From the looks of things, she was in a small, dingy bathroom. Chained to the bathtub?
Immediately she began to struggle, panic coursing through her as she realized the chains were too secure for her to break. Both her hands and feet we manacled, and her upper body was secured to the pipes. How had she…
The memory of what had happened in the alley behind the club came rushing back, and her panic was replaced by anger. “You better let me out of here, you bleached, Limey bastard!” she yelled, struggling more with her chains. “I’m going to fucking kill you!”
Within moments, the door opened, and he leaned in the doorway, his arms crossed over his chest and a smirk on his face. “Oh, a death threat. There’s an incentive.”
“You want an incentive? Here’s your incentive,” Buffy said with a saccharine smile that did nothing to temper the fire in her eyes. “Let me go now and I’ll kill you quickly as opposed to the slow, agonizing torture you’ll be looking forward to if you don’t do what I say.”
He uncrossed his arms, revealing a stake in his hand, and shook it at her like an admonishing finger as he spoke. “See, I don’t think you’re in much of a position to be the one trying to make a deal, ducks. I think I’m the one who’s going to pose the deal.”
“Unless it’s your heart on a platter, I’m not interested.”
He moved quickly, leaning over her with the stake poking into the top of her breast, poised to slide down and into her heart. “Then it’s not much of a loss for me. Won’t even be much of a clean up. I’ll just have to turn on the faucet and watch you swirl down the drain.”
As loathed as Buffy was to show any fear, the thought of that being her end was not one she wanted to face. However, she didn’t want to cut a deal with this guy either.
So she decided to go with her third option – seduction. Although the idea of bedding a human held absolutely no appeal for her, she didn’t see much more to fall back on than her feminine wiles. Besides, if she could just get him to lower his guard down, she could bite him before he had to finish the deed anyway.
She smiled at him, wriggling her body. “Come on, baby, you don’t really want to do that. Why don’t we have some fun instead? I mean, I’m already chained up…if you’re into that sort of thing.” She winked.
“I’m not,” he snapped, the stake digging further into her skin. “Nor am I into something as disgusting as sex with a vampire.”
“Oh, I don’t know, baby,” she purred. “You seemed like maybe you’d be pretty into it back in the alley. Unless that is where you keep your extra stake after all…”
He slapped her hard across the face, splitting her lip. “Shut your sodding mouth, bitch.”
Buffy narrowed her eyes and licked her blood off her mouth. “I’m not selling out Angelus to you.”
He stood up, backing off from her and shoving the stake into his back pocket. “Fine. Keep quiet for now. I’ll see how you feel in a few days after you haven’t fed.” He left the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.
Buffy roared as she pulled against the chains with her full strength, though she finally slumped in defeat when after several minutes they hadn’t even budged.
This night was really not going well for her.
Spike paced the main room of the tiny apartment, his heart pounding in his chest. He’d followed the two vampires out of the club expecting to do nothing more than to exterminate a couple more vermin when he’d caught their conversation – and discovered the female was Angelus’s lover.
He’d developed a plan on the spot that had been shoddy at best, but then again, none of his plans had every exactly been carefully thought out. Wesley’s contact in Los Angeles had confirmed Angelus was indeed in the area, but beyond that, he hadn’t been able to tell him anything else. Spike had been searching for the vampire ever since, but his whereabouts had remained elusive, and the word on the street was he was barely seen out in public these days, even to feed.
Something about some demon turf war, apparently.
So after several weeks of frustration, he’d stumbled on his first break. He’d thought for certain the vampire would turn on Angelus in order to spare herself, but she was being stubborn. He doubted it was any sort of real loyalty, and he knew it couldn’t be love since vampires were incapable of such emotions. Which meant it was simply stubbornness.
So he’d have to wait it out. Eventually, when she was hungry enough, she’d talk. In the meantime he’d just have to…keep his distance. He’d known from the moment she’d started it that her attempt at seduction had been a ruse, but it had still made him…uncomfortable. The idea of being inside a cold, dead body… He shuddered just thinking about it.
And if his body had been responding to her, well… She was a hot blonde with perky tits, and that was the automatic male response to being flush up against a hot blonde with perky tits. It was just the way men were wired and didn’t mean a thing.
Although he was thinking now that chaining her up to the tub might have not been the best idea. He could use a shower…
Instead, he opted for a drink.
Buffy had managed to fall asleep despite her current uncomfortable position, yet she awoke only a few hours later with the feeling of being watched.
Which she was. Her captor was back in the bathroom, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. He reeked of alcohol, and Buffy hoped she could use that to her advantage. Drunks tended to be sloppy.
“Decided to give up on this and let me go?” Buffy asked, keeping her eyes locked with his across the room. “Because really, this isn’t going to end well for you.”
“Sun’s almost up.”
His voice was cold enough to send a chill through her. He couldn’t be thinking of… No, she liked the starving her plan much better. That would take time. Time for him to mess up and for her to get away. But anything involving sun…
“Yeah. So maybe you could like, um, let me rest?”
He said nothing more as he strode across the bathroom, keys in his hand. He unfastened the chains that had her bound to the tub as well as the ones around her feet, though he left her arms and hands secure. Buffy struggled, kicking wildly as he lifted her up, but he managed to keep her at an angle so she wasn’t ever able to make contact.
