Banner by lmbossy
Banner by lmbossy
Many thanks to Megan/Peta and Lmbossy for all their
betaing and endless patience.
Chapter 7
Spike reached down and hefted the last of the bodies over the cliff’s edge. He sighed, looked up into the night sky. As he stretched his arms over his head. He arched his back and grimaced as it cracked loudly. His senses were focused on the girl behind him who was humming as she built up the fire, so he didn’t notice the darting silvery light that appeared from a small fissure in the rocks above their heads.
It hovered over the plateau biding it’s time.
“Spike how do you make the thingie with the sticks so the kettle will hang over the fire?” Buffy called sheepishly. She tried but every time it just collapsed into the fire. “Crap,” she glared as her tripod of three stick fell inwards and added to the pile of sticks already burning away merrily. “But hey, bonus is biiiig roaring fire tonight.”
He turned to face her, and it struck.
Spike squinted and then blinked his eyes, oblivious that the silvery light had shot into them and started to work Maleficent’s magic. He dusted his hands off and walked over to the fire. As he approached his shadow elongated behind him, stretching away into the distance. A small gap appeared at his heels where his shadow should’ve joined onto him.
“Here, let me do it, otherwise you’ll be chewing uncooked instant noodles,” Spike knelt down and began to tie the three remaining sticks together. Buffy gave him an appreciative smile, her eyes devouring the intent look of concentration on his face. While Spike was preoccupied with the twine trying to knot it together. Buffy grinned at the cuteness that was Spike; his tongue was peeking through his full lips as he worked. Neither of them noticed that his hands were not as deft as they usually were, and his innate vampiric grace was not as apparent as it normally.
Reluctantly, she turned her attention to their packs and began to dig through them searching out one of the few remaining Thermoses. “I hope this is still okay, it’s been a few days,” she unscrewed the top and sniffed it suspiciously. “How do you tell if blood is off?”
“Trust me you’d know,” Spike propped the lopsided sticks up and frowned at it, “not my best effort but it’ll do.”
“Thanks,” she handed him the Thermos and moved about the fire getting everything sorted.
Spike sniffed the opening of the Thermos and shrugged. “Not at it’s best but, it’ll be okay.” He drank it down quickly and grimaced at the aftertaste. “Not sure the rest will be any good though.” As he packed it away his shadow moved of its own accord, separate from it’s host and alone. “I’ll go get some more wood pet.” He slipped through the fissure and headed into the darkness to find more firewood, unaware that his shadow remained.
Standing unnoticed behind the diminutive slayer.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Okay, so something is now blocking us from contacting Buffy? Is it this fairy? How did she know about the chalice and the mirror? Cos other than us no one knows.” Willow grumbled as she pushed the door shut behind her and waved at Anya, who was coming out of the back room followed by Xander. All day she had sat through lectures trying to work out what they could do to help Buffy as well as find Dawn, but she had ended up dwelling on Maleficent and wondering how she had known about the mirror.
Giles looked up from the text book he was reading. “She is either spying on us or something alerted her in the realm. But suffice it to say we cannot re-establish the link. So I think we have to search harder for Dawn and also this Maleficent individual.”
“But how? We’ve been looking ever since Dawnie vanished and nothing. Nada” Willow sank down next to the older man and rested her head in her hands. “Buffy is relying on us, and we’ve achieved bupkis.”
“She is obviously using powerful spells to cloak herself and her lair; maybe it’s something we can use to locate her. Focusing on the energies she is expending rather than a physical place?” Anya suggested as she sat down next to Giles and folded her hands neatly in her lap.
“I say, that is rather ingenious. Capital plan.” Giles shot up and began to search through the books he’d brought from his apartment. “There must be something in Demartus’s book.
“Well done Ahn.”
Anya looked up shocked to the core at the sound of a compliment falling from her boyfriend’s lips. “Thank you,” she whispered and blushed.
Willow frowned at the interaction between the couple. She wondered if Xander ever said anything nice to Anya if that was how the ex-demoness reacted to such a small accolade from him.
~~~~~~~~~
Spike reached the end of the narrow twisting passage that led to the final leg of their journey. He pushed his way free of the fissure and then stopped as his vision blurred. He braced himself against the side of the rock face, trying to steady himself as his legs shook under him. He’d not felt this bad since the time he had gone begging to the slayer for help after the escaping from the Initiative. “Can’t be hungry, just ate. Maybe it was off?” He rubbed his stomach and began to slowly walk across the dark meadow and heading for the copse of trees they’d discovered after the zombie attack. His progress was slow and measured as he battled fatigue.
