Chapter Twenty-five

                   “Alright, then,” he growled, fastening his mouth on the soft skin where her neck met her shoulder and sucking gently. 

                      Buffy felt the sucking all the way down to her womb, and tipped her head to the side to give him more access.  At the same time, he was sliding his cool fingers up the inside of her thigh and into the moist heat waiting there for him.  The lengthy foreplay he’d planned for their first real love-making session went out the window when she whimpered and clenched her muscles around his fingers.  He could feel how ready she was for him and suddenly feeling her around him again was the most important thing in the world.

                    “Need you now, love.  Got to be in you.  Please, Buffy.  Let me in.  Want you so much…”

                      As he pleaded with her, he was covering her body with his, the head of his erection nudging gently at her entrance.  As badly as he wanted to thrust his way into her, the memory of how roughly he’d pulled her onto his cock when they were under the spell kept him still until he knew she wanted him inside.

                     With a growl of her own, Buffy clutched his ass with both hands and pulled him up and into her, giving a little shriek as he filled her channel and bumped against her womb.  She clenched around him, trembling from the sensations his cool shaft was creating.   She wrapped her legs around his hips, locking her ankles and pulling him in so hard he was afraid he would hurt her, but her needy whimpers as she ground her clit against his pubic bone told him it wasn’t pain she was feeling while she rocked her hips against his.

                     He allowed himself to get lost in the scent and feel of her warm sex as she clenched her muscles, squeezing him as though he might escape if she relaxed at all.  Between the rocking of her hips, and the rhythmic squeezing that he wasn’t even sure she knew she was doing, he felt his release building incredibly quickly and he fought for control.

                  “Buffy, my love. Sweetheart.  Darling girl, you’ve got to slow down or I’ll never last.  Want this to be good for you, love.  Can’t…”

                  Buffy was ignoring him.  She felt his warm voice washing over her; she heard the endearments and the pleading, but she was lost in the feeling of him filling her so completely.  Every one of her senses was being overwhelmed by the familiar scent of tobacco, whiskey and leather that meant Spike to her; by the feel of his cool, velvety skin; the sound of his voice rumbling in her ear; the fiery trails where his hands were moving around her body and the shivers his lips were inducing everywhere they touched her skin.

                   She knew he wanted her to slow down before he came too soon, but she could feel her own release building and refused to do as he asked.  When he grabbed the skin of her neck with his lips, sucking on it and groaning in need, she flew over the edge and buried her own teeth in his shoulder to muffle the scream trying to escape from her throat. 

                     Spike felt her whole body tense as she arched into him, shuddering from the force of her orgasm and clinging to him as though he was the only thing holding her together.  With a growling howl, he slammed his hips into hers and allowed himself to fill her with his spending.  There was something so life affirming about filling her with fluid rather than taking from her that he felt tears in his eyes as he allowed his trembling body to collapse onto the woman beneath him.

                      Buffy felt the tremendous spurt as he came and gloried in the feel of him filling her spaces with his ejaculate.  She found it hard to believe that anything that felt so alive spreading throughout her welcoming body could be as cold and dead as she knew his sperm to be.  Unbidden tears came to her eyes as she looked up into his worshipful face and she couldn’t have said if they were tears of joy for what they had, or tears of sorrow for what they never would.

                     He lowered his head and began licking away the tears sliding down her cheeks, murmuring his devotion to her as he did.  For once his insecurity didn’t control him, and he was able to recognize Buffy’s tears for what they were – an affirmation of her feelings for him.

                      As they came down from the physical and emotional highs of their first real lovemaking experience together, they gradually relaxed and allowed themselves to separate enough for Buffy to breath easily.  He rolled off to one side, only far enough to get his weight off her chest, and rested his head on the arm stretched over his head.  Their legs remained entwined as she shifted to her side, facing him and stroking him with a gentle touch.

                     “Not quite sure, love, but I think we might have set some sort of record here.”  

                     “Yay, us,” she said softly, running a small hand over his chest .

                    “Yeah,” he answered, cupping her face with his free hand.  “Three bloody cheers for us.”  He rubbed his thumb gently along the soft skin of her cheek, searching her eyes for what he needed to see.

                     “So,” he said carefully, “I guess this means there still is an ‘us’?”

                     “Looks like.”

                    “So, it wasn’t just the claim, then,” he said almost to himself in a wondering tone of voice. 

                      “I TOLD you it wasn’t!  I don’t know why you didn’t believe me,” Buffy huffed indignantly.  “It isn’t like I make a habit of going around telling men I’m in love with them, you know.”

                     “Damn well better not,” he growled, pulling her over on top of him and worrying the side of her neck with his blunt human teeth. Buffy moaned at the immediate response created by the touch of his mouth on her neck. She suspected that she was going to struggle just as much as the vampire when it came to resisting the urge to renew the claim.  She pushed the worry to the back of her mind and surrendered to the sensual feel of him sucking on the soft skin covering her artery, lying flat on top of him and tilting her head to give him better access.

                    Spike was lost in the taste of her skin and the scent of the heated blood he could feel flowing under the skin in his mouth.  He laved it with his tongue before going back to suckling on the rapidly reddening area. The feel of Buffy’s breasts sliding over the skin of his chest, combined with the heady taste of her skin, had him growing hard again.  With a muffled growl, he ran his hands down to cup the globes of her ass, lifting her up and onto his burgeoning erection.

                    Buffy pushed herself back and sat up on him, impaling herself even more deeply.  She squirmed around on him, wriggling her ass and grinding herself into his pelvic bone while he held her hips and arched up into her.  In one fluid motion, she reached down and grabbed his shoulders, pulling him up so that she was sitting on his lap, kneeling on the bed with his hips between her thighs in the same position they’d made love while under the spell.

