Part 3

They ended up at the Magic Box, gathered around the research table. Just like old times, Riley thought, except for the obvious undercurrent of emotion between Buffy and Spike. No, the soldier mentally conceded, that had always been there, too. It was just more blatant, now.

The Scoobies listened in horror while Riley filled them in on his history with the Scyllain. He explained how it had targeted his squadron. How it had waited patiently in the darkness. How it had consumed them all one by one until Riley was the last man left alive.

“You have no idea what it was like,” Riley finished his tale, “knowing that thing was stalking us. Nowhere to run or hide. Just the jungle, endless twisting vines, blazing heat at mid-day, shivering in the cold morning, the sweat and the bugs and the muddy ground sucking at your boots with every step. The blood freezing in your veins as darkness closed in. I could sense it circling, moving in the underbrush. Whenever one of my company fell…the screams…I can still hear them at night. And the way that it kills…when it touches you…takes you…it gets into your mind, into your body,” he shuddered and sat silent, staring at some hellish inner landscape.

“Tell us, Ishmael! How, exactly, did you survive this festive party?” Spike asked. His voice was filled with doubt about the man’s entire story.

“I was captured by a group of guerillas,” Riley replied, locking eyes with the Slayer. “I was taken to their camp by helicopter. I thought I’d escaped from the Scyllain. But a week later it found me. It began picking off the native troops. I told them if I left the area it would follow me. After a few more deaths they let me take a truck and flee. I made it to the airport and came back to the States. That should have been the end of it. I thought it was until three days ago in L.A. I was passing a store front and I saw it reflected in the glass.”

“So you came here,” Buffy said, not quite making it into a question.

“Brought that thing straight to the Slayer,” Spike growled.

“Hey, back off, Deadboy,” Xander said, leaping to the defense of his friend. “I’m sure Riley was just hoping Buffy would be able to help him kill it.”

“And when was he going to tell her?” Spike countered. “After the dinner and dancing?”

“Spike,” Buffy warned, staking him with a hostile glare.

She was obviously still angry about the brunette. Possessive little things, Slayers, Spike thought. He had never had this sort of problem with Dru. Of course, his Sire was partial to an occasional brunette herself.

“I didn’t mean for it to come after you, Buffy,” Riley was explaining. “I swear I didn’t. I just wanted to be free of it. I thought you might scare it away. Or, failing that, I hoped you could help me destroy it.”

“I will,” Buffy assured, leaning across the table to take Riley’s hand.

“You and what army?” Spike snorted hoping down off his perch on the stairs and striding toward the Slayer. “Oh, I forgot we have the army here already. Only it doesn’t seem to be making much of a dent in the Scyllain population now does it?”

Buffy surged to her feet. She whipped around on Spike, “Riley has been through enough already,” she snapped. “If you can’t be civil maybe you should leave.”

“Bugger that,” Spike said in a low tone. “I’m not leaving until the Captain here starts telling the truth. I know a thing or two about Scyllains. They’re patient, they’re fearless and they’re bloody hard to kill. That thing won’t stop until Iowa there is dead or it is. The only way for him to escape is to give it another target. Something too tempting to resist.”

“What are you trying to say, Spike?” Riley growled, standing up.

“I’m saying you brought it here hoping it would go for Buffy.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Riley asserted before turning pleading eyes on the Slayer. “I told you already, I thought you could stop it. I didn’t know that it was strong enough to hurt you. I’m just trying to stay alive. Stay one step ahead of it. Buffy, you have to believe me. I would never do anything that would put you in danger.”

“Yeah, like risking getting turned by some vamp whore or anything,” Spike said, rolling his eyes.

“Look who’s talking,” Xander commented. Anya made a shushing noise. Her gaze was locked on the combatants.

“At least I never sold her out to the highest bidder,” Riley returned, angrily. “Maybe that’s why your mind automatically goes there…cause it’s what YOU would do.”

Spike’s fingers curled into a fist. He lunged forward swift as a striking cobra, but Buffy was quicker. Her open palm caught the vampire mid-chest as she stepped between him and her former lover.

“Stop it, both of you,” Buffy commanded. As soon as Spike backed down, she began pacing off her confused feelings. “We can’t waste time pointing fingers. This thing is here now. It doesn’t matter why. We need to find it and kill it. Anya, Xander, hit the books; see if you can find out how I stop it. Riley, write down everything you know about it; habits, speed, strength, anything that could help. Spike, you come with me.”

She turned on her heel and stalked toward the basement, confident her orders were being obeyed. Spike fell into step behind her as she passed him. Palming on the overhead light as she went, she trotted downstairs. As soon as Spike closed the door, Buffy turned to confront him.

“What the hell is your problem?” she demanded, looking up at him.

