him. He set up the lights and all if you want to spend some time helping him. He could sure use the help with the larger boards. He insists he’s strong enough to do the work himself but you know his strength isn’t anything compared to yours.”

With a smile Spike turned to Buffy and said, “You okay if I go out back and say hi to Sam? You can go with Candy in the house, yeah?”

Buffy nodded and let Candy guide her to the house while Spike ran out back to go help Sam.

Upon entering the house, Buffy looked around. It was a normal house, complete with a fireplace full of pictures.

The one in the center was of Spike and the family. It contained a much younger family, with a girl of about five with pig tails and a little dress on but still a family.

It looked strange to see him being normal with a family.

She wondered for a brief second if he had any more families that he knew.

Just then she heard Spike growl and saw Becky shrieking in fake fear as Spike stalked after her yelling, “Fee Fie, Foe thumb, I smell the blood of a little girl. Going to get you!”

Becky shrieked and hid behind Buffy yelling to Spike, “You can’t tickle me anymore without ticking your girlfriend.”

Spike hesitated for a second hearing Buffy described as his girlfriend before meeting her eyes and noticing she was smiling.

He thought she must like that as he reached around behind Buffy and tickled Becky anyway as she giggled and ran away saying, “Time out! I need to go to the bathroom and Mom says I have to go to bed. Will you visit next week, Spike, promise?”

Spike chuckled and pretended to mutter, “Little girls and their small bladders. At least I don’t have to go to the bathroom.”

Becky stopped at the top of the stairs and said, “Vamps don’t go to the bathroom?”

Spike grinned and said, “Nope. We are special like that.”

Becky whined and said, “I want to be special too!”

Spike shook his head and said, “No worry half pint, you are certainly special and yes I’ll come see you on your birthday.”

She beamed a smile at him and continued to skip up the stairs leaving Buffy and Spike close to each other.

Spike leaned over and brushed a hair from her face and gave her a gentle kiss asking if she was ok and when she nodded, Candy entered the room bringing in two hot cocoas with marshmallows.

Spike grinned and took it from her saying, “You remembered my favorite.”

Candy grinned and said, “Of course I do. It’s also Becky’s favorite.”

Then Buffy heard a man yell, “Spike can you come hold this beam for me?”

Spike finding a paper towel; carefully set his mug down on the paper towel before turning to help Sam with some beam.

Buffy found herself alone with Candy who brought in her tea and sat down on the couch patting the spot next to her.

Buffy took a deep breath not sure how she was going to explain things and sat down next to Candy preparing herself for twenty questions.

Candy smiled at her and said, “So how did you and Spike meet?”

Buffy smiled thinking that was an easy question, “Spike saved me. Some bad vampires and two demons attacked me and he jumped out of the woods and rescued me and took care of me until I felt better. He seemed to enjoy playing the part of the hero.”

Candy nodded agreeing with her noticing the way Buffy’s eyes twinkled like a girl in love.

Spike had never brought anyone to the house before. Buffy was clearly human.

She wondered how a human and vampire could be together but she thought that conversation could wait for another day instead she volunteered, “Spike saved Becky one day in the park from two demons. They were looking for child sacrifices and I guess Becky looked to fit the part. Luckily Spike was there. He beat up the demons and rescued Becky. I'm not really sure what we would have done if Spike hadn’t been there. My little girl wouldn’t still be with us. She’s the only one, sort of a miracle child. I was told I couldn’t have kids and then nine months later, out popped Becky. We had tried for a while, five years in fact after five years, we gave up figuring Becky was our miracle and one miracle was enough for both of us.”

She smiled at Buffy as Buffy smiled back at her story although feeling a little sorry for Candy about not being able to have any more kids.

Buffy decided to brave a question, “Does Spike come by a lot?”

Candy grinned, “At least once a week. He sometimes comes for dinner or just to help Sam around the house. He’s a great babysitter too. Spike has made it clear that he’s one of a kind and I should never ever invite any vampires into the house. But he’s amazing isn’t he?”

Buffy smiled a dazed smile and nodded her head in agreement, “Definitely one of a kind”

---

Chapter 23: A New Side to Spike

---

The rest of the visit was nice. Buffy got to watch Sam and Spike work on the deck together. It was coming along quite nicely. It made Buffy long for a day where Spike and her could have a house together and have a deck and children.

With that thought, she sighed suddenly aware that she was substituting Spike for the name of her husband and children wouldn’t be possible for a vampire.

From what she learned from her previous watcher, vampires were considered dead and didn’t have enough of a life source to father children but perhaps she could adopt. Adopting was an option right?

The rest of the visit was spent with Candy telling her stories of how Sam and her at met at high school and fell in love and the struggles of marriage.

Overall, Buffy enjoyed herself. In the car heading back home, Spike paused at a light and looked over at Buffy and said, “Tis around 4 am. About two hours till sunset. Would you be terribly upset if we stopped at another friend’s house instead of patrolling tonight? Most vamps are probably sleeping away anyway.”

Buffy shook her head that she wouldn’t and was curious to see where he was taking her.

Spike drove to the store and picked up a few grocery items: Milk, bread, sandwich meat, hamburg, buns, and cream as well as a few other items.

Buffy didn’t say a word waiting to see if he would explain himself and he didn’t but instead paid for it and drove to a big house.

He took a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door and let himself into the kitchen.

Buffy was surprised he didn’t need an invitation but looking around, it was a small but true house.

Pictures hung on the wall of an elderly woman with three children who were adults.

A few young pictures of kids covered the walls and she heard the sound of footsteps saying, “William if that you?”

Buffy was surprised to hear someone call Spike, William but turned around to see an elderly woman with gray hair, who was defiantly getting up in the years, dressed in a little robe covering a nightgown with little slippers on her feet.

She smiled at Spike and gave him a hug saying, “You always know just when I need new food. Thank you" as she handed him a few dollars to pay for the food.

Buffy knew he had spent almost 30 dollars on the food but instead she only handed him a ten-dollar bill.

He didn’t correct her and instead with a smirk across his face said, “Mrs. Dudley, I even got those little cream puffs you like so much.”

She giggled and said, “Oh William, you are always so good to me. I made some fresh cookies last night, would you like one? Would your friend here like one?”

Buffy looked at Spike who spoke for her and said, “We’d both like one, thanks Mrs. Dudley.”

She took out three cookies from a fancy cookie jar before saying, “I remember the day you first helped me carry in my grocery bags. It was nice of you to get that Dalton fellow to do it while you were away touring Europe for those five years. You always did make sure I was well cared for. How is Dalton?”

Spike smiled a gentle smile and said, “Just fine. He’s still practicing doctoring once in a while. He stills asks about you sometimes. Want me to tell the wanker to get over here some day to visit?”

She chuckled saying, “Now William such language but yes I’d like to see him again. Think he could see about getting me some new medicine for my cough? I’m running a bit low.”

Spike nodded understandingly remembering how much his mom suffered at the end with a cough, “Yes’ sum I’m sure that I could.”

She smiled as they all finished their cookies and she yawned, “Well I’d best get back to bed. It’s still early yet. My granddaughter arrives today. I get the pleasure of watching her for a week.”

Spike put his hand over the old woman’s and said, “That sounds wonderful. Here let me help you get back up those stairs. Don’t want you falling and not being able to take care of her. Thankful you let me put that second rail on the steps for you. Makes me feel a tad bit better but I still wish you’d move into the lower level bedroom.”

The lady shook her head saying, “Now William. I told you I like my bedroom upstairs. It reminds me of Patrick, God rest his soul.”

With that, Mrs. Dudley accepted Spike’s hand and they walked up the stairs together before he closed the door to her bedroom letting her go back to sleep.

Spike tiptoed down the stairs careful not to disturb her and took Buffy’s hand turning off the lights and re-locking the door to take her to the car.

---

Chapter 24: Spare Time

---

Buffy was quite the rest of the way home noticing that the sky was lighter and figured Spike would rush to get home as to not to have any more burns on him.

The others were and had been completely healed. They healed within a day thanks to her slayer blood.

It really was a miracle drug for vampires or so Spike had told her.

She and Spike had been working a bit on closing off the link sometimes in order to not have the feelings get overwhelming and so they could respect each other’s thoughts.

There are just times where you want to think about something and not have a third party comment on it.

You want to be able to analyze things and enjoy life without worrying about someone’s reaction.

They had turned on the television and she kept hearing him talk to himself and she couldn’t enjoy the show.

He apologized and they worked hard on closing off the bond. Surprisingly it wasn’t too difficult but it took effort.

The bond wanted to be open all the time and to close it, you literally had to imagine it being closed in your mind and seal it and if closed too long, it would just simply reopen if you didn’t constantly remind it to stay closed.

She didn’t mind so much though. Other than sometimes when she liked quiet, she liked the idea that Spike was only a mind thought away.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

When they arrived home, Spike got a message from Dalton that the wizard had arrived and was waiting for him in the back room.

Spike asked Buffy to wait in their room and to go ahead and find some food for breakfast if she wanted and to heat him up a mug of blood.

She sighed a little sad they didn’t have a stove or oven. She would have loved eggs but eggs in the microwave made her stomach turn in rebellion.

She didn’t think that sounded very good.

She though about asking Spike if he could possibly find even one of those grills that had stove tops on them so she could have eggs some morning and perhaps a waffle maker for waffles.

She smiled at the idea of a vampire’s lair having a stove and waffle maker.

It was sweet if he would give in to her.

She instead grabbed a pop tart from the box and frowned realizing there were no toaster.

She made another point to ask him to pick up one of those too.

She ate her pop tart and drank her strawberry milk and waited for him to return.

She flipped through the channels on the television for a bit and got bored so she walked over to the bookcase that had been brought to him by Dalton the night before.

She browsed through it looking for something to look it and perhaps read. What she found on the bookcase amazed her.

There were poetry books, journals, biographies, history books, as well as books she remembered reading in school such as The Great Gatsby and Withering Heights.

Who would have thought Spike would have these kinds of books to read.

She had been told to read Withering Heights in school but never did so she picked it up and curled up in the bed under the covers to read waiting for Spike.

---

Chapter 25: The Gift

---

When Spike entered the room, he found Buffy reading. He smiled seeing what she chose to read and whispered, “That’s a great book. Have you ever read it?”

Buffy shook her head and put it down splitting the pages by laying it upside on the table by the bed.

Spike frowned and went over to the bottom of the bookcase and pulled out a drawer that she hadn’t noticed.

Inside the drawer were tons of bookmarks of every shape and size. He pulled out a pretty bookmark and gave it to Buffy to use in her book not liking the idea of breaking the spine.

Buffy put it in the book after looking at it. It said, “To my little William Pratt, Love Mum”.

Buffy gasped, “Your name was William Pratt when you were turned?”

Spike nodded looking mildly embarrassed.

He actually hadn't really given much thought to where the bookmark had come from before handing it to her but should have recognized it.

A lot of the books and bookmarks on the bookcase had come from his original home back in England before he was turned.

He had managed to buy a few books here and there but his favorites were originals.

Buffy asked, “How old were you?”

He said, “29. I had just turned 29. It was my birthday actually.”

Buffy giggled, “12 years older than me.”

Spike commented, “A lot more than that pet. Been around 120 years, 29 years prior to that. I’m about 149 years your senior. That bother you, luv?”

Buffy shook her head with a slight grin, “Means you know tons of stuff. Do I get my own special tutor? I could use it. I’m an okay student but nothing special. I can’t remember dates or history or do math so well. I can read and write just fine...well mostly. My papers always come back with tons of red on them but the grades are mostly okay. It always says at the top, ‘proof read please’. I am not good at that part though.”

Spike grinned happy to see he could help her in some way, “Anytime you write a paper, pet and want me to look over it, you just so so and I’ll hook you right up. I am great at writing. I'm also a walking history book. I can probably tell you tons of stories that would make the history books come to life."

Buffy nodded and said, “Are those journals over there yours?”

Spike nodded, “Did you look at them? I should have had Dalton put them away.”

Buffy shook her head, “It’s your journals, not mine. I wouldn’t invade your privacy like that. I wouldn’t like it if someone read my diaries.”

Spike smiled at the way she thought. She respected him and he really like that about her.

He looked at her and said, “Got a present for you pet but you must promise to listen to me when I tell you about it, K?”

Buffy nodded loving presents. And his voice was so dreamy, she could listen to him all day if he would just tell her stories and talk to her. How did she get so lucky? Spike grinned and Buffy realized she was thinking so hard she had left the bond open.

Buffy blushed shyly and closed the bond. Spike chuckled feeling her slam the door shut and said, “Pet I don’t mind you having it open. I like seeing and hearing your reaction. Either way I feel your feelings. You can’t turn those off.”

Buffy nodded but still liking to keep some embarrassing comments to herself.

She did notice when they were touching, it was almost impossible to turn off the bond. She figured it made sense.

How can you hold your feelings from someone if they are with you and holding you?

Spike sat down on the bed in front of her and laid something in a box behind him and took her hands into his.

