When a Slayer Cries
“If the Bringer of Death on the demon shall weep
Healing begins while the fading one sleeps
Take heed that rare do these precious tears fall
For death never loves the ones on which she calls.”
“Huh?” Buffy stared at Anya, completely lost.
“It’s the cure,” the ex-demon explained as she studied the text again.
Buffy shared a glance with an equally confused Willow. “What do you mean; it’s the cure? It’s a funky poem!” Turning to her Watcher, she demanded, “Tell her it’s a poem, Giles.”
“It’s a message, Buffy. We need to decipher it to understand what the cure is,” Giles tried to explain calmly. He could certainly understand her frustrations; his own level of anguish had certainly reached new heights.
Willow tried to be logical. “Anya, can you repeat the first line again.”
“If the Bringer of Death on the demon shall weep,” the ex-demon recited stoically. She was desperately trying to keep calm, but she could feel the tendrils of panic beginning to grip her.
“Well, Spike’s demon is sick because of the demon that slashed him, right? So wouldn’t that demon be the ‘Bringer of Death’ and couldn’t that mean that we just have to find that demon and make him cry on Spike?” Willow offered hopefully.
“Actually Willow, that’s a very good interpretation.” Giles gave the witch a relieved smile.
“So…What? I go find the Lilac demon and drag him back here and then make him cry?” Buffy asked, needing the action that this plan called for. Frankly, the idea of making a demon cry was really appealing to her at this point in time.
“Lyaliac demon,” Giles automatically corrected.
William softly spoke from the couch. When Buffy couldn’t hear him she moved to his side and asked him to repeat what he had said.
“Not from this dimension, pet. You’d need to open a portal,” Spike whispered.
Buffy dropped to her knees and brushed her hand lightly over his cheek. “Welcome back, cutie,” she whispered in return.
The soft look in her eye’s momentarily took his unneeded breath away. His own expression softened in return. “I need to tell you, Buffy. Just once. I lov…” A gentle finger pressed firmly against his lips and cut off his declaration.
“Not the time, blue eyes. Need you to hold on a little bit longer for me, okay? If you do, I promise you a sparring session as soon as the thingy in your head is gone and you can say anything you want to me. Show me I’m not wrong, Spike, show me you don’t quit,” Buffy pleaded with him.
“Bloody hell, Slayer, you could have at least offered a kiss after a speech like that,” Spike grumbled good naturedly.
Swiftly leaning in, she kissed him and nipped at his bottom lip. “Now shut up and stop complaining.” She smirked at the gob-smacked invalid.
“You kissed me,” Spike spoke in wide eyed awe.
“Yeah, and I also told you shut up.” Buffy grinned at him. She was feeling all girly at his reaction. No one had ever before reacted to a kiss from her like Spike was.
“But you kissed me,” he insisted, apparently very shocked by her action.
“Yes, Spike, Buffy kissed you. Now, could we get back to the problem at hand?” Giles chided playfully. He probably should have been upset, but Buffy getting involved with his relative didn’t seem anywhere near as worrisome as Buffy getting involved with another vampire. Actually, it showed that her taste was improving as far a he was concerned.
“I don’t mean to be all doom-y voice, but how are we going to find the demon that did this to him and is now in another dimension when we have no clue how to pinpoint it?” Willow hesitantly asked. This was so not of the good as far as she was concerned. She was all out of ideas. Finding a specific demon in an unknown dimension seemed an impossible task.
The sweet little moment they’d just witnessed between Buffy and William/Spike had elevated her panic levels. She had a sinking feeling that should anything happen to the seriously ill vampire-no-more, Buffy would react badly. Really badly. Willow so did not want to be responsible for that.
“We can use the poison to find him. We’ve changed the bandages frequently, so we’ve got plenty of samples to use.” Anya hated pressure, she really did, but in all honesty, it tended to bring out the best in her. Granted, it was usually about her, but not this time.
She felt an affinity to Spike. She knew how difficult it was to make the transition from the demon to human world, but having the added problem of a life threatening illness thrown into the mix must be terrifying. So Anya did what she did best; she found solutions to problems.
Once she’d made the suggestion, the group moved to the books as one. It was time to find an inter-dimensional location spell with punch.
Buffy stayed right where she was. She really sucked at research, but she could hold a hand with the best of them. Tara had left a bowl of cold water and a cloth, so Buffy used it to cool the perspiring invalid. Memories of all their meetings flittered through her mind and as she tended to him, she talked.
“I remember the first time I saw you. You were so smooth and confident. I thought you were the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen. Well, until you threatened to kill me, that is. Then it was like ‘damn, what a waste!’”
