Chapter 21

Spike had to admit that finally confronting Mr. Summers had made him feel fantastic, however he was also keenly aware that Buffy wouldn't share his good mood. He headed back to his crypt, a little disappointed that he'd be sleeping alone for the first time in weeks. He's miss her warm little body formed next to his, the scent of her firing all his senses, the solace she gave him. He wanted to go find her and apologize for his perceived screw up, but a little space for a time would do them good, they'd see each other again tomorrow. He sighed when he saw his crypt, knowing that it wasn't much when he was alone. However second he opened the door he knew someone else was there already,"Buffy?" he said, but the moment he spoke the name it wasn't her. Standing in the shadows in the far corner of his crypt was the banshee in her human form,"Polly."

"Yes, it's I.....William." She emerged into the faint light that had come through the windows, her smile expectant and full of love for him.

"I would have thought you'd be long gone by now."

"I was drawn here, drawn back here like that first night....drawn to you."

"Polly...I.....I don't think you should stay here, in Sunnydale, I think you should go back to England. It's easy to start over, once you've got a handle on your demon side, quite easy actually. Do you know what you are?"

"I do now...the knowledge came upon me, when I came here....to where you live...and you're a vampire."

"That's right, I was sired the same night I asked you to marry me."

"What? What's wrong?"

"Quickly....I want you to pack an overnight bag, go out the back and go straight to Spike's crypt!"

"Okay....but why, what's going on...is this because of dad?"

"It is...but they'll be here any minute and I want you to already be gone....trust me."

"I do......you're coming too though, right?"

"I promise, I'll come as soon as I can."

Chapter 22

When the knock finally came to the front door it startled Buffy, they were over an hour late and at this point she was half expecting them not to show. She sucked in a full breath and exhaled, she knew she could do this, this was nothing compared half the stuff she'd dealt with in all her years of slaying. With a hand on her hip in a defiant gesture she opened the door to come face to face once again with her father and his wife, however the social worker wasn't with them,"Where's Mrs. Pare?" Buffy asked, surprised.

"We rescheduled....Gloria and I have come to give you one more chance. Where's Dawn?" They stepped inside and went without invitation into the living room. Buffy sighed and rolled her eyes, feeling a little of Spike's influence coursing through her veins. With kid gloves off and a wicked smile painted on her face she joined them.

"Dawn's not here."

"And why is that, Buffy?"

"Mostly because I didn't want her to find out that you're a lowlife pig you are, blackmailing us with pictures of me....what would you call what I was doing, dad?" Gloria stepped in front of her husband and made as if she was about to defend him,"Stow it, Glorificus!"

"Buffy you will not take that tone with your stepmother."

"I just did. Answer my question dad...."

"Vampires....."

"Give the man a prize...nt face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#D14778" size="-1"> "Your family declared that you had died, a body was found in the Thames and it looked an awful lot like you, we were told. I ran out when I heard, I was grief stricken. I ran past our oak tree to the edge of the estate and then on to the moors. I was lost, unable to temper my cries...and then I saw her, like a ghost she was. She embraced me."

"So I guess it was my fault after all...I'm not surprised." She approached him then, her hand reaching out to caress his face.

"Do you no suppose this is why we've been brought together again? After all this time? I believe we've been given a second chance, William, two broken hearts, given a chance to mend...to love again?"

"Polly..." His words were silenced by the contact of her soft lips against his, she was cool skinned like him, a demonic creature with all the heart and passion of an angel and she wanted him.

***

Buffy hadn't even managed 3 hours of sleep, hoping until way after sunrise that Spike would have come back. Their little fight hadn't meant anything, she told herself as much, he'd get over it as he always did. No matter what wrong she did him or issue she took up, he always got over it and forgave her before she even knew she'd done something to injure him. This time had been different, this time he'd blindsided her by talking about marrying her. She expected to spend the rest of her life with him, but marriage was something entirely different, marriage was sacred and might even make them holy and that wasn't Spike. At least that wasn't who she thought Spike was, if he'd been testing her she knew she'd failed and perhaps that was why he wasn't there.

