No Rest
©2001 Evenstar

Chapter 1

"I am the heir.....I am the sun....of a shyness that is criminally vulgar....I am the son, I am the heir....of nothing in particular. You shut your mouth....how can you say...I go about things the wrong way.....I am Human and I need to be loved....just like everybody else does......I am the heir.....I am the sun....of a shyness that is criminally vulgar....I am the son, I am the heir....of nothing in particular....." The singer's voice vibrated through the crowd that had gathered at the Bronze, nameless, faceless children all moving and swelling in the miasma of bodies and music. Buffy, her arm linked with Willow as they entered the club, was too young to know that the lyrics the tall dark man was signing were not of his own composition. She looked down at the shimmering midnight blue dress she'd chosen to clad her body in, almost to formal for the club, a place she'd been hanging at since she was a teenager. Willow wasn't too much of a contrast by way of comparison, scrappy old black jeans and a blouse that was akin to Buffy's dress. The friends were bonded again, Willow abiding by her promise to swear off the use of magic, and Buffy taking what she perceived as the high road and devoting herself to solely being a good role model and caretaker to her sister, and being the Slayer. She could banish Spike from her life, but from her mind was another matter all together. Not to mention the fact that every time she thought of him her skin flushed and a dull ache thudded in her lower abdomen. In truth, as far as Spike was concerned, Buffy was a complete and utter emotional mess. She was well aware her body was begging her mind to let herself go again, let Spike fill her more completely than any man before, even Angel, and move inside her like she never believed was possible."Buffy? Ground control to Major Buff!"

"Huh?" Suddenly she was back in the Bronze, and Willow was talking to her over the volume of the music and the noise of the crowd. Buffy looked to her friend's questioning look and tried to remember what they'd been talking about before her mind had wandered off into thoughts of Spike yet again.

"I asked if we should go," Willow replied, tugging on Buffy's arm, leading her back to the doorway.

"We just got here Wills...." Then Buffy saw what Willow meant, she saw Spike. Buffy had confessed her own weakness to her friend, leaving out the majority of the gory details, but explaining the fact that she'd had sex with the vampire that was once her mortal enemy. Willow had been accepting and understanding, albeit shocked out of her red head. Buffy was stone faced as she took in the sight of him. She hadn't laid eyes on him since the night she'd let him take Dawn to the hospital after the demon attack, but everything about their night of reckless abandon was still fresh, like an open wound that wouldn't heal. He was in a dark corner, but not the darkest, still illuminated enough for Willow to have spied him first. He must have known that she was there, he told her once he could detect her scent in the air like a punch to the face. However he appeared to be choosing to ignore her, concentrating on the obscured person he seemed to be having a discussion with."We're staying."

"But Buffy....."

"I said....we are staying." Willow looked disbelieving at her friend and shrugged her shoulders, if Buffy was willing to play the ignore Spike game, then so was she. Buffy laced her fingers with her friend and lead the way to a table, stopping briefly at the bar to grab a couple of drinks. The witch couldn't help but noticed how the Slayer had chosen the table that was the furthest from the vampire's. Willow was convinced the lady doth protested way too much, certainly Spike wasn't the man Willow would even have wished her friend to have fallen for, she wouldn't have even wished the peroxided undead on her worst enemy. She was keenly aware however that Buffy was so enraptured with Spike that until her closest friend admitted it, she'd remain incomplete. Buffy needed Spike as surely as Willow loved Tara; and until both relationships were mended and affirmed, they'd remain in a perilous limbo. The brave attempt to feign normalcy had brought them to the Bronze, a regression to their old haunt, a memory when things had been juvenile instead of the adulthood both were struggling to broach.

"There's a club if you'd like to go.....you could meet somebody who really loves you.....so you go, and you stand on your own.....and you leave on your own.....and you go home, and you cry....... and you want to die........" The singer continued his charged lament and Buffy was once against ignoring Willow as the lyrics penetrated her conscious and found a home on the borders of her soul,"When you say it's gonna happen "now"...well, when exactly do you mean?......see I've already waited too long.....and all my hope is gone.....You shut your mouth......how can you say....I go about things the wrong way....I am human and I need to be loved.....just like everybody else does....." The young women joined the other club-goers in the perfunctory applause as the group on stage took their accolades and played their role on the stage of the night."Thank you...thanks.....it's been a long time since I was last in Sunnydale," the singer now addressed the sensory worn gathering,"Not since I was a kid.....but now I'm back....with the guys here in The Crypts.....playin' for you wild bunches....." The crowed roared for him and the lanky bandleader rest back on his heals, letting his guitar hang low in front of him,"One more cover......then we'll get back to our goods...cause....we know you like it.......here's one from the annals of punk, doin' it for a the man who convinced me to come home....." The bassist strummed a couple of beats out, then dove into the song. The way he attacked the bass, Buffy expected the song to be loud and angry, but she suddenly found herself lulled by another old song that most of the patrons were to young to know as well. The drummer's surprisingly high and dulcet voice started the vocals with the word 'stranger' over and over before the singer took center stage once again."It's hot here at night, lonely, black and quiet.....On a hot summer night.....Don't be afraid of the world we made....On a hot summer night...'Cause when a long-legged lovely walks by.....Yeah you can see the look in her eye...Then you know that it's....." Buffy found herself unexpectedly tense, watching as Spike rose from his seat and made his way towards her. Then she found herself embarrassed when he deviated from the presumed course and went on to the dance floor with the other writhing and contorting dancers. He was leading a young woman by the hand, a shockingly beautiful woman that looked nearly the spitting image of........Drusilla.

Chapter 2

"Hot in the city, hot in the city tonight, tonight....Hot in the city, hot in the city tonight, tonight.....For all the dreams and schemes, people are as they seem......On a hot summer night....Don't be no fun, don't forget you're young....On a hot summer night.....A sometime someone you're not.....Don't wait to see what you got...'Cause you know that you're...." Buffy watched with infernal and unabashed jealously as Spike had the woman in his arms, he hands all over her as he ground in pelvis into her's, making lewd come ons with his tongue and practically fanging her neck. Buffy had determined that is was merely an incredible likeness of her lover's former beloved and not the vampire herself that Spike was making a display with. She continued to watch the two bodies collide and create intense chemistry; she'd never would have believe he could move like that, vertically. She wanted to end her torment and run from the Bronze, but she stayed transfixed, morbidly fascinated."Hot in the......okay, okay....cut....." The music crashed to an abrupt halt and all eyes turned back to the singer as he commanded the attention,"Sorry for the interruption ladies and gentlemen......would the bleached dead man kindly remove his hands from my girlfriend's ass and get out of her personal space." Confusion and shock ran through the crowd like a wave and Willow and Buffy exchanged rather dumbfounded looks. Spike suddenly found himself in the compromising position the man on stage had described and also the center of attention. He did as asked, but not before giving the girl a little smack on the rear and her boyfriend the traditional British gesticulation. The woman sauntered away."Thanks man....." Spike nodded and the music started up again."Hot in the city, hot in the city tonight, tonight.....Hot in the city, hot in the city tonight, tonight.....For all the dreams and schemes, people are as they seem......On a hot summer night....Don't be no fun, don't forget you're young....On a hot summer night.....A sometime someone you're not.....Don't wait to see what you got...'Cause you know that you're...." Both Buffy and Willow watched the strange, weird scene unfurl into the second act, another woman had been drawn to Spike.

"Oh my god.....Tara.....!" Willow exclaimed, her hand snatching Buffy's arm in a vise grip. Once again misplaced jealousies embraced Buffy and now, Willow as Tara swayed on to the dance floor and folded herself into Spike's arms."What in the Goddess' name is goin' on here? A spell! I must be another spell.....Spike did a spell to make all these women fall for him!! And he's got my girlfriend! I know he did....that......that.......what bad whatever he is!" Buffy could see how unhinged Willow was becoming, how the sparks of inherent magic were singeing at the corners of her eyes. Instinctually, Buffy took Willow's hand and held it firm.

"Willow....if Spike was going to do a spell, he'd do one on me right?" Willow listening intently to Buffy's logic, feeling herself calm somewhat,"He and Tara know each other....maybe....maybe....." Buffy sighed and scrunched her face,"I dunno....I just don't think there's anything going on here....I just...."

"What Buffy? It's Spike isn't it....you trust him?" Buffy sighed, hardly believing what she was about to admit.

"Yes...I trust him, I don't think he'd do anything like this....he's not cool with the magic stuff." Willow nodded her head, looking away from Tara and Spike dancing."Listen....why don't we just go over there?"

"Are you nuts? You who's been all avoiding of the Spike and me who's all scared witless to even call Tara!?" Buffy got to her feet, still holding on to Willow.

"We're going.....so....so you can talk to Tara."

"And so you can use me as a cover for you to make time with Spike?" Buffy didn't reply, but narrowed her eyes and made their way towards their respective targets.

"We'll walk until my feet drop......I'm a train when I'm hateful......Yeah, lay right down now....And ride until your head breaks.....I'm a-walkin' 'til my brain pops....I will move with the beat now....I'm a chain 'round an A-bomb.....I'm a ribbon in the heat now.....Hot in the city, hot in the city tonight, tonight.....Hot in the city, hot in the city tonight, tonight...." The song ended and the band took it's bows, announcing they'd take the stage again in half an hour. By the time Buffy and Willow had reached where Spike and Tara had been dancing, the two had already moved on. Buffy scoured the room and found Spike back at his table, with both Tara and the Drusilla facsimile.

He was taking a swig from his beer when Buffy came into view, illuminated by the colored lights of the Bronze, looking every part a heavenly creature. Moreover, she was everything he loved, everything he desired, and with her he was alive. He'd known he was in her presence from the second she'd walked into the club, but had shaken off the intoxicating stimuli that her body provided and hoped he could continue on and have a decent evening. Willow had captured Tara's gaze and both women allowed shy smiles to tug at the corners of their lips. The raven haired woman with the the long features was watching Spike as he replaced the bottle back on the table and stared at the midnight blue clad Slayer, her cascade of blond tresses dancing around the curves of her body. His mind flashed back to still frame images of their night together, as the house came down and they'd made love. He used the term made love, because for him the entire experience had been nothing short of divine, and he loved her every second of it, through both the angry and the rough to the slow and connective."Buffy....." he whispered as she neared, terribly shocked she was coming to him, even nervous. Buffy was about to speak when the bironic singer from The Crypts came jumping down upon the scene, slapping Spike on the back and jolting him from the hypnotic trance Buffy had him under.

Hey.....Spike, man!" he declared affectionately,"Damn it's good to see yah. Spike put his arm around the man's shoulders in a brotherly gesture.

"Gryffen......Gryffen Goddard.....it's been a bloody long time....see you finally learned how to play that guitar.....and damn well," Spike replied, momentarily diverting his attention from Buffy.

"Coming from you, that's high praise......so....introductions???" Gryffen looked to Buffy and Willow. Spike cast his eyes downward and wrapped his fingers around the neck of his beer bottle.

"Um....this...this is Willow," Tara spoke up,"And our friend Buffy Summers." Gryffen looked over Willow, from head to toe, an almost shocked looked on his face. Willow in turn looked to Tara, questioning about how she knew this man and furthermore, how they were all connected, Spike included."And...and this is Gryffen....my...my brother." Willow and Buffy both shot their eyes to Gryffen, searching over his feature and finding a remarkable family resemblance. His stature was taller and thinner than Tara's, but they both had the same soft facial features, gleaming blue eyes and the intense inner light that so few people were ever allowed to see from Tara.

"So this is the fiery chick that set my lil's sister's heart a blazing...." Gryffen was obviously appreciative of Willow, but kindly in his gaze, warm just like Tara had always been."She told me about you...."

"Ah...Gryf.....uh...." Tara stammered, more shy than usual.

"Tara....Tara and me....we're....we're....taking a break," Willow said apologetically, giving Tara a sweet and comforting smile,"But we still.....we're still close." Gryffen nodded in acceptance, the looked over to Buffy, to which Spike gave an uncomfortable shift in his seat. Gryffen swaggered over to Buffy in a way that only a guy in a band could. He gave Buffy a seductive little look."Hey there."

"Hey yourself...." Buffy replied, keenly aware that in this precise moment she was wondering if Spike was as jealous of Gryffen as she had been of the girl on the dance floor. Just then, Buffy saw from the corner of her eye the stunning woman moving closer to Spike, her fingers trailing up the back of his neck and into the bleached blond curls.

"You'd think they were the only people in the world....wouldn't you, Spike?" she drawled out in a culture laden French accent. Spike exhaled an unnecessary breath and smiled weakly at her.

"Yeah, love.....rock stars....think they're the center of the universe.....got no time for groupies like us," Spike observed, looking straight at Buffy.

"Ode....I'm sorry....I'm a bad, rude man, aren't I?" Gryffen apologized, guiding her away from Spike and into his arms."Buffy, Willow, the love of my life, Odette Fournier.....picked this angel up when she fell from Heaven.....and landed in NYC...." Odette laughed a melodic noise and flew her arms around Gryffen's neck.

"You are too much, you silly boy......mon t'it chou." Spike kicked his stool out from under him, disrupting everyone around him.

"I'm getting a beer," Spike stammered out, covering his action with an excuse.

"Bottle's half full man....." Gryffen reasoned. Spike looked at Gryffen briefly, then Buffy, and settled back on Gryffen.

"I'm getting another one...." With that, he left and headed towards the bar, not looking back, but his emotions radiating off him in heavy beats like the wings of a murder of crow in the night.

Chapter 3

"I never knew Tara had a brother," Buffy spoke up, continuing the conversation after Spike's disruption,"Did you Willow?"

"Yes......but...I...I never met him." Everyone took a seat around the table, Odette taking up the space on Gryffen's lap.

"Well....that was mostly my fault.....sorta left....I'd come back to Sunnydale for a little while, tried living with my mom but the history there with my dad made it pretty hard....lasted less than a year, I was 22 and Tara was 12....we haven't seen each other since, 10 years ago.....I knew mom had died, I got word from Tara, but....I dunno...I didn't come back then, I'm here now to make amends," Gryffen looked over at his sister, gave her a reassuring smile."See, the thing of it is....my dad left and kinda took me with him....and after that my mom hooked up with Tara's father. We lived in New York until he died, unexpectedly.....that's where we met Spike." By now Spike had returned and was listening to the conversation roll on, standing in the shadows underneath the stairwell next to the table. Buffy's interest was piqued, shooting a look to the vampire who just shrugged his shoulders.

"So......you know then...." Buffy began.

"The vampire thing....oh sure, sorta hard to miss....fangs, grrrrr. Think I was about 13 when we met....right Spike?"

"You we're 11, mate.....just a nipper......hanging out behind the bar at CGBG's.....your dad on stage till 2am...." Spike informed, nursing the fresh beer, letting Gryffen have control of the story."We had a rule back then.....don't eat the band....I liked the music, so I made sure the others didn't feed off 'em...or ones like Gryf.....no big deal...."

"Well......dad and I appreciated it......and the other stuff."

"What other stuff?" Buffy asked, suddenly getting a new expanded view of the picture that was Spike. Gryffen pointed over to the stage where a shiny black Les Paul original sat leaning against an amplifier.

"Spike showed up one night, dad was a drummer see, but I always wanted to play the guitar...he walked over to the bar, cigarette butt hanging out of his lips, had this brand new black leather duster on, same one he's still got I see, and a guitar in tow. He just reached over the proverbial mahogany and shoved it into my hands, took a bottle of whiskey and went to a table. I was dumbstruck.....speechless. Every night after that we'd spend some time in the back, he taught me how to play it."

"Spike plays guitar!?" Buffy laughed out loudly,"Now I've heard everything." She quickly noticed that Spike didn't find her slight in the least amusing, angrily looking down at his beer, the floor, anywhere but at the people around the table.

"That man can make that instrument do things no human can.....make it sing opera if he wanted it to. Can't write a lyric to save his life, but he bends those strings prettier than a Chinese contortionist.....doncha man?" Spike smiled and laughed a little, nodding his head, a pensive look on his face as he remembered a part of his past."Why don't you join us for the rest of the set......you can...."

"No..." Spike said definitively,"I'm not in for that rot anymore..."

"Spike?! When did you stop playing?"

"A long time ago, Gryf....that's done with.....but hey.......your band's cueing up...." Gryffen caught the signal from his bandmates. Odette obligingly slipped off his lap, taking his face in her hands and bestowing a kiss on his forehead.

"Sing my song, chère," Odette spoke, running her hand down his neck.

"Every song's for you," he replied in all seriousness. Neither one was aware, but both Spike and Buffy were watching them, and when Odette sat down and Gryffen took the stage, Spike and Buffy were left looking at each other. Just for a moment, they were both thinking the same thing, the undeniable magnetic connection between them was as strong as ever, fueled and not smoldered by their night of succumbing. Spike was the first to look away, as The Crypts started up again with a incendiary song that immediately had the sedate bodies crashing and thrashing, mosh pit roaring like a pride of hungry lions just unleashed from their cages. Buffy looked to Odette, admiring and loving her man as he performed, the black haired woman with pale skin had the semblance of Drusilla, but all the soul of any woman in love. She looked over to Willow and Tara then, talking, even just a few words, it was encouraging to see. As for Spike, Buffy knew just what he was doing, his eyes may have been on the stage but all his energy was calling for her.

The performance carried on and soon ended, a few stragglers hanging around afterwards to talk to the band, most people filing out into the night, spent and wasted. Spike performed the roadie duty and helped pack up equipment, still trying his best to be remain in Buffy's presence without showing a spec of emotion."Spike....tomorrow night......your place.....we're jamming," Gryffen announced, coming up behind the vampire. Gryffen had the guitar in it's case and held it out for him,"You and the black Les are going to be together again, it'll happen or I'll die trying."

"Don't press your luck, kid. When I gave up the guitar, I gave up the whole bloody muse.....don't think I've got the heart for it any longer. It belongs with you.....you've the....soul....for it, alright?"

"I never believed that....you know."

"What?"

"The no soul thing......it's in there somewhere.....when you play, I can see it on you like a cloak you'd wear."

"You're a bloody troubadour, you know that Gryf? Bleeding hearted git...."

"It's good to see you, man."

"Yeah, yeah....your girl's waiting....take 'er home....right, proper shag n' all to be had." Gryffen have a wink and clicked his tongue in his cheek before heading to where Odette waited at the stage door."Tara....we'll wait outside for you!"

"Be right there," Tara called back from where she was still seated with Willow and Buffy,"I....I guess I should be going, they're staying with me instead of the hotel....it's good....to....to see him and all, it's nice to have someone....I mean...."

"No, it's fine Tara," Willow countered,"I'm happy for you....really. But can we...."

"I don't know.....I'm not ready, but..."

"There's a but! A but is good.....I but can lead to a maybe right?"

"Right.....'night Willow.....Buffy."

"Goodnight Tara," the friends said in unison. Tara gave a last glance to Willow before hopping up on the stage, with a hand from Spike. She gave the vampire a quick hug and hurried off to follow her brother and his girlfriend. Spike stepped down to the floor and walked past Buffy and Willow, but paused and turned back.

"You two want me to walk home with you?" he offered, barely expecting the offer to be accepted, but making it nonetheless. Buffy simply rolled her eyes in a dismissive manner and huffed at him."Fine....suit yourself.....thought I'd play at gentleman....but I shoulda know better.....best give me a fist in the face to make the moment perfect."

