The fabulous banner is by the awesomely talented Ben Rostock.
Woohoo! This story has also been nominated at the Rogue Poet Awards! Thank you, whoever nominated me!

Chapter 10

“That one was a vampire too, was he not?” asked Rihar as he and Spike walked down Revello Drive. “Like you.”

“Angel’s a vamp, yeah. But not like me. He has a soul.”

“He is your rival?”

“Big time. Her one true love.”

“Why do you not fight him for her?”

“I do. The only way I can. By allowing her to make the choice.” He gave Rihar a twisted smile. “That is our way.”

Rihar nodded abruptly. ‘Pride lords choose. They cannot be fought for. And she is pride lord.”

Spike laughed a little. “That’s one way of looking at it.” He gave Rihar a slanting, sideways glance. “You too have been going about fighting in a different way recently.”

Rihar flushed. “The human is too breakable. One blow would smash his head like an egg. It is too easy. No honor in it.”

“So instead you called challenge two months early and broke the contract with the Pyar.”

“Pride lords cannot be held to mating contracts. I had to become a lord to free myself.” He looked up at a streetlight in fascination. “What are these lights? The Slayer has smaller ones, but similar.”

“Electricity. Come on. I’ll take you up on the roof of the high school. You’ll get a good view of the town from there.”

Rihar jumped sideways as a car went by. “What is that?” he asked, staring after it in horror.

Spike grinned. “Our kind of wagon. Self-powered, no horses. They move fast, so don’t step out in front of them.”

“They stink.”

“You get used to it.”

Rihar was fascinated by the nighttime view of Sunnydale spread out in lights.

“So many houses. So many people.” He sounded at once awed and appalled.

“And this is only a small town. You should see our cities. Millions of people.”

Rihar shuddered. “That is too many. I do not want to see.”

Grinning, Spike took him on a whirlwind tour of Sunnydale, from the museums and the college, to the mall and the Bronze, to lowlife areas like Willie’s and even a strip joint, getting a charge out of Rihar’s transfixed reactions.

“Are there no wild places?” Rihar asked finally.

“Getting smaller and smaller. There are still areas where cats like you can roam free, down in the jungles of the Amazon, for instance. But it’s primitive there. No place for a woman.” Spike grinned at him. “Your own world has a better mix of nature and civilization.”

Rihar colored. “I could not leave the pride without a leader anyway. I was just curious.”

“Yeah, sure.” Spike angled them towards Restfield. “Something I have to pick up.”

A Grathar jumped them as they walked through the cemetery. Spike vamped out, Rihar flashed into cat shape, and between the two of them they took it down easily.

“So this is a demon,” Rihar said, studying the dead Grathar with interest as Spike dragged it into the bushes. “Why do you hide it?”

“Humans here don’t know about them. Gonna get a couple of Firoud to dispose of it later. Try not to go cat again, yeah? People here see you like that, they’ll put you in a cage. Cats don’t belong in cities.”

“Don’t like your cities,” muttered Rihar. “Cages. No trees. Nothing to hunt but humans. Stone and metal and artificial, not even normal, magics. One cannot even feel the land under one.”

“It has its advantages. It’s a state of mind, mate.” Spike grinned at him. “And for a vamp, the hunting’s perfect. Just gotta get something out of my crypt. Wait here, okay?”

Rihar blinked when he came out of the crypt with a sword in his hand. “You plan conflict?”

“Just gonna pay a call on an old friend. I’ll take you back to Revello Drive first.”

“May I not come with you? I will not interfere, just observe.”

“If you want.”

No invitation needed for a vamp to enter a demon’s abode. Spike just walked right in through Doc’s door and Doc looked up at him from where he was mulling over a spell in his bathrobe at the table, his eyes wide in shock and magnified hugely by the lenses of his spectacles.

“How...?”

“Told you no one can keep the Slayer chained up for long. We’re all back. And so is she.”

“And you didn’t kill her! What kind of a demon are you?”

