Both figures were sitting stock-still, their eyes edgily darting to each other.
It had been almost 24 hours since their Slayer-shaped friend had shocked them with revelations about her potential feelings for another vampire and both were at a loss to know what to do when it came to dealing with this new problem.
Willow’s brow was furrowed with worry as she stared at Xander, hoping for him to suggest a solution. Actually, she was hoping that he would concur with her own thoughts of performing a spell but she didn’t mention that to him. Maybe she could implant it into his mind and make him think it was something he came up with. It was much better to let him believe it was his idea.
Tara had recently commented on Willow’s constant craving to use magic and the redhead was a little paranoid that her girlfriend was right. Maybe she was becoming addicted to the black arts.
“Well, we need to do something,” Xander informed her flatly, pulling her from her thoughts.
“You’re right,” Willow said. “After everything she went through with Angel, we can’t allow it to happen again with Spike.”
“How could Buffy even let that…thing touch her?” Xander sighed disdainfully.
“I don’t know.” Willow gnawed on her lip. “I mean Angel was her first love and he was all with the tall and dark and mysterious. But this is bottle-in-face, in-love-with-crazy-Dru Spike!”
“We have to stop her!” Xander said, his face twisting. “She needs to listen to reason. If she can’t see it for herself then we have to make her understand the badness that is the peroxide menace.”
“But the intervention didn’t work,” Willow sighed, worrying her lip more harshly between her sharp white teeth. “What else can we even do? If Buffy’s set on being with Spike…”
“Whoa there! She didn’t say she was with him.” Xander exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air. His skin was tinged a pale green and he looked like he might be sick at any moment from the thought of it.
“No, she didn’t,” Willow agreed solemnly. “But she was all implicate-y that there could be a possibility of it. And if we’re gonna be good friends, we need to stop that.”
“Right. We need to make her understand that Spike equals bad. Dead things are for the stakeage and not the kissage. As soon as she realizes that, she’ll be our Buffster again.” Xander started pacing, feeling his blood coursing through his veins even more quickly than before.
“How can we do that though?” Willow asked, glancing at her oldest friend.
“You’re the smart one, Will. I don’t know, “ Xander sighed, bubbling over with frustration. “We can’t exactly keep her chained up in the basement and train her to remember that Spike is an evil killer demon and that it’s only the chip in his head that stops him from eating us.”
Willow smiled wryly. “She’s a Slayer and she would kick our asses for even trying. I mean, I guess I could do a spell…”
“Yes!” Xander cried, startling Willow. “A spell would be perfect. Turn Spike into a dung beetle or something.”
“Well, I was thinking more along the lines of making Buffy forget her attraction to Spike,” Willow corrected with a chuckle. “But it would be funny to see Spike as a dung beetle.”
“Can you do that spell, Willow?” Xander asked the redhead seriously, interrupting her giggles. “Can you make her forget she ever…felt…anything for him?”
She licked her lips thoughtfully and nodded. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I can do it…without making anything go all kablooey hopefully. I just need supplies. And…well I need to find the right spell.”
“Is this a research party of two coming up?”
“No.” She shook her head negatively and with a touch of arrogance. “I can find the spell easily. I’m a good witch now.”
“Okay. Get what you need and do the spell tonight. This needs to end as soon as possible,” Xander said.
Willow nodded, feeling a hint of nervousness creep back into her stomach. She knew she was doing the right thing. After all, Spike was bad for her friend, and it was definitely better to stop whatever was blossoming between Buffy and Spike now. If she didn’t then people could die. That was the way a relationship with a vampire always ended.
“I’ll do it,” she said.
The rest of the day was spent in seclusion at Giles’ house for the witch, pawing through book after book. Recently she’d been helping Giles to upload the contents of many of his books to computer disk so she had free run of his magic books. The Brit didn’t even blink when she informed him that she would be working with the books, and he left her to her work alone.
She had a veritable banquet of spells to choose from. And they all whet her magical-taste buds. She could feel the magicks crackling deep in her veins, running through her system like tiny rivers of fire.
There were a few factors that niggled at her conscience but she pushed them away. Buffy needed her and she was prepared to do whatever it took to save her friend from falling for another vampire.
No one else apart from Willow knew just how much the heartbreak Buffy suffered with her last vampire boyfriend had affected the Slayer. It had almost destroyed the blonde. Willow had been there through all the tears and tantrums and she couldn’t let it happen again. Angel had a soul and he still crushed her best friend, so Spike would surely do even worse. Without a soul, he had no moral compass to guide him and it would all end badly.
Unless she stepped in.
She couldn’t deny that it imbued her with a superior feeling of worth too. Sometimes she felt like Buffy didn’t really need her. During the past year she’d felt that way so many times. Sure, since then they’d vowed to try being closer again, but so far it hadn’t worked.
