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The Slayer’s wide, disbelieving eyes stared at Spike for a long, silent moment, as she tried to process what he had just said.

From the blank look of incomprehension she was giving him at the moment – clearly, it wasn’t quite sinking in.

“But – how…what…?” she stammered, obviously confused. “How is that possible?”

“Funny, pet – your fighting her so hard – pushing her back and trying so bloody hard to control *her* body – the fact that you two have been gradually merging, you’ve been slowly combining so to speak made her a bit – well, disconnected – from her own body – and that only made it easier, once she and I were linked anyway by the mutual mating claim, to – well – to take that bond with me one step further.”

“I’m not too clear on the specifics myself,” he admitted finally with a shrug and a disarming smile. “I just know because of the bloody weirdness going on with you and her sharing the same body and the new closeness between her and me 'cause of our completed mating claim – together, those things made it easier for her to jump ship and join me in my body for a bit.”

She just stared at him for a moment, incredulous, obviously not sure whether to believe him or not – seemingly unable to find word to respond.

The story *did* sound bloody insane, he had to admit. He wasn't sure he would have believed it himself, if he hadn’t known beyond all doubt that it was absolutely true.

“Say I believe you,” she said slowly, searching his eyes uncertainly. “Say she *is* in your body with you instead of in this one – what good does that little stunt do you two, anyway? Why would you want to do that? I mean – isn’t that kind of just…”

“Giving you exactly what you wanted in the first place?” Spike finished for her, nodding his concession to her point that, no, it did not seem to make sense. “Seems that way, don’t it? When you don’t look at the whole bloody picture.”

“First off, pet,” he began to explain, “that whole annoying little problem you mentioned of my having to be careful what I do to you, for fear of hurting Buffy?” He shrugged. “Not so much a problem this way. You can’t retreat, either; you’ve got to stick around and either submit to me, or suffer the consequences.”

“Secondly,” he went on with a smirk, “when you *do* concede defeat – which you *will*, pet – there’s no denying who’s submitting to me – no way of cosmically getting around it because of sharing that body you’re submitting with Buffy – because – you *aren’t* sharing a body with her at the moment!”

He paused for a moment, considering his words, before he went on, “See – because of our mating claim, the dominance ritual shouldn’t have any effect on Buffy anyway – but the way things were, you two duking it out in there for control – stood to reason that when I completed the ritual, *you* might get a free pass, too – and the dominance ritual might have no effect on either of you.” He smiled, a smugly triumphant grin. “Call me a hopeless romantic – but the whole thing’s just more *meaningful* this way!”

"I think you're seriously underestimating me, Baby," the Slayer smirked, but the fear had not faded from her dark green eyes – had in fact, intensified. "I think you have no idea of how much I can take without giving in -- especially with this much on the line! You think I’m gonna break easy – but you don’t have a clue…"

"Oh, I *really* think I do," Spike interrupted, delivering another vicious blow to her stomach, leaving her coughing and groaning in pain as he grabbed a handful of her blonde hair and jerked her head back in an imitation of the cruel, dominating gesture she had used with him so many times this night, without giving her time to recover.

His eyes flashed golden fire as he leaned in closer to her to demand in a menacing snarl of bitter anger, "And *stop* bloody calling me that!"

The pain was obvious in the Slayer's wide emerald eyes -- but she smiled in spite of it, clearly determined to prove her mettle to her captor.

"Make me," she sneered softly, adding pointedly, "*Baby*."

Spike felt an intense wave of rage rolling up inside of him, with her continued belittling behavior served to bring back the sense of shame and helplessness from when *he* was the one chained to the bed. He was simply bloody sick and tired of being helpless, of being talked to with such disdain, such mockery.

But he didn’t have to take it anymore – and he was bloody well not *going* to!

He grabbed her slender arm in a fist of cool iron, giving it a vicious, wrenching twist, relishing the slight popping sound that he heard that told him he had done more than surface damage.

