”Do you like her, Daddy?”
Spike froze dead in his tracks, cigarette held an inch from his mouth and gaze suddenly locked on the dark blue car that stood parked a couple of meters away. A snicker reached his ears.
“Very much.” This voice sounded amused. “Perhaps we should keep her?” A sound of footsteps and rustling of clothes.
Spike took four soundless steps forward, towards the street corner. If he wanted to he could look around it. Now, he clearly felt the presence of both of them and silently he cursed himself for not noticing it a lot earlier. He was without doubt thinking too much these days.
To look or not to look around the corner. The brightest thing would be to just walk away; he really didn’t want to get into a fight with the two of them. If he sensed them, they most likely knew he was close too. He leaned forward.
“She’s such a pretty doll,” Drusilla said the same moment, caressing a young girl’s cheek.
The girl flinched. She had to be younger than the Slayer, perhaps fifteen, with blonde hair and a thundering heart beat. Angelus stood with his back to Spike as Drusilla held the girl.
She stroked the girl’s hair once, twice, before she suddenly raised her head and looked right at him. She was dressed in black tonight, almost merging together with the shadows. It made her skin seem even paler and a small, familiar smile curled her lips.
”Maybe I’ll learn how to fly,” Her head rolled back and a secretive smile played on her lips. “Live with the pigeons.”
His heart warmed and he took a step closer to wrap his arms around her waist. Feeling her lean back against him he pressed a kiss against her exposed throat. “You don’t have any wings, darling,” he murmured.
“Oh, but I do.” She turned her face towards him, eyes sparkling as they met his. A small hand was placed over his and her voice lowered, became but a whisper. “Shh… I made them out of fog light.”
Angelus began to move closer to the females and Spike hastily drew back. Those few moments with Dru were only stolen memories.
It was probably pure luck his Sire hadn’t felt his presence; that’s if he hadn’t already and chosen to ignore it. Spike swung around, he’d have to take a detour to the Slayer’s house if he wanted to avoid this street.
She had been lying here for one hour and twenty-two minutes. Buffy turned onto her side for the thousandth time. Giles had gone with her on patrol again tonight, talking about responsibility and sacred duty while she staked vampires and tried to at least look like she was paying attention.
She was surprised they hadn’t run into Spike – or that Spike hadn’t run into them. She would’ve thought he’d stalk her now when she was finally leaving the house again but there had been no sign of him. Sure, Giles had been with her, but that shouldn’t stop the vampire. It was the second night in a row he hadn’t been outside her window too. For the briefest second her heart clenched. What if… Abruptly she shook her head, rolling onto her back for the thousandth-and-one time this night.
Giles seemed to be up to something. Either that or he’d been doing ever more reading during the last few days. A small smile spread over her lips but it disappeared quickly. Those vampire books had been piled up on the counter today too. Was Giles researching him? When she’d brought up the matter of killing him the day before yesterday, the Watcher had been quick to assure her he was already looking into it. Perhaps he was looking for some kind of loophole, the master vampire’s weak spot. If he had any.
For an instant she could feel a cool breath on her neck and a hand gripping her shoulder. A shiver ran down her spine as she felt the familiar pricking in the back of her neck; telling her a vampire was near. The feeling abruptly pushed away the memories threatening to invade her mind.
Swallowing hard she forced herself to get out of bed. Padding over to the window she glanced down and saw a familiar blond head crossing her lawn. Not him. She let out a sigh of relief and her body relaxed. Slipping back into bed she hoped Spike wouldn’t start throwing stuff against her window tonight too.
When he reached the Slayer’s house he made no move to draw her attention. Instead he simply leaned against ‘his’ tree, hands stuffed in his pockets as he gazed up at her bedroom window. He assumed she had gone to bed; he couldn’t see her moving around, but still heard her steady heartbeat coming from the room. It was slow, but not slow enough for her to be sleeping.
Absently he stuck a fresh cigarette between his lips and lit it.
His heart warmed and he took a step closer to wrap his arms around her waist.
God, she was beautiful. All that pale skin pressed against his. Spike blew out the smoke, raising the cigarette to his lips again. If only those times had not been so rare. At least she had never told him to fuck off when he returned to them – her – after any of his ‘little trips’.
The only sound was that of their bodies moving together and her whimpering. He could see them together for his inner eye; Dru on all fours, his Sire’s hand buried in her hair; craning her head backwards. It didn’t take long before her scream of release rang in his ears and it was soon followed by Angelus’ low growl.
Silence.
Spike sat on the floor, staring into the wall on the other side of the room. He should’ve known he’d come back to this. Perhaps he ought to just slink away again.
He was still sitting there when the door swung open minutes later. There was no shimmer of surprise in Angelus’ eyes as he saw him, instead he smirked. Naked, he casually leaned against the doorway.
“Knew it was only a matter a time before you’d be back, boy,” Angelus said, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Yeah, yeah,” Spike muttered, trying for uncaring but sounding much more miserable than he liked.
His Sire was quiet as he regarded him and Spike slowly stood, meeting his gaze without wavering. Angelus didn’t look away to call after his other Childe.
“Dru! Come look who’s here!”
She wasn’t quite as gorgeous as he remembered. But it was possible that her standing nude beside Angelus shadowed her beauty. Her eyes lit up when she caught sight of him, but she put a hand on Angelus’ chest.
“The stars told me you’d come back,” she said, slowly letting her free hand slide down her body. “They said you missed your Mummy.”
