Buffy gasped as she saw Spike stand in front of the council men and demons with his face vamped out.
She hadn’t often seen this and it was amazing. He had come to rescue her!
She struggled against her binds and watched as the man with the glasses moved toward Spike and he growled in reply.
The man spoke up and said, “Who are you?”
Spike replied, “Name’s Spike.”
The man said, “Spike?”
Then turned around to the other man behind him who held a book in his hand and was flipping the pages very fast and answered, “William the Bloody, Dickens.”
Dickens turned around and looked Spike with a curious look, “What brings you in here Spike?”
The two demons in the room rushed to speak up saying, “He was with the girl when we brought her in. He was fighting his own kind and was trying to protect her.”
Dickens raised an eyebrow in Spike’s direction clearly intrigued and confused as he said, “Why are you working with the slayer?”
Spike smirked and said, “Well, she’s mine you see. I protect what’s mine.”
Dickens looked amused and said, “No actually vampire, she’s ours. She belongs to the council to do with as we please. So run along and we won’t stake you today. The sun will be up in a few minutes and if you hurry, you can probably find shelter.”
Spike shook his head and roared not liking the idea that Buffy was not his, “I’m not going anywhere without my girl.”
With that Spike launched himself at Dickens and promptly knocked him out and as the two demons sprung forward, he easily twisted their necks.
The other men in the room looked from Spike to the ground and one made a loud whistle to have a few vampires come in from another room to tackle Spike.
Spike took them on fighting as hard as he could. Managed to dust 2 but still had 3 on him.
They got a few good hits in but Spike after a few minutes of hard battle dusted them as well.
By the time he had finished though he turned around and saw the two men had knocked out Buffy yet again and was dragging her out of the factory and to their car.
Spike saw it was daylight outside and couldn’t risk Buffy so he put his heavy leather coat over his head and rushed out knocking the two men aside.
He grabbed the unconscious Buffy and quickly stashed her in the car, hissing as one of his hands burned.
Spike didn’t even stop as he put his foot on the gas pedal and high tailed it back to the lair to take care of her.
He roared when he entered the lair mansion and his minions rushed out to see what had happened.
The sight they saw of Spike carrying an unconscious slayer yet again only this time, he had burned hands, a slight burn on his face and was very upset.
They parted for him curiously and watched as he went into his room bellowing at Dalton, “Come here” before slamming the door shut behind them.
Dalton watched as Spike gently washed Buffy hair while Dalton held her head in the water in the shower.
Spike was gently licking her wound using vampire’s saliva’s natural healing properties to close it.
The wound looked pretty deep but there wasn’t a lot of blood loss. She should survive.
Then Spike turned to Dalton and said, “Help me wrap up my hands.”
Dalton took the strips that Spike had laid on the ground and took the basin in the corner and said, “Be right back Master.”
Spike nodded knowing he was going to make up that special cream he had invented.
Dalton was useful because he had been a smart doctor before he was turned. Well he was studying to be one anyway.
Dalton’s natural book-smartness reminded him of himself but he lacked street smart.
In fact Dalton often chose to feed off low lives instead of off real victims. He fed off robbers and abusers.
Only requirement Dalton had was that the neck had to be clean.
He often carried wipes in his pockets to clean the dirt and grim off his victims before indulging.
Spike groaned as Dalton used his elixir to dip the strips into the basin and tried to wrap up his hands.
Spike sighed and said, “How long will this take to heal?”
Dalton shook his head unsure and said, “Um two days? Perhaps three? Longer if you aren’t feeding properly.”
Dalton assumed that since Spike had a human, perhaps he wasn’t still feeding properly since he always seemed to be taking her out when he went out and he couldn’t imagine him feeding in front of her.
Spike nodded wondering why he felt the urge to explain to Dalton that he was feeding then without realizing it exclaimed, “I’m feeding Dalton. Not just slayer blood either but real blood, just not killing. Hospital bag blood is fairly fresh and definitely human. It isn’t so bad. If you want, you could join me.”
Dalton’s face lit up because he still had a tad of the human side on him and hated feeding from humans, “I’d love that boss. Thanks.”
