He was tired. There was just no other word for it.

For a solid week Buffy had seemed so distant, as if she had forgotten he existed on this mortal coil let alone in her life, and when they were together she was so quiet and almost skittish. He could feel her resistance any time he pulled her into his arms and that fact alone had hurt him more than anything.

He wasn’t stupid, he knew Buffy didn’t feel the same way he felt. For him, the sun set and rose with her, a single kiss had the power to make the entire world around them fall away, he loved her with all of his being…

But she didn’t love him back.

Riley let out a deep sigh as he made his way through the cemetery. Their problems were secondary at the moment, right now, he just had to find her, make sure she was safe and okay, that was all that mattered.

"Buffy?!"

There up ahead resting against a crypt, was his beloved Buffy, one hand clutching her side. Riley tore through graves, rushing to her, and was next to her before she could even turn to face him.

"Hey." Buffy offered him a weak smile.

"What’s wrong?! Are, are you hurt…"

She took in a deep breath, cursing herself for having dashed so quickly from Spike. Her wound wasn’t healed completely and their fight’ combined with her sudden fleeing had irritated the hell out of it, leaving her in a momentous amount of pain…

"No, Riley, I’m fine."

A scowl set on his face as he realized just whose home they were standing in front of. She’s been at Spike’s this whole time?! Riley shut his eyes briefly, easing down the anger that had flared up, and slipped an arm around his girl, helping her along.

"So…on like a scale of 1 to 10 how pissed off is my mom?"

"You sure ten’s the highest you want to go?"

*********************************************************

"Where have you been?! Mom’s been worried sick and where’s my food…!" Buffy rolled her eyes at Dawn, sighing as she lifted up her shirt to reveal her bandage.

"Oh cool!" Dawn’s eyes widened as her fingers lightly grazed the wound. "Does it hurt?"

"It doesn’t tickle."

Dawn rolled her eyes, her trademark ‘annoyed’ look settling on her face as she turned to make her way up stairs. "Just cause you’re all hurt and stuff doesn’t excuse the fact I don’t have a juicy Doublemeat Medley to sink my teeth into."

With a flip of her hair, Dawn was on her way up the stairs. "Mom! Buffy’s home and she didn’t bring your food!"

Riley smiled, resting a hand on her shoulder. "She’s family, you can’t kill her."

"Thanks for the reminder."

He chuckled. "Do you want some company? I’m willing to be the doting boyfriend here…"

"Uh…" Buffy began, a nervous smile crossing her lips. It killed her to admit she didn’t want him here. With everything that had happened tonight, having to put on an act for Riley would leave her completely exhausted, and she needed all of the energy she had left to spend the rest of the night thinking of ways to avoid Spike for all eternity…

"You know, I’m really beat and I should crawl in bed and never get out of it again." She smiled, stretching to give him a kiss. "But tomorrow if you still wanna play nursemaid, I’ll definitely take you up on it."

Riley gave her a soft smile, trying hard to mask his disappointment as he pulled away from her. "Best news I’ve heard all night. You get some sleep, take care of yourself."

"Will do."

"Oh and Buffy." He called back as he headed towards the door. "Tell Spike he did a good job with those bandages."

****************************************************

He wasn’t nearly drunk enough.

Soon after the Slayer high-tailed it out of his home, the shock of what had happened combined with a half-finished bottle of Jack two feet in front of him, sent Spike pining for more. He needed to be so pissed, that his whole week’s memory let alone tonight’s, was wiped out clean and half a bottle of Jack wasn’t going to get the job done.

It couldn’t have been his imagination, Buffy had been wetter than the Pacific, and the thought of what that could mean scared him to no end, thus making the desire to get drunk off his ass too strong to ignore.

Spike slowly opened the door to Willy’s, peeking his head in to give the room a quick scan for the demons who kicked his ass the last time he’d come here. A wide, drunken smile crossed his lips as his eyes fell upon the bar.

There hovered over a couple of drinks of his own was the Slayer’s White Knight himself, chatting up some bird who practically had the stench of vampire coming off her…

"Must be trouble in paradise…" He mumbled, stepping inside. "Well, lookie here…hey!" Spike yelled as he was forcefully yanked back out of the bar, the door slamming loudly behind him.

*******************************************************

"You don’t come here often do you?" She smiled, easing closer to him. "I mean, I’ve never seen you before…"

"No." Riley cut her off. "I don’t really come here that often."

The woman nodded, taking another sip of her drink. "Maybe you should. You seem like a nice guy, don’t meet too much of those nowadays…"

He laughed bitterly, taking a drink of his own and turned his earnest eyes upon the woman next to him, his hand resting over his heart. "It won’t work." Riley sighed heavily, a tiny smile gracing his lips. "You see, this, this belongs to another."

"Lucky girl."

He laughed again, finishing off the last of his drink. "Right. Tell her that."

"I’m not looking for a husband here…" She grinned. "Just a little fun."

"I’m not a fun guy."

