“That’s not funny!” Buffy said, but Spike could see the corners of her mouth turning upwards.
“Of course it is,” he said, grinning too.
That earned him another light smack, this time on the arm, and her twinkling eyes met his for a moment. She seemed to be in a good mood tonight. Or perhaps this was simply relief that her mother didn’t harbour any mushy feelings towards him. The whole idea was just ridiculous. The only reason Joyce had invited him inside was because she wanted to ask him about his relationship with her daughter.
Joyce, yes. Spike was impressed by how swiftly she’d taken on board the fact that her daughter was Chosen to stand against the forces of darkness and that she hadn’t actually tried to prevent her. Considering that the woman’s ‘little girl’ had been kidnapped and raped, she had accepted that Buffy must be out there, killing demons, quickly. It wouldn’t have surprised him if she’d instead turned more overprotective and tried to lock all the doors, perhaps even move away from Sunnydale. Instead… to him it felt like Joyce had damped down her need to protect as much as she was able, mothers always worried, after all.
They crossed the street and entered Restfield. Beside him the girl sighed, casting him a look. Her good mood had turned into deep thoughts as well, it seemed. Wasn’t very hard to guess what she was thinking about, not her mum, now when they’d spoken about that, but –
“There’s some stuff we should discuss,” she said.
“Yeah,” Spike said, thinking about the chat he’d had with the Mrox leader earlier. “Guess so.”
“You wanna go first?”
“Yeah, sure. After you’ve taken those two out.”
Ahead of them a couple of vampires appeared. Spike drew back and propped himself up against a nearby headstone and Buffy tightened her grip around her stake.
“Aren’t you gonna help?” she said, keeping her eyes on the minions stalking towards her.
Spike burrowed his hands in his pockets, a hand closing against his own stake just in case as he answered, “Nah, I’ll just watch this round.”
He said the last word just as the first vampire leaped upon her. Buffy easily knocked him aside while the second vamp started to circle her. He threw a brief look at Spike but then obviously decided to ignore him; his fangs dropped and he attacked the girl. She dodged, threw a hard punch to his head he didn’t manage to block and staked him while he was trying to regain focus. The vampire looked surprised just before he exploded into a cloud of dust.
With just one vampire left Spike relaxed against the headstone. When there was more than one opponent there was always a small chance that one would sneak up behind her or distract her somehow and he wanted to be ready to jump in, even if they were just fledges. Now though, he could relax and just enjoy the show. As he was able to focus on just her, he quickly noticed how much better her fighting skills had become. It didn’t feel like there was that long ago they’d patrolled together, but thinking about it he realized it must be at least two weeks. Not enough to account for the improvement, but Slayers developed quickly. The training with the Watcher must’ve been good for her; he should probably encourage it.
She fought with a grace and speed he had only seen flashes of earlier. Sure, the Slayers he’d killed had been better; stronger and faster, however, she was still recovering and, besides that, had been called less than half a year ago. This girl had real potential.
A couple of minutes passed and she had forgone several opportunities to dust the vampire, enough times for Spike to begin wondering what she was doing. The vampire aimed for her and she easily danced to the side, landing a kick in his gut.
She was toying with the fledgling.
Feeling a tightening in his groin, Spike shifted a little. Another minute of this playing went by, then, before his mind registered what he was doing, he stalked forward and thrust his own stake into the vamp’s back.
For a second the Slayer only stared at him, then a slow grin stretched her lips. A solid punch in the face had him stumbling backwards, unable to keep his footing. She was there with a hit to his ribs – he was pretty sure he heard something crack – before he had recovered. A low growl vibrated through his chest and he blocked next blow, vamping out.
“Think you’re ready for playing with the Big bads, Slayer?” he asked with a low chuckle, “Think you can bring me down?”
Her eyes flashed. “Oh, yes, I think I can.”
