Shades of Something Blue
Chapters Seven ~ Nine
Chapter Seven
Buffy returned his kiss with a passion that matched his. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she used them to draw him tighter against her. She moaned low in her throat as his hands slid under her bottom, squeezing and kneading as he rubbed against her.
He stood up, still holding her tightly against him, and walked over to the bed. Without breaking the kiss, he turned and fell backwards onto the mattress. She giggled against his mouth as they bounced.
"What are you doing?" she asked, glad for once that she didn't need to breath as he continued to lavish her lips with soul deep kisses.
"Promised a lady I would let her be on top for a while tonight." he muttered, running his hands up under her shirt to rub the satiny skin of her back and bottom. "Mmm...Your skin is so soft. When I touch you it's like touching heaven."
Buffy shivered at his words. A tiny frown creased her brow as she wondered exactly where they were going with this. Ruthlessly, she shoved the thought aside. For now, she was content to accept whatever he could give her. Pulling reluctantly away from him, she sat up and looked down at him, smiling and flexing her fingers on his chest like a little cat.
"You know," she purred. "You're wearing way too many clothes, mister."
He curled his tongue behind his front teeth in a lascivious grin. "Gonna do somethin' about that?" he asked, thrusting up against her suggestively.
"Oh, you betcha." She grabbed a fistful of his shirt and tugged him into a sitting position. "Lift your arms, unless you want this torn off you."
William quirked his scarred eyebrow at her. "If you tear it, I'm sure I have a couple more around here to replace it, luv," he teased.
Her face burned that becoming shade of pink again. "I only have this one. And no, you can't have it back." She tugged his shirt out of his jeans and pulled it up and over his head, trapping his arms in the sleeves. Posed in this manner, the muscles in his arms bulged enticingly. Unable to resist, she leaned forward and licked them, tracing each swell of muscle with her tongue. "Mmm...Salty Slayer goodness." she murmured, nibbling her way down his arm and across his shoulder. Reaching her mark on his neck, she laved it lightly then bit down on it with blunt teeth.
"WHOA!" William shouted as he lunged against her. The tingle of earlier became an arc of white-hot sensation that raced from her mouth on his neck straight to his dick. "Holy fuck! Do that again!"
Laughing at the awe in his voice, she did it again, bearing down on him and swirling her hips as he arched into her again. He looked dazed when she lifted her head. "Just a little something to get the motors revving, baby," she cooed, outlining his panting mouth with a fingernail.
"M-motor’s revved...get my fuckin’ jeans off...please?" he begged.
Pouting, she pushed him back to recline on the bed. "At least you said 'please'." Scooting back on his thighs, she ran her splayed hands down his chest and stomach until she reached the fly of his jeans. Gotta love button-flies, she thought, licking her lips as she slowly worked her way down. Once they were loose she quickly skimmed them down and off his legs.
She kitty-crawled back up his body, pausing above his rampant erection. It lay against his stomach; long and thick, the tip weeping with precum. She leaned down and blew a stream of cool air on it, delighted when it seemed to jump towards her mouth.
William leaned up on his elbows and looked down his body at her, his jaw clenched and his nostrils flared.
Buffy traced a long blue vein with her tongue, feeling the trembling in his muscles as she did so. "Anyone ever done this for you before, Slayer?" she asked silkily, lipping her way back to the head.
He closed his eyes with a groan and shook his head, unable to speak.
"What a crime. How could any woman not want to taste this?” She licked him from base to tip, taking him in hand to swirl her tongue around the tip and dipping into the dripping slit to taste him. "Mmm, you taste delicious. All smooth and salty cream."
William's breathing was ragged as he watched her tiny pink tongue move over his cock like it was an ice cream. He felt her small hands curve around his girth and squeeze as she jacked him up and down. His head fell back on his neck and his breath hissed through clenched teeth.
"What do you think, Will? Want me to keep going, hmm?" She grazed her teeth along the shaft, nibbling delicately. “Did you know that vampires give the best head? It’s the whole non-breathing factor. I can just keep going and going. With the right incentive, of course.”
"Oh God...Christ...please, pet...please..." he babbled, almost mindless with the need to feel her take him fully into her warm, wet mouth.
Buffy didn't hesitate. Using one hand to hold him steady, she quickly slid her mouth over him, taking in as much of him as she could in one gulp while she twisted and rolled her tongue against him.
"AHHHH! FUCK!" he howled in ecstasy.
She growled her pleasure around him, the vibration adding to his already heightened desire. Buffy knew he wasn't going to last long this first time. He writhed and moaned under her as she sucked and licked greedily at his throbbing flesh.
