A/N: Thanks to LadyForAsh for her hard work as my beta.
Spoilers for “End of Days”
‘Single quotes’ = thoughts

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Chapter 8 - Spike’s Girls Past and Present

Later that evening, Spike and Giles sat in the den, ostensibly to discuss enhanced powers and mysterious amulets, how they might be used to best advantage against Caleb and the Turok-Han, and where to find a nest of them. Giles had to talk fast and hard to convince Spike to stay behind when Buffy went out to confront Caleb in his winery and find out just what it was that he had of hers. Spike was drinking heavily, trying to dull his worry over not being with her when she faced the evil preacher again. Intellectually, Spike knew she should be able to handle Caleb with her own new strength and speed, but emotionally he was crawling out of his skin, needing to back her up.

Giles had had another reason for wanting Spike to stay behind that night, however. He felt that Buffy didn't need to be told about Kennedy's attempt to get Faith to take over, it would only hurt her. He'd decided that Spike, however, should be warned on the off chance that Kennedy made more trouble. Spike disagreed with Giles. "Yeah, it'll hurt her, but she'll be royally pissed if we don't tell her. If there's one thing the Slayer hates, its being ‘protected for her own good'," said Spike. "I'll tell her later tonight, when she'll have a chance to cool off before confronting the little air head."

Giles shook his head and furthered his side of the argument. "Buffy has enough on her plate right now. She doesn't need to worry about popularity contests..."

"Can't really hide it from her anyway, she'll just pick it out of my head," commented Spike with a shrug.

Giles looked intrigued about their mental communication and had begun a new question along that line when Principal Wood walked into the room. "Mind if I join you?" He asked mildly, taking a seat and pouring himself a drink.

Giles, good manners at the fore, hesitated then said, "We're in the middle of a strategy session, and are rather busy at the moment, Robin."

Wood ignored Giles' declining to invite him into the discussion and Spike's silence. He slouched in his chair, stared into his shot glass a moment, then looked up and said, "So, Spike. Tell me about killing two slayers that the Council knows about. According to Giles, here, there were two more that just disappeared during the past hundred years; no trace of them was ever found. You kill them, too?"

Giles had started to protest more strongly against Wood interrupting his discussion with Spike, but the Watcher in him was intensely interested in this subject, and he leaned forward to listen. ‘I'd have gotten around to asking Spike the same question eventually, probably after the present crisis is over...but then again, that might have been too late,' Giles privately conceded, so he settled in to learn what he could.

Spike considered Wood for several seconds with hooded eyes. Emptying his shot glass and refilling it, he finally decided that it would make no difference at that point if he answered. He'd known this was coming anyway, ever since he'd let his rage at Wood touching his woman loosen his tongue, and with a small nod, he answered shortly, "I did."

In spite of having suspected the answer beforehand, Giles gave a startled sigh, exclaiming "Dear Lord," and collapsed back into his seat. Years of misjudging Spike, of not taking the extent of his deadliness seriously, of slighting him, and allowing Xander to abuse him flashed through the watcher's mind. A vampire with four slayer kills? Unheard of.

"Why didn't you tell anyone you'd killed them? Isn't that some kind of big achievement in the vampire world? Wouldn't it have made you Big Man in the Vamp Camp, the Slayer of Slayers?" Wood prodded with deceptive calm.

Spike looked affronted and stood up. Walking over to the door, he rested one shoulder against it and folded his arms. Staring at the Principal with a cold expression, he answered in a seldom heard upper crust British accent. "Contrary to popular opinion, Teacher, my ego does not need constant stroking." He quirked an eyebrow, and somehow managed to give the impression of sophisticated disdain despite wearing black denim and work boots.

Robin smiled thinly, thinking, ‘There he is again, the Victorian gentleman that made an appearance when I tried to kill the monster.' He felt a small sense of satisfaction in being able to provoke Spike into an uncharacteristic reaction.