"Oh come on, it’s obvious this girl doesn’t love you, cause if she did would you really be in a shithole like Willy’s sucking down cheap beer?" She grabbed a few dollars from her purse, putting them down on the bar top. "You know what I am, let’s not pretend, so I’m going to be straight with you. Twenty bucks, I won’t take enough to kill you and I’ll give you a bigger rush than your Missus ever could."

****************************************************

"Next time, Spike, we’ll kill you!"

Spike groaned loudly, spitting out a bit of blood as he climbed out from a pile of garbage and boxes behind Willy’s. All he had wanted was a few drinks, a few sodding drinks…

Once again they had caught him off guard and not sober, and once again they had royally kicked his ass. He grumbled, shaking away bits of trash from his clothing.

For the second time tonight, Mr. Finn had caught his eye, and a loud sigh escaped his lips. What good was seeing White Bread now, he couldn’t tease him about the ‘Buffy incident’ earlier all battered and drunk, the wanker would never believe him…

Spike would have never noticed Riley wasn’t completely alone if he hadn’t heard him cry out. He shut his eyes, trying hard to quell the liquor in his system, opening them just in time to see Riley’s companion explode in a cloud of dust.

Maybe there is trouble in paradise after all…

"Xander, it’s none of our business."

Willow chomped loudly on a chip quickly rummaging through the bag filled with barbecue flavored goodness. These things were like a drug, you really can’t eat just one…

"But you’ve noticed it? I’m not the only one who’s noticed the weirdness between her and Riley lately, right? Anya?"

"I don’t really care." The ex-vengeance demon shrugged and scowled at Willow, snatching the bag out of her hands. "You’re hogging the Baked Lays."

"Buffy’s got a lot on her plate right now." Willow said, giving Anya a good glare before taking back her bag of chips. "I bought, they’re mine, therefore, I’m entitled to hog."

"Pig." Anya shot back.

"Xander…!"

"Please don’t start." He sighed loudly. "I know Buff’s got a lot to deal with but Riley’s one of the good ones, I just don’t wanna see any more debris pile up on the Buffy Highway. She deserves to be happy."

"Since you insist on talking about Riley, isn’t he supposed to be here? I thought patrolling for him was like orgasms for me?"

Xander cleared his throat loudly, trying hard to ignore the smirk Willow was giving him. "Maybe he’s on the other side of the cemetery…actually killing something." He sighed, idly playing with the stake in his hands. They had been there for what seemed like hours and so far not one demon or vamp, just them, and the dead…dead.

Willow shook her head, giving Xander a reassuring smile. "I’m sure something evil will turn up."

"Aw, you’re just saying that." He grinned.

"Hey, Anya. Do you want the rest of these?"

Anya gleefully snatched the bag out of her hands, turning it up to her mouth. She scowled suddenly, quelling the desire to kill the witch next to her as she tossed the empty bag to the ground in disgust.

"Not funny."

"I thought it was."

****************************************************

"It’s none of my business, I could bloody care less what goes on between those two and if she wants to have a happily ever after with a pillock who gets suck jobs from vampire trolls in a sodding alley, well then that’s her problem!"

Spike stopped his pacing, removing the dangling cigarette from his lips. As much as he hated to admit it, he had spent weeks obsessing over what he’d saw at Willy’s that night and the many nights after it. Of course he had laughed his pale ass off, the idea of Dudley Do-Right himself not being so noble as he liked to think was gold, but somewhere in between the snorts and guffaws the actual decision on whether or not to tell the Slayer had gotten in the way.

"I mean, I can’t bloody stand the both of them so it’s not my job to tell her what I saw and all, and I should just keep out of it, right?"

Harmony eyed her boyfriend warily, sighing as she once again held up the pairs of heels in her hands. God, sometimes it seemed nearly impossible for her Blondie-Bear to ever pay attention to her problems.

"Last time I’m gonna ask you, Spike. The red ones or the black?"

"What are you talking about?"

"My shoes!" Harm shouted. "Wait…" She began, giving him a look. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Spike rolled his eyes, taking a long drag off of his cigarette. Why he kept this stupid bint around was beyond him…

"Nothing…it’s nothing." He mumbled as he watched her retreat to their bed, a wide grin crossing his face as he suddenly became slightly distracted by the outline of her ass in the tight leather pants she wore.

Oh yeah, that was why…

"So, about the shoes…"

"I don’t care about your sodding shoes."

"It’s important I look good for tonight." She said, rolling her eyes at him. "And you too, Mr. I-Could-Use-A-Change-Of-Clothes…"

"Tonight? What’s tonight?" He paused, adding "And there’s nothing wrong with my clothes, basic black is timeless."

"We’re supposed to be going out with Ayn’s clan, remember?" Harmony sighed loudly.

"Ayn? Who the bloody hell is…"

"She sired Tony….lives in the sewers below Tracie street…"

Spike simply shook his head, grabbing his duster off of a nearby chair. He didn’t have time to play house with Harmony, he had places to go, a Slayer’s faith in men to crush. That last thought brought a smile to his face as he shrugged into the coat, letting the leather consume him.

"I’ve got other things to do ‘sides play bleeding Ward Clever of the demon world." He gave his girlfriend a quick smirk as he headed towards the ladder. "But tell Ayn I said ‘hello’."

