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Chapter Three

Without thinking, Buffy and Spike moved closer together, automatically switching positions so as to have room for their weapon hands, even though all they had were Buffy’s stakes and a pile of bones. Blinded by the light in their faces, they couldn’t see who was behind the floodlight, nor how many might be there. Fortunately, Spike could hear and smell. He concentrated on the heartbeats, whispering to her that he could only hear three people and that they already knew who two of them were.

“Riley?” Buffy tried to keep the hurt from her voice. “What did she mean ‘You were right’? Did you call me a ghoul?”

“I said I thought you might be another kind of demon, one that preys upon its own kind. It’s the only explanation for your strength and this…attraction…you have for vampires. And your violent tendencies,” he added, sounding very much like a psych major.

She was struggling to form a reasonable response when Spike blurted out, “Other than being Heaven’s Chosen One, you mean, you stupid git?”

“Heaven’s Chosen One?” Maggie’s voice dripped sarcasm. “Exactly who Chose her?”

In spite of Buffy’s best attempts to shush him, he replied, “WHO chose her? You’re dumber than you look, aren’t you, Doc?”

In an icy tone, the titular head of the Initiative’s demon study unit reminded him, “It may turn out that I am so dumb I will feel it is necessary to repeat some of those experiments you were so kind as to participate in earlier this year.”

Buffy gasped at the obvious threat and Spike’s smothered snarl, wondering what he had not told them about his experiences before he escaped.

“Are you threatening my…vampire?” Buffy growled her own warning, stepping in front of him protectively.

“YOUR vampire? I was not aware that your job description included ownership of any sort. Stabbing them with pointy sticks – isn’t that what you told me you do to them?”

“Spike has been very helpful to us since you put that chip in his head. I consider him one of my friends.”

“Ah yes, your friends. An interesting collection, are they not? Another vampire- this one claiming to have a soul, a young man just out of high school who appears to have quite a knowledge of military tactics and procedures…. Ms Rosenberg, I understand, dabbles in witchcraft? We have some interest in all of them actually. And I truly do not understand the purpose of that unpleasant man who ‘watches’ you for some group in England, but I suspect we could find out if we tried.”

Buffy tried to picture Quentin Travers and Maggie Walsh squaring off against each other and couldn’t help grinning. “I suspect you could,” she agreed with a soft laugh. “What do you think, Spike – the Initiative versus the Council – who would you put your money…er…kittens on?”

“Think I’d have to give the Council of Wankers the nod, pet. They’ve got thousands of years of sneaky, underhanded, demon killing experience to draw on. Prob’ly make mince meat of these wannabes.”

There was a moment of silence as Riley and his boss tried to understand what the two blonds facing them found so amusing, then, walking out from behind the flood light that was apparently being held by the third man, Maggie stepped into the pool of light with the vampire and the Slayer.

“There are two ways to do this, Ms. Summers. You can come with us willingly and be treated as an honored guest while we…explore your abilities and talents—“ She was interrupted by a furious snarl from the vampire who quickly pushed Buffy behind him.

“You’re not taking her anywhere, you bloody, sadistic bitch.”

“There isn’t really much you can do about that, now, is there, Hostile Seventeen? Agent Finn, would you please restrain the hostile while I finish explaining her options to the Slayer?”

Riley also stepped into the lighted area, not meeting Buffy’s accusing eyes as he shoved Spike away from her and into the pile of bones. The vampire came up snarling, fangs bared as he attacked the waiting commando. He had barely touched the impassive soldier when he fell to the floor, clutching his head and howling in pain.

In the meantime, Maggie had approached Buffy in a friendly fashion saying kindly, “If you cooperate, we won’t hurt him. And we certainly have no intention of harming you, we just want to study you in an appropriate setting.”

While Buffy was distracted by the sight of Spike writhing on the floor, the older woman quickly tapped the back of her neck with a stun gun, effectively sending the Slayer to the floor unconscious. She nodded at Riley to pick Buffy’s inert body up and turned to leave only to hear a strangled gurgle from her second in command and a gasp from the man holding the light. She turned around in time to see a barely upright Spike drop Riley’s apparently lifeless body on the floor. Weaving unsteadily, blood pouring from his nose and ears, the vampire stood over the Slayer, daring the woman to test his willingness to risk permanent brain damage to prevent them from taking her.

To her credit, the head of the Initiative did not flinch back from the obviously injured, but still dangerous, vampire. She merely gestured to the man behind her holding the light, saying, “Put that light down, soldier, and remove this creature.”

