Chapter Thirty-Three.
All Together Now
Spike opened his eyes and looked around himself properly. He didn’t have a clue as to where he was, but it looked like the place was falling down. His heart clenched – was he even still in the same dimension? What if this version of Angel had taken him back to where he came from?
“Oh, Christ!”
He took a deep breath, willing himself not to sob. How much more was he expected to bloody take? He touched the shackle on his right wrist and moved it so that he could see the mark where he had cut it. He fervently wished that he had cut deeper and that sodding Angel hadn’t been around. It’d be over by now. He’d be at peace. He wondered if he’d get to see his mom again, or James? Death wouldn’t be so bad if he could.
He struggled to his feet as he heard footsteps approaching. The chains held his hands down by his sides; they were only just long enough to let him stand. His heart was racing. What was going to happen next?
Angel walked in to view. “Aha, sleeping beauty awakes,” sneered Angel. “Sleep well did you?”
“How long…?”
“How long have you been out of it? Well I got you back here before I could have spontaneously combusted and now it’s well past noon, so let’s just say quite a long time shall we? Thought that you’d be able to take a punch better than that; very disappointing.”
“If it’s that much of a disappointment to you, how come you feel threatened enough to have to bleeding chain me up?” yelled Spike, rattling the chains at him.
“That’s just because I wanted to make sure that you listened to me before you tried to do something stupid – again!”
“So what have you got planned then?” said Spike with a bravado he didn’t really feel. “Where have you brought me?”
“Well, I need to get back to my world – gotta tell you – a dimension that has a Spike as a freaking millionaire rock-star, isn’t a place that I want to stay.”
“You knew the other Spike then, Drusilla’s Spike?” asked Spike unable to stem his curiosity.
“Knew him? He was family. Irritating, infuriating but family,” replied Angel. “Do you know how vampire families are made?”
“Yeah, I reckon so. If you bite someone and don’t kill them and they drink your blood then they turn in to vampires, too.”
Angel smiled and sat down on a pile of rubble. “You’ve done your homework, I see.”
Spike leant against the wall and slid down until he was also sitting, glad to do so as he still felt a bit wobbly. “Yeah, but what I don’t get is why you’re here at all? Are you hunting me down for staking Drusilla?”
Angel glared at him, eyes flashing yellow. “You killed her?” he snarled.
Spike swallowed hard. “Don’t upset the nasty vampire, Spike.” Then he changed his mind. If he got Angel to kill him, it would be over – but what if he turned him instead? “Shit! This is too fucking complicated.” “Yeah, but I didn’t plan it. She was coming at me to bite me again and –”
“How many times did she drink your blood?” interrupted Angel.
“She bit me three time but only drank my blood and made me drink hers twice,” replied Spike. “She had said that she needed to drink from me three times before I was turned –”
“Sired,” interrupted Angel.
“Sired – whatever. I thought it would just stop then – the changing you know? But it hasn’t. Things have continued to change. I even tried to bite Buffy…I did bite her but I didn’t manage to break the skin. Oh, Christ!” Spike buried his head in his hands.
“Spike!” said Angel sharply. “Don’t fall apart on me. So that’s why you wanted to kill yourself?”
Spike looked up, his blue eyes were tortured. “I couldn’t live with myself if I hurt anybody,” he said quietly.
“Oh, and B…er your girlfriend finding your body wouldn’t hurt her at all, would it?” snapped Angel, stumbling over saying Buffy. He still couldn’t get his head around this Buffy being with Spike.
Spike’s eyes widened. He’d never really thought of that. He turned it around – what if it was he who found her? Oh, God, it’d kill him. He stood up. He had to get in touch with her; she’d be worried to death.
“Unchain me,” said Spike. “I need to talk to Buffy!”
“Sorry, Spike. You’re not going anywhere just yet. We need to work out what to do to get me back where I should be.”
“You git! Let me bleeding go,” roared Spike with a ferocious growl, eyes blazing yellow and tugging at the chains.
Angel stood up and walked up to Spike. “You said that you’re continuing to change. I can’t have you running around trying to bite people. Even if you haven’t got any fangs yet, you’ve got the strength of a vamp – well a little skinny ass one anyway – and could create havoc. So, no, you’re staying right where you are.”
Spike remembered the fury that he felt at the reporters and hung his head, shoulders slumping. Angel was right. He was a liability.
“Oh, bollocks,” he said weakly as he leaned back on the wall and closed his eyes.
Angel felt sorry for the young man that was Spike. It was a strange emotion to feel for Spike, even though it was a Spike and not the Spike. It certainly looked that the two versions shared more than just really bad taste in hair colour. This Spike obviously wore his heart on his sleeve like his Spike had.
“Look, we’ll work something out,” said Angel.
He froze and vamped up his features. Spike tensed, not sure what Angel was going to do. Perhaps he was going to kill him or sire him after all?
“What –”
“Be quiet – someone is coming,” Angel cut Spike off. “Stay here.” He turned and jogged out of the room.
“Oh, yeah! I’ll stay here,” muttered Spike. “Don’t have much of a choice, do I?”
Spike sat back down on the floor as it suddenly hit him that if Angel just upped and left, no one knew where he was. He could starve to death before he was found. It was pretty ironic that now he wanted to live, he could end up dying.
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“Go back, go back,” said Buffy urgently. “We’ve missed the turning; it was there on the right.”
“Are you sure?” asked Rich. “I didn’t see anything.”
