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“He wants to talk to you again,” Faith said cutting through the tension in the room. Angel had told her about Buffy but it was a lot to process and her defending Spike wasn’t really a point in her favor.

“Siding with the vampires isn‘t about to make you any friends there.” Angel said seconds after Buffy said hello. He had heard her speech and although he agreed, he knew first hand how unfriendly the Scoobies were towards the undead.

“Says the vampire who got me into this mess in the first place.” She said with a light laugh. “Besides I’m not here to make friends, I’m here to kick a little ass. Got any idea when that might be happening or even if the others are going to let me join their little playgroup?”

“Faith is going let you stay but please try to play nice with the others. Not Spike, him you can hate or even stake but atleast try to show the others the same kind of courtesy that you showed me and mine.”

“I already knocked Faith on her ass, just like I did you. But if they want to see me naked, they are not getting a free show like you and your pal Doyle.” Buffy teased hoping to put him at ease.

“Very funny.” He said dryly.

“I try, so how are things going on your end of the line?”

“I’m still working on the ship, it might take a day or two but we got the place mystically warded to keep them safe. Nothing can come in without an invite so everything will be okay until then.”

“Don’t get yourself dusted because you promised to take me Scourge hunting when I get back.” She reminded him noting, that he had avoided telling her how long this was going to take.

“You too Buffy, the way Faith talked things are really bad around there.”

“I am all kinds of careful, safety first…it’s my motto.” Knowing that there was nothing else to say, she hung up and turned back to the others. “So now what kids?”

“I believe that you are indeed a slayer but before we discuss what we are dealing with, I think we should evaluate your abilities.” Giles said taking control of the situation.

“Not really an issue but since this is your party, I’ll play. So since I already handled Faith who do I take on next?” Buffy asked stretching her body feeling more than ready for a little action.

“If I don’t intend to hurt you, the chip they shoved in my brain doesn’t fire. So we can spar and let the others get an idea about how you handle” Spike volunteered, wanting to try out this slayer plus looking for any chance to see what she felt like under his hands.

“Works for me but this isn’t exactly the perfect place for a fight, even a mock one.”

“We’re about a block away from the football field, we could test you there.” Giles said reaching for his coat.

______________________________________________

They decided to walk to the football field and on the way there Faith introduced Buffy to the others. Buffy wouldn’t have called her actions overly friendly but since they weren’t exactly hostile either, she figured it was better to be somewhere in the middle. She listened to the conversations taking place around her but her mind was already focusing on the fight ahead. When she fought the rest of her mind just clicked off and even though this was just pretend, nothing had changed.

Spike watched her out of the corner of his eyes. She moved with an natural grace that Faith seemed to lack. If he had to guess he would say it was because Buffy was completely comfortable in her own skin and life. Faith would never find that as long as she kept denying what she was and pretending that she was just a normal girl. Nothing about being a slayer was normal and everything he had seen from Buffy far said she wasn’t the type of girl to hide what she was for any reason. She admitted that she was a prostitute, not with pride but with a total lack of shame and that was a different matter entirely. If she felt ashamed than that meant she believed she was doing something wrong and since he highly doubted any woman in her line of work did it because they loved the job, he was betting it was something she had to do to survive. He understood that and as he watched the familiar look of a predator fill her soft green eyes, he understood that as well. Summers could pretty it up all she liked but even the word Slayer, meant one who killed. The slayer may only hunt demons and the like but she was still a killer. Death was exactly the same and it didn’t change if the person was innocent or guilty, it was still death. Faith didn’t see it that way but this new slayer did in clear and brutally honest detail.

Maybe that was why she had understood his situation so quickly, he thought crossing across the field to face off with her. “You ready to dance pet?”

“I’ll let you lead lover,” She said with a saucy wink.

The others watched them spar from the sidelines and despite herself Faith was impressed. When she had beaten her so quickly at the house she had been convinced it was a fluke but now she was certain it wasn’t. “How did she get so good in only two years? I been doing this a lot longer and she has me beat hands down.”

