---

It wasn’t long before she found herself standing in front of the vampire in question. He sat on the floor, his jaw tightly clenched, clearly not in a good mood. *Wow, he’s really pissed* she thought as sat down next to him. They sat in silence for what seemed like hours until the tension was too much.

“Sorry,” Spike finally said.

“What for?” Buffy asked as she watched the vampire next to her.

“You asked me to play nice. Didn’t, did I?” Spike stated, pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his coat.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Buffy said quietly. She watched him light a cigarette, obviously enjoying the rush of nicotine.

“Can I have one of those?” she asked, indicating to the pack of cigarettes in Spike’s hand.

Spike narrowed his eyes and stared at Buffy, floored by the fact that she didn’t blame him for the fight he had with the whelp. Now here she was asking for a cigarette. This was a shock; Buffy had always given him a hard time about smoking around her, and here she was asking for a smoke.

“What?”

“A cigarette, Spike…..Can I have one?” Buffy asked as she pointed to the pack again.

“Why?” He was still surprised by her request.

“I’ve never tried one before and it’s not like it can kill me” she grumbled, slightly annoyed that he still hadn’t given her a cigarette.

Spike chuckled at this and handed her the pack, watching her closely as she pulled a cigarette from the pack and lit it. She immediately started to cough like mad and her face looked like it was on fire. He couldn’t help but laugh as he removed the offending object from her hand while patting her on the back until she started to breathe normally.

“That’s disgusting! How can you smoke those all the time?” she gasped out between coughs.

Spike started to laugh again--the look on Buffy’s face really was priceless.

“Stop laughing, you big jerk!” Buffy scolded as she lightly slapped Spike on the arm.

“Sorry, luv, s’just--you should have seen the look on your face. I wish I had a camera.” He continued to chuckle as tears of laughter streamed down his face.

“Ha- ha- ha, very funny. I’m choking to death and you’re making jokes” Buffy said with a huge pout.

Spike couldn’t stand it. He had always loved that pout. Without even thinking he reached over to pull Buffy closer and brushed his lips across hers.

Buffy was shocked. *Spike! Spike’s kissing me. What do I do? Should I pull away? Should I hit him?* That was the last rational thought that she had.

Buffy felt Spike’s tongue seeking entrance into her mouth and quickly complied, moaning loudly when she felt his cool tongue begin to battle with her own. Each touch of his tongue against hers sent small shivers down her spine. Buffy raised her arm and placed it on the back of Spike’s neck, pulling him closer as the kiss intensified.

Spike growled with pleasure, the feeling of Buffy’s warm tongue sweeping through his mouth almost enough to make him burst. He felt like he was on fire, and he could feel her small body pressing against him as her hands moved through his hair.

Buffy whimpered when she heard Spike growl. It simply had to be to the single most erotic sound that she had ever heard and she was completely unable to stop her hands from exploring his body. He was perfect. Buffy revelled in the feeling of his cold hard chest as it pressed against her, and she simply couldn’t believe how aroused she was getting. She felt his hand slide under her top and cup her breast, brushing his thumb across her erect nipple. Buffy let out another moan and arched closer to Spike as her hands explored his body further.

Unable to hold on any longer. Buffy forced herself to pull away to catch her breath. With a slight moan of disappointment, Spike released the breathless blonde from his impassioned embrace, lightly resting his forehead on hers as they both panted for breath, even though only one of them had the need for oxygen. Running his hand across Buffy’s cheek, Spike gently brushed some hair away from her face, allowing him a moment to absorb her beauty.

Buffy lazily pulled away, momentarily drowning in the deep blue depths of Spike’s eyes. She watched him with a mixture of amazement and wonder before letting out a breathless “Wow!”

Spike chuckled and kissed the top of her head, pulling her closer to him. “You can say that again, luv…. Can’t say that much takes my breath away these days, but you just managed it.”

Buffy smiled sweetly and rested her cheek on Spike’s shoulder, making small circles with her fingertips on his chest.

They were both shocked to hear someone clearing their throat.

The two vampires looked up to see Dawn standing in the doorway with a huge grin planted on her face. “You know, you might want to think about locking the door in the future. I mean, unless you want to give Giles and Xander a heart attack.”