“My own.”

Spike flashed forward and Doc flung up a hand for a spell that would burn him in his tracks.

There was a reverberating snarl from the door and Doc jerked around, staring in disbelief at the sight of the panther crouched in the opening. In that moment of inattention, Spike swung the sword hard. Its edge slashed right through Doc’s neck, cutting his head from his shoulders. His body collapsed, fire from his fingers scorching across the carpet, then fading as the life left the corpse. The head rolled across the floor, the spectacles falling away, broken in half.

“Nice timing,” said Spike appreciatively as Rihar shifted back to human.

“This was your Slayer’s enemy, yes?”

“The one who sent us into your dimension. Better to have him out of the way. Didn’t want him getting any more bright ideas how to hurt my girl.”

“Is the danger then over for her?”

“One more little chore.” Spike glanced at the clock over the mantelpiece. “Yeah, he’s on nights this month. Should be coming off shift about now.”

At an hour from dawn, the parking lot at Sunnydale Hospital was deserted. Spike and Rihar waited until Ben came out and crossed to his car. Halfway there, he was intercepted by a small figure in a brown robe and the two of them began to argue.

“Doc really shouldn’t have removed my chip,” Spike remarked as he moved forward. “This is gonna be embarrassingly easy. If that Jinx git gets in the way, just take him out of the picture without damaging him, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Hey,” said Spike, strolling up to the squabbling pair. “Ben, right?”

“Yes.” Ben looked him over, startled. “Do I know you?”

“Nah. How’s the alter-ego?”

“What?”

“Glory.”

Ben’s eyes widened and he started to back away.

“It’s a pity in a way. Know it’s not your fault, but really this Glory bird is getting to be a pain in the ass.”

Jinx leaped at him. “You can’t hurt him!”

“Oh, yes, I can.” Spike grinned as Rihar went into cat form and pinned Jinx flat on the ground with one massive paw. “No soul here. No problems squashing him like a bug.”

He reached out and casually broke Ben’s neck.

“Really shouldn’t have come to Sunnydale, mate.” He let the body drop and watched as the light faded out of Ben’s staring eyes. For a fractional second, the furiously angry face of a pretty blonde girl overlaid Ben’s features. Then it disappeared as if it had never been. “Okay, Rihar, you can let the hobbit up now.”

Rihar stood up, shifting back into human. Jinx sat up and stared at Ben’s body. Then he burst into racking sobs, rocking back and forth on the ground. Spike bent down and patted his shoulder.

“Sorry about that, but it had to be done. Suggest you lot leave this dimension, yeah? Nothing for you here now.”

He and Rihar walked away, leaving Jinx still crying in the parking lot.

“Almost dawn,” said Spike, glancing up at the sky. “Better get you back to the Slayer’s place. Vamps and the sun don’t mix here.”

The sky had lightened, but the first rays of sunlight hadn’t crossed the horizon by the time they got back to Revello Drive.

Spike stopped in front of the house. “Still people moving around in there. Guess they’re all still talking over what happened. Watcher can chew the fat for hours.”

Rihar looked at him. “You’re not coming in, are you?”

“No.” He grinned at Rihar. “And you’re leaving, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Curiosity satisfied?”

“Oh, yes. It is too strange a world. I could not live in it. But it has many wonders. I see why those of you who are born here would not wish to leave it.”

“Ask her,” said Spike suddenly and Rihar smiled crookedly.

“I will.”

Spike put out a hand and they gripped forearms, respect and liking strong between them.

“Good luck,” said Spike.

“And to you,” said Rihar meaningfully.

Spike hunched his shoulders. “Not much chance of that.”

Rihar watched him as he strode away, duster flying, then went quietly into the house. There were five people in the sitting room. The older man with glass things perched on his nose, the morose vampire who was Spike’s rival, the irritating blackhaired human, the Slayer and Anya. The two females of the Slayer’s family and the magelettes were gone. From the scent of perfume and soap on them, both the Slayer and Anya had taken baths. The Slayer was wearing new clothes, but Anya was still in her Quenya leathers.

