I'm going to post the second chapter...this is where it starts to get good. Please let me know what you think!

Spike hopped off the plane and chewed nervously on a thumbnail. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been in London, but he was sure he had not been this nervous. He had not ever been this nervous. Angel had explained his deception on the loooong plane ride over. After the blinding rage passed (and Spike punched Angel in the nose a few times - a trick he learned from Buffy) Spike had spent the rest of the trip thinking about his Slayer – something he had avoided doing since Angel told him she didn’t want to speak to him after his return. He marveled at the fact that she wanted to see him, that she cared about him, that she was likely to stake Angel for this one. Shooting a smirk at his Grandsire at the thought, Spike picked up his carryon bag and headed for the terminal, growing steadily more nervous with each graceful step. He had no idea how to treat her….he had died for her, to save the world so she did not have to. Did she really love him, as she said in the cave? Should he kiss her? Shake her hand?

He spotted her first of course, vampire senses tingling at her very presence. He reached out across the distance and inhaled the scent of vanilla and Buffy. *Cor, she’s beautiful*, Spike mused, taking in her soft green sweater and long black leather skirt. Ridiculously non-sensible shoes, as always, and her hair had gotten long again, curling down below her shoulder blades to brush her bottom. Just as Spike felt his jeans growing uncomfortably tight, she finally saw him. Their eyes locked and the most delighted smile he had ever seen nearly split her face.

Slayers are fast, that’s a given. But Buffy moved with a speed even Spike’s vampiric senses couldn’t detect. Suddenly he was staggering under the impact of an amorous Slayer, who was peppering his face with kisses and whispering frantically, “I missed you so much…..couldn’t sleep….or eat….or think….gonna kill Angel…..how could he think I didn’t love you….how dare he try to keep us apart….”

Spike peeled her off of him, holding her loosely in his arms, “ ‘lo pet,” he rumbled, “missed you terribly.” His eyes dropped to the floor in an unexpected show of shyness. “Would it be alright if I kissed you now? I mean, I understand if you don’t want to in front of the Watcher and Poof, that is, I understand if you don’t want to at all, I mean…” Spike’s ramblings were cut off when a small warm finger came to rest against his lips.

“I would be really really upset if you didn’t,” the sentence was barely out of her mouth before his lips covered hers. With a growl deep in his chest Spike pulled her hard against his chest, audience be damned. His Slayer wanted a kiss, and it had been FOREVER. Taking advantage of her startled gasp, he immediately thrust his tongue into her mouth. THIS was the heaven he gave his life to attain. No reward could be greater than the feeling of this small woman in his arms, her quiet moans making him increasingly harder.

Buffy was going to pass out, she was certain of it. Nothing should ever feel this good, and they were only kissing. Buffy’s head reeled with the possibilities for the evening. She figured he agreed when she felt something hard nudging against her thigh. With a heady moan she broke the kiss to suck in air, feeling lightheaded.

“Well, isn’t that just……so sweet?” came a lilting unfamiliar female voice. Spike’s head snapped around in a snarl, full game-face on for whoever dared to interrupt this private moment with his Slayer. A small blonde who looked not entirely unlike Buffy raised a single eyebrow. Suddenly, Spike’s human mask went back on and his expression went blank. He broke away from Buffy and went to kneel at the woman’s side. In a similar manner, Angel broke out of Coredelia’s grasp and walked zombie-style to the woman’s other side and kneeled. The woman extended both hands to pet the kneeling vampires, who to Buffy’s surprise, started purring like big cats! Slayer, Watcher and half-demon stood in stunned silence as the two powerful Master vampires cuddled into the woman’s hands, obviously enjoying her attention. The woman commanded attention – small frame wrapped in a provocative leather halter dress of a deep green color. Her skin was just too pale to be human, making it apparent that she was a vampire. She turned away from Giles, Buffy and Cordelia to lovingly look down at Spike and Angel. She continued to gently stroke their faces. It was the dazed look of happiness on the face of Spike that finally broke Buffy’s patience and good judgment.

“Who are you?” Buffy snapped, equally in awe and terror of this woman who wielded such power over the two vampires she loved most in the world. “Isn’t it obvious dear,” the woman smirked, “I am Aurelius.” And for the second time that day, the thud of a vampire slayer hitting the ground unconscious echoed through the air.

**********************************

After a few moments, Buffy came to. The small blonde stranger looked on in vague amusement, one elegant brow still arched at the slayer. “That’s impossible,” Giles said, pulling Buffy to her feet and steadying her. “Aurelius died a thousand years ago, and he was a man.”

Aurelius let out a giggle, sounding like the mid-twenty-something she must have been before she was turned. “Now isn’t that just like a man to believe everything he reads in the Council’s records?” A faint hint of an Irish accent played through her words, not as faded as Angel’s, but almost undetectable. “I set him up. That man was no more Aurelius than you are the Pope. The Slayer in those days was deadly and she hunted my territory. I was always….shall we say…..a private kind of vamp, any mortal and most vamps that saw me didn’t live to tell any tales, and I simply told a minion to act as me. The Slayer dusted him, after having a lengthy conversation at my instruction about what I did, who I killed and turned, and I went into the record books as being dusted sometime around the year 1000AD. I would love to tell you more, but I fear this is not the best place. Shall I meet you at the Council’s new headquarters? In about an hour. See you then my boys,” and with a loving stroke of Spike’s platinum curls and an affectionate pat of Angel’s cheek, she was gone so fast it was impossible to determine where she went.

Angel and Spike slowly stopped purring as if coming out of a trance, and noticed they were kneeling. “What happened?” Spike groaned, “I remember the kissing and then…someone interrupted and….nothing.”

“Aurelius,” Angel whispered reverently, “I thought she was dead. I thought she was a he. Wow, the head of our line Spike, she’s here….”

“To kill me,” Buffy summed up. “It makes sense, doesn’t it? I will be killed by the line of Aurelius. Who better than Aurelius herself?” Both vampires and Giles stared at her in open horror.

“We….we….can’t do anything to stop her luv,” Spike practically whimpered, “you saw what she did to me and I was ready to kill her for interrupting us.”

“Spike’s right Buffy. If Aurelius is truly who she says she is, then it is very likely impossible to stop her from killing you,” Giles took his glasses off rubbing them furiously.

“I get what you’re saying, but this is the simple part. We go back to the Council’s Headquarters and wait. She has a reason for coming out of hiding now. She faked her own dusting over 1000 years ago. I doubt she just came around to chat; especially to chat with a Slayer. But it’s not like there haven’t been thousands of Slayers in that time. I wonder why she is interested in me?” Buffy’s speech resulted in three sets of horrified eyes staring back at her.

“Absolutely unacceptable,” Giles demanded, “You must leave at once.”

“And go where Giles? We didn’t exactly take out an ad for going to the airport and she knew we were here. She made an entrance, ruined my reunion with Spike. She chose now to disrupt our lives and I intend to find out why.” With that, the Slayer gathered up her companions, throwing an arm around Spike and whispering soothingly to the still very upset vampire. Angel trailed behind them, staring off into space, holding tightly to Cordelia’s hand. And Giles brought up the rear muttering about ‘stupid ancient watchers’ and ‘bloody prophecies’.