Chapter One: The Spell

On the abandoned side of Sunnydale in a dank, dark warehouse, a circle of white flamed candles surrounds a very pissed Ancyra demon. He looks alien-like with a very tall slender frame that stands at about eight feet tall, yellow skin, black eyes. He wares no clothes and has no discernable signs of gender. Or a nose for that matter.

With his three rope-like fingers, the demon reaches outside the circle of candles and picks up a piece of paper with intelligible writing covering the surface. The lettering is a combination of dots and lines, brown in color, and large in print. All at once, the paper burns to ash in the demons hand as he begins to chant. Translated to English, roughly, he is saying:

“May it be unlimited as it once was,
Let the beast reign in its steed,
Let others see what it truly is, and destroy what plagues our world…”

The demon’s chanting trails off as the candles flare up to over twelve feet high. Gray smoke blooms into the building and finds escape through the many broken windows.

The gray smoke crawls through the abandoned neighborhood, seeking its prey as its master bides.

As the candles die down, all that is left of them are the unrecoverable burn marks that mar the once clean cement floor. The air is rent with a foal stench that is likely to never leave the building until it's tore down.

In a swirl of pole-like legs, the demon turns from the scene and leaves Sunnydale, California for good. Because of the Slayer and her companion, he lost his bother this night. Now the Slayer will lose her life in return.

It is time for the Slayer to learn the lesson she should have learned a long time ago: their world is a two way street, and the thing that's closets to her is going to be her down fall. It's the perfect revenge

Chapter Two: Midday Chest Pains

Spike bolts up in his bed, clutching at his chest as if his heart has suddenly started to beat again. An unbearable pain, like wholly water being poured down his throat. He grips his chest, trying to stave off the pain as it seems to increase.

Spike takes unnecessarily deep breaths to get through the pain, and then falling back on his bed, he falls back to sleep as if nothing had happened.

And when he does, he sleeps the rest of the day away with his dreams filled with blood and flesh. Slashes of blonde streak through the dreams, but are forgotten in the carnage.

Chapter Three: Scoobies in Hiding

The sun had set an hour earlier as Buffy strolls into the Magic Box that evening expecting to find the usual Scoobies setting around the table near the back of the shop, but finds it empty. Frowning, she calls out their names one at a time, and receives on answer from no one. Becoming concerned, she heads for the training room only to find it locked. Well, that’s odd, Buffy thinks, the only time Anya locks this doors is when she's closing.

She knocks on the door thinking that maybe Xander and Anya were... Shying away from the rest of that thought, she knocks again and calls out, "Hey open up! What's going? Why's this door locked”

As Buffy talks, the door is hastily unlocked and Dawn comes out running and into her sister’s arms crying. Buffy frowns and looks down at the top of her sister's head.

A strong pang of concern hits her in the chest as Dawn's shoulders shudder as she sobs on her shoulder. "Dawn? Dawnie? What's going on? Why are you crying so hard?"

When Dawn just keeps crying in her arms, Buffy looks up at the others for answers and sees that their shaken as well. Thinking, they look as if they could cry themselves, she asks, “What happened here? Why is Dawn suddenly a fountain? And I don’t mean of youth either.” Her demanding tone firmly in place seems to shake the other's out of their stupor.

Finally, Xander answers, “Dead Boy came in terrorizing us, growling like a mad dog, and demanding where you were, almost in another language. We had to lock ourselves in the training room after I called him Dead Boy, and..."

"Dead Boy? ...You mean, Angel lost his soul again and came here looking for me?" Buffy asks gravely, tired of dealing with Angelus.

"No, no," comes a muffled voice from Buffy’s shoulder.

Buffy looks down and brushes Dawn's hair away from her face as she lifts her head. Her voice is raw from sobbing, but without her face buried in Buffy's shoulder, her words are understandable, "Spike."

"Yeah, Dead Boy Jr. I thought we..." Xander trails off, not wanting to admit that he and Spike had begrudgingly started to become friends. He'd come to the point where he doesn't think of Spike that way so much anymore...

"Buffy..." Willow waits for her to look up.