“You’re back,” said Buffy, smiling. “How did you like our world?”

From the stunned look on his face, it had totally freaked him, Buffy thought. She laughed, but gently. She liked Rihar very much.

“It is...interesting,” he said with careful politeness. “Have you been waiting for me? I am sorry I took so long and kept you from your beds.”

“Oh, we had to talk about this situation with Doc anyway.”

“Also they didn’t know whether Spike could be trusted to bring you back in one piece,” muttered Xander, sounding as if he wished Spike hadn’t.

Rihar gave him a cool look. “He is a good comrade. He can be trusted.”

Xander snorted and Giles and Angel exchanged dryly amused glances.

“You don’t know him very well,” said Giles and Buffy frowned. That had a very patronizing edge to it. Rihar seemed to think so as well, because his brows went up.

“Better than you do, it seems. This situation you mentioned. This Doc? You do not have to concern yourselves with him. Spike has killed him for you.”

“What?” said Giles in shock. “Why would he do that?”

“The Slayer knows.”

Buffy flushed and looked away from that level, forest-green gaze. Rihar shared Anya’s unsettling directness and he was completely on Spike’s side.

“What do you mean by that?” Angel said sharply, but Rihar ignored him. Instead, he was studying Anya, who was sitting pressed up against the side of the couch, leaning as far away from Xander as she could and looking very irritable.

“Has he been harassing you again?” asked Rihar in a dangerous voice.

Buffy had been aware of Xander talking to Anya about the other dimension and the demons in it in a low, continuous mumble that she hadn’t really paid much attention to because she and Giles and Angel had been so intent on discussing the problem of Glory and Doc. She hadn’t noticed until this moment how resistant Anya had been to the subject or how her eyes were flashing with suppressed anger right now. Rihar had noticed at once.

“I don’t harass her!” Xander yelped.

“No, you just tell her how to think, how to act, and make her feel bad when she doesn’t do as you say. Shall I kill him for you?” he asked Anya.

“No!” said Anya quickly as Xander gasped in shock and Giles and Angel jerked forward to protect him if Rihar made a move.

“I really do not understand you people,” Rihar said. “You make everything so complicated. I am going back to my world.”

“Good riddance,” muttered Xander, safe beyond the shield of Giles’ outstretched arm.

Rihar held out a hand to Anya. “Will you come with me, Anyanka?”

“What? How can you think she’d even consider that?” yelled Xander.

But Anya was taking Rihar’s hand and smiling as she rose. Xander grabbed at her and missed.

“Ahn, are you crazy? They’re all demons there!”

“Why should that bother me, Xander?”

“But...but think! You’ll be just one of who knows how many pride females! He’s even contracted to those Pyarren women!”

“The contract was broken when I became pride lord,” said Rihar, “and you heard Pyar agree to accept my three cousins in my place. Pride lords cannot be forced to take mates. You would be the only one, beloved.”

“That’s why you broke the contract. Challenged two months early. Fought Arrhan and almost got yourself killed.” Anya was looking at Rihar with shining eyes. “For me.”

He smiled at her. “Yes.”

“Ahn, no!” exclaimed Xander desperately, shocked that Rihar unbelievably seemed to be winning. “What about us?”

“What about us, Xander?” Anya didn’t even look at him. “You never wanted me. I was the one who always made the running. All you wanted were the orgasms I gave you. You don’t want me.”

“That’s not true!”

“Then why are you always trying to change me? Rihar likes me the way I am. He makes me feel good about myself. He makes me happy.”

“Ahn, if it bothers you that much, you can be whatever you like!”

“You just say that. Tomorrow you’d be right back to stepping on me again. You’re a silly little boy, Xander, and I’ve waited too long for you to grow up.”

“You’ll be trapped in that dimension! What if you hated it there? You’d never be able to come back!”

