(Chapter Twelve
“My clothes are back at the warehouse with Dru and Angelus, pet. Kinda doubt they’re going to be willing to pack a bag for me and send it to the Slayer’s.”
Buffy couldn’t take her eyes off his lean body, eyes that kept wandering to the prominent hip bones angled toward the still undone button on his jeans. She unconsciously licked her lips as she said, “May…maybe I can find something of Giles’ for you to wear…”
“I don’t do tweed, pet,” he bristled. He followed her eyes to his flat stomach and ran a hand down his chest. “What’s wrong with the way I am now?” he added with a knowing smirk. “Having a hard time concentrating, are you?”
Buffy rolled her eyes, his cockiness being all it took to get her mind back on their situation.
“You wish!” she huffed, stomping upstairs to search her watcher’s bureau for a tee shirt. She pawed through the collection of plain white shirts, pausing when she found a Grateful Dead tee shirt and one with a Black Sabbath logo on it. Underneath them were other multi-colored shirts sporting the names of bands – some she’d never heard of. “Whoa, Giles! “ she muttered, grabbing one of the white shirts and hurrying back down stairs.
She found the vampire warming up a cupful of pig’s blood and complaining bitterly to Giles that it wasn’t “fit for vamp nor beast”. Buffy threw the shirt at the vampire, ordering him to “cover up, now!” and bringing a raised eyebrow from the older man.
“Um, Buffy? Is that my shirt?” he inquired politely as Spike pulled the much too large tee over his head. “Where did…where did you get it?”
Buffy giggled at the slightly panicked look on her Watcher’s face and replied cheerily, “I got it from your drawer – you know the one – it has lots of tee shirts in it? Lots of DIFFERENT tee shirts?”
She watched with a grin on her face as her watcher struggled with whether or not to ask her what she’d seen in the drawer before he realized from her obvious glee that she had found his stash of concert shirts. He pulled off his glasses and polished them vigorously before clearing his throat and deciding to ignore the whole thing.
“Right, then,” he said quickly. “Xander and Willow will be by shortly and we can talk about our plans. Willow has done disinvite spells at your house, her house, in Cordelia’s vehicle, everywhere we could remember that Angel has been. There is nothing we can do about the school- it is a public building – so we must assure that none of us is there after dark. Jen- Miss Calendar is coming over also,” he added with a puzzled frown. “It appears that she has some interest in Angel/Angelus and wishes to be kept informed of his activities.”
“Miss Calendar? What would she know or care about Angelus?” Buffy’s brow furrowed. “She’s a techno-pagan. Demons and mechanical spirits and stuff like that that. What’s that got to do with vampires?”
“I don’t know, but when I warned her about Angelus, she was quite insistent that she be included.”
Spike watched quietly as the Slayer and her watcher discussed their possible strategies for drawing out Angelus and Drusilla and assessed their potential weapons. Buffy seemed to be in favor of marching into the warehouse they now knew about – thanks to Spike – and planting stakes in both their hearts as quickly as possible. She flounced over to the couch to pout when both Spike and Giles vetoed anything as hasty as charging in before they knew what to expect.
“Slayer.” Spike’s voice was serious, lackingt any trace of William or the lecherous vampire that had replaced him. “Listen to me, luv. Drusilla has a very powerful thrall. She can—“
“I’ve already seen it,” she muttered, still annoyed that they didn’t think she could take the two vampires. “I just won’t look at her.”
“Sometimes that’s easier said than done, luv,” he insisted gently. “I’ve seen her convince people they were safe in their mother’s arms while she was chaining them to…. Never mind. I just don’t want you around her unless I’m with you.”
“Afraid I’ll stake your ho-bag of an ex?” she said meanly.
He studied her face until she dropped her eyes and said meekly, “I’m sorry, Spike. I didn’t mean to—“
“Yes, you did,” he replied shortly, turning back to the Watcher and holding up his mug of pig’s blood. “I want to thank you for the O Neg, Watcher. It was a big help. But if I’m going to be using this stuff to mend, I’d like to have another day or so to get back up to strength before we take them on. Angelus is a right wanker, but he’s not a bad fighter and Dru can be very…”
He stopped when Giles held up a hand and said quickly, “I quite agree. As long as we know everyone is safe—“
“He’s going to come after the Slayer’s family and friends,” Spike broke in, crossing to sit near Buffy when she gasped. “It’s his way, love,” he said gently. “He’d rather spend weeks emotionally torturing a victim than fifteen minutes in a fair fight. He’ll try to weaken you by killin’ off the people you care about before he comes after you.”
