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Chapter Six

Buffy spent the next few days waiting anxiously for Giles to come up with an answer as to where she was and how she got there, but he was still stymied in his search. He was coming perilously close to contacting the Council and explaining the situation to them, but Buffy was adamant that they not be told anything about it unless absolutely necessary.

“I don’t understand you, Buffy. The Council exists to support its Slayers. Why aren’t you willing to go to them for help?”

“I have one word for you, Giles. Cruciamentum.” She turned her back on him, but not so quickly that she didn’t see him blanch.

“Oh dear Lord, I had completely forgotten that if you have reached your 20’s then you have already survived—“

“No thanks to you or your precious Council,” she interrupted bitterly.

Giles was left mute while he contemplated again the things this woman had gone through and the things she knew. He determined to see how much information he could get from the Council without actually telling them what was going on. Buffy assured him that the newly called Slayer would be showing up in Sunnydale any day, and he decided her arrival would be a good opportunity to address the issues with the Council.

When he reminded Buffy of Kendra’s impending arrival, she turned pale and said, “Oh my gosh! Angel! I forgot about him!”

Where in her time line, she and Angel were together almost every night for at least a little while, in this one she was avoiding him as much as possible so as not to lead him on to expect more than she was willing to give him. In spite of her angry muttering when she left Spike, she had no intention of having sex with Angel – birthday or no birthday.

She racked her brain to come up with the exact date or time of Kendra’s arrival as she hurried to Angel’s apartment to warn him about the other Slayer. When she got there, she could see that she was almost too late. Kendra had already locked Angel in the storage room with the window facing the sun.

After a fight that lasted a much shorter period of time, again due to Buffy’s experience and creativity, she and Kendra had their stand-off about who was the Slayer and took themselves off to let Giles sort it out.

When they got to the library, Willow and Xander were also there and the redhead’s face lit up when she saw Buffy. Willow was so glad to see her that Buffy realized guiltily she had not been spending the time with her best friend that she would have if she were really sixteen. Since she didn’t need Willow’s help with her schoolwork, and didn’t want either of her friends around when she patrolled, they were both wondering what was going on with their friend.

“Hey, guys,” she greeted them cheerily, “I’m sorry I’ve been all self-absorbed, avoido-girl lately. How about we make up for our missing buddy time by Bronzing it tonight? We can show Kendra what Sunnydale has to offer.”

“Uh, Buffy? You sure you want to do that?” Xander snarked. “Might drive her right back to Jamaica, or wherever.”

Buffy saw how Kendra had blushed and stammered every time Xander spoke to her and she determined to bring the sheltered Slayer some small measure of happiness while she was with them. Once again, the inevitability of the things she was expected to just let happen sent her stomach into knots.

(Let’s see – if I never sleep with Angel, he never loses his soul, so he doesn’t go back to Dru and Spike, so they don’t break up, so Dru has no reason to come looking for Kendra....but I want them to break up. If she doesn’t hurt Spike by sleeping with Angel.....Gah! This is making my head hurt!”)

Telling Giles she needed him to give her some kind of decision by tomorrow, Buffy left with her friends, dragging a reluctant Kendra along to her house to get ready for their night out.

She introduced Kendra to her mother, glossing over the way Kendra came to be called, and hustled her upstairs to her room for major make-over time. While Kendra was playing with the make up on Buffy’s dressing table, the Slayer was looking over her wardrobe and trying to find something that would be sexy without being slutty looking.

She also dipped in to the new underwear she’d purchased to replace all the plain cotton panties in her drawer. She hoped her mother would not freak out at the addition of a couple of thongs and some lacy bikinis to her boring underwear.

She dressed in a matching set of black lace panties and a black lace push up bra under a low cut red blouse and black skirt. Telling herself she was not dressing in Spike’s favorite colors for any reason other than lack of anything else to wear, she added a pair of black, strappy sandals that showed off her tanned legs.

They hadn’t been in the Bronze long enough for their drinks to get warm when Buffy felt the tingles that warned of an approaching vampire of some power. She tensed up, then relaxed when she recognized Angel’s signature. She could tell from the disgruntled look on Xander’s face that Angel was approaching the table. She could also see Kendra tensing up as she sensed the vampire’s approach, but the new Slayer managed to remain in her seat. Buffy could see the girl was fighting every instinct that was screaming at her to defend herself.

She glared coldly at Angel, but refrained from trying to stake him, muttering to herself instead about how unnatural it was to socialize with a vampire. Sensing a kindred spirit, Xander moved his chair closer to the grumbling Slayer and offered to keep her company.

Angel stood awkwardly for several minutes before touching Buffy’s shoulder and saying softly, “May I talk to you for a minute, Buffy?”

“Sure, Angel,” she said with a warm smile. “Why don’t we dance while we talk?”

