Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Willow and Spike
Summary: A run in with a demon causes all sorts of things to change for the Scoobies gang.
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with `Buffy the Vampire Slayer'. The show and characters belong to Joss Whedon.
Spoilers: season four
Authors Notes: This story is a birthday gift for Vallikran. Happy birthday I hope you enjoy this! And thank you for all of your support when it comes to this.
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~Part: 1~
"SLAYER! Don't!" Spike yelled as he came running from the direction of his crypt.
Buffy swung the double edged ax. She didn't need to wait for Spike. She knew without a doubt that her aim was true. She had done this so many times she could have done it in her sleep. The demon's head rolled a good ten feet from the body and came to a stop in front of Spike's feet. The body crumbled to the ground and turned into a small pool of red ooze. Buffy looked up at Spike with a smug expression on her face.
Willow stepped out from behind a head stone and stepped up next to Spike. "Wow, Buffy that was a really good shot." Willow commended to her friend.
Spike bent down and poked the head of the demon with his finger. "Yeah, slayer just perfect. You cut the head off an Ardor."
"What is a . . ." Willow started to ask when the mouth of the demon fell open and a red mist seeped from its mouth. The mist began to swirl around in the air. It became a cloud in a matter of seconds. The air around the three became thick with the magic that the cloud produced. Spike took a step back and muttered something under his breath.
"Shut up Spike and do something!" the slayer demanded.
"What in the bloody hell do you want me to do?" he hissed back.
Neither one noticed that the mist had started a path toward the redheaded witch. Willow opened her mouth to say something and the mist shot forward, filling her lungs with its essences. Willow tried to close her mouth; she knew this couldn't turn out good, but it was too late. What ever it was, it was inside of her now. The witch felt her head start to swim. She tried to hold on, but she was sinking into the darkness. She took one step and then two toward Spike before the blackness overtook her.
Spike caught the redhead before she hit the ground, pulling her close to his chest. Buffy watched the whole scene. She wanted to do something for her friend, but everything had happened so fast she hadn't had a chance. Buffy rushed to Willow.
"What happened to her?" Buffy asked.
"I don't know. Our best bet is to get her to the watcher. She is still alive." Spike said as he scooped the witch the rest of the way into his arms and stood.
"I could carry her too you know," the slayer replied stubbornly.
"Just grab the head, you daft bint." He didn't know what had happened, but he wasn't letting the girl in his arms go. This had to be his fault.
Buffy looked around on the ground. "Where is it?"
Spike glanced back over his shoulder. And sure enough the head was gone. But the red ooze that had formed when the body had dissipated was all over the knees of the slayer's pants.
"My guess would be on your jeans." And with that he headed off to the watcher's apartment with the slayer trailing behind him muttering about how another demon had ruined another pair of her pants. Spike rolled his eyes at the slayer and tightened his grip on the witch. It shouldn't have worked out like this. It wasn't a part of the plan.
~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~
The door to his apartment burst open and Spike came charging in with a passed out Willow in his arms. Giles jumped up from his chair, dropping his book. He had had a funny feeling about Willow going out on patrol with Buffy, but the girls had told him there was nothing to worry about. And he had agreed with them. It had been rather slow on the hellmouth as of late. But now seeing the hacker lying limply in the blonde vampire's arms he wished he had gone with his first impulse and asked Willow to remain behind.
"What happened?" he asked as he moved some papers and books off the couch, making room for Spike to unload his burden. Spike didn't want to, but he laid Willow down on the couch, tucking one of the throw pillows under her head. Then he covered her with the blanket that always lay on the back of the couch.
"Why don't you ask her?" Spike said the anger clear in his voice.
Buffy came in behind him and shut the door to the apartment. She knew the moment the door closed that she had some explaining to do. Without looking up, she could feel her watcher's eyes on her.
"How was I supposed to know that this would happen? I thought it was just a demon," the slayer said with a whiny tone to her voice.
"If you weren't so pig headed all the time and could listen to me once in a while . . . I was trying to tell you. But no, whap off with its head," he said swinging his arms to make a point. "You don't think sometimes, and this time it may have cost you one of your precious friends."
