Chapter Fourteen

Buffy and Willow went all through Buffy’s home, making sure that neither Angelus nor Drusilla had already been there before Willow sat down on the living room floor to do the disinvite spell. Buffy doubled-checked the basement, knowing that it would be the most likely place for a vampire to hide during the day time, but she found nothing and her vampire radar never went off.

When they noticed it was nearing dusk, they quickly left the locked house and hurried back to Giles’ apartment. Buffy was anxious to see how Spike was doing and to find a way to apologize for her thoughtless words earlier.

Foot-in-mouth Buffy is alive and well, I guess. I WAS just thinking about humans – and not just any humans, I was only thinking about the ones I care about. How bad a Slayer does that make me? I know Drusilla can go out and hunt now. She could be feeding him innocent citizens of Sunnydale every night I’m not out there patrolling. I don’t care what Spike and Giles say. I have to go find them tonight – before they have time to kill anyone else.

Newly determined to capture Angelus immediately and hold him until Jenny could do the spell, she set off at a pace Willow was hard put to match. They reached the apartment with Willow panting and complaining about her legs, just in time to see Giles and Jenny returning from their trip to get supplies and research materials. Jenny had also brought her own laptop with her to do more research online and Willow shook her head in admiration.

“Look, Giles! We don’t have to do all our research in your musty old books. We can do it on the computers.”

The watcher looked offended as he cleared some space on the table for all the books, as well as the laptop, but he just nodded silently and moved out of the way. Spike was already up and searching the kitchen for any overlooked bags of blood. He still ignored Buffy, although he could hear her heart beat increase every time she looked at him.

Finally, she could stand it no longer and she grabbed him by the sleeve, pulling him toward the door and saying, “We’re going to go get more blood for Spike and do a quick patrol. Giles, you need to have the chains ready in case I find Angelus and can bring him back with me.”

Spike’s jaw clenched and he said angrily, “I’d like another day, Slayer. I’m still not up to full strength.”

“I know,” she said calmly, “But then, neither is Angelus, right? So the longer we wait, the stronger he’ll be. All you have to do is keep your girlfriend from getting in the way while I fight him.”

“And then?” He kept his voice carefully neutral.

“And then I’ll drag his sorry ass back here to be re-ensouled, and you can…” Her eyes met and held his for a second. He softened as he saw the sadness and conflict there. “And then, I guess you’ll…”

Buffy blinked rapidly, not wanting anyone to see the tears that she couldn’t explain as she realized that if all went according to plan, Spike was going to leave Sunnydale that very night.

“Right,” he said gruffly, sensing the impending tears and fighting his own unwanted disappointment. “Let’s go get that blood and then we’ll play it by ear, yeah?”

With admonishments to take care and stay in touch if at all possible, Giles watched anxiously as his Slayer went out into the night in the company of one of the deadliest vampires in recent times. He hoped that his gut feeling about Spike’s lack of interest in adding Buffy to his list of dead Slayers was to be trusted as they closed the door firmly behind them.

They walked through the darkening evening silently for a while, communicating with gestures when they needed to change direction in order to reach Willie’s. Buffy shuffled her feet with embarrassment when they got there, reminding him that she was too young to go into a bar –even one with demons as its primary patrons. Relief flooded her body when he smiled for the first time since she’d unwittingly hurt him and said, “Not to mention having the Slayer drop in might have a dampening effect on his customers’ fun.”

She nodded in sheepish agreement, smiling back gratefully when he touched her shoulder before turning to go in by himself. He stopped at the door and looked back to where she was standing as unobtrusively as possible at the corner of the building, saying softly, “You’ll still be here when I come out, won’t you, pet?”

Relaxing at his first use of one of the generic nicknames she’d become so used to already, she nodded happily and gave him a little wave. He smiled back and went into the bar. He quickly reminded Willie that he was the current Master of Sunnydale and that, if he wanted O Neg instead of his usual Jack Daniels, then it was in the man’s best interest to see that it was forthcoming immediately.

As soon as he had picked up his bags of fresh blood and nodded at a few of the demons he recognized, he left the building, looking immediately toward the spot he’d left Buffy standing. His stomach clenched briefly when he didn’t see her, but he quickly relaxed when she came around the corner, putting her stake back in her waistband and dusting herself off.

“Sorry,” she said, ruefully. “Had to go to work for a minute.”

“No wonder you’re not welcome here, luv,” he said, falling into step beside her. “Really not good for business, are you?”

“Not in my job description,” she muttered.

“No, I suppose not,” he answered quietly.

And, with that short exchange of words, the reality of the abyss between Buffy’s world of slaying vampires and demons and Spike’s world of murder and mayhem slammed into them both.

With a strangled cry, Buffy whirled to find that the vampire was already reaching for her; they came together with a desperation and despair that refused to be denied. Her arms went around his neck as he picked her up, holding her to his body with a strength that would have broken a normal human girl. Disregarding the public arena, Buffy fastened her lips on his, hungry for the bone-melting oblivion they could bring.

Growling softly, he poured all his conflicting emotions into the kisses he wasn’t sure he could give up, even for Drusilla. William’s adoration and childlike belief in her goodness fought with the demon’s determination to make her his own, and the adult man just wanted to feel her around him one time before he had to leave forever.

Time seemed to suspend its passage as they clung together on the sidewalk, bodies pressed tightly together and lips and tongues saying all the things neither one was willing to put into words. Eventually, the desire sweeping through their bodies was too much and they reluctantly parted long enough for Buffy to gasp, “My house. Nobody’s home.”

He nodded and they turned as one to move in that direction, their hands clasped tightly together as though to stop touching would mean a return to their senses and an end to the prospect of quenching the fires raging through their powerful bodies.

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The Harris household was quiet for a change. Xander’s father was out somewhere, no doubt drinking himself into a stupor before stumbling home. He often wondered how his parents had managed to live as long as they had when they spent so much of their time too drunk to take the normal precautions anyone born in Sunnydale should take without thinking.

His mother had taken her own bottle and closed herself into her bedroom, grateful to have the opportunity to get quietly drunk without having to defend herself. She ignored the ringing of the front doorbell, knowing Xander was home and would hear it eventually.

An afternoon and evening of stewing over the way his concerns had been dismissed by the few people that he knew he could consider friends, had put him in a foul mood and his first inclination was to ignore the ringing. When it didn’t stop, he thought perhaps it might be Willow or Buffy coming to apologize and he reluctantly got up and made his way to the front door.

He looked out to see a frightened-looking woman in a strange-looking dress and glanced around quickly to see what might be threatening her. Knowing he was safe inside, even if there were vampires nearby, he opened the door cautiously and peered out at her. He was immediately caught in her dark eyes, losing himself in them completely. It was unnecessary for her to ask him to “be in” her, as he was already hers as soon as their eyes met.

Without a thought, he willingly left the house and followed her down the sidewalk, nodding agreeably as she told him how happy her ‘daddy’ was going to be to see him. When he seemed to falter for a moment as a little voice inside his head began screaming at him, she quickly sent him visions of her naked body climbing on him as he writhed on an old-fashioned looking bed. The voice was instantly silenced as his sixteen year old libido led him into the night.

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