She and Dawn waited for 3 o'clock to come around, when Mrs. Pare and Mr. & Mrs. Summers were to arrive. Willow had headed off for what she said was following a hunch, leaving Buffy and Dawn to deal with what was to come by themselves. Buffy hadn't told her sister about the vulgar bit a blackmail her father was threatening them with, she didn't have the stomach to do it. She also didn't have the vaguest conception under God how to handle the meeting - she either had to hand Dawn over or reveal that she was the Slayer. She oddly enough regretted never reading Joseph Kellerman's novel, perhaps it would have helped her understand the situation a little better. Spike had probably read it, lived it...he'd been caught between more rocks and hard places than anyone she'd ever known. If Spike was here he'd know what to do, which probably would have been to knock her father down off his high horse, she'd proudly comfort his head ache afterwards."I wish Spike was here," Dawn spoke up.

"Me too," Buffy replied with a sigh, taking her sister's hand holding it firmly. She looked over her sister, almost as if seeing her for the first time. The monks had created this bright, powerful being from her own flesh and blood, she wasn't just her sister, she was her child, she was a gift given just to Buffy he.slaying vampires....is that the story you were going to feed Social Services? Or were you planning on using the ones of me and Spike, doing absolutely nothing we should be ashamed of..."

"I saw your boyfriend again last night..."

"I figured you would, Spike can only take a back seat for so long....he's gonna kick himself that you bothered showing up today...oh well. He should've just had you for breakfast." Her laughter keened and came out in a self satisfied sigh.

"Is that where you've sent your sister....to that monster?!"

"Just because he's something other than human doesn't make him a monster, there's only one monster here...and that's you. Spike on the other hand is just about the best thing that ever happened to me and Dawn. Dad, here's the short and skinny of it......you and your wife are gonna pack up and head to Switzerland, Dawn is going to stay right here with me. If you wrangle the legal system into grating you guardianship....Spike and I are skipping town and taking her with us. Your threats don't scare me anymore, I'm not the little girl you used to make conform to your ideals. My mother could only take so much, and I hit my limit.....so pfffft....the end.....get out of my life!" Buffy paused for a moment and went back over her words in her mind,"Yeah...that's it...wow, way easier than I thought....I really should listen to Spike more often, after a 150 years I guess he knows a thing or two."

"This is....this is intolerable!!"

"Yeah....and so's her outfit."

***

Buffy was practically skipping through the cemetery, feeling as if the weight of the world had been lifted from her shoulders. In hindsight she couldn't believe she'd been so petrified of what damage her father thought he could do to her family. She'd wound herself in emotional knots over it when she should have just applied Spike's treatment of fuck 'em! Buffy did know that Spike's method wouldn't be appropriate in all of life's situations, but in the case it had been just right. She'd be sure to reward him appropriately. She entered the crypt shortly after night fall and found it rather quiet."Spike? Dawn? You here?" Met with silence Buffy decided to investigate, closing the crypt door behind her and stepping down into the darkness. She felt around on the sarcophagus that inhabited the kitchen area of his home and found what she sought, a matchbook that he used if ever the favored Zippo was out of juice. She set the wicks of the pillars on top of the television alight and with the illumination the place seemed even more vacant.

Just to be certain, she descended into the crypt's lower level, lighting candles as she went."William is that you?" Polly asked from her place, comfortable under the covers and in Spike's bed. Buffy was perfectly still, as if she were as otherworldly as a vampire, without a heartbeat, without breath, without a soul. Her muscles were suddenly as taught as if strung over a medieval torture device, with a sweet Victorian lady with all the venom of an asp turning the wheel and making them nearly tear. Buffy seemed outside of herself for a moment, aware that her nails were digging into her palms; that her eyes were as wide as the moon and that her breaths were coming intermittently.

