Chapter 4

It took a moment for Buffy to realize where she was, but when she did, the Slayer sat up with a start and looked around. Sunlight was streaming in through her open curtains, and for a moment, a panicked thought trickled through her brain that Spike had been turned to dust.

She was nearly ready to jump out of bed when it came to her – she didn’t feel him. Her Slayer senses lay dormant.

He’d left.

That thought hurt almost as much as the first one, maybe more so. What was it about her that she couldn’t wake up next to a guy?

Buffy rolled over, and that’s when she noticed it. A folded piece of paper that hadn’t been there the night before. She reached for it gingerly, afraid that it would disappear when she went to grab it. A smile lit her face as her hand closed around the note, widening still as she rushed through the contents, then reading it again at a slower pace. When she was finished, she stood and hid the letter in amongst some of her slayer things and went to take a shower.

~*~*~*~*~

Buffy was bored. She’d just finished dusting some fledge while she patrolled the campus, waiting for Spike to show. For a minute, she thought she’d sensed him, hiding amongst the bushes. But, it hadn’t been him. He wasn’t a lurker for one thing.

That title fell to Angel.

Only, Angel was in L.A. Having kicked her to the curb for her own good.

‘No. Not bitter, Buffy.’

She glanced around one more time to make sure. Whatever it was didn’t want to be found. Shrugging her shoulders, she moved off. She had a vampire to hunt down.

~*~

Angel stepped into the clearing where he’d been hiding behind a tree. His eyes watched somberly as Buffy walked away. He’d been right in coming to Sunnydale, needing to make sure that she was safe.

Now having gotten close to her and catching a whiff of her scent, his demon howled at him within the confines of his soul. Called him ten kinds of fools for letting her slip away.

She’d been claimed.

By none other than his pesky grandchilde.

~*~*~*~*~

Buffy wasn’t bored anymore. She was pissed. But better pissed than the hurt that threatened to consume her.

He’d not shown last night. After that creepy feeling of being watched, she’d spent another two hours on patrol before she’d finally given up for the night and gone back to her dorm room. Falling into a fitful sleep sometime before dawn, only to be woken a few hours later by Willow. The two had made plans to witness the groundbreaking ceremony; Anya had invited herself along because Xander was supposed to be working on the site after the presentation.

So now here she was, standing beneath a tree, being forced to listen to the ex-vengeance demon’s thoughts about having sex with Xander. And could she just say ewww? Who would want to make it with a sweaty human when the feel of cool, dry skin felt infinitely better?

‘Focus, Buffy!’ she mentally commanded herself.

“Xander!” Anya gasped.

Her boyfriend had just fallen through the ground.

~*~*~*~*~

Buffy stared out the window of her dorm room, barely listening to what Willow was saying. Her mind was on the peroxide vamp who’d deserted her the other night and had yet to show himself. She sighed deeply and tried to rein in her wandering thoughts.

“Huh?” she asked distractedly.

“Is there something out there?”

“Hmmm? Oh! No. I’m sorry… So, a lost mission?”

Willow continued to babble on again and Buffy managed to mumble appropriate responses but her mind wasn’t really on the conversation. He’d said he’d needed to find a place and that he’d be back, but as one day slipped into two – soon to be three – insecure!Buffy was rearing her ugly head. Making her once more question her staying power.

The redhead stood and shut the door; her friend seemed like she had something on her mind and with the noise going on outside their room…well, it was safe to say Buffy would be in a non-sharey mood.

“Man, it’s crazy out there.”

“Mmm-hmmm… Post midterm frenzy. Everyone’s going home for the holiday.”

“Are you all right?” Willow asked, concerned.

“Hmm?? Oh yeah…I’m just…I want to have my own Thanksgiving. Ya know, a holiday like everyone else.”

“But I thought…you know…the boycott and everything.”

“I know, Wills, it’s just that…with the turkey and the yams… Can’t we please?” Buffy looked at the pouty expression on her friend’s face. “Hey! No pouting. It’s just turkey and stuff. Besides…isn’t that the whole point of Thanksgiving? Everybody has a place to go?”

“I suppose so…hey! Could we not invite Anya?”

“Don’t know, Wills. She and Xander were looking kind of tight.”

“Yeah…but there’s just…she bugs me. You’re sure we have to invite her?”

“Willow!”

The two girls broke into helpless laughter.

~*~*~*~*~

Angel stepped out from the hallway once Buffy left Giles’ apartment. That she’s not sensed him told the vampire she was consumed by Spike. Had possibly even thought he was near so that she beat a hasty retreat outside. He didn’t like it.

“So, what do you think?” Giles asked, breaking into his train of thought.

