To the wonderful reader who nominated this fic at the FL_AWARDS, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. And thank you for the nomination for best new author.



This fic has also been nominated at the Rogue Poet awards.



This fic has also been nominated at Lost In Spike – YOU ALL ROCK






Chapter 13


Clem was pacing the crypt like a demon possessed. His hearing was excellent, and he knew when Jansen’s henchmen were outside his door. Spike and Buffy were still at the Magic Box, and he was afraid to leave. His eyes scanned the room, looking for the cell phone that Spike had deliberately left for his use. When his eyes caught sight of the elusive object lying on the coffee table, he quickly picked it up. Speed-dialling Spike, he waited impatiently for his friend to answer the phone.

Back in the Magic Box, Spike was glad his cell had started to ring. He really didn’t care what the whelp or the watcher thought about his relationship with Buffy, but their continual stares of hatred was starting to get on his nerves. Buffy’s distress had passed to him through the claim, and he really wanted to get her out of here. Giving her hand a reassuring squeeze, he pulled the phone from his inside pocket and flipped it open.

He didn’t even have time to speak before Clem’s anguished voice screamed at him through the earpiece. Listening carefully to Clem’s frightened ramblings he felt his gut tighten in response. He knew the time had come.

With all the drama of the claiming, the confessions and the interminable angst, they had all forgotten the most important thing.

The Blood Red Moon would happen the following night, and the demons had come to pick up their prize.

Buffy picked up on his unease and immediately knew what was happening. Giving him a small nod she stood up from the table, keeping her eyes locked with his. Closing the phone, they walked calmly to the door of the Magic Shop, seven pairs of eyes following in their wake.


“Just where do you think your going Buffy?” Giles asked; his patience at breaking point.

Buffy and Spike stopped in unison, barely inches from the open door. “The demons are waiting outside Spike’s crypt, Giles.” Turning her head to look at him over her shoulder, a feral gleam came into her eyes. “Your plan is working just fine, Giles. Now that Spike’s my mate, they are going to try and take him instead of Dawn.” Letting go of Spike’s hand, she turned her whole body round to stare at her watcher before she continued. “Does that make you happy, Giles” she spat. “Isn’t this what you wanted all along?”

Giles stared back at her with a small satisfied smile playing about his lips. “Would you not say that this would be a preferable solution to the prophecy Buffy?” he asked sweetly, the sarcasm not lost to the others in the room. “Or would you prefer your sister to die instead of your mate?”

Spike anticipated just how she would react and acted quickly. Before she could spring an attack upon her watcher, he banded his arms around her keeping her still.

“Better watch your mouth watcher,” snarled Spike as he used all the strength he had to keep his mate from attacking Giles. “I don’t think even you can come between us now.”

Looking directly at Spike, Giles sneered. “You honestly think that Buffy will choose you over her calling, Spike? She loved Angel and yet she still sacrificed him to save the world. You will be no different.”

Spike could no longer hold her. Her strength had always been greater than his, but this was one of the few times she used her full power against him. Launching herself full throttle at her startled watcher, she knocked him back against the table. A small smirk found its way to Spike’s lips, as he walked calmly back to the group to watch his beautiful mate in full flow.

Buffy had Giles pinned against the table top, her hands hard on his shoulders to keep him flat against the surface. Xander made an attempt to pull her back, and Spike just smirked more.

“If I can’t hold her back whelp, just what the fuck do you think you can do?”

Xander, frustrated the he could not help Giles, turned his anger on Spike. In his fury, his hand curled into a fist and he landed a reasonable right hook on Spike’s jaw.

“Thanks for that, Xander” Spike drawled. “Maybe you didn’t listen when the slayer told you that I don’t have a chip anymore.” Grabbing Xander’s fist, Spike threw him back against the stairs to the upper level of the store. Towering over him, Spike held him down with his left hand as the boy flailed beneath him. “I’ve wanted to kill you for years, whelp” Spike told the frightened Scooby. “For some reason, known only to herself, Buffy keeps you around. If it were up to me, I’d bite that sweaty neck of yours, turn you, and laugh when the slayer staked you. But, no, I have to keep my temper ‘cause she thinks you’re her friend.” Leaning further down, Spike almost spat his next words in the boy’s face. “You ever touch her again, or talk to her the way you did tonight, then claim be damned…….I WILL fucking kill you.”

Pulling the now frightened young man up to his feet by the front of his shirt, Spike kept hold of him as he continued. “She’s mine whelp, you got that through your thick skull now. She’s always been mine.”

Finally letting Xander go, Spike watched in glee as the boy struggled to stay upright. Walking away, Spike turned his eyes to his mate. Buffy was still sitting atop the watcher, her hands controlling his movements and her eyes burning into his.

“Giles,” she asked. “What the fuck have you got against Spike?”

Riled that she could treat him like this, Giles’ anger knew no bounds. Words he never thought he would ever utter started to pour from him mouth.

“He’s a vampire, Buffy. A ruthless killer that should not be allowed to live on the same planet as humans, and you know it.” Spittle started to pour from the side of his mouth to lye in pools on the table beneath him as he continued. “He killed my father over twenty years ago. I had to stake my own father when he rose from his grave. William the Bloody bragged about his kill all over London. He told everyone how he and Drusilla has feasted on a watcher and were just waiting to train him as a minion.”