“Isayel would open the Gate for you anytime you wanted,” Rihar said. “The little mage, Tara, told me about vacations. Think of it as a vacation, Anyanka. Just a little time. A year...”

“Or two?” Anya was laughing, her hand clasped tightly in both of his.

“Or...forever?”

“I like the sound of that,” purred Anya and reached out with her free hand and pressed the sigil bound around Rihar’s wrist.

A black line began to form in the air behind them.

“Go Anya!” said Buffy, smiling. “You like it there and it doesn’t matter if you’re human. Rihar will keep you safe.”

“Nowhere’s safe from Glory,” muttered Giles under his breath, his mind firmly on what he considered important.

Rihar overheard. “Glory. That is this Ben person, is it not? You do not need to concern yourself any longer with that enemy either. Spike broke his neck. The creature is dead.”

“Spike did what?”

But Rihar wasn’t listening. He had scooped Anya up into his arms and was walking into the Gate. Black and gold sparks whirled around them as they kissed. Then the Gate snapped shut and they were gone.

“Ahn!” wailed Xander, but no one was listening to him. They were all staring at each other, thunderstruck by Rihar’s unexpected revelation.

“Who’s Ben?” demanded Angel.

“He’s a medical intern at Sunnydale Hospital,” said Buffy. “But I don’t understand. Rihar said Glory was Ben and that doesn’t make any sense!”

“We can look into that later,” said Giles sharply. “The thing that concerns me right now is that Spike killed a human.”

Buffy caught her breath. “The chip! I did know that it didn’t work in the other dimension, but he didn’t say anything about it not working in this one!”

“No, he wouldn’t,” said Angel harshly.

“He’s free now!” Giles said in horror. “Without a chip! He’s a killer and he’s loose in Sunnydale! We have to stop him!”

“Where are your stakes?” Angel got to his feet. “The sooner we do this, the fewer people will die.”

“No!” said Buffy sharply.

“Buffy, it has to be done,” said Giles. “I know he helped you in that other dimension. But gratitude can only be taken so far. Spike is a vampire and he doesn’t have a soul. He absolutely will feed and kill. We have to stake him.”

“Don’t you touch him!” Then Buffy recovered herself. “That’s my job. My responsibility. This is all my fault. I’ll take care of him.”

***

He was of course in his crypt, sitting in his ancient green armchair watching television when she walked in, his duster thrown over a sarcophagus and his legs comfortably stretched out in front of him. He got up to turn off the TV, then tilted a provocative eyebrow at her.

“Wondered how long it would take you to get here.”

Buffy glowered at him.

“The chip’s gone.” Not a question; a flat statement.

He grinned. “Yeah.”

“How?”

“Want a drink?” He started to move towards the fridge.

“No. Answer the question.”

He sat back down on the arm of the chair and smirked at her. “When do you think? Doc took it out when he dropped me into that other dimension.”

“Payment up front for killing us.”

“That was the idea. But it kinda backfired on him.”

It certainly had. She gritted her teeth.

“And you were going to get around to telling me about it when?”

“I just did, didn’t I?”

“Rihar did.”

“Thought he would. He wasn’t to know how you gits would react to the mention of my killing Ben.”

“And you wanted him to mention it. You were throwing down the gauntlet!”

He gave her a sideways, amused glance. “Pretty much.”

“Damn it, Spike! You killed a human! Doc was a demon. But Ben was human!”

“Is that supposed to mean something to me?”

“He was innocent, Spike!”

“Was he? He knew what his alter-ego was planning. But he chose to come to Sunnydale. If he were truly innocent and well meaning and all that crap, he’d have stayed the hell away from here. Turned down the job at Sunnydale Hospital, found another town where he could do his internship. Kept Glory from ever coming to Sunnydale. Fought her. But he didn’t. It was easier to go along with the status quo. That’s not innocence, Slayer. Turning a blind eye to something is complicity, not innocence. He went along with evil and that makes him an accomplice. Even human law says that accomplices are just as guilty as the perpetrators.”