                     Using her powerful thigh muscles, she slowly raised her body up, letting him slide almost all the way out, before slowly lowering herself down onto him again.  The exquisite torture of feeling him sliding out of her, and the equally exquisite feeling of his cock sliding back into her a little bit at a time had them both moaning and biting their lips.

                    “What are you doing, pet?” he gasped.  “You’re killing me here.”

                  Biting her lip in concentration, Buffy gasped back, “I want to see how long we can keep doing it like this before one of us can’t stand it anymore.”

                 “So, it’s a contest then?” he asked with something between a groan and a growl.”

                  “Uh huh,” she managed to say before it turned into a whimper as he almost slid all the way out.  She began the slow descent, letting herself feel every inch of his velvety thickness as she eased back down until nothing separated them.  A glance down at herself showed her own light brown curls tangled with his, so that she couldn’t tell where she left off and he began.


                 The vampire noticed her look and sent his own gaze admiringly toward their joined bodies.

                 “Made to go together, weren’t we, love?  Look at us.  We belong like this.”

                 A whimper was the only reply as Buffy forced herself to slowly rise up on her knees again until just the head of his cock was inside her entrance.  She was squeezing her internal muscles the whole way up and saw Spike’s eyes cross when he tried to keep them focused on their now barely connected pelvic areas.

                  A low moan escaped the Slayer’s throat as she once again began the long slow slide down onto him.  Her walls clenched around him, sending sensation to places she had no idea even existed.  She swore she could feel every pore on the skin on his cock as it dragged past her clenched muscles, cooling her internal heat at the same time it was making her want to scream.

                   Spike had lost all ability to form coherent thoughts or words.  He was reduced to groans of “Oh, god, yes. Please, love, you win.  Whatever you want.  It’s yours.  I’m yours.  Only you.  So sweet, so hot, so strong, squeezing me.  Loving me.  Feeling me, feeling you loving me.  Making me…”

                    Buffy felt a purely feminine thrill at the way she had reduced a 126 year-old master vampire to a whimpering, quivering bundle of pure need.  Before she could decide how she wanted to celebrate her victory, she found herself flipped over and pinned under a strong, demanding body that was pushing into her so hard it forced her up into the headboard.

                   “I quit, you win,” he growled as he began pounding into her, sending a whole new host of sensations throughout her already overly stimulated body.  Buffy was forced to put her arms up over her head and brace herself on the headboard in order to keep from being knocked unconscious by the rapid and continuous thrusts from the growling vampire.

                   With the slow but incredibly erotic build-up they’d both had from Buffy’s impromptu “contest”, it took no time at all before they were once again pounding their way toward simultaneous orgasms that had the Slayer tearing at the skin on his back with her nails and sinking her teeth into his shoulder as she  arched up into him with a scream.  When he felt her clench around him, her walls quivering with her release, Spike vamped out and  bit into his own arm to keep from ripping at the skin on her throat as he roared with his own climax.

                Buffy sat up in surprise when, instead of collapsing beside her to recover as she expected, Spike leaped off the bed and headed to the bathroom.

                “Spike?” she called plaintively.  “William?  What’s wrong?”

                 She reluctantly ordered her satiated body to get up and started toward the bathroom, only to meet the vampire coming out clutching a towel to his bleeding arm.

                  “Wha…what happened?  Why did you do that?”

               For an answer, he gestured to his bleeding shoulder and then turned so that she could see his back.  A look at the human bite marks on his shoulder and the bleeding crescents on his back shocked her into silence for a minute and she couldn’t do anything but watch him apply pressure to the much deeper bite he put in his own arm.

                    “I’m sorry?” she ventured timidly.  “I didn’t mean to hurt you—why didn’t you make me stop? And why did you bite yourself?”

                    He shook his head, laughing as he tossed the bloody towel back into the bathroom.  The wound he’d put in his own arm was already beginning to close and he put his wrist to his mouth to lick it again for good measure.

                   “You didn’t hurt me, love.  But I think I’m going to have to explain to you about vampires and biting.  I think there are some things your Watcher has left out of your education.”

                  He took her hand and pulled her back to the bed, stretching out and tucking her into his side.  He kissed her puzzled face, nuzzling the barely visible scars from his bite months ago.  Buffy gave a little gasp as she felt the same familiar thrill go through her when he touched the marks.

                  “Is it always going to do that?” she grumbled when he smiled at her reaction.

                  “Bloody hell, I hope so, pet,” he laughed.  “Want to be having that effect on you for a long, long time.”

                 “Hmmph!” was the very unconvincing sound of disgust from the smiling girl.  “Doesn’t seem fair.  That you can do that to me all the time.”

              “Quit complainin’, Slayer,” he said, running his hand through her silky hair and winding it around his finger.  “You can do that to me anytime you want to just by being in the same room with me.  And don’t pretend you don't know it, missy,” he added with a growl as she grinned up at him.

              “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she teased, leaning in to run her tongue over one nipple; eliciting a warning growl when she went to take it in her teeth.

              Surprised, she looked up at him and protested,  “I wasn’t going to actually bite you!”

              “I know you weren’t, pet.  But we need to have that talk about biting and vampires before you go nibbling on me like that.”

               “Fine,” she huffed, moving away from him and flopping back onto her pillow.  “I’m listening, Giles, Jr.”  She turned her head toward him and asked half-seriously, “Should I be taking notes?”

              “Don’t know. Maybe. Depends on how often you think you’ll be biting vamps,” he snarked. 

              “How often do you think you’re going to be making me feel like that?” she challenged.

             “Every day for the rest of your life, I hope,” he answered, suddenly serious as he fixed his intense gaze on her.

             “I hope so, too,” she responded, equally seriously. 

             The conversation was put on hold while they lay in each other’s arms and allowed their eyes to convey the things they could no longer feel through the claim.  Along with the love, passion, and trust clearly visible in their eyes, there was the shadow of loss.   An undercurrent of sorrow for what was now missing in their lives.
 

