WARNING: Some scenes in this chapter are somewhat graphic, with descriptions of torture. Not obscenely descriptive... but still, not very nice. Just letting you know. You have been warned



Chapter 24: Nightmares.


“Buffy…” he gasped as he reached for her outstretched hand, grasping hold with a grip tight enough to crush bones. If she weren’t the slayer, he probably would have.

“Spike.” Buffy replied, her concern for his welfare evident in her eyes. “Spike, we need to get you out of here.” She said urgently as she looked over her shoulder, expecting to hear footsteps at any moment.

“I-I can’t.” he mumbled in response. “Leave me here… just get out, get out now before she comes back.”

“No.” Buffy shook her head adamantly. “I’m not leaving here without you.”

“Buffy…” he pleaded but she interrupted.

“No Spike. I’m not leaving.” She said with conviction. She tried lifting him from the floor but his body was a dead weight. He had no strength left in him and she didn’t think she could carry him out of here on her own. “Spike dammit!” she cursed. “GET up so I can take you out of here.”

He didn’t think he could do it, but the fire in Buffy’s eyes promised him even more pain if he didn’t at least try. So he did. Every fiber of his body cried out in defiance as he forced himself to his feet, gasping in agony as the movement sent shard after shard of pain ricocheting up and down his worn and weary self. He was gasping for un-needed breath by the time he made it to his feet, feeling more than a little light headed. “I can’t… I just need a moment to rest.” He begged.

“We don’t have time.” Buffy insisted as she began walking him down the hallway to the exit.

A tingling sensation ran up his spine as they moved… like they were being watched. He turned to look over his shoulder and saw several of Darla’s minions in pursuit of them. “Hurry, we have to hur--”

A gasp of pain and surprise from Buffy returned his attention back to her. Her shoulders were trembling and when he looked down at her chest his entire world exploded. Protruding from her chest was a crossbow bolt. Blood was gushing from the wound and he could hear her heartbeat already beginning to slow.

Standing in front of their exit with the crossbow still raised towards them, was Darla. With a coquettish little wave of her hand she turned and walked away.

“Spike…” Buffy wheezed.

“BUFFY!” he cried in desperation. “Just hold on, Buffy HOLD ON.” He demanded as he found himself filled with a new strength as the urgency to get her out of her filled him. He began dragging her towards the exit

The pain in her eyes as she looked at him faded a moment later and her body fell limp in his arms.

“NOOOOOO….” He screamed as the tears streamed down his face.

~~~

“NOOOOOO!”

Darla couldn’t hear the scream the broke from Spike’s lips, but she could see it clearly. He had passed out several hours ago from blood loss and the sheer pain of the torture he had been put through. He was even more stubborn than she remembered him being, and his lack of responsiveness to the torment had displeased her. That was when Jake had reminded her of his affections for the slayer.

Darla had immediately given the order for the injection.

One of her newly sired minions had been an apothecary in life, his potions and drugs having had uses for more than just ailments. It was a particular concoction of his that she had ordered he administer to Spike’s unconscious form.

As it had been explained to her, it was a drug of suggestion. As it worked its way into the bloodstream it unlocked the hidden little doors in the mind, coaxing the injected to explore their every wish, every dream, and every nightmare. Then it played upon that. Their greatest wish was exploited and turned on its head. Their greatest nightmare was realized.

Considering the state that Spike had been in when he had passed out, and knowing the reason that he refused to give in was because of his love for the slayer, she could only imagine what he was dreaming about right now. If only she could have a little television screen that showed his thoughts. She was sure that it would be, quite the nightmare.

~~~

Buffy slept fitfully, unable to allow herself to rest peacefully. Even in dreams her worries haunted her. She had dreamt that dream again last night, and like the first time it had ended with her cradling her sisters body in her arms. The significance of the blonde hair in Dawn’s hand now made sense, but she had been unable to decode anything else.

