Chapter 5
Why couldn’t she remember that he was a monster? Just because he wasn’t acting that way here didn’t mean that he was any different from what he was back in Sunnydale. He was still evil and a killer and all those other psycho things!
So what if he was hot and sexy and gorgeous and kissed like a dream? So what if he turned her on so much that her body was aching with it? It was insane! It was just wrong! Giles and the Scoobs would have a fit. It was Spike, after all. One quarter of the Scourge of Europe and, unlike Angel, having absolutely no intention of redeeming himself—and totally lacking a soul!
A week ago, they had been seriously trying to kill each other. And now, suddenly, all she wanted to do was fuck him blind!
Raw, animal desire. She hadn’t thought she was even capable of something like that. In all her life, she had only made love twice. Once with Angel, and then she had been virgin and shy, and he had turned into Angelus right after. So that hadn’t gone any further. And once with Parker, which had been more than disappointing and was so not going to go any further as well. She hadn’t even known what real desire was, until now. Until Spike.
God, she was turning into such a ho!
There was always that dark side to Slayers. The side that enjoyed the killing, that had elements in common with the demons she fought. That understood them. Right from the beginning, Spike and she had always understood each other at some basic level. She had never really understood Angel. He had always been an enigma. Perhaps because he had never opened up to anyone, not even her, had always somehow kept himself apart.
But she and Spike?
‘I'd rather be fighting you anyway,’ said Spike, grinning, as they discarded other opponents to take on each other. ‘Mutual,’ she had answered.
There had always been that weird understanding and awareness. And she knew so much more about him now, was seeing him in a different light.
But who would have thought it would ever get to this point? Had the fighting always been a kind of twisted and sublimated version of sex with them? Suddenly now, everything she thought about him, whenever she thought about him, whatever she thought, was acquiring a sexual aspect.
She could feel his gaze like a weight upon her, all heat and dark intensity. They had been pulled out of that pit, were in the company of the Guild, quartering the town and its surrounding areas in search of whatever creature had screamed before. She was staying well away from him. He was as insistently staying within sight. Within striking distance, she thought bitterly. That gaze was a compulsion. It lingered on her like a touch, like a hand upon her skin.
The search for the whatever-it-was turned up nothing on both sides of the river. Spike had come up with the excellent suggestion that Baniel’s power detection device be brought here and used to locate the thing. A man was sent off at once to fetch it. But it would take at least an hour and a half pushing a h’laren to its utmost and then as much by train to get to the capital, and the same for the return. Six hours to wait. They were all armed by now, but Buffy couldn’t help thinking of that hundred foot wide wallow on the river bank. Swords would be no more than toothpicks to a creature that size.
“A ballista,” the team chief was muttering. “That is what we need.”
“What’s that?” Buffy asked.
“It is like a giant crossbow. Its bolt would skewer that thing.”
“You don’t know where the creature will strike. Would you be able to put one in every village and town?”
“It can be done. It’s worth the cost.”
“Suggest it to Tariess then.”
“I will,” the team chief said grimly.
A few survivors were being pulled out from under the wreckage. Frustratingly, none of them had any recollection of anything but fire and panic. No one had seen what had caused it. Many bodies were found under the rubble, but none on the streets or anywhere in the open.
Baniel’s device arrived in the late afternoon, accompanied by one of the Convocation’s adepts who knew its operation. The strayed h’laren had been rounded up from their stampede by that time, but the light was fading and no one, including Buffy, was eager to go after this thing in the dark.
“Locate it and I’ll keep an eye on it,” Spike said from where he was crouched on his heels beside the device. “Vampire here. No trouble seeing in the dark. We can go after it in the morning.”
“With swords?” muttered Buffy.
“A ballista will be here by morning,” the team chief said. “We can set it up, then drive the thing towards it. Prick it along with lances.”
Just as risky a proposition, Buffy thought.