Chapter Twenty-six

               After many lingering looks and mutual attempts to communicate some other way than with their eyes and mouths, Buffy felt herself begin to tremble with the knowledge that she would never again have that comforting presence on the edge of her consciousness. 

              (It’s okay. I can do this.  I lived my whole life without that connection and I only had it for a couple of months.  I can get used to being without it again.  It’s just a question of time. It’s only hard because I’m not used to it yet.)

           Even as she told herself how inconsequential it was that the claim was no longer active, she was blinking back the tears that threatened to spill over and spoil the moment.  Spike could smell the tears gathering in her eyes and felt a responsive tightening in his throat as he guessed at the reason.  He stared back at her and willed her to feel him.

             (I love you, Buffy.)

            “Can you tell what I’m thinking, love?” he asked softly, pushing a stray strand of hair off her face. 

            “That you love me?” she whispered, knowing she was right.

             He nodded his head and smiled sadly.  “That’s right, sweetheart.
And losing the claim hasn’t changed that at all.  Jus’ means I’m gonna have to remember to say it out loud more often, that’s all.  We’ll get used to it again.  Not like we haven’t lived like that most of our lives, is it?”

           “I tried to tell myself that,” she sighed, resting her head on his chest, “but it felt so …right.  Before.”  She looked up at him suddenly and blurted, “I’m going to miss it.  Miss you.  Miss us.”

             “So am I, pet,” he wrapped both arms around her and leaned down to kiss her gently.  “So am I. But we’re still us.  And I’m not going anywhere.”

              Buffy curled into him, bringing her free arm around his rib cage and sliding one leg between his. She rested her head on his chest and breathed in the scent she had so quickly come to associate with warmth and safety.  She remained still for so long, Spike thought she might have fallen asleep and was just closing his own eyes when she startled him by resuming the conversation.
  
               “So,” she said abruptly, sitting up and changing the subject.  “You were going to tell me what I need to know about vampires and biting – other than, if they do it, I stake them?” 

               “No, you- sil--,” he gave an exasperated sigh,  “I am going to teach you about BITING vampires.  Whole ‘nother thing entirely.”

                “You were about to call me one of those rude British names, weren’t you?  Like, ‘bint’ or ‘goose’ or something kind of food thingie.”

               He grinned at her and shook his head.

                “You’re adorable when you’re indignant, Slayer.  Have I ever mentioned that?”  He laughed as her expression got even more annoyed.

                 Sobering, he sat up, facing her on the bed and trying to keep his eyes from wandering around her naked body as she sat cross-legged across from him.

                 “Alright,” he started, then his voice trailed off as his eyes went to the damp curls between her legs and the pink flesh he could just see peeking out.  Buffy frowned when he didn’t continue, then followed his heated gaze to where it was focused on her exposed crotch.  Blushing, she immediately shifted so that her legs were crossed and all he could see was the outside of her thigh.

                 She laughed when his lower lip went out in a pout and she leaned toward him, snapping her teeth at it as a reminder.

                 “Right!” he said, sitting up straighter.  “Gnashing your teeth at the vampire.  Very bad idea, pet.”

                  “Why?” she asked with mock innocence, picking up his hand and nibbling on his fingers.  He groaned and tried to pull his hand away, swearing under his breath and making her giggle.

                   “You’re always nibbling on me.  Why can’t I nibble on you?”

                  As she pouted her question at him, she leaned down and fastened her blunt little teeth gently on the inside of his thigh.  She heard him hiss, then, moving faster than she would have thought possible, Spike had her pinned to the bed with his fangs just touching the skin on her breast .

                 Her heart rate shot up and she couldn’t have said if it was from surprise, fear, anger or the way the lightest touch of his fangs on her skin sent tremors all the way through her body.

                  Glancing up at her with amber eyes, he allowed one fang to lightly graze her skin, bringing a small line of blood to the surface.  His nostrils flared as he inhaled the scent before sending his cool tongue out to lick it off, effectively closing the wound at the same time.  Buffy gave a shiver that had nothing to do with the temperature of his tongue.

                  He rolled off of her, his face shifting back to its human form as he lay on his back staring at the ceiling.

                   “What the hell?”  Buffy’s indignant question was somewhat compromised by the breathy tone in her voice. 

               He rolled his head to the side and looked at her with his once-again startlingly blue eyes.

               “Biting is a very…arousing…activity for a demon.  It’s a big part of sex between vampires and every time you put your little teeth on me, the demon is screaming to be let out to play.  He doesn’t want to hurt you…much…but he wants to bite you back.  He wants to taste you.”

               “Oh,” was the only thing Buffy could think of to say.  She mulled over what he’d said for a few minutes, then, remembering the thrill that had gone through her when his teeth were touching her skin, she blushed and said, “I…I don’t think I mind it.  It’s very…”  She couldn’t bring herself to say how erotic she found it when he bit her, but he had no trouble following her line of thought.

            “Yeah, think I got that, love,” he said wryly,  “way back when we were under the spell. Makes me wonder where all that Slayer power comes from…”

             She stared at him for a second, then dismissed the implication as impossible. 

             “So, if you like to do it; and I don’t mind it…”

             He sat up, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, hands dangling between his legs.   He didn’t look at her as he answered as honestly as he could.

             “I can’t control him, love.  We’ve already seen that.  If he –no, if I get my teeth into you, I want to make you mine.  And I jus’ spent a miserable month cooling my heels in Peaches’ city to fix what happened the last time.  Not gonna do that again.”

             She nodded her head and looked down at the rumpled sheets, idly tracing the path of a wrinkle as she tried to think what it was about what he’d just said that disturbed her.   Suddenly, her eyes got wide and she grabbed his arm.

            “Why did you change from ‘he’ to ‘I’ when you were talking about the demon?  It is the demon that does those things, isn’t it?”

             Spike cocked his head and looked back at her earnest, puzzled eyes and smiled sadly.