***************************************************

This could not be happening.

An overwhelming feeling of betrayal came over her as she listened to his explanation. He could give every reasonable answer in the world as to why he had done this and none of them would have been good enough…

"It’s none of their business." Buffy said rather coolly, her lips pulled tight and thin. "Giles, you know how scary and horrible they are, and I can’t let them anywhere near this! This is my fight."

The older man sighed heavily, removing his glasses. He knew he would get this kind of reaction from her, but he had no other choice but to involve them.

"I’ve been through nearly every book I own, Buffy. We need more information on this young woman and the Council has sources far greater than mine. Believe me, I don’t want them here any more than you do…"

"Maybe we’re not looking hard enough…" She began frantically, pulling books from the shelf. There was no way she would let the Council find out about Dawn, these people called nearly killing their slayer ‘a right of passage’, there’s no telling what they would do if they found out about the Key…

"There’s gotta be something in these about the Beast, that’s what they’re for, right? Flip a page, find a tell-all about the latest baddie."

"Buffy…"

"No!" Buffy’s voice quivered, a side effect from the anger and fear coursing through her. She broke Giles’ gaze, carrying the armful of books to the table. "I can’t let them get near Dawn…"

"Dawn?" Giles asked. "What does Dawn have to do…"

Her heart stopped for a nanosecond, she hadn’t meant to say that out loud and she shut her eyes, sighing deeply.

"She’s terrified of them." She lied. "A-after that test, when she and mom were kidnapped…Dawn had nightmares about little Englishmen in tweed chasing after her for months." Buffy opened a book, staring rather intently at the pages, anything to avoid having to look at him, she just couldn’t stand lying to Giles.

"I don’t wanna bring back any bad memories for her." She added softly.

He offered her a smile and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"They’re only coming to help, Buffy. I promise."

***********************************************

Even through the veil of sleep, Buffy could feel she wasn’t completely alone in the dark any more. She bolted upright, quickly turning to face the smirking being next to her.

"Hello, cutie." He drawled, his smile growing wider.

"Spike…" She said, cringing inwardly at her breathy tone. She shouldn’t think about that right now, obviously there was something big and important he needed to see her about if he broke into her room in the middle of the night…oh god, Spike in her room, near her bed, just the two of them…

Buffy rolled her eyes at her stupid school girl thoughts and frowned at him, masking her excitement at his presence.

"Every time you show up like this, you risk all of your parts you know that?"

"I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have a good reason." He chuckled softly. "Get dressed, luv, you and I have a lot to talk about."

He had a song in his heart. A bouncy little tune that had come out of nowhere the second he slipped into the Slayer’s bedroom.

Lately when it came to her, he had felt like such a Nancy-boy, it was his promise to keep that secret about Dawn that had done it. It had caused him to act reasonably civil towards her, it had caused him to make the last minute decision to save her life that night in the alley even though he had been thoroughly enjoying the show from the comforts of the shadows. And tonight, his half-hearted civility had nearly caused him to pass up the opportunity to watch Buffy and Captain Cardboard explode right in front of him…

Thank god he had come to his bleeding senses at the last minute.

Spike hummed almost merrily as he lit his cigarette, sending a glance in Buffy’s direction.

A rather uneasy feeling crept over him as he watched her quickly turn away. He could feel the heat rise in her cheeks and knew she must have been blushing. The Slayer had been behaving strangely around him for quite some time, and he had successfully chosen to ignore it, though he did allow his male pride to shine through at the fact their ‘fight’ had aroused her passion. Once again, Spike merely shrugged it off. He had better things to do than to worry about what went on inside that daft cow’s head.

"What are we doing here?" She asked, finally breaking the silence.

"You’ll see…"

"This better be damned important, Spike. I could be blissfully unconscious right now." Buffy frowned as she followed him around to the alley behind Willy’s Bar. He simply grinned at her, tossing his cigarette butt to the ground. Through the veil of darkness, Spike could make out his bulky form, leaning against the brick wall for support, his girl for the night crowding him as she drank.

‘…A beast with two backs…’ He thought, smiling as they neared the pair.

"Spike, what is this…"

Buffy’s voice trailed off as she stopped dead in her tracks. This shouldn’t sting like it did, she had no right to be mad, throw a fit, or hate him because of the sight in front of her. She was the one who didn’t love him after all, she was the one with all of the fantasies involving another man, she was the one who had looked at their relationship as a burden, and yet seeing Riley letting this whore feed off of him hurt like hell.

Riley had panicked at the sound of her voice, giving himself away instantly. He pushed the woman away, staking her without a moment’s hesitation.

There they were, locked in this awkward gaze, neither knowing what to say or do…the faint sound of a lighter igniting at the far end of the alleyway broke the silence.

************************************************

"Buffy, I…" Riley began, inching closer towards her. His face fell as she held up a hand silencing him, and all he could do was look down at his shoes like a little boy who had gotten in deep trouble with his mommy.

"I don’t wanna hear it and I don’t wanna do this right now." She sighed heavily, her voice quaking with emotion. "I’m going to go home and go to bed…"

"We need to talk."