“My problem?” Spike snarled, sweeping down the steps. “I’m not the one hanging all over my ex. Buying his bullshit story.”

“I’m not buying his story,” Buffy mumbled when he’d joined her at floor level.

“Yeah, that’s what I figur…” Spike began and then did a double take. “Uhm…whadya mean you’re NOT buying it?”

“It’s just too convenient,” Buffy said, narrowing her eyes and keeping her voice low as she glanced back up at the shop door. “You’re right, Riley’s lying about something. But I don’t think he wanted the Scyllain to kill me. He could have run off as soon as it attacked tonight if he wanted that. He stayed to fight. No, something else is going on and I need you to find out what it is.”

“You want me to beat the truth out of him?” Spike asked. “Love to oblige, Pet. Give me a headache, of course. Maybe I could just hold him down while you work him over. I wonder if that would…”

“Will you SHUT UP!” Buffy snapped and he fell silent so she could continue. “You remember the vampire businessman you told me about? The case of impending doom? Big scary something in the sewers?”

Spike nodded. “Vamp name of Bailey Conger ran up against some major nasty. A demon of some kind left him in sad shape. Whatever it was, it has all of the lowlifes running scared. I thought we should look into it but…oh…you think it’s the Scyllain?”

“What are the odds that there are two horrible, scary things in the sewer?”

Spike considered for a moment before shrugging. “Pretty good, I’d say, considering this is Sunnydale. But from what I heard about this Bailey bugger’s injuries, I’ll buy that’s what got him. I don’t think a Scyllain can absorb one of my kind but it could do a lot of damage trying.”

“Okay, well from what Riley told us about this thing, it’s some sort of touch telepath,” Buffy said. “Do you know if that’s true?”

“That’s what I’ve heard,” Spike confirmed, cocking his head. “It gets in the mind and the body. Absorbs its victims’ life force, completely. Takes ‘em all in, heart and soul.”

“So,” Buffy hypothesized, “if it attacked that Bill Bailey guy, maybe it left a bit of information with him. Way to its lair, plans for me or Riley, something we can go on to find it and kill it.”

“See where you’re heading, Pet,” Spike nodded, “so let’s go.”

“No,” Buffy shook her head. “You go! Out through the tunnels. I should stick close to Riley.”

“How close?”

“Spike!”

“Buffy!” The vampire returned in the same exasperated tone. “We’ve been over this before haven’t we? Doesn’t matter how secret you keep things. Won’t change what is. You’re mine, all of you, all the time. We belong together, Luv. I don’t like him even being here. Looking at you. Touching you. Gettin’ ideas.”

“Fine,” the Slayer ground out, her eyes blazing, “you don’t like it. I’ll keep that in mind. And while we are on the subject, you should make a mental note that I don’t like you picking up whores.”

“Didn’t pick her up,” Spike denied, indignantly, “left her right where I found her…or almost. Weren’t no whore neither. Just a random skirt in a bar. And I’d had way too much to drink, Pet.” As he explained away his indiscretion, he favored Buffy with a tiny pout and puppy dog eyes in hopes of softening her anger. “Lost my head. Felt her up a bit is all. She wasn’t anything to me, I swear it.”

“Oh…oh,” Buffy seethed. “’Cause that is SO much better?”

“Better than what?” Spike returned, suddenly angry himself. “Dinner and a movie. Pretending I’m single when I’m not. At least, I didn’t tell you to get lost while I chatted her up. I didn’t shag her neither…just touched her and came over all queasy.

Which,” he added, pointing an accusing pair of fingers at her, “is totally your fault! Can’t get near another woman, now, it seems. ‘Cause all I want is you...24/7.”

Pulling the unresisting Slayer into his arms, Spike lowered his head until his mouth was right next to her ear.

“All I want is to lose myself in you,” he whispered. “No woman alive or undead that can match you, Buffy. You know it’s true. You know I’m yours.”

Buffy snickered and Spike jerked back to glare at her. “You think this is funny?” He demanded. “I open up, spill out my guts and that gives you a laugh?”

“I just had no idea,” Buffy said, fighting for the straight face, “how devoted you are. How much you’ve suffered for me! No more one night stands! Poor thing!”

“Fine,” the vampire groused, pushing her away and stalking toward the sewer entrance, “make a joke. When have my feelings ever mattered to you anyway? All I am is your convenient errand boy. So, I’ll just trot off now and fetch you that life or death information.”

He bent low to clear the exit and then stopped, looking up and back at her, “But do me a favor, Luv! Keep a close eye on your ex. ‘Cause, funny as you might find it, I don’t fancy burying you again.”

That said, he was gone. Buffy pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger as she wrestled with a headache. She sat down on the bottom step and dropped her head into her hands. She didn’t want to go upstairs and face Riley, Anya and Xander. She wanted to sit and think about her life; about how Spike always managed to turn things around on her. He was the one who had cheated and now she was the one feeling guilty.