Spike smiled and Dalton said, “Want me to pick you up some more bags when I get me some?”
Spike nodded grateful since his hands were still hurting making it hard for him to imagine restocking anything.
Then he realized he wanted to get Buffy a present of sorts and said, “While you’re out, can you send for the wizard? I need his help with something.”
Dalton nodded and bowed as he exited the room closing the door behind him.
Spike sighed and crawled into bed next to the still unconscious Buffy thinking how much his life had really changed in the last week.
He pulled her close to him careful of his painful hands and rested her head on his chest as he closed his eyes letting her steady heartbeat lure him to sleep.
Buffy awoke to a splitting headache and opened her eyes smiling as she felt Spike holding her close.
She also noticed a new table next to the bed with a bottle of aspirin and a fresh glass of water.
She looked at Spike who was sound asleep even though it was clearly night time.
She stretched and reached over and gratefully took out two aspirins and swallowed them with the water that was still cool and rested her head back down on Spike’s chest contently.
She realized Spike was purring. She smiled at such the gesture thinking that the Big Bad Vampire wasn’t so big and bad after all but she would never tell him that.
She snuggled back down on his chest noticing the burn mark on his cheek and that his hands were wrapped up in almost what appeared to be papier-mâché wrappings.
She gave Spike a kiss in an attempt to wake him up as she suddenly remembered she was last kidnapped by the council.
She had been chained up to a wall but somehow she was back with Spike.
He was hurt though and her head was killing her but she was safe.
She wiggled a little against him and he moaned out a gentle, “Buffy” and she smiled realizing he was purring in his sleep while dreaming about her.
She almost was tempted not to wake him but she was curious.
Just then the door opened to the room and Dalton entered carrying a ton of bags of blood and he carefully placed them in the fridge and turned noticing Buffy was awake.
He nodded at her and then spoke in gentle tones, “I left aspirin for you near the bed and oh it looks like you already drank the water. I figured your head would ail you when you awoken. Aspirin would keep the swelling down and make you a little more comfortable."
Buffy sat up noticing she was still dressed in the clothes she had on yesterday and asked Dalton, “Do you know what happened?”
Dalton shook his head, “Not exactly. Spike brought you in and you were unconscious with a few blows to the head. Spike was in serious pain from burns on his hands and one small one on his cheek. It was daytime you see so he shouldn’t have been out in it. But I’m guessing he was saving you. He must really value your life by saving you miss.”
Buffy smiled at that thought and whispered, “My name is Buffy Summers. You can call me Buffy. You’re Dalton right?”
Dalton nodded and then thought about explaining his place in Spike’s life as a minion and how minions don’t address people by their first names.
He figured since she wasn’t a vampire, it wasn’t his place to tell her.
Plus he decided he liked the name Buffy and she seemed nice, “Well Buffy, he and I cleaned up your head wound. He closed it up and then I dressed his hands with what you see on them and put some ointment on his face to help with the healing.”
Buffy cringed thinking of what Spike must have went through for her and whispered softly, “Where they bad?”
Dalton nodded and said, “The ones on his hands were. The one on his face wasn’t bad at all. Will you let him know I restocked his blood supply and got some for myself as well Miss Buffy. Might make you rest easier knowing at least one of his minions is bagging it. I can’t speak for the others though. Sorry.”
Buffy nodded appreciating him and Spike’s gestures.
She knew drinking bagged blood couldn’t be so pleasant.
She then asked him, “Do you have a room of your own, a fridge or a microwave?”
Dalton replied, “I took Spike’s old room last night and brought in a fridge and microwave. Just a little one. Nothing like what Spike has but it does the job.”
Buffy nodded and Dalton said, “I’d better go. Don’t want Spike finding me in here talking to his girl.”
Buffy smiled liking the fact she belonged to someone and watched as Dalton backed out of the room before bowing slightly to her.
Her last thought before she dozed off into peaceful sleep was that if she ever saw Dalton outside of Spike’s care, she would spare his life. He was a good sort of vampire to have around.