Buffy’s eyes were wet with unshed tears. “How could he?” she whispered. “He loves me. He wouldn’t—“
Spike sighed and rolled his eyes, gesturing for Giles to come closer. “The demon’s out now, pet. And it’s furious that you made him feel… human. He can’t admit to loving you – wouldn’t if he could. He wants you to pay for making him weak.”
“What about Drusilla?” Buffy demanded. “I thought you two were l-l-lovers,” She stumbled over the word, finding it very hard to accept that Spike had loved the insane vampire for so long. “Can’t you just tell her to –can’t you just take her away?”
“That seems reasonable, Spike,” Giles put in. “Surely your long-time…consort would not join Angelus in an attempt to kill the Slayer if you asked her not to. You are responsible for getting her well again, are you not?”
Ignoring the last question, Spike just silently turned his head so that they could both see the still angry-looking rip in his throat. He looked into the watcher’s eyes and said tightly, “Dru will do whatever Angelus tells her to.”
Buffy’s eyes were big as the implication became clear and she reached toward him with a sympathetic hand, stopping herself just in time when she saw her watcher’s eyebrows go up.
Spike had seen the aborted gesture and smiled gratefully at her before he continuing, “Just give me a day or two to get up to strength and I’ll come up with a way to distract Dru while the Slayer takes care of Angelus. Then I’ll take her away and we won’t be back.”
He didn’t meet Buffy’s confused eyes as he spoke of leaving Sunnydale with his sire; the sire who clearly did not love him as much as she did his grandsire.
Any response Buffy might have made was interrupted by the arrival of Xander and Willow bursting through the door and trying to talk at once.
“Hey, G-man, did you know— What the hell is HE doing here?”
The boy’s eyes were fixed on the vampire sitting, in his opinion, much too close to Buffy. While Xander glared and postured, demanding to know why Spike was not only not dust, but apparently well on his way to being healed, Willow gave the vampire a timid wave and smile. The wink she received in response caused her to blush and study her shoes intently, thereby missing Buffy’s punch to Spike’s arm and his subsequent chuckle as he stood up.
Before any more explanations could be given, there was a light knock on the door and Jenny Calendar was ushered in by a nervous Rupert Giles. Introductions were made – the whole room falling deathly silent when she walked right up to Spike and said clearly, “William the Bloody, Slayer of slayers. I’d thought Rupert must have been mistaken when he said you had come to warn Buffy.”
For long minutes they stared at each other, the woman with undisguised curiosity and some fear, the vampire with a speculative assessment of the woman before him.
“Gypsy,” he said finally and turned his back on her.
The librarian and his students stared at the two polar opposites – one a dark-haired, dark-eyed school teacher, the other a blue-eyed, bleached blond punk vampire. Buffy’s never very plentiful patience quickly wore off and she snapped, “Does either of you want to tell me what that was all about?” She almost admitted to a pang of jealousy at the thought that Spike might have also met Jenny Calendar before he came to Sunnydale.
I wonder how many girls or women he’s gotten to know over the past 124 years? Why am I starting to think I’m not so unique?
Spike shrugged and gestured to the woman still standing where he’d left her. “Think the gypsy might have some information to share,” he said quietly, then went into the kitchen to fix himself another mug of pig’s blood.
There was another minute of silence while everyone thought furiously. The watcher’s eyes lit up with understanding, but it was Willow who spoke first.
“Miss Calendar? Are you a Gypsy? Did you…well, not you, obviously, because a long time ago, but your…did you…?”
Jenny smiled at Willow’s enthusiasm for having figured it out, and then addressed Giles.
“Why don’t you sit down, Rupert, while I tell you about my family and our history with Angelus.”
Jenny’s tale of how her ancestors had cursed Angelus, the Scourge of Europe, for having the poor judgment to kill one of their own young virgins held her audience’s rapt attention. The only one not closely following her narration of how her tribe had punished the old vampire was Spike. He listened idly from the kitchen as she explained how they had cursed Angelus with a soul. The Gypsies knew that, at a minimum, it would take the joy out of his life of torture and bloodshed, and with luck it would damn him to an eternity of guilt and regret. The hope was that the guilt would be so great that the vampire would eventually dust himself after several years of torment.
