Chapter Fifteen:
It was a subdued group that left the Magic Box that night, the situation with Xander and the tape having taken a heavy emotional toll on all involved. Few words were exchanged between them as they moved as a group, Dawn having suggested that pizza and ice cream at their house would be a good idea. Deciding that it would be better than everyone going their separate ways, an agreement had been easily reached. And so, anticipating an evening filled with comfort food at the Summers' house, they began the short walk to the cars, the night cool and calm around them, a stark contrast to the storms raging in them all.
Buffy made a particular point of sticking closely to Spike's side, trying her best to reassure the vampire through her presence that she was not angry with him. The conversation they had shared in the shop was the best that Buffy was capable of, given the feelings swirling inside her, but she was sure that he would need a little more in terms of re-enforcement when they got home.
Strangely, whereas she'd found Riley's desire for validation, attention, and reassurance annoying, to say the least, her attitude towards Spike was totally different. She understood his worries and feelings. She'd been able to glean enough from him and his body language that she thought she knew what was eating at him. He felt like he'd failed her, and for him, he felt like he'd failed her again, the night with Glory and the tower being the other circumstance in his mind. The difference was stark, at least to her: Riley wanted reassurance for his own ends, to make himself feel like he was desired and needed, to feel important and part of the group. Spike only cared about her, her feelings, her life, her family. Whether she wanted him to or not, he would do all he could to protect her, even at the expense of his well-being, his life, if necessary. However, far from being pissed off, she had to admit it was a truly wonderful feeling to know that there was someone in the world who would do all he could for her, simply because he loved her with all that he was.
So deep in her thoughts was she, her emotions rolling and cresting, that she didn't detect the approach of what, for Sunnydale standards, was a rather large vampire 'pack'. Her first indication was the impact of a heavy fist coming from nowhere, striking her hard in the back of her head, sending her to the floor, a burst of white light flashing in her mind and eyes.
Recovering as quickly as a Slayer should, she turned and took in the scene unfolding around her.
Luckily, the attack on Buffy had brought everyone to attention to what was going around them.
Tara, Willow and Anya had linked hands, and presumably magical abilities, and had summoned a bubble of energy, surrounding themselves and, to Buffy's relief, Dawn and Giles. Joyce was the only one, aside from Spike and herself, that was vulnerable. Unfortunately, Joyce was also the closest to the attacking vamps, and with a sharp, terrified scream, she was grabbed, and pulled away with a violent jerk.
Buffy watched in horror as the spot where her mom had been standing only a moment before filled with the advancing members of the pack. She could no longer see her mother, but based on the shriek and screams, Joyce was being pushed through the throng towards the back of the group-- further and further into danger. Buffy reacted instinctively, leaping to her feet, but had managed only a single step before she froze in place, startled into stillness by what happened next.
Spike, having also been on the receiving end of the vamp's opening volley, had picked himself up and, with a grin at the impending promise of a fight, was about to wade into the offending creatures and release some of his pent-up rage, when Joyce's scream reached his ears. His head whipped around toward the sound in time to see her being taken, the pack parting to allow her to be shoved back into their midst, and then reforming, blocking her from view. In that instant, Spike's grin turned into a murderous glare of rage and hatred.
Buffy stood transfixed as Spike let out a deep, full throated growl that quickly changed into an ear-splitting roar so loud that everyone had to cover their ears. She'd never heard a noise like it, so raw and primal, akin to the roar of a lion, but deeper, louder and more... … animalistic. The sound of breaking glass and blaring alarms erupted around them as near-by business and car windows shattered, and Buffy felt a pressure-wave impact her chest, knocking her back a step. Before she could react further, Spike had launched himself at the, to her eyes, ten or so vamps. She knew she needed to join him, to help him, to fight, to get to Joyce, but she didn't seem able to move at the moment. She stood, rooted, mesmerized, and perhaps literally hypnotized by the raw power that was vibrating the air as Spike headed into the fray after her mother.
It was in that moment, Buffy fully came to realise that Spike really was a MASTER vampire. She also knew in that one moment, after all these years, just how much Spike had been holding back and teasing her when they fought. She watched, astonished, as he proceeded to destroy the pack, his every move vicious, calculated and devastating, to a degree that she had never before witnessed. It became clear to her, with no reservations, that if Spike had ever wanted her truly dead, she would have been. There was no question of that in her mind. She'd apparently never really seen or experienced Spike at his best, as it were. If she had, she knew that she wouldn't have stood a chance. Even now, with all the years of experience she had accrued, she knew, deep down, that she couldn't compete with him. He was simply... better than her.
