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Thank you guys for the reviews. Cordykitten--I haven't gotten to the LJ yet. So much to do, so little time!! :)

Chapter Eleven

He agreed and they got down to work. Two hours later Spike and Buffy left his apartment. If his heart could beat, it would leap out of his chest. He was scared; scared of losing her. She seemed confident, but he wondered how much of that was an act. They walked in silence and Spike could tell she was using what he taught her to try and feel where the vamps were. Then he caught a whiff of something and stopped. Trying to decipher what direction the scent was coming from, he turned in a full circle.
“What is it?” She asked quietly.
“I smell…”
“What?”
“Vampires”
“Pray tell, Master Vampire, where could they be?”
“North. Rose Cemetary.”
“Off we go,” she muttered and started to go. He grabbed her arm.
“What?”
“Let me do it, Buffy. Let me go and take care of them.”
“Spike, why?”
“It’s my job as your mate to protect you.”
“Then protect me in battle. We’ve done this before, why are you suddenly frightened now?”
“I’ve always been frightened for you. Maybe because I’m closer to you now, maybe because I’ve tasted you, maybe because I just got you back after you were gone and the thought of you leaving again terrifies me. Maybe because I know these particular vamps are out to kill you. Maybe because I now understand what you need and want and want it for you, desperately. Maybe because I love you.”
She studied him, arms crossed. “Maybe you think too much.” She said and walked away.
They reached the entrance of the cemetery and Spike stopped her again.
“Stop it, Spike,” she hissed. “You can’t stop me from doing this. They’re after me. I have to face them. It’s my fight.”
“Our fight, love. Our fight.”
“Fine, it’s our fight. Just don’t stop me. Slayers have to be fearless, don’t they? Well, I’m going to learn to be fearless.”
“You’re not a Slayer.”
“No, I’m not. But I’m pretty damn close.”
“I get it now, okay? You wanted me to get it and I do—“
“Spike?”
“Pet—“
“Shut up.”
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the witch and her pet vampire.”
Spike and Buffy turned to see vamps. Three of them. Big, burly and most likely incredibly strong. All three wore jeans, t-shirts, cowboy hats and ankle length brown leather coats.
Buffy smirked, “guess we found our vamps. Guys are a little out of your element don’t you think?”
“You Northerners are quite tasty, despite your rudeness.” One of the vamps drawled.
Spike took his place in front of Buffy who pushed him aside. He glared at her and she faced the vamps.
“I hear you’re looking for me,” she told them.
“You heard right. Never tasted a witch before—“
“And you won’t. She’s mine.” Spike snarled.
The vamps had the decency to look shocked. “You claimed her?” One asked.
“Yes. You don’t get to taste her.”
“Guess we’ll have to find other ways to kill her then.” Another drawled.
“Can we do less with the talking and more with the fighting?” Buffy suddenly blurted out. “I have plans later.”
“Sure thing, witch.” And the three started toward them. Spike took his fighting stance close to Buffy. They wouldn’t touch her if he had anything to say about it.
“Kali…Kali…Kali…Be in Me!” He looked over at Buffy, about to ask what she was doing when a visible sheen of white light entered her body via her head. He could only stare. So did the vamps.
She turned and looked at him, and his eyes widened. Her eyes were glowing white and her hair had turned black. She turned to the vampires and charged. Kicking the closest one to her, she sent him flying to a nearby tree where a stray branch came from the middle of it. He fell on it and was dust in seconds. Spike could only gape in shock.
The vamps friends looked at each other in fear and started to run.
She turned to Spike. “You better hide.” It was her voice, yet deeper, with an echo.
“Buffy—“
“Hide, vampire!” She shouted at him. Spike figured it was better to do as she said and found the nearest gravestone to hide behind. He would hide, but stay close by in case.
“I call the light of golden rays, for protection, thus I pray!” She shouted and lifted her hands. With a spark of light, there between her raised arms was the sun. A smaller version of it, but the sun nonetheless. Spike gasped. Now he knew why she asked him to hide. She was protecting him. Bringing her arms down, she seemed to cradle the ball in one hand as it hovered above her right hand. She started forward and Spike followed safely behind.
“Here, kitty, kitty,” she called.
Spike could only gaze at the woman he loved. It was her, and yet not. He’d seen fragments of the power she possessed. Enough to know she was a force to be reckoned with. He’d also felt her strength. Both things combined made him nickname her Wonder Woman and sometimes Supergirl. Now seeing the power she held in that tiny body of hers, he knew she wasn’t worthy of such names. She could kill both with the blink of her eye.
Spike spotted one of the southern vamps crawling into a mausoleum. She spotted him too. Her glowing eyes followed the figure retreating inside and smiled maniacally. Spike shivered at the sight.
Walking up to the stone door, she kicked it right open. “Find my enemy!” She commanded the ball and it left her hand. Spike watched in fascination as the inside of the tomb lit up with bright sunlight. He heard a howl and knew instantly the vampire was dead.
She turned then, and Spike beheld her. Standing in the doorway, the wind billowing her long black sweater around her. All Spike could do was gaze at his beloved in awe. She moved forward, a branch snapping tugging her awareness. She swerved to the right and Spike followed. Her beam of sunlight gone, he followed closer to her.
She stopped and listened. Spike sniffed the air.
“South,” he said.
She turned to her left and walked. Then Spike saw it. A knife flying through the air, directed at her.
“BUFFY!” He shouted and leapt to it.
Raising her hand, she deflected him to the ground and in one swift movement, caught the blade in between both hands. Raising the blade she turned until a beam of light shot out of it and she followed it. Instinctively, Spike knew this light led to the source.
Ignoring the tremors coursing through him at the fear of almost losing her he followed, right behind her. The vampire was just ahead, running.
“STOP!” She shouted.
The vamp stopped and turned, paralyzed. His eyes wide with fear. She strolled up to him, grasping the blade tightly in her right hand.
She came up to him and walked around him. “Scared of little ol’ me?” She asked.
The vampire whimpered and behind him, Buffy wrapped her arms around the vampire from behind, cooing softly in his ear. She held up the blade.
“I would tell you to warn your friends, but you see, they’re dead.” She trailed the knife from his stomach to his chest, shredding the material in half. Blood seeped lightly and the vampire whimpered. Then, she leaned over and kissed the vampire’s cheek. In one swift movement, she slashed his throat. The vampire’s eyes widened. Then she stepped back and kicked it. The head tore off and the body dusted.
Spike stood there, transfixed. She looked up at him then. Her hair went back to its natural color, her eyes stopped glowing and the light that entered her left her the same way it entered.
She swayed and whispered his name before she dropped to the ground. Spike was on her immediately.
He could hear her heart, though slow. Her skin was on fire and her breathing slightly wavered. She was incredibly pale. Fear coiled through him and he lifted her lifeless body into his arms and ran as fast as he could to Giles’.

