A/N: Beta'd by dawnofme and Mabel Marsters.

In the last chapter: Buffy and Faith caught Giles and Joyce with their hands in a cookie jar, Spuffy enjoyed some comofortng bathtub time, and Buffy knows magic is what made Faith a slayer. Oh, and all of you reading are awesome. ;)


Chapter 48


“Excuse me?” Buffy’s eyes went impossibly wide as she stared at him slack jawed. It occurred to him that having a row in the middle of a cemetery wasn’t what most people did on a Saturday night. “You did what?”


Oh, he’d truly get it now. Not that he didn’t deserve it. “Yeah, about that…”


“And you’re just telling me now? What the hell were you thinking?”


Spike took a step back from the rage simmering in her eyes. Maybe he should have just kept his mouth shut. “I was just trying to help you.”


“I can’t believe you!” Buffy started pacing. “Actually, I can. What I can’t believe is that you went behind my back to have someone you barely know cook up some hocus pocus that could have killed my best friend! And you didn’t think it was important enough to tell me?”


He threw his hands in a gesture of surrender. “She would have just stayed a vegetable if I hadn’t done it, you know. I heard the doct-”


“But how could you just go and do something so stupid? Did it even occur to you to discuss it with me before you went all knight in shining… leather… and-”


“I knew you wouldn’t be down with it, but I had to do it. I just couldn’t watch you hurting anymore.”


She tore her eyes away from him and crossed her arms over her chest after she ceased her pacing. But he’d be damned if her let her shut him out. Gathering his courage, Spike crossed the short distance between them and gently grasped her chin, forcing her to look at him.


“I’m not sorry for what I did, and I know you’re pissed as hell at me right now, but if I hadn’t done what I had, Faith would still be lying in the hospital and you know it.”


“She might have woken up on her own eventually.”


He dropped his hand and clenched his jaw. “I had to take that risk, and I know it was pretty reckless. I can see that now, you know. Not completely out of my gourd. I’m sorry for not telling you, but… she’s alright, isn’t she? You got your friend back and ultimately, it worked out just fine.”


Buffy unfolded her arms, but her gaze was still tinted with anger, her lips pressed into a thin line. It was killing him. The distance he so desperately wanted to erase. He should have known the whole potion thing would come back to bite him in the arse. Looking back at his decisions, he could see why she was angry, but there wasn’t anything he could do to change it now. Not that he would, because Buffy’s temporary rage was worth not seeing her cry over her best friend. He’d done what he had to.


“Can we just not fight anymore?” he said softly.


She let out a sigh and shot him a tired glance. “I don’t want to fight, but do you realize how many things could have gone kablooey? Don’t get me wrong, I understand why you did it and I’m grateful it worked, but it wasn’t a very smart thing to do.”


At this point, he’d just shut his mouth and nod. Anything to get on her good side again.


“You know I’m going to take this out of your hide, right?” she added.


“Yeah.”


“There might even not be… you know… sexy stuff.”


He could feel a pout forming on his lips, but bloody hell, he couldn’t help it. “Alright. Whatever you say.”


“Good.” She leaned and pecked him on the cheek, which immediately lifted the weight of guilt off his shoulders. “You do realize I might not uphold the sexy stuff withdrawal, right? I don’t think I can keep my hands off you, you… handsome bastard.”


He smiled slightly and reached out to hold her hand. “I think I’m okay with that.”


And just like that, the world started spinning again. As long as he had her, everything would be fine.


*******


Everyone but Buffy had long gone retired to their beds and sounds of an old house stirred the silence around her, but she paid them no mind. There were more important things to consider than an occasional rattling of the old pipes.


The words swam and blurred in front of her gaze so she shut her eyes for a moment, lifting her hand to rub her face. There was something she was missing, a truth that had been eluding her for hours. And it was buried somewhere in these books, she just knew it.


Buffy’s jaw strained with the force of her yawn and she rested her forehead against the cool surface of the book’s pages. She’d just close her eyes.


Only for a minute.


*******


Spike put his feet on the coffee table and tilted the beer bottle towards his mouth as he watched Pacey make a fool of himself once again. Ah, the wonders of Dawson’s Creek reruns. He had to love it.


Beer hit his tongue, and he swallowed it with a grunt of appreciation when someone pounded on his front door. Putting the bottle on the table, Spike rose to his feet.


'If there are any more bloody Jehovah’s witnesses, I’m tearing their limbs off. Soul or no soul.'


Eyes narrowed, he flung open the door. His expression softened when he spotted the visitor.


“Buffy? Why are you knocking?”


Her cheeks were flushed and she was breathing as though she ran all the way to his flat. Knowing her, she probably did.


“I forgot my keys.”


He stepped back and she strode inside, nervous energy clinging to her skin.


“What’s the hurry then? Something bad happen?”


She whirled towards him with a barely suppressed grin, and he lifted his eyebrow.


“No, nothing bad. Good. Amazing even,” she said. “I’ve got it, Spike. I’ve got it!”


He chuckled at her enthusiasm. “Alright. Care to tell me what it is that you’ve got?”


“The answer. I know how to save your soul.”