At Spike’s feet, Buffy began to stir, her Slayer healing throwing off the effects of the taser much more quickly than would a normal human. She raised her head, shaking it to clear the confusion, and looked from Riley’s bleeding body to the vampire and back to the woman who had attacked her. As she went to push herself unsteadily to her feet, Maggie approached her again, holding the taser in front of her like a gun.

“An amazing recovery, Ms. Summers. I think we can begin our experiments right here. Let us see how well your body handles multiple, successive hits from this device.”

“Let us not, unless you wish to see how you might fare also,” came a cold voice from behind her. Rather than the soldier she was expecting to see joining her within the bright circle of light, an angry man stepped forward, holding in his clearly experienced hand a very real pistol. Maggie blanched when she saw the firm purpose on the Watcher’s face and she quickly stepped away from Buffy, her eyes searching frantically for her back-up.

“If you are looking for the young man who was holding this obnoxiously bright torch, it would appear that the sight of Spike ripping out the throat of his superior had a very negative effect on his desire to remain here. I believe he is outside explaining to some rather hostile demons that he is sure it was not he who captured and mutilated their relatives.”

With a frightening smile he added, “I do not believe the conversation is going well for him.”

“Who ARE you people!” the still-more-angry-than-frightened woman hissed.

“If you survive long enough to get yourself and your men out of this cemetery,” Giles nodded to Buffy who kicked a communicator out of the woman’s hands, “you will no doubt find out at some point. As we speak, there are communications going forth from certain highly placed people in the British government and military to their counterparts in this country. I believe you will find that your…experiments…have been terminated. As has your employment.”

“Go, Council,” Buffy said cheerfully.

“Does that mean we won?” Spike asked weakly, clinging to the sarcophagus for support.

Buffy spun around, not having seen anything that happened while she was unconscious, and gasped as she took in his appearance. The vampire’s eyes were sunk into his head, bruising evident all around them and his nose was still pouring blood. She could also see blood oozing from his ears. Before she could answer him, he mumbled, “I bloody well hope so…” as he slid to the floor.

“Giles!” the fear in her voice was unmistakable as she dropped to the floor beside the now-unconscious vampire. To her surprise, it was Xander who appeared out of the darkness, lifting the smaller man onto his shoulder and saying, “Let’s go, Buffy. We can take him back to my place.”

“Just a minute, Xan,” she said quietly. “There’s something I have to do for him.”

The Slayer took a quick look at her former boyfriend, noting that while he had lost a great deal of blood, it did not appear that Spike had actually killed him. “Too bad,” she muttered, kicking his still body as she walked by. She stalked towards the now visibly worried head of the Initiative, not stopping until she was dangerously close to the frightened, but still defiant woman.

“If you’re so anxious to know what a Slayer can do, here’s a little taste,” Buffy said with a smile that did not reach her eyes. She brought one fist forward in an uppercut that the older woman never saw coming, sending her flying through the air to land on top of the pile of broken bones.

“Okay, let’s go now,” she said cheerfully, as she turned back to her friends. With the light no longer pointing directly into her eyes, she could see that Willow was hovering behind the Watcher, her new friend, Tara, wringing her hands behind her. “We’re taking him to my house, Xander,” she said as she walked over to the young man patiently waiting with the vampire hanging over his shoulder.

Giles lowered the no-longer necessary pistol, asking Buffy with little concern, “How hard did you hit her?”

Reading his meaning immediately, Buffy sighed. “She didn’t kill any of us, so I didn’t kill her. If she doesn’t make it out of here…It’s not my problem,” she finished defiantly.

There was no disagreement from her Watcher; he simply dropped the now unneeded gun into his jacket pocket and followed the young people out of the crypt. In the graveyard, the confrontation between the strange-looking demons with wrinkled skin and the frightened young soldier who had been holding the light was still going on.

All heads turned toward the humans when they emerged from the crypt bearing Spike’s body. Buffy stopped and surveyed the scene before her. She quietly greeted the one demon she knew by name, nodding at the others noncommittally.

“Clem.”

“Slayer.”

She cocked her head and said clearly, “I don’t know who this boy is, but his boss and one of the top demon-hunters are inside. We’re leaving now,” she added, in case they missed the permission implicit in her first remark.

Moving to walk beside Xander, she held onto one of Spike’s dangling hands, telling herself he would be fine as long as he wasn’t dust. She was relieved to see that Giles had driven his car to the cemetery, making the trip back to her house much quicker than it would normally have been.