“Need some kip, that’s all.” He slowly gathered an armful of twigs and fallen branches and then headed back to the plateau through the fissure. “Feel about as fit as the whelp after one of his pizza and Twinkie binges.” The sound of his tired voice echoed around him in the narrow passage way.
“Spike? You okay?” Buffy straightened and walked over to the weakened vampire. She slipped an arm around his waist as she led him back to the campfire and helped him settle down. Concern etched across her face, lines of exhaustion and stress bracketed her mouth, drawing the full soft pink lips downwards. The journey through the realm has been arduous. They had to remain constantly alert for attack, and battling supernatural being straight out of her childhood books had added to the stress and strain of searching for her missing sister’s conscious. The only constant in it all had been her erstwhile enemy, who had stepped up to the plate and become a fighting partner and potential boyfriend within the span of a few days. She shook her head. If her friends could see her now. Covered in zombie blood, and god knows what else as she supported a vampire whose sole purpose, up until he was chipped was to be a pain in her ass and then kill her. Now he fought side by side with her, saving her life countless times, giving her kisses that curled her toes in her boots and made her stomach fill with butterflies. His soft lips and gentle eyes gave back something that she had lost a long time ago when Angel had walked away without a backwards glance.
Hope.
Hope that maybe someone might love her and would stay. He had so far…
“Knackered is all, been a bit of a day.” He joked, as fear filled him. He hated been weak and tired, his raison d’etre was being strong. It was why he had revelled in being a vampire, a powerful body and a supernatural strength had gone a long way to assuage the horrors inflicted on him as a mortal. His incarnation as William the Bloody Awful Poet had been long suppressed in the deepest darkest parts of his mind. Instead he had let Spike run riot through the decades, fists and fangs replacing ink pen and paper.
“S’okay, you rest. I’ll eat and then it’s bed time for me too. Long day. Hell long freaking week so far!” She gently urged him to lay his head into her lap; cupping her mug in one hand Buffy soothed the side of his face with the other. Spike gave out a deep bone shuddering groan and let his body relax. A companionable silence settled over them as she petted his hair and stared into the fire. He rolled onto his back; knees bent with his feet flat on the ground and stared up at Buffy’s face as she sipped her noodle soup. The shadow behind them watching and slowly taking on a solid and very familiar form.
He reached up and traced his index finger along the underside of her chin. “So gorgeous,” he whispered as his eyelids drooped and he succumbed to sleep.
Buffy’s grin lingered on her lips for hours, even as she slept.
~~~~~~~~~~
Buffy snuggled closer, she felt safe and warm. Content and at peace.
Spike buried his nose in her hair and let his arms tighten slightly around her. They had slept the night away entwined in each others arms, moving together as if where the most natural thing in the world. Not as if they were at opposite ends of the moral spectrum, but as if they were one. Two halves of a whole, complete.
Buffy yawned and opened her eyes – immediately frowned in confusion at the vision of blue eyes in front of her, ‘that’s not right…’
She reached behind her and felt Spike’s ass with her hand, then opened her mouth and gave out a blood curdling scream. She lurched upwards and looked behind her and then whipped her head round to look at the being kneeling next to her and Spike.
“What is going on?”
“Pet?” Spike propped himself up weakly on one arm and reached for her. His hand caressed the curve of her back trying to soothe her.
“Spike! It’s you, see through you but it’s you,” she babbled. Of all the things that this realm had thrown at her this one was a doozey, and she was uber freaked. One Spike was more than enough for her thank you very much.
He levered himself up a bit more, feeling queasy and weak and peered around her. “What the bloody…hell?”
“Hell!” his other self echoed. “I say that a lot, don’t I?”
Buffy and Spike shuffled away slightly from the interloper, their eyes wide.
“What are you?” Spike reached around and poked at the semi- translucent copy of himself. As his finger made contact there was a crackle of energy between them and he gasped in pain. “Ow, that…”
“Felt amazing, do it again. I feel stronger.” The shadow Spike reached for his weakened counterpart, only to be stopped by Buffy’s hand as it wrapped around his now solid forearm.
“Don’t even think about it buster” the icy look in her eyes stopped the shadow in its tracks. “Keep your hands to yourself.”
“Why? They are the same ones that are touching you right now.”
Buffy stood and helped Spike to his feet; she stood protectively in front of him and eyed the copy dubiously. “Where did you come from?”
“Him,” the shadow pointed at Spike.
