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Just a Summer Romance by slaymesoftly
 
Chapters 15 - 20
 
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Chapter Fifteen

After an unrestful and unsatisfying night, during which she faked an orgasm for the first time in her life, Buffy was tired and cranky when the alarm went off.   Riley had been determined to see that they were going to “make up for lost time” and insisted on having sex again in her narrow bed.  When they seemed to be going nowhere with it, Buffy pretended an orgasm, just to make Riley get off and let her go to sleep. 

She leapt out of bed quickly before he could unintentionally try for another round of “let’s show Buffy how much better this is with Spike”.  She grabbed her robe and some clothes and went to the bathroom down the hall to shower and get dressed. 

While the hot water was running over her body, she tried to analyze what had gone wrong with them.  When Riley left Sunnydale for the summer, she was sure she was falling in love with the ex commando.  He was, she and her friends thought, perfect for her.  While he was nowhere near as strong as either Buffy or Spike, he was, thanks to his enhancements, stronger and quicker than most men.  He knew about vampires and demons and was more than willing to help fight them. He seemed to genuinely love her, and was very sweet and considerate.

If anything, he was too considerate and caring.  If she was honest with herself, she could admit that even before he went away she was feeling a little smothered by his constant attention and neediness.  While he said he accepted her calling, and admired her for it, at the same time he couldn’t seem to shake the idea that it was his job to protect her and he frequently got in her way when she was slaying.

She knew instinctively that the sheer joy she and Spike shared in a good fight was not part of Riley’s make-up.  His purpose was to eliminate an enemy as efficiently and quickly as possible and with a minimum amount of physical contact.  He was always willing to spar with her, but it was no more satisfying than the night’s sex.  He was unwilling to go all out, apparently laboring under the impression that he might hurt her.  As a result, she had to hold herself back so much that she thought she might as well be sparing with Xander.

She sighed heavily as she got out and toweled herself dry. 

“Why can’t he be more like Spike?” she grumbled quietly to herself as she put her clothes on.  “Just like Spike, only human, and not-evil, and...argh!”

After a quick breakfast in the school cafeteria; one at which Riley chatted casually as though the last two months had never happened, they walked to the Magic Box for the Scoobie meeting.

“Buffster! Riley!” Xander greeted them enthusiastically, folding Buffy in a big hug while he shook Riley’s hand.  “Great to see you, guys.  Together.  Not that you wouldn’t be...together...cause that’s how you are...together.  Right?”

The big man gave Xander a puzzled stare as he answered with, “Well, yeah, Xander.  Is there some reason you thought we wouldn’t be?”

Before the brunette could open his mouth to reply, Anya shrugged and said, “I guess he wondered if you would still be together after Buffy spent the whole summer with Spike.”

Her boyfriend elbowed her hard and shook his head with a sheepish grin. 

“Boy, Anya, I don’t know where you get your ideas, but that one was a lulu!” 

He tried to glare her into silence, but she snapped back, “What? You’re the one who said Buffy has a thing for vampires and you were worried about her spending all summer palling around with one that had--.”

She glared at him indignantly when he grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the back of the store.  He shot a “heh, heh, just kidding,” at Buffy and Riley as he retreated from them.

The Slayer’s face was beet red and she avoided meeting Riley’s eyes, although she could almost feel the anger rolling off his body as he ground out, “You spent all summer with him?”

“Patrolling!” she squeaked.  “He helped me patrol, and...”

Just then the subject of the conversation burst through the door, a smoking blanket covering his head. 

The smile that started to light up his face when he saw Buffy, faded when Riley stepped forward and got between the petite slayer and the vampire.

“What the hell are YOU doing here?” he demanded.  “This is a meeting for Buffy and her friends.”

Only Buffy noticed the slight flinch when Riley emphasized “friends”; Riley only saw the cocky smirk that Spike put on as he answered, “I’m here by special invitation of her Watcher, soldier boy.”  He put a small amount of stress on “boy” and smiled quietly to himself.

(Bloody hell, I’m channeling my inner Angelus, today.)

Riley stiffened at the reminder that the bleached punk in front of him was actually a master vampire who had been around in one state or another for over 150 years. Putting his arm around Buffy possessively, he stared back at the smirking vampire and growled, “I think he’ll find there isn’t much need for your help, now that I’m back in Sunnydale.” 

He was so busy preening at his statement that he missed Buffy’s eye roll and the vampire’s subsequent grin.

“We’ll see, won’t we,” Spike replied with deceptive mildness.  Inside, his demon was screaming to be let out so he could rip both arms off the man who was touching his property.  One look at the way Buffy was shaking off Riley’s proprietary grip and he was grateful for the chip.

(Not one to be owned by anybody, my Slayer.  Bloody stupid git’s gonna find that out the hard way.)

Riley’s hurt complaint when Buffy threw his arm off her shoulder was interrupted by the arrival of Giles with Willow and Tara.  While the girls greeted each other with hugs and squeals, the Watcher looked back and forth between the two tense men in the room and mentally rolled his eyes like a teenager.

Tara’s shy smile of hello, and Willow’s cheery “Hi Spike, hi, Riley” broke some of the tension and the vampire went over to the counter and hopped up to sit on it.  Xander and Anya had come from the back of the shop when they heard the girls come in and the whole Scoobie gang was soon seated around the table.

While Spike watched from his perch on the counter, Riley shifted his feet uncomfortably as he realized all the seats were taken.  He settled on leaning against the wall behind Buffy’s chair where he could be close to her and still glare at the relaxed looking vampire.

Buffy was quick to assure her friends that they hadn’t missed anything by being gone most of the summer.  “You know how it is in summer, guys.  Evil kinda goes on vacation too.”

“So, there was nothing slay-worth?” Willow asked curiously.

“Nothing we couldn’t handle,” her blond friend chirped back before her brain could reach her mouth.

“We?”

Giles cleared his throat and jumped in to rescue his panic-stricken Slayer.

“Yes, it would appear that Spike has been quite useful to Buffy for the last few months; assisting her with her patrolling and slaying duties as well as keeping her from going, if I am using the term correctly, ‘wiggy’ from boredom.”

“Way to go, slightly-less-evil-undead,” Xander snarked.  “Buffy and boredom – always a bad combination.”

“Tell me about it,” the vampire muttered with a laugh as he ducked the wadded up paper the Slayer threw at him. 

Riley’s face darkened as he watched the relaxed by-play between his girl friend and the vampire.  Giles was also observing their interaction with a slight frown, but his curiosity about the vampire’s change in behavior allowed him to push down any disquieting thoughts about his Slayer and another vampire.

“If the two people in question would settle down,” he harumphed, “I would like to discuss the possible ramifications of the summer’s activities.”

He missed the quick exchange of looks between Buffy and Spike, but neither Riley nor Willow missed the heated glances.  Willow exchanged a knowing look with Tara and shook her head slightly.  Tara gave her a reassuring smile and gestured briefly toward Spike’s head to indicate she had seen his aura and wasn’t worried. 

Spike narrowed his eyes at the two witches and asked suspiciously, “What are you two conjuring up now?”

Willow just looked at him intently, but Tara smiled warmly and blushed as she said, “We were just wondering how much activity there actually was.”  She ducked her head, embarrassed by her own comments and Willow leaped to her rescue with, “Yes, with the hellmouth being all quiet and evil being all asleep, and stuff like that.  We were just wondering what you guys had to do every night.”

Spike smothered a laugh as Buffy spit doughnut crumbs out on the table.  Willow helpfully pounded her on the back as the small blond gasped and choked.

“A very good question,” came the cold voice from behind Buffy’s chair.  The venom in Riley’s voice sucked all the humor out of the room and there was silence until Giles broke it.

“And one to which we might eventually get an answer if we can all stay on topic.” 

He glared around the room and eventually everyone was looking at him attentively.  Everyone except Riley, who was still staring coldly at the vampire.

“As I have intimated to Buffy already,” he began pedantically, “the old Watcher’s Diaries indicate that it is not unheard of for a vampire to assist a slayer, or even some other human, in the fight against their own kind.” 

He waited for that to sink in, ignoring Spike’s “Bloody Hell!”

“It is, of course, extremely rare, and has not been documented for several hundred years.  However, just as Spike made common cause with Buffy two years ago to save the world from Angelus’ plans, it is not uncommon for a vampire to initiate a temporary truce with a Slayer or the Council in order to dispose of a common enemy.

“So, although Angel is the only vampire that we are aware of to be cursed with a soul,” he paused for Spike’s obligatory, “Bloody poof” and continued, “it is certainly within the realm of the Council’s experience for one to assist in the fight against evil. 

“It is my suspicion that the Powers That Be may have arranged for Spike to be chipped in order to push him more quickly in the direction of helping Buffy that he began during the time of Angelus.  They may have chosen him to be her...umm...”

There was silence for several seconds, and then a burst of chatter as everyone tried to talk at once.

“You sayin’ the bloody Powers That Can’t Let Well Enough Alone are responsible for my chip?”

“Spike?  The bleached wonder has been Chosen?  Merciful Zeus!”

“I’ve certainly known it to happen.  Although there’s always some sort of relationship between the slayer and the vampire. Usually something se—mmph!” Anya’s contribution was cut off by Xander’s hand.

