Chapter Twenty-four

Once outside the warehouse, Buffy and Spike staggered to Giles’ car, the vampire hanging onto the Slayer and allowing her to take most of his weight. The blood he’d lost and the beating he’d taken when Angelus joined Darla had taken a toll on his strength and it was all he could do to remain upright.

From inside the car, the two witches stared at the injured vampire in dismay. At an impatient signal from Giles, Willow unlocked the doors and Buffy quickly lowered Spike into the front seat. As he slid in with a groan, he finally saw the bleeding cut on her arm where Riley had hit her with the board.

“Knew I smelled your blood,” he growled. “Give it here.”

While the four humans stared at him in various stages of shock and disgust he quickly ran his tongue over the wound, lapping at the blood trickling down her arm and then thoroughly laving the cut until it was not longer bleeding.
He finally noticed the people staring at him and said defensively, “What? Stopped the bleeding, didn’t I? And cleaned it out too. You wanted me to leave that dirt in there until we got back to the watcher’s?”

While Willow and Tara shuddered at his vampire notion of first aid, Giles shook his head and gestured for them to get back into the car. Buffy just looked at her already healing cut and said quietly, “I hope you got enough to do you some good until we get back.”

“I’ll be alright, love,” he said, leaning his head back on the seat and closing his eyes. “Got you to take care of me, don’t I?”

“Speaking of taking care of you. About the whole not-saving-me-but-getting-yourself-almost-torn-apart thing…”

Spike opened one eye and looked at her apprehensively. The two witches looked on in confusion, turning to Giles for an explanation only to find him signaling for silence. Buffy stared at the very still vampire, the expression on her face unreadable, until the tension was palpable. Giles unconsciously readied himself to protect Spike if needed and waited to see what his slayer’s reaction was going to be.

“Thank you,” she whispered, leaning into the car and kissing Spike’s bruised lips softly.

He gave her a relieved smile and said, “You’re welcome, love.”

Buffy exchanged a look with her watcher and said, “Did you know what he was doing?”

Giles cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Eventually,” he mumbled as he got into the driver’s seat. “I will admit to being very…disappointed in him at first, but he was quite right. It was important that you understand what we two already knew.”

Willow’s voice broke in, “Understand what? What did Spike do?”

“It’s what he didn’t do, Wills,” Buffy said quietly as she slipped into the back seat with Willow and Tara.

“Which was?” Willow was clearly not planning to give up.

“He didn’t come riding to the rescue. He made me have to rescue him.”

“Uh, huh,” her friend answered with a look at the bloody vampire in the front seat. “And that was good because…?”

“Because I was only in danger because of my fear. If I hadn’t shaken it off and fought Angelus myself, my confidence in my slayer abilities would never have recovered. A slayer can’t be afraid – not that afraid, anyway. It would have made me worthless in a fight and probably gotten me killed sooner or later. Spike made me fight Angelus and prove to myself that I could do it.”

Buffy paused and looked at her mate with a twinkle in her eye. “Of course, it was Dru who pissed me off so much that I snapped out of it. If not for her, I might still be tied up in there.”

“Told you you shouldn’t dust her, love.” Spike’s weary voice was barely strong enough to return her teasing and Buffy lost her good humor as he visibly slumped in the seat.

“Drive faster, Giles,” she begged, reaching over the seat to run her fingers through his hair. “We need to get some blood into him.”

Minutes later they were back at the watcher’s apartment and he was helping Buffy carry the now unconscious vampire into the building. They put him on the couch and Buffy sat with his head in her lap while Willow ran to heat up some blood. She gently stroked his bruised face, whispering to him how much she loved him and wanted him to be all right.

When Willow hesitantly handed her a cup of warmed blood with a straw, Buffy carefully raised his head and held the cup in front of his nose, hoping the scent of warm blood would wake him up.

“Come on, baby,” she whispered in his ear. “Drink this for me and get better. I’ll give you more of the good stuff later when you’re strong enough to take it.”

“Never not strong enough for that, pet,” he managed to gasp as he struggled to sit up and drink.