            “ Ole Angelus really did a number on you, didn’t he, love?”

            He took one of her hands in his and silently urged her to listen carefully.

            “The demon and I – we’re one and the same, Buffy.  He’s always here, and William’s always here.  Together, we’re Spike.  The vampire who loves you.  It would be no more honest of me to say ‘the demon made me do it’ than it would be to say that only William was in love with you.  I can’t separate them – they’re both me.  All I can do is control the demon side, so it doesn’t hurt anybody.  I can’t make it go away.  And I can’t deny the things it wants to do because I want them too.”

             “You want to claim me again?”

             “I want you to be marked as mine for all the world to see.  Can’t help it, pet.  I’m an insecure bastard, and—“

             Buffy stopped him with a hand on his lips.  She lightly ran her fingers over the soft skin there, smiling when he pulled one finger into his mouth and sucked on it gently.

             “I love you,” she said simply.  “I know that’s not enough, but that’s all I can give you.”

             “It’s not enough, Buffy.” He grabbed her chin as she tried to lower her head to hide the stab of pain his words caused.  “It’s everything.”

             His eyes bored into hers, demanding she believe what she saw in their blue depths.

             She trembled at the depth of feeling she saw there. Even without the openness of the claim, he was laid bare to her and the truth of what he said was undeniable. The fact that she loved him meant more to him than any amount of blood sharing or public display.

                “ ‘K, then,” she whispered, squeezing her eyes shut against the tears that once again threatened to fall.

                (Time to change the subject, Buffy. You’re turning into a complete crybaby.)

               She gave herself a little shake and slipped off the bed, kissing him quickly as she did so to reassure him that she was coming right back.  When he realized she was heading for the bathroom, not her clothes, he relaxed and leaned back against the headboard to wait for her return.

             Buffy let herself into the large bathroom and looked around in awe.  In addition to the toilet and a bidet tucked into an alcove, there was large tub sunk into the floor, a separate shower, two sinks and a floor length mirror.  A closer inspection of the counter top by the sink showed an assortment of shampoos, conditioners and soaps –all in the brands she used.

               Each sink had a cup and toothbrush, complete with it’s own toothpaste. She smiled as she saw that while “her” sink’s toothpaste was her brand, the other held a new tube of extra-whitener toothpaste for heavy smokers.

               She quickly used the toilet and experimented with the bidet, twisting her mouth in disgust as she sprayed water all over the room.  “Note to self,” she grumbled, “learn how to use one of those things from somebody who knows.”

              She splashed water on her face and eyes to cool them down and erase any traces of the tears that had been appearing there so frequently since they’d arrived.  She studied her face in the mirror until she was satisfied that she no longer looked like she’d been crying half the night, and then walked back out to where Spike was waiting for her on the bed.

             She gave the slightest hesitation when she felt his eyes devouring her naked body, then shrugged and continued walking toward him with her shoulders back and a confident stride.

              “That’s my beautiful girl,” he grinned in appreciation and praise, having picked up on her momentary hesitation.  “Show me what you’ve got, baby.”

               “I think what I’ve got is a body that would really like to get some sleep before it has to get up and pretend to be interested in Freshman English at 9:00 in the morning,” she admitted with a yawn.

              She climbed into bed and settled under his outstretched arm, murmuring her appreciation as he pulled the covers over them and made sure she was warm and comfortable before he reached out and turned off the light.  Buffy’s last thought as she drifted off to sleep was that as much as she had enjoyed their nightly bouts of shared sexual fantasies, cuddling up with his real body after real sex and falling asleep with his real arms around her was definitely preferable.

Chapter Twenty-seven

               When Buffy awoke, it took her a minute to remember where she was.  The way Spike’s arm automatically tightened around her waist as she tried to get up quickly reminded her and she gently moved it, kissing his knuckles as she put his hand back down on the bed.

               “I’ve got to get to class, Spike.  I’ll be back tonight.”

               “Better be,” he mumbled into the pillow as he burrowed into the bed, not really waking up enough to protest.

                She quickly used the bathroom, showering and scrubbing her teeth with her new toothbrush.  Buffy smiled as she saw the hairdryer, still in its box and waiting for her on a shelf.  She was soon dressed and hurrying out the door with a quick glance back at the seemingly dead man on the bed.  It surprised her that she wasn’t more wigged about spending the night sleeping next to a corpse, but shrugged it off as another perk of being a Slayer.

            (All that practice being around dead things must be coming in handy.)

              As she waited for the elevator, she looked around at the posh waiting area and vowed that she and Spike were going to have a long talk about how and where he got the money to live in a place like this.  She also made note of the obvious mix of demons and humans in the lobby.  Most of them greeted her cheerfully enough, although she could sense an undercurrent of fear coming from some of the less human-looking demons.
              
             Since they all appeared to be on their way to some sort of legitimate work place, she pushed down her Slayer urge to start killing things and hurried out of the building toward the campus. 

              A quick stop at her dorm to change out of last night’s Bronzing clothes and grab her books and she was soon dashing into the auditorium where her first class was meeting.  Her eyes searched the room for Willow and she gave the red head a grateful smile as she slipped into the empty seat beside her friend.

              “I’m guessing from the circles under your eyes that it was a good reunion?” Willow whispered with a blush.

              “It was wonderful,” Buffy whispered back, blushing slightly herself but with a very self-satisfied smile.

               They had settled in to listen to the professor lecture them about concise, clear writing when Buffy felt Willow stiffen beside her.  She followed her friend’s gaze to the doorway where a tall man with military bearing was staring at her.  He lowered his eyes and moved away as soon as he realized Buffy was looking back at him and Buffy felt Willow nudging her hand.  She grabbed the note her friend had just scribbled out and saw, “That’s the guy who was asking about you right after Lowell House blew up.”

