Chapter Twelve
“Spikie! What are you doing here? Did you think you could get me to take you back? You’ll have to beg me, but I might consid—” Harmony spotted Buffy and froze; her new minions ran into her back and almost tumbled to the floor. “What’s she doing here?” Harmony sniffed and narrowed her eyes at the wound on Buffy’s neck. “Were you killing her, finally? Is that what we interrupted? It’s okay. I mean Buffy and I were never like, friend friends. It was only Cordelia who hung out with those losers for a while...”
“No, you babbling twit, I was not killing her. Don’t plan on it either, so unless you want to add your dust to the floor...”
Buffy had relaxed, although she still held the sword at her side. “Harmony, I can’t let you run all over Sunnydale siring people. Where did you even get this bunch?” Buffy gestured to the rag tag group peering around Harmony and beginning to salivate at the sight and scent of Buffy’s blood. They surged forward, only to cringe back when Spike went into game face and gave a blood-curdling snarl that also caused Harmony to flinch. “Touch her, and—” Buffy’s hand on his arm interrupted his threat.
“I think I can handle this, Spike,” she said. She smiled to let him know she appreciated his backup, but her expression was all Slayer as she faced the small group. He nodded and moved back to sit on the table.
“Have at it, love.”
Without Spikes intimidating presence, the fledgling minions, some of which didn’t even know there was such a thing as a slayer, charged at Buffy, almost knocking each other down in their eagerness to get to the source of the mouthwatering scent. With no stake handy. Buffy was forced to behead them, swinging the sword from one side to the other until there was nothing but dust and a very frightened Harmony in front of her. Buffy stared at her former schoolmate, sighing when Harmony’s eyes filled with tears.
“Just go away, Harmony,” she said. “Go live somewhere else. If I catch you back here, you’re dust. Get it?”
Harmony sent Spike one hopeful look, which he waved off with a sneer, then nodded. “Okay. I’ll go to LA. I’ll bet there’s a better class of vampires there anyway,” she finished with a glare at Spike. She tossed her head and sniffed, but when Buffy started toward her, she gave a little shriek and ran back the way she’d come.
Spike got off the table and put his arms around Buffy from behind. “Let me fix that neck, before we have to fight off every fledgling in the bloody town.” Without waiting for her response, he lowered his head and began to lick the dried blood off her throat, taking care not to re-open the already-closed wound his fangs had left. Buffy sighed and relaxed back against him, surprised at how soothing it was to have his tongue licking her. She was so relaxed, it took her a moment to notice that he’d stopped licking and was kissing her instead. He worked his way up to her ear, nibbling on the lobe as he whispered, “I’m sorry I had to do that, love. Never wanted... okay... at one time I did, but not recently. Not saying I don’t want to bite you, but not like that. Never meant to do that to you.”
“I know,” she said, tilting her head up and back to meet his eyes. “I know you didn’t.” She sighed. “I guess we’d better get back to Giles and tell him what happened.”
“Right.” He squeezed her tightly then let go. “Quickest way is through there,” he said, nodding at the cave entrance. He smothered the torch, then took her hand and led her out into the moonlight. He continued to hold her hand as they hurried through the woods and into town, not releasing it until they arrived at her watcher’s door.
Buffy tried the door, then knocked when it turned out to be still locked. Giles opened it quickly and waved them in.
“Mission accomplished, I presume?” He raised his eyebrows at Buffy, who was dirty, but seemed to be fine. To his surprise, it was Spike who answered.
“Slayer did her world-saving thing. Pulled that ugly bugger’s atomic heart right out of his chest.”
“Spike helped,” Buffy said quickly. Her hand went to her throat and she was already mentally rehearsing what she would say about her newest bite mark when she realized she couldn’t feel it anymore. “Go Gem,” she whispered exchanging a glance with Spike who nodded that it was no longer visible.
“Well,” Giles said, not missing the byplay, but not sure what to make of it, “a job well done then.” He glanced at Spike, whose coat also gave evidence of hard use and frowned. “And what does this mean for your truce? Shall I rearm the crossbow until Spike has left Sunnydale?”
Buffy and Spike looked at each other for a long minute, her eyes going back and forth between him and Giles. When she didn’t say anything, Spike’s face shut down and he turned away.
“Right, then. I’ll just—”
“You’ll just what? I didn’t say anything!”
“Too bloody right, you didn’t.” He whirled back to face her, growling under his breath.
“What the hell did you want me to do?” Buffy put her hands on her hips and glared at him.
“Tell him we don’t need the truce anymore.” His eyes dared her to do it.
“Tell my watcher I’m going to Las Vegas again with the vampire that almost killed me? He’ll have me committed!”
Giles was looking back and forth between them, watching in horror as they got closer and closer while they continued to growl and yell. “Wait? You’re going to what?” They paid no attention to him.
“Yeah. I thought you might tell him we just got shot up, almost strangled—oh wait, that was me—and took out the bad guy, so we’re treating ourselves to another vacation.”
