A/N Betad by seapealsh and dawnofme


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Chapter Ten

Mmm...tasty!

Later that day they all sat down to try to work out what was going on with Spike.

“Let’s start with when you re-entered your own body,” said Giles. “What was it like from there?”

“I dunno,” said Spike. “I felt dizzy, bit sick but mostly really tired like I hadn’t slept in a month or was drugged. Don’t really remember much after that. Hey, did you hit me?” he added, looking at Buffy.

“Only a couple of slaps to get you on your feet,” said Buffy defensively.

“What was the last thing you remembered?” asked Giles.

“Buffy pulling me about and slapping me then nothing until that bloody Seromid demon got me in the sewer,” said Spike.

“So you didn’t wake up and decide to go out then?” asked Giles.

“I just said, didn’t I? Don’t even remember getting back here.”

“So what was the next thing you remember?”

“Getting the wake up call from the Seromid. Are you bleeding listening to what I say? I’ve just told you this.”

“That doesn’t tell us a lot, Spike,” said Buffy

“Well, I can’t bloody help that, can I?” snapped Spike.

“Look guys, shouting at each other isn’t going to get this figured out,” interrupted Willow. “There has to be a reason for it so we’ll just have to hit the research again.”

She was met with a collective chorus of groans but everyone sat at the table and picked up a book.

*~*~*~*

They’d found nothing at all to help them so working on a hunch Giles had, he and Buffy got some sleep so they’d be ready to sit and ‘Spike-watch’ all night in case he went strolling again.

He did, at about four in the morning. He very casually got up from his place on the couch and started towards the door. His movements were so normal that to start with Buffy and Giles thought that he was awake, but they then realised that although his eyes were open they were totally unfocussed.

He picked up his leather duster and put it on as he went out of the door, shutting it quietly behind him. Buffy and Giles opened the door and hurried through to follow him. He walked steadily through the streets until he got to the graveyard. Without any hesitation he went into his crypt, carefully closing the door behind him. Buffy and Giles got to the crypt just in time to see him drop into the sewer tunnels and they followed him down.

Spike walked along, never tripping or hesitating, until he came to a part of the sewer just before a bend. There, to the puzzlement of Buffy and Giles, he simply sat down in a dry spot, leant back against the wall, closed his eyes and slept. Buffy and Giles looked at each other.

“Why on earth has he come here, Giles?” asked Buffy.

“I honestly don’t know,” he replied. “It’s not where we switched so I can’t think of its significance.”

“So what do we do now?”

“Wait and see what he says when he wakes up, I suppose. Is this where you found him yesterday?”

“Yes, just over there you can see the hole in the wall the demon left with his fist,” said Buffy.

They stood there watching the sleeping vampire for an hour or so.

“Good Lord!” Giles suddenly exclaimed.

“What?” asked Buffy.

“This is where I got jumped by The Initiative. I forgot until just now but it’s the place that I first changed into vampire features. That must be why he’s coming here,” said Giles.

“So what now? Should we wake up Sleeping Beauty and go home?” asked Buffy.

“I think it would be best to leave him to wake up unprompted and see if he can tell us anything.”

Fortunately they didn’t have too long to wait before Spike started to stir. He shifted a few times then woke with a start and looked around him.

“Oh,” he said when his eyes fell on his two observers. “Guess I did it again then.” He got up and stretched.

“Do you remember anything?” asked Giles.

“Not about getting here, but I did dream that I was a vampire,” said Spike.

“What do you mean?” sneered Buffy. “You are a vampire, you dope.”

Spike scowled. “I meant I could vamp out, obviously.”

“That is interesting,” said Giles. “What were you doing in your dream when your game face appeared?”

“Um…well, I was fighting Initiative troops,” said Spike, a shade reluctantly.

“What’s up? Were you getting your ass kicked?” said Buffy.

Before Spike could answer Giles spoke.

“Yes, he was. There were two of them - one shot him before Spike grabbed the gun and kicked him and as the chip fired the other nailed him with a tazer.”

“Hey, how’d you know that? Bleeding psychic now, are we?” said Spike in amazement.

“No, that’s because your dream is my memory,” said Giles. “This is exactly where I vamped up for the first time after we switched.”

“What does that mean then? Can you fix me?” asked Spike hopefully.

“I don’t know but it must mean something,” replied Giles.

The three of them went back to the apartment. Willow and Xander had just gotten up and Willow was making pancakes. Over breakfast they tried to work out the significance of Spike’s sleepwalking and dreaming. The breakfast was delicious but brought them no answers at all and neither did their next three breakfasts.

Each day they tried to find answers and each day they found none. Each night Spike walked back to the same spot in the tunnels, dreaming the same dream.

All were starting to despair about finding a solution to Spike’s inability to draw on the demon inside, not least Spike. The poor vampire was starting to feel a bit ragged, stressing about his deficiency, and not resting each night due to the sleepwalking and dreams. The dream provoked his own unpleasant memories of his captivity to surface, which didn’t help his nerves. He was starting to dread going to sleep.

One evening Giles was chopping vegetables in the kitchen when Spike accidentally jogged his arm as he past him to get his blood from the refrigerator.