Buffy quickly jumped to her feet, followed by Spike, both hastily smoothed their clothing back into place. Buffy looked over at her little sister only to see Dawn smiling like a Cheshire cat.

“Dawn, how long have you been standing there?” Buffy asked, wondering how much of a view her little sister had gotten.

Dawn gave Buffy her patented eye roll. “Don’t worry. I didn’t see anything.”

“Um, did-did anyone…?”

“Did anyone else see the sexcapades?” Dawn finished for her sister. “NO… your secret’s safe.”

Buffy blushed bright red; obviously Dawn had seen a lot more then she had let on.

Spike gave Dawn a cheeky grin and winked at her. “Enjoy the show, Nibblet?”

Dawn turned bright red and turned to walk back into the shop. “Yeah right, as if that was on my must see list,” she called back over her shoulder as she left.

Spike chuckled at Dawn’s response.

After a moments hesitation Buffy turned to Spike, unable to look him in the eye. “I-I think we should go see if they have found anything.”

“Yeah. Sure thing, pet.”

When Buffy and Spike walked back into the shop, they found the entire research table completely covered with books. Apparently, the whole gang was deep in research mode.

Dawn looked over at Buffy and Spike, giving them a huge grin. Buffy turned bright red and averted her eyes from her sister.

“So, what are we doing?” Buffy asked, looking at the pile of books on the table.

“We’re looking through the old Watcher diaries, trying to find some mention of a Slayer turned, or of any vampires retaining their human abilities,” Willow answered.

“Oh….so how’s that going?” Buffy asked as she sat down at the table, pulling a large book off the pile.

“Not so good. There has been a mention of a vampire back in the 1100s that could go into the sunlight and seemed to be impervious to any injury, but….”

“Let me guess, the Gem of Amara?” Buffy asked.

Willow nodded. “How’d you guess?”

“Just lucky, I suppose,” Buffy said, meeting Spike’s eyes for the first time since their kiss to give him a teasing wink.

“So, how’d the silly sod lose it?” Spike grumbled. The gem was still a sore spot for him.

“Well it seems that the gem can’t help you if the finger the ring is on gets chopped off. Apparently the vampire in question made a lot of enemies…. well, they all kinda ganged up on him,” Willow explained with a shrug.

“So, he never learned how to make friends and influence people?” Buffy said as she flicked through her book.

“Oh! Wait! I think I’ve found something!” Anya squealed. “This book mentions a vampire who still has a reflection and can tolerate some sunlight…”

Everyone waited as Anya read the rest of the information.

“So, Ahn, you gonna tell us what it says? The suspense is killing us,” Xander whined.

“Oh never mind, it’s not a miracle. Just a really weak Vampire, apparently she was sired with only a few drops of blood. Part of an experiment that the Council performed in the ninth century.” Anya finished matter-of-factly.

“So what happened to her?” Dawn asked.

“Oh, they killed her,” Anya replied cheerfully.

“Well that sucks,” Dawn said under her breath.

“Um, this book mentions a vampire who could tolerate crosses… But it just turned out that he had a high pain threshold. It still burnt him, h-he just didn’t seem to care.” Tara explained.

“Just like Zachary Kralik.” Buffy whispered.

“Who?” Dawn asked.

“Zachary Kralik, you know the insane vampire I had to fight without my powers. You remember that, don’t you, Giles?” Buffy snarked as she looked over at her Watcher.

“How could I ever forget?” Giles answered tightly as he started to clean his glasses.

“So what happened?” Dawn asked, rather intrigued. Buffy never told her too much about her Slayer duties so she’d learnt to grab any titbits of information that came her way.

“Well, when I pressed a cross to his chest, he actually seemed to enjoy it,” Buffy replied with a disgusted face.

“So what’d you do?” Dawn was fascinated.

“Tricked him into drinking holy water. Turns out he didn’t have a very high tolerance for that.” Buffy told her sister with a small smile.

“What do you mean, when you didn’t have your powers?” Spike asked.

“Well, the Council kinda has this test that a Slayer has to pass if she makes it to her eighteenth birthday. They made Giles inject me with this stuff, kinda like Slayer kryptonite. Then they locked me in a house with a really nasty, very insane vampire and no weapons, and I had to try to kill him before he killed me.” Buffy narrated with a shrug.

