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In Harm's Way by dawnofme
 
5. Wrong
 
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In Harm’s Way
Chapter Five: Wrong


“Yes!” Xander exclaimed as the last candle in the circle went out.

Getting up from her kneeling position, Willow gingerly stepped out of the circle. “I think that did it. It’s a shame that Buffy isn’t here to make sure the reversal spell worked,” she said, beginning the job of packing all the materials into the box that Oz held out for her. “I’m so worried about her.”

“She’s a big girl with super powers. I think she can handle herself,” Oz told her softly.

Giles glanced at his watch one more time. “It’s half past ten now. If we don’t hear from her soon, I’m going to have to call Joyce and see if she knows where Buffy is.”

Xander stretched and yawned. “I‘m going to go home, take a hot shower and then crawl into bed.”

“No,” Giles said quickly, “you can’t go. None of us are safe until we neutralize Spike.”

The teens stopped what they were doing and exchanged glances. Xander asked, “What should we do?”

“We need to hole up somewhere Spike won’t be able to find us. That will buy us some time, until we can come up with a plan. We need to find Buffy first.” Another thing occurred to him. “I think we’d better call Joyce now. She got a visit from Spike the last time he was in town. I don’t think she’s safe, either.”

Willow raised a hand, “I’ll do it.”


~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~


Buffy slowly came to. Everything was sore, but in a good way. She stopped in mid-stretch and gasped as she remembered why she felt so wonderfully sated and sore. Slowly, she turned her head and stared in horror at the vampire in a dead sleep next to her. She closed her eyes in a pathetic effort to shut out the truth of what she’d done.

Oh, my God! I had sex with Spike.

She eased out of the bed and felt around for her clothes. Finding her pants on the floor by the end of the bed, she slipped them on. There was no time to find her underwear. Her bra was tangled up in the blankets and it took some doing to get it loose. Then she began looking for her shirt and blushed as she remembered how excited she’d gotten when Spike had torn it off her. Her fingers came into contact with cotton material. It was Spike’s black t-shirt. It would have to do. She collected her boots and figured she could put them on when she was far away from the lair.

Then as quietly as she could, she leaned over Spike, feeling for his hand. She breathed a sigh of relief when the ring slipped easily off his finger. Buffy wasted no time getting out of there. With her boots in one hand, she ran through the maze of passages while shoving the Gem of Amara into her pocket.

The blinding light of early afternoon greeted her on the outside. Starting at a run, she had to stop and hop around when she stepped on a rock. Buffy sat in the grass and quickly slipped into her boots. The dorm rooms were only a minute away and she needed to get there before anyone saw her, but she sat on the grass and stared off at nothing in particular.

She longed for the days when she was ignorant of vampires and spells. A groan escaped her lips as she recalled the things that she’d said to Spike on Midridge Point. Things, that until the spell, she would hardly admit to herself.

As she got up, she told herself, “I’m not in love with Spike.”

Then she took off running again, as if the devil himself was after her, until she got to her door. Once inside she locked it and was relieved to find Willow not there. Amy was awake in her cage, looking out at Buffy with both front paws gripping the bars.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Buffy told the rat as she grabbed her pellets and filled the dish. “I’d do anything to change places with you right about now.” Tears threatened to spill over. “I’m a slut. Two guys in less than a week.”

She couldn’t take the little beady eyes accusing her, so she turned away and flopped onto her bed. The blinking red light from the answering machine got her attention. She sat up straight and stared at it. Three messages were waiting. For two days straight, she’d begged the universe for messages and now, she snorted, here were some when she really didn’t want to hear from anyone. At the rate her luck was holding out, one of them would be from Parker, wanting to get together again.

She quickly pushed the button and sat back on her bed to listen.

“Buffy?” Giles said. “Where have you gone? Call me right away. It’s too dangerous for you to be out there while you’re under a love spell. What if Spike finds you?”

A beep sounded, then Willows voice filled the room, “We need you, Buffy. Please come to Giles’ place. I’m going to do the spell, but I won’t know if it works unless you are here.”

Another beep, followed by her mom’s concerned voice. “Buffy, this is Mom. I just got done speaking with Willow. I don’t know what’s going on, but I’m not going to go into hiding from Spike. I have to go to work. When you get this message, call me, please. I’m at the Gallery now.”

Sighing as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed, she picked up the phone and dialed.


~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~


“Where has she been?” Xander asked, before Giles could even put the phone back.

“She was out looking for Spike. She sounded very tired, but she says we can all go back to school and work. She has the Gem of Amara.”

“That’s great!” Willow said. “She’s not hurt is she?”

“She didn’t mention any injuries.”

“How did she get it?” Xander asked.

Giles walked around the room, picking up books. “When I asked, she just told me that she didn’t want to talk about it.” He lined a few books up on a shelf. “What we need to do now is figure out what we are going to do with that Gem. It’s too dangerous to just leave lying around.”

Oz handed Willow her purse and held the door open for her. Before leaving she said, “I can’t remember the last time we had to pull an all-nighter like that. I’m exhausted; I’m going to go back to my room and sleep for a few hours. What time should we meet back here?”

“Six o’clock sound all right?” Giles said.

They all agreed to be back then before parting ways.



~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~


Buffy shuffled slowly down the hall with a heavy load of books in her arms. At the time, the idea of going to her afternoon classes had seemed like a good one. She’d been very tired, but the room had been too quiet and there was no way she could’ve stayed there with her thoughts. A good lecture was what she’d needed. The problem was, all her professors were boring, and she’d ended up falling asleep at her seat, dreaming of platinum blond hair and piercing blue eyes.