“Yes,” replied Buffy, leaning forward in her seat as Rich swung the SUV around. “I came up here a few times when I was a kid with Willow and Xander. It was supposed to be haunted and each Halloween we’d dare ourselves to come and take a look. Never got past the gateway though.”
“Chicken,” teased Rich.
“We were only about twelve,” said Buffy defensively. “Slow down! You’re going to miss it again.”
“I can’t bloody see a gateway.”
Tara tapped him on his shoulder. “There, you can pick out a white gatepost in the hedge.”
Rich eyed the gap with dismay. It was hopelessly overgrown. “There’s no way we can drive up. We’ll have to leave the car here.” He pulled to the side of the road and once they were all out of the SUV, he locked it up.
“Come on,” said Buffy, striding briskly through the gateway.
Rich reached for Tara’s hand. “Um…haunted, huh?”
“Who’s the chicken now?” said Tara, grinning and giving him a peck on the cheek.
They ran a couple of steps to catch up with Buffy, and then the three of them walked up what once had been a gravel drive, but was now overgrown with weeds.
“There is actually a house here, isn’t there, Buffy?” said Rich after they had walked for several minutes but hadn’t seen more than trees and wild shrubs.
“Yeah, the drive is about a half mile long, I think.” She smiled at Rich.
Tara walked quietly beside Rich, trying to sense the aura of the place. She shuddered a little. She wasn’t about to say it but the legend of it being haunted was right. Lots of things had happened here, and all had left their mark. Rich squeezed her hand and smiled at her when he felt her tremble. She returned the smile and glanced at Buffy who was looking very determined as she strode along. Tara silently prayed to the Goddess for the safety of her friends.
“Er…it’s a bit of a fixer-upper,” said Rich as the mansion finally came in to sight when they went round a corner.
They all stopped and stared at it. Even in bright sunlight it looked dark and foreboding. One side of it was tumbled down as if trodden on by a giant foot. The other side looked a little more intact, but large parts of the roof were missing.
“Why do I suddenly feel like I’m in an episode of Scooby Doo? Any minute now a zombie will come tearing out of there, waving its fist and yelling ‘You pesky kids’.
The girls giggled nervously. “You’re a bit too old to be called a kid,” said Tara, still chuckling. She glanced at Buffy. “Are you okay to go in?”
Buffy swallowed hard and nodded. “Spike’s in there. I’ve got to find him.” She nudged Rich. “Anyway, the Scooby gang always wins, so we’ve got nothing to worry about.”
Rich took Buffy’s hand in his free one and holding hands with both girls, they walked the last few hundred yards to the mansion. He let go of their hands as they got to the door. Planks had been nailed across it but several had been ripped off and so they were able to go in. Rich glanced at the girls and stepped inside. It was gloomy and as his eyes were adjusting from the bright light outside, he was punched on the chin and crumpled soundlessly to the floor.
“Rich?” said Tara peering inside. “Quit fooling around; it’s not funny.”
Buffy and Tara exchanged glances and then stepped through to the murky interior. Tara just about tripped over Rich’s body.
“Rich!” she yelled and fell to her knees beside him.
Tara felt her arm grasped by a firm hand and she was pulled back up to her feet. She screamed.
“Let go of her!” shouted Buffy, taking hold of her other arm, barely able to make out the dark clad figure that was tugging at her friend.
Tara was abruptly let go. “Buffy? Oh, my God!” said Angel taking a step backwards, his face fading to human before they saw it.
“You know me?” snapped Buffy. She walked closer, her eyes getting used to the dimness. “Angel?” She glanced at the unmoving body of Rich. Tara was kneeling beside him, stroking his face and crying quietly. “What did you do to him?” She glared up at Angel.
“God, you’re just the same,” breathed Angel, taking another step backwards.
“And so are you!” she snarled. “Always did like to beat people senseless. Well, I hope you enjoyed your time as a free man because if I have anything to do with it, you’ll be going straight back inside!”
“I…er…I didn’t know…he’ll be okay…I just knocked him out,” stuttered Angel. It was so weird seeing this Buffy. He wanted to take her in to his arms and kiss her until she nearly fainted from lack of breath, but he couldn’t. She wasn’t his.
“Just knocked him out?” Buffy was incensed. “Tara, is he okay? I need to find Spike.”
“Y…yes, I think so. His breathing is regular. I’ll stay with him,” replied Tara. “Go to Spike.”
Buffy turned to Angel. “Where is he?” He pointed to the room where Spike was, he couldn’t speak. Buffy planted both of her palms against Angel’s torso and pushed as hard as she could. “Get out of my way!” He went backwards a couple of jerky steps before he hit the wall. Buffy ran past and down a corridor before it opened up again and she saw Spike.
Spike had been tugging frantically at his chains since hearing Tara scream, but he stilled his movements and stared at Buffy. “How could I have thought about leaving her behind?” Her beauty took his breath away. Her eyes were blazing and her face had twin spots of colour on her cheeks. Her hair billowed out behind her as she ran to him.
Spike tried to spread his arms to enable him to hug her but the chains were too short. Not that it mattered. She flew at him. He opened his mouth to speak but she was too quick for him. She drew back her right arm and slapped him with all of her might across his face. His head rocked back and slammed in to the wall. He saw stars, his legs gave way and he slid down to the floor.
“You absolute bastard!”
Her furious words were the last thing that he heard before the darkness claimed him.
Tbc
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Banner by dawnofmeAuthor's Chapter Notes:
Betad by Carol and dawnofme
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Had the trauma of a day's writing getting disappeared when I pressed the wrong key! Will update as soon as I can :)