"What are we supposed to do? I mean, his chip doesn’t work anymore and he hit Xander..." She trails off as Buffy looks over at Xander

For the first time, Buffy notices the painful looking bruise appearing around his eyes and on his cheek. With him having the chip all this, she thinks they have forgotten how strong Spike is. This whole situation feels all wrong. Like someone has had a hand in it...

"I don’t know," Buffy says, truly at a loss. "You guys stay here." Her mind works fast at the many things that could happen with Spike's chip not working. "Here, Tara, take Dawn," Buffy requests as she hands Dawn to Tara. She then turns to head out the door.

"Hey! Buff!" Xander calls out to her. "What are you going to do?"

"I’m going to let him find me. Take care of Dawn." And with that, she's out the door.

 Xander turns to the others and asks, "Did she take a stake with her?"

All of them look at the door with Willow saying, "I don’t think so..."

There seems to be a lot of that going around: the not knowing.

Chapter Four: Inner Beast No More

It doesn’t take long for Buffy to find Spike... However, she's surprised by the greeting that comes with him.

Wandering down the make shift street in one of the many cemeteries of Sunnydale, Buffy wonders what in the hell is up with Spike. He has been so adamant in his claims that once or if he ever got the chip out that he wouldn’t go back to his old ways that she had begun to believe him. Especially after he helped her out with Glory, and kept his promise of taking care of Dawn during her death.

That, especially the latter, proves to the Scoobies, and her that his claims of love and wanting to help aren’t just a means to end, the end being able to get into her pants.

She never got that saying: Get into their pants? I mean come on; the pants are off when the getting at is taking place. Buffy shakes her head. Stay focused, Buffy chided herself. You have a blonde vampire to find, not thinking about taking off your pants for Spike. At that, she stops in her tracks.

"Now that wasn't supposed to sound that way!" Buffy says to herself.

From her left, she hears a growl sound behind her. Whirling around, vaguely noting that her slayer senses haven't kicked, her eyes land on a crouching Spike. She already knew that it was he behind her. He's vamped out, and his yellow eyes shine in the moon lit cemetery.

"Spike?" She hesitantly asks. "What happened to you?"

Before she can even finish the rest of her question, recognition flashes through his yellow eyes, and he jumps her.

Buffy lets out a squawk as they fall to the ground. However, her squawk is silenced when Spike captures her mouth in a hard and demanding kiss.

An indiscernible noise emanates from Buffy’s throat as her eyes momentarily widen in shock. They have shared a couple of kisses over the last couple of years after she came back, however, none of them close to this one. Hard and demanding, passionate and feeling. Spike always treats their kisses as if they have never shared one before, always letting her initiate them.

This one is very different from those, very different indeed... As Spike’s cold tongue sweeps deeper into her mouth, almost touching the back of her throat, she moans loud and long. After the shock wares off, Buffy contentedly sinks into the embrace, enjoying the feel of his body pressing into hers. His tongue sweeps over the roof of her mouth, caressing and messaging her; his mouth slants over hers to get deeper penetration, to get closer.

In response, Buffy arches up into his attack, grabbing his butt through the leather coat and pulls him closer, eliciting a groan from him.

Meanwhile, Spike’s hands are doing delicious things to the rest of her body. His hands run up and down her sides, slowly dragging her shirt up in the process. Just as quickly as he had jumped her, his hands dive under her shirt, and roughly, possessively palm her naked breasts. She to arches up even more into his onslaught.

Both moan as her movements shift them, bringing Spike's hips between her thighs, and his erection digging into her mound. They slowly start to undulate against each other, causing moans to escape them. Spike pulls away from her mouth and laves wet nuzzles on her throat, absently rubbing his head against hers. Buffy gasps for much needed air.

As Spike’s hand continues to message her breasts, pinching the nibbles and tugging them into hard peaks, Buffy’s hand slides around to the front of Spike’s hips. She thrusts her hand down the front of his pants and closes her hand around his hard length, causing Spike to suddenly bite down on her throat. Both moan as pleasure courses through them, coursing between them.

