Chapter Eighteen

It took a surprisingly short amount of time for Joyce to get accustomed to having a vampire living in her basement.  When she got up in the morning, the door would be shut and there would be no sign of Spike’s presence except the washed cup in which he drank his blood sitting upside down in the dish drainer.

When she got home in the evening, he would be on the couch watching the TV, ready to tell her all about the happenings on Passions if she felt she didn’t have time to watch the episodes he taped for her.  She also found that whatever dishes she had left in the sink from her breakfast were washed and put away.

While Joyce fixed and ate her dinner, he would join her, sipping from his cup of blood, for conversation about the gallery and artists.  She found, to her surprise, that he was quite knowledgeable about art, and their conversations were interesting and stimulating.  She even found that he knew of local Sunnydale artists whose work not only deserved to be shown, but would compliment the other things in her gallery.

Most nights, Buffy would arrive shortly after dinner and, after a quick visit with her mother, she and Spike would leave for a night of patrolling.  They were both frustrated by their inability to spend the night together.  Spike could not stay in Buffy’s dorm room, as that would mean he was either walking back to Revello Drive alone or that he was stuck there all day waiting for the sun to go down.  And, while Buffy was sure her mother knew that they were lovers in the full sense of the word, she wasn’t comfortable sleeping with him in her mother’s basement and sneaking out before dawn. 

Nor would Spike hear of her doing such a thing.

“I’m not havin’ you come to shag me and then walk yourself back home like some...some...”

When Buffy raised an angry eyebrow, daring him to complete his sentence, he backpedaled quickly.

“’M sorry, pet.  It’s the Victorian man in me.  You leavin’ my bed to take yourself home unescorted just sends poncey old William into a frenzy.  Know you can take care of yourself, but...bloody hell! It’s just not right!” he finished with an exasperated puff, glaring at her very poor attempt to smother her laughter.

When she finally gave up and rolled on the floor in hysterics, he drew himself up with an offended snort.

“Laugh it up, Slayer.  Not my fault you’ve never had a gentleman before!”

As soon as she realized he was genuinely offended by her laughter, Buffy stopped and walked over to him.  Touching his chin to make him look at her, she kissed the pout on his face and whispered,  “You’re right.  I haven’t ever had a gentleman.  You’re going to have to show me how to be a proper lady, William.”

Unable to resist her pulling on his lower lip with her teeth, he began to kiss her back, mumbling a face-saving, “Not a miracle worker, y’know, love.”

They settled for ending each patrol at his crypt, making love for a couple of hours on his luxurious four poster, before parting sadly to go back to their respective single beds.  Buffy couldn’t decide if the claim was making that better or worse.

On the one hand, she could feel the love and reassurance that he sent her every night before she went to sleep and she found it a very pleasant way to nod off.  On the other, she ached for the physical contact that was so enhanced by the claim.   Falling asleep lying skin to skin next to the vampire was at once the most erotic and the most comforting experience she’d ever had.  Not since she was very young, and her mother’s loving arms and warm kiss could make anything better, had contact with another person made her feel so safe and secure.

If it weren’t for her very real concerns about Riley’s less than understanding reaction to her attempts to break up with him, she would have allowed Spike to move back into his crypt just so they would have a place to stay together all night.

But the ex-commando was not receiving the message she was sending.  Or, she was coming to believe, he was deliberately misunderstanding it.

When she told him she would be patrolling with Spike every night, he insisted he would be accompanying her just in case Spike “scampered off when things got hairy.”  She finally allowed him to come with them one time, frantically sending Spike soothing thoughts when she felt the rage surge in him at the soldier’s swaggering approach.

“Just trust me,” she hissed too low for anything but vampiric hearing as they all headed for the first of Sunnydale’s many cemeteries.

She broke into an effortless jog, noting with satisfaction that both men were keeping up with her.  Riley, of course, insisted on being slightly in front, as though to meet anything evil they encountered before she could.  Buffy rolled her eyes at Spike, but allowed the big man to stay in front until a look from Spike and her own vampire sensing tingles told her there was something ahead.

Lacking their superior senses, Riley was obliviously jogging straight ahead, looking around for possible “hostiles” and wishing he still had all his infrared gear.

Suddenly, with a burst of speed that he couldn’t begin to match, Buffy flew past him and off to the left where she sensed the newly risen vamp.  When Spike blew past in a swirl of black leather, Riley broke into a sprint that still left him arriving at the scene in time to watch Buffy brushing off the dust.

“Nicely done, pet,” he heard the smiling vampire say as he nodded to their right.  “But you’re not done yet.”

Buffy whirled and caught the attacking vampire on the point of her stake.  She could see several confused minions milling around near the empty grave, clearly unsure what to do with their lord and master turned into dust by a small blond girl.

Ignoring Riley’s hesitant, “Buffy, I think there might be too man-“, she rolled her shoulders and with a joyful “You take the ugly ones” to Spike, she did two hand springs to land behind the startled group.

By the time Riley got his stake out and approached the melee, Spike had dusted two very large and very ugly vamps, while Buffy played with the last of the three she had chosen.  Leaving Riley to attempt to stake the lone female in the group, a thin brunette who seemed more interested in running away than fighting.

Buffy threw her remaining vamp at Spike, who caught it on the point of his stake with a flourish.  They both turned to watch Riley stake his vamp, only to see her crying on the ground as he loomed over her.

“Riley, it’s me! Please don’t stake me.  I wasn’t hurting anybody.  You know I wou—“  her pleas were cut off when he plunged the stake into her chest and stood over the spot breathing hard.

He looked up to see Buffy looking at him with puzzled eyes and glanced away quickly, only to meet the eyes of the vampire, which were not puzzled, but cold and filled with complete understanding.

“Riley? Why did she know your name?  Did you know her before she was turned?”

With great relief, he agreed immediately.  “Yes, yes, I did.  I think she used to work for the initiative,” he said firmly.  “That’s where I know her from.”

Buffy accepted his answer without question, but the vampire just snorted and turned away.

“Yeah, well, good job there, Capt’n Cardboard.  Staking your vamp, I mean.”

“Yes, that was very good, Riley,” Buffy said cheerily.  She looked around at the loose dust and shrugged.  “Guess we’re done here.  Time to head for the next stop.”

She made eye contact with Spike and flicked her eyes toward the next cemetery.

“Last one there’s demon meat!” she trilled and took off at a speed she knew Riley couldn’t hope to match.  She could feel Spike right behind her and put on another burst of speed, joying in the physical release provided by the run as well as pleasure she got from playing with her mate.

Again, Riley arrived panting and late to watch Buffy and Spike tag teaming a large, hairy demon with spikes running down its back.  His one attempt to join them was met with a backhand swipe of a paw that knocked him to the ground and from there he watched as the two lithe blonds whirled and kicked, ducked and punched almost in unison.  He had to admit, as he watched them take the occasional hit, that they were much more suited to fighting something as large and strong as this particular type of demon than he was.