“Ouch. Damn,” said Giles as he cut deeply into his finger, blood instantly pouring out of the incision. He left a long trail of blood on the counter as he reached for a towel to stem the flow.

Xander, Willow and Buffy popped their heads into the kitchen to see what was going on.

“What’s Spike done now?” said Xander.

“I didn’t do anything,” protested Spike. He ran his finger through the trail of blood and licked it off.

“Ew!” cried Willow.

“Gross, Spike” cried Buffy.

“Did you see that?” cried Xander.

“Waste not, want not,” cried Spike.

“No guys! Listen! Did you see that?” insisted Xander.

“Yeah, Spike’s grossly licking up Giles’ blood,” said Buffy. “We’ve seen it and wish we hadn’t.”

“Not that,” said Xander. “Spike’s eyes, did you see Spike’s eyes when he licked his finger?”

“What happened to them?” asked Giles.

“They went yellow - only for a second but they definitely did.”

“Really?” said Spike. He put some more blood on his finger and once more licked it off.

Four pairs of eyes stared into his.

“Yes,” said Giles. “They did change.”

Spike grabbed Giles’ hand and brought it to his mouth to suck the bleeding wound.

“Ow!” said Giles, pulling his hand away.

“Ow!” said Spike as the pain chip kicked in, but this time his eyes stayed yellow for a little longer.

“Okay, so we can definitely say that Giles blood has an effect,” said Willow.

“How do we know it’s just Giles’ blood? It might be any human’s,” said Xander. “Stop looking at me like I’m food, Spike.”

“Like I’d bite you?” sneered Spike.

“Good point, though,” said Buffy. She grabbed the knife on the counter and nicked her finger. “Hold your hand out, Spike.” She squeezed a few drops of blood onto his outstretched palm.

Spike licked it off and looked at them expectantly.

“Nope, nothing,” said Giles.

Spike looked at Giles, licked his lips and grinning broadly with head tilted said, “So how are we gonna do this, Giles?” Giles shuddered. “I can’t suck you dry without the chip activating.”

“I vote no sucking dry of Giles,” said Willow firmly.

“It’s all right, Will, he’s only joking, right?” said Xander.

“Right,” said Spike, still leering at Giles. “But I think that Giles’ blood is the key.”

“Um…well…yes, I’d tend to agree, unfortunately,” said Giles.

Since the pain chip precluded Spike from drinking directly from Giles himself, they had to decide how to go about the blood letting, trying to find a nice pain-free way for Giles to donate his blood. Willow managed to do a little numbing spell on his wrist and then he nicked his vein and let his blood fall into a mug. Once it was a quarter full his wrist was tightly bound.

Spike’s mouth was practically watering at the thought of having human blood to drink. Pigs’ blood would keep you going but to a vampire comparing it to human blood was like meatloaf to prime steak.

He drank it slowly, savouring every drop as he did so. For the first time since the switch his vampire features came out fully. Everyone was delighted. They faded once he’d finished the blood and when Spike tried to produce them again he couldn’t.

“Seems I need a bit more of you to re-charge the batteries,” he said, looking hungrily at Giles.

With a sigh Giles unbound his wrist and let his blood once again quarter-fill the mug.

“You can’t have anymore today after this,” said Giles firmly.

Again, Spike drank it but once more couldn’t keep his game face out on show for long after he’d finished. It was decided that Spike would have to have a little of Giles’ blood each day for the next few days until hopefully he was cured.

*~*~*~*

Poor Giles was starting to look a little pale and wan after the blood letting had been repeated a few times even though only small amounts had been taken each time. He was starting to think he’d have to dust Spike to get rid of him before he did, quite literally bleed him dry.

Giles was having a lie down on his bed one afternoon when Buffy called in. Spike was sitting on the couch eating cookies and happily watching ‘Passions’.

“Where’s Giles?” she asked.

“He’s having a lie down, poor fella’s feeling bit run down,” said Spike, grinning shamelessly.

Buffy walked up to him and punched him in the face. With a growl Spike vamped up and snarled at her.

“What was that for?” he said, wiping his bloody nose with the back of his hand, looking at it and then licking it off with a shrug.

“Ew,” said Buffy. “It’s because you’re faking it, as is clear now. You can obviously vamp up at will.”

“Fair cop, love,” he said, relaxing his face into his human features.

“How long?”

“Well, after the second lot that first day,” laughed Spike, “but the mini bar’s just so good at this hotel.”

She went to hit him again but he caught her wrist.

“Hey, calm down. I wasn’t going to do him any permanent harm, just a bit of payback for getting my body all shot and making me want bleeding cups of coffee and muffins.” He shuddered at the memory.

He pulled her towards him and kissed her on the lips. She responded briefly, body melting against his before pushing him in the chest and pulling away.

“God, Spike, what was that?”

“A kiss, love. What, don’t you get any off soldier boy?” he sneered. He ducked another blow with a grin. “Just saying thanks for your help, Slayer.” He grabbed his leather duster and swaggered out of the door. “Be seeing you, kitten. Tell Giles I’m off back to my crypt.”

Buffy stared after him, wiping his kiss from her lips with a grimace. But she couldn’t help remembering how hot he’d looked with his shirt off.

The End.