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Since it could be his last night with her, Spike wanted them to be alone. Taking her hand, he led her out of the alley and back to his crypt. They walked in silence both lost to the thoughts of their future. Were they just like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, destined to join each other in death or would their tale of woe finally end tonight, only to begin a new chapter on the morrow, Spike wondered pushing open the door and leading her downstairs. If this was the end, then he wanted to be as sweet and as perfect as an Indian summer, a warm respite before the harsh winds of winter wrapped around them freezing the marrow in the bones.

Turning to her, he laid a soft kiss on her lips. The fire she kindled in him was still blazing but his passion and the meaning of this moment had turned it into something gentle. Slowly they helped each other undress, exploring each bit of skin they uncovered with their hands or lips. She wore two of his marks, red inflamed flesh bright above the perfection of her creamy white skin and with the final one he would claim her life allowing him to hold her in his heart as she entered the unknown. It took only a single bite and shared blood to sire a vampire, three to claim a person and for them they would do both at the same time.

It was why Drusilla had always preferred Angelus and why he found himself constantly drawn back to her. He had taken her with his third bite, linking them together forever but since his feelings were of possession instead of love, Angelus didn’t feel the bond as strongly as she did. Spike had tried to replace those bites with his own but like he had told Buffy, once it was done it could never be undone. Vampires could claim as many people, even other vampires, as they wanted but once claimed they could belong to no other.

Which why was Dru had never been able to claim him, her body was pledged to Angelus and he alone could be given her marks. Being Angelus, he had refused to allow himself to be tied to her alone for all eternity and Spike had always cursed him and his sire Darla, for ruining her for him. If Darla had claimed Angelus before siring him, that wouldn’t have happened but like Angelus, she had always liked to indulge in the delights of another’s body. Through the centuries they always drifted back to each other but since they never demanded monogamy from one another, Spike had always know it was only lust between them and not love. A claim could be used to say that this person or body was your property but it could also be used to join two vampires together for all of their lives. For Angelus and Dru, it had been nothing more than Angelus saying he owned her but he had always understood that Dru had wanted to belong to Angelus alone.

It wasn’t Angel’s mark that had kept her heart away from him, it had been her love for her sire. She used the mark to keep Angelus inside her while she offered her body to him, Spike thought bitterly. He had claimed a girl once against her will and never did she show him the same devotion that Dru lavished upon Angelus. Angered, he had killed the girl and returned to his dark goddess with the knowledge that once someone was claimed, their own emotions strengthened or weakened the mark. He had hoped to win her affections and when that had failed he stayed because he was to in love with her to leave on the theory that some feeling from her was better than nothing.

Buffy, could fight against the mark he laid on her and make it nothing more than a brand but if she loved him as much as he loved her, she could let him inside her heart in a way no human could understand. He would be able to taste the salty sweet sadness of her tears even if she shed them miles away from where he stood. He would be able to feel everything she was feeling emotionally and if he opened himself up to her she would be able to sense his own emotional state. She wouldn’t feel it as deeply because she was the one who had claimed but if she wanted, he would willingly allow her to claim him as her own, joining them together in a way more complete than the act that humans called marriage.

Noticing that he was lost to his thoughts, Buffy laid her hand on his face to bring him back to her. “Have you changed your mind? If you’re not sure we don’t have to do this.”

“I’ve never wanted anything more.” He told her honestly, finally at peace with his damaging obsession with Dru. He had been a fool to accept a one sided love affair when he could have had everything, so for the first time he felt something very close to gratitude for his grandsire. Unwittingly Angelus had saved him from himself and now he was free to find everything that he ever wanted from the girl now in his arms. He had heard the fear in her voice but also the dejection and he quickly explained to Buffy about the ways the claim worked. “I am not your master and you are not my servant. If you want, my claim on you could be nothing more than marks on your skin like scars of your past or they could be something more. It’s your choice luv and once you are turned I will leave the choice about claiming me as yours, up to you. I know you are the one I want but I want you to take as much time as you need to decide if I am what you want. I love you Buffy but I don’t want either of us to be forced together if the love we share isn’t strong enough to last. I don’t want to feel everything with you and then watch it fade into nothing but a slight recognition of one another.”

“Thank you for telling me,” Buffy said comforted beyond words. After years of going place to place wishing she belonged somewhere, she recognized the bittersweet longing in his voice but she could see in his eyes that he wasn’t choosing her in a desperate need to feel like he belonged somewhere, anywhere. He wanted to belong with her because he loved her and that made the rest of her fears about what was going to happen melt away. Even if she woke up and her passion for him had gone as cold as her skin she knew she wouldn’t be alone again because he would always be there for her. If she couldn’t love him, he would still be her friend, even though he wanted more. She had already put her trust in him before this but now she knew that no matter what happened he would always keep his word to her. “Make love to me Spike, because when I die I want to remember it until I wake up in your arms again.”

Overcome with emotion her picked her up in his arms and carried her towards the bed. He made love to her gently, each caress creating an indelible memory in their minds so that if it was the last time, it would last forever. His hands brushed over and her skin and when he slid inside her, he found her warm and wet. Bending down his head, he sucked her nipple into his mouth rolling his tongue around it drawing a sweet moan in response. Her hands gripped his shoulders, urging him to take more of her, take all of her. They didn’t speak, everything they needed to say had already been said and anything else would just sound like goodbye. But they were not silent. The air was warm and rich with the moans and gasps of their shared passion and when her heartbeat began to race and her body contracted around him he knew his own release was close.

They had been lost inside each other for hours, discovering the hidden secrets of each others bodies but they both had also been prolonging what was to come. She could feel the tension in his shoulders as he struggled to fight against his own desire demanding to be sated and she knew it was time. Closing her eyes, she turned her face bearing the long line of her neck, exposing his previous bite to his hungry eyes and whispered the three words she knew would push him over the trembling peak. “I love you.”

She felt his lips cover the earlier bite and when she felt his seed, sticky and warm flood inside her, she felt his fangs drop back into her already tender skin, going even deeper than before. Sucking in her breath, she felt her life draining into him and her heart begin to slow. When his wrist, wet with his blood pressed against her lips, she opened her eyes and stared into his as she opened her mouth to drink him in. His blood was both acidic and sweet, like a caramel apple melting on her tongue and she could feel the change inside her as the first cloying drop made its way down her throat. She closed her eyes as she felt her body slowly begin to pull away and her last thought before the darkness clouded her vision was that dying seemed so familiar as if she had died a thousand deaths before finally surrendering to this one.

Spike held her in his arms while her heart took it final shuddering beat and even though he knew she would open her eyes again, he felt the first tears gather behind his eyes. He sat there holding her close, mourning the loss of her life until her skin grew cold. Pressing a soft kiss on her lips, he laid her down and wrapped the covers over her. He didn’t want to leave her, even for a moment but the clock on the bedside table told him that sunrise was only a few hours away and he had much to do. Quickly pulling on his clothes, he headed up the stairs knowing that it was time to tell the others about what had happened and trying to think of a way to do it without ending with them both being staked in the process.

Seconds after the echo of the crypt door being pulled shut had faded, Buffy opened her eyes expecting to see Spike looking back at her. Realizing that she was alone, she laid her head down on her knees and began to cry.

Spike felt a wave of misery wash over him unexpectedly but thinking that it was his guilt over what he had done he pushed it out of his mind and made his way to Giles’s house.





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