“You’re splitting hairs!”

“No. You are. He was human and a doctor and he saved lives. Fine. But the other side of him was Glory. A hellgod bent on destroying universes. Even if you managed to defeat her in the end, how many people would have died before you could make that happen? This way, only one person did.”

“Oh, that sounds so good and right. One person’s life against hundreds. The good of one beside the good of many. But that’s not the way it works, Spike! If one person’s life has no value, then multiples of lives have no value! Zero multiplied by a million is still zero. Numbers can’t be allowed to matter!”

“Oh, I know. That’s why you wouldn’t have been able to kill him. You’d have gone up against Glory instead. But a hellgod can’t be killed! No way to win in that scenario. I don’t have a soul, Slayer. And I don’t give a damn about the principles that cause you such heartburnings. To me, things are simple. Ben was Glory. Glory was a threat to you. Ben had to die. So I killed Ben. Problem solved.”

“Spike...” She rubbed her hands across her face helplessly.

He just sat there, watching her steadily. No apologies, no trace of guilt. Totally Spike. This is what I am; this is what I do; this is the nature of the beast. Take it or leave it.

“What am I going to do with you?”

He grinned at her, that vivid flash of a smile, long creases slashing down his cheeks. Half-mockery, half-sweetness.

“Well, that’s the question, innit?”

“You knew Rihar would say it right out where everybody would hear. You were throwing down the gauntlet not only to me, but to Giles and Angel and Xander as well, weren’t you?”

“Oh, yeah.” He tilted his head quizzically. “What happened with Rihar and Demongirl anyway?”

She waved that away in exasperation. “You’re the one in trouble, not them! Focus, Spike!”

“Well, I want to know. Told him to ask her. Did he?”

Buffy sighed deeply. “He asked and she said yes and they went back into the looking glass. Can we get back to what’s important now?”

“Brilliant! At least they’ll be happy.”

She wanted to pound her head against the wall. “That’s all you’re thinking about? Giles and Angel and Xander want to dust you for being able to kill humans again and all you’re thinking about is whether Anya and Rihar are happy?”

“Have a soft spot for lovers, Slayer. That’s what counts, innit? Love.”

Of course it was...for him.

“You are driving me insane!” She pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes. “Look, you’ve got to get out of Sunnydale.”

“You’re not gonna stake me, Slayer? Thought that was what you came for.”

“I can’t stake you, Spike! I told you that.”

“Why? Because we fucked? You killed Angel and you love him. You don’t love me. It should be easy.”

His eyes were at once shadowed and mocking as he watched her. He was smiling a little.

“Dammit! Do you want me to stake you?”

“Just trying to understand, pet.”

“Angel was trying to destroy the world. You’re not. All I want is for you to leave.”

His head tilted. The scarred eyebrow went up. “What difference does my leaving make?”

“Look. I get why you killed Ben. But all Giles and Angel and Xander are going to see is that you killed a human. That there’s nothing stopping you now from feeding and killing as you like. If I don’t stake you, they will.”

“I’m not afraid of those three gits. I’m not so easy to kill now I’ve got that chip out of my head.”

“They’ll keep after you. And it won’t be stakes. It won’t be close-up like that, now that they know the chip is gone and you can fight back. It will be with crossbows at long range when you’re not looking. Sooner or later, they’ll get you. But if you leave town, if you’re not right here under their noses, they’ll forget about you. We can’t patrol the whole world. Sunnydale and the Hellmouth is all they care about.”

“So I should leave town and go and kill someplace else?”

“I...” She stopped abruptly, seeing where he was going with this. “Oh, come on! Don’t do this to me, Spike!”

“It’s all right if I kill people as long as it’s not in your town? Where’re your principles, Slayer?”

“For God’s sake, Spike!”

“Why aren’t you staking me, Slayer?”

“Stop pushing me!”

“But that’s what I do, pet,” he said softly.

