Chapter Seven

When they had all exited the building through the broken door, the former minions and helpers milled around aimlessly. Buffy watched them for a few minutes, shook her head, sighed heavily, and jumped onto the hood of John’s car. When she had their attention, she smothered her discomfort at her lack of clothing and began her speech.

“Okay, guys. Here’s the deal. It sucks to be you, but that’s not anybody’s fault but that scuzball downstairs.” Her face clouded for a minute. “And I’m guessing he’s going to be really sorry about it pretty soon,” she added softly, then took a deep breath and stood up straighter.

“Anyway, those of you who have homes and families to go to – I’d suggest you go home and tell your mothers you love them. Anybody I catch munching on the tourists – or anybody else – is fair game for staking. Is that clear?”

There were murmurs and nods of agreement from both vampires and semi-humans.

“Are we all going to die?” one of the helpers asked. “That’s what you said, isn’t it? That we’re all going to be vampires eventually?”

Before Buffy could think of an answer, James cleared his throat and held up a hand. She nodded to him to speak up.

“I think I can make this work for all of us,” he said hesitantly. “I’m pretty sure that he was just using the formula I’d been working on. He threw some other stuff in there to make it seem like magic, but mostly this is just my formula for helping vampires lead more normal lives. I think we can keep ourselves the way we are for as long as we want to. I hope so, anyway,” he finished softly.

With that, Buffy left him to answer their questions, jumping down from the car and opening the passenger side door.

“Can you drive?” she asked a pale-looking Johnny.

He nodded. “I think so. I’m a little tired, but I haven’t really done much today except burn a lot of adrenaline, so…”

“Okay. Let’s go then,” Buffy said abruptly, stepping into the passenger side.

She rode the rest of the way back to the hotel in silence, only shaking her head when John let her out at the front door and asked if she needed him for anything else. The memory of watching Spike’s silent, deadly dispatching of the guards gave John some inkling of what might be happening to Mordor and he thought he understood Buffy’s silence. Wondering what it must be like to live with someone capable of such dispassionate violence, he told her “goodnight” and drove home.

Buffy waved at the manager as she headed for the elevator bank, just nodding when he asked if she was all right. “He’ll be along,” she responded when he asked about Spike. “We’ll probably be leaving tomorrow evening.”

“Already?”

She gave him a chilly glance.

“The problem has been solved. I’ll do a little clean up before we leave, but there aren’t going to be any more vamp gangs after this. I’ll need my key, please. I left it on the beach.”

He hastened to hand her the sweatpants, towel and key that had been retrieved from the sand, thanking her profusely and expressing again his gratitude and delight that she was not harmed. She nodded and turned away without another word; leaving him to wonder what had happened and where her vampire companion was as he watched her bare feet carry her to the elevator and disappear inside.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Buffy had showered, changed into pajama bottoms and one of Spike’s tee shirts, and was staring blankly at the television when he quietly let himself into the room. She glanced up from her place on the bed, muting the television and raising an eyebrow at him. He didn’t reply, just shrugged off his coat, went into the bathroom, and stood under the shower until he and his clothes were blood free. Leaving the wet jeans and shirt hanging over the shower rail, he dried off and walked out to stand beside the bed. They stared at each other for long minutes, the naked vampire who had spent the past hour torturing to death the demon who’d made the mistake of attempting to kill his mate, and the girl who’d been chosen to save the world.

Finally, Buffy clicked the sound back on and moved over.

“Are you coming to bed?” she asked, indicating the space at her side.

“Wasn’t sure I’d be welcome,” he replied, sliding under the sheet but taking care not to touch.

“I wasn’t sure, either,” she admitted. “But I’ve had time to think …”

“And…?”

“And I remembered that the love of my life is a soulless vampire who loves me so much that I sometimes forget what he is. But I can’t. I shouldn’t. It’s part of who and what you are and I have to remember that.”

Her voice was firm, but she kept her eyes on the television and he could see just the slightest quiver in her lips. He took the remote from her, turned the sound off again, and touched her chin, asking – but not forcing – her to look at him.

“I am a soulless vampire, Buffy. I always will be. But you have to know that I would never do anything to anyone that might cause you pain – if I can help it. I promised you that a long time ago, didn’t I? That I wouldn’t make you have to stake me? I wouldn’t have wanted you to watch me tonight; but I expect you to accept that it was something I had to do. My demon wouldn’t have settled for any less….and I’m not sure that the poncy man I was when I was human wouldn’t have felt the same way.”

