Chapter Ten

* * * *

Buffy was frantically searching through Giles’ bookcase for any reference to vampires. There were quite a few in his stash and Buffy had read most of them. But all the books weren’t what she wanted. They all dealt with vampires as she wanted to see them; evil, soulless, monsters. She was looking for a book that could teach her about vampires in relations to humans. Specifically, why would Spike kiss her?

It was supposed to end after they left Sunnydale. All the thinking and wondering why and how he could do something as repulsive as touch her, but it didn’t. Willow can use her magic now and Tara is back to sleeping next to her. But little blond Buffy can’t get a fucking vampire out of her head. She picked up a book on how a vampire kills and then laughed.

Spike had tried to kill her twice since they left and once almost succeeded. The first time, he sprayed blood over his collar so it shorted out temporarily. His neck burnt all the way to the muscle in one place, but he had come towards her still. She was standing too close to the cage and he grabbed her shirt, expecting her to pull away. But it was laughable as Buffy had come towards him, grabbing his shirt and pulled him against the bars. He knocked his head against the metal and went to sleep for a few hours. When he woke up, there was a new collar; Drusilla’s old one. How poetic.

The second time, he caught her by surprise. Darla and Angelus were fighting in the morning of a show and Buffy needed them to be clean of bruises. While Jonathon went to get the remotes, Buffy jumped into the cage with Spike out of the right. He was lassoed by Giles and acting calm. She finally got them apart and tied when Spike, who hadn’t been resisting, suddenly tore the rope from Giles’ hands. He took either end and caught Buffy’s neck. He pulled and she punched, but he didn’t budge when she hit him over and over. It took four electric shocks from his necklace for his muscles to give way and when he did, he was still gripping the rope. Buffy didn’t whip him afterwards because she kicked his ass during the show. He couldn’t walk the next day.

But that isn’t what worried her. She expected his hate. What she was worried about was the kiss. And why would a vampire touch food in a caress? Why would he seek a human’s pleasure? What would make him do it? She kept looking for the nightmare that caused his confusion in the first place, but no books were interested in vampire dreams. Only in vampire monstrosities, kills and evilness.

Blood sucking, no heart beating, soulless, shameless…

The kiss wasn’t even that good.

Spike had pulled her face towards hers by pressing his palms to her temples and pulling her hair closer. He smashed his face onto hers. He bit her bottom lip without breaking the skin then outlined his marks with his damp tongue. All along, he was trying to speak, while salty tears fell onto her lips. Spike pressed his face so tightly to hers that she couldn’t breathe and when he let go, the rush of oxygen caused her eyes to blur. His chin scraped harshly against her cheek. The pain was red.

“No no no no NO NO!” Buffy screamed and rebelled against the thought. Her hands flew to her temples to squeeze the image from her mind as her body tensed. She convulsed against the books, knocking a few from the stack.

Buffy ached to think of Riley. She pleaded with her mind to remember his soft lips and carefully placed hands as to not suggest anything more than the kiss. He knew when to tilt his head, when to caress her cheek and he always closed his eyes, gently fluttering his eyelashes against hers. And his body was longingly touching hers, as if he could never get close enough to her.

Spike’s eyes were independent, sorrow filled and always achingly open.

She shivered.

She didn’t know if Riley’s eyes were brown or green.

The Vampire’s eyes were blue.



* * *



“Buffy, what are you doing here?” Giles touched her shoulder.

Buffy jerked her head up from her original position. Her arm had a red mark from her head’s imprint and her mouth tasted like cotton. She had been thinking so long about the blond-who-must-not-be-named, that she had fallen asleep. Then he caught her. Red handed, red armed and there was no way she could ever excuse—

“Are there any books on Vampire Sacrifices?” She blurted out. In her obvious discomfort for the situation, Buffy had unintentionally gotten the upper hand. Giles stared at her, slightly slack jawed and wide eyed. It took him a second before he attempted a chuckle.

“Buffy. Are you afraid that Spike might kill you and get out? Because you’ve been doing a very well punishing him whenever he deserves it.” Buffy smiled and passed over a book.

“I don’t know why Angelus killed Drusilla and I can’t stop thinking about it. And it could have been something that she knew, but what if it was bigger than that?” She looked at Giles, expectantly, who still hadn’t taken the book. “Do you know that there are pages missing?”

“Why do you think that she was sacrificed?”

“Because it doesn’t make any sense. Why would Angel, after more than a hundred years of living with her, suddenly, find that it’s in his best interest to kill his childe? What information could she have known that, after living with us for more than five years, she decided to tell? There has to be more to her death than just a simple killing.”

“You, yourself, stated that she was acting strangely of late.”

“Yes, but after years of torture and mayhem, a little bit of crazy suddenly makes her tell all to the bad cop? And I’ve been trying to desperately search for information on what she said. This brings me back to the book.” She still holds the book, “The page before the next few missing pages, there’s a mention of a necklace.”

“Really? And I take it you are referring to the necklace that Drusilla had spoken about during your venture into the sewers?”

“Yes. Take the book.” Giles slowly takes the green leather bound book into his hand and opens the page, which turns automatically to the empty hole. He looks at the page before and sure enough, there is reference to a necklace. His pulse starts to race, but then reading in depth, he started to chuckle.

“The entire chapter is about necklaces and this one right here? It’s about a necklace that beacons a singing demon into taking the wearer as his wife. Why would you worry if Drusilla was taken to hell by a perpetually melodic monster?” Buffy furrowed her brow in contemplation.

“I am surprised. I would think that you would be, I don’t know, curious about valuable information being stolen from you.”

Giles gave the book back to Buffy.

“You’re right, I was wrong to mock you. But I don’t understand why you are so infatuated with her death. We are away from the evil, we are entering into good territory and above all, we are safe. I bought that book without the pages and I haven’t been hell bent on searching for something that may bring answers to questions that we don’t need to be answered.”

Buffy turned her head away.

“And plus, if Drusilla was truly psychic, which is still debatable… but if she was, then wasn’t her prophecy fulfilled with the magical chains? She foresaw her death wearing one.”

Buffy turned to Giles with a blinding smile. It seemed that this sense was clear and Giles breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t sure if his excuses had been entirely plausible.

“Listen, I feel so foolish. I am going to clean up here, is that alright with you?”

“Do you need any help?”

“No…” Buffy smiled sheepishly, “I think I’ve done enough and then to drool all over your books, well, it’s my mess.”

“Alright then, I’ll see you out in a bit then.”

Buffy wiped off her silly smile the moment he left the bunker. She placed all the books back in order, even the green one. And when that was done, she started going through his desk papers. Thinking only of Spike and his latest attempt to kill her.



A/N- I'll post another chapter tomorrow because it's thanksgiving weekend and I am totally bored.

AF