William felt himself getting close and reached down to pull her away. "Buffy...baby, I'm gonna…" he gasped, twisting his fingers in her hair. She jerked away from him and made that little growly noise again while taking as much of him as she could down her throat. When she began to swallow around him, it drove him over the edge. Crying out her name, he let himself go, flooding her mouth with his load. His entire body jerked with each swallowing motion her throat made.
Buffy swallowed the last of his spunk and leisurely cleaned him with her tongue. Pride swelled within her at the dazed, dreamy expression on his face. "Like that, baby?"
He struggled to control his respirations. "Ask me again after I pull the three feet of bed sheet out of my ass," he panted. “My God, you were…that was…”
A smug smile curved her lips. It was always good to see a man completely incoherent. Whatever happened between them, he would always remember this. In the words of her immortal Sire: a man never forgot his first blowjob. Or the woman that gave it to him.
Bracing himself up on one arm, William tightened his grip on her hair and drew her up for a kiss. Tasting himself on her tongue was another first. He found it to be completely erotic, his cock twitching with each swipe of their battling tongues.
Hauling her back across his lap, his hands slid up under the t-shirt and closed around the lacy material of her panties. The delicate ribbons that tied at her hips snapped and he pulled them from her. He was skimming the shirt up over her head before the panties hit the floor.
"Mmm, naked Buffy." His hands were deliciously hot on her cool skin as he stroked a path over her breasts and belly to dip between her legs. "Naked, WET Buffy," he murmured his appreciation as he slid his fingers inside her.
Buffy rode his hand, her head flung back. Her hands fluttered all over his body, touching whatever she could reach, trying to consume him through her fingers. Suddenly needing to feel his weight on top of her, she linked her hands behind his neck and rolled to the side, pulling him with her. Her eyes closed in bliss as she felt his body slide between her thighs; his welcome weight pressing her into the fluffy comforter.
“Thought you wanted to drive this time, luv?” he questioned, his voice rough with lust.
She shook her head, curving one leg up over his hip as she slipped one hand down to take him firmly in hand. “You drive, honey. I’ll read the map,” she quipped, teasing the corner of his mouth with her pointed tongue. Her hand pulled gently at his cock, tugging him to rest at her wet entrance. Reaching for his mouth with hers, she surrendered to another deep, drugging kiss. “Now. Need you inside me, now,” she whispered urgently.
Will slid into her, his hard length filling her, his thick girth stretching her. She was incredibly tight-- a wet, soft, velvet glove squeezing him. He held her tightly against him, his cheek resting against hers as he gave her the time she needed to adjust to his invasion of her body. When he began to move, he felt her inner muscles ripple as she accepted the long, possessive strokes of his body.
Digging her nails into his back as he rocked slowly against her, Buffy threw her head back in rapture. The pressure had been building since he entered her and she was lost in sensation, frantic for relief from the incredible tension. Almost…she was almost…
“Will!” She screamed his name as she careened over the edge, her body shivering with the force of her climax.
He increased the pace of his thrusts aggressively, bruising her slim hips as he held her dancing body in place. Each stroke forced a grunt of raw pleasure from his throat. He felt the walls of her vagina begin to flutter and clench around him again.
“Who do you belong to, Buffy?” He hissed through clenched teeth. Each word from his lips was accompanied by a hard, grinding twist of his hips. “Tell me who you belong to…”
She arched against him, clamping down on him, her taut muscles wringing his cock mercilessly as she came again. “YOU!” she sobbed in a lost little voice. “Only you, Will.”
Her soft, broken words were all the incentive his body needed. William plunged into her one last time, digging in, burying himself deep within her as he drenched her walls with his hot seed. He collapsed against her limp body, completely spent.
Buffy didn’t bother to stifle the tiny whimper of loss she felt when William pulled his spent cock from her and rolled to her side. She waited, her body suddenly tensed, for him to jump up and throw his clothes on and go storming off. When she turned onto her side facing away from him, she was startled to feel him hook an arm around her waist and drag her back against him.
“Where you goin’?” he muttered sleepily as he spooned around her back and buried his face in her hair.
She closed her eyes and smiled, blissfully happy for the first time in a very long time. “Nowhere. I’m perfectly content right here.”
“Mmm. Good. Sleep now.” He snuggled closer, his warm hand rubbing back and forth over her stomach.
And surprisingly enough—she did.
Chapter Eight
William left class early to avoid Willow. He wanted to talk to Joyce without any of the others around so he could fill her in on everything Buffy had told him. At first she had been resistant to his watcher knowing all the details, but William assured her that he would only skim over the basics, and that Joyce would be completely discreet. No one else need ever know of her torment at the hands of the demon-hunting commandos.
