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Just a Summer Romance by slaymesoftly
 
Chapters 21 - 22
 
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Chapter Twenty-One

While a defenseless Riley pressed himself into the corner of the room, Angel turned to look at Spike critically.

“You look like hell, Spike.”

“Yeah, well, Buffy’s blood was right refreshin’, but I couldn’t take enough to really heal up.  I’ll be all right once I get some more sustenance.”

He leered in Riley’s direction and laughed when the soldier cringed, then stared in amazement as Angel went into vamp face and slashed his own wrist with his teeth.

“Here,” he said gruffly, holding out his dripping arm.  “Not quite Sire’s blood, but close enough.”

Spike moved very slowly toward the offered wrist, trying to get his mind around the fact that Angel was not only not beating on him for touching Buffy, but was actually offering his own blood to help him get better.

He took a tentative lick of the potent blood, then his demon came to the fore and he latched onto the older vampire’s wrist, gulping greedily.  He could feel the potent blood mixing with the already powerful Slayer blood to strengthen and heal his battered body.  When he felt Angel pulling his wrist away, he struggled briefly to keep it there until Angel said, not unkindly, “That’s enough, Will.  We’ll get you more later.”

Spike reluctantly let go of his grandsire’s wrist, still in game face and with blood smeared on his lips.  As one, the two vampires turned amber eyes on the large man huddled in the corner of the room.  When Spike slowly licked the blood off his lips and began stalking toward him, Riley was embarrassed to realize he had defecated in his pants.  He could feel the moisture going down his leg as his bladder also let go.

With their superior senses, both vampires caught the scent of his fear at the same time and shared a laugh that reminded them both of years spent perfecting ways to terrify their human prey.

“What do you think, Will?  Your way or my way?”

Spike didn’t have to ask what the other vampire meant.  Spike’s way was always to hunt, kill - preferably after a good fight, feed and then go do it again.  Angelus preferred to take his time, playing with his prey and tormenting them until he drove them mad with fear.  Then he killed them.

The blond vampire licked his lips as he stared hungrily at the man who had been abusing him verbally and physically for so long.  The man who was responsible for his being captured and chipped in the first place.  He could see his own thoughts about how much he owed Riley reflected in the man’s frightened eyes.

He could also see in his mind Buffy’s warm green eyes looking at him with  trust and affection and he knew that his first act as an unchipped vampire could not be to drain someone she used to care about.  He reached out with the claim and tried to assess what she was feeling.  There was relief that he was safe, anger clearly directed at the cowering soldier, and just the barest beginning of worry as he and Angel stayed in the room longer than she would have expected them to.

He could feel her begin to regret leaving them alone with Riley, as her anger faded and her responsibilities as a Slayer worked their way back into her consciousness.  He knew if he followed his inclination and ripped the throat out of the man who’d tried to make her kill her lover, that it would change the way Buffy felt about him.  Perhaps not right away, but over time it would erode the trust he’d built up between them.

He shook his head with regret and looked at Angel. “I guess it’s gonna have to be your way, Peaches.  Don’t fancy facing the Slayer with his blood on my fangs.”  He spoke too softly for Riley to hear.

Angel shrugged his large shoulders and said, licking his lips, “That works for me.”  He made no attempt to lower his voice, as he knew Riley would have no idea that they had just agreed to terrify him, but leave him alive.

Both vampires stalked toward Riley, wrinkling their noses as they did at the smell coming from him.

“Much as I like the scent of fear,” Angel said with a snarl, “this stench is disgusting me.  Get out of those clothes,” he growled at the smelly man in question.

Without questioning, Riley scrambled to obey, shedding his military fatigues and his GI boxers.  He cringed back when Spike approached him with the knife he’d been wielding himself such a short time ago.

“Now then, Capt’n Cardboard, what was it you were tellin’ me you were gonna do with this knife?  Cut off my balls, was it?”  He waved the knife in the general direction of Riley’s groin.  “Or was it my dick you were so anxious to be handlin’ and cuttin’ on?”

Riley covered himself with both hands, pleading with the vampires to let him go.

“No, no. I was just talking.  I wouldn’t have done that.  I just wanted to scare you.   I’m sorry.  Really, I am....” he continued to babble apologies and excuses as he retreated further along with wall.  Riley backed up along the wall almost all the way around the room, the two vampires strolling slowly after him, Spike idly twirling the knife.  When he reached the table where he’d had Spike chained down, he stopped, unable to go any farther.