The other woman lay in the bed that she so often shared with the man she'd trusted with her life and that of her sister's. Polly barely wore a thing, a slip nightgown that Buffy had never seen before, with her hair loose and messy from the pillow. The banshee rose from the bed and locked eyes with the Slayer and smiled like a wicked faerie that had sprung a trap on a fawn and snapped its neck.

Chapter 23

Buffy's eyes left the woman before her as she returned to herself and saw what was real. Despite 122 years as a vampire, Spike still made his bed as if an old hag of a school marm was standing behind him with a whipping cane. The right side of the bed was tucked tighter than hospital corners in the 50s, that unexpected inkling swept Buffy away stilled her soul's alarm. It was then that she began to notice other things that put her at ease, and ashamed that even a second of doubt at flickered in her mind. Spike always kept an extra pack of cigarettes on the bedside table, they were clearly absent. The "KISS THE LIBRARIAN" mug that he kept from Giles as a souvenir usually sat on a stone behind the bed, within his reach, it was also absent. Furthermore, his notebook and pens weren't peaking out from under his side of the bed. She'd never asked or let him see her interest in what words he may have written, but she'd often been falling asleep beside him and hear the pages flip and then the pens gliding furiously over them. Spike never shared their bed with anyone else but his Slayer, Polly was putting on airs, as Spike would have phrased it.

"William said he wouldn't be gone long...he didn't feel comfortable leaving me on my own...so considerate, my William."

"Un-uh," Buffy replied, crossing her arms in front of her and trying not to give herself away,"Polly, love, I took a photography class in high school....but I forget, what speed of film would a person need to take photos in the black of night?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"You're not as 19th century as you say you are, huh? No, I'm bettin' you're as 21st as I am....'cept you know how to use a camera. You also know how to pay attention, listen when people think you don't understand or aren't there...you've probably got a website - www.boyfriendmoochingbitch.com? So you did a nasty and slipped the pictures to my father somehow...."

"Buffy, I do realize you have a certain attachment to my William...but he is my love.....my..."

"Oh please....cram it up your lily white ass, honey." Buffy had caught her second wind after the row with her father, and Polly was about to get a full dose of just what it meant to piss off a Slayer."I get this little game of yours...he is an incredible man...it took me long enough to see it, but from the second I did I knew things about this world that I'd never known before. When you trust someone, believe in him, love him...no one can put on a cheap whore act and make you believe they'd ever betray you. I love Spike, he loves me...you're not even part of the equation...you're nothing."

"I am not nothing! I was to be his WIFE!!" Polly became enraged and seemed hell bent on destroying everything she could get her hands on, his furniture, his objects of beauty, ever while shrieking like the banshee she was. Buffy backed away slowly, hoping not to be turned upon by the demon woman. Whatever madness was inherent in the banshee was rearing its ugly head and any who dared to remain in it's circle would fall victim. Once she reached the ladder, Buffy hurriedly climbed up and headed for the door. As she took hold of the knob, she was pushed backward by it and stumbled over herself and back into the crypt.

"Buffy!" exclaimed Spike as he watched her land hard on her back. Dawn followed in after him and echoed his cry, both of them going to help the Slayer back on her feet, only to find themselves being pulled behind her as she dragged them out of the crypt,"Bloody hell, Slayer, what's going on?! What's all the bangin' n' crashin'..."

"Banshee....freaking out...wrecking stuff...wanting to kill me!" Buffy explained in a brief, manic haste.

"Buffy I can explain..." Spike stammered as they continued to be dragged by Buffy from the cemetery.

"Shove it fang face....now's not the time....I'm burning those sheets by the way....now rewind to the first night when I asked you how to kill a banshee."

"Standard beheading....but wait, you can't kill Polly....she's....."

"Spike, she could teach Drusilla a few things!"