She looked at him sitting there so casually, one hand on the back of the armchair, the other lightly on his thigh. All loose and relaxed, his head a little down, the corners of his mouth indented in amusement, the vividly blue eyes faintly smiling, but very dark and intent on hers.

“You wouldn’t fight back if I staked you, would you?”

“No.”

“But you are fighting. In your own way.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“The reckless gamble. Everything on one throw.”

He said nothing, just watched her. She looked heavenwards in exasperation, then let out her breath in a little shuddering sigh.

“You drive me crazy. You never give up, do you?”

“Not when it’s this important, pet.”

“You’re making this so hard. Spike, you have to leave Sunnydale.”

“I don’t leave, pet. That’s the thing you never understand. Maybe because of those other gits leaving you. Me, I don’t leave. Ever.”

She came and put her hands on his shoulders and looked at him for a long time. He looked back steadily, his eyes very grave and still. His hands settled lightly on her upper arms, which were bare under the short-sleeved T-shirt she was wearing. She felt his skin cool against hers, the delicacy of his touch that in no way constrained her.

Beautiful face; beautiful body; those eyes watching her the way no one had ever looked at her before, as if there was nothing more precious in the whole world. That gaze and the scent of him brought back all the rest—the vivid sensory memory of his weight on her, his body filling hers, his lips whispering endearments into her skin. If Giles and Angel caught up with him, that would all be gone to dust. All that love and devotion gone.

“I thought I had it all worked out,” she sighed. “We’d come back home and we’d be friends and everything would run along smoothly like that. But you’re not going to let that happen, are you? It’s just not fair!”

“You know what they say, pet. All’s fair in love and war.”

“And this is both. Giles and Angel...”

“They’re not important, luv.”

“I can’t lose you, Spike!”

He smiled suddenly, then leaned forward and kissed her very delicately.

“You never will if you don’t want to, pet. We’ll work something out.”

She pressed her forehead against his, her body leaning into his, her arms winding around his neck. All her doubts and uncertainties were gone. She knew exactly what she wanted. Everything just suddenly slotted into place for her, very simply, very surely, into one shining moment of clarity. Of absolute rightness.

“You know what I did on my way here, Spike? I broke into the Magic Box.”

He laughed involuntarily. “Bit of B and E? Where have your principles gone, luv?”

“They got modified. Lioslath saying I live in a box, telling me to break free, judge for myself. Well, I’m doing that now. It’s not whether a being has a soul that matters, but how that being acts. The Council says no soul means evil. But you don’t act evil, any more than the Quenya do. I can’t even say that killing Ben was evil, not when it’s saved us from an apocalypse.”

“That was for you, pet. Didn’t do it because it was good.”

“Worked out that way though. You may not have a soul, but you’ve got a heart. And you’re doing better with that heart than most people do with a soul. Don’t have to be good, Spike. Not the way I see it now. Just have to act good.”

“And how do I do that?”

“Fight at my side. Not kill people. Drink only from me.”

“I can do that,” he said quietly.

“Will you?”

“Yes. Anything you want, luv.”

“Giles and Angel won’t believe that. They’d still try to dust you. That’s why I broke into the Magic Box. To look through some of Giles’ books and try to find some way to keep them from doing that.”

He gave her an amused, dubious look. “And did you?”

“Yes. I found that, if we’re claimed, they can’t kill you without killing me.”

He caught his breath sharply. “Buffy!”

“It’s the only solution.”

“But, Buffy! You don’t understand! You mustn’t have read far enough! A claim...that’s a permanent link between us. An absolute, binding link. Irrevocable. Only death breaks the bond!”

“Exactly.”

“But...but...Giles, the Council...A Slayer tied irrevocably to a vampire? Buffy, you can’t want that!”

“Oh, but I do. I could live with you leaving Sunnydale. I’d hate being without you, but I’d know you’d be alive. I can’t live knowing you’re dust. I love you, Spike.”