‘Fascinating,' thought Giles. Spike's offended, and his human origins break through. ‘If we live through this apocalypse, and if he ever forgives me for abetting Wood in his slaying scheme, someday I'd love to discuss his life with him, and how and why he reinvented himself.'

Spike shook his head slightly, realizing he'd revealed a part of himself that he'd rather not have, and continued in his usual more coarse voice, "Was content to let the world think that Angelus was the Biggest Bad. I knew I'd offed four Slayers, that was enough for me. Never was interested in pomp and circumstance. Besides, attract too much attention from the Watcher boys, and they don't leave you alone. Constantly send out wet teams after you. Had to rid myself of several of those over the years as it was. I wasn't interested in lookin' over my shoulder all the time...wanted to be able to enjoy my unlife."

A shiver ran down Giles' spine as he realized that mistreating and underestimating Spike was one of the most dangerous mistakes he'd ever made. Giles had always assumed that Spike's impulsiveness made him predictable, that he couldn't stick to a plan, and was therefore less formidable. He recognized now that he'd underrated Spike's resourcefulness and had completely misjudged his motivations. Spike's inexplicable sense of fair play and his love of a challenge were likely the only things that had kept any of them alive before Spike had fallen in love with Buffy. Giles thanked the Lord that he was now firmly on their side.

Not having been in Sunnydale during the early "Buffy" years, Robin wasn't concerned with any of that. He'd been searching for Spike around New York then, though he hadn't known exactly who he was looking for at the time. He just wanted to get to the heart of the matter at hand. "What did you do with them? Why didn't anyone ever find them?" he asked as Spike sat back down and settled into a brooding silence, showing no signs of continuing his explanation.

"The past is dead. Let it rest in peace, Wood." Spike emptied his glass again with one swallow and slouched back onto the couch, contemplating the bottle, and how long its contents would last.

As the atmosphere in the room became oppressive, the principal pressed further, "I get it Spike, you're one of us now, but are there any more of them we should know about?"

Spike snorted and shrugged, "I've tracked down eight Slayers during my time, Teach; killed four of them." Then smirking at the other two men with a quirked eyebrow, as if taunting them, he finished with, "mated with one."

Wood flushed angrily, but neither he nor Giles rose to that challenge. Spike fell silent again, staring moodily into the bottom of his glass. Rupert's curiosity got the better of him, and leaning forward with clasped hands, he entered the conversation for the first time, "What happened to the other three?"

Spike glanced up at Giles and answered musingly, "I've always been drawn to Slayers, Rupe, ever since Angelus first told me they exist. "Ah, Slayers..." For a moment he paused, his lips curving upward, then continued with, "They give an edge to life that's lacking in regular folk. It's...exciting to fight them, fun to trade barbs with them, they're just plain ‘good times'. Basically, ordinary people have always just been food. Never was much of one for the preliminaries, either." He shrugged his shoulders again and frowned, "Didn't care for Angelus and Dru's ‘torture hobby.' Your average Joes were rather boring unless there was a mob of them that I could wade into with fists and fangs."

"But Slayers now..." Spike drifted off in memories for a few moments; then surprised them with another short burst of sophistication before lapsing back into street language. "I've always been rather proprietary about them." This time Spike hadn't seemed to notice his change in enunciation and vocabulary. "When I was able to find one, the Slayer was mine, to kill or not to kill. I've dusted a good number of other vamps for trying to horn in. There's one right now that hadn't better show his face around here if he values his neck," Spike's face flattened into the menacing expression that Robin was beginning to associate with William the Bloody.

"Oh? Who's that?" Asked Wood, glad now that he hadn't made a serious play for Buffy, as he had seriously contemplated doing before being distracted by finding out who Spike was. She was definitely William the Bloody's woman, and he didn't want that look focused on him again.

"Dracula. Tried to add Buffy to his harem awhile back. Slayer caught me at a weak moment, and I promised her I wouldn't hunt him down. Seems she isn't enamored with being fought over." He flashed a quirked eyebrow at them again and smirked, reminding Giles and Wood that he'd tussled with both of them over her in the past few days. Then in an aside to Giles, he added, "I could've told the Slayer that staking him wouldn't work, but to go for the head. His gypsy tricks couldn't have gotten around losing that."

