CHAPTER EIGHT
 
The squad of six slayers, led by Suzie, spread out in well-disciplined fashion, maintaining enough distance to cover a lot of ground, but not so much that a girl couldn’t get help if she needed it. 
 
“Take out the ones you know for sure are evil first,” Faith instructed. “We can clean up the rest later.”
 
Buffy held her communicator to her ear for a second, then beamed. “The girls came through as soon as the barrier went down. They’ve already advanced several blocks in from the perimeter.” She sighed. “I would have loved to see that. The barrier drops and all of sudden there are slayers everywhere.”
 
“Yeah, it would have been wicked cool to see – all those girls just showing up before the demons even had time to figure out they weren’t living in evil-heaven anymore.”
 
“Okay, well we know where they are – more or less, why we don’t start hitting some buildings? If we find people hiding, we’ll just tell them to hang tight for a while longer, and if we find demons or vamps….”
 
“Adios, assholes.”
 
“Something like that.”
 
 
XXXXXXXXXXX
 
By the time real dusk was falling, a fairly large section of the center city had become almost demon-free, thanks to the forty slayers still hacking and slashing their way through. As soon as the sun was gone, Spike and Angel joined them only long enough to tell Buffy they had to check on something at the Wolfram and Hart building.
 
“Do you want me to come with you?” She frowned as they both shook their heads.
 
“No. Don’t want you anywhere near— No. We just need to check on a prisoner. Make sure he isn’t loose in the city.”
 
“I don’t think he could be. Even if those idiot demons let him out, he’s probably a real ghost again by now. He’s just as stuck in that building as you were. And I’m not sure even a demon would be stupid enough to let him out. ” Angel said, speaking only to Spike.
 
“Who?” Buffy was getting angrier by the second.
 
Spike put his hands on her shoulders and forced her to meet his gaze. “Trust me?” he asked. When she nodded dubiously, he continued, “Just an old evil guy who was haunting the Wolfram and Hart building… He was… Well never mind that. Point is, Fred managed to find a way to make a ghost solid—” Buffy frowned again when Angel growled, but didn’t interrupt. “And Angel put him away in a cell. I imagine he’s starved to death or the ghostly equivalent by now. We just want to be sure he can’t get out and about. If I have to, I’ll blow up the whole bloody building to keep him there.”
 
“All right. Well, we’re heading for another demon-owned factory that has slaves. Use the communicator I gave you to find me when you’re done with whatever it is you don’t want slayer backup for.”
 
With a final offended sniff, Buffy walked down the street to liberate another group of humans. When they got to the new factory, they found word had already spread of their earlier prisoner releases and subsequent death of the business-owners. So as soon as they’d fought their way in, the humans were shoved toward them while their former masters beat a hasty retreat.
 
Similar things were happening all over the city as groups of slayers descended on demon-run businesses, destroying them completely and releasing all the human slaves. The gathering darkness was full of small groups of people, some with slayer escorts, finding their way out of the city or back to their homes.
 
Two squads of slayers were assigned to do nothing but take out the vampires now emerging into the darkness. Those that survived the slayers soon took themselves elsewhere.  As the night wore on, more and more areas of the city had been taken back by the humans. Even in areas the slayers hadn’t reached yet, word of what was happening had reached the demons and they were either going down into the sewers or finding some other way to make themselves inconspicuous. Those that could, left the city for remote suburbs where they could get away from the vicious little girls with axes and swords now working their way through downtown Los Angeles, neighborhood by neighborhood.
 
 
XXXXXXXXX
 
 
It was getting closer to morning when Spike caught up with Buffy and assured her that Pavane was not going to be a problem for anyone.
 
“He was fading away. Couldn’t even curse at us as much as he wanted to. I’m pretty sure he was finally on his way to the hell he thought he could avoid by sending others in his stead.  But just in case, we sealed off that section of the sub-basement. Took a while, but even if somebody goes looking down that corridor, they won’t notice that it ends with a wall that wasn’t there before.”
 
“Someday you need to tell me what that was all about.”
 
“Someday, I will.  Now what’s going on out here?  All the newbie slayers gettin’ the job done?”
 
“Seems like it. But I wish we could get the street lights back on somehow,” Buffy said. She pointed to a building that was well-lit on the inside. “It’s not like there’s no electricity. It just isn’t working out here. If we had streetlights going for us, we—”
 
Spike took her hand and turned her to face him. “You’re not going to fix it all in one day, love. When the sun comes up again, it’ll be safer for people to be out and about and someone will head for the switches that need throwing. The streets will have lights again soon. If not because of someone already here, then somebody from the power company outside.”
 