“Buffy!” He looked as if he were going to pass right out with shock. “H-how? When?”

“I don’t know. I think it’s been growing on me for a long while, but I’ve been fighting it. When Giles and Angel wanted me to stake you, it hit me. I wanted to kill them. Giles is my Watcher and more to me than my father, and Angel is the man I first loved. But I wanted to kill them. That’s when I knew. I love you more, Spike.”

“Oh, God, Buffy! I love you so much! I never thought...I never dreamed...All I ever wanted was to be with you, to be allowed sometimes to make love to you...But this! No one ever...” He caught her to him fiercely. “Buffy, do you mean it?”

She held him as fiercely. “I mean it. I want us linked. Forever. I want to belong to you, want you to belong to me. And you want it too.”

“Oh, yes,” he whispered. “Never wanted anything more in my life.”

“So let’s do it.”

She was laughing, but he wasn’t. His face was very still and awed, his eyes dark with intensity and wonder. He rose, lifting her off her feet, cradling her closely to him.

“If you’re sure. Be sure. Because I can’t bear it if....”

“I’m sure,” she said, smiling, and kissed him.

He carried her over to the trap at the back that led to the lower level of his crypt and just stepped off the edge, landing with an easy flex of his knees, then set her down gently beside the bed. They leaned against each other, kissing slowly, their hands stroking away each other’s clothes. He was watching her in disbelief and incredulity all the while, even as they kissed, his eyelids heavy and almost closed, but still parted. She laughed and kissed him not just with passion, but with love and tenderness, and felt him shudder, feeling the difference, saw his eyes go helpless and vulnerable.

Tenderness touched something deep within him. He yearned for it. Just as that look in his eyes, that look that said she was the center of his universe, that intensity, touched something deep inside her. She had yearned for that, to be loved that much, to know absolutely that he would never leave her, never abandon her, would always be with her, the bulwark at her shoulder, the two of them loving and laughing and fighting side by side forever.

“Make me yours,” she murmured.

“Gonna do this right,” he muttered. He was smiling now. “What’s the hurry?”

They were finally naked and in bed, twisting and coiling about each other, hands and mouths sliding over every inch of each other’s bodies.

“I’m greedy.”

“I like that.” He bit her softly, the light pinpricks of his fangs incredibly arousing, teasing her by not giving her quite what she wanted.

She arched against him. “Want you in me.”

“Not yet. Don’t want it over so soon.”

His eyes had gone yellow and his tongue raspy like a cat’s, scouring over her, breasts and belly and thighs, so that she writhed and twisted under him helplessly.

“Oh, God, Spike! Come on!”

“Just a little longer.”

She sucked on his throat and felt him shudder. Anywhere on the neck was a trigger point for a vamp.

“You’re evil,” he muttered, grinning.

She laughed helplessly. “Getting there. Ohh!”

He had retaliated, drawing and sucking on her nipples, pressing them to the roof of his mouth, that raspy tongue hardening them to the point of pain.

“Oh, come on!”

“No.”

She was almost beyond thought now, clawing at him, aware of nothing but sensation, the whole world lost, nothing left but him and his hands and his mouth and his body heavy upon her.

“I love you,” she said, which was his breaking point.

“Ah, God!”

They both gasped as he came into her hard. She arched against him in triumph, feeling him fill her. Almost too much as always, yet just exactly enough. Perfection. Thrusting and straining against each other and yet struggling to hold back, to make it never end.

Nothing better than this, she thought blindly as he drove into her and his fangs slid into her neck and she felt the singing rapture begin.

Then he whispered, “Mine.”

“Yes! Yours!” She bit him too, at the junction of his neck and shoulder, tasted his blood coppery on her tongue. “And you’re mine.”

“Forever.”

And, oh, suddenly it was better, was something she had never dreamed of, was unbelievable. An ultimate joining. Something caught them up, mated them together, their minds sinking into each other as deeply as their bodies were locked, utterly open and surrendered to each other. The link wove them inextricably together in an exaltation that went beyond even that incredible rapture that came when he took her blood. Essences merging, never to be parted..