Buffy smiled and opened her ears determined to listen to whatever he had to say. Spike began, “Wanted to give you a gift. Not just any ole gift, something special, something magical so about three days ago, I talked to a wizard as you probably gathered. Been a friend of mine since before I was turned. A demon is not a vampire so the going into the sun rules does not hold him. What the gift is, is a cross. Now not just any cross since it’s enchanted with a few things. Number one, sharp enough to be used as a stake if needed. There’s a gem on it, if you touch the gem, holy water is sprayed. That part has to be refilled from time to time. This is the part though that I needed the wizard for, it won’t harm me. In it, it’s enchanted with our blood. It means that it can never be used against you or me. So if someone gets a hold of it, it’s enchanted to always return to you. Will do one of two things if it gets separated. If it can find you, it will immediately return to you after 2 minutes of being in someone’s care. If they leave and are outside of your sight, it will hum to us. What this means is, if our claim fails due to you being unconscious and seeing how you have made a habit of that happening, the cross will still hum to me. Know what is also neat pet?”

Buffy shook her head, so Spike continued, “It’s a cross so in the hands of vampires, it will burn. Have a matching on only it’s a little different. Tis a spike. Like my name, yeah? Has the humming ability too. So if you ever need me and I’m asleep or unconscious and you need to find me, it will hum for you too.”

Buffy smiled as Spike reached behind him and placed the box in her hand taking out a box in his pocket and opened it lifting out his spike.

He fastened the metal spike around his neck and she turned letting him fasten the cross around hers.

She lightly touched it as did Spike and she smiled with tears in her eyes leaving the bond open fully as she whispered, “This was the most perfect gift anyone has ever given me. Thank you.”

With that she placed a kiss on his lips and he laid her back on the bed to make love to her thankful she loved the gift as much as he would hope she did.

---

Chapter 26: Thank Yous

---

Buffy laid back on the Spike as Spike laid over her smiling down at her.

He felt all the love and desire through the bond as he leaned over to give her a searing kiss.

She moaned into the kiss and he heard it echo in his head as though she were him and he were her.

He really loved this bond thing and could tell she did too. It took their love making to a whole new level of desire and passion.

As he continued to kiss her, his hands weren’t idle and in fact was working on unbuttoning her shirt button by button until he had opened her shirt to his eyes.

He broke off the kiss and looked down at her body still amazed at how really beautiful it was.

He grinned as he kissed down her neck sucking softly on their claim mark before reaching her shoulders.

He could feel her pleasure building as he lifted her arms up to circle around his neck as he kissed down to her breasts.

He nibbled, sucked and teased her breasts until the peeks of her nipples were red and swollen from desire.

He was amazed at how that felt through the bond and could actually tell when it was too much or not enough.

He groaned as pleasure as she arched her hips up to rub against his erection in his black jeans and was immediately frustrated by the amount of clothing they had on.

He stood up and wasted no time pulling off his shirt over his head as well as his pants and kicked them off to the side.

He then climbed up top of Buffy to unbuckle her pants and pull them down her legs.

He admired the red silk panties she had on before moving his finger over the damp spot that had formed at her junction.

He grinned as he pushed the silk into her lips and rubbed her clit through the silk. She moaned and whimpered needing more.

He kissed over her panties sucking in her juices before using his teeth to remove the panties.

He rather liked them so didn’t want to rip this pair but was frustrated by how long it took to remove them.

He then tossed them down on the pile of clothes aiming to keep them later on.

He then wasted no time in plunging his tongue into her sopping hole causing her to thrash as an orgasm hit her.

He knew she was more than ready already for him but she twisted her body so she was on top of him.

He released his grip on her as she lowered herself down his body and sat face to face with his erection.

She blew hot air over the tip admiring how it quivered with pleasure from the cum that was already seeping from the tip of it.

She leaned down feeling through the claim the sensation of her hair tickling his balls and legs as she took the tip into her mouth licking the cum from it as she felt pleasure almost overwhelm him.

She really wanted him to get off in her mouth but she was torn with the idea of sex or sucking him clean.

She grinned knowing Spike was hearing her inter-dilemma and decided his stamina could easily allow for both so she opened her mouth engulfing him into her warmth as she sucked him in.

He groaned and gripped the sheets as she swirled her tongue around his erection making him gasp out her name.

She then swallowed taking him further into her mouth and was deep throating him as she moved him in and out of her throat.

She could feel the pressure building up in him so she took his balls into her hand and massaged them.

She was almost overwhelmed herself with the pleasure he was experiencing and it caused her to moan around his erection in pleasure.

The moan made him close his eyes and grip the sheets until his knuckles were almost completely white from trying to hold on to his control as long as possible.

She wouldn’t allow him to gain control again as she used her nails to lightly rack across the bottom of his balls and hummed around his erection again taking him fully into her mouth.

She then tongued the base and that was enough to send him over the edge.

She quickly released him a little enough to swallow his spendings before licking him clean and releasing him.

She then ran her tongue over her lips as he groaned again in pleasure.

She kissed up his stomach, to his chest and then licking nibbled at his nipples.

He groaned again and yelled out her name as he pulled her up to his mouth level and kissed her with more passion than she would have thought possible as he had just gotten off.

She returned the kiss though matching his desire and passion as she felt his erection return to life and rub against her clit.

She was amazed at his stamina and enjoyed it as she felt him lift her up and aligned his erection with her entrance before dropping her causing him to enter deeply inside of her.

She threw back her head in pleasure and Spike held her tightly putting tiny bruises on her hips as she thrashed around in another orgasm and held him as tight as a vice inside of her.

He let out her name with a groan as she relaxed her inner muscles allowing him to move.

She started rocking against and felt his pelvic bone rub against her clit with every rocking motion she made.

She felt his fingers still bruising her hips but didn’t mind as she lowered herself down to rub her nipples against his and to give him a passionate kiss.

He increased the tempo feeling his desire mix with hers again and closed his eyes at the emotions that were overwhelming him.

Feelings of desire, passion, love, amazement and completeness were filling both of their minds making it impossible to tell who was feeling what exactly.

He allowed her to continue rocking as he moved his hands up her back and into her head forcing her even closer to him and for him to enter her more deeply.

She moaned again with her tempo faltering before he returned his fingers to her hips to help her.

She threw back her head and he licked her claim mark, which caused even more emotions to flood through them both.

Both were struggling for control as Buffy felt her inner muscles begin to retract and he felt his erection shudder eager for release.

He held her close as he bit into her neck causing her to whimper then scream out his name as pleasure as an orgasm overtook her body.

He quickly took a few pulls of blood before retracting his fangs and licking the wound clean yelling out, “You’re MINE Buffy!”

She nodded and yelled out, “I’m yours.”

She felt him thrust one last time into her body as his seed feeling her womb and she collapsed on him spent.

He kissed her head after allowing both of them to recover and feeling her heart beat slow down close to sleep, he pulled her close whispering, “I love you Buffy Summers.”

She returned the words saying, “I love you William Pratt, Spike.” He smiled and closed his eyes allowing sleep to claim them both.

---

Chapter 27: Talk Time

---

Spike and Buffy slept the day away since they went to bed so late the morning before.

Buffy was totally on an all night schedule and didn’t even seem to miss the daytime.

When Buffy woke, she found her thoughts on the fact it was Saturday night already and when she went to bed she had to figure out what she was going to do with her mom.

Her mom would be returning in the afternoon and she would expect Buffy to be the good dutiful daughter and be at home until she decided to leave again and Winter break would be over.

She would have five weeks left until Thanksgiving, then four until Christmas break.

Buffy sighed pulling the covers up further over herself and Spike not wanting him to let go not even to go to the bathroom.

Luckily she didn’t have to go badly yet.

She just wanted to stay in Spike’s arms forever and never leave.

She wouldn’t be 18 until July 17th so she couldn’t just up and leave school and she was quite sure Spike wouldn’t approve of that either.

So she pretty much had six months until she could graduate and move in with Spike full time.

She sighed again wondering how to deal with her mother.

Would her mother approve of her being married while in High School?

Would she even like Spike?

Perhaps if they introduced him as William and not told her he was a vampire, she wouldn’t mind so much.

She always wanted Buffy to date. She wanted to set up her with people she chose.

Perhaps she would be so happy she was finally dating, she would allow them to live together.

Spike opened his eyes beside Buffy and felt himself being overwhelmed by her fear and worries.

Then her thoughts started pouring through his head and he frowned.

She was scared to death of tomorrow. With less than eighteen hours away until her mom arrives and less than thirty hours away from school starting again, she was afraid of what it would bring. Would real life tear them apart?

He knew they needed to talk about this before this drove her crazy.

He had to admit he was a little nervous about it too.

He just chose not to think about it but the time had come to think about it.

What could he say to ease his mate’s fear since he had the same fears himself?

Spike sighed and hugged Buffy a little tighter whispered, “Pet, I think we need to talk.”

Buffy bit her lower lip and nodded scared of what this would mean for them.

Spike whispered against her ear trying to ease her fears enough to be able to hold a decent conversation with him.

With her thoughts flooding his like crazy, he was having a hard time dealing with reality instead of just her worst-case scenario.

So he gently said, “No matter what Buffy, we will still be mated, and I’m not leaving you. I want to make that clear to you. We are together. No one can take that away. You will always feel close to me even if we are apart. That’s a given, K?”

Buffy nodded feeling a little better and took one of his hands in hers snuggling up close to him very thankful she had him always.

Spike continued, “Well school starts in about a day, your mum gets back in less than a day. You sneak out to patrol at night yeah?”

When Buffy nodded he continued, “And she leaves you alone A LOT yeah?”

Buffy again nodded wondering where he was going with this, “Well the way I see it pet is that eh sod it. Let me just say, leave your window open at night. We’ll patrol together, do a bit of homework if you need help with it together, and I’ll sneak back in your room through the window and spend the night with you and be gone by morning. If your mum is gone, I’ll be there so you aren’t alone.”

Buffy smiled not really minding the thoughts so much.

Spike turned to seriously look at her and whispered, “But you must stay in school kitten. Want you to be a good student. Great grades. Get into a great college somewhere. Here hopefully. UC Sunnyhell is not so bad. You can be anything you want, pet but to do that you must stay in school. I don’t want some girl of mine working in a fast food place wearing cow parts on her head.”

Buffy giggled at that thankful she hadn’t had to get a job yet but knowing she might have to get one soon to support her and Spike and Spike quickly shook his head. “Buffy, luv, I have money. Lots of in fact. At a bank called Wolfram and Hart. When I was turned, no death claim was made because well I wasn’t dead. And since my mum was dead…”

Spike paused with pain in his voice but with a gentle squeeze on his hand from Buffy he was able to continue, “So yeah no death claim. Moved all the assets I had into the bank, sold the old house, and it’s been sitting there ever since. Imagine 120 years of interest on a well to do gentleman’s bank account. Imagine demon’s interest rates. ‘m well to do but I never use it. Never had anyone really to before. Dru and I always made it by stealing. With you, I can’t be doing that. So if I can’t earn enough playing poker, we can use that. So no getting a job Buffy. You worry about school and I’ll worry about the dough, yeah?”

Buffy smiled and snuggled closer to Spike whispering, “I’m hungry.

Spike laughed and kissed the top of her head and said, “Let’s get you fed then pet. I’m hungry too.”

Thinking of food reminded Buffy of the want of an oven or stove.

She whispered, “Spike can we get an oven in here with a stove or a grill so I can have eggs and cheeseburgers.”

Spike smiled and nodded happy that even with her thoughts on returning home, she was still making his mansion into home.

He grinned thinking that perhaps he will look into paint and paintings to hang and fix up a few other rooms to actually make the mansion into home.

He legally owned it after all.

With that, they started their day off showering together then heading to a restaurant to eat.

---

Chapter 28: Reality Check

---

Well Buffy and Spike had an awesome last night together.

It was a slow night of patrolling but still got the job done.

Just before daylight struck, Spike walked Buffy back to her house and went upstairs to tuck her in to sleep until her mom arrived.

Spike was a little nervous as was Buffy but he didn’t think he should be there when her mom did arrive home.

Both of them after much discussion in the night had decided not to tell her at first of what had happened and instead introduce him as a boyfriend after Joyce was settled in.

Buffy hit the answering machine to delete the messages noticing there was 15 messages on it and then took Spike’s hand to lead her to her bedroom for the second time of him seeing it and smiled whispering, “We have an hour right? Can you hold me until I’m sleeping?”

Spike nodded and watched as Buffy got dressed in her nightshirt and pants and crawled into bed to appear as a normal daughter would and he removed his boots and shirt and climbed into bed next to her.

Buffy snuggled up close to him and whispered, “Whatever happens Spike, and we are together right?”

Spike smiled a gentle smile at her, placing a kiss on her forehead, “Always kitten. Always.”

With that Buffy closed her eyes and within minutes of Spike holding her close, and feeling safe, she fell asleep and Spike replaced his shirt and boots and climbed out of her window leaving it unlocked and went to his lair alone.

The minions were in chaos at the fact their master was alone.

Dalton followed Spike into his room to question, worried she had been hurt or kidnapped and might need his help.

Spike shook his head after sitting on the bed feeling so tired but unable to sleep as he said, “She’s fine. She’s all asleep and safe in her bed. Safe from me. Her mum returns today in a few hours. Thought it best if I wasn’t there for home coming.”