They came together in a fury. Spike’s mind emptied, his entire being turned solely to the fight. He had no concern of hurting her or going too far, his only focus was on landing as many blows as possible while, at the same time, defending himself.
He had no idea how long they fought, he only became aware of himself when he had her arms locked and his fangs about to sink into her throat. Abruptly he froze. That was all she needed. She threw her head backwards, cracking him in the nose and making him howl. He must’ve eased his grip – or she simply caught the opportunity – because she wrenched herself free and they were on again.
Buffy sank down on the grass. Spike was slumped against that headstone of his, panting even though he had no need for it. Her heartbeat was pounding in her ears as she tried to regain her breath. She’d lost count of how many dusts they’d done, her body would be aching tomorrow.
“Well, that was fun,” Spike said.
For a second Buffy thought about protesting, but so what? It had been fun, who was she to deny it?
“Yeah,” she said instead and they shared a grin.
Hers faded quickly though as she remembered what they were supposed to be discussing. She sighed deeply and looked down at her hands were they lay in her lap. Spike seemed to read her mind.
“Have some matters to talk about, don’t we?”
“You’re right,” she said with another sigh, before perking up as she remembered, “Actually, I have some good news.”
“Yeah?” He straightened himself. “Did the Watcher find something?”
“Well, no, but he’s supportive of our truce. Or… um… well maybe not so much supportive, but he won’t come after you with a stake. Probably.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “You two talked things out?”
“Er… first we had something very close to a yelling match; it ended with me telling him some things I shouldn’t have before I ran off. But afterwards, when I came back, we talked about you and stuff and… made up.”
“Yeah?” Spike said, “So, what did he have to say?”
“You mean after he gave me the whole ‘vampires equal evil, you’re the Chosen One, blah, blah’-speech a second time?” she said. “Nothing much, just that he thought I should be careful around you. He… he was really good, Spike, not exactly accepting but I think he… respected my choices. Somewhat at least.”
I am proud that you didn’t back down.
“Happy to hear that.”
“Yeah.”
The dampness in the grass was starting to seep through her trousers and Buffy stood, burrowing her hands in her pockets. “He hasn’t found out anything about this mind-merging though,” she said.
“I have.”
Her gaze flew to his. “What?”
“I went to Willy’s today, figure I’d –“
She broke him off. “You went to who?”
“Willy’s. It’s a demon bar,” he clarified. “Anyhow, I asked Willy, the owner, if he knew of any of these demons who made us read each other’s thoughts in the first place. He said –”
“You did what?!”
He gave a low growl. “Just listen, alright? I’ll explain everything.”
“Sorry.” She zipped her lips closed.
“Right. So, I had a talk with Willy, and he told me where the demons’ lair was. I’d figured that if anyone knew how to fix this mind-business it’d most likely be them.” He took a deep breath, glancing at her. “There’s a ritual. A rather easy ritual, according to them. The problem is that they’re the only ones who know it, or are able to perform it or something. Anyhow, we’ll need them to fix this.”
She halted and turned towards him, her eyes narrowing. “Right. What do they want in exchange?”
He met her gaze.
“Angelus’ dust.”
Angelus’ dust. The demons wanted Angelus’ dust? She opened her mouth and spoke her two first thoughts.
“Huh? Why?”
“Honestly, I’m not completely sure,” he said, “The leader wasn’t about to tell all, either. Wanted me to be a lot more open.” The last sentence was muttered.
Spike took a step away from the headstone and started to pace, duster swirling behind him. It looked kind of dramatic, Buffy, smiling a little, walked over to ‘Spike’s’ stone and leant against it. Finally he slowed down, though he didn’t stop.
“These demons aren’t too fond of vampires, or Slayers, for the matter,” he said, “And the one that tried to kill us was apparently… not totally right in the head. Like I said, the leader wasn’t too interesting in sharing any details about his precious little clan.”
“But why would they want to kill Angelus?”