Buffy had tears in her eyes as she looked a Willow. The redhead's skin was a light pink color now and had a slight red glow to it. But when she looked back at Spike the only thing that showed in her eyes was anger. "No one asked you to stay. You should have left us when you found out that butchers sold blood to impotent vampires. How do we know that this isn't your fault somehow?"
"Kids! Enough is enough. How am I ever gonna find out what happened if you two don't stop taking shots at each other and tell ME!" The anger in his voice cut short the jabs and there was once again silence in the room.
Spike shot one more nasty glace in the slayer's direction and then turned to Giles. "She cut the head off an Ardor demon. I tried to tell her not to, but she was too busy showing off for Willow. Red shouldn't even have been there to begin with. She would be safe now. Not lying in a comatose state. The slayer cut its head off and then the body turned to a red ooze."
"Then this red mist come out of its mouth after it had been severed and went after Willow. I think it went into her mouth. Then she passed out and we came here," the slayer finished.
"Where was this at?" Giles asked.
"About a hundred feet from Spike's crypt." Buffy added throwing a dirty look in the vampire's direction.
Giles noticed that Spike looked away as Buffy made her comment. He knew than that there was more to this then Spike would ever be willing to tell in front of the Buffy. "Thank you, Buffy. Why don't you head home and get cleaned up and I will call as soon as I have any information on Willow."
Buffy looked like she was about to object to being sent home, but the look that Giles shot her was more then enough of a warning to let her know she had better heed his advice for once. "You will call as soon as you know anything? No matter what time it is?"
"Yes, Buffy," Giles said as she walked to the door. Buffy took one last look at her friend and walked out the door. Her head hung low.
Spike looked at Willow one last time and headed toward the door. He didn't want to be around when the watcher put two and two together.
"Where do you think you are going?" Giles asked, his tone low and deadly.
"I'm heading back to my crypt."
"No, you have a lot of explaining to do before you go anywhere. I know what an Ardor demon is, Spike. I just don't know how you were planning on using it."
Spike stopped, his back to the watcher. "I didn't mean for this to happen," he said softy.
"I bet you didn't. I bet you didn't think that Buffy would ever see the demon much less cut its head off. I think now is the time to come clean. Were you going to use the demon to get Drusilla back?"
Spike spun around anger evident on his face. "No, you bloody sod. It has nothing to do with Dru. She is gone from my heart forever now." Spike's gaze fell on the redhead on the couch as she shifted.
Giles followed Spike's gaze. "You were going after Willow, weren't you?"
Spike didn't get a chance to answer the question before he felt a fist hit him in the his face. He didn't put up hands to block the blows and that came hard and fast. The watcher had every right to be angry with him. Spike had planned to use the Ardor demon to take Willow as his own. There had always been something about her that appealed to his demon. Hell, even the poet inside of him adored the redhead.
His dark goddess had sent him away from her because of the slayer, but she had misunderstood the stars. He didn't feel anything for the slayer. It had always been the witch. If he hadn't been so drunk the night he had taken her and the moron he would have run away with her then. The next chance he had gotten was when the chip interfered and he had been so angry. He had been so close and she had been once again been ripped from his grasp. Now he may have lost her forever and he didn't know what to do.
Finally, when his anger was spent, Giles stepped away from Spike. "Get out and don't come back. For any reason." His anger had overtook him and he had taken it out on Spike, but he had deserved it. Spike had attempted to take one of his children away, and that was unforgivable.
Spike wiped the blood from his lip. "Ya know what, watcher?"
"Get out!" the watcher hissed, his anger once again resurfacing. Spike turned to go. He would let the watcher figure it out for himself. Spike knew it wouldn't take long for them to figure out that he was in love with Willow.
~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~
Giles waited until he had a chance to calm down and then checked on the hacker. Her vital signs were strong and she almost appeared to be sleeping peacefully, aside from the red tint to her skin. Then he sat down in his chair and placed a call to the one person who knew more about demons then he did. He listened as the phone rang. On the third ring a British sounding voice answered.
"Wesley?"
"Yes Giles, is there some wrong? You sound troubled."
"Yes, you could say that. What do you know about Ardor demons?"