"I’m not ready to talk to you yet." She ground out, turning to leave.

"No!" Riley shouted, turning her back around. "No, we’re gonna do this now, we need to do this now…" He gasped a little as he came face to face with her again, the fire and anger that burned in her eyes was like nothing he had ever seen.

"Fine! I’ll start, what the hell is wrong with you?!"

Riley shut his eyes briefly, trying hard to gather all of his thoughts together. "Buffy, please, just hear me out…"

"Hear you out?! Hear you out?!" Buffy laughed bitterly, shaking off his hand. "You could have died! What could you possibly say that would make me believe you’re anything but a moron right now?"

"I wanted to feel."

"Still not convincing…"

"Goddamn it, Buffy, don’t you get it?!" He shut his eyes again, balling up his fists. "I needed someone to need me!"

"Need you?!" She scoffed. " She needed your money."

"But on a basic level, it was about my blood, my body!" He let out a heavy sigh, shaking his head. "Being with you has become so cold, Buffy…"

"Cold? You think I’m…"

"You don’t think I can’t feel it?" Riley said, cutting her off. "Every time I put my arms around you or I kiss you, you pull away. You resist, it’s like my touch makes you sick.

I know what she felt when she bit me, because I feel the same thing every time we’re together. It’s like the entire world falls away and all there is, is you. It’s a hunger, a burning…I crave you." Riley sighed, turning away from her. "But you don’t crave me."

"Riley…"

"You don’t love me." He turned to face her once more, his eyes seemingly burning into hers. Buffy opened her mouth to protest, but he quickly stopped her. "You. Don’t." Riley repeated, drawing his lips in tight. This was it, and as much as it hurt to know he was losing his girl, he couldn’t help but feel as if a gigantic load had been lifted from his shoulders. He tore his gaze away from hers, not bothering to look back as he walked away.

*******************************************

Spike leaned back in his recliner, a smile playing on his lips. A good show overall, though he would have preferred to see a few tears shed on the part of White Bread.

His eyes flew open at the sound of the crypt door opening, and the heavy footsteps that followed it. He expected this to happen, and it only added to fun of his night.

He grinned at Riley, taking a swig from the bottle of alcohol in his right hand. "What took you?" Spike re-corked the bottle, setting it down. "Guess it takes a while to get back to full strength after those bites."

Suddenly, Riley grabbed Spike by his shirt, violently yanking him out of the chair, slamming him against a pillar.

"Hey! Be reasonable here, mate!"

Riley glared, punching him in the face. "In case you didn’t notice, Spike, reasonable and I aren’t on speaking terms right now."

"I’m not the one who got you into this…"

"Oh but you are." Riley scowled. "You’re always there, every time I turn around there you are!" Riley pulled back his arm, gripping the stake in his hand tightly. "If Buffy won’t get rid of you then I guess I’ll have too."

"Oh, go ahead."

Spike’s gaze traveled from the stake in Riley’s hand to his eyes, returning the boy’s cold stare, never giving off the slightest hint that he might be afraid to die.

"Kill the bloke who can’t fight back. Go ahead, see how manly it makes you feel." He sneered. "Be the sodding hero of the piece."

The two remained locked in that position, silent, neither daring to make a move. All of their hatred, their frustration with one another ablaze in their eyes while the planes of their faces were pulled tight and hard, giving both men the appearance of having been molded out of steel instead of flesh and blood.

Riley played idly with the stake in his hand. As much as he wanted Spike gone for good, it wouldn’t change anything, and would only serve to make Buffy hate him. He let out a disgusted sigh, releasing his hold on the blonde vampire.

"I knew you didn’t have the stones to do it." Spike huffed, smoothing out the wrinkles on his shirt.

"Oh, I had the stones. Consider yourself lucky, Spike."

Spike laughed loudly, roaming his pockets for a cigarette. He really didn’t need one, but there was Captain Cardboard with his shiny, pink lungs and he just couldn’t resist the urge to light up.

"Right." He smirked, removing a fairly crumpled fag out of the pack. "You’ve got bunches of them." Spike made his way over to his recliner, flopping down on it with a dramatic sigh, and picked up a stray bottle of bourbon that sat next to the chair, gesturing towards Riley. "I would offer you a drink, but I think you’ve over stayed your welcome. Lovely of you to drop by and all."

Riley ignored him, taking a seat himself. "What the hell am I suppose to do now?"

"Well…" Spike began, tossing him the bottle of alcohol. "In keeping with Buffy tradition, I’d say this is where you leave town, mate." He smirked, lighting his cigarette. "Hey, I’ll even give you the number of my Grandsire in LA Maybe the two of you could get together, start a bleeding support group."

**********************************

"Maybe it’s her." Anya said, laying her head on Xander’s chest, lazily tracing circles on his skin with the pad of her finger.

"Huh?"

"Well, maybe all of Buffy’s relationships keep getting blown to hell because it’s her messing things up. She couldn’t make it work with Angel and she let things with Riley fall apart…"

Xander shifted his weight a bit, getting more comfortable in the warmth of the bed, and brought his hand up, capturing hers, lacing their fingers. "What brought up this topic?"