Buffy breathed a sigh of relief as he gulped down the contents of the mug. She smiled at Willow when she saw that her friend was already holding another cup out to replace the now empty one. When Spike had polished off his fourth cup of pig’s blood, he looked noticeable better and was able to sit up by himself, although he never moved away from his mate.

With it being obvious that the vampire was going to be all right soon, everyone relaxed and the post-battle discussion began.

“So,” Willow said with a disappointed look, “The spell didn’t work?”

“It felt like it was working,” Tara said with a frown. “I wonder what went wrong?”

“It worked, Wills,” Buffy said tiredly. “It just turned out Angel was just as big a jerk as Angelus about some things.”

“Uh, splainy, please?”

“The great poofter objected to m’ mark on the Slayer’s neck,” Spike growled. “Was trying to dust me, even after he got his bloody soul back.”

Willow’s eyes grew big and she turned to Buffy anxiously. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Buffy! You had to kill Angel, not Angelus? Again?” Tears of sympathy stood in her eyes.

“Not me this time, Will,” Buffy sighed tiredly. She looked at her former watcher with forgiveness in her sad eyes. “It was Giles. He saved Spike.”

“Uh, yeah. Want to thank you for that little bit of straight shooting,” Spike offered, looking at the ex-watcher who had saved the life of the vampire who claimed his slayer. “ ‘Preciate it.”

“My pleasure,” Giles replied flatly, then looked at Buffy apologetically. “I am sorry, Buffy. That was insensitive of me. I apologize.”

“It’s all right, Giles. If he’d killed Spike, I’d have dusted him before you got the crossbow cocked. He brought it on himself.”

“Yes, well, be that as it may, the fact is the Powers have lost their champion. I suspect they will not be pleased about it. Nor will Angel’s…friends…in LA. I suppose I had best call and tell Wesley what happened here.”

“You’re assuming Peaches didn’t kill them all before he came here,” Spike growled.

“Well, I am hoping not, certainly,” the other man said with a wince. “It’s true I did not get a response when I called to warn them about—“

He was interrupted by the ringing of the phone and walked over to pick up the receiver. They watched as his “hello?” was followed by “Yes, Wesley. We have seen him.”

There was a pause and then he said, clearly interrupting the other ex-watcher in LA, “He's gone, Wesley. As is Darla – again. Yes, well, we’re all—“

He listened for a short time, then said with some irritation, “Well, it would appear that you did not have the situation under control, wouldn’t it? Are you seriously suggesting we should have let three quarters of the Scourge of Europe run around Sunnydale unimpeded while you worked on some way to get your boss back? He attacked my slayer, Wesley. He intended to rape, kill and turn her. You’ll forgive me if I do not apologize for not permitting that to happen.”

He listened again, then pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I understand that you all feel you have lost a friend, and for that I commiserate. But I will not apologize for sending Angelus to his just reward. He was attacking Sp- one of our people and there was really no choice. I suggest you count your blessings that he only managed to injure one of you before leaving to come after Buffy.”

Without so much as a good night, he replaced the receiver and sighed heavily. Before he went back to his seat, he stopped at the cabinet and took out a glass and a bottle of scotch. He poured himself a full glass before slumping back in his chair.

“I take it Peaches’ flunkies aren’t too happy about the outcome,” Spike drawled.

“It’s…understandable, I guess. They have been together for some time now. Apparently they were also working a way of re-ensouling him, but he escaped before they could implement it. Wesley didn’t return my call warning him about a possible reappearance of Angelus because it had already happened and he was busy trying to ‘contain the damage’ as he put it.”

“Who got hurt there?” Buffy asked curiously. “Did he bite someone?”

“It appears he was trying to turn Cordelia, but was interrupted by Wesley and another gentleman whose name I didn’t recognize –some sort of firearm - before he could drain her. They got her to the hospital for transfusions and she will be all right in a few days. She is quite shaken, of course.”

“The cheerleader too, huh? Was building himself quite a little harem there wasn’t he?”

“He was going to turn CORDELIA? What was he thinking? A vampire Cordelia would be ruling the world in a week. I almost wish he’d done it just to be able to watch her teach him what evil really is.”

