Before Buffy had realized it, nighttime had fallen. Buffy woke up and stretched and hopped into the shower to get ready for her patrol.
Her stomach growled loudly realizing she hadn’t eaten anything all day.
She quickly put a pair of shorts on with a tank top and some fancy new boots and skipped down the stairs grabbing herself a snickers bar and strawberry milk before running out the door again.
She would return after patrol and order herself a cheese pizza. She deserved it after all and her mother always left her money on the counter although she rarely used it.
On Buffy’s first cemetery sweep, it was empty. Empty as can be.
She sighed and thought that this night was going to be boring.
She swept through the second one only killing one minor fledging.
She frowned and went to the third. She felt a horrible tingling in the back of her neck, strong and solid. She knew she had found something. She walked forward and found herself surrounded by 9 or so vampires, and two demons that she had never seen before.
Both demons were covered from head to toe in huge spikes and horns that made it look even deadlier as if the size itself wasn’t scary enough.
She sighed and wondered if it was too late to run and then only kill the ones that caught up with her but as the first one advanced, she knew that wasn’t an option.
She was fighting the 9 vampires at a time as the two demons stood back and watched. They were getting good hits in too.
It was impossible to watch even the 3 vampires she had left as they circled her and teased her and threw punches and kicks at her almost as though they were in sync with the way they moved.
Watching from afar, she might have been impressed but instead she was too busy fighting for her life.
Finally one of the vampires got a solid round kick in knocking Buffy back into a tombstone, which broke but not before it swiftly knocked her out.
As her vision went black, Buffy saw her life flash before her eyes knowing she would die this very night by the hands of the vampires she was destined to fight.
The glow of the cigarette was barely hidden behind the tree as he quickly moved to catch up with the slayer.
He had been running late after having a bad night trying to eat a local and having a bystander show up. He ended up having a two for one special but he had to rush to see the slayer in action.
When he arrived, the slayer was already fighting vampires and two demons. The two demons were not fighting her though.
They were standing there with their spikes and horns waiting for something.
The vampires though were in full attack. There were 5 in sight, make that 3. She seemed to be doing well, but they were hitting her pretty hard.
She was amazing but surely she had been fighting for quite a while. There were more than 5 even based on her injuries.
Suddenly the one behind her got the drop on her and round kicked her right in the head bashing her into a tombstone, which broke and landed on her head knocking her out.
The vampire watched as the two demons gave the vampires in question some money and walked over and grabbed the slayer to prepare to run.
The vampire threw his cigarette down saying, “Bugger this.” And stepped out of the shadows to confront the two demons without giving much thought as to why.
The demons looked over at the vampire and whispered, “Spike” as Spike nodded and the demons said, “What are you doing back in Sunnydale?”
Spike shifted from one foot to another before grabbing another cigarette and lighting it up before smirking and saying in a voice that almost sounded growl like, “What’s it to you?”
The demons look at each other and one started stuttering in reply saying, “Nothing. I was just curious. We are just here to collect out bounty.”
Spike looked at the ‘bounty’ in question who was still knocked out cold and from the bruises and the cut on her head that was bleeding, appeared to be pretty sure to be out for quite a while, “Who wants her?”
The demons hesitated and said, “We were hired to retrieve the slayer dead or alive.”
Spike repeated his question, “Who wants her?”
The demons looked at each other and then the one that had been quiet finally said, “We don’t know for sure. We were just hired.”
Spike grabbed him by the neck causing the knocked out slayer to hit the ground and blew smoke into his face letting the cigarette get dangerously close to his skin before growling out, “Tell me about him?”
The demon gasped trying to breathe and as soon as Spike loosened the grip on his neck muttered out in a rushed voice, “Two men, human, one was wearing a mask but the other was old. Wore tweed and talked all proper and had an accent like yourself but had colorful speech. If I didn’t smell that he was human. I would have thought he was a demon with the way his eyes gleemed with power.”
Spike dropped the demon on the ground and said, “So what happens if you don’t succeed?”
The demon on the ground looked up at him and said in a hushed tone, “We leave town and hope we aren’t found.”
Spike nodded and said, “Best get a running start. She’s mine boys.”
The demon standing said, “Um why would you want her?”
Spike put a smirk on his face as he wondered that himself but was able to think on his feet before stating, “She’s the slayer ain’t she? I’ve got big plans for her myself.”
The demons laughed thinking it was some sexual fantasy thing going on. They nodded their heads at Spike as they noticed he was not as amused and turned and ran away quickly never looking back.
Spike looked down at the little slip of a girl who was left and grumbled to himself, “How the bloody hell do I get myself into these messes?” before leaning down and slinging the girl over his shoulder and dragging her back to his lair.