"What's your problem?" Buffy shouted out,"You don't say two words to me all night and just expect to be escorting us home....."

"Look, Slayer....half the time I don't know what I'm gonna get from you.....we go from throwing punches to shagging in 2.6 seconds. When words come out of my mouth I never know if I'll get a kiss or a fist back from you! I'm not the one with problems...and that's all you've bloody got going on! If it wasn't for Dawn we could put you back in the ground and put us out of our misery!" She slapped him then, a fist wouldn't have been half as affective, or half as wounding on his heart....just like his harsh words had been to her.

"You should go," Willow ordered, stern, yet somewhat sympathetic. Spike kept on going the direction he was pointed in and leapt on to the stage with effortless grace and headed to the back door, which was then that a shrilling scream charged the air like a bolt of lightening."TARA!!!"

Chapter 4

Spike sent the steel door off it's hinges as he flung it open, the demon was fully aware and graphically present on Spike's face - eyes burning yellow like a supernova and fangs glistening with violent intent. He saw the source of the scream immediately, Tara with her back against the concrete wall of the Bronze, a gun pressed to her forehead. He descended like a bird of prey and knocked the assailant away, saving Tara's life just in time. However he immediately found himself assaulted by a million points of pain flaring in his brain as the Initiative chip reacted to his attacking a human."AAAAAaaaaarrrrrggggggggghhh!!!" he roared in agony. He was still suffering as the bullets began eviscerating his chest. Only by chance, he shielded the young witch from harm. The vampire faded fast, and was replaced by the human face Spike bore and it was with the pained blue eyes he saw clearly that he face three armed men.

"Spike!!" Buffy screamed as she and Willow came running out after him.

"Get back inside!!" he shouted before slumping against Tara and pinned her between him and the wall. The gunmen turned to the two women and knowing there were only seconds to make a decision, Willow raised her arms in front of her.

"Anel nathra!" she chanted as she summoned her powers. From her a shield of pure energy was formed, protecting the four of them from harm and deflecting the second round of gunfire. A car skidded to a halt at the far end of the alley and the gunmen bolted for it, diving into the black automobile and screeching away. Willow's magic faded away and the horrible scene before them was finally perceived.

Buffy couldn't divide herself between the sight of Gryffen and Odette laying on the pavement, eyes wide open and sucking, bleeding wounds in their dead bodies or the mirror sight of Spike as he moved from Tara and crashed to his knees. Willow and Tara were already in each other's arms, the gravity of the situation not yet sunk in, clinging to each other for the love that was paramount.

"Slayer...." Spike called as blood sputtered from his mouth, his teeth stained with it, his eyes blanched and skin gray. He reached for her and caught nothing as consciousness left him and he slumped forward, skull cracking as it hit the ground. Already sirens could be heard in the distance, someone obviously had alerted them to activity and noise. Reacting instinctually, Buffy hauled Spike by the leather of his coat from the alley and behind a dumpster, hoping the police would mistake his blood for that of Gryffen and Odette's. She returned to find Tara kneeling at her brother's body, weeping madly as Willow held her. Two sets of perfect beings, so in love, so purely devoted to each other. Two snuffed out like candle wicks with only blood for smoke; and two who'd found something lost, comfort and belonging with each other. Buffy looked over her shoulder, Spike's boots hanging out from behind the garbage. The blue, red and white lights of the police cars danced over her face and burnt her eyes, causing unwanted tears to form themselves on the brim and in that instant she realized something vital. She never wanted to be back in the ground.

***

"You can all leave for now....but we'll come by your Revello home in the next couple of days to go over your statements," the police officer explained, two agonizing hours after they'd had arrived at the crime scene,"For now, go home, try and sleep, we'll take care of everything here. Don't worry, we'll get the people who did this."

"Thank you officer," Buffy replied.

"Officer Jenkins can give you a lift." Buffy nodded her head and helped Willow lead a shell shocked Tara away from the scene. As they neared the car Buffy stopped and looked back to the scene, remembering she'd left Spike.

"You two go on...." she said,"I'm going around the block....Spike...." Willow understood and carried on. A few minutes later she came upon where she'd left he wounded vampire. His eyes were open, but he still looked ill and he hadn't moved from the position she'd left him in. As if his spine was no better formed than a newborn's his head lulled to one side as he detected her presence. Buffy found herself running to him and falling to his side. He smiled weakly at her and took great effort to move his arm until a hand lay on her leg.

"Don't worry Slayer, I'll live....barely...." he whispered,"Thanks for the save, love, by the way....waking up in a an ice chest in the morgue ain't my idea of happy fun time...woulda lost m'bloody coat too..."

"You're welcome."

"Tara....she okay?"

"Willow's taken her home....can you walk?"

"I can try....need blood though....lost most of mine....bullet holes tend to make a fellow rather leaky."

"We'll find you some...." Using her Slayer strength, Buffy got Spike on his feet, but still found herself having to support most of his weight. The lights from the cop cars and the coroner's car had left the scene of the crime and Spike and Buffy found themselves to be the only evidence of life on the darkened backstreets of Sunnydale. Spike couldn't help but lead them back towards the Bronze, he needed to see for himself. For her part, Buffy watched in silent heartache as he pulled away from her and knelt at the taped outlines of where Gryffen and Odette had lay once their souls had left them. The majority of the blood had been washed away, but there were still a few droplets which he pressed his fingers to. He brought the red liquid close on his lips, it was cool on his fingers and held no attraction for him.

"It's not the same....the blood, when it's someone you cared about....there's no hunger for it.....it's a waste, a sodding waste." He choked on the last words, cries threatening to break from his already battered body."It's one thing to chose to give up your life....I did it once....so did you....but when it's taken.....I dunno, it's not like I haven't done it a thousand times before to people....but...."

"You're different...you've changed." He got to his feet and circled around to the sliding door of the van and pulled it open, breaking the police tape across it,"What are you doing?" Spike reached inside and pulled out the guitar case.

"I'm not having this stuffed and forgotten in some bloody evidence locker.....suppose I should tell his bandmates, they're at the hotel...."

"You're weak, Spike....let me take you home."

"I'm not going home.....I'm going to find the sons of bitches that did this and kill 'em....I haven't changed that much, Slayer."

"You can't kill them Spike, they were human...."

"Bollocks to the bloody chip, I'll find a way!"

"Spike......stop...please." She held him back with a hand to the bloody mess of his shredded shirt, he winced in pain, the wounds not yet fully healed. He doubled over and fell into her embraced, trembling from agony that coursed through his body in steady waves. Buffy simply wrapped her arms around his shoulders and held him until the pain subsided.

"I have to do this...."

"Leave it to the police...this isn't...." He backed away from her, forcing himself to stand on his own two feet.

"Isn't what? A demon crime....just plain old man against man? I've lived in this world alot longer than you...there's no difference here, there's vengeance to be had....no one knows that better than me when it's an eye for an eye.......not even the Slayer.....don't get in my way, Buffy." He looked back to the white taped outlines, set his teeth and jaw hard and walked into the darkness.

Chapter 5

When Buffy returned home is was close on sunrise, she knew Dawn was safe with her friends, on the class ski trip to Colorado for the week, though Buffy doubted there was much skiing to be had with her sister's arm barely healed. She thanked God for the small graces life was affording her just now. The house was dark, but full of presence.....and sadness. As she walked down the hallway to her bedroom, she could perceive the flickering of a single candle from underneath the door to Willow's room. Buffy padded her way along the hall until she reached the door, knocking lightly. Seconds later Willow emerged, closing the door quietly behind her and rushing into Buffy's open embrace. Willow hadn't been able to cry until then, keeping the semblance of being strong for Tara, but now there was no pretense. Buffy took her to the other room and let her have her cry."Tara's sleeping?" she asked once Willow seemed to have calmed.

"Just a few minutes ago....all she did was cry.....for hours and hours....this hurts so much Buffy....I can't make her stop hurting......I love her so much..."

"You can't take it away Wills, she has to go through it. When mom died, we couldn't magic it away then either.....just had to weather the storm....."

"Why did you say that?"

"What?"

"Magic.....you said magic it away - you think I'll do a spell, don't you?!"

"No...no.....Willow I know you wouldn't.....it would hurt Tara and you'd never do that...you believe me don't you?"

"I do....but tonight I used magic when I promised I never would again."

"You used the magic that's part of your instincts, you used it to protect us from danger...that kind of magic is pure good, there's no one that'll hold that against you, not me and definitely not Tara."

"I didn't feel the same....it felt right."

"Well, you are a witch.....that's how it should be."

"Is Spike okay?" Willow's sudden mention of the vampire's name sent Buffy into a strange wave of emotions. She wanted to cry for him, but the tears wouldn't come, he'd been so shaken and so angered by Gryffen and Odette's death."Buffy?"

"He's fine.....physically....but he wants revenge. Not justice, he just wants them dead. I'd never seen him so destroyed....at first he was just catatonic.....then he was all lamenting....then he was just angry....sides to Spike I never thought existed."

"I know what you mean......I didn't even know vampire could really cry like that....until....."

"Cry? When did you see Spike cry?"

"When you died, Buffy...."

"I....I...didn't know."

"He wouldn't stop....it was scary even.....if Dawn hadn't been there I bet he woulda walked right into the sun."

"Really? I never thought he could ever be like that."

"None of us did.....but he never, was, you know....vulnerable with you?" Buffy became somewhat uncomfortable suddenly, Spike had worn his heart on his sleeve before, been as naked with his emotions as he was with his body. The century old armor the vampire wore had more chinks in it than a Crusader's.

"I just never took him seriously....I've never taken him seriously....except when he's wanted to kill me..."

"What about, since....you know....the um....the him, you, like puzzle pieces..."

"Now I just don't know....when I....when I let myself want him....and have him...now when he looks at me, I feel naked and exposed, so raw......he scares me more than anything else I've faced. Everytime I see him I wish things could be different...but Spike and I...it would never work."

"The no soul thing?" Buffy nodded,"Well.....what's a soul, huh? Yah know? Sure, he's not getting into heaven.....but who here is? And maybe you can never go to the beach.....and there's the whole he used to try and kill us thing....but hey, he's got a cool bad boy persona going on, and he's great with Dawn....he's different than the other guys you've been with, alot different...and well....."

"Yeah?"

"He loves you Buffy. If there's one thing we can learn from tonight it's that there's no guarantees in life and you can't let the chance for love slip through your fingers....because.....we don't always get second chances....oh my goddess....I think I just told you to go for it with Spike!" Considering the dire circumstances of the night's events, neither could muster more than a understanding smile.

"What about you and Tara?"

"I won't push....I'll just be whatever she needs me to be.....it's not selfish to hope though is it?"

"No, it isn't.....scary stuff....me thinking about giving Spike a chance.....you and Tara maybe getting back together....it's sad that this wouldn't have happened if not for Gryffen and Odette."

"I think I'm going to go check on Tara.....night Buffy."

"Goodnight Willow." A short while later Buffy lay under her covers, sleep coming upon her fast, innumerable questions threatening to invade her dreams. Nonetheless she slipped from one world unto another and found rest, if only for a few hours.

***

As the wings glided the oil black bird through the wet mists of the night, Buffy felt her body carried on the trail it's power had left for her, as bread crumbs for lost children. She moved through the garden of stone, as she had so many times before, on the hunt, performing her duties as Slayer. Only tonight was different, tonight she was not the terror that reigned, tonight she was little more than a girl, a poor lost girl with no one to love. The crow circled over head, cawing for her attention before flying off on their journey again. As she broke her way through the impasse of spindly low hanging branches, she came to a small clearing. The area was hidden and bleak, as dark as a bedroom with no windows, as silent as the grave. She read her own name on the solitary tombstone that adorned the area, the memories choked her and she felt the unsavory flavor of bile burn her throat. Just then she detected movement behind her and the crow flew away like a bullet from a barrel of a gun. Wrapping her vise fingers around the pointed shaft of the stake she spun around on her heals and drove it into the vampire's chest before he even realized she was aware of his presence.

Buffy turned to face her foe, to deliver a line of wit for him to take to hell, a mocking smile or haughty laugh, all in aid of boosting her ego. She saw the shock and sorrow in his blue eyes, the pleading to the angels to take charge and turn back time for him to have arrived in a more conspicuous manner. Instead he felt the blood in his veins turn to powder."Buff...." He could not even finish the farewell utterance of her name before he'd disintegrated. The supernatural alteration of his body from personality and substance to dust to be blown and forgotten occurred and fell upon her, filling her lungs and clouding her eyes.

"Spike!! No....oh no......no.....no....."

Buffy woke up with a jolt, taking in a panic gasp of air as she was ripped from her dreamstate and back to reality. She was covered in hot beads of sweat and her mouth felt as dry as a desert. The look on Spike's face from her dream was imprinted at the forefront of her mind. The moment when she'd accidentally plunged the stake into his heart was as real now as if it had really occurred. His eyes said too many things at once....I love you.....I need you....I forgive you. She untangled herself from the mess of covers and tried to regain a modecum of composure. It was still night......or was it night again? Where had the day gone? She looked to her alarm clock, and sure enough....she'd slept the day away.

Chapter 6

Tara was seated at the island in the kitchen sipping at a cup of what smelled like green tea. Her eyes were bleary, red and swollen from the obvious shedding of many tears. She was dressed in comfortable clothing, jeans and a t-shirt, he hair unwashed and left to hang loose. She detected Buffy's presence and looked up with a forced smile."Where's Willow?" Buffy asked as she approached.

"Neither one of us felt like making any food....she's gone for some take-out."

"How are you?" Tara choked out a little cry of frustration,"I'm sorry......it's a stupid question..."

"It's alright, Buffy, I know you understand. There's nothing anyone can say or do...but Willow, just having her close is good...helps."

"You can count on her Tara, she won't let you down again.....with the magic thing."

"I trust her...I need her, Buffy....but I'm scared to hope."

"She wants the same thing......just have to take that leap of faith....there might be alot of faith leap taking to come...."

"Are you taking about Spike?" Buffy's casting her eyes downwards came across as a definitive yes."You should know a few things about him....thingsthat...that maybe you never knew before...."

"About when I died? Willow already..."

"But probably not all of it. Spike and me...well, we became friends, he...he....d-didn't really have anyone he could lean on, with Dawn he was always trying to help her out, but I could tell he wasn't coping......so...so he and I talked, for hours at a time.....Willow never knew, I wasn't keeping it from her, I just thought Spike would prefer it that way. We found out how we both were connected to Gryffen and it just went from there. Buffy, I don't know how you'll take this, but he...he suffered tremendously....it was like every day.....every day was like you'd just died....and last night he didn't even think twice about standing in front of me, before he even knew what he was facing....he's changed more than you might think. Not...not that I'm one for giving advice.......but, but I think you should give him a chance, find out who he is now, not who you think he is."

"I got it.....did you want me to stay until Willow gets back?"

"No, you go ahead....you've got a third life to live...I wouldn't want you to waste a second of it, I mean it....don't pass up the second chances, you're lucky to have them."

"I'm beginning to understand that now."

***

Buffy was feeling rather uncomfortable, which she found irksome considering how familiar the territory was, a cemetery at night. She wasn't on the hunt or even out for a casual slay, she was walking in her dream. It was no wonder that this cemetery had made it's way into her unwaking world, she spent the better part of her time in this specific one, due primarily to Spike. Her trusted stake remained inside her jacket instead of her hand for fear that she might inadvertaintly react to any noise and make her dream come to fruition. She'd covered her body in a heavy sweater and leather pants, but she was well aware it never mattered what she wore, he was always inticed. She was also aware that she was jumping into the proverbial lion's den, being with him on kindly thought terms made her vulnerable and she hated that.

Buffy had spent many years forming a wall around herself and with each slight from each man - her father, Angel, Parker, lastly Riley, even Giles - another layer hardened her. But then somehow, as always, he'd managed to pull those layers down, not to mention help her reduce an entire house to rubble. Both Willow and Tara had spoken about second chances and leaps of faith, but with Spike it was different, there were no risks higher than the ones he offered.

The passage from the cemetery entrance to the door of his crypt was traversed without incident, and Buffy quiet as a mouse entered. Almost immediately she was overwhelmed by the melodic tomes of a guitar. The passionate chords were spaced intermitantly with mourful wails and screams from the instrument as they were manipulated by the musician. She felt as if she were in the presence of some great rock god like Jimmy Page or Jimi Hendrix, stuff she usually tuned out when it came on the radio or tv. But somehow, hearing it as Spike was playing it she felt every note coursing in her veins like the injection of a sweet drug. Gryffen was right, Spike was incredibly talented......she'd almost say gifted.

She descended the ladder into his chambers and found him illuminated by candlelight and sitting cross-legged on the floor. He was less than a foot in proximity from the amplifier, letting the full thrum of the music assail his heightened senses. She watched from the side as his fingers moved over the strings at an impossible speed, his head bent down and his eyes shut tight. Every motioned seemed to be expressed on the painful contortion of his face and the burning of callouses on his fingertips. The muscles of his bare arms were tense and taut as if it took great strength to manipulate music from the black instrument. She slumped down to the floor with her back to the granite wall and watched and listened as her understanding of him deepened. Gryffen was right on this score too, when he was in the music he almost had the semblance of a soul. At the least there was something visceral and real about him she was witnessing, she'd never seen him so volatile or emotionally exposed, but yet so exuding of real spirit. This wasn't the Spike she thought she knew.

Chapter 7

The music continued to rise in intensity and Buffy found herself greatly moved by the whines and curves Spike was churning out. The way he lurched forward on some notes, or recoiled from others, he was beyond his preternatural state, above and beyond what grace was afforded to him with the vampirism. She held her knees to her chest and held in tears until the breaking point came and he sprang to his feet, causing her to do the same and flatten herself against the wall. Holding the guitar by the neck he raised it above his head, letting the final note hang and vibrate the air, he rushed the wall where Buffy was, intent on obliterating the instrument.

When Spike saw that Buffy was in the way of his intended target he skidded to a halt, dropping the guitar which was followed by a deafening din and incessant feedback from the amplifier. Tearing himself away from her he flipped the equipment off, rendering the crypt as silent as outer space."Slayer..." he growled out barely above a whisper, still facing the dead amplifier.

"I guess this answers my question.....I wanted to know if you were okay," Buffy answered, keeping her distance from him.

"It's never okay.....bloody hell, you should know that by now. Just go, Buffy, I'll get on....I always do."

"Are you still planning on going after the people.....that.....that..."

"Murdered one of my best mates and his girl? Yeah, too right I am...eat their hearts, that's a promise."

"And the fact that your head will probably explode if you try means nothing to you?" He shrugged his shoulders and looked upwards to the black ceiling of the cave.

"I'll find a way."

"Not exactly practical there...."

"Fuck practical, I just need to get the job done, let Gryf and Ode rest in peace." He looked her over, standing there beautiful as ever, the Slayer, still trying to find her way in life."Why do you care.....why do you care what I do?" She ran her fingers through her hair and stretched the skin of her face. Leaps....that what Willow and Tara were talking about. She had to put it out there, it was either that or continuing on and on travelling in circles. She found his eyes, as eager and pleading as ever for just a spec of decency from her, a hint of empathy.