She shrugged, giving a little sigh. "I was just thinking about how much I don’t want you to go, ever."

He smiled softly, putting his other arm around her. "And that lead to Buffy and Riley?"

"Yeah, well I figured, something like that would never happen to us because it was all about her screwing it up, making the same mistake over and over again. I saw it all the time when I was a vengeance demon." Anya rattled on. "Some girl gets dump, she calls on me, I exact vengeance, blah, blah, blah, the next year, same girl, different guy. I mean, after you smite a few of ‘em, you start wonder if maybe she’s doing something wrong here, too."

"You smiting throngs of men…just the image I need before bedtime." Xander quipped. "I dunno, I mean, after the painful never-ending heartbreak, angst fest that was Angel and now Riley…I just wonder how she’s handling it, you know?"

***************************************

"Thank you, Spike." Buffy smiled, tightly gripping the box of chocolates in her hands. "I mean, it, it feels weird telling you thanks for anything, but what you did, showing me Riley’s deception, that took a lot of guts. I know you probably expected me to be angry and threaten to stake you, but it was brave what you did. I deserve someone better than Riley, someone more on my level…who, who knows me and understands my power and doesn’t feel threatened. Like an equal."

She cleared her throat loudly, shifting rather nervously on her feet.

"Oh, the chocolates…I saw them and thought you’d like them. I hear the chocolate covered cream ones are great to dip in blood…and am I not the lamest person alive!"

Buffy sighed disgustedly and chucked the box into the nearby trashcan. What was she thinking?! Yeah she was eternally grateful for Spike having pointed out Riley’s new nighttime activities, even though she knew he did only to get his jollies and not because he cared about her. It had gotten Riley out of the picture for good, making her now guilt-free Buffy, but she couldn’t tell Spike ‘thank you’, especially this way. He’d see right through it, it practically spelled out ‘I love you’.

She ripped down the Billy Idol poster from her bedroom wall, that she had been using for ‘practice’, and tossed it back into the nether regions of her closet.

"Watcha doin’!" Dawn called, pounding on the door.

Buffy could feel an eye roll coming on, but she stifled it, flopping down on her bed. "Mapping out the plan for world peace."

"Cool. Can I hang?"

The Slayer smiled. "Yeah, but don’t touch anything!"

Dawn eased open the door, walking in, and took a seat on the bed next to her sister. She glanced at the corkboard where several of Buffy’s pictures were tacked. Most of them of them of the gang, and even a couple with her in them…

"You took down his pictures."

"Yeah." Buffy said simply.

"I was just starting to kind of like the guy and then…gone."

"It’s for the best." The older girl sighed. "When I think about it, I’m not sure Riley and I fit."

"Is that why you don’t seem so broken up about it?" Dawn asked, lying back on the bed. "When you and Angel split, you acted like it was the end of the world, but with Riley…"

"What?"

"It’s like it’s just another day." Dawn rolled over on her side, catching a glimpse of the box of chocolates sticking out of the wastebasket.

"Hey, Buffy? What’s with the chocolates?"

Buffy sighed heavily, running her fingers through the length of her sister’s hair.

"Comfort food."

Now this is what made life on this miserable planet, surrounded by throngs of miserable humans bearable…

Shoes.

Glory sighed happily as she tossed another box atop the endless pile, and reached for a new pair, furiously throwing the packing paper away. She reclined on the round bed concentrating more on whether the sleek, black pumps made her ankle look fat than on the rambling minion at her feet.

"Most beauteous, and supremely magnificent one, all of the preparations for the spell have been made…"

"Mmm-hmm." She mumbled absently, sticking her leg straight up in the air. "Does this pump make my ankle look too bony or too fat?"

"Neither, most tingly and wonderful Glorificus." He smiled widely. "Yours is a smooth, terrifically smooth ankle, the, the uh…epitome of ankles, shiny special one. What I wouldn’t give to touch such a fine ankle with my worthless, scabby hands…"

Glory shot him a look, resting her leg back down on the edge of the bed. "One: Please, call me Glory, and two: never, ever, touch me. Oh, and three: get up will ya, looking at you is hurting my neck."

The minion scrambled to his feet, a seemingly infinite number of apologies and praises falling from his lips.

"Forgive me, your supreme wonderfulness. I beg of you to rip out my inadequate tongue."

"Everything’s ready for the spell you say?" Glory said, ignoring him, tossing another box of shoes on the pile.

"Uh…uh, yes! Yes, your creamy coolness, everything is ready."

"Good." She smiled, lying back on the bed. "Oh, Dreg…it is Dreg, isn’t it?"

"Yes. Dreg." The scabby demon beamed, moving closer to the bed. "You have honored me by speaking my name! Oh, your voice is like a thousand sweet songbirds that…"

Glory sighed heavily, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, I never get tired of hearing that. Listen, Dreg, just so we’re clear, this spell’s gonna work right? I mean, there’s nothing worse than disappointment. Disappointment can make beings do crazy things like…kill each and every single one of their minions."

She sat up, flashing him an apologetic smile. "It’s this whole big thing, you know?"

********************************

That scent.