The watcher was immersed in a new shipment of books when William entered the shop, the cowbell above the door clanging annoyingly. “I swear, one of these days I’m gonna rip that bloody thing down and shove it up Xander’s ass,” he muttered.
“What was that, William?” Joyce asked, glancing up at him absentmindedly.
“Nothin’ important.”
She picked up a tall stack of books and carried them over to the shelves. “How did things go last night with the party?” she asked, beginning to arrange the new arrivals neatly while he brought the rest over to her.
“No vamps. Had a big confrontation with Harm’s new boy toy.” He paused. “Talked to Buffy.”
Joyce arched an eyebrow at him. “Anything useful on our Initiative friends?”
William’s eyes were glacial blue. “You might say that. We were leavin’ Lowell House last night when we had the good fortune of runnin’ into a few of them.”
“We?”
His gaze didn’t falter under her scrutiny. “Buffy was with me. I…ran into her at the party,” he said.
Shelving the last of the books, Joyce motioned for him to take a seat at the table while she went to lock the door and turn the ‘open’ sign to ‘closed’. “I believe I’ll have a cup of tea. Can I make you anything, William?”
“Got anything stronger than tea?” he asked, slouching into a chair and resting his forearms on his thighs, his hands dangling between his knees.
She stopped her preparations to turn and stare at him. “Am I going to need it?”
William nodded. “You might. I know I do.”
Joyce frowned. William rarely drank. For him to do so at three in the afternoon meant something. She stepped into her office and took her bottle of scotch from the bottom of her desk and found two glasses. Seating herself at the table, she poured them each two fingers of liquor.
“Alright, let’s hear what she told you,” she ordered in a firm, no-nonsense voice.
And he did. He glossed over the rape, as he had promised Buffy he would, but stressed Riley Finn’s involvement in the matter.
“He was the one we ran into in the parking lot at Lowell House.” He leaned over the table, one hand idly turning the now empty glass in circles. His eyes were hot with anger when he lifted them to meet hers. “Joyce, in the two years I’ve known Buffy, I’ve never seen her afraid of anyone or anything, but she feared this man. She was terrified of him.”
The Watcher felt a wave of pity for the petite vampire. In spite of her vast knowledge of vampires and everything she had been taught Joyce found that Buffy defied logic. She didn’t fit into any of the neat cubbyholes that the watchers’ guide provided. Fortunately, neither did Joyce. While the Watcher’s Council stood firm in their belief that vampires were evil, soulless beings; incapable of the finer emotions, Joyce felt that Buffy’s very existence disproved that theory. Intensely passionate in her beliefs and loyal to a fault; her zest for life was all encompassing. She lived, loved, and laughed with the same fervent glee she expressed in her destruction of humanity. Yet as annoying and rash and impulsive as the blond vamp could be, she possessed an underlying vulnerability and a deep need to belong.
Lately, Buffy had become extremely protective-- even possessive-- of the Slayer. How much that had to do with the chip, Joyce wasn’t sure. There had always been chemistry between the two of them. She had a sneaking suspicion that Elizabeth the Bloody; Slayer of Slayers, was head over heels for William the Vampire Slayer.
William went on, unaware of his watcher’s musings. “She learned a helluva lot while she was there, though. Most of the commandos are also college students. She memorized names and then broke into the college computers to look up their dorm or frat house assignments. Roughly ninety percent of them are at Lowell House, so she’s fairly certain that there is some sort of entrance to the labs from that point. She’s been searchin’ for the place where she came out but hasn’t had any luck findin’ it. This is a list of names and she also drew an extremely detailed map.” He dug through his backpack and handed over the papers that Buffy had worked on while he had slept with his head pillowed in her lap.
Joyce hurriedly donned her reading glasses and looked them over. “These are wonderful,” she muttered. “The girl has an amazing eye for detail.”
A persistent knocking sounded from the door and they looked up to see Xander and Willow waiting to be let in. Joyce got up to unlock the door
“Joyce?” William’s voice was urgent as he laid his hand on her arm to stop her. “Please, don’t say anythin’ about what happened to Buffy in front of the others. They aren’t known for their tact and I’m afraid one of them might say somethin’ to hurt her. Unintentionally, of course.”
She wasn’t so sure about the unintentional part, but she let it go and gave him a reassuring smile. “You have my word, William.”
Willow and Xander trooped in and took their places at the long table. Joyce filled them in while William went over the list of names with Willow. Both of them had classes with most of the men on the list and they jotted down what they knew about them.
“Where did you get all this stuff, William?” Xander asked as he admired the carefully drawn map. “This is incredible.”