"I care.......about you." The scar on his left eyebrow abruptly arched and he crooked his head,"Oh shut up.....look, I admit it....gloat all you want....go on, now's your chance, I'm giving it to you.....but be warned, you're not allowed to use this against me later."

"I won't need to Slayer....you're never going to forget it."

"You are gloating! Unbelievable!"

"Well come now, pet.....you just..." She glared at him menacingly,"Okay....okay..." He held up his hands in mock surrender,"Truce? Friends? Hug?"

"You're impossible."

"And you're beautiful." Somehow they'd made each other smile; he opened his arms and she obliged with a roll of her eyes. The gap between them closed and Buffy wrapped her arms around his waist as his held her shoulders. Her cheek rested at his unbeating heart and he lay his head at the crook of her neck. The let their bodies grow heavy in each others arms, almost to the point where they held each other upright. He didn't take or expect anything more from her than the quiet embrace, he just wanted to hold her - the only thing he loved in the world.

"I'm sorry you lost your friends."

"Thanks, love. I'm sorry too......sure not my year is it? First you....now Gryf....."

"But I came back..."

"Yeah....don't think Gryf's got your luck though, sweets, normal folk don't get to come back from the dead."

"Just Slayers and vampires, right? Lsten, I'll help you....if only to keep you from getting in over your head."

"I'm not asking for your help, Slayer....there's too much at risk...."

"That's right." She pulled away from him,"I'll have Willow hack into the Police Department, see if there's any leads..."

"How's Tara? She managing?"

"She's dealing....she's strong."

"Of course she is.....the Earth Mother thing going on....real witches, they know the score, know that's there's more than this.....you know it too, you were there....still hurts that she lost her brother, but they'll see each other again.....in the next life."

"You really believe that?"

"After a century, I've seen just about everything.....love's stronger than death, Buffy." Giving his hand a reassuring squeeze she made her way out of the crypt, turning back briefly to give him a sweet smile.

"Gryffen was right....you are really good....on the guitar."

"M'not bad."

***

A few days later Buffy stood uncomfortably behind the people gathered for the funeral. She stood alone as those gathered participated in a Wiccan rite Tara and Willow presided over. Afterall, by virtue of their mother, Gryffen and Tara both had the power in them, the unbreakable connection to the otherworlds and it seemed only fitting that his death she be observed in such a manner. Buffy didn't rightly understand anything of what has passing before her eyes, the reverence or the ritual. She could only imagine what her own funeral had been, wondering if Spike really had cried for her they way Dawn, Willow and Tara had all told her. Or perhaps he hadn't even been there, maybe the funeral had been in the daytime. Maybe he'd come to her grave all alone......to many questions, questions that she was scared to know the answers to. The more Spike's genuine feelings for her were affirmed the less difficulty she had denying she had feelings too.

Gryffen's bandmates were present, but Buffy'd heard that they were leaving today, back to New York City to get on with things, whatever that meant. Tara had spent her entire savings on the funeral cost, as well as the head stones; she'd spared no expense and it had left her in a bad way. Still, she was utterly unselfish about it, that was just Tara. Xander and Anya stood far opposite from her, arms around each other, clinging and comforting each other in the realization once again of the fragility of a human life; and Buffy stood alone, as ever.

The winter sky was gray and foreboding, despite the silence that death always carried with it. She was there in body, but her mind was elsewhere, her mind was a hundred yards behind her, down an opening in the floor and in the back of a cave, probably sleeping. She was determined to take baby steps as far as Spike was concerned, otherwise she knew things would steam role into another wrecked house, metaphorically speaking. Yet at the same time it was just what she wanted, craved, what she needed to not feel the sadness that surrounded them all. Moreover she felt great empathy for his own pain, she'd never seen him grieve for her and seeing him lament over Gryffen had opened her eyes a little wider to the canvas of his life, who'd he evolved to in her absence.

Buffy watched until the ceremony ended and Willow lead Tara away, once the others had gone and the workmen came to fill in the graves and place the headstones, she slipped away.

Chapter 8

There was too much quiet for Buffy's liking, the cemetery was as silent as hidden sin; now in the tomb that lead to the inner crypt may as well have been an Italian Museum; she wished she had a pin to drop. She listened at the mouth to his cave and heard no indication of movement, however she was reasonably certain he wouldn't be anywhere else. A few candles were down to their last wicks and the inner crypt was barely illuminated, nonetheless she found him as she'd imagined. Spike was sleeping, looking as comfortable as if the bed was a chrysalis. His sheets and quilt were pulled up to his chest as he lay spread eagle, arms laid out in a Christ pose. He didn't seem so dangerous when he slept, in this state he was harmless. Buffy's thoughts had spoken too soon, when Spike rolled on to his side and the cover slid away to reveal the bare length of his body and backside. She tried briefly to look away, but she was profoundly weak in trying to hide from herself. He was unholy, he was dirty, and he was beautiful.

Buffy forced herself to breathe slowly and evenly, praying he wouldn't wake up and began to approach. She suddenly desired the silence to remain, fully aware that once he was awake there'd be no denying that they'd have words, or more. As she neared the bedside she discovered the floor was scattered with crumpled up pieces of paper. She bent down and picked one bunch up, unfurling the page and seeing red words scribbled in fine Victorian penmanship.

Something ugly this way comes......Through my fingers sliding inside....All these blessings, all these burns.......I'm godless underneath your cover....Search for pleasure, search for pain.....

In this world now I am undying....Black, black heart why would you offer more...Why would you make it easier on me to satisfy....I'm on fire, I'm rotting to the core.......I'm eating all your kings and queens.....All your sex and your diamonds...

As I begin to lose my grip....On these realities your sending....Taste your mind and taste your sex....I'm naked underneath your cover....Covers lie and we will bend and borrow....With the coming sun....

The page was abruptly snatched away and Spike's face was directly in front of her's."You shouldn't come sneaking in like that, pet," he chastised,"You also shouldn't read what you aren't welcome to."

"Is it about me?" she replied without letting on how hurt she was that he thought of her heart as black.

"No." Buffy knew he was lying.

"Sure it is....you probably haven't written a line of poetry in a hundred years....and now...."

"Not everything's about you, Slayer." He crumpled up the page and threw it back on the floor before picking up his black jeans and pulling them angrily over his legs,"What are you hear for?" Buffy closed a fist at her side and held her disdain at his behavior, she reasoned that he was in mourning and unused to feeling so humanly.

"Willow.....she did the search...." Suddenly his entire demeanor flipped and he became eager and manic.

"What? what did she find?" He was close on her again, holding her shoulders almost roughly, eyes wide and pleading for answers. Buffy put her hands over his, caressing and cajoling before she dropped the proverbial bombshell.

"There was nothing, Spike.....I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.....but there was no one after Gryffen or Odette, they didn't have any criminal past or contacts. The investigation turned up nothing....there's nothing...." She could almost perceive his heart breaking right in front her eyes. He turned from her and buried his face in the palms of his hands, stifling the cries that wanted out. She reached for him, but before her fingers touched his back he was set off and rammed a fist into the wall of the cave, taking the skin clean off his knuckles and rendering them a mess of bloody, torn flesh. A cry like a wounded animal crawled out of his guts and shocked Buffy into tears, crying when he wouldn't allow himself the right. She wrapped her arms around his waist as she cried, letting the tears flow down his bare back as she pressed her cheek to his skin. He leaned his forehead to the cold granite, the bloody hand held away from her and the other over her arms, his thumb stroking her.

"You ever feel so impotent that it's like your're tied to a chair? Stuff's happening all around you and you're tied to a bloody chair?"

"It's so hard just to breathe.....everything's so hard....."

"Not everything's got to be so damn hard...things have changed Buffy.....can you admit that?"

"I'm trying...."

"Guess that's the best this bloke can hope for, huh?" She released him and he sighed, heart heavy as an anvil. Spike faced her and formed his body against the icy cold of the rock. Buffy brushed away his few tears with her fingers and smiled, her own face drenched far more than his.

"Keep hoping." He smiled back and then suddenly felt the sticky heat of blood dripping off his fingers. He looked at the ugliness of his hand and scoffed.

"Lovely...bloody marvelous......you can see the bones." He held it up for her inspection and she made a face of disgust.

"Do you have any bandages?"

"No....I'll just rinse it off....it'll be fine in a couple of hours.....you look nice, by the way.....black's good on you, makes you all mysterious, least I always thought so."

"I just came from the funeral....it didn't occur to Tara to have it at night, so you could be there....I'm sorry."

"No, no.....let her do things as she needs, I can pay my respects later."

"Even so...."

"M'alright....took four bloomin' years to infiltrate the Scoobies....I'm used to being left out of the loop."

"You're hurt, I can tell...."

"Doesn't matter, Slayer, I'm built tough enough to take being excluded....less tough when it comes to other things.....like letting people get away with murdering m'friends."

"They won't get away with it...we'll put the wrong things right....it's what we do."

"We?"

"Yeah.....we....you and me....."

"Will you wait with me? Until it's night......go with me to see them?"

"I'll stay.......okay, but we gotta do something about that hand, Spike....it's really grossing me out!!"

Chapter 9

"You're cold," said Spike, more as an observation than a question. They stood shoulder to shoulder before the newly marked graves of Gryffen Goddard and Odette Fournier. He played with the burning cigarette between his fingers, though he had not yet brought it to his lips. She was shivering in the night air as the fog rolled in and the sky threatened to storm.

"I didn't bring a coat....I thought I would go home after..."

"But you came to see me instead. Take my coat, love." He flicked the unsmoked stick away and the black leather duster was off his body and around her's in seconds, secured in place with his arm draped over her. Buffy slipped her hands through the sleeves and let the second skin conserve her body heat. She brought the collar up close to her reddened cheeks and inhaled the scent she'd come to know on every level. It was purely him, cigarettes, leather and it gave her such solace she entertained the thought of asking if she could keep the coat, knowing he wouldn't refuse her. Instead she hooked her thumb into one of the belt loops on his hip and held him, her head resting comfortably on his chest."Better?"

"Much.....thank you, Spike."

"You're welcome, Buff......can't have m'girl gettin' frosty."

"So I'm your girl? Don't I get a say in that?"

"Yeah, you do....what's the good....or bad, as the case may be....word?"

"Maybe."

"Still just maybe?"

"Yep."

"You like me, don't you.....just a little bit?"

"Sometimes."

"And you like the things I do to you..." His voice hushed, his body turned and then his lips were then touching her's. He coaxed her lips apart with his tongue and she willing began to return his kiss, taking his tongue deep into her mouth. There's was more than lust radiating between them, propelling them to increase their intensity, there was genuine emotion thriving between them, growing steadily hotter and stronger. Buffy moaned audibly and leaned fully into him until the buckle of his belt pressed uncomfortably against her stomach. She didn't care, she much rather be swept away with the moment and wherever it might lead."Arrrrghhh!!!" Spike yelled, tearing them apart.

"What?!" He felt around to the back of head, something had cut him and he was bleeding. He brought his hand between them and held it up in the moonlight.

"Bloody hell....what is it with me always having to be bleeding?!"

"Turn around, lemme take a look. What was it?" She looked under his bleached hair to find a serious gash and blood coming out copious amounts."Oh......it's bad....you need stitches."

"I heal fast.....m'knuckles are fine already.....see!" He held his hand up for her to see; a split second later the attacker made itself known. The crow scraped it's claws across his palm as it flew by for a second time, and this time they both saw it. They stumbled back until they were standing back to back ready for the fight their instincts were telling them was coming. Caws and squawks were heard, foul voices on the wind, coming closer, coming fast."Slayer....." Spike gritted out,"Something's wrong....we can't be here....."

"What's wrong?"

"Can't you feel it? It's all around us....they're coming....we can't be here!" She saw them too, cutting through the mist with the swords of their wings.....crows, hundreds of them."Run.....RUN!" They bolted from the gravesidte and pounded the earth with their feet as they ran for the cover of Spike's crypt.

***

He began to move around, he still wasn't breathing but he could move his bones, muscles, and twist and turn the skin that hung around them. The strength came to him as if it was a sweet liquid shot into a vein in his arm. The space was too small, too small. He felt trapped, shackled without any give. "No air....no air." He began to panic. He pushed harder and to his relief the encasement started to shift. The grains of dirt began to fill in what little space he had for himself, he had to do this quicker or he'd never get that breath.

The dirt was cold, moist and rank from rain water seeping lowdown, there were worms everywhere - they wanted his flesh, they wanted to stop the cells from knitting back together. He kept on pushing, someone on the other side was calling for him, willing him not to give up so soon, so easily.....he was just beginning. They didn't know his name...but they called his soul, called it back to consciousness. Light, finally a shard of light, the realization that that first breath was soon to come quickened him. He stood on his feet and moved the heavy wood off him, opening him to the winter's sharp cold air. He inhaled as much as he lungs would take. They burned from the action, a thousand daggers of ice accompanying what he'd been begging for...life.

"Aaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrggghhhhhh!!!!!" he cried out, pushing the air back out until he thought the life he'd just taken in would leave again. He clawed at the earth, freedom was not yet his...it was six feet above. A few attempts failed, and he fell back into the coffin, more dirt falling on him, into his mouth and eyes. His body was still so weak, all the muscles and skin had not yet been fully spun to what they'd been a week ago. He finally came out of his grave and fell meekly to the earth, his body loose and unused, like a newly born babe."I want to be back in the warm place, God...send me back." He coughed, wretched, pounded on the soft ground with angry fists. He rolled onto his back and looked up into the sky. He heard a guttural noise coming from somewhere near, the same voices that called him out.

"Caaaaaw....ahcaaaw," they spoke. He turned over on to his side and followed the voices to one owner, a ink colored bird, a crow. The animal was perched on one of the tombstones. He could read, a moment ago he didn't know he could move or breath, but in this one he could read.

GRYFFEN GODDARD

"Is that me?" he asked aloud, speaking his first words in what seemed an eternity. The crow looked at him and shifted its weight back and forth on its feet. They locked eyes, but he still didn't understand, he felt connected to the crow but words didn't pass between them. They'd met somewhere on the astral plain and he'd followed this guide back over the threshold, away from her, back to the other world."This is so wrong..I shouldn't be here.....why did you bring me back? Why am I here? if nothing else can you tell me that?" The crow called out again and spread it's wings to take to flight. He watched the bird fly off into the endless night, begging him to follow, follow to fulfill his purpose. He had no wings for to fly, so he began to walk. He left behind his open grave and went into the night, the infinite blackness that would embrace him like a mother's love and turn him out like a scorned lover.

Chapter 10

If it weren't by grace of Spike's coat over her, Buffy would have suffered the same fate he had, being covered in cuts and slices from the attacking birds. He wedged the door shut and singled handily moved a stone slab in front of it and then went to work at covering any gaps and windows that a crow could force its way through."You alright?" he asked, adrenaline pumping through his veins as sure as blood.

"Oh god!" she cried.

"What? What? Where are you hurt?!!"

"I'm not.....you....look at you...." He held out his arms and sighed, cut to ribbons, bleeding profusely, nothing new.

"Yeah, well......big surprise....me in severe pain, leaking everywhere....bloody typical....one of these day's I'm going to get really cross with the Powers that Be! I can tell you that right now." She couldn't help but laugh, he'd somehow managed to deflate an extremely intense situation."There you go, pet...."

"What?"

"I'll get attacked by a murder of crows every night if I get to see that smile as my reward." She stopped smiling and turned sympathetic.

"I guess we're stuck here for the night, right? Let's go downstairs.....clean you up....again."

"They drove us in here, love....there's something happening out there that we're not supposed to see, something bad, very bad...everything inside me's screaming that there's a major mojo being worked and we're being denied....for some reason or another."

"Well, I'm not about to fight off the Poe pets to find out what it is....are you?"

"Uh, that would be a a big flashing pink and blue neon, no , pet....nevermore, nevermore."

"Then let's go downstairs." Moments later Spike found himself sitting on the corner of his bed, shirtless, as Buffy tended to his wounds with a careful, delicate touch. Every time he winced from the pain or shock of cold water on his skin, she too flinched."I'm sorry..."

"Fear not.....good kind of hurt...."

"Don't flirt....I'm trying to be Florence Nightingale here."

"Can't help m'self, you're awfully flirtable.....besides the point that you're being nice to me....makes me feel all fluffy like a baby kitty."

"A kitty with fangs and claws.....bet I can make the kitty purr." He arched his eyebrow in surprise, she shrugged her shoulders and went back to task..

"Now who's flirty?"

"How are your legs?"

"Tight as a jungle cat's, lean as a gazelle's, smooth as a...."

"I meant are your legs cut too?"

"A little."

"I can't believe I'm about to say this....Spike, take off your jeans." He smirked and slowly lowered the zipper as seductively as possible.

"We going to play this game?"

"Yes.....it's the only way I can respect myself in the morning." He maneuvered the denim down from his hips and to his ankles. Buffy made as if she was ignoring the fact that he was stark naked and that she was bended to him, and went about cleaning the blood away from the wounds on his legs.

"When did you decide to play?"

"When I saw you playing Gryffen's guitar...I dunno, I just had an epiphany....you're not the man I left behind.....I came back to a different man....the kind of man....I just.....I don't know, okay....but...."

"That's the first time you haven't called me a thing, an evil disgusting thing..."

"I remember...and I'm sorry."

"No matter......if you don't mean it anymore." She stood up and stood in front of him."What else do you think about me?"

"That you're in pain and you're grieving....that you put me first in just about everything, even when I don't deserve it."

"It's 'cause I love you, Buffy."

"I know you do...." She stopped talking when he touched her, spreading his hand out on her taut stomach, the bunching the fabric of the blouse she wore. He pulled it from her skirt, accidentally tearing a few of the buttons from their seams. He ran his fingers over the bare skin, scraped his blackened nails down and around to her hip where he undid a clasp and lowered the zipper. His fingers snuck under the waistbands of the skirt, her nylons and the slight straps of her panties, bringing them all down together. She stepped out them and kicked them away before Spike took hold of her hips and pulled her to him. He nestled his face in the tangle of soft curls gathered at the juncture between her legs, breathing hot on her. She shifted her weight, already feeling moisture flow from herself in anticipation. He brushed lips over the area, ran the edge of his teeth across the mound, hungry for her like a the vampire thirsted for blood. There was only one thing he knew that was more intoxicating than the blood and the chalice was offered for him to drink from.

Before she lost the presence of mind to do it, Buffy hurriedly unbuttoned the rest of her shirt and pulled off her bra just as he drove his tongue between her legs. She yelped at the contact of his slick tongue reaching under and separating the folds of her flesh. He reclined and brought her with him; she felt positively indecent to be essentially sitting on his face, but she wasn't about to deny herself a second of the phenomenal pleasure he was conjuring. It wasn't long before she was grinding against his devouring mouth, moaning and shrieking like a beast, his tongue snaked deep into her passage, twisting and curling, exciting every possible bundle of nerves. He widened his jaw and clamped down over the entire area and started sucking. Nothing more was needed and Buffy lurched back and screamed as she climaxed.

Before she had a chance to relish in the remarkable high, he threw her off and her back landed hard against the headboard. Barely keeping the breath in her lungs she saw he was coming for her. She smiled wickedly, Spike was never anything short of wildly passionate, he knew exactly how to give her what she needed, even when she didn't know she wanted it. He came at her and punched his fists into the sturdy wood, growling at her, his eyes electric and feral. Buffy put her knees under her and raised herself up, spreading her legs and grasping his shoulders. Without a second notice he thrust the entire length of his erection inside her. Her mouth gapped open in shock, having to adjust so quickly to his impressive length and girth. She was rewarded with a ferocious kiss that knocked her head back. He surged his pelvis back and forth with mechanical rhythm and force, lifting her off the bed and lowering her back down each time.

