Somehow, Buffy was able to feel an intense struggle going on even through her sobs of relief. It took a moment for her to figure out what the struggle was about but when she did a jolt of fear shot through her and she reluctantly climbed out of Giles' lap even though the sobs were still ripping through her body and making it impossible for her to stand up straight. As soon as her feet hit the floor Spike was there scooping her up in his arms and clutching her tightly to his chest, as a groom would do to cross the threshold with his bride.
His snarls turned into soft, comforting purrs and he couldn't stop nuzzling his face on her claim mark even as he continued pacing the floor in front of the desk. Buffy just wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and sobbed into his claim mark for a while until the release she had needed so desperately was finally achieved. After her sobs had tapered off she swiped the already healed scar on Spike's neck with her tongue and sent him a wave of gratitude.
Even through her own distress, she had sensed how hard it was for him to see her in another man's arms, and knew how badly he had needed to rip her away and cause damage to the foolish man who had dared touch his mate. He was still snarling a little every time he looked at Giles. Yet despite the demons possessive need to hurt and reclaim he had fought his own instincts and allowed her to be held by another man because he knew how much she needed the reassurance she was receiving.
When she finally lifted her head from the curve of Spike's shoulders she blushed when she became aware of everyone but Dalton staring at her and Spike. Dalton was still wandering the stacks and she could feel a smug feeling of knowledge coming through his childe bond.
Willow looked incredulous and Xander looked disgusted, while Oz, as usual had an unreadable expression. Angel was obviously upset and Giles looked thoughtful, and to Buffy's surprise, almost relieved. 'Why would he be relieved to see me in the arms of the notorious Slayer of Slayers?' she wondered. Spike had no answer. When Buffy noticed that Anya had the same expression of smug knowledge that radiated from Dalton her curiosity peaked and drew Spike's attention to the former vengeance demon.
"Anyanka!" he exclaimed. "Long time no see. It's been what, four decades?" he drew in a deep breath. "Smells like you've left the vengeance business."
"Yes." she said pleasantly. "Forced retirement. I gotta say that I'm glad Buffy picked you. Gives her a much better shot at eternity than she would have gotten with any other vampire I know, which really is a good thing since she's the only Slayer I ever liked. To think that it could have been one of the others, like Mary or Janice. Gives me cold chills."
Buffy looked at the outspoken blond with shock and tried to push out of Spike's arms. He lowered her to the floor but refused at first to let her leave his arms. She insisted however, so he reluctantly let her go.
"Just exactly how much do you know Anya?" Buffy asked.
Everyone looked at Anya expectantly. "I probably know more than you do." she said haughtily. Spike listened attentively, knowing that the ancient former demon would have a take on the situation that he would understand better than anything the watcher had come up with. She was more likely to get it right too. One of the perks of long life. "The demon essence which gives you your Slayer strength has finally found a Slayer it can fully merge with for various reasons. This will be the first time in almost a thousand years. I thought that might be what was happening when all your senses improved so drastically." The shock Buffy felt increased tenfold. Who would have guessed that the usually orgasm focused, blunt and somewhat irreverant Anya could lecture like Giles? She could probably give him a run for his money considering all the centuries of experience she had behind her. Buffy was mentally kicking her self in the ass for not having realized before that Anya could be an incredibly valuable source of information. How many hours of boring research could she have saved herself if she had only thought of this sooner?
Judging by the look on Giles' face, he was thinking along similar lines. He grimaced and began polishing his glasses after he caught Buffy's wry smile.
"When we found you out there with your own little coven of vampires and Angel doing something so totally funny and completely out of character for him I knew I was right. Like I said, I'm glad it was you, but couldn't you have just waited a few more years? In two years it would have been my decade and I could have won the prize, dammit! Oh, and also, I want the story behind how Angel became your minion. I was sure that if it turned out to be you, you'd stupidly make him your mate. I'm glad you picked Spike though. His orgasms will almost certainly be more plentiful." It was almost a relief to Buffy that Anya ended her lecture with some of her expected irreverance.
Buffy felt panic almost immediately however when she realized that Spike was about to direct the conversation into places she'd rather not go with him just yet. Luckily Xander jumped into the gap. Unluckily, he did it with the usual hypocritical demon bashing that seemed to be becoming his trademark lately.
"What do you mean she mated Spike?" he demanded loudly. "What the hell is going on in your head Buffy? Didn't you learn your lesson about soulless demons with the whole Angel/Angelus deal?" he demanded.
"I sure did, Xander," Buffy was quick to reply. Maybe she could push him far enough to steer the conversation completely away from dangerous areas. But how to really piss him off? It was time for her to finally put his jealousy to something that would be useful for her rather than awkward and uncomfortable. "That's why this time around I got myself a vampire who doesn't have a soul.
See, that way there won't be any huge changes after the happy moment. I mean, hey, it's already been almost three hours and he's still the same amount of crazy and mean as he was before. Still no signs of a split personality."
Xander's brain apparently had some difficulty processing the implications that Buffy and Spike had already had sex. He stood there for a few minutes with his mouth opening and closing and a glazed vacant look in his eyes. Giles' glasses polishing became quite focused and almost violent, while Anya smiled and mouthed 'Good job!' to Buffy and Spike. Willow blushed and looked away, still not quite sure how to jump into this conversation. She wished they would hurry up and get to the research part of the night already!