And when they were done, and the demon’s head had been wrested from its body by the snarling vampire, their comfortable kidding about each other’s missed opportunities and potential mistakes gave him some insight into how poorly a human man, even a chemically enhanced one, fit in to Buffy’s usual nocturnal activities.  And, he had to admit that if she expended as much energy every night as he had seen tonight, she had a right to be “too tired” to want to see him after.

However, when she sent him back to his apartment again, while she stayed with the vampire, his brow darkened and he glared hard at the smirking blond before striding off toward the campus.

The next day, when he showed up outside her class to walk her to the cafeteria, he admitted grudgingly that Spike might be a better choice for a fighting companion.

“It’s okay, Buffy.  You made your point last night.  I can’t match what the two of you can do together.  I think I get it.  I would slow you down.  Especially now, with the drugs working their way out of my system, I’m losing what little extra strength I had.  I can see why you’d want to patrol with someone you didn’t care about losing rather than worry about protecting a human.”

Buffy stared at him with dismay.

“Riley,” she started, not quite sure what she was going to say, but knowing he still wasn’t getting the picture.  “Riley, I like you a lot.  You know that, right?”

The frown on his face told her he wasn’t hearing what he wanted to hear.

“But?” he asked bluntly.

She took a deep breath and blew it out hard before replying. 

“This is really hard for me.  I’m usually on the other end of these conversations.”

“Waiting for the ‘but’, Buffy.”  He gave her no sign he wasn’t going to make her say what they both knew she was going to say.

“But I don’t think this is working out as well as I...we...hoped it would when we started dating.  There is just too much you don’t understand about my life, my calling, my...friends.”

“Are you including Spike in that?” he asked coldly.

“Yes, Riley.  I am including Spike in that.  We have become very...close in the past few months.  He is a part of my life.  An important part,” she added quietly.

“Exactly how important is he, Buffy?” He glared at her fiercely.  “Is he important enough to get a pass on staking when that chip goes?  Is this another vampire that gets to walk the earth forever because he’s ‘important’ to the Slayer?”

The venom in Riley’s usually gentle voice startled her and she couldn’t reply for a minute.

“Sp...Spike’s not feeding,” she finally said uncertainly.  “And..and you met Angel. You know he has his soul.  He doesn’t kill either.”

“That you know of,” he said cryptically.  “And I’ve heard all about how stable the soul is.  Both of these vampires that seem to be so important to you are only safe because something is keeping them from killing.  What would you do if and when one of them lost those safeguards, Buffy?  What would you do then?”

Buffy stood up, her face as hard and cold as he had ever seen it,  “I would do the same thing I did the last time, Riley.  My job.  I would send him to hell.”

The big man was taken back at both her expression and her words,  “The last time?”

“Oh, did you miss that part of the story?  Yes, when Angel lost his soul, I ran a sword through his chest and sent him into a hell dimension to save the world.  I was seventeen and loved him with everything I had. I had no idea the Powers That Be would send him back after he’d suffered long enough. I thought he was gone forever. I did it then, and I would do it again if I had to.  It’s what I do.”  She stared hard at her now ex-boyfriend.  “But I will NOT do anything to either of them unless or until they give me a reason to.  Is that clear, Riley?”

“Perfectly,” he said coldly.  “If a vampire gets between the Slayer’s legs,” at Buffy’s start of surprise, he grinned thinly, “Oh, yeah. I’m not as dumb as you two think I am, Buffy.  As I was saying, if a vampire makes it into your pants, he gets a free pass no matter what he’s done in the past.”

“This conversation is over,” she ground out as she whirled and left the cafeteria.

Anger and guilt fueled her body and she got to the magic shop in record time.  Bursting through the door, she went straight for the training room to begin pounding on the heavy bag.

After fifteen minutes of unrelenting pounding, her watcher timidly put his face in the door to inquire, “Would you like to talk about it?”

Buffy dropped her arms and let out a weary sigh.

“I just had the break-up conversation with Riley and it got a little nasty.  I figured it was better for me to take it out on the bag than on his face.”

Staring at the still-swinging bag, the older man said wryly, “And I’m quite confident his face thanks you for that thought.”

She laughed softly and managed to look ashamed and angry at the same time.  She sat down on the mats and put her head in her hands.

“He thinks I should stake Spike and Angel,” she said quietly.  “I know he thinks he’s saying it because they’re vampires...”

“But?”

“But I think he’s just jealous.  He said...he said something really ugly about why I haven’t staked them.”

“Well, I can quite imagine what he had to say about Angel; but, Spike?  Surely he doesn’t think you and Spike....” his voice trailed off when she raised her head to look at him.

“Oh, dear Lord,” he murmured almost to himself.  “I had no idea you would take my rambling about the Powers and Spike being chosen so seriously.  Oh dear!”

“Relax, Giles,” she grinned at his distress, “You had nothing to do with it.  We were way ahead of you.”

“You were...oh!  Oh, my.”

The watcher began polishing his glasses vigorously and blushing a deep red color.  When his color had dropped to a rosy pink, and the glasses were spotless, he put them back on and looked up at his Slayer.

“Who knows about this...change...in your relationship?”

“Just my mom – oh, well, and apparently Riley; and I don’t even want to know how that happened.”

“You do realize this places Spike in even more danger, do you not?”

“Yeah.  I know.  I’ll warn him tonight to be extra careful.  I think he’s safe at my mom’s though.  I don’t think Riley knows he’s there, and even if he did, surely he wouldn’t do anything in my mom’s house....”

I certainly hope, for your sake as well as Spike’s, that you are correct, Buffy.  Please do not forget that this is a man who hide information from you for quite some time last year.  You do not really know what he may be capable of if he is sufficiently angry.”
 

Chapter Nineteen

When Joyce got home that afternoon, there was a large crate sitting on the front porch and she shook her head as she walked past it.

“Evenin’, Joyce,” came from the living room.  “That an early Christmas present?”

“No,” she said with exasperation, “It is a very valuable and heavy sculpture that was supposed to be delivered to the gallery – not here.  Now I’ll have to hire someone to move it for me.”

“I’ll do it for you,” Spike said, following her into the kitchen.  “Got nothing to do till the Slayer gets here for patrol.  I can load it in the back of your truck and unload it for you at the gallery.  Why don’t you grab some dinner and then we’ll run it over there?”

“That’s very sweet, Spike.  Thank you.  But don’t you think we should wait until Buffy gets here? Between the two of you—“

“I’ll be fine by myself, Joyce.  Give me a chance to get out into the world a little.  I’m going a little stir crazy here –not that it’s not nice,” he hastened to add when she looked somewhat hurt. “But I’m startin’ to feel like a caged bird.”

“I don’t know, Spike.  I appreciate the offer, but if Buffy still doesn’t think it’s safe...”

“We’ll be fine.  I’ll be with you and the wanker isn’t going to do anything with the Slayer’s mum watchin’.  Come on, Joyce.  Please, huh, please?”

She had to laugh at his hopeful face and puppy dog eyes, even though she knew it was act he was putting on for her benefit.

“All right, Spike. You win.  I’ll get something to eat and then we’ll take it over to the gallery.  I’ve got some new things I want you to see anyway.”

