Chapter Four

By the time she had run most of the way back to the campus of Sunnydale University, nothing was left but a cold anger. Anger at the vampire for being able to reach her like that, and anger at Willow whose spell had been the cause of their initial desire for each other.

Buffy slammed her way into the dorm room she shared with her best friend, only to find the novice witch poring over a spell book.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she yelled, her anger fueling the fear that gripped her. “Haven’t you done enough damage?”

Buffy grabbed the book away from the startled redhead and glanced at the cover.

“How to Control Your World and the People in it?” Buffy’s voice was shrill. “Are you insane?”

Willow’s face hardened as she stood up to face her shorter roommate. Looking down slightly into Buffy’s angry eyes, she said with an equal amount of anger in her voice, “I’d be careful what sort of insults I was throwing around if I were you, Buffy. I’m not the one who had sex with a vampire for two days and didn’t dust him. Speaking of insane.”

“That was YOUR stupid ‘will be done spell’, “ Buffy gritted out. “Your fault, not Spike’s.”

The triumphant look on Willow’s face told Buffy she’d just given herself away and she had to put her hands behind her back to resist the urge to smack the knowing look off the girl’s face.

“I KNEW it!” Willow crowed. “I knew you were lying to Giles. You had sex with Spike. Evil, soulless, in-love-with-crazy-Drusilla Spike. And you think I’m crazy?”

Buffy sighed and let her shoulders slump in resignation.

“I don’t really think you’re crazy, Willow,” she said softly. “I just don’t think you really appreciate how close you came to really hurting the people who care about you.”

“The people who care about me? Who would they be? Giles, who couldn’t be bothered understanding that I was too unhappy to concentrate on his little Mickey Mouse magic lessons? Or Xander? Who was more worried about keeping his demon girlfriend happy than he was about my feelings? Or you? My best friend who promised to spend time with me trashing men and instead ran off to find a harmless vampire? None of you cared about me or my feelings. Not until you needed me to fix things.”

“Things that wouldn’t have needed fixing if you hadn’t done that stupid spell!”

Buffy’s temper was flaring again as Willow refused to admit she had done anything wrong. She stepped closer to the angry witch, her hands clenched into fists at her side. “I can’t let you go around casting spells like that, Willow. I’m the Slayer. I have to protect people from danger – even if the danger comes from one of their friends.”

“And just what are you going to do about it?” The redhead met her angry eyes with a haughty stare. “You need to be careful who you threaten, Buffy. Or I’ll have you so busy screwing Spike you won’t have time for Slaying.”

With that ominous promise, Willow turned her back on the Slayer and picked her book up from where Buffy had tossed it. She settled back onto her bed and returned to her reading, pointedly ignoring the shocked and angry look on the Slayer’s face.

Without a word, Buffy left the room and went straight to her Watcher’s, pounding on the door until a sleepy Giles peered through the peephole and opened it for her.

“Buffy! What’s wrong. Is there an apocalypse?”

“There could be,” she answered grimly, marching into the room. She stopped in mid-stride when a blond head peeked over the back of the couch at her. Before she could decide how to react, the head disappeared and she whirled on her Watcher.

“What is HE doing here?” she demanded.

Giles blinked, still somewhat too sleepy to be alert to the sudden tension in the room.

“I presume he is sleeping. Something I would have thought you’d be doing by now,” he said with a hint of disapproval in his voice. “Would you like to tell me what is so urgent that it could not wait until the morning?”

“Willow is reading a book called, ‘How to Control Your World and the People in it’,” Buffy said quickly, turning her eyes away from the seemingly empty couch. “When I…asked her about it, she said she would—well, nevermind. She threatened me and dared me to do something about it.”

“Exactly how did you ‘ask’ her about it?” Giles voice left little doubt that he already knew the answer.

“She probably told her she was a bloody fool and threatened to beat her up!” came an unwelcome response from the still-invisible vampire.

Buffy glared indignantly at the back of the couch, but folded under the watcher’s questioning look.

“I might have said…or done…something that---. But she should have been scared, not all threateny and…and…”

Exactly what did she threaten you with, Buffy?” Giles was now awake enough to realize that no matter what Buffy’s behavior may have been, the fact that Willow would challenge her indicated a true shift in the novice witch’s confidence in her powers.

“Yeah, Slayer.” Spike’s head once more appeared over the back of the couch, his eyebrows raised in curiosity. “What did she threaten to do to you that sent you scurrying back to your Watcher for help? Perpetual hangnails? Unmatched shoes?”

Buffy just stared at him flatly until he got the message. He blinked once or twice, then smirked and stood up.

“Really?” he asked with a grin. “Remind me to thank—“

“As you say, it scared me so much I came scurrying back to my Watcher for help.” Her glare made her meaning perfectly clear and the grin quickly faded to be replaced by an angry snarl.