Spike could only stare. Is this what I came back for?
“Well.” Angelus slid up behind Drusilla and wrapped his arms around her. “As nice as it is to have you back – oh wait. It’s not.” A large hand cupped a milk white breast. “Anyhow, we were in the middle of something.”
Cooing, Drusilla rubbed her cheek against Angelus’ neck. “He can join us, can’t he, Daddy?”
Angelus shrugged, untangled himself from Drusilla and went back into the bedroom. Dru hurried across the room, reaching out to take Spike’s hand. This close he could smell his Sire all over her.
“I knew you would come back,” she whispered, tilting her head back and on its own, his hand came up to cup her cheek. Feeling the soft skin under his fingertips as she purred against him.
“Dru!” Angelus voice, the impatience clear in his tone.
When the vampiress holding Spike’s hand pulled him towards the door, he didn’t resist.
She really had fucked with his mind. Wrapping him around her little finger just like Angelus had had her wrapped around his. The times when she had… or more important, the times when she hadn’t. Hadn’t done anything at all.
Sighing, he pushed all thoughts of his Sire and Dru away. His eyes were drawn to the window again. He really wanted to tell her that he was willing to give up killing… for the time being, not that he’d tell her that. Perhaps that would at least make her talk to him. If only to yell that she didn’t believe him. Spike frowned. Would she trust him to not kill humans? Was her trust even worth putting the kill on hiatus?
He listened to her steady heartbeat for a second.
Yes. It was.
Buffy scurried down the stairs, trying to button her shirt at the same time. She was walking into the kitchen as she did up the last one and almost ran into her mother. Joyce gave a small, amused smile as Buffy poured a glass of juice and then quickly drank it down.
“You know what I say, if you had…” Mom said, not finishing the sentence as she calmly unfolded the paper.
“Yeah, yeah,” Buffy muttered, putting the glass in the sink, “Go to bed in time, then you’ll jump up five thirty in the morning and have time to shower for as long you want. Most of us don’t have Slayer duties half of the night.”
A frown marred Joyce’s face and she to put the paper down. “Honey, you didn’t come in until half past one last night, are those patrols –“
Buffy mentally cursed herself. “It’s cool, mom, really,” she said hastily. “Last night was an unusually long night, I haven’t patrolled for a while and there were lots of fledglings.” Actually, that was the truth; after a week of not patrolling the cemeteries had been crawling with vamps the last two nights.
“By fledglings, you mean newly-risen vampires?”
“Yes.”
For a second Joyce just looked at her, before raising the paper again.
“If this keeps happening I’ll have to talk to Mr Giles, Buffy.” Joyce said, too casually, “You know I’m trying to accept, but I don’t want the ‘slaying’ to affect your studies.”
“It won’t. Promise.” Like she had any choice in the matter. Buffy threw a glance at the clock and, hell, she’d have to run to school.
She rushed to the door, grabbing her jacket on the way and calling a goodbye to her Mom from the doorway.
It was almost like he’d been waiting for the quiet swing of the doors opening. Waiting for her.
The instant she entered the library, he stood in the office doorway, a look on his face she couldn’t read. She tightened the grip on the book in her hand.
“What’s up, Giles?” she asked, forcing herself not to slow down but instead – in a hopefully perky way – hop onto the counter. She wasn’t sure she succeeded. God, had she been this easily shaken before him?
Of course not, a bitter voice answered her. It sounded suspiciously like her own.
In that moment she really, really wished she could just stand up and decide that from now on, she would be a new Buffy - a Buffy who actually was Buffy the Slayer. And the new Buffy would ask Giles what the danger was and then go out alone and eliminate it. Then she’d go home and Mom wouldn’t wait up, because Mom wouldn’t worry, not so much anyway, and when Spike showed up… When Spike showed up she would tell him to go to hell. And he would go away and she wouldn’t have this strange feeling in her gut anymore.
“Buffy, I’ve looked at this… mind-reading you and Spike shared, again…” Giles drew in a deep breath. “I’m afraid there may be complications we didn’t foresee.”
Giles words reached her and she was abruptly thrown back into reality as her heart started to pound. Feeling it hammer against her ribcage made her more conscious about herself. About what she wasn’t.
“Buffy?” She felt a large, warm hand on her shoulder and barely managed to stop herself from flinching. Perhaps Giles noticed anyway; when he spoke again his voice had softened a little. “This is very important, you know.”
“Yeah, okay,” she murmured, drawing in a deep breath. Straightening her shoulders she shook her head before turning back to the Watcher. His hand dropped and he stepped back.
“I don’t know if it’ll ever stop,” he said after a couple of seconds.
“What?”
“The mind-reading.” Giles met her gaze. “I have no idea if you’ve already shared all your memories with Spike now or if the link will ever disappear – among those demons it never does. Both of you will constantly experience things and eventually you’ll be forced to share them.”
It wouldn’t disappear? Not ever? Buffy blinked hard. “What… The mind-reading will start again?”
“Someday, yes,”
“So… we what? Just go around waiting for it to…” An almost hysterical giggle passed her lips. “There has to be something we can do, something…” Her voice died out.
“Indeed there are some options,” Giles said. “I’ve researched possible ways of solving this and have had contact with an old acquaintance who has suffered from a similar experience.”
Relief flooded her and she closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them anew she saw Giles watching her, that unreadable expression back on his face.
“And?” she said.
“Buffy, the best way to be rid of this is to kill Spike.”
TBC