Buffy’s indignation made everyone smile, except for Tara who didn’t know Cordelia and couldn’t understand why everyone was laughing and nodding their heads at Buffy’s outburst.

“As amusing as that thought might be, I am sure we are all grateful that she survived the attack. The question now is what will they do with Angel’s property and his business?”

“I’ll give them a few days and then I’ll call Fred,” Willow offered. “Maybe she won’t be mad at us by then.”

Spike shifted uncomfortably on the couch, reminding Buffy that he was still injured as a result of her slowness to come out of her self-induced paralysis and she gave a guilty start. Turning to Giles she asked, “Do you mind if we stay here again tonight, Giles? Spike’s not strong enough to get to my mom’s house, and we haven’t found—“

“Of course, Buffy. You are welcome to stay here as long as you need to.”

With a grateful smile, she helped Spike to his feet and walked him to the room in which they had spent the previous night. He sat on the side of the bed, watching with some surprise as Buffy knelt to remove his boots and socks. She then stood him up and with a clinical detachment he wasn’t sure he liked, unzipped his jeans and pulled them down his legs.

She nudged him down again, then pulled them off, tossing them into a chair. Taking great care not to pull the scabs off his already healing wounds, she removed the tattered pieces of his shirt and threw them onto the pants. She got on to the bed with him and lowered his willing body onto the mattress, making sure to put a pillow under his head before pulling the sheet up over him.

She leaned over him and touched his lips lightly with her own before sitting up and saying, “You get some rest. I’ll be back in a little while.”

Spike reached toward her face with a shaking hand, gently cupping her cheek as he did so.

“I’m sorry about Angel, Buffy,” he said sadly. “I won’t miss the bloody bastard, but I know you will.”

It was the first time she had ever heard Spike use Angel’s name without sneering it, and she blinked her suddenly wet eyes before she answered.

“He was trying to take my mate away,” she said calmly. “He should have known better.”

“That he should, love.” He smiled at her with admiration and awe that this amazing woman had chosen to love him. Chosen him over his grandsire – the vampire that had always been first with everything, even after he was cursed with a soul. “I love you, Buffy Summers.”

“I love you too, William Sinclair,” she whispered into his lips as she kissed him again. “Now rest and heal.”

She turned off the light and went back out to the living room where her watcher and her friends waited for her. At Giles’ prompting, she explained how Riley had tricked her into entering the building and then knocked her unconscious.

“So you really were helpless then, Buffy,” Willow said loyally. “You needed Spike to save you.”

Buffy shook her head and said with a sigh, “I’m not saying I wasn’t glad to see the cavalry arrive, but he was right. My own fear is what was holding me down on that mattress. Those ropes would never have held me if I hadn’t convinced myself that my dreams were true and I couldn’t move.” She frowned for a moment and looked at Giles with wide eyes.

“Dru helped me save him. She could have killed me and instead she made me snap out of it so I could save Spike.”

“I guess she still loves him,” Willow volunteered, then hastily added, “in her own demented way. Which is, of course, seriously insane, and so not to be admired, and…”

“It’s all right, Will. I already got the memo. She loves him enough to let him be with me.” Buffy shrugged and grimaced. “It’s not like she didn’t have him for over a hundred years – or like she doesn’t know that she’ll still be around when I’m long gone…”

“And on that cheerful note, I believe we might all say ‘good-night’ and get some much needed sleep,” Giles said, interrupting that less than happy train of thought.

He offered to drive Willow and Tara back to the dorm. An offer they were glad to accept, knowing that Spike’s insane ex was somewhere in the dark that enveloped the city. Buffy walked them to the door, hugging both girls and reassuring them that Angel’s demise had nothing to do with their very successful re-ensouling skills. She told Giles she would see him in the morning and closed the door behind them.

She walked slowly toward the guest bedroom, promising herself that she would spend the following day finding a place close to the university where she could live with her mate. She felt a brief twinge of regret, remembering the lovely house and garden they owned in London and giggled as she tried to picture Giles’ face if she told him she and Spike were moving to London to live.