With that Spike frowned looking obviously nervous and worried.

Dalton had no ties to his feelings but they were written over Spike’s face.

Dalton spoke up then wanting to help ease his master’s feelings, “Anything I can do?”

Spike shook his head again and said, “I need a hospital run for more blood.”

Spike sighed a horribly miserable sigh and Dalton replied, “Tonight I’ll retrieve some.”

Spike nodded and Dalton not knowing what to say sat quietly thinking when Spike was ready, he would just kick him out.

Instead Spike looked up and said, “Think anyone is up for Poker? Does anyone in this place have a phone that I can use to call Clem? I’m awake. Might as well enjoy it for another hour or so.”

Dalton smiled at the idea of a Poker game and said, “Doug carries a phone with him. Some new car phone jig. I’ll send him up with it and I’ll see if any of the others want to join in if that’s ok with you.”

Spike nodded, “Sounds good.”

With that Dalton hurried out of the room to set in motion a Poker game.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Buffy awoke to the sound of her mother returning from her long trip.

Buffy frowned rolling over to look for Spike before she remembered the reality.

She was 17 years old still, living at home with her mother and still a high school student.

She frowned even deeper at the sound of her mother yelling for Buffy to come down and help her with the luggage in the car.

Buffy did as she was told and her mother frowned at her saying, “Why are you still dressed for bed?”

Buffy shrugged and said, “Winter vacation. No school this week, I decided to slum it.”

Her mother stated in a disappointed voice, “I hope you don’t make a habit of that. Perhaps you should get a weekend job to give you something to do.”

Buffy said, “After high school is done maybe. I need to focus on my studies to keep the grades I have now.”

Joyce dropped it knowing her daughter seemed to struggle in school and instead watched as her and Buffy unloaded the few suitcases.

Joyce explained, “Already made a stop at the gallery to unload the others. Had to unload it alone since no one answered the phone here and no one else was at the gallery yet."

Buffy apologized, “Sorry mom, I was working on a paper.”

She didn’t mention she had still been sleeping after going to bed at 5 am.

She groaned thinking of how hard school was going to be to get up for with the schedule she was used to keeping.

Her mom said, “I brought lunch because I'm not sure how much food would really be left and knowing you eat out a lot while I’m away. So sit down and we can talk about how your week was and why you weren’t there for any of my phone calls.”

Buffy opened the link between her and Spike and Spike readily answered with, ‘Lo pet. How are things going?’

Buffy sent a frown his way and saying, ‘How do I explain not answering the phone while at your place?’

Spike answered, ‘You spent a lot of time with your friends and doing homework? Say you did it at the library or somethin' luv.’

Buffy sent a nod towards him, ‘I’ll try that. How are you?’

Spike answered, ‘Missing you but okay. Playing a bit of poker in my place to pass the time until I am able to sleep.’

Buffy giggled and as her mom watched her, she tried to explain with, “Just glad to have you home.”

Joyce smiled at her daughter and gave her a big hug across the table almost knocking over the sodas she had gotten from the fridge, “I’m glad to be here too.”

Buffy quickly then went to answer Spike, ‘I’m missing you too. Just had to explain to mom why you had my giggling but I was able to do so.’

Spike quickly got an image of what had happened as though he was watching it.

He was amazed, ‘Wow pet, did you know you just sent me a playback of your giggling with mum?’

Buffy thought, ‘Wow.’

Spike nodded and said, ‘Wow indeed. Best get back to the game. The guys are staring at me strangely. Enjoy your mum pet and I’ll see you at sundown unless you say otherwise.’

Buffy blew a kiss at him and with the way the claim worked, he felt it actually on his lips and sighed contently causing the guys at the table to look at him as though he was a mutant.

Spike quickly sent a kiss back and closed the link wanting to not make a bigger full of himself in front of his minions.

---

Chapter 29: Mother-daughter Talk

---

After thinking for a few minutes and eating in silence, Buffy decided it was time to have a mother-daughter talk and hopefully discuss the idea of Spike as her boyfriend.

Buffy explained to Joyce how she had met this great guy at school and how she, William, who had a nickname of Spike for liking to spike volleyballs in school, Willow and Xander had all been double dating lately during break.

Her mother was excited for her wanting to meet William tonight on their date to the Bronze.

Her mother was happy to hear that Buffy was meeting new people and had managed to obtain a possible boyfriend.

She was 17 years old and Joyce had met Hank in high school and she was worried Buffy wouldn’t meet anyone and have to live alone.

She never had any boyfriends in L.A. where they used to live so she’s thankful things are looking up for her in Sunnydale.

Perhaps this move was for the best even if she was now fatherless.

Joyce listened as Buffy described her classes, the assignments she had and her hopes of getting a place to move out by graduation.

She also said how she was planning to apply to UC Sunnydale for college to stay local to see her but yet have her own space to be out on her own.

Joyce frowned at how grown up her daughter sounded but realized she was 17.

In just a few months, she would be 18. It was hard to imagine her baby girl growing up but it had to happen eventually right?

Joyce decided to be completely open to this new side of Buffy and told Buffy to call Spike and ask him about coming to dinner tonight before they head off to the Bronze.

Joyce also asked Buffy to ask him what he liked to eat and Buffy said she didn’t have to ask. She already knew.

She listed off a short list of items she had seen Spike really enjoy and Joyce mentioned spaghetti and Buffy, after a mental check with Spike, said spaghetti would be fine. She took the phone to pretend to call Spike to invite him over to the house at 6 knowing it would be dark at 5:30 for a dinner before patrol and hopefully a Bronze trip.

This would be the first Bronze trip that they had ever made.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Spike agreed to everything Buffy had requested, even a Bronze trip.

Buffy even called Willow and Xander after looking up their number in the phone book to invite them to a Bronze trip.

Willow commented on how Buffy hadn’t answered any of her phone messages over the past week and Buffy explained that she had been away hoping that lie wouldn’t get her in trouble.

She had been away, just in Spike’s lair not really on vacation. But it had been like a vacation.

Buffy picked up the book Withering Heights deciding to do her report for English class on the book that Spike had encouraged her to borrow and deciding so far she really was enjoying it.

She smiled to herself as she spent the next few hours enjoying reading.

Joyce smiled seeing how happy Buffy seemed and how she was glad to see she was taking the time to do her work including ready for class.

She was a senior and she needed to really buckle down to get good grades to get into a college.

Perhaps these new friends and boyfriend of her was just what Buffy needed.

The move seemed to be paying off.

Joyce loved her job and was really enjoying the ability to travel and looked forward to meeting Buffy’s first boyfriend tonight.

Life seemed good as she went into her office to type up her inventory for the new art pieces she had gotten from her trip.

---

Chapter 30: Meeting Mum

---

Well Buffy was nervous to say the least.

Spike kept trying to send reassuring thoughts and feelings her way but she was just a bundle of nerves.

She spent 30 minutes making a huge mess of her room and then another 30, after picking a flirty black dress with black sandals, cleaning it up.

Then she took a long bubble bath filled with her favorite vanilla scent knowing Spike loved that smell as much as her.

While shaving, she realized shaving in her tub was so much easier than his shower but she had decided to make the best of it there and not complain.

She then put on her outfit and set up her makeup to be perfect well as perfect as can be.

Her skin was a little paler than she was used to but she was thinking it was because she had spent all week in a lair not seeing much sunlight.

She figured with school this week, she would spend lunch catching much-needed waves of sunlight.

And with those last thoughts, the doorbell rang so Buffy’s mom went to get the door.

Joyce was met with a gorgeous guy dressed in black leather with blond hair spiked back holding a dozen roses and a bunch of daisies.

He handed her the daisies and gave her a smile saying, “Lo Buffy’s mom. Nice to meet you.”

Joyce was at once smitten with the guy thinking he was perfect.

His manners seemed nice as he thanked her for inviting him to dinner and he even brought her and Buffy both flowers.

Tasteful flowers at that.

The black leather coat that bellowed around as he wandered around the foyer and the black tee covered by a red shirt and his black tight jeans, left much to the imagination but fit his personality it seemed surprisingly well.

His boots were a bit much but seemed to also fit him.

She could see why her daughter would seem so in love with him even after just a week and half of them dating.

She smiled and yelled for Buffy and offered him a seat on the sofa while she went about dipping out plates for them all.

Buffy came down the stairs and Spike immediately stood up looking at his goddess.

In her black dress accented by the cross she always wore and red headband in her hair, she looked amazing.

He stuttered a, “You look amazing pet” and opened the claim for a minute just to let her feel how amazed he really was by her appearance and she smiled and blushed and replied, “You don’t look so bad yourself.”

Spike grinned feeling how sexy she thought he looked through the claim but instead of responding about it, handed her the roses.

Buffy simply beamed a smile in awe since she had never gotten flowers from anyone in her life before, much less roses.

She gushed about how beautiful they were and took them into the kitchen to put them in a vase along and Joyce offered them a place at the table.

The meal went surprisingly well.

Spike told her he was an English major at UC Sunnydale rather than high school and mom took that well.

Buffy didn’t actually say she met him at school so anything Spike said, would be true in her eyes.

He stated he was 20 years old, which again didn’t seem to bother her mom.

He had the perfect manners and the perfect answers to everything.

He only had to tap into his knowledge of Victoria England to really know what to say and how to act.

He was surprised at how really easy that was.

At the end of the meal, Joyce simply adored him.

As far as she was concerned, he was from England, was the perfect gentleman and had returned to Sunnydale after a bad breakup.

None of it was false so would be really easy to tell her the truth someday if ever need be.

Buffy was simply overjoyed at how well it went.

After they said their goodbyes, Buffy realized once their patrol was done, she would be facing her new friends with Spike at a club.

She was a bit nervous about that but not as nervous as Spike would be around tons of people.

He asked Buffy, “Would you mind if on our rounds we stop by our place and picked up some blood. I’m a tad nervous about all the happy meals on legs in the club.”

Buffy laughed out loud at hearing them called Happy meals on legs but agreed eager to not have to worry about him attacking anyone due to hunger.

---

Chapter 31: The Scoobys

---

Buffy arrived with Spike at the Bronze after a quick patrol and stop at Spike’s for blood.

She was nervous about seeing Willow and Xander much less being on Spike’s arm but Spike smiled at her trying to ease her fears and expertly navigated her through the crowd of people and to the bar and ordered a diet coke for Buffy and a beer for him.

He grinned and gave Buffy a taste of the beer to which she made an awful face followed by ‘Arrgh’ which he found so cute he couldn’t resist laughing.

Xander and Willow noticed Buffy from across the room and made their way towards her.

They noticed the blond near her and reminded them of a Billy Idol wanna-be and Xander thought for a moment that the stranger was hitting on Buffy and perhaps

Buffy wasn’t interested but upon arrival they found them laughing with Buffy proceeding to spit out soda onto the counter as she laughed and the stranger holding his stomach from laughing so hard at something Buffy said or did.

He quickly took the napkin offered from the bartender and carefully wiped up Buffy’s face from the mess she made by spitting and then the counter and she smiled at him and lightly touched his hand and Willow and Xander could both see the sexual tension between them was really powerful.

Willow broke the tension and said, “Hey Buffy!” followed by Xander’s. “Hey Buffster, who’s your friend?”

Buffy smiled hesitantly at Spike who offered is hand to Xander and shook it in a firm handshake before saying, “Name’s Spike. I’m Buffy mate, err I mean boyfriend.”

Willow looked curiously at the couple not remembering Buffy mentioning a Spike before.

She then asked in a sort of squeaked voice, “So Spike, is it? Are you from L.A.?”

Xander looked at the blond then gasped, “Buffy quick, stake him. He’s a vampire!!”

Buffy laughed then and Xander and Willow both stood staring at the couple as both broke into laughter.

Xander looked from Buffy to Spike and said, “Why aren’t you staking him. He needs to die. This town is swamped with them and they are evil. Buffy get away!”

Buffy shook her head and set about moving to a table to better explain things without an audience.

They found a quiet booth and Buffy quickly told about Spike and her week.

She told them about the slaying, rescues, kidnappings, dates, meeting of the two families, but leaving out mating and sex talk.

Spike interjected sometimes and what was supposed to be a fun night of dancing, ended up being a 3 hour conversation of explanation.

In the end though, Spike and Buffy both felt better getting their relationship off their chests and having Buffy’s friends’ full support well if you count Xander’s, “I don’t understand it but I won’t stake him for your sake” as full support.

Willow seemed to think it was romantic and perfectly fine.

She and Buffy excused themselves for a minute to the bathroom leaving Spike and Xander who he now thought of as the whelp alone at the table.

Xander having felt uneasy around the guy all night and Spike not liking the anti-vampire vibe he was getting from the wanker were eyeing each other.

Xander broke the silence with, “I don’t know Buffy that well. In fact, this is the most I’ve learned about her in one single night but if you hurt her, I’ll hunt you in your sleep and stake you.”

Spike smirked at this and said, “You can try whelp but rest assured, I won’t hurt her. I love her and she’s mine and I don’t hurt those who are mine.”

With that Spike finished up his beer and ordered another while asking Xander, “You play pool?”

