Gwen and Spike faced each other, silently sizing up their opponents. Buffy clung to Spike almost unconsciously. She barely even seemed aware of her surroundings any longer. Her little hands were screwed into balls and her head was resting against his shoulder.
“Well, isn’t it nice to see you again, Gwen,” Spike said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He quirked one corner of his mouth as a hysterical laugh bubbled up inside of him. “Done something different with your hair?”
The older woman ignored his impetuous comments, rolling her eyes at him. “You’re not getting out of here with the girl,” Gwen informed him arrogantly, taking a step forward. “So why don’t you put her down and leave here, William. You don’t want me to have to call your father.”
“Call the old sod if you want,” Spike hedged, hoping she was bluffing. He didn’t think the woman would want his father to know how lax her security actually was. It wouldn’t reflect well on her and she loved to kiss Ethan’s butt too much to intentionally court his disapproval.
The flicker of doubt behind her eyes proved he was right.
“I don’t want to hurt you, William,” she sighed, smiling as her two bodyguards flexed their muscles. “But they do.” She gestured to the men.
They were both built like man-mountains. One was dark skinned with close cut brown hair. His muscles rippled under his skin as he clenched and flexed. Tattoos covered every inch of his exposed skin except for his face. The other man was built just as imposingly. His paler coloring was offset by a mop of sandy blond hair atop his head.
The one feature both men shared was the empty abyss lurking behind their eyes. It was as if they were robots build to kill and destroy.
Spike gulped but schooled his face into a mask of nonchalance. “You think I can’t take them, pet?”
“I think even you are not stupid enough to try to take them.”
“Yeah? Well you underestimated my stupidity,” Spike retorted, suddenly pausing with a frown marring his face. “Wait…what I meant was…”
Gwen rolled her eyes again. “Get him, boys!” she ordered her men, cutting into Spike’s words. She stepped aside with a smile on her face. The Brit was sure her boys could crush this annoying pest.
The darker haired man came toward him first, a menacing grin on his face. Spike leaned down to Buffy and gently shook her off.
“Gonna need some space for this, lamb,” he said to her. “Please love.”
Barely understanding him, she skittered away and curled herself into a ball in the corner. She couldn’t watch what was about to happen. Through the haze of her addled mind she knew that Spike’s odds for winning this fight were on the bad side of horrible. And if he lost…well it didn’t even bear thinking about.
Before he could really get his bearings, the dark haired man drove a meaty fist into his face, sending him thumping into the wall. He staggered for a moment, licking the blood off of his split lip and then dropped into his own fighting stance.
“Yeah, you think that’s all it’ll take to do me in, you bugger?” the peroxide blond goaded. “You’ll have to do better than that.”
The larger man growled and stormed forward again but this time Spike was ready for him and drove his boot into his knee. Spike smiled through bloody teeth as his opponent stumbled forward, losing his balance and toppling to the ground. Taking his opportunity, he smashed the steel toe of his large boot into the temple of the fallen man, knocking him unconscious.
Seeing the way his friend had been destroyed, the second of the two gorillas hesitated for a moment. Although the bleach headed man didn’t look particularly imposing or dangerous, he’d just witnessed the fact that appearances could be deceiving.
However, he wasn’t going to prove himself a coward and he rushed at Spike with full force. Luckily for Spike, his smaller size made it easier to duck out of the way of the bigger man’s charge. He managed to get the other man spinning in circles and kicked him sharply in the knee with a heavy, booted foot. The bigger man stumbled forward as he tried to regain his balance, but he didn’t go down. He’d seen his friend felled and wasn’t prepared to undergo the same fate.
“Not so big now are you?” Spike quipped, gloating at the other man.
He smirked at his opponent, smug and confident. If there was one thing he would ever thank his bastard of a father for, it was ensuring that he could fight and defend himself through years of intense martial arts training. The need to duke it out didn’t arise regularly but when it did fighting was an invaluable skill.
However, as had happened so many times before, Spike’s smugness was his downfall. While he was contemplating his own greatness the other man was recovering enough to launch his own attack and came at him full force.