"Suggestion here....why don't we just get in Spike's car....alot faster!" Dawn shouted as she was beginning to run out of breath.

"Cut left....it's parked just through those trees," Spike replied, already veering hard. He slid over the hood of the old beater with James Dean flare and had the engine humming before the two women were even inside the car. He skidded out of the cemetery parking lot hell bent for leather, praying they'd left the banshee behind. The Powers of course had other ideas as Spike caught sight of Polly in full and brilliant banshee form literally flying through the air after them.

"Bloody hell!" He looked over his shoulder to get the full effect, which caused him to bury the needle on the speedometer,"Buckle up, babies.....we've got a hell bitch on our heels!!!"

Chapter 24

The DeSoto screeched to a violent halt, choking Dawn and Buffy against their seatbelts, arriving at the Summers home."Move it, ducks....Dawn find cover....Buff, axe!" Spike ordered as they scrambled out of the car. Unfortunately it appeared that Hank and Gloria had not headed either his or Buffy's warning, finding them waiting on the porch. Spike wasn't sure if he should thank the Powers or curse them for the fact that the inevitable confrontation with Buffy's father and stepmother would have to wait, because Polly arrived just seconds after he did. She came up upon them like a reborn nightmare from Spike's past, a banshee in control of her demon and out for blood. She wasn't a frail or pitiable creature any longer, in contrast she descended upon them as an angel cast out of heaven for some damnable sin.

Little remained of the identity that had been Polly Raintree, the creature was without color, a blight against the night sky. Her eyes were as thin milk, but violent in their gaze; her hair flying behind her and snapping like the many tongues of angry dragons. Everything about her had become mythical, but she was vicious and determined that if she were not to have her way, then no one would be left in her wake. She hovered a few seconds, her preternatural light illuminating the streets and front yard as if a bolt of lightening had suspended itself. Suddenly her head snapped to captivate Buffy and consequently Dawn in her stare, propelling Spike to move in between them and Polly. He snarled like a wolf protecting its mate and cub, his own demon fully awake and challenging for a fight to the death, if need be."You won't lay a hand on them! We'll both be dead before that happens!!" he threatened. His warning had little effect on her, she appeared to have her own agenda. In a sinuous, lithe action she shrunk back from them and put her feet to the ground, quieting herself."Polly?"

She held herself and shook with tears and unfettered rage for a few moments before looking up at them,"You can't imagine....none of you can....you can't possibly know what it's like...William, I loved you with the breath, smiles, tears, of all my life....and then you were gone....just lost, and I had to go on for years and years alone...I would endure but my soul died the day you left. I believed you loved me....but you never did...how do you supposed this makes me feel? To know in so finite a way that I was worthless and unloved as ever I had been. I have walked this earth alone for a century, never remembered, never cherished, never thought of once I had passed. None of you understand the truth of despair...it is suffocating, it is raw and painful....as if hungry spider crawl up inside and pull your nerves from your spine one at a time....and it never ceases!! I scream and I cry and it pounds in my head until my ears bleed and no one can hear me! No understands what my pleas are for....they become consumed by their own sadness and I am left with nothing again and again and again!! No one ever hears me! All I needed was to be loved....just once, just one time.....I just wanted something real....but it never comes. So....I weep and I wander and I am unchanged....I go on veiled by attrition, but I do not change.....I am sorrow....I am dead...." Her words fell into a strangling abyss of sobs and choked cries, there was nothing more heartbreaking in all the wide world than her soliloquy. Spike was rooted to his spot by the sobriety of her suffering, he'd had no idea that he'd ever effect a life so profoundly and eternally...the demon face faded away.

"Polly.....I...."

"Why do you not love me William?!!" He looked at her, resolutely, taking in her anguish and letting it find a nest inside with all his other regrets.