“From Buffy. She’s the one that drew it. Pretty cool, eh?”
“When did you see Buffy?” Willow tried to act nonchalant about it but her eyes sparkled with jealousy. “She’s been all avoidy lately. Not that it’s a bad thing.”
Her attitude angered William, but he did his best to ignore it. “I saw her last night at the party. We talked for a while and then she made the list and drew the map.”
They were going over the map when light footsteps pattered up the stairs from the training room. Buffy appeared, her expression becoming a little defiant when they all looked at her. “What?” she demanded. “Do I have a booger or something?”
Seeing her like this made it hard to accept what she was, William thought as his eyes ran over her slight form. She wore a tight white tank top paired with worn khaki carpenters pants and thick-soled white Sketchers. Her golden hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail. She looked like every other college student on earth. He was relieved to see that the wound on her shoulder was almost completely healed; a faint pinkish line the only evidence that it had even existed.
William felt a weightless sensation behind his breastbone when her eyes met his for a brief moment before they skittered almost shyly away from the heat in his. The hidden marks on his neck began to tingle pleasurably and he resisted the urge to reach up and stroke them.
“Speak of the devil and in walks his whore.”
Willow’s voice was harsh, and the cruelty of her words drew sharp gasps from the room’s other occupants. Xander and Joyce stared at her in disbelief, while William’s eyes hardened to blue ice. The red-head fought the urge to apologize in the face of their censure.
“I was never his whore; you must be thinking of Faith,” Buffy snarked, quickly masking the hurt in her eyes with indifference. She turned her back, deliberately ignoring the witch as she faced William and Joyce. “I have one more name for that list I made for you. I can’t believe I forgot this one, but it just popped into my head while I was in the shower.”
“Oh, to be a loufah,” Xander moaned.
“Xander, please,” Joyce snapped.
“In the shower?” William felt as juvenile as Xander, but he couldn’t get the image of her with water splashing and bubbles sliding over her pale gold skin out of his mind.
She gave him an exasperated glare. “Yeah, in the shower,” she said with forced patience. “I had the radio playing and this old song came on. Who sang it…Oh! It’s by Rod Stewart…Maggie May. Remember that one, Watcher? The name of the head honcho over the Initiative is Maggie. Maggie Walsh.”
The two glass tumblers slipped from Joyce’s suddenly nerveless hands and smashed on the floor.
“How clumsy of me!” Joyce exclaimed. She stooped and began to gather up the larger pieces while Xander went to find the broom in the storage room.
“Professor Walsh?” Willow squeaked. “She’s in charge of all those demon hunters? But, she’s one of our teachers, William.”
“Guess she needed a hobby or something,” Xander remarked, handing Joyce the broom and moving to stand close to Buffy. She looked at him like he’d crawled out from under a rock and couldn’t get away from him fast enough.
William had a mental picture of his Psych teacher. With her hard, unyielding face and cold blue eyes, it was very easy to imagine her as the leader of the Initiative. His eyes narrowed as they followed his watcher’s jerky movements as she wielded the broom and dustpan awkwardly. As he watched, Buffy knelt down and took the dustpan from Joyce’s nerveless fingers and held it in place while the glass shards were swept into it. Before Joyce could rise to her feet, the vampire laid a comforting hand on the watcher’s arm, staring intently into her eyes.
He was amazed by her gesture. Buffy seldom, if ever, made the first move to touch someone. It was patently obvious that her compassion was genuine. It was also clear that there was something more going on here.
Joyce met Buffy’s green eyes and realized the girl knew exactly why she was so upset. Somehow, she knew, but she was leaving it to Joyce to tell it her way. Feeling a powerful surge of gratitude, she returned Buffy’s gesture, squeezing her small hand tight. She straightened and gripped the back of a chair to hide her shaking hands.
“Margaret Walsh is my step-sister,” Joyce confessed. “I’m afraid this situation is far worse than we originally thought it to be.”
Willow goggled at her. “Why is that? I mean, sure she’s a harsh teacher, but…”
“The teaching gig is probably just a front for her, Willow,” Xander said.
Buffy had moved to sit on the sliding ladder in front of the book shelves. She rolled her eyes at Xander’s comment. “Uh-DUH!” she mumbled under her breath. Only William heard her and a smile quirked his mouth.
“Now that I know what we’re up against, it will be much easier to figure out just how the Initiative needs to be handled,” Joyce said. “Everyone sit down and we can go over what we know.”
Sliding down from her perch, Buffy gave a half-hearted little wave at the group then jammed her hands in her back pockets. “I’ll just get out of your hair, then.”
