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A Rocky Beginning
Disclaimer: Buffy and Spike aren’t mine, I just make them play out ‘what if’ scenarios.
Author’s note: Well here it is the much anticipated sequel to Future Childe. Hope you all like! Thanks to Neo for betaing this chapter and to everyone who’s been patiently waiting for me to continue the story.
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Chapter 1: A Rocky Beginning
The house was quiet. Spike sat in a straight backed chair, his head in his hands, candle light flickering off the angular features of his body. The vampire exhaled an unneeded breath that it seemed he had been holding in for ages. He was worried, he was confused, he was happy, he was sad. Slowly he forced himself to look up at the bed that was before him.
Tangled in the sheets, naked and looking like she had just had some very satisfying sex, Buffy Summers looked like she was sleeping peacefully. Of course that’s what a normal person would think, until they noticed the puncture wounds on her neck. He couldn’t believe he had actually done it. He’d turned Buffy, his Goldilocks. He didn’t understand how it had happened really, just that it was his fault.
Spike kept running the memory over and over in his head. Buffy begging him to do it, how she had welcomed it.
“Do it William.”
Spike brought his demon forth and stared into her green eyes for a moment.
“Please, make me like you.”
Spike thrust hard into her warm core a few more times, bringing him to the brink, then leaned down and bit. Her sweet blood rushed into his throat, like it had done so many times before.
“Mine,” he barked, then brought his fangs to the wound again, sucking the life blood out of her.
“Yours,” she acknowledged.
Buffy licked his neck once before biting hard into his neck, drawing blood with her blunt human teeth.
“Mine,” she whispered, feeling her loss of energy as he drained her. She placed her lips over his wound and drank until the darkness took her.
“Yours,” he whispered.
Now he could only hope that when she woke that she would still be the same girl he loved.
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Buffy woke to feeling terribly hungry. She had never felt so hungry in her entire life. She had been having the most wonderful dream, one in which she and Spike were together, without recriminations or disapproving looks. Buffy stared at the ceiling with doubt. She was in the mansion. Images came flooding back to her, why she was in the mansion, what had happened.
“I’m a vampire?” she asked the room, knowing that Spike would still be in the room, her Sire.
“You are pet,” he voice cutting through the silence.
“How long have I been out?” she asked still looking up at the ceiling.
“Two days.”
Buffy nodded up at the ceiling. She could feel a lone tear at the corner of her eye, why she didn’t know. She willed it away, unwilling to let Spike see it. This is what she wanted after all. “Hungry.” She made no move on the bed.
“I know pet.”
There was a pause as Buffy rolled herself over facing him. “Sire, I’m hungry.” Buffy crawled towards him on the bed. She was naked, but didn’t care.
Spike smirked and approached her on the bed. She was fangy and she didn’t even know it. She was gorgeous anyway.
Spike sat down on the bed beside her. Like a cat, Buffy started sniffing his neck, cautiously she poked her tongue out of her mouth and licked her marks on his neck. He didn’t know if she was acting like this on purpose or doing what every other fledge he had met did when they first rise and their sire is near.
“Sire...” she whined, seeking permission.
“Feed my childe,” he whispered, petting her head tenderly.
Without waiting any further Buffy sank her fangs into Spike’s neck.
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Spike flung the empty blood bag away and laid down next to his childe and mate. Buffy immediately curled up against him. She was purring. Her fingers trailed over his pale skin.
“Spike, I wanna go see my mom.”
“Remember what I said about Mums Goldilocks.”
“Check, no turning Mom.”
“I mean it Goldilocks.”
“I won’t turn my mom Spike. I don’t even feel like draining her. I don’t want to hurt her.”
“That’s cause you’re full,” he said with a chuckle.
“I’ve been gone for two days Spike. She probably thinks I’ve run away again. I need to let her know that I’m alright.”
Spike sat up on the bed, and took a long hard look at his childe.
“You care what your Mum thinks?” he asked, a little shocked.
“Maybe. So what do we do now?” Buffy was avoiding his stare and the question.
“Now pet?”
“Now that I’m all vampy.”
“Anything you want.”
Buffy rolled over to face him again, and ran her hand over his bicep. “Unless you tell me differently.”
Spike began to kiss up her arm.
“Spike?”
“Mmm Pet?”
“Can we go patrol? I wanna kill something?”
“Patrol?” said Spike, astonished. “You don’t have to do anymore bleedin’ patrolling.”
“But Spike I wanna patrol.”
“And what kill vampires?”
“Well ya.”
“But you are a vampire Luv.”
“So?”
“Baby’s all wrong,” whined Dru from the doorway.
The couple on the bed stopped moving and stared at the vampire in the doorway.
“When did she show up?” Buffy asked Spike quietly.
“Just now, I suspect,” said Spike. “Dru, pet, what do you mean she came back all wrong?”
“Like Daddy was. So sad. The Pixies are angry,” Dru continued to whine.
“Oh Pet, don’t be sad.” Spike tried to move towards his sire, to comfort her, but was held back on the bed by the possessive arms of Buffy.
“No sunshine, like Daddy, no Daddy. No Grandmummy. Baby’s all wrong,” Dru cried.
Dru crawled over to the bed and scooped Buffy up into her arms. Buffy felt a little awkward, her being naked and all, but overlying the discomfort with the situation Buffy felt protected and loved. What if Drusilla was right though, she often was. What if she had come back wrong? Truth was she didn’t know.
She didn’t much care either way. All she knew was that she didn’t have to worry about where her place in the world was anymore. It was here, with Spike and Drusilla. Her new family.
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Buffy dressed seductively in a black leather skirt and a tight tank top, patent leather boots and layers of necklaces and bracelets. Spike had snuck into her room in her mother’s house and taken a bunch of her stuff, including Mr Gordo which had earned him more than just a kiss of thanks.
Tonight they were going out, to feed, to celebrate. Buffy wanted to see for herself if she could be a vampire, a real vampire. So far she had only fed from Spike and from bags. She wanted to prove to Spike and to Drusilla that she hadn’t come back wrong at all.
“So how do I look?” asked Buffy as she turned around in place.
“Gorgeous as always,” purred Spike wrapping his arms around her.
She smiled and threaded her arms around the back of his neck.
“Can we see my mom on the way?”
Spike’s smile fell away. He didn’t understand this obsession with seeing her mom.
“You got to see your mom one last time Spike...” she whispered reading his mind.
“You know how that ended, pet.”
Buffy sighed. Yes she did know how that ended. Still, she wanted to be able to say a proper goodbye to her mother.
Appearing in the hallway was Drusilla, dressed in a long black skirt and matching corset top, her long black hair hanging loose.
“Is she coming?” asked Buffy, looking at her grandsire, and sorta already knowing the answer.
“She’s gotta eat too pet.”
Buffy groaned. She didn’t want Drusilla tagging along to see her mom. The crazy vampire would most likely try to make her mom a snack.
“Ok, but no eating my mom, got it?” said Buffy forcefully. “You even flash fang in front of her and you’re dust.”
“Miss Edith doesn’t like the way you speak to Grandmummy, pet. Your Sire has got to teach you some manners before the party starts.”
Buffy backed away from her grandsire with the conscious thought that she’d done something she wasn’t supposed to do. Buffy turned to look at Spike with questioning look in her eyes.
He didn’t look back. He was putting on his duster. “Let’s get this show on the road then,” he muttered, walking out into the night.
Buffy hung back for a bit, confused. Spike hadn’t said anything. Drusilla flashed her a sickly sweet smile and followed after Spike, taking his arm.
“Are you coming Baby?” asked Drusilla once they were in the mansion’s driveway.
Spike was opening the door of the Desoto for his Sire.
Buffy looked around confused for a moment. She did not want to get into a car with Drusilla. More so because they were three, and Buffy would be in the back seat. Sure it was juvenile of her to think that way, but Spike was hers, not Dru’s.
This was supposed to be just her and Spike, learning how to be a vampire, having alone time without minions or friends. All the romantic notions of her fledgling time were squashed when Drusilla appeared at the doorway.
“Are you coming or not pet?” asked Spike, finally looking at her.
Buffy felt like throwing a temper tantrum.
“I’m going to walk,” Buffy declared.
In an instant Spike was at her side, holding her arm at the elbow.
“You are the one who wanted to go see your mum, pet. The Bronze and your mum’s house are in two different directions.”
Buffy sniffed. “You don’t have to come. I’ll see my mom by myself and meet you at the Bronze.”
Spike gripped tighter.
“No.”
“What do you mean ‘No’? I do what I want Spike,” protested the former Slayer.
“Exactly that, love, no. You don’t know what’s out there and you are still a fledge. You stay with me until I say so.”
Buffy looked up into his hard blue eyes, he wasn’t kidding. Another look to the car, knowing that Drusilla was sitting smugly in the front seat set Buffy’s resolve. He was going to have to force her.
Buffy removed his hand from her arm and stepped back. It wasn’t about what she wanted anymore; it was about control. She knew that if he wanted to he could control her. He had told her all about the Sire/Childe bond.
Buffy took another step back.
“Get in the bloody car, Buffy.”
That was it. She couldn’t deny it. There was something about the voice, the way he said it. Buffy walked towards the car and got in the back seat, behind the driver. She had made him use his control over her.
Spike shook his head sadly. Why she was testing him, he had no idea. Spike walked to the car and started up the engine. This was going to be a long night.
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tbc...
Author’s note: Well here it is the much anticipated sequel to Future Childe. Hope you all like! Thanks to Neo for betaing this chapter and to everyone who’s been patiently waiting for me to continue the story.
__________________________________________
Chapter 1: A Rocky Beginning
The house was quiet. Spike sat in a straight backed chair, his head in his hands, candle light flickering off the angular features of his body. The vampire exhaled an unneeded breath that it seemed he had been holding in for ages. He was worried, he was confused, he was happy, he was sad. Slowly he forced himself to look up at the bed that was before him.
Tangled in the sheets, naked and looking like she had just had some very satisfying sex, Buffy Summers looked like she was sleeping peacefully. Of course that’s what a normal person would think, until they noticed the puncture wounds on her neck. He couldn’t believe he had actually done it. He’d turned Buffy, his Goldilocks. He didn’t understand how it had happened really, just that it was his fault.
Spike kept running the memory over and over in his head. Buffy begging him to do it, how she had welcomed it.
“Do it William.”
Spike brought his demon forth and stared into her green eyes for a moment.
“Please, make me like you.”
Spike thrust hard into her warm core a few more times, bringing him to the brink, then leaned down and bit. Her sweet blood rushed into his throat, like it had done so many times before.
“Mine,” he barked, then brought his fangs to the wound again, sucking the life blood out of her.
“Yours,” she acknowledged.
Buffy licked his neck once before biting hard into his neck, drawing blood with her blunt human teeth.
“Mine,” she whispered, feeling her loss of energy as he drained her. She placed her lips over his wound and drank until the darkness took her.
“Yours,” he whispered.
Now he could only hope that when she woke that she would still be the same girl he loved.
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Buffy woke to feeling terribly hungry. She had never felt so hungry in her entire life. She had been having the most wonderful dream, one in which she and Spike were together, without recriminations or disapproving looks. Buffy stared at the ceiling with doubt. She was in the mansion. Images came flooding back to her, why she was in the mansion, what had happened.
“I’m a vampire?” she asked the room, knowing that Spike would still be in the room, her Sire.
“You are pet,” he voice cutting through the silence.
“How long have I been out?” she asked still looking up at the ceiling.
“Two days.”
Buffy nodded up at the ceiling. She could feel a lone tear at the corner of her eye, why she didn’t know. She willed it away, unwilling to let Spike see it. This is what she wanted after all. “Hungry.” She made no move on the bed.
“I know pet.”
There was a pause as Buffy rolled herself over facing him. “Sire, I’m hungry.” Buffy crawled towards him on the bed. She was naked, but didn’t care.
Spike smirked and approached her on the bed. She was fangy and she didn’t even know it. She was gorgeous anyway.
Spike sat down on the bed beside her. Like a cat, Buffy started sniffing his neck, cautiously she poked her tongue out of her mouth and licked her marks on his neck. He didn’t know if she was acting like this on purpose or doing what every other fledge he had met did when they first rise and their sire is near.
“Sire...” she whined, seeking permission.
“Feed my childe,” he whispered, petting her head tenderly.
Without waiting any further Buffy sank her fangs into Spike’s neck.
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Spike flung the empty blood bag away and laid down next to his childe and mate. Buffy immediately curled up against him. She was purring. Her fingers trailed over his pale skin.
“Spike, I wanna go see my mom.”
“Remember what I said about Mums Goldilocks.”
“Check, no turning Mom.”
“I mean it Goldilocks.”
“I won’t turn my mom Spike. I don’t even feel like draining her. I don’t want to hurt her.”
“That’s cause you’re full,” he said with a chuckle.
“I’ve been gone for two days Spike. She probably thinks I’ve run away again. I need to let her know that I’m alright.”
Spike sat up on the bed, and took a long hard look at his childe.
“You care what your Mum thinks?” he asked, a little shocked.
“Maybe. So what do we do now?” Buffy was avoiding his stare and the question.
“Now pet?”
“Now that I’m all vampy.”
“Anything you want.”
Buffy rolled over to face him again, and ran her hand over his bicep. “Unless you tell me differently.”
Spike began to kiss up her arm.
“Spike?”
“Mmm Pet?”
“Can we go patrol? I wanna kill something?”
“Patrol?” said Spike, astonished. “You don’t have to do anymore bleedin’ patrolling.”
“But Spike I wanna patrol.”
“And what kill vampires?”
“Well ya.”
“But you are a vampire Luv.”
“So?”
“Baby’s all wrong,” whined Dru from the doorway.
The couple on the bed stopped moving and stared at the vampire in the doorway.
“When did she show up?” Buffy asked Spike quietly.
“Just now, I suspect,” said Spike. “Dru, pet, what do you mean she came back all wrong?”
“Like Daddy was. So sad. The Pixies are angry,” Dru continued to whine.
“Oh Pet, don’t be sad.” Spike tried to move towards his sire, to comfort her, but was held back on the bed by the possessive arms of Buffy.
“No sunshine, like Daddy, no Daddy. No Grandmummy. Baby’s all wrong,” Dru cried.
Dru crawled over to the bed and scooped Buffy up into her arms. Buffy felt a little awkward, her being naked and all, but overlying the discomfort with the situation Buffy felt protected and loved. What if Drusilla was right though, she often was. What if she had come back wrong? Truth was she didn’t know.
She didn’t much care either way. All she knew was that she didn’t have to worry about where her place in the world was anymore. It was here, with Spike and Drusilla. Her new family.
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Buffy dressed seductively in a black leather skirt and a tight tank top, patent leather boots and layers of necklaces and bracelets. Spike had snuck into her room in her mother’s house and taken a bunch of her stuff, including Mr Gordo which had earned him more than just a kiss of thanks.
Tonight they were going out, to feed, to celebrate. Buffy wanted to see for herself if she could be a vampire, a real vampire. So far she had only fed from Spike and from bags. She wanted to prove to Spike and to Drusilla that she hadn’t come back wrong at all.
“So how do I look?” asked Buffy as she turned around in place.
“Gorgeous as always,” purred Spike wrapping his arms around her.
She smiled and threaded her arms around the back of his neck.
“Can we see my mom on the way?”
Spike’s smile fell away. He didn’t understand this obsession with seeing her mom.
“You got to see your mom one last time Spike...” she whispered reading his mind.
“You know how that ended, pet.”
Buffy sighed. Yes she did know how that ended. Still, she wanted to be able to say a proper goodbye to her mother.
Appearing in the hallway was Drusilla, dressed in a long black skirt and matching corset top, her long black hair hanging loose.
“Is she coming?” asked Buffy, looking at her grandsire, and sorta already knowing the answer.
“She’s gotta eat too pet.”
Buffy groaned. She didn’t want Drusilla tagging along to see her mom. The crazy vampire would most likely try to make her mom a snack.
“Ok, but no eating my mom, got it?” said Buffy forcefully. “You even flash fang in front of her and you’re dust.”
“Miss Edith doesn’t like the way you speak to Grandmummy, pet. Your Sire has got to teach you some manners before the party starts.”
Buffy backed away from her grandsire with the conscious thought that she’d done something she wasn’t supposed to do. Buffy turned to look at Spike with questioning look in her eyes.
He didn’t look back. He was putting on his duster. “Let’s get this show on the road then,” he muttered, walking out into the night.
Buffy hung back for a bit, confused. Spike hadn’t said anything. Drusilla flashed her a sickly sweet smile and followed after Spike, taking his arm.
“Are you coming Baby?” asked Drusilla once they were in the mansion’s driveway.
Spike was opening the door of the Desoto for his Sire.
Buffy looked around confused for a moment. She did not want to get into a car with Drusilla. More so because they were three, and Buffy would be in the back seat. Sure it was juvenile of her to think that way, but Spike was hers, not Dru’s.
This was supposed to be just her and Spike, learning how to be a vampire, having alone time without minions or friends. All the romantic notions of her fledgling time were squashed when Drusilla appeared at the doorway.
“Are you coming or not pet?” asked Spike, finally looking at her.
Buffy felt like throwing a temper tantrum.
“I’m going to walk,” Buffy declared.
In an instant Spike was at her side, holding her arm at the elbow.
“You are the one who wanted to go see your mum, pet. The Bronze and your mum’s house are in two different directions.”
Buffy sniffed. “You don’t have to come. I’ll see my mom by myself and meet you at the Bronze.”
Spike gripped tighter.
“No.”
“What do you mean ‘No’? I do what I want Spike,” protested the former Slayer.
“Exactly that, love, no. You don’t know what’s out there and you are still a fledge. You stay with me until I say so.”
Buffy looked up into his hard blue eyes, he wasn’t kidding. Another look to the car, knowing that Drusilla was sitting smugly in the front seat set Buffy’s resolve. He was going to have to force her.
Buffy removed his hand from her arm and stepped back. It wasn’t about what she wanted anymore; it was about control. She knew that if he wanted to he could control her. He had told her all about the Sire/Childe bond.
Buffy took another step back.
“Get in the bloody car, Buffy.”
That was it. She couldn’t deny it. There was something about the voice, the way he said it. Buffy walked towards the car and got in the back seat, behind the driver. She had made him use his control over her.
Spike shook his head sadly. Why she was testing him, he had no idea. Spike walked to the car and started up the engine. This was going to be a long night.
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tbc...
Visiting Mom
Disclaimer: Joss owns the Buffyverse, I only play in it
Special thanks to Bloodytearsoflife for betaing this when no one else would. You are my beta goddess! Thanks to Tasha for the fab review!
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Chapter 2: Visiting Mom
Spike pulled the Desoto in front of 1630 Revello drive and slammed the car into park. With a harsh grunt, he took out a cigarette and lit up, letting tendrils of smoke escape from his mouth and nose.
“Right, here we are then. Dru, you will stay in the car, got it?” he commanded in a hard tone.
There was a whimper from the vampire in the front passenger seat which Spike took as a yes, and kicked the door open. Buffy waited patiently for him to push the driver’s seat back for her. She had learned when they had been living together in LA, as Master Vampire and his human mistress, that this was one of the things he insisted on doing for a lady.
Spike slammed the door shut behind her once she was out.
“What the fucking hell is wrong with you Buffy!” he seethed, his face millimetres from hers.
“There’s nothing wrong with me, Sire,” she retorted, “Now let’s go see my mom.”
Spike took the cigarette out of his mouth and flung it to the ground. Grabbing her arm so hard it bruised, he stopped her from moving closer to the house.
“Tell me, now! Or do I have to tie you up again?” he threatened, his eyes glinting.
Buffy’s memory flashed back to what he was referring to. Just before they had broken up in LA, well it was the break up.
“You’d just tell me I’m being a child,” she muttered, tearing her arm from his grasp and rubbing it.
“You are a childe, Buffy, my childe. This testing my authority thing is going to get you in trouble. This is about knowing your place in the family.”
“I thought I did know my place Spike! I’m your Mate, and you aren’t treating me like it. It’s like I’m your kid sister tagging along for the ride.” Buffy felt like stomping her foot in irritation but reined in the impulse, not wanting Spike to hold it above her.
“You’ve been risen for how long?” he questioned with a quirked eyebrow.
“Come off of it, Spike,” she snapped. “Everything changed the moment she walked through the door and you know it. This was supposed to be about us, getting to know one another again, without minions, without friends who disapproved. I didn’t become a vampire so I could have tea parties with Drusilla. I became one to be with you, forever,” she finished with a sigh, her eyes staring into his.
Spike nodded as if he was concentrating on her words. He knew exactly how she felt; he had experienced the same thing when Dru had brought him to Angelus all those years ago.
“She’s my sire, Buffy, I can’t just kick her to the curb,” he began to explain.
Buffy exhaled sadly and nodded. It wasn’t that he couldn’t, it was that he wouldn’t. Not for her.
“Let’s go see your mum then, alright?” he suggested calmly.
The black clad pair walked to the front porch in silence. Buffy stood stoically in front of the door, unmoving.
“Are ya gonna knock on the bloody door or not?” asked Spike, getting just a bit annoyed with his childe.
“She’s in there,” said Buffy in awe. “I can hear her heartbeat.”
Spike nodded. “The most salivating sound in the whole bloody world. Knock on the soddin’ door,” he commanded.
Buffy raised her hand slowly but stopped.
“Sod it,” said her Sire and knocked on the door himself. Loudly.
Buffy turned to look at Spike, her mouth agape.
“Took too long, Goldilocks, got places to go, people to eat.”
The porch light came on.
An unneeded breath hitched in Buffy’s throat as the door opened.
“Buffy?” came her mother’s voice.
Buffy stared for a moment at her mother. “Ya, it’s me.”
“William,” Joyce greeted the vampire standing to her daughter’s right.
Spike could tell that Joyce wasn’t happy about seeing Buffy. Or him for that matter.
“You’ve been with William for the past two days, and you didn’t feel I deserved a phone call?” Joyce asked, her arms crossed, standing in the doorway.
“I should have called,” said Buffy nodding. “I won’t bother you much, Mom. I just came by to let you know that I’m ok.”
“Oh,” Joyce started, pointing a finger at Buffy. “You aren’t getting away with this that easily young lady. You will come in this house right now, and you and I are going to have a talk about respect and just how much you made me worry, again. For all I knew some vampire had gotten it’s teeth into you and you were lying dead somewhere.”
Buffy cast a worried look at Spike, as Joyce moved aside for them to enter the house.
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“When did you get back into town, William?” asked Joyce, handing him a mug of hot chocolate and sitting across from him in the living room.
“’Bout three days ago, found Buffy training in the library and been with her ever since,” said Spike.
Joyce nodded. “And you didn’t think to make her call her worried mother?”
“Guess we were too wrapped up in our reunion,” he laughed. His laughed however was quieted by the harsh look that was on Joyce’s face.
“Do you know how many people you’ve needlessly worried Buffy?” demanded her mother, starting into another rant. “Giles has been out of his mind with worry, Xander too.”
“And Willow?” asked Buffy anxiously.
“You need to see Willow Buffy. I think she’s taken your second disappearance badly. Her mother tells me that she’s been crying a lot.”
“I’ll do that next then,” promised Buffy.
“No, next you will go upstairs and change out of those horrible clothes, and wash your face of all that dark make up. You are grounded young lady. Thank you for bringing her home William,” she said, addressing Spike and standing up to show him out, “ but Buffy and I need to talk.”
“Mom! You don’t understand!” shouted Buffy.
Joyce shook her head. “I understand all too well Buffy, you think that you are old enough to live with your boyfriend and you wanted my blessing, well I don’t give it. Until you are eighteen Buffy you are still my responsibility and you will be staying under my roof.”
Buffy’s words were out of her mouth before she could think. “I’m a vampire mom!”
Joyce’s rage was tempered for a moment as the information slowly sank in.
“Well that’s too bad dear, but you are still grounded. You will go outside for school and that is all. Obviously you don’t need to slay anymore,” she rambled, her brain already on overload.
“Mom! I’m a vampire? School equals daytime equals sunlight equals Buffy go poof in fiery death?” Buffy explained, even though her mom should have fully well known.
“You should have thought about that before you became a vampire dear. I will not let your undead status affect your schooling.”
Buffy shook her head trying to comprehend just what was going on. Her mom was so not getting it. It seemed surreal to her that her mother was trying to ground her when she had been told that her daughter was a vampire. She had to face facts, her mom was cool. Completely oblivious, but cool. Or possibly possessed.
“Mom are you feeling ok?” asked Buffy tentatively.
“No! I’m not feeling okay. My daughter just told me she’s a vampire. How would you feel? I need a drink.” Joyce sat down on the couch, holding her head in her hands.
Spike stood up and headed to the kitchen. Somehow Buffy wasn’t really surprised that he knew where the booze was in her house. Spike came back into the living room with a glass of schnapps for Joyce, setting it down in front of her.
“Are you really a vampire?” she asked after throwing back the shot.
Buffy nodded, then, without warning, she flashed her mother her game face, fangs and bumpies. Her mother gasped.
“So, you’re dead then?”
“Undead,” Buffy clarified.
“Whatever, you died,” Joyce stated, her skin going a shade whiter.
Buffy nodded again.
“A vampire really did get their teeth into you? Was it while you were slaying?” asked Joyce a little afraid of what would come out of her daughter’s mouth.
Buffy looked at Spike silently asking him what to do. She didn’t want to tell her mom that Spike had turned her, who knew what her mom’s reaction would be to that tid bit of information.
Spike saved her from answering.
“Ya, it was while she was slaying Joyce,” Spike supplied.
“Oh, well, you’ve been pardoned from your grounding sentence then,” said a confused Joyce.
“Thanks mom,” said Buffy as she leaned over for a hug.
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“See, I didn’t eat my mom,” flaunted the fledgling childe proudly to her Sire as they headed back to the car, having promised Joyce that they would return before the sun rose. They had vampire things to do.
Spike stopped short of the car. Drusilla was no longer in the Desoto. He exhaled deeply, Drusilla’s scent already disappearing.
“The daft bint has buggered off somewhere again...Find her own way home, no doubt. Let’s go.” He started towards the car again, stopping as Buffy spoke.
“You mean you are just going to let her be all free range Drusilla? Eating people in my neighbourhood? She could eat my mom Spike! We have to find her!” panicked Buffy.
“Thought you wanted her to bugger off Goldilocks?” Spike questioned as he stalked closer to her. “ Have Spike and me time?” he said with a leer, rubbing himself up against her and pushing her against the car.
“Spike... You are trying to distract me...” she whimpered.
He leaned into her ear. “Damn straight I am,” he purred.
“Spike...”
Spike backed off and threw up his hands in a defensive gesture.
“I don’t understand why you care about all these, happy meals on legs...” he started. Turning away from her he started pacing. “Maybe Dru was right, maybe you did come over wrong.”
“No!” she protested, taking his hands and holding them to her breast. “I didn’t!”
“How do you know Buffy? It’s not like you’ve ever been turned before...”
“I can’t be wrong if I still love you...” she whispered, looking into his bluer than blue eyes.
“Maybe that’s one of the first signs.”
__________________________________________
To Buffy, the Bronze was a new experience. The sights and sounds that she had taken in as a Slayer were vastly different from those she was having now, as a vampire. She was giddy as a school girl, her smile was contagious, and made the usually tough Big Bad smile along side her.
“I know I should be way grossed out, but I can smell it Spike, their desire, their fear. Their blood pumping away so yummy and tempting. It’s a buffet!”
“That it is pet,” said her sire, leading her through the masses and up the stairs to the balcony.
Once there, positioning himself behind her, Spike directed her attention to the buffet before them.
“Look at ‘em all, Goldilocks. Their blood pumping away, calling to you. Each one unaware that you are up here picking over the herd. But which one will you pick?”
Buffy briefly looked back at him and smiled.
“That’s easy. Someone who’s here alone, someone who’s ...lonely.”
Buffy scanned the crowd for a moment, her vampire eyes discerning through the darkness better than her Slayer eyes ever could.
“Him!” she declared as she pointed to a skinny looking boy who didn’t seem to have any friends around him. The brunette male was one of the nerds at school that no one seemed to pay any attention to. She was sure that no one would miss him.
“Alright then Goldilocks,” said Spike proudly, “let’s go get you fed.”
__________________________________________
tbc...
Special thanks to Bloodytearsoflife for betaing this when no one else would. You are my beta goddess! Thanks to Tasha for the fab review!
__________________________________________
Chapter 2: Visiting Mom
Spike pulled the Desoto in front of 1630 Revello drive and slammed the car into park. With a harsh grunt, he took out a cigarette and lit up, letting tendrils of smoke escape from his mouth and nose.
“Right, here we are then. Dru, you will stay in the car, got it?” he commanded in a hard tone.
There was a whimper from the vampire in the front passenger seat which Spike took as a yes, and kicked the door open. Buffy waited patiently for him to push the driver’s seat back for her. She had learned when they had been living together in LA, as Master Vampire and his human mistress, that this was one of the things he insisted on doing for a lady.
Spike slammed the door shut behind her once she was out.
“What the fucking hell is wrong with you Buffy!” he seethed, his face millimetres from hers.
“There’s nothing wrong with me, Sire,” she retorted, “Now let’s go see my mom.”
Spike took the cigarette out of his mouth and flung it to the ground. Grabbing her arm so hard it bruised, he stopped her from moving closer to the house.
“Tell me, now! Or do I have to tie you up again?” he threatened, his eyes glinting.
Buffy’s memory flashed back to what he was referring to. Just before they had broken up in LA, well it was the break up.
“You’d just tell me I’m being a child,” she muttered, tearing her arm from his grasp and rubbing it.
“You are a childe, Buffy, my childe. This testing my authority thing is going to get you in trouble. This is about knowing your place in the family.”
“I thought I did know my place Spike! I’m your Mate, and you aren’t treating me like it. It’s like I’m your kid sister tagging along for the ride.” Buffy felt like stomping her foot in irritation but reined in the impulse, not wanting Spike to hold it above her.
“You’ve been risen for how long?” he questioned with a quirked eyebrow.
“Come off of it, Spike,” she snapped. “Everything changed the moment she walked through the door and you know it. This was supposed to be about us, getting to know one another again, without minions, without friends who disapproved. I didn’t become a vampire so I could have tea parties with Drusilla. I became one to be with you, forever,” she finished with a sigh, her eyes staring into his.
Spike nodded as if he was concentrating on her words. He knew exactly how she felt; he had experienced the same thing when Dru had brought him to Angelus all those years ago.
“She’s my sire, Buffy, I can’t just kick her to the curb,” he began to explain.
Buffy exhaled sadly and nodded. It wasn’t that he couldn’t, it was that he wouldn’t. Not for her.
“Let’s go see your mum then, alright?” he suggested calmly.
The black clad pair walked to the front porch in silence. Buffy stood stoically in front of the door, unmoving.
“Are ya gonna knock on the bloody door or not?” asked Spike, getting just a bit annoyed with his childe.
“She’s in there,” said Buffy in awe. “I can hear her heartbeat.”
Spike nodded. “The most salivating sound in the whole bloody world. Knock on the soddin’ door,” he commanded.
Buffy raised her hand slowly but stopped.
“Sod it,” said her Sire and knocked on the door himself. Loudly.
Buffy turned to look at Spike, her mouth agape.
“Took too long, Goldilocks, got places to go, people to eat.”
The porch light came on.
An unneeded breath hitched in Buffy’s throat as the door opened.
“Buffy?” came her mother’s voice.
Buffy stared for a moment at her mother. “Ya, it’s me.”
“William,” Joyce greeted the vampire standing to her daughter’s right.
Spike could tell that Joyce wasn’t happy about seeing Buffy. Or him for that matter.
“You’ve been with William for the past two days, and you didn’t feel I deserved a phone call?” Joyce asked, her arms crossed, standing in the doorway.
“I should have called,” said Buffy nodding. “I won’t bother you much, Mom. I just came by to let you know that I’m ok.”
“Oh,” Joyce started, pointing a finger at Buffy. “You aren’t getting away with this that easily young lady. You will come in this house right now, and you and I are going to have a talk about respect and just how much you made me worry, again. For all I knew some vampire had gotten it’s teeth into you and you were lying dead somewhere.”
Buffy cast a worried look at Spike, as Joyce moved aside for them to enter the house.
__________________________________________
“When did you get back into town, William?” asked Joyce, handing him a mug of hot chocolate and sitting across from him in the living room.
“’Bout three days ago, found Buffy training in the library and been with her ever since,” said Spike.
Joyce nodded. “And you didn’t think to make her call her worried mother?”
“Guess we were too wrapped up in our reunion,” he laughed. His laughed however was quieted by the harsh look that was on Joyce’s face.
“Do you know how many people you’ve needlessly worried Buffy?” demanded her mother, starting into another rant. “Giles has been out of his mind with worry, Xander too.”
“And Willow?” asked Buffy anxiously.
“You need to see Willow Buffy. I think she’s taken your second disappearance badly. Her mother tells me that she’s been crying a lot.”
“I’ll do that next then,” promised Buffy.
“No, next you will go upstairs and change out of those horrible clothes, and wash your face of all that dark make up. You are grounded young lady. Thank you for bringing her home William,” she said, addressing Spike and standing up to show him out, “ but Buffy and I need to talk.”
“Mom! You don’t understand!” shouted Buffy.
Joyce shook her head. “I understand all too well Buffy, you think that you are old enough to live with your boyfriend and you wanted my blessing, well I don’t give it. Until you are eighteen Buffy you are still my responsibility and you will be staying under my roof.”
Buffy’s words were out of her mouth before she could think. “I’m a vampire mom!”
Joyce’s rage was tempered for a moment as the information slowly sank in.
“Well that’s too bad dear, but you are still grounded. You will go outside for school and that is all. Obviously you don’t need to slay anymore,” she rambled, her brain already on overload.
“Mom! I’m a vampire? School equals daytime equals sunlight equals Buffy go poof in fiery death?” Buffy explained, even though her mom should have fully well known.
“You should have thought about that before you became a vampire dear. I will not let your undead status affect your schooling.”
Buffy shook her head trying to comprehend just what was going on. Her mom was so not getting it. It seemed surreal to her that her mother was trying to ground her when she had been told that her daughter was a vampire. She had to face facts, her mom was cool. Completely oblivious, but cool. Or possibly possessed.
“Mom are you feeling ok?” asked Buffy tentatively.
“No! I’m not feeling okay. My daughter just told me she’s a vampire. How would you feel? I need a drink.” Joyce sat down on the couch, holding her head in her hands.
Spike stood up and headed to the kitchen. Somehow Buffy wasn’t really surprised that he knew where the booze was in her house. Spike came back into the living room with a glass of schnapps for Joyce, setting it down in front of her.
“Are you really a vampire?” she asked after throwing back the shot.
Buffy nodded, then, without warning, she flashed her mother her game face, fangs and bumpies. Her mother gasped.
“So, you’re dead then?”
“Undead,” Buffy clarified.
“Whatever, you died,” Joyce stated, her skin going a shade whiter.
Buffy nodded again.
“A vampire really did get their teeth into you? Was it while you were slaying?” asked Joyce a little afraid of what would come out of her daughter’s mouth.
Buffy looked at Spike silently asking him what to do. She didn’t want to tell her mom that Spike had turned her, who knew what her mom’s reaction would be to that tid bit of information.
Spike saved her from answering.
“Ya, it was while she was slaying Joyce,” Spike supplied.
“Oh, well, you’ve been pardoned from your grounding sentence then,” said a confused Joyce.
“Thanks mom,” said Buffy as she leaned over for a hug.
__________________________________________
“See, I didn’t eat my mom,” flaunted the fledgling childe proudly to her Sire as they headed back to the car, having promised Joyce that they would return before the sun rose. They had vampire things to do.
Spike stopped short of the car. Drusilla was no longer in the Desoto. He exhaled deeply, Drusilla’s scent already disappearing.
“The daft bint has buggered off somewhere again...Find her own way home, no doubt. Let’s go.” He started towards the car again, stopping as Buffy spoke.
“You mean you are just going to let her be all free range Drusilla? Eating people in my neighbourhood? She could eat my mom Spike! We have to find her!” panicked Buffy.
“Thought you wanted her to bugger off Goldilocks?” Spike questioned as he stalked closer to her. “ Have Spike and me time?” he said with a leer, rubbing himself up against her and pushing her against the car.
“Spike... You are trying to distract me...” she whimpered.
He leaned into her ear. “Damn straight I am,” he purred.
“Spike...”
Spike backed off and threw up his hands in a defensive gesture.
“I don’t understand why you care about all these, happy meals on legs...” he started. Turning away from her he started pacing. “Maybe Dru was right, maybe you did come over wrong.”
“No!” she protested, taking his hands and holding them to her breast. “I didn’t!”
“How do you know Buffy? It’s not like you’ve ever been turned before...”
“I can’t be wrong if I still love you...” she whispered, looking into his bluer than blue eyes.
“Maybe that’s one of the first signs.”
__________________________________________
To Buffy, the Bronze was a new experience. The sights and sounds that she had taken in as a Slayer were vastly different from those she was having now, as a vampire. She was giddy as a school girl, her smile was contagious, and made the usually tough Big Bad smile along side her.
“I know I should be way grossed out, but I can smell it Spike, their desire, their fear. Their blood pumping away so yummy and tempting. It’s a buffet!”
“That it is pet,” said her sire, leading her through the masses and up the stairs to the balcony.
Once there, positioning himself behind her, Spike directed her attention to the buffet before them.
“Look at ‘em all, Goldilocks. Their blood pumping away, calling to you. Each one unaware that you are up here picking over the herd. But which one will you pick?”
Buffy briefly looked back at him and smiled.
“That’s easy. Someone who’s here alone, someone who’s ...lonely.”
Buffy scanned the crowd for a moment, her vampire eyes discerning through the darkness better than her Slayer eyes ever could.
“Him!” she declared as she pointed to a skinny looking boy who didn’t seem to have any friends around him. The brunette male was one of the nerds at school that no one seemed to pay any attention to. She was sure that no one would miss him.
“Alright then Goldilocks,” said Spike proudly, “let’s go get you fed.”
__________________________________________
tbc...
Going on Faith
Disclaimer: Joss owns it not me.
Special hugs and thanks to BTL who made this chapter better!
Thanks to Chanel 5, nichole, marzbar and wulfie for the great reviews!
__________________________________________
Chapter 3 : Going on Faith
Knowing full well that her Sire was watching her from a distance, Buffy slunk closer to her prey. She moved her hips to the music that pounded against her body, her vamp hearing making the already loud music even more so.
Buffy made sure that the boy she had picked had his eyes locked on her as she moved seductively through the crowd to his side. She smiled brightly and fluttered her eyes giving him the completely wrong idea.
“Jonathan!” she greeted, putting her hand on his arm. “I was just thinking about you, I have missed so much school and I was thinking who would be the perfect one to help me catch play catch up?”
“I... I don’t know...” he stammered under her gaze.
“You, of course! Come on, let’s go somewhere where we can talk...”
Buffy grabbed his hand and led him off the dance floor and into the alley.
Jonathan glanced around the alley as they stepped into it. “Uh...Buffy, I thought Willow would be helping you to catch up with school work, she’s been taking home your homework since you got sick...”
“Oh Jonathan, perhaps that was just an excuse to get you alone?” suggested the vampire as she advanced on him.
“I...I didn’t know...” Jonathan answered, backing up towards the brick wall.
“Of course you didn’t know,” said Buffy with a smile.
Buffy leaned in, her game face coming to view as she approached his neck, his fear and arousal perfuming his skin.
“You know, you vamps really have to stop picking this alley for your late night nibbles,” rang out Faith’s voice.
Buffy exhaled and stopped her intended action. She pulled her game face back and backed off from Jonathan.
“Sorry about this,” said Buffy to her prey with an apologetic smile.
Buffy turned with a flourish and faced her friend.
“Faith!” she greeted pleasantly.
“Oh my god! Buffy!” Faith lowered the stake she was holding. “Where the fuck have you been?”
“You obviously have some things to discuss, I’ll just leave,” said the boy, dashing away.
Buffy shook her head in disbelief. She couldn’t believe her luck.
“I’ve been around...” Buffy responded, keeping her ground even as Faith took a step towards her.
“Oh yeah? Been around a bunch of vamps lately, cause you look dead.”
“The term is undead, Faith, of course I had thought that a Vampire Slayer would know her terminology.”
Faith snorted.
“It sucks that you’re a vamp B. I gotta say, I never thought that this was how you’d go. I figured big demon, lots of slime.”
“Gee, thanks Faith.”
Faith shrugged. “I certainly didn’t think that I’d be the one to kill you in the end though.”
Buffy rolled her eyes. “You won’t be staking me Faith, you aren’t that good.”
“So says the chick who screwed up and got munched on by a vamp. I suppose this works out in your grand scheme of things though, you’re a vamp now, so old vamp boyfriend will come back for you?” she asked with a look of slight disbelief.
Buffy smiled. “Oh Faith, he already came back for me. He’s the one that turned me.”
“Figures,” muttered Faith. “Congratulations Buffy, you’re dead. Hope the boy toy’s worth it.”
“I think he is,” said Buffy with a smile.
“Just so you know,” said Faith, before she launched into an attack, a flurry of punching at Buffy, the former Slayer blocking them all.
Buffy kicked out, knocking Faith to her knees, and sending the stake clattering away.
“You know, I had thought that we could work through this whole vampire, slayer thing, still be friends,” said Buffy. “I guess that was just wishful thinking on my part.”
“Did you come back with a soul?” asked Faith.
Buffy shuddered. “Ug, no! Ewww! Why would I want a soul?”
Faith nodded and launched herself at Buffy once again. Buffy sent an elbow to Faith’s nose and struck out, making contact with Faith’s face a few times, when suddenly Faith wasn’t attacking her anymore.
Faith was hanging, by her neck, which was firmly in Spike’s grip.
“Awww, Spike, I was having fun!” protested Buffy.
“Goldilocks, I thought you knew better than to take on a Slayer!” chastised Spike.
“Spike, I was a Slayer! I knew what I was getting into,” she pouted.
“This the boy toy?” asked Faith, wincing under the pain of Spike holding her neck.
“Spike, meet Faith, Faith, Spike,” introduced Buffy in an annoyed tone.
“Pleasure,” said Faith, actively trying to dislodged herself from her captor.
“Tsk tsk Slayer,” said Spike, disapprovingly. “One twist of my wrist and I’ll have had my fourth slayer.”
“That wouldn’t be a bad thing,” said Buffy.
“I wouldn’t do it like this, I prefer a good fight, fists and fangs, get the blood pumping,” said Spike, nostalgically.
Buffy rolled her eyes again. “Spike, can we go? I still have to talk to Willow.”
“You still haven’t fed, Goldilocks...”
“Alright, fine, you hold her and I’ll go get someone else to eat,” said Buffy turning to go.
“Hold on,” said Spike, “If we’re on such a timetable, have a sip from this one, get your first taste of Slayer blood, and we’ll go.”
“So it’s not ok for you to kill her cause it’s not a fair fight, but it’s ok for me to kill her?”
Spike shrugged.
“Whoa! Hold on there!” protested Faith. “There will be no drinking from me.”
Buffy laughed and headed up behind Faith, her vamp face coming out. “That’s where you are wrong, Faith.” Buffy smiled sickly sweet and struck, her fangs making their mark just below where Spike’s hand gripped the Slayer firmly. As Faith lost blood, Spike dumped the Slayer into Buffy’s arms and went off to find himself something else to eat.
As soon as Spike left the alley, Buffy pulled her fangs out of Faith’s neck and licked the wound closed. Faith was unconscious, but alive.
“You will be my childe,” she whispered, “and I will be your sire, teach you the ways of our line and add glory to the name Aurelius.”
Buffy licked her lips, enjoying Faith’s tasty blood and wondered what Spike would think if he found out that she had marked Faith as a future Childe. She had no intention of turning the bitch but somehow someway, Buffy didn’t want her dead. Maybe it was Slayer solidarity, but she knew that with her mark on Faith’s neck, the girl would be protected.
Buffy dropped Faith to the ground and went off after her Sire.
__________________________________________
Buffy understood that being a vampire was a sensual business. Certainly to get your meals a certain amount of sexual attraction had to be relied upon. The problem was that Buffy, vampire or not, was a jealous creature.
At first she had thought that the brunette Spike was necking with was a meal. But when he pulled away, Buffy saw that he was actually kissing this other woman. Buffy clenched her fists and stormed out of the Bronze. She didn’t care that it was Drusillla or if it was some random woman.
In fact she was afraid that it was Drusilla. Some random woman she could do something about. Drusilla had this hold over her mate that she had no way of competing with.
Outside, faced with Spike’s Desoto, Buffy sent a loud kick to the body of the car, denting the driver side door. Next she bent the antenna and smashed a headlight. She picked up a piece of broken glass and shoved it through the tire, popping it, and took off into the night.
__________________________________________
Buffy knocked on Willow’s bedroom window sharply. She hoped that Willow was home and not out with Oz. She needed best friend time.
The curtains parted and her friend appeared. Buffy smiled.
“Buffy!” Willow yelled through the window. “Oh my god, Buffy!”
“Willow! Open the window. It’s really hard to have a conversation through glass.”
“Oh!” Willow scrambled to unlock and open the window.
Willow was teary and sniffly and red.
“Wills? What’s wrong?” asked Buffy with genuine concern, forgetting her rage at Spike.
“Are you vampy?” asked her friend in a small voice.
Buffy was taken aback by the question.
“It’s ok if you are.” she rushed on, her eyes just a bit softer than before. “I sorta thought it would happen, when I saw you and Spike in the library.”
Buffy put her hand to Willow’s window, testing the barrier that was around the red head’s house. As she guessed, Willow’s house wouldn’t let in her vampy self.
“So, vampire then,” said Willow sadly.
“Vampire,” Buffy confirmed sadly.
“You don’t sound happy about it,” said Willow shifting right into best friend mode.
“I was at first. I want to be with him, just him, and I feel so jealous and violent. Drusilla showed up, like right after I woke up and just ruined the whole thing.”
“How did she ruin it?” asked Willow, bringing her desk chair over to the window and sitting down.
“She just ruined it, she was all tagging along. Telling me that I’d come back all wrong. I came back fine Willow. I’m all with the grr and the arrgg.”
Willow nodded in understanding.
“I can see how you feel that way. I mean, he came back for you, and you certainly didn’t expect to have Drusilla in the picture right away. Some day probably. It must be what Spike felt when he had to share Drusilla with Darla and Angelus?”
“Probably,” Buffy conceded. “Ok, enough mope fest, what about you, what’s been happening in Willow land since I became undead?”
Willow burst into tears.
“Oh my god Willow! What happened!?” exclaimed Buffy.
“I...I...I kissed Xander!” the wailing intensified.
“Oh, Willow, I’m sure Xander’s...Wait hold on...What happened to the Oz love?” asked Buffy confused.
“It’s still there, it’s just not so much with Oz. He’s not talking to me,” Willow admitted.
“Oh Wills, I’d give you a hug, but there’s the barrier.”
“You’ll eat me!” Willow’s wailing intensified more.
“I...I promise not to?” said Buffy hesitantly.
Willow looked up at her friend with teary eyes. She paused for a moment as if weighing the consequences.
“I...*hic* invite you in, Buffy,” sobbed the red head.
In a flash, Buffy was in the room and had her arms around her friend in a protective hug.
“Oh, Buffy! I missed you,” whimpered Willow.
__________________________________________
Spike looked up at the window of the Rosenberg house. He had known instinctively that Buffy had gone here, to talk with her girly friend. He lit up a cigarette and breathed in harshly. She was going to have a piece of his mind when she came back to him. His poor car didn’t deserve her harsh punishment. He suspected that she had witnessed something that he wasn’t too proud of at the moment.
Dru was his unlife for so long, and now, he was certain that she meant to be a horrible wedge to his relationship with Buffy. He couldn’t help but think that all Dru wanted was to have her little family back, with Buffy as the new fledge, just like he had been.
He knew that his Goldilocks wouldn’t like it though. Dru had said that his Goldilocks had come back wrong. Spike suspected that she hadn’t changed at all. She was still the same Buffy that he had fallen in love with. And he thought that she still had her soul, or however much of it was left after living with him soured her that summer.
It was an odd expectation. He had hesitated turning her for the simple reason that he didn’t want her to change, and now here she was, just like he wanted and yet not.
Rather than contemplate his own inability to decide just how he had wanted Buffy to change or not change, Spike turned and walked back to his car. She had taken out all her anger on his poor defenceless car. For that she would pay.
__________________________________________
Faith woke up in the alley outside of the Bronze. She had no idea how long she had been out. Immediately her hand flew to her neck. She had bite marks. Getting to her feet, Faith growled in frustration and kicked at the wall. She couldn’t believe she had let them get the better of her.
A sick smile came over Faith’s face though. She would have a good time telling Giles that his Slayer his perfect Buffy was a vampire.
__________________________________________
tbc...
Special hugs and thanks to BTL who made this chapter better!
Thanks to Chanel 5, nichole, marzbar and wulfie for the great reviews!
__________________________________________
Chapter 3 : Going on Faith
Knowing full well that her Sire was watching her from a distance, Buffy slunk closer to her prey. She moved her hips to the music that pounded against her body, her vamp hearing making the already loud music even more so.
Buffy made sure that the boy she had picked had his eyes locked on her as she moved seductively through the crowd to his side. She smiled brightly and fluttered her eyes giving him the completely wrong idea.
“Jonathan!” she greeted, putting her hand on his arm. “I was just thinking about you, I have missed so much school and I was thinking who would be the perfect one to help me catch play catch up?”
“I... I don’t know...” he stammered under her gaze.
“You, of course! Come on, let’s go somewhere where we can talk...”
Buffy grabbed his hand and led him off the dance floor and into the alley.
Jonathan glanced around the alley as they stepped into it. “Uh...Buffy, I thought Willow would be helping you to catch up with school work, she’s been taking home your homework since you got sick...”
“Oh Jonathan, perhaps that was just an excuse to get you alone?” suggested the vampire as she advanced on him.
“I...I didn’t know...” Jonathan answered, backing up towards the brick wall.
“Of course you didn’t know,” said Buffy with a smile.
Buffy leaned in, her game face coming to view as she approached his neck, his fear and arousal perfuming his skin.
“You know, you vamps really have to stop picking this alley for your late night nibbles,” rang out Faith’s voice.
Buffy exhaled and stopped her intended action. She pulled her game face back and backed off from Jonathan.
“Sorry about this,” said Buffy to her prey with an apologetic smile.
Buffy turned with a flourish and faced her friend.
“Faith!” she greeted pleasantly.
“Oh my god! Buffy!” Faith lowered the stake she was holding. “Where the fuck have you been?”
“You obviously have some things to discuss, I’ll just leave,” said the boy, dashing away.
Buffy shook her head in disbelief. She couldn’t believe her luck.
“I’ve been around...” Buffy responded, keeping her ground even as Faith took a step towards her.
“Oh yeah? Been around a bunch of vamps lately, cause you look dead.”
“The term is undead, Faith, of course I had thought that a Vampire Slayer would know her terminology.”
Faith snorted.
“It sucks that you’re a vamp B. I gotta say, I never thought that this was how you’d go. I figured big demon, lots of slime.”
“Gee, thanks Faith.”
Faith shrugged. “I certainly didn’t think that I’d be the one to kill you in the end though.”
Buffy rolled her eyes. “You won’t be staking me Faith, you aren’t that good.”
“So says the chick who screwed up and got munched on by a vamp. I suppose this works out in your grand scheme of things though, you’re a vamp now, so old vamp boyfriend will come back for you?” she asked with a look of slight disbelief.
Buffy smiled. “Oh Faith, he already came back for me. He’s the one that turned me.”
“Figures,” muttered Faith. “Congratulations Buffy, you’re dead. Hope the boy toy’s worth it.”
“I think he is,” said Buffy with a smile.
“Just so you know,” said Faith, before she launched into an attack, a flurry of punching at Buffy, the former Slayer blocking them all.
Buffy kicked out, knocking Faith to her knees, and sending the stake clattering away.
“You know, I had thought that we could work through this whole vampire, slayer thing, still be friends,” said Buffy. “I guess that was just wishful thinking on my part.”
“Did you come back with a soul?” asked Faith.
Buffy shuddered. “Ug, no! Ewww! Why would I want a soul?”
Faith nodded and launched herself at Buffy once again. Buffy sent an elbow to Faith’s nose and struck out, making contact with Faith’s face a few times, when suddenly Faith wasn’t attacking her anymore.
Faith was hanging, by her neck, which was firmly in Spike’s grip.
“Awww, Spike, I was having fun!” protested Buffy.
“Goldilocks, I thought you knew better than to take on a Slayer!” chastised Spike.
“Spike, I was a Slayer! I knew what I was getting into,” she pouted.
“This the boy toy?” asked Faith, wincing under the pain of Spike holding her neck.
“Spike, meet Faith, Faith, Spike,” introduced Buffy in an annoyed tone.
“Pleasure,” said Faith, actively trying to dislodged herself from her captor.
“Tsk tsk Slayer,” said Spike, disapprovingly. “One twist of my wrist and I’ll have had my fourth slayer.”
“That wouldn’t be a bad thing,” said Buffy.
“I wouldn’t do it like this, I prefer a good fight, fists and fangs, get the blood pumping,” said Spike, nostalgically.
Buffy rolled her eyes again. “Spike, can we go? I still have to talk to Willow.”
“You still haven’t fed, Goldilocks...”
“Alright, fine, you hold her and I’ll go get someone else to eat,” said Buffy turning to go.
“Hold on,” said Spike, “If we’re on such a timetable, have a sip from this one, get your first taste of Slayer blood, and we’ll go.”
“So it’s not ok for you to kill her cause it’s not a fair fight, but it’s ok for me to kill her?”
Spike shrugged.
“Whoa! Hold on there!” protested Faith. “There will be no drinking from me.”
Buffy laughed and headed up behind Faith, her vamp face coming out. “That’s where you are wrong, Faith.” Buffy smiled sickly sweet and struck, her fangs making their mark just below where Spike’s hand gripped the Slayer firmly. As Faith lost blood, Spike dumped the Slayer into Buffy’s arms and went off to find himself something else to eat.
As soon as Spike left the alley, Buffy pulled her fangs out of Faith’s neck and licked the wound closed. Faith was unconscious, but alive.
“You will be my childe,” she whispered, “and I will be your sire, teach you the ways of our line and add glory to the name Aurelius.”
Buffy licked her lips, enjoying Faith’s tasty blood and wondered what Spike would think if he found out that she had marked Faith as a future Childe. She had no intention of turning the bitch but somehow someway, Buffy didn’t want her dead. Maybe it was Slayer solidarity, but she knew that with her mark on Faith’s neck, the girl would be protected.
Buffy dropped Faith to the ground and went off after her Sire.
__________________________________________
Buffy understood that being a vampire was a sensual business. Certainly to get your meals a certain amount of sexual attraction had to be relied upon. The problem was that Buffy, vampire or not, was a jealous creature.
At first she had thought that the brunette Spike was necking with was a meal. But when he pulled away, Buffy saw that he was actually kissing this other woman. Buffy clenched her fists and stormed out of the Bronze. She didn’t care that it was Drusillla or if it was some random woman.
In fact she was afraid that it was Drusilla. Some random woman she could do something about. Drusilla had this hold over her mate that she had no way of competing with.
Outside, faced with Spike’s Desoto, Buffy sent a loud kick to the body of the car, denting the driver side door. Next she bent the antenna and smashed a headlight. She picked up a piece of broken glass and shoved it through the tire, popping it, and took off into the night.
__________________________________________
Buffy knocked on Willow’s bedroom window sharply. She hoped that Willow was home and not out with Oz. She needed best friend time.
The curtains parted and her friend appeared. Buffy smiled.
“Buffy!” Willow yelled through the window. “Oh my god, Buffy!”
“Willow! Open the window. It’s really hard to have a conversation through glass.”
“Oh!” Willow scrambled to unlock and open the window.
Willow was teary and sniffly and red.
“Wills? What’s wrong?” asked Buffy with genuine concern, forgetting her rage at Spike.
“Are you vampy?” asked her friend in a small voice.
Buffy was taken aback by the question.
“It’s ok if you are.” she rushed on, her eyes just a bit softer than before. “I sorta thought it would happen, when I saw you and Spike in the library.”
Buffy put her hand to Willow’s window, testing the barrier that was around the red head’s house. As she guessed, Willow’s house wouldn’t let in her vampy self.
“So, vampire then,” said Willow sadly.
“Vampire,” Buffy confirmed sadly.
“You don’t sound happy about it,” said Willow shifting right into best friend mode.
“I was at first. I want to be with him, just him, and I feel so jealous and violent. Drusilla showed up, like right after I woke up and just ruined the whole thing.”
“How did she ruin it?” asked Willow, bringing her desk chair over to the window and sitting down.
“She just ruined it, she was all tagging along. Telling me that I’d come back all wrong. I came back fine Willow. I’m all with the grr and the arrgg.”
Willow nodded in understanding.
“I can see how you feel that way. I mean, he came back for you, and you certainly didn’t expect to have Drusilla in the picture right away. Some day probably. It must be what Spike felt when he had to share Drusilla with Darla and Angelus?”
“Probably,” Buffy conceded. “Ok, enough mope fest, what about you, what’s been happening in Willow land since I became undead?”
Willow burst into tears.
“Oh my god Willow! What happened!?” exclaimed Buffy.
“I...I...I kissed Xander!” the wailing intensified.
“Oh, Willow, I’m sure Xander’s...Wait hold on...What happened to the Oz love?” asked Buffy confused.
“It’s still there, it’s just not so much with Oz. He’s not talking to me,” Willow admitted.
“Oh Wills, I’d give you a hug, but there’s the barrier.”
“You’ll eat me!” Willow’s wailing intensified more.
“I...I promise not to?” said Buffy hesitantly.
Willow looked up at her friend with teary eyes. She paused for a moment as if weighing the consequences.
“I...*hic* invite you in, Buffy,” sobbed the red head.
In a flash, Buffy was in the room and had her arms around her friend in a protective hug.
“Oh, Buffy! I missed you,” whimpered Willow.
__________________________________________
Spike looked up at the window of the Rosenberg house. He had known instinctively that Buffy had gone here, to talk with her girly friend. He lit up a cigarette and breathed in harshly. She was going to have a piece of his mind when she came back to him. His poor car didn’t deserve her harsh punishment. He suspected that she had witnessed something that he wasn’t too proud of at the moment.
Dru was his unlife for so long, and now, he was certain that she meant to be a horrible wedge to his relationship with Buffy. He couldn’t help but think that all Dru wanted was to have her little family back, with Buffy as the new fledge, just like he had been.
He knew that his Goldilocks wouldn’t like it though. Dru had said that his Goldilocks had come back wrong. Spike suspected that she hadn’t changed at all. She was still the same Buffy that he had fallen in love with. And he thought that she still had her soul, or however much of it was left after living with him soured her that summer.
It was an odd expectation. He had hesitated turning her for the simple reason that he didn’t want her to change, and now here she was, just like he wanted and yet not.
Rather than contemplate his own inability to decide just how he had wanted Buffy to change or not change, Spike turned and walked back to his car. She had taken out all her anger on his poor defenceless car. For that she would pay.
__________________________________________
Faith woke up in the alley outside of the Bronze. She had no idea how long she had been out. Immediately her hand flew to her neck. She had bite marks. Getting to her feet, Faith growled in frustration and kicked at the wall. She couldn’t believe she had let them get the better of her.
A sick smile came over Faith’s face though. She would have a good time telling Giles that his Slayer his perfect Buffy was a vampire.
__________________________________________
tbc...
School Daze
Disclaimer: Not mine, but geez I like playing with other people’s toys.
Author’s note: Thanks to the fab BTL for the helpful insight and for generally being an awesome beta.
Thanks to Nichole, Wulfie, Romero, Marzbar and BTL for the fab reviews!
__________________________________________
Chapter 4: School Daze
Buffy didn’t return to the mansion. She was still mad at Spike. Buffy crawled into her bedroom an hour or so before the sun rose; she and Willow had talked all night long, Buffy finally leaving Willow‘s house as the impending dawn was beginning to creep towards the horizon.
Her sleep wasn’t restful. She could feel Spike’s call to her and he was angry that she was ignoring him. Serves him right, she thought, rolling over in bed even as her demon cried for her Sire. She was determined not to go.
It was an inner struggle that refused to let her sleep. The moment she nodded off, the primal need to go to him returned.
“Time to get up young lady!“ came her mother’s cheerful voice far too soon after she had gotten into bed. “I worked too hard to get you back into school. You are going, vampire or not. We’ll just say that you’ve been sick, you can pull that off, you look so pale.“
“That’s cause I’m dead,“ Buffy muttered on her way to the shower.
__________________________________________
Wrapped tightly in her longest jacket and completely covered head to toe in clothing, Buffy was driven to school by her loving and concerned mother, note in hand, explaining her absence.
Buffy tried to explain how this school thing just wasn’t going to work for her, she was undead, no one cared if she went to school or not.
“I care!” protested Joyce fiercely as she parked at the curb of the school.
Buffy gave her mother a kiss on the cheek before running to the door of the school, her jacket up over her head.
Buffy headed directly for her locker. The first thing she did was take down her mirror. Won’t be needing that ever again, she thought bitterly.
“Oh god! I knew someday you would go to the dark place. I’m sure the goth kids will be glad to have a new convert,” came Harmony’s voice over her shoulder. “You look...well dead. Get some sun, I mean, we live in California.”
Buffy turned to look at the retreating Cordette disappointed. She had tried to do her makeup to look healthy, it just wasn’t working. And her tan was gone. The black clothes she was wearing? At the time, when she got dressed they seemed sensible and sun proof. Buffy blew an unneeded breath out and grabbed her books for first period.
“You are here! At school!” gushed Willow coming up next to her in the hall. “I mean, why? Aren’t you all sun allergy?”
Buffy nodded. “Mom seems to think that my new lifestyle change is not an excuse to forgo secondary education,” Buffy sighed. “Also, since I’m not going back to the other woman kisser any time soon, I need to keep with the happy mom.”
Willow nodded. “So that means you are back. Are you gonna see Giles?”
Buffy‘s mood dampened further. “Oooh...Giles...He’ll probably want to make with the stakeage. I don’t think I want a fight to my dust kind of fight this early in the morning. I’m all up for the verbal. Bring on the undead insults.”
“Xander,” deadpanned Willow.
“Oh I fully expect the quips from Xander,” said Buffy.
“Oh, no, he’s here.” Willow stopped dead in the middle of the hallway as did Buffy.
At the other end of the hall Xander Harris was eating a Twinkie. His mouth full of the processed pastry, he scanned the hallway. A shocked look passed over his face and he pointed towards Buffy, yelling something completely incomprehensible through the Twinkie. The students around him began to step back as he started dancing in place.
“I think maybe he’s happy to see you?” asked Willow.
Buffy giggled. “I think I should hug him or something before he chokes.”
Swallowing down his Twinkie, Xander was finally able to make coherent mutterings.
“Buffy! Alive! How? When? Yay!!”
Buffy shook her head. “Straight from the Tarzan school for the verbally challenged...”
“When you didn’t come back, you weren’t at home, we saw you with Spike...” he trailed off, staring at her with suspicion.
“I’m fine Xander,” said Buffy with a smile and avoiding the truth. She wasn’t fine.
“Where were you?” the boy asked.
The first period bell rang. Saved by the bell, literally, thought Buffy.
She didn’t know what to tell Xander. She didn’t want to have a scene in the middle of Sunnydale High’s hallway, letting the general population know that vampires existed or that she was one of them. Buffy waved a goodbye to Xander and Willow as she headed to her class.
__________________________________________
Spike kicked the wall of his bedroom, leaving a sizable hole in the dry wall. His anger at the way she was ignoring his call was unbearably frustrating. Childer weren’t supposed to be this way. They were supposed to be obedient and subservient.
But his Goldilocks had never been submissive to anyone and that’s the way he liked her. Still, he couldn’t help but feel that he had done something wrong, that she was doing this to punish him.
“Baby’s got my William in a dither!” laughed Dru, standing in the doorway of his bedroom. “If Daddy were here, he’d teach Baby some manners.”
“Well soddin’ Angelus isn’t here, Dru. And even if he were, I’d not be letting him anywhere near my Childe!” Spike roared.
Dru giggled again. Spike couldn’t help but think she was enjoying his frustration at Buffy’ actions. And that just made him even angrier.
“Don’t be cross, love,” she cooed, finally walking towards him and placing her hand on his chest. “Baby will come back, and you’ll have fun making her see who’s Sire and who’s Childe. Whips and chains, and lovely screams.”
Spike moved away from Dru with a strange look on his face.
Dru pouted. “Now you are cross with me. I only say what needs be done. Tell the truth dear boy, you liked it when I did it to you...”
Spike smiled a little at the memory, but then hardened his resolve. His initiation into this dark world had been at the hands of not only Dru but Angelus as well. He loathed the pompous prick for taking away his Sire, fornicating right in front of him for hours on end. He was determined that Buffy was not going to have the same experience. Unfortunately, Spike believed that Dru was expecting just the same thing.
“It’s not like that with Buffy and I,” he said. “It won’t be.”
Dru whimpered. “The children always say that they’ll be different than their parents...Like paper dolls, cut outs, snip snip.”
Spike looked at his Sire with incredulity. Shaking his head once at her, he grabbed his keys off a nearby table and headed out of the room. He had an appointment with a mechanic.
__________________________________________
Buffy had been avoiding telling Xander what had happened to her all morning. The problem was that it was getting close to lunchtime, which posed new and challenging circumstances for the fledgling vampire.
When the lunch bell rung, Xander followed her dutifully to her locker, telling her about his woeful experiences trying to get in touch with Cordelia, who mysteriously had decided to take school off for a Spa retreat week with her mom. Buffy couldn’t really keep his babblings straight while she contemplated just how she was supposed to explain why she was drinking blood for lunch, or why they couldn‘t eat outside.
“Not that I expect her to call me back when she’s having mom time...” said Xander waiting for her to make some sort of comment.
“Can we eat in the cafeteria today or the lounge?” asked Buffy.
“Inside? On a beautiful day like this? That’s like saying we should hang out with Giles... Wait! Giles! You haven’t seen the G-man today!”
“Xander...”
“Are you ready to experience lunch?” asked Willow, coming up behind her, slightly sadly. “Cafeteria or lounge?”
Buffy smiled at her red headed friend.
“Wills...Back me up here, she has to talk to Giles...” said Xander.
“Xander...” warned Willow.
“I don’t know if that is such a good idea right now,” said Buffy. “I mean he’s probably busy with Faith... And I really don’t want to bump into her right now...”
“Ooh, Faith, right...” said Willow with wide eyes.
“Why don’t you want to see Faith?” asked Xander looking expectantly between the two girls. “You two didn’t have a no holds barred cream corn wrestling match did you? Did you?” He looked giddy at the thought.
Buffy glared at her friend. Xander put up his hands defensively.
“Buffy, you should really see Giles, before you bump into him in the hallways...” said Willow.
“You are probably right, it’s just I don’t want the mess of it all, the yelling, the weaponry. Besides I’m totally hungry girl right now...”
“Oooh, ok, Buffy needs lunch, she needs it now. Move Xander!” ordered Willow, pushing the pair of them towards the cafeteria.
__________________________________________
Faith walked into Sunnydale High late as usual for her daily meeting with Giles. Of course this time she had major details to tell to the Watcher. It gave her a glorious feeling of superiority knowing what she did. She would have done a happy dance, but her neck still hurt, a lot, from being in that vampire’s grip last night and the bite wound too.
The bitch bit me! she thought with a scowl, and what puzzled her more, was why Buffy hadn’t killed her.
Taking her usual indirect path, past the cafeteria to see what she could swipe from unsuspecting students to fill her stomach, Faith breezed through the hallways, only to turn a corner and come face to face with a vampire.
A Buffy shaped vampire.
“Oh this is rich!” exclaimed Faith with a chuckle.
“Faith,” deadpanned Buffy, stepping forward to place herself in front of her friends, protecting them from whatever Faith threw her way.
“The streets not good enough for your meals, gotta come here and snack on the students now?” said Faith.
“You don’t know what you are talking about Faith,” Buffy snapped back at her.
“K, whatever, can we do this then?” asked the Slayer, pulling out a stake from her waistband.
Buffy gave her thermos to Willow and stepped into a fighting stance. Suddenly Buffy felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Giles with one hand on each of their shoulders, and who was pulling her and Faith into the Library. Willow and Xander followed faithfully behind.
The library doors still swinging, Giles pushed to two girls towards the chairs and barked at them to sit down.
“What the bloody hell do you think you two are doing fighting in the hallway!? Snyder is just looking for a reason to kick you out of school again, Buffy! And Faith, you aren’t even attending the classes we signed you up for. Fighting in the hallway is just going to have Snyder on your case faster.”
Faith slunk down in her chair further and put her legs up on the table. No matter what Giles had to say to her everything would be changed once she delivered her news. Faith watched as Giles’ attention diverted to Buffy once again, asking where she had been and why she hadn’t talked to anyone.
Buffy hemmed and hawed looking for a plausible excuse but really couldn’t find one.
“I was having alone time with my boyfriend?” she said sheepishly.
“Undead boyfriend...” muttered Faith.
“I beg your pardon?” asked the perplexed watcher.
“She spent the last two days with her undead boyfriend, Spike, William the Bloody,” explained Faith with a smug smile on her face.
“William the Bloody is back in Sunnydale?” asked Giles, putting his hands onto the table and staring Buffy straight in the eyes. She abruptly looked down.
“And you are alive to tell the tale?” joked Xander.
The room got quiet.
“That’s what’s so fabulous about Buffy The Good’s return isn’t it? She’s not alive,” said Faith looking directly into Buffy’s eyes. “She’s a vampire.”
Xander laughed. “Oooh that’s a good one, you almost had me there Faith...Buffy a vampire...”
Xander’s laughter trailed off as no one either joined him or denied that Buffy would never let herself be turned.
“I...I’m just gonna go...” said Buffy, standing up from her chair and heading towards Willow who still clutched Buffy’s thermos.
“So it’s true then?” asked Giles calmly though she could see his body was fraught with tension.
Faith stood up as well, and took a stake out of her jean jacket and handed it to the Watcher.
“Hey! You can’t stake her!” yelled Willow, “She’s Buffy!”
“She’s a vamp!” Faith argued back.
“She hasn’t killed anyone!” protested Willow.
“How can you be sure?” questioned Giles as he stared at his Slayer, his eyes full of disappointment.
“She sure looked like she was planning on making Jonathan a snack last night...” said Faith.
Willow stared shocked at her friend. “You were gonna eat Jonathan?”
Buffy looked from Faith to Willow and back again. She reminded her self of a bunny who was being watched by something that was gonna eat her. She couldn’t understand why Faith hadn’t mentioned the fact that she had bitten her either. Guess she’s not too proud of being got the better of.
“I wasn’t gonna kill him,” she finally admitted.
“Uh huh, and I suppose your undead boytoy was just throwing me around for kicks...” said Faith.
“Well he was a bit ticked off that you were trying to off his Childe,” defended Buffy.
“You’re a vampire?” said Xander finally, stunned. “No...”
“I’m afraid it’s true Xander,” Buffy confirmed, taking her thermos finally from Willow and heading towards the door. “Look I know this is a shock, I...I don’t know how the rest of my life or unlife is gonna turn out but I had hoped that I would be able to count on your friendship. I’m sorry that I’ve disappointed you.” Buffy turned and walked out of the library when no one made a move to do anything.
Buffy felt a tear roll down her face. She clutched her thermos to her chest and exhaled an unneeded breath. She felt that she had just lost everything dear to her. But how did you expect them to react? she asked herself.
Buffy headed to the cafeteria, choosing a table as far away from the windows as possible and poured herself a mug of warm blood. It is going to be a long day...
__________________________________________
tbc...
Author’s note: Thanks to the fab BTL for the helpful insight and for generally being an awesome beta.
Thanks to Nichole, Wulfie, Romero, Marzbar and BTL for the fab reviews!
__________________________________________
Chapter 4: School Daze
Buffy didn’t return to the mansion. She was still mad at Spike. Buffy crawled into her bedroom an hour or so before the sun rose; she and Willow had talked all night long, Buffy finally leaving Willow‘s house as the impending dawn was beginning to creep towards the horizon.
Her sleep wasn’t restful. She could feel Spike’s call to her and he was angry that she was ignoring him. Serves him right, she thought, rolling over in bed even as her demon cried for her Sire. She was determined not to go.
It was an inner struggle that refused to let her sleep. The moment she nodded off, the primal need to go to him returned.
“Time to get up young lady!“ came her mother’s cheerful voice far too soon after she had gotten into bed. “I worked too hard to get you back into school. You are going, vampire or not. We’ll just say that you’ve been sick, you can pull that off, you look so pale.“
“That’s cause I’m dead,“ Buffy muttered on her way to the shower.
__________________________________________
Wrapped tightly in her longest jacket and completely covered head to toe in clothing, Buffy was driven to school by her loving and concerned mother, note in hand, explaining her absence.
Buffy tried to explain how this school thing just wasn’t going to work for her, she was undead, no one cared if she went to school or not.
“I care!” protested Joyce fiercely as she parked at the curb of the school.
Buffy gave her mother a kiss on the cheek before running to the door of the school, her jacket up over her head.
Buffy headed directly for her locker. The first thing she did was take down her mirror. Won’t be needing that ever again, she thought bitterly.
“Oh god! I knew someday you would go to the dark place. I’m sure the goth kids will be glad to have a new convert,” came Harmony’s voice over her shoulder. “You look...well dead. Get some sun, I mean, we live in California.”
Buffy turned to look at the retreating Cordette disappointed. She had tried to do her makeup to look healthy, it just wasn’t working. And her tan was gone. The black clothes she was wearing? At the time, when she got dressed they seemed sensible and sun proof. Buffy blew an unneeded breath out and grabbed her books for first period.
“You are here! At school!” gushed Willow coming up next to her in the hall. “I mean, why? Aren’t you all sun allergy?”
Buffy nodded. “Mom seems to think that my new lifestyle change is not an excuse to forgo secondary education,” Buffy sighed. “Also, since I’m not going back to the other woman kisser any time soon, I need to keep with the happy mom.”
Willow nodded. “So that means you are back. Are you gonna see Giles?”
Buffy‘s mood dampened further. “Oooh...Giles...He’ll probably want to make with the stakeage. I don’t think I want a fight to my dust kind of fight this early in the morning. I’m all up for the verbal. Bring on the undead insults.”
“Xander,” deadpanned Willow.
“Oh I fully expect the quips from Xander,” said Buffy.
“Oh, no, he’s here.” Willow stopped dead in the middle of the hallway as did Buffy.
At the other end of the hall Xander Harris was eating a Twinkie. His mouth full of the processed pastry, he scanned the hallway. A shocked look passed over his face and he pointed towards Buffy, yelling something completely incomprehensible through the Twinkie. The students around him began to step back as he started dancing in place.
“I think maybe he’s happy to see you?” asked Willow.
Buffy giggled. “I think I should hug him or something before he chokes.”
Swallowing down his Twinkie, Xander was finally able to make coherent mutterings.
“Buffy! Alive! How? When? Yay!!”
Buffy shook her head. “Straight from the Tarzan school for the verbally challenged...”
“When you didn’t come back, you weren’t at home, we saw you with Spike...” he trailed off, staring at her with suspicion.
“I’m fine Xander,” said Buffy with a smile and avoiding the truth. She wasn’t fine.
“Where were you?” the boy asked.
The first period bell rang. Saved by the bell, literally, thought Buffy.
She didn’t know what to tell Xander. She didn’t want to have a scene in the middle of Sunnydale High’s hallway, letting the general population know that vampires existed or that she was one of them. Buffy waved a goodbye to Xander and Willow as she headed to her class.
__________________________________________
Spike kicked the wall of his bedroom, leaving a sizable hole in the dry wall. His anger at the way she was ignoring his call was unbearably frustrating. Childer weren’t supposed to be this way. They were supposed to be obedient and subservient.
But his Goldilocks had never been submissive to anyone and that’s the way he liked her. Still, he couldn’t help but feel that he had done something wrong, that she was doing this to punish him.
“Baby’s got my William in a dither!” laughed Dru, standing in the doorway of his bedroom. “If Daddy were here, he’d teach Baby some manners.”
“Well soddin’ Angelus isn’t here, Dru. And even if he were, I’d not be letting him anywhere near my Childe!” Spike roared.
Dru giggled again. Spike couldn’t help but think she was enjoying his frustration at Buffy’ actions. And that just made him even angrier.
“Don’t be cross, love,” she cooed, finally walking towards him and placing her hand on his chest. “Baby will come back, and you’ll have fun making her see who’s Sire and who’s Childe. Whips and chains, and lovely screams.”
Spike moved away from Dru with a strange look on his face.
Dru pouted. “Now you are cross with me. I only say what needs be done. Tell the truth dear boy, you liked it when I did it to you...”
Spike smiled a little at the memory, but then hardened his resolve. His initiation into this dark world had been at the hands of not only Dru but Angelus as well. He loathed the pompous prick for taking away his Sire, fornicating right in front of him for hours on end. He was determined that Buffy was not going to have the same experience. Unfortunately, Spike believed that Dru was expecting just the same thing.
“It’s not like that with Buffy and I,” he said. “It won’t be.”
Dru whimpered. “The children always say that they’ll be different than their parents...Like paper dolls, cut outs, snip snip.”
Spike looked at his Sire with incredulity. Shaking his head once at her, he grabbed his keys off a nearby table and headed out of the room. He had an appointment with a mechanic.
__________________________________________
Buffy had been avoiding telling Xander what had happened to her all morning. The problem was that it was getting close to lunchtime, which posed new and challenging circumstances for the fledgling vampire.
When the lunch bell rung, Xander followed her dutifully to her locker, telling her about his woeful experiences trying to get in touch with Cordelia, who mysteriously had decided to take school off for a Spa retreat week with her mom. Buffy couldn’t really keep his babblings straight while she contemplated just how she was supposed to explain why she was drinking blood for lunch, or why they couldn‘t eat outside.
“Not that I expect her to call me back when she’s having mom time...” said Xander waiting for her to make some sort of comment.
“Can we eat in the cafeteria today or the lounge?” asked Buffy.
“Inside? On a beautiful day like this? That’s like saying we should hang out with Giles... Wait! Giles! You haven’t seen the G-man today!”
“Xander...”
“Are you ready to experience lunch?” asked Willow, coming up behind her, slightly sadly. “Cafeteria or lounge?”
Buffy smiled at her red headed friend.
“Wills...Back me up here, she has to talk to Giles...” said Xander.
“Xander...” warned Willow.
“I don’t know if that is such a good idea right now,” said Buffy. “I mean he’s probably busy with Faith... And I really don’t want to bump into her right now...”
“Ooh, Faith, right...” said Willow with wide eyes.
“Why don’t you want to see Faith?” asked Xander looking expectantly between the two girls. “You two didn’t have a no holds barred cream corn wrestling match did you? Did you?” He looked giddy at the thought.
Buffy glared at her friend. Xander put up his hands defensively.
“Buffy, you should really see Giles, before you bump into him in the hallways...” said Willow.
“You are probably right, it’s just I don’t want the mess of it all, the yelling, the weaponry. Besides I’m totally hungry girl right now...”
“Oooh, ok, Buffy needs lunch, she needs it now. Move Xander!” ordered Willow, pushing the pair of them towards the cafeteria.
__________________________________________
Faith walked into Sunnydale High late as usual for her daily meeting with Giles. Of course this time she had major details to tell to the Watcher. It gave her a glorious feeling of superiority knowing what she did. She would have done a happy dance, but her neck still hurt, a lot, from being in that vampire’s grip last night and the bite wound too.
The bitch bit me! she thought with a scowl, and what puzzled her more, was why Buffy hadn’t killed her.
Taking her usual indirect path, past the cafeteria to see what she could swipe from unsuspecting students to fill her stomach, Faith breezed through the hallways, only to turn a corner and come face to face with a vampire.
A Buffy shaped vampire.
“Oh this is rich!” exclaimed Faith with a chuckle.
“Faith,” deadpanned Buffy, stepping forward to place herself in front of her friends, protecting them from whatever Faith threw her way.
“The streets not good enough for your meals, gotta come here and snack on the students now?” said Faith.
“You don’t know what you are talking about Faith,” Buffy snapped back at her.
“K, whatever, can we do this then?” asked the Slayer, pulling out a stake from her waistband.
Buffy gave her thermos to Willow and stepped into a fighting stance. Suddenly Buffy felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Giles with one hand on each of their shoulders, and who was pulling her and Faith into the Library. Willow and Xander followed faithfully behind.
The library doors still swinging, Giles pushed to two girls towards the chairs and barked at them to sit down.
“What the bloody hell do you think you two are doing fighting in the hallway!? Snyder is just looking for a reason to kick you out of school again, Buffy! And Faith, you aren’t even attending the classes we signed you up for. Fighting in the hallway is just going to have Snyder on your case faster.”
Faith slunk down in her chair further and put her legs up on the table. No matter what Giles had to say to her everything would be changed once she delivered her news. Faith watched as Giles’ attention diverted to Buffy once again, asking where she had been and why she hadn’t talked to anyone.
Buffy hemmed and hawed looking for a plausible excuse but really couldn’t find one.
“I was having alone time with my boyfriend?” she said sheepishly.
“Undead boyfriend...” muttered Faith.
“I beg your pardon?” asked the perplexed watcher.
“She spent the last two days with her undead boyfriend, Spike, William the Bloody,” explained Faith with a smug smile on her face.
“William the Bloody is back in Sunnydale?” asked Giles, putting his hands onto the table and staring Buffy straight in the eyes. She abruptly looked down.
“And you are alive to tell the tale?” joked Xander.
The room got quiet.
“That’s what’s so fabulous about Buffy The Good’s return isn’t it? She’s not alive,” said Faith looking directly into Buffy’s eyes. “She’s a vampire.”
Xander laughed. “Oooh that’s a good one, you almost had me there Faith...Buffy a vampire...”
Xander’s laughter trailed off as no one either joined him or denied that Buffy would never let herself be turned.
“I...I’m just gonna go...” said Buffy, standing up from her chair and heading towards Willow who still clutched Buffy’s thermos.
“So it’s true then?” asked Giles calmly though she could see his body was fraught with tension.
Faith stood up as well, and took a stake out of her jean jacket and handed it to the Watcher.
“Hey! You can’t stake her!” yelled Willow, “She’s Buffy!”
“She’s a vamp!” Faith argued back.
“She hasn’t killed anyone!” protested Willow.
“How can you be sure?” questioned Giles as he stared at his Slayer, his eyes full of disappointment.
“She sure looked like she was planning on making Jonathan a snack last night...” said Faith.
Willow stared shocked at her friend. “You were gonna eat Jonathan?”
Buffy looked from Faith to Willow and back again. She reminded her self of a bunny who was being watched by something that was gonna eat her. She couldn’t understand why Faith hadn’t mentioned the fact that she had bitten her either. Guess she’s not too proud of being got the better of.
“I wasn’t gonna kill him,” she finally admitted.
“Uh huh, and I suppose your undead boytoy was just throwing me around for kicks...” said Faith.
“Well he was a bit ticked off that you were trying to off his Childe,” defended Buffy.
“You’re a vampire?” said Xander finally, stunned. “No...”
“I’m afraid it’s true Xander,” Buffy confirmed, taking her thermos finally from Willow and heading towards the door. “Look I know this is a shock, I...I don’t know how the rest of my life or unlife is gonna turn out but I had hoped that I would be able to count on your friendship. I’m sorry that I’ve disappointed you.” Buffy turned and walked out of the library when no one made a move to do anything.
Buffy felt a tear roll down her face. She clutched her thermos to her chest and exhaled an unneeded breath. She felt that she had just lost everything dear to her. But how did you expect them to react? she asked herself.
Buffy headed to the cafeteria, choosing a table as far away from the windows as possible and poured herself a mug of warm blood. It is going to be a long day...
__________________________________________
tbc...
In the Basement
Disclaimer: Joss is god, I am just a lowly plebe in the world of Spuffy
Author’s note: All hail the fab BTL for being a great beta and a good friend.
Thanks to Tasha, Margaret, Chanel 5, Wulfie, SpaceLord, Jane and Marzbar for their reviews!
__________________________________________
Chapter 5: In the Basement
Buffy stepped out of her last class of the day, avoiding the glare of Xander and stepped straight into Spike.
Her audible gasp was heard by more than one of her fellow classmates. Without a word, Spike grabbed her wrist and led her to the basement of the school.
“What the fuck are you doing Spike?” she yelled, jerking her arm out of his grasp.
“Where the bloody hell have you been?” he yelled right back at her.
Buffy stood back, her hands on her hips waiting for him to answer her question first.
He was on the point of answering her when he realised what she was doing.
“No,” he said, shaking his head to the negative. “That’s not how it’s gonna be, Goldilocks. I’m your Sire and you will do what I say.” Spike walked into her personal space to the point of being able to tell what flavour gum she was chewing. “Now where the bloody hell were you?”
Buffy’s stance crumbled under his tone and she looked down into his black tee shirt and sighed. “I went to Willow’s and then I went home, to my mother’s house,” she said quietly. Her demeanour changed though when she remembered why she had left the Bronze and she took a step back, her gaze hard. “You didn’t want me, you were sucking face with Drusilla in the middle of the fucking Bronze!” she screamed at him.
“Hold on now,” he said. “She kissed me, not the other way around, and bloody hell Buffy, I was just so glad that she hadn’t run off and gotten herself dusted. There’s a Slayer in this town or have you forgotten?”
Buffy rolled her eyes and took a step towards him. “I know. I just was so mad.” She grabbed the lapels on his duster and pulled him even closer. “You are mine! Not hers, not anyone else’s!”
Spike nodded, suddenly mesmerized by her lips.
“You are bloody beautiful when you are right ticked off,” he commented softly.
“You are changing the subject Spike,” she whispered back.
“Damn right I am,” he said, finally taking her lips with his own in a searing kiss.
Buffy moaned against the assault her lips were under, his tongue begging entrance to her mouth. His hands were everywhere at once, seeking out the skin that he had missed touching since their spat. Spike ran his hands up her bare thighs, pushed aside the thin scrap of cloth that covered her mound and began to tease her folds.
Buffy sank human teeth into his lower lip, and muffled his growl of delight. She weaved her fingers through his platinum blonde tresses.
God, she had missed him, and his fingers, and his tongue, and his...
Spike snaked his free hand up under her shirt and began twisting and pulling on a single nipple until it was a puckered point.
Buffy licked her way down Spike’s neck, focusing in on the marks she had left when he had turned her. Her mating marks. Shifting into game face, she slid her fangs into her marks, his blood pooling in her mouth.
“Mine,” she whispered against his neck, her legs quivering at the attentions he was giving to her nether regions.
“Yours,” he whispered back, as he plunged two fingers into her glistening depths. Circling her clit with his thumb, he backed her into the basement wall, tearing off her panties that were just getting in the way now.
Spike dropped to his knees and nuzzled the soft flesh of her thigh, breathing in her scent. Slowly, he worked his tongue up past her folds and began the excruciatingly slow process of laving every part of her pussy with his expert tongue.
Buffy’s eyes rolled back into her head, and clutched at his hair, holding him in place, his nose nudging her clit at random times. Buffy gasped as he sank his tongue into her wet channel, licking up her juices.
“Oh, god, Spike,” she moaned.
She could tell he smiled, delighted with the way she called out his name.
Sensing she was close, Spike began nibbling along her thigh, having replaced his tongue with his nimble fingers. Bringing is game face to the fore, he bit down on the soft flesh of her inner thigh, while giving her pussy a few thrusts of his fingers, sending her over the edge.
Without letting her recover from the experience, Spike stood and unzipped himself, positioning his hard cock at her entrance, blood still on his lips.
Spike lifted his mate up and she sank down happily onto his thick shaft, wrapping her legs around his torso.
The two vampires looked into each other’s amber eyes as they moved in rhythm, their moans echoing through the basement of the school. Their lips met, their borrowed blood mingling on their tongues.
Pinning her against the wall, his hands holding the firm globes of her ass against his pelvis he groaned in the perfect ecstasy of their joining.