“Oh look, he stopped just where we need him.” Spike’s eyes glinted malevolently.  “Still got the chains handy, too.”

The two vampires grabbed the now gibbering soldier and tossed him onto the bloody table like he weighed no more than a puppy.  While Angel held the squirming man down with one hand, Spike proceeded to wrap the chains around Riley’s arms and legs, pretending to fasten them to the table.  He then stood up and handed the knife to Angel.

“You want to do the honors, Angelus?  This is more your thing than mine.  I’d be content to just rip his head off and eat his entrails. You’re the artist in the family.”

Angel took the proffered knife carefully and weighed it in his hand as he studied the terrified man before them.  Lying on the table soaked in Spike’s blood, with traces of feces and urine running down his legs, and shaking in fear, Riley looked nothing like the confident, clean-cut man from Iowa that Buffy had met the previous year.

When Angel leaned over him with the knife as though looking for the best place to start cutting, Riley began to scream as loud as he could.  Spike could feel Buffy’s anxiety when she heard the screams, as well as the pain she was feeling at the thought of what he was doing.  He caught Angel’s eye and said quietly, “We need to wrap this up before I have to spend the rest of the night apologizin’”

Nodding his head, Angel lifted Riley’s limp dick and said cheerily, “So, should we begin here? What do think, Spike?  I’ve always found this to be a real ice breaker.”

Before Spike could answer, Riley’s eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out in the slimy puddle of blood and filth.

“Well, that was just...disappointing,” Angel said in disgust as he dropped the knife on the floor.  “I thought we’d at least get a few more girlish screams out of him.”

“Yeah, he was no fun at all,” the younger vampire agreed as they both slid into their human faces and started toward the doors. 

Just as they reached the doors, they flew open and Buffy burst into the room. 

“Spike.  Angel!  I changed my mind.  I can’t let you...” her voice trailed off as she saw the unconscious man lying on the table.

“What did you do to him?” she turned frightened eyes to her current and former vampire lovers.  “And, ewww, what is that smell?”

“We didn’t do anything but scare him a little,” Spike said with a pout. “And he shit his pants – that’s what you’re smellin’”

“You scared him a LITTLE?” she raised her eyebrows, gesturing at the unconscious man on the table.

“Yeah, I’m a little out of practice,” Angel admitted.  “I was hoping to make him scream again. I wasn’t planning for him to faint yet.”

Buffy put her hands on her hips and looked back and forth between the two innocent looking vampires suspiciously.

“So, you didn’t hurt him?  You did all this without touching him?”  Her tone of voice implied she didn’t believe them for a minute, although she could sense Spike was telling the truth.

“Cross our unbeatin’ hearts, love.  Didn’t so much as pull off a fingernail.”

“Damn! Why didn’t I think of that?  I really am out of practice...”

She shot Angel a look that promised she would be monitoring activities in LA more closely for a while, then flicked her hair and turned around.

“’K, then. Let’s go home,” she said, walking out the door and leaving Riley to wake up on his own torture table.


Chapter Twenty-Two

The ride back to Revello Drive was quick and quiet.  Spike was not as recovered from his ordeal as he had pretended to be, and he was slumped against Buffy’s shoulder before they left the parking area. 

Angel drove in silence, casting the occasional glance over at his former girl friend and the younger vampire that had been the bane of his existence for years.  He watched Buffy’s gentle stroking of Spike’s cheek and saw the way she was looking at him.  He had no doubt about Spike’s feelings for Buffy.  Spike had always loved the way he did everything else– all out; and Angel had already seen it on the younger vampire when he’d interrupted their night out in LA.

He knew that the closeness he was seeing, and the fact that Buffy had let Spike claim her were the things that Lorne had seen in their singing and been so reluctant to tell him that night in Caritas.  And, he had to admit to himself, he would not have taken it well if he’d been told about it then.

Now, however, he forced himself to accept that Buffy had moved on.  Spike was certainly not what he would have chosen for her; but he knew that in the blond vampire she had someone who would love her until death; and would protect her with his own life.  Someone who understood her life and accepted it completely.  He pushed down the questions raised by Spike’s ability to do these things without the soul that was the only thing keeping Angelus at bay.

The next time he glanced over at Buffy, she was looking up and their eyes met briefly.  “Thank you,” she mouthed at him over Spike’s head.  He gave her a nod and a brief, sad smile before turning back to the road.