Xander nodded saying, “Sure do. Want to play?”

Spike gave Xander a nod and strutted over to the pool table scaring away the 3 boys that were playing and proceeded to play a game of pool with Xander while waiting for the girls.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Buffy and Willow went into the bathroom giggling.

Buffy found that now that she had Spike, she felt closer to Willow.

No longer was the third wheel vibe echoing from her and instead a close bond was forming as they giggled about how hot Spike was and how they had really met and how sex was and if the bite marks on her neck hurt.

Buffy told her even as they giggled back in the booth watching as the boys played pool, about the mating.

She had to tell someone. Willow was shocked and amazed and immediately promised not to tell anyone including Xander knowing Xander would probably wig out and do something drastic if he knew that Spike and Buffy were that close.

Willow asked tons of questions but it was mostly filled with girl talk and lots of giggling and joking around.

Buffy felt 20 pounds lighter as Spike returned to the table after male bonding with Xander and although he wouldn’t say they got along, they could tolerate each other.

Xander even confided in him that while he liked Willow, he was admiring a girl at school named Cordelia and had asked Spike how to break it to Willow that perhaps he might want to see other women before settling down with her at one day.

Overall it was a great evening for both couples and both walked back to the houses hand in hand.

---

Chapter 32: Back to regular schedule days

---

Buffy and Spike walked back hand in hand to her house.

He gave her a passionate kiss, and watched as she went into her room.

He took a quick walk around the block having to stake one of his minions who he found attacking a young girl and whistled as he found his way back to Buffy’s house.

Quietly and quickly he climbed the tree to sneak into her bedroom. Buffy smiled as she set her double alarm clock: one for an hour prior to sunset and the second an hour before school.

This was to be their new schedule and way to handle things.

Spike groaned as she kissed him passionately and together they quietly made love to her before redressing her for bed.

Spike donned his pants again minus the belt and snuggled her into his arms and promptly fell asleep.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

The next few weeks settled into a nice schedule.

School occurred in the morning after Spike would get up sneaking out before the sunrise.

He would give her a kiss when he left, making sure to re-tuck her in and redress himself fully before heading out into the night to return to his lair to finish the night’s sleep.

He got into regular poker games to fill up his mornings and his minions looked forward to his morning arrivals to pass the time until their bedtime.

He would spend more time sometimes at the widow’s house as well as Sam and Candy’s since time just was passing by so quickly.

The routine suited them both and no one seemed to complain even when Buffy was a little bit more tired on some mornings than others due to a later night of loving making.

Soon, Spike made a request of the wizard again. This time, it was asking about him coming up with a solution that would allow him to perhaps enter the daylight sometimes with Buffy even if not all the time.

He wanted to spend more time in the day time without burning to a crisp.

He wanted a future and was willing to do anything in his power to do so.

The wizard had bowed and promised to spend time researching such things as might make that possible.

Until the wizard's return, Spike spent his days as he could, sleeping, playing poker, and visiting with the friends as well as spending time with his minions especially Doyle and Dalton. They were his two best men.

Then at nightfall, Buffy and Spike would meet at Buffy’s for dinner which became a regular thing. They would then head out for a quick patrol then either return home to tutor Buffy and help her with her homework or for him to fill journals with poems sitting on Buffy’s bed with the door open which was Joyce’s rules while Buffy worked on her homework.

Then he would say goodnight, only to sneak into her room and make love with her.

He didn’t crave humans anymore and was quite satisfied with the tasting of Buffy on an every other day basis as to make sure she was never too weak and the blood supply from the hospitals that Dalton kept in great supply.

The hospitals had taken to blood drives and giving in return free meal tickets which really brought in the blood so they were throwing the extras out.

This is where Dalton’s and Spike’s supply came from. Spike had offered to help out a few mornings a week in exchange for the left over blood.

Spike got to be a wiz on the computer as he helped by inputting people’s blood types, birthdays and all the other important doctor/patient information.

He enjoyed getting to know the people and did no longer have to steal blood supplies.

Another minion named Doyle had approached Spike about also being allowed to drink blood from blood bags and was willingly given some.

He was also given a smaller room in the mansion for himself.

Things overall seemed to be going well. Spike’s minion population were diminishing but that didn’t bother him as the ones he had were loyal and protective of Buffy and him.

He no longer needed a large follower and the power he had felt over them.

He would rather have a few minions who were trusted and who had agreed to obey him as Doyle and Dalton had done than to worry about who his minions were feeding on in his absence.

Plus when Buffy would come to stay at his place, he didn’t have to worry about her being taken advantage of. Dalton and Doyle were both very protective of her.

---

Chapter 33: Old Friends

---

One day when Spike and Buffy were out on their normal patrol, Spike smelt a familiar smell and froze.

Buffy sensing something was wrong and feeling fear and hearing Spike’s thoughts fill her head but make no sense, she panicked and moved up beside him wondering what he was rambling about and why he was rambling about Angelus, Dru and Darla when she hadn’t heard their names other than in story form.

She suddenly felt her neck go in serious tingles as three vampires stepped out in front of her.

One was a blond with cute hair that almost made her appear as a high school student. She was wearing a short red skirt with a white tube top that made her appear much younger than Buffy was sure she was.

Next to her was a male, handsome but scary. He had brown hair that was poofy with a dark green v-neck shirt and brown pants that covered brown boots.

Next to him was Dru. She could recognize her from anywhere having heard enough stories from Dalton, Doyle and Spike about the crazy vampire. She was dancing around in a circle, singing about finding her dark prince finally but how he smelt of sunshine and goodness and how he was to be punished.

Buffy hugged herself closer to Spike feeling his arms go around her in a protective manner as she saw what Dru was wearing.

She was wearing a white dress that almost appeared virginal with long black hair. She was actually very pretty and she was holding a doll, she had started talking to that she called Mrs. Edith.

She had turned to Angelus saying, “No tea for Spikey. He has been a bad puppy. Mrs. Edith and I shall have to punish him.”

Angelus laughed an evil laugh and said to Spike, “So William. What I have heard from the pitiful few minions I have found left around here, is true. You have fallen into the patheticness of good. You were never worth my time. I always told Dru you would never amount to anything but horse shit but she never bought it. Now look at you. Drinking hospital bag blood, being with the slayer.”

He took a deep breath and roared in laughter, “You have mated yourself to the Slayer? God boy, did I not teach you anything? Let me kill her now and you can return with us. Dru has been lost without you and she convinced me to come over here and save you from yourself. So William my boy, come with me and Darla will drink her dry for you and you can return no questions asked. I’ll even make sure Dru doesn’t hurt you too badly for your betrayal.”

Spike tightened his grip on Buffy glaring at the three vampires before him stating, “There will be no touching of my mate, Angelus. She’s mine. Go to Hell and leave us alone.”

Angelus laughed and said, “You think we will leave you alone with that slut?”

Angelus shook his head as the other vampires followed in with his laughter.

Angelus continued, “You took up housing at the mansion I see. Mind if we join you?”

Spike roared stating, “I own it, it’s legally mind and I do mind mate.”

Angelus frowned a bit and Dru spoke up saying, “Mrs. Edith is whispering to me that we would be safer somewhere other than the mansion. She says that there are lots of good places for tea parties. Aren’t there Mrs. Edith?”

With that Dru spun her and her doll around as her white dress flared at her ankles making her look pretty dancing in the moonlight.

For a slight second Spike found himself longing for the days where Dru would come to him dressed like that and they would almost seem to be in love but then he remembered the pain of anyways being second to her Daddy and hugged Buffy even tighter despite her squeak in protest at him squeezing her too hard.

Spike instead stood straighter as he said, “Well we have places to go, people to see. Now bugger off wankers.”

Angelus laughed again and said, “Well we best find one of those new places Dru was rambling about to settle in.”

Spike looked horrified and sputtered out, “You plan to settle here then?”

Angelus grinned an evil grin and said, “We will be seeing lots of you and your mate. She looks real yummy. Perhaps I’ll let her see what a real man is like someday soon.”

Buffy shuddered and closed her eyes and Spike gave her another squeeze in reassurance and let her know in his thoughts he had no plans of Angelus getting anywhere near her.

Angelus cackled as he swung his arms around both Dru and Darla and disappeared into the night.

As soon as they were out of sight, Buffy broke down in tears afraid of their future.

She had never imagined meeting them face to face. They were powerful and strong and that Angelus wanted her and she was so scared.

Even being the slayer with three master vampires against her, it seemed hopeless.

Spike wrapped his arms around her pulling her into his lap as he smothered her with kisses and reassuring words, “Pet I will keep you safe. Promise. Have an idea on how to protect you but I’ll have to see about that in the morning. For now, let’s call your mates, let them know you aren’t up to seeing them tonight and call it an early night. Need to hold you tonight and feel you near me. Love you too much to let this get in the way of us.”

Buffy needed to be held so she put up no fight as he led her home and then snuck into her window to hold her tight all night.

---

Chapter 34: Plans

---

Darla walked into the room in a short red dress that was cut so low, it left nothing to the imagination and found Dru still cooing over Mrs. Edith and the failed attempt to convince Spike to come back into the fold.

Angelus had come back for a reason and Spike was not exactly it but a chance to torture his grand-childe was a chance he couldn’t pass up.

Perhaps he could do both of his plans and still enjoy his Hell on earth as well.

Darla spoke up in an attempt to figure out what was going on in Angelus’s mind, “What are the plans for this hellhole? I had thought we had returned to bring forth a demon not to play games with Spike and his wonder woman. This place gives me the willies. Our minions are all gone, only two are pretty much left and they were stuck hiding in this factory we are living in. Even our attempt to find any of Spike’s didn’t work out. He had them all turned loyal. It's too bad you dusted them. They might have been our ticket to get Dru off our backs. I know Dru would be a lot easier to deal with if Spike were along but can’t we just stick to the plan and find that demon you were looking for and open it up. I’m not too fond of opening Hell on Earth but it’s what you came here to do. I’d rather be in Europe in our all you can eat buffet that we had found. The locals were in such denial it was just heavenly.”

With saying that Darla cackled remembering how they had all they could eat from any of the locals and the other locals would just a blind eye and what was even better is it was a tourist area so always new appetizers daily who would never be missed.

Darla frowned thinking how she was stuck in this Sunny horrible place where the slayer would be watching their every move and where that messed up childe, Spike that Dru insisting on making would be by her side making their life a Hell on Earth. Which was worse? She couldn’t quite decide.

Darla’s thoughts stopped as she realized Angelus was talking to her, “I want Hell on Earth extremely but I’d also like to get my hands on that little mate of Spike’s and break her in properly. Then I’d have to decide to turn her and keep her as my slave so he could see Dru and that girl wooing over me as I control them or draining her dry and leaving her in Spike’s room on his bed arranged beautifully. Either way, I would love to have that.”

Dru heard this and went crazy yelling in a singsong voice, “My Dark Prince must be saved. The evil sunshine must be destroyed so my Spike can return to me. He has evil still inside of him. It’s growing and fighting its way out. My Spike must be turned to the darkness…”

With that she gave up her rant and returned back to cooing over Mrs. Edith who was apparently, “distraught” over the missing Spike.

Darla rolled her eyes saying, “I don’t know why you insisted on torturing that girl before turning her. She’s more trouble than she’s worth.”

After stating that Darla went to return to the office she had adopted as hers to watch over her new sex slave she had turned last night.

With Angelus busy trying to find Acathla, he was not going to be paying her much attention and this new sexy vampire, should do the trick quite nicely and should be awaking just in time for a nightly prowl and to a hot tumble in the sheets.

She grinned as she slammed the door shut so Angelus wouldn’t notice him before he rose and got strong.

---

Chapter 35: Watcher Assistance

---

Buffy woke up to the sound of her mom yelling out, “I’m off Buffy. See you in a week and half. I’ll be back in time for Thanksgiving. I left a list for you on the counter of things to buy when I return and feel free to invite William and Willow and Xander if you want. Bye honey!”

Buffy rolled over to spot Spike still sleeping snuggled up against her with his coat made to be a blanket over the curtains so no light came in.

She was glad her mom didn’t check up on her.

It was Saturday and with the scare last night of seeing Darla, Dru and Angelus, she didn’t want to leave Spike’s sight and he didn’t seem fond of leaving hers.

She snuggled back down to go back to sleep after grabbing the granola bar she had put on the table next to the bed after Spike had insisted she put breakfast there for when she woke up so she could easily go back to sleep.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Buffy had started meeting with Giles again after school and made a special trip with Spike in tow to his apartment to introduce him finally to Spike and see what information on how to better protect them both.

Giles answered the door and was surprised to see Buffy there and even more surprised to see a vampire covered in a heavy leather coat in the middle of the day sizzling still from the sun that had just been on him.

Buffy urgently said, “Invite him in please? Hurry he’s going to catch flames and I don’t want my boyfriend in ashes.”

Giles stuttered, “Come in both of you as he stepped back trying to figure out what was going in.”

After having found a dis-invite spell for one of his colleagues the night before, he figured he could just use it on this guy after Buffy was well.

Buffy sat down on the sofa and Spike sat down next to her laying his coat by their sides and she snuggled up against him looking as though she was very comfortable in this position.