“They what?!” Spike was appalled. “Why the bloody hell would they do something like that?”

Buffy shrugged her shoulders again. “I don’t know, I just work for them. Guess they have nothing better to do.”

“I’ll tell you why they did it, because of what you’ve done!” Spike bellowed.

“Me?! What did I do?!” Buffy replied just as loudly.

“You quit…you told the soddin’ wankers to piss off and did it your own way.”

“What exactly are you implying, Spike?” Giles asked, rather annoyed that a vampire was questioning the Council’s methods. No matter how much he himself disagreed with them, Spike had no place involving himself in Council matters.

“They probably found that once a Slayer reaches eighteen, she starts to ask questions, starts to rebel. So they come up with some test to rid themselves of there little problem. I mean why else would they lock a defenceless, unarmed Slayer in a house with an insane vampire? What could that honestly teach her?” Spike started to pace as he talked, unable to believe that the Council would try to assassinate their own Slayer.

“I hate to say it, but Deadboy’s got a good point” Xander said.

“See! Even the whelp agrees with me” Spike said, pointing to Xander.

“So you think they tried to kill me?” Buffy asked quietly.

“Hell yeah! Tell me pet, how old were you when you quit?”

“Eighteen,” Buffy said in a small voice. “Angel was sick, and they wouldn’t help me.”

“I rest my case.” Spike sat down at the table, rather proud of himself and his indictment of the Council of Wankers.

Everyone in the room was silent, unable to come up with any other reason the Council would have forced Buffy to undergo that test.

Finally Dawn broke the silence. “Why go through all that trouble. I mean, they had to inject Buffy with that stuff that made her weak. Why not just inject a poison instead?”

“Don’t know, Nibblet. Maybe there wasn’t anything good on the telly” Spike answered, still deep in thought. Giles had injected that stuff into Buffy and she still trusted him…. Why, exactly?

“They observe the test.” Giles said as he took off his glasses and pinched his nose, trying to will away the headache that was quickly forming. “They claim it helps their studies on a Slayer’s self-defence training.”

Spike snorted. “Yeah. They call vampires monsters for killing someone, but when the Council of Wankers does it, it’s called studying. At least I’m straight up as to what my intentions are. Don’t go pissin’ about poisoning someone, and trickin’ ‘em into fightin’ me.”

“Nah, instead you’d wait until Buffy’s under a spell and defenceless.” Xander spat back.

“I BLOODY WELL WOULD NOT!” Spike yelled.

Xander scoffed. “Yeah right, fang breath. I remember a certain Halloween that Buffy forgot who she was. Didn’t take you too long to take advantage of that situation, did it?”

Spike couldn’t look at Buffy. “Well yeah, can’t blame a bloke for tryin’.” he muttered quietly.

“Actually we can, Spike. It’s sorta a sore spot with the people you’ve tried to kill” Xander spat back at the peroxide vampire.

The two men exchanged looks of pure rage.

“Okay, that’s enough!” Buffy yelled. “This isn’t why where here. We all know that Spike has tried to kill me. Now we also know that the Council are all heartless bastards who would love to see me dead. So with all that out in the open, now can we get back to the ideas explaining why this has happened to me?” She leant back in her chair as she finished her explosion, feeling more frustrated than she could ever remember.

“It’ll be okay, Buffy, we’ll find something” Willow said as she placed a comforting hand on Buffy’s shoulder.

“I know, Will, I’m just frustrated. Plus the testosterone twins over here are driving me batty,” she said, waving her hand to indicate Xander and Spike.

Xander and Spike both looked over at Buffy and then back to each other. “This is all your fault,” they said in unison.

Buffy sighed. “Maybe I would feel better if I ate something.”

“What?” Xander screeched, clearly shaken by the fact that Vampire Buffy was saying that she was hungry.

Buffy took one look at Xander and cracked up, laughing so hard that tears began to stream down her face. After a few moments she managed to gain control, and taking a deep breath she turned to Xander.

“Oh god, Xander! The look on your face ….”

“Yeah. Well, I don’t take kindly to being eaten, thank you very much,” Xander said as he nervously rubbed his neck.

