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No Rest For the Wicked by SMS by slaymesoftly
 
Chapter Seven
 
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Chapter Seven
 
Buffy was awake earlier than usual, showered, dressed, and was eating a bowl of cereal when her mother came downstairs, already dressed for work.
 
“You’re up early. Do you have an early class today?”
 
“No – well, actually, yes, but that’s not why I’m up early.  Spike was supposed to come back last night and I’m going to go by his crypt to see if he got home before I go to class.”
 
“He’s not coming here? Is that... ugliness with Riley all taken care of then?”
 
“No. I thought it might be, because we haven’t seen much of him except around campus, but he’s got some other weird idea now, and Giles thinks it would be good for Spike to come back.”
 
“Well, you be sure Spike knows he’s still welcome here if he needs a safe place to stay.”
 
“Thanks, Mom. I think he knows that, but we’re hoping it’ll be okay now if Riley has really given up that stupid “thrall” idea.” Buffy got up and carried her bowl to the sink.  “But just in case he’s getting even stupider....” She caught her mother’s gaze and held it. “...don’t let him in the house. Especially if it’s night time.”
 
Joyce frowned, then her eyes grew wide. “Are you saying Riley is now a vampire?”
 
“Well, not as of yesterday afternoon. But if he’s really going to do what he said he is, he could find himself one without meaning to.  And if that happens... he’s not going to have a soul, and he’s not going to have a chip, so he’ll be just like any other vampire. You shouldn’t go near him.”
 
“Is that why Spike is coming back? So you won’t have to stake Riley?”
 
Buffy shook her head. “I could stake Riley if I needed to. I wouldn’t be happy about it, but I could do it.  I think it’s more like Giles thinks Spike might be able to stop it from happening because he can go places I can’t.”
 
Joyce sighed and leaned over to hug Buffy. “I’m so sorry, honey. You really don’t have much of a life, do you?”
 
“Hey – I have you and Dawn, and my friends, and Giles, and... other... friends...”
 
Joyce laughed and straightened up. “Yes, you do have other friends. And you are obviously anxious to see him.  Just please be sure Dawn is up and getting ready for school before you leave, will you?  I’m going in early today so I can get some paperwork done before we open.”  She turned to leave the kitchen but paused for a moment, holding on the end of the counter as she put a hand on her head.
 
“Mom? You okay?”
 
“I’m fine, honey.  It was just a twinge.  I’ve had a few headaches lately, but this one seems to have come and gone all by itself, so that’s good.”
 
“Headaches?”
 
“It’s nothing. I need a little more sleep, I think.”
 
“Maybe you should see a doctor.”
 
“Oh, I will. If they don’t go away or get worse or something. Don’t worry about me. You just worry about keeping Riley from turning into a vampire.... and getting good grades this semester.”  Joyce smiled and waved as she went out the door to her car.  Her stumble as another pain shot through her head wasn’t visible to Buffy who had already started upstairs to wake Dawn.
 
XXXXXXXX
 
 
As Buffy approached Spike’s crypt, she wondered if he’d remembered to dismantle the trap before he fell asleep for the day.  Reminding herself to check before opening the door, she put down the bag of laundry she’d done at her mother’s and knelt to peer through the ajar outer door for any sign of a trigger. She frowned when she noticed that the inner door was also ajar, and that what may have been a trip wire was lying broken on the floor. With a gasp, she pulled the door the rest of the way open and crawled into the dimly lit crypt.
 
The first thing to greet her gaze was a small pile of dust. Buffy gave a whimper as she glanced upward to see the crossbow bolt embedded in the wooden door. A quick scan of the room showed the crossbow was disarmed and dangling from its support.  She ran a tentative hand through the powdery residue on the floor, fighting back fear as she told herself Spike would never have forgotten to come in another way.
 
“Hey, Slayer.  Don’t be worryin’ about whoever that was. Wanker had no business coming in here. Prob’ly trying to see what he could steal.”
 
Spike was just coming up the ladder from his bedroom as he spoke. When he noticed Buffy’s expression he quickly crossed the space between them and pulled her to her feet.  He ran a hand over her face, brushing away the worried expression on it.
 
“I’m sorry, love. Thought I’d get up here to clean that up before you got here. If I’d known it was going to scare you....”
 
“I’m fine,” she said, sniffling in spite of herself.  “I knew you weren’t stupid enough to come through that door.”
 
“Of course you did,” he said, smiling at her in a way she was sure no one else ever got to see.  “Of course you did. You were just mourning the death of whoever this poor sod was.”
 
 
“All right, for maybe one heart-stopping minute I might have been just a teensy bit... concerned.  Maybe.”
 
“Now why would the Slayer be concerned about an old vamp that’s tried to kill her?” He put his arms around her and nuzzled the side of her face, frowning when she stiffened.
 
“Way to remind me of what a bad idea this is, Spike,” Buffy said as she turned away from him and went out to get her bag of clothes. She dropped it on the floor and shut the door behind when she came back in, still not meeting his worried gaze.
 