“Bazookas would be better,” muttered Spike sarcastically, then looked thoughtful. “Wonder if I could make a bomb. Sulphur, charcoal, saltpeter...Shouldn’t be hard to find and I know the proportions. Saltpeter seventy-five percent, charcoal fifteen, sulphur ten. Meal powder, yeah. Don’t have time to knead and dry grain powder, but...”
“Spike, for God’s sake!” Buffy hissed, slapping a hand over his mouth. She looked around warily, but luckily no one had overheard. “Can you seriously be thinking about teaching these people how to make gunpowder?”
His eyes narrowed in amusement. He turned his head a little and sucked one of her fingertips into his mouth. She snatched her hand away quickly. That felt way too good, his tongue coiling about her finger. She had never realized just how sensual he was.
“Just a thought.” He was laughing at her.
“No! Prime directive, remember?”
“Another Trekkie like Harris, are you?” He caught her wrist as she turned away. “For our own use. In secret.”
“Too risky.” She pulled her hand free.
“Nothing,” said the Adept working Baniel’s device.
“What do you mean, nothing?” said Spike sharply.
“Nothing with any power concentration is apparent.”
“Is the device working properly?” Buffy asked.
“Oh, yes, avera. I have not much ability myself, but see? My presence is apparent on the device.”
“Can it see through rock or into the ground?” She nodded towards the mountains across the river. “Could the thing be in a cave or maybe behind those cliffs over there?”
“Matter of any kind should not interfere with the device. If the creature is within range, it should be apparent here.”
Buffy frowned. “But that device has a range of over two hundred miles. The thing was here seven hours ago. How can something that size travel out of range in seven hours?”
“Even h’laren can only do six ri an hour cross-country,” Cadhi said. She had come through the mess at the picket lines with only a few bruises. “That is eighteen of your miles, yes? That would be a hundred and twenty-six miles in seven hours And you would kill them if you pressed them to maintain that speed for that long.”
“Great,” muttered Spike. “Jet-propelled on top of everything else.”
“We might as well go back to Emladris,” Buffy sighed. “We’re not accomplishing anything here.”
“This is our task,” the team chief nodded. “If we happen on anything that merits your attention, we will advise.”
“That Lehren git’s not going to be happy about this,” muttered Spike, straightening to his feet and looking ruefully at the devastation all around.
“Lehren-aver can go jamisha himself,” said Cadhi and sedate laughter rippled through the black-coated forms clustered around.
“That didn’t translate,” grinned Spike, “but we get the idea.”
Having Buffy come after her like that had put Cadhi solidly on the Buffy bandwagon. The rest of the Guild seemed onboard too. Guild were supposed to take care of their employers. Employers were not supposed to risk themselves for Guild. The role reversal had shocked everyone and Cadhi had protested it fiercely, trying to make Buffy promise never to do that again. Buffy simply stressed the point that she was the Champion and that it was her duty: they were all in her care.
Well, at least she had got some goodwill out of it, thought Buffy, then caught Spike watching her again. Even if everything else was going to hell in a handbasket.
They headed gloomily back to the capital, leaving Baniel’s device at Faisi, so that the rescue teams would have some early warning if the creature came back again. Thankfully, the h’laren were subdued after the fright that they had had, so the trip back to the station was placid. The special train that had brought them here was almost empty on the way back. Buffy sipped at iced tea that Cadhi brought her and stared out of the window, steadfastly avoiding Spike’s gaze. Spike got Dehren to show him some dice game and the two of them involved themselves with that, Spike’s questions and Dehren’s explanations inaudible over the clack of the wheels.
The rocking of the train put her to sleep. She woke with a jolt when the train pulled to a stop under the Hasjarad and staggered muzzily to her feet.
“You’re tired, Slayer,” said Spike, steadying her with a hand under her elbow. “Been a long day. Grab something to eat, then go straight to bed. Gotta warn you though. Gonna have some stiff muscles tomorrow. Not accustomed to riding.” He grinned at her. “But maybe Slayer healing will take care of that.”
