Author’s Notes: Well, my courage did indeed hold out. Thanks to Kar for the fabulous beta job and to my reviewers for the comments. Please keep the feedback coming, especially for this chapter because I am one nervous gal.

Some recycled dialog in this chapter and a minor title change since the content is rather different than canon.

In our eighth installment, the Scoobies investigate the diamond-eating frost monster and Buffy investigates the lower level of Spike’s crypt…


Chapter Eight : Smash and Grab

She snuck around the side of the museum after they wheeled the poor frozen guy out, figuring there had to be a side entrance, and there he was. She’d only seen him once since their Bronze encounter, when he’d tried to whale on what turned out to be a regular human-type mugger. Like a total coward, she had dashed off while he was still rolling on the ground in his big drama queen way. Still, running away? Not cool.

So she was just a little embarrassed seeing him again. It wouldn’t do to let him see that though, so she grumped at him. “What are you doing here, Spike?”

”Well, you know, a man was frozen alive in there. A little compassion, love. Uh, you know, as long as we're both here, you might as well tag along. I mean, as a team we could—“

“Did you already check it out inside?” she asked petulantly.

He made a face. “As a matter of fact, yeah, so your rule-abiding self won’t have to sully her snow white—“

“Spike, are you going to tell me what you found, or do I have to go in myself?”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Nothing obvious. One frozen guard, one enormous diamond stolen. Not a lot of smashing. Knew what he was after. So something with a bit of brain.”

She nodded her head. “Okay, sounds like it’s time to hit the books then.” Once she’d gotten a few steps away, she turned back to ask over her shoulder. “Are you coming or not, Spike? This whole team thing was your idea.”

“You’re just going to keep pretending nothing happened then?” he demanded.

“Pretty much,” she shouted back over her shoulder. Why couldn’t he just let it go already. She kept walking.

Despite herself, she felt a hint of a smile creeping across her face when a few beats later, he fell into step with her.


----------

He tossed the book he was flipping through away. Pointless, the entire thing was pointless, searching through old books for demons that had freezing ability. It seemed more Supervillainy than demony to him, but Willow shot that idea down.

Buffy had brought her own villainy expert, however. The two of them were looking pretty cozy over some book. There were also sniping at each other though, so he wasn’t too worried.

“It's such a pain,” his sweetheart snapped. “The text I wanted, Giles took it with him. He has this thing that ... owning a book makes it like his property.”

”What should we do, should we call him?” Buffy asked. “It's like the middle of the night there. Or maybe it's tomorrow. Anyone remember how that works?”

“About eight hours ahead, love,” Spike offered up.

”That's okay, no one freak. We'll just do it another way.”

Xander heard his heart in his ears when Willow reached into her bag. Seeing her pull out her laptop made him almost giddy with relief. “All right, back to basics. A little old-fashioned, state-of-the-art hacker action.”

Buffy backed him up with a “That's great, Will, I haven't seen you do that in a long time.” But then Willow furrowed her brow at the screen and the keys started moving on their own. “I don't remember that part,” Buffy whispered.

Xander mashed his hands against the keys and felt his lungs seize up when Willow turned on him with darkened eyes. “What the hell, Xander?”

“Is that really necessary? Do you have, like an endless supply of mojo? What if the frost monster attacks and you’re too worn out from using your witchy-woo for typing.” He didn’t know why it was pissing him off so much. It was just a keyboard, not like she was making someone else’s fingers move, but it was just…. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d spent five minutes with Willow where she hadn’t cast a spell.

Her eyes were still dark. “Want to find out how much mojo I have?” she hissed out, and he felt briefly like he might lose his lunch before she softened and cried out, “What is the big deal? You guys?”

"Wouldn't it be easier to just use your fingers?" he demanded.

"What difference would that make?" When no one answered, she slammed the computer shut and clutched it to her chest. “Fine, you don’t want my help, find the damn thing yourselves.”

"Let's face it," Anya piped up, breaking the thick silence that followed Willow’s departure. "We're not gonna find this thing because it doesn't exist. There's no such thing as a frost monster who eats diamonds."

"Well, maybe he doesn't eat them. You know, maybe he just ... thinks they're pretty?" Buffy suggested. Spike made an amused noise and she elbowed him. "You have a better idea?"