As Spike entered the lair, his minions backed away peering at him in question seeing him drag a human back to his lair.
They assumed this was a midnight snack although they have to admit, they had never seen him bother with such things before. If he had wanted a snack, he usually left to get it or demanded one from his minions.
But the girl seemed knocked out and really beat up so they assumed it was just something different.
Spike kicked open the door and dropped the girl on the bed as she bounced a little as he got a whiff of her blood. It smelled so sweet.
Before thinking he parted her hair where the cut was and gave it a lick twice before using his tongue to close the wound. He felt the slayer blood enter his system and his eyes closed in ecstasy.
There really is nothing in the world like slayer blood. Well other than sire blood. Seeing how he wouldn’t be getting that any time soon, this was second best.
Spike looked down at the girls body noticing all the marks that the demon’s body had put on her. Those spikes had done some serious damage. He was guessing they hadn’t even thought about that before slinging her over his shoulder.
He sighed and before giving a second thought, he took the clothes off her body to see where the blood was coming from. He tried not to bother to appreciate the girl’s body.
He couldn’t help but notice how well cared for it was. Not a scar on her body that he could see. For spending years fighting demons, she barely had anything on her other than fresh wounds. No battle scars.
Her legs were nicely toned, her shoulders bronze from the sun.
Her hair was blond but not naturally as he removed her underwear to see where the other blood was coming from.
There were three major wounds that were pretty deep and dozens of bruises covering her body.
He didn’t know much about slayers so he wasn’t aware of their fast healing powers so he sighed as he opened his door and yelled out to his minions, bring me a bowl and water, quickly. Dalton, his smart lackey, ran quickly to get water and a basin for his master.
When he returned he opened the door and saw Spike caring for this human.
The blood smelt sweet. He wondered how Spike could stand it.
Spike looked up at him and Dalton didn’t question and instead left the two items on the floor and quickly backed out of the room.
Spike knew him well enough to know nothing he saw would leave that room. Dalton could be trusted.
Spike went about cleaning the slayer’s wounds.
He didn’t take any time to decide why he was doing so. He used his tongue to lick the wounds to seal them before using the shirt off his back to rip strips to bound some of the nastier wounds.
He then took another shirt out of his drawer and went about redressing her to keep prying minion eyes out off of her and noticing she was shivering, pulled an old unused blanket out of one of his drawers and pulled it up and over her before stretching and climbing into bed feeling the sun beginning to rise.
He curled up beside her to get some sleep while she continued to be knocked out.
Spike slept all through the next day waking up just before sunset.
He looked over at the sleeping slayer beside him and noticed some of the bruises covering her body were beginning to heal turning to a lighter blue and black and even in some places a dark brown.
He was impressed with her healing ability and removed the binds on some of her wounds to see them. One was opened still so he used his tongue to close it and noticed the other 2 larger gashes were already on the way to healing.
He sighed finally taking a moment to figure out what the heck he was doing. He ran his fingers through his hair after pulling the shirt to once again cover her body.
He was thankful she was just a puny thing so the shirt nicely covered all her vital parts and he pulled the blanket over her body to cover the rest.
He wasn’t quite sure why she hadn’t awaken. It had been a full day since she was knocked out. He laid his head against her chest and felt her heartbeat strong and steady and her breathing gentle but still what he considered to be normal.
He wasn’t totally sure since he never spent any time around humans other than to drain them or to seek out his next victim. He looked at her face and noticed she was really quite pretty.
She had a gentle look about her, making her appear as a golden goddess. But still she didn’t stir.
He was nervous about leaving her alone with his minions but first off he had no food for her here and he needed to eat.
Not wanting to bother the minions with getting food, he decided to call for Dalton and said, “Dalton, watch ‘er for me. Don’t ask questions and don’t touch her. If she wakes out, see to it she doesn’t leave actually…”
With that he took the chains that he carried with him since Angelus had tortured him and using the strips he had ripped last night, bounded her up to the bed using the head and foot board but tied her wrists gently with the cloth to protect her skin from being hurt. He didn’t want to make any more marks on her than already existed.
Dalton looked at Spike curiously seeing the careful care he was putting into keeping this girl alive and well but said nothing.
Seeing he did a fine job, tucked the blanket around the sleeping slayer and said to Dalton again, “Don’t touch her. See to it no one else does either, ‘K? ‘ts time for me to feed.”
He decided not to mention that he was planning to pick up a few items for the sleeping slayer to eat and drink while he was away.
Dalton nodded as Spike disappeared out the door to his lair before sitting down on the floor next to the bed to wait.