Buffy leaned her head down and licked the blood flowing from the bite she had given him, the taste of it just adding fuel to her already over stimulated core. She could feel blood trickling down her leg from his bite mark, and their combined thrusts making healing difficult.
Buffy tightened her channel muscles causing an audible growl from the Master vamp, and a renewed fury of thrusts. Without warning, Spike slid his fangs into her neck, over his siring marks and drank, bringing her over the edge once more.
__________________________________________
Buffy looked up from her chemistry text book and frowned at her lover, who was pacing the halls relentlessly.
“Spike! Stop pacing!” she ordered from her spot on the floor in front of her locker.
“It’s bloody exasperating is what it is. Here we are sitting ducks for your bloody Watcher and the other Slayer to slay us, while what? We wait like pigeons for your mother to come pick us up after bloody school? Right pathetic it is.”
“We are not pigeons, Spike. My mom said she’d pick me up, and I am NOT walking around in the sewers to get back to my house. First of all, ewww, and secondly who wants to walk, I’ll get blisters from my new shoes.” Buffy lifted her foot up off the ground, wiggled her toes. “You like?” she asked.
Spike gave her a look that said, that this wasn’t the time to be talking about foot ware.
“Besides, I haven’t seen or heard from Giles or Faith since this morning when it was all, ‘Buffy’s a vampire’ let’s stake her.”
“And you don’t think they’ll want to continue that conversation say, when there are less nosy students runnin’ around? Like say, nowish?”
“I’m hoping for the best, and if not, I’ve got you for back up now,” she said smiling, remembering their little make out/make up session in the basement.
“I don’t understand why you even came back to this dump, you are above all this now, Goldilocks. You don’t need this place.”
Buffy sighed. “Maybe, but my mom thinks I do.”
Spike rolled his eyes.
“Hey! My mom’s been very accepting of the whole new lifestyle of the undead here...”
“Soddin’ school,” he muttered.
“Maybe I want to go to school? Maybe I didn’t want to have a whole weird new life, Maybe I wanted the one I had, except with you in it too? Well with mom being ‘it’s ok that you are undead Buffy, we’ll work around it,’ I’m thinkin’ it might happen. ‘Course that was before you and Ho-zilla started with the make out sessions at the Bronze.”
“Oy! I apologized for that!”
“Yes, but the mental trauma is deep and scaring. I expect presents and lots of them,” she said with a smirk.
“Might I remind you about the physical trauma you caused to my car?” he reminded her, his scared eyebrow raised.
“Oh, right,” she giggled.
Spike smiled back, only to frown when he smelt the faint scent of someone he’d met before. Catching Buffy’s eye, he realised that she smelt it too. They were being watched. Buffy put down her chemistry book and stood up.
“Willow,” Buffy called out with warning. “You can come out, I can smell you.”
Willow stepped from behind the corner of the hallway and shuffled forward.
“Do I smell bad?” she asked with a cringe. “I mean, I had a shower this morning...”
Buffy laughed. “No, I mean I could smell you because I have super power nose now. You don’t stink.”
Willow looked relieved. “Good, cause part of duties of best friend: letting friends know when they smell and save them for being a social pariah.”
“Duly noted,” agreed Buffy. “What’s up?” Buffy tried to be all nonchalant about the whole Willow spying on her, considering that she hadn’t seen Willow since the Giles wanna stake episode.
“I saw Jonathan,” said Willow. “He told me about you and the Bronze. He didn’t know you were trying to kill him.”
Buffy frowned, unsure where her friend’s babbling was heading.
“Were you really gonna eat Jonathan?” Willow asked.
Buffy looked caught. She looked back and forth between Spike and Willow a few times before answering.
“I was,” said Buffy sadly. “But I swear I wasn’t gonna kill him. Just a snack.”
“Bloody hell,” muttered Spike.
“I guess that’s ok then,” said Willow. “Have you, have you killed anyone since you’ve been turned?”
“No,” said the former Slayer softly.
“And what’s in the thermos? Or was in the thermos, cause you probably had that for lunch?” asked Willow.
“You ate out of a bloody thermos?” raged Spike behind her.
“It was pig’s blood. My mom got it for me from the butcher’s,” explained Buffy.
Willow smiled. “Buffy! You’re a good Vampire, like Angel was.”
Buffy shook her head no. “I don’t have a soul, Willow...”
“Bloody right you don’t,” muttered Spike.
There was a honking from outside.
“That’s my mom. Can I call you tonight Wills?” Buffy asked. “You know, the whole best friend thing?”
“Absolutely,” said Willow with a smile on her face. “And don’t worry about Xander, he’ll come around soon I think. He really misses you.”
Buffy rushed to hug Willow before picking up her chemistry text and her long coat and racing towards the car.
“She doesn’t have a soddin’ soul,” muttered Spike in Willow’s direction before lifting his duster up over his head and running to Mrs. Summers’ car.
__________________________________________
tbc...
Author’s note: All hail the fab BTL for being a great beta and a good friend.
Thanks to Tasha, Margaret, Chanel 5, Wulfie, SpaceLord, Jane and Marzbar for their reviews!
__________________________________________
Chapter 5: In the Basement
Buffy stepped out of her last class of the day, avoiding the glare of Xander and stepped straight into Spike.
Her audible gasp was heard by more than one of her fellow classmates. Without a word, Spike grabbed her wrist and led her to the basement of the school.
“What the fuck are you doing Spike?” she yelled, jerking her arm out of his grasp.
“Where the bloody hell have you been?” he yelled right back at her.
Buffy stood back, her hands on her hips waiting for him to answer her question first.
He was on the point of answering her when he realised what she was doing.
“No,” he said, shaking his head to the negative. “That’s not how it’s gonna be, Goldilocks. I’m your Sire and you will do what I say.” Spike walked into her personal space to the point of being able to tell what flavour gum she was chewing. “Now where the bloody hell were you?”
Buffy’s stance crumbled under his tone and she looked down into his black tee shirt and sighed. “I went to Willow’s and then I went home, to my mother’s house,” she said quietly. Her demeanour changed though when she remembered why she had left the Bronze and she took a step back, her gaze hard. “You didn’t want me, you were sucking face with Drusilla in the middle of the fucking Bronze!” she screamed at him.
“Hold on now,” he said. “She kissed me, not the other way around, and bloody hell Buffy, I was just so glad that she hadn’t run off and gotten herself dusted. There’s a Slayer in this town or have you forgotten?”
Buffy rolled her eyes and took a step towards him. “I know. I just was so mad.” She grabbed the lapels on his duster and pulled him even closer. “You are mine! Not hers, not anyone else’s!”
Spike nodded, suddenly mesmerized by her lips.
“You are bloody beautiful when you are right ticked off,” he commented softly.
“You are changing the subject Spike,” she whispered back.
“Damn right I am,” he said, finally taking her lips with his own in a searing kiss.
Buffy moaned against the assault her lips were under, his tongue begging entrance to her mouth. His hands were everywhere at once, seeking out the skin that he had missed touching since their spat. Spike ran his hands up her bare thighs, pushed aside the thin scrap of cloth that covered her mound and began to tease her folds.
Buffy sank human teeth into his lower lip, and muffled his growl of delight. She weaved her fingers through his platinum blonde tresses.
God, she had missed him, and his fingers, and his tongue, and his...
Spike snaked his free hand up under her shirt and began twisting and pulling on a single nipple until it was a puckered point.
Buffy licked her way down Spike’s neck, focusing in on the marks she had left when he had turned her. Her mating marks. Shifting into game face, she slid her fangs into her marks, his blood pooling in her mouth.
“Mine,” she whispered against his neck, her legs quivering at the attentions he was giving to her nether regions.
“Yours,” he whispered back, as he plunged two fingers into her glistening depths. Circling her clit with his thumb, he backed her into the basement wall, tearing off her panties that were just getting in the way now.
Spike dropped to his knees and nuzzled the soft flesh of her thigh, breathing in her scent. Slowly, he worked his tongue up past her folds and began the excruciatingly slow process of laving every part of her pussy with his expert tongue.
Buffy’s eyes rolled back into her head, and clutched at his hair, holding him in place, his nose nudging her clit at random times. Buffy gasped as he sank his tongue into her wet channel, licking up her juices.
“Oh, god, Spike,” she moaned.
She could tell he smiled, delighted with the way she called out his name.
Sensing she was close, Spike began nibbling along her thigh, having replaced his tongue with his nimble fingers. Bringing is game face to the fore, he bit down on the soft flesh of her inner thigh, while giving her pussy a few thrusts of his fingers, sending her over the edge.
Without letting her recover from the experience, Spike stood and unzipped himself, positioning his hard cock at her entrance, blood still on his lips.
Spike lifted his mate up and she sank down happily onto his thick shaft, wrapping her legs around his torso.
The two vampires looked into each other’s amber eyes as they moved in rhythm, their moans echoing through the basement of the school. Their lips met, their borrowed blood mingling on their tongues.
Pinning her against the wall, his hands holding the firm globes of her ass against his pelvis he groaned in the perfect ecstasy of their joining.
Buffy leaned her head down and licked the blood flowing from the bite she had given him, the taste of it just adding fuel to her already over stimulated core. She could feel blood trickling down her leg from his bite mark, and their combined thrusts making healing difficult.
Buffy tightened her channel muscles causing an audible growl from the Master vamp, and a renewed fury of thrusts. Without warning, Spike slid his fangs into her neck, over his siring marks and drank, bringing her over the edge once more.
__________________________________________
Buffy looked up from her chemistry text book and frowned at her lover, who was pacing the halls relentlessly.
“Spike! Stop pacing!” she ordered from her spot on the floor in front of her locker.
“It’s bloody exasperating is what it is. Here we are sitting ducks for your bloody Watcher and the other Slayer to slay us, while what? We wait like pigeons for your mother to come pick us up after bloody school? Right pathetic it is.”
“We are not pigeons, Spike. My mom said she’d pick me up, and I am NOT walking around in the sewers to get back to my house. First of all, ewww, and secondly who wants to walk, I’ll get blisters from my new shoes.” Buffy lifted her foot up off the ground, wiggled her toes. “You like?” she asked.
Spike gave her a look that said, that this wasn’t the time to be talking about foot ware.
“Besides, I haven’t seen or heard from Giles or Faith since this morning when it was all, ‘Buffy’s a vampire’ let’s stake her.”
“And you don’t think they’ll want to continue that conversation say, when there are less nosy students runnin’ around? Like say, nowish?”
“I’m hoping for the best, and if not, I’ve got you for back up now,” she said smiling, remembering their little make out/make up session in the basement.
“I don’t understand why you even came back to this dump, you are above all this now, Goldilocks. You don’t need this place.”
Buffy sighed. “Maybe, but my mom thinks I do.”
Spike rolled his eyes.
“Hey! My mom’s been very accepting of the whole new lifestyle of the undead here...”
“Soddin’ school,” he muttered.
“Maybe I want to go to school? Maybe I didn’t want to have a whole weird new life, Maybe I wanted the one I had, except with you in it too? Well with mom being ‘it’s ok that you are undead Buffy, we’ll work around it,’ I’m thinkin’ it might happen. ‘Course that was before you and Ho-zilla started with the make out sessions at the Bronze.”
“Oy! I apologized for that!”
“Yes, but the mental trauma is deep and scaring. I expect presents and lots of them,” she said with a smirk.
“Might I remind you about the physical trauma you caused to my car?” he reminded her, his scared eyebrow raised.
“Oh, right,” she giggled.
Spike smiled back, only to frown when he smelt the faint scent of someone he’d met before. Catching Buffy’s eye, he realised that she smelt it too. They were being watched. Buffy put down her chemistry book and stood up.
“Willow,” Buffy called out with warning. “You can come out, I can smell you.”
Willow stepped from behind the corner of the hallway and shuffled forward.
“Do I smell bad?” she asked with a cringe. “I mean, I had a shower this morning...”
Buffy laughed. “No, I mean I could smell you because I have super power nose now. You don’t stink.”
Willow looked relieved. “Good, cause part of duties of best friend: letting friends know when they smell and save them for being a social pariah.”
“Duly noted,” agreed Buffy. “What’s up?” Buffy tried to be all nonchalant about the whole Willow spying on her, considering that she hadn’t seen Willow since the Giles wanna stake episode.
“I saw Jonathan,” said Willow. “He told me about you and the Bronze. He didn’t know you were trying to kill him.”
Buffy frowned, unsure where her friend’s babbling was heading.
“Were you really gonna eat Jonathan?” Willow asked.
Buffy looked caught. She looked back and forth between Spike and Willow a few times before answering.
“I was,” said Buffy sadly. “But I swear I wasn’t gonna kill him. Just a snack.”
“Bloody hell,” muttered Spike.
“I guess that’s ok then,” said Willow. “Have you, have you killed anyone since you’ve been turned?”
“No,” said the former Slayer softly.
“And what’s in the thermos? Or was in the thermos, cause you probably had that for lunch?” asked Willow.
“You ate out of a bloody thermos?” raged Spike behind her.
“It was pig’s blood. My mom got it for me from the butcher’s,” explained Buffy.
Willow smiled. “Buffy! You’re a good Vampire, like Angel was.”
Buffy shook her head no. “I don’t have a soul, Willow...”
“Bloody right you don’t,” muttered Spike.
There was a honking from outside.
“That’s my mom. Can I call you tonight Wills?” Buffy asked. “You know, the whole best friend thing?”
“Absolutely,” said Willow with a smile on her face. “And don’t worry about Xander, he’ll come around soon I think. He really misses you.”
Buffy rushed to hug Willow before picking up her chemistry text and her long coat and racing towards the car.
“She doesn’t have a soddin’ soul,” muttered Spike in Willow’s direction before lifting his duster up over his head and running to Mrs. Summers’ car.
__________________________________________
tbc...
Words
Disclaimer: I am not Joss Whedon, therefore I can’t say I own them, but I play with his toys a lot.
Thanks and hugs to Bloodytearsoflife, without whom you would have been reading less than stellar fic.
Thanks to Opal, Bubble_blunder, wildwomen, romero, Marzbar and Tasha for their fab reviews!
__________________________________________
Chapter 6: Words
Joyce held open the door for her undead daughter and her similarly life challenged boyfriend to run through, coats over their heads.
“Do you have much homework?” Joyce asked, closing the door and walking to the kitchen to fix Buffy an after school snack.
“Yeah, a bunch. I did miss a few days,” said Buffy hanging up her coat.
With a sigh she turned to face her lover and mate and sire.
“We have to talk,” she said quietly.
“Buffy? I heated up some blood for you,” called her mother from the kitchen.
“Meet me in my room?” Buffy asked.
Spike nodded and headed up the stairs.
In the kitchen Joyce was puttering around. Buffy’s glass of red liquid sat standing out from the white counter top of the island.
“I won’t allow you to have sex in this house Buffy,” said Joyce straight off. “I know you sent him up to your room. There have to be certain rules...”
Buffy cut her mother off. “Mom! I didn’t bring Spike here to have sex. We have some issues that need to be talked out. Things we didn’t get to say at school. We have to resolve a lot of things before we can move on.”
“He expects you to live with him doesn’t he? I don’t know if I like that Buffy. You are still just a teenager. You don’t know...”
“I know mom. I know. I lived with him for most of the summer. I lived the life he’s gonna want me to live again. I couldn’t do it before...”
“And what makes you think you can do it now? I don’t know how vampires are supposed to live Buffy. But I do know that you were so unhappy when you came home, what your father told me...”
“Dad knew nothing,” Buffy snapped. She took a deep breath and continued on in a quieter tone. “ Yes, I was unhappy. I want us to be able to work out. I love him mom.”
Joyce looked softly at her daughter.
“If he hurts you again, I have an axe where I can get to it if I need to.”
Buffy smiled up at her mom before giving the older woman a hug.
“Now, finish up your blood and go talk to your boyfriend.”
Buffy picked up her glass of blood and guzzled it down. “Chicken?” asked Buffy.
“Turkey actually,” said her mother. “We’re having cow for dinner.”
“We?”
“Well you and William, cow blood. I’m having steak.”
__________________________________________
“We need to talk,” she said as she closed the door to her room behind her.
“That we do love,” said the figure lying on her bed, his hands behind his head.
“You aren’t happy with me,” she whispered sadly. “I’m not what you expected. Maybe Drusilla was right; maybe I did come back wrong. I just know that I don’t want to have to give up my life, because I gave up my life.”
Spike sat up, a furious look on his eyes.
“You’re right I’m not happy. Do you think I’m happy that you run away, leave me wondering if you’ve gone and gotten yourself staked. Do you think I wanted to have a Childe that doesn’t know her place?”
“My place? My place is by your side as your Mate Spike!”
“That’s right, once you’re all trained up. A fledge cannot be mistress over a clan Buffy!”
Buffy looked at her lover shocked.
“Get out!” she yelled.
“What? What did I say?” he asked, standing up from the bed.
“Get. Out,” she seethed. “Get out before I have to find a stake...”
“Hold on just a bleedin’ minute love, I don’t know what’s gotten into your pretty little head. I said nothin’ that isn’t true.”
“That makes it so much better Spike! Get out!”
“Goldilocks, love, be reasonable.”
“Reasonable? Be reasonable? Be reasonable to the man who just old me that I’m too young to do what I did all last summer? You are gonna let Drusilla lord it over me aren’t you? You aren’t going to do a ‘bloody’ thing.” Buffy’s tone turned more sad than angry. “I’m just some fledge, some fledge you are gonna let the minions step all over. Hey you know what? Maybe they can fight over me again, this time maybe they can fight over who gets to bed me while Drusilla’s keeping you all satisfied, instead of who gets to kill me!”
Spike stepped forward, grabbing onto her tightly and pulling her close to him.
“Not going to bloody happen,” he said quietly, his eyes staring her down. She was his, and his alone. He wasn’t going to share her with anyone, let alone those idiot minion. “You are mine! Anyone that touches you will find themselves without a head.”
“I lived it Spike, I know how it works,” Buffy replied coolly, pulling herself out of his grip.
Spike threw up his hands in frustration. “If you didn’t want this unlife...then why?”
Buffy looked up at him, green eyes glistening.
“Because a Slayer and a Vampire is wrong. It was killing me.” Buffy put her hand to her heart. “It was killing my soul. I love you so much. I just wanted to be with you. Just you. Not Drusilla, not your minions. You, William the Bloody. My Spike. I was willing to give up my soul to be with you.”
Suddenly she was wrapped in his arms, and sobbing on his shoulder.
“Why does life have to be so complicated?”
__________________________________________
Hours later, free from the emotional turmoil for the moment, Buffy was roused from her lounging position on her bed with Spike, who had been muttering sweet nothings in her ear, by her mother.
“I thought I said no sex in this house!” said the slightly irate mother.
“Mom!” protested Buffy. “We didn’t do anything, just talking!”
“Xander is down stairs. He wants to talk to you, Buffy,” informed Joyce, her arms crossed standing in the doorway.
Buffy placed a small kiss on Spike’s cheek and extricated herself from his arms. She passed her mother on her way down the stairs.
Joyce turned to Spike who was still longing on the bed.
“We need to talk.”
The master vampire had a feeling that this was going to be one of those days where he wished that he had a dollar for every time some one said that to him.
“Fire away Joyce,” he said, sitting up on the bed.
“I want her living here with me,” stated the figure in the doorway. “And I want you to tell her it’s ok.”
“It’s not bloody ok, Joyce. She belongs with me,” he explained.
“She’s been hurt, by you, William. She needs time to learn to trust you again.”
Spike looked up curiously at the mother of his mate. Interfering woman.
“I need to be able to trust you again too William,” continued Joyce.
__________________________________________
Buffy trod downstairs lightly, to see Xander standing nervously in her front hallway.
“Xander?”
“Buffy,” gulped the boy as he shifted from foot to foot. “I...I had to come. I’m sorry about the deal in the library. It’s just...you’re a vampire!”
“I got the memo Xander.”
“All this time, with the wackiness of the slaying, vampires equal bad, you know?” he continued on as if she hadn’t said anything.
Buffy nodded.
“Jesse was evil.”
“Jesse wanted to snack on you Xander. He wanted acceptance from his sire. And yeah he was evil. It doesn’t mean I am.”
“I want you not to be evil Buff.”
Buffy smiled at her friend.
“I don’t think I am. Soulless sure, have cravings for blood and yeah I have a sunlight issue, but I don’t think I’m evil. I don’t want to snack on you.”
“And the Sire thing?” asked Xander hesitantly.
Buffy cast a glance up at the second floor of her house. “He’s currently getting the third degree by my mother.”
“Beware mad moms,” joked Xander.
“Oh god yes,” smirked Buffy.
“Willow said...”
“I wasn’t gonna kill Jonathan,” she denied. “Spike’s not too happy about that, but it’s the truth.”
“Faith...”
“Faith is not my favourite person right now,” said Buffy. “Have you talked to Giles?”
Xander looked down at his feet.
“It’s ok if you haven’t. I just...I’d like it if he didn’t want to stake me on sight, you know.”
Xander nodded. “It’s gonna take me a while, you know, to get used to...this.”
“I understand.”
__________________________________________
Buffy returned to her room expecting Spike to have vacated in the face of her mother’s demands. She had had a pretty good idea about exactly what her mom had wanted to talk to Spike about.
What Buffy found in her room though, was her mate, sitting with his head in his hands waiting for her to come back. He looked up at her with worry in his eyes.
“She didn’t scare you too much did she?” asked Buffy sitting beside him.
“No love. Talking with her put some things into perspective though.”
“How’d she do that?”
“It wasn’t what she said, it was that she knew so bloody much...”
“I talk to my mom Spike.”
“You told her about the minions?”
Buffy nodded.
“How could I not? Spike...”
“She wants you here, with her.”
“I know.”
“Is it what you want?” he asked defeated.
Buffy paused for a moment, feeling out just what she wanted. “Yes and no.”
Spike gave her a look of confusion.
“Hold on, before you start yelling, let me explain. This summer, was difficult. I have to know that it’s going to be different. Not just different in the sense that I am one with the drinking of blood. I have to know that you’ll put me first, above the minions, above Drusilla, above all the macho vampire crap. If you can’t do that then the best place for me, is to stay here, with mom.”
Spike exhaled an unneeded breath. This was going to be difficult.
“I can’t let you.”
Buffy’s calm demeanour changed in an instant.
“What do you mean you can’t let me?” she raged.
“Nothing’s changed Goldilocks! You are still a fledge, and my Childe! I won’t let you be away from me. The other vamps will think I’m weak, can’t control my own Childe! All that macho vampire crap? Well it‘s not going away. You‘re a bloody vamp now, Goldilocks. Whether you like it or not, the vampire crap stays, Drusilla stays, the minions stay.”
Buffy snorted.
“Since when do you care what the other vampires think Spike?”
“I don’t. I care what I think. I think that a fledge that doesn’t obey their sire is an embarrassment.“
“I embarrass you?“ she sniffed.
“You’re a fledge that doesn’t listen, hasn’t fed, properly, and goes to soddin’ school! If Angelus were here, you’d be a bloody mess on the floor.“
“Don’t talk about him,“ she ordered.
“See, that’s what I’m talking about. You still think that you’re the almighty Slayer. News flash Buffy. You’re dead. You better start internalizing that particular fact. You aren’t the slayer. You aren’t even human anymore. You are a vampire Buffy. Not on the side of good, not this town’s guardian angel. You’re a fledge, my fledge and you will do what I say.”
Spike shook his head softly as he smelled her try to hold back her tears. His words were harsh but they had to be said. Spike rose from the bed and walked towards his mate, carefully putting a hand on her shoulder.
“Look, love, I know what you expected. I had the same expectations when I was fledged. Wanted it to be bloody paradise, do what I want, to whom I wanted with my dark wicked princess by my side. The illusion was shattered when she introduced me to Angelus and Darla. I had it much rougher than you ever will, that I promise you.”
Buffy shrugged out of his touch and moved away towards the window of her room, a tear rolling down her cheek.
Silence filled the room occasionally interrupted by a sniffle from the former slayer.
“Is it going to take twenty years before we have the unlife I want?” she finally whispered, breaking the silence.
“Twenty years?” he asked a little confused.
“You had almost twenty years before Angel got his soul, before you and Dru could be together. Am I going to have to wait that long?”
Spike crossed the room in a swift motion and gathered her up into his strong arms, resting his chin on her shoulder.
“No, love. It won’t be anything like I had. I won’t be sharing you and you won’t be sharing me. Not even Drusilla can make me leave you.”
Her useless breath hitching, Buffy nodded. Slowly she turned to face her Sire and mate, planting a kiss on his lips chastely.
“I’d like to think that if I still said no, that you’d respect my wishes,” she whispered sadly, her fingers tracing the line of his face. “Reality Buffy knows that it’s not going to happen though.”
With a sigh she started going through her drawers. “I may be a fledge, Spike, I might be your childe, but I won’t be pushed around, not by you, not by Drusilla.” Buffy turned, her hands gripping the edge of the dresser and stared her mate down. “You are mine, Spike. Any woman puts their lips on yours and they loose them, got me?” she threatened. “And I still go to school.”
“Bloody hell,” he exclaimed, before pausing to consider it. “Any other conditions then love?”
Buffy cocked her head to the side, thinking hard. With a coy smile she turned her eyes back on her sire. “So just how long do you think it will take us to get together again?” she asked lust in her eyes as she reached for Spike’s duster.
“How fast can you get those knickers off pet?” he countered his fingers running over her arms sensually.
__________________________________________
tbc...
Thanks and hugs to Bloodytearsoflife, without whom you would have been reading less than stellar fic.
Thanks to Opal, Bubble_blunder, wildwomen, romero, Marzbar and Tasha for their fab reviews!
__________________________________________
Chapter 6: Words
Joyce held open the door for her undead daughter and her similarly life challenged boyfriend to run through, coats over their heads.
“Do you have much homework?” Joyce asked, closing the door and walking to the kitchen to fix Buffy an after school snack.
“Yeah, a bunch. I did miss a few days,” said Buffy hanging up her coat.
With a sigh she turned to face her lover and mate and sire.
“We have to talk,” she said quietly.
“Buffy? I heated up some blood for you,” called her mother from the kitchen.
“Meet me in my room?” Buffy asked.
Spike nodded and headed up the stairs.
In the kitchen Joyce was puttering around. Buffy’s glass of red liquid sat standing out from the white counter top of the island.
“I won’t allow you to have sex in this house Buffy,” said Joyce straight off. “I know you sent him up to your room. There have to be certain rules...”
Buffy cut her mother off. “Mom! I didn’t bring Spike here to have sex. We have some issues that need to be talked out. Things we didn’t get to say at school. We have to resolve a lot of things before we can move on.”
“He expects you to live with him doesn’t he? I don’t know if I like that Buffy. You are still just a teenager. You don’t know...”
“I know mom. I know. I lived with him for most of the summer. I lived the life he’s gonna want me to live again. I couldn’t do it before...”
“And what makes you think you can do it now? I don’t know how vampires are supposed to live Buffy. But I do know that you were so unhappy when you came home, what your father told me...”
“Dad knew nothing,” Buffy snapped. She took a deep breath and continued on in a quieter tone. “ Yes, I was unhappy. I want us to be able to work out. I love him mom.”
Joyce looked softly at her daughter.
“If he hurts you again, I have an axe where I can get to it if I need to.”
Buffy smiled up at her mom before giving the older woman a hug.
“Now, finish up your blood and go talk to your boyfriend.”
Buffy picked up her glass of blood and guzzled it down. “Chicken?” asked Buffy.
“Turkey actually,” said her mother. “We’re having cow for dinner.”
“We?”
“Well you and William, cow blood. I’m having steak.”
__________________________________________
“We need to talk,” she said as she closed the door to her room behind her.
“That we do love,” said the figure lying on her bed, his hands behind his head.
“You aren’t happy with me,” she whispered sadly. “I’m not what you expected. Maybe Drusilla was right; maybe I did come back wrong. I just know that I don’t want to have to give up my life, because I gave up my life.”
Spike sat up, a furious look on his eyes.
“You’re right I’m not happy. Do you think I’m happy that you run away, leave me wondering if you’ve gone and gotten yourself staked. Do you think I wanted to have a Childe that doesn’t know her place?”
“My place? My place is by your side as your Mate Spike!”
“That’s right, once you’re all trained up. A fledge cannot be mistress over a clan Buffy!”
Buffy looked at her lover shocked.
“Get out!” she yelled.
“What? What did I say?” he asked, standing up from the bed.
“Get. Out,” she seethed. “Get out before I have to find a stake...”
“Hold on just a bleedin’ minute love, I don’t know what’s gotten into your pretty little head. I said nothin’ that isn’t true.”
“That makes it so much better Spike! Get out!”
“Goldilocks, love, be reasonable.”
“Reasonable? Be reasonable? Be reasonable to the man who just old me that I’m too young to do what I did all last summer? You are gonna let Drusilla lord it over me aren’t you? You aren’t going to do a ‘bloody’ thing.” Buffy’s tone turned more sad than angry. “I’m just some fledge, some fledge you are gonna let the minions step all over. Hey you know what? Maybe they can fight over me again, this time maybe they can fight over who gets to bed me while Drusilla’s keeping you all satisfied, instead of who gets to kill me!”
Spike stepped forward, grabbing onto her tightly and pulling her close to him.
“Not going to bloody happen,” he said quietly, his eyes staring her down. She was his, and his alone. He wasn’t going to share her with anyone, let alone those idiot minion. “You are mine! Anyone that touches you will find themselves without a head.”
“I lived it Spike, I know how it works,” Buffy replied coolly, pulling herself out of his grip.
Spike threw up his hands in frustration. “If you didn’t want this unlife...then why?”
Buffy looked up at him, green eyes glistening.
“Because a Slayer and a Vampire is wrong. It was killing me.” Buffy put her hand to her heart. “It was killing my soul. I love you so much. I just wanted to be with you. Just you. Not Drusilla, not your minions. You, William the Bloody. My Spike. I was willing to give up my soul to be with you.”
Suddenly she was wrapped in his arms, and sobbing on his shoulder.
“Why does life have to be so complicated?”
__________________________________________
Hours later, free from the emotional turmoil for the moment, Buffy was roused from her lounging position on her bed with Spike, who had been muttering sweet nothings in her ear, by her mother.
“I thought I said no sex in this house!” said the slightly irate mother.
“Mom!” protested Buffy. “We didn’t do anything, just talking!”
“Xander is down stairs. He wants to talk to you, Buffy,” informed Joyce, her arms crossed standing in the doorway.
Buffy placed a small kiss on Spike’s cheek and extricated herself from his arms. She passed her mother on her way down the stairs.
Joyce turned to Spike who was still longing on the bed.
“We need to talk.”
The master vampire had a feeling that this was going to be one of those days where he wished that he had a dollar for every time some one said that to him.
“Fire away Joyce,” he said, sitting up on the bed.
“I want her living here with me,” stated the figure in the doorway. “And I want you to tell her it’s ok.”
“It’s not bloody ok, Joyce. She belongs with me,” he explained.
“She’s been hurt, by you, William. She needs time to learn to trust you again.”
Spike looked up curiously at the mother of his mate. Interfering woman.
“I need to be able to trust you again too William,” continued Joyce.
__________________________________________
Buffy trod downstairs lightly, to see Xander standing nervously in her front hallway.
“Xander?”
“Buffy,” gulped the boy as he shifted from foot to foot. “I...I had to come. I’m sorry about the deal in the library. It’s just...you’re a vampire!”
“I got the memo Xander.”
“All this time, with the wackiness of the slaying, vampires equal bad, you know?” he continued on as if she hadn’t said anything.
Buffy nodded.
“Jesse was evil.”
“Jesse wanted to snack on you Xander. He wanted acceptance from his sire. And yeah he was evil. It doesn’t mean I am.”
“I want you not to be evil Buff.”
Buffy smiled at her friend.
“I don’t think I am. Soulless sure, have cravings for blood and yeah I have a sunlight issue, but I don’t think I’m evil. I don’t want to snack on you.”
“And the Sire thing?” asked Xander hesitantly.
Buffy cast a glance up at the second floor of her house. “He’s currently getting the third degree by my mother.”
“Beware mad moms,” joked Xander.
“Oh god yes,” smirked Buffy.
“Willow said...”
“I wasn’t gonna kill Jonathan,” she denied. “Spike’s not too happy about that, but it’s the truth.”
“Faith...”
“Faith is not my favourite person right now,” said Buffy. “Have you talked to Giles?”
Xander looked down at his feet.
“It’s ok if you haven’t. I just...I’d like it if he didn’t want to stake me on sight, you know.”
Xander nodded. “It’s gonna take me a while, you know, to get used to...this.”
“I understand.”
__________________________________________
Buffy returned to her room expecting Spike to have vacated in the face of her mother’s demands. She had had a pretty good idea about exactly what her mom had wanted to talk to Spike about.
What Buffy found in her room though, was her mate, sitting with his head in his hands waiting for her to come back. He looked up at her with worry in his eyes.
“She didn’t scare you too much did she?” asked Buffy sitting beside him.
“No love. Talking with her put some things into perspective though.”
“How’d she do that?”
“It wasn’t what she said, it was that she knew so bloody much...”
“I talk to my mom Spike.”
“You told her about the minions?”
Buffy nodded.
“How could I not? Spike...”
“She wants you here, with her.”
“I know.”
“Is it what you want?” he asked defeated.
Buffy paused for a moment, feeling out just what she wanted. “Yes and no.”
Spike gave her a look of confusion.
“Hold on, before you start yelling, let me explain. This summer, was difficult. I have to know that it’s going to be different. Not just different in the sense that I am one with the drinking of blood. I have to know that you’ll put me first, above the minions, above Drusilla, above all the macho vampire crap. If you can’t do that then the best place for me, is to stay here, with mom.”
Spike exhaled an unneeded breath. This was going to be difficult.
“I can’t let you.”
Buffy’s calm demeanour changed in an instant.
“What do you mean you can’t let me?” she raged.
“Nothing’s changed Goldilocks! You are still a fledge, and my Childe! I won’t let you be away from me. The other vamps will think I’m weak, can’t control my own Childe! All that macho vampire crap? Well it‘s not going away. You‘re a bloody vamp now, Goldilocks. Whether you like it or not, the vampire crap stays, Drusilla stays, the minions stay.”
Buffy snorted.
“Since when do you care what the other vampires think Spike?”
“I don’t. I care what I think. I think that a fledge that doesn’t obey their sire is an embarrassment.“
“I embarrass you?“ she sniffed.
“You’re a fledge that doesn’t listen, hasn’t fed, properly, and goes to soddin’ school! If Angelus were here, you’d be a bloody mess on the floor.“
“Don’t talk about him,“ she ordered.
“See, that’s what I’m talking about. You still think that you’re the almighty Slayer. News flash Buffy. You’re dead. You better start internalizing that particular fact. You aren’t the slayer. You aren’t even human anymore. You are a vampire Buffy. Not on the side of good, not this town’s guardian angel. You’re a fledge, my fledge and you will do what I say.”
Spike shook his head softly as he smelled her try to hold back her tears. His words were harsh but they had to be said. Spike rose from the bed and walked towards his mate, carefully putting a hand on her shoulder.
“Look, love, I know what you expected. I had the same expectations when I was fledged. Wanted it to be bloody paradise, do what I want, to whom I wanted with my dark wicked princess by my side. The illusion was shattered when she introduced me to Angelus and Darla. I had it much rougher than you ever will, that I promise you.”
Buffy shrugged out of his touch and moved away towards the window of her room, a tear rolling down her cheek.
Silence filled the room occasionally interrupted by a sniffle from the former slayer.
“Is it going to take twenty years before we have the unlife I want?” she finally whispered, breaking the silence.
“Twenty years?” he asked a little confused.
“You had almost twenty years before Angel got his soul, before you and Dru could be together. Am I going to have to wait that long?”
Spike crossed the room in a swift motion and gathered her up into his strong arms, resting his chin on her shoulder.
“No, love. It won’t be anything like I had. I won’t be sharing you and you won’t be sharing me. Not even Drusilla can make me leave you.”
Her useless breath hitching, Buffy nodded. Slowly she turned to face her Sire and mate, planting a kiss on his lips chastely.
“I’d like to think that if I still said no, that you’d respect my wishes,” she whispered sadly, her fingers tracing the line of his face. “Reality Buffy knows that it’s not going to happen though.”
With a sigh she started going through her drawers. “I may be a fledge, Spike, I might be your childe, but I won’t be pushed around, not by you, not by Drusilla.” Buffy turned, her hands gripping the edge of the dresser and stared her mate down. “You are mine, Spike. Any woman puts their lips on yours and they loose them, got me?” she threatened. “And I still go to school.”
“Bloody hell,” he exclaimed, before pausing to consider it. “Any other conditions then love?”
Buffy cocked her head to the side, thinking hard. With a coy smile she turned her eyes back on her sire. “So just how long do you think it will take us to get together again?” she asked lust in her eyes as she reached for Spike’s duster.
“How fast can you get those knickers off pet?” he countered his fingers running over her arms sensually.
__________________________________________
tbc...
Spanking Baby
Disclaimer: The Characters of BTVS and ATS are the property of Joss Whedon and various other people/entities. I am only using them for fun and entertainment only. This is the sad reality that hits me when I wake up from my naked Spike filled dreams.
Author’s note: Some dialogue taken from ‘The Wish.’ Massive hugs and thanks to the fabulous Bloodytearsoflife for the tweaking and the general awesomeness.
Thanks to Marzbar, Wulfie, Jane, Bubble_Blunder, and Opal for the fab reivews
__________________________________________
Chapter 7: Spanking Baby
The minions were looking at her funny. She’d been gone for a day now and there were minions. There hadn’t been minions when she left. Drusilla must be all eager to set up shop as Master Vamp in Sunnydale.
Buffy glared right back at the minions, while trying to forget that she was being led by the neck, rather harshly by her sire. At least he had had the kindness to wait until her mother was asleep before dragging her back here. It probably wasn’t kindness, he was probably unwilling to get on Mom’s bad side. she thought.
She hadn’t wanted to come back to this whole situation, but the harshest of realities came crashing down when she had looked into his beautiful blue eyes, that were pleading with her silently to come back with him.
Clad in flannel piggy pyjamas, Buffy was chained to the wall in Spike’s bedroom. No, Buffy corrected herself, their bedroom, only to see Drusilla float into the room, her gauzy regency dress rippling in the breeze that came through the open window.
“My William’s brought the naughty Baby back to the fold. Lamb to the slaughter. Miss Edith spoke of this day, when the tea set would crumble. Is Baby ready for the shearing?” cooed the mad vampire.
Spike stepped in front of his sire.
“Dru? What’s gotten into that head of yours pet?”
Drusilla smiled evilly. “Miss Edith wants to have a bath. Could Baby fill the tub?”
Buffy had no idea what Drusilla was talking about but she had a bad, bad feeling about this bath...or whatever the doll was supposed to take, and her filling it.
Spike shook his head no. “She’s mine Dru. I’ll punish her how I like, and you’ll leave off your mutterings,” he said forcefully.
Inwardly Buffy felt relief. Drusilla exited the room muttering something about Daddy and whips. With his sire gone and the door closed, Spike turned to Buffy and looked her up and down.
“She’s right, pet,” he said calmly.
Buffy raised an eyebrow, “About bath time for the doll?” Buffy asked.
“No,” he said without a hint of the realisation that she was trying to joke with him, while she was tied to the wall. “That you need to be punished.”
She would have been scared if not for the very obvious leer he was giving her, or the fact that she noticed a very prominent bulge in his pants.
“Are you gonna punish me?” she asked coyly.
“Gotta know your place don’t you?” he said, tossing his duster on the bed behind him.
“How about your place?” she asked giving him a look to rival his own suggestive glance.
Buffy smiled as she noted the reaction in his pants.
In an instant, Spike was undoing the manacles that tied her to the wall, his lips peppering her face with kisses. Then, without warning she was pantless and bent over his knee.
“Oh no you don’t!” she screamed.
“In my day, this was how parents dealt with wilful children, love.”
“Spike, this is not your day and you are so not spanking me!”
He answered with a hard smack to her rear end.
“Spike!” she screamed indignantly.
He couldn’t help but chuckle. With a growl, Buffy took advantage of her sire’s distraction and righted herself, straddling his lap. With a sly smile from the childe, she pressed her lips to his, her tongue sweeping across begging entrance to his mouth. Her hands wove roughly into the curls at the back of his neck, forcing Spike to turn with her, falling on the bed behind him.
Busy Buffy hands crawled their way up his shirt. She was very conscious of the fact that she had no pants on, and that he had too many clothes on for her liking. Her little fingers travelled downwards towards the button of his fly intent on making the playing field even.
Cool hands grasped her own and she was flipped in one fluid motion, her back on the bed and his black clad form pressing her into the mattress.
“Tsk, tsk, love. I’m the one in charge in this little scenario,” came his seductively low voice.
His hands seemed to be everywhere on her body at once: unbuttoning her pyjama top, ghosting over her stomach, placing feather touches along the insides of her thighs. Unconsciously her legs spread further, eager for Spike’s touch. His teasing touches were driving her crazy. She needed him to actually touch her, do something to relieve the pressure.
Buffy bucked up trying to catch his hand as yet again he pulled his nimble fingers away from between her legs.
Buffy looked up to see him removing his boots and unbuckling his belt.
Thank god! she silently screamed.
The mattress shifted as he knelt over her again, kissing his way up her stomach all the way to her soft lips.
Buffy felt a tug at her wrists and realised that she had been had. She looked up to see her hands snugly bound by Spike’s belt to the headboard.
“Spike!” she yelled.
He laughed for a moment, before removing his shirt and headed for the closet.
Buffy watched and admired his fine ass, as he rattled around in the closet for a moment, clearly looking for something important. Moments later Spike emerged from the closet holding a chain.
A chain?
Spike panther crawled up the length of her body once more this time letting his tongue paint a slick trail from her navel to her lips.
Buffy eagerly took his tongue in her mouth, her own thrusting into his mouth. Suddenly, Spike pulled away and Buffy was aware of the chain that was now around her neck.
Fuck! was the first response that flitted through her head.
With a click, Buffy’s hands were free and she felt tension on her neck as Spike pulled the choke chain dog collar towards him.
“You seem to have forgotten just who is the Sire and who is the Childe, Goldilocks,” he purred. “I think you need a reminder.”
Buffy was on all fours now, facing her smug sire. Unfortunately she was still feeling the effects of his prolonged teasing, and desperately needed some friction down there. He noticed the not so subtle way she had begun trying to give herself some relief by rubbing her legs together.
Spike gave a tug to the collar she was wearing, bringing her to the edge of the bed and off to the floor. Sitting on the ground, her eyes full of apprehension, Buffy looked up at the vampire she loved and wondered exactly what he was going to make her do.
Suddenly Spike was down on the ground with her, holding her chin up, forcing her to look into his eyes.
“Aw, love, I can’t stand it when you look at me like that,” he whispered.
“Then don’t do this,” she begged.
Spike stood up and glared at her. “Vampire now pet, gotta learn.”
“Learn what? That if I don’t do what you say you’ll hurt me?” her voice full of hurt.
“I’m your Sire, Goldilocks, not some sap that’s pussy whipped.”
Buffy snorted at that, resulting in another painful tug at the collar.
She smothered her protest that it hurt and looked up at him with big eyes waiting for his command. She was going to get through this night, and never come back here again.
“Unzip me,” he ordered.
Her little fingers complied with his order, sliding the zipper down slowly, and watching as he popped out of the denim confines. With a gulp and her resolve face setting up permanent residence on her face, Buffy inched forward to take him in her mouth.
Spike tugged again on the chain.
“Didn’t tell you to do that love,” he whispered.
Now she was confused.
“Are you playing with me?” she asked.
Spike gave her that smug smile of his and scooped her up into his arms and set her down on the bed.
“Just wanted to know how far you would go, love,” he said staring into her eyes. “I love you, you are my mate, we should be equals. It’s the damned expectations of my sire and the whole order that get in the way.”
Buffy nodded and let him kiss away her fears as she formed a goal in her head. Drusilla had to go.
__________________________________________
Once Spike had decided that the rest of the clan thought she had been punished enough, Spike let her roam freely through the mansion, and the freedom to come and go as she pleased.
And the first thing she did was get a note to explain her absence from school from her mother.
Sure her mom wasn’t thrilled that she was living with Spike and countless vampire minions, but she was more concerned about that education thing than where she resided. And as long as she had dinner with her mother three times a week, Joyce was a happy camper.
So it seemed to Buffy that she was living some horrible double life. Oh wait, no she was continuing with her strange double life, except she wasn’t alive in this scenario and she wasn’t the Chosen One. Spending nights with Spike in the mansion, going to school, evenings with her mom, and then back to mansion after her mom went to sleep. Buffy wasn’t sure exactly when she was supposed to sleep.
But after a few days of this she had gotten used to the routine, taking naps whenever she could, and avoiding Giles and Faith like the plague. Of course she hadn’t had lots of time for friends and she could tell that Willow and Xander were craving friend time.
And nothing says friend time like patrolling.
It was familiar, it was something that she knew Spike would have a problem with, but then he didn’t need to know did he?
Granted now that she was being held by a tentacle monster by the neck, against a tree, Buffy regretted not telling her mate exactly where she was going tonight. She didn’t have Slayer strength anymore, and clearly she wasn’t going to win this one without some help. Yes she was still strong, but there was that fleeting thought that passed through her head that maybe as the Slayer she would have been able to take this thing out faster.
And eww he was slimy. And yeah she didn’t need to breathe, but forming words while being choked, not really happening.
“Nnnrrf! Nnnrrf!” was all she could get out.
Near a picnic table, Buffy could hear the frantic babbling of Willow as she searched for something to kill the demon. Panic wasn’t always a good thing for Willow in a crisis situation.
“Oh, God! Demon! Demon! What kills a demon?!”
“Nnnrrf! Nnnrrf!” Buffy tried to make her friend understand. She was really starting to get scared that the demon was going to take off her head, the way this was going.
“Oh, Nerf! Not Nerf. Knife!” exclaimed Willow who was still searching for something in her bag. Finding the knife, Willow ran and tossed the weapon to her friend.
Extremely relieved to finally have a weapon and some possible control over the situation, Buffy plunged the knife into the monster’s chest, killing it. Unfortunately Buffy ended up underneath it.
“Okay,” said Buffy getting up with help from Xander and Willow. “That was too close for comfort. Not that slaying is ever comfy, but... you know what I mean?” Buffy exhaled an unneeded breath. “If you guys hadn't been here to help...”
Buffy cringed, Spike would not be happy to find her dust somewhere.
“But, we were, and we did, and, and we're all fine,” noted Willow extra cheerfully. “Isn't he gonna go poof?” the red head asked.
“Mm, I guess these guys don't. We'll have to bury him or something. Uhhf...”observed Buffy. “Makes you appreciate vamps, though. No fuss, no muss.”
Willow had brought snacks. Sitting around the picnic table, only a few feet away from the dead demon, Buffy looked appreciatively at her friends. Her friends, not Faith’s. Her friends that didn’t care that she was a vampire.
“So how come Faith was a no-show? I thought mucus-y demons were her favourites,” wondered Xander as he absently munched on a snack.
Buffy gave her friend a look. “Xander, Faith? And the wanna-stake-a-tude? I think she‘s all ‘do it alone girl‘.”
“I detect worry,” observed Xander.
“A little bit. Slaying's a rough gig. Too much alone time isn't healthy. Stuff gets pent up. Plus, dust I so don’t wanna be.”
“We should try to do more socializing with her,” noted Willow. “You know, try to convince her of the non bitey-ness of you?”
“Well, burial detail aside, does this cap us off for the day?” asked Xander.
“You got plans?” asked Buffy with a raised eyebrow.
“I cannot stress enough how much I don't have plans.”
“No luck reaching Cordelia?” the vampire asked with concern.
“I've left a few messages. Sixty... Seventy... But you know what really bugs me?” Xander asked turning to Willow. “Okay, we kissed. It was a mistake. But I know that was positively the last time we were ever gonna kiss.”
“Darn tootin'!” agreed Willow quickly.
“And they burst in, without even knocking? I mean, this is really all their fault,” continued Xander.
“Your logic does not resemble our Earth logic,” observed Buffy.
“Mine is much more advanced.”
“At least tomorrow's Monday, another school day,” replied Willow.
“Well, that's good. You know, focus on school. That's the strong Willow way to heal,” said Buffy.
“Actually, I was more thinking Oz will be there, and I can beg for forgiveness.”
“That works, too,” said Buffy with a smile.
“I-I wanna be strong Willow, but then I think I may never get to be close to Oz again, and it's like all the air just goes out of the room.”
“I know the feeling,” agreed Buffy.
“Right. I mean, you went through it with Spike, and you're still standing. So tell us, Wise One, how do you deal?” asked Xander.
“I have you guys,” said Buffy with a smile.
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tbc...
Author’s note: Some dialogue taken from ‘The Wish.’ Massive hugs and thanks to the fabulous Bloodytearsoflife for the tweaking and the general awesomeness.
Thanks to Marzbar, Wulfie, Jane, Bubble_Blunder, and Opal for the fab reivews
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Chapter 7: Spanking Baby
The minions were looking at her funny. She’d been gone for a day now and there were minions. There hadn’t been minions when she left. Drusilla must be all eager to set up shop as Master Vamp in Sunnydale.
Buffy glared right back at the minions, while trying to forget that she was being led by the neck, rather harshly by her sire. At least he had had the kindness to wait until her mother was asleep before dragging her back here. It probably wasn’t kindness, he was probably unwilling to get on Mom’s bad side. she thought.
She hadn’t wanted to come back to this whole situation, but the harshest of realities came crashing down when she had looked into his beautiful blue eyes, that were pleading with her silently to come back with him.
Clad in flannel piggy pyjamas, Buffy was chained to the wall in Spike’s bedroom. No, Buffy corrected herself, their bedroom, only to see Drusilla float into the room, her gauzy regency dress rippling in the breeze that came through the open window.
“My William’s brought the naughty Baby back to the fold. Lamb to the slaughter. Miss Edith spoke of this day, when the tea set would crumble. Is Baby ready for the shearing?” cooed the mad vampire.
Spike stepped in front of his sire.
“Dru? What’s gotten into that head of yours pet?”
Drusilla smiled evilly. “Miss Edith wants to have a bath. Could Baby fill the tub?”
Buffy had no idea what Drusilla was talking about but she had a bad, bad feeling about this bath...or whatever the doll was supposed to take, and her filling it.
Spike shook his head no. “She’s mine Dru. I’ll punish her how I like, and you’ll leave off your mutterings,” he said forcefully.
Inwardly Buffy felt relief. Drusilla exited the room muttering something about Daddy and whips. With his sire gone and the door closed, Spike turned to Buffy and looked her up and down.
“She’s right, pet,” he said calmly.
Buffy raised an eyebrow, “About bath time for the doll?” Buffy asked.
“No,” he said without a hint of the realisation that she was trying to joke with him, while she was tied to the wall. “That you need to be punished.”
She would have been scared if not for the very obvious leer he was giving her, or the fact that she noticed a very prominent bulge in his pants.
“Are you gonna punish me?” she asked coyly.
“Gotta know your place don’t you?” he said, tossing his duster on the bed behind him.
“How about your place?” she asked giving him a look to rival his own suggestive glance.
Buffy smiled as she noted the reaction in his pants.
In an instant, Spike was undoing the manacles that tied her to the wall, his lips peppering her face with kisses. Then, without warning she was pantless and bent over his knee.
“Oh no you don’t!” she screamed.
“In my day, this was how parents dealt with wilful children, love.”
“Spike, this is not your day and you are so not spanking me!”
He answered with a hard smack to her rear end.
“Spike!” she screamed indignantly.
He couldn’t help but chuckle. With a growl, Buffy took advantage of her sire’s distraction and righted herself, straddling his lap. With a sly smile from the childe, she pressed her lips to his, her tongue sweeping across begging entrance to his mouth. Her hands wove roughly into the curls at the back of his neck, forcing Spike to turn with her, falling on the bed behind him.
Busy Buffy hands crawled their way up his shirt. She was very conscious of the fact that she had no pants on, and that he had too many clothes on for her liking. Her little fingers travelled downwards towards the button of his fly intent on making the playing field even.
Cool hands grasped her own and she was flipped in one fluid motion, her back on the bed and his black clad form pressing her into the mattress.
“Tsk, tsk, love. I’m the one in charge in this little scenario,” came his seductively low voice.
His hands seemed to be everywhere on her body at once: unbuttoning her pyjama top, ghosting over her stomach, placing feather touches along the insides of her thighs. Unconsciously her legs spread further, eager for Spike’s touch. His teasing touches were driving her crazy. She needed him to actually touch her, do something to relieve the pressure.
Buffy bucked up trying to catch his hand as yet again he pulled his nimble fingers away from between her legs.
Buffy looked up to see him removing his boots and unbuckling his belt.
Thank god! she silently screamed.
The mattress shifted as he knelt over her again, kissing his way up her stomach all the way to her soft lips.
Buffy felt a tug at her wrists and realised that she had been had. She looked up to see her hands snugly bound by Spike’s belt to the headboard.
“Spike!” she yelled.
He laughed for a moment, before removing his shirt and headed for the closet.
Buffy watched and admired his fine ass, as he rattled around in the closet for a moment, clearly looking for something important. Moments later Spike emerged from the closet holding a chain.
A chain?
Spike panther crawled up the length of her body once more this time letting his tongue paint a slick trail from her navel to her lips.
Buffy eagerly took his tongue in her mouth, her own thrusting into his mouth. Suddenly, Spike pulled away and Buffy was aware of the chain that was now around her neck.
Fuck! was the first response that flitted through her head.
With a click, Buffy’s hands were free and she felt tension on her neck as Spike pulled the choke chain dog collar towards him.
“You seem to have forgotten just who is the Sire and who is the Childe, Goldilocks,” he purred. “I think you need a reminder.”
Buffy was on all fours now, facing her smug sire. Unfortunately she was still feeling the effects of his prolonged teasing, and desperately needed some friction down there. He noticed the not so subtle way she had begun trying to give herself some relief by rubbing her legs together.
Spike gave a tug to the collar she was wearing, bringing her to the edge of the bed and off to the floor. Sitting on the ground, her eyes full of apprehension, Buffy looked up at the vampire she loved and wondered exactly what he was going to make her do.
Suddenly Spike was down on the ground with her, holding her chin up, forcing her to look into his eyes.
“Aw, love, I can’t stand it when you look at me like that,” he whispered.
“Then don’t do this,” she begged.
Spike stood up and glared at her. “Vampire now pet, gotta learn.”
“Learn what? That if I don’t do what you say you’ll hurt me?” her voice full of hurt.
“I’m your Sire, Goldilocks, not some sap that’s pussy whipped.”
Buffy snorted at that, resulting in another painful tug at the collar.
She smothered her protest that it hurt and looked up at him with big eyes waiting for his command. She was going to get through this night, and never come back here again.
“Unzip me,” he ordered.
Her little fingers complied with his order, sliding the zipper down slowly, and watching as he popped out of the denim confines. With a gulp and her resolve face setting up permanent residence on her face, Buffy inched forward to take him in her mouth.
Spike tugged again on the chain.
“Didn’t tell you to do that love,” he whispered.
Now she was confused.
“Are you playing with me?” she asked.
Spike gave her that smug smile of his and scooped her up into his arms and set her down on the bed.
“Just wanted to know how far you would go, love,” he said staring into her eyes. “I love you, you are my mate, we should be equals. It’s the damned expectations of my sire and the whole order that get in the way.”
Buffy nodded and let him kiss away her fears as she formed a goal in her head. Drusilla had to go.
__________________________________________
Once Spike had decided that the rest of the clan thought she had been punished enough, Spike let her roam freely through the mansion, and the freedom to come and go as she pleased.
And the first thing she did was get a note to explain her absence from school from her mother.
Sure her mom wasn’t thrilled that she was living with Spike and countless vampire minions, but she was more concerned about that education thing than where she resided. And as long as she had dinner with her mother three times a week, Joyce was a happy camper.
So it seemed to Buffy that she was living some horrible double life. Oh wait, no she was continuing with her strange double life, except she wasn’t alive in this scenario and she wasn’t the Chosen One. Spending nights with Spike in the mansion, going to school, evenings with her mom, and then back to mansion after her mom went to sleep. Buffy wasn’t sure exactly when she was supposed to sleep.
But after a few days of this she had gotten used to the routine, taking naps whenever she could, and avoiding Giles and Faith like the plague. Of course she hadn’t had lots of time for friends and she could tell that Willow and Xander were craving friend time.
And nothing says friend time like patrolling.
It was familiar, it was something that she knew Spike would have a problem with, but then he didn’t need to know did he?
Granted now that she was being held by a tentacle monster by the neck, against a tree, Buffy regretted not telling her mate exactly where she was going tonight. She didn’t have Slayer strength anymore, and clearly she wasn’t going to win this one without some help. Yes she was still strong, but there was that fleeting thought that passed through her head that maybe as the Slayer she would have been able to take this thing out faster.
And eww he was slimy. And yeah she didn’t need to breathe, but forming words while being choked, not really happening.
“Nnnrrf! Nnnrrf!” was all she could get out.
Near a picnic table, Buffy could hear the frantic babbling of Willow as she searched for something to kill the demon. Panic wasn’t always a good thing for Willow in a crisis situation.
“Oh, God! Demon! Demon! What kills a demon?!”
“Nnnrrf! Nnnrrf!” Buffy tried to make her friend understand. She was really starting to get scared that the demon was going to take off her head, the way this was going.
“Oh, Nerf! Not Nerf. Knife!” exclaimed Willow who was still searching for something in her bag. Finding the knife, Willow ran and tossed the weapon to her friend.
Extremely relieved to finally have a weapon and some possible control over the situation, Buffy plunged the knife into the monster’s chest, killing it. Unfortunately Buffy ended up underneath it.
“Okay,” said Buffy getting up with help from Xander and Willow. “That was too close for comfort. Not that slaying is ever comfy, but... you know what I mean?” Buffy exhaled an unneeded breath. “If you guys hadn't been here to help...”
Buffy cringed, Spike would not be happy to find her dust somewhere.
“But, we were, and we did, and, and we're all fine,” noted Willow extra cheerfully. “Isn't he gonna go poof?” the red head asked.
“Mm, I guess these guys don't. We'll have to bury him or something. Uhhf...”observed Buffy. “Makes you appreciate vamps, though. No fuss, no muss.”
Willow had brought snacks. Sitting around the picnic table, only a few feet away from the dead demon, Buffy looked appreciatively at her friends. Her friends, not Faith’s. Her friends that didn’t care that she was a vampire.
“So how come Faith was a no-show? I thought mucus-y demons were her favourites,” wondered Xander as he absently munched on a snack.
Buffy gave her friend a look. “Xander, Faith? And the wanna-stake-a-tude? I think she‘s all ‘do it alone girl‘.”
“I detect worry,” observed Xander.
“A little bit. Slaying's a rough gig. Too much alone time isn't healthy. Stuff gets pent up. Plus, dust I so don’t wanna be.”
“We should try to do more socializing with her,” noted Willow. “You know, try to convince her of the non bitey-ness of you?”
“Well, burial detail aside, does this cap us off for the day?” asked Xander.
“You got plans?” asked Buffy with a raised eyebrow.
“I cannot stress enough how much I don't have plans.”
“No luck reaching Cordelia?” the vampire asked with concern.
“I've left a few messages. Sixty... Seventy... But you know what really bugs me?” Xander asked turning to Willow. “Okay, we kissed. It was a mistake. But I know that was positively the last time we were ever gonna kiss.”
“Darn tootin'!” agreed Willow quickly.
“And they burst in, without even knocking? I mean, this is really all their fault,” continued Xander.
“Your logic does not resemble our Earth logic,” observed Buffy.
“Mine is much more advanced.”
“At least tomorrow's Monday, another school day,” replied Willow.
“Well, that's good. You know, focus on school. That's the strong Willow way to heal,” said Buffy.
“Actually, I was more thinking Oz will be there, and I can beg for forgiveness.”
“That works, too,” said Buffy with a smile.
“I-I wanna be strong Willow, but then I think I may never get to be close to Oz again, and it's like all the air just goes out of the room.”
“I know the feeling,” agreed Buffy.
“Right. I mean, you went through it with Spike, and you're still standing. So tell us, Wise One, how do you deal?” asked Xander.
“I have you guys,” said Buffy with a smile.
__________________________________________
tbc...
Petulant Grandchilde
Disclaimer: Joss owns them all, I’m only having fun.
Author’s note: Merry Holidays! Once again thanks go to BTL for the beta job.
Thankst o Marzbar, Wulfie, Blubble_blunder and Space lord for the fab reviews!
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Chapter 8: Petulant Grandchilde
Buffy strode into the mansion, giving the minions a glare before walking to the room she shared with Spike. Most of the minions cowered before her, she was childer, the mate of Master Spike. She wasn’t their mistress, but they knew that she held power. Third in command if you liked. The one vamp in the room of minions that didn’t back down to her glare was a tall hulky brunette who kinda reminded her of Angel. He was Dru’s current fuck buddy. Damien, as he was calling himself (Buffy knew for a fact that he was actually called Edgar when he was alive) liked to think that he was up and coming in the hierarchy. Buffy knew better. Damien was as dumb as a post but from what Buffy’s ears told her early in the morning, he was a good fuck, for Dru at least.
Damien stepped in front of her, blocking her way up the stairs to her bedroom.
So don’t want to have to deal with him right now! Buffy thought to herself. As if a rant from Cordelia about how all her problems are my fault, now I’m gonna get an earful from the gigolo.
“What the hell is your problem?” she asked her hands on her hips.
“Drusilla is in a meeting with Spike, she said that they weren’t to be disturbed,” said the hulk of a vampire, his arms crossed and a gleeful smile passing over his face.
“Oh well, if Grandmummy said that they shouldn’t be disturbed...” said Buffy in her best flirty voice before gasping, as if a thought had suddenly occurred to her. “Oh wait, I’m a petulant grandchilde....Don’t care!” Buffy punched the idiot in the nose, and strode up the stairs, her backpack hanging loosely from one shoulder. She had a make up chemistry test to study for and her text book was upstairs.
She didn’t even look down to see the furious stare Damien was giving to the back of her head.
__________________________________________
Her bag made a clunk noise as it hit the bed. Her thermos of blood, now empty, had clunked against her stakes. Spike wasn’t in their room. This fact wasn’t surprising actually. She had told him that she was going out with Xander and Willow after school, that she wouldn’t be there when he woke up.
A meeting with Drusilla huh? she asked herself as she searched the room for her lost chemistry text. I wonder what they would be talking about?
Finding no chemistry text anywhere in the room, and knowing full well that she hadn’t left it anywhere else, she stalked out into the hallway, intent on finding Spike. Unfortunately, she bumped right into Damien.
“Look I don’t have time for minions who get in my way, Edgar,” she spat, using his real name in order to piss him off.
“You don’t want to get me angry little girl,” he taunted back.
“Oh no?” she asked all innocent like.
“Drusilla wouldn’t like it if I was in a bad mood.”
Buffy had to laugh at that. This minion, Drusilla’s fuck buddy, was telling her that he was more important to Drusilla than what? She could certainly name a few things/people that fit into that category, and not one was Damien.
“More so than if Miss Edith was in a bad mood?” she asked, her innocent look continuing.
“I think you should go back down stairs and feed with the rest of the minions, Baby,” he said, calling her by the name that Drusilla had been using for her.
So she punched him in the face again.
“You don’t get to call me Baby!” she spat at him, as he lay on the floor, clutching his probably broken jaw. “I’m Elizabeth to you, vermin.”
Buffy stepped over his body and continued on her way, knocking at Drusilla’s door. She waited for a response that didn’t come. Rolling her eyes, Buffy turned the handle and let herself in only to stumble upon the most shocking thing she had seen in quite a long time.
“Bloody Hell Goldilocks!” came Spike’s voice from his embarrassing position.
Buffy’s hand flew to her mouth, as she tried to stifle the eruption of giggles that were coming out of her mouth.
“This was the meeting? The meeting that I broke Damien’s jaw to crash?” she asked looking down at her Sire and her Grandsire.
Spike threw down his napkin and stood up from the miniature table and the elaborate tea that was being served to Drusilla, himself, and a plethora of dolls by a minion dressed as a French maid.
She’d interrupted a tea party.
“I’m sorry for barging in on you two,” she apologized with a smile as she fled the room.
She pushed Damien down on her way to her room, her mirth so great that she had to share the glee.
Spike caught her arm as she entered the room, his grip punishing. He was not happy about being caught in a very unmanly tea party with Drusilla.
“We’re going out,” he ordered, pulling her along, out the door of their bedroom and down the stairs.
__________________________________________
They walked in silence for a few minutes before Buffy ventured to ask what had been on her mind since she had returned to the mansion.
“You haven’t seen my Chemistry text book have you?”
Spike turned to look clearly annoyed.
“What? It’s a valid question. I have a test tomorrow. I need to study.”
Spike did not respond, rather he chose to completely ignore the comment. It was no secret that he didn’t want her going to school: she was a vampire, didn’t need it, but also the chances of her being staked or pushed into the sunlight was much greater when she was there.
It was someplace that he couldn’t go.
No one would believe he was a high school student.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
The dark streets of Sunnydale had been her home for years now, she knew every back alley, every warehouse that vamps liked to frequent. Nothing was new to her here.
“Feeling a might peckish, after all the tea and cakes Dru tried to tempt me with....thought I’d pick up something young.”
Buffy stopped walking.
“No.”
Spike turned around and glared at her.
“No?”
Buffy hugged herself against his glare and against the cold wind that blew through the street. She didn’t like this. He hadn’t taken her to feed since that first night in the Bronze. She wouldn’t do it again. She promised Willow.
“Willow...I promised Willow I wouldn’t...I won’t eat anyone Spike,” her words left her mouth and evaporated into the air. He didn’t respond at that moment, and she was afraid that she hadn’t actually said it. That she’d have to say it again.
Buffy watched his eyes closely, waiting for some sort of sign if he was going to start shouting at her. It looked as if he was having an internal battle within himself.
“Spike? Please say something. I know you are disappointed...”
“Disappointed?” he barked at her. “Disappointed? Bloody hell Buffy, I couldn’t be more traumatised by the fact that my Childe! won’t bloody kill! First because she didn’t feel like it, and now you’ve soddin’ promised Red! You know what? I’m sick of this.”
“I’m a bad vampire...” she muttered. “A bad Slayer, for falling in love with a vampire, and now I’m a bad vampire because I don’t want to kill my friends. I came back wrong. Drusilla was right,” she said mournfully. “I still have my soul don’t I?”
He could smell her tears, even though they had yet to fall. “Oh love, I didn’t mean it, I love you bloody soul or not.” Spike reached out to her, gathering his mate in his arms. “In the grand scheme, it doesn’t matter if you are a good vampire or not, just that I have you with me.”
He felt bad, probably the same feeling he’d been feeling since he turned her. His silent wish when he had been watching over her body after he turned her, that she would be the same girl he had fallen in love with, it had come true, and here he was complaining about it.
Buffy perked up for a moment. “Did you just apologise?” she asked.
“No, clarification is all,” he said but his eyes told a different story.
“Uh huh, ok then Mr. Clarification, what do we do now?”
“Don’t rightly know love,” he admitted with a sigh. He truly didn’t know what to do.
“Can I dust Damien?” she asked with a giggle. “I know that would make me feet better.”
“It’d give me a smile too love,” he said into her hair. “How about we do some B and E at the blood bank?”
“Ok, but then I so have to study for my test.”
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Chemistry by candlelight, was not romantic like she would have expected it to be. Spike was dealing with some minion business down stairs and letting her actually study. The room was in shambles. Their frantic fucking earlier in the evening had knocked over every piece of furniture in the room. The sun was going to rise soon, she had to get some sleep before her daily trek to school via the sewers. The school where she was getting the reputation for being goth girl, because she wore so much black nowadays. The school where her teachers had to be careful of her new allergy. The school where she avoided the library like the plague.
Buffy put her textbook into her bag and headed out of her bedroom door. She was feeling just a bit peckish and she knew that there was blood in the fridge. Bouncing down the stairs, because she had all of 2 hours of sleep tonight and was feeling just a little bit energetic, she stumbled upon an impromptu meeting in the foyer.
“Troy and Cora are dust,” said Damien, his eyes wide with fear, addressing Spike.
Buffy came to stand behind her lover wondering what the fuss was about. Minions dusting? Who cared?
“It was the Slayer,” continued Damien.
Ahh, she thought, big news in the land of the Aurelius clan.
“She’s everywhere, taking us out before we can feed, before we can recruit others, before we can claim our fledges,” continued Damien.
“That’s the Slayer’s job, you ponce,” said Spike forcefully.
Buffy smiled up at her mate. It was good to know that they still had the same opinion about Damien.
“What are you going to do about her?” asked Damien pointedly,
Spike and Buffy stared back at the minion, who didn’t know his place.
“Excuse me?” asked Spike, his ire rising.
“You’re the Slayer of Slayers! You’re suppose to take them out! You’ve killed three of them. Shouldn’t you be out there, killing this one? Protecting your family?”
Spike grabbed the idiot’s shirt and lifted him up off the ground. “You listen to me you buggering git, and you listen well. My family consists of myself, my mate and my Sire,” Spike spat. “You are not part of the family. You are a minion.” Spike tossed the vampire down on the ground and turned to Buffy who had the biggest smile on her face.
Spike wrapped his arms around her in a hug, only to take from her the stake which she was concealing in her waistband. Before Damien knew what was happening, he was dust, and Spike and Buffy were making out on the foyer floor.
The minions watching scattered, as Master Spike drew his mate closer to his body, spreading the dust of Damien further on the floor. None of them wanted the Master’s wrath.
Buffy didn’t care. Sure she had to get some sleep, she had a test that morning, but somehow, getting shagged into the cold marble floor of the foyer seemed like a really good idea just about now.
Their cool lips pressed against each other, her hands woven into his gelled back curls and his pulling open the button fly of her pants. Following suit, she unzipped him, and brought him out, precum dripping from the slit of his hard cock.
Spike gripped her pants and tore them violently from her body, smiling when he discovered her lack of panties on this occasion.
In one swift motion he impaled her on his thick cock, causing a loud gasp from the former Slayer. All around the room, minions tried desperately to avert their eyes, try to do something, anything else than look at the Master and his Mate coupling in the middle of the foyer.
Spike’s rhythm of thrusts, slow at first, had picked up in intensity, the sight of her pussy milking his shaft was pure sin and he loved it. Spike let his hand slide between them and began to stroke her clit feverishly, adding to the sounds that were issuing from her throat.
“Oh, fuck, Spike!” she gasped, her voice echoing off the walls. “Just like that, fuck, you’re so big, Spike, don’t ever stop fucking me!” she screamed as an orgasm took her.
Spike smiled big. His girl was always the ego booster and in front of the minions too. Buffy raised herself up on her arms, and looked into her lover’s eyes. I love you she mouthed, just before tilting her neck to reveal his marks.
Spike gripped her hips firmly and drove into her hot core once more, her legs splayed on either side of him. Quickly, he pulled her to him, their lower regions still intimately connected, and brought his fangs out to play.
Buffy smiled as she felt his teeth in her neck, in the same set of marks.
“Mine,” he barked roughly, loud enough for the whole room to hear. Buffy felt his cool spendings start to trickle down her leg.
“Yours,” she agreed, not as loud, but loud enough.
“Forever,” they both whispered.
With Buffy still impaled on his semi hard cock, Spike took off his duster and threw it around her shoulders, covering up her nakedness to some extent and carried her to their room.
Buffy had a feeling she wasn’t going to school today at all.
__________________________________________
tbc...
Author’s note: Merry Holidays! Once again thanks go to BTL for the beta job.
Thankst o Marzbar, Wulfie, Blubble_blunder and Space lord for the fab reviews!
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Chapter 8: Petulant Grandchilde
Buffy strode into the mansion, giving the minions a glare before walking to the room she shared with Spike. Most of the minions cowered before her, she was childer, the mate of Master Spike. She wasn’t their mistress, but they knew that she held power. Third in command if you liked. The one vamp in the room of minions that didn’t back down to her glare was a tall hulky brunette who kinda reminded her of Angel. He was Dru’s current fuck buddy. Damien, as he was calling himself (Buffy knew for a fact that he was actually called Edgar when he was alive) liked to think that he was up and coming in the hierarchy. Buffy knew better. Damien was as dumb as a post but from what Buffy’s ears told her early in the morning, he was a good fuck, for Dru at least.
Damien stepped in front of her, blocking her way up the stairs to her bedroom.
So don’t want to have to deal with him right now! Buffy thought to herself. As if a rant from Cordelia about how all her problems are my fault, now I’m gonna get an earful from the gigolo.
“What the hell is your problem?” she asked her hands on her hips.
“Drusilla is in a meeting with Spike, she said that they weren’t to be disturbed,” said the hulk of a vampire, his arms crossed and a gleeful smile passing over his face.
“Oh well, if Grandmummy said that they shouldn’t be disturbed...” said Buffy in her best flirty voice before gasping, as if a thought had suddenly occurred to her. “Oh wait, I’m a petulant grandchilde....Don’t care!” Buffy punched the idiot in the nose, and strode up the stairs, her backpack hanging loosely from one shoulder. She had a make up chemistry test to study for and her text book was upstairs.
She didn’t even look down to see the furious stare Damien was giving to the back of her head.
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Her bag made a clunk noise as it hit the bed. Her thermos of blood, now empty, had clunked against her stakes. Spike wasn’t in their room. This fact wasn’t surprising actually. She had told him that she was going out with Xander and Willow after school, that she wouldn’t be there when he woke up.
A meeting with Drusilla huh? she asked herself as she searched the room for her lost chemistry text. I wonder what they would be talking about?
Finding no chemistry text anywhere in the room, and knowing full well that she hadn’t left it anywhere else, she stalked out into the hallway, intent on finding Spike. Unfortunately, she bumped right into Damien.
“Look I don’t have time for minions who get in my way, Edgar,” she spat, using his real name in order to piss him off.
“You don’t want to get me angry little girl,” he taunted back.
“Oh no?” she asked all innocent like.
“Drusilla wouldn’t like it if I was in a bad mood.”
Buffy had to laugh at that. This minion, Drusilla’s fuck buddy, was telling her that he was more important to Drusilla than what? She could certainly name a few things/people that fit into that category, and not one was Damien.
“More so than if Miss Edith was in a bad mood?” she asked, her innocent look continuing.
“I think you should go back down stairs and feed with the rest of the minions, Baby,” he said, calling her by the name that Drusilla had been using for her.
So she punched him in the face again.
“You don’t get to call me Baby!” she spat at him, as he lay on the floor, clutching his probably broken jaw. “I’m Elizabeth to you, vermin.”
Buffy stepped over his body and continued on her way, knocking at Drusilla’s door. She waited for a response that didn’t come. Rolling her eyes, Buffy turned the handle and let herself in only to stumble upon the most shocking thing she had seen in quite a long time.
“Bloody Hell Goldilocks!” came Spike’s voice from his embarrassing position.
Buffy’s hand flew to her mouth, as she tried to stifle the eruption of giggles that were coming out of her mouth.
“This was the meeting? The meeting that I broke Damien’s jaw to crash?” she asked looking down at her Sire and her Grandsire.
Spike threw down his napkin and stood up from the miniature table and the elaborate tea that was being served to Drusilla, himself, and a plethora of dolls by a minion dressed as a French maid.
She’d interrupted a tea party.
“I’m sorry for barging in on you two,” she apologized with a smile as she fled the room.
She pushed Damien down on her way to her room, her mirth so great that she had to share the glee.
Spike caught her arm as she entered the room, his grip punishing. He was not happy about being caught in a very unmanly tea party with Drusilla.
“We’re going out,” he ordered, pulling her along, out the door of their bedroom and down the stairs.
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They walked in silence for a few minutes before Buffy ventured to ask what had been on her mind since she had returned to the mansion.
“You haven’t seen my Chemistry text book have you?”
Spike turned to look clearly annoyed.
“What? It’s a valid question. I have a test tomorrow. I need to study.”
Spike did not respond, rather he chose to completely ignore the comment. It was no secret that he didn’t want her going to school: she was a vampire, didn’t need it, but also the chances of her being staked or pushed into the sunlight was much greater when she was there.
It was someplace that he couldn’t go.
No one would believe he was a high school student.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
The dark streets of Sunnydale had been her home for years now, she knew every back alley, every warehouse that vamps liked to frequent. Nothing was new to her here.
“Feeling a might peckish, after all the tea and cakes Dru tried to tempt me with....thought I’d pick up something young.”
Buffy stopped walking.
“No.”
Spike turned around and glared at her.
“No?”
Buffy hugged herself against his glare and against the cold wind that blew through the street. She didn’t like this. He hadn’t taken her to feed since that first night in the Bronze. She wouldn’t do it again. She promised Willow.
“Willow...I promised Willow I wouldn’t...I won’t eat anyone Spike,” her words left her mouth and evaporated into the air. He didn’t respond at that moment, and she was afraid that she hadn’t actually said it. That she’d have to say it again.
Buffy watched his eyes closely, waiting for some sort of sign if he was going to start shouting at her. It looked as if he was having an internal battle within himself.
“Spike? Please say something. I know you are disappointed...”
“Disappointed?” he barked at her. “Disappointed? Bloody hell Buffy, I couldn’t be more traumatised by the fact that my Childe! won’t bloody kill! First because she didn’t feel like it, and now you’ve soddin’ promised Red! You know what? I’m sick of this.”
“I’m a bad vampire...” she muttered. “A bad Slayer, for falling in love with a vampire, and now I’m a bad vampire because I don’t want to kill my friends. I came back wrong. Drusilla was right,” she said mournfully. “I still have my soul don’t I?”
He could smell her tears, even though they had yet to fall. “Oh love, I didn’t mean it, I love you bloody soul or not.” Spike reached out to her, gathering his mate in his arms. “In the grand scheme, it doesn’t matter if you are a good vampire or not, just that I have you with me.”
He felt bad, probably the same feeling he’d been feeling since he turned her. His silent wish when he had been watching over her body after he turned her, that she would be the same girl he had fallen in love with, it had come true, and here he was complaining about it.
Buffy perked up for a moment. “Did you just apologise?” she asked.
“No, clarification is all,” he said but his eyes told a different story.
“Uh huh, ok then Mr. Clarification, what do we do now?”
“Don’t rightly know love,” he admitted with a sigh. He truly didn’t know what to do.
“Can I dust Damien?” she asked with a giggle. “I know that would make me feet better.”
“It’d give me a smile too love,” he said into her hair. “How about we do some B and E at the blood bank?”
“Ok, but then I so have to study for my test.”
__________________________________________
Chemistry by candlelight, was not romantic like she would have expected it to be. Spike was dealing with some minion business down stairs and letting her actually study. The room was in shambles. Their frantic fucking earlier in the evening had knocked over every piece of furniture in the room. The sun was going to rise soon, she had to get some sleep before her daily trek to school via the sewers. The school where she was getting the reputation for being goth girl, because she wore so much black nowadays. The school where her teachers had to be careful of her new allergy. The school where she avoided the library like the plague.
Buffy put her textbook into her bag and headed out of her bedroom door. She was feeling just a bit peckish and she knew that there was blood in the fridge. Bouncing down the stairs, because she had all of 2 hours of sleep tonight and was feeling just a little bit energetic, she stumbled upon an impromptu meeting in the foyer.
“Troy and Cora are dust,” said Damien, his eyes wide with fear, addressing Spike.
Buffy came to stand behind her lover wondering what the fuss was about. Minions dusting? Who cared?
“It was the Slayer,” continued Damien.
Ahh, she thought, big news in the land of the Aurelius clan.
“She’s everywhere, taking us out before we can feed, before we can recruit others, before we can claim our fledges,” continued Damien.
“That’s the Slayer’s job, you ponce,” said Spike forcefully.
Buffy smiled up at her mate. It was good to know that they still had the same opinion about Damien.
“What are you going to do about her?” asked Damien pointedly,
Spike and Buffy stared back at the minion, who didn’t know his place.
“Excuse me?” asked Spike, his ire rising.
“You’re the Slayer of Slayers! You’re suppose to take them out! You’ve killed three of them. Shouldn’t you be out there, killing this one? Protecting your family?”
Spike grabbed the idiot’s shirt and lifted him up off the ground. “You listen to me you buggering git, and you listen well. My family consists of myself, my mate and my Sire,” Spike spat. “You are not part of the family. You are a minion.” Spike tossed the vampire down on the ground and turned to Buffy who had the biggest smile on her face.
Spike wrapped his arms around her in a hug, only to take from her the stake which she was concealing in her waistband. Before Damien knew what was happening, he was dust, and Spike and Buffy were making out on the foyer floor.
The minions watching scattered, as Master Spike drew his mate closer to his body, spreading the dust of Damien further on the floor. None of them wanted the Master’s wrath.
Buffy didn’t care. Sure she had to get some sleep, she had a test that morning, but somehow, getting shagged into the cold marble floor of the foyer seemed like a really good idea just about now.
Their cool lips pressed against each other, her hands woven into his gelled back curls and his pulling open the button fly of her pants. Following suit, she unzipped him, and brought him out, precum dripping from the slit of his hard cock.
Spike gripped her pants and tore them violently from her body, smiling when he discovered her lack of panties on this occasion.
In one swift motion he impaled her on his thick cock, causing a loud gasp from the former Slayer. All around the room, minions tried desperately to avert their eyes, try to do something, anything else than look at the Master and his Mate coupling in the middle of the foyer.
Spike’s rhythm of thrusts, slow at first, had picked up in intensity, the sight of her pussy milking his shaft was pure sin and he loved it. Spike let his hand slide between them and began to stroke her clit feverishly, adding to the sounds that were issuing from her throat.
“Oh, fuck, Spike!” she gasped, her voice echoing off the walls. “Just like that, fuck, you’re so big, Spike, don’t ever stop fucking me!” she screamed as an orgasm took her.
Spike smiled big. His girl was always the ego booster and in front of the minions too. Buffy raised herself up on her arms, and looked into her lover’s eyes. I love you she mouthed, just before tilting her neck to reveal his marks.
Spike gripped her hips firmly and drove into her hot core once more, her legs splayed on either side of him. Quickly, he pulled her to him, their lower regions still intimately connected, and brought his fangs out to play.
Buffy smiled as she felt his teeth in her neck, in the same set of marks.
“Mine,” he barked roughly, loud enough for the whole room to hear. Buffy felt his cool spendings start to trickle down her leg.
“Yours,” she agreed, not as loud, but loud enough.
“Forever,” they both whispered.
With Buffy still impaled on his semi hard cock, Spike took off his duster and threw it around her shoulders, covering up her nakedness to some extent and carried her to their room.
Buffy had a feeling she wasn’t going to school today at all.
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tbc...
Holidays
Disclaimer: Joss owns them all, I’m only having fun.
Author’s note: *Hugs* to Bloodytearsoflife, who rocks and who worked hard getting this chapter unconfuzzled. Thanks to Bubble_Blunder, Opal, Chanel 5, Wulfie and CM for the fab reviews!
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Chapter 9: Holidays
Drusilla wasn’t happy to find out that her fuck buddy had been dusted; the wailing could be heard for days. Days in which Buffy loathed to go back to the mansion after school.
What Damien had said though, was true. Faith was killing the minions faster than they could rise. For Buffy, this wasn’t a problem; she hated the minions, but it posed a increasing problem to Spike, who, though in name they belonged to Drusilla, was running the whole show.
As the days wore on, Buffy was increasingly aware of the anger the remaining minions held towards her. The men vying for Damien’s spot in Drusilla’s bed, warily eyed her, expecting her to be their enemy as well. She had been a Slayer, she had killed their kind. And to make matters worse, she refused to feed from humans.
The rumours that floated about the mansion told stories of how she had her soul, how she was an abomination.
Spike sent her understanding glances and did his utmost to defend her reputation and honour, but it was an uphill battle. The minions took their lead from Drusilla, who constantly was spouting maniacal phrases about ‘Baby’ being wrong.
Buffy still didn’t feel that she had come back wrong at all. It was an overwhelming feeling she couldn’t ignore. And she wanted answers.
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Buffy found herself watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade with Willow and Xander, avoiding her mother who was cooking massive amounts of turkey in the kitchen.
“So how are the minions?” joked Xander, his mouth full of popcorn.
Buffy groaned. She had been keeping her friends apprised of the whole situation. They didn’t really understand, they were used to killing vampires in general and that was the end of the story. Buffy had this feeling that they still weren’t totally ok with her being one of them.
“You mean they aren’t decking the halls and sharing in the Christmas cheer?” asked Xander.
“Oh there’s decking, and the occasional cheer,” Buffy replied sadly. “Sometimes though...They don’t like me, I don’t like them, I can’t honestly understand why anyone would want to live like that.”
“You live like that Buffy,” said Willow, filling her mouth with popcorn.
Buffy ignored the comment. “I just wish I could find out if I really did have my soul or not...”
“Oooh!” Willow perked up. “I can do it, let me do it. I’m a witch now you know.”
“Ya I got the memo Wills,” said Buffy with a smile.
“Why do you think you don’t have a soul Buffster? You’re like the female version of the brooding wonder, except without the brooding, or the overly gelled hair,” added Xander.
“Because if you guys hadn’t been there for me, I think I’d be snacking on the rest of the population. It’s like you guys are my conscience,” said Buffy very seriously.
“Aww!” cooed Willow, moving in to give her friend a hug.
Buffy hugged back. “So you’ll do the spell?” she asked.
“Oh ya, absolutely.”
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Buffy stared at the pentagram that Willow was drawing on the ground of the school basement. Even as she watched her friend’s movements she worried about the result of the spell.
“Ok,” said Willow, ready to begin. She placed a crystal in the middle of the pentagram and stepped out of the way. “If the crystal turns black, you have no soul, if it stays the same, you have your soul.”
Buffy nodded nervously.
“Of course, it could also mean that I’ve done the whole thing wrong,” the red head babbled, wringing her hands together.
Buffy’s gaze fixated on the crystal in the middle of the pentagram, not exactly listening to the words that Willow was saying in a language she did not understand. Slowly, Willow entered the pentagram, her chanting finished, and picked up the crystal.
“You ready?” asked Willow, holding the object in her hand, its colour unchanged.
With a gulp, Buffy nodded and reached out her hand. Gingerly, Willow placed the crystal in her friend’s hand.
Exhaling an unneeded breath, Buffy peered down at the object in her hand.
It was black.
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There was a bounce in her step as Buffy walked back to the mansion, the early morning calm interrupted only by commuters on their way to work. Spike had insisted that she accompany him for vampire type things that night, which naturally ended up being something stupid like initiating minions, or kitten poker. She’d left him at Willy’s with a straight flush and a bag of tabbies. She turned down a familiar alley taking a shortcut.
Since Willow’s spell and the revelation that she was soulless, she’d been happy Buffy. The urge to tell Spike that she didn’t have that thing that made her so disgusting to the other vamps was tempting. Deep down though, she felt that if how she was acting was causing problems and she didn’t have a soul, then there might be something else wrong with her.
It would not be a happy scenario if the minions found out.
Buffy tried to shake the idea out of her head. The sun would be up soon and she seriously needed some sleep before she had to get to school.
Of course this led to a whole other series of thoughts. Why? Why was she living in two worlds? Still? It was as if she was hovering between two lives, vampire and human. Ya she didn’t slay anymore, and regardless of what her mother thought about her vampire status, this couldn’t be a happy time for her mom.
Buffy turned a corner in her trek home, only to run, literally, into a girl. There was a flash of recognition on both of their faces.
“You’re Anya, right?” asked Buffy. “Cordelia’s friend?”
The girl shrugged. “I guess you could say that. I wasn’t supposed to be stuck here like I am. You’re Buffy, that girl that everyone thinks is a vampire.”
“Everyone thinks that I’m a vampire?” asked Buffy worried.
“Oh yeah, the whole sun allergy, always wearing clothes that cover as much of you as possible? It’s kinda noticeable. Don’t worry though, I won’t tell them that you actually are a vampire.”
“Huh?” Buffy stared in shock at this girl.
“Oh, I thought you knew. You are a vampire Buffy. I can tell. I used to be a demon, vengeance demon actually. Desperately trying to get back to being one.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Didn’t seem my place really. Now if you happened to know how to get back my pendant that would be great. Of course you are just a vampire,” she commented snootily.