She stopped and stomped a foot. Get out of my head!

The blinds were closed and soft music filled the room. Buffy was so glad Willow was asleep. She changed into her sweat pants and a t-shirt before slipping under the covers. After tossing and turning for ten minutes, she gave up. This was ridiculous. She needed her sleep, but she just couldn’t stop thinking about it. She’d never look at a sunrise the same again.

So what if it had been the best sex of her life? She’d only had two partners before this morning. First times are never incredible, according to the magazine articles she’d read. Parker was a selfish bastard. It totally shook her to the core to find out that Spike was not selfish in the bedroom.

He was evil; therefore, he should not have been concerned about her pleasure. She’d thrown herself at him. She could feel the hot blush that stained her cheeks at that thought. He’d actually tried to talk her out of it, but once Spike decided he was going to go for it, he really got into it. She smiled as she thought about how he’d said he was evil and he was going to take advantage of her and ravage her. She should really hate him for it, but she knew a little secret about him.

Some of what everyone saw of Spike was all bluster and talk. Sure, he was dangerous and evil. He murdered innocent people. She had to remember that, but there was a very giving side to him as well.

Sitting up quickly, she shook her head and gave her cheek a little slap. What was she doing, thinking nice thoughts about Spike? Not only had that spell made her fall in love with an evil demon, it had made her insane as well. Spike was not a nice vampire. She lay back down, willing herself to go back to sleep. If she had to guess, she’d say that Spike was probably in his lair right now, gloating over having done a slayer.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~


“Aaaah.”

The last of Harmony’s ceramic unicorns smashed against the walls of the cave. Sharp little pieces flew everywhere, joining the others all over the floor.

“Stupid bitch!

He needed a drink. That’s what he needed. Tearing up the cave had done nothing to make him feel any better. Spike stared at his ringless finger again and berated himself for being such a fool. What kind of vampire was he? He got up to pace, booted feet crunching over glass and ceramic shards. Dumb as he was, he’d fallen asleep in the Slayer’s arms. The bloody Slayer of all people!

With wild eyes, he searched the room for something else to destroy. The gaudy tapestries were in shreds, the desk was in pieces, the mattress had been ripped open, stuffing and springs poking through, and junk littered the floor.

If only he had that ring. He’d go out into the daylight and hunt her down. Problem was, he didn’t know if he’d kill her right away or kiss her senseless first.

“Grrrrrrrrahhhhh!” he yelled out again. “Wrong, wrong, wrong!”

He should have just killed her yesterday, even if she’d refused to fight back. But no, he had to go and shag her instead. He glanced around, taking in the mess that his fury had produced. With all the minions gone, the place seemed bleak and too quiet. Now that he’d destroyed the room, he was going to need another place to sleep. He grabbed his coat and in one swift move put it on.

Spike was halfway to the lair’s entrance when he realized that he’d forgotten something. He stomped back into the room and yanked the bed frame away from the wall. A pair of black lace panties sat on the floor. He grabbed them, brought them to his face, then shoved them into his coat pocket, before going to pace near the entrance of the lair.

It would be a couple of hours until the sun went down. He had plenty of time to think about this morning. A grin spread over his face as he thought about it. At least he had one hell of a memory to think back on, and it wouldn’t be long before he’d have the Gem of Amara back on his finger.


~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~



When Giles’s door finally opened, Spike stepped behind a bush to observe. He knew they wouldn’t tell him where it was if he just asked. Xander and Oz came out together and closed the door behind them. He started to relax, but perked up as he heard their conversation.

“I wish I was going to L.A. with you tomorrow,” Xander told Oz.

Oz shrugged, “Devon set the gig up, so who knows what kind of place we’ll be playing.”

As they moved out of his line of vision, he smirked. So that’s where the Gem was going. The grin turned into a scowl. I should have guessed, she’d give it Angel.

He warred within himself. Should he follow the wolf? Or should he wait until Buffy left? More than likely, Buffy would be keeping the ring with her until the last minute, since she was the strongest one out of the bunch to protect it.

Buffy and Willow came out together.

“I’ll walk you home, but then I’ve got to see my mom. She has one of my old Halloween costumes and I’m thinking it will work for this year, if she can let out a few hems.”

Willow stopped walking and gave Buffy a sad look. “Buffy, stop. You keep changing the subject. Why don‘t you want to tell me about it?”

“Nothing happened!” Buffy squeaked out. “Just like I said in there, I found him while I was under the spell. When the reversal spell went into effect, I caught him off guard and took the ring off his finger. Then I ran into the sunlight where he couldn’t come after me.”

Buffy was obviously uncomfortable under the weight of Willow’s stare. “I know you. There’s something you aren’t telling me.”

The Slayer linked her arm with Willow’s and said, “So, what are you wearing for Halloween?”

Once they were out of sight, Spike came out into the open. “Yeah, nothing happened?” he said sarcastically. “It’s not like I’m going to be bragging to all my demon friends either.”

Sticking around Sunnydale was not a good idea. He needed to get far, far away from the Slayer. If he left now, he’d have plenty of time to get to L.A. and look up a vamp he knew. Marcus was great at torture and Angelus would appreciate his methods. If he had to make an effort to get the Gem back, he might as well enjoy himself.














 
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