When the meal was over, she watched anxiously as he lifted the large crate and carefully set it in the back of her SUV.  He slammed the tailgate and jumped into the passenger seat, looking for all the world like a little kid going for a ride.

As Joyce pulled out of the drive-way, neither one of them noticed a black van ease out of a parking spot down the street and begin to follow them through the dark streets.  It stayed far enough back to be almost invisible in the dark; just another pair of headlights that appeared in the rear view mirror from time to time.

At the gallery, Spike quickly got out and opened the back of the vehicle while Joyce unlocked the loading dock door.  She stood to one side as the vampire carefully set the crate on the dock, then jumped fluidly up onto it and pushed the crate into the shop.  He pried open the crate for her and lifted the heavy work of art out onto the floor before saying,  “I’ll just go shut the car up before you show me around, Joyce.  Be right back.”

Nodding absently, she walked around the piece, making sure it was intact.   A scuffling noise from outside caught her ear and she went to the dock and peered out into the dark.

“Spike?  Spike, is something wrong?  Spike?  Where are you?”

Suddenly a black van with no markings and no lights, pulled away from the loading dock, tires squealing and engine roaring. 

“Spike?” Joyce tried once more, but she knew before the words left her lips that there wasn’t going to be an answer.  Her heart ached for her daughter as she quickly locked up the shop and turned her car toward home.

When Buffy got to her house, she was surprised, but not worried, to find her mother’s car not there.  Joyce often stayed late after the gallery was closed to catch up on paperwork and bookkeeping.  But when the Slayer entered the empty house and realized she couldn’t sense Spike anywhere, she was furious.

“That moron!  Of all the nights for him to go out without me. When I find him, I’m going to—ooooh!” The Slayer fell to the floor, limbs twitching as she felt the shock of a tazer go through her body.  She twitched for minutes, until she finally lost consciousness and awoke to find her mother frantically rubbing her face.

“Oh my God, Buffy!  What happened?”

“Where...where’s Spike?” she got out through chattering teeth.

“I don’t know.” She lowered her head and said softly, “I’m sorry, Buffy. I let him talk me into helping me carry something to the gallery.  It’s my fault.  All I saw was a black van speeding off and he was gone.”

Buffy sat up slowly, waiting for the feeling to come back to her arms and legs.

“No, Mom.  It’s not your fault,” she said in a tone her mother had never heard before.  “It’s Riley’s.”

“What happened to you?  Did he come here first?”  Her mother looked in bewilderment at her seemingly uninjured and yet obviously debilitated daughter.

“No, he hit Spike with a tazer to knock him out.”

“But--”

“I’ll explain later.  I have to find him.  Will you call Giles for me, please?”

“How will you find him?  Shouldn’t you wait for Giles?”

“I’ll know where he is.  At least I will as soon as he wakes up.”

Cursing herself for not completing the claim and giving her that telepathic connection that Spike had alluded to, she went to the phone herself to call her watcher.

“He has Spike,” she said tersely when he answered.  “I’m at my mom’s, I’ll wait for you here.”

She then picked up the phone and called Willow and Tara to tell them she might be needing a locater spell and they promised to arrive as quickly as they could.

While she waited impatiently for her help to arrive, she paced the floor, muttering threats to both Spike and Riley for putting her through this.  Joyce went to the kitchen to fix hot chocolate for the arriving Scoobies, vowing to have a long talk with her daughter once they recovered Spike.

Just as Giles came through the door, Buffy’s head flew up and she grabbed the sides of it, screaming.  When the scream had tapered off to a moan, she opened bleary eyes to see the worried faces of her mother and her surrogate father staring at her.

“Guess Spike woke up and tried to leave,” she said weakly, as Giles helped her to the couch.  As the pain faded, she could faintly feel his confusion and anger coming through the claim.  There was a surge of rage, and then her head snapped back as she felt Spike take a hard blow on the chin.

“Buffy!  What’s happening?  What’s wrong?”

“He’s beating him,” she gasped through the pain flowing to her from the vampire.  “He’s, aaaah!, he’s breaking his bones....Spike!”  she fell back on the couch, crying in pain and fear. 

Her watcher grabbed her face and made her look him in the eye as he asked firmly, “Tell me what is happening.  Why are you in pain?”

“Spike... He... I...  Call Angel. He can explain it.  He needs to come. Tell him I, we need him.”

She fell back on the cushions, moaning and crying out periodically.

The Watcher went to the phone and dialed Los Angeles only to be met with Cordelia’s “what’s wrong with her now?” 

There was some scuffling and arguing and then Angel was on the phone.  “Yes, Giles. What is it?  I apologize for Cordelia’s... What?  He did what? And she knows this because...”

“I was hoping you could tell me,” the watcher said quietly. “I only know of one thing that would give them that kind of connection.  I was hoping you might have another idea.”

“That son of bitch claimed her,” Angel growled, thereby removing any hope of another explanation.  “I’ll kill him!”

“Actually, Angel, I believe Buffy is expecting you to come and assist us in locating him before Riley turns him to dust. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he appears to be in no hurry to do that.  However, the pain he is inflicting on Spike is preventing Buffy from going to his rescue.”

“I’m leaving now. Be there in two hours.”

The phone was dead in Giles’ hand and he slowly replaced it in the cradle as he turned to look at his slayer.  Buffy was lying on the couch, breathing hard, but with clear eyes.

“Buffy?” he asked hesitantly.

“He’s unconscious,” she said flatly as she struggled to sit up.  “Either that, or he’s blocking it somehow.”

“Can he do that?” Giles asked, polishing his glasses.  Neither of them bothered to pretend not to know what they were talking about.

“He can make it less; but I don’t think he could totally block that kind of pain.  I think he’s unconscious.”

“He could be...” Giles looked at her sympathetically and heard Joyce gasp when she realized what he was implying.

“No.” Buffy said flatly. “I’d know.”

The older man nodded his head and sat down heavily in a chair. 

“Angel’s on his way,” he said softly.

Buffy nodded and rested her head on the back of the couch.  “Good. He should be able to help me find Spike.”  He head shot back up.  “Did you tell him?”

“I didn’t have to.  He knew as soon as I told him what was happening.”

“Shit,” she groaned, dropping her head back down and ignoring her mother’s shocked, “Buffy!”

“Indeed,” her watcher agreed.  “I believe it will be a toss-up which one wants to kill Spike the most.”

Buffy tried to sit up again.  “I should go now, while he’s unconscious and I can function.”

“I really wish you’d wait for Angel,” Giles said.  “If he attacks Spike again, you will be helpless.”

As much as she hated to do so, Buffy had to admit Giles was right, and she forced herself to wait for the arrival of Spike’s grandsire before she went looking for him.

However, when Willow’s locator spell showed that Riley was holding Spike in an abandoned factory near the waterfront, Buffy refused to wait for Angel, telling Giles to send him after them as soon as he got there.  Against her mother’s protestations, and her watcher’s grumbling, she ran out the door heading for the waterfront and the man who was hurting her mate.