Shocked at his words, Buffy loosened her grip on Giles. Slowly she rose from his prone body and moved to an empty seat at the table. Tears in her eyes, she looked up at Spike and sensed there was more to this story than just Giles’ version. Gesturing for him to sit beside her, Spike calmly took her hand in his.

Giles struggled from the table, his anger still wild in his breast, directed it all at Buffy.

“I tell you that he killed my father, and you still hold his hand?”

Buffy calmly looked at Giles before she replied. “He was a vampire without a soul then, Giles. He would have killed anyone he could.”

Giving her hand a tighter squeeze, Spike silently thanked her through the claim for her support.

“Can I ask a question, watcher?” Spike innocently asked. He continued before Giles could answer yay or nay. “If you hate me so much, why did you not stake me the minute you knew I was in Sunnydale?”

Staring back at the blonde vampire, Giles opened his mouth to speak. “Do you think I didn’t try? Christ, I roamed the streets of Sunnydale looking for you and your vampire whore. Then we had the debacle of Angelus losing his soul, and he became a far more dangerous vampire than you ever could be.”

Spike bristled at the watcher’s comment. How dare the old man suggest he wasn’t evil enough? He’d been stuck in a wheelchair, for God’s sake, why had the watcher not come looking for him then? Before he could ask Giles about that, Giles continued to rant.

“I gave you a ‘Get out of Jail’ card when you helped Buffy defeat Angelus. But there won’t be another one, Spike”

Spike sat back in his chair and tilted his head to one side. “Why not just finish me off when you had me chained to your bathtub?” He was sure there was more to the watcher’s story than Giles was telling them. A lot of things just didn’t add up. Why was the watcher determined to see the end of him now, when he had plenty opportunity in the past?

A look on unholy glee passed over Giles’ face. “Because I found that watching you suffer; writhing about in pain when you tried to attack a human, was almost beautiful to see.”

Buffy stared up at the man who had nurtured her for years in disbelief. Giles had never displayed this side of him before. The Scoobies had heard stories of Giles alter ego ‘Ripper’, but they had never seen it come to the fore like this. Xander’s mouth had dropped open in shock, and Willow held tightly to Tara’s hand.

Anya just looked at Giles and smiled before she commented. “It’s a pity Vengeance Demons are women, Giles. D’Hoffryn would have loved someone like you to join his little band.”

Buffy, Dawn and Joyce couldn’t help themselves; their laughter filled the room at Anya’s comment. Spike laughter broke free to join theirs when he glanced at the former vengeance demon, noticing that she wore a puzzled look. She obviously did not understand why everyone thought her comment funny. Willow and Tara joined in the laughter, but Xander stood near the counter, his face red with rage.

Xander could not keep it in any longer. “You find this funny?” his angry voice penetrated their reverie.

“Actually Xander” Joyce smiled at the angry young man. “I find it absolutely hilarious. Spike has been at Giles’ mercy so many times, but it’s not until Buffy decides she wants him as a mate then he decides to act. Don’t you think that’s just a little bit strange?”

Giles answered for him. “I could not kill a helpless creature, Joyce.”

“That’s just rubbish Giles, and you know it” she retorted. “There has to be another reason.”

Spike smirked at the assembled company, before looking directly at Giles.

“Oh, there’s a reason Joyce. You can be sure of that.”

Giles’ venomous look turned to the vampire. “Enlighten us all, Spike. Just why did I not kill you.”

“Why that’s simple, Giles” he replied. “I didn’t kill you father.”

A hush fell over the room as the watcher and the vampire stared at each other.

Spike broke the silence first. “Apart from the last few years, I haven’t been in dear Old Blighty for almost thirty years. There is no way that ‘William the Bloody’ killed your dear old dad.”

If it had not been so tragic, it would have been laughable. The look on Giles’ face was a picture of confusion. He had lived with this for years, and his belief in Spike’s guilt had held true for too long.

“Now,” Spike spoke, his voice contemplative. “Let’s look at the facts as the watcher has presented them, shall we? Fact one, Giles says his father was turned by a vampire calling himself by my moniker. Fact two, I was nowhere near England, never mind London, twenty years ago. Fact three, you would think he would scour the planet looking for me if he was sure I had killed his pater, wouldn’t you? Fact four, why did he tell the slayer, and Captain Forehead, that he had never heard of me when I turned up in Sunnyhell when I had done his family so much damage? Fact five, he had so many opportunities to kill me but never did.”

The assembled group looked questioningly at Giles waiting for answers. None came.

Spurred on by Giles’ silence, Spike continued to speak. “Shall I answer for you, Giles?” Looking each member of the group in eyes before he spoke, he sat back comfortably in his chair and smiled. “I don’t know why you keep telling yourself that I killed your father, but I can tell you now that it wasn’t me. I believe your father was turned, after all, if we vamps can’t kill the slayer then her watcher is a good target. I take it your father was a watcher too Giles, ‘cause I know the job runs in families.”

When Giles gave an almost imperceptible nod, Spike acknowledged it before he continued.

“Ask yourself who told you it was me, Giles. Find them and speak to them before you throw your accusations my way.”

Spike stood up and extended his hand to Buffy.

“Coming luv?” he asked. “We’ve got a date with some demons who want us dead.”

Smiling, Buffy stood and took his hand.

“Can I kill the leader, Spike?” she asked in a playful voice.

“I’m counting on it, luv” was his reply.