“What’s so funny, pet?” came his sleepy voice as she entered the room, still smiling.

“I was just picturing Giles’ face if I told him I wanted to move to London so we could live in our house again.”

As she talked, she was stripping off her outer clothes. When she was down to her panties, she pulled one of Spike’s tee shirts out of his bag and slipped it over her head before slipping under the covers to join him in bed.

“It’s still your house, you know. Or it should be, anyway.”

“I’ll have Willow look it up tomorrow and see if it still belongs to Buffy Summers Sinclair.” She giggled again and nuzzled his neck. “That should give Giles something to polish his glasses about. His Slayer owns a home in the same city as the Council that wishes she would just go away.”

“She’s not going to ‘go away’,” he growled. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”

He pulled her into his side, wincing slightly as he did so.

“I heard what you said about Dru. You were wrong, you know.”

“Wrong about what? She will still be alive long after I’m gone.”

“She might, but I won’t.”

Buffy sat up and stared at him in horror. “What are you saying? We’re mated. You said it was forever. You said it meant you’d never leave me. That includes d…dying. You can’t. I won’t let you.”

Tears were standing in her eyes as she approached a meltdown and he quickly pulled her into his arms and began kissing her face and murmuring soothingly in her ear.

“Shh, pet. Didn’t mean I was going to leave you. Not if I can help it. I just meant that when you’re gone my unlife will be over. I’ll have no reason to stay on this earth if my beautiful mate isn’t here anymore. That’s all I meant, Buffy. That when you’re gone I’ll be ready to see my first sunrise in a hundred and twenty-six years. Wouldn’t go back to Dru. Couldn’t. Not now.”

“But, she saved you – us.”

“You saved us, Buffy. She just let you loose. I’m grateful to her for it, yeah, but I don’t love her anymore. Haven’t since the first time I saw you, I expect. Jus’ took me awhile to catch on. She knew it before I did. Told me you were floating all around me.”

“Really?” Buffy’s fingers twirled little circles on Spike’s chest as she asked her question in a small, hopeful voice.

“Really. Not saying I didn’t want to kill you, or that I knew I wanted you, but something kept me coming back here. Something made me come to you when I was starving. Willow’s spell? She just said we should be married. Never said anything about us falling in love, did she? But that’s what we did. We were in love. Do you remember, pet?”

“I remember,” she whispered. “I wanted you so badly. I kept wishing everybody would leave so we could be alone. You know you could have had me then if we’d been given the opportunity…”

“Uh huh, and then when the spell broke it would’ve been a toss-up whose stake got to my heart first – yours, the watcher’s or the whelp’s!”

Buffy giggled and snuggled closer. “Slayer speed, Spike. I’d have got there first.”

“And you’d have done it, wouldn’t you? If I’d taken advantage like that.”

“I suppose I probably would have,” she sighed. “So I guess it’s a good thing we waited until we knew each other better.”

She sat up and looked down at him. “Hey, do you think this is some kind of master plan? That we keep getting put into situations where we think we’re getting married, or have to pretend to be married, or—“

Her words were interrupted by Spike’s lips seizing hers and sucking on them insistently until she was moaning and kissing him back.

“I think it was just bloody good luck, love. That’s all it was. Bloody good luck.”


Epilogue

After dropping the two witches off at their dorm and watching them safely inside, the weary ex-watcher turned his car back toward his apartment and tried to understand how the souled vampire that the powers had marked as their champion had gone so bad, while an unsouled slayer of slayers had pledged himself to keeping this one safe. He found it interesting that both vampires had fallen in love with the same slayer. His years as her watcher and surrogate father had more than convinced him that she was unique and special, but he was amazed that two master vampires had come to the same conclusion.

He pulled into his parking space and reached tiredly for the door handle, only to find it being opened for him. He froze in his seat when Drusilla’s hand reached in and gently took his. She pulled him from the car and in spite of his knowledge of what she could do if you looked into her eyes, he found himself unable to look away and was quickly lost in her.