"What makes you so sure it's a demon?"

Xander gave him an appraising look. Spike kinda had a point. Again. Dammit! "Yeah, the security guy's still alive, right? Also, diamonds? Worth a lot of money."

"Yes, and people like money," Anya agreed brightly.

"Thanks, sweetie." He squeezed her shoulder and she beamed at him.

Buffy pushed the stack of books away from her. "Well if it's just a human theft thing, I need to go patrol."

Xander frowned, but he understood what she was saying. Buffy had a license to slay, but the world of everyday human badness wasn't her beat. If it wasn't supernatural, it wasn't her problem. After all if she spent all her time tracking down jay-walkers, she wouldn't have the energy for monster wrestling. Something tickled at his brain though.

"Oh, oh! Science!" Buffy raised an eyebrow at him. "Diamonds can be used for science. What if someone stole the diamond to build a giant laser and blow up the moon?"

Buffy opened her mouth, closed it, and then asked archly, "That doesn't seem a little ‘No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die’ to you?"

“Exactly!” he insisted.

"Whelp's got a point."

Xander pointed a finger gun at Spike. "Thanks, Dead Boy Junior."

Buffy dropped her forehead into her hands and sighed. "Okay, it's possible you're on to something."

"Ha! I told Willow it was a Supervillain thing."

Spike pushed back his chair. "I'll see what I can find out," he declared. He smirked at Xander. “Ask if anyone’s seen the Green Goblin of late.”

"Um, thanks," Buffy whispered. Xander was pretty sure he didn't like the way they were looking at each other, and he really didn't like the way she said, "I'll see you later, I guess."

"Call you when I've got something," Spike promised.

Buffy watched the vampire walk out and then made a soft little sound. "Guess I should patrol," she announced. Xander watched Buffy head in the opposite direction down the sidewalk and relaxed a little. Still, something was going on there. He crumpled his empty bag of Cheetos and started shelving the books.

Anya whisked around cleaning and counting and humming to herself. "I think I should go find Willow," he told her.

"Well, be careful," she advised.

"Willow isn't going to hurt me," he insisted, wishing he felt as sure as he sounded. "She didn't mean to freak me out."

"She also doesn't mean to cause lots of inappropriate kissing with people you think are your fiance, but that seems to keep happening," Anya groused.

He grabbed her up in a hug. Not that he was glad she and Giles had ended up in a clench, but he had certainly enjoyed the way she apologized.

But when he was outside in the cool air, heading up the familiar path to Revello Drive, an unsettling thought occurred. Anya was right. Willow did a lot of things she didn't mean to do.

======


She was all sorts of worked up when she crashed into his crypt. Dawn just heaved a sigh and seemed to resign herself to yet again not hearing the end of a story. The pained, slightly panicked look on the elder Summers’ face morphed into anger when she saw the younger sitting on his couch.

“What are you doing here?”

Dawn puffed up three sizes. “I am visiting my friend. I don’t need your permission to be here”

Buffy sighed deep and seemed to collapse in on herself a little. “I know that. Just… you should go home before it gets dark.”

“Whatever,” Dawn snarled. “I’ll see you after school tomorrow,” she told him before hoisting her backpack and flouncing out into the afternoon light.

As soon as the door was shut, the Slayer turned on him. “You didn’t tell her anything, did you?”

He glared at her. “I’ve been informed on numerous occasions that there’s nothing to tell.”

She smashed her hands into her eyes, frustration practically radiating off her form. “I don’t want to talk about this.” She wandered about, trying to look aimless, but he could see she was heading for the ladder.

“What did you want then, Slayer?”

She stared at him for a moment. “You mentioned this place has a downstairs?” She couldn’t possibly mean what that sounded like, but he’d follow her lead like he always did.

She was trying to be casual, but it didn’t take vampire senses to glom to how nervous she was. He gestured toward the ladder and trailed her down. He could feel her moving in the dark as he lit a few candles. When he was done he saw that she was posed on the edge of the bed, legs crossed primly at the ankle, leaning back slightly on her arms, giving the place a thorough looking over.

“Has Dawn been down here?” she asked airily.

He sneered a bit. “Your precious sis hasn’t been lounging about my bedroom, no.”

“I really don’t like her hanging around here at all,” she grumped.