               Buffy nodded her head and shot another narrow-eyed look toward the doorway, but there was no sign of the lurking man.  She turned her attention back to the instructor and concentrated on not falling asleep on Willow’s shoulder.

               When class was over, they walked toward the campus café so that Buffy could ply her tired body with enough caffeine to get through the day.  Buffy watched with interest and a certain amount of curiosity at the way Willow’s face lit up when Tara entered the shop and walked toward their table.

               (Boy, the last time I saw her look at anybody like that, it was Oz.  She must really like Tara.)

               Conversation turned from more general things to Buffy’s description of Spike’s apartment and Willow volunteered to go on line and see what she could find out about the apartment’s occupant.  With several hours before their next classes, they all walked to the Magic Box where Willow could use her laptop in relative quiet.

               The three chattering girls arrived just as Giles and Anya were finishing their lunch and there was an awkward moment as they realized that they were interrupting what seemed to be a private meal.   The Watcher stood up and began rapidly polishing his glasses as Anya gave the interrupting non-customers a glare.  She gathered up the remains of their meal and carried it back to the small kitchen in the back while Giles attempted to pretend that he was not embarrassed by their arrival.

               Buffy and Willow exchanged equally shocked and dismayed glances as they watched their best friend’s girl friend and her surrogate father try to hide the fact that they’d been enjoying a romantic lunch.  At least, Giles was trying to hide it.  Anya really wasn’t making much of an attempt to hide her irritation at being interrupted as she stomped over to the counter and began dusting perfectly clean candles.

               Doing his best to appear unembarrassed at being caught in an almost compromising situation with Xander’s girl friend, Giles welcomed the three girls and asked them to have a seat at the table. “Not that I am not glad to see you,” he began somewhat stuffily, “but to what do I owe this middle of the day visit?  Surely you all have classes to attend?”

               “We’re free for a couple of hours and Willow’s going to do some research for me on her computer.  We just thought this would be a good place to do it.  You don’t mind, do you?” she added, with a glance at the still glowering Anya.

              “No, no.  Of course not.  You’re welcome here anytime. You know that, Buffy.  I just wasn’t expecting you until this evening.”

             “Yeah, well, I really need to know how Spike—“

             “Spike?  Spike is back?  Why didn’t you tell me?  Have you seen him yet?”  Her watcher frowned as he threw questions at her startled face.

              “Yes, he’s back.  We said he would only be gone as long as it took for the claim to go away.   And, I didn’t tell you because this is the first time I’ve seen you since he got back.  It was late last night.”

               Ignoring her explanation for not telling him immediately, the older man asked quietly, “And is it?  Gone?”

               “Yes,” was the short, curt answer. “It’s gone.”

                 He studied her face for a minute, taking in the tight jaw, and cleared his throat noisily. 

                 “I am sorry, Buffy.  But it is for the best.  Surely you understand that?”

                 “Let’s be clear about something, Giles.  The only reason I agreed to let the claim lapse is so that the Council wouldn’t be hounding me and trying to kill one or both of us.  The claim was mutual and neither one of us was using it to control the other.  It poses a danger to no one but us.  The danger is from humans, I might add.  It actually protected me from some demons. “

                 He cleared his throat again and looked at his surrogate daughter apologetically.

                 “I understand how you feel, Buffy.  But, surely—“

                 “”No, Giles, you don’t understand how I feel.  And I don’t want to talk about it any more.”

                 She turned away from his frowning face and asked Willow, “Finding anything, Will?”

                 “Yeah.  It looks like the building is owned by a William Carlisle. He seems to have bought it fairly recently.  Not much information about him, though.  Everything seems to have been done through his lawyers.  I think the apartment Spike is staying in belongs to the owner.  Maybe the guy owes him money or something.”

                  “Or maybe Spike ate him and took over his apartment.”

                  Xander’s arrival made the atmosphere in the room even more uncomfortable than it already was.  Once again, Giles looked like he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, while Anya busied herself behind the counter, deftly avoiding having to give her boyfriend a kiss hello.

                Buffy whirled on him and snapped, “He didn’t eat anybody.  I’m just trying to find out how there can be a building in Sunnydale that has both human and demon residents and we never knew anything about it till now.”

                 Her watcher’s curiosity overcame his reluctance to get close to the angry Slayer and her oblivious dark-haired friend.

                 “Humans and demons?  In the same building?”

                 “Yes.” She answered curtly, then went on to fill them in on what she had seen that morning.  “And some of the…people…there are half-breeds.  Half human and half demon.  How is that possible?”

                  “I have heard of human/demon hybrids….” Giles went into full Watcher mode as he pondered the possibilities.  “But I thought they were quite rare. And demons living side-by-side with humans and having jobs…it quite boggles the mind.  This definitely requires more research.”

                 “Oh joy,” Xander groaned, dropping into one of the chairs.  “Research. Always a fun time.”

                “What’s to research?” Anya finally broke in.  “If you’d bothered to look around, you would know there are demons working all over Sunnydale.  Who do you think makes pizza deliveries after dark?  Or cleans the sewers?  Humans wouldn’t last 10 minutes in those jobs.”

                They all turned to stare at her in amazement.

               “You KNEW this? All this time?  And you never told anybody?”

                “It’s one of those things you never asked me,” she snipped back at them.  “I’m surprised Spike didn’t tell Buffy, though.  Just to keep her from killing anybody she shouldn’t.”

                  The Slayer’s face paled at the thought that she might have killed someone who was an innocent denizen of Sunnydale.  She thought back to the people she’d seen that morning as they left for work and realized that most of them looked perfectly human and probably wouldn’t have triggered her Slayer radar unless they got very close.

                 Suddenly the funny responses she sometimes got from people in stores and at school began to make more sense.  Every now and then she would enter a store and the proprietor would smile politely and back away, turning her over to another salesperson.  If there was no one else available, they would shuffle their feet and fidget nervously until she left. 