When word came that the souled vampire was still alive and working on the side of good with the Slayer, they sent Jenny to keep an eye on him and ensure that he was still suffering. Very hesitantly, she admitted that they knew there was a possibility that a sufficient measure of happiness could break the curse, but the Gypsy woman had seen no signs that the vampire was actually happy, in spite of his growing feelings for Buffy.
All eyes turned to Spike when she said haltingly, “I cannot imagine what might have made him so happy that he could lose the soul he’s had for so many years…”
“My dark princess is a very resourceful woman,” he growled, turning his back on them.
Buffy was torn between the need to understand what might have happened, and her desire to spare Spike what was obviously a painful memory. Having no such compassion, Xander blurted out, “So, Deadboy Jr. What did your significant other do that was so happy-making it made Angel lose his soul?”
Spike glared at the boy, then asked Buffy with a serious face, “Can I eat him?”
She shook her head, giving Xander a quieting glare and stepping closer to Spike. “No, he’s my friend. No eating of Xander.”
“Just a snack?” he asked hopefully, snickering as the boy quickly retreated behind the watcher.
Buffy smacked him on the arm, drawing looks of astonishment from the gypsy and the watcher.
“Behave,” she scolded. “And tell us what happened to Angel. How did he get so happy – and if he was happy, why did he try to kill you?”
“Wasn’t trying to kill me,” he growled. “Wanted to teach me a lesson and when I wouldn’t roll over and take my beating, Dru jumped in to protect her ‘daddy’ from me.”
“So, he lost his soul and then he tried to dominate you?” Giles frowned, trying to understand the progression.
Spike looked at Buffy carefully before saying without a lengthy explanation, “No, it was before. He came to see how sick Dru really was and he smelled something on me he didn’t like.”
“He did all that because he didn’t like the way you SMELLED?” Buffy’s disbelief was plain. Spike whispered into her ear, “Think about it, Slayer,” then straightened up and shrugged. “It’s a vampire thing – got nothing to do with losing his soul. He’d have been just as brassed off with or without it.’
“So, if it wasn’t beating you to a bloodless pulp that made him so happy, what was it?” Giles brought the conversation back to the issue at hand.
“Dru’s bite,” the vampire muttered, refusing to look at anyone. “That and the fact that I had to watch them—“
“Had to watch them what?”
Again, Xander had no compunctions against asking the questions everyone else was avoiding. Giles cleared his throat and began to take off his glasses while Buffy tried to convince herself Spike didn’t mean what she thought he meant. She remembered the blatant sexual behavior of the two vampires outside the apartment last night, as well as their obvious delight in its affect on her. She turned stricken eyes on Spike, hoping he would tell her she was wrong.
Instead, he turned on her watcher, growling, “Haven’t you told her anything about vampires?”
“You’ll have to forgive me if I didn’t think the mating habits of the creatures she slays every night were things my teen-aged Slayer needed to know just yet,” Giles snapped back just as angrily, guilt that Buffy hadn’t known what to expect from Angleus fighting his belief that she hadn’t needed that information in order to do her job.
Not one to leave an uncomfortable subject alone, Xander pressed on. “So you had to watch them do what? Deadboy got groiny with your girlfriend? And that made him happy enough to lose his soul? Man, I’ve got to meet this woman! Er, vampire.”
While the women in the room stared at him, aghast, Spike moved toward him deliberately, his eyes blue ice as he said softly, “I would be more than happy to arrange that meeting, whelp.” The cold anger did not totally conceal the pain the subject was causing him and Buffy put a sympathetic hand on his arm and tried to turn him away from her friend.
“I’m sorry, Spike,” she whispered sadly. “This isn‘t very pleasant for me to hear either. I thought he loved me.”
Ignoring the gasps from the other humans in the room, he put his arms around Buffy and murmured into her ear, telling her that Angelus was a “bloody wanker” and not worthy of her tears. When she had taken a deep shuddering breath and wiped her eyes, he gave the watcher another glare and said so that everyone could hear, “Vampires are not moral creatures. We take what we want when and how we want it, and sexual fidelity is not an important part of most vamp relationships.”
He felt Buffy stiffen and reluctantly dropped his arms as he continued, “But Dru and I are…WERE different. Since the bloody poof left us to go off and brood about his soul, we’ve mostly stayed faithful to each other. We never mated, but I’ve loved and cared for her for over one hundred years and I thought…” He paused, and swallowed hard before continuing, “I thought she loved me, too. I thought that I knew what to expect from her.
