Chapter Six

After taking a long nap and finishing off the blood left in the Summers’ refrigerator, Spike felt that he was strong enough to accompany Buffy to the Initiative headquarters and fill in any gaps in Anya’s knowledge, as well as to be sure the inspectors got the full story of what sort of things had been taking place. Throwing a blanket over his head, he ducked into the nearest manhole, assuring Buffy he would meet her inside Lowell house.

Buffy’s arrival at the Initiative headquarters seemed almost anticlimactic as the Scoobies and the inspectors had been laboring all day to sort out what was going on. It wasn’t until Buffy asked about Area 314, that anyone realized they had not investigated the lab behind Dr. Walsh’s office.

Led by Buffy, and a recently-arrived Spike, the inspectors followed the Scoobies into the former commander’s office. Their eyes lit up at the sight of the computer and the locked file cabinets, which were immediately earmarked for close inspection. Leaving two men to begin searching Maggie’s files, they opened the secured lab, stopping in horror when they beheld the huge manufactured creature on the table.

The part-human, part-mechanical and part-demon monster lay still with its eyes shut, securely restrained from head to toe. For long minutes all anyone could do was stare at the creature and wonder what it was meant to be.

“What are you doing, Whelp?” Spike asked curiously as Xander’s eyes darted around the room quickly and he began searching corners.

“Looking for Igor, what else?”

While everyone else gawked at the boy, Spike’s face broke out into a reluctant grin and he thumped Xander on the shoulder hard enough to make the chip twinge as he chuckled, “There’s hope for you yet, Harris! That was actually funny.”

Giles heaved an impatient sigh at the two normally squabbling men as they congratulated each other on being the first to recognize a Frankenstein’s monster when they saw it. While everyone was still staring at the frightening behemoth resting on the table, the men who had begun research in the other room came through the door, insisting emphatically that everyone should leave and relock the lab immediately.

Buffy was reluctant to leave unattended what was clearly a monster of some sort until they could determine if he was alive or not, but yielded to the military investigators as they herded everyone out and closed the door. With the door safely locked again, the two men explained quickly that just a cursory look at Maggie’s files indicated she had been running a much more secretive and potentially dangerous operation than one that simply tortured and killed demons.

Maggie’s files revealed a pattern of research designed to build the ultimate soldier. Research which, in addition to the enhancements and chemicals she’d been using on her human subordinates, apparently included an attempt to combine demons and humans with machinery. With a nod toward the now-locked door, they said that whatever it was, it was clearly intended to be extremely lethal and until they could figure out how or if it was to be activated, they wanted no one in the lab with the creature. A glance at its schematics showed an impressive array of weapons that were apparently built into it.

Leaving two guards with the investigators, and instructions to back up everything they learned, the new commander and the Scoobies went back into the main area where computers were being spread out on long tables so that data could be copied and examined. Most of the demons had been dealt with, those that were clearly dangerous and anti-human having been humanely put down.

Buffy shivered at their use of an expression one would expect to hear used for a rabid animal and took a quick look at Spike. It was no longer possible for her to think of the blond vampire as a thing to be destroyed and the thought that her Watcher and the men around would see him as such sent a frisson of fear directly through her.

The vampire’s mouth was pressed into a thin line, and his jaw twitched occasionally as he struggled to restrain himself whenever he would catch glimpses of the bodies of demons he knew to be harmless. His relieved gasp when he saw Clem’s brother being helped into a golf cart broke the tension and he ran over to the injured demon.

“Your mother has been worryin’ herself sick,” he said, shocking all the humans into silence. “And Clem was as close to losing his temper as I’ve ever seen him. They’re goin’ to be bloody elated to see you walk out of this place.”

Giles cleared his throat while Willow and Buffy exchanged glances.
Demons have mothers? Families?