"Because I'm not William," he whispered, his palms outstretched in an act of repentance. The banshee accepted his honesty, as brutal as it may be and turned away from him. She began walking into the night as she always did, no direction to her step, no destination in her sights. There would be times of lucidity to come again, moments where she was just a normal girl, but always she would be the morose and dejected lady, forever. Spike watched her pale form sink into the night and exit his life, but fully aware that he'd been cut a new wound, one that may never heal.

Behind him was an equally as unbearable scene, so much so that Spike was unable to dwell upon what had just transpired with Polly. Buffy and Dawn held each other as they cried, affected by both Polly's words and her supernatural influence. Spike did not hesitate for another second to pull them into his embrace. He was reciprocated by their arms around him and their wet faces buried against his chest. As he held them while the effects of the banshee wore off, he looked over at Hank and Gloria, surprised to find that one of them was decidedly unaffected.

Chapter 25

"Spike?" asked Buffy as she came back to her senses. She'd suddenly become aware of a gap in her train of thought, one moment they'd been about to fight off a banshee and now she was being held by Spike and crying on his chest....again. Dawn too looked up at him, as confused as her sister.

"Polly...she's gone and she's not coming back," Spike explained, wiping her tears from Buffy's eyes with his thumb.

"But what happened....I'm all blurry....remembry's all out of whack...."

"I'll tell you later....after we've dealt....with them." Spike looked over towards the porch where Hank and Gloria stood. Buffy's father had his arms crossed in front of his chest and a fowl look on his face, while his wife stood stoically and supportively at his side.

"Buffy? What are we going to do?" Dawn pleaded, sensing how the ugliness of the whole situation was about to come to a head. Buffy looked at her sister, full of uncertainty, and then to Spike, brimming with his perennial cocky confidence even though it was underscored by the weight of whatever had transpired with Polly.

"We...." Buffy began, aligning her thoughts,"We are going to...we're going to do this Spike's way...we're going to tell them to go to sod off and get the bloody hell out of our lives." Spike caressed his Slayer's face and gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"That's my girl."

"I am." But just as they were about to dive into the final battle a cab pulled into the driveway. It was Willow who emerged moments later, doing an odd little dance and sway as she came over to those gathered."Wills?"

"Who's your hero?!" Willow beamed, still shimmying to her own internal soundtrack.

"I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and say it's you?" Buffy replied, incredulous.

"It's so me! Join me in the Hank-Summers-is-soooo-busted-happy-dance!!" Buffy and Dawn's eyes widened, scared to hope that the whole ordeal might suddenly be over. By now Hank and Gloria had decided they'd been out of the loop long enough and came to confront the other four.

"I think it's time we put and end to this once and for all," Hank proclaimed.

"Do you never get tired of talking out of your pompous ass?" Spike questioned with his top lip curled in disgust.

"Listen here....you..."

"Blah, blah, bloody blah....shut up already...Willow....I believe the podium is your's."

"Huh? Oh right..." Willow fished into her purse and brought out a small stack of print outs,"Dawnie...I have to inform you that you've got an annual worth of $350 000!"

"Cool.....when do I get it?" Dawn asked with glee.

"I think a better question is why, sweetie," Buffy reasoned.

"Because that's just how much more money your dad gets from his company if he has a minor child in his custody."

"Oh Dawn, can you feel the love?" Spike scoffed,"This overwhelming sense of paternal affection directed towards you, Nibblet?"

"I'm just gleaming from the joy of it," Dawn echoed sarcastically. Hank was about to voice his protest when Willow started up again.

"The company's big and shiny about family values....the more nuclear the better.....oh yeah....Dawn, you're registered at one of the best boarding schools in all of Switzerland...you start this fall."

"Fabulous!" the teenager replied in the same manner.

"Nice touch," Spike sneered.

"Precious even," Buffy added,"Dad....you think Social Services would think so too? Nevermind....here's the deal, you're withdrawing your petition for custody and we never hear from you again."

"I don't think so young lady...."

