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Eleven
 
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Chapter Eleven

Somewhat to Buffy’s dismay, it took no time at all for them to find Riley’s squad. The commandos had taken a tour of Sunnydale’s cemeteries, and when they found no trace of the Slayer or the vampire, they had circled back to the watcher’s apartment complex. No sooner had Spike and Buffy stepped into the parking lot, than they were surrounded by angry soldiers carrying nets, tasers and stakes. In addition to the men attempting to encircle the snarling vampire, there were several on the outer edges of the group, all holding large guns that were pointed at the Slayer.

Riley and Maggie stepped from the shadows, the older woman smirking as she studied the two blonds who were now standing back-to-back in fighting stances.

“Unless you are also bullet-proof, Ms. Summers, I suggest you remain docile and allow my men to re-capture the hostile that you assisted to escape. And you, Hostile 17…” She turned to Spike with a deadly glint in her eye. “You are going to pay for putting your filthy teeth on my neck. You will be begging me to stake you before I’m done.”

“No!” Buffy’s shout of defiance was matched by Spike’s snarling attempt to place himself between her and the men holding the guns. An attempt that was unsuccessful, as the men were arranged on the outer edges of the circle and no matter where he moved, he left Buffy exposed to one of them.

“Move away from the vampire, Buffy.” Riley’s voice was somewhere between a plea and an order, but his grasp on the weapon in his hands was sure and firm. Spike settled for placing himself between Buffy and her ex-boyfriend.

“If it’s me you want, why not just let the Slayer go back to her watcher’s? Better yet, why not put down that obvious piece of compensation for your small dick and try to take me in yourself? Or, is that a bit much for you now that I’m not helpless?”

Riley’s desire to show Buffy how easily he could handle the vampire was tempered by his knowledge of how many men it had taken to subdue him the first time he’d been captured and what had happened to some of those men. He had just begun to drop the barrel of his gun, when it was yanked out of his hand by an accurately thrown loop of unnaturally fine rope. Simultaneously, all the other weapons that had been trained on the slayer and the vampire disappeared into the night.

Without pausing to wonder where the weapons had gone, vampire and slayer charged into the confused soldiers. Dodging the nets that the commandos had brought to throw over the vampire, Buffy quickly reminded them of what had happened the last time they had tried to ambush her.

While the slayer was taking out her anger at what had happened to her watcher upon the bodies of the men who had made the mistake of misunderstanding the slayer’s rule about harming humans, Spike covered the distance between himself and the much larger human man in one leap. Without bothering to bring forth his demon, he buried one fist in Riley’s stomach, grinning when the man doubled over in pain and surprise.

Even though he was rocked by the punch to his gut, Riley’s training and enhanced muscles allowed him to recover much faster than would an ordinary human. That, coupled with Spike’s desire to have a real fight rather than to just pummel the man into the ground, gave him the time to back pedal until he was out of range of the vampire’s fists and could fall into his own fighting stance.

Eyes alight with the joy of battle, Spike attacked, delighted that the commando was giving almost as good as he got. What Riley lacked in speed and grace, he made up for with superior reach and enhanced strength. Buffy watched the seemingly even battle for a while, having long since wrapped up the other soldiers in their own capture nets. Finally tiring of waiting for the vampire to finish the fight, she called out, “Stop playing, Spike. Just do it.”

Both vampire and human turned to her, their shock obvious. Spike’s “Are you sayin’….?” came at the same time as Riley’s “Buffy! You can’t mean that!”

Heaving a sigh, she rolled her eyes and shook her head. “I guess not,” she admitted, speaking only to the vampire and ignoring Riley. “If you want to bite him, go ahead. Just don’t kill him, okay?”

The shift into his demon face was immediate and Riley had only a heartbeat to realize what Buffy had meant by “quit playing” before the vampire moved with supernatural speed and pinned him against a car, teeth snapping at the man’s neck. Spike waited until Riley’s bowels had released and a urine stain was spreading down his pants leg, before dropping back into his human mien and smirking at the soldier.