Giles settled back thoughtfully. Spike was a resource he hadn't considered at the time. He could have been a big help against Dracula. As he knew the older vampire and his ways, Spike might even have managed to dust him for good if they had enlisted his aid, ‘or vice versa', an insidious voice in his head whispered. With what he knew about Spike now though, the Watcher doubted it.

Returning to their former topic, Spike continued, "Dru never approved of my thing for Slayers. When I'd suggest a little hunting trip, she'd say, ‘Now don't be greedy, my William, leave some for the other children. You've had sufficient.' Then she'd cock her head to the side like she was listening, get all serious and say daft something like, ‘Beware the sunshine, lest you drown in it.'" He snorted, "I laughed at the time, but she was right. I guess Miss Edith told her..." After a few silent moments he mused, "I never did tell Dru about the other two...but she knew."

Robin had been staring at him expressionlessly, trying not to let the vampire see how unnerved he was with Spike's impassive recital of his past. ‘My poor mother; no wonder she lost to him.' He wasn't familiar with Miss Edith, though, so asked who she was.

Giles filled in, "Drusilla is prescient. She often attributes her predictions to one of her china dolls, Miss Edith, or claims that the stars tell her."

Spike shook his head thoughtfully and continued, "Anyway, Drusilla would periodically follow Darla off to pay homage to ole' Bat Face."

"Ole' Bat Face?" Wood asked again, confused. He'd thought he had researched Spike's history thoroughly since The First had appeared to him as his mother and told him that Spike was the one that killed her. He realized that there were still a lot of details that he'd learn only by association with Spike. It was a chilling thought, associating with his mother's killer.

"The Master," Giles explained when again Spike didn't answer. "Darla's sire, head of Clan Aurelius before Buffy slew him. He was so old that his looks had deteriorated into permanent demon visage, hence ‘Old Bat Face'."

Sighing, Spike added morosely, "Peaches is clan leader now, since he dusted Darla before Buffy croaked the Master."

After a slight pause, Spike continued with, "Every now and then Drusilla would hare off to visit the Master or just dance away following the stars. I wasn't interested in toadying to the old bat, so refused to go along. I'd get bored while she was gone and search out the current Slayer. With the three that lived, Dru came back and dragged me off before we finished the dance," and Spike slumped down, closed his eyes and started snoring, refusing to acknowledge any further questions. His respirations slowed and eventually halted as he slid into genuine sleep.

As Giles quickly made notes on this new information and insight into the Slayer of Slayers (Wood's title was apt), Robin stared wordlessly at Spike. Realization of his situation settled over him with a chill. How had he thought even for a moment that he had a chance against the Master Vampire that had killed not only his own Slayer Mother, but three other Slayers as well; even if the demon had been hampered by the trigger? It had been pure suicide. His hubris had very nearly gotten him killed. In fact, it was amazing that Spike hadn't killed him, and for the first time Robin entertained the possibility that what they claimed was true, Spike had changed. Perhaps The First had appeared to him out of fear; fear that Spike could make a difference. The Principal gave his good nights to the Watcher, and left for his home. He had a lot to think about.

-----

Soon thereafter, Buffy returned, bearing a mystical scythe that she had pulled from the stone under Caleb's winery. Spike awoke just before she opened the door, as if he could sense her presence even in his sleep. Giles figured he probably could.

Buffy told them how she had "King Arthured" it from the stone. She'd discovered it in the basement after beating Caleb to a pulp in the chamber upstairs. She'd been distracted from returning to finish him off when an ancient woman who called herself the Guardian walked into the room. Last of a long line of Watchers of the Watchers, her kind had been around as long as the Shadow Men, who had become the first Watchers. The Guardians had tried to help the Slayers down through the ages. The old woman had explained that the scythe was the historical weapon of the Guardians, made and hidden centuries ago, to await the "Slayer of the Last Days," when it would be crucial in her fight against the ultimate evil. Sadly, Caleb had suddenly jumped down the hatch, completely healed from Buffy's beating. He'd broken the Guardian's neck before she could tell Buffy any more about the scythe and its powers.