There was nothing to compare with this in all the wide world and Spike knew it, she gripped him like a noose, choking the life from him; burning him like the lava flowing beneath the ninth layer of Hell; she was bliss. He knew she wasn't going to last much longer, with each stroke she shuddered as he touched a place hidden inside that torn new openings in the fabric of her ecstasy. She chanted his name like a religious mantra when suddenly her body went slack on him save for the ferocious pulse of Slayer muscles around the portion of flesh he's buried in her. He roared like barbarian after a good kill and emptied himself in his lover before joining her in an exhausted tangle of sweat, flesh and scent.

Chapter 11

"Buff? Buffy!?" Spike called out as he came around from his sleep. He'd wakened suddenly and found his bed empty, looking around he couldn't see her.

"Right here," she spoke softly from her position sitting on the floor next to the bed. He crawled over to where she'd previously been sleeping and peered down on her still naked body and the pile of pages she'd straightened out.

"Love, what are you doing with those? Come back to bed......if you want to that is....."

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere....."

"Good." He visibly relaxed and it bothered Buffy that he was so insecure, especially after what they'd just shared,"If you need to hear the words, just tell me so."

"I need to hear them...." She lay her hand on his cheek and stared into his eyes.

"I jumped, for the second time in my life, I closed my eyes and I jumped.....this time I fell into you....I like where I've landed, heaven help me." He smiled widely at her.

"Landed on my face, as I seem to recall."

"Ewww......gross, Spike! Comments like that really make it hard for me to believe you wrote half this stuff......" He rolled over and let out an exasperated growl.

"I really wish you wouldn't read those, love...."

"Why not? They're incredible!" He sat up and gave her a confused look.

"Come again?" Taking the pile or worn pages with her, Buffy rejoined him in bed, laying back against him, making herself comfortable with her head forming into his shoulder.

"It's like 100 years of not writing any poetry made you really good at it."

"You're just being polite because I give you mind-blowing multiple orgasms."

"I'm telling you the truth.......these are moving, shattering.....they're sad too...." She handed him a page, prodding him to read to her.

"So close your eyes....Your christ has come....The crippled boy that you once knew.....The charmed enigma chosen one.....With painted lips....Skin ripped and torn.....Come touch and feel and lick and smell.....This envy that I've worn so well.....Everybody wants everybody says......Everybody begs in time.....

So drink me in like tainted wine.....Come bite down on my sharpened cup.....And taste the dreams that numb the mind.....A simple word a harmless glare......That binds me with thinnest thread.....And pins me down to pleasure's bed....." He handed the page back to her and grumbled something unintelligible.

"What made you write again?"

"Seeing Gryf.....for all of a few hours, before he was killed.....that man was pure poetry, pure soul, walking bloody muse if ever there was one......had a light in him the shined brighter than the whole sun. Guess the flame that burns brightest burns for the shortest time. I knew that guy since he was a kid....back then, when I was with Dru n' we were into the killin' n' feeding as much as ever there were times when I left her to her crazies and went out by myself and found places where I could just forget, just blend in....find a little quiet."

"Quiet? I thought you went to rock clubs."

"Trust me, love, a rock club is quiet compared to Dru's prattling on. Times like that the blood lust wasn't first n' foremost.....times like that my own sensibilities were more important, how I liked the music, the liqour or the conversations....I didn't always have to be killing, you know?"

"Why you telling me all this.....you're hiding something, I can tell." He seemed exasperated, searching for the words.

"I'm just trying to make you understand.....make you see.....oh bloody hell....forget it." Buffy turned herself over and lay the side of her face against his, hugging his shoulders.

"I already know."

"You do? Jolly good, then maybe you can clue me in 'cause I haven't the faintest idea of I'm trying to bloody say!"

"You, Spike, are trying to convince me of what I already know......even if you didn't have that lame chip in your head, you wouldn't go back to who you were then...because.....because my love is worth more to you and you're not going to do anything to mess it up."

"Check out Buffy.....all full of wisdom.....n' hey....waitaminute....did you just??!" The realization suddenly dawned on her too.

"Oh god.....I did....ooops..."

"Nuh-huh......no do-overs.....you just admitted it!!! Buffy Summers loves me!"

"Shut up......I sooooooo do not!!" He rolled on top of her, laying his body heavy on the entire length of her's, pressing his evident arousal at her stomach, waiting for her to open herself to him. She spread her thighs to him and he sunk inside with a satisfied groan, Buffy gnawed on her bottom lip and moved with him. Holding her face in his hands he brought his lips to her ear.

"Yes you do...." he whispered.

***

Heaven, she was in Heaven again and it was beyond nirvana. This time was different though, this time she was herself with a body and a voice and she wasn't alone. There were souls all around her, all lost in their own bliss; there was music and singing, every white and shiny cliché available.....this wasn't her Heaven, otherwise how could Spike be walking with her? Afterall he was a soulless demon without a chance in Hell of getting into Heaven. They stopped walking and she looked him up and down, a perplexed look on her face. He was dressed from head to toe in white, he looked good. He wasn't paying particular attention to her, instead he was scribbling furiously in a white leather-bound notebook.

Without warning she was ten paces behind him and the distance between them was growing. He turned around abruptly and she thought he'd wait, but he only walked backwards. He was laughing hysterically, loopy as could be, tearing pages from his notebook and crumpling them up and throwing them at her. The balls of paper hit her as hard as stones and she tried to hide from them, but to no avail. It was then that he spoke, loud and manic, "And you will go where crows go, and you will know what crows know! After you have learned all their secrets and think the way they do and your love caresses their feathers like the walls of a midnight clock, they will fly away and take you with them! And you will go where crows go and you will know what crows know!!!"

Chapter 12

Her eyes snapped open and the chord that held her to her subconscious was cut. She sat up and let out a shaky breath, at least in this dream she hadn't dusted Spike, although she wasn't exactly pleased about the role he played in this one either. He sat up with her, still hazy and tired, rubbing his eyes and yawning."Mmmmmm," he mumbled rubbing her bare back,"Mornin' love.....still respect yourself?" She looked over her shoulder and smiled before leaning in for a kiss.

"Respect intact.....how about you? Now that you're actively bedding a Slayer? The other vampires are gonna gossip."

"Let 'em....I still get to bed you, don't I then?"

"Yeah, you do." He kissed a path up her spine up to behind her ear, setting off a rush of goosepimples over her skin and eliciting a melodic stream of giggles from her."Okay....stop that...I really should go....remember there was supposedly a major mojo worked last night, I should go investigating."

"There's some mojo you can investigate right 'ere, love."

"I'm serious, Spike." He broke their contact and sighed.

"I'm stuck here all day....."

"I'll come back early, a few hours before sunset....we can.....you know.....before we go out on patrol, deal?"

"Deal........Buffy, is there something wrong? You seem off, you sure you've got no regrets about last night?"

"No regrets, I promise.....just dreams, weird dreams."

"Want to share? Not that I'm Sigmund bloody Freud or anything."

"It's okay....go back to sleep, I'll see you this afternoon, okay?"

"I'll be waiting."

***

Walking into her home on Revello Drive, Buffy arrived upon a horrendous scene, the complete antithesis of the wonderful hours she'd spent making love with Spike. Willow and Tara were both in tears, Willow clawing at her own hair, her body wracked with dry heaves. Buffy stood silent in the doorway as the argument continued."I swear I didn't do it, Tara!!! You have to believe me, you have to believe me!" Willow cried, now clutching her stomach.

"Stop lying! God, what is wrong with you?! You knew I'd hate this and you did it anyways! You didn't learn a thing, Willow....."

"But I didn't....I d.d...didn't....."

"No one else could have....you did it once before, you knew you had the power to do it again....no more chances Willow...it's really over this time....I....I won't ever come back....I won't ever trust you again.....or love you....I.....I don't love you."

"Tara....no....." Tara pushed Willow forcefully out of the way and she fell to the floor in sobs. Tara looked ever so briefly at Buffy as she left the house. Buffy could do nothing but join Willow on the floor and hold her as she cried and repeated over and over,"I didn't do it....I didn't do it.....I didn't do it..."

***

Hours later Willow woke up on the couch, the horrible memories of her argument with Tara rushing back and tying her stomach in knots. Buffy immediately became alert from her seat in the armchair across from her best friend."Willow....it's okay....I'm still here."

"But Tara's not.....oh god, Buffy, how did things get so bad?! I was trying so hard...." Willow was about to burst into tears and Buffy wasn't about to let her friend break down again.

"Tell me everything.....tell me what happened," Buffy quickly changed the subject. Willow stifled her sniffles and straightened her back, sitting upright and pulling her hair behind her ears.

"I don't know how.....I don't know why....but...but.....Gryffen....he's alive. He's alive Buffy and he was here last night....." Buffy wasn't exactly sure how to process the words that were coming out of Willow's mouth, but before she had a chance to respond, Willow continued,"He walked right in through the front door, he was in the clothes we buried him in....he called out for Tara. He looked at me and made this face, that's when Tara came in....with him looking at me....she thinks I did it, thinks I did the same spell like I did on you! But I didn't....Buffy, please tell me you believe me!"

"Shhhh.....Willow, I do......I do.....please go on."

"He looked at her and tried to speak, but it was like the words caught in his throat and he couldn't force them out....then he ran the other way. We went after him right away....but he was gone. Later, when we came back, this morning....that's when we fought..."

"Something strange happened in the cemetery last night too...that's why I didn't come home until sun up. Spike and I were at Gryffen and Odette's graves....he wanted to pay his respects, then stuff went all Alfred Hitchcock....."

"Psycho?"

"Birds....hundreds of them, black ones, crows I think....they just started attacking us, so we ran for cover. We were trapped in the crypt all night long..." Willow arched an eyebrow, momentarily forgetting her predicament and becomes distracted with Buffy's.

"All night, huh?"

"Yeah.....till the birds went away...." Then it dawned on Buffy what Willow was asking,"Willow Rosenberg!"

"Well, come on.....we don't all have to be miserable and......and....more miserable...so, spillage!!" Buffy sunk back in the chair and looked at the ceiling.

"Oh god, Willow, he screwed my brains out!!!" Willow let out a squeak and Buffy's eyes opened as wide as a full moon before she smacked her own forehead, hard,"Oww....I know, I know.....I'm an idiot.....a total and utter, pure, unadulterated idiot!" Willow got up from the couch and went over to rub Buffy's red forehead.

"There, there...poor Buffy, in love with another vampire.....one that won't go evil after the happies; one that won't go runnin' like a big yellow chicken when stuff happens; one that really really loves you....."

"He does, doesn't he?"

"Oh yeah, huge amounts of Spike love directed at yah....next thing you know he'll be writing poems about it." Buffy bit her lip to hold in her own squeak, this was getting serious. Buffy stood up and took Willow in her arms,"Buffy?"

"It's gonna work out.....for all of us!" Willow was a bit shaken and couldn't think of a thing to do but hug Buffy back.

"You promise?"

"Absolutely....we'll get Spike, we'll find Tara.......and then we'll get to the bottom of this.....look on the bright side, maybe it's just another apocalypse, no worries.....been there, done that enough times."

Chapter 13

Spike was debating whether or no he should leave the crypt and go through the tunnels to try and make his way to Buffy's house or if he should continue to wait for her. She was late, too late for his liking. After spending an hour waiting expectantly, and naked in bed for her like a wanker, he got dressed, both disappointed and angry. But those heated emotions turned to pangs of worry, then irrational worry and now he found himself pacing maniacally and cursing the sunlight. With everything that had transpired the previous night, from the crows attacking to ending up in bed with Buffy gave him the sense that something was terribly wrong was happening beyond the confines of his crypt. Furthermore he was helpless to do a thing about it. Just then his actions were halted by a pounding at his front door.

He leapt into action and soared up the ladder to the outer crypt and straight to the front door. Standing behind it to shield himself from the sun, he yarded the heavy steel door open and to his surprise it was Tara, not Buffy, who came rushing in. She whipped around when the door slammed shut and it was then that Spike saw how disheveled and poor she looked."Tara.....what's happened?" he asked urgently. Tara stamped her foot and wiped tears away from her already reddened eyes.

"I....I.....Willow....she.....she did it again...." Tara stammered out.

"Did what again?"

"Same....same....as.......Buff.....Buffy...."

"Buffy?! What does this have to do with Buffy?!"

"Willow brought Gryffen back from the dead, just like she did with Buffy....how could she do this Spike? After everything we all went through after she came back..."

"Because she didn't." Tara choked on a cry, she'd come to Spike for understanding and compassion, knowing he cared for Gryffen like he was his brother too. Instead she'd found another champion for Willow, who right now Tara wished would disappear off the the face of the planet and take her corrupt magic with her. Tara rolled her eyes and made for the door, only to have Spike block her way,"No, no...wait just a moment there, love....I know for a fact that Red had nothing to do with this...now I'll admit that I'm having more than a little trouble believing you 'ere, except for there was some bloody strange happenings going on in the ol' bone yard last night. The Slayer and I were at Gryf and Ode's graves and something major went down. Crows, a whole murder of them came out of nowhere and herded us like we were bleedin' sheep into the crypt. Lemme ask you this, did Willow have a chance to do anything last night? Was she ever away from you?"

"I fell asleep for a little...." The more and more Tara thought about it the more she doubted her own mind, perhaps Spike was right. Her emotions were already like a string pulled so tight she was ready to snap; and in the few seconds she had to adjust to seeing Gryffen alive had sent her into a tailspin. Things with Willow were so delicate and Tara perhaps had jumped to the wrong conclusion.

"But probably not long enough for her to sneak out and do a resurrection like she did with Buffy...by herself?"

"Maybe not...but...."

"Tara, these birds....they weren't under someone's control...at least not Willow's......I think something happened that's beyond whatever Willow can manage....look, sunset's in half an hour.....we'll get Buffy, find Willow.....we'll make it right. Gryffen was the best mate I ever had....I won't let him be used, alright? Whoever killed him, whoever brought him back...they're dust."

***

Spike and Tara waited for the sun to set by telling each other Gryffen stories. Spike filled in a few more gaps to his teen years and Tara talked about what Gryffen had planned for his future....the music, his sister, Odette....all wishes that would never be fulfilled. Before the horizon had gone black they left Spike's home to cross the cemetery and on to Buffy's. The place was quiet, peaceful, nothing like it had been like the night before. If it weren't for the fact that apparently Gryffen was up and off on a walkabout, he almost would have felt at ease again. In truth he'd be tense until he was wrapped around the woman he loved and they'd shut themselves off from the outside world. The moment they'd started off in earnest, two figures were seen approaching in the distance, Spike knew one of them to be Buffy, the other undoubtedly Willow."Go on, love.....patch things up with your girl," Spike encouraged Tara with a little nudge. The soft gesture send the young witch off in a run. Willow stopped and waited, while Buffy kept on walking, her gaze unwavering from Spike's. Tara ran past Buffy without a second glance and straight into Willow's embrace.

When Buffy reached Spike he didn't react how she expected him to, instead he seemed aloof, business like."Slayer," as his greeting confirmed it, something wasn't sitting right.

"Spike? Is something wrong?" Buffy asked apprehensively, to which he shook his head.

"Nothing's wrong....I just thought you'd want to play it cool......in front of you friends n' all."

"I don't want to pretend nothing's happened between us.....do you?" The gap between them was slowly closed as Spike advanced with a seductive swagger.

"If I didn't have a reputation to uphold I would've done cartwheels over the bloody tombstones to get to you...I take it there's no regrets then?" She gripped the fabric of his t-shirt and pulled him down to her, lovingly pressing their lips together.

"I'm sorry I didn't come this afternoon, Willow needed me to stay with her.....and whatever you said to Tara, thank you." He kissed her again, this time fisting his fingers in her hair and deepening the lock.

"Understandable....we'll make up for lost time later, love."

"We will. I told Willow......about us, she was...suppportive."

"I don't think I can take all this good will, Slayer, first you....now select Scoobies......if I start brooding and being all soul-having, I want you to beat me."

"It's a promise."

"You're amazing Summers, bloody marvelous...."

"You're love's bitch no more, huh Spike?"

"No....I'm still that....just with a little more irony...a vamp in love with the Slayer....damn near Shakespearean."

Chapter 14

Buffy inhaled a sharp, rattled breath when she felt Spike's fingers on the back of her neck, up under her hair and against the bare skin, massaging and caressing. None of them could believe what they were seeing, the reality of it was glaring and sickening, but believing it wholeheartedly was another matter. Spike, Buffy, along with Tara and Willow stood before the open grave that was once the resting place for Gryffen Goddard. It gaped like an open mouth, the casket was not splintered like when Buffy had clawed her way out of her grave or when Spike himself had done it in his vampiric past, it opened as if the dirt had no weight. Sure enough, however, Gryffen was gone. After a few hypnotic moments staring at what once had been her reality, Buffy had started to break apart, it was then that the steadying touch of Spike on the back of her neck was felt and it soothed her.

Blindly she reached behind her and grasped his hand, taking it from her neck and guiding it securely around her waist and holding it in place with her own."S'alright, pet...no fears, no fears.....not from my girl..." he whispered in her ear. Buffy was certain she'd be having nightmares when next she slept, at the least she promised herself she wouldn't sleep alone. Buffy reached for his other arm too and only relaxed when both his arms held her."It's not the same thing, love....it's not you....you're alive and you're safe....and..."

"Shhhhh..." Buffy replied, leaning back against him and closing her eyes, he hugged her tighter. After a few moments she found the resolved to speak again,"What can we do? Go and look for him?" Willow and Tara stopped staring at the open grave and turned to see Buffy in Spike's embrace, accepting the fact as suddenly normal."Did he have anywhere he used to like in Sunnydale?" Tara shook her head.

"I don't know....he didn't stay long...he didn't get along with anyone except me, he was out most of the time back then, avoiding my father and our brother.....I don't know where he went, I was too young...." Tara was upset by her own perceived incompetence, but was quickly comforted by Willow.

"Maybe we could do some research at the Magic Box....there's enough clues to put something together....you know, when in doubt, research,"Willow offered,"Then later, we'll go look for him....how hard can it be to find one newly risen rock star?"

***

Walking into the Magic Box, the four of them found the place empty, apparently there wasn't much magic afoot on this Sunday night. The distinct sound of Anya's laughter was coming from the behind the cash desk and immediately drawing everyone's attention."Oy! Customers 'ere, get off the girl Harris and let her do her job!" Spike hollered. which prompted Xander to to pop up from behind the counter like a fire cracker, to face his audience,"Could've at least waited till you closed up shop.....you never know what poor unsuspecting should you might scar for life with the sight of your hairy white arse."

"I'll thank you, oh bleached one, to go and find a nice stake to fell on, heart first....no one here cares to have the town pariah hang around us....so you can march your smart ass self right on outta here," Xander replied with his usual contempt for the vampire. By now Anya was on her feet and straightening out her clothes and unmessing her hair.

"I thought I turned the CLOSED sign over..." Anya reasoned.