“There is no inside – outside anymore,” Buffy said.
 
“Kinda my point. Repairmen can fix whatever needs fixing, grocery stores can start receiving human food, and people from here can go wherever they want to eat or sleep. While you and your little army of slayers are snoozing during the day, things will be getting back to normal in here. Gonna take a while… and you’ll be busy at night, but the city’s on it’s way back.”
 
“Oh. Well then I guess…”
 
“Why don’t you let all these bloodthirsty little girls who had to wait outside get their fill of slays, and you come back with me to get some sleep?”
 
“You sure spend a lot of time worrying about how much rest I’m getting. A suspicious person might think you were trying to get me into bed.” She smirked at him.
 
He growled at her. “A blithering idiot would know that’s what I’m trying to do, Slayer. Suspicion has nothing to do with it.”
 
“So, you want our first time having—making love—in over two years to be in a hotel full of teenaged slayers? Not to mention Angel and Faith. I don’t know about you, but that thought isn’t making me all tingly.”
 
“Good point, love. We need a plan B, then.”
 
“Which is?”
 
“I’m working on it.  Meantime, let’s start heading back, just in case I don’t come up with anything.”
 
“How about something like that?” Buffy pointed at a house with a “For Sale” sign in the yard. “If nobody lives there…”
 
“Taking over an abandoned house. I like it. It has historical resonance.”
 
“Historical what-a-nance?”
 
“I mean, love,” he said as he opened the door and pulled her inside. “That it won’t be the first night we’ve spent in a deserted house that doesn’t belong to us. Not even the second.”
 
“Oh. No, it won’t, will it?”
 
“Happier circumstances this time, though.”
 
“Much happier.” She raised her face for the kiss she knew was coming. “Much, much happier,” she murmured against his mouth.  
 
Buffy sank into the kisses she hadn’t been willing to admit she missed after she’d told Spike using him to make herself feel was killing her.  Even as close as they became during that last awful year in Sunnydale, she’d kept a tight rein on her libido, telling herself that Spike was just a very, very close friend and his newly-souled emotions were very fragile. He was someone she cared about, but not someone she needed or wanted a physical relationship with. It hadn’t been that hard to do, with everything else that was going on around them, and the lack of sleep and general exhaustion. It had been easy to believe she didn’t love him in a romantic way. That sleeping in his arms was enough for both of them.
 
The “I love you” that popped out when she’d realized she was watching him die, caught her as much by surprise as it did him. The moment she said it, she realized the truth of it, but it was too late to do anything but try to get out safely and have herself the life he was buying with his. And if, during the time she’d thought he was gone forever, she’d had the occasional dream in which those lips were on hers — and on other parts of her anatomy, if she was being honest — she was able to push them away in the daylight, refusing to dwell on the fact that they were gone forever.
 
Except they weren’t gone forever. They were here, and kissing her until the only things holding her up were the strong arms banded around her body. Her own arms tightened around his neck and she pulled him close so hard he grunted.
 
“Never. Never thought… never…”
 
As if he knew exactly what she was trying to say, he added his strength to hers until their bodies were almost one. “Thought I’d never see you again. Never hold you, kiss you, taste you, smell you…. Missed this more than you’ll ever know, Buffy.”
 
“Don’t ever die again. Don’t leave me like that.”
 
“Right back at you, love.”
 
They loosened their embrace, allowing Buffy to pull some air into her lungs. Spike rested his forehead against hers.
 
“I love you, Buffy Anne Summers. Never want to be anywhere but by your side forever.”
 
“If I tell you I love you, will you believe me this time?”
 
“I… I believed you, sweetheart. I knew you meant it as you said it. But I just thought it was a time and place sort of thing, and was too cowardly to face you and find out you regretted it.”
 
“So you let me grieve all year….” She stiffened and almost pulled away as she remembered why she was mad at him. “If you were smart, you’d start kissing me again,” she said. “You need to remind me why I’m not making you grovel at my feet.”
 
“Got a better idea,” he said, stepping away, but pulling her with him. “Why don’t we find the master bedroom, and I’ll do my best to make you forget what a wanker I was.”
 
The master bedroom turned out to be quite large and nice, and with a big master bath attached to it. They looked at the large shower area, at each other’s dirty, smelly, and bloody clothes and hair, and grinned.
 