‘Strange’, Giles thought then decided to break the silence with, “Who is this you are with?”

Buffy hesitated for a moment forgetting Giles had no idea who Spike was and then went into a simple explanation, “This is Spike probably known to you as William the Bloody. We are together and have been since I moved here over a month ago. He helps me on patrol. He knows all about me and has met my mom, Willow and Xander and even Cordelia doesn’t seem to mind him too much. He has saved me Giles. And we are here cause we need help. Can you help us?”

Giles stuttered trying to make sense of his slayer with a vampire and couldn’t get passed it as he said, “He’s a vampire. He drinks blood from his victims and leaves dead people around. You can’t possibly be serious about this.”

Buffy frowned not wanting to deal with this talk now when her world was about to crash.

Spike had pains from being hungry and she was feeling hungry herself and she was hoping this would be a quick spot of playing research, and they would be able to go back to Spike’s place, make love, eat, return to see Giles after having the wizard visit which Dalton had set up for sunset.

She had it all set up in her head and this delay wasn’t accounted for but she sighed and answered, “He drinks leftover bagged hospital blood. He works at the hospital and earns some money and in return for his help in registering patients, he gets free blood bags. As I said before he helps me slay his own kind. What more could you need to know?”

She looked at Spike dreamily and Giles sighed knowing she had a point but he didn’t see this ending well but instead decided to deal with Buffy’s reason for being over here, “So what do you need from me?”

Spike chose at this point to answer, “Darla, Drusilla and Angelus Aurelius are in town. Looking to cause some trouble. Imagine they really didn’t come here to collect me and since they didn’t know about Buffy here, I don’t expect it was to seek her out either. That just seemed to be the idea of a bonus. Knowing Angelus, he returned for some big bad reason. Probably to destroy the earth or some jazz. Need to know why and how and if possible soon, so we can deal with it and move on.”

Giles frowned and got up and took out a book Spike recognized, “Um, watcher guy, that book isn’t really that accurate. The dates are off, a few of the stories are embellished and Dru’s background is wrong as is mine. But the basic ideas are correct. We were the four worst vampires. Wreaked havoc where we went. Caused a few wars, ate thousands of people, made thousands more vampires. Darla was a prostitute as was expected. Angelus was a womanizer and a drunk…not just a pleasant. Drusilla had been a nun or was on her way to become a nun and was tortured to death pretty much before becoming a vamp. And me well I’d rather not say until I get to know you better.”

Giles nodded respecting his decision and went about reading the huge passages in the book.

Buffy noticing he was already on his way to research said, “We are hungry and I need more sleep and so we will be back at nightfall. We got some errands to run before heading back here. So we’ll be off.”

Giles not even looking up from his reading said, “Sure. See you later.” And continued reading as Buffy snuck off with Spike back to his place.

---

Chapter 36: Trouble

---

Buffy and Spike talked to the wizard and he performed a protective spell over the cross Buffy had been holding which prevented anyone related to Spike from harming her or touching her.

The only thing that made them exempt is a blood bond.

The wizard advised that Dalton and Doyle who were loyal to Spike, be blond bonded to Spike as well as Buffy, as master/slave for these minions in case Spike needed their assistance in the future with protecting his mate.

Spike agreed it was wise. The wizard also told Spike of a legend he had found called the Gem of Amara.

Two vampires in love, were cursed. One was cursed into a tiny ring and the other into a necklace for all of eternity. The necklace was said to have been destroyed by the wizard but the ring was said to have been stolen from by a pirate.

Spike found this information interesting and asked the wizard to do some more research to see where the treasure was buried when the pirate died. With this information they went to see Giles.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

On the way to Giles’s they ran into Angelus, Darla and Drusilla. Drusilla was dressed in a black dress that made her skin appear even more paler than normal.

Darla was dressed in a red button down shirt and a plaid skirt with black tights making her blond hair and skin appear very pale and Angelus's was gray open button down shirt over a black tee with black jeans.

He glared at Spike and Buffy when he spotted them saying, “Going somewhere?”

Spike answered pulling Buffy next to him, “Sure are. I’m sure you aren’t heading in the same direction so moesy along.”

Buffy frowned feeling her nervousness and tension rise.

Without thinking she thought loudly, ’Damn it I’m the slayer. Meant to kill these vampires. Why am I so afraid?’

Spike sent back thoughts, ‘Cause they are bloody scary that’s why. We will get them pet. Promise.’

Suddenly Dru started singing and Buffy got annoyed yelling, “Why don’t you just leave this town. It’s obvious you aren’t wanted here and if you go back to Prague or anywhere else, we will leave you alone. You can live happily ever after doing whatever it is vamps do including feed. Just stay out of my town.”

Spike smiled feeling very proud of Buffy but Angelus wasn’t proud and instead very pissed.

Dru started singing about a demon bringing the darkness to the world and how all the little sunshine in the world will suffer being stuck in the fire.

Spike looked at her weirdly but took note of what she was singing about knowing it was probably part of Angelus’s plan.

He turned his focus on her despite Buffy’s obvious distress as Spike stepped forward to Dru and grabbed her by the arms saying, “What Demon pet?”

Buffy stood in horror watching Spike hold Dru as Dru began to sing, “The Demon is sleeping but daddy will wake him and when he does, he will rule the world.”

Then she started twirling around asking Mrs. Edith if she liked torture and fire.

Spike released Dru getting the information that he didn’t know before and stepped back and pulled Buffy to him and said, “Let’s go Slayer, and leave these three alone for the night.”

Dru skipped off moaning about her lost prince in the sunshine and Darla and Angelus followed her mumbling about crazy Dru and ruining their plans.

Spike went with Buffy to Giles’s place in hope for some assistance.

---

Chapter 37: Research

---

Spike relayed Dru’s singing to Giles and he turned pale.

He picked up a book he had been researching for a friend and turned to the page he had book marked.

He said in a serious tone, “This piece of stone, a friend of mine asked me to research. It’s in Sunnydale, freshly uncovered last week. It was a world newsworthy occasion as it was seen as older than anything we have ever found including possibly even earth itself. We don’t know much but what we do know is it has a legend behind it. It was said to be a powerful demon that was turned to stone. He was said to have wanted to suck all of the earth into Hell which would match Dru’s ramblings.”

He turned towards Spike and said, “Did Angelus make a habit of ruining the world?”

Spike shook his head, “Never saw him try but according to Dalton and what information he could gather in demon bars, Angelus was run out of Prague by a mob. It injured Dru and weakened him. He might be on a serious God kick.”

Giles nodded and explained rubbing his glasses, “That’s what I was afraid of.”

Buffy looked at both males and said, “So what do we do?”

Giles sighed and picked up the phone saying, “First I make sure that stone is under careful observation. Then we get some sleep and meet up tomorrow afternoon to regroup.”

He looked at Spike and said, “Feel free to let Buffy come alone if it’s easier. Only vamp with an invitation to here is you.”

Spike frowned knowing Joyce was out of town and there was no way he was letting Buffy out of his sight. He shook his head at Giles and said, “No mate. We are together for the next week and half at least. Buffy’s mum is out of town for that long and we will be staying at the mansion. You can find us there. Best call this number first.”

Spike handed over his new phone number that belonged to one of his newly staked minions. At least something came from the guy.

He was snacking on teens when Spike staked him after taking away his phone.

Giles took the number and nodded and walked them to the door.

Spike kept Buffy close as they went and did a quick patrol that was surprisingly full of freshly risen vampires that they could guess had been made by Angelus, Darla and Dru and then went home to make love then sleep until the following afternoon.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Dru was wailing really loud about missing her dark prince.

She had picked out a human for her and was insisting she turn him and made him into a new dark prince claiming Spike would never join her again.

Angelus was tired of her wailing and really didn’t want another ‘dark prince’ to deal with.

Spike was never very good and can’t imagine Dru’s new ‘pet’ being any better so he refused to have Dru turn him.

So instead Dru played with him, making Jesse moan in pleasure before crying out in pain.

Angelus rolled his eyes and said, “After the demon I hired to kidnapped Buffy during the day does his work, we will be able to turn Buffy, give Spike to Dru, then nothing should stand in our way for Acathla."

Darla cackled then stated, “You sure you want to destroy the world?”

Angelus laughed and said, “Yeah because no one has done it before. I’ll be ruler over all the world and all that is in it.”

Darla grinned, “Free food with no one able to stop us. It will never be daylight, and no more slayers. Life will be perfect.”

Angelus nodded and grinned at Darla before watching as his minions dragged the stone demon into the place. “How did it go? Well I trust? Any problems?”, Angel bellowed to the minions including Darla’s latest sex slave, Riley.

He spoke up first saying, “No problems at all. We went in, moved the demon, and slipped out. No one will notice for a while and no one followed us. The place was surprisingly empty. I guess they didn’t value it too much.”

With that Riley cackled and Darla, and Angelus followed suit along with the other minions.

Dru slipped out of her room leaving Jesse behind still chained as she started singing to the demon a lullaby.

Angelus looked to Dru and exclaimed, “Dru it can’t hear you.”

Dru whispered with a grin as she ran a finger over it’s stone face, “It’s only sleeping. Shhh” and continued to sing the lullaby.

Angelus went into his office as Darla dragged off Riley with her leaving Dru alone singing to the demon.

---

Chapter 38: Again?!

---

Buffy slept snuggled up next to Spike not realizing that even though it was daylight, there was danger lurking.

Buffy had to go to the bathroom and she wandered into the bathroom and closed the door to do some thinking about all they had learned from Giles.

Suddenly out of no where a demon bounded into the room and knocked her over the head before she could even make a noise.

The demon then snuck out of the room leaving Spike to sleep through the whole ordeal and proudly taking Buffy back to the factory.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Angelus cackled and Dru moaned saying she wanted her dark princess, not the sunshine but Angelus ignored her happy to have Buffy in his clutches.

He knew it was only a matter of time before eventually Spike would find his girl but since she was unconscious the claim wouldn’t work therefore her had time.

He told the demon to chain her to the wall and then gave the demon the money he had promised.

It didn’t matter he had stolen the money from a demon of the same kind the night before that he had killed.

The demon took the money and disappeared into the daylight.

Dru started to wail about her dark prince never returning to her and how she wanted to have tea parties with Mrs. Edith and Spike soon.

Angelus was just about enough of Dru and was about to do her some damage when he thought about a different approach, “Dru dear, why don’t go to check on Jesse. See if he needs anything before he awakens in a few hours. Make sure he has fresh blood, a fresh kill and is dressed to go out so that he can go right out and feed when he wakes at sunset. Now be a good little girl for daddy and go.”

Dru giggled happily remembering her new toy and took her doll and went to check on Jesse as asked.

That left Darla, and Angelus with Buffy as well as a wizard. The wizard was chanting but Buffy was still out cold.

Darla whispered to Angelus, “Will this really work so the claim will not be able to be used?”

Angelus grinned and nodded, “It might even break the bond.”

Darla grinned, “Really? I thought claims were unbreakable?”

Angelus nodded and said, "They are but not all the parts of a claim are unbreakable. If I dual claim her as I turn her, She’ll be mine. I’ll have a Sire powers over the girl. Any desire she has for Spike will be over powered by her desire for me. Then we get to watch Spike suffer.”

Angelus cackled and Darla grinned liking the plot to turn the slayer a lot more than the plot to end the world but she knew that he was actually planning to do both.

He would firstt turn the slayer, then end the world.

She wasn’t fond of the idea of hell on earth but she figured food would still be a readily source and people could be tortured so she went along with the idea.

So she asked, “How long before the charm is done and how long before Buffy wakes up?”

Angelus shrugged and said, “When she wakes up we will turn her."

With that Darla went back to her pet, Riley and Angelus went back to read some passages on how to open the stone demon. He knew the time would be soon.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Spike woke up to find the bed next to him cold.

He wasn’t too concerned until he tried to find her with his claim and couldn’t sense her.

He figured that she had fall asleep somewhere and went into the bathroom but again she was not there.

He roared and both Doyle and Dalton entered the room in serious concern.

Spike roared again and demanded, “Did you see anyone take Buffy? Did you see anything tonight?”

Both minions shook their heads and Spike could sense from both of them that they were telling the truth and would have told their master if they had seen anything.

Spike growled and noticed it was sunlight.

He was pissed off. Someone had taken Buffy. Or did Buffy wander off?

Spike decided to run and check her house in case she just went back there to find something and fell asleep.

He threw two blankets towards his minions and grabbed his leather coat and demanded, “Follow me.”

They didn’t even question his determination to walk in the sunlight only covered by a jacket.

When they got to Buffy’s house, they realized it was still indeed empty.

Spike wandered through the house not even noticing the windows weren’t pulled as they always were when he entered and he wasn’t yet in flames. He was so upset he didn’t even think about such things.

He checked the whole house but then noticed his spike started to hum.

He knew somewhere Buffy was awake, but the claim wasn’t working.

He roared really upset and went outside again grabbing his jacket and they took off to the factory where he knew Angelus, Darla and Dru were staying.

He wasn’t sure it was them who had taken Buffy but finding a bunch of wankers from the council would take longer than to find the vampires.

Wherever Buffy was, she was not answering the claim. That scared him.