Chapter Twenty

Spike woke slowly and sent out his vampiric senses before he tried to open his eyes.  As consciousness came back and his memory returned, so did the pain in his broken bones.  When he felt Buffy’s fearful response to his pain, he immediately damped down the claim as much as he could in his condition. In addition to wanting to spare her the pain he knew she was getting from him, he didn’t want her distracted from her search to find him.

He never doubted for a second that she was on her way to rescue him.  Even without the reassurance he could feel coming from her, he would have known she was coming. 

(It’s what she does, my beautiful girl.  She rescues people – even vampires.)

Memory of who had beat him, and why surfaced and he flexed his arms to see if the chains he remembered being anchored to were still there.  He could feel blood trickling down the back of his head and wondered briefly how and why the much larger man had hit him back there.

The sound of the chains clanking brought Riley back into the room to observe his prisoner. 

“So, you’re awake again,” he remarked.  “Let’s see what I can do to make it interesting for you.”

As he spoke, he walked over to the immobile vampire and waved a large knife at him, clearly hoping to see fear.  He was gratified, although somewhat surprised, to see that the vampire was, in fact, frightened.  He hadn’t really expected it to be that easy.  Mistaking completely the reason for Spike’s concern, he puffed himself up and said, “Yeah, that’s right, vampire.  I’ll teach you to touch my girl.  We’ll see how she likes you when she sees you crying and begging for me to stop. I think I’ll start with that prick she seems so fond of.”

“You won’t just be hurtin’ me, you stupid git.  You’ll be hurtin’ Buffy every time you cut me.”

Riley had expected all sorts of reasons why he shouldn’t begin cutting on Spike; but that was certainly not one of them.  It was so ridiculous, it almost sounded real; but he quickly discarded it as an attempt by the vampire to avoid more pain.

“Right,” he sneered, “I suppose this is more of your vampire mumbo jumbo.”

“I claimed her.  We’re bonded.  Did they teach you nothing in that soddin’ labratory?”

“I knew you’d be a coward about this, but I had no idea you’d try to drag Buffy into it.  You’re pathetic,” Riley blustered.  He wanted very badly to believe Spike was lying, but he knew there was a great deal more to know about demons than he had been taught in the Initiative. He hesitated for just a minute, then went back to his original plan.

“I know you can’t bleed to death like a human,” he said coldly, “but it would be an interesting experiment to see exactly how much blood you could lose before the need to feed could override the chip.  That would have been one of the experiments we could have done on you while we had you in the lab, if you hadn’t escaped.”

“Pretty stupid move, there, Cardboard; since the only thing I see to feed on in here is you.”

“Oh, don’t worry.  I’m pretty sure your next snack is on her way here already.  I just need to be sure you’re hungry enough to appreciate it when she gets here.”

“She? You can’t seriously think I’d ever...”

“We’ll find out, won’t we?  I’ve been doing some research on my own, and going over the results of the Initiative experiments.  It seems like blood lust is just about the strongest thing going for the undead.  It’s even more powerful than ordinary lust,” he finished with a meaningful look.

“I won’t touch her,” the vampire said with no expression.  “I’d starve first.”

“So you say now,” he growled as he ran the knife down the front of Spike’s body, slitting the tee shirt and allowing a growing line of red to spread out from the cut.  “I think you’ll change your tune by the time I’m done with you.”

Slowly and methodically, the ex commando used the knife to bleed the vampire.  He watched with interest at the slowly growing pool of blood collecting under the table to which Spike was chained.  As he watched the vampire gradually weaken, he knew that the broken bones he’d inflicted on Spike earlier would prevent any sudden movement on the vampire’s part.  When he was comfortable that Spike would be unable to move quickly enough to catch him, he unlocked the chains and stood away from the table.

The vampire looked at him with amber eyes that glittered with hunger.  His face was ridged and frozen into a snarl as the starving body yearned toward the blood he could hear pounding through the big man’s veins.

Riley looked at the snarling, snapping vampire with satisfaction.

“Oh, yeah.  This will do.  Even Buffy will have to see where her duty lies now. ”

At the sound of footsteps echoing through the open door, he threw a wooden stake on the floor and slipped out a side door.

“By the way, Spike,” he said as he left the room, “the chip is out.”



Buffy approached the warehouse with caution, even though everything in her body was screaming at her to rush in and rescue her mate.  She noticed the van her mother had described and saw that the door was open as though the driver had been in a hurry to get his cargo inside.

This close to him, she could feel Spike in spite of his attempts to mask the pain for her.  Suddenly she was hit with a stab of hunger so powerful it brought her to her knees and she fell to the floor gasping for air.  The masking Spike had been doing was gone as the demon took over in the starving vampire and she remained on the floor, moaning in pain and snarling in anger at her helplessness.  Forcing herself to remember that HER bones were not broken, and her body was not bleeding, she summoned the will to move forward toward the opening that she knew would lead to the source of the pain and hunger she was feeling.


Back on Revello Drive, a dark sports car roared into the driveway, barely stopping before Angel and Cordelia jumped out and ran to the door, which Giles was opening for them.  They hesitated on the threshold only long enough for Joyce to say grudgingly, “Come in, Angel,” before entering the house.

Nodding his thanks, Angel stepped into the room and looked around.

“Where’s Buffy?”

“She left already,” the watcher sighed. “She refused to wait.  She wanted to get there while Spike was unconscious and she couldn’t feel...”

The vampire turned his angry gaze on Willow and asked simply, “Where?”

The frightened witch held out the map and pointed at the building where they knew Spike was being held.

“It’s over by the—“

“I know where it is,” he cut her off and whirled toward the door.


When Buffy didn’t immediately run into the room where Spike was struggling to get off the table, Riley frowned and moved to where he could see the rest of the warehouse.  He watched in amazement as she pulled herself across the floor, tears streaming down her cheeks as she forced her body on.

He ran out to her, oblivious to the feral look in her eyes, and pulled her to her feet.

“Buffy, what’s wrong?  Are you hurt?”

The incongruity of his being worried about her physical well-being, even as he was setting up her for what he hoped would be a devastating emotional ordeal, didn’t bother him for a second.  In order for her to do what he was confident she would once she saw and was attacked by chipless Spike, she needed to be physically ready.  And the way she was wincing and struggling to stand erect did not fit with his plan.

“Get out of my way, Riley,” she got out through her gritted teeth.  “I need to get to Spike.”

“Oh, I know that, Buffy.  I know you do.  Here, let me help you.”

The big man picked her up and carried her to the open doors of the room in which Spike was still struggling to sit up.  He set her down in the doorway and pushed her inside, saying, “There he is.  You know what you need to do.”

When she turned to look at him with a puzzled frown, he added, “By the way, Slayer, the chip is out.”

He slammed the two doors closed behind her and dropped a bar across them.  He then ran up to a cat walk that overlooked the lower room to watch as the Slayer and the starving vampire faced off.

Buffy froze just inside the door when she took in what she was seeing.  A gaunt, skeletal Spike was clinging to a blood soaked table, balancing on the one leg that appeared to be unbroken.  She didn’t even bother to register that he was in game face as she ran to his side and gently tried to put him back on the table.