The Slayer was completely taken by surprise by the violent move, and her eyes rolled back slightly as she let out a howl of pain, which he hurriedly hushed with his hand over her mouth. She tried to jerk her head away, tried to bite him, but he only pressed harder, stilling her efforts with ease.

She had not yet recovered all that much of her strength, after all, it seemed.

“Right bloody foolish of me,” he said softly, a grim smile coming over his face as he held the struggling, furious Slayer down against the mattress. “Dislocating your bloody arm while you’re still able to scream for help.”

He shook his head, meeting her wide, panicked eyes as he observed, “Wouldn’t bloody look right, would it? If someone happened to hear you putting up a racket and come in here. I’d be hard pressed to explain this little picture away, wouldn’t I?”

He was not surprised to see the Slayer’s eyes light up with dawning hopeful understanding, as she froze for just a moment, before renewing her struggles to break free of his hand over her mouth. If she could just manage to draw some attention to them somehow, get someone to help her, then maybe she could get whoever showed up to let her out of the chains before Spike could stop them…

It was a long shot, she knew – but if *that* happened – it would all be over.

Her body was slowly repairing itself, though she was still weak from the blood he had taken from her – but she was healing much more quickly than a normal human would have. If she could only manage to get free of these chains, she knew she would stand a good chance against the vampire, despite her weakness.

But then – getting free of the chains was going to prove to be incredibly difficult.

“Now, love – let’s settle down a bit, shall we?” Spike instructed her in a chillingly soft, threatening voice, his icy blue eyes focused on hers, narrowed slightly. “I’d hate to have to gag you – or drain you into unconsciousness again…” He paused, granting a little half-shrug as he corrected, “…well, no…actually I wouldn’t. Gotta say, pet – you’re bloody delicious…”

She tried to jerk away from him again, both furious and terrified, but he shoved her forcefully down onto the mattress, momentarily stunning her as he went on, “But it *would* put a bit of a damper on my plans for the moment…and honestly, I’d really rather just be rid of you as quickly as possible.”

He paused, leaning in close to speak quietly near her ear, “Now listen here…if you *do* scream, get someone in here…do you really think any pathetic human would be able to stop me? I’d easily stop *them* instead…and *then* deal with you…so give it up and shut your soddin’ mouth, love – before I get angry.”

He was actually quite surprised when she *did* go still under his hand, almost immediately, fearful green eyes staring up into his.

Bloody hell, but she *was* a coward.

He cautiously, slowly rose up away from her, removing his hand from her mouth, but leaving it hovering slightly over her – just in case.

“So that’s it, then?” she guessed, glaring at him resentfully. “That’s your plan? You’re just gonna – perform the ritual, *try* to get me to accept your dominance – and that’s supposed to accomplish – what, exactly? I mean – I’ll still *be* here. Your little girlfriend will still be sharing her body, even if you *do* control me…”

“See, that’s where you’re wrong, love,” he smiled, moving with slow, measured steps away from the bed, to glance out the window into the darkness, his eyes searching for any signs that anyone had heard her muffled cries. “The spell that let you out, also provides that if you become bound by the claim – it’s back to your original prison for you, pet.”

He turned to face her again with a smug smile, drinking in the wide-eyed, trapped expression on her face like the sweetest ambrosia.

“It should put you right back where you came from…and leave Buffy’s body back in her sole possession – where it belongs,” he concluded with satisfaction in his voice, as he paced slowly around the bed again.

“Great plan,” she sneered with obvious sarcasm. “Only one problem – you said my existence and all, the fact that my essence is separate from Buffy’s body, and Buffy’s essence was merging with mine – that’s what allowed her to separate from her body – right?”

Spike nodded slowly, conceding her point and silently permitting her to go on.

