Part of her hoped that Willow would crash on the way.
Keeping her eyes off the road, and the feverish glint in the red head’s eyes, Buffy surveyed the small area around her. Everything of course was neatly in place, no rubbish appearing whatsoever. It was just one small example of Willow’s more than obvious OCD personality. The only thing that jarred in shining plastic seats and an amazingly clean wind shield was the girl’s sole electronic device. Buffy was partly surprised that she even carried one. There was a very recent memory of Willow thumping down into a cafeteria seat with the latest ‘important statistics about mobile phones and their relation to cancer’. The loud yawn of Amy was the only thing which jarred Willow from her rant.
And now she had one.
It sat the middle compartment, so tiny that she doubted Cordelia could press the buttons with her cat like nails. ‘Magick’ was scrawled across the screen. Buffy smiled, loving the inherent comforting presence that anything Willow touched, could provoke. If Buffy trusted anyone it was her. In a list of people, infamous and cruel Willow offered simplicity and safety. What could a small town girl really do to hurt her?
The small buzzing that signaled a text message was all it took for Buffy to have a second glance.
Wide hazel eyes traveled from the unopened text message to her friend whose hands were still locked in a tight death grip.
“Do you want me to answer it?”
Willow shrugged, the car moving dramatically to her movements. “Sure. It’s not like I can.” She smiled, white teeth flashing in an attempt to lighten the mood. “Cars are not as simple as I thought.”
Buffy grinned back in response, though she paled instantly upon reading the actual message.
Xander… Where she had that name before?
flashback
Cordelia glared at Willow, ignoring the girl’s raw eyes fresh from crying.
“He deserved it you know.”
Red hair whipped across the girl’s face as she stared at the brunette. “You can’t be serious. All Xander ever did was say that he liked you. Angel had no right-“
“Angel had every right. I belong to him.” A sneer marred Cordelia’s face as she stared down at her former best friend. Now she was with Angel, she could finally be someone. Any guilt for causing Xander’s disfigurement had to be ignored. “You should tell Xander that he was lucky they didn’t cut out the other eye.”
…
Spike groaned voice heavy from a lack of sleep as he crawled into bed beside her. He’d been gone most of the day on ‘business’ which normally equated to spying around and gathering information for Angel. It seemed that he was the only one the brooding leader trusted emphatically to tell him the truth.
Buffy thought the whole thing was just a bit juvenile.
A heavy sigh escaped as Buffy slowly curled her arms around his chest, head cradling just over his heart.
“Where did you go?” she asked softly. His skin was bare to the touch and smelt of cigarette smoke and whiskey. On any other man she’d consider it toxic, but now she breathed it in like fresh air.
“Can’t be specific luv, but it wasn’t pretty. Aureli is worried about the other gang’s in particular a bloke called Adam. Half expected to find m’self conversing with the devil before the end of it. As it stands, I only had to talk to one of their snitches. Seems his bleeding PR agent is starting to make a name for himself. Sodding kid should never have gotten involved in any of it.” One hand, calloused and rough glided down her back, trying to relax himself even as she moved closer.
“Kid?” asked Buffy carefully.
“Yeah…” drawled Spike, “used to go by the name of Alexander Harris at the local high school. Hung around your little red head friend. Aureli and I never took any notice of him until he started following around the Prom Queen.”
“What happened?”
A dark chuckle rumbled in the room, jostling her lightly as Spike tilted his head back. From his position he could just see shadows playing across the ceiling. “That I could tell you but won’t luv. You’ve just had your dinner and I don’t fancy cleaning up the mess.”
An angry ‘hmph’ was his only response as Buffy withdrew from his embrace.
Stubborn little chit.
“So it’s to be like that then? I tell or spend the night in solitary confinement?”
Buffy nodded firmly, glancing just over her shoulder to observe his reaction. Instead of seeing a crestfallen expression Spike was instead smirking slightly. What is he thinking? A shriek filled the air as the bleached blonde dragged her back across the large bed’s surface, pinning her beneath his nubile frame. She could feel the hard contours of his chest against her skin, cutting and jagged in all their glory. It wasn’t a fair tactic by any means, but god help her it was working.
Spike peered down at her, warm breath caressing her pouting lips. “Right then, you really want to know?” His eyes glittered with an unknown emotion, as though speaking would expose yet another flaw.
“Yes” she whispered.
Spike glanced upwards as though it was what he had expected before trailing his lips along her neck. He could just feel her pulse; running madly to a pace that was a mixture of fear and desire. His hands unconsciously kept count, tapping softly into the mattress as he began to speak. There would only be the slightest change in the beat to let him pinpoint when her lust turned completely into loathing.