“How?” the vampire demanded.
“I’m your shadow.”
Spike eyed the copy of himself, examining every aspect of the being. It was the first time since he had been turned that he had properly seen what he looked like. The scar left by his first slayer added a rakish air to him that he had never expected; it just felt knobbly and uneven under his fingers when he touched it. The hair and the black clothes looked good, and despite what Harmony had said he didn’t look like he was a Goth gone to seed in his opinion.
Then he noticed the difference.
“Where’s your duster then? If you’re my shadow you should be wearing one just like this.” He smoothed his hand over the butter soft leather.
“Over there, I didn’t like it. It smells odd.” The shadow pointed to the rock face where he had crouched most of the night watching the couple. Trying to understand their interaction. He maybe a copy of the vampire but he had no lived experiences or memories. One moment he had been nothing but a dark form and then suddenly he was alive. As the night had progressed he had drawn strength from his former master. The irony of it was lost on the oblivious being, a vampire’s shadow draining its host of its strength.
“Huh, he is sooo not you.” Buffy glared at the shadow, something about him was off. It was as if he had no emotions, no feeling, nothing and that was just plain wrong. Spike was a bundle of emotions and feelings, hopes and dreams all of which were an intrinsic part of his make up. What had drawn her to him over and over when they battled was his fire, his excitement. Hell even his love for Dru had captured her attention.
All of it added up to the dynamic vampire who was holding onto her. The pale carbon copy that was staring at Spike as if he wanted to devour him whole was not her Spike and never would be. In realising that Buffy finally accepted that she loved Spike, all it had taken was to see the vampire as one of the many faceless ones she staked nightly. This shadow of her vampire was a blank feral slate with fangs, a bit like the stake fodder she mowed through nightly. The dawning comprehension of her feelings for the vampire stunned her into silence. Dimly she could hear her Spike arguing with the shadow, but all she could do was hold on to him and let the emotions she had unleashed inside herself buffet her.
She loved Spike.
She loved Spike.
Buffy tilted her head a soft smile ghosting across her face, and her heart finally healed. Yeah that sounded about right.
“I love you.”
Spike stopped mid sentence and looked down at the petite blonde who was holding him upright. His hand was poised mid air and his jaw dropped. “What did you say Slayer?”
“She said she loved you,” his shadow interrupted the staring competition between the two of them. “What is love?” he tilted his head in a poor imitation of the real thing.
“Slayer, you love me?” Spike’s blue eyes were incredulous. He ignored the question that his shadow had poised and focused his entire being on the slayer who had just declared herself to him. “Really,” he grimaced as his voice rose to an unmanly pitch. It was the first time he had heard those words and actually believed them since he had been a human. Dru had said it over and over, but he had always known deep down that she had never meant it, her heart had belonged only to her daddy not him. But the slayer had said it; out of the blue she announced to the world that she loved him. A warm glow filled his heart as slowly he realised that he was no longer alone in the world. Someone cared. Someone loved him. And best of all it was the one girl who he had thought had been unattainable, before they’d come to this realm searching for a part of her sister that was missing. Buffy loved him and surprisingly he believed her. And even more surprisingly he felt the same way.
“What does she mean? What does love mean?” the shadow moved closer curiosity peaking his interest. “Why are you both behaving like this. Explain it to me.” His questions remained unanswered as the two of them gazed at each other shyly.
Buffy could feel her heart pounding against her ribs. She had said it and yet he wasn’t running for the hills. ‘Oh god oh god what if he doesn’t care…what if he is freaked that a slayer loves him, what if he doesn’t love me back. Maybe this is all a game to him.’ As she began to panic, Buffy looked down wishing the earth would open up and swallow her. She had just declared her love to William the Bloody. A vampire who was also known as the Slayer of Slayers. If the Watcher’s Council could see her now.
A firm yet gentle finger pushed her face back up. “There you are,” Spike smiled. Small crinkles appeared in the corners of his eyes as he looked at her flushed face in awe. “S’alright pet, don’t fret yourself.” He leant over and brushed a kiss across her forehead. “I love you too, you silly chit.”
“Oh.”
“Do you love me?”
“No!” Spike and Buffy glared at the shadow.
“God, spoil the moment much?” Buffy frowned at the copy of her vampire. She was starting to really dislike him, and it was freaking her out as well. “How do we get rid of him?” she muttered.
Spike lurched sideways and then laughed weakly, “I don’t think we can. I think he is part of me. That’s why I feel like shit and am about as strong as a newborn foal.”
