Is that an Angel at the door?
After ensuring that William was as comfortable as possible, Giles moved to his bookcase and retrieved the tome he wanted before turning to Buffy. “I’m going to perform a disinvite spell. I’ll not allow Angel to harm William.”
He had not spoken harshly, but with an authority and determination that Buffy hadn’t heard him use in a long time. While she might be of the opinion that Angel would never harm a human, regardless of what Spike had said, she certainly respected Giles’ right to make decisions regarding his own apartment.
“It’s your home,” Buffy assured him.
“Oooh, I can help. Let me do it, Giles,” Willow gushed excitedly, completely forgetting that her magic was responsible for their mess of a day and that she was trying to keep a low profile.
“I think not, Willow,” Giles said stiffly before turning to a trunk next to the bookcase to retrieve what he needed to complete the spell.
Once the watcher had turned away, a humiliated Willow hastily said her goodnights to the group. She desperately wanted to get back to her dorm room to think things through. She so didn’t want to have to put up with any more of Giles’ disapproval.
Anya waited for Willow to leave before marching purposely over to the bookcase and searching the titles till she found the one she wanted. Flicking through the pages, she looked for the spell she knew was there. It had been a long time since she’d used it- over eleven hundred years- so it was understandable that she might need to refresh her memory.
After reading over the spell, she looked in Giles’ trunk and was pleased to see that he had all of the item’s she would need. It wasn’t a complicated spell, but then; she wasn’t a complicated girl, so that worked out nicely.
She was setting up the spell when Giles cleared his throat. Anya was slightly annoyed at being interrupted. Didn’t they realise she was doing all of this for them and that she was on a time table? “You can damage your throat that way, Giles. I need to get this done. What do you want?” she asked bluntly.
“What is it that you’re doing, Anya?” Giles calmly inquired.
“Protection spell,” she informed him succinctly, turning back to her preparations.
“I see, and exactly what is it that you’re protecting, Anya?” Giles patiently forged ahead.
Anya stared at the man in disbelief. He couldn’t be serious. “You do know that she’s rushing back to her dorm room to look for a spell to ‘fix’ this situation, don’t you? I have no intention of letting her cause William or any of the rest of us more harm. This spell is simply protection against magic directed at anyone here.” Pointing to the Quartz crystal, she continued. “The crystal will focus the protection on just us and will warn us when a spell is preformed.”
“How did you know about that spell?” the shocked watcher asked, his mind reeling. He’d watched her go directly to the correct book. She hadn’t needed to search at all.
“I know where all my spells are recorded,” she shrugged indifferently as she continued to work.
“Your spells?” Giles queried, flabbergasted.
“Giles,” she said, condescendingly. “These spells didn’t write themselves.” Turning her back on the group, Anya went back to work. “Now, let me finish this before she turns us all into newts or something equally abominable. Then I can answer all your silly questions.”
Buffy didn’t say a word. She knew what Anya was doing and while she would never admit it out loud, she suspected that the ex-demon had a better than average chance of being right. Willow probably was looking for some sort of spell to fix this.
A soft moan from the couch alerted Buffy to William’s waking state. As his eye’s fluttered open, she smiled at him. “We need to be quiet, Anya’s doing a spell,” she whispered. His shy nod told her that William was back in control.
It didn’t take the ex-demon long to complete the spell. Picking up the fully charged crystal, she moved to the coffee table and placed it in the centre. Making herself comfortable in the second armchair, she smiled perkily and waited for the questions she knew would come.
Giles looked at the girl that sat patiently waiting for him to speak. He didn’t know where to start. To say he was stunned about her revelations would have been a gross understatement.
“Anya,” he said helplessly. “You have completely astounded me. There is so much…the spell, you said it was yours? You wrote it?”
“That’s what we did when I was human the first time, Giles. There wasn’t the access to already written spells that there is today, so if we wanted to perform a spell, we had to create it. It’s a lost art,” she replied, nodding sagely at her own wisdom.
“How does it work?” Buffy asked curiously, indicating the pulsating crystal.
“The pink edges tell us that there is a residual effect lingering because of Willow’s earlier spell. If another spell is cast, the crystal will turn red as a warning to us, but the spell won’t actually be able to affect anyone in this room.” Anya happily explained. She couldn’t believe that they were still being nice to her now that Xander had gone.
“Thank you, Anya. I shudder to think what could have happened had you not intervened.” Giles smiled at her. “Can you tell us how long it will last?”
Anya shrugged. “If I recharge it every two days, it could last indefinitely.” She would certainly have the time. As angry as Xander had been when he’d left her here, she had a suspicion that her support of William was going to have a serious dampening effect on any future orgasms with the brunette construction worker.
“Wow! Go you,” Buffy grinned happily at the other girl. After the particularly unsettling day she’d had, the idea that she could be protected from magical attacks was certainly something she appreciated.
Turning her attention back to William, she saw that he had moved to a sitting position. She joined him on the couch. “William, can I ask you some questions?” Buffy quietly queried.