When the little parade of Scoobies-plus-Slayer entered the Summers’ home, Joyce gave a small cry at seeing Xander’s burden. She quickly ordered the still unconscious vampire carried upstairs to the guest room, clucking over the obvious damage inflicted by the chip.

“What happened to him?” she demanded. “Who did this?”

“He did it to himself, Mom,” Buffy said sadly. “I’m not really sure why, but he attacked Riley and hung on long enough for the chip to do some real damage.”

Giles, who had followed them up to the bedroom, spoke up gruffly, “He did it to prevent Riley from carrying you back to the Initiative for his boss. It appears that keeping you safe this time was a bit more dangerous for him than fighting with Angel or Dracula.”

“I know he didn’t want her to take me there. I heard that. She threatened him with doing more of her ‘experiments’. I guess he was afraid that she was planning to do the same kinds of things to me…”

“I believe that to have been her intent,” the Watcher said, touching Joyce’s arm comfortingly when she gasped in fear. “Whatever Riley told her about you – and about the rest of us, for that matter – gave her cause to think we fall into the same category of laboratory animal as demons and vampires.”

“They aren’t laboratory animals either!” Buffy growled, picturing Clem’s relatives being tortured for the sake of learning more about them, and Spike being subjected to similar tests.

With no idea what to do for the unconscious vampire, except to clean the blood off and wait for him to wake up, they all went back downstairs, leaving him resting on the bed looking uncomfortably like the corpse he was. Buffy trailed one hand along his arm softly before following everyone out the door and down the stairs.

“So,” Buffy said, sitting down on the easy chair and curling her legs up under her, “The Council is pulling strings?”

“Yes, apparently they had become aware of this situation, as had the United States military. Investigators from the Army were already on their way here to see what was going on, this has just added some impetus to the need for closer supervision of the operation.”

“Do you suppose she and Riley made it out?” Buffy’s question bore no trace of concern, but merely requested an opinion.

“I imagine that would depend on how quickly she recovered from your…” he glanced quickly at Buffy’s mother…”justifiably angry response. If she got to her communicator before those angry demons found her…”

“There was a squad in the next cemetery,” Buffy finished for him. “They might have gotten there in time. Or not,” she added with a complete lack of interest in the outcome.

“I think it might be in everyone’s best interests to stay here tonight,” Joyce put in quietly. All eyes turned to the Slayer’s mother who rarely interfered with or commented on the doings of her daughter and her fellow demon hunters. Joyce stuck her chin out and repeated firmly, “If you are all together, it seems to me it would be a lot harder to for them to capture anybody.”

“Thank you, Joyce. That would undoubtedly a wise course of action for the time being.”

Buffy suggested Willow and Tara share her bedroom, while Giles and Xander would have to make do with the couch and the easy chair. When her mother raised her eyebrows, Buffy said firmly, “I’m staying with Spike until I know he’s okay. I’ll sleep in the guest room.”

There was, surprisingly, no argument from anyone; due, no doubt, to the vampire’s obvious inability to threaten either her life or her virtue in his current condition. The fact that he had, so far as anyone knew, maintained a chaste watch over her while she slept in her own bed, went a long way towards allaying any fears her mother or her Watcher might have had about the propriety of the arrangements.

When Buffy had retrieved her pajamas from her own room and changed into them after brushing her teeth and washing her face, she slowly opened the door to the guest room hoping to see sparkling blue eyes watching her lasciviously. Instead, she found the vampire in the same position in which she’d left him, sprawled on his back with no signs of life.

With a sigh, Buffy pushed him over far enough for her to climb into the bed also, sliding under the covers and turning on her side so as to face him.

“Good night, Spike,” she whispered, brushing a kiss over his chiseled cheekbone before snuggling into her pillow.



Chapter Four

Hours later, when the filtered light coming in the heavily curtained windows had roused her, she opened her eyes to find herself face to face with his equally open and smiling blue ones.

“Mornin’, luv,” he said quietly. “Care to tell me what’s going on?”

“Hi,” she answered shyly, suddenly very aware of their close proximity as well as her mother’s presence across the hall. “How do you feel?”

“Like I’ve been run over by a truck,” he admitted, groaning slightly as he moved his head. “What hit me?”

“You don’t remember?”

“Remember that bitch threatening to take you into her chamber of horrors, and the big git pushing me down; that’s about it. It’s pretty much blank after that.”