“I didn’t expect that the minute her sire showed up, she would be all over him like a bloody coat and I didn’t expect him to be so glad to see her that he would forget about the Slayer. I should have expected him to object to smelling Buffy on me – even though his nose could have told him there was nothing there to be brassed off about,” he added quickly when her watcher’s eyes narrowed.
Buffy gave a guilty start, remembering their activities of just a short time ago, but the vampire read her mind and growled too low for the others to hear, “That was AFTER they did us wrong, luv.
“ Anyway, that was when he decided that after all this time, he could just step back in as head of the family, give me a beating for talking to his girlfriend and shag my woman right in front of me, and I’d just stand there and take it.” Spike’s eyes flashed amber as his demon struggled to emerge again.
“When I didn’t, when the bloody wanker started losing, my princess - my reason for unliving - she hit me on the head with something and knocked me out long enough for Angel to pull my arm out of the socket and pin me to the floor with some kind of pole.
“Long story short – they left me lying on the floor while they shagged themselves silly and when Dru bit the big poof, the soul just couldn’t take that much feeling good and it took a powder. Could see it immediately. Could tell from how he looked at me that Angelus was back. That’s when they really decided to teach me a lesson.”
“How did you get away?” Giles asked with surprising gentleness.
“After they’d got tired of entertaining themselves with me, they went back to shaggin’. I guess they thought I was unconscious again, but I could hear the big poof ranting about the Slayer, how she made him weak, how he was gonna break her. How he was gonna punish her for—“
He stopped, not willing to say what his grandsire had planned to do to punish Buffy for allowing Spike to touch her.
“I crawled away while they were busy and went looking for Buffy. Had to warn her before he showed up and tricked her into getting too close…”
Buffy shivered in spite of herself as she remembered the cruel voice and the familiar and yet different face from last night’s encounter.
“So, Drusilla is recovered then?” Giles tried to focus on the immediate danger and not on the way the two blonds seemed to be leaning together for support.
“That she is. And when she’s fed the poofter enough of Sunnydale’s finest, he’ll be pretty formidable too. Not,” he added with a sharp look at Buffy, “that this slayer couldn’t take him. He’s strong, but he’s no match for her if she’s on her game.”
“What do you mean, IF I’m on my game?” Buffy’s indignation was stronger than her sadness at being expected to kill Angelus.
“I meant what I said earlier. He’s going to try to throw you off by hurting you in other ways. He’ll try to kill the people you care about, make you weak by making you grieve.”
“It could work…”Giles muttered almost to himself.
“Or, it could just really, really piss me off,” Buffy said quietly. Suddenly she looked much less like a teenager and more like the killing machine whose essence had been around for thousands of years.
Spike cocked his head and looked at her with admiration. The power radiating off her small body called to him in ways he’d never expected and he recalled why he’d been so anxious to add her to his list of dead slayers.
“Is it true you killed old Batface, Slayer?” he asked. “That you went back after him even though you lost the first time?”
“Yes,” she said simply, having no trouble knowing who “batface” was. She could hear Willow hiss, “The Master” to Xander, and saw him nod in understanding.
“Oh yeah, the Buffster kicked major Master butt. And then last month she put a hurting on his minions. Angelus is just dust waiting to happen.” Xander nodded his head with satisfaction, ignoring the pain on Buffy’s face.
“All right then, let’s talk strategy.”
Buffy sat down on the couch and patted the cushion beside her for Spike. He smirked at the startled looks of her friends and she poked him again before speaking.
“You’ll distract Drusilla – keep her from putting a thrall on me, and I will dust Angel…Angelus. That’s the plan, right?”
“Sounds good to me, pet.” He carefully avoided asking her what, if anything, she planned to do with his lover.
“May I offer an alternative plan?” Jenny’s voice was soft as she requested their attention.
Everyone looked at her, at a loss for any possible alternative to dusting Angelus. Spike frowned at her suspiciously, wondering if she was going to suggest dusting Drusilla also.
“What if I could restore the soul?”
Chapter Thirteen
There was silence while everyone gaped at her, and then they all began to talk at once. Giles allowed the babble to continue for a few minutes before he cleared his throat and tried to get their attention. After the talking had tapered off, he cleared his throat again.
“You can do that?”
