A/N: Thanks to my wonderful beta, Eowyn315!!!




Willow giggled in mad delight as her childe slowly entered the room, blinking dazedly as he looked between her and the bound vampire on the bed. Gradually, he seemed to recover from the powerful influence of the spell she had just done, the magical sparks between his hands fading away and finally disappearing completely. His face shifted back to human, and he slowly became aware of his surroundings.

“What…what happened?” he asked, for a moment appearing unchanged from the gentle, unassuming young man he had always been.

Spike knew better.

“I changed you, Xander,” Willow explained, her green eyes sparking with gold at the proximity of her childe, the object of her affection since long before she had become a vampire. “I made you like me. So we can be together.”

Xander’s eyes went wide, staring at her, searching her gaze with a mixture of wonder and horror.

Gradually…wonder won out.

“I’m gonna live forever,” Xander realized softly, his eyes distant, focused on the wall behind her.

“Yes,” Willow whispered, sidling in close, her hands on his hips.

Xander raised his eyes to meet hers, and a slow, wicked smile formed on his lips. “With you.” His dark eyes glittered with new desire for Willow, the power of her sire’s claim over him drawing him to her.

“Yes.” Willow let out a low, dark chuckle, holding his gaze as she pulled his head down in a deep, devouring kiss that was possessive and dangerous and affectionate all at once. “You’re mine…forever…”

Xander returned her kiss, obviously reveling in his new strength, catching her by the waist and pushing her back against the wall with a low, playful growl. His hands shifted lower, seeking out her most private places until she let out a low moan of pleasure, expressing her approval for her childe’s newfound boldness.

Sickened by their display, knowing the horrors they would be responsible for if they were not stopped, Spike turned his head away from them, turning his attention to the chains that bound him. He had tried again and again to escape his bonds, every attempt proving useless. Still, he could not help but try, his right wrist twisting helplessly against the tight metal chain that bound it.

Finally, Xander pulled away from his sire’s kiss, regarding her for a moment before announcing, “I’m also starving. Who have we got to eat around here?”

“Just him.”

Willow indicated Spike with a dismissive wave of her hand, and the blond vampire froze in his efforts to escape, turning wary eyes on his captors. Willow, however, did not seem concerned with his paltry attempts, well aware that no matter how hard he tried, even at full strength, he could not break the magically enhanced chains.

And Spike was far from full strength at the moment.

“And he’s mostly drained at this point, anyway,” Willow continued, sounding bored. “Sorry, Sweetie…I got hungry.”

“He’s gotta have *some* blood left in him,” Xander reasoned, taking a step toward Spike, his face shifting back and forth between human and demon, betraying both his eager hunger and his lack of self-control.

Willow caught his arm, surprising him with her strength as she easily moved him back the step he had just taken, waiting to speak until his questioning eyes met hers. “He’s gotta stay that way, too. I don’t want him dead. Yet.” She smiled as she turned her gaze back toward Spike, spinning on her heel and pacing toward him in a predatory manner.

Spike tried to suppress a flinch, but couldn’t help jerking slightly as she brushed the back of her fingers across his cheek in falsely affectionate gesture. Without looking at Xander, Willow went on talking to her childe, her eyes meeting Spike’s with cruel satisfaction, watching greedily for his reaction as she concluded.

“He has to serve his purpose first…as bait.”

Xander cocked his head slightly to one side in a curious gesture much resembling that of a clumsy puppy.

Willow crouched beside Spike, leaning in close with a cold smile, dragging sharp fingernails down his cheek and drawing blood, smiling in pleasure at his horror. “We’re going to catch ourselves a Slayer.”

Understanding dawned on Xander, and a slow grin spread across his face as he nodded. “Yeah.” The idea seemed to be growing on him, his nod deepening as he repeated, “Yeah. Let’s make Buffy one of us, too. Then the three of us can live forever together.”

Willow’s back was turned to Xander, so in his excitement, the boy missed her surly snarl of irritation at his assumptions. She rolled narrowed, angry eyes toward him for just an instant, a low growl beginning in her throat before she swiftly stifled it.

“Oh! I saw that,” Spike announced, seizing on the opportunity to sow a bit of discord between sire and childe, and perhaps put a kink or two in their developing plan. “You don’t want Buffy turned, do you? You want her dead.”

“What?” Xander’s eyes went wide with alarm and dismay. He quickly crossed the room to the side of the bed, looking uncertainly between Spike and Willow, as his sire straightened, putting an expression of outraged denial on her face. “You can’t just *kill* Buffy…can you? I mean…she’s *Buffy*. We can all be a family, Wills…forever. Isn’t that what you want?”

“Of course it is,” Willow assured him, her voice a bit higher than normal and carrying the slightest hint of a nervous laugh.

“No,” Spike scoffed, trying to ignore the way his hoarse voice broke with his desperate pain and thirst as he forced his familiar smirk to his lips. “It’s not what you want, is it, Red? You want her in the ground and out of your way for good, don’t you? Wanna keep your new little pet on a short chain. So you and your little pup here can live happily ever after…that’s it, in’nit?”

Swiftly losing patience with Spike’s accusation, Willow drew back her fist and backhanded him hard, knocking his head painfully against the headboard and dizzying the already weakened vampire. Before Spike could recover enough to make a sound, she had grabbed his hair and jerked his head back, exposing his torn throat as she vamped out again in her rage.

“‘Pup’?” Xander echoed in insulted disbelief. “I’m not some kind of stupid pet…”

“Funny, Spike,” Willow snarled, interrupting Xander’s objections. “You’re the only one on a chain around here, aren’t you?”

