Title: The Query Series
Author: NyxMne Chaosis
Email: magmyr@umailme.com
Distribution: SFA
Rating: PG-13 (NC-17 in parts for character death)
Setting: Post-Lover's Walk (Season 3)/Pre-Harsh Light of Day (Season 4)
Summary: After his drunken fiasco in "Lover's Walk", Spike returns to Brazil to woo back Dru.
Disclaimer: Joss owns all.

Spike's Query


"What the hell!" Spike shook his head disbelievingly for the gazillionth time since he had left Brazil. The confrontation with the Chaos Demon hadn't gone as he had intended. Not at all.

The sight of the slimy demon and his strange antlers was enough to make anyone wretch, but Dru... sitting in his lap, touching him so tenderly... the sight of Dru tore at Spike's heart. For something that didn't beat, it sure caused him more than his share of pain.

"She's just angry at me. It won't last," Spike reasoned. "She wouldn't go for the likes of that bloke, unless... unless she stepped up a wrung on the crazy ladder," he mumbled as he wrenched a board from the door of a tiny dilapidated cottage. Around him, no other houses could be seen. Instead, the thick forest loomed in all directions.

"That's all right, luv. You play your little head games," Spike said. "I'll just find someone else to preoccupy my time until you come back to your senses... what's left of 'em. Some one... some one... I spy with my undead eye some one with red hair," he sang.

"Not a bad idea you planted in my head, Dru luv." Spike smiled. "It's just like you to point out the innocence in others... such tender innocence in that redhead."

He recalled the Witch's pale flesh and the scent of her fear. Why he had not ravished her and fed off her then, baffled him. The truth was, despite his drunken escapade and his violent threats, she had listened to him. She was afraid of him the whole time, there was no doubt about that, but she had listened. Dru never listened to him, but when he was with Dru he had no need to talk about his feelings... He showed her how he felt.

Looking around his new surroundings, Spike scoped out a tiny living room. The previous owners had left behind a tattered sofa and a table pot-marked with impressions of beer caps and dotted with cigarette scorches. So far, so good. He had lived in worse. And there was enough room for him and his would-be, unwilling house guest.

Moving from room to room, he made a mental inventory of the cottage's contents, and smiled at his good fortune. They weren't too many isolated homes on the outskirts of Sunnydale, especially ones that were partially furnished. Best of all, the Slayer wouldn't think to look beyond the outskirts of Sunnydale, and no one would hear the anguish of the Witch as she was being tortured... if he decided to torture her.

Returning to the living room, Spike fell back on the sofa and watched the dust billow up around him, rising toward the spackled ceiling. He had to design a plan, a way to nab Red without anyone seeing him, but a lot had changed in Sunnydale since his last visit.

It was amazing how much he had missed during his long journey back to Brazil to track down Dru. Angel had gone. The high-school had met an unfortunate demise: destruction by explosion, an effective method for killing demon Mayors who attain ascension. At least that's what the vampire-who-mistook-Spike-for-food told him.

"Informative chap," Spike smiled, as he recalled how tightly he strangled the vampire to gain answers. When the vampire suggested that the girl Spike was looking for probably went off to college like the other high-school students, Spike thanked him with a shiv through the heart.

He knew without a doubt that the Witch had gone off to college. She was a smart one. He smelled that about her too. Since she knew too much about the Hellmouth and was such good friends with the Slayer, she might have stuck around the area to help combat the evil afoot. At least that's what Spike had thought and his reasoning had paid off. He soon learned that she was a freshman at Sunnydale California University.

Having done the detective work, Spike still had a decision to make. When would he kidnap her, or would he tease her a bit before he nabbed her? And how would he abduct her? Should he use the more tried and true method of following her through the park late one night?

"Nah," Spike said. "That's too conventional, too traditional. Need something more interesting. Have to keep myself busy for awhile."

As he mulled over the possibilities, Spike envisioned the Witch in his mind as he remembered her, envisioning her innocence not yet claimed. In his mind's eye, he acted out all he would do and how she would respond, tasting her in small bites, savoring the feed until he could no longer contain his desire to turn her and he would.

Restraining her for foreplay was one thing, but for ever was another. He knew he would grow tired of the "No, please don't hurt me," routine and would want something more permanent. The only way the Witch would want to stay with him is if she wasn't herself... but rather a demon.

Envisioning again her terror - darting eyes, the tremble of her pale lips, the pink of her tongue wetting dry lips - a question impressed upon him with that nagging effect only curiosity possesses...

"I wonder if she's a moaner, or a screamer?"