“I don’t know but after what you said about her life, I believe that might have something to do with it.” Giles said thinking on all the things Faith had told him on the way over. “She’s doesn’t have your form. You fight lyrically, almost like a dancer with each step precise and measured. While she has a certain brutal grace that at times seems untamed and wild and at others ruthlessly controlled. It makes her unpredictable in battle which is not necessarily an asset. I also doubt she is proficient with any weapon other than a stake, given the fact that she had not been trained.”

“I don’t get that, I mean how did the Council miss another slayer being called?” Xander asked. “After Kendra it couldn’t have been that big of a surprise.”

“I don’t know,” Giles admitted. “But now that we know, we have to contact them so that they can send her a Watcher.”

“Something tells me she isn’t going to like that and I don’t think they will be thrilled when they hear what she has been up to for the last couple of years.” Faith said trying to imagine Quentin Travers reaction to that bit of news.

“They don’t call it the worlds oldest profession for nothing,” Giles told her archly recalling at least one slayer in recent history known to be a lady of the night. “As for having a Watcher, she doesn’t really have a choice in the matter. But I am sure that the Council will pay her a stipend that will keep her from returning to her profession.”

“Look at them.” Riley interrupted with both fear and awe coating his words. “Do you think we should break them up before one of them gets hurt?”

Buffy hadn’t forgotten that she wasn’t suppose to hurt Spike but it seemed to her like he had forgotten he wasn’t trying to kill her. She didn’t really believe that but if it was the case she didn’t really mind. Other than the Scourge she hadn’t really gotten in all that many full of battles and even then, they had relied on numbers instead of actual skill. Spike on the other hand had all kinds of skill and he was making her work for every blow she landed. She had to hand it to him, he was good but she knew inside that if this was for real, she would be the one to walk away.

The second the thought entered her mind, Spike landed a solid kick in her abdomen throwing her back several feet. When she hit the ground hard with a soft thud muffled by the thick grass, her need to give as good as she got overwhelmed every other though in her mind.

She had been so damn good, that he lost himself in the fight. His beast had taken over revealing his true face, called by the unmistakable challenge. Causing him to temporarily forget that he wasn’t trying to kill her. Atleast until the second after she went flying backwards.

He braced himself for the chip to fire and when it didn’t he was confused. But since she hadn’t gotten up yet, his concern overwhelmed every other thought in his mind. Running the short distance between them, he bent down to help her to her feet.

Catching him off guard, she caught his leg and pulled him down to the ground. Shoving him down hard she slid her body over his, pressing her legs firmly against his outer thighs, effectively trapping him in place.

In a daze, he saw her reach into her boot. When he saw the stake in her hand coming at him in a nearly invisible blur of speed, he knew that he was seconds away from becoming dust in the wind, He also knew that there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to stop it.

He felt the tip of the stake press against his chest and he closed his eyes waiting for the sharp pain that would signal the end of his unnaturally long life. Instead her felt her lips, plump and moist firmly press against his. He opened his mouth instinctively and felt her tongue slide in to explore his mouth. It burned him alive from the inside out and for a moment he believed that she had staked him after all.

Pulling away Buffy looked down at him and gave him a wicked smile. “That was amazing lover and the kiss wasn’t bad either.”

She didn’t know it, but that kiss given in the heat of the moment had convinced him that she was worth risking anything for, even if that meant he would never be the man he used to be. With her still on his lap, pressed against him intimately with her skin slicked with a light sheen of sweat as if they had just made love instead of nearly killing each other, Spike knew he had made the right choice. Buffy Winters didn’t know it yet but he had just fallen head over heels in love with her. Come hell or Walsh’s monster, he vowed that she would never take another dollar from a man seeking to enjoy her body. She was now his and whatever it took, he intended to convince her of that.





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