“I said ‘everyone’, Buffy. Sit down, please.” Joyce’s tone brooked no argument.
Xander hurriedly scooted out the chair next to his and tried a flirtatious smile. “You can sit by me.”
Buffy made an ‘ick’ face and took the seat beside Willow, who made a great show of moving her chair a few inches away. “Oh, like I’d bite you,” she snorted.
“Oh, you would!” Willow hissed, her face turning as red as her hair.
“Not freakin’ likely.”
Willow stuck her nose in the air. “I happen to be very bite-able. I’m moist AND delicious!”
Buffy rolled her eyes. “All right, yeah, fine. You’re a nummy treat.”
“And don’t you forget it!”
“LADIES!” Joyce thundered. William and Xander just sat back and watched the estrogen fly.
“SHE STARTED IT!” they yelled in unison.
Joyce took a deep, calming breath and closed her eyes. “Well, I’m finishing it. Enough. We have far too much to do without having to listen to the two of you constantly bickering.”
“I’m sorry, Joyce,” Willow muttered.
Buffy stared at the table. She could feel the Slayer staring at her and squirmed. “Sorry.” She pouted. Glancing up, she was rewarded by a sweet smile from William. She quickly lowered her eyes again before she smiled back.
An hour later the scoobies and Buffy were glassy-eyed with information saturation. Joyce grimaced when she realized she’d lost them some time ago. “Perhaps now would be a good place to stop. We can continue tomorrow…”
They scattered like rats from a sinking ship. Willow and Xander headed for the door and Buffy made a beeline for the stairs that led down to the workout room and the safety of the sewer tunnels.
William stood up. “Hey, Summers. You forgettin’ somethin’?”
She turned, a frown puckering her eyebrows. “Huh? Forgetting what?”
He walked over and stood in front of her, forcing her to look up to meet his eyes. “This,” he said, leaning down and capturing her lips in a juicy, tongue-swirling kiss. Right in front of his friends and his Watcher. When Buffy made to pull away, he pressed his hand to the back of her head to hold her in place. Her lashes fluttered closed and she leaned into him with a sigh of surrender.
Willow and Xander stared in shock and turned to gauge the Watcher’s reaction to this little display. Joyce tried to hide her smug smile. She loved being right.
Lost in their kiss, they were oblivious to Willow’s huffy departure. She was followed by a pouting Xander. Joyce wisely gathered up her notes and disappeared into her office, granting them some privacy.
Buffy’s eyes were dazed when he finally broke the kiss. “Why did you do that, Will?” she whispered shakily.
He slipped his hands into the back pockets of her khakis and pulled her tightly against him, letting her feel what the kiss had done to him. He rubbed against her and licked her neck.
“Not gonna hide from them, is all. If any of them have a problem with it, they can bloody well kiss my arse.” He pulled the scrunchie from her hair and ran his fingers through the tangled mass. “I’ve been shy, poufy William around them for far too long; always sucking up their comments and being Mr. Nice Guy. William would stutter and mutter about how wrong it is and about sacred duty and all that rot. It’s time they met the Slayer.”
She stared at his mouth and licked her lips. “And what would the Slayer say?” She asked, her voice a breathy whisper.
“Want.” William’s lips grazed her forehead.
“Take.” He kissed her nose.
“Have.” He walked her backwards into the wall, staring down at her for a beat before he covered her mouth with his in a scorching, toe-curling kiss.
Sliding his hands around her thighs, he urged her to lift her legs and wrap them around his waist. She moaned as he pushed between her legs and began grinding his cock against her clit through several layers of cotton.
A discreet cough from Joyce’s office had him lifting is head with a frustrated growl. He rested his forehead against hers, struggling to catch his breath. “Can I come by after patrol tonight?” he asked his voice raw with need.
“Uh huh…”
He laughed at her. “So articulate, Miss Summers.”
Buffy aimed a half-hearted swat at his head, both of them smiling when the chip didn’t fire. “Guess you were right about the ‘intent to hurt you’ thingie,” she giggled.
Reluctantly, he released her, letting her coast down his body on a sensual slide. “I’ll see you tonight, then?”
She smiled and nodded, walking backwards towards the stairs; pulling her hand from his at last before turning and bouncing down the steps.
William tried to wipe the idiotic grin from his face before he faced his Watcher, but judging from her raised eyebrows and annoying smirk, he failed miserably.
~*~*~
Willow seethed as she left Xander’s house. He had ranted and raved for almost twenty minutes. On and on about how ‘wrong’ it was; this ‘thing’ between William and Buffy. How they should stage an intervention on William’s behalf. Obviously Buffy had him under a thrall of some sort and he didn’t know his own mind.