"Oh. My. God." Xander said tonelessly as his brain caught up. Buffy could smell the exact instant that the new information completely sank in, just before Xander started shouting. Disgust, jealousy, despair and wierdly enough, arousal were coming off of him.
Ew.
"When the hell did your sacred calling change from Vampire Slayer to Vampire Layer, Buffy?" he yelled. "I'm pretty sure that the PTB never intended for their 'champion of good' to whore it out to all the good looking vampires she came across! I mean..."
Suddenly he had two extremely pissed off vampires in his face, and they were both in game face and snarling yet again.
Buffy rolled her eyes. Even though she didn't want them to do anything other than snarl and growl, it was still starting to get old. She wondered how long it would be before they all adjusted enough to be able to go longer than a fifteen minutes without any snarling. Unless it was the good snarling like Spike had done in the alley earlier. The kind that vibrated through his entire body and into hers... 'Focus Buffy!' she shouted to herself.
Spike, surprisingly loosened up his crouch and chuckled at her, shooting another of his hot, game face looks at her.
'Seriously, I can't find that hot can I? No way. Must be the demon in me.'
Xander, as usual being surprisingly courageous, stood his ground in the face of the angry vampires, even though he did pale noticeably.
Then Xander felt cool breath on the back of his neck before two strong hands slammed down on his shoulders making him squeal like a little girl. "You'd be smart to watch what you say about Miss Buffy," Dalton said softly right next to his ear. "There are, after all, three vampires in here who wouldn't hesitate to kill in defense of her. Even if it's just to spare her the hurt feelings that loose lips can cause." He let go of Xander's shoulders and stepped back, barely controlling his laughter when Xander jumped away from him and right into Angel's chest.
Angel gripped his shoulders hard in the same place that Dalton had just bruised with his fierce grip. "You really should be more careful Xander," he said in a menacing tone that carried dark shades of Angelus. "We wouldn't want you to get hurt."
Just then the scent coming off of Xander changed again. Buffy decided to tactfully ignore it and pretend that she didn't notice, but apparently tact was beyond Spike's capabilities. He dissolved into helpless laughter for the second time that night.
"Hee hee hee! Scared the whelp..ha ha..so bad that he just..hee hee..just..haha..just..hahaha..just pissed his pants! That's frickin' fantastic Peaches! Hee hee hee! Do it again! Do it again!"
Buffy elbowed Spike in the stomach hard enough to choke his laughter off and didn't look at the red faced brunette as he ran from the room, the smell of embarassment mixing with the sharp odor of urine.
Willow's cheeks burned bright red with empathy for her friend, but Anya, surprisingly, looked amused.
There was an awkward moment filled with the sounds of choked back laughter before Giles cleared his throat. "So, um, Buffy, would you like to tell us about your new, uh, friends now?"
"Yeah, sure." she said hoarsely, her throat still tight with the effort to control her own laughter. So Buffy began her tale, starting with the night of Angel's poisoning. Xander came back into the room dressed in his gym shorts just as Buffy got to the part about forcing Angel to drink from her and her sudden, innate knowledge that he was trying to force a claim on her.
He edged around the room to the table, being careful to give Spike and Angel a wide berth and nervously looking around the room for the other vampire. The way Spike was glaring and growling at Angel, with game face on helped remind Xander why he should keep his big mouth shut. For now, anyway.
It was a difficult thing for Xander to do however, especially when he saw the way Buffy was looking at Spike while she spoke. The look on her face was similar to the one Anya got just before attacking him and demanding orgasms. It was even harder to do when Buffy told them about turning the claim on Angel and making him her minion. Spike, thankfully, quit glaring at this part of the story and smirked at Angel instead, feeling quite good about the fact that he had gotten the bond with the Slayer that Angel had craved since first laying eyes on a scared teenager learning about her calling for the first time ever. Even when he was without a soul and completely insane, he had wanted this bond with her, which was probably a large part of the reason he had been insanes in the first place.
Too bad! You missed out Peaches. She's mine now, Spike thought with glee and ignored the daggers Buffy's eyes were shooting at him.
"Do you think you could, erm, explain exactly what this minion claim means?" Giles asked pulling out his everready notebook and pen in order to capture this story as well as he could with out resorting to the technological advance he despised so much.
"Means she controls 'is mind and he has to follow her orders." Spike answered the Watcher's question.
"Oh!" Willow exclaimed softly. "Is that why he was performing Thriller in the middle of the road earlier?" she asked as her brain "Cuz you made him do it? Why did you make him do it anyway?"
"Because he really pissed me off and didn't want to believe the evidence in front of him that I've moved on." she said simply. Spike kissed the top of her head when her words made his chest feel somehow fuller, the sensation increasing when she looked at him with a soft smile.
"So, you have the power to make Angelus, er, Angel, do anything you want, no matter how out of character it is?" Giles asked almost hopefully.
"Yeah. I guess so." she answered with a shrug.
"Do you think you could make him do the chicken dance for me? Purely in the interest of research of course." Giles said trying and failing to sound dignified and scholarly with his request for a small petty revenge for hours of torture.
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Chapter End Notes:
Hope you like this chapter. It's a little longer than the last few, but surprisingly came out quicker. Also I hope you don't mind how the whole confessions thing seems to be taking so long. It's not how I intended it at first but somewhere around chapter two the characters quit caring about my intentions and started going where they wanted to go, only occassionaly taking suggestions from my self and some reviews. If you have any ideas about where you'd like to see this going drop a line and let me know. I'll pass it on to Buffy and Spike and see what they think.