“Oh, right. I forgot. Fate worse than death, and all that.”

He whirled on the puzzled older man, demanding, “You need to get that witch sorted out before she causes any more trouble.”

Giles took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose, muttering, “Obviously I am missing something here, but I strongly suspect it is something I would rather not know.”

He turned back to his impatient Slayer saying, “There is not much I can do about this right now. In a few hours I can make a phone call to a coven in England and see if they have any suggestions. In the meantime, I propose we all get some sleep. If you are unwilling to share a room with Willow just now, you are welcome to use my guest room, Buffy.”

“What if she tries a spell on me while I’m here?” Buffy’s voice was a petulant whine. “Can’t you do some magic on her so that she can’t do anything to me? Then I could sleep in my own bed, and take a shower, and change my clothes and…”

The Watcher’s cold look cut her off in mid-whine and she sighed in resignation.

“Fine. I’ll go to sleep. But if I wake up all…spelly…it’ll be your fault!”

“I take full responsibility,” the watcher said dismissively as he went upstairs.

Without looking at the still-angry vampire across the room, Buffy followed Giles up the stairs and went into the guest room, throwing herself on the bed to pout. The soft mattress and clean sheets soon softened the pout to a snore as the events of the previous two days caught up with her and she fell soundly asleep.

Downstairs, the blond vampire listened as her heart rate leveled off and her breathing became more regular before throwing himself back onto the couch. As angry as he was at the Slayer’s insistence that she wanted nothing to do with him, he knew that it was his fault she’d been so angry.

“Me and my bloody big mouth,” he growled to himself as he settled down and tried to go back to sleep. “Had the best shag of my life and bollixed up any chance of repeating it.”

Back in the dorm, Willow was scribbling notes as she went through her book, copying down every spell she could find that pertained to controlling the people around her. Anger at Oz for leaving her, jealously over his fling with the wolf-girl, anger at her friends for losing patience with her unhappiness and a strong desire to prove to Giles that she didn’t need his help to learn magic all combined to lend an urgency to her work.

When she thought she had written down enough spells that she would be able to avenge herself on her faithless boyfriend, as well as to make her closest friends sorry they had not paid more attention to her, she closed the book in satisfaction.

“Maybe I should try one of these,” she mused aloud. “Just to see if they work. It’s the middle of the night, so what could it hurt?”

She reviewed the options, discarding the one she intended to use on Xander as inappropriate for late night. It’s not like I want him coming over here to apologize again when he’s in his pajamas. I am sooo over feeling like that about him.ˆ

The spell she’d found to cause Giles to stutter and behave like a child she rejected as being too easy. The one that said it would turn him into himself twenty years ago sounded interesting. She vaguely remembered his “Ripper” persona from the magical candy days and thought it might be fun to see the uptight librarian acting like a juvenile delinquent once again.

That’s a good choice! He’ll be all bad guy and get in trouble. Maybe he’ll even go to jail this time. Yep, that’s a good one!

She put it aside for later and turned to the one she had settled on for Buffy.

“That bitch,” she muttered. “She probably thinks I was kidding about what I could do to her. Let’s see how she likes this. They disappeared for two days the last time. This spell should keep her out of my hair for weeks!”

With great satisfaction, the witch sat down on the floor to work her spells – first the one on the Slayer to make her crave the vampire again and then the one on the Watcher to take away his adult sense of responsibility.

With the two of them out of the way, I should be able to do whatever I want. I’ll bet I can even find a spell that will bring Oz back to me…

As so often happened with Willow’s spells, she had managed to miss some important information. The first one being that she had not included Spike in the spell this time. Only Buffy was having her libido magically highjacked. The second one being that she had no knowledge of Ripper’s activities when he was young –aside from the delinquent behavior. She had completely forgotten about the demon that he and Ethan Rayne had raised many years ago and assumed she was causing the Watcher to revert to a poorly behaved, but ignorant, ruffian.

Back at Giles’ apartment, Buffy awoke suddenly from a dream of cool smooth skin over lean muscles, soft lips and a strong, talented tongue. She sat up, breathing hard and wishing she had some relief for the ache in her nether regions left over from the erotic dream. With no warning or transition, she suddenly remembered that the subject of the dream was only a flight of stairs away and it suddenly became very important that she find Spike and share with him her sudden change of heart about their relationship.

Tiptoeing down the stairs so as not to wake Giles, she made her way silently over to the couch where she could see Spike sprawled out on his back. She quietly knelt beside him and slipped her hand under his tee shirt until she could reach the waistband of his pants. She smiled when she realized that he was still wearing the jeans that she had earlier ripped open and she had only to slide down the zipper in order to reach her objective.