She had allowed ninety percent of his bullshit to flow over her. He could talk all he wanted about Buffy being an evil, soulless killing machine, but Willow was far from stupid. He wanted in the little sluts pants just as bad as the Slayer did.
Images of William and the vampire writhing together tormented her as she made her way back to her dorm room. Tears welled over and streaked her cheeks. First, Oz had left her to go on his stupid werewolf version of a vision quest, and now William preferred an animated corpse to her. Ain’t life grand, friends and neighbors?
Pausing to wipe her eyes, she looked in the big front window of the Espresso Pump. Riley Finn was easy to spot. He was sitting with Graham Miller and Forrest Gates. They were sucking down lattes and pelting each other with Biscotti.
Staring through the glass, Willow began to smile as an idea came to her. Without hesitating, she went inside and made her way to their table. She tapped Riley on the shoulder and gave him a sunny smile.
“We need to talk,” she said, moving a few feet away from the table so the others couldn’t overhear. Riley looked down at her and folded his arms across his chest.
“I can give you something that you want, but there are conditions…”
Chapter Nine
Buffy was halfway to the Crawford Street sewer exit when she heard the scrape of footsteps behind her. Whoever it was, their attempts at being stealthy were a joke. She ducked behind a concrete slab and waited patiently. It didn’t take long for her tracker to appear. When she saw who Mr. Not-so-stealthy was, Buffy sighed in exasperation and skipped quietly up behind him.
“HEY!”
He leapt into the air with a shriek then whirled to face her, embarrassed at being caught out so easily. Recovering quickly, he sneered at her. “Well if it isn’t Buffy the Vampire Slayer ‘Layer’.”
“Ugh, that’s original. Xander, what the hell are you doing?” she snapped. “Why are you following me?”
For all his size, he moved fast. Buffy found herself slammed up against the wall and held in place by his body pressing against her.
“Well, I figure since you’re giving it up for good ‘ol Willy, why not share the wealth?” He panted in her ear, his breath thick and hot on her skin.
“Oh, gross! Get off me!” Buffy shuddered in revulsion. The chip was already sending out warning tingles as she struggled. Tears of frustrated rage pricked at her eyes as she tried to reason with him. “Xander, stop this. I don’t want to hurt you.”
He laughed. “You can’t hurt me. Chip, remember? Just relax and let the Xand-man take care of you,” he breathed cockily. “You’ll wonder what you ever saw in that little wuss.”
“Are you out of your mind?
The step he took back to pry at her closed legs was his downfall. Buffy vamped out and struck like a small viper. Sinking her tiny fangs into his shoulder, she ripped it open the same instant her knee slammed into his groin.
Both were instantly engulfed in pain. Buffy staggered and fell to her knees, blood streaming from her nose as she gripped her throbbing head. Xander dropped and rolled back and forth, a high-pitched gibbering noise escaping him as he ignored his shredded shoulder to cup his crushed testicles.
Buffy wiped her hand under her nose, wincing in pain. “Yeah…it hurts…but that doesn’t mean I won’t do my damnedest to take you out before my head explodes!” she hissed. Pushing herself to her feet, she stumbled back into the wall, fighting a wave of dizziness.
He tried to stand up, coughing and retching miserably. “You’re crazy!” he wheezed. He hacked again and threw up down the front of his obnoxiously loud Hawaiian shirt.
“And you’re pathetic,” Buffy snapped. She staggered to her feet, hissing with anger when she saw the blood smeared on her white top. She fought the urge to deal him a punishing kick while he was still down. Instead, she settled for setting him straight on a few facts.
“William was your best friend. Hell, he was your ONLY friend, Xander! And you threw it all away over some bubble-headed trollop who couldn’t keep her legs together. Did it make you feel all manly, Xander? Yeah? Well don’t let it go to your head, because you weren’t the only one she was fucking on the side. Angel O’Connor. Riley Finn. Even Scott Hope got in on the action. How did all those other dicks taste when you went down on her, Xander? Bet you liked that, huh?”
Xander flushed crimson, fighting his gorge again as her gibes sank in. He tried to block out her scathing words as she continued her rant. “I…You don’t know what you’re talking about.” He glared up at her.
“Vampire, Xander. I could smell her all over you. You. Mixed in with every other guy she’s been fucking. I can even give you exact dates, because I’m a resourceful vamp, ya know? Never know when the info might come in handy.”
His face went from red back to green and he stubbornly refused to look at her.
“You’re not doing this because you want me. You want what William has. You’re so jealous of him, it sickens me. Thinking you should have been the Chosen One. What a joke! On your best day, you couldn’t deal with living life as he does; night after night. Get over yourself, Xander, before you lose the best friend you ever had.”
