Chapter 15

2 Later The Summer’s Residence

She stroked his face lightly as he slept her only thoughts where on keeping him safe. After only having admitted to herself, her friends and her family, that she was hopelessly in love with the Souled DayWalker, a couple of short months before, she could not lose him now.

The prophecy spoke of the two banding together, a souled vampire and a woman child of the light. It also spoke of how family and friends would band together to overcome the approaching darkness.

Elizabeth Ann Summers life had never been easy. The weight of the world always seemed to rest upon her slender shoulders and if the truth were to be known by the world at large, it did rest squarely on those shoulders. Before she met he who had become the center of her universe, her mate. Love had always eluded her. She had found it once in another Souled Vampire, Angel. Her first love! He taught her what love could be; he had given her a taste. He was her first. Angel was a gentle lover, he touched her almost as if he was afraid to hurt her. After that night, the night that Elizabeth, known to her friends and family as Buffy, gave to Angel her virginity, he had changed; he had found for himself in her, his one moment of true happiness.

The moment turned into a nightmare, as the gypsy curse took hold, his soul ripped from him as he turned once again into the loathsome creature known to the Vampire Realm as Angelus, Scourge of Europe.

All this she considered as she stroked her lovers face, looking down into that same face, locked in the soft embrace of sleep, a memory took hold of her. Their first meeting in the alley behind the Bronze, 4 years ago, a cocky vampire considering this small petite girl, his feral eyes locked into her own hazel green ones. “I’ll meet you here on Saturday!” he simply stated awaiting her reaction.

“What happens on Saturday?” She had asked, her chest moving rapidly from the exertion of dusting 3 vamps.

Moving with a cockiness, she would later come to expect from her then enemy, he came into her personal space, his demonic features coming to the surface he said in a near whisper his yellow eyes locked to her own, “Saturday is the day I kill you, pet!”

Having said what he willed his face to morph once again as the demon receded to be replaced with the features of, William The Bloody. Turning the then soulless vampire, his duster billowing out behind him, left and as he walked away. With each step he seemed to blend into the shadows of the night that were his true home.

Stroking his face unconsciously he sighed under her touch. The sound causing her mind back to the present, her eyes filled with tears as her heart suddenly ached, her voice hitching in her throat as she choked out, “Please, baby, don’t ever leave me!”

The peroxide blonde newly Souled Vampire opened his eyes to be greeted by the beautiful, red teary eyed blonde goddess, named Buffy. Seeing her like this broke his newly beating heart as his arms reached out to take her gently but firmly into his embrace. Without a word his mouth sought out hers and she lost herself in his arms and the heat of his lips against her own.

Whimpering into his mouth she clung on to him as if terrified of letting go. Finally he reached up and gripped the hair at the nape of her neck and gently jerked her head back so he could look into the eyes of his mate. Breathlessly, he spoke, in a voice only she had ever heard him use. The love emanating from him was almost a physical thing and she cried, her emotions twisted in knots, the tears flowing freely, unashamed, down her face. Only he was allowed to see her this vulnerable, to everyone else she had to be a rock, a pillar of strength, but not with her mate. Here she could be all the things that defined her, the slayer and the woman, the woman who loved him more then her own life. The woman that would do anything to keep him safe, that same woman in his arms was terrified and he could see it in her eyes.

“Here love, what is this then?” He felt her tremble in his arms as she pushed her face forward to bury it in the crook of his neck. “Slayer, you’re trembling.” He pulled her face away from his neck and forced her to look at him. “Love, you’re scaring me, talk to me, Buffy, please pet, tell me what has you so upset.”

“I’m afraid to lose you, Spike. Every…..”

He cut her off with his fingers on her lips, “Hey now, who said you would lose me, pet.”

“Don’t you see, everyone I love leaves me… everyone.”

“Buffy, you know that’s not true, I’m never going to leave you. I thought you knew that by now.” He stroked her arm as he talked and then her face, trying to offer her comfort and love through his touch.

“Promise me baby, promise me you will never leave me,” she said as she held on to him tighter her body molding to his.

“Slayer, you couldn’t get rid of me before you told me you loved me, why do you think I would leave you now?”

She would not meet his eyes as she spoke, so softly that if not for his vampiric hearing he would have missed it. “You could die tonight.”

He lifted her face to his and forced her to look into his blue eyes as he spoke in a voice reserved only for his mate, “No one is dying tonight, kitten, you and I are going to come through this. We are going to avert the present Apocalypse and then you and I are going to get married. We are going to live to ripe old ages, together.”

Her eyes went wide as a smile played across her lips, then without warning she was on top of him, kissing him with all the pent up emotion and love she knew how to convey. Her heart sang as her mind registered what he had promised, ~He wants to marry me!~

The Souled Daywalker, laughed with happiness, into her mouth, as he held her tightly, his hands seeking out the warmth of her body, turning her over he leaned over her, his lips parting from her own. “Feeling better, then pet?” He smirked.

The smile that lit her face and her eyes was his answer as she peppered his face with kisses and said in-between each one, “I am going to hold you to that buster. When this is done, you better make good on your promise.”

“I love you Slayer, you know I do, I would be proud if you would do me the honor of becoming my wife.”

TBC