Riley’s calm, cold voice intruded on the general babble.

“The Powers That Be, whatever they are, have chosen Spike to be Buffy’s what, Giles?  What exactly are you saying?”

“Well, to be her, for want of a better term, right hand man, I suppose. Another warrior to fight at her side. An equal.”

While Riley snorted in disgust, Buffy said quietly, “Spike fights on my left.”

“Leave it to the bleached wonder not to know what a right hand man’s job is,” Xander snarked.

“This is all speculation,” Riley stated emphatically.  “More supernatural mumbo jumbo.  It has nothing to do with Buffy.”

Everyone in the room stared at the confident man with their mouths open. 

“It has everything to do with Buffy, you stupid git.”  Spike spoke for all of them.  “She IS Heaven’s Chosen One.  D’you think she’s that strong because she takes a lot of vitamins?” he scoffed at the disbelieving young man.

“Buffy,” her boy friend appealed to her,  “You don’t seriously believe any of this crap do you?  Spike is chipped because he walked into our nets; and the only reason he isn’t dust is because he was able to escape and you people,” he gestured around the room, “you people, who think you are standing against evil, decided to hide him from us.

“He isn’t your equal. He doesn’t even deserve to walk the same earth.  He’s just a temporarily harmless animal that you for some reason want to keep around as a pet.”

Buffy’s heart ached when she saw the look on Spike’s face and realized how much of what Riley said had resonated with the vampire.  In spite of his quick recovery, and the cocky grin he sent toward the bigger man, she knew that his innate inferiority complex was absorbing the harsh words and believing them.

While Tara moved quickly to put a gentle hand on the vampire’s arm, surprising him with her kindness, Giles turned on the outsider in the room and said with just a trace of Ripper, “You are a very stupid man, Riley.”

“Yeah, well, at least I’m in touch with the real world. I know a vicious animal when I see one, and I know what to do about it.”   With a last venomous look at the vampire he whirled and stalked toward the door.  Without looking back, he said, “Are you coming, Buffy?”

“I don’t think so,” she answered slowly.  She was trying to reconcile the sweet man she thought she knew with the one stomping out of the shop after saying such hurtful things to her friends and her watcher.

“Fine,” he threw over his shoulder.  “When you decide to face the facts about all the supernatural garbage your watcher has been feeding you, you will know where to find me.”

There was silence again for several minutes. Even Anya seemed to be at a loss for words.  Finally, Xander spoke up and offered cheerily, “Well, that went well, don’t you think?”


Chapter Sixteen

Riley’s angry exit left everyone stunned and puzzled.

“Buffy, does he know nothing about what a Slayer is?” her watcher inquired, somewhat testily.  “What have you told him about your calling?”

She looked down at the table and frowned guiltily.

“I tried, Giles. Really, I did. But he just didn’t get it.  He’s all into ‘science that’ and ‘technology that’ and he was always looking for some ‘logical’ explanation for everything.  And you know me, not so much with the metaphysical stuff...I didn’t really explain things well enough, I guess.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Xander began hesitantly, “but I think Captain Peroxide better start watching his back.   I don’t think Riley’s real happy about knowing his girl friend is gonna be spending a lot of time in dark, lonely places with the evil undead...and somebody hit me to remove that visual, please!” he groaned.

“Your concern is touchin’, whelp; but I think I can take care of m’self,” Spike growled.

“As much as I hate to admit it, I do believe Xander may have a point, Spike.  Riley is well-versed in the methods of removing vampires and you are not really able protect yourself as well as you could at one time.”

As Giles finished speaking, he noticed a look of true fear on Buffy’s face when she realized what he was implying.  Moving toward the vampire, she grabbed his arm and began pulling him toward the basement.

“Let’s go, Spike,” she ordered.  “We can get to your crypt through the sewers from here, can’t we?”

“Yeah, but why would we—“

“We’re going to get your stuff.  You can’t stay there until I’m sure Riley is going to leave you alone.”

“So, what, you’re going to babysit me?  I don’t think so,” he snorted indignantly, yanking his arm away.   “Master vampire, here, pet.  I don’t hide behind a woman’s skirt – even it is a mini-skirt worn by a slayer,” he finished with a leer.

“You’re going to be staying with my mom.  She DOESN’T wear mini skirts, but she does swing a mean axe, as you might recall.”

Giles tried to suppress a memory of Joyce helping him bring out the Ripper after ingesting band candy.  He distinctly remembered a mini skirt and his mind wandered briefly.  When he came out of his self-induced fog, Buffy and Spike were already on their way down stairs.  He could hear their voices floating back up, arguing in a joking fashion about the vampire’s need for protection.

While Spike’s demon pride was outraged that the Scoobies thought he needed help taking care of himself, his inner William was warmed knowing Buffy was worried about him.  That she cared enough to want to keep him safe more than made up for the high handed way she’d decided where and how to do it.

Spike spent most of the walk laughing at Buffy’s attempts to keep her new shoes out of the filth and water trickling along the middle of the big pipe.  He decided she looked adorable with her nose wrinkled up in disgust.  When he commented on it, she replied testily, “I’d think somebody with a super smeller wouldn’t want to be anywhere near this disgusting stuff.”

“Vampire,pet. Don’t need to breathe, remember?”

“Oh yeah.  So you are.  Silly me.” 

Without warning, she leaped onto his back and said, “So, you can slosh through this stuff with your boots that are older than I am, and I’ll hold my nose.”

Spike pretended to grumble and complain about her weight and her “thinkin’ she was a bloody princess”, but to have her touching him again, her arms around his neck and her breasts pressed into his back, had him grinning from ear to ear.  He reached around and grasped her ass cheeks to help hold her up, wishing she had jumped on him from the front.

Buffy buried her offended nose in the skin on the back of his neck, inhaling the scent of leather, tobacco, whiskey and Spike instead of the smell of sewer gas. 

“Mmmmm, much better,” she breathed, nuzzling the back of his neck.

“So I smell better than sewer gas, pet?  Not quite sure how to take that.”

“You smell better than lots of things,” she said softly and fastened her lips on his cool skin briefly.

The vampire had no reply to that, he just lengthened his strides to get where they were going faster. 

When he emerged from the tunnel that connected his bedroom to the sewers, he slowed and began backing toward the bed.  As soon as he felt his knees touch the edge of the mattress, he let go of her legs and unwrapped her hands from around his neck, dropping her onto it.  He turned around to find her sitting propped up on her arms, her legs sprawled out, looking up at him expectantly.

“So what’s this about, then, love?  You really don’t strike me as the kind of woman who goes from one man’s bed to another’s all in the same day.”  He looked down and shuffled his feet uncomfortably.  “In spite of anything I might have said last night,” he added. 

Buffy shook her head and looked away from his inquisitive eyes.  “I...I’m sorry about last night.”

“No, pet,” he said, kneeling down and cupping her chin.  “I’m sorry.  I never should have talked to you like that.  I was out of line.”

“No,” she said softly.  “No, you weren’t.  I WAS thinking you might...” She glanced away and then forced herself to look into his eyes.  “I’m sorry. It was selfish of me, and gross and disgusting and—“

Her self-flagellation was interrupted by soft, cool lips that fastened themselves on hers and a cool tongue that gently traced her lower lip until she opened her mouth and her sweet breath sighed into his.  She put her arms around his neck and fell back on the bed, pulling him with her.  They gave matching moans when her warmth was once again pressed against his cool, lean body.

The world went away as Buffy fell into Spike’s bone-melting kisses.  Once again, it was just the two of them.  On their own - no Watcher, no judgmental friends, no jealous boyfriend to worry about. 

“I missed you, love.  Missed you so much,” he murmured as he ran his mouth down her neck and flicked his tongue over the invisible bite marks.  “Missed feelin’ you, touchin’ you.  Missed bein’ with you.”

He stopped his frantic murmuring and tasting to raise his head and look into her soft green eyes.

“I’ll never bite you again, love.  Not if it means I have to stay away from you like that again.  Know the demon was wrong to claim you.  Know you’ll never be mine.  Jus’ tell me you’ll let me be around you.  Let me be part of your life. Jus’ let me have my crumbs, Buffy. “

“You ARE part of my life, you stupid vampire.  I missed you more when the claim was gone than I did before.”

He blinked at her in complete amazement.

“You what?”

She flushed and lowered her eyes briefly, then resolutely brought them back up to meet his awed gaze.

“When...when I couldn’t feel you any more.  It was like part of me was missing.  I didn’t know where you were or if you were okay”

He continued to look at her with complete attention, one eyebrow raised as she fumbled on.

“Okay, I’m not saying I missed the ‘when you hurt, I hurt’ stuff.  Cause, on the whole?  Got enough pain in my own life, thank you very much.” She shifted underneath him, bringing out an involuntary groan as he pressed his whole length against her again.

“But, I missed not knowing where you were; that you were close by.  I missed not being able to feel how much you....” her voice trailed off in embarrassment and he smiled down at her, stroking her cheek tenderly.

“Being able to feel how much I love you?” he asked softly.

Buffy nodded her head and closed her eyes against the emotion she could see in his.

“I missed that,” she whispered against his cheek.  “I really missed that.”