“Hadn’t noticed,” he snarked. He felt a grin creeping across his face. “Want me all for your own then, Slayer?”

“Don’t want you at all,” she spat back automatically. She raised her hand to cut off his rejoinder. “Okay, we both know that’s not true. I don’t want to hear about how you know what I want. And I really don’t want to know how you know, whatever creepy special vampire predator ability thing you’re making that stupid gotcha face about.”

It took him a moment to recover from her rare burst of honesty on the subject. He knelt at her feet and placed his hands on either side of her hips on the bed, boxing her in. Got up nice and close and informed her, “Have all sorts of special abilities I could demonstrate, pet.”

The force of her kiss floored him. Her hand yanking him to her by the hair might have sent him toppling if her knees hadn’t parted to catch his hips. He dimly heard a thunk as her heavy jacket hit the floor, but he was mostly aware of the sudden increase of bare skin he had access to when her naked arms went around his neck.

One hand threaded into her hair, the other traced one deceivingly delicate wrist to her shoulder and then down. When he’d tried this the other night, she’d not broken the kiss but had firmly removed his hand. This time though, when he cupped her breast she pressed herself into his palm and Ode to Joy began booming in his skull.

He was still reeling from this new license when he felt one hot little hand pulling at his fly. For a moment there was the bracing cool of the crypt air on his cock and then her incredibly warm hand, and then... Then the impossible happened.

Couldn’t be real. It was some trick. Some phantom with her face or the bot reconstructed. Couldn’t really be Buffy who’d pushed him to his back and slid off the mattress, then onto his cock. His head bounced against the thick rug and he could only imagin the dazed expression she must see on his face, because she was looking right at him. It was her alright. There was a brief flash of shock across her features, and then she threw her head back and began to move. He gasped at it, the hot slick of her and the rough lace of her shoved-aside panty against him.

Scared to move for the moment, he watched her as she rode him, delicious little sounds tripping from her lips. How long, he wondered, had it been for her? Since he’d revealed Soldier Boy’s little secret? She was hungry for it, panting. He was going to make it so good for her.

Little touches, just enough to make her shiver a bit. He thrust his hips up to meet hers and she came, surprising them both. He caught her face in his hands and pulled her down, kissed her hard. When she pulled back to catch her breath, he ripped the flimsy top in two and captured her gasp in another kiss. Her hands skirmished with his over the clasp of her bra, and she got it undone before he tore it in frustration. His shirt was a loss, however. It was impossible to care with her bare chest shifting against his own.

Hoisting them both up, he caught the thick comforter off the bed and pulled it underneath them as he rolled over her. After all, there was liking it rough and then there was carpet burn. He pulled out of her warmth reluctantly, took his time learning the contours of her body while she hid with arm across her eyes. He whispered her name and she hissed at him, but when he slid in again and ran his tongue along her throat, she made an entirely different sound and began to pitch against him, eyes open now and boring into his. So he said her name again, and again and again while his hands roamed and his eyes swam with her.

“Spike,” she husked back, and he thought it wasn’t going to end well, but instead she gave a desperate little cry and he felt his body seize up with hers as she went on clutching at him and repeating his name.

For a long moment, neither of them moved. He could barely even think, just enough to be grateful he wasn’t wearing his boots. He didn’t want to move away from her long enough to remove them, had the distinct impression she might bolt if he put enough space between them. As it was she was staring up at him, looking almost embarrassed. He shifted off her and waited to see what she would do next.

What she did was rise up on one elbow and reached for a belt loop with her other hand. He lifted his hips and let her drag his jeans down his legs and then off. Keeping her eyes on his the entire time, she pulled at the clasp on her skirt and tossed it away as well. She ran a hand over his cheek as she spoke, as though to soften the blow.

“You know this is wrong,” she pointed out softly. He nodded. It was all he could manage at the moment. “You know I don’t love you.”

Had to close his eyes at that. Knowing it didn’t mean he liked hearing it. But then her lips were on his again, her fingers gliding delicately up and down his shaft until he was hard again. And perhaps it didn’t matter quite so much that she didn’t love him, so long as she let him love her.

----------

Okay, so let me have it. This was a really tough one to put out there.

Nine is with Kar and ten is in the works!