“Hey!”
“I’m surprised that your Sire lets you go school at all. I can tell you are childer too. Most fledglings don’t get the protection of a sire, you know, end up being dominated by some master vamp or other. So that would make you....hmmm, you are the Childer of William the Bloody then?”
Buffy nodded.
“Oooh, lucky!” gushed Anya. “My best friend knew him when he was human. He is very handsome.”
If Buffy could have blushed she would have.
“Wait....You, you’re Elizabeth aren’t you?” she questioned, squinting at the vampire.
“Excuse me?”
“Your vampire name?” Anya repeated. “Elizabeth right?”
“Vampire name?” Buffy couldn’t help but feel like she was missing something big here.
“Well ya, you don’t think that vampire’s go by their real names do you? I mean, ya Dracula, William the Bloody, but honestly most just change their names. Angelus? Drusilla, The Prince of Lies? All made up names.”
“Angel’s real name was Liam,” said Buffy fondly.
“And if I recall, Drusilla’s was Mary. Hell, even my real name isn’t Anyanka or even Anya for that matter.”
“Really?”
“Oh, I’m not going to tell you what it was. If you know a demon’s real name you have power over them. Didn’t ever read Rumplestiltskin? Cautionary tale if I ever heard one.”
Buffy was intrigued. “How so?”
Anya smiled. “I think you should find that out for yourself.”
“I have to go anyway,” Buffy said, feeling confused beyond belief. “I’ll see you at school?”
“Sadly. Why did I have to get trapped as a seventeen year old girl?” Anya lamented.
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Drusilla’s real name and how she was going to use it to her advantage was the main thing on her mind as she coasted through her classes, the Christmas holiday fast approaching. The students around her looked forward to presents and time off of school.
Buffy looked forward to being able to sleep.
And getting rid of Drusilla.
Her mom had even extended an invitation to Spike to spend Christmas day with them. Her mom wanted to spend Christmas as a family. Even her father was supposed to show up.
Not a good combination.
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By the time that Christmas rolled around Buffy was no closer to finding a way to use Drusilla’s real name against her. She felt like she was stuck in some horrible puzzle.
It didn’t make matters any better that it seemed that Drusilla’s favourite holiday was Christmas. She had a tree decorated in the foyer. The decorations were bones, which Buffy shrugged off. It was the wreath of intestines that turned her stomach and sent her over the edge. It was the final straw.
“I can’t live here!” Buffy shouted at her mate, safely ensconced in her bedroom. “I tried and I tried!” Buffy packed up random clothes and textbooks, piling them into a duffle bag. “I’m not coming back as long as she’s here!”
“Buffy...” started Spike, his voice soothing.
He didn’t want her to go.
“I thought...”
“Well you thought wrong Spike,” she said as she hoisted her duffle bag over her shoulder and heading out the door. “Look me up when you ditch the psycho vamp princess Spike.”
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Buffy returned home to her mother’s house, on the verge of tears. He hadn’t even tried to stop her really. She flew directly into her mother’s waiting arms.
“Buffy?” asked her mother, the dishtowel in her hands indicating that she had been doing the dishes. “If I had known you were coming tonight, I would have kept dinner for you.”
“It’s ok mom, I’ll just get some blood later. If Spike calls I’m not home ok?” muttered the vampire as she trudged up the stairs to her room.
Joyce looked up the stairs at her retreating daughter with concern. The large duffle bag that was slung across her shoulders was a telling sign. Something had happened at the mansion. Something that drove Buffy from Spike. In a way, Joyce was grateful. Buffy spending time at home and with her friends was something that the seventeen year old should do. Reigning over a bunch of vampire minions was not something she had thought her daughter’s career choice would be.
Each time Joyce approached her daughter’s door, Buffy answered with a curt “Not now mom.”
She could tell that her little girl was hurting and she wanted to help. An idea came to her in an instant; she picked up the phone.
“Willow?”
__________________________________________
Spike watched Buffy leave the mansion as if he was viewing the event on television; it was surreal. It was as if it wasn’t happening. As the front door closed, he reached out through their connection, only to be blocked by a wave of anger.
He grabbed the nearest minion and ripped her head clean off, trying to vent his anger at what Buffy had done.
Shaking off the dust from his hands Spike stepped into the doorway, sniffing the air to catch her scent. She’s gone to her mother’s he concluded, her scent floating on the air in that direction. Spike stepped forward, into the night only to have a voice call him from the foyer.
“Spike?” asked Dru with a breathy voice. “Tell the pixies to stop their dancing, Miss Edith has a headache and will tell no more stories if they don’t.”
Spike turned around to see his sire clutching her head, as if she were in pain. With a glance out the door and one back at Drusilla, Spike closed the front door of the mansion and headed back inside to care for his mad sire.
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tbc...
Author’s note: *Hugs* to Bloodytearsoflife, who rocks and who worked hard getting this chapter unconfuzzled. Thanks to Bubble_Blunder, Opal, Chanel 5, Wulfie and CM for the fab reviews!
__________________________________________
Chapter 9: Holidays
Drusilla wasn’t happy to find out that her fuck buddy had been dusted; the wailing could be heard for days. Days in which Buffy loathed to go back to the mansion after school.
What Damien had said though, was true. Faith was killing the minions faster than they could rise. For Buffy, this wasn’t a problem; she hated the minions, but it posed a increasing problem to Spike, who, though in name they belonged to Drusilla, was running the whole show.
As the days wore on, Buffy was increasingly aware of the anger the remaining minions held towards her. The men vying for Damien’s spot in Drusilla’s bed, warily eyed her, expecting her to be their enemy as well. She had been a Slayer, she had killed their kind. And to make matters worse, she refused to feed from humans.
The rumours that floated about the mansion told stories of how she had her soul, how she was an abomination.
Spike sent her understanding glances and did his utmost to defend her reputation and honour, but it was an uphill battle. The minions took their lead from Drusilla, who constantly was spouting maniacal phrases about ‘Baby’ being wrong.
Buffy still didn’t feel that she had come back wrong at all. It was an overwhelming feeling she couldn’t ignore. And she wanted answers.
__________________________________________
Buffy found herself watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade with Willow and Xander, avoiding her mother who was cooking massive amounts of turkey in the kitchen.
“So how are the minions?” joked Xander, his mouth full of popcorn.
Buffy groaned. She had been keeping her friends apprised of the whole situation. They didn’t really understand, they were used to killing vampires in general and that was the end of the story. Buffy had this feeling that they still weren’t totally ok with her being one of them.
“You mean they aren’t decking the halls and sharing in the Christmas cheer?” asked Xander.
“Oh there’s decking, and the occasional cheer,” Buffy replied sadly. “Sometimes though...They don’t like me, I don’t like them, I can’t honestly understand why anyone would want to live like that.”
“You live like that Buffy,” said Willow, filling her mouth with popcorn.
Buffy ignored the comment. “I just wish I could find out if I really did have my soul or not...”
“Oooh!” Willow perked up. “I can do it, let me do it. I’m a witch now you know.”
“Ya I got the memo Wills,” said Buffy with a smile.
“Why do you think you don’t have a soul Buffster? You’re like the female version of the brooding wonder, except without the brooding, or the overly gelled hair,” added Xander.
“Because if you guys hadn’t been there for me, I think I’d be snacking on the rest of the population. It’s like you guys are my conscience,” said Buffy very seriously.
“Aww!” cooed Willow, moving in to give her friend a hug.
Buffy hugged back. “So you’ll do the spell?” she asked.
“Oh ya, absolutely.”
__________________________________________
Buffy stared at the pentagram that Willow was drawing on the ground of the school basement. Even as she watched her friend’s movements she worried about the result of the spell.
“Ok,” said Willow, ready to begin. She placed a crystal in the middle of the pentagram and stepped out of the way. “If the crystal turns black, you have no soul, if it stays the same, you have your soul.”
Buffy nodded nervously.
“Of course, it could also mean that I’ve done the whole thing wrong,” the red head babbled, wringing her hands together.
Buffy’s gaze fixated on the crystal in the middle of the pentagram, not exactly listening to the words that Willow was saying in a language she did not understand. Slowly, Willow entered the pentagram, her chanting finished, and picked up the crystal.
“You ready?” asked Willow, holding the object in her hand, its colour unchanged.
With a gulp, Buffy nodded and reached out her hand. Gingerly, Willow placed the crystal in her friend’s hand.
Exhaling an unneeded breath, Buffy peered down at the object in her hand.
It was black.
__________________________________________
There was a bounce in her step as Buffy walked back to the mansion, the early morning calm interrupted only by commuters on their way to work. Spike had insisted that she accompany him for vampire type things that night, which naturally ended up being something stupid like initiating minions, or kitten poker. She’d left him at Willy’s with a straight flush and a bag of tabbies. She turned down a familiar alley taking a shortcut.
Since Willow’s spell and the revelation that she was soulless, she’d been happy Buffy. The urge to tell Spike that she didn’t have that thing that made her so disgusting to the other vamps was tempting. Deep down though, she felt that if how she was acting was causing problems and she didn’t have a soul, then there might be something else wrong with her.
It would not be a happy scenario if the minions found out.
Buffy tried to shake the idea out of her head. The sun would be up soon and she seriously needed some sleep before she had to get to school.
Of course this led to a whole other series of thoughts. Why? Why was she living in two worlds? Still? It was as if she was hovering between two lives, vampire and human. Ya she didn’t slay anymore, and regardless of what her mother thought about her vampire status, this couldn’t be a happy time for her mom.
Buffy turned a corner in her trek home, only to run, literally, into a girl. There was a flash of recognition on both of their faces.
“You’re Anya, right?” asked Buffy. “Cordelia’s friend?”
The girl shrugged. “I guess you could say that. I wasn’t supposed to be stuck here like I am. You’re Buffy, that girl that everyone thinks is a vampire.”
“Everyone thinks that I’m a vampire?” asked Buffy worried.
“Oh yeah, the whole sun allergy, always wearing clothes that cover as much of you as possible? It’s kinda noticeable. Don’t worry though, I won’t tell them that you actually are a vampire.”
“Huh?” Buffy stared in shock at this girl.
“Oh, I thought you knew. You are a vampire Buffy. I can tell. I used to be a demon, vengeance demon actually. Desperately trying to get back to being one.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Didn’t seem my place really. Now if you happened to know how to get back my pendant that would be great. Of course you are just a vampire,” she commented snootily.
“Hey!”
“I’m surprised that your Sire lets you go school at all. I can tell you are childer too. Most fledglings don’t get the protection of a sire, you know, end up being dominated by some master vamp or other. So that would make you....hmmm, you are the Childer of William the Bloody then?”
Buffy nodded.
“Oooh, lucky!” gushed Anya. “My best friend knew him when he was human. He is very handsome.”
If Buffy could have blushed she would have.
“Wait....You, you’re Elizabeth aren’t you?” she questioned, squinting at the vampire.
“Excuse me?”
“Your vampire name?” Anya repeated. “Elizabeth right?”
“Vampire name?” Buffy couldn’t help but feel like she was missing something big here.
“Well ya, you don’t think that vampire’s go by their real names do you? I mean, ya Dracula, William the Bloody, but honestly most just change their names. Angelus? Drusilla, The Prince of Lies? All made up names.”
“Angel’s real name was Liam,” said Buffy fondly.
“And if I recall, Drusilla’s was Mary. Hell, even my real name isn’t Anyanka or even Anya for that matter.”
“Really?”
“Oh, I’m not going to tell you what it was. If you know a demon’s real name you have power over them. Didn’t ever read Rumplestiltskin? Cautionary tale if I ever heard one.”
Buffy was intrigued. “How so?”
Anya smiled. “I think you should find that out for yourself.”
“I have to go anyway,” Buffy said, feeling confused beyond belief. “I’ll see you at school?”
“Sadly. Why did I have to get trapped as a seventeen year old girl?” Anya lamented.
__________________________________________
Drusilla’s real name and how she was going to use it to her advantage was the main thing on her mind as she coasted through her classes, the Christmas holiday fast approaching. The students around her looked forward to presents and time off of school.
Buffy looked forward to being able to sleep.
And getting rid of Drusilla.
Her mom had even extended an invitation to Spike to spend Christmas day with them. Her mom wanted to spend Christmas as a family. Even her father was supposed to show up.
Not a good combination.
__________________________________________
By the time that Christmas rolled around Buffy was no closer to finding a way to use Drusilla’s real name against her. She felt like she was stuck in some horrible puzzle.
It didn’t make matters any better that it seemed that Drusilla’s favourite holiday was Christmas. She had a tree decorated in the foyer. The decorations were bones, which Buffy shrugged off. It was the wreath of intestines that turned her stomach and sent her over the edge. It was the final straw.
“I can’t live here!” Buffy shouted at her mate, safely ensconced in her bedroom. “I tried and I tried!” Buffy packed up random clothes and textbooks, piling them into a duffle bag. “I’m not coming back as long as she’s here!”
“Buffy...” started Spike, his voice soothing.
He didn’t want her to go.
“I thought...”
“Well you thought wrong Spike,” she said as she hoisted her duffle bag over her shoulder and heading out the door. “Look me up when you ditch the psycho vamp princess Spike.”
__________________________________________
Buffy returned home to her mother’s house, on the verge of tears. He hadn’t even tried to stop her really. She flew directly into her mother’s waiting arms.
“Buffy?” asked her mother, the dishtowel in her hands indicating that she had been doing the dishes. “If I had known you were coming tonight, I would have kept dinner for you.”
“It’s ok mom, I’ll just get some blood later. If Spike calls I’m not home ok?” muttered the vampire as she trudged up the stairs to her room.
Joyce looked up the stairs at her retreating daughter with concern. The large duffle bag that was slung across her shoulders was a telling sign. Something had happened at the mansion. Something that drove Buffy from Spike. In a way, Joyce was grateful. Buffy spending time at home and with her friends was something that the seventeen year old should do. Reigning over a bunch of vampire minions was not something she had thought her daughter’s career choice would be.
Each time Joyce approached her daughter’s door, Buffy answered with a curt “Not now mom.”
She could tell that her little girl was hurting and she wanted to help. An idea came to her in an instant; she picked up the phone.
“Willow?”
__________________________________________
Spike watched Buffy leave the mansion as if he was viewing the event on television; it was surreal. It was as if it wasn’t happening. As the front door closed, he reached out through their connection, only to be blocked by a wave of anger.
He grabbed the nearest minion and ripped her head clean off, trying to vent his anger at what Buffy had done.
Shaking off the dust from his hands Spike stepped into the doorway, sniffing the air to catch her scent. She’s gone to her mother’s he concluded, her scent floating on the air in that direction. Spike stepped forward, into the night only to have a voice call him from the foyer.
“Spike?” asked Dru with a breathy voice. “Tell the pixies to stop their dancing, Miss Edith has a headache and will tell no more stories if they don’t.”
Spike turned around to see his sire clutching her head, as if she were in pain. With a glance out the door and one back at Drusilla, Spike closed the front door of the mansion and headed back inside to care for his mad sire.
__________________________________________
tbc...
Gifts
Disclaimer: Joss owns them, all I want is my very own naked Spike, preferably chocolate covered, but Joss won’t let me even if I asked nicely.
Author’s note: Some dialogue taken from “Gingerbread” Thanks to BTL for the fab betaing. Thanks to CM, McChick and Idk for the great reviews!
__________________________________________
Chapter 10: Gifts
“You were right, Willow,” sniffled the former slayer.
Willow looked on from the end of Buffy’s bed, sympathetic to her friend’s plight.
“How did I stay there for such a long time? Turning a blind eye to all the bad vampire stuff that was going on! Way to go Buffy! I mean that was why we broke up in the summer! I just got sucked into the badness once more!”
Willow nodded. “When you broke up in the summer though you still had your soul...” started Willow.
“Ya I guess, maybe.”
“I know you don’t eat people Buffy, but I can’t help but think that if Xander and I hadn’t been all supportive you would have been making with the people munching...”
Buffy stole a glance at her friend’s face for a moment before responding.
“You are right Willow,” Buffy finally admitted.
Willow inhaled sharply.
“You are right, that night, I was going to drain Jonathan. Faith stopped me, and then Spike made me mad. You sorta became my conscience Wills. And I’m grateful.”
Buffy smiled warmly at her friend. Willow opened her arms.
“Huggage!” ordered the red head.
“What are you going to do now?” Willow asked.
Pulling back from the hug, Buffy shrugged.
“I guess, just live my unlife as much as possible. I was a fool to think that he would ever kick Dru to the curb for me.”
“He loves you, Buffy I am certain of that,” offered Willow.
“But he doesn’t love me enough.”
__________________________________________
With Buffy gone from the mansion things returned to the vampire norm. There were no fights about one of their clan not feeding; there were no power struggles between the minions and Buffy. It was a relief. It was a disappointment.
Short of sending out minions to bring her back, or going after her himself, he spent every waking moment thinking about how to get her back. She wasn’t answering to his call, that signal that Sires could send to their Childer through their connection. She was asserting her independence and she wasn’t even a year old yet.
Drusilla had taken a turn for the worse. Her headaches were coming more frequently and stronger and more painful than they ever had before.
The wreath of intestines rotted, sending a stench into the mansion that even the minions couldn’t tolerate, but still Spike refused to take it down. It was a reminder of his loyalties, the stench an ode to his betrayal of his mate.
He went out to feed as usual leaving Dru in the care of minions, promising to be straight back once he’d fed. More often than not he found himself standing outside 1630 Revello Drive hoping to catch a glimpse of his Goldilocks, before feeling Dru’s call to him, sending him back to the mansion to soothe her painful head and chasing the pixies away.
Curiously, Dru made no mention of ‘Baby’ being away. It perplexed the leather clad vampire. Dru had been so adamant about her family and the inclusion and training of ‘Baby.’ With Buffy’s absence from the house, the crazed vampiress had made no mention of her at all. Buffy had become a taboo subject within the mansion’s walls.
Lying alone in their bed, Spike missed her. He felt as if a gaping hole had been punched out of his gut, not to mention his heart, and yet he felt powerless to do anything about it. Dru’s screams from the next room, calling for him to soothe her, brought him back to reality and briefly he considered putting his Dark Princess out of her misery.
__________________________________________
Christmas Day arrived with presents and eggnog at the Summers’ house. Buffy hadn’t see or talked to Spike in a week. Her mother had been trying to cheer up the vampiress with holiday fun, inviting Xander and Willow over for Christmas movie madness.
“Do vampires celebrate the festive yuletide season?” asked Xander out of the blue.
“Aurelians do,” noted Buffy as she took a sip of turkey blood. “It’s not a celebration of baby Jesus and Santa Claus and commercialism, it’s a ‘red goes really nicely with all these other colours’ thing. And there’s so many ornaments that you can make with body parts.”
Xander and Willow made disgusting face.
“Hey you asked,” noted Buffy. “Or maybe it was Drusilla’s madness,” she added with a frown.
“Have I said just how much I love that you are no longer in the den of blood drinking fiends?” noted Xander.
“Still a blood drinking fiend, Xan,” smiled Buffy raising her glass at her friend.
“Yes! But not in the den of...Now you are in the den of Scoobies. The Scooby den.”
With a smile, Buffy leaned over and gave Xander a hug.
Five more minutes into the holiday fabulousness of White Christmas and the song stylings of Bing Crosby that had brought Joyce out of the kitchen, and the whole group was startled by a knock at the door.
Reaching out her vampire senses she could feel that Spike was nearby. If her still heart beat, it would have been doing flip flops. She snapped a hurried ‘I’ll get it’ to her friends and mom before heading to the door.
Buffy opened the door, letting in cool night air and saw nothing. Frowning, she glanced down, and her eyes saw the object placed on the doormat.
A package.
A package that was badly wrapped with red shiny wrapping paper and had a gift tag on it that said simply ‘Goldilocks’.
She tuned out the noise of the movie, of the people in her house, of the cars on the street, lost in the contemplation of what Spike could have possibly gotten for her for Christmas.
With an eagerness that she had not exhibited since she fled from the Crawford Street mansion, Buffy tore open the package, revealing a shoebox. Carefully she opened the box, gasping at the contents.
“Buffy what is it?” asked Willow over her shoulder.
“Vampire dust,” said Buffy looking sadly down at the contents of the box.
__________________________________________
From his position on her neighbour’s lawn, hidden behind a tree, he could smell her tears. He knew that if he walked over there she would not reject him, but he didn’t want to be the one to capitulate, he’d already done enough of that this night.
She would have to come to him. Like she should. This was just a peace offering really, he tried to convince himself. A peace offering that cost him so much.
But she was worth it.
__________________________________________
Buffy walked through the wet grass of a local park. She didn’t even know why she was out there really. Confirmation perhaps. That box at Christmas had really thrown her for a loop. It had taken all of her will power to not dart up out of the house and fling herself into Spike’s arms.
It must have been so hard for him, so terribly painful, she thought. But shouldn’t I feel his pain too? she asked herself. She didn’t know why the mating bond or even the Childe/Sire bond between her and Spike wasn’t as strong as she supposed it to be. It even worried her a bit.
She wanted confirmation. Confirmation that Drusilla was dust from the minions. She thought she had been following one into the park, but a heartbeat to the left distracted her.
“Is it a vampire?” came her mother’s voice from her left.
Buffy turned her head to look at the source of her mother’s voice. Yep, Mom is in the park in the dark carrying a thermos of blood. You would think that she would learn what attracts vampires after all this time.
“Mom? What are you doing here?” Buffy asked incredulous, grabbing her mother and pressing her into the shadows.
“I brought you a snack. I thought you might get hungry and I didn’t want you to go snacking on the locals.”
Buffy exhaled a disappointed sigh.
“Mom, I don’t need to be monitored all the time. I haven’t killed anyone since I’ve been turned. I mean there were a couple of Spike’s minions, but that doesn’t count.”
“I’m sorry Buffy,” said Joyce. “I just...I want to believe you. It’s just, you are a vampire Buffy...vampires, they drink people’s blood. You said you were going for a walk...” she trailed off as Buffy stared at her in disbelief.
“And that means I’m off to scour the neighbourhood for the freshest blood, just because? Thanks for the confidence booster there, mom.”
The pair continued in silence traversing the playground past swings and a sandbox. Absently Joyce stooped down and picked up a discarded toy truck that had been left in a puddle. Glancing around the park, Joyce’s eyes lighted on something across the park.
“Oh god...” whispered Joyce, her eyes wide.
Buffy turned her head in the direction her mother was looking. There, on the merry go round lay the bodies of two children, a boy and a girl, arms outstretched with a symbol drawn on their hands.
“Buffy... What happened?” asked Joyce as the two of them approached the bodies. “Was it vampires?”
Buffy knelt down to look at the children. Touching their cold palms, Buffy wrinkled her nose and backed away from the two children.
“Demon, mom. These two children, they aren’t children. They smell like demons.”
“These little kids are demons?” asked Joyce. “Who would kill demon children?”
Buffy shrugged. “A Slayer?”
__________________________________________
Secluded in their house, safe from the demons and the vampires, Buffy patted her mother on the back as she sniffled, the deaths of the two demon children weighing heavily on the brain.
“They were little kids. Did you see them? I don’t care if they were demons or not. They were so tiny.”
“I saw,” said Buffy tenderly, knowing that her mom was taking this particularly hard.
Joyce shook her head sadly. “Who could do something like this? Was it Faith? She was such a nice girl. What would make a girl kill children?”
“I’m so sorry that you had to see this. But I promise that everything is gonna be okay.”
“How?”
“I don’t know mom. I really don’t know.” Buffy leaned over her mother and gave her a hug.
Joyce’s quiet sobs filled the kitchen.
__________________________________________
At school the next morning, the January light causing Buffy to hide from the windows, Buffy confronted Willow about what her mom had seen.
“I have to know what did that Wills,” said Buffy, taking books out of her locker. “My mom is taking this really bad.”
Willow nodded sympathetically. “There wasn’t anything unusual about their deaths? Marks?”
Buffy shook her head. “No, but it’s not like they were human to begin with. They were demon children. I could smell that much.”
Willow nodded again, getting out a piece of paper and writing the information down on it.
“Wait“ she started, her brows drawn together in thought. “I...I remember something. There was a mark. Not a bite mark, a symbol.” Buffy grabbed the pen out of Willow’s hand and drew the symbol she had seen on Willow’s paper. “It was on their hands.”
Willow looked at the symbol with shock.
“Oh Buffy!”
“What?” asked the former Slayer. “Do you know what it is?”
Willow looked up at her friend and gulped.
__________________________________________
The thought that Willow had seen the symbol before in a magic book had made Buffy think Witches had done this. But most of her experiences with witches were the good kind though, right? Buffy had gone to class and Willow had said she would check out the library for leads on the symbol.
When lunch rolled around, Buffy took her thermos of pig’s blood and headed into the cafeteria joining her friends along with Oz and Amy at their table.
“Hi, Buffy,” greeted Willow, with a smile, cutting off Xander for some reason.
“Buffy!” Xander stood up nervously. “What’s up?”
“I’m not going to eat you Xander,” responded Buffy. “You can calm down.” Buffy took Xander’s chair making the young man find another from a neighbouring table.
“So did Willow tell you?” continued Buffy.
“Tell us what?” asked Xander.
“A murder. Somebody killed two little kids,” said Buffy opening up her thermos.
“Oh no,” said Amy, shocked.
“They were, like seven or eight years old. My mom found the bodies last night.”
“Oh my god,” gasped Amy.
“Kids?” questioned Oz.
“Why was your mom there?” asked Xander.
“More bad. She picked last night of all nights for a surprise bonding visit,” Buffy lied. She couldn’t admit that her mom had gone out to make sure she hadn’t killed anyone.
“God, your mom would actually take the time to do that with you?” asked Willow in awe.
Over her mug of blood, Buffy shot her friend a look.
“That really wasn’t the point of the story, was it?” asked Willow sheepishly.
“No, the point is, she’s completely wigging.”
Buffy felt a presence behind her and turned, the scent in the air telling her who it was before she even looked. There stood her mother, looking distraught, but not crying.
“Who’s wigging?” asked Joyce.
“Umm...Everyone? Cause of what happened?” covered Buffy quickly.
“Oh, it’s so awful. I had bad dreams about it all night,” answered Joyce.
“Hi, Mrs. Summers!” greeted Willow cheerfully.
“Oh, hi, everybody,” noted Joyce absently.
“Hi,” answered Xander, digging into his lunch.
“Hi, Mrs. Summers,” greeted Amy.
“Buffy have you talked to Mr. Giles yet about who could have done this?” asked Joyce.
“Mom!” gasped Buffy knowing full well that her mother knew that Giles was not the man to talk to while she was all vamp-like.
“I took at look at the symbol, Mrs. Summers,” interrupted Willow. “I saw the symbol in a spell book once.”
“A spell book. So witches did this?” asked Joyce.
Amy and Willow looked at each other concerned.
“Oh I...I know you kids think that stuff’s cool. Buffy told me you dabble,” explained Joyce.
“Right,” agreed Willow nervously. “Absolutely. That’s me. I’m a dabbler.”
“But anybody who could do this isn’t cool. Anybody who could do this has to be a monster. It’s...”
“You know what?” asked Buffy cutting off her mother’s rant. “Uh, would you guys excuse us for a little bit?”
Buffy grabbed her mother’s arm and led her out of the room.
“Uh, nice to see you all,” Joyce called back to the table of Buffy’s friends.
Out in the hallway, Buffy and Joyce came to a stop.
“Are your friends gonna help with the investigation too?” asked Joyce right away.
“Mom, I really think...Maybe this isn’t the best place to talk about this,” Buffy said as she gave a wilted smile to those passing them.
“Are you embarrassed to be hanging out with your mother? I didn’t hug you...”
“No. It’s just...This hall is about school and you’re about home. Mix them and what little I have of a normal world dissolves.”
“It’s just, I keep thinking about who could have done such a thing. I have to help.”
Buffy gritted her teeth in frustration and willed herself to calm down, before she got vampy. “Well, I’d suggest going into the library to help Giles with research, but he’s not too happy with me being vampy. He might have some choice words for the mother that harbours her vampire daughter.”
Joyce nodded. “I called everybody I know in town. I told them about the dead children. They’re all just as upset as I am.”
“You called everybody that you know?” asked Buffy shocked.
“And they called all their friends. And guess what? We're setting up a vigil, for tonight, for City Hall. The Mayor is even gonna be there. Now we are gonna get some action.” Joyce smiled, pleased with herself.
Buffy looked at her mother with awe. “Mom you do realise what I said last night was the truth right? These kids that were killed, they were demons. You can’t have the whole town up in arms about demon children killed.”
“Why not?” asked Joyce. “Buffy since you’ve been turned, the world has been opened up to me. I know that the population of our town is a lot more than humans. The good demons need to take action too. You could talk to Spike, get the vampires involved too.”
Buffy shook her head. “Oh I don’t think that’s a good idea at all, mom. The minions will probably just start eating people.”
“But you’re a good vampire Buffy. Surely there are other good vampire’s out there.”
Buffy’s memory briefly flashed back to Angel, whom she had sent to hell. He had been good until she had fucked the soul out of him.
__________________________________________
tbc...
Author’s note: Some dialogue taken from “Gingerbread” Thanks to BTL for the fab betaing. Thanks to CM, McChick and Idk for the great reviews!
__________________________________________
Chapter 10: Gifts
“You were right, Willow,” sniffled the former slayer.
Willow looked on from the end of Buffy’s bed, sympathetic to her friend’s plight.
“How did I stay there for such a long time? Turning a blind eye to all the bad vampire stuff that was going on! Way to go Buffy! I mean that was why we broke up in the summer! I just got sucked into the badness once more!”
Willow nodded. “When you broke up in the summer though you still had your soul...” started Willow.
“Ya I guess, maybe.”
“I know you don’t eat people Buffy, but I can’t help but think that if Xander and I hadn’t been all supportive you would have been making with the people munching...”
Buffy stole a glance at her friend’s face for a moment before responding.
“You are right Willow,” Buffy finally admitted.
Willow inhaled sharply.
“You are right, that night, I was going to drain Jonathan. Faith stopped me, and then Spike made me mad. You sorta became my conscience Wills. And I’m grateful.”
Buffy smiled warmly at her friend. Willow opened her arms.
“Huggage!” ordered the red head.
“What are you going to do now?” Willow asked.
Pulling back from the hug, Buffy shrugged.
“I guess, just live my unlife as much as possible. I was a fool to think that he would ever kick Dru to the curb for me.”
“He loves you, Buffy I am certain of that,” offered Willow.
“But he doesn’t love me enough.”
__________________________________________
With Buffy gone from the mansion things returned to the vampire norm. There were no fights about one of their clan not feeding; there were no power struggles between the minions and Buffy. It was a relief. It was a disappointment.
Short of sending out minions to bring her back, or going after her himself, he spent every waking moment thinking about how to get her back. She wasn’t answering to his call, that signal that Sires could send to their Childer through their connection. She was asserting her independence and she wasn’t even a year old yet.
Drusilla had taken a turn for the worse. Her headaches were coming more frequently and stronger and more painful than they ever had before.
The wreath of intestines rotted, sending a stench into the mansion that even the minions couldn’t tolerate, but still Spike refused to take it down. It was a reminder of his loyalties, the stench an ode to his betrayal of his mate.
He went out to feed as usual leaving Dru in the care of minions, promising to be straight back once he’d fed. More often than not he found himself standing outside 1630 Revello Drive hoping to catch a glimpse of his Goldilocks, before feeling Dru’s call to him, sending him back to the mansion to soothe her painful head and chasing the pixies away.
Curiously, Dru made no mention of ‘Baby’ being away. It perplexed the leather clad vampire. Dru had been so adamant about her family and the inclusion and training of ‘Baby.’ With Buffy’s absence from the house, the crazed vampiress had made no mention of her at all. Buffy had become a taboo subject within the mansion’s walls.
Lying alone in their bed, Spike missed her. He felt as if a gaping hole had been punched out of his gut, not to mention his heart, and yet he felt powerless to do anything about it. Dru’s screams from the next room, calling for him to soothe her, brought him back to reality and briefly he considered putting his Dark Princess out of her misery.
__________________________________________
Christmas Day arrived with presents and eggnog at the Summers’ house. Buffy hadn’t see or talked to Spike in a week. Her mother had been trying to cheer up the vampiress with holiday fun, inviting Xander and Willow over for Christmas movie madness.
“Do vampires celebrate the festive yuletide season?” asked Xander out of the blue.
“Aurelians do,” noted Buffy as she took a sip of turkey blood. “It’s not a celebration of baby Jesus and Santa Claus and commercialism, it’s a ‘red goes really nicely with all these other colours’ thing. And there’s so many ornaments that you can make with body parts.”
Xander and Willow made disgusting face.
“Hey you asked,” noted Buffy. “Or maybe it was Drusilla’s madness,” she added with a frown.
“Have I said just how much I love that you are no longer in the den of blood drinking fiends?” noted Xander.
“Still a blood drinking fiend, Xan,” smiled Buffy raising her glass at her friend.
“Yes! But not in the den of...Now you are in the den of Scoobies. The Scooby den.”
With a smile, Buffy leaned over and gave Xander a hug.
Five more minutes into the holiday fabulousness of White Christmas and the song stylings of Bing Crosby that had brought Joyce out of the kitchen, and the whole group was startled by a knock at the door.
Reaching out her vampire senses she could feel that Spike was nearby. If her still heart beat, it would have been doing flip flops. She snapped a hurried ‘I’ll get it’ to her friends and mom before heading to the door.
Buffy opened the door, letting in cool night air and saw nothing. Frowning, she glanced down, and her eyes saw the object placed on the doormat.
A package.
A package that was badly wrapped with red shiny wrapping paper and had a gift tag on it that said simply ‘Goldilocks’.
She tuned out the noise of the movie, of the people in her house, of the cars on the street, lost in the contemplation of what Spike could have possibly gotten for her for Christmas.
With an eagerness that she had not exhibited since she fled from the Crawford Street mansion, Buffy tore open the package, revealing a shoebox. Carefully she opened the box, gasping at the contents.
“Buffy what is it?” asked Willow over her shoulder.
“Vampire dust,” said Buffy looking sadly down at the contents of the box.
__________________________________________
From his position on her neighbour’s lawn, hidden behind a tree, he could smell her tears. He knew that if he walked over there she would not reject him, but he didn’t want to be the one to capitulate, he’d already done enough of that this night.
She would have to come to him. Like she should. This was just a peace offering really, he tried to convince himself. A peace offering that cost him so much.
But she was worth it.
__________________________________________
Buffy walked through the wet grass of a local park. She didn’t even know why she was out there really. Confirmation perhaps. That box at Christmas had really thrown her for a loop. It had taken all of her will power to not dart up out of the house and fling herself into Spike’s arms.
It must have been so hard for him, so terribly painful, she thought. But shouldn’t I feel his pain too? she asked herself. She didn’t know why the mating bond or even the Childe/Sire bond between her and Spike wasn’t as strong as she supposed it to be. It even worried her a bit.
She wanted confirmation. Confirmation that Drusilla was dust from the minions. She thought she had been following one into the park, but a heartbeat to the left distracted her.
“Is it a vampire?” came her mother’s voice from her left.
Buffy turned her head to look at the source of her mother’s voice. Yep, Mom is in the park in the dark carrying a thermos of blood. You would think that she would learn what attracts vampires after all this time.
“Mom? What are you doing here?” Buffy asked incredulous, grabbing her mother and pressing her into the shadows.
“I brought you a snack. I thought you might get hungry and I didn’t want you to go snacking on the locals.”
Buffy exhaled a disappointed sigh.
“Mom, I don’t need to be monitored all the time. I haven’t killed anyone since I’ve been turned. I mean there were a couple of Spike’s minions, but that doesn’t count.”
“I’m sorry Buffy,” said Joyce. “I just...I want to believe you. It’s just, you are a vampire Buffy...vampires, they drink people’s blood. You said you were going for a walk...” she trailed off as Buffy stared at her in disbelief.
“And that means I’m off to scour the neighbourhood for the freshest blood, just because? Thanks for the confidence booster there, mom.”
The pair continued in silence traversing the playground past swings and a sandbox. Absently Joyce stooped down and picked up a discarded toy truck that had been left in a puddle. Glancing around the park, Joyce’s eyes lighted on something across the park.
“Oh god...” whispered Joyce, her eyes wide.
Buffy turned her head in the direction her mother was looking. There, on the merry go round lay the bodies of two children, a boy and a girl, arms outstretched with a symbol drawn on their hands.
“Buffy... What happened?” asked Joyce as the two of them approached the bodies. “Was it vampires?”
Buffy knelt down to look at the children. Touching their cold palms, Buffy wrinkled her nose and backed away from the two children.
“Demon, mom. These two children, they aren’t children. They smell like demons.”
“These little kids are demons?” asked Joyce. “Who would kill demon children?”
Buffy shrugged. “A Slayer?”
__________________________________________
Secluded in their house, safe from the demons and the vampires, Buffy patted her mother on the back as she sniffled, the deaths of the two demon children weighing heavily on the brain.
“They were little kids. Did you see them? I don’t care if they were demons or not. They were so tiny.”
“I saw,” said Buffy tenderly, knowing that her mom was taking this particularly hard.
Joyce shook her head sadly. “Who could do something like this? Was it Faith? She was such a nice girl. What would make a girl kill children?”
“I’m so sorry that you had to see this. But I promise that everything is gonna be okay.”
“How?”
“I don’t know mom. I really don’t know.” Buffy leaned over her mother and gave her a hug.
Joyce’s quiet sobs filled the kitchen.
__________________________________________
At school the next morning, the January light causing Buffy to hide from the windows, Buffy confronted Willow about what her mom had seen.
“I have to know what did that Wills,” said Buffy, taking books out of her locker. “My mom is taking this really bad.”
Willow nodded sympathetically. “There wasn’t anything unusual about their deaths? Marks?”
Buffy shook her head. “No, but it’s not like they were human to begin with. They were demon children. I could smell that much.”
Willow nodded again, getting out a piece of paper and writing the information down on it.
“Wait“ she started, her brows drawn together in thought. “I...I remember something. There was a mark. Not a bite mark, a symbol.” Buffy grabbed the pen out of Willow’s hand and drew the symbol she had seen on Willow’s paper. “It was on their hands.”
Willow looked at the symbol with shock.
“Oh Buffy!”
“What?” asked the former Slayer. “Do you know what it is?”
Willow looked up at her friend and gulped.
__________________________________________
The thought that Willow had seen the symbol before in a magic book had made Buffy think Witches had done this. But most of her experiences with witches were the good kind though, right? Buffy had gone to class and Willow had said she would check out the library for leads on the symbol.
When lunch rolled around, Buffy took her thermos of pig’s blood and headed into the cafeteria joining her friends along with Oz and Amy at their table.
“Hi, Buffy,” greeted Willow, with a smile, cutting off Xander for some reason.
“Buffy!” Xander stood up nervously. “What’s up?”
“I’m not going to eat you Xander,” responded Buffy. “You can calm down.” Buffy took Xander’s chair making the young man find another from a neighbouring table.
“So did Willow tell you?” continued Buffy.
“Tell us what?” asked Xander.
“A murder. Somebody killed two little kids,” said Buffy opening up her thermos.
“Oh no,” said Amy, shocked.
“They were, like seven or eight years old. My mom found the bodies last night.”
“Oh my god,” gasped Amy.
“Kids?” questioned Oz.
“Why was your mom there?” asked Xander.
“More bad. She picked last night of all nights for a surprise bonding visit,” Buffy lied. She couldn’t admit that her mom had gone out to make sure she hadn’t killed anyone.
“God, your mom would actually take the time to do that with you?” asked Willow in awe.
Over her mug of blood, Buffy shot her friend a look.
“That really wasn’t the point of the story, was it?” asked Willow sheepishly.
“No, the point is, she’s completely wigging.”
Buffy felt a presence behind her and turned, the scent in the air telling her who it was before she even looked. There stood her mother, looking distraught, but not crying.
“Who’s wigging?” asked Joyce.
“Umm...Everyone? Cause of what happened?” covered Buffy quickly.
“Oh, it’s so awful. I had bad dreams about it all night,” answered Joyce.
“Hi, Mrs. Summers!” greeted Willow cheerfully.
“Oh, hi, everybody,” noted Joyce absently.
“Hi,” answered Xander, digging into his lunch.
“Hi, Mrs. Summers,” greeted Amy.
“Buffy have you talked to Mr. Giles yet about who could have done this?” asked Joyce.
“Mom!” gasped Buffy knowing full well that her mother knew that Giles was not the man to talk to while she was all vamp-like.
“I took at look at the symbol, Mrs. Summers,” interrupted Willow. “I saw the symbol in a spell book once.”
“A spell book. So witches did this?” asked Joyce.
Amy and Willow looked at each other concerned.
“Oh I...I know you kids think that stuff’s cool. Buffy told me you dabble,” explained Joyce.
“Right,” agreed Willow nervously. “Absolutely. That’s me. I’m a dabbler.”
“But anybody who could do this isn’t cool. Anybody who could do this has to be a monster. It’s...”
“You know what?” asked Buffy cutting off her mother’s rant. “Uh, would you guys excuse us for a little bit?”
Buffy grabbed her mother’s arm and led her out of the room.
“Uh, nice to see you all,” Joyce called back to the table of Buffy’s friends.
Out in the hallway, Buffy and Joyce came to a stop.
“Are your friends gonna help with the investigation too?” asked Joyce right away.
“Mom, I really think...Maybe this isn’t the best place to talk about this,” Buffy said as she gave a wilted smile to those passing them.
“Are you embarrassed to be hanging out with your mother? I didn’t hug you...”
“No. It’s just...This hall is about school and you’re about home. Mix them and what little I have of a normal world dissolves.”
“It’s just, I keep thinking about who could have done such a thing. I have to help.”
Buffy gritted her teeth in frustration and willed herself to calm down, before she got vampy. “Well, I’d suggest going into the library to help Giles with research, but he’s not too happy with me being vampy. He might have some choice words for the mother that harbours her vampire daughter.”
Joyce nodded. “I called everybody I know in town. I told them about the dead children. They’re all just as upset as I am.”
“You called everybody that you know?” asked Buffy shocked.
“And they called all their friends. And guess what? We're setting up a vigil, for tonight, for City Hall. The Mayor is even gonna be there. Now we are gonna get some action.” Joyce smiled, pleased with herself.
Buffy looked at her mother with awe. “Mom you do realise what I said last night was the truth right? These kids that were killed, they were demons. You can’t have the whole town up in arms about demon children killed.”
“Why not?” asked Joyce. “Buffy since you’ve been turned, the world has been opened up to me. I know that the population of our town is a lot more than humans. The good demons need to take action too. You could talk to Spike, get the vampires involved too.”
Buffy shook her head. “Oh I don’t think that’s a good idea at all, mom. The minions will probably just start eating people.”
“But you’re a good vampire Buffy. Surely there are other good vampire’s out there.”
Buffy’s memory briefly flashed back to Angel, whom she had sent to hell. He had been good until she had fucked the soul out of him.
__________________________________________
tbc...
Making Up
Disclaimer: Joss owns ‘em...I play.
Author’s note: Dialogue Taken from “Ginger Bread” I know I say this every chapter but it doesn't make it less important to say: thanks to BTL for the fab betaing. You are wonderful. *squishes*
__________________________________________
Chapter 11: Making Up
As the sun set Buffy followed her mom to city hall where it was as if the whole town had gathered for the rally. There were signs and there was yelling. Buffy’s vampire senses were being overloaded with all sorts of stimuli. The blood pumping through the bodies of the crowd of people with whom she had little to no connection with was tempting.
Until she bumped into Willow. With a smile and a hug they greeted each other.
“It’s like the whole town is here,” Buffy observed, looking at the large crowd.
Willow nodded. “Even my mother is here, which is a little odd. She finally noticed my new hair cut, that I got in August.”
“Does she still think my name is Bunny?” asked Buffy.
“Yeppers.”
“I saw Giles too.”
Willow leaned over and whispered into her ear. “I have it on good authority that he has stakes up his sleeves. I haven’t seen Faith yet though.”
There was feedback from the microphone at the podium, drawing the girls’ attention to the Mayor, standing, waiting to begin.
“Hello, everybody,” began the Mayor. “Um... I want to thank you all for coming in the aftermath of such a tragic crime. Seeing you all here proves what a caring community Sunnydale is. Now, sure, we've had our share of misfortunes, but we're a good town with good people, and I know that none of us will rest easy until this horrible murder is solved. With that in mind...” he picked up one of the rally signs that read, ‘never again‘ “I make these words my pledge to you. 'Never again!' Now I ask you to give your attention to the woman who brought us all here tonight, Joyce Summers.”
Buffy watched as her mother strode to the podium with a determined look on her face. This couldn’t be good...
“Thank you,” began Joyce. “Mr. Mayor, you're dead wrong. This is not a good town. How many of us have, have lost someone who, who just disappeared? Or, or got skinned? Or suffered neck rupture? And how many of us have been too afraid to speak out? I-I was supposed to lead us in a moment of silence, but... silence is this town's disease. For too long we-we've been plagued by unnatural evils. This isn't our town anymore. It belongs to the monsters and, and the witches and the Slayers.”
Buffy let out a groan as her mother ranted. It was all true of course, but it exposed so much of the world that the average person was not ready to deal with.
“I say it's time for the grownups to take Sunnydale back. I say we start by finding the people who did this and making them pay.”
“Oh my god,” muttered Buffy, burying her head in her hands.
The crowd around her and Willow was starting to chant, to mutter and generally was making her wig. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of Giles and Faith chatting.
The marks on Faith’s neck called out to her. She was feeling protective of Faith, that was what she intended from the mark, but Faith’s eyes, turning towards her were cold and full of hate.
With vampire speed, Buffy fled.
__________________________________________
When her mother found her at home watching TV she was all a flutter about the success of the meeting. Buffy didn’t make with the interest, to the extent with which her mother had expected and after a few moments of her daughter going ‘huh’ to everything she was saying, Joyce finally gave up.
“I’m sure you will hear all about it at school tomorrow,” said Joyce, turning away.
__________________________________________
Buffy’s appearance at school was becoming more and more familiar. Students knew to get out her way when she was running inside on a sunny day, teachers knew to close the blinds in their classrooms when Buffy was taking their class.
And they all knew that you did not piss off Buffy Summers.
It was nearly a daily occurrence when she stepped up to face a school bully only to have them run away when she gave them a menacing glare, sometimes even flashing some fang if she was feeling really pissed off.
It seemed lately that anyone who was even suspected of being different was a target. Buffy’s vampire senses had clued her into the fact that a large population of the school had some demon or magic in them and were afraid of the knowledge getting out.
And you would think that after all her help they would accept her with open arms. Not so much. Buffy was a social pariah, the regular kids didn’t like her and the demon kids knew she was a vamp.
Her only friends were Xander and Willow. And Oz on occasion.
Buffy headed into the student lounge looking for her friends. To her delight, Xander was sitting on a couch. Keeping out of the patches of sunlight, Buffy walked in his general direction.
“Buffy, hi,” greeted Xander, sitting up.
“Hey. Is Willow around?”
“How can I convince you people that it's over? You assume because I'm here, she's here, that I somehow mysteriously know where she is,” said an exasperated Xander.
With a cocked eyebrow Buffy pointed out the books sitting beside her friend. “Those her books?”
“Yeah. She's in the bathroom,” explained Xander in a huff. “But the fact that I know that doesn't change that I have a genuine complaint here. Look, I'm getting sick of the judgment, the innuendoes. Is a man not innocent until proven guilty?”
“You are guilty. You got illicit smoochies, gonna have to pay the price.”
“But I'm talking about the future guilt. Look, everyone expects me to mess up again. Like Oz. I see how he is around me. You know, that steely gaze... that pointed silence.”
“Yeah 'cause he's usually such a chatterbox.”
“No, but it's different now. It's more a verbal nonverbal. He speaks volumes with his eyes.”
Buffy stifled a laugh and turned as she sensed Willow approaching.
“Wills, any more news on that monster?“ asked Buffy.
“Ooh, yes!“ Willow got out her notebook, flipped to a page and showed Buffy a symbol. “This is it right? The symbol that was on the kids’ hands? It’s a protection symbol.“
“Doesn’t look like it did its job,“ observed Xander.
“So either they were wearing the symbol for protection that they really needed or whoever did this is trying to frame witches?“ pondered Buffy.
Suddenly the hallway was filled with the sound of lockers slamming.
Buffy, Willow and Xander turned their heads sharply.
“Please step back. Stay away from the lockers. This is police business,” boomed a loud voice.
Buffy ran over to the hallway to see what was going on. The police were going through students’ lockers. Buffy’s thoughts turned to her own locker and the contents, her incriminating lunch more particularly.
With a worried awe, Buffy watched the police officers confiscate various items, books, strings of garlic cloves, and herbs.
“Aw, man, it's a police state, and I've got Playboys in my locker!” whined Xander over her shoulder.
“They just took three kids away,” came Oz’s voice from behind her. He was speaking to Willow, but Buffy could hear him clearly.
“What are they looking for?” Buffy asked.
“Witch stuff,” answered Amy, who had also joined the group.
“What?” cried a worried Willow.
“They got my spells. I'm supposed to report to Snyder's office,” explained Amy.
“Oh, my God.”
The group watched in awe as an officer approached them.
“Okay, Amy. You'll have to come with me,” the officer ordered. Taking Amy by the elbow they walked away.
“I have stuff in my locker. Henbane, hellebore, mandrake root,” babbled a worried Willow.
“Excuse me. Playboys. Can we turn the sympathy this way?” interrupted Xander.
“Oh, God, my locker's next. Buffy, I didn't do anything wrong!” Willow panicked, clutching onto her friend‘s arm.
An officer pulled some plastic bags from Willow's locker, nodding over to Snyder, who snatched them from the officer.
The smug troll man, principal Snyder walked over to the group with the bags in hand.
“Ms. Rosenberg. My office,” he instructed, his voice almost gleeful.
Buffy watched Willow gulp and follow after the Principal, Oz right behind her being all supportive.
__________________________________________
The rest of the day was a blur for Buffy. Willow was suspended, along with Amy and a bunch of other students. She didn’t know how she got out of the same fate. She had heard rumours that Giles’ books had been confiscated, and she felt the tiniest twinge of bad for him.
The fact remained that she was still keen on her own survival and wasn’t about to jeopardise it for teatime with Giles.
It was as if there was this sense about her that she very soon was going to be in an unlife or dust situation. She just couldn’t shrug it off, and yet she couldn’t do anything about it. Well that isn’t true, she thought. Buffy felt Spike call out to her through their bond again. She knew that he was asleep and he was probably doing it in his sleep without being aware of it.
Buffy returned home, via the sewers, to find her mother in the midst of command central for this group that she had formed. MOO was all over the house.
“MOO?” asked Buffy sceptically, a little ticked off that her mom hadn’t picked her up from school. If she had to go to school during the flamey death others referred to as daylight, the least her mom could do was drive her to and from school.
“Mothers opposed to the Occult,” answered her mother simply. “I don't want you seeing that Willow anymore. I've spoken with her mother. I had no idea her forays into the occult had gone so far.”
“You're the one who ordered the raid on the school today,” Buffy exclaimed as the thought came to her.
“I did, and I’m not explaining myself. The occult did this to those children.“
“Demon children!“ Buffy yelled exasperated. “You keep forgetting that those children were demons!“
“I do not forget that Buffy,“ Joyce stated firmly. “I don’t believe that they deserve to be killed even if they are demons. You are a demon and perfectly good one.“
Buffy rolled her eyes. “Vampires the world over aren’t exactly known for being all good. That’s why there is the Slayer... Remember, I used to be one? And nice acronym, Mom,” said the former Slayer as she left the room.
Buffy stormed upstairs to her room. Her world was coming down around her ears again. With a glance to the shoebox that sat on her dresser, Buffy decided that it was time.
__________________________________________
Buffy sat down on the merry go round in the park, the same one that her mom had found those dead demon children on and set down the shoebox beside her. The sun had set. The merry go round was littered with candles and flowers, cards and teddy bears, a sort of memorial to the two children. It didn’t bother her to sit there though. She relaxed against the handlebars and let her mind drift, letting down all the guards she had built up in her mind.
Spike, my love? she communicated softly.
She could feel the shock he felt. She had shut him out for so long, she didn’t want him to over whelm her, but at the same time she just wanted to be in his arms, make all the hurt go away.
I’m sorry.
In reality, it probably wasn’t the best place to fall asleep, vampire or not. Buffy did feel that it was perfectly justified. Vampires weren’t suppose to be up all day and her mother didn’t seem to understand that.
Buffy woke a few moments later to find Spike stroking her cheek tenderly, gazing into her eyes like he hadn’t seen her in centuries.
It felt like centuries, she heard him think.
She smiled sweetly and reached up to claim his lips with hers. She wanted this. She wanted the closeness, a closeness that she was lacking with pretty much everyone else.
The merry go round shifted under their weight breaking them from their kiss. Nonchalantly, Spike sat on the other side of the handrails, pushing aside some flowers and got out a cigarette.
“Hey,” he said between puffs of smoke.
“Hi,” she responded feeling slightly chilled.
“You wanted to see me?“ he asked.
Buffy looked over at her mate and Sire with a roll of her eyes.
“If it makes you feel better to keep up this big bad, ‘I don’t care’ aloofness then whatever, but you know I wanted to see you and you know what about,” started off Buffy. “I miss you.”
“The life you’ve been trying to relive is being a bitch and you don’t like it.”
Buffy waned a little and smiled at him sheepishly. “Maybe a little. And then there’s the Christmas present you sent me,” she said bringing the box to sit in her lap. “Why?” she asked trying to catch his eyes.
“Cause I thought it was what you wanted. Bloody hell Buffy! I can’t take this back and forth thing. It isn’t right, it isn’t normal. There’s a lot I can tolerate, but never knowing if you are going to blow up at me for being myself. You knew what you were getting into that night. I only wish I had known,” he answered, an underlying bitterness to his tone.
“What I wanted?” asked Buffy, incensed. “I didn’t want this! I didn’t want you to dust her just for me. Send her away sure! Not dust her!”
Spike finally returned Buffy’s gaze, perplexed. “Just whom do you think is in that box, Goldilocks?”
“Drusilla...“ she answered, feeling doubt behind it though. “Isn’t Drusilla in this box?”
Spike snorted out his laughter. “That’s not Drusilla Buffy.”
“Eww, then who is it?”
“The minions. The whole lot of ‘em.”
Buffy looked at the contents of the box for a moment before dropping the contents to the ground.
“You dusted all the minions?” she questioned. It made sense now, there was a lot more dust in that box than one vampire made.
Spike blew another puff of smoke out of his dead lungs and nodded.
“Then where is Drusilla?” she asked.
“Brazil,” he admitted.
“Really?”
Spike nodded again. “Told me last week that she needed to be away for a while, something about the fairies and her friend Carl, whoever he is. She was right ticked off when I dusted the lot of scampering minions. Don’t think she really forgave me for that.”
“She’s gone,” Buffy said, more for her own sake than for Spike to reaffirm it.
The silence over took her, the creak of the playground equipment the only sound to accompany her thoughts.
“School was a mistake,” she stated simply. “My mom really didn’t know what she was forcing me into. Everyone is afraid of me. Except Willow and Xander. Well that’s not true. I think Xander’s a little afraid of me too. And now it’s all oppressive dictatorship at school and Willow’s been suspended for witchcraft. Why did things get so out of hand? Over a couple of demon children.”
“Not children Goldilocks,” Spike responded with a glance over at her.
“Huh?”
“Those bodies you found, not children, just one full grown demon split in two. It’s been around for a while. It’s time we got the hell out of Sunnyhell pet, before this blows up in our faces.”
“Just what do you mean by that?” asked Buffy.
“I mean, love,” he started, locking his gaze with hers. “That if we don’t get out of here, we are going to end up set on fire or some such thing by a mob of people. It’s happened before, it’ll happen again. It’s what drove Dru and I from Prague to come here.”
“All they want are witches...”
“And soon it will be all demons. This demon, love, it makes whole cities and towns do crazy things.”
Buffy stood up and began pacing. “Then we have to take Willow and Amy with us.”
“Uh, come again pet?”
“I can’t leave them here if they are gonna be all burnt at the stake. Oh god! They are gonna be burnt at the stake aren’t they?” she cried.
“Sometimes it happens. Just so long as it isn’t you being burnt, I’m ok with it.”
“Spike! Willow’s my friend!”
__________________________________________
tbc...
Author’s note: Dialogue Taken from “Ginger Bread” I know I say this every chapter but it doesn't make it less important to say: thanks to BTL for the fab betaing. You are wonderful. *squishes*
__________________________________________
Chapter 11: Making Up
As the sun set Buffy followed her mom to city hall where it was as if the whole town had gathered for the rally. There were signs and there was yelling. Buffy’s vampire senses were being overloaded with all sorts of stimuli. The blood pumping through the bodies of the crowd of people with whom she had little to no connection with was tempting.
Until she bumped into Willow. With a smile and a hug they greeted each other.
“It’s like the whole town is here,” Buffy observed, looking at the large crowd.
Willow nodded. “Even my mother is here, which is a little odd. She finally noticed my new hair cut, that I got in August.”
“Does she still think my name is Bunny?” asked Buffy.
“Yeppers.”
“I saw Giles too.”
Willow leaned over and whispered into her ear. “I have it on good authority that he has stakes up his sleeves. I haven’t seen Faith yet though.”
There was feedback from the microphone at the podium, drawing the girls’ attention to the Mayor, standing, waiting to begin.
“Hello, everybody,” began the Mayor. “Um... I want to thank you all for coming in the aftermath of such a tragic crime. Seeing you all here proves what a caring community Sunnydale is. Now, sure, we've had our share of misfortunes, but we're a good town with good people, and I know that none of us will rest easy until this horrible murder is solved. With that in mind...” he picked up one of the rally signs that read, ‘never again‘ “I make these words my pledge to you. 'Never again!' Now I ask you to give your attention to the woman who brought us all here tonight, Joyce Summers.”
Buffy watched as her mother strode to the podium with a determined look on her face. This couldn’t be good...
“Thank you,” began Joyce. “Mr. Mayor, you're dead wrong. This is not a good town. How many of us have, have lost someone who, who just disappeared? Or, or got skinned? Or suffered neck rupture? And how many of us have been too afraid to speak out? I-I was supposed to lead us in a moment of silence, but... silence is this town's disease. For too long we-we've been plagued by unnatural evils. This isn't our town anymore. It belongs to the monsters and, and the witches and the Slayers.”
Buffy let out a groan as her mother ranted. It was all true of course, but it exposed so much of the world that the average person was not ready to deal with.
“I say it's time for the grownups to take Sunnydale back. I say we start by finding the people who did this and making them pay.”
“Oh my god,” muttered Buffy, burying her head in her hands.
The crowd around her and Willow was starting to chant, to mutter and generally was making her wig. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of Giles and Faith chatting.
The marks on Faith’s neck called out to her. She was feeling protective of Faith, that was what she intended from the mark, but Faith’s eyes, turning towards her were cold and full of hate.
With vampire speed, Buffy fled.
__________________________________________
When her mother found her at home watching TV she was all a flutter about the success of the meeting. Buffy didn’t make with the interest, to the extent with which her mother had expected and after a few moments of her daughter going ‘huh’ to everything she was saying, Joyce finally gave up.
“I’m sure you will hear all about it at school tomorrow,” said Joyce, turning away.
__________________________________________
Buffy’s appearance at school was becoming more and more familiar. Students knew to get out her way when she was running inside on a sunny day, teachers knew to close the blinds in their classrooms when Buffy was taking their class.
And they all knew that you did not piss off Buffy Summers.
It was nearly a daily occurrence when she stepped up to face a school bully only to have them run away when she gave them a menacing glare, sometimes even flashing some fang if she was feeling really pissed off.
It seemed lately that anyone who was even suspected of being different was a target. Buffy’s vampire senses had clued her into the fact that a large population of the school had some demon or magic in them and were afraid of the knowledge getting out.
And you would think that after all her help they would accept her with open arms. Not so much. Buffy was a social pariah, the regular kids didn’t like her and the demon kids knew she was a vamp.
Her only friends were Xander and Willow. And Oz on occasion.
Buffy headed into the student lounge looking for her friends. To her delight, Xander was sitting on a couch. Keeping out of the patches of sunlight, Buffy walked in his general direction.
“Buffy, hi,” greeted Xander, sitting up.
“Hey. Is Willow around?”
“How can I convince you people that it's over? You assume because I'm here, she's here, that I somehow mysteriously know where she is,” said an exasperated Xander.
With a cocked eyebrow Buffy pointed out the books sitting beside her friend. “Those her books?”
“Yeah. She's in the bathroom,” explained Xander in a huff. “But the fact that I know that doesn't change that I have a genuine complaint here. Look, I'm getting sick of the judgment, the innuendoes. Is a man not innocent until proven guilty?”
“You are guilty. You got illicit smoochies, gonna have to pay the price.”
“But I'm talking about the future guilt. Look, everyone expects me to mess up again. Like Oz. I see how he is around me. You know, that steely gaze... that pointed silence.”
“Yeah 'cause he's usually such a chatterbox.”
“No, but it's different now. It's more a verbal nonverbal. He speaks volumes with his eyes.”
Buffy stifled a laugh and turned as she sensed Willow approaching.
“Wills, any more news on that monster?“ asked Buffy.
“Ooh, yes!“ Willow got out her notebook, flipped to a page and showed Buffy a symbol. “This is it right? The symbol that was on the kids’ hands? It’s a protection symbol.“
“Doesn’t look like it did its job,“ observed Xander.
“So either they were wearing the symbol for protection that they really needed or whoever did this is trying to frame witches?“ pondered Buffy.
Suddenly the hallway was filled with the sound of lockers slamming.
Buffy, Willow and Xander turned their heads sharply.
“Please step back. Stay away from the lockers. This is police business,” boomed a loud voice.
Buffy ran over to the hallway to see what was going on. The police were going through students’ lockers. Buffy’s thoughts turned to her own locker and the contents, her incriminating lunch more particularly.
With a worried awe, Buffy watched the police officers confiscate various items, books, strings of garlic cloves, and herbs.
“Aw, man, it's a police state, and I've got Playboys in my locker!” whined Xander over her shoulder.
“They just took three kids away,” came Oz’s voice from behind her. He was speaking to Willow, but Buffy could hear him clearly.
“What are they looking for?” Buffy asked.
“Witch stuff,” answered Amy, who had also joined the group.
“What?” cried a worried Willow.
“They got my spells. I'm supposed to report to Snyder's office,” explained Amy.
“Oh, my God.”
The group watched in awe as an officer approached them.
“Okay, Amy. You'll have to come with me,” the officer ordered. Taking Amy by the elbow they walked away.
“I have stuff in my locker. Henbane, hellebore, mandrake root,” babbled a worried Willow.
“Excuse me. Playboys. Can we turn the sympathy this way?” interrupted Xander.
“Oh, God, my locker's next. Buffy, I didn't do anything wrong!” Willow panicked, clutching onto her friend‘s arm.
An officer pulled some plastic bags from Willow's locker, nodding over to Snyder, who snatched them from the officer.
The smug troll man, principal Snyder walked over to the group with the bags in hand.
“Ms. Rosenberg. My office,” he instructed, his voice almost gleeful.
Buffy watched Willow gulp and follow after the Principal, Oz right behind her being all supportive.
__________________________________________
The rest of the day was a blur for Buffy. Willow was suspended, along with Amy and a bunch of other students. She didn’t know how she got out of the same fate. She had heard rumours that Giles’ books had been confiscated, and she felt the tiniest twinge of bad for him.
The fact remained that she was still keen on her own survival and wasn’t about to jeopardise it for teatime with Giles.
It was as if there was this sense about her that she very soon was going to be in an unlife or dust situation. She just couldn’t shrug it off, and yet she couldn’t do anything about it. Well that isn’t true, she thought. Buffy felt Spike call out to her through their bond again. She knew that he was asleep and he was probably doing it in his sleep without being aware of it.
Buffy returned home, via the sewers, to find her mother in the midst of command central for this group that she had formed. MOO was all over the house.
“MOO?” asked Buffy sceptically, a little ticked off that her mom hadn’t picked her up from school. If she had to go to school during the flamey death others referred to as daylight, the least her mom could do was drive her to and from school.
“Mothers opposed to the Occult,” answered her mother simply. “I don't want you seeing that Willow anymore. I've spoken with her mother. I had no idea her forays into the occult had gone so far.”
“You're the one who ordered the raid on the school today,” Buffy exclaimed as the thought came to her.
“I did, and I’m not explaining myself. The occult did this to those children.“
“Demon children!“ Buffy yelled exasperated. “You keep forgetting that those children were demons!“
“I do not forget that Buffy,“ Joyce stated firmly. “I don’t believe that they deserve to be killed even if they are demons. You are a demon and perfectly good one.“
Buffy rolled her eyes. “Vampires the world over aren’t exactly known for being all good. That’s why there is the Slayer... Remember, I used to be one? And nice acronym, Mom,” said the former Slayer as she left the room.
Buffy stormed upstairs to her room. Her world was coming down around her ears again. With a glance to the shoebox that sat on her dresser, Buffy decided that it was time.
__________________________________________
Buffy sat down on the merry go round in the park, the same one that her mom had found those dead demon children on and set down the shoebox beside her. The sun had set. The merry go round was littered with candles and flowers, cards and teddy bears, a sort of memorial to the two children. It didn’t bother her to sit there though. She relaxed against the handlebars and let her mind drift, letting down all the guards she had built up in her mind.
Spike, my love? she communicated softly.
She could feel the shock he felt. She had shut him out for so long, she didn’t want him to over whelm her, but at the same time she just wanted to be in his arms, make all the hurt go away.
I’m sorry.
In reality, it probably wasn’t the best place to fall asleep, vampire or not. Buffy did feel that it was perfectly justified. Vampires weren’t suppose to be up all day and her mother didn’t seem to understand that.
Buffy woke a few moments later to find Spike stroking her cheek tenderly, gazing into her eyes like he hadn’t seen her in centuries.
It felt like centuries, she heard him think.
She smiled sweetly and reached up to claim his lips with hers. She wanted this. She wanted the closeness, a closeness that she was lacking with pretty much everyone else.
The merry go round shifted under their weight breaking them from their kiss. Nonchalantly, Spike sat on the other side of the handrails, pushing aside some flowers and got out a cigarette.
“Hey,” he said between puffs of smoke.
“Hi,” she responded feeling slightly chilled.
“You wanted to see me?“ he asked.
Buffy looked over at her mate and Sire with a roll of her eyes.
“If it makes you feel better to keep up this big bad, ‘I don’t care’ aloofness then whatever, but you know I wanted to see you and you know what about,” started off Buffy. “I miss you.”
“The life you’ve been trying to relive is being a bitch and you don’t like it.”
Buffy waned a little and smiled at him sheepishly. “Maybe a little. And then there’s the Christmas present you sent me,” she said bringing the box to sit in her lap. “Why?” she asked trying to catch his eyes.
“Cause I thought it was what you wanted. Bloody hell Buffy! I can’t take this back and forth thing. It isn’t right, it isn’t normal. There’s a lot I can tolerate, but never knowing if you are going to blow up at me for being myself. You knew what you were getting into that night. I only wish I had known,” he answered, an underlying bitterness to his tone.
“What I wanted?” asked Buffy, incensed. “I didn’t want this! I didn’t want you to dust her just for me. Send her away sure! Not dust her!”
Spike finally returned Buffy’s gaze, perplexed. “Just whom do you think is in that box, Goldilocks?”
“Drusilla...“ she answered, feeling doubt behind it though. “Isn’t Drusilla in this box?”
Spike snorted out his laughter. “That’s not Drusilla Buffy.”
“Eww, then who is it?”
“The minions. The whole lot of ‘em.”
Buffy looked at the contents of the box for a moment before dropping the contents to the ground.
“You dusted all the minions?” she questioned. It made sense now, there was a lot more dust in that box than one vampire made.
Spike blew another puff of smoke out of his dead lungs and nodded.
“Then where is Drusilla?” she asked.
“Brazil,” he admitted.
“Really?”
Spike nodded again. “Told me last week that she needed to be away for a while, something about the fairies and her friend Carl, whoever he is. She was right ticked off when I dusted the lot of scampering minions. Don’t think she really forgave me for that.”
“She’s gone,” Buffy said, more for her own sake than for Spike to reaffirm it.
The silence over took her, the creak of the playground equipment the only sound to accompany her thoughts.
“School was a mistake,” she stated simply. “My mom really didn’t know what she was forcing me into. Everyone is afraid of me. Except Willow and Xander. Well that’s not true. I think Xander’s a little afraid of me too. And now it’s all oppressive dictatorship at school and Willow’s been suspended for witchcraft. Why did things get so out of hand? Over a couple of demon children.”
“Not children Goldilocks,” Spike responded with a glance over at her.
“Huh?”
“Those bodies you found, not children, just one full grown demon split in two. It’s been around for a while. It’s time we got the hell out of Sunnyhell pet, before this blows up in our faces.”
“Just what do you mean by that?” asked Buffy.
“I mean, love,” he started, locking his gaze with hers. “That if we don’t get out of here, we are going to end up set on fire or some such thing by a mob of people. It’s happened before, it’ll happen again. It’s what drove Dru and I from Prague to come here.”
“All they want are witches...”
“And soon it will be all demons. This demon, love, it makes whole cities and towns do crazy things.”
Buffy stood up and began pacing. “Then we have to take Willow and Amy with us.”
“Uh, come again pet?”
“I can’t leave them here if they are gonna be all burnt at the stake. Oh god! They are gonna be burnt at the stake aren’t they?” she cried.
“Sometimes it happens. Just so long as it isn’t you being burnt, I’m ok with it.”
“Spike! Willow’s my friend!”
__________________________________________
tbc...
Damsel in Distress
Disclaimer: All hail the mighty and powerful genius that is Joss.
Author’s note: Some Dialogue taken from ‘Gingerbread’ Thanks once again to the great, wonderful, fabulous BloodyTearsofLife for the betaing and pointing out plot discrepancies. You rock!
I'd also like to thank everyone who has been keeping up with this fic, it's been such a long time since I updated.
__________________________________________
Chapter 12: Damsel in Distress
“Buffy!” shouted Spike after his childe and mate as she strode with purpose towards the school.
He caught up with her as she walked into the library, leaving the doors swinging by her entrance.
“Look,” she started, as Giles, Xander and Oz stared up at her and Spike who was right behind her. “I know you don’t like the fact that I’m a vamp. Deal with it. I’m here because if we don’t stop MOO Willow’s gonna die, along with all the rest of the people this town thinks are witches. These kids, they aren’t kids, they’re a demon, as in singular. It gets towns to start with the condemning and the witch hunting, leading to the burning and the drowning à la salem witch trials. Do you catch my drift? Bad news, so either you start working on a way to track down this demon and kill it or Willow gets lynched. And when did Giles start using technology?”
Giles stood up from the computer he was sitting at, staring down the two vampires.
“Why are you here, vampire?” asked Giles.
“Duh! Just said why, listen Giles! Hop to! Make with the researchy!” she ordered, hands on hips.
“Uh, Giles, he be without the books,” offered Xander.
“Oh, right. Well use that computery thing in front of you.”
Oz sat down at the computer in Giles’ place. “I can look 'round, but Willow would really
know the sites we need.”
“That's great. She can't even come to the phone. The wrath of MOO,” Buffy explained.
“Well, we don't need a phone,” said Oz.
Buffy nodded in comprehension, at the same time acutely aware of Giles’ movements in the room. The watcher had already picked up a stake and was making his way to his desk for something else. Buffy suspected holy water.
“Ok, well go you with the research, I’m going to see about rescuing the damsel in distress, and Giles?”
The watcher looked back from his pursuit of more vampire dangerous things.
“Take care of Faith will you? She’ll be a target too.”
With that closing statement, Buffy turned and left the library, Spike following close behind.
“You’re gonna turn me into a raging do gooder, aren’t you?” he muttered as they walked down the hall.
“No, of course not!” she protested, spinning in spot, walking backwards for a moment and kissing his cheek. “I love my big bad.”
“We get Red and we get the hell out ya?”
Buffy nodded, turning back in the direction that she was walking in. Soon before them lay Willow’s house.
Buffy crawled the short distance to her friend’s bedroom window and let out a gasp.
The room before her was uncharacteristically messy for Willow’s room. There had been a struggle here.
“She’s gone Spike! They’ve taken her!” shouted a slightly panicked Buffy.
She jumped down from the ledge.
“What am I going to do Spike?” she wailed. “I have to get her back! I need her!”
Spike cocked an eyebrow at that statement. “What do you mean you need her?”
“She’s Willow!” she yelled, as if that explained everything.
“Did the witch put a spell on you?” asked a perplexed vampire.
“Gah! No! She’s my best friend Spike! She’s my best friend!” she whimpered, looking particularly defeated.
“Alright, where do you think they would have taken her?” asked Spike putting a soothing hand on her back.
“I...I don’t know! Wherever MOO takes her.” A light went off in Buffy’s head, just before she took off again. “Come on Spike!”
With a shake of his head, Spike followed his Goldilocks certain of the impending doom she was leading him into.
Which turned out to be her house.
Buffy threw open the door and walked in, not bothering to look behind her to make sure that Spike could follow. He had an invitation to her house. Buffy was so intent on confronting her mother she didn’t register Spike’s futile attempts to get through the doorway. Someone had revoked his invite recently. Spike watched from the doorway as Buffy walked in on a MOO meeting.
“Buffy! Spike! Did something happen?’ asked Joyce, concerned that her daughter was clearly on speaking terms with her vampire boyfriend again.
“Mom, I need to talk to you. Now,” said Buffy in her best ‘slayer voice.’
Joyce put her notebook down, dismissing the others before stepping forward towards her daughter.
“No, we need to talk, alone,” reiterated Buffy. Buffy led her mother by the elbow into the dining room, hoping that they would be left alone for the most part.
“Mom, where did they take Willow?” asked Buffy.
Without warning Joyce covered Buffy’s mouth with a cloth. Buffy could hear a snarl from Spike at the doorway, as he tried to get through the barrier.
Deftly Buffy batted her mother away.
“Mom! Vampire! I don’t need to breathe!”
With that the men that were in her living room started to advance on Buffy’s position, holding crosses.
Buffy hissed and backed up away from the offending objects.
“You’re one of those horrible demons Buffy,” said Joyce with a serious voice.
“You’re just getting this now?” asked Buffy coming up against the wall of her dining room, her head turning to avoid the cross that was getting closer and closer to her skin.
Risking the pain of being burned, Buffy knocked the cross out of the random man’s hand and moved to push the rest away. Out of nowhere someone brought out a tazer, stunning her into unconsciousness.
From the doorway Spike let out a feral growl as he threw himself against he barrier at the door.
Joyce turned to look at Spike with a smile on her face.
“I sure am glad I had the witch do a disinvite spell on this house the last time you and Buffy had a fight.”
“You can’t keep her in there forever. If you want to get to your barbeque, you’re going to have to come out of that house, Joyce,” he growled.
Joyce walked right up to the doorway confident in the fact that he couldn’t get to her.
“You were the worst thing to ever happen to Buffy! I bet you didn’t even try to save her from whatever vampire bit her! It wouldn’t surprise me it you were the one who did it!”
Spike opened his mouth to respond only to be zapped by a tazer from behind.
__________________________________________
He knew he was laying quite ungracefully on his Goldilocks’ front porch and in quite a bit of pain. Concentrating on making his limbs move, opening his eyes and all that he almost failed to register the ‘Ug’ from an unknown girl passing by.
“Geez! Buffy could at least bury her meals! I’m scarred for life!”
Spike opened his eyes to lock eyes with a brunette girl that he felt he should know.
“Oh my god, you aren’t dead?” the brunette asked.
“That’s a matter of opinion,” mumbled the vampire.
“Whatever, she’s not even home! First the thing at school, and then my mom confiscates all of my black clothes and scented candles. I came over here to tell Buffy to stop this craziness and found you all unconscious... Who are you anyway?”
“So you are one of Buffy’s friends?” asked Spike curious.
“As if! Not since she went to the dark side. I mean sure I lowered myself to date one of her loser friends, but that is all behind me.”
The information registered. “Cordelia Chase.”
“Ooh smart boy, heard of me?” she asked, her eye lashes fluttering.
Slowly Spike rose to his feet. “Ya, and you’ve heard of me. I’m the one responsible for Buffy’s dark side,” he said stepping into her personal space earning an ‘eep’ from the cheerleader.
“S...Spike,” she acknowledged.
“Right, so tell me just where is Buffy?”
“I don’t know! You think I’d be knocking on her door if I did?”
Spike pushed her out of the way and headed down the steps of the porch. Standing in the middle of the street her took a whiff of the air around him and headed down town.
“Hey! Wait up!” yelled Cordelia.
__________________________________________
Through a dreamy haze, Buffy heard Willow.
“Buffy!” yelled her friend, panicked.
Buffy opened her eyes to find that her friend’s panicked tone was very appropriate to the situation. Buffy looked around her wishing that this was just a dream. She was tied to a stake, Giles’ books at her feet for kindling. Also tied to stakes were Willow, beside her, Amy next to Willow and an unconscious Faith, at the end. Buffy tried to free herself from her bonds but found that whatever they had used weren’t budging. She looked behind her for a moment to see just what it was.
Huh, rope and duct tape together at last, mused the captive vampire.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” came her mother’s voice from the crowd.
“Mom, you don't want this,” begged Buffy.
“Since when does it matter what I want? I wanted a normal, happy daughter. Instead I got a Slayer. A slayer with a vampire boyfriend!” shouted Joyce.
Willow’s mom came to stand beside Joyce, bearing a torch.
“Torch?” offered Mrs. Rosenberg.
“Thanks. This has been so trying. You've been such a champ,” chattered Joyce, taking the torch.
“Oh, you, too, Joyce.”
Buffy was about to roll her eyes at her unfortunate luck and the chattiness of her mother as she was about to murder her only child until the fire was actually set and Giles’ books started to burn.
“Oh, you can't be serious!” shouted Amy.
“Mom, don't!” Buffy begged.
Buffy pulled at the rope and tape that bound her wrists frantically. It wasn’t her fault that she was highly flammable.
Then through the crowd, Buffy caught a glimpse of platinum blond hair.
“Alright. You wanna fry a witch? I'll give you a witch! Goddess Hecate, work thy will!” shouted Amy, at the crowd.
“Amy! Shut up! We’re about to be saved,” shouted Buffy.
A growl erupted from the crowd as Spike fought his way through the bystanders.
Buffy concentrated on her mate, having a good old time, fighting off the random humans. The fire crept closer to her feet. Suddenly, water was sprayed at the four captives, mercifully putting out the flames.
Buffy breathed a sigh of relief.
“Holy crap!” shouted Faith, from the other end of the line of stakes, who apparently was just waking up. “What the hell is going on here?”
“I think we were just saved by Cordelia...” muttered Willow. “And Giles is chanting? Is that Giles with the spellyness?” asked Willow.
Two blond children advanced on Giles’ position as he chanted. Even as the crowd finally decided to give Spike a wide berth, it still impeded his approach.
Buffy attention drifted to Giles once more as he smashed a bottle of something in front of the children causing the two children to merge and form a very ugly but tall demon.
“Okay, I think I liked the two little ones more than the one big one,” noted Cordelia.
“Oh my god! What have we done?“ cried Joyce finally realising just what they had been intent on doing.
“Protect us! Kill the bad girls!” shouted the demon at the retreating crowd, clearly more afraid of the demon now that they knew its true form.
“You know what? Not as convincing in that outfit,” quipped Buffy.
With a roar the demon advanced on her only getting a couple of steps closer before Spike put his hands on it and ripped its head off.
Spike threw the head down in front of Buffy’s startled mom and shrugged his shoulders, before going to untie Buffy. Without warning the ceiling above them collapsed and Xander and Oz came crashing down on the burnt remnants of Giles’ books.
Buffy felt a tug and rip on her bonds, as Spike cut his way through them with his fangs. The instant she was free she threw herself into his arms, her lips seeking his out. The world around them disappeared for a moment as they embraced.
They were, however, brought back to reality by Willow clearing her throat. Buffy turned to see Faith and Giles standing before them with stakes in hand.
__________________________________________
tbc...
Author’s note: Some Dialogue taken from ‘Gingerbread’ Thanks once again to the great, wonderful, fabulous BloodyTearsofLife for the betaing and pointing out plot discrepancies. You rock!
I'd also like to thank everyone who has been keeping up with this fic, it's been such a long time since I updated.
__________________________________________
Chapter 12: Damsel in Distress
“Buffy!” shouted Spike after his childe and mate as she strode with purpose towards the school.
He caught up with her as she walked into the library, leaving the doors swinging by her entrance.
“Look,” she started, as Giles, Xander and Oz stared up at her and Spike who was right behind her. “I know you don’t like the fact that I’m a vamp. Deal with it. I’m here because if we don’t stop MOO Willow’s gonna die, along with all the rest of the people this town thinks are witches. These kids, they aren’t kids, they’re a demon, as in singular. It gets towns to start with the condemning and the witch hunting, leading to the burning and the drowning à la salem witch trials. Do you catch my drift? Bad news, so either you start working on a way to track down this demon and kill it or Willow gets lynched. And when did Giles start using technology?”
Giles stood up from the computer he was sitting at, staring down the two vampires.
“Why are you here, vampire?” asked Giles.
“Duh! Just said why, listen Giles! Hop to! Make with the researchy!” she ordered, hands on hips.
“Uh, Giles, he be without the books,” offered Xander.
“Oh, right. Well use that computery thing in front of you.”
Oz sat down at the computer in Giles’ place. “I can look 'round, but Willow would really
know the sites we need.”
“That's great. She can't even come to the phone. The wrath of MOO,” Buffy explained.
“Well, we don't need a phone,” said Oz.
Buffy nodded in comprehension, at the same time acutely aware of Giles’ movements in the room. The watcher had already picked up a stake and was making his way to his desk for something else. Buffy suspected holy water.
“Ok, well go you with the research, I’m going to see about rescuing the damsel in distress, and Giles?”
The watcher looked back from his pursuit of more vampire dangerous things.
“Take care of Faith will you? She’ll be a target too.”
With that closing statement, Buffy turned and left the library, Spike following close behind.
“You’re gonna turn me into a raging do gooder, aren’t you?” he muttered as they walked down the hall.
“No, of course not!” she protested, spinning in spot, walking backwards for a moment and kissing his cheek. “I love my big bad.”
“We get Red and we get the hell out ya?”
Buffy nodded, turning back in the direction that she was walking in. Soon before them lay Willow’s house.
Buffy crawled the short distance to her friend’s bedroom window and let out a gasp.
The room before her was uncharacteristically messy for Willow’s room. There had been a struggle here.
“She’s gone Spike! They’ve taken her!” shouted a slightly panicked Buffy.
She jumped down from the ledge.
“What am I going to do Spike?” she wailed. “I have to get her back! I need her!”
Spike cocked an eyebrow at that statement. “What do you mean you need her?”
“She’s Willow!” she yelled, as if that explained everything.
“Did the witch put a spell on you?” asked a perplexed vampire.
“Gah! No! She’s my best friend Spike! She’s my best friend!” she whimpered, looking particularly defeated.
“Alright, where do you think they would have taken her?” asked Spike putting a soothing hand on her back.
“I...I don’t know! Wherever MOO takes her.” A light went off in Buffy’s head, just before she took off again. “Come on Spike!”
With a shake of his head, Spike followed his Goldilocks certain of the impending doom she was leading him into.
Which turned out to be her house.
Buffy threw open the door and walked in, not bothering to look behind her to make sure that Spike could follow. He had an invitation to her house. Buffy was so intent on confronting her mother she didn’t register Spike’s futile attempts to get through the doorway. Someone had revoked his invite recently. Spike watched from the doorway as Buffy walked in on a MOO meeting.
“Buffy! Spike! Did something happen?’ asked Joyce, concerned that her daughter was clearly on speaking terms with her vampire boyfriend again.
“Mom, I need to talk to you. Now,” said Buffy in her best ‘slayer voice.’
Joyce put her notebook down, dismissing the others before stepping forward towards her daughter.
“No, we need to talk, alone,” reiterated Buffy. Buffy led her mother by the elbow into the dining room, hoping that they would be left alone for the most part.
“Mom, where did they take Willow?” asked Buffy.
Without warning Joyce covered Buffy’s mouth with a cloth. Buffy could hear a snarl from Spike at the doorway, as he tried to get through the barrier.
Deftly Buffy batted her mother away.
“Mom! Vampire! I don’t need to breathe!”
With that the men that were in her living room started to advance on Buffy’s position, holding crosses.
Buffy hissed and backed up away from the offending objects.
“You’re one of those horrible demons Buffy,” said Joyce with a serious voice.
“You’re just getting this now?” asked Buffy coming up against the wall of her dining room, her head turning to avoid the cross that was getting closer and closer to her skin.
Risking the pain of being burned, Buffy knocked the cross out of the random man’s hand and moved to push the rest away. Out of nowhere someone brought out a tazer, stunning her into unconsciousness.
From the doorway Spike let out a feral growl as he threw himself against he barrier at the door.
Joyce turned to look at Spike with a smile on her face.
“I sure am glad I had the witch do a disinvite spell on this house the last time you and Buffy had a fight.”
“You can’t keep her in there forever. If you want to get to your barbeque, you’re going to have to come out of that house, Joyce,” he growled.
Joyce walked right up to the doorway confident in the fact that he couldn’t get to her.
“You were the worst thing to ever happen to Buffy! I bet you didn’t even try to save her from whatever vampire bit her! It wouldn’t surprise me it you were the one who did it!”
Spike opened his mouth to respond only to be zapped by a tazer from behind.
__________________________________________
He knew he was laying quite ungracefully on his Goldilocks’ front porch and in quite a bit of pain. Concentrating on making his limbs move, opening his eyes and all that he almost failed to register the ‘Ug’ from an unknown girl passing by.
“Geez! Buffy could at least bury her meals! I’m scarred for life!”
Spike opened his eyes to lock eyes with a brunette girl that he felt he should know.
“Oh my god, you aren’t dead?” the brunette asked.
“That’s a matter of opinion,” mumbled the vampire.
“Whatever, she’s not even home! First the thing at school, and then my mom confiscates all of my black clothes and scented candles. I came over here to tell Buffy to stop this craziness and found you all unconscious... Who are you anyway?”
“So you are one of Buffy’s friends?” asked Spike curious.
“As if! Not since she went to the dark side. I mean sure I lowered myself to date one of her loser friends, but that is all behind me.”
The information registered. “Cordelia Chase.”
“Ooh smart boy, heard of me?” she asked, her eye lashes fluttering.
Slowly Spike rose to his feet. “Ya, and you’ve heard of me. I’m the one responsible for Buffy’s dark side,” he said stepping into her personal space earning an ‘eep’ from the cheerleader.
“S...Spike,” she acknowledged.
“Right, so tell me just where is Buffy?”
“I don’t know! You think I’d be knocking on her door if I did?”
Spike pushed her out of the way and headed down the steps of the porch. Standing in the middle of the street her took a whiff of the air around him and headed down town.
“Hey! Wait up!” yelled Cordelia.
__________________________________________
Through a dreamy haze, Buffy heard Willow.
“Buffy!” yelled her friend, panicked.
Buffy opened her eyes to find that her friend’s panicked tone was very appropriate to the situation. Buffy looked around her wishing that this was just a dream. She was tied to a stake, Giles’ books at her feet for kindling. Also tied to stakes were Willow, beside her, Amy next to Willow and an unconscious Faith, at the end. Buffy tried to free herself from her bonds but found that whatever they had used weren’t budging. She looked behind her for a moment to see just what it was.
Huh, rope and duct tape together at last, mused the captive vampire.
“Good morning, sleepyhead,” came her mother’s voice from the crowd.
“Mom, you don't want this,” begged Buffy.
“Since when does it matter what I want? I wanted a normal, happy daughter. Instead I got a Slayer. A slayer with a vampire boyfriend!” shouted Joyce.
Willow’s mom came to stand beside Joyce, bearing a torch.
“Torch?” offered Mrs. Rosenberg.