Never had she taken the conscious time to become familiar with the wonderful mixture of smells that made him. A near perfect blend of tobacco, musky cologne, and the slightest hint of blood, all of them made up the air of danger that always surrounded him, all of them were truly manly…

Buffy held the black T-shirt closer to her nose, inhaling deeply.

Deep down, she knew this was crazy.

She had come by Spike’s crypt in the middle of the day to deliver her pitiful box of chocolates a feeble ‘thank-you’ for getting Riley out of her hair for good. She was deluded enough to think a wake-up call with a Witmore’s Sampler wouldn’t have been at all suspicious, but when she found no Spike around, she just couldn’t resist the urge to smell each and every single article of clothing he owned like some big pervert. Nope, not suspicious at all…

Buffy brought the shirt down from her nose, letting out an almost disgusted sigh as she stared at it.

"And I think I’ve just reached a whole new level of creepy never before achieved by a Summers girl." She smiled, taking one last sniff of the shirt. "Way to go, Buffy."

"Just what the hell do you think you’re doing?!"

The Slayer froze, completely startled by the voice. Oh god, there was no way to explain this! What was she going to say, ‘It was laundry day at the house and she was just wondering if maybe Spike wanted to toss in a few of his darks…?!

"Listen, bitch I don’t know who you are or what you’re doing in my boyfriend’s crypt…"

Suddenly, a hand gripped Buffy’s shoulder, whirling her around.

"But you’ve got exactly ten seconds until you enter Harmony’s house of…Buffy?" Harmony’s eyes widened, and she quickly removed her hand, backing away slowly.

"Oh, shit! Buffy, I…I didn’t know it was you." She said, her voice fairly shaky. "Whaddya say we forget all about that whole me trying to kill you and your sister thing, huh? What’s past is past…"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Shut up, Harmony."

"Right." Harmony let out an uneasy laugh, stopping dead in her tracks. "Wait a minute…" She began, cocking her head curiously to the side. " If you’re not looking to kill me, which, by the way ‘Thank you’, then what are you doing here?"

"I, I, I was looking for Spike." Buffy stammered nervously. "You know, I figured he’d be here since it’s day and he’s got that extreme allergy to sunlight."

"He’s down at Willy’s. We both couldn’t sleep so we thought we’d roam the sewers for a bit, get a couple of drinks, of course he forgot his precious lighter and made me come all the way back to get it, and were you sniffing Spike’s shirt when I came in here?"

"Um, um…yeah, yeah I was." Buffy chuckled, balling up the shirt in her hand. She had to get out of here, she had to get out of here…"You know, ‘Know your enemy’s scent." She lied, backing towards the door. "It’s a Slayer thing."

"Right." Harmony nodded, folding her arms over her chest. "By any chance, were you this fucking weird in high school?"

**************************************

"Merry Christmas." Buffy said dejectedly, tossing a fairly crumpled box of chocolates on the counter in front of Willow.

Willow frowned a bit, picking up the box. "Hey, Jewish remember."

"Shabat Israel."

Buffy sighed, flopping down next to Xander. She wearily eyed the table piled high with books before her, another day, more and more pointless research…

"What’s with the long puss, Buff?" Xander asked, earning looks from the others in the room.

"What? What I say?"

"I think you mean ‘sour puss’, sweetie." Anya piped up, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Long puss just sounds unnatural and disturbing."

"Right." He sighed. "Like ‘sour puss’ is lacking in the double entendre department. Anyway, Buff, what’s with the ‘someone just kicked my puppy look’?"

"Could it be that her boyfriend just up and left her?" Anya said flippantly, inspecting the nail polish on her right hand.

"Anya!"

"What?" She shrugged. "Another boyfriend leaving town because of her, I’d say that’s worth a ‘kicked puppy’ look."

Buffy shook her head, giving the ex-demon a look for her comment. "It’s nothing, Xand. It’s been a long day already, that’s all."

"Well…" Willow began, popping a chocolate in her mouth as she headed over towards the others. "I hate totally blow the rest of your day to pieces, but it’s about to get longer."

**************************************

"Giles!"

He stopped cold, the shrill shout of his name coupled with the looks of disappointment on each of their faces had taken away his ability to walk, and at that very moment to speak as well. The door to the Magic Box closed behind him, the tiny bell fixed to it giving off one final ring.

Giles let out a heavy sigh, removing his glasses, giving them an unnecessary cleaning out of sheer habit. Here it comes…

"You sold a whosawhatsit and a thingamabob to the demon lady!"

That’s his Buffy, ever the wordsmith.

He slipped his glasses on as he made his way towards the group, a grim look adorning his features.

"If it’s any consolation, I may have overcharged her." He smiled meekly.

"Yeah…" Buffy sighed, rolling her eyes. "That makes me feel loads better, Giles."

"I, I, I didn’t know it was her!" The Watcher said defensively. "How could I?!"

"What I don’t understand is why you guys didn’t tell me this sooner?"

"You had a lot going on, Buffy…" Willow began. "Your, your mother, and Riley. We wanted to wait until we had a better idea of what she could be up to."