There was a little more than an hour before sunrise, and even though she knew it was early, Buffy needed to sort this out now.

Throwing back the blankets she slipped the sweat pants she had worn the night before whilst on patrol over her hips and climbed the stairs two at a time. She needed to know where Spike was, and she needed to know now. Knocking hurriedly on her mother’s bedroom door and waiting for a response from inside, she threw the door open and walked in.

“Will, I need you to do a locator spell.” She beseeched.

“Bu-buffy?” Willow called as she sat up in bed, rubbing her eyes. “What time is it?”

“Early.” She announced. “I need you to do a spell.”

“We tried to do the locator spell to find where the Order was holed up last night remember? It didn’t work.” Willow said with a frown.

“I know. I don’t want you to find the Order.” Buffy said with a shake of her head, her words coming out in a steady stream.

“I want you to locate Spike.”

~~~

Darla was becoming bored with Spike lack of responsiveness. Save for when he had been unconscious and obviously dreaming, he had made little noise at all. Now as she walked down the hallway towards the room he was being held captive in, she decided to take matters into her own hands. And she knew which cards to play.

The guards on the door stood to attention when they spotted her walking down the hallway towards them. They bowed their heads subserviently as she entered the darkened room, closing the door behind her.

Spike’s head was lolling to the side as she advanced on him, his eyes glazed over.

“Spike. I trust that you find your quarters… comfortable.” She mocked as she leaned forwards and yanking his head up his hair to look at her.

Spike glared with hatred at the face of the reason why Buffy had been hurt in the cemetery that night almost a week ago. He didn’t want to give Darla the satisfaction of knowing how much pain he was in, which is why he hadn’t screamed, the entire ordeal. He had kept himself distracted, concentrating on anything but then pain. And then he had thought of her, and it had all faded away. Buffy. It was thinking of her that had kept him strong.

“Oh so it’s going to be that way is it?” she asked with an amused raise of her brows. “Where’s your family respect? Drusilla would be so upset.”

He resisted again from responding.

“One way conversation, I’m going to lose interest real quick.” Her fingers trailed over the sharp implements that were laid out on the tray. “I wonder which one I should use first…” she thought as she raised a finger to her mouth in a mocking manner.

“Do what you like.” He said with a shrug of nonchalance, the very movement sending pain rippling through his body.

“Given up so soon?” she said with a pout. “Now that’s disheartening. What would your Buffy…” she spat the name out, the feel of it on her tongue vile. “…think about your surrender?”

A low growl resonated from deep with Spike, his face shifting into its vampiric countenance as Darla’s thinly veiled attack caused the ire within him to grow. So Darla knew about his feelings for the slayer. He shouldn’t be that surprised really; it wasn’t exactly a secret. Drusilla had known for years, before he had even known. With her recent stint in LA catching up with ‘Grandmummy’ it would stand to reason that it would be one of the little pieces of information that Dru shared.

Getting the family back together had been an obsession of hers for decades; the plans she would dream up were mind-boggling. The voices in her head whispering their little secrets, telling her the ways it could be done, and then they would be whole again. But then Angel had taken Darla’s un-life and then found himself in love with the slayer. When the curse had been lifted Drusilla had pranced about the factory, buzzing with excitement. Her family was whole again, well as whole as it could be. And now, with Darla back from dust and returned to the undead, well it could only have been a matter of time before she had begun prattling on about the family again.

Darla hated Buffy, with a passion. It was Buffy who had stolen Angel’s heart. It was because of Buffy that Angel had been staking their kind, fighting the good fight. And Buffy was the reason why Angel had staked her. And now another of the family had fallen under the charms of the slayer. Spike was sure that pissed off Darla to no end.

“Now, now.” She tsked. “It’s not nice to not pay attention when someone is speaking to you William.”

Spike growled again. That was another thing that he hated about Darla, calling him by his former name. He had never been worthy in her eyes, not worthy for Drusilla and not worthy to be a member of the Order. Not worthy to be a vampire. There was still too much humanity in him. His poetry, his devotion to his sire. It had sickened her. And for a while Darla’s rejection had burned him. Not being accepted in the family. But not anymore.

“Go to hell.” He spat out in defiance.

“Oooh. Feisty aren’t we.” She said with a cluck of her tongue. “I wonder how feisty you’ll be when I’m bathing in the slayers blood.”

Spike roared in anger, straining against the chains that bound him to the wall. She had better hope that he didn’t get free.

Darla dragged a wooden chair across the floor from beside the far wall of the room until she was just out of his grasping range and sat herself down on it. The expression she wore was conspiring, malevolent, just plain evil. “I’m going to let you in on a little secret Spike. Figuring as you’re not going to get out of this place alive, and you probably won’t even be around for the showdown I’ve got planned for your little slayer, I may as well let you know what we have in store.”

Spike stiffened against his restraints. Being stabbed with hot pokers, sliced open with scalpels, even being burned with holy water were tolerable, so long as he knew that she was okay. Darla’s flunkey had questioned him about what the slayer knew, trying to see if they still had the element of surprise in their hands. He had probed for weaknesses, but Spike had given none. Not speaking meant that Darla gained no ground. And he could live with that. But hearing what she had planned and not being able to do a damn thing about it…

Darla saw the conflicting emotions that crossed Spike’s face and it brought a confident smile to hers. “Ah… so I have your attention now.”

“You so much as --”

“Are you threatening me William?” Darla demanded with mock surprise. “This is going to be fun.”

Spike struggled against the chains again, feeling the metal bite into his skin as he strained against them. A grunt of pain mixed with a roar of outrage when they didn’t even budge.

Darla laughed at his unwillingness to give up. It was almost commendable. “Alright William, I going to offer you a deal. Now think about this carefully, because it will be a once off.”

He didn’t care what she offered him; he wasn’t going to do anything to betray her. He wouldn’t do that to her, not to Buffy.

“You’re life, for that of the slayer, and her sister.”

“I’d rather burn in hell.” Came his automatic reply.

Annoyance flickered across Darla’s face for a moment before the cool façade was back up again. She hadn’t been expecting that sort of response. At least not so suddenly. Her hands clasped around a jug that sat on the tray next to her.

“Have it your way then. Burn.”

She threw the contents of the jug at Spike, the vampire screaming out in agony for a moment before passing out, leaving the holy water to burn at his skin.