“Thanks. This has been so trying. You've been such a champ,” chattered Joyce, taking the torch.
“Oh, you, too, Joyce.”
Buffy was about to roll her eyes at her unfortunate luck and the chattiness of her mother as she was about to murder her only child until the fire was actually set and Giles’ books started to burn.
“Oh, you can't be serious!” shouted Amy.
“Mom, don't!” Buffy begged.
Buffy pulled at the rope and tape that bound her wrists frantically. It wasn’t her fault that she was highly flammable.
Then through the crowd, Buffy caught a glimpse of platinum blond hair.
“Alright. You wanna fry a witch? I'll give you a witch! Goddess Hecate, work thy will!” shouted Amy, at the crowd.
“Amy! Shut up! We’re about to be saved,” shouted Buffy.
A growl erupted from the crowd as Spike fought his way through the bystanders.
Buffy concentrated on her mate, having a good old time, fighting off the random humans. The fire crept closer to her feet. Suddenly, water was sprayed at the four captives, mercifully putting out the flames.
Buffy breathed a sigh of relief.
“Holy crap!” shouted Faith, from the other end of the line of stakes, who apparently was just waking up. “What the hell is going on here?”
“I think we were just saved by Cordelia...” muttered Willow. “And Giles is chanting? Is that Giles with the spellyness?” asked Willow.
Two blond children advanced on Giles’ position as he chanted. Even as the crowd finally decided to give Spike a wide berth, it still impeded his approach.
Buffy attention drifted to Giles once more as he smashed a bottle of something in front of the children causing the two children to merge and form a very ugly but tall demon.
“Okay, I think I liked the two little ones more than the one big one,” noted Cordelia.
“Oh my god! What have we done?“ cried Joyce finally realising just what they had been intent on doing.
“Protect us! Kill the bad girls!” shouted the demon at the retreating crowd, clearly more afraid of the demon now that they knew its true form.
“You know what? Not as convincing in that outfit,” quipped Buffy.
With a roar the demon advanced on her only getting a couple of steps closer before Spike put his hands on it and ripped its head off.
Spike threw the head down in front of Buffy’s startled mom and shrugged his shoulders, before going to untie Buffy. Without warning the ceiling above them collapsed and Xander and Oz came crashing down on the burnt remnants of Giles’ books.
Buffy felt a tug and rip on her bonds, as Spike cut his way through them with his fangs. The instant she was free she threw herself into his arms, her lips seeking his out. The world around them disappeared for a moment as they embraced.
They were, however, brought back to reality by Willow clearing her throat. Buffy turned to see Faith and Giles standing before them with stakes in hand.
__________________________________________
tbc...
The Cricket
Disclaimer: Joss owns ‘em, not me, so unfair.
Author’s note: *Huggles* to BTL for the great betaing.
__________________________________________
Chapter 13: The Cricket
Buffy pulled back from Spike’s kiss and glared at her former watcher and the Slayer that she had marked.
“It’s time to say goodbye, Buffy,” declared Faith, clutching a stake in her hand.
“Uh, can we not do this right now?” asked Buffy.
“Or ever,” added in Joyce, tears still trailing down her face at her betrayal.
“I have been negligent in my duties for too long as it is,” answered Giles.
“You can’t be serious Giles! She saved me! She’s a good vampire!” protested Willow.
“There is no such thing Willow. I thought that Angel would have cured you of that misconception,” continued Giles.
“She’s not like Angel!” Willow continued. “She doesn’t have a soul to lose!”
“All the more reason to put her in a ash tray,” muttered Faith, stepping towards the two vampires.
“I think you should back off!” exclaimed Amy. “She may be a vampire, but she’s done nothing to anyone at school, she’s even helped a few of us out from time to time.”
“You know she’s a vampire?” asked Xander.
“Sure, I mean come on, the sun allergy? The dark clothes? It’s pretty obvious,” Amy remarked.
“You know about vampires?” asked Cordelia.
“I’m a witch, not an idiot,” Amy snapped back at her.
“Hey, you better watch it, Sabrina,” countered the cheerleader.
“Ooh what are you gonna do to me? Cheer at me? Give me bad makeup tips?”
“Ladies, can we get back to the matter at hand?” asked Giles, shaking his head in annoyance.
“Yes, let’s get back to why I need to condone the further death of my daughter...” interrupted Joyce.
Buffy squeezed Spike’s hand and quietly, while the whole group was arguing, they slunk away, heading to the mansion for some peace and quiet for the inevitable discussion about their future.
The mansion was deathly quiet. Buffy hadn’t been there since there were oodles of minions running about the place.
And there had been Dru.
“Is she really gone? To Brazil or wherever?” asked Buffy, slightly insecure for some reason.
“She’s gone luv,” he stated, sitting down on what was once their bed.
“She left on her own though, you didn’t tell her to go, did you?” she asked sadly.
“No, I didn’t luv.”
Buffy nodded sadly. “And how long is going to be before she comes to interfere in our lives?” she asked with a sigh.
“I don’t know love,” he admitted.
Buffy turned to her sire with a frown. “It’s not going to change is it?”
“Of course it will Goldilocks,” he began.
“I was stupid to think that it would. When I got that box, I honestly thought it was Dru. That you would stake her to make things right between us... But you didn’t.”
“Would you be able to kill your mum for me Buffy?” he asked quietly.
Buffy looked up with a start. “Spike...”
“It’s exactly the same thing, Goldilocks,” he explained. “She made me, was my bloody salvation, without her I wouldn’t have you.”
Buffy nodded, as a tear escaped her eye.
Spike rose from the bed and made easy distance between him and his mate. Wrapping her up in his arms he brushed the tear away.
“Anyway I look at it Spike I’ll be giving up something else. Haven’t I given enough up for this relationship to work?” she asked tearfully. “I died!” Buffy paced for a few steps. “You know what I’m sick of this. I’m sick of the back and forth, I’m sick of wondering what Dru will think. I’m sick of dealing with this all. With school, with what my mom thinks, with when Giles and Faith decide to dust me again. Can we just go? Please, back to LA or wherever, just away from here. We can take Willow and...”
“Why are we taking Red, Goldilocks?” Spike promptly asked, his eyes watching her.
Buffy faced Spike with a look of a secret being found out.
“Why do we need to take the witch?” he asked again.
Buffy tore her eyes away from him for a moment, before glancing up at his hard blue eyes.
“I need her,” she whispered.
“Why the bloody hell do you need her?”
“I just do, okay?”
“Not good enough.”
“Well I’m not leaving without her!” shouted Buffy into the quiet recesses of the house.
“What about the boy? Can we take him too? And maybe the Slayer? Oh hell, let’s take all the damned Scoobies. Maybe we can put together a travelling band...”
“Don’t be ridiculous Spike, Faith would stake us while we slept.”
“Why do we have to take Red, love?” he asked tenderly.
“Cause she’s my jimmeny cricket,” Buffy quietly confessed.
That earned her a raised eyebrow.
“From Pinocchio! The movie? You have seen Pinocchio haven’t you?”
“I know who the bloody cricket is! What do you need a conscience for? You’re a bleedin’ vampire!”
“So? What’s wrong with not killing everyone I see? What’s wrong with drinking out of blood bags?”
“It’s not right, Buffy. There’s a place in the food chain for us, and we drink from humans. Not pigs, not Turkeys, from the too stupid and the gullible.”
“So you are saying we weed out the stupid, so the human race can progress? How dumb is that?”
“It’s the truth Buffy!” he seethed.
“Well maybe I don’t want to be culling the herd. And why are you all offended now? You had to realise that I wasn’t killing people.”
“I guess I only saw what I wanted to see, pet.”
“Something you and my mom have in common,” she muttered with a scowl.
__________________________________________
Buffy stared blankly out the Desoto window, well as much as she could stare out a blackened window. Her head rested on her fist as she tried to tone out Spike’s music blasting from the tape deck. Behind her and the speeding car remained Sunnydale, and most importantly, her mom.
Her mom that probably thought she was running away again.
This time she left a note trying to explain. Even Buffy realised that it was a futile attempt to actually persuade her mom that it was time for her to leave. Her mom was all with the vampire love after all.
She didn’t know just where they were going, or if they would ever return to Sunnydale, but she did know that she wasn’t going back while Giles wanted to dust her.
She was a vampire for Sire’s sake.
“Are we going to LA?” she finally asked in between songs, an hour out of Sunnydale.
Spike nodded briefly before beginning to tap out the beginning notes of the next song with his thumbs on the steering wheel. “Have a few things to pick up before we get on our way.”
Buffy nodded absently, bringing her left leg up onto the seat with her, and hugging it tight. She should be happy. She knew she should. But the fact remained that she wasn’t sure about this. Leaving Sunnydale seemed like such a big step.
Which was silly when she started to think about it.
She’d been away before. She’d lived on her own. It was time now to embrace what she had become. Spike had been rather persuasive in that area.
“Where are we going after that?” she asked.
“Anywhere you want. You have until we get to LA to figure that out.”
He was laying the whole world at her fingertips. It was surreal really, that they could go anywhere, do anything.
There was a whimper from the back seat, and Buffy unbuckled her seat belt to see what the commotion was. Peering over the seat, Buffy’s eyes connected with the green eyes of her best friend.
“Good afternoon Red,” greeted Spike, his eyes catching the witch’s reflection in the rear view mirror.
Willow’s response was muffled by the gag in her mouth. With a giggle, Buffy removed the gag from her friend’s mouth.
“Buffy? What’s going on? Where am I? Where are we? Did you...kidnap me?” babbled Willow semi coherently, her eyes wide.
“Ya, I did,” started Buffy. “It was kinda fun.”
Willow leaned back against the seat and gave her friend a look.
“Hey!” protested Buffy. “There will be no shocked and appalled Willow! It’s no fun when you are all disapprovy.”
“Where are we going?” asked Willow who had really just realised that she was in a moving vehicle.
“LA, and then, who knows!”
“Can I make a suggestion?” asked a timid Willow, pulling at the duct tape around her wrists.
“Sure Wills, you probably want to go somewhere where there are museums and stuff, right?” babbled Buffy not bothering to look at her friend anymore.
“I vote you take me back! I don’t want to go to LA. I like Sunnydale. Sure it has the vampires and the violence, and the occasional apocalypse, but it’s home, you know. And...and plus, Oz.”
Buffy turned to face Willow again with a concerned look. “I forgot about Oz!” Buffy put her hand gently on Spike’s arm, causing him to tear his eyes from the road. “We have to turn around and get Oz for Willow!”
Spike snorted. “We will be doing no such thing, Goldilocks. Bad enough we got the witch. Soon we’ll have the whole bloody council on our tails.”
“That is true you know,” Buffy admitted to her friend in the back seat.
“I don’t care if it’s true! Buffy, you Willow-napped me!”
“But it will be fun! We’ll go where you want to go, alright?”
“No, Buffy! That doesn’t make up for it! Please, take me home!” Willow pleaded.
“I can’t, Wills,” admitted Buffy sadly. “I need you with me.”
“But why?”
“You’re the bleedin’ cricket,” muttered Spike, as he turned up the music already blaring from the stereo system.
__________________________________________
Two vampires and a witch rushed into the old abandoned warehouse that Buffy was oh so familiar with. It was the same one that Spike’s minions had lived in that summer. It wasn’t clean, it wasn’t hygienic at all. But this was where they were going to spend the night.
“Set the witch up in one of the offices, pet,” ordered Spike as he walked towards what had been at one time their room. Whatever it was that they had come back for must be in there.
With a slight push in that direction, Buffy herded Willow to the furthest office.
“Do you have to go to the bathroom?” asked Buffy of her friend.
“I don’t suppose you’ll let me go alone?” asked Willow, glaring.
“You’ll run away.”
“Ya, I will. You know I’m really not cool with the kidnapping.”
“Ya, I get that,” admitted Buffy. “I can’t be a vampire without you Wills.”
“Huh?”
“Well I can be, but if Spike has his way, I’ll be attached to every neck that walks by. I don’t want to be that kind of vampire. I don’t want to be the kind of vampire you fear.”
“Well you are a bit scary right now, with the kidnapping and all. You don’t need me to not kill people Buffy. Somewhere inside of you is Buffy that was alive’s wish not to kill people. I think that’s stronger than anything I’ve got going. I’m just some girl that can float pencils and do the occasional soul restoration. You don’t need me Buffy. And I don’t want to be your safety net. I want to be your friend. And if you don’t let me go, I don’t see the friendiness staying very long.”
“I’m sorry I kidnapped you Wills,” whispered Buffy, her face hard against what Willow had said. “But I can’t let you go. Not now, not ever.”
Buffy swung the door to the office closed and locked it before making her way to find her mate.
__________________________________________
tbc...
Author’s note: *Huggles* to BTL for the great betaing.
__________________________________________
Chapter 13: The Cricket
Buffy pulled back from Spike’s kiss and glared at her former watcher and the Slayer that she had marked.
“It’s time to say goodbye, Buffy,” declared Faith, clutching a stake in her hand.
“Uh, can we not do this right now?” asked Buffy.
“Or ever,” added in Joyce, tears still trailing down her face at her betrayal.
“I have been negligent in my duties for too long as it is,” answered Giles.
“You can’t be serious Giles! She saved me! She’s a good vampire!” protested Willow.
“There is no such thing Willow. I thought that Angel would have cured you of that misconception,” continued Giles.
“She’s not like Angel!” Willow continued. “She doesn’t have a soul to lose!”
“All the more reason to put her in a ash tray,” muttered Faith, stepping towards the two vampires.
“I think you should back off!” exclaimed Amy. “She may be a vampire, but she’s done nothing to anyone at school, she’s even helped a few of us out from time to time.”
“You know she’s a vampire?” asked Xander.
“Sure, I mean come on, the sun allergy? The dark clothes? It’s pretty obvious,” Amy remarked.
“You know about vampires?” asked Cordelia.
“I’m a witch, not an idiot,” Amy snapped back at her.
“Hey, you better watch it, Sabrina,” countered the cheerleader.
“Ooh what are you gonna do to me? Cheer at me? Give me bad makeup tips?”
“Ladies, can we get back to the matter at hand?” asked Giles, shaking his head in annoyance.
“Yes, let’s get back to why I need to condone the further death of my daughter...” interrupted Joyce.
Buffy squeezed Spike’s hand and quietly, while the whole group was arguing, they slunk away, heading to the mansion for some peace and quiet for the inevitable discussion about their future.
The mansion was deathly quiet. Buffy hadn’t been there since there were oodles of minions running about the place.
And there had been Dru.
“Is she really gone? To Brazil or wherever?” asked Buffy, slightly insecure for some reason.
“She’s gone luv,” he stated, sitting down on what was once their bed.
“She left on her own though, you didn’t tell her to go, did you?” she asked sadly.
“No, I didn’t luv.”
Buffy nodded sadly. “And how long is going to be before she comes to interfere in our lives?” she asked with a sigh.
“I don’t know love,” he admitted.
Buffy turned to her sire with a frown. “It’s not going to change is it?”
“Of course it will Goldilocks,” he began.
“I was stupid to think that it would. When I got that box, I honestly thought it was Dru. That you would stake her to make things right between us... But you didn’t.”
“Would you be able to kill your mum for me Buffy?” he asked quietly.
Buffy looked up with a start. “Spike...”
“It’s exactly the same thing, Goldilocks,” he explained. “She made me, was my bloody salvation, without her I wouldn’t have you.”
Buffy nodded, as a tear escaped her eye.
Spike rose from the bed and made easy distance between him and his mate. Wrapping her up in his arms he brushed the tear away.
“Anyway I look at it Spike I’ll be giving up something else. Haven’t I given enough up for this relationship to work?” she asked tearfully. “I died!” Buffy paced for a few steps. “You know what I’m sick of this. I’m sick of the back and forth, I’m sick of wondering what Dru will think. I’m sick of dealing with this all. With school, with what my mom thinks, with when Giles and Faith decide to dust me again. Can we just go? Please, back to LA or wherever, just away from here. We can take Willow and...”
“Why are we taking Red, Goldilocks?” Spike promptly asked, his eyes watching her.
Buffy faced Spike with a look of a secret being found out.
“Why do we need to take the witch?” he asked again.
Buffy tore her eyes away from him for a moment, before glancing up at his hard blue eyes.
“I need her,” she whispered.
“Why the bloody hell do you need her?”
“I just do, okay?”
“Not good enough.”
“Well I’m not leaving without her!” shouted Buffy into the quiet recesses of the house.
“What about the boy? Can we take him too? And maybe the Slayer? Oh hell, let’s take all the damned Scoobies. Maybe we can put together a travelling band...”
“Don’t be ridiculous Spike, Faith would stake us while we slept.”
“Why do we have to take Red, love?” he asked tenderly.
“Cause she’s my jimmeny cricket,” Buffy quietly confessed.
That earned her a raised eyebrow.
“From Pinocchio! The movie? You have seen Pinocchio haven’t you?”
“I know who the bloody cricket is! What do you need a conscience for? You’re a bleedin’ vampire!”
“So? What’s wrong with not killing everyone I see? What’s wrong with drinking out of blood bags?”
“It’s not right, Buffy. There’s a place in the food chain for us, and we drink from humans. Not pigs, not Turkeys, from the too stupid and the gullible.”
“So you are saying we weed out the stupid, so the human race can progress? How dumb is that?”
“It’s the truth Buffy!” he seethed.
“Well maybe I don’t want to be culling the herd. And why are you all offended now? You had to realise that I wasn’t killing people.”
“I guess I only saw what I wanted to see, pet.”
“Something you and my mom have in common,” she muttered with a scowl.
__________________________________________
Buffy stared blankly out the Desoto window, well as much as she could stare out a blackened window. Her head rested on her fist as she tried to tone out Spike’s music blasting from the tape deck. Behind her and the speeding car remained Sunnydale, and most importantly, her mom.
Her mom that probably thought she was running away again.
This time she left a note trying to explain. Even Buffy realised that it was a futile attempt to actually persuade her mom that it was time for her to leave. Her mom was all with the vampire love after all.
She didn’t know just where they were going, or if they would ever return to Sunnydale, but she did know that she wasn’t going back while Giles wanted to dust her.
She was a vampire for Sire’s sake.
“Are we going to LA?” she finally asked in between songs, an hour out of Sunnydale.
Spike nodded briefly before beginning to tap out the beginning notes of the next song with his thumbs on the steering wheel. “Have a few things to pick up before we get on our way.”
Buffy nodded absently, bringing her left leg up onto the seat with her, and hugging it tight. She should be happy. She knew she should. But the fact remained that she wasn’t sure about this. Leaving Sunnydale seemed like such a big step.
Which was silly when she started to think about it.
She’d been away before. She’d lived on her own. It was time now to embrace what she had become. Spike had been rather persuasive in that area.
“Where are we going after that?” she asked.
“Anywhere you want. You have until we get to LA to figure that out.”
He was laying the whole world at her fingertips. It was surreal really, that they could go anywhere, do anything.
There was a whimper from the back seat, and Buffy unbuckled her seat belt to see what the commotion was. Peering over the seat, Buffy’s eyes connected with the green eyes of her best friend.
“Good afternoon Red,” greeted Spike, his eyes catching the witch’s reflection in the rear view mirror.
Willow’s response was muffled by the gag in her mouth. With a giggle, Buffy removed the gag from her friend’s mouth.
“Buffy? What’s going on? Where am I? Where are we? Did you...kidnap me?” babbled Willow semi coherently, her eyes wide.
“Ya, I did,” started Buffy. “It was kinda fun.”
Willow leaned back against the seat and gave her friend a look.
“Hey!” protested Buffy. “There will be no shocked and appalled Willow! It’s no fun when you are all disapprovy.”
“Where are we going?” asked Willow who had really just realised that she was in a moving vehicle.
“LA, and then, who knows!”
“Can I make a suggestion?” asked a timid Willow, pulling at the duct tape around her wrists.
“Sure Wills, you probably want to go somewhere where there are museums and stuff, right?” babbled Buffy not bothering to look at her friend anymore.
“I vote you take me back! I don’t want to go to LA. I like Sunnydale. Sure it has the vampires and the violence, and the occasional apocalypse, but it’s home, you know. And...and plus, Oz.”
Buffy turned to face Willow again with a concerned look. “I forgot about Oz!” Buffy put her hand gently on Spike’s arm, causing him to tear his eyes from the road. “We have to turn around and get Oz for Willow!”
Spike snorted. “We will be doing no such thing, Goldilocks. Bad enough we got the witch. Soon we’ll have the whole bloody council on our tails.”
“That is true you know,” Buffy admitted to her friend in the back seat.
“I don’t care if it’s true! Buffy, you Willow-napped me!”
“But it will be fun! We’ll go where you want to go, alright?”
“No, Buffy! That doesn’t make up for it! Please, take me home!” Willow pleaded.
“I can’t, Wills,” admitted Buffy sadly. “I need you with me.”
“But why?”
“You’re the bleedin’ cricket,” muttered Spike, as he turned up the music already blaring from the stereo system.
__________________________________________
Two vampires and a witch rushed into the old abandoned warehouse that Buffy was oh so familiar with. It was the same one that Spike’s minions had lived in that summer. It wasn’t clean, it wasn’t hygienic at all. But this was where they were going to spend the night.
“Set the witch up in one of the offices, pet,” ordered Spike as he walked towards what had been at one time their room. Whatever it was that they had come back for must be in there.
With a slight push in that direction, Buffy herded Willow to the furthest office.
“Do you have to go to the bathroom?” asked Buffy of her friend.
“I don’t suppose you’ll let me go alone?” asked Willow, glaring.
“You’ll run away.”
“Ya, I will. You know I’m really not cool with the kidnapping.”
“Ya, I get that,” admitted Buffy. “I can’t be a vampire without you Wills.”
“Huh?”
“Well I can be, but if Spike has his way, I’ll be attached to every neck that walks by. I don’t want to be that kind of vampire. I don’t want to be the kind of vampire you fear.”
“Well you are a bit scary right now, with the kidnapping and all. You don’t need me to not kill people Buffy. Somewhere inside of you is Buffy that was alive’s wish not to kill people. I think that’s stronger than anything I’ve got going. I’m just some girl that can float pencils and do the occasional soul restoration. You don’t need me Buffy. And I don’t want to be your safety net. I want to be your friend. And if you don’t let me go, I don’t see the friendiness staying very long.”
“I’m sorry I kidnapped you Wills,” whispered Buffy, her face hard against what Willow had said. “But I can’t let you go. Not now, not ever.”
Buffy swung the door to the office closed and locked it before making her way to find her mate.
__________________________________________
tbc...
Setting up House
Disclaimer: Joss, wonderfulness that he is, he owns these characters, not me.
Author’s note: Thanks and hugs to Bloodytearsoflife for the great beta job!
__________________________________________
Chapter 14 : Setting up House
Buffy walked back to the office space that Spike had designated their bedroom for the duration of their stay here, however long that was going to be.
He looked up from some papers as she walked into the room, dropping clothes as she walked.
“You know this place brings back memories,’ she started.
Spike put down the papers carefully and licked his lips. “You look good enough to eat pet,” he purred walking closer to her rapidly becoming naked body.
“Are you gonna eat me?” she asked sweetly.
“Only if you ask nicely,” he said with a smirk.
Buffy slid her thong down her legs and stepped out of the garment, pushing him down on to the pallet that served as their bed.
“Pretty please?” begged the former slayer, her green eyes drinking in the very sight of him.
__________________________________________
Down the hallway in a dingy office, Willow cringed against the sounds of sex she could hear from the hallway. She had to think of someway to make Buffy see that she didn’t belong with vampires.
Willow rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes, a lone tear trickling down her cheek.
__________________________________________
The sun was setting as Buffy finally woke up from her daytime slumber. Spike was reading those papers again.
“Are those why we had to come back?” she asked yawning.
Spike nodded. “Started researching this when we were here the first time. The Gem of Amara. Makes vamps all indestructible, can take a walk in the park, go to soddin’ church if I wanted to. Wanted it so we could be together in the sunlight, all romantic like.”
“So this gemmy thing, what’s the why now? I’m all vampified. Picnics are out as recreational romance. Daylight wise anyway.”
“Still powerful, pet. Imagine how we could own our own piece of Orange County with it!”
“Delusions of grandeur much?” groaned Buffy, getting up out of the bed and finding her clothes.
“Master Vampire pet, it comes with the title,” he explained off handily.
“Sure it does. So what now?” she asked.
Spike’s gaze reverted to the papers he was holding. “Few more experts to consult, before we find the real location of the bauble. Might as well stay put for the time being. Get us settled in again.”
“With minions?” she asked sorrowfully, making Spike growl at her.
“Yes, with soddin’ minions, Goldilocks. Except this time, you’ll be mistress,” he added with a smirk.
“Well, if I have to,” she deadpanned as she exited the room and headed down the hall to check on Willow.
__________________________________________
Buffy was overwhelmed by the smell coming from Willow’s office space. Unwashed human, raw skin, and ewww.
“Willow?” Buffy inquired as she peered around the corner.
Willow was gnawing at the duct tape around her wrists, having already freed herself from the tape around her ankles.
“I really have to go pee, Buffy!” whimpered Willow.
With a nod, Buffy pulled Willow to her feet and cut the duct tape around the girl’s wrists with her fangs. The only bathroom in the place was off of the one of the front offices.
“We’re staying here for a while,” said Buffy as they treaded down the stairs, just passing on the information.
“Why?” Willow asked feebly.
“Some do-dad that Spike’s looking for. And we are getting minions. So this big place won’t feel so empty.”
“I don’t want to stay here with minions, or even Spike. I wanna go home Buffy.”
“Sorry Wills,” Buffy shrugged, stopping in front of the bathroom.
With a downcast look, Willow entered the bathroom and closed the door. Buffy leaned against the wall next to the door and slid down to the floor, her rear coming in contact with the cold hard cement floor of the warehouse.
“You wanna go get some food?” Buffy asked Willow, raising her voice so that she was sure the witch could hear her through the door.
“Ok,” sniffled Willow. “Do have anymore of my clothes?”
“Ooh! I do! Wait here,” exclaimed Buffy, before taking off towards the main door of the warehouse and the Desoto.
Willow waited a moment until she was sure that Buffy had truly left her alone. Opening the door a crack, Willow scanned the warehouse’s main floor, for movement. Nothing came to her attention. With exaggerated stealth, Willow crept from the bathroom on tip toes her feet taking her in the direction of the loading door.
Willow looked behind her as she walked, making sure that no one was following her. Turning back to look at what seemed like her deliverance, Willow bumped into the black T shirted chest of Buffy’s vampire boyfriend.
“Goin’ somewhere, Red?” he intoned, his voice echoing through the empty space of the warehouse.
“N...no,” stammered the red head, her face whitening at Spike catching her trying to sneak out.
He raised his scarred eyebrow at her like he didn’t believe her.
“Willow!” shouted Buffy from behind her.
Willow turned to see Buffy running up with a bag of what Willow assumed were her clothes.
“Why didn’t you stay in the bathroom?” asked Buffy curious. “Spike wasn’t trying to scare you was he?”
“N...no,” stammered Willow again. “Stretching! I’m stretching my legs. Don’t wanna get all cramped up and...other bad things.”
Buffy pulled the small duffle bag from her shoulder and handed it to her friend.
“I’ll just go back to the bathroom now, and change my clothes,” she murmured turning back towards the room in question.
Buffy watched her friend go back to the bathroom with a critical eye.
“She was trying to run,” Buffy stated rather than asked once the door was shut.
Spike dug into his duster pockets for his cigarettes and lighter. “I’m going out,” he stated flicking the lighter open.
“You’re going out?” she asked sceptically. “And I’m not invited to go with you?” she asked more angry than hurt.
“You’ve got your hands full witch sitting, love.”
“Willow can come too! Where are you going anyway?”
Spike shrugged. “Don’t rightly know yet pet,” he said with a turn and the master vampire strode out of the warehouse.
“Stupid no fun vampire,” Buffy muttered under her breath, fully aware that he heard her.
Buffy’s vampire ears perked up at the hardly audible squeak of the bathroom door and turned to see a Willow clothed in clean clothes walking out of the bathroom.
“You ready for food?” asked Buffy, falsely chipper.
__________________________________________
Buffy looked across the table at her friend who was munching on French fries. She had taken Willow to the diner that she had worked at. The diner itself had changed so much since she had been there in the summer.
Helen wasn’t in tonight and much of the rest of the staff on tonight were new. The booths were new, and there was a new coat of paint on the walls.
“You sure you don’t want any fries?” asked Willow with a full mouth.
Buffy shook her head no. “I’ll get something else later.”
Willow nodded with understanding. There would be a butcher’s run later. “How long do you intend to keep me?” she asked softly.
The question didn’t shock Buffy very much, she was sorta anticipating it. “As long as I need you,” answered the vampire.
“Then I guess I’d better get you ready not to need me,” answered the witch. “I’d like to graduate from high school.”
“Maybe Spike could home school us?” suggested Buffy, suddenly getting an idea.
“Spike? Did he even graduate from school?”
“Actually he’s been to university and everything.”
Willow looked surprised before her face became apprehensive again. “I don’t know about that Buffy, I mean, it’s Spike, he’d probably think it’s funny to teach me something wrong and I’d flunk the equivalency test.”
Buffy laughed for moment before admitting that Spike would probably do that.
__________________________________________
After a side trip to the mall and the butcher’s shop, Buffy and Willow returned to the warehouse with new clothes and blood.
They stepped through the main door of the warehouse to be greeted by the stoic and yet menacing face of a vampire Buffy had never seen before.
“Just who the hell are you?” Buffy snarked.
“Who the hell are you?” asked the vampire. “This building belongs to Master Spike.”
Buffy rolled her eyes. Minions, he had gotten minions when he went out.
“Well obvious, much. Move your ass or I’ll stake it.”
“You know little girl, I was waiting for someone to come along like you. Master Spike won’t mind another fledge, and I wouldn’t mind it if you were mine.”
Buffy looked over at Willow with a disgusted look on her face. “Can he be any more icky?” She turned back to the minion and cringed. Then without warning she popped him one in the nose with one hand before planting a stake in his dead heart with the other.
The dust settled down to the cement on the ground. Buffy grabbed Willow’s hand and proceeded into the warehouse.
“Spike!” she yelled up to the offices on the second floor. “I dusted the moron on the door!”
Spike poked his head out of their bedroom and smiled down at her. “Why did you think I put him there in the first place luv? The pillock was driving me bleedin’ loony since he swore loyalty.”
The other minions scattered around the warehouse floor looked up at the interaction of the two vampires curiously. Spike hadn’t told them anything about Buffy. He wanted her to be able to assert herself as their mistress right away.
Buffy, still holding on to Willow’s hand, travelled up the stairs to the second floor and met with Spike as he walked towards her. Their lips met in a passionate kiss, making Willow look away. It was way too personal.
And it got more personal.
“Mine!” growled Spike as he bit into Buffy’s neck, Buffy doing to the same to him.
Her hand still attached to Buffy’s Willow tried to distance herself from the two vampires drinking from each other. It was more than wigging out her creepy factor.
Buffy licked her lips, as she pulled away from Spike’s neck and looked at Willow.
And Willow didn’t like the look she was getting. Buffy with fangs was scary.
Tenderly, Buffy brushed Willow’s red hair away from her face, and smiled up at her friend. “I’m sorry Wills,” she said softly, softly enough so that she knew the minions wouldn’t hear it.
It was then that Willow knew just what Buffy was going to do next.
Buffy pulled her hair away from her neck and forced her to tilt her head.
Willow let out a squeak of pain as Buffy sank her fangs into her neck, taking a few sips, before licking the mark clean.
“You will be my childe,” Buffy whispered, “and I will be your sire, teach you the ways of our line and add glory to the name Aurelius.”
Willow stepped back from Buffy her hand swiftly clutching her neck. With a smile, Buffy tugged on Willow’s hand towards Willow’s bedroom.
__________________________________________
“You bit me!” Willow faux whispered once the door was closed. She was for the mean time ignoring the fact that the room now had a real bed in it and a bookshelf with a wide selection of books.
“Yes, I bit you. I had to Willow. He got minions! If I didn’t, they would all be trying to eat you, all the time!” explained Buffy.
“What you said...Did you...does that mean you are going to turn me?” asked Willow, her stomach sinking.
“It sorta means that, yes. I don’t plan on it.”
“Is that what Spike did to you? When you were fifteen?”
“Ya, it is.”
“So this means I won’t have minions trying to drain me all the time?” asked Willow, honestly trying to think of how this was a good thing.
“Hopefully.”
__________________________________________
tbc...
Author’s note: Thanks and hugs to Bloodytearsoflife for the great beta job!
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Chapter 14 : Setting up House
Buffy walked back to the office space that Spike had designated their bedroom for the duration of their stay here, however long that was going to be.
He looked up from some papers as she walked into the room, dropping clothes as she walked.
“You know this place brings back memories,’ she started.
Spike put down the papers carefully and licked his lips. “You look good enough to eat pet,” he purred walking closer to her rapidly becoming naked body.
“Are you gonna eat me?” she asked sweetly.
“Only if you ask nicely,” he said with a smirk.
Buffy slid her thong down her legs and stepped out of the garment, pushing him down on to the pallet that served as their bed.
“Pretty please?” begged the former slayer, her green eyes drinking in the very sight of him.
__________________________________________
Down the hallway in a dingy office, Willow cringed against the sounds of sex she could hear from the hallway. She had to think of someway to make Buffy see that she didn’t belong with vampires.
Willow rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes, a lone tear trickling down her cheek.
__________________________________________
The sun was setting as Buffy finally woke up from her daytime slumber. Spike was reading those papers again.
“Are those why we had to come back?” she asked yawning.
Spike nodded. “Started researching this when we were here the first time. The Gem of Amara. Makes vamps all indestructible, can take a walk in the park, go to soddin’ church if I wanted to. Wanted it so we could be together in the sunlight, all romantic like.”
“So this gemmy thing, what’s the why now? I’m all vampified. Picnics are out as recreational romance. Daylight wise anyway.”
“Still powerful, pet. Imagine how we could own our own piece of Orange County with it!”
“Delusions of grandeur much?” groaned Buffy, getting up out of the bed and finding her clothes.
“Master Vampire pet, it comes with the title,” he explained off handily.
“Sure it does. So what now?” she asked.
Spike’s gaze reverted to the papers he was holding. “Few more experts to consult, before we find the real location of the bauble. Might as well stay put for the time being. Get us settled in again.”
“With minions?” she asked sorrowfully, making Spike growl at her.
“Yes, with soddin’ minions, Goldilocks. Except this time, you’ll be mistress,” he added with a smirk.
“Well, if I have to,” she deadpanned as she exited the room and headed down the hall to check on Willow.
__________________________________________
Buffy was overwhelmed by the smell coming from Willow’s office space. Unwashed human, raw skin, and ewww.
“Willow?” Buffy inquired as she peered around the corner.
Willow was gnawing at the duct tape around her wrists, having already freed herself from the tape around her ankles.
“I really have to go pee, Buffy!” whimpered Willow.
With a nod, Buffy pulled Willow to her feet and cut the duct tape around the girl’s wrists with her fangs. The only bathroom in the place was off of the one of the front offices.
“We’re staying here for a while,” said Buffy as they treaded down the stairs, just passing on the information.
“Why?” Willow asked feebly.
“Some do-dad that Spike’s looking for. And we are getting minions. So this big place won’t feel so empty.”
“I don’t want to stay here with minions, or even Spike. I wanna go home Buffy.”
“Sorry Wills,” Buffy shrugged, stopping in front of the bathroom.
With a downcast look, Willow entered the bathroom and closed the door. Buffy leaned against the wall next to the door and slid down to the floor, her rear coming in contact with the cold hard cement floor of the warehouse.
“You wanna go get some food?” Buffy asked Willow, raising her voice so that she was sure the witch could hear her through the door.
“Ok,” sniffled Willow. “Do have anymore of my clothes?”
“Ooh! I do! Wait here,” exclaimed Buffy, before taking off towards the main door of the warehouse and the Desoto.
Willow waited a moment until she was sure that Buffy had truly left her alone. Opening the door a crack, Willow scanned the warehouse’s main floor, for movement. Nothing came to her attention. With exaggerated stealth, Willow crept from the bathroom on tip toes her feet taking her in the direction of the loading door.
Willow looked behind her as she walked, making sure that no one was following her. Turning back to look at what seemed like her deliverance, Willow bumped into the black T shirted chest of Buffy’s vampire boyfriend.
“Goin’ somewhere, Red?” he intoned, his voice echoing through the empty space of the warehouse.
“N...no,” stammered the red head, her face whitening at Spike catching her trying to sneak out.
He raised his scarred eyebrow at her like he didn’t believe her.
“Willow!” shouted Buffy from behind her.
Willow turned to see Buffy running up with a bag of what Willow assumed were her clothes.
“Why didn’t you stay in the bathroom?” asked Buffy curious. “Spike wasn’t trying to scare you was he?”
“N...no,” stammered Willow again. “Stretching! I’m stretching my legs. Don’t wanna get all cramped up and...other bad things.”
Buffy pulled the small duffle bag from her shoulder and handed it to her friend.
“I’ll just go back to the bathroom now, and change my clothes,” she murmured turning back towards the room in question.
Buffy watched her friend go back to the bathroom with a critical eye.
“She was trying to run,” Buffy stated rather than asked once the door was shut.
Spike dug into his duster pockets for his cigarettes and lighter. “I’m going out,” he stated flicking the lighter open.
“You’re going out?” she asked sceptically. “And I’m not invited to go with you?” she asked more angry than hurt.
“You’ve got your hands full witch sitting, love.”
“Willow can come too! Where are you going anyway?”
Spike shrugged. “Don’t rightly know yet pet,” he said with a turn and the master vampire strode out of the warehouse.
“Stupid no fun vampire,” Buffy muttered under her breath, fully aware that he heard her.
Buffy’s vampire ears perked up at the hardly audible squeak of the bathroom door and turned to see a Willow clothed in clean clothes walking out of the bathroom.
“You ready for food?” asked Buffy, falsely chipper.
__________________________________________
Buffy looked across the table at her friend who was munching on French fries. She had taken Willow to the diner that she had worked at. The diner itself had changed so much since she had been there in the summer.
Helen wasn’t in tonight and much of the rest of the staff on tonight were new. The booths were new, and there was a new coat of paint on the walls.
“You sure you don’t want any fries?” asked Willow with a full mouth.
Buffy shook her head no. “I’ll get something else later.”
Willow nodded with understanding. There would be a butcher’s run later. “How long do you intend to keep me?” she asked softly.
The question didn’t shock Buffy very much, she was sorta anticipating it. “As long as I need you,” answered the vampire.
“Then I guess I’d better get you ready not to need me,” answered the witch. “I’d like to graduate from high school.”
“Maybe Spike could home school us?” suggested Buffy, suddenly getting an idea.
“Spike? Did he even graduate from school?”
“Actually he’s been to university and everything.”
Willow looked surprised before her face became apprehensive again. “I don’t know about that Buffy, I mean, it’s Spike, he’d probably think it’s funny to teach me something wrong and I’d flunk the equivalency test.”
Buffy laughed for moment before admitting that Spike would probably do that.
__________________________________________
After a side trip to the mall and the butcher’s shop, Buffy and Willow returned to the warehouse with new clothes and blood.
They stepped through the main door of the warehouse to be greeted by the stoic and yet menacing face of a vampire Buffy had never seen before.
“Just who the hell are you?” Buffy snarked.
“Who the hell are you?” asked the vampire. “This building belongs to Master Spike.”
Buffy rolled her eyes. Minions, he had gotten minions when he went out.
“Well obvious, much. Move your ass or I’ll stake it.”
“You know little girl, I was waiting for someone to come along like you. Master Spike won’t mind another fledge, and I wouldn’t mind it if you were mine.”
Buffy looked over at Willow with a disgusted look on her face. “Can he be any more icky?” She turned back to the minion and cringed. Then without warning she popped him one in the nose with one hand before planting a stake in his dead heart with the other.
The dust settled down to the cement on the ground. Buffy grabbed Willow’s hand and proceeded into the warehouse.
“Spike!” she yelled up to the offices on the second floor. “I dusted the moron on the door!”
Spike poked his head out of their bedroom and smiled down at her. “Why did you think I put him there in the first place luv? The pillock was driving me bleedin’ loony since he swore loyalty.”
The other minions scattered around the warehouse floor looked up at the interaction of the two vampires curiously. Spike hadn’t told them anything about Buffy. He wanted her to be able to assert herself as their mistress right away.
Buffy, still holding on to Willow’s hand, travelled up the stairs to the second floor and met with Spike as he walked towards her. Their lips met in a passionate kiss, making Willow look away. It was way too personal.
And it got more personal.
“Mine!” growled Spike as he bit into Buffy’s neck, Buffy doing to the same to him.
Her hand still attached to Buffy’s Willow tried to distance herself from the two vampires drinking from each other. It was more than wigging out her creepy factor.
Buffy licked her lips, as she pulled away from Spike’s neck and looked at Willow.
And Willow didn’t like the look she was getting. Buffy with fangs was scary.
Tenderly, Buffy brushed Willow’s red hair away from her face, and smiled up at her friend. “I’m sorry Wills,” she said softly, softly enough so that she knew the minions wouldn’t hear it.
It was then that Willow knew just what Buffy was going to do next.
Buffy pulled her hair away from her neck and forced her to tilt her head.
Willow let out a squeak of pain as Buffy sank her fangs into her neck, taking a few sips, before licking the mark clean.
“You will be my childe,” Buffy whispered, “and I will be your sire, teach you the ways of our line and add glory to the name Aurelius.”
Willow stepped back from Buffy her hand swiftly clutching her neck. With a smile, Buffy tugged on Willow’s hand towards Willow’s bedroom.
__________________________________________
“You bit me!” Willow faux whispered once the door was closed. She was for the mean time ignoring the fact that the room now had a real bed in it and a bookshelf with a wide selection of books.
“Yes, I bit you. I had to Willow. He got minions! If I didn’t, they would all be trying to eat you, all the time!” explained Buffy.
“What you said...Did you...does that mean you are going to turn me?” asked Willow, her stomach sinking.
“It sorta means that, yes. I don’t plan on it.”
“Is that what Spike did to you? When you were fifteen?”
“Ya, it is.”
“So this means I won’t have minions trying to drain me all the time?” asked Willow, honestly trying to think of how this was a good thing.
“Hopefully.”
__________________________________________
tbc...
Attack
Disclaimer: Joss is god, not God god, but a lesser benevolent god.
Author’s note: Another chapter expertly beta’d by the wonderful Bloodytearsoflife.
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Chapter 15: Attack
“Don’t do it again!” shouted Willow, as if shouting was going to make her point stick in Buffy’s brain more.
“I won’t!” countered Buffy. “Until the next time,” she giggled.
Willow gave her friend a look that was very frightening, or so she thought, and returned her gaze to the pile of goodies in the middle of the table.
“I still say it’s weird without the kittens,” noted Spike, as he dealt out the next hand.
“Enough about the kittens Spike!” moaned Buffy, her hands twitching for the new hand of cards Spike was about to deal. She had to admit that poker was fun. They weren’t playing for money, they were playing for candy, which had been Willow's compromise.
The card table had been set up in the middle of the warehouse floor, the minions milling around them, waiting for something to happen. They were glad that their master and mistress were having a good time, it meant that none of their number were going to end up dusted today.
The sun was high in the sky outside, all bad little vamps were safely asleep, or at least inside.
The trio around the card table picked up their new hand and ante’d up, each pushing five Swedish berries into the centre of the table. Buffy reached for her junior mints, to increase the bet, when a loud noise interrupted their game.
“Master!” screamed one of the minions at the door. Spike whipped his head around to see the minion fall to dust.
“We’re under attack!” shouted another minion.
Spike rolled his eyes. “Of course we’re under attack you stupid gits!” he roared. “I had a winning hand!” He walked into the crowd of minions that were valiantly fighting off the intruders.
“I guess it takes Giles and company a week to get up a rescue party,” noted Buffy to Willow.
“Well, I was sorta wondering when it would happen,” admitted Willow. “I guess it’s to my room with me...”
Buffy nodded her head with a smile and reached out to hug her friend. Buffy watched Willow walk up to her bedroom and into relative safety before turning to the mêlée surrounding the door of the warehouse. Her attention immediately went to the other possible ways into the building and sure enough there was a man climbing through the loading doors at the end of the main floor.
She growled at a few minions to take care of him, her attention going to the other possible entrances. There was someone on the roof.
Not just someone, a Slayer. Faith was on the roof.
Buffy followed Faith’s progress along the roof, as if she could see through the concrete and steel. There was a skylight above the balcony that they had covered up when they had first moved, in and that Buffy had completely forgotten about. Swiftly Buffy sprang into action. She rushed up the stairs, intent on intercepting Faith, not realising that once Faith was through the window, sunlight would bathe the only way into the bedrooms.
Buffy jumped back from the deadly sunlight with a shriek. Faith was holding a cross bow and had a determined look on her face.
“Hey B, nice digs you got yourself,” greeted Faith, raising the cross bow at the former Slayer.
“You don’t want to do this Faith!” Buffy tried to stay calm even though there was a cross bow pointed at her heart.
“Ya, I do,” replied the Slayer with a smile and shot the weapon.
Buffy leapt out of the way just in the nick of time, flying over the balcony railing and falling to the floor, a minion breaking her fall. From the floor, Buffy let her eyes follow Faith into the bedrooms, breaking the door on hers and Spike’s room before kicking open the door of Willow’s room.
Willow! Buffy pushed herself up off the floor and the poor minion she had landed on and ran back up the stairs. She covered herself in her hardly adequate jean jacket, to avoid the sunlight and rushed into Willow’s room, to find Faith with the crossbow pointed at Willow.
“I swear! Faith! I’m not a...” Willow was interrupted by Faith’s crossbow bolt piercing her flesh, stunning her into silence.
The bolt stuck out of Willow’s upper chest, her human blood trickling down her purple fuzzy sweater. Buffy saw red.
“She... she didn’t dust!” mumbled Faith confused, dropping her cross bow. “She didn’t dust.”
___________________________________
“Shut the bloody hell up you lot!” shouted Spike into the warehouse, and at his babbling minions who were more than confused by the fact of the ten or so watchers that had survived the initial attack and were now chained to the walls at various intervals, unharmed except for their injuries sustained during the attack. Faith among them.
Buffy came down the stairs, the sky light now covered, holding Willow’s unconscious body in her arms. Her tears were apparent on her cheeks as she looked at her friend. Silence flooded over the hostages and minions alike. A vampire was crying over the body of a human.
She walked the length of the warehouse floor, towards the shady part of the building, and the loading doors. Curtly she ordered the door open, and was obeyed.
“I want them all alive when I get back. Especially the Slayer!” she barked behind her.
Buffy slipped into the shade and towards the parked Desoto.
___________________________________
Buffy looked down lovingly at her friend, laid out on the hospital gurney. Faith’s shot hadn’t pierced the heart. Why she had missed, Buff wasn’t too sure about, but at that moment was incredibly thankful for Faith’s bad aim.
All around her doctors were rushing around, getting yummy blood back into Willow’s veins, telling her to stay calm and to have a seat in the waiting room. But Buffy didn’t let go of Willow’s hand.
“Miss?” asked a nurse, trying to pry Buffy’s hand from Willow’s. “You have to let go of her hand.”
Buffy shook her head, a tear rolling down her cheek. She couldn’t leave Willow, not after what had happened. Suddenly there was a small squeeze of her hand, and Buffy looked up to see Willow smiling at her, eyes hopeful but in pain.
“I’ll be fine Buffy,” Willow whispered.
Reluctantly Buffy let go of Willow’s hand and watched as her friend was wheeled into surgery.
___________________________________
Buffy pulled the Desoto to a screeching halt outside the loading doors of the warehouse and stormed into the building.
As ordered, the group of what Buffy assumed were watchers and Faith were still alive, guarded meticulously by minions who were licking their lips as they watched the men, struggle against their chains. Faith on the other hand stood limply against the wall, her eyes focused on nothing in particular, muttering to herself. Spike sat on one of their poker chairs backwards, smoking and watching the Slayer mumble.
The minions recoiled back as she walked by them. They all knew that the witch had been alive when she left, but had she arrived at the hospital alive? Scattering out of her way, the vampires and captives watched in anticipation of what would happen next as Mistress Elizabeth came to a stop in front of the Slayer.
Buffy waited for Faith to finally look up at her from her gaze on the floor, her eyes sad. She sent a fiery gaze back at the Slayer, chained to the wall. Buffy raised her hand and slapped Faith across the face.
“She...she didn’t dust...” muttered Faith, as if she hadn’t registered the slap. “I...I killed Willow... I killed Willow!” she moaned, trying to bring her arms towards her face, but was stopped by the chains.
Annoyed and mad, Buffy grabbed the Slayer by the neck and pushed her flush against the wall, Faith’s moans ceasing as lack of oxygen became an issue.
“No, Faith, Willow’s not dead. Nor is she going to be anytime soon. Why did you come here? Why couldn’t you just leave us alone?” asked Buffy through gritted teeth, invading Faith‘s personal area.
“You’re evil...You’re a vampire...” gasped Faith, her eyes darting about the room.
Buffy eased up on her hold on Faith’s neck, allowing the Slayer more air. “Sheep,” hissed the vampire into the slayer’s face. “You’re a sheep. The Council, Giles says all vampires are bad, and you’ve got to stake them, right?”
Faith attempted to nod.
“Wrong! Wrong Faith. Did it even occur to you that Willow was alive? That I wouldn’t want to hurt my best friend?” asked Buffy plaintively. The vampire didn’t even give her a chance to answer before heading into another stream of words. “No, of course not. What the Council says must be right. I’m a vampire. An evil soulless vampire. I consort with vampires. I’m going to spend the rest of my existence with my vampire mate. I’ve got to be bad. Buffy’s a bad, bad vampire. Gasp! She must have turned her friend Willow too, so that they can be bad vampires together!”
Behind her Spike started to chuckle at her antics.
“Well guess what Faith? I didn’t. I didn’t turn Willow. And you know what? Because I didn’t turn Willow, you have the distinct and glorious honour of being the one who shot Willow. You almost killed her! Not me, YOU.”
Faith’s eyes reflected a look of horror. “I...I didn’t...”
“Whatever Faith,” Buffy snapped, turning away from the Slayer, her hand pushing slightly against the girl’s windpipe. Her gaze landed on the ten or so men that were also part of the plan.
“Oh don’t look so scared,” Buffy pouted at one watcher that looked particularly afraid. “I’m not going to do to you anything to you that the Council wouldn’t have done to me.”
“You aren’t going to get away with this!” sputtered the watcher in question. “The Council will hunt you down for as long as you exist. You are an abomination!”
Buffy pondered that for a moment. “I’ve heard so many different ways of saying just that thing, you know. I’ve come back wrong, I’m not a good vampire, I’m not a good slayer. I wasn’t a good student or a good daughter. Certainly not a good friend, Willow can attest to that one. Maybe I’m not all out evil girl, but I can give it a shot.”
Buffy turned her backs on the watchers and walked towards Spike, still sitting on that damn folding chair.
Her words made his undead heart leap for joy. The fact that the injury to Red had given his mate such a reason to lash out, to actually take a life. It was what vampires did for fuck’s sake. Buffy walked over to him and placed a small kiss on his cheek before heading up the stairs to their bedroom and closing the door with a sound thud. With that small act she had given him permission to do what he wanted with them all.
Faith excluded. The mark that rested on Faith’s neck blazed brilliantly against his senses. Faith was Buffy’s and Buffy’s alone to touch.
Still there was something that didn’t seem right to him. Where was his Goldilocks’ watcher in all of this. Spike kicked the chair he was sitting on aside and planted himself in front of the Slayer, her eyes misting with unshed tears.
“What does your watcher have to say in all of this?” he asked distinctly.
Faith refused to speak, her eyes looking anywhere but at his face.
“Alright then,” he muttered moving on to a frightened watcher. “Where is Rupert Giles in all of this?” he asked.
A snort came from one of the watchers. “Nancy boy Giles, didn’t want to do it. Couldn’t bear the thought of us killing his precious Buffy Summers,” answered the smug watcher. “Git’s been fired for his troubles.”
“Right then,” replied the equally smug vampire, turning to leave the lot of them alone with hungry minions. It was two in the bleedin’ afternoon!
___________________________________
Buffy returned to the main floor of the warehouse just after sunset, not having slept at all. The sounds of the watchers’ screaming weighed on her...not soul, cause she didn’t have one of them, but it weighed on something, massively right in the middle of her chest.
The minions had cleaned up. No bodies remained chained to the walls. Except Faith. She regretted that too. Faith shouldn’t have had to watch minions feed. Faith hung limply against her chains, weary from the exertion of the attack, and the mental anguish of having expected to die along with the watchers.
Buffy caught Faith’s eye as she travelled down the stairs, and recognised a single word forming on the Slayer’s lips. ‘Why?’
“Why are you alive or why did I let them feed?” Buffy asked nonchalantly as if the whole thing didn’t bother her in the slightest.
“Both I guess,” answered Faith.
“Someone had to pay for Willow, for the minions that dusted. As for why you are alive? Why do you think you are alive, Faith?” Buffy asked, tilting her head in reminiscence of her mate.
“’Cause you didn’t want the glory of bagging a Slayer to go to a minion? You wanted the credit yourself or maybe I’m gonna be another notch on your boyfriend’s belt?”
Buffy stopped directly in front of Faith and delivered another slap across the face. “You are alive, Faith, because I decided you needed protecting.”
Faith scoffed at that. “Sure and the first time you saw after you got yourself all vampified you sunk your fangs into me, ya, that’s love.”
Buffy felt her anger stir before she took a deep breath and controlled herself. “Maybe when you get back to Giles you can ask him to look up what a mark means to vampires and then you won’t be such a bitch about it. I have to go visit your staking victim,” she replied in a cool tone before turning and walking away.
“Buffy?” asked Faith in a small voice. “Am I going to be alive when you come back?”
“Yes Faith. With that mark on your neck, none of these minions will touch you. Just don’t piss off Spike, ‘cause with him it could go either way.”
___________________________________
tbc...
Author’s note: Another chapter expertly beta’d by the wonderful Bloodytearsoflife.
__________________________________________
Chapter 15: Attack
“Don’t do it again!” shouted Willow, as if shouting was going to make her point stick in Buffy’s brain more.
“I won’t!” countered Buffy. “Until the next time,” she giggled.
Willow gave her friend a look that was very frightening, or so she thought, and returned her gaze to the pile of goodies in the middle of the table.
“I still say it’s weird without the kittens,” noted Spike, as he dealt out the next hand.
“Enough about the kittens Spike!” moaned Buffy, her hands twitching for the new hand of cards Spike was about to deal. She had to admit that poker was fun. They weren’t playing for money, they were playing for candy, which had been Willow's compromise.
The card table had been set up in the middle of the warehouse floor, the minions milling around them, waiting for something to happen. They were glad that their master and mistress were having a good time, it meant that none of their number were going to end up dusted today.
The sun was high in the sky outside, all bad little vamps were safely asleep, or at least inside.
The trio around the card table picked up their new hand and ante’d up, each pushing five Swedish berries into the centre of the table. Buffy reached for her junior mints, to increase the bet, when a loud noise interrupted their game.
“Master!” screamed one of the minions at the door. Spike whipped his head around to see the minion fall to dust.
“We’re under attack!” shouted another minion.
Spike rolled his eyes. “Of course we’re under attack you stupid gits!” he roared. “I had a winning hand!” He walked into the crowd of minions that were valiantly fighting off the intruders.
“I guess it takes Giles and company a week to get up a rescue party,” noted Buffy to Willow.
“Well, I was sorta wondering when it would happen,” admitted Willow. “I guess it’s to my room with me...”
Buffy nodded her head with a smile and reached out to hug her friend. Buffy watched Willow walk up to her bedroom and into relative safety before turning to the mêlée surrounding the door of the warehouse. Her attention immediately went to the other possible ways into the building and sure enough there was a man climbing through the loading doors at the end of the main floor.
She growled at a few minions to take care of him, her attention going to the other possible entrances. There was someone on the roof.
Not just someone, a Slayer. Faith was on the roof.
Buffy followed Faith’s progress along the roof, as if she could see through the concrete and steel. There was a skylight above the balcony that they had covered up when they had first moved, in and that Buffy had completely forgotten about. Swiftly Buffy sprang into action. She rushed up the stairs, intent on intercepting Faith, not realising that once Faith was through the window, sunlight would bathe the only way into the bedrooms.
Buffy jumped back from the deadly sunlight with a shriek. Faith was holding a cross bow and had a determined look on her face.
“Hey B, nice digs you got yourself,” greeted Faith, raising the cross bow at the former Slayer.
“You don’t want to do this Faith!” Buffy tried to stay calm even though there was a cross bow pointed at her heart.
“Ya, I do,” replied the Slayer with a smile and shot the weapon.
Buffy leapt out of the way just in the nick of time, flying over the balcony railing and falling to the floor, a minion breaking her fall. From the floor, Buffy let her eyes follow Faith into the bedrooms, breaking the door on hers and Spike’s room before kicking open the door of Willow’s room.
Willow! Buffy pushed herself up off the floor and the poor minion she had landed on and ran back up the stairs. She covered herself in her hardly adequate jean jacket, to avoid the sunlight and rushed into Willow’s room, to find Faith with the crossbow pointed at Willow.
“I swear! Faith! I’m not a...” Willow was interrupted by Faith’s crossbow bolt piercing her flesh, stunning her into silence.
The bolt stuck out of Willow’s upper chest, her human blood trickling down her purple fuzzy sweater. Buffy saw red.
“She... she didn’t dust!” mumbled Faith confused, dropping her cross bow. “She didn’t dust.”
___________________________________
“Shut the bloody hell up you lot!” shouted Spike into the warehouse, and at his babbling minions who were more than confused by the fact of the ten or so watchers that had survived the initial attack and were now chained to the walls at various intervals, unharmed except for their injuries sustained during the attack. Faith among them.
Buffy came down the stairs, the sky light now covered, holding Willow’s unconscious body in her arms. Her tears were apparent on her cheeks as she looked at her friend. Silence flooded over the hostages and minions alike. A vampire was crying over the body of a human.
She walked the length of the warehouse floor, towards the shady part of the building, and the loading doors. Curtly she ordered the door open, and was obeyed.
“I want them all alive when I get back. Especially the Slayer!” she barked behind her.
Buffy slipped into the shade and towards the parked Desoto.
___________________________________
Buffy looked down lovingly at her friend, laid out on the hospital gurney. Faith’s shot hadn’t pierced the heart. Why she had missed, Buff wasn’t too sure about, but at that moment was incredibly thankful for Faith’s bad aim.
All around her doctors were rushing around, getting yummy blood back into Willow’s veins, telling her to stay calm and to have a seat in the waiting room. But Buffy didn’t let go of Willow’s hand.
“Miss?” asked a nurse, trying to pry Buffy’s hand from Willow’s. “You have to let go of her hand.”
Buffy shook her head, a tear rolling down her cheek. She couldn’t leave Willow, not after what had happened. Suddenly there was a small squeeze of her hand, and Buffy looked up to see Willow smiling at her, eyes hopeful but in pain.
“I’ll be fine Buffy,” Willow whispered.
Reluctantly Buffy let go of Willow’s hand and watched as her friend was wheeled into surgery.
___________________________________
Buffy pulled the Desoto to a screeching halt outside the loading doors of the warehouse and stormed into the building.
As ordered, the group of what Buffy assumed were watchers and Faith were still alive, guarded meticulously by minions who were licking their lips as they watched the men, struggle against their chains. Faith on the other hand stood limply against the wall, her eyes focused on nothing in particular, muttering to herself. Spike sat on one of their poker chairs backwards, smoking and watching the Slayer mumble.
The minions recoiled back as she walked by them. They all knew that the witch had been alive when she left, but had she arrived at the hospital alive? Scattering out of her way, the vampires and captives watched in anticipation of what would happen next as Mistress Elizabeth came to a stop in front of the Slayer.
Buffy waited for Faith to finally look up at her from her gaze on the floor, her eyes sad. She sent a fiery gaze back at the Slayer, chained to the wall. Buffy raised her hand and slapped Faith across the face.
“She...she didn’t dust...” muttered Faith, as if she hadn’t registered the slap. “I...I killed Willow... I killed Willow!” she moaned, trying to bring her arms towards her face, but was stopped by the chains.
Annoyed and mad, Buffy grabbed the Slayer by the neck and pushed her flush against the wall, Faith’s moans ceasing as lack of oxygen became an issue.
“No, Faith, Willow’s not dead. Nor is she going to be anytime soon. Why did you come here? Why couldn’t you just leave us alone?” asked Buffy through gritted teeth, invading Faith‘s personal area.
“You’re evil...You’re a vampire...” gasped Faith, her eyes darting about the room.
Buffy eased up on her hold on Faith’s neck, allowing the Slayer more air. “Sheep,” hissed the vampire into the slayer’s face. “You’re a sheep. The Council, Giles says all vampires are bad, and you’ve got to stake them, right?”
Faith attempted to nod.
“Wrong! Wrong Faith. Did it even occur to you that Willow was alive? That I wouldn’t want to hurt my best friend?” asked Buffy plaintively. The vampire didn’t even give her a chance to answer before heading into another stream of words. “No, of course not. What the Council says must be right. I’m a vampire. An evil soulless vampire. I consort with vampires. I’m going to spend the rest of my existence with my vampire mate. I’ve got to be bad. Buffy’s a bad, bad vampire. Gasp! She must have turned her friend Willow too, so that they can be bad vampires together!”
Behind her Spike started to chuckle at her antics.
“Well guess what Faith? I didn’t. I didn’t turn Willow. And you know what? Because I didn’t turn Willow, you have the distinct and glorious honour of being the one who shot Willow. You almost killed her! Not me, YOU.”
Faith’s eyes reflected a look of horror. “I...I didn’t...”
“Whatever Faith,” Buffy snapped, turning away from the Slayer, her hand pushing slightly against the girl’s windpipe. Her gaze landed on the ten or so men that were also part of the plan.
“Oh don’t look so scared,” Buffy pouted at one watcher that looked particularly afraid. “I’m not going to do to you anything to you that the Council wouldn’t have done to me.”
“You aren’t going to get away with this!” sputtered the watcher in question. “The Council will hunt you down for as long as you exist. You are an abomination!”
Buffy pondered that for a moment. “I’ve heard so many different ways of saying just that thing, you know. I’ve come back wrong, I’m not a good vampire, I’m not a good slayer. I wasn’t a good student or a good daughter. Certainly not a good friend, Willow can attest to that one. Maybe I’m not all out evil girl, but I can give it a shot.”
Buffy turned her backs on the watchers and walked towards Spike, still sitting on that damn folding chair.
Her words made his undead heart leap for joy. The fact that the injury to Red had given his mate such a reason to lash out, to actually take a life. It was what vampires did for fuck’s sake. Buffy walked over to him and placed a small kiss on his cheek before heading up the stairs to their bedroom and closing the door with a sound thud. With that small act she had given him permission to do what he wanted with them all.
Faith excluded. The mark that rested on Faith’s neck blazed brilliantly against his senses. Faith was Buffy’s and Buffy’s alone to touch.
Still there was something that didn’t seem right to him. Where was his Goldilocks’ watcher in all of this. Spike kicked the chair he was sitting on aside and planted himself in front of the Slayer, her eyes misting with unshed tears.
“What does your watcher have to say in all of this?” he asked distinctly.
Faith refused to speak, her eyes looking anywhere but at his face.
“Alright then,” he muttered moving on to a frightened watcher. “Where is Rupert Giles in all of this?” he asked.
A snort came from one of the watchers. “Nancy boy Giles, didn’t want to do it. Couldn’t bear the thought of us killing his precious Buffy Summers,” answered the smug watcher. “Git’s been fired for his troubles.”
“Right then,” replied the equally smug vampire, turning to leave the lot of them alone with hungry minions. It was two in the bleedin’ afternoon!
___________________________________
Buffy returned to the main floor of the warehouse just after sunset, not having slept at all. The sounds of the watchers’ screaming weighed on her...not soul, cause she didn’t have one of them, but it weighed on something, massively right in the middle of her chest.
The minions had cleaned up. No bodies remained chained to the walls. Except Faith. She regretted that too. Faith shouldn’t have had to watch minions feed. Faith hung limply against her chains, weary from the exertion of the attack, and the mental anguish of having expected to die along with the watchers.
Buffy caught Faith’s eye as she travelled down the stairs, and recognised a single word forming on the Slayer’s lips. ‘Why?’
“Why are you alive or why did I let them feed?” Buffy asked nonchalantly as if the whole thing didn’t bother her in the slightest.
“Both I guess,” answered Faith.
“Someone had to pay for Willow, for the minions that dusted. As for why you are alive? Why do you think you are alive, Faith?” Buffy asked, tilting her head in reminiscence of her mate.
“’Cause you didn’t want the glory of bagging a Slayer to go to a minion? You wanted the credit yourself or maybe I’m gonna be another notch on your boyfriend’s belt?”
Buffy stopped directly in front of Faith and delivered another slap across the face. “You are alive, Faith, because I decided you needed protecting.”
Faith scoffed at that. “Sure and the first time you saw after you got yourself all vampified you sunk your fangs into me, ya, that’s love.”
Buffy felt her anger stir before she took a deep breath and controlled herself. “Maybe when you get back to Giles you can ask him to look up what a mark means to vampires and then you won’t be such a bitch about it. I have to go visit your staking victim,” she replied in a cool tone before turning and walking away.
“Buffy?” asked Faith in a small voice. “Am I going to be alive when you come back?”
“Yes Faith. With that mark on your neck, none of these minions will touch you. Just don’t piss off Spike, ‘cause with him it could go either way.”
___________________________________
tbc...
Road Trip
Disclaimer: These characters aren’t made by me. K?
Author’s note: Another wonderful beta job by the incomparable BTL.
___________________________________
Chapter 16: Road Trip
Buffy exited the warehouse and into LA’s fading daylight, trying very hard to keep her tears from rolling down her cheeks. Her emotions were overwhelming her senses. Faith’s attack, Giles’ refusal to participate in it, Willow getting hurt, letting the minions kill all those watchers. She opened the door of the Desoto and slipped in, finally allowing the tears to fall. Crying in front of the minions wasn’t an option.
She shouldn’t have let her guard down. Of course the Council would want to kill her. Faith, while there was animosity, and the thrill of being mean to each other, she never really expected Faith to try to kill her. More frustrated with her foolishness than Faith’s betrayal, Buffy turned the key in the ignition and turned the stereo to as loud as she could tolerate it, Spike’s Clash cassette roared to life filling the cabin with “London Calling.”
Her thoughts turned to Giles as she wiped her tears away. It gave her a kind of hope. Giles hadn’t come to kill her. He had probably wanted to get Willow back. Or Maybe he though I’d take care of Willow.
Willow.
Willow who was laying in a hospital bed, just waiting for her to be by her side. Stupid Faith! Of course that thought didn’t stop Buffy from thinking that this was all her fault. It is your stupid fault! You took Willow from Sunnydale!
Buffy slammed the car into drive and took off towards the hospital that she had admitted Willow into. She didn’t care that visiting hours were probably over, or that Willow was asleep; Buffy just needed to be with her friend.
Willow was lying, sleeping, her face calm without a hint of pain. Buffy could smell the blood that was just under the surface of the bandage though. Willow was healing slowly, far too slowly for Buffy’s liking. The vampire sat down on the bed side chair and clutched Willow’s hand to her cheek.
“I’m so sorry Wills,” started Buffy. “I should have taken better care of you. I shouldn’t have taken you away at all. You told me no, but I didn’t listen! I’m so sorry you got hurt.”
“Not sorry you took me away though?” asked Willow, whispering into the darkness.
Buffy sniffed back her tears and smiled at her friend, who was just coming out of her sedation.
“No,” admitted Buffy. “I don’t have a soul, remember?”
Willow smiled back sadly. “I remember, I was there. Buffy?”
“Ya, Wills?”
“Can you take me home? Please? After I get out of the hospital?”
Buffy nodded vigorously, fresh tears cascading down her face. “I promise.”
___________________________________
Buffy returned home to the warehouse, a passing glance at the still alive Faith, before she headed up to her bedroom. Sitting on the bed, reading a book, Spike looked up at her entrance and frowned at the look on her face. She had spent two days at Willow’s side, he presumed. He hadn‘t seen or heard from her in those two days.
“How’s Red?” he asked.
“The nurses told me that she’s gonna be released soon. I’m taking her back to Sunnydale,” explained Buffy, pulling a duffle bag out from under the bed and heading into Willow’s room.
Spike followed his mate as she packed up Willow’s things, putting them carefully into the duffle bag. “How long will you be gone?” he asked.
“Not long,” she responded turning to look him in the eye. “I’ll take Faith back too, get her out of our hair.”
Spike nodded, watching her pack. He could feel that she was angry and tired, but more than anything, she was hurting, from Faith’s betrayal, from her guilt about Willow getting hurt.
“I’ll take care of myself you know,” she said with a coy smile turning back towards him. The flow of feelings was not one way. She could feel that he was scared for her; he worried about not being able to protect her while she was gone. “I’ll be fine!” she exclaimed, putting the bag down and reaching for him.
Spike gathered her up in his arms and squeezed. “I know you’ll do fine, love,” he admitted. “Worried is all.”
Buffy pulled back from the hug and planted a kiss on his cheek. “I love you too,” she whispered. “Or are you worried about me and your precious car?” she asked cocking an eyebrow at him.
Spike smirked at her before leaning in and biting down on his marks with blunt human teeth. “I think I’ll have to get you your own bloody car, before too long, if I want to drive my Desoto anymore. I thought you hated to drive?”
Buffy smiled back. “I never said I hated to drive, just that I wasn’t good at it. I’m getting better though!” she responded when he started to glare. “I’ll take good care of your car.”
“Better!” he growled in her ear.
The vibrations from his growl reverberated throughout her body causing not unpleasant sensations in her nether regions. She couldn’t help the little moan that issued from her lips, her arousal becoming easily scented. Spike’s lips moved over her ear and down her neck, nibbling and sucking as he went. His tongue licked a slick trail towards her mouth, fastening his lips over her own and pressing together in a passionate kiss.
Buffy pressed her cold body against his, his erection bulging out from the denim that confined it. Jumping up and wrapping her legs around his waist, she ground her self against him.
“Take me to bed,” she whispered in his ear.
He interpreted that statement correctly, moving them back into their room, giving the minions quite the eyeful as the two vampires tore at each other’s clothes trying desperately to connect in everyway possible before they parted. The pair fell haphazardly on their bed, their mouths fused together, lips and tongues in a duel for supremacy and intimacy.
Spike could tell that she was wet, wet and ready for him; and though he wanted to make this session of frantic love making last, his cock throbbed to be nestled in her lush confines. Two nights had been far too long. Buffy’s hands tore at his trousers, revealing his hard shaft, hard and red. She disengaged from his lips and sought his length out, her lips eager to wrap around the head of his cock.
Her tongue made a cool slick trail down his alabaster chest taking the time to circle his nipples, biting them playfully as she travelled towards her goal. Dipping her tongue into his navel she giggled as his cock, standing at attention as it was, bobbed in appreciation of her actions.
Bluer than blue eyes looked back down at her, her hair hanging loose, framing his length with her blond tendrils.
“I love you,” she whispered, her green eyes catching his as she smiled, licking her lips in anticipation of what was to come next.
Her pink tongue poked out of her mouth and twirled it around the crown of his cock, slowly enveloping his length with her mouth. She took him in as far as she could, pressing her hands into his hips to attempt to keep him still. Her head bobbed up and down, taking him in and then letting him slide almost all the way out of her wet mouth. He whimpered at each perceived loss of contact.
Slowly she trailed a hand to the inside of his thighs and sought out his balls, fondling them gently, as she moved his shaft in and out of her mouth, sucking and nibbling as she went. His hands flew to her head as he approached his release. Humming her approval, he groaned in satisfaction and begged her to do it again.
He came with a roar, Buffy swallowing down every last drop of cum. He pulled himself out of her mouth with a grin, instantly hard again, and flipped them over, so that she was on the bottom. He parted her legs roughly, his talented fingers seeking out her core and the delights that awaited him there. A few touches to her so responsive nether regions was enough to make him realise that he had to taste her like she had him. He leaned down and licked her wet centre from bottom to top, his nose brushing against her clit. Buffy ground herself against his face, seeking friction and stimulation, gasping as she felt him insert his tongue into her channel.
She tasted exquisite. He couldn’t resist lapping up her juices like a cat. Her moans turned into breathily spoken curses and praise for his talented tongue. Suddenly there was a tug on his hair, bringing him up to look her in the eyes. She panted unnecessarily, closing the distance between them and pressing her lips to his.
“Need you inside me, I can’t wait anymore,” she breathed against his mouth.
He nodded, and positioned himself at her entrance and moved his hips, settling his cock into her channel with ease. She gasped at the contact and ground down further, wanting him in her as far as he could go. Gradually his thrusts sank deeper into her core, each movement drawing their bodies together in union. Limbs intertwined, the pair of vampires pulsated against one another rhythmically, their lips only leaving the others for whispered endearments.
___________________________________
In the warehouse, chained to the wall, tears dried on her cheeks, Faith looked up as the sounds issuing from the Master Vampire’s room filled the building. She tried to shut out the sounds, but her mind refused to focus on anything else, and her hands were shackled to the wall.
The minions around milled about, licking their lips as they passed her, seeking their own way to do something about the noises Master Spike and his mate were making upstairs. With a turn of her head, Faith could see a pair of vamps going at it in full view of the others.
“Fuck! Spike, Fuck me! God! Don’t stop fucking me!” screamed Buffy from the room above and Faith instantly felt herself get wetter.
The leers from the other vampires multiplied. Faith realised that they could smell it. She cringed. She so did not want a grungy minion banging her up against this wall, the blood stains of the watchers killed so recently still on the plaster.
She just hoped that Buffy and Spike would fuck faster, so she wouldn’t end up being raped by a minion.
___________________________________
It seemed like an eternity later that Buffy descended the stairs, a black duffle bag in tow, fresh bite marks proudly adorning her neck. The former slayer b-lined to Faith, grabbing her chin dominantly and forcing the current chosen one to look at her.
“I’m going to pick up Willow from the hospital. Don’t go anywhere, k?” Buffy ordered in a perky voice. “And, gross, Faith arousal!” Buffy turned to a minion and called them over. “I want her clean. I’ll be back in half an hour, she has a bath or you become potting soil.”
The minion nodded eagerly, a leer in her eye.
“If she smells of you in anyway, I’ll make it painful,” she barked, turning and heading out into the night.
Spike watched as his mate left their home sadly. He was so proud of how she’d been handling the situation, the minions, their separation. Though it was her idea, he could feel just how hard it was for her. This time she didn’t have any barriers up to their connection.
The terror that was coming off the slayer bint was so thick he could taste it. He’d heard what Buffy had ordered.
This lonely place was going to be different without his mate to keep him company. He just hoped she returned home to him soon.
___________________________________
Buffy snuck into the hospital knowing exactly what she needed to do. Willow was going home tonight, even if she had to drain a few nurses to do it. Luckily the ward seemed to be deserted as Buffy made her way to Willow’s bedside.
“Buffy?” Willow whispered, her eyes opening sleepily. “I was wondering when you were coming back.”
“It’s time to go home Wills,” observed Buffy with a smile, unhooking the IV from Willow’s hand.
With a nod, Willow slipped from the bed and sat down on the wheel chair that Buffy had provided. She pulled her hospital robe around her to keep out the chill.
“I’ve got your clothes in the car,” whispered Buffy as they travelled down the hallway towards the door.
Willow let out a sigh of relief. “W...What about Faith?”
“We’re picking her up after. Regular road trip.”
“With you driving?” Willow exclaimed. “’Cause there’s a driver’s ed cautionary tale.”
The sliding doors of the hospital parted, revealing the Desoto ready and waiting.
“At least tell me you got you know, good music to listen to on the way home?” pleaded Willow, as Buffy picked her up and placed her in the front seat of the car.
“Are you going to complain the whole way there?” asked the vampire.
___________________________________
The trio of girls, a Slayer, a vampire and a witch flew down the highway towards Sunnydale under the cover of darkness listening to the immortal sounds of Billy Idol. It was the only thing in Spike’s music collection that Buffy thought Willow would approve of. The two girls in the front seats gabbed and sung along with the bleach blond musician drowning out the whimpers and moans that were coming from the back seat.
Chained, duct tapped and viciously scrubbed clean, Faith lay on the back seat, ignored by the two girls in the front, wondering what was going to happen to her when they arrived back in Sunnydale.
___________________________________
Buffy parked the car in front of the school, helping Willow out, who had now got some semblance of clothing over her hospital robe, but allowed her to walk into the school under her own power, her arm in a sling.
In a swift motion, Buffy slung Faith over her shoulder, and followed her friend into the Library.
As usual, they were all there. Giles was pacing, Xander and Oz sat at the table, books and papers scattered about them. Willow pushed the door open, with her not wounded shoulder and held it open for Buffy.
All sound was sucked out of the library as the three men stood and stared at the three women. Buffy dropped Faith to the ground.
The silence was broken by the distinct exclamations of the three men.
“Willow!” exclaimed Oz.
“Faith!” spat Giles.
“Buffy!” mumbled Xander.
___________________________________
tbc...
Author’s note: Another wonderful beta job by the incomparable BTL.
___________________________________
Chapter 16: Road Trip
Buffy exited the warehouse and into LA’s fading daylight, trying very hard to keep her tears from rolling down her cheeks. Her emotions were overwhelming her senses. Faith’s attack, Giles’ refusal to participate in it, Willow getting hurt, letting the minions kill all those watchers. She opened the door of the Desoto and slipped in, finally allowing the tears to fall. Crying in front of the minions wasn’t an option.
She shouldn’t have let her guard down. Of course the Council would want to kill her. Faith, while there was animosity, and the thrill of being mean to each other, she never really expected Faith to try to kill her. More frustrated with her foolishness than Faith’s betrayal, Buffy turned the key in the ignition and turned the stereo to as loud as she could tolerate it, Spike’s Clash cassette roared to life filling the cabin with “London Calling.”
Her thoughts turned to Giles as she wiped her tears away. It gave her a kind of hope. Giles hadn’t come to kill her. He had probably wanted to get Willow back. Or Maybe he though I’d take care of Willow.
Willow.
Willow who was laying in a hospital bed, just waiting for her to be by her side. Stupid Faith! Of course that thought didn’t stop Buffy from thinking that this was all her fault. It is your stupid fault! You took Willow from Sunnydale!
Buffy slammed the car into drive and took off towards the hospital that she had admitted Willow into. She didn’t care that visiting hours were probably over, or that Willow was asleep; Buffy just needed to be with her friend.
Willow was lying, sleeping, her face calm without a hint of pain. Buffy could smell the blood that was just under the surface of the bandage though. Willow was healing slowly, far too slowly for Buffy’s liking. The vampire sat down on the bed side chair and clutched Willow’s hand to her cheek.
“I’m so sorry Wills,” started Buffy. “I should have taken better care of you. I shouldn’t have taken you away at all. You told me no, but I didn’t listen! I’m so sorry you got hurt.”
“Not sorry you took me away though?” asked Willow, whispering into the darkness.
Buffy sniffed back her tears and smiled at her friend, who was just coming out of her sedation.
“No,” admitted Buffy. “I don’t have a soul, remember?”
Willow smiled back sadly. “I remember, I was there. Buffy?”
“Ya, Wills?”
“Can you take me home? Please? After I get out of the hospital?”
Buffy nodded vigorously, fresh tears cascading down her face. “I promise.”
___________________________________
Buffy returned home to the warehouse, a passing glance at the still alive Faith, before she headed up to her bedroom. Sitting on the bed, reading a book, Spike looked up at her entrance and frowned at the look on her face. She had spent two days at Willow’s side, he presumed. He hadn‘t seen or heard from her in those two days.
“How’s Red?” he asked.
“The nurses told me that she’s gonna be released soon. I’m taking her back to Sunnydale,” explained Buffy, pulling a duffle bag out from under the bed and heading into Willow’s room.
Spike followed his mate as she packed up Willow’s things, putting them carefully into the duffle bag. “How long will you be gone?” he asked.
“Not long,” she responded turning to look him in the eye. “I’ll take Faith back too, get her out of our hair.”
Spike nodded, watching her pack. He could feel that she was angry and tired, but more than anything, she was hurting, from Faith’s betrayal, from her guilt about Willow getting hurt.
“I’ll take care of myself you know,” she said with a coy smile turning back towards him. The flow of feelings was not one way. She could feel that he was scared for her; he worried about not being able to protect her while she was gone. “I’ll be fine!” she exclaimed, putting the bag down and reaching for him.
Spike gathered her up in his arms and squeezed. “I know you’ll do fine, love,” he admitted. “Worried is all.”
Buffy pulled back from the hug and planted a kiss on his cheek. “I love you too,” she whispered. “Or are you worried about me and your precious car?” she asked cocking an eyebrow at him.
Spike smirked at her before leaning in and biting down on his marks with blunt human teeth. “I think I’ll have to get you your own bloody car, before too long, if I want to drive my Desoto anymore. I thought you hated to drive?”
Buffy smiled back. “I never said I hated to drive, just that I wasn’t good at it. I’m getting better though!” she responded when he started to glare. “I’ll take good care of your car.”
“Better!” he growled in her ear.
The vibrations from his growl reverberated throughout her body causing not unpleasant sensations in her nether regions. She couldn’t help the little moan that issued from her lips, her arousal becoming easily scented. Spike’s lips moved over her ear and down her neck, nibbling and sucking as he went. His tongue licked a slick trail towards her mouth, fastening his lips over her own and pressing together in a passionate kiss.
Buffy pressed her cold body against his, his erection bulging out from the denim that confined it. Jumping up and wrapping her legs around his waist, she ground her self against him.
“Take me to bed,” she whispered in his ear.
He interpreted that statement correctly, moving them back into their room, giving the minions quite the eyeful as the two vampires tore at each other’s clothes trying desperately to connect in everyway possible before they parted. The pair fell haphazardly on their bed, their mouths fused together, lips and tongues in a duel for supremacy and intimacy.
Spike could tell that she was wet, wet and ready for him; and though he wanted to make this session of frantic love making last, his cock throbbed to be nestled in her lush confines. Two nights had been far too long. Buffy’s hands tore at his trousers, revealing his hard shaft, hard and red. She disengaged from his lips and sought his length out, her lips eager to wrap around the head of his cock.
Her tongue made a cool slick trail down his alabaster chest taking the time to circle his nipples, biting them playfully as she travelled towards her goal. Dipping her tongue into his navel she giggled as his cock, standing at attention as it was, bobbed in appreciation of her actions.
Bluer than blue eyes looked back down at her, her hair hanging loose, framing his length with her blond tendrils.
“I love you,” she whispered, her green eyes catching his as she smiled, licking her lips in anticipation of what was to come next.
Her pink tongue poked out of her mouth and twirled it around the crown of his cock, slowly enveloping his length with her mouth. She took him in as far as she could, pressing her hands into his hips to attempt to keep him still. Her head bobbed up and down, taking him in and then letting him slide almost all the way out of her wet mouth. He whimpered at each perceived loss of contact.
Slowly she trailed a hand to the inside of his thighs and sought out his balls, fondling them gently, as she moved his shaft in and out of her mouth, sucking and nibbling as she went. His hands flew to her head as he approached his release. Humming her approval, he groaned in satisfaction and begged her to do it again.
He came with a roar, Buffy swallowing down every last drop of cum. He pulled himself out of her mouth with a grin, instantly hard again, and flipped them over, so that she was on the bottom. He parted her legs roughly, his talented fingers seeking out her core and the delights that awaited him there. A few touches to her so responsive nether regions was enough to make him realise that he had to taste her like she had him. He leaned down and licked her wet centre from bottom to top, his nose brushing against her clit. Buffy ground herself against his face, seeking friction and stimulation, gasping as she felt him insert his tongue into her channel.
She tasted exquisite. He couldn’t resist lapping up her juices like a cat. Her moans turned into breathily spoken curses and praise for his talented tongue. Suddenly there was a tug on his hair, bringing him up to look her in the eyes. She panted unnecessarily, closing the distance between them and pressing her lips to his.
“Need you inside me, I can’t wait anymore,” she breathed against his mouth.
He nodded, and positioned himself at her entrance and moved his hips, settling his cock into her channel with ease. She gasped at the contact and ground down further, wanting him in her as far as he could go. Gradually his thrusts sank deeper into her core, each movement drawing their bodies together in union. Limbs intertwined, the pair of vampires pulsated against one another rhythmically, their lips only leaving the others for whispered endearments.
___________________________________
In the warehouse, chained to the wall, tears dried on her cheeks, Faith looked up as the sounds issuing from the Master Vampire’s room filled the building. She tried to shut out the sounds, but her mind refused to focus on anything else, and her hands were shackled to the wall.
The minions around milled about, licking their lips as they passed her, seeking their own way to do something about the noises Master Spike and his mate were making upstairs. With a turn of her head, Faith could see a pair of vamps going at it in full view of the others.
“Fuck! Spike, Fuck me! God! Don’t stop fucking me!” screamed Buffy from the room above and Faith instantly felt herself get wetter.
The leers from the other vampires multiplied. Faith realised that they could smell it. She cringed. She so did not want a grungy minion banging her up against this wall, the blood stains of the watchers killed so recently still on the plaster.
She just hoped that Buffy and Spike would fuck faster, so she wouldn’t end up being raped by a minion.
___________________________________
It seemed like an eternity later that Buffy descended the stairs, a black duffle bag in tow, fresh bite marks proudly adorning her neck. The former slayer b-lined to Faith, grabbing her chin dominantly and forcing the current chosen one to look at her.
“I’m going to pick up Willow from the hospital. Don’t go anywhere, k?” Buffy ordered in a perky voice. “And, gross, Faith arousal!” Buffy turned to a minion and called them over. “I want her clean. I’ll be back in half an hour, she has a bath or you become potting soil.”
The minion nodded eagerly, a leer in her eye.
“If she smells of you in anyway, I’ll make it painful,” she barked, turning and heading out into the night.
Spike watched as his mate left their home sadly. He was so proud of how she’d been handling the situation, the minions, their separation. Though it was her idea, he could feel just how hard it was for her. This time she didn’t have any barriers up to their connection.
The terror that was coming off the slayer bint was so thick he could taste it. He’d heard what Buffy had ordered.
This lonely place was going to be different without his mate to keep him company. He just hoped she returned home to him soon.
___________________________________
Buffy snuck into the hospital knowing exactly what she needed to do. Willow was going home tonight, even if she had to drain a few nurses to do it. Luckily the ward seemed to be deserted as Buffy made her way to Willow’s bedside.
“Buffy?” Willow whispered, her eyes opening sleepily. “I was wondering when you were coming back.”
“It’s time to go home Wills,” observed Buffy with a smile, unhooking the IV from Willow’s hand.
With a nod, Willow slipped from the bed and sat down on the wheel chair that Buffy had provided. She pulled her hospital robe around her to keep out the chill.
“I’ve got your clothes in the car,” whispered Buffy as they travelled down the hallway towards the door.
Willow let out a sigh of relief. “W...What about Faith?”
“We’re picking her up after. Regular road trip.”
“With you driving?” Willow exclaimed. “’Cause there’s a driver’s ed cautionary tale.”
The sliding doors of the hospital parted, revealing the Desoto ready and waiting.
“At least tell me you got you know, good music to listen to on the way home?” pleaded Willow, as Buffy picked her up and placed her in the front seat of the car.
“Are you going to complain the whole way there?” asked the vampire.
___________________________________
The trio of girls, a Slayer, a vampire and a witch flew down the highway towards Sunnydale under the cover of darkness listening to the immortal sounds of Billy Idol. It was the only thing in Spike’s music collection that Buffy thought Willow would approve of. The two girls in the front seats gabbed and sung along with the bleach blond musician drowning out the whimpers and moans that were coming from the back seat.
Chained, duct tapped and viciously scrubbed clean, Faith lay on the back seat, ignored by the two girls in the front, wondering what was going to happen to her when they arrived back in Sunnydale.