Spike slumps forward with a slight snarl, causing Buffy’s eyes to snap open. She look over his still shoulders at a man standing above them. Something catches her vision and she starts at the knife sticking out of Spike’s back. A startled sound, somewhere between a whimper and a growl, escapes Buffy as she untangles herself from Spike’s motionless body. She charges at the man, and screams, "What the hell did you do that for?"

"I’m sorry, I thought his was..." The man gestures to Spike’s prone body and looks sheepishly.

"Don’t you know NOT to butt into other people’s business in Sunnydale?" She asks sarcastically.

Nonplused, the man looks startled at Buffy’s out burst. Buffy waves dismissively at the man, and says, "Get out of here before I decide to use that knife on you!"

She looks back at Spike as she kneels down beside him, trying to judge how close it came to his heart.

"It’s a dagger, not a..." The man abruptly stops and runs the other way when Buffy glares over her shoulder at the stranger.

Turning her attention back to her unconscious vampire, she eyes the blade with a glare. Finally deciding that the dagger is far enough away from his heart that she can risk moving him.

Bending over him, she takes his legs on one arm and his back on and easily stands, using her legs to lift him.

All thoughts of the Scoobies or Dawn are pushed out of her mind, Spike is far more important to her right now, she pulls him up close to her and heads home.

Chapter Five: Realization

Buffy groans as she throws the door. She forgot to lock it again With Spike's dead weight firmly held in her arms, Buffy moves into the living room. After shoving the clutter off the top of the coffee table, she deposits him on its surface face down.

Running into the kitchen, she slams through the cabinets looking for the first aid kit. Not finding it there, she practically growls as she turns and runs to the stairs, only pausing briefly to glance at Spike.

Seconds later, she runs back into the living room after finding her first aid kit underneath her bed. Shaking her head, Buffy sits down on the couch. Grimacing, Buffy wraps her small hand around the handle of the shiv, and wrenches it from his back. She lets out a whimper in sympathy as she moves, starting to remove his leather coat and shirts. Looking at the coat as she holds it up, she thinks miserably, he’s going to be pissed! She looks back down at him. Well, if we can get you out of your... beast-y mood!

Shaking her head, she sets to work.

The whole time, she keeps her mind set on only fixing his wound. No other possibilities are aloud to interrupt her. She wipes the blood away from his back with a wade of gauze, and is pleased to see that the wound is straight and already starting to heal. Turning back to her first aid kit, she gets the butterfly band aids out, not bothering with stitches. They would only irritate him later. The wound heals just as fast either way.

Placing five of the butterfly band aids across the incise, Buffy places a thick square of gauze over the injury and tapes it down.

After cleaning up the mess she made mending Spike’s wound, Buffy dejectedly sits down on the couch, and longingly looks at him. Sitting forward, she brushes her hand along his cheek.

It's then, seeing the desperation in her actions, that she realizes it. She has been feeling it for years but only chalking it up to friendship. As she reflects, she has another epiphany. Every time he had gotten hurt over the past couple of years, a similar pain hit her when she heard of his pain.

She wishes he’d wake up. He's never out this long. He usually wakes in the middle of her tending to his wounds.

"Come on you stupid vampire, and wake up," she whispers close to his ear.

And to her astonishment, he actually listens to her.

She jerks back when he suddenly comes up off the table. In the next second, she finds herself crushed in his arms with his fangs teasing her neck.

"Spike?" She asks, her voice turns into a shocked squeal as his fangs sink into her throat. She jerks again with a flash pain that is so brief that she's not even sure that it was there.

Just as quickly he'd bitten her, he pulls back, and starts crying. He sounds like he's in horrible pain. She realizes that he's crying because he'd bitten her. He's like Angel was when he came back from hell. Except, Spike seems recognize her. She wonders vaguely, as she begins to sooth Spike, if he recognizes anyone else.

She reaches out and smoothes her hand over his shoulder and down his arm as she tries to sooth him with her voice. "Shh, its ok Spike. You didn’t hurt me. It was just a shock."

At her words, he looks up at her, and then is suddenly kissing her. Any other time, she would've found his abrupt changes funny, if not a little childish. Buffy moans into his mouth as her arms wrap around his shoulders, giving into the kiss while at the same time giving up to her feelings for him.

