After two full days of Buffy not opening her eyes, he was getting nervous.
He had taken to pacing in the apartment near her, drinking blood when he was hungry and only taking cat naps determined to be awake.
Suddenly he heard a loud noise downstairs and felt the familiar tingles of his master probing his mind.
He had been shutting it down and realized if Spike could actually managed to make a dent into the bond that he must be really really close.
Dalton let out a deep breath and patted Buffy’s hand and went downstairs to figure out what was going on.
Why would Spike even bother to come after Buffy after over two months of her being alone. It made no sense.
As Dalton rounded the corner at the bottom of the staircase he ran face to face with Spike who was blocked by the barrier to Buffy’s home.
Spike roared and demanded entrance. Dalton said come in and was surprised when Spike could enter the house.
He had needed an invitation when he first entered and couldn’t figure out how he was able to let Spike in.
Spike didn’t bother to worry about such things and rushed up the stairs taking two at a time and reached the unconscious Buffy.
He roared at Dalton, “What is wrong with her?” Dalton had also invited Doyle in who had followed Spike and Doyle looked at Dalton with pity only being able to partially imagine the trouble Dalton was about to be in.
Dalton climbed the stairs explaining, “She got attacked by five vampires. She was out of practice, out of shape. They overcame her. I saved her and dusted the vampires before they could break through the necklace but she was already unconscious. She hasn’t regained consciousness yet.”
Spike roared again demanding, “What does that mean? Unconscious?”
Dalton frowned knowing he wouldn’t like this answer but it was the best he could do to explain, “It means she is not awake but all her vitals work. Meaning there is no reason she should not be awake but since she isn’t it’s called unconscious.”
Spike frowned at the explanation and took Buffy’s hand lovingly in his and whispered not caring that both Doyle and Dalton were in the room, “Buffy luv, and wake up. I need you. I’ve been looking for you. The necklace wasn’t doing its job. There was no humming. I staked Dru and turned around and you were gone. I had no idea where you were. Please Buffy wake up. I need you.”
Still there was no sign of the slayer being awake.
Spike sighed and turned to the minions, “Leave us.” Dalton trembled not wanting to leave his mistress after being near her every day for the past two months and Spike looked down and noticed a make shift bed on the floor in the room near Buffy’s bed.
He sighed and called to both minions, “Dalton got another of those for Doyle?”
Dalton nodded and left the room to go back up into the attic to find a cot and brought it downstairs.
Spike replied when he saw it, “I need to be alone with my mate. You can take the room next door and I’ll call you if there is any change.”
Dalton nodded and whispered, “Blood is in the fridge as well as Buffy’s food. Microwave is in the corner of the room and the television is above her work clothes. She has clothes in the dresser and closet.”
With that Dalton backed out of the room giving a bow to both Spike and Buffy.
Doyle followed Dalton who was carrying both beds and a box of his clothes and had taken 4 blood bags from the fridge.
They were cold but Doyle sat next to Dalton on his cot and drank down the two cold blood bags as Dalton did the same with his.
It was a few minutes before Doyle braved whispering to his fellow minion, “We looked for you guys for months. Were you here the whole time?”
Dalton nodded. Doyle sighed and continued, “We couldn’t sense either of you. In fact I can’t even sense you now. I try to sense the master, mistress and you and it’s completely quiet. What is this place?”
Dalton shrugged his shoulders, “Found a few vampires in here the first night we arrived. Cleared them out and settled. We found furniture, and the mistress got a job to support us. I kept up my supply of blood as she did with her food. We pretty much settled in. Since we didn’t sense anyone wanting us, I figured Dru and Spike had settled in, managed to disable the mistress’s necklace and that we were left on our own.”
Doyle shook his head stating, “No Spike was frantic. He staked Dru to put her out of her misery and lie on the ground crying for what seemed like ages. He finally got himself together and he went to look for his mate and you before realized you both were gone. At first he thought the mistress was dead. It was so quiet in our heads. But the master wouldn’t give up. It was amazing seeing how much he loves her. I know vampires aren’t supposed to love. It’s a sign of being weak but I think it’s a sign of being strong. Imagine loving someone so much that every day for 2 months you go out and look around asking vampires, demons and humans alike where she might be with no trace. We even tried L.A. for a while but had no luck. I really thought you were dead until two nights ago when Buffy screamed inside of my head. Then went quiet again. The master mumbled something about the mistress and how she had spoke to him so he knew she was in L.A. but then swore and cursed the spike he wore saying it was no good since it wasn’t working. But instead of going to see the wizard he dragged me directly here. Think she will ever wake up?”
Dalton shrugged suddenly feeling extremely tired and closed his eyes to sleep hoping the mistress did indeed wake up for his master’s sake and his.