“Oh my god, Spike.  What did he do to you?”  Tears fell onto his bloodied shirt as she ran her hands over his body, assessing the damage. She ignored the strangled snarls coming from the vampire as his demon fought to mark his property again.

“Buffy!” Riley shouted from the cat walk, “The stake!  Get the stake!” He was pointing frantically at the wooden stake he’d left on the floor for her.

She glanced up once, then disregarded her ex boyfriend as she determined what needed to be done to help Spike recover.   Baring her neck and holding his head against her throat, she said softly, “Here, baby.  Drink from me.  Let’s get you back on your feet so we can leave this place.”

Above, a panicked Riley began to rave as he watched her present her throat to the growling vampire.

“Buffy! Stop!  What are you doing?  Oh my god, he’ll kill you!”

“No he won’t,” came a deep, cold voice right behind him.  Something about the sound made Riley’s hair stand on end and he turned slowly to find Angel blocking his exit from the catwalk.

Swallowing hard, he gestured below.  “Yes, he will.  I...bled him almost dry.  He should be completely controlled by his blood lust by now.  She has to stake him.  It’s the only way to save herself.”

Completely unconcerned with what was going on below, Angel leaned toward the other man and asked in a deceptively mild tone, “So you’re the one who did this to my grandchilde? You beat him and bled him?”

Riley had never been comfortable around Buffy’s ex.  In fact the only time he and the soulled vampire had met they spent most of the time fighting. But the jealous anger he’d seen on the vampire’s face that time was nothing compared to the frightening aspect facing him now.  His blood ran cold as found himself looking into the amber eyes of what he could only assume was Angelus.

He whirled in an attempt to run the other way on the narrow walk, but only got a step before a large hand closed around his arm and he was yanked back.  He gave a frightened yell as he felt himself tossed over the side to land in a painful heap on the cold floor below.  Angel jumped over the railing to land easily beside him and hold him in place with a meaty hand.

“Watch and learn, Boy,” he growled as they looked at the two blonds leaning against the table. 

Buffy and Spike were ignoring the activity around them, as the demon nuzzled her neck before gently sinking his teeth in to her flesh.  Buffy gave a happy moan when she felt her blood being pulled into the vampire’s mouth and felt the energy that immediately infused his body.

Spike took only enough to make the demon recede and his bones begin to heal, before pulling his fangs out and licking the wounds closed.  He slid his arms around Buffy’s trembling body and whispered, “Thank you. Love.”

For several minutes they held each other and allowed the mutual feelings of relief and love flow back and forth between them.  Finally, Buffy straightened up and turned to face a furious and still clueless Riley.

  “What did you do to him?” she asked in a voice that was pure Slayer.

“I took his chip out.  And he bit you, so obviously you have to kill him now.”

Riley’s words were much more certain than his tone of voice as he took in the way Buffy was leaning in to the still-weak vampire, showing absolutely no inclination to pick up the stake still lying on the floor.

She cocked her head and looked at her former lover for a good minute before she asked softly, “I thought you cared about me, Riley.  Why would you try to make me do something that would hurt me that much?”

She looked at him with genuine bewilderment as his face darkened and he threw off Angel’s restraining hand.

“Because you’ve forgotten what your real mission is.  You’re more vampire layer than Slayer.  Slaying is what you were supposedly ‘called’ to do, the other is just...disgusting and sick.  You needed to be shocked out of this obsession you have with vampires.”

“Says the man who reeks of vamp whores,” Spike wheezed out through his rapidly healing throat.

Riley dove for the stake lying on the floor and rolled past it to spring to his feet facing the three astonished and powerful beings.  He moved toward the blond vampire, saying coldly, “if you won’t do your duty, Buffy, I’ll have to do it for you.”

While Spike struggled to stand erect and meet the much larger man advancing on him with a stake, Buffy stepped in front of Spike to say quietly.

“You really don’t want to do that, Riley.”

He paused momentarily at the look on her face, then shrugged, “Don’t try to stop me, Buffy.”

“Are you insane?” she asked him, waving her hands in the air.  “Hello! Pissed off Slayer here; master vampire there.”  She gestured toward Angel who had moved closer to the two blonds. “And extremely pissed off, unchipped vampire also right here.  Do you have a death wish?”

Riley shrugged again.  “I’m human, you can’t kill me.  And he’s still too weak,” he said gesturing toward Spike.  “And your other undead lover has a soul, as you keep reminding me.  So, I’m figuring I’ve got a pretty good chance of ridding the world of this vermin.”

He again moved in Spike’s general direction, only to find himself once again face to face with Angel.

“Buffy, why don’t you go outside while Spike and I have a talk with the boy?” he said softly.

Riley’s calm assurance was shaken when he saw Spike’s head whirl toward the older vampire.  Something about the worried look on the blond’s face made Riley’s balls clench.

“Now, Peaches, I know finding out about me and Buffy didn’t give you any kind of a happy, so what’s with the Angelus imitation?”  He studied his grandsire a little longer, then relaxed. “ Don’t tell me you’re alright with us being bonded?”

“Buffy,” Angel repeated, never taking his eyes off the soldier,  “please leave us for a while.”  He spared a quick glance at his grandchilde.  “I’ll talk to you later, Will.   And no, I am not alright with it.  But you’re mine to deal with, not his.  And, Buffy?” he added. “Close the door behind you,”
 
Buffy looked back and forth between the man who had beaten and tortured her lover and the vampire who she had once thought was her true love.  She could feel Spike’s assurance flowing through her and knew that, as scary as Angel appeared to be at the moment, it WAS Angel and not Angelus.  She breathed a sigh of relief that she was not going to be forced to stake the other vampire that was part of her life and with a chaste kiss on Spike’s cheek, she moved to the door.

She pushed against the double doors until she snapped the bar on the outside.  Behind her, Riley was beginning to realize that he was being left alone with two vampires famed for their torture and killing sprees throughout Europe.

“Buffy!” he shouted.  “You can’t leave me in here with them.  I’m human! You have to protect me!”

She met his suddenly frightened eyes and then turned to look at the burly vampire glaring at him.

  “I’ll be outside, Angel.  Don’t be too long, I want to get Spike home.”

With a finality that terrified her former boyfriend, she closed the double doors and walked away.

Inside the blood soaked room, Riley made one last attempt to avoid the fate that seemed to be awaiting him.  He hefted the stake in his hand and said hopefully, “You have a soul.”

As the old vampire moved swifter that the eye to snatch the stake away, he said slowly,  “It’s not a chip, boy.  It’s just a soul.  Just like yours.”

Chapter Twenty-One

While a defenseless Riley pressed himself into the corner of the room, Angel turned to look at Spike critically.

“You look like hell, Spike.”

“Yeah, well, Buffy’s blood was right refreshin’, but I couldn’t take enough to really heal up.  I’ll be all right once I get some more sustenance.”

He leered in Riley’s direction and laughed when the soldier cringed, then stared in amazement as Angel went into vamp face and slashed his own wrist with his teeth.