Drusilla slowly explored his memories, smiling with delight when she met the Ripper and saw his lust for evil and violence. After planting the suggestion that he stand still and make no attempt to leave or stake her, she released Giles from her thrall and stepped back to smile at him.

“Your slayer has taken my pretty William,” she said coyly. “And you have taken the rest of my family. I should be very cross with you.”

Certain that his life was going to be ended within seconds, Giles drew himself up and answered tersely, “Your family tried to kill my slayer. It made me very cross with them.” He met her strangely human-seeming eyes and said sincerely, “I am sorry for your losses, but I do not regret my actions. They were necessary and important.”

“You saved my Spike,” she murmured. “The slayer was not in danger. It was my sweet poet that you saved from Grandmummy and Daddy. They were very angry with him.”

“They were angry with him because he claimed Buffy. He had marked her to keep her safe.”

“He marked her because he loves her,” she disagreed with a trace of anger that quickly faded. “My William loves with all his heart. He would not have claimed the slayer if he didn’t love her. He might have helped her, but he would not have taken her for his mate.”

Giles had no response, except to nod in reluctant agreement. He waited with resignation for the death he was sure was coming soon. He shivered when the vampire surprised him by running a hand lightly down his cheek and breathing into his ear, “I should take you with me. We could begin a new family. The Ripper would make a delicious vampire. I should think he could make me forget about losing my sweet William to the sunshine.”

“Buffy would kill us both if you turned me,” he said flatly, smothering the tiny surge of curiosity about life as a vampire that caught him by surprise. The sudden increase in his heart rate hadn’t gone unnoticed by the vampire, though, and she smiled with delight before answering him.

“Yes, I suppose she would,” Dru sighed, moving away again. “She is such a spoil sport, your slayer. She doesn’t play fair at all. She wants all the toys for herself." She swayed for a moment, lost in her mind before jumping to her new path.

“I’m going to take Grandmummy and Daddy someplace safe now.”

For the first time he noticed the jar of dust that she clutched in her free hand and he flinched as he realized what it contained. The first glimmer of hope sparked in his chest as it began to seem that she was going to let him go. He struggled against the immobility left over from her thrall, but relaxed when he couldn’t move and realized he was entertaining the vampire with his fruitless efforts.

“Naughty, naughty Watcher,” she cooed. “Trying to leave the party while the princess is still talking. I shall be very cross with you if you leave before we are through visiting.”

She moved closer to him and if he could have moved, he would have flinched as she leaned in to graze her lips over his throat and run her tongue along his pounding pulse. He shut his eyes, sure that she had finished toying with him and that the next sensation would be her fangs as they tore into his throat.

To his amazement, rather than the pain he was anticipating, he barely felt the bite as she slid her sharp teeth through the skin of his neck and delicately sipped the blood flowing from the wound. He felt the pull all the way down to his crotch and wondered briefly if it was common to die with a hard-on as he felt his life’s blood being pulled from his body by the now feeding vampire. Just before he lost consciousness, he felt her teeth leave his throat and her tongue lave the wounds until they stopped bleeding.

“Now you are marked as mine, Ripper,” she purred into his ear as she effortlessly supported his weakened body. “And someday I will return to claim what’s mine.”

She half-pulled, half-carried him to the door of his apartment, knocking heavily on it before pulling away to leave him propped against it.

“Someday, Watcher, but not today.”

Buffy opened the door, catching him as he fell into the room; Dru had vanished into the night, leaving him weak and bewildered but very much alive.

“Giles! What happened? Are you al—“ Buffy stopped in mid-sentence as she saw the marks on his neck.

“What happened?” she repeated, peering out the door but seeing nothing.

“Dru-Drusilla,” he croaked out as she eased him down onto a chair.

“Dru? Dru did this? Why aren’t you dead?”

“Because, clearly, she didn’t want him dead,” came a tired voice from the hallway as Spike limped into the room. He walked over to the watcher and studied the marks on his neck.

“Looks like she’s thinking about starting a new family,” he said, cocking his head and looking at the older man with undisguised glee. “Planning to be my brother, then, are you, Rupert?” he asked with a smirk.