"Are you really this stupid? Get over yourself....you lost...go get yourself fitted for skis already, eat some cheese with holes in it, munch on a Toblerone, get a mechanically sound watch or cuckoo clock....beat it!" Gloria took her husband's arms and pulled him away, resigned to the fact that their dupe had failed. Hank Summers then stormed ahead of his wife, his anger finally getting the better of him.

"Hold on one sec, ducks, I've got a lil' something I've got to get out of my system," said Spike as he dashed after Mr. and Mrs. Summers. He got ahead of Gloria and stood in her path, scrutinizing her appearance as if trying to figure something out about her.

"What are you doing?" she asked, recoiling.

"Oh come on, love, give it up....."

"I don't understand."

"I won't spill the beans, but I gotta know....come on, I know you're a demon....your eyes were as dry as the Sahara when the banshee let loose...." Gloria huffed and stomped her foot.

"Zabrockian Polymorph, okay?"

"Exxxxxxcellent! Goddamn I bloody loooove Karma!!"

"Gloria!!" Hank yelled from the car. When his wife didn't act right away he came to get her,"Gloria, we're leaving now!!"

"Hank?" Spike asked, sizing the man up,"I think I'd like to give you something to remember me by."

"Excuse me?" Hank replied a split second before Spike's fist broke his nose.

"Aaaaarrrrggggghhhhhhhh!!!!" Spike howled as the infernal chip blasted electric shocks through his brain. Buffy, Dawn and even Willow raced to him, completely ignoring the unconscious man in their driveway.

Chapter 26

"How's your headache, baby?" Buffy cooed as she massaged Spike's temples, his eyes were closed and his head was in her lap as he lay stretched on the couch. He grumbled and bent further into her body, nuzzling against her stomach."My poor, big bad vampire..."

"Bloody right," he mumbled. Buffy was treating him very much like the time when they'd been under Willow's spell and thought they were engaged.

"You're my hero, you know?"

"Yeah right..."

"Well....you're something special at any rate and I'm happy you're mine."

"Me too, love, me too."

"Here's your drink Spike!" Dawn announced as she bounded into the living room, mug of warm blood in hand, followed closely by Willow.

"And your extra spicy cajun curly fries!" said the witch. Both the plate and cup were presented to him on the coffee table with endearing smiles from the young women.

"Ta," he said in thanks, sitting up to begin his meal. He was most definitely getting the hero treatment from all the women in his circle, even though he considered Willow to be the savior of the day. He took a gulp of blood and started munching on his fries as the girls watched him, seated around him in a circle. Decidedly uncomfortable as the center of attention Spike turned his attention to Willow,"Tell me, pet, how'd you work the mojo to foil the thankfully departed Mr. Summers?"

"Oh......it was easy as pie....actually, not pie, I've always found pie difficult for some reason.....anyways....I couldn't find a smack of evidence that there was something up with your dad, Buffy, so I finally had a lightbulb about checking out his company.....found their policy on family values and relocating families from America....then found out which boarding schools they were affiliated with....voila!"

"Bloody brills, witch."

"Nah....just Net smarts....."

"But it saved us, Willow," Buffy praised,"We owe you so much."

"Well, you can repay me by suing your dad for child support and buying me something pretty."

"It's a deal."

"Well, I should get going....I'm meeting Tara....and I might not be home tonight!!"

"Aaaahh.....the Lover Wiccas are once again?" Spike ruminated,"Before you toddle off, I've got a secret just begging to be devulged....it's about step-mommy."

"Glorificus? Ug.....I don't think I care, I'm just glad she's gone!" said Dawn.

"Oh, but, Nibblet, this is priceless.....She's not entirely human, you see. It's like finding out that under that nice green candy shell on the Mn'M there's something not entirely chocolate.....she's a demon.....a Zebrokian Polymorph to be precise."

"Are you serious?" Buffy asked, mouth gaping wide open.