The bigger man yanked him closer by his collar and Spike found himself on the receiving end of two successive very painful punches. The other man’s fist connected directly with one sharp cheekbone, splitting the delicate skin before slamming into his nose. Immediately the pain bloomed within his face and he worked his jaw to make sure nothing was broken. Blood was trickling from one cut on his forehead and another on his cheek. Dark bruises were already blossoming on his face and he was favoring his left arm.
But he wasn’t a quitter and he’d have to be dead to give up.
“Oh you’re gonna pay for that, you ponce!” Spike hissed, squaring his shoulders to continue the fight.
The sandy haired man shrugged. “No’ gonna pay fo’ nothin’ here man,” he retorted in barely comprehensible English. “Bu’ I will be takin’ yo’ girl whe’ I finish kickin’ yo’ ass.”
“You don’t touch her!” Spike said, his mind not even registering that Buffy had been referred to as his girl. Subconsciously he was already starting to think of her that way anyway.
Seeing red, he launched forward with an unabated assault on the other man. It was like he was barely even in control of his limbs as he battered him ceaselessly. The taller man didn’t even have a chance to respond of defend himself under the onslaught.
Realizing that his opponent was keening, Spike rammed his fist into the muscular man’s face one last time, following up with a heavy kick to his midsection and another to his crotch. No one ever said he couldn’t take tips from Buffy’s line of defense, right?
The bulky male let out a very unmanly shriek and crumpled like a used Kleenex to the ground, cupping his abused groin. Panting heavily he collapsed next to his already fallen compatriot.
“You know what they say,” Spike said coldly, turning to glare at the unconscious and semi-unconscious bodies. “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.”
Leaving the two beaten men on the ground, Spike made his way over to where Buffy was cradled in the corner and hefted her trembling body into his arms. She didn’t even need any coaxing to wrap her arms around him. It was something primal in her that responded to him, even though he hadn’t always treated her well. But in that moment her abused mind saw him as comfort and couldn’t do anything other than grab a hold of that beacon of safety.
“You think I’m going to allow you to just walk out of here?” Gwen said coldly, still shocked at what she’d just witnessed. Ethan had always instilled the idea that his son was a wimp and a coward, which was the opposite to what she’d seen.
Spike shifted Buffy in his arms and pinned her with a hostile glare. “Actually yeah. That’s exactly what I think, love. See usually I wouldn’t hit a lady but you’re no lady so for you I’ll make an exception. Now, you either get your lumpy arse out of my way or I’ll give it a thorough kicking.”
The British woman gaped speechlessly at him, unable to respond. Her two musclemen had been the best fighters that she had and he’d demolished them as if they were amateurs. She didn’t want to go up against him in any capacity right now and she didn’t hesitate for a moment to think that he would hurt her without prejudice.
She would let him go and leave this to Ethan to rectify.
Seeing that Gwendolyn wasn’t going to interfere, he hugged Buffy to his chest and pushed past the other woman. The older woman was clearly a little shaken and she didn’t try to get in Spike’s way.
Cradling Buffy’s unresisting body more tightly to his chest, he careened down the stairs of the mansion. The blond breathed a sigh of relief when he made it out of there unhampered. Fighting Gwen’s men off had taken its toll on him and he doubted he could stand another round with one of those gorillas.
As soon as he found himself outside, he breathed a sigh of relief and jogged over to his car. Spike deposited the shaking blonde on the passenger seat before climbing in himself.
The engine roared to life and he revved it before squealing out of the driveway. He sent a silent prayer to the powers that be to allow him to get out of this unscathed. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Scott, the Gatekeeper, leap from his booth to close to the gate but Spike gunned the engine and went soaring past the other man before he could impede their getaway.
He didn’t take his foot off the gas for what seemed like miles. He constantly checked the mirrors to ensure that they weren’t being followed but it seemed like they’d actually gotten away.
For once something in his life wasn’t going wrong.
When they’d gotten far enough from the brothel Spike pulled into a deserted store parking lot and brought the car to a standstill. He cut the engine turning his attention to the blonde sitting next to him. Unfortunately, Buffy didn’t even seem to realize they’d stopped and just continued staring blankly at the windshield in a trance.