He didn’t tell the watcher about the claim Spike had put on Buffy. He really didn’t need to have the Council step in and take her in hand. Better for him to see to the problem personally. Once Spike was gone, the claim would be null and void, and Buffy could get back to being her normal self. Rather than the plaything of a sadistic vampire.

“She sounds good. Kind of intense about this Thanksgiving thing,” the vampire replied.

“I think perhaps she’s a little lonely, but I meant about the murder.”

“Oh…yeah. Sorry. Whatever killed the woman was probably the danger Doyle sensed.”

“Yeah, well, this danger, your friend has some ominous vision about Buffy. It's all terribly vague. I mean, there are other things happening on this campus,” Giles remarked.

“Well, maybe I'm wrong, but I gotta try something. I can't just keep watching. Look, I’m gonna go…keep an eye on Buffy.”

“She doesn’t need you to look after her. Perhaps you should return to L.A. Now that we’re aware of the problem, we’ll be extra vigilant.”

“I walked away once. Maybe I shouldn’t have. I’ll stick this out and just pray she doesn’t see me.”

Angel strode swiftly towards the door, effectively ending his conversation with the watcher. A moment later, he was following her trail as she made her way towards town.

~*~*~*~*~

“It’s the last thing. I promise,” Buffy told Willow. “Besides, I have an appointment with that priest that Giles called about. He thinks he might have some information.”

The pair neared the grocer and watched as Riley jogged over towards them.

“Buffy!” he called out. He stopped before the girls, giving the blonde an endearing – at least he thought so – smile. “Hey, Buffy.”

“Riley. Where did you come from?”

“Oh, just across the street… and a few blocks down. Hey, Willow.”

Willow, seeing this as a golden opportunity to further the relationship between her friend and the TA, pointed towards the coffee shop and wandered off.

Left with no choice, Buffy engaged Riley in a brief conversation, craning her neck to look up at him. ‘I don’t have to crane my neck to look at Spike,’ she thought to herself while the dark-haired boy droned on…and on. What was it about Riley that left her as excited as a trip to the dentist would have made her? Maybe it was the good-boy charm that seemed more put on than real.

Or the fact that he wasn’t Spike.

Speaking of…

“Look, ummm…Riley? I’ve got to run. I’ve got an appointment in…” Buffy glanced down at her watch. “Oh gosh…five minutes. I’ve gotta go! Can you tell Willow I’ll meet her back at the house? ‘Kay? Thanks! Bye.”

She hurried off, paying no mind to the bewildered look of the man she’d left behind.

~*~*~*~*~

“Father Gabriel? Father Gabriel,” Buffy called out as she walked through the church. Something was wrong, Buffy could feel it; she hurried to the back of the church and out the double doors. As she turned to the right, she saw the priest swinging from a noose, and what looked like an Indian about to slit his throat. “God!”

She rushed the assailant, punching him in the stomach and throwing him away from the hanging priest.

“You can’t stop me,” he told her from his crouched position on the ground, knife held at the ready.

“You’re very wrong about that,” Buffy replied.

Her comment seemed to anger him and he charged, feinting at the last moment and slicing her arm from elbow to shoulder. As Buffy twisted away to keep the knife from sinking into her neck, her pain-filled mind picked up the enraged growl just moments before a black blur engaged her attacker.

The Slayer pushed aside the throbbing radiating from her arm to rush back to the priest’s side, sounds of the fight floating back towards her. She couldn’t prevent the tears that formed in her eyes as she yanked the end of the rope where it was secured to a pole, gently lowering the dead man to the ground.

Things seemed to catch up to her then. The stress of dealing with Thanksgiving dinner. Spike’s no show the last few nights. Feelings of being stalked. Willow’s non-subtle matchmaking attempts. Not to mention the pain in her arm that continued to bleed.

She leaned back against the wall, sinking wearily to the ground near the fallen priest… her last bit of energy leaving her in a rush. She wanted to be cuddled and told that everything would be ok. The thought floating around in her head before she passed out was that Spike better hurry up before she bled all over the place.

~*~

Spike had spent the better part of two hours avoiding his grandsire and tracking the Slayer. He’d put the finishing touches on his – their – place just before dusk and was hunting her down to give her a look see. He remembered growling at the overgrown Neanderthal that had rushed up to his girl with his corn-fed smile as the Slayer and her friend walked along outside some shops.

Like he had any chance in hell of taking the Slayer from him.

He was all set to tell him to shove off and to hell with Peaches who was lurking in the coffee shop…but then he’d gotten a look at her face. Had seen the brief eye roll she’d given when the other man had glanced away momentarily. So, he’d waited, and a few minutes later she’d managed to escape.

When she engaged the Indian, he settled in to watch her fight. Something he doubted he’d ever get enough of seeing. Only, when the man had sliced her arm, he’d seen red. Blood red.

And charged.

No one touched what was his.

No one!