"I noticed just after Polly left....she wasn't crying. She fessed up right before I sucker punched your git of a father."

"So what does this mean? I don't him dead or anything..."

"Nah....Zabrokian's are pretty harmless...she might even really love him, they do tend to be a little capitalist though, the whole Dawn thing was probably her idea. They do however have to maintain a serious glamor, their true selves are, how should I put it.....basically, she's a giant wad of snot and tentacles. No obscene horns though, pity....but the real boon is that they can only hold the form for so long....one of these days he's gonna wake up and....well, you can picture it."

"This is.....this.....well, fuck me liked fried potatoes one the hungriest morning of my life....this is wonderful!" Buffy smiled widely, then went to stealing frieds from Spike's plate.

"I'm off.....I'll see you guys later.....much later, hopefully," said Willow as she made her exit.

"Night, Red....thank you..." said Spike, echoed afterwards by both Dawn and Buffy.

"I think that's my cue to make myself scarce," Dawn informed, coming over to hug them both,"I love you guys."

"We love you too," Buffy replied before Dawn left for her room. Buffy turned back to Spike, who by now had finished eating and drinking,"You feeling better? Was punching my dad really worth the migraine?" Spike reclined and brought Buffy with him, settling them comfortably in each other's arms.

"Absolutely....and I got a nice reward too, getting waited on hand and foot...a vamp could get used to such love and affection."

"He might." She kissed his neck and ran a hand over his chest."If he keeps being so wonderful....keeps loving my family so well."

"He loves you too.....very much." She inched her body up until they could look in each other's eyes.

"I love you."

"You've never said that to me before..."

"I know...but I meant it every day....I love you, Spike. You deserved to hear it a long time ago, but you've always deserved a lot more than what I ever gave you."

"I know you've always thought I can take it...whenever you'd beat me to bloody pulp....or call my some evil thing....but it cut me so deep....many times I thought about giving up and just walking into the sun....."

"What stopped you?"

"I used to be a poet, I believe in love.....just had to wait for love to believe in me."

"It does....I believe in you, and I love you....did you really mean it when you asked me to marry you?"

"Yeah, love.....why?" She pressed her warm lips to his and eased her tongue inside his mouth to twin his, only to have him pull away.

"Fuck me like fried potatoes on the hungriest morning of my life???" She shrugged her shoulders and made a dismissive face, then went back to the kissing.

Chapter 27

Days later.....

It was long after sunset and the cemeteries of Sunnydale were under strict orders from the Powers That Be to remain serene and placid. This left the Slayer and her lover to their own devices, below the earth inside a crypt. They were naked, unabashed and blissfully content. Spike sat with his back against the headboard to their bed with Buffy laying against him; his chin rested against her temple, occasionally drawing back to bestow a kiss. He'd wrapped his legs around her waist, with her's comfortably stretched out from under his. Buffy's hands caressed his thighs, back and forth, making him shiver if she touched just the right spot; meanwhile Spike had placed one hand possessively over the flat of her stomach absorbing her warmth as his other hand held up a book from which he read to her.

"But sweet-tooth Laura spoke in haste: "Good folk, I have no coin; To take were to purloin: I have no copper in my purse, I have no silver either, And all my gold is on the furze...That shakes in windy weather....Above the rusty heather. "You have much gold upon your head," They answered altogether: "Buy from us with a golden curl." She clipped a precious golden lock, She dropped a tear more rare than pearl, Then sucked their fruit globes fair or red: Sweeter than honey from the rock, Stronger than man-rejoicing wine, Clearer than water flowed that juice; She never tasted such before, How should it cloy with length of use? She sucked and sucked and sucked the more...Fruits which that unknown orchard bore, She sucked until her lips were sore; Then flung the emptied rinds away, But gathered up one kernel stone, And knew not was it night or day...As she turned home alone." A breath hitched in Buffy's throat and Spike stopped his reading to look over her blushing body,"It gets better, pet....she's been tempted, she's tasted what they've got for her....she won't be able to stop herself....she'll keep coming back for more and more...."