~~~

Buffy hovered around Willow and Tara as they made the final preparations for what they were about to do. The spell that they had tried last night hadn’t worked; Willow explaining that it was possibly because it was an amalgamation of spells, something that they had come up with themselves and not something out of a spell book. The fact that it had worked when they had first tried it almost a week ago couldn’t be explained, and was probably just a fluke.

But the spell they were going to perform now was your standard locator spell, something that Willow and Tara had performed dozens of times.

Buffy paced the bedroom floor, back and forth as she kept her eyes trained upon the pair of wiccas on the floor who were trying their best to concentrate.

“Ah Buffy?” Willow said as she opened her eyes. “This will work a lot better if we have umm, less pacing. I kinda need to concentrate.” She said apologetically.

Buffy nodded, taking a seat on her bed and sitting as still as possible whilst the girls began chanting under their breaths, sprinkling the required elements over the map of Sunnydale that was laid out before them. As they continued chanting a small green light began to form over the center of the map and began floating over it in a grid like pattern. It finally came to a stop and began to glow more brightly.

Both Willow and Tara opened their eyes to confirm that the spell was complete, and along with Buffy they all leaned forward to check the co-ordinates.

Buffy’s expression became grim and Willow and Tara shot her a worried look.

“Looks like we found him.” Willow said hesitantly.

Buffy stood up and left the room, leaving Willow and Tara behind sharing an anxious glance.



~~~~~~~~~~