“It’s not gone, love,” he whispered back, trailing kisses from her ear to her mouth.  “It’s still here.  It will always be here. You might not always feel it, but don’t every doubt it.  S’not goin’ anywhere.”

“Show me.”

The vampire growled and began pulling her shirt over her head,  “With pleasure, pet.  Get those damn clothes off and I’ll show you...”

Buffy giggled and squirmed under him, trying to reach his belt buckle while he fumbled with the fastening of her pants.  He paused in his frantic pursuit of Buffy nakedness to pull one rosy nipple into his mouth and begin sucking on it, making the Slayer arch up off the bed into him.  He ran his tongue over one breast, then the other, nipping gently at the hard little tips until they were both bright red peaks of hard flesh.

He sat up briefly to pull his own shirt off and throw it across the room, then went back to opening her pants and pulling them down her legs.  While he was at the bottom of the bed, he stood up and quickly shed his own jeans.  He got back on the bed on his hands and knees and crawled up her body, planting feather-light kisses as he went.  When he reached the end of her long, tanned legs, he let his fangs come down and used them to slice through the scrap of lace that covered her neatly trimmed curls.

He carefully retracted his fangs before lowered his face and inhaling the scent he’d been missing for weeks.  With a sigh, he put his face against her and nuzzled his way into her folds, growling softly.  He heard Buffy catch her breath with a gasp when his tongue shot out to gently touch her clit and her hips jerked up.  

He smiled against her and put one hand on her lower stomach to hold her still. 

“Uh, uh, pet.  I’ve been missing this too much.  Gonna take my time and you’re just gonna have to live with it.”

“That’s just evil...” she gritted out.

“Vampire, love.”  He ran his tongue from her entrance all the way up to her swollen clit which he then flicked with his tongue until she was almost growling at him.  When she started hissing, “Spiiiiiike” he relented and pulled the needy nub into his mouth.  As he sucked on it and gently rubbed it with his blunt teeth, she moaned and then began the whimpers that told him she was almost there.  Just as she grabbed his hair and arched up into his mouth, he let his fangs slip out and nicked her clit just enough to release a few drops of blood.

Another gasp and jerk of her body told him the bite was just enough to give her another orgasm and he smiled in satisfaction at having made his love come twice before he even entered her.  Buffy pulled on his hair until he looked up at her and grinned.

“Sorry, love, jus’ bein’ greedy.”

“Come up here and be greedy for awhile,” she purred, continuing to tug on his unruly curls. 

He crawled the rest of the way up her body, pausing to plant wet, open-mouthed kisses here and there.  He stopped when the head of his throbbing cock was just brushing her opening and she looked into his intense eyes as she said, “Come in, vampire.”

With a groan, he slid into her welcoming moist heat and was enveloped by everything Buffy.  She wrapped her legs around his and pulled his head to her neck as they started rocking together slowly. 

It wasn’t long before he was thrusting harder and faster as he felt her beginning to clench around him and she moved her feet up to cross behind his back, pulling him in even deeper.

“Love you, Buffy. Love you so much,” he chanted over and over as he drove into her.  With every thrust, the slayer’s hips rose to meet his and she breathed in rhythm with his chanted “love you’s” so that she almost seemed to be echoing him.

When he felt her internal muscles trembling as they tightened around him, he shifted into vamp face and roared his pleasure as he exploded inside her.  He fought his demon to a standstill as it struggled to renew the now-dormant claim.   Throwing himself off Buffy with a growl, he tore himself away from her warm arms and fell onto the bed beside her, shaking with need.

“Spike?  Wha...what’s the...Did I do something wrong?”

The hurt and insecurity in her voice as she turned toward him was enough to banish the demon instantly. He silently cursed Riley’s name for putting that insecurity back into the voice of the woman he’d spent the summer coaxing into reveling in her sexuality.  As he rolled over to face her worried frown, the ridges faded and the fangs receded into his gums.  He took her hand and brought it to his lips, kissing her open palm and inhaling her scent.

“I’m sorry, love.  Nothing’s wrong.  It’s just been so long, and you feel so amazing...I was havin’ trouble controllin’ the demon, is all.  Didn’t want to bite you and start the whole soddin’ mess over again.  Never want to be away from you that long, ever again.”

“Oh,  “K, then,” she sighed with relief and snuggled into his reaching arms. “I thought maybe I hurt you or something...” she mumbled as an afterthought.

(Is that what happened the other night?  She hurt the bloody wanker?  Oh,that’s just too delicious.)

“Tell you a little secret about vampires, pet,” he said nuzzling her neck, “we like a little pain with our passion.  Hurtin’ me is not something you ever need to worry your pretty little head about, love.  You do whatever makes you feel good and let me worry about if it’s hurtin’ me.”

“Really?” she said with what sounded suspiciously like eagerness.  She blushed and hid her head.  “I mean, not that I would ever WANT to hurt you, because that would just be...weird, and perverted and—“

“And delicious fun if it’s done right,” the delighted vampire purred into her ear.

She peered up at him from under her hair, but saw nothing on his face but love and lust.  There was no sign of rejection or revulsion and she sighed in relief.

“You don’t think I’m too rough, or--?”

Again, the vampire mentally cursed the unimaginative human that had the good fortune to share her bed and didn’t know what he had.

“Buffy, love, how long were we together this summer?”

“Um...I don’t know.  Couple of months...every night?”

“Do you remember all the things we did together?  The things I did to you – the things you did to me?”  At her timid nod, he continued, warming to his subject, “Did any of those things feel weird or perverted?  Did you ever hear me complain about what you wanted to do?  Did I ever make you do anything you didn’t want to do?”

“Well, there was that time you wanted to...on top of the statue in front of the courthouse...” she ventured.

“I was drunk. Doesn’t count.  And you know that’s not what I mean, anyway, don’t you?”

She nodded her head, “yes” and relaxed back into his side.  The vampire gently stroked her silky hair and whispered into her shell-like ear, “There is nothing wrong with anything two people do together as long as they both want to do it, and as long as it’s done with love and respect.  Don’t ever be afraid to try something you want to with me.  If you’re not sure, ask; just as I would ask you before I did anything I thought you might not like.”

“Says the man who ravished me in a public parking lot,” she said wryly.

“Hey!” he said indignantly, “you liked that!”

When she didn’t respond, he tilted her face up toward his and asked warily, “Didn’t you?”

“Of course, I did, you big baby.  Don’t be so insecure,” she gave him a nudge and he relaxed, pulling her closer.

“Says the woman who worried I didn’t like the way she was shagging me,” he snarked back at her.

They rested in comfortable silence for several minutes, his arms around her and her fingers trailing abstract designs on his smooth chest.  When her hand strayed down toward the nest of sandy colored curls at the bottom of his abdomen, he growled softly and his cock immediately stirred to life.

“I have an idea,” Buffy said softly.

“So do I,” he responded, pulling her on to his body so that she was stretched out along his length.  He put his hands on the round globes of her ass and pulled her up so that he could put his cock between her thighs.

“That wasn’t my idea,” she said with a giggle.

“It wasn’t?” He couldn’t keep the disappointment from his voice.  “Well that’s—mmmph.”  He was cut off by warm, soft lips fastening on his and there was no conversation for several minutes while their tongues explored and tasted, stroking each other to moans and sighs.

When Buffy had to break for air, she took a minute to get her wind back, then said shyly, “If I asked you to do something, would you promise not to get all weird on me?”

His brows met in a puzzled frown.

“We just had this conversation, love.  You can ask me anything. You know that.”

He tipped her chin up to make her meet his confused eyes.

“What could you possibly think I would get ‘weird’ about?”

“I want you to bite me,” she said so softly he wasn’t sure he heard her correctly.  “I want you to claim me again.”

“Bloody, buggering, fuck!”

“See! I knew you’d be all wigged out.”  Her lower lip came out in a pout.

“I am not ‘wigged out’.  I just don’t know what’s wrong with you!”

“You think something’s wrong with me?”

(Shit. I have got to be the biggest wanker in the world) he thought when he heard the fear in her voice.

Buffy was struggling against his arms, trying to get off him and away before he could see the tears starting in her eyes. 

(I’m such a loser, even a vampire doesn’t want me.)

“No, no, baby. Stop it.  Buffy, stop!” he clutched her arms so hard he knew he was leaving bruises, although the chip didn’t fire.

“Let me go!  I’m sorry I said anything.  I thought you wanted to... Let me go, Spike!”

He flipped them over on the bed, the better to use his weight to hold her still. 

“Listen to me, love, please, Buffy.  Let me explain.”

She stopped struggling, but her lower lip was quivering and the tears that had welled up in her eyes were glistening as she forced herself to look into his anguished face.

When she quit trying to throw him off, he relaxed his hold on her arms and breathed out in relief.  Fixing his pleading eyes on hers, he willed her to believe what he had to say.

“I’m sorry, love.  Thought I was better than that at handlin’ surprises, but I guess not.”

He blew out another unnecessary breath and tried to collect his thoughts so that he didn’t say something else to upset her.

“I just don’t think you understand what you’re askin’ for, love.  When you ask me to claim you, you’re basically acceptin’ the claim.  That’s a whole different kettle of fish from what we had a few weeks ago.