“I think so. I’d have to research the original curse, but if I can find it, I think I can restore his soul. Buffy would not have to kill him, just capture and contain him until we could do it.”
She looked around expectantly and saw a myriad of reactions. Xander looked annoyed; Willow eager, Giles conflicted, Buffy tentatively hopeful, and Spike thunderous.
Before anyone else could speak, he growled, “So, you’re going to put the soul back and what? Trust he isn’t going to go running after Dru again?”
“You could take her away,” Buffy said quietly. “Isn’t that what you planned to do? Make her better and then leave? If you went far enough away, maybe he’d be willing to stay here. With me,” she finished in a whisper.
Reactions from the men in the room were surprisingly similar. Spike’s demon burst to the fore, sending everyone except Buffy and Giles shrinking away in fear. The watcher’s face wore a look that no one had ever seen on it – his normally gentle eyes were cold and hard, his mouth set in a tight line and his fists were clenched at his sides. Even as Xander moved away from the demon sitting by his friend, he was spitting out his fury that Buffy would even consider allowing her former boyfriend to live, let alone continue to hang around.
Jenny was taken back by the negative reactions of the three men, but kept her eyes on Buffy as she repeated softly, “I’m sure I could do it. If he was truly chosen by the Powers to be their champion and to help the Slayer, then wouldn’t that be a better solution than turning him to dust?”
“And of course, this has nothing to do with wanting the poof to continue the suffering your ancestors wanted for him,” Spike said sarcastically.
She met his amber eyes firmly, if with some easily visible fear, and responded, ”That would be a happy side effect; although since the original goal was to make him dust himself after years of torment, I don’t think it would matter to them. It should be Buffy’s decision. She is the Chosen One.”
The Slayer looked from her angry Watcher to her glaring friend and finally into the amber eyes of the vampire whose lover was responsible for their current situation. She knew Willow would be supportive whatever she decided, and Jenny seemed genuinely willing to leave the decision entirely up to her.
She spoke slowly, clearly still working out her decision while she did her thinking out loud. “He hasn’t actually hurt anyone yet—“ a strangled snarl from Spike followed by a grunt of surprise from her watcher stopped her in mid-thought and she colored with embarrassment as she stared at the only partially-healed vampire with abject apology.
“Oh my god, Spike,” she reached toward him, cringing visibly when he jerked his arm away with another snarl. “I’m so sorry. I meant…I didn’t….”
“You meant he hasn’t hurt anyone HUMAN,” he growled. “Yet.”
Even with the demon still to the fore, it was possible to see the way her words had hurt him. He moved away from her and went to stand by the kitchen, effectively taking himself out of the conversation.
She looked helplessly from the angry vampire to her watcher, finding no help there as he looked at her with open disappointment. Willow’s face was scrunched into her most sympathetic look but she wavered back and forth between Spike and her clearly distraught best friend. There was no one in the room who didn’t understand that Spike’s unwillingness to kill Buffy had contributed to the damage Angelus and Dru had inflicted on him. Nor, that he couldn’t have dragged his depleted body from the warehouse and hidden someplace safe rather than coming to the school to warn them of Angelus’ return.
Leaving until later the task of convincing the vampire that she wasn’t discounting his own suffering at the hands of Angelus, Buffy squared her shoulders and continued.
“I meant that he hasn’t started feeding on Sunnydale’s population yet-“
“As far as we know,” Xander grumbled, earning a glare from the Slayer.
“And if I can get to him before he can get to any of you, then he won’t be able to…distract…me by hurting anyone I care about…again.”
She shot Spike an immediate glance to see if he’d heard what she said, but he stubbornly refused to look at her, instead turning away to get the last bag of pig’s blood from the cooler.
She sighed and turned back to Jenny.
“How long do you think it will take you to get the curse ready?” she asked the Gypsy teacher. “I can’t leave him – them - running around Sunnydale for very long.”
“I’ll get on it as soon as I get home,” she assured Buffy.
Spike spoke up before anyone else, avoiding looking at Buffy as he addressed the teacher and her librarian boyfriend. He really didn’t give a rip what happened to the other humans in the room, although he had to admit that the watcher had been surprisingly accepting of him and he felt he owed the man something.
“If he has any idea what you’re tryin’ he’ll be coming after you too,” he said forcefully. “And he’s got Dru to see things for him. You can’t be sure he doesn’t already know.”
“Dru? See things?”