"You did," Spike chimed in, as he took a seat at the table,"And I'll have you eatin' those words, Harris....with whipped cream and a cherry on top." Buffy roller her eyes at his obvious innuendo, but she'd already chosen to take Spike's side of the rivalry. She audaciously walked right over to Spike and took a seat across his lap. One arm draped over his shoulder whilst the other toyed with the neck of his T-shirt Spike, for all his gloating at Xander was well aware of how brave a move this was for Buffy; she'd just admitted to his most vehement objector that she'd chosen him. Spike locked his arms around her waist and lay his head to her chest, listening to the steady beat of her heart."It's gonna be a rough night, pet." He spoke so only she could hear and it was responded to with a kiss to his forehead, then a sigh.

"We'll get by." Buffy could nearly forget that they were in the middle of another crisis, with Spike's arms wrapped around her. She had intended to spend the entire afternoon this way instead of just a few stolen minutes. The uniquely soft texture his wavy hair against her neck was positively heaven. She wasn't sure just how she'd suddenly fallen into such comfort with him, but once she'd given in to him completely it became remarkably easy.

"Holy crimson obscenities Batman!! What on god's green earth is happening here!?" Xander caterwauled like a banshee,"Spell! Spell!!"

"No spell Xander," Willow spoke softly,"No spell at all."

"How.....what.....when......WHY?!?!"

"You forgot where," Spike offered before bestowing a kiss on Buffy's chest,"And the answer to that would be, in my bed."

"Not the first time..." Buffy spoke up, kissing his temple.

"That's right, pet....the first time was...."

"About to chew my own arm here and beat my ear drums bloody!!!" Xander persisted, now furiously pacing back and forth in a two foot square area.

"I think it's wonderful," added Willow, it was then that Xander noticed that she and Tara we're holding hands.

"Did you all fall in a vat of love juice, attacked by pixies and their magic hallucinogenic gold dust?"

"Nothing supernatural....we all just came to a few realizations, no big," said Buffy looking straight into Spike's eyes.

"Oh it's big, BIG!! If it's got you and fang face all lovey....I think I'm gonna pass out."

"Fine....do it over there," Spike pointed,"We've got to figure out some things....research....there's some heavy bad going on in ol' Sunnydale tonight." Now that the subject had been seemingly changed, Xander got a better control over his hysteria, his eyes however still darting in the direction of the Slayer in the arms of a vampire.

"Okay......so, what's the oogly boogly this time?"

"My brother," Tara announced, gripping Willow's hand just a little bit tighter.

Chapter 15

"Gryffen? Was he vamped?" Xander asked, as the Scoobies arranged themselves around the table, Buffy slipping off Spike's lap but keeping close. Willow, Tara, Buffy and Spike alike held their gaze low, none sure exactly how to explain things. The silence persisted and Spike was the one to gather the courage to speak up about their fallen friend and brother.

"It's not like that, it's like nothing I've ever seen, not in a hundred years....nothing like what we've ever seen in Sunnydale either. His grave's been opened up like a bloody tin can....not like he had to dig himself out at all, he just pushed the lid off...so to speak. That and last night Wills and Tara saw him, just for a minute, just enough to make his presence a little more stunningly known than and open grave and a missing body."

"So, we're here....to try and piece the clues together," Buffy added.

"Alrighty then....let's itemize!" Anya proclaimed in her usual audacious manner, grabbing a pen and pad of paper."Both Gryffen and his girlfriend died in a non-demon kind of way; nothing spooky went on at the morgue as far as we know; buried in a regular, regular Wiccan way.....but nothing that would bring 'em back.....right?"

"Right," Tara said quickly, showing her renewed confidence in Willow.

"What else is there then?"

"Last night..." Buffy began.

"Right, last night," Spike echoed, taking control of the story,"We were at Ode n' Gryf's graves....perfectly intact, undisturbed....I wanted to pay m'respects...." Tara was about to apologize, but Spike waved her off, letting her know he understood,"Buffy and I were talking and then I felt this sharp pain in the back of m'head......before we knew what was happening a whole bloody fleet's worth of big black birds came upon us.....crows all screaming and squawking like they'd come straight from Hell. They drove us away.....didn't let up till they'd trapped us in m'crypt.....it was....."

"Crows? Oh boy....." Anya sighed, putting down her pen and pad.

"What about 'em....you know something?" Anya suddenly seemed quite uncharacteristically introverted, almost hesitant to say anything."Come on, speak up, demon-girl....what's the point of having the inside track on the demon world if you're not going to share?"

"It's not that.....this is not going to be pretty....what's about to come, what Gryffen...." Her voice trailed off.

"Anya?" Xander inquired, placing a comforting hand on her back. She got up from the table and distanced herself from them.

"Vengeance....it's all about the vengeance. People once believed that when someone dies a crow carries their soul to the land of the dead. But sometimes something so bad happens that a terrible sadness is carried with it, and the soul can't rest, and sometimes, just sometimes the crow can bring that soul back - to put the wrong things right."

"Because of Odette....isn't it?" Spike asked, Anya nodded,"To love someone so much, have yourself so tied in knots around 'em.....every breath, every heartbeat for them.....without them, you might as well be dead.....we all know what that's like. She must have been done o'er first, he saw her die and he couldn't do a bloody thing stop it.....I remember.....I...." The final words, his recalling of Buffy's death smacking into him with unbearable sickness deep inside; but then Buffy's hand closed over his the emotional monsters crept back into their shadowy hiding places.

"He's come back to kill the ones that killed him....he will not stop, he will kill them in the most horrible ways, he will make them suffer like his soul suffers.....he won't find rest until it's done. You can't stop him, you shouldn't even try.....if you get in his way..."

"Stop it!" Tara shouted, the group was stunned by her outburst, her face stained with fresh tears,"Gryffen's not like that!"

"He is now," Anya continued, unwavering, unshaken,"Gryffen's not the same man....he died, he became only a soul....the mind, the personality, it's gone, it's different. He won't have memories, just purpose.......cold hearted determination to kill them, kill them all." Tara slumped down against Willow cried a new. Spike hauled himself to his feet, separating himself from the rest, heading for the door.

"Spike.....where are you going?" Buffy demanded.

"To find him, find him and help him." He shrugged his shoulders and and gave her an apologetic look before turning on his heals and going out into the night. Buffy didn't hesitate for a second and ran after him, forgetting the other entirely. Half way up the street she finally caught up him, he stopped short and let her over take him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" she shouted, standing decisively in his path.

"Buffy, I love you....you know that, and I'll do anything you ask me to, anything at all......but please don't ask me not to do this."

"If you really loved me you wouldn't have to have me ask..."

"Don't start in with the emotional blackmail now, little girl. This isn't about you and me.....this is about my honor, something you've pointed out and many an occasion that I'm sorely lacking in......Gryffen was like a son to me for a while, a brother to me later on.....a friend.....For over one hundred years I've been a bloody fucked up bastard and you changed me....you need me to be a good man and now I want that too....I need my redemption to be worthy of you, so you'll not feel guilty about maybe someday actually loving me...but you must understand that this isn't for you......it is for me. I'll not abandon my friend." Buffy was floored by his admission, there had never been any thought on her part about redemption, she simply wanted him as he was, never expected more that who she already had. He looked sad in front of her and she felt powerless against him.

"What if something happens to you?" The true nature of her resistance to his going came to the surface and Spike was equally as shaken,"These are human beings....the chip won't let you do anything....."

"I'm not that bloody useless, Sla...."

"Don't say Slayer...."

"Buffy...."

"I'm coming with you.....end of story." He opened his mouth to speak but stopped himself. They started walking together, unsure of where they were going, how'd they find Gryffen, but one thing was clear, they were together.

Chapter 16

The only logical place to begin looking for Gryffen was back at the scene of the crime, they didn't have any other real leads anyways. Despite the fact that a murder had occurred behind the building not too long ago, the Bronze was as active as ever. With his fingers entwined with Buffy's, Spike lead them back to the alley where his best friend and his girl had met their demise. All signs of the crime were gone, including the white body outlines and the police tape, it was just a regular alley full of trash and grime."What are you hoping to find?" Buffy asked, still holding firm. He brought her hand to his lips and gave it a kiss.

"I haven't the foggiest idea, pet....just.....bloody hell....guess I'm waiting for a clue to jump out in front of us and do a lil' dance, just a sign, anything...." Buffy rubbed his leather covered arm and lay her head on his shoulder,"There's nothing here."

"Something will break, something always does..." Just then, the sign they'd been hoping for made itself known with the blaring of sirens approaching from the distance. A few moments later, three police cars went streaking past the end of the back street. They ran together, reaching the street as a fourth squad car went by."Come on....this could be it."

Ten minutes later Spike and Buffy were among a massive and growing crowd of onlookers gathering around a fresh crime scene. Police officers were trying desperately to control the crowd, their radios blaring with calls from headquarters and other random sounds of feedback and alerts. Spike and Buffy tried to feel through and divide the throng of onlookers, but to no avail. Before giving up, an idea occurred to Buffy,"This way," she commanded pulling him to the far side of the building. He clued in to what she had in mind when they'd circled the block to the back of the building."Gimme a boost." He helped her up to the first rung of the fire escape ladder and she hoisted herself up. Spike leapt up after her and effortlessly climbed the ladder, but taking Buffy's hand to ascend the distance from the top balcony to the roof. Making sure their presence was undetected by the people amassed below, they moved stealthy and quietly across the expanse until they could peer over the side.

What Spike and Buffy saw as they looked down over the ledge would never leave them, the images alone were enough to make even Spike recoil. Laid out hand to hand like morbid paper dolls or a nursery rhyme, were three men, each mutilated in a different way - one with his eyes gouged out, see no evil, one with his tongue ripped out, speak no evil, and the last with his ears torn off, hear no evil. Traced with their own blood around each body was the semblance of a crow, wings spread wide. Buffy was about to cry out involuntarily, but Spike prevented it by gently placing his hand across her mouth, dead demons were one thing...but human beings were another,"Don't look at 'em, pet.....you've seen enough....just listen," he whispered, turning her away from the carnage and into him,"You may be the Slayer, but you don't need to feed your nightmares."

"Vincent Ravenna, Hector Alvarez and Joey Spegliatti......all known associates of the Brunelesci crime family of Los Angelos..." one officer explained, looking over the ID the men had on their bodies,"Mob enforcers....very dangerous men by all accounts."

"Question is, what are they doing in Sunnydale? Second question, what are they doing dead?" another officer replied.

"And more importantly, who killed them? This as sure as hell ain't a mob hit....think this could, uh....be...you know?"

"This is Sunnydale......anything's possible." Thirty feet above Spike absorbed and analyzed the information being spoken. He had no doubt it was Gryffen who'd committed these acts of vengeance, however the fact that it now seemed as if these dead men were hired to kill the musician and his lover, for whatever reason, was highly significant. Spike backed he and Buffy away from the edge to where they wouldn't be detected.

"So what does this mean?" Buffy asked, running her fingers through her hair, all the while wishing she and Spike could just fold up the game board, put away their pieces and go home.

"It means that Gryffen isn't finished....we're missing the bigger picture here....Gryffen and Odette were killed for a reason....there's someone else he's going to kill."

"Should we even try to find him?"

"What do you mean Slayer?"

"You've been saying all along you want to help him, not stop him....if we just let Gryffen do his thing, he can rest...we won't have to get involved."

"We're already bloody involved! Why the change of heart?"

"That's exactly what it is....a change of heart...." She lay her hand on his chest, where his heart rest eternally dead. Spike understood clearly what she was stating and it only served to deepen his affection for her. When the Slayer fell for someone, she certainly fell hard. He cupped her face and kissed her forehead.

"Buffy, love...."

"Spike look!!" He followed her gaze to the roof across the street, where a dark man with a crow perched on his shoulder looked down on his handiwork. It was Gryffen, and the second Spike realized it his vampire persona roared to the surface.

"Stay here....." Before Buffy knew what was occurring, Spike ran with all his supernatural prowess and leapt from one roof top clear to the other. She'd have hardly believed him capable of it if she hadn't seen it for herself.

"Damn him," she cursed before running back to the fire escape.

***

Spike landed awkwardly, rolling forward and over himself before scrambling to his feet; only then to be confronted by a startled Gryffen. Gryffen stared at the vampire, unrecognizing of his friend, yet also not afraid of the monster before him. Spike saw the blank, comatose stare Gryffen was giving him; he shook off the vamp face that had instinctually risen to the surface."Gryf, mate, it's me....Spike....sorry about the fangs and lumps.....Gryf?" The bird, seeming to speak for both of them cawed loud enough that Spike hoped it wouldn't draw attention to them. The crow spread it's wings and flew off and Gryffen made the motion to follow."No so fast, fly-boy...." Spike lunged for Gryffen and prevented him from flying off the building like his bird. As if by reflex, Gryffen spun around and tossed Spike off him as if he weighed little more than a slip of paper. When Spike came back to his senses after the painful blow he'd receive he saw that Gryffen was writhing on the ground holding himself and crying out, seemingly in great pain."Gryf? Gryf......bloody hell!! Gryffen!!?" Spike tripped over his duster trying to help his fallen friend, landing at Gryffen's side. He reached out and Gryffen scampered away in a panic.

"Don't touch me!!!"

"Gryf.....mate, come on....snap out of it....." Gryffen looked up, finally with a spark of recognition gleaming in his eyes. Spike found himself enthralled by the pain in his friend's eyes. They were like black glass, bottomless wells of pain.

"I know you....Spike, you're.....you're a vampire?"

"That's right....we met when you were a lil' blighter....knee high to a grass hopper n' all that. You remember the club, your dad on the skins? Me teaching you guitar?"

"I remember.....when you touched me.....it all came back at once, like taking a sledgehammer between the legs."

"You always could paint the prettiest picture with words there, mate." The two men got to their feet, brushing off the dust and filth from the rooftop,"So....not dead then 'eh?"

"No...still dead...just sorta, resurrected....I think."

"You think? Can't be a little more definite than that? What about the bird?" Gryffen looked off into the distance, feeling a kinship with the dark carrion feeder, feeling what it felt soaring above the skies.

"My guide...my link between this world and the next....he shows me things, tells me where to go....who to..."

"Who to kill, right?"

"It was them, Spike....it was them. They killed us....killed her...but then, after.....after we were dead...I was with her again.....then I wasn't and I was somewhere else. You can't know what it's like....to have her, to love her with every fiber of your being....have in her your blood like a drug and then just have her gone the next second....she might as well have never been there in the first place.....you can't know how much that tears a man apart," Spike turned around the moment he sensed Buffy behind him, he looked at her, angelic as ever, he couldn't help but smile, remembering and feeling blessed for what he had now.

"You're wrong, mate....I know exactly what that's like."

Chapter 17

Buffy raised her arm as if to strike him and Spike flinched. The arm fell heavy at her side and she looked away for a moment before launching herself against him and hugging him tight,"Stupid vampire!" she said, punctuating it by cuffing his ear. She pulled back and gave him a sad little look and Spike realized how his actions must have affected her, especially after she made it clear how disturbed she was by the whole Gryffen situation.

"Love...I'm sorry....I wasn't thinking....just.....just....Gryffen, he's alive....well, sort of.....resurrected." Buffy looked Gryffen over, in all his living color, well, living black, very much alive.

"Gryffen," she said breathlessly, inching back into Spike.

"We've met...." The look Gryffen was giving her made Buffy feel that she was under much scrutiny.

"You don't remember me? Buffy....Tara's friend..." Gryffen seemed to grow pensive, as if trying to associate the names she was speaking with faces."Tara....your sister?"

"I saw her....last night....yes, I remembered the address on the letters she wrote me....I wanted to ask her why mama hated me so much.....but there was someone else there with her....red hair...."

"That was Willow..."

"He's confused, does rightly know who he is..." Spike tried to explain, though found the endeavor fairly pointless since he didn't have any answers himself."The crow.....guess Anya was right...."

"Oh..." Buffy fell in silence, now that they'd found Gryffen...an his handiwork on the street below...Buffy had no clue how to proceed, this was the sort of thinking that was usually left to Giles.

"Gryffen...we should leave this place," Spike finally decided,"Go back to my crypt...good hideout...coppers won't find you there."

"The police don't matter....there's nothing they could do to me anyways." Gryffen knelt down and picked up a jagged piece of metal that had been laying carelessly on the foor and promptly shoved it through his palm. Buffy tensed, as well did Spike, but both were virtually hypnotized. Gryffen pulled the metal out and discarded it, holding up his hand, the wound healed itself instantly and did not even leave a trace of blood.

"Bloody hell...." Spike whispered.

"Convenient, huh?"

"That's not exactly what I was thinking, Gryf."

"They emptied their clips and I didn't feel a thing...I feel alive again, Spike, even if it's only for a little while..."

"How long you got then?"

"Until it's done....until they've paid...I can't be with Odette until they're all dead."

"And just who is left?" Buffy asked, anger starting to flare behind her eyes. She could understand where this man was coming from, but something about him disturbed her and that made her angry. Then Gryffen looked at her in a way that made her want to cower in a corner and cry.

"The crow, he's looking for them now....and when he finds them, I'll kill them."

"Why? Why did they kill you in the first place? Can you tell us that?"

"No." The tone he used told Buffy it was more a case of not wanting to tell them rather than not knowing. He cocked his head and looked deeper into her soul, as if he were trying to crawl in there with her. Her bottom lip started to tremble and Spike felt her emotions radiating off her and straight through to his bones.

"Gryf....we need to go....no more tonight, alright?" Spike extended his arm and offered his hand, while the other reached behind him to hold Buffy's as some kind of reassurance,"Come with us....please."

"No rest.....no rest...." Gryffen murmured."No rest.....no rest until it's done...."

"Gryf?"

"Yeah.....I'll come....until tomorrow night.....I just want to rest, but the crow.....it won't let me...."

"Come on, mate....trust me."

***

"Just.....uh...well, take your pick of the furniture," Spike announced as he lead the way into the crypt,"Nothing's particularly comfortable...well, or clean for that matter, but I don't suppose that matters too much to you....considering..."

"Considering that my last resting place was a small box?" Gryffen replied, smiling for the first time since before he'd been dead. Gryffen flopped himself down in what was usually deemed Spike's chair, somehow the action irked Buffy as she came in last, but because it didn't seem to bother Spike she kept it to herself.

"Something like that....I'd offer you something....but...do you eat?"

"I don't know....I'm pretty sure I still drink though." Spike chuckled and rolled his eyes. The little glimmer of happiness Buffy saw in Spike helped her make the decision she'd been wrestling with since they'd found Gryffen. Spike handed Gyffen a bottle of what was presumably whisky and put two glasses on the small table next to the chair before making his way back to Buffy, taking her aside.

"Why don't you head home, love?"

"I'm staying the night," Buffy said as a matter of fact, giving Spike the most determined look she ever had, he found it absolutely irresistible.

"I've learned never to argue with a Slayer.....besides, you know I want you to stay."

"I'm too tired to argue. I just know I won't be able to sleep a wink if I didn't know that you were okay...and right now it feels like if I look away something will happen.....and I really couldn't take that just now."

"Blimy, my heart's gonna burst if you keep on filling it with love...I'm not used to you treating me so well....I'm going to develop a complex."

"I just want you to hold me....I don't know when when it happened, but nothing feels right unless I have that....but..."