Buffy had ultimately been able to kill Caleb with the scythe, but turned to Spike uncertainly. "It worries me that he healed so fast. It was every bit as fast as you and I do now. If The First can give his servants that kind of power, we may still be in trouble. If something should happen to me Spike, please, you must continue..."

"Not an option, lamb," Spike interrupted. If something happens to you, it'll happen to me. I'll only be around as long as you are."

Buffy put her hands on her hips and glared at him impatiently. "Spike, I feel the same way, but the stakes are too high. One of us may be killed. The other has to carry on long enough to stop The First. Besides, I realized something when I met the old woman, eventually I'll grow old and die! That's just a few years away by your standards! You can't die so soon!"

Spike stood up and tried to put his arms around her to comfort her. "Sorry, pet. No can do. It's just the way it is with mates. We live together, we die together. If nothing else, the survivor dies of a broken heart after the other goes; least wise, I will."

Stepping away from him, she exclaimed, "My God! How could you have done that to yourself? We've chopped off your lifespan! Why didn't you tell me? I never would have done it if I'd known that I was killing you years before your time. How can I bear that?" Buffy paced agitatedly back and forth.

Spike snagged Buffy as she strode past him, and folded her into his embrace, holding her there when she would have broken away again. "T'wasn't an issue with me, love. Even without the mating, I wouldn't have lived through another of your deaths. I not only can't live without you, I won't."

"Buffy, you needn't worry about it, anyway," said Giles. "In my research I've discovered that you won't get any older. Human women who mate with vampires don't age. Apparently that's one of the strengths they gain from the spell. What's not clear is whether you would have aged before the mating. I've also found that the Slayer demon is akin to the Vampire demon. No slayer has lived as long as you have. Theoretically, would a slayer grow old? Or would she live immortally as long as she wasn't killed, as a vampire does? It's unknown."

Buffy stopped struggling in Spike's arms and stared at Giles, not sure how she felt about that. It'd take some thought. Before mating, she would have despaired at the thought of having to live forever as a slayer. Buffy knew she would have had a full measure of the death wish that Spike had once claimed all Slayers possessed. She had a sneaking suspicion that even if all slayers were immortal, the Council would never have told the girls themselves; too much power there, or perhaps too much pathos, depending on the Slayer's state of mind. "I won't age and die?"

"That's correct," said Giles, smiling at her.

Turning to Spike, she asked, "Again, why didn't you tell me? I've been worrying and worrying about it!"

"Didn't know about it. If I ever did hear, I'd forgotten. Never have worried much about immortality. Like I said before, t'wasn't an issue. I'm not living through your death next time. Spike suddenly couldn't contain his joy at Giles' news, and whooping, swung her up in his arms. His vamp face broke through, and eyes flashing gold he roared with exultation. Twirling them both around several times before setting her back down and hugging her exuberantly, his face melted back to human. "We'll be together forever, love! So long as we can keep the nasties from getting a piece of us, we're together forever!" he laughed, giving her a hard smacking kiss on the lips. ‘She's as immortal as I am. I have her for eternity! Even without turning her!' His demon roared again internally. "Suddenly I find I do care about immortality after all," he rejoiced. Not for the first time in the past few days, he wondered how he'd gotten so lucky.

Buffy laughed joyously with him, and when she staggered dizzily, Spike steadied her with gentle hands and a tender expression.

"Yes, I think I could get to like this immortal thing after all," she replied smugly, smiling up into his brilliant blue eyes, fingertips tracing his eyebrow, cheekbone, and lips.

Grinning whimsically at their antics, Giles recognized the love there, and surprised himself by feeling happy for her, for them even. He'd felt a momentary twinge of apprehension when Spike had changed to demon visage, but Giles recognized the love even in that fearsome countenance. He sat down suddenly, having difficulty processing the fact that he was happy, not just for her, but for them!

