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Cousin Arabella by Lilachigh
 
Chp 4 One for the Girls
 
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Cousin Arabella - by Lilachigh


Chp.5 One for the Girls


The hardest thing to do in this life isn’t living it, thought Buffy grimly, it’s not staking someone who needs staking! She hadn’t bothered to stop and argue with Arabella - all she knew was that she had to find Spike before he began fighting with Div’vid. He had no idea his cousin had set him up to kill her husband.

“Stupid vampire, he’ll get himself dusted!” she gasped as she raced across the ballroom, dodging past dancing demons and vampires. “Sorry - excuse me! Oh was that your feet? I’m so sorry, you do have another ten, don’t you. Oh! Your horns - will they grow again? Oh, can I squeeze past, thank you, mind your tails, excuse me!”

She didn’t have any idea how dangerous Frovlax demons were, but Div’vid was over seven feet tall with cloven hands the size of meat plates. One swing of his arm could knock Spike’s stupid head right off. ‘And serve him right. Falling for a sob story from a bitch like that! Why do men always get taken in by big eyes and trembling lips!’

Out in the big marble hall, she paused. Where on earth would they be? she wondered desperately. Suddenly she could faintly hear the sound of raised voices in a room leading off the hall. She plunged across to the door and flung it open. Spike and Div’vid were standing on either side of a pool table, cues in hand. Whatever had been said, there was now a tense, angry silence you could cut with a knife.

Buffy didn’t wait to ask. She grabbed Spike’s arm and pulled him towards the door. “Hi, there you are! I’ve been looking for you everywhere! You don’t mind if I steal him away, do you, Div’vid? I’ve been wanting to dance for ages and now they’re playing our tune.”

“We have a tune?” Spike stared at her as if she’d gone crazy.

Buffy forced herself to laugh gaily. “Don’t tease, sweetheart, of course we have a tune. Don’t you always tell me that we’ve been dancing ever since we met?”

“Go, William,” Div’vid in his deep mooing tones. “We’ll finish this odd conversation later. I think I must have misheard what you said - ”

“What I said was - ”

“Spike!” Buffy grabbed his hand and held it to her breast. She watched the surprise and desire flare in his eyes as his fingers closed over the bud of her nipple. “Listen to my heart beating! I want to dance now!”

Within seconds she’d pulled him into the ballroom. It wasn’t until she had her arms tightly round him, holding him close to her and could feel one of his hands tangle in her hair and the other stroking the silk covering her thigh that she could relax. She was also well aware that the pressure of her thighs against him was causing his erection to grow and push against her.

The music was slow and dreamy. For a few minutes they swayed together, their bodies moulding as if they had minds of their own, separate to the ones that controlled them normally. Buffy sighed and realised the tension in her shoulders was going. As long as she could keep him away from Div’vid all would be well. And this was the first time this evening that she’d felt really happy. However they danced together, be it to the beat of the music or the beat of sex, they were so well matched it was uncanny.

“Buffy, this is great, but what was so urgent that you had to kidnap me,” Spike murmured in her ear. “I know you crave my body, but, hey, you can have it all in an hour or so, Slayer. Every last glorious inch of it! And you know how many inches that is!”

“Shut up, Spike. Just dance.”

He pulled away from her slightly and she fought back the grumble that forced itself to her lips as his body formed a gap with hers. “Has something happened? Trouble? I can’t imagine something’s attacked you, or else they’d be body parts littering the bleedin’ floor.”

She bit her lip. She felt she was treading on egg shells now. Whatever Arabella was, whatever she’d done, she was still Spike’s cousin and he seemed oblivious of her true nature. How on earth did she tell him that Arabella wanted him and was using him to get rid of her husband?

“What were you arguing about with Div’vid?” she asked cautiously.

“Arguing? Oh. Stupid wanker demon’s upset Arabella in some way. Should know better on their anniversary. I wanted him to explain what the hell he’s been doing. There’s some demon girl involved, apparently. Still, I remember missing Dru’s birthday one year and...”

“Can we ’not’ talk about mad ex girlfriend!”

Spike grinned, blue eyes sparkling. “Sorry, pet. Don’t get your knickers in a twist - oh, forgot, you’re not wearing any tonight, are you!”

She glared at him, hating the hot, slow flush of blood she could feel coursing through her body. Why did he affect her in this way? It just wasn’t fair. Why couldn’t she feel like this for some nice, normal, sensible, living guy?

“Spike - about Arabella. She wants....she told me.....” God this was hard. Ridiculously hard. It was only Spike. He was a vampire, he didn’t have deep feelings. So, she’d just come right out and tell him his cousin was a devious, man grabbing bitch. There, that was easy. All she had to do was put that thought into words!

“She wants to go home.” Spike spoke before she could and sounded almost sad.

“Excuse me?”

“Whether Bella realises it or not, she needs to go back to England. She misses it. That’s her main problem. Div’vid has dragged her round the world for over a century. This place is okay, but it isn’t home. She’s bored. She’s got nothing to do.”

Buffy stared up at him. Of course she knew Spike was English but somehow she’d never given it a proper thought. Was he homesick? “Do you feel like that? Would you rather live over there than here in California?”

He raised an eyebrow at her and pulled her tight as the lights dimmed a little more. “I make my home wherever I go, pet. Oh I miss the usual things every Englishman does when he’s abroad. Thick cut marmalade, proper hot custard on steamed jam pudding, Marmite on toast, buttered crumpets, bangers and mash, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding - ”

“Spike! Stop being all Julie Andrews. You’ll be going on about whiskers on kittens next. You’re a vampire! You drink blood. Why is everything you miss to do with food?”

He ran a finger slowly down the length of her spine and she shuddered. “Not just the whiskers on kittens, luv, but the kittens themselves! But there are other things, Slayer. Football on Saturday afternoons, rain, Spring mornings, blackbirds singing at dusk in a rose garden - ” He stopped abruptly, then, “But as nice as that would be, you wouldn’t be there, would you, Slayer. So life would be just a little bit dull.”

Buffy stared at him in exasperation. She didn’t want to think that Spike had feelings like that. Evil thing. Evil thing, she kept saying desperately inside her head. I have to remember he’s an evil thing.

“So, what has Arabella been saying to you?” he said softly, swinging her round in a tight circle to avoid a couple of demons who were - well, Buffy had thought they were dancing, but some of their tentacles were actually inside each other’s bodies, so - ewwwww! Get a cave or a pit, or something!

“She’s very fond of you,” she replied cautiously.

“Family, love. What’s the old saying, home’s the place that when you go there they have to let you in. I got rid of my family. Only excuse was I was very young and Dru and Peaches were very persuasive. Arabella’s all that’s left.”

“I like Div’vid,” Buffy said, trying desperately to come to the problem from another angle.

“He’s a good bloke, but he’s always been one for the girls,” Spike said tersely, his hands tightening on her waist. “That’s one of the problems Bella has. He can’t keep away from the local talent apparently.”

“Miss Summers! William, do you mind? May I cut in. My dance, now, I think.”
It was Div’vid himself, all seven foot of emerald green Frovlax Regurgitating demon, standing, holding out a giant paw, his sweet, brown, mournful cow’s eyes gazing down at her, his little ears twitching gently.

Before Buffy could object, he had swept her away from Spike and she felt herself lifted up and held gently against his massive chest, several inches above the dance floor.
“Div’vid - ” she squeaked. “Perhaps we can sit down and have a drink or - ”

“We need to talk, Miss Summers.” The soft brown eyes flashed red and she remembered that for all his sweet, cow like geniality, Div’vid was all demon.

“I want to talk about what’s going on between William and my wife!”

tbc










 
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