___________________________________
Buffy parked the car in front of the school, helping Willow out, who had now got some semblance of clothing over her hospital robe, but allowed her to walk into the school under her own power, her arm in a sling.
In a swift motion, Buffy slung Faith over her shoulder, and followed her friend into the Library.
As usual, they were all there. Giles was pacing, Xander and Oz sat at the table, books and papers scattered about them. Willow pushed the door open, with her not wounded shoulder and held it open for Buffy.
All sound was sucked out of the library as the three men stood and stared at the three women. Buffy dropped Faith to the ground.
The silence was broken by the distinct exclamations of the three men.
“Willow!” exclaimed Oz.
“Faith!” spat Giles.
“Buffy!” mumbled Xander.
___________________________________
tbc...
Bondage Fun Girl
Disclaimer: Joss’ season 3 was aired on TV, this version was made by me. I hope he doesn’t mind too much.
Author’s note: Beta’d by the fun and fab Bloodytearsoflife.
___________________________________
Chapter 17: Bondage Fun Girl
Giles grabbed a stake and stepped towards the trio of women.
“Willow? Are you alright?” Giles asked but his eyes never wavered from Buffy.
“I’d say no, to that one,” started Willow, smiling at Oz. “So when you hug me? Be gentle. I got staked.”
Ignoring the watcher with the stake, Oz stepped forward and touched Willow’s face, bringing her chin forward with his fingers. He placed a gentle kiss on her lips.
“Gentle enough?” he asked.
Willow nodded.
“I missed you,” he continued.
“I missed you!” she exclaimed, leaning forward for more Oz kisses.
There was a moan from the bound Slayer.
“Dare I ask why Faith is bound and gagged?” asked Giles, stake still in hand.
“Who cares?” asked Xander. “Buffy’s home!” Xander stepped forward to hug his friend. He stopped mid hug. “You aren’t all bitey are you?” he asked.
“No,” she admitted.
“Ok, good to know,” he said resuming his enthusiastic hugging.
“Ah, Xander?” asked Buffy after a while. “If you don’t stop hugging me, a not so unbitey vampire is going to steal a car and come here to kick your ass.”
Xander backed away. “’Nough said. Spike, vampire with bite. Gotcha. So what’s the deal with Faith all bondage fun?”
“Well, it seems that the Watcher’s Council and Faith decided to pay me a house call, in the middle of the day. And then Faith decided to stake Willow,” explained Buffy.
Willow nodded her head. “It’s true! I could have died! Buffy took me to the hospital.”
“We thought you had kidnapped Wills,” started Xander.
“Blasted Council!” exclaimed Giles, slamming the stake he held in his hand down on a nearby table.
The whole group turned to look at Giles, a little shocked.
“Faith was supposed to go for enrichment training. I had no idea what they were up to Buffy,” he explained.
Buffy looked at her watcher hopefully. She wanted to believe him. Faith had said pretty much the same thing in LA.
“Look, I’m sorry I took Willow. She didn’t want to come but, we worked an arrangement out. She’s back now, so you can enjoy the Willowy goodness. I’ll go back to LA,” explained Buffy.
“We don’t get to enjoy the Buffy goodness?” asked Xander.
“Your mother has been worried about you,” interjected Giles. “We’ve all missed you.”
“You’ve all missed me?” she asked sceptically, eyeing her watcher.
“Well, erm, yes, indeed. Of course. I’ve missed you Buffy,” continued the watcher, despite his obvious discomfort he was going his best to make sure his words sounded sincere.
“Missed me enough to not want to stake me? I mean, here I come with Faith, all bondage fun girl and you’re not, ‘Vamp! Buffy! Must stake good and proper.’”
“Giles is all with the vamp lovin’ already. Can you two just hug so we can untie Faith?” asked Xander cocking his head sideways. “Cause I think she’s doing the pee pee dance for the gagged and bound. I vote for no puddle on the library floor.”
“I second that,” noted Oz, raising his hand.
“Motioned carried,” stated Willow. “Hug!”
___________________________________
“I’m really not going to stay,” Buffy explained to Xander as he walked her home. “Just here to drop off Willow.”
Xander nodded, his hands in his pockets. “Look, Buffy. I know that things haven’t been great for you since Spike came back, well since he turned you into his undead bride, but you have people that care about you here too. Maybe school isn’t for you, but your friends missed you, a lot. Amy still goes on about how if you hadn’t saved her she would have been stuck a rat forever.”
Buffy giggled.
“I just don’t want you to go away and never come back. I want you around,” concluded Xander.
“Awww, Xander!” cooed Buffy, wrapping her arms around him in a hug. “But I can’t stay. I have to be with Spike.”
“Bride of the Undead arise!” cackled Xander.
“Funny Xan, funny.”
They stopped in front of her mother’s house, both shuffling from foot to foot.
“Well this is where we say till tomorrow!” said Xander. “Giles called her to let her know you were on your way.”
“Great,” said Buffy bitterly. “So that means no running away. I’m good at that.”
“The bestest. See you tomorrow?”
Buffy nodded and watched him travel down the street away from her, leaving the vampire standing in front of her mom’s yard. Buffy exhaled a stagnant breath and walked slowly up to the house. Gingerly she knocked on the door.
“Buffy?” questioned her mother, as she opened the door. “Oh Buffy! I’m so sorry! I would never tied you to a stake and tried to light you on fire if I had been in my right mind!” Joyce wrapped her arms around her daughter and squeezed.
Buffy stood there like a post. It was one thing to have your mother hug you, quite another to be spontaneously attacked with a hug after running away again after your mother tried to light you on fire.
Joyce pulled back from the hug. “Come in! Do you want blood or regular food or maybe just some hot chocolate? “ sputtered Joyce.
“Hot chocolate will be fine mom,” Buffy responded following her mother into the kitchen.
“Is Spike in Sunnydale with you? I should invite him over to apologise to him too. No doubt he did not like the whole lighting you on fire thing. Did I mention that I’m sorry?”
Buffy giggled softly. “You did mom. And it’s fine, I’m over it. Much worse things have happened to me when I was alive. Spike’s in LA still. I’m not staying, mom. I’m going back to LA as soon as I know that Willow’s ok.”
“Something happened to Willow?” asked Joyce concerned.
“Faith tried to kill her. Faith is all tied up girl in the library. If Willow had died...”
“Oh Buffy,” sighed Joyce reaching out to clasp her daughter’s hand. “I know how important Willow is to you. But I know even if you didn’t have her always with you, you’d still be ok,” observed her mom, with a twinkle in her eye.
“You didn’t just talk to Giles did you?” asked Buffy.
Joyce sighed. “No, I talked to Willow too. Gave me the Willow, not placing blame version of the last two weeks. I can read between the lines and the oddly exclaimed sentences though. You took her, didn’t you?”
Buffy looked down at her hand that her mother held. “I did. I didn’t mean for her to get hurt.”
“She’s not a vampire, Buffy. She can’t live like you seem to want to now. I’d like to say that her parents missed her, but you know them, barely pay attention to her when she is here.”
“At the time, I needed her. I still do, a little bit. But I won’t be taking her back with me. I need to work without the safety net.”
Joyce nodded in understanding.
“I’m glad you came back Buffy. Even if it is only for a short visit. “ Joyce leaned forward to hug her daughter. “I love you Buffy. I may not like the vampire thing, but it’s what you are.”
Buffy sighed. “No, it’s past time for me to accept the reality of my choice.”
“Your choice?” asked Joyce her voice bordering on hysteria. “I thought you said that it happened when you were on patrol, that a vampire got the better of you? Are you saying that you chose to be a vampire...that Spike did this to you?”
Buffy looked at her mom with wide eyes and internally cursed her word choice. There was no point about lying about it now.
“Yes, I chose this. Maybe a big mistake, but it was mine to make. I love Spike. I want to be with him forever. This,” she pointed at the bite mark on her neck, “makes it so.”
“You let him kill you...”
“Yes, I did. And lately, not so sorry about it.”
“Drusilla’s left?”
“Yes, and Spike and I are happy.”
“What if she comes back? Will you be miserable again? Will you be running back home to your mother when things don’t work out?” said Joyce bitterly.
“Well not if you yell at me!” spat Buffy. “Look I came here tonight, to say hello, and sorry that I left again without telling you I was leaving. I’ll just go get my stuff out of my room. You can turn it into your home gym or something.”
“Buffy, that’s not what I want!” protested her mother.
“Then what do you want mom? Cause I’m just a little bit confused here.”
“I want my little girl back!” cried Joyce, holding her tears back for the time being.
“I grew up,” said Buffy factually as she headed up to her room.
___________________________________
As Buffy carried a sole box down Revello Drive and back towards the school to get the Desoto she realised that she hadn’t really planned the whole move out of her mom’s house very well. She had far too much stuff to move by herself, especially since she walked to her mom’s house instead of driving.
She dropped the box into the trunk of the Desoto and unlocked the driver side door. She was about to get in when a familiar voice interrupted her thoughts.
“Elizabeth, Childe of William the Bloody!” greeted Anya from across the parking lot.
“Anya, friend of Cordelia,” responded Buffy.
“Hey,” said Anya as she came to rest in front of the vampire. “Do you know a witch that I could butter up? And not have to pay currency to for doing a spell? ‘Cause this whole mortal existence in this very capitalistic country is very monetarily based. I lack currency.”
“Ok,” noted Buffy, thinking that this was random and odd. “Umm, how about Willow, or Amy. Both witches and they probably won’t charge you for the spell.”
Anya nodded. “Ok, great. Will I see you at school tomorrow?”
“Maybe, I haven’t decided yet. I need to clean out my locker at the very least.”
“You’re dropping out?”
“I should have as soon as I started walking around without a heartbeat,” Buffy explained sadly. “Hey where do you live?” she asked out of the blue curious.
“I have an apartment, it’s sucking up all the cash I had hoarded away over the centuries.”
“Huh, well I have a house. No one is living in it, you wanna be like my house keeper slash sometimes roommate. Of course, if we ever officially move back here there’d probably be minions there too.”
“That the mansion on Crawford street?” asked Anya.
Buffy nodded.
“Ok, I’ll agree. I’m not paying to clean it up though. Those minions didn’t take very good care of it, before Spike dusted them all.”
“Cleaning, right. Things to do tomorrow,” observed Buffy. “See you tomorrow at school?”
Anya nodded with a happier look on her face.
Buffy pulled away in the big black car leaving Anya in the parking lot. The former vengeance demon giggled. She knew that even if she did get her pendant back there was no way she was going to be in her boss’ good books for quite some time.
Staying in that big house would certainly help her out with accommodation issues, demon or not.
Anya walked off in the direction of her apartment with a happy tune.
___________________________________
Buffy walked up through the basement of the school just as the first bell rang. The hallways were full of scurrying students eager to get to class. She noticed the looks that a few of them had been giving her as she walked through the halls on her way to the library.
What kind of excuse did Xander make up for me?
“Wow, Buffy!” came Cordelia Chase’s voice from behind her. “You’ve never looked more, dead.”
“Why thank you Cordelia,” countered Buffy. “It’s a look I’ve been working on ever so hard.”
“Ya, well I thought I’d let you know that you haven’t made any friends by letting Xander tell everyone that you and Willow went to England for two weeks. I don’t care if the Watcher’s Council decided you don’t need school anymore.”
Buffy’s eyes widened with comprehension. She had thought that Cordelia had been aware of the vampiness. “Huh, well some of us just have that hidden specialness that some people never achieve. But thanks Cordelia, cause I was really wondering if you were still in the loop since Xander moved on to better things.”
Buffy walked on, leaving the cheerleader stunned in the hallway.
ok, new plan. Need to get Xander set up with someone. Wonder if Anya’s seeing anyone.
___________________________________
Buffy stepped into the Library to find Giles coming out of his office, which suspiciously had the blinds closed.
“Faith in there?” Buffy asked.
Giles nodded. “She seems to be repentant for staking Willow. However she is quite violently resolved to do away with you Buffy and your mate. Is...is the entire wet works squad dead?” Giles asked, removing his glasses and polishing them vigorously.
“Yes. They are. They attacked, in the middle of the day. What did they think was going to happen? Spike, Willow and I were playing poker!”
Giles put his glasses back on. “Yes, well it is the policy of the Council to put an end to Slayers that have allowed themselves to be turned.”
“This has happened before?”
“Not in this way of course,” started Giles, only to pause when Buffy gave him a look. “Your mother phoned me last night. I trust you found shelter for the time being?”
“Crawford Street mansion.”
Giles nodded. “Very well. You must be made aware that they won’t stop coming after you and Spike until you are both dusted.”
“’Cause their first attempt was so well thought out and scary!” Buffy said sarcastically.
The library doors swung open revealing Principal Snyder in all his horribleness.
“Summers! Shouldn’t you be in class?”
___________________________________
tbc...
Author’s note: Beta’d by the fun and fab Bloodytearsoflife.
___________________________________
Chapter 17: Bondage Fun Girl
Giles grabbed a stake and stepped towards the trio of women.
“Willow? Are you alright?” Giles asked but his eyes never wavered from Buffy.
“I’d say no, to that one,” started Willow, smiling at Oz. “So when you hug me? Be gentle. I got staked.”
Ignoring the watcher with the stake, Oz stepped forward and touched Willow’s face, bringing her chin forward with his fingers. He placed a gentle kiss on her lips.
“Gentle enough?” he asked.
Willow nodded.
“I missed you,” he continued.
“I missed you!” she exclaimed, leaning forward for more Oz kisses.
There was a moan from the bound Slayer.
“Dare I ask why Faith is bound and gagged?” asked Giles, stake still in hand.
“Who cares?” asked Xander. “Buffy’s home!” Xander stepped forward to hug his friend. He stopped mid hug. “You aren’t all bitey are you?” he asked.
“No,” she admitted.
“Ok, good to know,” he said resuming his enthusiastic hugging.
“Ah, Xander?” asked Buffy after a while. “If you don’t stop hugging me, a not so unbitey vampire is going to steal a car and come here to kick your ass.”
Xander backed away. “’Nough said. Spike, vampire with bite. Gotcha. So what’s the deal with Faith all bondage fun?”
“Well, it seems that the Watcher’s Council and Faith decided to pay me a house call, in the middle of the day. And then Faith decided to stake Willow,” explained Buffy.
Willow nodded her head. “It’s true! I could have died! Buffy took me to the hospital.”
“We thought you had kidnapped Wills,” started Xander.
“Blasted Council!” exclaimed Giles, slamming the stake he held in his hand down on a nearby table.
The whole group turned to look at Giles, a little shocked.
“Faith was supposed to go for enrichment training. I had no idea what they were up to Buffy,” he explained.
Buffy looked at her watcher hopefully. She wanted to believe him. Faith had said pretty much the same thing in LA.
“Look, I’m sorry I took Willow. She didn’t want to come but, we worked an arrangement out. She’s back now, so you can enjoy the Willowy goodness. I’ll go back to LA,” explained Buffy.
“We don’t get to enjoy the Buffy goodness?” asked Xander.
“Your mother has been worried about you,” interjected Giles. “We’ve all missed you.”
“You’ve all missed me?” she asked sceptically, eyeing her watcher.
“Well, erm, yes, indeed. Of course. I’ve missed you Buffy,” continued the watcher, despite his obvious discomfort he was going his best to make sure his words sounded sincere.
“Missed me enough to not want to stake me? I mean, here I come with Faith, all bondage fun girl and you’re not, ‘Vamp! Buffy! Must stake good and proper.’”
“Giles is all with the vamp lovin’ already. Can you two just hug so we can untie Faith?” asked Xander cocking his head sideways. “Cause I think she’s doing the pee pee dance for the gagged and bound. I vote for no puddle on the library floor.”
“I second that,” noted Oz, raising his hand.
“Motioned carried,” stated Willow. “Hug!”
___________________________________
“I’m really not going to stay,” Buffy explained to Xander as he walked her home. “Just here to drop off Willow.”
Xander nodded, his hands in his pockets. “Look, Buffy. I know that things haven’t been great for you since Spike came back, well since he turned you into his undead bride, but you have people that care about you here too. Maybe school isn’t for you, but your friends missed you, a lot. Amy still goes on about how if you hadn’t saved her she would have been stuck a rat forever.”
Buffy giggled.
“I just don’t want you to go away and never come back. I want you around,” concluded Xander.
“Awww, Xander!” cooed Buffy, wrapping her arms around him in a hug. “But I can’t stay. I have to be with Spike.”
“Bride of the Undead arise!” cackled Xander.
“Funny Xan, funny.”
They stopped in front of her mother’s house, both shuffling from foot to foot.
“Well this is where we say till tomorrow!” said Xander. “Giles called her to let her know you were on your way.”
“Great,” said Buffy bitterly. “So that means no running away. I’m good at that.”
“The bestest. See you tomorrow?”
Buffy nodded and watched him travel down the street away from her, leaving the vampire standing in front of her mom’s yard. Buffy exhaled a stagnant breath and walked slowly up to the house. Gingerly she knocked on the door.
“Buffy?” questioned her mother, as she opened the door. “Oh Buffy! I’m so sorry! I would never tied you to a stake and tried to light you on fire if I had been in my right mind!” Joyce wrapped her arms around her daughter and squeezed.
Buffy stood there like a post. It was one thing to have your mother hug you, quite another to be spontaneously attacked with a hug after running away again after your mother tried to light you on fire.
Joyce pulled back from the hug. “Come in! Do you want blood or regular food or maybe just some hot chocolate? “ sputtered Joyce.
“Hot chocolate will be fine mom,” Buffy responded following her mother into the kitchen.
“Is Spike in Sunnydale with you? I should invite him over to apologise to him too. No doubt he did not like the whole lighting you on fire thing. Did I mention that I’m sorry?”
Buffy giggled softly. “You did mom. And it’s fine, I’m over it. Much worse things have happened to me when I was alive. Spike’s in LA still. I’m not staying, mom. I’m going back to LA as soon as I know that Willow’s ok.”
“Something happened to Willow?” asked Joyce concerned.
“Faith tried to kill her. Faith is all tied up girl in the library. If Willow had died...”
“Oh Buffy,” sighed Joyce reaching out to clasp her daughter’s hand. “I know how important Willow is to you. But I know even if you didn’t have her always with you, you’d still be ok,” observed her mom, with a twinkle in her eye.
“You didn’t just talk to Giles did you?” asked Buffy.
Joyce sighed. “No, I talked to Willow too. Gave me the Willow, not placing blame version of the last two weeks. I can read between the lines and the oddly exclaimed sentences though. You took her, didn’t you?”
Buffy looked down at her hand that her mother held. “I did. I didn’t mean for her to get hurt.”
“She’s not a vampire, Buffy. She can’t live like you seem to want to now. I’d like to say that her parents missed her, but you know them, barely pay attention to her when she is here.”
“At the time, I needed her. I still do, a little bit. But I won’t be taking her back with me. I need to work without the safety net.”
Joyce nodded in understanding.
“I’m glad you came back Buffy. Even if it is only for a short visit. “ Joyce leaned forward to hug her daughter. “I love you Buffy. I may not like the vampire thing, but it’s what you are.”
Buffy sighed. “No, it’s past time for me to accept the reality of my choice.”
“Your choice?” asked Joyce her voice bordering on hysteria. “I thought you said that it happened when you were on patrol, that a vampire got the better of you? Are you saying that you chose to be a vampire...that Spike did this to you?”
Buffy looked at her mom with wide eyes and internally cursed her word choice. There was no point about lying about it now.
“Yes, I chose this. Maybe a big mistake, but it was mine to make. I love Spike. I want to be with him forever. This,” she pointed at the bite mark on her neck, “makes it so.”
“You let him kill you...”
“Yes, I did. And lately, not so sorry about it.”
“Drusilla’s left?”
“Yes, and Spike and I are happy.”
“What if she comes back? Will you be miserable again? Will you be running back home to your mother when things don’t work out?” said Joyce bitterly.
“Well not if you yell at me!” spat Buffy. “Look I came here tonight, to say hello, and sorry that I left again without telling you I was leaving. I’ll just go get my stuff out of my room. You can turn it into your home gym or something.”
“Buffy, that’s not what I want!” protested her mother.
“Then what do you want mom? Cause I’m just a little bit confused here.”
“I want my little girl back!” cried Joyce, holding her tears back for the time being.
“I grew up,” said Buffy factually as she headed up to her room.
___________________________________
As Buffy carried a sole box down Revello Drive and back towards the school to get the Desoto she realised that she hadn’t really planned the whole move out of her mom’s house very well. She had far too much stuff to move by herself, especially since she walked to her mom’s house instead of driving.
She dropped the box into the trunk of the Desoto and unlocked the driver side door. She was about to get in when a familiar voice interrupted her thoughts.
“Elizabeth, Childe of William the Bloody!” greeted Anya from across the parking lot.
“Anya, friend of Cordelia,” responded Buffy.
“Hey,” said Anya as she came to rest in front of the vampire. “Do you know a witch that I could butter up? And not have to pay currency to for doing a spell? ‘Cause this whole mortal existence in this very capitalistic country is very monetarily based. I lack currency.”
“Ok,” noted Buffy, thinking that this was random and odd. “Umm, how about Willow, or Amy. Both witches and they probably won’t charge you for the spell.”
Anya nodded. “Ok, great. Will I see you at school tomorrow?”
“Maybe, I haven’t decided yet. I need to clean out my locker at the very least.”
“You’re dropping out?”
“I should have as soon as I started walking around without a heartbeat,” Buffy explained sadly. “Hey where do you live?” she asked out of the blue curious.
“I have an apartment, it’s sucking up all the cash I had hoarded away over the centuries.”
“Huh, well I have a house. No one is living in it, you wanna be like my house keeper slash sometimes roommate. Of course, if we ever officially move back here there’d probably be minions there too.”
“That the mansion on Crawford street?” asked Anya.
Buffy nodded.
“Ok, I’ll agree. I’m not paying to clean it up though. Those minions didn’t take very good care of it, before Spike dusted them all.”
“Cleaning, right. Things to do tomorrow,” observed Buffy. “See you tomorrow at school?”
Anya nodded with a happier look on her face.
Buffy pulled away in the big black car leaving Anya in the parking lot. The former vengeance demon giggled. She knew that even if she did get her pendant back there was no way she was going to be in her boss’ good books for quite some time.
Staying in that big house would certainly help her out with accommodation issues, demon or not.
Anya walked off in the direction of her apartment with a happy tune.
___________________________________
Buffy walked up through the basement of the school just as the first bell rang. The hallways were full of scurrying students eager to get to class. She noticed the looks that a few of them had been giving her as she walked through the halls on her way to the library.
What kind of excuse did Xander make up for me?
“Wow, Buffy!” came Cordelia Chase’s voice from behind her. “You’ve never looked more, dead.”
“Why thank you Cordelia,” countered Buffy. “It’s a look I’ve been working on ever so hard.”
“Ya, well I thought I’d let you know that you haven’t made any friends by letting Xander tell everyone that you and Willow went to England for two weeks. I don’t care if the Watcher’s Council decided you don’t need school anymore.”
Buffy’s eyes widened with comprehension. She had thought that Cordelia had been aware of the vampiness. “Huh, well some of us just have that hidden specialness that some people never achieve. But thanks Cordelia, cause I was really wondering if you were still in the loop since Xander moved on to better things.”
Buffy walked on, leaving the cheerleader stunned in the hallway.
ok, new plan. Need to get Xander set up with someone. Wonder if Anya’s seeing anyone.
___________________________________
Buffy stepped into the Library to find Giles coming out of his office, which suspiciously had the blinds closed.
“Faith in there?” Buffy asked.
Giles nodded. “She seems to be repentant for staking Willow. However she is quite violently resolved to do away with you Buffy and your mate. Is...is the entire wet works squad dead?” Giles asked, removing his glasses and polishing them vigorously.
“Yes. They are. They attacked, in the middle of the day. What did they think was going to happen? Spike, Willow and I were playing poker!”
Giles put his glasses back on. “Yes, well it is the policy of the Council to put an end to Slayers that have allowed themselves to be turned.”
“This has happened before?”
“Not in this way of course,” started Giles, only to pause when Buffy gave him a look. “Your mother phoned me last night. I trust you found shelter for the time being?”
“Crawford Street mansion.”
Giles nodded. “Very well. You must be made aware that they won’t stop coming after you and Spike until you are both dusted.”
“’Cause their first attempt was so well thought out and scary!” Buffy said sarcastically.
The library doors swung open revealing Principal Snyder in all his horribleness.
“Summers! Shouldn’t you be in class?”
___________________________________
tbc...
Troll man and Willowy goodness
Disclaimer: Joss made ‘em, I’m just playing.
Author’s note: Some Dialogue from ‘Dopplegangland.’ Beta’d by the excellent Bloodytearsoflife.
___________________________________
Chapter 18: Troll man and Willowy goodness
Buffy stared at Principal Snyder, stunned for a moment as the little Troll man walked towards her.
“Are you suddenly deaf? Class. Be there, now.“ he ordered.
With a shocked look at Giles Buffy headed out of the library and towards her first period class unsure as to why she was walking to a class that she was certain that she was never going to return to.
Buffy entered the class and sat at her desk, while the other students eyed her with varying degrees of contempt or fear. There was one friendly face a few desks away. Amy Madison was smiling at her happily, like her only friend in the world had returned. Giving Amy a smile back, Buffy turned her attention to what the teacher had been droning on about.
___________________________________
Buffy stood up as the bell rung, glad to be free again. She was still perplexed as to why she’d even gone to class after Snyder told her to.
“Buffy?” came Amy’s voice from behind her.
Buffy turned to see the witch behind her, hugging her books tightly and looking very nervous. The students around them scurried out of the room, as if they were afraid to be in the same room with the two girls. Buffy raised an eyebrow as people pushed past her.
“They’ve been like that since MOO,” explained Amy. “Anyone whose got an iota of supernatural powers are picked on, bullied. Sunnydale High isn’t as fun as it once was, if you catch my drift.”
“Drifting on the same raft here. Why?”
Amy shrugged her shoulders. “I’m glad you are back though. It’s been a nasty two weeks. You made things better here.”
Buffy smiled at the witch.
“Willow said that you aren’t staying, is that true?” Amy continued. “Please stay.”
“I don’t belong here anymore,” admitted Buffy. “I’m not a student type. I’m a creature of the night type.”
Amy nodded in understanding. “Most of the student population is afraid of you anyway.”
Amy and Buffy parted ways in front of Buffy’s locker. With a sigh Buffy opened the metal door and looked at the things she had to pack up. Around her students were rushing by to get to the second class of the day. She watched them for a moment before turning back to her locker and putting things into the bag she carried with her.
“Summers!” barked Principal Snyder behind her. “Have you got a problem with not getting to class on time?”
Buffy turned to face her principal, this time ready for whatever he was going to yell at her. She was dropping out whether he liked it or not.
“Are you stalking me?” she asked.
“I’m the Principal, these halls are my own personal police state. The mayor wouldn’t like his new favourite Sunnydale High student to fail Chemistry.”
Buffy had classic ‘huh?’ face. “The Mayor? Huh? This is the colour of confusion.”
“It’s got me all perplexed about it too. Get. To. Class.”
Buffy stood and stared at Snyder for a moment.
“Now!” he bellowed.
Buffy slammed her locker door and took off to class.
___________________________________
Buffy plopped down in Chemistry beside Willow, earning her a confused look from her friend.
“I thought you were leaving?” asked the witch.
“I thought so too, but every time I get close to packing up, Synder shows up. It’s like he knows what I’m doing and he’s been told to keep me here. He said that I’m the Mayor’s favourite student. How majorly weird is that?”
“Very. Your grades aren’t the greatest. How come you are the favourite?” whined Willow.
“Hey! I didn’t ask for this. I’ll gladly give up the fame, glory and stalkage. I just wish I knew why. Maybe it’s cause I’m all with the fangs? Do you think he knows?”
“Buffy, everyone knows,” interjected Cordelia.
Buffy turned to face Cordelia Chase with a sneer. “Just exactly what do you think you know Cordelia?”
“That you’re a... grr arrgh,” said Cordelia making the motion of claws with her fingers.
“That’s helpful,” muttered Willow.
“It’s true! And now I must stop talking to you or my reputation that wasn’t completely marred by the momentary lapse of judgement by dating Xander Harris will be ruined.”
Buffy rolled her eyes at Cordelia and turned back to Willow.
“So when are you leaving?” asked Willow. “Don’t leave without saying good bye, ‘k? I’m meeting Anya, you know, Cordelia’s friend for a spell later. But after, I’m all with the extended goodbye with hugs and stuff.”
“Cool. Anya’s taking up residence in the former den of the blood sucking fiends. I’ve got to hire some cleaners and pack up the rest of my stuff into the Desoto before I take off.”
“Why is Anya living in the mansion?” asked Willow perplexed. “Shouldn’t she be living with her parents?”
“Oh, Wills, Anya’s a former demon.”
“What!” squeaked Willow drawing the attention of the other people in the class and the teacher. She blushes and offered a weak smile to them before they turned back around.
“Relax! She’s not a flesh eater or anything, I don’t think. I like her. She’s nice, in a kooky way.”
“Great! Now I’m worried. I’ll screw up the spell!”
___________________________________
Buffy looked up from cleaning the bathroom that had been unused in the Crawford Street mansion to hear a frantic knock on the front door. Throwing her sponge down, Buffy headed to the door to see Xander huffing and puffing, like he had run the entire way there.
“Willow...turned...vampire...come, please,” he sputtered.
“No!” cried Buffy, hoping that she had understood her friend.
“I saw her at the Bronze. She’s all vampy, and wearing leather.”
“Right, cause wearing leather always means evil.”
“Will you come?” asked Xander.
Buffy nodded. “Cleaning is going to have to wait.”
___________________________________
Buffy walked through the library doors to find a worried Giles trying to calm down a loud Faith.
“So you finally took off the gag huh? Interesting choice Giles,” commented Buffy.
“I couldn’t tell when she had to use the facilities and it made it difficult to feed her,” observed Giles.
Buffy nodded. “Willow? Vampy?” she asked trying to get Giles to understand the purpose of her visit.
“We are hoping that if she is, you can take her under your wing...”
“And make with the non evil. Gotcha,” Buffy concurred.
The idea that Willow was a vamp somewhere in Sunnydale made her mad. Willow was hers, she’d marked her. She was hers.
“I’ll find Willow and find the vamp that took my Willow,” muttered Buffy angrily turning away from her watcher and towards the door of the library.
“Buffy?” called out Giles. “Be careful,” he added as he attempted to ignore Faith’s mutterings.
___________________________________
Buffy walked out into the night, her senses extended to feel out other vampires. The vampire population of Sunnydale had had a drastic turn for the worse since Spike had staked all the minions before they had left for LA; but with one Slayer turned and in LA and the other tied up in her watcher’s office and under constant guard until Giles decided what to do with her, the vampire numbers had begun to rise once again.
Nevertheless, Buffy wasn’t surprised that she ran into quite a few vampires as she walked the streets of Sunnydale. She didn’t actually run into Willow though, vampy or other wise.
Her senses being so extended, she enjoyed the sensation of being able to feel what Spike was feeling. He was missing her, true, but he was also dealing with a very obstinate something or other, and it was pissing him off. There was only so much she could get from the feelings she felt from her mate.
She sent him a couple of dirty thoughts as a distraction as she continued on her way down the street and towards the one place that she thought she might find a vampy Willow. The Bronze.
What she did find at the Bronze was not vampy Willow, but minions of a vampy Willow. That surprised her. There was no way that her Willow would have been able to acquire this many minions if she had just been turned. Something was up and she wasn’t liking it at all.
Oz was on stage, as the minions tried to subdued the crowd at the Bronze. Buffy gave the werewolf a smile as she advanced on the lead minion.
“Hey,” Buffy greeted, the minions. “So where’s your mistress?” asked Buffy. “I have some business to talk to her about.”
The lead minion scoffed. “Why the fuck should I tell you?” he asked. “You are just a fledge. You want into the clan?” he asked with a leer, his eyes raking over her body. Instinctively, Buffy felt Spike get jealous.
“Sadly, no. You see, I have this thing where I am the mistress of this town and this is my territory. I have a bone to pick with her. And I don’t deal with incompetent minions.”
The minion growled and lunged at Buffy, which she was ready for. She sidestepped the vampire and threw him to the wall. “Sunnydale is my town,” she added pulling a stake out of her jacket and plunging it into his back. “Anyone else want to enter into the debate?” she asked looking at the other vampires in the room. A few started to advance believing that they still had the advantage.
Buffy sighed sadly at their foolishness.
“You don’t seem to be getting it,” she continued, blocking their advance and the blows they rained down on her. “I’m not just some fledge.” Buffy staked another vamp and turned towards another who was advancing.
“I’m Elizabeth, Childe of Spike,” she said, her voice marred by the panting of her exertions fighting.
Suddenly, the fighting broke off. The minions parted and in walked Willow, clad in leather and looking rather nervous.
Buffy tried to keep her smiles to herself. This was her Willow. She hadn’t been turned, and Buffy’s mark still held true on Willow’s neck.
She could only think that Giles had sent Willow into the den of vamps to help get the civilians out, unharmed. Buffy didn’t really like that plan. She liked the fighting more. If Buffy could sense that Willow wasn’t vampy than the other vamps could sense it too. Willow, clearly nervous waved to the minions.
“Hi. I'm back,” she began.
Buffy stepped forward, a look of concern planted on her face. Suddenly, Buffy noticed Anya by her side, as if she had been waiting for Willow to show up.
“Did you find the girl?” asked one of the remaining minions.
“Yep. I did,” responded Willow, trying to sound all commanding.
Buffy turned to her ex demon houseguest, Anya, as she spoke. “Where is she?”
“I killed her,” Willow answered, a false bravery in her voice, as Buffy smelled the fear that was issuing off of her in waves. “And sucked her blood, as we vampires do.”
Buffy stifled a laugh. Willow had spent enough time with vampires to be able to fool a fledge or a minion, but there was no way that Willow was fooling her. Willow turned to the doorman.
“You know, I think maybe I heard something out there. Why don't you go check?” she half suggested, half ordered. With a smile Buffy watched the minion trudge outside only to hear the sound of stakeage in the alley. Buffy assumed that Giles and Xander were out there.
The doorman gone, Anya stepped up to Willow, her arms crossed. “H-how could you kill her? She was our best shot at getting your world back.”
Buffy raised an eyebrow curious as to what Anya meant. Whatever spell it was that Anya and Willow had done, it had obviously backfired and Buffy wanted to know how. Her first priority was of course the poor vulnerable civilians in the Bronze. And now Buffy was getting hungry.
Willow straightened her posture and walked past the former demon with purpose, getting cocky in her new situation. “I don't like that you dare question me. Maybe I'll have my minions take you out back and kill you horribly.”
Buffy resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Willow playing the part of a Master Vamp? She was taking it over the top now.
Anya followed Willow on to the dance floor, drawing the attention of the hostages and the remaining minions. Lifting her arms in annoyance, Anya started to rant. “Vampires. Always thinking with your teeth.”
“She bothered me. She's so weak and accommodating. She's always letting people walk all over her,” Willow turned to face the other girl, “and then she gets cranky with her friends for no reason. I just couldn't let her live.”
The remaining minions in the room started to shuffle their feet and the hostages started to make whimpering noises. Buffy felt that this situation was going to get worse a lot sooner than Willow thought it was going to.
“Well, boss, since that plan is out, why don't we get with the killing?” intoned a minion.
“I don't know if I feel like killing anymore,” answered Willow, losing some of her courage.
The expression on Anya’s face was priceless: in fact Buffy wished she had a camera, ‘cause she so wanted to taunt her houseguest with that expression for years to come. The whole room watched Willow circumnavigate the room pausing to run her fingers through some girl’s hair.
“I-it would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Where's the fun?” continued Willow.
“With all due respect, boss, the fun would be the eating,” piped up a minion.
Suddenly Willow paused, her expression brightened and she launched into a new topic as if it held new fascination. “Maybe we should let everyone go, and give them a thirty second head start.”
Buffy watched the look of realisation hit Anya’s face.
“Wait a minute...” started Anya.
Willow frowned. “No! I like my plan.”
Anya snickered. “Oh, nice try.”
“Okay,” interrupted Willow, her tone more desperate now than anything else. “Let's get to the killing. Why don't we start with her?” Willow indicated Anya.
“Why don't we start with you?” started Anya annoyed. “If she's a vampire, then I'm the creature from the black lagoon. I'm just so tired of being around human beings and all their baggage. I-I don't care if I ever get my powers back. I think he should eat you.” Anya pointed to a minion.
“This girl has a history of mental problems dating back to early childhood,” explained Willow to the crowd, desperate to keep the already advancing minions off her position. “I'm a blood-sucking fiend! Look at my outfit!”
The lead minion shook his head as if ashamed of himself. “ A human. I should have smelled it right away.”
“Ya, what’s up with that?” asked Anya annoyed.
Buffy rolled her eyes. “God! You are all morons!“ she exclaimed, turning her annoyance to the major parties concerned. “You!“ she turned to the minion closest to her. “Of course she’s human, yes you should have smelled it. Or how about the whole heart beating thing? ‘Cause that wasn’t obvious at all!“ She reached out and staked him. “Or how about why you aren’t munching on Anya here? Since when do you take orders or even suggestions from former demons that are now very clearly human?“ Buffy struck out again, dusting another minion.
The two minions left moved back from Buffy as she advanced on their position.
“And Willow, she’s mine. Even fledges should know that I’ve marked her. Mine! Do you get it?“ Buffy leapt through the air and tackled the minions now fleeing the scene and staked them. “That’s for thinking you could eat someone that’s mine!“ Buffy dusted off her hands and turned to the other two people involved in this fiasco.
“You are very lucky that they fell for your improv as long as they did,“ she chastised Willow. “And just what the hell did you bring back with your spell?“ Buffy questioned Anya.
The doors flew open as the crowd fled the scene. Against the flow of the mob entered Giles and Xander, brandishing stakes.
“Buffy, good you are here,” started Giles. “We have a rather interesting problem and we should get back to the library...”
The whole group looked up to see another Willow, clad in a fuzzy pink sweater and purple skirt step onto the stage.
“I don’t think we need to go back to the library, G man,” started Xander.
Buffy looked up at the vampire on the stage, the Willow vampire, letting her mouth hang open.
_______________________
tbc...
Author’s note: Some Dialogue from ‘Dopplegangland.’ Beta’d by the excellent Bloodytearsoflife.
___________________________________
Chapter 18: Troll man and Willowy goodness
Buffy stared at Principal Snyder, stunned for a moment as the little Troll man walked towards her.
“Are you suddenly deaf? Class. Be there, now.“ he ordered.
With a shocked look at Giles Buffy headed out of the library and towards her first period class unsure as to why she was walking to a class that she was certain that she was never going to return to.
Buffy entered the class and sat at her desk, while the other students eyed her with varying degrees of contempt or fear. There was one friendly face a few desks away. Amy Madison was smiling at her happily, like her only friend in the world had returned. Giving Amy a smile back, Buffy turned her attention to what the teacher had been droning on about.
___________________________________
Buffy stood up as the bell rung, glad to be free again. She was still perplexed as to why she’d even gone to class after Snyder told her to.
“Buffy?” came Amy’s voice from behind her.
Buffy turned to see the witch behind her, hugging her books tightly and looking very nervous. The students around them scurried out of the room, as if they were afraid to be in the same room with the two girls. Buffy raised an eyebrow as people pushed past her.
“They’ve been like that since MOO,” explained Amy. “Anyone whose got an iota of supernatural powers are picked on, bullied. Sunnydale High isn’t as fun as it once was, if you catch my drift.”
“Drifting on the same raft here. Why?”
Amy shrugged her shoulders. “I’m glad you are back though. It’s been a nasty two weeks. You made things better here.”
Buffy smiled at the witch.
“Willow said that you aren’t staying, is that true?” Amy continued. “Please stay.”
“I don’t belong here anymore,” admitted Buffy. “I’m not a student type. I’m a creature of the night type.”
Amy nodded in understanding. “Most of the student population is afraid of you anyway.”
Amy and Buffy parted ways in front of Buffy’s locker. With a sigh Buffy opened the metal door and looked at the things she had to pack up. Around her students were rushing by to get to the second class of the day. She watched them for a moment before turning back to her locker and putting things into the bag she carried with her.
“Summers!” barked Principal Snyder behind her. “Have you got a problem with not getting to class on time?”
Buffy turned to face her principal, this time ready for whatever he was going to yell at her. She was dropping out whether he liked it or not.
“Are you stalking me?” she asked.
“I’m the Principal, these halls are my own personal police state. The mayor wouldn’t like his new favourite Sunnydale High student to fail Chemistry.”
Buffy had classic ‘huh?’ face. “The Mayor? Huh? This is the colour of confusion.”
“It’s got me all perplexed about it too. Get. To. Class.”
Buffy stood and stared at Snyder for a moment.
“Now!” he bellowed.
Buffy slammed her locker door and took off to class.
___________________________________
Buffy plopped down in Chemistry beside Willow, earning her a confused look from her friend.
“I thought you were leaving?” asked the witch.
“I thought so too, but every time I get close to packing up, Synder shows up. It’s like he knows what I’m doing and he’s been told to keep me here. He said that I’m the Mayor’s favourite student. How majorly weird is that?”
“Very. Your grades aren’t the greatest. How come you are the favourite?” whined Willow.
“Hey! I didn’t ask for this. I’ll gladly give up the fame, glory and stalkage. I just wish I knew why. Maybe it’s cause I’m all with the fangs? Do you think he knows?”
“Buffy, everyone knows,” interjected Cordelia.
Buffy turned to face Cordelia Chase with a sneer. “Just exactly what do you think you know Cordelia?”
“That you’re a... grr arrgh,” said Cordelia making the motion of claws with her fingers.
“That’s helpful,” muttered Willow.
“It’s true! And now I must stop talking to you or my reputation that wasn’t completely marred by the momentary lapse of judgement by dating Xander Harris will be ruined.”
Buffy rolled her eyes at Cordelia and turned back to Willow.
“So when are you leaving?” asked Willow. “Don’t leave without saying good bye, ‘k? I’m meeting Anya, you know, Cordelia’s friend for a spell later. But after, I’m all with the extended goodbye with hugs and stuff.”
“Cool. Anya’s taking up residence in the former den of the blood sucking fiends. I’ve got to hire some cleaners and pack up the rest of my stuff into the Desoto before I take off.”
“Why is Anya living in the mansion?” asked Willow perplexed. “Shouldn’t she be living with her parents?”
“Oh, Wills, Anya’s a former demon.”
“What!” squeaked Willow drawing the attention of the other people in the class and the teacher. She blushes and offered a weak smile to them before they turned back around.
“Relax! She’s not a flesh eater or anything, I don’t think. I like her. She’s nice, in a kooky way.”
“Great! Now I’m worried. I’ll screw up the spell!”
___________________________________
Buffy looked up from cleaning the bathroom that had been unused in the Crawford Street mansion to hear a frantic knock on the front door. Throwing her sponge down, Buffy headed to the door to see Xander huffing and puffing, like he had run the entire way there.
“Willow...turned...vampire...come, please,” he sputtered.
“No!” cried Buffy, hoping that she had understood her friend.
“I saw her at the Bronze. She’s all vampy, and wearing leather.”
“Right, cause wearing leather always means evil.”
“Will you come?” asked Xander.
Buffy nodded. “Cleaning is going to have to wait.”
___________________________________
Buffy walked through the library doors to find a worried Giles trying to calm down a loud Faith.
“So you finally took off the gag huh? Interesting choice Giles,” commented Buffy.
“I couldn’t tell when she had to use the facilities and it made it difficult to feed her,” observed Giles.
Buffy nodded. “Willow? Vampy?” she asked trying to get Giles to understand the purpose of her visit.
“We are hoping that if she is, you can take her under your wing...”
“And make with the non evil. Gotcha,” Buffy concurred.
The idea that Willow was a vamp somewhere in Sunnydale made her mad. Willow was hers, she’d marked her. She was hers.
“I’ll find Willow and find the vamp that took my Willow,” muttered Buffy angrily turning away from her watcher and towards the door of the library.
“Buffy?” called out Giles. “Be careful,” he added as he attempted to ignore Faith’s mutterings.
___________________________________
Buffy walked out into the night, her senses extended to feel out other vampires. The vampire population of Sunnydale had had a drastic turn for the worse since Spike had staked all the minions before they had left for LA; but with one Slayer turned and in LA and the other tied up in her watcher’s office and under constant guard until Giles decided what to do with her, the vampire numbers had begun to rise once again.
Nevertheless, Buffy wasn’t surprised that she ran into quite a few vampires as she walked the streets of Sunnydale. She didn’t actually run into Willow though, vampy or other wise.
Her senses being so extended, she enjoyed the sensation of being able to feel what Spike was feeling. He was missing her, true, but he was also dealing with a very obstinate something or other, and it was pissing him off. There was only so much she could get from the feelings she felt from her mate.
She sent him a couple of dirty thoughts as a distraction as she continued on her way down the street and towards the one place that she thought she might find a vampy Willow. The Bronze.
What she did find at the Bronze was not vampy Willow, but minions of a vampy Willow. That surprised her. There was no way that her Willow would have been able to acquire this many minions if she had just been turned. Something was up and she wasn’t liking it at all.
Oz was on stage, as the minions tried to subdued the crowd at the Bronze. Buffy gave the werewolf a smile as she advanced on the lead minion.
“Hey,” Buffy greeted, the minions. “So where’s your mistress?” asked Buffy. “I have some business to talk to her about.”
The lead minion scoffed. “Why the fuck should I tell you?” he asked. “You are just a fledge. You want into the clan?” he asked with a leer, his eyes raking over her body. Instinctively, Buffy felt Spike get jealous.
“Sadly, no. You see, I have this thing where I am the mistress of this town and this is my territory. I have a bone to pick with her. And I don’t deal with incompetent minions.”
The minion growled and lunged at Buffy, which she was ready for. She sidestepped the vampire and threw him to the wall. “Sunnydale is my town,” she added pulling a stake out of her jacket and plunging it into his back. “Anyone else want to enter into the debate?” she asked looking at the other vampires in the room. A few started to advance believing that they still had the advantage.
Buffy sighed sadly at their foolishness.
“You don’t seem to be getting it,” she continued, blocking their advance and the blows they rained down on her. “I’m not just some fledge.” Buffy staked another vamp and turned towards another who was advancing.
“I’m Elizabeth, Childe of Spike,” she said, her voice marred by the panting of her exertions fighting.
Suddenly, the fighting broke off. The minions parted and in walked Willow, clad in leather and looking rather nervous.
Buffy tried to keep her smiles to herself. This was her Willow. She hadn’t been turned, and Buffy’s mark still held true on Willow’s neck.
She could only think that Giles had sent Willow into the den of vamps to help get the civilians out, unharmed. Buffy didn’t really like that plan. She liked the fighting more. If Buffy could sense that Willow wasn’t vampy than the other vamps could sense it too. Willow, clearly nervous waved to the minions.
“Hi. I'm back,” she began.
Buffy stepped forward, a look of concern planted on her face. Suddenly, Buffy noticed Anya by her side, as if she had been waiting for Willow to show up.
“Did you find the girl?” asked one of the remaining minions.
“Yep. I did,” responded Willow, trying to sound all commanding.
Buffy turned to her ex demon houseguest, Anya, as she spoke. “Where is she?”
“I killed her,” Willow answered, a false bravery in her voice, as Buffy smelled the fear that was issuing off of her in waves. “And sucked her blood, as we vampires do.”
Buffy stifled a laugh. Willow had spent enough time with vampires to be able to fool a fledge or a minion, but there was no way that Willow was fooling her. Willow turned to the doorman.
“You know, I think maybe I heard something out there. Why don't you go check?” she half suggested, half ordered. With a smile Buffy watched the minion trudge outside only to hear the sound of stakeage in the alley. Buffy assumed that Giles and Xander were out there.
The doorman gone, Anya stepped up to Willow, her arms crossed. “H-how could you kill her? She was our best shot at getting your world back.”
Buffy raised an eyebrow curious as to what Anya meant. Whatever spell it was that Anya and Willow had done, it had obviously backfired and Buffy wanted to know how. Her first priority was of course the poor vulnerable civilians in the Bronze. And now Buffy was getting hungry.
Willow straightened her posture and walked past the former demon with purpose, getting cocky in her new situation. “I don't like that you dare question me. Maybe I'll have my minions take you out back and kill you horribly.”
Buffy resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Willow playing the part of a Master Vamp? She was taking it over the top now.
Anya followed Willow on to the dance floor, drawing the attention of the hostages and the remaining minions. Lifting her arms in annoyance, Anya started to rant. “Vampires. Always thinking with your teeth.”
“She bothered me. She's so weak and accommodating. She's always letting people walk all over her,” Willow turned to face the other girl, “and then she gets cranky with her friends for no reason. I just couldn't let her live.”
The remaining minions in the room started to shuffle their feet and the hostages started to make whimpering noises. Buffy felt that this situation was going to get worse a lot sooner than Willow thought it was going to.
“Well, boss, since that plan is out, why don't we get with the killing?” intoned a minion.
“I don't know if I feel like killing anymore,” answered Willow, losing some of her courage.
The expression on Anya’s face was priceless: in fact Buffy wished she had a camera, ‘cause she so wanted to taunt her houseguest with that expression for years to come. The whole room watched Willow circumnavigate the room pausing to run her fingers through some girl’s hair.
“I-it would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Where's the fun?” continued Willow.
“With all due respect, boss, the fun would be the eating,” piped up a minion.
Suddenly Willow paused, her expression brightened and she launched into a new topic as if it held new fascination. “Maybe we should let everyone go, and give them a thirty second head start.”
Buffy watched the look of realisation hit Anya’s face.
“Wait a minute...” started Anya.
Willow frowned. “No! I like my plan.”
Anya snickered. “Oh, nice try.”
“Okay,” interrupted Willow, her tone more desperate now than anything else. “Let's get to the killing. Why don't we start with her?” Willow indicated Anya.
“Why don't we start with you?” started Anya annoyed. “If she's a vampire, then I'm the creature from the black lagoon. I'm just so tired of being around human beings and all their baggage. I-I don't care if I ever get my powers back. I think he should eat you.” Anya pointed to a minion.
“This girl has a history of mental problems dating back to early childhood,” explained Willow to the crowd, desperate to keep the already advancing minions off her position. “I'm a blood-sucking fiend! Look at my outfit!”
The lead minion shook his head as if ashamed of himself. “ A human. I should have smelled it right away.”
“Ya, what’s up with that?” asked Anya annoyed.
Buffy rolled her eyes. “God! You are all morons!“ she exclaimed, turning her annoyance to the major parties concerned. “You!“ she turned to the minion closest to her. “Of course she’s human, yes you should have smelled it. Or how about the whole heart beating thing? ‘Cause that wasn’t obvious at all!“ She reached out and staked him. “Or how about why you aren’t munching on Anya here? Since when do you take orders or even suggestions from former demons that are now very clearly human?“ Buffy struck out again, dusting another minion.
The two minions left moved back from Buffy as she advanced on their position.
“And Willow, she’s mine. Even fledges should know that I’ve marked her. Mine! Do you get it?“ Buffy leapt through the air and tackled the minions now fleeing the scene and staked them. “That’s for thinking you could eat someone that’s mine!“ Buffy dusted off her hands and turned to the other two people involved in this fiasco.
“You are very lucky that they fell for your improv as long as they did,“ she chastised Willow. “And just what the hell did you bring back with your spell?“ Buffy questioned Anya.
The doors flew open as the crowd fled the scene. Against the flow of the mob entered Giles and Xander, brandishing stakes.
“Buffy, good you are here,” started Giles. “We have a rather interesting problem and we should get back to the library...”
The whole group looked up to see another Willow, clad in a fuzzy pink sweater and purple skirt step onto the stage.
“I don’t think we need to go back to the library, G man,” started Xander.
Buffy looked up at the vampire on the stage, the Willow vampire, letting her mouth hang open.
_______________________
tbc...
Reality
Disclaimer: Not mine, ‘k?
Author’s Note: Some dialogue taken from “Dopplegangland” Beta’d by the wonderful Bloodytearsoflife
_______________________
Chapter 19: Reality
Buffy looked at Vampire Willow with awe. Willow made a pretty good looking vampire, it was true. Vamp!Willow’s face was already sporting her fangs and bumpies as she strutted onto the stage. Deftly, she grabbed Oz and smashed him against a fellow band mate.
“No more snuggles?” asked the real Willow to Buffy’s right.
Buffy nodded watching the vampire version of her best friend cross the stage. The two vampire women locked eyes.
“What the hell are you doing?” asked Vamp!Willow. “Grab her!”
Buffy put her hands on her hips. “You seem to think I take orders from you,” spat Buffy. “Watch me as I prove you wrong.”
Willow looked from her friend to the her vampire self.
“You are a fledge,” intoned Vamp!Willow. “You will do as I say, or you will die, painfully.”
“Ya,” started Buffy, her voice heavily laced with sarcasm. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. Sorry. Ten points for trying though.”
Vamp!Willow stepped up to Buffy with a frown. Willow stepped back out of the reach of her vamp self and away from the two vampiress’ who seemed to be marking territory.
“You are young,” continued Vamp!Willow. She sniffed. “And family. Childer. Who is your sire, Childe?”
Buffy stood just a little bit straighter. “William the Bloody,” Buffy said proudly.
Vamp! Willow circled Buffy slowly, assessing this new information. Unfortunately for Willow, as her vampire alter ego circled, she reached out and grabbed Willow’s arm.
A piercing scream from Willow filled the Bronze as Buffy rolled her eyes. Vamp!Willow held Willow, her neck exposed. Buffy smiled as she watched Vamp!Willow take a long lick of Willow’s neck, followed by a sniff.
“Awww,” Vamp!Willow moaned. “She’s marked.” The vampire’s eyes flashed. “You marked me!” raged Vamp!Willow, throwing Willow down.
“I let her do it,” offered Willow.
“What?” raged Vamp! Willow.
Her exclamation ended as Buffy hit her on the head with a chair.
_______________________
“I like her,” commented Buffy happily, as she, Giles, Willow, Xander, Anya, and Oz stared down at the unconscious and tied up Vamp!Willow.
They had brought her back to the factory, where Anya said she appeared in the other reality.
“She’s skanky,” observed Willow. “And so not like me at all! Look at what she wears!”
The collective group looked at Willow, who was still wearing her alter ego’s outfit.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t change clothes again?” asked Willow.
“No!” protested Buffy. “I think this look is very you!”
“What should we do with her though?” asked Xander. “She’s from another reality, where everything is opposite...Does that mean that I’m cool in her reality? I bet I’m cool,” he said with a goofy smile on his face.
“You were a vampire,” stated Anya.
“But a cool vampire right?” the boy asked.
“I believe the balance must be preserved,” note Giles. “She must go back from whence she came. I presume that you can perform the spell that can send her back?” he asked Anya.
“I can,” muttered the former Vengeance Demon. “I don’t want to.”
“Anya...” warned Buffy.
“Oh ok, fine,” started Anya, throwing her hands up into the air. “I’ll do what the vampire asks. Though I don’t know why it matters, a vampire is a vampire right?”
“Not true!” declared Willow in defence of her friend. “Buffy doesn’t snack on people!”
The vampire on the floor before them groaned, her eyes fluttering open.
“Then I suggest that we begin the spell to send her back,” continued Giles, beckoning Anya towards him.
“I’ll guard my Great Aunt here,” said Buffy pointing to the now awake Vamp!Willow.
“So, um, in your reality, I'm like this bad-ass vampire, huh? People afraid of me?” asked Xander of the captive. When Vamp!Willow rolled her eyes at him he started to giggle. “Oh, yeah. I'm bad.”
“I'm not sure about releasing this thing into the wild, Will. She’s not all full of the ‘humans are friends not snacks’ variety,” Buffy observed.
“I just can't kill her,” whined Willow.
“No. Me, neither,” admitted Buffy.
“I mean, I know she's not me. We have a big nothing in common, but... still,” continued Willow.
“There but for the grace of getting bit.”
“We send her back to her world, and she stands a chance. It's the way it should be anyway,” said Willow resolutely.
“Uh, we're about ready here,” stated Giles from the circle with Anya. “Don't you try any tricks now, dear,” he warned Anya.
“I don't need tricks,” she said in a pout. “When I get my powers back, you will all grovel before me.”
There was a collective eye rolling from the Willows and the vampires.
“Yes, uh, if you, uh, Willows,” started Giles. “Would like to, uh, complete the circle.
Willow turned to her vamp self. “Good luck. Try not to kill people.” And with that Willow hugged herself only to be put off by some naughty touching on the part of her vamp self. “Hands! Hands!”
Vamp!Willow gave a naughty smile before kneeling down in the circle.
Buffy looked on and a little part of her didn’t want Vamp! Willow to go. As the spell proceeded, the vamp and former Slayer thought she kinda liked the idea that one of her friends was a vamp too. ‘Course the evil part wasn’t good.
_______________________
The spell completed, the group returned to their somewhat normal lives. Anya went back to the mansion with a pout.
As Giles was about to leave the factory, Buffy pulled him aside.
“Where is Faith?” Buffy asked.
“Chained up in my bathroom,” answered the watcher.
Buffy tried to hide her amusement. “You can’t keep her tied up forever.”
“I realise that Buffy. I just don’t know how to...”
“Let her go Giles. I can handle myself,” Buffy assured him with a smile.
“If you think that’s best, Buffy.”
“She didn’t do anything but what she was trained to do. I think she’s been punished enough. She comes near me and mine again though, she’ll deal with me.”
“I’ll tell her that.”
“Do that.”
_______________________
Buffy settled into her bed at the mansion, thinking it was far too late to head to her mother’s house. It was lonely here without Spike.
As if on cue she felt his pull on her consciousness. He wanted her back. And he was hard and horny. The mental pictures he was sending her quickly got her aroused. He was remembering past encounters.
Her hand drifted to settle between her thighs as she sighed in anticipation of the flood of images and sensations that were going to envelop her.
She promised herself that tomorrow she was going back to him. Definitely tomorrow.
_______________________
Buffy rose from her bed in time for school the next morning, she had to say good bye to Willow, Xander and Giles, and make sure that Faith knew just what the sitch was if she decided to come after her and Spike again.
There was also the whole locker clean out thing.
Buffy walked down to the kitchen to get herself an early morning bag of blood to find Anya sitting at the new kitchen table, staring into a cup of tea.
“Morning,” Buffy muttered, heading to the fridge.
“Oh sure, act as if nothing happened. I’ll never get my pendant back. I’m stuck in this mortal coil until my body starts falling apart around me and I get all wrinkled and gross until my body just gives up cause I’m too old to carry on. I hate being mortal!”
Buffy looked up from the open fridge before her and shrugged. “Hey look on the bright side, there could be a giant big bad that’s coming to town that’ll eat you. You could go that way. Saves us from having to watch you decay around us. Mortals are gross. Smelly.” Buffy wrinkled her nose.
“But there is a power demon already here. The Ascension? Tell me you’ve heard of it?” patronised Anya.
Buffy looked at her friend with a curiously sceptical eye. “The who-huh?”
_______________________
“Giles? Ascension? What is it and how come I had to hear about it from Anya?” asked Buffy as she strode into the library an hour later.
Giles looked up from his perpetual book and squinted at his former charge. He closed his book hesitantly as if trying to formulate a response.
“Buffy, it was not too long ago that I was firm in my belief that you were an evil vampire and therefore must neither be apprised of the Slayer’s progress nor the happenings of the evil inhabiting this town. You had, if you will recall, moved your minions and your mate to LA.”
Buffy nodded. “Well, here now, fill me in,” she said sitting across from him at the library table.
“Uh, no,” came Faith’s voice from the stacks. “My town now, remember?” Faith stepped out from the stacks and walked down the steps towards Giles and Buffy. “You got vamped. Off the case. Go back to your vampire lover and let the Slayer deal with the baddies of this town.”
“Kudos to your new freedom, Faith,” started Buffy. “Don’t make me regret asking Giles to set you free.”
“You like to think that you have that much influence with him, you don’t. You are a vampire, that’s all. He knew it was time to let me go.”
Buffy stared back at Faith’s hating eyes and contemplated trying thrall out for the first time. It probably wouldn’t go over well in front of Giles. Still the fact that Faith of all people was giving her lip was getting her back up. Spike would never have let her do that kind of thing to him.
It was only then that Buffy realised that she was thinking like a vampire towards her childer and not like a Slayer to a fellow Slayer. It was so the time to leave Sunnydale.
Buffy rose from her chair and stepped towards Faith. She opened her mouth to tell the Slayer if she thought she could handle whatever this Ascension thing was, then fine, she’d just go get laid by her sex on legs mate.
Except then Willow burst into the Library, grinning and happy. And Buffy knew it wasn’t going to be as easy to tell them that she was going back to LA.
“Buffy!” gushed Willow, happy smile in place. “You’ll never guess what Snyder’s done to the cheerleading team!”
As Willow babbled on about the principal and his instance that all cheerleaders participate in the key club, fundraising for worthwhile causes instead of their own self interest, Buffy pondered just how she was going to say good bye to her best friend.
“You have unhappy face...” added Willow as she wound down from her babbling. “You are leaving, aren’t you? You can’t leave yet! We need you! Tell her Faith, we need her!”
Faith snorted.
Willow glared at the Slayer and Buffy swore that Willow’s eyes flashed for a moment.
“We need her, Faith,” intoned Willow, scarier than Buffy had ever seen Willow before.
“Whatever,” muttered Faith earning another glare from Willow.
The morning bell rung, forcing Faith and Willow to head to class.
“You coming?” Willow asked.
Buffy looked at Giles, then back at Willow.
“I guess,” Buffy said with a shrug.
_______________________
Buffy stared at the phone with trepidation. She sighed. She turned away from the phone, evil invention that was clearly staring at her, and paced a moment, before stopping in front of it and picking up the receiver.
And putting it down.
“Are you going to call him or not?” asked Anya annoyed, peering over her math homework. “’Cause if you aren’t, then go away. You are distracting.”
Buffy turned to look at the former demon with a glare. “Do you think it’s easy to phone the love of your unlife to tell him that you aren’t coming back to LA, until this year’s big bad is put down. Especially when he’s a past big bad...”
Anya dropped her pencil. “Enough! Phone him! Phone him now, before I have to listen to your excuses again.”
Buffy picked up the phone. She hated when Anya was right.
_______________________
tbc...
Author’s Note: Some dialogue taken from “Dopplegangland” Beta’d by the wonderful Bloodytearsoflife
_______________________
Chapter 19: Reality
Buffy looked at Vampire Willow with awe. Willow made a pretty good looking vampire, it was true. Vamp!Willow’s face was already sporting her fangs and bumpies as she strutted onto the stage. Deftly, she grabbed Oz and smashed him against a fellow band mate.
“No more snuggles?” asked the real Willow to Buffy’s right.
Buffy nodded watching the vampire version of her best friend cross the stage. The two vampire women locked eyes.
“What the hell are you doing?” asked Vamp!Willow. “Grab her!”
Buffy put her hands on her hips. “You seem to think I take orders from you,” spat Buffy. “Watch me as I prove you wrong.”
Willow looked from her friend to the her vampire self.
“You are a fledge,” intoned Vamp!Willow. “You will do as I say, or you will die, painfully.”
“Ya,” started Buffy, her voice heavily laced with sarcasm. “I don’t think that’s going to happen. Sorry. Ten points for trying though.”
Vamp!Willow stepped up to Buffy with a frown. Willow stepped back out of the reach of her vamp self and away from the two vampiress’ who seemed to be marking territory.
“You are young,” continued Vamp!Willow. She sniffed. “And family. Childer. Who is your sire, Childe?”
Buffy stood just a little bit straighter. “William the Bloody,” Buffy said proudly.
Vamp! Willow circled Buffy slowly, assessing this new information. Unfortunately for Willow, as her vampire alter ego circled, she reached out and grabbed Willow’s arm.
A piercing scream from Willow filled the Bronze as Buffy rolled her eyes. Vamp!Willow held Willow, her neck exposed. Buffy smiled as she watched Vamp!Willow take a long lick of Willow’s neck, followed by a sniff.
“Awww,” Vamp!Willow moaned. “She’s marked.” The vampire’s eyes flashed. “You marked me!” raged Vamp!Willow, throwing Willow down.
“I let her do it,” offered Willow.
“What?” raged Vamp! Willow.
Her exclamation ended as Buffy hit her on the head with a chair.
_______________________
“I like her,” commented Buffy happily, as she, Giles, Willow, Xander, Anya, and Oz stared down at the unconscious and tied up Vamp!Willow.
They had brought her back to the factory, where Anya said she appeared in the other reality.
“She’s skanky,” observed Willow. “And so not like me at all! Look at what she wears!”
The collective group looked at Willow, who was still wearing her alter ego’s outfit.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t change clothes again?” asked Willow.
“No!” protested Buffy. “I think this look is very you!”
“What should we do with her though?” asked Xander. “She’s from another reality, where everything is opposite...Does that mean that I’m cool in her reality? I bet I’m cool,” he said with a goofy smile on his face.
“You were a vampire,” stated Anya.
“But a cool vampire right?” the boy asked.
“I believe the balance must be preserved,” note Giles. “She must go back from whence she came. I presume that you can perform the spell that can send her back?” he asked Anya.
“I can,” muttered the former Vengeance Demon. “I don’t want to.”
“Anya...” warned Buffy.
“Oh ok, fine,” started Anya, throwing her hands up into the air. “I’ll do what the vampire asks. Though I don’t know why it matters, a vampire is a vampire right?”
“Not true!” declared Willow in defence of her friend. “Buffy doesn’t snack on people!”
The vampire on the floor before them groaned, her eyes fluttering open.
“Then I suggest that we begin the spell to send her back,” continued Giles, beckoning Anya towards him.
“I’ll guard my Great Aunt here,” said Buffy pointing to the now awake Vamp!Willow.
“So, um, in your reality, I'm like this bad-ass vampire, huh? People afraid of me?” asked Xander of the captive. When Vamp!Willow rolled her eyes at him he started to giggle. “Oh, yeah. I'm bad.”
“I'm not sure about releasing this thing into the wild, Will. She’s not all full of the ‘humans are friends not snacks’ variety,” Buffy observed.
“I just can't kill her,” whined Willow.
“No. Me, neither,” admitted Buffy.
“I mean, I know she's not me. We have a big nothing in common, but... still,” continued Willow.
“There but for the grace of getting bit.”
“We send her back to her world, and she stands a chance. It's the way it should be anyway,” said Willow resolutely.
“Uh, we're about ready here,” stated Giles from the circle with Anya. “Don't you try any tricks now, dear,” he warned Anya.
“I don't need tricks,” she said in a pout. “When I get my powers back, you will all grovel before me.”
There was a collective eye rolling from the Willows and the vampires.
“Yes, uh, if you, uh, Willows,” started Giles. “Would like to, uh, complete the circle.
Willow turned to her vamp self. “Good luck. Try not to kill people.” And with that Willow hugged herself only to be put off by some naughty touching on the part of her vamp self. “Hands! Hands!”
Vamp!Willow gave a naughty smile before kneeling down in the circle.
Buffy looked on and a little part of her didn’t want Vamp! Willow to go. As the spell proceeded, the vamp and former Slayer thought she kinda liked the idea that one of her friends was a vamp too. ‘Course the evil part wasn’t good.
_______________________
The spell completed, the group returned to their somewhat normal lives. Anya went back to the mansion with a pout.
As Giles was about to leave the factory, Buffy pulled him aside.
“Where is Faith?” Buffy asked.
“Chained up in my bathroom,” answered the watcher.
Buffy tried to hide her amusement. “You can’t keep her tied up forever.”
“I realise that Buffy. I just don’t know how to...”
“Let her go Giles. I can handle myself,” Buffy assured him with a smile.
“If you think that’s best, Buffy.”
“She didn’t do anything but what she was trained to do. I think she’s been punished enough. She comes near me and mine again though, she’ll deal with me.”
“I’ll tell her that.”
“Do that.”
_______________________
Buffy settled into her bed at the mansion, thinking it was far too late to head to her mother’s house. It was lonely here without Spike.
As if on cue she felt his pull on her consciousness. He wanted her back. And he was hard and horny. The mental pictures he was sending her quickly got her aroused. He was remembering past encounters.
Her hand drifted to settle between her thighs as she sighed in anticipation of the flood of images and sensations that were going to envelop her.
She promised herself that tomorrow she was going back to him. Definitely tomorrow.
_______________________
Buffy rose from her bed in time for school the next morning, she had to say good bye to Willow, Xander and Giles, and make sure that Faith knew just what the sitch was if she decided to come after her and Spike again.
There was also the whole locker clean out thing.
Buffy walked down to the kitchen to get herself an early morning bag of blood to find Anya sitting at the new kitchen table, staring into a cup of tea.
“Morning,” Buffy muttered, heading to the fridge.
“Oh sure, act as if nothing happened. I’ll never get my pendant back. I’m stuck in this mortal coil until my body starts falling apart around me and I get all wrinkled and gross until my body just gives up cause I’m too old to carry on. I hate being mortal!”
Buffy looked up from the open fridge before her and shrugged. “Hey look on the bright side, there could be a giant big bad that’s coming to town that’ll eat you. You could go that way. Saves us from having to watch you decay around us. Mortals are gross. Smelly.” Buffy wrinkled her nose.
“But there is a power demon already here. The Ascension? Tell me you’ve heard of it?” patronised Anya.
Buffy looked at her friend with a curiously sceptical eye. “The who-huh?”
_______________________
“Giles? Ascension? What is it and how come I had to hear about it from Anya?” asked Buffy as she strode into the library an hour later.
Giles looked up from his perpetual book and squinted at his former charge. He closed his book hesitantly as if trying to formulate a response.
“Buffy, it was not too long ago that I was firm in my belief that you were an evil vampire and therefore must neither be apprised of the Slayer’s progress nor the happenings of the evil inhabiting this town. You had, if you will recall, moved your minions and your mate to LA.”
Buffy nodded. “Well, here now, fill me in,” she said sitting across from him at the library table.
“Uh, no,” came Faith’s voice from the stacks. “My town now, remember?” Faith stepped out from the stacks and walked down the steps towards Giles and Buffy. “You got vamped. Off the case. Go back to your vampire lover and let the Slayer deal with the baddies of this town.”
“Kudos to your new freedom, Faith,” started Buffy. “Don’t make me regret asking Giles to set you free.”
“You like to think that you have that much influence with him, you don’t. You are a vampire, that’s all. He knew it was time to let me go.”
Buffy stared back at Faith’s hating eyes and contemplated trying thrall out for the first time. It probably wouldn’t go over well in front of Giles. Still the fact that Faith of all people was giving her lip was getting her back up. Spike would never have let her do that kind of thing to him.
It was only then that Buffy realised that she was thinking like a vampire towards her childer and not like a Slayer to a fellow Slayer. It was so the time to leave Sunnydale.
Buffy rose from her chair and stepped towards Faith. She opened her mouth to tell the Slayer if she thought she could handle whatever this Ascension thing was, then fine, she’d just go get laid by her sex on legs mate.
Except then Willow burst into the Library, grinning and happy. And Buffy knew it wasn’t going to be as easy to tell them that she was going back to LA.
“Buffy!” gushed Willow, happy smile in place. “You’ll never guess what Snyder’s done to the cheerleading team!”
As Willow babbled on about the principal and his instance that all cheerleaders participate in the key club, fundraising for worthwhile causes instead of their own self interest, Buffy pondered just how she was going to say good bye to her best friend.
“You have unhappy face...” added Willow as she wound down from her babbling. “You are leaving, aren’t you? You can’t leave yet! We need you! Tell her Faith, we need her!”
Faith snorted.
Willow glared at the Slayer and Buffy swore that Willow’s eyes flashed for a moment.
“We need her, Faith,” intoned Willow, scarier than Buffy had ever seen Willow before.
“Whatever,” muttered Faith earning another glare from Willow.
The morning bell rung, forcing Faith and Willow to head to class.
“You coming?” Willow asked.
Buffy looked at Giles, then back at Willow.
“I guess,” Buffy said with a shrug.
_______________________
Buffy stared at the phone with trepidation. She sighed. She turned away from the phone, evil invention that was clearly staring at her, and paced a moment, before stopping in front of it and picking up the receiver.
And putting it down.
“Are you going to call him or not?” asked Anya annoyed, peering over her math homework. “’Cause if you aren’t, then go away. You are distracting.”
Buffy turned to look at the former demon with a glare. “Do you think it’s easy to phone the love of your unlife to tell him that you aren’t coming back to LA, until this year’s big bad is put down. Especially when he’s a past big bad...”
Anya dropped her pencil. “Enough! Phone him! Phone him now, before I have to listen to your excuses again.”
Buffy picked up the phone. She hated when Anya was right.
_______________________
tbc...
Prommy Goodness
Disclaimer: I’m just playing.
Author’s note: Some dialogue taken from “ The Prom” Beta’d by the wonderful BTL.
_______________________
Chapter 20: Prommy Goodness
Buffy held the receiver away from her ear as Spike’s expletives laced his disappointment.
“Bloody buggering hell, Buffy! It was only supposed to be to drop off the witch.”
“I know,” she sighed, putting the receiver closer to her ear again. “I can’t just leave them!” she protested. “They need me!”
“Bollocks!” he roared. “I want you here with me! Buffy!” His tone changed, tenderness coming through the phone line. “I can’t bear to be apart from you, luv.”
“Then come back here,” she offered. “Please Spike?”
There was silence on the other end of the line.
“Spike?”
Buffy twirled the phone cord around her fingers nervously as she waited for him to respond.
“Buffy,” he started, clearly trying to keep his anger at bay. “I’ve got things on the go here. I can’t just up and leave.”
“The Gem of Amara?” asked Buffy sadly.
“Got a good lead.”
“Right,” responded Buffy sceptically. “Are you coming?”
Spike exhaled on the other end of the line. “Fine, give me a week. I’ll be there.” Spike hung up the phone, leaving Buffy to wonder just how mad he was and whether or not he was bringing minions.
“I’m not giving up my room,” started Anya, not looking up from her homework.
“No worries,” responded Buffy hanging up the receiver. “You’ve got Drusilla’s room.”
_______________________
“La classe, repêtez après moi, ‘La mouche a six jambes,” intoned the French teacher.
Buffy rolled her eyes. Spike could probably teach her French much better than this dope. Of course that just set her mind to think about Spike even more. Was he mad? Was she gonna get spanked for staying in Sunnydale? It had been only a few days since she’d talked to Spike but she couldn’t feel that he was any less angry by her decision through their link. Yes, she’d been out and about helping Willow and Faith with the big evil, but that was little consolation.
Dusty books were so not the fun she’d signed up for.
Willow leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Are you going patrolling tonight?” the red head asked.
“Might as well,” Buffy responded, “Who knows just how good a job Faith’s doing.”
“Les filles!” barked the teacher at them, silencing the conversation.
_______________________
Patrolling became routine, of course, staying out of Faith's way was getting harder and harder every day. The Slayer was intent on making up ground for being locked in Giles' office for days and days. Buffy did of course get her share of the weird demons to fight.
Some with slightly disturbing consequences. Giles’ prognosis of taking on a demon aspect since fighting the scaling demon of last night’s patrol was way wigging her out.
“I’m gonna grow a demon part! Spike! Doesn’t that concern you in the tiniest way?” exploded Buffy into the phone. “Spike! I could have horns tomorrow!”
“What kind of demon was it?” he asked calmly.
“I don’t know. It was scabby, had no mouth. Should I be worried more? ‘Cause I’m worried now.”
“What did the watcher say?” asked Spike, again annoying Buffy with his calmness.
“Infected, he said I’d be infected!” cried Buffy, her voice edging on hysteria.
“Buffy, love, calm down. You are a demon. You can’t take on the aspect of another demon while yours is still healthy and grr. Relax. Breathe.”
Buffy took a few calming breaths into the receiver. “You are right, of course. How goes the lead?”
“Same. Ascension?”
“Some idiot tried drowning me again. Faith’s a ho. I mean, she’s not evil or anything, very big on the fact that she’s got a soul and all, and the ho part, she’s making time with Xander. Not that I’m jealous or anything. Hmm, what else... I got into Northwestern...University, not that I’m planning on going, but it’s nice you know to be wanted. Oh and... the Mayor can’t be killed. Not until he turns into a big demony snake thing, happens on graduation day. That’s about it, very uninteresting. How many minions are you bringing with when you come?”
“Six or seven, should these survive. They don’t seem to last long when you aren’t around.”
“I love you, you know,” whispered Buffy into the phone.
“I know, love.”
_______________________
Buffy, Willow, Oz, and Xander sat in the darkened library discussing the upcoming event of the season.
“I thought you were going with Faith?” asked Buffy sipping her lunch.
“Um, ya, about that...I’m not,” stammered Xander. “We’ve come to an understanding.”
“Which is?” asked Willow.
“That what’s done is done and we shall never speak of it again. Going with Anya now.”
“Anya, huh? Interesting choice,” asked Oz.
“Choice is kind of a broad term for my situation. See, it's either Anya or the sock puppet of love for this boy.” Xander held up his right hand and made puppet type motions. “I love you, Xander,” he said in a silly voice. “I'll never leave you.”
“Well, if Anya tries to get you killed, put me down for a big 'I told you so’,'“ added Willow.
“Who's this Anya?” continued Xander in his puppet voice. “Is she prettier than me?”
“She just better not try to cross me. That's all I'm saying,” threatened Willow.
“Well, at least we all have someone to go with now,” noted Buffy happily. “Some of us are going with demons, some of us are demons, but I think that's a valid lifestyle choice. More importantly, I have a kick ass dress.”
“Ooh, the pink one?” piped up Willow.
“Spike's gonna lose it. There might be growling. Ooh I hope there’s growling,” said Buffy smiling.
“And here we delve into the realm of the TMI once again,” added Xander.
“So have you found a dress yet?” asked Buffy to Willow.
“No, but I saw one I liked. It was blue and not long...” Willow trailed off.
“So it was blue and sorta short.”
“Not too short, medium. And it had this weird, sorta fringey stuff on its arms,” continued Willow.
At that moment Giles walked in. “What's that, a demon?”
“A prom dress that Will was thinking of getting. Can't you ever get your mind out of the Hellmouth?” Buffy asked.
“I'd be delighted to. However, the day of the Mayor's Ascension is fast approaching and we don't know what to expect,” added Giles.
“Well, what about the pages that Will stole from the Mayor's book? Look, she put her life on the line there, pal. Don't tell me they're useless,” cried Xander indignantly.
“On the contrary, no, we, uh, we know the Ascension refers to a human transforming into a demon, the living embodiment of an immortal. And Graduation Day, our Mayor Wilkins is scheduled to do just that.”
Cordelia and Faith then entered the library, giggling like they were sharing some funny secret.
“Trouble is, we don't know which demon he is going to become. There are thousands of species,” continued Giles, looking up at the two girls who had just entered.
“So then we shouldn’t be wasting time on this whole Prom thing,“ noted Faith, hopping up on the counter and glaring at Xander.
“Good thing I’m not in your little Scooby gang then. I’m going to the Prom,” declared Cordelia.
Buffy ignored the whole exchange and turned to Willow, slightly rolling her eyes at Cordelia. “We'll get you a dress. You know, we should check April Fools.”
“Don't go there!” protested Cordelia. “I shop there.”
“I myself am dipping into my road trip fund to procure a shiny new tux, so look for me to dazzle,” interrupted Xander.
“And I myself will be wearing pink taffeta as chenille would not go with my complexion. Can we please talk about the Ascension?” asked Giles, slightly whining
“Giles, we get it. Miles to go before we sleep. But especially if we're all gonna vaporize or something on Graduation Day, we deserve a little prommy fun. One night of glory, not too much to ask,” added Buffy.
“So when is Spike coming to town?” asked Willow.
“Just in time for Prom,” responded Buffy, glaring at Faith.
_______________________
She felt that she needed popcorn. Someone had been attacked at the store Cordelia shopped at, Xander inexplicably a witness and they had a tape. It was like movie fun to interrupt prom planning. There was that weird feeling that something was up with Cordy and Xander, but Buffy pushed it aside as she settled into watching mode. The library was silent with the breaths of her friends as they watched the violence. At first Willow screamed and Cordelia flinched, even though she'd already seen it. Buffy couldn't help but lick her lips a bit. Another feeling she pushed to the side.
Xander hit the rewind button and they watched it again, this time with commentary. Xander was eager to impart his experiences with the furry shredding flesh monster.
“Right there. See, it's, it's like he just realized he forgot to put money in the meter or something,” started Xander.
“You know the part that totally weirded me out? That thing had good taste. I mean, he chucks Xander and went right for the formal wear,” sniped Cordy.
“That's right. He left behind his copy of Monsters Wear Daily,” quipped Xander.
“I'm serious. Look at the outfit that Xander's wearing. Now look at the kid that the monster went after. Very smooth lines, 'til he was shredded.”
“I don't want to see it again,” said Buffy with a gulp. The image of the thing shredding the poor guy in the shop was just too much. It was senseless. The creature hadn‘t even stopped to feed. Just kill and move on.
“Buffy, I know it's horrible, but if you're going to hunt this creature, you should study it,” added Giles.
“Why do I have to hunt it?” asked Buffy. “Since when am I the first string slayer here now? I thought that was Faith’s pergadiv. ’Sides, I think I got it.”
“She's right. I mean, you've seen one big hairy bringer of death, you've seen 'em all,” quipped Willow.
“Ya, I’m on it. Slayer to the rescue,” added Faith.
“If I'm not mistaken, this is a hellhound,” continued Giles. “Particularly vicious. It's sort of a demon foot soldier bred during the Machash Wars. Trained solely to kill. They feed off the brains of their foes.”
“Look!” interrupted Cordelia. “Right there, zoom in on that.”
“It's a videotape,” noted Xander.
“So? They do it on television all the time.”
“Not with a regular VCR they don't.”
“The thing that gets me,“ started Willow, “is why you two were shopping together?“
“What? Um, I was...” stammered Cordelia.
“Burning a hole in daddy's wallet, as usual. I just bumped into her during my tuxedo hunt,” added Xander.
“What's that? Pause it,” stated Oz, the only one still looking at the tape.
“Guys! It's just a normal VCR. It doesn't... Oh wait, uh, it can do pause,” said Xander sheepishly.
The crowd peered at the screen and noticed the male looking in the shop window during the attack.
“Hello, hellhound raiser,” quipped Xander.
It took only a couple of minutes to identify the student. Faith was sent on the trail of one Tucker Wells. No beasties that attacked formal wear was going to mess up anyone’s prom. Especially Buffy's.
_______________________
tbc...
Author’s note: Some dialogue taken from “ The Prom” Beta’d by the wonderful BTL.
_______________________
Chapter 20: Prommy Goodness
Buffy held the receiver away from her ear as Spike’s expletives laced his disappointment.
“Bloody buggering hell, Buffy! It was only supposed to be to drop off the witch.”
“I know,” she sighed, putting the receiver closer to her ear again. “I can’t just leave them!” she protested. “They need me!”
“Bollocks!” he roared. “I want you here with me! Buffy!” His tone changed, tenderness coming through the phone line. “I can’t bear to be apart from you, luv.”
“Then come back here,” she offered. “Please Spike?”
There was silence on the other end of the line.
“Spike?”
Buffy twirled the phone cord around her fingers nervously as she waited for him to respond.
“Buffy,” he started, clearly trying to keep his anger at bay. “I’ve got things on the go here. I can’t just up and leave.”
“The Gem of Amara?” asked Buffy sadly.
“Got a good lead.”
“Right,” responded Buffy sceptically. “Are you coming?”
Spike exhaled on the other end of the line. “Fine, give me a week. I’ll be there.” Spike hung up the phone, leaving Buffy to wonder just how mad he was and whether or not he was bringing minions.
“I’m not giving up my room,” started Anya, not looking up from her homework.
“No worries,” responded Buffy hanging up the receiver. “You’ve got Drusilla’s room.”
_______________________
“La classe, repêtez après moi, ‘La mouche a six jambes,” intoned the French teacher.
Buffy rolled her eyes. Spike could probably teach her French much better than this dope. Of course that just set her mind to think about Spike even more. Was he mad? Was she gonna get spanked for staying in Sunnydale? It had been only a few days since she’d talked to Spike but she couldn’t feel that he was any less angry by her decision through their link. Yes, she’d been out and about helping Willow and Faith with the big evil, but that was little consolation.
Dusty books were so not the fun she’d signed up for.
Willow leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Are you going patrolling tonight?” the red head asked.
“Might as well,” Buffy responded, “Who knows just how good a job Faith’s doing.”
“Les filles!” barked the teacher at them, silencing the conversation.
_______________________
Patrolling became routine, of course, staying out of Faith's way was getting harder and harder every day. The Slayer was intent on making up ground for being locked in Giles' office for days and days. Buffy did of course get her share of the weird demons to fight.
Some with slightly disturbing consequences. Giles’ prognosis of taking on a demon aspect since fighting the scaling demon of last night’s patrol was way wigging her out.
“I’m gonna grow a demon part! Spike! Doesn’t that concern you in the tiniest way?” exploded Buffy into the phone. “Spike! I could have horns tomorrow!”
“What kind of demon was it?” he asked calmly.
“I don’t know. It was scabby, had no mouth. Should I be worried more? ‘Cause I’m worried now.”
“What did the watcher say?” asked Spike, again annoying Buffy with his calmness.
“Infected, he said I’d be infected!” cried Buffy, her voice edging on hysteria.
“Buffy, love, calm down. You are a demon. You can’t take on the aspect of another demon while yours is still healthy and grr. Relax. Breathe.”
Buffy took a few calming breaths into the receiver. “You are right, of course. How goes the lead?”
“Same. Ascension?”
“Some idiot tried drowning me again. Faith’s a ho. I mean, she’s not evil or anything, very big on the fact that she’s got a soul and all, and the ho part, she’s making time with Xander. Not that I’m jealous or anything. Hmm, what else... I got into Northwestern...University, not that I’m planning on going, but it’s nice you know to be wanted. Oh and... the Mayor can’t be killed. Not until he turns into a big demony snake thing, happens on graduation day. That’s about it, very uninteresting. How many minions are you bringing with when you come?”
“Six or seven, should these survive. They don’t seem to last long when you aren’t around.”
“I love you, you know,” whispered Buffy into the phone.
“I know, love.”
_______________________
Buffy, Willow, Oz, and Xander sat in the darkened library discussing the upcoming event of the season.
“I thought you were going with Faith?” asked Buffy sipping her lunch.
“Um, ya, about that...I’m not,” stammered Xander. “We’ve come to an understanding.”
“Which is?” asked Willow.
“That what’s done is done and we shall never speak of it again. Going with Anya now.”
“Anya, huh? Interesting choice,” asked Oz.
“Choice is kind of a broad term for my situation. See, it's either Anya or the sock puppet of love for this boy.” Xander held up his right hand and made puppet type motions. “I love you, Xander,” he said in a silly voice. “I'll never leave you.”
“Well, if Anya tries to get you killed, put me down for a big 'I told you so’,'“ added Willow.
“Who's this Anya?” continued Xander in his puppet voice. “Is she prettier than me?”
“She just better not try to cross me. That's all I'm saying,” threatened Willow.
“Well, at least we all have someone to go with now,” noted Buffy happily. “Some of us are going with demons, some of us are demons, but I think that's a valid lifestyle choice. More importantly, I have a kick ass dress.”
“Ooh, the pink one?” piped up Willow.
“Spike's gonna lose it. There might be growling. Ooh I hope there’s growling,” said Buffy smiling.
“And here we delve into the realm of the TMI once again,” added Xander.
“So have you found a dress yet?” asked Buffy to Willow.
“No, but I saw one I liked. It was blue and not long...” Willow trailed off.
“So it was blue and sorta short.”
“Not too short, medium. And it had this weird, sorta fringey stuff on its arms,” continued Willow.
At that moment Giles walked in. “What's that, a demon?”
“A prom dress that Will was thinking of getting. Can't you ever get your mind out of the Hellmouth?” Buffy asked.
“I'd be delighted to. However, the day of the Mayor's Ascension is fast approaching and we don't know what to expect,” added Giles.
“Well, what about the pages that Will stole from the Mayor's book? Look, she put her life on the line there, pal. Don't tell me they're useless,” cried Xander indignantly.