As they took the floor, she stood on her toes and reached her arms up around his neck. As warm and familiar as he felt, she was very conscious of the size difference between them and the awkwardness of their dancing.

“Buffy,” he began. “I don’t know what’s going on, but I know there is something. You’re so...different, all of a sudden. Have made you mad somehow?”

She sighed and leaned into him. “No, Angel, I’m not mad at you. I just...I can’t tell you just yet. Can you just trust me for a little while longer?”

“I would find that a lot easier to do if I thought you trusted me,” he said with almost a whine in his voice. “You can tell me anything, Buffy. You know that.” He looked at her mournfully.

(Yeah, right,) she thought. (I should tell you that if we sleep together next month Angelus will come back, That you’re going to kill Giles’ girlfriend to keep her from returning your soul. That I’m going to send you to a hell dimension to save the world from your insanity. And that, years from now I’m going to be sleeping with Spike and I’ve come back to make that happen sooner. Oh yeah, that’ll go well.)

Instead, she looked at him with as much compassion as she could find in her heart and said softly, “I promise. I’ll tell you as soon as Giles figures out that I can.” (IF I can, that is.) she thought, mentally crossing her fingers.

Angel sat with them for a while, refusing, as usual, to drink or eat anything the humans did. He and Buffy danced a few more times, and she allowed herself to enjoy his affection without feeling any trace of desire or passion for him. It was obvious that what sixteen-year-old Buffy found mysterious and sexy, much older Buffy found uninteresting and attractive only in a very platonic way.

When his tentative nuzzling at Buffy’s ear and attempts to hold her pressed against him were not getting him any response, the vampire gave a sad sigh and said “good night” so that he could go home to brood.

Willow looked curiously at Buffy and whispered, “Why is Angel leaving so early? Did you guys have a fight?”

Buffy could see that Willow was all prepared to be supportive and realized with a start of surprise that her relationship with Angel had required a lot of support from her friends. At the time, the drama of “Does he love me?” “Do I love him?” had seemed very natural. Now it just seemed silly. She didn’t love him. Not in the same way she loved Spike, and she had no intention of leading him on and letting him think they were going to have a relationship.

She smiled at Willow and just whispered back, “No, we’re fine. I’m just not as interested in him romantically as I used to be.”

She shook her head at Willow’s shocked look and said, “I’ll be able to explain it soon.”

(I hope I will, anyway!)

When she once again felt the tell-tale tingle on her neck, she sighed in exasperation and looked around to see where Angel was lurking. She saw Kendra stiffen beside her and as the other slayer also began to look around, Buffy suddenly recognized the signature as Spike’s. She leapt to her feet and, pushing Kendra down into her chair with a “I’ll take care of this. You just stay here and have a good time,” she cast around until she figured out from which direction the signal was the strongest.

She moved through the crowded bar, searching for the source of the tingle and fighting down the less vampire-related tingles that were traveling from her neck down to her hardening nipples and suddenly aching crotch. She stopped on the edge of the crowd, near the stairs, casting around for Spike and hoping Kendra would stay put.

When she felt his cool breath on her neck and his arms around her body, she leaned back into him and laughed softly when he twitched in surprise. Obviously he had expected her to be surprised and, if not frightened, at least startled. She turned around in his arms and looked up at him from under her eye lashes. Again, she had to remind herself that this was still an evil vampire and that he was probably here for a snack, not to see her.

“What are you doing here, Spike?” she demanded in her best Slayer voice, even as her hands were stroking the soft fabric of his tee shirt just above the waistband of his pants. She felt rather than heard him hiss and he dropped his hands from her arms and backed away.

“I’m lookin’ for my dinner, Slayer. What do you think I’m doin’?” he growled, adjusting himself in his jeans.

“You know I’m not going to let you kill anyone here tonight, don’t you?” she said, looking at him as coldly as she could while fighting the urge to push him back under the stairs and climb up his body.

“That right, pet? And how do you propose to stop me?”

He cocked his head and gave her one of his best smirks. Running his eyes appreciatively down her body, he continued, “You don’t look like you’re dressed for fightin’. More like you’re trying to seduce some poor ponce. What’s the matter? The great poof not gettin’ the message?”

“You’re a pig, Spike.” It was so automatic, she didn’t even notice that it was the first time she’d said it in this time.

He just grinned and nodded. “You have no idea, pet.”

“Actually, I do,” she smiled at him, her disgust forgotten as she got another chance to needle the cocky vampire.

She was rewarded with flashing yellow eyes as he threw his arms up in the air and snarled, “Don’t start that ‘I know you’ shit again, Slayer. I don’t want to hear it.”

“Really? You don’t?” She allowed a little touch of disbelief and hurt into her tone and he responded immediately.

“Not unless you’re going to explain it to me, I don’t,” he responded, dropping the snarl for a sulky tone.