When they reached Buffy’s house, she whispered in Spike’s ear, urging him to wake up.  He raised his head and looked around, then groaned and forced himself up.  He got out of the car, then staggered as his knees gave way.  Buffy’s shoulder was under his arm in an instant, her arm around his waist supporting him.  After a second’s hesitation, Angel silently took Spike’s other arm and they all walked to the door, the injured vampire stumbling between his grandsire and his mate.

Willow had been watching out the window and raced to open the door before the threesome got there.

“Spike?”  Joyce’s concern was evident as she watched Buffy and Angel half drag, half carry the blond vampire into the living room.  “What happened to him?”

“Nothing a little blood can’t fix, Joyce.  Don’t worry yourself.  I’ll be fine.”

Those reassuring words used up what little energy he had left and he gratefully collapsed onto the couch when Angel and Buffy deposited him there.

There was an awkward silence for a minute, which then broke as everyone spoke at once.

“Where...what happened to Riley?”

“Who bit your neck, Buffy?”

“I’m just going to go warm up some blood for Spike and make some hot chocolate for the rest of us.”

“Can we leave now?”

This last, from Cordelia, brought everyone’s attention to the tall brunette.

“What?  Spike is rescued – for whatever reason,” she rolled her eyes to indicate her complete lack of understanding, “and I have an appointment at the hairdresser’s this afternoon.”

“I think you’re going to have to cancel, Cordy,” Angel said with an apologetic shrug.  “It’s going to be daylight pretty soon.  We’ll have to stay here until tonight.  If that’s all right with Joyce, that is,” he added quickly.

Reminding herself that the broody vampire had just helped her daughter save the man she loved, she nodded her head graciously and indicated the door to the basement.

“Of course.  You can use Spike’s bed downstairs.  Cordy, you’re welcome to use Dawn’s room.  She’s still visiting her dad.”

While the two visitors from LA thanked Joyce and went to their respective beds, Buffy sat beside Spike and made sure he drank every drop of the pig’s blood her mother had warmed for him.  She knew he would need human blood to replace all that he had lost, but decided to wait until her mother and Giles weren’t around for that.

Buffy quickly filled her mother, Giles and Willow in on what Riley had tried to force them into by draining Spike.  She deliberately did not mention that he had taken the chip out of Spike’s head.

“So,” her watcher said slowly, “his intention was to bleed Spike to the point that his bloodlust would override both the chip and his feelings for Buffy?  He was assuming, I presume, that you would then stake him for attacking you. Is that correct?”

“Yeah, that was pretty much his plan.”

“And why didn’t it work then?”

Spike struggled to sit up straight as he said indignantly, “Because he’s a bloody moron who knows nothing about vampires and claimin’”  He stopped abruptly when he remembered that her watcher probably knew a great deal about vampires and claiming and he waited cautiously for Giles’ reaction.

“Quite right,” he surprised them by saying.  “He didn’t realize that you would never harm your...mate.  But surely he had prepared for the possibility that Buffy would refuse to stake you?”

“He might have, but he didn’t count on Peaches showin’ up,” Spike admitted grudgingly.  “Ol’ grandpa’s still the head of the family, soul or no soul, and he wasn’t a happy camper.”  He paused for effect, then added, “Which is prob’ly a good thing for Capt’n Cardboard, all things considered.”

Everyone in the room shuddered at the thought of Angel being really happy and thus Angelus making an appearance.  Each was lost in his or her own memories of the unsoulled vampire’s previous time in Sunnydale.

“I take it then, Riley is still alive?”

“Alive and untouched.  The only thing we damaged was his pride.  Now he knows what it feels like to be helpless and to piss off a couple of master vampires,” he finished with a growl.

“Yes,” Giles cleared his throat.  “Well then, let us hope that he has learned a lesson and we do not have a repetition of tonight’s events.  I fear that the next time, if there should be a next time, he could be more prepared.”

“This time he walks.  If there’s a next time...he doesn’t.”.  The Slayer’s tone of voice allowed no dissent and surprisingly, no one in the room seemed inclined to disagree.

With that final conversation, the people who had been up all night began yawning and thinking about sleep.  Giles politely refused Joyce’s offer to stay there and left for his apartment.  Willow was more than willing to curl up on the couch when Buffy pulled Spike to his feet and pushed him toward the stairs.