“On the contrary, no, we, uh, we know the Ascension refers to a human transforming into a demon, the living embodiment of an immortal. And Graduation Day, our Mayor Wilkins is scheduled to do just that.”
Cordelia and Faith then entered the library, giggling like they were sharing some funny secret.
“Trouble is, we don't know which demon he is going to become. There are thousands of species,” continued Giles, looking up at the two girls who had just entered.
“So then we shouldn’t be wasting time on this whole Prom thing,“ noted Faith, hopping up on the counter and glaring at Xander.
“Good thing I’m not in your little Scooby gang then. I’m going to the Prom,” declared Cordelia.
Buffy ignored the whole exchange and turned to Willow, slightly rolling her eyes at Cordelia. “We'll get you a dress. You know, we should check April Fools.”
“Don't go there!” protested Cordelia. “I shop there.”
“I myself am dipping into my road trip fund to procure a shiny new tux, so look for me to dazzle,” interrupted Xander.
“And I myself will be wearing pink taffeta as chenille would not go with my complexion. Can we please talk about the Ascension?” asked Giles, slightly whining
“Giles, we get it. Miles to go before we sleep. But especially if we're all gonna vaporize or something on Graduation Day, we deserve a little prommy fun. One night of glory, not too much to ask,” added Buffy.
“So when is Spike coming to town?” asked Willow.
“Just in time for Prom,” responded Buffy, glaring at Faith.
_______________________
She felt that she needed popcorn. Someone had been attacked at the store Cordelia shopped at, Xander inexplicably a witness and they had a tape. It was like movie fun to interrupt prom planning. There was that weird feeling that something was up with Cordy and Xander, but Buffy pushed it aside as she settled into watching mode. The library was silent with the breaths of her friends as they watched the violence. At first Willow screamed and Cordelia flinched, even though she'd already seen it. Buffy couldn't help but lick her lips a bit. Another feeling she pushed to the side.
Xander hit the rewind button and they watched it again, this time with commentary. Xander was eager to impart his experiences with the furry shredding flesh monster.
“Right there. See, it's, it's like he just realized he forgot to put money in the meter or something,” started Xander.
“You know the part that totally weirded me out? That thing had good taste. I mean, he chucks Xander and went right for the formal wear,” sniped Cordy.
“That's right. He left behind his copy of Monsters Wear Daily,” quipped Xander.
“I'm serious. Look at the outfit that Xander's wearing. Now look at the kid that the monster went after. Very smooth lines, 'til he was shredded.”
“I don't want to see it again,” said Buffy with a gulp. The image of the thing shredding the poor guy in the shop was just too much. It was senseless. The creature hadn‘t even stopped to feed. Just kill and move on.
“Buffy, I know it's horrible, but if you're going to hunt this creature, you should study it,” added Giles.
“Why do I have to hunt it?” asked Buffy. “Since when am I the first string slayer here now? I thought that was Faith’s pergadiv. ’Sides, I think I got it.”
“She's right. I mean, you've seen one big hairy bringer of death, you've seen 'em all,” quipped Willow.
“Ya, I’m on it. Slayer to the rescue,” added Faith.
“If I'm not mistaken, this is a hellhound,” continued Giles. “Particularly vicious. It's sort of a demon foot soldier bred during the Machash Wars. Trained solely to kill. They feed off the brains of their foes.”
“Look!” interrupted Cordelia. “Right there, zoom in on that.”
“It's a videotape,” noted Xander.
“So? They do it on television all the time.”
“Not with a regular VCR they don't.”
“The thing that gets me,“ started Willow, “is why you two were shopping together?“
“What? Um, I was...” stammered Cordelia.
“Burning a hole in daddy's wallet, as usual. I just bumped into her during my tuxedo hunt,” added Xander.
“What's that? Pause it,” stated Oz, the only one still looking at the tape.
“Guys! It's just a normal VCR. It doesn't... Oh wait, uh, it can do pause,” said Xander sheepishly.
The crowd peered at the screen and noticed the male looking in the shop window during the attack.
“Hello, hellhound raiser,” quipped Xander.
It took only a couple of minutes to identify the student. Faith was sent on the trail of one Tucker Wells. No beasties that attacked formal wear was going to mess up anyone’s prom. Especially Buffy's.
_______________________
tbc...
Exhibitionism
Disclaimer: I don’t own these characters, I am just playing around for my own amusement.
Author’s note: Special thanks to Bloodytearsoflife who beta’d this chapter twice, once a month ago when it sucked the big one and a second time after I started writing again. She rocks. Thanks to everyone who has been waiting patiently for updates to my fics while I took a hiatus from the writing. It did me lots of good. *Hugs everyone* Some dialogue taken from ‘The Prom.’
_______________________
Chapter 21: Exhibitionism
Safe in the knowledge that Faith was taking care of the hellhound menace, Buffy strolled into the decorated goodness that was the Prom, her pink dress clinging seductively to her body. Everywhere couples danced, held hands, and giggled together.
Buffy wasn’t happy. Spike hadn’t showed up yet. He'd promised that he'd be back in Sunnydale by now. Buffy walked through room, passing by the assembled couples. Her senses once again overloaded by the smells and sounds generated by the masses of prom goers. Her head full of these distracting sights and sounds and smells, Buffy bumped into Cordelia and her date, a jock who’s IQ was probably the circumference of a football. Then there was Xander and Anya, not far away. Focusing on Xander and Anya's conversation, instead of the blood pumping beneath the skin of the students in the gym, Buffy could make out that Anya was babbling about vengeance wishes and Xander was trying to make her stop talking.
“So then this one time, this girl wished her ex would cannibalize himself. Even I had a hard time watching that, let me tell you,” Anya babbled on.
Xander caught a glimpse of Buffy and Cordelia, his eyes hoping for anything that would get him out of his own private hell that was his date.
“Cordelia! Buffy! My God in heaven, it's good to see you. How are you both? And details, please,” pleaded Xander as he and Anya walked closer.
“Yes, thank you,” said Cordelia with a funny wag of her eyebrows.
Buffy raised her own. Something was up between those two. She really hoped that they weren't getting back together. Buffy liked Anya and Xander seemed happy. Cordelia was bad news for Xander Harris.
“It looks good on you,” said Xander, with soft eyes to his former girlfriend.
It was official. Xander and Cordy had their own secret code.
“Well, duh,” responded Cordy, watching Anya pull Xander away, a look of jealousy on her face.
Buffy watched perplexed as the pair left, only to be reassured by the appearance of Oz and Willow. The tender touches that the pair were sharing could not go unnoticed by Buffy. As much as she wanted to have a good time, regardless of whether or not Spike showed, she knew in her heart that his presence would colour her memories of the Prom for her.
“Buffy, you look awesome,” cooed Willow.
“So do you,’” Buffy smiled back at her friend.
“Everything cool?” asked Oz with his usual calm demeanour.
“Spike’s not here yet. Other than that? Coolness. Faith’s taking care of the devil dogs. How's the prom?” asked Buffy.
“Strangely affecting. I got all teared up when they played 'We Are Family',” noted Oz.
“Everything's perfect,” agreed Willow.
“Almost,“ whispered Buffy.
___________________________________
By the time the awards started to be handed out, Spike still hadn’t shown up, making Buffy a very cranky vampire. She’d missed out on a good portion of the dancing goodness. It was getting to the point where if she wanted to have even one dance she was going to have to tear Xander away from Anya. And she was pretty certain that the vengeance demon wouldn't look to fondly on that.
Buffy walked by the punch bowl and scowled, wishing that she had brought a flask of blood with her. The problem was that she had no pockets in her dress. She just hoped that she didn't start to get rumblies in her tummy.
There came a voice from the stage. “We have one more award to give out. Is Buffy Summers here tonight? Did she, um...”
Suddenly the whole crowd turned to look at her and in that moment she was infinitely glad that she hadn’t been drinking out of a flask.
“This is actually a new category. First time ever. I guess there were a lot of write-in ballots, and, um, the prom committee asked me to read this,” the boy said as he took out a piece of paper and unfolded it. "We're not good friends. Most of us never found the time to get to know you, but that doesn't mean we haven't noticed you. We don't talk about it much, but it's no secret that Sunnydale High isn't really like other high schools. A lot of weird stuff happens here."
Throughout the crowd there was muttering about some of the things she’d had to deal with over the years.
The boy on the stage continued. "But, whenever there was a problem or something creepy happened, you seemed to show up and stop it. Most of the people here have been saved by you, or helped by you at one time or another. We're proud to say that the Class of '99 has the lowest mortality rate of any graduating class in Sunnydale history. And we know at least part of that is because of you. So the senior class, offers its thanks, and gives you, uh, this."
He held in his hand a sparkly umbrella.
“It's from all of us, and it has written here, ‘Buffy Summers, Class Protector.’“
Sniffling back a tears from her eyes, Buffy smiled and went up to the stage to accept her award. She was touched by the wonderfulness, the generosity, and gratitude that the award meant. She was getting an award and yet at the same time Faith was somewhere out there fighting hell dogs. When Faith graduated, she'd probably get the Class Protector award too, that is if she didn't drop out of school again. Not that Giles would let her.
Faith's attitude hadn't really changed much, even with all the helping that Buffy had been doing against the Mayor, a man that had actually tried to bribe her over to the dark side. Buffy thought that the mayor was grasping at straws, and Faith expected that Buffy would betray her friends any day now. Faith was stupid, really stupid sometimes.
Hey, vampire, sometimes we think not nice thoughts. It’s allowed.
With a smile on her face, Buffy looked around the assembled students and guests and headed towards her former watcher, who was smiling on proudly.
“Congratulations, Buffy,“ he said looking on her fondly. “I had no idea that children en masse could be gracious.”
“Every now and then, people surprise you,” she responded.
Giles looked over her head and his eyes narrowed slightly, but he made no comment. Buffy didn’t have to turn around to know just whom he was looking at. She could feel the tingles that meant Mate and Sire to her. Buffy hugged her watcher gently even as she handed him the umbrella for safekeeping.
Giles stepped away leaving the vampire couple to the dance. Buffy turned around and gazed into her mate’s eyes. She had missed him terribly.
“Spike!” she said happily, closing the short distance between them rapidly and lifting her arms up around his leather clad shoulders. She wasn't even mad that he hadn't dressed up for the event.
He said nothing, but pressed his lips chastely to hers.
Now everything was perfect. He wrapped his arms around her as they began to sway to the music. Buffy closed her eyes blissfully and rested her head against his shoulder. The peaceful calm of his unbeating heart was a relief. She’d been around humans for such along time now, their constant bodily noises was unnerving. The sounds and smells were giving her a headache here in the close confines of the gym. Spike smelled like leather, whiskey and smoke, comforting smells. She sighed as if finally she had come home.
All around them couples were moving to the music, Cordelia and her jock date, Willow and Oz, and Xander and Anya. Without opening her eyes Buffy could tell that Faith had entered into the room. Her eyes flicked open even as her head rested on Spike's shoulder. Faith's clothes were covered in blood smatters.
One sniff and Buffy could tell that the blood wasn’t Faith’s but that of the hellhounds the Slayer had been sent after. All was right with the world, all of her people were safe.
Faith walked up to Giles and started telling him about the kill, how much fun it was, yadda yadda yadda. Buffy watched on with a smile as Giles' face went from happy to annoyed. It wasn't Faith's conversation that made Giles annoyed. His face actually winced as another man stood behind Faith wearing a tweed suit and looking very watcher like. Buffy had never seen the man before but the ‘Watcher’ label suited him to a ‘t’.
Giles’ lips pursed and he glared out into the crowd angrily. Giles was not a happy camper.
Spike spun Buffy around and tried to discover just what his mate was looking at so intently, instead of enjoying her prom.
“Who’s that?” he asked simply, moving around the dance floor.
Buffy shrugged. “I don’t know, but Giles doesn’t seem too happy with him.”
Suddenly there was a screech from Giles’ direction. The entire room stopped dancing as Faith’s voice rose up over the music.
“What!” cried Faith. “I refuse! You can’t make me! I…I quit!” she screamed as she flew out of the room.
The silence in the room only lasted as long as the doors sung swung closed and the crowd went back to dancing and now with new topic of gossip. That Faith girl had always been weird. Who shows up to the Prom looking like she was ready for Halloween?
Buffy giggled at Faith's exit and what the students around her were talking about. What Buffy wanted to know though was what and who this man in tweed was and why Faith had stormed out of the room.
___________________________________
As the dance wound down and couples headed back to their homes, and rented hotel rooms, Spike and Buffy walked out of the decorated hall and to their own house.
The two vampires barely got within the mansion’s front doors before they succumbed to the need to touch each other after their long separation. Spike pressed her against the doorframe, peppering her neck with kisses, his hands trying to loosen the bindings of her dress.
“Spike!” she gasp between kisses, “I’ve missed you so much.”
They slid slowly to the ground, Buffy’s dress pulled from her body, leaving the vampiress in her underwear and heels. There in front of the open door way in full view of Crawford Street, the two vampires pressed against each other, tugging at their clothes.
Buffy pushed his duster from his shoulders and ripped through his black t-shirt, exposing his cool alabaster chest. Hands and fingers fluttering over skin, Buffy inhaled unneeded air as Spike’s fingers delved beneath the elastic on her panties and began caressing her most tender areas. Soon his digits were covered in her juices and she was clinging to him as she neared her climax.
“Good grief!” came Anya’s voice from the driveway. “You couldn’t even make it up to your bed room.”
Buffy looked around Spike’s body and glared at the girl, and her date who were standing on the front walk way.
“Holy crap, Buffy!” shouted Xander.
Spike stiffened above her but made no move to get off of her.
“It’s my house, Xander. I’ll do what I want in my house,” she explained.
“Well I live here too,” noted Anya. “We were going to have sex, up in my room. We have restraint enough to actually get up stairs.”
“So why don’t you get the hell up the stairs?” growled Spike.
With an ‘eep’ Xander and Anya rushed by the pair of vampires on the floor and scurried up the stairs.
Spike turned back to Buffy, bringing his fangs and bumpies out to play, and growled once again, but this time playfully.
“Baby wanna play?” he asked.
“I thought we were already playing?” she asked sweetly.
___________________________________
Buffy woke up happy and contented. Spike’s arm was draped over her thigh, only slightly marred by the scratches and bites that she’d given him the heat of the moment last night. Spike's head rested softly on her tummy.
Somewhere down the hall she could hear the snoring of Anya, the nasal, and the occasional grunts of Anya’s prom date, Xander.
The idea that in her house, the house of vampires and demons, where she was mistress, Xander, was sleeping peacefully beside his formerly demon girlfriend, brought a smile to her face. Well, she assumed Anya was his girlfriend now. She liked them together.
Spike nuzzled into her hip, nipping playfully at her sun deprived skin.
“What are we going to do today?” came his lazy reply.
“Oh lovely Saturday, how I love you,” she whispered, playing with Spike’s hair. “Well besides the inevitable conversation we’re bound to have about minions, saving the world, and Willow, I was thinking cuddling, leading to discussion and argument, followed by make up sex, and then more cuddling. Somewhere in there I promised to phone my mom to tell her how Prom went, phone Willow, to see if she got lucky with Oz, and probably a call to Giles to see who and the what was that Watcher guy last night.”
Spike sighed. “What? No call to the whelp?”
“No, we’ll probably see him in the kitchen once Anya wakes him up,” Buffy responded.
“Bugger,” noted Spike.
Buffy giggled “If you had a problem with him being in the house, you should have said something last night."
“To be fair pet, I was a little distracted last night.”
“Yeah, I can understand that. I was there, remember?
___________________________________
Buffy and Spike stumbled into the kitchen, each pouring themselves a mug of blood from the fridge. Buffy cocked an eyebrow at Spike drinking from her blood stash, but chalked it up to his getting into town late and not having the opportunity to get a happy meal before going to the Prom.
With her warmed mug, Buffy sat down at the table, and looked into her blood as its scent wafted throughout the room.
“So where are all the minions?” asked Buffy finally, voicing the question she’d had on the tip of her tongue since Spike returned to Sunnydale.
“Dusted them all. Knew too much. Got me a good fix on the gem. It’s here, in Sunnyhell. Damned coincidental.”
“Funny how that happens,” she commented. “How long until you get more minions?”
“Don’t know, I’ll need some for the digging and all that rot. I can’t bloody do it all myself.”
“I need to give Anya some warning that minions are moving in,” she sighed. “I don’t think she’ll want to wake up dead one day...She’s still trying to get back to being a demon.”
“I’ll get it yet!” exclaimed the former demon in question, who entered the kitchen and walked towards the coffee machine. “You couldn’t turn on the coffee machine?” Anya accused as she glared at the two vampires.
“Funny how first thing I think in the morning is ‘Buffy need blood’ not ‘Buffy need coffee.’ I wonder what all my vampire friends will think?” Buffy noted with a glare at Anya and a roll of her eyes towards her mate.
“Your human friends still think of the queasy,” muttered Xander rubbing his face awake as he trailed after his orgasm partner.
“So you two together then?” asked Buffy, taking a sip of her blood.
The former demon and the boy looked at each other and each of them shrugged their shoulders.
“It depends...” started Xander.
“Well, it could change when...” said Anya at the same time.
Buffy nodded, effectively shutting the two of them up. “The demon thing.”
“The demon thing,” said Xander. “You got any cereal?”
___________________________________
tbc..
Author’s note: Special thanks to Bloodytearsoflife who beta’d this chapter twice, once a month ago when it sucked the big one and a second time after I started writing again. She rocks. Thanks to everyone who has been waiting patiently for updates to my fics while I took a hiatus from the writing. It did me lots of good. *Hugs everyone* Some dialogue taken from ‘The Prom.’
_______________________
Chapter 21: Exhibitionism
Safe in the knowledge that Faith was taking care of the hellhound menace, Buffy strolled into the decorated goodness that was the Prom, her pink dress clinging seductively to her body. Everywhere couples danced, held hands, and giggled together.
Buffy wasn’t happy. Spike hadn’t showed up yet. He'd promised that he'd be back in Sunnydale by now. Buffy walked through room, passing by the assembled couples. Her senses once again overloaded by the smells and sounds generated by the masses of prom goers. Her head full of these distracting sights and sounds and smells, Buffy bumped into Cordelia and her date, a jock who’s IQ was probably the circumference of a football. Then there was Xander and Anya, not far away. Focusing on Xander and Anya's conversation, instead of the blood pumping beneath the skin of the students in the gym, Buffy could make out that Anya was babbling about vengeance wishes and Xander was trying to make her stop talking.
“So then this one time, this girl wished her ex would cannibalize himself. Even I had a hard time watching that, let me tell you,” Anya babbled on.
Xander caught a glimpse of Buffy and Cordelia, his eyes hoping for anything that would get him out of his own private hell that was his date.
“Cordelia! Buffy! My God in heaven, it's good to see you. How are you both? And details, please,” pleaded Xander as he and Anya walked closer.
“Yes, thank you,” said Cordelia with a funny wag of her eyebrows.
Buffy raised her own. Something was up between those two. She really hoped that they weren't getting back together. Buffy liked Anya and Xander seemed happy. Cordelia was bad news for Xander Harris.
“It looks good on you,” said Xander, with soft eyes to his former girlfriend.
It was official. Xander and Cordy had their own secret code.
“Well, duh,” responded Cordy, watching Anya pull Xander away, a look of jealousy on her face.
Buffy watched perplexed as the pair left, only to be reassured by the appearance of Oz and Willow. The tender touches that the pair were sharing could not go unnoticed by Buffy. As much as she wanted to have a good time, regardless of whether or not Spike showed, she knew in her heart that his presence would colour her memories of the Prom for her.
“Buffy, you look awesome,” cooed Willow.
“So do you,’” Buffy smiled back at her friend.
“Everything cool?” asked Oz with his usual calm demeanour.
“Spike’s not here yet. Other than that? Coolness. Faith’s taking care of the devil dogs. How's the prom?” asked Buffy.
“Strangely affecting. I got all teared up when they played 'We Are Family',” noted Oz.
“Everything's perfect,” agreed Willow.
“Almost,“ whispered Buffy.
___________________________________
By the time the awards started to be handed out, Spike still hadn’t shown up, making Buffy a very cranky vampire. She’d missed out on a good portion of the dancing goodness. It was getting to the point where if she wanted to have even one dance she was going to have to tear Xander away from Anya. And she was pretty certain that the vengeance demon wouldn't look to fondly on that.
Buffy walked by the punch bowl and scowled, wishing that she had brought a flask of blood with her. The problem was that she had no pockets in her dress. She just hoped that she didn't start to get rumblies in her tummy.
There came a voice from the stage. “We have one more award to give out. Is Buffy Summers here tonight? Did she, um...”
Suddenly the whole crowd turned to look at her and in that moment she was infinitely glad that she hadn’t been drinking out of a flask.
“This is actually a new category. First time ever. I guess there were a lot of write-in ballots, and, um, the prom committee asked me to read this,” the boy said as he took out a piece of paper and unfolded it. "We're not good friends. Most of us never found the time to get to know you, but that doesn't mean we haven't noticed you. We don't talk about it much, but it's no secret that Sunnydale High isn't really like other high schools. A lot of weird stuff happens here."
Throughout the crowd there was muttering about some of the things she’d had to deal with over the years.
The boy on the stage continued. "But, whenever there was a problem or something creepy happened, you seemed to show up and stop it. Most of the people here have been saved by you, or helped by you at one time or another. We're proud to say that the Class of '99 has the lowest mortality rate of any graduating class in Sunnydale history. And we know at least part of that is because of you. So the senior class, offers its thanks, and gives you, uh, this."
He held in his hand a sparkly umbrella.
“It's from all of us, and it has written here, ‘Buffy Summers, Class Protector.’“
Sniffling back a tears from her eyes, Buffy smiled and went up to the stage to accept her award. She was touched by the wonderfulness, the generosity, and gratitude that the award meant. She was getting an award and yet at the same time Faith was somewhere out there fighting hell dogs. When Faith graduated, she'd probably get the Class Protector award too, that is if she didn't drop out of school again. Not that Giles would let her.
Faith's attitude hadn't really changed much, even with all the helping that Buffy had been doing against the Mayor, a man that had actually tried to bribe her over to the dark side. Buffy thought that the mayor was grasping at straws, and Faith expected that Buffy would betray her friends any day now. Faith was stupid, really stupid sometimes.
Hey, vampire, sometimes we think not nice thoughts. It’s allowed.
With a smile on her face, Buffy looked around the assembled students and guests and headed towards her former watcher, who was smiling on proudly.
“Congratulations, Buffy,“ he said looking on her fondly. “I had no idea that children en masse could be gracious.”
“Every now and then, people surprise you,” she responded.
Giles looked over her head and his eyes narrowed slightly, but he made no comment. Buffy didn’t have to turn around to know just whom he was looking at. She could feel the tingles that meant Mate and Sire to her. Buffy hugged her watcher gently even as she handed him the umbrella for safekeeping.
Giles stepped away leaving the vampire couple to the dance. Buffy turned around and gazed into her mate’s eyes. She had missed him terribly.
“Spike!” she said happily, closing the short distance between them rapidly and lifting her arms up around his leather clad shoulders. She wasn't even mad that he hadn't dressed up for the event.
He said nothing, but pressed his lips chastely to hers.
Now everything was perfect. He wrapped his arms around her as they began to sway to the music. Buffy closed her eyes blissfully and rested her head against his shoulder. The peaceful calm of his unbeating heart was a relief. She’d been around humans for such along time now, their constant bodily noises was unnerving. The sounds and smells were giving her a headache here in the close confines of the gym. Spike smelled like leather, whiskey and smoke, comforting smells. She sighed as if finally she had come home.
All around them couples were moving to the music, Cordelia and her jock date, Willow and Oz, and Xander and Anya. Without opening her eyes Buffy could tell that Faith had entered into the room. Her eyes flicked open even as her head rested on Spike's shoulder. Faith's clothes were covered in blood smatters.
One sniff and Buffy could tell that the blood wasn’t Faith’s but that of the hellhounds the Slayer had been sent after. All was right with the world, all of her people were safe.
Faith walked up to Giles and started telling him about the kill, how much fun it was, yadda yadda yadda. Buffy watched on with a smile as Giles' face went from happy to annoyed. It wasn't Faith's conversation that made Giles annoyed. His face actually winced as another man stood behind Faith wearing a tweed suit and looking very watcher like. Buffy had never seen the man before but the ‘Watcher’ label suited him to a ‘t’.
Giles’ lips pursed and he glared out into the crowd angrily. Giles was not a happy camper.
Spike spun Buffy around and tried to discover just what his mate was looking at so intently, instead of enjoying her prom.
“Who’s that?” he asked simply, moving around the dance floor.
Buffy shrugged. “I don’t know, but Giles doesn’t seem too happy with him.”
Suddenly there was a screech from Giles’ direction. The entire room stopped dancing as Faith’s voice rose up over the music.
“What!” cried Faith. “I refuse! You can’t make me! I…I quit!” she screamed as she flew out of the room.
The silence in the room only lasted as long as the doors sung swung closed and the crowd went back to dancing and now with new topic of gossip. That Faith girl had always been weird. Who shows up to the Prom looking like she was ready for Halloween?
Buffy giggled at Faith's exit and what the students around her were talking about. What Buffy wanted to know though was what and who this man in tweed was and why Faith had stormed out of the room.
___________________________________
As the dance wound down and couples headed back to their homes, and rented hotel rooms, Spike and Buffy walked out of the decorated hall and to their own house.
The two vampires barely got within the mansion’s front doors before they succumbed to the need to touch each other after their long separation. Spike pressed her against the doorframe, peppering her neck with kisses, his hands trying to loosen the bindings of her dress.
“Spike!” she gasp between kisses, “I’ve missed you so much.”
They slid slowly to the ground, Buffy’s dress pulled from her body, leaving the vampiress in her underwear and heels. There in front of the open door way in full view of Crawford Street, the two vampires pressed against each other, tugging at their clothes.
Buffy pushed his duster from his shoulders and ripped through his black t-shirt, exposing his cool alabaster chest. Hands and fingers fluttering over skin, Buffy inhaled unneeded air as Spike’s fingers delved beneath the elastic on her panties and began caressing her most tender areas. Soon his digits were covered in her juices and she was clinging to him as she neared her climax.
“Good grief!” came Anya’s voice from the driveway. “You couldn’t even make it up to your bed room.”
Buffy looked around Spike’s body and glared at the girl, and her date who were standing on the front walk way.
“Holy crap, Buffy!” shouted Xander.
Spike stiffened above her but made no move to get off of her.
“It’s my house, Xander. I’ll do what I want in my house,” she explained.
“Well I live here too,” noted Anya. “We were going to have sex, up in my room. We have restraint enough to actually get up stairs.”
“So why don’t you get the hell up the stairs?” growled Spike.
With an ‘eep’ Xander and Anya rushed by the pair of vampires on the floor and scurried up the stairs.
Spike turned back to Buffy, bringing his fangs and bumpies out to play, and growled once again, but this time playfully.
“Baby wanna play?” he asked.
“I thought we were already playing?” she asked sweetly.
___________________________________
Buffy woke up happy and contented. Spike’s arm was draped over her thigh, only slightly marred by the scratches and bites that she’d given him the heat of the moment last night. Spike's head rested softly on her tummy.
Somewhere down the hall she could hear the snoring of Anya, the nasal, and the occasional grunts of Anya’s prom date, Xander.
The idea that in her house, the house of vampires and demons, where she was mistress, Xander, was sleeping peacefully beside his formerly demon girlfriend, brought a smile to her face. Well, she assumed Anya was his girlfriend now. She liked them together.
Spike nuzzled into her hip, nipping playfully at her sun deprived skin.
“What are we going to do today?” came his lazy reply.
“Oh lovely Saturday, how I love you,” she whispered, playing with Spike’s hair. “Well besides the inevitable conversation we’re bound to have about minions, saving the world, and Willow, I was thinking cuddling, leading to discussion and argument, followed by make up sex, and then more cuddling. Somewhere in there I promised to phone my mom to tell her how Prom went, phone Willow, to see if she got lucky with Oz, and probably a call to Giles to see who and the what was that Watcher guy last night.”
Spike sighed. “What? No call to the whelp?”
“No, we’ll probably see him in the kitchen once Anya wakes him up,” Buffy responded.
“Bugger,” noted Spike.
Buffy giggled “If you had a problem with him being in the house, you should have said something last night."
“To be fair pet, I was a little distracted last night.”
“Yeah, I can understand that. I was there, remember?
___________________________________
Buffy and Spike stumbled into the kitchen, each pouring themselves a mug of blood from the fridge. Buffy cocked an eyebrow at Spike drinking from her blood stash, but chalked it up to his getting into town late and not having the opportunity to get a happy meal before going to the Prom.
With her warmed mug, Buffy sat down at the table, and looked into her blood as its scent wafted throughout the room.
“So where are all the minions?” asked Buffy finally, voicing the question she’d had on the tip of her tongue since Spike returned to Sunnydale.
“Dusted them all. Knew too much. Got me a good fix on the gem. It’s here, in Sunnyhell. Damned coincidental.”
“Funny how that happens,” she commented. “How long until you get more minions?”
“Don’t know, I’ll need some for the digging and all that rot. I can’t bloody do it all myself.”
“I need to give Anya some warning that minions are moving in,” she sighed. “I don’t think she’ll want to wake up dead one day...She’s still trying to get back to being a demon.”
“I’ll get it yet!” exclaimed the former demon in question, who entered the kitchen and walked towards the coffee machine. “You couldn’t turn on the coffee machine?” Anya accused as she glared at the two vampires.
“Funny how first thing I think in the morning is ‘Buffy need blood’ not ‘Buffy need coffee.’ I wonder what all my vampire friends will think?” Buffy noted with a glare at Anya and a roll of her eyes towards her mate.
“Your human friends still think of the queasy,” muttered Xander rubbing his face awake as he trailed after his orgasm partner.
“So you two together then?” asked Buffy, taking a sip of her blood.
The former demon and the boy looked at each other and each of them shrugged their shoulders.
“It depends...” started Xander.
“Well, it could change when...” said Anya at the same time.
Buffy nodded, effectively shutting the two of them up. “The demon thing.”
“The demon thing,” said Xander. “You got any cereal?”
___________________________________
tbc..
Avoiding Fiery Death
Disclaimer: Just playin’
Author’s note: Some dialogue taken from “Graduation Day part 1.” Once again I hug and thank the wonderful BTL for the great betaing. She beta’d this chapter twice too: once BH (Before Hiatus) and once after.
_______________________
Chapter 22: Avoiding Fiery Death
First day of school back, after the Prom, the hallways of Sunnydale High were full of students eagerly discussing just what had happened at prom and just who had slept with whom. It was pretty common knowledge now that Anya and Xander were together, but the biggest news was Faith and her outburst and the fact that she had showed up at prom with blood on her clothes.
Buffy was keenly interested in finding out the cause of Faith's outburst. Avoiding the patches of sunlight, Buffy made her way through the hallways of the high school, in search of Giles who, she hoped, would explain what she wanted to know. She was also enjoying the fact that soon she would be in possession of a piece of paper that stated she never had to come back to this building of hell and disappointment again.
Everywhere students were saying good bye to teachers and classmates. Even Willow seemed to be overly friendly with Harmony for some reason. Buffy walked down the steps to her friend’s location just as the vapid airhead departed.
“Oh, I'm gonna miss her,” declared Willow in a longing voice.
“Don't you hate her?” asked Buffy, completely confused.
“Yes, with a fiery vengeance,” explained Willow. “She picked on me for ten years, the vacuous tramp. It's like a sickness, Buffy. I'm just missing everything. I miss P.E.”
“I think it's contagious. The whole senior class has turned into the Sixties, or what I would have imagined the Sixties would have been like without the war and the hairy armpits,” explained Buffy.
“You don't feel it?” asked the red head with confusion.
“No, I don't. I guess I'll miss stuff, but I just don't get the whole graduation thing. I mean, you get a piece of paper and nothing changes. I don't even think I'm gonna go. It’s during the day and all, I think I’d like to not be dust.”
At that moment they passed the student lounge, and the soda machine, Willow gave the machine a tender look.
“Old trusty soda machine. I push you for root beer, you give me coke,” cooed Willow at the machine. Then she turned with a frown towards her friend. “What do you mean, not go? Why not?”
“You weren’t listening...Sunlight, day? Besides, I thought maybe I’d spend my time productively. Like fighting the Mayor in his demony state, snacking on the populace. I hear that’s good times. You know, provided if it’s indoors and away from that thing I like to affectionately call fiery death,” explained Buffy as they sat down at a table.
“ You can't do both?” asked Willow.
Xander strolled by and sat with them. “Both what?”
“Go to graduation, and thereby bursting into flame, and fight the Mayor,” answered Buffy.
“ The Mayor? What, you guys didn't hear?” he said, all excited like.
“Hear what?” asked Buffy.
“Guess who our commencement speaker is?” continued Xander, still failing to give information that Buffy was increasingly aware that might be important.
“Siegfried?” offered Willow.
“No.”
“Roy?” asked Willow again.
“No.”
“One of the tigers?” said Willow hopefully.
“Come out of the fantasy, Will,” asked Xander patiently.
“I don't believe this,” exclaimed Buffy, coming to the conclusion just fine on her own, without Willow and Xander‘s games.
“Lends credence to my whole ‘"I'm gonna die"’ theorem, doesn't it?” he prattled on.
“The Mayor at graduation? A hundred helpless kids to feed on. Got any other surprises for us?” asked Buffy. “Maybe Faith will graduate with honours?”
_______________________
The Slayer in question was in the library, completely loud and grr at the situation unfolding there. Buffy peered into the library window, watching and listening.
“I will not!” protested the actual slayer towards the unknown British man that stood next to Giles.
“You will. The Council demands it.”
“Ya, ‘cause the last time I did something the Council demanded I didn’t watch thirty men get slaughtered right in front of my eyes. Forgive me if I don’t run jumping with joy every time I get orders from on high.”
“You were spared, that is your fortune. It seems odd that the Slayer of Slayers and his Childe would spare, you, a slayer. Why is it that you aren’t dead?” he asked.
Buffy felt that this was the time to enter the conversation and easily parted the library doors with almost no sound.
“’Cause she’s mine, and no vampire can put his fangs in her without my say so,” she said startling the Slayer and the two watchers in the room.
The new watcher immediately grabbed a cross and pointed it at Buffy.
“Please,” said Buffy with a roll of her eyes. “Or more to the point, just who the hell are you?” she asked looking him up and down.
“I am Wesley Wyndham-Price,” he introduced himself grandly, smoothing down his tie.
Buffy looked Wesley up and down with a completely judgemental look. “Well, get this Wesley, don’t mess with me or my people.” Buffy then turned to Giles. “The Mayor’s up to something. Willow told me this Vulcanologist guy has been murdered. It has Mayor written all over it.”
“There were words on the body?” asked Wesley curiously, completely missing the point.
“No, you git,” said Buffy, proudly demonstrating her new vocabulary. “Spike taught me that one,” she giggled.
“Have you...?” started Giles, before Buffy could slap down a newspaper clipping on the table.
Giles peered down at the article and read it to himself. As Giles read, Buffy stared down Wesley, who was still holding the cross. As if a cross could stop her from eating him if she had really wanted to eat him. She was also curious about what Faith was doing. Her anger at whatever Wesley had ordered her to do was keeping the Slayer tight lipped and clearly furious, but she hadn't left the library yet.
“Brutally stabbed. Mr. Wirth, visiting professor of geology. There's nothing in here that bellows motive,” noted Giles.
“Random killing, maybe?” asked Faith, instantly curious about the killing and its association with the mayor.
“The Mayor wanted the good professor out of the way,” said Giles, thinking out loud.
“Which leads to the question, how come? I'm gonna destroy the entire city, but I take the time to kill harmless Lester first?” questioned Buffy with a frown.
“Tying up loose ends? Lester had something or knew something,” offered Giles, leaving the article on the table and stepping away from it.
“Then I wanna know too. The Mayor's trying to hide. I say we go seek,” suggested Faith.
“Ah. By attempting to keep a valuable clue from us, the Mayor may have inadvertently led us right to it,” observed Wesley grandly, as if dispensing crucial advice that no one had thought of before.
“What page are you on, Wes? 'Cause we already got there,” snarked Buffy. “Well I’m off, done my do gooding for the day. Have fun Faithy!”
Buffy didn’t even look over her shoulder as she left the library. She didn't have to look back to feel the glare that Faith was giving to her.
_______________________
Buffy was fully confident in Faith’s ability to be the Slayer. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was retired. Elizabeth the Vampire had a mother to warn out of town.
Things hadn’t been so good between them since she’d moved away with Spike to LA for the second time. They had issues. Buffy was a vampire, and Joyce had tried to set Buffy on fire. Yes, they talked on the phone, and occasionally met for coffee in the brightly lit Espresso Pump. Buffy had even been over to dinner once or twice. But to say that everything was right as rain? No, she couldn’t say that.
And her mother was looking forward to her graduation, if not the actual ceremony ‘cause Buffy couldn’t attend that. Sunlight and all.
Buffy trudged through the sewers, trying not to get any grossness on her shoes. It was slightly ironic that a being with just an enhanced sense of smell was forced to use just a smelly route to visit her mother during the day. Entering the house, Buffy stalked up to her mother’s room hoping that she’d it’d be easier if there was already a bag packed for her mom.
Buffy heard the front door open, indicating that her mother was home from the gallery sooner than she thought she would be.
“Buffy?” asked Joyce perplexed as she entered her bedroom. “Are you stealing my clothes?”
Buffy tried to suppress her laugh at the thought that she would actually wear any of her mother's clothes. She shook off the laugh as she remembered why she was packing a bag for her mom.
“Mom, I need you to leave town. Tonight,” said Buffy seriously.
“Buffy, I'd miss your graduation,” observed Joyce.
“Yeah, that's sort of the idea. I’m not going to the ceremony anyway, sunlight, death, dust,” Buffy explained with a shrug of her shoulders.
“But the afterwards, I was hoping to get pictures of you and your friends, after the sun went down of course...“
“Mom, graduation is a pointless ceremony where you sit around and listen to a bunch of boring speeches until someone hands you a piece of paper that says you’ve graduated which you already know and maroon does nothing for my complexion, so don't argue, okay?”
“What, is some terrible demon going to attack the school?” asked Joyce jokingly, but when she saw Buffy’s look realised that it was what was going to happen. “Oh, I see. Oh, you know, Buffy, looking back on everything that's happened, maybe I should have sent you to a different school.”
“It wouldn’t have changed anything, Mom,“ noted Buffy packing the last bit of clothes. “I probably would have just tried to save the world in a kilt. Which just screams non PG slaying if you ask me. Just promise me that you'll be far away from here.”
“I'm not leaving you to face an awful monster. If I go anywhere, you're going with me,” declared Joyce.
“I should. I should leave this whole thing to Faith. Take you and Spike and get the hell out of Dodge. I can’t, not this time Mom.”
“Well then I can't either,” declared her mother resolutely.
Buffy put her hands on her hips. “I’ll have minions keep you away Mom. Think about this. Do you want to go under your own power or do you want slimy, unwashed minions packing you away in the trunk of a car? ‘Cause it can go either way.“
Joyce sighed the sigh of the defeated.
_______________________
Buffy walked into her house on Crawford Street to see Anya packing up a ugly, used, battered old car.
“Chickening out?” Buffy asked. “We’re all going to get eaten by a demon and you’re not going to stick around for the fondue afterwards?”
Anya shook her head. “I’m new to this whole human thing, but you know what? I don’t want to die. I’m still hoping to get my amulet back. I don’t want to die.”
“Fair enough,” noted Buffy. “But we could use your help, you’ve been loads of help already. What’s one little apocalypse under your belt? The other demons won’t look down on you for it. Promise.”
“Funny.”
“Ooh! Or how about this? You stick around for the fighting and the death mayhem and blood and I’ll help you get your amulet back again. How’s that for a deal? Besides, I think Xander likes you.”
Anya pondered it for a moment. "My amulet for helping you, horribly unprepared group of demon hunters, to destroy possibly the largest and most powerful demon that you've ever faced? Why?"
"Xander'll be there..."
_______________________
Buffy, holding Spike’s hand, walked though the swinging doors of the library, the light from the incandescent bulbs in the library creating a yellow glow in the room, a stark contrast to the florescent vibrating madness that permeated the rest of the school. Wesley, Faith, and Giles hovered around a pile of papers and books on the table.
Faith instantly knew that the vampires had arrived. She looked nervously at the pair.
“This is truly fascinating,” exclaimed Wesley, his eyes pouring. over what Buffy assumed were documents Faith had retrieved from the professor’s office.
“What?” asked Giles, acknowledging Buffy and Spike as they walked through the door.
“It seems our Mr. Wirth headed an expedition in Hawaii, digging in old lava beds near a dormant volcano,” explained Wesley, not looking up from the book.
“I'm not fascinated yet,” noted Buffy, moving towards a chair, and indicating to Spike that she wanted him to sit.
“He found something underneath. A carcass, buried by an eruption...” Wesley trailed off as he looked up from the book to the voice that had interrupted him. “I see this time you’ve brought your Sire. Will there be more threats? Or are you actually going to try to bite me this time?”
Spike rolled his eyes, pulling Buffy down on his lap.
“ A carcass?” questioned Giles, trying to get Wesley back on the topic at hand.
“A very large one. Mr. Wirth posits that it might be some heretofore undiscovered dinosaur,” continued Wesley, glaring at the vampire couple.
“A demon?” asked Spike.
“Yes, that would be something that the Mayor would want to keep a secret. If it's the same kind of demon he's turning into and it's dead, it means that, well, he's only impervious to harm until the Ascension. In his demon form, he can be killed,” considered Giles.
“Great. So all we need is a million tons of burning lava. We're saved,” Buffy joked.
“What if it wasn’t lava, luv?“ suggested Spike. “I know quite a few fun toys that make a much prettier flame.“
“Fire pretty,“ agreed Buffy with a smile.
_______________________
tbc...
Author’s note: Some dialogue taken from “Graduation Day part 1.” Once again I hug and thank the wonderful BTL for the great betaing. She beta’d this chapter twice too: once BH (Before Hiatus) and once after.
_______________________
Chapter 22: Avoiding Fiery Death
First day of school back, after the Prom, the hallways of Sunnydale High were full of students eagerly discussing just what had happened at prom and just who had slept with whom. It was pretty common knowledge now that Anya and Xander were together, but the biggest news was Faith and her outburst and the fact that she had showed up at prom with blood on her clothes.
Buffy was keenly interested in finding out the cause of Faith's outburst. Avoiding the patches of sunlight, Buffy made her way through the hallways of the high school, in search of Giles who, she hoped, would explain what she wanted to know. She was also enjoying the fact that soon she would be in possession of a piece of paper that stated she never had to come back to this building of hell and disappointment again.
Everywhere students were saying good bye to teachers and classmates. Even Willow seemed to be overly friendly with Harmony for some reason. Buffy walked down the steps to her friend’s location just as the vapid airhead departed.
“Oh, I'm gonna miss her,” declared Willow in a longing voice.
“Don't you hate her?” asked Buffy, completely confused.
“Yes, with a fiery vengeance,” explained Willow. “She picked on me for ten years, the vacuous tramp. It's like a sickness, Buffy. I'm just missing everything. I miss P.E.”
“I think it's contagious. The whole senior class has turned into the Sixties, or what I would have imagined the Sixties would have been like without the war and the hairy armpits,” explained Buffy.
“You don't feel it?” asked the red head with confusion.
“No, I don't. I guess I'll miss stuff, but I just don't get the whole graduation thing. I mean, you get a piece of paper and nothing changes. I don't even think I'm gonna go. It’s during the day and all, I think I’d like to not be dust.”
At that moment they passed the student lounge, and the soda machine, Willow gave the machine a tender look.
“Old trusty soda machine. I push you for root beer, you give me coke,” cooed Willow at the machine. Then she turned with a frown towards her friend. “What do you mean, not go? Why not?”
“You weren’t listening...Sunlight, day? Besides, I thought maybe I’d spend my time productively. Like fighting the Mayor in his demony state, snacking on the populace. I hear that’s good times. You know, provided if it’s indoors and away from that thing I like to affectionately call fiery death,” explained Buffy as they sat down at a table.
“ You can't do both?” asked Willow.
Xander strolled by and sat with them. “Both what?”
“Go to graduation, and thereby bursting into flame, and fight the Mayor,” answered Buffy.
“ The Mayor? What, you guys didn't hear?” he said, all excited like.
“Hear what?” asked Buffy.
“Guess who our commencement speaker is?” continued Xander, still failing to give information that Buffy was increasingly aware that might be important.
“Siegfried?” offered Willow.
“No.”
“Roy?” asked Willow again.
“No.”
“One of the tigers?” said Willow hopefully.
“Come out of the fantasy, Will,” asked Xander patiently.
“I don't believe this,” exclaimed Buffy, coming to the conclusion just fine on her own, without Willow and Xander‘s games.
“Lends credence to my whole ‘"I'm gonna die"’ theorem, doesn't it?” he prattled on.
“The Mayor at graduation? A hundred helpless kids to feed on. Got any other surprises for us?” asked Buffy. “Maybe Faith will graduate with honours?”
_______________________
The Slayer in question was in the library, completely loud and grr at the situation unfolding there. Buffy peered into the library window, watching and listening.
“I will not!” protested the actual slayer towards the unknown British man that stood next to Giles.
“You will. The Council demands it.”
“Ya, ‘cause the last time I did something the Council demanded I didn’t watch thirty men get slaughtered right in front of my eyes. Forgive me if I don’t run jumping with joy every time I get orders from on high.”
“You were spared, that is your fortune. It seems odd that the Slayer of Slayers and his Childe would spare, you, a slayer. Why is it that you aren’t dead?” he asked.
Buffy felt that this was the time to enter the conversation and easily parted the library doors with almost no sound.
“’Cause she’s mine, and no vampire can put his fangs in her without my say so,” she said startling the Slayer and the two watchers in the room.
The new watcher immediately grabbed a cross and pointed it at Buffy.
“Please,” said Buffy with a roll of her eyes. “Or more to the point, just who the hell are you?” she asked looking him up and down.
“I am Wesley Wyndham-Price,” he introduced himself grandly, smoothing down his tie.
Buffy looked Wesley up and down with a completely judgemental look. “Well, get this Wesley, don’t mess with me or my people.” Buffy then turned to Giles. “The Mayor’s up to something. Willow told me this Vulcanologist guy has been murdered. It has Mayor written all over it.”
“There were words on the body?” asked Wesley curiously, completely missing the point.
“No, you git,” said Buffy, proudly demonstrating her new vocabulary. “Spike taught me that one,” she giggled.
“Have you...?” started Giles, before Buffy could slap down a newspaper clipping on the table.
Giles peered down at the article and read it to himself. As Giles read, Buffy stared down Wesley, who was still holding the cross. As if a cross could stop her from eating him if she had really wanted to eat him. She was also curious about what Faith was doing. Her anger at whatever Wesley had ordered her to do was keeping the Slayer tight lipped and clearly furious, but she hadn't left the library yet.
“Brutally stabbed. Mr. Wirth, visiting professor of geology. There's nothing in here that bellows motive,” noted Giles.
“Random killing, maybe?” asked Faith, instantly curious about the killing and its association with the mayor.
“The Mayor wanted the good professor out of the way,” said Giles, thinking out loud.
“Which leads to the question, how come? I'm gonna destroy the entire city, but I take the time to kill harmless Lester first?” questioned Buffy with a frown.
“Tying up loose ends? Lester had something or knew something,” offered Giles, leaving the article on the table and stepping away from it.
“Then I wanna know too. The Mayor's trying to hide. I say we go seek,” suggested Faith.
“Ah. By attempting to keep a valuable clue from us, the Mayor may have inadvertently led us right to it,” observed Wesley grandly, as if dispensing crucial advice that no one had thought of before.
“What page are you on, Wes? 'Cause we already got there,” snarked Buffy. “Well I’m off, done my do gooding for the day. Have fun Faithy!”
Buffy didn’t even look over her shoulder as she left the library. She didn't have to look back to feel the glare that Faith was giving to her.
_______________________
Buffy was fully confident in Faith’s ability to be the Slayer. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was retired. Elizabeth the Vampire had a mother to warn out of town.
Things hadn’t been so good between them since she’d moved away with Spike to LA for the second time. They had issues. Buffy was a vampire, and Joyce had tried to set Buffy on fire. Yes, they talked on the phone, and occasionally met for coffee in the brightly lit Espresso Pump. Buffy had even been over to dinner once or twice. But to say that everything was right as rain? No, she couldn’t say that.
And her mother was looking forward to her graduation, if not the actual ceremony ‘cause Buffy couldn’t attend that. Sunlight and all.
Buffy trudged through the sewers, trying not to get any grossness on her shoes. It was slightly ironic that a being with just an enhanced sense of smell was forced to use just a smelly route to visit her mother during the day. Entering the house, Buffy stalked up to her mother’s room hoping that she’d it’d be easier if there was already a bag packed for her mom.
Buffy heard the front door open, indicating that her mother was home from the gallery sooner than she thought she would be.
“Buffy?” asked Joyce perplexed as she entered her bedroom. “Are you stealing my clothes?”
Buffy tried to suppress her laugh at the thought that she would actually wear any of her mother's clothes. She shook off the laugh as she remembered why she was packing a bag for her mom.
“Mom, I need you to leave town. Tonight,” said Buffy seriously.
“Buffy, I'd miss your graduation,” observed Joyce.
“Yeah, that's sort of the idea. I’m not going to the ceremony anyway, sunlight, death, dust,” Buffy explained with a shrug of her shoulders.
“But the afterwards, I was hoping to get pictures of you and your friends, after the sun went down of course...“
“Mom, graduation is a pointless ceremony where you sit around and listen to a bunch of boring speeches until someone hands you a piece of paper that says you’ve graduated which you already know and maroon does nothing for my complexion, so don't argue, okay?”
“What, is some terrible demon going to attack the school?” asked Joyce jokingly, but when she saw Buffy’s look realised that it was what was going to happen. “Oh, I see. Oh, you know, Buffy, looking back on everything that's happened, maybe I should have sent you to a different school.”
“It wouldn’t have changed anything, Mom,“ noted Buffy packing the last bit of clothes. “I probably would have just tried to save the world in a kilt. Which just screams non PG slaying if you ask me. Just promise me that you'll be far away from here.”
“I'm not leaving you to face an awful monster. If I go anywhere, you're going with me,” declared Joyce.
“I should. I should leave this whole thing to Faith. Take you and Spike and get the hell out of Dodge. I can’t, not this time Mom.”
“Well then I can't either,” declared her mother resolutely.
Buffy put her hands on her hips. “I’ll have minions keep you away Mom. Think about this. Do you want to go under your own power or do you want slimy, unwashed minions packing you away in the trunk of a car? ‘Cause it can go either way.“
Joyce sighed the sigh of the defeated.
_______________________
Buffy walked into her house on Crawford Street to see Anya packing up a ugly, used, battered old car.
“Chickening out?” Buffy asked. “We’re all going to get eaten by a demon and you’re not going to stick around for the fondue afterwards?”
Anya shook her head. “I’m new to this whole human thing, but you know what? I don’t want to die. I’m still hoping to get my amulet back. I don’t want to die.”
“Fair enough,” noted Buffy. “But we could use your help, you’ve been loads of help already. What’s one little apocalypse under your belt? The other demons won’t look down on you for it. Promise.”
“Funny.”
“Ooh! Or how about this? You stick around for the fighting and the death mayhem and blood and I’ll help you get your amulet back again. How’s that for a deal? Besides, I think Xander likes you.”
Anya pondered it for a moment. "My amulet for helping you, horribly unprepared group of demon hunters, to destroy possibly the largest and most powerful demon that you've ever faced? Why?"
"Xander'll be there..."
_______________________
Buffy, holding Spike’s hand, walked though the swinging doors of the library, the light from the incandescent bulbs in the library creating a yellow glow in the room, a stark contrast to the florescent vibrating madness that permeated the rest of the school. Wesley, Faith, and Giles hovered around a pile of papers and books on the table.
Faith instantly knew that the vampires had arrived. She looked nervously at the pair.
“This is truly fascinating,” exclaimed Wesley, his eyes pouring. over what Buffy assumed were documents Faith had retrieved from the professor’s office.
“What?” asked Giles, acknowledging Buffy and Spike as they walked through the door.
“It seems our Mr. Wirth headed an expedition in Hawaii, digging in old lava beds near a dormant volcano,” explained Wesley, not looking up from the book.
“I'm not fascinated yet,” noted Buffy, moving towards a chair, and indicating to Spike that she wanted him to sit.
“He found something underneath. A carcass, buried by an eruption...” Wesley trailed off as he looked up from the book to the voice that had interrupted him. “I see this time you’ve brought your Sire. Will there be more threats? Or are you actually going to try to bite me this time?”
Spike rolled his eyes, pulling Buffy down on his lap.
“ A carcass?” questioned Giles, trying to get Wesley back on the topic at hand.
“A very large one. Mr. Wirth posits that it might be some heretofore undiscovered dinosaur,” continued Wesley, glaring at the vampire couple.
“A demon?” asked Spike.
“Yes, that would be something that the Mayor would want to keep a secret. If it's the same kind of demon he's turning into and it's dead, it means that, well, he's only impervious to harm until the Ascension. In his demon form, he can be killed,” considered Giles.
“Great. So all we need is a million tons of burning lava. We're saved,” Buffy joked.
“What if it wasn’t lava, luv?“ suggested Spike. “I know quite a few fun toys that make a much prettier flame.“
“Fire pretty,“ agreed Buffy with a smile.
_______________________
tbc...
A New Addition
Disclaimer: Joss made the characters, I’m just playing with his toys.
Author’s note: Once again, many thanks to the wonderful BTL for betaing.
_______________________
Chapter 23: A New Addition
Buffy was excited about the plan. Very excited. In fact, she was going to ignore the fact that she could smell that Willow and Oz had finally done ‘it’ because she was so excited. They were going to blow up the school, the building that had held her most frightening nightmares. She was practically giddy with the happiness.
It was going to be Faith’s day of glory. It was Faith who was going to fight the Mayor. Buffy had to concede that this was Faith’s job, Faith’s duty, Faith’s destiny. Also the fact that Buffy wouldn’t be very helpful until the sun was hidden by the foretold eclipse. It would have been much funner of course if Faith hadn’t decided to keep reminding her of the plan and how Buffy would have to wait until the sun was no longer a threat.
As the students filed in, each and everyone of them prepared for the event, crossbows, swords, and various other weaponry hidden under their robes, Buffy gave them a little wave as they headed into the courtyard of the school. She couldn‘t go out into the sun but that didn‘t mean she couldn‘t be there to cheer her fellow students on, give them moral support and all that. Spike was at her side, eagerly looking forward to a fight. Buffy glared at Harmony as the blond flake passed by on her way into the courtyard, giving Spike an appreciative once over, as she passed. Buffy was going to have some words with Harmony when this whole thing was over. That is, if Harmony survived. Buffy was not so secretly hoping that Harmony Kendall would end up one of the inevitable casualties.
Once the event started, complete with threats from Snyder, Buffy started to yawn. She shifted her weight from side to side as she listened to the Mayor’s speech from indoors. Buffy was bored. She started picking at her nails, followed by an irritating bout of drumming her fingers against the stucco wall of the school to relieve her boredom. Finally, the sky began to darkened. Buffy started bouncing on her heels, waiting for the instant when it was safe to venture outside and into the fight.
As the Mayor transformed and started looking hungrily at the students assembled Buffy heard Faith’s orders. The students threw off their robes and the fight began. Buffy gave Spike a peck on the cheek before rushing off into the darkness.
_______________________
When it was all over, the school was totalled and bodies of students she had fought along side littered the campus. Harmony was dead; one of the Mayor’s vampires had killed her. Turned her probably. In a sick sort of way Buffy was happy about that. Now she’d be able to kill the bimbo herself for ogling her man. She’d have no qualms about dusting Vamp!Harmony.
Faith was slightly singed and had a pronounced limp. Cordelia had a cut across her face but other than that, her friends remained unscathed. Willow, Xander, Oz, and Giles were uninjured and Wesley was nowhere to be found. Her people safe, Buffy turned to her mate for happy congratulatory hugs. As she pressed her body up against his, she couldn’t help but notice the fact that Spike was as turned on by the fight as she was. Amidst the fire trucks and ambulances, Spike and Buffy rushed off to their house.
They crashed through the door, trying desperately to divest the other of their clothing. Something about the smell of the burnt school on Spike’s clothes made her want to take them off of him. And it seemed that he was in a similar situation. Their trek up the stairs to their bedroom was plagued by bumps and bruises as they refused to let their lips leave the other’s. They knocked the banister clean off the wall.
Crashing through the door, Buffy finally managed to pull Spike’s black jeans down his legs and let little Spike out to play. Spike’s long hard shaft greeted her hungry eyes as she pulled the jeans from his feet. With a lick to the underside of his now exposed cock, she brought her game face to the fore and took him in, carefully nicking his soft skin as she went, sending tendrils of blood into her mouth. Then she began to work her magic.
Spike had to grab hold of something as the feeling of Buffy sucking on his cock and on his blood at the same time weakened his knees, and forced something between a wail and a moan from his mouth. Talented cock sucker that she was, she didn’t leave off when he said, between pants, that he was about to cum. He grabbed her head roughly as he spewed into her mouth, her eager throat swallowing him down and making him hard again all at the same time.
Licking her lips over her fangs, she smiled up at her mate and stood up, only to have him rip off what was left of her clothing and toss her on the bed. She landed with a bounce and crawled backwards settling her head on a pillow, her legs parted slightly, eagerly anticipating what he was going to do next. Panther like, he crawled towards her, the look on his face one of pure lust. Pushing her thighs apart roughly, his tongue sought out her wet core, brushing the folds of her pussy and sucking briefly on her clit.
Her juices on his lips, he pulled back from the wet, cool centre and brought his fangs to the fore. Carefully he kissed the inside of her thigh, then scrapped a fang down across her pale soft skin, leaving a trail of red droplets in his wake.
Buffy hissed in pain but smiled as his tongue gently lapped up the blood and set about lavishing her wet channel with this talented tongue. She screamed out her approval throughout the room. The persistent probing made her shout out his name to the rafters. She didn‘t care that either the minions or Anya could hear her.
Before she had time to recover from her earth shattering orgasm, Spike flipped her over onto her hands and knees and spread her legs once more, positioning his cock at her entrance as he bent over her pale back. He raked his own, painted nails down her back gleefully, finding another source of his mate’s blood to lick up. Swiftly he entered her, ignoring her initial grunt before grabbing her blond hair roughly and forcing her to look at him.
“Mine,” he growled possessively, turning her head and biting down on her neck.
She moaned as she felt his thick shaft thrust into her, his thrusts in perfect unison with the pull of the blood from her throat. Her hands gripped the satin sheets of their bed as she countered his thrusts, her ass slapping against his pelvis.
“Yours, forever,” she moaned.
_______________________
Buffy was reading the Sunnydale U course catalogue in the main foyer, enjoying the sun as only a vampire could, several feet away from a patch of it. It was about as close as she was going to ever get to it ever again. Spike was off in the hole with the new minions, digging for his precious gem. At least he had a hobby.
The front door opened and in walked Anya, toting a heavy bag on her shoulder. Buffy put the catalogue down and stared in shock at the former demon.
“Well, I never expected to see you back again.,” commented Buffy.
Anya shrugged. “I missed Xander,” she said honestly, dropping the bag to the floor.
Buffy let a satisfied smile grace her face. Score one for matchmaking Buffy.
“We have minions now,” stated Buffy factually. “But your room is still free if you want it.”
“Thanks,” came Anya’s reply, looking around the room for noticeable changes to the decor.
The room filled with an awkward silence as Buffy looked at her housemate, waiting for something to happen or to be said.
“I thought you said there were minions? I’m not taking my bag upstairs if you have minions. Is there a bell I ring?“ asked Anya.
With a laugh Buffy raised to fingers to her mouth and blew a harsh whistle into the rest of the house. As if by magic, a minion came rushing up from the basement.
“Mistress Elizabeth?“ prompted the minion respectfully.
“Take Anya’s bag upstairs to her room. She’s returning to the house. Don’t eat her. She’s a Vengeance Demon,“ ordered Buffy flippantly.
“Thanks,“ noted Anya as she followed the minion up the stairs, leaving Buffy in her reclining beach chair, five feet from the sun patch.
_______________________
Anya’s addition to the household was uneventful. It was as if the minions had no interest in turning a former demon. No need for Buffy to get all bite happy with Anya. She had enough marked people walking around Sunnydale.
Of the two people she’d marked, Willow was by far the most acclimatized to being a future childe. Willow had lived the vampire life for a bit after all. Much like Buffy had before she had been turned. There was no doubt in Buffy’s mind that if Willow’s life was ever dying with no hope of recovery, she’d turn Willow.
And she was pretty sure that Willow would have a problem with that.
Buffy’s other marked future childe, Faith, had been remarkably absent whenever Buffy had called in on Giles at his apartment these last few weeks, since the Mayor’s destruction. Giles insisted that she was still on the side of good. Just that she was still a bit reluctant to keep company with the pair of vampires living at the Crawford Street mansion.
In truth, Buffy really couldn’t blame Faith for that. But after all the patrolling, the helping and the whole, ‘let’s kill the Mayor for fun’ bonding moments, Buffy had hoped that the Slayer would have, well maybe not forgiven her, but something similar at least, her. Trust had still not been earned after all this time.
Buffy pondered this as she returned from her excursion to Sunnydale U to pick up orientation stuff. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to go, but she wanted to know what the other young co-eds were doing, so she could moan that she wanted to go.
And Spike would tell her, to wait, ‘cause he was going to find that blasted Gem of Amara soon.
Sure.
Although it was the middle of the day, and Buffy thought about taking a walk over to the latest digging site to give her mate an encouraging shag. All he needed was motivation, right? With a smile, Buffy travelled the now familiar sewers, heading towards Spike’s hole in the ground. Unfortunately, Buffy turned a corner, to come face to face with the disgusting, unwashed body of Harmony Kendall.
Immediately Buffy’s hand went to her nose. “Eww, Harmony! Vampires, we can take showers to you know.”
Just as Buffy had predicted, Harmony had been turned at graduation. Clearly not childer, and certainly not under the protection of a master, Harmony was a pathetic cowering mess. This particular corner of the sewers looked like it had been her home for the last week or so. Harmony’s Yearbook and diploma were hanging on the wall.
Immediately, Buffy wondered why she hadn’t found Harmony here before.
Must have taken a wrong turn, she thought to herself.
Harmony’s dirty and smudged face broke into a smile. “Buffy!” Harmony stepped forward to hug Buffy but the former slayer backed away before Harmony could make contact.
“Ugh, you are so not touching me!” Buffy screeched.
“Sorry, but Buffy, you have to help me. I don’t know what to do! I woke up like this!” wailed Harmony indicating her state of grossness.
“You woke up dirty and smelly in a sewer?” questioned Buffy as Harmony pouted at her.
Buffy shook her head sadly. It was clear from Harmony’s outward appearance that she hadn’t changed her clothes since she had been turned. It was probable that whatever doofus had turned her had been killed during graduation. So now, Harmony was vampy and Buffy felt bad that she had no sire to take care of her.
Whatever plans Buffy had of dusting Vamp!Harmony for checking out Spike at graduation flew out the window. The Mistress of Sunnydale hemmed and hawed for a moment, then finally made a decision. “Fine, Harmony, come with me, but don’t touch me!”
Buffy turned on her heel, not giving Harmony time to fetch her meagre belongings before heading off in the direction of the Mansion, all the while cursing herself for her decision.
When they reached the basement sewer access for the Crawford Street Mansion, Buffy steeled herself for the minions’ reactions. She had never brought home a fledge before. She had always given the minions the impression that fledges, minions, vamps that weren’t childer, were beneath her. Yep, she was a snob, but it helped. If she didn’t get too attached to the minions, she wouldn’t care when Faith dusted them, or when Spike decimated the ranks occasionally. Throwing open the sewer grate open, Buffy stepped into the basement, Harmony following closely behind.
The basement had been fitted out for the comfort of the minions. There were bunks and a bathroom especially for their use. The upstairs of the house was for the master, mistress, and the Vengeance Demon.
A minion shut the gate, and glared at Harmony. The group of minions who were not in the hole with Spike were suddenly very aware of the new vampire in their midst and circled around. Several of them wrinkled their noses at the smell Harmony had brought into their basement.
“She needs a shower,“ said Buffy factually, knowing full well that the minions would take this as an order. “And new clothes. Then I want to see her upstairs in 30 minutes.”
A blonde minion stepped forward and pushed Harmony towards the bathroom. Despite Harmony’s protests about being left alone with these strange vamps, Buffy fled the minion’s basement to the comfortable living room. Buffy cringed at her inability to leave helpless people alone.
Buffy immediately phoned Willow to let her know whom she had found in the sewers. Of course, it being the middle of the day, and summertime, Willow wasn’t at home. She was probably off with Oz doing romantic things.
Buffy would have walked up to Anya’s room to talk to the former Vengeance Demon about Harmony, except the lack of heartbeat in the house meant that Anya wasn’t home either. She was probably out with Xander.
Mistress Elizabeth settled back into her lounge chair and pulled out a copy of Cosmo. Her friends really needed cell phones.
Half an hour later, on the dot, Harmony was ushered into the living room, followed by a number of curious minions. Harmony was dressed in in some clothes, donated by a few of the female minions, clothes that were clearly way too small for her. Parts of Harmony that Buffy had never hoped to see were escaping the tight fitting clothes.
“Uh, Buffy are you sure we can’t go out and like, kill some shop keeper for new clothes?” asked the inept vampire.
Buffy rolled her eyes. “Harmony, if you were able to kill anyone successfully I don’t think you’d be living in the sewers and unwashed.”
“It’s not fair!” Harmony whined. “No one taught me to be a vampire! I just woke up and I didn’t have a heartbeat! Can we eat a doctor to steal his stethathingy? So I can hear my heart not beating?”
Mistress Elizabeth face firmly in place, Buffy stood and glared at Harmony. “Let’s get this one thing straight, Harmony. You don’t make the suggestions. You might not have been sired properly, but I was. You will listen to me and do as I say, are we clear?”
Harmony nodded.
“Good. Now, Harmony, when the sun sets someone will find you some clothes that fit. You don’t leave this house. You do what I say and what Spike says. If you aren’t needed by Spike in the hole you‘ll be here. Oh and Harmony?”
“Yes?”
“You don’t get to call me Buffy anymore. It’s Mistress now. Mistress Elizabeth. Step out of line, and you‘ll find your head has come off your body. ‘Kay?” asked Buffy with a smile.
Harmony looked back at Buffy in horror.
_______________________
Buffy had Harmony cleaning the bathroom that Anya used as Spike and the other minions came home from digging for the night. Happy that her mate was home once again, Buffy bounded into his arms, not caring that the minions were around or that Spike needed a shower. She planted a sloppy kiss on his lips.
“I brought a new minion home,” noted Buffy, expecting him to be all proud.
“We don’t need any more minions, luv, too many of ‘em know about the gem,” he countered.
Buffy started to pout. “I couldn’t just leave her there, she was gross Spike. Her Sire was slayed at Graduation. She was all pathetic and icky. I had to take her in.”
“Why didn’t you just stake her then?” he asked curiously.
“It’s Harmony.”
“The cheerleader’s friend? Bloody hell, Buffy!” he moaned detaching her from around his hips and setting her feet down on the floor.
With a weak smile, Buffy shrugged her shoulders. “If she’s really that bad, you can stake her.”
As if on cue, the vampire in question came down the stairs, holding a sponge and being followed by an irate Anya, who was poking the vampire with a cross as they walked.
“Ow!” whined Harmony. “Stop that! It hurts. And it’s making my skin all blotchy!”
“It’s supposed to hurt, Harmony. You’re a vampire and this cross is supposed to hurt you,” stated Anya, annoyed.
“What did she do?” asked Buffy resigned. She had figured that Anya would find the vampire doing something she didn’t like sooner or later. Harmony wasn’t known for her cleaning skills.
“She was trying on my clothes. She probably stretched out my new shirt. I was going to wear it for my date with Xander,” Anya complained.
“You are still dating that geek?” questioned Harmony.
“Why is she even here?” asked Anya frustrated.
“She’s our new housekeeper,” stated Buffy, shrugging her shoulders.
On the stairs, Anya gave Harmony another prod with the cross, but this time the pain and burning failed to move the blond vampire. The smell of burning filled the air of the room as Harmony was aware of nothing else other than Spike’s handsome physique. The vampires and Anya waited for the pain to finally work its way into Harmony’s brain.
“Ow!” she finally screamed, trying to get away from the offending object and in doing so, misstepped and fell down the remaining steps. Harmony landed at Buffy and Spike’s feet on the foyer floor.
With a growl, Harmony got up off the floor and took a step towards Anya, her fangs bared. She didn’t even have time to register Buffy’s movement, so intent on making the former classmate pay for what she did that she was unaware of anything else.
Buffy grabbed Harmony’s neck and spun her around to face her. “You don’t touch Anya. She’s not your food. She’s my friend and I want her here. I want her here much more than I care whether you unlive or dust.”
Harmony wrenched herself out of Buffy’s grip and stumbled a couple of steps back. “Why are you protecting her? She’s a human? We eat humans. Right? Wait, is this some sort of vampire diet? Are humans fattening?”
Buffy and Spike both rolled their eyes. The minions around them waited for something to be done. Usually if one of their numbers annoyed Master Spike this much, they ended as a pile of dust. This new vamp wasn’t going to last long the way she was going.
Spike stepped towards the new addition to their clan. Looking her up and down with a sneer, the comparisons between this one and his mate sprung forward. Unfortunately for her, Harmony thought he was looking at her with his mind on the one thing she knew men thought about all the time. This was her time to use the talents God had given her and those skills she had practiced in high school.
Harmony batted her eyes at the bleached blond vampire that invaded her space. She pressed her body up against his seductively. She cooed appreciatively, looking up at his blue eyes through her eyelashes.
Buffy felt the jealousy rise up inside of her. No one did this to Spike, no one. Especially not in front of her. And not in front of the minions. She could feel their eyes boring into the back of her head as the scene continued, waiting for her to make an example of this new one.
And she wanted to, in the worst way. She fought the need to let her fangs descend and rip into Harmony’s flesh. She wanted to rip off Harmony’s arms for touching Spike, drop her in boiling oil for thinking that her movements were getting Buffy’s mate hot.
The only thing that was making her stop was the little slayer like voice in her head. Harmony didn’t deserve to die. Harmony was just a moron that didn’t know better. Harmony was....
Her inner thoughts were interrupted as Buffy saw Harmony lean forward and lick Spike’s ear, whispering about what she could do for him upstairs, that she knew how to do things that a prude like Buffy would know anything about.
That was it. Buffy lost it. Fangs descending, Buffy ripped Harmony off of Spike and threw the weak fledge halfway across the room, slamming her into a statue. Buffy pounced on top of Harmony and started beating the crap out of her.
Harmony screamed her innocence, that she didn’t know that Spike was hers. The screams fell on deaf ears. Spike stood back and let his mate do what she felt she had to do to assert her dominance. It was good for the minions to see it too. Buffy was mistress here and no other.
Blood was flowing freely from Harmony’s face when Buffy finally let up, licking the blood off her hands. Harmony’s screams had turned to whimpers as she lay on the floor in a bloody mess.
“Great,” started Anya. “Now there’s a big blood stain on the floor. Xander’s never going to want to pick me up for our dates here again.”
“No,” said Buffy licking the last of the blood from her hands. “Harmony’s our housekeeper, this will be cleaned up before Xander picks you up for your date Anya. Or Harmony will spend the day in the garden, in chains.” The cold tone of her voice was directed at Harmony and not Anya.
“So instead of blood on the floor, there’ll be dust in the garden?” asked Anya curiously. “I think that’s a good compromise. Xander likes vampire dust.”
Anya flounced back to her room without another look at the bloody vampire.
Buffy turned her attention to her mate though. One look at his crotch and she knew that either Harmony or beating the crap out of Harmony had really got his motor running. Spike reached out a hand to her and grasped her fingers. Gently, he brought her hand down to his cock, straining against his jeans. He leaned in to her ear.
“You did this, luv. No other but you. Hasn’t been anyone but you since we first met, when you were all virginal and alive. Won’t be anyone but you for eternity,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to cheek.
Buffy could feel herself internally melt. He had this way of letting her know just how much he was in love with her. It made her feel like a puddle of goo. Good goo, but still, goo.
Suddenly he scooped her up and started towards the stairs. With a snarl, he turned back to the minions and barked a few orders about Harmony and how someone was to tell her the rules. Then, planting a kiss on the top of Buffy’s head, he travelled the distance between the foyer and their bedroom, eagerly anticipating the slow way he was going to make love to his mate.
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tbc...
Author’s note: Once again, many thanks to the wonderful BTL for betaing.
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Chapter 23: A New Addition
Buffy was excited about the plan. Very excited. In fact, she was going to ignore the fact that she could smell that Willow and Oz had finally done ‘it’ because she was so excited. They were going to blow up the school, the building that had held her most frightening nightmares. She was practically giddy with the happiness.
It was going to be Faith’s day of glory. It was Faith who was going to fight the Mayor. Buffy had to concede that this was Faith’s job, Faith’s duty, Faith’s destiny. Also the fact that Buffy wouldn’t be very helpful until the sun was hidden by the foretold eclipse. It would have been much funner of course if Faith hadn’t decided to keep reminding her of the plan and how Buffy would have to wait until the sun was no longer a threat.
As the students filed in, each and everyone of them prepared for the event, crossbows, swords, and various other weaponry hidden under their robes, Buffy gave them a little wave as they headed into the courtyard of the school. She couldn‘t go out into the sun but that didn‘t mean she couldn‘t be there to cheer her fellow students on, give them moral support and all that. Spike was at her side, eagerly looking forward to a fight. Buffy glared at Harmony as the blond flake passed by on her way into the courtyard, giving Spike an appreciative once over, as she passed. Buffy was going to have some words with Harmony when this whole thing was over. That is, if Harmony survived. Buffy was not so secretly hoping that Harmony Kendall would end up one of the inevitable casualties.
Once the event started, complete with threats from Snyder, Buffy started to yawn. She shifted her weight from side to side as she listened to the Mayor’s speech from indoors. Buffy was bored. She started picking at her nails, followed by an irritating bout of drumming her fingers against the stucco wall of the school to relieve her boredom. Finally, the sky began to darkened. Buffy started bouncing on her heels, waiting for the instant when it was safe to venture outside and into the fight.
As the Mayor transformed and started looking hungrily at the students assembled Buffy heard Faith’s orders. The students threw off their robes and the fight began. Buffy gave Spike a peck on the cheek before rushing off into the darkness.
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When it was all over, the school was totalled and bodies of students she had fought along side littered the campus. Harmony was dead; one of the Mayor’s vampires had killed her. Turned her probably. In a sick sort of way Buffy was happy about that. Now she’d be able to kill the bimbo herself for ogling her man. She’d have no qualms about dusting Vamp!Harmony.
Faith was slightly singed and had a pronounced limp. Cordelia had a cut across her face but other than that, her friends remained unscathed. Willow, Xander, Oz, and Giles were uninjured and Wesley was nowhere to be found. Her people safe, Buffy turned to her mate for happy congratulatory hugs. As she pressed her body up against his, she couldn’t help but notice the fact that Spike was as turned on by the fight as she was. Amidst the fire trucks and ambulances, Spike and Buffy rushed off to their house.
They crashed through the door, trying desperately to divest the other of their clothing. Something about the smell of the burnt school on Spike’s clothes made her want to take them off of him. And it seemed that he was in a similar situation. Their trek up the stairs to their bedroom was plagued by bumps and bruises as they refused to let their lips leave the other’s. They knocked the banister clean off the wall.
Crashing through the door, Buffy finally managed to pull Spike’s black jeans down his legs and let little Spike out to play. Spike’s long hard shaft greeted her hungry eyes as she pulled the jeans from his feet. With a lick to the underside of his now exposed cock, she brought her game face to the fore and took him in, carefully nicking his soft skin as she went, sending tendrils of blood into her mouth. Then she began to work her magic.
Spike had to grab hold of something as the feeling of Buffy sucking on his cock and on his blood at the same time weakened his knees, and forced something between a wail and a moan from his mouth. Talented cock sucker that she was, she didn’t leave off when he said, between pants, that he was about to cum. He grabbed her head roughly as he spewed into her mouth, her eager throat swallowing him down and making him hard again all at the same time.
Licking her lips over her fangs, she smiled up at her mate and stood up, only to have him rip off what was left of her clothing and toss her on the bed. She landed with a bounce and crawled backwards settling her head on a pillow, her legs parted slightly, eagerly anticipating what he was going to do next. Panther like, he crawled towards her, the look on his face one of pure lust. Pushing her thighs apart roughly, his tongue sought out her wet core, brushing the folds of her pussy and sucking briefly on her clit.
Her juices on his lips, he pulled back from the wet, cool centre and brought his fangs to the fore. Carefully he kissed the inside of her thigh, then scrapped a fang down across her pale soft skin, leaving a trail of red droplets in his wake.
Buffy hissed in pain but smiled as his tongue gently lapped up the blood and set about lavishing her wet channel with this talented tongue. She screamed out her approval throughout the room. The persistent probing made her shout out his name to the rafters. She didn‘t care that either the minions or Anya could hear her.
Before she had time to recover from her earth shattering orgasm, Spike flipped her over onto her hands and knees and spread her legs once more, positioning his cock at her entrance as he bent over her pale back. He raked his own, painted nails down her back gleefully, finding another source of his mate’s blood to lick up. Swiftly he entered her, ignoring her initial grunt before grabbing her blond hair roughly and forcing her to look at him.
“Mine,” he growled possessively, turning her head and biting down on her neck.
She moaned as she felt his thick shaft thrust into her, his thrusts in perfect unison with the pull of the blood from her throat. Her hands gripped the satin sheets of their bed as she countered his thrusts, her ass slapping against his pelvis.
“Yours, forever,” she moaned.
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Buffy was reading the Sunnydale U course catalogue in the main foyer, enjoying the sun as only a vampire could, several feet away from a patch of it. It was about as close as she was going to ever get to it ever again. Spike was off in the hole with the new minions, digging for his precious gem. At least he had a hobby.
The front door opened and in walked Anya, toting a heavy bag on her shoulder. Buffy put the catalogue down and stared in shock at the former demon.
“Well, I never expected to see you back again.,” commented Buffy.
Anya shrugged. “I missed Xander,” she said honestly, dropping the bag to the floor.
Buffy let a satisfied smile grace her face. Score one for matchmaking Buffy.
“We have minions now,” stated Buffy factually. “But your room is still free if you want it.”
“Thanks,” came Anya’s reply, looking around the room for noticeable changes to the decor.
The room filled with an awkward silence as Buffy looked at her housemate, waiting for something to happen or to be said.
“I thought you said there were minions? I’m not taking my bag upstairs if you have minions. Is there a bell I ring?“ asked Anya.
With a laugh Buffy raised to fingers to her mouth and blew a harsh whistle into the rest of the house. As if by magic, a minion came rushing up from the basement.
“Mistress Elizabeth?“ prompted the minion respectfully.
“Take Anya’s bag upstairs to her room. She’s returning to the house. Don’t eat her. She’s a Vengeance Demon,“ ordered Buffy flippantly.
“Thanks,“ noted Anya as she followed the minion up the stairs, leaving Buffy in her reclining beach chair, five feet from the sun patch.
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Anya’s addition to the household was uneventful. It was as if the minions had no interest in turning a former demon. No need for Buffy to get all bite happy with Anya. She had enough marked people walking around Sunnydale.
Of the two people she’d marked, Willow was by far the most acclimatized to being a future childe. Willow had lived the vampire life for a bit after all. Much like Buffy had before she had been turned. There was no doubt in Buffy’s mind that if Willow’s life was ever dying with no hope of recovery, she’d turn Willow.
And she was pretty sure that Willow would have a problem with that.
Buffy’s other marked future childe, Faith, had been remarkably absent whenever Buffy had called in on Giles at his apartment these last few weeks, since the Mayor’s destruction. Giles insisted that she was still on the side of good. Just that she was still a bit reluctant to keep company with the pair of vampires living at the Crawford Street mansion.
In truth, Buffy really couldn’t blame Faith for that. But after all the patrolling, the helping and the whole, ‘let’s kill the Mayor for fun’ bonding moments, Buffy had hoped that the Slayer would have, well maybe not forgiven her, but something similar at least, her. Trust had still not been earned after all this time.
Buffy pondered this as she returned from her excursion to Sunnydale U to pick up orientation stuff. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to go, but she wanted to know what the other young co-eds were doing, so she could moan that she wanted to go.
And Spike would tell her, to wait, ‘cause he was going to find that blasted Gem of Amara soon.
Sure.
Although it was the middle of the day, and Buffy thought about taking a walk over to the latest digging site to give her mate an encouraging shag. All he needed was motivation, right? With a smile, Buffy travelled the now familiar sewers, heading towards Spike’s hole in the ground. Unfortunately, Buffy turned a corner, to come face to face with the disgusting, unwashed body of Harmony Kendall.
Immediately Buffy’s hand went to her nose. “Eww, Harmony! Vampires, we can take showers to you know.”
Just as Buffy had predicted, Harmony had been turned at graduation. Clearly not childer, and certainly not under the protection of a master, Harmony was a pathetic cowering mess. This particular corner of the sewers looked like it had been her home for the last week or so. Harmony’s Yearbook and diploma were hanging on the wall.
Immediately, Buffy wondered why she hadn’t found Harmony here before.
Must have taken a wrong turn, she thought to herself.
Harmony’s dirty and smudged face broke into a smile. “Buffy!” Harmony stepped forward to hug Buffy but the former slayer backed away before Harmony could make contact.
“Ugh, you are so not touching me!” Buffy screeched.
“Sorry, but Buffy, you have to help me. I don’t know what to do! I woke up like this!” wailed Harmony indicating her state of grossness.
“You woke up dirty and smelly in a sewer?” questioned Buffy as Harmony pouted at her.
Buffy shook her head sadly. It was clear from Harmony’s outward appearance that she hadn’t changed her clothes since she had been turned. It was probable that whatever doofus had turned her had been killed during graduation. So now, Harmony was vampy and Buffy felt bad that she had no sire to take care of her.
Whatever plans Buffy had of dusting Vamp!Harmony for checking out Spike at graduation flew out the window. The Mistress of Sunnydale hemmed and hawed for a moment, then finally made a decision. “Fine, Harmony, come with me, but don’t touch me!”
Buffy turned on her heel, not giving Harmony time to fetch her meagre belongings before heading off in the direction of the Mansion, all the while cursing herself for her decision.
When they reached the basement sewer access for the Crawford Street Mansion, Buffy steeled herself for the minions’ reactions. She had never brought home a fledge before. She had always given the minions the impression that fledges, minions, vamps that weren’t childer, were beneath her. Yep, she was a snob, but it helped. If she didn’t get too attached to the minions, she wouldn’t care when Faith dusted them, or when Spike decimated the ranks occasionally. Throwing open the sewer grate open, Buffy stepped into the basement, Harmony following closely behind.
The basement had been fitted out for the comfort of the minions. There were bunks and a bathroom especially for their use. The upstairs of the house was for the master, mistress, and the Vengeance Demon.
A minion shut the gate, and glared at Harmony. The group of minions who were not in the hole with Spike were suddenly very aware of the new vampire in their midst and circled around. Several of them wrinkled their noses at the smell Harmony had brought into their basement.
“She needs a shower,“ said Buffy factually, knowing full well that the minions would take this as an order. “And new clothes. Then I want to see her upstairs in 30 minutes.”
A blonde minion stepped forward and pushed Harmony towards the bathroom. Despite Harmony’s protests about being left alone with these strange vamps, Buffy fled the minion’s basement to the comfortable living room. Buffy cringed at her inability to leave helpless people alone.
Buffy immediately phoned Willow to let her know whom she had found in the sewers. Of course, it being the middle of the day, and summertime, Willow wasn’t at home. She was probably off with Oz doing romantic things.
Buffy would have walked up to Anya’s room to talk to the former Vengeance Demon about Harmony, except the lack of heartbeat in the house meant that Anya wasn’t home either. She was probably out with Xander.
Mistress Elizabeth settled back into her lounge chair and pulled out a copy of Cosmo. Her friends really needed cell phones.
Half an hour later, on the dot, Harmony was ushered into the living room, followed by a number of curious minions. Harmony was dressed in in some clothes, donated by a few of the female minions, clothes that were clearly way too small for her. Parts of Harmony that Buffy had never hoped to see were escaping the tight fitting clothes.
“Uh, Buffy are you sure we can’t go out and like, kill some shop keeper for new clothes?” asked the inept vampire.
Buffy rolled her eyes. “Harmony, if you were able to kill anyone successfully I don’t think you’d be living in the sewers and unwashed.”
“It’s not fair!” Harmony whined. “No one taught me to be a vampire! I just woke up and I didn’t have a heartbeat! Can we eat a doctor to steal his stethathingy? So I can hear my heart not beating?”
Mistress Elizabeth face firmly in place, Buffy stood and glared at Harmony. “Let’s get this one thing straight, Harmony. You don’t make the suggestions. You might not have been sired properly, but I was. You will listen to me and do as I say, are we clear?”
Harmony nodded.
“Good. Now, Harmony, when the sun sets someone will find you some clothes that fit. You don’t leave this house. You do what I say and what Spike says. If you aren’t needed by Spike in the hole you‘ll be here. Oh and Harmony?”
“Yes?”
“You don’t get to call me Buffy anymore. It’s Mistress now. Mistress Elizabeth. Step out of line, and you‘ll find your head has come off your body. ‘Kay?” asked Buffy with a smile.
Harmony looked back at Buffy in horror.
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Buffy had Harmony cleaning the bathroom that Anya used as Spike and the other minions came home from digging for the night. Happy that her mate was home once again, Buffy bounded into his arms, not caring that the minions were around or that Spike needed a shower. She planted a sloppy kiss on his lips.
“I brought a new minion home,” noted Buffy, expecting him to be all proud.
“We don’t need any more minions, luv, too many of ‘em know about the gem,” he countered.
Buffy started to pout. “I couldn’t just leave her there, she was gross Spike. Her Sire was slayed at Graduation. She was all pathetic and icky. I had to take her in.”
“Why didn’t you just stake her then?” he asked curiously.
“It’s Harmony.”
“The cheerleader’s friend? Bloody hell, Buffy!” he moaned detaching her from around his hips and setting her feet down on the floor.
With a weak smile, Buffy shrugged her shoulders. “If she’s really that bad, you can stake her.”
As if on cue, the vampire in question came down the stairs, holding a sponge and being followed by an irate Anya, who was poking the vampire with a cross as they walked.
“Ow!” whined Harmony. “Stop that! It hurts. And it’s making my skin all blotchy!”
“It’s supposed to hurt, Harmony. You’re a vampire and this cross is supposed to hurt you,” stated Anya, annoyed.
“What did she do?” asked Buffy resigned. She had figured that Anya would find the vampire doing something she didn’t like sooner or later. Harmony wasn’t known for her cleaning skills.
“She was trying on my clothes. She probably stretched out my new shirt. I was going to wear it for my date with Xander,” Anya complained.
“You are still dating that geek?” questioned Harmony.
“Why is she even here?” asked Anya frustrated.
“She’s our new housekeeper,” stated Buffy, shrugging her shoulders.
On the stairs, Anya gave Harmony another prod with the cross, but this time the pain and burning failed to move the blond vampire. The smell of burning filled the air of the room as Harmony was aware of nothing else other than Spike’s handsome physique. The vampires and Anya waited for the pain to finally work its way into Harmony’s brain.
“Ow!” she finally screamed, trying to get away from the offending object and in doing so, misstepped and fell down the remaining steps. Harmony landed at Buffy and Spike’s feet on the foyer floor.
With a growl, Harmony got up off the floor and took a step towards Anya, her fangs bared. She didn’t even have time to register Buffy’s movement, so intent on making the former classmate pay for what she did that she was unaware of anything else.