Buffy pulled a hand out from under the blanket and cupped his cheek as she answered, “She tasered me and I was out of it for a few minutes. When Riley tried to carry me out for her, you…you bit him. The chip fired, but you kept biting until…” She looked up into his horrified face, easily seeing his certainty that she was going to stake him for killing the man. “You didn’t kill him,” she said quickly. “You just dropped him and tried to keep her away from me.”

“Don’t remember any of that,” he muttered.

“I’m not sure you were still conscious,” she smiled slightly. “The chip had pretty much fried your brain by that point.”

“So,” he looked around quickly, “how did I get here? And where are we? This isn’t your room.”

“It’s our guest room. My mom insisted you be put here when we brought you home.”

“Your mum tell you to keep me company?” he asked with a skeptical twitch of one eyebrow.

“No. But she didn’t tell me I couldn’t, so…”

“Your mum’s a very nice woman, Slayer,” he said sincerely. “I like her,” he added, in a teasing voice. “She’s nothing like her irritating bint of a daughter.”

“She likes you, too,” Buffy answered with a mock glare. “I’m not sure why.” She giggled at his growl, “But she does and she wanted you to have someplace safe to recover. I just didn’t feel like arguing with her.”

“Is that so? And where would you have put me? In the basement?”

“Maybe.”

Her hand was still on his cheek and she patted it lightly as she spoke, neither of them taking seriously what the other was saying. The familiar bantering eased Buffy’s fears that the vampire was going to be permanently damaged by the chip’s constant shocks and she relaxed, dropping her hand to the blanket.

Spike rolled to his back and attempted to sit up, only to find himself too weak to lift anything more than his head. He groaned in frustration, rolling his head back towards the frowning girl.

“Bloody hell! I’m weak as a kitten.”

“We can fix that,” she said quietly, not looking at him.

“Yeah, I will, pet. I think your mum’s probably still got some blood in the kitchen. Soon’s everyone’s awake, you can go get me some and I’ll be up and around in no time.”

“That wasn’t exactly what I meant,” she said softly, meeting his puzzled gaze with a quiet sureness. “You could have some of my blood. It wouldn’t take much – just a few sips, probably.”

He looked at her with dawning understanding and disbelief.

“You are amazing,” he said with a tremor in his voice and an expression on his face that sent her heart racing and warmth flowing throughout her body.

“Hey,” she said, blushing. “It’s no biggie. You’ve got more right to it than Drac does. You don’t even have to bite me, so we don’t have to worry about the chip. You can just pull the scabs off his bite.”

She sat up and studied the weakened vampire, trying to decide how best to get her neck close to his mouth. With a blush, she moved so that she was lying on top of him, placing her throat close to his mouth. She placed her elbows on either side of his head, holding herself up for a second as she said, “I don’t think the chip will fire if it doesn’t think you’re hurting me, but if it does, you stop and we’ll do something else. Okay?”

She lowered her head until it was beside his and her neck was touching his lips. Buffy shivered all over when he ran his tongue over the newly healed bite, laving it until the scabs softened and came off. When he applied his mouth to the wound and began a gentle sucking, the sensation went directly to her lower abdomen eliciting an involuntary moan. Apparently the chip had no problem recognizing the moan for what it was, as Spike continued to suckle, taking long slow pulls of her blood.

She could feel him growing stronger under her as he absorbed the tonic that was Slayer blood. His arms came up to wrap around her, holding her against him even as he stopped sucking on the wound and began to lick it closed. She could also feel his reaction to her nearness pressing against her hip and she squirmed around until the bulge he couldn’t hide was caught between her thighs.

When he stopped licking the wound and raised his head, she slid a little further down his body, allowing his erection to press into her center while her lips sought his eager mouth. Even the coppery taste of her own blood on his tongue couldn’t spoil the incredible intensity of the vampire’s kiss. Buffy sighed into his mouth, her tongue tangling with his while her warm breath brought another groan from the aroused vampire.

His hands crept under her pajama top, caressing the soft, warm skin he found there and pulling small whimpers of need from the Slayer’s throat. Buffy frantically tried to cling to the knowledge that they were not alone in the house, that her mother could appear at any time to see how Spike was doing; while he struggled to hold the same thought. In no way did he want Joyce to walk in and find him shagging her daughter in the bed she had trusted him to occupy, but at the same time the whimpers coming from Buffy as well as the feel of her strong body on his had him so hard he was aching.

