As always, thanks to my fab beta LisFayte!
And thanks for the great reviews, they mean a lot to me.



”Ready for our doom?” she asked, slipping out of his embrace and taking a step forward. Spike frowned, suddenly unsure about what he was supposed to do. Buffy turned towards him and held out a hand, which he immediately took. She had felt his confusion and insecurity clearly through the bond, and smiled back at him as he looked up from their clasped hands. Spike smiled back at her, amazed how his mate could quell all his fears and insecurities with only a glance.

They walked up the stairs and stepped into the dark school. They walked through the shadowy hallways and Spike looked around curiously. As they neared the library Buffy began chewing on her lower lip, nervous about the upcoming meeting. Spikes thumb began stroking her wrist. He felt the tension inside of her and wanted to do something about it, but he knew there was not much he could do for her

Buffy stopped in front of the door and peered inside the small glass window, careful not to move the door. When she looked into the library and saw the faces of her friends, all her apprehension melted away like butter in the sun. They looked heartbroken, and Buffy felt a tear slide down her cheek. She steeled herself and gave Spike's hand a slight squeeze, before opening the door.

Complete silence greeted the mated pair as they entered side by side, holding hands. Buffy looked at the faces of her friends and was surprised by the emotions on their faces, the looks greeting them ranging from relief to shock. Giles looked ready to faint, but he also seemed immensely relieved. Willow and Xander looked overjoyed that she was back, while Cordelia merely raised her eyebrows. Jenny Calendar looked relieved too, but as Buffy looked over at Angel she gasped quietly, shocked at the emotions on his face. It began as relief, turned into horror, then into rage. She took a step closer to her mate, and he tried to smile reassuringly, sensing that she was worried about the other vampire.

“Buffy, you’re alive!” “What happened, Buffy?” “Giles said you were dead!” The statements were made by Willow, while Xander asked her what had happened. Buffy only smiled at them, a smile that froze when she hear the Angels voice, deadly and enraged. “Get away from her, Spike!” he spat at the bleached vampire, who responded with a hard glare. When Angel spoke everybody froze, staring at him in shock. Then they turned and looked at the man standing besides Buffy, holding her hand.

“Bloody glad to see you too, Peaches,” Spike said, smirking at him. He had seen the way his grandsire looked at the girl standing next to him when they entered. Almost-concealed lust and possessiveness had shown in his eyes until he saw Spike, then it transformed into anger and disgust. ‘Bloody wanker,’ Spike thought to himself, silently cursing his old mentor. He let go of her hand and moved his own to the small of her back, holding her close.

“If you don’t get away from her right now, I’ll kill you!” Angel snarled, eyes flashing amber. The other occupants of the room stared at him in shock, some even a little afraid of the dark vampire. Buffy flinched, and unconsciously took a step closer to her mate. The way Angel was acting was wigging her out, and she knew her mate could feel it.

“Hmm... Let me think... How ‘bout no, grandsire?” Spike asked the fuming vampire, smirking when Angel growled darkly. When Giles heard Spike call Angel grandsire he gasped, shocked that Buffy would bring a vampire into the library. Willow and Xander both looked at Spike, feeling very much like the audience at a tennis match, heads whipping back and forth each time one of men spoke.

“Buffy, what is this? First the council calls and tells me a new Slayer has been called, and then you come in here with a vampire,” Giles said in an inquiring voice, hoping Buffy would fill in some blanks for him. Only then did Willow, Xander and Cordelia catch up, the three of them staring at Spike as if they had never before seen a vampire.

“Want to know who that is, Giles?” Angel asked with hatred in his voice. “His name is Spike, but he has another name. William the Bloody,” Angel added, glaring at his grandchilde. Giles recognized the name and took a step away from the blonde vampire. Spike rolled his eyes, and glanced at Buffy, who was staring at Angel, shocked by the hostility he was showing.

“I know my own name, Peaches, I could have introduced myself. Getting a soul rid you of all your manners as well as your brain? Oh wait, you never had one of either, anyway,” Spike said, smirking at the older vampire who growled darkly at him. Buffy giggled quietly and snuggled into her mates’ side. From the minute they had entered the room memories had flashed through her mate, and she had witnessed them. Mostly they were of a newly vamped William and the bastard that was his grandsire, Angelus. She could feel her mates’ satisfaction as he got back at the other male, and somehow that made her feel a little better. The happier her mate was, the happier she was.