Buffy grabbed Harmony’s neck and spun her around to face her. “You don’t touch Anya. She’s not your food. She’s my friend and I want her here. I want her here much more than I care whether you unlive or dust.”
Harmony wrenched herself out of Buffy’s grip and stumbled a couple of steps back. “Why are you protecting her? She’s a human? We eat humans. Right? Wait, is this some sort of vampire diet? Are humans fattening?”
Buffy and Spike both rolled their eyes. The minions around them waited for something to be done. Usually if one of their numbers annoyed Master Spike this much, they ended as a pile of dust. This new vamp wasn’t going to last long the way she was going.
Spike stepped towards the new addition to their clan. Looking her up and down with a sneer, the comparisons between this one and his mate sprung forward. Unfortunately for her, Harmony thought he was looking at her with his mind on the one thing she knew men thought about all the time. This was her time to use the talents God had given her and those skills she had practiced in high school.
Harmony batted her eyes at the bleached blond vampire that invaded her space. She pressed her body up against his seductively. She cooed appreciatively, looking up at his blue eyes through her eyelashes.
Buffy felt the jealousy rise up inside of her. No one did this to Spike, no one. Especially not in front of her. And not in front of the minions. She could feel their eyes boring into the back of her head as the scene continued, waiting for her to make an example of this new one.
And she wanted to, in the worst way. She fought the need to let her fangs descend and rip into Harmony’s flesh. She wanted to rip off Harmony’s arms for touching Spike, drop her in boiling oil for thinking that her movements were getting Buffy’s mate hot.
The only thing that was making her stop was the little slayer like voice in her head. Harmony didn’t deserve to die. Harmony was just a moron that didn’t know better. Harmony was....
Her inner thoughts were interrupted as Buffy saw Harmony lean forward and lick Spike’s ear, whispering about what she could do for him upstairs, that she knew how to do things that a prude like Buffy would know anything about.
That was it. Buffy lost it. Fangs descending, Buffy ripped Harmony off of Spike and threw the weak fledge halfway across the room, slamming her into a statue. Buffy pounced on top of Harmony and started beating the crap out of her.
Harmony screamed her innocence, that she didn’t know that Spike was hers. The screams fell on deaf ears. Spike stood back and let his mate do what she felt she had to do to assert her dominance. It was good for the minions to see it too. Buffy was mistress here and no other.
Blood was flowing freely from Harmony’s face when Buffy finally let up, licking the blood off her hands. Harmony’s screams had turned to whimpers as she lay on the floor in a bloody mess.
“Great,” started Anya. “Now there’s a big blood stain on the floor. Xander’s never going to want to pick me up for our dates here again.”
“No,” said Buffy licking the last of the blood from her hands. “Harmony’s our housekeeper, this will be cleaned up before Xander picks you up for your date Anya. Or Harmony will spend the day in the garden, in chains.” The cold tone of her voice was directed at Harmony and not Anya.
“So instead of blood on the floor, there’ll be dust in the garden?” asked Anya curiously. “I think that’s a good compromise. Xander likes vampire dust.”
Anya flounced back to her room without another look at the bloody vampire.
Buffy turned her attention to her mate though. One look at his crotch and she knew that either Harmony or beating the crap out of Harmony had really got his motor running. Spike reached out a hand to her and grasped her fingers. Gently, he brought her hand down to his cock, straining against his jeans. He leaned in to her ear.
“You did this, luv. No other but you. Hasn’t been anyone but you since we first met, when you were all virginal and alive. Won’t be anyone but you for eternity,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to cheek.
Buffy could feel herself internally melt. He had this way of letting her know just how much he was in love with her. It made her feel like a puddle of goo. Good goo, but still, goo.
Suddenly he scooped her up and started towards the stairs. With a snarl, he turned back to the minions and barked a few orders about Harmony and how someone was to tell her the rules. Then, planting a kiss on the top of Buffy’s head, he travelled the distance between the foyer and their bedroom, eagerly anticipating the slow way he was going to make love to his mate.
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tbc...
Giggles
Disclaimer: Joss made them. I’m playing, just playing.
Author’s note: Once again, massive huggles and thanks to BTL for the wonderful betaing.
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Chapter 24: Giggles
Buffy flounced down to the kitchen to find Anya snacking on Doritos and reading Cosmo. A few of the minions were in there bustling around too, getting blood out of the fridge, one was doing dishes. Harmony was looking a little bruised but was cleaning the oven with only the occasional complaint coming from her lips.
With a glare Buffy sent the minions scurrying, the one washing the dishes had to pull Harmony from the room when the blond didn’t respond.
Buffy turned to her ex-demon friend and smiled. “So I’ve been thinking about how to get your pendant back. That spell you did with Willow? Messed up. I think we should try again.”
Anya looked up from her copy of Cosmo hopefully, then shook her head. “No, Willow won’t go near me now. I’ve traumatized her. Have you got another witch to help?”
Buffy nodded eagerly. “Amy.”
“Amy who was almost turned into a rat? Yeah, that will end well,” noted Anya turning back to her Cosmo.
“Do you want your pendant back or not?” asked Buffy annoyed.
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In Buffy’s mind, helping Anya get her pendant back was a good deed. Something to help a friend out. Did it matter that yes, Anya was going to be a demon again and was going to start cursing people and potentially kill those people? It was a moral question that Bufy kept pushing to the back of her mind. Kinda like that whole thing where she knew that Spike and the minions occasionally ate out (meaning they ate people) but as long as she didn’t see it, wasn’t tempted by it, then she really didn’t have a problem with it. So should she have a problem with Anya’s demon killing?
Her underlying conscience said a big fat yes. However, Buffy was easily distracted from listening to her conscience because her demon was dancing around and saying ‘look at me.’” She was messed up.
As messed up as she thought she was, Buffy still wanted to help out her friend. Picking up the phone then and there, she called her other witch friend and explained what was going to go down. And luckily enough, Amy was free tonight.
A half hour later, in the seclusion of the minion free living room, Amy, seated on the floor, looked nervously from Buffy to Anya and began the spell. The living room of the Crawford Street mansion was decked out for the spell. Nothing was going to go wrong this time. Buffy wanted to do this once. Just once. Amy’s nervousness was the only thing Buffy couldn’t control.
The witch might want Buffy to stick around in Sunnydale, she was a friend and all, but she didn’t want to become Buffy’s lunch. Amy had never been to Buffy‘s house and for good reason. The rumours about Buffy‘s home life were wild and gory. Someone had once told her that Buffy kept her dinner chained up the living room. Clearly there were no bodies in the living room, but that didn’t stop Amy from giving furtive glances at the doorway to the kitchen and up the stairs.
And then there was Anya. She had no clue about Xander Harris’ girlfriend. Cordelia had said she was ‘one of those.’ That really shouldn’t matter though, ‘cause Amy was ‘one of those’ too.
So Amy really wasn’t paying attention to the whole spell thing. Apparently she went through the motions pretty well though, ‘cause when she absent mindedly wished that Cordelia Chase was ‘one of those’ too, she was surprised by Anya saying ‘wish granted.’
Amy looked up at Anya, now in a veiny demon visage and smiling.
“It worked!” shouted Anya happily. “I could kiss you!”
“Please don’t,” mentioned Amy, getting up from her seated position on the floor. “What happened?”
“You wish it, I dish it, don’t you dare take it back. I won’t be taking it back,” said Anya happily.
“What did you do to Cordelia?” asked Buffy, not angry, just curious.
“She’s a demon now. Oh not hideously disfigured or anything. Just some highly inconvenient visions, tales of doom. She’ll have nightmares for the rest of her life. Fitting vengeance if you ask me,” explained Anya matter of factly.
Amy had a look of horror on her face. Anya ignored it sufficiently and stood up herself.
“Fair enough,” muttered Buffy.
“But, it’s Cordelia!” exclaimed Amy. “She’ll find out what you’ve, what I’ve done! My life will be hell!”
Anya turned towards the witch and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Didn’t you hear? Cordelia’s moving to LA. She won’t bother you ever again. And she won’t put two and two together for a good long time. I think you are safe.”
Amy sat still for a moment before a smirk curled her lips.
“Are you going to tell Xander?” Buffy asked Anya referring to her new demon status.
Anya sighed. “Someday, right after we’ve had many orgasms together and he’s too tired to protest.”
“Good plan,” pointed out Buffy.
_______________________
As the school year approached, Spike’s efforts to find the ’blasted gem’ redoubled. Buffy was certain with all the holes he was digging in Sunnydale’s landscape that surely someone would have noticed by now. But, once again, Buffy was amazed by the laissez faire attitude that Sunnydale residents had about life in general. Her mom even commented about the strange mounds of dirt that seemed to be appearing over night on the sides of the road. There was even one in front of her gallery.
Buffy loved her mom, but she was just so clueless sometimes. Buffy still had dinner at her mom’s once a week. As the summer progressed, Joyce Summers finally resigned herself to the fact that her daughter was more or less happy with the life choices she’d made. There was nothing that Joyce could say or do that would make Buffy leave Spike to come back home and live with her.
But Buffy had a more pressing matter to attend to than her mother‘s disappointment in her life. Minions were going missing, and it wasn’t Faith that was getting overly stake happy. Faith had been preoccupied with summer school. Willow had been tutoring. Buffy had been avoiding, like she always did with Faith. It was a good arrangement that worked out swimmingly for them.
Buffy had been picking up the slack for Faith, with the demon slaying. Buffy really thought of it as thinning the herd, helping Darwin out. Demons too dumb to get in her way were just asking for it. Her minions didn’t count though. They knew the rules and if they stuck to them, they didn’t get dusted. Well most of them knew the rules. Harmony on the other hand....she was destined for dusting.
As Buffy walked through one of the many cemeteries, she started to think about the disappearing minions. What was making them either take off, or be dusted? Typically minions didn’t suddenly desert their Master and in the grand scheme of things, Spike was a pretty good master.
Unless they left them for another Master. Except that Spike was the only master in town.
Or so she thought. Until just now, the thought hadn’t occurred to her that there was another master in town, dusting or taking their minions. This was something that she really had to talk to Spike about, you know, when he got out of the hole.
She was about to move on, the cemetery was dead, in the no demons to kill sense, when something perked up her senses. Or maybe it was the five or six guys in black gear and guns that got her attention. Yep, completely out of the ordinary, even for Sunnydale.
She ducked behind a mausoleum and watched the group as they tracked a girl and her boyfriend who were walking through the cemetery. Ok, so the boy wasn’t really human, but he wasn’t a vamp either. Buffy had senses enough to know that much. It was then that Buffy noticed the big black van and the extra men that were hidden in various places around the cemetery.
I am so getting out of here, she thought.
As casually as she could, she backed out of the cemetery and ran home.
Army guys stalking demons in her cemetery? In her town? Not of the good.
_______________________
She found Mister Gordo on her bed and cuddled with him until Spike came back from the hole for the day. He was probably surprised when his mate leapt up into his arms like a scared kitten as he arrived in their room. Usually she waited for him to get out of his dirty clothes before attacking him.
“It’s terrible. The minions have been talking about it since I got back. I’ve seen it for myself. The army guys. They’re hunting demons, and not just killing them. Arius and Martine are gone, captured by the guys in the black masks,” she babbled. “The guys who hang out at Willy’s are all scared too. They say that the government is doing experiments on demons. Clem’s brother is missing too. Oh, Spike!” Buffy wailed.
Spike just clutched her tighter to his chest. He’d been in the hole all night. He didn’t know what was going on.
“Got something to make you feel safer though, luv,” he purred into her hair, placing soft kisses on her blond tresses.
“What?” she asked, sniffling.
Spike reached around and took something out of his jeans pocket. Holding up the bauble, her smiled. The ring was tacky as all hell but it was the real thing.
“You found it?” she asked, her eyes wide. “I thought I had lost you to the hole forever.”
He took her hand and slipped it on her finger, the green gem sparkling in the artificial light of their bedroom.
“And it’s yours, Goldilocks. So you can go to those damn classes you think are so important. So you can meet your friends for coffee in the sunlight.”
“Really? But you worked so hard for it. You should enjoy it. All that digging...” she explained.
“It was all for you, sweets,” he explained with a smile. He pressed a kiss to her head.
Buffy moved around the room admiring her new bauble. With happy eyes, Spike watched her as she floated effortlessly around the room, having forgotten what had been worrying her.
He’d been in the hole for such a long time. All his energies had been focused on the gem that he’d left the running of the clan to his mate. She’d done a good job, that was certain. Now she was worried about the minions who’d been disappearing. To be truthful he had noticed the number of minions dwindling in the hole too. Now that he was out of the hole, the gem found and a store of treasures found, he had to get back to managing his clan.
And finding out what the bloody hell had got Buffy so worried.
_______________________
With the new fun ring on her finger, Buffy stepped onto the street and went in search of Willow. She was eager to shock the hell out of her friend. Then there would be the funness of shocking Giles and Xander and then her mom. Maybe she’d even bump into Faith. The day just had so much potential.
She was going to have a fun fun day. Plus she had to tell Giles about these army guys that were running around town kidnapping demons.
It was the first time she’d been in the sun since she’d been turned and she wasn’t going to waste it. Sunglasses in place, a bikini on under her shorts and t-shirt, she was ready for a day at the beach. The warm breeze and the golden sun warmed her usually tepid body to a pleasant temperature. Oh yes, she was going to enjoy her new ring.
Buffy snuck up to Willow’s house and looked into her bedroom window. Standing, back to the window, Willow was packing to move into the dorms in the next week. The witch had been so excited to finally get out of her parents’ house, where there was the neglect and the analysing, that she had pretty much packed everything she ever owned and hoped that the dorms would let her in early. The only dim feature on the horizon was that she and Buffy wouldn’t be able to be roomies at college.
No offence to Willow, but Buffy had a much hotter roommate. Plus Willow had had enough of the vampire lifestyle. Her second choice had been Amy. Buffy just hoped that the two witches actually got along and didn’t end up turning each other into frogs or rats or something equally gross.
Buffy crept through the shrubbery and knocked on her friend’s window. Willow’s head turned around and she gasped at the sight of her vampire friend standing in the full sunlight of the Californian summer.
“Buffy?” she questioned, moving towards the window. “Are you still a vampire?”
Buffy slid in through the window and stepped into Willow’s sparsely decorated room.
“Spike found the ring,” Buffy explained holding up her hand to be examined.
Willow stepped forward, took Buffy‘s hand, and inspected the ring. “It’s ugly,” noted Willow going back to her packing.
“Yep, but I’m not on fire, so the ugly loses points. You wanna go scare Xander?” asked Buffy with glee in her voice.
“’Kay,” beamed Willow setting another towel into the box she had before her.
_______________________
Xander Harris had gotten himself a cushy job as the guy who drove the ice cream truck around town during the summer. So, maybe it wasn’t cushy but his plan of visiting all 50 states by car hadn’t worked out so well for him, in that he couldn’t afford to pay for gas, much less lodging.
The girls stalked the ice cream truck through the residential streets of Sunnydale, as if it was a big game. Their target in sight, they relied on the fact that about twenty children were yelling and screaming for ice cream when the truck pulled to a stop. Buffy pulled the passenger door to the truck open and slipped in, Willow following closely behind. Giggling silently they waited for Xander to be done with his customers.
Sure enough, when Xander headed back to the driver’s seat, he screamed like a girl.
He protested that he was too young to die from a heart attack and that caring friends didn’t give friends heart attacks. Then he realised that Buffy was sitting in the passenger seat of his ice cream truck in the hot sun of midday.
“Buffy!” he shouted, his arms flailing around him indicating his shock. “You’re in the sun! You aren’t flamey!”
“Isn’t it awesome? I can actually get my tan back!” giggled the vampire, waving her ring around for Xander to see.
Xander stepped forward to inspect the ring. He took her hand gently and gave a critical glance at the jewel. “It’s actually kinda ugly.”
_______________________
The out of work Watcher was sitting in his house reading a book. Peering through the window, the two girls giggled as they contemplated just how to surprise Giles. Generally surprising Giles ended with someone almost getting clubbed with something book like. And that was the kind of thing Buffy wanted to avoid, not that she would be getting hurt or anything, but Willow had a date with Oz later and the last thing Willow needed was a bruise to explain to her boyfriend.
So they settled for ringing the doorbell.
Trying to keep straight faces, the two girls tried to wait patiently.
Eventually Giles came to the door, his nose still in the tome he was reading. Buffy actually had to clear her throat to get him to look up.
“Oh, hello Buffy,” he greeted turning away from the door and going back to his spot on the couch. He hadn’t even looked at her. Really. “Why didn’t you just walk in? You know the door is often unlocked.”
“Uh, Giles?” asked Buffy still standing in the doorway.
“You’ve been invited once, you don’t need an invite again,” he stated, his nose still in the book. “Come in and tell me about your patrol last night.”
With a roll of her eyes, Buffy entered the Watcher’s apartment, and sat down on the couch in a patch of sunlight, and started in on her tale of the army guys.
“They are invading and taking demons. Experimenting on them!” she growled passionately. “We have to do something. Find them, make them stop.”
Giles raised an eyebrow and actually looked up from his book. “Buffy, perhaps it’s a good thing that the government has taken an interest in the demon realm. Perhaps they have actually decided that demons are a threat to the general populace.”
“Okay, who are you and what have you done with my Giles?” asked Buffy. “How can this be good? The average person can’t handle knowing about demons. It disrupts their lives. It makes with the crazy. And…what if the government suddenly decides that witches, slayers, and other good things are evil and must die? Huh? Salem witch trials part two maybe? Think of that?”
Giles nodded. “Perhaps you are right.”
Willow tapped Buffy on the arm jovially. “You are right,” she giggled.
“It doesn’t often happen,” interjected Buffy. “Right then,” she continued., “I’m off to the beach, I think I’ll work on my tan before school starts.”
“Beg your pardon?” asked Giles finally looking up from his book and really looking at Buffy really for the first time, his book falling to the ground with a thud.
_______________________
The confused look on Giles’ face as they left his apartment was nothing compared to the look that Faith was sporting as she walked towards Giles’ apartment with a tall, sandy haired man.
“Buffy?” asked Faith looking the vampire up and down, her focus now on Buffy and not the man she had arrived with.
“Faith!” greeted Buffy happily. “I hadn’t expected to see you today. Going to Giles’?” Buffy looked the man Faith had brought up and down. He smelled familiar, and he wasn’t bad looking to boot.
“Yeah, uh I thought you had....uh,” Faith stammered looking between Buffy, Willow, and the man she was standing with. “A condition.”
Buffy enjoyed the flabbergasted look that Faith had on her face. It was almost worth being delayed for beach goodness.
“Oh ya, that cleared right up. I can be all sun baby now. I’m thinking beach. Or at least gardening. I haven’t been in the garden of my house in ages. Well, in the sun anyway,” explained Buffy.
“How?” asked the perplexed slayer.
“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your walking companion?” asked Buffy changing the subject.
“Uh, ya. Riley Finn,. Buffy Summers and Willow Rosenberg,” introduced Faith.
Willow stuck out her hand to Riley and he shook it gingerly.
“How do you know Faith?” the red head asked, her voice a hint of what she was really thinking. This was one of Faith‘s ‘boys‘.
“I met her on campus, at a party,” Riley explained with a fond smile to Faith.
“Attending college parties again, Faithy?” questioned Buffy like a good mother hen. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready for your senior year at high school?”
The death glare that Faith sent her was priceless. Clearly that was one thing she’d not told her college boyfriend.
_______________________
tbc...
Author’s note: Once again, massive huggles and thanks to BTL for the wonderful betaing.
_______________________
Chapter 24: Giggles
Buffy flounced down to the kitchen to find Anya snacking on Doritos and reading Cosmo. A few of the minions were in there bustling around too, getting blood out of the fridge, one was doing dishes. Harmony was looking a little bruised but was cleaning the oven with only the occasional complaint coming from her lips.
With a glare Buffy sent the minions scurrying, the one washing the dishes had to pull Harmony from the room when the blond didn’t respond.
Buffy turned to her ex-demon friend and smiled. “So I’ve been thinking about how to get your pendant back. That spell you did with Willow? Messed up. I think we should try again.”
Anya looked up from her copy of Cosmo hopefully, then shook her head. “No, Willow won’t go near me now. I’ve traumatized her. Have you got another witch to help?”
Buffy nodded eagerly. “Amy.”
“Amy who was almost turned into a rat? Yeah, that will end well,” noted Anya turning back to her Cosmo.
“Do you want your pendant back or not?” asked Buffy annoyed.
_______________________
In Buffy’s mind, helping Anya get her pendant back was a good deed. Something to help a friend out. Did it matter that yes, Anya was going to be a demon again and was going to start cursing people and potentially kill those people? It was a moral question that Bufy kept pushing to the back of her mind. Kinda like that whole thing where she knew that Spike and the minions occasionally ate out (meaning they ate people) but as long as she didn’t see it, wasn’t tempted by it, then she really didn’t have a problem with it. So should she have a problem with Anya’s demon killing?
Her underlying conscience said a big fat yes. However, Buffy was easily distracted from listening to her conscience because her demon was dancing around and saying ‘look at me.’” She was messed up.
As messed up as she thought she was, Buffy still wanted to help out her friend. Picking up the phone then and there, she called her other witch friend and explained what was going to go down. And luckily enough, Amy was free tonight.
A half hour later, in the seclusion of the minion free living room, Amy, seated on the floor, looked nervously from Buffy to Anya and began the spell. The living room of the Crawford Street mansion was decked out for the spell. Nothing was going to go wrong this time. Buffy wanted to do this once. Just once. Amy’s nervousness was the only thing Buffy couldn’t control.
The witch might want Buffy to stick around in Sunnydale, she was a friend and all, but she didn’t want to become Buffy’s lunch. Amy had never been to Buffy‘s house and for good reason. The rumours about Buffy‘s home life were wild and gory. Someone had once told her that Buffy kept her dinner chained up the living room. Clearly there were no bodies in the living room, but that didn’t stop Amy from giving furtive glances at the doorway to the kitchen and up the stairs.
And then there was Anya. She had no clue about Xander Harris’ girlfriend. Cordelia had said she was ‘one of those.’ That really shouldn’t matter though, ‘cause Amy was ‘one of those’ too.
So Amy really wasn’t paying attention to the whole spell thing. Apparently she went through the motions pretty well though, ‘cause when she absent mindedly wished that Cordelia Chase was ‘one of those’ too, she was surprised by Anya saying ‘wish granted.’
Amy looked up at Anya, now in a veiny demon visage and smiling.
“It worked!” shouted Anya happily. “I could kiss you!”
“Please don’t,” mentioned Amy, getting up from her seated position on the floor. “What happened?”
“You wish it, I dish it, don’t you dare take it back. I won’t be taking it back,” said Anya happily.
“What did you do to Cordelia?” asked Buffy, not angry, just curious.
“She’s a demon now. Oh not hideously disfigured or anything. Just some highly inconvenient visions, tales of doom. She’ll have nightmares for the rest of her life. Fitting vengeance if you ask me,” explained Anya matter of factly.
Amy had a look of horror on her face. Anya ignored it sufficiently and stood up herself.
“Fair enough,” muttered Buffy.
“But, it’s Cordelia!” exclaimed Amy. “She’ll find out what you’ve, what I’ve done! My life will be hell!”
Anya turned towards the witch and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Didn’t you hear? Cordelia’s moving to LA. She won’t bother you ever again. And she won’t put two and two together for a good long time. I think you are safe.”
Amy sat still for a moment before a smirk curled her lips.
“Are you going to tell Xander?” Buffy asked Anya referring to her new demon status.
Anya sighed. “Someday, right after we’ve had many orgasms together and he’s too tired to protest.”
“Good plan,” pointed out Buffy.
_______________________
As the school year approached, Spike’s efforts to find the ’blasted gem’ redoubled. Buffy was certain with all the holes he was digging in Sunnydale’s landscape that surely someone would have noticed by now. But, once again, Buffy was amazed by the laissez faire attitude that Sunnydale residents had about life in general. Her mom even commented about the strange mounds of dirt that seemed to be appearing over night on the sides of the road. There was even one in front of her gallery.
Buffy loved her mom, but she was just so clueless sometimes. Buffy still had dinner at her mom’s once a week. As the summer progressed, Joyce Summers finally resigned herself to the fact that her daughter was more or less happy with the life choices she’d made. There was nothing that Joyce could say or do that would make Buffy leave Spike to come back home and live with her.
But Buffy had a more pressing matter to attend to than her mother‘s disappointment in her life. Minions were going missing, and it wasn’t Faith that was getting overly stake happy. Faith had been preoccupied with summer school. Willow had been tutoring. Buffy had been avoiding, like she always did with Faith. It was a good arrangement that worked out swimmingly for them.
Buffy had been picking up the slack for Faith, with the demon slaying. Buffy really thought of it as thinning the herd, helping Darwin out. Demons too dumb to get in her way were just asking for it. Her minions didn’t count though. They knew the rules and if they stuck to them, they didn’t get dusted. Well most of them knew the rules. Harmony on the other hand....she was destined for dusting.
As Buffy walked through one of the many cemeteries, she started to think about the disappearing minions. What was making them either take off, or be dusted? Typically minions didn’t suddenly desert their Master and in the grand scheme of things, Spike was a pretty good master.
Unless they left them for another Master. Except that Spike was the only master in town.
Or so she thought. Until just now, the thought hadn’t occurred to her that there was another master in town, dusting or taking their minions. This was something that she really had to talk to Spike about, you know, when he got out of the hole.
She was about to move on, the cemetery was dead, in the no demons to kill sense, when something perked up her senses. Or maybe it was the five or six guys in black gear and guns that got her attention. Yep, completely out of the ordinary, even for Sunnydale.
She ducked behind a mausoleum and watched the group as they tracked a girl and her boyfriend who were walking through the cemetery. Ok, so the boy wasn’t really human, but he wasn’t a vamp either. Buffy had senses enough to know that much. It was then that Buffy noticed the big black van and the extra men that were hidden in various places around the cemetery.
I am so getting out of here, she thought.
As casually as she could, she backed out of the cemetery and ran home.
Army guys stalking demons in her cemetery? In her town? Not of the good.
_______________________
She found Mister Gordo on her bed and cuddled with him until Spike came back from the hole for the day. He was probably surprised when his mate leapt up into his arms like a scared kitten as he arrived in their room. Usually she waited for him to get out of his dirty clothes before attacking him.
“It’s terrible. The minions have been talking about it since I got back. I’ve seen it for myself. The army guys. They’re hunting demons, and not just killing them. Arius and Martine are gone, captured by the guys in the black masks,” she babbled. “The guys who hang out at Willy’s are all scared too. They say that the government is doing experiments on demons. Clem’s brother is missing too. Oh, Spike!” Buffy wailed.
Spike just clutched her tighter to his chest. He’d been in the hole all night. He didn’t know what was going on.
“Got something to make you feel safer though, luv,” he purred into her hair, placing soft kisses on her blond tresses.
“What?” she asked, sniffling.
Spike reached around and took something out of his jeans pocket. Holding up the bauble, her smiled. The ring was tacky as all hell but it was the real thing.
“You found it?” she asked, her eyes wide. “I thought I had lost you to the hole forever.”
He took her hand and slipped it on her finger, the green gem sparkling in the artificial light of their bedroom.
“And it’s yours, Goldilocks. So you can go to those damn classes you think are so important. So you can meet your friends for coffee in the sunlight.”
“Really? But you worked so hard for it. You should enjoy it. All that digging...” she explained.
“It was all for you, sweets,” he explained with a smile. He pressed a kiss to her head.
Buffy moved around the room admiring her new bauble. With happy eyes, Spike watched her as she floated effortlessly around the room, having forgotten what had been worrying her.
He’d been in the hole for such a long time. All his energies had been focused on the gem that he’d left the running of the clan to his mate. She’d done a good job, that was certain. Now she was worried about the minions who’d been disappearing. To be truthful he had noticed the number of minions dwindling in the hole too. Now that he was out of the hole, the gem found and a store of treasures found, he had to get back to managing his clan.
And finding out what the bloody hell had got Buffy so worried.
_______________________
With the new fun ring on her finger, Buffy stepped onto the street and went in search of Willow. She was eager to shock the hell out of her friend. Then there would be the funness of shocking Giles and Xander and then her mom. Maybe she’d even bump into Faith. The day just had so much potential.
She was going to have a fun fun day. Plus she had to tell Giles about these army guys that were running around town kidnapping demons.
It was the first time she’d been in the sun since she’d been turned and she wasn’t going to waste it. Sunglasses in place, a bikini on under her shorts and t-shirt, she was ready for a day at the beach. The warm breeze and the golden sun warmed her usually tepid body to a pleasant temperature. Oh yes, she was going to enjoy her new ring.
Buffy snuck up to Willow’s house and looked into her bedroom window. Standing, back to the window, Willow was packing to move into the dorms in the next week. The witch had been so excited to finally get out of her parents’ house, where there was the neglect and the analysing, that she had pretty much packed everything she ever owned and hoped that the dorms would let her in early. The only dim feature on the horizon was that she and Buffy wouldn’t be able to be roomies at college.
No offence to Willow, but Buffy had a much hotter roommate. Plus Willow had had enough of the vampire lifestyle. Her second choice had been Amy. Buffy just hoped that the two witches actually got along and didn’t end up turning each other into frogs or rats or something equally gross.
Buffy crept through the shrubbery and knocked on her friend’s window. Willow’s head turned around and she gasped at the sight of her vampire friend standing in the full sunlight of the Californian summer.
“Buffy?” she questioned, moving towards the window. “Are you still a vampire?”
Buffy slid in through the window and stepped into Willow’s sparsely decorated room.
“Spike found the ring,” Buffy explained holding up her hand to be examined.
Willow stepped forward, took Buffy‘s hand, and inspected the ring. “It’s ugly,” noted Willow going back to her packing.
“Yep, but I’m not on fire, so the ugly loses points. You wanna go scare Xander?” asked Buffy with glee in her voice.
“’Kay,” beamed Willow setting another towel into the box she had before her.
_______________________
Xander Harris had gotten himself a cushy job as the guy who drove the ice cream truck around town during the summer. So, maybe it wasn’t cushy but his plan of visiting all 50 states by car hadn’t worked out so well for him, in that he couldn’t afford to pay for gas, much less lodging.
The girls stalked the ice cream truck through the residential streets of Sunnydale, as if it was a big game. Their target in sight, they relied on the fact that about twenty children were yelling and screaming for ice cream when the truck pulled to a stop. Buffy pulled the passenger door to the truck open and slipped in, Willow following closely behind. Giggling silently they waited for Xander to be done with his customers.
Sure enough, when Xander headed back to the driver’s seat, he screamed like a girl.
He protested that he was too young to die from a heart attack and that caring friends didn’t give friends heart attacks. Then he realised that Buffy was sitting in the passenger seat of his ice cream truck in the hot sun of midday.
“Buffy!” he shouted, his arms flailing around him indicating his shock. “You’re in the sun! You aren’t flamey!”
“Isn’t it awesome? I can actually get my tan back!” giggled the vampire, waving her ring around for Xander to see.
Xander stepped forward to inspect the ring. He took her hand gently and gave a critical glance at the jewel. “It’s actually kinda ugly.”
_______________________
The out of work Watcher was sitting in his house reading a book. Peering through the window, the two girls giggled as they contemplated just how to surprise Giles. Generally surprising Giles ended with someone almost getting clubbed with something book like. And that was the kind of thing Buffy wanted to avoid, not that she would be getting hurt or anything, but Willow had a date with Oz later and the last thing Willow needed was a bruise to explain to her boyfriend.
So they settled for ringing the doorbell.
Trying to keep straight faces, the two girls tried to wait patiently.
Eventually Giles came to the door, his nose still in the tome he was reading. Buffy actually had to clear her throat to get him to look up.
“Oh, hello Buffy,” he greeted turning away from the door and going back to his spot on the couch. He hadn’t even looked at her. Really. “Why didn’t you just walk in? You know the door is often unlocked.”
“Uh, Giles?” asked Buffy still standing in the doorway.
“You’ve been invited once, you don’t need an invite again,” he stated, his nose still in the book. “Come in and tell me about your patrol last night.”
With a roll of her eyes, Buffy entered the Watcher’s apartment, and sat down on the couch in a patch of sunlight, and started in on her tale of the army guys.
“They are invading and taking demons. Experimenting on them!” she growled passionately. “We have to do something. Find them, make them stop.”
Giles raised an eyebrow and actually looked up from his book. “Buffy, perhaps it’s a good thing that the government has taken an interest in the demon realm. Perhaps they have actually decided that demons are a threat to the general populace.”
“Okay, who are you and what have you done with my Giles?” asked Buffy. “How can this be good? The average person can’t handle knowing about demons. It disrupts their lives. It makes with the crazy. And…what if the government suddenly decides that witches, slayers, and other good things are evil and must die? Huh? Salem witch trials part two maybe? Think of that?”
Giles nodded. “Perhaps you are right.”
Willow tapped Buffy on the arm jovially. “You are right,” she giggled.
“It doesn’t often happen,” interjected Buffy. “Right then,” she continued., “I’m off to the beach, I think I’ll work on my tan before school starts.”
“Beg your pardon?” asked Giles finally looking up from his book and really looking at Buffy really for the first time, his book falling to the ground with a thud.
_______________________
The confused look on Giles’ face as they left his apartment was nothing compared to the look that Faith was sporting as she walked towards Giles’ apartment with a tall, sandy haired man.
“Buffy?” asked Faith looking the vampire up and down, her focus now on Buffy and not the man she had arrived with.
“Faith!” greeted Buffy happily. “I hadn’t expected to see you today. Going to Giles’?” Buffy looked the man Faith had brought up and down. He smelled familiar, and he wasn’t bad looking to boot.
“Yeah, uh I thought you had....uh,” Faith stammered looking between Buffy, Willow, and the man she was standing with. “A condition.”
Buffy enjoyed the flabbergasted look that Faith had on her face. It was almost worth being delayed for beach goodness.
“Oh ya, that cleared right up. I can be all sun baby now. I’m thinking beach. Or at least gardening. I haven’t been in the garden of my house in ages. Well, in the sun anyway,” explained Buffy.
“How?” asked the perplexed slayer.
“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your walking companion?” asked Buffy changing the subject.
“Uh, ya. Riley Finn,. Buffy Summers and Willow Rosenberg,” introduced Faith.
Willow stuck out her hand to Riley and he shook it gingerly.
“How do you know Faith?” the red head asked, her voice a hint of what she was really thinking. This was one of Faith‘s ‘boys‘.
“I met her on campus, at a party,” Riley explained with a fond smile to Faith.
“Attending college parties again, Faithy?” questioned Buffy like a good mother hen. “Shouldn’t you be getting ready for your senior year at high school?”
The death glare that Faith sent her was priceless. Clearly that was one thing she’d not told her college boyfriend.
_______________________
tbc...
Riley
Disclaimer: So not mine. If I really owned the Buffy verse there would have been some massive changes let me tell you!
Author’s note: Many huggles to the wonderful Bloodytearsoflife who is a wonderful beta and great friend.
_______________________
Chapter 25: Riley
Buffy looked the man with Faith up and down, appraising her former sister Slayer’s choice in men. He had that ‘just in from the farm’ quality to him. There was even a whiff of ‘farm’ on the air around him. It was kinda gross.
The small talk between Willow, Faith, and this Riley person was progressing to the awkward silence stage, but even so, Buffy wanted to stay there for a little while longer. There was something about the guy that she wanted to check out. Buffy wanted to think that she still had her Slayer sense about these things, but she knew she didn’t. She had that vampire senses thing going for her. And her vampire senses told her that this was one was one to watch. Not in a ‘he’s a good lunch’ type sense either.
“What else don’t you know about Faith?” asked Buffy inquisitively looking up at Riley and batting her eyelashes.
Faith stepped towards Buffy and reached out her hand. Grabbing the vampire’s wrist, Faith’s eyes flashed. Faith was marking territory with this guy.
“Shouldn’t you be in a dark, dank hole right now?” noted Faith with a snarl.
With a smile, Buffy batted her eyelashes at Riley and then turned to Faith. “Nope, I’m off to the beach.” Buffy waved as she and Willow continued on their way.
As soon as they were out of hearing distance, Buffy forced Willow behind a bush.
“I have a hunch,” started Buffy. “I think he’s one of the guys that was in the cemetery last night. Faith’s going out with one of the commandos.”
“Are you sure that she’s going out with him?” whispered Willow while trying to peer around the bush.
Buffy looked at her friend with an eye roll before realising that even though Willow had lived with vampires for a couple of weeks, she wasn’t exactly up on all the vampire senses.
“Faith smell was all over him. They’ve definitely had smoochies,” explained Buffy.
“He’s too old for her,“ noted Willow in a mother hen type of way. “Exactly how old do you think he is? Do you think he knows that she’s too young for him? Are we still going to the beach?”
Buffy nodded. “I wouldn’t miss the beach for anything.”
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Buffy’s thoughts kept returning to Faith’s latest boy toy. It made her trip to the beach really irritating. She knew that she should be enjoying her first trip to the beach as a vampire, but it wasn’t happening. She wanted to check him out, ask him questions. Force the answers out of that wider than wide mouth and expose the whole ugly military cover up to Giles.
On the other hand, she just wanted to cuddle up with her sire. Spike would make everything better. Somehow she knew that he wasn’t the be all and end all, fixing all problems within their clan. It was the slayer part of her that spurred her into action when her demon wanted to leave it to Spike. But she liked to think that he would never let her get hurt. She didn’t want to be captured by these commandos at all. Who knew what the government was doing to their minions.
Lying side by side on the white sand of the beach, Willow could tell that Buffy was preoccupied with thoughts of an unpleasant nature. The best friend in her wanted to seek out this Riley guy and try to find out more. But what if the military wanted witches to experiment on too?
Willow had been careful about performing witchcraft in front of non scoobies since she’d come back from LA. Even Oz had remarked that she didn’t do much out in the open anymore. Almost being burnt at the stake had changed her, that was for sure.
It had changed Amy too, Willow noted. Amy Madison wasn’t exactly secretive about her witchcraft but she was certainly less open about it. It seemed that Sunnydale had closed in on its darker aspects and tried harder to keep them secret from the general population.
Willow rolled over on her towel and batted at a fly buzzing around her head.
“Are you excited about college now?” asked Willow, avoiding the topic that probably should be talked about. “Now that you have the ugly accessory?”
Buffy let out a sigh. “Not really? It sounds bad, after all I’ve been telling Spike for months that I really, really want to go to college. I’m starting to have, not regrets, but worries that I’m maybe putting too much effort into the whole thing. He’s dug me up a mythical vampire ring thing for me, to make me happy, I really didn’t want him to go to so much effort. You know? What happens if I decide to drop out? What if I decide I really like it? What will that mean to him?”
Willow nodded, trying to understand.
“I’m getting cold feet about college!” noted Buffy exasperated about her own emotions.
“You could be the first vampire to earn a college degree!” bubbled Willow, trying to make her friend feel better about this. “Buffy, it’s not as big a deal for you. You don’t need college to get a job and start your life. You have an unlife without college. And it’s not like Spike can’t afford to pay for your tuition. You’ve told me he’s loaded.”
“He is,” agreed Buffy. “I just can’t help but think that maybe I should have better priorities.”
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The campus was overwhelming to Buffy on orientation day. She kept her hand tightly clenched, afraid that the ring would slip off in some crazed orientation prank and her secret would be out in the open. Also she didn’t want to burn down the school. Two schools burned down in the course of her life was enough thank you very much. Ushered from table to table and told that she was in the wrong place numerous times, Buffy almost decided to head home. This was so not worth the feelings of inadequacy and fear that this excursion was producing. Luckily at that moment Willow found her, completely awed and enraptured by the college experience.
“Don’t you love the campus? The atmosphere?” chimed Willow in a happy voice, oblivious to Buffy’s feeling of being overwhelmed.
They were joined by Oz, who greeted Willow in a very couply way. Buffy suddenly wished that Spike was at school with her. He’d probably feel right at home on a college campus again, he went to Oxford after all. Yep, there needed to be a second Gem of Amara for Spike.
He had been happy for her and her coed dreams that morning before he and the minions had headed off to bed, and she went off to campus. It was an odd feeling to be separated from him during the day. She had enjoyed their time together that summer. It seemed that their lives had finally started to have some sort of routine. Everything felt right, even with the minions.
“Have you gotten your books yet?” asked Willow, holding Oz’s hand.
Buffy shook her head no. “But I am fully prepared to spend hundreds on textbooks I will only use once with Spike’s money. I think I’ll get him something too.”
“At the university bookstore?” questioned Willow.
Buffy smiled coyly, unwilling to give away Spike’s secret just yet. Willow said goodbye to her boyfriend and led Buffy towards the bookstore, as if it was imperative that she get her books this instant.
The bookstore was cramped, piles of texts waiting to be purchased by students of every major. Willow led Buffy to the psychology section and planted her in front of the Psych 101 textbook.
“You need this book. I’ve heard that Professor Walsh is tough. You’ve got to do all the readings before class.”
Buffy shrugged her shoulders and reached up to grab a copy, starting her pile of mass purchasing. A book slipped and fell off the shelf. Instinctively, Buffy reached out and grabbed that book too, narrowly missing a sandy haired blond man from getting clocked in the head.
The man stood up to offer his thanks. It was Riley, Faith’s ‘friend.’
“Good reflexes,” he commented.
“Thanks,” Buffy offered. She noted the textbook that he was holding in his hand was the same one that had almost hit him on the head. “You taking Psych 101 too?” she asked, confused. Riley didn‘t look like he was a freshman.
Riley began to chuckle. “I’m the teaching assistant. I thought it would be a good idea to have a copy of the text,” he explained, running his hand through his hair.
His eyes locked with Buffy’s as if trying to figure her out. Buffy stared straight back at him, trying to do the very same thing.
“Do you know Professor Walsh well?” asked Willow, eager to get intelligence on her newest teacher, and completely unaware of the staring match that was taking place between her two companions.
“I’ve been a student of hers for a while now,” Riley explained, his eyes fleeting at Willow as he spoke.
Buffy smiled at his comment and then a thought occurred to her. “Was this before or after the marines?” she asked, going on a hunch.
“After,” blurted Riley, and then his eyes narrowed on her. “How did you know…?” he asked confused.
“I just have great instincts,” the vampire noted. “How long have you been in the military?”
“Since High school, they’ve put me though college. There’s a great pay raise when you make officer,” he explained.
“I’m sure there is,” responded Buffy, batting her eyelashes.
“I’ve never heard anything about the military setting up a base around here,” observed Willow. “I’m sure I would have heard about it. My mother would have been protesting.”
Riley got a funny look on his face. “Oh there is no base around here. I’m just here for school. Two years off to do my master’s in psychology.”
Riley’s heart beat faster, confirming, to Buffy, that he was lying. She let him keep his lie though. She didn’t need to expose him in his lie right now. This was not the time or the place.
An awkward silence filled the air between the three. Buffy continued to stare down the commando, while Willow tried to think of something else to say. Riley’s eyes darted from place to place, avoiding Buffy’s hard stare. His lighted on a flyer that was tucked haphazardly in Buffy’s tote bag.
“You going?” asked Riley pointing to the flyer.
Absently Buffy looked at the flyer and winced. “I don’t know, I didn’t think I’d know many people there. Looks like it’s going to be all people who live in the dorms,” she said truthfully.
“You live off campus?” asked Riley. “With your parents?”
Buffy shook her head.
“Faith said you lived with your family…” explained Riley.
“Well, will you look at the time?” noted Buffy looking at her watchless wrist. “I promised Anya I’d meet up with her. We should get the rest of our books and check out. Wills?” asked the vampire.
Willow nodded with a small smile. It seemed a bit rude to Willow to leave Riley hanging there in the psychology section, but he had way too many questions.
“I’ll see you in class!” Riley called out behind them as they left.
Buffy could feel jealous twinges from her mate in his sleep.
____________________________
By the time Buffy had gotten back from coffee and blood with Anya, the mansion was quiet. The only signs of unlife were the four minions that were on guard at the doors.
“Master Spike went out to feed, Mistress,” greeted one of the minions.
Buffy rolled her eyes at the fact that Spike couldn’t wait for her to get home before going out. She dropped her bag of really heavy textbooks, leaving them for the minions to take up to her room, and headed out into the night. She wanted to find Spike.
As she walked she reached out through her link to him. He was on the hunt, a fact that didn’t really bother her. She just hoped that he was done with whom ever he was drinking by the time she happened upon the scene.
Buffy walked into the alley in which Spike was stalking his victim. Her vampire eyes saw at once that Spike was clearly working the lonely girl in an alley angle. This chick had her hands all over Buffy’s man.
“Spike?” Buffy cooed in their direction. "Honey?” she continued as girly as she could.
The girl looked up from her hands that had been pressed against Spike’s chest and at his blue eyes then to Buffy’s green ones at the entrance to the alley.
“You have a girlfriend?” asked the girl.
“You didn’t ask,” he countered answering her question. “Goldilocks!” he chastised at his mate with annoyance.
“Not girlfriend, actually,” noted Buffy. “Wife,” she said smiling.
“Huh?” questioned Spike’s victim.
That was the last thing she ever said. Spike turned to look at the girl, this time in vamp face and sunk his teeth into her neck.
Instead of cringing, as she had always done previously when she saw another vamp feed, she looked on with awe. Her tongue poked out of her pink mouth and licked her lips as she watched.
Then she realised what she was doing. Her eyes went wide for a moment, before she turned and ran.
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Spike dropped his meal in the alley and turned towards his mate as she ran. He sighed, wiping the blood from his lips. “Buffy!” he almost whined.
He found her sitting on a beach, in the middle of the UC Sunnydale campus, and talking to another man he had never seen before.
“You think girls can’t take care of themselves in the dark?” his Goldilocks asked the sandy haired youth.
“You really have to get inside, Buffy,” noted the man.
“No actually, I don’t,” she countered.
Spike could sense the anger of his mate. Most likely she had been expecting to find him out here, and not this moronic farm boy.
“Yes, you do,” insisted the boy. “It’s dangerous out here at night. There are things…things out here in the dark that like to take advantage of little girls like you.”
“Maybe that’s what I’m out here to find!” Buffy spouted defiantly. “Please just go away!”
Riley grabbed her elbow and pulled her to a standing position. “I am not leaving you out here by yourself!” he declared.
Buffy pulled her arm away from him and was about to fire back a well thought out retort when Spike stepped out of the shadows.
The tell tale beeping of military gadgets pierced the night’s silence and Riley visibly cringed as Spike stepped towards the pair, either from his comrades being loud or the sudden appearance of a vampire on the scene.
“She’s not here by herself, mate,” noted Spike in a low voice, but looking directly on the man who, until only recently was handling his mate. “The girl’s mine, boy.”
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tbc…
Author’s note: Many huggles to the wonderful Bloodytearsoflife who is a wonderful beta and great friend.
_______________________
Chapter 25: Riley
Buffy looked the man with Faith up and down, appraising her former sister Slayer’s choice in men. He had that ‘just in from the farm’ quality to him. There was even a whiff of ‘farm’ on the air around him. It was kinda gross.
The small talk between Willow, Faith, and this Riley person was progressing to the awkward silence stage, but even so, Buffy wanted to stay there for a little while longer. There was something about the guy that she wanted to check out. Buffy wanted to think that she still had her Slayer sense about these things, but she knew she didn’t. She had that vampire senses thing going for her. And her vampire senses told her that this was one was one to watch. Not in a ‘he’s a good lunch’ type sense either.
“What else don’t you know about Faith?” asked Buffy inquisitively looking up at Riley and batting her eyelashes.
Faith stepped towards Buffy and reached out her hand. Grabbing the vampire’s wrist, Faith’s eyes flashed. Faith was marking territory with this guy.
“Shouldn’t you be in a dark, dank hole right now?” noted Faith with a snarl.
With a smile, Buffy batted her eyelashes at Riley and then turned to Faith. “Nope, I’m off to the beach.” Buffy waved as she and Willow continued on their way.
As soon as they were out of hearing distance, Buffy forced Willow behind a bush.
“I have a hunch,” started Buffy. “I think he’s one of the guys that was in the cemetery last night. Faith’s going out with one of the commandos.”
“Are you sure that she’s going out with him?” whispered Willow while trying to peer around the bush.
Buffy looked at her friend with an eye roll before realising that even though Willow had lived with vampires for a couple of weeks, she wasn’t exactly up on all the vampire senses.
“Faith smell was all over him. They’ve definitely had smoochies,” explained Buffy.
“He’s too old for her,“ noted Willow in a mother hen type of way. “Exactly how old do you think he is? Do you think he knows that she’s too young for him? Are we still going to the beach?”
Buffy nodded. “I wouldn’t miss the beach for anything.”
____________________________
Buffy’s thoughts kept returning to Faith’s latest boy toy. It made her trip to the beach really irritating. She knew that she should be enjoying her first trip to the beach as a vampire, but it wasn’t happening. She wanted to check him out, ask him questions. Force the answers out of that wider than wide mouth and expose the whole ugly military cover up to Giles.
On the other hand, she just wanted to cuddle up with her sire. Spike would make everything better. Somehow she knew that he wasn’t the be all and end all, fixing all problems within their clan. It was the slayer part of her that spurred her into action when her demon wanted to leave it to Spike. But she liked to think that he would never let her get hurt. She didn’t want to be captured by these commandos at all. Who knew what the government was doing to their minions.
Lying side by side on the white sand of the beach, Willow could tell that Buffy was preoccupied with thoughts of an unpleasant nature. The best friend in her wanted to seek out this Riley guy and try to find out more. But what if the military wanted witches to experiment on too?
Willow had been careful about performing witchcraft in front of non scoobies since she’d come back from LA. Even Oz had remarked that she didn’t do much out in the open anymore. Almost being burnt at the stake had changed her, that was for sure.
It had changed Amy too, Willow noted. Amy Madison wasn’t exactly secretive about her witchcraft but she was certainly less open about it. It seemed that Sunnydale had closed in on its darker aspects and tried harder to keep them secret from the general population.
Willow rolled over on her towel and batted at a fly buzzing around her head.
“Are you excited about college now?” asked Willow, avoiding the topic that probably should be talked about. “Now that you have the ugly accessory?”
Buffy let out a sigh. “Not really? It sounds bad, after all I’ve been telling Spike for months that I really, really want to go to college. I’m starting to have, not regrets, but worries that I’m maybe putting too much effort into the whole thing. He’s dug me up a mythical vampire ring thing for me, to make me happy, I really didn’t want him to go to so much effort. You know? What happens if I decide to drop out? What if I decide I really like it? What will that mean to him?”
Willow nodded, trying to understand.
“I’m getting cold feet about college!” noted Buffy exasperated about her own emotions.
“You could be the first vampire to earn a college degree!” bubbled Willow, trying to make her friend feel better about this. “Buffy, it’s not as big a deal for you. You don’t need college to get a job and start your life. You have an unlife without college. And it’s not like Spike can’t afford to pay for your tuition. You’ve told me he’s loaded.”
“He is,” agreed Buffy. “I just can’t help but think that maybe I should have better priorities.”
____________________________
The campus was overwhelming to Buffy on orientation day. She kept her hand tightly clenched, afraid that the ring would slip off in some crazed orientation prank and her secret would be out in the open. Also she didn’t want to burn down the school. Two schools burned down in the course of her life was enough thank you very much. Ushered from table to table and told that she was in the wrong place numerous times, Buffy almost decided to head home. This was so not worth the feelings of inadequacy and fear that this excursion was producing. Luckily at that moment Willow found her, completely awed and enraptured by the college experience.
“Don’t you love the campus? The atmosphere?” chimed Willow in a happy voice, oblivious to Buffy’s feeling of being overwhelmed.
They were joined by Oz, who greeted Willow in a very couply way. Buffy suddenly wished that Spike was at school with her. He’d probably feel right at home on a college campus again, he went to Oxford after all. Yep, there needed to be a second Gem of Amara for Spike.
He had been happy for her and her coed dreams that morning before he and the minions had headed off to bed, and she went off to campus. It was an odd feeling to be separated from him during the day. She had enjoyed their time together that summer. It seemed that their lives had finally started to have some sort of routine. Everything felt right, even with the minions.
“Have you gotten your books yet?” asked Willow, holding Oz’s hand.
Buffy shook her head no. “But I am fully prepared to spend hundreds on textbooks I will only use once with Spike’s money. I think I’ll get him something too.”
“At the university bookstore?” questioned Willow.
Buffy smiled coyly, unwilling to give away Spike’s secret just yet. Willow said goodbye to her boyfriend and led Buffy towards the bookstore, as if it was imperative that she get her books this instant.
The bookstore was cramped, piles of texts waiting to be purchased by students of every major. Willow led Buffy to the psychology section and planted her in front of the Psych 101 textbook.
“You need this book. I’ve heard that Professor Walsh is tough. You’ve got to do all the readings before class.”
Buffy shrugged her shoulders and reached up to grab a copy, starting her pile of mass purchasing. A book slipped and fell off the shelf. Instinctively, Buffy reached out and grabbed that book too, narrowly missing a sandy haired blond man from getting clocked in the head.
The man stood up to offer his thanks. It was Riley, Faith’s ‘friend.’
“Good reflexes,” he commented.
“Thanks,” Buffy offered. She noted the textbook that he was holding in his hand was the same one that had almost hit him on the head. “You taking Psych 101 too?” she asked, confused. Riley didn‘t look like he was a freshman.
Riley began to chuckle. “I’m the teaching assistant. I thought it would be a good idea to have a copy of the text,” he explained, running his hand through his hair.
His eyes locked with Buffy’s as if trying to figure her out. Buffy stared straight back at him, trying to do the very same thing.
“Do you know Professor Walsh well?” asked Willow, eager to get intelligence on her newest teacher, and completely unaware of the staring match that was taking place between her two companions.
“I’ve been a student of hers for a while now,” Riley explained, his eyes fleeting at Willow as he spoke.
Buffy smiled at his comment and then a thought occurred to her. “Was this before or after the marines?” she asked, going on a hunch.
“After,” blurted Riley, and then his eyes narrowed on her. “How did you know…?” he asked confused.
“I just have great instincts,” the vampire noted. “How long have you been in the military?”
“Since High school, they’ve put me though college. There’s a great pay raise when you make officer,” he explained.
“I’m sure there is,” responded Buffy, batting her eyelashes.
“I’ve never heard anything about the military setting up a base around here,” observed Willow. “I’m sure I would have heard about it. My mother would have been protesting.”
Riley got a funny look on his face. “Oh there is no base around here. I’m just here for school. Two years off to do my master’s in psychology.”
Riley’s heart beat faster, confirming, to Buffy, that he was lying. She let him keep his lie though. She didn’t need to expose him in his lie right now. This was not the time or the place.
An awkward silence filled the air between the three. Buffy continued to stare down the commando, while Willow tried to think of something else to say. Riley’s eyes darted from place to place, avoiding Buffy’s hard stare. His lighted on a flyer that was tucked haphazardly in Buffy’s tote bag.
“You going?” asked Riley pointing to the flyer.
Absently Buffy looked at the flyer and winced. “I don’t know, I didn’t think I’d know many people there. Looks like it’s going to be all people who live in the dorms,” she said truthfully.
“You live off campus?” asked Riley. “With your parents?”
Buffy shook her head.
“Faith said you lived with your family…” explained Riley.
“Well, will you look at the time?” noted Buffy looking at her watchless wrist. “I promised Anya I’d meet up with her. We should get the rest of our books and check out. Wills?” asked the vampire.
Willow nodded with a small smile. It seemed a bit rude to Willow to leave Riley hanging there in the psychology section, but he had way too many questions.
“I’ll see you in class!” Riley called out behind them as they left.
Buffy could feel jealous twinges from her mate in his sleep.
____________________________
By the time Buffy had gotten back from coffee and blood with Anya, the mansion was quiet. The only signs of unlife were the four minions that were on guard at the doors.
“Master Spike went out to feed, Mistress,” greeted one of the minions.
Buffy rolled her eyes at the fact that Spike couldn’t wait for her to get home before going out. She dropped her bag of really heavy textbooks, leaving them for the minions to take up to her room, and headed out into the night. She wanted to find Spike.
As she walked she reached out through her link to him. He was on the hunt, a fact that didn’t really bother her. She just hoped that he was done with whom ever he was drinking by the time she happened upon the scene.
Buffy walked into the alley in which Spike was stalking his victim. Her vampire eyes saw at once that Spike was clearly working the lonely girl in an alley angle. This chick had her hands all over Buffy’s man.
“Spike?” Buffy cooed in their direction. "Honey?” she continued as girly as she could.
The girl looked up from her hands that had been pressed against Spike’s chest and at his blue eyes then to Buffy’s green ones at the entrance to the alley.
“You have a girlfriend?” asked the girl.
“You didn’t ask,” he countered answering her question. “Goldilocks!” he chastised at his mate with annoyance.
“Not girlfriend, actually,” noted Buffy. “Wife,” she said smiling.
“Huh?” questioned Spike’s victim.
That was the last thing she ever said. Spike turned to look at the girl, this time in vamp face and sunk his teeth into her neck.
Instead of cringing, as she had always done previously when she saw another vamp feed, she looked on with awe. Her tongue poked out of her pink mouth and licked her lips as she watched.
Then she realised what she was doing. Her eyes went wide for a moment, before she turned and ran.
____________________________
Spike dropped his meal in the alley and turned towards his mate as she ran. He sighed, wiping the blood from his lips. “Buffy!” he almost whined.
He found her sitting on a beach, in the middle of the UC Sunnydale campus, and talking to another man he had never seen before.
“You think girls can’t take care of themselves in the dark?” his Goldilocks asked the sandy haired youth.
“You really have to get inside, Buffy,” noted the man.
“No actually, I don’t,” she countered.
Spike could sense the anger of his mate. Most likely she had been expecting to find him out here, and not this moronic farm boy.
“Yes, you do,” insisted the boy. “It’s dangerous out here at night. There are things…things out here in the dark that like to take advantage of little girls like you.”
“Maybe that’s what I’m out here to find!” Buffy spouted defiantly. “Please just go away!”
Riley grabbed her elbow and pulled her to a standing position. “I am not leaving you out here by yourself!” he declared.
Buffy pulled her arm away from him and was about to fire back a well thought out retort when Spike stepped out of the shadows.
The tell tale beeping of military gadgets pierced the night’s silence and Riley visibly cringed as Spike stepped towards the pair, either from his comrades being loud or the sudden appearance of a vampire on the scene.
“She’s not here by herself, mate,” noted Spike in a low voice, but looking directly on the man who, until only recently was handling his mate. “The girl’s mine, boy.”
____________________________
tbc…
Where it all goes down hill.
Disclaimer: All hail Joss.
Author’s note: Thanks to BTL for the betaing and the snowball! I love it!
_______________________
Chapter 26: Where it all goes down hill.
"Buffy," ordered Riley. "Walk away now!"
The worried tone in his voice made her smile. She couldn't figure out why the gadgets in the bushes had gone off for Spike and not for her. It must have to do with the ugly ring, she concluded to herself.
She decided to play the innocent, 'cause it was just so much fun. She could feel Spike's slight jealousy as Buffy batted her eyelashes at the solider boy.
"Why would I want to do that when there are two very hot guys standing right here?" she asked in a little girl voice.
"He's dangerous," continued Riley, eying Spike. "You don't know how dangerous he is. He's not a normal guy."
"Really?" Buffy asked as she stood up, stepping between the two men. She could hear Riley's breath hitch in his throat as she hesitated between the two of them. He was wondering just who she would walk towards.
There wasn't a snowball’s chance in hell that she was walking towards Riley.
"You know," she started, looking at the commando. "He is right."
"Huh?" articulated Riley.
"This blond hunk of man," she responded, purring. "He's right. I am his." Buffy stepped towards Spike, wrapping her arms around her mate and glaring at Riley.
Her eyes darted around for an easy escape route. They were surrounded. There had to be at least 20 commandos in the bushes. Spike's hands pressed on her skin firmly. He was aware of the soldiers in the bushes and he was just a little bit tense about it.
"It was nice seeing you again Riley," she continued, staring the TA down. "See you in class."
She turned, gently pushing Spike in front of her as she walked. Buffy wanted to get out of the area ASAP. She didn’t have time to explain herself.
Riley wasn't making it easy for her though. The TA stepped in front of Spike as he walked away, brining a gun out of his pants. If Buffy had been in a better mood she would have made a smart remark about the location of his gun. As it was, she was more terrified of what Riley and his soldier buddies were going to do to them.
"Riley, please," she almost begged, peering around from behind Spike. "Just let us go."
A brief look of concern passed over the soldier's face, then as his tracking devices beeped again, his face hardened.
"I'm sorry Buffy. I have to do this to protect this town," he said, his finger tightening on the trigger.
Before Buffy had time to throw herself into the path of the shot that exited the barrel of Riley's gun, he fired. With a grunt, Spike collapsed onto the ground. Electricity sparkled on the air and the smell of burning flesh hit Buffy's nostrils. She didn't realise it right away, but she had been zapped too. There was a painfully long moment of disorientation as the ring attempted to counteract effects of the electricity. Buffy's brain tried to comprehend what was going on. She had alway thought that this mythical ring she wore on her finger would protect her from all harm. I guess it doesn't get modern technology, she concluded to herself.
Buffy shook her head, trying to clear it of the massive amount of electricity that had coursed through her body. All she could understand was that Riley was trying to figure out if she was okay and that the men in the bushes were coming closer, with things in their hands.
Riley waved his hand in front of her face.
The world was moving so slowly. The men in night gear tied up Spike before her and started taking him away before she could move her arms with any amount of productivity. And Riley was still in her way.
She clenched her fist determinedly, forcing her muscles to react. As the feeling returned, she thought of only one thing.
Get Spike back.
Buffy back handed Riley, causing Faith's boy toy to fall to the ground. She sprinted after the men who had taken Spike, only to see the black van he had been huddled into squeal out of sight. She followed it as best as she could, but even vampire stamina could not keep up with an engine she was pretty sure was powered by jet fuel.
Buffy, stopped her pursuit in the middle of the road, her shoulders heaving from her run. Staring off into the dark depths of the night, she couldn't help but cry. Tears coursing down her face, she was joined shortly by Riley.
The commando put an arm on her shoulder, trying to soothe her tears.
“Buffy, he was dangerous. They are taking him somewhere where he can’t hurt anyone ever again. You don’t know just how lucky you are that he didn’t hurt you, or worse,” Riley commented his voice soft. “I don’t know what he told you, but you aren’t the first girl he’s tried to seduce.”
Buffy turned with a hard glare at the commando with his arm around her shoulder. She pushed him off and stepped away. She was so mad. This buffoon had gotten Spike captured. He had to pay. Death wasn’t good enough for him.
Buffy growled and brought out her fangs, catching Riley off guard.
Riley tried to back away from Buffy and find something to defend himself with, but Buffy lunged at him and sunk her fangs into his neck.
The warm blood coursing down her throat was the nothing compared to Spike’s sire’s blood that she drank daily, only this was warmer. It was its only redeeming virtue. She was too angry to think about what taking Riley’s life meant for her non soul or her relationship with Willow.
Buffy pulled away from the commando’s scarred neck and licked her lips. She carefully cut her index finger on her fangs and dribbled a few drops of blood into Riley’s mouth. Riley was still gasping for help and air as his heart beat down its final moments. Riley licked down the drops desperately.
Those drops would make him a minion, nothing more. The weakest minion in their clan if Buffy had done it right. It was her first siring after all. Without waiting for Riley to kick the can, Buffy hoisted him over her shoulder fireman style and headed back home. She would leave the corpse in the care of the most incompetent minion, assuring Riley a permanent position at the bottom of the totem pole.
And that minion’s name was Harmony.
_______________________
Buffy rushed into Giles’ apartment, her tears long turned to anger and hatred. There was a Scooby meeting in progress. Faith, Xander, Amy, Oz, Willow, and Giles were all assembled, talking about something of importance. Buffy didn‘t care what they were talking about, she needed them, or at least Faith to help her get Spike.
At once, Willow knew that something was up with Buffy and the look of concern that passed over the witch‘s face set Buffy off again. In tears she cried out the situation to her best friend and the other Scoobies.
“So you came here? Why? So that we would help you get your vampire lover out of the clutches of a government organization that is actually doing the town some good? Spike’s evil, let him rot in that place with the rest of your minions,” spouted Faith, her face hard against Buffy‘s plight.
Buffy looked up from Willow’s shoulder as the room went silent. She turned and with one fluid motion, Faith was bleeding from the nose and was on the floor.
“Spike saved your life, you ungrateful bitch!” Buffy shouted. “He should have just let you die with the rest of the watchers who attacked us! You will help me Faith whether you want to or not.”
“You are obviously under some form of crazy delusion then,” Faith scoffed. “There is no way that I’ll be helping you.”
“I’ll help you Buffy, you know I will,” interrupted Willow.
Xander nodded too. “Count me in.”
“Me too!” added Amy.
Buffy smiled at her friends and then turned back to Faith who was wiping the blood from her nose. “I won’t do it,” declared Faith, her arms crossed as she sat down on Giles’ couch.
“Then you can find another place to live,” noted Giles suddenly, and Buffy gave him a watery smile before glaring back at Faith.
“I’m not giving you the option of refusing Faith. Your boyfriend did this and I need you to get us in,” explained Buffy.
“Then you are going to have to get another plan,” noted Faith resolutely.
Buffy growled a little at Faith’s attitude. She had actually expected this, just not exactly the fact that she’d have to make Faith do this. She wished now that she'd taken Spike up on his offer to show how to use the Sire/Future Childe connection to make Faith do her will.
With a deep unneeded breath, Buffy fixed her eyes on Faith and the scar that was on Faith’s neck.
“Show us where the entrance to the base is, Faith,” Buffy said in a very commanding voice.
Willow’s jaw dropped, as Faith pushed past her and opened the front door. “Follow me,” noted the slayer stalking out into the night.
“Could you do that all the time?” Willow asked Buffy.
Buffy nodded, her eyes focusing on Faith’s figure, not willing to give up control of Faith until they were safely inside the compound.
“Fascinating. Wonder if she could do it all the time,” muttered Giles as he grabbed his coat and headed out into the night behind the group.
_______________________
Buffy did not let Faith out of her sight or her control all the way to the entrance of the compound. Which, surprisingly enough, was one of the dorms on campus. Buffy sighed as she realised that this was going to be way harder than she had previously thought.
They passed through the front doors of the building, a male dorm, and down a corridor or two. Faith stopped right in front of a full length mirror.
“How are we going to get in Buffy?” asked Willow, scared and looking around as if someone was watching them.
“Faith with get us in,” said Buffy, more confidently than she felt.
“I don’t know Buff, this place looks impregnable, and well, smells just a bit ripe,” noted Xander, waving his hand in front of his nose.
“One would have hoped that the population of a male dorm on this campus would have been privy the wonders of personal hygiene,” observed Giles.
The group stared at the mirror Faith had led them to, pondering just how to open it. Faith was giving them no hints. Faith stood in front of the mirror, unable to move against Buffy’s thrall. The others hid behind the closest corner waiting for Buffy to make up her mind as to what they would do next.
“I can’t take you any further, I’ve only been down there once. Riley took me there. This is the end of the road. Now, let me go!” shouted Faith, struggling against Buffy’s thrall.
“No!” shouted Buffy. “Not until Spike is back home. I need him back, Faith.”
Buffy fought back her tears. She couldn’t feel Spike through their connection at all, which meant that either he was unconscious, or worse, dust. She couldn’t bear to contemplate the second scenario. They were all waiting for her to make up her mind, to do something that would bring them to the next stage of this plan to rescue a vampire.
Buffy was saved from making a decision by the opening of the door behind a mirror, and the appearance of a commando, sans army gear, obviously off duty for the night.
“Faith!” the commando said surprised. “What are you doing here? Are you meeting Riley for a date?”
Faith let a strained smile pass over her face. She was clearly fighting the thrall, but Buffy wanted this soldier to help them into the compound and if using Faith was the way this had to go, then so be it.
“What are you doing here?” the soldier continued, trying to step out of the white elevator and into the hallway. Faith didn’t budge and didn’t give him much room to manoeuvre.
“Graham,” murmured Faith, “It’s, it’s....” Faith’s words stopped suddenly in her throat. The Slayer looked back at Buffy with hatred in her eyes.
Graham curiously looked back from Faith to the corner where the Scoobies were hiding, wondering what was going on. His body was tense, as if preparing for a confrontation. Giles didn’t let them get a chance. The watcher moved swiftly, his fist coming in hard contact with the soldier’s nose. Graham fell back into the elevator, followed by a rush of Scoobies, herding into the elevator, but leaving Faith, as if paralysed, in the hallway.
The doors to the elevator closed, while Faith’s wide eyes silently screamed her protest to the situation. Buffy however, thought no more about the slayer and set her mind on the danger that lay before them. She had to get Spike back. She was willing to sacrifice anything to be with her mate again. Even Faith.
Buffy looked back at the four humans who followed her. They had been in such doubt when she’d first been turned. That they had come with her to save the vampire that had turned her was proof enough that they loved her, despite her demon status.
Buffy pushed open a panel to reveal a crawl space above the elevator. With one powerful leap, Buffy was above the elevator cabin and reaching down to help her friends up into the elevator shaft. Willow climbed up willingly, Xander with difficultly, but Giles actually shrugged his shoulders and sighed before letting himself be pulled into the shaft.
“It’s too late to back out now,” observed Willow gently, dusting Giles off.
The group crawled through a number of vents and shafts, dodging antiquated security systems and keeping silent around corners. Buffy let her senses guide her to Spike’s side. At long last, Buffy dropped through a vent and into a large white room, in which sat a series of glass cells, each holding a vampire or demon in various states of dress, health, and distress.
The groups’ appearance in the room brought a wave of sound to Buffy’s ears. Each conscious demon and vampire called to her for help.
Buffy ignored the calls for help; she ignored the cries of pain and agony. She sought out just one demon in that long line of cells. Mid way down and to the left, Buffy spotted him, unconscious, with a chunk of his platinum blond hair missing from his scalp.
Unfortunately for the others, they couldn’t block out the pathetic cries of the demons and vampires behind the glass. Willow already had tears coursing down her cheeks as Buffy pulled on her shirt to get her attention.
“I need the door open Willow,” ordered Buffy.
Willow didn’t need Buffy to ask her again. With a nod, Willow began chanting a simple spell to open the cell door. The door slid open silently, and Buffy wasted no time to get to her mate’s side.
“Does anyone else think that this is too easy?” asked Xander and thereby jinxing the rescue operation.
A loud alarm started blaring, with the inevitable flashing red lights.
“Xander!” chastised Willow.
“I do believe we should exit this artificially sterile place post haste,” suggested Giles.
“’Cause of the alarm?” asked Xander critically.
“Well, that, and these harsh lights are giving me a headache,” noted Giles.
Ignoring the banter, Buffy hoisted her unconscious mate over her shoulder, fireman style and headed back out into the hallway. Finally, she was able to see the other demons in the other cells, some were her minions even.
“It’s terrible,” observed Willow with a little girl voice, looking at the others who were still trapped.
“Let them out,” asked Buffy. “Please Willow, set them free. They don’t deserve this.”
Willow started chanting again, casting a spell on the doors of the cells. Even as the cell doors slid open, the main door to the room was filled with gun and tazer toting soldiers, bent on keeping their quarry in their cells. Demons, long held captive faced off against the soldiers. The Scoobies stood in the middle, uncomfortable in their position as a barrier between the two sides.
“Hey! Look over there!” yelled Xander pointing at the other end of the cell bay.
Like magic, all the demons and soldiers looked away for a split second, giving the Scoobies a chance to get away. With Spike bouncing on her shoulder, Buffy weaved her way through the corridors and dodging sentries as she led Giles, Xander, and Willow towards what she thought was the exit.
Buffy turned a corner sharply, and almost ran into Graham, brandishing a rifle. The look in his eyes was pure surprise, shock, and a little bit of hatred, as he viewed whom was over Buffy’s shoulder.
Graham pointed his rifle at the Scoobies who were at once shocked that after so easy a rescue they had been stopped by the one person they kinda knew down there.
He lifted the muzzle at the group and scowled. If Buffy had a heart beat, hers would have been going a mile a minute, as it was, she could only hear Willow’s, Xander’s, Amy, and Giles’ hearts beat faster as they faced down Graham’s gun.
“Just turn around and go back to the holding cells,” the soldier finally said, moving his gun to indicate the other direction.
“I’m not going back there, Graham,” asserted Buffy. “And neither is Spike.”
“Riley had this thing where he didn’t want hurt innocent humans. Luckily, I don’t have the same compulsion. But maybe you’d like to tell me where Riley is? You were the last one to see him.”
“Maybe he went for a walk?“ suggested Buffy, trying to shrug her shoulders under the weight of Spike on her shoulder.”
“He’s probably making the smoochies with Faith,” started Xander bitterly.
“Incendio,” whispered Willow, sending a puff of smoke towards Graham and setting his camo gear aflame.
As Graham’s screams filled the corridor, Giles pushed the flailing soldier out of the way creating an escape route. Xander followed Giles, trailed by Buffy, carrying Spike, with Amy and Willow bringing up the rear.
Suddenly a shot rang out inside the corridor, the sounds of ricocheting sounded before there was a Willow like scream, and the sound of flesh hitting the floor.
The group halted their trek and turned to see Willow, lying on the ground, bleeding from the shoulder. Giles wasted no time. He scooped up Willow and continued on his way outside the complex.
“Why am I always the one to get shot at?” asked Willow in faint voice.
_______________________
tbc...
Author’s note: Thanks to BTL for the betaing and the snowball! I love it!
_______________________
Chapter 26: Where it all goes down hill.
"Buffy," ordered Riley. "Walk away now!"
The worried tone in his voice made her smile. She couldn't figure out why the gadgets in the bushes had gone off for Spike and not for her. It must have to do with the ugly ring, she concluded to herself.
She decided to play the innocent, 'cause it was just so much fun. She could feel Spike's slight jealousy as Buffy batted her eyelashes at the solider boy.
"Why would I want to do that when there are two very hot guys standing right here?" she asked in a little girl voice.
"He's dangerous," continued Riley, eying Spike. "You don't know how dangerous he is. He's not a normal guy."
"Really?" Buffy asked as she stood up, stepping between the two men. She could hear Riley's breath hitch in his throat as she hesitated between the two of them. He was wondering just who she would walk towards.
There wasn't a snowball’s chance in hell that she was walking towards Riley.
"You know," she started, looking at the commando. "He is right."
"Huh?" articulated Riley.
"This blond hunk of man," she responded, purring. "He's right. I am his." Buffy stepped towards Spike, wrapping her arms around her mate and glaring at Riley.
Her eyes darted around for an easy escape route. They were surrounded. There had to be at least 20 commandos in the bushes. Spike's hands pressed on her skin firmly. He was aware of the soldiers in the bushes and he was just a little bit tense about it.
"It was nice seeing you again Riley," she continued, staring the TA down. "See you in class."
She turned, gently pushing Spike in front of her as she walked. Buffy wanted to get out of the area ASAP. She didn’t have time to explain herself.
Riley wasn't making it easy for her though. The TA stepped in front of Spike as he walked away, brining a gun out of his pants. If Buffy had been in a better mood she would have made a smart remark about the location of his gun. As it was, she was more terrified of what Riley and his soldier buddies were going to do to them.
"Riley, please," she almost begged, peering around from behind Spike. "Just let us go."
A brief look of concern passed over the soldier's face, then as his tracking devices beeped again, his face hardened.
"I'm sorry Buffy. I have to do this to protect this town," he said, his finger tightening on the trigger.
Before Buffy had time to throw herself into the path of the shot that exited the barrel of Riley's gun, he fired. With a grunt, Spike collapsed onto the ground. Electricity sparkled on the air and the smell of burning flesh hit Buffy's nostrils. She didn't realise it right away, but she had been zapped too. There was a painfully long moment of disorientation as the ring attempted to counteract effects of the electricity. Buffy's brain tried to comprehend what was going on. She had alway thought that this mythical ring she wore on her finger would protect her from all harm. I guess it doesn't get modern technology, she concluded to herself.
Buffy shook her head, trying to clear it of the massive amount of electricity that had coursed through her body. All she could understand was that Riley was trying to figure out if she was okay and that the men in the bushes were coming closer, with things in their hands.
Riley waved his hand in front of her face.
The world was moving so slowly. The men in night gear tied up Spike before her and started taking him away before she could move her arms with any amount of productivity. And Riley was still in her way.
She clenched her fist determinedly, forcing her muscles to react. As the feeling returned, she thought of only one thing.
Get Spike back.
Buffy back handed Riley, causing Faith's boy toy to fall to the ground. She sprinted after the men who had taken Spike, only to see the black van he had been huddled into squeal out of sight. She followed it as best as she could, but even vampire stamina could not keep up with an engine she was pretty sure was powered by jet fuel.
Buffy, stopped her pursuit in the middle of the road, her shoulders heaving from her run. Staring off into the dark depths of the night, she couldn't help but cry. Tears coursing down her face, she was joined shortly by Riley.
The commando put an arm on her shoulder, trying to soothe her tears.
“Buffy, he was dangerous. They are taking him somewhere where he can’t hurt anyone ever again. You don’t know just how lucky you are that he didn’t hurt you, or worse,” Riley commented his voice soft. “I don’t know what he told you, but you aren’t the first girl he’s tried to seduce.”
Buffy turned with a hard glare at the commando with his arm around her shoulder. She pushed him off and stepped away. She was so mad. This buffoon had gotten Spike captured. He had to pay. Death wasn’t good enough for him.
Buffy growled and brought out her fangs, catching Riley off guard.
Riley tried to back away from Buffy and find something to defend himself with, but Buffy lunged at him and sunk her fangs into his neck.
The warm blood coursing down her throat was the nothing compared to Spike’s sire’s blood that she drank daily, only this was warmer. It was its only redeeming virtue. She was too angry to think about what taking Riley’s life meant for her non soul or her relationship with Willow.
Buffy pulled away from the commando’s scarred neck and licked her lips. She carefully cut her index finger on her fangs and dribbled a few drops of blood into Riley’s mouth. Riley was still gasping for help and air as his heart beat down its final moments. Riley licked down the drops desperately.
Those drops would make him a minion, nothing more. The weakest minion in their clan if Buffy had done it right. It was her first siring after all. Without waiting for Riley to kick the can, Buffy hoisted him over her shoulder fireman style and headed back home. She would leave the corpse in the care of the most incompetent minion, assuring Riley a permanent position at the bottom of the totem pole.
And that minion’s name was Harmony.
_______________________
Buffy rushed into Giles’ apartment, her tears long turned to anger and hatred. There was a Scooby meeting in progress. Faith, Xander, Amy, Oz, Willow, and Giles were all assembled, talking about something of importance. Buffy didn‘t care what they were talking about, she needed them, or at least Faith to help her get Spike.
At once, Willow knew that something was up with Buffy and the look of concern that passed over the witch‘s face set Buffy off again. In tears she cried out the situation to her best friend and the other Scoobies.
“So you came here? Why? So that we would help you get your vampire lover out of the clutches of a government organization that is actually doing the town some good? Spike’s evil, let him rot in that place with the rest of your minions,” spouted Faith, her face hard against Buffy‘s plight.
Buffy looked up from Willow’s shoulder as the room went silent. She turned and with one fluid motion, Faith was bleeding from the nose and was on the floor.
“Spike saved your life, you ungrateful bitch!” Buffy shouted. “He should have just let you die with the rest of the watchers who attacked us! You will help me Faith whether you want to or not.”
“You are obviously under some form of crazy delusion then,” Faith scoffed. “There is no way that I’ll be helping you.”
“I’ll help you Buffy, you know I will,” interrupted Willow.
Xander nodded too. “Count me in.”
“Me too!” added Amy.
Buffy smiled at her friends and then turned back to Faith who was wiping the blood from her nose. “I won’t do it,” declared Faith, her arms crossed as she sat down on Giles’ couch.
“Then you can find another place to live,” noted Giles suddenly, and Buffy gave him a watery smile before glaring back at Faith.
“I’m not giving you the option of refusing Faith. Your boyfriend did this and I need you to get us in,” explained Buffy.
“Then you are going to have to get another plan,” noted Faith resolutely.
Buffy growled a little at Faith’s attitude. She had actually expected this, just not exactly the fact that she’d have to make Faith do this. She wished now that she'd taken Spike up on his offer to show how to use the Sire/Future Childe connection to make Faith do her will.
With a deep unneeded breath, Buffy fixed her eyes on Faith and the scar that was on Faith’s neck.
“Show us where the entrance to the base is, Faith,” Buffy said in a very commanding voice.
Willow’s jaw dropped, as Faith pushed past her and opened the front door. “Follow me,” noted the slayer stalking out into the night.
“Could you do that all the time?” Willow asked Buffy.
Buffy nodded, her eyes focusing on Faith’s figure, not willing to give up control of Faith until they were safely inside the compound.
“Fascinating. Wonder if she could do it all the time,” muttered Giles as he grabbed his coat and headed out into the night behind the group.
_______________________
Buffy did not let Faith out of her sight or her control all the way to the entrance of the compound. Which, surprisingly enough, was one of the dorms on campus. Buffy sighed as she realised that this was going to be way harder than she had previously thought.
They passed through the front doors of the building, a male dorm, and down a corridor or two. Faith stopped right in front of a full length mirror.
“How are we going to get in Buffy?” asked Willow, scared and looking around as if someone was watching them.
“Faith with get us in,” said Buffy, more confidently than she felt.
“I don’t know Buff, this place looks impregnable, and well, smells just a bit ripe,” noted Xander, waving his hand in front of his nose.
“One would have hoped that the population of a male dorm on this campus would have been privy the wonders of personal hygiene,” observed Giles.
The group stared at the mirror Faith had led them to, pondering just how to open it. Faith was giving them no hints. Faith stood in front of the mirror, unable to move against Buffy’s thrall. The others hid behind the closest corner waiting for Buffy to make up her mind as to what they would do next.
“I can’t take you any further, I’ve only been down there once. Riley took me there. This is the end of the road. Now, let me go!” shouted Faith, struggling against Buffy’s thrall.
“No!” shouted Buffy. “Not until Spike is back home. I need him back, Faith.”
Buffy fought back her tears. She couldn’t feel Spike through their connection at all, which meant that either he was unconscious, or worse, dust. She couldn’t bear to contemplate the second scenario. They were all waiting for her to make up her mind, to do something that would bring them to the next stage of this plan to rescue a vampire.
Buffy was saved from making a decision by the opening of the door behind a mirror, and the appearance of a commando, sans army gear, obviously off duty for the night.
“Faith!” the commando said surprised. “What are you doing here? Are you meeting Riley for a date?”
Faith let a strained smile pass over her face. She was clearly fighting the thrall, but Buffy wanted this soldier to help them into the compound and if using Faith was the way this had to go, then so be it.
“What are you doing here?” the soldier continued, trying to step out of the white elevator and into the hallway. Faith didn’t budge and didn’t give him much room to manoeuvre.
“Graham,” murmured Faith, “It’s, it’s....” Faith’s words stopped suddenly in her throat. The Slayer looked back at Buffy with hatred in her eyes.
Graham curiously looked back from Faith to the corner where the Scoobies were hiding, wondering what was going on. His body was tense, as if preparing for a confrontation. Giles didn’t let them get a chance. The watcher moved swiftly, his fist coming in hard contact with the soldier’s nose. Graham fell back into the elevator, followed by a rush of Scoobies, herding into the elevator, but leaving Faith, as if paralysed, in the hallway.
The doors to the elevator closed, while Faith’s wide eyes silently screamed her protest to the situation. Buffy however, thought no more about the slayer and set her mind on the danger that lay before them. She had to get Spike back. She was willing to sacrifice anything to be with her mate again. Even Faith.
Buffy looked back at the four humans who followed her. They had been in such doubt when she’d first been turned. That they had come with her to save the vampire that had turned her was proof enough that they loved her, despite her demon status.
Buffy pushed open a panel to reveal a crawl space above the elevator. With one powerful leap, Buffy was above the elevator cabin and reaching down to help her friends up into the elevator shaft. Willow climbed up willingly, Xander with difficultly, but Giles actually shrugged his shoulders and sighed before letting himself be pulled into the shaft.
“It’s too late to back out now,” observed Willow gently, dusting Giles off.
The group crawled through a number of vents and shafts, dodging antiquated security systems and keeping silent around corners. Buffy let her senses guide her to Spike’s side. At long last, Buffy dropped through a vent and into a large white room, in which sat a series of glass cells, each holding a vampire or demon in various states of dress, health, and distress.
The groups’ appearance in the room brought a wave of sound to Buffy’s ears. Each conscious demon and vampire called to her for help.
Buffy ignored the calls for help; she ignored the cries of pain and agony. She sought out just one demon in that long line of cells. Mid way down and to the left, Buffy spotted him, unconscious, with a chunk of his platinum blond hair missing from his scalp.
Unfortunately for the others, they couldn’t block out the pathetic cries of the demons and vampires behind the glass. Willow already had tears coursing down her cheeks as Buffy pulled on her shirt to get her attention.
“I need the door open Willow,” ordered Buffy.
Willow didn’t need Buffy to ask her again. With a nod, Willow began chanting a simple spell to open the cell door. The door slid open silently, and Buffy wasted no time to get to her mate’s side.
“Does anyone else think that this is too easy?” asked Xander and thereby jinxing the rescue operation.
A loud alarm started blaring, with the inevitable flashing red lights.
“Xander!” chastised Willow.
“I do believe we should exit this artificially sterile place post haste,” suggested Giles.
“’Cause of the alarm?” asked Xander critically.
“Well, that, and these harsh lights are giving me a headache,” noted Giles.
Ignoring the banter, Buffy hoisted her unconscious mate over her shoulder, fireman style and headed back out into the hallway. Finally, she was able to see the other demons in the other cells, some were her minions even.
“It’s terrible,” observed Willow with a little girl voice, looking at the others who were still trapped.
“Let them out,” asked Buffy. “Please Willow, set them free. They don’t deserve this.”
Willow started chanting again, casting a spell on the doors of the cells. Even as the cell doors slid open, the main door to the room was filled with gun and tazer toting soldiers, bent on keeping their quarry in their cells. Demons, long held captive faced off against the soldiers. The Scoobies stood in the middle, uncomfortable in their position as a barrier between the two sides.
“Hey! Look over there!” yelled Xander pointing at the other end of the cell bay.
Like magic, all the demons and soldiers looked away for a split second, giving the Scoobies a chance to get away. With Spike bouncing on her shoulder, Buffy weaved her way through the corridors and dodging sentries as she led Giles, Xander, and Willow towards what she thought was the exit.
Buffy turned a corner sharply, and almost ran into Graham, brandishing a rifle. The look in his eyes was pure surprise, shock, and a little bit of hatred, as he viewed whom was over Buffy’s shoulder.
Graham pointed his rifle at the Scoobies who were at once shocked that after so easy a rescue they had been stopped by the one person they kinda knew down there.
He lifted the muzzle at the group and scowled. If Buffy had a heart beat, hers would have been going a mile a minute, as it was, she could only hear Willow’s, Xander’s, Amy, and Giles’ hearts beat faster as they faced down Graham’s gun.
“Just turn around and go back to the holding cells,” the soldier finally said, moving his gun to indicate the other direction.
“I’m not going back there, Graham,” asserted Buffy. “And neither is Spike.”
“Riley had this thing where he didn’t want hurt innocent humans. Luckily, I don’t have the same compulsion. But maybe you’d like to tell me where Riley is? You were the last one to see him.”
“Maybe he went for a walk?“ suggested Buffy, trying to shrug her shoulders under the weight of Spike on her shoulder.”
“He’s probably making the smoochies with Faith,” started Xander bitterly.
“Incendio,” whispered Willow, sending a puff of smoke towards Graham and setting his camo gear aflame.
As Graham’s screams filled the corridor, Giles pushed the flailing soldier out of the way creating an escape route. Xander followed Giles, trailed by Buffy, carrying Spike, with Amy and Willow bringing up the rear.
Suddenly a shot rang out inside the corridor, the sounds of ricocheting sounded before there was a Willow like scream, and the sound of flesh hitting the floor.
The group halted their trek and turned to see Willow, lying on the ground, bleeding from the shoulder. Giles wasted no time. He scooped up Willow and continued on his way outside the complex.