This was probably the last thing he’d expected her to say. His guess had been along the lines of Buffy buying new shoes or getting a hold of an antique weapon. Loved her weapons, his girl did.


“What? How?” he finally asked.


“I know, right? I just knew that I was missing something, and it was right there under my nose all this time. Then I had this dream… I was researching, and you know how much me and books are like the water and oil thingy, but I read those dusty old books for hours and nada! Then I fell asleep on top of one… I kind of wish I was wearing glasses and then they would be all crooked. That would totally look like from a movi-”


“Buffy?” Spike said with a smile. “You’re babbling.”


“Oh. Right. So… umm… the dream. You have to bite me. And then I you, I think.”


“Okay, I’m not following you around that bend.”


“It’s the whole blood bond thing. It makes complete sense to me now. If we create that bond, it’s like ultimate sharing. It means I belong to you and you… all of you… would belong to me. And Hermes doesn’t own your soul completely. Not until you’re… you know… dust. So if we do the whole ritual… Ta da! I would be the one that your soul belongs to and it will revoke his ownership.”


She beamed at him, her eyes big and bright with joy at figuring all of it out. Could it really be that easy? He snorted. It was anything but easy.


“We can’t do it.”


The corners of her mouth drifted down, her shoulders slumping. “What do you mean we can’t? Do you not want to… to be mine?”


“No! That’s not it at all, luv. You know I already am. It’s just… You can’t honestly want me to drink your blood. I don’t trust myself.”


She exhaled a breath and seemed a bit relieved though he didn’t see how she could be in a situation like this.


“I trust you, Spike. Whatever you think might go wrong, it won’t. I want you to drink from me. And we could do it so it’s just me drinking from you, but I want this to be mutual.”


“You don’t know what you’re asking of me,” he said in a gravely voice.


She approached him until there was barely an inch of space between them. He gazed down at her as she pressed her palms on his chest.


“Please, Spike. I want to belong to you.”


He opened his mouth to argue, but then her hand was at the back of his neck and the next thing he knew, her soft full lips were moving against his, persuasive and mind numbing. With a defeated groan, he tugged her closer and backed her towards the nearest wall. Her back hit the firm surface and he grinded his hips into hers, his tongue slipping past her lips, fingers caressing the warm skin of her cheeks.


Want and need flared up inside him at the feel of her delving beneath his shirt to touch his back, at the delicious friction between their lips. Spike leaned back to let her take in gulps of breath and traced the shape of her throat with soft kisses.


“Upstairs,” she said.


He swept her up in his arms and made it to the bedroom in a record time. The blood drained from his brain and rushed south when she crawled on top of the silk sheets and shed her clothes before sitting on the edge. How did they get here again?


Then it ceased to matter as Buffy reached out and hooked her fingers into his belt loops to pull him closer. There was something he was supposed to be arguing against but he couldn’t quite grasp it. Not when she undid his belt, rubbing his hard flesh through the material of his jeans before tugging the zipper down.


“Oh, fuck,” he said, feeling weak in the knees when she finally touched him.


“I want to taste you.”


“Unh.” He tried to talk. He really did. But the mere sight of her had the words dying in his throat, a drawn out moan the only sound touching the air as she slowly licked the tip of his length.


His brain practically fizzled out when she wrapped her lips around him and sucked as much as she could manage into her hot mouth. With trembling hand, he reached out and stroked her hair, pulling it away from her face.


“Buffy… Christ, feels so good.”


She hummed, and his eyes almost crossed from the vibration. Pleasure coiled and tightened in his belly as he watched her with half-lidded gaze. If he didn’t have her now, she’d get far more than she bargained for.


“Uh, gotta stop now, luv. Have to have you.”


She smiled and released him from her mouth before licking her lips.


“You still have clothes on.”


He shrugged of his shirt and shed his jeans before pressing Buffy into the mattress with his weight.


“That was incredible,” he murmured into her neck.


“Did you really like it?”


“I didn’t like it. I loved it.” God, her skin was burning him in the best possibly way. He could feel every shiver as he kissed her jaw, could hear every little sigh as he traced the shell of her ear with his tongue. “You’re the most beautiful, amazing woman in the world.”


She giggled and circled patterns on the skin of his back. “You sweet talker you. Are you trying to get laid?”


He grinned and bit her lobe. “Oh yeah. Is it working?”


“Maybe. Still haven’t decided.”


“Hmm… I should persuade you then.”


“Definitely, Mister.” She tightened her legs around his waist and flipped him onto his back. “I want you right now.”


“No argument here.” Spike rested his hands on her hips and lifted his head to capture her lips in a deep kiss.


“Spike?”


“Yeah?”


“Can we do it? Will you bite me when we…”


He met her gaze and struggled to answer. Didn’t she realize how much he wanted to say yes? To taste her? To have her inside him? To be hers in return? But what if he lost it? The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her.


“I trust you,” she said, her eyes imploring him to realize the truth of her words. “Please, Spike. I want to be yours, and I want you to be mine. Please.”


It was her pleading that did it. That made his resistance crack and crumble. He couldn’t deny her anything. Not when he desperately craved it just as much.


“I’ve always belonged to you, Buffy,” he said in a low voice. “Always.”


TBC