He dipped his hands into her pajama bottoms, cupping the silky skin of her ass and pulling her hips against him even harder. Trapped by her position on top of Spike, Buffy could do nothing but tangle her hands in his soft hair and grind her hips into him.

“Want you so badly...You feel so bloody good, love…Please, Buffy…I need…”

“We can’t,” she gasped, even as she rolled them over to wrap her legs around his hips. “Somebody might come in…” She moaned low in her throat when he slid a hand between them and ran his fingers into the heated dampness waiting there.

Within seconds his talented fingers had her panting and whimpering, her legs spread as she arched into the hand that was quickly bringing her to a fever pitch. She buried her teeth in his shoulder as she shuddered against his hand, muffling the scream of release that tried to make itself heard. She continued to tremble, while he whispered in her ear how much he wanted her and how good it felt to make her come.

With a quick glance at the still-closed door, Buffy ran her hand down his hard stomach, smiling when he sucked it in with a gasp. The gap between his soft skin and the rough denim of his jeans was suddenly large enough to allow her hand to slip in and find his swollen cock. His whimpered moan when she wrapped her hand around him was all the encouragement she needed to begin a rhythmic stroking and squeezing. The vampire grabbed a pillow, pulling it down tightly over his face as he pushed up into the warm hand bringing him such welcome release.

When he had taken the pillow off his face to look at her with admiring eyes, she smiled and, with a final caress, pulled her hand out and wiped it on the sheet.

“I guess I’d better get out of here before we do something that makes my mother come after you with the axe again,” she said with a sigh. “I’ll go get dressed and heat up some blood for you. You can come downstairs when you’re ready.”

He pulled her down for another kiss, one that threatened to begin the whole activity all over again until they heard the distinct sound of her mother’s door opening. Buffy shot up off the bed and was at the door by the time her mother knocked politely on it. She opened it immediately, murmuring a “good morning” as she went past her mother to the bathroom.

Joyce stepped into the room and surveyed the tired-looking vampire. His eyes were still bruised and damaged-looking, but they were open and alert enough to cause her to give a sigh of relief. She waved him back down when he sat up, his weakness still evident when he tried to swing his feet onto the floor.

“Stay there until Buffy brings you something to eat,” she ordered in her best ‘mom’ voice. “You’re not leaving here until I know you are completely recovered and that it is safe for you to go home.”

“Yes, Mum,” he grinned at her, leaning gratefully against the headboard.

“Thank you for protecting my daughter,” she said quietly. “You seem to be doing that a lot lately.”

“Dozy bint keeps gettin’ herself into these situations,” he said with a straight face. “You’d think she was the Slayer or something.”

Joyce smiled ruefully. “Point taken,” she agreed. “But I am grateful never-the-less. You didn’t have to do it.”

“Yes, I did,” he responded truthfully, allowing Buffy’s mother a quick glimpse of something she had begun to suspect already. She shook her head at her own dreams of Buffy’s having a normal life and went downstairs to begin fixing breakfast for her guests.



Chapter Five.

Before anyone attempted to leave the house -- including Joyce, who fumed at being kept from her business, but acknowledged the wisdom of not putting herself in possible danger -- Giles made a phone call to Council Headquarters, and then another one to a local number they provided. He listened carefully, asking a few terse questions from time to time, then hung up and turned around with a satisfied look on his face.

“It appears that the military investigators have arrived and taken control of the facility. They are in the process of sorting out which demons may be harmless enough to release and which should be humanely destroyed. They would like our assistance in helping them with identification.” He turned to a still-sleepy Xander. “Do you think Anya would be willing to come with us? I am sure her knowledge is much greater than ours when it comes to knowing which demons might be considered harmless.”

“I’m sure she would,” the boy responded, “She loves to be asked for information. And, hey, speaking of harmless demons…”

They all followed his gaze to the doorway, to see Spike standing there, one hand gripping the doorjamb in a futile attempt to seem strong and healthy. Buffy immediately leapt to his side, putting his arm over her shoulder as she helped him walk to the nearest chair. He sank down into with a quick smile of thanks, paying no attention to her muttered threats of retaliation for his being “such a moron” as to come down the stairs unassisted.

While she went to the kitchen to get him some warm pigs’ blood, Willow and Tara looked at him sympathetically. The blond witch said shyly, “I’m g-g-glad to see you are awake. You had us worried last night.”

“Yes,” Willow added. “Buffy was afraid there might be permanent brain damage.”

“Not a bloody word, Whelp,” Spike growled and pointed at Xander who was just opening his mouth.