It soon became obvious that their help was no longer needed as all the harmless demons had been identified and permitted to leave to go back to their families and friends. Anya and Spike exchanged glances when Xander expressed disbelief that there could be so many demons in Sunnydale that Giles and Buffy knew nothing about. The vampire took it upon himself to enlighten the puzzled humans.

“Who do you think delivers all those pizzas you lot eat every night? Who works in those sewers that vamps use to get around in the daytime? Who drives cabs and buses after dark? You deal with demons every day without knowing it.”

“Well, I SHOULD have known it,” Buffy said in irritation. “One of you should have told me when I was dealing with a demon.”

“Why?” Spike asked with an edge to his voice. “So you could slay perfectly innocent blokes who were just trying to make a livin’ by doing things too dangerous for humans?”

“I would never—“ Buffy broke off her denial as she realized that until very recently she probably would have. Until Spike got his chip and became an unwilling part of their lives, the idea that the best demon wasn’t a dead demon would just never have occurred to her or to any of the other humans staring at him with various amounts of shame or dismay.

With nothing else to do in the facility except watch the investigators working their way through computer files, Giles received assurances that they would be notified of any important findings and set a course for the exits. He offered Xander and Anya a ride back to the Harris house, while Willow and Tara waved and headed for the dorm, leaving Spike and Buffy standing uncomfortably by themselves in front of the former fraternity house.

“Am I really that rigid?” she asked in a quiet voice as they began walking in the general direction of town. “You think I would I slay somebody that looked human just because they were a demon?”

She glanced up at the beautiful human face looking back at her with one eyebrow cocked and blushed.

“Vampires don’t count,” she grumbled. “All vampires are evil.”

“Not really, pet,” he answered mildly. “Some never get into the whole killin’ and torturin’ thing.”

She looked at him skeptically, hands on her hips. “Right. And I suppose they don’t eat either.”

“Why do you think there are so many butchers in Sunnydale with pigs’ blood as part of the inventory? You think it’s there just in case Peaches drops in for a visit?” His voice held a trace of disgust at her unwillingness to see what was around her.

“I…I guess I never…” Her face crumpled and she stopped walking.

“Oh my God. I’m no better than they were! I’ve killed innocent—“

Spike spun around and stalked back to her. “No,” he growled. “No, you haven’t. You NEED to think all demons are evil. How else are you going to be able to slay? That’s why those Council wankers don’t tell you any different. You can’t be stopping to ask yourself if something is dangerous before you take it out. You’d have been dead before you’d even had time to learn the job if you were allowed to think like that.”

He grabbed her upper arms and shook her. “Don’t ever stop to worry about that, Slayer. You hear me? If it looks dangerous, you slay it and let the Powers sort it out. I don’t care what it is. Even if it’s me – if you think I’m gonna hurt you, you stop me. Promise me!”

“Would you still hurt me?” she asked meekly, shocked at his vehemence. “If you got your chip out, I mean. Do you still want to kill me?”

With a groan, he pulled her into his chest sighing when her arms went around his waist and dipping his head down to kiss the top of hers.

“No, love, I don’t want to kill you. You ought to have figured that out by now. Took me a long time to admit it to myself, but it’s been true for longer than you think. I’d defend myself against you if I had to, but kill you?” He shook his head slowly. “I’d let you stake me first.”

“I don’t want to stake you anymore,” she mumbled into his shirt.

“Well, that makes two of us then,” he said with a smile in his voice.

They resumed walking, their feet wandering toward Restfield Cemetery and Spike’s new home. The broken door still hanging on its one hinge was a reminder that the interior was even less hospitable than it had been when she first stopped in such a short time ago and Buffy cast a questioning look at Spike who shook his head.

“I think they’re gone, pet. Don’t smell any fresh blood or bodies. Anyway, didn’t those military wankers say something about arrestin’ them?”

Taking him at his word and before he could stop her, Buffy squared her shoulders and marched in saying over her shoulder, “Come on, lazy. We’ve got a crypt to clean up and you’ve got bones to throw out.”