“Buffy—“ Giles stopped when he saw Spike cradling her in his arms. “What happened? Is she hurt?” The man asked ushering Spike in.
“I don’t know. She fought—hard.” Spike explained to her High Priest all that happened as he laid her down on Giles’ couch and Giles felt her head. “What’s wrong with her? Is she all right? Does she need a hospital?”
Giles took off his glasses and shook his head. “She’s going to be fine, Spike. What she’s experiencing is like a flu. She has a fever and her body is incredibly tired. What she did, it took a lot of energy. Usually does when you invoke a Goddess into yourself. She needs rest, perhaps a cold compress to her head and more rest.”
Spike was relieved, somewhat. He picked her up silently.
“Where are you going?” Giles asked.
“I’m taking her to her room. I’m staying so don’t bother telling me to get out. I stay with her, understand?”
Giles knew it was futile to argue and he wasn’t going to tell Spike to leave anyway. He nodded his assent. “I’ll get a cold washcloth to apply to her forehead.”
Spike nodded and carried Buffy to her bedroom. He laid her down gently and stared at her. Then, he tugged off her shoes and socks, took off her watch and necklace and her bra. He knew from experience that she hated sleeping with it on. Whenever she’d slept over his place before, she’d always take it off under her clothes when they’d settled in to watch TV. He respected her privacy and maneuvered the thing off under her clothes. She’d stake him if she knew he was trying to cop a feel or check her out in this state. He then untucked the covers and discarding his shirt, settled in beside her. His cold skin would help, he reasoned. It didn’t help however, that her skin being so hot heated him immediately. She wriggled against him and moaned softly.
“Buffy?” He asked. “Talk to me, baby.”
She fell silent again and he drew the covers about her waist. Giles walked in and cleared his throat. He raised his eyebrows.
“I’m a vampire, you nit. My body temp is always cool. I figured it would help.”
Giles merely nodded and pressed the cool washcloth to her head. Giles straightened and watched the vampire tenderly comb her hair through his fingers and whisper endearments to her. Spike looked up at him finally.
“You truly love her,” Giles stated as fact. He knew it, known it for a long time. He felt the need to let Spike know what he already knew however.
Spike nodded. “Always have. This whole time.”
“You won’t hurt her again?”
Guilt passed over the vampire’s features. “Not intentionally.”
“She loves you,” Giles stated.
Doubt crossed Spike’s usually confident expression. “Sometimes I think she does.”
Giles nodded firmly. “She does. She fights it because she’s scared. You ever hear the story of the turtle and the hare?”
“Slow and steady wins the race?”
Giles nodded. “I’m imagining that combined with the—events—of the past week and tonight’s invocation, that is the reason why her body is so tired. She needs time to rest, to heal. You must give her that space to do that.”
Spike nodded, “I know that now. Been alive for a long time Giles and no one has taught me as much as she has in a week.”
Giles smiled fondly at the sleeping girl he adored so much. “She’s something, isn’t she?”
Spike nodded and laid his head next to hers. “That she is.”
Feeling as if he were suddenly intruding, Giles bid him goodnight and left the room.
Spike watched her as she slept and absently stroked her arm. After a while he checked the washcloth, rewet it and laid back down with her.
“You’ll be all right luv. I won’t let anything happen to you. Not again, not ever again.” He watched her as she slept and soon, sleep claimed him as well.





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