“I just spent the worst three weeks of my life trying to stay far enough away from you to erase that little bit of a claim because I thought it was hurtin’ you.  And now you’re telling me you want me to do it again?  How the hell did you think I was gonna react?”

“I thought it would make you happy,” she sniffled softly.

“If I thought you knew what you were askin’ for, it would make me –well, happy wouldn’t begin to describe it.  But I’m not sure you do.  A mutual claim, or even an accepted claim,” he hastily added as he realized she hadn’t said anything about claiming him, “is a very major commitment.  It’s forever, Buffy.  There’s no makin’ it go away by staying apart for awhile.  We could be on different continents for fifty years and we’d still have that connection.  We’d still be able to feel each other, no matter where we were.

“You’d be my mate for life, love.  I don’t think you really want that, Slayer.”

His deliberate use of her title was a like cold shower on her heart and she sighed and closed her eyes.

“I’m not sure that I don’t want exactly that, Spike.  Exactly how long do you think my life’s going to be?  Aren’t you the one who told me all slayers come with an expiration date?  What if my date is next Tuesday?  And I could have spent the week feeling...feeling loved and safe...and—“

Spike’s growled, “Not gonna happen.  Not next Tuesday. Not a thousand Tuesdays from now.  I’ll be dust before I let anything happen to you.  You’re gonna be the longest lived Slayer ever.”

His eyes blazed with the intensity of his emotion as he fought off the image of life without Buffy.  Suddenly her request didn’t seem so bazaar as he realized how much better he could protect her if he had that connection between them.

“Your friends and your Watcher are gonna go apeshit, love.  You know that, right?”

“They wouldn’t have to know right away, would they?  If you bite me somewhere...”she blushed hotly, “somewhere less visible.  They wouldn’t have to know about it until they were ready to hear it.”

“And the toy soldier?” he asked flatly.

Her hand came up to stroke his cheek as she said with complete honesty, “I think that’s pretty much a no-go. Buffy and normal?  Not so mixey. Tried it, didn’t like it.”  She smiled up at him.  “Seems like I need a little monster in my man.”

She opened her legs and he slipped between them, his cock already pushing at her damp warmth.  Buffy wrapped both arms around his back and bought her legs up to wrap around his waist, effectively trapping him within her supernaturally strong limbs.

“And right now,” she added in a whisper, “I need a little of my man in Buffy.”

“How about all of your man, love?” he groaned as he filled her until he couldn’t go any deeper.

“That works, too.”

They rocked together for a while, then Buffy flexed and flipped them over.  Rather than react with angry surprise as Riley had, Spike grinned up at her and said, “Baby wants to play, huh?”

Putting her hands on his shoulders, she moved her hips up and down, almost coming off his cock each time, then slamming back down onto him.  By keeping her head down, she could watch herself rising and falling over him over and over, her speed increasing as the pressure increased within her.  When Spike grabbed her hips and began pulling her into the position that let him hit her clit with every stroke, she sat back up and arched her back, moaning her pleasure to the ceiling.

When the moans turned to the whimpering gasps that meant she was about to come, the vampire suddenly pulled her off his cock and toward his face. Before she could complain about the loss of contact, he had sunk his fangs into her femoral artery and was pulling long, strong draughts of her blood into his mouth.  As he did, he worked her already sensitive clit with his fingers until she spasmed against his face and screamed his name.

He released her hips and licked his marks as he whispered, “Mine.”

“Yours,” she whispered back as she slid down his body to rest against his chest. 

Chapter Seventeen

When the sun was sinking below the western horizon, Buffy helped Spike put his extra clothes and some books into boxes to carry to her mother’s house.  He insisted she was not driving his “baby”, and over her objections went to retrieve his car from it’s parking place behind the caretaker’s house.

She breathed a sigh of relief when he roared up to the door and threw it open with a flourish.

“Okay, show-off.  Let’s get this stuff loaded,” she grumbled. “I want to get to Mom’s in time for dinner.”

When the car was loaded, they carefully covered the entrance to the lower part of the crypt so that, hopefully, any unwanted visitors would not know there was another level full of things worth stealing.  Leaving the crypt looking as though Spike had just gone out for the evening, they got in the car and drove to Revello Drive.

“Leave your stuff in the car until I explain everything,” Buffy instructed as they pulled into the driveway.  “We’ll bring it in after Mom says you can stay.”

Still grumbling about being babied, Spike followed his mate into her mother’s house.

Joyce was surprised, but delighted to see them and immediately insisted they stay for dinner.  Buffy, who hadn’t eaten since that morning in the school cafeteria, smiled triumphantly at Spike and agreed enthusiastically.

“I, uh, I don’t think I have any blood, Spike,” Joyce said apologetically. “But the roast beef is very rare.”

“Roast beef is fine, Joyce.  I’ll get some blood later.”

When dinner was over, and they were sitting quietly at the table, Joyce looked at the two supernatural blonds in front of her and asked firmly, “So, what’s this all about?”

“I can’t come by my mother’s house for dinner without an ulterior motive?” Buffy did her best to look offended while Spike rolled his eyes.

“Buffy, you only moved back into the dorm yesterday.  And I haven’t seen Spike since right after I came home – I haven’t even seen any of his dirty laundry,” she said, shooting a teasing look at the embarrassed vampire.  “Now, here you both are, having dinner with me as though you do this every week.”

“Told you your mom wasn’t stupid, love,” Spike said, smiling at Joyce.

“Okay, mom.  Here’s the sitch.  Riley is kinda...bent out of shape...over Spike and me spending so much time together this summer, and then Giles said some stuff about Spike being all chosen to help me by the Powers That Be and being my warrior or something, and Riley got really mad and said it was all mumbo jumbo, and he stomped out and I’m afraid he’s gonna hurt Spike.”

She stopped to gasp for breath and looked at her mother to see how much of what she’d said how actually been understandable. Joyce looked from her daughter to the vampire she’d come to like so much and asked mildly, “And does Riley have any reason to be upset about this summer?”

Buffy looked at Spike with her deer-in-the-headlights stare and began to breathe rapidly.

“Easy there, pet,” he soothed.  “You’re going to hyperventilate.”

‘Buffy?” her mother prodded, although the look on her daughter’s face confirmed what she’d suspected since her surprise early arrival home.

Spike looked at Buffy with an inscrutable expression as he waited to hear what she as going to tell her mother about them.  He could feel her nervousness and excitement, but decided not to send any emotions back until he heard her answer.

Taking a deep, calming breath, Buffy stood up and walked over to stand behind Spike, resting her hands lightly on his shoulders.

“I suppose he does, in the whole I-didn’t-tell-him-I-was-seeing-somebody-else kinda way.  But I thought we, Spike and I, were just friends having a little summer fling.”  She felt the vampire’s shoulders tense and could feel the anger he was feeling.  Giving his shoulders a little squeeze and at the same time trying to send him reassuring thoughts, she looked her mother in the eye and continued, “But it looks like it’s not...not just a fling.  We’re together now and Riley—“

“Soldier boy wants to put a piece of pointy wood through my unbeatin’ heart,” Spike growled for her.  “And with this soddin’ chip, I can’t really do much to defend myself against humans.”

Joyce studied the two anxious young people in front of her and realized with a start that they were more or less asking for her blessing.  Since Buffy had never bothered to even let her mother know when she started dating anyone else, Joyce was taken back at what that indicated about the seriousness of the relationship.  She made a quick decision and stood up abruptly.

“Well, if Spike’s going to stay here, we’ll have to set up the cot in the basement.  That way I won’t have to worry about him spontaneously combusting while I’m gone if he falls asleep watching Passions in front of the picture window.”

Buffy jumped out from behind Spike and hugged her mother. 

“Thank you, Mom,” she whispered.  “I love you.”

Smiling to herself, Joyce went to get clean linens from the closet.  While she was doing that, Spike and Buffy got his things out of the car and carried them to the basement.  By the time Joyce got there with the clean sheets, they had set up the cot and arranged Spike’s books on a make-shift shelf.  They put his duffle bags of clothes on the floor at the foot of the bed.

She handed the clean sheets to her daughter and said, “Buffy, please make up the bed.  Spike, I’d like to talk to you upstairs, please.”

The vampire followed the Slayer’s mother up the stairs, feeling more like a twelve year old than his actual 150 plus years of existence.  When they reached the kitchen, Joyce gestured to him to sit on a stool as she faced him with her hands on her hips.

“Do you think you could be a little more specific with me than just, ‘it’s more than a summer fling?’  What exactly is between you and my daughter?”

“Not my place to tell you what she’s feelin’.  But I can tell you I love her more than my unlife.  I’ll never hurt her, and I’m gonna do my bloody best to see that nothin’ else does either.”

Joyce nodded her head and sighed heavily, “I guess my illusions about her having a normal life and giving me grandchildren to play with are just that – illusions.”

“I can’t give you grandchildren, Joyce,” he said softly,  “and the Slayer’s life was never gonna be normal. But I’ll do my best to give her as close to it as I can.  That’s all I can promise you.  That, and I’ll never leave her,” he added.

Just then Buffy appeared at the top of the stairs looking suspiciously from her mother to the vampire.

“Is everything okay up here?”

“Everything’s fine, love.  We just need to get my car moved to somewhere else and do a quick patrol while your mum gets to bed.”