Joyce made no comment as Buffy helped Spike navigate the staircase.  She listened as her daughter murmured to the vampire in the bathroom and she knew Buffy was cleaning up the blood still drying on his body.  With a wisdom she’d just discovered she had, she remained downstairs in the kitchen until she heard the shower stop and the door to Buffy’s room open and close.  Then, with a sigh, she followed them upstairs and, after throwing away the bloody remnants of Spike’s clothes and putting the dirty towels in the laundry chute, she went into her own room and fell into a grateful sleep.

Buffy had held Spike up in the shower long enough to wash the blood out of his hair and off his body.  She then quickly dried them both off and scooted across the hall to her bedroom, coming back with an old pair of sweats for him and a nightshirt for herself.  As soon as they were dressed, she led him to her room and watched him painfully lower himself onto the bed.

After locking the door, which brought a quirked eyebrow from the vamp, she slid in beside him and snuggled up under his chin.  Although he wrapped his arms around her as tightly as he always had, she could feel the lassitude and lack of energy that accompanies major blood loss.  She marveled at the ability he’d shown to resist his bloodlust when left with the man who’d tortured him.

“I’m glad you didn’t drain him,” she said softly. 

“Knew you wouldn’t like it, pet. Not after you got over bein’ mad, anyway.”

“I’ll go by Willie’s and get you some human blood tomorrow,” she promised.  “Can’t have my guy too tired to...”

“I’ll never be that knackered, love,” he said with a smile as he ran his hand up under her shirt.  “Oh, oh, no knickers.  Aren’t you the bold little Slayer?”

His hand stroked her flanks, caressing the silky skin he found there and marveling that this warm, loving woman was mated to him.  Turning his head slightly, he began kissing his way down her face.  He forgot for a minute that in addition to the love she could feel rolling off him, the claim allowed her to feel his weakness and the effort it was costing him to fondle her.

“Let me,” she whispered against his lips, stopping his hand so that it rested against her stomach.  “You just lie there and enjoy.”

She began at his chin, running her tongue and blunt little teeth down his throat and across his chest.  She paused to nibble on each nipple, knowing how much he liked to feel her teeth on him when they made love.  She loved making him hiss and groan when she nipped at the taut skin on his abdomen, and the way he caught his unneeded breath as her mouth worked its way down his hipbone to the base of his cock.

“Did you say Riley was threatening to cut this off?” she asked with a growl, taking it in her warm little hand.  She used her toes and feet to push the loose sweatpants down his legs so he could kick them off.

“Yeah, he seemed to think you were a little too fond of that particular body part,” he gasped as she nibbled her way up to the tip and tickled the dripping opening with her tongue.  His hips involuntarily jerked upward when she put her warm mouth around the head of his cock.

“Ummmm,” she mumbled as she licked off the pre-cum.  “He just might have been right.”

She crawled back up to where she could look him in the eye as she said, “But then, again, I love all your body parts.”

Spike’s mind went into overload as her words registered.

(Love, she said love.  She loves all my body parts.  Does that mean she loves me?)

“Not as much as I love yours,” he finally was able to respond, as he folded his arms around her.

“We’ll see,” she replied enigmatically as she pushed herself up on her arms until she was poised over his aching cock. 

She lowered herself on to him slowly, taking care not to bump his still tender leg and moaning as his cool length slid into her a little bit at a time.  When she had taken him all in and their lower bodies were pressed together, she began the internal squeezing that had brought them such quiet pleasure before.

“I love you, Buffy.” He kissed her ear. “I love what you are.” He moved his lips down to her mouth.  “I love how you make me feel.”  He fastened onto her lips and sent his tongue exploring her mouth.  “I love how you kiss me....” he made a gurgling sound as she clenched around him.  “And, bloody hell, I love what you can do with those Slayer muscles!”

Buffy giggled and continued to squeeze, feeling her own orgasm building even as the vampire beneath her began to whimper and growl.  She fell forward onto his chest, reaching up to fasten her teeth on the side of his neck. With a sudden movement, she bit down hard enough to break the skin and felt the coppery blood touching her tongue.

“Mine,” she growled around her mouthful of skin.  “You are mine.”

Spike came with a muffled roar as he fastened his fangs on her throat and gasped, “Yours. Always yours.”

With his strong, deep pulls on her artery matching the rhythm of her clenching vaginal muscles, Buffy felt herself shuddering all over at the force of her orgasm.  She was vaguely aware of Spike’s whispered, “Mine,” as he pulled his fangs out and licked her neck, but her answering, “yours” came out more as a sigh than actual speech.  She lay on top of him, trembling with the aftermath and wondering how often they could do that before she became anemic.

