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Author's Chapter Notes:
Sorry its been so long. I got married so I've been distracted with the whole, wedding planning/moving/he shipped off to Korea (stupid army)/school/work. :D But I'm back on it! And ready to continue this story for you!
It couldn’t be right. The woman standing before him couldn’t be his little bird. She was tall, lean and…curvy! She had curves! And who on earth had let her out of the house wearing that outfit! Tight black leather pants, a white tank top, black leather vest, a stake on each pronounced hip and a hilt of a knife sticking out of her left knee-high boot. Long brown hair was pulled into a no-nonsense bun and she was wearing make-up!
“Spike?” she repeated, taking another step toward him. He could do nothing but stair. He continued breathing in her scent and trying to connect the familiar smell with the woman standing before him. “Spike,” her voice was different, matured along with her features. This wasn’t his little girl anymore. “It’s me, its Dawn.” She held out a tentative hand to reassure him, and then it dawned on him what she was doing.
“I know who you are, you daft bird! What I don’t know is how you got so bleeding…” he paused, struggling for the right word, “curvy!” That wasn’t it. But he didn’t have time to find another one because in that instant she launched herself at him and was in his arms, hugging him so tight, if he’d been human, she may have broken a bone.
“It’s you! It’s really you! Oh Spike you have no idea how good it is to see you! How are you alive? That doesn’t matter. Should have known you wouldn’t stay down. Not in you to give up the fight! Wait until the others see you!” she pulled away from him, grabbed his hand, and yanked him with her down the street at such a fast pace he had to jog to keep up with her. Which was saying something cause, hello! Vampire here!
“Do us a favor, luv” he began yanking his hand out of hers, “And tell a chap where he is!”
She stopped, frowning. “Cleaveland. There’s a hell mouth here.”
Wasn’t there always. He cursed as he looked down to the concrete beneath them, as if expecting to see another opening like the one that had swallowed him whole. “I suppose the slayer’s loving the fact that she doesn’t have to quit her day job. More demons to kill. Another hell mouth to close, and I bet they even gave her a nice welcome party.”
He didn’t look up from the ground as he contemplated the fact that he was in a new place. He missed the look of pain that crossed Dawn’s features and by the time he looked up she’d moved the mask she’d worn for two years over her face and was beaming at him. “What about the bitty slayers?”
“Scattered,” she resumed her brisk walk and he turned to follow her, “A lot of them are in London. Giles started a school there with the council to train the Slayers. Faith and Robin are in Japan, finding recruits and sending them to the school. A lot of the others are just doing the normal thing. Slaying whatever crosses their path. Giles is here though, and Xander and Willow.”
Couldn’t’ say he was particularly excited to see that lot, though he was starting to be found of Red. The boy and Rupes on the other hand…Dawn was still jabbering on about the other Slayers, and suddenly, Spike realized something. “Dawn,” he stopped walking and, after a moment, she did the same. She wouldn’t turn to look at him, and the feeling of dread in his stomach increased. “How long have I been dead?”
“Three years.”
He took a deep breath and asked the question he‘d wanted to ask ever since he was thrown back on top of another hell mouth. “Where’s Buffy?”
“She’s dead.”
It hit him like a ton of bricks. Instantly the image of her body lying on the ruble of Glory’s tower rushed back at him so fast he hit his knees. He gasped for air, though he didn’t need it, and felt the prick of tears coming to his eyes as his soul cried out for her. It was so much worse this time. So much more painful with his soul morning with him. He couldn’t move, couldn’t see to stop the tears that were slipping from his eyes. Buffy. Buffy. Buffy.
“This some kind of sick game?” he shouted, his head snapping up to look at the heavens. “Couldn’t let me end my suffering by going out with a bang? Had to bring me back to his bleeding hell hole? Without her? Without my only reason,” he chocked on the words. “Think it’s bloody funny?”
No one answered him, and when he turned his attention on Dawn, she wasn’t looking at him, but her shoulders were shaking. Then it hit him. The wind picked up and blew into his face and he finally took a deep breath, and everything in him froze. Buffy. His eyes widened as he looked around. But there was nothing. No one. He had to be imaging it. If the bit thought Buffy was dead.
“How?” his voice was deeper now. Calmer. He rose from his feet slowly with the help of the side of the building they were near.
“A vampire. We buried her in the remains of Sunnydale. With Tara and Anya and mom and y…”
She’d been about to say him. But he wasn’t there anymore was he? No. He’d been brought back to earth, without her. Had she been where he was? All this time? He couldn’t remember. Couldn’t remember ever feeling that buzz that seemed to course through him whenever she was near. Better than anything a drug or alcohol could give him. But he felt it now. Much smaller than it had ever been. Almost like a whisper of it, a drop that went straight from his neck down to his soul. He turned once more to survey the area but there was nothing.
“Come on,” Dawn’s voice was tired now, her eyes red with tears. “The others will start to worry if I’m not back soon.” Spike followed silently, all the while feeling like he was leaving something behind.