"Kinda like I do?"

"Actually....no, nothing like you...I think I'll stop for now...it gets darker after this....unpleasant....." He closed the small volume and tossed it to the other side of the bed, giving him leave to wrap both arms around her.

"Darker how...do the goblins do things to her?"

"Yeah...but on the upside....at the end she makes out with her sister...."

"Why are you reading this to me?"

"Well, it is an amazing piece of prose...and look at you, all hot and bothered, you're practically burning my skin....the bloody poem's a hundred years old and it still gets 'em wet....are your juices flowing for me, pet?" His hands travelled down the length of her body as his legs unhooked themselves from her waist and relaxed next to her's. He dipped down between her thighs to stroke her all over with all his fingers, making her gasp and whimper.

"Would you suck me until your lips were sore?"

"I will devour the fruit of your flesh....drink your nectar.....till all your juices have syruped my face and streaked my neck....eat you alive until there is nothing left....."

"Oh yes....." Her first orgasm rolled over her like the slow parade of a rainwater down the face of an angelic statue, writhing against him without sense for anything beyond the ecstatic aches in her abdomen. He lift her body from his, she was warm, soft and yielding; he lay her beside him and watched as she breathed heavily with a fine sheen of perspiration glowing on her skin. She sighed as she came down from such a magnificent high, getting herself comfortable against the pillows, squeezing their lushness in her hands and adjusting her weight on the mattress. Her breasts were presented to him like succulent fruit on the tree, just waiting to be plucked and pierced by his teeth. Bracing himself on one arm one the other side of her body from where he sat he descended with firm, prolonged kisses to the place between them."Mmmmmmm...."

"Like that do you Slayer?" She nodded her head before guiding his own back down to her. His lips were surprisingly tepid, but still made her skin tingle like she was being bathed in silver. He took time to suckle at each nipple, drawing them into hard, tingling points while he kneaded the soft surrounding flesh with his fingers. He left her breasts after they'd been given their due attention and travelled lower over her at an agonizingly slow pace, gliding the underside of his tongue over the contracting, quivering muscles of her stomach. He stopped and looked up at her across the length of her body as his head cradled in the valley between her thighs."They'll come at us....like thieves in the night, trying to take away our happiness or scratch away at our love....but we won't let them.....will we, Buffy?"

"Never....never," she whispered before she witnessed his face disappear. The first action was to orbit the area with his lips, occasionally making contact and causing her to let out little whimpers. He augmented his worship of her with kisses on the outer folds before beginning to tease the area with minute licks. When he finally decided it was time to plunge in he couldn't even force himself to consider how she wanted it, after that first taste, he was a goner. In a haze of tangles and flesh, Spike made love to her with his tongue, savoring every last drop her body was giving him. As for Buffy she was panting and her chest was heaving like she'd run a marathon. After a slow and beautiful climb towards the inevitable and much sought climax, he became virtually ferocious as he pleasured her. The tremors and dull throbs that signaled she was close, drove her wild and she began bucking her hips against his face, all while trying to hang on for dear life to the headboard.

Mercifully there wasn't a second to utter protest as he abruptly stopped his action and rushed his body up over her's and pushed inside her with his length. Her outcries and moans loped and tumbled in his blood as he moved against her as the beating of leathery wings on the air. They wrapped their arms around each other and held on in a powerful embrace with no empty space between them. With their eyes open, they looked unwavering at the pleasures and pains that each experienced. She was anchored to this beast, this man, and his love for her reamed her heart ever time he touched her. For Spike's part he was simply lost in the moment, his awareness was a dichotomy - his body throbbed, tensed and released and then repeated the motions over and over, every cell reveling in the knowledge of her; while opposingly something unexpected had occurred...the good man's soul that had been dormant for so many years had finally awakened.

The End