“I’m planning nothing of the kind, “ Giles blustered as best he could in his weakened condition. “She just…she marked me somehow,” he admitted, hanging his head. He looked back up at the vampire he’d come to trust and asked anxiously, “Does this mean she has claimed me? Am I mated to Drusilla?”

“Nah, don’t get your knickers in a twist,” Spike answered quickly. “She didn’t claim you. You are marked, though. Most vamps will respect that and leave you alone. I wonder what’s going through that fuzzy mind of hers?”

“She BIT my watcher,” Buffy growled, heading for the weapons chest for her stakes.

“Easy, pet,” Spike quickly moved to intercept her. “She didn’t really harm him. Those marks might keep him alive someday. Least till she decides to come back for him and finish the job,” he admitted in a quiet mutter to himself.

“Let it go, Buffy,” Giles wearily agreed. “If you will bring me some liquids and help me to my bed, I am sure I will be much recovered tomorrow.”

“Giles, she BIT you! She drank your blood. I’m not going to let that go.”

She gave Spike a challenging stare, remembering what he’d said about not being able to let her kill his sire and wondering if it was still true now that they were mated. He looked back at her with a plea in his eyes, but no trace of resistance.

While the two lovers stood frozen in a wordless argument, the weakened watcher slumped into the chair and struggled to speak. His waving hand finally caught the vampire’s attention and Spike broke the stare to limp toward the kitchen. He opened the refrigerator and pulled out a carton of orange juice and a hard boiled egg. As he turned to carry the food and drink back to the watcher, he found his mate standing right behind him.

She silently reached for the juice and egg and carried them back to Giles. She opened the juice carton for him and held it while he gulped down as much as he could at one time, then handed him the egg and watched as he chewed and swallowed it. When he raised a shaking hand to hold the juice container himself, Buffy gave it to him and went back into the kitchen where Spike was filling a glass and a large pitcher with water.

“You’ll need to help him up the stairs,” he said gruffly. “I’m not strong enough to carry him yet.”

Buffy nodded silently and went back into the living room to help Giles to his feet. Placing the now-empty juice carton on the end table, he put his arm around her slender shoulders and allowed her to help him up to his bed. Spike followed behind, carrying the water which he placed on the nightstand within easy reach of the exhausted man.

“Are you going to be all right?” Buffy asked anxiously. “Maybe we should be taking you to the hospital for a transfusion.”

“I’ll be all right, Buffy,” he said wearily. “Just leave the water and let me get some rest.” He closed his eyes, then opened them again to say, “Don’t bother looking for her. I’m quite certain she is well away from Sunnydale by now and I do not believe she will be back anytime soon.”

Buffy nodded in reluctant agreement and turned the light off before leaving the room. When Spike hesitated at the top of the stairs, she was reminded of how injured he was and she quickly wrapped her strong arms around his torso, encouraging him to lean on her as they descended.

She kept her arms around him when they reached the bottom, walking him back into their room and to the side of the bed. While he gingerly lowered himself to the mattress, she quickly went back out to lock the door and turn off the lights in the rest of the apartment.

When she got back to their room, she shed the jeans she’d thrown on when she ran to the door for Giles and slipped into the bed beside her mate. Spike’s pants were lying on the floor and he was already lying under the sheet, propped up on one elbow as he waited for her to join him. As she slid next to his side and nuzzled his neck tiredly he stroked her back with his free hand and whispered softly, “It’s going to be alright, love. It’s Dru. She’ll forget about it in a while and it could be forty years from now before she thinks about him again.”

“And if it isn’t?” The cold tone of her voice was belied by the way her body curled into the security of his embrace.

“Then we’ll worry it about it then, yeah? Tonight is for resting and healing.”

“I love you,” she mumbled into his chest as her eyes drifted shut.

“I love you, too, Buffy,” he whispered, laying his head down next to hers and allowing her hair to cover his face with the scent of herbal shampoo. “Love you forever.”

******************

Buffy was awakened several hours later by a gentle nudging against her hip and she smiled as she recognized the familiar feel of Spike’s cock hardening against her.