“Well then – if I’m gone – how is she gonna get back into her own body? I mean – it might be fun for a little while for you two to give new definition to ‘up close and personal’ – but that could get *really* old when she starts hearing all your deep personal secrets…memories…hmm…could get positively ugly…”

Her voice trailed off, and she looked up at him with a falsely expectant smile of cruel mockery on her face. “Well? No answer for that little problem, huh?”

Spike shrugged lightly, turning away from her again. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, pet,” he said quietly, calmly, with only the slightest hint of a tremor in his voice at her words. “Really – none of your bloody concern. You won’t be around to see it, anyway.”

“See – I *knew* you didn’t have an answer for that one!” she crowed triumphantly. “The simple fact is, you two – you and Buffy – are stuck with me, Spike. There is *no way* that you are getting rid of me without some major risk to Buffy, one way or the other.”

“You just let *me* worry about that, pet,” Spike advised her, coming back close to the bed to meet her eyes again, a note of warning in his voice, and unmistakable anger in his eyes. “For now – we just need to think about sending you back to home sweet hell – don’t we, pet?” The smug satisfaction in his voice took all the pleasure out of her small supposed victory.

An icy glare of resentment and anger was all the response she could muster.

“All I’m worried about at the moment,” Spike remarked with a little smirk, “is getting you gone. Because I must say I’ve had bloody *more* than enough of you, pet.”

“Good luck!” she sneered, but her tone was more defensive than certain, and trembling in a way that betrayed her fear more than her anger, “because I’m feeling quite a bit better already, Baby! You can’t leave me in chains for the ritual – and I think you’ll find that I’d put up more of a fight than you’re expecting once you let me out of them!”

Spike’s smile was cold and menacing as he advanced slowly on her. “Thanks for the heads up, pet.”

Her eyes widened as she suddenly understood the mistake of what she had revealed to him. She pulled uselessly against her bonds as Spike vamped out, closing the distance between them at a slow, leisurely pace.

He had no reason to hurry.

“You can’t do this!” she protested, her voice high and shrill and trembling with near-panic. “It’s not fair!” There was a distinct whine in her voice. “I have to be able to fight you for the ritual to be performed properly!”

The vampire leaned over her, his cool hands pressing her shoulders down and holding her in place, even as she fought him, weakly but desperately. He smiled coldly into her eyes, his voice softening to a voice of quiet intensity, as he brought his lips close to her ear to ironically echo her earlier words to him.

“You have to be able to fight, pet – but you don’t have to be able to *win*.”

She froze, her eyes widening further as her head shot around to stare into his eyes in shock and disbelief, as her own words were thrown back in her face with deadly accuracy.

She didn’t speak another word – didn’t fight him anymore – didn’t even move, until his fangs sunk once more into the flesh of her throat, and her back arched, and she gasped with the pain of it, as he drew the life-giving blood from her body, until she had blacked out once more.

Spike drew back away from her – no smile on his face now, as he regarded the wounded, limp body of his mate, lying bound and helpless on the bed. He felt that heavy, weary sensation coming over him again, and suddenly – he couldn’t look at her.

As he turned away from her and braced his hand on the wall, slowly lowering his head to rest against it, breathing hard as he fought to regain the control he had maintained so well while she was conscious – the soft voice of his mate came to him in his head again.

*You did so good, Sweetie,* she assured him in a gentle, encouraging voice.

*Sorry, pet – didn’t mean to knock her out again…just…just couldn’t bloody deal with her anymore at the moment…* he explained, his tone listless and tired, as he attempted to make sense of his own actions.

*That’s okay,* Buffy assured him. *We need a little time, anyway.*

*Don’t know why exactly, pet,* he replied with a weary sigh. *I’d rather just get this done with. And – and Buffy – how *are* we going to get you back into your body? Once this is over?*

*That’s what I’m talking about, Spike,* Buffy informed him patiently. *Why we need time.* She was silent for a moment, before going on in a voice of quiet surety.

*I need to talk to my sister.*





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