“Knew you were a Nancy-boy,” he crowed, dropping the gasping man to the ground.

Grinning from ear to ear, he walked over to where Buffy was tapping her feet and shaking her head at him.

“What?” he demanded. “Tell me you don’t think that was more fun than killing the stupid git? And I haven’t used up any points I might want to use on the bitch.”

“Speaking of which…” They looked around, both having forgotten about Maggie. The two blonds were greeted by the chilling sight of the Initiative’s head holding one of the abandoned weapons and pointing it with clear competence directly at Buffy’s chest. Spike’s snarl as he stepped in front of Buffy almost drowned out the woman’s laugh.

“Very touching, Hostile 17, but this gun could stop an elephant. The round is going to go right through you and into the foolish young lady behind you. There isn’t a thing you can do about it.”

Even as her finger tightened on the trigger, Buffy was diving left while Spike dove right, leaving empty space where they had been standing only fractions of a second before. Cursing in frustration, Maggie tracked Buffy’s roll, firing whenever she thought she had a chance of hitting the rapidly moving slayer. Spike finished his own roll and launched himself at the woman who, in her eagerness to take out the slayer, seemed to have forgotten his existence.

He knocked the gun from her hand, his momentum carrying them both to the ground. He never paused this time, burying his fangs in the woman’s throat and pulling her blood into his mouth. He drank down the warm, gushing blood, knowing it would probably be the last time he would ever taste it fresh from the source. When he felt Maggie’s heart begin to slow, he reluctantly removed his teeth and stood up, leaving her at his feet – bleeding, but alive.

He was just turning toward Buffy, frowning as he saw the look of terror on her face, when he felt a disturbance in the air behind him. He whirled to find Riley, a stake still held in his hand and an expression of shock on his face as he toppled backwards, a silver arrow protruding from his chest.

The vampire and slayer moved closer together, frantically searching their surroundings for this new source of danger. Then Spike noticed the small elf girl Buffy had freed; she was waving to them from the edge of the parking lot. Behind her, already disappearing into the mist that seemed to accompany them, were several adults. All carried coiled ropes of silk and silver bows and quivers of arrows hanging on their backs. Buffy waved back as the pretty elf joined her elders in the mist that seemed to be drifting away without the assistance of any trace of wind.

“Well,” Buffy said finally. “I didn’t see that coming.”

“Very unforgiving people, elves are. Jus’ be grateful they think we’re the good guys.”

“They believe a vampire could be a good guy?”

“Vamps usually stay away from elves; unless they’re stupid fledglings. It doesn’t take long to learn that they aren’t on the menu.”

“Don’t they taste good? And, I cannot believe I just asked that!” Buffy shuddered and turned back toward the bodies lying on the pavement.

“Did you miss the part about how unforgiving they are, Slayer?” He followed her gaze to the pile of tied up commandos and the bodies of their commanding officers.

“Did you kill her?” Buffy changed the subject abruptly as she saw Maggie’s crumpled body again.

“No,” he said shortly. “But I didn’t work very hard to keep her alive. What do you want to do with her?”

She sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know. I guess I have to keep her alive.” She looked up at him almost apologetically. “It’s kinda my job, you know.”

“I know, pet,” he smiled and brushed the hair off her face. “You wouldn’t be you if you didn’t.”

She offered a small smile in return, then knelt down next to the bleeding woman and used a ripped piece of cloth to staunch the blood still trickling from her throat. She applied pressure, then used another strip to tie the pad in place. When Spike assured her that Maggie’s heartbeat was fairly strong for someone who’d lost that much blood, she stood up and dusted her hands.

“All right then. I guess it’s time to call 911,” she sighed as she began walking back to the apartment. “Come on, you can explain to Giles that I didn’t let you kill Professor Walsh.”

With a chuckle, he put his arm around her and squeezed gently. “You know, you’re not as dumb as you look, Slayer.”

“And don’t you forget it, vampire,” she laughed back at him, leaning into the embrace for a second.
 
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