She smiled at her memories. “Did you know you’re the only one to ever make me afraid? Even Angelus didn’t scare me like you did. He just sorta pissed me off a lot. You terrified me, but I was always relieved when you’d come back into town. In some totally weird way, the slayer part of me sees you as my vampire; my equal. So you see, you have to get better, ‘cause you seriously don’t want to piss off the Slayer. She’s really possessive of her property.” Buffy had no idea of the impact her words would have on the ailing man.
Spike’s demon rushed forward, intermittently purring and softly mewing in pain, absolutely elated to have been claimed by his slayer. His growled but possessive ‘mine’ was barely a whisper.
William struggled to the surface, his own weakness hampering him. “Oh, Miss Buffy! What have you done?” he almost sobbed in defeat. His fragile heart was now completely owned by the young and clueless girl who held his hand. He knew he would not survive when she changed her mind. Perhaps it was better to give in to the poison now and save himself the pain of another failed romance, because this failure would surely end him. Death might be his only relief.
Buffy was shocked at his reaction. She didn’t understand what she was supposed to have done wrong, but she knew without a doubt that she had to fix it and quickly.
“Spike, what did I do? Please, you have to tell me so I can make it better,” she begged him quietly. She was near tears and her voice shook as she spoke.
Spike looked at her with sad eyes. He hoped he had the energy left to tell her.
“Matings are taken seriously in the demon world, pet. The mating ritual starts with a verbal declaration and you basically did just that. The demon wants to be your mate more than it wants anything else, so when you called him yours, he responded,” he said softly.
Buffy took in his words. “And William?”
“William thinks you’re going to break his heart and refute the claim. He wants to let the poison finish him off.”
Buffy felt her heart clench and for the first time ever felt the Slayer rising within her.
And the Slayer was pissed.
“He will not give up,” she snarled. “You are mine. You’ve always been mine.”
As the Slayer receded, Buffy and Spike shared identically shocked expressions. She had certainly sounded like she meant what she was saying, but the two blondes were at a loss to explain exactly what that was.
“Um, Giles?” Buffy called for her watcher’s attention. “Seriously wiggy slayer moment over here.”
“Perhaps a little more information would be helpful, dear,” Giles countered, unconcerned as he continued to scan the book in front of him.
“The Slayer made a command performance, Watcher,” Spike offered tiredly. He didn’t have much time left. He wished he could be spending it in a more constructive way. Like snogging the Slayer, but something told him she might take issue with his reasoning.
“I beg your pardon?” Giles lifted his shocked gaze to study their features, positive that this was some sort of pointless joke on their part.
“What Spike means is that the Slayer took over for a minute and made me all possessed Buffy.” Buffy replied with a wigginess factor of ten.
Giles looked at them blankly. The only movement was the rapid blinking of his eyes. This shouldn’t be possible, but Buffy’s reaction at least told him that it was not only possible, it was a fact that he should have known. He didn’t have the answers his slayer needed. He looked at her helplessly.
“You haven’t had time to read the books I bought, Giles. The answers are in there. Actually, all the information that the council kept from the slayers is in there, but I thought William was more important so I didn’t mention it,” Anya offered, worried that she’d done the wrong thing.
“You were right, Anya. William is more important. I can wait for the answers,” Buffy told the ex-demon. She tried to reassure Anya, but something told her the information was more important then they thought. Dismissing her inner concerns as being selfish, Buffy turned he attention back to Spike, who was now fading fast.
Anya had over a thousand years of experience. During that time when her intuition pointed her in a direction, she had learned to follow. Her hand hovered over the book that she had barely glanced through the day before. Time was so short. They needed to find the right location spell. She didn’t really have time to follow her intuitions. Not this time. She looked at the book again. It was definitely calling her, so she opened it.
“The first time I saw you, you were sitting at the Bronze doing your French homework. You know, pet, you were really bad at French.” Spike smiled as he teased her. “Then you got up and started dancing with Red and the Whelp. God, Buffy…you were bloody poetry in motion.” He was struggling for breath, but he needed to breathe in order to talk to her. There was so much he needed to say and so little time in which to say it.
“I had you video taped when you were fighting so I could study your style. I tried to tell myself that it was research so I could learn how to defeat you, but I took the tapes with me when I left Sunnydale the first time. Dru told me I was falling for you. It’s why she left me. I couldn’t believe it, you know? Me; in love with a slayer. No bleedin’ way. I fought it so hard, pet.”
Spike lifted a shaky hand to caress Buffy’s cheek and his thumb moved to wipe away her tears. “I’m not fighting it anymore, Slayer. I love you,” he whispered as his demon took its final breath.