His fists and fangs had been a blur of motion as he ripped into his opponent. Making the man bleed like he’d made his girl bleed. The smell of her blood on the air had his demon in a frenzy. At any other time – say when he was the one doing it – he would have enjoyed the scent. But right now, it only made him mad.

Mad enough to kill.

To draw out his torture until the other man begged for death.

“I am vengeance. I am my people's cry. They call for Hus, for the avenging spirit to carve out justice.”

“Yeah? Well, I’m William the Bloody, and you picked the wrong girl to exact revenge upon. She’s mine.”

“Then you, too, shall pay.”

“You can try.” Then Spike’s features changed into that of his demon.

The Indian cowered in fear for a moment at the sight of the vampire, then he stood up and his body disintegrated into a swarm of bats and dispersed.

“Bad as Drac,” Spike muttered under his breath, staring for a moment at the empty space. Another whiff of the Slayer’s blood had him rushing to her side. He knelt down beside her lax form and drew her into his arms.

“Come on, Slayer. Wake up,” he murmured softly. She was still bleeding from the gash in her arm, and Spike ripped the sleeve so he could lap at the blood and get the flow to dissipate.

“Are you licking my arm?” she asked groggily as she came to. “’Cuz, I just have to say…ewwww.”

Spike halted his task, his human mask sliding in place, lifting his head to look down at the Slayer.

“Gotta stop the bleedin’.”

“And you can do that?”

“Yeah. Beside…vampire here. Can’t let good blood go to waste. Would be a shame.”

Buffy felt like she’d just entered the Twilight Zone. Spike was teasing her?

“Uh huh…”

“Come on. Let’s get you home.”

“Home! Oh my god! My turkey dinner!”

“It’ll keep, ‘m sure. If not, Peaches can track down another bird for ya’. Hear he likes the animal stuff.”

“Peaches?”

“Peaches…my poof of a grandsire.”

“Angel?”

“Yeah, that’s the git.”

“Angel’s here? In Sunnydale?”

“Careful, pet. I might actually think you care.”

“Well I don’t. He left me, if you remember,” she huffed.

“Can’t say that I do.”

“Oh, that’s right. You were off with your skank ho girlfriend. Something about torturing your way back into her good graces.”

“Watch your mouth, Slayer. ‘M not above takin’ you over my knee.”

Her anger and hurt at his absence made her careless, and the words were out of her mouth before she could take them back.

“I’d like to see you try.”

“Oh, luv, I was hopin’ you’d say that.”

~*~*~*~*~

Buffy’s arm was really starting to ache. Though he held her carefully in his arms, the slight jarring of his footsteps seemed to radiate through her limb until tears stung the back of her closed lids.

“Hush now, pet. We’re almost there.”

She didn’t have the strength to see where “there” was.

He managed to hold onto her and still get keys from one of his pockets, a slight jingle sounded while he figured out which one to use. The door opened with a slight whoosh, then Buffy felt herself carried up a few flights of stairs. More walking down a carpeted hallway this time, the fragrance in the air hinted at something besides a place on the seedier side of town. Another key insertion and the door swung open, almost silently. She felt him kick the door shut behind them then move off deeper into the room.

Buffy cracked one eye open and gasped. The room was beautiful and tastefully decorated, even if the colors were darker than what she would have chosen. But still…

“Wow!”

“You like?” His voice seemed suddenly shy, like her approval seemed to matter to him. Spike gave a quick twirl of the living space of the apartment, and the Slayer could see an open kitchen with the latest gadgetries, a huge living room with a sliding glass door that opened onto a spacious balcony, a state of the art entertainment system that dominated one whole wall, and the dining area that even had a place setting laid out for each of them.

Someone had been busy.

And the anger that she’d felt at his abandonment evaporated into nothing.

“You did all this? For me?”

“Couldn’t have my Slayer shackin’ up in no warehouse, now could I? Now, let’s see to that arm of yours and then I can show you the bedroom.”

Buffy couldn’t help the leap in her pulse at his words.

~*~*~*~*~

Naked, Spike carried an equally naked Slayer in his arms as he exited the bathroom and all but ran to the bedroom. He’d spent the last fifteen minutes cleaning her up (and turning her on), but vowed their first time in his new place would be spent in bed.

Though it had been very close.

Spike swept the covers from the bed and dropped the Slayer on the mattress, causing her to shriek in surprise. He moved off to close the custom-made blinds and curtains that covered the windows dominating the master suite. Wouldn’t do for him to turn to a pile of dust after all the haggling he’d gone through to get this place ready in so short a time.

And, he’d not even had to flash some fangs to see it done with all possible haste. Amazing what a little dosh could do…

A few clicks of his remote and the blinds whirled shut, clicking softly as their edges came in contact with one another. Then the soft hum of the curtains as they ran across the track sounded in the room. Ever the romantic, not that he’d ever admit it to anyone, Spike lit several candles about the room before returning to the Slayer’s side.