“Why am I always the one to get shot at?” asked Willow in faint voice.
_______________________
tbc...
Blood and Sex
Disclaimer: Joss would never do this to his characters...really he wouldn’t.
Author’s note: Once again thanks to the wonderful BTL who beta’s so magnificently.
_______________________
Chapter 27: Blood and Sex
The Scoobies and Buffy parted ways in front of the hospital. As much as Buffy wanted to be by Willow’s side as she recovered from yet another injury, she still had her unconscious mate slung over her shoulder and unconscious. He needed some serious blood in him.
She felt intense relief as she laid Spike down on their bed; he was home. She hadn’t even bothered to pay attention to the minions as she ascended the stairs, but now as Spike slept peacefully she had time to deal with the minions and the consequences of her actions.
She was heading to the fridge to get blood for Spike when Harmony darted out into the middle of the kitchen, distracting Buffy from her task.
“Buff...Mistress Elizabeth,” started Harmony correcting herself. “Thank you for the fledge, he’s dreamy. When he wakes up, I know he’ll be happy that I’m the one taking care of him.”
Buffy rolled her eyes and pushed Harmony out of the way. She slammed the door of the fridge open and pulled a blood bag out, O positive, Buffy’s private stash from the blood bank.
The Mistress of the clan ignored Harmony’s further attempts to get her attention, as she ripped open the bag, and dumped its contents into a waiting mug, and placed it into the microwave.
As the seconds counted down Buffy could feel Spike slowly wake upstairs.
“Mistress Elizabeth, I was wondering if I could get, um, permission to leave the house?” asked Harmony just as the microwave beeped. “I can’t be a good caretaker of a new fledge if I can’t teach him how to hunt. I need to get out of here,” continued Harmony with a whine.
Buffy answered the fledge’s query with a punch in the nose.
Harmony’s wails sounded throughout the house. Buffy helped herself to the mug of blood, letting the warm liquid slid down her throat. She handed the now empty mug to Harmony.
“Here, wash this,” ordered Buffy, as she left the kitchen and headed up the stairs to her mate.
Once in the room, Buffy sat down on the bed next to her waking mate. His eyes fluttered open with a groan.
“Buffy,” he whispered into the darkness of the room.
“Right here Spike,” she said with feeling. He tried to raise his head towards her, but had difficulty moving his muscles the way that he wanted to. In one fluid motion, Buffy raised him to a seated position, his head at her neck.
“Drink, baby,” she cooed, pressing his face towards the marks on her neck.
She felt him shift into game face and the pinpricks of pain that shot through her as he slid his fangs into her skin. The pull of her blood out of her body was intense. She could feel herself get weaker as Spike fed off her, but she wasn’t going to make him stop. He needed this and she could always make herself more blood down stairs. Riley’s blood, that was still lubricating her veins, had to be good for something after all.
The reaction to Spike feeding from her was immediate, a new wetness in her pants made itself known, and her free hand wound itself down the length of her torso and began undoing the zipper of her jeans.
Buffy pushed at the garment restricting her from achieving satisfaction. Slowly, gently, Spike’s fingers interwove with hers. The action brought a smile to Buffy’s face; he was becoming stronger with each pull of blood. Soon, Spike had even rolled her back onto the bed and was pulling her jeans off her body himself, his fangs still embedded in her neck.
Her diminishing strength made it possible for Spike to overpower her. Soon she was naked and spread open for him to take what was his. He licked the wound on her neck closed before gazing down at the naked beauty that was before him.
“Love,” he purred. “You rescued me.”
Buffy nodded, her eyes watering at the emotion. She had lost him. Buffy knew just how painful it would have been if she had really lost him forever. She’d had that experience before, when she had thought he was dead after Kendra dropped an organ on him.
“Of course I did,” she whispered back. “I can’t live without you. I love you Spike. You are mine, my lover, my sire, my mate.”
“Love you too Goldilocks,” he responded, looking down her naked body.
“Make love to me, Spike, William. I need you. I almost lost you again.” One of the tears that had been threatening to fall, coursed down her cheek, landing on the comforter she lay on.
Spike pulled back from her only long enough to divest himself from the clothes that were restricting him from fully possessing his mate.
Hard and ready, Spike slid his cock into her wet channel, eliciting a coo of pleasure from his Goldilocks. Buffy closed her eyes as he filled her up. It was a feeling that she couldn’t live without, however long The Powers decided that she was going to remain on this earth. It completed her, like she was a puzzle missing the final intricately shaped piece. Spike was that piece. He was just so right.
Slowly, he slid in and out of her channel, his movements conveying just how grateful he was to her, how much he loved her. Beneath him, Buffy rocked against his pelvis, her legs wrapping around his torso, pressing them closer together, forcing him deeper within her.
I love you Spike, she cried out in her head, even as some incomprehensible grunt left her lips.
I love you Buffy, came his reply, his trusts working steadily faster, the sounds of flesh slapping together, filled the room, along with their combined grunts and moans and cries.
_______________________
Anyanka, who was now a bona fide Vengeance Demon again, teleported into her bedroom just in time to hear Buffy scream out her pleasure at climax. The sound instantly made Anya want to find Xander for many pleasurable orgasms.
And she was in the mood for orgasms. Her boss, D’Hoffryn, was not a pleasant man to have to talk to when he was in a bad mood. Anya had spent the whole of the day trying to persuade him that she was back in the vengeance fold and ready for work.
He was clearly in need of some convincing.
Anya’s conscience though was another matter. Her wish to turn Cordelia into a demon clearly took care of Amy’s payment for helping Anya get her pendant back. Buffy still needed to be paid.
Buffy needed a wish.
Another scream from the room down the hall shook the walls. Buffy was clearly having a good time.
I wonder what Buffy will wish for, wondered Anya.
_______________________
Pleasantly pleasured, Buffy stumbled downstairs for another mug of blood. Harmony had long vacated the kitchen, thankfully. Spike was asleep upstairs and was probably going to sleep for the rest of the night and the rest of the following day.
It’s just as well, thought Buffy as she drank down another mug of blood. I’ve got a witch in the hospital to visit.
Buffy made her way to the hospital, ordering minions to guard the house even more carefully. Not only did they have a missing commando within the walls, but Faith was more than likely going to start on a rampage any moment now.
Buffy entered the hospital to see Xander, Giles, and Amy looking lost and tired in the waiting room. Buffy immediately thought the worst.
“Is she…” the vampire started.
“No,” began Giles. “The doctors are confident that she’ll be fine once they can get her heart rhythm back to normal. The voltage in the tazer was well above the safe limit for human beings.”
“They don’t understand how she could be alive at all,” noted Amy.
“Willow’s lucky to be alive,” muttered Xander, his gaze looking up at Buffy, the hint of an accusation beneath his eyes.
“You know that I’d never let anything happen to Willow, Xan,” Buffy defended herself. “Those army guys will pay for tonight.”
“Are you going to eat the commandos?” asked Amy.
All eyes were on the vampire, wondering what her response was going to be.
“Thinking about it,” answered Buffy truthfully.
What they didn’t know was that one of them was already dead and lying in the minion quarters of her house. What would they say if they knew that Riley was the first life she’d taken?
“Are they letting people see her?” asked Buffy finally, after an awkward silence.
Amy shook her head in the negative. “She’s hooked up to some very complicated machinery. Apparently our heartbeats will confuse the machines. We have to stay out of the room until the doctors say so.”
“I don’t have a heart beat,” explained Buffy unnecessarily before heading off to Willow’s room.
Buffy found Willow by smell, no need to ask the nurses on duty or even look at the names on the doors. Inside Willow was hooked up to a plethora of beeping machines. The red head looked so small in the face of such machinery. Quietly, Buffy knelt down beside her friend and took her slender hand.
“Oh Wills, I am so sorry. Again,” whispered Buffy into the darkness. “This wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t gotten you involved.”
“I remember telling you that I’d help,” came Willow’s breathy voice. “My fault too. This time.”
Buffy tried to laugh, but just ended up crying. Willow’s eyes were still closed but she was awake.
“Buffy, don’t cry. I’m okay. Once again, medical science has saved my life,” explained Willow with difficulty.
“What happens when medical science can’t save your life?” the vampire asked tearfully.
“That’s where you turn me into a vampire. Do I really need to have it explained to you?” Willow joked with a smile. “I know that someday, I’ll get myself into trouble, and you’ll do it. I don’t really know how I feel about it, but I have no doubt that you won’t just let me die.”
“I couldn’t. I won’t let you die, Wills. You are my best friend. I want you to live,” agreed Buffy, still holding Willow’s hand.
“Or unlive,” added Willow. “How’s Spike?”
Buffy breathed a sigh out of her dead lungs. “He’s undead, sleeping at home, comfortably. I don’t know what they did to him, but I’m sure he’ll tell me when he’s ready.”
“Good,” whispered Willow.
Silence filled the room again, except for the incessant beeping of the machines that littered the room. Willow’s breathing fell into a pattern, indicating that the witch was asleep.
Stealthily, Buffy removed her hand from Willow’s and exited the room. Willow was okay, Spike was okay. Almost everything was right with the world.
_______________________
It took a few more days before Willow was allowed to leave the hospital. Days in which Buffy spent trying to track down the one other person she needed to know if she was okay. Faith.
Buffy hadn’t seen Faith since she’d used the slayer to get into the commandos’ base. Giles hadn’t seen her either. She had clearly taken the threat of not being a welcome guest in his house as truth.
Buffy slammed the front door of her house open as she came in from another futile search of Sunnydale for the Slayer.
There was a minion, waiting just out of the sunlight for her.
“Mistress, the new one, he is awake. Harmony is taking care of him.”
With a nod of acknowledgement, Buffy headed off in search of Harmony and Riley. As she reached the stairs to the minion quarters, sounds Buffy really didn’t want to hear, started to invade her senses.
“Oh ya baby, just like that,” came Harmony’s voice from the basement.
Harmony was getting it on with Riley.
Wonder what Faith would think if she knew that her boy toy was getting on with the blond air head? Buffy asked herself as she descended the stairs.
Buffy took a moment to take in the scene as she reached the bottom of the stairs. Two naked bodies writhed in the middle of the floor. Harmony obviously didn’t care that everyone was watching, some minions jerking off in response to the display on the floor.
Buffy raised an eyebrow as Harmony had her way with a very bound and gagged Riley.
So maybe Riley did put up a sort of protest, Buffy noted to herself.
Harmony screamed her completion just as Buffy reached her side. Harmony had fresh marks on her neck, Riley’s marks if Buffy was correct. Riley had fed and now he was paying for it.
With a swift kick to the head, Harmony found herself up against a wall, her cum dribbling down her leg. Riley, however was still hard and gagged on the floor, his eyes bugged out at Buffy’s appearance in the room.
Buffy ignored Riley for the moment and advanced on Harmony.
“I never said you could fuck him,” Buffy noted with a sneer.
“Never said I couldn’t,” observed Harmony snidely. “No one’s fucked me since I got here. I needed a little attention,” she continued softly, as if seeking pity.
Instantly Buffy’s hand was griping Harmony’s throat and the blond bimbo was hanging in the air as Buffy held her aloft.
“I have dusted minions for less than that Harmony,” barked Buffy.
It was comical really. Sex was all about power for the vampires in this house, well except for Buffy and Spike. The minions used sex as a reward, a way to get in good with the vamps above them in the totem pole of the clan. That Harmony was hated by the Mistress did her no good. No minion wanted to contaminate him or herself by dallying with Harmony. Harmony was scum in the house. Buffy had hoped that it would stay that way for a good long time. Even the fledges that had been sired recently were higher up the hierarchy than Harmony.
A few incomprehensible whimpers left Harmony’s lips before Buffy let her down.
“Get dressed,” Buffy ordered, turning back to Riley’s naked form on the ground. “It’s time to discuss what happens to Mr. Finn.”
_______________________
tbc...
Author’s note: Once again thanks to the wonderful BTL who beta’s so magnificently.
_______________________
Chapter 27: Blood and Sex
The Scoobies and Buffy parted ways in front of the hospital. As much as Buffy wanted to be by Willow’s side as she recovered from yet another injury, she still had her unconscious mate slung over her shoulder and unconscious. He needed some serious blood in him.
She felt intense relief as she laid Spike down on their bed; he was home. She hadn’t even bothered to pay attention to the minions as she ascended the stairs, but now as Spike slept peacefully she had time to deal with the minions and the consequences of her actions.
She was heading to the fridge to get blood for Spike when Harmony darted out into the middle of the kitchen, distracting Buffy from her task.
“Buff...Mistress Elizabeth,” started Harmony correcting herself. “Thank you for the fledge, he’s dreamy. When he wakes up, I know he’ll be happy that I’m the one taking care of him.”
Buffy rolled her eyes and pushed Harmony out of the way. She slammed the door of the fridge open and pulled a blood bag out, O positive, Buffy’s private stash from the blood bank.
The Mistress of the clan ignored Harmony’s further attempts to get her attention, as she ripped open the bag, and dumped its contents into a waiting mug, and placed it into the microwave.
As the seconds counted down Buffy could feel Spike slowly wake upstairs.
“Mistress Elizabeth, I was wondering if I could get, um, permission to leave the house?” asked Harmony just as the microwave beeped. “I can’t be a good caretaker of a new fledge if I can’t teach him how to hunt. I need to get out of here,” continued Harmony with a whine.
Buffy answered the fledge’s query with a punch in the nose.
Harmony’s wails sounded throughout the house. Buffy helped herself to the mug of blood, letting the warm liquid slid down her throat. She handed the now empty mug to Harmony.
“Here, wash this,” ordered Buffy, as she left the kitchen and headed up the stairs to her mate.
Once in the room, Buffy sat down on the bed next to her waking mate. His eyes fluttered open with a groan.
“Buffy,” he whispered into the darkness of the room.
“Right here Spike,” she said with feeling. He tried to raise his head towards her, but had difficulty moving his muscles the way that he wanted to. In one fluid motion, Buffy raised him to a seated position, his head at her neck.
“Drink, baby,” she cooed, pressing his face towards the marks on her neck.
She felt him shift into game face and the pinpricks of pain that shot through her as he slid his fangs into her skin. The pull of her blood out of her body was intense. She could feel herself get weaker as Spike fed off her, but she wasn’t going to make him stop. He needed this and she could always make herself more blood down stairs. Riley’s blood, that was still lubricating her veins, had to be good for something after all.
The reaction to Spike feeding from her was immediate, a new wetness in her pants made itself known, and her free hand wound itself down the length of her torso and began undoing the zipper of her jeans.
Buffy pushed at the garment restricting her from achieving satisfaction. Slowly, gently, Spike’s fingers interwove with hers. The action brought a smile to Buffy’s face; he was becoming stronger with each pull of blood. Soon, Spike had even rolled her back onto the bed and was pulling her jeans off her body himself, his fangs still embedded in her neck.
Her diminishing strength made it possible for Spike to overpower her. Soon she was naked and spread open for him to take what was his. He licked the wound on her neck closed before gazing down at the naked beauty that was before him.
“Love,” he purred. “You rescued me.”
Buffy nodded, her eyes watering at the emotion. She had lost him. Buffy knew just how painful it would have been if she had really lost him forever. She’d had that experience before, when she had thought he was dead after Kendra dropped an organ on him.
“Of course I did,” she whispered back. “I can’t live without you. I love you Spike. You are mine, my lover, my sire, my mate.”
“Love you too Goldilocks,” he responded, looking down her naked body.
“Make love to me, Spike, William. I need you. I almost lost you again.” One of the tears that had been threatening to fall, coursed down her cheek, landing on the comforter she lay on.
Spike pulled back from her only long enough to divest himself from the clothes that were restricting him from fully possessing his mate.
Hard and ready, Spike slid his cock into her wet channel, eliciting a coo of pleasure from his Goldilocks. Buffy closed her eyes as he filled her up. It was a feeling that she couldn’t live without, however long The Powers decided that she was going to remain on this earth. It completed her, like she was a puzzle missing the final intricately shaped piece. Spike was that piece. He was just so right.
Slowly, he slid in and out of her channel, his movements conveying just how grateful he was to her, how much he loved her. Beneath him, Buffy rocked against his pelvis, her legs wrapping around his torso, pressing them closer together, forcing him deeper within her.
I love you Spike, she cried out in her head, even as some incomprehensible grunt left her lips.
I love you Buffy, came his reply, his trusts working steadily faster, the sounds of flesh slapping together, filled the room, along with their combined grunts and moans and cries.
_______________________
Anyanka, who was now a bona fide Vengeance Demon again, teleported into her bedroom just in time to hear Buffy scream out her pleasure at climax. The sound instantly made Anya want to find Xander for many pleasurable orgasms.
And she was in the mood for orgasms. Her boss, D’Hoffryn, was not a pleasant man to have to talk to when he was in a bad mood. Anya had spent the whole of the day trying to persuade him that she was back in the vengeance fold and ready for work.
He was clearly in need of some convincing.
Anya’s conscience though was another matter. Her wish to turn Cordelia into a demon clearly took care of Amy’s payment for helping Anya get her pendant back. Buffy still needed to be paid.
Buffy needed a wish.
Another scream from the room down the hall shook the walls. Buffy was clearly having a good time.
I wonder what Buffy will wish for, wondered Anya.
_______________________
Pleasantly pleasured, Buffy stumbled downstairs for another mug of blood. Harmony had long vacated the kitchen, thankfully. Spike was asleep upstairs and was probably going to sleep for the rest of the night and the rest of the following day.
It’s just as well, thought Buffy as she drank down another mug of blood. I’ve got a witch in the hospital to visit.
Buffy made her way to the hospital, ordering minions to guard the house even more carefully. Not only did they have a missing commando within the walls, but Faith was more than likely going to start on a rampage any moment now.
Buffy entered the hospital to see Xander, Giles, and Amy looking lost and tired in the waiting room. Buffy immediately thought the worst.
“Is she…” the vampire started.
“No,” began Giles. “The doctors are confident that she’ll be fine once they can get her heart rhythm back to normal. The voltage in the tazer was well above the safe limit for human beings.”
“They don’t understand how she could be alive at all,” noted Amy.
“Willow’s lucky to be alive,” muttered Xander, his gaze looking up at Buffy, the hint of an accusation beneath his eyes.
“You know that I’d never let anything happen to Willow, Xan,” Buffy defended herself. “Those army guys will pay for tonight.”
“Are you going to eat the commandos?” asked Amy.
All eyes were on the vampire, wondering what her response was going to be.
“Thinking about it,” answered Buffy truthfully.
What they didn’t know was that one of them was already dead and lying in the minion quarters of her house. What would they say if they knew that Riley was the first life she’d taken?
“Are they letting people see her?” asked Buffy finally, after an awkward silence.
Amy shook her head in the negative. “She’s hooked up to some very complicated machinery. Apparently our heartbeats will confuse the machines. We have to stay out of the room until the doctors say so.”
“I don’t have a heart beat,” explained Buffy unnecessarily before heading off to Willow’s room.
Buffy found Willow by smell, no need to ask the nurses on duty or even look at the names on the doors. Inside Willow was hooked up to a plethora of beeping machines. The red head looked so small in the face of such machinery. Quietly, Buffy knelt down beside her friend and took her slender hand.
“Oh Wills, I am so sorry. Again,” whispered Buffy into the darkness. “This wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t gotten you involved.”
“I remember telling you that I’d help,” came Willow’s breathy voice. “My fault too. This time.”
Buffy tried to laugh, but just ended up crying. Willow’s eyes were still closed but she was awake.
“Buffy, don’t cry. I’m okay. Once again, medical science has saved my life,” explained Willow with difficulty.
“What happens when medical science can’t save your life?” the vampire asked tearfully.
“That’s where you turn me into a vampire. Do I really need to have it explained to you?” Willow joked with a smile. “I know that someday, I’ll get myself into trouble, and you’ll do it. I don’t really know how I feel about it, but I have no doubt that you won’t just let me die.”
“I couldn’t. I won’t let you die, Wills. You are my best friend. I want you to live,” agreed Buffy, still holding Willow’s hand.
“Or unlive,” added Willow. “How’s Spike?”
Buffy breathed a sigh out of her dead lungs. “He’s undead, sleeping at home, comfortably. I don’t know what they did to him, but I’m sure he’ll tell me when he’s ready.”
“Good,” whispered Willow.
Silence filled the room again, except for the incessant beeping of the machines that littered the room. Willow’s breathing fell into a pattern, indicating that the witch was asleep.
Stealthily, Buffy removed her hand from Willow’s and exited the room. Willow was okay, Spike was okay. Almost everything was right with the world.
_______________________
It took a few more days before Willow was allowed to leave the hospital. Days in which Buffy spent trying to track down the one other person she needed to know if she was okay. Faith.
Buffy hadn’t seen Faith since she’d used the slayer to get into the commandos’ base. Giles hadn’t seen her either. She had clearly taken the threat of not being a welcome guest in his house as truth.
Buffy slammed the front door of her house open as she came in from another futile search of Sunnydale for the Slayer.
There was a minion, waiting just out of the sunlight for her.
“Mistress, the new one, he is awake. Harmony is taking care of him.”
With a nod of acknowledgement, Buffy headed off in search of Harmony and Riley. As she reached the stairs to the minion quarters, sounds Buffy really didn’t want to hear, started to invade her senses.
“Oh ya baby, just like that,” came Harmony’s voice from the basement.
Harmony was getting it on with Riley.
Wonder what Faith would think if she knew that her boy toy was getting on with the blond air head? Buffy asked herself as she descended the stairs.
Buffy took a moment to take in the scene as she reached the bottom of the stairs. Two naked bodies writhed in the middle of the floor. Harmony obviously didn’t care that everyone was watching, some minions jerking off in response to the display on the floor.
Buffy raised an eyebrow as Harmony had her way with a very bound and gagged Riley.
So maybe Riley did put up a sort of protest, Buffy noted to herself.
Harmony screamed her completion just as Buffy reached her side. Harmony had fresh marks on her neck, Riley’s marks if Buffy was correct. Riley had fed and now he was paying for it.
With a swift kick to the head, Harmony found herself up against a wall, her cum dribbling down her leg. Riley, however was still hard and gagged on the floor, his eyes bugged out at Buffy’s appearance in the room.
Buffy ignored Riley for the moment and advanced on Harmony.
“I never said you could fuck him,” Buffy noted with a sneer.
“Never said I couldn’t,” observed Harmony snidely. “No one’s fucked me since I got here. I needed a little attention,” she continued softly, as if seeking pity.
Instantly Buffy’s hand was griping Harmony’s throat and the blond bimbo was hanging in the air as Buffy held her aloft.
“I have dusted minions for less than that Harmony,” barked Buffy.
It was comical really. Sex was all about power for the vampires in this house, well except for Buffy and Spike. The minions used sex as a reward, a way to get in good with the vamps above them in the totem pole of the clan. That Harmony was hated by the Mistress did her no good. No minion wanted to contaminate him or herself by dallying with Harmony. Harmony was scum in the house. Buffy had hoped that it would stay that way for a good long time. Even the fledges that had been sired recently were higher up the hierarchy than Harmony.
A few incomprehensible whimpers left Harmony’s lips before Buffy let her down.
“Get dressed,” Buffy ordered, turning back to Riley’s naked form on the ground. “It’s time to discuss what happens to Mr. Finn.”
_______________________
tbc...
The Fledge
Disclaimer: All hail Joss.
Author’s note: Much love to Bloodytearsoflife for the betaing! *huggles*
_______________________
Chapter 28: The Fledge
The minions had all gathered waiting for what would happen to Riley Finn, the commando that had once hunted them all. Naked, bound and gagged, the soldier’s eyes looked terrified at his captor.
Buffy imagined that it must be slightly better now that he wasn’t being raped by Harmony. Only slightly better, ‘cause he had no idea what was in store for him now that she was in charge.
Spike was safely asleep upstairs, recovering from whatever horrors he had to endure while he was captured. For that Riley had to pay, and pay for a good long time.
“You said he was mine to take care of!” whined Harmony from her bunk, now fully clothed and as annoying as usual.
“I said to take care of him, not do as you’d like to him,” Buffy growled back.
“But I-” Harmony began.
“One more word out of you and you will be nothing more than dust beneath my feet, you got that?” Buffy asked, Harmony giving a tiny nod at her tone. “Good. Marcus, bring me the tazer.”
Riley’s eyes went wide as a dark haired minion handed Buffy the tazer.
“It’s only fitting that I do to you what you did to him,” the mistress of the clan stated.
All around her, minions, except Harmony, were smiling at their mistress’ harsh punishment of the fledge. Mistress Elizabeth would get first crack at the fledge, and then Master Spike, once he regained his strength. Then, hopefully each of them in turn would get their chance to make the soldier suffer.
Riley tried to scream through his gag. The smell of singed flesh filled the air of the minion quarters’. Buffy had made sure that the voltage was just enough to inflict pain but not to render Riley unconscious. It was more fun that way.
Another tazer shock and a few kicks to the head, and Buffy was bored. Riley’s screams had turned to sobs and there was nothing more pathetic than a vamp that couldn’t handle pain. Buffy dropped the tazer and turned her back on her new fledge, silently giving the minions license to do what they wanted with him.
She stopped at the bottom of the steps leading to the main floor of the mansion and turned her head slightly, addressing the minions.
“He doesn’t dust until Spike’s had a go at him, ’kay,” she ordered cheerfully.
Buffy ascended the stairs to the main level, regret only just floating into her consciousness.
What would Willow think?
_______________________
Spike clung desperately to the handrail as he descended the steps from the second floor. Buffy looked up from her lounge chair and her Psychology assignment, a smile lighting up her face as she took in her mate, vertical and only a little worse for wear.
His hand went to the bald patch on his head the moment he saw Buffy. She stifled a giggle at his vanity. She would still love him even if his hair was completely gone.
“Don’t know what those bastards bloody did to my head,” he breathed, embarrassed.
Buffy set down her textbook and stood up, opening her arms to comfort her mate as he mourned his hair.
“I know what will make you feel better,” she said with glee in her eyes, planting a kiss on the bald spot.
Buffy took Spike by the hand and led him downstairs. It had only been a few hours since she’d let the minions have free reign on her fledge, but she knew that he was still undead.
As she and Spike stepped on to the floor, Buffy could see just what the minions had been up to. Riley was still gagged and bound, but the smell of burnt flesh was overpowering in the enclosed space.
Spike took in the image of Riley, bleeding, bound and burnt, lying on the floor.
“You turned the soldier boy?” he asked, uncertain as to what was going on.
Riley had Buffy’s mark on his neck and Harmony’s smell all over him.
“I did,” noted Buffy happily, as if seeking approval from her sire.
He looked at her curiously, the minions hanging on every word. “You sired a fledge?”
Buffy nodded her head enthusiastically.
“She, who drinks out of blood bags? My Goldilocks?” he questioned again.
“Yes! already!” she cried, exasperated. “I made a fledge. He hurt you, so I turned him. You can hurt him for all eternity if you want. Or, you know, dress him up in drag and leave him in the middle of campus for the sun to set him on fire.” Buffy shrugged her shoulders. “I didn’t think it was that big of a deal.”
“It is a big deal,” Spike whispered to his mate lovingly.
“I hope you like your present,” she added with a smile.
_______________________
Leaving Spike with Riley in the minion quarters’, Buffy decided it was a good time to check up on her marked humans.
She found Willow still in the hospital, but the doctors were sure that she would be released soon. The sad faces of Giles, Xander, Amy, and now Oz in the waiting room tore at her unbeating heart. The military could have killed Willow, all because she was a true friend.
She couldn’t let that happen again. She just hoped that now that Riley was dead and being tortured, that she hadn’t impulsively declared war. That would really suck.
She’d turned Riley. She had taken a life.
And Spike was proud of her for it. That thought alone stemmed the potential flow of tears. Somehow, though, it wasn’t enough to keep her from feeling bad. She’d murdered. She’d become the thing that she’d once fought against. The thing that she’d been so careful to avoid becoming, despite sires, grandsires and watchers, had taken over.
Would Faith be broken up at Riley’s disappearance? Would the cold Slayer, that used men for her amusement, who’d used Xander mercilessly, show some emotion over his death?
In some way, Buffy hoped that she wouldn’t. It would make things easier for the two of them. Not that things would ever be easy between them ever again. Thrall wasn’t a relationship builder in this case.
Buffy walked up and down the streets of Sunnydale, hoping to get a location for her other future childe. Suddenly, Buffy felt a brief longing for help. Not from Spike, ‘cause he was having lots of fun torturing vamp!Riley at the moment, and not from Willow ‘cause she was peacefully sedated. The only other conclusion, was that it was coming from Faith.
Concentrating on the whisper on the edge of her perceptions, she let her feet lead her to Faith.
Minutes later Buffy was standing in front of an unimposing house on the edge of town, nestled beneath large trees and surrounded by flowering bushes. A cat sat on the front porch, sleeping in the early morning light. Buffy half expected a little old lady to walk out the front door bearing milk and cookies.
There was no little old lady though. Buffy could hear the sound of four heartbeats inside, one of which was Faith’s. The other three Buffy was unsure of.
The problem she was now faced with was how to get into the house. The tacky green gem she wore on her finger didn’t change the fact that she still needed an invite to get into houses.
So just how would she get into this house and save Faith, if she needed saving?
Thoughts swirled around in her head, and Buffy dismissed each idea as it flitted over her grey matter. Luckily the side door opened and out walked a few dark haired men and Wesley.
Buffy growled. Wesley had her Faith. Her Faith.
The men opened the sliding door of the black van in the driveway of the little inconspicuous house, and returned to the house, Wesley in tow. They didn’t say anything. They didn’t have to.
They had her Faith.
Buffy slunk through the bushes and towards the house. She was going to get Faith back.
The van was wide open, as if prepared for a struggle. No doubt that wherever these guys in league with Wesley were taking Faith, the slayer didn’t really want to go there. Only seconds later, Faith was brought out, kicking and moaning, through a gag, by two large men. Faith was bound tightly around the wrists but they had left off binding her feet, possibly so they could move her more easily.
Whatever sedative they had given her apparently was wearing off; She pretty violently protested going with them. One man finally hoisted Faith up into the van, Wesley followed in behind. As the door slid closed, Buffy stepped forward and clocked the remaining man in the head. He crumpled to the ground beside the van with little noise, certainly not enough to alert the captors in the van.
Buffy plucked the keys from his hand and headed toward the driver’s seat. With a wicked smile on her face, Buffy put the key in the ignition and started the van up. She threw the vehicle into drive and peeled off in the direction of her home.
Mistress Elizabeth of the Auralius Clan pulled the black van into the garage of the Crawford Street mansion and slid out of the driver’s seat. As the garage door came down with a controlled crash, Buffy turned her attention to the sliding door and the two occupants within.
A few minions filed into the garage, curious as to what their mistress had brought home.
Buffy threw the door wide, half expecting to be attacked as the door opened. Instead, Buffy found two unconscious watchers and an irate Faith.
“I guess you don’t need help then,” Buffy noted, staring at Faith, who was still gagged.
Wesley’s body lay crumpled on the floor, a large swelling bump on his head. The other watcher clearly had a broken arm and an equally large bump on his head.
Buffy reached over into the van and pulled the gag from Faith’s mouth.
“Where were they taking you?” Buffy inquired.
“England, for re-education,” explained Faith.
“Re-education?” asked Buffy with a quirked eyebrow.
“Brain washing for Slayers, it’s all the rage right now,” said Faith with a shrug. “Where am I?” she asked peering into the darkness of the garage.
The inside door to the garage, from the house, opened and closed noisily. The click-clack of high heels sounded across the cement floor. Buffy suppressed a smile as Anya poked her head into the van, curious as to whom was in there and exuding the wish for vengeance.
“Oh, Faith, it’s just you. No vengeance for she who used my Xander,” pronounced Anya, walking away, parting the minions as she did so.
Buffy laughed. “She’s a little bitter that you had him first I think,” mentioned the vampire.
Faith held up her hands. “Would you mind cutting me loose?”
Buffy cocked an eyebrow at that. “How do I know you aren’t going to stake me?”
“How do I know you aren’t going to bite me again?” asked Faith.
“Good point,” conceded Buffy. “So maybe I’ll just leave you in the van. I’ll just take the watcher boys here and leave you in the dark.”
Buffy grabbed the collars of Wesley and his compatriot and lifted them out of the van, placing them none too gently on the cement floor of the garage. She moved her hand to the handle of the sliding door.
“Wait!” exclaimed the trapped Slayer. “I’ll come out. I don’t want you snacking on Wesley. Scum bag that he is, he doesn’t deserve to die for doing what the Council wants.”
“And I deserve to die because I didn’t do what the Council wanted?” asked Buffy carefully.
“You are already dead. And hanging with evil vamps.”
There was a murmur from the assembled minions. It was possible that they didn’t like being called evil.
“Awww,” Buffy started with fake concern. “Are you implying that I’m not evil?”
“Will it get me untied?” asked Faith.
Buffy turned away from Faith and looked at a couple of minions nearby. “Leave us,” Buffy ordered.
On command, the minions left the room and shut the door behind them. Buffy turned back to Faith without the smile she had been wearing.
“We need to talk,” Buffy started.
“And I need to be tied up for this conversation?” asked Faith.
“I think yes,. I don’t want to get staked.”
“So talk already,” spat Faith, her tone annoyed.
Buffy exhaled an unneeded breath. “About the thrall...”
Faith’s eyes flashed.
“Oh so you remember that,” continued Buffy. “You’d have done the same, if someone you’d cared about was in danger. Done what you needed to do. If Riley for example...”
“No,” spat Faith. “Not for him.”
“Oh?” asked Buffy suddenly curious. “Something happened between you and him?”
“No, nothing’s happened. He was just another lay,” admitted Faith, with renewed interest in the rope around her wrists. “He could be dead in a ditch somewhere and I wouldn’t care.”
“Oh?” asked Buffy again.
_______________________
tbc...
Author’s note: Much love to Bloodytearsoflife for the betaing! *huggles*
_______________________
Chapter 28: The Fledge
The minions had all gathered waiting for what would happen to Riley Finn, the commando that had once hunted them all. Naked, bound and gagged, the soldier’s eyes looked terrified at his captor.
Buffy imagined that it must be slightly better now that he wasn’t being raped by Harmony. Only slightly better, ‘cause he had no idea what was in store for him now that she was in charge.
Spike was safely asleep upstairs, recovering from whatever horrors he had to endure while he was captured. For that Riley had to pay, and pay for a good long time.
“You said he was mine to take care of!” whined Harmony from her bunk, now fully clothed and as annoying as usual.
“I said to take care of him, not do as you’d like to him,” Buffy growled back.
“But I-” Harmony began.
“One more word out of you and you will be nothing more than dust beneath my feet, you got that?” Buffy asked, Harmony giving a tiny nod at her tone. “Good. Marcus, bring me the tazer.”
Riley’s eyes went wide as a dark haired minion handed Buffy the tazer.
“It’s only fitting that I do to you what you did to him,” the mistress of the clan stated.
All around her, minions, except Harmony, were smiling at their mistress’ harsh punishment of the fledge. Mistress Elizabeth would get first crack at the fledge, and then Master Spike, once he regained his strength. Then, hopefully each of them in turn would get their chance to make the soldier suffer.
Riley tried to scream through his gag. The smell of singed flesh filled the air of the minion quarters’. Buffy had made sure that the voltage was just enough to inflict pain but not to render Riley unconscious. It was more fun that way.
Another tazer shock and a few kicks to the head, and Buffy was bored. Riley’s screams had turned to sobs and there was nothing more pathetic than a vamp that couldn’t handle pain. Buffy dropped the tazer and turned her back on her new fledge, silently giving the minions license to do what they wanted with him.
She stopped at the bottom of the steps leading to the main floor of the mansion and turned her head slightly, addressing the minions.
“He doesn’t dust until Spike’s had a go at him, ’kay,” she ordered cheerfully.
Buffy ascended the stairs to the main level, regret only just floating into her consciousness.
What would Willow think?
_______________________
Spike clung desperately to the handrail as he descended the steps from the second floor. Buffy looked up from her lounge chair and her Psychology assignment, a smile lighting up her face as she took in her mate, vertical and only a little worse for wear.
His hand went to the bald patch on his head the moment he saw Buffy. She stifled a giggle at his vanity. She would still love him even if his hair was completely gone.
“Don’t know what those bastards bloody did to my head,” he breathed, embarrassed.
Buffy set down her textbook and stood up, opening her arms to comfort her mate as he mourned his hair.
“I know what will make you feel better,” she said with glee in her eyes, planting a kiss on the bald spot.
Buffy took Spike by the hand and led him downstairs. It had only been a few hours since she’d let the minions have free reign on her fledge, but she knew that he was still undead.
As she and Spike stepped on to the floor, Buffy could see just what the minions had been up to. Riley was still gagged and bound, but the smell of burnt flesh was overpowering in the enclosed space.
Spike took in the image of Riley, bleeding, bound and burnt, lying on the floor.
“You turned the soldier boy?” he asked, uncertain as to what was going on.
Riley had Buffy’s mark on his neck and Harmony’s smell all over him.
“I did,” noted Buffy happily, as if seeking approval from her sire.
He looked at her curiously, the minions hanging on every word. “You sired a fledge?”
Buffy nodded her head enthusiastically.
“She, who drinks out of blood bags? My Goldilocks?” he questioned again.
“Yes! already!” she cried, exasperated. “I made a fledge. He hurt you, so I turned him. You can hurt him for all eternity if you want. Or, you know, dress him up in drag and leave him in the middle of campus for the sun to set him on fire.” Buffy shrugged her shoulders. “I didn’t think it was that big of a deal.”
“It is a big deal,” Spike whispered to his mate lovingly.
“I hope you like your present,” she added with a smile.
_______________________
Leaving Spike with Riley in the minion quarters’, Buffy decided it was a good time to check up on her marked humans.
She found Willow still in the hospital, but the doctors were sure that she would be released soon. The sad faces of Giles, Xander, Amy, and now Oz in the waiting room tore at her unbeating heart. The military could have killed Willow, all because she was a true friend.
She couldn’t let that happen again. She just hoped that now that Riley was dead and being tortured, that she hadn’t impulsively declared war. That would really suck.
She’d turned Riley. She had taken a life.
And Spike was proud of her for it. That thought alone stemmed the potential flow of tears. Somehow, though, it wasn’t enough to keep her from feeling bad. She’d murdered. She’d become the thing that she’d once fought against. The thing that she’d been so careful to avoid becoming, despite sires, grandsires and watchers, had taken over.
Would Faith be broken up at Riley’s disappearance? Would the cold Slayer, that used men for her amusement, who’d used Xander mercilessly, show some emotion over his death?
In some way, Buffy hoped that she wouldn’t. It would make things easier for the two of them. Not that things would ever be easy between them ever again. Thrall wasn’t a relationship builder in this case.
Buffy walked up and down the streets of Sunnydale, hoping to get a location for her other future childe. Suddenly, Buffy felt a brief longing for help. Not from Spike, ‘cause he was having lots of fun torturing vamp!Riley at the moment, and not from Willow ‘cause she was peacefully sedated. The only other conclusion, was that it was coming from Faith.
Concentrating on the whisper on the edge of her perceptions, she let her feet lead her to Faith.
Minutes later Buffy was standing in front of an unimposing house on the edge of town, nestled beneath large trees and surrounded by flowering bushes. A cat sat on the front porch, sleeping in the early morning light. Buffy half expected a little old lady to walk out the front door bearing milk and cookies.
There was no little old lady though. Buffy could hear the sound of four heartbeats inside, one of which was Faith’s. The other three Buffy was unsure of.
The problem she was now faced with was how to get into the house. The tacky green gem she wore on her finger didn’t change the fact that she still needed an invite to get into houses.
So just how would she get into this house and save Faith, if she needed saving?
Thoughts swirled around in her head, and Buffy dismissed each idea as it flitted over her grey matter. Luckily the side door opened and out walked a few dark haired men and Wesley.
Buffy growled. Wesley had her Faith. Her Faith.
The men opened the sliding door of the black van in the driveway of the little inconspicuous house, and returned to the house, Wesley in tow. They didn’t say anything. They didn’t have to.
They had her Faith.
Buffy slunk through the bushes and towards the house. She was going to get Faith back.
The van was wide open, as if prepared for a struggle. No doubt that wherever these guys in league with Wesley were taking Faith, the slayer didn’t really want to go there. Only seconds later, Faith was brought out, kicking and moaning, through a gag, by two large men. Faith was bound tightly around the wrists but they had left off binding her feet, possibly so they could move her more easily.
Whatever sedative they had given her apparently was wearing off; She pretty violently protested going with them. One man finally hoisted Faith up into the van, Wesley followed in behind. As the door slid closed, Buffy stepped forward and clocked the remaining man in the head. He crumpled to the ground beside the van with little noise, certainly not enough to alert the captors in the van.
Buffy plucked the keys from his hand and headed toward the driver’s seat. With a wicked smile on her face, Buffy put the key in the ignition and started the van up. She threw the vehicle into drive and peeled off in the direction of her home.
Mistress Elizabeth of the Auralius Clan pulled the black van into the garage of the Crawford Street mansion and slid out of the driver’s seat. As the garage door came down with a controlled crash, Buffy turned her attention to the sliding door and the two occupants within.
A few minions filed into the garage, curious as to what their mistress had brought home.
Buffy threw the door wide, half expecting to be attacked as the door opened. Instead, Buffy found two unconscious watchers and an irate Faith.
“I guess you don’t need help then,” Buffy noted, staring at Faith, who was still gagged.
Wesley’s body lay crumpled on the floor, a large swelling bump on his head. The other watcher clearly had a broken arm and an equally large bump on his head.
Buffy reached over into the van and pulled the gag from Faith’s mouth.
“Where were they taking you?” Buffy inquired.
“England, for re-education,” explained Faith.
“Re-education?” asked Buffy with a quirked eyebrow.
“Brain washing for Slayers, it’s all the rage right now,” said Faith with a shrug. “Where am I?” she asked peering into the darkness of the garage.
The inside door to the garage, from the house, opened and closed noisily. The click-clack of high heels sounded across the cement floor. Buffy suppressed a smile as Anya poked her head into the van, curious as to whom was in there and exuding the wish for vengeance.
“Oh, Faith, it’s just you. No vengeance for she who used my Xander,” pronounced Anya, walking away, parting the minions as she did so.
Buffy laughed. “She’s a little bitter that you had him first I think,” mentioned the vampire.
Faith held up her hands. “Would you mind cutting me loose?”
Buffy cocked an eyebrow at that. “How do I know you aren’t going to stake me?”
“How do I know you aren’t going to bite me again?” asked Faith.
“Good point,” conceded Buffy. “So maybe I’ll just leave you in the van. I’ll just take the watcher boys here and leave you in the dark.”
Buffy grabbed the collars of Wesley and his compatriot and lifted them out of the van, placing them none too gently on the cement floor of the garage. She moved her hand to the handle of the sliding door.
“Wait!” exclaimed the trapped Slayer. “I’ll come out. I don’t want you snacking on Wesley. Scum bag that he is, he doesn’t deserve to die for doing what the Council wants.”
“And I deserve to die because I didn’t do what the Council wanted?” asked Buffy carefully.
“You are already dead. And hanging with evil vamps.”
There was a murmur from the assembled minions. It was possible that they didn’t like being called evil.
“Awww,” Buffy started with fake concern. “Are you implying that I’m not evil?”
“Will it get me untied?” asked Faith.
Buffy turned away from Faith and looked at a couple of minions nearby. “Leave us,” Buffy ordered.
On command, the minions left the room and shut the door behind them. Buffy turned back to Faith without the smile she had been wearing.
“We need to talk,” Buffy started.
“And I need to be tied up for this conversation?” asked Faith.
“I think yes,. I don’t want to get staked.”
“So talk already,” spat Faith, her tone annoyed.
Buffy exhaled an unneeded breath. “About the thrall...”
Faith’s eyes flashed.
“Oh so you remember that,” continued Buffy. “You’d have done the same, if someone you’d cared about was in danger. Done what you needed to do. If Riley for example...”
“No,” spat Faith. “Not for him.”
“Oh?” asked Buffy suddenly curious. “Something happened between you and him?”
“No, nothing’s happened. He was just another lay,” admitted Faith, with renewed interest in the rope around her wrists. “He could be dead in a ditch somewhere and I wouldn’t care.”
“Oh?” asked Buffy again.
_______________________
tbc...
Lost
Disclaimer: All hail Joss
Author’s note: Much thanks to the wonderful BTL for helping me with the awkward bit at the end of this chapter.
_______________________
Chapter 29: Lost
On the floor of the Crawford Street mansion’s garage, Wesley Wyndham-Price groaned. Buffy let her attention drift from Faith to the prostrate Watcher for a moment. The vampire rolled her eyes at the two watchers on the ground. They were messing up her plans. It wouldn’t be long before they were conscious again.
“So,” said Buffy returning to their topic of conversation. “You don’t care what happens to Riley?”
Faith shrugged her shoulders. “No, he was nice, but he didn’t get my motor runnin’, you know. ‘Sides he seemed way to interested in you.”
“Hmm, the kiss of death for any Faith relationship,” observed Buffy. “So about the thrall... I’m sorry.”
“Ha!” laughed Faith bitterly.
“Hey! I am! I still would have done it, but I’m sorry that it made you think even worse of me.”
“Doesn’t make me want to forgive you,” muttered Faith. “You forced me to save a vampire.”
“A vampire that saved your life,” observed Buffy. “You could have been a little more grateful.”
Faith looked away from Buffy and into the dark recesses of the van, breaking eye contact. Clearly Faith didn’t want to remember the attack on the warehouse in LA.
“Look, I’ve made some mistakes in my life, unlife. One of the big ones is losing you as a friend,” Buffy added with a sigh.
She stepped forward and cut the ropes around Faith’s wrists. “You can go, take these idiots with you,” said Buffy gesturing towards the unconscious watchers at her feet. “If they get left here they’ll get eaten.”
With haste, Faith slipped out of the van, picked up Wesley, with great difficulty owing to the sedative in her system, and placed him in the back of the van.
Faith returned to the other watcher and was about to pick him up too, when the door adjoining the house opened and in walked Spike. Buffy smiled the moment he entered the room.
“There you are!” she said happily.
Spike slipped an arm around his mate’s waist and drew her closer to him. He nuzzled her neck tenderly before turning his attention to the goings on in the garage.
“The Slayer’s leaving?” he asked curious. “She didn’t even get the grand tour.”
Buffy shook her head softly. “I don’t think that would be a good idea, Spike. She might not like some of the things we have inside.”
“Still, think it’s a bit rude, not to have a proper visit,” Spike added.
Faith heaved the other watcher on her shoulder and moved to put him into the van, ignoring Spike’s comments. Spike however didn’t like the fact that he was being ignored. Slipping her arm from around his mate’s waist, he reached forward and pulled the watcher down off of Faith’s shoulder with vampiric strength, sending the unnamed watcher crashing into the wall.
The moment the watcher’s body hit the wall, Spike buckled and clutched his head in pain.
“Spike?” asked Buffy concerned. “What’s wrong?”
“Fine, luv,” he said shaking it off and standing up again. He stepped forward towards the Slayer, a look of fear on her face.
There was no way that Faith, the sedative still in her blood stream, would be able to fight off a master vampire.
“Bloody bint, in my house you don’t ignore me,” Spike intoned looking the frightened slayer down.
“Buffy said I could go,” Faith whispered. “She saved me from being taken back to England by the Council.”
“Council gits playing God again?” commented Spike knowingly. “What about the watchers then?”
“I was going to take them to Giles,” explained Faith.
Spike turned his back towards Faith and walked towards the body of the other watcher. Lifting the unconscious form to eye level, he looked back at the slayer.
“I don’t know this one and I’m feeling a bit peckish after my nap.”
“Spike,” whispered Buffy half warning, half condescending.
“What? She has one watcher for the proof. I’m not going to eat that Wesley pillock. His blood probably tastes like tweed.”
Spike shifted into game face preparing to bite.
“No!” screamed Faith.
It was too late, and Spike’s fangs had already made contact with the watcher’s skin. Faith’s cries were suddenly joined by a groan of pain from the bleach blond vampire. He dropped the watcher and clutched his head once again.
“What the bloody hell did they do to me!” he yelled, before righting himself and stalking out of the garage, his destination clear to Buffy, but not to the slayer.
“I think you should leave now,” noted Buffy.
Faith wiped the tears from her cheeks and moved towards the other watcher, heaving him up on her shoulder. Buffy watched the slayer moved with difficulty towards the van. Faith had been traumatized by the attack on the warehouse in LA. She’d been putting up a brave front, but clearly she wasn’t the same. And would never be. It was only a matter of time before some nasty got the better of her.
Buffy decided then and there that she would have to keep a better eye out for Faith.
Buffy hit the button for the garage door to open. The sound of tires squealing filled the room and the van disappeared into the bright sun. Buffy hit the button for the door to close and headed off to find her mate.
_______________________
Buffy found Spike beating the snot out of Riley in the basement of the house.
“What the bloody hell did you ponces do to me?” Spike growled.
The bloody mess that once was Riley was whimpering on the floor. In the shadows, Harmony looked on with tears in her eyes. By virtue of Spike being the master of the clan, he could do what he wanted with Buffy’s fledge, but Harmony still felt that Riley was hers. She wanted the beating to stop, so she could take care of the sandy haired vampire.
“Behaviour modification chip,” moaned out Riley at last.
“What?” asked Buffy as she stepped closer to her fledge.
“Can’t hurt humans,” explained Riley trying to control his breathing and the tears of pain. “Can’t feed.”
Buffy took in the information slowly. From her link with Spike she knew that he was devastated by this news. Taking away his ability to feed off humans, to him, made it seem like he wasn’t really a vampire anymore.
Buffy knew different though. She was a vampire that didn’t feed from humans and she had managed just fine. Spike just had to see that this wasn’t the end of the world. She moved towards her mate and embraced him. He needed comforting now. As they moved out of the room and up the stairs, Buffy looked over her shoulder at Harmony.
“Clean him up, I have plans for him tonight,” ordered Buffy authoritatively.
_______________________
Mistress Elizabeth stepped out of her home, the minions appearing behind her as she stepped across the threshold of their house and into the dark night.
“I’ll be back for the fledge,” she said over her shoulder and she walked off towards Willow’s dorm room.
It was Buffy’s understanding that Willow would be home safe and sound by now. There were things she needed to discuss with her friend. Something she needed to get off her chest, before the topic of discussion became dust at dawn.
The fact of Riley, bound and gagged in the basement of her house, weighed on her conscience. With each passing moment it grew worse. She needed to confess. She wasn’t going to tell Faith, no matter what the slayer said to deny her feelings for the former commando, Buffy wasn’t that stupid.
And as much as Buffy tried to defend her actions with things like: Spike was captured, Riley’s buddies put something in Spike’s head, he captured our minions, and various other charges, she couldn’t, in hindsight justify it to herself. Her soulless self.
Buffy knocked on Willow and Amy’s dorm room door and waited for an answer.
The door opened a crack and Amy peered out of the dorm room.
“Oh, Buffy, it’s you,” noted the witch. “Willow’s not here, she’s at her parents house.”
“Thanks,” replied the vampire, turning to go. She stopped a moment before heading off. She turned back to the witch, who was still hanging on the edge of the door to her room. “Amy? I really am sorry that Willow got hurt, I didn’t want that to happen.”
“I know,” responded the witch. “You love Spike, I understand. We all agreed to help. We knew what we were getting into. Really we did. Just be glad that no one died.”
Buffy nodded thoughtfully and walked out of the dorm building, heading towards Willow’s house.
_______________________
When she found herself in the bushes outside Willow’s bedroom window, Buffy got nervous. How would Willow react to Riley’s death? A gut feeling told her that Willow wouldn’t be able to just let this one go unnoticed. Sure, Buffy had kidnapped her friend, but this would be way different.
So different that Buffy was pretty sure that they would never be friends again. Willow had her limits. For a brief second, Buffy considered not telling Willow about Riley. There were benefits to that scenario: Faith would never find out and wouldn‘t hunt Buffy and Spike down in revenge, and Willow would never find out and would remain Buffy’s friend.
The cons to the proposal were that of course in some way, Willow would find out, and there would end the friendship for certain. Killing was one thing, lying about it just added a new dimension of evil on top of it.
In the room on the other side of the glass, Willow was sitting on her bed, reading a book, a glass of water on the table beside her.
Buffy sighed as she raised her hand to knock on the pane of glass. Tonight would change everything.
At the sound of the knock, Willow was up out of bed and opening the window to let her friend in.
“I was wondering when you’d check in on me again,” began Willow with a smile. “How’s Spike?” Willow walked back to her bed and sat down.
“He’s okay. They put something in his head that makes it so he can’t hurt humans. He’s taking it pretty hard,” answered Buffy.
“Oh, Buffy. I’m sorry,” apologized Willow unnecessarily.
“He’s not the reason I came to talk though,” said Buffy, cutting off the pity fest before it started. Buffy had done something bad and she had to get this over with before she chickened out.
“Sure, Buffy. What’s up?”
Willow’s compassionate and understanding eyes looked back at Buffy’s hazel ones. The trust in Willow’s eyes was almost too much to take.
“I...I did something, vampire-y. Something bad, really bad. And I feel, well, bad about it.”
Willow’s eyes went wider and the red head pushed herself back a bit on her bed, distancing herself ever so slightly from Buffy.
“What...what did you do?” asked the witch tentatively.
“I was angry. I wanted revenge. I know that’s not an excuse...”
“What did you do Buffy?” asked Willow again, this time with a hard tone to her voice.
“I...” The words stuck in Buffy’s throat. She couldn’t say it. Saying it would end what good thing she had with Willow. The Scoobies would never trust her again.
“You killed someone,” Willow finished for her.
Silence filled the air in the room. A lone tear trickled down Buffy’s pale face as she nodded in confirmation. The only sounds in the room were the ticking of Willow’s wall clock and the beat of Willow’s heart.
“Was it a bad someone? I mean, were they a murderer, rapist, or child molester?” asked the witch.
“Of humans, I doubt it,” answered Buffy quietly.
Silence filled the room once again. Willow was staring, not at Buffy but at a blank spot on the wall, her hands grasping the comforter beneath her.
When Willow didn’t respond, Buffy leaned forward a bit, trying to capture her friend’s eye.
“I think you need to leave, Buffy,” came Willow’s voice, carefully restrained.
Buffy nodded again, and turned towards the window that she had come in through.
“I’m sorry, Willow. I regret it now, if that means anything,” Buffy whispered back towards the witch as she slipped out the window and into the night.
_______________________
tbc...
Author’s note: Much thanks to the wonderful BTL for helping me with the awkward bit at the end of this chapter.
_______________________
Chapter 29: Lost
On the floor of the Crawford Street mansion’s garage, Wesley Wyndham-Price groaned. Buffy let her attention drift from Faith to the prostrate Watcher for a moment. The vampire rolled her eyes at the two watchers on the ground. They were messing up her plans. It wouldn’t be long before they were conscious again.
“So,” said Buffy returning to their topic of conversation. “You don’t care what happens to Riley?”
Faith shrugged her shoulders. “No, he was nice, but he didn’t get my motor runnin’, you know. ‘Sides he seemed way to interested in you.”
“Hmm, the kiss of death for any Faith relationship,” observed Buffy. “So about the thrall... I’m sorry.”
“Ha!” laughed Faith bitterly.
“Hey! I am! I still would have done it, but I’m sorry that it made you think even worse of me.”
“Doesn’t make me want to forgive you,” muttered Faith. “You forced me to save a vampire.”
“A vampire that saved your life,” observed Buffy. “You could have been a little more grateful.”
Faith looked away from Buffy and into the dark recesses of the van, breaking eye contact. Clearly Faith didn’t want to remember the attack on the warehouse in LA.
“Look, I’ve made some mistakes in my life, unlife. One of the big ones is losing you as a friend,” Buffy added with a sigh.
She stepped forward and cut the ropes around Faith’s wrists. “You can go, take these idiots with you,” said Buffy gesturing towards the unconscious watchers at her feet. “If they get left here they’ll get eaten.”
With haste, Faith slipped out of the van, picked up Wesley, with great difficulty owing to the sedative in her system, and placed him in the back of the van.
Faith returned to the other watcher and was about to pick him up too, when the door adjoining the house opened and in walked Spike. Buffy smiled the moment he entered the room.
“There you are!” she said happily.
Spike slipped an arm around his mate’s waist and drew her closer to him. He nuzzled her neck tenderly before turning his attention to the goings on in the garage.
“The Slayer’s leaving?” he asked curious. “She didn’t even get the grand tour.”
Buffy shook her head softly. “I don’t think that would be a good idea, Spike. She might not like some of the things we have inside.”
“Still, think it’s a bit rude, not to have a proper visit,” Spike added.
Faith heaved the other watcher on her shoulder and moved to put him into the van, ignoring Spike’s comments. Spike however didn’t like the fact that he was being ignored. Slipping her arm from around his mate’s waist, he reached forward and pulled the watcher down off of Faith’s shoulder with vampiric strength, sending the unnamed watcher crashing into the wall.
The moment the watcher’s body hit the wall, Spike buckled and clutched his head in pain.
“Spike?” asked Buffy concerned. “What’s wrong?”
“Fine, luv,” he said shaking it off and standing up again. He stepped forward towards the Slayer, a look of fear on her face.
There was no way that Faith, the sedative still in her blood stream, would be able to fight off a master vampire.
“Bloody bint, in my house you don’t ignore me,” Spike intoned looking the frightened slayer down.
“Buffy said I could go,” Faith whispered. “She saved me from being taken back to England by the Council.”
“Council gits playing God again?” commented Spike knowingly. “What about the watchers then?”
“I was going to take them to Giles,” explained Faith.
Spike turned his back towards Faith and walked towards the body of the other watcher. Lifting the unconscious form to eye level, he looked back at the slayer.
“I don’t know this one and I’m feeling a bit peckish after my nap.”
“Spike,” whispered Buffy half warning, half condescending.
“What? She has one watcher for the proof. I’m not going to eat that Wesley pillock. His blood probably tastes like tweed.”
Spike shifted into game face preparing to bite.
“No!” screamed Faith.
It was too late, and Spike’s fangs had already made contact with the watcher’s skin. Faith’s cries were suddenly joined by a groan of pain from the bleach blond vampire. He dropped the watcher and clutched his head once again.
“What the bloody hell did they do to me!” he yelled, before righting himself and stalking out of the garage, his destination clear to Buffy, but not to the slayer.
“I think you should leave now,” noted Buffy.
Faith wiped the tears from her cheeks and moved towards the other watcher, heaving him up on her shoulder. Buffy watched the slayer moved with difficulty towards the van. Faith had been traumatized by the attack on the warehouse in LA. She’d been putting up a brave front, but clearly she wasn’t the same. And would never be. It was only a matter of time before some nasty got the better of her.
Buffy decided then and there that she would have to keep a better eye out for Faith.
Buffy hit the button for the garage door to open. The sound of tires squealing filled the room and the van disappeared into the bright sun. Buffy hit the button for the door to close and headed off to find her mate.
_______________________
Buffy found Spike beating the snot out of Riley in the basement of the house.
“What the bloody hell did you ponces do to me?” Spike growled.
The bloody mess that once was Riley was whimpering on the floor. In the shadows, Harmony looked on with tears in her eyes. By virtue of Spike being the master of the clan, he could do what he wanted with Buffy’s fledge, but Harmony still felt that Riley was hers. She wanted the beating to stop, so she could take care of the sandy haired vampire.
“Behaviour modification chip,” moaned out Riley at last.
“What?” asked Buffy as she stepped closer to her fledge.
“Can’t hurt humans,” explained Riley trying to control his breathing and the tears of pain. “Can’t feed.”
Buffy took in the information slowly. From her link with Spike she knew that he was devastated by this news. Taking away his ability to feed off humans, to him, made it seem like he wasn’t really a vampire anymore.
Buffy knew different though. She was a vampire that didn’t feed from humans and she had managed just fine. Spike just had to see that this wasn’t the end of the world. She moved towards her mate and embraced him. He needed comforting now. As they moved out of the room and up the stairs, Buffy looked over her shoulder at Harmony.
“Clean him up, I have plans for him tonight,” ordered Buffy authoritatively.
_______________________
Mistress Elizabeth stepped out of her home, the minions appearing behind her as she stepped across the threshold of their house and into the dark night.
“I’ll be back for the fledge,” she said over her shoulder and she walked off towards Willow’s dorm room.
It was Buffy’s understanding that Willow would be home safe and sound by now. There were things she needed to discuss with her friend. Something she needed to get off her chest, before the topic of discussion became dust at dawn.
The fact of Riley, bound and gagged in the basement of her house, weighed on her conscience. With each passing moment it grew worse. She needed to confess. She wasn’t going to tell Faith, no matter what the slayer said to deny her feelings for the former commando, Buffy wasn’t that stupid.
And as much as Buffy tried to defend her actions with things like: Spike was captured, Riley’s buddies put something in Spike’s head, he captured our minions, and various other charges, she couldn’t, in hindsight justify it to herself. Her soulless self.
Buffy knocked on Willow and Amy’s dorm room door and waited for an answer.
The door opened a crack and Amy peered out of the dorm room.
“Oh, Buffy, it’s you,” noted the witch. “Willow’s not here, she’s at her parents house.”
“Thanks,” replied the vampire, turning to go. She stopped a moment before heading off. She turned back to the witch, who was still hanging on the edge of the door to her room. “Amy? I really am sorry that Willow got hurt, I didn’t want that to happen.”
“I know,” responded the witch. “You love Spike, I understand. We all agreed to help. We knew what we were getting into. Really we did. Just be glad that no one died.”
Buffy nodded thoughtfully and walked out of the dorm building, heading towards Willow’s house.
_______________________
When she found herself in the bushes outside Willow’s bedroom window, Buffy got nervous. How would Willow react to Riley’s death? A gut feeling told her that Willow wouldn’t be able to just let this one go unnoticed. Sure, Buffy had kidnapped her friend, but this would be way different.
So different that Buffy was pretty sure that they would never be friends again. Willow had her limits. For a brief second, Buffy considered not telling Willow about Riley. There were benefits to that scenario: Faith would never find out and wouldn‘t hunt Buffy and Spike down in revenge, and Willow would never find out and would remain Buffy’s friend.
The cons to the proposal were that of course in some way, Willow would find out, and there would end the friendship for certain. Killing was one thing, lying about it just added a new dimension of evil on top of it.
In the room on the other side of the glass, Willow was sitting on her bed, reading a book, a glass of water on the table beside her.
Buffy sighed as she raised her hand to knock on the pane of glass. Tonight would change everything.
At the sound of the knock, Willow was up out of bed and opening the window to let her friend in.
“I was wondering when you’d check in on me again,” began Willow with a smile. “How’s Spike?” Willow walked back to her bed and sat down.
“He’s okay. They put something in his head that makes it so he can’t hurt humans. He’s taking it pretty hard,” answered Buffy.
“Oh, Buffy. I’m sorry,” apologized Willow unnecessarily.
“He’s not the reason I came to talk though,” said Buffy, cutting off the pity fest before it started. Buffy had done something bad and she had to get this over with before she chickened out.
“Sure, Buffy. What’s up?”
Willow’s compassionate and understanding eyes looked back at Buffy’s hazel ones. The trust in Willow’s eyes was almost too much to take.
“I...I did something, vampire-y. Something bad, really bad. And I feel, well, bad about it.”
Willow’s eyes went wider and the red head pushed herself back a bit on her bed, distancing herself ever so slightly from Buffy.
“What...what did you do?” asked the witch tentatively.
“I was angry. I wanted revenge. I know that’s not an excuse...”
“What did you do Buffy?” asked Willow again, this time with a hard tone to her voice.
“I...” The words stuck in Buffy’s throat. She couldn’t say it. Saying it would end what good thing she had with Willow. The Scoobies would never trust her again.
“You killed someone,” Willow finished for her.
Silence filled the air in the room. A lone tear trickled down Buffy’s pale face as she nodded in confirmation. The only sounds in the room were the ticking of Willow’s wall clock and the beat of Willow’s heart.
“Was it a bad someone? I mean, were they a murderer, rapist, or child molester?” asked the witch.
“Of humans, I doubt it,” answered Buffy quietly.
Silence filled the room once again. Willow was staring, not at Buffy but at a blank spot on the wall, her hands grasping the comforter beneath her.
When Willow didn’t respond, Buffy leaned forward a bit, trying to capture her friend’s eye.
“I think you need to leave, Buffy,” came Willow’s voice, carefully restrained.
Buffy nodded again, and turned towards the window that she had come in through.
“I’m sorry, Willow. I regret it now, if that means anything,” Buffy whispered back towards the witch as she slipped out the window and into the night.
_______________________
tbc...
Karma
Disclaimer: All Hail Joss.
Author’s note: Many thanks to BTL once again. *huggles*
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Chapter 30: Karma
Buffy walked home on the verge of hysterical crying. She managed to keep it together long enough to get out of sight of Willow’s house though. Now that she was walking through Restfield Cemetery, the tears were flowing freely down her face. She’d lost Willow. And Willow would tell Giles, and Xander. She’d lose Giles and Xander too. Anya would still be her friend, that was some consolation.
The quiet of Restfield Cemetery, punctuated by Buffy’s spastic sobs, was suddenly filled with the sounds of a moaning male. Buffy’s ears perked up. Instinctively she sniffed the air, and listened. There was no heartbeat or the smell of a human being nearby, so the moaning individual had to be demon.
Buffy walked towards the sounds, her hand already posed to draw out the stake that she kept in her waistband. She turned a corner towards an old mausoleum, when she spotted the person that was making the noises.
Buffy burst out laughing.
It probably wasn’t fair of her. Certainly wasn’t nice at all. The victim of such a prank no doubt had endured enough torture to last a century. Buffy wasn’t taking bets on the next century though, should he live that long.
Before her, Riley was strung up in the air, shackled, gagged and naked. His hair was dyed fluorescent yellow, and he had a lime green ribbon tied around his flaccid cock. He was suspended above a cross shaped tomb stone.
It was more than Buffy had ever wanted to see of her Psych TA.
Spike had done this. He’d probably gotten tired of beating the crap out of the former commando. Riley’s body was marred by the varying degrees of purple, blue, and black of the wounds that had been inflicted on him in the basement of Buffy’s house.
Riley was being left for the sun, or the commandos, which ever found him first. He was no longer going to be a problem.
The TA’s eyes met with hers and Buffy swallowed uncomfortably. She’d done this to him. She’d turned him, she’d forced him into their clan, set him at the bottom of the totem pole. She’d given him over to Spike for his revenge. She’d done all this. She was responsible.
Buffy’s hand hovered over the stake at her waistband. She wanted to make this right and she could only think of one way that she could stop Riley’s suffering. She drew the stake out of her waistband and started towards the hanging vamp.
She only got a few feet closer when she heard a pitiful wail from another direction, and it was getting closer.
Buffy ducked back into the shadows, not wanting anyone, her minions, Spike, the Scoobies, or Commandos to find her with Riley’s naked undead body.
The source of the wail, was a running Harmony. Buffy rolled her eyes as Harmony cried at the unfairness of it all, and how Riley was supposed to be hers. The blond bimbo was trying to understand how Riley was suspended above the ground and how to get him down, when another sound invaded the quiet.
Tires squealed to a halt just on the other side of the fence.
Commandos, thought Buffy at the noise.
Sure enough, five men in black hopped the fence and stood around Harmony and the naked Riley with tazer rifles aimed at the two vamps.
“Riley?” asked Graham’s voice, sadly.
Buffy decided that it was time to leave. She was just glad that her ring rendered her invisible to the military gadgets the commandos used.
“No!” shouted Harmony at Graham. “You can’t have him! He’s mine!”
Harmony waved her arms around, trying to distract and confuse. It really wasn’t working and Buffy was glad when one of the soldiers finally tazered her.
Harmony crumpled to the ground in a very undignified way, landing in a mud puddle. The voices of the commandos started to protest bringing her back to base like that. No one apparently wanted to carry a muddy vampire. The commandos turned their attention to Riley again.
“We can’t just leave him like that,” said one.
“We shouldn’t bring him back to base though,” said another. “You and I know he doesn’t deserve to be treated like the other vermin we bring in.”
“Cut him down,” came the voice of Graham, clearly the commander.
It took a few seconds for the soldiers to find out how to get Riley down, and that they were going to need a welding torch or some very powerful lock cutters to get him down.
Spike did a good job making sure that Riley wouldn’t get far.
“I don’t think we can,” noted one of the commandos. “Maybe we should just stake him. I’d feel wrong experimenting on him anyway.”
The others murmured in agreement.
“Besides,” continued another. “We have this one.” He indicated Harmony still lying face first in the mud puddle.
There was silence again.
“So, uh, how do we do it?” one of them asked.
“The guy looks like he’s been through hell. The least painful way, I guess,” noted Graham.
They all nodded in agreement and Graham took a stake out of his boot. The commando stepped closer to his former comrade and mounted the tombstone that was the perfect stepping stone. With a determined jab, Graham staked what was once his best friend.
Riley’s dust floated to the ground just in time for Harmony to wake up from her tazer induced slumber. Her high pitched scream sounded throughout the cemetery once she realised what was going on.
“Oh for the love of God,” murmured Graham, walking over to the wailing vampire and staking her too. He looked over at his troops and shrugged. “She was getting on my nerves. Come on, we have to bag and tag two more vamps for our quota tonight.”
Buffy counted herself lucky that not only were Riley and Harmony taken care of, but that Graham hadn’t detected her. Once the commandos were out of sight, and hearing, Buffy extricated herself from the bush she was hiding in and headed home. The fact that she no longer had Willow’s friendship making a renewed appearance in her thoughts.
_______________________
The minions were looking pretty ragged and bruised when Buffy returned home to the mansion. Clearly, Spike had been taking his frustrations out on the minions. A couple of them looked at her with pleading eyes, that maybe she could make the master stop beating up on them. Buffy knew that it was futile. Spike had to work this out on his own. He’d been feeding off of humans for over a hundred years, that wasn’t a habit you could just go cold turkey on and like it.
Buffy knew from experience that human blood tasted better than what she was usually drank. It was only her residual slayerness and Willow that kept her from drinking from happy meals on legs.
‘Course now she didn’t have Willow.
The truth was, that though Buffy had gone over to the dark side, in that she’d killed, she didn’t want to do it again. She didn’t have a soul but she felt regret. Not guilt, just regret. Regret that it had changed her in Willow’s eyes. Regret that now none of her friends were going to trust her. She’d made a bad choice in the heat of the moment. She regretted it.
She was glad that Riley was dead though.
_______________________
Three days later, Buffy still hadn’t seen hide or hair of Willow, Xander, Amy, or Giles. She’d been going to classes same as ever, hoping to catch a glimpse of her witch friend.
It was clear that Willow was avoiding her. Even Willow wouldn’t blow off classes for an insignificant reason.
Buffy came out of her psychology class more than usually dazed, the professor filling in for a slightly dead Professor Walsh didn’t have that certain something that had made Professor Walsh’s class interesting. She had heard the rumours of course, that some beastie of the military’s creation had killed the professor and escaped into the sewers.
As long as the Frankenstein didn’t meet up with her, Buffy was fine with it. It did explain why the Scoobies were a busy, too busy for casual bumping into’s.
Buffy stood outside of the Psychology building and let the sun warm her tepid skin a moment before she turned to head home. She had to make a stop at Willy’s for more blood packets on her way.
“Buffy?” came Willow’s voice from the steps of the building, surprising the vampire.
Buffy turned to see her former friend rushing down the steps towards her.
“Hey,” responded Buffy, shuffling her feet a bit, nervous as to what Willow had to say.
“It freaked me out,” started Willow with no preamble. “A lot.”
Buffy nodded, that was reasonable.
“I’ve been thinking though. We’ve all done weird stuff. It’s the Hellmouth. And you’re a vampire. It must be really hard to go against your demon nature. I’ve seen me as a vampire. I know I wouldn’t be able to do what you’ve done. Even Giles is responsible for the death of someone. Xander ate that pig! And, he’s unapologetically dating a vengeance demon who is granting wishes left right and centre.”
“What are you saying, Willow?” asked Buffy slightly lost as where it was all leading.
“If you give me time, I’d like to be your friend again,” said Willow in a small voice.
“Really?” Buffy asked, her voice hopeful.
“Yeah, Amy’s really boring sometimes,” noted Willow with a smile.
_______________________
Buffy walked home, restocked with blood packets from Willy’s with a smile on her face. She hadn’t felt this good since before the business with the commandos started. She knew that it wasn’t going to be an easy battle, with the military or with the Scoobies to earn their trust back, but with Willow’s wish to be friends again it wouldn’t be long before she could.
Thrusting the blood packets into the hands of a minion as she walked into the mansion, Buffy found herself confronted by a rather overly serious vengeance demon standing in the middle of the living room with her arms crossed.
Buffy cocked an eyebrow at her friend and dropped her backpack on the floor before her.
“I have to thank you,” stated Anya. “I’m feeling unsettled and concerned. I have to thank you.”
“Uh...you are welcome?” responded Buffy, unsure how to answer that.
“No, you don’t get it,” continued Anya. “I need to grant you a wish. I granted Amy’s wish. Cordelia’s a demon. Poof! One thank you done. But you, it was your idea to try again. I would be still stuck as a puny mortal with the body odour and the inconvenient bleeding if it wasn’t for you.”
“So you are going to grant me a wish? A vengeance wish?” asked Buffy. “I don’t want vengeance on anyone.”
Anya looked a little disappointed for a moment then screwed up her face like she was thinking about something. “It doesn’t have to be a vengeance wish really. I mean, a lot of things can be interpreted as vengeance. You just have to word it the right way. Please?” pouted Anya. “I’ll keep having this mortal like feeling if you don’t let me grant you a wish!”
“Okay, okay,” answered Buffy, grabbing her backpack again. “Let me think about it?”
Anya nodded enthusiastically. “Don’t take too long though. I really don’t like this whole wanting to be karmically balanced, it’s throwing off my work.”
Buffy ascended the stairs towards her room, to find Spike sleeping the day away. She dropped her backpack again and crawled into bed alongside her mate. Anya had given her a lot to think about. What would she wish for?
So many things popped into her head.
Spike’s chip. Killing Riley. Biting Faith. Becoming a vampire.
The last one shocked her a little. She had wanted to be with Spike so much at first. She had been willing to give up so much for him and for the most part she didn’t regret it. But that the idea had popped into her head brought up doubts.
Certainly she was not what her mother expected, not what Giles expected, or Willow or Xander. But on the other hand, would she have made friends with Anya if she hadn’t been a vampire?
Buffy wasn’t unhappy with her life. Or unlife. She snuggled closer to her mate, and felt him wrap his arms around her in his sleep. How would her life have changed if she hadn’t let Spike turn her that night?
Did she want Spike’s chip out?
With him chipped and unable to feed, they would finally share something that didn’t involve death. Yeah it might be costly and so not what a vampire was supposed to do, but they would survive. And maybe someday, when he found out how to get the chip out, he would finally understand why she didn’t want to feed off of people.
Did she want Riley alive again?
Big no to that one. She didn’t want the fallout though. Willow might not know that it was Riley that she killed, but the fact that Riley wasn’t around anymore was just begging for someone to put two and two together. Someone would talk to Graham. Someone would tell the Scoobies. And Buffy would have to deal with this whole thing again. It was different when it was a random stranger. When it was someone you knew, only badness could come from that.
Did she want to take back Faith’s mark?
No. Faith needed to be protected. The Slayer was too rash, to headstrong and cocky. Faith needed all the help she could get. It was a little thing, but if it saved Faith’s life even once it was worth the animosity that the slayer felt towards the vampire.
Buffy moved away from Spike and headed out of the room, looking for Anya. She’d made her choice.
_______________________
Buffy found the vengeance demon in her room reading a copy of Vanity Fair.
“That was quick,” noted Anya, setting down her magazine and standing up from her bed. “I thought that you’d take like a week or something.”
“Nope. You ready?” asked Buffy impatient to get this over with.
“Oh completely,” answered the vengeance demon. “Wish away.”
“Ok, I wish...”
_______________________
fini.
Author’s note: When I started this series with Future Childe the idea was that it would be a trilogy, Future Childe, Present Childe and Past Childe. I’ve left Present Childe with this ending in the hopes that I will be inspired someday to continue this series as I originally hoped, as a trilogy. Thanks everyone for reading and reviewing! And much Huggles to the wonderful Bloodytearsoflife for Betaing this fic (and all my other fics!)
Author’s note: Many thanks to BTL once again. *huggles*
_______________________
Chapter 30: Karma
Buffy walked home on the verge of hysterical crying. She managed to keep it together long enough to get out of sight of Willow’s house though. Now that she was walking through Restfield Cemetery, the tears were flowing freely down her face. She’d lost Willow. And Willow would tell Giles, and Xander. She’d lose Giles and Xander too. Anya would still be her friend, that was some consolation.
The quiet of Restfield Cemetery, punctuated by Buffy’s spastic sobs, was suddenly filled with the sounds of a moaning male. Buffy’s ears perked up. Instinctively she sniffed the air, and listened. There was no heartbeat or the smell of a human being nearby, so the moaning individual had to be demon.
Buffy walked towards the sounds, her hand already posed to draw out the stake that she kept in her waistband. She turned a corner towards an old mausoleum, when she spotted the person that was making the noises.
Buffy burst out laughing.
It probably wasn’t fair of her. Certainly wasn’t nice at all. The victim of such a prank no doubt had endured enough torture to last a century. Buffy wasn’t taking bets on the next century though, should he live that long.
Before her, Riley was strung up in the air, shackled, gagged and naked. His hair was dyed fluorescent yellow, and he had a lime green ribbon tied around his flaccid cock. He was suspended above a cross shaped tomb stone.
It was more than Buffy had ever wanted to see of her Psych TA.
Spike had done this. He’d probably gotten tired of beating the crap out of the former commando. Riley’s body was marred by the varying degrees of purple, blue, and black of the wounds that had been inflicted on him in the basement of Buffy’s house.
Riley was being left for the sun, or the commandos, which ever found him first. He was no longer going to be a problem.
The TA’s eyes met with hers and Buffy swallowed uncomfortably. She’d done this to him. She’d turned him, she’d forced him into their clan, set him at the bottom of the totem pole. She’d given him over to Spike for his revenge. She’d done all this. She was responsible.
Buffy’s hand hovered over the stake at her waistband. She wanted to make this right and she could only think of one way that she could stop Riley’s suffering. She drew the stake out of her waistband and started towards the hanging vamp.
She only got a few feet closer when she heard a pitiful wail from another direction, and it was getting closer.
Buffy ducked back into the shadows, not wanting anyone, her minions, Spike, the Scoobies, or Commandos to find her with Riley’s naked undead body.
The source of the wail, was a running Harmony. Buffy rolled her eyes as Harmony cried at the unfairness of it all, and how Riley was supposed to be hers. The blond bimbo was trying to understand how Riley was suspended above the ground and how to get him down, when another sound invaded the quiet.
Tires squealed to a halt just on the other side of the fence.
Commandos, thought Buffy at the noise.
Sure enough, five men in black hopped the fence and stood around Harmony and the naked Riley with tazer rifles aimed at the two vamps.
“Riley?” asked Graham’s voice, sadly.
Buffy decided that it was time to leave. She was just glad that her ring rendered her invisible to the military gadgets the commandos used.
“No!” shouted Harmony at Graham. “You can’t have him! He’s mine!”
Harmony waved her arms around, trying to distract and confuse. It really wasn’t working and Buffy was glad when one of the soldiers finally tazered her.
Harmony crumpled to the ground in a very undignified way, landing in a mud puddle. The voices of the commandos started to protest bringing her back to base like that. No one apparently wanted to carry a muddy vampire. The commandos turned their attention to Riley again.
“We can’t just leave him like that,” said one.
“We shouldn’t bring him back to base though,” said another. “You and I know he doesn’t deserve to be treated like the other vermin we bring in.”
“Cut him down,” came the voice of Graham, clearly the commander.
It took a few seconds for the soldiers to find out how to get Riley down, and that they were going to need a welding torch or some very powerful lock cutters to get him down.
Spike did a good job making sure that Riley wouldn’t get far.
“I don’t think we can,” noted one of the commandos. “Maybe we should just stake him. I’d feel wrong experimenting on him anyway.”
The others murmured in agreement.
“Besides,” continued another. “We have this one.” He indicated Harmony still lying face first in the mud puddle.
There was silence again.
“So, uh, how do we do it?” one of them asked.
“The guy looks like he’s been through hell. The least painful way, I guess,” noted Graham.
They all nodded in agreement and Graham took a stake out of his boot. The commando stepped closer to his former comrade and mounted the tombstone that was the perfect stepping stone. With a determined jab, Graham staked what was once his best friend.
Riley’s dust floated to the ground just in time for Harmony to wake up from her tazer induced slumber. Her high pitched scream sounded throughout the cemetery once she realised what was going on.
“Oh for the love of God,” murmured Graham, walking over to the wailing vampire and staking her too. He looked over at his troops and shrugged. “She was getting on my nerves. Come on, we have to bag and tag two more vamps for our quota tonight.”
Buffy counted herself lucky that not only were Riley and Harmony taken care of, but that Graham hadn’t detected her. Once the commandos were out of sight, and hearing, Buffy extricated herself from the bush she was hiding in and headed home. The fact that she no longer had Willow’s friendship making a renewed appearance in her thoughts.
_______________________
The minions were looking pretty ragged and bruised when Buffy returned home to the mansion. Clearly, Spike had been taking his frustrations out on the minions. A couple of them looked at her with pleading eyes, that maybe she could make the master stop beating up on them. Buffy knew that it was futile. Spike had to work this out on his own. He’d been feeding off of humans for over a hundred years, that wasn’t a habit you could just go cold turkey on and like it.
Buffy knew from experience that human blood tasted better than what she was usually drank. It was only her residual slayerness and Willow that kept her from drinking from happy meals on legs.
‘Course now she didn’t have Willow.
The truth was, that though Buffy had gone over to the dark side, in that she’d killed, she didn’t want to do it again. She didn’t have a soul but she felt regret. Not guilt, just regret. Regret that it had changed her in Willow’s eyes. Regret that now none of her friends were going to trust her. She’d made a bad choice in the heat of the moment. She regretted it.
She was glad that Riley was dead though.
_______________________
Three days later, Buffy still hadn’t seen hide or hair of Willow, Xander, Amy, or Giles. She’d been going to classes same as ever, hoping to catch a glimpse of her witch friend.
It was clear that Willow was avoiding her. Even Willow wouldn’t blow off classes for an insignificant reason.
Buffy came out of her psychology class more than usually dazed, the professor filling in for a slightly dead Professor Walsh didn’t have that certain something that had made Professor Walsh’s class interesting. She had heard the rumours of course, that some beastie of the military’s creation had killed the professor and escaped into the sewers.
As long as the Frankenstein didn’t meet up with her, Buffy was fine with it. It did explain why the Scoobies were a busy, too busy for casual bumping into’s.
Buffy stood outside of the Psychology building and let the sun warm her tepid skin a moment before she turned to head home. She had to make a stop at Willy’s for more blood packets on her way.
“Buffy?” came Willow’s voice from the steps of the building, surprising the vampire.
Buffy turned to see her former friend rushing down the steps towards her.
“Hey,” responded Buffy, shuffling her feet a bit, nervous as to what Willow had to say.
“It freaked me out,” started Willow with no preamble. “A lot.”
Buffy nodded, that was reasonable.
“I’ve been thinking though. We’ve all done weird stuff. It’s the Hellmouth. And you’re a vampire. It must be really hard to go against your demon nature. I’ve seen me as a vampire. I know I wouldn’t be able to do what you’ve done. Even Giles is responsible for the death of someone. Xander ate that pig! And, he’s unapologetically dating a vengeance demon who is granting wishes left right and centre.”
“What are you saying, Willow?” asked Buffy slightly lost as where it was all leading.
“If you give me time, I’d like to be your friend again,” said Willow in a small voice.
“Really?” Buffy asked, her voice hopeful.
“Yeah, Amy’s really boring sometimes,” noted Willow with a smile.
_______________________
Buffy walked home, restocked with blood packets from Willy’s with a smile on her face. She hadn’t felt this good since before the business with the commandos started. She knew that it wasn’t going to be an easy battle, with the military or with the Scoobies to earn their trust back, but with Willow’s wish to be friends again it wouldn’t be long before she could.
Thrusting the blood packets into the hands of a minion as she walked into the mansion, Buffy found herself confronted by a rather overly serious vengeance demon standing in the middle of the living room with her arms crossed.
Buffy cocked an eyebrow at her friend and dropped her backpack on the floor before her.
“I have to thank you,” stated Anya. “I’m feeling unsettled and concerned. I have to thank you.”
“Uh...you are welcome?” responded Buffy, unsure how to answer that.
“No, you don’t get it,” continued Anya. “I need to grant you a wish. I granted Amy’s wish. Cordelia’s a demon. Poof! One thank you done. But you, it was your idea to try again. I would be still stuck as a puny mortal with the body odour and the inconvenient bleeding if it wasn’t for you.”
“So you are going to grant me a wish? A vengeance wish?” asked Buffy. “I don’t want vengeance on anyone.”
Anya looked a little disappointed for a moment then screwed up her face like she was thinking about something. “It doesn’t have to be a vengeance wish really. I mean, a lot of things can be interpreted as vengeance. You just have to word it the right way. Please?” pouted Anya. “I’ll keep having this mortal like feeling if you don’t let me grant you a wish!”
“Okay, okay,” answered Buffy, grabbing her backpack again. “Let me think about it?”
Anya nodded enthusiastically. “Don’t take too long though. I really don’t like this whole wanting to be karmically balanced, it’s throwing off my work.”
Buffy ascended the stairs towards her room, to find Spike sleeping the day away. She dropped her backpack again and crawled into bed alongside her mate. Anya had given her a lot to think about. What would she wish for?
So many things popped into her head.
Spike’s chip. Killing Riley. Biting Faith. Becoming a vampire.
The last one shocked her a little. She had wanted to be with Spike so much at first. She had been willing to give up so much for him and for the most part she didn’t regret it. But that the idea had popped into her head brought up doubts.
Certainly she was not what her mother expected, not what Giles expected, or Willow or Xander. But on the other hand, would she have made friends with Anya if she hadn’t been a vampire?
Buffy wasn’t unhappy with her life. Or unlife. She snuggled closer to her mate, and felt him wrap his arms around her in his sleep. How would her life have changed if she hadn’t let Spike turn her that night?
Did she want Spike’s chip out?
With him chipped and unable to feed, they would finally share something that didn’t involve death. Yeah it might be costly and so not what a vampire was supposed to do, but they would survive. And maybe someday, when he found out how to get the chip out, he would finally understand why she didn’t want to feed off of people.
Did she want Riley alive again?
Big no to that one. She didn’t want the fallout though. Willow might not know that it was Riley that she killed, but the fact that Riley wasn’t around anymore was just begging for someone to put two and two together. Someone would talk to Graham. Someone would tell the Scoobies. And Buffy would have to deal with this whole thing again. It was different when it was a random stranger. When it was someone you knew, only badness could come from that.
Did she want to take back Faith’s mark?
No. Faith needed to be protected. The Slayer was too rash, to headstrong and cocky. Faith needed all the help she could get. It was a little thing, but if it saved Faith’s life even once it was worth the animosity that the slayer felt towards the vampire.
Buffy moved away from Spike and headed out of the room, looking for Anya. She’d made her choice.
_______________________
Buffy found the vengeance demon in her room reading a copy of Vanity Fair.
“That was quick,” noted Anya, setting down her magazine and standing up from her bed. “I thought that you’d take like a week or something.”
“Nope. You ready?” asked Buffy impatient to get this over with.
“Oh completely,” answered the vengeance demon. “Wish away.”
“Ok, I wish...”
_______________________
fini.
Author’s note: When I started this series with Future Childe the idea was that it would be a trilogy, Future Childe, Present Childe and Past Childe. I’ve left Present Childe with this ending in the hopes that I will be inspired someday to continue this series as I originally hoped, as a trilogy. Thanks everyone for reading and reviewing! And much Huggles to the wonderful Bloodytearsoflife for Betaing this fic (and all my other fics!)
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