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Chapter Thirteen

“Spike!”

My face changes and I can feel a growl erupt from my chest before I even register what’s goin’ on. Damned Angelus is pulling at my girl trying to take her from me. I’m about to leap for his throat when the most delicious thing I’ve ever seen happens.

My Slayer winds up and delivers a Buffy Special right to Peaches’ nose. She’s back in my arms before his blood spurts. It’s not enough, though. It’s time Peaches learns not to touch what’s not his. I may have had to take his shite back in the day and I may have had to put up with him and Dru’s antics when I was trapped in the chair, but no more. Never again.

With a roar I leap at him with the intention of permanently wiping that hurt puppy look he’s shooting my Slayer off his face. My first punch rocks his head back and breaks skin. I feel an odd flash in my brain and my chest burns for a mo’ but it’s not enough to shock me out of my blood rage.

We trade blows for a few and suddenly my world goes blurry and fades to black. The last thing I see is a furious Angelus standing over me before I lose consciousness completely.

~~~~~

Hey! Where’d my Spike kisses go!

I see him laying on the library floor where he’s fallen out of the chair we were sitting in. He’s got a look of pure fury on his face aimed at whoever or whatever it is that’s pulling me out of his grasp.

“Spike!” I hear a familiar voice grate out next to my shoulder. Great. It’s Angel. I guess this wasn’t the best way for him to find out about Spike and me, but isn’t he overreacting just a tiny bit?

“Let me go!” I grunt as I try to shrug out of his grasp.

“Not if you’re just going to go back to touching that thing!” Angel indicates Spike.

Okay. Now I’m mad. Did I ever once insult Angel’s choice in women to his face? I mean, come on, Darla and Dru? He couldn’t have given me more ammunition if he’d loaded me a gun! Did I use it? No. How dare he insult Spike when I was so painfully silent about those two. . .

I cold cock him before I even realize I made a fist.

On the up side Angel’s surprised enough to let my arm go and I hurry back to Spike’s side. Unfortunately the angry growl Spike’s been emitting since Angel pulled me away has turned into a roar of rage and he’s past me and on top of Angel before I can stop him.

Spike’s fist lands hard on Angel’s jaw and suddenly the room is bathed in light as if someone set of a flashbulb. Spike’s shirt flashes into flame over his left pectoral and a similar flame erupts from Angel’s cheek where Spike’s first blow landed. I can see a funny mark where a bruise should be but my attention is drawn away as the two furious vampires begin to battle in earnest.

Over my shoulder I hear Giles swear. I don’t really know what to do. I want to break up the fight, but unless it swings too hard in one vamp’s favor any interruption I cause may do more damage than good.

I hear the crack of a tranquilizer gun from where Giles and Willow were standing and Spike falls to the ground out cold. I’m furious that Giles would sabotage Spike that way and I’m about to run over to pull Angel away from where he’s beating on Spike’s unconscious body when the tranq gun cracks again and Angel falls down next to Spike.

“Quickly, Buffy, before the anesthetic wears off, lock Angel in the book depository. We need to make sure that Spike and Angel cannot, under any circumstances, hurt each other.”

“Color me a peppy shade of confused, Giles, but that’s the last thing I ever thought I’d hear you say.”

“It’s the Mark,” Giles sighed and I can just tell he wishes he had glasses to clean right now. “If you look carefully I’m betting you’ll see it either transferred itself from Spike to Angel or it’s duplicated itself. Check Spike’s Mark to see if it’s still there while I confirm the Mark that now seems to be on Angel’s cheek. I daresay we may be in more danger than I originally thought.”

I pull Spike’s sweat shirt up to reveal the odd shaped scar, still present on his chest. “It’s still here, Giles.”

“And it seems Angel has spawned a Mark of Cain as well. On the one hand certain perplexing things are more understandable than they were before; on the other everything is now much more complicated.

“Willow, please hand me the roll of parchment on the corner of the table. Buffy, please stay by Spike’s side and make sure, when he regains consciousness, that he cannot hurt Angel in any way.”

Grinning I sit on the floor and cradle Spike’s head in my lap. I love it when Giles gives me the fun jobs. I brush Spike’s hair out of his face, surprised at how soft it is. Since his reappearance he’s had no access to whatever it is he uses to plaster his hair against his scalp and it’s been curling around his head like a dandelion for the past several days. I like it. I like it a lot.

“It seems we now have the answer to our earlier question as to why you’ve suddenly developed such a strong attraction to Spike.”

I bristle at this comment. Giles is going to minimize my feelings and he’s just wrong!

“I’ve been researching the possibility that the first evil act in the world, the killing of Abel by his brother Cain in a jealous rage, may have manifested itself into a conscious being. Something not quite a god, yet not a demon either. It seems I was right. Whatever this “First Evil” is it appears it has a vested interest in making sure that Spike and Angel kill each other. Quite possibly if it recreates the situation that created it, it can strengthen its hold in this world; possibly even manifesting itself physically.

“That would explain why you and Spike can’t seem to stay away from each other. In order to produce a psychotic jealousy between the entities chosen victims, Spike and Angel, it created a situation where you would chose one over the other.

“The only remaining question is; why did it choose these particular vampires? Angel, I could understand. He has a soul and an evil entity gains power by corrupting a human soul, but why Spike?”

I look at Giles confused, “Spike has a soul, too.”

“What!?!”

“Didn’t I tell you? Since he got back from Acathla he’s had a soul. At least that’s what I assumed once he told me how he couldn’t stop feeling remorse and guilt.”

“Well, it’s now evident that we have a rather urgent need to find out exactly what happened to Spike between the time he disappeared into Acathla and the time he reappeared.”

Willow’s voice interrupts nervously, “Giles, I think Angel is waking up.”

That’s when I feel Spike stir against my lap.

tbc

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