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Loves Lost by slaymesoftly
 
Two
 
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Chapter Two

The two girls were up early the next morning, running quickly to the Rosenbergs’ much larger house several blocks away. When Willow went to rush in, Buffy grabbed her arm and shook her head silently. She handed the redhead a large cross and clutching her stake firmly, stepped into the silent house.

While Willow began the disinvite spell, Buffy prowled the large rooms, making sure that there was no undead ex-boyfriend waiting to surprise them. Upon reaching Willow’s bedroom, she cringed at the sight of the open French doors, the empty fish tank ,and Willow’s beloved colorful fish now hanging from a string over the bed. Before Buffy could head her off, Willow had entered the room and seen her pets dangling from the safety pins through their bodies.

“He...he was here. In my bedroom.” Willow’s eyes were frightened behind the tears threatening to fall as she took her fish down.

“It’ll be all right, Will. I promise, he won’t be able to do this again, “ Buffy said grimly as she watched her friend sadly drop her dead pets in the waste basket.

When the dis-invite spell had been completed, the two friends walked in silence to the Watcher’s apartment. Each was trying to hide her sadness in order to keep the other from feeling worse, but eventually a sniffle from Willow had Buffy turning to her friend to apologize.

“I’m so sorry, Will. I never thought he’d...” She couldn’t finish her thought as a sob ripped from her throat.

For several minutes, the two friends stood on the sidewalk, holding each other and crying for their lost innocence before Buffy straightened up and swiped at her eyes angrily. The girls took matching deep breaths and continued into Giles’ apartment complex.

Buffy released the breath she hadn’t even known she’d been holding when her Watcher opened the door for them.

“Giles? I didn’t think about it last night, but Angel’s been here a lot of times. Weren’t you worried?”

“No, Buffy, I took precautions, but I wasn’t gravely concerned. Angelus took a great deal of abuse before the actual ritual took place, and the ritual itself cost him a substantial measure of blood. I believe that he was too weak last night to pose a threat to either of us. I’m sure that’s why he left once we realized who he was. He really wasn’t strong enough to fight us, and certainly not both of us at the same time.”

“What about your apartment? Do you want me do the spell?” Willow asked eagerly, anxious to demonstrate her growing skill with magic.

“It’s taken care of,” he said shortly.

“Oh,” she said with a disappointed look. “Who did it for you?”

“I did it myself,” the Watcher said flatly. When he saw her disappointment, he sighed and said more kindly, “I know enough magic to do a simple disinvite spell, Willow. Although I do thank you for the offer.”

“Oh, okay. You’re welcome,” she replied, somewhat mollified. “But any time you need...”

“Yes, yes. Thank you, Willow. I will certainly let you know if we require more magic.”

The young witch’s eagerness reminded him that, as much as he might like to pretend that magic was no longer important to him, he was going to have to take the responsibility for teaching Willow the basics. Somehow, he was going to have to find a way to explain to the children he worked with that the dabbling in black magic that had produced Eyghon was more than the one time thing he had implied it to be.

He realized that convincing Willow that he knew enough about magic to guide her in its proper use might be more than difficult now that he had spent the past year planting the idea that he preferred to avoid it as much as possible. Sighing, he put that worry off for another time as the morning’s research began.

When Xander arrived, carrying both doughnuts and the morning papers, the group settled around the table to see if there was any sign of Angelus having stayed in Sunnydale. Willow opened her laptop and began checking the hospital and police records.

They found two short articles about the burning of the abandoned church; with the fire being attributed to “vandals”. Willow found mention of two missing children on the latest police report, as well as an unusual number of “gang related” murders leaving victims with their throats slit.

Buffy frowned. “That’s a lot of killing for one vampire.”

Giles looked at her with sympathy. “Buffy, Angelus is a demons that kills for the thrill and amusement it gives him. It is well documented that he does not kill just to eat, and that he enjoys tormenting his victims before he kills them.”

Buffy shut her eyes in pain as she remembered Angel’s brief description of how he drove Drusilla crazy before finally turning her; shuddering, she looked back at her Watcher with tears in her eyes.