He moved with a predators grace, his movements fluid, liquid, but his impacts were akin to a car crash. The first vampire, a jeans and denim shirt clad brunette, was on the ground in a flash, Spike having upper-cutted him hard enough to break his neck with an audible 'CRACK'. The next vampire, who just so happened to have a passing resemblance to Riley, being tall, lean, with a clean lined face and a slightly vacant expression, received a kick to his balls that made the Slayer, and all the onlookers, wince. His scream was a piecing shriek of incalculable pain; such was the power that she was sure that Spike had just shattered his pelvis, never mind turning his bollocks into paste! Another, this time wearing attire similar to Spike himself, in that it was all black, grabbed Spike by his duster, and delivered a punishing head-butt to the blond. Spike smirked, shrugged the blow off as inconsequential, adjusted his grip to hold the vamp by the head, and returned it with enough force to cave the vamp's skull in. Blood, bone and brain matter was released in a fine mist, staining the concrete beneath them a deep, dark colour, the moist sheen showing clearly under the muted lighting provided by the street lamps.
Buffy's instinct once again reared its head and demanded her to jump into the battle beside him, to protect not only her mother, but to protect Spike. She'd only just begun to let herself see him, and she couldn't bear the thought of losing him, but the more practical, and tactical, side of her brain won out. By keeping herself out of the fight, she allowed Spike to concentrate on the battle as a whole. Her intervention would only result in another variable that he would have to account for and keep track of, which could be detrimental to his performance, as he would naturally have to change his tactics. He would have to fight as part of a group, rather than on his own. Keeping the engagement as small as possible allowed Spike the freedom to manoeuvre as the situation dictated, and improvise as required.
And so they all stood, watching in awe as Spike rampaged through the demons, hell-bent on punishing them for daring to touch Joyce.
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Spike was... well... Spike didn't know what he was. The sound of Joyce's scream had pierced him to his very core. The rage he was feeling was beyond anything that he'd ever experienced. Releasing his demon with a deafening roar of dominance, he charged forward, heading into the fray after Joyce. He'd never before given so much freedom to his demon, never before released its fury and rage so purely, but Joyce's scream had severed something inside him, and he had no intention of trying to control his beast. Theses vampires had attacked a member of his family. Now they would reap the consequences.
Spike's first victim, the denim clad 90's reject, was on the floor before he knew what had happened, Spike having given him an uppercut powerful enough to snap the vamp's neck, leaving him immobilised in his tracks. The next one, Spike couldn't help but notice, bore a slight similarity to that wanker of a Iowa corn-pone that had abandoned Buffy. The Riley look-alike aimed a punch that Spike easily saw coming. Reacting instinctively, Spike dropped his head and shoulders, ducking to the left, and upon straightening, he aimed a kick to the vampire's groin. He felt the body give way under the impact, and heard something obviously breaking as the bigger vamp dropped to the ground with a high pitched scream of agony. This was silenced with a well placed stamp of Spike's boot on the vampire's neck, severing his head, and showering the floor with dust.
Having seen his friend die so brutally, the next vampire, who obviously fancied himself as being intimidating in his all black clothing, grabbed Spike by the lapels of his leather duster and aimed a head-butt at the marauding master. The result was highly... 'unsatisfactory', to say the least. Spike couldn't help the small smirk that graced his features as he shook his head a touch to the left, grabbed him, and repaid the offender in kind, and Spike's head won, again. The vamp dropped to the ground, a lump of useless jelly, his head clearly... well, “dented” would be the best way to describe it!
Dodging back a step, Spike avoided the punches aimed at him by the two vamps that had charged him next, both clearly believing that strength in numbers was the way to win. This theory was dispelled for them as Spike leapt over them both, duster billowing as he twisted in the air to come down behind them, facing their backs, but in the process reaching out to hook both of them in reverse headlocks. His feet touched down, a vamp head under each arm, their bodies arching the wrong way for their spines to bend. Leaning back sharply at the same time as dropping into a low crouch, a definite crack could be heard and two more vamps fell paralysed, easy pickings for later. He regarded them dispassionately for a fraction of a second, taking in the male and female that had made the mistake of crossing him. 'You two should have found something else to do as a couple!' He thought sardonically before re-focusing on the task at hand.
Turning again in his direction of travel, Spike's demon was screaming at him to finish this now, and to find Joyce. Wrestling to keep control of said demon, he took the next three in turn, never breaking stride, each step a kill, each kill, a step. A ripped throat greeted the first on-rusher, Spike's hand closing around the shorter vamp's trachea, pulling it free, along with most of his carotid artery and jugular vein. The haemorrhaging vamp staggered a step, his blood colouring the 'Jaws' t-shirt he was wearing, and dropped face-first onto the concrete beneath their feet, the remains of his borrowed and stolen blood pooling under him. The next had time enough to look at Spike with confusion in her brown eyes before vanishing in a puff of dust. Spike, having taken a page from Glory's play-book, had punched clean through the vamp's ribcage, clamped strong, bloody fingers around the un-beating lump of muscle within, and removed her heart. The final one of the trio caught a spinning reverse heel kick to the chin. The kick normally delivered a bone breaking impact, but Spike had added a small jumping spin prior to launching the blow, and the added momentum was enough to rip the vamp's head clean from her shoulders.