Joyce reached into a drawer and pulled out a key on a ribbon. She handed it to Spike with a casual, “I’ll probably be asleep when you come in. This works on both the back and front door.”

The vampire stared in awe at the small piece of metal in his hand.

“Thank you, Joyce,” he said softly as they exchanged a look that said much more than their words.

After moving Spike’s old Desoto to a rented garage, Spike and Buffy did a quick patrol of the cemeteries before heading back to her dorm.  He walked her up to her room, making a note of where it was and what was below the windows.

“I don’t want you walking back to my house by yourself,” she pouted, bringing his attention onto her lips.  He nipped at the plump lower one that she was sticking out and said, “I’ll be alright, love.  And if anything happens, you’ll know as soon as I do.”

“That’s right! I forgot.  I”ll know that you’re okay...or not.”

He put on a mock angry face.  “We get mated for life, and you ‘forgot’ already?  Guess that honeymoon’s over, huh, pet?” he teased.

“Honeymoons are for married people, Spike.  They follow weddings, with flowers and...flowers and cake, and...stuff.  Not—“

He cocked his head at her and asked seriously, “You know, to a vampire, this is a marriage.  You did understand that part of it, didn’t you, Buffy?”  He looked at her anxiously, wondering if she was having second thoughts about the claiming.

She nodded her head and moved into his arms, holding up her face for a good-night kiss.

“I know.  I didn’t mean anything by it.  I’m just tired and cranky.  Sleepy Buffy isn’t a very nice person sometimes.”

“Sometimes?” he raised his eyebrow and laughed when she thumped him on the chest.

“Alright, love.  You go get some sleep and I’ll go back to hide in your mum’s basement.  Good night, sweetheart.”

“Nite, Spike.  Be careful.”

“Got a lot to be careful for now, pet. Don’t worry.”

With another long lingering kiss, he slipped out the door and out of the dorm.

Buffy watch him crossing the quad until she couldn’t see him anymore, then turned away and got undressed for bed.  She turned off the light and tried to sleep, but worry over Spike kept her tossing and turning until she felt him sending her reassurance and comfort.  Smiling at the knowledge that he was now safely ensconced in her mother’s basement, she tried to project her contentment back to him as she closed her eyes and slept.

Chapter Eighteen

It took a surprisingly short amount of time for Joyce to get accustomed to having a vampire living in her basement.  When she got up in the morning, the door would be shut and there would be no sign of Spike’s presence except the washed cup in which he drank his blood sitting upside down in the dish drainer.

When she got home in the evening, he would be on the couch watching the TV, ready to tell her all about the happenings on Passions if she felt she didn’t have time to watch the episodes he taped for her.  She also found that whatever dishes she had left in the sink from her breakfast were washed and put away.

While Joyce fixed and ate her dinner, he would join her, sipping from his cup of blood, for conversation about the gallery and artists.  She found, to her surprise, that he was quite knowledgeable about art, and their conversations were interesting and stimulating.  She even found that he knew of local Sunnydale artists whose work not only deserved to be shown, but would compliment the other things in her gallery.

Most nights, Buffy would arrive shortly after dinner and, after a quick visit with her mother, she and Spike would leave for a night of patrolling.  They were both frustrated by their inability to spend the night together.  Spike could not stay in Buffy’s dorm room, as that would mean he was either walking back to Revello Drive alone or that he was stuck there all day waiting for the sun to go down.  And, while Buffy was sure her mother knew that they were lovers in the full sense of the word, she wasn’t comfortable sleeping with him in her mother’s basement and sneaking out before dawn. 

Nor would Spike hear of her doing such a thing.

“I’m not havin’ you come to shag me and then walk yourself back home like some...some...”

When Buffy raised an angry eyebrow, daring him to complete his sentence, he backpedaled quickly.

“’M sorry, pet.  It’s the Victorian man in me.  You leavin’ my bed to take yourself home unescorted just sends poncey old William into a frenzy.  Know you can take care of yourself, but...bloody hell! It’s just not right!” he finished with an exasperated puff, glaring at her very poor attempt to smother her laughter.

When she finally gave up and rolled on the floor in hysterics, he drew himself up with an offended snort.

“Laugh it up, Slayer.  Not my fault you’ve never had a gentleman before!”

As soon as she realized he was genuinely offended by her laughter, Buffy stopped and walked over to him.  Touching his chin to make him look at her, she kissed the pout on his face and whispered,  “You’re right.  I haven’t ever had a gentleman.  You’re going to have to show me how to be a proper lady, William.”

Unable to resist her pulling on his lower lip with her teeth, he began to kiss her back, mumbling a face-saving, “Not a miracle worker, y’know, love.”

They settled for ending each patrol at his crypt, making love for a couple of hours on his luxurious four poster, before parting sadly to go back to their respective single beds.  Buffy couldn’t decide if the claim was making that better or worse.

On the one hand, she could feel the love and reassurance that he sent her every night before she went to sleep and she found it a very pleasant way to nod off.  On the other, she ached for the physical contact that was so enhanced by the claim.   Falling asleep lying skin to skin next to the vampire was at once the most erotic and the most comforting experience she’d ever had.  Not since she was very young, and her mother’s loving arms and warm kiss could make anything better, had contact with another person made her feel so safe and secure.

If it weren’t for her very real concerns about Riley’s less than understanding reaction to her attempts to break up with him, she would have allowed Spike to move back into his crypt just so they would have a place to stay together all night.

But the ex-commando was not receiving the message she was sending.  Or, she was coming to believe, he was deliberately misunderstanding it.

When she told him she would be patrolling with Spike every night, he insisted he would be accompanying her just in case Spike “scampered off when things got hairy.”  She finally allowed him to come with them one time, frantically sending Spike soothing thoughts when she felt the rage surge in him at the soldier’s swaggering approach.

“Just trust me,” she hissed too low for anything but vampiric hearing as they all headed for the first of Sunnydale’s many cemeteries.

She broke into an effortless jog, noting with satisfaction that both men were keeping up with her.  Riley, of course, insisted on being slightly in front, as though to meet anything evil they encountered before she could.  Buffy rolled her eyes at Spike, but allowed the big man to stay in front until a look from Spike and her own vampire sensing tingles told her there was something ahead.

Lacking their superior senses, Riley was obliviously jogging straight ahead, looking around for possible “hostiles” and wishing he still had all his infrared gear.

Suddenly, with a burst of speed that he couldn’t begin to match, Buffy flew past him and off to the left where she sensed the newly risen vamp.  When Spike blew past in a swirl of black leather, Riley broke into a sprint that still left him arriving at the scene in time to watch Buffy brushing off the dust.

“Nicely done, pet,” he heard the smiling vampire say as he nodded to their right.  “But you’re not done yet.”

Buffy whirled and caught the attacking vampire on the point of her stake.  She could see several confused minions milling around near the empty grave, clearly unsure what to do with their lord and master turned into dust by a small blond girl.

Ignoring Riley’s hesitant, “Buffy, I think there might be too man-“, she rolled her shoulders and with a joyful “You take the ugly ones” to Spike, she did two hand springs to land behind the startled group.

By the time Riley got his stake out and approached the melee, Spike had dusted two very large and very ugly vamps, while Buffy played with the last of the three she had chosen.  Leaving Riley to attempt to stake the lone female in the group, a thin brunette who seemed more interested in running away than fighting.

Buffy threw her remaining vamp at Spike, who caught it on the point of his stake with a flourish.  They both turned to watch Riley stake his vamp, only to see her crying on the ground as he loomed over her.

“Riley, it’s me! Please don’t stake me.  I wasn’t hurting anybody.  You know I wou—“  her pleas were cut off when he plunged the stake into her chest and stood over the spot breathing hard.

He looked up to see Buffy looking at him with puzzled eyes and glanced away quickly, only to meet the eyes of the vampire, which were not puzzled, but cold and filled with complete understanding.

“Riley? Why did she know your name?  Did you know her before she was turned?”

With great relief, he agreed immediately.  “Yes, yes, I did.  I think she used to work for the initiative,” he said firmly.  “That’s where I know her from.”

Buffy accepted his answer without question, but the vampire just snorted and turned away.

“Yeah, well, good job there, Capt’n Cardboard.  Staking your vamp, I mean.”

“Yes, that was very good, Riley,” Buffy said cheerily.  She looked around at the loose dust and shrugged.  “Guess we’re done here.  Time to head for the next stop.”

She made eye contact with Spike and flicked her eyes toward the next cemetery.

“Last one there’s demon meat!” she trilled and took off at a speed she knew Riley couldn’t hope to match.  She could feel Spike right behind her and put on another burst of speed, joying in the physical release provided by the run as well as pleasure she got from playing with her mate.

Again, Riley arrived panting and late to watch Buffy and Spike tag teaming a large, hairy demon with spikes running down its back.  His one attempt to join them was met with a backhand swipe of a paw that knocked him to the ground and from there he watched as the two lithe blonds whirled and kicked, ducked and punched almost in unison.  He had to admit, as he watched them take the occasional hit, that they were much more suited to fighting something as large and strong as this particular type of demon than he was.