“I will endeavour to answer your questions, miss.” William nodded in acquiescence.
“You said that Spike, or the demon, could hear me right?” Buffy started cautiously.
“Yes, Miss Buffy.”
“And you can hear his answers, right?”
William nodded again, his curiosity piqued.
“I need him to understand that the questions I want to ask are so I can understand things better. I can be hurt more by not knowing and understanding than I can by knowing the truth. I need him to allow you to answer me. If I find out now, surrounded by understanding people, it will be easier on me than finding out later and being shocked. Spike should know me well enough to know that I don’t react well to surprises,” she said in an attempt to make the demon understand that by protecting her feelings, he was potentially causing her more harm than good.
William seemed to argue internally for a few moments. The demon was finally persuaded, against his better judgement. Looking at Buffy with relief in his eyes, William informed her that the demon had agreed.
Buffy looked at her hands, trying to work out what she wanted to know first. When she finally decided, she looked up at the ex-vampire and asked her question, “I thought demons hated emotions like love?”
The demon cringed. He knew that she was not going to like the answer and he hated the thought that he might be responsible for making her eyes lose their fire. But he had agreed and he was a man of his word.
“Are you talking about demons in general or just vampire demons, Buffy” Anya asked her to clarify.
“Um…there’s a difference?” Buffy asked, confused.
“Oh, yes. Demons in general feel all the same emotions as humans. They mate for eternity when they find true love. Like humans, some are evil, some are good, some are violent and some aren’t,” Anya hastily assured the shocked Slayer and Watcher. “Vampires are half-breeds. They develop into the type of vampire they will be by the influence of the human they were before their turning and the family they are turned by.”
“But Angel and Spike were turned by the same family. Why are they so different from each other?” Buffy still didn’t understand.
“That’s because of the difference between Liam and William. The humans they were influenced their demons differently,” Anya clarified. “William taught his demon love, honour, and loyalty, while Liam showed his selfishness, ego, and dishonesty.” The ex-demon spoke with her characteristic bluntness. “William could probably give you a better comparison, having spent so much time around the both of them”
Buffy, Giles and Anya all turned to the silent blonde. It was time for William to take centre stage. Both he and his demon were in agreement that this was the best possible way to introduce them to the true Spike and the true Angel. William believed absolutely that warriors for the Powers of Good would not place him second to Angel if the truth were known.
William allowed himself to hope. All he needed now was a place to start. Clearly uncomfortable at being the centre of attention, William started slowly but soon lost himself in his tale.
“I was a good man; a poet and a scholar. I adored my mother, sister and one other woman. I was lonely and faced much ridicule from my peers, because I have always felt things strongly. The other woman that I loved rejected my attentions and my reaction was something that I deeply regret. It happened at a party, you see. I was more than a little distraught when I left, and it was in this state that Drusilla found me and I allowed myself to be turned.” William’s breath hitched as he remembered his painful past.
“I was a fool. At first it felt marvellous. I was the same with the exception of being strong and I was no longer required to endure the bullying tactics of my peers. Drusilla was captivating. Not surprisingly, she was the first woman I was intimate with.” He took a deep breath in an effort to calm himself. Speaking of the events that had forced him into hiding in the first place would be a harrowing experience.
“The actual details are for only me to know. Suffice to say I was raped and tortured mentally and physically for twenty years. It was only through the intervention of my demon that we survived with our sanity intact. I was unable to cope, but the demon protected me. He developed a façade- a personality, if you will- designed to encourage a certain wariness in others. The person that you know as Spike is a character developed by the demon. The real Spike is a combination of the demon and I. He is quite a bit more refined than the er…‘big bad’ that he pretends to be.” William lightly chucked at the posturing he remembered seeing Spike come up with. Sometimes the act was far more entertaining than the audience.
“And Angel?” Buffy asked, in a small voice.
“I never knew Liam, but if even half the stories Angelus told were true, he was not a gentleman. The Angelus that I knew could be considered benevolent in comparison to the Angelus that you knew here in Sunnydale. The Angelus that I knew would never have attempted to destroy the world. He much preferred to do it on a more personal level,” William pursed his lips in disapproval. Having been a victim of psychological torture, he had more than a little disdain towards individuals who practiced the ‘art’.
“The main difference that I noticed between Angel and Angelus was that other than drinking animal or human blood from Willy’s, Angel was far more subtle in his manipulations. He was still cryptic rather than straight forward. He still did all he could to stay out of a fight where the outcome was not completely in his favour, and he rarely used his own money. He still managed to make others take responsibility for his mistakes. He will not admit fault with or without the soul.”
Turning to Buffy, William spoke earnestly. “I don’t mean to hurt you, Miss Buffy, but Angel had one hundred years to discover all the facts of his curse. He did nothing at all to ensure that he was safe. He then allowed you, an innocent child, to blame yourself for the loss of his soul and all the bad that came with it. I really don’t mean to be crude, but was he not in the bed with you?”