The final two, one hulking brown-haired male and the other, a simpering, scrawny and gaunt female, now stood face to face with the furious, rampaging master vampire. Having seen their back-up disintegrate under Spike's assault, the pair decided that discretion was the better part of valour, and chose to retreat at a hasty pace. Releasing Joyce, who had been held between them as they witnessed the massacre unfold, they ran with all the vampiric speed they could call on. Sadly, they only managed about ten feet before Spike had jumped on the pair of them from behind, forcing the female's head into the concrete hard enough for it to not be a head anymore! The last was cowering in fear as Spike picked him up by the throat, and, despite the size difference, held him aloft with little effort, squeezing tightly on the thing beneath his fingers. If the situation wasn't so dire and charged with danger and emotion, it would no doubt be rather comical in its appearance. Here was Spike, holding a vamp that was somewhere between the Terminator and the Incredible Hulk in size aloft, with no apparent exertion on his part.
Trying his best to rein in his demon now that the battle was over, Spike spoke slowly, deliberately, his accent becoming slightly more refined as he enunciated every word. In the quiet of the aftermath, his words were loud enough for everyone else present to hear, even though that was not his intention.
“You put the word out in this town, these people are under MY protection, understand? You touch any of them, there will be consequences. Now, get out of my sight, before I decide to spread the message myself and dust you.”
Releasing the terrified, out-house sized vampire to run away, Spike took a deep breath, reached into his duster pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. Pulling one free and lighting it with the Zippo that he had in his other hand, he took a deep drag and exhaled heavily. It was at that point that Spike noticed movements in his peripheral vision. The gang was making their way over to him. Buffy, Dawn and a shaken, but unhurt, Joyce in the lead.
Turning away from them, he shouted as best as he could in his adrenalin-charged state.
“STOP!! DON'T!! JUST STAY BACK!”
Everyone took heed of the warning, except for the members of the Summers family.
Once again, he tried, “What the bleeding hell is wrong with you bloody women? What the hell does it take? Ask one little thing o' you, but do you bloody listen? NO! Stay back! Is that too complicated for you lot? Didn't teach the Queen's bloody English in that school o' yours, Slayer?”
Undaunted, they pressed on, getting nearer and nearer. Close enough now that Spike didn't have to shout to make himself heard.
All the anger dropped from Spike's tone and stance, his shoulders slumping, his voice pleading, “Please? Don't come any closer. It's not... I’m not... safe... at the moment. I don't want you to see me like this... please?”
Buffy held out her hand, stopping the advance of her mother and sister while maintaining her forward motion, not noticing the advance of the rest of the group. A few strides and she was just a step behind Spike.
“Spike?”
“Please, Buffy... don't... don't... I can't...”
“Can't what? What's wrong, Spike?”
Spike turned to face her, his human face streaked with blood that wasn't his, looking like... well, looking like what Giles would say was what a 'stiff upper lip' looked like. A tight, slightly sad expression gracing his features.
“I lost control, Buffy. I couldn't help it. I saw those... things take her, and I couldn't stop. Never... never felt that... like that, before. Rage, I mean, real rage, like that, it was too bloody much, I couldn't hold it. I’m... ... sorry.” He dropped his gaze for a second, before lifting his shimmering blue orbs up to meet her confused eyes once again. “I s'pose you were right all along, eh? I am a monster.”
Once again, his eyes found the floor, and as such, didn't notice the approach of the others. Didn't notice Joyce marching with determination towards him, shoving past Buffy. The movement of shadows was his first clue before coming face to face with a very pissed off Joyce Summers. He had barely shrugged off the feeling of déjà vu before he was reeling from a quite forceful slap to the face!
“MOM!! WHAT THE HELL?!” Buffy was momentarily stunned. She almost couldn't believe what she was seeing.
“HOW DARE YOU!” Joyce was pissed. “I will NOT listen to you speak about yourself like that, William. Do you understand?”
“Joyce, I am a-” Another slap to the face, this one slightly less powerful than the first.
“DO YOU UNDERSTAND?” The fury blazing in Joyce's eyes reminded him so much of Buffy's fire and drive, it really was apparent that they were mother and daughter.
Unable to think of anything to say, and not wanting another slap, Spike wisely nodded his head in acceptance.
“Good, now that that's handled...” Joyce flung her arms around the stunned vampire, hugging him tightly. Buffy stood off to the side, putting an arm across the shoulders of Dawn, who had moved up beside her. They shared a smile, partly because of the shell-shocked expression Spike currently wore, but also in relief that their mother was fine, thanks to Spike.