It didn’t completely, but a long soak in a tub filled with herbs that the staff provided did help. Spike was gone most of the next day, off with Dehren somewhere. Adara dropped in and Buffy asked her about Baniel’s device.
“No, we have no more than the one,” Adara said. “Baniel was concerned only for the capital and magics that might be used against Tariess lord.”
“Can you make more?”
Adara shook her head. “Baniel might have, but we do not even have his notes on the subject. They were destroyed in the fall of his tower.”
“Damn. I’d have liked to have blanketed the country with them, maybe track this thing down. But with just one...” Buffy frowned over the maps. “All these attacks are north of the mountains and pretty close to them. I think the thing’s hiding in there somewhere. Is there any way to take that device along the length of the mountains and see if the thing shows up anywhere? Is there a rail line or something that runs along there?”
“That might have results,” Adara said thoughtfully. “It can be done. I will send word to the Guild at Faisi.”
That poor Adept at Faisi was going to get a more arduous tour of duty than he had anticipated.
Spike turned up just past sunset, looking very smug.
“Okay, what’s up?” Buffy asked at once.
“God, you got a suspicious mind, Slayer!” He joined her where she was standing out on the balcony in the deepening twilight. “Nothing’s up. Pretty, innit, with the shadows coming over the city like that? Exotic.”
“Stop trying to change the subject.”
“Interesting dark side to this place. Thought there might be.” He tilted his scarred eyebrow at her. “Always is a dark side.”
Buffy blinked. “You went tomcatting?”
“Shame on you, Slayer, thinking dirty like that. Lot of fun to be had in the underbelly of this city without messing with the ladies of the evening. Told you I don’t do humans. Too fragile.” He gave her a sideways, sloe-eyed look. “Slayers though...”
She flushed and turned away quickly. “We’re so not going there.”
“Why not? Might like it.” His voice dropped into a low, sensual purr. “Did like it, didn’t you, Slayer? That’s why you’re running scared right now.”
“That was an accident!”
He was suddenly too close. “But you liked it. You wanted it. Think I couldn’t tell?”
“It was a mistake!”
“Why?”
She turned to stare at him. “Why? Because you’re a....you’re a...”
“Monster? Killer? Evil? Not in this dimension, pet. In this dimension, I’m a sodding champion.” His eyes danced with laughter, vividly blue, inviting her to share the joke.
She drew a deep breath. “I don’t love you.”
There was a small silence. Something changed. Something shifted behind his eyes.
“You didn’t love Parker either, pet.”
“That was different! He has a soul!”
“Ah, this soul thing. That really adds to the jollies in bed, does it? Might have a soul, Parker does. But for all that soul, he couldn’t get you off, could he?”
She struck out at him angrily and he caught her wrist, laughed at her.
“Bed’s a different place, pet. Skill’s what counts between the sheets. And I’m skilled, luv. A hundred and twenty years of practice, I’ve got. You have no idea of the way I could make you feel.”
He kissed the inside of her wrist and she shivered involuntarily, feeling those cool lips against her skin, feeling her body quicken and heat despite herself.
“And I wouldn’t treat you the way he did the morning after,” he said.
He wouldn’t walk out on her the way Parker had. She didn’t know how she knew that, but she did.
He glanced down at her wrist in his hand. “Do I get a drink?” he asked in a different voice, light and teasing.
“Oh, my God!” She had completely forgotten. “You haven’t had any blood! Today or yesterday! Why didn’t you say something?”
Now that she looked more closely at him, he was pale. He shrugged a little.
“Blood drain on top of fatigue? Not a good idea. Figured I could wait till now.”
“Spike...” Why did he have to act so thoughtful, act as if he had a soul? It was so confusing! “Go ahead. Just don’t make it...”
Pleasurable, she was going to say, but didn’t. That would give away too much.