The sleeping vampire gave a groan when her warm hand slid into his jeans and began to stoke him firmly. His hips pushed up into her hand and he murmured in his sleep, “Yes, love. Like that, Buffy…”

Her giggle at hearing her name on his lips while he slept penetrated the dream he was having and he sat up abruptly, trapping her hand against his cock.

“Buffy?” Half-asleep, he wasn’t sure if she was really there or if he was still dreaming.

“Shhhhh,” she whispered. “Don’t wake Giles. He thinks I’m sleeping.”

Now that the vampire was awake, she released her hold on his hardened cock and climbed on top of him, pressing her lips to his in an eager kiss.

“Not that I’m complainin’, luv, but what brought on this change of heart?”

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her willing body against his and nuzzling her neck. He was well on the way to removing her shirt when something about her single-minded assault on his body raised a warning flag and he stopped what he was doing to look into her eyes.

“Slayer? Buffy? Talk to me, pet.”

“Talk, schmalk. Want kisses.”

“I want kisses too, luv, but I’d like to know who I’m kissing. Really don’t fancy waking up dusty because you saw yourself in a mirror.” The pain in his voice would have been obvious had Buffy not been so lost in the lust spell Willow had placed on her that she couldn’t hear anything but “I want kisses too.”

“What are you talking about, Spike? You’re kissing me. Don’t you want me anymore?”

The edge of panic in her voice conquered his desire to just shut up and enjoy what was being offered. He pushed her away and shifted into his vampire face in order see her more clearly. One look into her eyes, vacant of any expression except profound lust, and he realized the witch had made good on the threat Buffy had been unwilling to define in front of Giles.

With a groan, he struggled to both hold her off and contain his own raging libido.

“Want you more than anything, pet. You have no idea. But not like this.”

His hand slipped off her arm and she immediately took advantage of his distraction to press her body onto his, nibbling on the skin of his throat while she reached for his throbbing erection again.

“You want me,” she gasped, rubbing against him. “I can tell you do.”

For a few blissful minutes, the vampire surrendered to the urges sweeping through his body and captured her lips, sweeping his tongue around and tangling with her equally eager one. He allowed himself to enjoy the sensations created by her warm body as she writhed on top of him.

“You’re killin’ me here, Slayer,” he groaned, fighting the urge to rip her clothes off and let her have her way with him. Only the knowledge that she probably WOULD stake him this time gave him the will power to tear his mouth away from hers and force her to sit up.

When she began tearing at his clothing, he realized that he was not going to be able to handle her by himself and he began to shout for Giles.

“Watcher!” he roared. “Rupert, get your arse down here. Now!”

Giles stumbled down the stairs, fumbling with his glasses and the light switch as he got to the bottom. He blinked and shook his head at the sight that greeted his bleary eyes. Spike was standing beside the couch wearing a look that could only be called panicky while Buffy struggled to wrap her legs around his hips. The vampire was holding her as far away from his body as he could, but the fact that she was stronger than he was made it obvious that he was losing the battle to keep her out of touching distance.

The watcher took in Spike’s unzipped jeans, his face darkening in anger until he saw Buffy reach down and wrap her hand around the pale shaft visible there. Spike’s eyes rolled back in his head and he spoke through gritted teeth.

“She’s your bloody Slayer, Watcher. Do something!”

“Buffy!” Her watcher’s angry roar penetrated Buffy’s lustful preoccupation and she stopped trying to get closer to Spike long enough to turn around and look at him.

“What?” she asked, pouting angrily. “I want Spike and he isn’t cooperating.”

“One of his better decisions,” the Watcher muttered, sending the vampire a look that said he’d best continue being uncooperative. “Buffy take your hands off of Spike’s…release him. Now!”

She reluctantly pulled her hand from Spike’s pants and pouted at the older man. “But I WANT him,” she pleaded. “Please, Giles. Why don’t you just go back to bed?”

The vampire was shaking his head rapidly, only too happy to see that her watcher’s presence had somewhat dampened the Slayer’s ardor. The other man gave him a questioning look and said one word.

“Willow?”

Spike nodded. “Looks like. It’s Buffy, but there’s nobody home.”

Giles came closer and peered into Buffy’s eyes. He saw nothing in there but a vacant, lustful look that kept returning to the uncomfortable vampire. He sighed heavily, beginning to walk towards the telephone.

“I suppose it’s late enough to ring the coven now and see what they want me to do. I’m sure they’ll be interested in anyone with as much potential as Willow obviously has. Perhaps they will be willing to take her under their wings until she learns to control herself—“

He stopped abruptly, hand still on the phone and a complete change came over him.

“That bloody bitch,” he snarled. “I’ll teach her to cast spells on my Slayer, in MY town.”

“Um…Rupert?”

“I think that’s Ripper,” Buffy whispered, edging closer to Spike while his attention was elsewhere.