And when they were done, and the demon’s head had been wrested from its body by the snarling vampire, their comfortable kidding about each other’s missed opportunities and potential mistakes gave him some insight into how poorly a human man, even a chemically enhanced one, fit in to Buffy’s usual nocturnal activities.  And, he had to admit that if she expended as much energy every night as he had seen tonight, she had a right to be “too tired” to want to see him after.

However, when she sent him back to his apartment again, while she stayed with the vampire, his brow darkened and he glared hard at the smirking blond before striding off toward the campus.

The next day, when he showed up outside her class to walk her to the cafeteria, he admitted grudgingly that Spike might be a better choice for a fighting companion.

“It’s okay, Buffy.  You made your point last night.  I can’t match what the two of you can do together.  I think I get it.  I would slow you down.  Especially now, with the drugs working their way out of my system, I’m losing what little extra strength I had.  I can see why you’d want to patrol with someone you didn’t care about losing rather than worry about protecting a human.”

Buffy stared at him with dismay.

“Riley,” she started, not quite sure what she was going to say, but knowing he still wasn’t getting the picture.  “Riley, I like you a lot.  You know that, right?”

The frown on his face told her he wasn’t hearing what he wanted to hear.

“But?” he asked bluntly.

She took a deep breath and blew it out hard before replying. 

“This is really hard for me.  I’m usually on the other end of these conversations.”

“Waiting for the ‘but’, Buffy.”  He gave her no sign he wasn’t going to make her say what they both knew she was going to say.

“But I don’t think this is working out as well as I...we...hoped it would when we started dating.  There is just too much you don’t understand about my life, my calling, my...friends.”

“Are you including Spike in that?” he asked coldly.

“Yes, Riley.  I am including Spike in that.  We have become very...close in the past few months.  He is a part of my life.  An important part,” she added quietly.

“Exactly how important is he, Buffy?” He glared at her fiercely.  “Is he important enough to get a pass on staking when that chip goes?  Is this another vampire that gets to walk the earth forever because he’s ‘important’ to the Slayer?”

The venom in Riley’s usually gentle voice startled her and she couldn’t reply for a minute.

“Sp...Spike’s not feeding,” she finally said uncertainly.  “And..and you met Angel. You know he has his soul.  He doesn’t kill either.”

“That you know of,” he said cryptically.  “And I’ve heard all about how stable the soul is.  Both of these vampires that seem to be so important to you are only safe because something is keeping them from killing.  What would you do if and when one of them lost those safeguards, Buffy?  What would you do then?”

Buffy stood up, her face as hard and cold as he had ever seen it,  “I would do the same thing I did the last time, Riley.  My job.  I would send him to hell.”

The big man was taken back at both her expression and her words,  “The last time?”

“Oh, did you miss that part of the story?  Yes, when Angel lost his soul, I ran a sword through his chest and sent him into a hell dimension to save the world.  I was seventeen and loved him with everything I had. I had no idea the Powers That Be would send him back after he’d suffered long enough. I thought he was gone forever. I did it then, and I would do it again if I had to.  It’s what I do.”  She stared hard at her now ex-boyfriend.  “But I will NOT do anything to either of them unless or until they give me a reason to.  Is that clear, Riley?”

“Perfectly,” he said coldly.  “If a vampire gets between the Slayer’s legs,” at Buffy’s start of surprise, he grinned thinly, “Oh, yeah. I’m not as dumb as you two think I am, Buffy.  As I was saying, if a vampire makes it into your pants, he gets a free pass no matter what he’s done in the past.”

“This conversation is over,” she ground out as she whirled and left the cafeteria.

Anger and guilt fueled her body and she got to the magic shop in record time.  Bursting through the door, she went straight for the training room to begin pounding on the heavy bag.

After fifteen minutes of unrelenting pounding, her watcher timidly put his face in the door to inquire, “Would you like to talk about it?”

Buffy dropped her arms and let out a weary sigh.

“I just had the break-up conversation with Riley and it got a little nasty.  I figured it was better for me to take it out on the bag than on his face.”

Staring at the still-swinging bag, the older man said wryly, “And I’m quite confident his face thanks you for that thought.”

She laughed softly and managed to look ashamed and angry at the same time.  She sat down on the mats and put her head in her hands.

“He thinks I should stake Spike and Angel,” she said quietly.  “I know he thinks he’s saying it because they’re vampires...”

“But?”

“But I think he’s just jealous.  He said...he said something really ugly about why I haven’t staked them.”

“Well, I can quite imagine what he had to say about Angel; but, Spike?  Surely he doesn’t think you and Spike....” his voice trailed off when she raised her head to look at him.

“Oh, dear Lord,” he murmured almost to himself.  “I had no idea you would take my rambling about the Powers and Spike being chosen so seriously.  Oh dear!”

“Relax, Giles,” she grinned at his distress, “You had nothing to do with it.  We were way ahead of you.”

“You were...oh!  Oh, my.”

The watcher began polishing his glasses vigorously and blushing a deep red color.  When his color had dropped to a rosy pink, and the glasses were spotless, he put them back on and looked up at his Slayer.

“Who knows about this...change...in your relationship?”

“Just my mom – oh, well, and apparently Riley; and I don’t even want to know how that happened.”

“You do realize this places Spike in even more danger, do you not?”

“Yeah.  I know.  I’ll warn him tonight to be extra careful.  I think he’s safe at my mom’s though.  I don’t think Riley knows he’s there, and even if he did, surely he wouldn’t do anything in my mom’s house....”

I certainly hope, for your sake as well as Spike’s, that you are correct, Buffy.  Please do not forget that this is a man who hide information from you for quite some time last year.  You do not really know what he may be capable of if he is sufficiently angry.”


Chapter Nineteen

When Joyce got home that afternoon, there was a large crate sitting on the front porch and she shook her head as she walked past it.

“Evenin’, Joyce,” came from the living room.  “That an early Christmas present?”

“No,” she said with exasperation, “It is a very valuable and heavy sculpture that was supposed to be delivered to the gallery – not here.  Now I’ll have to hire someone to move it for me.”

“I’ll do it for you,” Spike said, following her into the kitchen.  “Got nothing to do till the Slayer gets here for patrol.  I can load it in the back of your truck and unload it for you at the gallery.  Why don’t you grab some dinner and then we’ll run it over there?”

“That’s very sweet, Spike.  Thank you.  But don’t you think we should wait until Buffy gets here? Between the two of you—“

“I’ll be fine by myself, Joyce.  Give me a chance to get out into the world a little.  I’m going a little stir crazy here –not that it’s not nice,” he hastened to add when she looked somewhat hurt. “But I’m startin’ to feel like a caged bird.”

“I don’t know, Spike.  I appreciate the offer, but if Buffy still doesn’t think it’s safe...”

“We’ll be fine.  I’ll be with you and the wanker isn’t going to do anything with the Slayer’s mum watchin’.  Come on, Joyce.  Please, huh, please?”

She had to laugh at his hopeful face and puppy dog eyes, even though she knew it was act he was putting on for her benefit.

“All right, Spike. You win.  I’ll get something to eat and then we’ll take it over to the gallery.  I’ve got some new things I want you to see anyway.”

When the meal was over, she watched anxiously as he lifted the large crate and carefully set it in the back of her SUV.  He slammed the tailgate and jumped into the passenger seat, looking for all the world like a little kid going for a ride.

As Joyce pulled out of the drive-way, neither one of them noticed a black van ease out of a parking spot down the street and begin to follow them through the dark streets.  It stayed far enough back to be almost invisible in the dark; just another pair of headlights that appeared in the rear view mirror from time to time.

At the gallery, Spike quickly got out and opened the back of the vehicle while Joyce unlocked the loading dock door.  She stood to one side as the vampire carefully set the crate on the dock, then jumped fluidly up onto it and pushed the crate into the shop.  He pried open the crate for her and lifted the heavy work of art out onto the floor before saying,  “I’ll just go shut the car up before you show me around, Joyce.  Be right back.”

Nodding absently, she walked around the piece, making sure it was intact.   A scuffling noise from outside caught her ear and she went to the dock and peered out into the dark.

“Spike?  Spike, is something wrong?  Spike?  Where are you?”

Suddenly a black van with no markings and no lights, pulled away from the loading dock, tires squealing and engine roaring. 

“Spike?” Joyce tried once more, but she knew before the words left her lips that there wasn’t going to be an answer.  Her heart ached for her daughter as she quickly locked up the shop and turned her car toward home.

When Buffy got to her house, she was surprised, but not worried, to find her mother’s car not there.  Joyce often stayed late after the gallery was closed to catch up on paperwork and bookkeeping.  But when the Slayer entered the empty house and realized she couldn’t sense Spike anywhere, she was furious.

“That moron!  Of all the nights for him to go out without me. When I find him, I’m going to—ooooh!” The Slayer fell to the floor, limbs twitching as she felt the shock of a tazer go through her body.  She twitched for minutes, until she finally lost consciousness and awoke to find her mother frantically rubbing her face.

“Oh my God, Buffy!  What happened?”

“Where...where’s Spike?” she got out through chattering teeth.

“I don’t know.” She lowered her head and said softly, “I’m sorry, Buffy. I let him talk me into helping me carry something to the gallery.  It’s my fault.  All I saw was a black van speeding off and he was gone.”

Buffy sat up slowly, waiting for the feeling to come back to her arms and legs.