Say they already turned the slayer. Did that charm keep her as safe as it was supposed to?

The charm started to hum leading him to where his Buffy was which was in the direction of the old factory outside of town.

---

Chapter 39: Force shield

---

Meanwhile Buffy had started to awaken. She felt the cross on her chest pulse in life but decided to give no indication of such.

She tried to call to Spike in the claim but find nothing.

She was cold, and chained to a wall. Definitely not being held.

She frowned trying to get her surroundings.

Just then Angelus laughed in front of her and she turned her head to notice Angelus and Darla coming towards her.

She flinched as Angelus reached his hand out but the touch never came.

The cross repelled him back creating a force shield around her.

Angelus hissed and Darla exclaimed, “What the Hell was that? I knew we should have kept that wizard here.”

Angelus hissed and tried again still unable to touch her.

Darla yelled for Riley and instructed Riley to take a blanket off the bed and wrap himself in it and bring the wizard back here.

He couldn’t have gotten too far and then watched Angelus try to taunt the girl thinking perhaps it was her force shield that kept her safe.

If he teased and taunted her, she would lose her guard and he would be able to touch her then.

He could not see the cross as it was hidden under her clothes.

He said, “So Slayer, you know Spikey boy, is just using you. He likes Slayers. He has killed two you know? He likes to lure them into his fold, make them feel special and then slaughter them like sheep. You are safer with me. I won’t pretend to like you. Spike will.”

Buffy shook her head not believing him for a moment knowing Spike loved her.

The claim had told her so even if he hasn’t so much as said it.

Angelus noticed her discomfort but also noticed it wasn’t as strong as he would have liked and continued, “Did you know he spent 120 years with Dru, his sire? He worshipped the ground she worked on. Did everything she asked, including bringing her innocent children so she could torture and slaughter them and bringing her mothers with children still in the womb for her to play with and slaughter. I drove her crazy you know. She was my greatest masterpiece. I killed every member of her family in front of her, every member of her nunnery in front of her and then tortured her for over a month slowly killing her only to let her heal again. He never talked to her, and slowly drove her insane. And Spike loved her. He always said how beautiful she was and how much he needed her. No matter what she did, she did no wrong in his eyes. Think you will ever have that? You won’t, know why? Watch this.”

With that he roared, “Dru come here.”

Dru came completely naked and covered in what appeared to be some blood and Angelus asked gently, “Dru you loved Spike right?”

Dru shook her head and repeated, “I love my daddy. He loves me. He will always love me.”

She then preceded to start singing the song about how daddy will get her a mockingbird only Buffy was sure the reason the bird wouldn’t sing would be because Dru killed it.

Dru then began to sing a lullaby to the stone in the corner.

Angelus rolled his eyes and said, “I tell you dear, it can’t hear you.”

Drusilla shook her head and still insisted, “Shhhh. It’s only sleeping. It can hear us and can’t wait to have tea with us.”

Angelus whispered to Dru, “Go play with your precious pet. He should be awake in about an hour.”

Dru skipped off happily as Angelus said to Buffy, “Does that look like the same girl that was with Spike for 120 years? She wants me, not him. You will want me too and Spike will want his Dru. She really is a beautiful creature isn’t she? Perfect in every way.”

Buffy was disgusted. She had had no interest in seeing Dru naked much less watching Dru sing to the stone thing and then to Angelus.

She took a second look at the stone thing. She realized this much be the demon that Giles and Spike were discussing.

Perhaps if she was able to get away, she could get to it and do what? She wasn’t sure.

She sighed as Angelus once again tried to touch her and he still couldn’t. He yelled to Darla to try.

She was standing in the corner and took a finger thinking she might be able to do it but instead she again bounced off the barrier.

She frowned and said, “It’s strong. Almost like a house barrier.”

Angelus nodded not understanding what was going on. Darla frowned realizing Riley hadn’t come back yet.

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

Spike, Doyle and Dalton arrived at the factory. The sun would be going down soon.

Spike took his jacket and rushed into the factory leaving Doyle and Dalton to deal with the minions at the entrance and even the one that had been racing from the factory.

Doyle was surprised when he found that kicking the guy hadn’t left his pants hissing from being burnt.

He hesitantly punched the guy and his hand didn’t catch fire.

He nervousnessly took his arm out of the coat and swung it around the guy who dropped his blanket and dropped into a pile of ashes but Doyle didn’t catch on fire.

He was out in the sunlight and able to walk around.

He was confused but didn’t have time to give it a second thought as he raced him to assist Dalton with the other minions of Angelus, Darla and Dru.

Spike quietly snuck into the mansion and the sight he saw before him was amazing.

Angelus was taunting his Buffy and he tried to touch her but the force shield bounced him off.

Spike smirked thankful he had that wizard friend. He was sure paying off.

Spike looked around the room trying to think of a plan.

There was a stone demon in the corner, which he guessed was the one Giles was talking about but they were ignoring it with all their focus on Buffy.

Spike couldn’t even sense his minions and how their fight was going thanks to whatever curse or spell Angelus has this place under so he had to trust that they would keep the minions off them.

Spike wondered where Dru was but decided his real concern was the shackles that Buffy was in. He came up with a meager plan.

He would tease Angelus hoping that this might buy enough time to have Doyle and Dalton return to save Buffy.

Since the blood bond, they would be able to touch Buffy where as Angelus, Darla and Dru could not or any other minions he had could not.

Spike decided that this was as good of a plan as any.

He already knew that Darla couldn’t be bothered with blood shed and ash.

Even as he stood there, Darla looked antsy and stated she was going back to play with her pet for the next hour before sunset as he had just arrived empty handed.

Angelus growled but didn’t say anything.

Darla called after him, “If anything changes, just give a shout ok?”

Angelus growled in response and started taunting the slayer again hoping to break her without touching her.

---

Chapter 40: The plan

---

Spike jumped out of the shadows and said, “Lookie, lookie. What do we have here? Looks like my slayer is all nice and safe and tucked into chains while Angelus is all upset and growling. Isn’t quite what I expected.”

Spike decided to even go one up on pissing off Angelus by leaning over and placing a gentle kiss on Buffy’s lips showing Angelus that Spike can touch his goddess but Angelus could not.

The plan worked and Angelus roared into action.

At that moment Doyle and Dalton were rushed into the room with still a few minions fighting them.

Darla and Dru stayed out of sight still as Spike continued his taunting, “What’s it feel like grandsire to know I have something you can’t? You took Dru from me, Darla always wanted you but see the slayer here, and she wants me. Lets me touch her and kiss her but she won’t let you. Doesn’t it feel great to know you aren’t wanted?”

Angelus really mad now started to fight Spike.

He lunged at Spike hoping to kill him fast so he could focus on turning the slayer.

He didn’t really care if that wasn’t his original plan.

Dru would get over it. She always did.

If Dru was good, he might even give her the slayer to play with before he totally broke her.

With a grin he announced, “Don’t worry you’re little head about it childe. When you’re dust, we will get a wizard in here to break Buffy’s magic and then I’ll turn her. But she won’t remember you. They only remember their sires don’t they?”

Spike rushed Angelus knocking a fist into his face, which made Angelus laugh at the pain before kicking Spike in the stomach.

Spike doubled over for a second then jumped to his feet determined not to let Angelus win.

Angelus and Spike started trading blow for blow.

Blood was pouring out of each of their systems as they continued to kick, bash and punch each other into oblivion.

Buffy was a little nervous watching the fight but they appeared to be equal or close to it.

Although Spike was getting the advantage on Angelus slowly probably due to the amount of blood he had taken from her today during their love making fest.

Spike and her had made loud passionate love about 5 times today before finally going to sleep.

He had taken a lot of blood and had apologized to her giving her juice and cookies to make up for it.

Buffy just couldn’t get enough of being bitten though. It always made her orgasm.

Buffy shook her head realizing she was watching a fight to the death and she was thinking about orgasms?

What was wrong with her! She watched as Spike managed to kick Angelus and have him down as Doyle and Dalton finally had finished dusting all the minions that were in sight.

They rushed over to Buffy unable to get the chains open.

Buffy struggled but they were really tight.

Doyle whispered, “Don’t worry slayer. We will find the key.”

With that he started to search around the room looking for the keys. Surprisingly he couldn’t find it so he started looking in the piles of dust for keys.

Stlil not finding any keys, he motioned to Spike that Angelus must have the key on him.

Spike immediately knocked Angelus off and landed on him quickly holding him down for a minute while he frisked him and yanked the chain off that held the keys sending it through the air to Doyle as Spike got thrown far off Angelus finally.

Angelus turned around and noticed the sword he was planning to use on Acathla behind him.

He turned and took it and decided since the plan was to release Acathla, now was as good as a time as ever.

He cut himself on his hand and placed it on the stone demon, which immediately began to shake.

Dru and the wizard had worked earlier to set up the other steps and that was the last step the wizard had said that was left.

As the stone demon began to shake, Angelus cackled and said, “You are too late to save the world, why bother to save your Slayer?”

He taunted Spike swinging the sword at him as Spike dodged and jumped to avoid the blows.

So far Angelus had been swinging so wildly, nothing had hit Spike.

Buffy was almost free thanks to Doyle and fall towards the ground as Dalton caught her and placed her lightly on her feet.

She grinned and said thanks as she rubbed her wrists and noticed Darla and some other guy was coming out of a room sneaking up on Spike.

She figured while Spike and Angelus fight, she would handle Darla.

She went into the first room breaking a chair which happened to be wooden and made a fake stake and put it in her pants and came out of the room in time to face Darla.

Darla laughed and said, “The little slayer is free? I see Spike has been feeding from you. Makes you weak don’t you think?”

Buffy shook her head and said, “Actually feels quiet good but I can pretend to be weak if you would like.”

Darla grinned thinking she must be weak. She had been chained to a wall for 4 hours, using magic like crazy which always weakens a person and had been drank from in the last 7 hours.

These combined would make anyone weak, including a slayer.

So Darla grinned thinking she was about to have her first slayer death under her belt. About time since everyone always talked about Spike’s two. At least she would have one and what’s sweeter is that she would have the one Spike was mated to.

She lunged into vamp face and fought Buffy with full-renewed strength.

Riley leaned back against the wall watching his master in action.

He wouldn’t interfere. He knew well enough that Darla didn’t like interference of any kind and if he wanted sex tonight, he would let her fight fairly.

He glanced over at the fight in the corner of the room.

Angelus was hacking towards Spike with all his strength but instead of hitting Spike he was hitting the wall, floor, various objects were crashing to the floor with the force of Angelus’s sword.

He knew both were tiring and soon Spike would fall.

He turned his attention back on Buffy who was actually winning.

She had Darla pinned to the ground with a stake above her head.

Riley jumped up to protect his master just as Darla looked at Riley yelling do something as Buffy slammed the stake into her chest and exploded into a pile of dust.

Riley wailed and the pain of Darla’s death caused Angelus to falter for a minute allowing Spike to regain power of the sword.

He slashed and Angelus hitting him hard wondering why he didn’t feel the death as strongly but figured 4th generation and all, probably a weaken link.

Dru ran out of the room and started wailing and Spike knew he had to comfort her and slammed the sword into Angelus’s stomach hoping that would help and then pinned in with the sword into demon that really had started to suck things into his casket.

It was really opened and gapping but with Angelus attached to it, Angelus screamed as did the demon and both plunged into the depths of Hell and the stone casket was closed once again.

---

Chapter 41: What now?

---

Buffy quickly threw the stake towards Riley and dusted him finishing off what she needed to do and turned to see Spike comforting Dru.

Tears began to fall from Buffy’s eyes but she knew this would happen.

She had sensed he wasn’t over Dru.

Instead Dalton looked from Spike to Buffy and fell in step behind Buffy.

Doyle didn’t follow Buffy but didn’t go to Spike either.

Buffy sighed and dusted herself off and walked out into the night leaving Spike and Dru behind knowing she had lost Spike forever.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Buffy didn’t know where to go as she walked through town followed by Dalton.

Buffy suddenly stopped and looked at Dalton and gave him an hug and said, “Go back to Spike. I’m no vampire. I’m going to go away to L.A. or something. Dru and Spike will need loyal people. Thank you for saving me Dalton.”

Dalton nodded noticing Buffy had already closed off the claim and watched as she went into her house where he could not follow, and saw her return outside with a large bag. Dalton whispered, “I’d like to stay with you mistress if that’s ok.”

She shrugged and asked, “Got a car?”

He nodded and she said, “Take me to L.A.?”

He agreed and together in silence they drove to L.A. in the beat up old red truck that Dalton apparently owned.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Dalton and Buffy raided a vampire nest in L.A. and quickly settled in.

She needed money and he needed supplies.

Luckily the place they chose, had been an apartment to someone at one point and had a fridge and microwave already in there.

Dalton managed to get his hands on two beds that had been tossed out in the trash by an apartment complex with it was renovated.

One wasn’t even in that bad of shape so he gave that one to Buffy.

He took the mattress that had a few rips and wasn’t so comfy.

They fell asleep immediately not even thinking about the fact that Buffy hadn’t had food in two days other than the cookies Spike had fed her after he had bitten her.