“Ripper?”

Ignoring them both, the incarnation of Rupert Giles when he was a member of a powerful cabal of magicians went to his room to get dressed. He was quickly back, wearing tight jeans, a tee shirt and carrying a spell book. Ignoring the two blonds staring at him, he sat down at the table and went through the book quickly until he found what he needed.

When he had found it, he slammed the book shut and stood up.

“As soon as it is light out I will pay little Miss Rosenberg a visit and show her what REAL magic is.”

He looked at Spike and Buffy, who was now back to trying to get her hand into Spike’s pants, and said clearly, “Buffy, take your hands out of Spike’s pants and control yourself. I will take care of the spell very shortly, but in the meantime do try to remember you are a Slayer and he is a soulless vampire. I should hate to have to turn him into something small and slithery just to prevent you from making a fool of yourself.”

Buffy stared at Giles/Ripper with her mouth open.

“But Giles! It’s a spell. We can’t help it.”

“Uh, actually, pet. I’m not under the spell…”

“Then I guess it will have to be your responsibility to prevent my slayer from fucking you in my living room,” the Watcher said without noticing the shocked expressions on their faces. “Because I’m going to catch some sleep before I give Willow her magic lesson.”

He ran up the stairs lightly, moving like a much younger man and Spike stared after him with admiration.

“You know, I think I could get to like old Ripper, there. Do you suppose he’s going to stay like that after he breaks the spell?”

“I hope not! He’s scary – in a that’s-not-really-Giles kinda of way.”

“I don’t know, pet. I have a feeling there’s a bit more to your watcher than tweed and spectacles. Those chains had to come from somewhere—hey! Stop that! You heard him. No shagging!”

“But I WANT to,” she said, pushing her lower lip out in a pout and watching his eyes focus on it. Her tongue came out and ran across her lip slowly, drawing the vampire’s mouth closer to hers without his even realizing what he was doing.

“It’s going to be a long bloody night, isn’t it?” he groaned, pulling back at the last second.

“I don’t get it,” she said with a whine. “I thought you wanted to have sex again. Now you’re all avoidy guy.”

“It’s not that I don’t want you, luv, it’s just that I don’t want to be taking advantage of you when you aren’t…yourself. Not to mention, you’d probably stake me the minute you snapped out of it,” he admitted.

“I liked you better when you were in love with me,” she grumped, walking over to the couch and sitting down. She drew her legs up in front of her and wrapped her arms around them, resting her chin on her knees. He watched her cautiously for a second, then carefully approached the couch.

“Don’t be such a scaredy-cat,” she growled. “I’m not going to rape you just because I want you. If you don’t want me, I’ll just sit here and wait for the spell to wear off. I don’t care if you don’t want me. It’s just a dumb old spell anyway. It’s not like I LIKE you or anything.”

“Right. Bitter enemies and all that.” He surprised himself with the angry edge in his voice.

She shot a sideways glance at him, not sure why it bothered her that her words had seemed to bother him.

“What’s your problem?” she asked with some asperity. “You’re not the one under a spell that makes you want to do things you aren’t even sure you know how to pronounce with somebody you hate.”

He cocked his head at her and asked quietly, “You still hate me, Slayer? Even after…” He waved his hand back and forth between them to indicate their former closeness.

“Yes! I don’t know. Maybe?”

“Well, I’m glad you cleared that up for me,” he sighed, leaning back against the couch.

“Do you still hate me?” she asked in a small voice.

He looked into her temporarily lucid-appearing eyes and admitted softly, “Not so much anymore.”

Before he had time to regret his words, he had an armful of amorous Slayer kissing his face and saying over and over, “I knew it. I knew you wanted me. Why are you pretending not to?”

“Obviously not pretending very well,” he growled, moving her hand off his growing erection. He settled her onto his lap and wrapped both arms around her to hold her still. To his surprise, she stopped trying to grope him and snuggled into his chest, rubbing her face against his shirt.

“Hey, you’re still wearing my shirt. Why didn’t you ask Giles for one of his?”

He had no desire to admit that he wanted to keep her scent on him as long as possible and just mumbled, “Forgot I had it on, is all. I’ll give it back to you soon, Slayer.”

“You could take it off now,” she said slyly, peering up at him from under her eyelashes.

“Not a good idea, pet,” he smiled at her less-than-subtle attempt to get his clothes off.

“It was worth a try,” she shrugged and dropped her head back on to his chest, finding, to her surprise that she was enjoying being held by the vampire almost as much as she enjoyed having sex with him.

“And a good one it was, luv,” he agreed, nuzzling the top of her head and fighting the urge to kiss it.

“I’ll come up with a better one,” she murmured, tiredness evident in her sleepy voice.

“I hope you do,” he whispered against her hair as he felt her drift back to sleep.