“Buffy?” he said softly, hissing a heavy sigh when she remained unresponsive. He laid a gentle hand on her arm, shaking her with restrained vigor. “Come on, pet. Talk to me.”
Still nothing.
“Bloody hell!” he exclaimed to himself. “Girl’s gone bonkers.”
With a sudden flash of inspiration, he remembered how he’d seen people snapped out of trances on some of his beloved daytime soap operas. Lifting his hand his brought his open palm snapping across her face. Her head whipped to the side as their skin connected with a sharp thwack.
The movement did seem to have an effect as Buffy blinked rapidly as if she was just waking up from a deep slumber.
However, it brought another unexpected side effect.
Tears.
At first they started just as muffled snuffles but quickly progressed to fat balls of water dripping down her pallid cheeks and chin. Before long her whole body was wracked with sobs as she openly wept.
Spike’s eyes widened as he shuffled uncomfortably in his seat. Women’s tears weren’t something he was really used to dealing with, at least not when they were genuine. Sure Drusilla often went on crying jags but they were usually to get his sympathy and attention or manipulate him in some way.
It wasn’t since his mother that he’d really been at the mercy of a tearful woman.
And that wasn’t a memory that brought back anything good.
Feeling powerless, Spike scrubbed a trembling hand over his face. He reached into the left pocket of the long leather duster that was still wrapped around Buffy and pulled out a mostly clean handkerchief, which he then handed to Buffy. She accepted it wordlessly and blew her nose loudly.
Gradually the sobs began to subside and the devastated blonde teenager seemed to drift back to reality.
As if she was seeing him for the first time she raised a pair of incredulous eyes to Spike. It was finally starting to sink in that he’d burst into the seventh circle of her hell and pulled her out of it.
At first it had seemed like something out of a dream. A leather clad knight rushing in to save her seemed almost too good to be true. But this was too real to be a dream. She could smell the scent of whiskey, cigarettes, earthy aftershave and even that undeniable Spike fragrance on the leather that surrounded her. The chill of the early evening air was raising goose bumps on her skin and the ache in her body wasn’t the stuff dreams were made of.
No…this was real.
The question was…why?
Why had Spike even bothered to come in a rescue her? Did he want to make her his own sex slave instead? It wasn’t as if he hadn’t tried to take her body that very first night they met. It was only a mere week ago but it seemed like a lifetime. So many things had happened to her since then.
She wondered if she would ever be able to stop repressing them and actually confront them.
However, right now she had a more concerning problem.
Spike.
“What’s going on, Spike?” she asked wearily, pressing on her temples with shaky fingers. “What the hell just happened?”
“Thought that was obvious. I just saved your delectable little arse.”
Ignoring his backhanded compliment she continued with her interrogation. “I know that you saved me. But I want to know why.”
“The question you should be asking is ‘why not?’ Why wouldn’t I save you?”
“Um, the fact that you don’t like me? And I definitely don’t like you. That’s a pretty good reason, right? I figured the mutual hate thing would stop you from risking your own pathetic skin to save me.”
“Oh, that’s nice!” he scoffed. “Some bloody gratitude this is. Insults and hostility is all I get for risking my ‘pathetic skin’ to rescue your precious self. Actually I’m starting to wish I hadn’t bothered.”
“If you want gratitude then answer the questions instead of being all avoid-y.” Buffy sniffled and swiped at her nose.
“You really know how to butcher a perfectly good language,” he commented, deftly changing the subject and continuing his… avoidiness.
“Right, like I’d take talky advice from Mr. Bloody Hell.”
“You could learn a few things from me.”
“I’m sure I could. As soon as I want to take Psychopathy 101, you’ll be my first thought. Well, after your dad that is. Not that I wanna think about him, like ever. Eww.”
He smirked a little. It was good to see that her spark was already coming back a little. When he’d looked into her lifeless eyes back in the brothel he really had wondered if it was already too late for her. He’d seen girls broken even more quickly than that and most of them never recovered, but he had a feeling Buffy would be okay eventually.