“Isn’t there anything we can do? Can’t we re-curse him or something? Give him his soul back?”

“What we can do, Buffy,” he said, sounding very much like a Watcher and less like a compassionate friend,“is slay him. He is entirely too dangerous to be allowed to continue to live, and the soul is obviously not as permanent as one would have hoped.”

The Slayer bowed her head and nodded, struggling to hold back the tears that threatened to flow down her cheeks.

``````````````````````````````````````

In an abandoned factory in another part of Sunnydale, a completely recovered and very strong Drusilla was cooing to her crippled child as she gently lay him in their bed.

“Don’t worry, my sweet William. Daddy is coming back to us and we will be a family again. . Miss Edith says he’ll be here soon and then he will make that nasty Slayer pay for hurting my sweet Spike. Maybe even tonight.”

The badly burned and broken blond vampire just frowned weakly; he was drifting in and out of consciousness and couldn’t really follow what she was saying or why she thought Angelus was coming to them. As far as he knew, the elder vampire should have been dead by now.

Drusilla bustled around the large room, humming to herself and conversing with Miss Edith as she waited impatiently for night to fall. Spike tried weakly to get her attention so that he could ask her for some blood to begin healing, but she ignored him in favor of giggling with her doll.

When the sun had finally gone down, her demeanor changed; giddiness gave way to agitation, and she occupied her time by spinning around in circles until the sound of the upper door slamming open made her stop.

“Angelus?” she breathed, waiting as the heavy footsteps descended the stairs.

“None other, my pretty poppy,” he growled, strolling into the room and looking around. He laughed when she threw herself into his arms, squealing with joy and kissing his face. He glanced around the room, spotting Spike’s battered body lying on the bed.

“Will doesn’t look too good there, Dru. Have you fed him at all?”

He peered down at Spike with much less concern on his face than his words might have implied.

“I think I forgot. I was too excited to see you again.”

The big vampire shrugged as he stood up, “Oh well, we’ll bring him back a little something.” He turned and smiled at the excited brunette. “Are you ready to go out hunting, Drusilla?”

She clapped her hands with glee and twirled around so that her flowing skirt spread around her.

“Oh, goody, Daddy. I’ve missed hunting with you so much. Can I have a little baby....” Their voices trailed off as they went up and out of the old warehouse, leaving Spike forgotten on the bed.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the two older vampires returned toward dawn, they were flushed with new blood and excitement.

“Oh, William, it is so wonderful to have Daddy back. Even Miss Edith is happy for us.”

“Yeah, it’s bloody marvelous, Dru. Did either of you think to bring me something to eat?”

Spike’s voice was weak and ragged, but the irritation was evident. Angelus walked over to the bed and stared down at his grandchilde.

“Think you’d be wantin’ to be a little nicer to us, boy. After all, if we don’t feed you, you don’t eat. You’ll just lie there and get weaker and weaker. Then, when the Slayer comes for us,” he stopped and grinned. “Well, that’ll be the end of William the Bloody, Slayer of Slayers, won’t it?”

Spike just glared at the older vamp as best he could with his burnt and disfigured face. Tears of frustration threatened to collect in his eyes, but he fought them back and fixed his grandsire with his best icy stare. After over a hundred years, it had taken only a few hours for them to fall back into the antagonistic relationship that had earmarked most of their time together.

With a laugh, Angelus shoved a partially drained wino onto the bed and said, “Here, boy, if you can hold it, you can eat it.”

With a supreme effort of will, Spike pulled the man toward him with one shaking arm and buried his fangs in his neck. He was actually grateful that the meal was drunk, as the alcohol in the otherwise disgusting blood worked to ease the pain of his burns.

Less comforting was the fact that he still couldn’t feel the burns visible on his legs, nor could he feel the legs themselves. With a frustrated growl, he realized that he was going to be totally dependent on Angelus and Drusilla until his spine healed enough for him to hunt on his own. He had no doubt that his grandsire would find ways to use that dependency for his own amusement


 
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