He leaned back until he was lying on his back, tugging her gently down with him.

“Even if we weren’t mated, I would have wanted to make that bastard pay for kidnapping you and thinking he was going to bite you. You’re everything to me, Buffy. My conscience, my heart, my reason for being. Anyone tries to take that away…”

“I understand,” she whispered. “I really do. It’s just easy to forget sometimes that the wonderful man who loves me has another side.” She looked up at him with glistening eyes. “Make love to me?” she asked softly. “Make me forget again?”

He dipped his head in silent acquiescence, covering her face with soft kisses that brushed across her lips before gradually settling there. With no haste, they kissed, taking their time until their tongues, by mutual agreement, slid out to deepen the kisses into the bone-melting caresses that they could indulge in for hours.

When Buffy was making small whimpering sounds in her throat, he slipped his hands under the tee shirt and began to stoke the soft skin there, waiting until she was arching her breasts into his hand before skimming it off over her head. Again, taking his time, he kissed his way around her torso, licking and sucking at each nipple in turn before, moving down to her belly button and nudging the waistband of pajamas with his nose.

Using only his nose to move the fabric, he worked his way down her abdomen until his face was buried under the stretchy material and his tongue was tickling her outer lips. In spite of her obvious enjoyment of what he was doing, and her anticipation of what would come next, she surprised him by tugging on his still damp curls.

“No,” she whispered. “I changed my mind. Come up here.”

Spike obediently raised his head, his face settling into disappointed lines, which relaxed when she pulled him up until they were face to face and she was stroking his cheek, smiling softly.

“Don’t look so worried,” she said, leaning up and brushing her lips across his. “I just want you to be in me right now. I want to feel you inside me, loving me.”

Exhaling a relieved sigh, he nodded and relaxed against her.

“No place I’d rather be, love. You know that.”

He rolled off to allow Buffy to squirm out of her pajama bottoms, then immediately rolled back to cover her body with his. Buffy’s legs opened for him, her feet meeting behind his back as she wrapped her legs around his waist. She held up her face for the kiss that accompanied his quick slide into her welcoming body. As she surrounded him with her scent and began moving gently, Spike released the tension that had been holding him captive since he’d entered the room to find Buffy staring blankly at the TV. With a grateful shudder, he allowed himself to collapse upon her, nuzzling her neck and inhaling her essence. Buffy’s tightening arms and her playful bite on his shoulder brought him back to the task at hand.

“Right, you stupid git,” he muttered to himself, “Girl wants a good seeing to and you’re wasting time crying on her shoulder.”

“The girl is right here,” she reminded him. “And getting a little bored.”

“Bored? You’re bored? I’ll have none of that!”

With a rumbling growl, he began to move against her, using his blunt human teeth to nip across her shoulder and up her neck. Holding himself up on his elbows, his hips churned against hers, the extra twist at the end of each stroke bringing forth very satisfying whimpers and moans from the suddenly no longer bored Buffy.

Her surprising lunge upward, which ended in her teeth seizing the skin of his throat, sent him crashing over the edge with a roar. He buried his own fangs in her neck, pulling deep draughts of blood as she quivered beneath him, crying his name.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In lieu of the money the grateful merchants attempted to give her, Buffy gladly accepted an envelope of gift certificates for several hotels and restaurants near the beach. Promising to come back later in the season when they assured her the sun would come out and shine warmly all day, Buffy and Spike left the small “thank you” ceremony that had been hastily thrown together in the hotel ballroom. Mayor Stevenson, now basking in the gratitude of the city’s merchants, walked with them to the waiting cab.

“I want to add my personal thanks,” she said to Buffy as they walked through the hotel lobby, trailed by John who had insisted on carrying their bags in spite of Spike’s rolled eyes. “I’m sure you realize now how hard this was for me; knowing that my own children had been caught up in it.”

Buffy nodded her understanding. “I do – but except for the parents of the boys I had to slay…”

“They’re very upset,” the mayor said with a sigh. “I don’t know if they will ever forgive me…”

“Did you explain to them that those boys were already dead? They were just animated corpses that---”

Casting an eye behind them, where Spike and John were talking quietly, Mayor Stevenson said, “Animated corpses who still loved their families and came around often enough for their parents to kid themselves that they still had their children. Surely, you of all people, can understand the need to pretend that a loved one isn’t dead?” She looked pointedly at the vampire trailing behind them.