She feels Spike shift closer to her, and she lets her hand trail down over his shoulders, chest, and stomach, down to his lap. She aggressively cups his crotch.

A growl rumbles through the living room as Spike brakes the kiss and looks towards the door...

...Where the Scoobies stand in stunned shock.

Buffy looks up wondering why he's stopped... She feels the giggles start as two things happen at once.

One, she realizes there's another reason behind his behavior toward the Scoobies. Second, Spike pushes her onto the couch and lunges for the people standing in the foyer. Just as quickly, Buffy gets to her feet, but is to late to prevent Spike from hitting Xander another good one across the jaw. Xander goes down as she gets to Spike, holding him around the waist.

That stops him. He turns in her embrace, and a little roughly but reverently, pulls her away, and stands her against the wall. It's like he's putting her out of harms way. She smiles at the unneeded, but sweet gesture.

Nonetheless, she knows that he's going back to finish Xander off. If she would’ve been thinking battle tactics, she would’ve realized that he's going after the only other male in the group.

Instead, she reaches for him as he goes to turn from her, wrapping her arms around his neck, and pulling his head down, she whispers, "I'm Sorry."

Then her lips claim he's as her knee raises and catches him in the crotch. Pulling back as he bends over, Buffy hits him in the juncture between his shoulder and neck, successfully knocking him unconscious.

She remorsefully shakes her head as he goes down to the ground for the second time tonight. Although, she knows it's the only way she's going to get Xander out of the house alive, she still feels bad for kneeing him

Chapter Six: Half Explanations

Buffy looks first at Spike's prone body on the floor then at the five other people standing in the foyer. Not bothering to explain, Buffy bends down and picks Spike up for the second time that day. Walking into the living room, she lays him out on the couch. She smoothes back his rumpled hair, and looks at him apologetically... even if he can’t see it. Her attentions are pulled away from him as Xander asks-the Scoobies file into the living room-"What are you doing?"

Buffy frowns as she answers, "Laying him on the couch so I don’t have a body taking up walking space."

"No! That’s not what I meant. I mean when we first walked in here?" Xander asks, a plaintive tone entering his voice.

"Xander, that’s not important right now." Willow says, stepping in before he can be himself and say something to make Buffy mad. "How did you find him?" She asks.

"I didn’t. He found me," Buffy says walking over to them. "It seems, that Spike here only recognizes me..." Her earlier found knowledge coming back to her. Still, she didn’t feel like divulging that yet. He seems to go only after other males. He’s protecting his mate.

"Did he hurt you?" Dawn asks.

Buffy knows immediately that her sister is referring to the bite mark on her throat; thankfully, her hair is covering most of it. "No, he didn’t hurt me. When he woke up though, he was a little disoriented."

"When?" Tara asks, since the vampire in question was still unconscious.

"He found me in a cemetery, and we got... distracted, and some guy stabbed him in the back. He passed out, and I threatened to kill the guy if he didn’t get lost." Not letting anyone comment on her actions, she says, "If you two don’t mind, I was wondering if Dawn can stay over at your house?"

"Of course no," Willow says. Tara nods in agreement when Buffy looks over at her.

Chapter Seven: The Clincher and The Claiming

Buffy sighs her relief as she walks back over to the couch to check on Spike. He's still unconscious, and looks like he is dead. The only sure way she knew that he isn’t dead is because he’s 'not a big pile of dust'.

Before she practically shoved the Scoobies out the door, Buffy had had Willow cast a barrier around the house so only that Buffy could get in and out. In the process, insuring that Spike didn’t get out, and no one else got in. Buffy shakes her head at the irony of that. At one time, she would’ve done anything to keep him out, now; she wants to make sure he stays in the house.

Slowly, she moves to the stairs, and in something close to slow motion, she climbs up the stairs and gets ready for bed. She gladly climbs in-between the cool sheets awaiting her. Her last thought is of Spike. I hope I didn’t hurt him too bad.

* * *

Buffy wakes a couple of hours later to feel the cool press of a long, hard muscled body spooning her. She knows immediately who it is. Smiling, she turns around in his embrace, and snuggles up, under his chin, one slender arm circling his waist.

She happily falls asleep in the arms of her vamped out Spike.