I guess some parts recover faster than others, she mused as she squirmed around to face the still sleeping vampire and ran her hand lightly down the length of him. She felt him shudder in his sleep and smiled again as he moaned and pushed his hips into her hand. She began stroking his cock, enjoying the way his sleeping body reacted to her touch. When she heard him moan her name in his sleep she couldn’t stop the answering gush of moisture she could feel between her legs.

She encouraged her panties down her legs and used her feet to push them completely off, freeing her hands to continue to caress his body. She was just reaching for the hem of her tee shirt when she heard his deep rumble.

“Let me do that, love. Gettin’ you naked is half the fun.”

“I’m sorry,” she lied. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“Like hell you didn’t, you minx,” he growled. “As if I was going to sleep through that.”

“Hey, you started it. Poking me in my sleep.”

He rolled on top of her, pressing her body into the mattress and stretching her arms over her head. His slender hips slid between her welcoming thighs and she wrapped her legs around his, holding him in place.

“Was poking you, was I?” he mumbled into her neck. “Like this?” He nudged her clit with the head of his cock, smiling when she arched up into him seeking more contact.

“Something like that,” she gasped, “only not quite as—gah!”

He slid into her already wet channel, burying himself as far as he could go and then waiting for her to adjust to the intrusion. She wriggled her hips, seating him more comfortably and rubbing against his pubic bone before stilling to enjoy the feeling of being filled completely by the man she loved.

She brought her legs up around his hips and wrapped her arms around his body, clinging to him and basking in the love she could feel flowing from him. She squeezed her eyes shut, the better to lose herself in the sensation of intimacy they were sharing.

When she continued to keep her eyes shut and clutch him with a strength that would have broken a human man, he finally nudged her with his nose and asked softly, ”Buffy? Slayer? Love, are you still with me?”

She nodded her head dumbly, tears beginning to leak out of the corners of her eyes. As soon as he smelled her tears, he pushed himself up as far as he could without breaking her grip and stared at her fearfully.

“What’s wrong, love? Is it the great poof?” He felt the ice filling his heart at the thought that she didn’t think his life was worth the loss of her first love. “Tell me, Buffy. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“N…nothing’s wrong,” she hiccupped. “I just love you so much. I wish we could stay like this forever.”

He pressed his forehead against hers and blinked back his own tears as he answered softly, “If I turned to dust right this second, I’d die a happy man. And it wouldn’t stop my lovin’ you. I’d find my way back to you somehow, no matter what. Never leave you, my love. ‘M yours forever.”

In spite of the emotions flowing between them, their lower bodies were having their own issues with the intimacy and before long Spike’s hips began to rock slowly against her as he succumbed to the heat surrounding him. They quickly settled into an easy rhythm that allowed them maximum contact and enough space to be able to look into each other’s eyes as they let the sensations build.

When their motions had become stronger and more frantic and Buffy could feel herself approaching release, she tipped her head to the side and offered him her throat. With a hoarse snarl, the vampire allowed his fangs to descend and he slid them carefully into his marks to begin the long, deep pulls that would send them both into orgasms that spiraled around and around, taking them close to unconsciousness before finally coming to a shuddering halt.

When he could move again, Spike carefully licked his marks to stop the bleeding. He could feel Buffy’s blood racing through his body, healing cuts, mending bones and filling him with her essence. For the first time, he regretted that she was not a vampire and couldn’t take the same pleasure from drinking him as he did from her.

A close look into her happily sated face, however, assured him that she felt the same pleasure in giving him her blood as he did in taking it. She raised a gentle hand to his cheek and stroked it slowly, too lost in her own enjoyment of their connection to speak.

Without saying a word, their eyes repeated the pledges their bodies had just made and their lips met to seal the promise before rolling to one side and falling back to sleep still intimately connected and wrapped in each other’s arms.

It would be years before they began to realize that their occasional exchanges of blood during lovemaking – for Buffy was as likely to bite him as he was her- were having a gradual effect on the Slayer. And decades before the full effects were obvious. For tonight, all they knew was that they had renewed the claim that proclaimed to the world that this slayer belonged to this vampire. Forever and for always.

The end