Buffy wound down, but decided he needed to know one more thing. “And before you start giving Will a hard time for ‘fucking an evil, soulless demon’? Take a long, hard look at the new woman in your life. You might be not-so-pleasantly surprised.”
“What do you mean?”
“Anyanka Jenkins? She’s a former vengeance demon. You might want to look her up in one of those nifty books the Watcher has. It should add a whole new dimension to your sex life.” She finally backed down, cradling her pounding head. “Get out of my sight. You make me sick.”
He finally made it to his feet. He was still bleeding from the shoulder wound, but the throbbing pain in his nuts had settled down to a steady rhumba. “Buffy, I…”
She held up a hand. “Apology not accepted, so don’t even go there.”
Xander sighed and started to turn away when he saw her head come up sharply, nostrils flaring as she tested the fetid air of the tunnel.
“Xander, wait. Don’t go that way,” she warned.
“What?” he asked. The look in her eyes frightened him. His fear kicked up a notch when her demon burst forth and her eyes glowed ferally.
A low growl rumbled from her while her eyes darted from side to side. Buffy suddenly shoved him, forcing her to grab her head again in pain. “We have to get out of here now, Xander. GO!” she yelled. “MOVE YOUR FAT ASS!”
Before he could take her urgent advice, he saw it walk around the curve of the tunnel. Tall and muscular, the demon looked almost human; except for the fact that it was green and had long spikes protruding from its thick forearms. “What in the hell is THAT?” he squeaked.
“That’s a Polgara demon, you no-brained, donut-sucking waste of space. It’s their mating season and it’s lookin’ for love. You need to run, and fast. It senses you’re the only male and it will want to fight you for me. Trust me; you DON’T want to know what it wants to do to you with those pretty white horn things hanging out of its arms.”
Xander decided to do the un-manly thing and ran, squealing like the little bitch he was.
Buffy groaned. “So much for knight’s in shining armor,” she muttered. “Whoa, big fella.” The Polgara caught the scent of the blood that had spilled from her nose earlier. Its head snapped up and it began to stalk her down the tunnel.
“God, why does this shit ALWAYS happen to me? Why did you have to smell MY blood? You could have taken off after the sweaty, fat-assed guy and I would have wished you a happy skewering, but noooooo! Ya gotta pick on the chipped but still sexy vamp girl.”
The Polgara advanced on her slowly, stalking its prey while a low growl rumbled from its chest. Buffy backed away as far as possible, trying to work a circle around it so she would be closer to the Crawford Street access. It made a lunge for her and she instinctively kicked out, breaking off one of the long, sword-like appendages with a snap. The demon howled in agony while she raised her hands to her head to ease the pain from the chip.
Only…there was no pain.
Puzzled, she decided to test it again, spinning into a roundhouse kick that connected with the Polgara’s chin and threw it a good fifteen feet into the crumbling clay wall.
Still nothing. No electricity zapping through her brain. A wide, delighted grin of pure, unadulterated joy split her face. “I can hurt a demon!” she laughed. She eyed the Polgara as it staggered towards her once more, fully recovered from its close encounter with the wall. She wasted no time in whaling on it; kicking, punching, and gouging, driving it further and further down the tunnel. “That’s right, I’m back! And I’m an ANIMAL!” she howled gleefully.
The Polgara was soon a bleeding mess on the ground. Buffy had a grip on its head, ready to snap its neck, when she heard footsteps. A lot of footsteps. Dropping the demons head, she bolted down the tunnel in the opposite direction. Some instinct warned her to duck into a large crack in the wall.
“There it is,” an unfamiliar male voice said. “Holy shit, what the hell happened to it?”
“Looks like someone or something beat the shit out of it, that’s for sure. No big deal. It’s still alive and one of the spikes is still attached.”
Buffy gasped, cowering further back into her hidey-hole. She knew THAT voice. She’d never forget it, in fact. The trembling was back in her legs and her demon flickered in and out, whining in fear. She pushed it ruthlessly back, biting at her lips until blood flowed.
“Well I gotta say this is by far the easiest capture we’ve ever had, boys,” Riley Finn said his voice nauseatingly cheerful. “Restrain it so we can get it back to the lab.”
It seemed to take them forever to leave, and she waited another ten minutes before daring to slip out of the crack. Her eyes darted around and she sniffed experimentally. Finding no sign of them, she tore off down the tunnel as fast as her shaking legs could carry her.