He gave her a swift, sapient glance, then bent his head to her wrist. She felt his fangs slide into the vein, smooth as silk, painless—and then that incredible, singing rapture. Her breath shuddered in her mouth and she sank weakly back against the stone balustrade behind her.
He didn’t take much, nowhere near the amount that he had taken that first night and even that had been minimal. His tongue licked her wrist to seal the punctures, raspy like a cat’s, a hopelessly sensual sensation. The whole experience was sensual, his taking her blood like that. He knew it. She saw the heat and the darkness in his eyes when he turned his head to look at her.
“That was hardly a mouthful,” she muttered.
“More than enough. Slayer blood’s powerful.” He reached out and ran his fingertips lightly down her throat, paused at the stiff, upstanding collar of her brocade jacket, then flipped open the top two buttons with his thumb. His fingertips pressed lightly into the hollow of her throat. “Pulse is steady.”
“Good.”
“You know what else Slayer blood is? An aphrodisiac.” He laughed as her eyes widened. “Didn’t know that, did you?”
“Dammit!”
“Why are you so afraid of pleasure, Slayer? You’re always so scared to enjoy yourself. To just let go and take the risk and be free. To just enjoy.”
“I took the risk!” she flung at him. “Twice! And paid for it! The price was too high!”
He tipped his head to one side, smiling crookedly, his eyes half-lidded and very blue, their pupils wide over an intense blackness. “But there’s no price here, Slayer. Nothing to pay.”
“There’s always a price!”
“If you involve yourself. But you wouldn’t. Not with me. Monster here, right? But this monster can give you sensations you never dreamed of, Slayer.”
She realized suddenly that he had slid open the next two buttons of her jacket without her even being aware of it. His fingertips ran caressingly down between her breasts to rest above her heart, cool against her overheated flesh. She struck his hand away, flung herself away from the shadows of the balcony to the safety of the bright lights inside. It was too tempting here, too seductive. He was.
He caught her elbows to hold her back. His grip was light, no more than a touch, in no way constraining her. She could easily have pulled away. But she stopped, unable to move, torn both ways at once. She was intensely aware of him, of that cool, strong body behind her, that beautiful head bent to murmur in her ear.
“Don’t you understand, Slayer? Don’t you get it? This dimension’s the all-free zone. You can do anything, be anything here, and it has no effect on the real world. Want to dance with darkness? You can. And it’ll never get back to Sunnydale. There’s darkness in you. You’ve never dared let it out. Never dared experiment. Here you can. Wanna explore that dark side? You can. Wanna play with fire? Go ahead. Indulge yourself all you like. It doesn’t matter. No price here, Slayer. No price for you.”
Serpent. Tempting her. And, oh, it was so tempting! She wanted...She wanted...
“No!” she said violently and threw herself forward into the light.
Of course that wasn’t the end of it. He didn’t say anything more the rest of the evening, but those eyes watched her, half-lidded, intensely blue. She tried not to meet that burning gaze, but she could feel it on her, demanding, compelling.
Retreat into her bedroom didn’t help. She lay all alone on that enormous bed and found herself wishing that he was in it with her. Found herself thinking of the way he had looked that first evening before dinner, shirt flying open over that gorgeous bod, all that taut perfection. Found herself thinking of the way that body had felt against hers yesterday, all hardness and urgency. The way his mouth had tasted. The way all the blood in her veins seemed to have turned to fire.
That tempting murmur. Oh, the words were self-serving. But there was truth in them. Nothing she did here would ever get back to haunt her. Giles and the Scoobies would never know. It would all be like something in a dream, to be forgotten the minute one woke up.
No consequences.
She pulled the pillow over her head. Damn him! What was he doing to her?
TBC
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Author's Chapter Notes:
The fabulous banner is by the awesomely talented Ben Rostock.
Chapter End Notes:
Glossary: aver: sir / avera: ma'am / averin: plural / nefai: gentle being / nefa'in: plural / ri: 3 miles