“Oh, come on, Evil undead. It has to be said.” Xander’s indignant response was accompanied by a small smile.

“What has to be said?” Buffy came into the room holding a mug of warmed blood which she handed to the vampire before sinking to the floor at his feet.

Giles answered dryly, “They were discussing Spike’s fortuitous escape from having his brain permanently injured during the altercation on your behalf.”

Buffy’s eyes darted back and forth between Spike and Xander and her back stiffened as she realized what Xander wanted so badly to say. However, when she saw that he and Spike were actually smirking at each other instead of glaring, she relaxed and leaned back against the chair, her shoulder just brushing Spike’s leg.

“Well,” she said coolly, “it was scary to see. I hope you aren’t planning to make a habit out of doing that.”

“Doin’ what? Biting big, ugly gits that are trying to kidnap you? I hope I don’t have to do that again either. But I will, if I have to,” he finished quietly so that only Buffy and those closest to them could hear.

While Spike slowly drank his mug of blood, Giles began the process of deciding who would go to the Initiative labs to meet with the new commander and help him assess which demons could safely be released back to their lives and families. It was determined that Willow, Giles and Anya, with Xander accompanying them because he wanted to see more of the facility, would make the initial trip. Spike agreed to help them with any that Anya couldn’t recognize, although he admitted dryly that her 1000 years of life as a vengeance demon would probably give her a slight edge over his own 124 years of demonhood.

At Joyce and Buffy’s insistence, Giles agreed to leave the vampire at the Summers’ home until he seemed to be completely recovered from the debilitating effects of the chip’s constant assault on his brain. Buffy walked to the door as her Watcher and friends prepared to leave, laying a gentle hand on the man’s arm. Giles turned to face her, his brow raised in question, only to find that now that she had his attention she was wordless.

The Slayer squirmed and cleared her throat, casting a look back at the vampire before squaring her shoulders and saying firmly, “I want you to ask them about Spike’s chip.”

When the man’s face darkened and he began to speak, she interrupted him quickly. “I’m not saying I want them to take it out. At least,” she admitted slowly, “not right now. But I want to know more about it. How long will it last? Could it malfunction and go off on its own for no reason? What would happen to him if it did?”

Giles glanced from the vampire, who was resting his head against the back of the chair, pretending not to listen, to the anxious Slayer and said coldly, “I will not even consider asking them to take it out. You need to understand that, Buffy. He is a cold-blooded killer and that chip is the only thing keeping us safe from him.”

There was a soft growl from the chair in which Spike was sitting and he was now staring right at the Watcher. Giles was surprised to see more pain than anger in the vampire’s expression, and he dropped his eyes in the face of what he had to admit was his own ingratitude.

“I’m sorry, Spike,” he said quietly, avoiding Buffy’s equally angry glare. “I know that you have gone against your nature recently to protect my Slayer, and I do appreciate that; however, surely you don’t expect me to believe that you would not go back to feeding on helpless humans if you were able to do so safely.”

“Don’t care what you believe, Watcher,” Spike answered dully, “Only care what the Slayer thinks. And her mum,” he added quickly when Joyce frowned at him.

Buffy looked back and forth between the two men with distressed eyes.

“Just see what you can find out about it, Giles. That’s all I’m asking. We need to know more about…about what they did to him.”

The Watcher gave a brusque nod and continued out the door, promising to call or come back later to let her know what they found in the former secret facility.

Giles had indicated to Buffy’s mother that any possible retaliation from Initiative soldiers seemed to be unlikely with both Riley and Maggie Walsh missing and all the others accounted for and confined to their barracks until decisions were made about how responsible they were for the abuses in the facility. In light of that information, Joyce decided she would go in to her Gallery for the day and she went upstairs to change.

Promising to stop and get some more blood for Spike on her way home, she ran a motherly hand over Buffy’s head and left for her place of business. Joyce knew that her daughter faced sudden death every night when she went out to do the work for which she’d been chosen, but the idea that she could face death or danger from other humans was not something she usually worried about. Once she knew what Buffy was and understood how deadly her own daughter could be, she had been relieved of the normal mother’s fears about Buffy’s safety in everyday situations; replacing that with the fear of the monsters and demons she went out to fight every night.