"Is there a problem?"

"Yeah....we're not alone."

"Right...well, I can remedy that.....somewhat, made some additions to the bed."

"Really? What did you do?"

"Found a way to keep the heat in, so you won't get cold...it's nice and private...it'll keep in our heat...."

Chapter 18

Once the heavy curtains around the four poster bed had enclosed them in their own little world, Buffy caved into the plush mattress, burying her face in a pillow. Spike reclined next to her as he worked at kicking his boots off, unbuckling his belt at the same time."Tired, love?" he asked as the boots successfully fell on to the ground out from under the hanging tapestries, joined a second later by his socks, tattered things that they were. Buffy nodded her head, face still in the pillow, body still unmoving and much to Spike's chagrin, still clothed. He smiled inwardly and let her be, proceeding to strip himself of his clothing, bundling them at the end of the bed before maneuvering himself under the covers and relaxing for a good day's rest."Buffy, sweetheart, you could have just gone home...maybe you'd be more comfortable...." She rolled over and smiled at him, despite herself.

"I'm right where I want to be...and I am comfortable," she reassured him,"A little uneasy though, that we're not alone." Her voice dipped to a whisper so not to attract attention to their private conversation. He rolled over until they were scarcely a breath apart, resting a hand on her shoulder.

"I understand, love....but we're in our own little world....there's nothing outside of this box we're in right now.....just you and me....." He went to kiss her, but she unexpectedly back away, but before Spike could protest she'd gone to task at removing her own clothing, which made the vampire very pleased indeed. She slipped naked under the covers, she melted into him, as much of their bodies touching as possible."Can I have that kiss now, love?"

"No kiss...leads to other things...."

"Since when is that a bad thing? Or rather, a bad thing again?"

"Since we're not alone......and neither one of us can be particularly quiet...."

"I can behave."

"Sure you can....and that's a flashlight in between us."

"Well, bloody hell woman! Do you really expect me to lie naked in a bed with you and just lie naked in a bed with you??"

"Okay fine....but be QUIET!!" Truth be known, the second she touched him she knew there was no denying either of them, nonetheless she was determined to be as inconspicuous as possible. Feeling very much like a kid let loose in the proverbial candy store, Spike rolled himself on top of Buffy and eased himself between her legs. He was well met with absolutely no resistance from her or her body and soon enough he'd managed to join them to his hilt. Certainly never one to simply lay there and let him do all the work, Buffy hooked her legs around his waist and encouraged him on. He made gentle and rhythmic surges against her in a steady ebb and flow. Already Buffy was losing herself in the delirium, his stroking was causing mute flesh to sing, fuses deep inside to be ignited. She pulled his body right against her, wrapping her arms around his neck and bringing his ear to her lips,"Do you want to bite me, Spike? Sink those long white fangs into my throat and drink?" She heard him gasp at her questions and he almost stopped moving entirely. Keeping the momentum going, she thrust her hips back up at him in earnest,"I want you to....god, I want you to....." His lips moved over her neck, kissing and tasting the surface, drawing blood to the area, but not yet piercing the skin. Suddenly all at once she moaned and came, with Spike holding his hand over mouth as his fangs descended into her neck, replenishing her liquid with his own as he drank her blood and climaxed.

He only took a little, drinking just until her body stopped shaking from it's orgasm; he pulled the fangs away and cleaned the wound with his tongue.They slipped apart and he collapsed at her side, drawing her against him and into his all encompassing embrace. The sweetened, metallic taste of her blood lingered in his mouth, on his lips, more importantly, in his veins. Buffy let out a satisfied groan and shifted until her back was touching every part of his torso."Buffy?"

"Mmmm?"

"You're okay?"

"Oh yes..."

"I love you, Buffy...."

"Go to sleep, Spike." He nestled his face to the puncture wounds in her neck and drifted off, feeling warm and content, altogether perfect. Which usually meant the universe was about to pull the proverbially rug out from under him.

***

She watched herself in the mirror as she put her hair up, wrapping the wayward curls in a tight bun and affixing them atop her head. It wasn't something she did often, but he liked it when her neck was exposed, and she like the kisses that came before the ultimate rapture, his fangs in her artery, drinking deep. Ever since that first time, joined as man and woman at the same time as vampire and Slayer, it was then that she knew she loved him. Dressed in a gown of sheer white fabric, her pert breasts and the darkness between her legs visible to any who may see her. She took uneasy steps through the cemetery, looking every for for him but seeing neither hide nor hair, infact she was quite alone.

She was about to call out for him when she spied him, standing above her atop a decrepit mausoleum. He looked down on her from 12ft up, a smirk painted on his face, his body clad in black leather. Without ceremony he leapt down, soaring with the flaps of his coat ballooning out like massive wings. Crashing into her, Buffy landed on her back, with Spike laid on over her, her white dress ruined and stained with dirt and grass. Hhe seethed,e pinned her arms above her head, his face in vampiric form, horrible and vicious. He growled menacingly and his yellow eyes blazed."They hate you," "They think you're an abomination...wrong..."

"Who? Who thinks that?"

"Don't you see them? Do they not talk to you?" She looked around and realized she and Spike were surrounded. Innumerable crows hopped and skittered about, all over the lawn, perched on headstones, all around her and mocking her. Buffy began to cry, sob in fact, choking and heaving, distressed under the weight of Spike's body. She was helpless and weak, underneath their scrutiny, under his body."They'll run you out of town.....then they'll follow you and drive you out of the next one." She cried harder, her head thrashing about as she looked for any release, escape from the fear.

Suddenly she was somewhere else, somewhere colder, snow blanketed the ground and her body was encased in a coat of black fur. She was warm and felt safer, moreover there were no crows in sight. In actuality there was nothing in sight, snow was falling in such a great amount that she could scarcely see ten feet in front of her face. Almost magically a light became apparent, coming to her quickly. The anomaly comforted her, gave her great anticipation, expectation. It was an old style oil lamp, the kind that decorated archways in ancient Rome. The flame burned low, but brightly, and he held it before him. It was Spike, his black leather duster ever hung over his shoulders. He came straight to her, smiling sweetly, full of emotion and empathy. He kissed her cheek,"But I'll find you, I'll always find you....and I'll protect you from them."

Chapter 19

Buffy was awake again, breathing heavily and trying to emerge from yet another vivid dream. She reached immediately for Spike, but she was alone in the bed, the heavy curtains still dividing her from the rest of the crypt. She gave herself time to calm and somehow was actually comforted by the last image of her disturbed subconscious, Spike promising to never abandon her. Nonetheless she was still in want of him, the reassurance she craved. Wrapping the quilt around herself she parted the curtains and left the bed."Spike?" she called out meekly, but no answer came. Around the corner she could distinguish the flickering light of candles and then all of a sudden the crypt was filled with laughter, Spike and Gryffen. She stopped and listened as it continued, something about Spike's laugh warmed her heart, he seemed so happy.

"Wait.....my turn....my turn.....it's a good one this time....Right then.....Uh, k'.....I've got this mate, his name's Peterson....one time he bought a pair of shoes with artificial intelligence," Buffy perked up and listened as Spike began his monologue,"Smart Shoes, they were called. It was a neat idea. No matter how blind drunk you were, they would always get you home. Then he got ratted one night in Oslo and woke up the next morning in Burma.  See, the shoes got bored just going from his local to the flat.  They wanted to see the world. He had a helluva job getting rid of them. No matter who he sold them to, they'd show up again the next day. He tried to shut them out, but they just kicked the door down. Last thing he heard, they'd sort of robbed a car and drove it into a canal.  They couldn't steer, y'see. Peterson was really, really blown away by it. He went to see a priest.  The priest told him, it was all right, and all that, and that the shoes were happy, and that they'd gone to heaven. Y'see, it turns out shoes have soles." Dead silence, Buffy shook her head and smiled, poor, sweet Spike.

"Man....that was....that was....just awful."

"That was a bloody good joke!"

"It really wasn't."

"I'm getting another beer."

"You do that." A few moments later bottlecaps were tossed to the gathering pile of their brothers, next to the family of empty beer bottles."We decided on green, right?"

"You sure these things are in tune? They've been sitting in the bloody corner for over a year....probably warped...."

"They're fine Spike....acoustics this old were built to last....they're solid....strings are still strong.....question is....do you remember the chords?"

"'Course I bloody remember them.....I taught 'em to you didn't I....besides.....I'm playing lead, you're the one who's got to keep the rhythm!"

"1.......2...3....1, 2, 3....." With that the two men started to strum their guitars. A few seconds in Spike started to whistle in accompaniment, the song was slow and perfectly harmonious between the two men, moments after Spike started to whistle Gryffen began to sing,"Heavy hung the canopy of blue...Shade my eyes and I can see you....White is the light that shines through....The dress that you wore......She lay in the shadow of the wave...Hazy were the visions of her playing....Sunlight on her eyes....But moonshine beat her blind everytime.....Green is the color of her kind...Quickness of the eye deceives the mind...Many is the bond....Between the hopeful and the damned...." After Gryffen's vocals ended Spike's whistling picked up again as they closed out the song....it was the most beautiful thing Buffy'd ever heard."Hmmm.....wow...."

"Yeah....can't beat it, can you, the old rot...songs like that'll still be around in a 1000 years."

"So will you...."

"Slayer willing!" They started laughing again, picking up their drinks and taking another swig each."Speaking of which I wonder if the bird'll ever wake up?"

"You must have done something right last night....to have tired her out like that."

"Watch your mouth there, Gryf, that's my lady you're talking about." Gryffen chuckled,"What?"

"You, man....in love....with someone that's not...that's uh...."

"Not a homicidal lunatic?"

"Something like that....don't get me wrong, I thought Drusilla was beautiful, but, well....everyone in the whole damn club was scared shitless of her, you knew that right?"

"Too rights I did....good ol' Dru, mad as a hatter....always up for a massacre, or just a casual terrorizing."

"She was a psycho, Spike...creeped the hell outta me!"

"You were 14 when you met her...back then, Gryf, a skin magazine had you running into the back room. Dru was who she was, but that's the past....Buffy, she's the present, she's my future."

"It's still good to see you with someone, that's not Drusilla...but oddly enough, I think that's what first attracted me to Ode, the dark hair, the face....guess I wasn't all that spooked from my encounter."

"Gryf, your first sexual experience was Dru licking you from belt buckle to chin and if I hadn't showed up I did she would have sucked your blood and killed you!"

"But what a way to go!"

"That is how I went....if you recall she did the same thing to me." They reclined in their seats, letting their laughter die down and a comfortable silence hang in the air, it was then Buffy chose to make her presence known.

"Spike?" she called out a little louder than the first time, coming around the corner. Immediately Spike got up from his chair and came over to her, taking her in his arms and hugging her. He walked them back towards what was considered the bedroom, out of Gryffen's sight and ear shot.

"Did we wake you, pet? Sorry if we got a little loud. Sleep well?"

"I slept okay...I don't like waking up alone though." She seemed oddly out of place to him, restless.

"What's the trouble, love? Another bothersome dream? They're not real....just junk your mind doesn't know where to put, so you get dreams."

"The dreams I can handle, it's something else....but, nevermind....it's not important, I'll handle it."

"Well, you shouldn't have to handle it...tell me, come on, pet....you trust me don't you?" She pulled him further into the crypt, as far away from Gryffen as possible.

"I trust you....but promise you won't overreact?"

"Yeah, I promise...tell me, Buffy...I want to know."

"It's Gryffen....I don't like the way he looks at me." Spike almost laughed, and would have if not for the look on her face, fear.

"Love, you are very beautiful..."

"It's not that, I don't see lust when he looks at me. Besides, he's in love with Odette right? It's something else, something sinister."

"Sinister? Gryf can be a jerk like every other guy, but he's not sinister - hell, look who you're dating! Gryf doesn't even scratch the surface."

"Oh no? You saw what he did to those men last night....but that's not even it.....it me. It's like he's looking straight into my soul and it's scaring the hell out of me." Spike tried to rationalize to himself what Buffy might be saying was truth, but he just couldn't see it. Nonetheless, Buffy would always came first, above every one else.

"Listen, love, it's early afternoon....why don't you head home, have a nice hot bath, a good meal. Gryf and I will be here all day...we'll figure it out later, alright? I know it's tough, all that's going on, it's.....well, let's face it.....it's fucked. We'll get on....we always do."

"I hope you're right, Spike."

"'Course I am." Truth be know, Spike wasn't the least bit sure he was right, Spike had seen Gryffen looking at Buffy more than once. Dividing his loyalties was tearing him up inside and at some point, something was going to have to break and he prayed no one would have to lose.

Chapter 20

Buffy had hurriedly dressed herself while Spike watched, more than a little concerned about his love, but unable to voice himself when torn between her and his best friend. She gave him a quick goodbye kiss and rushed past Gryffen, barely acknowledging him. Spike had made up the excuse that she was simply embarrassed. As Buffy left the crypt and came into the afternoon sun she breathed a heavy sigh of relief, which however was tempered when the crow swooped past her from atop the stone building. It landed close, positioning itself on a gravestone and cawed at her. The accusatory call sent Buffy reeling and she ran from the cemetery as quickly as her feet could carry her.

When she arrived at home, she found that much like she had been unwilling to rise from bed, Tara and Willow were still asleep and together. Being careful not to disturb them, she backed out of their room quietly and closed the door. Taking Spike's advice, she ran herself a full tub of scolding hot water. Spike's crypt may have become like a second home to her, but the place was cold. She sunk into the water, hissing as it touched her skin, steam rising like a fog rolling in off the ocean. She moaned as the water enveloped her completely up to her chin. Her arms and legs floated haplessly to the surface, then back down again. She felt free, unencumbered, wondering why she hadn't thought to take this time for herself before. Her mind was racing, too much had happened in the past few days for her to process it all sufficiently. At length she settled on one thought, one glorious, ecstatic thought....Spike and the progression of their relationship into something she now cherished. Of course he was still the same vampire that had terrorized her in high school; genuinely tried to kill her more times than she could remember, but at some point he had come to love her so devotedly that she couldn't deny him entry to her heart.

Furthermore, the way he used and manipulated her body into a vessel of pure kinetic nirvana was beyond compare. Her first time and only time with Angel had been sweet, Parker was a disastrous and nervous experience, and Riley simply lacked the edge she needed to really touch the height of pleasure that 10 seconds of Spike told she'd been missing all along. She closed her eyes and tried to remember every single last second of their history, especially the past few days, minus the resurrected rock star issue.

"You know why they hate you?" Spike asked as he and Buffy walked hand in hand along the shoreline. Their feet were bare and the cuffs of their pants were rolled up to keep from getting wet when a wave broke against the shore like a blown kiss. Buffy looked opposite from the ocean to the dark forest of fir and cedar trees and knew that life teemed the branches, the crow had come again."There's a legend that the crow and it's brethren were the most beloved creature by the Gods, with their wings as black as a starless night. They ate carrion and therefore took the power of many animals. Man did not exist yet, but that was about to change...." They stopped walking and Spike bent down to pick an open clam shell from the beach."See, the crow was flying overhead one day n' saw a clam shell and from that clam shell, man was escaping into the crow's world. The crow knew that the Gods had created something new, something that might be favored over him. So, he came raging down on man from the skies, trying to gather and trap them in the shell, prevent them from coming into the world. But the crow wasn't strong enough and man escape and populated the world....that's why they hate you, because you escaped and they couldn't keep you in your shell."

"Then why do they help some of us? Bring us back from the dead?"

"When the Gods saw what the crow was doing they became very angry and told the crow that as penance they all must help man and serve them as only they can. They are the bringers of the dead, carry souls on their back between dimensions. They are guides and protectors."

"I don't have a crow."

"No, you don't." Spike caressed her cheek and drew her close against him,"But you have me."

"Buffy?" Willow asked as she pounded on the bathroom door,"Is that you in there?" Buffy was suddenly torn from her dream and back to reality, reclined in the bathtub, having inadvertently fallen back asleep.

"Yeah....it's me....be out in a second," she called back. Her dream was fading fast, but Buffy remember a few choice details. If not for the beautiful ending of the dream, with Spike taking her in his arms, she would have wished she'd drowned in the bath water.

***

The last thing Spike took with him were his car keys, before the blanket he needed to shield himself from the sun. He'd sheathed a serrated bowie knife at his side and armed himself with a crossbow with plenty of arrows to spare."Ready?" he asked of Gryffen, who himself had chosen a long bladed sword as his primary weapon.

"You sure you want to do this?"

"Deadly sure."

"You told your girl you'd wait for.....she doesn't seem the type to take desertion lightly....after all you've told be about Slayers."

"Look, Gryf....sure Buffy's great in a fight, the best there bloody is....but this isn't the kind of fight she should get herself involved in....she's a Slayer, she kills vampire and demons....not humans, even low lives with souls who do just as much evil as any night thing. If there are consequences I refuse to have Buffy pay them."

"She's gonna be radically pissed off."

"I don't care how angry she'll be...I'll have saved her just a little bit more pain....I don't care if she hates me, it's better in the long run. Right then....we're off....your bird got its radar on?"

"The crow has shown me.....I know who we hunt."

"Why'd they kill you Gryf?"

"It's better if you don't know.....can we leave it at that?"

"If you can promise me it leaves with you? I won't have trouble attaching itself to the woman I love by proxy."

"It won't....when I'm gone....everything I was goes with me. Ready for your sun-run to the car?"

"Born ready, mate...bloody born ready!"

Chapter 21

It was late afternoon, an hour before before sunset at the most, as Buffy walked through the cemetery with Willow and Tara towards Spike's crypt. Buffy had detailed everything that had occurred with Gryffen after she'd gotten out of the bath, not to mention the fact that the murders of the three Mafia hit men had been profiled on local and national news stations all day long. Tara seemed to be accepting the fact that the Gryffen she knew and loved as her brother had changed, had come back differently and that he existed as his true self ony in her memories. This revelation by Tara served only to make Buffy ask questions about herself and how she had come back different.....wrong. In addition to that there were all the dreams she'd been having and keeping to herself, all the twisted and disturbing images that seemed to be full of portents and prophecy. She made a promise to herself to find a quiet moment alone with Spike and share with him what had been swirling around inside her mind like a tornado. Even though he couldn't really analyze or suss out what it all meant, she knew he'd tell her he loved her and that everything would be okay, that he'd see to it no matter what. As much as she knew he'd mean every word, it would be a hollow promise, there was really nothing he'd be able to do. Nonetheless just having him speak the words would mean everything to her.

"Spike? We're here," Buffy called out as the three women entered the crypt. Buffy was surprised not to see them in front of the television, infact there wasn't any noise around them whatsoever."Spike?! Answer me!"

"Gryffen? It's Tara....." Tara spoke after Buffy. The Slayer made herself quiet for a moment trying desperately to detect and semblance of Spike in the crypt, but to no avail, both he and Gryffen were gone.

"Stupid vampire....I'm gonna kill him!" Buffy seethed under her breath,"They're not here......I knew he'd do this, I should've listened to myself."

"What exactly did they do?" Willow asked.

"Spike told me flat out he didn't want me involved and I guess he's just told me again....I mean, come on....Slayer here, able to pretty much handled every situation.....damn vampires, they think they know everything just cause they've been around for a century." Buffy paused for a moment and sorted out her thoughts, looking at Tara and Willow to whom she was as close as sisters,"He thinks I don't understand why he wants to help Gryffen and wants to keep me out of it. It's because he thinks he failed me on top of that tower. If he helps Gryffen rest in peace he hopes he'll be able to let go of some of his guilt.....he really does love me that much doesn't he? Even if it gets him killed....and I won't let that happen."