Buffy hadn’t even confided her attraction to the blond vampire in her best friend, so clearly Willow wasn’t as essential to the Slayer as she wished.
Skimming the final book, a spell caught her eye, and she immediately felt her heartbeat speed up. It was a memory and essence cleansing spell, and very advanced magic. For a moment Willow hesitated, wondering if she should try to accomplish such a complex spell, but she was self-assured enough to believe that she could. Her magic had been getting progressively stronger, especially with Tara at her side, and she knew she could do this if she poured all her power into it.
Not that she would tell her girlfriend about this. It was on a strictly need-to-know basis right now, and Tara simply didn’t need to know.
Nodding her head decisively, she copied the spell and the necessary ingredients and set out to the magic store to pick up what she needed.
Soon it would be done. Soon there would be no going back.
With everything gathered, Willow skipped to Xander’s house, greeting him with excitement when she arrived.
“Did you get everything?” he asked.
“All ready,” she informed him with a grin. “I found the perfect spell and the guy at the magic store had everything in stock.”
“Good.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Let’s get this show on the road.
The redhead put her bags down and began unpacking and sorting through her spell ingredients. She paused for a moment to peruse what she’d bought. It wasn’t a secret that some of the items that this spell required were only used for the darkest magic. She wondered whether it was a bad idea to use black magic to cleanse the Slayer but once again, she ignored her doubts and pushed the stale air out of her lungs with a forceful breath.
Everything would be okay. She was sure of it.
Willow laid the black candles out in a circle, crouching down to space them out correctly. She tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear and sat back on her thighs. The redhead still wasn’t totally sure that this was the right thing to do. After her Will be Done spell several months earlier, she’d learned that manipulating people with magic could lead to destructive consequences.
However, Xander agreed that this was what was best thing for Buffy. The witch felt a little guilty that she was hiding this from her girlfriend, but Tara wouldn’t understand. After all, she didn’t know Buffy like they did. Willow knew that it was imperative to stem Buffy’s attraction to Spike right now before it got even worse. It would surely hurt more to stop the relationship if the feelings grew deeper.
This was the correct route.
It had to be.
“Is everything ready?” Xander asked, rising from his seat on the bed and moved to stand against the wall as Willow put the finishing touches to her preparations.
“Yeah, pretty much done,” Willow replied, a few minutes later, mentally checking that everything was right. She was confident that nothing could go wrong with this spell though. She’d spent all day researching it and in her opinion it was totally foolproof.
Xander pushed forward from where he was leaning on the wall and loomed over Willow. The shadows danced on his face and his expression looked a little macabre for a moment.
“Let’s get this show on the magical, mystical highway,” Xander quipped, his face still set ominously. “By the time this is done, maybe Buffy will want to stake Evil Dead and sent him on a one way trip back to hell, where he belongs.”
She wasn’t sure that she realized just how deep his hatred for Spike ran until that moment.
The witch shivered and stood up.
“It’s time,” she said, receiving an answering nod from Xander. The boy stepped to the side and Willow took her place in the magical circle.
Once she was seated in the center of the circle she began to mix some herbs with a deep red powder and Styxian oil. She sliced through a sprig of Lethe’s bramble and laid it on the top of the potion, before crumbling a little charcoal colored piece of root of Hebe over it to finish. A thin plume of smoke rose up from the bowl and curled itself around the redhead like a vine.
“By the powers of the ancient gods, I bind all power within this circle into this spell.”
A sinister beam of black light echoed through her body, darkening her eyes and her hair. A gale whipped up around her, sweeping through her and spiraling outwards like a microcosmic twister. Willow had to concentrate hard to keep herself anchored.
“I call upon the Blessed Lady. Remove the facets of the Slayer that harm her spirit and injure her soul. Gently cleanse her of what erodes her goodness. Let her be free. Take her mind to the time when it was clean and pure and happy. Take away what harms her. Take away what harms her!”
She raised a shaking hand and slashed the dagger across her palm, letting the crimson blood pour into the bowl. The gust whistled around her, voices whispering in the air. As the words emanated from her mouth, her eyes faded to an inky black, looking like murky pools of heavy magic. Even the whites were usurped by the darkness.
“Mnemosyne, heed my call. I invoke thee!” Willow shrieked. “So mote it be!”
As quickly as the tempest had flared up, silence came crashing down again, and Willow flopped over to the ground like a rag doll.
Seeing his friend lying motionless on the floor, Xander rushed over to her and tried to rouse her.
“Will, are you okay?” he asked worriedly, breathing a sigh of relief when her eyes fluttered open.
“What…what happened?” she asked, a cough racking through her. She tasted blood in the back of her throat, wincing painfully. “Oh God! The spell didn’t go boom, did it?”