"Well, mostly they are non-violent creatures. When one is touched by an Ardor demon they act out their wildest desires. But like all good things it only lasts for a short while, unless the person is touched by the Ardor again they return to normal."
"Do you know how to kill one?" Giles asked.
"Well, I would suppose that it works just like with any other demon. Why?"
Giles told Wesley what had happened to Willow. "I see. I am not sure what to say. I have never heard of some one killing an Ardor. I know that they have been kept as pets or slaves. So that way the owner can touch them as often as they want. Or force someone else to touch them. The skin of an Ardor carries a red fluid that helps to increase one's libido. I would suppose that it kinda is like a drug. I have never heard of someone overdosing on the demon itself, but then again I hadn't heard of one being killed either. I will do some checking and get back to you."
"I guess that is the best I ask of you. Thank you, Wesley."
"I will get back with you as soon as I know something."
"Good bye," Giles said.
"Good bye," Wesley said as he hung up the phone.
Giles sat there for a moment before he decided that it was late and he might think better in the morning with a clear head. With that, Giles stood and walked over to Willow. He removed her shoes and coat and tucked her in for the night before heading up the stairs to ready himself for bed. Things just had to look better in the morning.
~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~
Giles hadn't even been up thirty minutes when his phone began to ring. He didn't have to answer it to know who it was calling. It was Buffy wanting to know about her friend. And he didn't really have any more answers for her today then he did last night, but he answered the phone anyway.
"Hello," he said as he picked up his end of the phone.
"Giles, is Willow any better?" Buffy asked with hope in her voice.
"No Buffy, I am afraid she isn't. There has been no change."
"Okay, then I'm taking the day off from school and I'll call Xand and Anya and we can research. I know we will find out what is wrong and I will fix it, I promise."
"Buffy . . ."
"Don't Giles, I have to do something. I have to." He could hear the tears in her voice and he gave in. He felt as helpless as she did about what to happened with Willow. He also didn't want to tell her about what he had done to Spike.
"Okay, Buffy you do that and I will take Willow upstairs so we don't disturb her."
"Great, I will see you in a bit," a small amount of happiness was back in her voice.
Giles hung up the phone and turned back to the young girl on his couch. She may not know it, but her friends needed her more now than they did before. The slayer may have the power, but Willow had the heart to match her brains, and without her he didn't know if the rest of them would survive.
Giles moved to the couch. There was sweat on her brow now and when he reached down to brush a lock of hair from her face he could feel the magic flowing through her body. He knew better than to touch her skin. So he carefully wrapped the blanket around her and carried her upstairs to his room. He settled her on the bed, drawing the blanket up around her shoulders. He wasn't sure what the next few days would bring, but he knew it was going to test them all.
~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~
The rest of the gang came through the doors later that morning. He could tell with just one look at Buffy that she hadn't slept well. She looked at him and gave him her best smile. Xander arrived shortly after the slayer.
"Anya said that she was heading to the Magic Box to make sure everything was in order and then she would put up a sign that said the shop would be closed for a day or two and then she would be over."
"Thanks you, Xander. But I have to be honest, I don't know that this will be resolved that quickly. Anya may have to run the shop without me for a while until we can get this all sorted out," Giles said.
"Where do you want to start? Which book is my first victim?" Buffy asked.
"Hmm, let's start with the ones I have laid out on the coffee table," Giles said as he headed into the kitchen to make himself some tea. He needed something to help him relax. He hadn't slept all that well the night before; all he could think about was the girl laying downstairs on his couch.
When he entered the front room again both Buffy and Xander had picked a book and where reading them like never before. He knew that they wanted to help the girl that was laying comatose upstairs. He just didn't know where to begin. He walked over and grabbed one of the other books and started his own search.
It was several hours later when the door opened to the front of the apartment and in walked Anya. "Sorry, I am late. When I got to the Magic Box there were people waiting to spend their money and I just couldn't turn them away. I just wanted to make sure you made enough money to pay me this week." She said matter-of-factly as she removed her coat and made herself comfortable next to Xander on the couch.
Buffy just rolled her eyes at the ex-demon's chatter. Anya didn't mean to be so insensitive; it was all those years hexing men that did it. She was sure of that.