To discover that the very people Buffy risked her life to protect would be capable of wanting to harm her daughter had Joyce wishing she still had the fire axe she had used on Spike when they first met him years ago. She shook her head at the way the blond vampire had wormed his way into a place in their lives, knowing that Buffy would be furious if she had any idea how often Spike had stopped by for hot chocolate and a sympathetic ear -- long before he was chipped. Somehow Joyce had never been afraid to have the vampire in the house, trusting him when he said, almost shyly, that he just wanted to spend some time around a woman who wasn’t cheating on him or trying to kill him.

Joyce’s wry smile at the reference to her only daughter had cemented the trust between them and she had never told Buffy about the vampire’s rare but enjoyable visits. As far as Buffy knew, he had only been there the one time she had caught him baiting Angel while waiting for Buffy to come home.

She grinned to herself, remembering one of their first conversations in which she had threatened to take the axe to him again if he didn’t quit trying to kill her daughter. Spike had reacted with rueful laughter, saying, “I wouldn’t be worried about that, Joyce. She’s too good for me. I try to give her a good fight, but she can pretty much kick my arse anytime she wants to.” He’d paused, a panicky look coming over his face. “But you can’t ever tell her I said that!” he’d said, his voice rising in fear.

She’d laughed and assured him she had no intention of telling Buffy that the Slayer of Slayers was afraid of her.

“Not afraid,” he’d mumbled. “Just don’t want her getting too cocky, is all. She might make a mistake and get herself killed.”

With a sudden burst of insight, she realized that Spike’s desire to protect the girl he’d come to Sunnydale to kill had begun long before the Initiative had put the chip into his head and she almost turned around to go home to chaperone the two blond superbeings that she had just left alone together. A moment’s thought and she shook herself mentally.

Buffy is not a girl any more. She is a young woman and she is entitled to make her own decisions about her life. If there is something going on between her and Spike, it is their business and they will tell me about it in their own time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Left to their own devices, Spike and Buffy maintained an uncomfortable silence, until the impulsive vampire could not contain himself any longer. Putting down his now-empty mug, he crooked a finger at her, saying softly, “Commere, pet.”

She approached slowly but willingly, pausing when she reached the side of the chair and sitting on the wide arm. She put one arm across the back of the chair, absently tangling her fingers in the soft curls he’d not yet had time to tame.

“What?” she asked somewhat defensively. She knew he’d been able to hear everything she said to her Watcher and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know how he felt about it.

He surprised her by not mentioning his chip at all.

“Nothing,” he said quietly, taking her free hand in one of his and stroking it with his thumb. “I just wanted to be close to you for a while longer. Thought I’d take advantage of the empty house, is all.”

“Oh.” His quiet remark took away all the words she had been preparing to use to explain why she wasn’t asking that his chip be taken out right away.

She made no complaint when he pulled her down into his lap, putting his arms around her loosely and resting his chin on her head. She snuggled into his chest, resting one hand on it and marveling at how comfortable and how right it felt to be there. When she began tracing small circles on his chest, getting closer and closer to one nipple as she did so, his arms tightened briefly and he made a soft sound, somewhere between a growl and a purr, that vibrated throughout her whole body.

“Have I ever mentioned what a sexy sound that is?” she asked breathlessly as her body responded to the vibration.

“Liked that, did you?” he growled again, smiling when her heart rate and body temperature went up.

“Oh yeah,” she responded with a small whimper. “Do it again.”

Instead of answering her, he picked her up and turned her so that she was facing him, one knee on either side of his legs and her crotch poised over the growing bulge in his jeans. He slid down until he was slouching in the chair, his hips pushed forward and her rapidly dampening center just touching him. When he let go, she sank down onto him, gasping as he pressed up into her, then moaning when he began a steady purring that sent vibrations from his body directly into hers.

The pleasure he took from having her warm, moist sex pressed onto his hardened cock made it easy for him to continue the purring, interspersing it with an occasional growl as the demon struggled to demand more. He kept his hands resting on her waist, gently pressing her hips down onto him as he watched her face fill with lust and enjoyment.

It wasn’t long before the vibrations had little gasps coming from the Slayer’s mouth as she began to grind down onto him in an attempt to reach the release she could feel building.

“Ah, ah,” he scolded gently, holding her off just a fraction, “let it come by itself, love. Don’t force it. It’ll feel all the better for taking some time.”

“Spiiiiiike,” moaned the impatient Slayer, complaining even as she complied with his directions. She was sure if she had to remain still any longer she was going to lose her mind entirely as waves of sensation swept over her from the steady vibration against her most sensitive part. He held her gently, whispering in her ear how good she felt on him and how happy he was going to be to see her come for him again. The urge to push up into her willing body was strong, but he fought it down, wanting to watch her face as her pleasure built and ecstasy flooded her body.

