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Possession by icemink
 
Dea ex Machina
 
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A/N: It's my birthday, so I'd really like a review or two :)

Chapter 12: Dea ex Machina

Buffy couldn't ever remember being quite so nervous on entering The Circle. The first time she had ever come here, she hadn't really understood what was happening, and she'd been scared for so long that she wasn't nervous. Even the first time she'd brought Spike here to fight, she'd been fairly calm. She was confident enough that he would win his first battle.

But everything was different now. She had considered putting this off, keeping Spike out of the fights until she had come up with a way to deal with Daryl. The problem was that she couldn't train Spike anymore, at least not without it leading to more.

Since the first night they'd slept together they'd had sex one more time, a day later when they were training. She didn't know exactly how it had happened but at some point they were no longer fighting but grabbing at each other and ripping each other's clothes off.

As good as it had felt at the time, she felt awful about it afterwards. In fact she felt awful about having used him at all.

The problem was the way he looked at her, the sly comments he made, and the continual attempts to get her back in bed. Under other circumstances she might have been thrilled, but Spike wasn't her boyfriend, he was her slave. And although he was the one who kept initiating the physical contact between them, she realized it wasn't because he really wanted her.

He was simply trying to get in her good graces, trying to make her like him more so that she wouldn't let Daryl touch him. It made her feel sick, because deep down she knew there wasn't a way out. She was going to have to let Daryl have his 'appointment' and taking advantage of Spike in the meantime just made her an even worse person than she already was.

So she decided to get it over with. It was better if Spike learned how much he was going to hate her sooner rather than later. She needed him to hate her.

She had made one attempt to avoid Daryl. She'd signed up Spike for one of the first fights. Normally she stayed to watch all the battles, but she figured if he fought early on, she could sneak out early and maybe get him home before Daryl was done watching the fights. But when she got to The Circle she saw that Spike's fight had been moved to the very last spot.

One by one the fights dragged on, but Buffy was unable to focus on any of them; all she could think about was seeing Daryl again. The same image played over and over in her mind: she was naked and being strapped down to the table in his room.

And then it was Spike's fight. Suddenly time sped up again, and before she knew it the fight was over. She hadn't really seen any of it, all she knew was that he had won.

She left the owners' box and ran for the holding cells hoping that she could beat the crowds and get Spike away from The Circle before Daryl could find them.

She had no such luck. Word had obviously gotten around that she was now fighting her own slave in The Circle, and it seemed keeping her face covered by her hood was no longer enough of a disguise. Several demons surrounded her and barraged her with questions about what she'd thought about the fights and a few requested autographs.

It only took the few moments she was overwhelmed for Daryl to find her.

"Excuse me folks," he said. "The Slayer would love to talk to all her fans, but right now she and I have some business to discuss."

Reluctantly the crowd parted. It wasn't that there was anything particularly intimidating about Daryl, he was an only slightly overweight middle aged man. Buffy had once heard that he was supposed to be a very powerful sorcerer, but that wasn't the reason everyone let him have his way. He was one of the five commissioners of The Circle. He could decided to ban anyone he liked from The Circle, or give anyone he liked special privileges.

As the crowd melted away from her and Daryl, Buffy found herself wishing they would stay. Of course she and Daryl were hardly by themselves. There were demons moving all around them, but she felt horribly alone.

"It's good to see you," Daryl told her. "It's been a while." When she didn't say anything he continued, "I'm sure Tain told you about my proposal?"

"I can't. . . I mean Spike can't. I'm not interested," she managed to say.

"Now, now. Don't be so hasty," he told her, smiling. "I intend to pay you well for your slave's services."

"I know. . . that you pay. It's just. . ." she quickly tried to find an excuse and she was torn between telling him what he wanted, which would get her away from him quicker, or trying to find some reason to keep Spike away from him.

A woman's voice came from behind Buffy. "It's just the Slayer and I are currently in negotiations over the purchase of her slave and I need him. . . untouched."

As Buffy turned to look at the newcomer her first thought was that this was the woman she should have grown up to be. Like Buffy, she was small and blond. Her long hair was stylishly trimmed, her nails her perfectly manicured, and Buffy was willing to bet that her shoes were the latest designer brand. She wasn't much older than Buffy, and in her blue sun-dress she looked like a sorority girl.

"And you would be?" Daryl asked the woman as he openly leered at her.

She walked up to him smiling and extended her hand as if she expected him to kiss it. "Darla, Mistress of the Order of Aurelius."

"Mistress, eh?" Daryl chuckled. "Well, I can hardly see how it would matter to you if he was 'touched' or not."

Darla's laugh was light and sweet. "You misunderstand. I'm not that sort of mistress," she shrugged. "Well, at least not any more. In any case, should the Slayer and I be unable to come to an agreement on price, I'm sure she'll be more than happy to come to an arrangement with you. I'm sure you understand?"

Daryl's tone stopped being nice. "You're the one who doesn't understand. He fights in The Circle and I have rights to him. Whatever agreement you and the Slayer may or may not have is irrelevant."

Darla moved even closer to Daryl, and placed ran her fingers down his lapel. Buffy wanted to scream at this poor woman to stop. To warn her how dangerous Daryl was. But she couldn't seem to speak.

"And there's nothing I can do to change your mind?" Darla asked. When Daryl shook his head she sighed and said, "That's really too bad. I'd hoped to be civil about this."

Just like that her hand shot up and grabbed Daryl's head, twisting it violently. There was a loud snap and when she released him he fell to the ground, dead.

"You killed him," Buffy said incredulously.

"I'm sorry," Darla said, addressing Buffy for the first time. "I forgot you're the Slayer, you're supposed to protect people."

"What? No. I mean, I guess maybe but that's not it. I mean, you can't just kill people can you? Besides I thought he was supposed to be some sort of really powerful sorcerer?"

Darla smiled and reached down to pull an amulet off of the corpse. It was one Daryl had worn every time that Buffy had seen him.

"A sorcerer, maybe, but not so powerful. This," she said holding up the amulet, "is an old trick. It makes the person seem. . . tougher than they are. And I might have felt intimidated by him too, at least if I didn't recognize the amulet."

"Oh," Buffy said. She couldn't quite believe that Daryl was dead, that she would never have to see or worry about him again. She couldn't stop staring at the body that lay on the ground. It seemed like a dream. "Um, thanks."

Darla looked a little surprised, but shrugged and smiled. "You're welcome. Now, is there some where we can talk?"

"About what?" Buffy asked, still staring at Daryl's corpse.

"About my purchasing Spike," Darla said.
 
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