However even that thought couldn’t make him any keener on facing whatever fate was ahead for him, and his dread only began to grow as he felt the cloaking spell he’d wrapped around himself begin to slip away.
Yet when he did, he kept his head up high, refusing to look defeated. Instead, he smirked, meeting his old friend turned nemesis straight in the eye. “Hello, Ripper. How lovely it is to see you again. Or something of the sort, since I, in fact have been able to see you for quite some time now.”
Giles glared in response, his glasses dangling from his hands as his arms stayed firmly crossed over his chest. “I’m not in the mood, Ethan. Undo what you’ve done to Buffy.”
Ethan sighed dramatically. “Ripper, Ripper. Have you forgotten your manners?”
Suddenly, Giles was moving forward, his glasses hitting the ground as he snatched Ethan’s collar, shaking him against the rope that bound him to the chair. “I’m not in the mood for this, Ethan. Undo what you’ve done to Buffy now.”
“I can’t,” Ethan croaked, struggling to speak with the grip Giles had on the fabric around his neck.
Giles let go of Ethan and took a step back. “What?”
Ethan took a deep breath then repeated, “I can’t. The spell is set to break on its own after a certain period of time. Until then, there’s nothing I can do.”
Before Giles could reply, Angel had moved in, grabbing Ethan in the Watcher’s stead. “You’re lying,” he snarled. “Stop this right now.”
Fear flooded Ethan’s body as he watched the vampire’s forehead grow rough and his fangs descend, but he tried his best to hide it. “I’m not lying!”
Angel roared, releasing Ethan roughly and making the chair spin backwards and hit into the wall before he turned towards Willow. “You can do something,” he snapped. “Break the spell now before she’s violated anymore by that…monster.”
Willow trembled, her eyes wide. “I…I…don’t think I can. I don’t know anything about the spell…I…”
“Try something!” Angel bellowed.
Suddenly, Tara was standing between the two of them, surprising everyone in the room. “Hey! She said she can’t, so just back the hell off!”
Angel blinked, his demonic features receding as the blonde witch took him completely by surprise. “I, um…” He took a step back, looking sheepish. “I’m sorry. I’m just going a little crazy thinking about what Spike could be doing to Buffy.”
From behind them, Ethan began to laugh. “Oh, I bet you are.”
Angel turned and growled. “Shut up.”
“Really, ‘cause I’m thinking taunting the jealous vampire is not a very good idea right now. I for one am not in the mood for picking entrails out of my hair today,” Anya said from her place beside Xander.
Angel turned his attention on her and hissed, “I’m not jealous.”
Anya rolled her eyes. “Okay, whatever. You’re not jealous because Spike’s doing things to Buffy you can’t. Got it.”
Giles sighed, walking past Anya and Angel to approach Ethan again. “How long is this spell going to last?” he asked.
“Until it breaks.”
For a moment, Giles was silent as he fought to reign in his anger and keep himself from attacking Ethan again. “I won’t play this game with you. How long is this spell supposed to last?”
“Until it breaks,” Ethan repeated, slower this time. When Giles started for him, he tried to lift his arms, only to be reminded they were tied down. “That’s all I can tell you, Ripper,” he said quickly. “There’s no set date for it to break.” The corner of his lip twitched up. “After all, where’s the chaos in a time table?”
“Can you give us like a rough estimate?” Willow asked.
“Could be days, could be years,” Ethan replied. “It might never break for all I know.”
Angel growled low in his throat. “This is unacceptable!”
“Actually, what I find unacceptable is me being tied to this chair. Perhaps someone could…”
“No!” the other people in the room sounded in unison, drawing another heavy sigh from Ethan.
“We need to figure out someway to break this spell now,” Giles said, bending down to pick his glasses up off the floor.
“Giles, I don’t think I can…”
“I know, Willow. We’ll do research, try to figure something out.”
Willow smiled nervously. “I’ll do what I can, Giles. I want to help Buffy out. She can’t stay like this forever.”
“Then it’s back to the books,” Xander announced, tapping the cover of one of Giles’s hefty tomes.
Ethan groaned as he watched the group returned to their research.
“Can I at least go to the loo?”
“I used to come here with my friends. You know, before.”
Spike looked down at Buffy as they walked together along the beach, her small body nestled closely against his. The moonlight reflected against her golden hair, making her look as if she were glowing. “Before when, luv?” he asked.
“Before I was the Slayer. Back when I was still just Buffy.” She let out a deep breath, her eyes closing for a second as if she were savoring a memory. “I had some friends who were older, and they had cars. That summer before I was called, we used to drive out here all the time and just hang out. I had my first kiss on this beach.”
Something in Spike warmed inside at the thought of a young, carefree Buffy, not burdened by the weight of slayerhood, and even the mention of another man’s lips on hers didn’t quash it. “That so, pet? So did your mum know you were out here snogging on the beach?” he teased.