He rolled his eyes and shrugged as he grumbled, “Thought those books told you all about us. They didn’t tell you Dru’s a seer? Was before she was turned and she still has it. O’ course you can’t always tell what she’s talking about, but anytime I could figure it out she was always spot on. She’ll be right interested in any plans to put that pesky soul back into her precious ‘Daddy’, “ he added bitterly.
Giles spoke up firmly. “I will go with you to get the materials you need and you can bring them back here to work on it. If we leave now,” he checked his watch quickly, “we can be there and back before sundown.”
“What do you want us to do, Buffy?” Willow was eager to help, even though she had no idea what she could do against two powerful vampires.
“Actually, Willow, I had hoped you might help me work on the spell to put the soul back,” Jenny said with a smile, earning the redhead’s gratitude and devotion for the rest of her life.
“Well, I for one, refuse to participate in anything that doesn’t involve three piles of dust,” Xander spat out. “If Angel can’t hang on to that soul, then he needs to be someplace he can’t hurt anybody – like a vacuum cleaner bag. And that ho-bag of a girlfriend of yours,” he glared at Spike, “she needs to go with him.”
“That’s two piles of dust, Whelp,” Spike said slowly, beginning to move toward the boy. “Jus’ what did you have in mind for the last one?”
Xander grabbed the large cross lying where Giles had dropped it the night before, holding it in front of him defiantly as he said, “The last one should be you, Deadboy Jr. I don’t know what kind of thrall you’ve worked on Buffy, but you aren’t fooling me. You’d kill me in a heartbeat if she wasn’t here.”
“I’m seriously considering killin’ you while she watches,” Spike growled, slipping into game face and knocking the cross out of the suddenly terrified boy’s hand.
Xander screamed and retreated behind the couch, shouting for Buffy to “Do something! You see? He’s a blood sucking fiend just like the rest of them!”
Spike continued to stalk toward the couch, waiting until the jibbering boy had been reduced almost to tears as he begged Buffy to save him before shaking off his demon. As the vampire walked back toward the kitchen, he snarled at a bewildered Buffy, “Keep him away from me, Slayer.”
Giles sighed and rolled his eyes as Xander’s babbling changed from fearful entreaties for someone to help him back to a litany of reasons why Spike should be dust. He had little respect for the boy’s intelligence as it was, but to see his small mindedness demonstrated so blatantly just reminded him of the incongruity of the relationship between Xander and the two girls who were his best friends.
“Shut up,” he hissed at him. “You brought that on yourself. I’m tempted to let him eat you if you don’t stop that stupid babbling.”
Spike looked up hopefully, but the Watcher shook his head to indicate he hadn’t been serious. Giles pulled Xander up by his collar and said resignedly, “I suppose you had best stay here with Willow. Lord knows you are too bloody stupid to be out and about by yourself.”
Now that he realized that Spike was not really going to attack him – at least not in front of Buffy or her watcher – Xander’s anger came back and he pulled away from Giles roughly.
“I’m not staying here to watch you people try to come up with a way to save those bloodsuckers from a well-deserved dusting. I’m going home and I’m going to stay there until somebody gives me a good reason to come out! Like that there is no more Angelus and his evil family,” he added with a final glare at Spike.
The vampire’s only response was a flat stare that promised eventual retribution and was somehow more frightening than if he’d snarled. With a final epithet aimed at Spike, Xander slammed out the door and into the afternoon sunlight.
His departure left an uncomfortable silence until Jenny broke it by reminding them that the afternoon was advancing quickly and if they were to get where they needed to go and back before dark, they had to get going. Agreeing quickly, Giles offered to drive Buffy and Willow to Revello Drive so that Willow could do the disinvite spell at Buffy’s house before evening fell.
With a final lingering glance at the vampire, who still refused to meet her gaze, Buffy sighed and left the house with her watcher, her former keyboarding teacher and her best friend. She tried to focus on the importance of safeguarding her house from Angelus and finding a way to restore his soul rather than the obviously still-angry vampire now lying on the couch in her watcher’s apartment.
As the door closed behind them, Spike allowed his hurt feelings free rein and he indulged in several minutes of creative swearing in several human languages and one demon. When he’d vented enough of his anger at Buffy’s casual dismissal of his injuries to be able to think clearly, he flopped back onto the pillow that still bore lingering traces of her scent and remembered what she’d so bravely done to help repair those injuries.