Buffy stopped and stared, her mouth gaping open. “Spike’s different!” she insisted. “For one thing, he was already vamped when I met him. Had been for over a hundred years. It’s not like he was my human boyfriend and I kept him around after he became a vampire.”

“But could you have staked him if he was?” the older woman asked gently. “If someone you loved got turned, could you kill him…or her?”

“I think so,” Buffy responded quietly. “I haven’t had to make that choice in this…” She decided against sharing information about Sunnydale and the other worlds in which Buffy the Vampire Slayer existed. She met the mayor’s eyes firmly. “I’m sure I could. If it had to be done, I could do it. It’s part of being the Slayer. You do what you have to do and you cry about it later.”

Behind them, John was importuning Spike, disregarding the steady growl coming from the vampire.

“But, Spike,” he coaxed. “I was able to keep that light going all the way out of the building. It didn’t fizzle until I accidentally squeezed it too hard. Just think how much I could help you if you taught me to do magic.”

“Don’t need help,” Spike grunted. “Not from some eager beaver who didn’t even know there was such a thing as magic two days ago. Magic’s not something to play with. It’s got consequences. Bad ones, sometimes.”

“But that’s why you need to teach me! So I don’t make any mistakes that could have…consequences.”

Spike stopped and glared at the eager young man beside him.

“Are you sayin’ you’re going to do this with or without me?”

“Uh…yeah?”

“You know, if you go all evil, the Slayer’s gonna have to kill you.”

“I’m not going to use it for evil!” John protested. “I want to help people!”

“Famous last words,” Spike grumbled as he reached the taxi and took their bags from the anxious bellboy. He shook hands with the mayor and tossed the bags into cab before joining Buffy in the back seat. He rolled his eyes as John stood by, bouncing from one foot to the other as he waited for an answer.

“We’ll talk,” Spike finally said grudgingly, ignoring the “yippee!” from John and the puzzled look from Buffy. They waved as the cab pulled away and headed for the train station.

“What are you and Johnny going to talk about?”

Spike shook his head. “He wants to be Gandalf,” he growled.

“Who?” In spite of her mockery of Mordor’s chosen vampire name, her disdain had been based on nothing more than having heard the name before. All she knew about Mordor was that it was a name Xander had mentioned when talking about a movie.

He sighed and pulled Buffy into his side. “Remind me to have Dawn bring us a couple of books…” He looked at Buffy’s unenthusiastic face and added, “and a couple of movies and something to play them with.”

“You’re wearing your ‘I’m mated to an ignoramus’ look again,” Buffy pouted. “It’s not my fault I spent my nights chasing vampires and then got yanked into a world where I had to go to work right away. I’m not stupid, just…”

“Never said you were, sweetheart. You’re not stupid and you know I don’t think you are. Said it before, and I’m saying it again, if you want to finish high school and even try college, I’m all for it. I can make enough money for the both of us.”

“Maybe I will,” she muttered. “But I’d be learning all different stuff in the schools here, wouldn’t I?”

“Prob’ly. I think the science and maths would be the same, but literature and history…yeah, it would be very different. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it, though. This is our world now, pet. Don’t think we can keep pretending we don’t belong here.”

“So, even if I go to school, I still won’t know what you’re talking about half the time, will I?” She gave him a poke in the ribs. “You’re still going to give me that look.”

“You don’t get those bony little fingers out of my ribs,” he growled, trying not to squirm and laugh, “you’re gonna wish a look was all you were getting.”

“Ooooo, the big bad vampire is threatening me! Too bad he can’t bite or even get wrinkly when he’s being tickled.”

Buffy began to play with him in earnest, using her fingers to hit all the places she knew would annoy him the most - until she realized that the combination of snarls and choked laughter was causing their driver to spend more time looking into his rear-view mirror than on the road in front of him. With a final dig that turned into a satisfied pat to his ribcage, she stopped tormenting Spike and settled into the corner of the seat, smiling at him fondly.

“You are going to pay for this, you know,” he said with a glower that was totally wasted on the grinning girl.

“I’m counting on it,” she leaned over and whispered in his ear, retreating quickly when he tried to grab her. “Ah, ah,” she scolded. “Behave yourself. We’re not alone, you know.”