“Who is William the Bloody?” Xander asked loudly, not quite following. He gave Spike a hard glare, but he merely raised an eyebrow at the teenager. ‘Not the brightest kid I’ve met,’ Spike thought, earning him a slight push by his mate. ‘Hey, don’t insult my friend, especially when he can’t hear you,’ she answered. She gave him a hard glare which melted when he sent her an image of what he would rather be doing right now. She blushed deeply, but he could smell her arousal perfuming the air. When he caught Angel inhaling he sent him a dark glare and showed some fang. ‘He wants our mate!’ his demon growled, but William quickly calmed him down ‘She chose us, remember?’

“Ehem…” Giles cleared his throat, the sound loud in the quiet library. “William the Bloody, Spike, is one of the most feared vampires in history. He got his nickname by torturing his victims with railroad spikes. He was supposedly sired between 1870 and 1900,” Giles said, his gaze flickering between his slayer and the vampire who held her close.

“1880,” Spike said, making Giles blink. He turned around, found a notebook and hastily scribbled down the year, before continuing. “He is a part of the Scourge of Europe, and has given himself the title Slayer of Slayers.” Giles stared at Spike, who stared back at him. After a while Giles blinked, before looking away.

“I wasn’t that bad,” Spike protested lightly “You Watchers are always exaggerating. The thing with the railroad spikes didn’t happened that often, and they had it coming anyway. Ask him!” Spike said, nodding to Angel, before correcting himself. “No, don’t bother, he would lie anyway. And hey, what ‘bout him?” Spike asked, again nodding at Angel. Angel snarled at the bleached blonde vampire and Giles stared at him, feeling a little nauseous thinking about the victims of the vampire they had allowed into their group without much objection.

“I was never as bad as you!” Angel protested, glaring at the younger vampire. The people inside the library could practically feel the resentment pouring of the brunette vampire, and they glanced nervously at him, not recognizing the vampire they had come to know over the last few months. Willow gulped nervously, edging closer to Xander, as if hoping he would protect her. Cordelia was openly staring at Angel, not recognizing him as the man she had been trying to lure away from Buffy. Well, vampire was the correct term, but she hadn’t known that before. Xander glared at Angel with equal parts fear and hostility, while Jenny stared at Angel, silently drawing parallels between the souled version of Angel, and the unsouled Angelus she had heard about from her elders.

“No, you were worse,” Spike commented, causing everybody except the blonde couple to take a few steps away from the enraged vampire who looked ready to paint the town red. Again they were forcefully reminded that they had let a killer into their midst, and by the way he was acting now some were beginning to regret their easy acceptance of him. “Who was it that taught me how to be a vampire? Who was it that wanted a new childe to remake as they pleased, just as they did with Dru?” Spike asked in a tight voice, anger shining in his eyes. Buffy felt how tense he was, and snaked a hand behind his back, stroking him and just offering her silent support. Spike nearly shook with rage, years of repressed memories unwillingly coming to the surface. Memories of years under the cruel tutelage of Angelus, of being a young fledge who wanted to please his sire and instead had to endure years of Angelus’ ‘teachings’.

“That was Angelus!” Angel forced out between clenched teeth, nostrils flaring. Even though rage had nearly consumed him, he still felt overwhelmed by guilt. He had been assaulted by the memories of Williams’ first years when Spike and Buffy entered, and he was ashamed of how he had treated the other vampire. But he would never admit it, not even under torture.

“And what’s the bloody difference between Angel and Angelus?” Spike asked him in a hard voice. “Except for the ‘us’ at the end, that is,” he added, snarling slightly. He could smell the fear that was beginning to come from some of the people in the room, but he was unsure of whether it was him, Angel or both of them they feared. And right now he couldn’t bring himself to care.

“I’ve got a soul! I don’t kill!” Angel growled, but it sounded desperate. Buffy looked at the vampire before her with a blank expression, not recognizing him as the man she had though him to be in the beginning. The man she had, well, jumped, had been cute and older in an ‘ohh handsome, older and mysterious’ way, but this vampire before her was wigging her out. And something, she guessed Spikes’ memories, was telling her that this was the real Angel.