                “I’ll bet if you check out the owner of that building, you’ll find he’s a demon too,” Anya offered.  “That would explain why Spike is living there.  He probably won a month’s rent in a poker game or something.”

                Suddenly Giles got up and went to one of the shelves on which he’d begun to store his own collection of books.  Taking down one that looked slightly familiar to Buffy, he thumbed through it until he came to the page he was looking for.  Shooting an inscrutable glance at his slayer, he said quietly, “I think you might want to look at this, Buffy.”

                 With a sigh at the thought that she might actually WANT to read something, she approached him and gave the book a cursory glance.

                 “I’ve already seen that, Giles.  I know all about Spike’s past as William the Bloody.  Why do you want me to look at it again?”

                “Because it tells you in here what his name was before he was turned.  I think you might want to take a look.”

                  She grabbed the book from his hand, sending him an apologetic glance when he winced at her treatment of the rare book.  She started at the beginning this time, reading down the page and stopping occasionally to reread something.  She looked up at Giles with her mouth open.

                 “Spike is William Carlisle?   A stuffy Victorian gentleman?  A graduate of Oxford?  MY Spike? “

                 “It would appear that his turn as William was not as much of a stretch for him as we thought.  It WAS quite obvious that he was educated and had, at one time, learned some manners; but I had no idea that he came from such a…”

                “Ok, whoa.  Just whoa!”  Xander marched over to them and grabbed the book out of Buffy’s hand, causing Giles to wince again.  “Sorry, G-man,” he mumbled as he looked over the page.  The 19th century drawing of Spike when he was first turned looked eerily like the William they’d spent time with, except for the Victorian clothes. 

                Xander skimmed through the text, frowning as he read about William Carlisle’s education and wealthy family.

                “Well,” he said, tossing the book on the table, “obviously they screwed up and found some guy who looks like Spike and thought he was William the Bloody.  Spike has less education than I do – and it certainly was never a Victorian gentleman!”

               He gazed around the room triumphantly, his smile fading as no one else seemed to agree with him.

               “Guys! Come on!  It’s SPIKE, for Pete’s sake.  He doesn’t have any money.  He wears the same clothes every day.  He bleaches his hair!”

              “Not anymore, he doesn’t,” Willow interjected mildly.  “He can’t bleach it and still be William.  Not for awhile, anyway.”

              “Don’t tell me you’re still going with that goofy plan to pretend to date him, Buffy?”  The dismay and disbelief in Xander’s voice made her flinch in spite of herself.

             “Yes, Xander,” she answered, squaring her shoulders and looking him in the eye, “that is exactly what we plan to do.  And we won’t be pretending,” she added, with a frown.  “Where did you get that idea?”

             He stammered and appeared genuinely surprised, “Well, I just assumed…I mean if the claim is gone, then there’s no reason for you to…” He blanched as he remembered how she’d left with the vampire the night before and what Anya had said about their plans.

            “Where did you go with the bloodsucker last night, Buffy?” he demanded, not even noticing the shocked looks from everyone in the room.  “I thought you were going to tell him to forget it and just wanted to let him down easy.”

             Buffy stared at her friend incredulously.  “Why would you think that, Xander.  You were there when we talked about why he was leaving and how long he would be gone.  You know how I fe-“

              “I don’t know anything about how you feel,” he snarled at her.  “I don’t know what’s wrong with you that you have to keep hooking up with the undead when there are perfectly nice human men yours for the asking.”

                “And we all know who would be first in that line, don’t we, Xander,” Anya snipped from her place behind the counter.

               “Shut up, Ahn,” he snapped, not even looking in her direction.  Instead of the flinch that would have accompanied his less-than-loving treatment of her in the past, she just shrugged and turned back to her counter-polishing.

                 Anya’s remark reminded Buffy of what Spike had said about Xander’s jealously, and she made one last attempt to prove to herself that they were wrong.

               “Xander?  I don’t understand.  I thought we were friends.  Don’t you want me to be happy?  I love Spike.  And he loves me.  We want to try to make this work.  I was hoping my friends would be supportive…”

              “You can’t to expect me to support you when you want to wallow in filth with an undead demon.  I thought you might have learned something from your little walk on the wild side with Angel, but I guess getting a cold, dead happy is more important to you than risking your friend’s lives!  I’m sure Giles is all onboard with that!”

               Buffy recoiled in shock and dismay at the venom coming from Xander’s mouth.  Tears sprang into her eyes at his reminder that her moments with Angel had cost Jenny her life.  Before she could find a way to respond, her Watcher’s voice rang out.

               “That will be enough, Xander!  You will apologize to Buffy immediately, or you will leave my shop.”   The look he was giving the boy was pure Ripper as he saw the pain flash across Buffy’s face.

             “Fine!” he answered with another snarl,  “Let’s go, Ahn. We’ll leave these demon-huggers to find out the hard way.”

            He turned and gestured imperiously at the door as she strode past the counter where Anya was looking at him coldly.

             “You do remember I was a demon for over a thousand years, don’t you, Xander?” she asked in a chilly voice.

             “Of course I do. Almost every time you open your mouth.  But you’re human now.  You have a soul.  Let’s go,” he added impatiently as he held the door.

             “I’m not through working today, Xander,” she answered slowly.  “I guess you’ll have to go on without me.”

             She met his astonished look defiantly, crossing her arms over her chest. 

              “Fine,” he ground out.  “I’ll see you at home tonight.”

               Without another word or look at anyone else in the room, he whirled and left the shop, slamming the door behind him and leaving five very disturbed people behind.

Chapter Twenty-eight

             There was shocked silence for several minutes after the dark-haired man’s abrupt departure.  The little bell over the door continued to chime as the vibrations from Xander’s slamming kept it from stilling.

            Giles stepped closer to Buffy as the tears continued to flow down her face, but when he tried to hug her, she cringed and turned away.