Buffy started to laugh again. “I-I n-never said I was going to eat you, Xand. I was actually thinking more along the lines of hamburgers.”

“Oh, okay. I can deal with that.” Xander looked totally relieved at this news; his relief, however, only fueled Buffy’s laughter further.

“Oookay, has anyone else noticed that Buffy’s gone insane?…. Maybe it runs in the family, after all Spike made Dru crazy as well.” Xander said as he watched Buffy.

“Hey! Hang on a minute, whelp! You know nothin’ about me and even less of Dru. I never made Dru crazy; she was like that when she sired me” Spike yelped.

“What? I thought Ang- Deadboy Senior was your sire?” Xander asked, “At the school…. parent-teacher night, you said he was your sire.”

All eyes turned to Spike. Buffy finally stopped laughing when she heard Xander referring to Angel.

“No, you ponce, what I said was that he was like my Sire” Spike growled. “Bloody well would stake m’self if that wanker was my sire…..give me bloody nightmares that would. Be nothin’ worse than bein’ sired by a prancin’ poof who can’t even have a shag without goin’ off the deep end.”

“Where as being sired by an insane lunatic is so much better.” Xander threw back.

“It had its advantages. Least I never got bored. Dru always had a way of stirrin’ up trouble. This one time, we were in Argentina, and Dru decided that she wanted to wear a nun’s habit, somethin’ about the stars telling her to, or some such rot. So we go to this little convent, an….” Off everyone’s horrified looks, Spike had the good sense to discontinue telling his story. “Right, then. Guess you had to be there.”

Buffy nodded her head in distaste. “Kinda glad I wasn’t” she snarked before turning her attention back to her friends. “Okay, now that freaky story time is over, what do you say about getting some burger-y goodness? I for one am starved.”

“Yeah,” Xander responded flatly as he pushed himself away from the table, more than happy to be away from Spike and his disturbing stories of nun’s habits and Dru. “Okay, I’m gone. Usual order?” he asked, reaching for his jacket.

Everyone nodded and mumbled their agreements.

“Xander?” Buffy called out as he was about to walk out of the shop.

“Yeah?”

“Get some spicy buffalo wings as well, okay.”

“Okay, Buff, won’t be long.” With that, Xander walked out of the shop.

Spike walked over to Buffy. “So since when do you eat buffalo wings?”

“I don’t. They’re for you,” she said with a small shrug.

“Oh. Didn’t know you cared.”

Buffy lifted her eyes from the book she was reading, and looked over at Spike. “I don’t. I just figured if you had something in your mouth, at least we won’t have to be inflicted with anymore ‘Me and Dru’ stories.”

“Jealous, pet?” he asked with a chuckle as he sat down next to Buffy.

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Hardly. I just don’t want to hear about the horrible things you did to some poor nuns.”

“Who said it was horrible, pet? You know there’s more than one way to get nuns out of old habits” he teased, finishing with a quick wiggle of his tongue.

Buffy was shocked into silence. Unable to come up with a suitable retort, she decided to return her attention to the diary she had been reading.

Spike chuckled lightly to himself, before picking up a book to help in the research of the Slayer’s ‘condition,’ occasionally glancing over at Buffy.

Several minutes later Spike noticed that Buffy had a huge smile plastered across her face. Obviously she had found something amusing in the journal she was reading.

“What’s so funny, Slayer?”

Buffy looked up at Spike and choked back a laugh. “Nothing,” she managed to squeak out.

Spike nodded and went back to reading his book, only to be interrupted by Buffy giggling.

“Okay, pet, out with it, got something in that book you find amusing?” Spike was watching Buffy closely, and he noticed that she couldn’t seem to look at him. *This can’t be good,* he thought to himself as he reached over and grabbed the book from Buffy’s hands.

“Hey! I was reading that!” Buffy protested as she tried to get the old Watcher’s diary away from Spike.

“Yeah I know, pet, just wanted to know what’s so funny s’all.” As Spike read the entry in the journal, his face fell.


// 17/3/1884

I have started my research on William Richard Suffolk the 3rd, later to be known as William the Bloody.