Pulling back and regarding the clearly confused vampire in front of her, Joyce spoke calmly and clearly, her voice strong and carrying. “You saved me, Spike. You have nothing to apologise for, is that clear?” At his nod, she continued on, with another slap to his face! “That was for being so foolish! What were you thinking, taking on that many vampires on your own?! You could have died, you stupid, stupid boy!” Pulling him into another almost bone-breaking hug, she whispered a 'thank you' in his ear before letting him go.
Taking a step back, Joyce opened up the field for Buffy and Dawn to descend upon him. A light kick to the shin from Dawn and a clip around the back of the head from Buffy shortly followed, once they had gotten within range.
“What she said,” Dawn elaborated, “you could have gotten yourself dusted, you moron! Then where would I have been, huh? Having to watch my best friend dust? So not a nice thing, Spike.”
Holding out his arms, he accepted Dawn into them and rocked her a little from side to side before holding her at arm's length and touching her cheek lightly, offering her a wink and a sly grin.
Turning to Buffy, he prepared himself for her verbal flaying, but was relieved when she cast him a worried, but gentle smile. “Just do me a favour, Spike?” At his answering cocked eyebrow, Buffy went on, “Next time you decide to do something crazy, try and remember that you're thinking for the two of us?”
Releasing Dawn from his grasp, he wiped his face as best he could with the sleeve of his duster, cleaning the blood and ichor off him. Then, with a small smile at Buffy's unintentional pop-culture reference to Dawson's Creek, he moved to cup her face in his hands, and pulled her towards him, whispering to her the words that would finish the quote from the show, before sealing his lips over hers and stroking her cheeks softly.
“I can do that, Buffy. Promise.”
Having heard the majority of the exchanges, Willow, Tara, Anya and Giles, the last of whom had taken care of the clean up by staking the disabled vamps left in Spike's path, wisely decided to keep from commenting on the scene that had unfolded before their eyes. The last thing that they wanted to do was to upset the emotional vampire, or, for that matter, Buffy's mom!
The remainder of the path to the cars was trodden and with no interruptions this time, Giles ushered the witches and Anya into his vehicle while Joyce took her family and surrogate 'son'.
Although few words were exchanged on the drive home, Buffy kept her hand in Spike's in the back seat, Dawn having called 'shotgun', to everyone's eye rolling. While still a little shaken from the fight that she'd witnessed, she had to admit that parts of her were... … well, she didn't know if 'pleased' was the right word. Her inner Slayer was proud of Spike, the warrior in him calling to her on a primal level as an equal, perhaps even her superior. Her inner woman was slightly astonished at the protective streak that Spike clearly had developed for her and her family. It was a comfort to know that he would be there, with her, to protect them, should the situation call for it, as tonight had.
Balancing those two trains of thought in her head, Buffy tried her best to focus on the important factors of tonight. Her mom was safe, and so was Spike, and so were her friends and Dawn. That was what mattered to her at the moment. The rest, she would give some thought and some time.
In what seemed like moments, leaving Giles to park in the road, they were pulling into the driveway of her house and spilling out onto the front lawn. Just as Joyce was reaching the front door, her keys in hand, a voice sounded from behind them. A voice that Buffy had last heard dripping in venom and hatred. A voice proclaiming that 'he' should have been the one to 'fuck her'. A voice that she wasn't sure she ever wanted to hear again. A voice that simultaneously made her blood run cold and her temper ignite.
“There you guys are! I was about to head to the Magic Box. So, what did I miss?”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Hello, one and all. I do sincerely apologise to everyone for the delay in updating this story. Real life has been fairly... 'intrusive' would be the best way to describe it, and so my time has been short. Hopefully, things will be better, but I do beg patience if another long spell occurs before I can update again.
Chapter End Notes:
Well, where to begin, seeing as it's been so long. First, I should most certainly thank everyone who has read this story of mine, and even more thanks to those that have left me a review. I truly appreciate each and every one, and I SHALL reply to ALL of you. That, I promise here and now. Secondly, my thanks have to go to my wonderful beta, P4S, who keeps me on the straight and narrow, pointing out the para breaks and commas that I so desperately need help with! You're amazing, P4S :-) Last, and certainly by no means least, is PAGANBABY. Without her support and encouragement, I wouldn't be writing this. I owe her so much... well, I can't even try to say, so I won't embarrass myself in the attempt! Rest assured, I owe her, BIG time. A simple thank you doesn't seem enough, PB, but it's all I have. And, on top of her inspiration, she's also responsible for the amazing banners that you can see. Thanks again, PB. X
Right, I'm out everyone. Take care.
Right, I'm out everyone. Take care.