"Don't mention it, Red," Spike replied with a nod of his head. "Now get in there so I can tell Buffy I saw you safely through the door."
At that, Willow didn't linger. She said a quick goodnight and dashed in through the front door, shutting it behind her. Spike heard the lock click, then turned around, fishing his cigarettes and lighter from his duster pocket as he walked down the stairs, off Willow's porch.
He'd just taken his first drag from the cigarette when Spike caught her scent. He wondered how long she'd been there, and realized he hadn't been able to sense her near the way he once had. "You can come out now, pet," he called. "It's not nice to stalk, no matter what Daddy taught you."
Drusilla stepped out of the shadows and into the moonlight, the glow from it around her white dress giving her an almost ethereal look. "Daddy's gone, my William. I'm all alone."
"Can't say I'm feeling a lot of sympathy for you," Spike replied, taking another drag from his cigarette as he regarded his sire for a moment. She looked different to him somehow, as if the woman he'd stood beside for more than a century was gone now.
Drusilla moved slowly towards him, her feet seeming to glide across the ground. "I know you can't mean that, my darling. Forget all this nonsense and come home with me. I promise not to punish you too much for being such a naughty boy."
Spike flicked his cigarette to the ground and snuffed it out with the toe of his boot. "No, Dru. We're over. Go make yourself a new toy to play with, I'm done."
"She'll never love you!" Drusilla screamed as Spike started to walk away. "You disgust her!"
Spike bristled. Drusilla always knew just what to say to cut him, knew how to reach into his mind and snatch out his darkest fears. He wasn't going to let her manipulate him this time. Spike had meant what he'd told her. He was done playing her games. He turned and faced her again, looking at her straight on as he spoke. "Still better than having to spend another century with you."
Drusilla reeled backwards for a moment as if struck before she flew at him, beating and clawing at his chest. Spike grabbed her wrists, holding them up and together so her hands could no longer reach him. "It's over, Drusilla. You drove me too far this time, and I'm not coming back. Pack up your frilly dresses and your little dolls, and get out of town."
"I'll kill her!" Drusilla yelled.
Spike snarled, his demon roaring to the surface as he backed Drusilla up and slammed her against a tree. "You as much as touch her, and I will end you, Dru. I don't care what we had together, she is my mate, and I will protect her from anything—even you."
For the first time in Spike's recollection, Drusilla looked genuinely afraid of him. Then the fear turned to sadness, and when Spike released his grip on her wrists, Drusilla reached up to run her hand down her face. "What's happened to you, William?" She shook her head. "No…I know what's happened. The pretty dolly's dressed you up in sunshine. She's shared her spark with you."
"I'm a part of her now, same way she's a part of me," Spike replied evenly.
"Then you really are lost to me. There's nothing Mummy can do to save her wicked boy."
"No, pet. There isn't."
Drusilla gave him one more sad look before she disappeared into the shadows, and Spike let her go.
"I was beginning to wonder when you were finally going to join me," Buffy said as she felt Spike slide in behind her on the cot. "You've been back for at least an hour, but you've been outside and all…fidgety. What happened?"
Spike didn't want to try to lie to her. There wasn't any reason for it. "I ran into Drusilla."
Spike felt Buffy tense beneath the arm he had draped over her waist. "Oh?"
"Yeah. She showed up right after Willow went inside her house. It was sort of odd. I used to be able to sense her, get this special sort of tingle when she was around. I thought maybe I still would, her being my sire and all, but I didn't. Nothing. The only way I knew she was there before she stopped hiding was her scent."
Buffy was silent for several moments before she finally asked, "Did you want it to still be there?"
Her question almost made Spike angry. Hadn't he already told her over and over that he loved her? Hadn't he shown her how much she meant to him by giving up everything he was just to make her happy? But then he felt her insecurity through the claim, and realized it wasn't him she was worried about at all. It was her. She was afraid she wasn't enough for him, that Drusilla had something she lacked. Softening, he turned her in his arms so he could look at her face.
"Buffy, sweetheart, Drusilla is nowhere near the woman you are. You're strong, and you're warm, and just a smile from you makes me feel like I'm alive again. Drusilla turning her back on me in favor of Angelus turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me, because it led me to you, Buffy. And you're everything to me. My sun, my moon. My heart…" Spike's mouth curved in a heartbreaking smile. "My soul."
Buffy's eyes pooled with tears, and her hand trembled as she reached up to touch his beautiful face. "Spike…"
"Tell me you're glad it happened, too, Buffy," Spike implored her, his words soft even as the emotion behind them was strong. "Tell me you're glad I claimed you."
"I am," Buffy admitted, her tone almost a whisper. "Even with everything that happened, it… It was worth it."