"Then we need to find them," Willow stated, but then looked somewhat crestfallen,"But where do we start?"

"I have no idea....it's the crow, it's Gryffen's guide, the crow shows him and helps him remember."

"It's magical...we should act likewise," Tara announced, taking Willow's hand,"Willow and I can do something together."

"Are you sure?" Willow asked.

"When magic is pure, when it is used for real good....it's not the same, I trust you Willow."

"Any ideas then?" Buffy voiced as she gathered up a few candles.

"Oh! Transcendental tracking!!" Willow burst out enthusiastically."Buffy, we can tune you into Spike......you'll be able to follow after him...kinda like psychic bread crumbs!"

"That's my girl," Tara assured,"Buffy, we'll need a personal object from Spike....I wish we had one for Gryffen...."

"We do.....Spike took his guitar, it's downstairs......I...I'll be right back."

Buffy hopped off the bottom of the ladder to the floor of Spike's crypt, she looked around at what she now thought of as her second home and her chest tightened with emotion. She never wanted to fall in love again, especially with a vampire and even moreso with Spike, once her mortal enemy. But there she was, in his home and in close proximity to the bed that they'd made their's, she was alone and he was off probably getting himself killed before they'd even had a real chance. She wiped angry tears from her face, trying not to notice how alone she felt, how the mere absence of him by her side made him feel as far away as if she were in another dimension. She spotted the guitar, laying across one of Spike's many mismatched pieces of a furniture. She took it from atop the dresser and inadvertently knocked over a wooden box that had also been placed there. The hard din of small pieces of metal clanging to the stony floor of the cave echoed all around her, it seemed that over the years Spike had collected many pieces of jewelry, especially rings. He probably stole most of them, she thought with a slight smile. On her hands and knees she gathered as many of the rings as she quickly could. She picked up a silver one and her mind flashed back to when she'd first seen it. Under a spell by Willow, Spike had placed it on her finger as symbol of their engagement, a big ugly skull ring.

She put the ring back on her finger, amused how they had come full circle, hoping they'd get to go around again. Minutes later the three of them sat in a circle of candles, hands linked and Gryffen's guitar across Tara's lap. Willow and Tara were in deep contemplation, while Buffy tried her best no to be impatient. Willow took in a long breath and began her spell,"Hands bound in triune right; give us the power of second sight. We invoke the Morrighan, Mistress of the Crow; to show us wither doth it go. Let those who wish, see the paths taken; to follow in the footsteps of those unforsaken!"

***

"We're close now......they came this way," Buffy observed as she lead Tara and Willow. Every time Buffy changed direction or felt a pull in a certain way Tara echoed that Gryffen had passed this way with Spike. No one came to this part of town, the only people here were cursed, Buffy and people of her "social class" had always supposed so. The homeless, the hopeless, the junkies, the hookers, the criminals of the lowest order, the psychos...their overused, thinned out souls that just waited for death to release them from their dungenous vessels. This is where the the demons dwelt too, reveling in the despair of mortals who hadn't the will or care to fight back. The sun had long since set and Buffy felt some relief that Spike wouldn't have to worry about the sun getting him, little comfort against whatever else might try and kill him and Gryffen, again.

"Buffy look!" Willow abruptly announced,"That's Spike's isn't it!?" It was indeed, the battered old DeSoto was parked at the mouth of a long dark alley. The three women ran across the deserted street to the car, as expected neither man was there, but the engine was still warm. Buffy opened the driver's side door and found a cigarette smoldering in the ash tray.

"They can't have gone far..." Buffy informed, trying a new to pick of the sense of Spike's trail; it was then that she heard a distinctive and unnatural sound for this place, the caw of a crow. It took less than the blink of an eye for Buffy to react, slamming the car door and rushing into the alley.

Chapter 22

"I can seem them...the crow sits at an open widow high above us..." Gryffen spoke solemnly,"There are three over seeing a large group.....vampires, demons, men...they are in command of them...." Spike didn't rightly care how many of them there were and which three were sitting at the head of the table, he just wanted to get Gryffen along to his afterlife and in the process get a bit of a life himself, one in which Buffy could respect him as more than just a lover. Ever since they had honed in on their targets something strange had come over Gryffen, he'd become as brooding and skewed as a poem written by a mad man. He'd speak random lines of thought, gibberish about music or Odette, frankly Spike thought he was clear off his rocker. But then Gryffen would say something profound or epiphanous and then it was back to business. At length they came to an abandoned warehouse, at least 10 stories tall and covered mostly in lines of dusty, blacked in windows. Gryffen was about to storm in there like they were a Roman army, but Spike held him back,"Wise up, mate, element of surprise n' all that....can't go in there all weapons blazin'.....those whatevers could have a full arsenal on tap just ready to unleash on poor unassuming us....they won't have tea and biscuits prepared with little doilies under 'em!"

"It doesn't matter what weapons they have...there is no weapon that can harm me, remember?"

"Oh....right....well, then....kamakazi it is...."

"Over my dead body.....and I don't really feel like dying a third time," announced Buffy, coming up behind them with Willow and Tara in tow.

"Slayer....this isn't your fight!"

"I know....you're convinced it's yours...and seems how I don't think I've got the time to change your mind, I'm making it mine too."

"No....you're not....leave......"

"Make me."

"Buffy, this is hardly the time or place for a lil' lover's spat.....there's work to be done here."

"Then shut up and let's get on with it...."

"I have an idea," interrupted Gryffen,"You guys stay here...."

"Gryf, mate....I made you a promise," Spike protested.

"This was never for any of you, this was never about any of you...it is for me to do and me alone....for Odette.....I know she doesn't care or want this....but I can't be with her until it's done.....it has to be me." Gryffen's words were sobering to all gathered around him, his words were the stone cold truth, none of them had any right to even be there. Spike himself realized Gryffen was just letting him tag along because of their friendship. Gryffen caught beautiful and effulgent tears in Tara's eyes and winked at her, like he always did, before tucking inside. Spike closed his eyes and churned the thoughts and conflict over in his mind, once again having to chose between the woman he loved and his best friend.

He unexpectantly took the Slayer's hand and brought it to his cheek, closing his eyes and losing himself for a moment in the amazing tactile sensation of her skin against his,"I love you Buffy....." He let go and followed in after Gryffen. Buffy's mouth gaped open like an entire shoal of guppies. She turned around to Willow and Tara.

"Does he seriously think I'm just gonna wait outside? I am so not the good little woman...."

"We're right behind you with protection spells a plenty!" Willow chimed in.

"We must help my brother," Tara spoke resolutely,"I don't think he's going to be able to do this...something's very wrong, I feel it."

"Then let's stop wasting time," said Buffy. They followed after Spike and Gryffen, Buffy breaking into a run after her vampire,"Spike stop! Please..." He turned around and waited for her, not ready or willing to argue with her anymore.

"Slayer....."

"Don't waste your breath...not that you have any...I'm here to watch your back, okay?" He nodded and handed the crossbow to her, a weapon she knew well, the weapon of a Slayer.

"No, no, no!!" Gryffen started yelling, walking himself in circles,"Not her....we can't have her.....she's not suppose to be here!!"

"It's happening," Tara warned,"He's been here too long...he's wandered from his path....it's breaking his mind..."

"You...it's all your fault....this was my time and you're polluting it...."

"Gryf, what are you talking about?" Spike asked, but then Gryffen advanced on Buffy.

"You're a filthy abhoration, your ugliness hangs on you like dead meat! A freak who escaped her captivity.....they should lock you back up in a cage and forget about you!"

"You leave her the hell alone Gryf or so help me...." Spike warned, his demon face threatened to breach what little control he had over himself.

"You're wrong," Buffy whispered with a shaky voice,"It wasn't my choice....."

"You need to understand," Gryffen spoke with clarity and before Buffy had a chance to object he had taken her head in his hands and the memories flowed between them. She dropped her weapon and looked over to Spike with panic and anguish in her eyes, hot tears streaming down her face.

"Let go of her!!!" Spike roared, trying to pull him from Buffy, but in the process getting caught up in the magic.

There was no path of heavenly light, no blazing hall of holiness, she was in the safe place one moment and in another she was somewhere else. Buffy stood in contrast to her surroundings, she stood in a wasteland, dead sinuous and spindly trees were scattered on either side of a long and winding road that seemed to extend into infinity, for indeed it did. She proceeded down the path and as she stepped under the umbrella of the intertwined branched that hung over the path Buffy felt an unnatural chill surge through her veins. This place was desolation, abandonment, liquid agony flowed through the roots of the trees and something wicked hung in the air like a stillborn death. Buffy could have wretched if it weren't for the fact that the concept no longer existed, she was only a soul now. She started to shiver and convulse, she'd begun hearing disembodied voices, the urgent wailing of torment souls layered upon each other in a horrible symphony. Some voices called for vengeance, while other begged to just be with the ones they loved, they were all lost and she was lost among them. The light from the nonexistent moon went out and a new sound came into the melee, the cawing of crows, so loud it drowned out everything else, every one of her five sense tuned into them. The branches above were so full of crows, the blackness of them was like a million insects moving under a quilt, there was nothing but their color, and the sorrow that dripped from their feathers like mercury, pooling around Buffy. She would have lost herself, adrift in the sea of anguish they projected, but the noise was suddenly gone, however the blackness stayed....inside her coffin.

Buffy screamed and Spike finally succeeded in prying Gryffen away from her, the dead man backed away and sat in the corner, solemn and quiet. Spike gathered Buffy in his arms and walked as far away from Gryffen as he could in the room. Leaving Tara and Willow in his wake, taking care of Buffy himself. He sat with her in his lap, cradling her and rocking her as she shook violently, unable to even speak. She clung to him with all her Slayer strength. He was the one constant in all her trials and tribulations, all her truest emotions. He was her partner, her protector and her lover. ."I was in that place..." she whispered against his neck,"That godless place...."

"My beautiful girl.....if I could make it all better, I would.....I swear I would. If I could turn back time......I'd take you back to Heaven...even if it meant losing you forever, I'd still take you back." He held her face to his unbeating heart with his whole hand, shielding her from every evil his sole body could. He wasn't a vampire and she wasn't the Slayer in this time, just man and woman.....inseparable, bound by love.

"I can never go back....."

"Don't talk like that, love....someday, when you're old, finished for real..."

"You don't understand, Spike...When I was taken from there, when I passed through where Gryffen did, without a guide....all the doors closed behind me forever.....I'm here forever....." He was dead silent, absorbing the solemnity of what she was telling him, how awful the realization must be for her, but then she surprised him,"Thank god you are too....I'm not alone..." He squeezed her tight and she returned his embrace with equal intensity,"I love you, you know that don't you?"

"I know....I've always known.....but it's still nice to hear it."

"I love you, and I'll tell you every night....but we have work to do still, before the sun comes up.....and Spike?"

"Yes Buffy?"

"I love you isn't enough....you've become so much more to me..."

"It's enough, pet.....more than enough....it's everything."

Chapter 23

"I'm sorry, Buffy...it just came upon me all at once.....I didn't mean to hurt you..." Gryffen apologized, looking also to Spike for forgiveness,"But I had to make you see....I don't have much time left, I've already wasted too much...but you didn't know what you were Buffy....so..."

"You thought you'd show me?" she replied, her voice dripping with disdain. She picked up the crossbow and took the arrows Spike had slid into a makeshift quiver,"Come on...let's get this over with....what are we up against?"

"A few floors up, vampires, demons......hired thugs...and the three responsible - they're mine...." Gryffen replied, accepting that forgiveness for his actions wasn't exactly going to be coming soon from the Slayer.

"We can deal.....Willow, Tara...you're our cover - energy fields, distractions....Spike, you and I are on vamp and demon detail....Gryffen, you do what you have to..."

***

The expanse of the third floor of what was now determined to be an old office building appeared to have been gutted and reformed to act as what could almost be described as a command center. Certainly, it wasn't military, it was actually almost medieval, at the farthest end of the massive room were three 'thrones', old gothic chairs, flanked on either side by oddly enough, life size replicas of Storm Troopers a la Star Wars. The present Scoobies all gave each other a questioning look before taking stock of the amassed legion of vampires, demons and possibly some Mafia thugs. They hung in the back and waited for what seemed to be the coming of the three who would occupy the thrones, the three who had killed Gryffen and Odette.

"What are you thinking, Slayer?" Spike asked under his breath, audible to only Buffy.

"I don't know of any demons that are into Star Wars, do you? This is weird....unless Darth Vadar's about to appear..." she replied, just as a hush fell over crowd and the Scoobs ducked into the shadows. In almost royal revelry three figures appeared from the expanse behind the throne, standing before everyone gathered were three utterly unthreatening small bodied.....geeks.

"Warren?" Spike spoke incredulously.

"And Jonathan..." added Buffy, equally as confused.

"Who's the third guy?" quipped Willow.

"Doesn't matter....Gryf....these wankers are the ones that had you killed?" Gryffen didn't reply, but instead drew up the sword from his side and held it aloft. Just as the three were about to address their minions Gryffen surged forward and decapitated a row of demons,"I think he just used up our element of surprise...." Willow and Tara joined hands in order to summon their magic, a wave of energy flew off them and sent all the demons and vampire to the ground. That was Buffy and Spike's cue to join the fray, going to task on taking out what stood between Gryffen and the geeks.

Spike made short order of two Locnar demons, twisting their arms off before breaking their necks, sustaining only a strained arm himself. He moved next to a side pack of vampires who'd been waiting for the chance to pounce on him all at once. His monster visage broke free and once they three saw who they were facing, Spike gained the upper hand. Meanwhile Buffy had thrown herself into the melee with taking out two vampires with the crossbow. As she reached into the quiver for another pair, she was unexpectantly uprooted and tossed into a wall by a particularly large male vampire, not unlike the disproportionate types she'd seen on wresting shows. She got to her feet and moved out of the way just in time as his wrecking ball of a fist went into the wall. Taking a stake in each hand she whipped around and plunged both into his back. She didn't have time to savor the small victory before another league of vamps and demons came at her.

Spike had taken the knife from his side and went to task and gouging out the hearts of a few demons, kicking back vamps and other ghouls if they tried to attack or even just interrupt. His mind was on the fight, but no solely, he was ever vigilant on the Slayer's welfare. Buffy on the other hand was like a moving poetry of war - stealth and lithe, bending and shaping herself to counter an opponent's blow or attempt at cunning.

At length they battled died down as the last of the demons were conquered or vampires dusted. Buffy and Spike turned to face each other, muscles taut and primed from the fight, both reveling in the aftermath. However, what went unnoticed were the three responsible in the first place, one in particular who had taken up the Slayer's weapon and a stray arrow. With the discarded crossbow in his hands as he stood behind Spike, he aimed it perfectly to the vampire's heart and the trigger was pulled.

Chapter 24

A silent scream tore itself from Buffy's throat when she saw the look on his eyes, the paralyzing knowledge that the arrow had entered his body in perfect aim to his heart. He gave her an apologetic look, moments before he believed he'd turn to dust, Buffy shook her head and mouthed 'no' and held her hand out to touch him one last time. He fell forward, as if dead, but still he remained whole. It was then that the reason for his still being alive was clear, the arrow had no pierced his heart, merely come close on to it, something had stayed it's full penetration. The crow had taken the full force of the arrow and was now pined to Spike's back and dead. Buffy fell at him, ignoring the still present dangers, concerned only with her love's peril. Her hands shook violently and she forced herself to calm, pushing her adrenaline down deep until she needed it again, right now Spike was the only importance to her. Her small hands closed around the protruding shaft of the arrow, she knew she had to be careful as she withdrew it, if any part of it nicked his heart, he'd disintegrate. With a cry she pulled the arrow and the dead bird from his body. The wound weeped, an injury so close to his heart could have severe ramifications if it didn't he start to heal soon.

She rolled his body over and cried out when she saw that his eyes were open and still full of life."Spike....Spike...." she whispered hoarsely, trying to find her voice through the wash of tears. He grabbed her arm, making sure she was real and that so was he.

"Close one, eh Slayer?" he whispered back. She wanted to throttle him, but settled for just kissing him...long and deep. His arms moved across her back and pulled her down to him, at which point he groaned in pain with the ache in his back.

"Oh! Sorry.....sorry..." Buffy immediately backed off him.

"Don't pay no mind...m'own fault....I'm lying flat on my back, in severe pain yet again, close on death a few mo's ago n' tryin' to get romantic."

"I don't mind romantic...but not in the middle of a fight for our lives..."

"Speaking of which...when did it stop? And where's Gryf?" Buffy's spine straightened and she looked around at the many piles of dust and the few demon bodies. Willow and Tara were calming each other down after their bursts of magic, but Gryffen was gone and so was Warren. Jonathan and Andrew cowered together in the corner and it was them that Buffy honed in on. Getting up from Spike she stormed straight to the lesser members of the Troika and hauled them single handily up against the wall.

"Jonathan....you have 5 seconds to tell me everything you and your friend here are involved in," she seethed.

"Andrew," the blond one said.

"Huh?"

"My name's Andrew....you probably don't remember me....but, flying monkies....school play?"

"Huh? Nevermind.....start talking!!!"

"Don't look at us," Jonathan protested,"We were just along for the ride....we'd like to get off now."

"Now is not the time to by lying to me.....you two and Warren have been thorns in my side for months now....you already crossed the line when you hired thugs to killed two innocent people and tonight you crossed over my line when you tried to kill my boyfriend."

"Who?" they asked in unison.

"What?"

"You're boyfriend?"

"That would be me, chaps," Spike spoke up, taking a stance behind his woman.

"Spike?! You're dating Spike? That's just twisted....it's like Leia going out with Chewbacca or something!" Jonathan explained, forgetting the fact that he was in the possession of a mighty brassed off Slayer.

"It's really no a smart thing to insult my choice in men when I've got you both up against the wall...."

"Buffy, love, you're going to want to watch those double entendres...one slip of the tongue and they'll embarrass themselves.....besides what they do already just by living," Spike offered before realizing his own poor choice of words."Right...sorry 'bout that....continue with the interrogation."

"You heard the vampire.....the one with a thirst for both blood and vegeance....why did you have Gryffen killed?"

"We didn't know it was going to happen like that.....honest," Andrew wailed on the verge of loosening the hold he was struggling to maintain on his bladder.

"Yeah....it was Warren....he hired the Mafia guys....you gotta believe us Buffy!" Jonathan added.

"Then tell me why....you've got one more chance, boys, don't waste it."

"It was something Warren found out about....I forget what it's called....but he found out the lead singer for the Crypts had it and Warren wanted it....to help us take over Sunnydale.....well, and the world too."

"What is it? What's worth killing a person over?"

"We don't really know what it is.....Warren wouldn't tell us...just that it'll give him powers."

"What kind of powers? Your time's up by the way."

"We don't know..." Andrew whimpered. Buffy rolled her eyes and dropped them to the ground.

