8. Obedience, part 2


At the sound of his command to strip, the Slayer looked up at him, and Spike could see the sparkle of defiance in her eyes. He anticipated that she would continue to protest, perhaps to plead, but what she said was not at all what he had expected. She looked him in eye, and instead of objecting, asked a question. “Why?”

Spike smirked; she did have something, this girl. “It’s usually customary, before we screw. But it isn’t strictly necessary, just nicer that way.”

She shook her head, “That’s not what I meant. Why’d he give me to you? Why does he want this to happen?”

Spike was even more impressed now. They were good questions, questions that had been running through his mind only minutes ago. She wasn’t too scared or too angry or too far gone to think then. That was either very, very good, or very, very bad. For her.

Angelus hadn’t said a word of what he was thinking to Spike. Never had, and probably never would confide in him. Perhaps Angelus’s actions had something to do with Trick’s visit last night, perhaps not. It was the type of game Angelus liked to play with his victims.

He wondered what he’d told the girl to get her here.

“Dunno. He didn’t really say, now did he? What’d he tell you?”

She looked down, “This is my punishment. I did something he didn’t like. Killed his fledgling. But that still doesn’t explain…”

She was right. It didn’t explain. If Angelus merely wanted to punish the chit, there were many, many ways he could have gone about it. So it was more than that. And it certainly didn’t explain why the Slayer had allowed herself to be put in such a position. By relinquishing her weapons and apparently willingly walking into his lair, she had given Angelus the power to punish her in any way he saw fit. He could almost imagine why the girl was letting Angelus fuck her – women always seemed to fall for the big hulking brute and he’d long ago given up wondering why. Still, it pointed to a serious lack of judgment on her part.

Suddenly Spike thought he understood why he had been chosen as the instrument of her punishment, at least partly.

“He wants to be sure that you’ll do as you’re told. That you’ll obey him. And right now, stuck in this damn chair – all your fault by the way - I’m probably the most disgusting thing he can think of to fuck. Plus there’s the added benefit that I can’t really make you do anything. If you made it past that door and tired to run away right now, I couldn’t stop you. You might even be able to get past the minions, and back outside, where you can pretend you’re safe. But you wouldn’t be safe. He’d hunt you down, and then you’d know what Angelus’s punishments are really like.” If she thought this was as bad as it could get, she was in for a rude surprise.

“I don’t understand. That can’t be all he wants, can it? If this is just a game to him, why doesn’t he just kill me, get it over with?” He didn’t know it, but her naive question echoed the thoughts of the entire demon population of Sunnydale.

This night was certainly not turning out the way she had thought it would. Buffy’s head was spinning; she wasn’t sure what to think. This was not the Angelus she thought she knew, the one she thought she was in love with. And yet the aching need to feel his touch hadn’t lessened. Her body had been brought to the brink by his mere presence, and then left wanting.

She turned so that she was facing the door, whispered so she thought Spike couldn’t hear, “I can’t live like this. I know he’s not Angel. I know it. But still, sometimes, I’m not so sure.”

Spike rolled closer to her, somehow feeling as if he should try to comfort her, stroke her hair. He held himself back. No point getting attached to the merchandise. Spike had been given a prize tonight; he didn’t think it was likely that it would ever happen again.

“He’s enjoying this too much to lose you.” Spike knew what that was like. Eternal life was long, and amusements rarely lasted. “He wants to keep you as long as he can, perhaps forever.”

“No.” That thought had apparently never occurred to her, and for the first time Buffy was frightened. Spike would have laughed in her face if the combined scent of her fear and her need wasn’t so arousing. “I won’t let him do that to me. I’ll die before I let him turn me into… into one of you.”

Spike smirked, “Do you really think he’ll give you a choice? I can tell he’s already tasted you. More than once, most likely.” Buffy raised her hand to the scar on her neck. “Do you really think you’ll be able to stop him? You haven’t been very successful at that so far, now have you?”

There were moments when Buffy thought she hated Angelus, not because he was evil, but because he was not and never would be Angel. And she knew for a fact that she hated Spike. But not nearly as much as she loathed herself right now. How could she have been so stupid to allow it to come to this? One murderous vampire warning her of the treachery of another?

Because he was correct, any time Angelus had had his fangs on her he could have killed her, or turned her, and she’d have been helpless to stop him. She was supposed to kill vampires, not make deals with them, and certainly not sleep with them! Now here she was, in a nest full of them, and she hadn’t killed a single one of them!

Sometimes she told herself she was just biding her time. Lulling Angelus into a false sense of security. Finding out his secrets. Until she was ready to strike and kill them all.

Sometimes she thought that what she was doing good. That through her influence, Angelus was learning how to be Angel.

But if she was honest with herself she admitted that most of the time the only thought in her head was that she couldn’t get enough of him. Thoughts of her trysts with Angelus invaded all her thoughts – waking and dreaming. Recently she’d fallen even further behind in her schoolwork, and even begun neglecting her friends.

Even her patrols had become more about relieving sexual tension while she searched out her lover. Deep down she knew that she shouldn’t be feeling like this. That something had gone desperately wrong with her plan for Angelus’s redemption. Without meaning to, she was loosing more and more of herself. Angelus had a power over her, and it scared her.

Spike’s next words shocked her out of her musings. “So, we done with the chit chat? Take off your clothes, and we’ll get started.”

Reaching a decision of her own, Buffy bent over Spike so that she was eye to eye with him in his wheelchair, inadvertently giving him a good look see down her blouse. Looking into his eyes, (had they always been so blue?), she pulled back her hair revealing Angelus’s marks on her neck.


She wasn’t going to be able to resist Angelus. Her body had betrayed her. Whatever her reason told her, she needed Angelus now. She didn’t want to go down in history as the only Slayer ever seduced by the vampire she was meant to kill. And she was never going to let him turn her into a creature of darkness. It had become obvious to her over the past few days that she was already in far too deep. She would never be able to fight him. His hold over her body was too strong. It would be faster this way, less confusing, and it would deny Angelus what he wanted. She was prepared to die.

She put her lips up to his ear and whispered softly, temptingly.

“Kill me.”