She woke up starved and noticed it was daylight out.

She tried to sneak out without Dalton but he wouldn’t hear of it.

The house was near a sewer entrance so they used that to try to get her around safely.

She figured that during the day she would be fairly safe but Dalton wouldn’t leave her side knowing that if they ever did meet up with Spike, there would be hell to pay if he had left her to get hurt.

Dalton reached the sewer entrance near the grocery store and she said to him, “Dalton stay down here and I’ll be back in a minute. I need food and…”

Dalton shook his head and pulled her back off the ladder and continued down the sewers.

She wondered what she was up to but was determined not to open any claim on any person in fear that Spike would be able to sense her.

Since Buffy felt as though she was in no danger, the cross at her chest lay nicely inactive.

She was thankful the homing device didn’t work unless she deemed it necessary or that is what she thought anyway.

She didn’t feel the humming.

She figured that meant it was inactive.

Perhaps Spike had not wanted her to use it on him and had deactivated them.

Buffy’s heart bleed as she continued to walk behind Dalton.

Dalton sensed and smelt the familiar scent of the hospital: blood, fear, tears, and disinfectant.

He knew they needed food for Buffy and blood for him. The hospital held both.

He didn’t know much about the food in hospitals but knew it was probably free for the grabbing.

Buffy looked at him questionably and he explained, “Free food, free blood. Best of both worlds.”

She nodded without a word and watched as he covered himself with a blanket trying to look as least conspicuous as possible but instead ended up looking like an old lady with a wrap over her head.

She giggled and watched as Dalton followed the signs to the cafeteria.

He slipped in telling her to wait here and slipped back out with a cart of food.

Buffy shook her head thinking, ‘As if that wouldn’t draw attention to them’ but surprisingly Dalton though of this and slipped into another room she noticed labeled laundry and returned with a laundry cart full of food covered with linens. “Very clever Dalton”, Buffy stated with a smile.

Dalton smiled proudly and said, “One more stop. Blood bank.”

Buffy nodded and followed him.

When they reached the blood bank she noticed it was fairly empty and she decided to try to distract the clerk since he was male while Dalton slipped in back and took what he needed and slipped back out again.

The plan went beautifully and they were in and out of the hospital within 30 minutes.

As they wandered back to the sewers, Buffy’s mind again went to Spike and she had to fight back the tears that wanted so desperately to fall.

She just wouldn’t think about him and that’s all there was too it.

She wiped her eyes and frowned but followed Dalton back to their new home where she nibbled a little on the fresh fruit Dalton had picked up for her.

She put the important food into the fridge as well as Dalton’s blood and fell back on the bed where she cried herself to sleep as Dalton tried to comfort her with a hand resting on hers knowing that no matter what he did, his mistress would be sad. She missed her mate.

---

Chapter 42: A New Life

---

Buffy and Dalton fell into a routine. They would sleep at opposite hours mostly.

Dalton staying awake as she slept in order to watch over her and she got a job at a local diner while he slept.

They really needed the money. She introduced Dalton to the others as her brother and with how protective he was of her, no one doubted it.

With Buffy’s first paycheck, they managed to get a small television, which was enough to entertain them both.

Dalton taught Buffy to play cards with the deck of cards Dalton had found in their new home.

Since it was Buffy’s home, no vampires could enter anymore other than Dalton since she considered him family plus he had an invite.

She still ached and longed for Spike. Sometimes it was so bad she begged Dalton to kill her but instead he would just give her juice and cookies and sing to her so ease her pain.

Sometimes Buffy seemed ill, but being a medical school graduate, he knew that she was only experiencing the pains of a broken heart.

He had actually heard of people just giving up their will of living and dying with unknown causes due to a broken heart.

It appeared as though Buffy would be having her life end the same way as she got up for work every morning, showered, putting on clothes she had brought from home.

The place still had electricity. She wasn’t sure how that was possible but it came equipped with a laundry room that worked.

So it was like a home away from home.

Dalton and her shared a room. Mostly because Dalton insisted on keeping her safe and since she never opened the claim, he couldn’t sense her at all so decided to sleep close in case he was needed.

They had found a sparing amount of furniture in the attic and Dalton had arranged Buffy’s bedroom with it.

It had a dresser for her clothes, a box for his, as well as a cabinet for her work items and to rest the TV on.

He had stolen some clothes from the salvation army boxes near the hospital and those are what he wore. They were simple, black with white like he liked.

They were mostly similar to hospital scrubs but he dressed them up with a shirt to cover over them. Buffy did his laundry along with hers without question

What started off as weeks, turned into two months.

Buffy was settled into her job although she was pale, miserable and looked dead.

If Dalton didn’t know better, he would think she would pass for a vampire. Only he knew she wasn’t dead, just dead inside.

Her work said nothing and continued to pay her as she was a hard worker. She would restock food, he would restock blood and that was their schedule.

Dalton still was protective of her but only at night when she slept. She was freely roaming over town now without a worry.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

One day while at work after her two months of working, a vampire came into the diner just before closing.

She eyed him since she was tempted to dust him but her coworker was there.

It had been a while since Buffy had dusted anyone and she was so tempted and had missed the action that came of a good vampire fight.

Her coworker said, “Listen I have to go. My wife’s having her baby. Can you close up?”

Buffy nodded knowing how excited Jim would be that Nessa was having her baby finally and watched as he left the diner.

As he left, 5 more vampires came into the diner. One whispered, “Slayer…”

Buffy shuddered. She was so out of shape it wasn’t funny.

Two months without working out or exercising at really allowed her muscles to become weaker.

She looked around for a piece of wood as she panicked. She panicked so much that Dalton was able to feel the claim from her and her panic.

Without thinking, he rushed outside noticing it was luckily nighttime and rushed to the diner to save Buffy.

Buffy ran into the kitchen to find a wooden spoon knowing any mess she made would be her fault and she would have to clean it up.

She dusted one quickly but the others realized they were dealing with a real slayer and went into fighting mode.

The four vampires circled her and threw punches and kicks at her and she was feeling them hitting her hard.

Without her tight muscles, they made her ache and cry out as she managed to only dust one more after much fighting.

She was tired and hurt and they seemed to still continue to throw punches and kicks at her.

She thought this was it, she was really dying. One last time she opened all the claims she had and felt Spike’s presence somewhere.

She whispered to the claim towards him, ‘I’m sorry Spike. I tried. I love you’ and with that she lost consciousness.

Dalton rushed in to see vampires on top of Buffy trying to bite her but the necklace was barely fending her off.

He was afraid but eager to protect his mistress. He broke a chair on the ground and picked up a piece of wood and impaled the closest vampire.

The other two turned their attention from Buffy to Dalton and one hissed at him, “You’re a minion and marked by the slayer?”

His eyes grew wide as Dalton dusted him as well.

The last minion quickly rushed towards the door and Dalton let him go as he lifted Buffy into his arms and laid her on the table then picked up the pieces of the chair and tossed them into a corner and took out her keys.

He lifted Buffy into his arms and took her outside the diner and locked the door behind him knowing she would kill him if something happened to the diner on her watched.

As he jumped into the sewer entrance not eager to deal with any vampires who were around and able to smell the potent slayer blood, he carried her home.

Buffy didn’t wake up for a while. He wiped the cuts he could see.

He was tempted to check her completely over but never having seen her naked, he didn’t feel it was right.

She was his mistress not really a patient. Besides, he could see no blood seeping through her clothes so he figured she was safe enough.

He laid her on the bed and sat next to her determined not to leave her side until she woke up.

---

Chapter 43: The Wait

---

After two full days of Buffy not opening her eyes, he was getting nervous.

He had taken to pacing in the apartment near her, drinking blood when he was hungry and only taking cat naps determined to be awake.

Suddenly he heard a loud noise downstairs and felt the familiar tingles of his master probing his mind.

He had been shutting it down and realized if Spike could actually managed to make a dent into the bond that he must be really really close.

Dalton let out a deep breath and patted Buffy’s hand and went downstairs to figure out what was going on.

Why would Spike even bother to come after Buffy after over two months of her being alone. It made no sense.

As Dalton rounded the corner at the bottom of the staircase he ran face to face with Spike who was blocked by the barrier to Buffy’s home.

Spike roared and demanded entrance. Dalton said come in and was surprised when Spike could enter the house.

He had needed an invitation when he first entered and couldn’t figure out how he was able to let Spike in.

Spike didn’t bother to worry about such things and rushed up the stairs taking two at a time and reached the unconscious Buffy.

He roared at Dalton, “What is wrong with her?” Dalton had also invited Doyle in who had followed Spike and Doyle looked at Dalton with pity only being able to partially imagine the trouble Dalton was about to be in.

Dalton climbed the stairs explaining, “She got attacked by five vampires. She was out of practice, out of shape. They overcame her. I saved her and dusted the vampires before they could break through the necklace but she was already unconscious. She hasn’t regained consciousness yet.”

Spike roared again demanding, “What does that mean? Unconscious?”

Dalton frowned knowing he wouldn’t like this answer but it was the best he could do to explain, “It means she is not awake but all her vitals work. Meaning there is no reason she should not be awake but since she isn’t it’s called unconscious.”

Spike frowned at the explanation and took Buffy’s hand lovingly in his and whispered not caring that both Doyle and Dalton were in the room, “Buffy luv, and wake up. I need you. I’ve been looking for you. The necklace wasn’t doing its job. There was no humming. I staked Dru and turned around and you were gone. I had no idea where you were. Please Buffy wake up. I need you.”

Still there was no sign of the slayer being awake.

Spike sighed and turned to the minions, “Leave us.” Dalton trembled not wanting to leave his mistress after being near her every day for the past two months and Spike looked down and noticed a make shift bed on the floor in the room near Buffy’s bed.

He sighed and called to both minions, “Dalton got another of those for Doyle?”

Dalton nodded and left the room to go back up into the attic to find a cot and brought it downstairs.

Spike replied when he saw it, “I need to be alone with my mate. You can take the room next door and I’ll call you if there is any change.”

Dalton nodded and whispered, “Blood is in the fridge as well as Buffy’s food. Microwave is in the corner of the room and the television is above her work clothes. She has clothes in the dresser and closet.”

With that Dalton backed out of the room giving a bow to both Spike and Buffy.

Doyle followed Dalton who was carrying both beds and a box of his clothes and had taken 4 blood bags from the fridge.

They were cold but Doyle sat next to Dalton on his cot and drank down the two cold blood bags as Dalton did the same with his.

It was a few minutes before Doyle braved whispering to his fellow minion, “We looked for you guys for months. Were you here the whole time?”

Dalton nodded. Doyle sighed and continued, “We couldn’t sense either of you. In fact I can’t even sense you now. I try to sense the master, mistress and you and it’s completely quiet. What is this place?”

Dalton shrugged his shoulders, “Found a few vampires in here the first night we arrived. Cleared them out and settled. We found furniture, and the mistress got a job to support us. I kept up my supply of blood as she did with her food. We pretty much settled in. Since we didn’t sense anyone wanting us, I figured Dru and Spike had settled in, managed to disable the mistress’s necklace and that we were left on our own.”

Doyle shook his head stating, “No Spike was frantic. He staked Dru to put her out of her misery and lie on the ground crying for what seemed like ages. He finally got himself together and he went to look for his mate and you before realized you both were gone. At first he thought the mistress was dead. It was so quiet in our heads. But the master wouldn’t give up. It was amazing seeing how much he loves her. I know vampires aren’t supposed to love. It’s a sign of being weak but I think it’s a sign of being strong. Imagine loving someone so much that every day for 2 months you go out and look around asking vampires, demons and humans alike where she might be with no trace. We even tried L.A. for a while but had no luck. I really thought you were dead until two nights ago when Buffy screamed inside of my head. Then went quiet again. The master mumbled something about the mistress and how she had spoke to him so he knew she was in L.A. but then swore and cursed the spike he wore saying it was no good since it wasn’t working. But instead of going to see the wizard he dragged me directly here. Think she will ever wake up?”

Dalton shrugged suddenly feeling extremely tired and closed his eyes to sleep hoping the mistress did indeed wake up for his master’s sake and his.

---

Chapter 44: Still Waiting

---

Already four days had passed by since Spike had found Buffy and Dalton in the apartment house.

It had been six days that Buffy had been unconscious.

Spike had helped Dalton steal a piece of equipment from the hospital as well as some feeding bags and liquid to feed her through her veins to make sure she stayed healthy.

Doyle even suggested at one point turning her but was promptly shot down by Spike who said she would wake up.

He knew she would wake up. Spike sat by her side every day and night.

He barely slept unless he was holding her. He barely ate unless Dalton forced him to by saying if he died, Buffy would too.

Doyle and Dalton kept the blood stocked, Dalton kept watch over Buffy’s vitals and kept her fed and hydrated with the hospital’s supplies.

Doyle even suggested taking her to the hospital but Dalton assured both Spike and Doyle that they could do nothing more for her than Dalton was already doing in a place where they could all be around her.

Spike was losing patience. He couldn’t sense her, couldn’t feel her.

The necklace was silent and still she stayed sleeping.

Spike suggested bringing Buffy back to Sunnyhell where she could at least stay in his mansion where the comforts of home were nicer than in this place.