He held her hips firmly as the first waves of her orgasm washed over her – letting her neither move away from the steady vibrations, nor to grind down harder. Her head went back and her eyes closed as she hung there helplessly while wave after wave of pleasure so acute it was almost painful flooded her being. When her body finally could no longer produce any more ecstasy, she fell against him with a shudder, taking deep gasping breaths and struggling to regain her senses.

She finally recovered enough to breathe normally and mumble against his chest, “Angelus, shmangelus. That’s probably what made Dru go crazy. It was all your fault.”

His deep chuckle resonated against her cheek and she raised her head to meet his eyes, only to drop them again, blushing deeply. She burrowed into his chest, embarrassment at having allowed her body to respond to him as it did making it impossible for her to look him in the eye. She could tell from the continuous chuckles that he was thoroughly pleased with himself and the small part of her that wasn’t completely mortified at having lost control in front of him was happy with the knowledge that giving her that much pleasure made him happy.

With a guilty start, she realized that except for stroking his ego, the whole exciting episode had been all about her and she squirmed uncomfortably against the still rock-hard erection the vampire was making no attempt to hide. With a sly grin, she decided to try to wipe the cocky expression right off his face.

Still keeping her eyes averted, she pushed herself away from his chest and began to slide down his reclining body, stopping when her face was only a few inches from his straining zipper. Using her teeth, she delicately took the zipper in her mouth and pulled it down slowly, smirking to herself at the vampire’s sudden gasp. She nuzzled her way back up the now-open fly, running the tip of her nose lightly along the pale shaft trying to push its way out. When she got back to the snap at the waistband, she realized that the small piece of flesh she could see peeking out the top was the reason his cock hadn’t sprung free immediately. She flicked her tongue across it quickly, before grabbed the denim fabric in her teeth, and with a quick prayer that her teeth were as strong as bones, she yanked the pants open, allowing the captive body part to burst free.

Spike’s sigh of relief told her how uncomfortable it must have been for him while he was giving her the best orgasm of her short life, and she felt guilty all over again. The tight waistband on his jeans had left a red mark around the head and she leaned in to plant a small kiss of apology on it, laughing when the vampire gasped and shifted his hips.

Determined to make him feel as good as she did, Buffy ran her tongue up the sides several times before slipping her lips over the head and pulling as much of it as she could into her mouth and throat. Spike’s hissed, “Slayer…” was all the encouragement she needed to begin a series of long, hard pulls on his willing cock, pausing occasionally to swirl her tongue around the tip and nibble on the foreskin she found there.

When she had him babbling her name over and over and running his hands through her hair where it fell onto his flat belly, she renewed her efforts, trying to get as much of the throbbing member into her throat as possible. She wrapped one hand around the base when she realized that she could not fit the whole thing in her throat, and began squeezing gently while swallowing at the same time.

She was just beginning to worry that she was going to have to stop and breathe soon when she felt him tense up and, with a strangled cry, he began to jerk his hips, pumping into her while she quickly swallowed everything he had. When his hips stopped moving and she felt him relax against the chair, Buffy slowly allowed his softened cock to slip from her mouth, leaving a small kiss on the tip before straightening up to look in his sated face with a smile.

“So, are we even now?” she chirped cheerfully.

“Bloody hell,” was the only reply as he pushed himself into a sitting position and pulled her back up onto his lap.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes’,” she said, suddenly shy again at the adoring look on his face. She tried to look away from the intense eyes boring into hers, but a gently hand on her chin prevented it.

“Don’t look away from me, love,” he said softly. “It makes me think you’re sorry about it. Don’t ever want you to be sorry about anything you do with me.”

The frightened sincerity in his eyes had her nodding quickly and reaching up to kiss the mouth that was already moving in anticipation of having to argue his way back into her good graces. When she brushed her lips over his and whispered, “Not sorry, just embarrassed,” he laughed with relief and captured them in a deeper kiss.

“Don’t want you to ever be embarrassed either. Nothing you could do would ever make me think less of you. Least of all anything you do that makes me feel that good,” he added, wiggling his eyebrows for emphasis.

As he’d hoped, his remark made her giggle and she relaxed against him, enjoying the way he nuzzled the top of her head and stroked the arm resting across their bodies. They drifted off to sleep, the vampire still needing time and rest to recover from the chip’s effects and the Slayer satiated by her two orgasms in one morning.





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