"I’m the one who figured it out." Anya beamed proudly. "I’m also the one who pointed out Giles’ huge mistake, just a little footnote. See, a few thousand years ago, there was this cult, the temple of Sobek."

"Sobek?"

"Reptile demon." Anya stated matter-of-factly. "Sobekites were reptile worshipers. Anyway, their high priest Khul had great mystic powers. He um, forged an amulet with transmogrifying crystal. Transmogrifying is changing a living thing into a different kind of thing…"

"We’ve managed to decipher the markings that were on the bloodstone Giles sold." Willow added. "According to them, she’s going to transmogrify a cobra."

Buffy slumped further down in her chair, running a tired hand through her golden locks. "She couldn’t have gone with a bunny rabbit."

Anya shot a murderous look in her direction. "Great. Thank you very much for those nightmares."

**********************************

Her fist smashed through the glass case with ease, and she swiftly pulled out the hissing creature, giving it a few hisses of her own to taunt it.

"Chill, worm." Glory grinned, looking the cobra eye to eye. "I’m gonna make you a star!" She gently lowered the snake into a large, clay vase, as Dreg looked on anxiously, handing her the amulet. Glory held it in both of her hands, positioning it over the mouth of the vase.

"Chant!" She commanded impatiently.

Dreg quickly opened the scroll, reading from it. "The form is vessel, rendered new. The base is stone, bathed in blood. The gem is fire and elements rarified…"

"Sobek…" Glory began as her minion continued chanting. "Grant the power…that it may mold this retched creature…that it may be reborn…that it may serve…argh!" She let out an irritated growl. "Dark incantations, always overwritten! Why can’t they just cut to the…"

Suddenly, Glory was tackled from the side, the force slamming her hard against the wall.

"Fight?" Buffy smirked, kicking her in the face.

"No fair!" Glory whined as Buffy sent another blow to her head. "Attacking when I wasn’t even looking!" Buffy quickly punched her in the stomach, then added in another right to the head, before grabbing it and banging it against the wall.

"Ow!" Glory called out, grabbing the Slayer’s hand from her head, slamming her into the wall. "No, this is no good! I’m out of the moment…!" She grabbed Buffy’s arm, pulling it behind her back, bracing her other hand against her shoulder. "And you’re not giving me anything I can use! Dreg!" She called, punching Buffy in the face, then slamming her against the wall. "I’m not hearing chanting!"

"Oh! Yes, Glory." He said, quickly resuming his chanting.

Glory lifted Buffy to her feet again, giving her a mocking smile as she flung her backward against another wall. "Hey, hey! Work with me here." She grabbed the Slayer’s hair, kneeing her in the face. "That feels more real, don’t ya think?" She grinned, pulling the other woman up, flinging her against the wall.

Buffy stared upwards, gasping as Glory approached her once more, grabbing her by the throat and lifting her to her feet again.

"Even if I do have to carry your performance." She sneered, throwing her across the room into the glass snake case. "Scene!" Glory laughed, throwing her hands up, then turned approaching the vase.

"Cir hayyan wid hun!" Dreg chanted loudly.

"Arise…arise!"

"Cir hayyan wid hun!" He repeated.

Glory rolled her eyes, impatiently placing her hands on her hips. "Arise dammit!"

The vase rocked back and forth wildly, suddenly exploding as the creature burst out of it. It stood face to face with Glory, hissing and swaying back and forth.

"’Bout time." She smiled.

Buffy shut her eyes briefly, attempting to stifle the dizziness in her head as she picked herself back up, and climbed out of the cage, unnoticed.

"Spawn of Sobek!" Glory smiled, putting her hands lovingly on its face. "The power is yours to see what is unseen. To find what is shrouded in shadow. Already you know what I seek. I have given you form, now find for me my key. Seek it out in the holy places. Yes, yes, yes! Let your vision guide you to its hiding place and then return to me and tell me where it lies."

Her smile quickly faded as the creature continued to stare at her. "Now would be good!"

********************************

"Yanni Sings the Blues?" Giles cocked an eyebrow at the customer before him, retching on the inside at his horrible taste in music. "Sadly, no I do not carry any Yanni. But, I, I do have some very nice whale sounds…"

"No Yanni? I thought this was one of those New Agey type of shops…"

Giles suppressed a groan as he turned away from the customer, catching a glimpse of Spike coming through the basement door.

"Could, could you excuse me for a second?" He said politely, maneuvering around the man, towards the vampire. "What are you doing here?"

"Harm was blathering on about your Slayer skulking around my crypt this morning looking for me. Said she needed to talk." Spike grumbled a bit, fishing a cigarette out of his pack. "I’m here to talk."

"Buffy’s not here, she left a while ago." Giles frowned, adding. "And you’re not smoking that in here. We do have signs up."

Spike sighed, tucking the cigarette back in the pack. "Nazi." He mumbled, rolling his eyes. "Where is she? I don’t have all bloody day you know!"

"Creepy demon woman’s conjuring some kind of monster." Xander interjected, absently turning the page in his comic book.

"I have customers to attend to." Giles said irritably, cutting his eyes at Spike. "Do show yourself out."