“Here, boy,” he said gruffly, holding out his dripping arm.  “Not quite Sire’s blood, but close enough.”

Spike moved very slowly toward the offered wrist, trying to get his mind around the fact that Angel was not only not beating on him for touching Buffy, but was actually offering his own blood to help him get better.

He took a tentative lick of the potent blood, then his demon came to the fore and he latched onto the older vampire’s wrist, gulping greedily.  He could feel the potent blood mixing with the already powerful Slayer blood to strengthen and heal his battered body.  When he felt Angel pulling his wrist away, he struggled briefly to keep it there until Angel said, not unkindly, “That’s enough, Will.  We’ll get you more later.”

Spike reluctantly let go of his grandsire’s wrist, still in game face and with blood smeared on his lips.  As one, the two vampires turned amber eyes on the large man huddled in the corner of the room.  When Spike slowly licked the blood off his lips and began stalking toward him, Riley was embarrassed to realize he had defecated in his pants.  He could feel the moisture going down his leg as his bladder also let go.

With their superior senses, both vampires caught the scent of his fear at the same time and shared a laugh that reminded them both of years spent perfecting ways to terrify their human prey.

“What do you think, Will?  Your way or my way?”

Spike didn’t have to ask what the other vampire meant.  Spike’s way was always to hunt, kill - preferably after a good fight, feed and then go do it again.  Angelus preferred to take his time, playing with his prey and tormenting them until he drove them mad with fear.  Then he killed them.

The blond vampire licked his lips as he stared hungrily at the man who had been abusing him verbally and physically for so long.  The man who was responsible for his being captured and chipped in the first place.  He could see his own thoughts about how much he owed Riley reflected in the man’s frightened eyes.

He could also see in his mind Buffy’s warm green eyes looking at him with  trust and affection and he knew that his first act as an unchipped vampire could not be to drain someone she used to care about.  He reached out with the claim and tried to assess what she was feeling.  There was relief that he was safe, anger clearly directed at the cowering soldier, and just the barest beginning of worry as he and Angel stayed in the room longer than she would have expected them to.

He could feel her begin to regret leaving them alone with Riley, as her anger faded and her responsibilities as a Slayer worked their way back into her consciousness.  He knew if he followed his inclination and ripped the throat out of the man who’d tried to make her kill her lover, that it would change the way Buffy felt about him.  Perhaps not right away, but over time it would erode the trust he’d built up between them.

He shook his head with regret and looked at Angel. “I guess it’s gonna have to be your way, Peaches.  Don’t fancy facing the Slayer with his blood on my fangs.”  He spoke too softly for Riley to hear.

Angel shrugged his large shoulders and said, licking his lips, “That works for me.”  He made no attempt to lower his voice, as he knew Riley would have no idea that they had just agreed to terrify him, but leave him alive.

Both vampires stalked toward Riley, wrinkling their noses as they did at the smell coming from him.

“Much as I like the scent of fear,” Angel said with a snarl, “this stench is disgusting me.  Get out of those clothes,” he growled at the smelly man in question.

Without questioning, Riley scrambled to obey, shedding his military fatigues and his GI boxers.  He cringed back when Spike approached him with the knife he’d been wielding himself such a short time ago.

“Now then, Capt’n Cardboard, what was it you were tellin’ me you were gonna do with this knife?  Cut off my balls, was it?”  He waved the knife in the general direction of Riley’s groin.  “Or was it my dick you were so anxious to be handlin’ and cuttin’ on?”

Riley covered himself with both hands, pleading with the vampires to let him go.

“No, no. I was just talking.  I wouldn’t have done that.  I just wanted to scare you.   I’m sorry.  Really, I am....” he continued to babble apologies and excuses as he retreated further along with wall.  Riley backed up along the wall almost all the way around the room, the two vampires strolling slowly after him, Spike idly twirling the knife.  When he reached the table where he’d had Spike chained down, he stopped, unable to go any farther.

“Oh look, he stopped just where we need him.” Spike’s eyes glinted malevolently.  “Still got the chains handy, too.”

The two vampires grabbed the now gibbering soldier and tossed him onto the bloody table like he weighed no more than a puppy.  While Angel held the squirming man down with one hand, Spike proceeded to wrap the chains around Riley’s arms and legs, pretending to fasten them to the table.  He then stood up and handed the knife to Angel.

“You want to do the honors, Angelus?  This is more your thing than mine.  I’d be content to just rip his head off and eat his entrails. You’re the artist in the family.”

Angel took the proffered knife carefully and weighed it in his hand as he studied the terrified man before them.  Lying on the table soaked in Spike’s blood, with traces of feces and urine running down his legs, and shaking in fear, Riley looked nothing like the confident, clean-cut boy from Iowa that Buffy had met the previous year.

When Angel leaned over him with the knife as though looking for the best place to start cutting, Riley began to scream as loud as he could.  Spike could feel Buffy’s anxiety when she heard the screams, as well as the pain she was feeling at the thought of what he was doing.  He caught Angel’s eye and said quietly, “We need to wrap this up before I have to spend the rest of the night apologizin’”

Nodding his head, Angel lifted Riley’s limp dick and said cheerily, “So, should we begin here? What do think, Spike?  I’ve always found this to be a real ice breaker.”

Before Spike could answer, Riley’s eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out in the slimy puddle of blood and filth.

“Well, that was just...disappointing,” Angel said in disgust as he dropped the knife on the floor.  “I thought we’d at least get a few more girlish screams out of him.”

“Yeah, he was no fun at all,” the younger vampire agreed as they both slid into their human faces and started toward the doors. 

Just as they reached the doors, they flew open and Buffy burst into the room. 

“Spike.  Angel!  I changed my mind.  I can’t let you...” her voice trailed off as she saw the unconscious man lying on the table.

“What did you do to him?” she turned frightened eyes to her current and former vampire lovers.  “And, ewww, what is that smell?”

“We didn’t do anything but scare him a little,” Spike said with a pout. “And he shit his pants – that’s what you’re smellin’”

“You scared him a LITTLE?” she raised her eyebrows, gesturing at the unconscious man on the table.

“Yeah, I’m a little out of practice,” Angel admitted.  “I was hoping to make him scream again. I wasn’t planning for him to faint yet.”

Buffy put her hands on her hips and looked back and forth between the two innocent looking vampires suspiciously.

“So, you didn’t hurt him?  You did all this without touching him?”  Her tone of voice implied she didn’t believe them for a minute, although she could sense Spike was telling the truth.

“Cross our unbeatin’ hearts, love.  Didn’t so much as pull off a fingernail.”

“Damn! Why didn’t I think of that?  I really am out of practice...”

She shot Angel a look that promised she would be monitoring activities in LA more closely for a while, then flicked her hair and turned around.

“’K, then. Let’s go home,” she said, walking out the door and leaving Riley to wake up on his own torture table.

Chapter Twenty-Two

The ride back to Revello Drive was quick and quiet.  Spike was not as recovered from his ordeal as he had pretended to be, and he was slumped against Buffy’s shoulder before they left the parking area. 