“I think it worked,” Xander said optimistically. “I hope it worked.”
They exchanged a look of solidarity. It had to have worked.
Otherwise they would be in big trouble.
The Slayer made her way through Restfield cemetery, sighing at the monotony of another quiet night. She twirled her stake in her hands, keeping her eyes peeled for any sight of a demon or vampire.
Unfortunately, when a vampire finally appeared, it was one that was at the top of her list of don’t-slays.
“Are you stalking me?” she asked the peroxide blond vampire.
“Just out for a walk,” he bit back with a glare.
“Always out for a walk just where I am, huh?” Buffy rolled her eyes and quickened her pace.
Spike, of course, had no trouble keeping up with her and followed quickly.
“Think you’re forgetting that this is my bloody cemetery, pet. Maybe you’re the one stalking me!”
“Yeah, you wish, Bleachbrain,” she scoffed. “In your dreams maybe.”
“Oh love,” he drawled, curling his tongue in front of his teeth, “Any dreams I have that involve you are always a lot kinkier than that.”
The vampire delighted in the deep blush that stained her cheeks and laughed when she flashed him a nasty look.
“You’re a pig, Spike, and I don’t want to hear about your perversions,” she told him primly.
“Yeah, why hear about them when you could experience them first hand?”
“I…we can’t,” she said without much resolve. Why did this vampire have the ability to crack the layers she built up around herself? She sometimes wondered if he possessed a thrall, because his eyes seemed to suck her in and make her a horny little sex fiend.
Spike placed a hand around her waist and tugged her to him, nuzzling at the sensitive juncture of her neck, teeth scraping gently against her prone skin. “Tell me again why we can’t, pet.”
Buffy felt her legs jellify at his touch. He seemed to have the power to turn her into a gibbering wreck of horniness whenever he was close to her.
“I-I…um,” Buffy stuttered, her brain switching off under the relentless bliss of his ministrations.
“I want to fuck you,” he admitted, his tongue tasting the velvety skin along the shell of her ear. “And I’m going to, love. I’m going to lay you down, spread you open and shag you until you can’t walk for a week.”
The Slayer hesitated momentarily remembering her reluctance of the previous evening. But then the annoyed faces of her friends floated in front of her mind’s eye. Their controlling, irritated glances made a sneaky surge of belated teenage rebellion rise up within her and she grinned.
“I want you too,” she whispered, giving in to her need for him.
Buffy gasped as he clasped the back of her head and crushed their lips together. It took her a moment before she responded, but she was helpless to do anything other than melt under his caresses. Her hands came up and tangled themselves in his short curls, mussing the carefully slicked back blond locks.
Their tongues tangled together mercilessly, each fighting for dominance. His hands skimmed Buffy’s ribcage, dancing down to her hips and finally settling on the plump globes of her ass. The kiss became increasingly rough and their arousal became increasingly heightened. Spike could scent Buffy’s juices as they pooled in her panties. The deliciously pungent aroma filled his nostrils and his cock grew even harder. He ground it relentlessly into her hip, craving release.
On Buffy’s end of the kiss, she was totally aware of the evidence of Spike’s arrival pressing into the hipbone. She vividly remembered just how good that turgid cock felt when it was thrusting into her warm, wet pussy. He’d managed to hit all the right spots. In fact he’d made her aware of spots that she hadn’t even known existed until then.
And then without warning Buffy broke away from his lips and took a step backward.
“Oh God!” she groaned, her voice hoarse and pained. She cradled her stomach and leaned over as if she was going to be sick.
Spike ignored the feeling of hurt that coursed through him. For a moment he thought she was about to launch into another of her speeches about the wrongness of their attraction but his eyes widened when her head snapped back and an ear piercing wail radiated from between her lips.
Hurt instantly transformed into worry.
A ray of dark light enveloped her and her whole body tensed and shook violently. Spike tried to rush at her but he was thrown to the ground by an invisible force field before he could touch her. The experience seemed to last for an eternity, but in reality it was only moments before she crumpled lifelessly to the ground.
Spike scrambled to his feet and rushed over to the Slayer. Her heartbeat and breathing were slow and steady but he couldn’t rouse her.
Trying to ignore the niggling terror, he picked the small girl up in his arms and cradled her to him, rejoicing in the feeling of her warm form against his chest. Having her in his arms again, even under this kind of circumstance, was pure heaven for the vampire.
However, he was worried about what had just happened to her. Spike had been around long enough to be able to recognize the stench of witchcraft when he encountered it. Someone had cast a spell on the Slayer. He just hoped that when she awoke, she would be okay. For the first time in over a century, Spike prayed to a God he was sure had abandoned him long ago.
She had to be alright.
She just had to be.