“I can’t just say that! ‘Hey, Giles, I’m going back to Vegas with Spike, but don’t worry, I’ll be fine. We don’t need a truce anymore’. I was going to work up to it.”
“Looked more to me like you were going to try to duck out of it.”
“Oh, that’s what it looked like to you, huh? Well you’re an idiot!”
They were now nose to nose, both breathing hard, Spike’s eyes flashing yellow as Buffy gave him her best Slayer glare. Giles was just edging toward his desk, and the stake resting there, when Buffy and Spike leapt together and began kissing in a manner that indicated they had forgotten his existence.
“Oh. Dear. Lord,” he whispered. “It’s all right. I have scotch... right here... I’ll just...” He went into the kitchen mumbling to himself while Buffy and Spike continued the kiss until she paused for air.
“Oops?”
“Think he may have figured it out now, luv.”
They turned to watch Giles return with a tumbler full of amber liquid. He sat down heavily and stared at them.
“I suppose there is no point in hoping I did not see what I just saw?”
“Uh, probably not. I was gonna break it to you gradually, but somebody got all insecure and—“
“Somebody has been treated like a bloody animal one too many times recently.”
Buffy was just opening her mouth to retort, when Giles said, “Oh for the love of God, please do not start arguing again.” He stared from Buffy’s blushing face to Spike’s defiant glare, shaking his head before taking a long swallow from his glass. “Dare I hope that this is some sort of temporary insanity brought on by your recent near-death experiences?”
Buffy and Spike exchanged looks, then he put his arms around her and stared over her head. “Wouldn’t say the events of the past week haven’t had anything to do with it,” he admitted, nuzzling Buffy’s ear when she stiffened. “You know it’s true, love. We’d never have found our way here without—” He stopped and looked back up at Giles. “But I don’t thing there’s anything temporary about it. Not on my part, anyway. This is what Dru saw when she kicked me out and told me the slayer was all around me. Just took us spending some time together for me to understand.”
Buffy tipped her head back to meet his eyes. “Understand what?” Deciding she didn’t want him declaring what she saw there in front of Giles, she leaned into him and rubbed her cheek on his chest before adding her own explanation.
“I think maybe all the fighting we do, might be... something that means not really what we want to be doing?” She looked at Giles and said apologetically, “I think maybe there’s a reason we’ve never killed each other – even when we could have. Not that I wasn’t trying!” she added when Giles’s face darkened. “At least, I thought I was. But...” She shrugged. “We made our first truce way back when Angelus was trying to send the world into Hell, and we... My mom was okay with having him in the house, and I never even thought about having Willow or you revoke his invitation. I knew he’d never hurt her. Or that he wouldn’t sneak in one night and kill me in my sleep. I just knew it was... safe.”
“If I remember correctly, he did almost kill you – fairly recently. You didn’t look or feel very safe then.” Giles glared at the abashed-looking vampire.
“Didn’t kill her,” he mumbled, kissing the top of her head. “Thought I wanted to, but....”
“And you don’t think this sudden change of heart isn’t a vampire trick to get his hands on that ring again?”
Buffy narrowed her eyes at Giles. “If you think I’m too ugly to get a boyfriend unless he wants something from me, Giles, just say so.”
“That’s not what I—”
“Really? ‘Cause you always said Angel thought helping me was part of his redemption, you asked me if Riley was dating me to learn about the Slayer, and now you think Spike is just trying to get the ring back. That kinda sounds to me like you don’t think anybody would want me just for me.” The pain in Buffy’s voice was real and Giles cringed and shook his head.
Ignoring the snarl from Spike, who was stroking Buffy’s arms, murmuring in her ear and glaring at him, Giles said, “My apologies, Buffy. I certainly did not mean to imply anything of the kind. You are a beautiful, intelligent and charming young lady who would be a worthy addition to any man’s life. It’s just that... Angel was seeking redemption when he came here to help the Slayer; Riley was an undercover demon hunter who wanted to capture you for his boss; and now, another vampire – this one renowned for killing slayers....”
“So, she has soddin’ lousy taste in men. That’s hardly her fault.”
“You think I have lousy taste in men?”
“Well,” he nuzzled her neck and nibbled on the skin there, causing Giles to gasp. “Up until recently. I’d say it’s improved a lot in the past few days.”
They smiled at each other until Giles cleared his throat loudly. Buffy turned back to him, the smile still on her face.
“So, anyway, we’re going to go back to Las Vegas for a couple of days so I can wear all the pretty dresses I bought and didn’t get to wear. I’ll call you when we get settled and let you know how to reach me – in case there’s an apocalypse or something. And we’ll clean out the cemeteries when we get back. “’K? Bye.”
Giles could only watch as, with a wave, she followed William the Bloody out into the night. He tipped the glass up and drained it, already on his feet and walking back to the kitchen for more.