"Well, thank you Anya. I appreciate the thought," Giles said dismissing her comment and returned to his book. And the rest of the people in the room did the same. They had more important things on their minds today. No one spoke for a long time until the quiet in the room was disturbed by the sound of Xander's stomach growling. He looked up from his book to see if anyone else had heard the noise. They had been at the reading thing all day and now that the sun was setting he was ready for a break.
"Is anyone else hungry?" he asked.
Buffy looked up and smiled. "Yeah Xan, I could take a break and get something to eat. I am seeing all sorts of demons, but none that looked like the one last night. Besides, why isn't Spike here to help? He even knew what the Adoor demon was."
Giles knew this would come out sooner or later and the fact that they had made it all day without it being brought up was surprising to him. "Well, I don't think Spike will be joining us anymore, for any reason. He and I talked about it last night and we both thought it would be for the best. And Buffy it was an Ardor demon not Adoor demon."
"Yeah and I bet that the cuts on your knuckles came from your discussion with Spike." Anya pointed out.
Both Buffy and Xander turned to look at Giles and his hands. "What happened last night after I left?" Buffy asked.
"I have to admit that after you left, Spike admitted that he was trying to use the Ardor demon to get to Willow. I lost my temper and asked him to stay away from the rest of you. I think he has done enough damage and we can't afford for anymore of his mistakes," Giles told them, his eyes never leaving the book in front of him.
"And you talk with your fists, G-man?" Xander added as he noticed the bruises on Giles' fists.
"In this case, yes I did." The tone of his voice told them he didn't want to discuss the matter any more than he already had.
"Wait! You were attacked by an Ardor demon?" Anya asked.
"Yeah why," Buffy asked.
"Nothing really, I just have never heard of an Ardor demon attacking anyone," Anya said.
"Wait, you have heard of this thing before?" Xander asked in amazement. There were always surprises about her days as a demon.
"Well, yeah. I even worked with one once; nothing better than taking a man and making him lust after the most vile thing you can think of. Ardor demons can control the effect they have on people. They can twist their magic. Like this one time a lady found out her husband was sneaking off to the barns to mess around with the stable boy's sister and she wished that he would only be able to get it up with a mouth full of horse shi . . ."
"Anya! Is there a point to this?" Xander asked quickly.
"Well, yes. The demon touched the man and his libido went through the roof and he died with a mouth full of horse shi . . ."
"Anya!" Xander said again.
"Anyway, no one in the village would touch him with that in his mouth and if you don't release the magic an Ardor demon puts inside of you it can kill you, if the dose is large enough. An Ardor demon learns to control how much magic that it uses with their touch. It is, after all, a magical drug they carry under their skin. You can overdose on it. Ardor demons aren't just lust demons. They can make you see things inside of your own heart that you are too blind to see for yourself. They can help you forget one love in favor of another. Or just simply make you strong enough to go after your heart's one true desire. But the funny thing is that Ardor demons don't procreate, they take over the body of another demon, or witch in this case. I would say that Willow isn't just Willow anymore. She very well could be an Ardor demon now. How did you kill it?"
Buffy told Anya what had happened and Anya told them that she was pretty sure that is what had happened to Willow. It sounded right. The red cloud of magic was more than likely the magic it took to be an Ardor demon. And if that magic was inside of Willow, it could only mean one thing.
As what Anya said sunk into the heads of everyone in the room, there was the sound of a bedroom door opening. Every head in the room turned to see the redhead standing at the top of the stairs.
"Hi guys!" she said. The tension in the room was thick as the redhead walked down the stairs. She didn't know why they were all staring at her like she was the strangest thing they had ever seen. Willow's face blushed a bright red as she thought about where she had woken up. She was having a hard time recalling the last few days. Her mind was so foggy that she wondered if she had missed something.
"Willow!" Buffy exclaimed as she moved toward the friend she thought she had lost.
"Buffy wait!" Giles shouted. "You can't touch her!"
"Why?" both Willow and Buffy said at the same time.