William Richard Suffolk the 3rd was born the only child of William Henry Suffolk the 2nd and Margaret Ann Winslow-Suffolk, on the 26th day of the 8th month 1857.

My studies have shown that William was introduced to high society at the age of fifteen. However, he was snubbed by most of the well-to-do families in the district, most likely due to his extremely introverted personality.

William tended to spend much of his time daydreaming and writing poetry; however, none of his poems have ever been published.

In September of 1880, William was unfortunate enough to meet Drusilla Elizabeth Swanson.

Drusilla, the mad childe of Liam Angelus Garrahan, chose to sire, William Richard Suffolk 3rd, soon to be known as William the Bloody. This name reportedly has its origins in the society that snubbed William as a means of mocking William’s “bloody awful poetry”, however, William quickly set out about to give the name a more gruesome meaning.

William’s body was found lying in a dark alley by a night watchman, Henry Fallwell. Near the body was a piece of torn paper with an unfinished poem inscribed upon it. It is believed to have belonged to William Richard Suffolk 3rd.

"My heart expands, ‘tis grown a bulge in it
Inspired by your beauty, effulgent……”

These words are believed to be to the last that William Richard Suffolk the 3rd ever wrote.

In October of 1880, William first used a railway spike during the torture of one of his victims. My research indicates that this victim may have unwillingly given William the depraved inspiration of using railway spikes as implements of torture in a remark made about William’s poetry.

Sir Adrian Fredrick Somersby the 2nd was later reported to have remarked, in front of many witnesses, “that he would rather have a railroad spike through his head than listen to that awful stuff!”

It is my conclusion that Sir Adrian Fredrick Somersby the 2nd was the first and only victim to be killed in this gruesome manner. However, this display was enough to earn William the Bloody the nickname Spike……….//

“Oh bloody ‘ell!” Spike muttered as he read the entry.

Buffy couldn’t contain her giggles. “You, you were a poet?!” she managed to choke out between fits of laughter.

Everyone at the table quickly looked up and stared at Spike.

“You’ll pay for this, Slayer,” Spike growled at Buffy.

Buffy started to laugh harder. “But what can I say, you’ve always bad,” she snorted, quoting Spike’s own words to her during their conversation, about the Slayers he’d killed. Apparently he’d decided to omit the part where he was a bloody awful poet.

“You were a poet?” Dawn asked, giggling at the thought of Spike sitting down to write poetry.

“Yep.” Buffy answered for him, a huge smile on her face. She was obviously enjoying tormenting Spike about his past.

Spike growled at Buffy in frustration; he knew she wasn’t going to let this one go without a fight.

“Did-did you have any of your works published?” Tara asked.

“If I did, do you think I would tell any of you sods?” Spike spat back. *Oh Buffy’s going to pay for this one,* he thought to himself.

“No. No… he-he was a ‘bloody awful poet’.” Buffy squeaked out as she fell into another fit of laughter.

“What?” Willow asked.

“That’s h-how Spike got his name, h-he was William the Bloody Awful Poet.” Buffy was having the time of her life. *Oh god I’ll have to read these old diaries more often,* she thought to herself as she tried to regain some control.

This last statement caused everyone to start laughing. Everyone except Spike, who was keeping himself occupied with fantasies of bathing in the Slayer’s blood.

“SLAYER!” Spike yelled, trying to stop Buffy from continuing.

“Wait-wait there’s a poem in the diary.” Buffy made a reach for the old diary, but Spike blocked her attempts.

“Oh come on, Spike, let me show ‘em. After all, it’s the only thing you’ve ever had published--you should be proud!” Buffy said between laughing fits.

“If you think I’m going to let you ever see this diary again, you’ve got rocks in your bloody ‘ead, Slayer!” Spike growled angrily, having long since lost his sense of humour about the matter.

“Oh don’t worry, Spike. I don’t need the diary. How did it go….. My heart expands, ‘tis grown a bulge in it, inspired by your beauty, effulgent,” Buffy said, before falling into another laughing fit.

Spike let out a furious growl. “Bloody ‘ell woman, can’t you keep your soddin’ mouth shut!!”

“Effulgent? Who’s effulgent?” Dawn asked.

“Effulgent isn’t a who, sweetie. It’s another word for glowing” Willow explained.