Her words did much to heal him, to soothe over the pain he'd caused himself in hurting her. Spike had worried when they'd first set out to return to Sunnydale that Buffy would no longer show him the tenderness she'd begun treating him with, that the disapproval their relationship was bound to meet from the Slayer and her Watcher would cause Buffy to pull away, to go back to blaming everything on the claim. But she hadn't. She'd continued to treat him as a lover and not a tormentor, and hadn't seemed to take any of the words of judgment she'd heard to heart.
Spike also remembered what he'd overheard her say to Willow when Willow had asked if Buffy loved Spike. Buffy didn't deny it, didn't insist that she was with Spike because the claim made her be. Instead, she'd begged off the question by telling Willow she hadn't been able to tell Spike yet.
Hearing that answer had filled him with more happiness than he remembered feeling before in his entire existence. Buffy did love him. If she wasn't able to say it yet, Spike could live with that. He could give her time. Just knowing she felt it was enough for the time being.
He kissed her, opening the connection between them as he did and poured everything he felt into her, rejoicing again when he felt it flowing back. Buffy pulled him closer to her, her hands gripping his shoulders tightly, as if she feared he could slip away from her, and Spike knew she was giving him something he never could've gotten from Drusilla.
Warmth. Comfort. Love…
Spike slipped inside of her with ease, and Buffy gasped against his lips, a tremor passing through her. They moved together silently, communicating between each other without speaking, their lovemaking becoming a conversation without words. With every touch of her skin, every twist of her hips, Spike felt what she felt for him, what he had become in her heart. With each of his deep thrusts inside of her body, every kiss that took her breath away, Buffy knew she was the only woman he wanted in his arms.
They came together, pleasure rolling over them both, rocking their bodies until they could take no more and collapsed together in a heap, limbs entwined. Spike ran his fingers through the gold of her hair, and Buffy pressed her face against his chest, her lips leaving tiny kisses on his pale skin.
The couple remained silent as they drifted off to sleep, nothing else needing to be said between them for the moment.
Nancy sat up in bed, glaring at the wall. She couldn't believe how badly the night had turned out. Angel was still being moody, even when she'd gone over there to try one more time to get him to sympathize with her plight. He seemed to think that going after Spike now would only get her hurt, like she wasn't the Slayer and capable of handling these things. Giles had kicked her out of her own home, and to add extra insult to injury, Willow had turned her back on her, too. She'd rather be friends with Buffy. Nancy didn't see what was so great about Buffy anyway. For one thing, she was probably evil.
It wouldn't have surprised Nancy in the least if it turned out that Buffy had been in league with Spike this whole time and this was all just part of some elaborate evil scheme to get to her. Buffy had used the connection she had to Giles through her mother—if that Slayer even really had been Buffy's mother—to infiltrate Nancy's life and get her mortal enemy a free pass into her house. Buffy had probably staged her fight with Spike the night Nancy had met her in order to get sympathy from Nancy, as well as the one later, in the warehouse. Spike had most likely been her lover all along, and Buffy had been playing them for a bunch of fools.
Nancy wasn't going to fall for it. She knew what sort of person Buffy really was, and if Willow and Giles couldn't see it, then that was their problem. She knew that by leaving them alone in the house with Spike and Buffy she was probably leaving her Watcher and former friend vulnerable, but Nancy didn't much care at the moment. They'd chosen to abandon her, to trust the vampire and his whore, and now they would have to pay the consequences. If that meant death, well, they should've listened to her in the first place. She was, after all, the Slayer.
And as the Slayer, Nancy had a job to do. She had to stop Spike and Buffy, especially since it appeared that their plan was not only to eliminate the Slayer but the entire Council of Watchers as well. Then what? Where would it stop? Would Spike strive to truly live up to the title of Slayer of Slayers?
Nancy threw the covers off of her legs, deciding she knew where it would end. Right then and there. She was not going to let someone traipse into her life and ruin everything the way Buffy Summers had. That evil little bitch was not going to get away with anything she was planning.
Nancy got out of the bed, careful not to step on Xander as he slept on the floor, curled up in a Snoopy sleeping bag that probably hadn't been big enough to truly fit him in years. Nancy smiled slightly. At least she still had Xander. He wasn't exactly any good in a fight and tended to get in the way more than anything else, but it was nice to know she had someone in her corner.
She took her cell phone out of her jacket pocket and walked silently into the bathroom, checking right before she shut the door to make sure Xander was still asleep. She shut the door behind her, then pulled herself up onto the counter by the sink and entered a number into the phone's keypad.
Two rings later, and there was an answer. "This is the Slayer," Nancy said, her tone steady, even, angry. "I have something important I need to discuss with Quentin Travers."
Let me guess, you all hate Nancy?
Please review! And thank you to those of you who didn't harass me about not being able to post Friday. I didn't even have access to the internet, so I really do appreciate that most of you were understanding about having to wait.