Title: All My Days Are Dark
Author: Karen
Email: Coe42@aol.com
Distribution: Anyone nice enough to ask.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: A Willow/Spike Romance
Feedback: Always!!!!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything but the plot. Joss owns the rest. Selfish Joss.

This was not the beautiful reunion he had envisioned. Truth be told, no one could have envisioned this. A shudder coursed down and through his body. Spike viciously curbed his need to vomit. The sun was sinking, all he had to do was not die with the light. Nightfall would relief most of the pain and hopefully awake the frail dead woman in his arms.

Spike gripped her small shoulders, hugging her to him. He held her tightly, like a prize, which in a way she was. Pain rolled around within him. He had chased her down and made her his. He had fought against old age and Slayerette cunning just to touch her. And her touch was killing him.

A rivulet of blood burned it's way out of his mouth and down his cheek. It wreaked of holy water. She had downed about a gallon of the deadly stuff before the game began. If he hadn't run her all through Sunny Hell, he would be a smoking pile of ash by now, and she would be a pile of fragile bones and meat begging for death.

Spike had drank her blood. She had drank his. Now she would be his. His pale hand gently stroked her red hair. Spike remembered the warmth of her blood filling his belly. It had been a strange sensation, almost like being alive again, before the warmth boiled. Spike had vomited for hours. That was also a strange sensation. Now she lay, like any other corpse in the arms of her killer.

"Come on Willow. Wake up love."

"Let go. Fall into the abyss. Go towards the light. I don't care. Just don't wake up Willow."

The voice was angry and concerned at the same time. It was so warm and alive and familiar. Willow strained against the dark, fighting to remember.

"Willow, what did he do to you?" Another voice breathed.

Willow wanted the voices. She wanted to know them, remember them. But the darkness called. It was so comfortable. She wanted to sink down into it, never to be heard from again.

The first voice continued hotly. "Willow, you can't let this happen. This can't happen. I won't let them have you. He can't have you. I'll kill him. I'll kill him like I killed them all."

Willow sat up in the dark. The voices had faces. Their bodies floated in the eternal night. Eerily glowing, they were phantoms of the past. Her eyes went wide in recognition. Her mind suddenly found it's voice.

"Buffy!!" She exclaimed. Her arms reached out, hugging her best friend to her. She was so solid and warm, almost alive, but Buffy was dead. Had been dead for so long. Buffy let go, smiling.

"Hey there girlfriend. Welcome to the other side. Now all ya gotta do is stay here."

Willow frowned. She turned to the other voice. "Xander!!" Willow leapt into Xander's outstretched arms. "I missed you two so much!!"

Xander held her close. Buffy sat back on the darkness around them.

Xander let go slowly. "I've been lost without you. I mean if Buffy hadn't . . gone before me I would have had no clue. St. Peter would have been all rough with me. I'd be the first semi-decent guy to get kicked out for forgetting the password."

Willow stared hard at her friends. A cold fear crept through her settling into her guts. They stared back at her with warmth and love. Her eyes widened in shock.

"Am I? I'm d-dead. I'm dead and that's why you're here. How did I go? Did I slip? I was under the tree . ."

Buffy's eyes were hooded. "You-you're not dead."

Xander's voice was cold. "Not even close."

"I'm not?" Memories flooded back to her. She was kissing Spike under the great tree outside her house. He had bitten her. But that was what she had wanted.

"Worse. Well it could be worse. It's up to you." Buffy brushed a loose strand of Willow's hair out of the hacker's eyes.

Spike had drank her blood. She had stabbed him. The images were coming in faster now. He had forced her mouth open. Forced the blood down into her throat. She had choked, swallowing the coppery, salt laden stuff. It had poured down into her stomach. She had exchanged blood with a vampire. That meant . . .

"NO!" Willow gasped. Her hand snaked up to cover her mouth. Then she began to panic. "No. Nononono."

Her eyes pleaded with her two best friends in the world. "It can't be. I drank a whole gallon of holy water, at least. I should be so dead by now. Me and Spike."

Xander's eyes were kind. "You did good kid. Buff and I are proud of you. You're our Willow. We won't let anything horrible happen to you."

"But, I'm a vampire." Pain colored each word.