“Aureli likes to cut things. Always has, ever since I laid eyes on the ugly git. Whenever he’s had the chance to unleash on some poor sod, really torture them he’s always, and I mean always has taken the opportunity. For him, it’s the biggest rush he can get. Drugs or sex don’t even compare.” Spike nipped blunt teeth along her collar bone, trying to distract himself from memories which threatened to play at just the mention of Aureli’s darker side. Buffy shivered at the sensation. “When he’s in that frame of mind there isn’t one bleeding thing you can do to stop him an’ ” Spike paused, feeling small shudders pass through Buffy’s frame. Already he was scaring her and he hadn’t even mentioned what they’d done to the Whelp. “I can stop if you want luv.”
“No don’t… I want to hear it.”
Spike sighed. Another bleeding nail in m’ coffin. “I won’t go into too much detail pet but to cut a long story short, Xander started following around the cheerleader, sending her notes in class. Childish stuff really. She never responded, thinking that he was beneath her and in true Cordelia fashion told Angelus every juvenile detail. Now it wouldn’t have mattered if they were still in the transitional phase of their relationship, Angel uses lots of girls for a merry time and never places them under his protection. The prom queen would have been to everyone else another whore in training and the boy would not have suffered anywhere near as much as he did.”
“What did they do?” Buffy asked.
“Angel cornered him one day coming home from school and we dragged him to the back of his parent’s garage. It was the closest place and I was under the impression that Harris would escape with a severe beating. After all Cordelia had only been officially announced as his the week before. A geek like Xander would have been completely unaware.”
“The poofter had other ideas in mind though. After he’d roughed him up and broken the whelp’s nose, he got Finn and Percy to restrain him. It… I can’t even try to explain to you why we didn’t just leave it at that. One side of the boy’s face was so swollen that it was awful just to look at him.” He paused for a moment and tightened his hold on Buffy, settling deeper into her curves. It was easier to lean his brow along her collarbone than face accusing eyes. She was the only one he could ever show weakness to but that didn’t mean he had to look like a ponce whilst doing it.
Finally he continued.
“There was a table at the back, large enough for a person to lay on flatly. I can remember the wood being rough to the touch, splintering at the very edges. Captain Cardboard practically threw him on top and grasped hold of his left side. Wesley grabbed his right arm and it was left to me to hold the poor sod’s legs… I’d like to say that I didn’t have a choice. It would make things so much simpler and perhaps if I did, you would be able to love someone like me. But I can’t. As twisted and as violent as Angel is, he’s still the leader and I have to follow orders. I have to respect his decisions.” His cold blue eyes bored holes into hazel green as Buffy stared at him in disgust and fear. She didn’t have to hear the words to know that they’d done something terrible.
“When Angel flicked out the knife, the boy started to scream again, only this time far more loudly. Wesley had to gag him before Aureli even started. I actually think that his parents were just inside the house when we did it, but were too drunk to come out an’ investigate. Not surprising that he had dead beat parents.”
“Either way, we finally silenced him; Riley smashed the back of his head against the wood in warning. I can remember Angel walking alongside the table until he stopped just next to his head, knife blade scraping against the timber. I thought he’d maybe give him a small scar, something just a tad painful that would do the trick but he didn’t. Instead Peaches dug that fucking blade right into the poor git’s eye socket and cut the bloody thing out…”
“I’ve never heard such pain before. The boy was thrashing about madly, tears full of blood streaming down his face. The gag was soaked with it, just five minutes later that we had to remove for fear that he’d choke on it.”
Buffy stayed silent for a moment, too shocked to do anything else. It was yet another reminder of the things Spike was capable of. “And then?”
“We ran out”, he admitted, shame tingeing the last word. “I called the ambulance and that was the last we heard of him for a good month or so. Your friend, Willow though, was incredibly upset. I didn’t even care about her lot and still the bint made me feel something. It’s a real surprise to know the boy is playing our game now…” Spike withdrew from his position, laying on his back and allowing Buffy a chance to process the weight of his statements. To his surprise she did not shun him and order him out of the room like an angry housewife.
Spike had no clue that Buffy knew of men who would enjoy remembering such an experience.
end flashback
Icy fear shot down Buffy’s spine as again she read the message. Xander was contacting Willow, her harmless friend who up until now had had no motive for using her.
How could she have been so blind?
It had been so incredibly stupid of her to trust the other girl. After all she had learnt and dealt with she should of known better. Buffy wouldn’t admit to the sensation of pain which clawed at her insides.
She couldn’t afford to appear weak.
Not even bothering to look at Willow, Buffy barked her orders. “PULL OVER WILLOW! NOW!”
“But Buffy, we’re on the highway. I can’t just stop because you need to go.” A quirky smile flitted across Willow’s pale lips, unaware that she had been found out.
“I mean it Wills. Do it now.”
Silence hung in the car for a moment as Willow glanced over to see her best friend flat against the opposing door. Her eyes were wide, almost terror stricken, making Willow wonder what could possibly be wrong. She hadn’t done anything terrible. This had to be some sort of joke. There was no way that Buffy wanted her to pull over here . A gasp clawed through her throat as Willow noticed her blue mobile clutched firmly in Buffy’s small hands.
Suddenly it all made sense.