-----

Spike and Buffy took a quick spin through the graveyards after their discussion with Giles. As they walked along, Spike told her about Kennedy's idiocy, as he called it.

Buffy surprised him by brushing it off. "I'm not surprised," she said. "Faith's had more time to get to know them than I have. She doesn't have the same responsibilities I do, so can afford to be more fun. I'm just surprised Faith backed me up, and didn't go along with her." Buffy shrugged, "I don't have time to worry about it. Thankfully it sounds like Kennedy didn't get much support, so that should be the end of it," and for the Slayer, it was. Spike decided privately he'd keep his eyes open.

Buffy was much more interested in trying her new scythe out on something. They didn't have much luck finding anything, though. Faith and the potentials had patrolled earlier that evening while Buffy was busy with Caleb.

Then, gliding smoothly out of the shadows, an eerie, dark haired beauty came to a halt in front of them. "What have you done, my prince? Oh, my sweet Willy, you've drowned in the sunshine." Drusilla looked mournfully up into his eyes and touched his cheek.

Buffy growled at seeing her mate's sire touch him, and Drusilla's attention turned to her. Eyes flashing yellow, her face morphed into that of a demon, and she roared back, lunging forward with fangs and claws bared. Buffy smiled grimly and hefted the scythe threateningly. The ho bag was history.

Spike stepped between them, in front of Buffy but facing the other vampire and implored, "Dru, please. Don't make us dust you."

Stopping mid lunge, she asked uncertainly, hands fluttering, "You still love princess, pretty Spoike?"

"Yes, Dru. Please. Just go," he asked sadly, holding his hands up as if to ward her off and standing determinedly between them.

Mood switching quickly to petulance, she stamped her foot and demanded, "How could you let yourself be seduced away from mummy by the sunshine? Miss Edith warned you time and time again. I'm very cross with you!"

"Drusilla, I wasn't seduced away from you. You left me, and eventually I moved on," he said, trying to reason with her, even though from over a hundred years of experience, he knew logic was useless with his insane sire. How was he going to get her to leave without them having to kill her? He knew intimately how Buffy had suffered for slaying Angel, and he prayed to a long neglected God that he wouldn't have to do the same with his sire. But if she continued to attack his mate, that's what he'd do without hesitation.

"I was going to come back, you know I always come back," Drusilla pouted now, lower lip quivering like a child trying not to cry. She'd foreseen this possibility long ago, but still it had been a shock when she felt the mating. Her William had always been so devoted. He took her back no matter what she did or how she strayed.

"It's too late, Pet. You were right about the sunshine. She's glorious," and looking back at Buffy for a moment with a face filled with awe, pronounced, "She's my destiny."

Buffy's smile was blinding as the truth of that statement rang through her. She had quivered with indignation throughout the foolish conversation. But Spike had suffered through her meeting with Angel in silence, so she had guessed she could make it through his with his crazy ex. She was glad she had done so, to be rewarded by having him say something so profound and moving.

Drusilla thought back to when he was a fledgling, and he had said the same of her. Even then, though passionately and sweetly spoken, she had known that she wasn't his destiny, that her "bravest knight in all the land" was meant for other things. She was only keeping him safe until his time came.

Looking deeply into his eyes, and once again placing her hand on his cheek, the prophetess vampire intoned, "The Light is your destiny. Even so. For you, sweet William, I shall spare the sunshine," and she turned away. Drusilla rejoined the shadows, dipping and swaying in dance while singing mournfully,

"My Dark Prince is no more,
He drowned in the Light,
He took up her Fight,
He'll dance with the Dark
Nevermore, nevermore,
He walks in the Light evermore..."

As her presence faded from their senses, Spike turned to the Slayer hesitantly, "Buffy, I..."

"It's O.K., Spike. Angel's in my heart and past, Drusilla's in yours. They take nothing away from what we have together."

He swept her into his arms thankfully and kissed her; then they turned towards home and sleep, for tomorrow was their wedding day.

Tbc...