"No. You're not. Wil, you're just a spirit." Xander smiled. "You don't have to go back. You don't have to see what the demon does. Just stay with me and Buff. It'll be like old times. Just you, me and Buffy against the dark. I'll even spring for doughnuts."

Willow wanted to fall into his warm brown eyes, to be with him and Buffy forever. She felt another pull towards the darkness. Her eyes wandered from her friends glowing faces to the thick warm darkness. They smiled at her. But something inside her couldn't return the smile.

Her thoughts drifted back to the tree. Back to thoughts about Spike. He was all alone. He must be in so much pain. . .

"No!" Buffy's voice was sharp. "Don't think about it."

Xander's eyes were worried. "Please Wil, don't."

"But, you have Buffy and she has you. Spike has no one. Your successor killed Dru. He's all alone." < Sitting in a corner, cradling my body with hope in his eyes. >

Xander tried to clutch her arm. His hand passed right through her. She felt so odd. Heavy.

"It's not like I should feel any sympathy for him. He tricked me. Then again I tricked him with the holy water."

Weight fell on each limb. Every word added to it. Fear crept into her voice. "Buffy! What's happening?"

Buffy's mouth moved. Willow strained and strained. Buffy's face got really animated. Her and Xander were shouting at her, only there was no sound. Nothing but a heavy sleepy feeling.

Willow felt herself falling through the darkness. She cried out as Buffy and Xander faded away, their faces frozen in shock. A flash of green eyes caught her. Hands reached out and held her.

Oz, her husband, her friend, held onto her. The darkness continued to pull. The panicked look in his green eyes told her that he couldn't keep her for long. His embrace was desperate, like the day he died, screaming her name.

"Willow, don't let it go. Keep it with you. Willow, I understand everything. I'm dead. I love you. I wish we had the time. . But then again, we had a lifetime."

His lips pressed against hers. It was like kissing sunlight. Warmth streamed into her, running from his lips to her heart. Then his arms slipped. And Willow was swallowed by the dark.

The pain stopped. Every part of Spike's body turned to jelly. He hadn't realized how severely intense the pain had been until it stopped. Tongues of fire were snuffed out. Icy fingers rushed from his frozen heart to his legs and toes. Internal lesions zipped themselves closed in the blinking of an eye and the horrific ulcers in his stomach merely ceased to be. Spike was whole. The sun had set.

Spike wanted to laugh. Death had made another grab for him and failed. He truly was eternal. The water induced sunburn faded, leaving his hands paler then the finest porcelain. Spike ran that hand along Willow's cheek, tapping her lightly. She didn't move.

A different kind of ice went through him. It tore through his heart an organs as destructive as an early frost to harvest. He pulled the body closer. His hands were shaking. Her mouth was slightly open, crusted in his blood. But her eyes remained closed. Spike's head fell forward. "Perhaps I should have buried you."

The body in his arms convulsed. Air exploded out of her lungs. Spike laid her flat, too afraid to breath, not that he needed to. Small noises issued from her mouth. Then her eyes opened. It was like seeing the sun for the first time in over two hundred years. Jade fire flared to life. Willow was awake.

There were differences, changes in her already. As her eyes flared, her skin paled. Willow's hair was darkened, the color of fresh blood under the moonlight. And the sweetness of her smile had a touch of the predator to it. Then Spike did laugh.

"Spike?" Her voice was barely a whisper. It was a beautiful sound.

"Oh baby!" He breathed, half laughing.

Spike grabbed a hold of her. Lifting her into his embrace, Spike captured her lips. The kiss was slow and full of emotions. Spike poured out his heart in a single kiss. Love, hope, desire, and the joy of the hunt fell into her. When he felt the points of her young fangs against his lips, a thrill rushed through him.

Willow's body rumbled slightly as she laughed. Pushing him away she grinned. "Hi."

"Hi." Spike ran a hand through her hair.

Willow's face filled with an odd expression. Spike tilted his head. "What is it love?"

"Spike, I'm hungry."

Spike stood. His hand extended. Willow took it shyly. A dark smile touched his lips and grew when he saw an answering smile. They walked out of the mansion where they had begun, almost a century ago.

"Then let's go get you something to eat."