Spike turned on the water and shed his coat and boots while he waited for it to get nice and warm. He watched Buffy kick off her boots, then pulled her into the shower stall, clothes and all. Her indignant squeal wasn’t serious as she stood under the water and let it pour over her head. While she was enjoying the sensation of her first hot shower in several days, she could feel Spike beginning to remove her clothing. After he removed each piece, he kissed his way all over the exposed skin before moving on to another one. Removing her bra slowed him down a bit, as he felt he needed to suck on each nipple multiple times, egged on by Buffy’s contented moans.
 
Eventually, he undid her jeans and began to push them down her legs, surprised when she stopped him.
 
“Wait,” she said, tugging on his tee shirt until she could pull it over his head. “That’s better!”
 
They paused in their undressing to do more kissing, oblivious to the hot water pouring over them as they felt skin against skin for the first time in years.  When Spike was having no success pushing Buffy’s now-wet jeans off while still pressed against her, he sighed and reluctantly pulled away long enough to drop to his knees and tug her jeans and underwear all the way down. Buffy lifted one foot at a time to help him get them off. No sooner was that done than he was kneeling in front of her again, his face pressed against her abdomen, her hands clutching his hair.
 
“Spread your legs, love,” he rasped. “Got to… want to taste you now.”
 
“Don’t you want to….” she gasped, even as she obeyed his directions.
 
“Do. Will. But I’ve missed this so much….”
 
He buried his face as far into her as he could without knocking her down, nuzzling, sniffing and licking everywhere he could. With an impatient growl, he lifted her up far enough that he could get his mouth where he wanted it, and he held her there, mewling with need, as he worked her into a frenzy.  When she cried out and her legs clenched around him, he slowly let her down, taking care to hang on until she was able to stand on her own feet again.
 
As soon as he could, he got to his feet and tried to remove his own pants, also soaked and uncooperative. With Buffy’s help, he finally got them down his legs and tried to shake them off.
 
“Lie down!” she ordered.
 
Grateful for the oversized shower stall, he complied, leaning back on his elbows and letting the water stream over him while she tugged his uncooperative pants off his feet and threw them away. Buffy crawled toward him on her hands and knees, pausing to give his swollen cock an appreciative lick before she moved forward to hover over him.
 
“I love you, William the Bloody,” she said, as she leaned in to kiss him, putting her body against his and making them both whimper with unfulfilled need. She slid back far enough to lower herself onto him, settling in place with a soft sound of appreciation. His hissed “yes!” complimented her moan and they remained still for a few seconds, just enjoying the sensation of being intimately connected again. The water continued to pour over them, unnoticed as they began to move together.
 
The years of pent-up desire meant they took very little time to reach a mutually satisfactory conclusion, and as Buffy collapsed on his chest, she noticed that the water was no longer as warm and welcoming as it had been when they started. With a shiver, she sat up again, smiling when he automatically pushed his hips up, already growing hard within her.
 
“Let’s get out of here and dry off,” she suggested. “Just hold that thought until we make it to the bed.”
 
Buffy got off, whimpering a little when his cock slid out of her, but getting to her feet quickly and stepping out of the now-cold stream of water. With a sigh, Spike also got to his feet and turned the faucets off.  By the time he’d joined her on the oversized thick bathmat, she was holding out soft towels. They dried each other off with great efficiency to start, slowing down as they found places that needed more rubbing.
 
Buffy turned her back, and as if they hadn’t been apart at all, Spike began to dry her hair as he’d done for her several times years ago, before it had occurred to her she was letting him be too caring and intimate. Neither of them mentioned those times, and when it was as dry as he could get it, and he’d combed it out as best he could with his fingers, he pulled her back against his chest. 
 
Holding her in place with one powerful arm, his other hand explored the front of her body while he nibbled on her neck and pressed into her from behind.
 
“Bed,” Buffy gasped, as her knees began to weaken again. Without responding verbally, he scooped her up and carried her to the bed, falling backward upon it so that she was again atop his body, squirming around and raising her face for kisses.  He rolled them over and slid back into her, smiling as her hips rose to meet him.
 
“Hang on to your hat, Slayer. We’ve got a lot of wasted time to make up for.”
 
“Bring it, vampire.” She wrapped her arms and legs around him, pinning him in place. “Bring it on.”
 
And he did. Repeatedly. Until they both fell asleep sometime in the early afternoon.