Buffy sighed and wondered how many times she was going to have to make this promise and to how many people before Giles decided it was safe for her come clean with her friends and lovers.

She couldn’t resist touching her finger gently to his pouting lower lip as she said, “I promise, as soon as I think it’s safe, I’ll tell you as much as I can.”

Without thinking, the vampire pulled her finger into his mouth and bit down gently with his blunt human teeth. When he reached to touch her lower lip, Buffy pulled his finger into her mouth and swirled her tongue around it while sucking gently.

“Bloody hell!” he groaned, pulling her back into the shadows of the stairway and wrapping his arms around her. “What are you doing to me, Slayer?”

“Nothing you don’t want me to. I promise,” she whispered, burying her nose in his neck and inhaling the scent of whiskey, tobacco, leather and Spike. “What do you want me to do?”

Her warm breath on his neck was making his jeans very uncomfortable and her scent was filing his senses as he responded in spite of himself.

“Want you to touch me, Slayer. Just touch me.” He trembled with the effort it took not to sink his fangs into her soft skin and taste again the elixir that was her blood. He didn’t know why this Slayer seemed to be trying to kill him with sexual frustration, but he was past the point of caring. All he could think about was feeling her incredible heat on his cool skin.

Instead of pulling away and calling him a pig again, as he fully expected, she slid her hand down and cupped the bulge he couldn’t hide. He hissed when he felt her hand on him, and groaned when she squeezed gently.

When she began to rub and squeeze him the way she knew he wanted, he couldn’t stop himself from whispering desperate encouragement in her ear.

“Ah, that’s it, luv. Feels so good. Wonderful little hands you have, Slayer. Want you to—bloody, buggering fuck!”

Buffy had used her other hand to pull down his zipper and suddenly his bare cock was enveloped in her hot hands and she was stroking him to the accompaniment of his rasping breaths. It had been a couple of years, but she remembered exactly what it took to bring him to a shuddering release. She ran her thumb over the weeping head of his cock and spread the pre-cum down the side so that her hand would slide more easily.

The vampire was gripping the side of the stairway over her head, his long leather coat hiding them from casual view. When Buffy felt his hips beginning to thrust into her hands, she couldn’t resist reaching up to fasten her lips on his as, with a strangled cry, he came in her hands. While Spike pumped the last of his spendings into Buffy’s hands he allowed himself to enjoy the feel of her warm, supple lips on his. This kiss was very different from the rough, violent one they’d shared when he was in vamp face.

This time, she was free to run her tongue around the inside of his lips, lightly over his teeth and to pull his tongue into her mouth to suck on it. He could feel himself becoming hard again as the Slayer moaned against his mouth and pressed up against him, murmuring his name.

Suddenly she pulled back and put one hand to her mouth in shock.

“Oh, oh, God, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to...” Her eyes darted around the space frantically, and she tried to tuck his newly hard cock back into his pants. “I just meant to...I’m sorry, Spike.”

The more she pushed on him, the larger and harder he became and he finally grabbed her hands and said gruffly, “If you’re trying to put it away, pet, you’re gonna have to keep those hot little hands off it.”

Blushing furiously, she started apologizing again until he stopped her with a surprisingly gentle hand on her lips.

“Don’t know what the hell you’re apologizing for, Slayer. That was the best hand job I’ve ever had in my un-life. It’s like you knew every...Fuck! “ he stopped and glared at her. His tone changed entirely and she was suddenly very aware that she was standing in the dark with a master vampire and no stake hidden in her skimpy clothes.

He gripped her arms so hard she knew she was going to have bruises the next day and he ground out between his teeth, “I want to know what the hell is going on. Now.”

Buffy shook her head, whether at herself for giving in to the urge to be with him in some way or in answer to his demand she wasn’t sure. She was pretty sure this vampire didn’t care how much she used his body for sex, but the feeling of taking something he hadn’t agreed to give her was too familiar for her to feel good about what she’d done.

She’d only intended to get close enough to keep her scent on him and remind him she existed. She studied his face as well as she could in the dim light to see if he was disgusted with her behavior, but all she saw was anger and confusion.

“I...I’m sorry,” she repeated again, still shaking her head. She brought her eyes up to meet his. “You must think I’m the worst ho, ever.”

“Got to admit, it’s not what I expect of the virtuous Chosen One,” he agreed wryly. “But something’s going on here. Something between us. And you know what it is. You DO know me, Slayer. And I want to know how.”

“To...tomorrow night. I promise. I’ll tell you tomorrow night. No matter what Giles says.”

“I promise,” she added when he didn’t release her arms immediately.

Instead of responding, he loosened his grip and began rubbing her arms lightly as though to sooth the marks left from his fingers. When he realized what he was doing, he snatched his hands away and shoved them into his pockets. He stared into her liquid green eyes for a long minute, then nodded abruptly and left in a swirl of black leather.





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