“Oh yeh, what about China? That ring any bells? When you came crawling back to your sire, begging her to take you back, saying you would do anything if she took you back. Way I see it, there’s not much difference between Angel and Angelus. The only thing the soul does is restrain the demon a bit,” Spike said, glaring at Angel. “And it’s not even your soul, is it now, Liam? Or else you would be a whoring drunkard.” Angel looked like a stranded fish, staring at Spike like he had grown another head. Then he snarled at his grandchilde and swept out of the library, leaving all the humans staring after him.

“Ahem, well… That was an eventful meeting,” Giles said dryly, trying to mask the fear he was beginning to feel for the brunette vampire. Angel had always struck him as a gentle creature, but even then Giles had been wary of him. He was a vampire of course, and Giles knew he would never fully trust a vampire. “How did you survive, Buffy? And why was a new slayer called?” Giles continued, throwing a wary look at the vampire holding her.

“Spike claimed me,” was all Buffy replied, smiling at her watcher. When he gasped she frowned, not getting why he was so shocked. She was alive, wasn’t she? When Giles heard her say that the vampire besides her, Spike, had claimed her, he gasped and nearly fainted. Fortunately he grabbed a chair, which prevented him from collapsing and embarrassing himself.

“Claimed!” Giles exclaimed, before continuing “But, Buffy, you are the Slayer, you are supposed to kill vampires, not become mated to them!” Giles were in a frenzy now, polishing his glassed with jerky movements. He was shocked that his Slayer had become mated to one of the most vicious vampires in history, and right now he wanted to lock himself inside his office and take out a bottle of Scotch.

“Bloody right I claimed her, glad I did too,” Spike said, casting a challenging look at the watcher. He lifted his free hand and moved Buffy’s’ hair out of the way, showing off the raised bite mark she wore on her neck. Giles groaned mentally, and wondered how he could have overlooked it. Buffy smiled weakly at the others in the room, before letting it widen. It wasn’t like she was the only one with marks. She tugged down the collar of Spikes’ duster, exposing the ragged mark she had left on his pale neck. Giles gasped, and then let himself fall heavily into a chair.

“A full claim…” he muttered, taking off his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose. After a few minutes he got up and walked into the office. The humans and lone vampire stood in silence, and from inside the office they could hear Giles rummaging around and cursing. After a while he emerged with an old, worn book under his arm, an unopened bottle of scotch and a glass. He sat down and poured scotch in the glass, nearly overflowing it. He threw the glass back, drinking the liquid courage quickly, refilling his glass when it was empty. The teenagers stared at him, not used to this ‘new’ Giles, but he ignored them, instead opening the book.

Spike, realizing this could take some time, lead Buffy to the stairs and sat down, letting his back rest against the railing. Buffy sat down between his legs, leaning against his chest and sighed in contentment. Spike put his arms around her, and she snuggled deeper into his embrace, grinning mentally as she felt how he reacted to her nearness. Xander, Willow, Jenny and Cordelia moved away from the Slayer and the vampire holding her, sitting down as far away from them as they could and still be near the table.

“You are not the first, you know, to be… ehh… mated” Giles said, momentarily lifting his gaze from the book before him. He looked at the pair on the stairs, feeling a little disturbed by how ‘peaceful’ they looked together. ‘No, not peaceful,’ Giles thought, an unnamed, dark feeling rising up in him ‘It looks wrong.’ “It has happened before, but that is long ago. So each watcher gets this book, as a warning to prevent his Slayer from ever getting mated to a vampire. It is not natural. It’s wrong,” Giles added, a little startled by the amber flickering in the vampires eyes.

“Vampires and Slayers do not go together like that. It is not meant to be. Vampires are evil, with the exception of those with a soul, while the Slayers are the epitome of good,” Giles said, lowering his gaze when the burn in Spikes eyes became to bright. He knew this would probably enrage the Master vampire, but he had to get Buffy to see that this was wrong. “There are five recorded matings between Slayers and vampires. It is often between Slayers who has escaped The Councils’ notice and Master vampires. But… ehh…The Council…ehh… took ‘care’ of these earlier ‘cases’.”