* * *

She wakes a short time later to the feel of cool hands caressing her back, and her vampire happily nibbling at her neck. Not bothering to open her eyes, she lets her hand wander down his body, and finds that he’s sans clothing and underneath the blankets with her. Buffy playfully grabs the hard glob of his butt, and pulls him against her, eliciting a growl out of Spike when his hard shaft hits her in the stomach.

Fully lost in the feel of him pressed against her, his hands at her back, and his mouth at her neck, the next thing she coherently notices that she’s clothes-less, and Spike’s long fingers are delving into the course hairs between her parting thighs. A long moan comes from her parted lips as two of his fingers find her opening, and slid in, caressing her. Her back arches over Spike’s other arm as he begins to thrust his fingers in and out of her.

A whimper slides from her mouth as his thumb pushes down hard on her clit. She vaguely feels him move beside her before his mouth brushes over hers. He then trails open-mouthed kisses down over her chin and neck, only to stop when his mouth latches onto one of her hard nipples. He starts to suckle from her breast, drawing it fully into his mouth.

Buffy’s senses are overloaded as Spike does three things at once. He non to gently bites down on her nipple (making sure his fangs don’t get her), roughly rubs her clit with his thumb in a circular motion, and then curls his fingers inside of her, effectively sending her over the edge.

Her eyes widen in surprise as her climax hits, like a piece of glass just as it breaks, she pauses, and then unexpectedly shatters. She hears a sound that could be described as sobbing and soon realizes that the sound is coming from her. As the onslaught of pleasure continues to wash over her, one of her hands moves to hold Spike’s head tighter to her breast as the other comes up to hold onto his shoulder blade.

She turns her head into Spike’s arm as the waves of pleasure start to ebb. His fingers resume their earlier movements; dragging her orgasm out. All of her senses are tingling and her is mind blissfully numb.

Her body screams for her to do something return.

She takes a deep breath and bites down on his arm, as a small burst of blood coats the inside of her mouth, and the growl that vibrates through her breast, she comes again, hard.

Seconds, maybe hours later, her hips stop their undulating, and she shudders as Spike with draws his fingers from her. She gives one last lick to the bite mark on his bicep as he lets go of her breast, letting it slid from his mouth as he pulls up. She sighs a moan at the sensation.

Spike pulls her to him, wrapping his arms around her back, he goes back to nuzzling her neck. Buffy lays blissfully limp in his embrace; one hand lazily draws patterns on his back. Wow... and that was just his hand and mouth?

"Ah," she sighs, "I love you Spike."

Before his name is fully from her lips, Spike is moving over the top of her, and positioning himself between his thighs. She looks up at him in surprise, and the only thing she sees in his eyes is love. Before she can say anything, his mouth is lowering and slanting over hers. As his mouth is taking her, so are his hips. Just as his shaft slides into her, his tongue sweeps into her hot mouth, both instantly cooling and heating her.

Buffy is instantly lost in the feel of his body as he takes her, demanding and unyielding. His strokes in and out of her are long, and hard, making sure, they cause as much pleasure as possible or so she thought. As his mouth pulls back a little to take her lips at a different angle, one of his hands slid down her body and cups her buttock in the palm of his hand and angles her up into his attack.

Buffy rips her mouth away from his as the new angle brings on stronger waves of ecstasy. A moan comes from both of them as Buffy rolls her hips up into him as he comes down on her, taking him as he is taking her, pulling him deeper into her.

As they move together, she brings her legs around his thighs. Her hands move to caress his back side. They move down and slide over the hard, flexing globs of his buttock, and pulls on them on his downward stroke.

He bends down again and takes her mouth, this time allowing her to probe his mouth in return. They caress each other’s tongues in a game of give and take.

A continuous growl starts in the hollow of Spike's chest. He's having trouble finding his release, right on the edge but not able to find the prefect angle to drag himself over. She is very close and would go if he keeps continues, grinding into her, grinding against each other. As Spike’s mouth trails down her neck, she gasps, and quickly grabs onto the back of his head, pressing his open mouth into her neck.