~Part: 2~
"What do you mean why? Did you not hear anything I just said?" Anya asked. Sometimes she really wondered about Buffy. She knew that the slayer wouldn't have made it this long without her friends or watcher to support her, but sometimes she really wondered if the slayer was the real hero. It was so apparent that Buffy acted on the basic principle. Act first, think later. "You can't touch her until we find out what the effect was from you killing the demon."
That is when it all came back to Willow. The dark night sky; she had been looking at the stars as she and Buffy walked through the cemetery. Everything had seemed fine. They were talking about girly stuff when Buffy spotted the demon not too far from Spike's crypt. Buffy hadn't even paused for a moment, but the demon had tried to avoid them. It had moved away from Buffy. Unfortunately, for the demon, it was so large that it couldn't move fast enough to avoid Buffy and her slayer quickness. Willow hadn't know what she could do to help so she had made herself scarce by ducking behind a headstone.
The demon had been making this noise. Willow had never heard of it before, but now that Willow thought back on it. It had sounded like the demon was trying to talk. It wasn't until she heard Spike yell that she knew things were going to get bad. His voice seemed to be filled with panic. He would know if there was something to fear about this demon. The rest of the night played in her mind in slow motion.
Buffy swung and the demon's head was separated from its body and went flying backwards. She could see the red mist as it swirled around in front of her. Then it was inside of her. She remembered the feel of the magic burning into her lungs. She shivered as she remembered the way her body had reacted to it. The warmth that had spread through her. The wetness that had pooled between her legs. She felt desire seeping into every nerve ending she had in her body. Then she remembered stepping toward Spike as her head had began to swim. She knew she was going to pass out so she went for the person closest to her. The last thing she could remember was the strength she had drawn from his arms as they closed around her. Now she wished they were still holding her. Things seemed to be very confusing since she had awaken.
"What do you mean you can't touch me? Am I going to turn into that thing from last night?" Willow asked as she wrapped her own arms around her waist. She didn't know what was going on and wasn't all that sure that she wanted to.
Giles stood and moved closer to her, but didn't touch her. "It means that all of this is new and we are going to have to do some research to really come to understand what has happened to you." He offered her a comforting smile.
"None of this would have happened if Spike hadn't called the demon to town. This is all his fault." Buffy interjected.
"What?" Willow said.
Giles shot Buffy the most dangerous look he could telling her to keep her mouth shut. He didn't want Willow to go looking for Spike for answers. That was the last thing he wanted right now.
Anya stood and walked over to the back of the couch, and picked up Willow's coat and grabbed hers. She walked back to Willow and handed her coat to her. "Maybe we should take a walk. It might help clear your head and we could talk about what is happening."
"I think that is a good idea," Xander said, "Let me get my coat and I'll join you."
"No, I think it might be a better idea if you called and ordered a pizza and helped more with the research. We won't go far and we will be back shortly," Anya said. She knew Willow was confused and the last thing she needed was a friend who couldn't offer her any answers.
Willow excepted her coat and put it on. Maybe Anya was right maybe all she needed was some fresh air. Anya and Willow left the apartment. After the door was closed Giles turned to Buffy.
"I don't want you to bring Spike up again. Do you understand me? The last thing we need is Willow seeking answers from somewhere else. Do you understand?" Buffy nodded. "If you hadn't went ahead and killed the demon before we had a chance to find out what was going on and we wouldn't be in this mess." His voice was firm.
"But, even if I hadn't killed the demon we would still be here doing research. Only we would be here because of something Sp . . ."
"Enough!" Giles said. His tone was no longer just firm, now he was angry. He didn't want to put the blame on Buffy's shoulders. He had already pinned that on Spike, but she kept insisting that Spike was the only one who need to be blamed. Yes, Spike had been the one who had planed on using the demon, but Buffy was the one who had killed it. And because, of that Willow very well may be damned to a life as a demon, and there wasn't much he could do to could change that.
Buffy could tell that Giles was mad at her and she didn't want to admit that part of this was her fault. She wanted to balm it all on Spike. She felt her stomach turn and twist as she thought about what Giles had just said to her. Maybe he was right. If she hadn't went and killed the demon without a thought, Willow wouldn't be hurting right now. Buffy nodded and sat down and picked up her book as Xander ordered a pizza.