"No bother." He shrugged, heading towards the table. "I can wait."

"If you don’t have Yanni, what about Tesh?!"

Giles sighed loudly, bringing a hand to his head. Scotch, he needed scotch, and lots of it.

****************************

Buffy winced, just the tiny movement reaching for the phone entailed, had caused an enormous amount of pain to shoot through her arm. She took an ice pack from the nearby medical supply rack, sighing with little relief as she slid it under her jacket and onto her shoulder.

"Giles, it’s me."

A thin smile graced her lips as she heard him ask if she were ‘okay’, just the sentiment had managed to make her feel better.

"No, no I’m really not." She replied dryly. "Giles, I couldn’t stop her. I couldn’t even slow her down. I just wanted to warn you that, that thing she conjured it’s loose. It’s a big snake thing…" Buffy inhaled sharply, feeling her shoulder tighten up again. "Not mayor big, but it looked pretty lethal."

"Do you know why she raised it?"

"No, not a clue." She sighed heavily into the phone. "School’s probably out by now, Dawn should be on her way over to you. Willow was going to help her out with geometry…"

"We’ll keep her safe until you arrive."

Buffy smiled, his words serving to give her a boost of strength and hope the fight with Glory had left her sorely needing. She hung up the phone, limping a bit as she made her way towards the door. Dawn needed her to be there, and no amount of pain was going to stop her.

*****************************

Dawn glared, her lips curling up into a defiant sneer as she snatched the CD case away from him, stuffing it back into her backpack.

"I’m sorry, Bit." He shrugged, leaning back in his chair. "There is just nothing remotely resembling music on a Backstreet album." Spike sighed, shaking his head. He couldn’t believe he had even said the name of the boyband, he was sure someone would come along, and take his balls back any second for that one…

"What would you know about music?" The young teen huffed. "You’re like what, a hundred and twenty five? Your taste is probably worse than my grandpa’s."

"Hey! I am one hundred and twenty three!"

Dawn rolled her eyes, mumbling. "Whatever."

Buffy slowly entered the Magic Box a weary smile on her face as her friends greeted her. Her smile, albeit pitiful, quickly wilted away at the sight of Spike coming towards her with Dawn on his heels.

"You need to speak with me, Slayer?"

Buffy’s mouth opened and closed without a single sound escaping it. She could feel the others exchanging looks amongst them and knew that by now they must be staring at her as if she were from another planet.

Spike sighed. "What’s the matter luv? Cat got your tongue? As fascinating as watching your impression of a fish is, I haven’t been sitting here for over a bloody hour just to catch it. Now, what did you…"

Spike was cut off as the snake creature suddenly burst through the display window, the flying glass sending the others ducking for cover. It slithered inside, rearing up, studying the shocked faces in front of it.

Dawn screamed, unable to move despite Spike’s attempts to pull her behind him. It loomed over her, staring as its eyes glowed a bright red, before it turned, quickly slithering back out the way it came.

Xander ran over to Dawn, pulling her from the vampire’s grasp, trying his best to comfort her, as Buffy and Spike exchanged worried glances…

"Dawn are you okay?!"

"Why was the big snake afraid of Dawn?"

Oh god…It knows.

****************************

Buffy ran out into the street, with Spike on her heels. The pair stopped, observing the scene around them: the snake made its way down the middle of the road, people, and cars scrambling to get out of its path. Buffy turned, giving Spike a helpless look.

"I’ve gotta stop this monster before it gets back to Glory."

"Glory?"

"That’s what he called her. Spike, she’s gonna know Dawn’s the key if we don’t…"

He grabbed her arm, pulling her with him as he ran full speed, following the creature’s trail. Slayer’s little sister or not, there was no way he would let anything happen to Dawn.

The snake slithered down the darkened streets with Buffy and Spike in pursuit, careening around corner after corner. The snake tore down a section of a fence that was covered with tarp, quickly leaving the duo behind to struggle over the bits of broken fence and picnic tables.

Buffy paused, grabbing a piece of chain from another section of the fence, as the snake headed towards a more wooded area. She tossed it to Spike, who leapt up onto a large rock, jumping off of it as the snake rounded the corner, landing onto its back. He looped the chain around its neck, tightening its hold as the creature reared up in an attempt to buck him off. He continued to pull the chain until he heard a satisfying pop, as the creature crumpled to the ground, sending Spike rolling with it.

Buffy rushed over to him helping him up. She gave him a grateful smile, her eyes locking with his for a brief moment before he turned his attention on the snake.

"Bastard." He spat, steadily kicking the dead creature.

*****************************

"Do you know what it was?" Dawn asked, pausing for a second to mull over her question. "Giant snake thing, of course you knew what it was, dumb question. I mean, do you know what it wanted?"

Buffy smiled softly at her and shook her head as she opened the door.

The younger girl smiled brightly at the sight of her mother as she entered the house. "Hey mom, you’ll never guess what happened at the Magic Box…"

Joyce turned around, slowly taking the phone away from her ear, a grim look marring her features. Off her mother’s look, Dawn’s smile fell replaced with a look of worry.

"Mom, what’s wrong?"