“He can’t see me,” Spike leered, tilting his head at the mirror. “He’ll just think you’re--”

Before Spike could follow up his implied threat, their cab pulled into the train station and the driver stopped in front of the entrance. He refused to take any money from them, insisting that he’d been well paid already.

“My business was really falling off,” he explained. “Not to mention having to wonder if every fare I picked up might decide to get hungry before we got where he was going. I’m just glad to know that it’s safe for the tourists to come back.”

Buffy accepted the thanks with her usual uncomfortable blushes. Even now, after years of working to protect the population of this world, she hadn’t got used to being thanked for what she did. She couldn’t suppress a pang of guilt as she thought about the Buffy back in Sunnydale who faced annual apocalypses without any support or appreciation from the citizens she was protecting.

She was still quietly thinking about it when she and Spike had taken their seats on the train. As it pulled out of the station and began the journey back to Winterset, Spike nudged her shoulder.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

She startled and looked up in surprise. “I was just thinking,” she said slowly.

“Always a dangerous thing…”

Her poke to his arm was half-hearted and he realized that she really was deeply engrossed in whatever she was thinking. His stomach clenched a little as he reviewed the events of the past couple of days and wondered if she was having second thoughts about living with a cold-blooded killer.

“Buffy…? Love?” The worry in Spike’s voice brought her attention back to him and she had no trouble recognizing his uncertainty.

“I was just realizing how good I have it here,” she said, smiling when his shoulders visibly relaxed. “I get thanked for doing my job, I get freebies from grateful people, we hardly ever have to fight anything we can’t both handle, nobody has tried to end the world yet…”

“Bite your tongue! You know you’ve probably just set up this world’s first apocalypse, don’t you?” Spike’s horror was almost genuine, and if Buffy hadn’t known how much he enjoyed a good fight, she might have believed him.

“That’s just the thing,” she said. “Even if we have to handle a pending apocalypse once in while, we still have it better than the other Spike and Buffy. I mean, yeah, things should be easier for them than what they had in the dimension they came from…” She shuddered briefly at what little she knew of the world from which the older Spike and Buffy had been pulled. Just knowing that their presence in her Sunnydale, with it’s demons and vampires, and potential for yearly apocalypses, was considered a reward for what they’d both endured in the dimension they’d come from was enough to make this one – cold or not – seem like a vacation.

“They have each other, love,” Spike said gently, putting an arm around her. “Think that’s all the reward they wanted or needed, yeah?”

She snuggled into his side, grateful for his ability to read her thoughts so well.

“Well, we have each other, too. And we didn’t have to go through all that stuff for it. We just fell in love and…”

“Speak for yourself, pet. I’m the one who spent his first six months here with blue balls from living in the same house with the woman he--”

“Pig!” Her interruption was more affectionate than angry, and he dropped a kiss on the top of her head.

“Oink, love.”

“My own fanged piggy wiggy. Maybe I should start calling you Mr. Gordo…”

“Over my dead body, Slayer… Or yours. Could go either way on that one.”

Her giggle brought a reluctant smile to his face; knowing that she could still laugh in the face of a threat from him – as idle as the threat might be – went a long way to reassure him that his lapse into demonhood hadn’t damaged their relationship in any permanent way.

“Do you even know who Mr. Gordo is?”

“I do. Had to kick the bloody pig out of the bed just before I…” He stopped, remembering why he’d been in a position to object to the presence of a stuffed animal, and how close he’d come to landing on the floor beside the pig when Buffy’d noticed his cavalier treatment of her beloved Mr. Gordo. Deciding that he didn’t need to share with his Buffy what he’d been about to do with her older self, he trailed off to a muttered, “Know only too well what it is.”

Buffy narrowed her eyes suspiciously, then shrugged and tucked her head under his chin and closed her eyes.

“Wake me when we get home,” she murmured, not seeing the smile that crossed his face, but knowing the arms holding her in place weren’t going anywhere.



Epilogue

They arrived home without incident, dropping their bags in the hall and heading to the kitchen for blood and food. Spike groaned when he noticed the light blinking on the answering machine, muttering, “Knew we never should have had that phone line put in.”

Buffy ignored him, pulling sandwich materials out of the refrigerator, setting them on the table and pouring blood into a mug for him. She put his dinner into the microwave and sat down to make her sandwich.

“Do you want to hear these, pet?” he asked, glaring at the machine as if it was intentionally interfering with his plans for the evening.