Angel drove in silence, casting the occasional glance over at his former girl friend and the younger vampire that had been the bane of his existence for years.  He watched Buffy’s gentle stroking of Spike’s cheek and saw the way she was looking at him.  He had no doubt about Spike’s feelings for Buffy.  Spike had always loved the way he did everything else– all out; and Angel had already seen it on the younger vampire when he’d interrupted their night out in LA.

He knew that the closeness he was seeing, and the fact that Buffy had let Spike claim her were the things that Lorne had seen in their singing and been so reluctant to tell him that night in Caritas.  And, he had to admit to himself, he would not have taken it well if he’d been told about it then.

Now, however, he forced himself to accept that Buffy had moved on.  Spike was certainly not what he would have chosen for her; but he knew that in the blond vampire she had someone who would love her until death; and would protect her with his own life.  Someone who understood her life and accepted it completely.  He pushed down the questions raised by Spike’s ability to do these things without the soul that was the only thing keeping Angelus at bay.

The next time he glanced over at Buffy, she was looking up and their eyes met briefly.  “Thank you,” she mouthed at him over Spike’s head.  He gave her a nod and a brief, sad smile before turning back to the road.

When they reached Buffy’s house, she whispered in Spike’s ear, urging him to wake up.  He raised his head and looked around, then groaned and forced himself up.  He got out of the car, then staggered as his knees gave way.  Buffy’s shoulder was under his arm in an instant, her arm around his waist supporting him.  After a second’s hesitation, Angel silently took Spike’s other arm and they all walked to the door, the injured vampire stumbling between his grandsire and his mate.

Willow had been watching out the window and raced to open the door before the threesome got there.

“Spike?”  Joyce’s concern was evident as she watched Buffy and Angel half drag, half carry the blond vampire into the living room.  “What happened to him?”

“Nothing a little blood can’t fix, Joyce.  Don’t worry yourself.  I’ll be fine.”

Those reassuring words used up what little energy he had left and he gratefully collapsed onto the couch when Angel and Buffy deposited him there.

There was an awkward silence for a minute, which then broke as everyone spoke at once.

“Where...what happened to Riley?”

“Who bit your neck, Buffy?”

“I’m just going to go warm up some blood for Spike and make some hot chocolate for the rest of us.”

“Can we leave now?”

This last, from Cordelia, brought everyone’s attention to the tall brunette.

“What?  Spike is rescued – for whatever reason,” she rolled her eyes to indicate her complete lack of understanding, “and I have an appointment at the hairdresser’s this afternoon.”

“I think you’re going to have to cancel, Cordy,” Angel said with an apologetic shrug.  “It’s going to be daylight pretty soon.  We’ll have to stay here until tonight.  If that’s all right with Joyce, that is,” he added quickly.

Reminding herself that the broody vampire had just helped her daughter save the man she loved, she nodded her head graciously and indicated the door to the basement.

“Of course.  You can use Spike’s bed downstairs.  Cordy, you’re welcome to use Dawn’s room.  She’s still visiting her dad.”

While the two visitors from LA thanked Joyce and went to their respective beds, Buffy sat beside Spike and made sure he drank every drop of the pig’s blood her mother had warmed for him.  She knew he would need human blood to replace all that he had lost, but decided to wait until her mother and Giles weren’t around for that.

Buffy quickly filled her mother, Giles and Willow in on what Riley had tried to force them into by draining Spike.  She deliberately did not mention that he had taken the chip out of Spike’s head.

“So,” her watcher said slowly, “his intention was to bleed Spike to the point that his bloodlust would override both the chip and his feelings for Buffy?  He was assuming, I presume, that you would then stake him for attacking you. Is that correct?”

“Yeah, that was pretty much his plan.”

“And why didn’t it work then?”

Spike struggled to sit up straight as he said indignantly, “Because he’s a bloody moron who knows nothing about vampires and claimin’”  He stopped abruptly when he remembered that her watcher probably knew a great deal about vampires and claiming and he waited cautiously for Giles’ reaction.

“Quite right,” he surprised them by saying.  “He didn’t realize that you would never harm your...mate.  But surely he had prepared for the possibility that Buffy would refuse to stake you?”

“He might have, but he didn’t count on Peaches showin’ up,” Spike admitted grudgingly.  “Ol’ grandpa’s still the head of the family, soul or no soul, and he wasn’t a happy camper.”  He paused for effect, then added, “Which is prob’ly a good thing for Capt’n Cardboard, all things considered.”

Everyone in the room shuddered at the thought of Angel being really happy and thus Angelus making an appearance.  Each was lost in his or her own memories of the unsoulled vampire’s previous time in Sunnydale.

“I take it then, Riley is still alive?”

“Alive and untouched.  The only thing we damaged was his pride.  Now he knows what it feels like to be helpless and to piss off a couple of master vampires,” he finished with a growl.

“Yes,” Giles cleared his throat.  “Well then, let us hope that he has learned a lesson and we do not have a repetition of tonight’s events.  I fear that the next time, if there should be a next time, he could be more prepared.”

“This time he walks.  If there’s a next time...he doesn’t.”.  The Slayer’s tone of voice allowed no dissent and surprisingly, no one in the room seemed inclined to disagree.

With that final conversation, the people who had been up all night began yawning and thinking about sleep.  Giles politely refused Joyce’s offer to stay there and left for his apartment.  Willow was more than willing to curl up on the couch when Buffy pulled Spike to his feet and pushed him toward the stairs.

Joyce made no comment as Buffy helped Spike navigate the staircase.  She listened as her daughter murmured to the vampire in the bathroom and she knew Buffy was cleaning up the blood still drying on his body.  With a wisdom she’d just discovered she had, she remained downstairs in the kitchen until she heard the shower stop and the door to Buffy’s room open and close.  Then, with a sigh, she followed them upstairs and, after throwing away the bloody remnants of Spike’s clothes and putting the dirty towels in the laundry chute, she went into her own room and fell into a grateful sleep.

Buffy had held Spike up in the shower long enough to wash the blood out of his hair and off his body.  She then quickly dried them both off and scooted across the hall to her bedroom, coming back with an old pair of sweats for him and a nightshirt for herself.  As soon as they were dressed, she led him to her room and watched him painfully lower himself onto the bed.

After locking the door, which brought a quirked eyebrow from the vamp, she slid in beside him and snuggled up under his chin.  Although he wrapped his arms around her as tightly as he always had, she could feel the lassitude and lack of energy that accompanies major blood loss.  She marveled at the ability he’d shown to resist his bloodlust when left with the man who’d tortured him.

“I’m glad you didn’t drain him,” she said softly. 

“Knew you wouldn’t like it, pet. Not after you got over bein’ mad, anyway.”

“I’ll go by Willie’s and get you some human blood tomorrow,” she promised.  “Can’t have my guy too tired to...”

“I’ll never be that knackered, love,” he said with a smile as he ran his hand up under her shirt.  “Oh, oh, no knickers.  Aren’t you the bold little Slayer?”