Spike wondered if helping him bring down Ethan might speed her recovery. Sometimes retribution could be a better cure for what ails you than any medicine. Again he questioned why he even cared. She was just a tool to him, he reminded himself. But he couldn’t use her if she was damaged, could he?
“Listen love. There’s actually a reason I got you out of that place,” Spike said softly, like she was an animal that might spook easily.
“Oh?” Buffy’s insides clenched violently.
Was this it?
Was this the part where he put her in chains and a collar and took her to some windowless basement to keep as his sex slave until he finally slit her throat and put her out of her misery?
“Yeah, I mean, you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, but I could use a bloody hand with this.”
Buffy’s eyes flickered over Spike’s crotch as she considered exactly what he might need a hand with. “What do you want from me Spike?” She was proud that she managed to keep the tremble out of her voice.
“I want your help.” At her look of confusion he licked his lips and sighed. “I’ve decided that my Da needs to be stopped. He’s out of control. I want to bring the git down, stop him in his buggering tracks. And I could use your help with that. I want to destroy Ethan and I think you can help.”
For a moment Buffy almost burst into hysterical laughter until she saw the serious set of his expression. The peroxide blond was clearly deadly serious about this. However, out of all the scenarios that Buffy could have envisaged this one was probably the least likely that she’d imagined.
“You need my help?” Buffy frowned.
She didn’t really understand why Spike needed her in this. The blonde teen was pretty sure that Spike knew his father better than most people and so he was definitely capable of bringing down the older Rayne singlehandedly.
“I don’t need anyone’s help, Goldilocks,” Spike chuckled. “But I want your help. You’ve got just as big of a bloody grunge against my Da as I have. If anyone’s got the determination to see him rotting in prison, then it’s you.”
“So what...? You think that I’m going to believe that bunch of crap? Is this just some stupid scheme to get into my pants? I mean you couldn’t force me into it so you think I’ll fall for your white knight routine?”
Spike’s eyes widened and for a second Buffy wondered if she’d genuinely hurt him. In spite of herself she felt a pinprick of guilt in her chest.
“I’m not trying to get into your bloody pants, pet,” Spike denied, shaking his head wearily. “You’d know if I was.”
“Why? Because you’d be on top of me holding me down again?”
“No! Bloody buggering hell!”
“What do you expect me to think?”
“I wish you wouldn’t think at all and then we’d all have a lot less trouble.”
Buffy glared at him. “You’re an asshole. And you’re a disgusting person. And I’m guessing you’re not even that good in bed. You know what they say? Big head, little…”
“You wouldn’t be saying that if you really…knew me.” The timbre of his voice lowered and Buffy felt a strange shiver in her bones. The way he intoned the words was so suggestive that Buffy couldn’t help but feel the tiniest rush of excitement surge through her.
“W-what do you mean?”
“If you spread that luscious little cunny for me and let me inside I’d make you scream. I’d lick it all up until you felt like you couldn’t take any more and then…then I’d push you a little bit further.” He hoped that Buffy couldn’t sense the slight insecurity that laced his voice. Drusilla’s cruel words had taken more of a toll on him than he realized.
Buffy gulped. “I…um.” Her face was red and flushed and her chest was rising and falling with excited anticipation. Her body was now used to responding to stimuli and there were few things that were more stimulating than the combination of Spike’s dirtily drawled words and the intense expression on his face.
“Don’t worry, love,” Spike chuckled even as her excitement skyrocketed. “I won’t touch you. Well, not unless you want me to.”
A cool breeze whipped through the window and Buffy suddenly straightened up. “I don’t want it!” she almost yelled, snapping herself back to reality. She cursed her body for its responses.
“Your loss, Goldilocks.” Spike shrugged and masked his disappointment by pulling a cigarette from his jeans pocket. “We’re not here to have a shag, however much fun it might be. We’re here so you can help me bring my father down. Let’s keep our eyes on the prize, eh?”
“I guess you’re serious and you want me to be all helper-girly but what makes you think I’ll help you?”
Spike frowned. “Don’t you want to bring Ethan down too?”
“Yeah,” Buffy agreed. “But why would you want to stop him? It’s not like you’re any better than him. You’re evil as well.”