Anya’s earlier comment about vampires and sex came back to her - ‘they will have sex with anything that moves.’ Buffy considered the implications of that statement. Maybe Spike really was appalled by his sudden stirring toward fidelity. She had ruined him for other women. Buffy felt a tingle of satisfaction run through her at the thought. She heard Spike’s whisper again in her head - ‘all I want is to lose myself in you.’ Buffy knew it was an echo of her own feelings. All she wanted was her sweet, infuriating Spike…24/7. Riley’s untimely return had at least clarified that much in the Slayer’s head.

The shop door opened and closed above her. Buffy felt the steps vibrating to a heavy descending tread. She turned to see Riley towering over her. He was massive, blocking out the light from the overhead bulb. Comparing him to Spike was like comparing a rhino to an alley-cat. The Slayer wondered how she had ever found such a hulking creature sexually attractive. Then he smiled and she remembered. Riley had covered her in bed like a favored blanket. He was warm, comfortable and plain.

“Bet you wish I’d never come back, huh? Better if I died in some jungle? Less complicated?”

Buffy sighed wearily. So much for comfortable, she thought, standing up to face him.

“I would never wish you dead, Riley,” she said. “That’s just… absurd.”

“But I did stir things up between you and Spike,” Riley returned, looking around as if he expected to see the vampire lurking. “It’s okay to tell me, Buffy, I know about the two of you. I’ve known for a long time.” He looked down at the floor and asked, “Do you want me to go?”

“Of course not,” Buffy denied, a touch too sharply. “And you haven’t stirred anything up. I already told you there is nothing between Spike and I for you to stir.”

“Yeah,” Riley nodded, smiling indulgently, “you told me.”

“But you don’t believe me?”

“I’m not blind,” Riley growled. “I see how you look at him. And Spike has been after you for a long time. Even before I left, I knew he wanted you.”

“So, what if he does?” Buffy asked, wafting her hand in the general direction of the sewer entrance. Then pieces clicked into place in her head. She frowned up at her ex. “Are you saying… Is that why you left? Because of Spike? Some sort of…” she made a face, “competition?”

“There wasn’t any competition,” Riley said, his mouth turning suddenly ugly as it twisted around the word, “because I had nothing to offer.”

“Riley,” Buffy said, stepping towards him, “that’s not true. You have a lot to offer. It was just that I….”

“Yeah,” he nodded, “I know. You needed someone dangerous.”

“What?” Buffy blinked at him. “Why would you even think that?”

“Because you’re the Slayer,” Riley answered. “And because you’re you.”

Buffy lost it. Her eyes flashed as she snapped, “So everything I do is about Slaying? I can’t love or be gentle? I can’t have a normal life. I am so sick of other people telling me who I am. What I’m supposed to feel. I’m just a person like everyone else. I’m not dark or weird or mysterious and there is nothing wrong with me.”

“I didn’t say there was,” Riley soothed. “Maybe it’s not wrong for you at all. Maybe it’s right for you to crave the demonic. Maybe that’s what you were made for.”

“What the hell is that suppose to mean?” Buffy snorted.

“You’ve tasted the evil, Buffy,” Riley explained, with exaggerated patience. “I know you enjoy it. When we were together, I wasn’t strong enough to let it crawl beneath my skin. Spike was right about me. I wasn’t monster enough to be the long haul guy. You’re a hunter, deadly. You needed something that…” he sighed, “just wasn’t in my nature.”

“Riley,” Buffy said, softening toward him again as she remembered how little she’d given him during their time together. Her eyes filled with tears as she tried to explain, “It wasn’t you. It wasn’t anything about you. I was the one who was shut down inside. I wasn’t ready to love.”

“And are you ready now?” Riley asked.

The Slayer considered the question. Her eyes were drawn to the far corner of the basement where she had last seen Spike. Was she ready to love someone?

“Spike?” Riley guessed, reading her mind. “Is he the guy?”

Buffy shifted her shoulders, stretching out the tension before she looked back at him.

“I don’t think we should talk about this anymore,” she said at last. “It’s not getting us anywhere. We should concentrate on finding your demon friend.”

“Oh,” Riley said, offhandedly, “he isn’t really that hard to find.”

There was a tiny sound overhead, like the distant peel of bells, and then the harsh rumble of booted feet on the floor above. Buffy had just started for the stairs when someone rattled the doorknob at the top. Xander called her name and tried the knob again. Buffy barely had time to register that the door was locked from the inside before she sensed the movement behind her. Frowning, she half-turned toward Riley. Her skin crawled with the charge of high voltage but it was too late to react. There was a bright flash and crackle as a paralyzing surge of electricity sent the Slayer to the floor in a senseless heap.

THE END