“I’m sorry, love.  Not really something I should be reminding you of, I guess.”
 
“Ya think?” She remained by the door, pretending to be studying the bolt stuck in the wood.
 
Spike sighed and walked to his old couch, throwing himself down on it with a growl. “Not really how I pictured this reunion going,” he muttered, putting his head back and closing his eyes. 
 
Buffy took a deep breath, then turned to walk back toward him, struggling to adjust to the dim light now that the door was closed.
 
“So,” she said, trailing her fingers along the back of the couch until she was touching his hair. “How did you picture it going?”
 
“More snogging and less feeling like a wanker,” he said, opening his eyes to stare up at her. “The more we keep my mouth busy doing other things, the less likely it is to get me in trouble.”
 
Buffy snorted her agreement and finished her circle of the couch standing in front of him. “You know ‘snogging’ sounds kind of disgusting, don’t you? It’s right up there with Xander’s ‘tonsil hockey’ for less-than-romantic images.”
 
He gave one of his deep chuckles that warmed her all over. Patting his lap, he said, “See what I mean? You need to give me something else to do with my mouth.”
 
“I just came by to be sure you got back okay,” she said, in spite of allowing him to pull her down onto his lap. “I have classes to go to this morning.”
 
“Of course you do,” he murmured, brushing his lips across hers. “I wouldn’t dream of keeping you from getting an education....” In spite of his words, he fastened his lips on hers and kept them there until, with a sigh, she slumped against him and began kissing him back. With no other people waiting just outside the room this time, the kisses quickly progressed until Buffy was lying across Spike’s lap and breathing heavily.  His hand was running up and down her thigh, then over her rib cage, never stopping and never touching anything she could complain about.
 
Not that she was planning to complain... their kisses had long since passed the point of exploration and were deep and unending. Only when Buffy would pause to gasp a full breath of air, did Spike move his mouth from hers long enough to murmur how much he’d missed her and how wonderful she felt.
 
When he slid sideways so that their torsos were touching and their legs were entangled, she eagerly wrapped her arms around him and pressed against his hard body.  With a groan, he grasped her ass and pulled her hips against him, pushing the impressive bulge in his jeans into her stomach. Buffy hooked one leg over his, putting the bulge where she wanted it. 
 
They were so wrapped up in each other and in the sensations they were creating, that they almost missed the voices outside.  Only Spike’s vampire hearing picked them up at first, but when he froze and cocked his head, Buffy strained her ears also and finally made out the mumbling from the other side of the wooden door.
 
“Damn!” she hissed. “I should have closed both doors. Who do you think it is?”
 
“It’s your ex, and at least one of his buddies.  How do you want to handle this, Slayer?  Hide downstairs, or brazen it out?”
 
She sighed and disentangled herself from his arms and legs.  “Let’s get it over with,” she said, standing up and straightening her shirt. “But hide that ladder to downstairs...”
 
Growling softly, Spike rolled off the couch and to his feet.  He made short work of covering the entrance to his bedroom, and joined Buffy, standing by her side. The door was now barely ajar, and they watched as Riley mimicked Buffy’s earlier actions and stayed close to the ground while he checked for the trigger.  They could tell when he’d spotted the broken wire.
 
“Damn! I wonder if I got lucky and nailed him?”
 
Buffy gestured for Spike to go to the dark area in the back of his crypt. With a shrug, he vanished behind the refrigerator, leaving Buffy, hands on hips, glaring at the man crawling into the room.
 
“You can stand up now, Riley,” she said loudly, smothering a giggle at the way he flinched.  “There’s dust on the floor and an arrow in the door, so mission accomplished... sort of.”
 
Trying not to appear sheepish and foolish, Rile stood up and came further in to the crypt. He avoided stepping on the dust pike in front of the door and made room for Graham to enter also.
 
“Buffy. I didn’t expect to see you here.”
 
She could see him studying her face for any signs of tears or anger, but she kept it a cold mask as long as she could, hoping he would think she was unthralled and, in his warped view, now unconcerned about Spike.
 
“What did you expect to find, Riley? Don’t tell me you were finally going to take down your booby trap.”
 
“No, I... how did you get in?”
 
“Same way you did,” she said with a shrug. “The doors were open, so I crawled in until I could see it was safe to stand up.”
 
“Oh.”  Riley gave a curious glance around the room. “So... do you think...” He gestured at the dust pile, watching Buffy’s expression carefully.
 
“Do I think that’s Spike? Really, Riley? Do you think you’d still be standing if I had any reason to think you’d killed Spike?”
 
“Oh... then you don’t... It’s not him?” Riley’s disappointment was palpable.
 
“Spike’s not that stupid,” Buffy said with a shrug. If Riley noticed she hadn’t directly answered his question, he didn’t say so.
 
“So you don’t know where Spike is,” he settled for asking. “He really has run away. I knew he would once he realized I was serious.”
 
“I just said he isn’t stupid enough to have walked into a trap he already knew about.”
 