She’d gone shy on him with their brief separation, which he found endearing. But, that would soon change. He’d have her panting just as hard as she’d been in the shower. More so.

He wanted to take his time, renew his claim while he slowly brought her body to the height of pleasure, but after their foreplay in the shower, and seeing her now, stretched out invitingly on his bed…if he wasn’t buried between her parted thighs in the next few moments, he’d lose his mind.

She seemed to sense it too. Her shyness suddenly leaving her in a rush, her eyes zeroing in on his arousal. The naughty girl crooked her finger at him, giving him a come-hither smile. That inviting look went straight to his dick and caused it to jump.

‘Oh yeah…baby wants to play.’

Spike crawled onto the end of the king-sized bed and prowled up the length of her body. In his mind, he thought of all the ways he was going to drive her crazy before sinking into her tight passage that seemed made just to fit hi—

Her warm hand gripped his cock and robbed him of his thought process.

His head fell back and he thrust himself in her tight grip, eager to feel the delicious friction of her hand wrapped around his length.

“Fuck, Slayer! Tighter, baby,” he groaned. He bit his lip, pumping his hips a few times. “Mmm…so good.”

He pulled back suddenly, far enough that her hand was left grasping air.

She didn’t have time to voice her complaint before her breath left her in a rush as Spike buried his mouth between her legs and proceeded to lick and nip at her clit, simultaneously thrusting two fingers deep inside her pussy.

Buffy’s hips shot off the bed as she moaned his name, her fingers sifted through the damp peroxide curls on the top of his head and gripped it tightly in her fists, grinding his face into her mound. Thoughts of her friends waiting patiently at Giles’ place for her return evaporated into thin air while he pleasured her with his tongue. Nerves already stretched taut from their foray in the shower, it wasn’t long before she was bellowing her release, her body seemingly shattering into so many pieces.

She didn’t have time to recover, as a moment later, Spike was surging up her body and burying his cock deep inside her with one powerful lunge. Her legs came up automatically to wrap around his back, her hands struggling to find purchase on his shoulders, his body moving rhythmically inside her slick passage.

In the middle of the bed, the two figures strained against one another as their movements increased – each desperate to reach that peak where nothing else mattered. Their preternatural strength making it impossible to hurt the other, they let themselves go. Gentle lovemaking took a back seat once Spike smelled the scent of his blood on the air where the Slayer had scraped her nails down his back – sending his demon into overdrive and desperate to reclaim the hellcat beneath him.

“Spike?”

Her confusion tore through his haze, and he tried to reassure her.

“’S alright, pet. Jus’ let go.”

It seemed to be the right thing to say, because she nodded into his neck then bit his shoulder to keep from screaming her release, her body milking him for all he was worth. Spike had no such compunction about the noise. He couldn’t control his demonic visage from appearing when her blunt teeth nearly broke through the skin, a savage growl emanating from deep in his throat before he struck unerringly at his mark, his fangs penetrating deep as his own release overtook him.

Buffy gasped at the intensity of his bite. It hadn’t hurt anywhere near as bad as before, when they'd been using the crypt to hide from the soldiers chasing after them, she doing anything in her power to get Spike better. She whimpered in pain even as another climax claimed her body.

Spike tore his mouth from her throat with a fierce snarl, roaring his possession of the Slayer as his release flooded her womb. When he could focus again, his mouth still smeared with her blood, Spike stared down at the Slayer, daring her to refute his claim.

She shook her head; after all they’d been through the last several days, she’d not deny him this. Only, his amber gaze seemed to darken more, as if…

“Yes,” she managed to gasp out. “Yours…”

The pain in her neck ebbed a bit at her capitulation even though the wound still continued to bleed. Then it didn’t matter because he was kissing her. The pain, their violence, it all receded as his tongue slipped between her parted lips to tangle with hers. Blood filled her mouth. His blood. Binding her to him for all eternity. Before she could comprehend what he’d done, he was placing a chaste kiss upon her lips and returning to her neck, where he lapped at the trails of blood making their way down her chest from the puncture wounds he'd made. Afterward, his lips and tongue nuzzled the fresh mark he’d given her until the holes had closed over.  Then he rolled to his back, tucking the Slayer against his side.

Peace seemed to envelop Spike, surprising given his evil undead status. But it was true. For once he had something that was all his. It didn’t matter that she was the antithesis to everything he was.

“You’re mine now, pet,” he murmured against her ear, his hand idly caressing her body. “Won’t put up with your watcher tryin’ to take you away from me.”

He waited for the Slayer to protest, for her to set boundaries on his claim, but she’d fallen asleep.

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