Spike quickly followed her in to find her fumbling with the switch for the flood light that had been left behind by whomever had taken the Initiative commander and her second in command out of the crypt. From conversations Spike had overheard at the facility, it appeared that Clem’s relatives had settled for frightening the woman into tears before leaving her to huddle beside Riley’s partially drained body. Once the new commander was apprised of her whereabouts, he had sent a squad to pick up the two now-disgraced humans and place them under arrest.

The rest of the crypt was as they’d left it – a pile of broken bones near the sarcophagus where Spike had been throwing them before Maggie and Riley came in, the overturned furniture and appliances, spilled blood and ruined candles. While Spike removed the rest of the bones from the sarcophagus and threw them outside, Buffy put the few pieces of furniture back up and tried to salvage enough candles to allow them to turn off the floodlight.

When they were done, and the soft light of the flickering candles had replaced the glare of the flood, the effect was not as bad as Spike had feared. The sarcophagus was now empty and the lid was back on it, as was Spike’s assortment of bedding. The TV was a loss and had been placed outside, but the refrigerator was up and running again, although empty of anything but a couple of unbroken bottles of beer.

When Spike sat on the couch and patted the seat beside him this time, Buffy happily joined him, snuggling into his side when he put an arm around her. They sat in comfortable silence for a while, enjoying the closeness and companionship until Buffy realized what they were doing.

“What’s wrong with us?” she asked suddenly as she sat up straight, looking at him with wide, troubled eyes.

The vampire frowned at her in confusion.

“Nothing, that I can think of pet. I’m good-looking and sexy, you’re beautiful and deadly. What could be more perfect?” He did his best to keep his tone light and joking, but the look on her face was making his stomach clench. “Buffy? Love? What…what do you think is wrong?”

“Us! This!” She gestured back and forth between them, having pulled out from under his arm in her agitation. “We should be having sex! We’re just sitting here, like…like…like a couple!”

“Is that a problem, pet?” He asked carefully, withdrawing his arm from the back of the couch as he sat up stiffly. “I mean if it’s just sex you want, I’m your vampire, but—“

“Isn’t that what you want?”

“Of course I do. Would think you’ve seen proof of that often enough by now not to—“

“Then why aren’t you doing it? Why are you just sitting here, holding me like you…you… like me or something?”

“I do like you, Buffy,” he said quietly. “Do you think I would have fried my brain for the whelp?”

She cocked her head at him. “Actually? I think you might have.” She smiled at his indignant snort, then remembered what was bothering her.

“Are we, then?”

“Are we what, love?”

“A couple.”

He took a deep breath, letting it out in a sigh as he said quietly, “I s’pect that would be up to you, pet. I’m pretty much at the point where I’m willing to be whatever you want, ‘s long as I can be near you. If you just want my tight little body, it’s yours, but I was hoping for…nevermind,” he finished with a forced laugh. “The girl’s offering no strings sex, and I’m arguing. That chip MUST have fried my brain.”

He pulled her into his lap, nuzzling the side of her neck and growling softly as he nibbled on the soft skin of her throat. He began planting light kisses, working his way down to her exposed collarbone and running his tongue lightly along it before running it back up to her face. He licked around her parted lips until she gave a little growl of her own and fastened them on his teasing mouth.

Buffy sank into another bone-melting kiss, allowing herself to relax across the vampire’s lap while his hands stroked and caressed her body until it was limp with desire. As though in a fog, she felt him stand up, easily lifting her weight, and walk over to the now-covered sarcophagus. When he put her down on it, then gently disengaged his lips from hers and stepped back, she whimpered in dismay.

“I’ll be right back, love,” he said, leaning in to kiss her again. “Just want to be sure we don’t get interrupted again.”

He crossed to the heavy wooden door hanging by one hinge and lifted it back into place, using another, smaller stone sarcophagus to prop it up and seal the tomb off from the outside world. He walked slowly back towards the waiting girl, his stride the confident glide of a top predator as he began unbuckling his belt.