With a sigh, he admitted that her actions were not those of someone who didn’t care about him; comforted, he relaxed and indulged in memories of what it felt like to have that soft but incredibly strong body in his arms. It wasn’t long before his reminiscing had him growing hard again and he groaned with the remembrance of how it had felt to have her warm hands stroking him with inexpert enthusiasm. As his pants became tighter and tighter, he gave up the fight and opened them to give himself some relief from the condition the Slayer seemed to inspire even when she wasn’t physically present.
This is just a physical thing I’ve got for the Slayer. Demon’s hot for the power she carries around in that perfect little body, that’s all. It’s not like I would give up my ripe, wicked plum for her or anything like that. I mean, yeah, poncy little William thought she was all that and more, but he also thought she was a bloody elf, so what did he know?
I’ll just take whatever I can get from her before I take Dru away and that’ll be that. I’m entitled- after having to listen to Dru shagging the poof for hours, if she says anything…she’ll get over this obsession with Angelus once I get her away from here and show her how much I love her. Leave the soulful poof to the Slayer if she wants him.. …
I hope she doesn’t want him. He doesn’t deserve to have that sweet little mouth, those hot little hands, that amazing body…no…can’t waste that wonderful…not on the great poof…know she’d feel wonderful…can imagine how tight she’d be…squeezing me with those slayer muscles…Buffy!
With a shudder, he came into his hand, thinking not about his cold, lush-bodied lover but rather of a small, strong body with warm, soft lips and innocent eyes. I am so buggered, was his last thought as he slipped back into a healing sleep.
Chapter Fourteen
Buffy and Willow went all through Buffy’s home, making sure that neither Angelus nor Drusilla had already been there before Willow sat down on the living room floor to do the disinvite spell. Buffy doubled-checked the basement, knowing that it would be the most likely place for a vampire to hide during the day time, but she found nothing and her vampire radar never went off.
When they noticed it was nearing dusk, they quickly left the locked house and hurried back to Giles’ apartment. Buffy was anxious to see how Spike was doing and to find a way to apologize for her thoughtless words earlier.
Foot-in-mouth Buffy is alive and well, I guess. I WAS just thinking about humans – and not just any humans, I was only thinking about the ones I care about. How bad a Slayer does that make me? I know Drusilla can go out and hunt now. She could be feeding him innocent citizens of Sunnydale every night I’m not out there patrolling. I don’t care what Spike and Giles say. I have to go find them tonight – before they have time to kill anyone else.
Newly determined to capture Angelus immediately and hold him until Jenny could do the spell, she set off at a pace Willow was hard put to match. They reached the apartment with Willow panting and complaining about her legs, just in time to see Giles and Jenny returning from their trip to get supplies and research materials. Jenny had also brought her own laptop with her to do more research online and Willow shook her head in admiration.
“Look, Giles! We don’t have to do all our research in your musty old books. We can do it on the computers.”
The watcher looked offended as he cleared some space on the table for all the books, as well as the laptop, but he just nodded silently and moved out of the way. Spike was already up and searching the kitchen for any overlooked bags of blood. He still ignored Buffy, although he could hear her heart beat increase every time she looked at him.
Finally, she could stand it no longer and she grabbed him by the sleeve, pulling him toward the door and saying, “We’re going to go get more blood for Spike and do a quick patrol. Giles, you need to have the chains ready in case I find Angelus and can bring him back with me.”
Spike’s jaw clenched and he said angrily, “I’d like another day, Slayer. I’m still not up to full strength.”
“I know,” she said calmly, “But then, neither is Angelus, right? So the longer we wait, the stronger he’ll be. All you have to do is keep your girlfriend from getting in the way while I fight him.”
“And then?” He kept his voice carefully neutral.
“And then I’ll drag his sorry ass back here to be re-ensouled, and you can…” Her eyes met and held his for a second. He softened as he saw the sadness and conflict there. “And then, I guess you’ll…”
Buffy blinked rapidly, not wanting anyone to see the tears that she couldn’t explain as she realized that if all went according to plan, Spike was going to leave Sunnydale that very night.
“Right,” he said gruffly, sensing the impending tears and fighting his own unwanted disappointment. “Let’s go get that blood and then we’ll play it by ear, yeah?”
With admonishments to take care and stay in touch if at all possible, Giles watched anxiously as his Slayer went out into the night in the company of one of the deadliest vampires in recent times. He hoped that his gut feeling about Spike’s lack of interest in adding Buffy to his list of dead Slayers was to be trusted as they closed the door firmly behind them.