"Next time you two hook up with a homicidal maniac...get references!" Jonathan and Andrew held on to each other and cowered in the corner, waiting for the Slayer and her friends to leave. Instead, Spike maneuvered his way past Buffy and crouched down at Jonathan and Andrew. They tried to scramble away but he pounded his fists into the wall on either side of their heads."Spike what are you doing?" Ignoring Buffy he brought the vampire out again, his face contorting into its feral shape and his eyes masked with yellow. A low, guttural growl emanated from from his throat and the two conspirators trembled in abject fear.

"You will not never know fear.....you will never know pain......because there is no one that walks this Earth that will EVER come close to wanting to inflict as much suffering on you as I.....and you will live the rest of your lives knowing that there is a demon on your backs and he wants you." Spike leaned in closer and growled a diabolical sound before backing off and starting to leave,"C'mon...we hafta catch up to Gryf." Buffy watched him walk on, understanding why he'd just done what he had, knowing that if it weren't for the chip in his head he would have killed both Jonathan and Andrew. She was grateful that he was on her side.

Chapter 25

Buffy and Spike took the stairs three at a time, racing up to the top floor, Willow and Tara trying their best to keep up. The Slayer and the vampire came crashing through the door at the top floor, weapons in hand and prepared, though neither knew what to expect. Buffy suddenly found herself pushed back and behind Spike.

"He doesn't have anymore bullets left," Gryffen choked out, standing facing Warren who still held up his gun.

"Gryf....what do you mean?" Spike asked, as Buffy, Willow and Tara forced their way through the door with Spike. Seconds later they found out why Warren's gun was spent. The chamber of the gun had been emptied into Gryffen's torso and though he still stood on his feet, there was little life left in him.

"The crow has been killed..."

"Yes....it saved m'life..."

"Good....good....I'm mortal now...it'll be over soon..."

"Nah.....nah.....no, you tell me where it is!" Warren wailed hysterically, fueled by blind rage and irrationality, waving the empty gun around. Spike lashed out and knocked Warren a good 20ft away, half way across the floor. Spike held in the cry of pain from the chip in his head, but waned on his feet, only to find himself suddenly supported by Buffy's strong arms. Gryffen slumped to the floor and immediately Tara and Willow were at his side, soon so were Spike and Buffy.

"Without the crow...I am lost again..." he whispered.

"Gryf....mate, tell us what you want us to do..." Spike replied.

"It's inside me...what he wants it, what's been in me since the day I was born. Mama made me its keeper, its protector, she put it in her own child - that's why father took me away, when he found out what she'd done...it's called The Ephesium Configuration....."

"What does it do Gryf? Why is it worth killing you over..." Gryffen coughed up another gulp of blood, his lungs rattling as he counted down to his last breath.

"It is old power, real power, good power.....the story is old and I do not have time to tell it, but after creation, the higher power had a little bit left over...so he entrusted it to a woman....the real first woman, before talk of Eve, it's all just myth and legend, I don't know what's true...but she passed it down through the first born daughter and that's how it always was....I was the first and only son in all those generations, mama had no choice but to give it to me.....it was how it had always been....but if one of you doesn't take it now, it'll be lost...."

"But what is it?" Buffy persisted.

"It is creativity....ingenuity....inspirations....the dreams, such dreams you'l havel.....it is where you will learn to face your fears...and ride the whims of your mind...the places you can see and visit, dimensions...and you'll never leave your body, a universe inside your mind......and it is temperance, peace....it is love, laughter and sweet content."

"How do we get it out of you then?" Spike asked,"And who gets it? Tara? It should go to you..."

"I....I...don't know....it's too much....Gryffen.....what do I do with it?" Tara replied in a shaky voice, looking between them all for guidance.

"It'll give to you freely of itself....it may take time for you to notice....it didn't come alive in me until Spike gave me that guitar....and then I knew music like never before...with the Ephesium I heard the voices of the higher powers flow through me. There is another way...the configuration is divided in quarters, like earth, air, fire and water.....each of you can hold a part of the Ephesium......please....there isn't.......much....time....."

"What do we do?" Buffy demanded and Gryffen started slipping away. His eyes snapped open and he looked straight at her.

"Tear it from my heart...." Buffy recoiled at the thought,"Get me to my feet..." With Spike and Buffy help they got him to his feet. Gryffen reached out and cupped Tara's face.

"You're magic, Tara....you've the purest soul I've ever know and I love you."

"I love you too," Tara smiled through her tears.

"Spike..." Gryffen commanded,"Give me my rest." Spiked nodded, clenched his jaw tight and summoned the courage needed. Holding him upright with one arm, he thrust his hand through the flesh and bones of Gryffen's chest, emerging with his blood drenched fist closed around the prize. Gryffen gave Spike a look of gratitude, a second later the animated dead man had new strength and one last purpose to fulfill. Warren had been ignored until then, thinking he was biding his time until he could claim the Ephesium configuration for himself, but no more. Gryffen ran at him with supernatural speed, his eyes screaming the torment that was to come for the murderer of himself and Odette. Gryffen tackled Warren and they were sent flying through the glass windows and free fell to the concrete ten stories below.

Those remaining ran after them, halting at the edge of the demolished windows, peering down to the street below and seeing only Warren's dead body."Where did he go?" asked Buffy.

"He's with Odette now," Tara reasoned. They back away from the window, unconsciously aligning their positions in the center of the room, each standing at one of the four quarters. Spike held his bloody fist out in front of them.

"Now what?" he asked.

"Let's see it," Willow assured,"Whatever it is..." He turned his fist over and opened it wide, revealing was looked to be little more than a small black marble.

"This is it?" Buffy spoke with confusion.

"Must be...."

"Right....Tara...." Spike began,"Take it....or....."

"I don't know what to do with it....how do I take it inside me?" Tara looked closely at her friends and she made her decision,"No....I don't want it...I m...mean I think each of us deserve it....agreed?"

"How, love....it's smooth, it's not like a bloody puzzle you can snap apart...there's.....well, sod it....just swallow the infernal thing."

"No Spike....I think I'm right....you have to say the word....each of you, say yes." The pause lasted but a second, then they each breathed out their affirmative reply. The black sphere raised itself from Spike's palm and began to disengaged itself in a complex shifting of what could only be described as organic gears. Four sections separated and however briefly in front of each of them, then the blacked turned to pure light, white and brilliant before surging into each of them, finding a home inside and then......nothing.

"Woah...." escaped each of their mouths.

"That's an eye opener....no mistakin'..." Spike added before turning to Buffy,"Let's go home, love."

Chapter 26

Finally back in the crypt, Spike groaned as his body hit the mattress and he ground his head into the pillow, his eyes firmly shut, legs splayed out and his boots still on."I could sleep for a month of Sundays," he spoke which was followed by a purr-like grumble in his throat. He lay content and ready to fall asleep as he was, but then a familiar pair of hands brought him back around. Buffy was unbuckling his belt."I'm going to get much sleep am I, pet?"

"No...I don't think so," she replied, undoing a button and lowering the zipper. Her hand reached inside and withdrew his long member and started to slowly caress him. He shifted his weight into a more comfortable position as he eyes rolled into the back of his head. With a few serious strokes from the Slayer, he grew hard and eager, thrusting up to meet the descent of her hand."Like that do you?"

"Well...I always knew you could handle a stake." He gave an initial grunt of discontent when she let go of him and started to pull his pants down, she yarded off his boots and tossed them aside with his pants.

"You really are tragic at jokes. Take off your shirt." He sat himself up and pulled off the ratty black t-shirt, taking a look at its state and deciding it had seen better days. Letting the shirt find its own way to the floor, he back himself against the headboard and watching in utter enthrallment as Buffy undressed herself.

"You really are the most beautiful creature on this Earth." She smiled coyly by his compliment, almost shy to be under his gaze,"Are you really mine?" She walked to him with a seductive sway to her gate before climbing on to the bed and straddling his hips, but holding herself just above his erection. He bent his head to suckle at one of her breasts, drawing the nipple into a taut point on supple flesh. She leaned into him, pressing her breasts at his face, then sinking herself down on his full length. His spine virtually melted as he felt himself stretching her, her body trying to accommodate his size as the warmth sheathed him.

"I'm your's." His lips moved to her exposed throat, sucking and licking, while his arms moved under hers' to take hold of her shoulders from behind. He pulled her down hard on him and Buffy was thankful then for the flexibility being the chosen one afforded her. In a rather unpoetic movement, she moved her knees out from under and placed them to his ribs. Making rotations with her hips, Buffy ground herself against him, mewing like a kitten each time he stroked deep inside her.

Her muscles coiled around him, spasming in steady beats already, smooth yet hard, all for him. He strained to rise, to prolong each motion she made, rapacious and incessant. Their love making was never one to stay musical and choreographed, and seems how Buffy was the one to initiate it tonight, Spike decided he'd rather be the one in control. Buffy heard the deep throaty growl emanating from him and she knew the demon had awakened. Buffy looked at him, fearlessly, he was hungry and feral and the semblance of every evil she'd fought in her few years and she loved him. Within seconds she was flat on her back, clawing behind her for anything to grasp on to as he started a mad rush of angry thrusts. There was no antidote against his sting and she could do nothing but shriek and cry from all the fevered entrances and exits he made.

She held off the orgasm that begged to be released, not until she'd experienced every second she could possibly handle of this carnivorous sex. She felt the tightening in her womb and heard the roar of the monster on top of her as he unleashed a torrent of white heat into her body. Her body milked his with a torturous thirst, dreams thrashing between her thighs as she came, eliciting new sounds from her xenophillic lover. He crashed upon her sweat drenched torso, slipping apart from her and sliding down to lay his head at the pillow of her stomach. His hands caressed and roamed her body as her knees unbuckled and relaxed to the bed.

Buffy caressed the blond curls of his hair as tenderly as a mother, while her breathing slowed and she savored the ephemeral sensations of her climax. He rained little kisses on her skin, tasting her, reveling in her as he drifted towards sleep."Spike?"

"Yes, love?"

"Why didn't you bite me too?"

"Didn't want to take you by surprise...didn't know if you wanted me to."

"I did...you don't need to ask next time...I trust you, and I love you."

"Say it again."

"I love you."

Chapter 27

Dawn twisted and toyed with the shoelace to Spike's boot, she looked over the blond vampire that lay stretched over the couch, his feet dangling over the edge, his legs in her lap and his head in her sisters'. The younger Summers smiled inwardly as she watched Buffy trace circles on his temple with her index finger while her other hand brushed his short hair between her fingers. Spike pretended to be watching the movie, but every now and again he'd close his eyes or nibble on his bottom lip as a little twinge of contented pleasure sparked inside him.

Dawn had come home from her class trip to a double helping of good news. Her friend Melanie's mother dropped her off and helped her to the door with her luggage, then drove off leaving Dawn to walk inside to what she expected to be a quiet, dark house. However, once the door was pushed open, she was met with peels of laughter and a riotous,"Bloody hell, Slayer! Watch it with that stuff, this my last clean shirt!" Immediately Dawn brightened, learning that Spike was once again welcome in their home. She bounded into the kitchen and gasped at the sight of Buffy licking chocolate icing off of Spike chin, then pushing her tongue in his mouth to kiss him.

"WOAH! Buffy?!" Dawn exclaimed. Buffy and Spike pulled apart and acted what Dawn was certain could be defined as coquettish. Spike cleaned his face with his thumbs and winked at Dawn.

"Hey, you're home! How was your trip? Did you thank Mrs. Wells for driving you home?" Buffy gleefully ran off as she pulled her sister into a hug.

"Buffy, you were kissing Spike!!" Dawn stressed.

"I know, I've been doing that alot lately....it's hard to stop."

"Huh? When did you start?!"

"A little over a week ago...when she declared her undying love for me." Spike informed proudly.

"Buffy is this true? You're in love with Spike?" Buffy nodded her head and a grand smile painted itself on Dawn's face.

"This is so cool!"

"See, told you the lil' bit would be thrilled," Spike beamed.

"So...tell me.....tell me everything!!"

"Later," said Buffy,"Right now we're going to eat these scrumptious fudge brownies, Anya and Xander should be here any minute, they're bringing a movie....Willow and Tara will be home soon with the pizzas."

"Holy revelations Batman...are Willow and Tara back together? I go away for a week and this place into a bigger lovefest than Woodstock!" She picked up the freshly tray of iced brownies and made her way out of the kitchen, calling back over her shoulder,"Next time I'll go away for two weeks and maybe you'll all end up pregnant!" Buffy was dumbfound by her sister's unabashed manner and comments. She gasped and jumped when Spike suddenly wrapped her arms around her waist, easing one hand a ways inside the front of her jeans, just under the fabric of her panties.

"Sounds good to me, how's about you Slayer?" She smiled and leaned back against him reaching behind to caress the back of his head.

"I think you're jumping the gun there....besides, you're a vampire."

"Stranger things have happened."

"Not right now they won't."

"Sure we've got to do this thing, love? It's nice n' all to be a full-on member of the Scoobies n' all that rot...but I much rather lay myself between those marble thighs of your's and....."

"Okay....off me!" She wrestled her way out of his grasp,"We're watching a movie, eating pizza, brownies and having a nice time...you are not going to drag me upstairs, strip me naked and ravage me forwards, backwards, outwards, inwards, bottom to the top." She left him alone in the kitchen to join Dawn in the living room, leaving him with a dull ache in his abdomen and an uncomfortably tight pair of jeans.

"You're a wicked wicked woman, Slayer...and god do I love you." A short while later they'd all gathered in the Summers living room for their first of what Buffy was affectionately calling Spike's official fun night as a wanted member of the group. Though he'd certainly never admit it, and continue to grumble about it ad nauseum, he was honored.

"Right then!" he began, smacking his hands together in mock anticipation, taking his seat between Dawn and Buffy on the couch,"What have we got on tap then flick-wise? Something British in honor of your's truly? Some sort of witty Hammer film? Monty Python? Peter Sellers?"

"Well, no.....but I did make my selections in honor of you Spike.....Dracula, Transylvania 6500 or Interview with the Vampire....what'll it be?" Xander explained.

"You smarmy bastard. You did this just to irk me."

"Absolutely."

Spike leaned in close to whisper in Buffy's ear,"Just so you know, pet, later tonight I will be having you forwards, backwards, outwards, inwards, bottom to the top as compensation for this metaphorical depantsing." Time passed, they were well into the movie, Spike now lay over the Summers women, and Dawn was a pleased as could be, her family were all together under the same roof, happy and in love. Spike on the other hand scowled every time Brad Pitt spoke on the screen,"You know, I could live to be a thousand and I'll never understand womens' attraction to that stupid git...he's a total prat."

"He's got a cute butt," Anya reasoned.

"Oh please!" Xander burst out,"You think that skinny, well-muscled, blond haired monkey is cute? Seriously...besides, that cute butt?? you can't nail a railroad spike with a tack hammer."

"Yes you can," Spike and Buffy replied in unison.

"I also happen to be a cunning linguist....aren't I, Slayer?" added Spike, which caused Anya, Tara and Willow to smirk and Xander to conjure an unwanted mental picture.

"Is that like a sex thing I'm not supposed to know about?" Dawn piped up.

"Yes," everyone else replied at once.

Chapter 28

After the movie, Xander and Anya returned home, Willow and Tara made themselves scarce upstairs and Dawn decided to turn in, tired after her trip. That left Spike and Buffy alone downstairs, reclined on the couch in each other's arms."Can you really imagine forever?" Buffy suddenly asked, rousing Spike from his impending slumber.

"It's all I've dreamt about, love, since I woke up one morning and realized I was in love with you."

"What if we don't last....that makes forever pretty scary."

"Now why wouldn't we last?"

"I'm not saying we won't....it's just that most people can't make a few years work for them, how can we be so sure that we can have forever?"

"We can't be %100, love, that's just the way this bloody life is....it's more like a knowledge, a deep seated knowledge that we....are...neverending. We belong to each other, body, heart and mind....well, that and we're each a quarter of the Ephesium Configuration....so I guess that hooks us in with the Witches too, eh?"

"I guess so, it's good to think that Willow and Tara have it between them aswell.....I just don't want this feeling to ever go away."

"It doesn't have to...it won't. Love, you just have to trust me."

"I do trust you, Spike."

"Then believe me when I tell you these things, alright? Silly bint..." She slapped his hand at her waist.

"Hey! There's to be no insulting of the giver of the Slayer sex!"

"I take it back then, can't live without my daily dose." He nuzzled at the spot behind her ear with his lips that always gave her shivers of pleasure .

"Don't I know it...mmmmm....I love you when yer all cuddly, soft and yielding like a nerf ball."

"A nerf ball? Bloody hell Slayer, I am a man here!" Buffy giggled at his feigning being insulted.

"Yes you are, a big bad vampire of a man..."

"That's right....and don't you forget it."

"You've been in my dreams..."

"And what, pray tell have I been doing in those dreams?" He gave a lecherous little snarl and started devouring her neck and mauling her breasts. She stalled his romantic advances and turned herself over so she could face him,"Buffy? What's the matter, pet?"

"In my dreams....you taunted me, like you always do....you frightened me and you were cruel....." She looked into his clear blue eyes and saw his remorse and disgust....for something he'd only done in her dreams.

"Buffy....tell me you believe that I'd never...." She quickly kissed him, calming his fear and doubt, folding herself deeper against him, then buried her face in his chest as he embraced her completely.

"But....then the dreams would shift....moved into a new place and you'd changed. You had become tender, protective....I'd never felt more loved in all my life...when I woke up I could still feel it.....just like I do now."

"I do love you Buffy....never doubt it."

"I know what it means now to be loved by a vampire, and truly loved...not the idealist way Angel loved me....but the way that I got under your skin, in your blood....I remember when it made me sick to think about how you loved me, but not anymore....now I want to be inside there with you....I want to feel what it's like to love...to lust....the way you do..."

"I can show you." Buffy rolled off the couch and was on her feet, holding her hand out to him without a second thought. Spike accepted her hand and rose, standing tall and foreboding over her, a lustful look in his eye and a low growl vibrating in his throat.

"What'll it be tonight, Slayer....the man or the beast?"

"They're one in the same...I just want you." The growl grew a little louder and he suggestively licked his lips before coming down on her's, fangs apparent, but face as handsome as ever. In an awkward tangle of a walk, they made their way towards the stairs, fumbling with each other's clothes and never losing the contact of the kiss. Just then Buffy suddenly stopped, a feeling of darkness creeping inside her. She looked, listened, trying to determine if there was something tangible nearby.

"Slayer?" Spike questioned, unaware of what it was she had detected. Buffy turned to the front door and tentatively opened it, confused when she found nothing on the front porch,"Buffy what is it?" She closed and locked the door and turned back to him, shaking off her instincts and smiling.

"Nothing....it was nothing.....let's go to bed." She tried to lead, but he stopped her, examining her face for clues.

"Buffy....when your senses flare that's usually a sign..."

"They didn't....it wasn't like that....just.....I promise it was nothing...."

"If you're sure, then..."

"I'm positive....let's go upstairs." He took her hand once more and started to climb the steps, neither looked back. Outside, sitting inconspicuously in a tree was a singular bird of midnight wings, black as a starless sky. The crow took flight, leaving behind his charge. It had been sent as a gift, but upon seeing the resurrected woman it knew that he was not needed, she already had someone to guide and protect her.

THE END

Song Credits: How Soon is Now? by the Smiths; Hot in the City by Billy Idol; Silver by Moist; Black Black Heart by David Usher; Green is the Colour by Pink Floyd

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