“I suppose we should,” she mumbled around a mouthful of bread and meat. “Just in case…”

The microwave dinged and Spike took his blood out and began to sip it as he pushed play. The first two messages were from friends they’d made in Winterset, inviting them to a party that they’d already missed while in Shadyside. The third was from Buffy’s boss, who reminded her that she didn’t have to report to work for another two days. The fourth message, which Buffy came and stood beside him to hear was from the chief of police, wondering if Buffy and Spike would like to discuss a training course for his officers who frequently had to deal with drunk or angry demons and vampires.

“Huh! It’s just now occurring to him that we might have something to teach his men?”

“Don’t scoff, pet. It’s a legitimate way to make money using our specialized skills.”

“Specialized skills’?” Buffy raised her eyebrows at both his willingness to make money legally, as well as his use of such language. “If you get any more Gilesish, I’m going to have to rethink this whole ‘mated’ thing.”

“Very funny,” he growled, signing her to be quiet as he listened to the last message. It was a plea for help from one of Clem’s many relatives. One they had met when driving from Winterset to a vacation in the mountains several hundred miles away. According to the embarrassed sounding demon, a local incubus had taken a young vampire for a mate and the two of them were draining the local human and demon populations of both blood and energy.

“I really hate to bother you guys with this – I know you’re busy – but nobody here seems to know what to do about them. Nobody’s died yet, but ... Schools and businesses are closed as often as not, because nobody feels like going to work anymore. If you can come, give me a call. You’re welcome to stay with us if the Slayer won’t be too uncomfortable being with so many demons…”

“Well, there you go, love. I guess our next job is already lined up for us. What do you want to tell him?”

Buffy sighed and headed for the bathroom. “Tell him we’ll be there in a couple of days, I guess. It doesn’t sound like it’s a real emergency and I want to spend some time in my own house. Plus, I have to show up for work once in a while – just so they remember that I work there.”

“Sounds good. It’ll give me some time to read up on incubi, too. Don’t want anything stealing your energy – I have plans for it.” He leered at her as she began shedding clothes.

“Oh, I’ve got plenty of energy. Don’t you worry about that!” She dropped the last of her clothing on the floor and shut the bathroom door, turning on the water and stepping into the shower with a happy sigh.

Spike quickly returned the phone call, assuring Mike that he and Buffy would be there in a few days and asking him to call back if anything changed and they were needed sooner than that. As soon as he’d said ‘good-bye’, he began walking toward the sound of running water, dropping his own clothes on the floor as he did. He opened the bathroom door and stepped into the tub, pulling the curtain shut and enclosing them both in the steamy space.

“Took you long enough,” Buffy teased. “I thought maybe you’d decided to start your research tonight and I’d have to scrub my own back.”

“You don’t have to scrub anything yourself, Slayer,” he purred, pulling her against his warmed body. “I’ve got you covered.”

“You’ve got me covered, huh?” she mumbled into his chest.

“Like a bloody blanket, love.”

“I think I like that.” She raised her face for his kiss. “I think I like that a lot.”

Several minutes later, when Spike slipped on some spilled bath gel, and landed on his ass in the bottom of the tub, Buffy’s legs still wrapped around his hips, their showering sex came to an abrupt halt.

“Are you all right?” Buffy asked, trying not to laugh at the indignant look on his face.

“I’m fine,” he grumbled. “Just embarrassed and brassed off at having a good shag interrupted.”

“Guess it’s a good thing we have super-healing and high pain thresholds, huh?” Buffy said as she rubbed the bruises on her knees and ankles.

“I don’t plan to make a habit of falling down in the bath, Slayer,” he said, lifting her up so that she could step out of the tub. “This was a one-time thing. And it’s all the fault of that bloody gel you use instead of real soap.”

“Oh, so it‘s my fault you’re getting so old you can’t make love standing up anymore?” She giggled and ran for the bedroom, smiling to herself at the bloodcurdling snarls punctuating Spike’s attempts to climb out of the wet, slippery tub. He caught her just as she reached the bedroom, tackling her to the floor and grabbing the back of her neck in his teeth.

“I’ll show you ‘old’,” he murmured around his fangs, which were quickly being replaced with soft, mobile lips and small human teeth nibbling on her neck.. “You aren’t going to be able to walk for a week!”

“There you go again - promises, promises…”

“I always keep my promises, love…thought you’d know that by now.”

“Well, actually…” She paused to whimper as his lips found a particularly sensitive spot. “I’m pretty much counting on it…”


The End