“No, Mom.  It’s not your fault,” she said in a tone her mother had never heard before.  “It’s Riley’s.”

“What happened to you?  Did he come here first?”  Her mother looked in bewilderment at her seemingly uninjured and yet obviously debilitated daughter.

“No, he hit Spike with a tazer to knock him out.”

“But--”

“I’ll explain later.  I have to find him.  Will you call Giles for me, please?”

“How will you find him?  Shouldn’t you wait for Giles?”

“I’ll know where he is.  At least I will as soon as he wakes up.”

Cursing herself for not completing the claim and giving her that telepathic connection that Spike had alluded to, she went to the phone herself to call her watcher.

“He has Spike,” she said tersely when he answered.  “I’m at my mom’s, I’ll wait for you here.”

She then picked up the phone and called Willow and Tara to tell them she might be needing a locater spell and they promised to arrive as quickly as they could.

While she waited impatiently for her help to arrive, she paced the floor, muttering threats to both Spike and Riley for putting her through this.  Joyce went to the kitchen to fix hot chocolate for the arriving Scoobies, vowing to have a long talk with her daughter once they recovered Spike.

Just as Giles came through the door, Buffy’s head flew up and she grabbed the sides of it, screaming.  When the scream had tapered off to a moan, she opened bleary eyes to see the worried faces of her mother and her surrogate father staring at her.

“Guess Spike woke up and tried to leave,” she said weakly, as Giles helped her to the couch.  As the pain faded, she could faintly feel his confusion and anger coming through the claim.  There was a surge of rage, and then her head snapped back as she felt Spike take a hard blow on the chin.

“Buffy!  What’s happening?  What’s wrong?”

“He’s beating him,” she gasped through the pain flowing to her from the vampire.  “He’s, aaaah!, he’s breaking his bones....Spike!”  she fell back on the couch, crying in pain and fear. 

Her watcher grabbed her face and made her look him in the eye as he asked firmly, “Tell me what is happening.  Why are you in pain?”

“Spike... He... I...  Call Angel. He can explain it.  He needs to come. Tell him I, we need him.”

She fell back on the cushions, moaning and crying out periodically.

The Watcher went to the phone and dialed Los Angeles only to be met with Cordelia’s,“ What’s wrong with her now?” 

There was some scuffling and arguing and then Angel was on the phone.  “Yes, Giles. What is it?  I apologize for Cordelia’s... What?  He did what? And she knows this because...”

“I was hoping you could tell me,” the watcher said quietly. “I only know of one thing that would give them that kind of connection.  I was hoping you might have another idea.”

“That son of bitch claimed her,” Angel growled, thereby removing any hope of another explanation.  “I’ll kill him!”

“Actually, Angel, I believe Buffy is expecting you to come and assist us in locating him before Riley turns him to dust. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he appears to be in no hurry to do that.  However, the pain he is inflicting on Spike is preventing Buffy from going to his rescue.”

“I’m leaving now. Be there in two hours.”

The phone was dead in Giles’ hand and he slowly replaced it in the cradle as he turned to look at his slayer.  Buffy was lying on the couch, breathing hard, but with clear eyes.

“Buffy?” he asked hesitantly.

“He’s unconscious,” she said flatly as she struggled to sit up.  “Either that, or he’s blocking it somehow.”

“Can he do that?” Giles asked, polishing his glasses.  Neither of them bothered to pretend not to know what they were talking about.

“He can make it less; but I don’t think he could totally block that kind of pain.  I think he’s unconscious.”

“He could be...” Giles looked at her sympathetically and heard Joyce gasp when she realized what he was implying.

“No.” Buffy said flatly. “I’d know.”

The older man nodded his head and sat down heavily in a chair. 

“Angel’s on his way,” he said softly.

Buffy nodded and rested her head on the back of the couch.  “Good. He should be able to help me find Spike.”  He head shot back up.  “Did you tell him?”

“I didn’t have to.  He knew as soon as I told him what was happening.”

“Shit,” she groaned, dropping her head back down and ignoring her mother’s shocked, “Buffy!”

“Indeed,” her watcher agreed.  “I believe it will be a toss-up which one wants to kill Spike the most.”

Buffy tried to sit up again.  “I should go now, while he’s unconscious and I can function.”

“I really wish you’d wait for Angel,” Giles said.  “If he attacks Spike again, you will be helpless.”

As much as she hated to do so, Buffy had to admit Giles was right, and she forced herself to wait for the arrival of Spike’s grandsire before she went looking for him.

However, when Willow’s locator spell showed that Riley was holding Spike in an abandoned factory near the waterfront, Buffy refused to wait for Angel, telling Giles to send him after them as soon as he got there.  Against her mother’s protestations, and her watcher’s grumbling, she ran out the door heading for the waterfront and the man who was hurting her mate.

Chapter Twenty

Spike woke slowly and sent out his vampiric senses before he tried to open his eyes.  As consciousness came back and his memory returned, so did the pain in his broken bones.  As soon as he felt Buffy’s fearful response to his pain, he immediately damped down the claim as much as he could in his condition. In addition to wanting to spare her the pain he knew she was getting from him, he didn’t want her distracted from her search to find him.

He never doubted for a second that she was on her way to rescue him.  Even without the reassurance he could feel coming from her, he would have known she was coming. 

(It’s what she does, my beautiful girl.  She rescues people – even vampires.)

Memory of who had beat him, and why surfaced and he flexed his arms to see if the chains he remembered being anchored to were still there.  He could feel blood trickling down the back of his head and wondered briefly how and why the much larger man had hit him back there.

The sound of the chains clanking brought Riley back into the room to observe his prisoner. 

“So, you’re awake again,” he remarked.  “Let’s see what I can do to make it interesting for you.”

As he spoke, he walked over to the immobile vampire and waved a large knife at him, clearly hoping to see fear.  He was gratified, although somewhat surprised, to see that the vampire was, in fact, frightened.  He hadn’t really expected it to be that easy.  Mistaking completely the reason for Spike’s concern, he puffed himself up and said, “Yeah, that’s right, vampire.  I’ll teach you to touch my girl.  We’ll see how she likes you when she sees you crying and begging for me to stop. I think I’ll start with that prick she seems so fond of.”

“You won’t just be hurtin’ me, you stupid git.  You’ll be hurtin’ Buffy every time you cut me.”

Riley had expected all sorts of reasons why he shouldn’t begin cutting on Spike; but that was certainly not one of them.  It was so ridiculous, it almost sounded real; but he quickly discarded it as an attempt by the vampire to avoid more pain.

“Right,” he sneered, “I suppose this is more of your vampire mumbo jumbo.”

“I claimed her.  We’re bonded.  Did they teach you nothing in that soddin’ labratory?”

“I knew you’d be a coward about this, but I had no idea you’d try to drag Buffy into it.  You’re pathetic,” Riley blustered.  He wanted very badly to believe Spike was lying, but he knew there was a great deal more to know about demons than he had been taught in the Initiative. He hesitated for just a minute, then went back to his original plan.

“I know you can’t bleed to death like a human,” he said coldly, “but it would be an interesting experiment to see exactly how much blood you could lose before the need to feed could override the chip.  That would have been one of the experiments we could have done on you while we had you in the lab, if you hadn’t escaped.”

“Pretty stupid move, there, Cardboard; since the only thing I see to feed on in here is you.”

“Oh, don’t worry.  I’m pretty sure your next snack is on her way here already.  I just need to be sure you’re hungry enough to appreciate it when she gets here.”

“She? You can’t seriously think I’d ever...”

“We’ll find out, won’t we?  I’ve been doing some research on my own, and going over the results of the Initiative experiments.  It seems like blood lust is just about the strongest thing going for the undead.  It’s even more powerful than ordinary lust,” he finished with a meaningful look.

“I won’t touch her,” the vampire said with no expression.  “I’d starve first.”

“So you say now,” he growled as he ran the knife down the front of Spike’s body, slitting the tee shirt and allowing a growing line of red to spread out from the cut.  “I think you’ll change your tune by the time I’m done with you.”

Slowly and methodically, the ex commando used the knife to bleed the vampire.  He watched with interest at the slowly growing pool of blood collecting under the table to which Spike was chained.  As he watched the vampire gradually weaken, he knew that the broken bones he’d inflicted on Spike earlier would prevent any sudden movement on the vampire’s part.  When he was comfortable that Spike would be unable to move quickly enough to catch him, he unlocked the chains and stood away from the table.

The vampire looked at him with amber eyes that glittered with hunger.  His face was ridged and frozen into a snarl as the starving body yearned toward the blood he could hear pounding through the big man’s veins.

Riley looked at the snarling, snapping vampire with satisfaction.

“Oh, yeah.  This will do.  Even Buffy will have to see where her duty lies now. ”

At the sound of footsteps echoing through the open door, he threw a wooden stake on the floor and slipped out a side door.

“By the way, Spike,” he said as he left the room, “the chip is out.”



Buffy approached the warehouse with caution, even though everything in her body was screaming at her to rush in and rescue her mate.  She noticed the van her mother had described and saw that the door was open as though the driver had been in a hurry to get his cargo inside.