The sound of the front bell ringing as Xander returned with the food was enough to distract everyone from tormenting Spike any further about his past.

Without a moment’s thought, Buffy jumped up from her chair and grabbed one of the many bags from Xander, quickly unwrapping her burger and taking a large bite out of it. “Mmm… yum!” It wasn’t too long before she noticed that all her friends were staring at her with what looked like stunned amazement.

“What?” she asked as she swallowed her mouthful of food.

Nobody answered. They all continued staring at her.

“What? Do I have sauce on my face?” she asked again, wiping the side of her mouth with a napkin.

“You’re eating!” Willow said, completely surprised.

“Well yeah, I’ve kinda done it for about twenty years now.” Buffy replied as she took another bite.

“But you’re a vampire!” Anya squeaked.

Buffy nodded in agreement. “Yeah, Anya, I think we’ve covered that already.”

“But vampires don’t eat….food, I mean” Anya added, her confusion obvious.

“As I said before, Buffy’s not like other vampires. She still requires consuming both food as well as blood” Giles explained again, quite annoyed that no one seemed to have paid much attention to him when he explained all this to them before.

“Would you stop looking at me like that?” Buffy scolded her friends. “It’s giving me the creeps.”

“Sorry, Buffy, I guess we didn’t really believe it till was saw it for ourselves” Willow said quietly.

“S-so how’s the burger?” Tara asked shyly.

“Yummy. Why don’t you guys have some?” Buffy replied, taking another large mouthful of food.

“What kind did you get, Xand?” Dawn asked, looking through the different bags.

“Well, I’ve got cheese, double meat, chicken, and Hawaiian, and there’s some fries around here somewhere.”

“Hey! Where are my Buffalo wings?” Spike called out from across the other side of the shop thankful that everyone seemed to have forgotten about tormenting him with his past.

Xander threw the paper bag containing the Buffalo wings over to Spike. “So how’s the research going?”

“Pretty slow.” Willow volunteered around a mouthful of fries.

“Mmm, pretty boring actually.” Dawn agreed as she pulled the pickle off her cheeseburger.

“Well, everything except Spike being a poet. That was very entertaining” Anya contributed, taking a sip of her soda.

“What? Spike was a poet?” Xander cackled.

“Oh bloody hell, not again!” Spike muttered under his breath as he slumped down into his chair.

“Yes, it was very entertaining. Buffy found one of his poems. It was bloody awful” Anya said, giving Xander a huge smile.

“Spike a poet, oh this I’ve got to see!” Xander laughed. “Hey Spike! You gonna to give us a recital?”

“How about I give you a concussion?” Spike growled back.

“Oh, what’s wrong, Beethoven? Don’t like to perform in front of an audience?”

“Beethoven was a bloody composer, not a poet, you stupid twat!” Spike ground out, staring daggers at Xander.

“Oh poor Spikey, can’t take a joke!” Xander teased in a childish voice.

“Okay, the secret’s out. I was a pansy arse wanker who wrote poetry and obsessed over a woman who would never give me the bleedin’ time of day. She broke my heart, I got turned. I got over it. Which is more than I can say ‘bout you, Harris. You’ll always be a spineless poofter who hides behind Buffy when ever you get yourself into trouble.” Spike retorted hotly, leaning back in his chair, and feeling rather satisfied with himself.

“Hey!” Xander objected, taking a step closer to Spike.

“Okay, okay that’s enough. I think this topic has gotten a little old, don’t you?” Buffy chided, placing a hand on Xander’s chest.

Giles cleared his throat. “Yes, quite right. I think we have more important issues to address.”

“Such as?” Dawn asked.

“Well, for one, we still have a lot of research to do on Buffy’s ‘condition.’ Also, I still need to call Wesley and find out how and why Angel lost his soul.” Giles gave Buffy a comforting smile as he continued. “We also still have to find a way to defeat Glory before she opens up the portole.”

“Okay. Point taken—dusty tome time it is then” Xander agreed, taking his seat at the small table before once again resuming his research picking up a heavy book.

The rest of the gang followed suit, and soon the only sounds in the shop were quiet munching noises as their snacks were consumed while they resumed their research.