He carried her out of the bathroom, letting her see they were in a small apartment, though she didn’t take the time to really look at her surroundings. He was walking towards the door, his grip on her tight enough to bruise.
Buffy started panicking more as he brought her outside, refastening her chains so she was now locked up against the metal bars of a balcony. She could feel the impending sunrise deep in her bones, and she struggled against the chains, her demon face sliding forward as she snarled at him. “Let me go, you sick bastard!” she yelled, knowing it would be only a matter of minutes before the first rays of sunlight broke over the horizon, covering the eastern-facing building.
No one seemed to be coming out of their apartments to see what was going on outside either. But then again, from the look of the neighborhood, it wasn’t the sort of place where people really wanted to know…
“Tell me where he is.”
“I can’t!” Buffy yelled, pulling on her chains again.
“Yes, you can. You know where he is. Just tell me, and I’ll let you go.”
“No!”
“Then I stand here and watch you burn.”
She couldn’t get free. The sun would be here any minute. She…
Oh god, Buffy realized, unable to stop the tears that sprung to her eyes. She was going to die. She’d seen vampires who hadn’t made it into shade fast enough before, and listened to their screams as they burned into nothingness.
Nothingness… She’d be nothing at all. Not a body. Not even dust – not if she went out like this. There’d be horrible, blinding pain, and then nothing at all.
“Please, don’t do this,” she begged him, not even caring that she was crying in front of him. She didn’t care about being tough now. She was scared. She hadn’t been this scared since…since Angelus had turned her. “Please, if you’re going to kill me, stake me. Don’t do it like this. Please. I don’t want to burn.”
“You wouldn’t have to if you just told me where he is.”
Buffy shook her head hard. “I can’t.”
“Why the bloody hell not!”
“Because I love him!” Buffy screamed.
He stopped at that, looking at her with something akin to confusion. “What?”
“I love him,” Buffy repeated, softer this time, her voice choked with sobs. “I…I’d burn before I turned on him, but I… Please, just don’t kill me like this. Make it something quicker. Please.”
For a moment, he was silent, and Buffy shook, wishing she was stronger than this. She knew Angelus never would’ve faced death with tears in his eyes. He never would’ve begged. But she was so scared, and it had been so long since she’d really felt in danger.
When he came back over to her and unchained her from the balcony, Buffy felt a sense of relief mixed with dread. Sure, she wasn’t going to burn to death now, but she had no doubt in her mind that he was still going to kill her. But at least a stake through the heart looked like a quicker way to go. From what she’d seen, it only took a matter of seconds.
So when he took her back into the bathroom and refastened her to the tub, she was confused. “Aren’t…aren’t you going to stake me?” she asked.
“Do you want me to?” he asked gruffly, not looking at her face.
“No.”
“Then shut your gob before you tempt me into going through with it now.”
Buffy thought after her brush with real death she should probably just keep quiet like he said, but one question kept echoing in her mind, and she needed to know the answer to it. She needed to know what she was suffering for. “Why do you want to find Angelus so badly?”
He hit her hard, making her head slam back against the pipe and blood run down from her nose. “I told you to shut up, bitch.”
Buffy felt tears stinging her eyes again, but this time, she held them back. He checked the chains to make sure she was fastened tightly, then stormed out of the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.
Alone, she slumped against the tub, feeling any hope of ever getting out of this fading away.
Spike paced the tiny living area of the apartment, cursing himself with every step. When exactly had everything managed to go completely arse over tit? That stupid chit he had chained up in the bathtub was bollixing up the whole mess, ruining what should’ve been a completely workable plan.
All she had to do was tell him where Angelus was. He had no doubt that she knew. It was simple – just open her fucking mouth and give him an address.
He’d thought for sure she’d crack when he’d brought her outside. Vampires were always out only for themselves, and when it came to betraying another vampire or saving themselves from bursting into flames, the answer was always cut and dry.
Only she hadn’t cracked. She hadn’t even begged him not to kill her – just not to kill her like that. She’d seemed perfectly willing to die in order to protect Angelus.
Not only that, but she’d professed to love the other vampire.
Spike knew it had to be a trick. Vampires were incapable of love. She’d been trying to manipulate him, use emotions to keep him from leaving her there. Either that or she’d called his bluff and knew he hadn’t actually been planning on letting her burn. She was the only lead he currently had on Angelus’s whereabouts, and he wasn’t about to let her die so soon. He had to give it at least a little more time and hope that between starvation and the fear that he could kill her at any moment, she’d stop playing this ridiculous game and tell him what he needed to know.
However, in the meantime, he needed to get some rest. Between the stress of the evening and the amount of liquor he’d ingested, staying upright was beginning to become a problem.
Hoping she’d stop being so bloody stubborn once she got a little hungrier, Spike stretched out on the couch, quickly succumbing to exhaustion.
I was going to wait a few days to post another chapter, but I’ve been having such a good time writing this fic (and writing like crazy, too), that I really wanted to know what you guys thought about it, too. So feedback would be very, very appreciated!