“What? You mean this is another one of the fairy’s games. Oh my God I am so gonna kick her ass when we get home.” Buffy fumed angrily at the revelation. “What do we do? How can we fix this?” she fired off the questions at the bastard that was stealing Spike from her.
The Shadow’s blank look dissipated, in its place a furtive and evasive expression appeared. His blue eyes darted around the plateau looking anywhere but in their direction. “I don’t know.” An innate need for survival kicked in and he felt threatened.
“You’re lying.” Spike lurched forward and grabbed hold of the shadow’s t-shirt; he gritted his teeth ignoring the sapping of his strength and shook his counterpart hard. “Tell us what you know, you sod.”
“I don’t want to go back into you I am not telling.” The copy pulled away and moved off and ran off through the fissure. Disappearing within seconds, leaving Spike and Buffy holding onto each other, both shocked into stunned silence at his reaction.
“We need to get to him; otherwise I am bloody useless to you.” Spike pulled free and began to walk slowly towards the crack in the rock face. He turned back to face her with a smirk, “and don’t try to pretend what you said didn’t happen. I love you Slayer and you love me. When this is all over, we are going to sit down and chat this out right.” He twirled back around and threw a cocky look over his shoulder at the dumbfounded blonde.
“Kay,” Buffy bounced in her place and gave him a cheesy smile. She managed to refrain from clasping her hand to her heart and instead scooped up their packs and trotted after her vampire.
“Keep up pet,” he teased waveringly.
“Yeah yeah coming dear, and while we chase him try and think which fairytale this could be, cos me, I’m drawing a total blank.” Buffy shouldered both back packs and joined him. Shyly she took one of his hands and they squeezed through the gap after the escaping shadow.
~~~~~~~~~~
“Perfect, just perfect. He is so diminished already.” Maleficent rubbed her hands together in glee as she spied on the two interlopers in her realm. “I can’t wait to witness him wither away and die a slow and agonising death.”
“Once he is gone then the girl will be easier to deal with, divide and conquer after all.” She threw a scarf over the crystal ball and headed to her bed. She laid down on it and ran her hands over her body, relishing in the firmness of her curves and the fullness of her breasts.
“Soon all of this will be safe and the Hellmouth will be mine.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
“God, that was not fun.” Buffy wriggled through and burst out onto the other side, where she stared around her in awe. “Wow, pretty.” There was a white stone path that twisted ahead of her and in the distance she could see their goal. “The castle... My god, we’re nearly there.” She pointed at it and let a wave of relief flood through her. Their journey was almost over. Dawn would be safe soon, but first they had to fix the Spike problem.
Spike nodded, his focus was on the figure that was hiding in the copse of trees to his right. “Yeah not far till we get to Dawn.”
“Who is Dawn?” the shadow peeked out from behind a tree, his interest piqued. He had already forgotten why he was running from the two others, the distance between him and his host causing the bond and the strength to deplete him already he was becoming transparent again. Self preservation kicked in and he cautiously stepped out from behind the tree and approached the couple. “Who are you people? Do you know me?” there was a childish curiosity to him that in different circumstances would’ve been appealing, but Spike and Buffy were all too aware of the danger he presented to them. Especially to Spike and his survival.
Spike and Buffy exchanged a look.
“We’re friends. Do you want to come with us?” Spike managed to keep his body language relaxed and unthreatening which was a feat in itself for the normally active vampire.
“Okay,” the shadow nodded amiably and began to amble towards them; with a childlike innocence; his angular face was split in a gullible smile.
Buffy breathed a sigh of relief, releasing the air she had been holding in her lungs as Spike coaxed the shadow out from behind the tree. All the way through the narrow passageway connecting the plateau with the meadow she had been panicking about losing track of Spike’s double and the ramifications of that loss for the vampire. Mentally preparing herself for an epic chase. All her worries had been thwarted, he hadn’t gotten far. Buffy waited quietly ready to take her cues from Spike on how to handle the skittish being that wore his face. She hadn’t been looking forward to the confrontation with Spike’s double, but somehow it has regressed just in the few minutes it had been separated from its host. She felt bad conning the innocent, but if she was going to get her Spike back strong and whole, then something had to give. Focused on her worries, the slayer didn’t notice the enormous mythical being that flew over her head, the large presence briefly blotting out the sunlight overhead before it settled down quietly behind her holding its prey in its coiled tail.
“Oh, look at that. What is it?” the shadow pointed at the being that had landed behind Buffy and Spike. “It’s huge, oh, are those fangs?”