In a ragged voice, Buffy says, "I claimed you..." She takes a deep breath as her orgasm starts to take over (not that that helped anything), "Claim me,"

She loses her control as his fangs sink into her throat. His shaft sinks further intp her then seems possible. As her walls clench around him, she feels him go rigid as his release washes over him.

Their almost painful release seems to go on forever but as they relax against each other, the pleasure washes over them and leaves them languid, and limp. As their slow undulating comes to rest, they fall into exhaustion, still joined at hips, neck, and mouth.

Buffy moans as she slides into a deep, pleasure induced sleep.

Chapter Eight: The Morning After

Spike wakes slowly to the glorious feeling of pliant, warm flesh crushed to him, and if he isn’t mistaken, surrounding his quickly hardening shaft. He slightly shifts on his side.

Yep, he was mistaken. When he shifts, he realizes that his fangs are buried in a warm neck. That’s when last night floods back to him in full Technicolor, and surround sound.

He remembers waking at sunset yesterday, and having the great, undeniable urge to find the slayer. After that, things become blurred, until he remembers clearly finding Buffy in a cemetery and then attacking her with his mouth. To his shock, he remembers her reaching down the front of his pants and grabbing his cock. That elicits an unbidden groan from him.

He frowns as the memories continue. It's like he'd been looking out as the demon in him took control and claimed what was his. Spike goes rigid as the rest of the night washes over him.

Another brief kiss, and then oblivion. The next thing he remembers is waking up in the living room of the Summers’ home, and finding Buffy in bed asleep. After which he had divested himself of his clothes and slid in with her. Then events that play through his mind are hazed over, until he gets to the part where Buffy presses his opened mouth into her neck, and whispers in a breathy voice, “I claimed you… Claim me!”

Spike pulls his fangs from her neck, and briefly takes note of the bruise around his mark. He looks down at Buffy’s peacefully sleeping face. “Buffy? Buffy, love wake up!”

He hated to wake her, but...

Her eyelids flutter up as a smile washes over her face, “Your awake. How do you feel?”

“Like I’ve had the best shag of my unlife, and betrayed you at same time...” Spike says dejectedly.

<

Buffy pulls away a little frowning. She says, “You didn’t betray me Spike. I loved what you did to me last night.”

“Yeah, but I was more demon than man…” Spike pointedly looks at the bite mark on her neck, “And…”

“And you did what I asked you to... I love you Spike...” Buffy says in a small whisper. Her eyelids drop down so she's looking at him from under her lashes.

The scene of them making love runs through his mind again and hears her from last, right before he takes her. Before his mouth crashes down on hers.

After some time spent thinking on last night, Spike finally says, “I love you... I love you so much.”

They kiss for a long while, until Spike pulls back, and says, “Even my demon loves you.”

A strange warmth washes over him as Buffy looks up him with a bright smile. “Love’s bitch alright… even my demon loves you.”

“All the way,” Buffy says as she pulls his head back down to hers. As she takes him into her, she rolls them, so she’s on top. She starts a slow pace and they lose themselves in the other.

Chapter Nine: No, He’s fine!

Spike collapses on Buffy as they breath heavily, coming down from their third session of love making that morning, both of their claims reaffirmed. Spike rises up on his elbows, and looks down into Buffy’s eyes. They both burst out laughing, happiness washing over them.

Just as Spike is about to lean down to kiss her, the phone rings. Spike groans, and is about to roll off of her when he feels her tighten her hold on him. He looks at her. “Stay put!” She says. Spike just shrugs and lays his head down on her chest as she reaches for the phone.

“Hello?” Buffy says, “Oh, Hi Xander.”

“No, he’s fine,” says Buffy as a smile grows on her face. “It must have been one of those twenty- four hour type spells.”

Spike hears Xander squawk “WHAT?” on the other end of the line.

“NO! He didn’t hurt me. He just loved me...” Buffy laughs as Xander starts to go off on the other end. She just hangs up on him.

Her laugh turns into a moan as Spike begins to move inside her, suckling her breast into his mouth. “That’s not fair...”

“All’s fair in love and war love.” Spike groans as he starts to take her harder, her inner muscles clenching around him as she begins to move with him.

The opposite of hate is love; the opposite of death is life...