            “I’m sorry, G…Giles,” she hiccupped, “I kn…know I was a bad Slayer before;  but Spike isn’t going to hurt anybody.  He promised me.  He even has his refrigerator full of pig’s blood so he won’t get hungry.”  She took a deep, shaky breath and continued in a determined voice, “And if he does, I know what I have to do.  I’ll never shirk my duty again, no matter how much I love—“

              Her ex-Watcher interrupted her before she could finish.

             “Buffy, I never blamed you for Jenny’s death. It was not your fault.   I blame Angelus, and to some extent, Jenny herself.  If she had been honest with us about what she knew, we might have been able to avoid the entire Angelus incident.  I never thought you were a bad Slayer.”  He looked at her anxiously, waiting for her hiccupping to stop.  When she took a deep breath and gained control over her emotions, he added,   “And I trust Spike considerably more without a soul than I do Angel with one. I’m not sure what Xander is so angry about; but please don’t let his words upset you.”
             
               With an apologetic look at Anya, Buffy said hesitantly, “Spike says he’s jealous.  I told him that was ridiculous, but he—“

              “He’s right,” Anya said flatly. “Xander wants Buffy for himself.  He always has. He tries to pretend they’re just friends, but that’s not what he wants.  The reason I dragged him into the bathroom during the spell is because he wanted to stake Spike for kissing Buffy and I knew she’d hurt him if he tried to do it while
she thought she was in love with him.”

              “I thought he got over that a long time ago…” Buffy frowned in confusion.  “He was in love with Cordelia – and now you.  I don’t get it.”

               Anya shrugged her shoulders.  “What’s not to get?  He wants you. He can’t have you, so he makes do with whomever else he can get.  It wasn’t a problem until you fell in love with Spike.  You couldn’t have sex with Angel, and your human boyfriends didn’t bother him because he knew you weren’t in love with them, but Spike…”  Her voice trailed off as everyone nodded, agreeing that it was very obvious how she felt about the vampire.

             “He would hate him anyway – just because you love him.  The fact that he’s a vampire just makes it worse because he knows he can’t compete with him physically, and now that he knows William was educated and has money…”

             “Terrific.”  Buffy slumped back down in her chair.  “What are we going to do about this?”

              “I’m sure he’ll come around, Buffy.” Willow tried to reassure her best friend that her other best friend would get over his anger.  “He got used to Angel. He’ll get used to Spike.  After all, he’s got Anya and…”

              She stopped when Giles abruptly cleared his throat and Anya suddenly left the room.

             “Now what?”  Three sets of eyes looked at the Watcher for an explanation.

             “It appears,” he began, talking off his glasses to polish them vigorously, “that Anya has become somewhat… disenchanted… with Xander and his constantly treating her as though he were ashamed of her.  She is seriously considering…well, she is considering terminating their relationship.”

            “Anya’s going to break up with Xander?”  Willow’s eyes were large green searchlights.  “Oh, this is not going to lead to anything good.”

            “Yes, well, we will just have to see, won’t we.  It is entirely her decision and I feel I…we…should support her.” 

             Willow and Buffy exchanged looks, remembering the intimate little lunch they had interrupted when they arrived. 

             “Okaaaay,” said Buffy with a forced smile.  “I think I’ve had just about enough new information for one afternoon.  I’m off to class.  Coming Willow? Tara?”

             “Oh yeah.  Class.  Class is good.  We go to class to learn things, and…not that we aren’t learning things here, but…”  Tara’s soft hand on her arm put a stop to her babbling, and Willow looked at her gratefully.

            Waving at Giles and throwing quick “good-bye”s toward Anya, the three girls left the Magic Box and began the walk back to campus.  They were silent for most of the walk, Buffy and Willow each pondering the things they’d learned about both Xander and Spike, and Tara, as she always did, keeping her own counsel until asked for an opinion.


            Finally, Buffy had exhausted her ability to keep her thoughts to herself and she turned to Willow, asking, “If Xander’s already upset about me and Spike, what do you suppose he’s going to do if Anya breaks up with him?”

            “I don’t know, Buffy.  I’ve seen him get mad before, and I’ve seen him be hurt, but I’ve never heard him sound as…vicious as he did today.  I never thought I’d hear him talk to you like that.  Or to any of us.  Although,” she frowned, “I guess we have just gotten so used to hearing him tell Anya to shut up or that she’s stupid that we just don’t notice it anymore.  That’s really not very nice of us.”

            “H…hi…his aura was really very dark,” Tara ventured.

            “His whata?”  Buffy looked at the blond girl in surprise.

              “Tara sees auras.  She can tell if someone is happy, or sad, or angry, or…”

            “Oh.  Well, that’s just really… cool.   In a disturbing sort of way.” Buffy looked at the other girl out of the corner of her eye.  “What does…what does mine look like?”  She tried to look casually curious, but her tense shoulders gave away her anxiety.

              “Oh, Buffy, yours is always so bright.  It’s full of light.  There’s a little tinge around the edges, probably because you’re worried about Xander, but the rest of it is glowing.  I’m guessing the arrival of the attractive vampire last night has something to do with that,” she added with a sly smile.

              Buffy blushed and nodded vigorously as she sped up.  Tara and Willow hurried after her as the Slayer entered the main building and headed for her next class.  With a promise to meet that evening at the Magic Box, Willow and Tara went off in the other direction for an afternoon Wicca meeting.

              When Buffy came out of class and started toward the exit, she stopped abruptly when she heard someone say, “Miss Summers?”

                She turned to see the man who had been watching her earlier and narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously.  A quick glance around the busy hallway didn’t indicate any lurkers who might be additional military types and she relaxed slightly and allowed him to approach.  She was careful to remain out of arm’s reach, just in case he had one of their tasers with him.  He shook his head and gave her a rueful smile when he noted her caution.