They both convulsed.

“Oh, God, I thought I’d died,” she gasped, coming back to herself an eon later. “I think I blacked out. Never felt anything like that before!”

“Always be like that,” he breathed, limp upon her. “From now on.”

“We’ll never survive it!”

“I’ll go happy,” he muttered.

She could feel his joy. The link made it vividly clear to her, his happiness and his delight in her, the love and devotion pouring from him in waves.

“I can feel what you’re feeling,” she said in wonder.

“You always will. Just as I can feel you. God, Buffy!”

She knew that he could feel her own joy and love and utter surrender.

“My heart is so full it hurts,” he whispered.

“Mine too.”

They held each other tightly a long while.

The crypt door slammed upstairs.

“I don’t believe it!” Buffy exclaimed.

“Oh, yeah. All three.” He broke into helpless laughter.

She barely had time to yank a sheet over the two of them before Giles and Angel and Xander came thundering down the ladder, Angel flinging off the blanket that had protected him from the sun outside.

“I told you!” yelled Xander. “I told you there was something going on!”

Buffy lay back across Spike, her body slanted so that it covered his chest, just in case either Giles or Xander fired off one of the crossbows they were carrying.

“You’re too late,” she purred. “You can’t kill him now without killing me. We’re claimed.”

There was an awful silence.

“You didn’t!” choked Giles. “You didn’t!”

“Oh, I did.” She waggled her fingers at Angel. “Hey, Angel. Back again with the doing things for my own good. You wouldn’t believe how sick I am of that. If I were mean, I’d say that I let this happen because I knew you three would never listen to me. Or believe me when I said I knew what I was doing. No, you’d just force the issue. Kill Spike. For my own good. Well, fuck you, boys. I wasn’t gonna let that happen.”

She laughed at their horrified faces.

“That’s what I would say if I were mean. Make out that it’s all your fault. But that wouldn’t be the truth. That’s just a tiny, tiny part of it. The real reason I chose to do this? I wanted to.”

“Buffy!” Giles exclaimed. “How could you!”

“Easy. I love him.”

Spike grinned with immense satisfaction at Angel who had gone white as a sheet.

“I learned a few things in that other dimension,” said Buffy, smiling. “How not to allow other people to make my decisions for me. How not to let their opinions outweigh my own judgement. How to live my own life. It’s very liberating. I think I’ve finally grown up.”

She stretched luxuriously, putting her arms behind her head to wind them around Spike’s neck. She felt him smile against her temple.

“You all look as if the apocalypse has come,” she remarked. “When actually Spike just saved us from it. So we’ll probably be able to take it easy for a while. Spike and I will do the usual patrols while you all get used to the new state of affairs.”

“Like your affair with him?” said Xander with loathing.

“Oh, you’ve got that all wrong, Xand. Ask them. We’re not having an affair. We’re married.”

“Ma...ma...” Xander lost his voice in horror.

“And you really should sit down and take a long, hard look at yourself and what happened in that other dimension. Maybe you’ll grow up too.”

“Bunch of you can also take yourself off,” Spike suggested. “Englishman’s home is his castle and all that, vamp or no. Plus, we’re kinda naked under here.”

All three of them gulped, then turned and stumbled up the ladder again, looking totally beyond any coherent thought.

“This is the best day!” said Spike blissfully, rolling Buffy over to face him and wrapping his arms around her.

“This habit of yours of always being right is really getting to be a pain,” said Buffy severely.

“Just love it when you hammer it in and break it off like that. They’re never gonna forget this, any of them.” He grinned at her. “Running wild, are you? Claws out and all. ‘S sexy. Turns me on.”

“What doesn’t? And if you’re making comparisons between me and the Quenya, I’ll claw you worse than Serrai ever could.”

“Promises, promises,” purred Spike and kissed her brainless.


The End