They walked through the darkening evening silently for a while, communicating with gestures when they needed to change direction in order to reach Willie’s. Buffy shuffled her feet with embarrassment when they got there, reminding him that she was too young to go into a bar –even one with demons as its primary patrons. Relief flooded her body when he smiled for the first time since she’d unwittingly hurt him and said, “Not to mention having the Slayer drop in might have a dampening effect on his customers’ fun.”
She nodded in sheepish agreement, smiling back gratefully when he touched her shoulder before turning to go in by himself. He stopped at the door and looked back to where she was standing as unobtrusively as possible at the corner of the building, saying softly, “You’ll still be here when I come out, won’t you, pet?”
Relaxing at his first use of one of the generic nicknames she’d become so used to already, she nodded happily and gave him a little wave. He smiled back and went into the bar. He quickly reminded Willie that he was the current Master of Sunnydale and that, if he wanted O Neg instead of his usual Jack Daniels, then it was in the man’s best interest to see that it was forthcoming immediately.
As soon as he had picked up his bags of fresh blood and nodded at a few of the demons he recognized, he left the building, looking immediately toward the spot he’d left Buffy standing. His stomach clenched briefly when he didn’t see her, but he quickly relaxed when she came around the corner, putting her stake back in her waistband and dusting herself off.
“Sorry,” she said, ruefully. “Had to go to work for a minute.”
“No wonder you’re not welcome here, luv,” he said, falling into step beside her. “Really not good for business, are you?”
“Not in my job description,” she muttered.
“No, I suppose not,” he answered quietly.
And, with that short exchange of words, the reality of the abyss between Buffy’s world of slaying vampires and demons and Spike’s world of murder and mayhem slammed into them both.
With a strangled cry, Buffy whirled to find that the vampire was already reaching for her; they came together with a desperation and despair that refused to be denied. Her arms went around his neck as he picked her up, holding her to his body with a strength that would have broken a normal human girl. Disregarding the public arena, Buffy fastened her lips on his, hungry for the bone-melting oblivion they could bring.
Growling softly, he poured all his conflicting emotions into the kisses he wasn’t sure he could give up, even for Drusilla. William’s adoration and childlike belief in her goodness fought with the demon’s determination to make her his own, and the adult man just wanted to feel her around him one time before he had to leave forever.
Time seemed to suspend its passage as they clung together on the sidewalk, bodies pressed tightly together and lips and tongues saying all the things neither one was willing to put into words. Eventually, the desire sweeping through their bodies was too much and they reluctantly parted long enough for Buffy to gasp, “My house. Nobody’s home.”
He nodded and they turned as one to move in that direction, their hands clasped tightly together as though to stop touching would mean a return to their senses and an end to the prospect of quenching the fires raging through their powerful bodies.
*******************
The Harris household was quiet for a change. Xander’s father was out somewhere, no doubt drinking himself into a stupor before stumbling home. He often wondered how his parents had managed to live as long as they had when they spent so much of their time too drunk to take the normal precautions anyone born in Sunnydale should take without thinking.
His mother had taken her own bottle and closed herself into her bedroom, grateful to have the opportunity to get quietly drunk without having to defend herself. She ignored the ringing of the front doorbell, knowing Xander was home and would hear it eventually.
An afternoon and evening of stewing over the way his concerns had been dismissed by the few people that he knew he could consider friends had put him in a foul mood and his first inclination was to ignore the ringing. When it didn’t stop, he thought perhaps it might be Willow or Buffy coming to apologize and he reluctantly got up and made his way to the front door.
He looked out to see a frightened-looking woman in a strange-looking dress and glanced around quickly to see what might be threatening her. Knowing he was safe inside, even if there were vampires nearby, he opened the door cautiously and peered out at her. He was immediately caught in her dark eyes, losing himself in them completely. It was unnecessary for her to ask him to “be in” her, as he was already hers as soon as their eyes met.
Without a thought, he willingly left the house and followed her down the sidewalk, nodding agreeably as she told him how happy her ‘daddy’ was going to be to see him. When he seemed to falter for a moment as a little voice inside his head began screaming at him, she quickly sent him visions of her naked body climbing on him as he writhed on an old-fashioned looking bed. The voice was instantly silenced as his teenaged libido led him into the night.
******************
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