             “My apologies, Miss Summers, if I’ve given you any reason to worry about my presence.  I’m not here to try to capture you, or to interfere with you in any way.  My job is simply to observe you for a brief period of time and determine that you are, in fact, who we’ve been told you are.”

              “Ok, we established that I am Buffy Summers. Who the hell are you and why have you been watching me?”  She continued to glare at him suspiciously.  He quickly introduced him self as Colonel John Edwards and offered his hand, which he withdrew when she ignored it.

               “It was important that I verify that you are, in fact, the Slayer.  And that I observe you attending to your duties as you so diligently do every night.  We had to be sure that the hellmouth was going to be protected before we completely wrapped up our operation here.”

                “It’s just as protected as it was before you came here – and as protected as it will be after you’ve gone.”

               “So it would seem.  I’ve been quite impressed.  You seem to be out there every night removing any hostiles that appear.”

                “Slaying,” Buffy said coldly.  “I SLAY any ‘hostiles’ I find.”

                “And yet, you protected Hostile 17,” he fired back at her.  As they talked, they had been walking toward the exit and Buffy stopped in the middle of the quad, putting her hands on her hips.

                 “Hostile 17 was rendered harmless.  There was no reason for me to slay him anymore.”

                 “I take it you knew it/him before we captured him?”

                  “Yes, he helped me save the world a couple of years ago.”

                  Buffy met his astonished look with such stony-eyed conviction that he eventually nodded his head and agreed, “I guess that might entitle him to a pass if he isn’t eating people anymore.”

                  “He isn’t,” she said, with no elaboration.

                   The man gave a sigh and asked, almost pleadingly, “Miss Summers, I know that you and our organization got off on the wrong foot.  I can assure you the government wishes me to extend sincere apologies for any harm that may have come to you or to your family and friends due to the…overly zealous…activities of our former administrator.”

                  A disbelieving snort was the unladylike reply, but he continued bravely.

                  “I am authorized to tell you that we are pulling our remaining personnel out of the Sunnydale area and leaving it to you to handle any hostiles that may present a problem here.  However, should you at any time require our assistance, please contact me and we will respond at once.”

                 He handed Buffy a business card with his name, a phone number and an e mail address.  She reluctantly extended her hand and took the card, staring at it suspiciously.

                “That’s it?  You’re leaving?”

                 “That’s it.  There are other…hot spots…around the globe that do not have a resident Slayer and our time will be better spent there.”

                    “Oh,”  Buffy was left without much to say, as the man waited for her response.  “Well, that’s…that’s good then,” she responded weakly.

                    “It’s been a pleasure watching you work, Miss Summers,” he responded.  “Please don’t lose the card.  We look forward to working with you sometime in the future.”

                    “Uh, sure.  Likewise, I guess.  Bye now!” she finished cheerfully, walking off before he could say anything else.

                     When she got back to her dorm room, she found that Willow and Tara were both there, lounging on Willow’s bed.  Buffy blinked her eyes, sure for a second that she had seen them kissing just as she walked in the door.  Shrugging the thought off, she greeted them enthusiastically and told them about her meeting with the Army officer.

                    “So, they’re just going to go away and leave us alone?” Willow asked dubiously. 

                    “That’s what he said.  I guess we’ll see if he means it.”


                 When Willow saw Buffy throwing some things in an overnight bag, she winked at Tara and asked innocently,  “Going somewhere tonight, Buffy?”

                  The blond slayer started to stammer out an explanation, then noticed the twinkle in her friend’s eye and Tara’s quiet laughter.

                  “Very funny, Will,” she grumbled.  “You know I am.  I’ll be at Spike’s if you need me.  I guess I’d better get a cell phone so that you can reach me if you need to.”

                 “Is that where you’re going right now?”

                 “Yeah, Spike should be waking up soon and I want him to come to the Magic Box with me tonight after patrol.  I’ll see you guys when I get there.” 

                    With a flip of her hand, she grabbed her bag and left the room; once again brushing off the feeling that Willow and Tara were sitting much closer together than seemed necessary. 

                   When she entered the apartment building, having stopped to grab a salad along the way, she noticed the people she’d seen in the morning returning from work, and another group obviously leaving for their evening jobs.  She studied them closely, trying to sense which ones might be demons and which ones were fully human.  She found that she recognized a few of those leaving as people who worked in the restaurants and bars that were open late, as well as some that were dressed for evening shifts at the hospital.

                 She realized she was making them uncomfortable when several of them turned away and hastened out the door, and she quickly looked away and headed for the elevator.

               “You’d think I was the demon, the way some of them were looking at me,” she grumbled out loud to herself.

               “To some of them, you are, darling,” said a sweet voice entering the elevator right behind her.

                 Buffy turned to see an attractive, middle aged woman carrying a grocery store bag and smiling at her in a friendly fashion.  The woman pressed the button for her floor, as well as pushing the penthouse button for Buffy.

                “Uh, do I know you?”  Buffy asked.

                “Oh dear, that’s right.  We haven’t actually met.  I’m Millie,” she said, holding out her free hand.  “My son is the concierge and I helped him stock the apartment for Mr. Carlisle.  I feel like I know you through your toiletries,” she added, then looked embarrassed.  “I suppose that was quite rude of me.”

                “Oh no, not at all.  I’m sorry,” Buffy stammered.  “And thank you. It was wonderful to wake up this morning and find my shampoo and body wash waiting for me.”

               “Well, Mr. Carlisle was quite specific about what brands to get.  He was very concerned that you have everything you might need or want.  He’s such a sweet man.”  She beamed at Buffy.

               “Uh, yes…yes, he is,” Buffy agreed, wondering if she should tell the woman that Spike was a vampire.  Then she remembered her saying that her son was the concierge and realized that this was the woman who had been married to a demon.

                 The older woman waved and smiled cheerily as she got off on her floor, insisting that Spike and Buffy join her for dinner as soon as they got “settled in”.
 

Next