For his part, Spike was in complete awe of her actions.

(She claimed me.  Buffy claimed me.  I belong to her now; just like she belongs to me. Could dust happy, except I don’t ever want to be away from her.)

Wondering if the claim between human and vampire worked the same way as between two vamps, he concentrated on thinking “out loud” to her.

(“I love you, Buffy.”)

“Mmmmph” she replied, nuzzling into his neck.  It took her a few seconds to realize that she never felt his mouth move.

“Spike?”

(“Yes, love?”)

She could feel the humor in his reply and frowned slightly.

“Did you say something?”

(“I don’t know.  Did I?”)

She could feel the rich chuckle in his voice, but she was sure he hadn’t actually opened his mouth or moved his lips.  As an experiment, she thought hard,  (“Are you THINKING at me?”)

(“I could be.  Are you thinking at me?”)

Her head shot up and she looking into his laughing eyes.  “Can you read my mind now?” she asked in a high pitched squeak.

“Relax, pet.  I’m not reading your mind.  You have to want me to know what you’re thinkin’ before I can hear you.  And vice versa.  Don’t be thinkin’ you’re gonna be knowin’ what I’m thinkin’ either, missy.  It doesn’t work like that.”

(“How does it work?”) she tried experimentally.

(“Jus’ like that, love.  If you want me to hear somethin’, just think it at me. It’s like we were before, ‘cept instead of just feeling things we can actually talk to each other.”)

(“ That’s kinda cool.  I think I like it!”)

(“So do I, my love.  So do I.’)

He rolled her off to his side and pulled the covers up over them.  For the first time since Buffy’s mother came home, they went to sleep in her bed, wrapped around each other tightly.


When Spike and Buffy finally got up late in the afternoon, they came downstairs to find that Angel and Cordelia were getting ready to leave.  Joyce looked relieved to no longer be entertaining them by herself.  She’d never really been close to Cordelia when the girls were in high school, and she’d never forgiven Angel for taking her daughter’s virginity and then, as Angelus, telling her about it.  As far as she was concerned, if her daughter had to be with a vampire, she much preferred the soulless one she knew and liked.

Angel’s eyes went immediately to the new bite marks on Buffy’s neck, and the matching human bite on Spike’s.  The ache he felt at knowing that his grandchilde had what he never could was eased by the presence of the beautiful woman waiting impatiently for him to leave.  Cordelia’s place in his heart would never replace what had been Buffy’s, but she was beginning to fill the empty space in his life.

As the sun gradually sank toward the western horizon, the two tall brunettes worked their way toward the front door, thanking Joyce for her hospitality as they went.  Buffy and Spike moved with them, halting just outside the door in the shelter of the porch.  Spike stood behind Buffy, his arms wrapped around her waist.  She leaned back against his body and smiled up at the former love of her life.

“Thank you, Angel,” she said softly.  “I know this wasn’t an easy thing for you to—“

He held his hand up to stop her.

“As much as I dislike Spike,” he said with a glare at the smirking blond, “he is my family.  And I REALLY don’t like that cowardly soldier boy.  So, it was a pleasure.”

His hard brown eyes stared into Spike’s amused blue ones.

“Spike...” he began in a warning tone of voice.

The younger vampire shook his head.

“You know better, Peaches.  I’ll take care of her till I’m dust.  And I’ll love her longer than that.”  He tightened his arms around Buffy, letting her know exactly what they were talking about.

Angel nodded briefly and turned to leave.  Buffy pulled herself out of Spike’s arms and touched Angel’s sleeve.  She reached up and gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek and a grateful hug.

With a roll of her eyes, Cordelia grabbed his arm and yanked him toward the car.

“Let’s go.  We’ve got our own bad guys waiting for us at home.”

With a sheepish grin, Angel allowed himself to be dragged toward the car and shoved in the open door.  His last glimpse of the Summers home was the sight of Spike and Buffy on the porch, wrapped around each other and waving “good-bye.”

The End.


Sorry to end it without resolving the Riley situation; but that seems to call for a whole ‘nother story and I want to end this one here.  I promise a sequel (if there’s interest) in which there is more Riley bashing, Dawn makes an appearance, and perhaps even Glory.  But not now.
 
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