His hand stroked her flanks, caressing the silky skin he found there and marveling that this warm, loving woman was mated to him.  Turning his head slightly, he began kissing his way down her face.  He forgot for a minute that in addition to the love she could feel rolling off him, the claim allowed her to feel his weakness and the effort it was costing him to fondle her.

“Let me,” she whispered against his lips, stopping his hand so that it rested against her stomach.  “You just lie there and enjoy.”

She began at his chin, running her tongue and blunt little teeth down his throat and across his chest.  She paused to nibble on each nipple, knowing how much he liked to feel her teeth on him when they made love.  She loved making him hiss and groan when she nipped at the taut skin on his abdomen, and the way he caught his unneeded breath as her mouth worked its way down his hipbone to the base of his cock.

“Did you say Riley was threatening to cut this off?” she asked with a growl, taking it in her warm little hand.  She used her toes and feet to push the loose sweatpants down his legs so he could kick them off.

“Yeah, he seemed to think you were a little too fond of that particular body part,” he gasped as she nibbled her way up to the tip and tickled the dripping opening with her tongue.  His hips involuntarily jerked upward when she put her warm mouth around the head of his cock.

“Ummmm,” she mumbled as she licked off the pre-cum.  “He just might have been right.”

She crawled back up to where she could look him in the eye as she said, “But then, again, I love all your body parts.”

Spike’s mind went into overload as her words registered.

(Love, she said love.  She loves all my body parts.  Does that mean she loves me?)

“Not as much as I love yours,” he finally was able to respond, as he folded his arms around her.

“We’ll see,” she replied enigmatically as she pushed herself up on her arms until she was poised over his aching cock. 

She lowered herself on to him slowly, taking care not to bump his still tender leg and moaning as his cool length slid into her a little bit at a time.  When she had taken him all in and their lower bodies were pressed together, she began the internal squeezing that had brought them such quiet pleasure before.

“I love you, Buffy.” He kissed her ear. “I love what you are.” He moved his lips down to her mouth.  “I love how you make me feel.”  He fastened onto her lips and sent his tongue exploring her mouth.  “I love how you kiss me....” he made a gurgling sound as she clenched around him.  “And, bloody hell, I love what you can do with those Slayer muscles!”

Buffy giggled and continued to squeeze, feeling her own orgasm building even as the vampire beneath her began to whimper and growl.  She fell forward onto his chest, reaching up to fasten her teeth on the side of his neck. With a sudden movement, she bit down hard enough to break the skin and felt the coppery blood touching her tongue.

“Mine,” she growled around her mouthful of skin.  “You are mine.”

Spike came with a muffled roar as he fastened his fangs on her throat and gasped, “Yours. Always yours.”

With his strong, deep pulls on her artery matching the rhythm of her clenching vaginal muscles, Buffy felt herself shuddering all over at the force of her orgasm.  She was vaguely aware of Spike’s whispered, “Mine,” as he pulled his fangs out and licked her neck, but her answering, “yours” came out more as a sigh than actual speech.  She lay on top of him, trembling with the aftermath and wondering how often they could do that before she became anemic.

For his part, Spike was in complete awe of her actions.

(She claimed me.  Buffy claimed me.  I belong to her now; just like she belongs to me. Could dust happy, except I don’t ever want to be away from her.)

Wondering if the claim between human and vampire worked the same way as between two vamps, he concentrated on thinking “out loud” to her.

(“I love you, Buffy.”)

“Mmmmph” she replied, nuzzling into his neck.  It took her a few seconds to realize that she never felt his mouth move.

“Spike?”

(“Yes, love?”)

She could feel the humor in his reply and frowned slightly.

“Did you say something?”

(“I don’t know.  Did I?”)

She could feel the rich chuckle in his voice, but she was sure he hadn’t actually opened his mouth or moved his lips.  As an experiment, she thought hard,  (“Are you THINKING at me?”)

(“I could be.  Are you thinking at me?”)

Her head shot up and she looking into his laughing eyes.  “Can you read my mind now?” she asked in a high pitched squeak.

“Relax, pet.  I’m not reading your mind.  You have to want me to know what you’re thinkin’ before I can hear you.  And vice versa.  Don’t be thinkin’ you’re gonna be knowin’ what I’m thinkin’ either, missy.  It doesn’t work like that.”

(“How does it work?”) she tried experimentally.

(“Jus’ like that, love.  If you want me to hear somethin’, just think it at me. It’s like we were before, ‘cept instead of just feeling things we can actually talk to each other.”)

(“ That’s kinda cool.  I think I like it!”)

(“So do I, my love.  So do I.’)

He rolled her off to his side and pulled the covers up over them.  For the first time since Buffy’s mother came home, they went to sleep in her bed, wrapped around each other tightly.


When Spike and Buffy finally got up late in the afternoon, they came downstairs to find that Angel and Cordelia were getting ready to leave.  Joyce looked relieved to no longer be entertaining them by herself.  She’d never really been close to Cordelia when the girls were in high school, and she’d never forgiven Angel for taking her daughter’s virginity and then, as Angelus, telling her about it.  As far as she was concerned, if her daughter had to be with a vampire, she much preferred the soulless one she knew and liked.

Angel’s eyes went immediately to the new bite marks on Buffy’s neck, and the matching human bite on Spike’s.  The ache he felt at knowing that his grandchilde had what he never could was eased by the presence of the beautiful woman waiting impatiently for him to leave.  Cordelia’s place in his heart would never replace what had been Buffy’s, but she was beginning to fill the empty space in his life.

As the sun gradually sank toward the western horizon, the two tall brunettes worked their way toward the front door, thanking Joyce for her hospitality as they went.  Buffy and Spike moved with them, halting just outside the door in the shelter of the porch.  Spike stood behind Buffy, his arms wrapped around her waist.  She leaned back against his body and smiled up at the former love of her life.

“Thank you, Angel,” she said softly.  “I know this wasn’t an easy thing for you to—“

He held his hand up to stop her.

“As much as I dislike Spike,” he said with a glare at the smirking blond, “he is my family.  And I REALLY don’t like that cowardly soldier boy.  So, it was a pleasure.”

His hard brown eyes stared into Spike’s amused blue ones.

“Spike...” he began in a warning tone of voice.

The younger vampire shook his head.

“You know better, Peaches.  I’ll take care of her till I’m dust.  And I’ll love her longer than that.”  He tightened his arms around Buffy, letting her know exactly what they were talking about.

Angel nodded briefly and turned to leave.  Buffy pulled herself out of Spike’s arms and touched Angel’s sleeve.  She reached up and gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek and a grateful hug.

With a roll of her eyes, Cordelia grabbed his arm and yanked him toward the car.

“Let’s go.  We’ve got our own bad guys waiting for us at home.”

With a sheepish grin, Angel allowed himself to be dragged toward the car and shoved in the open door.  His last glimpse of the Summers home was the sight of Spike and Buffy on the porch, wrapped around each other and waving “good-bye.”

The End.


Sorry to end it without resolving the Riley situation; but that seems to call for a whole ‘nother story and I want to end this one here.  I promise a sequel (if there’s interest) in which there is more Riley bashing, Dawn makes an appearance, and perhaps even Glory.  But not now.