~@~@~
They had been sparring for quite some time and it had gradually been reduced to a wrestling match, each of them battling to see who would end up on top as the victor. William trapped her legs between his and slammed her wrists down on each side of her head. He grinned triumphantly into her disgruntled face before leaning down to capture that adorably pouty bottom lip for a lusty suck. She immediately reciprocated; the kiss becoming a lush exchange of lips and tongues. He lifted his head reluctantly, breaking the kiss to stare down into her adoring green eyes.
“Buffy, I love you.” He was unable to stop the words that spilled from his lips. Her eyes widened in astonishment and a look of wonder crossed her face. She was opening her mouth to reply when someone knocked on the door. Hard.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
“Who the bloody hell could that be?” William bellowed in frustration.
“How the hell should I know, Slayer! It’s YOUR dream!” she huffed.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
William shot up in his bed with a savage growl of irritation. He tried desperately to grasp onto the details, but the dream was already fading away from his mind. Whoever was trying to bash the door down was going to be eviscerated. He lunged off the bed and grabbed his Nikes up on the way out of his room.
Pounding down the stairs, he glanced over at his father. Rupert was sprawled out in his recliner with a pair of headphones on, snoring along with The Doors. William rolled his eyes and jerked open the front door.
Xander was raising his fist to pound on the door once more when it swung open. William took in his appearance and frowned, pulling him inside after a quick look around.
“What the hell happened to you?” he demanded, sitting down on the stairway to pull on his trainers.
“I…” Xander swallowed hard. He had come here hoping for a chance just like this. It was the perfect opportunity to drive a wedge between William and Buffy. All he had to do was tell William that Buffy had done all this to him for no reason and William would doubtless go all damage bound on her and probably stake her worthless ass. It would be the perfect revenge on the blond vampire for presuming to tell Xander what a worthless pile of steaming cow dung he really was.
He opened his mouth to begin spinning his web of lies when he remembered the look on Buffy’s face when she pushed him, yelling at him to get out of the tunnel. With sudden insight that was completely out of character for him, Xander realized exactly what Buffy had done. She wasn’t ‘obligated’ to save him. All she would have had to do was sit back and do…nothing. She might even have run. The demon would have come after him and…Xander thought of those long, smooth spikes and shuddered. After making him uncomfortably aware of just how pathetic his life really was, she had saved it. And he had left her there to rot.
“I’ll explain on the way, man. We’ve gotta hurry. Buffy’s in the sewers, probably getting skewered six different ways by some demon.”
The words were barely out of his mouth when William leapt off the porch and took off at a dead run. Xander rolled his eyes as he took off after him at a limping jog. Damn. That slayer stamina and speed would come in handy for him right now. Not to mention the accelerated healing. Ow. Ow.
William didn’t bother with the ladder. He simply dropped down through the manhole that Xander had left open and pounded down the tunnel in the direction of the Magic Box. He could retrace her route from there to Crawford Street. His heart thudded painfully behind his ribs as he ran. The fear that he would be too late to help her was a huge knot in his throat.
He reached a slight widening in the tunnel. The faint, coppery smell of blood hung in the air and there were smears of it on the walls and floor. There was no way to tell if it was hers or not. He knelt and inspected the different footprints scattered in the dust. He found prints from Buffy’s Sketchers and some that obviously belonged to the demon Xander had mentioned, but he also found a number of deeper prints from what looked like military issue boots. They seemed to be centered around a large area of blood. He stood up, pacing back and forth. His hand went to the marks on his neck, rubbing at them to sooth the sting that had grown sharper with each passing minute.
Xander came hobbling up to him, breathing like a winded horse. “Thanks for holding back so I could keep up with ya, pal,” he wheezed.
“What kind of demon was it?”
“She said it was a Polera or something like that. It had two long shiny spike things in its arms.”
“A Polgara?” William’s face paled. “It’s their mating season.”
“That’s what she said. Why she made me leave,” Xander confessed.
That earned him a look of scorn. “Yeah, I’m sure she really had to work hard to convince you to run, didn’t she?”
Xander flushed with embarrassment. “I came to get you,” he mumbled, unable to meet William’s eyes-- knowing they would be filled with contempt.
William took two steps and grabbed Xander by the front of his shirt, slamming him into the blood streaked wall. “I know what went on here, Xander. I know what you tried to do to her, but right now I don’t have time to deal with you. I’m going to go find her and if she has so much as a scratch on her from either you or that demon, it’s coming out of your arse, mate. Count on it.”
With that said he flung Xander away and set off down the tunnel, not even sparing him another glance.
Shuddering, Xander got to his feet and started limping back to the Magic Box. He needed an ice pack for his nuts and someone that could tell him about vengeance demons. Hopefully Joyce was still there.
To be continued
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