Buffy swiveled in her desk chair to face the entrance of her cubical. “Anya! Keep it down,” she hissed.
“Why? Anyone who gets within fifty feet of you is going to see that thing. It practically comes with its own neon sign.”
“Well, you’re not helping.”
“Fine,” Anya said, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’ll leave you and the monster hickey alone.”
“Wait!” Buffy said, stopping the other woman in her tracks. “I wanted to ask your opinion on something.”
Anya’s eyes lit up then. “Hold on. Let me get a chair.” She disappeared for a moment, only to come rolling back into the cube and stopping right in front of Buffy. “What’s this about?”
“I won’t talk to you if you can’t keep your voice down.”
“What’s this about?” Anya asked again, this time in an exaggerated whisper.
Buffy figured that was probably as good as she was going to get. “Spike. There’s…well, there’s some things about him that may not be normal.”
“Some things? Like…sex things?”
“Yeah. Those.”
Anya was practically bouncing in her seat. “Do tell.”
“I only had sex with two men before Riley, so I don’t really have a lot of experience to base stuff on.”
“Well, I’ve slept with lots of guys, so I’m totally the woman to come to. Hit me.” Anya leaned forward.
The amount of enthusiasm the other woman had for her sex life almost made Buffy decide to keep it to herself, but then she figured she didn’t really have anyone else to talk to about this – and she did want another woman’s opinion. As scary as Anya was being at the moment, she probably would be more help on the subject than Willow. “Okay, well, for one thing, there’s stamina…”
Anya frowned. “Don’t tell me Spike is an in, out, and done sorta guy. I’ll be severely disappointed.”
“No.” Buffy snorted. “From my past experience, I’d think that was normal. But Spike has tons of stamina. He’s hard all the time. Like even right after he…”
“Ejaculates?” Anya supplied, filling in Buffy’s pause.
“Yeah, that. Sometimes even after more than once. Is that normal? I mean, there’s that commercial that says you should consult a doctor if it lasts more than five hours, and he can definitely keep it up for more than five hours.”
Anya sputtered, and for a moment, she was actually speechless before she coughed and managed to say, “No, that isn’t normal. I’ve never known a man who could…” She shook her head. “But hell, I’d say just go with the gift horse/mouth philosophy on this one. If he doesn’t think there’s something medically wrong with him, why worry? Maybe he’s popping pills behind your back. Sometimes guys use those things even when everything’s working a-okay down there, just to give themselves an extra boost.”
Buffy frowned. Anya could be right there. Maybe he used something but wasn’t comfortable enough telling her. “There’s other things, too, though. Like he’s all into biting. Really into biting. I mean, you see the thing on my neck. And yesterday, we were having sex, and he was close, so I asked him what he wanted me to do, and he told me to bite him hard. And then he like totally got all worked up from it and actually broke a set of chains.”
For the second time in a row, Anya spent a moment silent. “He broke chains?”
“Yeah. He said they weren’t welded very well, but they seemed really sturdy when I was in them.”
“He has chains? I mean, when we were talking the other day about your bondage fun, I just figured you meant handcuffs.”
“Shh! Keep your voice down. And yes, he has chains.”
“And he’s all into biting? On the neck biting?”
“Way into.”
“Well, it’s clear what’s going on, Buffy. Spike’s a vampire.”
“He wears a lot of black, but he didn’t really strike me as someone who’s into the whole Goth scene,” Buffy said with a frown.
“No, I don’t mean someone who reads Anne Rice novels a bit too much. I mean a real bloodsucking, undead vampire.”
For a moment, all Buffy could do was blink before she finally said with a nervous laugh, “Anya, that’s completely insane.”
“Is it? Let’s list the signs here: superhuman stamina, likes neck biting that leaves gigantic hickeys, can break though chains, has chains. I’ve read enough trashy romance novels to be able to tell when someone’s a vampire, Buffy.”
“Vampires aren’t real, Anya.”
“Does he have any mirrors in his house?”
Buffy opened her mouth but didn’t have an answer.
“I’ll take that as a no.”
“Just because I haven’t seen any mirrors doesn’t mean there aren’t some somewhere,” Buffy argued.
“Uh huh. And I bet he’s got big, dark curtains, too.”
“So he doesn’t have any mirrors and he has blackout curtains. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“It means he’s a vampire,” Anya retorted, her tone matter-of-fact.
“Okay, now I’m thinking you’ve read too many Anne Rice novels. Spike is definitely not a vampire. For one thing, he sleeps in a bed, not a coffin. And I’ve seen his teeth. They’re normal. Not fangy.”
“Maybe he’s got a second set.”
“That he what, keeps in a drawer until it’s dinner time?”
“Or that come down over his others. I don’t know. I’m not an expert on vampire physiology. But I do know they can sleep in beds.”
“Did you learn that from romance novels, too?”
“Yes,” Anya replied, as if the question had been meant to be taken seriously. “The vampire guy always has some huge, way comfortable bed. Perfect for marathon sex romps.” Anya nodded knowingly.
“You do realize you’re insane.”
“Whatever. You are so on your way to becoming like a Bride of Dracula or something.”
“Don’t you have work to do?”
“Hey, you wanted my advice.”
“It hasn’t been particularly helpful.”
Anya stood up and put her hand on the back of her chair. “You can think whatever you want, but if you’re going to keep seeing this guy, you should probably start taking iron supplements or maybe drinking a lot of orange juice.”
“Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind,” Buffy said, not bothering to hide her sarcasm. Anya’s only response was to shrug and leave with her chair.
Buffy rested her elbows on her desk and put her head in her hands. Vampire… Anya was crazy. How she got these ideas in her head at all, Buffy would never know.
Only it would explain a lot about Spike. If it were even possible for someone to be a vampire, that was. It didn’t matter how many things seemed to suggest Spike was a vampire, as Anya had now pointed out for her. The fact that vampires weren’t real trumped all of that.
But then again, what if they were real? What if vampires did exist, and Spike was one of them? What did that mean for whatever it was between them? Was he just using her for an easy meal? Was that what he had been looking for that first night? Was he going to kill her? Was he going to make her a vampire?
Buffy lifted her head, her eyes widening as her hand went to the mark on her neck. What if he already had? He’d been at her neck a lot, and after every time they had sex, she had one of those weird hickeys. And she’d bitten him, too – more than once. Did that mean she was going to slowly turn into a vampire, like those women in old horror movies who always seemed to be lying around in bed, wasting away?
As quickly as the panic rose, Buffy pushed it away. Spike couldn’t be a vampire and she couldn’t be turning into a vampire because, quite simply, vampires didn’t exist. Sure, Spike maybe have been a little…other than normal, but going from that to the conclusion that he was some sort of undead, bloodsucking fiend was absurd. This was nothing more than Anya being insane as usual, and Buffy knew she’d be just as crazy if she let herself get swept up like that.
She turned back t her computer and put her hands on her keyboard. “Spike is not a vampire because vampires aren’t real,” she muttered to herself, forcing the notion from her mind. He was a human guy who she had amazing chemistry with and who she was going to meet for dinner that night for something on the menu other than blood.
So not a vampire.
Buffy took a deep breath and let it out before turning her attention back to her work.
Buffy knew she was early, but that didn’t stop her from worrying when she got to the restaurant and Spike wasn’t there. She kept worrying he was going to change his mind about wanting more from her, the memory of how he’d tossed her out the first night still in her mind.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood up a moment before she felt Spike’s arms around her waist. She sank into them without pause, a small, relieved smile on her lips. “You’re here.”
He pulled her closer, so her back was flush against his front. “Of course, luv. You didn’t think I’d stand you up.” He felt her stiffen slightly in his arms. “You did.”
“I was only a little worried you might,” Buffy said.
Spike turned her around in his arms so he could look into her eyes. “Don’t you know by now I’m crazy about you?”
“You could change your mind.”
“Why would I do that?” Spike asked, his head cocked to the side.
“I don’t know. You threw me out the first night and didn’t seem much like you wanted me around then. You could do that again.”
“No. I’m not going to. That first night, it wasn’t about not wanting you. I…I wanted you too much. You weren’t supposed to mean a damn thing. You…” He paused and shook his head. “I’ve lured a lot of women home with me, Buffy, and not a one of them did what you did to me. It’s been a very, very long time since I’ve felt anything at all for a woman.”
Buffy looked up at him, not sure of what to say. While the overall meaning of what he said made her heart flutter, her brain kept hanging on to one word – “lured.” Luring someone implied tricking them into something bad, but what she’d experienced with Spike that night certainly hadn’t been bad. Suddenly, her mind was back on her earlier conversation with Anya. Vampires “lured,” didn’t they?
“Kitten? Are you going to say anything? You’re just staring at me, and I have to admit, you’re making me a little nervous.”
“You aren’t a vampire, are you?”
“What?” Spike asked, sputtering.
Buffy winced at her own question. “Sorry. I have this co-worker who’s a little, well, off, and we were talking today.”
“About me?”
“Yeah…”
“And she thinks I’m a vampire.”
“Yeah.” Buffy blushed and looked down at her feet. “Like I said, she’s a little off. And I’m sorry I even brought it up, because it’s completely ridiculous, and now I’m all embarrassed.”
“Do you think I’d hurt you?”
“Huh?” Buffy asked, sharply looking up again.
“Do you think I’d hurt you? You just asked…I thought maybe I scare you or something.”
“Oh no, not at all,” Buffy said, shaking her head. “I wasn’t worried you were seducing me in order to drink my blood. Cause if that were the case, you probably would’ve killed me the first night.”
An awkward silence passed between them before Spike cleared his throat. “Right. Which I clearly didn’t since you’re standing here now.”
“Right.” Another awkward pause passed, ending when Buffy sighed. “I’m really sorry I even said anything. It was a really, really stupid question. You’re not mad at me, are you?”
Spike put his hand against her cheek. “No. I’m not cross with you at all, luv. As long as you aren’t worried I’m planning to hurt you.”
Buffy shook her head. “No, I’m not. Not at all.”
“Good.” Spike kissed her forehead. “Are you ready to go inside?”
“Yeah.”
Spike moved back, taking her hand instead. “You look absolutely gorgeous tonight, sweetheart. That green is a good color for you.”
Buffy smiled. “Thanks. You look… Well, you always look really, really good.”
He smiled back. “I’m glad you approve.” Spike leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the lips. “Come on. Let’s go in before they give our table away.”
Pushing any further notions of something as silly as vampires out of her mind, Buffy walked into the restaurant, her hand still in Spike’s.
Please remember to review! And to all of my American readers, I hope you all have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.