This close to him, she could feel Spike in spite of his attempts to mask the pain for her.  Suddenly she was hit with a stab of hunger so powerful it brought her to her knees and she fell to the floor gasping for air.  The masking Spike had been doing was gone as the demon took over in the starving vampire and she remained on the floor, moaning in pain and snarling in anger at her helplessness.  Forcing herself to remember that HER bones were not broken, and her body was not bleeding, she summoned the will to move forward toward the opening that she knew would lead to the source of the pain and hunger she was feeling.


Back on Revello Drive, a dark sports car roared into the driveway, barely stopping before Angel and Cordelia jumped out and ran to the door, which Giles was opening for them.  They hesitated on the threshold only long enough for Joyce to say grudgingly, “Come in, Angel,” before entering the house.

Nodding his thanks, Angel stepped into the room and looked around.

“Where’s Buffy?”

“She left already,” the watcher sighed. “She refused to wait.  She wanted to get there while Spike was unconscious and she couldn’t feel...”

The vampire turned his angry gaze on Willow and asked simply, “Where?”

The frightened witch held out the map and pointed at the building where they knew Spike was being held.

“It’s over by the—“

“I know where it is,” he cut her off and whirled toward the door.


When Buffy didn’t immediately run into the room where Spike was struggling to get off the table, Riley frowned and moved to where he could see the rest of the warehouse.  He watched in amazement as she pulled herself across the floor, tears streaming down her cheeks as she forced her body on.

He ran out to her, oblivious to the feral look in her eyes, and pulled her to her feet.

“Buffy, what’s wrong?  Are you hurt?”

The incongruity of his being worried about her physical well-being, even as he was setting up her for what he hoped would be a devastating emotional ordeal, didn’t bother him for a second.  In order for her to do what he was confident she would once she saw and was attacked by chipless Spike, she needed to be physically ready.  And the way she was wincing and struggling to stand erect did not fit with his plan.

“Get out of my way, Riley,” she got out through her gritted teeth.  “I need to get to Spike.”

“Oh, I know that, Buffy.  I know you do.  Here, let me help you.”

The big man picked her up and carried her to the open doors of the room in which Spike was still struggling to sit up.  He set her down in the doorway and pushed her inside, saying, “There he is.  You know what you need to do.”

When she turned to look at him with a puzzled frown, he added, “By the way, Slayer, the chip is out.”

He slammed the two doors closed behind her and dropped a bar across them.  He then ran up to a cat walk that overlooked the lower room to watch as the Slayer and the starving vampire faced off.

Buffy froze just inside the door when she took in what she was seeing.  A gaunt, skeletal Spike was clinging to a blood soaked table, balancing on the one leg that appeared to be unbroken.  She didn’t even bother to register that he was in game face as she ran to his side and gently tried to put him back on the table.

“Oh my god, Spike.  What did he do to you?”  Tears fell onto his bloodied shirt as she ran her hands over his body, assessing the damage. She ignored the strangled snarls coming from the vampire as his demon fought to mark his property again.

“Buffy!” Riley shouted from the cat walk, “The stake!  Get the stake!” He was pointing frantically at the wooden stake he’d left on the floor for her.

She glanced up once, then disregarded her ex boyfriend as she determined what needed to be done to help Spike recover.   Baring her neck and holding his head against her throat, she said softly, “Here, baby.  Drink from me.  Let’s get you back on your feet so we can leave this place.”

Above, a panicked Riley began to rave as he watched her present her throat to the growling vampire.

“Buffy! Stop!  What are you doing?  Oh my god, he’ll kill you!”

“No he won’t,” came a deep, cold voice right behind him.  Something about the sound made Riley’s hair stand on end and he turned slowly to find Angel blocking his exit from the catwalk.

Swallowing hard, he gestured below.  “Yes, he will.  I...bled him almost dry.  He should be completely controlled by his blood lust by now.  She has to stake him.  It’s the only way to save herself.”

Completely unconcerned with what was going on below, Angel leaned toward the other man and asked in a deceptively mild tone, “So you’re the one who did this to my grandchilde? You beat him and bled him?”

Riley had never been comfortable around Buffy’s ex.  In fact the only time he and the soulled vampire had met they spent most of the time fighting. But the jealous anger he’d seen on the vampire’s face that time was nothing compared to the frightening aspect facing him now.  His blood ran cold as found himself looking into the amber eyes of what he could only assume was Angelus.

He whirled in an attempt to run the other way on the narrow walk, but only got a step before a large hand closed around his arm and he was yanked back.  He gave a frightened yell as he felt himself tossed over the side to land in a painful heap on the cold floor below.  Angel jumped over the railing to land easily beside him and hold him in place with a meaty hand.

“Watch and learn, Boy,” he growled as they looked at the two blonds leaning against the table. 

Buffy and Spike were ignoring the activity around them, as the demon nuzzled her neck before gently sinking his teeth in to her flesh.  Buffy gave a happy moan when she felt her blood being pulled into the vampire’s mouth and felt the energy that immediately infused his body.

Spike took only enough to make the demon recede and his bones begin to heal, before pulling his fangs out and licking the wounds closed.  He slid his arms around Buffy’s trembling body and whispered, “Thank you. Love.”

For several minutes they held each other and allowed the mutual feelings of relief and love to flow back and forth between them.  Finally, Buffy straightened up and turned to face a furious and still clueless Riley.

  “What did you do to him?” she asked in a voice that was pure Slayer.

“I took his chip out.  And he bit you, so obviously you have to kill him now.”

Riley’s words were much more certain than his tone of voice as he took in the way Buffy was leaning in to the still-weak vampire, showing absolutely no inclination to pick up the stake still lying on the floor.

She cocked her head and looked at her former lover for a good minute before she asked softly, “I thought you cared about me, Riley.  Why would you try to make me do something that would hurt me that much?”

She looked at him with genuine bewilderment as his face darkened and he threw off Angel’s restraining hand.

“Because you’ve forgotten what your real mission is.  You’re more vampire layer than Slayer.  Slaying is what you were supposedly ‘called’ to do, the other is just...disgusting and sick.  You needed to be shocked out of this obsession you have with vampires.”

“Says the man who reeks of vamp whores,” Spike wheezed out through his rapidly healing throat.

Riley dove for the stake lying on the floor and rolled past it to spring to his feet facing the three astonished and powerful beings.  He moved toward the blond vampire, saying coldly, “if you won’t do your duty, Buffy, I’ll have to do it for you.”

While Spike struggled to stand erect and meet the much larger man advancing on him with a stake, Buffy stepped in front of him to say quietly.

“You really don’t want to do that, Riley.”

He paused momentarily at the look on her face, then shrugged, “Don’t try to stop me, Buffy.”

“Are you insane?” she asked him, waving her hands in the air.  “Hello! Pissed off Slayer here; master vampire there.”  She gestured toward Angel who had moved closer to the two blonds. “And extremely pissed off, unchipped vampire also right here.  Do you have a death wish?”

Riley shrugged again.  “I’m human, you can’t kill me.  And he’s still too weak,” he said gesturing toward Spike.  “And your other undead lover has a soul, as you keep reminding me.  So, I’m figuring I’ve got a pretty good chance of ridding the world of this vermin.”

He again moved in Spike’s general direction, only to find himself once again face to face with Angel.

“Buffy, why don’t you go outside while Spike and I have a talk with the boy?” he said softly.

Riley’s calm assurance was shaken when he saw Spike’s head whirl toward the older vampire.  Although he had no idea that the tone and choice of words sounded more like Angelus than Angel, something about the worried look on the blond’s face made Riley’s balls clench.

“Now, Peaches, I know finding out about me and Buffy didn’t give you any kind of a happy, so what’s with the Angelus imitation?”  He studied his grandsire a little longer, then relaxed. “ Don’t tell me you’re alright with us being bonded?”

“Buffy,” Angel repeated, never taking his eyes off the soldier,  “please leave us for a while.”  He spared a quick glance at his grandchilde.  “I’ll talk to you later, Will.   And no, I am not alright with it.  But you’re mine to deal with, not his.  And, Buffy?” he added. “Close the door behind you,”
 
Buffy looked back and forth between the man who had beaten and tortured her lover and the vampire who she had once thought was her true love.  She could feel Spike’s assurance flowing through her and knew that, as scary as Angel appeared to be at the moment, it WAS Angel and not Angelus.  She breathed a sigh of relief that she was not going to be forced to stake the other vampire that was part of her life and with a chaste kiss on Spike’s cheek, she moved to the door.

She pushed against the double doors until she snapped the bar on the outside.  Behind her, Riley was beginning to realize that he was being left alone with two vampires famed for their torture and killing sprees throughout Europe.

“Buffy!” he shouted.  “You can’t leave me in here with them.  I’m human! You have to protect me!”

She met his suddenly frightened eyes and then turned to look at the burly vampire glaring at him.

  “I’ll be outside, Angel.  Don’t be too long, I want to get Spike home.”

With a finality that terrified her former boyfriend, she closed the double doors and walked away.

Inside the blood soaked room, Riley made one last attempt to avoid the fate that seemed to be awaiting him.  He hefted the stake in his hand and said hopefully, “You have a soul.”

As the old vampire moved swifter that the eye to snatch the stake away, he said slowly,  “It’s not a chip, boy.  It’s just a soul.  Just like yours.”
 
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