BTV

It was so easy to find where they were staying. The hotel was posh, and expensive, and right near the airport. It hadn’t taken rocket science to figure it out. She’d been with them enough before she’d…become undead to know that Xander had begun preferring the higher places in life. The ones they could have never afforded before. He would die to see the money she had now. Of course, he would die for the money she had now. As soon as his name was put on one of her contracts.
The building across from the hotel was anther hotel, a little more down-scaled, but with a roof as high as its rivals. Upon it, like a silent gargoyle, she perched, and waited for her prey. She smelled her long before the woman stepped through the lobby doors out into the night air. She inhaled deeply, drinking in the scent of youth and vitality and humanity. Her mouth watered, her fangs slid down, her true face slid forward and she grinned as she leapt from the rooftop to the neighboring one, fallowing the woman.
What a foolish girl. She’d been trained better than to leave alone. On a hell mouth. Elizabeth, no Buffy had trained her better than that. It would be so easy for her to leap down behind her, rise slowly letting the girl see who and what she was before she sank her fangs into her neck and drank deeply. The blood was singing to her, pounding in the woman’s veins. But Elizabeth could wait. She needed to wait. To make sure the woman was alone, that no one would see or suspect. So that, when she came for the others, they would have no clue what the face of their demise looked like.
Finally, the girl rounded another corner down a deserted street and Elizabeth saw her chance. She leapt from the top of the building into an alley nearby and crept to the end, waiting for the woman to pass. Only, she didn’t. Elizabeth never got it wrong. She never mis-judged a victim. She was the best! There was a reason she was the best! She slipped forward to glance around the corner only to see the woman facing away from her. Fine. She’d slip up from behind this way. But before she could move from the shadows, the wind picked up an a horrible scream echoed in the silence.
Her over sensitive ears echoed and she screeched herself, not loud enough to be noticed, as she slipped into the ally in an attempt to get away from the sound. She backed against the wall at the end and crouched, covering her ears as tears streamed down her face. What demon was capable of this! And damnit it was going to get her kill! That thought sobered her. Like hell it would! She leapt to her feet and lowered her hands ready to move regardless of the sound when it finally stopped. She sighed in relief and then marched forward, determined to let the other demon know who she was and that this was her kill. She poked her head around the corner, and crashed into an emotional wall.
“Spike?”
“Niblet?”
No! Wide yellow eyes took in the man standing before her prey. The vampire. Black jacket, black jeans, black boots, bleached blonde hair. No! No! No! She hissed and spun away from the image of the man she’d once loved. Not man. Vampire. Was there a difference now? Anger coursed through her, anger and hate. She spat at the ground, and paced like a caged animal in the ally. Back and forth. Back and forth. Why was he here? How as he here? She froze. It didn’t matter. Why was she letting this affect her? He wasn’t her mark. When she looked back around the corner, they were further down the alley walking, until they both stopped.
It presented a problem. That was all. His appearance did nothing but add another person to her list of people that would stop her from getting her kill. And she always got her kill. “This some kind of sick game?” She jumped and turned back to look and see the vampire on his knees. He sounded upset. But then that‘s what a soul did to you. Cursed you. Made you feel emotions. Made you week. She smiled as she recalled exactly how week. He wasn‘t the big bad anymore. If he got in her way, she could take him. She‘d done it before she‘d been gifted. “Couldn’t let me end my suffering by going out with a bang? Had to bring me back to his bleeding hell hole? Without her? Without my only reason…think it’s bloody funny?”
Her? He was mourning Buffy. “Fool,” she hissed and then shrank around the corner when suddenly those baby blue eyes turned in her direction. There was no way he could have heard her. She was unique in that way. Vampires couldn’t even hear her. But he was looking her way, and when she glanced again, more careful this time, he had risen, looking as if he wanted to walk in her direction. But then he looked around and she relaxed.
She leaned against the wall as her thoughts raced. She needed a new game plan. She needed to figure out how to get through the protectors and kill Dawn. The human and watcher would be easy. She’d use their emotions and love for her on them and kill them while they wept tears of joy at her return. But once she killed them, the witch would be at her, she’d have to kill her first. And if she killed the witch first the vampire would figure out she wasn’t on the side of good and jump in. How to kill the vampire?
She slipped back up to the rooftops and headed back to the mansion. She needed a drink, and a smoke, and why hadn’t she brought them with her? She slipped back into the mansion unnoticed and slid into bed. How to kill the vampire after she snapped the witch’s neck. It’d be easy enough to do. Convince her she still had her soul, like the other one, that she’d been searching for them. Snap her neck while hugging her. But then the vampire. A simply stake could…no that’d never work. Why wouldn’t it work? She cursed colorfully as she rolled over in bed and finally forced her eyes to slip closed so she could get some sleep. She’d figured out how to kill them all in the morning.
In the darkness of the mansion, just outside her door, a hooded figure smiled ruefully as he moved away from her room. “Sleep soundly, my friend,” he whispered, “you’ll have their heads soon enough. And then,” he chuckled darkly, “I’ll get all your souls.”


Chapter End Notes:
Whatya think? Oh! And my email is PALMERISGIRL@AOL.COM if anyone would like to shoot me a banner. :D I figured out how to upload them by the little helpful 'Banner: (Use this code...)' underneath the 'End Notes' box. Tehe.



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