“Coming to that, love. These demons seem pretty intelligent, and it looks like they have some unfinished business with Angelus.” He paused for a second. ”Listen now, I’m not really sure if I got this right; Angelus made a deal with the demons – and no, I have no idea what sort of deal, he wouldn’t tell me – and didn’t keep his end of it. Now they think he killed the demon who attacked us too and that only adds to their revenge lust.”
She thought for a second.
“That’s really… weird,” she said. “Not that they want revenge or anything, but why would Angelus make a deal with the demons?”
“That’s the question, Slayer, that’s the question.”
“So, the plan is that you talk to Giles tomorrow and then we’ll discuss during patrol?” Buffy said.
Spike nodded. “Yeah. That’s it.”
They were standing outside her house after three long hours of discussion and killing. There had been a hot night in the cemeteries tonight for some reason.
“I’m not sure I like the plan,” Buffy said.
“Well, it’s decided now.”
“I’m pretty sure Giles won’t talk to you.”
“Slayer… like I said the first two times, if he doesn’t want to, I’ll make him – not by hurting him.” Much, he added silently.
“It’s just… he really doesn’t like you very much,” she said in a low voice.
“Worried about my welfare?” he asked amused but then sobered when he realized she actually was worried, “Come on now, kitten, you really think he can take me?”
“Guess not. Just don’t eat him.”
She blushed slightly, looking small and soft in the darkness. Slowly he reached up to cup her cheek.
“We’ll be fine, yeah?” he said, smiling.
“Yeah, alright.”
Their gazes met. His thumb brushed lightly over her full bottom lip before he hastily pulled back. Her eyes were wide of something he couldn’t read.
“Toddle of inside now, Slayer,” he said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Spike returned to his crypt with his mind strangely blank. He jumped down the ladder, undressed and crawled into bed. Long he lay staring at the ceiling. In slow motion he saw her wide eyes staring up at him, her lips slightly red.
He should’ve seen this coming. Christ, he should have seen this coming.
Her breath was hot and sweet against his face, eyes smiling. Slowly, he kissed a path from her collarbone up her neck. A quiet moan from her and she tilted her head back, baring her throat to him. His fangs itched and he scraped blunt teeth against her skin, using one arm to pull her flush against him.
“Spike… God…” she murmured.
He smiled against her skin, scenting new waves of arousal from her.
“William.”
He whipped his head around. The moment he looked away from her, the girl in his arms disappeared. He caught a glance of the dream-chick before a scream had him swinging around again. A sword stuck out of Buffy’s chest, her eyes wide and pleading as Angelus stood over her, sniggering. He took a faltering step towards them but they were gone the second he lifted his foot.
“No worries. She’s not really dead.” Her voice was all too familiar, but with it came a sudden knowledge that this was just a dream.
“Right.”
“It’s polite to look a people when talking to you.”
“You’re not really ‘people’, are you?”
She walked around him to face him. “Technically, I’m half-‘people’,” she said, her head tilted to the side. “You were dreaming about her. Buffy.”
“None of your business.”
“Guess not.”
He was thrown by her not mocking him or asking more questions and saw her eyes sparkle of her amusement. “So,” he said, “Long time, no see. Don’t feel like being my fairy godmother any longer?”
Her laughter rang in the air.
“Of course I do. I’m here now, aren’t I?” She didn’t wait for him to say anything. “But we need to speak clearly now. Those demons. The Mroxes.”
“Yeah?”
“You have to accept the deal.”
“The Slayer’s not ready.”
The female was quiet before answering. “She won’t ever be ready for it, William. Neither will she get over it completely until Angelus is gone.”
“I don’t know how we’re gonna make it.”
New silence. Spike found that he’d almost missed the bint, if only for her pointing him where he was supposed to go. She hadn’t been wrong so far, had she? A small, sad smile spread over her lips and she reached out to stroke him his cheek.
“Maybe I’ll give you a hand.”
TBC