Spike choked out a sorrowful laugh. He could never seem to win. He wasn’t bad enough for Ethan or Drusilla and he wasn’t good enough for Buffy. He felt like he was suspended between two worlds and he couldn’t gain entrance into either of them.
Was this purgatory?
“I’m nothing like my father!” he said coldly, refusing to look at her.
“You seem to share the rapist gene with him,” she spit back. Her expression was just as frosty as his and neither of them would meet the other’s eyes.
After a lengthy silence, Spike sighed loudly. “I have my reasons for wanting to stop Ethan.” Before she could delve into those reasons, Spike pushed on. “You don’t need to know what they are but just know they’re real. And they make me very very determined to put an end to my Da’s empire.”
He thought it was best to avoid mentioning the fact that Ethan and Drusilla were long term bedfellows. He didn’t want her to realize just how personal the vengeance was, and also he wasn’t in the mood to rehash that situation just yet.
“Okay. I can accept that, I guess. Although I don’t trust you. Not at all.” She raised a dainty thumb to her mouth and began to nibble on the slightly ragged nail. “But I still don’t get why you want me. You barely even know me but you came charging into Gwen’s place to rescue me like some kind of demented white knight. And now you want me to be your Girl Friday.”
Spike turned his head away from her so she couldn’t see the confusion on his face. In truth he’d questioned his own actions more than once, but he used half baked excuses to justify it to himself.
The only real truth that he could come up with was that he’d felt more of a connection to Buffy during the short time he’d known her than he’d felt with anyone else in a long time. The last person he’d felt so close to had been his mother but it hurt too much to think about her.
“Look love, I understand that you don’t trust me as far as you could throw me.”
“I don’t trust you as far as a newborn baby could throw you,” she interjected.
Spike nodded understandingly which surprised Buffy. “It’s a wonder if you’ve even got a bloody ounce of trust left in that skinny little body after all the buggers you’ve met since you end up as my father’s bit of fluff.”
“I’m not a…bit of fluff!” Buffy yelled but Spike didn’t even acknowledge her comment.
“So you can keep questioning my motives until the cows come home but it won’t change anything. I’m offering you a chance to help me and you can take it or leave it.”
“And if I say no?”
“If you don’t want to help then you can leave, no questions asked. You can run away and disappear and never have to get your hands dirty with a Rayne ever again. Your decision, pet, but this is the last call for answers.”
The cool air circulated through the open car windows and Buffy leaned her head back against the headrest, letting her eyes drift shut.
Although she couldn’t see him, she knew that Spike was watching her, no doubt hoping that she would make the ‘right’ decision. He’d already told her that she could just leave. If she wanted to she could run and disappear and never have to be involved with any Rayne ever again.
But that wasn’t Buffy.
Inside she was a fighter for what was true and right. She knew that as long as Ethan was still out in the world, other girls would suffer the way she’d suffered because of him.
She couldn’t stand the thought of other people being subjected to what she had. The vicious attempted rapes, Faith’s master-class in sadism. She didn’t doubt that without Spike’s penchant for rushing in half assed she would have actually been raped that afternoon.
He had saved her. The realization hit her suddenly. Whatever he was, he did deserve her thanks.
Her green eyes snapped open and met Spike’s inquisitive blue gaze.
“By the way, Spike,” Buffy murmured, waiting for Spike to look at her. “I…I am grateful to you for rescuing me from that place.”
For the first time he graced her with a truly genuine smile that made her stomach flip. She recalled Faith’s words about gratitude and wondered if this was the way the brunette felt when Gwen took her off the streets.
“I’d do it again, love,” Spike assured her. “I’d rescue you again. We make a pretty good team.”
“I guess we do.” In that moment her decision was made. “Okay,” she said determinedly. “Let’s do it. Let’s bring down your father.”
A shard of fear lodged in her heart as the words came out of her mouth. She couldn’t help but wonder if she was really making the right decision or if she’d just made the worst choice of her life.
Sighing, she knew that only time would tell.
[Reviews - 60]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | 
Chapter or Story
Has been viewed 1337 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story - Text Size +
Author's Chapter Notes:
Thanks for the reviews. :)