Reassured by her words, Xander moved in closer, placing a possessive arm around Willow’s waist as she gave Spike’s head another vicious yank, and the blond vampire bit back a cry of pain as the wounds on his throat were further torn by the motion. Still glaring at Spike, Willow spoke softly, soothing her childe.

“It’s all right, Xander. We’re going to change Buffy, and we’re all going to be together. But…not for a while yet.” Her furious expression melted into a chilling smirk, and her eyes glittered with malice. She trailed her free hand slowly down Spike’s naked side, relishing his discomfort as he uselessly tried to pull away from her.

“We’ve still got plenty of time to play with our little pet.”

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

“What did she mean about our not being able to find her place for weeks?” Buffy demanded abruptly, watching Giles and Jenny prepare for the binding spell from her seat on the floor in front of Giles’ open weapons chest. “Why wouldn’t a regular location spell work?’

“Wherever she is, she’s probably got it warded,” Jenny explained distractedly as she set out various candles and herbs in a circle on the floor. “Like I had my house warded in that…that world she made.”

“And her magic couldn’t track you,” Buffy remembered with dismay. “Even though she was stronger than you.” She paused, considering. “And the binding spell?”

“Won’t touch the wards,” Jenny sighed. “The wards are done on the house itself. It’s not really connected with her magic. Wards are reasonably simple; anyone can do them. It would take a fraction of the power Willow has to shield her lair from our attempts to locate her. The problem is, once wards are set, they’re stable. It doesn’t take any of her power to maintain them. So, taking her powers away won’t really take them down.”

“Right,” Buffy concluded, taking a small hand-held battle axe from the trunk and setting it down on the floor beside her. “Guess it’s the old fashioned way, then.” As she spoke, she selected a sharp stake from the trunk as well, slipping it into the pocket of her jacket.

Giles looked up with a concerned frown. “Where are you going?”

“You two don’t need me to do this,” the Slayer reminded him. “You said you’d have this binding thing done in a few minutes. I’m figuring it’ll take me a little longer than that to find her.”

“Buffy, it’s not safe out there,” Giles objected, rising to his feet. “She could be anywhere. You should wait until you know she’s been stripped of her magical power.”

Buffy shook her head, a sad, humorless smile crossing her lips. “Willow’s really proud of that teleportation thing she does, and she knows that spell won’t take long. She’s probably holed up in her lair again already…just waiting for me to find her. It won’t be dangerous.”

“You can wait a few minutes longer, Buffy,” Jenny urged from her cross-legged position on the floor.

“I can.” Buffy’s expression and voice were both full of stony resolve as her solemn eyes passed between those of Giles and Jenny. “Spike can’t. I have to find them, and I can’t waste a single minute.”

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

Spike bit back an anguished cry as a fiery bolt of magical power flew from the fingertips of the fledgling vampire across the room, hitting his hand, bound to the left side of the headboard, and engulfing it in flames. He writhed in his bonds, a strangled scream tearing from his throat, and he struggled to somehow stifle the flames licking at his flesh.

Willow smirked as she watched his suffering for a few moments, before idly picking up a damp towel from a basin of water on the bedside table and tossing it carelessly over Spike’s hand, quenching the flames.

“Nice,” she remarked, nodding in satisfaction as she addressed her childe. “Your aim’s getting better.”

Xander’s full lips formed a sullen pout, admitting, “I was aiming for his right leg.”

Willow’s approving smile faded, and she sighed in frustration. “Well…you’ll get there.”

“It’s taking forever.”

“We *have* forever,” Willow reassured him, turning toward him with an encouraging smile. “The wards will protect this house, and they won’t be able to find it with magic. It’ll take them weeks to scour the city and eventually make their way to this house. We have plenty of time for you to hone your skills and get ready to use that magic to our best advantage.”

“And…they won’t be expecting it,” Xander realized, subdued, but feeling a little better with her comfort. “We’ll take them by surprise, so…so maybe accuracy doesn’t matter so much.”

Willow’s smile disappeared, her eyes narrowing in rage as she abruptly turned and paced toward her childe. Her hand flew out to strike him, her nails raking his cheek, causing him to stumble back a couple steps. Xander hissed in surprise and pain at the blow, instinctively cringing from his sire’s fury.

“Accuracy. Matters.” She bit off the words with a snarl. “We are going to get this *right*, you stupid little…” She stopped abruptly, remembering herself, drawing in a deep breath and letting it out slowly as she tried to rein in her rage. She calmed herself, forcing a cold smile to her lips. In a soft, controlled voice, she said, “We’re going to get it right…aren’t we, Xander?”

He nodded obediently, letting out a low growl as she approached him, moving in close and kissing him slowly, until he was no longer defensive. Finally, she drew back, smiling into his eyes before turning her gaze back to Spike.

The blond vampire was shaking with agony, his eyes tightly closed. He swallowed convulsively, determined not to give Willow the satisfaction of hearing him scream. The towel slid against his seared flesh as it slipped to the floor, and he fought back another cry of anguish that rose in his throat, struggling against helpless panic as he felt the pain begin to overwhelm him completely.

Willow’s eyes followed the towel as it fell, and she smiled, nodding toward it, moving to the side, her hands still resting on Xander’s waist. “Try again. Aim for…the towel.”

Xander let his magic fly again, and as Willow had expected, the fire fell far short of his intended target. Her lips twisted upward in a cruel smirk as Spike let out a strangled scream of agony. Her voice was soft, approving, as she nodded and encouraged her student.

“That was closer. Now…let’s try again.”