Buffy snorted. “Hell no. Mom thought I was sleeping at my friend Kimberly’s. Whose mom thought she was over at my house. They never did catch on to that. Although back then Mom didn’t pay attention to a lot of what I did.”
Spike’s eyebrow arched. “So this whole bad girl thing isn’t so new for you.”
“Well, I wasn’t this bad,” Buffy said with a smirk. “But I got into my share of trouble. For fun reasons anyway. Not because of my slaying duties.”
They walked past a group of teenagers probably around Buffy’s age, laughing and goofing off around a bonfire, and Spike didn’t miss the wistful look in Buffy’s eyes. It had never really occurred to Spike before that Buffy was, in fact, a teenager. He knew, of course. Their first fight had been when he’d crashed her parent-teacher night, after all. And even now that she’d had her first year of college, she was only nineteen. But what sort of life did she get to live? She never even got to go to a party without something evil ruining it for her.
He tried to ignore the pang of guilt he felt when he remembered that evil thing ruining it for her had been him more than once.
She shouldn’t be burdened like she was. This happy, carefree girl he’d spent the past few days with was who she should get to be.
In all the time he’d spent obsessed with Slayers, Spike had never thought about them from this perspective before. He’d always been happy with his existence as a vampire, and though the choice to become one hadn’t truly been one he’d made for himself, he knew if he could do it all over again, he wouldn’t change a thing. But was it not like that for Slayers? Did Buffy truly wish she’d never been chosen?
Spike tightened his arm around her shoulder, noticing how Buffy leaned more into him as he did. They kept walking, past the bonfire until they were alone on the beach again. Buffy had grown quiet, and Spike wondered for a moment if she was upset until she pulled away from him suddenly, mischief twinkling in her eyes.
“Try and catch me, vampire,” she said, a smirk on her face.
“You’re right here beside me, luv,” Spike replied. “Not much of a challenge.”
“I can fix that,” Buffy said before her leg swung out, knocking Spike square onto his bottom on the sand.
“Oi!” he called out, but Buffy had already taken off, the sound of her laughing trailing behind her. “Oh, you’re going to get it now, missy!” Spike called out as he jumped to his feet and took off, running after his little nymph.
Buffy teased him as he chased her, slowing down just long enough to let him get close before she’d take off with another burst of Slayer speed, leaving him trailing again. But the last time she tried it, he was ready, and he reached out and grabbed her before she could get away again. Buffy squealed, kicking and squirming as Spike held her up in the air, bringing her towards the ocean.
“Don’t you dare!” Buffy cried out, even as she couldn’t hold back the laughter that bubbled forth from her.
“And why should I go easy on you?” Spike asked as he stopped ankle-deep in the surf, holding Buffy up over the water. “I caught you fair and square after all.” He acted as if he was going to drop her, only to catch her at the last moment, making Buffy scream.
“Evil!” she yelled. “Put me down!”
Buffy realized her error right before she hit the water.
“Spike!” She sputtered, sitting up and pushing her hair out of her eyes.
Spike chuckled. “You told me to put you down, pet.”
“I didn’t mean in the water, dumbass,” she replied, looking up and noting the smirk on his face. She needed to do something about that…
Suddenly, she was tackling him, bringing Spike down into the surf with her. He called out in surprise before he lunged for her again, the two of them beginning to roll around in the low tide, fighting for dominance. Neither seemed to notice the wet sand as it clung to them, nor the salt water drenching them. Their focus went elsewhere until they were no longer struggling, their goal becoming one in common.
One of Buffy’s boots went sailing past her head, onto the dry sand of the beach, before her leg was pulled from her pants. She fought with Spike’s belt buckle and jeans until they were open and she could take his hard, needy cock into her hand.
In the back of her mind Buffy knew someone could come down the beach at any moment and catch them, but as she mounted his hips and slipped down over his cock, she didn’t care. All she did care about was this man with her and the desire to have him inside her.
She rode him in time with the waves washing over them, and Spike looked up, watching her in awe. The water…the moonlight…Buffy. He’d never seen anything so beautiful in over a century, never known anything that made him feel like this. She burned but drew him into her fire, making him desperate to be consumed.
A wild thing she was. Untamed, but more… Untamable… In a moment of realization, Spike realized it wasn’t the Slayer that was holding her back, wasn’t the Slayer that was keeping her from finding happiness.
But then she was coming around him, screaming his name, and all he knew was mindless pleasure.
At the first knock at his door, Giles was up and moving, his heart beating faster as he hoped to see Buffy on the other side. However, he realized things were about to get much more complicated when it was, in fact, not Buffy.
It was Riley Finn…
“Hey, Giles, have you seen Buffy?”
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