They stole a u-haul truck from a repair shop that Doyle was able to perform the required oil change during the night and refilled the gas tanks and filled the u-haul with the fridge, microwave, the bed Buffy was sleeping on, the washer and dryer which would be an amazing surprise for Buffy when she awoke seeing how his mansion didn’t have one yet, as well as the dresser and television.

They figured it would be a great way to refurnish the house. They also grabbed the two cots, and picked up a couch on their way out of town, which was still in good condition and just needed to be recovered with fabric.

Dalton had the clothes items in the back of his car while Spike took Buffy in his laying her gently on the back seat, covered with a blanket.

Doyle was in charge of driving the truck.

They arrived in Sunnydale as it was just starting to be daylight.

Spike rushed Buffy in and Dalton set up the feeding tube and left her on Spike’s bed safe and sound as he went back outside to unload.

He noticed that both Spike and Doyle were out in the sunlight and they weren’t burning.

He put his hand outside and noticed he wasn’t burning. He whispered, “How?”

Spike laughed realizing that all this time Dalton hadn’t known and Doyle explained, “Slayer bonds. They make us able to walk in the sun.”

Doyle went out into the sun at this point and laughed at the sun poured down on his face.

He helped the other two unload the furniture. They put the fridge and television into a room for Dalton seeing how Doyle had taken over his room.

Spike had done some work on the place and had running water in every room and electricity throughout the house.

When questioned how it was done, he merely mentioned the name, “Xander” which meant nothing to Dalton but he shrugged and set the washer and dryer downstairs as Spike picked up the phone giving Xander a call asking him to come over when he gets a chance to hook up a washer and dryer.

Then put down the phone to wander back upstairs and resume his daily habits of watching over the sleeping slayer.

Two more days passed.

It had been longer than a week for Buffy to be out cold still.

Xander had come and talked to Buffy twice and Willow had come over and tears.

Joyce had been invited over once and had cried the whole time asking what had happened to her precious baby.

Over the past month, she had learned that Spike was a vampire, her daughter was the slayer and she had had many talks over a cuppa (hot cocoa). She had learned all about Spike’s life (well edited parts) and about Buffy’s destiny and what it meant.

She had gotten talks from Giles as well that had explained a lot.

Giles had only come over once but was too upset by the sight that he left.

Spike had contacted the school explaining to them that Buffy was in a coma and had been for almost three months hence her absences and Dalton had signed and used his medical degree knowledge to fill out the hospital forms they had retrieved to turn into the school to keep Buffy enrolled and graduating.

They appeared legit so Buffy was excused from classes until she woke up.

---

Chapter 45: The Consequences

---

Night after night which quickly turned into almost three weeks Buffy was old cold.

It was now into the middle of January and still no sign of the slayer awakening.

Dalton was starting to get worried and debated on telling his master what happens to people who stay in comas for too long.

Sure they were keeping her body healthy. For the last two months, a friend of Xander’s had been being brought by to care for the slayer’s physical needs such as keeping her leg and arm muscles fairly strong.

Dalton doubed that her brain had been properly cared for though. He didn't know much about the brain and the effects of being in a long-term coma.

They had no idea how to stimulate her brain to keep it from withering down into nothing.

Spike had taken to reading to her as well as talking to her.

Xander and Willow had taken turns talking to her about their days and about school happenings.

Even her mother had started coming on a regular basis to keep Buffy informed with her plans. She still went on her business trips quite a lot but when she wasn’t, she was talking to Buffy about anything and everything including memories, plans, and how much she missed her.

She was glad to see her so well taken care of by Spike but wanted her daughter back as well.

Spike had started telling Buffy stories of his past. He had planned to tell her when she was awake but figured this was great practice.

He was telling her now about how he had felt like no one now that Dru, Darla and Angelus were all gone and Buffy was in a coma.

He sighed and let the tears fall willingly as he told her about his fears about her not waking up, about her never walking in the daylight with him since he could do that now.

He explained how he couldn’t wait to see her graduate and really be there and how he was amazed by her strength.

He was really in tears as he explained how he had searched and searched for her for those months she was gone. The tears continued as he explained how it had been five months since he had seen her awake and alive in his arms and how that was much too long for anyone to suffer through and how he really needed her awake.

He was so tired after crying he was just about to drift into sleep as Buffy whispered softly, “Spike don’t stop now. I want to hear more about your fears so I can work on making them all better.”

Spike jumped up suddenly not tired at all and hugged her tightly crying still but now tears of joy feeling his fears disappear.

Buffy returned his hug feeling the claim open and feeling his emotions pour through.

She had been so used to only feeling her own, she was amazed by how much more powerful Spike’s were for her and how much pain he had really been suffering.

Spike whispered against her ear, “We are safe baby. Dru, Darla and Angelus are gone. Giles is running the council now since Travers had come snooping around and Doyle had killed him so we are safe. Really really safe.”

Spike pulled her away from him just enough to see her face and eyes and smothered her with kisses so thankful he got this chance again.

He kissed her lips, then her cheeks, then her ears, down to her neck, and sucked on his spot knowing in just a few moments, he would renew the bond making the emotions both were feeling, even stronger.

He kissed down her chest, stopping to tease and pull on her nipples with one hand as well as his mouth and then continued to kiss down her stomach as both of his hands moved up to caress and continue to tease her breasts.

He reached her pants and pulled them off so fast she didn’t even realize what was happening before she felt his lips over her clit and she moaned then felt his lips continued their assault down her legs to her toes and then back up to the inner parts of her legs until it again reached her clit.

He moved one of his hands from her breasts down to enter her with one finger than a second as she arched herself off the bed realizing how tight she was and how much she had missed this.

Five months without Spike’s kiss, touches and feelings was way too long.

Spike felt her squeezing him so tight and knew he just had to have her now.

He reached down to pull his shirt off his head and to yanked his pants down getting them stuck in his boots but not caring as he in one plunge to enter her.

She moaned and arched off the bed pulling his face towards her and kissing him deeply.

He moved frantically not caring how long this would last and only desperately seeking to mark her and claim her body again as his so never again would she leave.

As she withered under his hands all over her body, touching, tweaking, rubbing, and teasing, she begged Spike, “Please. Please, bite me. Please.”

Spike smirked wanting to do the same but wanting to hold off until she was just about to orgasm and instead continued his teasing and moved his lips down to one of her nipples to tease one while continued his hard pounding of her into the mattress.

Buffy arched her back and moaned loudly whispering, “please oh please Spike, please!”

Spike upped her feelings one more notch as he moved down one of his hands to rub her clit and this almost sent her over the edge.

As she began to plead and cry Spike knew the time was right as he kissed quickly up her neck to her shoulders and bit into her neck and swallowed one pull of her blood as she went spiraling out of control, clinging onto him for dear life and yelling out his name.

The power of the orgasm and the tightness and heat of being inside of her allowed him to pump twice and then he lost himself in his orgasm roaring out her name and the words “MINE! BUFFY, SLAYER YOU ARE MINE!”

Buffy nodded and whispered, “Yours Spike, always and forever” and then she bit Spike hard and renewed her claim stating, “Never leave me Spike, you are mine.”

Spike nodded and replied, “Yours, always and forever.”

With that, they collapsed on their bed and snuggled close to each other, content for now to rest in each other’s arms.

Both drifted off to sleep not even noticing that Buffy had pulled the IV out of her arm and the liquid had dripped a puddle to the floor.

---

@}-'--, --'--, --'--, -{@

---

Doyle opened the bond to Dalton and whispered, ‘I guess she’s awake.”

Dalton laughed and sent back, ‘You think?’

Doyle sent a laugh as well and said, ‘God I need a drink, want one?’

Dalton went to Doyle’s room and together they laughed and joked heading towards the bar to leave the master and his mate to make up and do whatever it is they do.

---

Chapter 46: 5 months later

---

It was graduation day. Buffy was excited.

She was seven months pregnant but was still able to walk down the aisle with her friends to graduate.

Just a month earlier she had walked down the aisle to marry Spike.

Her mother had been there as was Giles and her friends.

Giles had walked her down the aisle to see Spike standing there in his black tux as handsome as ever and at his side were his three best men, Doyle, and Dalton who were smiling happy to see their master and mistress joined in marriage standing next to Xander.

As Buffy had reached the spot she stood next to Spike, he had whispered, “You look amazing.”

She blushed and smiled at her soon to be husband shyly.

The truth is, she really did look amazing.

Anya, an ex-vengeance demon who was now hooked up with Xander, had picked out the most special dress she had ever seen complete with a touch of magic from Willow and Willow’s new girlfriend, Tara and her mother’s wedding veil.

The result was a beautiful white silk dress with sleeves made of lace and a high neck made of lace.

The lower part of the dress was silk with lace daisies spread over it which had been placed by Tara carefully.

Her hair had been designed by Willow. It was half up, half down, in spiral curls which Willow had taken great pains to make sure they were carefully curled by hand to surround her face perfectly and to finish the look, sparkles donned her hair and dress making her dress appear to twinkle in the sunlight.

Joyce’s veil was chosen and it too was enhanced with sparkles that made the tiara of daisies bright and shiny even though Joyce had first worn it more than 20 years ago.

She had little lacey tennis shoes on her feet that Dalton had found for her and had fixed them up to be as white as can be with a tad of bleach and man power and Willow had added a bit of sparkles to them as well.

Xander and Doyle had made the arch they were standing under as well as the bridge Buffy and Spike would cross over after being married to represent leaving the old behind and crossing over to the new.

The wedding was perfect. The sun was bright, barely any clouds in the sky.

A few friends from school were there, Candy and Sam as well as Becky were there, and the old widow was there along with some of her children and grandchildren.

Five new vampires had joined Spike's minions. An older vampire couple named Gary and Kenya as well as Lilac, a younger vampire who was around 25 and Tom who was around the same age and a young child named Polly.

Some of Joyce’s friends were there as well as some of Giles’.

Buffy sighed in memory of that perfect day and smiled happily realizing this was another important day.

She had already been accepted into UC Sunnydale and Spike and her had already managed to get the mansion almost in perfect condition.

Between Spike’s wages from the hospital he continued to work at and Dalton’s new doctoring job at the hospital, they had managed to get furniture into both rooms.

Xander and Anya had moved into one of the rooms since Xander had been working in a construction site and had been offered a job rebuilding the new high school during the summer in hopes to open it up again by fall.

Anya had bought the new magic shop in town after the owner had been killed by Angelus and turned into a minion of his to find out more information on the Acathla that had been imprisoned by the Council in a deep and dark room never to be found again.

Willow and Tara were planning to take a room for themselves while they went to college along with Buffy and had been moving their items the day before from their houses into the mansion.

Things were looking up. Giles and Joyce were dating so Giles had gotten rid of his apartment and moved in with Joyce to keep her company and traveled with her so she was rarely alone.

He had lost his job at the high school after it had been accidentally (or not so accidentally) blown up after saving the world from the mayor so the council position was now his full time job.

When he wasn’t traveling with Joyce, they were in England checking out things there making sure they were okay.

They often joined their trips to England with her buying trips to make life a little better on each of them.

She snapped out of her thoughts as she heard Xander’s name heard.

She watched as Xander walked down the aisle, shouted out to Anya who blew him a kiss before returning back to his seat looking quite proud.

Xander had come a long way.

Willow and Xander had always thought they would be together but they quickly decided that wasn’t best.

Although things didn’t ever happen with Cordelia, he had met Anya by accident and fell in love.

Willow around the same time had met Tara so they just paired off respectively and stayed close friends and double dated from time to time.

Willow’s name was then called. Willow shyly walked up to get her honor certificate being the salutatorian of the class as well as her diploma.

She grinned at Tara who held up a 'Willow all the way' banner and waved to her parents who for once was back from their trips and walked back to her seat to show Buffy her diploma.

Buffy turned around to smile at Spike and felt Spike think towards her, ‘Almost time baby. You will be great. Just remember to smile towards us so we can get a perfect picture. Mum and I both have cameras. Afterwards I’ll take you dancing with your friends.’

Buffy smiled happily and sent a ‘thank you’ thought to towards Spike just in time to hear her name called and carefully walked up the aisle and shake hands with the visiting principal after the old one had been replaced after the high school was blown up.

She also shook hands with the new mayor and smiled as her mother and Spike snapped her photo.

Then she was handed a small plaque labeled Class-Protector on behalf of her class by the principal.

She grinned and held it up for both her mom and Spike to see and both of them snapped another picture.

She hurried back down to show Xander and Willow the plaque while she took a minute to send what she saw to Spike who grinned at her saying, ‘Nice plaque love!’ She grinned back replying, ‘Thought so.’

The rest of the ceremony was a blur.

As she walked back to the mansion with Spike on her side slightly more tanned from spending a day in the sun with one hand on her back and the other resting over her stomach and her friends chatting happily beside her, she realized how lucky she really was.

Spike whispered, “I love you Buffy and I am so proud.” Buffy whispered back, “I love you too Spike.”

She felt complete as Doyle and Dalton raced to meet them at the door. The other five minions followed as well. She felt like she had a family and couldn’t wait to introduce her new baby to the world.