“Not to mention, he’s too afraid of me to come back here,” Riley sneered, high-fiving his companion and laughing.
 
“Sorry to disappoint, wanker.”  Spike’s voice preceded his appearance by only a few seconds, but it was long enough for Riley to pull a stake from his belt as he stared wildly around the room.
 
Spike moved into position on Buffy’s left and smirked at the two soldiers.
 
“You shouldn’t have come back here, Hostile Seventeen,” Riley snarled.
 
“You sure I was gone?” Spike laughed openly at the fury and confusion on Riley’s face. 
 
“So... the thrall is still in place. I’m sorry, Buffy. I thought you’d gotten over it.”
 
Buffy sighed and rolled her eyes, noticing as she did that Graham had also rolled his eyes – if somewhat less obviously.  She grinned at him, then turned her attention back to Riley.
 
“Didn’t you tell me at some point... oh yeah, it was yesterday... that you’ve learned more about thralls and how rare they are?”
 
“Well, yeah, but....” Riley waved the stake around. “There’s no other possible explanation for this... this... tolerance for a hostile.”
 
“Aside from the fact that he helps me out a lot – and did before, even when he wasn’t chipped? Or the fact that we like him—well, some of us like him. I guess ‘tolerance’ might be a better word for how Xander feels—“ She giggled when Spike snorted his agreement.  “Anyway, it’s not a thrall, Riley.  We tried to tell you that weeks ago. He just went away so you’d have time to figure it out.”
 
“Then why is he back? And what are you doing here?” Riley gestured around the crypt. “Is this where he bites you?”
 
While Buffy sputtered, torn between outrage and laughter, Riley’s companion mouthed “I’m sorry” at her as he edged toward the door. Spike stepped closer to the much taller man and, ignoring the stake in Riley’s hand, made sure he had eye contact as he said very softly, “I’m back because Rupert is worried you’re going to do something very stupid, and he thought I’d be the best person to see that you don’t. Being as how I’m the one who knows the most about biting people and where a wanker like you might go to find out what it’s like.”
 
Stepping back just far enough to be sure he could block an intended strike, he added in a normal voice, “Although if you’re all that anxious to get yourself bit, no sense going to a stranger. I’d be happy to accommodate you.”  The wolfish grin on Spike’s face as he let his fangs drop made his intention perfectly clear and Riley took an involuntary step backwards before recovering himself.
 
“Buffy! Did you hear that? He threatened me. Are you going to pretend you didn’t hear it?”
 
“Oh, for Pete’s sake, Riley. He threatens people all the time.  He can’t hurt you. You, if anybody, ought to know that.” She rolled her eyes and punched Spike on the arm.  “Stop scaring Riley, Spike. Behave yourself.”
 
Laughing and rubbing his arm, Spike dropped his vampire mien.  “Spoil sport,” he snorted. “You never let me have any fun.”
 
Buffy raised her eyebrows at him and whispered, “Really? Never?” before turning back to the two soldiers, leaving Spike with a grin on his face.
 
“Look, guys.” She gave an apologetic shrug to Riley’s companion for including him. “I’m only going to say this once: Spike doesn’t have a thrall, he’s still chipped and harmless to humans, and... and...” She took a deep breath. “And going to some sort of vamp whorehouse to get yourself bitten is a really, really bad idea.”
 
While Graham stared at him, his shocked expression making it clear that he knew nothing about his buddy’s plans, Riley drew himself up to his full height.
 
“You’ve made it very clear that you’re no longer interested in me, Buffy, so I don’t think you have a right to question my actions. If you can have a vampire in your life, I don’t see why I can’t.”
 
Buffy stared at him, finally saying with a sad shake of her head, “The ‘vampire in my life’ is someone I’ve known for a long time, Riley. He doesn’t bite me, couldn’t even if he wanted to, and we don’t... haven’t.... Know what? It’s none of your business. Whatever relationship I have, or might have someday, with Spike is no danger to me or to my friends and family.  What you’re thinking about doing could put you and all your friends in jeopardy. Do you really want me to have to stake you someday?”
 
“I’m not planning to get myself turned,” he said, sending a glance sideways at his companion’s still amazed and frightened expression. “That’s not the point of this.”  He glared at Spike, now standing just behind and to the left of Buffy. “But if it did happen, who knows? Maybe you’d find me more appealing than your pet vampire. We both know you have a thing for those creatures you’re supposed to hate. I’ll be just your type.”
 
Rather than getting angry as Riley had expected, and halfway hoped, Spike just snorted and shook his head. “Still don’t know the difference between an old vamp and a fledge, do you, wanker?  You’ll be so busy slavering for her blood you won’t even have time to notice how gorgeous she is before she makes you dust.”
 
Finally noticing Graham’s hand on his arm, urging him to leave, Riley shook him off, but began to back out of the crypt.  “This isn’t over, Hostile Seventeen.” He repeated his threat from weeks ago.
 
“Got that right,” Spike muttered, too softly for Riley to hear, although he never took his cold gaze off the retreating men.
 
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