~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~
Willow and Anya stood in the courtyard. Willow's head hung low as she thought about what was happening. She didn't know what to think of everything. `Was Spike to blame for this? Was Buffy to blame? Would she turn into that demon? Was the demon begging for its life when Buffy swung the ax?'
"You won't turn into that demon," Anya said. "It is the magic that makes the demon. And the magic is inside of you. It won't change what you are on the outside." Anya cut right to the chase. She knew what Willow was thinking or at least what she would be thinking about if she was in her shoes.
"It may not change me on the outside, but it had stripped me of ever being able to touch anyone I love again." Willow said and was surprised to hear the pity she felt for herself in her voice.
"No, it just means that you will have to learn to harness the power and learn when to let it out and when not to. It may take some time, but I don't really think that this out of your league Willow. The magic from the demon will just mix with the magic you already have. It isn't like you weren't in need of working on your control before this happened."
"Well, I might just give you that. I did need to work on my control just a bit," Willow said. "The other thing I was wondering about is . . . did Spike have something to do with this? Is he somehow to blame for what is happening to me?"
"Do you want me to tell you what I think or do you want me to tell you what Giles would want me to say?" Anya asked.
"Well, I want you to tell me what you think. If I want to know what Giles would say I would go ask him."
"I think Spike was going to use the demon to get to you, but how and why I don't know. The best way to find out is to ask him for yourself. He would know the answers better than I would." Anya replied. "Besides I think Spike must know something that might be important, because Giles wouldn't have beaten him up and asked him to stay away if Giles' didn't think he was a danger."
Willow looked up and wanted to ask Anya to say that a again. The redhead wasn't sure she had heard her right. Leave it to the ex- demon to just spit it out with no regard to how things might sound to someone else. Still, she was trying to make her feel better about what was happening and that's what counted. Willow watched as the pizza boy walking toward Giles front door. Willow had to smile; she was hungry. And she could tell by the look on Anya face that she was too.
"Do you really think that I can control the magic?" Willow asked. She knew now that she would have to go and see Spike without the others knowing.
"Yes, and I will help. We can start right after we eat," Anya said as she started toward the front door.
"Okay," Willow said.
After they had walked back inside of the apartment and the smell of the pizza hit Willow she knew for certain that the magic inside of her was having its effects. She couldn't remember ever being this hungry. She grabbed three slices and took a seat on the edge of the room in one of the chairs. She smiled as she took her first bite of pizza. The taste of it exploded on her tongue. It was the same pizza they had order every time they had a long research session, but this time it tasted better than it ever had before. She finished her first piece and licked the extra sauce of her fingers and then dove into the next piece that sat on her plate begging for her attention.
"Enjoying the pizza, Will?" Xander asked from the other side of the room.
Willow looked up to find everyone in the room watching her and her face flamed. "Yeah, why?"
"Oh nothing really, I just have never seen you attack your food before," Xander said with a teasing note to his voice.
Anya could tell that Willow was embarrassed by the attentions from Xander. Willow could control what was happening to her body.
"It only makes sense that with the new magic in your system that there would be other changes as well," Giles said.
"Like what?" Buffy asked as she handed Willow a soda from the fridge.
"It is hard to say. We will just have to keep on any changes," Giles said. "We will have to take this a day at a time."
"Anya though that I should start to learn to control my new powers." Willow said in a rush. They were acting like she wasn't even in the room. "I think that I should learn to matain."
"That sounds like a very good idea," Giles said. "But for tonight I think we should stop. We can meet back at the Magic Box in the morning."
"That sounds good to me," Buffy said. "I will do a quick patrol."
"Let's go then, Xander." Anya said as she stood and gathered her purse and coat.
"Yeah okay," Xander said as he stood. "Willow you want a ride back to Buffy's?"
"No, I think I will go back to my parents' house instead."
"You think that's a good idea." Buffy asked.
"Yeah, I think it would be best if I spent a little time alone," Willow said. "I need to do some thinking."
Buffy winced at the tone of bitterness in her friend's voice. She didn't want to but, she was starting to feel like this was somehow her fault.
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